June 26, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

The

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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 44 • No. 26 • June 26-July 2, 2014

Kenshi Westover

<< Pride 2014

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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Pride broadcast host builds mini media empire

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

t has become an annual tradition for viewers in San Francisco and around the world to wake up Sunday morning of Pride weekend and watch the city’s Pride parade from the comfort of their living room.

Clear Channel airs the Pride broadcast on KOFY TV20-Cable 13 and estimates that half a million people watch the online simulcast.

Last year’s broadcast earned its first Northern California Emmy Award nomination.

The ringmaster of the broadcast for the last seven years has been host Michelle Meow. And by her side for six of those years has been drag queen Donna Sachet, the Bay Area Reporter’s society columnist.

The pair’s on-air camaraderie is so beloved that when Sachet was not invited back to host in 2009 – her replacement Jai Rodriguez, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame, ended up offending viewers with his commentary – it caused a public backlash.

The following year Sachet and Meow were reunited, with Meow dressed as Sachet, and they have been co-hosting the parade coverage ever since.

“She is so easy to work with and she has tremendous respect for what I bring to the table,” said Sachet.

“She has really matured over the years ... I like our rhythm, we make fun but are not disparaging.”

The popularity of the broadcast, said Sachet, has a lot to do with Meow’s sincerity and love for the local LGBT community.

“She is a champion of the community,” she said. “I love working with her.”

Meow’s outgoing personality in front of the cameras hides a secret.

Off camera she is incredibly reserved, cringing during an interview with the Bay Area Reporter at the thought

Rick Gerharter

Donna Sachet, left, and Michelle Meow hosted the television broadcast of the 2013 Pride parade and both will be in the anchor chairs for this Sunday’s event.

of being profiled in the paper.

“I am such a shy person socially,” admitted Meow, 32, who lives in Emeryville with her partner of two years, Jackie Chiang. “But behind the microphone I have an opportunity to get to know a person by asking them questions.”

She is taking on more of a leadership role off the air by becoming even more involved with the city’s Pride celebrations. In February Meow joined the board of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee.

“I am at an age now where Pride is not just about the parties and celebrating. I was searching for a more meaningful way to give back to my community,” she said. “I see so many people my age take the celebration for granted. I don’t want to lose that. By being part of the Pride

board I want to help connect different generations.”

She has enjoyed the behind-thescenes work but allowed it has required a big commitment of her time.

“I am not going to lie, it is a lot of work and has cut into my social life,” said Meow. “But it is all worth it. The current Pride board is going in the direction it needs to be.”

She joked that she likes “the bitching at the meetings. It makes up for the reality shows I am missing.”

Started in Commercials

Born Michelle Sinhbandith, Meow grew up in Stockton in California’s Central Valley. Her parents moved from Thailand in the 1970s as part of a wave of immigrants fleeing communist regimes in Southeast Asia.

Her father died from a cerebral aneurism within two years, and her mom raised her and her four siblings – Meow is the middle child – by working at a doughnut shop.

Meow would help out on weekends, arriving at 3 a.m. with her mom to start baking the doughnuts.

At 17 she went to work for a local production company, working on local advertisements and commercials. After earning a broadcast degree in electronic communications from San Francisco State University in 2004, Meow landed an internship with Clear Channel.

She was assigned to help with the radio show Queer Channel that several gay staffers oversaw and aired on the company’s 960 AM station.

“The only way the program was going to survive was if it had funding. They hired me to do sales,” recalled Meow. “I found the funding for it at the local level.”

Within four years Meow decided to take over the program on her own and rebranded it as Swirl. Not only responsible for raising money, she also was in charge of content for the program, which debuted in November 2008.

“It was apparent it was never going to be financially supported by the company,” she said. “It’s a

continuation of what I was doing with Clear Channel under different names. But it was me stepping away from the Clear Channel umbrella.”

The hourlong shows air Saturdays at 7 p.m. on 960 AM and are available online at http://www. swirlcast.com/. Clear Channel estimates the radio broadcast attracts 90,000 listeners, though Meow finds the number “hard to believe.”

Each show features a “colorful cast of voices,” i.e. contributors, said Meow, including segments by Simma “The Inclusionist” Lieberman and Eugene “TaviB” Gragg. At their heart are interviews Meow conducts with LGBT newsmakers and community leaders.

“The show I always wanted to be interview based,” she said.

Her first sponsorship, at $25,000, was from New York Life, which allowed Meow to buy airtime and cover production costs. The company continues to sponsor, alongside H&R Block, Kaiser Permanente, the Pacific Fertility Center, and Weatherford BMW in Berkeley.

“Our advertisers really like the content we produce and put out there,” said Meow.

After Clear Channel changed the format of 960 AM to conservative talk radio, tagged the Patriot, Meow was given the choice to remain on the station or opt to go elsewhere.

She stayed put.

“If we could teach conservative people about LGBT lives so be it,” she said. “We haven’t received any hate mail or responses to get off the air, so I consider that a good thing.”

In April last year Meow debuted the monthly Swirl TV program also centered on interviews. KOFY TV, where it airs, approached Meow after hearing her radio show and seeing her participation in the Pride broadcast.

Viewership has steadily increased, said Meow, who also posts the shows online for anyone to watch.

“It will never be an Ellen or get the credibility of Logo or the Advocate, but we know it is making an impact here locally,” she said.t Full disclosure: Matthew S. Bajko provides the weekly news segments for the Swirl radio broadcasts under a partnership between the Bay Area Reporter and Swirl Radio.

Welcome to the Pride issue

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his year, the Bay Area Reporter commissioned local gay artist Kenshi Westover to design the cover for the Pride section.

Westover is a local graphic artist and you may have seen his work in various ads and publications.

Inside this section, you’ll find entertaining profiles on the community grand marshals and one of the hosts of the parade’s television broadcast, a story on issues facing lesbian seniors, and a thought-provoking piece examining what San Francisco officials are doing to combat recidivism, through the experience of one gay man who was recently convicted in a carjacking case.

The 2014 community grand marshals represent a diverse group of people: housing activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca; trans teenager Jewlyes Gutierrez; global LGBT rights activist Melanie Nathan; and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a longtime trans activist working with

those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated.

Additionally, there are articles about this year’s lifetime achievement grand marshal, poet Judy Grahn; and this year’s honorary grand marshal, transgender prisoner and whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Whether you’re out and about at the numerous Pride parties and related activities, or watching KOFY’s coverage of the parade on TV, San Francisco Pride offers something for everyone.

As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions that restored marriage equality in California and struck down a key provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the community can look back on the successes and rights gained, while continuing to advocate for full equality in employment, immigration, and trans military service.

Happy Pride.

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Pride 2014>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Revolving justice: SF agencies tackle recidivism

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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arly in the morning of July 12, 2012, a man had just left the gay Badlands nightclub in San Francisco’s Castro district when Antoine Dilworth approached him, the man testified months later in a San Francisco Superior Court hearing.

After they had chatted for a bit, the victim, who was 27 at the time, reluctantly agreed to give Dilworth, 30, a ride. The man, who the Bay Area Reporter isn’t naming because he’s a crime victim, drove Dilworth to a spot near Beck’s Motor Lodge a few blocks away.

As he tried to drop off Dilworth, he testified, Dilworth stabbed him in the neck.

The man said Dilworth had a “mean, scary glare,” and he described the terror he’d felt as he struggled to get out of his seatbelt, and Dilworth stabbed him again, this time seriously injuring his thumb.

The victim finally managed to get out of the car. Dilworth drove away but was soon stopped and arrested.

It wasn’t the first time Dilworth, who’s gay, had been accused of carjacking, and he had a lengthy trail of previous crimes, according to Dilworth, who said in a recent interview that his full legal name is Antoine Joulent Tooks-Dilworth, and court records.

Asked why he couldn’t stay out of trouble growing up, Dilworth said, “I didn’t have a good support system. I didn’t have that foundation I needed back then ... there was nobody I could talk to and nobody I could turn to. I didn’t have anything. It was just me.”

Like Dilworth, many of the people accused of crimes in San Francisco have been arrested before. Local authorities tout substance abuse and mental health treatment, batterers’ intervention, and other programs designed to reduce recidivism, but statistics often aren’t available to help determine how effective those efforts are.

Courtesy SF Superior Court

Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan

Like many officials interviewed for this story, Judge Bruce Chan, the supervising judge of San Francisco Superior Court’s criminal division, said just locking people up isn’t the answer.

“If you just throw them in jail and do nothing, it doesn’t change anything in the long-term,” he said.

Whatever the approach, he said, “We will never eradicate crime completely. ... We’re not magicians here.”

Chan said many hotly debated topics in San Francisco are related, from health care to the minimum wage, and “this is the proving ground right here” for those issues.

“We really are the emergency room for all of society’s problems,” he said.

Chan also said the programs offered here, on which millions of dollars, including money from grants, has been spent, have put San Francisco ahead of other jurisdictions.

Beginning in October 2011, state Assembly Bill 109, which was designed to reduce prison overcrowding, recidivism, and other problems, transferred the responsibility of many people who had been “convicted of lower-level offenses from the Cali-

Pete Thoshinsky

San Francisco Police Officer Marcus Dobrowolski makes an arrest on a narcotics warrant in 2008.

fornia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to county jails and probation departments,” a January 2014 report presented by the Community Corrections Partnership Executive Committee noted. (The process is known as realignment.)

One challenge has been that there isn’t a consensus of what recidivism means, and there’s no single rate that everyone points to.

The Board of State and Community Corrections has been holding hearings in different cities on a proposal to define recidivism “as a conviction of a new crime committed within three years of release from custody or committed within three years of placement on supervision for a previous criminal conviction.”

The hearings are part of an effort to get consistent data from the state’s 58 counties. In 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1050, which requires the board to develop definitions of recidivism and other terms “so that the state can provide a standard that counties can use to measure the effectiveness of their evidence-based rehabilitative practices,” according to a board news release.

reoffended six to 12 months after exiting the program, according to Adachi’s office. The agency doesn’t have information on whether those youth reoffended as adults.

Officials also point to San Francisco’s collaborative court system as key to helping people start to live crimefree. The system includes Behavioral Health Court, which addresses the needs of defendants with mental illness, including those who also have substance use disorders; Drug Court, a felony court that provides what the court calls “intensive supervision case management” for non-violent offenders with “substantial substance abuse problems;” and the Community Justice Center, which offers defendants in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods the opportunity to access social service referrals for substance abuse and other needs.

Comprehensive data on the courts’ outcomes, however, can be hard to find.

Ann Donlan, a Superior Court spokeswoman, wasn’t able to say how many people who’d completed the Drug Court had been re-arrested.

According to statistics Donlan provided, in 2011, 68 out of the 510 people, or about 13 percent, the Drug Court served graduated. In 2012, 71 out of 358 people, or approximately 20 percent, graduated.

“The court’s collaborative justice programs are designed to treat the highest-risk and highest-need clients,” Donlan said in an email. “... Despite our best efforts, not everyone succeeds. But we do strive to help them achieve sobriety and drug-free lives.”

She also talked about why data on re-arrests isn’t readily available.

“Each collaborative court has a database that we use as a case management system essentially for progress reports,” said Donlan. “We do not track re-arrests. Tracking re-arrests is time-consuming and goes beyond our staffing and current resources.”

Undertaking recidivism studies such as an upcoming study by an outside group for the Community Justice Center involves seeking Department of Justice data, she said. “It is a complex process and costly.”

Donlan provided a copy of a study related to Behavioral Health Court that was published online in 2010 by the American Medical Association and concluded, in part, “Mental health courts meet the public safety objectives of lowering post-treatment arrest rates and days of incarceration.”

The study examined mental health courts in San Francisco and three other counties.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr praised the work of programs like the Behavioral Health and Drug Courts, calling them “terrific.” Like Chan and others, Suhr also said locking people up isn’t always the answer.

“I think that we have a very holistic approach, and rightfully so, to restorative justice,” he said. “We don’t want to jail our way out of something.”

However, he said, “there are some

people” who offend multiple times and are “criminals by nature. To that end, I don’t think that however welldesigned and well-intended the program or approach is to try and get those folks to not be who they’re determined to be,” sometimes those people “have to be incarcerated just to give the neighborhoods they like to do their crimes in a break.”

Assessing individual needs

Rick Gerharter

Chief Adult Probation Officer Wendy Still

Adult Probation Chief Wendy Still expresses pride in her agency’s work. She said there’s been a decline of almost 2,000 people in the probation population in recent years to 4,697 people.

Still doesn’t believe in a one-sizefits-all approach. She described assessing each individual’s risks and needs as being critical to the probation department’s efforts. Still points to the collaborative courts and the Community Assessment and Service Center, in which her agency is a partner, as examples of efforts that help keep defendants on track.

The center, which opened in June 2013, provides on-site probation supervision and services including See page 4 >>

‘Over and over’

Some of the people who see the effects of recidivism most are police.

San Francisco Police Inspector Len Broberg, the investigating officer in the Dilworth case and a gay man, said, “It gets so frustrating for cops, because we see the same people over and over and over again.

Whether it’s robberies or whether it’s domestic violence ... you keep seeing the same faces.”

Public Defender Jeff Adachi, whose attorneys represent some of the city’s poorest residents when they’re accused of crimes, acknowledged some of the difficulties in dealing with defendants.

“It really is a person-by-person struggle in getting people back on their feet,” he said, adding, “the worst thing in the world as a public defender” is seeing someone you’ve helped “walk through the door again.”

However, asked about the frustration people feel when defendants with criminal histories have been given repeated chances and end up being accused of more offenses, Adachi said, “We don’t punish people for committing future crimes.”

Pride comes in many colors.

Celebrate the Rainbow, Celebrate your Pride!

Assortment of programs

The city offers many programs to help people succeed.

One idea officials stress is the importance of addressing crimes by young people in order to keep youth from developing a criminal lifestyle.

Adachi’s office has developed the three-year-old Legal Educational Advocacy Program, or LEAP, which works with young clients, their families, and school staffs “to create the linkages and supports necessary for a permanent exit from the juvenile justice system,” according to his office.

In the just over two years after it started, 90 clients had successfully completed court probation, and fewer than 13 percent of them had

Senator Mark Leno

<< Pride 2014

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

<<

Recidivism

From page 3

therapy, education, and vocational training.

In 2013, Still said, 85 percent of people on probation in San Francisco successfully completed it that year.

Like other agencies, the probation department can only do limited analysis of program outcomes, but the office is getting a new data system, and Still said her staff would aggregate data for people who complete probation and are then convicted of a new crime going one, two, and three years out.

She said the data would be related to convictions rather than arrests because unless someone’s been convicted or pleaded to a charge, “they haven’t necessarily participated in a crime.”

Many of the people Still’s office oversees are probationers who’ve been convicted in domestic violence cases and take part in state-mandated 52week batterer intervention programs.

“We’re absolutely tracking who’s being arrested” on an individual basis, she said, but the current data system doesn’t allow for aggregating the data to see how many people who’ve participated in the 52-week programs have been re-arrested.

Adachi, the public defender, said the domestic violence programs are “well-intended,” but “there’s no evidence to show” that they’re “an effective deterrent to future violence.”

Asked about how confident he is in programs such as the batterer interventions when there’s little data in areas such as re-arrests, District Attorney Gascón said, “I’m not at all.”

Like others, Gascón has had to grapple with limited data capabilities in his office. He said tradition and funding have been challenges.

Money is more often devoted to “things that will lead to higher levels of incarceration,” he said, and he’s had trouble getting funds for things that aren’t necessarily related to locking up people.

This year, his office asked Mayor

Rick Gerharter

Courtesy SFPD

Antoine Dilworth

District Attorney George Gascón

Ed Lee for about $500,000 to fund several analysts’ positions. Among other duties, those people would look at the impact of the DA’s staff’s work on recidivism and what efforts reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

“All those requests were denied,” said Gascón. Lee’s spokespeople didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

One effort Gascón’s made to reduce recidivism is the creation of an alternative sentencing planner position. Among other tasks, Gascón said, the planner looks at a defendant’s “overall readiness” to “start turning their life around” and works to determine appropriate placement, which may include incarceration.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department has also been working for years to cut recidivism. Current Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s office was able to provide more comprehensive statistics than most other agencies.

With the 2003 founding of the Five Keys Charter High School, the department was the first such agency in the country to have a high school built in, Mirkarimi recently pointed out. Last Thursday, dozens of students were recognized at graduation ceremonies held at the Hall of Justice.

From 2011 through the most recent point available in 2014, 230 people graduated Five Keys in San

Francisco while incarcerated, according to the Sheriff ’s Department.

Between 2011 and 2013, the recidivism rate for people who completed the program was 28 percent “with a re-arrest of one year out on a new charge,” Mirkarimi’s office said in response to a request for statistics.

In a recent interview, Mirkarimi talked about the importance of being able to analyze data.

“For as fore thinking and sophisticated as San Francisco is, we are unsophisticated” when it comes to criminal justice data management “overall in the city,” he said, but his department is working to correct that.

Such effort is necessary because the criminal justice system statewide and “particularly in San Francisco is evolving in fascinating ways, and if we want to make sense out of these changes” that “seem to be working, then we need a better metric system to really and honestly evaluate our impact,” said Mirkarimi.

There shouldn’t be any more of the “throwing spaghetti against the wall” approach to see what works, he said.

While data available on the batterer intervention programs is limited, Mirkarimi has firsthand experience with one of them. In March 2012, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment that stemmed from an incident in which

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San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi

he bruised the arm of his wife, Eliana Lopez. Lopez disputed the charges.

As part of his sentence, Mirkarimi had to attend one of the domestic violence programs.

“I found it extremely helpful,” he said. “It required me to work hard, and I value the experience.”

Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, expressed some support for the interventions.

“Batterer’s intervention programs can be successful, but there are many variables” to consider, including whether the person wants to change, Upton said in an email.

She offered another gauge besides re-arrests.

“San Francisco went 44 months without a domestic violence homicide that we know of,” she said.

“That’s unheard of in any major city in the U.S. So we’re heading in the right direction. That said, I fully support a study on recidivism.”

Asked via email about the importance of having data that show how many defendants who complete substance abuse, mental health, and other programs designed to reduce recidivism are subsequently re-arrested or convicted in connection with new offenses, Dan Lawson, executive director and chief of University Police at the University of San Francisco, responded, “It is not definitive but it is important data that needs to be considered for the obvious reasons.

Evidence based science can help us better understand human behavior and programs/treatment that can best influence that behavior.”

A third of his life in custody

Dilworth, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to the 2012 carjacking as an aggravated assault charge against him in the case was dismissed, has been in custody since his arrest. In a recent jailhouse interview, he said he was 13 when he ran away from home, started using methamphetamine, and got arrested for the first time, for buying and receiving stolen property. He estimated he’s been arrested 26 times, half of those as a juvenile, and spent almost a third of his life in custody.

In Dilworth’s previous carjacking case, he eventually pleaded guilty to auto theft in exchange for other charges being dismissed, according to court records, and in March 2006, he was sentenced to more than two years in state prison. Dilworth estimated he’d spent an additional year and a half in prison altogether for violating parole.

Court records say during at least one point in his criminal history, Dilworth was ordered to participate in substance abuse treatment. In the interview, he said he’d gone to rehab, but he hadn’t been ready to quit using drugs, and other clients there “were still getting high” on meth and other substances. He left after five days, his probation was revoked, and he was sent back to jail, he said.

Realignment

In a February memo, Still said that San Francisco had served more than 4,400 people under realignment in the last two years. The realignment population represents about 10 percent of the people the

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probation department is supervising, she said in a recent interview.

Still chairs the Community Corrections Partnership Executive Committee, which in January released the report “Realignment in San Francisco: Two Years in Review.”

The January report says, “Direct comparisons to recidivism rates” for the population examined “prior to AB 109 are difficult due to the fundamental differences in the recidivism definitions used.”

However, for the period October 2011 through September 2013, the report found ways to make rough comparisons, and said that 51 percent of people under post-release community supervision “and 40 percent of mandatory supervision clients were returned to custody during the first two years of realignment, a drastic reduction from the parole return to custody rate prior to AB 109 of 78 percent.”

Post-release community supervision clients are people who were released from state prison October 1, 2011 or later and were serving sentences for “non-serious, non-violent, and non-sex offenses,” the report says.

Previously, “these individuals would have been released to parole.” Mandatory supervision is a court-ordered period in the community under the probation department’s supervision.

Broberg, the longtime police inspector, said it’s important to get people linked to housing, education, and other assistance, but he questioned anyone who would say recidivism is down.

“They still commit [the crimes],” he said, “they’re just not getting caught, that’s all.”

Suhr, the city’s police chief, offered one reason why, and referred to a sharp decline in the city’s jail population. As of June 11, there were 1,254 people incarcerated in the county jail, and 1,431 people serving in the sheriff’s department alternatives to incarceration or alternatives to sentencing, according to the sheriff’s office.

“The jail population is down, and arrests are down, but part of this is because we’re down 300 police officers too,” said Suhr. He said the force would be back to the city chartermandated 1,971 officers by 2018.

Broberg said that recidivism rates look lower under AB 109 “because they’re not violating them, so they’re not sending them back.”

Asked what she would say to people who think her department is being soft on the people it supervises, Still said, “We’re not. We’re addressing the behavior. We have a policy of swift and certain sanctions,” and when there’s a violation “we address it immediately. ... You can only change behavior if you have a balance of rewards and sanctions.”

Still pointed to “The impact of probation and parole violations on arrests in four California cities,” a 2013 report prepared by the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

The report showed that of the 81,312 total adult arrests in San Francisco during the period examined, 72,004 of those, or about 89 percent, involved people who weren’t active parolees or probationers.

“People said it’s all these probationers being arrested,” said Still, but “it’s not.”

Asked whether he’s seen less recidivism or more, Chan, the superior court judge, said, “It’s dangerous to try to declare victory or defeat.

When you’re here you don’t get the bird’s-eye view.” In his position, he said, “all you see are people who are failing ... but I’m not at their drug court graduations.”

He added, “If you’re working inside a busy kitchen, it’s always going to seem hot to you. ... I don’t know if I’m the right person to ask.”

Five more years

Dilworth was expected to be sentenced to five years in prison TuesSee page 8 >>

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<< Pride 2014

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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Lesbian seniors in SF more likely to have support

by Matthew S. Bajko

W

hile lesbian seniors in San Francisco are more likely to experience age-based discrimination, they are less likely to lack social support compared to gay men.

The findings were included in “Addressing the Needs of LGBT Older Adults in San Francisco: Recommendations for the Future,” a report based on a survey conducted in 2013 for the city’s LGBT Aging Policy Task Force. The panel released its final report in March on various ways the city can take action to assist its growing population of LGBT seniors, estimated to number at least 18,000.

spondents. Sixty-two percent of lesbians said they usually have social support and 13 percent said they always did.

For comparison, 43 percent of gay men, many of whom lost friends and lovers to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, said they usually have social support, with 19 percent saying they always did. Overall, 47 percent said they usually did and another 18 percent of all respondents answered always.

“Lesbians are more likely than gay men to turn to a partner or spouse, a family member, or a neighbor for social and emotional support,” concluded Fredriksen-Goldsen in the report.

Rick Gerharter

Joyce Pierson, left, and Jorge Rodriquez prepare before a meeting of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force.

ebar.com

Of the 616 LGBT city residents aged 60 to 92 years old who took part in the survey, 22 percent identified as lesbian, accounting for 135 of the respondents, with a median age of 66.

Lesbians were more likely to be nonHispanic white than the gay male participants, who numbered 432.

Overseen by lesbian lead researcher Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Institute for Multigenerational Health, the survey also found that lesbians report higher household income than gay men.

Overall, the report concluded that 38 percent of lesbians had an annual household income above $80,000, although 20 percent were living on $20,000 or less. In terms of the gay male respondents, 23 percent had yearly income above $80,000, with close to 26 percent living on less than $20,000.

The lesbian participants were less likely to use home delivered meals, meal site or free groceries services compared to gay men.

But they were more likely to experience gender-based discrimination (27 percent) and age discrimination (41 percent) than gay men (5 percent and 31 percent, respectively), according to the report.

While roughly a quarter of the survey participants reported being military veterans, less than 2 percent of the lesbians had served in the military. And none of the lesbians reported being HIV-positive or living with AIDS. They were more likely than gay men to be in legally recognized relationships, both registered domestic partnerships and legal marriage.

A little more than 50 percent of the lesbians were single, with the other half in some sort of relationship. The largest, at 17 percent, were partnered but not married; while 12 percent were legally married and 15 percent were in a domestic partnership.

Those with children accounted for 28 percent. And nearly 49 percent of the lesbian respondents said they were sexually active.

It could explain why lesbians reported having higher levels of social support compared to the survey’s gay, bisexual, and transgender re-

Task force member Joyce Pierson, 80, a longtime leader in LGBT aging issues, said the finding isn’t surprising since there is a larger population of advanced age lesbians, 75 years of age or older, who have lived in the Bay Area for 20 or more years.

“I think women in general are more apt to form close friendships, and in the older lesbian community usually they do more with their social circles than going out in the large crowd,” said Pierson, who for a decade was the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ elder law project consultant.

Housing a key concern among lesbians

While the San Francisco survey data indicate lesbians have more stable housing compared to gay men, it nonetheless remains a key concern.

Lesbians were less likely to be renters compared to gay men (56 percent of whom rent) and more likely to be homeowners than gay men (40 percent of whom owned a home).

Sixteen percent of the lesbian participants owned a home for which they had paid the mortgage off, with another 39 percent still making mortgage payments.

Thirty-six percent were renters, while the remaining 9 percent listed “other” when asked about their living arrangement. Nearly 46 percent said they lived alone, compared to the 60 percent of gay men living by themselves.

Pierson, who has been dating her partner, Carol Seajay, for more than a year, lives in Bridge Housing’s Coleridge Park Homes, an affordable senior housing complex in Bernal Heights, with another lesbian older adult as her roommate.

“It took me three years to find a place,” she said.

Starting about 15 years ago Pierson said she began to notice many older lesbians priced out of San Francisco were moving to Oakland and other parts of the Bay Area.

“There is always women I know looking for affordable housing.

There is not a lot of affordable housing,” she said. “There are waiting lists for every facility in the Bay Area, particularly for those with women who have median incomes or lower. There hasn’t been anything built for years to meet the housing needs, generally speaking, of aging people.”

Due to the city’s hilly topography and many apartments and homes accessed by stairs, LGBT advocates

Courtesy SF Aging Policy Task Force

This chart shows the level of social support for older LGBT adults who took part in a survey commissioned by the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force.

She has also been active with Old Lesbians Organizing for Change and is helping to organize a conference, set to take place in Oakland and San Francisco in late July, to mark the group’s 25th anniversary.

“Certainly, there are some women who are alone and isolated,” said Pierson. “But I think, generally speaking, many have a pretty good social network. Even if it is a small friendship circle, with three or four people you keep in touch with all the time.”

She also noted that older lesbians tend to have larger family networks they can rely on for support.

“I think in the community here too, a lot of lesbians married in their younger life. They have a family life and adult children and grandchildren,” she said.

warn all it takes is one injury impacting one’s mobility for a senior to find themselves trapped in their home or needing to move.

“With housing in San Francisco, even if people can stay in a rentcontrolled apartment, many of these buildings have stairs, are on hills, or are not conducive to aging in place,” task force member Moli Steinert, executive director of Stepping Stone, an adult day health care agency based in San Francisco, told the Bay Area Reporter during an interview this spring. “As you get older you can’t navigate the stairs without risking a fall, injuring yourself, and then you become isolated. We have to confront those issues as well.”

This fall Openhouse, a San FranSee page 8 >>

<< Pride 2014

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

ON VIEW NOW

<<

Lesbian seniors

From page 6

cisco-based provider of services to LGBT seniors, is expected to break ground on its long awaited 55 Laguna development of 110 rental apartments for low-income seniors in the city’s upper Market Street corridor.

Yet the housing is hardly enough to meet the present needs, and it is expected that the city’s LGBT senior population will reach 50,000 by 2030.

Therefore, said Pierson, city leaders need “to prioritize addressing the housing issues and housing needs” of LGBT seniors.

LGBT seniors gain statewide attention

LAMBDA LEGAL’S

STATE OF THE LGBT UNION Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Hear the current state of marriage equality nationally, one year after the US Supreme Court’s historic Windsor decision, and preview pressing fights in our LGBT Community’s future.

Reception 5:30, • Program 6pm, Seyfarth Shaw @ 560 Mission Street, San Francisco RSVP: jmaxwell@lambdalegal.org www.lambdalegal.org 213-382-7600 ext. 222

It is not just San Francisco that is struggling with how to meet the needs of its aging lesbian population, as well as its older gay, bisexual and transgender residents. Cities across the state are grappling with how to care for LGBT seniors, and state lawmakers have also begun to examine the issue.

The Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care held a hearing on June 10 focused solely on LGBT aging concerns and plans to incorporate its findings and recommendations into a report it will issue this November.

“How we address the policy and program and service needs of this population is going to have to be addressed by the Legislature and by national policy makers as well,” Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada (DDavis), who chairs the Assembly aging committee, told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview. “It is one of those demographic facts of life.”

In his testimony before the committee, Gary Gates, Ph.D., a demographer with UCLA’s LGBT thinktank the Williams Institute, told state lawmakers it is estimated that of California’s 5 million seniors 2.5 percent of those age 65 to 70 are lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

Gates also told the committee there are currently 215,000 LGB people in California age 55 and older. Within the LGBT senior community, lesbians account for 29 percent among the women, he noted.

The senior figures are based on the California Health Interview Survey, which asks respondents up to the age of 70 about their sexual orientation.

It does not ask about gender identity, therefore there are no statewide transgender senior statistics.

California data has shown that lesbian and bisexual women, while they seek out routine primary health care, were more likely to postpone necessary medical care.

In a white paper titled “Faces of Aging: Aging and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community,” the Assembly aging committee’s consultant Robert MacLaughlin, who is gay, noted that the UCLA Center of Health Policy Research found that lesbians were 1.35 times higher to have psychological distress symptoms than their heterosexual

<<

Recidivism

From page 4

day, June 24. He’ll get a strike on his record, which would enhance punishment for future cases.

His account of what happened that night differed greatly from the victim’s. Among other things, Dilworth, who now suggests he’s innocent, said he didn’t stab the victim and assumed that the victim had accidentally cut himself on the knife, which he said had been lying open on the car’s console.

In custody Dilworth has received anger management and other services. He’s been working on getting his high school diploma and expected to graduate last Thursday.

Dilworth, who said he’s experienced physical and verbal abuse in custody because he’s gay, wants to continue receiving services outside

t

counterparts. (Gay men were 1.45 times higher to show such symptoms compared to straight men.)

The findings, based on the state survey data for aging LGB adults, show that lesbians were 1.32 times higher to have a physical disability than straight women. (For gay men it was 1.24 times higher.) And lesbians were 1.26 times higher to report having a “fair/poor” health status compared to their heterosexual counterparts. (Gay men are 1.50 times higher to report such a status than straight men.)

In the San Francisco survey of LGBT seniors, 37 percent of the lesbian respondents had a physical disability, 6 percent reported poor mental health, and 13 percent said they had seriously contemplated suicide within the last year.

The statewide and city findings are consistent with a national study that Fredriksen-Goldsen and colleagues published last year that found, compared to older heterosexual women, lesbians and bisexual older women had higher rates of obesity and were at greater risk for cardiovascular disease. The study also found that lesbians were less likely to have had some health screenings, such as mammograms.

“As the number of LGB elders increase, it is advisable that health promotion and treatment for older LGBT people address the same chronic conditions that affect older adults generally, yet accommodate the aging LGBT adult’s social and cultural characteristics and life experience,” wrote MacLaughlin in the white paper. “Increasing cultural competency among health care providers is a step toward improved quality of care.”

One common issue statewide is the need for LGBT senior housing.

Sacramento resident Kaye Crawford, in her testimony at the Assembly aging committee hearing, detailed how her housing situation was destabilized by the death of her partner.

“I had my partner and I had a home for 10 years. When she died of cancer a few years ago, my home was taken over by her relatives,” said the 73-year-old Crawford. “Now I find myself relying on the sole support of my son, three part-time jobs, and Social Security to pay the rent.”

Crawford is the founder of Sacramento Rainbow Village, which is focused squarely on building housing for LGBT seniors in the state Capital they can afford to reside at and find support.

“This project for affordable housing has been talked about in Sacramento’s LGBT community for the last 30 years,” testified Crawford. “I have been trying to get it started for the last two years.”

Noting that Sacramento ranks as the sixth largest city in the state in terms of its LGBT population, Crawford said the need is there for LGBT-specific senior housing.

“It seems logical for Sacramento to have supportive housing,” she said. “We are creating an idea now whose time has come.”t of custody rather than go to prison.

He said prison would “harden me, and I don’t want that. I don’t want people to continue to look at me like I’m an animal.”

Asked about Dilworth’s desire not to go to back to prison, Gascón, the district attorney, said carjacking and stabbing are “pretty violent,” and he noted Dilworth’s criminal history.

“Five years is not an unreasonable sentence given the totality of the circumstances,” said Gascón. He added Dilworth “has not shown us at this point that he’s not a dangerous person.”

“He is dangerous, and he needs some time to reflect on his behavior,” Gascón said. He said he’s hopeful that Dilworth can be reintegrated into society “at a later date.”

Dilworth’s victim couldn’t be reached for comment.t

A single moment can change everything.

A simple ceremony. An approved adoption. A plan for retirement.

These personal victories have a huge impact on our collective community. Each step toward equality, every milestone reached, is a big leap forward for all of us. However, we know there is still work to do. That’s why Wells Fargo teams up with HRC, GLSEN, NGLCC and other organizations to provide resources and financial guidance to LGBT communities. And as the first to offer financial advisors with the Accredited Domestic Partnership AdvisorSM designation, we are well versed on current laws to help you develop a solid plan for the future. Together, we move forward. Step by step, with individuals, in communities — we can make what once seemed impossible a reality. wellsfargo.com/lgbt

2014

© 2014 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. ECG-1195249

<< Grand Marshals

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

polyspiritual and transdenominational · leatherwomen teaching spiritual discipline · atheist

what is

· we are family submission,

queer spirituality

testimonials · seeing higher power in each other · coming out about our differences · sharing personal HIV resurrection stories · “perfect perfect delight” · worshipping many names or no name

at all · Easter bonnets to die

for

wisdom in the communion

blessing

same-sex weddings since

1971 · Jewish

gospel soloist · sex-positive shaman leading healing prayer leather altar cloth (kneeling optional) · camp hymns & gospel gospel of radical inclusion · getting baptized under my real name genders, all backgrounds at one table · holy laughter · questioning

?

·

Tarot ·

t

Manning gets her grand marshal honor one year later

· gathering around the divas

·

preaching

a

· all generations, all as a spiritual practice

·

Explore with us and answer for yourself. All are welcome in this community of

diverse beliefs

and

common values.

Join us for Taizé-style candlelight meditation on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and inclusive communion on Sundays - hymns at 11 a.m., gospel choir at 7 p.m.

Special service Pride Sunday at 7 p.m.

MCC San Francisco · 150 Eureka (at 18th) in the Castro · mccsf.org

Chelsea Manning, in an image that she released last year after she announced her transition.

THIS AIN’T YOUR DADDY’S LUBE IS LUBE THE NEXT PrEP? help us find out.

415.437.7485

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

rmy Private Chelsea Manning will be nearly 1,800 miles away from the San Francisco Pride parade but she will be recognized nonetheless, having been named an honorary grand marshal of the event.

Manning, a transgender woman, is serving a 35-year prison sentence at the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas after being convicted for leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence specialist for the Army. Her court-martial last year became a rallying point for progressive activists and government secrecy opponents and occurred in the midst of the revelations by former government contractor Edward Snowden of the National Security Agency’s massive data mining operations of people’s phone calls, emails, and other information.

Manning’s grand marshal honor is also an effort by the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee to make up for last year’s fiasco.

After initially naming Manning as a grand marshal in April 2013, the Pride Committee board reversed itself two days later. Initially then-Pride board President Lisa Williams, in a statement, said that it was a “mistake” to name Manning a grand marshal. Later, the board came out with a second statement that said Manning couldn’t be considered for a community grand marshal slot because she is not local.

After several contentious meetings the Pride board declined to recognize Manning in any way for the Pride celebration.

That changed this year, with a new Pride executive director and several new board members. In February, the board voted to name Manning an honorary grand marshal.

“The current Pride board feels we’re publicly apologizing to [Manning] and her supporters, and making her an honorary grand marshal to make amends for last year,” current Pride board President Gary Virginia told the Bay Area Reporter in a February interview. “She’s worthy of the honor for exposing war crimes and advocating for transgender rights within the prison system.”

In a recent interview, Virginia elaborated on the board’s reasoning.

“The board of directors listened to our membership, which was unhappy about how the honor of community grand marshal was rescinded last year,” he said. “At the membership’s urging the board made the decision to offer the honorary grand marshal title to Chelsea Manning, for which the honoree is not required to be present in the June 29 parade.”

Virginia said that like previous years, there would be a Manning contingent in the parade.

Manning, 26, came out as transgender just after her conviction last summer. Two months ago, a Kansas judge granted Manning’s request to formally be known as Chelsea.

Manning will be eligible for parole after serving eight years. Manning’s supporters, and there are many, including famed Watergate whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, feel that the leaked documents revealed inconvenient truths about U.S. involvement in the Iraq war. They also say the gov-

ernment pursued the war based on faulty intelligence reports of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction.

Manning is aware of her honorary grand marshal honor, according to Virginia.

“As a trans woman, I appreciate the Pride community’s significant role in bringing together diverse communities and elevating the public profile of the fight for queer rights,” Manning said in a statement posted at the Chelsea Manning Support Network site. “I have always enjoyed attending Pride celebrations given the opportunity and I’m deeply honored to receive this title.”

The Chelsea Manning Support Network continues to advocate on Manning’s behalf.

“Our main purpose is first, to help promote Chelsea’s case and bring awareness about it to the public,” said Farah Mushin al-Mousawi of the network. “And also to help support the financial needs, to give legal aid.”

And the support network has helped raise funds to help pay for legal fees. Al-Mousawi said that the network is continuing to work toward clemency, a presidential pardon, or a reduced sentence for Manning.

“Chelsea found it extremely inhumane, the way the military was treating the Iraqi people,” Mousawi said in an interview on Free City Radio. “The military was abusing its power and exploiting the citizens of Iraq, resulting in the killings of thousands of Iraqis and killing a lot of Americans as a result. And most of the facts were not told to the American public.”

Detractors

Rick Gerharter

Farah Muhsin al-Mousawi of the Chelsea Manning Support Network spoke at a recent planning meeting for the group’s Pride parade contingent.

Not surprisingly, Manning has her detractors.

Sage Fox, who is believed to be the only out trans person serving in the military – she’s in the Army Reserves but is trying to get discharged so that she can join the California State Military Reserve – is not a Manning supporter.

In a recent interview, Fox said the Pride board was being hypocritical by honoring Manning yet not allowing the state military reserve, which does not discriminate against trans service members, to have a booth at the Pride festival. (The Pride board voted earlier this year not to allow military recruiters at this year’s festival after the National Guard and state reserve were present last year and drew complaints from some in the trans community due to federal law that prohibits open trans service.)

See page 22 >>

<< Grand Marshals

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Trans teen is unafraid to be herself

t

Jo-Lynn Otto

Jewlyes Gutierrez, third from left, was joined by her family during an interview with the Bay Area Reporter earlier this year. From left, Fernando Poquiz; adoptive mom, Debra Gutierrez; Elisha Gutierrez; birth mother Diana Classen; and Melissa Gutierrez Poquiz.

by Heather Cassell

J

ebar.com

ewlyes Gutierrez never imagined how her life would change last fall after she defended herself against one of her peers who had been bullying her.

The East Bay transgender teenager will be participating in Sunday’s LGBT Pride parade as a community grand marshal and is thrilled with the honor. She became a familiar figure in local and national media outlets, and the widespread publicity about her case brought attention

to the plight of LGBT students.

The events that occurred over the next six months set Gutierrez on a path that resulted in new supporters to help her navigate the criminal justice system in a way that allowed her to move on with her life.

The moment last November when the transgender teen slapped her bully and was chased down by the girl with two of her friends and beaten at Hercules Middle/High School sent her on an amazing journey. The incident was caught on video and went viral, catapulting her into the national spotlight.

About a month later, Gutierrez, 16, spoke out about her experience and her attempts to inform school administrators and faculty about the bullying she was experiencing to no avail at a special meeting of the West Contra Costa Unified School District board.

Then in January, the LGBT community rallied behind Gutierrez and expressed collective outrage when she was charged with misdemeanor battery by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office while at the same time her alleged attackers faced no charges.

With the help of her attorney, public defender Kaylie Simon, and groups like the Transgender Law Center, a juvenile judge recommended Gutierrez participate in a restorative justice program rather than face the battery charge and a possible juvenile sentence. She successfully completed the program and the judge dropped the charge May 1.

A real reward

The real reward for Gutierrez wasn’t having the charge against her dropped and some peace at school, but that she discovered a community that loved and supported her.

“I’m very appreciative and I’m very honored for the whole community to support me. They are like our second family in a way,” said Gutierrez, thankful for the LGBT community’s support over the past six months. “I have to thank them because without their help without them backing me up ...,” the district attorney could have pursued the charge against her and she likely would still be in court right now.

Instead, Gutierrez completed her sophomore year and is looking forward to Pride weekend.

“I feel very shocked and very honored,” said Gutierrez, humbled by the grand marshal recognition

and excited about attending her first Pride event ever. Before the incident she said that she felt like a “freak” and “the only one who was like this,” but now, “I feel that I get to finally be myself and it’s okay.”

Gutierrez hopes that her standing up for herself and accepting herself will inspire others to do the same.

“People shouldn’t be afraid to come out. They should get the respect of being human, at least credit for being a person,” said Gutierrez, who still gets “judged at school because I’m different.”

Debra Gutierrez, Jewlyes’s aunt and adoptive mother, agreed that people shouldn’t be afraid to come out and be who they are. At the same time she understands that some LGBT kids don’t have as loving and supportive families as Jewlyes does and that like her, they get bullied for expressing themselves.

This Sunday, June 29, Gutierrez will ride up Market Street before hundreds of thousands of people in San Francisco’s Pride Parade.

Joining her in the car ride will be Mark Snyder, senior manager, communications of the Transgender Law Center, and Simon, her attorney from the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s office, two of the many people who supported her during her court proceedings.

It’s a monumental weekend for the transgender community. Gutierrez is one of three trans grand marshals – others include celebrity grand marshal Janet Mock and community grand marshal Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.

Additionally, trans WikiLeaks leaker Chelsea Manning, who is currently in a military prison after being convicted of espionage, was named an honorary grand marshal, and although she will not be in attendance, the Chelsea Manning Support Group contingent will be in the parade on her behalf.

The Trans March is this year’s organizational grand marshal.

Mock is the bestselling author of Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More and the founder of the #GirlsLikeUs project.

[Read more about Griffin-Gracy and Manning elsewhere in this section and the Trans March in the news section.]

After Pride, Gutierrez expects to return to her normal life, focusing on completing high school and entering cosmetology school after she graduates, she said.t

Wine & Spirits Tasting

Outdoor Recreation

For over 20 years the City of Alameda has proclaimed June Pride Month.

Our community welcomes everyone to

live, play and enjoy all the great things Alameda has to oďŹ&#x20AC;er.

www.alamedaca.gov/visitors

Historical Sites

What is STRIBILD? STRIBILD is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. It combines 4 medicines into 1 pill to be taken once a day with food. STRIBILD is a complete single-tablet regimen and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

STRIBILD does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses you must keep taking STRIBILD. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about STRIBILD? STRIBILD can cause serious side effects: • Build-up of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency.

Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very weak or tired, unusual (not normal) muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold especially in your arms and legs, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Serious liver problems. The liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and fatty (steatosis). Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain.

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Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking STRIBILD. The most common side effects of STRIBILD include nausea and diarrhea. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

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Take antacids at least 2 hours before or after you take STRIBILD. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if STRIBILD can harm your unborn baby.

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Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. Also, some medicines in STRIBILD can pass into breast milk, and it is not known if this can harm the baby.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

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PALIO Date: 5.2.14 • Client: Gilead • Product: Stribild • File Name: 16873_pgiqdp_J_Drew_Bay_Area_Reporter_fi.indd

Drew

STRIBILD is a prescription medicine used as a complete single-tablet regimenmedicine to treat HIV-1 in STRIBILD is a prescription used as a complete single-tablet regimen to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines adults who have never before.

STRIBILD does nottaken cure HIV-1 HIV-1 medicines or AIDS. before. STRIBILD does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

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PALIO Date: 5.2.14 • Client: Gilead • Product: Stribild • File Name: 16873_pgiqdp_J_Drew_Bay_Area_Reporter_fi.indd

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Patient Information STRIBILD (STRY-bild) (elvitegravir 150 mg/cobicistat 150 mg/emtricitabine 200 mg/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg) tablets ®

Brief summary of full Prescribing Information. For more information, please see the full Prescribing Information, including Patient Information.

What is STRIBILD? • STRIBILD is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before.

STRIBILD is a complete regimen and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

• STRIBILD does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. You must stay on continuous HIV-1 therapy to control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses.

• Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others. Do not share or reuse needles, injection equipment, or personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them. Do not have sex without protection. Always practice safer sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal secretions, or blood.

What is the most important information I should know about STRIBILD? STRIBILD can cause serious side effects, including: 1. Build-up of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis can happen in some people who take STRIBILD or similar (nucleoside analogs) medicines. Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Lactic acidosis can be hard to identify early, because the symptoms could seem like symptoms of other health problems. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms which could be signs of lactic acidosis: • feel very weak or tired • have unusual (not normal) muscle pain

• Do not stop taking STRIBILD without first talking to your healthcare provider • If you stop taking STRIBILD, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your HBV infection. Tell your healthcare provider about any new or unusual symptoms you may have after you stop taking STRIBILD Who should not take STRIBILD? Do not take STRIBILD if you also take a medicine that contains: • adefovir (Hepsera®) • alfuzosin hydrochloride (Uroxatral®) • cisapride (Propulsid®, Propulsid Quicksolv®) • ergot-containing medicines, including: dihydroergotamine mesylate (D.H.E. 45®, Migranal®), ergotamine tartrate (Cafergot®, Migergot®, Ergostat®, Medihaler Ergotamine®, Wigraine®, Wigrettes®), and methylergonovine maleate (Ergotrate®, Methergine®) • lovastatin (Advicor®, Altoprev®, Mevacor®) • oral midazolam • pimozide (Orap®) • rifampin (Rifadin®, Rifamate®, Rifater®, Rimactane®) • sildenafil (Revatio®), when used for treating lung problems • simvastatin (Simcor®, Vytorin®, Zocor®) • triazolam (Halcion®) • the herb St. John’s wort Do not take STRIBILD if you also take any other HIV-1 medicines, including: • Other medicines that contain tenofovir (Atripla®, Complera®, Viread®, Truvada®) • Other medicines that contain emtricitabine, lamivudine, or ritonavir (Atripla®, Combivir®, Complera®, Emtriva®, Epivir® or Epivir-HBV®, Epzicom®, Kaletra®, Norvir®, Trizivir®, Truvada®)

• have trouble breathing

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• have stomach pain with nausea or vomiting

What are the possible side effects of STRIBILD?

• feel cold, especially in your arms and legs • feel dizzy or lightheaded

STRIBILD may cause the following serious side effects:

• have a fast or irregular heartbeat

• See “What is the most important information I should know about STRIBILD?”

2. Severe liver problems. Severe liver problems can happen in people who take STRIBILD. In some cases, these liver problems can lead to death. Your liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and you may develop fat in your liver (steatosis). Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms of liver problems: • your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice) • dark “tea-colored” urine • light-colored bowel movements (stools) • loss of appetite for several days or longer • nausea • stomach pain You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking STRIBILD for a long time.

3. Worsening of Hepatitis B infection. If you have hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and take STRIBILD, your HBV may get worse (flareup) if you stop taking STRIBILD. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before.

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• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys before you start and while you are taking STRIBILD. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking STRIBILD if you develop new or worse kidney problems.

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The most common side effects of STRIBILD include: • Nausea • Diarrhea Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

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- disopyramide (Norpace®) - estazolam - ethosuximide (Zarontin®) - flecainide (Tambocor®) - flurazepam - fluticasone (Flovent®, Flonase®, Flovent® Diskus®, Flovent® HFA, Veramyst®) - itraconazole (Sporanox®) - ketoconazole (Nizoral®) - lidocaine (Xylocaine®) - mexiletine - oxcarbazepine (Trileptal®) - perphenazine - phenobarbital (Luminal®) - phenytoin (Dilantin®, Phenytek®) - propafenone (Rythmol®) - quinidine (Neudexta®) - rifabutin (Mycobutin®) - rifapentine (Priftin®) - risperidone (Risperdal®, Risperdal Consta®) - salmeterol (Serevent®) or salmeterol when taken in combination with fluticasone (Advair Diskus®, Advair HFA®) - sildenafil (Viagra®), tadalafil (Cialis®) or vardenafil (Levitra®, Staxyn®), for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). If you get dizzy or faint (low blood pressure), have vision changes or have an erection that last longer than 4 hours, call your healthcare provider or get medical help right away.

- tadalafil (Adcirca®), for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension - telithromycin (Ketek®) - thioridazine - voriconazole (Vfend®) - warfarin (Coumadin®, Jantoven®) - zolpidem (Ambien®, Edlular®, Intermezzo®, Zolpimist®) Know the medicines you take. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. Do not start any new medicines while you are taking STRIBILD without first talking with your healthcare provider.

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- atorvastatin (Lipitor®, Caduet®)

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- bepridil hydrochloride (Vascor®, Bepadin®)

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<< Grand Marshals

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

ESCAPE TO PALM SPRINGS

t

Activist uses bully pulpit to draw attention to housing

TERRY MURPHY 760-832-3758

Khaled Sayed

Community grand marshal Tommi Avicolli Mecca plans to use his Pride parade contingent to draw attention to the city’s housing crisis.

by Khaled Sayed

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t’s all about highlighting the city’s housing crisis for one San Francisco Pride community grand marshal, and he’s using the bully pulpit that comes with the honor to make sure the issue gets attention.

Longtime queer activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca has called the city home for many years. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Avicolli Mecca lived in Philadelphia, where he grew up in an Italian Catholic family.

As is typical for anyone who knows him, Avicolli Mecca looks at being a grand marshal as much more than the attention it brings him personally.

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“I’m honored to be named a grand marshal, but I feel this is more about the work I do in the community rather than me as some kind of celebrity,” Avicolli Mecca said. “I want my contingent to be open to anyone who wants to be in it, and certainly it will have housing is a queer right as the theme, as a reminder to all of us that housing is our issue, too.”

Avicolli Mecca believes that there is a housing crisis in the LGBT community just as other groups in the city are also affected. But the number of LGBTs identifying as homeless are staggering.

Last June, the biennial San Francisco Homeless Point-In-Time Count and Survey was released and, for the first time, included statistics on LGBT people. The 2013 report found that out of a total of 7,350 homeless people, more than one in four (29 percent) identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or “other,” for a total of 2,132.

Avicolli Mecca noted that about 3 percent of homeless identify as transgender, and that 40 percent of homeless youth identify as queer.

“Where is the affordable housing in the Castro?” Avicolli Mecca asked.

“Where is the LGBT friendly affordable housing in the city? The LGBT community hasn’t made housing a priority. It’s time to do it, and to do it big-time.”

Advocating for affordable housing for 17 years – with an emphasis on the LGBT community – Avicolli Mecca sees that more people are being displaced now than during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when the city also saw a spike in evictions.

“We are losing our neighborhoods,” Avicolli Mecca said. “Our neighborhoods are changing character. We didn’t see that much of that in the 1990s. The Castro is becoming less gay, and I know the supervisor of this district disagrees with me on that, and other people do, too. But the reality is it is becoming less gay. In 10 years this will not be a predominately gay neighborhood.”

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the Castro and is gay, said the neighborhood has always had LGBT and straight residents.

“For decades, the Castro has been a neighborhood for both LGBT and straight people,” Wiener said. “As has been the case going back to the 1960s, we have a very large LGBT population in the Castro, and the community is strong. The LGBT community here has survived and

thrived, including through the height of the HIV epidemic and through our current housing crisis.”

Wiener added that the Castro continues to draw LGBT people, including young people “All neighborhoods change – and the Castro is no exception – but even with the changes we’ve experienced, our LGBT community continues to be an integral part of this great neighborhood,” he said Avicolli Mecca worked in the Mission for 14 years, and he expressed great love for the neighborhood because it reminds him of where he grew up.

“What is happening now in the Mission is unbelievable,” Avicolli Mecca said. “Rent is $8,000 to $10,000 a month in the Mission.

The Mission was always the place for artists, and there was a strong working class lesbian community at one time along Valencia Street. That is where the tech people are now.

“The Mission was always welcoming to everybody,” Avicolli Mecca added. “It was heavily Latino, but now a whole building of Latinos is being evicted and replaced by nonLatino people. So what we are seeing is ethnic cleansing, culture cleansing, and economic cleansing, and it is all happening at a rapid rate. That wasn’t happening as quickly in the 1990s. Now people are forced out of their homes.”

Growing up, coming out

When Avicolli Mecca was only 5 years old he fell in love with his next-door neighbor. That was his clue that he was gay.

After 12 years of Catholic school, Avicolli Mecca graduated in 1969 from Bishop Norman High School.

He doesn’t have fond memories of his early education.

“I wish all Catholic schools would shut down, because their education is the world’s worst education,” he said, smiling. “I decided to become a writer. So I went to Temple University, which was where the working class kids could afford to go to.

I remember it was like $500, which was still very hard for my father, so I had to work to pay for most of my way, and my father would fill in the rest.”

The first thing he did when he got to Temple was join the Students for a Democratic Society, which was a main anti-war group. He joined the Gay Liberation Front when he was 19. He left the Catholic Church behind, with its guilt and restriction, identified as a gay man, and helped See page 22 >>

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<< Grand Marshals

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Nathan on a mission to help LGBT Africans

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Melanie Nathan speaks at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in San Francisco on August 25, 2013 during a protest of that church’s support for Russia’s anti-gay laws.

by Heather Cassell

G

lobal gay rights activist Melanie Nathan plans to use the platform she’s been given as a community grand marshal for San Francisco Pride to highlight international LGBT human rights issues, particularly in Africa.

Nathan hopes that LGBT Africans and human rights defenders will join her as she rides with her family down Market Street and celebrates at the Pride parade Sunday, June 29.

“I feel like the honor really is for them. I feel like San Francisco Pride, in honoring me, is really honoring the people who are suffering,” said Nathan, a 56-year-old lesbian. “I see it as a trophy for the people who are going through it. And for that I’m so grateful.”

LGBT Ugandan activists praised Nathan for her work in the community.

“She has gone out of her way to support the community,” wrote Ugandan lesbian activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, executive director of Freedom and Roam Uganda.

“Melanie is doing all she can to support the LGBT community back home.”

Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, agreed, calling Nathan a “key ally in Uganda.”

New project launched

Nathan just announced a new project, the San Francisco Africa Leadership Institute, in which she plans to bring members of the LGBT community in Africa to San Francisco to celebrate Pride by marching in her contingent and participating in the festivities. The San Francisco LGBT Community Center is the fiscal sponsor of the institute.

The institute is being funded in part by a grant from the Arcus Foundation.

Nathan acknowledged that the people she has invited may not make it to the U.S. because of State Department regulations, but she hopes some who have received invitations will be granted visas.

“The U.S. State Department has set extremely onerous criteria for people seeking visas and many of the people I have invited may not be able to meet those criteria,” Nathan said in a June 18 news release announcing the institute.

Bryan Simmons, vice president for communications at the Arcus Foundation, did not respond to an email seeking information about the foundation’s involvement with the project.

Rebecca Rolfe, executive direc-

tor of the LGBT center, also did not respond to email questions about the center’s involvement with the institute.

Nathan said in an email that she would get back to the Bay Area Reporter but did not provide a followup response.

For the love of Africa

A former South African attorney, Nathan began her legal career during the apartheid era. Decades later she is fighting for global LGBT rights from her home in the Bay Area.

Nathan has served as a mediator and owner of Melanie Nathan Mediation since 2000. Over time, her mediation business has evolved into Private Courts International Inc., an unregistered affiliated entity she launched in 2003. It wasn’t until 2008 she connected it to her international LGBT rights work, she said.

She’s now working on registering PCI as a nonprofit to continue her global LGBT rights work, Nathan explained.

Nathan moved to Los Angeles from South Africa in 1985. A decade later she settled in the Bay Area, she said.

The mother of two girls now lives with her partner in Marin. She wouldn’t disclose their names to protect their privacy.

In spite of nearly 30 years living in the U.S., Nathan still considers herself, not just a South African, but an African.

“I’m a white African,” said Nathan. “I was a part of the apartheid struggle.”

After years of advocating for binational same-sex couples and LGBT asylum, she turned her focus in 2008 to other global LGBT rights issues, particularly African anti-gay laws and so-called corrective rape, she said, referring to the brutal practice of raping gay men and lesbians to “cure” them of their sexual orientation.

“I have a specific affinity for Africa,” Nathan said. “I love Africa.

There is a lot about Africa that I feel and I understand.”

Controversies and new beginnings

Six years ago she began writing about international LGBT issues on what turned out to be a fake lesbian blog, Lez Get Real, which was exposed in 2011. While Nathan credits the blog for publishing her earlier works covering global LGBT issues, which led to her launching her own blog, O-blog-dee-o-blog-da in 2009, she denounced it. The sting of feeling duped by then-Lez Get Real

founder and owner Bill Graber, a straight man who posed as a lesbian named Paula Brooks, hasn’t left her as she reluctantly recalled the period in her life three years ago.

“I would rather not talk about it because I was taken for a big ride back then,” said Nathan. “I’ve slowly let go of it and I’ve moved on from it.”

The blog was reportedly sold and is now owned by straight ally Pat Carbonell, who operates it out of Vermont, but Nathan believes Graber still has a stake in the blog. There is an “’anonymous’ token straight male” contributor who handles the technology issues for the website, according to the blog’s “About” page.

Carbonell didn’t respond to a request for comment from the B.A.R. by press time.

On a mission

Nathan has continued advocating, blogging, and speaking out about global gay rights issues as a part of her work as founding executive director at PCI. “It’s been organic,” she said about the evolution of her international LGBT rights work. “It’s never been a part of the plan.”

She finances her work herself, except for a crowdfunding campaign earlier this year for her new Rescue Fund. That campaign raised $14,025 to provide direct support to LGBT Africans who are living in hiding after being persecuted and losing everything. The money has paid for housing, food, and other basic necessities for 37 LGBT Ugandans in hiding, she said.

Nathan wouldn’t reveal her verification process for selecting the beneficiaries of her campaign when the B.A.R. asked. She also did not respond to a request to speak with Africans she says she has helped.

“I do have a protocol, which is not something that I don’t want to reveal because I don’t want to breach any security of how I do things,” said Nathan. “It’s a very, very sensitive issue.”

Nathan isn’t certain about the actual figures for how much she’s personally invested in her work for LGBT global rights. She figures that she’s sent upward of $30,000 of her own money to LGBT Africans who have lost jobs, homes, and communities simply for being gay, and roughly $100,000 a year worth of labor and lost pay working 40 to 60 hours a week on international LGBT rights for the past six years.

Nathan said that she’s only recently started receiving help from volunteers.

See page 22 >>

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22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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Activist

From page 18

organize the first Gay Pride in Philadelphia in 1972.

Standing in an aisle at a bookstore in Philly, Avicolli Mecca would often browse books and read as many Sartre books as he could.

“My brother gives me a book called No Exit,” Avicolli Mecca said.

“I read it and understood it. I would be reading about the whole idea that we are condemned to be free. I love that phrase and I never forgot it because it is true. We are totally free.

We choose to give in to all these rules that societies put on us and we put on each other.”

Avicolli Mecca hammered out plays on an old Underwood typewriter that his mother had in her bedroom. As a teen, he published poems in the South Philly Review Chronicle.

At Temple University he won the Young Poets contest for a poem he wrote about a high school classmate he was in love with. Since those early days, Avicolli Mecca has continued to answer the call of his life’s greatest passion: He spent 10 years working for the Philadelphia Gay News as a reporter, then local news editor, and finally managing editor.

One of Avicolli Mecca’s close friends is Janice Winchester, 75, who used to work at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library as the executive assistant to the executive director of the library foundation. Until recently she lived in San Francisco. After she retired she could no longer afford to live in the city and she moved to Seattle.

Winchester met Avicolli Mecca 26 years ago when they were both living in Philadelphia.

“I first met him at one of his po-

<<

Nathan

From page 20

Her goal with PCI is to incorporate it as a nonprofit so she can continue her work and raise money to help LGBT Africans in need with the Rescue Fund, she said.

“Nobody is funding individuals directly to survive in hiding. That doesn’t exist,” said Nathan, adding that she’s motivated by her own family’s history; her Jewish ancestors escaped from Eastern Europe and were rescued.

“I kind of feel like it’s somewhere in my DNA. That this is just the right thing to do,” said Nathan, who fields dozens of emails and requests for help daily.

“Imagine if Anne Frank had the Internet and could reach out to people in other countries. Would we turn our back on her because we were not Jewish?” asked Nathan, pointing out that Jewish Americans were among the first to help Jews in Germany during the Nazi era and the Diaspora.

Nathan said that LGBTs in the U.S. and elsewhere should help their counterparts in hostile or developing countries.

“I think that every single LGBT person ... has a duty to help other LGBT people and it doesn’t matter what our colors are if they are African, Russian, or they are Saudi Arabian, the point is that we are all

<<

Manning

From page 10

“She is convicted of espionage.

How does that honor us?” asked Fox, who views Manning as a traitor.

For his part, Virginia did not respond directly to criticisms of Manning.

“As SF Pride board president, I don’t respond,” said Virginia. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The board of directors made the decision to honor Manning based on our membership’s urging us to do so.”

The next step for Manning’s tran-

t

etry readings and was struck by his work,” Winchester said. “By chance, I ended up living in an apartment in a historic house on Rittenhouse Square that Tommi was managing for the owner.”

In 1989, Winchester moved to San Francisco, and a few months later Avicolli Mecca decided to join her.

“I came home from work one night and he was sitting on my front porch playing his guitar,” Winchester said. “I was so happy to see him and have him in my life again.

We were roommates for a while until he found his own apartment.”

Before Winchester retired and moved to Seattle, she and Avicolli Mecca used to meet early Saturday mornings and run around the Castro doing their errands, checking out sidewalk sales, “and ranting about everything,” Winchester said.

“One Saturday Richard Labonte, the former manager of A Different Light Bookstore, came upon us and he told us that we had become ‘Castro characters.’”

Avicolli Mecca worked for a time at A Different Light, which sadly, closed years ago. He also wrote for a few years for the San Francisco Bay Times. In 1993, his book Between Little Rock and a Hard Place about President Bill Clinton upset many in the LGBT community because Avicolli Mecca heavily criticized Clinton, and most LGBTs saw the president as a supporter, even though he signed the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

DADT was repealed in 2011, while last year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of DOMA, allowing married samesex couples access to the benefits straight married couples receive.

Avicolli Mecca has also contributed articles and short stories to about 50 anthologies since the early 1970s, and published poetry in a number of journals. Not many of these books are still available.

He also used to be part of a group of editors who put together Avanti Popolo: Italian Writers Sail Beyond Columbus.

He also writes regularly for beyondchron.org and maintains a website with some of his writings at avicollimecca.com.

He has long considered himself a political activist as well as a writer, fighting for economic justice for all.

“That means affordable housing, living wage jobs, free public transportation, universal health care, and ownership of the means of production by the workers,” Avicolli Mecca said.

He is also a songwriter and performer. One of his songs is “I am a San Francisco Liberal.”

“I started writing songs after getting my first guitar as a graduation present from my oldest brother,” Avicolli Mecca said. “I learned chords and scales and things from friends in the neighborhood who played guitar. We all dreamed of being famous like the Beatles.”

Avicolli Mecca enjoys the single life, and he spends his free time performing with friends.

“Nothing I like better than an evening on stage playing my songs,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize how much that means to me. I’ve performed a lot in my life. It’s always been my way of coping with the tremendous stress of being an activist and working for causes rather than corporations or humdrum 9-5 jobs.

Invite me to play, folks, you’ll make me very happy and help me stay sane in this insane world.”t

LGBT,” said Nathan, who expressed disappointment in the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for what she claimed was the organizations’ leaderships’ lack of response to global LGBT rights issues.

“I think that we are falling short as a global community. I don’t think that we are being supportive enough in changing laws, especially regarding the refuge situation and the asylum laws,” said Nathan. “You have one life to live. Can you imagine living it in hiding, not even in the closet by choice but literally hiding and fear?

“I’m just very disappointed,” said Nathan, pointing to a much-criticized $3 million launch of HRC’s Global Engagement Program announced last November. She feels HRC is just “sitting” on the money while there’s a major crisis occurring in Africa. “None of our organizations have come forward to do anything.”

Representatives of the LGBT rights organizations disagree. Officials with HRC and the Task Force both pointed to the work they do supporting organizations whose mission is working on global LGBT rights.

Jason Rahlan, global engagement press secretary of HRC, pointed to the research and publications focused on global LGBT rights the organization recently published and its work with American policymak-

ers, faith-based communities, LGBT advocacy organizations, and other agents of change to expose American religious extremists exporting hate and influencing discriminatory laws abroad.

For its part, Task Force officials said the agency has partnered with various international groups.

“We care deeply about the LGBTQ community across the world,” said the Reverend Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the Task Force, citing various international LGBT rights organizations that have partnered with the Task Force, including the Council on Global Equality and the Global Transgender Research and Advocacy Project.

“They place a particular emphasis on tailoring help and assistance based on listening to and working with local activists across the world, addressing their specific needs not on what we might presume,” Nipper said. “In this way the activists can have a bigger impact on creating lost lasting change in their respective nations.”

Nathan is far from done with her work. After the cheering of the Pride crowd fades she will continue working on behalf of LGBT Africans and others around the world.

“I will feel very proud when we find ways to change, when we find ways to empower people so there is change,” said Nathan.t

sition is being allowed to receive hormone therapy. In May, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is trying to transfer her to a civilian prison for gender treatment. The Defense Department does not offer such treatment, the paper noted, and Manning cannot be discharged while serving her prison sentence.

“Whether the Pentagon likes it or not, Chelsea is a military service member and responsibility for her falls on the military,” Manning attorney David Coombs wrote on his blog. “Chelsea has been asking for medical treatment from the military

for the past 10 months. So far, the military has outright ignored her requests. The military absolutely needs to revisit its policy on transgender medical care and adapt it to 21st century medical standards. It cannot continue to bury its head in the sand any longer.”

Earlier this month, Or Books published The United States vs.

Private Chelsea Manning, a graphic novel about the Manning courtmartial. Or’s website states that artist and WikiLeaks activist Clark Stoeckley wrote and drew the book from inside the courtroom.t

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

<< Grand Marshals

Poet offers a lifetime of experience

by Danielle Parenteau

A

longtime lesbian poet and Lambda Literary Award winner will be the lifetime achievement grand marshal in Sunday’s LGBT Pride parade.

Bay Area resident Judy Grahn has been recognized for her poetry over the years and she was an early protester for gay rights, picketing outside the White House in 1965.

She wrote her first article, “A Lesbian Speaks Her Mind,” which was published in Sexology magazine, according to her bio on her website (www.judygrahn.org.)

Grahn, 73, said that she is honored to be the lifetime achievement grand marshal.

“I feel like I represent a whole group of people,” she said, adding, “I just want to have fun.”

Grahn, is also an activist and scholar. She lives in Palo Alto with her spouse, Kris Brandenburger.

Grahn and Brandenburger have been together since 1986 and got married in August 2008, during the period of time when it was legal to do so, before the passage of the state’s same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8.

Prop 8, of course, was thrown out on a technicality by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago and samesex marriage is once again legal in California.

In a recent telephone interview, Grahn said that she loves being married and being able “to see someone all the way through” her life.

In her 2012 memoir, A Simple Revolution: The Making of an Activist Poet, Grahn described herself as “a lesbian, a dyke, and a lifetime homosexual.”

“It seems to me I was always gay, even in the womb, where my mother said ‘you kicked like a boy,’” Grahn wrote.

t

She also described how her still further to go. sexuality first revealed itself.

“So many younger people “As puberty set in, I was bethink, “What’s the big deal?’ ginning to manifest a transgenand that’s lovely, but there are der sensibility and a lesbian sexso many people for who it is a ual orientation that went beyond big deal,” Grahn said. being a tomboy,” she wrote.

She continues her activism She “prayed to be turned through her work these days. into a boy.” That desire eventu“My work is women-cenally faded, but that sensibility tered ... but it’s for everybody,” stayed with her. Though “nature she said. turned out to be right, I really She said that “there are so do swing between the genders,” many ways to be an activist.” she wrote.

Right now she is “writing and Grahn is a professor and speaking ... to affirm what peomember of the executive core ple already know ... maybe once faculty in the women’s spirituin a while say something new.” ality master’s program at Sofia The cause she considers most University in Palo Alto. Workimportant is ecology. All else is ing there is “a perfect fit” for her, irrelevant, she said, if that is not she said. properly addressed.

“It’s been marvelous. It’s “We need to slow down,” she been such a privilege,” she said. said.

She appreciates the school’s Grahn has a “real interest in unique teaching style, which the mind of nature,” she said. “I involves “approaching a student was really always paying attenas a whole being – not just a tion to what nature was saying.”

Rick Gerharter mind but mind, body, and soul,” She is currently working on a Grahn said.

Judy Grahn sits in her book-lined living room with her dog, Graham, a corgi mix. book of stories about encounShe first entered academia in ters with the mind of nature.

1975. “Four generous women She said it will include fictional ed,” she said. Grahn added that she up in A Simple Revolution. set me on the lifesaving path of accounts, her own ruminations “wouldn’t have traded them for any “I had lost memory and vocabuteaching,” she wrote. She received and experiences she remembers other set of parents.” lary, didn’t recognize anyone at first, her Ph. D. in integral studies with a about “encounters with creatures.”

She also believes that her upand had an enormous headache,” concentration in women’s spiritualGrahn is also working on two bringing helped her as a writer. She she wrote. In spite of this, Grahn ity from the California Institute of book-length poems about Helen of said, “Creativity comes from [all awakened “with a ferocious courIntegral Studies.

Troy. sorts] of places.” age.” It made her a new person.

“That is pushing me, once more, Grahn was frequently ill as a child She referred to 1966 as “that moA challenging childhood to invent my sense of poetry and rebecause of malnutrition. At the age mentous year in which I had died as Grahn faced a number of chalencompass ... [my] theology of the of 16, she contracted tuberculosis. a good girl, and had been reborn as lenges while she was growing up. feminine,” she said.

“I was deeply afraid I would not an artist, lover, and rebel.”

Her parents’ troubles included her She considers her poetry a gift. live to grow up,” Grahn wrote in her Political activism has long been father’s alcoholism and her mother’s “The poetry comes to me, so if memoir. important to Grahn. She was part schizophrenia. it’s not ready, I don’t get to have it,” Her health problems continued of the lesbian-feminist movement.

“My parents were difficult,” Grahn said. into her adulthood. In 1966, she was For her, being an activist is a serious Grahn said. “I couldn’t wait to grow For fun, she enjoys golf, and diagnosed with encephalitis after commitment. up.” watching movies, and the occasionsuffering balance issues, seizures, “Political activation is a lifelong Despite their problems, she is al beer, among other activities. and a coma that lasted three days. undertaking ...” she said. grateful to her parents for helping “In my free time, I love to sit in She described both positive and She believes progress has been shape the person she became. the garden and watch birds,” she negative effects she felt after waking made for LGBT people but there is “They gave me everything I needadded.t

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This exhibition was organized by the Asian Art Museum in partnership with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Presentation at the Asian Art Museum is made possible with the generous support of Prospect Creek Foundation, Fred Eychaner, Helen and Charles R. Schwab, Doris Fisher, The Bernard Osher Foundation, United, The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Fund for Excellence in Exhibitions and Presentations, Jim Breyer, William Mathews Brooks, Eliza and Dean Cash, Sakurako and William Fisher, Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation, Hiro and Betty Jean Ogawa, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Lucy Sun and Warren Felson, Jean and James E. Douglas, Jr., and an anonymous donor. Image: Strut, 2004–2005,

by Marilyn Minter (American, b. 1948). Enamel on metal. Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase: gift of Johanna and Thomas Baruch, Charles J. Betlach II, Shawn and Brook Byers, Nancy and Steven Oliver, and Prentice and Paul Sack, 2005.187. © Marilyn Minter. Courtesy of the artist, SFMOMA, and Salon 94, New York.

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Count On Us

<< Grand Marshals

t Life of activism shaped transwoman’s compassion 26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

by Elliot Owen

S

hifts in social climates require decades of contextual movement work, and there’s no better testament to that than Miss Major GriffinGracy, a self-identified formerly incarcerated black transwoman whose lifelong activism has remained consistently central to the progression of trans rights and visibility.

In commemoration of her life’s work, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee Board of Directors named Griffin-Gracy, widely known simply as Miss Major, one of this year’s Pride parade community grand marshals alongside other selections that communicate staunch support for the transgender community. Griffin-Gracy is currently the longtime executive director of the Transgender GenderVariant Intersex Justice Project, an organization that works to end human rights abuses committed against incarcerated transgender, gender variant/genderqueer and intersex people.

In company with Griffin-Gracy, 74, is celebrity grand marshal and bestselling author Janet Mock, who underlines Griffin-Gracy’s impact on her own life. Mock described Griffin-Gracy to the Bay Area Reporter as “brilliantly resourceful, resilient, and legendary,” and didn’t stop there.

“The mere fact that she chooses to be visible and vocal about the multilayered facets of her existence created a groundwork and foundation onto which I could move past survival and actually thrive as a young trans woman writer of color,” Mock told the B.A.R. “Without Miss Major’s contributions and work, I would not exist.”

Also being honored with GriffinGracy is 16-year-old community

grand marshal Jewlyes Gutierrez, a transgender Hercules Middle/High School student who faced a misdemeanor battery charge last year after a fight related to long-term bullying broke out. (She participated in a restorative justice program and the charge was later dropped.) GriffinGracy, Gutierrez told the B.A.R., “is a pillar in the community,” a predecessor she’s “honored and blessed” to be celebrated with.

Trans March is the organizational grand marshal, and Chelsea Manning, a transgender soldier convicted last year of leaking classified content exposing American military follies, is an honorary grand marshal. Like never before, the transgender community is taking center stage at this year’s celebration, a precedent that, according to Pride board President Gary Virginia, runs parallel to larger cultural trends.

“The many nominations and votes related to the transgender community happened organically amid an increase in visibility on the national and local level,” Virginia said. “Transgender people are the most discriminated group within our LGBT civil rights movement.

We work to make sure our annual celebration reflects the most pressing issues facing our LGBT family.”

While Griffin-Gracy is quick to redirect attention from her public accolades to community issues at hand, the honor, she said, brings her full-circle. But, it’s less about personal acknowledgement and more about witnessing the large-scale appreciation of transwomen, particularly transwomen of color.

“We’re finally getting some recognition,” she said. “I’m proud it finally happened and I’m alive to see it because a lot of my girlfriends haven’t made it this far. I’m trying to get as many girls as possible togeth-

PRIDE2014 Whether you listen to the Devil or the Angel on your shoulder this year... stay in touch with the latest latest in Pride event coverage, LGBT news and entertainment!

photo

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy at her Oakland home with her dog, Moose.

er at the parade so people can see we’re a force to be reckoned with; we’re not going anywhere.”

Griffin-Gracy has always been a “force.” She’s lived her life on the frontlines – not the frontlines of marches, parades, or lobbying initiatives – the frontlines of the 1969 Stonewall riots, the 1971 Attica State Prison uprising, the early AIDS epidemic, and every other survival front occupied by trans women of color to stay alive.

Stonewall

After being born and raised in Chicago, Griffin-Gracy moved to

New York City where she established a supportive community that helped her grow into her identity.

At the time, bars and clubs were the primary avenue through which LGBT people met each other. The Stonewall Inn, a working-class LGBT bar in Greenwich Village, was a particular favorite of GriffinGracy’s.

“Stonewall provided us transwomen with a nice place for social connection,” Griffin-Gracy said.

“Then, only some gay bars let us in, others would chase us out. We could go to Stonewall and everything would be fine, we didn’t have to explain ourselves.”

During that period, anti-LGBT sentiment was supported by law; police raids on LGBT bars and clubs were commonplace. Griffin-Gracy was a regular patron of Stonewall, and was there “perking up with a girlfriend” the night of the police raid that subsequently triggered three days of riots in June 1969.

“The boys [police] were always targeting those with social stigma around them – gay men, lesbians, but not as much as us,” GriffinGracy said. “This one night, though, everybody decided this time we weren’t going to leave the bar. And shit just hit the fan.”

Widely credited as the catalyst for the modern LGBT civil rights movement, the Stonewall riots, like many movement initiatives, didn’t function without their own internal hierarchies. Griffin-Gracy distinctly remembers transwomen of color being excluded from the protests, a dynamic still perpetuated today.

“After the raid happened, I remember Sylvia Rivera and I going to a gay rally in Central Park,” GriffinGracy said, referring to the late trans activist who died in 2002. “Sylvia went up to speak and they booed her offstage. We were so heartbroken; I cried for days. There was this sea of white people and they had the audacity to do that. The thing is, this disconnect is still happening. I saw a movie last year about Stonewall and didn’t see one transwoman of color in the whole film.”

For Griffin-Gracy, it took participating in another act of resistance to truly claim her politicized self. In September 1971, a four-day uprising in New York’s Attica State Prison claimed the lives of 10 hostages and 29 inmates. Incarcerated there at the time for two felony convictions, Griffin-Gracy experienced the upheaval firsthand, as well as the inhumane living conditions and discriminatory treatment that served

as precursors to the uprising.

“It was an awakening,” GriffinGracy said. “Trans or not, being considered a black male affected my relationship with everyone I met.

And some of the atrocities I saw happen to my trans sisters were devastating. [The guards] would tell us they could take us off property, bury us, and no one would know. I got out and got my act together, started thinking about what I could do to help the girls so they don’t have to go through that.”

Since then, Griffin-Gracy’s intent has only been strengthened by the challenges she’s faced. She remembers a particularly painful event that solidified for her, as a sex worker at the time, the importance of support between transwomen engaged in the trade.

“One of my dear friends, a trans woman of color, was murdered in her apartment,” she said. “She had two dogs, neither of which would’ve let a stranger near her. After talking with the other girls we figured out someone she knew had done it. We told the police but they didn’t care.

We decided that whenever one of us got into a car, another girl either saw the driver or the license plate. No one was going to help us but us.”

Coming to California

In 1978, Griffin-Gracy moved to San Diego where she began a decade of ground-level community building work. What began as working at a food bank grew into providing direct care services; supporting transwomen through incarceration, addiction, and homelessness. And then the AIDS epidemic hit. Attending two funerals per week was status quo, she said, and ensuring her sick friends were comfortable via proper home health care became a priority.

By the time Griffin-Gracy moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990s, she’d worked with numerous HIV/AIDS organizations. Continuing along the direct care track, she worked with San Jose’s AIDS Project, San Francisco’s City of Refuge, Glide, and the nowdefunct Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center where she created “drop-in” services that enabled more community members access to lifesaving resources. Then, in 2003, she found TGIJP. “TGI is the one place that is my heart,” Griffin-Gracy said. “I work with TGI so incarcerated girls know someone cares about them, wants them to do better, and will do whatever it takes to help.”

In nearly every position she’s held, Griffin-Gracy is credited with spearheading direct service initiatives that emphasize interpersonal care and connection. Intersectional and complex, her story is currently being made into a documentary titled Major!, and slated for late summer release. Produced by Annalise Ophelian and StormMiguel Florez, the film also highlights LGBT elder care. Health challenges, medical costs, and budget cuts to TGIJP have recently left Griffin-Gracy without sustainable income. A donation circle has been created to facilitate her care through intergenerational support.

There’s a long way to go in the battle for LGBT equality, but Griffin-Gracy remains optimistic. The expanding freedoms she’s witnessed in her lifetime, particularly for trans women of color, keep her energized.

“When I see younger girls out shopping in the daytime in their attire,” she said, “it fills my heart with so much pride. Our increased visibility is marvelous. Who knew it would turn out like this?”t To donate to Griffin-Gracy’s monthly giving circle, visit http:// www.gofundme.com/2ugjkg.

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Vol. 44 • No. 26 • June 26-July 2, 2014

SF Pride prepares for parade, party

Marchers carried a giant rainbow flag up Market Street during last year’s Pride parade.

Rick Gerharter

by Seth Hemmelgarn

S

an Francisco LGBT Pride organizers are preparing to welcome visitors from around the globe to the city this weekend for the 44th annual parade and celebration.

George Ridgely, executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, is particularly enthusiastic about one community that’s gained recognition in the past year.

“I am so excited about the amount of vis-

ibility that the transgender movement is getting nationally already through the Time magazine coverage,” said Ridgely, referring to transgender actress Laverne Cox appearing on a June cover of the newsmagazine. He also noted the local Trans March is this year’s Pride organizational grand marshal; East Bay high school student Jewlyes Gutierrez, a transgender teen who defended herself in a schoolyard fight, is a community grand marshal; and transgender author Janet Mock is a celebrity grand marshal.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a transgender

woman and longtime activist, is also a grand marshal this year.

“I think that’s the most exciting part for me,” said Ridgely.

The celebration runs from noon to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 28 and 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Sunday, June 29 at Civic Center. This year’s theme is “Color Our World with Pride.”

The parade begins at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Market and Beale streets and ends at Market and Eighth streets. The festival is free, but there’s a suggested donation of $5 to $10. Do-

nations from the celebration have helped Pride contribute nearly $2.3 million to nonprofits since 1997.

Entertainment, services

The celebration includes more than 20 community stages and venues, and over 230 contingents have registered for the parade.

A prominent feature of the festival each year is the main stage, where this year’s entertainers will See page 52 >>

Out service members show off their Pride

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he requisite Pride flags and rainbow-colored balloons decorated the staging area set up on a patch of grassy lawn. A DJ spun dance music, same-sex couples held hands, and kids were decked out in beaded necklaces à la Mardi Gras.

It could have been one of the hundreds of Pride celebrations held across the country. Yet a weightiness hung in the air as more than 100 people waited to begin walking down Travis Boulevard at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California.

For this Pride Walk would mark the first time such an event was held on a U.S. military installation. Organized by the first LGBT private organization to be sanctioned on a U.S. military base, those participating in the lessthan-a-mile march late in the afternoon of Friday, June 20 were witnesses to another chapter in LGBT history.

Among them was Kevin Douglas, 63, who retired from the Air Force in 1991 as a master sergeant. The formerly married father of three kids, whose youngest son is gay, came out after leaving the military.

See page 53 >>

Members of the military at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield took part in the first ever Pride Walk at any military installation June 20.

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Community News>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Dyke March is ready to roll

by Heather Cassell

T

his year’s Dyke March is ready to go, despite a shorter rally due to the renovation work at Dolores Park.

The multimillion-dollar Dolores Park project has resulted in a closure of a portion of the park. Therefore, the Dyke March rally will start at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 28 at the corner of Dolores and 18th streets.

DJ Slum B will be spinning to get things started.

The march will kick off with the women’s motorcycle contingent at 6 p.m. circling through the Mission district and up Market Street, where it will merge with the Pink Saturday party in the Castro.

“I feel that it’s more important to go back to that and show people that we are not just here to throw a party in the park,” Meredith Crawford, a 48-year-old lesbian who is a committee member of the San Francisco Dyke March, said in an earlier interview. “There is a message that we have although it changes from year-to-year.”

According to the Dyke March’s website, the event celebrates dykes,

Jane Philomen Cleland

Women were out in force at last year’s San Francisco Dyke March.

however one defines themselves.

“We understand dyke identity to include those of us who are questioning and challenging gender constructs and the social definitions of women: transdyke, MTF, transfeminine, transmasculine, genderqueer, and gender fluid dykes,” the website states. “We also welcome all women who want to support dykes to march

with us. Celebrate dyke diversity!”

Men, as has been the case at previous events, are asked to support the event from the sidelines, cheering on the participants.

For more information, visit www. thedykemarch.org.t For information on the Trans March, see story in this section.

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Castro tour recalls veterinary compassion amid AIDS crisis

by Jim E. Winburn

W

hile taking a historic walking tour through the Castro recently, an LGBT veterinarian group examined the community-building role animal health professionals played during the district’s HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

About 25 members and associates of the Lesbian and Gay Veterinary Medical Association explored the Castro’s animal and veterinarian history June 19 as part of a LGBTQ networking event during the Pacific Veterinary Conference, which took Rick Gerharter place in San Francisco.

Marina Coleridge, a tour City Guides tour leader Marina Coleridge discusses Harvey Milk in front of guide with City Guides, host- his former camera store as part of a Castro district tour for a group of LGBT ed the walking tour, describing veterinarians in town for a convention of the Veterinary Medical Association. the Castro during the AIDS crisis when despair and hyshouses without anyone to take care our knowledge and wisdom with phyteria crept through the LGBT of them because there was just nosicians, health care workers, AIDS accommunity. body to do that,” he told fellow tivists, and people with AIDS.” “It is a very sobering thought withmembers of the tour. “And that’s As the AIDS epidemic changed in the square-mile of where we are where the Pets Are Wonderful Supwith the advent of new medications standing right now that thousands port got started – just friends and in the mid-1990s, the group focused of people lost their lives to the AIDS neighbors that eventually developed on LGBT advocacy within the historepidemic,” Coleridge said, speaking into a whole support system.” ically conservative veterinary profeson the sidewalk within view of Most He said four LGVMA members sion, according to LGVMA President Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. served as PAWS board presidents Dr. Sandy Hazanow of Seven Hills According to Ken Gorczyca, from 1988 through 2002, noting Veterinary Hospital in San Francisco.

DVM, a San Francisco-based vetthat these gay and lesbian veterinarLGVMA continues to work to imerinarian and founding member ians became a founding force for prove the experience of lesbian and of LGVMA, local veterinarians inPAWS when animal companiongay professionals in the community volved in social activism and direct ship was one of the most important as related to issues of animal and huanimal care offered innovative aptherapies throughout the pandemic. man health, she said. proaches that brought needed social “Animals brought touch, contact, change to human and animal health See page 54 >> and a reason to live for many who in LGBT communities. were isolated and abandoned by By 1984, when “half the gay male family and friends,” Gorczyca said. population of the Castro district was However, many physicians at the already infected,” many four-legged time advised AIDS patients to give companions were left behind due to up their pets over unfounded risks the deaths of their owners, he said. that they would catch an illness “We were finding pets left in from their animal companions.

Rather than react to the lack of available knowledge of zoonosis, a disease that can be transmitted Online content this week to humans from animals, gay and includes the Bay Area Reporter’s lesbian veterinarians advocated the online columns, Political Notes importance of animal companionand Wedding Bells Ring; the ship for human health with discusOut in the World column; an sions on minimizing the unknown article about a Pride party at a risks of pet-associated zoonoses for store in Union Square; and an immunosuppressed individuals.

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34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

What you need to know about YOUR

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woman who had been charged with a San Francisco murder and robbery was freed from jail this week after a judge found there was insufficient evidence to hold her.

Blanca Torres, 22, who’s gay, and her brother Nestor Torres, 25, both of Oakland; and Clifton Thomas, 24, of San Francisco, were charged with murder, robbery, residential burglary, conspiracy to commit robbery, and kidnapping in the November death of Hung Tuan Huynh, 49.

The three were arrested in February.

During a preliminary hearing in San Francisco Superior Court Monday, June 23, Peter Fitzpatrick, Blanca Torres’s attorney, repeatedly questioned a homicide inspector about Torres’s role in the incident, seeking to make clear that she hadn’t known about the others’ plans until just before the killing, and she’d been afraid of the others.

Superior Court Judge Raymond J. Arata dismissed all charges against Torres and dismissed the kidnapping charge against her brother and Thomas, but he held the two men on the other charges. The next court date is July 7.

San Francisco police homicide Inspector Robert Velarde testified that Blanca Torres, who knew the victim as “Henry,” had told inspectors that Nestor Torres was going to sell electronic items to Huynh, including a Galaxy phone and chargers that Blanca Torres had.

Under questioning from Fitzpatrick, Velarde confirmed details of what Blanca Torres said happened next.

She first learned the plan was to rob Huynh after Nestor Torres told her just before they went to the victim’s house in the first block of Yale Street after midnight November 5.

After they got to the house, Nestor Torres went inside for several minutes. Thomas and a fourth person

Courtesy SFPD

Blanca Torres was cleared of all charges in connection with a murder and robbery.

donned black masks partially covering their faces then “posted up” by the home’s front gate. As Nestor Torres came out of the house with the victim, Thomas hit Huynh on the head with a brick and he went “straight down.”

Blanca Torres told police that she had then walked down the street to Silver Avenue. Her brother picked her up and took her back to the house, where she saw Thomas and the other man emerging with “fully loaded backpacks.” The group then went to the home of Thomas’s girlfriend, who’d been at the scene with a white van, and divided up items that included laptops and cellphones, according to Velarde’s testimony.

Responding to questions from Deputy Public Defender Carmen Aguirre, who represented Nestor Torres Monday, Velarde indicated that Nestor Torres had told police that Huynh had once paid him so he could perform oral sex on him, and that he had initiated a sexual encounter with Nestor Torres inside the house just before he was killed.

Velarde also testified Monday that

Blanca Torres had given different versions of exactly what had happened, including whether she saw the actual attack on Huynh.

The homicide inspector confirmed to Fitzpatrick that Blanca Torres had told police she’d been “scared” of the others, and police had no evidence that Blanca Torres had taken any items.

Nestor Torres corroborated information his sister gave to police, including that she hadn’t been part of the robbery, according to Velarde.

George Borges, Thomas’s attorney, questioned whether Blanca Torres could have seen what happened at Huynh’s front door from where she was outside.

Police Officer Domingo Williams testified that when he responded to a call from another resident of the house at 6:16 a.m. November 5 he found Huynh’s bloodied body behind a front door. A paving stone was close by.

Acting Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Amy Hart said her “working diagnosis” of the cause of Huynh’s death was “multiple blunt force injuries.” Hart said there were injuries to Huynh’s head and other parts of his body.

After Monday’s hearing, Fitzpatrick, who’s gay, said Blanca Torres “was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The judge listened to the evidence and concluded she had done nothing wrong.”

He said Torres should be released Monday night. William Fein, a spokesman for the Sheriff ’s Department, said Tuesday that she was not in custody.

Velarde referred questions about the fourth person who’d been with Thomas and the Torreses the night Huynh was killed to the District Attorney’s office. Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the DA’s office, declined to comment. Assistant District Attorney Eric Flemming is the prosecutor in the case.t

Oakland AIDS walk draws crowd

by Sean Piverger

H

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undreds of walkers turned out for a community fundraiser that, while smaller than its San Francisco sibling, nonetheless is just as big in spirit.

The annual East Bay AIDS Walk took center stage at Oakland’s Lake Merritt June 21. Many people gathered together wearing white capes to participate in the 5K walk in an effort to raise awareness and local funding to community and faithbased HIV/AIDS service organizations.

The East Bay AIDS Walk was created in 2005 as a means to find alternative funds due to budget cuts that are affecting HIV/AIDS services.

Thirty-five people participated in the first walk that raised $9,000, with 100 percent of the funds going to the organizations that participated in the event. Last year over 750 people attended the walk. That walk raised over $100,000.

Organizers estimated about 700 walkers participated. Figures on revenue generated from the event were not immediately available.

Organizers said the need for the walk was evident.

“There are well over 7,000 people living with HIV just in Alameda County, new infections continue at an alarming rate, in part because of the lack of education of our youth,” said a letter by walk chairwomen Gloria Cox Crowell and Adriann McCall. “The funds raised by the walk go to providing HIV education

Jane Philomen Cleland

Participants at last weekend’s East Bay AIDS Walk head out after opening remarks.

to our youth as a tool for prevention, as well as treatment and other services for those who already suffer from this still-deadly virus.”

Funds go for a variety of programs, organizers said.

“It really helps with supporting services that are not in the budget,” Crowell said in an e-mail.

Keith Waltrip, director of the Alameda County Office of AIDS Administration, told the Bay Area Reporter in an email that public funds cannot meet all the needs of those with HIV and that fundraisers like the AIDS walk are critical.

“Events such as the East Bay AIDS Walk help CBOs fill gaps in their budgets left by the reductions in funding that have happened over

the years and due to the increase in the number of clients coming in for services,” Waltrip said, referring to community-based organizations.

He added that many of the services offered by organizations are not covered by other programs or insurers. The county currently receives $6.69 million in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act funds that are disbursed by the federal government; $1.36 million in Ryan White funds distributed through the state; and $1.328 million in state HIV prevention and testing services funding.

Waltrip said the county has experienced federal cuts due to sequestration and cuts to HIV prevention from See page 44 >>

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<< Open Forum

36 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Volume 44, Number 26 June 26-July 2, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds David Guarino • Peter Hernandez Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Rethinking the Becker book

I

n a dust-up this spring that arose from New York Times reporter and author Jo Becker’s book about the federal Proposition 8 case, Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality, critics took the author to task for not including a longer, inclusive history of the struggle for same-sex marriage and the overlionization of Chad Griffin, who headed up the American Foundation for Equal Rights before being recruited to take over the Human Rights Campaign. Becker, who was embedded with the Prop 8 legal team, had great access – some might say it was cozy – to the key players, including the two plaintiff couples, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo of Los Angeles, and Kris Perry and Sandy Stier of Berkeley.

Prop 8, of course, was California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Exactly one year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling on a technicality, allowed a lower court ruling to stand that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. That cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume last June 28 and gay and lesbian couples in the Golden State haven’t looked back. Marriage has now become “normal” – couples don’t feel the need to rush, as our rights aren’t up for a public vote anymore, hence more planning is going into the nuptials as same-sex couples are now bringing their own traditions, tastes, and flair to the storied institution of marriage. (The National Organization for Marriage should take note that heterosexual marriage hasn’t changed one iota in the last year as numerous other states also took the plunge and autho-

rized same-sex marriage.)

That’s all background for Becker’s book, but you don’t need to know about the Prop 8 case to enjoy her recounting of a pivotal time in LGBT history. As she has said, she did not set out to write about the history of the marriage equality movement, but there is a fair amount of recent history in Forcing the Spring, a more complete picture of the plaintiff couples and some of the agonizing moments they went through, and even some surprises.

For instance, Becker goes into detail about Edie Windsor and her legal case, U.S. v. Windsor (The Supreme Court heard that case at the same time as the Prop 8 case, Perry v. Hollingsworth, and ruled a year ago that DOMA’s Section 3 is, in fact, unconstitutional.) In Becker’s account, we learn that Windsor, like the Prop 8 plaintiffs, was not represented by stalwarts of the LGBT legal community. Windsor had approached Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund but was rebuffed. She then went to the American Civil Liberties Union, where lesbian attorney Robbie Kaplan took her case.

Lambda Legal was also against Griffin’s group, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, filing its lawsuit against Prop 8. Becker recounts the tension that existed between the “upstart” AFER and the established LGBT legal groups that had advocated for a state-by-state strategy.

The thing is, the victory in Windsor has enabled exactly that sort of strategy to commence. Prior to the Windsor decision, 12 states and the District of Columbia allowed same-

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sex couples to marry. One year later, 18 states and D.C. have marriage equality and another 14 states have had courts declare their bans on same-sex couples marrying unconstitutional.

Prior to the Windsor ruling, 18 percent of the U.S. population lived in states with marriage equality. Today, not counting Wisconsin or Pennsylvania (whose bans are still subject to appeal), 39 percent of the population lives in marriage equality states.

Becker’s book, along with Redeeming the Dream by Prop 8 lead attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies, was written with a mainstream audience in mind. And that’s the point: people who aren’t as familiar with the fight for marriage equality still likely were aware of the Prop 8 case and Becker’s book lays out the arguments in an easy-to-understand style. If the LGBT community is going to continue gaining public support for equal rights, including marriage in states that don’t yet have it, we’re going to need straight allies to join us. Especially given that many of the states where litigation is ongoing are red ones – LGBT people alone can’t turn the tide.

We’re still waiting for a historical marriage equality story to be written, but in the meantime, Becker’s book does not, as her critics charge, whitewash the long fight for equality.

Rather, she traces the story of one lawsuit, with all of its twists and turns, and puts a human face on why so many same-sex couples are fighting for the right to marry. As we celebrate LGBT Pride, which traces its start to gays, drag queens, and transgender people fighting back against a police raid at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, remember that the story of our history is still being written.t

Shining a light on unsung heroes

by Michael G. Pappas

Google’s Gaygler LGBT Employee Resource Group. Add to the mix an year ago, almost to the day, San advocate from the city’s deaf comFranciscans awaited with anxmunity, members from the religious ious anticipation the U.S. Supreme community, including an LGBT Court’s decisions on the Defense Mormon activist and a Lutheran of Marriage Act and Proposition pastor advocating for the homeless 8, California’s same-sex marriage and transgender youth; an African ban. On the eve of Pride, as those American veteran activist who just high court pronouncements echoed finished his tenure on the city’s Courtesy SF HRC throughout every conceivable Michael G. Pappas LGBT Aging Policy Task Force; an media, we as a community never HIV/Infectious disease specialist; seemed more liberated or united. leaders in immigration; the transWe shared together in that euphoric moment, gender community; a congressional staff perfeeling, in a profound way, that we were both son and an assistant district attorney. witnesses to and participants in the making of An integral and vitally important history. component of the Human Rights Meandering through the masses at the CasCommission, the LGBT Advisory tro Street celebration of those high court deCommittee provides community cisions, I encountered local photographer Bill involvement and opportunity for Wilson who shared a revelation, “I just phoin-depth study and exploration tographed a mother and her infant child and of issues, offers assistance and it dawned on me, that child will never know a advice to the commission retime when there was not marriage equality.” A garding discrimination against hopeful realization, I thought, yet I speak to so the LGBT communities, advomany 20- and 30-year-olds today, whose only cates for the civil rights of percomprehension of the isolation and shame of sons with AIDS/HIV, and eduthe closet and loss of friends and loved ones to cates our LGBT partners in advocacy about a the epidemic is limited to oral history passed diverse range of issues that impact our comdown or academic study. Seen in that context, munity. it’s hard to help but feel that the human rights Considered by many the unsung heroes of victories and liberties we celebrate today with public policy making, the SF Human Rights revelry at Pride were fought, not only by toCommission’s LGBT Advisory Committee, day’s activists, but by the heroes of previous workgroups and policy and social justice unit generations, upon whose shoulders we stand. staff, over the years, have researched, deliberNot the least among those heroes, laboring ated, presented reports, and incubated policy tirelessly to “increase equality, eradicate dismeasures that led to the drafting of such legcrimination, and protect human rights for all islation as domestic partners benefits, the forpeople,” are the commissioners, staff, and citimation of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force zen leaders who, for almost four decades have and, most recently, SF law enforcement agenserved on the SF Human Rights Commission’s cies’ decision to discontinue the use of conLGBT Advisory Committee. doms when prosecuting cases involving sex Past chairs include such luminary LGBT workers. activists as Martha Knutzen, and transgender The LGBT Advisory Committee has never icons Theresa Sparks, the current HRC execubeen shy to take on bold and controversial istive director, and Health Commissioner Cecisues. Over the past decade the committee was lia Chung. responsible for the formation of a task force A microcosm of our community, today’s and held a public hearing on intersex issues, LGBT Advisory Committee comprises of including the human rights aspects of surthought leaders from every sector. Lendgeries performed on intersex infants in order ing minds and voices to the conversation are to assign gender when the surgeries are not representatives from the nonprofits Trikone, medically necessary. Both the advisory comShanti Project, Larkin Street Youth Services, mittee and commission urged the Board of Out4Immigration, OneJustice, API Wellness Education to pass a resolution to establish a Center, Family Violence Law Center, Transhigh school course on LGBT history, politics, gender Law Center, Our Family Coalition, and culture and commit to funding LGBT and Forward.US. Those nonprofit leaders support services. It held panel discussions and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with members of community meetings to study bisexual invisthe tech community, including a leader from ibility and issued a report entitled, “Bisexual

A

Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations.”

Together with the commission it held a public forum on unrecognized families and issued a report “Beyond Marriage: Unrecognized Family Relationships.” It initiated a resolution unanimously passed by the commission urging lawmakers and the governor to enact state Senate Bill 1172, making it illegal for statelicensed psychologists to practice “reparative therapy” on minors.

Current issues being addressed by the advisory committee’s work groups include comprehensive immigration reform for impacted LGBTQ individuals and families; deaf and people with disability advocacy for LGBTQ individuals; keeping nonprofits serving the LGBT community in San Francisco; advocacy related to trans empowerment for immigrant trans women and trans women of color; research, advocacy and a policy review of the city’s ID program and the program’s impact on transgender residents with respect to name and gender change; and advocacy related to bridging the gap between the tech and LGBTQ communities.

Among the issues emerging from the commission’s policy and social justice unit are the call for comprehensive transgender health care reform in the Healthy San Francisco program; the creation of a long needed LGBTQ youth citywide sensitivity training and cultural competency program required by an ordinance, on which we partnered with the Youth Commission; reports on human trafficking, antibullying initiatives and equity and inclusion of communities of color in the LGBT community. That unit is also working diligently to support efforts to develop policies and guidelines that would facilitate gender neutral bathrooms and public accommodations for transgender individuals.

Pride means different things to different people. For the SF Human Rights Commission’s LGBT Advisory Committee, it is the occasion to recommit ourselves to laboring for and securing the rights and freedoms our community deserves. In sharing this brief overview of our work we invite you to join us in honoring those heroes who came before us by helping to write the next chapter of our exciting movement.t Michael G. Pappas is chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and chair of the commission’s LGBT Advisory Committee.

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Letters >>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 37

AHF’s fear-based propaganda

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s “Principles of Prevention” ad spread in the June 5 issue was misleading – and insulting, coming as it did a week after Liz Highleyman’s coverage of an encouraging community forum [“PrEP talk draws a crowd,” May 29].

AHF refuses to admit that daily use of Truvada gives near total protection. “Among subject with a detectable study-drug level,” the iPrEx study found a “reduction in HIV risk of 92 percent. ... After adjustment for reported unprotected receptive anal intercourse, the relative risk reduction was 95 percent.”

(Grant et.al., “Preexposure Chemoprophylaxis for HIV Prevention in MSM,” New England Journal of Medicine, December 30, 2010). In one year on PrEP, I’ve never missed a dose. I resent AHF’s belief that we can’t be trusted to take our medication.

Next, AHF predicts “epidemic levels of STDs.” If anything, the monthly (Kaiser) or quarterly (City Clinic/Demo Project) counseling and testing required with PrEP would reduce sexually transmitted disease transmission. How many other people test so regularly?

AHF posits a “high risk of drug resistance.” The Food and Drug Administration prescribing guidelines include frequent HIV testing, precisely so that a PrEP patient who does seroconvert can be switched to a three-drug regimen right away. (As a two-drug combination, Truvada by itself is strong enough to prevent, not treat, HIV.) Finally, what safe-sex polemic would be complete without a little moralizing? AHF says that PrEP might be good for sero-discordant “couples.” Early results from the PARTNER study suggest that negative people in couples are already well-protected, without condoms, if the positive person is receiving HIV treatment and remains undetectable. Risk comes from sexual partners we don’t know, whose HIV status and health status we don’t know.

If prevention is the goal, people not in monogamous relationships should be the first in line for PrEP, and AHF should abandon its unscientific, fear-based propaganda.

Paul Marcelin Alameda, California

Lily’s out now

Nourse Theater for City Arts and Lectures. Strangely, I thought the most moving moment was not an old routine, and not even a routine, just an introduction to a story about our marriage rights, when she said: “us gays.”

It’s important to remember how difficult it was for Tomlin and others to come and be out in the 1970s, when she turned down the cover of Time magazine because she would only get it if she outed herself (1975), and earned it for her work two years later. We’ve come a long way, babies, and guys, and gals, and Qs and Bs and Ts! Thanks Lily, et al.

Charles Spiegel San Francisco

Fantasy and reality

Regarding the Armory’s party theme brouhaha [“Pride and prisons,” June 19, BARtab]: how superb the timing of the self-appointed culture commissioners to dictate to the LGBT community how to celebrate and what constitutes acceptable sexual fantasies – not to mention a hysterical attack on the (law-abiding) BDSM community. My concern, vis-à-vis crime at this time, would be a clueless thug shooting into a crowd on Pink Saturday. A happy (and safe) Pride to all.

Steve Evers San Francisco

Give D8 candidate a second look

In a district where there are so many new evictions, poor treatment of minorities, and the homeless being ousted, there is one clear choice currently running for supervisor – Michael Petrelis. Wait, Petrelis? Are you serious? Yes, I am.

I say that you should give him a second look. The face of AIDS and the ability to get expedient trials and medicines to the populace; Petrelis helped make that happen – in New York’s ACT UP, and here in San Francisco, as well as across the nation. He easily finds out, and tracks, the city’s money: Where it is going and not going? Did you know that Pride gets the least money from the city, while bringing in the most revenue? Why is this? Where is the city’s money going, and why? Petrelis knows those answers and many more. I urge you to give Petrelis another look, and support him in his bid for District 8 supervisor. He’ll work for you.

It was not the biggest entertainment tour, but it was a joy for those of us who saw Lily Tomlin last week at the

Veronika Fimbres San Francisco

Maud’s reunion party set compiled by Cynthia Laird

F

innegans Wake in San Francisco’s Cole Valley neighborhood will be the site of the annual Maud’s reunion party and everyone is invited to stop by during the celebration, which takes place Saturday, June 28 from noon to 6 p.m. at 937 Cole Street (at Carl).

Maud’s was one of San Francisco’s favorite lesbian watering holes from 1966 to 1989, and once the longest-running lesbian bar in the country. The reunions started in 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of Maud’s closing, and to honor and celebrate the late owner Rikki Streicher and the 23-year history of Maud’s impact on the lesbian culture and LGBT politics of San Francisco.

Streicher, who was also proprietor of the lesbian bar Amanda’s, died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 68.

Mandy Carter, one of the reunion organizers, thanked Finnegans Wake owner Tom Frenkel and the bar staff for welcoming people back for the sixth reunion.

There is no admission; the event is for those 21 and over. There will be a cash bar and door prizes. The bar offers pool, pinball, and has an outdoor area.

Carter said volunteers are needed at 11 a.m. to help set up and to staff the welcome table in one-hour shifts. If interested, email mandycarter@nc.rr.com.

Rainbow Toastmasters Pride event

Rainbow Toastmasters is having a special Pride celebration Thursday, June 26 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, and people are invited to an evening of Pride-themed speeches.

Additionally, John Celenza, vice

Lydia Gonzales

Attendees at the 2010 Maud’s reunion party at Finnegans Wake raise their drinks in a celebratory toast.

president of public relations, said visitors are welcome to attend regular Toastmasters meeting every Thursday in Room 301 at the center.

During the evening, people will hear humorous and inspirational speeches, see people think on their feet with impromptu response, and observe members giving one another praise and constructive feedback through evaluations.

Rainbow Toastmasters is a member club of Toastmasters international, a world leader in communication and leadership development with 280,000 members across thousands of clubs in 116 countries. The local club serves the Bay Area LGBT community and membership is open to everyone regardless of sexual orientation.

For more information, visit www. rainbowtoastmasters.org.

Last call for pink triangle volunteers

If you’re arriving from out of town for this weekend’s Pride celebration or are procrastinating, you still have a chance to help with

one of the most iconic events of the weekend. The Friends of the Pink Triangle group is looking for volunteers to help install the gigantic pink triangle atop Twin Peaks..

Patrick Carney, one of the group’s leaders, said that many people are needed to help with the installation that takes place from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday, June 28. Volunteers should wear closed-toe shoes, sunscreen, and bring a hammer. Fashionable pink triangle T-shirts will be provided to all who help, Carney said.

Following the installation there will be a commemoration ceremony at 10:30, featuring local political leaders, the San Francisco Lesbian/ Gay Freedom Band, and the celebrity and community Pride grand marshals. The ceremony is open to the public.

Following the Pride parade and festival Sunday, June 29, volunteers are needed to take down the pink triangle. People should meet at the site from 4:30 to 8 p.m.

The pink triangle was once a symbol of gay oppression and was

C OCLOOL RO RYYOOUURR W WOORRL LD DW W ITH ITH

PRIDE PRIDE

See page 54 >>

TOYS • CRAFTS • HOUSEWARES • HARDWARE • GIFTS 479 Castro Street

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<< Politics

38 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Hillary for president group to table SF Pride

by Matthew S. Bajko

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crimination “explicitly on the basis of sexual orientation, gender GBT backers eager to see foridentity or gender expression.” mer first lady Hillary RodIn March the country elected ham Clinton make a second Salvador Sanchez Ceren as its bid for president in 2016 will be new president and Oscar Ortiz tabling this weekend during San as vice president. They belong Francisco’s Pride festivities. to the National Liberation Front, After leaving the White House known as the FMLN party for in January 2001 and settling in short, which in its platform New York, Clinton went on to promises to uphold civil liberserve as a U.S. senator for the ties, notes Campos’s resolution.

Empire State. After her bid for While same-sex relationships the presidency cratered in 2008, are legal in El Salvador, advoshe went on to serve as President cates warn that organized crime Barack Obama’s secretary of state. groups will target LGBTI indiShe resigned in February last viduals because of the belief law Associated Press year, and this month released a enforcement will turn a blind eye memoir of her time in the ad- Supporters of former Secretary of State to such incidents. Another issue ministration titled Hard Choices. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be at this advocates have pressed is the difIt is widely expected that she will year’s Pride festival to talk to people about ficulty transgender Salvadorans run again for president in two a potential Clinton presidential campaign face in changing their name and years, although Clinton herself in 2016. gender on government forms. has refused to commit to a canThus the resolution, which didacy, saying only that she is Campos’s office crafted with considering it. the assistance of a number of Murphy, 54, a gay man who lives in But that hasn’t stopped both her Bay Area groups, such as the CenPittsburg in the East Bay and works supporters and detractors from tral American Resource Center and at luxury department store Gump’s getting ready for another Clinton SHARE El Salvador, “urges the newly in downtown San Francisco. campaign. elected government of the Republic Murphy served as an Members of Ready of El Salvador to adopt all necessary elected delegate for for Hillary will be stafflegal, administrative and/or judicial Clinton to the 2008 ing a booth at the Civic measures to guarantee the protecDemocratic National Center festival grounds tion and promotion of human rights Convention. And he is on both Saturday, June without any distinction based on a eager to again help elect 28 and Sunday, June 29 to person’s sexual orientation, gender her to the White House. talk to potential supportidentity or gender expression.”

“I think she is the only ers and sign them up for one who can get us out the group’s email list.

More politics and Pride of the mess we are in,” The group is an indeEven though official policy prosaid Murphy. “She can pendent political action hibits overt campaigning by candiwork with both sides. committee that is unafdates for public office while marchShe is extremely intellifiliated with, and has no ing in the parade, San Francisco’s gent and knows the issues.” contact with, Clinton.

Pride celebration and politics have The National Republican Sena“We are trying to get our ducks been forever linked. This year will torial Committee has sought to in a row for when and if Hillbe no exception. use the nonstop speculation about ary decides to run,” said Mark G. The local Democratic Party will Clinton’s candidacy to raise monbe registering voters in Dolores Park ey from GOP backers. A June 21 this Friday, June 27 prior to the start email with the subject “Not Ready of the Trans March. Party activists for Hillary?” from the committee will also be registering people to promised donors giving $3 or more vote at the Civic Center during the would receive a “Not Ready for HillPride festival on both Saturday and ary” bumper sticker.

Sunday.

“Hillary Clinton has had plenty Among the plethora of political of time in Washington, D.C. to fix contingents in the parade, look for our country’s problems. Instead, gay former Congressman Barney she’s only made them worse,” stated Frank (D-Massachusetts), as he is the email. “This country can’t hanone of the special guests this year. dle any more of Hillary Clinton’s Frank will be in town for the screenfailed leadership.” ing of a documentary about his The early attacks against a nonlife, Compared to What: The Imcandidate Clinton are why the probable Journey of Barney Frank, Ready for Hillary group has been which screens at Frameline Saturactive since 2013. It held rallies this day morning at 11 a.m. at the Castro week to greet Clinton while in town Theatre.

Wednesday and Thursday on her Another celebrity grand marshal book tour. in this year’s parade will be lesbian It has already signed up more attorney Roberta Kaplan, who sucthan 2 million supporters and is cessfully argued the case of United seeking to engage even more. Thus, States v. Windsor before the U.S. Suit has been participating in LGBT preme Court last year that led to the Pride events across the country, court’s historic ruling last June that with San Francisco its latest stop. struck down a key provision of the “We will have sign up lists for federal Defense of Marriage Act. Kapeople to sign up to get on board,” plan is also scheduled to speak from said Murphy. “It is so we can have Pride’s main stage Sunday afternoon. as many people as possible ready for As the Political Notebook first rewhen she decides and have a lot of ported May 8, newly elected lesbian people to work for her.”

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (DFor more information about the San Diego) will headline this year’s group, visit https://www.readyfoannual Alice B. Toklas Pride breakrhillary.com/. fast prior to the parade Sunday, in which she will march. It will mark SF to call on El Salvador the first time an out speaker of the to protect LGBTs Market your business to the largest audience of LGBT state Assembly has appeared at the San Francisco’s Board of Superconsumers in Northern California. Our newspaper is the city’s Pride event, though Atkins is visors is expected to adopt a resounable to address the crowd from lution on July 1 calling for elected only LGBT publication in the Bay Area with an audited Pride’s main stage later in the day. leaders in El Salvador to protect the circulation and a reach of more than 120,000.

The Alice club moved its fundCentral American country’s LGBT raiser this year to the Hyatt Regency citizens.

San Francisco now that a union Gay District 9 Supervisor David Call 415-861-5019 today to begin reaching them. boycott of the hotel has ended.

Campos introduced the resolution Doors open Sunday at 7:45 a.m. at the board’s June 24 meeting to and the program begins at 8:15 a.m. coincide with the city’s annual Pride Tickets cost $100 for non-members; celebration, whose theme this year is $75 for club members.

“Color Our World With Pride.” The To purchase tickets visit http:// resolution calls for El Salvador to www.alicebtoklas.org/breakfast/.t enact a national law prohibiting dis-

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<< Pride 2014

40 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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LGBTs share World War II home front stories

by Heather Cassell

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t was the 1940s and there was another great war going on. Men were called off to battle. Women were called to serve on the home front. It was a major shift in gender roles and social mores for the U.S., but somehow little is known about life for LGBTs on the home front during World War II. The Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond is seeking to rectify that and, in the process, make history by being one of the first national parks to document LGBT history.

The park was established in 2000 to gather artifacts, information, and stories about civilian life during World War II. LGBT life on the home front was the focus of a discussion earlier this month. About 30 people came out to listen to Elizabeth Tucker, lead park ranger, and public historian Donna Graves present “LGBT Hidden Histories on the WWII Home Front,” at the museum.

The June 14 presentation was a part of the launch of the historical project announced in March.

This was the second event reaching out to the LGBT community for stories and support. In April, the campaign kicked off with an event at a senior community center in Walnut Creek as a part of the project’s outreach program to find LGBT individuals who lived through or had family members and friends who can recall stories from that period in U.S. history.

The goal is to produce an exhibit and to build a growing archive of LGBT stories during World War II.

The greatest rainbow generation

While the project is young, the researchers have so far been able to find three LGBT individuals who served on the home front and overseas during the war who have been present at the events.

A trans man, Jeffrey Dickemann,

Jane Philomen Cleland

LGBTs and allies gathered recently at the Rosie the Riveter museum and included, from left, Bev Hickok, a “Rosie”; her caretaker, Hannah Martine; Selwyn Jones, who served as army intelligence in WWII; historian Donna Graves; park ranger Elizabeth Tucker; Jeffery Dickemann, who served as a WAC in WWII; and historian and photographer Cathy Cade.

85, known then as Mildred; a lesbian, Bev Hickok, 94; and a gay man, Selwyn Jones, 92, shared their stories.

The war was on. Dickemann heeded the call. There weren’t any men to harvest the farms, so he followed his sisters from Brooklyn to upstate New York to work on the land during the summer in the 1940s. In spite of his youth, he knew who he was and he suspected that the work was going to attract certain types of women and it did, he being one of them at the time, he told the audience. Dickemann transitioned to being a man at the age of 65, the oldest known on record to make the transition.

One girl was a bit too “rambunctious,” and sent home, Dickemann recalled. The incident led to the older girls at the farm discussing the “problem” of “homosexuality.”

“I had never heard anyone discuss what I felt and what I knew,” said Dickemann, a retired anthropology profes-

sor who participated in the project because he hadn’t seen or heard about LGBT stories during the war.

One of the older girls, who was college age, “gave this little talk in which she said, ‘It’s just another way of being and it is alright,’” Dickemann said.

It changed his life, he said.

Dickemann is also participating in a historical project about his wartime farm experience for the Regional Oral History Project at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

Sorority girl, farm boy

It was quite a different experience for Hickok and Jones.

Hickok was a sorority girl at UC Berkeley who had little interest in finding a rich husband like the other young women. Jones, a farm boy from Texas, enlisted in the Air Force,

but before deployment he served as a court reporter.

While Jones was still stationed in Tampa, Florida he witnessed the dishonorable discharge of a gay man working as a court reporter, he told the audience.

Lesbian personal historian and photographer Cathy Cade read from Hickok’s autobiography, Against the Current: Coming Out in 1940 about being a living lesbian “Rosie the Riveter” working on the assembly line at Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California in 1942.

Hickok, who is frail and in a wheelchair, listened in the audience.

Rosie the Riveter is an American cultural icon, representing women who worked in factories during World War II. Hickok’s parents weren’t in favor

of their daughter’s working class job, but they allowed it because it was acceptable for the times.

The war served as Hickok’s escape out of the privileged world in which she was raised and into her life as a lesbian. On the first day on the job, the other gay girls pegged her and invited her to sit with them at lunch. Hickok didn’t look back. She went on to join the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, better known as WAVES, and became a librarian at UC Berkeley until she retired.

Hickok’s life story was captured

by Cade, 72, who helped compile her history, both with her first partner, Becil Davis, and later, her second partner, whom she married in 2008, photographer Doreen S. Brand.

Hickok’s wartime experience is one of the few detailed accounts of LGBT civilian life during the war currently available.

Another rare account of LGBT life in the U.S. during the war was captured in Tina Takemoto’s documentary, Looking for Jiro, Graves noted. The documentary unearths the story of Jiro Onuma, a gay Japanese man who was incarcerated in central Utah during World War II. Takemoto is an artist and associate professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Saving history

There have been many accounts – personal histories and fictionalized – about how World War II liberated women by sending them out into the workforce as Rosie the Riveters or as female baseball players, which was depicted in the film, A League of their Own. Little has been documented about LGBT life on the home front during the war, however. There’s a sense of urgency to gather such stories.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War See page 42 >>

SF parade volunteer continues his long service

by Khaled Sayed

T

here are hundreds of volunteers that make the San Francisco LGBT Pride parade and festival a success. But one San Francisco gay man has been helping out for decades.

David Tejeda, a building contractor, is believed to be one of the longest-serving volunteers in the Pride parade. He was recognized by Pride officials at the post-parade volunteer appreciation party two years ago as the organization’s longest surviving volunteer, he said.

His first parade was 1976 and that year, according to the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee website, the event started on Pine Street and made its way to Duboce Park.

Celebrating Pride Month has become a tradition all over the world.

San Francisco’s Pride parade, called Gay Freedom Day back then, was one of the first that started an amazing tradition of celebrating LGBTQ culture, politics, and activism.

According to the Pride Committee, the city’s first Pride march was held June 28, 1970 to mark the oneyear anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, which is generally viewed as the birth of the modern gay rights movement.

There was apparently no official event in 1971, but in 1972 a parade was held and in those days it ended on Polk Street.

Now San Francisco Pride is the largest event of its type in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.

Khaled Sayed

Look for longtime San Francisco Pride volunteer David Tejeda at the end of the route at this year’s parade.

Tejeda, 66, has been volunteering for 31 years. He helped out off and on from 1976 to 1998, and since then has volunteered every year. In recent years he has been posted at the end of the parade route, at Market and 8th streets.

“It’s been said that the parade comes to me,” he quipped.

Marsha Levine, Pride board vice president and the longtime parade manager, confirmed that Tejeda has been with the Pride Committee for many years.

“He was an operations volunteer from 1998 to 2010,” Levine said. “In 2010 he transitioned to a safety volunteer and began assisting the parade team by working in the dispersal area at Eighth Street and Market.”

Tejeda has seen the parade route change and its size increase.

“I have watched the Parade go from one-half of Polk Street for a few blocks to the largest event of it type in the U.S,” he said One of Tejeda’s fondest memories is shaking former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s hand, despite all the security protecting him.

Another memory Tejeda holds dear to his heart was last year when his nephew and his wife showed up and surprised him during the parade.

“They took a picture of me during a slow point, sitting in the middle of Market and 8th Street. They later told me they had a great time,” Tejeda said.

Tejeda has lived in lots of places, among them Munich, Germany; Puerto Rico; southern California; Seattle; and Okinawa, Japan.

“Then for college I moved to the Bay Area and eventually into San Francisco in 1976 – and never left,” he said.

Tejeda is married to Michael Gagne, who contributes to the community as the volunteer board president of Tenderloin Tessie, the nonprofit that provides holiday dinners to those in need.

One of the reasons Tejeda volunteers is to help make the world a better place for future generations.

“I also want to make sure younger gay generations don’t forget about the struggles that it took to get to where we are today,” Tejeda said.

“That nobody handed our civil rights to us.”

Tejeda said he is thrilled to be part of Pride.t

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<< Pride 2014

t Trans March honors the past and looks to future 42 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

by David-Elijah Nahmod

first time the city has awarded such an honor to a member of the transgender community.

Felicia A. Elizondo, a.k.a. Felicia Flames, who was a close friend of Marlane’s, is planning the ceremony for the street dedication.

“Wow, I get to see a historic event for the trans community,” Elizondo told the Bay Area Reporter in a Facebook message. “I never thought that I would get to see any of this. It is going to be a historic event – that we get the respect, the acknowledgement, and recognition we deserve.”

Elizondo said she was most proud that she has lived to see “a transsexual woman’s name on a San Francisco street.”

“I am very proud of our trans community,” she added. “I am overwhelmed, what else can I say? Yes, Yes.” The Trans March was named this year’s organizational grand marshal by the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee board. It takes place the Friday of Pride weekend – this year on June 27. The day

starts with a youth and elder brunch at noon at Dolores he highlight of this year’s Trans Park, followed by a rally March will come at the end, from 3 to 6 p.m., after which when people gather on Turk Street the march will commence. between Jones and Taylor in the Transgender people, their Tenderloin. There, officials and families, friends, and allies community leaders are expected to are welcome to participate, unveil a new street sign, named aforganizers said. ter Vicki Marlane, a late transgender Tracy Garza, a longtime performer and community activist. community activist whose Marlane, who died in 2011 at the affiliations include the age of 76 due to AIDS complications, Transgender Law Center was a familiar face to those who freand Lyon-Martin Health quent Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, where Services, spoke to the Bay she hosted a popular drag revue.

Area Reporter about the Members of the Harvey Milk LGBT march’s significance. Garza Rick Gerharter Democratic Club and District 6 Susaid that the first Trans pervisor Jane Kim have been working March was organized in the Visiting from Toronto, the Glitter Twins, Mister and Mrs. Keith Murray and on the street name change for months aftermath of the first mur- Anthony Black, spread some fairy dust during the 2011 Trans March as it and it received approval from the der trial for the killers of heads to UN Plaza. They were in the parade as a memorial for their friend Board of Supervisors in April.

Gwen Araujo in 2004. Arau- who had died in a bicycle accident.

Wanting to avoid a confrontation jo was an East Bay transgenwith those with addresses on that der teen who was beaten to block, backers of the proposal agreed death at a house party in But there were victories to be years old when she died. to have Marlane’s name added in paNewark in October 2002 by a group celebrated as well, such as the emerFollowing a hung jury in the first renthesis below the word Turk. of young men when they discovered gence of celebrities like Cox, Mock, trial of the accused killers that June, The new street name will be the she was born male. Araujo was 17 and Chaz Bono, and their accepan anonymous email was circulated tance by mainstream media. among trans activists calling for a “They’re role models for trans march, according to the Trans March 18 Studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, visibility,” said Garza. “We’ve made website. The march would bring atgreat strides. There’s a huge amount tention to the violence faced by many and three-bedroom of diversity in the gender spectrum, in the trans community, as well as to but you don’t often see it in highbe “fabulous and powerful in the “Below Market Rate” rental units available: profile celebrities.” company of others who are fabulous Gantry, 2121 Third Street, San Francisco Locally, the community is happy and powerful,” the website noted. that local transgender icons are beGarza pointed out that there reing embraced and honored, such as mains a disproportionate amount Marlane. Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, the of violence against trans women of 18 below market rate (BMR) units available in this new 105 unit building. All 18 BMR units will popular gay bar, is on the very block color today. rent and qualify at 55% of Area Median Income. Renter households must earn no more than the that will soon bear her name.

“The march will reflect commuincome levels listed below “The larger community has benity pride and is a chance for our come more accepting,” Garza said.

A one person household can make no more than $37,350 community to come together and A two person household can make no more than $42,750 “But there’s always room for imexpress our shared values and our A three person household can make no more than $48,050 provement. There are still parts of desire for equality,” Garza said. “On A four person household can make no more than $53,400 the country where people feel marone hand we face many of the same A five person household can make no more than $57,650 ginalized. There are many LGBT challenges as the larger LGBT comA six person household can make no more than $61,950 organizations without trans repremunity. But we also have specific A seven person household can make no more than $66,200 sentation, but there are exceptions.” issues that the larger community 18 Studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom And so the Trans March will doesn’t face.”

Market rental available: (Households must be at“Below least as manyRate” people asunits bedrooms in the unit) Gantry, 2121 Third Street, San Francisco commence as a celebration of the 18 below market rate (BMR) units available in this new 105 unit building. All 18 BMR units will rent and qualify at 55% of Area Median Increased visibility strides that have been made, but Lottery Applications due by 5pm on, Tuesday, July 15th 2014 to: Income. Renter households must earn no more than the income levels listed below Transgender visibility has inwith eyes firmly on the future as Gantry/BMR 2121 Third Street SF, CA 94107, Attn: BMR Specialist A one person household can make no more than $37,350 creased this year. Two well-known the community works to achieve a person an household can make noGantry more thanBMR $42,750 Three ways Atotwo obtain application for units; African American trans women, world where all transgender people A three person household can make no more than $48,050 Janet Mock and Laverne Cox, feel empowered.

A four person household can make no more than $53,400 (1) Applications can be picked up inperson person Tuesdays andno Thursdays ONLY 9:00 AM- 6:00 PM A five household can make more than $57,650 both spoke to large audiences in “It’s important to highlight everyA six at person can make no Francisco, more than $61,950 from , June 17, 2014, - July 15, 2014 2121household Third Street, San CA 94107 San Francisco at separate events one who attends the march, and our A seven person household can make no more than $66,200 this spring. Mock is the author of allies,” said Garza. “It’s a celebration (Households mustthe be at least as many people as bedrooms in the July unit) 15, 2014: (2) Applications can be downloaded from following website until the best-selling Redefining Realof our community as a whole.” www.bmr-gantry.com th Lottery Applications due by 5pm on, Tuesday, July 15 2014 to Gantry/BMR 2121 Third Street SF, CA 94107, Attn: BMR Specialist ness; Cox is an actress who’s had a All are welcome at the Trans break-out role on the Netflix series, March, billed as one of the largest (3) Applications are available atThree theways Information JuneBMR 26th , 2014 to obtain anSession applicationon, for Gantry units; Orange is the New Black. She was transgender events in the world.

(1) Applications can be picked up in person Tuesdays and Thursdays ONLY 9:00 AM- 6:00 PM from , June 17, 2014, - July 15, also recently on the cover of Time An after-party (21 and over only) 2014 at 2121 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 Please contact us for more information! magazine. will take place at El Rio, 3158 Mis415.802.5877 Yet advocates point out that there (2) Applications can be downloaded from the following website until July 15, 2014: sion Street, at 8 p.m. and will benefit www.bmr-gantry.com bmr.thegantry@riverstoneres.com are still many hurdles for the comthe TGI Justice Project. The requesthttp://www.bmr-gantry.com th munity to overcome. ed donation is between $5-$25.

(3) Applications are available at the Information Session on, June 26 , 2014 “It’s unfortunate to see discrimiUpdated info on the Trans March Information Session nation in schools, health care, and can be found at the event’s FaceThursday, June 26th 6:00 PM7:30 PM Please contact us for more information! government,” said Garza. “There are book page, https://www.facebook.

415.802.5877 bmr.thegantry@riverstoneres.com states where you can’t change your com/events/1449114288660162 or Location: http://www.bmr-gantry.com name.” http://www.transmarch.org.t San Francisco Library, Koret Auditorium

T

Information Session th

Thursday, 26 6:00CA PM- 94102 7:30 PM 100 Larkin Street, San June Francisco,

<<

Location:

Open House Dates San Francisco Library, Koret Auditorium Wednesday, July 2nd and July 9th 6:00-8:00 PM 100 Larkin Street, SanAM-1:00 Francisco,PM CA 94102 Saturday June 21st 11:00 Location: 2121 Third Street, San Francisco, 94107 Open House Dates nd th Wednesday, July 2 and July 9 6:00-8:00 PM st Saturday June 21 11:00 AM-1:00 PM 2121 Thirdpreference Street, San Francisco, to Location: apply. Lottery will be 94107 given

All applicants are encouraged to San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Certificate of Preference holders Preference and Ellis Act Housing Preference holders * to and households that will livebeor work in Francisco San Francisco All applicants are encouraged apply.

Lottery preference given to San Redevelopment Agency Certificate of Preference holders Preference and Ellis Act Housing Preference holders * and households that live or work in San Francisco

BMR Units 2 8 7 1

Bedroom Count Studio 1 2 3

Bath Count 1 1 2 2

Square Feet 471 627 882 989

The Gantry Unit Information Maximum Minimum Household Monthly Income Household Allowed Income Required $899 55% of AMI $2247 $1022 55% of AMI $2555 $1139 55% of AMI $2847 $1252 55% of AMI $3327 Rent

Minimum Household Size 1 Persons 1 Persons 2 Persons 3 Persons

Deposit Required $899 $1022 $1139 $1252

Units are monitored through the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. Visit Units are monitored the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and are subject to www.sf-moh.org for programthrough information.

Post lottery credit, rentaland history, criminal background and additional income verification take place.

Lottery winners will be monitoring other restrictions.

Visit www.sf-moh.org for will program information. contacted in rankcredit, order forrental further processing and move-in approval.

Post lottery history,thcriminal background and additional income verification will APPLICATIONS DUE BY 5 PM on July 15 , 2014. Postmarked applications that arrive after the deadline will be considered late and take place. Lottery winners will be contacted in rank order for further processing and move-in NOT eligible for the lottery.

approval.

APPLICATIONS DUE BY 5 PM on July 15th, 2014. Postmarked applications that arrive after the deadline will be considered late and NOT eligible for the lottery.

World War II

From page 40

II. Many of the people who lived through and served in the war are dwindling as the generation is dying.

During the presentation, Graves displayed some of the artifacts she’s been able to obtain through her research at local archives. But firsthand stories and stories from friends and family members, personal documentation from diaries to photographs, and more remain to be discovered to piece together the larger story of LGBT life during the war.

“This is American history,” said Tucker, the park ranger, who is a lesbian. “We are a part of American history, so therefore we need our voices to be heard. The only way to do that is if we share those voices with American institutions like the National Park Service that preserve American history.”

Tucker, 47, couldn’t dream of heading up a project like this when she first joined the National Park

Service nearly 30 years ago.

Dickemann agreed, calling the project “path-breaking.”

“Although [Elizabeth] is focused on this one historic monument in Richmond, it is really a national issue. I think it is incredibly important,” said Dickemann.

Graves and Tucker, as well as others, also have a sense of urgency to gather these stories.

“There is an urgency, because ... only the youngest people from this WWII generation are left,” said Tucker.

One of the audience members agreed.

“Time is running out. These people are in their late 80s and 90s now,” said Therese Ambrosi Smith, a 58-year-old ally and author of the novel Wax, which follows her lesbian protagonist during and after WWII. Smith is donating the proceeds of sales of Wax to the Rosie the Riveter Trust.

More than $3,000 has been raised from donors and sales of the book to See page 52 >>

t

Travel>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 43

Walk, bike, bus around WeHo to see sights

art of fashion is my life. Now I can The

devote myself to it.

by Ed Walsh

W

hile we celebrate Pride this weekend, Los Angeles celebrated three weeks ago with a march and festival in West Hollywood. Like San Francisco, LA Pride draws visitors from all over the world. Tourism promoters hope that those LGBT visitors will make it a habit to return and the city’s tourism office has a section of its website dedicated to LGBT visitors and for the first time this year has produced a TV commercial directed to the gay community.

Of course, the gay capital of southern California and one of the gayest cities in the world is West Hollywood, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary as a city in November. Before it became a city, WeHo, as it’s known, was an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, just outside the city limits. That was one of the factors that made the area a gay mecca – the gay community thrived outside the jurisdiction of the then-notoriously homophobic LA Police Department.

West Hollywood makes a good home base from which to explore LA’s biggest tourist attractions: Hollywood is just toward its east and Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the beaches are to the west.

Los Angeles’s world famous Farmers Market, the Grove, and CBS Television headquarters are clustered just south of the city.

Bus, walking tours

And yes, it is possible to get by in LA without a car. West Hollywood is

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The Fiesta Cantina bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood was decked out for LA Pride earlier this month.

very walkable and easier and cheaper without a vehicle. Parking in WeHo is challenging by LA standards, although still easier than San Francisco.

If you go car-less you can easily catch a Starline Tours’ hopon hop-off bus that goes around LA’s top attractions. The bus includes a stop in West Hollywood. Starline also recently unveiled an LGBT itinerary of Los Angeles that lists places of interest to the gay community.

Later this summer, Starline will debut a three-hour movie locations tour that will include movie clips shown along the route. The tour company also will soon have a smartphone app that will show you the location of the next bus.

If you are in LA for the weekend, be sure to take the Out and About Tours’ Sunday gay brunch bus tour

and/or one of Out and About’s gayfocused walking tours. Out and About Tours is five years old this year and is teaming up with the Lavender Effect organization to become a not-for-profit company.

In addition to the Sunday bus tour, Out and About recently added a Gay LA Downtown Walking Tour on Saturdays and the LGBTinsel Town Walking Tour in Hollywood on Sundays. The tours provide fascinating insight into the once underground and illicit gay LA scene that you won’t see on any other tour. All of the tours, including private VIP tours, can be found at outandabout-tours.com.

Another great car-free way to explore LA and get in some serious exercise can be found through the West Hollywood business, Hikes and Bikes LA. The company offers a selection of bicycle tours and hikes to some of the city’s biggest attractions, as well See page 44 >>

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44 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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WeHo

From page 43

as a unique bicycle tour of movie star homes. Hikes and Bikes LA’s most famous tour is an all-day 32mile bicycle tour that includes the highlights of LA and the beaches.

Not surprisingly, TripAdvisor.com ranks Hikes and Bikes LA the top activity in West Hollywood. You can also rent a bicycle from the company if you would rather explore on your own.

Hikes and Bikes LA and most overall tours of LA include a stop by one of the world’s wealthiest enclaves, Beverly Hills. The city’s most visited sights are the exclusive shops along Rodeo Drive, but be sure to stop by a couple of parks that are off the beaten path – the Robinson Gardens and the Greystone Mansion. The six-acre Robinson GarEd Walsh dens was willed to the city by phiLA residents Dennis Carducci, left, and August Weiss stopped by the gay lanthropist Virginia Robinson after section of Will Rogers State Beach. her death in 1977. The spectacular gardens include the largest grove of some of the city’s top dining spots, of a mysterious double killing. The king palms in the world. Because of including the Blue Plate Taco, a great case was ruled a murder-suicide. Auits limited capacity, it is open to the Mexican restaurant with a patio perthorities said Ned Doheny was killed public but by appointment only. fect for people watching while you by his secretary and close confidant, The Greystone Park and Mancatch a breeze off the Pacific.

Hugh Plunkett. Some have speculatsion is a must stop for any visitor to Pono Burgers on Broadway reed that the men were lovers and that Beverly Hills. Oil magnate Edward portedly has the best burgers in LA. the killing was the result of a lover’s Doheny built the home in the late The upscale Santa Monica Place, quarrel and that Doheny, not Plun1920s for his son, Ned, and his faman open-air shopping mall on the kett, was the shooter. Others claimed ily but just four months after they south end of the Third Street Promthe case was a double murder staged moved in, the mansion was the scene enade, is a destination to itself. The to look like a murder-suicide. Both mall reopened four years ago after men had knowledge of the elder undergoing a complete makeover Doheny’s culpability in the Teapot that now includes an open-air plaza.

Dome scandal. The mansion has LA’s unofficial gay beach is a secbeen used as a backdrop for a numtion of Will Rogers State Beach, ber of movies, most notably the 1997 north of Santa Monica. It is affecBatman and Robin movie. tionately known as Ginger Rogers Santa Monica, Beach. You can follow the bike path Venice, and more to lifeguard station 18. If you are The surfside city of Santa Mondriving, the beach is opposite the ica is best known for the pier with Pacific Coast Highway and Entrada an iconic LED-illuminated Ferris Drive or West Channel Road. There wheel. It is also where the 2,448is a charge to park at the beach, but mile Route 66 ends. The Legends on quiet days you can usually find Beach Bike Tour is a good introducstreet parking in the neighborhood tion to Santa Monica and its neighacross from the beach. bor, Venice. You can also rent a bike If you are a Disney fan, Gay Days and see it all on your own, but the Anaheim is coming up October 3-5. tour will take you by some things Check out http://www.gaydaysanayou would likely not stumble upon. heim.com for a list of events at DisVenice is home to the beachfront neyland, California Adventure, and boardwalk and Muscle Beach that Downtown Disney. is the stereotypical image of California. Venice was modeled after its Nightlife Italian namesake as a city of canals.

Gay nightlife in the LA area is, It was founded in 1905 but most of of course, in West Hollywood. The the canals were closed and paved mainstays are Mickey’s, Eleven, over after Los Angeles annexed the Rage, the Revolver, Trunks, Fiesta town in 1925. Now homes along Cantina, and the Abbey. the canals are prized by southern Since the Palms closed last year California’s wealthy elite. The Hikes there are no full time lesbian bars and Bikes LA day tour also includes in WeHo but the Abbey has a very stops in Venice. popular lesbian night on WednesSanta Monica is a foodie’s paradays and Here Lounge has a lesbian dise. You can graze along the Third night on Fridays.

Street Promenade between Wilshire In Hollywood, the Circus Disco and Broadway with your choice of and adjacent Arena Nightclub on everything from fast food to fine Santa Monica Boulevard draw a big dining. Ocean Drive runs along the weekend crowd. You will find the beach and it is where you will find popular Akbar and Eagle LA in the

<<

Oakland AIDS walk

From page 34

the federal and state governments in recent years. For the current fiscal year, the county actually received small increases in Ryan White and HIV prevention funding, he said.

Participants arrived at Lake Merritt at 8:30 a.m. to register. Prior to the walk, Mighty Shock, a hip-hop dance troupe that is part of the Culture Shock dance organization in Oakland, opened the ceremony with a performance.

McCall and Crowell delivered remarks from the stage and were joined by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland).

The 5K walk began around 10 with Lee leading the way. After walking around the 3.4-mile lake, participants returned with a welcome from members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and

received a lunch from Walgreens.

Major sponsors for this year’s walk included Starbucks, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and Walgreens, which donated $20,000.

“What excited us about this opportunity is that all the funds raised from this event stay in the East Bay,” said Walgreens event coordinator Rizwan Azam.

Oakland resident Mel Enriquez said that he walked to support those who are “isolated and ostracized” in regards to HIV/AIDS. A local AIDS physician also took part.

“I’m walking for my patients. Especially the ones who died this year,” said Dr. Alisson Sombredero.

Others walked to support organizations.

“I’m walking for AIDS organizations that I’m affiliated with to bring awareness to the epidemic,” said AIDS Housing and Informa-

t

Silver Lake neighborhood. Gentrification has hit Silver Lake resulting in several gay bars closing, including, most recently MJ’s, which shut down three months ago. The historic Black Cat bar in Silver Lake is now a restaurant by the same name. In the Pico district, Jewel’s Catch One is a landmark nightclub that first opened in 1972 with a focus on LA’s African American community.

Accommodations

LA has no exclusively gay hotels, but the 108-room Ramada Plaza Hotel comes close. The hotel uses the web address http://www. thegayhotel.com to help encourage gay visitors. It is in the heart of gay West Hollywood. The hotel has a small pool and fitness room.

The rooms are stylishly decorated with hardwood floors and larger than life portraits of Hollywood legends. Wi-Fi is free.

The former gay San Vicente Inn is under new ownership and with a slightly new name, the San Vicente Bungalows. The owner of the 29-unit boutique hotel plans to transform the property to an upscale gay-welcoming but not gay exclusive property.

If you have the budget to splurge, the 200-room all-suite London Hotel is just a couple of blocks above Santa Monica Boulevard next to West Hollywood’s famed Sunset Strip. Unlike most high-end hotels, the London doesn’t nickel and dime guests. The hotel offers free Wi-Fi, free buffet breakfast, and free calls to London. The London’s rooftop pool, bar, and restaurant offers the best view in town of West Hollywood.

The 249-room Andaz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of the Sunset Strip has long attracted some of Hollywood’s most colorful personalities. The stories of rock bands trashing rooms are legendary. The hotel’s top-notch gourmet restaurant is also a great place to splurge.

Not on the gay-friendly list is the landmark Beverly Hills Hotel in LA, home to the famous Polo Lounge.

The hotel is the subject of an ongoing boycott because of a decision by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, to institute Sharia law in his country, which calls for the stoning to death of gays and adulterers. Event bookings at the storied hotel have been canceled in recent weeks, as Hollywood celebrities have largely sided with the LGBT community; several, such as Jay Leno, have joined activists on the picket line.

You don’t have to stay in WeHo to go car-free during your trip. In a program started last year, LA’s tourism board is offering a number of car-free hotel packages. Some of the participating properties include free bicycle rentals while others include bus passes and free shuttles. For more information visit http://www. discoverlosangeles.com.t

tion Project resource specialist Rosa Davis.

In an e-mail, Oakland City Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Libby Schaaf said that she admired the energy and dedication that went into the event.

“I love this event because you can feel the passion of its participants – particularly the volunteers who have tirelessly organized this great event for eight years now to directly benefit our local organizations who continue doing this critical work in the face of federal budget cuts,” Schaaf said.

There is no cure for HIV/AIDS. However, advocates noted that ways to prevent the virus include using condoms, using antiretroviral treatment as prevention, known as preexposure prophylaxis, or Truvada PrEP, and community education.

“Instead of focusing on a cure we need to focus on reducing HIV transmission,” said Davis.t

t

Travel>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 45

What a trip! Damron celebrates its golden anniversary

by Heather Cassell

WELCOME TO

G

oing somewhere? Want a place to stay that is LGBT-owned or gay-friendly? Want a drink at a local gay bar? Hungry and want to eat somewhere that is gay- or lesbianowned?

The Damron travel guides likely have you covered.

Especially if you are of a certain age, Damron’s Men’s Travel Guide – and its younger sister the Women’s Traveller – might have been packed in your bag whenever you took a trip to a new city or country.

The original LGBT travel guide, Damron is celebrating the golden anniversary of its Men’s Travel Guide, while Women’s Traveller is celebrating its silver anniversary.

For 50 and 25 years, respectively, the men’s and women’s guide books have listed places to stay, restaurants, businesses, community centers, and local publications alongside locals’ tips for LGBT travelers.

“Damron has been my travel bible ... my travel security blanket, if you like, for the last 32 years,” said Richard Gray, managing director for the LGBT market for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Damron’s publisher said that she hopes the guides fill a niche, even in today’s wired society.

“I still have the passion around it and that’s why I do it every day,” said Gina Gatta, publisher and owner of Damron. “It’s a labor of love and it’s my passion.”

More than 1.5 million men’s guides have been sold in half a century. While Damron has shifted with the times, it still sells 17,500 of the men’s guides and 10,000 of the women’s guides annually. At the height of the publishing and travel industry days in the 1990s, Gatta printed 50,000 guides a year, she said.

The wanderlust

Gatta, who lives in San Francisco, where Damron is based, has had a passion in hunting down lesbian bars in unknown places for 25 years.

“My most scariest travel experience of my life – I got lost in Berlin,” said Gatta, a gay woman who also turns 50 this year. She was in a remote neighborhood of the city searching for a lesbian bar in the middle of the night in 1998 or 1999.

“I was freaking out.”

She finally found the bar. The owner was there all by herself. Gatta stayed for a bit and talked to the owner who gave her directions to find a cab, but she got lost again.

Returning to the bar, she found it empty. “[I was] scared shitless,” said Gatta, who finally found a cab and made it back to her hotel around 4:30 a.m. “But you know what, I made it.”

Not all trips were filled with wandering around an unfamiliar city in the middle of the night. She has great memories of Iceland and Copenhagen, which are two trips that she recalls fondly to this day.

If it’s not the travel it’s her readers that keep her going. She receives calls and emails from customers daily thanking her for the guides. “’You saved my life,’” said Gatta, recalling messages from gay men she’s met who tell her about their younger years when they used Damron to find others like themselves and women who used the Women’s Traveller to help them select where to go to college and where to live.

“These are the earlier days before we were so accepted in the world,” said Gatta. “People needed my book that helped them find community.”

Community has been an important aspect of Gatta’s life. For 25

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Gina Gatta, publisher and owner of Damron, enjoys the beach and sun at the Four Seasons Punta Mita, about 30 miles from Puerto Villarta.

years, she hasn’t only shown LGBT travelers where to go and what to do, she’s also given back by contributing to some of San Francisco’s most notable organizations.

For 13 years she sat on the board of the National AIDS Memorial Grove, including a stint as co-chair.

She not only raised nearly $100,000 for the organization but also worked to increase the grove’s endowment from $1 million to $2.5 million during her tenure. Since 2010, Gatta has served on the Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation, which produces Real Bad, and has raised more than $2 million in 25 years for San Francisco’s grassroots LGBT organizations. Damron has sponsored the event for more than 15 years, she said.

Damron’s legacy is that it didn’t only help people find each other, but it also helped build gayborhoods, she explained.

“Damron has really helped define gay and lesbian cities and neighborhoods,” Gatta said. “Before we had the Internet and the opportunity to share, the only way you could do it was with my book,” said Gatta, adding that gay and lesbian business owners would read the guides and move to where other gay businesses were located in their city.

Because of this historical documentation, Damron’s archives have become a resource for LGBT historians mapping and studying the effects of gentrification on gay neighborhoods.

The guides also helped build the LGBT travel industry.

“It has been very helpful to me,” said Babs Daitch, owner and tour guide of Thanks Babs, the Day Tripper in San Francisco and Las Vegas, who has worked with Gatta for 24 years. “I would get phone calls periodically, ‘We heard about you in the Damron guide.’ So, it was really important.”

Daitch always made sure to have a copy of Damron with her, she said.

“Wherever I went I would always have a copy with me so I could show other people. It’s just a really great resource,” said Daitch.

Gray, a 56-year-old bisexual man who has been in the travel industry for 23 years, couldn’t agree more.

“Damron has unquestionably been the leader in the LGBT travel industry for the last 50 years,” said Gray. “They had the vision and courage to lead the way 50 years ago and became pioneers in the LGBT world and inspired so many people and companies.

“Thanks to the Damron company the LGBT traveler was able to visit cities and find safe havens where they could meet locals and make new friends,” he added.

Thomas E. Roth, MBA, president of Community Marketing Inc., an LGBT marketing company that publishes an annual survey on the LGBT travel market and who has

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been in the travel industry for 25 years, agreed.

“Damron is the original ‘facilitator’ of LGBT travel. For 50 years, starting long before any other resource, Damron has been a trusted safe haven for information that has gotten our community out and traveling,” said Roth, a 57-year-old gay man, pointing out that the guide is still the “most trusted resource to get the scoop on destinations, places to stay and things to do.”

A traveling man

The guides started in 1964 when Bob Damron, a gay man and the late founder of Damron, began recording the gay bars he found during his travels. By 1967, he turned his little black book of gay lodges, bars, and restaurants into photocopied pocket guides – called Bob Damron’s Address Book – until 1987, when Dan Delbex bought the business.

See page 46 >>

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<< National News

46 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

t

Presbyterian church takes steps to allow same-sex marriages

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n the same day as marriage equality detractors marched on the nation’s capital to defend traditional marriage – with San Francisco Catholic Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone in a starring role – the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took a more inclusive stand, one that is remarkably LGBT-friendly and -welcoming.

Meeting in Detroit, commissioners to the mainline Protestant denomination’s General Assembly approved a change in the Book of Order’s definition of marriage from a “man and woman” to “two people.”

The Book of Order is in effect the denomination’s constitution or governing document.

But the language-change approval – by a lopsided 71 percent to 29 percent margin – came after an amendment, which added after the words two people, the phrase “traditionally a man and woman.”

The additional phraseology was a nod to conservatives and to longstanding church tradition, a move Presbyterian pro-gay equality advocates supported.

The change to the Book of Order, which came June 19, will not become church law until a majority of presbyteries, or regional governing bodies, vote to ratify new language.

Altogether, there are 172 presbyteries. Ratification is a yearlong process.

In Detroit, commissioners also approved a measure allowing Presbyterian ministers to officiate at same-sex weddings in states where marriage equality is legal.

The vote in the General Assembly to allow pastors to perform samesex marriages was also by a lopsided 76 percent to 24 percent margin.

Both measures are a departure from church policy that in 1991 and 2008 banned ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings and held trials for pastors who violated the ban. The reversals this year, moreover, build on decisions made at General Assembly in 2010, and ratified in 2011, which removed barriers to ordaining openly gay candidates for ministry.

With an estimated 1.8 million members, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is among the largest Christian denominations moving forward fully to embrace marriage equality.

Denomination advocates for LGBT equality could not have been happier with the outcomes at General Assembly.

Reached by phone in Detroit, Alex McNeill, a candidate for ordination and executive director of More Light Presbyterians, said that the vote was “an answer to many prayers by many Presbyterians throughout the years to finally have same-gender relationships recognized as marriages and to have the ability for ministers to bless those

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More Light Presbyterians Executive Director Alex McNeill

commitments of marriage.”

More Light Presbyterians advocates LGBT equality within the church.

Better yet, discussion about marriage equality, during the General Assembly’s plenary session, McNeill added, “unfolded with such grace. It was clear the Holy Spirit was at work because even as folks disagreed, they were not disagreeing with each other about people, but about the issue, really keeping a respectful tone throughout the debate.”

Meanwhile, Bay Area Presbyterians also welcomed pro-LGBT decisions from Detroit. “[The vote last Thursday] was an exciting day for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), members of the LGBTQ community, and Mission Bay Community Church,” said the Reverend Dawn Hyde, its pastor. “I’m thrilled with the decision from the General Assembly to now both recognize and affirm marriage between ‘two people’ as the new standard.”

Hyde noted the issue has been percolating for years.

“While the vote happened yesterday, this has been something that so many in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have worked toward for years,” Hyde said last Friday. “Mission Bay Community Church has been a strong voice here in San Francisco for more than a decade, as well as within our denomination to support the LGBTQ community. “[The vote in General Assembly] made more space for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Church can now be a safer home for all regardless of your sexual orientation,” said Hyde even as she acknowledged some among the faithful might be displeased.

“Though many of us celebrate the decision yesterday, some did not agree,” she said.

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Damron

From page 45

Gatta joined her friend Delbex in the business in 1989 and created the Women’s Traveller, a complementary guide to the popular Men’s Travel Guide, and added the city guides, then known as the Damron Road Atlas.

Four years later, Delbex died of AIDS-related complications. Gatta and two other business partners, who she declined to name, inherited the company. The business was a quarter-million dollars in debt, but it was also the fat years of publishing before the Internet.

By the mid-1990s, Gatta and her business partners turned the company around. They paid off the debt and expanded the guides into Europe and South America.

By the end of the 1990s, Damron was out of the red and the company was getting back on its feet. Damron, which was held in a trust for

For example, the Presbyterian Lay Committee, which opposes equal marriage for gays, urged congregations to launch a financial boycott out of protest.

“The Presbyterian Lay Committee mourns these actions and calls on all Presbyterians to resist and protest them,” the group said in a statement. “You should refuse to fund the General Assembly, your synod, your presbytery, and even your local church if those bodies have not explicitly and publicly repudiated these unbiblical actions.

“God will not be mocked,” the statement continued. “Those who substitute their own felt desires for God’s unchangeable truth will not be found guiltless before a holy God.” But for Hyde, “Our denomination is full of diverse people and a broad range of opinions. As our long history of debate has shown, we will not all agree,” she said. “Yet, as a people of faith, we are called to be one. United in our diversity. It is not an easy calling, but it is ours. My hope and prayer moving forward as a church is that we can continue to make space for each other around the conversation table.”

Mission Bay Community Church is estimated to be about 40 percent to 50 percent LGBTQ identified.

Esther Lee, a Mission Bay Community Church congregant, also voiced gratitude for Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s progressive actions.

“It’s actually very humbling to hear about the vote that took place,” said Lee. “It made me want to call my mom. She and I have had a very rocky relationship since I came out of the closet over 20 years ago – based on her faith and religious beliefs. But church, faith, religion, and marriage – those all make me think of home and family. My relationship with my mother quite parallels the struggle of LGBTQ people and the church.

“My mother [still] offers me prayers that she hopes ... I’ll find a husband. I pass on those prayers,” said Lee. “That’s what Presbyterians do – they pray a lot,” she went on to say.

“And they discuss a lot. And then they pray more.

“It’s been decades of Presbyterian leaders debating, praying, discussion, praying, delaying votes, and praying again for the strength and the sign from God to know what the right role with LGBTQ members is for the church,” Lee added. “[Last Thursday], they received an answer and acted on those prayers. Equality is right and welcome in his home. Cool.”t five years, was released and the partners reissued stocks in the private company to each other. They also began the process of Gatta taking full ownership of Damron and she became the sole owner in 2008.

Then things changed. The Internet hit the masses in the mid and late 1990s, followed by 9/11 and the 2008 recession. Suddenly, the way people traveled changed dramatically.

New gay travel businesses riding the wave of change came knocking on Gatta’s door offering money for Damron, but the guides and the golden information for the now multibillion-dollar gay travel market weren’t for sale. Gatta worked hard and she was in love with the travel business. She doesn’t regret her decision.

“I could have sold back in the 1990s when we had high value, when we had a lot of revenue, when we had a lot of staff, and I didn’t. I See page 54 >>

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<< Commentary

48 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

A new Stonewall movement

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

E

very June, those of us in the great lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community – and yes, we’re made up of many more than just those four identities – celebrate an important anniversary. It was 45 years ago that a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in New York City.

Stonewall was not the first time LGBT people stood up for their rights, nor would it be the last. It wasn’t even the first riot spearheaded by the community. Yet the Stonewall Uprising was at the right time, in the right place, and subsequently became the flashpoint of the modern LGBT rights movement. It was the moment that the community moved from an existence in shadowy bars and closeted support groups and transitioned into something closer to what we see today. People took to the streets and demanded their rights in ways not seen before in the larger LGBT community.

Things did not go well for the police, who may have been expecting an easy raid. People fought back.

It’s important, I feel, not to look at the people who were at the Stonewall Inn without understanding the time and place. We may wish to label those attending with modern terms and modern views. Some of those there may have had identities that shored up with those four main identity labels I mentioned above, but many did not. Some may have identified with more than one, or with terms that have since fallen out of favor.

What we do know, however, is that there were a number of folks who we might identify as transgender today, as well as a number of people we might consider gay, lesbian, or bi-

sexual by today’s standards. In spite of any of those categories, they all shared their space at the Stonewall Inn, and they all rose up, together, to protect themselves and their turf.

I will be glad to note that Storme DeLarverie, Marsha P. Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera were three gender-nonconforming people who were on the vanguard of that battle that night.

It was as much a defining moment for transgender people as it was for any other part of the broader movement. That said, I think it is key to us as a community to look beyond the simple labels and look at what this diverse group of people chose to do.

The first gay Pride marches took place just one year later – but then another metamorphosis happened. In just two more years, the Christopher Street Pride Parade began to weed out “drag” from the event – and at the time, “drag” as a term covered a diverse number of cross-gender identities and expressions. Tranwomen started to be ostracized from feminist and lesbian circles. The community was divided.

Fast forward though the next couple decades, if you will. Anita Bryant rides the backlash against LGBT rights in the 1970s. Proposition 6, the Briggs initiative that would have banned gay teachers, is barely beaten back in California. The scourge of AIDS more than decimates the community in the 1980s. Radical groups like Lesbian Avengers, ACT UP, and Transexual Menace change the face of LGBT activism in the 1990s.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prohibited gays and lesbians from serving opening in the military, rises and falls. The world changes again with the rise of the World Wide Web, let alone the social media of today.

The community is worlds away

Christine Smith

from those who huddled in the Stonewall Inn. Not only have many of those present that night passed on, but the community that existed then has changed over, and over, and over again.

There are still plenty of turf wars today, as the larger movement focuses on marriage rights while much of the LGBT community deals with more basic survival needs. The transgender community in particular often fights with homelessness, income inequality, and dizzyingly high levels of suicide and homicide. It’s an even bigger issue when you include race, social class, and other elements that are largely off the radar of some of the larger organizations.

We still fight over the same sort of “respectability politics” battles that caused “drag” to be sliced away from the community in the early 1970s.

People fight over words, with some going so far as to make videos portraying the murder of those with whom they disagree. Meanwhile, transwomen face new battles over their inclusion in lesbian and feminist spaces. Even within the transgender community,

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many often spend time trying to further subdivide the community.

At the Stonewall Inn, early in the morning of June 28, 1969, a relatively small number of people from a diverse set of identities stood arm in arm and fought back against op-

t

pression, and claimed their place.

What they did – as well as countless others – helped make a world where we could all – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and so on – live in the sunlight. We still have greater heights to reach, sure, but they laid the foundation we stand on today.

We need to take a lesson from them. We need to find our common ground. We need to learn to build true coalitions. We need to learn to listen to each other, and not strike back against those who we are allied with, and those from whom we can learn.

So this Pride season, I ask each of you to reach out to others of a like mind, talk, listen, and grow. Find your allies and find where you can work together. Let’s all move forward, together, and make a movement that doesn’t just throw a party every month, but truly embraces the pride shown by those in that Greenwich Village bar.t Gwen Smith wishes everyone a powerful Pride season. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

Frameline names new ED

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he nonprofit that’s presenting the Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival this week has named a new executive director.

Frances Wallace started her new position with the festival June 20, the day after it opened. The San Francisco-based Frameline nonprofit supports the exhibition and distribution of diverse LGBTQ cinema and is marking its 38th year.

In response to emailed questions, Wallace, who identifies as bisexual and queer, said she wanted the job because “I have been with Frameline for over a decade now, and have always worked closely with the inspirational leaders of this organization – it is my dream job to fill their shoes, and carry on the legacy that is Frameline.”

Among other posts, Wallace, who wouldn’t share her age, served as Frameline’s director of strategic partnerships and senior programmer from September 2011 to January 2014, when former Executive Director K.C. Price departed and the group’s board asked her to serve as the acting executive director.

In that position, Wallace led staff in producing this year’s festival, Frameline38, which started June 19 and runs through Sunday, June 29.

According to Frameline, the festival, which takes place annually in San Francisco, is the world’s largest LGBT film exhibition event.

The organization, which has a budget of $1.7 million, provides $80,000 in direct funds to filmmakers through a completion fund, distribution royalties, and cash prizes. Wallace declined to say what her salary is. Frameline has nine year-round employees.

Wallace has lived in both New York City and San Francisco representing Frameline, but she’s planning to

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Frameline Executive Director Frances Wallace

move permanently to San Francisco.

In a news release from the nonprofit, which conducted an international search to fill the top post, Wallace said, “I’m excited to bring the organization to the next level of innovation in terms of LGBT film delivery and increase access to underserved filmmakers and audiences on a global scale. I see a very dynamic future, as Frameline sits amidst one of the nations’ burgeoning economies, with exceptional opportunities to expand its mission to change the world through the power of queer cinema.”

Frameline board members applauded Wallace’s selection.

“It is important that Frameline continues to be the world’s most exciting showcase of LGBT cinema,” stated board Chair Julie Ansell. “The board feels that Frances is exactly the right person to safeguard and expand that legacy.”

This year’s festival selections include Compared to What: The Improbably Journey of Barney Frank, which tells the story of the gay former congressman.

For more information, visit www. frameline.org.t

Obituaries >> Terence McKeown November 27, 1974 – May 13, 2014

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The family of Terence McKeown is deeply saddened to announce his unexpected passing in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. Terence is survived by his parents, Jim and Pat McKeown; his sister, Mary Provines, and brother-in-law, Rob Provines; niece, Penny (Terence was a proud uncle); as well as many cousins, uncles,

aunts, and numerous friends.

Terence had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and spoke three languages, loved the newness of inventions, and had an eclectic taste in music and arts.

He graduated from Novato High School in 1993, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian studies from UC Berkeley in 1999, and worked as a design director.

A celebration of life will be held at Community Congregational Church, 145 Rock Hill Drive in Tiburon on Saturday, June 28 at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Trevor Project where Terence volunteered his time (http://www.thetrevorproject.org/).

<< Sports

50 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

t

Local wrestler earns highest Gay Games honor

by Roger Brigham

T

he 2014 Tom Waddell Award, the highest honor bestowed by the guardians of the Gay Game movement, has been awarded to two remarkably different individuals: one a newcomer who has never even been to a Gay Games, the other a battler who has competed in every Gay Games and served the Federation of Gay Games in virtually every conceivable capacity.

The Federation of Gay Games announced the Waddell Award would be given at the Gay Games in Cleveland in August to San Francisco’s Gene Dermody and Russia’s Elvina Yuvakaeva.

Other awards being presented at the Gay Games include volunteer awards to artist Kana Ravel, figure skater Bradley Erickson, and Gay Games 9 host board members Cynthia Christman and Jay DeFinis; athlete awards to wrestler Donna Rose and track and field athlete Jean-Pierre Grasland; cultural participant awards to Erin Frawley of the Lesbian and Gay Band Associa-

tion and Sanford Smith of SF Cheer and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus; and officiating awards to basketball’s Jon Baldan and soccer’s Kimberly Hadley.

Yuvakaeva’s first exposure to LGBT sports was when she competed in badminton at the 2011 Rotterdam EuroGames.

She is better known as the co-president of the Russian LGBT Sports Federation and as an organizer of the Russian Outgames, staged between the Sochi Olympics and Paralympics.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Dermody, a wrestler who was so moved by his experience in 1982 at Gay Games I in San Francisco that he tore everything up in his life to become a mover and shaker in the movement.

Indulge me as I take you through his life story, for it has been my fate for more than a decade now to find myself interlocked with him in almost constant battle on and off the mat, and it is a story that truly exemplifies the empowering magic of the Gay Games. I would not be wrestling today if it were not for him, nor would

Courtesy FGG

Gene Dermody will receive the Tom Waddell Award in August.

I be coaching, nor would I even be writing this column.

We begin by realizing, to paraphrase his hero Winston Churchill, Dermody is a wrestler wrapped in autism inside an enigma.

At 33, when he arrived at Gay Games I in San Francisco, he was a politically left-leaning, thoroughly closeted, high school science teacher with tenure, living in New York City’s Greenwich Village and teach-

Courtesy FGG

Elvina Yuvakaeva, co-president of the Russian LGBT Sports Federation, will receive the Tom Waddell Award at this year’s Gay Games.

ing in New Jersey. He had bought his first house using a credit card he had acquired in his father’s name (but without his father’s knowledge). He was also a scrappy wrestler without a speck of glory on his wrestling resume, having gone winless during his college days at New York University.

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Now, 32 years later at the age of 65, he is a registered Log Cabin Republican, a member of the National Rifle Association, a highly prized software architect and all-around code debugger, and trying for his fourth consecutive gold medal, and eighth medal overall, in the Gay Games in August in Cleveland.

One of the first trips I ever took with Dermody was to San Diego and Los Angeles in early 2004, where we traveled to talk with members of their Wrestlers WithOut Borders clubs about whether they’d like the next Gay Games to be in Los Angeles or Chicago.

“What do you know about autism?” Dermody casually asked me as we tooled down the highway to San Francisco International Airport, thus beginning my inoculation into All Things Gene.

We talked about different theories for the causes of autism, the various forms and degrees of autism.

He seemed to know a lot about it. I asked him why.

“I’m functionally autistic,” he replied. “I’m also left-handed, dyslexic, and have crappy hand-eye coordination.”

And short. In other words, not your textbook athlete, but just the sort of individual who can, through sheer sustained effort and commitment, become a respectable and respected wrestler.

Of course, autism was not commonly diagnosed in children when Dermody was growing up, but his mother had her ways for dealing with it. She would give him the Electrolux vacuum cleaner and attachments to take apart and put back together, over and over and over.

I once asked Dermody if he had trouble expressing emotions.

“Oh, no,” he told me. “I can express anger very well.”

So his classmates in kindergarten had learned years earlier. One day a flat of milk cartons was brought in for the kids’ lunch, but they were short one carton. The teacher decided that Little Gene, being the smallest, could do without.

Little Gene had a better idea. He stomped on every carton, thereby equalizing the distribution. For punishment he was told to sit at the piano, which he did. He also picked off the ivory keys while he was there.

Mother Dottie threw him into every activity she could: weightlifting, swimming, music lessons, prep school. By the time he was 13 he was playing keyboard and singing in bars and at weddings, and making good money doing it.

“Keep him away from those barracudas,” Dottie would tell the male bartenders. But Dermody knew even then he was far more interested in the bartenders than the older women.

Dermody’s high school did not have a varsity wrestling team so he joined the club team. He was a walkon when he got to the NYU Violets and maintained a spot in the lineup throughout sheer dint of maniacal dieting.

Then he heard about the Gay Games. He was an active wrestler in the local New York City YMCA clubs – he kept in wrestling trim by not having a working refrigerator in his fifth floor brownstone co-op – and figured going out to San Francisco and whipping on a couple of fellow faggots to win the gold medal would be a pretty cool vacation.

He did not win the gold, he took bronze. What he won was infinitely more valuable, and he has been paying back that favor ever since.

Years ago in Winston Leyland’s book, Out in the Castro: Desire, Promise, Activism, Dermody wrote of his eye-opening, soul-wrenching See page 54 >>

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<< Pride 2014

52 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

<<

Pride

From page 29

include dance diva Debby Holiday and San Francisco natives The She’s.

Each year, numerous community groups have a presence at the Pride festival to help people learn about services and to provide space for them to connect with others.

Larkin Street Youth Services will have a Queer Youth Space where people under 24 can ask about getting assistance with emergency shelter, health care, education, employment, and other needs. Free, rapid, and confidential HIV testing and counseling will also be available.

But Jamie Fountain, Larkin Street’s associate director for workforce development, hopes people will also have fun.

Asked what he’d like people to walk away with, Fountain said, “Having a good time at Pride. That’s really what I’m hoping they walk away with.”

The youth space will go from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Civic Center Plaza, in front of the elevators that

lead to the underground parking on McAllister Street.

Asian and Pacific Islander community groups will be represented at the API pavilion and stage Sunday. HIV testing and screening for hepatitis B and C will be offered, among other services.

Organizer Nikki Calma, who’s also known as Tita Aida, said she wants people to come away with “being part of the entire celebration and having a sense of their own cultural independence” as Asian and Pacific Islander LGBTs. Non-APIs are “absolutely” welcome, she said.

The pavilion will be available from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday on Polk Street between Eddy Street and Golden Gate Avenue.

The stage, which will feature entertainers including the Rice Rockettes, will run from noon to 6:30 p.m. at Polk and Golden Gate.

Controversies

It seems like there is controversy surrounding nearly every Pride event and this year is no exception.

In May, Trevor Gardner, who was

shot at last year’s Pride fesfordable housing is steadfast.” tival, filed a lawsuit against Additionally, some people the Pride Committee in San criticized the Pride CommitFrancisco Superior Court, tee’s recent announcement claiming organizers neglected that Airbnb, the Internetto provide adequate security. based lodging sharing comRidgely, who became pany whose name is often asPride’s executive director in sociated with San Francisco’s January and will be overseeeviction controversy, had ing his first parade and fesjoined the parade and celtival, previously helped run ebration as a major sponsor large outdoor events such as at the $100,000 level. the Bay to Breakers foot race Marriage and the Castro Street Fair. He This year’s Pride parade and declined to comment specificelebration come just a year cally on the lawsuit. after the U.S. Supreme Court “We have been looking at Jane Philomen Cleland reversed California’s Proposithe security plan,” Ridgely said, echoing comments he made to Fredrick Jones, left, and Mike Samaro had fun tion 8 same-sex marriage ban and gutted the Defense of the Bay Area Reporter earlier at last year’s Pride parade.

Marriage Act, which banned this year. “One of the things I’ve federal recognition of samebeen looking most closely at is of a recent surge in Ellis Act evicsex marriages. working with the San Francisco tions in San Francisco.

The victories brought a sense Police Department on their plans, as The Ellis Act, a state law, has parof jubilation to last year’s Pride. In well as our internal security plans.” ticularly hard hit LGBT strongholds recent years, Pride officials have People attending the festival will like the Castro and Latino enclaves estimated attendance at a million not be not patted down or have their such as the Mission. The law allows people or more, although precise bags checked. Ridgely said there landlords to evict tenants in order figures are impossible to determine. wouldn’t be changes as people enter to get out of the rental business. SB “I sort of feel like last year helped the celebration.

1439 would require San Francisco to set a new bar for us,” said Ridgely, However, he said, “We are lookproperty owners to own their buildand although attendance is hard to ing at increasing our private secuings for at least five years before they predict, “I actually expect attendance rity, and we’ve been working with could invoke the Ellis Act. to be close” to what it was in 2013. the police on their deployment By a 3-4 vote, the bill recently failed The city controller’s office is explans overall” to see how much staff in the Assembly Housing and Compected to develop an economic they’ll have at the event. munity Development Committee. It impact study of Pride and other However, he said, “We are lookwas granted reconsideration, but givoutdoor events, Ridgely said. Some ing at increasing our private secuen legislative deadlines, it’s unlikely to have complained that despite the rity, and we’ve been working with get another hearing in the committee benefits the parade and celebration the police on their deployment in time to progress this year. bring to the city, the committee gets plans overall” to see how much staff Basinger said lesbian Assembly little financial assistance in return. they’ll have at the event.

Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) Volunteers will be out with Police spokesman Officer Albie “did not exercise her leadership to “short” surveys Saturday and SunEsparza said the department would secure the votes, so her reputation day, and Ridgely encourages people have “a significant increase in vishas quickly been spoiled and I think to complete them. ibility,” with additional patrols bethat we all should contact her office This year’s Pride budget is $1.8 ginning Friday, June 27 and going and voice our displeasure.” million. Sponsorships are expected through Sunday night, June 29 in In comments emailed to the to exceed $800,000. Ridgely said the Castro, Civic Center, and MarB.A.R., Will Shuck, a spokesman most of the funds have come in. ket Street areas. for Atkins, said, “The speaker lets The unofficial Pink Saturday Esparza, who declined to say the committee process work and street party, organized by the Sisters exactly how many additional offirespects the votes of the committee. of Perpetual Indulgence, takes place cers would be on hand, said police She would have supported the bill if Saturday, June 28 from 5 to 10:30 have “increased patrols and staffing given the opportunity to vote on it.” p.m. in the Castro. The event will for all specialized events” since last Leno said in a statement, “Speaker include DJs and food trucks. No alApril’s Boston Marathon bombings, Atkins and I did our very best before cohol will be allowed. which killed three people and ina less than tenant friendly commitFor more information, visit www. jured scores more. tee. I know her commitment to afsfpride.org.t The lack of affordable housing in the city has drawn much attention over the last year, including protests and legislation, and the issue has also come up in discussions around Pride.

As it has numerous times in past years, AIDS Housing Alliance-San Francisco will be one of the nonprofits participating as a community partner this year. The group will have a beer booth at the festival Sunday.

Brian Basinger, the housing alliance’s director, said that this year he’ll join the parade contingent of grand marshal Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a queer activist and housing advocate.

Among the other issues Basinger, who was a grand marshal nominee this year, wants to bring attention to Jane Philomen Cleland is state Ellis Act legislation. Gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San FranA marcher celebrated the demise of Proposition 8, California’s cisco) authored Senate Bill 1439 to same-sex marriage ban, at last year’s parade. help mitigate the negative impacts

<<

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World War II

From page 42

support the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park LGBT history project and exhibit in 2015, said Marsha MatherThrift, executive director of the trust.

“These are probably some of the most incredible stories from the home front and one of the most stories kept in the dark,” said MatherThrift, a 67-year-old ally, who hopes that the exhibit will travel to other places. “We are committed to the entire diversity of the home front.”

Graves said the project is righting a wrong.

“That for LGBTQ people to have been written out of history and written out of society in many ways – to have been so invisible for so long – is a painful and tragic piece of our cultural history,” said Graves,

a 58-year-old ally, adding that the exhibit “feels like one small piece of the larger effort to achieve equal rights for people who have been marginalized.”

Cade agreed, adding that the new collection is for the LGBT community and anyone else who is interested.

“It’s our history. It’s for us. It’s for the LGBT community to know about people who came before for us, but it’s also for the general public to know that this whole LGBT thing didn’t just happen in the 1970s and it’s to get the nitty-gritty detail that makes it all human,” said Cade, who appreciated Hickok’s stories about how physically hard the labor was rather than hearing the “romanticized” versions of women’s liberation.t The Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park is

searching for LGBTs who served and/or were Rosies during World War II to share their stories or any stories people may have about LGBT civilians during WWII for a traveling exhibit in 2015. For more information, call the confidential phone line at 510-232-5050, ext.

6631, email sflgbthistory@gmail. com or visit http://www.nps.gov/ rori/planyourvisit/seeking-lgbtstories-from-wwii-home-front.htm.

The Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park, 1414 Harbour Way South, #3000, Richmond, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on select national holidays. For more information, visit www.nps. gov/rori/Index.htm. Entrance to the museum is free.

To support the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park’s LGBT Project, visit the Rosie the Riveter Trust at www.rosietheriveter.org.

t <<

Pride 2014>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 53

Out service members

were barred from doing so this year, explained a base public affairs sergeant, because current policy prohibits service members from taking part in a private organization’s event while wearing their uniforms unless it is to celebrate a federal holiday.

Thus, LGBT Alliance members participating in the San Francisco AIDS Walk next month will do so out of uniform. If they were to march in San Francisco’s Veteran’s Day Parade this November, however, they could do so in uniform since it is a nationally recognized day of remembrance.

Earlier in June the LGBT Alliance participated in Sacramento’s Pride, where the group had a booth. It had planned to also man a booth at San Francisco’s Pride festival this weekend but did not apply due to the board of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee voting to ban military recruiters from the festival grounds.

The policy does not bar active military groups from marching in the parade. But the LGBT Alliance did not apply to be a parade contingent at any local Pride events this year.

Several alliance members told the B.A.R. they would like to someday march in a city’s Pride parade in uniform.

“I would like to march in San Francisco’s Pride parade, that would be groundbreaking,” said Summers, who attended last year’s event as a private citizen.t

From page 29

“This is a moment that just blows me away,” said Douglas as he marched down the base’s main boulevard. “It’s been hard coming.”

Since the demise of the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 2011, which opened the door for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members to serve openly in the armed forces, out service members have increasingly been showing off their Pride. (Pentagon policy still bans transgender people from serving openly in the military.)

That same year, San Diego’s Pride parade in July was the first to welcome a contingent of out service members, although they were out of uniform and it was a few months before the official repeal took effect September 20, 2011. Since then members of California’s Army National Guard and the California State Military Reserve have participated at several of the state’s Pride events, including marching in the Los Angeles Pride parade last year and staffing an informational booth at Pride festivals in San Francisco and Sacramento.

“I think because of the fact DADT is gone and we can serve openly now, most of us are proud of our uniforms,” said Debra Liles, 52, who is lesbian and retired from the Air Force in 2012 as the chief of enlisted professional military education at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Last fall a number of LGB airmen at Travis decided to found an LGBT Alliance at their base. This February they gained formal recognition as a private group, and due to the Department of Defense declaring June as Pride Month, won approval from the base leadership to hold the Pride Walk last week.

“Today is about instilling a sense of pride in our airmen, pride in our families, and pride in being in the U.S. Air Force,” said Captain Robert MacArthur, 30, who is gay and president of the LGBT Alliance, in his welcoming remarks. “It is about having Pride in being who we are.”

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, which was one of three media outlets invited to cover the inaugural Pride Walk, Senior Airman Ashleigh Summers, 24, who is bisexual, said she felt “ecstatic” and “emotional” as she marched at the head of the walk holding the LGBT Alliance’s banner that read “Come As You Are.” Having joined the Air Force prior to the repeal of DADT, “I didn’t think I would ever be marching down the street of Travis Air Force Base waving rainbow flags,” said Summers, the LGBT Alliance’s treasurer.

Helping to carry the banner was Jasmine Sanders, 25, a lesbian and Airman First Class, who is married to fellow airman first class Joyce Spalding, 23.

“I was just overwhelmed,” said Sanders, the LGBT Alliance’s education awareness chair.

More work to do

Despite pulling off the walk and an after party that attracted more than 200 people, alliance members said there is more work to be done to ensure out service members are welcomed on base.

“I spent 30 years in the Air Force.

I never imagined our Air Fore would come as far as we have on this issue,” said Liles, who serves as the LGBT Alliance’s senior adviser and lives on base with her fiancee. “But make no mistake. We are no where near where we need to be on acceptance.”

MacArthur, a dental officer who will be transferring to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska in August, told the B.A.R. there are a variety of issues out service members continue to deal with post DADT, from hearing anti-gay slurs on base to not being promoted due

Jane Philomen Cleland

Airman First Class Jasmine Sanders, left, and Senior Airman Ashleigh Summers talked about the significance of last week’s Pride Walk at Travis Air Force Base.

to their sexual orientation.

A group like the LGBT Alliance is needed on base, said MacArthur, because “there is discrimination still.”

Without the group serving as a voice for its members, he added, “the leadership isn’t going to know the pulse of LGBT service members on base.”

The alliance has 50 active members, the majority of whom are LGBT. It is open to anyone, civilian or military, stationed at Travis. A

few members are in the closet, and one of its youngest members is a 13-year-old transgender boy whose parents are in the military.

“In our age group or rank, a lot of people didn’t experience a lot of the pain of DADT. So we are in the military and grew up thinking it is okay to be who you are,” said Sanders. “At military installations and bases we should be allowed to be who we are.”

Service members at other mili-

tary installations interested in forming their own LGBT affinity groups have contacted the alliance at Travis for guidance.

“We are setting the precedent for all the other LGBT Alliance private organizations that come after us, so we have to fight that fight for everybody else,” said Summers.

One issue the group likely will press is being able to march in next year’s Pride Walk in uniform. They

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54 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

<<

Castro tour

From page 33

“We want to make sure that all LGBTQ animal guardians and veterinary professionals are treated with this same respect across the nation,” Hazanow told the Bay Area Reporter. “There are now so many clubs, groups, and organizations within the universities that our students can do just about anything in terms of veterinarian-related social work, while being pretty empowered to become leaders.”

At the end of the tour, Gorczyca read a few obituary clippings to remember LGBT veterinarians from

<<

News Briefs

From page 37

used by the Nazis in concentration camps to identify and shame homosexuals. The symbol has since been embraced by the gay community as a symbol of pride.

For more information, including detailed directions to the site, visit www.thepinktriangle.com.

<<

Damron

From page 46

chose to stay independent. It’s been a nice life,” said Gatta, who caught her own wave taking Damron online.

The traveling times

The move allowed her to update listings quickly and keep up with the rapidly changing LGBT community.

There are two part-time staff and six freelancers who update the listings and provide content. She prides herself on offering Damron’s 15,000 paid subscribers accurate and high quality information.

To keep pace with technology she added Damron’s mobile apps Gurl Scout and Gay Scout.

Sure, there are many websites out there that provide the similar listings, but they aren’t as well main-

<<

Jock Talk

From page 50

experience at that first Gay Games, “It is hard after these 20 years, being so jaded, to convey the absolute feeling of liberation and joy I felt that day at Kezar Stadium. I have never experienced that level of exhilaration since ... I was handed one of the New York City flags to lead Team NY’s athletes. We heard the ‘Olympic Theme.’ A warm sun ominously exploded out from behind the clouds, as if on queue, to announce the entry of gods into Valhalla. I vividly remember Tina Turner singing on stage, and my crying profusely for no apparent reason. I had finally come ‘home’ after a very long exile.”

In the decades since, Dermody has volunteered in the FGG as its president, technical officer, sports officer, and liaison with host committees. He took over the presidency of Golden Gate Wrestling Club after founder Don Jung’s death in 1986, then set the wheels in motion to found the international LGBT wrestling organization WWB. He was a founding member of Team San Francisco and has served as its delegate to the FGG in recent years.

His key contributions have included recruiting and mentoring skilled technical volunteers to the FGG, bringing tech savvy to the organization, codifying the regulation of Gay Games sports through Red Books to guide the hosts, and helping to develop HIV-sensitive drug-testing policies.

In 2006, he spent two weeks of his vacation time in advance of Gay Games VII to develop the highly complex software programs that would allow for the loading of registration information into the swimming tournament electronic scoring

the Castro community. He mentioned William R. Gunn, DVM, who “ended his two-year battle with AIDS on August 22 (1989).” According to the September 1989 obituary published in the B.A.R., Gunn was co-owner of the Westborough Pet Hospital in South San Francisco, and “he devoted himself to the care and well-being of a large and varied population of companion animals.”

Gorczyca also remembered Dr. John Mitchell Lowson, who died in San Francisco November 16, 1987 of lymphoma. “He founded Animal Friends Clinic on Castro Street in the early 1970s, and later conducted a private veterinary practice, one of the

first to offer care for animals in their own homes,” according to the listing.

The “Castro: Tales of the Village” walking tour was hosted by City Guides, a nonprofit organization sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library to conduct free history and architectural walking tours in San Francisco.

LGVMA celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013. The organization has nearly 200 members, and veterinary medical students maintain chapters and clubs at most North American veterinary colleges, reflecting a new generation of LGBT people and allies.

For more information on LGVMA, visit www.lgvma.org.t

Next up, Castro Valley Pride

Bradford said that the high school’s parking lot will be transformed into a fun-filled afternoon with food, games, booths, performers, and speakers.

The family-friendly event is especially geared toward queer youth.

To volunteer or for more information, send a message through the group’s Facebook page at “Castro Valley Pride 2014” or email castrovalleypride@gmail.com.t

Once San Francisco Pride festivities have concluded, organizers in the East Bay city of Castro Valley will be gearing up for their own Pride event.

Organizer Billy Bradford said that Castro Valley Pride will be held Saturday, July 12 from noon to 5 p.m. at Castro Valley High School, 19400 Santa Maria. tained as Damron’s, Gatta argues.

“I pride myself that our content is the best,” said Gatta, pointing out that anyone can look up gay bars in a location and find several websites, but “90 percent of them are going to be inaccurate. So, I really do pride myself by the fact that my website is updated weekly. I’m constantly updating the content.”

That fresh content leads to more people subscribing to Damron. Additionally, there is still a generation of men and women and parts of the world that prefer books over tablets and smartphones, she said.

In recent years Gatta’s scaled back publishing as printing costs increased and print readership decreased. She’s powered up Damron’s website by adding listings that are only available online and through the associated apps.

A limited number of guides are program. As Rob Smitherman, chief sports officer for the hosts of Gay Games VII, VIII and 9, wrote in his endorsement letter, “Without the computer expertise and the incredible amount of time that Gene spent, on a volunteer basis without any pay or recognition, the seven-day swimming event would have been full of delays and frustration, both to the participants and to those running the event.”

But all of those are details to put on a resume; they don’t really capture the essence of the man, of the exasperation of working with his highly functional autism that helps him immensely with his computer coding but that often leaves him and those around him battle weary when it comes to dealing with committees and meetings, inefficiency and political correctness, and all other things he dismissively files under the heading of “Kumbaya.”

So this week I asked him again about why it was so easy for him to express anger.

“It’s Napoleonic,” he said. “It’s easier to be gay than to be short.

When I am ignored, I explode.

People are usually then compelled to revisit the message instead of dismissing the messenger.”

Then I asked why it was so hard for him to open up about all of the other emotions I had come to see in him in more vulnerable moments over the past decade. I mean, you don’t dedicate yourself to a movement like the Gay Games out of anger; you do it out of love and passion. Specifically, I asked him why he had tried so hard to get me to drop out of wrestling when I joined GGWC after my dual hip replacement surgery.

Which, inevitably, brought us to the subject of HIV and AIDS, a sub-

published every 18 months rather than annually.

“My task is to stay relevant after 50. That’s the stress I face every day,” said Gatta, who doesn’t know what the future of gay travel will look like.

She thought it might be in offering travel agency services and tours, but her attempts to open up Damron Travel haven’t flown yet.

Plans in 2008 fizzled because of the recession. Another effort earlier this year didn’t get off the ground. She hasn’t given up, however, and feels that certain types of tours are a valuable next step for Damron. She’s still looking for that perfect travel buddy, she said.

No matter what happens in the future of LGBT travel, Gatta’s got her eye on the next 50 years.t For more information, visit http:// damron.com.

ject which has been inextricably intertwined with the Gay Games since the death of so many of its earliest supporters and the inspiration it has provided thousands since through karmic synchronicity.

“I’ve lost so many,” he said quietly. Indeed: his apartment walls are adorned not just with posters of Turkish oil wrestlers and his conservative political icons; but also of deceased lovers, many of whose token possessions are stored in boxes throughout his home. “I have to compartmentalize all of that stuff if I’m going to function. It’s just too much to deal with all of the time. It takes me time to be able to open those doors.”

The fact is, he does open the doors when needed, and he even lets crippled wrestlers like me in, even though he knows the pain they will suffer will hurt him even more than it hurts them. So that was what the Gay Games gave him: the means and the avenue to accept the adversity suffered by others.

And what would he be doing now if he hadn’t taken that trip to Baghdad by the Bay back in 1982?

“I’d probably be dead,” he said.

“I would have stayed a teacher and I would have had a much more boring life. I would not have traveled to all of the great places I’ve been or met all of the incredible people I’ve met.”

That’s the kind of experience Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell had in mind when he set the wheels in motion for the quadrennial event. Fitting then, the award named in his honor will be lifted in August by one who so perfectly captures that vision. I can hear the music playing now. Tina Turner won’t be singing, but I know I’ll be crying, for no apparent reason.

Kumbaya, baby.t

t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035867100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035878800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DANIEL DESIGNS, 3626 GEARY BLVD #202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THANH D. VONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/02/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/02/2014.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WAGATHON, 2741 CLAY ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HELENA ZILBERSTEIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/09/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/09/14.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035856200

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035870500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE ENVIRONMENTAL, 1980 SUTTER ST #217, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NANCY LEE CRANE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/1994. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/2014.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELEVATE ENSEMBLE, 1374A FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHAD TYLER GOODMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/04/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/04/14.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035863800

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035870400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY AREA STRENGTH AND NUTRITION, 150 LOMBARD ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREW BABKES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/12/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/30/2014.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035858400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MICHAEL JONES ARCHITECTURE, 326 EUREKA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL J. JONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/28/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/2014.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035861200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CITIZEN FOX, 2205 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SMARTHUNGRY 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 05/29/2014.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035837100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RICHMOND REPUBLIC, 642 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AED LOCAL, 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 05/14/2014.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035838500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION BRASSERIE, 2146 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BONNE CHANCE HOSPITALITY 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 05/15/2014

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034554900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: AMERICAN TRUTH COMMISSION LLC, 2141 FILBERT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by AMERICAN TRUTH COMMISSION LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/2012.

JUN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035880100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE BARE FOX, 1275 COLUMBUS AVE # K, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAMAR YACOUBIAN. 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 06/04/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035832800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIQUID HAPPINESS BARTENDING SERVICE, 735 DARTMOUTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134-1809. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JERREMI D. CLARK & CAMILLE A. FISHER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/12/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035876200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELT-PRO, INC., 355 28TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ELTPRO, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/06/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035870800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: URCHIN, 584 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LDHS, 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 06/04/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035340000 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: YUMMY HUT, 4543 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by SIMEI CHEN & XIN QUAN HE. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/30/13.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035890900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RPROAUTO, 2831 CESAR CHAVEZ, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ENER DERYA. 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 06/13/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035888900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOGGY PIXEL, 2019 20TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICOLAY POSTARNAKEVICH. 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 06/09/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEWER RESCUE, 790 PACHECO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KIMMY CHUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/12/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/12/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035883000

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035892800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHEBA INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND TRANSLATION CENTER, 1700 CALIFORNIA ST #475, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ISMAEL MANSOOR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/10/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALTHY BEGINNINGS PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH IFEYINWA NZEREM, 538 HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IFEYINWA NZEREM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035876500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COUNTY ROAD ASSOCIATES, 1412 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109.

This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MARILYN WOLPER; ROLAND LAMPERT; MALKAH W. CAROTHERS; JULIE WOLPER BRENNER; ANDREA WOLPER; EDWARD FERNANDEZ; SUSAN FERNANDEZ; SAMUEL W. FERNANDEZ; & GORDON T. FERNANDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/06/14.

JUNE 12, 19, 26, JULY 03, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035889100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAZU MEDICINE, 1604 #B UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LOU FRISELDELYN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035881800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRANCISCO DRY CLEANER, 420 FRANCISCO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SANDY L. ZHAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/10/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035866300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BEEP’S BURGERS, 1051 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAMANTHA YEN WONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/02/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035849300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PERFECT HEALTH CENTER, 2443 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIEN LIN CHOU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035881400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RK DESIGN, 207 GIRARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAI RUDOLPH. 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 06/10/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035892700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ILASH EXTENSION, 3715 ATLAS AVE, OAKLAND, CA 94619. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed X XIULAN TANG. 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 06/16/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035877200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CB2, 34 ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EUROMARKET DESIGNS INC (IL). 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 06/06/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 55

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035877100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRATE & BARREL, 55 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EUROMARKET DESIGNS INC (IL). 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 06/06/14.

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JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035880900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NATOMA CABANA, 90 NATOMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ALCYONE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/10/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/14.

JUNE 19, 26, JULY 03, 10, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035894100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRACTICE NATURE, 1816 BRODERICK ST #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DONNA PLUNKETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/14.

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JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035865800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS TO BUSINESS, 1440 GOLDEN GATE AVE #103, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARA ELIZABETH GILMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/30/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035893500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PHOENIX ARTS ENTERTAINMENT, 315 GARFIELD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL TURNER JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035904400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WISCONSIN STREET DINING SERVICES, 5 GALILEE LANE #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM L. BOGDANOFF. 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 06/23/14.

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JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035900100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TEXT-O-MAT, 2899 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KENNETH WONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/05/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/19/14.

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01_12374 9.75x16 4c

A single moment can change everything.

A simple ceremony. An approved adoption. A plan for retirement.

These personal victories have a huge impact on our collective community. Each step toward equality, every milestone reached, is a big leap forward for all of us. However, we know there is still work to do. That’s why Wells Fargo teams up with HRC, GLSEN, NGLCC, and other organizations to provide resources and financial guidance to LGBT communities. And as the first to offer financial advisors with the Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor designation, we are well versed on current laws to help you develop a solid plan for the future. Together, we move forward. Step by step, with individuals, in communities — we can make what once seemed impossible a reality. wellsfargo.com/lgbt

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Frameline docs

75

Nancy man

66

Out &About

65

O&A

60

The

Vol. 44 • No. 26 • June 26-July 2, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Frameline’s grand finales

by David Lamble

F

rameline 38, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival’s four final nights are unusually rich, with a line-up including several possible future queer classics.

See page 72 >>

Scene from director Axel Ranisch’s I Feel Like Disco.

Frameline

Provocative beauty

Portrait (Futago) (1988)

by Yasumasa Morimura.

Chromogenic print with acrylic paint and gel medium. Collection SFMOMA, Gift of Vicki and Kent Logan.

by Sura Wood

D

esigned to bewitch the eye and pique curiosity, Gorgeous, a new collaborative venture between the Asian Art Museum and SFMOMA, succeeds on both counts. But the exhibition, like many of SFMOMA’s recent partnerings with local venues, is a hodge-podge characterized by a mania for categories, and spectacular works of art in search of a premise. With Gorgeous, a subjective, elusive term that implies much but can mean just about anything to anyone, the museums have landed on an expansive idea that’s both tantalizing and loosey-goosey.

See page 70 >>

{ THIRD OF FOUR SECTIONS }

Courtesy the artist

<< Out There

58 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Vanquishing Prop 8 & hate

by Roberto Friedman

I

t’s the High Holy Days for LGBT folks in San Francisco this week, and Out There is feeling that old-time religion! The gayest of gay weeks began for us last Thursday night at the Castro Theatre, which was opening night of Frameline 38, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. Directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White were in the house for the screening of The Case Against 8, their chronicle of the five-year battle that toppled the California electorate’s odious and happily now-defunct Proposition 8.

Also attending the glamorous opening night were the four plaintiffs of the case, Kris Perry, Sandy Stier, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, and they were greeted with sustained, heartfelt ovations as they took the Castro stage along with the directors for a post-film Q&A. Other luminar-

ies in the audience included Judge Vaughn Walker and Hollywood macher/LGBT ally Rob Reiner. It was an unusually compelling opening-night film that really brought the community together, as the subject matter attracted marriage equality activists, politicos, cabletelevision types, as well as the typical Frameline audience of filmies and their admirers. Frameline announced the selection of its new executive director, Frances Wallace, who had been acting executive director since the spring. Wallace took the stage as a vision in hot pink.

We chatted with filmmakers and other festival types at the Frameline afterparty that was held at Terra Gallery. The night being unusually temperate for San Francisco, half of the party attendees were chilling in the gallery’s outdoor space.

The next night, the Pride bandwagon rolled on, as OT & Pepi at-

Britten ovations

by Philip Campbell

S

an Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas is concluding the 2013-14 season with three weeks of concerts celebrating the centenary of British gay genius composer Benjamin Britten. Mini-festivals are an MTT trademark, and the confluence of Britten’s birthday with the end of a particularly satisfying subscription season and Pride Week is offering a special treat for local music-lovers.

We have already enjoyed the first concert week, which included selections from Britten’s glittering Prince of the Pagodas ballet score and a spe-

cial appearance by the Balinese performing arts group Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Smart programming started the impressive evening with authentic gamelan performance, and ended it with Britten’s beautiful synthesis of East and West with the enchanting sounds of Balinese music embedded in a symphony orchestra.

Sandwiched in-between was a less obvious selection, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Opus 63. As expertly essayed by Gil Shaham, it proved an astringent palette-cleanser and more proof that MTT is especially sympathetic to the composer’s tart harmonies, unique motoric rhythms and often

tended Mark Rhoades’ 7th annual Pride Kick-Off Party in the Pavilion Room & Garden Court of the Fairmont Hotel. Again, much of the action was outside in the garden, although the pavilion also enticed with its glamour. As always, Rhoades’ affair was a suave cocktail-party scene full of handsome revelers. We chatted with several fascinating partygoers, then made our way to Civic Center for the opening party of Gorgeous at the Asian Art Museum. The combination of icons of modern art from the SFMOMA collection with artifacts of world art from the AAM collection made for provocative and stimulating juxtapositions. Kind of like our life during Pride Week.

t

Steven Underhill

The Case Against 8 plaintiffs Jeff Zarrillo, Paul Katami, Sandy Stier, and Kris Perry at Frameline 38’s opening night in the Castro Theatre.

This week, arts writer Tavo Amador profiles openly gay Hollywood Studio-era director George Cukor, and recommends a few of his best films. As the gay icing on the fruitcake, here’s an amusing anecdote from Cukor’s life and times. Reportedly, on the

first day of rehearsals for The Women, Cukor gathered stars Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, and Joan Fontaine on the set, and warned, “Pull in your claws, girls.

We’ve got a movie to make.”

His admonition did not work.

Crawford clanked her knitting needles during Shearer’s close-ups. Shearer kept insisting that Crawford have plainer gowns. Russell started calling in sick until she got over-the-title billing. Girls will apparently be girls.

And our favorite newspaper correction of the summer so far came from the Sports section of The New York Times. “An article in some editions on Thursday about the respect Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury has earned from his rivals quoted incorrectly in some copies from comments by Lloyd McClendon, the manager of the Seattle Mariners. In praising Ellsbury, he said, ‘He’s what you would call a dirt rag,’ not a ‘dirtbag.’” High praise indeed!

Play ball!t

surprisingly lush lyricism. We could have enjoyed Britten’s own essay in the genre, but I would never pass on a chance to hear MTT or Shaham in Prokofiev, and the full house obviously agreed, with a hearty ovation.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya is a Bay Area ensemble, and their appearance at Davies Symphony Hall could easily have gone on longer. Their joyous clangor demonstrated why so many Western composers have been influenced by the tradition they carry on, but this was a Britten celebration after all, and Prince of the Pagodas was a perfect finale.

At this writing we look forward to the second week of Britten concerts

featuring the composer’s evocative Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, with tenor Toby Spence and SF Symphony Principal Horn Robert Ward. We will report back, and also cover the third week of the concerts, finishing in a semi-staged production of Britten’s masterpiece opera, Peter Grimes. The performances are the first SFS presentation of the complete work. Tenor Stuart Skelton is on hand to give his internationally noted interpretation.

Peter Grimes made Benjamin Britten’s reputation, with his lover and life-long muse Peter Pears in the title role. Concluding the SFS season and the celebration of the composer’s

Composer Benjamin Britten.

Human behavior

Courtesy Royal Mail

centenary with this deep and haunting story of a complicated soul and archetypal outsider seems particularly fitting as both a festival offering and a grateful recognition of the composer’s enduring importance and uncompromising integrity.t

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<< Music

60 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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Extraordinary ‘Butterfly’

by Philip Campbell

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THE RICHMOND/ERMET AIDS FOUNDATION PRESENTS

featuring company members from the touring cast of the Tony Award winning show

Plus special guests DAVID BURNHAM, SHARON McNIGHT & SPENCER DAY

M O N D AY, J U N E 3 0 , 7 : 3 0 P M CLUB FUGAZI Tickets: Call Beach Blanket Babylon

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he San Francisco Opera’s new production of Madama Butterfly opened recently as the third and final offering of the summer season – ironically enough, on Father’s Day. The matinee performance of Puccini’s classic story of a mother’s sacrifice marked the third time in eight years that SFO and Bay Area favorite Patricia Racette has appeared as Cio-Cio-San on the War Memorial stage. It also celebrated the unassuming diva’s remarkable 24-year association with the company.

The mutual admiration society is the result of a career based on commitment, versatility and almost unbelievable stamina. Known for her utter immersion in character, she also possesses a voice that is well-suited to Puccini’s unforgettable heroines. Another endearing quality that may or may not affect the American soprano’s vocal performance is her unhidden sexuality and the happy openness of her marriage to mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton. I think such truthfulness almost certainly contributes to her authenticity onstage.

The gleaming ease of Racette’s young vocal register has inevitably become less rich, but the increasing vibrato some complain of is not all that troubling as yet, especially when her still-powerful instrument is backed by such extraordinary acting skills.

SFO has framed Racette’s latest portrayal of Butterfly with a production first seen at Opera Omaha featuring designs by Japanese sculptor and painter Jun Kaneko. His highly kinetic and often whimsical settings and costumes were first seen here in the acclaimed Mozart Magic Flute a few seasons back, and there has been more than a little buzz generated by his latest excursion into the world of opera. For Puccini’s tragedy, Kaneko has toned down the eccentricity and added vast swathes of color as backdrop to a simpler (though still eye-catching) visual design. The concept works well with director Leslie Swackhamer’s unfussy approach to the story-telling.

Her company debut displays insight and restraint that allow the singers subtle expressivity without losing any dramatic credibility.

Luckily, SFO Music Director Nicola Luisotti is on the podium to set the seal on a presentation that carries the audience inexorably to the shattering final curtain. The maestro has this music in his blood, and his occasional tendency to dawdle with other scores is perceived here as more a loving caress, especially in the beautiful Act II orchestral interlude.

The rest of the cast is virtually ideal. As the insensitive (that’s putting it mildly) Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, Brian Jagde never goes far beyond his initial impression as a loutish cad, but his bearish physicality and handsome face make him at least a little bit more understandable. Jagde’s ringing voice pairs well

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly.

in the magnificent love duet ending Act I, and he is eminently believable when he turns coward late in Act II. Tenor Julius Ahn (SFO debut) is by turns slimy and amusing as the disgraceful marriage-broker Goro, and Morris Robinson, taking a break from his role as Joe in the summer season’s Show Boat, makes another big impression as the Bonze. His chilling condemnation of Cio-Cio-San’s denial of her religion for Pinkerton’s faith is downright scary.

The important supporting roles are realized beautifully by baritone Brian Mulligan as a kindhearted and intelligent Sharpless, and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, portraying Butterfly’s maid Suzuki as more concerned friend than mature and skeptical servant.

Jacqueline Piccolino (SFO debut and current Adler Fellow) is Pinkerton’s American wife Kate, and she handles her assignment with quiet confidence. Baritone Efrain Solis (SFO debut and current Adler Fellow) also makes his mark as Prince Yamadori, a rich suitor offered to Butterfly by Goro as an alternative to her unthinkingly heartless American husband.

I find it hard to believe this was my first experience of Patricia Racette’s Butterfly onstage. I have seen her astonishing performance on DVD in the legendary Met production directed by the late Anthony Minghella, but nothing could have prepared me for the impact of seeing her live in a part she has so thoroughly come to own. Watching her from the very beginning, when she appears as a shy and impossibly naïve 15-year-old, through her touching journey to a horrific end, there is never much need to suspend disbelief. Racette is Madame Pinkerton (as she so piteously maintains), and when she finally realizes the enormity of her fate, I defy anyone with a heart to remain unmoved. There was some audible sobbing in the War Memorial, and I confess to choking back a few tears myself.

We were witness to the performance of a lifetime. The spontaneous and prolonged standing ovation that followed expressed not only genuine appreciation, but also provided a very welcome opportunity for a sort of group hug.t Madama Butterfly continues through Wed., July 9.

Fundi’s

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Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Brian Mulligan (Sharpless) and Brian Jagde (Pinkerton) in Madama Butterfly.

HAPPY PRIDE FROM THE SAN FR ANCISCO SYMPHONY!

CHEYENNE JACKSON GOES TO THE MOVIES **

with special guest appearances by Faith Prince and Courtney Act JULY 24–25 7:30PM

The multi-talented actor, singer, and songwriter Cheyenne Jackson returns to lead the audience on a walk down cinematic memory lane as he sings tunes from classic American films, including “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, “Luck Be A Lady” from Guys and Dolls, and more. Plus, the San Francisco Symphony performs famous overtures from Gypsy and Funny Girl, the music you know from the films you love.

New album release!

West Side Story with Cheyenne Jackson sfsymphony.org/westsidestory M E D I A PA R T N E R

FAITH PRINCE Tony Award-winning musical actress, star of Guys and Dolls

COURTNEY ACT RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist A “sensation.”— B E T TE M I D L E R

MELISSA ETHERIDGE with the SFS

JULY 30–31 7:30PM Congratulations to Melissa Etheridge, who just tied the knot with her longtime partner! Etheridge will join the San Francisco Symphony to perform new orchestral arrangements of her many hit songs.

GREASE SING-ALONG! + with host Didi Conn, ‘Frenchy’ from the original film JULY 20 7:30PM

M E D I A PA R T N E R

Sing along with props, dancing, a costume contest, and plenty of surprises.

M E D I A PA R T N E R

PINK MARTINI

ARRIVAL: THE MUSIC OF ABBA

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AND MORE!

SFSYMPHONY.ORG/SUMMER (415) 864-6000 LEAD SPONSOR

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Concerts at Davies Symphony Hall. Programs, artists, and prices subject to change. * Subject to availability. † The San Francisco Symphony does not appear on this concert. **Please note: no film clips will be shown during this concert.

Box Office Hours Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat noon–6pm, Sun 2 hours prior to concerts Walk Up Grove Street between Van Ness and Franklin

<< Theatre

62 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

After ‘happily ever after’

by Richard Dodds

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airy tales do come true, and they can happen to you when Disney has your art. Just as the last major Bay Area production of Into the Woods opens before the December release of Disney’s screen adaptation, Stephen Sondheim let drop a few facts about how he and librettist James Lapine sanded off some of the rougher edges in the material for big-screen consumption.

Sondheim was unlikely to expect to ignite a blog fest after a recent give-and-take luncheon with drama teachers at Sardi’s, as reported in The New Yorker, but such is the intensity in the world of Sondheim that all words count. At one point, a middle-school teacher was worrying about his notion to replace the suddenly suppressed Thoroughly Modern Millie (Asian stereotypes) with Into the Woods. “And what do they object to?” Sondheim asked. “Death? Because kids love blood. With Sweeney Todd, I used to go up the aisles in the second act, and the grownups were 2pub-BBB_BAR_062614.pdf horrified but the kids were loving it.

So what is the objection?”

1

The teacher replied that the Big Bad Wolf in Into the Woods came across as “lascivious,” and his relationship with Little Red Riding Hood read as somewhat sexual. “Well, you’ll be happy to know,” Sondheim replied, “that Disney had the same objections.”

In the stage version of the musical, opening June 28 at San Francisco Playhouse, the lives of an assortment of fairytale characters intersect as the first-act ends with happily-ever-after expectations. But the second half brings on catastrophic ramifications to the characters’ self-serving actions, and while avoiding specific spoilers, let it be noted that not all the beloved storybook figures survive, and adultery enters the picture. But in the land of Disney, there are second chances. “You know, if I were a Disney executive, I would probably say the same thing,” Sondheim replied with an easygoing shrug, suggesting that his work has only been intermittently bowdlerized.

“There has to be a point at which you don’t compromise anymore, but that may mean that you won’t 5/27/14 11:16 AM get anyone to sell your painting or perform your musical,” he said.

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Lauren English

Safiya Fredericks plays the witch, and Monique Hafen is Cinderella in SF Playhouse’s production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods.

“You have to deal with reality.”

Changes made for the movie have meant that the song “Any Moment” had to be cut, but Sondheim has written a new song titled “Rainbows,” as well another new song for Meryl Streep, who plays the witch.

Those songs will be eligible for Oscar consideration, which could bring him a second Academy Award, after being honored for “Sooner or Later” from Dick Tracy.

But in the meantime, you can see Into the Woods as it was originally written through Sept. 6 at SF Playhouse, where Susi Damilano is the director. Tickets are available at 6779596 or sfplayhouse.org.

Encore at Rhino

The Habit of Art is getting to be a habit for Theatre Rhino – if you can call a return engagement after just a few months a habit. But Alan Bennett’s cleverly drawn, multi-layered play was one of Rhino’s better-received productions of recent times, and the idea is that there is still an untapped audience looking for a little theatrical substance in the summer months.

Bennett’s play, actually a play

within a play, imagines a late-in-life meeting between poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten, who have profoundly different views on homosexual openness, with a kind of comic relief coming from the backstage dramas of the company stumbling its way through rehearsals of the Auden-Bennett play. The Eureka Theatre is again the venue, and the new performance dates are July 31-Aug. 23. Call (866) 811-4111 or go to therhino.org.t

Mime Troupe at 55

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Independence Day means fireworks at night, and in San Francisco, it means theatrical fireworks in the afternoon. SF Mime Troupe continues its tradition of debuting its latest rabble-rousing show in Dolores Park at 2 p.m. on July 4, ahead of a tour that will take it throughout the Bay Area before returning to the park for a final performance on Sept. 1.

Ripple Effect is the title of the new show that finds three combatants for the soul of San Francisco in the same boat. Literally, the same boat, as their conflicts play out during a bay cruise in the tale written

by Michael Gene Sullivan, Eugenie Chan, and Tanya Shaffer, with songs

by Ira Marlowe. The characters include a veteran leftist activist (Velina Brown), a patriotic immigrant (Keiko Shimosato Carreiro), a naive techie (Lisa Hori-Garcia), and a Silicon Valley CEO (Michael Gene Sullivan). Hugo E. Carbajal and Wilma Bonet are the co-directors.

All performances are free for this 55th-anniversary show, which displays a rebound the company has made when the previous season was nearly canceled because of financial woes. For a complete schedule of the tour’s dates and locations, go to sfmt.org.

davidallenstudio.com

Jeanine Adenauer, Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, and Velina Brown are boat-bound combatants for the soul of the city in San Francisco Mime Troupe’s summer show Ripple Effect.

written and directed by michel laprise

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<< Theatre

64 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Plucking heartstrings

by Richard Dodds

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here are seven musicals currently running on Broadway that are based on movies. For all the goodwill and name recognition that these projects promise, there are obstacles, too. Preconceived expectations must be met and the technological means found to recreate the visual magic moviemakers have at their disposal.

In the case of Once, the adaptors have used a kind of Broadway antimatter that binds an imaginatively low-tech production to a wispy story in which the stakes may seem low but are given room to grow in this nurturing environment.

Now at the Curran Theatre in an admirable touring version, Once began as a low-budget indie movie in 2007, and arrived on Broadway five years later. Because the movie was more a mood piece than a plotheavy drama, audiences are more likely to arrive with a haze of mem-

ories rather than specific incidents to be replicated. It’s only when the musical makes occasional nods to Broadway conventions – usually in the form of easy laughs from various characters’ buffoonery – does the mood skip out of the groove.

To be sure, there are genuinely earned laughs along with gently milked sorrows as boy meets girl in Dublin and their respective romantic ills find relief in a kind of musical nurse-patient therapy. The love of his life has moved to New York, and he slams shut his guitar case on aspirations of being a singer-songwriter.

She is estranged from her husband, and copes by making it her mission to relight the musician’s ambitions.

Where he is sullen and resistant, she offers no-nonsense cheer that knows what strings to pluck on his dormant guitar.

It may sound like an oxymoron, but director John Tiffany has staged Edna Walsh’s script with complex

simplicity. The encompassing set, a Dublin pub, never changes, though basic pieces of furniture roll on and off to suggest other settings. Much of the time, cast members who are not in a particular scene take seats along the sides of the set, ready to join the action when necessary, to provide some of Steven Hoggett’s stylized minimalistic movements, or perhaps to provide musical accompaniment as the moods shift. Every cast member plays an instrument, and the show has an organic flow that makes everyone on stage seem an important player.

Most of the songs written by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for the movie have been retained, and they can range in tone from raging angst to soothing ballad. Hansard and Irglova played the leads in the film, roles that are now ably filled on stage by Stuart Ward and Dani de Waal. Ward has a powerful voice and an inviting demeanor, though one complaint

Visit the Historic Cliff House

t

Joan Marcus

Stuart Ward and Dani de Waal plays unlikely musical collaborators and soulmates in the touring musical Once at the Curran Theatre.

deciphering his lyrics though the • Dine in the Stylish Sutro's or the Casual Bistroisemotions Restaurants are clear enough. De Waal’s presence almost always lightens the mood as this visitor from Czech Re• Enjoy our Famous Sunday Champagne Brunch Buffet public who has unflappably sunny determination and amusingly direct to any conversations.

• Relax with Live Friday Night Jazz in the Balconyapproach Lounge Once is something of an inverted

love story, as the closer the two lead-

ing characters become, the clearer is their destiny apart. It’s a gentle tale told with a theatrical skills that pulls us into its gentle embrace.t Once will run at the Curran Theatre through July 13. Tickets are $45-$210. Call (888) 746-1799 or go to shnsf.com.

Complete, complex ‘Elektra’ Celebrate Your Events E

by Tim Pfaff

lektra, not alone among operas, or women, does have a way of getting people killed. Karl Boehm, who conducted the most vocally splendid Elektra on DVD (DG), saw the end coming and chose to go out on Elektra, which he had stopped conducting decades earlier because it made him “too excited.”

He died on the podium during the final recording session. Now there’s Chereau.

For generations, the tempest in opera’s teapot has been about directors and their artistic dominance

over turf once considered the rightful property of the conductor or, if you were a true believer, the composer. The fight has pretty much exhausted itself at this point, with directors, for good or ill, having won handily. But from time to time along comes a production that confirms that things could be worse.

Last summer’s production of Strauss’ Elektra at the Aix-enProvence Festival, now superbly documented on a BelAir Classiques DVD, was universally acknowledged by the brilliant musicians assembled to perform it as director Patrice Chereau’s Elektra. This was any-

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thing but sentimentality brought on because, by showtime, it clearly was to be the gay French director’s last.

(He died of lung cancer shortly after the premiere, and by all accounts made it through rehearsals on sheer, pain-defying, artistic will.) The one-time “enfant terrible” of the stage (his work in opera was highly selective, but genre-transforming), who asked of his performers nearly as much as he did of himself, would have found sentimentality of any kind abhorrent.

As often as not, Elektra productions trade in noisy, generic intensity, making their mark with large

gestures meant to evoke the urdrama of Greek tragedy. As Chereau makes clear in a revealing interview on the DVD, he was left with the job of bringing Hoffmansthal’s play and Strauss’ setting (and alterations) of it to the stage with integrity to them.

In taking the bother to do that, he delivered the most complete and complex Elektra in my long experience of the work – without its seeming for an instant arcane, let alone perverse. It’s not a visually highconcept Elektra at all, and much of it is visually beautiful in conventional terms (Chereau worked with his longtime, preferred designer,

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Richard Peduzzi). It merely takes nothing for granted (I admit I never thought of Elektra as a problem opera until I heard the Chereau interview) and goes for nothing short of emotional truth.

The production advances with such quiet confidence that a newcomer to the work might think that Elektra is always like this. But you don’t have to be an old hand at the piece to be completely thrown off familiar ground when, in the middle of the great confrontation scene with her mother, Klytaemnestra, Chereau’s Elektra – in what might be the most genuine moment in the 105 minutes we spend with her – falls at her mother’s feet and slowly makes her way to Klytaemnestra’s waist in a long, deep embrace. This Elektra is less about hate and revenge than it is about the torments of love, particularly of the “family” variety.

There are no bit parts. Beyond the luxury casting of veteran singers such as Donald MacIntyre (the Old Servant), Renate Behle (the Overseer), and Franz Mazura (Orestes’ Tutor), there are no dramatically weak links in the show – and some truly towering performances. Generations of Elektra-philes – those without S&M inclinations, anyway – have, theatrically, not been wholly unjustified in seeing the opening scene with the servants as a cryptic, tiresome prelude to Elektra’s opening monologue. In Chereau’s hands it’s a vital mini-drama in its own, and the servants’ reappearances at the bridges in the opera’s subsequent scenes are consistently clarifying, and compelling, rather than merely distracting.

At no expense to her being a sympathetic character, this Elektra is a more obviously disturbed woman than usual (Chereau sees some Hamlet in her), the origins of whose problems could even be organic. She has a grand mal seizure after the monologue – which, amazingly, doesn’t come off as a cheap

Be sure to visit the Lookout Cafe at the Lands End visitor center. Operated by the Cliff House team, the cafe serves delicious, locally sourced grab-and-go items. The center, operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, offers educational exhibits, stunning views, and the amazing Lands End Trails.

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

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Celebrate Your Events

See page 70 >>

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Film>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 65

Concluding documentaries

by David Lamble

T

he Frameline festival’s slate of entertaining docs concludes with a particularly compelling quartet.

Out in East Berlin – Lesbians & Gays in the GDR “There were three of us in our class, we always said we were enchanted. One classmate wore shorts while riding the S-bahn. Someone touched his knee and asked if he’d like to go with him. This was a sign for us: we were not the only ones.”

Peter is a soft-spoken retiree whose claim to fame is having been born and spent his youth in a country that ceased to exist after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Growing up gay in a Communist-ruled society, Peter, like his queer friends, became accustomed to looking for sex from adult men on Berlin’s elevated train system.

“Zoo station was a known meeting place, pretty much like today.

The Wall came in 1961, so it must have been 1958. We went over to the West and wanted to be approached by someone new. We were curious.

We met up every few hours to see if one of us had gotten lucky.”

Theirs was a unique fate, one might say uniquely unlucky for a generation of young Germans born under Hitler and fated to come of age during the historical hiccup that was the nasty little police state known officially as the German Democratic Republic.

Directors Jochen Hick and Andreas Strohfeldt have amassed a captivating queer oral history of the GDR through intimate chats with 13 older out lesbians and gay men. While the fall of the Nazis was certainly a huge blessing throughout Allied-occupied post-war Germany, for citizens in the Russian-controlled Eastern zone, real freedom would prove an illusion. Instead, GDR residents were instructed in a disheartening brand of newspeak, where words like freedom, democracy and elections came to take on Kafkaesque meanings.

The gay women and men in the film describe both coming of age and discovering their queerness in a society where no one could ever be fully trusted to keep your secrets.

(Victoria, 6/26) The Last One About a block from where I’m writing this near Market and Castro, there’s a seafood restaurant where I was once feted by an actual gay movie star. A century earlier, the modest structure had been an Upper Market Nickelodeon. Still later, after large reptiles but before Bieber, Castro activist Cleve Jones invited folks to create small quilts honoring friends claimed by AIDS. Director Nadine Licostie picks up the threads of this tale, and in an engrossing 80 minutes demonstrates how the AIDS Memorial Quilt wound up covering the National Mall and helped bind together a most eclectic movement, from queers to African American grandmas.

In 1987, Jones’ desire to fill the DC Mall with quilts collided with the plans of another crafty protest leader (an ex pal whom I’ll call Mrs. Portnoy) to have a throng of queer protestors screaming in the direction of then-President Ronald Reagan.

You can decide if Portnoy or Jones was right. The rest of the story can be seen at an 11 a.m. Castro Theatre screening on Friday, June 27.

Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story I confess that of the many Frameline features I’ve watched, the one that got under my skin was a simple tale of a former U.S. Navy Seal. By many accounts the one-time Christopher Beck was a hard guy to like. We’re not surprised when this angry boy goes to war, accumulating a ton of medals. The Stateside part of Beck’s story, as deftly assembled by filmmakers Sandrine Orabona & Mark Herzog, consists of a now transgender female zipping across the country in an RV accompanied

by a small dog. Like scrapbook pages come to life, Beck’s family – the ones who will speak to the camera – have largely come to terms with her big sea change, especially her aging dad.

Honored by vets like herself, Beck’s only remaining problem appears to be how to make her teenage sons comfortable with their dad’s new identity. (Castro, 6/27) Out in the Night This tough-towatch tale of the Gotham City injustice meted out to seven African American women after a 2006 Greenwich Village altercation is on par with the

best muckraking docs, such as 2012’s brilliant expose The Central Park Five.

Ironically, crucial segments of this riveting doc are spliced in from movietheatre security-camera footage.

The women – four of whom pleaded innocent and wound up facing considerable jail time – were accused of attacking a man who reportedly threatened to “screw them straight.” As with the best “true crime” stories, we become so entangled in the fate of these women that their eventual exoneration feels like our own. (Castro, 6/28)t

Frameline

Scene from Out in East Berlin – Lesbians & Gays in the GDR.

Frameline

Castro activist Cleve Jones in director Nadine Licostie’s The Last One.

Frameline

Scene from Out in the Night, part of Frameline 38’s final days.

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<< Out&About

66 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

O&A Out &About

Show Boat @ War Memorial Opera House

Pansy @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

San Francisco Opera’s beautiful production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s classic musical about people in the 1880s who live and work along the Mississippi River. $24-$379. Various times, June 26, July 1 & 2. 301 Van Ness Ave., 864-3330. www.sfopera.com

Evan Johnson returns with his magical solo show about a young gay Peter-Pan-esque man who revels in the 1990s queer culture. $15-$20. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru June 28. 25 Van Ness Ave. lower level.

861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

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Unusual Shorts @ Oddball Films Enjoy wacky offbeat vintage short films.

Thu & Fri, each $10, 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival @ Esplanade The months-long free performance series has commenced, with weekend outdoor dance, music and theatre concerts, on various days and evenings. June 26, 12:30pm: SuriSuri MahaSuri. June 27 & 28, 12pm: Circus Bella. Other shows thru Oct. Mission St. at 3rd. 543-1718. www.ybgfestival.org

Sat 28

Hershey Felder, who wowed audiences with his recent Gershwin one-man show, returns as famed conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein in a solo and piano biographical play, in which he discusses and performs excerpts from the creator of West Side Story, Candide, On the Town and other works. $29-$87. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm.

Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Extended thru July 3. Thrust Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Fri 27

Rainbowled over

by Jim Provenzano

A

re you feeling festive? There are several arts events that are either in theme with Pride festivities, or just happen to be occuring this week. Use your artsy-gaydar. As usual, for nightlife events, head on over to BARtab, where five (or six?) pages full of LGBTQ nightlife events should give you more than enough choices for you to get rainbowlicious.

Thu 26 David Barnett @ Hotel Triton The local gay artist exhibits his popular animal/pet portraits and landscapes at the stylish hotel lobby. Mezzanine, 342 Grant Ave. www.hoteltriton.com

Designing Homes @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Jews and Midcentury Modernism, an exhibit of architectural, furniture, dinnerware, photos, and interior design in post-WWII. Also, Arthur Szyk and the Art of the Haggadah, an exhibit of 48 fascinating and richly detailed illustrations of Hebrew stories by the early 20th-century artist (thru June 29). Also, To Build & Be Built: Kibbutz History (thru July 1). 2pm5pm. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Frameline 38 @ Various Cinemas The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival opens at the Castro Theatre, with many features, shorts and documentaries screening at several Bay Area theatres. www.frameline.org

Hella Gay Comedy @ Magnet The bawdy queer comedy show’s last event includes host Charlie Ballard, Zachary Toczynski, Ash Fisher, Kelly Doyle, Jesus Fuetes, Justin Lucas, Sampson McCormick and Karinda Dobbins. Free. 8pm. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Into the Woods @ San Francisco Playhouse Local production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s acclaimed musical that takes an ‘after Happily Ever After’ look at fairy tales. Previews; opens June 28. $20$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 6. 450 Post St., 2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel. 6779596. www.sfplayhouse.org

LEVYdance @ Z Space Soar, an immersive dance experience, choreographed and directed by Scott Marlowe ( Test, the film), with composer Ben Juovalkis; portions will become part of a dance-film project. $20-$50. June 26: 7pm & 9pm. June 27: 7pm ( 9pm with VIP after-party. June 28: 7pm. 450 Florida St. www.levydance.org

Matthew Kennedy @ Folio Books The gay author of Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musical in the 1960s reads from and discusses his book, and shows film clips.

7pm. 3957 24th St. 821-3477. www.matthewkennedybooks.com www.foliosf.com

Mugwumpin @ Costume Shop The innovative eperimental theatre company celebrates ten years with several revivals; This Is All I Need and Super:Anti:Reluctant in repertory with the new Blockbuster Season, also later this summer. Thru July 13; other shows thru August and Sept. $20-$40. 1117 Market St. www.mugwumpin.org

The Orphan of Zhao @ American Conservatory Theatre BD Wong stars in James Fenton’s new stage adaptation of the centuries-old Chinese legend of sacrifice and revenge when a young orphan discovers the truth of his heritage. $30-$130. Tue-Sat 8pm.

Sat & Sun 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru June 29.

Geary Theatre, 405 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus @ Nourse Theatre Dazzle: Broadway Out Way includes concert versions of songs from popular musicals The Book of Mormon, South Pacific, Kinky Boots, Phantom of the Opera and more; with guest soloist Laura Benanti. $25-$60. 8pm. 275 Hayes St. 392-4400. www.sfgmc.org

American Buffalo @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Aurora Theatre Company performs David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1977 drama about three desperate men who plot to steal a valuable coin collection. $35-$60. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

The Bakla Show @ Bindlestiff Studio Third annual show of short plays and installations dealing with LGBT and queer youth issues in the Philipino community. $10-$20. Thu-Sat 8pm. 185 6th St. at Howard. Thru June 28. 255-0440. www.thebaklashow.wordpress.com

Dan Hoyle @ The Marsh The award-winning solo performer premieres his new show, Each and Every Thing, a multi-character play about the search for real community in a hyperconnected world. $20-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru August 24.

1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Deep Root Dance @ The Garage Concert features choreography by Nicole Zvarik) presents Resilience, which explores the process of investigating the sublimity and complexity of love. Part of RAW (resident artist workshop). $10$20. 8pm. Also June 28. 715 Bryant St. www.715Bryant.org

Devil Boys From Beyond @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Buddy Thomas and Kenneth Elliot’s hilarious comedy is about an ace reporter who investigates a Florida colony of elders who are shacking up with alien beefcake guys. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm.

Thru June 28. 25 Van Ness Ave. lower level.

861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

The Homosexuals @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Bay Area debut of Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins’ innovatively told comic drama about a young man’s varying relationships with a new group of gay friends. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. thru June 28. 25 Van Ness Ave. lower level.

861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Life X 3 @ Phoenix Theatre Broadway West performs Tony and Olivierwinning playwright Yasmina Reza’s comic drama about a dinner party gone wrong, where family truths are revealed. $40.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru July 19. 414 Mason St. #601. (510) 835-4205. www.offbroadwaywest.org

Macbeth @ Fort Point We Players’ innovative audience participation staging of the tragic “Scottish play” by William Shakespeare returns (after being abruptly closed for the government shut-down). Audience members walk through the historic building as the show takes place in all areas of the fort, including a snack and beverage break during the famous “banquet scene.” $30-$75. Thu-Sun 7pm. Thru June 29. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 999 Marine Drive. 5470189. www.weplayers.org

The Objects @ ASC Projects Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay

Pansy Lois Tema

Fri 27

Frank Pietronigro’s art

Tue 1

Maestro @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Evie Leder’s photo and video installation that uses nude portraits of local gay artists to examine the human form. Thru June 29.

3150 18th St. www.facebook.com/ascprojectssf

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes, performers, and some of the original cast members. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Extended thru June 28. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Queer Blues Divas @ SFGH Wellness Center Screening of the film about lesbian and gay musicians of yesteryear; with narrator Jewelle Gomez. 3pm, with light refreshments. SF General Hospital, SFGH Wellness Center, 1001 Potrero St. 2064995. www.sfghwellness.org

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore Marga Gomez and Kay Nilsson are the special guests and the LGBTQQIetc reading series., hosted by Baruch PorrasHernandez. 7pm. 2919 24th St. www.queeropenmic.com

Rickie Lee Jones @ Yoshi’s The two-time Grammy winner returns with classic and new music. $46-$68. 8pm. Also June 28. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Brand: Bud Light Ico

Trans March @ Dolores Park Item #: PBL2014105 Annual energetic and spirited march for transpeople and non-conforming gender.

Youth/Elder brunch 12pm-3pm. Stage shows 3pm-6pm. March 6pm. at Dolores Park. www.transmarch.org

Triassic Parq @ Eureka Theatre Ray of Light Theatre company’s production of the innovative musical about a female T-Rex who turns male, leaving the herd of singing dinosaurs to question their prehistoric gender identity. $25-$36. WedSat 8pm. Thru June 28. 250 Jackson St at Battery. www.rayoflighttheatre.com

Sat 28 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Job/Order #: 263925

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Out&About>>

Born This Way @ Unitarian Universalists’ Hall, Berkeley

Pink Saturday @ Castro Castro Street’s annual block party is fun in the early evening, then gets big, crowded, with multiple DJ stages and food trucks.

Bars will be open. 5:30-10:15pm. Gate donations taken by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. www.thesisters.org

Screening of the documentary about virulent antigya prejudice in Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal. $10.

7:30pm. 1924 Bonita St. at Cedar., Berkeley. www.bfuu.org

Pink Triangle @ Sutro Tower

Dyke March @ Dolores Park/Castro

Installation, commemorations and politican and celebrity visits highlight the annual preparation and display of a giant fabric pink triangle. Install 7pm-10am.

Commemoration 10:30am. www.thepinktriangle.com

Annual women and friends’ march and rally (4pm at Dolores Park) with DJed music, and march (6pm). www.thedykemarch.org

The Farnsworth Invention @ Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

Olympus @ Modern Eden Gallery Third annual portrait invitational, this year, with a Contemporary Portraits of the Ancient Gods theme, including large paintings by more than a dozen artists.

Thru July 5. 403 Francisco St. 956-3303. www.moderneden.com

Palo Alto Players perform acclaimed TV and movie writer-producer Aaron Sorkin’s compelling play about the inventor of the television. $23-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Thru June 29. 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. (650) 329-0891. www.paplayers.org

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 67

Sundance Saloon @ Hotel Whitcomb The country-western line-dancing tribe celebrates Pride at their annual dance party, with folks from around the country joining in. $10. 7:30pm-12am. Also June 29, 6pm-11pm. 1231 Market St. www.sundancesalloon.org

Sun 29 God Fights the Plague @ The Marsh 18-year-old playwright Dezi Gallegos (who made a splash at 14 with Prop 8 Love Stories) performs a solo show with multiple gay and straight characters of different faiths, each searching for God. $15-$100. Sat 8:30pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 10. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

Intimate Impressionism @ Legion of Honor The exhibition includes nearly 70 paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., featuring the work of 19th-century avant-garde painters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh. Also, the Salon Doré, a reconstructed room from the Hotel de La Trémoille, has re-opened. Free/$25. Thru Aug. 3. Lincoln Park, 100 34th Ave. 7503600. www.legionofhonor.famsf.org

Passage and Place @ Alley Cat Books Gallery Multimedia visual arts exhibition, book project and skillshare series of works that explore a queer aspect of incarceration, immigration and other social issues; with works by Grace Rosario Perkins, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Paper Buck, Zeph Fishlyn, Annah Anti-Palindrome and Lex Non Scripta. 3606 24th St. www.lexnonscripta. com www.passageandplace.tumblr.com

SF Pride @ Civic Center Join in or watch the annual Pride parade along Market Street from Embarcadero to Civic Center (8th St.), with drinks, food, dozens of live acts, multiple DJ dance area, and lots of booths hosted by local LGBT nonprofits and corporate sponsors. Gate donations. 11am-6pm. www.sfpride.org

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint New Sunday program offers tours and exhibits about San Francisco’s history.

Explore the fascinating building’s grand halls and vaults. $5-$10. Weekly, 1pm4pm. 88 5th St. 537-1105. SFhistory.org

La Traviata @ War Memorial Opera House San Francisco Opera’s new production of Verdi’s classic opera stars Nicole Cabell, Simir Pirgu and Vladamir Stoyanov; in Italian with English supertitles. $24$379. June 29 (2 p.m.), July 5 (8pm; live simulcast at AT&T Park), 8 (7:30pm), 11 (8pm) and July 13 (2pm). 301 Van Ness Ave. 863-3330. www.sfopera.com

Various Exhibits @ Oakland Museum

Enjoy Responsibly

©2014 A-B, Bud Light® Beer, St. Louis, MO

Trim: 8.75" x 7.75" Feisty Old Jew @ The Marsh Bleed: none

Closing Date: 6/17/14 QC: CS

Charlie Veron’s new solo show Publication: Bay Area Reporter Live: 8.25"about x 7.25"a

fictional elder man who hitches a ride with surfer-hipsters, and rants about what he hates about the 21st century. $25-$100.

Sat & Sun 5pm. Extended thru July 13.

1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. themarsh.org

Frank Pietronigro @ Johnston Gallery Exhibit of gay-themed paintings (“Great American Patriots”) and “Documents,” an unusual installation that uses antigay words. Thru Sept. 2327 Market St. pietronigro.com johnstontaxgroup.com/art

The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures @ Berkeley Repertory The West Coast premiere of multiple award-winner Tony Kushner’s epic new play takes on politics, sex, and power in his expansive and brilliant way, by focusing on a Brooklyn Italian family (with a gay son and a lesbian daughter) whose patriarch decides to die. $55-$89. Tue, Thu-Sat 7:30pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Thru June 29. Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. berkeleyrep.org

Public Intimacy @ YBCA SF MOMA on the Go exhibit Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, a collection of photography, with artists Kemang Wa Lehulere, AthiPatra Ruga, Sello Pesa, and Vaughn Sadie, among others. Thru June 29. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 3211307. www.sfmoma.org www.ybca.org

Queer Art Exhibits @ SOMArts Cultural Center Body, Body, Bodies, a group exhibit exploring perspectives on the human form.

Also Second Helpings, a group exhibit about “fat politics,” and The Most Sincere Gesture, an exhibit about intimacy by four New Orleans-based artists. Thru June 28.

Tue-Fri 12pm-7pm, Sat 12pm-5pm. 934 Brannan St. at 9th. www.somarts.org

SF Hiking Club @ Windy Hill Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike at Windy Hill Open Space Preserve near Portola Valley. Hike along creeks and through oak, Douglas fir, and redwood forests. Enjoy views of the bay and the East Bay hills. Bring water, lunch, hat, sunscreen, windbreaker, sturdy boots.

Carpool meets 8:45 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 740-9888. www.sfhiking.com

Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland, a collection of slides and films of her 1974 Lake Merritt pyrotechnical installation; part of a nationwide group of exhibits celebrating the pioneering feminist artist’s 75th birthday; thru Nov. 30. Also, Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records, about the culture of collecting records, local indie labels; includes sound exhibits, talks, and colorful catalogs. Both thru July 27.

Also, Inspiration Points: Masterpieces of California (thru July 13), A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco (thru June 29) and other exhibits. Free/$15. Reg. hours WedSat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Thu 26 Biconic Flashpoints @ GLBT History Museum Four Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics, thru Aug. 15. Also, the new exhibit of fascinating historical items and how their legacies are still with us; includes queer youth, Harvey Milk, José Sarria, AIDS and gay bar ephemera and the lesbians of The Ladder. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm.

Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members).

4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Chicks with Shticks @ SF Public Library The Kinsey Sicks and 20 Years of Dragapella Activism, a new exhibit about the musical ensemble; thru July 10. 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Javier Rocabaldo @ Public Barber Salon The Bay Area gay artist’s iconic Catholic icon-inspired paintings, Nature for Sale, blend money and endangered animals; on exhibit thru June. Reg hours 9am-9pm.

571 Geary St. 441-8599. www.publicbarbersalon.com

Tue 1 Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum Exhibit of photos –and an audiovisual installation–by the Los Angeles artist who focused on gay underground culture of the late 1960s and early 70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015. Lines on the Horizon : Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015. Free/$10.

Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Chomp! @ Conservatory of Flowers They Came From the Swamp, a new floral exhibit of carnivorous plants, includes exhibits, docent talks, and a giant replica model so you can feel like a bug about to be eaten. Thru Oct. 19. Reg. hours, 10am4pm. Free-$7. Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm.

Thru Oct. 19. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center Weekly non-sectarian meditation group; part of the Let’s Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group. Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www.letskickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

Fri 27

Sundance Saloon @ Hotel Whitcomb The popular country western LGBT dance night; continues its Pride weekend dancing at the nearby hotel. $10. 6pm-11pm. 1231 Market St. (Also during Pride, with a big dance floor at Civic Center: Grove St. near Larkin) www.sundancesaloon.org

Wed 2 New and Classic Films @ Castro Theatre The post-Frameline schedule returns. July 2: American Graffiti (7pm) and Two-Lane Blacktop (9pm). July 3: Jaws (7pm)and The Towering Inferno (9:20). $11. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Not a Genuine Black Man @ Osher Studio, Berkeley Brian Copeland’s tenth anniversary run of his compelling autobiographical solo show gets restaged at Berkeley Repertory’s studio theatre. $14-$430. Wed 7pm. ThuSat 8pm. Extended thru June 28. Osher Studio, 2055 Center St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm.

Also Thursdays & Fridays. JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

William Odiorne’s Paris @ Robert Tat Gallery Photo exhibit of the artist’s 1920s prints of the beautiful French capital. Tue-Sat 11am5:30pm (1st Thursdays til 7:30). Thru Aug. 23. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Woods to Wildflowers @ SF Botanical Gardens See blooming floral displays, trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more, at outdoor exhibits of hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a centuryold grove of towering Coast Redwoods.

Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 66121316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Thu 3 Gorgeous @ Asian Art Museum New exhibit about 2,000 years of unconventional visualizations of beauty (thru Sept 14), at the contemporary and historical museum. Permenent exhibits as well. $15. 200 Larkin St. asianart.org

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

Various Exhibits @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth. Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$30. Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm.

Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Wrong’s What I Do Best @ SF Art Institute Group exhibition of works that push the boundaries of social, political and personal fault lines. Tue 11am-7pm. Wed-Sat 11am6pm. Thru July 26. Walter and McBean Galleries, 800 Chestnut St. www.sfai.edu

Mon 30 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s weekly online talk show’s rebroadcast through the week. June 20-July 6: Perry interviews Brendon North, one of the performers in Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, celebrating its 40th anniversary; and actor Keiko Shimosato Carreiro from SF Mime Troupe’s production of Ripple Effect. comcasthometown.com

LEVYdance’s Soar

Rickie Lee Jones

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

On view through October 6, 2014 The Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Plan your visit at thecjm.org

Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Major sponsorship for this exhibition is provided by the Jim Joseph Foundation, Maribelle and Stephen Leavitt, Osterweis Capital Management, and the Seiger Family Foundation. Patron sponsorship is provided by Phyllis Cook, the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, Alison Gelb Pincus and Mark Pincus, and The Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation. Supporting sponsorship is provided by AIG Private Client Group, an Anonymous donor, Judy and Harry Cohn, Dana Corvin and Harris Weinberg, G2 Insurance Services, Peggy and Richard Greenfield Foundation, Siesel Maibach, Dorothy R. Saxe, and Barbara and Howard Wollner. Participating sponsorship is provided by Alvin H. Baum, Jr., T Beller and Philip S. Schlein, Susan and Joel Hyatt, Carol and Alan J. Pomerantz, Shelli Semler and Kyle Bach, Ruth and Alan Stein, and Roselyne Chroman Swig. IMAGES: Alvin Lustig, Paramount Chair, 1948. Upholstery, 37 ½ in. x 37 ½ in. x 32 ½ in. Collection of Elaine Lustig Cohen. Photograph: John Halpern. George Nelson, Bubble Lamp, 1947. Plastic on wire frame, 33 x 15 in. Photograph: Modernica.

Essential support for catalog publication has been provided by Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Ben and A. Jess Shenson.

Major support for The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibitions and Jewish Peoplehood Programs comes from the Koret Foundation.

Media Sponsor: Dwell Media.

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Books>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 69

Bizarre love triangle

by Jim Piechota

I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer; Hawthorne Books, $18.95 opular Portland, Oregon gay writer Tom Spanbauer’s fifth novel I Loved You More took him four and a half years to complete.

The result is a spectacular collision of passion, wit, grace, and humanity, a character-rich tapestry of love, sex, friendship, and the complications that ensue with each casual handshake and romantic embrace.

Front-and-center is Ben Grunewald, a feisty sexagenarian novelist struggling with anxiety over his parents’ situations (homophobic father, depressed mother), his struggle with HIV infection (he’s a long-term survivor at 22 years), and his bisexuality, which seems to ebb and flow with

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a natural ease, as Spanbauer’s beautiful pages do. Ben’s life, as he tells it, has been fraught with bouts of unease, and though these episodes tend to be harrowing, Spanbauer owns them with great skill, dexterity, and rapid-fire, poetry-slam delivery, as in the case of one of Ben’s more fretful moments in wrestling with debilitating impotence after years spent reveling in a fruitful, flagrant, mix-and-match sex life.

“By that time of my life, my thirtyseventh year.” Ben laments, “heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, top or bottom, threesomes, orgies with men and women, with a whip in my hand or chained to the radiator, whatever way two or more people can get together sexually. Drunk or stoned or otherwise fucked up. Hell, even when it was just me alone stone cold sober.

I couldn’t get it up.”

Ben is also indifferent toward

oversized cocks: “Really what do you do with something that big?” he complains. “It can’t fit in your mouth and it certainly can’t fit up your ass. So I guess the old joke is true: all you can do is throw your arms around it and weep.”

Ben Grunewald is an outspoken character whom readers will fall in love with. He’s an aging gay man with a surplus of opinions on just about everything. He loves men’s asses and has followed some prized high and tight ones virtually across Manhattan, where he’d taken up residence decades ago on the Lower East Side, about the same time he met Hank Christian at a writing workshop. Hank is a straight man, but he enjoys Ben’s company, and even plays around with him in an awkward, self-conscious intimate exchange. (“I’m sucking in my gut.

Discovering herself

by Brian Bromberger

For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $23 y real body was somewhere “ else, waiting for me. It looked like my sisters’ bodies,” observes Peter Huang, the chief protagonist in Kim Fu’s debut, an amusingly melancholic novel. Peter, the only son in the middle of three daughters, is certain he is a girl from an early age. The novel charts her journey of discovering her sexual self amidst growing up in a house full of unreal expectations, secrets, and the sense that one doesn’t belong, even in one’s own body. Although fiction, the book reads like a memoir, extending over decades highlighting crucial points in Peter’s life, a novel of development, change, and becoming what one always intended

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to be. The theme of the book, and the quintessence of LGBTQ Pride month, is what a struggle it is finding out who one is, and whether one has the courage to be true to oneself.

Peter’s father starts out as a villain, trying to force Peter to conform to his traditional Western standards of masculinity, as well as verbally abusing him. The father’s arrogance and aggressive ideals oppress his wife. and eventually force his three daughters to flee from his control. But Fu shows such tenderness to her flawed characters that she allows the father to be rehabilitated towards the end of this novel of a Chinese family adapting to small-town life in Ottawa, Canada.

Fu balances their cultural and personal struggles while embracing the central role of difference in their lives, particularly the haphazard intrigues of Peter’s sisters and the 180-degree

transformation of his aloof mother.

All of them accept Peter without question and don’t try to change him.

Fu’s triumph is that in spite of dealing with this potentially explosive mixture of ethnic and transgender identities, she allows all her characters, even the minor ones, to be complicated, even mysterious, and not cliches. Eventually you care about their fates in spite of their careless, myopic vision.

Instead of the athletics Peter’s father wants him to pursue, Peter desires to become a chef. He comes home from school, strips off his clothes, and put on his mother’s apron over his naked body. He cleans house while singing, fantasizing he is Audrey Hepburn. His sister Bonnie (a virtual prostitute at 15) is supposed to be the cook, but it is Peter who prepares dinner. They both pretend Bonnie did the cooking.

Hank is pushing out and raising up his chest, pulling his arms down, shoulders down, the way he does.”)

Their friendship, born in the 1980s, withstands the ravages of time and distance, and becomes bitterly entangled when Hank reveals a romantic attachment to Ben’s former writing student Ruth.

As the HIV virus (“God’s special little bitch”) ramps into high gear and begins to ravage Ben’s immune system, his capacity for self-sufficiency weakens (“HIV is still a sure ticket you’re going to shit spray in public”) and Ruth steps in as his caretaker, creating a highly charged situation upon which Spanbauer’s masterfully realized, complicated, but dramatically satisfying threesome is built.

Jealousy, resentment, fallibility, pain, and regret (a game-changing

event involving Hank is foreshadowed at the beginning of the novel) all come to pass, and in the final chapters, the pages whip past as the truth and the beauty of being human and the impact of these raw emotions bubble to the surface. Spanbauer’s prose can be shimmering, poignant, and heartbreaking, but it can also flip on a whim and become droll and poetic. Truisms are so honest, they feel like a slap in the face, but the kind of slap that the reader really needs, and doesn’t mind yielding to.

Spanbauer, who teaches a popular Dangerous Writing course in Portland, has crafted a meticulously conceived and executed novel brimming with heart, soul, and the unique kind of affections found in both platonic and romantic love.t

Eventually Peter moves to Montreal, finding work in a restaurant, meeting co-workers and experimenting with makeup and cross-dressing.

With friends and lovers, Peter suffers from the humiliation that comes from being a gender nonconformist, including a potentially fatal setback. In a sense all the characters are trying to discover alternatives to the traditional Chinese social and gender/sexual roles, but Fu presents these clashes in a seamless fashion so one cannot call her book a Chinese/ ethnic, coming of age, or transgender novel. It has all these components, the product being greater than the sum of its individual elements.

Fu depicts transsexuality realistically and humanely. Coming from a family of scientists and engineers yet wanting to be a writer, Fu can identify with

being an outsider. The book is meant to be a window into the universal struggle of “how to navigate the distance between what we want – what we need – for ourselves and what others expect from us.” She largely succeeds in this goal; however, as accomplished as her first novel is, it does possess flaws.

Embracing a nonlinear jumbling of past/present/future events, the book can feel fragmentary and episodic, with minimal dialogue between characters but many internal monologues that can become tedious. It isn’t until towards the end of the novel that one gets a coherent sense of Peter’s full herstory. Ultimately her journey is a tale of redemption, and the last few pages detailing a minor victory in her emotional development makes for a beautiful and memorable conclusion.t

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<< Film

70 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

The original female bastard

by Erin Blackwell

V

iolette is 139 minutes of fabulous French film actress Emmanuel Devos zigzagging existentially through a literary career sculpted from an alienated childhood and a humiliating adulthood. People, this is not Hollywood product – c’est la vie. She wants love; she tries sex; nothing works; so she succumbs to l’écriture. Martin Provost’s rigorously indulgent biopic establishes postwar Parisian novelist Violette Leduc (1907-72) as our spiritual contemporary. On a good day.

Leduc’s best-known book and first bestseller is La Bâtarde (1964), whose English translation should be The Female Bastard, since this gives a truer sense of Leduc’s pretentiousprecarious subject position. To be a bastard is to be unrecognized, to not inherit, to be forced to invent oneself. But this is always the case for women, because we are all born into a man’s world. By embracing her outcast status as an illegitimate daughter and raising it through writing to the status of subjectivity, Leduc acquired a bedrock authenticity and, finally, a house in the country. Let this be a lesson to all bastards, all women, all queers.

I’m writing this review lying in bed, thick velvet curtains blocking out daylight to prolong the crepuscular consciousness necessary to put words to thoughts even in so bastard a literary form as journalism. My PaperMate

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Gorgeous

From page 57

Not concerned with glamour, theoretical ruminations on ideals of beauty, fashion, feminism, or the male gaze, the show is less focused on “neatly constructed perceptions of beauty [than] what happens when beauty is pushed to extremes and becomes provocative,” explains the Asian’s assistant curator of contemporary art Allison Harding, whose energetic intelligence and relative youth signal the museum’s nod toward the 21st century. “The gorgeous is more about the outliers, the abject, the grotesque and the unbelievably restrained,” she adds. “This work gets at an exquisite tension between attraction and repulsion.” Tension, yes, but

InkJoy stick squibbles between lines on notebook paper, as Violette écrivait with fountain pen on small sheets later glued one-by-one into the facsimile of a book. No hammering typewriter in Violette. Only the haunted look of speech turned inward, the pen, the paper, the hand. It’s all you need to set you free, if you have the courage to confront your demons and make them dance. So the French would have us believe.

Feminist mother goddess Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86), whose book The Second Sex (1949) changed the world, plays Devil to Violette’s Faust. She eggs her on to transform her life through writing; she secretly pays their publisher Gallimard to pay Violette an allowance; she does everything but sleep with her. Tough love! Rumor has it there was more fond fondling than is shown onscreen, where a single kiss rebuffed settles all ambivalence. Oh, well.

What’s clear is, Simone is the awardwinning, publicly presentable face of feminist literature; Violette is its irrational, insatiable, abused, abandoned, scowling, howling heart.

Leduc wasn’t easy to live with, and found human relations excruciatingly painful. Her first book, L’Asphyxie (Asphyxiation, 1946), was published by Albert Camus for Gallimard, and earned her the respect of Genet, Cocteau, and Sartre.

The film mentions but doesn’t show Sartre, perhaps so it can linger longer on Devos, perhaps to keep pro-

duction costs down, but I confess to feeling something’s missing, a piece of the infernal triangle that was Jean-Paul/ Simone/ Violette. Sartre and de Beauvoir were the leftist literary post-war couple; not living together was part of their philosophical mission, but there must have been scenes. You know there were big scenes of jealousy, accusation, betrayal. Violette and Simone never get to go there; it’s all a bit too tidy; a big opportunity missed.

Sandrine Kiberlain is a staunch de Beauvoir: disciplined, devout, a bit dour. We’re not privy to her struggles, except briefly after the death of her mother. Simone appears as an incredibly reliable muse, a no-nonsense seductress, the ultimate schoolmarm whose selfless dedication to selfedification inspires Violette to forgo her wallowing for hard-won literary glory. De Beauvoir’s own success as a novelist and philosopher provides the model, albeit more respectable, at least by Paris standards. Leduc acts as her Mr. Hyde, attacking the dark corners of the Existentialist program, chronicling her unreciprocated passion for her mentor (L’Affamée, 1948), a successful bout of lesbianism (Therese and Isabelle, 1955), and sister-brother incest (Le Taxi, 1971).

The supporting cast is small but excellent within the confines of the script, which fails to connect the dots between Violette’s quirky forays into sexual connection and the emotional results of her brief

also exquisite delight; the show is as refreshing and piquant as a tall glass of iced limeade on a warm summer evening, and should be enjoyed and assessed in the lighthearted spirit in which it was conceived; with playfulness, guilt-free subjectivity, and access to the treasures contained in two of the city’s finest permanent collections.

Drawn equally from both museums’ holdings, the nearly 80 objects were chosen based on the personal responses they elicited from the curators – two from each institution – whose brainstorming sessions over a two-year period resulted in this show.

One can only imagine the quantity of fine wine that has lubricated many a wide-ranging art-historical discussion since SFMOMA closed last year.

The curators have evinced excel-

lent taste, selecting stunning works from an eclectic group of artists, ancient and modern, including Picasso, Joan Miro, Chris Ofili, Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Yves Klein and Marilyn Minter, as well as sculptures, vessels and statuary by unnamed artisans from India, Japan, Persia and China.

As the Asian is the host venue, the installation is as polished and capacious as one would expect; a thing of beauty in its own right. Object labels Courtesy of Asian Art Museum provide some historical backCeremonial alms bowl with stand (approx. ground, but primarily consist 1850-1950), Burma. Lacquered and gilded of entertaining accounts of the bamboo, wood, and ferrous metal with curators’ reactions to various mirrored and nonmirrored glass. works. Yes, they’re fun to read, but the verbiage is merely scaffolding and beside the point. hood. But really, maybe this unThere’s DIY impulse here in that earthly interloper was the culprit; it’s visitors’ responses rather than with Berry’s fashion sense and that curatorial imperative that matters, Yves Klein blue, well, the scenario whether contemplating the streamisn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. lined elegance of an iPhone (which Sexuality, though not explicit, is looks stranded in this context), a a subtext that hums like an electric sensual female nude, or a generously current beneath the surface. Take, endowed deity. for example, Robert Mapplethorpe’s This visitor’s attention was “Bob Love, N.Y.C.” (1979), a controwrangled by deeper-than-deep blue versial, full-frontal nude photograph of Yves Klein’s blissfully strange of a muscular black man seated on “Sponge” (1957), which resembles a pedestal, an image that offers a either a flower from 20,000 leagues forum for contemplating the huunder the sea or extraterrestrial man body and a penis too large to flora. The outsized, irregularly ignore. “Futago” (1988), a gendershaped blue flower – or whatever bending painting by the impish, New – is mounted on a long, skinny rod York-based, Japanese “sexual approprotruding from a moon rock. I priation” artist Yasumasa Morimura, couldn’t help thinking of the intermade me long for a future show planetary explorer played by Halle called Transgression. In his recreation Berry (on the upcoming TV series of Edouard Manet’s masterpiece Extant), who’s impregnated with “Olympia” (1863), Morimura casts alien spawn without her knowledge himself, with the aid of wig, makeup before she returns to terra firma. and chutzpah, as the courtesan, laid Uh-oh, there goes the neighborout like Venus on a satin divan, but

he couldn’t resist masquerading as the black maid. If Manet’s painting scandalized the Paris Salon, Morimura’s might have incited a riot.

The exhibition has a raft of fluid, interchangeable categories with enticing titles such as Danger, Pose, Seduction, Dress Up, Fantasy, and my fave, Beyond Imperfection, where Bruce Conner’s “Looking Glass” (1964), a riveting, unruly assemblage, resides. If Miss Piggy had been a burlesque dancer who had exploded and then landed on messy Masonite shelving along with bits of dried fish and tattered fur, torn nylons, a discarded shoe and a bunch of girlie pictures, this would be the scene of the crime.

The same grouping includes the smallest yet most powerful piece, an oddly affecting, armless tomb figurine from China’s Han Dynasty whose broken condition arouses compassion and speculation about the mysterious fate that befell it. Elsewhere, note an intricately carved stone torso of a voluptuous armless female deity from Southern India (1400-1600); her female warrior allure and formidable presence are undiminished by the passage of time and missing limbs.

So what does all of this have to do with “gorgeous?” As with movie thrillers, it’s better to enjoy the ride than question the logic of the plot. Instead, walk into the last gallery, where you’ll encounter Rothko’s immersive “No. 14 (1960), a magnificent color field painting of scorched orange descending into a pitiless sea of inky blue; sit back, drink it in, and exhale.t

Except when Leonie Rysanek sings Chrysothemis, Elektra has most of the belting to do, but the other two lead women, Chrysothemis and Klytaemnestra, have much trickier roles to bring off. You may not recognize either woman in Chereau’s hands, but they’re the polar opposite of perverse or, as once said of a famous Klytaemnestra, kaput.

Adrianne Pieczonka sings the spots off the sister, becoming for

though he gives the most transparent, revealing and simply beautiful reading of the score I’ve ever heard (the orchestra is simply staggering in the mother-daughter confrontation), you can hear – particularly in the rests – what he, too, has gained from Chereau.

This is a production that should open, not close, interpretations of Elektra hereon. If nothing else, you’ll never again settle for less.t

Jess Collins Trust, reproduced with permission

Narkissos (1976-91) by Jess. Graphite on paper and paste-up.

Collection SFMOMA.

<<

Elektra

From page 64

shot from Chereau – and there are abundant hints of bad body chemistry, not to mention deep complexes of a Freudian-Oedipal nature. (She gets physical with all the relatives, although, weirdly, you hardly notice it at first.) And she does not die at the end, except perhaps psychologically, behind that fixed stare.

t

None of this diminishes her, and soprano Evelyn Herlitzius gives a transfixing performance. It takes her most of the opening monologue to gather her wits vocally, but after that, every note is true in all senses of the word. Characteristically, Herlitzius gives 110% when 100 might have been even better – with the close-up camerawork you get her full dental history – but you won’t be forgetting her performance.

Emmanuelle Devos is the title character in director Martin Provost’s Violette.

successes and long failures. At one point, she awakens to the care of nuns and is given shock treatment, off, evoked by a line of dialogue. It’s all there in the books, isn’t it? We get snippets in voice-over. Must the title character supply all the passion in the film? Maybe that’s the point.

Emmanuelle Devos is an ugly woman. Fantastic fact for a female star. Huge liquid eyes threaten to overspill their lids; her nose is a putty proboscis; her lips are a rosy pair of slugs. Where did she come from, this goddess-made-flesh who defies the

once the real hope for the family rather than, in her sister’s view, an idiot. Elektra has clearly inherited her narcissism whole from her mother’s DNA, and Waltraud Meier gives a career-best performance as a woman you can like, if not perhaps love as much as Elektra does. Give that a moment to sink in.

Anywhere else, any other time, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen would be the star of this show. Al-

constraints of conventional beauty?

There’s nothing normal about her, especially in this role, which she seems born to incarnate. Her visceral intelligence, her thin skin, her quirky reflexes, her jagged edges, her abysmal emotivity, all furnish the screen with rich, sticky glimpses of unbearable intimacy. See it.t Opens June 27 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco, Landmark’s Albany Twin in Albany, and Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.

Through Sept. 14.

Open late Friday nights! Free music, performances, art-making, and more!

Open late Friday nights! Free music, performances, art-making, and more!

Open late Friday nights! Free music, performances, art-making, and more!

Open late Friday nights! Free music, performances, art-making, and more!

Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, and more. See this captivating selection from the greatest masters of the postwar era, including a rare display of Barnett Newman’s 15-painting masterpiece The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani.

This exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Presenting Sponsors: Penny and James George Coulter. Director’s Circle: Estate of Dr. Charles L. Dibble. President’s Circle: Bernard Osher Foundation. Curator’s Circle: Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund. Conservator’s Circle: National Endowment for the Arts and the S. Grace Williams Trust. Benefactor’s Circle: Nion T. McEvoy. Patron’s Circle: Carol and Shelby Bonnie, Richard and Peggy Greenfield, the Ednah Root Foundation, and Dorothy Saxe, and Sotheby’s.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

JUNE 7–OCTOBER 12 H E R B ST E X H I B I T I O N G A L L E R I E S

Roy Lichtenstein, Painting with Statue of Liberty, 1983. Oil and Magna on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, and more. See this captivating selection from the greatest Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, masters of the postwar era, including a rare display of Barnett Newman’s Frank Stella, and more. See this captivating selection from the greatest 15-painting masterpiece Theera,Stations Cross: Lema Sabachthani. masters of the postwar including a of rarethe display of Barnett Newman’s 15-painting masterpiece The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani.

This exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Presenting Sponsors: Penny and James George Coulter. Director’s Circle: Estate of Dr. Charles L. Dibble. President’s Circle:Gallery Bernard Osher Foundation.

Curator’s Circle: andFine Douglas Goldman Fund. Conservator’s Circle: National nized by the National of Art, Washington, andLisa the Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Endowment for the Arts and the S. Grace Williams Trust. Benefactor’s Circle: Nion T. McEvoy. Patron’s Circle: Penny and JamesCarol George Coulter.

Director’s Circle: Estate of Dr. Charles L. Dibble.

President’s and Shelby Bonnie, Richard and Peggy Greenfield, the Ednah Root Foundation, and Dorothy Saxe, and Sotheby’s.

The exhibition is supported by anDouglas indemnity from the Federal Council the Arts and the Humanities.

Foundation. Curator’s Circle: Lisa and Goldman Fund.onConservator’s Circle: National

JUNE 7–OCTOBER 12

H E R B ST E X HJUNE I B I T I O N G A L L E R I E7–OCTO S Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, selection from the greatest H E R B ST E X H I B I T Roy Lichtenstein, Painting withmasters Statue of Liberty, 1983.

Oil and Magna on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, a rare display of Barnett Newman’s of the postwar era, including Collection of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein 15-painting masterpiece The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani.

Arts and the S. Grace Williams Trust. Benefactor’s Circle: Nion T. McEvoy. Patron’s Circle: Stella, and See captivating nie, Ednah Root Foundation, andmore.

Dorothy Saxe, andthis Sotheby’s. ie, Richard and Peggy Greenfield, the Frank orted by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

ting with Statue of Liberty, 1983. Oil and Magna on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington,

<< Books

72 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Pride reading list: Prose & poetry

by Gregg Shapiro

P

rose pages: When it comes to fitting Pride reads, few books can compare to The Days of Anna Madrigal (Harper), the ninth installment in Armistead Maupin’s beloved Tales of the City saga. After taking a break from the series and the characters, Maupin resumed writing about the inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane again in 2007, with the latest book focusing on everyone’s favorite “transgender landlady,” Anna Madrigal.

It seems like almost everyone wants to have a June wedding, and when it comes to same-sex marriage, June weddings take on even more meaning since it is also Pride month. Prolific novelist Rick R. Reed adds his own distinctive twist to the gay marriage spectrum with his romance novel Legally Wed (Dreamspinner Press).

Swiss-born, Sweden-based writer and gay dad Hans M. Hirschi’s epic Living the Rainbow: A gay family triptych (Yaree) combines three novels – Family Ties, Jonathan’s Hope and The Opera House – under one cover.

Queer novelist and filmmaker

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Frameline 38

From page 57

I Feel Like Disco (Germany) Axel Ranisch’s domestic comedy, by turns goofy and dark, puts our love of the eternally silly music genre disco to an ultimate test.

Flori is a terminally confused teenager whom perhaps only a mother could love. Still saddled with his “baby fat,” the kid lives for lip-synching under a revolving glass ball.

Only mom sees into his heart, and when she is suddenly struck down, Flori is left to cope with an impatient swimming-instructor dad who prays that he’ll butch it up, and a lithe, impossibly cute Romanian diver who becomes an impossible lover fantasy.

IFLD illustrates the fine line trod

by German comedies that veer between fantasy and the kind of gritty truths given a wide berth by their American counterparts. Robert Alexander Baer raises the erotic temperature as Flori’s main crush and tormentor-in-chief. (Closing night, Castro, 6/29) Appropriate Behavior One of the festival’s hippest comedies is an achingly wise and poignant account of life in Brooklyn’s lesbian fast lanes, from Iranian-American director Desiree Akhavan. Her wise-ass heroine Shirin starts with a messy breakup – her ex cuts up her underwear as an exclamation point to their final fight. She’s not out to her family, her day job involves teaching filmmaking to six-yearolds, and worst of all, she just can’t get her mind off her ex. Akhavan punctuates her story with flashbacks, like that long-ago New Year’s Eve when Shirin first met her honey on the steps of a Park Slope brownstone.

“What are you drinking?”

“I filled this water bottle with tequila.”

“Classy.”

“I’m drinking with a purpose.

This guy with whom I recently had an unfortunate sexual encounter showed up, and now I feel uncomfortable. I just hate the way dudes get when they can’t maintain an erection. They shut down and get all mopey and offended when you make jokes.”

“Yeah, it’s weird the way men don’t enjoy humor at the expense of their penises.”

“I know I don’t look like I’m into girls, and I was just talking about being a boner-killer, but I am supersexy and super into girls, like you.”

Dia Felix’s debut novel Nochita (City Lights/Sister Spit), recipient of praise from Mary Gaitskill and CA Conrad, follows the title character from her unstable home life to the streets, where she becomes “a runaway with nothing to run from.”

In Mr. Loverman (Akashic), Bernadine Evaristo, employing regional dialect, introduces us to Antigua-born Barrington, now living in London, balancing relationships with Carmel, his wife of 50 years, and Morris, his childhood buddy and male lover for 60 years. As one relationship fizzles, the other flourishes, and Barrington must obey his instincts to make the most of his golden years.

Now available in paperback, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells (Ecco) by Andrew Sean Greer, which was named one of the 100 notable books of 2013 by The New York Times Book Review, tells of the time-traveling journey (via hypnosis) of Greta following the death of her gay twin brother Felix and the end of her relationship with boyfriend Nathan, taking her from 1985 to 1918 to 1941 and back again.

Best-known as the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning “Like me?”

“You know, like manly, but also a little bit like a lady.”

With a sharp eye for the pratfalls of coming out in a conservative ethnic culture, Akhavan offers a queer version of mumblecore classics like Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha. Beginning and ending with our gal on the subway, we hope Shirin finds her way before the end of the line.

(Castro, 6/27) Boys “I’m not gay!” Before an impossibly cute Dutch boy issues this frosty declaration, we’ve had 20 minutes to drink in the little slice of rural heaven that 15-year-old Sieger (Gijs Blom resembles a Brat Packera Rob Lowe) inhabits with his rebellious older brother, widower dad and a scrum of adolescent athletesin-training. Twenty minutes in, director Mischa Kamp has her lads lock lips at the local swimming hole.

The kiss surprises Sieger, but not his lip-locking partner Marc, a brazenly self-assured lad played with terrific aplomb by curly-haired imp Ko Zandvliet.

The boy-on-boy frolics upstage a teen sports story that otherwise resembles Peter Yates’ 1979 Indiana bicycle-racing comedy/drama gem Breaking Away. Others will recall the similar 1980 queer-themed classic Spetters, which became a Hollywood calling card for its young Dutch director, Paul Verhoeven.

(Castro, 6/28) My Straight Son (Venezuela) Director Miguel Ferrari provides a stirring melodrama with the festival’s most compelling if unlikely father/son bonds. Gay photographer Diego is living a cozy Caracas life between his high-end fashion shoots and nights out with his boyfriend Fabrizio. Diego suffers trouble in spades with the visit of an angry boy, his own 15-yearold son, the product of a long-ago hetero fling. The kid, Armando, is upset over years of fatherly neglect.

Things come to a nasty head when Fabrizio is the victim of a vicious queer-bashing and Diego is challenged to be a good dad and a true mensch while under siege from his society’s most virulent form of machismo. (Victoria, 6/28) The Third One (Argentina) This erotically charged caper kicks off in a young man’s bedroom as the college student begins a sexy web-chat with an older guy. Rodrigo Guerrero uses deliciously framed long takes to show how the kid hooks up for some frisky action with the man and his lover.

crime novel series featuring gay criminal defense attorney Henry Rios, Michael Nava sets his new novel The City of Palaces (Terrace Books) during the period just prior to the Mexican Revolution, populating it with a fascinating array of characters.

Arts writer Stephen Greco writes what he knows in his new novel Now and Yesterday (Kensington), a cross-generational love story between Peter, 59, and Will, 28, set in What distinguishes this romp is the deliberately paced escalation of carnal hooks: sex must wait for dinner with white wine. The bedroom scenes are worth the wait, in carefully choreographed erotic sequences, for a film that steers clear of obvious porn. (Victoria, 6/28) Cupcakes Israel’s jack-of-allgenres director Eytan Fox returns with a cinema sugar-rush about six friends at a European TV song contest. Ofer, a sexy and vocationally frustrated pre-school teacher, ropes five female pals into subordinating inflated egos to deliver a blockbuster slice of pop treacle. Framed by my favorite disco anthem, “Love Will Keep Us Together,” Fox unveils the party-down side of a country surviving perilously in the world’s toughest neighborhood. (Castro, 6/28) Boy Meets Girl Eric Schaeffer (My Life’s in Turnaround) gives the story of a newbie Kentucky tranny a sassy spin. Newcomer Michelle Hendley offers a brave interpretation of the complex motives of a “simple country girl” who trusts her platonic best friend/one-time wannabe lover with a naked glimpse of both her heart and a body that’s still very much in transition. (Roxie, 6/28) Salvation Army (France) Abdellah Taia embeds us inside an extended Moroccan clan as a shy, queer Arab boy (Taia’s younger self) plots to escape the tyranny of family and the mostly benevolent but still painful exploitation by foreign sex tourists. (Roxie, 6/27) Boys Don’t Cry (1999) Nebraska native Hilary Swank notched the first of her Best Actress Oscars with a heartbreaking turn as a smalltown girl whose boyish demeanor sets her off on a tragic path. Swank is utterly convincing as the real-life Teena Brandon, a lesbian lothario who, posing as pretty-boy Brandon Teena, wins the hearts of a posse of small-town country girls. “They say I’m the best boyfriend they’ve ever had.” Unfortunately, this winning streak enrages the local rednecks, giving director Kimberly Peirce the makings of a classic queer tragedy.

Swank’s peerless turn is matched by Chloe Sevigny as the girl who steals Brandon’s heart, and Peter Sarsgaard and Brendan Sexton III as the guys for whom Brandon is an intolerable affront. A good excuse to skip work for a Castro matinee, June 26 at 11 a.m.t www.frameline.org

the whirlwind realm of advertising and media in New York.

Poet’s corner: Award-winning lesbian poet and essayist Julie Marie Wade, a creative writing faculty member at Florida International University, is the author of the chapbook When I Was Straight (A Midsummer Night’s Press), in which she addresses the coming out process, before and after, with wit, woe, wisdom and wonder.

Maryland-based Lambda Literary

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Award nominee Hailey Leithauser is the recipient of the Emily Dickinson First Book Award from the Poetry Foundation for her debut book of poems Swoop (Graywolf Press).

Poet and Pennsylvania State University professor Robin Becker won a Lambda Literary Award for her 1996 collection All-American Girl. Her latest collection, Tiger Heron (U. of Pittsburgh Press), has been praised by Alison Bechdel, Ellen Bass and Maxine Kumin.

Separated into three distinct sections, “My First Ten Plague Years,” “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Sodomite” and “This Life Now,” Michael Broder’s debut poetry collection This Life Now (A Midsummer Night’s Press) marks the arrival of an important gay poet.

Described as “one of the most important and challenging texts of 20th-century literary modernism” and a “touchstone work of radical modernist poetry,” Gertrude Stein’s 1914 book Tender Buttons (City Lights) has been reissued in a “corrected centennial edition,” including facsimile images, “A Note on the Text” by Seth Perlow, and Juliana Spahr’s afterword.t

Frameline

Scene from director Miguel Ferrari’s My Straight Son.

Frameline

Scene from director Rodrigo Guerrero’s The Third One.

Frameline

Scene from director Eytan Fox’s Cupcakes.

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Books>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 73

Pride reading list: LGBTrue stories

by Gregg Shapiro

D

on’t feel you should skimp on your reading this month. Here are a few suggestions for the Pride season.

Creative types: In the introduction to her book The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), editor Kathleen Bucknell writes, “From February 14, 1953 until January 4, 1986, the conversation between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy never stopped.” One of the greatest true gay love stories of all time, the relationship of legendary author Christopher Isherwood and visual artist Don Bachardy was immortalized in the acclaimed 2007 doc Chris and Don: A Love Story, and readers can now get another intimate glimpse into their lives through this collection of correspondence.

Lauded and openly gay British composer Benjamin Britten (The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra), who collaborated with other queer writers of his time including W.H. Auden and E.M. Forster, is given the biographical treatment in Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music (Henry Holt) by Neil Powell.

Influential and somewhat controversial 20th-century “cultural impresario” Carl Van Vechten is the subject of The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America by Edward White (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A familiar face during the Harlem Renaissance, Van Vechten’s circle included Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, Bessie Smith and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A coffee-table book, A Journey Through Literary America (Val De Grâce) by Thomas R. Hummel, with photography by Tamra L. Dempsey, takes readers on a wondrous voyage through New England, the South, the West, the Midwest and beyond, focusing on “the places that America’s great writers had described in their own words.” The writers represented, living and dead, include Raymond Carver, Phillip Roth, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Rita Dove, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Queer voices, including Langston Hughes and Willa Cather, are also present, as is E. Annie Proulx, straight author of the novella Brokeback Mountain.

Edited by Robert Kirby, Qu33r: New Comics from 33 Creators (Northwest) includes Diane DiMassa, Ed Luce, Justin Hall, Jennifer Camper, Steve MacIsaac, Amanda Verwey, David Kelly, Jon Macy and Eric Orner, providing personal essays in images.

Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire (Duke) by Amy Villarejo, a professor of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, takes a close look at the representation of queer life on television, and how it has evolved from the 1950s to the present day.

Strong women: Best known as the straight-talking lesbian host of the popular Bravo series Tabatha Takes Over, Tabatha Coffey published her first book, It’s Not Really About the Hair: The Honest Truth About Life, Love, and the Business of Beauty, in 2011. The follow-up tome, Own It! (!t Books), subtitled Be the Boss of Your Life at Home and in the Workplace, contains more useful advice delivered in Coffey’s trademark style.

Journalist and blogger Kelly Cogswell tells her own story in Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger (U. of Minnesota). Abandoning her Southern Baptist roots for a new and queer life in the East Village of the 1990s, Cosgrove immersed herself in activism, plunging into the explosive, fire-eating world of

the Lesbian Avengers’ brand of in-your-face action, protests and marches, all in the name of making the world a safer place for “baby dykes,” lesbians and women everywhere.

Before there was openly gay football player Michael Sam, there was out, 6’8” WNBA Mercury Phoenix player Brittney Griner. Her memoir In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court (!t Books), by Griner with Sue Hovey, follows her from her Houston childhood to college at Baylor University, where she played basketball, to her career as a professional athlete.

Personals: The “pilgrimage” in the title of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America (Harper Perennial) by Jeff Chu takes the writer on a 20,000-mile trek through almost 30 states resulting in more than 300 interviews with people asking and answering similar questions in regard to their own

spiritual journeys.

A memoir by Pacific Northwestbased writer Ross Eliot, Babette: The Many Lives, Two Deaths and Double Kidnapping of Dr. Ellsworth (Heliocentric), traces the writer’s experience during the time he acted as caretaker for Professor Albert Ellsworth, whose Southern French high society childhood, and later gender reassignment surgery to become Babette, bracket a life that makes for a lively read.

Consisting of 26 personal essays, In a New Century: Essays on Queer History, Politics, and Community

Life (U. of Wisconsin), by awardwinning writer and newly retired university professor John D’Emilio, looks at history and its lessons, strategizing and making change, and the undervalued gay community in Chicago.

Over the course of the 12 “Essays on the Body” in You Feel So Mortal (U. of Chicago), Peggy Shinner touches on subjects ranging from feet to posture, from shoplifting to self-defense, from bras to nose jobs, from anti-depressants to autopsies, and places in-between and beyond.

Location, location, location:

Growing out of South African journalist Mark Gevisser’s obsession with the Holmden’s Register of South Africa street guide, Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) charts the writer’s “intimate history of Johannesburg.”

For Safe Space (Duke), Christina B. Hanhardt, Associate Professor of American Studies at University of Maryland, College Park, drew on research in Manhattan and San Francisco to trace the way queer activism and the development of urban communities have intertwined for the past 40 years.

Anyone who has encountered straight breeders pushing SUV strollers through Chicago’s Boystown, NYC’s Chelsea, San Francisco’s Castro, Washington DC’s Dupont Circle or Boston’s South End neighborhoods will find something to relate to in sociologist Amin Ghaziani’s There Goes the Gayborhood?

(Princeton).▼

Explore the exuberant charm of Mary Blair, one of Walt Disney’s most inventive and influential designers and art directors. Blair’s joyful creativity, her appealing designs, and her energetic color palette endure in numerous media, including the classic Disney animated films Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan, and also in the theme park attraction it’s a small world.

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Sponsored by

104 Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94129 Mary Blair, concept artwork for Peter Pan (1953); collection Walt Disney Family Foundation, gift of Ron and Diane Disney Miller; © Disney | MAGIC, COLOR, FLAIR: the world of Mary Blair is organized by The Walt Disney Family Museum | © The Walt Disney Family Museum® Disney Enterprises, Inc. | © 2014 The Walt Disney Family Museum, LLC | The Walt Disney Family Museum is not affiliated with Disney Enterprises, Inc.

<< Film

74 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Pioneering openly gay movie master

by Tavo Amador

F

ew directors in Hollywood during the studio system (ca. 192560) were openly gay. Oscar-winner Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris) and the underrated Mitchell Leisen (To Each His Own), for example, married and had children, thus allowing moguls to follow a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

George Cukor (1899-1983) was an exception. He never hid who he was and thrived, although he waited over three decades to win an Academy Award. His sexual orientation was one reason he was labeled a “woman’s director.” In fact, he was superb with both genders.

Born in New York City to Hungarian Jewish immigrant parents, he spent a decade working in the theatre on Broadway and Rochester (firing the unknown Bette Davis) before coming West in 1930. His movies reflect that background: good scripts and excellent performances from stars. He left the camera work to others.

Heterosexual producer David O. Selznick hired Cukor to work for him at RKO. There, he guided Katharine Hepburn to stardom in A Bill of Divorcement (1932), her screen debut.

Selznick was notorious for interfering with directors, but Cukor set limits.

When Selznick formed his own independent production company and went to work for his father-in-law, MGM’s Louis B. Mayer, he brought

Cukor along. The great Dinner at Eight (1933) followed. Back at RKO, Hepburn was an outstanding Jo in his Little Woman (1933). For MGM, he helmed the brilliant David Copperfield (1934). The failure of Sylvia Scarlett (1935), with Hepburn disguised as a boy for most of the picture, was blamed on her.

MGM’s Production Chief Irving Thalberg entrusted Cukor with the lavish Romeo and Juliet (1936). Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer were too old for the leads, and the movie is stagy, yet has many effective moments. For him, Greta Garbo dazzled in Camille (1936). He began working on Selznick’s Gone With the Wind, not completed until 1939.

Cukor tested most of the stars and unknowns eager to play Scarlett. His coaching helped Vivien Leigh get the part. He was instrumental in casting Olivia de Havilland as Melanie.

When filming actually began, Cukor may have been bored. Shooting was slow, so Selznick replaced him with Victor Fleming. Selznick’s action reflected multiple concerns, but Clark Gable probably influenced him. Cast as Rhett, Gable disliked Cukor’s open homosexuality, feared he was favoring Leigh, and may have worried that Cukor knew of his early, occasional gay-for-pay exploits before stardom.

Fleming was also Gable’s friend. Disappointed, Leigh and de Havilland spent Sunday afternoons at Cukor’s home, rehearsing that week’s scenes.

Leigh fought frequently with Flem-

ing, so Cukor’s guidance helped shape her brilliant performance.

Cukor easily survived. MGM gave him The Women (1939). He got expert characterizations from the allfemale cast, headed by Shearer and Joan Crawford, who had clashed with him while making 1935’s No More Ladies. “Fine, Miss Crawford.

You know your lines. Now try putting some meaning into them,” he insisted. But he became her favorite director and a lifetime friend.

Hepburn demanded Cukor for the film version of her stage triumph The Philadelphia Story (1940). It marked her comeback, earned her a New York Film Critics Award and an Oscar nomination.

Co-star James Stewart would win the Best Actor prize.

He directed Selznick star Ingrid Bergman to the Best Actress Academy Award for 1944’s Gaslight, and helmed several Hepburn and Spencer Tracy battle-of-the-sexes comedies. Ronald Coleman (A Double Life, 1947) and Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday, 1950) would collect Oscars under his direction.

Studio heads respected Cukor’s commercial and critical successes.

Jack Warner of Warner Bros. gave him the musical remake of A Star Is Born (1954), Judy Garland’s comeback vehicle. Shooting was challenging – she worked erratically – but Cukor blamed the delays and cost overruns on the switch to CinemaScope after filming began. “Just

Allan Warren

Film director George Cukor in 1973.

about the finest one-woman show in modern movie history,” raved Time. Business was brisk.

He directed Anna Magnani in Wild Is the Wind (1957), and for 20th Century Fox, coaxed a lovely performance from Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love (1960). They began shooting Something’s Gotta Give (1962), but she was fired for unreliability. She would die soon afterwards. She’s glowing, relaxed, and touching in the completed footage.

Earlier, he refused Cat on a Hot Tim Roof because censors eliminated the references to homosexuality.

Warner hired Cukor for My Fair Lady (1964), then the most expensive

Cukor, curated

by Tavo Amador

G

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eorge Cukor probably would have dismissed the auteur theory of film, which gives most credit to the director. For him, movies were a collaborative art. He’s credited with directing over 50 pictures, most of which are on DVD, including the subjective recommendations that follow.

Dinner at Eight (1933) was Cukor’s first for MGM. Based on George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s play, it features an extraordinary cast giving expert performances. Jean Harlow is hilarious, establishing herself as a crackerjack comedienne. Boorish husband Wallace Beery is terrific. John Barrymore as an aging matinee idol is touching. Lionel Barrymore and Billie Burke are the rattled hosts of this elegant affair. The great Marie Dressler, the year’s biggest box-office star, is magnificent, and has one of the most celebrated closing lines in movie history.

Neither public nor critics were ready for Sylvia Scarlett (1935).

Katharine Hepburn, in male drag, elicits homoerotic emotions from handsome Brian Aherne, feelings that he cannot explain. It’s funny and insightful. With Cary Grant and Edmund Gwenn.

Anita Loos and Jane Murfin adapted Claire Boothe Luce’s Broadway smash The Women (1939), and MGM gave it a lavish production.

No men are in the cast. Joan Crawford is Crystal, the social-climbing mistress of Stephen Haines, married to Mary (Norma Shearer). In her first unsympathetic part, Crawford is superb – funny, painfully aware of class distinctions. Shearer has many scenes being noble, but has some fine moments. Rosalind Russell as her bitchy cousin Sylvia proved herself a dazzling comedienne. Beautiful Paulette Goddard is lively as Miriam, Mary Boland is memorable as the eternally romantic Countess, and as Peggy, the exquisite Joan Fontaine shows why she would become a star the next year in Rebecca.

Adam’s Rib (1949) is the best

of the Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn comedies. They’re married lawyers on opposite sides in a trial involving Judy Holliday shooting her unfaithful husband. Many feminist issues arise. Both stars are at their best, and Holliday’s performance helped her repeat her Broadway triumph as Billie Dawn in 1950’s Born Yesterday. With David Wayne, Jean Hagen, and Hope Emerson, a woman not to be messed with.

Judy Garland and James Mason are outstanding in A Star Is Born (1954), a heartbreaking look at the price of fame. Harold Arlen and Ira

t

musical ever made. It won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Director. A beaming Crawford presented the award to him. The film was a smash, but seemed old-fashioned.

Perhaps that explains the five-year hiatus that ended with Justine (1969), based on the first novel in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. It flopped. Cukor, in a rare public display of anger, complained about star Anouk Aimee. In 1972, he helmed Travels With My Aunt, with Maggie Smith replacing Hepburn. Instead, he directed her and Laurence Olivier for television’s Love Among the Ruins (1975), a ratings success.

The Bluebird (1976), an international production filmed in chaotic circumstances in Moscow with Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, Jane Fonda, and Cicely Tyson, was dreadful. In 1977, he organized a magnificent memorial service for Crawford. He persevered, directing Hepburn for television in The Corn Is Green (1979), and making one more picture, Rich and Famous (1981), with Jacqueline Bisset and Candace Bergen. He infused it with a bitchy energy.

Cukor kept his social life divided.

Hepburn, Garbo, Leigh and other legends were regular weekend lunch guests. Evenings were for gay parties, including the hustlers he hired.

There is no “Cukor” look in his movies. He was a professional working in a company town who directed a high percentage of noteworthy movies. It’s an admirable legacy.t

Gershwin’s original score includes “The Man That Got Away.” Garland is in great voice. The “Born in a Trunk Medley” is justifiably famous.

With Jack Carson and Charles Bickford. Originally released at 181 minutes, Warners cut key scenes to make it more commercially viable.

Many have been restored, but some footage remains lost. Garland’s failure to win the Oscar (awarded to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl) is among the Academy’s biggest mistakes.

Les Girls (1957) are three dancers (Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg) in London reminiscing about Gene Kelly and his impact on their lives. It’s uneven, but Kendall is magnificent, a statuesque beauty who is hilarious. She makes the film worth watching.

In Let’s Make Love (1960), French multi-millionaire Yves Montand pretends to be an actor so as to seduce an actress/singer, the glorious Marilyn Monroe. Her rendition of Cole Porter’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is matchless. With Tony Randall. Bing Crosby and Milton Berle have cameos as themselves.

The Chapman Report (1962) was a groundbreaking look at the sex lives of four women: Jane Fonda, Claire Bloom, Shelley Winters, and Glynis Johns, all terrific.

My Fair Lady (1964) was Cukor’s peak, but he seemed in awe of the material. Rex Harrison won an Oscar repeating his stage success as Henry Higgins, and he’s splendid.

Contrary to legend, Audrey Hepburn is convincing as guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle, and incomparable when transformed into an aristocrat. It won Cukor his long-deserved Oscar, but the film is really a series of set-pieces.

Love Among the Ruins (1975) was his first for television. It’s a souffle that rises unevenly. Still, the teaming of Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier makes it worth watching. Both are charming. She’s an aging actress, and he’s an attorney who once loved her, only she’s forgotten him. The two spar smartly, and all ends happily.t

t

Film>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 75

Gay play comes to movie theaters

by David-Elijah Nahmod

D

ouglas Carter Beane’s play The Nance beautifully captures a time in which it wasn’t safe to be gay. Set in New York City circa 1937, it tells the somewhat sad tale of Chauncey Miles (Nathan Lane), an actor who appears in comedy sketches in a low-rent burlesque house.

Chauncey plays a “nance,” an effeminate gay stereotype who is meant to be laughed at by the audience.

Chauncey is a lonely man who yearns to be loved, and for a more respectable career. He enters into a relationship with Ned (Jonny Orsini), a young, recent arrival to the city. Ned had left a loveless straight marriage after coming to terms with who he really is. Ned genuinely loves Chauncey, who’s unsure of how to respond to the younger man’s af-

fections. Chauncey nevertheless accepts Ned into his life.

The play juxtaposes scenes from Chauncey’s life and the burlesque sketches he appears in. Many of these comic bits are metaphors for the closet he’s forced to live in and the societal prejudices he faces. The tension builds as New York City Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, who views burlesque as “unwholesome,” targets obviously gay performers like Chauncey as an excuse to shut the theaters down.

The Nance was videotaped during a performance at the Lyceum Theater in New York. The camera remains focused primarily on the stage. The audience is rarely seen, making it easy for video viewers to remain engaged with the play’s fascinating and superbly acted story. On June 24, The Nance will begin a one-week engagement in Bay Area cinemas.

into that person’s behavior?

Playwright Douglas Carter Beane chatted with the B.A.R. about his new work.

Are these characters based on real people?

“Nance” is a stock comedy character. There is no record of an out man being a Nance, but how would that be recorded in that time? Just seven years earlier, there was The Pansy Crazy, which were gay MCs in nightclubs. They were all out and open, so there is a record of that.

David-Elijah Nahmod: Tell us more about yourself.

Douglas Carter Beane: I am Douglas Carter Beane. I came out in 1977 to take a stand against Anita Bryant – now doesn’t she seem quaint? I spent time in the gay discos of Philly.

What inspires you to write?

Ever since I read Huck Finn as a kid, I knew I wanted to make people laugh and tell them the truth. When I see something unspoken and people are afraid to admit it, I’m inspired to pick up the pen and begin.

What inspired you to write The Nance?

The fascinating dichotomy between campy humor and an in-

Nathan Lane as the title character in Douglas Carter Beane’s The Nance.

ability to have a meaningful relationship. Two things that seem to have self-loathing at their core. One bright, one dark. Also, when society tells someone they are wrong and worthless, how does that manifest

Short & sweet

by David Lamble

T

he Frameline film festival programmers pay a huge amount of respect to the work of shortlength filmmakers, both as a farm system and for their own sake.

Home from the Gym Robert Hawk and Jake Robbins collaborate on this five-minute short that feels as much like an art installation at the Modern as your typical gay male short subject. Robbins, in a wordless sequence with a post-modern air, is a 20-something guy who returns to a cluttered studio after a brisk work-out. The piece begins with the camera surveying his small digs, so our voyeuristic needs are met and implicitly critiqued. Then the boy/ man appears, stripping himself of his sweaty togs, and ultimately just sit-

ting down quietly on a shabby chair: art into life/life into art. (Appears on a program with the Polish drama Floating Skyscrapers, Roxie, 6/26) Sex Date Director John Sobrack has fun with both our illusions about security and our complete paranoia about the lack of same in our lives, in this short that kicks off with two men on a blind date.

Dinner at 40 Who says it’s your special night? Director Carl Byrd delivers up a tasteful b-day nightmare that’s both funny and a cautionary tale. (both in Fun in Boys Shorts, Castro, 6/29) Disaster Preparedness Director Melissa Finell explores the weakest link in a female couple’s bond in this subtle comedy/drama. As a lover returns from a New York chain drugstore, her partner concedes the

futility of trying to store water in little plastic bags.

“Did you get the bottled water and batteries?”

“Becky, this is a hurricane in New York City, there’s no bottled water and batteries. I had to fight an old lady just to get this wine.” This one could have been hatched from the febrile minds in the Seinfeld writers’ pool.

One Night Stand Director Ryan Logan turns the premise of a newlyweds’ date with destiny into a slapstick “Who’s that strange woman in our closet?” comedy.

What’s Your Sign? Directors Rebby Kern, Reese Mortis & Alex Siow reveal the subtext beneath the causal chat between two women at a gallery opening. Even their knowledge of sign language, amusingly subtitled, becomes a potential

Frameline

Scene from Robert Hawk and Jake Robbins’ collaboration Home from the Gym.

source of embarrassment at the hands of a well-proportioned deaf woman. (all three in Fun in Girls Shorts, Castro, 6/29) Scaffolding (Spain) Director Juanma Carrillo shows the bonds that spring up between neighbors confronted with a construction disruption in front of their adjoining condos. This one features a fine ambient soundtrack.

Das Phallometer (Germany) Di-

What is the story’s message?

Don’t trust society’s views, don’t trust political movements. Trust yourself. Trust love. Love yourself.t The Nance screens through June 30: Century 9 at San Francisco Center, 835 Market St., SF; Century 20, Daly City. The Nance will also screen at the Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore St., SF, from July 16-20.

rector Tor Iben finds droll humor in an immigration interrogation that begins with the confession, “I am a homosexual.”

Barrio Boy (USA) Director Dennis Shinners frames a tense cutemeet as a Brooklyn barber finds himself having to struggle to conceal his feelings for a dream-boy customer.

Wandering Clouds Mexico’s Julian Hernandez provides an unexpected sting to the eye-candy delight of watching two beautiful divers cavorting in an indoor pool. (all four in Worldly Affairs, Castro, 6/27) Who Do You Think You Are (Fais Pas Genre) (France) Director Marie Loustalot confronts a femaleto-male transgender person with the odd sensation of not being recognized by an ex. (In the City of Shy Hunters program, Roxie, 6/26)t

J u n e 1 4 , 2 0 1 4 — Ja n ua ry 1 1 , 2 0 1 5

This series of eloquent, expressive photographs made by anthony Friedkin between 1969 and 1973 chronicles gay life in Los angeles and San Francisco at the dawn of the Gay Liberation movement. The accompanying exhibition catalogue includes essays by Julian Cox and Nayland Blake and newly commissioned poetry by Eileen Myles.

F I N E A RTS M U S E U M S O F SA N F R A N C I S C O

Golden Gate Park • deyoungmuseum.org

anthony Friedkin, Jean Harlow, Drag Queen Ball, Long Beach, from the series The Gay Essay, 1971. Gelatin silver print. Fine arts Museums of San Francisco, anonymous gift

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LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 26 • June 26-July 2, 2014

Lea DeLaria Butch Dyke Sings the Blues

by David-Elijah Nahmod

L

Lea DeLaria performing at a Trevor Project benefit concert

courtesy GLBT Historical Society

ea DeLaria is a butch lesbian who has the voice of an angel. One of the most groundbreaking and talented performers in show business, DeLaria will be gracing the stage at Feinstein’s at the Hotel Nikko on June 28.

DeLaria has worn many hats over the course of a multi-faceted career. She’s a hilariously raunchy stand-up comic. Her 1993 appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show marked the first time an out lesbian appeared on a late night talk show. Ellen DeGeneres’ historic coming out was still four years away.

DeLaria has starred in Broadway musicals, recorded jazz/pop standards, appeared in numerous films, played a dual role on the soap opera One Life to Live, and headlined at cabarets to much acclaim.

Born and raised in Belleville, Illinois, her father was a jazz pianist and social worker.

Through it all she was remained true to her identity as an out, proud lesbian who speaks her truth plainly.

“I don’t have an issue with the mainstreaming of the queer community as long as we don’t deny the reality of who we are,” DeLaria said in a phone interview. “A lot of people ignore our history and try to emulate straights.”

See page 82 >> She said that she has no desire to get married.

! d i a R a It’s

Historic Bar Sites from San Francisco’s Da rker

by Michael Flanagan

Past

I

n Gus Van Sant’s film Milk, there is a series of scenes as the film opens of men being taken from bars as they are raided. Some react by covering their faces and one even throws a drink at the photographer.

It’s a wonderful dramatic device that sets up a contrast between sad and ashamed men submitting to the law and resistance against that kind of stigmatization exemplified by the life of Harvey Milk.

Yet if we take a look at the lives of both men and women who were arrested in police raids of this sort in San Francisco, it is evident that a number of people resisted in a variety of ways from the start. Some places that were involved in these raids have disappeared, like the Tay Bush Inn on Taylor and Bush streets. The after-hours club, which was the scene of the largest raid in San Francisco history on September 14, 1961, has been erased by a condo on the site. Other sites like California Hall, where a drag ball sponsored by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual was raided by police on January 1, 1965, remain but are inaccessible to all but a few.

But there are four places in San Francisco where you can sit and toast to the memory of people who fought back. Three of the four are no longer gay or lesbian bars, but they are all welcoming spots and well worth a visit to see where history was made.

See page 78 >>

Right: Outside the 1965 California Hall Mardi Grad drag ball, where many were arrested, despite protests from clergy.

Published in the SF Examiner.

Left: A 1965 San Francisco Chronicle article about the California Hall raid.

{ FOURTH OF FOUR SECTIONS }

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

78 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

t

Li Po’s

The Black Cat exterior in the 1940s.

Jose Sarria at The Black Cat in 1961.

<<

You may not think of Chinatown as a gay hotspot, but this has not always been the case. During World War II Li-Po at 916 Grant served as a refuge for a while from wartime bar raids. As Berube’s book Coming Out Under Fire tells us, after raids on several bars in town: “Displaced customers started to fill up Li-Po’s, a discreet gay bar in Chinatown that until then had attracted “welldressed, handsome youths” including servicemen.

But the crackdown on the other gay spots drove some of the “swish crowd” into Li-Po’s, starting a second wave of crackdowns. “Within the last week” (Jim) Kepner wrote (in a letter to an Army pen pal), “the management has been refusing to admit a large number of the more swishy ‘girls.’ This is really a shame…as the place is beginning to get almost dull now, but I guess it was necessary.”

The same week the police raided the Rickshaw around the corner from Li-Po’s and arrested two dozen customers, including “a couple of Lesbians [who] protested and were beaten up” in a fight that ‘led to a small free for all.’”

Li-Po has had the proverbial nine lives, changing from a place where punk bands performed in

It’s a Raid!

From page 77

The Black Cat

EDITOR Jim Provenzano DESIGNERS Jay Cribas, Max Leger ADVERTISING SALES Scott Wazlowski 415-359-2612 CONTRIBUTORS Ray Aguilera, Race Bannon, Matt Baume, Heather Cassell, Coy Ellison, Michael Flanagan, Dr. Jack Fritscher, Peter Hernandez, John F. Karr, T. Scott King, Sal Meza, David Elijah-Nahmod, Adam Sandel, Donna Sachet, Jim Stewart, Ronn Vigh, Cornelius Washington PHOTOGRAPHY Biron, Wayne Bund, Marques Daniels, Don Eckert, Lydia Gonzales, Rick Gerharter, Jose Guzman-Colon, Georg Lester, Dan Lloyd, Jim Provenzano, Rich Stadtmiller, Monty Suwannukul, Steven Underhill BARtab is published by BAR Media, Inc. PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Michael M. Yamashita CHAIRMAN Thomas E. Horn VP AND CFO Patrick G. Brown

The Black Cat at 710 Montgomery operated on and off from 1906.

Beginning in the 1940s, it caught the attention of the police because of the sexual orientation of the clientele. These raids could be very brutal and sad. The historian and writer Jim Kepner recalled an incident in 1943 to Allan Berube in an article I accessed at the GLBT Historical Society archives entitled “Remembering the Black Cat” for the 1983 Gay and Lesbian parade (as it was then called): “Just as I approached, several San Francisco police thundered into the place. I retreated across the street and watched them haul out 15 of my brothers, though some might have been sisters for all I could tell at first glance. The police were damned rough about it, but except for some of the bolder queens, who gave the cops some sass and a little real physical resistance, the rest of my brothers went along like sheep to the slaughter.”

But the bar that was home to Jose Sarria’s performances of arias as well as campaign headquarters for his historic 1961 run for supervisor was also a festive spot as well. In the papers related to Nan Boyd’s book Wide Open Town (also at the archives) a patron recalled: “they used to have a…gay parade, but it only went one block and they had floats and everybody was in drag.”

Even when the bar was finally forced to stop serving liquor on Oct. 31, 1963 it served as a focal point.

For years afterward there were

Michael Flanagan

A flyer from Li Po’s in the olden days

“memorial services” performed on Halloween in front of the bar, which included a motorcade from Romeo’s at 1605 Haight and the laying of a wreath.

Today what was the Black Cat is Bocadillos, a tapas restaurant. They gladly celebrate the historic nature of the site (my waiter pointed out the plaque on the sidewalk outside).

In honor of the police raids, I had a delightful pork belly tapas and an Anchor Steam.

Li Po’s today.

Michael Flanagan

Drag costumes from Li Po’s heyday, on display as part of Forbidden City, USA at the San Francisco Public Library.

the 1980s, to being featured in the book San Francisco’s Best Dive Bars. It outlasted the Rickshaw, which was on Ross Alley (and reportedly served the Beatles when they were in town in 1964), which closed in 1984.

Li Po still exists in Chinatown and has even had Anthony Bourdain as a visitor, and still draws a crowd of locals and tourists, which are decidedly straight, but friendly. If you would like a better idea as to why Li Po appealed to the “swish crowd” in the ‘40s, however, you might be better off

SECRETARY Todd A. Vogt BAR Media, Inc. 225 Bush Street, Suite 1700 San Francisco, CA 94104 (415) 861-5019 www.BARtabSF.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media 212.242.6863 LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad Member National Gay Newspaper Guild Copyright © 2014, Bay Area Reporter, a division of BAR Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Bartender Grace Miller (left) at Tommy’s Place before it was raided.

A newspaper clipping of the Tommy’s Place and 12 Adler Place busts.

Spec Twelve Adler Museum Café today.

See page 79 >>

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 79

Serving the Castro since 1981

La Mediterranee Noe @LaMedNoe

News footage of police attacking patrons inside and outside the Elephant Walk after the 1979 White Night Riots.

<<

It’s a Raid!

From page 78

checking out the exhibition Forbidden City, USA at the San Francisco Public Library in celebration of the book Forbidden City U.S.A.: Chinese-American nightclubs 1936 – 1970 by Arthur Dong. Dong worked on the documentary for Berube’s book (as well as many others) and the exhibition shows off costumes with doubtlessly inspired many a drag queens fevered dreams in the war years.

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heads first and ordered people out later. One man, a straight man, saw a friend lying unconscious on the street, bent over to help and immediately a cop descended on him, clubbing him in the head. He shouted, ‘Stop, stop, I’m an epileptic!’ But the cop just kept hitting him.”

Tommy’s Place & 12 Adler

Spec Twelve Adler Museum Café (12 Saroyan Place) is on the alleyway (formerly Adler Street) across from City Lights. A colorful North Beach bar with enough bric-a-brac and curios on the walls to keep you entertained for hours, it’s also full of North Beach characters.

But in the 1950s it was a lesbian bar, owned by the openly lesbian Tommy Vasu (and attached to Tommy’s Place on 529 Broadway, now the Garden of Eden strip club, by a back stairs). The bars were the site of a sensational raid that resulted in a trial and months of hysteria in San Francisco.

Boyd’s Wide Open Town puts it this way: “…when Tommy’s Place was raided on 8 September 1954, it was part of a much larger police agenda. Because the arrests involved a handful of underage girls, the event escalated into a multifaceted investigation into juvenile delinquency that fleshed out the ostensible connection between organized ‘sex deviates’ and the corruption of minors.” Two bartenders and a patron, Jessie Joseph Winston, were put on trial. Winston and bartender Grace Miller served jail time and both bars were shut down.

A flyer commemorating the 1979 White Night Riots

October 12, 1989: “What started outside the federal building Friday evening, Oct. 6, as a bland plea for more AIDS funds ended five hours later with bloodied heads, mass arrests and the specter of fully-armed riot police marching in military formation through the heart of the Castro, sweeping demonstrators and confused passers-by from the streets and sidewalks.”

The ACT-UP action was part of a coordinated national response to the lack of funds for treatment, but San Francisco was the only location where there was a police riot that night. Police Chief Frank Jordan reported that he had not notified the mayor of the events in the Castro because he didn’t know how severe rcove r’s orte The Bay Area Rep they were. At least ten people, inage of a lawsuit settlement cluding some just going home, were the r afte more than four years swept up in the raid. Again from the k.

Wal t han Elep the on attacks B.A.R.: “They hit me with their billy-clubs when I went to help a woman,” said Gilbert Criswell Saturday afternoon displaying a bruised, bandaged arm. “This is terrible. I was just Elephant Walk on my way home from The final stop on our work. I wasn’t even raid tour, Harvey’s at 500 part of the protest.”

Castro, is also the site of The police riot did the most recent raid. In not bode well for the 1979 the bar was the Elfuture of San Francisephant Walk, and it was co’s LGBT community the site of a police riot or AIDS activists, as after the White Night RiBob Smith, via Cop Block the next mayor would ots. At 1 A.M. on May 22, be Frank Jordan. UnThe Castro Sweep police attacks of 1989.

1979, the police attacked like the earlier raids, the Elephant Walk. businesses were not Harvey’s is the only site on our An article in the San Francisco the target of the action and even tour which is still a gay bar. You can Sentinel stated, “For no good reastood against it. The manager of the appreciate the historic implications son the cops stormed the Elephant Castro Theater opened its doors to of the site by looking at the instalWalk…they surged inside, banged people on the street trying to escape lations of photos the police violence and would not from the GLBT allow the police to follow them and Historical Society. businesses provided ice to stop the bleeding of some on the street.

Castro Raid II So, as you sit and muse at these The raid on Harsites, you can be grateful that we no vey’s wasn’t the last longer have to fear raids of this sort. major police acThis is probably due in no small tion in the Castro, part to the efforts of the people in however. Ten years these bars and those like them who later, on October fought back. As you look at the 6, 1989, there was photos on the walls at Harvey’s of a major police raid Harvey Milk and his friends, you in retaliation for an can be thankful that we have left ACT-UP protest. these dark times behind.t The Bay Area Re-

Michael Flanagan

Harvey’s wall of historic photos today.

porter summed up the event in Brett Averill’s article entitled “Castro Held Hostage” from

The author would like to thank the GLBT Historical Society for use of their archives in the preparation of this article. www.GLBThistory.org

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80 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Eden Turns Five Every night of SF Pride is ladies’ night

by Joshua Klipp

E

den, the biggest women’s weekend during San Francisco Pride, pulls out the stops with its fifth year anniversary celebration. Thursday through Sunday, June 25 through 29, Eden throws a party a night, each one featuring a different line-up of celesbian hosts, live entertainment, DJ studs and, of course, pole-dancing or aerial work or body-painted gogos because, well, it’s Pride.

Of note, Bay Area A-lister Goapele headlines Eden’s Saturday night Five-Year Anniversary Party at Mezzanine. After a brief recording hiatus, Goapele’s new single “Hey Boy” drops this month, and her full

album speaks to her community of women. “[Strong as Glass] represents what us as women go through, feeling strong and independent, but we can’t do it all on our own.”

A mother herself, Goapele knows this first hand. “That’s something motherhood taught me. I’ve learned that I can rise to many occasions, but I can’t control everything. I’m sensitive. Being a woman and being a mother is equally empowering and humbling.”

At Eden’s Friday night White Party, another Bay Area hip hop Mama, Aima, the Dreamer shares the shine with Interscope artist Collette Carr.

t

Her latest single, “HAM,” features Ben J of the New Boyz and landed all over the Bay Area courtesy of Wild 94.9.

Every Eden party has a different theme, and more candy than the eye can behold. Thursday night’s Kick Off Party is hosted by Lauren of Showtime’s The Real L Word, and features a performance by local recording artist, Oh Blimey.

The party will be held at San Francisco’s famed Supperclub, so of course there will also be aerial acrobats and a

Lauren Bedford Russell

An Eden by the Bay party in full swing.

Oh Blimey

Colette Carr

album Strong As Glass comes out this fall. The Billboard charting singer Goapele describes her new track, produced by Keith Harris (Black Eyed Peas) as uptempo. “It makes me feel good, makes me want to dance or roller skate,” she said in a recent phone interview.

A singer with strong ties to the LGBT community, Goapele’s new

An Oakland native, Aima delivers her message with rare flow and surgical precision.

If you don’t learn something from this feminine powerhouse, you aren’t listening closely enough.

Co-performer Colette Carr, a hip hop/electro pop artist based in Los Angeles, was discovered during a concert by The Game in 2008.

Jessica Clark

private pole-dancing room.

Friday night’s White Everything party (white attire encouraged, not required) is hosted by HBO True Blood’s Jessica Clark, as well as MTV’s The Real World’s Ari Fitz.

Six DJs across three rooms and gogos all around, not to mention a photo booth (which preserves the memory of your presence far better than Pinterest).

Saturday night’s Anniversary Party at Mezzanine featuring Goapele pretty much guarantees a sellout, but throw in a $1000 balloon drop at midnight, free champagne toast and body painting, and you may have to wait another five years before you get in the door of another women’s party as banging as this.

And for you out-of-towners who want a little more, or you East Bay dwellers looking for a little action on your side of the bay, fear not, because Eden hosts its Sunday night After Pride Party in Oakland – the city with the largest number of lesbians per capita in the United States.

The party even boasts an open bar from 7-8pm.

Here are all the details: Thursday June 26, Eden Kick-Off Party. Supperclub SF, 657 Harrison Street, San Francisco. 10pm-2am.

Tickets are $10 pre-sale, bottle service is available.

Friday June 27, Eden All-White Everything party. The Factory, 525 Harrison Street, San Francisco.

9pm-3am.

Saturday June 28, Eden Five-Year Anniversary Party. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street, San Francisco. 9pm-3am.

Sunday June 29, The SocialLife, Eden After Pride Party. Parliament, 811 Washington, Oakland. 7pmmidnight.t Visit www.edeninthebay.com

San Francisco’s Main Event Inside the Ring at SF Pride

by Joshua Klipp

I

f history is any guide, you’d be wise to hang out near the San Francisco Pride Main Stage this year for its agenda packed with cutting edge entertainment. Past Main Stage performers have included Lady Gaga, Nina Sky, Solange Knowles, Karmin, The Back Street Boys, Me’shell Ndegeocello, BoA, and more. Get ready, get smart, and pull out your phones to post up what you and all the world will likely be seeing a lot more in the coming years.

Headliner Jesika von Rabbit, lead singer of the LA Weeklyhailed Gram Rabbit, steps out with a solo project best described as edgy electro-pop with emo lyrics and layers of punk/classical piano undercurrents. Her live show features a

right; KISS. Bay Area locals The She’s bring their brand of beachy garage band pop to SF Pride’s Main Stage this year, along with the cosmic disco

If that weren’t enough to pique your fancy, then go on and just get dancey to Dance Chart dominator and Main Stage performer Debby Holiday. With more Billboard hits than can be counted on two

The She’s

Xelle

Debby Holiday

Rubber Side Down

Janet Mock Gram Rabbit

colorful ensemble of characters, including a pair of nymph-life blonde dancing twins who call themselves, The Grundles. Perhaps little monsters do evolve after all.

hands, Holiday has been featured on The View, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The David Letterman Show, and shared stages with Rod Stewart, John Waite, Joe Walsh, and KISS. Yes, you read that

ensemble Midnight Magic, thundering rock band Rubberside Down, GLAAD award winner and funny woman Marga Gomez, and the ever uplifting CheerSF. Armin van Buren’s electronica protégé Kid Alien electrifies, while runaway fashion

man Trevor Rains glamifies, and the exquisite pop duo Xelle beautifies.

And in moments in between the glitter and glitz, author and activist Janet Mock keeps it real for girls like her and people everywhere.

In a 2014 twist, SF Pride jumps

into the fray of reality TVinspired competitions… think you have what it takes to perform on the Main Stage? This year SF Pride hosts a competition a la The Voice. Compete on Saturday, and if you win, take home $200 and come back Sunday to perform. Check the website for details.

The largest stage in the SF Pride celebration, the Main Stage is located in Civic Center next to City Hall. The Main Stage is ASL-interpreted throughout the weekend, and the SF Pride website contains information on accessibility services.t For more information including updated performer announcements, visit: www.sfpride.org/ celebration/main-stage.html

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 81

BARchive: Parade Day

by Jim Stewart

W

e looked down Market Street toward the Ferry Building.

Dykes On Bikes lead off the first downtown Gay Freedom Day parade from Spear Street up Market toward the Civic Center. Gay Frontiers: Past, Present, Future.

It was Sunday, June 26, 1977. The sun was out. The temperature held around sixty degrees. The crowd, estimated at close to a quarter million, was ready to celebrate. Was ready to demand their rights in a City that was creative, bohemian, and still affordable.

“You won’t see anything like this most places,” I said.

“Nowhere,” Luc said.

He had traveled, lived in London, Paris, and had settled in San Francisco. As Leatherneck bar staff, we had been invited to join the Ambush bar staff in their quickly rented rooms in the Tenderloin overlooking Market Street. The Ambush and Leatherneck were brother bars. A small leather shop run by the Ambush operated in the Leatherneck.

Staff moved comfortably between the two establishments.

in San Francisco” was hawking her anti-gay “Save Our Children” crusade.

To raise money for the Gay Dade County defense fund, I had held a

Thu-Sun July 17-20

before the parade, in our great City by the Bay, 32-year-old Robert Hillsborough had been stabbed to death by “fag bashers.”

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Human Rights Are Absolute: San Francisco Gay Parade 1977.

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We Are Your Children: San Francisco Gay Parade 1977.

“There’s Hugo,” Luc said.

Hugo had a daisy chain around his neck. His boyfriend wore flowers in his hair. The spirit of HaightAshbury was still alive. Behind them I spotted a placard proclaiming “Human Rights Are Absolute.”

A different hate was afoot in the country that year. In Dade County, Florida, singer Anita Bryant, whose 78-vinyl records included her hits “What Kind of Fool Am I,” “Call Me Irresponsible” and “I Left My Heart

GearUp Men’s Weekend 2014

used jockstrap auction at the Leatherneck. Armistead Maupin, dressed as Leather Bunny, auctioned off the jockstraps, including one from his friend and former San Francisco 49er Dave Kopay. The All-American running back had come out after he retired from the NFL. California’s own Brigg’s Initiative on the upcoming November ballot sought to fire all gay and gay supportive teachers and public school employees. And then, just five days

PFLAG marched by. “We Are Your Children.” “I Love My Gay Son.” “I Love My Straight Mom.” The signs left little doubt where the marchers’ sentiments lay. Cheers went up from the crowd lining the street.

The cheering stopped. A lone drummer in black cape and bowler hat marched solemnly down the center of the street, banging his drum slowly. Behind him walked a line of men carrying five oversized placards. They included photos of Stalin and Hitler on the left. On the right were pictures of the Ku Klux Klan and Idi Amin, despot of Uganda. In the middle of the lineup was an oversized photo of the orange juice queen, Anita Bryant. The parade entry was titled “March of the Dictators.”

“Want a toot?” Chuck Arnett, the Ambush’s Lautrec of Folsom said.

He nodded up to the bar’s rented rooms filled with parade watchers.

We did.

Four hours later, the parade ended at the Civic Center. Assemblyman Willie Brown requested a moment of silence for Hillsborough before announcing, “Anita Bryant!

Eat your heart out!”t © 2014 writerJimStewart@hotmail. com. For further true gay adventures check out the award-winning Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of 1970s SoMa and Leatherfolk in Gay San Francisco by Jim Stewart.

Jim Stewart

March of Dictators: San Francisco Gay Parade 1977.

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82 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Hello, Ross! Ross Mathews comes to town for San Francisco Pride

by Ronn Vigh

T

here are very few people I would be excited to talk to before having a chance to drink my morning coffee. Ross Mathews is one of them. His genuinely positive outlook and bubbly persona is infectious. It made me feel like I had just downed a triple espresso. From super fan to famous face, Ross has become a fixture on E! Television and a notable member of the LGBT community. I got to speak with Ross Mathews about his upcoming trip to San Francisco and some messages that are important to him.

Ronn Vigh: You’re coming to San Francisco for Pride this year!

Ross Mathews: Yes, I’m so excited! I love San Francisco. The first time I ever came to San Francisco was when I was in a choir. I cant wait to come back to SF... I’ll be out and about, coming in on Thursday night and there until Monday morning, so everyone come and say hi!

Past grand marshals have included Olympia Dukakis, Cyndi Lauper, Cloris Leachman and now you’re being added to that list as a

2014 celebrity grand marshal! Is that something you would have ever imagined?

It is exciting! There was a time not that long ago that I would never be on that list. The community is saying that it is fun to see what you have done and continue to do and it means so much coming from our community.

As a part of the LGBT community you’re also on a mission to make sure people are more aware of HIV and that they know their status.

Yes. A lot of people come to me and say, ‘Talk about our product,’ and I say no. However, I’ve been working with OraQuick for almost a year and this is important. It’s a 20-minute swab that you can do from home. It’s totally private and totally accurate and in a time it’s so important people should know how easy it is now to find out your status.

How do you think perception of HIV has changed since you first came out and how much further do we have to go?

Well, people are living longer than ever and HIV is a manageable

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thing. It scares me when you look at statistics and you see there are so many brand new cases. That’s why it is important to know your status.

Before there were reasons to avoid getting tested. It was scary, there were long needles, blood, there was shame involved, it was a whole ball of anxiety. But, OraQuick has the technology to make it easier and accessible to everyone. In 2014, this is how we know our status. Listen, there’s no judgements. Go have fun!

But, don’t do it irresponsibly.

Knowing your status is a good message to the community. You’re comedy seems to come from a more positive place than many comedians.

There are no victims in my jokes, nothing is mean! You can always get a laugh by saying, “Oh, she’s a dumb bitch!” But it’s harder to say, “Britney, I expected so much more from you!” It’s just my nature.

Since you love all things pop culture, as we dive into Pride season, are there any campy must watch shows or movies for you?

It wouldn’t be Pride if I didn’t watch Mommy Dearest! Some of my other favorites to pull out are Steel Magnolias, Big Business with Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler. I have a date scheduled with a friend to watch Overboard soon.

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Lea DeLaria

From page 77

“It’s assimilation,” she said. “But I’m not against it. If you tell me that I can’t do something, then I’ll be in your face fighting for it. I don’t think it’s for me, but if you want to do it, then I’ll fight for your right to do it.”

DeLaria is equally blunt about

You get to live out some of your pop culture fantasies as host of Hello Ross on E! What has been one of the biggest highlights of hosting your own show?

I love my celebrity guests. Gloria Estefan was on the show and she’s a friend. She’s amazing. She just touches something and something amazing happens.

I’m also really proud that we got to a place with the show where the sketches and comedy are so legit and good. I’m proud of that. We had to fight to get more comedy on the show and I actually LOL at the stuff Ross Mathews we have done.

If you could choose one person living or dead that must appear on Hello Ross, who would it be?

Bea Arthur. And, if she was alive today I just know she would have been cast in Orange Is The New Black. Though, I’d also like to have Lady Gaga on. I’ve never seen anyone uncrack that nut.

I’ve been a comic for many years and always have dreamed of

having a talk show myself. When, I was young I would put on a pair of my mom’s red glasses and interview my stuffed animals pretending I was Sally Jessy Rapahel.

OMG, in my book, Man Up (on the bestseller’s list, no big deal), I wrote about how I would talk the breaks for her as a child. I wanted to be a talk show host since I was seven and hosting Hello Ross has been such a validation of a life long dream!t

dearing Edge of Seventeen in 1998.

DeLaria starred Off-Broadway (The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told), and on Broadway in the 1998 revival of On the Town (where she wooed a sailor played by gay actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who would later star in Modern Family) and the 2000 revival of The Rocky Horror Show as Eddie. Her TV guest spots

actually is,” she said. “I believe she’s out of prison.”

DeLaria invited fans of the show, and her music, to come and see her Feinstein’s concert.

“I’ll be doing songs of my first three records, like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Philadelphia,’ and Cole Porter’s ‘Love For Sale,’ and some Broadway and American Songbook stuff.”

DeLaria (right) as Hildy, with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, in the 1998 production of On the Town.

her decision to drop out of her recent scheduled appearance at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, an annual women’s-only event that has come under fire recently when the promoters reportedly requested that transgender women not attend.

Sparks flew on both sides of the debate.

“The biggest problem we have is that we’re a bunch of factions who don’t trust each other,” she said. “I cannot be involved with infighting, or with groups fighting each other.

Both sides are wrong. I would mediate, but how can you mediate when no one is listening? This has been my stand for years. What the fuck is wrong with us? If we’d stopped fighting with each other we could have had our rights twenty-five years ago.”

For DeLaria, the past twenty-five years have been filled with diverse performances and projects, including recordings (Bulldyke in a China Shop, 1994, and Box Lunch in 1997, and 2008’s Live Smoke Sessions) and a book (Lea’s Book of Rules for the World), plus many films like the en-

t

DeLaria with Natasha Lyonne in a scene from Orange is the New Black

range from episodes of Matlock to Saved by the Bell.

DeLaria currently appears as Carrie “Big Boo” Black, a colorful supporting character on Netflix’s popular lesbian-centric prison drama Orange is the New Black.

“Boo is me,” said the 56-yearold multi-talent. “They knew they were writing it for me, and it’s onehundred-percent me. What I like most about Boo is that she’s a threedimensional butch character. She has feelings and emotions, and she’s the smartest character.”

DeLaria recalls her meeting with Piper Kerman, upon whose memoir the series is based.

“She wanted to meet me!” DeLaria said. She recalled what Kerman said to her: “When I was a ‘drug dealer’ (Kerman made quotes in the air) my girlfriend and I used to come see your shows in Provincetown all the time.”

Like most of the characters on Orange is the New Black, Boo is based on a real person. “I know enough about her to build my character, but I don’t know who Boo

She bemoans the fact that instrumental and traditional vocal music can no longer find an audience.

“It’s a big shame,” she said. “My favorite song when I was a sophomore in high school was Edgar Winter’s ‘Frankenstein.’ It’s a tenminute instrumental! It’s such a great piece of music. I’ve tried to get a jazz troupe to do it. We’ll never see music like that again.”

The chanteuse cited jazz sax players like Miles Davis and John Coltrane among her musical influences.

Vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dianne Reeves, Mel Torme and Manhattan Transfer inspire her singing.

There will be an added treat: the Feinstein’s audience will hear a few tunes from her soon to be released album DeLaria + Bowie = Jazz.

So, find some time for a classy night amid the rainbow festivities, and hear Lea’s love for singing.t Lea DeLaria performs at Feinstein’s, Saturday June 28, 7pm, $45-60, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.leadelaria.com www.ticketweb.com

<< On the Tab

84 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

eON THE TAB f

Fri 27

Bearracuda

June 26–July 3

t

Fri 27 Adam Killian @ Nob Hill Theatre The flexible and enthusiastic porn stud performs two shows a night. $25. 8pm (solo) & 10pm (duo sex show). Also June 28 & 29.

729 Bush St. at Powell.

397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

★

Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome

Jukebox @ Beatbox Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

Thrillpeddlers' hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes and cast members. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Extended thru July 26. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

Bearracuda @ Public Works The ursine scene gets bigger and bearier at the warehouse-sized club of fun, with DJs HiFi Sean, Rotton Robbie, Freddy, King of Pants $12. 9pm-3am. 161 Erie St. at Mission. www.bearracuda.com

FBFE

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel

Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Steven Underhill

Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. June 12: a Queen tribute! $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Pride @ Civic Center

Sun 29

T

he rainbow of fun flows freely throughout the Bay Area, the nation, and the world. But no matter where you go, if you’re out and proud, you’re your own one-person Pride march. Enjoy the parties and celebrations, but remember, pride comes from within.

Thu 26 80s Pride @ Cat Club Celebrate the gay songs of the 80s, with DJs Damon and Steve, Dan and Jim Hopkins. $7. 9pm-2am. 1190 Folsom St. www.SFcatclub.com

The Crib @ 715 Dance night for the younger guys and gals. 9:30pm-2am. 715 Harrison St. www.thecribsf.com

Eden V @ Various Venues The fifth annual largest party series for women brings four days and nights of events. June 26: Kickoff party at Supperclub with DJs Lady Ryan and Fusion, live music by Oh Blimey, aerial acrobats and upscale attire; 657 Harrison St. 10pm-2am. June 27: White Party (white attire) with True Blood actress Jessica Clark, DJs Val G, Lady Ryan, Motive, Lezlee and more, at The Factory, 525 Harrison St. 9pm-3am. June 28, fifth anniversary party with headliner Goapele, plus DJed music, champagne toast and more. 9pm-3am at Mezzanine, 444 Jessie St. June 29: Pride party with DJs Lady Ryan, Lezlee and Dirty Rich Kidd, at Parliament, 811 Washington St., Oakland. www.edeninthebay.com

La Femme @ Beaux Pride edition of the ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos.

4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar. 10pm2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Hella Gay Comedy @ Magnet The bawdy queer comedy show's last event includes host Charlie Ballard, Zachary Toczynski, Ash Fisher, Kelly Doyle, Jesus Fuetes, Justin Lucas, Sampson McCormick and Karinda Dobbins. Free. 8pm. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Fri 27 Pound Puppy: Housetrained @ Beatbox

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

TBT Pride @ Starlight Room

Amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Dot429 and Kimpton Hotels cohost a "Throwback Thursdays" retro-themed benefit for the Trevor Project, with a performacne by '60s singer Lynda Kay. $30-$65. 6pm-12am. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St. www.dot429.com/events

Thu 26 Eden V starts

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Tenth anniversary of the intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4.

10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Uhaul Pride @ Lexington Club Pride kick-off party with a real Uhaul van, DJs Chelsea Starr and China G, plus wimmin gogos and cheap drinks; no cover. 9pm-2am.

3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Bibi SF @ Pork Store Café Final night of the LGBT Middle Eastern collective dancy party, with DJs Raffy, Nile, Emancipacion, bellydacning, hookahs and drink specials. $10-$15. 9pm-2am. 16th St. at Valencia. www.BibiSF.org

Big Gay Birthday @ Mezzanine Celebrate San Francisco's 238th anniversary with DJ JD Samson, drag acts

by Peaches Christ and Honey Mahogany, twerk-hop queens Double Duchess, a lip sync contest, cocktails and dancing. $20.

9pm-2am. 444 Jessie St. www.bgb2014. launchrock.com

Colossus Launch @ Mighty First of four events for Pride weekend, with DJ Abel. $30-$75 (weekend pass). 10pm3am. 116 Utah St. www.colossuspride.com

Darling Switches @ Slate DJs Finn, Durt, Andre and Jenna Riot of Darling Nikki and Switches team up for adouble-fun queer 80s-90s hip hop dance party. $7. 8pm-2am. 2925 16th St. www.slate-sf.com

Fedorable @ El Rio

The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish.

398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Free weekly queer dance party, with gogos, prizes, old groovy tunes, cheap cocktails. 9pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. 2823325. www.elriosf.com

Underwear Party @ Powerhouse

Friday Night @ de Young Museum

Strip down to your skivvies at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm-8:30pm.

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland

Get Her Wet @ The Chapel

Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

She Said's women's Pride party gets splashy, with DJs China G, Olga T, Nicki Butler, Bia Bia; musicians Hazel Rose and Oh Blimey, and a wet T-shirt contest. $14$20. 9pm-2am. 777 Valencia St. www.SheSaidSF.com

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86 â&#x20AC;˘ BAY AREA REPORTER â&#x20AC;˘ June 26-July 2, 2014

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore

Themed Nights @ The Brig

Marga Gomez and Kay Nilsson are the special guests and the LGBTQQIetc reading series., hosted by Baruch PorrasHernandez. 7pm. 2919 24th St. www.queeropenmic.com

If you're looking for a new sexual adventure, check out this new space. Weekend events take place Fridays through Mondays, and the intimate venue with a jail theme offers slings, tables and various spaces for erotic play. Sat-Mon, above PopSex960 at 962 Folsom St. at 6th St. www.BrigSF.com

Rickie Lee Jones @ Yoshi's The two-time Grammy winner returns with classic and new music. $46-$68. 8pm. Also June 28. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Shann Carr @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret welcomes the lesbian wit for two nights of "Spicy Gay Comedy." $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.SocietyCabaret.com

Some Thing Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night take son a Gay Freedom Celebration theme. 10pm-2am.

399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Fri 27 Mr. Mustache

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From page 84

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Enjoy eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge at the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic night starts off your weekend.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Mr. @ Monarch Seventh annual mustache party includes DJs David Harness, Kevin Graves, Manny Ward, Gehno Aviance and others. $10-$30.

9pm-2am. 101 6th St. at Mission. www.monarchsf.com

Trans March After-Party @ Lexington Club Join the marchers and friends of trans queers, with DJ Ms. Pop. 9pm-2am. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia.

863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Sat 28 Planet Booty @ Great American Music Hall

Sat 28 Fly Young Red @ Club Rimshot

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays! 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge The weekly mash-up dance night, with resident DJs Adrian & Mysterious D. No matter the theme, a mixed fun good time's assured. $8-$15. 9pm-3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF.com www.DNAlounge.com

Afterglow

The groovy funky fun Oakland band headlines a night of dancing and music; with Midtown Social and Matt Haze opening. $15-$40 (with dinner). 859 O'Farrell St. 885-0750. www.slimspresents.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland's premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Pound Puppy: House Trained @ Beatbox The canine and kink-themed (yet bearpopular) event, usually held at The Eagle, moves to get the moves on, with bath house sounds by Jackie House aka P-Play, Aaron Clark, and Chipment, with Folsomy gogo dogs, and leather kink demos and stylish haircuts by handsome barber Tony. $10-$15. 10pm-4am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland It's a hip-hop Pride party, with guest gay rapper Fly Young Red ("Throw That Boy Pussy") at the weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Pride on the Pier @ Pier 3 Colette Carr and cast members from Beach Blanket Babylon perform at this scenic cocktail party with a bayside view. Proceeds benefit the Academy of Friends. $45-$75. 8pm & 10pm.

Hornblower Landing, Embarcadero, Pier 3. www.hornblower.com/port/overview/ sf+prideonthepier

t

Colossus @ Sloan Steam @ Powerhouse DJ Chris Griswold spins tunes at the wet and steamy night with wet towel contests, Steamworksd passes, massages, shower gogos, and more. Proceeds benefit Project Inform. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Sat 28 Afterglow @ The Factory

Candyland is the theme of Gus Presents' annual big-style circuit-dance after-party, with DJs Danny Verde, Twisted Dee ; all in a new space (4-party weekend pass $75). $30. 2am-10pm. 1512 Mission St. www.colossuspride.com

Comfort & Joy's annual blacklight discotheque returns for a tenth anniversary all-nighter, with DJs Neco D, Justime, Gehno Aviance, Kenneth Kemp, Show Pony, Trevor Sigler, Two Dudes in Love, Dr. Sleep, Juan Ramos, Go Bang!, The SynthaTigers and more. Proceeds benefit Comfort and Joy's Burning Man camp. $20-$40. 10pm-10am. 525 Harrison St. at 1st. www.afterglowpride.eventbrite.com

Dyke March after-Party @ Lexington Club

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

The Womens Motorcycle Contigent's annual pre-Pride party revs up the sapphic wheels, with DJ Lady Ryan; scooter riders welcome, too. Get an official SF Dykes on Bikes T-shirt. All genders welcome. 12pm5pm. 3158 Mission St. www.ElRioSF.com

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Pride Birthday @ Beatbox The SoMa nightclub celebrates three years, with a live set by singer-songwriter Matt Alber, plus DJs Chris Cox and Russ Rich; hosted by Bebe Sweetbriar and Donna Sachet. $15-$75. 10pm. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.beatboxsf.com

Celebrate after the march at the popular women's bar, with DJ Footy Wild. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia.

863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Dykes on Bikes Party @ El Rio

Hella Gay Comedy @ Magnet The offbeat LGBT comedy night hosted

by Charlie Ballard ends it four-year run, withstand-up from Zachary Toczynski, Ash Fisher, Kelly Doyle, Jesus Fuentes, Justin Lucas, Sampson McCormick and Karinda Dobbins. Free. 8pm. Magnet, 4122 18th St. 581-1600. www.magnetsf.org

See page 88 >>

Sat 28 Dykes on Bikes Party

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88 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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Sat 28

Valerie Renee Ramos

Steven Underhill

Pink Saturday

Sat 28 House of Babes

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On the Tab

From page 86

Hole Patrol @ Truck Half-naked bartenders and bi-curious drinks. 9pm-2am. 1900 Folsom St. www.trucksf.com

House of Babes @ Public Works The biggest Dyke March after-party for riot grrrls, queerbois, dykes and anyone who wants to shake it good, with DJs Lisa Delux (Vancouver), Cakes da Killa and Jungle Pussy (NYC). $15-$35. 7pm-3am. 161 Erie St. at Mission. www.thehouseofbabes.com

Lea DeLaria @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The out lesbian singer-actress performs jazz standards, show tunes, and music from her new CD DeLaria + Bowie = Jazz. $45-$60. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.ticketweb.com

Magic Shows @ Rex Hotel New weekly magic show and cabaret act with Adam Sachs and mentalist Sebastian Boswell III. $25. 8pm. two-drink minimum.

Thru 2014. 562 Sutter St. www.MagicattheRex.com

Matmos/Beer Garden @ SF Art Institute The electronic music duo perform with others at an outdoor beer garden coordinated with the exhibit Wrong's What I Do Best. $10. 6pm (beer) 8pm (show).

800 Chestnut St. www.sfai.org

Pink Saturday @ Castro Castro Street's annual block party is fun in the early evening, then gets big, crowded, with multiple DJ stages and food trucks.

Bars will be open. 5:30-10:15pm. Gate donations taken by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. www.thesisters.org

Intrigue @ Beatbox

Tour de FUNds @ Trax

Pride fashion show of clothing by local LGBT designers, with B. Scott. Open bar 5pm-6pm. $15-$40. 5pm-8pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com www.sfpridefashion.eventbrite.com

Royals Misty Blue and John Paul Soto host a charity Pink Saturday night, with raffle prizes and a drag show. 9pm-12am. 1437 Haight St.

Robyn, Röyksopp @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Sun 29

The cult-followed singer and the innovative Norwegian electro band perform music from their new mini-album, Do It Again.

Zhala opens. $45. 8pm. 99 Grove St, Civic Center. www.robyn.com www.ticketmaster.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

ShangriLa @ The Endup

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Pride party for gaysians and pals, with DJs Louis T, Byron Bonsall, and a live set with Tintin V. $20. 10pm-6am. 401 6th St. www.theendup.com

Stallion Saturdays @ Beaux

STRIP

CUM CELEBRA WITH 3 H

The building that has b hottest play parties tha has been sold and THE one last bang on Pride

Friday

Door opens at 10pm - Closes

The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

The gogo-tastic night returns, with hunky dancers Michael Tempesta, Sticky Ricky and Jimmy Durano; lap dances upstairs in the lounge, hosted by Sister Roma. $4.

Free before 10pm. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Brunch @ Hi Tops

Sundance Saloon @ Hotel Whitcomb

Candy Crush @ Lexington Club

The country-western line-dancing tribe celebrates Pride at their annual dance party, with folks from around the country joining in. $10. 7:30pm-12am. Also June 29, 6pm-11pm. 1231 Market St. www.sundancesalloon.org

Romi from The Real L Word hosts a postPride party, with DJs Andre and Jenna Riot.

9pm-2am. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

SATURd

Door opens at 10pm - Closes

SUNDa Special Pride C

Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Colossus’ Candyland

Sat 28

Door opens at 4pm - Closes a This party will be PA Everyone get $20 Admission to each p

We are stripping the place so there will be plen

SLINGS WI

Join us for a special Dore Alley at our ALL new locatio

Pink Triangle @ Sutro Tower Installation, commemorations and politican and celebrity visits highlight the annual preparation and display of a giant fabric pink triangle. Install 7pm-10am.

Commemoration 10:30am. www.thepinktriangle.com

Pop Porn @ Beaux Chi Chi LaRue, Sister Roma and DJ Kevin Graves' porn-themed Pride event with gogo guys who do porn. How porny. 6pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.BeauxSF.com

Pride @ The Armory Prison of Love, the large-scale circuit party co-produced by Masterbeat, We Party, Kink.com and Fresh SF, takes on a jail/ kink theme, with huge projections screens, ample dance and lounge areas, DJs Alyson Calagna, Shane Steil and Sr. Edu. VIP Upper Room BD/SM demonstrations, too. $75 and up. 9pm-4am. 1800 Mission St. After–party Beyond the Prison, June 29. $30. 4am-10am at City Nights, 715 Harrison St. www.prideatthearmory.com www.masterbeat.com

Pride Brunch @ Hotel Whitcomb 16th annual brunch honors the year's Grand Marshals of the Pride Parade; hosted by Donna Sachet and Gary Virginia.

Proceeds benefit Positive Respurce Center. $75 and up. 11am-2pm. 1231 Market St. www.sfpride.org

962 FOLSOM STREET

Sat 28 Robyn/Ryoksopp

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On the Tab>>

June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 89

Sun 29 Reach T-Dance

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Steven Underhill

Mon 30 Ascent @ Beatox

Sun 29 Pride March

BARE!

After-hours high-energy dance night, with DJ Tristan Jaxx. $10-$20. 4am-10pm. 314 11th St. www.BeatboxSF.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle

Juanita Moore’s Pride Party @ Jones

Enjoy a special Pride edition of the disco night with DJ Bus Station John; sevenhours of Gay libration grooves. $5. 7pm2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Juanita More!’s 16th annual benefit party with Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears and Jason Kendig DJing, performances by Lady Bunny, Glamamore the Cougar Cadet Drum Corps and more. Proceeds benefit the AIDS Housing Alliance. $30. 12pm-10pm. 620 Jones St. www.juanitamore.com

Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux

Drag Mondays @ The Café

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances. No cover. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge.

8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pm-closing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Mass Pride @ The Chapel

Irish Dance Night @ Starry Plough, Berkeley

Lincoln Jesser, performs live at this multi DJ event (Havoc, Dewey Beats, Two Dudes in Love, Keith Kraft, Blaus and more). $20$30. 7pm-2am. 777 Valencia St. www.masssundays.com

Weekly dance lessons and live music at the pub-restaurant, hosted by John Slaymaker. $5. 7pm. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.thestarryplough.com

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Sun 29 Midnight Magic @ Hard French

Hard French @ Mezzanine Hard French Hearts Los Homos, a Pride party of soul music and fun, with DJs Carnita and Brown Amy, two stages, a block party (six clubs in six hours), performances

by Midnight Magic, Hi Fashion, dance installation show Saturn Rising, Persia with Daddies Plastik, Screaming Queens and more. $15-$75. 3pm-11pm. 444 Jessie St. www.hardfrench.com

Hero @ Ruby Skye Freemasons and Wayne G DJ the popular T-dance. $20-$45. 6pm-12am. 420 Mason St. www.industrysf.com

Jock @ The Lookout (BETWEEN 5TH & 6TH STREETS) THE BRIG IS A PRIVATE CLUB FOR MEN

The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers. 3pm-7pm.

3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Sun 29 Disco Daddy

Reach @ City Nights

Karaoke @ The Lookout

Pride T-dance raises funds for the Real Bad events, with DJ Christopher B playing house and disco. $20-$30. 6pm-12am. 715 Harrison St. www.realbad.org www.reachpridetdance.com

Paul K hosts the amateur singing night.

8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Salsa Sundays @ El Rio Salsa dancing for LGBT folks and friends, with live merengue and cumbia bands; tapas and donations that support local causes. 2nd & 4th Sundays. 3pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Sanctuary @ 1015 Colossus Candyland Pride weekend closing party, with DJs Tony Moran, Nina Flowers and Cindel, plus Brian Maier in the lounge. $20-$40. 9pm-9am. 1015 Folsom St. www.colossuspride.com

SF Pride @ Civic Center Join in or watch the annual Pride parade along Market Street from Embarcadero to Civic Center, with drinks, food, dozens of live acts, multiple DJ dance area, and lots of booths hosted by local LGBT nonprofits and corporate sponsors. 11am-6pm. www.sfpride.org

SF Pride VIP Party @ City Hall Rotunda Enjoy a break from the sun under the cool indoor spacious city hall rotunda, with performances by Connie Champagne, DaftNee Gesuntheit, Jason Brock, Prancing Elits, Velocity Circus, Kid Alien and others.

Hosted bar, nibbles, photo booth, body art installations. $50. 2pm-5pm. City Hall. www.sfpride.org/VIP/

Sundance Saloon @ Hotel Whitcomb The popular country western LGBT dance night; continues its Pride weekend dancing at the nearby hotel. $10. 6pm-11pm. 1231 Market St. (Also during Pride, with a big dance floor at Civic Center: Grove St. near Larkin) www.sundancesaloon.org

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Name That Beat @ Toad Hall BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly musical trivia challenge and drag show. 8:3011:30pm. 4146 18th st. at Castro. www.toadhallbar.com

One Night Only @ Club Fugazi The cast of the musical Once performs at this musical benefit for the Richmond/ Ermet AIDS Foundation, with special guests Spencer Day, Sharon McNight, David Burnham ( Wicked, Light in the Piazza ), Erich Bergen (Jersey Boys, Anything Goes). $25-$100. 7:30pm. 678 Green St., North Beach. 421-4222. www.reaf.org

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Sports Night @ The Eagle The legendary leather bar gets jock-ular, with beer buckets, games (including beer pong and corn-hole!), prizes, sports on the TVs, and more fun. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

See page 90 >>

<< On the Tab

90 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

Sun 29 Jake Shears (DJ set) @ Juanita Moore’s Pride Party

<<

On the Tab

From page 89

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Tue 1

Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell.

397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

13 Licks @ Q Bar

Piano Bar @ Beaux

Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the new weekly night, with your talented host and even you singing. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Weekly game night for board and electronic gamers at the warehouse multipurpose nightclub. 21+. 6pm-12am. 1425 Folsom St. www.showdownesports.com

The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata.

No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 6473099. www.wildsidewest.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox

Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Weekly Latin partner dance night. 8pm1am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Wed 2 Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Mad Manhattans @ Starlight Room The new weekly event includes classic cocktails created by David Cruz, and inspired by the the show Mad Men, plus retro food classics like prawn cocktails and Oysters Rockefeller, all with a fantastic city view.

6pm-10pm. 21st, Sir Francis Drake Hotel. 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio

t

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am.

4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Thu 3 La Femme @ Beaux

Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5-$10. 7pm.

3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Diva @ Longboard, Pacifica

Watch newbies get nude, or compete yourself for a $200 prize. Audience picks the winner. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm.

4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Sun 29 Sundance Saloon’s Pride Dance

The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 5527788. www.elbo.com

C.O.L.T. Following @ Beatbox

New monthly (1st Thu) drag night at the surfy margarita bar; hosted by Ana Mae Coxxx. No cover. 10pm. 180 Eureka Square, Pacifica. www.thelongboardbar.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar. 10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences The museum's weekly cocktail parties continue with drinks, food live music and pop-up display exhibits and docent talks, plus creature, plant and science exhibits. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

Circle of Life Theatre's new weekly variety show includes live entertainment, DJ Anthony Froyd, a free cocktail, door prizes, with donations supporting the new disability-inclusive performing arts group. $10. 7pm-9pm. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.beatboxsf.com

Enjoy amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday; now in its tenth year! $4.

10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse

Underwear Party @ Powerhouse

Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm.

Also Thursdays & Fridays. JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover.

8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 431-4278. www.harveyssf.com

Underwear Night @ SF Eagle Strip down to your skivvies at the popular leather bar. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Strip down to your skivvies at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Xotica @ Nob Hill Theatre The Other Side of the Rainbow fundraiser for St. James Infirmary, presented by Ducal Council's Kippy Marks and Joie de Vivre, includes an all Male Revue, a drag show and silent auction, drinks (open bar for VIPs), plus admission to the Arcade. $50-$100. 7pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell.

397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Mon 30 Spencer Day @ One Night Only

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

92 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

What is “Real”?

by Race Bannon

T

/lgbtsf

here is a malady that seems to impact some of the leather and kink scene. It creeps in and taints social interactions, play and relationships. It holds people back from having the kind of sex they want. It gives newcomers to the scene yet one more hurdle to jump over in order to enter our world. And while I contend it’s less of an issue here in the Bay Area where we talk more openly and often about kink, it’s still something we deal with too.

What I’m talking about is when people declare who is “real” and who is not. What do I mean by this?

Some examples might help.

You see a kinky online hookup site profile stating “only real Dominants need apply.” You hear of a Daddy who declares that a guy isn’t a real boy because he doesn’t conform to the Daddy’s rigid definitions of a boy. You are told that someone can’t possibly be a Master because you heard they like to submit sometimes too. A submissive tells you that a Dominant isn’t real because he didn’t carry out a scene per the submissive’s narrow view of what that interaction should look and feel like. A BDSM educator teaches that earning one’s leathers through some protocol-driven series of steps is the only way one can consider themselves a real BDSM player. A young guy wearing his first piece of gear to an event is declared not a real leatherman by some arrogant bystanders because he’s not worn it properly. The list goes on, and it’s all total crap.

Anytime I hear such nonsense I typically feel that insecurities are to blame. People like to believe that

San Francisco’s 18+ Sex Club!

they are the real thing, so they judge others, usually unconsciously, in the hope that this will somehow make their shaky confidence in themselves more solid. Of course it does not. The more we put down others the more we reinforce that which is inside of us that fosters the lack of confidence in the first place. It’s a no win scenario, yet it plays out far too often.

As with so much in life, what is real or not in leather and kink is very much in the eye of the beholder. What might resonate with you as real might not resonate with someone else. Our personal backgrounds, identities, mental erotic landscapes and other things that make us and our life situations unique are far too complex and individual to allow us to declare

t

that one way of being is real and another is not real.

The next time you read or hear someone say that they are a real player, a real Dominant, a real leatherman, or a real whatever, pause for a moment and let it sink in. What is this person really transmitting? What does it say about them that they must elevate themselves at the expense of others?

If you are a newcomer to leather and kink and you read or hear such things, take the wise advice a friend of mine used to say all the time.

“The red flags are not waiving you in.” Proceed with caution because most seasoned and reasonable kinksters can see through such selfimportant pronouncements as evidence of insecurity or someone posing as something they really are not.

See page 93 >>

Rich Stadtmiller

Christopher Swanson and Erich Lopez at Pride 2013.

A HAVE FUN & SAFEF PRIDE! S 2014 are open, We ery day s! ev visit u come

Open daily at 12pm

2051 Market St. at Church St. Info: 415-864-EROS (3767)

Rich Stadtmiller

Leather pals at Pride 2013.

t

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June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 93

Rich Stadtmiller

Element Eclipse shows paddle pride at 2013’s Pride parade.

<<

Leather

From page 92

As the leather and kink scene continues to change and reconfigure, as all things in life do over time, we are all likely to hear about more people who try to label themselves as real while condescendingly stating that others are not. We must resist this tendency if we find ourselves doing it.

We must call others out when we read or hear them doing it. If two or more people are being, playing and relating in kinky ways that works for them, and they are all doing so consensually, no one has a right to say that who they are or what they are doing isn’t real. Not me. Not you. No one. You may not find it personally attractive. That is your right. But no one has a right to deem someone else’s erotic identity, play or relationship as less than another.

To do so is to harm our scene ter-

ribly, and we just can’t stand for that.

With that off my chest, here’s some things going on in the Bay Area you might want to know about. Since we’re in the midst of Pride Week here in San Francisco, you might want to check some of these events out. I’m not going to go into too much detail about where and when, because you can see all of that in the calendar section that accompanies this column.

On June 27 there is the Bare Chest Calendar Investiture at the Powerhouse, a Mr. S Leather Fist City party, and the meeting for Sober Kink Together. For those unaware of it, the Sober Kink Together group meets every Friday and it’s an incredible local resource for those kinksters among us who are challenged by substance abuse.

On June 28 Mr. S Leather hosts its Locker Room anniversary party.

You can stroll from there just a short way to a beer bust fundraiser for the

Rich Stadtmiller

A kinky make-out session at 2013’s Mr S Pride party.

Leathermen’s Discussion Group and then again a short distance to a rubber pride party. Finally, kinky gay men can finish their night with a play party from the men of GearUp. Sunday, June 29, is the Pride Parade and if you are of the leather or kink persuasion and want to march with the Leather Pride Contingent, they welcome your participation.

Leather, gear or kinky garb or some See page 96 >>

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June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 95

The Stripper Adam Killian Returns to Nob Hill Theatre

by Cornelius Washington

B

ottom line, Adam Killian is The Man at the Nob Hill Theater.

He’s the most-requested stud, who consistently packs the house, with not only customers, but, also other porn stars and directors. Even the theater’s own house dancers stop slinging dick to watch his very special mix of movement, sensuality and sex. Of course, Nob Hill Theatre has him bringing the heat for Gay Pride and, of course, we’re happy to talk with him about it.

Cornelius Washington: Your relationship with Nob Hill Theatre is legendary; more than a dozen performances in four years, and counting.

What makes performing there live special for you?

Adam Killian: In my heart, I’m a dancer and live performer. I began by dancing nude at The Campus Theater at seventeen years old.

The live venues are closing left and right, but The Nob Hill Theater’s still going strong.

I love the management and staff. The crowds are great.

Before you go onstage, what goes through your mind?

I feel very sensual, sexual. I want to rip the buttons off of your shirt, stick my dick in your mouth and bounce my balls off of your nose, all the while, keeping perfect rhythm. I

Is porn art?

There are artistic moments in porn. We should all strive to create more of them.

really do want people to have fun!

How do you feel about everyone in the industry wanting to work with you, on some level? Your name constantly comes up when I speak with other performers.

Where do you think LGBT Pride will go in the 21st Century?

Eventually, it won’t make a difference who you fuck. This means mass acceptance of bisexuality, with people trying to appeal to both genders. A lot more sex. A lot less politics.

What’s your favorite sexual position?

I love them all! I want to rock them all! Everyone else should, too!t

Adam Killian at the Nob Hill Theatre.

All photos: Cornelius Washington

I’ve noticed my name appearing in several of your interviews of other performers. What else can I be but flattered? It’s truly the ultimate compliment. I do want to try to work with people.

As International Creative Director for Lucas Entertainment, please explain what it is you do?

I can’t explain too much, because I don’t want anyone hawking on my job. I oversee just about every aspect of production and design, casting, lighting, sets, cinematography, etc., maintain a dialog with all of the relevant departments, in order to deliver a first-class product...that sells.

When you see a porn film, what excites you?

It’s all personal, individual. I can’t really explain it, because there are so many different types of people, situations, positions, etc. I will say that I do prefer scenes with obvious chemistry between the model, especially if there’s an emotional connection.

What do you look for in a porn star?

In porn, everyone has a body, either a great dick or a great ass or a

combination of the two.

What I’m looking for is a face. It all comes down to the face, particularly one that expresses that they’re having a great time.

Where do you think porn will go in the 21st Century?

It’s going to go international and mainstream, following the current trend in fashion.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

96 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

<<

t

Leather

From page 93

sort is encouraged, but all are welcome. As of the publication of this column I did not have the specific lineup location for the Contingent, but you can usually ask one of the Parade volunteers at the lineup location and they can direct you to where to find them.

An introductory session to a bigger workshop titled Get More of the (Kinky) Sex You Want is at Magnet, our fantastic local gay men’s health center, on July 1.

Celebrate our independence with a dress code enforced party at the SF Eagle called Kontrol. For those in the South Bay, the Santa Clara County Leather Association is having a bar gathering for those interested in their organization.

Finally, Whips in the Park, one of the more unique events happening locally, is a chance for kinksters to throw some whips together in a park. If you’ve never thrown such a whip (think bullwhip), this is a great chance to socialize and perhaps learn a few things.

Enjoy, and keep having a kinky good time!t Rich Stadtmiller

The leather contingent flying the flags at the 2013 Pride Parade.

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him at www.bannon.com.

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Rich Stadtmiller

Pals at a recent Eagle beer bust.

Leather Events, June 27-July 12, 2014 There's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

Fri 27 Bare Chest Calendar 2015 Investiture @ Powerhouse Launch of the 2015 calendar with Sister Jane D’oh hosting and providing the blessing for the vests and Team 2015, 1347 Folsom St., $5, 7pm. www.barechest.org

Fist City @ Mr. S Leather Men’s fisting party. 385A 8th St., $20, 8pm. www.mr-s-leather.com/studio

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Sat 28 Locker Room Anniversary Party @ Mr. S Leather The Locker Room turns 4 this year and we’re celebrating, 385 8th St., Noon. www.mr-s-leather.com

Leathermen’s Discussion Group Pink Saturday Beer Bust & Fundraiser @ SF Eagle Fundraiser for SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group, 398 12th St., 3pm. www.sfldg.org

Show It @ Powerhouse Rubber Pride party, 1347 Folsom St., 5pm. www.rmsf.org

GearUp Men’s Play Party @ Mr. S Dungeon A friendly erotic space where kinky men can socialize with, learn from, and play with other men, $20, 385A 8th St., 9pm. www.gearupweekend.com/play-parties

Sun 29 Leather Pride Contingent @ SF Pride Parade March with the Leather Pride Contingent in the SF Pride Parade. Check with the parade volunteers onsite for lineup location.

Tue 1 Get More of the (Kinky) Sex Your Want: Free Intro! @ Magnet Do you like kinky sex or are you curious to explore your kink-edges? 4122 18th St., 7pm. Tickets at www.queerbody.com09_ Leather_2614.docx

Fri 4 Santa Clara County Leather Association Bar Schmooze @ Renegades Bar Informal social where friends, prospective members and anyone else who wants to relax, laugh, talk and hang out with like minded people, 501 W. Taylor St., San Jose, 9pm. www.sccleather.org

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Fri 11 Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Sat 12 Whips In The Park @ States Street Playground Casual social event where kinksters can throw whips together, 186 States St., down the hill from Corona Heights and the Randall Museum, 1pm.

t

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June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 97

Boys is Back Wakefield Poole’s beach classics re-mastered

by John F. Karr

venir of the 1960s explosion of experimental films, but not too reay arts are profusely celebrated watchable today. during Pride Week, and that What will encourage repeat viewincludes porn. Reaching way back ings is the fifteen-minute hardcore to the beginning of it all loop, Dino. Shot in 1969, it was is a re-issue of Wakeintended to be the original field Poole’s Boys in opening scene of Boys. Yet the Sand. It’s a movie “Dino” balked at the idea to be proud of, alright, of his face being seen in the Pioneering Porno, theatres, and not only which rated high in refused to sign a resexual content, and lease, but asked for an had a profound ef$8,000 fee. fect on all the porn Fortunately, Dino that followed, both in was out and Cal Culcontent and in the business model ver—renamed Casey Donovan— of the industry it spawned. was in, when Wake met Casey and The current a star was born. release, from hisDino—roughtorically minded looking, swarthy, Vinegar Syndarkly furred drome (www. and hugely musVinegarSyndrom. tached— is the com), isn’t really a opposite of the re-issue. Yes, there smooth-bodied, Casey Donovan and winsome hunk Danny Di Cioccio, was a two disc set blondish glam in Boys in the Sand. released in 2002 that was Casey

by Mercury ReDonovan, but the ture on subjects like… Existential said he approached Boys with the leasing. It’s sorta scenario’s the same Metaphysics and the Reverse Angle mindset of an experimental filmirreplaceable, with for both boys (alin Jack Deveau’s Left Handed, Diamaker, not as a pornographer (a its six hours of though Casey rellectical Montage in Arthur Bressan’s title he assumed only later). goodies—both ishes gulping Peter Pleasure Beach, how Bressan’s ForPoole’s claim is born out by his Boys and its 1986 Fisk’s cum, which bidden Letters, starring the Prince use of many artful techniques that sequel, Boys in the Dino forgoes). of Tides, Richard Locke, was intendyou just don’t see these days, like inSand II (the only Why could Dino ed to enforce the idea of predestinacamera effects, the chiaroscuro of film appearance be exhibited? Mr. tion, whereas mise-en-scène in the lighting, and the use of symphonic of much photoTushinski told me Joe Gage Hank trilogy and especialmusic. Although it was probably The newly remaste red graphed model that Poole assumes ly later in the second and definitive not intentional, Poole, writes Jeffrey Boys in the Sand.

Paul Irish), plus the guy is dead, since triad of Heatstroke, Closed Set and Escoffier in his history of gay porn, the classic Bijou, three filmmaker commentaries, and five of Wake’s short films (including Roger, a highly conceptualized loop of the heavy hung and handsome early superstar, of which Gary Morris wrote in an essay posted at the Bright Lights Film Journal site, “Self-worship never looked so good.”). But the good remastering accomplished for that set can’t compare with the quality of the new disc. This version of Boys has been completely re-scanned at 2K resolution from the original elements, making it, for all purposes, not a re- but a new issue. And at Vinegar Syndrome’s low price, you can afford to duplicate the old set for this single title.

Peter Fisk and Casey Donovan get it on in Boys in the Sand.

G

Bigger Than Life, “documented the new gay sexual culture that had emerged in the Sixties.” The hedonism and sexual freedom celebrated in Boys in the Sand, with witty touches and moments of fantasy spelling the sweaty sex, set a high standard.t View the film’s trailer on YouTube (age-restricted) at www.youtube. com/watch?v=4SnRRUxW9oU

ebar.com

Handsome, which, with its infernalerotic night scenic, highway neon, dark trees/steaming manhole aesthetic, was the real masterpiece, was intended to enforce the idea of the free will.”

Rouillard makes fun of academic’s efforts to assert that porn was art, even an auteur’s endeavor. But he’s right-on in calling Poole an artfilm pornographer, since Poole has

In days of yore—filmmaker Wakefield Poole and disco party entrepreneur Michael Maletta on Fire Island.

Extreme gratitude goes to the indefatigable Jim Tushinki, director of the must-see Gorilla Factory documentaries That Man: Peter Berlin, and I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole, who produced and created all the extras for this new Vinegar Syndrome DVD. They get the same high quality remasterings as the feature. One is a tour of the art in a seminal Andy Warhol gallery exhibition, which was subsequently shown before each screening of Boys during its original run.

Audiences of the day were open, it seems, to the mix of high and low art on one bill. The purposefully weird (some may say eclectic) and, frankly, assaultive soundtrack of Andy reflects the period’s Beatle’s influenced embracing of esoteric and ethnic music. It’s a swell sou-

the scene was first re-issued in 2002 on the Mercury set, and not a peep from the guy has been heard in the subsequent decade-plus years.

And now, a rather lengthy quote that’s a bit of a digression, but that’s just too entertaining to edit. It’s novelist and “fabulist of distinction,” James McCourt, interviewing Richard Rouilard, from McCourt’s book, Queer Street. Rouilard, who cofounded National Gay Rights Advocates, was an editor of The Advocate as well as a deeply knowledgeable advocate of porn.

“We were overwhelmed by Jack Deveau and Joe Gage and Wakefield Poole, all the art-film pornographers, so I suppose I sound pretentious. When I first arrived I used to go to these meetings… where some gnome the color of the sand on Santa Monica Beach would lec-

Hot from the Karrchives—a major crush, Paul Irish, starred in Boys in the Sand II.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

98 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 26-July 2, 2014

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June 26-July 2, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 99

S

an Francisco’s 38th annual Frameline International Film Festival got off to a rousing start with the Opening Night documentary, The Case Against 8. Co-directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White, producer/activist Rob Reiner, plaintiffs Kris Perry & Sandy Stier and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo in the Prop 8 case, and the lawyers for the case David Boies and Ted Olson, were in attendance.

The festival’s after-party, held at Terra Gallery in SoMa, drew many LGBT film directors, actors and producers, as well as volunteers and patrons.

For more info on the festival, playing at several Bay Area theatres through June 29, visit www.frameline.org See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com

See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter

Shooting Stars

photos by Steven Underhill

K

nobs, the new Castro clothing shop at 432 Castro Street, opened last week after months of renovations. Guests from store owners Ryan Hill and Steven Tomas’ customer list, plus a few hunky models, enjoyed in-house catering, which included lemon drop and pineapple margarita cocktails.

Hill and Tomas also co-own Outfit (4079 18th St.), and will soon be transitioning their current 18th street store into this shop for new exclusive men’s designs.

Look for “independent brands with good style and affordable price,” said coowner Hill. Some employees are also designers, so expect interesting items under their new line Knobs.

At the opening reception, the shop’s wooden runway, used for the opening party, will be available for customers. So you too can try on some clothes and “Shanté, stay” or “walk away” with some new duds.

Check out the new photo wall of customers donning new Knobs clothes. This week’s theme is rainbow-themed, which is always a fashion problem, except for Pride weekend. www.outfitcastro.net

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