March 28, 2019 edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

History and fun in Philly

Buttigieg 3rd in Iowa poll

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Vol. 49 • No. 13 • March 28-April 3, 2019

Peninsula cold case gets new attention by Alex Madison

Courtesy Facebook

Sydney resident Steven Spencer

On-demand PrEP failure reported

Trans visibility in San Jose

by Liz Highleyman

n Australian man said he acquired HIV while taking on-demand PrEP before and after sex, which could represent the latest in a handful of cases of failure of the prevention pill. Sydney resident Steve Spencer, 27, who was among the first to take PrEP in Australia, went public with his HIV-positive status at the Sydney Mardi Gras parade March 2. He discussed his recent seroconversion in an interview in the Star Observer, an Australian LGBT publication. In the wake of the announcement, medical experts, community health advocates, and See page 11 >>

lected officials and community members gathered at the Santa Clara County Government Center in San Jose Tuesday, March 16, to raise the transgender flag as part of Trans Visibility Week. Lance Moore, left, a South Bay Trans Day of Visibility representative, joined Maribel Martinez, director of the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and Su-

Jo-Lynn Otto

pervisor Susan Ellenberg, Alexia Diaz, and Esther Peralez-Dieckmann. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the flag-raising. An event in San Francisco will be held Friday, March 29, at 6 p.m. at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street. Tickets are free. For more information, see the TDOV 2019 Facebook page.

35-year-old San Mateo cold case involving the murder of an unidentified, possible trans woman has garnered renewed attention thanks to the Trans Doe Task Force at the DNA Illustration: Kim Parkhurst Doe Project. On November 26, An updated foren1983, the body of a sic sketch of Pillar man, age 19 to 25, Point Doe by DNA dressed in female ca- project. sual attire, was found near Lower Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay, about 30 miles south of San Francisco on the Peninsula. Because the gender identity of the victim is unknown, the Bay Area Reporter is using gender-neutral pronouns to refer to them. The victim, who was found within hours of their death, was reportedly stabbed, strangled, and had their wrists slit, according to Anthony Redgrave, DNA Doe Project team lead for the cold case. The nonprofit, all-volunteer organizaSee page 10 >>

Tennis great King charms SF audience Illustration: Ernesto Sopprani

The state Department of Motor Vehicles continues to stand by its rejection of a “LTHR DDY” vanity license plate.

DMV defends leather license plate rejection

by Matthew S. Bajko

Heather Cassell

alifornia’s Department of Motor Vehicles is defending its rejection of a vanity license plate that would have been shorthand for “leather daddy.” As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in February, the state agency rejected San Francisco resident Robert Haynes’ request for a “LTHR DDY” vanity license plate for his 2015 Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle. In explaining its decision in a letter to Haynes in January, it did so due to the phrase’s “sexual connotation” and how it can be read “as a term of lust or depravity.” A shocked Haynes contacted the office of gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) for help in getting his vanity plate approved. In his own letter to the DMV, Wiener castigated the agency for basing its decision on homophobic notions of what a leather daddy is. He demanded that the DMV approve Haynes’ vanity plate. But in a March 13 response to Wiener, acting DMV director Kathleen K. Webb doubled down in defending the agency’s decision. And she disclosed that the agency had twice before rejected vanity license plate requests using the “LTHR DDY” configuration. “Unfortunately, based on DMV’s personalized license plate review process, established by statute ... and implemented through reguSee page 10 >>

Retired tennis champion Billie Jean King, right, spoke at the University of San Francisco March 19 with Jennifer Azzi, the school’s former women’s basketball coach.

by Heather Cassell

illie Jean King charmed audience members as she regaled them with stories about her life, women’s rights, and gender equity at a recent appearance at the University of San Francisco. The 75-year-old lesbian former tennis champion inspired attendees with her wit and dispensed some seeds of wisdom during the evening. King grew up in Long Beach along with her parents, Bill Moffitt, a firefighter, and Betty Moffitt, a homemaker. Her younger brother, Randall James “Randy” Moffitt, played for the San Francisco Giants and other major league baseball teams. Sports came naturally to the siblings. They loved balls, King said. Any type of ball they went crazy over, and she loved watching her father shoot hoops, making 100 consecutive perfect shots with the basketball hoop in their backyard. As a child, King twice made big pronouncements, once when she was 5, and then several years later when she was 11. At first it was a general, “I am going to do something big,” she said. Later, she said she wanted to be the number one tennis player in the world. The announcement came after only her second time playing tennis with a friend who introduced

her to the sport. She began playing on the public courts of the California beachside town and immediately began competing in tournaments. Her brother followed suit a couple of years later with his own news that he wanted to play professional baseball. King joked about her parents’ shock by their kids’ announcements about their future careers. “I was scared, I was really scared because I might not be able to play that good,” King, who was a guest of the USF Silk Speaker Series March 19, told the audience of more than 1,000 people at the sold out event. Kellie Samson, with the USF office of marketing and communications, said King’s talk was also livestreamed to USF’s satellite campuses. King’s parents never pushed their children or even asked if they won or lost a game, she said. They simply asked how the game went. But her father did make her work to get her first tennis racket and the siblings were competitive in sports.

The voice of change

Early in her tennis career, King recognized that the playing field was largely made up of men and white people. It was at that moment she made the commitment to use her platform for equality and social justice, she said.

“I knew I was very, very fortunate to have this opportunity,” said King. “I knew in my heart of hearts I had to be number one or nobody would listen, particularly because I’m a girl.” King hasn’t backed down since. From starting the Women’s Tennis Association and demanding pay equity for women in sports to standing up for tennis star Serena Williams after she angrily exploded on the court during a match last September and got slapped with penalties and hefty fines. “There are centuries of anger in there. Black women have always been put down when they get angry,” said King, adding that women and men have to have each other’s backs. King, who admitted that she didn’t begin feeling comfortable in her own body until she was 51 years old, spoke earnestly about women and what sports teaches them. “Sports is such a great place to learn how to navigate your life. I use what I learned in sports every single day,” she said. Sports also teaches girls how to “trust your body” and how to “be team players,” she added. She spoke bluntly about women needing to earn more money in sports and the need to change how boys are raised: boys are raised to be brave and girls are raised to be perfect, boys are taught hierarchy and girls are not, she noted. See page 10 >>

<< Community News

t Business vandalism, tire slashing plague Castro 2 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

by Alex Madison

ince February, there have been more than half a dozen small businesses in the Castro and Upper Market area that have had their glass windows and doors smashed, according to local merchants. Multiple incidents of car tire slashing in the Castro have also recently been reported, according to authorities. No suspects have been charged and the incidents are under investigation, a San Francisco Police Department spokesman said.

According to local sources, the small businesses affected by the vandalism include the Academy (2166 Market Street), Max Muscle Nutrition (3600 16th Street), Duboce apartments (181 Sanchez Street), the Castro Republic (2295 Market Street), a Verizon store (2199 Market Street), and the under-construction German beer garden Willkommen (2196 Market Street). According to Hoodline, incidents of broken glass were reported at Dinosaurs (2275 Market Street) and Verve Coffee Roasters (2101 Market Street).

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A co-owner of the Academy, a social club, spoke to the Bay Area Reporter this week about the incident and the impact on his business and others. Nate Bourg, a gay man, said the social club’s surveillance footage captured a white male in his late 20s on March 3 around 6:45 a.m. reach his hand through the iron gate a few feet from the front door and throw a rock at the door. “He was walking by himself and he looked around to see if anyone was watching. From the video he looked like he could have been intoxicated, but it’s hard to tell,” Bourg said. “Then he reached through the gate and threw a rock at the window.” The glass front door suffered severe damage and will cost upward of $1,000 to fix. It has not been replaced yet and the owners are considering a wood door. Bourg called police and gave them the surveillance footage. “I think the police took it seriously enough, but I am not sure this epidemic is really being taken seriously as a collective pool, but obviously [the police] have a lot of challenges,” Bourg said. “It’s happening all over the neighborhood and small businesses can’t afford to make these big repairs.” He added that in many incidents,

Cynthia Laird

A Verizon store in the Castro had to replace two windows after someone broke them recently.

the business owners have to pay out of pocket for the damage due to insurance not covering the cost, having high deductibles, or not wanting their premiums to increase. The vandalism has caused some businesses to close for days at a time, Bourg said. He believes the incidents are adding to the slew of vacant ground-floor retail spaces in the Castro and Upper Market area as well as adding to the number of homeless

people sleeping in businesses’ doorways. “It’s creating a sad state of commerce and life on the block and allowing for encampments and negative behavior to take root. When businesses are thriving and work together and support one another, it’s more likely that the block is safe and where people want to come,” Bourg said. Greg Carey, chief of the volunteer group Castro Community on Patrol, told the B.A.R. that it is important for small businesses to install surveillance cameras. The cost of high quality surveillance technology is fairly inexpensive, Carey said, and can help police find the suspects. “Not having evidence to tie these things together, whether it’s several people or one, without some kind of evidence it’s really hard to tie down,” Carey said. According to a spokesman for SFPD, authorities are “looking for witnesses and more surveillance footage, images of the suspect or suspects.” Prior to the Academy, a rash of about five businesses got hit near the end of February, all in the same night, according to Carey. Of those See page 11 >>

CA launches LGBT mental health survey by Matthew S. Bajko

alifornia has launched what is believed to be the state’s first mental health survey of its LGBTQ citizens. The survey is aimed at learning more information about LGBTQ people’s experiences accessing mental health services, if they have thought about suicide, and how they have been impacted by antiLGBTQ bias. There are also specialized questions for transgender people as well as those who are bisexual or pansexual. It is part of the #Out4MentalHealth project overseen by the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network and NorCal Mental Health America. And it ties into the efforts of LGBTQ organizations and leaders throughout the Golden State to better collect sexual orientation and gender identity data in order to seek state resources for services aimed at LGBTQ people. “This will give us a chance to look at the quality of care people are receiving,” said Amanda McAllisterWallner, director of the statewide LGBTQ network. “What are some of the factors leading to the health and mental health disparities that we do see?” The survey launched March 5 and will close April 26. It takes between 10 and 20 minutes to complete depending on what categories people fall under, as some people will be asked more questions than others depending on their answers. In 2016, the state’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission awarded a $1.8 million grant spread over three years toward the LGBTQ mental health project, which officially began in August 2017. The commission’s main focus is developing strategies to overcome stigma and also advises state lawmakers on mental health policy. The grant marked the first time the advisory panel had funded an LGBTQ project since voters created it with the passage of Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, in November 2004. Commissioner John Boyd, Sutter Health’s CEO of

Courtesy #Out4MentalHealth project

People can now take a mental health survey that seeks responses from LGBTQ people.

mental health services, pushed for awarding of the grant. “The efforts of #Out4MentalHealth are part of the largest effort of the commission to support the voice of consumers and family members through stakeholder advocacy,” Elisa Bupara, the commission’s spokeswoman, told the Bay Area Reporter. “The #Out 4MentalHealth community survey is an effort to collect data and information about the LGBTQ community and explore the mental health needs and challenges of LGBTQ consumers and their families across the state.” The survey data will be used to develop a state of the community report, explained Bupara. “The report will establish areas of need for this often un- or underserved – and often inappropriately served – community and offer some solutions and action agenda items to support the needs the report reveals,” she said. Boyd, a gay man who joined the commission in 2013 and served as chair last year, did not respond to a request for comment. The goal is to have at least 3,000 people complete the survey. Within 17 days 700 people had done so. Several $50 gift cards and a number of $25 and $10 ones will be raffled off as an enticement for people to take the survey. “I am really, really excited to see the results of this survey,” said McAllister-Wallner. “We constantly butt up against a lack of data in the advocacy work we do. I know my

colleagues in LGBT advocacy struggle as well.” She expects the survey results will be released in August as a follow-up to last year’s report “Mapping the Road to Equity: The Annual State of LGBTQ Communities, 2018.” One of the findings in the report was that “a sizable proportion of therapists are not adequately trained or even willing to serve trans clients.” It also determined that providers who know their client is LGBTQ “either focus too much or too little on their patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity, especially in the identification of risk factors for health outcomes.” One of the issues McAllisterWallner hopes the survey will shed some light on is where are LGBTQ Californians receiving mental health services. In more rural sections of the state, she has heard reports that there are no LGBTQ-affirming mental health providers. “One of the questions the survey asks is how long does it take someone to access care in their area or do they have to drive for three hours to get care,” she noted. “There have been a lot of anecdotal stories of things like that, but we have never been able to quantify that before.” Having such information, said McAllister-Wallner, will mean advocates can “work with health care providers and insurers in the state to improve the accessibility to mental health care for LGBT Californians.” To complete the survey, visit https://californialgbtqhealth.org/ community-survey/.t

Correction The March 28 article “SF City Clinic sports refreshed exam rooms” erred in the number of patients the clinic sees. It is 70 to 80 people per day. The health department also revised its estimated price tags for the project, with the exam room work costing $50,000 and the earlier entrance area redo costing $450,000. The online version has been corrected.

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Volume 49, Number 13 March 28-April 3, 2019 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Alex Madison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • Juanita MORE! David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor • Sari Staver Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Let’s get real about Equality Act

he newly introduced Equality Act will have its first hearing next week before the House Judiciary Committee. Aspirationally, the act sends a message that LGBTs and allies in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives want to pass sweeping federal legislation that would explicitly prohibit discrimination against the LGBTQ community and strengthen non-discrimination protections for women and other minorities. Realistically, the Equality Act isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Media outlets that breathlessly covered the act’s introduction a couple of weeks ago, like the Advocate’s article that proclaimed the act “has something to offer you,” are peddling false hope that no one should fall for. Yes, the Equality Act would be a good thing, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) is unlikely to bring the Equality Act for a vote in that chamber. Even if he did, it will never be passed by a Republican-controlled Senate nor signed by President Donald Trump. If the Senate was to pass the bill, Trump’s veto would reveal his true homophobic colors. The Equality Act is different from the longstalled and eventually abandoned Employment Non-Discrimination Act that languished for years in Congress – and at one point did not include gender identity, much to the consternation of many LGB people as well as the trans community. The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system. All of those are critically important for ensuring the rights of LGBTs. The Human Rights Campaign, which long championed ENDA (even without including trans people) and is behind the Equality Act, often cites the fact that LGBT people can be fired in 26 states. That’s appalling – and wrong – which is why we need federal protections. But it’s going to take a Democratic-controlled

Courtesy HRC

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin has garnered business support for the Equality Act.

Senate and a Democratic president to make the Equality Act a reality. For now, it highlights inequalities that LGBTs face and motivates organizations like HRC and Equality California to raise more funds. There’s nothing wrong with that effort, but these groups should be forthright in acknowledging that success is highly unlikely with Republicans in control. Gay Congressman Mark Takano (D-Riverside) is one of many Equality Act co-sponsors. He was in Sacramento recently for a daylong summit held by EQCA and told the Bay Area Reporter that the bill is critical, even as he acknowledged its slim chance of passage. “What we are doing is providing a contrast between what Republicans and Democrats stand for,” he said in a brief interview. He also said it will have political ramifications even if it doesn’t become law. For one, he said, it is a stark reminder of what a Democrat-led Senate and House could achieve with a Democrat in the White House come 2021. LGBT rights groups and congressional Dem-

ocrats missed an opportunity nine years ago to pass ENDA when they controlled Congress and President Barack Obama was in the White House. At the time, there were other issues like health care competing for attention. Passage of the Affordable Care Act resulted in the loss of political capital that cost the party dearly in that year’s midterm elections and beyond. ENDA was abandoned by congressional Democrats for the successful effort to repeal the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy during a lame duck session, which was a huge victory for the LGBT community that came at the expense of ENDA. While we see the Equality Act’s introduction as a first step, we must acknowledge it will be a yearslong journey.

Businesses, support your local LGBT paper

When the Equality Act was introduced, HRC announced that 164 leading businesses had signed on to its Business Coalition for the Equality Act. It’s great that Bay Area-based companies like Apple, Cisco Systems, CSAA Insurance Group, Dropbox, eBay, Gilead Sciences, and Salesforce, to name just a few, are committed to LGBT equality. We have another suggestion for all those companies that signed on to the coalition – support local LGBT media by advertising in them. That would help the LGBT community and help those media outlets – including the B.A.R. – continue their work of providing original content about and for the queer community. As most people know, journalism has been in free fall for more than a decade, and the LGBT press has not been immune from that downturn. Many smaller media outlets have ceased publication, and the ones that survive are not the same as they once were, due in large part to a drop-off in national advertising. Such support would also show the LGBT community that these businesses value them – as people, employees, and potential customers. Words matter, but these days, actions matter more. t

Happy survival day to Jimmy Carter by John Bare

s of last week, Jimmy Carter was 94 years and 172 days old, making him the longest surviving president in U.S. history, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died at the end of last year, and Gerald Ford before him. He is my favorite former president alive today, but it wasn’t always that way. When Carter ran for president, we mocked and ridiculed him. He was a “peanut farmer” and a “nukular engineer.” He smiled at oddly inappropriate times. He lusted after “other” women “in his heart.” He wore Mister Rogers sweaters into the Oval Office, and he allowed Americans to be taken hostage by a foreign power while we watched nightly on “Nightline.” These days, Carter is mostly known for building houses with Habitat for Humanity and for monitoring overseas elections. He has also become a voice for LGBT equality, although it is hard to know how how much Carter might have pushed for full equality had he won re-election. But in the last seven months of his administration, Carter got three critical circuit court nominations through the confirmation process that would change our history: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was later elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court; Stephen Reinhardt, who became a liberal lion and author of the victorious opinion in Perry v. Brown, affirming the decision striking down Proposition 8; and Stephen Breyer, who later became one of the most reliably liberal votes on the Supreme Court. These judicial appointments and others presented (for a while) a bulwark against the backlash that followed the expansion of civil rights under the Warren Supreme Court. I once asked Reinhardt if he was surprised how avidly we all follow every opinion of the courts. He gave a good laugh, “Nobody pays any attention to the courts.” That may have been true before Prop 8 and before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ran out the clock on Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court for 293 days. President Donald Trump doubled down with Supreme Court nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh (both confirmed), and handfuls of ultra-conservative lower court

Courtesy AP

Former President Jimmy Carter

appointments. Meanwhile, Democrats lost the right to filibuster nominations and the power of home-state senators to reject a nominee, the so-called blue slip privilege. Much has been lost since Carter’s administration. Having vanquished Carter, Ronald Reagan eviscerated the labor movement and began decades of dismantling the system of progressive taxation. Even voting rights – once championed in a bipartisan manner – is challenged in courts and legislatures. Partisan gerrymandering has become so prevalent that even though a majority of Americans regularly vote for Democratic legislators, the House and many statehouses are often run by Republicans. Two presidential candidates since Carter have lost the presidency even while winning the popular vote. The ultimate result is that virtually every progressive idea in law has now come under attack because Republicans have been unafraid to manipulate the rules for their own benefit. As a result, our democracy and our planet are in serious crisis. If they are to survive, we have to allow bold thinking to cut a clear path through the damage that has been done since 1980. Not afraid of big thinking himself, Carter installed solar panels on the White House, until Reagan had them removed, long before Al Gore came along. He became a Nobel Peace Prize-winning gentleman statesman, ensuring that democracy is protected through fair and

scandal-free elections. Today, we may need different ideas, like abolishing or updating the Electoral College, and expanding the number of Supreme Court justices to make it much harder for any president to have unreasonable power over the courts. What’s more, our LGBT community should be the first to appreciate this necessity because we’ve been there before: To those who say these are pipe dreams that will never happen and certainly not in our lifetime, I’d say that we have about the same chances of making these changes as we had of getting national marriage equality in our lifetime when my husband and I started dating in 1990. If we don’t dream it and strategize to accomplish it and work like hell for it, then sure, it will never happen. Fortunately, there is hope that these ideas can take hold, as we see from the interest they garner from Democratic presidential hopefuls. Former National Center for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell, now campaign director for Pack the Courts, said, “Since Pack the Courts was launched last fall the resonance of the idea has exceeded my wildest imaginings.” When Bill Clinton first nominated Garland to the D.C. Circuit, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) voted against him because the circuit court has “too many judges.” Republicans, in other words, unpack the court when it suits them, so we must not be afraid of what they will do if we propose a fair, bipartisan way to rebuild faith in our judiciary and our electoral system. In fact, we should be afraid of what they will do if we do not. We all deserve a habitat of humanity. Let’s elect another Jimmy Carter in 2020.t John Bare was a molecular biologist and now a donor-activist. As a photographer, his work has appeared in the Advocate and Asia Week, and on the cover of the Bay Area Reporter, the National Catholic Reporter, and the forthcoming book by James Haas entitled “The San Francisco Civic Center: A History of the Design, Controversies, and Realization of the City Beautiful Masterpiece.”

Letters >>

Upset with BALIF board mess

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

I was upset reading the article “BALIF board members quit” [March 21]. I was enraged and, at the same time, exhausted by the seemingly impossible fight to get activists, progressives, and social justice warriors to stop tearing down allies and focus on our real enemies. Multiple members of the BALIF board quit due to verbal abuse by fellow board members. When they took issue with the abuse they were accused of today’s secret phrase, “white fragility.” How convenient. Labeling someone allows the labeler to disregard anything and everything the other person says since they clearly “just don’t get it.” In this case, the complaints of multiple board members can be ignored since they are just fragile. Were it not so tragic it would be hilarious to read BALIF Co-Chair Annick Persinger’s take in this mess: “The BALIF board has had many difficult conversations around these is-

sues (current and historical exclusion of transgender and queer people of color). During those conversations, there were requests for POC and white allies to mind their tone and to be civil. Tone policing is rooted in racism and sexism. Similarly, requests for civility are rooted in historic attempts to civilize people of color and women, and, as a result, are inherently unequal.” Insane. Being polite and respectful has come to mean racist and sexist? I’m certain she does not feel that way when it’s her side demanding respect. It’s this type of attitude and name-calling that helped get Donald Trump elected and may well again. We need to pay more attention to our real enemies rather than tear others down for not being PC enough. Joseph Barrett Oakland, California

Over the counter PrEP access raises concerns

by Matthew S. Bajko

move by California lawmakers to allow over the counter access to PrEP is raising concerns about patient privacy and adherence to the HIV prevention medication. As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in December, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is a lead author of Senate Bill 159, which would authorize pharmacists to furnish PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, and PEP, or post-exposure prophylaxis, to patients without a physician’s prescription. Gay Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) signed on as a co-author and Equality California, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization, has made the bill one of its top legislative priorities this session. Just as people do not need a prescription to obtain birth control pills from a pharmacist, neither should they need one to obtain the HIV prevention medications, contend the lawmakers and advocates. The actual language of the bill was recently released and would require pharmacists to undergo training devised by the California State Board of Pharmacy to learn about both HIV prevention medications and how patients are supposed to take them. Pharmacists would have to screen patients for HIV and ensure they have received a negative HIV test within the last seven days. They would also be required to counsel patients about the side effects of the medications and “the importance of adhering to the drug regimen, testing and treatment, as applicable, for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, behavioral risk reduction support, and pregnancy testing.” They would also have to document the use of PrEP or PEP in the patient’s health record and notify their primary care provider or, should they not have one, inform them where they can go to receive health care services. After seeing the bill language, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation has signed as a co-sponsor. “SB 159 is an innovative approach to removing barriers and expanding access to PrEP and PEP to prevent HIV infection,” Courtney MulhernPearson, the nonprofit’s senior director of policy and strategy, told the B.A.R. “PrEP is the most effective primary prevention strategy available to our community, and it’s working as a public health strategy. Getting access to PrEP for everyone at risk for HIV will require changing health systems, and we’re supportive of this bill’s intent to broaden access.” But the powerful California Medical Association informed lawmakers last week that it would oppose the bill unless changes were made to it. Primarily, it is seeking to have PrEP struck from the bill so that pharmacists would only be allowed to furnish a portion of PEP over the counter. Patients would then need to see a doctor

State Senator Scott Wiener’s bill to allow PrEP to be obtained without a prescription has raised concerns ahead of its first hearing next month.

to receive the rest of the PEP regimen. “As currently drafted, pharmacists would have full discretion to provide PrEP and PEP without any requirements that a patient see a physician. Prescribing a daily, long-term use, medication of strong HIV regimen drugs to healthy, HIV-negative patients demands a high degree of safety and consideration that is only achieved safely by the patientphysician relationship,” wrote Morgan Carvajal, a legislative advocate with the CMA’s Center for Government Relations, in a March 19 letter to lawmakers. She added that deciding if a person should use PrEP “is not strictly objective and should be based on ongoing conversations between the physician and patient. Along with risks from longterm use, including impaired kidney function and depleting bone mineral, PrEP can also cause drug interactions and requires regular checkups and screening during use.” Wiener has been working closely with the California Pharmacists Association in drafting the bill. He told the B.A.R. that he has confidence pharmacists can be properly trained on the usage of PrEP and PEP so that they can safely administer the medications. “Clearly pharmacists need to receive that training so they can provide PrEP and PEP without judgment or stigma,” said Wiener. “We are all committed to making sure pharmacists have the tools they need to succeed.” As for adherence concerns, Wiener said it is going to be an issue no matter where people obtain PrEP and PEP. In terms of PrEP, people can either take it daily or on demand in a regimen San Francisco health officials have dubbed PrEP 2-1-1. It requires a person take two pills of Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) 24 hours or, at minimum, up to two hours in advance of having

sex, another pill the next day, and a final pill the day after. Should they be on vacation for a week, and plan to have sex during the entire time, then they would continue to take one Truvada pill every day of their break. When done with their vacation, they would need to take one last dose of PrEP 48 hours after their last sexual encounter. “Regardless of where you are getting PrEP, whether from a physician or pharmacist, a person must receive information about adherence,” said Wiener. “Whether it is daily adherence or 2-1-1 that is always a challenge making sure people receive the information and the information sinks in.” There is now a technological answer for how to help people adhere to their PrEP regimens. Healthvana, the largest HIV technology platform in the U.S., and UrSure, which improves adherence to HIV medications with diagnostic tests, are working with health clinics across the U.S. on the issue. “Adherence is something that is an issue with PrEP,” acknowledged Healthvana CEO Ramin Bastani. “Everyone has worked hard to make PrEP available for use and to scale it up. But that is not the end of the journey there. We also need to make sure people are taking it as prescribed and adhering to it. Otherwise we are not going to see what we all want, a reduction in HIV.” The companies have teamed together to offer the Healthvana app people can download to their cellphones that will alert them to when it is time to see their health care provider for a check up to ensure they continue to be HIV-negative while using PrEP. And they also will mail Ursure’s urinebased testing kit to a person’s home that they then send back to a lab in order to monitor their PrEP usage. The results are sent directly to the person via the app and to their doctor. “Ursure measures a patient’s urine to make sure those struggling with adherence receive more targeted counseling or intervention through Healthvana and get them back on track,” explained Dr. Giffin Daughtridge, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “Usually you give the results to the provider and they have to call the person. But with Healthvana, we can give the results to both the patient and provider. They can communicate through the platform.” Asked about SB 159, Daughtridge told the B.A.R. that he is supportive of “anything we think will increase access to PrEP. Its uptake over the last several years has been a lot slower than people had hoped.” The Senate Business, Professions See page 10 >>

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<< Travel

6 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

History and activities await LGBTs in Philly by Ed Walsh

s I walked by the lesbian-focused Toasted Walnut Bar and Kitchen in Philadelphia earlier this month, the first panhandler who approached me in the three days I had spent walking around the city solicited me. The man stepped toward me and started to ask me for money, but before he could finish, the other man who was with him pulled him back and said, “Don’t just approach people like that, stay back.” Coming from San Francisco, it was a bit of a shock to see relatively few people begging for money on the streets. It was even more surprising to see that there may even be a culture against aggressive panhandling. Although I was there during the winter, I didn’t notice much of a difference when I was there in the summer about five years ago. The streets are also much cleaner than San Francisco and, although San Francisco and many other cities brag about being walkable, Philadelphia may have them all beat. I stayed about a half mile from the city’s gay neighborhood that locals appropriately call the Gayborhood, the center of which is around S. 13 and Locust streets. I could easily walk to the Gayborhood, downtown, and the city’s historic center including Independence National Historical Park Pennsylvania (http://www.nps.gov/ inde/index.htm), where the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and most of the city’s museums are situated. While Stonewall Inn in New York City gets all the attention – and even more so this year with the 50th anniversary of the 1969 riots that sparked the modern LGBT rights movement – one of the first gay rights demonstrations in the country was in 1965 kitty-corner from the Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. An official sign marks the spot of one of the city’s most important historical sites. Philadelphia was founded by William Penn in 1682. As one of the Quaker faith’s most prominent members, Penn set a tone of tolerance in the “City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affections,” as the city’s full nickname is known. The Quakers were among the first faiths to denounce slavery and Quakers were among the first religions to support LGBT rights. Philadelphia was also one of the first major cities to aggressively court LGBT tourism in 2003 with

Ed Walsh

History sites in Philadelphia include the footprint of George Washington’s house, right, and Independence Hall in the background.

its popular campaign, “Get your history straight and your nightlife gay.” Philly’s Gayborhood is ideal for LGBT tourists who want to enjoy some of the best museums in the country and great LGBT nightlife, all within an easy stroll. The city’s official tourism site, http://www. VisitPhilly.com, provides one of the best guides of any city on activities and nightlife directed toward LGBTs.

Sights

You could easily spend a week exploring the museums and attractions around Independence Hall, about a 20-minute walk from the Gayborhood. You can walk around Independence Hall. If you want a tour inside free tickets are required and you need to plan ahead if you are visiting in the busy summer months. You can get tickets online or get a walkup ticket on the same day. The guided tour lasts about 20 minutes and you can take all the photos you want. The room where the Founding Fathers first decided to separate from Britain includes the ornate chair with a half sun on it where George Washington sat. Benjamin Franklin famously said that at the start of the meeting he didn’t know if the sun was rising or setting, but by the Declaration of Independence being approved, he

knew it was a rising sun. By the way, an interesting factoid that I learned on the tour is that nothing of historical value happened on July 4, 1776. The declaration was agreed upon two days earlier, on July 2, and sent to the printer July 4. The printer put that date on the top of the declaration and it stuck. Most of the signers didn’t even sign the document until August 4. The Liberty Bell is kitty-corner from Independence Hall and just across the street from the aforementioned sign marking the 1965 gay rights demonstration. It’s free to go inside but you first have to clear security and there is often a line. You can peer at the bell through the glass outside and push a button on the wall next to the window to hear an excellent summary of the history of the bell, which became a symbol of liberty based mostly on the mythology surrounding it. Adjacent to the building that houses the Liberty Bell is the footprint of the house where Washington lived. You can look down and see the bricks of the foundation that archeologists unearthed. Washington rotated the slaves he owned between Mt. Vernon and Philadelphia because if the slaves stayed in Pennsylvania for more than six months, they would have to be freed. Videos above the house footprint use actors depicting the struggles faced by Washington’s slaves. Across the street from Washington’s house is the Independence Visitor Center, where you can get sameday tickets to the Independence Hall tour. The center also has a great film on Philadelphia’s attractions as well as a small exhibition space depicting the city’s early colonist days. Be sure to go to the second level for great views of Independence Hall. The National Constitution Center (https://constitutioncenter.org/) is next to the Independence Visitor Center and is another attraction not to be missed. It costs $14.50 to get in and is well worth it. Its multimedia show on the country’s history presents a balanced view that includes the struggle for civil rights and equality for all people. After the show, the audience exits the second floor of the building where you can see some of the faces and stories of people who have shaped the nation’s history, including San Francisco’s own Harvey Milk. The history of the early, free African-American citizens of Philadelphia is highlighted in the city’s African-American Museum (https:// www.aampmuseum.org/), just a short walk from Constitution Center. The museum uses actors who appear

in videos describing the citizens’ lives before the Civil War. The actor portraying one of the city’s most prominent African-American leaders of the city, Octavius Catto, passionately talks of his support of the Republican Party and of his concern for corrupt Democrats who are wooing Irish immigrants and, in some cases, bribing African-Americans with drinks if they would vote for Democrats. Catto was shot and killed by a man of Irish descent during election day violence in 1871. He was just 32. Museum admission is $14. Another great museum in the Independence Hall area is the National Museum of American Jewish History (https://www.nmajh.org/). It includes mention of the milestone of the acceptance of out LGBTs as rabbis. One exhibit showcases the fight for greater acceptance of gay people within the faith. The late gay San Franciscan poet Allen Ginsberg is prominently shown in a video loop on the Jewish support for civil rights. Admission is $15. The Museum of the American Revolution (https://www.amrevmuseum.org/) is just a short fiveminute walk from Independence Hall. It costs $21 to get in and is well worth it. The most memorable part of the museum is the tent in which Washington lived when he directed the battles of the Revolution. The tent is revealed after a brief film depicting the symbolism of Washington staying in a tent along with his troops and how that met with his philosophy of not sparing himself any discomfort experienced by his soldiers. Ironically, the tent on display had been owned by the family of General Robert E. Lee, who sold it after the Civil War to benefit wounded Confederate soldiers. The tent is kept in an airtight glass room to prevent mold and deterioration of the cloth. It is only exposed to light for very brief periods to help preserve it. Both the Revolutionary War museum and the Constitution Center have large exhibits dedicated to Alexander Hamilton, who is generating increased interest because of the award-winning Broadway musical. On the way to the Revolutionary War museum, be sure to check out the Science History Institute (https://www.sciencehistory.org/). The small museum is free and it showcases medical science advancements. It includes a section on the first AIDS medications and has an exhibit of artwork showing alchemists who pioneered the use of medicine to cure illnesses. While not in the Independence Mall area, other attractions include the Franklin Institute (https:// www.fi.edu/), a museum dedicated to the study of science and experi-

mentation that was such a big part of Franklin’s life. The museum includes a planetarium and an Imax theater. Philadelphia is very proud of the legacy of the “Rocky” films. A statue depicting Sylvester Stallone’s character Rocky Balboa is next to the steps of the city’s Museum of Art (https://www.philamuseum.org/), where Balboa famously trained by running up the stairs. While you retrace Balboa’s steps be sure to check out the museum itself, one of the largest art museums in the country. San Francisco is not the only city with a former prison as a major tourist attraction. Eastern State Penitentiary (https://www.easternstate.org/) is not-to-be missed. The prison once housed gangster Al Capone. His elaborately decorated cell is among the exhibits. Other cells were turned over to artists, who used the space to create artwork. One inventive artist found a way to assemble a car in a cell. Halloween is especially big for the prison, when it is transformed into a house of horrors. One of the best ways to see everything in Philly without getting lost is by bus. The excellent Big Bus (www.bigbustours.com) gives you the option of hoping on and off at various attractions in the city, including the Rocky steps and Eastern State Penitentiary. Be sure to check out the lobby of the downtown Macy’s store, just across the street from Philadelphia City Hall. It features the largest playing musical instrument in the world, the Wanamaker organ (https:// www.wanamakerorgan.com/). Free concerts are presented daily. Movie fans will remember this as the setting for the film “Mannequin.” For a great overview of the city, check out the One Liberty Observation Deck (https://phillyfromthetop.com/) in the heart of downtown. The views are spectacular. Admission is $15 but you can save money on this, and other attractions, by purchasing either a Philadelphia Pass (https://www.philadelphiapass.com/) or a City Pass (https://www.citypass.com/).

Ed Walsh

A sign marks the site of a 1965 gay rights protest in Philadelphia and is kitty-corner from Independence Hall.

The Gayborhood

Philly’s gay nightlife, as you might expect, is centered in the Gayborhood, less than a mile from Independence Hall. Mainstays include Woody’s (https://woodysbar.com/), a spacious bar and dance floor that always draws a crowd. Steps away, you will find Voyeur (www.voyeurnightclub.com), which is the Gayborhood’s late night bar. It stays open until 4 a.m. and doesn’t get going until after midnight. People often forget that the nickname “City of Brotherly Love,” also includes “and Sisterly Affections.” And in keeping with that second part, Philadelphia supports the See page 10 >>

Community News>>

t Queer history series looks at Mattachine Society

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

of its founders by the police, and the State Department’s witch-hunt for “sexual deviants.” For tickets, visit https://bit.ly/2H7kwwN. Finally, the third evening, April 18, will feature “Cracks in the Foundation: Splintering into Homophile Alliances.” It will include the podcast episodes “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been A Homosexual,” “People Like Other People,” and “Silly Letters.” It looks at the rise in Mattachine’s membership and an attempted organizational coup by conservatives and an FBI informant. For tickets, go to https://bit.ly/2IURvWz. The series is made possible by the Calamus Fellowship and the GLBT Historical Society.

San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services Commission. Felicia Elizondo, 72, was sworn in and attended her first DAAS meeting March 6. She joins out commissioners Gustavo Serina, who writes for the Bay Area Reporter as Tavo Amador; Martha Knutzen; and Michael Pappas on the panel, according to its website. Elizondo is a longtime AIDS survivor who was one of the participants in the Compton’s Cafeteria riot in the city’s Tenderloin district. She is featured in the 2005 documentary “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.” On a night in August 1966, transgender and queer patrons of the eatery stood up to police, fed up at being repeatedly arrested on sex work charges and routinely harassed in general. The event took place three years prior to the more famous riots at the Stonewall Inn gay bar in New York City. Born in San Angelo, Texas, Elizondo first visited San Francisco in the mid-1960s. She decided to come back to San Francisco to live in the early 1990s. She is a Vietnam veteran, having served in the Navy, and has held a variety of jobs including nurses aid and customer services representative. Elizondo said that after being interviewed by a member of Breed’s staff, she accepted the four-year term. “I’m going to do my best to do the best for my community,” she told the Bay Area Reporter in a brief interview last week.

Trans woman named to SF aging panel

Carnaval seeking drag royalty competitors

Mayor London Breed has appointed a transgender woman to the

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Courtesy GLBT Historical Society

he GLBT Historical Society Museum will present “Mattachine: A Queer Serial” over three nights in April. “Mattachine: A Queer Serial,” as the Bay Area Reporter first reported last year, is a podcast that follows the true story of a secret organization created by the late Harry Hay that catalyzed the American gay rights movement in the 1950s. From its inception in 1920s Chicago, through secret speakeasy-style meetings, the podcast takes listeners into McCarthy-era paranoia that pulled activists apart and scattered the seeds of the homosexual movement long before Stonewall. The series creator and host, Devlyn Camp, will be at the sessions and provide a visual component to accompany the serial. Joey Cain, a longtime friend of Hay’s and activist and researcher, will be interviewing Camp after the podcast presentations. All three events take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at the museum, located at 4127 18th Street in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. Admission is free for historical society members and $5 for non-members. The first program, “Dawn of the Movement: From Henry Gerber to Harry Hay,” will be held Thursday, April 4. It will feature the Mattachine podcasts titled “Strange Sex Cult Exposed” and “The Call.” It covers the origins of the movement. For tickets, visit https://bit.ly/2VKkNsO. “To Be Accused: Government Crackdown and Homophile Resistance,” will take place Thursday, April 11. It features the podcast episodes “To Be Accused,” “The Lavender Scare,” and “Diversified Individuals.” It surveys the Mattachine Society’s early years, the entrapment of one

Local samba, salsa, cumbia, bachata, merengue, mambo, cha cha cha, tango, bomba, plena, jive, rumba, and soca dancers will compete for the three titles. The adult competition will begin at 6 p.m. A contest See page 11 >>

Tem p

parade that takes place over Memorial Day weekend, will hold its annual Royalty competition Saturday, April 27, at Mission High School. For the second year, dancers will compete for a drag majesty title in addition to the king and queen royalty.

Ro os

compiled by Cynthia Laird

<< Commentary

8 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Our messy genders by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

t feels like every day someone is attempting to legislate transgender people. While so-called bathroom bills feel like they’re finally on the wane, proposals around transgender medical needs, the right to serve in the military, and so many more horrible bills are making their appearance. Oh, and of course, the other big fad, whether transgender people can participate in sports. Every time these rules or bills come up, however, we’re left with one fundamental question: how does one define gender or sex? Buckle up, this one is gonna get messy. When a body is formed in the womb from a pile of cells, we initially have a single form of genitals. As a fetus gestates, this form differentiates: Things turn into a penis or a vagina, a pair of ovaries or a pair of testes, labia or scrotal tissue. It’s really kinda wild. I’m also going to note here that some of these physical changes can lead to genitalia that some doctors will consider “ambiguous,” and which many of those same doctors decide to “correct.” Oh, and no, I’m not saying that transgender people are necessarily intersex, or vice versa. Most of the time, people have two distinct forms of chromosomes that help determine sex. You likely heard about them way back in grade school. These help differentiate our protogenitals during gestation, with XX

Rudy K. Lawidjaja

Trans and allied groups rallied outside the White House last fall.

bodies primarily developing as female and XY bodies as male. Again, biology isn’t perfect, and there are all sorts of variations. In addition to XX and XY, there are scads of variations. XXY, XXXY, X0, and so on. There’s also variations within XX and XY that can come into play. In short, XX and XY are more of a guideline than any sort of rule, and in a world with 7.6 billion people residing on it even the slightest variation is notable. Then you have sex hormones – among them estrogen and testosterone – that may affect a fetus. They’re super powerful little things that can also play a part in the formation of a body; more on them in a moment, though. It’s commonly believed that somewhere in the formation of trans bodies, something might form a bit different than in others. Again, not the same,

per se as what an intersex person might experience, but perhaps similar. Our brains seem to expect one thing, while our bodies develop in a totally different direction. After we are born, and began to grow and mature, we may begin to realize that we are different. We might expect to be seen as a particular gender, but discover that others do not see us that way. As we reach puberty – and the hormones that are naturally produced in our bodies start to work their magic – we may even find our bodies shifting in ways we simply are not equipped to handle. For the most part, that’s what it’s like to be transgender. Once again, however, this is messy.

Biology is not exact, and every one of us – trans or not – is affected by the DNA we inherit, as well as the environment we form in. This brings us back to the basic question: How does one define sex or gender? If you define gender based purely on sex chromosomes, you end up leaving out a large number of people who do not fit the two pairs of chromosomes typically associated with one of two genders. This might give you a basic structure, but the number of people who simply do not fit into such a limited framework will quickly overwhelm you. For that matter, how many of us even know what our sex chromosomes are? While you may feel it safe to assume you are XX or XY, odds are better than nil that you might be wrong. The same is true for any person you see. Much the same could be said about genitals, gonads, or hormones. We live in a world where color and shade provide infinite variation, and seek to boil things down into two perfect, unchanging examples. This isn’t possible. I mentioned hormones earlier. If you talk to most transgender people who have started hormone replacement therapy, even in a world of such variation, you will find amazing similarities in their stories. For many, the experience of going onto HRT is like

having a weight lifted, the clouds parting, or an incessant car alarm being silenced. It is an experience of “rightness” that is so universal it cannot be so easily brushed aside. This leaves only one common method so many laws use to determine sex or gender, and that is the birth certificate. This one may be the most problematic. I have previously mentioned the horrible treatment that so many people who were born intersex have faced here. [LINK: https:// www.ebar.com/news/news//267225] For transgender people, our gender may not even be apparent when a medical practitioner looks at a fuzzy ultrasound or a freshly delivered baby and decides what gets written in on the birth certificate. We have to find out there’s an issue, oftentimes years after such a document is issued. Bodies are messy, and not just for transgender people. We come in all shapes and sizes, forms and appearances. Much of this changes over the course of our brief lifetimes. Expecting anyone to fit into one of two characters on a form may be foolhardy. In short, there is no way to make a simple legislative test for who is man and who is woman – and maybe it’s the wrong question to ask in the first place.t Gwen Smith’s body isn’t that messy, as she just showered a bit earlier. She can be found at www. gwensmith.com.

Why more employers should offer care benefits by Belo Cipriani

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ful, especially during a crisis. One of the most commonly overlooked benefits by organizations is flexible work time to be a caregiver for a family member. For LGBTQs, who often follow a chosen family structure, this can include neighbors and friends. San Francisco resident Terry Wicks, now 64, was enjoying a successful career as an X-ray/MRI tech in 2015 when his husband, Michael Draper, now 57, was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy – a very rare neurodegenerative brain disease that has no treatment and is fatal. “When we were told it was terminal,” said Wicks, “I gave two weeks’ notice and quit my job to focus on Michael and the life changes that were necessary going forward.” Wicks confirmed what we all know: that caregiving is tough. He spends his entire day caring for his husband, running the home, looking after pets, and managing the household budget. Prior to his diagnosis, Draper worked as a senior director of global operations for a major tech company in Silicon Valley. Now that some time has passed, Wicks said that loss of income has greatly impacted their family. “I am not compensated in any way by anyone for being Michael’s full-time caregiver. The fact that I cannot work because I have to take care of Michael has really hurt our finances,” said Wicks. Wicks and Draper’s heartbreaking story is, sadly, not uncommon. According to a 2019 Harvard Business School study, “The Caring Company: How Employers Can Cut Costs and Boost Productivity by Helping Employees Manage Caregiving Needs,” by Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman, which examines survey results from 1,500 employees and 300 human re-

sources leaders, three out of four (73 percent) employees surveyed reported having some type of current caregiving responsibility, and more than 80 percent of employees with caregiving responsibilities admitted that caregiving affected their productivity. In addition, almost 25 percent of employees surveyed who said they left an organization cited doing so to care for an ill or disabled spouse, partner, or extended family member. “We are always working,” said Raman, one of the study’s authors, “and where is the time to take care of our responsibilities? “Traditional families don’t really exist, but most employers don’t acknowledge family of choice and lose out on great workers,” continued Raman. “Our research found that most organizations are wasting money offering benefits that employees don’t need, and overlook care benefits.” Raman explained that care benefits are often limited to executives and are not advertised within organizations or on benefit company sites. She also stated that people live in a culture where they can feel guilty for taking time off – even if it is to deal with a tragedy – and may be hesitant to ask their employer for a care benefit. Paul Blom, a gay businessman and owner of a Right at Home franchise in Bloomington, Minnesota (https://www.rightathome.net/ twin-cities) – an agency that provides caregiver services – said most people end up paying for caregivers from their income or out of their savings, and that the costs quickly add up. “It can cost anywhere between $30-$40 per hour, depending upon the level of care that is required,” he said. “People who are low-income can qualify for medical assistance/ Medicaid programs that will cover

Courtesy Terry Wicks

Terry Wicks, left, with his husband, Michael Draper.

care, but the reimbursement rates have stagnated over the last 10 years, to the point that there are fewer and fewer agencies that will accept reimbursement through those programs.” Blom’s business has started to see some referrals come in through http://www.care.com – a website that connects families with different care providers. However, he said it’s only a handful of large companies that are offering a care benefit through the care.com service, Care Concierge. Both Raman and Blom feel more employers need to offer care benefits; yet, it’s a long journey toward making care benefits a common company perk, as companies would have to shift their culture in order to appreciate the advantage of helping their employees meet their caregiver responsibilities. To read the full Harvard study, visit https://hbs.me/2VXj18x. And for more information about caregiving resources for the LGBT community, you can visit the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging at: https://www.lgbtagingcenter.org/ training/index.cfm. t Belo Cipriani is an award-winning author and prize-winning journalist. His new book, “Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities,” is now available. Learn more at www.olebbooks.com.

Election 2020>>

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Buttigieg defies pundits in nascent prez bid analysis by Lisa Keen

ay Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has leapt into a surprisingly strong position in the latest poll of Iowa Democratic caucusgoers: Third place. He’s right behind former Vice President Joe Biden (in first with 25 percent) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who’s in second with 24 percent. Buttigieg, 37, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, finished with 11 percent, followed by Senators Kamala Harris (California), at 10 percent, and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), at 9 percent. The news, though based on a relatively small sampling, marks an astonishing milestone for an out candidate for the presidential nomination of one of the two major parties. It comes ahead of Buttigieg’s sold-out appearance Thursday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Only one other openly gay person has ever tried to run for a major party presidential nomination: Fred Karger ran for the Republican nomination in 2012. Karger beat eventual nominee Mitt Romney in one New Hampshire college straw poll, but he never made it onto a nationally televised debate stage and appeared on the primary ballot in only six states. Buttigieg’s (pronounced Buddhajudge) bid for the Democratic presidential nomination has fared much better, so far. He’s been the subject of many mainstream media profiles and opinion pieces. On Monday alone, the New York Times said Buttigieg has “generated more buzz” than New York City’s well-known Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is mulling a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the Washington Post said he’s drawn “enthusiastic crowds of hundreds” in South Carolina. He’s appeared on numerous nationally broadcast political programs, including a one-hour CNN town hall March 10. His performance at that event prompted former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, to post on Twitter, “I have rarely seen a candidate make better use of televised Town Hall than [Buttigieg] is on [CNN] ... Crisp, thoughtful and relatable. He’ll be a little less of a long shot tomorrow.”

Courtesy CNN

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a CNN town hall in Austin, Texas.

him inching up in our national poll, and now he’s in double digits in Iowa.” Buttigieg was a zero when Emerson polled caucusgoers in January. More than 200 people have notified the Federal Election Commission of their intention to seek the Democratic nomination. Pollsters cannot survey the public about all 200 candidates, so they have to choose which candidates’ names to include in their polls and which to leave off. This year, the DNC said it would use an additional gauge to determine who reaches the debate stage: those candidates who report getting contributions from 65,000 people from at least 20 different states and with a minimum of 200 donors per state. Buttigieg wrote on Twitter March 16 that his campaign has received contributions from more than 76,000 individuals. And campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith told CNN the campaign has raised at least $1.6 million since the CNN town hall. But the Democratic Party plans for the debates also noted that if more than 20 candidates meet just one criterion, the DNC will pare down the number to those candidates who meet both criteria. And if there are still too many candidates, the debate slots will go to the qualifiers with the highest polling averages. So, even if Buttigieg gets 1 percent in a third poll and has 76,000 donors, he could potentially be barred from the stage. But his unusually successful campaign to get the media’s attention thus far could well put him among the highest Fighting for polling candidates come June. the national stage Meanwhile, March 31 is the next There’s another arena in which serideadline for presidential candidates to ous candidates want to be: the nationreport to the Federal Elections Comally televised Democratic primary dehowof much money they have UCbate San Francisco Health is mission a part stage. The first one is in June; and raised for their campaigns. Many methetheAll ofwants Us toResearch Program, from will use those dollar party limit the number dia organizations candidates on Institutes stage to 20, possibly theofNational of Health. figures to assess how much traction overof two All different To be each candidate is getting. Thespread goal ofnights. Us is to help included on the stage for the debates, researchers understand a candidate must, in the next threemore Theabout implausibility months, achieveget support of ator least why people sick stayand healthy. the difference 1 percent of respondents in at least To some extent, Buttigieg’s sucthree national polls approved by the cess in getting media coverage – and Democratic National Committee. Butthereby the attention of the public – is Fortigieg’s more information enroll: gotten two: Fox News’s pollor of to due to his being gay. He is, apparently, Call: 268-8273 403(833) Democratic primary and caucus the only out candidate among more voters allofus@ucsf.edu March 17-20 (margin of error than 600 people who have filed notice Email: plus-or-minus 5 points); and CNN’s of wanting to run, either as a Republipoll of 456 Democrats and|Democratcan, a Democrat, other party, or indeAllofUsUCSF.org #JoinAllofUs ic-leaning independents March 14-17 pendent candidate. Nowadays, almost (margin of error plus-or-minus 5.7). everything gay gets attention from In both, he got 1 percent. In the Fox the mainstream media and, for a canpoll, he did as well as candidate Senator didate who was virtually unknown Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota). In the three months ago, such consideration CNN poll, he did as well as candidate generates more attention. Senator of Kirsten Gillibrand (New York). But Buttigieg’s rise so far seems to A Member All of Us California At the top of both polls were Biden, be fueled by his serious, intelligent, has not announcedaa $25 bid though and down-home personality. When Youwho will receive gift card he has given clues he’ll soon be in the MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough asked him after complete your visit. race,you and Sanders. to “tell us about your faith,” he noted The recent poll out of Iowa, though All of Us and the All of Us logo are service marks ofthat the he’s Episcopalian, that his church not a national survey, done by U.S. Department of Health and was Human Services. takes seriously its role in the urban Emerson College. It polled 249 Iowa community of South Bend, and that Democratic caucusgoers between he thinks candidates should “have the March 21-24. (The margin of error option to talk about our faith.” AoU_COB_UCSF_SFChronicleAd_4.792x9.83_Print_V2_120718_HF.indd 1 was plus-or-minus 6.2 points.) “Don’t get me wrong: I believe Emerson Poll director Spencer strongly in the separation of church Kimball called Buttigieg’s third place and state,” Buttigieg said. “I think any finish “the biggest surprise” of the [candidate] needs to demonstrate poll, noting that “last week we saw

A healthier future. Let’s pass it on together.

how they will represent people of any faith, people of no faith. But I also think the time has come to reclaim faith as a theme. The idea that the only way a religious person could enter politics is through the prism of the religious right – I just don’t think that makes sense.” Buttigieg said he thinks it is time for “more of a religious left to emerge in our country.” At the CNN town hall March 10, televised from Austin, Texas during SXSW, the first question out of the chute from the audience was why he thinks he is qualified to run the country when he’s not held elective office at the state or congressional level. Buttigieg has been asked that many times, and his answer is consistent: being a mayor of a city of any size is the “best kind of preparation you can have” and he noted “I have more years of government experience under my belt than the president,” “more years of executive government experience under my belt than the vice president,” and

“more military experience than anybody to walk into that office on Day One than since George H.W. Bush.” Buttigieg was the first Democratic candidate to appear on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. There, he said, “I’m not like the others,” noting his age and generation, being from the Midwest, and having served in the military. When prompted to say another Democratic candidate was “wrong” about an issue, he said, instead, “I’d do it differently.” In each venue, Buttigieg has moved easily through a wide range of topics, from job security and training, income supplements, Venezuela’s political unrest, and transitioning veterans into civilian life to the power of businesses to grow the economy, the war in Afghanistan, and whether Congress should regulate Facebook and impeach President Trump. (On the latter, he said he would prefer voters remove Trump from office.) He neither avoids nor insists on acknowledging his being gay, and makes

a point to introduce his spouse, Chasten, to most audiences, though moderators usually find a way to broach the subject. And then there is his biography, detailed in “The Shortest Way Home” (W.W. Norton): He is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, a Rhodes scholar to the University of Oxford, a business analyst for a global management consulting firm, and a popular mayor of South Bend, Indiana’s fourth largest city. “Why are you in such a hurry?” asked Fox’s Wallace near the end of his March 17 interview, which – oddly – did not once bring up Buttigieg’s being gay. “Why not wait a few years, get more experience, build a bigger record, get better known, and run for president at, say, the ripe old age of 41?” Buttigieg said he has taken into consideration both “the moment” in American history, “what is called for” in this moment, and “what I bring to the table.”t

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<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Cold case

tional Center for Missing & Exploited Children. In the most recent San Mateo County newsletter circulated Thursday, March 22, it mentions the cold case and links to a post on San Mateo County’s Facebook page. “The San Mateo County Coroner’s office is hoping for a successful outcome with finally identifying and providing a name for this 35-year cold case homicide victim,” read the March 20 post that said its image of the victim – older than the current one – was produced by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as requested by the coroner’s office (the B.A.R. featured that image in a front page August 8, 2002 article that had also sought the public’s help in identifying the victim). The social media post also stated that the victim “may have been transported to the location from the Tenderloin area of San Francisco.” Redgrave said, however, that the detective working on the case has said there is no evidence to corroborate this. Emily Tauscher, assistant coroner at the San Mateo County Coroner’s office, said there is a higher likelihood

that Pillar Point Doe will be identified because of their Caucasian identity. It’s more likely that family or distant relatives of Pillar Point Doe are within the greater pool of the general population that have had genealogical testing done. She said that although the coroner’s office, due to a lack of resources, does not have an employee dedicated full-time to identifying does, they are working on the case, but that DNA Doe Project is doing the testing and extensive research for it. The coroner’s office has entered Pillar Point Doe into national databases for missing persons, including the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NAMUS, and the National Crime Information Center, used exclusively by law enforcement. Working on a case that happened [nearly] 40 years ago comes with its challenges, Tauscher said. “How cases were investigated sometimes just had different standards and practices back then. It’s more robust nowadays,” Tauscher said. “We didn’t have as much documentation then as we do now. It can

be difficult to put the pieces together.” When it comes to gender identity and expression, however, investigators have a deeper appreciation and victims are “treated with the utmost respect and sensitivity,” she said. “We are rather limited at this point, but 40 years later we are really trying to give this person a name,” she said, adding that before the name of the doe is released, the office would need to first notify the next of kin. According to the coroner’s office website, the victim was a white male with short, brown hair and approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and 140 pounds. The clothing they were wearing included light, yellow knee-length “clam diggers,” a light yellow jacket, a multicolored turtleneck T-shirt, black nylon net stockings, brown-colored pantyhose, blue, bikini-style underpants, beige-colored lace underpants, and a beige-colored bra and sponge “falsies.” They were also wearing jewelry that included two white metal rings and a white metal necklace with a crucifix pendant. There are no known suspects or persons of interest, Redgrave said.

A 2011 article from the Mercury News said that crime scene photos showed the victim’s “mouth open and eyes shut, laying in a twisted pile near a set of tire tracks left in the sand.” The body is buried in an unmarked grave in Colma, according to the article. Redgrave said there was a lot of trans-related violence during the 1980s and early 1990s and that the task force has a list of about 40 trans does from across the country that it is working to identify. “As far as the investigation, it seemed like it was treated as well as it could have been at the time, due largely to the coroner in the area having a very high interest in doe cases,” Redgrave said. “It seemed to have been given more adequate care than I have seen in other places.” He also said that the San Mateo sheriff’s office is “doing a really good job.” The sheriff’s office and NAMUS could not be reached for comment by press time. Anyone with information is asked to contact the coroner’s office at (650) 312-5562.t

lations, the term ‘Leather Daddy’ is commonly used in a sexual context,” wrote Webb, who took over leading the DMV at the end of January. She added that the agency “has no discretion when a configuration carries a sexual connotation and is required to refuse the application.” Her letter cited California Vehicle Code Section 5105, which includes the stipulation that the DMV shall refuse a license plate configuration that “has a sexual connotation or is a term of lust or depravity.” In addition, Webb insisted that

the agency’s decision was not based on homophobia or bias against the LGBT community, as Wiener had alleged last month in an interview with the B.A.R. “I want to assure you that DMV is supportive of personalized license plate applications that celebrate or promote the diversity of California culture, including the LGBTQ community, and our actions in this case do not reflect a biased or insensitive act of discretion,” Webb wrote in her letter to the senator. “It is not unusual for license plate configurations to have different meanings to different people. Often terms considered benign to one group are

hateful to another.” Thus, in the case of Haynes’ application, Webb said the DMV acted in a manner consistent with state law. “When a common meaning of a term conflicts with these rules, the department has no choice in the matter,” she wrote. Wiener is scheduled to meet with Webb Thursday, March 28. He told the B.A.R. Monday that he was dissatisfied with her written reply to his concerns and will be requesting that she approve Haynes’ vanity license plate. “It is completely unacceptable,” said Wiener. “They continue to take the position that our community is

inherently about sex and sex only. While sexuality is a part of every community that is not the only thing our community is about. That is the problem here, that is the disconnect.” Due to the controversy over Haynes’ application, Webb did inform Wiener she had instructed DMV staff to change the way the agency responds to those whose vanity license plates are rejected. “The current version uses terms that appear in law; however, given the concerns you raise, I am directing staff to update the language on DMV letters to terms more appropriate in a contemporary context,” wrote Webb. “It was never our intention to convey

a negative or insensitive judgment of Mr. Haynes or the LGBTQ community.” As for Wiener, he defended his weighing in on the matter in face of criticisms he had received that he should be focused on more important issues like the state’s dual homeless and affordable housing crises. “People ask why spend any energy on a leather daddy license plate. It is not just a license plate but a bigger issue of how the agency views our community,” said Wiener. “When people request a vanity plate it is also about expressing who they are. Our community should not be cut out from that process.”t

she set her goal. “If you don’t know about your history it’s hard to shape the future.”

former USF basketball coach Jennifer Azzi, who did note King’s influence in the LGBT rights movement during her introduction but didn’t raise the issue again during the conversation. Chua’s friend, Marvin Dunson III, 42, identifies as pansexual. He suggested that there could have been a question about LGBT rights in sports that might have prompted her to speak more about the LGBT rights movement’s history and where the country is today. King did attempt to talk about LGBT rights. She briefly spoke about her own personal struggle with her sexuality and she repeatedly brought up gender diversity. She told the story about transgender ophthalmologist and former professional tennis player Dr. Renee Richards, who toured with

the tennis players in 1977. King advocated for Richards to tour with the WTA. She received resistance from the other women but convinced them to give her a two-week test period. “I guarantee you, you’ll love her,” King said she told the women. Within a week the other women embraced Richards, she said. Despite the lack of focus on the LGBT community, queer audience members came out in force for the evening and they were thrilled with King’s discussion. Dunson said she was an amazing speaker. He loved King’s anecdotes and learning first-hand “what has been important to her along her journey,” he said. “I’m telling you my history so you can learn from that history and there

is so much value in there from this particular figure in American and global history,” he added. Evans attended the event because of King’s equal rights work. “I was really in awe of how much she did say,” said Evans. “That we are not changing fast enough, which is true in so many ways.” King left the audience with some key lessons: relationships are important with yourself, your family, friends, and community; be good and true to yourself; live authentically; educate yourself and keep learning; be a problem solver. Last but not least, “Define yourself, don’t let others define you,” she said. When asked what she believes her biggest legacy is, King responded, “I’m not done yet.”t

Gay events

Hotel prices in Philadelphia are much lower than in New York or San Francisco. The city doesn’t have any exclusively gay or lesbian hotels but some good options in the Gayborhood include the Independent (www.theindependenthotel.com) and the Alexander Inn (www.alexanderinn.com). Amenities at the Alexander include a gym and buffet breakfast. The Independent includes a continental breakfast that is delivered to your room and a com-

plimentary cocktail hour with wine and snacks. Of course, outside the Gayborhood, there are a number of excellent hotels that are more geared to business travelers. The four-star Rittenhouse Hotel (www.rittenhousehotel.com), of the gay-popular Rittenhouse Square, about a halfmile outside the gayborhood, is an excellent choice for a splurge hotel. Rooms start about $139, a bargain considering the quality of the hotel. Breakfast is not included but the hotel has a couple of bars and a restaurant famous for its afternoon teas. It also has a large fitness room and indoor pool and spa.

ary when he took his oath of office as state insurance commissioner. José Luis Solache, first elected to the Lynwood City Council in 2013, landed in fifth place with 7.24 percent of the vote in the 12-person race, according to the unofficial returns Wednesday morning. As expected, Long Beach City Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez was the top vote-getter in Tuesday’s special primary to represent the 33rd State Senatorial District. She had 30.60 per-

cent of the vote and is likely to face off against Republican Jack M. Guerrero in the June 4 special runoff election. He landed in second with nearly 15 percent of the vote. Whoever wins the seat will need to run next year for a full four-year term. Gonzalez, a Democrat, had secured wide backing from state and local elected leaders in the race, including the endorsement of Lara, and is expected to succeed him in the Legislature. Solache, who had planned

to run for the seat when Lara termed out in 2020, had raised a significant amount of money for his campaign and shared EQCA’s endorsement with Gonzalez. But Lara held a number of fundraising events with Gonzalez, helping to swing endorsements and dollars her way. A number of out politicians also backed her, leading to private rumblings from Solache’s camp about their seriousness of recruiting LGBT people to run for legislative office,

From page 1

tion uses genetic genealogy to identify unknown victims of homicides. Last year, it introduced the Trans Doe Task Force, which focuses on trans and gender-nonconforming victims. It has released a new forensic image of the San Mateo victim, derived from their post-mortem pictures, and given them the name “Pillar Point Doe.” “It’s a classic overkill of a trans person,” Redgrave told the B.A.R. last Friday. “We don’t have any information on how the victim identifies, but are assuming they must have been a trans person based on the way they were dressed, modest clothing, but still tucking. They were wearing Capri pants, not dressed up for clubbing. We are assuming, but we can’t know anything for certain until we know who they are.” The task force brought the case to the attention of the San Mateo County sheriff’s and coroner’s offices, which it has partnered with since January on the case, along with the Na-

DMV

From page 1

King

From page 1

Those messages for boys and girls have to be chipped away at every day, she explained. King lamented about the sluggish rate of progress, leaning back in her chair and throwing up her arms in frustration. “So slow this progress,” she said. “When you read history it’s quick. But when you live it, it is so slow.” King, who is a history buff, stressed the importance of learning about the past. “The more you know about history the more you know about yourself,” she said, talking about how she read about and knew everything about tennis and the business of tennis once

Philly

From page 6

aforementioned Toasted Walnut Bar and Kitchen (www.toastedwalnut.com). It is on Walnut Street, just around the corner from Woody’s. It has been open a couple of years and filled the void created after the closure of Sisters bar, which was in another location. The friendly bar is beautifully decorated in rainbow lighting. The Gayborhood boasts a couple of sports bars, Boxers PHL (https:// boxersphl.com/) and Tabu Lounge & Sports Bar (https://tabuphilly.

Political Notebook

From page 5

and Economic Development Committee is expected to take up the legislation April 8.

Gay mayor loses bid for state Senate

The gay mayor of Lynwood appears to have fallen short in his bid for the state Senate seat vacated by gay lawmaker Ricardo Lara in Janu-

Not much discussion of LGBT rights

Some LGBT audience members were slightly disappointed that King wasn’t asked about, or discussed, LGBT rights. “I was sorry that there wasn’t more about [LGBT rights] because it has been such a huge part, not just of her life, but of her work, so I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more asked about that,” said Cher Evans, a 71-year-old bisexual woman from Marin. Alvin Chua, a 43-year-old gay man who had his tennis racket signed by King, blamed the moderator, lesbian com/). The leather bar Bike Stop (http://www.thebikestop.com/) has been going strong since 1982.

Accommodations

Philadelphia Pride is Sunday, June 9, but one of its biggest gay days is in the fall, for OutFest, which this year is Sunday, October 13, from noon to 6 p.m. It’s in various locations, including the heart of the Gayborhood at 12th and Locust streets. The city holds a huge block party and celebrates in style. Philadelphia Black Pride is a four-day celebration of unity, held this year April 25-28.t For more information on all things LGBTQ Philadelphia, visit https://www.visitphilly.com/lgbt/.

Ed Walsh

Women pose at Toasted Walnut Bar and Kitchen in Philadelphia.

which was the focus of an inaugural summit in Sacramento this month for out local leaders from across California. With Solache out of the Senate runoff, the number of LGBT state legislators will remain at seven. It raises the stakes for next year’s legislative races, as the LGBT caucus could see its ranks diminish further if not enough out candidates win their contests. t

t <<

Community News>>

News Briefs

From page 7

for children and youth will be held at noon. Winners will become the official ambassadors for Carnaval 2019, leading the televised 41st an-

PrEP failure

From page 1

Spencer himself emphasized that PrEP failures are very rare and it remains a highly effective HIV prevention method. “I don’t like to use the term ‘PrEP failure,’ which is thrown around in these cases, because PrEP is anything but that. PrEP is an enormous success – it is protecting hundreds of thousands of people from HIV in an empowering way,” Spencer said. PrEP advocate Damon Jacobs concurred. “I don’t think this means anything different in terms of our understanding of on-demand PrEP,” he told the Bay Area Reporter. “You are still more likely to die from the flu than to get HIV when using PrEP as prescribed.” Once-daily Truvada (tenofovir DF/emtricitabine) is the only PrEP method approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However,

Business vandalism

From page 2

were Max Muscle Nutrition and the Verizon store. The manager of Max Muscle, Joe Mendoza, a straight man, said the front door was broken from someone throwing a rock at it around 6 in the morning. Surveillance footage captured the incident. “It took a really long time to replace,” Mendoza said. “We had a cardboard door on there for months. It looked ugly and was kind of a headache.” Police came and Mendoza said they

nual parade. They will also receive a cash prize. Organizers said they are seeking people to compete in the drag category. The deadline to submit an application is Sunday, March 31. For more information, and to ap-

ply, go to http://www.carnavalsanfrancisco.org/events.

large randomized studies have shown that intermittent PrEP also reduces the risk of HIV infection by around 90 percent. Also called PrEP 2-1-1, this approach involves taking two Truvada tablets at least two hours – but preferably 24 hours – before having sex, another pill 24 hours later, and if done having sex, a final pill another 24 hours after that. Should they be on vacation for a week, and plan to have sex during the entire time, then they would continue to take one Truvada pill every day of their break. When done with their vacation, they would need to take one last dose of PrEP 48 hours after their last sexual encounter. Australian and European guidelines include on-demand PrEP for gay and bisexual men. Some U.S. centers are starting to offer it off-label, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Strut clinic in the Castro. “PrEP continues to be the most

effective primary prevention strategy available to our community,” SFAF CEO Joe Hollendoner told the B.A.R. “While we look forward to learning additional information about this recent case, we remain confident in the science that shows taking PrEP medication daily or using a 2-1-1 strategy as directed by a trained medical provider is highly effective at preventing HIV infection.”

did take the situation seriously and reached out to the business on multiple occasions after the incident, but that it’s hard “for them to do anything about it.” He also said he consistently sees the Castro foot patrols, police officers who patrol the area. An employee of the Verizon store, an authorized retailer owned by Victra, who asked not to be named, said two of the Verizon windows were broken and then boarded up with wood. He said in the year that he has worked for the business it has been robbed three times. He believes that it was the same person who smashed the windows of

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March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

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Notices >> NOTICES - THANK YOU ST. JUDE –

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. St. Jude, worker of miracles, pray for us. St. Jude, helper of the hopeless, pray for us. Say prayer nine time a day. Publication must be promised. B.K.

healthy relationships support group that meets Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the organization’s office at 29 Boardman Place in San Francisco. The drop-in group began meeting last week and sessions will continue

through May 9. Organizers said the group is offered in English and is geared toward survivors of domestic violence. More details are available on the WOMAN Inc. blog at www.womaninc.wordpress.com. t

To date, the only public information about Spencer’s case is his own self-report. As recommended, he received routine HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing while on PrEP and was diagnosed in mid-December, he said. He began antiretroviral treatment immediately and soon achieved an undetectable viral load. “Judging by my viral load and the timing of my last tests, we can safely assume that my seroconversion occurred only a matter of weeks before

my diagnosis,” Spencer told the Star Observer. Spencer declined to discuss the specifics of his sexual activity. “Questions around ‘how’ often come from a place of genuine intrigue or concern for oneself – the anxiety here is that PrEP users will want to know what happened so that they can avoid the same outcome – however the information is then often sorted to define how ‘acceptable’ or ‘bad’ the person’s seroconversion is,” Spencer said. “Because we don’t know the precise time or circumstances of my seroconversion, we cannot know, with absolute certainty, how I got HIV, and I will probably never truly know.” A small number of PrEP failures have been previously documented – three to seven cases out of an estimated half a million users, depending on what is considered an adequate level of evidence. At the time of the interview, Spencer had not undergone the extensive resistance testing

and questioning that experts rely on to document a case, and it is unclear whether further information will be forthcoming. Dr. Andrew Grulich of the University of New South Wales said that although there have been a handful of cases where an individual adherent to PrEP has become infected, this does not contradict the scientific consensus that PrEP is a highly effective prevention method. He cautioned, however, that on-demand PrEP is not recommended for cisgender women or trans men, as studies have seen lower levels of PrEP drugs in the vagina compared with the rectum. “PrEP has been a game-changer for HIV prevention,” Grulich told the B.A.R. “Together with test-and-treat programs, PrEP is an absolutely critical component of the HIV prevention response. People taking PrEP should have confidence in its extremely high level of efficacy when it is taken as directed.” t

the five businesses in one night. “We did lose business because of it,” the employee said.“It’s a tragic incident.” Aside from the multiple glass breaking incidents in the area, people’s car tires have also been reported being slashed. Officer Joseph Tomlinson with SFPD said a couple weeks ago, about 10 people in the Castro district had their tires slashed, nearly 20 tires, in one night and that police are “reviewing as many surveillance tapes as possible” that caught the assailant in the act. “There has definitely been an uptick of vandalism in the area,”Tomlinson said.

Additionally, a trans woman who has a public nuisance stay away order from the Castro district because of threats of violence she made to several merchants has had her stay away order renewed. Patrick McClellan was arrested in March 2016 after being the source of numerous police calls over the past several years, the B.A.R. previously reported, including death threats to people in the Castro. In April 2016, she was issued a threeyear stay away order. Recently, her restraining order was extended through March 2020 for multiple times entering the protect-

ed area of Sanchez Street to the east, Collingwood Street to the west, Market Street to the north and19th Street to the south, according to Carey. McClellan’s attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman was out of the country on vacation and did not respond to a request for comment. The Castro Republic and Duboce apartments did not respond to requests for comment from the B.A.R. t

Relationship support group for women

Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent Inc. has announced a

Case not yet documented

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA BARREL COMPANY LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Plaintiff, v. All Person Claiming Any Interest, or Lien Upon, the Real Property Herein Described or, Any Part thereof, Defendants. CASE NO. CGC-19-574377 AMENDED SUMMONS [CCP § 751.05] The people of the State of California, to all persons claiming any interest in, or lien upon, the real property herein described, or any part thereof, defendants, greeting (See Memorandum Disclosing Adverse Interest [CCP § 751.07] attached.): You are hereby required to appear and answer the complaint of CALIFORNIA BARREL COMPANY LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, plaintiff, filed with the clerk of the above-entitled court and county, within three months after the first publication of this summons, and to set forth what interest or lien, if any, you have in or upon that certain real property or any part thereof, situated in the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, particularly described as follows: REAL PROPERTY, SITUATE IN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COMPRISED OF SIX (6) PARCELS, DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEING A PORTION OF PARCEL A, AS SAID PARCEL A IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN GRANT DEED RECORDED SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2016-K334613 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: PARCEL ONE BEING ALL OF MARYLAND STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET, SOUTHERLY 279 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID EASTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH SAID WESTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET, NORTHERLY 279 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL TWO BEING ALL OF LOUISIANA STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET, SOUTHERLY 279 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID EASTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH SAID WESTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET, NORTHERLY 279 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL THREE BEING A PORTION OF GEORGIA STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 1, AS SAID PARCEL 1 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 2001-G897578), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO A POINT IN THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 2001-G897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, SOUTHERLY 406.42 FEET TO THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 3, AS SAID PARCEL 3 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT QUIETING TITLE RECORDED MAY 26, 1960 IN BOOK A127 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, AT PAGE 596, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 3 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 18.79 FEET TO A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°10’16” WEST 125.39 FEET, AND 2) SOUTH 86°49’44” WEST 63.85 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID WESTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, NORTHERLY 271.42 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL FOUR BEING A PORTION OF MICHIGAN STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID MICHIGAN STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 2, AS SAID PARCEL 2 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, SOUTHERLY 157.42 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 4, AS SAID PARCEL 4 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT QUIETING TITLE RECORDED MAY 26, 1960 IN BOOK A127 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, AT PAGE 596, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 2 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°10’16” WEST 9.01 FEET, AND 2) SOUTH 86°49’44” WEST 11.12 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596); THENCE, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 6 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO A POINT ON SAID WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), NORTH 03°41’19” WEST 143.4 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 2 (DN 2001-G897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 2 (DN 2001-G897578), EASTERLY 18.62 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL FIVE BEING A PORTION OF HUMBOLDT STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET (33 FEET WIDE) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, AS SAID MICHIGAN STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 2, AS SAID PARCEL 2 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 2 (DN 2001-G897578), WESTERLY 18.62 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 2 (2001-G897578) AND THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°41’19” WEST 1.31 FEET, AND 2) NORTH 87°24’17” EAST 18.63 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, SOUTHERLY 1.12 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL SIX BEING A PORTION OF HUMBOLDT STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET (33 FEET WIDE) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, AS SAID GEORGIA STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 1, AS SAID PARCEL 1 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 2001-G897578), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID PARCEL 1 (2001-G897578) AND THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 2001-G897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE GEORGIA STREET, NORTHERLY 33 FEET TO THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF HUMBOLDT STREET, EASTERLY 80 FEET TO A POINT ON THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, SOUTHERLY 33 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCELS ONE THROUGH SIX BEING PORTIONS OF APN 4175-017. ATTACHED HERETO IS AN ILLUSTRATIVE INDEX MAP, AND BY THIS REFERENCE, MADE A PART HEREOF. And you are hereby notified that, unless you so appear and answer, the plaintiff will apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint, to wit: quiet title to the Property consistent with the legal description above, against all adverse claims of all claimants, known and unknown, as of the date the Complaint in this case was filed. Witness my hand and the seal of said court, DATE: MAR 11 2019 Clerk, By CAROLYN BALISTRERI, DEPUTY [SEAL], CLERK OF THE COURT Memorandum Disclosing Adverse Interest [CCP § 751.07] The following persons are said to claim an interest in, or lien upon, said property adverse to Plaintiff: 1. 1. PG&E, 245 Market Street, N10A, Room 1015, P.O. Box 770000, San Francisco, CA 94177; 2. City and County of San Francisco, Office of the City Attorney, Room 234, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102, 3. Trans Bay Cable LLC, One Letterman Drive, C5-100, San Francisco, CA 94129; 4. San Francisco Port Authority, Pier 1, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94111; 5. California Regional Water Quality Control Board for the San Francisco Bay Region, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1400, Oakland, CA 94612; 6. NRG Potrero LLC, c/o GenOn, 1360 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 2000, Houston TX 77056 SUMMONS.indd 1

3/13/19 11:24 AM

<< Classifieds

12 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038537300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC HEMP, 10 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SERGIO GUEVARA. 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 02/25/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038541400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOLY FAMILY, 195 OTSEGO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAFAEL VARELA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/28/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038539600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LUXE NAILS, 520 MONTGOMERY ST #M03, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THANH LAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038538200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COMIC BOOK BEARDIES, 2275 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DARIN SCOTT ANDREWS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038533400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: X & T TRADING, 619 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by: an individual, and is signed VICTOR HUNG LUONG NG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/21/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038540300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VOLKOV LAW OFFICE, 5840 GEARY BLVD #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEKSANDR A. VOLKOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/27/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038539100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INFINITE TECH SERVICES, 105 MACDONALD AVE, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALFREDO GOMEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038535700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAMBUNCTIOUS GARDENS, 4108 MORAGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANA BETTERLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038518200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BERNAL HEIGHTS CRYSTALS, 906 CORTLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAM YONKO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038529300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEER SAN FRANCISCO, 584 CASTRO ST #307, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHEER FOR LIFE FOUNDATION, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/04. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038545800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WINNING MEASURES, 400 MONTGOMERY ST, 7TH FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TERRIS BARNES WALTERS BOIGON HEATH, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/04/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038531100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOREN IZAKAYA, 1701 POWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed H & K INVESTMENT GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/20/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038542300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FISHTAIL MARKET, 352 TURK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LAXMI FINANCIAL INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/28/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038538700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ATLAS USA CONCRETE, 1183 SHAFTER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed USA HAULING (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038528302

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038554300

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038539500

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036675900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE CENTER SF CO-WORK AND EVENT SPACE; THE CENTER SF TEA HOUSE & EVENT SPACE; THE CENTER SF, 546 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SHIVAYA TCSF, 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 02/19/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CROSSROAD PIZZERIA, 1596 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UNIVERSAL CAFE OF DELICACIES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554671 In the matter of the application of: RAUL ANTHONY, 1090 NATOMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RAUL ANTHONY, is requesting that the name RAUL ANTHONY, be changed to RAUL ANTHONY GOMEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 18th of April 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038554200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DRAGONFLY PI, 180 STEUART ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAQUEL COHEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/11/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038550300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TIEN YUAN PLUMBING, 33233 LAKE GARRISON ST, FREMONT, CA 94555. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHUANG JU FANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/06/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038553600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROMANCING BRIDES OF THE 21ST CENTURY, 1535 EDDY ST #404, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSIE CASTLE HARRIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038543300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MI FAMILIA TAQUERIA, 1797 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMIRO CARDENAS JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/01/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038548100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MADE BY DELPHI, 128 ELLSWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MATTHEW IRVING. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/12/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/05/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038550200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MENTAL WEALTH, 69 NORDHOFF ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed NAZNEEN ABDULLAH & MICHELLE MAGARRELL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/06/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038553400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GO MOTION ENTERPRISE; KARTE BLANCHE, 854 44TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GO MOTION ENTERPRISE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038543700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA STREET CANNABIS CO., 1398 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DISPLEASED MARMOT 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 03/01/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038551000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KALON SF, 49 KEARNY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KALON INTERNATIONAL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/07/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038547000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOSE; DOSE HERE NOW, 540 BARNEVELD AVE, UNIT C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DOSE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/04/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038549000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIERY CAFE, 1316 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FIERY, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/05/19.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AWROOF!, LLC; DOG DAY AFTERNOONS, 2261 MARKET ST #188, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability partnership, and is signed PAUL TYRONE SMITH-CUNHA & RAFAEL GONCALVES CUNHA-SMITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/11/19.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DOG DAY AFTERNOONS, 1708 FELL ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by SUZANNE EPSTEIN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/15.

MAR 14, 21, 28, APR 04, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554694 In the matter of the application of: KAORU OGURA, 40 MULLEN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KAORU OGURA, is requesting that the name KAORU OGURA, be changed to KAORU OGURA BULLARD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 30th of April 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554697

In the matter of the application of: MALAIKA MARIE DREBIN, 2009 DIVISADERO ST #3A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MALAIKA MARIE DREBIN, is requesting that the name MALAIKA MARIE DREBIN, be changed to MALAIKA MARIE DREBIN SMYTH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 14th of May 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554685

In the matter of the application of: ADAM GERALD RAMADAN, C/O WENDY MARIE GIBSON, GIBSON LAW OFFICES, 394 BEL MARIN KEYS BLVD #3, NOVATO, CA 94949, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ADAM GERALD RAMADAN, is requesting that the name ADAM GERALD RAMADAN, be changed to ADAM GERALD STOCKWELL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 23rd of April 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038552700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRANS AMERICA REALTY, 30 SAN JOSE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIO SANCHEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038565900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLISSFUL HAIR SALON, 872 WASHINGTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YONGHONG YU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038563500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALTHMAX MANGOSTEEN CAPSULE, 935 ULLOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RENELEE SO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15/19.

MAR 21, 28 APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038558500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LEAN AND MEAN PRODUCTIONS, 885 25TH AVE #202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUCY HUDSON. 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 03/13/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038561600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PROPEL REAL ESTATE GROUP, 555 GROVE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROGER PEREZ. 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 03/14/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038560600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY CITY SOUL PRODUCTIONS, 985 INNES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIA VICTORIA AHEARNE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/14/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038550700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPER APPLIANCE REPAIR, 364 JOOST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ILDAR TELYAKOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/06/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038557300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038563400

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038556400

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038570000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOWL BOWLS THAI STREET FOOD, 138 6TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GLAGHOA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/12/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/12/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LITTLE CHIHUAHUA MEXICAN RESTAURANT, 475 6TH ST K16, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TLC SOMA 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 03/12/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038547800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRIPLE J LAUNDROMAT SF LLC, 517 O’FARRELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TRIPLE J LAUNDROMAT SF LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/06/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/05/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038565200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANGELINA LEE, 588 SUTTER ST #333, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LUXE CAPITAL CONSULTING, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038564200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JAMIN JANTZ, 15 KENWOOD WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FATHER GRAYBEARD LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15/19.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038209800

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: MIND YOUR VIBE, 1630 CALIFORNIA ST #407, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by KIMBERLY KHUNARAKSA. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/18.

MAR 21, 28, APR 04, 11, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554496 In the matter of the application of: SARA ANGELICA MATUTE, 850 RUTLAND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SARA ANGELICA MATUTE, is requesting that the names DIEGO SANCHEZ be changed to DIEGO SANCHEZ-MATUTE & ESTEFANIA SANCHEZ be changed to ESTEFANIA SANCHEZ-MATUTE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 2nd of May 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554704

In the matter of the application of: HEATHER MARIE HAMPTON, 190 CERVANTES BLVD #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HEATHER MARIE HAMPTON, is requesting that the name HEATHER MARIE HAMPTON, be changed to MAYA STERIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 2nd of May 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038574100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLYNNSPACE TRAVEL CONSULTING, 320 TURK ST #108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FLYNN DOMINGUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/22/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038567900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUBTRACTION, 940 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMSEY WEST ARMSTRONG. 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 03/18/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038571600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COLDWAR, 850 SOUTH VAN NESS #45, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NITA D. RICCARDI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/20/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 ICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038572400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DISCRETION, 27 SEARS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHELLE EMELIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/20/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038572200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GARCIA CONSTRUCTION, 2804 GONZAGA AVE, RICHMOND, CA 94806. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARLOS MAURICIO GARCIA LOPEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/20/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUNGERART GALLERY, 1222 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTOPHER LEE. 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 03/15/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 535 47TH AVENUE, SAN FRANCISCO, 535 47TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HENRY WILLIAM VOGE. 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 03/19/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038570700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JAIME’S JANITORIAL SERVICES, 1732 POST ST #14, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FRANCISCO JAIME. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/19/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038566000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE BOYS WHO SAID NO!, 139 CORBETT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTOPHER C. JONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038569500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BUENA LANE PHOTOGRAPHY, 3150 18TH ST #246, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EILEEN ROCHE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/18/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/19/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038576800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE CLUB DONATELLO; CLUB DONATELLO; CLUB DONATELLO OWNERS ASSOCIATION, 501 POST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CLUB DONATELLO OWNERS ASSOCIATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/31/94. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/26/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038574800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC BAY ASSESSMENTS & COUNSELING, 1300 CLAY ST #600, OAKLAND, CA 94612. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EILEEN COLORADO LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/22/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038576600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLIND BUTCHER, 4058-A 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHEFSGROUP INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/25/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/25/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038575600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHANCE REAL ESTATE, 2309 NORIEGA ST #78, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed COOCRR INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/25/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038559600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIN DESIGN, 2325 THIRD ST #203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MIDDAY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/14/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038572100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HDA CONSULTING, 718 LONG BRIDGE ST UNIT 1604, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HELENE T. ROOS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/24/96. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/20/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038566300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOCAL CATERING; TAMALITOS CATERING, 1566 CARROLL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CUEVAS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/19.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037063000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: THE COTTAGE BAKING COMPANY, 780 WISCONSIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ARLENE NAOMI KATO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/26/16.

MAR 28, APR 04, 11, 18, 2019

Streetwise

Falsetto lives

Yoga matters

Period piece

Vol. 49 • No. 13 • March 28-April 3, 2019

www.ebar.com/arts

She kissed a girl!

or years we have wondered if Karen (Megan Mullally) on “Will & Grace” was really bisexual, or if that was just a trope. On the March 21 episode we discovered she is. She kissed a girl, and she liked it. See page 18 >>

NBC-TV

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Samira Wiley (right, with Megan Mullally) debuts as Nikki, Karen’s upstairs neighbor and possible lesbian love interest, on “Will & Grace.”

Soprano Ana María Martínez performs the world premiere of Jimmy López’s “Dreamers” with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, Volti San Francisco and the UC Berkeley Chamber Choir at Cal Performances, UC Berkeley.

Beautiful dreamers by Philip Campbell

Brittany Hosea-Small

n a divided society, everything is politicized, including the arts, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Few forms of expression can provoke or enlighten better than music, dance, or theatre. Two recent concerts in Berkeley and San Francisco offered different musical takes on contemporary and historic North America, but each shared a common theme. There’s room (and rights) for all under the “beautiful for spacious skies.” See page 16 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Film festival season is upon us

val. No word has yet leaked on the theme or title of the trailer, but we do know it’s being directed by Jennifer Kroot (“The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin,” “To Be Takei,” “It Came from Kuchar”), and will feature over 70 local performers, activists, community figures, and extras. We can only imagine what it took to herd those cats. The Festival takes place June 20-30, 2019.

Red alert Courtesy SFFILM

Scene from “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City,” set to open the SFFILM Festival.

by Roberto Friedman

pringtime is in the air, and for Out There that means big-time film festivals are on the horizon. Last week SFFILM offered its press conference for the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival, coming up April 10-23; and Frameline leaked some photos from the filming of its San Francisco LGBTQ Film Festival, transpiring June 20-30. Let’s take the 62nd SFFILM Festival first. Opening night will present the very first episode of the new Netflix original series “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City,” in which Mary Ann (Laura Linney) returns

to present-day San Francisco and the turf of her old friend Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis) and other denizens of 28 Barbary Lane. Maupin will be in the house for the premiere of course, as will Linney, who gets her own tribute night at the festival, complete with a screening of one of her best films, “The Savages” (director Tamara Jenkins’ 2007 gem, with the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman). Other tribute nights will celebrate filmmaker Claire Denis (“High Life”), actress Laura Dern (“Trial by Fire”), actor John C. Reilly (“The Sisters Brothers”) and documentarian Madeline Anderson, this year’s recipient of the Golden

Courtesy Frameline

Filming the trailer for Frameline 43 at the Castro Theatre.

Gate Persistence of Vision Award. Other SFFILM highlights include “Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America,” Tom Shepard’s profile of gay and lesbian refugees from Syria, Congo and Angola who come to San Francisco to save their lives. “Bloodroot” introduces us to Noel and Selma, a lesbian couple of a certain age who run a vegetarian collective restaurant and bookstore in Connecticut. We’ll also get documentaries about such American icons as Toni Morrison, Miles Davis, Dr. Ruth, Molly Ivins¸ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aka AOC (“Knock Down the House”), and 1970s fashion queen/coke victim Halston. San Francisco gallerist Cheryl Haines gives us international artist Ai Weiwei. Werner Herzog interviews Mikhail Gorbachev: a meeting of great minds.

There’s much more to come. As SFFILM executive director Noah Cowan observed at the presser, “Initiatives to encourage women and people-of-color filmmakers have borne fruit.” Boots Riley (“Sorry To Bother You”) will deliver the State of Cinema Address. “Grass Is Greener” tells the history of cannabis in America (on 4/20!) as told by director Fab 5 Freddy. Closing night will bring Gavin Hood’s “Official Secrets,” based on the true story of a British whistleblower calling out the misuse of power in the run-up to the Iraq war, then charged with treason. Tickets are already on sale, info at www.sffilm.org. Last Tuesday a film crew set up shop in the Castro Theatre. They were there to film the trailer for Frameline 43, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festi-

Out There was proud to represent the Bay Area Reporter as the American Red Cross of the Bay Area presented the annual Red Cross Gala in the glamorous rotunda of San Francisco’s historic City Hall last Saturday night. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the volunteer-led fundraiser, dedicated to recognizing local heroes and supporting the Red Cross mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The red-tie event featured a cocktail reception, three-course dinner by renowned Paula LeDuc catering, live auction, entertainment and an afterparty. Proceeds will support the programs and services of the Bay Area chapter of the American Red Cross, which happens to be the B.A.R.’s next-door neighbor on Gough St. Talk about a good cause. Thanks to Gala Co-Chairs Lindsey Haswell and Meredith Kendall Maines and the ARC for making sure we were part of the compassionate scene.t

Houston confidential by Tim Pfaff

omewhere in the scores of prepublication interviews he did for his debut short story collection “Lot” (Riverhead), Bryan Washington said that some of the best advice he got about writing was: “Relax. The reader can tell when you’re tense.” The idea is a perfect descriptor of Washington’s writing in these stories, and the source of its cumulative power. It’s loose and easy, conversational, vernacular, curbside fabulist, street-language spiked, strikingly original and, before you know it, transfixing. As much as you savor the stories’ skillfully concealed craft and form, you don’t want them to end.

The stories are free-standing but cycle around the family fable of first-person narrator Nic (Nicolas), whose name is revealed grudgingly – “That’s my fucking name” – only in the last section of the final story, “Elgin.” “Lot” is also the story of real estate, a city, the largely post-Harvey Houston, whose precincts we never leave farther than the Galveston shore. When, at the end, Nic’s feet sink into the “muddy sand … sweaty with plastic and bottles and shit” there, his is only the most tenuous escape, with freedom on the far horizon, possibly a mirage. This is “Dubliners” as imagined by Faulkner and haunted with the ghosts of its steadily vanishing citizens as if they were swept up by

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ICE. “East End in the evening is a bottle of noise,” Washington writes. “Houston is molting. The city sheds all over the concrete.” Even pre-Harvey, gentrification is encroaching, but the “blancos” are little more than apparitions in these tales of the permanent if ever-migrant underclass, mostly people of color(s) for which Washington has a varied, vivid chart. Most of Nic’s mixed-race kin inherit his AfricanAmerican mother’s dark skin, “like rust on the rim of the stove.” Nic is gay. In a wrenching catalogue of such post-coital chat as he has had with his tricks (as often as not but far from exclusively “whiteboys”) he concludes, “Mostly that’s how it goes. A half-story and they’re out. I don’t know what happens to these people or where the hell they end up afterwards.” Probably, on evidence, to some hell of their own making is where. If one thing’s true about the lot in “Lot,” it’s that they’re so used to it, tragedy has long worn off their flip-flops, without sentimentality or self-pity, if not without a saving humor. Nic’s Ma says it’s “cyclical … you have things and then you don’t.” Like island people – which many of them are, from outposts in the Caribbean and Central America – they are, if not obsessed, preoccupied with what’s the haps on the mainland, fantasy realms where not everyone is poor. They’re transient yet not going anywhere, even when opportunity beckons. What they’re more accustomed to are its knocks. In “Waugh,” “Poke lived in a room with five boys and a window.” He’s in a gaggle of male hustlers with nicknames like Scratch and Nacho. They’re mothered by a man named Rod, who promises to bounce them if they contract HIV, then himself does, keeping it on the downlow while passing it on, to the outrage of his tenant kids. Though regular johns are their staples, these are not youngsters hun-

David Garcia

“Lot” author Bryan Washington.

gry for stability. “Even worse were the ones who popped the question: could you live with them. The ones who swore they’d take care of you. All you’d have to do is hang around, take a fucking every now and then. Disappear when they needed you to. Reappear just as suddenly. They’d tell you how much they loved you. [Poke heard them out] because they’d never see him again.” Washington has no use for types: the most minor characters are as

sharply drawn as a police sketch. Nor is he inclined to platitudes about the human condition. His people are rooted drifters likely least of all to find themselves elsewhere. It’s how it goes with intimates, too. They’re far more than “a half-story”; but even with them, Nic’s maxim applies: “I don’t know what happens to these people or where the hell they end up afterwards.” What Washington knows all about is his characters’ insides, or lack thereof, while they’re here. What binds them is the slim tendon of what his sugar daddy Emil tells Poke: “I don’t know what your friend should do…. I know that when you choose, you choose for everyone.” “Elgin,” the story where it all comes together, begins with Nic’s reflection: “Once, I slept with a boy…. We met the way you meet anyone in the world and I brought him back to Ma’s. He saw the candles by the stairs and the lighters on the counters and the boxes in the kitchen and the cans lining the tile, and when he asked if I was coming or going I said this was just how some people lived.”t

Theatre>>

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Complexity & compassion in the 80s by Jim Gladstone

darkens the superficial twinkle of a twink with his show-stopping rendition of Whizzer’s biting, selfconscious “These Are the Games I Play.” Thatcher Jacobs doesn’t play a generic kid-in-the-middle here. His Jason is prickly and specific, wriggling away from his father’s embrace, defiantly throwing himself into Walkman-assisted Bar Mitzvah studies to avoid secular reality, and forging relationships with Whizzer and Mendel that feel simpler and safer than his bond with Marvin. The women’s roles in “Falsettos” aren’t nearly as developed as the men’s, in the script or on the stage. The lesbian neighbors, Charlotte (Bryhona Marie Parham) and Cordelia (Audrey Cardwell), who arrive in Act II to provide Marvin a family of friends, add little beyond underwritten uplift. But Eden Espinosa plays Trina with more frustration than fragility. Her showcase number “I’m Breaking Down,” the evening’s comic highlight, is less a plea for pity than a demonstration of strength. Espinosa’s bravura performance imbues the clever woe-is-me lyrics with an “I Will Survive” subtext. As if to argue against “Falsettos” being perceived as a period piece, David Rockwell’s minimalist set design avoids 80s details, instead abstractly echoing Finn’s music and the characters’ relationships. A giant gray cube is dismantled into irregular blocks that are continually rearranged, becoming furniture, pedestals and ultimately a graveyard. Like the stones of ancient Greek landmarks, they evoke ruin and rebuilding, fundamental strength and eternal hope.t

“F

Joan Marcus

Max von Essen and Nick Adams in the first national tour of “Falsettos,” now at the Golden Gate Theatre.

are also two gentile lesbians, one of whom is a Kosher caterer. Think “Crimes and Misdemeanors”period Woody Allen, with singing and queers. Even in San Francisco, the opening-night audience sometimes didn’t seem quite in sync with “Falsettos”’s chiaroscuro tones. The show’s second act opens with a gloomily lit stone monument foreshadowing funerals to come. As the word “homosexuals” is sung in a sepulchral minor key, flashlight beams pierce the dark of the orchestra seats. Struck by those beams, many gay theatergoers cheered aloud, as if on the Giants’ Kiss Cam, oblivious to the epoch being portrayed.

“Falsettos”’ plot centers on Marvin (Max von Essen), a 40ish gay man who has moved out of the home he’s shared with his wife Trina (Eden Espinosa) and 12-yearold son Jason (Thatcher Jacobs on opening night; he alternates with Jonah Mussolino). He’s in thrall to a tempestuous relationship with a decade-younger boyfriend, Whizzer (Nick Adams), in the thick of psychotherapy with the no-less neurotic Dr. Mendel (Nick Blaemire), and thoroughly ashamed of himself. Von Essen’s interesting take on the role is less lacerating than others I’ve seen (most notably a ferocious Mandy Patinkin). His Marvin’s angry, controlling side is tempered

Leotarded

Fred (Ryan Morales), Joan (Susi Damilano), and Raj (Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari) engage in a breathing ritual together in “Yoga Play.”

ipika Guha’s loose-limbed comedy “Yoga Play,” now at the San Francisco Playhouse, offers plenty of posturing on the part of its characters, but little in the way of audience enlightenment. It’s a series of amusing but insubstantial riffs on pseudo-spiritual capitalism, racial and sexual prejudice, and the wellness movement that never quite coalesce into a holistic perspective. The play opens on the corporate campus of a Lululemonlike apparel company, Jojomon, as the firm is trying to bounce back from a recent scandal: A now-exiled founder has been booted for body-shaming larger women who wore the company’s tights. The remaining principal, hippy-dippy John (Craig Marker

Falsettos, through April 14 at the Golden Gate Theatre. Tickets ($56-$226): (888) 7461799, www.shn-sf.com

Freelance Reporters

Jessica Palopoli

by Jim Gladstone

by a sense of genuine bewilderment. In the midst of everything he does, you can sense him asking himself, “What am I doing?” A less bombastic Marvin allows the textures of “Falsettos”’ other male characters to be highlighted in this production. Mendel the shrink, who ends up marrying Trina and serving as a more conventional father-figure to Jason, is typically played as a romantic, glass-half-full charmer. But Blaemire, a terrific physical actor whose goofy swagger does frequently lighten the mood, also brings out Mendel’s self-serving motivations and a tincture of guilt, revealing parallels to Marvin, not just counterpoints. Nick Adams

doing his hempiest Matthew McConaughey), manifests on a giant circular screen via Skype, to hand over the operational reigns to a new executive hire, Joan (Suzy Damilano), who by dint of gender alone, it’s initially implied, will make her a kinder, gentler sort of COO. Surprise! She’s a hard-nosed capitalist with neither a yoga practice nor a genuine taste for Jojo’s crunchy-granola ethos. Still, when a new scandal erupts on Twitter – a manufacturing contractor in Kashmir is using child labor – she’s quick to leverage the appeal of Eastern philosophy to win in the court of public opinion. “Get me a guru!” becomes her illogical mantra, as if importing an Indian mystic to make public appearances will somehow absolve the company of its sins.

It doesn’t make dramatic sense, but it’s a great excuse to send Joan’s C-suite lackeys, Raj (Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari), a thoroughly Americanized Indian American; and Fred (Ryan Morales), a gay Singaporean near the end of his visa stay, on the hunt for a mascot from the third world. Bakhtiari’s Raj is a shaggy, hangdog counterpart to Morales’ wry, quick-witted Fred, and they provide most of the evening’s highlights with their Frick-and-Frack banter. The most absurdly entertaining (and most extraneous) scene in the whole play has the two men sharing recent dreams after lunch. Raj has dreamt about colorful ants swarming out of his urethra. Fred is perplexed. Soon enough, the guru (Marker again, funny again) arrives from the Himalayas, where he’s lived in a cave for years, dispensing wisdom to pilgrims. But – horrors! – he also happens to be Caucasian, which Joan deems insufficiently authentic for her purposes (which are what again?). Raj, who speaks not a word of Hindi, is now persuaded he should play the wise man because, well, he’s brown. Lots of prickly ideas are at play here, but Guha’s script and Bill English’s direction are focused more on making the audience laugh than pointing out the characters’ sometimes despicably laughable thinking. If you’re seeking nuanced social satire, “Yoga Play” is likely to get you bent out of shape.t Yoga Play, through April 20 at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St., SF. Tickets ($25-$85): (415) 677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org

The Bay Area Reporter, the undisputed newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area’s LGBT community and the nation’s longest continuously-published and highest circulation LGBT newspaper, has immediate openings for Freelance Reporters for the news and arts desks. Responsibilities include: attend assigned meetings or events; necessary interviews, and writing news and/or articles weekly. For News, coverage includes breaking news, City Hall, health, LGBT organizations, and other matters of interest to the community. For Arts, coverage includes arts-related news events and/ or organizations. Availability should include at least one of the following: weekday daytime hours, evenings, or weekends to cover assigned events. News reporting experience preferred; newspaper background a plus. Candidates should demonstrate ability to write under deadline and be detail-oriented. Send cover letter, resume & writing samples to c.laird@ebar.com or r.friedman@ ebar.com. Cynthia Laird, News Editor, or Roberto Friedman, Arts Editor, 44 Gough Street, Suite 204, San Francisco, CA 94103.

25 17 10

ARTS

alsettos” falls over you in a relentless cascade. The show’s music and lyrics, by William Finn, are remarkably complex, true to the tangle of psychological conflicts they convey. Motifs whirl by, overlapping, dissipating, then resurfacing unexpectedly. The sungthrough and unceasingly emotional show, now playing at the Golden Gate Theatre, floods you from start to finish. It gets under your skin on occasion – “swine” and “snide” are among the resurgent lyrics; apt descriptors, at times, of several characters – and finally works its way through your tear ducts. Set in 1979 and 1981, “Falsettos” is the first of only two Broadway musicals that have ever directly addressed the AIDS epidemic (the second is “Rent”). Its 1992 production won Tonys for Finn and director/ book writer James Lapine. An acclaimed 2016 Lincoln Center revival led to the current tour, with Lapine once again at the helm. A chamber piece with more impact than most spectacles, “Falsettos” has a cast of just seven and “a teeny tiny band” who sing and play with fevered urgency. The tempos of many passages have been accelerated in the current production, almost challenging audience members to keep up with the cutting wit and U-turn moods of the show’s evervacillating and vulnerable central characters. Ultimately a story of family, both biological and chosen, “Falsettos”’s humane, empathetic core resonates strongly enough that this road show’s itinerary includes Saint Paul and Charlotte. But make no mistake, this is also very much a New York story, peopled with brusque, well-off, self-absorbed and highly intelligent Manhattan Jews. There

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<< Music

16 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Queer band camp by Gregg Shapiro

ueer bands have come a long way since Fanny, the Village People, Culture Club, Bronski Beat, Tribe 8, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Indigo Girls. For more than 20 years, professionally and personally linked duo Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, the leaders of Baltimore-based electronic act Matmos, have been thinking far outside the box when it comes to instrumentation and musical resources. From the sounds of surgery to cow organs, from antique synths to parapsychological visions, Matmos never fails to illuminate and invigorate. Marking both the anniversary of the couple’s relationship as well as society’s relationship to plastic, “Plastic Anniversary” (Thrill Jockey) ranks as one of Matmos’ most exhilarating and accessible albums. In addition to listing the plastic materials that became the source of the music, the liner notes also include unusual descriptions of some of the songs. Take “Breaking Bread,” which consists of the breaking of vinyl LPs and singles by “the soft rock group Bread.” The Philip Glass-like “The Crying Pill” features an ATM card and an exercise ball. The titles of

Dreamers

From page 13

At least there should be, and that is the most powerful message in the oratorio “Dreamers,” by Berkeleybased Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez and Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban American playwright Nilo Cruz. Commissioned by Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, the Sunday afternoon world premiere capped conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s three-concert residency at Zellerbach Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London. Recently announced Music Director Designate of the San Francisco Symphony, Salonen is currently Principal Conductor & Artistic Director of the Philharmonia and Conductor Laureate for both the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the L.A. Philharmonic. He’s a conductor without borders, and one of our finest composers; he was a sympathetic natural leading the first performance of “Dreamers.”

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“Interior With Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat” and “Silicone Gel Implant” only tell half the story. Led by queer singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, experimental noise-pop band Xiu Xiu has been enthralling listeners throughout the 21st century, and its new album “Girl with Basket of Fruit” (Polyvinyl) is no exception. The screeching title track sounds like it owes more to the girl with the dragon tattoo than it does to any Titian painting. It’s not surprising to find “a pig wearing a maid’s apron and cap/ riding a tomato on rubber wheels” in the sampled “It Comes Out as a Joke,” and one can only imagine what is being “puff puffed” in “Ice Cream Truck.” “Pumpkin Attack The six-movement oratorio featured clear-voiced and dramatically nuanced soprano Ana Maria Martínez, the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus (Dr. Wei Cheng, music director) and vocal ensemble Volti (Robert Geary, artistic director). The mixed chorus was easily heard and understood, bold and surprisingly well-balanced behind the sonorous Philharmonia. Opening movements of “Dreamers” evoke a spiritual landscape that underpins the work, giving a spiritual dimension to the human urge to seek and migrate. Arguably, much primeval searching was necessarily more concerned with hunting and gathering than mystical questing, but Cruz’s words are lyrical and eloquent, and Lopez cushions them in rich neo-Romantic harmonies. When the words gain modern relevance, the orchestra muscles up and the fervent moral heart of the work is revealed. The composer and librettist interviewed UC student “Dreamers,” protected by the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), to find insights. Their testimonials, cries of righteous anger and pain pack a forceful punch. Respect and love for parents, dispossessed children, and empathy for the oppressed motivate them to succeed and inspire listeners. They may be preaching to the choir in Northern California, but immigration is a vastly complex subject, and it is important to be confronted by real people, not political pawns, with relevant personal stories to tell. “Dreamers” loses steam when the music turns melodic soundtrack, even with accomplished and transparent scoring and some impressive musical highlights. When it gets passionate, the energy is intense. The early buzz surrounding the premiere was justified, and the performers were triumphant. Salonen is known to be tech-savvy, and Cal Performances is stateof-the-art, so the exciting event was streamed live, and is archived for a month on YouTube and calperformances.org/livestream. The second half of the concert, a thrilling and cogent reading of the complete Stravinsky “The Firebird” ballet, is also available for stream-

on Mommy and Daddy” is terrifying, and the cut-and-paste beats of “Scisssssssors” could give you whiplash. The unexpected beauty of album closer “Normal Love” comes as something of a relief. “Henry St.” (Alae Music), the debut LP by New Zealand band Alae, features the emotion-laden vocals of gay lead singer-multi-instrumentalist Alex Farrell-Davey. Like NZ’s beloved bands Split Enz and Crowded House, Alae creates memorable pop tunes. “Centered around personal growth and evolution,” the dozen songs here, including “Sun Rise/Sun Fall,” “Hell Toupe” and “If You Were Here,” deserve a wide audience. Stateside, the colorful and fluffy Rainbow Kitten Surprise continues

to enjoy the warm reception received by its 2018 major label debut album “How to: Friend, Love, Freefall” (Elektra). Led by recently out frontman Sam Melo, Rainbow Kitten Surprise makes distinctive R&B-spiked folk pop. They reach a fever pitch on the hot “Matchbox,” choral a cappella of “Pacific Love” the otherworldly “Mission to Mars,” the queer “Hide” and the country cabaret of “Polite Company.” Queer people show up in the most unlikely places in the rock-n-roll world. Take UKborn lesbian drummer Hayley Cramer. She pounds the skins for Great Lakes-region band Pop Evil. She drums up a storm on the band’s eponymous eOne album on songs “Colors Bleed,” “Ex Machina” and “Waking Lions”. Cramer’s presence may also have something to do with the sensitivity found in “A Crime To Remember” and its companion music video, a powerful song about the current state of divisiveness in America. Some bands are queer by association. Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, who has a lesbian sister, is an outspoken LGBTQ advocate. His electronic-oriented side

project The Postal Service was a source of exceptional dance music, including the single “Such Great Heights,” later covered by lesbian singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick. DCFC has also dabbled with electronic beats in recent years, including on the band’s latest LP, “Thank You for Today” (Atlantic/Barsuk). Its “Gold Rush” features a sample of Yoko Ono’s “Mind Train.” What music column about queer musical groups would be complete without cast recordings? Recorded live, “Unbreakable” (Ghostlight), with words and music by award-winning gay Broadway composer-lyricist Andrew Lippa, is described as “part musical theater, part oratorio piece,” and all gay history. Prominently featuring the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, other performers include Britney Coleman, Marcus J. Paige, Lisa Vroman, and Lippa himself. Out actor Christopher Sieber is among the performers you will hear on “The Prom: Original Broadway Cast Recording” (Masterworks). Created by Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar, the musical comedy, based on a small-town school controversy involving a lesbian student who was denied the right to bring a female date to the prom, features four self-involved Broadway stars who become embroiled in the hullabaloo.t

Brittany Hosea-Small

Librettist Nilo Cruz, composer Jimmy López, and Volti San Francisco Artistic Director Robert Geary, following the world premiere performance of “Dreamers” by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, London with soprano Ana María Martínez and Volti with UC Berkeley Chamber Choir at Cal Performances, UC Berkeley.

ing, with the lovely encore, Ravel’s “Enchanted Garden” from his “Ma mere l’Oye” (“Mother Goose”), included.

Coming home

On the Saturday night before the Philharmonia’s Sunday matinee, a different group of American dreamers was celebrated by the famous “orchestra of voices” Chanticleer at the San Francisco Conservatory

of Music. Following a successful 11-concert European tour across eight countries, the ensemble returned home to present a concert fittingly called “Spacious Skies,” featuring an American smorgasbord of choral repertoire. Spanning three centuries and covering genres from pop and jazz to spirituals, with music by one of America’s original composers, William Billings, and by modern writ-

Lisa Kohler

Chanticleer takes a selfie.

ers like Mason Bates, Libby Larsen, and Steven Stucky, the program roamed enthusiastically from “sea to shining sea.” Not every arrangement convinced. Putting a doo-wop spin on a lovely standard like “Willow Weep for Me” proved too cute by half, and spirituals resonate better without “American Idol” embellishments. But when Chanticleer settles in for a gorgeous “Lost in the Stars” by American immigrant Kurt Weill, or adds emotional depth to Mason Bates’ stirring arrangement of Peter Gabriel’s “Washing of the Water,” the group’s perfect pitch and good taste are better displayed. Modern songs fit easily alongside traditional folk songs and fascinating pieces commissioned over an amazing 40-plus years. There are new faces onstage and in the audience, maybe too young to remember founder Louis Botto, but his legacy flourishes with Music Director William Fred Scott. Essential American composer Stephen Foster was represented by only one number, a rowdy romp through “Camptown Races.” His “Beautiful Dreamer” would have been a perfect choice for an encore.t

Film>>

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Multiple murders in Mumbai by David Lamble

disembodied older voice exhorts a his week a brilliant new cadre of ill-educated docudrama, illustratyoung gunmen on ing the nastiest features how to maximize the of today’s international propaganda value climate, arrives from Ausof their rampage: tralian director Anthony single out Western Maras and producer Julie tourists for display Ryan. Opening Friday in before dispatching Bay Area theaters, “Hotel them with military Mumbai” is a powerful if assault weapons. awkwardly timed tutorial The movie deftly about just how hard it is to dramatizes the courbe a courageous global citiage and ingenuity zen in an era when all deof a dedicated hotel cent values appear to have staff, including the Bleecker Street been swept aside by haterenowned chef fueled religious extremism Nazanin Boniadi, Dev Patel and Armie Hammer in Hemant Oberoi or right-wing authorities. (Anupam Kher) director Anthony Maras’ “Hotel Mumbai.” “Hotel Mumbai” opens and a fearless waiter on the heels of the terror(Oscar nominee Dev verisimilitude, the murderous 2008 ist attack against unarmed Patel) who risk their attack on a Mumbai, India hotel, Islamic worshipers in Christchurch, lives to protect their guests. Crusty chosen by its diabolical plotters New Zealand, It dramatizes, with old film critics are often hardened for its appeal to foreign tourists. A skill and at times almost unbearable against films that claim to be “based

on true events” because of the distortion that creeps into the storytelling process, which inevitably involves compressing the time frame of complex human tragedies. The makers of “Hotel Mumbai” effectively demonstrate how the hotel guests, desperate to survive, could see how slowly the Indian government was responding to the event. At one point, effective help is seen to be over 800 miles away. This makes it even harder for the chef and the waiter to instruct their charges how not to fall victim to the militants, while assuring the naive and hysterical Westerners that the waiter’s headscarf doesn’t make him a terrorist. “Hotel Mumbai” makes the case that truth has to be responsibly conveyed, even about an ongoing terrorist attack. In this case, Indian citizens and governmental leaders had to learn how to make subtle judgments about friends and foes, often literally before the smoke cleared.

The drama is preoccupied with the plight of a young vacationing American couple, Armie Hammer (“Call Me by Your Name”) and Nazanin Boniadi (“Homeland”). They want to survive and shield their infant child from harm until help arrives, from seemingly complacent and ill-prepared Indian military and police forces. But one must salute the courage of the young actors who so vividly portray the ruthless young killers. Just as with actors who have portrayed terrible villains in the past, whether in “Casablanca” or “12 Years a Slave,” the better they serve their craft, the more difficult it may be for a general audience to separate the actor from the distasteful act. In English, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Greek, Russian, Arabic, Urdu and Persian, with easy-to-read English subtitles. Rated R for pervasive violence, bloody images, and adult themes of religiously inspired homicide.t

Lemmon’s “Daphne” is a comic masterpiece, even if “she” would not fool most people. He can hardly keep his hands off Sugar, yet is fascinated by the possibility of an unconsummated marriage to Osgood. He earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination, losing to Charlton Heston’s pious “Ben-Hur.” Curtis wasn’t nominated, yet his performance at times surpasses Lemmon’s. One of the era’s prettiest male stars, he looks appealing made up, and knows it. His Grant impersonation adds another lawyer of complexity: Grant was chased by his leading ladies, he often was a passive leading man, and his bisexuality was well-known. Curtis grows from

womanizer to tender lover, a believable transition that makes him sympathetic. Raft and O’Brien are marvelous in parodying the roles that made them famous at Warner Bros. Brown, too, makes the audience think he believes Daphne is a woman. He has the movie’s celebrated last line. Although same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in 1959, the line and Brown’s delivery have a new meaning: perhaps the oft-married Osgood is open to a change. Orry-Kelly (one of Cary Grant’s former lovers) won the black-and-white Best Costume Oscar for Monroe’s spectacular gowns. Wilder received a Best Director nomination, as did the black-and-white Cinematography, Art and Set Decoration. The Miami scenes were shot at San Diego’s legendary Del Coronado Hotel. The film was a box-office smash. Extras include interviews with Lemmon and Curtis, who discuss how difficult being in drag for hours was, how hard it was to walk and run in high heels. Curtis also discusses his off-camera relationship with Monroe. His reminiscences aren’t reliable. Over the decades, his story changed, going from platonic dates to greater intimacy. It seems the older he got, the better he was.t

Ian McEwan wrote the screenplay, based on his 2014 novel. Richard Eyre has directed in a precise manner, depicting uppermiddle-class angst in posh surroundings. Underneath all is the question of whether professional women can have it all. May is childless, and her encounter with Henry forces her to reevaluate her own life. British repressed feelings rear their heads. The real love interest is not Tucci, but Henry. The Tucci subplot is

a waste, as we don’t understand the dynamics of that relationship. Whitehead, so good in BBC’s “A Grand Day Out” as a gay teenager in London, easily keeps pace with Thompson, expressing excitability at being in love, and questioning his religious faith. Romance is iffy, but earnest performances keep it afloat. The radiant Thompson brings out all the tradeoffs she has made to become a success. “The Children Act” might be her greatest dramatic achievement.t

Amazingly cool by Tavo Amador

illy Wilder (1906-2002) was one of classic Hollywood’s most versatile and acclaimed writer-directors. He won six Academy Awards and helmed two Best Picture Oscar winners. His range was exceptional: “Double Indemnity” (1944), landmark noir; “The Lost Weekend” (1945), a graphic portrayal of alcoholism; “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), the blackest comedy about movie stardom ever made; “Sabrina” (1953), a charming romance; “Witness for the Prosecution” (1957), a dazzling mystery; and “The Apartment” (1960), a harsh look at American corporate culture. He also directed and co-wrote (with I.A.L. Diamond) “Some Like It Hot” (1959). This fastpaced tale of murderous gangsters, transvestism, impotence, and sexual fluidity is hilarious. It has just been released in a superb Criterion DVD. The film opens in Chicago in February 1929. Saxophonist Joe (Tony Curtis) and bass fiddler Gerry (Jack Lemmon) are playing in a speakeasy behind a funeral parlor. It’s owned by “Spats” Colombo (George Raft), who’s on site with his mob when Detective Mulligan (Pat O’Brien) leads a raid on it. The guys avoid the police and look for work in the freezing weather. A booking agent needs two “girl”

musicians, a saxophonist and a bass fiddler, for a band heading to Florida. They witness Spats and his boys kill rival hoods: the notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. They flee. The next day, in full drag, they board the train as the newest members of “Sweet Sue’s All Girl Syncopated Band.” Sue (Joan Shawlee) wonders if they’re too refined to fit in, but she needs them. Joe is now “Josephine,” and Gerry, in a last-minute switch, becomes “Daphne.” Sugar Kane (a somewhat zaftig Marilyn Monroe) is the band’s singer and ukulele player. She’s always getting “the fuzzy end of the lollipop” from the saxophone players she finds irresistible. She’s made up her mind to marry a Miami millionaire. One of the millionaires at the posh hotel where the band is performing, Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), falls for “Daphne.” Joe, in a stolen blazer and white slacks, meets Sugar at the beach. In a flawless Cary Grant accent, he reveals he’s the heir to the Shell Oil fortune and is known as “Junior.” Sugar is impressed. Romantic complications follow for both couples. Joe borrows Osgood’s yacht and invites Sugar to dinner. He explains why he’s unable to respond to women: a traumatic experience has left him incapable of performing. The best doctors have examined

him, without finding a cure. Sugar offers to try. Meanwhile, Osgood has taken Daphne dancing, to a club featuring a Cuban band. They tango the night away. When Joe and Gerry meet later that night in their room, Gerry says he is going to marry Osgood “for security.” Joe is dismayed. The complications become more hilarious when Spats, his boys, and other gangsters arrive at the hotel to attend a gathering of The Friends of Italian Opera, presided over by a mafia Don, Little Bonaparte (Nehemiah Persoff). He wants to avenge the death of his childhood friend, Toothpick Charlie (George E. Stone). Prior to the banquet, Spats recognized “Josephine” and “Daphne” as the witnesses to the Chicago massacre, but they dodge the goons. The slam-bang finale is LOL funny and satisfying. Monroe was often late on the set and had difficulties with her lines, but the results show none of that. She is perfect as Sugar. Her determination to arouse “Junior” is sweet, comic, and sexy. She is utterly convincing in her belief that “Josephine” and “Daphne” are women. Otherwise, the film would not work. She sings three songs, “Running Wild,” “I Wanna Be Loved by You,” and hauntingly, “I’m Through with Love.” Sadly, she was overlooked when it came to an Oscar nomination.

Juvenile justice by Brian Bromberger

ome actors you want to watch in films because they give great performances, even in movies that might not pique one’s interest. Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cate Blanchett come to mind, and Emma Thompson, who gives a standout performance in “The Children Act,” a hit at last year’s SF International Film Fest (Lionsgate DVD). With her character Fiona May, Thompson has her best movie role since “Sense and Sensibility” (1995). With her fierce intelligence, subtlety, and expressive face, Thompson has been underused in films. “The Children Act” is a compelling moral drama and solid character study brimming with emotions, at times wallowing close to melodrama. The film opens with Judge Fiona May in the family High Court of Justice, ruling on a case of conjoined twins about whether to separate them surgically, which would kill

one of them. Not intervening, which is what the parents desire, would kill both. Citing Parliament’s 1989 Children Act as protector of minors, she rules in favor of surgery, remarking, “This is a case of law, not of morals.” No sooner is this case dispatched than she is faced with 17-year-old Adam Henry (Fionn Whitehead), suffering from leukemia, whose only hope for survival is a blood transfusion followed by drugs. But Henry and his parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who oppose blood transfusions as being anti-Biblical. May shatters protocol by visiting Henry in the hospital to discover whether he recognizes the implications of choosing not to have a transfusion. Sharing their mutual love of music, they sing “Down by the Sally Gar-

dens” together, and May witnesses his potential. She returns to court and authorizes the transfusion. Meanwhile, May’s own family is falling apart. Her husband of 30 years, Jack (Stanley Tucci), a university professor, tired of being neglected, wants to have an affair with a younger colleague, asking her permission. May is horrified and starts divorce proceedings. Henry, in remission, becomes infatuated with May, following her to a conference in Newcastle, announcing he wants to live with her, spontaneously kissing her. She sends him back to London. Just before performing at a Christmas concert, she receives word he has relapsed. Now 18, he has refused treatment, and may not make it through the night. What happens after this newsflash concludes the film.

<< Film

18 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Hungary heart by David Lamble

ungarian filmmaker László Nemes, responsible for the harrowing 2015 Holocaust docudrama “Son of Saul,” returns with a slowly paced pre-WWI drama commencing at a crucial moment in the history of his country. It’s 1913, and the country we now know as Hungary is still a junior partner in one of Europe’s collapsing empires, the centuries-old Austro-Hungarian pact. Beneath the surface charm, a modern sensibility is struggling to be born. This sensibility will be the catalyst for a horrific war, then for new ways of appreciating human nature (Sigmund Freud), bold breakthroughs in literature (the novels of Thomas Mann), totalitarian ideologies (Fascism vs. Communism), deadly new weapons (the atom-splitting Manhattan Project), but also unbe-

Lavender Tube

From page 13

When Karen gets snowed in at the office, Nikki comes by from her own office upstairs above Karen’s, and a real 1970s-style consciousnessraising evening begins. Karen talks about her various male lovers and how there has always been an imbalance in the relationships. There are jokes, of course; it is Karen, after all. When Nikki tells Karen she’s a lesbian, Karen says, “Oh. A vagitarian.” But mostly it’s serious, engaging, and not a little poignant. When Nikki asks Karen who takes care of her, Karen says she takes care of herself, including in sex, when she has to “make her Venus Serena.” Nikki says, “I did not see that coming.” Playing Nikki is the alwayspowerful Emmy-winning Samira Wiley, of “Orange Is the New Black” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Wiley is an out lesbian. When Nikki sees the snow has stopped, she tells Karen and says she should call her boyfriend to come take care of her. Karen says she’s being taken care of right now. Nikki leans over and kisses Karen, and the live audience swoons. The entire episode was about coupling. Will’s and Grace’s respective partners – the gorgeous Matt Bomer, who spent 90% of the episode in bed in a black tank showing off his arms and chiseled everything; and the allmiddle-aged-now David Schwimmer – want their relationships to move to the next level. But can Will and Grace stop being each other’s protective shield long enough to take a risk on love at whatever age they are claiming to be? Meanwhile Jack gets caught in an elevator, is rescued by an old flame, and eschews cheating because he’s getting married soon. Is this the new Jack? Have the relationship-averse quartet decided it’s time to admit to middle age and let themselves be open and vulnerable to another person? Time will tell, but we are looking forward especially to seeing where Karen and Nikki go. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” which is so cozy in its spot before “Will & Grace,” introduced Rosa Diaz’s (Stephanie Beatriz) girlfriend Jocelyn, played by the real-life lesbian comedian and podcaster Carmen Esposito, on March 21, and it was delightful. We don’t get to see enough butch lesbians on TV, and we were pleased that the show decided not to try and femme her up. More, please. Can “RuPaul’s Drag Race” be on every night? This season’s Rusical happened March 21, and oh my goodness. RuPaul has always been intensely political. SF’s own Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has even appeared on the show in the past.

lievable innovations in filmmaking: sound, color, widescreen technologies, with genius directors. Sadly, with all the potential for carving out an allegory that would explain the Hungarian nation’s bumpy journey through the 20th century, the filmmakers have created what amounts to a dramatic still life, a plodding drama that is at times unintentionally funny, in the process wasting a provocative performance by the film’s female lead, Juli Jakab. A film newcomer, Jakab appears as Írisz Leiter, apparently the sole-surviving member of a hatmaking family whose retail outlet was consumed by fire years before the action covered by this film. Jakab spends much of the film’s running time fixing her gaze upon all she encounters, from highranking members of the merchant class to cute boy laborers. At one point the young woman learns that So it wasn’t a real surprise that this season’s Rusical was (wait for it) “Trump: The Rusical.” The queens outdid themselves. Although there is a great deal of satire out there about the president none of us wanted, this was pure “Drag Race.” If you missed it, catch it online. “Project Runway” is back, baby, and on its original network, Bravo, after 11 seasons on Lifetime. Everybody’s fave reality show took a yearlong hiatus in 2018, but is back with a whole new look. Gone are fan-fave hosts Heidi Klum and everybody’s favorite straight-laced queen, Tim Gunn. Klum and Gunn have signed a deal with Amazon Video to host a different design show. We will keep you updated on that. It’s hard to believe that “Project Runway” is now in its 17th season, but it is, it debuted in 2004. The only leftover from the series we have long loved is Nina Garcia, editor-in-chief at Elle, now the grande dame among the judges, the only one over 35. The new judges are Karlie Kloss, the crazy tall Midwestern entrepreneur and supermodel who has been on a bazillion covers and is Taylor Swift’s bestie; Christian Siriano, the flamingly gay designer who won “Project Runway” 11 years ago, and has since dressed Michelle Obama, Victoria Beckham and Lady Gaga; Elaine Welteroth, editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, only the second black woman to hold that title in Condé Nast history; and rising star designer Brandon Maxwell, who has dressed Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lawrence, Jane Fonda and Viola Davis. So it’s the millennial “Runway,” more edgy, current and political. Maxwell told Refinery 29 on March 21, “One thing that really bonds us together as judges is that we’ve all been vocal in our own careers about issues we want other young people to understand. We took that seriously.” Both Maxwell and Siriano have been advocates for more diversity on the runway: it’s not all white and not all railthin in their shows. Siriano helped introduce affordable fashions, and is one of the few designers designing for plus-sized women. Welteroth has turned Teen Vogue into a serious political magazine, saying she wanted “anyone who picked up the magazine [to see] themselves, on the masthead and in the stories.” Kloss has a surprising side interest: coding. She has a nonprofit to get more girls into tech. There are 16 contestants this season, and they are diverse, among them a Syrian refugee; another, a mother of nine doing her own 2.0. “Project Runway”

Sony Pictures Classics

Juli Jakab stars in director Laszlo Nemes’ “Sunset.”

will still have you screaming from the sofa. But it’s not just about the clothes, it’s about how those clothes fit into our diverse world. We apologize for being a little late to the party that is the incredibly gay “The Other Two,” but who knew it was so funny? The Comedy Central series is about fame, sibling rivalry, and other things. Aspiring gay actor Cary Dubek (out bisexual Drew Tarver) and his sister Brooke (Helene Yorke), a former professional dancer, find their place in the world while wrestling with their feelings about their 13-year-old brother Chase’s (Case Walker) rise to internet fame as Chase Dreams. Complicating things is their mother Pat, played by “SNL” alum Molly Shannon, who just starred in a new film about Emily Dickinson, playing the very lesbian poet. Mom tends to forget about her children who are not Chase, hence the title. “The Other Two” was created by longtime “SNL” head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider. Beck Bennett, current “SNL” cast member who does a mean Putin, plays Brooke’s boyfriend, Jeff. Some of the queer icons on the series are Wanda Sykes and Andy Cohen. There are running gay jokes about “W&G” star Debra Messing and “American Horror Story” star Billy Eichner. There are jokes about Gus Kenworthy, “Queer Eye” star Antoni Porowski, “Real Housewives,” Ryan Murphy and other things for a gay audience, because yes, many of the writers are gay. “The Other Two” is LOL funny. The good news is, you can watch it online. Better news is that it was just renewed for a second season.

‘Empire’ falls?

How will “Empire” address Jamal come next season, if there is one? The Jussie Smollett incident has had an impact, and ratings have plummeted. Fox could cancel it just to get rid of the headache. The show’s creator Lee Daniels posted on Instagram on March 20, the first time since the alleged hate crime attack on Smollett. “These past couple of weeks have been a freaking rollercoaster,” Daniels said. “We have (me and my cast) experienced pain, anger, sadness and frustration. Everything has happened, what you’re seeing tonight, prior to the incident,” referring to scenes currently airing that feature Smollett, filmed prior to the attack. In the wake of the investigation, “Empire” cut Smollett from the last two episodes. “The show was made to bring America together, to talk about the atrocities that are happening right now in the streets.”

Smollett has been charged with 16 felony counts, one for each time he told police he had been assaulted. The actor has pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence. The story got stranger on March 11. TMZ broke the story that the brothers who were alleged to have attacked Smollett and around whom the Chicago Police Dept. built their case against Smollett admitted the check Smollett gave them was indeed for personal training. The Osundairo brothers Ola and Abel were initially accused of perpetrating the attack. Changing their story alters the entire narrative built by the CPD about Smollett. One brother was an extra on “Empire,” the other was Smollett’s personal trainer. The brothers now acknowledge that Smollett wrote the $3,500 check to them for training, as Smollett has always asserted. This is a game-changer, as it confirms Smollett’s version of events and leaves the CPD without a storyline. The brothers’ attorney Gloria Schmidt revealed the new info on ABC’s “GMA.” “GMA” had aired the exclusive interview with Smollett and anchor Robin Roberts in February when he spoke about the attack. Schmidt told “GMA” the check was for training, and that the brothers staged the attack as “a personal favor” to the “Empire” star. Who doesn’t stage a crime for a friend? The CPD case was built around the theory that Smollett had paid the brothers with the check to stage the attack. In a long, televised press conference on Feb. 21, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson had insisted that the check was payment for the attack. Johnson asserted that Smollett had staged the attack on himself in a bid for more money for “Empire” role because he was “dissatisfied with his salary.” But as Smollett’s attorney told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview on “AC360,” there’s no evidence that Smollett was dissatisfied with his pay at the hit Fox drama. Geragos said Smollett never mentioned his salary to anyone at “Empire.” He never asked for more money, nor did he contact his agent to ask for more money. High-profile Chicago attorney Terry Sullivan told ABC News, “What you have is a police department and prosecutors obviously mad at him for embarrassing the city, so they took every one of his lies and made it into another count.” Geragos also questioned why the Osundairo brothers were never charged in the attack as accessories. Smollett had also reported a threatening letter sent to him on the “Empire” set containing a white powder, a week before the alleged attack. The letter is currently in the

she may have a brother, but this plot thread only serves to extend the running time of a film that would have been far more captivating had it come in at under 90 minutes. “Sunset” debuted at the Venice Film Festival and screened at the Toronto International. It was Hungary’s entry for Best Foreign Film (but not selected for the Oscar short-list), from a part of the world that has historically furnished Western cinema with hours of mystery and intrigue. My advice is to skip it and instead revisit Carol Reed’s “The Third Man,” that brilliant thriller about the immediate postWWII depravity of Vienna. “The Third Man,” with its captivating climax in the Viennese sewers, conveys a good deal more about this region of the world that still commands more than its fair share of headlines. In Hungarian with English subtitles. Opens Friday.t FBI crime lab for analysis, sources said. The grand jury made no mention of the letter, the other linchpin in the CPD’s case against Smollett. Johnson stated that when there was insufficient response to the letter, Smollett staged the attack. There is no evidence of that. Smollett’s supporters have not wavered. Queen Latifah, featured on Daniels’ Fox series “Star,” told Yahoo News, “Until somebody can show me some proof otherwise, I’m going with him. The guy I’ve seen has always been someone who cares about people, who cares about others. That’s just the guy I know. So until I can see some definitive proof, which I haven’t seen yet, I gotta go with him.” After the March 14 hearing for Smollett, Geragos told reporters, “Jussie adamantly maintains his innocence, even if law enforcement has robbed him of that presumption.” In an exclusive interview with “EW” March 21, “Empire” showrunner Brett Mahoney addressed the decision to cut Smollett from the season’s final episodes: “It was a very difficult decision, but in terms of allowing the cast and crew to get the work done without disruption, and allowing Jussie the time to deal with what he’s been confronted with and to focus and prepare his case, this seems like the logical decision.” Finally, the Democratic candidates are rolling out their policy (or lack thereof) as well as their personal pizzazz in a series of town halls on CNN and MSNBC. If you missed Pete Buttigieg, the first out gay man to run for president, his town hall was superb, and is available online. He talks about how being an out gay in the White House would change things up. The age spread among the candidates runs from Buttigieg, the youngest at 37, to Bernie Sanders, the oldest at 77. The town halls give a good sense of how the candidates fare while being publically grilled. Buttigieg is very comfortable on stage and knows his material. He didn’t miss a question. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) are the two most progressive candidates, based on their voting records and policy. Gillibrand has been a staunch fighter for LGBTQ issues, notably now, pushing back hard against the trans ban. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) leans more centerleft, but her March 19 appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was a reminder of how intensely charismatic she is. Check your listings for the town halls. So for the butch, the femme and the flaming queens, the comedy, the tragedy and Matt Bomer’s beauty, you really must stay tuned.t

Leather

Arts Events

www.ebar.com

Gooch

Shining Stars Vol. 49 • No. 13 • March 28-April 3, 2019

Divas’ denouement Historic bar to shutter this week Alexis Miranda with friends at Divas.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

ivas, the Polk district bar and nightclub that had long been a safe haven for the transgender community, will be closing its doors on March 30. The bar will celebrate its many years of service to the community with a closing night party from 10pm to 2am (at 1081 Post Street). See page 21 >>

Nightlife Events

March 28 - April 4 Springing into nightlife events. Wet or warm, dry or tight, shake it up like a cocktail, or mocktail, if you prefer.

Fri 29

Kidd With a Camera

DJ Brian Urmanita at Flex @ Powerhouse

Listings on page 20 > { THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

<< Nightlife Events

20 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 28 After Dark @ Exploratorium Enjoy cocktails and science demos at the hands-on museum; Mar. 28: Outer Space demos and talks. $15-$20. 6pm-10pm. Pier 15 (Embarcadero at Green St). www.exploratorium.edu

Baloney @ Oasis The popular men’s strip-burlesque comedy show returns, with sketches by Rory Davis, and host Michael Phillis. $30-$50. 7pm; thru Mar. 30. 298 11th St. www.sfbaloney.com

Picante @ The Cafe Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Rock bands play at the famed leather bar. Mar. 28: Dizzy Twin, Spirit Crusher and the Ritchie White Orchestra. $8. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Fri 29 Bare Chest Calendar Prelims @ Powerhouse Meet early candidates for next year’s fundraiser calendar; weekly for a while. 8pm-10pm. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Big Boy @ Lone Star Saloon Enjoy grooves with DJs Boyshapedbox and Ben stefonik. $5. 9pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Disco Coalition @ Lookout Juanita MORE! and Go BANG! present the first in a weekly series of community-building party-fundraisers for locale LGBTQ nonprofits. 5pm-8pm. 3600 16th St. at Market. lookoutsf.com

DTF Fridays @ Port Bar, Oakland Various DJs play house music, and a few hotties gogo dance at the new gay bar’s weekly event. 9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway. portbaroakland.com

Faith Prince @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Vice Tuesdays @ Q Bar Queer femmes and friends dance party with hip hop, Top 40 and throwbacks at the stylish intimate bar, with DJs Val G and Iris Triska. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

The Tony-winning Broadway and TV star returns with her new cabaret show, Have a Little Faith. $40-$75 ($20 food/drink min.) Also Mar. 30. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Wed 3

Flex @ Powerhouse Flexible gogos, host Ky Martinez, and DJ Brian Urnamita. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. powerhousebar.com

Follies & Dollies @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Weekly drag show at the historic gay bar. 9:30pm-11:30pm. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Hamiltunes @ Oasis Sing-along to the music of Hamilton. No cover. 10pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Gigante @ Port Bar, Oakland

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

#MeFunnyToo @ Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley Marga Gomez, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Chey Bell and Matt Gubser offer their hilarious insights into contemporary situations, with a nod to Women’s History Month. $20-$30. 8pm. 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. www.throckmortontheatre.org

Rose & Javi @ Trax The Haight gay bar’s weekly music video and cocktails night. 9pm-1am. 1437 Haight St. www.traxbarsf.com

Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels Groove on wheels at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by “Godfather of Skate”John D. Miles. 7pm-11pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St. at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

Stereo Argento @ The Stud Drag horror-themed acts, femme fatales and DJed dance grooves. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. studsf.com

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

Juanita MORE! and DJ Frisco Robbie’s weekly event, with Latin, Hip Hop and House music, gogo gals and guys, and a drag show. $5. 9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portoakland.com

Thu 4

Frootie Flavors at Live Music Night @ El Rio

Underwear Party @ SF Eagle DJ Salazar, host Dulce de Leche, contest, prizes and lotsa men in their skivvies! (clothes check available). $5. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. sf-eagle.com

Sat 30 Bounce @ Lookout

Sun 31 Big Gay Beer Bust @ The Cinch Benefits and plenty of beer at the historic neighborhood bar. 3pm-7pm. 1723 Polk St. www.cinchsf.com

Dirty Musical Sundays @ The Edge

Jane Monheit @ Yoshi’s Oakland The celebrated jazz vocalist performs at the East Bay restaurant-nightclub. $28-$64. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West. www.yoshis.com

NSA @ Club OMG Weekly underwear party at the intimate mid-Market nightclub. $1 well drinks for anyone in underwear from 9pm-10pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux

Sing along at the popular musical theatre night, with a bawdy edge; also Mondays and Wednesdays (but not dirty). 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Drag divas, gogo studs, DJed Latin grooves and drinks. 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. www.clubpapi.com

Electric Six @ The Indepenent The fun rock band (“Gay Bar”) plays; Dave TV opens. $20. 8pm. 628 Divisadero. http://apeconcerts.com/

Midweek drag rave and vocal open mic, with Dulce de Leche, Rhani Nothingmore, Beth Bicoastal, Ginger Snap and guests. 10pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Dance Party @ White Horse Bar, Oakland

Elvin Bishop @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Sherry Vine & Joey Arias @ Oasis

DJed grooves at the historic East Bay gay bar. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Folk-rock musician and his trio perform at the stylish restaurantnightclub. $28. 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero West. www.yoshis.com

Drip @ El Rio

Get Down On It @ SF Eagle

Dance music with a view at the Castro bar. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Chocolate Salon @ County Fair Bldg. Semi-annual festive tasting of a variety of chocolate-based desserts, including wine and spirits (21+). $18-$30. 10am-5pm. 1199 9th Ave at Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park. www.SFChocolateSalon.com

T-dance for queer and trans folx of color, with DJs Krissy Marchante, Fela Kutchii, Saint-Hills, performers, gogos and vendors. 2pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular weekly drag show, with special guests and great music themes. Mar. 30 is a Lizzo vs Cupcakke tribute. $10-$15. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Mr Golden State Bear @ Lone Star Saloon Competition for the man who’ll represent the California bear community; also an AIDS/LifeCycle fundraiser. 4pm-7pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Nutz @ Powerhouse Glamamore hosts a hot gogo contest for a $500 cash prize, with Dulce De Leche and DJ Josh Cheon. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Onyx @ Powerhouse

Steve Fabus and Sergio Fedasz (Go BANG!) spin grooves at the new Sunday T-dance. $5-$10. 7pm-12am. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. sf-eagle.com

Jock @ The Lookout Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. NY DJ Sharon White from 3pm-6pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Tea Dance @ The Stud Springtime party with DJs Rolo and Stefanie Philips; benefit for the GLBT Historical Society. No cover/donations. 5pm-10pm. 399 9th St. studsf.com

Mon 1 Munro’s at Midnight @ Midnight Sun Drag night with Mercedez Munro. No cover. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Underwear Night @ 440

DJ Blackstone spins at the African American leather men and admirers/ pals happy hour. 5pm-9pm. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. the440.com

Qtease @ The Stud

Tue 2

Queer burlesque and cabaret show. $10-$25. 6pm-8pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Stallion @ Midnight Sun DJ Bill Dupp, intimate dance floor, gogo cuties, all in the heart of the Castro. 8pm-2am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Testosterone @ SF Eagle All-black dress code for a dark groovy night with DJ Guy DiGiancinto. $5$10. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Gaymer Night @ Midnight Sun Weekly fun night of games (video, board and other) and cocktails. 8pm12am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Trivia Night @ Port Bar, Oakland Cranny hosts a big gay trivia night at the new East Bay bar; drinks specials and prizes. 7:30pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Queeraoke @ El Rio

The two New York song & style divas return with a new show, Garden of She-den. $25-$50. 8pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Thu 4 The Callaway Sisters @ Orinda Theatre Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway perform their witty cabaret show, Sibling Revelry. $55. 7:30pm. 2 Orinda Theatre Square. www.lamorindatheatres.com

Drunk Drag Broadway @ Oasis The show-tune drag ensemble returns with Hairsprayed, a live-song parody-tribute show of songs from the musical Hairspray. $25-$50. 7pm. Also April 5, 6, 11, 12 & 13. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Junk @ Powerhouse MrPam and Dulce de Leche cohost the weekly underwear strip night and contest, with sexy prizes. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21 Latin beats, Lulu and Jacqueline’s drag show, gogo hotties and a packed crowd. $10-$15. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. www.club21oakland.com

Live Music Night @ El Rio Rockin’ bands each week. April 4: queer and trans bands Sapphic Lasers, Frootie Flavors and Eddie and the Heartbeats. $5-$10. 8pm-11:30pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Parties at the fascinating spacious nature and science exhibits; April 4 include MOM DJs, beer, wine coffee, tatings and talks on scents of food, including Belgian waffles! $12-$15. 6pm-10pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.calacademy.org

Divas>>

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Gooch

Dancers at Divas.

Divas manager Alexis Miranda.

Divas

From page 19

Divas became known for its drag shows, but the bar was so much more. According to manager Alexis Miranda, Divas would also host dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and hold clothing drives. “There’d be a bucket and people would come and donate to the trans girls,” Miranda said in an interview at the bar, with the Bay Area Reporter. “The Imperial and Ducal families have held several fundraisers here. We’ve also done funerals and wakes for the girls and community members who’ve passed on.” Miranda referred to Divas as a “community resource,” pointing out that none of the new bars opening up have any interest in serving their surrounding community. “So every time a bar closes, you’re breaking up a family,” she said. The bar’s history goes back to its previous iteration down the street, where it replaced The Motherlode bar, where drag shows entertained and queer people gathered for decades.

Divas Facebook

Last week, however, the atmosphere was a bit somber when the B.A.R. visited Divas on a weekday afternoon. About a dozen people sat at the first level bar, all of them obviously well acquainted with each other. They talked and laughed, but there was also sadness in the air as they faced the inevitability that the community they had built was coming to an end. For Empress Marlena, the loss of Divas was doubly sad, as she had closed her own bar, Marlena’s, several years earlier. Marlena has been coming to Divas since it opened. “It’s hard to close an establishment that has been open this long and serves the community,” Marlena said as she nursed her drink. “I’m a little bit torn. It’s really sad. However, we must go on and be strong and support other establishments of our kind. Let’s be strong and continue to support our gay community.” Collette LeGrande has been coming to Divas for 20 years. “This is very sad,” said LeGrande. “Divas has been a focal point for the trans community for a long time

Gooch

Members of the Imperial Court celebrating at Divas in 2018.

and I feel bad for Alexis. She made this place what it is. I’m not sure what the girls are going to do, but they’ll find something.” Bobby Ashton has been coming to Divas for 15 years, and has performed there. “This has always been a bar that’s been comfortable to come to whether you’re gay or trans,” Ashton said. “This bar has taken care of a lot of the trans girls. I don’t know where they’re going to go now.” The building that houses Divas has been up for sale since at least 2014. According to a listing from Vanguard Properties, the asking price for the four-story building was $2,800,000. The 9,120 square-foot building’s first floor features a full bar and two bathrooms, the second level is office space, the third floor features a half-bar and a dance floor, while the fourth floor features another half-bar and a lounge. Representatives for Vanguard Properties did not return repeated calls seeking comment. The business, with liquor license, was listed at $900,000. Miranda explained why the bar was closing. “The current owner has owned it for 20 years,” she said. “He’s over 70 years old and his health is failing, and so he’s decided to sell the building. We tried for the last ten years to sell it to someone who wanted to keep it the way it is, but the money wasn’t there.” Miranda noted that the location was purchased by two young brothers who are going to turn it into a bar/restaurant, and that they have no desire to keep the place as it was. She added that she’ll miss doing her shows. “I have the longest running show in San Francisco; 31 years,” she said. “I’ve been here doing my show every Saturday night. Upstairs on the dance floor we have girls who dance burlesque-type dancing and the guys come to see that, and then the dance floor is open on the weekends. On Sundays we have karaoke. As you can see, the bar is flourishing. A lot of people are coming in to say goodbye because they’re going to miss this place.” Miranda acknowledged that things have gotten better for transgender women, with many now able to find full-time jobs, whereas years ago they could not. Some have moved out of San Francisco due to the high cost of living in the city. Miranda said that her own job prospects were looking up, that

she was looking into the possibility of two jobs. Two of her bartenders might be able to follow her. She could not say more, she said, until things were finalized. Miranda added that she felt sad for her customers, and hoped to find investors who were willing to open a new bar that is diverse and non-judgmental. She invites interested parties to message her through Facebook.

But getting a new job or finding a new location to open her own space won’t quell the sense of loss that Miranda feels. “I’m going to miss Divas and our wonderful family that we’ve created here for years,” she said. “I want to thank owner Steven Berkey for keeping the bar open for as many years as he did, and hopefully we will soon open doors elsewhere.”t

Playmates and soul mates...

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<< Leather

22 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Tending the garden Growing kink communities

Rich Stadtmiller

Sexy folks like these get to enjoy Folsom Street Fair because a few people got together years ago to produce an anti-gentrification neighborhood street event that blossomed in the Fair today. You never know how seeds will grow.

by Race Bannon

f I possess any skill, apart from being able to string words together in a somewhat coherent manner, it’s my ability to see connections between various things in life. One moment I’m experiencing or reading something and then suddenly my brain does an ornate game of Connect the Dots and I’m making new connections between what might otherwise appear to be disparate ideas or facts. Occasionally it spawns one of those ‘Ah-ha’ moments. That happened this week. As background, I attended two leather community meetings, one of which was rather contentious. I was developing a marketing plan for a big fundraiser. Someone discussed with me how to produce a successful sex party. I was engaged in some deep discussions online about some meaty leather and kink topics. I witnessed the sad demise of one of the city’s gay sex clubs due to gentrification and then participated in the subsequent churn of discussion with friends on how to save our disappearing spaces. Someone else reached out to me because they were depressed and simply needed to talk. Someone asked me for some advice on how to best navigate the Daddy role. Three produc-

ers sent me their event information asking me to promote them. A small group of us leathermen did an ad hoc meetup at a local bar and we hung out for a while. In some way, all of that is related to building and fostering community within our local kinky ranks. Whether on a big macro city-wide level or smaller micro-personal level, all that stuff was related in some way to encouraging new and ongoing connections between kinksters. They all contribute to keeping connections and the people within them happy, healthy and thriving, or at least attempting to do so. Being a quote collector, this week I also happened to be scanning quotation repositories and ran across one I really liked by Brian Eno, the English musician, producer and artist best known for his work in ambient and certain other music forms. “My kind of composing is more like the work of a gardener. The gardener takes his seeds and scatters them, knowing what he is planting but not quite what will grow where and when - and he won’t necessarily be able to reproduce it again afterwards either.” The moment I read that quote, it struck me that this gardener and garden metaphor seems to describe what many of us in the leather and

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kink communities (and virtually every community) try to do all the time. We plant seeds of varying kinds with the full knowledge of what we’re planting, but without the faintest idea if those seeds will blossom into anything. On some level, creating community is a numbers game. The more times you try, the more times you succeed. Sometimes you have to throw lots of stuff against the wall to see what sticks. Even in the typically well-planned business world, 30 percent of new businesses fail during the first two years, 50 percent during the first five, and 66 percent during the first ten. We plant the seeds. We hope things grow. We tend the garden to the best of our abilities. Why is this important? Well, for a few reasons, and while I know that this is a topic I’ve touched upon before in this publication and elsewhere, it’s also the main reason I write here; to build community, to maintain community, to empower every single person with a kink bent to their sexuality or a unique perspective on their relationship configurations to feel that they can be fully and entirely themselves, both alone and communally. Just as important, everyone needs to realize that they can plants seeds. It doesn’t necessarily take a committee or group. It only takes one person to cast the seeds on the ground. One of the things I hear all the time is the bemoaning of lost leather and kink culture, specifically physical spaces that succumb to gentrification or lack of support. Of course, leather bars are the classic example of this, but we’re losing all sorts of spaces in which we can meet, socialize, learn and play.

Another thing I often hear is that there are no events or organizations that cater to their own unique kinky needs. While it appears there are a plethora of leather and kink events of various stripes, many of them cater to a more generalized crowd. Sometimes people want things a bit more focused on their niche interests or demographic. If you’re one of those frustrated LGBTQ kinksters or relationship adventurers and you don’t see something growing within the scene that you want to have happen, make it happen. Plant those seeds. Don’t overthink it. Enough seeds scattered widely enough eventually bring forth growth. Once you witness one of your seeds (or someone else’s)

taking root, tend to that garden with your money, time and attention. Famed American horticulturist and botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey once said, “A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.” Let’s all expend a bit of effort to grow and maintain this wonderful garden of ours.t

For Leather Events, visit www.ebar.com/events Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

Rich Stadtmiller

These guys can today enjoy the annual BLUF SF dinner attended by hundreds because a guy named Leon created a simple website in 1997 for men into full leather uniforms. Tiny seeds can grow into huge networks of people.

Arts Events March 28 – April 4

Brighten up your spring with arts events blossoming around the Bay.

Thu 4

Light in the Water @ Kabuki Theatre

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 28 American Hero @ Custom Made Theatre Bess Wohl’s comedy about life, liberty and the pursuit of sandwiches. $20-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, thru April 6. 533 Sutter St. www.custommade.org

Ashish Kumar @ Strut Exhibit of digital South Asian male erotic imagery. Thru March. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Classic and New Films @ Castro Theatre Mar 28: Cold War ( 6pm). Mar 29: Free Solo (5pm, 7pm) and Cliffhanger (8:55). Mar 30: Two for the Road (6:30) and Charade (8:35). Mar 31: Singin’ in the Rain (3pm, 7pm) and On the Town (5pm, 9pm). Apr 1: Seven brides for Seven Brothers (2pm, 6pm) and Funny Face (4pm, 8pm). Mar 31 & April 1: Moana sing-along (11am). $8-$11. 429 Castro St. castrotheatre.com

The Great Leap @ Geary Theatre BD Wong stars in Lauren Yee’s sports drama about a Chinese basketball star, with American values tested. $15-$110. Thru Mar. 31. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Mayor Pete Buttigieg @ Marines’ Memorial Club The South Bend, Indiana gay presidential candidate discusses his campaign and politics. $30$70. 6:30pm. 609 Sutter St. www.commonwealthclub.org

SoMa Nights @ GLBT History Museum An exhibit of prints by prolific photographer Melissa Hawkins. March 28: The L and the GBTQ: Lesbian Visibility, Leadership and Political Power. Each $5, 7pm. $5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Today It Rains @ Z Space Opera Paralléle’s world premiere of Laura Kaminsky. Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed’s work about painter Georgia O’Keefe. $20$125. Thru Mar 31. 450 Florida St. https://operaparallele.org/

Fri 29 Actually @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Anna Ziegler’s new play dives into race, gender and sex on college campuses. $35-$70. Tue, Wed, Sun 7pm, Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm, thru May 5. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. www.AuroraTheatre.org

Falsettos @ Golden Gate Theatre Touring production of William Finn and James Lapine’s Tony-winning operetta about a gay couple facing AIDS, ex-wives, precocious kids and ‘the lesbians next door.’ $56-$256. Tue-Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat, Sun 2pm. Thru April 14. 1 Taylor St. at Market. www.shnsf.com

Helen @ NOHspace Theatre of Yugen performs Ellen McLaughlin’s updated contemporary tragicomic version of Euripedes’ Helen of Troy. $15$40. Fri-Sun thru April 27. 2840 Mariposa St. www.theatreofyugen.org

Cabaret>>

March 28-April 3, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Alysha Umphress The politics of performing

Alysha Umphress

By Jim Gladstone

inger-actress Alysha Umphress, who plays Feinstein’s at the Nikko on April 12 and 13, remembers the exact date that she flew to San Francisco for her first gig at the club: It was November 8, 2016. “When I got on the plane in New York, it felt like everything was in the bag,” recalls the actress-singer, who grew up in the Bay Area and currently lives on the Upper East Side. “I figured that maybe even by the time we landed, Hillary would be president.” In fact, by the time her father picked her up at San Francisco Airport, and they were driving to a nolonger celebratory dinner, the name

of Umphress’ all-time favorite Chinese, restaurant –Eric’s, in Noe Valley– took on less appetizing connotations than usual. The orange tint of her go-to dish –”I’m not usually a General Tso’s person, but theirs is lighter than air. I’m an evangelist!”– was newly problematic. “We went home to my dad’s house, I took a Xanax and went right to bed,” Umphress recalled in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “The next morning, I woke up really sick. It was like him winning the presidency made me sick. From Wednesday until the weekend, when I had to get up for my show, I was in bed convalescing.” While her recovery from that particular ailment continues its

The Jungle @ Curran Theatre

Dorian Katz @ Wicked Grounds

Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s acclaimed drama about French refugee camp immigrants, set in an up-close immersive and intimate staging. $79-$165. Thru May 19. 445 Geary St. www.sfcurran.com

Opening reception for the illustrator’s exhibit of queer comics and coloring books. 6pm-8pm. Thru April. 289 8th St. www.wickedgrounds.com

Nava Dance Theatre @ CounterPulse Broken Seeds Still Grow: Taking Root, the company’s storytelling, live music and visual art collaboration with painter Rupy C. Tut about the British aprtition of India. $22-$35. Thru Mar 31. 80 Turk St. www.counterpulse.org

San Francisco Ballet @ War Memorial Opera House Arthur Pita’s Bjork Ballet, Justin Peck’s Four Dance Episodes, and a world premiere by Liam Scarlett; Special NiteOut post-show party with LGBT patrons and performers Mar. 29 & April 19. $64-$325. 8pm. 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfballet.org

Yoga Play @ SF Playhouse Dipika Guha’s comic play about the conflict of commerical scandal and spiritual enlightenment. $35-$125. Thru April 20. 450 Post St., 2nd floor, Kensington Park Hotel. www.sfplayhouse.org

Sat 30 The Diary of Anne Frank @ Lesher Arts Center, Walnut Creek Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s dramatic adaptation, based on the world-famous diary of a young Jewish girl hiding with her family from Nazis, is performed by Center Repertory Theatre. $34-$56. Thru April 28. 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. lesherartscenter.org

Her Portmanteau @ Strand Theatre Nigerian playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle is performed thru Mar. 31 at 1127 Market St., and In Old Age at the Magic Theatre, 2 Marina Blvd, Mar. 27-April 21. $40-$100. www.ufotplays-sf.com

SF Hiking Club @ Mount Diablo Join GLBT hikers of the SF Hiking Club for an 8-mile hike at Mt Diablo. Carpool meets 9:30 at Rockridge BART. www.sfhiking.com

Steve @ NCTC Mark Gerrard’s biting comedy about older gay couples dealing with infidelity and other situations. $20$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru March 31. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

painstaking course, the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts alumnus has rallied around her work, including assembling her new cabaret act, a mix of jazz, show tunes and a surprising arrangement of the chart-topping 1972 pop song “Brandy.” A veteran of Broadway productions including American Idiot, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and On The Town, Umphress has spent much of the Trump administration thus far in workshop and development productions, including the Dallas world premiere of Douglas Carter Beane’s Broadway-aimed Hood: The Robin Hood Musical. “The majority of my work since On the Town has been working on new musicals,” said Umphress. “If you’re fortunate as an actor, a decision you often face is whether to originate a character in the out-oftown run of a promising new show that might or might not ultimately get to New York, or to be cast as a principal replacement in a longrunning Broadway hit. The money is better and the work is more stable on Broadway, but for me, unless I’m offered a role of a lifetime as a replacement, I’m going to take the show where I get to help create a character from scratch.” Umphress is also more than happy to play herself, drawing on a broad repertoire of favorite songs in concert and cabaret performances. A few weeks back, she performed in a Palm Springs concert tribute to Carol Channing, then quickly returned to New York, where she was booked to do “If I Were A Boy,” in a Broadway Sings Beyoncé gig. In the past, the full-figured Umphress says that being herself has held its challenges. “Every time I didn’t get a part, I would feel like it

was because I wasn’t thin enough. I’m an actor and I’m a woman, so that’s my Achilles heel; it’s a demon that I always battle.” Recently though, emboldened in the current political era, Umphress fought the demon on a battlefield outside of her own head. While performing in last year’s hit Off-Broadway revival of Smokey Joe’s Café, Umphress was singled out in a review by New York Times critic Laura Hughes, who wrote, “Umphress is bigger than the other women onstage and the costume designer, Alejo Vietti, doesn’t seem to have known how to work with that...” “I read it,” Umphress recalls, “and it just blindsided me. It had nothing to do with my performance.” Responding via Instagram, Umphress, who is married to former Broadway dancer Cody Williams, wrote, “It’s shocking to see a

Tue 2

Elias String Quartet @ Herbst Theatre

Home @ Berkeley Repertory

The quartet performs works by Benjamin Britten, Sally Beamish and Robert Schumann. $45-$70. 7:30pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfperformances.org

Geoff Sobelle’s amazing immersive play, where a two-story house is constructed as its residents tell their stories. $30-$91; thru April 21. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. www.berkeleyrep.org

Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; Deep Reefs, Giants of Land and Sea, Gems and Minerals, and more. $20-$35. MonSat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. calacademy.org

Mon 1 Book Club @ Strut Daniel Zomparelli’s Everything is Awful and You’re a Terrible Person is discussed. 7:30pm. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Howard Jones @ Yoshi’s Oakland The pop singer-songwriter perfomrs his acoustic trio sets with Nick Beggs and Robin Boult at the nightclub-restaurant. $49-$89. 8pm. Also Mar 27. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Wed 3 Evan James @ The Bindery The author of Cheer Up, Mister Widdicombe reads from, signs and discusses his novel about a quirky fmaily in Puget Sound. 7:30pm. 1727 Haight St. booksmith.com

That Don Reed Show @ The Marsh Berkeley

Lynn Breedlove @ City Lights Bookstore Award-winning author, activist and rock musician launches their new book, 45 Thought Crimes: New Writing (Manic D Press). 7pm. 261 Columbus Ave. www.citylights.com

Thu 4 The Callaway Sisters @ Orinda Theatre Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway perform their witty cabaret show, Sibling Revelry. $55. 7:30pm. 2 Orinda Theatre Square. www.lamorindatheatres.com/

Light in the Water @ Kabuki Theatre Special screening of the fascinating documentary about West Hollywood Aquatics, the swim team’s history from Gay Games I in 1982 to today. 7:30pm. 1881 Post St. https://gathr.us/ screening/28322

Mattachine: A Queer Serial @ GLBT History Museum New three-part weekly series of talks about the history of the gay rights movement, with historian Joey Cain and podcast creator Devyln Camp; part 1: Dawn of the Movement: From Henry Gerber to Harry Hay. $5. 7pm. Thursdays thru April 18. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

The acclaimed local playwright/ performer returns with his hit solo show that takes on Black stereotypes and show business bias. $20-$100. Sat 8:30pm, Sun 5:30pm; extended thru April 28. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

The Who and the What @ Marin Theatre, Mill Valley Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar’s funny new play about identity, religion and the contradictions that make us who we are. $12-$52. Thru March 24. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

Alysha Umphress performs April 12-13, 8pm at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 555 Mason Street. $35-$65. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Alysha Umphress at a recent Smokey Joe’s Café performance.

Sun 31

Expedition Reef @ California Academy of Sciences

woman...body shame an actress... Her wording wasn’t constructive. It was full on mean girl. It’s 2018. We should be celebrating women’s diversity in the arts.” “In retrospect I’m glad it happened,” Umphress now says of the review and her decision to clap back. In addition to an outpouring of supportive response from her theater peers, “I got literally hundreds of emails from girls and guys who have been picked on for looking like me.” The time is coming, one hopes, when both the body politic and the politics of the body will let everyone eat their General Tso’s Chicken in peace.t

Wed 3

Lynn Breedlove @ City Lights Bookstore

The Resilience Project @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Joe Goode Performance Group’s new work based on stories of Bay area veterans. $8-$20. 6pm-8pm. 736

<< Shining Stars

24 • Bay Area Reporter • March 28-April 3, 2019

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Falsettos Cast Party @ Phoenix Hotel

ast members of the national touring production of Falsettos enjoyed raves for their opening night performance at the Golden Gate Theatre. The after-party at the Phoenix Hotel included Armistead Maupin and Chris Turner, Dr. Ben Hu and others, who met with the show’s co-creators James Lapine and William Finn, plus the talented cast, including Nick Adams, Max von Essen, Eden Espinosa, Bryonha Marie Parham and Audrey Cardwell. Get tickets to the beautiful musical AIDS-themed show at https://www.shnsf.com See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com