History and fun in Philly
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Buttigieg 3rd in Iowa poll
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'Will & Grace'
Divas' farewell
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 49 • No. 13 • March 28-April 3, 2019
Peninsula cold case gets new attention by Alex Madison
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Courtesy Facebook
Sydney resident Steven Spencer
On-demand PrEP failure reported
Trans visibility in San Jose
by Liz Highleyman
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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 >>
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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
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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
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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 >>