MAY 21, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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No flag flap this year

Pride events begin

Pink triangle plans

Arts

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Early Day Miners

The

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Health crisis impacts CA LGBT bill slate

by Matthew S. Bajko

Vol. 50 • No. 21 • May 21-27, 2020

Mandelman pushes for safe sleeping site at SF school

by John Ferrannini

W

ith California facing a $54 billion budget deficit this year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, LGBTQ advocates have had to retool their legislative priorities Rick Gerharter for 2020.

State Senator Several bills and Scott Wiener funding requests hopes to have sevthat had been on the eral LGBT bills docket for this legispassed this year. lative session, such as money to launch an LGBTQ cultural competency training for teachers and school staff and requiring colleges to use transgender and nonbinary students’ chosen names on diplomas, have been pushed off to 2021. Other legislation not related to addressing COVID-19 and the health crisis won’t be taken up until late in the session.

“I think we will make some progress this year despite the environment we are working in,” said Rick Chavez Zbur, executive director of the statewide LGBT advocacy organization Equality California.

The LGBT-related bills awaiting votes include two held over from the 2019 legislative session, both authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

One is Senate Bill 145, which would ensure LGBT adolescents are treated the same as their heterosexual peers when faced with the possibility of being listed on the state’s sex offender registry.

The other is SB 132 that would require incarcerated transgender individuals in the custody of the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to be classified and housed with other inmates based on the gender identity of their choice. Thus female trans inmates, currently housed in male prisons, could choose to be placed in female prisons.

It was held at the last minute at the request of transgender advocates who wanted to allow trans inmates to provide more input on the bill. Wiener and EQCA staff along with state prison officials held listening sessions in the fall with trans male and female inmates, as well as cisgender inmates, at several state prisons.

Wiener and Zbur told the Bay Area Reporter this week that they are “optimistic” of seeing both bills be passed this year. SB 132 is awaiting a vote by the full Assembly and will need to go back to the state Senate for a concurrence vote before it is sent to Governor Gavin Newsom to sign into law.

“I doubt that will happen before August,” See page 10 >>

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new focal point in the controversy about how to house San Francisco’s homeless population while the city shelters in place has erupted over plans to place a safe sleeping site at Everett Middle School.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said that a site at the school, located at 450 Church Street, will help alleviate homeless encampments on Castro-area sidewalks, but some critics in his district are voicing opposition on the neighborhood social media website Nextdoor.

The city, in compliance with public health recommendations to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, is not forcibly removing homeless encampments set up on streets.

“There have been tent encampments around the city – particularly in the Castro and upper Market, as well – since the start of the shutdown,” Mandelman said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter May 15. “There are many more people on the street now.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, there is an ongoing dispute between members of

Rick Gerharter

Tents and a hand-washing station sit along 16th Street near Market Street in the Castro district.

the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed about the feasibility of sheltering homeless people in hotel rooms. While the board passed legislation requiring over 8,000 rooms

be leased by April 26, that goal has not been met, and the mayor has cited logistical challenges as a reason.

See page 10 >>

Artwork to add disco flair to Harvey Milk SFO terminal

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

t doesn’t seem imaginable today, with travelers largely avoiding airports due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, but in a few years passengers departing flights through Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport may not be in such a rush to leave the aviation facility.

Instead, they may just want to have an impromptu curbside dance party.

Their desire to turn the sidewalk into a dance floor will be inspired by seeing a series of disco balls greeting them overhead surrounded by an elaborate neon artwork lighting up inspirational quotes from Milk, the first LGBT icon to have an airport terminal named in their honor.

“He is such an important part of San Francisco history. I was so excited to find out about this opportunity to apply for this public artwork at the Harvey Milk Terminal,” artist Andrea Bowers told the Bay Area Reporter this week during a Zoom interview. “That was just an obvious, amazing subject matter for me. I wanted to focus on his life’s work, and the joy and hope in his work.”

Milk’s winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November 1977 marked the first time that an out gay

Artist’s rendering courtesy Andrea Bowers

Disco balls and neon quotes from Harvey Milk are planned for the underpass in front of the arrivals area outside Harvey Milk Terminal 1.

candidate had won election to public office in both San Francisco and California.

Tragically, he was assassinated 11 months into his first term the morning of November 27, 1978 along with then-mayor George Moscone.

In 2018, city officials agreed to name the under-renovation Terminal 1 at SFO after

We want you to know that, during these challenging times, we are here for you.

Learn more about the financial relief we are providing our members, and the new super-low loan rates we are offering both members and non-members to help out in these difficult times.

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Milk. The decision came five years after gay former Supervisor David Campos had initially floated a proposal to name the entire airport after the gay icon and then settled on one of the airport’s four terminals.

Amid the protracted bureaucratic wrangling over the airport naming details, focus See page 10 >>

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Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

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GET MORE INFORMATION  This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.  Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5  If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP ASPIRING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: February 2020 © 2020 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0219 04/20

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • May 21-27, 2020

Volume 50, Number 21 May 21-27, 2020 www.ebar.com

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Newsom deserves to be ‘blasted’

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ast week we reported that California LGBT leaders were angry that Governor Gavin Newsom and his public health department have not gathered data on the sexual orientation and gender identity of COVID-19 patients. LGBT legislative leaders have spoken to the governor about it; state advocacy groups have sent out emails; we’ve editorialized about it. Several years ago, California adopted laws to mandate the collection of what is known as SOGI data in several state agencies, including the health department; still, nothing has happened. It got to the point that gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill to mandate SOGI data collection, and it was the morning of the first legislative hearing on his Senate Bill 932 that advocates held a conference call with reporters.

“Frankly, I will be honest. Frankly, I wish I wasn’t forced to introduce this legislation. This issue should have been taken care of already,” said Wiener, who chairs the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, whose seven members are all co-sponsors of SB 932. We headlined the article, “Advocates blast Newsom for lack of COVID LGBT data.” We reported what we heard on the call, that advocates were forcefully reprimanding the governor for his inaction. The fact that the state has not been asking for SOGI data since the start of the pandemic “is frankly appalling,” said Wiener. “It is appalling we have the ability to collect the data and it is an afterthought.”

On the call, Equality California’s executive director, Rick Chavez Zbur, pointedly bemoaned that he wasn’t asked his sexual orientation when he took a coronavirus test.

“This is a really urgent issue. In my six years as director of Equality California this has truly been the biggest, most urgent, and troubling wake up call I have experienced,” said Zbur. “In 2020 in the state of California, we literally have to beg our government and public health officials to collect information to protect the health of LGBT people.”

Later that afternoon, we were able to ask Newsom about the missing SOGI data during his daily virtual coronavirus briefing. “God Bless – I’ve been very clear that we want this information to be forthcoming. We’ve been in touch with Scott Wiener, who’s been an out-

Via Facebook

Governor Gavin Newsom

standing leader in this space, and have been in contact with the LGBT caucus on this,” Newsom said. “I’m very deferential to the work Scott Wiener is currently doing. Nobody wants to see this information more than (state public health director) Dr. Sonia Angell.”

We certainly hope so. Angell’s department has not been very communicative with the LGBT press. When we published an exhaustive threepart series on SOGI data in 2017 that was written as part of a California Health Journalism Fellowship project with the University of Southern California-Annenberg Center for Health Care Journalism, the state DPH declined our request for an interview and only responded to emailed questions.

(Angell did not assume the directorship of the state DPH until 2019.)

The staff at Equality California took strong exception to our headline. Their position was that since nobody actually used the word “blast,” the headline was inaccurate. We disagreed and told them so. When a state senator threatens to go to the courts, as Wiener did later on the call, and when he’s stating that he shouldn’t even have to come up with the legislation, we characterize that as a “blast,” or a verbal explosion. EQCA didn’t seem pleased that we were able to ask Newsom the question about SOGI either.

It’s as though EQCA doesn’t want to ruffle

feathers with Newsom or his administration. But to us, that’s EQCA’s job – to advocate, vigorously, for the queer community. And let’s be clear – the buck stops with Newsom; he’s the chief government executive of California.

EQCA has sponsored Wiener’s SB 932 and has made it a priority bill this year. But in seeking to downplay the angst among LGBT lawmakers, EQCA sent out some tweets disputing our reporting. A reporter for another LGBT publication agreed with them.

The bottom line is that Wiener is correct – he shouldn’t have to introduce a COVID-19 SOGI bill because the state health department should already be collecting SOGI data and should easily be able to pivot to include COVID-19 information. Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) authored the original legislation a few years ago and even gave state departments more time to get their systems up and running. Now, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and SOGI data is still not yet being collected at the state level. And, while the virus does not discriminate, LGBT health experts have pointed out that health disparities do. As the B.A.R. and other outlets have reported, the National LGBT Cancer Network anticipates that LGBT people have more risk from COVID-19 because of higher rates of cancer, HIV-infection, smoking and its attendant respiratory illnesses, and structural discrimination in the medical field.

Perhaps the most head-scratching thing about EQCA’s reaction to our reporting on the matter was the fact that within a couple of hours of the conference call, it was fundraising off the need for SOGI data. “Sign our petition calling on public health leaders to collect LGBTQ+ data now,” the email states. (And we agree, please donate.)

And this, after explaining it’s sponsoring Wiener’s bill: “But we shouldn’t have to wait for a bill to pass.” (Italics in the original.)

Exactly. EQCA can challenge us over our coverage, though in reality, it should be happy the issue is finally getting attention from the governor.

The fact is that we helped put it on the state’s radar in a public way by getting Newsom to answer our question during his news conference last week. Newsom has publicly pledged to sign Wiener’s bill. He should do so as soon as it is passed, or issue an executive order in the interim so that COVID-19 data can be collected. t

Castro needs safe sleeping village

by Rafael Mandelman

S

helter in place, which has been so successful at flattening the curve and saving lives, has been a disaster for street conditions in San Francisco. The Tenderloin has seen the worst of it, but neighborhoods throughout the eastern half of San Francisco are suffering under the weight of growing encampments and the drug sales and other illegal activities that too often accompany them. The Castro, a homelessness hot spot for years, has likewise seen a proliferation of tents, and housed neighbors living next to these growing encampments have reasonably asked how long such conditions will be allowed to continue and how much worse they will be allowed to get.

I have argued that the city needs to explore new approaches, including sanctioned safe sleeping sites, to improve street conditions in the time of COVID. It may seem paradoxical to argue that the solution to the proliferation of street encampments is to sanction, regulate, and manage them, but I believe it is, at least for now. And likewise I believe the best chance to get a handle on street conditions in the Castro is to establish a managed safe sleeping site there. That is why I have been pushing hard to open such a site on the campus of Everett Middle School.

San Franciscans can take pride in our region’s data-driven, evidence-based public health response to the pandemic. As our city did in the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis, we have shown once again that following the science can save lives and prevent misery. But there have been costs. The impacts on our economy have been clear and devastating; the connection between the public health response and the increasing numbers of tents on sidewalks may be less understood. The Department of Public Health, consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Rick Gerharter

Tents have been set up on 17th Street, at Noe, in the Castro.

guidance, has rightly directed that our homeless shelters and our jails be thinned out and the tents on our streets be left undisturbed, all to slow the spread of the pandemic. It has generally worked, but we are left with a larger unhoused population and fewer options for bringing these folks indoors.

I have supported calls to place unhoused and marginally housed medically vulnerable people in as many vacant hotel rooms as feasible, but there are real financial and logistical challenges that ensure that even if we eventually manage to house many hundreds or even thousands more vulnerable people in these hotel rooms, they will likely not offer a practical solution to the encampments in the Castro.

On April 28, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed my resolution urging the city departments to establish safe sleeping sites that would provide 24/7 staffing, ensure safety and follow public health best practices, including maintaining adequate distance between tents and providing access to sanitation facilities, food, and water. On the same day the San Francisco Board of Education passed a companion resolution authored by board President Mark Sanchez, committing the San Francisco Uni-

fied School District to partner with the city and make district property available for such efforts.

Since then the city has already opened the first such site (called a safe sleeping village) on Fulton Street, between the main library and the Asian Art Museum.

Before and since passage of the resolution, I have been working with neighbors and city officials to establish a temporary safe sleeping site serving the Castro to be located on the Everett parking lot until school re-opens in the fall.

There is, as one might expect, some neighborhood opposition but also significant support.

Opponents argue that street conditions in the Castro are already intolerable and fear a sanctioned – albeit temporary – encampment will only make it worse. Supporters argue, and I agree, that it would be better to have the Castro’s encampments managed in one location than unmanaged and dispersed everywhere.

Opponents also have asserted that the city should simply “enforce its laws,” seeming to imagine that the police can and should just “move people along.” These opponents are conveniently ignoring public health direction during the pandemic as well as pre-COVID legal requirements that preclude local governments from moving unsheltered people if the city does not have alternative shelter to offer that person.

Safe sleeping sites are not a solution to homelessness. Neither are shelter beds. Both are accommodations to the reality that this city cannot solve homelessness on its own, but that we should try to manage and improve an imperfect situation as best we can. Establishing a temporary safe sleeping site on the lot of Everett Middle School will not solve homelessness in the Castro, but it should improve conditions for housed and unhoused neighbors alike, and that is a reasonable ambition in a pandemic.t Rafael Mandelman represents District 8 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he is the lone LGBT member.

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Politics >>

May 21-27, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Year after Pride flap, Dublin council votes to fly expanded rainbow flag

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

year after the city council in Dublin, California found itself the focus of negative headlines across the country for initially refusing to fly the rainbow flag in honor of June being Pride Month, the East Bay city’s fiveperson governing body easily adopted a Pride proclamation at its meeting Tuesday, May 19.

It also unanimously ordered its city staff to hoist the internationally recognized symbol of the LGBT community on a flagpole in front of City Hall throughout June. But it went one step further and requested that the more expansive version of the rainbow flag with black and brown stripes, which honor LGBT people of color, be flown.

Dublin City Manager Linda Smith informed the council that the staff would order the flag, known as the Philadelphia version for where it was first flown in 2017, and if it didn’t arrive in time then they would fly the rainbow flag they already own and switch it out for the newer flag once it arrives.

Councilman Arun Goel, who is straight and currently serving as vice mayor, made the request to fly the eight-colored rainbow flag in “consideration of additional inclusivity.”

It was in stark contrast from last year, when he was one of the three council members to vote at first against flying the rainbow flag.

He said the city should fly the Philadelphia version of the flag “to focus on areas of the LGBTQ+ community that have not been provided enough visibility and also would be considered the most marginalized.”

Gay City Councilman Shawn Kumagai, who sought the Pride recognition by the city for the second year, voiced his support for doing so. In introducing his Pride Month request, Kumagai referred to last year’s flag flap, stressing that the city’s flying the rainbow flag should be seen as “additive, it is not divisive. I want to make sure it is very clear that is what this represents.”

Mayor David Haubert also brought up last year’s controversy. He too was a no vote at first on the flag last year only to then switch his vote and deliver an apology to the LGBT community.

“Reflecting back on last year I will echo all the comments of my colleagues it was indeed an experience we grew in and learned from. It opened our minds and of course we corrected,” said Haubert, noting that this year the council was “making a move tonight as a team.”

And in terms of the Pride proclamation honoring the LGBT community, Haubert said, “I stand behind every word on that proclamation.”

Other cities to recognize Pride Month in June

The San Leandro City Council Tuesday also unanimously approved its Pride proclamation and request to fly the rainbow flag from gay City Councilman Victor Aguilar Jr. In a Facebook post after the meeting Aguilar thanked his colleagues for their “overwhelming support. Couldn’t be prouder to call San Leandro home.”

Across the bay in San Mateo County, the City Council in Redwood City voted Monday, May 18, to again celebrate Pride Month in June by flying the rainbow flag. Tuesday night the

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Dublin Mayor David Haubert, second from right, and City Councilman Shawn Kumagai, holding rope, raised the rainbow flag outside City Hall last year.

city council in Half Moon Bay agreed to do so for the first time this June.

They are the latest Mid-Peninsula cities to sign on to the Pride Visibility campaign LGBT leaders are pushing this year to see all 20 of the county’s towns and cities celebrate Pride for the first time. Daly City and San Carlos already agreed to do so, with the South San Francisco City Council set to discuss the matter at its May 27 meeting.

East Palo Alto’s city council is expected to discuss marking Pride for the first time when it meets June 2, and Pacifica’s city council will do so June 8. Belmont is expected to agree to do so again when its council meets June 9. Brisbane, San Mateo, Foster City, and Colma are also expected to join the list, with Woodside officials looking into the matter.

In Contra Costa County, LGBT leaders expect all 19 of the East Bay jurisdiction’s cities and towns to celebrate Pride Month this year for the first time now that the last two holdouts – Clayton and Danville – are set to issue proclamations. As the B.A.R. reported online Monday, May 18, Danville’s town council is set to do so at its June 2 meeting.

While it is not expected to raise the rainbow flag this year, it is working on doing so at some point, according to Councilman Newell Arnerich. Clayton’s city council voted in April to fly the Pride flag for the first time during the month of June.

The Pinole and Walnut Creek city councils voted Tuesday, May 19, to again fly the flag, while El Cerrito will do so when its council meets June 2.

The 14 other cities in the county are also expected to officially celebrate June as Pride Month as their councils meet over the coming weeks.

It is a goal the Lambda Democratic Club of Contra Costa County, the county’s LGBT political club, has been working toward since it was launched in 2017.

“This year every city has stood up to hate and decided to show hope and love to all its residents. Especially to those that are marginalized, looked down on, made fun of, and bullied,” said gay Richmond resident Cesar Zepeda, a founding member and first president of the Lambda club. “This is a great achievement; however, we are not at the top of the rainbow yet, but we will continue walking together until there are no more suicides because someone deciding to come out of the closet; until there are no more murders of our brothers and sisters for whom they fall in love with or for simply being who they are.”

Queer immigrant to join SF Dem Party body

When the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee meets next Wednesday, May 27, it is expected to approve the appointment of Carolina Morales to fill a vacancy on the local party’s governing body.

Morales, a queer immigrant from Venezuela who is now an U.S. citizen and lives in the Excelsior district, will serve as a representative from the 17th Assembly District on the eastside of the city. She will be replacing Frances Hsieh, a lesbian who was recently reelected to the DCCC but had to resign due to her family moving to the city’s 19th Assembly District.

“First I was surprised then also honored to be considered. Then I thought precisely this time of coronavirus – and I saw it on campus the inequities that already exist in our society are getting doubled or tripled at this time – it is important we continue having people who are from this community,” said Morales, who recently completed her first year as a graduate student at UC Berkeley seeking a master’s in social work and serves as an adviser for the Center for Political Education. “I am Latina; I am an immigrant; I am a part of this community bearing the brunt of this pandemic in San Francisco. It is important to have people lift up the voices of my community.”

Gay party chair David Campos announced his decision to appoint Morales to the seat in a Facebook post earlier this month. Morales, a former co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, worked as a City Hall aide to Campos when he served as the city’s District 9 supervisor and his successor Hillary Ronen, who was Campos’ chief of staff.

“Given the challenges facing the undocumented community in our city, state, and country, it was important for me that this seat go to someone who has lived the experience of being undocumented,” wrote Campos. “This is, after all, a community that has been marginalized and in the age of COVID-19 is being left out of any federal assistance. It was also important that the LGBTQ experience continues to be represented.”

Campos also appointed two women of color as delegates to the state party, Sarah Souza from AD 17 and Kelly Akemi Groth from AD 19.

They are both expected to win approval next week from the DCCC.t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column focused on a new LGBT effort to flip control of statehouse chambers to Democrats.

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<< Pride 2020

6 • Bay Area Reporter • May 21-27, 2020

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Virtual events ramp-up as Pride Month nears

by John Ferrannini

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s Pride Month approaches, events celebrating the LGBT community the world over are adapting to the novel coronavirus outbreak by moving from the streets into virtual space.

San Francisco Pride announced its line-up of events May 20. It includes a kick-off with Mayor London Breed on June 5, live and pre-recorded musical performances on Saturday, June 27, from 1 to 9 p.m. and Sunday, June 28, from 2 to 7 p.m. on SF Pride’s website, and a four-hour retrospective titled “Fifty Years of Pride” that will air on KPIX-TV and KCBW-TV from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 28.

As part of the countdown to Pride weekend, the Pride committee is hosting virtual Lavender Talks in partnership with the Commonwealth Club of California.

The Lavender Talks were initially planned as in-person events with a livestream component, SF Pride Executive Director Fred Lopez said, until they had to be completely moved to the

digital format due to shelter-in-place restrictions.

The first was held May 14 and featured longtime activist and the first African American chair of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee board Ken Jones; former chairs Michelle Meow and Jacquelene Bishop; and Teddy Witherington, a former longtime Pride executive director.

“It went really well,” Lopez said in a May 19 phone call with the Bay Area Reporter. “It was really interesting and great to hear historical perspective from early Pride organizers.”

The next Lavender Talk is scheduled for May 28 at noon. Titled “The State of SF’s LGBTQ Cultural Districts,” it will feature Aria Sa’id, executive director of the Transgender District; Bob Goldfarb of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District; cultural districts manager Julia Sabory; and A. Sparks of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District.

There will be a talk on June 11 about queer immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and another on June 25 featuring this year’s Pride awardees.

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SF Pride is doing some work in collaboration with InterPride’s 24-hour Global Pride scheduled for the same weekend.

“They’re ... figuring out the details in terms of technology and streaming,” Lopez said. “They put out a call for content to 350 Prides throughout the world.”

Pride flags will still fly on light posts along Market Street during June, as they have for years, Lopez said.

“It’s been great to see the community rally around to make sure that June is still recognized as Pride Month,” Lopez said.

SF Travel celebrates city’s queer heritage

The San Francisco Travel Association has put together a YouTube video titled “San Francisco PRIDE is a State of Mind.”

The video highlights how the struggle for LGBT rights is honored in San Francisco featuring Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco international Airport; the Rainbow Honor Walk; the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which recently returned to the Bay Area after many years; and the GLBT History Museum in the Castro.

“We worked closely with Grants for the Arts and for the 50th anniversary we wanted to make sure we had content,” Brenda Tucker, a straight ally who is director of arts marketing for the association, said in a phone call with the B.A.R. May 18. “We’d long been planning this promotion and since Pride will not be held this year this video is a way to celebrate what it’s all about.”

The video was planned before the pandemic led to the cancellation

scene,” D’Alessandro said. “But it’s something that we celebrate year round, take action on year round, and San Francisco can be a leader in promoting equality and justice year round. It’s still very much part of the DNA of San Francisco – more than just a month or a weekend.”

OUTLOUD: Raising Voices

Courtesy Pride.com

Trans YouTuber Ryan Cassata will be part of “OUTLOUD: Raising Voices” to celebrate LGBTQ Pride.

of many in-person Pride events; SF Travel was planning on initiatives to highlight the parade and festival for its 50th anniversary, according Tucker, and has moved these efforts online.

Tucker said that there is more to expect from SF Travel as it teases people about what they can do when San Francisco opens up again.

“We’ll be doing some aspirational content about what we can do when people travel to San Francisco again,” Tucker said. “We’re going to be promoting a lot of the content our partners are putting out – for example, the Twitch channel with The Stud.”

Joe D’Alessandro, a gay man who is CEO of SF Travel, said that the group tries to integrate content and information about the LGBT community in everything that it does. “(Canceling) was heartbreaking to people who look at Pride as such an essential part of San Francisco’s

Los Angeles-based production group JJ/LA, which produces Los Angeles Pride festivities, announced that an event intended to highlight queer artists at the South by Southwest music festival will be moving to a digital format.

“OUTLOUD: Raising Voices” will now be occurring in 10 episodes spread across five weeks, beginning May 26 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on JJ/ LA’s Facebook page and on the page LGBTQ@Facebook , which has a following of about 21 million users.

The first night will feature trans YouTuber Ryan Cassata, Bang Bang Romeo, and Pineappleciti with special guest Pabllo Vittar.

“OUTLOUD originated as a live event concept we have been trying to get off the ground for a couple of years now,” Jeff Consoletti, the founder of JJ/LA, told the B.A.R. via phone May 18. “We have this big roster of LGBT artists that usually get big exposure at Pride events. It was a way of promoting LGBT and allied performers outside of Pride events.”

Consoletti said that after South

by Southwest was canceled, they decided to make the event virtual.

Many of the featured artists will feature streams on their Facebook pages as well.

See page 10 >>

Study: Long-acting injectable PrEP works as well as Truvada

by Liz Highleyman

L

ong-acting injections given once every two months can prevent HIV at least as well as daily pills for gay and bisexual men and transgender women, according to interim study results released May 18 by the National Institutes of Health.

A large clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showed that injectable cabotegravir, an experimental integrase inhibitor from ViiV Healthcare, was 69% more effective for HIV prevention than daily Truvada (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine).

“Demonstrating conclusively that long-acting injectable cabotegravir is highly effective almost two years earlier than originally expected is exciting news,” study chair Dr. Raphael Landovitz of UCLA said in a news release issued by the HIV Prevention Trials Network. “It is inspiring that we may soon have additional HIV prevention options for at-risk individuals who have difficulty with or prefer not to take pills.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved daily Truvada for PrEP in 2012. Last October, the FDA gave the nod to a second daily PrEP pill, Descovy (tenofovir alafenamide/emtricitabine). However, due to a lack of data, that indication does not include people who are at risk of acquiring HIV through receptive vaginal or frontal sex. Daily pills are currently the only approved PrEP dosing schedule, although studies have shown that on-demand or “2-1-1” PrEP taken before and after sex is also highly effective.

The HPTN 083 trial, which started in 2016, enrolled 4,570 HIVnegative gay and bi men and trans-

8/11/17 12:30 PM

Liz Highleyman

Dr. Raphael Landovitz of UCLA

gender women who have sex with men in seven countries, including the United States. They were randomly assigned to receive either cabotegravir injections in the buttocks every eight weeks plus daily placebo pills, or placebo injections plus daily Truvada.

A planned interim review of the study showed that among the 50 people who acquired HIV, 12 were taking long-acting cabotegravir and 38 were taking daily oral Truvada. This translates to an HIV incidence rate of 0.38% in the cabotegravir group versus 1.21% in the Truvada group.

These results show that cabotegravir is “non-inferior,” or at least as good as Truvada. Due to trial disruptions related to the COVID-19 crisis, the researchers decided to stop the study before it could meet the statistical criteria for showing that it is superior.

In the study population as a whole, the long-acting injectable regimen was 69% more effective in reducing the risk of HIV compared with daily pills. This is an impressive finding, because daily Truvada is

more than 99% effective in reducing HIV risk when taken consistently.

But some people find it difficult to stick to the daily schedule.

Both cabotegravir and Truvada were generally safe and well tolerated. Study participants who received the cabotegravir injections were more likely than those who received the placebo shots to report pain and tenderness at the injection site (80% versus 31%, respectively). However, few cabotegravir recipients withdrew from the study for this reason.

Based on these findings, the study’s independent data and safety monitoring board recommended that the randomized portion of the trial should be stopped ahead of schedule – it was expected to run until 2021 – and everyone should be offered the injectable regimen.

“Each year, an estimated 1.7 million people are newly diagnosed with HIV. To lower that number, we believe more prevention options are needed in addition to currently available oral tablets for daily use,” said HPTN co-principle investigator Dr. Myron Cohen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “If approved, a new injectable agent, such as long-acting cabotegravir administered every two months, could play an important role in reducing HIV transmission and helping to end the HIV epidemic.”

A companion study of long-acting cabotegravir for cisgender (nontrans) women is currently underway in Africa. The data safety and monitoring board also reviewed interim results from that study, which started a year later, and recommended that the trial should continue. This suggests it is too early to tell if the injectable regimen works as well as daily pills for this population. t

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8 • Bay Area Reporter • May 21-27, 2020

All about Aimee

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imee Stephens was a transgender woman.

In 2013, after decades of attempting to live as a man, Stephens approached her workplace, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc., with her intent to transition.

“With the support of my loving wife, I have decided to become the person that my mind already is. I cannot begin to describe the shame and suffering that I have lived with.

At the end of my vacation on August 26, 2013, I will return to work as my true self, Aimee Australia Stephens, in appropriate business attire,” wrote Stephens in a letter to her supervisors.

Two weeks later, the owner of the company, Thomas Rost, sent a letter to Stephens, terminating her employment. Stephens took her story to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The case, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saw Stephens initially losing. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan agreed that Rost, whose religious beliefs do not accept transgender people, could fire Stephens due to his religious freedom.

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that under Title VII, transgender people are included as part of “discrimination by sex,” based in part on the 1989 Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins decision that determined that businesses cannot discriminate based on employees not conforming to stereotypical sexbased behavior.

Today, we are awaiting a decision from the United States Supreme Court, which will either keep things largely as they are for transgender people in this country,

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Christine Smith

Aimee Australia Stephens

or will set back trans rights by decades, while potentially damaging the rights of all people to be free of sex stereotyping and religious bigotry in the workplace.

Justice can often come slow. When Stephens filed her case seven years ago, President Barack Obama was in his second term, and the country was a far, far different place. Today, it is unlikely that the EEOC under President Donald Trump would even take such a case. Further, while a lot of history would seem to make such a case an easy one to decide in Stephens’ favor, Chief Justice John Roberts’ court, with its conservative majority, is likely to go against decades of case law and common sense.

If you know a transgender person, now is the time to reach out to them and make sure they are well, happy, and have their needs met. By the time you read this column, we could see transgender people deeply scarred by the Supreme Court, left with no recourse in their workplace, as the same judicial body opens the floodgates for similar challenges to all other necessities of our lives.

For Stephens, however, the time for either a victory or a loss has passed: she died May 12 from complications due to kidney disease. Like so many of us, she will never know justice.

As a darkly ironic footnote to all this, being at the heart of such a potentially groundbreaking case means that Stephens’ death was noted in the media – and with it, came the same issues in reporting that transgender people always face.

As often happens in media coverage of transgender people, the several outlets opted to report on Stephens using her birth name, also known in trans circles as a deadname.

In 2018, at a panel on obituaries at the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association’s annual conference, a Washington Post obituary editor, Adam Bernstein, noted that the paper always includes previous names of the deceased. To a hostile crowd, he explained that it was a matter of accuracy to include such a name.

He also pointed out that it was to be included so that associates of the deceased, who may have only known a person by their deadname, could find information.

It’s an intriguing argument, I suppose, if one isn’t transgender themselves. By claiming that it is somehow accurate to include such information, unfortunately, it also infers that a transgender person’s innate state of being is also, somehow, inaccurate. This is very, very wrong.

I also, frankly, don’t wish to give much oxygen to the notion that people who a trans person hasn’t been in contact with for so long that they do not know of a transition and need a deadname to understand a person they once knew is dead likely aren’t people who would care about such information for anything more than a lurid fashion.

It is worth noting that the Post did not use Stephens’ deadname in its story about her passing, but the New York Times did.

Bowing to criticism following publication, the Times did change the article, with editor Patrick LaForge apologizing for the error on Twitter, noting that Stephens’ deadname “was added later in an honest mistake by editors trying to interpret what we now realize is a confusing style rule for obituaries,” and promising that their guidelines will be reviewed.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press, which publishes the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, also included Stephens’ deadname in its own piece. It too has walked it back, amending the article to note that using the deadname was not in “accordance with AP style to use the name by which the person lived and avoid former names unless relevant.”

I’m glad these outlets edited the articles, but this is the world for transgender people right now. As the Supreme Court readies to make transgender people subject to job termination based on the whim of employers who can claim a religious exemption to basic fairness, we need to fight the media to even be treated with dignity and fairness in death.

Aimee Stephens was a transgender woman – and that matters. t Gwen Smith wishes a deadname was referred to as a “necronym.”

You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

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Community News>>

May 21-27, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Pink triangle plans lighted display compiled by Cynthia Laird

O

rganizers of the pink triangle installation atop Twin Peaks have launched an online fundraiser to pay for the site to be lighted this year.

For the past 24 years, volunteers have come together on Twin Peaks in San Francisco to create the pink triangle as a symbol of hope and inclusion over Pride weekend. Pride 2020 was to mark the 25th anniversary of the public art project alongside the milestone 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s Pride celebrations, but with the novel coronavirus crisis raging on, plans have changed. (SF Pride’s in-person parade and festival have been canceled and it will now join the online Global Pride June 27.)

In collaboration with Illuminate, the nonprofit organization behind the Bay Lights, the pink triangle and its co-founder, Patrick Carney, plan to install more than 2,700 pink LED lights to create a triangle. Unlike previous years when the pink triangle was just installed for Pride weekend, this year it will be up and lit every night for three weeks, through the AIDS 2020 conference in July, Carney told the Bay Area Reporter. (The AIDS conference, originally scheduled to be held in San Francisco and Oakland, will be virtual this year.)

Carney said in April that he wasn’t sure how the installation would be handled this year, due to ongoing physical distancing requirements.

This week, Carney explained that the lights won’t replace the tarps. But the hundreds of volunteers that Carney usually asks for will be significantly reduced, he said.

“There are nearly six weeks to go,” Carney wrote in an email May 18. “If city officials deem it is still unsafe for a small group to install the entire oneacre display, then as a backup plan my husband, my sister, a couple other family members, and I will install just the ‘outline’ of the symbol, which will still be highly visible. Nighttime lighting will then take place in the center area (between the outline for bright pink sail cloth).”

The pink triangle originally was used to brand suspected homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps. It was revived in the 1970s as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has been used to symbolize LGBTQ+ pride ever since.

Carney said that this year’s installation will mark several issues.

“It will commemorate not only the tragic origin of the pink triangle, but both the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as the current COVID-19 pandemic,” he wrote. “We are a resilient community.”

In November 2017 Illuminate installed a “Hope Will Never Be Silent” lighted art piece on the mantel of the commercial building overlooking the plaza that bears Harvey Milk’s name above the Castro Muni station. It was part of the ceremonies that fall commemorating the 40th anniversary of Milk’s historic 1977 election as the first out gay supervisor in San Francisco and the first openly LGBT elected official in California.

To successfully execute the pink triangle project without a fee, $75,000 is needed for materials, staging, and installation, according to the GoFundMe site. (The campaign lists a goal of $85,000.) According to a news release, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee launched a GoFundMe charity campaign to raise what is needed. So far, the campaign has raised over $20,000.

The donations go to SF Pride’s pink triangle account, which will be directed to Illuminate the Pink Triangle.

To donate, go to https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/ thepinktriangle.

Essentially

Craft museum announces mask competition

Patrick Carney

This year’s pink triangle display will be lighted, as opposed to previous efforts that included the installation of giant pink tarps that could be seen for miles.

AIDS 2020 planners to hold town hall

The AIDS 2020 local planning group will hold a virtual town hall Thursday, June 4, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pacific Time.

AIDS 2020, sponsored by the International AIDS Society, will take place July 6-10. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, San Francisco and Oakland were slated to jointly host the meeting, but it was changed to a virtual format because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A special virtual COVID-19 conference on the last day of the conference will feature Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, who have a long history of leadership in the national and global HIV/AIDS response and are now the scientific faces of the White House COVID-19 Task Force.

The upcoming local planning group meeting will include updates on the virtual conference. Local planning group activities will be presented and there will be a time for questions.

It is the last planning group meeting before the full conference.

The town hall is open to the public. To pre-register, go to https://sfaf. zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqdeiqrzHelp kuHNbCcgyJT14een30MgGXQLKK. For more information on the July conference, visit http://www. aids2020.org.

Breed announces Tenderloin testing site

San Francisco Mayor London Breed this week announced new COVID-19 testing sites, including one in the Tenderloin.

According to a news release, Breed and Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax, a gay man, said that a mobile testing site began operation in the Tenderloin May 20. It will initially operate at the Tenderloin Recreational Center, 570 Ellis Street.

“Today, we are taking another step toward ensuring equitable access to testing for San Franciscans,” Colfax stated in the May 18 release. “By strengthening our efforts in neighborhoods that we know are most vulnerable to severe impacts of the virus, we continue to help people get the care they need and slow the spread of the virus.”

The city is collaborating with Verily on the mobile testing site, which is the city’s first. It has the capacity to conduct hundreds of tests per day. Online appointments are strongly encouraged, though staff from Glide church and Code Tenderloin will be on site to register individuals who have barriers to signing up online.

After serving the Tenderloin, the mobile site will move to another highneed neighborhood, the release stated.

Other testing sites announced this week are at City College’s Student Health Center and in Bayview-Hunters Point.

For more information about COVID-19 testing, contact your primary health care provider, call 311, or visit www.sf.gov/gettestedSF.

The Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco has announced a mask design competition.

“Let’s Face It” is a nationwide competition that seeks artists, designers, and creatives of all types and ages.

With face coverings now part of daily Wear a mask life to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s likely people will conMaintain social distancing tinue to use the protective devices.

Juried by Marcel Wilson, the founder and design director of Bionic, Wash your hands and JoAnn Edwards, the Museum of Craft and Design’s co-founder and executive director, the winning designer Shop at Cliff’s will receive $500, the runner-up will receive $250, and third place will receive $100. A news release noted that non-monetary awards will be given for best in show, best student design, and most unique design.

The call for entries is open through May 31. All ages are welcome to enter and participation is free. Participants under 18 will be entered into the “Let’s Face It: Young Designers Competition” and one winning design from this category will receive a gift basket from the museum filled with creative art-making supplies and books. Help shape and impact Alameda County’s mental health sy The winners will be announced June 12, along with an online community gallery showcasing all the entries.

479 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 According to the release, for each design entered, the museum will donate a new mask to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.

For more details and guidelines, visit www.sfmcd.org/letsfaceit.

This is at least the second local mask design contest in recent months.

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DWE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! San Francisco) held his “Masks Are Help shape andimpact impact Alameda Alameda County’s mental health system! shape and mental health system!

Fierce” contest in April where local Help Help shape and impactCounty’s Alameda County’s mental he drag artists Peaches Christ, Donna shape and impact County’s mental health system!

Sachet, Sister Roma, and BebeAlameda Sweetbriar did the judging. According to Help Wiener’s office, the winners were:shape and impact Alameda County’s mental health syste Sarah Boll, first place; Natalie Walsh, WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! second place; and Christina Molcillo, third place.

Help shape and impact Alameda County’s mental health system!

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EQCA launches online virus help center

The statewide LGBT rights group Equality California has launched a consumer friendly website and help line to connect queer Californians impacted by the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the illness caused by it.

The programs were announced Monday, May 18. EQCA said that the website will be expanded in the coming weeks. Offerings will include service provider directories for each of the state’s 53 counties and a series of free webinars for people facing unemployment or lost wages.

“The COVID-19 and LGBTQ+ help line are roadmaps for members of our community to find the support they need from providers who know and care about LGBTQ+ people,” EQCA Executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur said in a news release.

“We’re in this together. Whether you need to get tested, file for unemployment or a loan, find a food bank, or talk to a mental health professional, we’re here to help.”

For more information, go to www. covid19.eqca.org. The help line number is (323) 448-0126.

According to the release, the website and help line are made possible by grants from the AT&T Foundation and Sempra Energy Foundation.

EQCA’s Nevada-based affiliate, Silver State Equality, plans to launch a similar online help center soon with support from Wynn Resorts. t

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5/19/20 12:54 PM

<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • May 21-27, 2020

<<

Safe sleeping site

From page 1

On April 28, the Board of Supervisors passed Mandelman’s resolution urging the creation of safe sleeping sites for homeless people in tents. The same day, the board of the San Francisco Unified School District allowed its properties to be used for these sites.

“It’s not to say we shouldn’t do hotels,” Mandelman said. “I don’t think that’s going to completely solve the Castro’s problem. We are going to have to have another approach.”

The resolution states that recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention be followed: the sites should be staffed; have restroom, washing, and bathroom facilities; and people should observe social distancing. Food and support services will be provided to make it easier for people to stay on the premises.

<<

LGBT bill slate

From page 1

said Wiener, the chair of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.

SB 145 remains in the Assembly Appropriations Committee due to its chair, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), putting a hold on it last summer over concerns she had on its implementation. It led to a rare public rebuke from EQCA and cost Gonzalez receiving a perfect score on the organization’s annual legislative scorecard for lawmakers.

Nonetheless, Gonzalez promised to revive the bill this year and work with Wiener and LGBTQ advocates on addressing her issues with the legislation. Both Zbur and Wiener told the B.A.R. they remain hopeful of seeing it be signed into law by Newsom come the fall.

“My plan and intent is to pass these bills and finalize them this year. But obviously I am not in complete control of the process,” noted Wiener.

“We have done a lot of work on both of them and both are at the very end of the process. I am hoping to pass those this year.”

Zbur echoed that sentiment, saying, “We are still optimistic those bills will be passed later in the summer.”

Another bill held over from last year, SB 741 authored by lesbian state Senator Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton), is also moving forward and likely to be adopted later this summer. It would allow transgender Californians

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Pride

From page 6

“Each week we will be featuring the artists, special guests, and presentations on Pride organizations around the country,” Consoletti said.

Consoletti said that Pride organizations scheduled to be featured include those in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. He reached out to Lopez at SF Pride but as of May 18 had not heard back.

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Milk terminal

From page 1

at one point turned to the public artwork planned as part of the $2.4 billion remodel of the Milk terminal set to be complete by 2023. District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, a legislative aide to Campos who succeeded him in office, had pressed to see that at least some of the art was inspired

by Milk.

There are now three Milk-related art installations planned for the terminal; the first debuted in April in the departures area. Located in what has been dubbed the Central Inglenook near the American Airlines check-in counters, it is a photographic exhibit created by the SFO Museum that traces

t

have reached agreement.

“City has signed,” Mandelman wrote in a text message. “I think they’re still waiting on district signature, but I believe all issues have been resolved.”

Mark Sanchez, a gay man who’s the president of the Board of Education, told the B.A.R. May 18 that he is “pretty sure everything will be wrapped up by today.” (As of the morning of May 19 Mandelman said that the district and the city were close to an agreement but had not reached one.)

“There were some sticky points around certain items we had to be aware about – because of federal and state law – about drugs, alcohol, and vaping on school property,” Sanchez said. “We wanted strong language in the memorandum of understanding that we will have those rules in place.”

Sanchez said he is supportive of having a safe sleeping site at Everett,

and if not there then “at other sites our district has control of.”

Buena Vista Horace Mann School in the Mission district was housing homeless families of SFUSD students even before the novel coronavirus outbreak.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, 59 families (or, almost 200 individuals) were served between November 2018 and September 2019.

The first operating safe sleeping village is between the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Public Library in the Civic Center area, where there are 90 tents.

The second started as an unofficial site, at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in the Bayview, but recently received city approval.

A third, announced May 15 by District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, will be at Stanyan and Haight streets where there was once a McDonald’s. t

grams, housing, mental health services, and assistance to trans people adjusting back into society after being released from prison.

“As COVID-19 continues, our communities continue to be deeply impacted and face barriers to accessing care and services,” noted the L.A.based agency in an email ahead of this week’s hearing.

In defending his bill before the health committee, Santiago noted that gender reassignment surgeries are only a “minor component” of what it would fund.

“Most of it is about wraparound services needed for the TGI community,” said Santiago, referring to transgender, gender variant, and intersex people.

But it remains to be seen if it will make it out of the appropriations committee due to the gaping financial hole the state is confronting. Wiener, who is a co-author of Santiago’s bill, warned its prospects for passage are “challenging this year because of the huge budget deficit.”

As a policy matter, he noted most legislators are supportive, but “the rubber will hit the road in terms of budget negotiations.” Wiener’s office is in talks with transgender community leaders on different funding options that may be more palatable to his legislative colleagues this year.

advocates postponed seeking funding this year for the online-based teacher training on LGBTQ issues.

Last fall, Newsom agreed to sign AB 493, the Safe and Supportive Schools Act of 2019 authored by Gloria and backed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

At the same time, he pledged to pursue funding for it this year.

With the cost of creating the cyber teaching platform estimated to be anywhere between $2 to $5 million, the bill’s proponents agreed to wait until the state’s finances improved.

They hope to move forward with it next year.

“Given the budget challenges the state is facing, we decided not to pursue that bill this year,” said Zbur, explaining they preferred waiting rather than see the funding for the training be “whittled down to a small number.”

And with the state’s colleges and universities also negatively impacted by the health crisis, Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) made the decision to punt his AB 2023 until the next legislative session. It would restrict the state’s public colleges and universities from deadnaming transgender and nonbinary students on their diplomas and create a standard process for the schools to update student records so the documents accurately reflect their name and gender.

“We are definitely still very committed to the policy, but we will just have to try it again another year,” Chiu spokeswoman Jennifer Kwart told the B.A.R. t

There are many proposals for safe sleeping sites in the city, but Everett is the only one in District 8, according to Mandelman. “(The city is) going to need 24/7 staffing,” Mandelman said. “They’re not going to do it for 15 tents. Here we can have 50-60.”

Preliminary plans from San Francisco Public Works show five zones containing a cumulative total of 65 spots where people can shelter in place at Everett.

Nextdoor posts reveal a mix of reactions to the proposal to put what Mandelman calls a safe sleeping village in District 8.

In response to a supportive post from Jared Goldfine, some upper Market and Noe Valley residents responded with worries that it will be used “as a base to harass” people living in the area, that the homeless “will never leave,” and that the city will provide them with drugs and attendant paraphernalia.

In response to these concerns, Mandelman recently held a Zoom meeting with constituents.

“The opposition is mainly about how bad things have been for years and they’re worried about more unhoused people congregating in the neighborhood,” Mandelman said, adding that the government will not be “bringing people from across the city” to the sleep site, but will ask people already on the neighborhood streets to move there.

to update their marriage certificates and the birth certificates of their children to accurately reflect their legal name and gender, while still protecting their privacy.

Also expected to pass out of the Legislature this year in a revised manner is Senator Lena Gonzalez’s (D-Long Beach) SB 961, the Equal Insurance HIV Act that would end insurance companies’ ability to deny life and disability income insurance coverage based solely on a person’s HIV status. It has been bundled into a larger insurance bill, SB 1255, and is awaiting a vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Backed by gay state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, his office informed the B.A.R. this week that it is confident of seeing the legislation approved by both chambers since it “has no fiscal impact and no opposition.”

The highest priority bill this year for the seven-member LGBTQ caucus and EQCA is Wiener’s SB 932, as it would require state public health officials to track how many LGBT people are being infected, hospitalized, and placed in intensive care due to the coronavirus, as well as how many have recovered versus died. The out lawmakers and LGBTQ advocates had asked Newsom to issue an executive order so that the sexual orientation and gender identity data was being collected.

When those entreaties went nowhere, they resorted to the legislative process. But their exasperation with

needing to do so was palpable during a press call last Wednesday, May 13. Prompted by a question about the bill submitted by the B.A.R. during his news conference held that day, Newsom publicly pledged to sign SB 932 into law.

On Tuesday Zbur indicated to the B.A.R. that the bill could be fast tracked for approval since it relates to the state’s COVID-19 response.

“We have had good discussions with the governor’s office about supporting the bill. We are looking at ways where lawmakers might be able to take action quicker than normal so the bill gets out of the Legislature faster,” said Zbur, adding that there have also been good discussions with state Department of Public Health officials about the legislation.

On May 19, Lopez said he didn’t respond yet because he wanted “to make sure efforts weren’t being duplicated” and that “someone will be reaching out today.”

Consoletti said he is proud to give exposure to LGBT artists who’d otherwise be hurt by the cancellation of in-person pride events.

“There’s a lot of digital content happening right now and what makes OUTLOUD special and unique is that these are people

who’d be at Pride events,” Consoletti said. “We don’t get to know all the ways that not having a Pride affects a community and a city but the point is to promote the artists who’d be discovered at these events.”

There will be a donate button on Facebook adjacent to the stream and 100% of the proceeds will go to the featured artists, Consoletti said.

On May 14, it was announced that Revry, the first global LG-

BTQ streaming network, will be partnering with Brightcove Inc. to create an LGBTQ+ television platform for Pride.

“The new Revry apps create a cable TV-like environment streaming multiple live TV channels in real time to its diverse and multi-faceted audiences,” a news release states.

Revry original programming includes a comedy series “Sink Sank Sunk” starring Laura Linney, a documentary series about ball-

room culture titled “The Category Is,” and “Submission Possible,” which explores kink culture and sex positivity.

To register for the Lavender Talks, which are free, visit https:// bit.ly/3g6bxdq. t

Milk’s life from his childhood in New York to his days as a pioneering political operative in San Francisco during the 1970s.

The city’s arts commission is currently accepting submissions for a Milk-themed mural with a $200,000 budget to be installed in the terminal’s pre-security arrivals level in spring 2022. It will surround a three-story atrium with escalators to the baggage claim area and ground transportation.

The deadline for artists to submit proposals is June 1, and more than a dozen have already done so.

“We have received 14 responses to date and are expecting many more as we get closer to the close of the RFQ,” Susan Pontious, director of public art for the city, told the B.A.R. “We will also be

considering artists already in our pre-qualified pool of approximately 400 artists. (The pre-qualified pool is the result of a biannual call issued for artists to be considered for a variety of public art opportunities in the city with budgets under $500,000.)”

his family created to promote the legacy of his famous uncle.

“One of the biggest honors of my life is to work on this and make a work that is about Harvey,” said Bowers, 55, a straight ally who lives in Los Angeles. “That it will have such visibility, I hope I can do it justice.”

Bowers grew up in Ohio and recalls hearing on the news as a teenager about the deaths of Milk and Moscone.

“I remember the grief and hope from that time,” said Bowers, adding that in her youth she was already involved in activism.

It has infused her art, which often focuses on political and social themes such as climate change, women’s rights, and sexual assault.

On a more personal level, Bowers

told the B.A.R. that she also grapples with gender identity.

“I think I am always questioning my gender. It is forever fluid, especially as I get older,” she said.

A frequent visitor to San Francisco, Bowers’ terminal proposal was partly inspired by the neon facade of the Castro Theatre. In her research she found a photo of Milk standing on the sidewalk below the theater pointing up to the marquee.

It is part of the connective tissue in her artwork tying it back to the city’s LGBT Castro district, where Milk operated his camera store at 575 Castro Street, ran for political office, and represented at City Hall. He was also a contemporary with the gay disco star Sylvester, See page 11 >>

Details worked out

Mandelman said that he expected the site would have been approved by now, but although city staff have made plans, the city and school district have to complete a memorandum of understanding – or, a formal agreement – between the entities about the use of the space.

Mandelman told the B.A.R. May 20 that the city and school district

Trans services funding

On Monday the Assembly Health Committee voted 12-1, with two lawmakers not voting, to send Assembly Bill 2218, the Transgender Wellness & Equity Fund, to the lower chamber’s appropriations committee. Authored

by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), and backed by the TransLatin@ Coalition in Los Angeles, it would allocate $15 million toward health and wellness services for the state’s trans community.

It is part of a $100 million budget allocation that transgender advocates had been seeking this year. The money would fund everything from SOGI data collection within the state’s trans community to employment pro-

Inspired by Castro Theatre marquee, neon lights

Bowers, whose neon artwork has lit up cities, museums, and galleries across the globe, won the $1.1 million commission for the Milk terminal’s underpass lighting art project last August. She received the highest scores among three artists being considered by the selection panel, which included Milk’s gay nephew Stuart Milk, who heads the foundation he and

LGBT priorities put on hold

The staggering budget deficit is the reason gay Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and LGBTQ

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Community News>>

May 21-27, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Milk terminal

From page 10

who also called the Castro home and was featured in the biopic “Milk” during a birthday party scene serenading Milk.

She included the disco balls –so far 13 are to be installed outside the terminal– because they mirror not only the dance scene of the 1970s but also the political activism of that time, explained Bowers.

“In thinking about all of the gay clubs and theater sites back then they all had disco balls in them.

They were not only being part of the culture coming together for the LGBTQ community but also sites of activism,’ she said. “It just seemed to me kind of the Castro Theatre’s neon lighting seems to be an icon of that history. Their programming historically has

Julie Sadowski

Artist Andrea Bowers

supported that community, and Harvey’s office was in that neighborhood and was the neighborhood he represented.”

Dramatic installation

Her installation should be attached to the underside of the canopy outside of the terminal’s arrivals area in late 2022 or early 2023.

Since being selected last summer, Bowers has spent much of the past nine months closely coordinating with the airport’s design team and construction contractor on the schematics for her artwork so it fits into the designated space along with various signage, lighting, and other electrical elements airports are required to have in place.

“There is nothing more depressing sometimes than waiting at the arrivals section for someone to pick you up or to get a car.

You feel kind of lost,” said Bowers.

“Also, this is your first glimpse of the city. I love the idea your first glimpse will be quotes from Harvey Milk surrounded by all this beautiful neon with disco balls.”

Pontious said it will provide a “wonderful” introduction to the city for travelers.

“One of the things everyone loved about Andrea’s proposal was

besides the quotes from Harvey, which are serious and inspirational, her proposal also catches, we thought, the spirit of fun of Harvey Milk,” she said.

Bowers is now beginning to pivot toward selecting the quotes of Milk’s that she will incorporate into the work. The final design will need to go before the arts commission for final approval before the artwork is manufactured by Lite Brite Neon Studio, founded by Matt Dilling and located in Kingston, New York.

“It is still in the early stages of design, but the intent is for significant quotes from Harvey Milk to be displayed above the primary arrivals exits in Terminal 1 so that travelers will be welcomed by the artwork as they exit the baggage claim area,” explained Pontious. t

Legals>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039051900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXTREME PIZZA, 1730 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed OCC, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/94. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/22/20.

APR 30 MAY 07, 14, 21, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039050300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LAST MILE, 44 TEHEMA ST. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105.

This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed TURN 2 U INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/20/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/20.

APR 30 MAY 07, 14, 21, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039053700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARTIN BUILDING COMPANY, 1101 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MARTIN MCNERNEY DEVELOPMENT INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/89. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/21/20.

APR 30 MAY 07, 14, 21, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039053600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MICADO, 2126 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed SOK JAE PAK & YOUNG SOOK PAK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/89. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/20.

APR 30 MAY 07, 14, 21, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039053900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARIART MULTIMEDIA & DESIGN 105 RUSSIA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARISTIDES CISNEROS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/07/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/27/20.

MAY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039054300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLAREMONT GROUP, 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL YOUNAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/27/20.

MAY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A039051800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KORTS & KNIGHT, 501 CESAR CHAVEZ ST #109, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an corporation, and is signed INTERIOR DESIGN WORKS, LTD. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/95. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/22/20.

MAY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039055100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: #1 FOGCUTTER TOURS, 124 BENTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF ADVENTURE TOURS LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/27/20.

MAY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039056900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JASMINE FINE ART ACADEMY, 311 BALBOA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed XIAO-HONG LIANG & ZHI-KUN LIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/12/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/29/20.

MAY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039051600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIMPLY NAILS, 5933 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WENDY DANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/22/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039060500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MSQUARED, 1303 MONTGOMERY ST #LOWER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SERGHIO MUNOZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/06/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039058600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SMALL WORKS, 1113 CONNECTICUT ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREW WILLIAM STEINBERG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/01/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039057200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 14TH STREET OLIVEIRA CHIROPRACTIC, 640 14TH ST, OFFICE B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 17th STREET OLIVEIRA CHIROPRACTIC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/29/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039062300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DIYA, 25 MASON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MENUKA FOOD INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039061900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRAUST MOVING LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE MOVES; EASY MOVE, 101 MCLELLAN DR #1056, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SPECTRUM MOVERS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/04/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035499300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SIMPLY NAILS, 5933 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business was conducted by an individual, and signed by TOMMY WONG. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/01/13.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036620800

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SAN FRANCISCO ORGANIC, 800 CORTLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by CHU CHU’S GOODS INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036620700

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SAN FRANCISCO ORGANIC, 3216 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by CHU CHU’S GOODS INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COURT OF YOLO JUVENILE DIVISION IN THE MATTER OF MALIYA EDWARDS, DEPENDENT NO. JV-18-13 CITATION

To MICHAEL EDWARDS, you are hereby cited and required to appear at a hearing in Yolo County Juvenile Court, located at 1000 Main Street, Woodland, California 95695, on July 23, 2020 at 9:00a.m. in Department 5. At the hearing the Court will decide whether to permanently terminate your parental rights over the above-named minor child born Camay Law Taylor on August 20, 2014.

If you wish to be represented by an attorney and are unable to afford one, the Court will appoint an attorney to represent you. Due to COVID-19 this hearing may be held through zoom, please contact the Health and Human Services Agency at (530) 661-2712 regarding your appearance. Dated 05/13/20, Tom M. Dyer, Judge of the Juvenile Court.

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039061100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOHOL HOLDING, 2355 18th AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VOLODYMYR KHOKHLOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/20.

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039067700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIKECHEB, 310 TOWNSEND ST #312, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL CHEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/20.

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039067300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOG TALES WALKING SERVICE, 2758 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DEBORAH ANN DEEGAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/20.

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039069400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: CANCILLA MARKET, 3216 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by CHU CHU’S GOODS INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/14/10.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020

The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals to provide Auction Services for the District, RFP No. 6M3452A, on or about May 11, 2020, with proposals due by: 2:00 P.M. local time, Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at the District Secretary’s Office, 23rd Floor, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, 94612 (mailing address: P.O. Box 12688, Oakland, California, 94604-2688. Proposers are responsible to ensure their proposals are received at the time and location specified.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (hereinafter referred to as “BART” or “District”) is soliciting to engage the services from qualified firms to perform professional Auctioneering Services for the District to dispose of surplus miscellaneous inventory. It is anticipated that the District will engage the auctioneers to plan, organize, market and advertise, stage, and conduct auction events in order to liquidate District surplus material. The purpose of the auctions will be to sell to qualified buyers surplus District property and maximize the funds returned to the District. The District will accept proposals from qualified firms to provide live and online auction services for and on behalf of the District. The District will accept proposal for one or both services. The District reserves the right to make multiple awards if it is determined to be most advantageous to the District. These services shall be utilized on an “on call and as needed” basis.

Pre-Proposal Conference: A Pre-Proposal Meeting and Networking Session will be held on Thursday, May 21, 2020. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 1:30 p.m. local time via Zoom Presentation. All interested parties must RSVP via email to: bartprocurementsupport@ bart.gov by 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 in order to participate in this Pre-Proposal Meeting. The email subject must include “6M3452A, Auction Services for the District”.

Instructions on attending the Zoom Presentation will be emailed upon receipt of RSVP. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting, the District’s Equity Program(s) will be explained. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to participate in this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting and Networking Session. The District may only respond to questions at the submitted Pre-Proposal Meeting by prospective Proposers that have RSVPed to the Pre-Proposal Meeting. In order for the District to consider responding to those questions at the scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, those questions shall be submitted until the day prior to the Pre-Proposal Meeting by 10:00 a.m. local time, via email to bartprocurementsupport@bart.gov, and the email subject must include 6M3452A, Auction Services for the District.

At the conclusion of the Pre-Proposal Meeting, participants will be given the opportunity to share their contact information to facilitate networking offline.

All questions regarding the District’s Equity Program(s) should be directed to Fei Liu, Office of Civil Rights, at: (510) 874-7348, email: FLiu@bart.gov; FAX (510) 874-7470.

REQUIRED REGISTRATION ON BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL In order for prospective Proposers to be eligible for award of an Agreement being solicited on the BART Procurement Portal, such Proposers are required to be currently registered to do business with BART on the BART Procurement Portal on line at https://suppliers.bart. gov and have obtained Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued on line so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation.

If a prospective Proposer is a joint venture or partnership, such entity may register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s tax identification number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an on-line planholder under the entity’s name prior to submitting its Proposal. If such entity has not registered on BART Procurement Portal in the name of the joint venture or partnership prior to submitting its Proposal, provided that at least one of the joint venturers or partners registered on line on the BART Procurement Portal and downloaded the Solicitation Documents so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation, such entity will be required to register with the entity’s TIN as an on-line planholder following the submittal of Proposals, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement.

PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON THE BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, (OR FOR A JOINT VENTURE OR PARTNERSHIP AS DESCRIBED ABOVE PRIOR TO AWARD) AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ONLINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. Proposals must be received by 2:00 P.M., local time, Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at the address listed in the RFP. Submission of a proposal shall constitute a firm offer to the District for one hundred and eighty (180) calendar days from date of proposal submission.

Any questions regarding this Notice to Proposers should be directed to the BART Procurement Department, Attention: Ron Coffey, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA. 94612, email address: rcoffey@bart.gov, telephone (510) 287-4775.

Dated at Oakland, California this 8th day of May 2020. \s\ John A. Mazza John Mazza, Director of Procurement San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 5/21/20 CNS-3364780# BAY AREA REPORTER

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIMPRO, 5262 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSUE GUTIERREZ REYES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/15/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA CNSBI_052120.indd 1 on 05/18/20.

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039061800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE NOE VALLEY VOICE, 55 ORA WAY #B101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JACK C. TIPPLE III & SARAH M. SMITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/77. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/20.

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032707500

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS - GENERAL INFORMATION

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 Yelp reviews

John Lavin

by Gregg Shapiro

A

a cool band name.’ Friends agreed and that’s kind of how it came about.

Gregg Shapiro: Dan, for the uninitiated, please say something about the genesis of the band’s name, Early Day Miners.

Dan Burton: Way back in 1997, I worked in Yellowstone National Park for a summer. There was an interesting mining town called Silver Gate on the northwest corridor entrance to Yellowstone Park, between the Beartooth Mountain Pass and another mountain pass, and it gets snowed-in six months out of the year. I fell in love with this idea of this place that gets isolated every year for half a year and has a population of maybe 200 people. They had a tourism brochure that they created, and it said “Early Day Miners” on the front, and it had a picture of these sexy-looking miners on it. I thought, ‘That would be a cool album cover. That would be

Are there specific Early Day Miner songs where you think your identity as a gay man came across, either subtly or overtly?

Yes. It was subtle. It was never super intentional within the later albums, The Treatment and Night People. I’ve always had a disinterest in being overtly political or overt, in general, lyrically. As I said earlier, that’s somewhat changed now. I like leaving lyrical form where a listener can extract something from it and make their own meaning.

It’s something I love that artists do. But it’s inevitable that pop music itself is innately sexual and it became fun. With Night People, at that point the band had become a new band, and I was the only original member. These guys were into everything from Scissor Sisters to the Rolling Stones; just being glam. Watch

Devlin Shand

s musical genres go, slowcore (or sadcore, if you please) had its share of devotees and detractors. On Early Day Miners’ 2000 debut album Placer Found (Secretly Canadian), newly reissued, remixed and remastered for vinyl in an expanded 20thanniversary double-LP set including more than 15 minutes of previously unreleased material, the band took its rightful place alongside its musical contemporaries.

But Placer Found also featured ambient and cinematic Brian Eno-esque soundscapes that set it apart from the rest. Something else that set Early Day Miners apart was having gay front-man Daniel Burton. Burton, who now lives in New Orleans with his longtime partner, was kind enough to answer a few questions in late April 2020.

Miners’ miracle Daniel Burton of Early Day Miners

Second round of requests; recipients say thanks

T

he San Francisco Queer Nightlife Fund is now accepting applications for a second round of grants to those in the city’s LGBTQ nightlife community

Were you out at the time of the formation of Early Day Miners or did that occur later?

I came out in 2008, just after our Offshore album came out. It’s while we were writing The Treatment. (The band) was totally supportive and pretty much unfazed, other than the fact that I was married and had a kid. That was more what the questions were about. ‘How is that going? How is your ex-wife? How is your daughter?’ Fortunately, she had just been born, so she’s never known anything different either way. I’ve got friends from every kind of background now. As you get older, as we can all at-

for financial grants will be accepted 11:59 PM on May 29, 2020.

To date, the Queer Nightlife Fund has raised more than $180,000 through donations, the bulk of which was paid out in the first round of grants. A sizable portion of the funds were raised by holding online events, such as the Quaran-Tea Dance, which attracted thousands of viewers through Twitch and Zoom.

For many of the recipients, the grants they received have been a lifeline which helps them survive during this period of unemployment.

“I lost every single booking I had,” said Gooch, a queer nightlife photographer who spoke to Bay Area Reporter about how the shutdown affected him. “At the time we didn’t know how long it was going to last. I was Lindsay Slowhands hoping for things like Pride and Folsom Street Events, and Dore Alley, these are all events for which I’m the ofwhose income has been impacted by the Coficial photographer, and as you are aware all vid-19 shutdowns--all bars and clubs have these big events have been cancelled.” been closed since mid-March, costing scores Gooch feels that closing down these events of bartenders, barbacks, doormen, performwas the right thing to do for the sake of peoers and others their jobs. The fund’s misple’s health but admits that it was devastating sion is to provide some financial relief to the to lose all his work. nightlife worker community. Applications

Queer Nightlife Fund update

by David-Elijah Nahmod

videos of us from The Treatment, and it’s certainly not Scissor Sisters, but for us, picking up a shaker or tambourine was like, whoa [laughs]! We’re not naïve to it completely. All the Eno stuff from the seventies, and Roxy Music and Lou Reed and David Bowie; that’s stuff I’ve had since middle school.

Mark Rice, Dan Burton and Marty Sprowles are Early Day Miners

test, nothing’s shocking [laughs]. It was such a relief, as anyone would say.

You have been with your partner for more than 10 years and you currently reside in New Orleans. What are the pros and cons of being a coupled out gay man in NOLA? I would say mostly all pros. It’s such an accepting city. The LGBTQI scene here is completely creative. Whenever I go to other cities that are famous for being gay, San Francisco or something, I realize how special New Orleans is. It’s very vanguard at the moment, very creative. There is this kind of absurdist culture here that has always had a root in the city but has really been exploded up until the pandemic that I fully expect to return.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

“It allowed me to have a little bit of breathing room,” he said of the grant he received.

“It’s a financial comfort, and very importantly it means that people are caring like people like me, they care that we’ve lost our work, they care that we exist, they care that we’re part of this community, and they want to help protect us so that when this is over we’ll come back and continue the work that we were doing.”

Gooch declined to disclose the amount of his grant but admits that it was “generous.”

Express yourself

Similar sentiments were expressed by Lindsay Slowhands, a queer drag artist and party promoter in San Francisco. Slowhands is the force behind Hell’a Tight! and Millennia, monthly dance and drag parties at Underground SF and Oasis.

“It means the world, honestly,” Slowhands said of the grant she was awarded. “As someone who’s primary income comes from nightlife, it’s very hard to get by right now being out of work. So receiving even $500 helps with bills and food, the basic necessities to get by during these crazy times.”

Slowhands emphasized the importance of the Queer Nightlife Fund.

“The fund is essential for sustaining nightlife,” she said. “There are so many queer people and spaces struggling to survive right now.

We’re all getting as creative as possible because that’s what we do, but this, this will make sure that we don’t lose what our community spent decades building.”

See page 13 >>

t

Helping Hands>>

May 21-27, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Arts groups unite for funding and support

by Jim Provenzano

dramatically reduced, as have opportunities for artists working to support community development, public health, and other social services. An April 2020 survey by Americans for the Arts notes that 95% of artists have lost income as a result of the pandemic, while twothirds face unemployment. Those sheltering alone face unprecedented social isolation and loss of access to peers and collaborators.

More info at https://ybca.org

W

ith so many arts organizations suffering amid the pandemic, many nonprofits are banding together to get more government support and online patronage, and offer it to artists and other nonprofits.

The Prism Foundation provides grants for projects and nonprofits that are positively impacting the Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQ+ communities. Grants range from $1,000 to $5,000 and provide core funding to under-resourced and/or underrepresented local community organizations and projects. Their portfolio of grantees is equally as diverse as our scholarship recipients, spanning across gender identities, racial and ethnic communities, indigenous backgrounds, and more, as well as the nature of the project whether it be funding community events, films, ethnographic surveys, or training tools. www.theprismfoundation.org/ grants In response to the urgent needs of the Bay Area arts community, Southern Exposure is redirecting its 2020 Alternative Exposure funds to support local artists and arts groups who are in dire need of emergency support, with funds becoming available in early summer 2020. SoEx recognizes that artists are facing unforeseen and potentially catastrophic challenges right now due to canceled and postponed exhibitions, performances, and other gigs and day jobs due to COVID-19.

In partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, SoEx will allocate a total of

Oakland assistance

YBCA featured artist Cece Carpio

$60,000 to support Bay Area working artists in need. Sixty grants of $1,000 each will be made available to visual and multidisciplinary artists. Priority will be given to artists who are Black, Indigenous, POC, elder, LGBTQ+, disabled, immunecompromised, and immigrants.

Funds may be used to cover any needed expenses. For more information about eligibility and how to apply, visit soex.org.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts announced the creation of the Artist Power Center, a digital platform and hotline to help artists and cultural workers navigate emergency relief and build towards recovery and regeneration. This long-term initiative features customized tools designed to eliminate the challenges of tracking funding opportunities and will serve as a space for artists to organize knowledge, share resources, and create connections that will strengthen the creative community

across the United States.

Already facing structural vulnerabilities before the pandemic, artists are confronting severe financial and social impacts from the COVID crisis. Performances, exhibitions, and classes have been

The Artist Power Center

awarded directly to those who work in queer nightlife.”

They noted that nightlife is essential to the psychological well-being of many queer people and that it’s essential to community-building.

“The experience of queer nightlife is one in which those stigmatized can come together and feel safe to express themselves,” they said. “Knowing they are in the company of the larger queer community.

Nightlife provides the context for queer people to feel a sense of safety, security, and acceptance, and it also provides a forum to create our culture. Through rituals like drag performance queer people challenge mainstream society’s ideas of gender. In the process, they create both art, and cultural critique.”

Getting through

Gooch and his husband William Bulkley

<<

Queer Nightlife Fund

From page 12

She also addressed the importance of nightlife in queer culture, pointing out that many queer people don’t feel comfortable or aren’t allowed to express themselves in day to day life.

“Nightlife is a place they can do that,” she emphasized. “Nightlife is our home, we’ve built these safe spaces where we can be celebrated in our individuality and through creative expression.”

Community-building

Spencer Watson, Mark O’Brien and Phil Hammack, who are on the steering committee for Queer Nightlife fund told B.A.R. that those

who received grants the first time out are eligible to receive a second grant during round two. The requirements to receive a grant have not changed; being employed in queer nightlife, receiving a significant portion of income from it, and having financial need. Donations were still coming in, they said.

“With events cancelled and venues still shuttered, those for whom a significant amount of income comes from working in queer nightlife remain in a place of economic insecurity,” they said. “Our mission is to secure the future of queer nightlife in the San Francisco Bay Area by securing the financial well being of those who make the magic of queer nightlife happen.

Our grants will continue to be

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, working with the City of Oakland as well as a host of partner funds, foundations, and individuals, announced this week that they have launched a relief fund with $625,000 for artists and culture workers living in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties with at least $300,000 dedicated specifically to residents of Oakland.

The East Bay/Oakland Relief Fund for Individuals in the Arts will make grants directly to artists,

For some, it’s just about surviving and getting through the pandemic.

Christian Gabriel is a gay man who works as general manager of QBar SF on Castro Street. QBar has been closed since November due to fire and water damage, so Gabriel got an early taste of the struggle that the rest of the queer nightlife community is experiencing right now. Since QBar closed, he bounced around between part time and one-off bartending gigs, so he was able to get by.

But those income sources dried up with the Covid-19 shutdowns.

“I don’t think enough people really understand what financial struggle can really do to a person’s mental health,” he said. “So much of how our society measures a person’s worth is tied to their employment and how much money they make. The uncertainty of how you will get enough to eat, how you will keep your lights and your internet and your phone on, it’s a daily crush of anxiety that can really weigh you down.”

Gabriel is very grateful for the $1,000 grant he received.

“Every little bit helps,” he said. “So for me, receiving this grant means

teaching artists, culture bearers, and nonprofit arts workers from historically underserved communities who are especially financially vulnerable due to the economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals may apply once for up to $2,000. Funds are unrestricted and can be used in any way that alleviates financial hardship.

“With this Relief Fund, we’re investing directly in our most vulnerable artists and culture workers, who have been incredibly hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “Arts and culture are woven into the fabric of Oakland. And the work of these culture placekeepers is needed more than ever to help us make sense of these difficult times. I’m grateful to this public/private partnership of funders who’ve stepped forward to support our diverse artistic communities.” cciarts.org/EastBayOaklandRelief

Mayoral plea

On a national scale, mayors from cities across the nation sent a joint letter to Congress in support of funding for the arts and culture sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter was supported

by San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed and spearheaded by the San Francisco Arts Alliance, an alliance of arts organizations working with the San Francisco arts and culture sector to ensure community arts needs are met on a federal, state and local level.

The mayoral letter lays out specific relief efforts that will be essential in local, state, and national recovery efforts, including extending the duSee page 15 >>

that I can make another month of rent and feel just a little lighter for a little longer.”

Gabriel emphasized the importance of queer nightlife, pointing out that many queer people have to create chosen families. Nightlife, he says, offers queers a place where they can unapologetically be themselves and connect with one another.

“At QBar we make it our mission to create an inclusive safe space for everyone, but also in particular for queer and trans people of color, who often haven’t felt welcome in the Castro,” he said. “Sometimes people regard nightlife work as sort of unserious or low skilled, but we are the literal curators of your entertainment experience. It simply can’t exist without our passion and drive and ingenuity and effort.”

Preserving queer nightlife

Oscar Nevarez, a gay bartender at Beaux, said that he was terrified when his bar closed. The $1000 grant he was given helped him a great deal.

Christian Gabriel

Oscar Nevarez

“I didn’t have enough in the bank for next month’s rent,” he tells B.A.R. “I live alone and don’t have roommates to maybe help me out, so I was scared. Luckily London Breed did the ‘no evictions’ policy, which gave me some comfort. This grant is making my life a whole lot easier. I haven’t paid April’s rent, so some of it will go toward that and some of it towards food and bills.”

Nevarez feels that the Nightlife Fund is important in regards to preserving queer nightlife.

“It’s absolutely important to see our community come together virtually a few times a week,” he said.

“Planning events to keep us sane and also raising money to keep most of us afloat. I would say thank you a million times. It’s truly beautiful.”

Beaux will be fine, Nevarez assures us, and is just waiting for the time when they can reopen.

“Once we have the green light we will be opening that second,” Nevarez said. “I can’t wait to serve again and see all the beautiful souls of our community come together.”t www.sfqueernightlifefund.org

<< TV

14 • Bay Area Reporter • May 21-27, 2020

High crimes and ‘dyketronic’ dramedy

t

Monica Raymund and James Badge Dale in Hightown.

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini in Dead to Me.

by Victoria A. Brownworth

O

ur friend Campbell X, trans filmmaker and producer (Stud Life), said of Netflix’s dark, darker, darkest dramedy, “Dead to Me is really a homoerotic dyketronic smash the patriarchy horror comedy, amirite?”

A perfect, spot-on description.

Dead to Me is definitely the amuse bouche or binge-all-at-once series for the pandemic. It’s about death, dying, retribution, loss, grief and the rage that accompanies grief (the part we don’t talk about)–a panoply of things we are all experiencing now.

Netflix describes the series: “Dead to Me is about a powerful friendship that blossoms between Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini). Jen is a recently widowed real estate agent trying to come to terms with her loss through therapy, exercise, and other methods. Jen uses anger and resentment as an outlet for her grief. She meets Judy in a therapy group for bereft spouses. Jen mourns her husband, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver, while Judy grieves for her fiancé, who died of a heart attack.”

The women face their loss differently: Jen is in a very dark, angry place and lashes out at everyone.

Judy wants to reach out to everyone–even the irascible Jen. But Judy has a dark secret and Jen becomes more unhinged as she unravels the mystery of her husband’s death.

This is a series where the spoilers come fast and furious, so that’s as much as you need. Applegate (Married with Children) and Cardellini (Bloodline) are absolutely brilliant as Jen and Judy become more and more deeply emotionally involved with each other. Season 2 dropped on Netflix last week, but you must watch Season 1 first.

High crimes

If you love lesbians, hardcore detectives, crime dramas, miss the beach and have a stalker shrine to Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire, The Good Wife), you’ll love Hightown, the new thriller on STARZ that debuted May 17.

We adore Raymund and she is superb in Hightown. The out bisexual actress tears up the screen here, where she finally gets the leading role she has long deserved. Raymund told TV Guide May 17, “Any time I get to play a member of my community, I jump on it.”

Jackie Quiñones (Monica Raymund) is a hard-partying butch on the prowl in Provincetown, the gay-

est spot outside San Francisco. She’s a National Marine Fisheries Service Agent, who has a hidden yearning to be a real cop, but she mostly uses her gun and badge to seduce women tourists; many women tourists, with terrible pick-up lines.

Hard-drinking and drugging–we see her do coke right on the street and she is always a little high on booze-Jackie is a quick-to-anger woman on the edge with no real direction.

Then she stumbles drunkenly onto the beach on Cape Cod Bay where she finds the body of a young woman who’s been dumped there.

From there out, Jackie is on a mission: get sober and solve the murder no one else seems to care about.

Hightown is beautifully shot and incredibly vivid. As Jackie finds herself at the epicenter of the Cape’s grim heroin epidemic, she has to take a hard look at her own life and the lives of the people –especially the women– around her.

The 12-Step scenes will resonate for anyone who’s been in one.

There are some misses. The show needed more Latinx characters and there is too much attention on the male detective also working the case who has a penchant for strippers.

And like most police procedurals, there is too much rough sex with sex workers. We don’t need to see that.

We need to see that it’s wrong.

Riley Voelkel is exceptionally good as a stripper involved in the case who is married to a minor drug lord, Mike Pniewski (The Good Wife, The Good Fight) is also good as Jackie’s protective partner.

Hightown is created and written

by Rebecca Cutter (Gotham). In January at the Television Critics Association panel, Cutter said she wanted to tell a “tough guy” story with “ballbreaking language” through the female lens. The series is executive produced by Cutter, Gary Lennon (Power, Euphoria) and king of police procedurals, Jerry Bruckheimer.

The series is directed by out lesbian cinematographer Rachel Morrison. In 2017, Morrison became the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in the Academy’s then-90th year history (shameful, but cool that a lesbian was the first) for her work on out lesbian director Dee Rees’ film Mudbound.

Watch Rees’ Pariah, if you haven’t seen it–it’s an extraordinary film about a young black lesbian. It’s available on YouTube, as is her film Bessie, about Bessie Smith, starring Queen Latifah.

Morrison was also cinematographer on Fruitvale Station, the

award-winning documentary about the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant.

Media moments

We sobbed our way through President Barack Obama’s commencement speech to 2020’s high school graduates on the all-network Graduate Together special May 16.

The effortless compassion, encouragement and guidance in Obama’s speech was a keen reminder of what’s at stake in the months ahead and how critical our votes are come November.

Graduate Together reminded us of what presidential looks like. But we also watched because we were expelled from our all-girls high school at 16 for being a lesbian, got put to a mental hospital for conversion therapy, and subsequently attempted suicide. We never had that high

President Barack Obama

school graduation event. All these years later, it was a deeply emotional (and surprisingly cathartic) hour.

You can watch on YouTube or CNN. It’s definitely another marker in this pandemic era.

The tributes continue to pour in for Lynn Shelton, who died suddenly of a blood disorder May 15 in Los Angeles. Shelton was a superb,

Christa Holka

Lilly Wachowski

award-winning indie filmmaker (Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister) and also directed some of the best TV of the past decade, including Mad Men, Fresh Off the Boat, GLOW and most recently, Little Fires Everywhere.

Shelton’s work was accessible, ironic, messy and fun. May her memory be as a blessing to those who loved her and loved her work.

Trans director Lilly Wachowski took on creepy billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and cyborg first daughter Ivanka Trump when they quoted Wachowski’s film The Matrix on Twitter May 17.

Musk tweeted, “Take the red pill,” to which Ivanka responded, “Taken!”

The line references the famous early scene in The Matrix, but “redpilling” has been adopted by conservatives as well as a misogynist subreddit group to mean embracing far right “values.”

Wachowski tweeted, “Fuck both of you.” The badass response went wildly viral. So Wachowski suggested Twitter users donate to Brave Space Alliance, an organization that supports trans and gender-nonconforming people in the Chicago area.t

Homing’s In:

Arts, nightlife & community events online

Arts, nightlife and community events offer a wide variety of viewing fun and interactive opportunities. For the full list, go to www.ebar.com

San Francisco

t Leather>>

May 21-27, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Calm amid the storm

Race Bannon with his latest reading selection, Brent Heinze’s Redefining Normal 2.

by Race Bannon

O

riginally, I was going to write an entirely different column this week than what is before you now. I was going to stand on a metaphorical mountaintop overlooking all the happenings and goings on amid the pandemic among the many people who read what I write and offer a bunch of advice.

Since I write, speak and opine about adventurous sexuality and nontraditional relationships, I have fielded a healthy share of people contacting me and asking some version of the question: “How are you dealing with all this?” This of course being the pandemic and the sudden restrictions it has put on our lives.

That is what I was going to write about – how to adjust having sex with others to sexting and webcam-based affairs, how to maintain a sense of community by joining various Twitch and Zoom meetups and parties, ways to best self-pleasure, and how to start assessing your individual circumstance of risk to decide when and if you can have sex with others, until this whole COVID-19 mess has subsided.

Those are all still worthy of discussion and I will likely touch upon such topics again, but what really struck me as I started to write was that I am rather okay right now.

When I realized that I was not feel-

<<

Arts Groups unite

From page 13

ration of unemployment insurance for artists, arts professionals, and self-employed workers whose income has been negatively impacted

by COVID-19.

The request asks for extending SBA and Paycheck Protection Program assistance for artists and arts professionals and providing additional forgivable SBA loans to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, self-employed workers, sole proprietors, small LLCs, and eliminate the 500-employee cap for 501(c) (3) nonprofit organizations; and adjusting the Economic Stabilization Fund or other mechanisms to implement programs to support nonprofit employers with between 500 and 10,000 employees, including loanforgiveness and other provisions.

“The arts and culture sector exists to serve the creativity of the community and is an essential vehicle for healing and the equitable and sustainable redevelopment of cities across the nation,” said Deborah Cullinan, co-chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance and CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

“As we evolve the ways we produce and bring audiences together, it is

ing overly stressed about sex or my relationship sphere, I had to ask myself why.

That led to me sitting quietly and attempting to figure out why I was not freaking out about not having sex for nearly three months when I’m such a highly sexual being or why my separation from so many with whom I have intimate, loving relationships was not sending me into a spiral of depression.

Not only was I feeling okay, but many of my friends and acquaintances I have chatted with are reporting the same lack of stress or anxiety, at least around sex and relationships.

Do not get me wrong.

There are without doubt aspects of sheltering in place that are absolutely stress-inducing. I am not discounting the severity of those factors. What I am referencing here is an interesting specific phenomenon I have noticed in myself and that others have reported experiencing as well.

Honesty with self is an interesting animal. When we bump up against a truth about ourselves that runs entirely counter to how we supposedly see ourselves, it can be disconcerting.

It can weaken the foundations upon which we have placed our identity.

The most honest answer I came to is that I am doing okay, at least in terms of my sexuality and far-flung relationships, in large part because I only by working hand-in-hand with the support of our government on the federal, state, and local level that we will be able to provide creative homes for artists and centers for community engagement.”

Included in the letter were statistics proving the importance of sustaining the arts.

The arts sector is an economic engine that directly employs more than five million workers. In March

needed a respite from it all. I needed to slow down and just be me for a while. I needed the counterbalance of complete inactivity and idleness to better reflect on my usual life of rabid activity and busyness.

During a normal week I would be attending at least three or four gatherings such as bar meet-ups, gear events, or sex education workshops.

I would be meeting with or communicating constantly with my inner circle of intimate relationships.

I would be attending a sex party and probably having sex elsewhere too. I would be busy. Extremely and nonstop busy.

I am often encouraging my readers to attend one of the gazillion events our rich abundance of local queer culture offers. Whether it be beer busts, contests, classes, discussion groups, dances, or any of the plethora of events the Bay Area usually has on its calendar, I would be championing them all and encouraging as many people as possible to attend. Truth be told, when we can do all that again I am likely to return to such encouragement.

However, I have not been entirely angry at the pause in life.

Has anyone else noticed that since leather and contest events have been put on hold that there has been relatively little online social media mudslinging? I sure have, and it has been gloriously calming. I see people being much kinder online and I love it.

Does anyone else approach a Friday or Saturday night and feel a sense of urgency, then suddenly realize that no, you do not need to get your gear ready, groom yourself to perfection, clean yourself out, or check that all your tickets are in place for the night ahead? I do, and I catch myself releasing an exhale of gratefulness that none of that is required of me.

Might others also feel a tiny bit less guilty for not meeting up with certain friends in real time because the virus is keeping us socially distant and therefore you have a solid reason to simply curl up on the couch and read a book rather than force socialization that doesn’t always feel comfortable?

I have not longed for any specific leather of fetish gear since being sheltered in place. Apart from a couple of online purchases to improve my own masturbatory fantasy sessions or to empower a type of

remote erotic play, my inner kinky consumer has not been as engaged as it typically manifests. The desire for more stuff just is not there.

What I am getting at is that the peace and time alone is the silver lining I am choosing to acknowledge as we experience the shit show that is our national COVID-19 reality. Others appear to be doing the same and my better self hopes that what lessons I am learning about my usual busyness and driven behaviors might inform my future self to slow down and smell the roses a bit more.

Now I am going to go back to masturbating or reading a book, because right now that seems to be exactly what I need.t Resources Guide The LGBTQ Leather, Kink and Sexuality Communities Resources Guide is a “living” document and will be updated ongoing as more information is made available. https://bit.ly/2Jpcxud Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

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2020, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the arts and culture workforce contributedSTEVEN-18104-18105.indd $877.8 billion, or 4.5 percent, to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017.

The current losses sustained by the arts and cultural sector throughout the nation have reached a staggering $4.8 billion in just the first two months of this crisis.

Also on a national scale, The National Arts Drive hope to celebrate the arts in a simultaneous event on Saturday, June 6, 2020. During a three-hour period, across 10 major US cities, artists are asked to showcase or perform from windows, balconies, driveways, front yards, workspaces, or even a borrowed commercial space, where applicable and safe. The goal is to visually blanket the country in creative expression.

Said Kiana Brow, the Western representative for RAW Artists, “This project is our response to the fact that 64% of artists and creative workers are currently unemployed due to the crisis. Opportunities for artists to be seen, heard, and supported through events, tours, or showcases have been made impossible, almost overnight. Artists are really feeling the impact from all angles.” www.NationalArtsDrive.comt

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The Center for Cultural Innovation shares Emergency Resources for Artists and Freelancers

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