May 23, 2024 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Mitchell Bailey is expected to be named interim chancellor at City College of San Francisco.

CCSF poised to hire gay chancellor

by John Ferrannini

City College of San Francisco may get its first gay male chancellor soon, as its board president has negotiated a new contract with a former official in San Mateo’s community college system to serve as its interim leader, the Bay Area Reporter has learned.

Mitchell Bailey is currently the owner and principal consultant at San Francisco consulting firm MBailey Advisors LLC. Alan Wong, president of the San Francisco Community College District Board of Trustees, told the B.A.R. that the board still has to vote on the appointment, which it is expected to do May 30.

It’s expected that Mitchell’s planned appointment will be announced when City College holds its commencement ceremony May 23.

“Being a college president, chancellor, or CEO is never something I aspired to but when I was approached to put my hat in the ring, I gave it a lot of thought and did research to see if I could be of some value,” Bailey told the B.A.R. in an exclusive interview. “I look forward to the opportunity. City College is a snapshot of the city.”

While Bailey would be the college’s first gay male leader, he’s not the first out interim chancellor. That distinction belongs to lesbian Susan Lamb, who was tapped for the position in 2015, as the B.A.R. reported.

Bailey will serve as the community college district – City College is its sole college and has several campuses – looks for a new permanent chancellor.

He has his work cut out for him – the current chancellor, David Martin, announced last September he’d be departing at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year when his contract ends. According to Roseville Today, he has taken a job at Sierra College in Placer County, near Sacramento. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that he’d been chancellor since 2021 and did not give a reason for his resignation, but layoffs and budget cuts in an attempt to achieve fiscal stability made him unpopular with parts of the faculty union, the paper reported.

While the board was able to approve a balanced budget and set aside a 5% reserve, it faced harsh criticism from students and faculty over the cuts it made to do so. And it is already brac-

Ward revives bill to ban forced outing of trans students

by Matthew S. Bajko

Astate lawmaker has revived his bill aimed at prohibiting California school officials from outing transgender students to their parents or guardians without their permission. It comes as other LGBTQ-related bills advance out of their house of origin in the Legislature.

Wednesday gay state Assemblymember

Chris Ward (D-San Diego) announced he was using what is known as the gut-and-amend option to rewrite his Assembly Bill 1955 so it now would ban the forced outing of transgender students in the state by public school officials unless they determine doing so is in the best interest of the youth. It is titled the SAFETY Act for Support Academic Futures & Educators for Today’s Youth Act.

If enacted into state law, it would supersede any such policies adopted by school districts and make them null and void. The bill also includes a provision protecting teachers who oppose such policies from retaliation by school district officials.

It would still allow school employees to disclose such information if they believe it will benefit a student who is experiencing a mental health issue or is at risk to themselves or others and requires additional support or services other than what the school can provide them.

“It affirms any teacher or employee of a school district shall not be required to disclose any other

person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression without the person’s consent unless they determine they need to do so in the interest of the student’s safety,” Ward told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview Tuesday.

At the time Ward said he was also closely watching a lawsuit California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed against a Southern California school district in San Bernardino County that adopted such an outing policy. The Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education rescinded it in March after the San Bernardino County Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction order against it carrying out the transphobic policy.

Yet, because school officials have continued to say the policy is needed, Bonta is now seeking a final judgment to ensure the district cannot adopt it in the future.

“It took a lawsuit and court order to get Chino Valley to rescind their discriminatory forced outing policy, but even now, the board has continued to assert that it was lawful, and board members continue to echo the anti-trans rhetoric they relied upon when passing it,” Bonta stated in late April.

He had withdrawn the legislation last fall due to hearing from educators who wanted to see its language refined.

“A common thread in our conversations with educators was teachers want to teach and not be the gender police,” Ward had told the B.A.R. during an interview in December.

“Today’s motion seeks to ensure no child becomes a target again by blocking Chino Valley Unified from ever adopting another forced outing policy.”

“They said their main concern is that students can be safe in their classrooms and learn to their full potential.”

In January, Bonta had issued a legal alert to other school district leaders “warning them against forced gender identity disclosure policies detrimental to the privacy, safety, and wellbeing of transgender and gender-nonconforming students.”

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2017 Media Kit 0 a

Low secures CA Dem Party endorsement in US House race

by Matthew S. Bajko

Weeks after surviving a recount of his primary race for a U.S. House seat, gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) has won the California Democratic Party’s endorsement of his candidacy. It is a major coup for Low as he enters a tough general election race against former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo.

The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.

Politico’s California Playbook broke the news May 15.

The two Democratic South Bay leaders are running to succeed Congressmember Anna Eshoo (DPalo Alto). She opted not to seek reelection this year to her 16th Congressional District seat that spans Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

In the March 5 primary, Liccardo emerged as the first-place finisher. Due to Low tying for second place with Democratic Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, they were set to also advance to the November 5 ballot along with Liccardo.

But after Jonathan Padilla, a former mayoral staffer of Liccardo’s, requested a recount of the vote, it was announced May 1 that Low had taken the second spot by five more votes than Simitian. Padilla had claimed he sought the recount on behalf of Low,

who had been against doing so and accused Liccardo’s campaign of working behind the scenes to help raise funds to pay for it.

Liccardo and Padilla both denied they had collaborated on the recount. A political action committee set up to raise funds for it won’t reveal who its contributors were until July.

Meanwhile, once it was clear Low and Liccardo were moving on to the November 5 ballot, the scramble began to secure the support of their statewide party. It opens access to donors, volunteers, and other support in the fall campaign.

California Democratic Party officials announced May 15 that Low had met the 60% percent threshold needed among the local delegates who voted on the endorsement to receive its backing in the race.

“I think I am proud that the delegates who also are voting members within this congressional district have made a very clear distinction on who represents the Democratic Party values over a lifetime. It is important to me, and I will continue to do that in Congress,” Low told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent phone interview.

He is aiming to become the first LGBTQ member of Congress from the Bay Area. Should he be elected to the House seat, Low would become the second “gaysian” among California’s congressional delegation. Gay Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside) is expected to easily win reelection this year and recently told the B.A.R. he has full confidence in seeing Low also win his race.

Low told the B.A.R. he is standing on the shoulders of those gay elected leaders in the South Bay that came before him, such as the first out elected leader in Santa Clara County, Ken Yeager, who served on the San Jose City Council and county board of supervisors, and former state assembly-

See page 10 >>

Michelle Henry mourned

Assemblymember Chris Ward introduces his SAFETY Act at a May 22 news conference.

Courtesy Ward’s office

Congressional candidate Evan Low is looking ahead to the general election in November.

Courtesy the candidate

Courtesy Mitchell Bailey

Lawmakers request audit of CA AIDS office

by Matthew S. Bajko

Legislators have authorized an audit of the California office responsible for addressing the state’s HIV prevention efforts and care for people living with HIV and AIDS. It comes several years after the California Office of AIDS was rocked by a fraud scandal that saw two former employees plead guilty to federal charges.

At the request of gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), the Joint Legislative Audit Committee recently approved the audit. Laird, who is vice chair of the committee, had worked with his colleagues, lesbian Senate President pro Tempore Emerita Toni Atkins (DSan Diego) and gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) to seek the examination of the Sacramento-based office’s inner workings.

“I am glad my colleagues on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee believe, as I do, that an audit of the Office of AIDS is sorely needed to assess the effectiveness of the office when it comes to coordinating state programs, services, and activities relating to HIV/AIDS,” stated Laird.

It comes as state health officials continue to respond to a scathing audit into their lackluster collection of LGBTQ de-

an audit of the California Office of AIDS.

mographic and health data that California State Auditor Grant Parks released last spring. Neither the state health department nor the governor’s office responded to the Bay Area Reporter’s requests for comment about the audit of the AIDS office.

As the Sacramento Bee was first to report, the former employees defrauded the AIDS office of approximately $2.7 million between December 2017 and November 2018. But their expendi-

tures on season tickets to sports games, $184,000 on trips to Disneyland, and a boat cruise initially went undetected.

In March 2022 Schenelle M. Flores was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison and ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution to the state. The following month, Christine M. Iwamoto was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $481,200 in restitution for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

A report into the matter that the Office of AIDS commissioned from Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP in 2019 found the prevention branch of the office, where the fraud scheme originated, had sloppy recordkeeping systems, as the B.A.R. reported after obtaining a copy of it via a public information act request.

The Office of AIDS is located within the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Infectious Diseases. It is comprised of the Division Office and six branches: Support; Surveillance, Research & Evaluation; HIV Care; HIV Prevention; AIDS Drug Assistance Program; and AIDS Drug Assistance Program and Evaluation and Informatics.

In a March 19 letter sent to audit committee chair Assemblyman Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), Laird and his fellow lawmakers noted, “While the office’s mission is one of great significance and importance the office has a troubled past.” They referenced the media reports about the fraud scandal, writing, “it is disturbing these public servants were able to commit such a shameful crime.”

The legislators added, “This gross abuse by OA staff is even more disturbing given LGBTQ people generally are also known to receive poor quality of care due to stigma, lack of health care providers’ awareness, and insensitivity to the unique needs of this community.”

Among the various issues they want the audit to address is if the AIDS office has fully corrected past auditor and reviewer findings, as well as implemented relevant recommendations made over the past five years. They also want assurance that its funding allocations to local health jurisdictions and communitybased organizations that provide health services “are being spent appropriately and directly on activities and services related to HIV/AIDS.”

Trans community in mourning after San Francisco woman’s killing

by John Ferrannini

San Francisco’s transgender community is coming together to mourn one of its own who was killed last week. Meanwhile, a woman was arrested in connection with the case, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

The city’s LGBT community center stated in an email that Michelle Henry, 25, who’d been a participant in the center’s youth program, had been killed May 15.

“Michelle was a ray of light for our team and so many others she connected with over the last two years at the center,” stated Rebecca Rolfe, a lesbian who is executive director of the center. “Her warmth and presence were felt in every room she walked in. She was kind, deeply caring, courageous, and fearless. Michelle’s death is a profound loss for our community. There are no words to fully convey what we are collectively feeling right now, our grief is immense.

“We want to thank those who cherished Michelle, and our hearts are with all who had the opportunity to truly know, love, and care for her,” Rolfe continued.

People involved with the center created an altar to honor her life. A vigil was held Tuesday night at the Mother bar.

Veronica Pritipaul, who is trans and a navigation specialist at the center, stated to the B.A.R. May 21, “She was a light in our community and committed her life to trans liberation. With her passing, we have not only lost our dear sister, but a mentor and stalwart of the trans community.”

A friend of Henry’s, Jackson Asher, is nonbinary and performs in drag as Can-

ing for more fiscal challenges in coming years. As Wong noted in a recent guest opinion piece in the San Francisco Examiner, “the big elephant in the room is that beginning in the 2025-26 fiscal year, City College will no longer receive cost-of-living adjustments, and revenue will be frozen until City College is eligible for more funding under a revised state funding formula enacted in 2017.”

If it doesn’t see enrollment continue to grow, City College may not see its funding increase until the 2031-32 fiscal year, he warned.

di Mint. Asher told the B.A.R., “She was my baby. She was such a loving person. When she loved, she loved hard.”

“When I went through the rock bottom of my addiction, she was there for me,” Asher added. “You wanted to be around her energy. Her energy drew you to her.”

Asher said they had encouraged Henry in her transition. Asher believes the killing was a hate crime.

“This was a hate crime toward the transgender community,” Asher stated.

SFPD Public Information Officer

Robert Rueca stated, “At this time we do not have evidence that this incident is hate related.”

Wong told the B.A.R. that “we need to grow enrollment and flatten our spending through prioritizing essential classes and employee attrition. Everything else is a distraction.”

“In addition, for the first time since 1997, City College received a clean audit, with three independent financial audits verifying the health of the college’s general fund, parcel tax and generalobligation bond,” he stated.

In January, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges gave City College a warning (https://accjc.org/wp-content/uploads/ City-College-of-San-Francisco-ActionLetters.pdf) that “the Commission requires the Governing Board consider the College’s long-range fiscal implica-

According to a news release issued by SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxie, on May 15 at 1:44 p.m., police responded to a residence on the 700 block of Post Street after receiving a report there was a physical altercation between two people.

“When officers arrived, they located an adult victim lying on the ground suffering from multiple stab wounds. Officers rendered aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and summoned paramedics to the scene. Despite life-saving efforts by officers and paramedics, the victim was pronounced deceased at the scene,” the release stated.

“While on scene, officers detained

tions when making financial decisions in order to assure financial stability.”

The college remains accredited, though it must prepare a report to detail how it will fix these issues.

Bailey, 44, told the B.A.R. he doesn’t intend to apply to the permanent chancellor position, but he is excited to return to the world of community colleges. Until 2022, he’d been a vice chancellor and chief of staff to the chancellor at the San Mateo Community College District.

Bailey said he is happy to serve, “if I can do something to help the college be the institution I felt it should be, I obviously should do that.”

Bailey said he has lived in San Francisco with his partner for seven and a half years. He is originally from eastern

They specifically want a review of the Housing Plus Project overseen by the AIDS office’s HIV Care Branch that is available in Kern, San Joaquin, and Santa Clara counties. The legislators asked that the auditors “identify the utilization rates for each service provided” by the project beneficiaries in the three counties and “identify the methodology used for selecting” that trio of counties.

“According to a past audit conducted by the State Auditor (2020002), OA may have provided benefits to ineligible individuals. Determine whether OA now has sufficient controls and oversight to ensure that only eligible beneficiaries participate in HPP,” wrote the legislators.

They also want the audit to “identify the biggest burden and challenges that affects delivery of services or programs administered by OA.” And they are calling for “a survey of health jurisdictions and CBOs regarding various related matters, including ways they believe OA could improve.” t

a female suspect. Through the course of the investigation, officers developed probable cause to arrest 33-year-old Raymani Yuhashi from San Francisco.”

Yuhashi was booked into San Francisco County Jail on the charge of the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought, according to SFPD. However, as of May 21, Yuhashi was not in the county jail’s online system to look up who is in custody. Nor was Yuhashi on the San Francisco County Superior Court’s online system to look up ongoing cases.

David Serrano Sewell, the executive director of the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told the B.A.R. that the death was classified as a homicide.

“The OCME has certified the manner of death as homicide and cause of the death as ‘asphyxia due to neck compression’ with a significant contributor of ‘multiple sharp force injuries,’” Serrano Sewell stated.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office told the B.A.R., “We offer the victim’s family and friends our condolences.”

“Our Victim Services Division is available to offer support and assistance as they heal and move through this trauma,” the spokesperson stated. “Although the San Francisco police made an arrest in this case on May 15, 2024, this remains an active and ongoing investigation. The police had probable cause to make an arrest based on the evidence gathered at the scene; however, to make appropriate charging decisions for criminal prosecution further investigation is required. Once the investigation

Kentucky, and met his partner in Arizona. Before coming to the Golden State, Bailey was chief of staff and assistant to the president at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.  They decided to come to the Bay Area because “it was always on our list of places we should be. The city is a place you get to be who you are, or who you want to be, so I started looking for opportunities in higher education and joined the San Mateo Community College District in 2016.”

Ron Galatolo, the former chancellor of the district, is facing 23 felony counts on allegations he directed construction contracts toward people who gave him gifts, or with whom he shared financial interests, alongside other allegations of

is complete all of the evidence gathered will be assessed and if we believe that we can meet our burden of proof we will file charges accordingly.”

The spokesperson did not answer a follow-up question about if the DA’s office considers this a hate crime.

Friends and trans and gender-nonconforming people are invited to participate in grief circles at Trans: Thrive, 1460 Pine Street, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. May 23, the community center stated.

Carlo Gomez Arteaga, the co-executive director of the Transgender District, stated to the B.A.R. that “we are so saddened to hear of the killing of Michelle. She had participated our past events.”

Honey Mahogany, a trans person who is the new director of the city’s Office of Transgender initiatives, wrote in an email Tuesday that Henry’s death was tragic.

“Michelle Henry was a cherished member of our community,” Mahogany stated. “Her murder is a reminder to us that, even here in San Francisco, we have to continue fighting for the safety and well-being of all transgender people. We’ll be working to ensure the pursuit of justice in this case and that this does not happen again.”

Mahogany added that the office joined at the vigil to honor Henry’s memory.

The SFPD release stated that “although an arrest has been made, this is an open and active investigation.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-5754444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. t

financial malfeasance, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal which reported May 20 his preliminary hearing was pushed to June 4. Bailey is not implicated in any allegation of wrongdoing, and declined to comment on the matter.

Bailey said he doesn’t know the timetable for choosing a new permanent chancellor. A community college grad himself (from the aforementioned Sinclair), he thinks City College will benefit from someone who “understands the value of community college education, and the value of City College to its community.”

Wong told the B.A.R. that the board has already hired a search firm that will help it to move forward in doing “a na-

See page 11 >>

State Senator John Laird is one of several lawmakers calling for

Courtesy Sen. Laird

Michelle Henry, who was killed May 15, is being mourned by friends.

Courtesy SF LGBT Community Center

NorCal Pride parades, festivals start soon

compiled by Cynthia Laird

The start of Pride Month in June ushers in a bevy of parades, festivals, and other events in Northern California aimed at recognizing the LGBTQ community. It all leads up, of course, to the mammoth San Francisco Pride parade at the end of next month.

Sonoma County

Sonoma County will hold its 39th annual Pride parade and festival Saturday, June 1. This year’s theme is “Heroes, Sheroes, and Queeroes.” The festival takes place at the Old Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa and will feature entertainment, vendors, food, and more.

Kicking off the weekend will be the Pride flag raising ceremony Friday, May 31, at 11 a.m. The flag will be raised on top of the Rosenberg Building, a historic landmark located at the corner of Mendocino Avenue and Fourth Street in Santa Rosa.

The parade the following day starts at 11 a.m. on Fourth Street downtown.

Several people are being recognized by Sonoma Pride. One of those is longtime gay activist Cleve Jones, who lives in Guerneville. Jones co-founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt and once worked for the late San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk. Last year, Jones helped launch the new Russian River Pride that took place in Guerneville last October, as the Bay Area Reporter noted.

Other honorees include Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality case, Obergefell v. Hodges. He also co-founded Equality Vines, a cause-based wine label that supports equality organizations through premium wines.

Scotty King is being recognized for his work as the LGBT+ liaison at the Sebastopol Area Senior Center. “His dedication to inclusivity has made a significant impact on the center’s support for the LGBTQ+ community,” stated Sonoma Pride’s website. “Over the past six years, Scotty has organized fun and educational events and provided valuable resources to those in need.”

Zoe Dunning, a lesbian, will be honored for her work fighting to end the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy more than a decade ago. A retired Navy commander, Dunning came out as a lesbian publicly in 1993, challenging the Pentagon’s ban on homosexuals. She successfully fought two military discharge boards.

Sherri Hoeffling is being recognized for her years of community service to Sonoma County’s women’s community. A stage producer, she made an impact on events such as Russian River Women’s Weekend.

Aria Lorena Bonifacio exhibited resilience after facing religious and family disagreements regarding their sexuality and relationships. Today, they serve as the queer student programmer at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Queer Resource Center and as a peer coach at the Santa Rosa Intercultural Center.

Felix (Pati) Santiago Reyes identifies as queer and nonbinary and works as a queer programmer at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Queer Resource Center.

There will be several other Priderelated events. The official after-party – sha-BLAM “Holding Out for a Hero” – is June 1 from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Flamingo Resort and Spa, 2777 Fourth Street in Santa Rosa. This is a 21+ event and general admission tickets are $20.

Sunday, June 2, sees the return of the popular Wigs and Waffles Drag Brunch at Graton Resort and Casino’s 630 Park Steakhouse, located at 288 Golf Course Drive, West, in nearby Rohnert Park. General admission is $85.

Also on Sunday will be the Atlantis pool party at Graton from noon to 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $40 and up.

For more information, including how to purchase tickets, for the various Pride events, go to sonomacountypride.org.

Pacifica

Pacifica in northern San Mateo County will hold its third annual Pride parade and festival Saturday, June 1.

The parade starts at 11:30 a.m. while the festival goes until 2:30 p.m. at Ingrid B. Lacy Middle School, 1427 Palmetto Avenue in Pacifica.

For more information go to coastpride.org.

Pride in the Presidio

The Presidio Trust will be having its Pride in the Presidio Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Presidio Tunnel Tops, 210 Lincoln Boulevard in San Francisco. An announcement stated that there will be queer history hikes, book giveaways with the San Francisco Public Library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, a drag story hour, and a tea dance celebration with the Music Connects Foundation.

The activities are all drop-in. The events are free.

For more information, visit presidio. gov/explore/events/pride-in-the-presidio

Richmond

Richmond Rainbow Pride will have its 10th annual festival Sunday, June 2, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Civic Center Plaza in the East Bay city. This year’s theme is “A Decade in Unity and Com-

munity.” There will be a parade prior to the festival, a Facebook announcement stated.

Gay Richmond City Councilmember Cesar Zepeda will be there.

“Won’t miss it for anything,” he stated in a Facebook message. He noted the 10year anniversary and small parade that will take place this year.

For more information, go to richmondrainbowpride.org.

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz holds its Pride weekend in early June, with the parade and festival

set for Sunday, June 2. This year’s theme is “Beacon of Pride.” The 49th annual parade starts at 11 a.m. in downtown Santa Cruz. The festival takes place from noon to 4 p.m., also downtown. Santa Cruz Pride is a fiscally sponsored program of the Diversity Center, the city’s longtime LGBTQ community space.

This year’s grand marshals are Elaine Johnson and Pat Dellin. Johnson is president of the Santa Cruz NAACP and executive director of Housing Santa Cruz, according to Santa Cruz Pride’s website. Dellin is a former board member of the Di-

versity Center who works to preserve LGBTQ history.

Preceding the Pride parade will be the Santa Cruz Dyke and Trans March Saturday, June 1, from 4 to 8 p.m. Themed “A Call to Activism,” it will begin at the Santa Cruz Town Clock. There will be speakers and performers.

For more information on the weekend’s events, go to santacruzpride.org.

Clayton

The East Bay city of Clayton in Contra Costa County will hold its third annual Pride parade Sunday, June 2, beginning at 10 a.m. on Main Street.

Among those taking part will be gay Contra Costa County Supervisor Ken Carlson.

“I will be in it,” he texted to the B.A.R. Other elected and community leaders will also be on hand.

According to its website, Clayton Pride works to create a city where LGBTQQIA+ people thrive as healthy and equal members of society through advocating for respect, equity, and justice, and work to build a culturally rich community for members and allies.

For more information, visit claytonpride.com.

People marched in last year’s San Mateo County Pride parade.

Courtesy San Mateo County Pride

SF faces HIV funding gap despite Pelosi funds

by John Ferrannini

Though Congressmember Nancy Pelosi announced $1.6 million in new federal funding for San Francisco from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to reduce infections, that doesn’t mean the city isn’t still facing an HIV funding shortfall from the feds.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, HIV/AIDS advocates are concerned that the dire situation of the city’s fiscal picture means that there may be cuts and are fighting to preserve existing services, though they hope for additional funds.

It was unclear from Pelosi’s May 13 news release announcing the new funding whether that would take the place of cuts San Francisco is expecting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, has long fought for, and secured, federal dollars for HIV/AIDS.

“In my first speech on the floor of the House as a representative of San Francisco, I told my colleagues that the Congress must take leadership to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis,” stated Pelosi, who was the first woman to be speaker of the House and stepped down as Democratic leader last year.

But a spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, speaking on background, told the B.A.R. May 15 that the city was already planning on receiving the funds Pelosi announced.

Last year, according to a former leader of the city’s HIV/AIDS Provider Network, San Francisco’s allocation from the federal program was $16 million, with the city kicking in $24 million in local funds to maintain the full amount for Ryan White HIV services in the city at $40 million, as the B.A.R. noted last July.

During a May 6 teach-in titled “Queering the San Francisco Budget” that the CDC, current HAPN leader Laura Thomas, senior director of HIV and harm reduction policy at the San

Francisco AIDS Foundation, said federal health officials had “already let San Francisco know we’re going to get a cut in our federal HIV prevention dollars, and it will probably be $500,000$800,000 in a cut. We don’t know exactly yet, but we should know in the next couple of months,” as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Asked about the expected decrease in federal HIV funding by the B.A.R. last week, a mayoral spokesperson, discussing the issue on background, said the exact figure is “too early to tell.” The person added that the mayor’s budget office will “work with the Department of Public Health to address the size of those cuts.”

When asked if Breed was committed to backfilling any decrease, the spokesperson said, “It’s too early to tell given our budget, but we remain committed to this community.”

Typically, the city has backfilled cuts in HIV funding from the federal government; for example, in 2013, thenmayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervi-

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sors unanimously approved backfilling $3 million.

Several of the mayor’s opponents in November’s election have told the B.A.R. that they would find a way to fill in the donut hole.

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí stated he’d work to ameliorate the cuts.

“The federal budget cuts are a real threat to our public health efforts in San Francisco and across the state,” he stated. “They could seriously set back our progress in combating the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Our city needs the mayor to step up and protect these crucial services. During the budget process, I will continue to fight for HIV programs that protect our most vulnerable communities.”

Mark Farrell, who served as mayor for six months in 2018 and wants to return to Room 200, committed to the B.A.R. at his campaign launch he would backfill federal HIV cuts. On  May 8 he stated, “I have and will always do whatever it takes to backfill cuts in federal HIV prevention

dollars to provide critical services and support to our LGBTQ and other communities. I am committed to filling the gaps left by federal budget cuts to HIV and AIDS prevention programs, ensuring that vital support remains intact.”

Levi Strauss heir and former nonprofit executive Daniel Lurie previously told the B.A.R. that he would support a backfill of hundreds of thousands of dollars but wouldn’t commit in perpetuity if, for example, Republicans in Congress are able to push through cuts to HIV funds in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Asked May 8 by the B.A.R. about this year’s pending cut, Lurie stated, “Every San Francisco mayor has backfilled Republican-driven cuts to federal HIV funding, and we cannot stop now.”

He noted it would be “a few hundred thousand dollars” in a budget that totals $14.6 billion.

“That’s a small sum for important services when the City Hall insiders I’m running against continue to throw money at wasteful, unaccountable programs that fail to deliver results. It’s time for a new era of accountable leadership from outside City Hall,” stated Lurie.

The other leading mayoral candidate, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3, stated to the B.A.R., “I will do everything I can, as I have done in the past, to backfill any cuts.”

A spokesperson for Breed said May 15 the amount of the financial shortfall remains to be seen and that the mayor’s hope is to identify funds that can fill it as the budget process gets underway.

“We are thankful to Speaker Emerita Pelosi for securing these funds the city was hoping to get to continue funding critical HIV/AIDS programs, treatment, and services,” the spokesperson stated. “The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program has been instrumental to our overall funding for over 25 years. Given the uncertainty on federal support for our on-

going programs, the Speaker Emerita’s continued and historic commitment to people in San Francisco is laudable.”

The city has its own budget woes that make backfilling the funds challenging. Breed has until June 1 to submit to the Board of Supervisors her budget proposal for this year and is likely to issue it in late May. Breed last December asked city departments for 10% cuts across the board. A deficit of about $800 million is expected over the next two fiscal years, and Breed said it could reach $1 billion by Fiscal Year 2028.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation thanked Pelosi.

“San Francisco AIDS Foundation thanks Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for her unwavering support and enduring commitment to HIV/AIDS funding. Her recent announcement of $1,645,787 in new federal funding from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is a testament to her advocacy for the health and well-being of all those affected by HIV,” a spokesperson stated. “This vital funding will bolster our efforts to enhance access to care and support the health and well-being of those living with HIV.”

Pelosi commented on her long history of fighting for HIV/AIDS funding at the federal level.

“In those dark days of the epidemic, we used the lessons of San Francisco’s model of community-based care, research and prevention to have lifesaving solutions included in the Ryan White CARE Act,” she stated.

“This new federal funding for San Francisco – made possible by that legislation – will save lives by reducing new HIV infections in our city, improving quality of life for patients and promoting health equity in underserved communities,” Pelosi added. “As we celebrate the tremendous progress made to defeat this disease, we must continue fighting to finally banish HIV to the dustbin of history.”

Castro hate crimes defendant acquitted

by John Ferrannini

ASan Francisco jury has acquitted a man accused of hate crime and assault charges and stealing a Pride flag in the Castro last year, according to a news release from the public defender’s office.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Muhammed Abdullah, 21, had pleaded not guilty June 8 to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of committing a hate crime, and counts of resisting arrest, misdemeanor battery, violation of a person’s civil rights, and petty theft. During a court appearance that day he said that “what the LGBT community is doing to kids is disrespectful to everyone who stands for God.”

More specifically, Abdullah was accused of stealing a rainbow flag and then hitting a man with a “glass object” in the vicinity of 18th and Hartford streets just before noon June 5, according to a contemporaneous news release from San Francisco police. He’d been following the man and another man “aggressively shouting anti-LGBTQ language,” the department stated in the release.

On May 9, Abdullah – who spent 340 days in custody – was acquitted of the charges after a jury trial.

“I commend the defense team for uncovering the problems with the state’s claims against Mr. Abdullah, especially as it involved both sensitivities around the civil liberties of our LGBTQ+ community members and the dire need of people with mental health disabilities on our streets,” San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju stated in the release. “All of our communities deserve to live in peace, which is why our office continues to advocate for more preventative resources to help people who are in crisis, rather than ever-increasing funding for the costly and harmful carceral system.”

A man was acquitted by a San Francisco jury of hate crime and other charges stemming from two incidents last year in the

neighborhood.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s office did not return a request for comment by press time.

The public defender’s office alleged that “an SFPD officer admitted in testimony that he had misrepresented the facts in a police report,” and that Abdullah had been grabbed from behind before attacking someone in a crowd two days before the June 5 incidents.

With regard to June 5, Abdullah “was in the midst of a mental health crisis,” the release stated.

“Police said that two men thought that Abdullah threw a bottle or another glass object that hit one of their feet from behind,” the release stated. “Yet police failed to gather any forensic evidence or available surveillance footage to support that claim. The jury acquitted Abdullah of two felony ‘Three Strikes’-eligible charges of assault with a deadly weapon and hate crime allegations. The jury also acquitted him of the petty theft of a

Pride flag that he was accused of stealing from a flower shop earlier that day.”

At the preliminary hearing last year, two witnesses testified about their experiences June 5. The first, Jayden Lee, had been working at the Ampersand flower shop at Market and Sanchez streets.

“I was working on arrangements when I heard a tear sound from the door,” Lee testified. “I saw the Pride flag was gone and I went to see where it went and saw he had it.”

When Assistant D––ºistrict Attorney Nancy Tung asked Lee to identify who “he” is, Lee indicated the defendant. Tung asked Lee his sexual identity, to which he replied he was bisexual. Tung also asked what the Pride flag means to him.

“For me, it kind of represents our Pride and being able to be proud of our sexuality,” Lee said. “Especially during Pride Month, it felt like a personal attack.”

Congressmember Nancy Pelosi, left, announced new federal HIV/ AIDS funding for San Francisco but it was already expected and won’t help stave off cuts that Mayor London Breed anticipates.

Pelosi, Michael Key/Washington Blade; Breed, Rick Gerharter

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EQCA must ‘be bold’ on ballot measure

Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, recently announced that it has selected its theme for Pride 2024: “Be Proud. Be Loud. Be Bold.” It’s great that the organization is harnessing the need for us to “raise our voices and declare that we’re here to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all people – and we aren’t going anywhere,” as Executive Director Tony Hoang wrote in an email to supporters. But with less than six months until the November election, EQCA must be especially bold in one area: running a successful campaign to repeal the “zombie” language in Proposition 8 that is still in the California Constitution.

Voters will see Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 on the November 5 ballot. As we have reported, LGBTQ leaders kicked off the campaign in February. The amendment is necessary because state voters narrowly approved Prop 8 in 2008, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Prop 8 was declared unconstitutional following a 2010 federal trial, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2013, with same-sex marriages resuming in the Golden State that June. But the language of the original ballot measure remains in the state’s governing document.

The issue of the Prop 8 language was raised in 2022 due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion. In a concurring opinion in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested precedent on issues ranging from contraception to sodomy laws to same-sex marriage could be changed.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold [contraception], Lawrence [sexual relations between same-sex couples], and Obergefell [same-sex marriage],” Thomas wrote. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”

remedy on this year’s ballot. (It does not yet have a proposition number.)

This alarmed LGBTQ rights advocates and last year state legislators passed ACA 5 to place a

In February, California LGBTQ leaders officially kicked off what they’re calling the Freedom to Marry campaign to promote ACA 5. In February it was reported that EQCA, the national Human Rights Campaign, and TransLatin@ Coalition would be leading the campaign. This week, it was announced that a Southern California kick-off for the effort would take place Thursday morning. That’s certainly a welcome development. We need to see more campaign kick-offs up and down the state, especially as we move into Pride Month. While the majority of Californians support marriage equality – even among Republicans, according to polls – the November ballot is going to be crowded. In addition to president and U.S. Senate races, there will be myriad local candidates and measures to vote for. It’s critically important that voters not be complacent. And that might be difficult, given that same-sex marriage has been legal here since June 2013. Many people may not realize that the old Prop 8 language is

still in the constitution and wonder why it needs to be permanently excised. That’s why it’s necessary that EQCA and its partner organizations begin outreach efforts now.

At last weekend’s state Republican Party convention in Burlingame, the Log Cabin Republicans were able to get state party delegates to vote to remain neutral on the marriage ballot measure, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It’s probably the one good thing Log Cabin has done in recent memory.) While there are doubtless Republican voters who oppose samesex marriage, having the state party remain neutral sends a message to them and they may reconsider their stance.

But EQCA and the other organizations can’t rest as election season heats up. LGBTQ and allied candidates running for local offices must speak out in support of marriage equality and the real harm that could occur if the proposition does not pass. Governor Gavin Newsom, who helped kick-start the marriage equality movement when, in 2004 as mayor of San Francisco, he ordered local officials to issue marriage licenses to samesex couples, also needs to step up. Instead of all these online ads for his ridiculous federal constitutional convention to address gun safety – which will never happen – he should be spending some of his political capital and campaign war chest to protect a right that is in real danger of slipping away, given the conservative supermajority that sits on the Supreme Court. EQCA should begin having conversations with Newsom’s team to make sure the governor is on board and a forceful voice for equality.

Running a statewide initiative campaign isn’t easy, and we believe the majority of voters favor same-sex marriage. But given all the other items appearing on the ballot, it will take work to fight through the noise and complacency to make sure voters know that LGBTQ rights are on the ballot. We need to get that old, outdated Prop 8 language stricken from the California Constitution. t

QTAPIs and SF Democrats must unite

by Michael T. Nguyen

Ata time when LGBTQ+ Americans continue to be persecuted for who they are and who they love, with 515 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation being introduced across the country, there’s power in being at the right place at the right time, even in the darkness. Asian Americans have been the fastestgrowing group of eligible voters in the United States over the past two decades. Hate, in all its forms, can be combated when community members act to center joy. QTAPI Week, a high-visibility campaign that showcases the contributions of queer and transgender Asian and Pacific Islanders, was first recognized in San Francisco in 2021 and will be held May 25 through June 2 this year. QTAPI Week continues to serve as a platform to organize our community into action. This year, we must organize to defeat former President Donald Trump in November.

The Bay Area QTAPI Coalition is a loosely organized group of LGBTQ+ and AAPI-serving organizations that have worked together since 2019. QTAPI Week was created in 2021 in response to the devastating murders of six Asian massage parlor workers in Atlanta as well as the rise in anti-Asian hate across the country, including the murder of Vicha Ratanapakdee in San Francisco.

This year, several voter engagement events have been created to encourage and inspire members of the LGBTQ+ and AAPI communities to engage with voters who live in critical swing states. On Tuesday, May 28, the AAPI Caucus of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club will host a voter engagement event with longtime LGBTQ & AAPI organizers Alma Soongi Beck, Steve Lew, and Eddie Wong. Wong was the national field director of the 1988 Jesse Jackson for President campaign, western regional director of the National Rainbow Coalition, and is currently on the organizing committee for Asian Americans for Democracy (AA4D) that recently announced $500,000 in grants to 10 state-based organizations in seven key states where there are enough Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) voters to swing state Electoral College results.

QTAPI Wee and beyond, perhaps the most important act that you, the reader, can do to ensure we have a democracy after Election Day in November is to find a group of friends and organize this year to win back the House and keep the Senate and White House in Democratic control.

Coalition building is more of an art than a science. When different groups and organizations work in coalition for a shared purpose, their collective effort becomes more powerful than each entity working on its own. I have felt and seen, first hand, the incredible passion and advocacy of San Franciscans in politics from the campaign trail this past spring. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to some of the most talented and hardest working people in the nation. Therefore, we must work this summer to heal divides and build coalitions as Democrats to ensure victory this November.

so many QTAPIs in one room at the recent GAPA Banquet, including Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, former mayor of Cupertino Gilbert Wong, and Oakland Port Executive Director Danny Wan, as well as gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and straight allies Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3 that includes Chinatown, and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai, both of whom are running for mayor of San Francisco in November. Thank you for being in community with the QTAPI community.

The time is now to start organizing your friends and family to get involved in the November election. That means phone banks, door knocking, letter writing and social media campaigns, and other voter engagement activities will be key to winning up and down the ballot. The solution to the rise in antiLGBTQ and anti-Asian hate must be multifaceted and long-term, and it will require commitments and resources from public health and public safety advocates, community centered organizations, and our appointed and elected officials who serve us all.

I will be working with San Francisco Democrats, who are organized into chartered clubs and organizations that help uplift the issues that resonate with volunteers to get them activated and involved in local, state, and national politics. You can register to vote, attend an event, join a club, and campaign for the candidates that inspire you. However, I am asking all San Franciscans of all stripes to work together for victory this November. We must put aside our differences and work to turn out voters in swing states.

As we wrap up AAPI Heritage Month in May and enter LGBTQ Pride Month in June, among the festivities, including a book talk, museum tour, panel conversations, and celebrations planned for

Politics is all about showing up and working with others toward a shared vision. Our nation’s capital will be recognizing QTAPI Week for the first time this year. GAPA, the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, recognized Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside), the first openly LGBTQ person of color elected to Congress, with the Donald Masuda Vanguard Award for his contributions as the OG: “Original Gaysian!” I’m hopeful that Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino), who’s running for the open 16th Congressional District seat in the South Bay, can join him next year to form the Congressional Gaysian Caucus. I was heartened to see

As a former Drag Out the Vote ambassador, we made an impact when voters sashayed their way to the polls over the last four years. In 2020, Asian Pacific American (APA) voters turned out in record numbers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, states that President Joe Biden won with less than 3% of the vote. Now is time to put on some glitter and get to work! QTAPIs and SF Democrats are the heroes we need to save Democracy! LFG! t

Michael T. Nguyen, a gay man, is the founder of the Bay Area QTAPI Coalition that produces QTAPI Week in San Francisco and serves on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee after being elected this past March.

Michael T. Nguyen

Courtesy Michael T. Nguyen

Equality California’s contingent marched in last year’s Los Angeles Pride parade.

John Ferrannini

t Politics >>

2nd gay candidate, Wright, seeks SF BART board seat

by Matthew S. Bajko

Widely expected to seek one of San Francisco’s seats on the board overseeing the regional transit agency BART, former Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club Co-President Edward Wright made it official Wednesday. He timed his digital announcement (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Vb89lcGBdnk) to coincide with Harvey Milk Day.

California observes the special day each May 22 on the late San Francisco supervisor’s birthday; Milk would have been 94 this year. A public transit advocate and the first gay elected official in the Golden State, Milk was assassinated in 1978 less than a year into his first term.

“Harvey has been such an inspiration and motivating force throughout my life,” Wright, 32, who is gay and queer, told the Bay Area Reporter.

Wright had been employed by the UNITE HERE union as an aide to Milk protégé Cleve Jones, a longtime gay civil rights and labor leader. Working with Jones when he published his memoir, Wright assisted him in the effort to donate to the Smithsonian Milk’s bullhorn that he used during public demonstrations and other events.

“I have his bullhorn tattooed on my arm,” noted Wright, now employed as an adviser for strategy and communication for the city’s Muni public transit system.

The contest for the BART board’s District 9 seat covering San Francisco’s eastern neighborhoods will appear on the November 5 ballot. Last July, the Political Notebook broke the news (https://www.ebar.com/story. php?ch=news&sc=news&id=326806) that gay BART director Bevan Dufty would not seek a third term in it this fall.

Dufty, who is serving as board president this year, endorsed gay housing advocate Joe Sangirardi to succeed him. Sangirardi, 33, the development director for statewide housing advocacy organization California YIMBY, launched his campaign May 4.

“I am very excited to talk to voters about the issues I care about, which is making sure public transit is safe and clean, so I can earn back their trust in the institution of BART. I feel confident meeting voters where they are will give us a win in November,” Sangirardi, 33, told the B.A.R. in an interview ahead of his campaign kickoff.

As the B.A.R.’s Political Notebook column had noted in early May, Wright months ago had pulled papers to create a finance account for a BART campaign with Alameda County elections officials, who have oversight of the races for the multi-county transit agency. At the

time Wright had told the B.A.R. he had yet to make a final decision about entering the race.

A key factor for why he wants to serve on the BART board is to help the agency address the fiscal cliff it is facing. With an overall operational budget of roughly $1 billion, BART is projecting a $26 million deficit at the end of its 2026 fiscal year.

State lawmakers this session are moving forward a bill to allow BART and other struggling Bay Area transit agencies to seek a new permanent source of funding on the ballot in 2026 so they aren’t so reliant on fares to cover costs. Without a fiscal lifeline, BART could need to address a $385 million operating deficit in 2027.

“I know what it takes to do this job. From listening to community to pass ing public policies, from working on multi-billion-dollar budgets to lead ing major transit projects, he’s done it all,” stated Li, who is not up for reelec tion until 2026. “I’m grateful Edward’s willing to step up to serve BART and the countless people who rely on it.”

Current supervisors endorsing Wright are board President Peskin, who represents District 3 and is running for mayor on the Novem ber ballot, District 1 Supervisor nie Chan and District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston. Chan and Preston are both running for reelection this fall.

District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, also seeking another term this fall, is another endorser of Wright. She called him “thoughtful, compassionate, and rooted in community” in his announcement about his candidacy.

“Competence matters. We need someone who can cut through the tired political fights and actually deliver results,” stated Melgar. “I know Edward will because I’ve seen him do it time and time again.”

“I think, for me, it is just an acknowledgement that the challenge that BART is facing is existential. By the end of the first term of whoever wins this race, BART could very well not exist anymore,” said Wright in a May 21 interview with the B.A.R. “If I feel like I can help right that course and ensure BART not only survives but also thrives, I want to be a part of that solution. It is critical for the next District 9 BART director to be someone who has experience in public transit, public policy, and public budgets, and I am the only candidate in this race that does.”

He previously had worked as a legislative aide to former District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar, who has endorsed Wright in the BART race. Gay former supervisors Mark Leno and David Campos also are supporting his candidacy. (https://www.wrightforbart.com/)

Also backing Wright is queer BART director Janice Li, whose District 8 seat includes the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. In a statement from Wright’s campaign Li said she was “grateful” that he is willing to lead the transit agency and would be “exactly the leader” needed at this time.

As the Political Notebook reported in November, lesbian BART director Rebecca Saltzman will also be departing later this year. She opted not to seek reelection to her District 3 board seat, which covers parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay.

To date, the race for Dufty’s BART seat is the only one with known out candidates.

Longtime gay activist Michael Petrelis, who twice lost to Dufty for the BART board seat, told the B.A.R. he wants to seek it again this year. But he is awaiting word from elections officials on if he can do so while also running on the November 5 ballot for the open District 9 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Candidates in California for years have been told they can’t seek election to more than one position on a ballot.

Yet Assemblymember Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) won a court fight to run for reelection to the state Legislature and for an open House seat on the March 5 primary ballot. Tuesday, May 21, he won the runoff race for the Central Valley congressional seat vacated by former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), and his name is set to appear on the fall ballot for both seats. t

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Wright has announced that he is running for the District 9 BART board seat.

Courtesy of the candidate

Mexican authorities abruptly shutter LGBTQ hotel

by Ed Walsh

M exican authorities abruptly and without warning shut down a longtime LGBTQ hotel in Puerto Vallarta Friday night, leaving some guests with their belongings tossed in the street. Hotel Mercurio had been in operation for 22 years in the heart of the resort city’s gay-popular Zona Romantica neighborhood, south of downtown.

The hotel’s American owner, Paul Crist, is well known for his work in support of the LGBTQ community. The shutdown came days before Puerto Vallarta Pride, scheduled to run May 22-26.

The May 17 forced closure was apparently the result of a long simmering lawsuit stemming from the sale of the property from a German owner to Crist in 2002. In an open letter published by the Puerto Vallarta LGBTQ publication Out and About Puerto Vallarta on Sunday, May 19, Crist wrote that his financial issues cascaded as a result of the previous hotel owner granting him a twoyear mortgage to pay off part of the $400,000 purchase price. Crist wrote that the owner eventually refused to give him the receipts he needed to take the tax deduction for the mortgage payments. Crist believes that may have been done so that the previous owner could avoid paying taxes on those payments.

“I tried to renegotiate regarding his willingness to follow tax law, but he was adamant,” Crist wrote. “And I refused to pay without a factura [invoice] for each payment. I tried to report him to SAT, the Mexican tax authorities, and nothing ever came of it. And then he sued me for nonpayment in 2005.”

Crist stated that he owns every-

thing in the property, including the furniture and appliances that were removed from the hotel, and has instructed his hotel manager to sell everything and distribute the proceeds to his 24 employees.

Crist added that his attorney believes that the eviction was carried out illegally and is drawing up papers to fight it but Crist, 66, said he was not optimistic he would prevail.

“I have failed my staff most of all,” Crist wrote. “I have failed my hotel clients. I have failed my community. I have failed the people I love the most, especially my husband, who I had hoped to leave a great legacy. I feel deeply humiliated, very, very tired, and very much a failure.”

Jorge Gonzalez, who had worked for two decades at the hotel’s bar affectionately called “Jorge’s Bar,” told the Bay Area Reporter that there was no warning about the closure.

“We are just a little in shock,” Gon-

zalez said in a Facebook voice message. “Everybody’s dealing with this in their own way.”

He said multiple police officers first approached the hotel’s receptionist and the word circulated back to him at the bar that they were locking the hotel and everyone must go. He said they took everything out of the hotel, including the refrigerators. Photos and videos on social media show furniture, including mattresses, being removed from the hotel.

Gonzalez said it reminded him of the last scene in the “Friends” TV show where everything was emptied from the apartment where most of the series was set.

Another longtime Mercurio employee, Briam Robles, told the B.A. R. that the shutdown happened on his day off and he didn’t know if he would get severance pay.

“I was awaiting for the answer of the hotel, afterwards will see what

I gonna do,” he texted to the B.A.R. over a Facebook direct message.

San Francisco resident Michael Williams, who was visiting Puerto Vallarta, witnessed the scene outside the hotel when he went to stop by on Saturday morning to say hello to his friends who work there.

“I thought they were remodeling. Then I learned they had closed Mercurio without warning. All guests and belongings were put on the street. The owner’s keys were confiscated. I went by and saw men tearing down everything in the lobby and the kitchen was completely gone.”

A guest with the handle PR Vagabond wrote on Tripadvisor.com that he was staying at the hotel when the closure happened. He had paid in advance when he arrived at the hotel, with four more days left on his stay when he was told to get out. He posted photos of the police action on Tripadvisor.

“Dozens of people were removing everything, furniture, washing machine, everything, and guests were simply told to move out immediately. Police were supervising the entire process,” he wrote.

In a Facebook post Sunday afternoon, Crist linked to his open letter. He wrote in part, “I will not be on social media from here forward, will not be in public at all, and will not be responding to messages and phone calls.

“If you wish, and are able to help my staff, and by that I mean some money, please contact Gabriel Bojorquez by Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp (+52) 322 135 8048,” he added. “Please do not flood him with messages of concern and help if he needs ‘someone to talk to.’

“And please, no need to respond to this post,” Crist wrote. “I appreciate your love and concern. But I cannot respond right now”. t

SF LGBTQ therapy agency warns of eviction

by John Ferrannini

ACastro neighborhood LGBTQ counseling and mental health treatment agency said that it’s facing an eviction threat. The news came as Queer LifeSpace had to cancel its gala that was to have been held last weekend because of low ticket sales.

“We are under a real threat of eviction,” Ryan MacCarrigan, a gay man who is the executive director of Queer LifeSpace, said at a rally May 18 outside the center’s office, which is at 2275 Mar-

ket Street. “They are claiming we owe bogus maintenance costs and fees from the pandemic. We believe this is fraudulent and unjustified.”

All in all, MacCarrigan said the amount the landlord claims Queer LifeSpace owes is $180,000, but this has changed over time.

MacCarrigan claims that the identity of the landlord is unclear. (The owner of the property is a company, Regent West Limited, LP.) What is known is that the property manager for the building is Byron Yee of Renoir Property Management.

The Bay Area Reporter reached out to Renoir Property Management for comment for this report. A spokesperson would not clarify whether they were property managers only or also landlords, and insisted on the title “owner.” His statement in response to Queer LifeSpace’s claims it is under threat of eviction is “this is not true and there’s no efforts to evict the tenant whatsoever.”

Responding to that statement, MacCarrigan said, “That’s normal for them because they know the optics are terrible.” As for a notice to quit, MacCar-

rigan said it hasn’t come but that “our lawyer believes it’s coming so we’re on alert every day.”

Queer LifeSpace has been around for 13 years, providing affordable therapy and other mental health services to the queer community. It is the nonprofit arm of the San Francisco Therapy Collective. Queer LifeSpace also trains therapists to become LGBTQ competent, said MacCarrigan. There are nine first-time clinical trainees and five associates, he said.

Queer LifeSpace had planned a gala for May 18 at 620 Jones Street, but it

had to be canceled, MacCarrigan said, because the organization did not sell enough tickets.

“We had to cancel the gala because we are struggling to sell tickets,” MacCarrigan said. “I had talked to [gay District 8 Supervisor] Rafael Mandelman about the possibility Facebook had put us in a penalty box for our ads.”

MacCarrigan claims Facebook may have classified Queer LifeSpace as a “social issues organization,” which limited

See page 9 >>

Valor LX2 3-sided gas fireplace shown here with

Authorities abruptly shut down Hotel Mercurio, in the heart of the LGBTQ-popular Zona Romantica in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, May 17.

Michael Williams

Mexican police stood outside Hotel Mercurio May 17 as items such as patio furniture were removed after they shut it down.

PR Vagabond

Peskin talks housing, ‘doom loop’ during Castro visit

by John Ferrannini

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

President Aaron Peskin, who is running for mayor, wants voters to know he doesn’t think he’s against new housing.

“I would say that we are a very smart city with very smart people and we are smart enough to grow San Francisco and add more units without destroying our neighborhoods,” Peskin, who represents District 3 on the board, told the Bay Area Reporter, adding that 100,000 units have been built since he first started on the board 19 years ago. He also touted his support for the Eastern Neighborhoods Plans and development in the Rincon Hill and Park Merced neighborhoods. Between 2005 and 2021, 56,226 units were produced in San Francisco County, according to the California Metropolitan Transportation Commission (https://vitalsigns.mtc. ca.gov/indicators/housing-production).

“We can do it in a way that doesn’t eviscerate small business,” he added, saying that people “thought I was crazy” when he pushed for restrictions on formula retail decades ago, “but now they’re thanking me.”

Peskin made his remarks while touring the Castro neighborhood as part of his campaign just after a rally in support of Queer LifeSpacephp?ch=News&sc =News&id=333300) on Market Street, which claims it’s under an eviction threat. Mayor London Breed – who at that same time was launching her reelection bid with a rally at the Fillmore – had said when she was in the Castro earlier this month that Peskin was obstructing housing construction (https://www. ebar.com/story.php?ch=news&sc=news &id=333045).

San Francisco is the most expensive city in California to build housing, with the longest timetables for advancing housing projects. It is struggling to meet a mandate to build 82,000 new units in over eight years.

“We don’t need another ‘bureaucratic fix.’ A lot of his ‘bureaucratic fixes’ are being fixed by me because they amount to

<< LGBTQ therapy

From page 8

its ad reach, and thus its ability to sell tickets to the gala.

“It feels discriminatory,” MacCarrigan said. Meta, which owns Facebook, did not return a request for comment.

Mandelman said he was concerned about the threat of eviction.

“The Castro already has way too many commercial vacancies, and this building is part of that,” he stated May 20. “Property owners need to be filling the vacancies they already have, not creating more (especially not when the existing tenant is a valuable community resource like Queer LifeSpace).

“I am quite concerned about Queer LifeSpace as well as the other tenants at 2275 Market,” Mandelman added. “We have been in touch with them for several months and have connected them to city resources where appropriate. We have also reached out to the landlord’s legal counsel and requested a meeting with the landlord.”

No clients or therapists spoke at the rally, but two candidates for San Francisco mayor did. At the rally, District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, a straight ally who is running, presented a certificate of honor to Queer LifeSpace.

“It’s just wrong that Queer LifeSpace is facing eviction,” he stated. “They offer crucial mental health services to the LGBTQIA+ community, and now, when commercial spaces are empty all over town, they’re being pushed out. Landlords should be helping businesses stay in San Francisco, not driving them away. We need to step up – this isn’t just about one organization; it’s about taking a stand against the bigger issues hurting San Francisco right now.”

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a straight ally who is also run-

obstruction,” Breed had said of Peskin’s housing stance during her walking tour of the Castro.

San Francisco’s reputation has taken a beating since the COVID pandemic. Property crime and open-air drug sales and use have been among the issues leading to businesses pulling up stakes, which has led to the city’s downtown ranking last among 62 North American cities in recovering to pre-pandemic levels of commercial activity, according to a 2023 studyphp?ch=news&sc=new s&id=326260). Now, the city is facing a $245 million deficit, and Breed asked department heads to prepare a 10% cut across the board.

When asked why voters should trust him or others who’ve been in city government, Peskin said that the “doom loop” could be a self-fulfilling prophecy if San Franciscans forget what makes the city unique and worth protecting.

“I would say, first of all, leadership needs to stop the blame game and finger-pointing and embrace how incredible San Francisco is, and we have to stop the self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said. “We should stop beating up on ourselves and start loving ourselves. You can’t make

ning for mayor and represents District 3 (including North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District), was also there and spoke. Peskin discussed the commercial vacancy tax he’d championed to passage in 2020, saying that an eviction “is not only in the worst interest of the community but isn’t even in the interest of the landlord” because people might not want to rent from a landlord involved in an unjust eviction.

“In North Beach, the neighborhood, just like the Castro, doesn’t stand for it,” he said. “You don’t want that space if someone is unjustly evicted, and it stays vacant.

“Mr. Yee,” he intoned, addressing the property manager, who was not present, “there’s a vacancy tax.” t

other are doing and we have serious crises,” Leno told the B.A.R. Peskin “is the best candidate in the race – the most experienced, the most earnest, and I think most people would agree. With the state of the city as it is, we need someone who can manage a $15 billion budget and 35,000 employees.”

Stephen Torres, a queer man who is running for the open District 9 supervisor seat that includes the Mission and Bernal Heights neighborhoods, also joined Peskin on the walk and said he’s supporting his campaign. A longtime bartender at Castro gay bar Twin Peaks, Torres is a former board chair of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District.

“I feel you could hardly find anyone else who has the know-how to work in the city departments, and he has the strongest history of centering the community he represents, and the City and County of San Francisco,” Torres said.

progress when you’re too busy hating.”

Peskin visited the Castro Coffee Company, Fabulosa Books, Welcome Castro, and Queer Arts Featured, the site of Harvey Milk’s old Castro Camera store, all on Castro Street. Robert Emmons, a gay man who owns Welcome Castro, told the B.A.R. that he’s grateful candidates like Peskin are coming by.

“It was great seeing Aaron in the neighborhood,” Emmons said. “It’s great that the mayoral candidates are coming to our neighborhood looking for our support.”

Peskin was led on the tour by Mark Leno, a gay man who ran himself for mayor against Breed in 2018. Prior to that, Leno had been in the state Senate, the state Assembly, and on the Board of Supervisors as the Castro’s representative. He characterized the idea Peskin is opposed to housing as “fake news” – and is all-in on his bid for mayor.

Leno said that one reason is that Peskin knows the machinery of city government better than anyone.

“There’s no management right now. Departments don’t know what each

At Harvey Milk Plaza, Peskin spoke with Brian Springfield, a gay man who’s the executive director of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza. Springfield showed Peskin the plans for the plaza’s renovation, which will get additional funding from the city if a bond measure backed by Peskin and Breed passes.

“It went really well,” Springfield said of the conversation.

In addition to Breed and Peskin, the other major mayoral candidates are former San Francisco mayor Mark Farrell, a former supervisor who served in the office for six months after the death of then-mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors chose him over Breed; Levi Strauss heir and former nonprofit executive Daniel Lurie; and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí.

Lurie stated to the B.A.R. that “since January of 2016, City Hall made changes to a total of 4,516 sections of the municipal code. We have an ineffective, outdated and corrupt bureaucracy that is failing San Franciscans.

“It’s embarrassing that we’re the slow-

est city to build housing in California,” he added. “I know there’s no excuse because I’ve built housing here on-time, under budget, and with good paying union labor. As mayor, we will restore accountability and expedite permitting for new housing and small businesses. The era of finger-pointing and excusemaking is coming to an end.”

Joe Arellano, a spokesperson for Breed, told the B.A.R. that “Opposing housing is in Aaron Peskin’s DNA – he even sued to stop the construction of new dorms when he was in college.”

“Aaron Peskin’s resume contains a literal graveyard of dead housing projects that he’s opposed: housing on a valet parking lot at 495 Stevenson, 8,000 units on Treasure Island, multi-unit housing in Pac Heights and Nob Hill, and more recently, downzoning much of his own district. That’s not fake news – that’s very real impacts on people’s ability to live in San Francisco,” he continued. “Peskin filed papers to run for mayor and now also wants to file away his record of complete and total obstruction.”

In response, Peskin told the B.A.R. that Breed’s campaign is engaging in the finger-pointing he’d previously called out.

“If you look at my true housing record, I’ve voted to approve housing capacity in this city by more than 100,000 new homes,” Peskin stated. “That may not be more than she promised but it is a heck of a lot more than she has delivered. The mayor is conveniently leaving out her own cemetery full of killing housing, like affordable housing at 400 Divisadero, the DMV site, and Parcel K in Hayes Valley. Every year since Mayor Breed has been in office, we have built less housing than we did before. She wants to finger-point, but the mayor needs to take responsibility for her own housing failures.”

None of Peskin’s other opponents’ campaigns returned requests for comment for this report by press time. t

Former mayoral candidate and state lawmaker Mark Leno, left, greeted current mayoral candidate and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin during a walking tour of the Castro May 18.

Rick Gerharter

Queer LifeSpace Executive Director Ryan MacCarrigan spoke to supporters May 18 about the threat of eviction to the LGBTQ therapy agency.

Rick Gerharter

“As we continue to defend the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming students, I urge all school districts to take note and ensure every student can enjoy their right to learn and thrive in a school environment that promotes safety, privacy, and inclusivity,” stated Bonta.

In April the Murrieta Valley Unified School District Board rescinded its forced outing policy. As the Los Angeles Blade reported, it had been warned by the California Department of Education that the policy violated the state’s education codes.

Ward told the B.A.R. his office is aware of seven lawsuits that have been filed in either state or federal court pertaining to the outing policies. While some seek to overturn those already adopted by school boards, others have been filed by parents or school employees in support of seeing their schools implement the policies.

“Everyone is attacking the issue from so many different directions. It is why we felt compelled to jump in at the moment,” said Ward, who sees his bill as a way for

member from San Mateo County Rich Gordon.

“It is unfathomable to me there has never been an openly LGBTQ person elected to Congress in the Bay Area region, which has more LGBTQ families living in it than anywhere in the country, so it is long overdue,” said Low. “At the same time I realize the obligation I have to continue the work of so many who have come before, such as iconic leaders like Harvey Milk.”

He pointed to the saying, “You can’t be what you can’t see,” in wanting to be a role model for LGBTQ youth, whose rights have come under attack in school districts and statehouses across the country, by showing they could one day win election to Congress.

“I realize I have an obligation to the community at hand ... to provide some hope to our community,” said Low. “We need that guiding light. Again, my guiding light stems from I am a product of and beneficiary of years and decades of service to make our community what it is today.”

the state to adopt a definitive policy for public school districts to follow.

The Senate Education Committee is expected to take up the bill in the coming weeks. Under its former version, AB 1955 had passed out of the Assembly April 24 on a 75-0 vote with five abstentions.

Meanwhile, an anti-trans parental group has until May 28 to qualify for the fall ballot a statewide proposition supportive of the outing policy, in addition to banning gender-affirming care for minors; preventing trans women and girls from participating in women’s sports; and repealing a state law allowing trans students to use bathrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. As of April, it had only collected 25% of the signatures it needed, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

LGBTQ bills advance

In Sacramento, legislation that would require various medical boards in the state to expedite medical licensure for gender-affirming care will now be taken up by the state Senate. It was adopted by the Assembly May 13 on a 62-10 vote with eight abstentions.

Gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez

Other potential backers

Ahead of the primary Eshoo had endorsed Simitian to succeed her in Washington, D.C. Neither has yet to announce an endorsement of either Low or Liccardo in the general election.

Low told the B.A.R. he has not spoken to either of them about now supporting his candidacy. Pressed on if he planned to do so, Low demurred and would only say he expects to have “many conversations in the coming weeks and months ahead” about why he is the best person to represent the district.

“I am hopeful to earn the trust and respect of as many residents as possible, including those two you just mentioned,” said Low. “At the same time I know they have a very high bar and very high standards, and I hope to live up to their expectations and even exceed them.”

Already, one of the candidates who failed to survive the primary, veteran and venture capitalist Peter Dixon, has endorsed Liccardo. In a May 9 post on X, Liccardo wrote, “I look forward to continuing to learn from Peter’s innovative ideas to make our nation more resilient to climate change, reduce federal budgetary waste, and improve the quality of lives of our millions of veterans and servicemembers.”

Concord

Another East Bay city that will celebrate Pride is Concord, which will have its annual festival Sunday, June 2, from 3 to 9 p.m. at Todos Santos Plaza, 2175 Willow Pass Road. The Rainbow Community Center is co-sponsoring the event, along with LGBTQ nightclub Club 1220.

Concord Pride’s Facebook page stated that there will be entertainment, food vendors, beer and wine vendors, and community organizations.

An after-party will be held at Club 1220, located at 1220 Pine Street in Walnut Creek.

For more information visit the Concord Pride Facebook page.

San Mateo County

San Mateo County will observe Pride with its 12th annual festival Saturday, June 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at San Mateo Central Park, 50 East Fifth Avenue in the Peninsula city. This year’s theme is “Love at our Core, Pride in 2024.”

The second annual Pride parade starts at 10:30 a.m. at Second and B streets and will end at the park.

There will be live entertainment, a DJ, resource and vendor booths, and family-friendly activities. Food trucks will be on site. This is an alcohol-free event and admission is free.

Stanford Health, the San Mateo County Pride Center, the San Mateo County Pride Initiative, the San Mateo LGBTQ Commission, the county’s behavioral

Zbur (D-Hollywood) authored AB 2442, the Increasing Access to GenderAffirming Care bill. His aim is to ensure there is “a robust network of providers” in California who can provide care to out-of-state transgender patients coming to the Golden State because their home state has banned doctors from providing gender-affirming health care.

“As these bans on crucial services like health care go into effect, California must be prepared to provide this vital care and serve as a beacon of hope to LGBTQ+ and transgender communities experiencing this discrimination and cruelty,” stated Zbur. “AB 2442 allows for qualified providers to be quickly licensed to treat transgender residents in California, and transgender visitors seeking refuge.”

Monday, May 20, state senators passed on a 32-1 vote with seven abstentions Senate Bill 990 that would require the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, known as Cal-OES, to consult with LGBTQ+ organizations and community advocates on updating the State Emergency Plan by January 1, 2027.

Author gay state Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) wants to see the document include policies and best prac-

It would appear Low has a better chance of defeating Liccardo in a headto-head matchup rather than having Simitian also in the race, as they received a combined 60,517 votes in the primary while Liccardo netted 38,492 votes. Yet Low wouldn’t sign on to such a reading of the race when asked about it by the B.A.R.

“I can’t say because there are so many different variables. But what I can say is that I put myself up and ran for the opportunity to serve,” said Low. “In other words I don’t make these decisions based on who is in the race and who isn’t in the race.”

Low also wouldn’t say if he felt those who cast ballots for Simitian would now vote for him rather than Liccardo. He does plan to work for their vote and that of the voters who backed any of the other eight candidates in the primary. (They received a combined vote of 83,1179 votes.)

“Frankly, what we have also realized is you can’t pigeonhole a voter in one clean box,” explained Low. “The question is how do you appeal to and earn the trust and respect of voters who didn’t voter for any of us. That is my plan of action over the next six, seven months.”

He hopes he can convince them that he is best equipped to carry on Eshoo’s legacy and legislative priorities in Congress.

health services department, the San Mateo County Fair, and Outlet, a program of Adolescent Counseling Services, are co-sponsoring the event. Funding is provided by Measure K local funds.

For more information, go to smcpridecelebration.com.

Sacramento

The capital city will hold its Pride weekend Saturday, June 8, from noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday, June 9, from noon to 6. The festival, taking place both days, will be on the Sacramento Capitol Mall (Seventh Street to Third Street, between L and N streets).

A news release stated there will be two stages showcasing local and regional LGBTQ+ artists alongside “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Jaida Essence Hall, Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, and Jorgeous. Hundreds of vendors are expected, and will offer unique finds, food from SacToMoFo, beverages (alcoholic and mocktails), and community resource booths.

The Pride March takes place Sunday at Southside Park at 11 a.m. where hundreds of contingents will go down to the Capitol.

The parade is free to watch; festival tickets start at $17 for adult general admission, with lower prices for seniors and kids. VIP and other package options are also available.

The release noted that for everyone’s safety, bag checks and security screenings will be conducted upon entry to the festival.

Sacramento Pride is a program of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit sacramentopride.org.

tices for how local governments and nongovernmental entities can equitably serve LGBTQ+ communities during an emergency or natural disaster.

“Our state policies and guidelines must serve all Californians equitably,” stated Padilla. “In the aftermath of a disaster, people need to know that they are going to get the care and services they need, without the fear of discrimination or the shadow of prejudice. When people are at their most vulnerable, it is at the very core of our values to be there to render aid, no matter who they love.”

A bill requiring whoever is California’s governor to annually proclaim December 1 as World AIDS Day is now moving over to the Assembly to be voted on. The state Senate passed it May 13 on a 36-0 vote.

Gay state Senator John Laird (DSanta Cruz) authored SB 1278, which is one of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus’s priority bills this session.

Having a gubernatorial proclamation in support of the annual observance will signify California’s continued commitment to the fight against HIV, contended Laird as for why he introduced the bill.

As of 2022, 142,772 Californians were living with an HIV infection di-

“I hope I can earn the trust from as many voters as possible on the most vexing issues for our region and district,” said Low.

Recount mania

As for going through the recount, Low said the experience was “anything but a wild ride.” He told the B.A.R. he tried not to pay attention to the daily updates about the vote count but found it impossible to ignore due to people texting him about it and talking about it wherever he went.

Even the produce section at his grocery store failed to shield him from hearing about the recount.

“I was picking out fruits, and another person picking out fruit next to me turned and said to me, ‘Congratulations, I see you are ahead by three votes!’ And the next person over to them heard them and says, ‘Oh no, today he is down.’

For my own sanity, I must admit, I tried not to pay attention to it too much,” recalled Low. “But I could not avoid the constant updates from others.”

Between the filing deadline in December, the primary on March 5, and throughout the recount process, Low kept his campaign focus on events within

Oakland

Thelma Houston, Grammy Awardwinning singer of the classic hit “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” will headline a new Pride event in Oakland Sunday, June 9. The Oakland Rainbow Fair seeks to highlight the city’s new Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District and is being presented by the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, which anchors the district.

The event, which is free, takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Splash Pad

agnosis, according to an annual report by the California Department of Public Health. In that same year, 4,882 Californians were newly diagnosed with HIV, and 2,169 Californians with HIV infections died.

Yet, unlike with countless other days recognized with gubernatorial proclamations, one for World AIDS Day is not issued. Last December marked the first time the dome of the State Capitol was lit red for World AIDS Day since its founding in 1988, according to Laird’s office.

“When I was executive director of the Santa Cruz AIDS Agency in the 1980s, my mission was to keep people alive,” Laird recalled. “We are 40 years into the AIDS epidemic, and it is clear our efforts to educate and spread awareness are as important as ever. World AIDS Day allows us to stand with those currently living with an HIV or AIDS diagnosis and honor all the lives we have lost.”

More LGBTQ-focused bills are expected to be adopted out of the two chambers this week. Lawmakers have a May 24 deadline to do so ahead of their Memorial Day break. t

the House district, he told the B.A.R. Despite the regional, statewide, and national interest in his vying to break through a political pink ceiling in the Bay Area, Low said he has yet to schedule any fundraisers in San Francisco or another city outside of Northern California.

He plans to do so in the coming weeks.

Turnout in the primary was at roughly 38% of registered voters. With the presidential election on the November ballot, Low said he expects turnout could reach at least 70% in the fall. More people of color and younger voters should head to the polls then, added Low, who believes they are more likely to support him in the race. Nonetheless, his approach to the fall contest will be the same as that of the primary, Low told the B.A.R. “The approach is always the same, which is to help ensure you are doing all you possibly can to earn the trust and support of every voter and every individual,” said Low. “Ultimately, I hope to be the representative that will work for and represent everyone in the district regardless of whether or not you voted for me regardless of party affiliation.” t

Oakland’s annual Pride parade and festival takes place Sunday, September 8.

Half Moon Bay

It’s back to northern San Mateo County on Sunday, June 9, for Half Moon Bay’s Pride festivities. There will be a parade down Main Street at noon, followed by a festival that runs until 5 p.m. Live performances and themed activities will be featured.

For more information go to coastpride.org.

Sausalito

Park, located at Grand Avenue and Lake Park, across the street from the Grand Lake Theatre.

Also slated to perform is singer-songwriter Thea Austin, from the popular 1990s dance/house music recording group Snap.

The Rainbow Fair will feature community vendors, a children/family play area, elders seating area, food vendors, and more.

Admission is free. For more information, visit oaklandlgbtqcenter.org.

Sausalito, just north from San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, will celebrate Pride with a series of events. There will be a Town Night Out Thursday, June 20, from 5 to 9 p.m. on California Street at Johnson. Friday, June 21, will see a Pride reception at the Sausalito Center for the Arts, 750 Bridgeway. It takes place from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Immediately following will be Pride Night at Jazz and Blues by the Bay at Gabrielson Park, located at Anchor Street and Humboldt Avenue. It is hosted by the city of Sausalito. Finally, on Saturday, June 22, from 7 to 10 p.m., there will be “A Night in Drag,” which is a benefit for Sausalito Pride. It takes place at Gene Hiller Menswear, 729 Bridgeway. Tickets start at $100. For more information, including tickets to the benefit, visit sausalitopride.org. t

<< NorCal Pride

Sacramento will hold its Pride March and festival near the state Capitol.

Kelly B. Huston Photography

by Jim Gladstone

“tick, tick…Boom!,” is more tickle than gloom.

Now charming audiences in an already-extended production at New Conservatory Theatre Center, this posthumous cobbling of writer-composer Jonathan Larson pre-“Rent” compositions shines a welcome light on the sly humor and jukebox wit of its creator. (“Proof” playwright David Auburn has skillfully organized the raw material).

When reminiscing over “Rent,” the Pulitzerwinning 1996 musical about a cadre of young

grungesters in Alphabet City who wrestle with artistic aspiration, sexual orientation, drug addiction and AIDS, you’re unlikely to focus on its comic elements.

That show tugs at your heart like a feral puppy; its baked-in earnestness compounded by Larson’s shocking death, at age 35, on the night before the show opened Off-Broadway.

But, “tick, tick…Boom!”—which might never have been produced without the success of “Rent”— provides a less morbid opportunity to appreciate Larson’s musical skills.

The show deftly skates a fine line between biographical musical and revue (A cast of three is outnumbered by a band of five). Its narra-

tive scaffolding centers on composer Jon (a Larsen stand-in played by lanky, appropriately adenoidal Chris Morrell), his best friend Michael (Marcus J. Paige), and his girlfriend Susan (Catalina Kumiski).

Paige and Kumiski, both superb singers, also slip into a number of brief additional roles, most amusingly Jon’s Noo Yawk Jewish agent, Rosa Stevens, played by each of them in different scenes. (The band also takes on supernumerary duties).

Fun Fact: The role of “Jon” was originated offBroadway in 2001 by Raul Esparza, currently playing the title role in “Galileo” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

The Cockettes, for those who may not know, were an avant-garde theater troupe which was formed in 1969. The Cockettes

performed outrageous musicals and comedy skits, drawing inspiration from silent films, Hollywood of the 1930s and ’40s, and Broadway musicals, always dressed in surreal, psychedelic drag. Nothing like The Cockettes had ever been seen before, and for a few short years they were the

toast of the town, playing to packed houses in San Francisco. The group disbanded around 1972. Now, more than 50 years later, The Cockettes are back. Actually, it’s the next generation of The Cockettes, who perform under the name Cockettes Nouveau. They’re just as outrageous

Versatile genre-hopping

A loose storyline covers the weeks leading up to Jon’s 30th birthday and the workshop debut of his musical, “Superbia” (An actual early work by Larson, one number from which is interpolated here), during which he reflects on his artistic and relationship struggles. But the piece is best appreciated as a showcase of songs, most of which are delightfully clever.

“Sunday,” is a gleeful pastiche of Steven Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” chronicling Jon’s day job serving brunch in a diner (“For a cool orange juice or a bagel/On soft cylindri-

as their predecessors, and are proving to be just as popular. They recently returned from a soldout engagement at Joe’s Pub in New York City and will open for a three-night stand beginning on May 29 at Oasis in a show called “Dirt! Sex! Passion!”

Lasting impact

In addition to its cast of well-known underground performers, Cockettes Nouveau includes one very important and beloved cast member: Scrumbly Koldewyn, who was a member of the original troupe all those years ago. He credits the 2003 documentary “The Cockettes” with sparking the current revival. Koldewyn is the only original Cockette who is still performing.

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Koldewyn stated that he never expected to live this long, and is surprised to have had such a lasting impact. Koldewyn also explained why he thinks The Cockettes remain a beloved part of queer popular culture.

“It’s about free expression,” he said. “It’s about busting past the various gatekeepers as queer artists, exploding rigid lines of gender, letting inspiration rule, non-judgmental appreciation of individual talent, eccentricity, and, of course, sexual anarchy. All the good things.”

Koldewyn took a minute to remember the legacy of original Cockette Rumi Missabu, who recently passed at age 76.

“He embodied the glamor of the drag queen as an artist, the audacity of presenting yourself as a star, with all the rough edges, as beautiful,” Koldewyn said. “A little ‘Grey Gardens,’ a little Tina Turner, and a lot of love.”

Marcus J. Paige, Chris Morell and Catalina Kumiski in ‘tick, tick…Boom’

‘Galileo’ at Berkeley Rep

by Jim Gladstone

The fake news promoted by 16thcentury Rome’s ecclesiastic elites included harsh public denial of astronomer/physicist Galileo Galilei’s proof that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than vice versa.

The news promoted by the impresarios behind “Galileo: The Rock Musical,” now making its debut at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is the assertion that their show makes insightful connections between the self-serving anti-intellectualism of power brokers during the Renaissance and in today’s world.

There are indeed interesting parallels between the Renaissance Catholic church’s efforts to stifle acceptance of Copernican theory and contemporary conservatives’ efforts to deny climate change; but the musical’s creators –book writer Danny Strong and composer/ lyricists Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak– don’t so much draw those parallels as jot them down on a scratchpad with little shading or subtlety, meanwhile focusing their attention on archaic arena rock melodrama. The show needs more palpable stakes and less audible Styx.

Big ideas, minimized

Somewhere beneath its flashy, clangorous carapace beats a smart, well-intentioned heart. The creative team clearly sides with science. But in “Galileo”’s current incarnation, the songs are bloated with the rhetorical devices of today’s worst GOP stump speeches:

Incessant repetition of empty catchphrases (“Louder, louder; louder, louder”; “The power, and the glory; the power and the glory”) and bombastic delivery and MAGA-worthy lack of logic (“Maybe we could learn to fly/ Birds can fly”).

The juxtaposition of centuries-old stories with relatively modern musical styles is by no means a new idea. Think of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and, more recently “Hamilton.”

Musically, “Galileo” has far more affinity with the former than the latter.

But The Passion of Christ is a culturally and emotionally deep-seated narrative, needing only broad lyrical and melodic strokes to summon up an enormous backstory in listeners’ minds.

Like Colonial-era American politics, the Copernican theory and Euro-

A fortress protecting the rights of those oppressed by religion, California extends its ban on conversion therapy to the driving force behind gay suicides – the preacher…

pean political-theological power dynamics are not nearly as accessible to the average theatergoer as Bible tales.

Among the many reasons “Hamilton” was smart to use rap is the genre’s verbosity. Whether through lyrics, dialogue, or some combination, “Galileo” demands a significant increase in word count to excavate its buried nuances.

Further experimentation needed

Galileo Galilei is widely credited with establishing the scientific method, which demands the application of rigorous skepticism. Having offered such, my hope is that the powerhouse New York production team behind “Galileo” continues to bankroll direc-

tor Michael Mayer’s experimentation with this potentially powerful material rather than rushing it to Broadway in a rough, unfinished state.

For the moment, though, there is glorious singing on offer.

In the title role, Tony-nominee Raul Esparza (“The Rocky Horror Show,” “Cabaret,” “Company”) broods and belts with an intimate clarity. Too bad that his most distinctive number, the vaudevillian “Two Sides,” will likely be cut, given its stylistic contrast with the anthemic Album Oriented Rock sound of virtually every other song.

Jeremy Kushnier, last seen locally in the pre-Broadway run of “Head Over Heels,” dazzles with crystal diction and a stunning falsetto in the role of

<<

From page 13

cal stools). Larson brings not only Seurat’s pointillist picnic to mind, but also Wayne Thiebaud’s painted baked goods.

Sondheim, whose combination of sophistication and success is a holy grail for Jon, surfaces at other points in the show, too.

“Sugar,” displays Larson’s nuanced understanding of historic pop idioms, starting off as an on-the-nose Archies spoof but blossoming into a more stately Beatlesque mode.

“Johnny Can’t Decide,” adorns expositional showtune balladry with a paisley ’60s swirl, gently humorous in its clever musical meld more than its lyrics.

Rockers “30/90” and “No More” (a Green Day-meets-Fairy Princess showstopper for Paige) provide glances of Larson’s “Rent” horizon. But their style is enriched in the context of this show’s utterly unhomogenized musical mix.

Larson’s magpie playfulness glimmers when he folds a few bars of “The Jeffersons” theme song into “No More”

or drops a reference to Captain Kangaroo.

On the flip side, while he overdoes the use of lists-as-lyrics in “tick, tick… Boom!”, Larson is clearly toying with an idea that he later took to its apotheosis in “Rent”’s “La Vie Boheme” and “Seasons of Love.”

Among the show’s baker’s dozen songs, there are only a couple of duds.

Bishop Barberini, Galileo’s pal and ally who eventually becomes Pope, then turns on his old friend.

It’s a hairpin turn, too, a poorly scripted flip-flop, convincing us that Power Corrupts no more effectively than would those two words crocheted on a throw pillow.

A large ensemble provides impassioned choral support that vibrates with soulfulness at a purely sonic level. Sometimes I found myself wishing the lyrics were in Latin, so I wouldn’t comprehend their silly oversimplicity.t

‘Galileo: A Rock Musical,’ through June 23. $29.50-$139. Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

“Green Dress,” with its throwaway moon-June rhymes, and “Real Life,” which has a miasmic sprawl that anticipates “Rent”’s most bathetic, selfabsorbed elements.

Lively and lasting

Director/choreographer Cindy Goldfield brings a deceptively casual elegance to her blocking, reconfiguring her talented trio of actors throughout 90 intermission-less minutes, making what could be an awkwardly intimate, bare-bones show feel bigger than life and bursting with energy.

Seasoned theatergoers (aka old folks like me) may scoff a bit at Jon’s crisis: a dire fear of being over-the-hill at 30. But the story is not the point here. Youthful ambition, energy and talent, both Larson’s and the cast’s, carry the day.

“Rent” may have been the big signature musical of its moment, but that moment has passed. Pocket-sized “tick, tick…Boom!” shares a sweet stopped-clock timelessness with “The Fantasticks.”t

‘tick, tick…Boom,’ through June 16. $25-$65. New Conservatory Theatre Center. 25 Van Ness Ave. (415) 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Raúl Esparza and the cast of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical,’ making its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre

tick, tick...Boom

Chris Morell and Marcus J. Paige in ‘tick, tick…Boom’

Lois Tema

Chris Morell and Catalina Kumiski in ‘tick, tick…Boom’

Lois Tema

Rotimi Agbabiaka

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“Cabaret,” the classic musical with lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander and book by Joe Masteroff, will be staged at the Center Repertory Company at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek from May 26-June 23. Originally opened on Broadway in 1966, “Cabaret” was based on the 1951 play “I Am a Camera” by John Van Druten, which was in turn based on the 1939 novel “Goodbye to Berlin” by noted gay author Christopher Isherwood.

“Cabaret,” though filled with splashy musical numbers, is a very serious work. Set in Berlin in the very early 1930s, it focuses on The Kit Kat Klub, a seedy nightclub which, according to the show, flourished during the Weimar Era, that brief period between the World Wars when Berlin was a beacon of sexual freedom and artistic expression. The show’s story is set during a very dark time: the rise of the Nazis, which brought an end to the freedom that Berliners were enjoying.

One of the most memorable characters in “Cabaret” is the Master of Ceremonies, the flamboyant, androgynous host at the Kit Kat Klub. When Center Rep unveils its new production, the Master of Ceremonies, or Emcee, will be played by queer Bay Area theater performer Rotimi Agbabiaka, who is no stranger to playing flamboyant characters. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Agbabiaka spoke about the show, and about some of the drag characters he’s played.

David-Elijah Nahmod: Please tell us a bit about you.

Rotimi Agbabiaka: I’m an actor, writer, director and teacher. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, I attended high school in Katy, Texas, went to the University of Texas in Austin, studied acting at the Moscow Art Theater, received my MFA in acting from Northern Illinois University, and fled the midwest for the sometimes warmer and gayer climate of San Francisco where I have lived for fourteen years. I currently teach acting, solo performance and theater making at Stanford University. I am drawn to theater because of the opportunity it affords me to travel through time, space and cultures, to speak beautifully crafted words, express huge emotions, sing gorgeous music, and wear fabulous costumes.

The talented actor adds ‘Cabaret’s MC to his roster, again

Please tell us a bit about your drag character Zombie Minelli.

Zombie Minelli began about a decade ago as a Halloween costume, which I came up with because I adore Liza and also in order to take advantage of my friend’s newly acquired skills at applying zombie makeup. I dubbed her “Zombie with a Z Minelli” and she was a huge hit at every party I attended. So I brought her back the following year to perform at “Something,” a weekly drag show at The Stud. She sang “Death is a Cabaret” and absolutely killed.

Please tell us about your drag character Miss Cleo Patois.

Miss Cleo Patois is my main drag alter-ego. She was born at The Stud and most recently appeared at the weekly party “Something.” She’s since been spotted at Aunt Charlie’s, Oasis, Hard French and the San Jose Pride stage, among other locales. She’s a theatrical, live singing jazz dancing conduit of high and low culture who only makes rare appearances these days.

Please tell us how you see the character of the Master of Ceremonies in “Cabaret.”

The Master of Ceremonies is your guide through the heavenly hell that is the Kit Kat Klub. He’s a shapeshifting fiend who embodies the delights and horrors of the kind of decadence that consumed Berlin at the time.

The Emcee usually wears a flashy costume. Do you know what your costume will be like in Center Rep’s production?

Our costume designer, Becky Bodurtha, is creating so many beautiful

Cockettes Nouveau’s Noah Haydon, Scrumbly Koldewyn and Birdie Bob Watt

<< Cockettes Nouveau

From page 13

Koldewyn is the composer and the pianist in “Dirt! Sex! Passion!” He will also be singing a few numbers and doing vocal backups.

“It’s a cabaret review of my songs from The Cockettes and the Cockette revivals,” he said. “A bit of recent material and two originals by cast members Matt Bratko and Carl Linkhart. The emphasis is on the dirt, sex and passion of life. We also have a musical travelog, a bit tongue-in-cheek that one, made of the places named in songs of the shows I wrote.”

Steven’s perverts, potatoes & pumps

“I’ve actually known Scrumbly for twenty years now,” said Steven Satyricon, another performer in the show. “We’ve been working on stage together since 2007, so it’s forever a thrill just to have another chance to play around. He writes us such wonderful material to work with.”

Satyricon, very much a part of the next generation of performers, added that being a part of the Cockettes legacy felt inevitable.

“I’ve always loved genderfuck, even before I knew the word,” he said. “I used

See page 16 >>

emcee looks and is certainly leaning into his gender expansive nature. I have several costumes in this production and they run the gamut from flashy to funny to adorable to sultry to sinister.

You’ve played the Emcee before. What do you like about playing this character?

I played the Emcee in college and am excited to play the role profession-

ally for the first time. I love getting to sing, dance, act and interact with the audience as such a colorful, queer, and multi-layered character. I love the cheeky sexappeal of the role and the way that his dark undercurrents bubble up through the mesmerizing surface.

Would you say there are parallels between the story of “Cabaret” and what’s going on in the

world today, given the rise of the religious right and conservative politicians?

I think what “Cabaret” does wonderfully is show us various characters in a turbulent time, which may have some parallels to our own, and the different ways in which they respond, from ramping up their addictions, to fleeing, to denial, to keeping their heads down, to full out collaboration with some pretty dark forces.

I don’t think “Cabaret” gives us any answers about how to stop fascism, that’s a bit too much to ask of any play, in my opinion. What it does so well is allow the audience to experience the thrill and subversion of queer Berlin in the 1930s and the uncertainty and looming horror of the Nazi era. Ultimately the audience is left with the question Fraulein Schneider poses: “What would you do?” And I imagine there could be as many answers as there are audience members.t

‘Cabaret,’ Center Repertory Company at the Lesher Center for the Arts, $58-$64, May 26-June 23, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. www.lesherartscenter.org

Heidi Alletzhauser Photography

Left: Rotimi Agbabiaka Right: Rotimi Agbabiaka (center) with the cast of ‘Cabaret’ MacKensie Crane

Left: Rotimi Agbabiaka at Zombie Minnelli Middle: Rotimi Agbabiaka as Miss Cleo Patois singing as Nina Simone Right: Rotimi Agbabiaka in fab drag

Shot in the City

Nordic queer zombies, oh my!

by Gregg Shapiro

In the same way that Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson’s 2003 movie adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist novel “Let the Right One In,” wasn’t your average vampire movie, Thea Hvistendahl’s “Handling the Undead” (Neon), also based on a Lindqvist book, isn’t your run of the mill zombie flick.

Focusing on three families, the Oslo-set “Handling the Undead” begins with Mahler (Bjørn Sundquist), bringing his daughter Anna (Renate Reinsve) something to eat. Anna, who works in food prep at a hospital, hasn’t had much of an appetite since the recent death of her young son Elias.

Next in the story is elderly lesbian couple Tora (Bente Børsum) and Elisabet (Olga Damani). Tora is the lone mourner at Elisabet’s funeral. Nordic in her public presentation, Tora waits until she gets home to fall apart and grieve the loss of her partner.

Easily the most animated family in the movie is the one with father Daniel (Anders Danielsen Lie), mother Eva (Bahar Pars), sullen teen daughter Flora (Inesa Dauksta), and younger son Kian (Kian Hansen). But their visible happiness is shattered when Eva dies on the operating table after being

involved in a deadly car accident.

Following a sudden and brief summer power outage, which also somehow impacts car alarms, something bizarre occurs. While in the hospital

room where Eva’s corpse is being kept, Daniel can see that she is suddenly alive again.

Asleep in her bed, Tora is awakened by a noise from the kitchen. When she

looks for the source, Tora discovers that Elisabet is there, alive and staring into the refrigerator.

Unlike the others, Mahler takes matters into his own hands, and digs

up Elias’s corpse. He brings him back to the apartment and awaits Anna’s return from work.

Initially, these newly reanimated corpses don’t behave in ways we’ve come to expect zombies to act as depicted in recent movies and TV series. There is a Bergman-esque quality to all the silent staring done by the characters. Some of it can be attributed to the disbelief the living are experiencing in the presence of their deceased loved ones having returned to them.

Also, it’s a long (and somewhat tedious) way to build up to the horrors that come, including the horrific killing of a pet bunny, the arrival of a more aggressive zombie, and a surprisingly brutal act committed by a seemingly docile character. It takes nearly an hour and 20 minutes for the undead to show their true colors (or lack thereof).

While they don’t have any scenes together, “Handling the Undead” reunites Reinsve and Lie, who appeared together in 2021’s “The Worst Person in the World.” “Handling the Undead” is a world away from that movie and might not be to the liking of zombie movie fans who have different expectations when it comes to that genre.

Rating: B-t

www.neonrated.com

to have to explain to people ‘I’m not trying to look like a woman, I’m just a man in a dress.’ To be a living link in this chain of history is a deep honor.”

Satyricon has his own views as to why The Cockettes remain such a legendary piece of gay history. The original troupe, he feels, didn’t create bearded drag or genderfuck, but they certainly elevated them, and gave them a platform which allowed them to showcase these artforms on a global scale.

“And John Waters has pointed out that they were part of the progenitors of the punk movement as well,” he said. “There was just so much about what The Cockettes did that remains revolutionary and outlaw in certain ways, and that’s timeless.”

Satyricon will be playing a variety of characters in the new show. He’ll be seen as a prostitute, a playboy, a pervert and a potato. He promises that the show will be filled with the kind of raunchy good humor that Cockettes fans have come to expect and love.

“There’s only so much that Oasis will let us get away with, but it wouldn’t be a Cockettes show without liberal sprinklings of lewd humor, sexual innuendo, and exposed flesh,” he said.

“If you’ve seen us before, come again,” added Koldewyn. “More than half the material is new to this series of shows we’ve been doing. This will be our third show at Oasis. Leave your troubles outside. At the Cockettes Nouveau shows everything is beautiful. And pretty damn fun and funny. Bring someone who needs a laugh and some cheering up.”t

to https://www.cavshate.org/.

Cockettes Nouveau in ‘Dirt! Sex! Passion!’ May 29, 30, 31, 7pm at Oasis, 298 11th Street, $40-$60. www.sfoasis.com www.scrumblymusic.com

Renate Reinsve in ‘Handling the Undead’

Neon

<< Cockettes Nouveau From page 15

Cockettes Nouveau‘s Steven Satyricon

Heidi Alletzhauser Photography

Wendy Guevara

by Laura Moreno

In 2017, something very unusual happened. Wendy Guevara and her friend Paola Suárez went with a group of friends on a typical nature outing to soak up some sun and fresh air when their friends decided to go in search of beverages, leaving Wendy and Paola alone on a remote hillside. The two irresistibly humorous women, all alone with their cell phones, decide to film a short of themselves as if lost in the wilderness.

“¡Estamos perdidas! ¡Estamos perdidas!” (We’re lost! We’re lost!) they hilariously repeat, clearly amused by their own antics. “Come find us!” they laugh.

Not only did the video go viral, but they won an MTV Millennial Award for the video.

In 2019, Guevara and Suarez made their first TV on the soap opera “Doña

Flor y sus dos maridos” (“Lady Flower & Her Two Husbands”) as special guests. After they became famous, Guevara and Suárez, along with Kimberly Irene, created the art group Las Perdidas on YouTube to help people heal from trauma.

In 2021, Guevara began a solo music career in electronic dance music. For as long as she can remember, Wendy Guevara has been in love with fashion. Growing up, she worked in her family’s shoe manufacturing business, and still appreciates fabulous footwear.

But she did not begin to don female fashions until a friend, local hair salon owner and trans woman, Lucero, helped her do so. A group of trans friends would meet at Lucero’s home and have dress up parties. It was Lucero who baptized Guevara “Wendy” after Wendy Nayeli from the telenovela “Amigas y rivales” (“Friends & Rivals”).

Her enthusiasm and positive energy make it hard to believe she did not have an easy start in life. First, her father’s alcoholism was a constant source of problems for the family. Then, at age 7, she was molested. A year later she was crossing the street when a truck hit and injured her.

The experiences seem to have given her a real sense of what is important in life. A reality winner of “La casa de los Famosos México” (“Celebrity Big Brother”) after 71 days of filming made Wendy Guevara the first ever trans woman to win a reality show in Mexico as well as in Latin America.

Making herstory

It’s almost breathtaking to imagine that Wendy Guevara made history when she won with 18.2 million votes, truly a moment to remember in Mexican television. That night Mexico City went wild with crowds gathering, car

horns honking, and flags being waved as if Mexico has just won the World Cup. Guevara has six million Instagram followers and growing.

Dealing with sudden fame of this magnitude is not easy for most people, but Wendy Guevara seems to have been born to be a star. Her boundless joy, charisma, honesty and poise have made her a household name in Mexico and beyond.

“I can’t believe it, my God!” Guevara exclaimed in one of her videos. “So many people told me many beautiful things. Everywhere I go, everyone is supporting me,” she babbled with disbelief. When the on-camera interviewer expresses disbelief as well, she replied, “Bien mamona,” (“Well-sucked,” which sounds much softer, even motherly in Spanish, and they both laugh.

In the reality show she sat enthroned on a red velvet chair, meeting and greeting the fans like a real queen.

She gave her full attention to every fan, but after they the line ended and they all left, she was visibly exhausted. She said she can’t wait to go home to León, Guanajuato to see her dog.

She gave special thanks to Mexican trans actress Alejandra Bogue for being a huge inspiration to her. Wendy also joined Madonna onstage in one of her Mexico City concerts’ “Vogue” number as a guest judge: Don’t miss her latest reality show, just released. ViX’s “Wendy, Perdida Pero Famosa” (“Lost But Famous”) offers an exclusive glimpse into the life of Wendy Guevara, a new stage performer, who tells about her beginnings and her relationship with those closest to her, including her family members and the “hell team,” who helped her win over audiences across the world.t

www.instagram.com/ soywendyguevaraoficial

Left / Middle: Wendy Guevera Right: Wendy Guevera

Kevin Winkler’s ‘On Bette Midler’

by Gregg Shapiro

In her own distinctive way, the divine Bette Midler has been telling her own story throughout her career. Via her music, her stage shows, her movies, her countless TV appearances, on the page, and through her activism, Midler has kept us abreast (sorry, I couldn’t resist) of who she is. With his new book “On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide” (Oxford University Press, 2024), gay writer Kevin Winkler has taken on the task of not only tracing Midler’s personal chronology, but also taking an indepth look into her performing life; warts and all. Winkler succeeds in being both entertaining (He doesn’t hold back in his running commentary) and informative (If you didn’t know about the early 1970s video of Midler performing Joni Mitchell’s “For Free” at the Continental Baths, available on YouTube, you do now).

Was your new book, “On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide,” written specifically for Oxford’s “On” series or was it written and then accepted for the series?

Oxford’s “On” series has been, I believe, rather loosely defined. There have been previous books in the series on figures as diverse as Stephen Sondheim, Barbra Streisand, and Marilyn Monroe. Each is a deep dive into the creative life of its subject. I had been thinking for some time that Bette Midler’s influence as an artist and as a major conduit of gay sensibilities to a broader audience had been somewhat forgotten. After reading a couple of the “On” series, I decided that someone should write a similar book on Midler. It took me about 10 seconds to decide I was the one to do it [laughs]! After submitting a formal proposal to Oxford, I was given a contract to write the book.

The new book is divided into four sections: “Bette Midler’s Theater,” “Bette Midler’s Recordings,” “Bette Midler’s Television,” and “Bette Midler’s Movies.” Why did you choose to arrange it in this way?

I wanted to explore Midler’s development as a multi-platform artist, one who has excelled in a variety of media. Concentrating on her work separately in each area allowed me to dig deeper and more inquisitively. I tried arranging the book chronologically, but it felt muddled. This arrangement gives the book a sense of clarity. At least I think it does.

In the “Birth of the Divine” introduction to the book, there is a compare-and-contrast section titled “The Streisand Thing.” This made me think about how “On Bette Midler” is coming out a few months after Barbra Streisand’s memoir, which in turn was released more than 20 years after Midler’s 1980 semi-memoir “A View From a Broad.” What do you think it says about her that she chose to write about at that still relatively early stage in her career?

“A View From a Broad” is a delightful travelogue in words and photographs loosely documenting her first world tour, along with side excursions to mo-

ments from her earlier life and career. It wasn’t meant as a strict autobiography, but as a funny, Auntie Mameish snapshot of a particular, highlycharged period in her career. It arrived just as she was tearing up movie screens in “The Rose” and barnstorming the U.S. with her stage show. So far, Midler hasn’t written her memoirs, but who knows? Maybe she will get around to it – though I hope not to the extended length of Streisand’s tome [laughs]!

Bette’s connection to the queer community is a central component of her professional and personal life. Would you say that, as a gay man, you felt drawn to her?

Author on his entertaining biography of the

Oh, absolutely!  As I say in the book, she took the boys from the Continental Baths with her as she moved into the mainstream, and acclimated straight audiences to  our sensibilities. She was every mouthy girl who ever stood up for her gay friends. I responded to her emotional transparency, her humor which clearly acknowledged the gay men in her audience, and her fearlessness. As someone who felt different and fearful of not being accepted, she made me think that if she was that fearless, maybe I could be, too.

Vito Russo’s 1971 video recording of Bette performing Joni’s song “For Free” at the Continental Bath is simply breathtaking. Do you think Bette would ever do a Joni Mitchell songbook album the way she did ones for Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee?

Speaking of Joni and Laura, I was hoping that one of them might be the subject of Bette’s third songbook tribute album after Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee. The Clooney album was a hit and was nominated for a Grammy. But the Lee set did poorly (and was not a good fit for Midler, in my honest opinion), so it put the kibosh on any more songbook albums. But Midler has an affinity for both Joni and Laura, and I would

love to hear her interpret songs from their catalogs. Midler recorded “For Free” for her first album, but it was not included and has never been issued. Time to open up those vaults!

I don’t usually say this about bibliographies, but the non-traditional “selected bibliography” you wrote is very amusing. Why did you write it in that way?

I’ve read every book that’s been written about Midler over the years; about a half dozen. Some I’ve liked, some I haven’t. Since the operative word in my book’s title is “opinionated,” I decided to offer my opinions on each of them. I hope I wasn’t mean. And since Midler is herself a woman of letters, I also included her books among those I discuss.

How do you think Bette would feel about your book?

Oxford has sent her a copy of the book, and I don’t know if she’ll even read it. But if she does, I hope she recognizes that it’s the work of someone who greatly admires her as an artist. I revere her work and wanted to discuss it at length – to pick it apart and examine it in all its complexity and all its joy.t

Read the full interview, with music clips, at www.ebar.com.

‘On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide” by Kevin Winkler, Oxford University Press, $29.99 www.global.oup.com www.instagram.com/bettemidler

Biographer Kevin Winkler

Above Left: Some of Bette Midler’s albums Above Right: Bette Midler today

t Books & Events Listings >>

Patrick Horrigan’s ‘American Scholar’

by Brian Bromberger

In the afterword to his novel, “American Scholar,” author Patrick Horrigan (who taught literature for 25 years at LIU Brooklyn) notes that it was a historical coincidence that inspired him to write his book.

He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia University on the literary critic F.O. Matthiessen (19021950). In his thesis, he “pondered the relationship between Matthiessen’s published work (especially the indispensable “American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman”) and salient features of his biography, his left-leaning politics, his homosexuality, his struggles with depression, his suicide.”

During the course of his writing, Horrigan became romantically involved with an independent scholar, a socialist, and the victim of chronic, ultimately suicidal depression, much like Matthiessen. He decided to explore this serendipity of his intellectual and personal life in fictional terms, rather than a memoir, believing fiction can “give us access to the significant truths of our experience.”

Horrigan’s gamble paid off, because his novel is one of the five nominated Best Gay Fiction books for this year’s Lambda Literary award, an honor well deserved.

It’s 2016, near the upcoming presidential election. Professor and writer James Fitzgerald has just finished a reading from his latest novel, “American Scholar,” (about Matthiessen’s relationship with his older lover Russell Cheney) when he’s approached by a woman, the sister of James’s first boy-

Author Patrick E. Horrigan

friend, Gregory Lenda, dead twentyfive years and dedicatee of his book. She gives him an unsent letter from Gregory, who still haunts him. James seemingly has a happy life, teaching American literature, resides in a lovely Brooklyn townhouse with Fran, his husband, of thirteen years (with whom he had a fight over whether to have children, right before the reading, which he doesn’t attend), but also has a young, playful boyfriend named Snyder.

Flashbacks

James flashbacks to 1987 at Columbia University where at 25, he’s starting his PhD program and when he first met Gregory, at an academic gay men’s study group. Gregory is far more experienced with the gay scene at that

time than James. With their flirtatious banter and mutual love of Barbara Streisand, they quickly begin dating, though James worries he might not be smart or handsome enough for Gregory. “Jimmy didn’t want to be desired only for his intelligence or his kindness. He wanted a real boyfriend. He wanted someone who wanted him physically, intellectually, emotionally. He wanted someone to feel the same butterflies about him he was now feeling about Gregory.”

Gregory struggles with his demanding demeanor and severe mood swings, but is brilliant and charismatic, an intellectual mentor as well as a lover. During this period, James’s political and social consciousness as a gay man develops (“Gregory taught him a lot about identifying and fight-

ing injustice and how to make that almost a way of life”) as he and his friends cope with the AIDS pandemic “at a time when there’s a lot of people trying to use the epidemic against gay people and turn back the clock on gay liberation.”

What does it mean to be a gay man in the 1980s? James becomes increasingly obsessed with Matthiessen, even dragging Gregory to see Matthiessen’s Boston home, where he committed suicide a few years after Cheney’s death.

Emotional fulfillment

After his reading, James spends the night walking around the city thinking about his next book, rather than trying to repair his relationship with Fran. He’s especially disturbed that he hurt Gregory by not attending Bill’s (Gregory’s best friend’s) memorial –he died of AIDS– despite Gregory pleading him to be there. He will stop by the Little White Farmhouse in midtown Manhattan, wanting to revisit Gregory’s room and the place where he died. He will make the connection between Matthiessen’s life and his academic and emotional fulfillment, paralleling aspects of James’s and Gregory’s partnership. Horrigan cites passages from Matthiessen’s letters to Cheney, admiring their fearlessness contending with serious personal challenges, including addiction, chronic disease, and mental illness.

How will Gregory’s letter shape James’s present challenges?

This novel of ideas (with references to Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, and James Baldwin) is a study of a gay man having a mid-life crisis and how past decisions have impacted the present, particularly how someone you once loved can influence your life decades after they died.

Angst and uncertainty

The writing here is straight-forward, not literary and it’s easy to delineate the different eras, which also includes the 1930s and 1940s when Matthiessen and Cheney were together. Anyone who survived the AIDS crisis will appreciate the book’s emphasis on how memory can both nurture and enslave us, as well as pull us now into new directions which may or may not be emotionally healthy for us. Horrigan is superb in recreating the angst and uncertainty of the 1980s and the threat it posed of stopping, even reversing, the advances LGBTQ people had made during the 1970s.

Readers will care about all the characters even when they act carelessly and selfishly. His book enriches our knowledge of the gay past, not in an arcane academic manner, but in a way that informs our turbulent present. Horrigan is a worthy Lammy nominee, intertwining history, literature, and politics into engrossing love stories with an attempt to overcome trauma (“a procession of shadows”) in the past through self-examination in the present with lyrical storytelling.t

‘American Scholar,’ a Novel by Patrick E. Horrigan. Lethe Press, $20. www.lethepressbooks.com www.patrickehorrigan.com

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Register for the Hard Hat Tours Today!

• Saturday, April 27th | 10:00am - 12:00pm

• Friday, May 3rd | 11:30am - 1:30pm

• Wednesday, May 8th | 4:00pm - 6:00pm