May 28, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

Smokers and COVID

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Vol. 50 • No. 22 • May 28-June 3, 2020

Larry Kramer

Courtesy Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones, left, and his husband, Martin, both contracted COVID-19.

AIDS activist Larry Kramer dies at 84

Drag show for seniors

by John Ferrannini

arry Kramer – the New York City-based gay playwright and author whose involvement in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP changed the course of the AIDS epidemic – died May 27. He was 84. He died in Manhattan, where he lived near Greenwich Village, of pneumonia, according to his husband and longtime partner David Webster. He had been in poor health for some time – having endured liver damage from hepatitis, an HIV infection for several decades, and a broken leg last year. Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco and an AIDS activist, said Mr. Kramer’s impact on LGBT people was profound. “I scarcely knew Larry, having encountered him several times in the late 1980s and early 1990s through my work with ACT UP, Project Inform and other groups,” Beswick wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. “And yet, he was one of the most influential figures in my life, and for queer people generally, whether they know it or not. It’s difficult to imagine the world without him.” Mr. Kramer was born June 25, 1935 in Connecticut and grew up in Maryland. He returned to the Constitution State to attend Yale University, graduating in 1957 with an English degree. After receiving an Academy Award nomination in 1969 for screenwriting for “Women in Love,” he turned his attention away from the movies. His 1978 book “Faggots” – a parody of late 1970s gay, urban life – was widely ridiculed for its implicit criticism of promiscuity and recreational drug use. Many gay bookstores wouldn’t carry it. After AIDS was first recognized several years later, Mr. Kramer co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, then the world’s largest AIDS volunteer organization. Mr. Kramer tried to alert gay men to the dangers of AIDS at a time when many people did not want to recognize the severity of the disease. His 1983 essay “1,112 and Counting” in the New York Native, an LGBT newspaper, began “If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you, we’re in real trouble. If this article doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay See page 8 >>

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ulce De Leche was one of five drag artists who performed outdoors for the seniors at Openhouse Friday, May 22. The socially distanced show, which included drag artists Mary Vice, Shane Zalvidar, Per Sia, and Princess Panocha, was livestreamed on Twitch as part of San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Day activities with assistance from the San Francisco Queer Nightlife Fund and the Tender-

Darwin Bell

loin Museum. Some seniors living at Openhouse’s 55 and 95 Laguna Street apartments watched from their balconies, while others sat outside in the courtyard, physically distant and wearing masks. Openhouse Executive Director Karyn Skultety, Ph.D., said that residents expressed that the show was emotional and cathartic during these times of isolation due to COVID-19.

Gay Oakland couple shares COVID-19 story by John Ferrannini

hen Martin Jones drove his husband to the hospital in March, he thought it was for symptoms of kidney stones. Within days, however, both had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and Martin’s husband, Kevin Jones, was intubated. See page 7 >>

Experts fear a deluge of suicides due to COVID by John Ferrannini

San Francisco Suicide Prevention report on the calls it receives shows that between the end of February and the beginning of April – as the novel coronavirus began to spread in the community, workers were laid off en mass, and small businesses shuttered – the number of medium- and high-risk calls increased by 60%. Meanwhile Van Hedwall, a gay man who serves as SF Suicide Prevention’s director of programs, was hemorrhaging volunteers – the organization did not yet have a way to work from home after the city and surrounding counties issued a shelter-in-place order March 16. “This is a pretty significant increase,” Hedwall said of the higher risk calls. “We didn’t have a way for the call center to be remote until mid-April, so we were working in the office that first month of shelter-in-place,” Hedwall said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter May 19. “Because of that our volunteer force of 150 fell off, so we were having to run the center with just staff.” Volunteer rates have inched back up to about 80 people, Hedwall said, and after one of them connected SF Suicide Prevention with Cisco Systems they were able to start working from home – but that disruption (and the call center’s new ability to screen out prank calls) means that quantitative data on the number of calls per se is not the most accurate indicator of the stresses people are experiencing in the present crisis. The categories of calls that have increased – those that are medium- and high-risk – require more work on the part of the volunteer counsel-

Courtesy Felton Institute

Van Hedwall is director of programs at San Francisco Suicide Prevention.

ors than offering encouraging words. “With medium- and high-risk calls we go into further assessment because if they are experiencing suicidal ideation we ask ‘do you have a plan? A timeframe?’ Hedwall said. “Sometimes in high-risk calls we have to get emergency services involved. “The counselors have seen different types of calls, too, than those they routinely received in the past. For example, there has been an 8% increase in first-time callers,” he explained.

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“The calls have been longer,” Hedwall said. “Usually the calls are 15 minutes – we keep strict limits, you get 15 minutes, so we can attend to all the calls. Now they’re lasting 20-29 minutes. The calls have taken a more acute flavor to them.”

Crises can lead to suicide

Even before the novel coronavirus killed almost 100,000 Americans and made social distancing and sheltering in place household terms, See page 3 >>

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Study: Smokers at risk for poorer COVID outcomes by John Ferrannini

eople who smoke and vape are at higher risk of getting seriously ill or dying if they contract the novel coronavirus, according to researchers from UCSF as health advocates step up efforts to encourage LGBT people to quit tobacco use. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, LGBT Americans smoke at rates higher than the general population, and health experts are warning that LGBTs will be hit harder by COVID-19 due to smoking, its attendant respiratory illnesses and general weakening of the immune system. “We already knew smoking increases the chances of developing a respiratory infection and a weaker immune system,” Dr. Elisa Tong, a smoking cessation expert at UC Davis, told the B.A.R. via phone May 15. “The surgeon general already had this in his report, and one of the first big studies out of China of 1,000 people showed smokers getting sicker from COVID.” The UCSF study was based on a meta-analysis of 11,590 COVID-19 patients. “The risk of disease progression in those who currently smoke or previously smoked was nearly double that of non-smokers,” a UCSF news release states. “(Researchers) also found that when the disease worsens, current or former smokers had more acute or critical conditions or death. Overall, smoking was associated with almost a doubling of the risk of disease progressing.” This tracks well with previous studies of smokers developing illnesses from viruses, Tong said. An experimental trial in the United Kingdom years ago exposed smokers and nonsmokers to five types of viruses – and smokers developed respiratory infections at a rate double that of nonsmokers. Tong warned against a French study that was reported to have shown smokers “may be safer from COVID-19 infection” than the general public. “What they’re looking at is that clinical case reports show a low percentage of people smoking with COVID compared to population surveys of smokers,” Tong said. “But deciding ‘therefore, smoking protects you’ – it doesn’t logically flow.”

Courtesy California Smokers’ Hotline

LGBTs trying to quit smoking can call the California Smokers’ Hotline for a two-week starter kit to kick the habit.

Because there were fewer smokers in the population studied by the French researchers than in the general population, people hypothesized smoking may offer some protection against infection. But there could be other reasons for fewer smokers being represented in the study. “Sometimes people say they don’t smoke and when you press, they did until last week,” Tong said. “It’s also not necessarily a mandatory regulation to collect data for each and every person. The data we do have shows smokers doing much worse, and in fact it may be an underestimate. We should not be amplifying unproven claims. There’s enough epidemiological evidence.” Bob Gordon, a San Franciscan and gay man who is project director for the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership and the co-chair of the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition, said he is reaching out to the public to help spread accurate information about tobacco and COVID-19. “I haven’t personally encountered any misinformation about COVID-19 and smoking yet, but I was very glad to see the analysis from UCSF last week that thoroughly debunked any idea that smoking could be protective against this virus,” Gordon stated in a recent email to the B.A.R. May 18. “We want to remind people that tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable death and disease – the idea that it could be beneficial to our health in any way is misleading and harmful.” Gordon stated that he checked in with

the California Smokers’ Helpline, which has lent its name to a flyer specifically to LGBTs offering a free two-week starter kit of nicotine patches. He encourages smokers to contact the helpline. “I checked in with the helpline, and they did see an uptick in intake calls from March to April 2020, and it’s higher than what they saw in April 2019,” Gordon wrote. “They are advertising right now too, and we are glad to see that more people are making the choice to quit.” Tong said she hopes that getting the word out about the flyer will help more LGBTs quit smoking. “We want to try to get everyone staying at home to get their lungs healed,” Tong said. “We spoke with some of the county public health agencies and asked them about ‘how can we adapt some of the flyers’ since nobody is going to the clinic anymore. So we rely on people sharing it, social media, and other forms of communication.” Gordon reiterated long-standing public health guidance about tobacco use. “What’s important to remember is that quitting smoking or vaping is one of the best things anyone can do to protect their health,” Gordon stated. “There are so many benefits, in addition to decreasing the risks from COVID-19. Quitting helps build immunity, slows aging, improves sexual health, and will help us live longer.” The California Smokers Helpline can be reached at 1-800-NO-BUTTS (1-800-662-8887). t

Woodside joins San Mateo County Pride campaign by Matthew S. Bajko

an Mateo County LGBT leaders are close to seeing more than half of the 20 incorporated cities and towns in the Peninsula jurisdiction mark Pride Month in June now that the town of Woodside has issued its first Pride proclamation. Mayor Ned Fluet, a member of the town’s five-person council, virtually handed the document proclaiming June as Pride Month to Giuliana Garcia, a member of the county’s LGBTQ commission, after reading it aloud during the council’s May 26 meeting conducted via Zoom. Garcia, who represents East Palo Alto on the advisory panel, thanked the council members for taking part in the Pride Visibility campaign this year. With people sheltering in place to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, and most of the region’s annual Pride events either canceled or turned into virtual celebrations, Garcia noted it is even more important this year for LGBT people to see their hometowns mark Pride Month. San Mateo County’s eighth annual Pride

Courtesy Town of Woodside

The town of Woodside issued its first Pride proclamation Tuesday.

event that was to be held June 13 has been turned into a week’s worth of online events leading up to that Saturday due to the health crisis. “In a time of social distancing simple acts of visibility create a deeper sense of inclusion and connection,” said Garcia, noting that the actions have “taken on greater urgency due to the pandemic, which has led to the cancellation or postponement of Pride parades and celebrations.”

Woodside’s participation had been expected, as Councilman Daniel Yost, a gay man who lives in the town with his husband and their children, had told the Bay Area Reporter he saw no reason it would decline to take part in the Pride initiative. As the B.A.R. first reported online May 11, LGBT leaders are working on seeing all 20 of the incorporated cities and towns in San Mateo County celebrate Pride Month in some manner for the first time this June. Daly City and the city of San Mateo, for instance, will be flying the rainbow flag for the first time in front of their city halls. The South San Francisco City Council at its meeting Wednesday, May 27, is set to again declare June as LGBTQ Pride Month by flying the rainbow flag at its City Hall and illuminating the building in rainbow colors. Half Moon Bay residents are planning a car caravan to their City Hall at 11 a.m. Monday, June 1, to see their city fly the rainbow flag for the first time. See page 8 >>

Community News>>

t Castro Street may be closed off to traffic for dining

May 28-June 3, 2020 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

by John Ferrannini

astro Street between Market and 19th streets is one location that is being considered for partial closure to vehicular traffic so that dine-in restaurants can reopen, according to Jacob Bintliff, legislative aide to gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. Bintliff, a gay man, said in a May 21 phone call with the Bay Area Reporter that nothing is set in stone, and the idea is one of many proposals to help the beleaguered restaurant industry. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association has been lobbying the city’s economic recovery task force to allow outdoor dining, Bintliff said. Widespread outdoor dining came one step closer to becoming a reality Tuesday morning when the task force announced the creation of the shared spaces program, which will allow for no-cost, expedited permits to share sidewalks, parking lanes, parks, and full or partial streets. “Outdoor dining and shopping should be a centerpiece of our economic recovery this summer,” Mandelman said in a Tuesday news release. “The past few months have been awful for most San Francisco small businesses, their employees, and the neighborhoods that love them.” “I will continue to work with merchants and the community to make this experiment a success in District 8 commercial corridors in Glen Park, on Church and 24th streets, in the Mission and the Castro,” Mandelman added. There are studies that show how such changes could help. “A recent analysis shows that if restaurants put tables six feet apart inside many could only have 30% of their business occupied,” Bintliff said. “This would help them come as close to having 100% of the tables as possible.” Other spaces, such as Jane Warner

Suicides

From page 1

health experts were already sounding an alarm about a disturbing rise in deaths by suicide. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last year revealed that the national suicide rate in 2017 was the highest since 1942 (the first full year of U.S. participation in World War II), and that deaths by suicide had risen 33% since the turn of the millennium. Suicide has always stalked LGBT people throughout human history – a way out of a hostile world lacking in

Screengrab via Zoom

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, second from left, second row, joined the Castro Merchants Zoom meeting May 21 to discuss reopening in the era of COVID-19.

“That’ll be the biggest challenge for successful outdoor seating,” Mandelman said. Bintliff, who was on the Zoom meeting, said that people are trying to figure out new state Alcoholic Beverage Control rules that suggest bars may be able to reopen if they partner with a restaurant. “It looks like, for example, the food would have to go from the Cove to Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks would have to give it with the alcohol,” he said. “The ABC is soliciting ideas.”

Mandelman touched upon the potential of a street closure during a Zoom meeting with the Castro Merchants group the morning

of May 21. Masood Samereie, the president of the merchants association, is a proponent of the idea. “There may be times Castro Street is closed off to traffic,” he said. Solange Darwish of The Cove, located at 434 Castro Street, said he would like to see more outside seating. “I already had three tables outside and it was very successful,” he said. “People like to be outside. If there are more homeless people going up and down the street that can be dealt with. But a business like mine cannot survive without additional seating. Take-out only is a recipe for disaster.” Restaurants have been limited to take-out or delivery since the shelter-inplace order went into effect March 17. Mandelman said that one of several logistical issues would be homeless people or others harassing diners.

understanding and compassion. “Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are at even greater risk for suicide attempts, especially before the age of 25,” a CDC website on the topic states. “A study of youth in grades 7-12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers. Some risk factors are linked to being gay or bisexual in a hostile environment and the effects that this has on mental health.” Bullying is a common factor, as confirmed by a study released May 26. The Yale School of Public Health reviewed 10,000 teenage suicide records

in the U.S. between 2003 and 2017 and found that “death records of LGBTQ youth who died by suicide were substantially more likely to mention bullying as a factor than their nonLGBTQ peers.” “Death records from LGBTQ youths were about five times more likely to mention bullying than nonLGBTQ youths’ death records, the study found,” a news release about the study, published in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, states. “Among 10- to 13-yearolds, over two-thirds of LGBTQ youths’ death records mentioned that they had been bullied.

While hard statistics can be hard to come by, a report last year from the Journal of Adolescent Health showed that as many as one-quarter of youth suicides could have been among queer youth. (Before the novel coronavirus reached San Francisco, the B.A.R. was working on a story covering LGBT youth suicide and SF Suicide Prevention. Interviews and information from that are included in this piece.) Experts have expressed fear that as people lose their jobs and businesses, suicide rates increasing is “inevitable.” According to the Washington Post, in April 2020 an emergency federal

Plaza in the Castro and the Noe Valley Town Square, are also being considered. One challenge for such a proposal along Castro Street would be rerouting public transit – the 24 Divisadero bus line is still running even with the reduction in Muni services. “It would obviously have to go on a detour; it does so for things such as the Castro Street Fair,” Bintliff said. “But that may not be applicable every day. Hartford and Collingwood are not very big streets.” Bintliff said that even if Castro Street is closed to vehicular traffic, it wouldn’t necessarily be all day or every day.

Mandelman addresses Castro Merchants

Other issues

Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is the general manager of Cliff ’s Variety at 479 Castro Street, asked Mandelman when antibody tests for the novel coronavirus will be more widely available. “Most of us feel like we were exposed in January,” she said. Mandelman said that the anti-

body tests that exist are not reliable enough. “Lots of people believe they were exposed in December or January,” Mandelman said. “But when they do large scale antibody tests it’s less than 5% prevalence in the most impacted areas, so nobody should assume that they have the antibodies. The false positive rate can be as high as 15%.” Asten Bennett also asked about public transit, saying that many people find riding Muni to be the most dangerous part of their day. “The public transit problem is real,” Mandelman said. “As other economies have turned online, people are loathe to put themselves onto a potentially crowded bus or train.” Muni is working on ways to mitigate these concerns; the remaining bus lines come more frequently, Mandelman said, to encourage physical distancing. Mandelman said he is joining District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee (D7) on the economic recovery task force to help San Francisco’s businesses. One thing he said he will be doing is advocating for revamping permitting rules that have prevented many would-be businesses from opening their doors. While the new vacancy tax approved by city voters in March will go on hold, Mandelman said, “the concerns that drove Prop D are even more relevant now.”

Update

The memorandum of understanding necessary for a proposed safe sleeping site to begin at Everett Middle School, covered in last week’s B.A.R., was signed May 26, Mandelman said. t

hotline for distressed people has seen an increase in calls of 1,000 times over April 2019 numbers. Furthermore, a Great Recession-era study shows there is a 1.6% increase in the suicide rate for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate. The U.S. national unemployment rate in April was 14.7%, the highest recorded since 1939. Economic experts have been warning of a second Great Depression. “We’ve been hearing about how shelter in place makes people feel hopeless,” Hedwall said, referring See page 7 >>

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<< Open Forum

t More evidence SOGI data is needed

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 28-June 3, 2020

Volume 50, Number 22 May 28-June 3, 2020 www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird CULTURE EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Dan Renzi Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith Sari Staver • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood

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s if Governor Gavin Newsom needed any more evidence that collecting sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, statistics is desperately needed for queer Californians affected by the novel coronavirus, the Williams Institute recently released new data revealing that more than 200,000 LGBT adults in the Golden State are at high risk for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The Williams Institute, an LGBT think tank at UCLA School of Law, reported that these LGBT state residents have one or more medical conditions that put them at high risk for COVID-19. The institute noted that approximately 361,000 LGBT adults in the state were in fair or poor health before the pandemic began earlier this year. The state is home to nearly 1.7 million LGBT adults, including 1,646,000 LGB people of any gender identity and 109,000 trans people of any sexual orientation, according to the institute. The vast majority of these adults – 92% – live in urban areas. The data in the institute’s report came from the California Health Interview Survey. The institute’s report coincides with gay state Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) attempt to pass Senate Bill 932, which mandates SOGI data collection for LGBTs. Newsom has been under pressure to sign the bill. During one of his daily online news conferences on the virus, we were able to ask Newsom about the bill, and he pledged to sign it, praised Wiener, and stated that he and state public health officials also want this statistical information. (As we noted last week, the state is already required to gather SOGI data in several state departments, including health, but the

Courtesy Williams Institute

The Williams Institute recently released new data revealing that more than 200,000 LGBT adults in the Golden State are at high risk for COVID-19.

SOGI data for COVID-19 patients is not yet being collected.) On May 22, the day after the Williams Institute issued its report, Newsom was again asked about SOGI data during his online briefing. This time, it was the Los Angeles Blade that posed the question by referencing the institute’s finding that LGBTs are at high risk. Newsom declined to say he would sign an executive order, noting he’s working with the Legislature to pass Wiener’s bill. “I’ve been asked this question on four different occasions,” Newsom said. “I’m proud of Scott Wiener, including the [Legislative] LGBTQ caucus. They have a bill we’re working collaboratively on to ensure data for the LGBT community.”

An anniversary unlike any other by Imani Rupert-Gordon

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It’s good to hear Newsom reiterate his support for the bill, because the Williams Institute data are alarming. Many LGBTs have underlying medical conditions, these include diabetes (114,000), heart disease (81,000), and HIV (at least 114,000). Additionally, 134,000 LGBT adults in the state lack health insurance, and 150,000 have delayed or foregone needed medical care because of cost or lack of insurance. “California is home to nearly 15% of all LGBT adults in the United States,” stated Kathryn O’Neill, public policy analyst at the Williams Institute and the author of the report. “And our studies found that many of them were facing health and economic challenges even before the pandemic. It is important that we have data on the impact of COVID-19 on the LGBT population in order to develop interventions that address their specific combination of needs.” A key finding: 612,000 LGBT adults in California were living below 200% of the poverty line before the coronavirus outbreak, while 814,000 LGBT adults were employed in industries that have been heavily impacted by the pandemic, including health care and social assistance, retail, leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and construction. Among the LGBT people recently working in these industries, 251,000 earned below 200% of the poverty line. Over 300,000 LGBT adults in the state experienced food insecurity before the pandemic, which likely has increased as unemployment numbers have skyrocketed. These statistics from the Williams Institute make it clear why SOGI data is necessary in California. State lawmakers need to consider this information as they hold hearings on SB 932 and advance it to floor votes. t

his year’s Anniversary Celebration for the National Center for Lesbian Rights will be nothing like I imagined when I accepted the position as executive director in late 2019. During my first week at the helm of NCLR in mid-March, I was asked to make a decision about the fate of the Anniversary Celebration, the organization’s yearly benefit. Even then, events were starting to be canceled and we decided that we would give our community something to celebrate. And like many of our celebrations right now, we’ve had to reimagine what our annual event would feel like. This was not what I thought my first NCLR Anniversary Celebration would be. But if it’s possible, I’m even more proud that it is. Obviously, this isn’t the biggest adjustment we have had to make or the most significant loss we have had as a result of COVID-19. In fact, as devastating as this pandemic has been, I’ve been renewed by how people have risen to meet this moment. We’ve charted out new ways to be in solidarity, to be in community, to come together and to support each other. We’ve done the impossible, and have figured ways to be alone, together. And from experience we know – when we come together, we can do something amazing. The LGBTQ community has shared formative experiences that have sparked a sad nostalgia in these times. This isn’t the first time we have feared a government’s abysmal response to a pandemic while we’ve lost loved ones. As this pandemic disproportionately impacts people in our community – especially people of color – the similarities of another pandemic are too obvious to ignore. While this crisis is not the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the cavalier response from our leaders is a close reminder of that devastating time. This isn’t the first time we have had to be imaginative about the way we create our communities. We’ve changed the ways we gathered – found new and creative ways to socialize, love together, and grieve together. The catalyst may be different, but we have been here before, and so we know the way to the other side. Because if the years of tragedy

Courtesy NCLR

Imani Rupert-Gordon

and struggle are our birthright as a community, then so too is the resilience that allowed us to survive and the defiance that allowed us to celebrate. We’re going to have to redefine a lot of our moments and milestones, and NCLR is ready to lead our communities in this social justice movement. Sometimes, when we’re forced to rethink the things we know for sure, it is then that our imagination is expanded enough to discover what else we can do to be amazing together. And if we push ourselves, this time, we can include people that weren’t included before. In the meantime, we’re going to do what we always do at the Anniversary Celebration: honor the legacy of NCLR. And this year, we have a lot to celebrate. NCLR continues to redefine the legal landscape of this country and to lead the way in fighting discrimination against our community in all of its forms, from Trump’s insidious new anti-LGBTQ policies to bigoted state laws to the devastating harm caused by conversion therapy. This year, NCLR and GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders continued to lead the challenge to Trump’s transgender military ban, winning a victory on behalf of the first service member to file a new challenge to the ban since it went into effect last April.

NCLR continued to win precedent-setting victories for transgender prisoners, such as our recent victory of behalf of Adree Edmo. NCLR’s groundbreaking immigration project continues to represent LGBTQ asylum seekers in the most difficult cases while still never losing a case. Our Transgender Youth Project continues to defend transgender students and transgender youth seeking medically needed care. We have continued our unbroken record of success in challenging so-called no promo homo laws that stigmatize LGBTQ students, with huge wins in Utah, Arizona, and most recently South Carolina. In the midst of COVID-19, NCLR’s Youth Project has successfully pushed the state of California to adopt new policies to reduce the number of LGBTQ and other youth held in detention facilities – and we’ve developed and sent a model protocol for doing so to the presiding superior court judge in every county in this state. Last but not least, NCLR’s Born Perfect project continues to lead a national campaign to protect youth from conversion therapy, including landmark victories just this year in Utah and Virginia. NCLR is at the brink of another year of game-changing work, and I could not be prouder to be on the team as we do. The challenges before us may have changed, but our resolve is the same. Our audacity is the same. Our perseverance is the same. We stand on the shoulders of giants and we are ready to rise to meet this moment with an invitation to all who will join us: Let’s do something amazing together. t Imani Rupert-Gordon is the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. NCLR’s Anniversary Celebration takes place virtually Saturday, May 30, at 6 p.m. A donation of any amount will grant access to the online event. Among those being honored will be Katie Sowers, an openly gay assistant offensive coach for the San Francisco 49ers, who will receive the Trailblazer Award. For more information, go to https://bit.ly/2XDoinw.

Politics >>

t LGBT advocates back SF, Oakland youth vote measures By Matthew S. Bajko

t 15 years of age Ewan Barker Plummer is already attuned to politics and civic affairs. The queer San Francisco teenager earlier this year published an essay on how important it was for him and other LGBTQ young people to see Pete Buttigieg run as an out gay man to be the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nominee. A child of immigrant parents, Plummer remembers going with his mom to phone bank for Hillary Clinton when she ran as the party’s presidential candidate in 2016 and together watching the debates that fall. In 2018, Plummer volunteered on the mayoral campaign of former supervisor and state legislator Mark Leno, who fell short in his bid to be San Francisco’s first gay mayor. Last fall, he worked on Lief Dautch’s unsuccessful bid to be the city’s district attorney. At Waldorf High School, where he is finishing his freshman year, Plummer is working with fellow students to launch a chapter of High School Democrats. He already belongs to the city’s San Francisco Young Democrats chapter and the moderate United Democratic Club and the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club. When he turns 16 this September, he plans to pre-register to vote when he turns 18. But he wishes he could cast a ballot this fall when seats on the city’s school and city college boards will be decided by voters, as well as a number of local measures. Among them is expected to be a charter amendment that would allow 16- and 17-yearolds to vote in local races. “I think it is just about time, especially on the local level where the decisions directly impact the future of San Francisco,” said Plummer, who singled out the lack of affordable housing in the city as one key issue that he is already worried about and advocating on. “I would like to vote for politicians who would guarantee housing on all market levels. I think it is important for 16- and 17-year-olds to have a voice in San Francisco.” He is not alone in espousing such a view. LGBT advocates in both San Francisco and Oakland are backing measures on the November ballot that would extend voting rights to youth age 16 and 17. Oakland’s city council unanimously voted May 19 to place on its city’s fall ballot a measure that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections. Lesbian Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan, who holds the at-large seat and is up for reelection this year, worked with a coalition of youth advocates, including members of the groups Oakland Kids First and the All City Council Student Union, in seeking the council’s support to put the charter amendment before Oakland voters. “Allowing young adults to have a vote in elections directly impacting them, helps improve responsiveness of these governmental roles, and helps build empowered community members, with practical knowledge and skillset to make change in their community through the democratic process,” stated Kaplan after the vote. “In this era, as we face down threats of

Courtesy Ewan Barker Plummer

Ewan Barker Plummer is working on a San Francisco ballot measure to expand voting to 16and 17-year-olds.

voter suppression and other efforts to silence marginalized voices in our democracy, it is all the more important that we work to ensure our communities are included.” A number of school board members are supporting the ballot measure, which comes four years after voters in neighboring Berkeley overwhelmingly approved a similar charter amendment allowing 16- and 17-yearolds to vote in school board races. “Research has proven that younger first-time voters are more likely to become lifelong voters and make our parents more likely to vote as well. This will help us get more youth and young adults more civically engaged,” stated Denilson Garibo, 17, one of the Oakland school board’s student directors.

SF amendment

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to vote in late June or early July on placing a similar charter amendment on the fall ballot. Called Vote16SF, it would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote on all local races and city ballot measures and needs a simple majority to pass. Its backers would like to see it be implemented in time for the city’s 2022 election. “This will make our city government so much more responsive and effective if young people have a voice and if we are accountable to young people,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, a former school board member. The city’s youth commission has been spearheading the campaign in coordination with various community groups such as SF Rising, Coleman Advocates for Youth, Generation Citizen, and the Community Youth Center. At its meeting Tuesday, May 19, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club voted in support of seeing the charter amendment be placed on the ballot. Its lead legislative sponsor is board President Norman Yee, a former school board member who is termed out this year from his District 7 supervisor seat. During a May 12 online news conference timed to his introducing the proposal to the board, Yee argued there is no reason why teens age 16 and 17 should not be allowed to vote on the people representing them at City Hall or on city oversight bodies like the elected boards for the city college and school districts. “My question to voters is if young people have the capability of changing the world for the better, will we stand behind them and let their voices be heard?” asked Yee. “I hope everyone will get behind and support this historic ef-

fort to extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds here in San Francisco.” A similar effort in 2016 fell short by 15,116 votes, with those opposed to lowering the voting age to 16 in local races coming in at 52.1% and 47.9% of voters in support. Backers of the measure are confident those numbers have switched in the intervening years and that voters will approve this fall’s measure. Crystal Chan, 18, who represents District 7 on the city’s youth commission and is a senior at Lowell High School, noted during the news conference that her peers are already leaders in the community. She pointed to recent youth-led marches against gun violence and climate change as just two examples of how teens are using their voices to seek societal changes and lobby for government policies. “Vote16 is a super important movement. We are strengthening democracy by helping youth build a lifelong habit of voting,” said Chan. “Young people in our city understand how policies impact them, their families, and their communities. It is time they get a voice in our local government.” Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told the B.A.R. he is supportive of allowing 16- and 17-yearolds to vote and expects to become a sponsor of the proposal when it comes before him and his colleagues in the coming weeks. “For local elections getting people engaged in voting earlier makes it more likely they will continue to do it throughout their lives. I think that is a good thing,” said Mandelman in a phone interview, as the former City College of San Francisco board member did not take part in the news conference. “Particularly for local elections, like for the school board and community college board, these things directly impact young people.” Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who backed the 2016 measure when he served as the District 8 supervisor, expressed confidence the needle has moved since then to see this year’s charter amendment by approved by voters. From climate change and gun controls to criminal justice reform, so much of what politicians are grappling with today will have impacts for youth in the decades to come, he noted during the online press call. “We have a moral obligation to increase youth engagement in the political process if we care about the future of our world,” said Wiener, adding that, “unfortunately so many of the decisions we are making are overwhelmingly being made by older people. Older people should not be unilaterally making decisions that impact young people for the rest of their lives when young people don’t have a full voice.” To those who argue youth are not ready to vote, Wiener, who recently turned 50, quipped that some 60-year-olds aren’t ready to vote. “Young people must have a voice,” he said. “I know 16- and 17-year-olds are perfectly capable of being excellent, informed voters and active voters.” But he acknowledged it won’t be a slam-dunk to adopt the measure this November, with normal campaigning tactics like rallies and door-to-door canvassing likely suspended due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. See page 8 >>

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t Tips abound for having sex during the pandemic 6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 28-June 3, 2020

by Liz Highleyman

sheltering in place? How can people keep getting PrEP if they need it? Is the new coronavirus transmitted through semen? Are there safer ways to have sex and protect themselves and others? As physical distancing becomes

eople have questions about sex and intimacy during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Do they need to keep taking PrEP if they’re not having sex while

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the new normal, public health agencies have begun to issue new COVID-19 safer sex guidelines. And despite the many unknowns about the new coronavirus, community norms are evolving, from an abstinence-only policy to a harm reduction approach. These issues were the topic of a May 6 virtual forum sponsored by the GLBT Historical Society as part of its “Fighting Back” series. “I sensed a consensus that each person deals with unique factors when making decisions about having sex amid the pandemic,” said panelist Race Bannon, author of the Bay Area Reporter’s leather column. “Some of those factors are related directly to public health science, some to personal situations and environments, and some to societal inequalities and disparities. This means that how each person crafts their approach to having sex or not will vary. “Everyone agreed that unlike HIV, where transmission is confined to only those who partake in the sex act, COVID-19 adds another wrinkle in that one’s exposure could potentially infect others with whom you come in casual contact and this must also be balanced among all the decision factors,” Bannon told the B.A.R.

PrEP guidance

People who are not having sex while sheltering in place do not need to continue taking PrEP, health experts said. When stopping, some health officials advise taking PrEP for four weeks after the last sexual exposure, but the World Health Organization notes that most programs for gay and bisexual men advise that PrEP can be stopped after two daily doses

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Condoms are one form of safer sex.

following the last exposure. When it’s time to restart, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that it takes seven days to achieve protection for anal sex but may take up to 20 days for vaginal or frontal sex. “One of the great things about PrEP is that it can be adapted to whatever is going on in people’s lives. It’s perfectly fine to take a break from PrEP while not having sex,” Julia L. Marcus, Ph.D., MPH, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an email. Another option for some people is taking Truvada (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine) on demand according to the “2-1-1” schedule. This involves taking two doses between two and 24 hours before anticipated sex, one dose 24 hours after the initial double dose and a final dose 24 hours after that. Although this regimen is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it was found to be highly effective for gay and bi men in clinical trials and some local providers now offer it. The CDC recently issued guidance for people who wish to continue taking PrEP. Quarterly HIV and sexually transmitted infection tests are recommended for people on PrEP, and shelter-in-place restrictions and limited services at medical facilities are now entering the third month. Lab visits for HIV and STI testing are preferred, if available, according to Dr. Eugene McCray and Dr. Jonathan Mermin of the CDC. But if not, home HIV test kits that use blood from a fingerstick or an oral swab sample are an option. Selfcollected genital and anal swabs or urine samples may be used for STI testing. These test kits are mailed to a lab and results are returned to an individual or their physician. Once HIV-negative status is confirmed, doctors can prescribe PrEP for 90 days, rather than the usual 30 days, to minimize trips to the pharmacy. Despite rumors to the contrary, there is currently no evidence that HIV PrEP or antiretroviral treatment can prevent acquiring the coronavirus or becoming severely ill. Several studies are underway, but meanwhile people taking these medications should observe all the precautions recommended for the general public.

Safer sex tips

The CDC does not offer safer sex tips for the COVID-19 era, but local public health agencies have stepped in to fill in the gap, as was mentioned in a recent B.A.R. op-ed. Studies conducted to date suggest that the new coronavirus probably is not transmitted in semen. One study from China, where the pandemic emerged late last year, did not find the virus in semen samples collected about a month after diagnosis from 34 men

with mild to moderate COVID-19. Another Chinese study did detect coronavirus RNA in samples from six out of 38 men, four of whom had acute infection and two of whom were recovering, but it is not known whether this genetic material signals the presence of infectious virus. The coronavirus has been detected in feces, suggesting that transmission may be possible through activities such as rimming or fisting. Studies so far have not seen the virus in vaginal fluid. Even if the new virus cannot be transmitted directly through sexual activity, it can still be spread through the air, and potentially via contact with surfaces and objects, when people kiss, cuddle, or have sex. The virus is present in saliva and experts think this is an easy transmission route. The San Francisco Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Sexual Health Tips fact sheet, adapted from guidelines issued by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, recommends avoiding sex with anyone outside your household. If you do have sex with others, have as few partners as possible and avoid group sex. Limiting sex to a small circle of people lessens the risk of exposure. “Washing up before and after sex is more important than ever,” the fact sheet says. Don’t forget to wash sex toys. Condoms can reduce the risk of coming into contact with the coronavirus in saliva or feces during oral or anal sex. Similarly, the Netherlands recently recommended that single people choose a like-minded “sex buddy” and reach an agreement about how many other people they will see and what other risks they will take. As alternatives, the tips suggest masturbation, video dates, sexting, and chat rooms. Participants at the historical society forum had some other ideas, including establishing closed “bubbles” or “pods” of people who have sex only with each other after a mutual quarantine period and glory-hole set-ups that put partners on opposite sides of a partition. Public health experts have learned lessons from HIV about the futility of a “just say no” approach when it comes to reducing risks related to sex. “Given that abstinence-only recommendations are likely to promote shame and unlikely to achieve intended behavioral outcomes,” Dr. Kenneth Mayer of Fenway Health in Boston and colleagues recently wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine, “sex-positive recommendations regarding remote sexual activity are optimal during the pandemic, balancing human needs for intimacy with personal safety and pandemic control.”t

t <<

Community News>>

May 28-June 3, 2020 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Suicides

“What I’m interpreting that as is that lots of young people have internalized the idea ‘I’m not supposed to call this kid this or that’ but that we haven’t really addressed the deeper, underlying homophobia that exists in our communities and broader culture and that needs a place to go,” Sifuentes said. “They know not to call the gay kid ‘gay’ but they call the friend they think is straight ‘gay’ when there are gay kids in earshot.” Martinez said that general bullying behavior, not just specifically related to issues surrounding LGBT identity, has “increased across the board” in the last three years. “There is an increased hostility in our schools,” Martinez said. “Something about November 2016 that changed everything.” That was when Donald Trump was elected president. Gogin blamed rising economic inequality. “I also want to look at our city. Regardless of what’s happening in Washington, D.C., our children absorb the anxiety their parents are experiencing of living here,” Gogin said. “More crowded streets; greater homelessness, which affects our students; housing insecurity; employment bringing in enough of a wage for a family to live on; access to health care. All of these things children bring in and they just emote. That’s where they are.”

The West Hollywood-based nonprofit the Trevor Project focuses on suicide prevention efforts in LGBT youth. In June 2019 it released the results of its first national survey on LGBTQ mental health, which found 39% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous year (which included more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth). One might think San Francisco – known around the world as a mecca for queer people – might fare better; but a 2017 San Francisco Unified School District health survey obtained by the B.A.R. shows that while 12.8% of all students seriously considered attempting suicide, that number was 36.7% for LGB students. The health survey also showed that

while 10.5% of heterosexual students reported ever having been cyberbullied, 23.9% of LGB students reported so. And while Hedwall mentioned lack of knowledge over AIDS in the context of other parts of the U.S., the percentage of SFUSD students who reported learning about the disease declined 10 points from 2007 to 2017. Still, the survey did show a significant reduction in the reporting of anti-LGBTQ slurs by students, from 40.1% in 2011 to 19.7% in 2017. All in all, the district is trying to level the playing field and reduce the effects of bullying and the stresses of growing up LGBT, officials said. As the B.A.R. previously reported, 12 SFUSD high schools and select middle schools host Q Groups for LGBT youth. These are often run in coordination with the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, or LYRIC. According to LYRIC statistics, over 85% of the middle school participants – there were 62 last school year who attended 148 sessions – in the Q Groups said they were proud to be part of the LGBT community, reported “having a positive LGBTQ role model in my life who I can talk to,” and reported “knowing what it means to be in a healthy relationship.” Seventy-three percent said they were comfortable seeking out information and support services about sexual orientation-related matters. According to Erik Martinez, a queer man who serves as SFUSD LGBTQ programs coordinator, the Q Groups were put on hold in March due to the pandemic. “At the moment, Q Groups are on pause – as are many of our other socio-emotional/psycho-educational student groups – pending further guidance from SFUSD regarding staff-student electronic communications and remote learning,” Martinez stated March 31. “Our hope is to continue groups virtually through district-approved online platforms that are safe and secure. Once guidance is provided, we are fortunate to continue to have the support of our community partners, such as LYRIC and

the Huckleberry Youth Services and Health Initiatives for Youth (HIFY).” Since then, many of the groups “were able to resume in a virtual format,” Mauro Sifuentes, a queer man who is an LGBTQ support services coordinator for the district, told the B.A.R. May 21. “Unfortunately, some were unable to, primarily due to at-home safety concerns for our students, or because students experienced shifts in needs and priorities during the transition to remote learning,” Sifuentes wrote in an email to the B.A.R. “It was inspiring to work with our SFUSD and [community-based organization] partner staff as we responsibly, diligently, and creatively found ways to connect with our Q Group participants, regardless of whether or not their school Q Group rebooted after school closures.” LGBT students also have access to wellness centers located at 19 SFUSD public high schools, which are available to the general population as well, though those sites are not open now. (Some of these services have moved into virtual space.) The San Francisco Wellness Initiative was created in 1999 following the Columbine school shootings to provide “safe, secure environments where students can talk confidentially and get support for the challenges they face,” according to SFUSD literature. When the facilities were open, 42% of the general population of SFUSD students accessed wellness services, according to Kevin Gogin, a gay man who is the director of safety and wellness for SFUSD school health programs, in a January 24 interview. This includes twothirds of LGBT SFUSD students. Martinez said that while he can’t speak for the rest of the state’s public schools, SFUSD has its own curriculum to discuss these issues that is “reflective of San Francisco and the needs of our students.” “In San Francisco we’re really fortunate that since 1993-94, we’ve had policies in place for inclusive LGBT education as early as elementary,” Martinez said. “At every grade level, teachers are required to approach these topics – mostly focused around LGBT families and different family formations – but also about gender and gender identity. ... By the time students get to middle school and high school you get a deeper discussion about identity and sexual health education.” But often LGBT students get bullied for other reasons too in ways that can be equally damaging – such as being called racial and ethnic slurs more than students who aren’t LGBT, Martinez said. Sifuentes said that in as yet unreleased reports, the district has been seeing fewer reports of “targeted homophobic language” but higher rates of “hearing homophobic language around them, which is translating into lower rates of feeling safe at school.”

it was due to kidney stones. When I got there, they wanted me to wait in a tent like you see on the news. At that point they put me in an isolation room and I don’t remember a thing.” Martin Jones thought that after parking the car at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Oakland, he could go visit Kevin, also thinking it was the effects of the kidney stones. But the hospital staff would not let him visit. “(Martin) wanted to come up and say goodbye but they couldn’t even let him do that,” Kevin Jones said. Kevin Jones was intubated, which he remained for about three weeks. “I was pretty close to dying,” Kevin Jones said. The same day Kevin Jones was intubated, Martin took a test for SARSCoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. It was positive. Martin Jones, 60, had been feeling sick and thought at first that it may have been sympathy pains. “I had told the doctor ‘I don’t know if the symptoms are COVID or if this is just anxiety,’” Martin Jones said. “It was incredible exhaustion; It was

difficult breathing; this is asthma on steroids.” At one point, Kevin Jones was given a 10-15% chance of survival. Figuring there wasn’t a chance of further infection, since both had COVID-19, the medical staff let Martin Jones visit his husband in what were thought to have been his final hours. “It was a two-week onslaught of bad news: one big, long nightmare; a roller coaster nightmare. Day-to-day he could do a little better or a little worse,” Martin Jones said. “We were embarrassed to say we didn’t have all our financial arrangements in order”. Martin was enveloped with reading about the disease. “I was frantically trying to find everything I could about this, and proning (laying a patient flat on their stomach) had been successful for ventilation patients,” Martin Jones said. After Martin Jones mentioned proning to medical staff, they decided to try it. Dr. John Taylor, the chief of critical care for Kaiser Permanente’s East Bay hospitals, told the B.A.R. via phone

May 20 that Kevin Jones’ recovery could be attributable to any number of reasons. “He was really, really sick,” Taylor said. “We in intensive care see a lot of people, and he was really sick. We felt his condition was getting worse in spite of maximal therapies. There wasn’t a risk of transmission between Kevin and Martin and so we let him visit. At that time, we thought he wouldn’t have made it through that night.” But Kevin Jones was “very determined and very brave,” Taylor said. “The ICU can be a lonely, scary place to be, whether for a patient or a family member, so I want to emphasize his bravery,” Taylor said. Kevin Jones was finally able to return home after a month, but still has regular doctor’s visits. Martin Jones wanted to thank supportive friends and family, as well as the medical professionals who worked to save his husband’s life. “We had people around the world chanting, praying, breathing good things,” Martin Jones said. “Kevin al-

ways says in a crisis ‘Don’t ask what you can do – just do something.’ I realized that. “To the one, (the medical staff) were all amazing, even considering the incredible stress they were under,” Martin Jones added. “They kept us in the loop, answered questions, and we could never do enough to thank them, and that’d be true even without the success that we had.” The couple had one overriding message in sharing their story: taking the virus and its effects seriously. Until Martin Jones drove Kevin Jones to the hospital, the latter had been selfquarantined away from their house in a nearby cottage. “This is a cautionary tale,” Martin Jones said. “We took precautions and we distanced when he got home. I still got it. There’s no good reason why he got it, so there’s no good reason I or anyone could get it, which is why denial is infuriating and dangerous. “I understand why this message gets traction with people who are anxious and fatigued. But more people are going to die,” he added.t

From page 3

to what counselors have heard. “People’s feelings of hopelessness have risen, for sure. A lack of control – feelings of not being in control. People are being overwhelmed and thinking about not only shelter in place but also the possibility of catching this and how that makes them feel.”

SF Suicide Prevention

SF Suicide Prevention’s office is located in an undisclosed location in downtown San Francisco, where the B.A.R. met with Hedwall for the first time January 10. “We were the first suicide hotline in the United States,” Hedwall said. “It was started by a man named Bernard Mayes, Bernie we call him, who was a correspondent for the BBC and came over to San Francisco as a reporter. He noticed a high incidence of suicide here mostly because of the [Golden Gate] bridge, as it is a draw for folks. He felt it might be a good idea to do this.” The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District board has approved a suicide barrier, officially called the Suicide Deterrent System, for the bridge. Work started on the project in 2019 and it is expected to be completed by 2023. Work on the barrier was not delayed by COVID-19, according to district officials in an email to the B.A.R. May 26, but the completion date was pushed back from 2021 to 2023 last November. Mayes opened SF Suicide Prevention in 1962 on Polk Street. “Mayes was also, in those days, a homosexual and was also an Anglican priest and also, was one of the founders of NPR – an interesting tidbit about Bernie,” Hedwall added. Mayes, who was the first working chairman of National Public Radio, died in 2014 at the age of 85. There is now a suicide hotline in every county in the U.S., Hedwall said, as well as the national suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Hedwall has been the director of programs since 2018. “A lot of small agencies are having to close their doors because of funding issues,” Hedwall said. “We recently joined and merged with Felton Institute, a large mental health company that’s been around for 130 years. They must have been doing social work with gold miners’ families.” The agency has volunteers to cover most of the day shifts, and the 23 employed staff members take night shifts on the phone lines, Hedwall explained. “We’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Hedwall said. Hedwall has been working with the queer community around the Bay Area for two decades. He said he used to run an AIDS research lab for UCSF, prior to when HIV was a manageable

Oakland couple

From page 1

Two months later, both are recovering from their bout with the disease that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans. The couple, who identify as gay and have been together 34 years, discussed the ordeal in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter May 20. Kevin Jones, 59, had been traveling in Europe in mid-March with a friend, just as lockdowns were starting in earnest both there and in the United States. “We had to leave London early,” Kevin Jones said. “When we got back, we thought everything was OK. They asked questions, took our temperature, and I self-quarantined away from my husband even though we were very careful when we were (in Europe).” But the day after he got back, Kevin Jones started feeling a fever and chills. “The advice nurse suggested I go to the ER,” Kevin Jones said.“But I thought

Rick Gerharter

The Golden Gate Bridge will get a suicide barrier in 2023.

condition and before going to graduate school to become a therapist. SF Suicide Prevention operates a phone line for the general public that covers both suicide and personal crises, and in addition operates a drug and alcohol relapse hotline and the HIV Nightline at 1-800-628-9240, which was founded in 1989. “HIV Nightline is the oldest, and at the time was the only, national hotline for HIV information and support,” Hedwall said. “Back then there were no medications for folks with HIV and disabling AIDS so people were up all night in pain and not feeling well and this was a line they could call to get support, which is a wonderful testimony to that line. “Now, the line goes throughout the whole country and it’s the only support line I know of nationwide for HIV. Folks who recently seroconverted can call the line and get support and it’s also for folks who have questions. There are certain parts of this country, believe it or not, that do not educate our nation’s youth around HIV prevention, how it’s contracted. You’d be surprised,” he added. The agency is funded partly by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and partly by private donations.

The role of schools in intervening for LGBT youth

Laughs for Life

There were 101 suicides in San Francisco in 2017, including 33 at the Golden Gate Bridge. While there were fewer suicides in 2017 at the bridge, there were more interventions, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Hedwall had told the B.A.R. that much of SF Suicide Prevention’s funding comes from an annual fundraiser – Laughs for Life – which would have been held at the Regency Ballroom in the Polk Gulch on April 22. The in-person event was canceled due to the shelter-in-place order. “One of the things we tried to do for outreach for folks who would have attended was to do a few jokes online,” Hedwall said on May 19. “A few people responded. Not much was happening there, unfortunately, but we are still doing it. Tell your favorite joke online and keep it clean. There’s a donation number, too. “We are kind of in a rough place,” he said. t For more information on San Francisco Suicide Prevention, visit www.sfsuicide.org. Palo Alto University will hold an online LGBTQ town hall on COVID-19 and mental health Monday, June 1, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. To register, go to www.surveymonkey.com/r/lgbtqtownhall. The deadline to sign up is May 29.

<< Community News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 28-June 3, 2020

Pride

From page 2

People are asked to meet on the service road at the corner of Kehoe and Highway 1 to then drive to the municipal building on Main Street where the Pride flag will be raised at noon. The ceremony will

Political Notebook

From page 5

“It is going to be close. Campaigning will be different this year than in past years,” noted Wiener, who himself is seeking reelection in November. “There will be a lot more texting and

Larry Kramer

From page 1

men may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.” Mr. Kramer’s blistering attacks on government inaction on AIDS, both federally and in New York City, led to his ouster from GMHC. Mr. Kramer wrote about his experiences with GMHC in a play – “The Normal Heart” – in 1985. It became an HBO film in 2014. The character based on Mr. Kramer was played by Mark Ruffalo. Mr. Kramer was the key leader in the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, which was founded in 1987. ACT UP’s famously confrontational style brought controversy – members staged ‘die-ins’ and protested on Wall Street and inside Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral – but also publicity. After Kramer got the attention of Dr. Anthony Fauci, longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, by

be livestreamed at https://coastpride.org/. East Palo Alto is expected to recognize Pride Month for the first time when its City Council meets June 2, with the Pacifica City Council taking up the request at its June 8 meeting.

East Bay cities

as the B.A.R. first reported online May 18. The city councils in Richmond and Hercules issued their annual Pride proclamations at their meetings Tuesday without any debate and ordered city staff to fly the rainbow flag. Each year Richmond declares June as Diversity Celebra-

calling and digital outreach, frankly things younger people are better at than older people. Nontraditional outreach to voters, I think, creates an advantage, so I think it can pass.” Plummer told the B.A.R. he hopes a victory in San Francisco will lead to an extension of voting rights to youth

in other counties throughout California, at the state level, and in federal elections. “We should be able to vote on every level,” he said. “We should allow 16- and 17-year-olds across the country to vote.” The supervisor’s rules committee will likely take up the charter amend-

ment sometime in mid-June, after which it would go to the full board for a vote. The deadline to place measures on the ballot is July 15. t

calling him out as an “incompetent idiot,” ACT UP was able to establish a working relationship with him and other federal officials. As the B.A.R. reported in 2011, the two went from a confrontational start to becoming good friends. “Once you got past the rhetoric, you found that Larry Kramer made a lot of sense, and that he had a heart of gold,” Fauci told the New York Times Wednesday. That relationship helped lead to the development and production of antiretroviral therapies to lengthen the lives of people who become infected with HIV. After Mr. Kramer received a liver transplant in 2001, Fauci helped him get into an experimental drug trial that saved his life. Mr. Kramer continued to write later in life and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1992 for “The Destiny of Me,” which was a sequel to “The Normal Heart.” It was Mr. Kramer’s initial rejection by Webster in the 1970s that inspired the “Faggots” novel – in a twist of fate,

they moved in together in 1994 and got married in 2013, after it became legal in New York State. Mr. Kramer continued to write and speak until he died, in spite of his health problems. According to a March New York Times piece, he was writing a play based on the COVID-19 outbreak titled “An Army of Lovers Must Not Die.” Peter Tatchell, a longtime AIDS activist in the United Kingdom who knew Mr. Kramer, issued a statement Wednesday morning after word of Mr. Kramer’s death was reported. “Larry Kramer was an inspiring playwright, author, and pioneering campaigner on LGBT+ and HIV issues. He helped galvanize the formation of the AIDS activist group ACT UP, which successfully challenged U.S. government inaction and forced pharmaceutical companies to speed their efforts to research and trial treatments. He also helped establish the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which did so much to support people living with HIV/AIDS,” Tatchell stated. “ACT UP’s efforts helped save the

lives of millions of people worldwide and Larry was part of that achievement. His often-angry tirades against President (Ronald) Reagan, the New York Times, drug corporations and the medical establishment were searing and effective. I counted him as a friend and comrade. He will be missed and remembered for decades to come,” he added. The Human Rights Campaign also mourned Mr. Kramer’s passing. “At the beginning of the HIV and AIDS crisis – when thousands of LGBTQ people and people of color were dying – Larry Kramer spoke up when our government was silent,” HRC President Alphonso David stated. “Larry’s unending courage and tireless efforts helped awaken a nation to the urgent crisis of HIV and AIDS and brought us closer to a cure than ever before. Through his life and work, Larry Kramer inspired generations of advocates, many of whom are alive today because he dared to speak out and act up. We mourn the loss of this advocate, and rededicate ourselves to our collective responsibility of ending

the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/06/20.

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032707500

03/01/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/20.

A similar effort is underway in Contra Costa County this year, where the city of Danville is the lone municipality to have yet recognized Pride Month in some capacity. It is expected to issue its first Pride proclamation when its City Council also meets June 2,

Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, will return Monday, June 1.

tion Month to mark not only the LGBT community’s yearly celebration but also the African American community’s annual Juneteenth observance. It will again fly flags honoring both communities outside its City Hall throughout the month. t

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

the HIV and AIDS epidemic – which unfortunately continues to largely impact people of color today – once and for all.” Mr. Kramer spoke with the B.A.R. in 2012 in an interview that focused on “The Normal Heart.” One of Mr. Kramer’s life’s works was trying to show that a gay culture had to be defined by more than sex (“The only way we’ll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn’t just sexual,” the ‘Normal Heart’ character based on Kramer said in that production). He told the B.A.R. in 2012 that he was glad young people were impacted by his work. “When they did come in and see (‘The Normal Heart’), they were incredibly moved because so many of them were unaware of this history at all,” he said. He didn’t realize he would be alive to see future generations impacted. “I thought I’d be dead by the time the play closed in New York,” Mr. Kramer said. “I’ve been very lucky, and anyone who is still alive from those years has been very lucky.” t

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

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

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

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: #1 FOGCUTTER TOURS, 124 BENTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF ADVENTURE TOURS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/27/20.

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

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

MAY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039051600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIMPLY NAILS, 5933 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WENDY DANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/22/20.

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039060500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MSQUARED, 1303 MONTGOMERY ST #LOWER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SERGHIO MUNOZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under

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

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

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

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039062300

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

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

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

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

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

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

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020

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

MAY 14, 21, 28, JUN 04, 2020 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036620700

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

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

To MICHAEL EDWARDS, you are hereby cited and required to appear at a hearing in Yolo County Juvenile Court, located at 1000 Main Street, Woodland, California 95695, on July 23, 2020 at 9:00a.m. in Department 5. At the hearing the Court will decide whether to permanently terminate your parental rights over the above-named minor child born Camay Law Taylor on August 20, 2014. If you wish to be represented by an attorney and are unable to afford one, the Court will appoint an attorney to represent you. Due to COVID-19 this hearing may be held through zoom, please contact the Health and Human Services Agency at (530) 661-2712 regarding your appearance. Dated 05/13/20, Tom M. Dyer, Judge of the Juvenile Court.

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOHOL HOLDING, 2355 18th AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VOLODYMYR KHOKHLOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/20.

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

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

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

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

MAY 21, 28, JUN 04, 11, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039062500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOUVELLE TAILOR & LAUNDRY SERVICE, 1583 SANCHEZ ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by individual, and is signed BRENDA H. LAU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/11/25.

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALCHEMY ARTS THERAPY, 510 26TH AVE #407, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REBECCA MARTINEZ-THOMAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/20.

MAY 28, JUN 04, 11, 18, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039064300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAMS AMERICAN EATERY, 1220 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAM INCORPORATED (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/20.

MAY 28, JUN 04, 11, 18, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039070500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE ROOST, 613 YORK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MERCHANT ROOTS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/20.

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BARtab

The Stud’s closure ends an era, for now Collective owners make plans for a possible future, and a fabulous funeral

A joyous night at The Stud in 2016.

by Jim Provenzano

are going to be a virtual home on our Twitch channel. When we purchased The Stud three years ago, it was really unlikely that 17 strongminded individuals could buy a bar and keep it open. It was a risk. The idea that we take another impossible risk is a dream, but we are stewards of this legacy.” VivvyAnne said that their daily rent was almost $450 a day.

he Stud is dead, but long live The Stud. That was the message at a May 21 online press conference hosted by Studd Collective members Honey Mahogany, VivvyAnne Forevermore, Rachel Ryan and others who kept the historic bar alive since 2016 when they innovatively formed a group effort to sustain the popular South of Market nightclub. But the announcement of the bar’s closure shocked patrons and fans. “Because of a lack of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the historic bar will be announcing that they are permanently closing their location and will be holding a drag funeral to honor the end of an era of LGBT nightlife,” said Mahogany in a press statement. The celebrate the bar’s many decades at 399 Ninth Street, and its earlier iteration on Folsom Street, an online drag funeral will take place May 31st at 6pm, with Twitch links available on the bar’s website, www. VivvyAnne ForeverMore and Honey Mahogany StudSF.com Stud Collective member and 48Hills in the online press conference Publisher Marke Bieschke, wrote about the closure as a preserving measure for a future Supervisor Matt Haney offered his support version. in the press conference. “There was a feeling “The Stud, the nightlife entity, is not dead. of warmth and culture at The Stud, and of a We’re still going to come back when this is community that must return,” he said. “This over, a different space with the same lovingly cannot be the end of The Stud. I will do evoutrageous vibe. But for now, what else can we erything in my power to make sure The Stud do? Like other bars and businesses, we must returns. We will find a new location, change still keep paying rent indefinitely while being any zoning and address any barriers. Small unable to bring in revenue. Loans and grants businesses have been struggling to survive pretty much go directly to landlords and utilieven before COVID-19. It’s not only attacking ties, who are the true government-subsidized our health, but our culture and our identity. businesses here, in an arduous, arcane process Whatever we can do as a city government, we that looks more and more like a bizarre monneed to do.” ey-laundering scheme.” Sen. Scott Weiner also participated in the Hopes for finding a new venue remain that, Zoom chat, saying, “I know this collective is a hope. Mahogany said, “There is no plan to going to get it together. As a gay man, this is move it to another venue. We have no contract personal for me. In the LGBTQ community, in hand, but we have retained bar license. We nightlife means so much. It’s where we bind are dedicated to the family that the Stud has our community. So many people have gone created over the years. We plan to find a forever to nightlife venues to find their community. Many of our nightlife venues have been under home. But this is the end of an era.” pressure for many years. But what is amazing “It’s a great loss for us,” said VivvyAnne Forare our bars and clubs that are still here. They everMore of the Stud’s closure. “Until then, we

found a way to survive.” Weiner referenced Hole in the Wall and the SF Eagle, as well as the development of Oasis. “Time and again, this community has come together to create new spaces. We have fight to prevent a mass extinction event of nightlife venues.” He then mentioned ideas to make more negotiable rent options, changing regulations for bars, including a possible 4AM closing time, legislation that Weiner had already sponsored. What will a new Stud bar cost, considering leasing, construction and other expenses? Mahogany said, “It’s upwards of half a million, $700,000 to a million is what we’re looking at.” How those funds could be raised remains a problem, despite several fundraisers having kept the bar and staff paid until just before the citywide mandated closure of bars.

Legacy nightlife According to Preserving LGBT Historic Sites in California, “The Stud was founded in 1966 in a space at the corner of Folsom and Norfolk streets. At that location, it was home to a gay hippie scene and was a favorite of queer artists, musicians and culture-makers, including gay poet Thom Gunn. The club hosted DJ dancing, presented art shows and sponsored live performers. Among the singers who appeared were blues, soul and R&B star Etta James (1938–2012) and disco diva Sylvester (1947–1988). “Music acts made history at the Stud, particularly in its first location. Etta James was known in the queer community for the bawdy shows she performed. The queen of San Francisco’s disco scene Sylvester sang to packed dance floors. Patrick Cowley, the now famous A 1970s B.A.R. ad for a performance by electronic music pioneer recorded an album at Sylvester at The Stud’s original location the Stud. At the 9th Street location, members of the Scissor Sisters and Lady Gaga did drag “I performed at Heklina’s Trannyshack a numbers, and thousands of musicians and DJs bunch of times between 1996-2008, eventuperformed their first shows there.” ally becoming the resident DJ during its last Among the many iconic nights were those two years there. I was also a resident DJ at a hosted through most of the 1990s by Heklina. gay electroclash club in 2003 called Cheap “My memories of my Stud years will always Trick, and the following year I threw a weekly be my fondest memories of San Francisco,” Friday night party for nine months called said Heklina. “The Stud welcomed me into its Guilty with Deidre Roberts, Suppositori Spelling, and Anthony Lymon. “For 13 years, I worked literally right above the bar which used to be the offices of the Bay Area Reporter. I would rehearse my Trannyshack numbers in my office, then walk downstairs to perform at the club! Or I’d just drop in for a nightcap if I was working late.” Many other performers and patrons have shared photos and memories of their part in the bar’s illustrious eras, including some on the bar’s Facebook page. The May 31 6pm drag funeral, in recorded and live segments, will be, according to Forevermore, “an epic show, with eulogies, remembrances and performances. Jinkxx Monsoon, Alaska, Juanita MORE, Peaches Christ will join us. I wanna see people dressed in black, with rhinestones, pearls!” Said Honey Mahogany, “Let’s say goodbye to The Stud in style.”t Dan Nicoletta

Gooch

Martha T. Lipton (Evan Johnson) performs at the Stud

fold in 1995. I began there first in coat-check, then as a doorman, then a barback, then a bartender, then finally as hostess and creator of Trannyshack. The Stud was the only place where that could have happened, at that time, because the Stud welcomed everyone and allowed everyone to thrive. I owe so much to the Stud. It will be deeply missed.” The Bay Area Reporter ran ads and articles about The Stud from its earliest published issues in the 1970s. The B.A.R. moved to its location next door to The Stud in 1988. Over that time, the two businesses enjoyed a sometimes symbiotic relationship, including the bar hosting the 2010 premiere issue party for the paper’s spin-off then-monthly BARtab, with Bob Mould DJing. As noted on Facebook by Bootie Mash-up DJ Adriana A. Roberts, “My first gig there was in 1995, singing Go-Go’s covers in a band with Deena Davenport,” wrote Roberts.

The Stud in the 1990s.

View the Zoom chat, keep up with fundraisers and online events at www.studsf.com

<< Music & Film

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 28-June 3, 2020

Ruthie Foster Soulful sassy singer’s new CD had the arrangement first. I’ve always been a huge Johnny Cash fan. My grandfather was a big Johnny Cash fan and he passed that on to me. Your live albums have been recorded in Austin. What it is that makes an Austin audience special? Austin is a special city. It’s a very nurturing town for musicians. We all take care of each other and we all look after each other. As a matter of fact, I got a text this morning about some friends who are putting together a Willie Nelson birthday thing to wish him a happy birthday. I just wished him happy birthday yesterday. We all take care of each other; Austin is special that way.

Ruthie Foster performing

by Gregg Shapiro

ut singer and songwriter Ruthie Foster has the kind of voice that can give you chills and warms your heart at the same time. Soulful, sassy and as powerful as a transformer, it doesn’t matter if she’s singing one of her marvelous original compositions or putting her distinctive touch on a standard, the result is always a delight. This has never been truer than on her new concert recording Live at The Paramount (Blue Corn Music), recorded with her Big Band, where she illuminates more than a dozen songs across the genres. I had the pleasure of speaking with Ruthie in late April 2020.

would come from me. I wanted to do something special. It’s more of a concept album. The album contains several of your original compositions. Can you please say something about the process of selecting originals, not only for a concert, but also for a live recording?

Gregg Shapiro: Live at The Paramount is your third live album following 2004’s Stages and 2011’s Live at Antone’s. Why was now the time to release another live recording? Ruthie Foster: Because this is a very different type of recording. Ruthie Foster’s new CD, I wanted to do a big band album. ‘Live at the Paramount.’ It’s not something typical of what

I really just wanted to take my own music and then add the big band element to it; in that way, introduce people to the big band sound. I did a couple of standards at the end just to connect the dots. (But) I wanted to have my own music set to that style. For those who weren’t connected to that sound it was a way to let them know it can go with anything. Any popular song can be turned into that. Among the wonderful covers you do on Live at The Paramount, your distinctive reading of “Ring of Fire” really stands out. Why did you choose that song and make such a stylish arrangement? I chose that one for that reason. I thought it was so different. To bring all of these different folks who love country music and folks who don’t know anything about country music together. I guess I came up with that particular version when I was playing piano. I love those chords; I love major-seventh chords. The song fell right into that arrangement. I

With the current shelter in place status in most of the country, the way most people may be experiencing ‘live performance’ will be on live albums such as yours for some time to come. What will you miss most about live performance in these pandemic days? I can tell you that I miss the energy in the room. When I get a chance

to be in front of an audience, that’s the most… the spirit that comes from the interaction, I truly miss that. But I’m trying to do like everyone else, live-stream. That’s the best we can. I had plans to be in New York during that time for the big celebration. It’s a huge disappointment not being able to do that. Hopefully we’ll be able to gather some by June. If not, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something, maybe even livestream. Do something special. Have you started writing or thinking about songs for your next studio album? RF: Yes. I’ve already been in touch with my band. We’re sending songs back and forth. I think my drummer is sending me something today. He’s putting something down on a song that my keyboard player Scottie Miller and I wrote together. Yeah, we’re writing now!t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com http://www.ruthiefoster.com/

Ruthie Foster

Clementine’s darling by Gregg Shapiro

s Clementine (Oscilloscope) opens, Karen (Otmara Marrero) is reeling from her recent bad break-up with renowned visual artist D. (Sonya Walger). She re-watches a video on her phone of D. watching her sleep. She stalks D. Parking in front of D.’s house, Karen waits

for her to leaves and then tries unlocking the front door with her key. But the locks have been changed. Undeterred, Karen drives to D.’s lake house. She breaks a window to get inside only to later discover the hidden key in the fake rock on the deck. After bandaging the hand she cut on the broken window glass, Karen settles in for a few days. She

rifles through drawers discovering a bag of weed and a gun (yes, the gun will reappear in the second act!). The next day Karen encounters Lana (Sydney Sweeney). First, she sees Lana sunning on the dock, then again later when she is looking for her lost dog. Over the course of the next few days, they become better acquainted. Karen helps her find her dog. Lana leaves a Thank You note with her phone number. Lana, who says she’s 19, comes over and they continue to get to know each other better. They talk about art, get high, listen to records. They get silly and play games. Lana keeps the roach as a “souvenir.” The next morning, Karen wakes up to find Lana making breakfast in the kitchen. Apparently, she stayed the night, but nothing happened between them. Neither of the women are where they’re supposed to be. Lana is keeping her distance from Tommy who promised to take her to L.A. because she wants to be an actress. Karen is startled by a knock at the door. She meets Beau (hot Will Brittain from Blow the Man Down), the young caretaker there to do repairs and check on the house. Beau’s presence puts a strain on Karen and Lana’s budding relationship. When he has a moment alone with Lana, he tells her that Karen is “a dyke.” Meanwhile, D. is aware that Karen is at the lake house. She calls the landline, she texts Karen’s phone. She tells her not to do anything stupid. As you may have figured out, Beau is there to keep an eye on Karen for D.

Sydney Sweeney and Otmara Marrero in Clementine.

After Karen rescues Lana from a bad situation at Tommy’s, Karen invites her to stay over. They share small intimacies; Lana braids Karen’s hair, Karen applies eyeliner to Lana’s lids. At one point, Lana puts on Karen’s bathing suit and blouse, paints her toenails the same color as Karen’s. When Beau tries flirting with her, Lana stops him in his tracks. Just as we think the seduction we are watching unfold is about to take place, Lana backs off from Karen. As if to explain, Lana tells the story of what happened at Tommy’s when she called Karen to pick her up. Lana said she wants to be an actress and soon we are left wondering whether she’s acting for Karen or if she’s genuine. The story Lana tells leads Karen to take the gun (see?) to Tommy’s and retrieve a video cam-

era with damning footage. When D. returns, Karen’s world crumbles at a faster pace. She learns Lana’s real name (Julie) and her real age (16). Adding insult to injury, D. has Beau change the locks on the lake house. In a final phone conversation we discover just how good Karen and Julie can be when it comes to acting. Fans of slow-paced tension will probably find something to like about Clementine. But for those who want just a little more action, this is not the movie for you. If you’re wondering where the title comes from, Clementine refers to the fruit Lana peels during one of the first days she spends with Karen. Rating: B-t www.clementinemovie.com

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May 28-June 3, 2020 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Q-Music: Queens for the queens

The 35th Anniversary Edition of Whitney Houston’s eponymous album

by Gregg Shapiro

y 1985, the year in which Whitney Houston’s eponymous Arista Records debut album was released, gay men were thirsty for an R&B diva of substance. Donna Summer’s career, sidetracked by religious fanaticism, was essentially over. A successful solo act throughout the 1970s, Diana Ross, who had a significant Nile Rogersguided comeback in 1980, was still chugging along and managed to keep herself in the public eye, even with a series of meh albums. Houston’s Arista label-mates, legacy artists such as Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin were also having their struggles by the mid-1980s,

although Franklin did manage to achieve a major comeback (also in 1985) with her ‘Who’s Zooming Who’ album. Of course, Whitney’s reign would be challenged the following year by Janet Jackson and her breakthrough album ‘Control.’ The 35th-anniversary expanded vinyl double LP reissue of the Grammy Award-winning Whitney Houston (Legacy/Vinyl Me, Please) is what brought about this mini music history lesson. Listening to the album in 2020, you can definitely hear that it was of its time, especially in the production and arrangements. That said, there is also plenty of timeless material to be found, particularly with the ballads, beginning with Houston’s singular

rendition of “Greatest Love of All” (also previously recorded in notable renditions by George Benson and Jane Olivor), as well as “All At Once” and “You Give Good Love.” Whitney’s former disco diva/ religious zealot mother Cissy apparently approved of her daughter singing a song about having an affair with a married man (“Saving All My Love For You”), but disapproved of her daughter being a lesbian, shoving her deeply into the closet. That didn’t stop Whitney from following in (and surpassing) Cissy’s disco diva footsteps with the song “How Will I Know,”which was not only a club and pop chart sensation, but also featured a popular music video. Even with all of her vocal prowess, it seems that Houston’s greatest champion, Clive Davis, didn’t trust her on her own, inserting distracting male duet partners such as Teddy Pendergrass (“Hold Me”) and Jermaine Jackson (“Nobody Loves Me Like You Do” and “Take Good Care of My Heart”). Further distinguishing the vinyl anniversary reissue is the debut domestic release of Whitney Dancin’ Special, a 1986 Japan-only collection boasting extended remixes of “How Will I Know,” “Someone For

Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson reissues

Me,” “You Give Good Love” and “Thinking About You,” as well as an instrumental version of “How Will I Know.” Additionally, the reissue includes a photo and lyric book with essays.

Miss Jackson

Reissued on vinyl for the first time since it was first released in February 1986, Control (A&M/ UMe) by Janet Jackson was intended as an indication that the diva had taken full, well, control of her vinyl catalog and legacy. Three albums into her career, mostly “controlled” (there’s a theme here) by her unpleasant father Joseph, Janet found a production team that was better

Janet Jackson’s Control

suited to her own vision. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, formerly of the Minneapolis band The Time, had progressed beyond their beginnings and were about to become an indemand production duo. A nine-song album, Control was the source of seven (!) hit singles, all of which reached the top of the charts. The seven songs, including the title cut, “Nasty,” “What Have You Done For Me Lately,” “The Pleasure Principle,” “When I Think of You,” “Let’s Wait Awhile” and “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun),” and the accompanying music videos in heavy rotation on MTV (when it was still a music video network), redefined Jackson as an unstoppable force. The songs, especially the banging “Nasty” and the ballad “Let’s Wait Awhile,” perfectly illustrated Jackson’s versatility as a performer. Additionally, songs such “When I Think of You,” “The Pleasure Principle” and “Control” established Jackson as a dance diva, earning her a devoted following in the LGBTQ+ community. Jackson would later repay that kindness with a 2004 NYC Pride performance, ongoing AIDS activism and advocacy, support of various LGBTQ+ causes, an appearance on Will & Grace and more.t

Interrelated fates Sexuality in Enter the Aardvark, The Wanting Life by Tim Pfaff

oes the highly explicit sex now dominating gay literary fiction spell the end of the library about life in the closet? Or to the quibbles about which religious upbringing – Catholic, Protestant or Jewish – is the most damaging to the budding queer, which has also been overshadowed by the lessons of the sand wars, which have shown us Muslim boys thrown from high buildings. Given that, it’s both amazing and somehow gratifying that the literary genre of the closet novel still has any juice left. Two just hit the market – Mark Rader’s debut novel, The Wanting Life (The Unnamed Press) and Jessica Anthony’s Enter the Aardvark (Little, Brown and Company) – that make compelling reading, if from radically different perspectives. The only exhibitionist feature of Rader’s earnest prose is also elsewhere now: the telling of a crossgenerational family saga in segments that are out of chronological order. What makes Rader’s compelling is the close attention he pays to each of his characters, all fording the

Matt Cosby Pictures

Christopher Hiltz

Left: Jessica Anthony, author of Enter the Aardvark Right: Mark Rader, author of The Wanting Life

cross-currents of their individual and interrelated fates. The writing is unfailingly accomplished, involving, moving. Its main character is Father Paul Novak, a teacher-scholar-priest who dedicates his life to the church if not always to a god with a penchant for judgment or, more unsavory for Father Paul, a congregation of regular people. It’s only in his last years, on a trip to Rome with his sister, that he coughs up his long-held secret: an affair with Luca, an sexy young Roman student, that takes place late in a multi-year period of study in Rome. There are chalices of passion if only thimbles of sex in the pair’s

short time together. It depends on what you think counts as sex to decide whether the pair had it two or three times, but when Father Paul’s furlough ends, the affair is drained by space and time, to the differing regrets of both men. It is nearer his own death that Father Paul learns that Luca is long dead, likely of AIDS. Without moralizing, Rader depicts the struggles of each of his well-drawn characters navigating lives that pit duty against sudden, unsought, eruptive meetings that defy some of them and define others, conflicts between pattern and passion that are solved, or not, by allegiance to self.

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The fact that Enter the Aardvark begins with an m-dash signals that Anthony is after different game. Her targets are gay Republicans or, as she calls them the “Not Gays.” Congressman Alexander Wilson, who has just ghosted a long-term sex partner, charity celebrity Greg Tampico, thinks he has reduced at least one impediment to his imminent re-election. The closest he comes to a belief is this: “It’s not about sex. It’s like women make you feel like a man, but men make you feel like a human. It’s not your fault you are who you are, and they are who they are.” The situations Anthony mines for her material are the stuff of headlines, but her mission is unrelievedly comedic, leavening. Like Rader, her story reels between epochs of time and knots of characters but, in her case, with the unsparing, high-energy atom-smasher of whip-smart, informed, biting cynicism. Her prose is quick, almost breathless, voracious and deftly targeted. She lands her punches on the professional Not Gays just this side of short-acting parody and instead pelts it with its own, lethal, if risible, double standard. Enter the aardvark. It is a piece of 19th-century taxidermy by a selfcloistered artist who himself has been left, after the kind of passion that erupts most explosively behind closed doors, by a younger man who leaves him for the safer discontents of heterosexual marriage. The slain, burrowing South African termite eater’s own story is masterfully interwoven throughout Anthony’s chronicle of its increasingly tawdry junkets. Taxidermist Titus Downing mastery is grounded in his capacity to get into the jiva, the es-

sence, of dead animals. What he has learned is that, even with them, it’s all in the eyes. For the aardvark, he eschews the beads in common use for a pair of eyes he makes, resembling those of the man who left him. The aardvark eerily decorates the bedroom of Tampico, where it has witnessed carnality of the two Not Gays. Before killing himself over Wilson’s duplicitous dumping of him, Tampico has the aardvark FedExed to Wilson’s apartment, which he occasionally shares with two fellow Republicans congressmen. Tampico’s suicide makes headlines, and if Wilson wants no postmortem part of it, he has to get rid of the damn thing. The escalating hilarity is addictive, but the jokes aren’t easy, the humor routinely revolting. There’s a substance in Titus Downing that itself mocks his masterpiece’s owners. Anthony’s galloping, detailrich prose comes in at 200 pages, so don’t start it after dinner if it’s a good night’s sleep you’re after.t

Dan Arriola

East Bay LGBTQI Elected Officials In Support of the

Bay Area Reporter

Councilmember, City of Tracy

James Aguilar Trustee, San Leandro USD

Victor Aguilar Jr. Councilmember City of San Leandro

John Bauters Councilmember, City of Emeryville

Ken Carlson Councilmember, City of Pleasant Hill

James Chang Commissioner, Berkeley Rent Board

Val Cuevas Trustee, West Contra Costa USD

Lori Droste Councilmember, City of Berkeley

Roland Esquivias Mayor, City of Hercules

Andy Katz Director, East Bay MUD

Thank you for being a voice for our community.

Shawn Kumagai Councilmember, City of Dublin

Jim Oddie Councilmember, City of Alameda

Gabriel Quinto Councilmember, City of El Cerrito

Tim Rood Councilmember, City of Piedmont

Rebecca Saltzman Director, Bay Area Rapid Transit District

Cesar Zepeda Director, West County Wastewater