May 30, 2024 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

State Senators Scott Wiener, left, and Caroline Menjivar saw important LGBTQ-related bills pass out of their legislative house of origin.

Slew of CA LGBTQ bills survive 1st chamber votes

by Matthew S. Bajko

Aslew of LGBTQ bills is moving through the legislative process after California legislators adopted them out of their chamber of origin by the May 24 deadline. Committees in the Assembly and state Senate will now be taking them up over the coming weeks.

As has been the case in recent legislative sessions, health concerns and the rights of transgender individuals are the focus of a bulk of the bills. The 15 bills the Bay Area Reporter is tracking now must be sent to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk by August 31, otherwise the legislation will be spiked for the year.

A top priority for passage by LGBTQ advocates and lawmakers is Senate Bill 957 authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco). As the B.A.R. first reported in January, the legislation aims to ensure that officials in the California Department of Public Health are meeting their requirements to ask about sexual orientation and gender identity demographics, known as SOGI data for short.

It is in response to a scathing 2023 report from California’s state auditor that found the statewide health department’s SOGI data collection efforts were woefully inadequate. If enacted, SB 957 would require that state health officials implement all of the recommendations in the audit.

Senators passed it May 21 on a 31-8 vote with one abstention. Wiener expressed delight at seeing the bill move on and pledged to push it through the Assembly.

“SB 957 will help us finally quantify health disparities faced by the LGBTQ community, a critical first step to eliminating health disparities,” stated Wiener.

The California LGBTQ Health & Human Services Network, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, also hailed its surviving Senate review.

åA nine-person Statewide LGBTQ+ Commission would be formed under Assembly Bill 3031 by Assemblymembers Alex Lee (DSan Jose), who is bisexual, and Evan Low (DCupertino), who is gay. The Assembly passed it May 22 on a 62-0 vote with 18 abstentions.

LGBTQ Target creatives speak out after Pride 2023 debacle

by Cynthia Laird and John Ferrannini

At first, it seemed like a dream come true. LGBTQ designers and artists were recruited by Target to create merchandise for the giant retailer’s Pride collection. Not only would the job bring in revenue, it would create exposure for the creatives and their products.

But last year, caught up in a right-wing backlash, Target buckled.

Shortly after the Pride collection dropped in mid-May – before Pride Month even started in June – anti-LGBTQ activists and conservatives waged a campaign against the items and Target capitulated. It removed Pride displays from the front of many stores and even shifted some items to its website for online purchase only.

That left designers and artists feeling angry and betrayed, two couples, who run two companies, told the Bay Area Reporter in a series of recent Zoom calls. They decided to speak out because Target’s 2024 Pride collection dropped this week. But it’s very different from last year.

“When Target comes knocking on your door, we’ve made it,” Jennifer Serrano, of JZD, said about her and her wife’s initial excitement at working with the company.

For this year, according to a May 9 statement, Target is “offering a collection of products including adult apparel and home and food and

Target is the sixth largest retailer in the U.S., according to the National Retail Federation. The publicly traded company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has a net worth of $70.08 billion, as of May 17, according to analysts.

JZD

Serrano and Veronica Vasquez are a queer lesbian Latina couple who own JZD, a lifestyle brand celebrating culture every day based in Brownsville, Texas. The women, who’ve been married for almost 10 years, said they were first contacted by Target in 2021 for its Hispanic Heritage Month collection, in which that collaboration launched in 2022. They were excited to be informed Target wanted them to contribute to its 2023 Pride collection.

beverage items, curated based on consumer feedback. The collection will be available on Target.com and in select stores, based on historical sales performance.”

In other words, not all the stores will have a Pride display, as NPR reported.

JZD has an online store and two brickand-mortar locations. Additionally, its products are sold at boutiques and smaller stores across the country, according to its website. Serrano and Vasquez started the company in 2016.

The women said they’re speaking out now as an NDA has expired, freeing them to tell their story.

Based on what designers told the B.A.R., it seems likely that Target locations in more conservative areas of the country will not feature Pride-themed merchandise.

They started on the Target project about a year in advance.

See page 12 >>

2017 Media Kit 0 a

All 5 major SF mayor candidates make pitches for Milk club nod

by John Ferrannini

The news from Mayor London Breed may have not been what many members of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club wanted to hear during a May 21 forum. Facing a dire budget this year, Breed would not commit to backfilling any federal HIV cuts.

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

Instead, Breed said her “goal right now” is to backfill an expected $500,000-$800,000 shortfall in HIV funding from the federal government, but stopped short of a full commitment at the forum, held at the First Universalist Unitarian Church. All five of the major candidates participated in separate one-on-one interviews led by Milk Club President Jeffrey Kwong and, occasionally, answered questions from audience members.

The mayor’s statements at the forum were in response to a question from longtime HIV advocate Vince Crisostomo, a queer Chamorro man who is the director of aging services at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

“We pulled all our [HIV/AIDS] organizations together and what we decided is not to

destroy the current safety net,” Crisostomo said. “This year we’re facing $500,000-$800,000 in CDC federal cuts. Can you commit to backfilling those federal funds with city money, and what can be done for organizations like LYRIC?”

See page 14 >> See page 15 >>

Breed also said she hopes to avoid cuts to social service organizations serving LGBTQ youth, such as LYRIC, which shared with the Bay Area Reporter that it, alongside Larkin Street Youth Services and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, were seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts as the city stares down a $245 million deficit this coming fiscal year and a $555 million deficit the following year.

Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club President Jeffrey Kwong, left, listened to a response from Mayor London Breed at a May 21 forum.

John Ferrannini

Courtesy the subjects

Veronica Vasquez, left, and Jennifer Serrano own JZD and had some of their merchandise in Target’s 2023 Pride collection.

Courtesy JZD

<< Community News

LGBTQ bar OMG announces June closure

by John Ferrannini

Club OMG in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood will be closing after all. Its owner, Rakesh Modi, announced via Facebook on May 22 the club’s last day will be Sunday, June 9.

“All good things must come to an end,” Modi posted over a picture of the nightclub’s entrance.

Modi, a gay man who owns the club at 43 Sixth Street, declined a request to comment for this report, stating, “I’ve already said what needed to be said.” On May 14, the Bay Area Reporter ran a story about Modi’s efforts to raise money to keep the nightclub open.

Modi started a GoFundMe to raise $100,000 for his business, which is in debt and would be at risk of closing without an infusion of cash, he told the B.A.R. When the story initially ran the GoFundMe had only raised $2,246 despite having been online for over a month. By press time May 22 that figure was $2,841.

Modi had told the B.A.R. that the nightclub catered to the Latino and transgender communities. Club OMG first opened its doors 12 years ago, he said.

“OMG has become sort of the home bar for the Latino community, especially

the first-generation Latino community that don’t necessarily speak English, or that’s not their first language,” Modi said. “They like to have community events and fundraisers, birthdays, and fundraisers for those who’ve passed, especially the trans community.”

The venue had been struggling first because of the COVID pandemic and then because of the decline in foot traffic in downtown San Francisco.

“The Castro came back [from COV-

ID], and some areas were not fortunate enough to come back, so we’re in that situation,” Modi said for the prior story.

“We’re hoping things planned for downtown, the revitalization, turn around, but meanwhile we have to pay off the debt. There’s big credit card debt and if you know, fees, the interest rate is so high and that keeps increasing. If we get out of debt, that will help us survive.”

Modi said that during the COVID lockdowns, he received a small paycheck

protection program loan, which was forgiven, and took out other U.S. Small Business Administration loans to pay operating expenses. Though the bar was closed, the beer tap and dispensing system had to be kept on, leading to large Pacific Gas and Electric bills, he said.

“We had to keep paying PG&E because the machines that run the beer systems and such needed to be on so we couldn’t turn off everything, to keep them alive,” he said. “That takes up a lot of energy.” When COVID business restrictions tapered down in 2021, the bar did see more crowds, Modi said. But COVID helped precipitate a longer-term downturn for downtown San Francisco.

As people keep working from home, businesses continue an exodus, and national media focuses on property crime and the fentanyl epidemic. According to a report from the Institute of Governmental Studies released last year, downtown San Francisco ranked last among 62 North American cities in recovering from the COVID pandemic.

“The first few months were great,” Modi said. “Everyone was ready to get back to the bars. However, things had changed. A lot of people stopped going to work downtown, a lot of retail started closing one by one, and so people who

worked at those stores who went to OMG, or people that worked downtown who had a drink after work — we had a happy hour that was really good before COVID — all of that dried out. Being on Sixth Street, we felt the effects more than other places.”

While the city has been working on revitalization efforts — such as Mayor London Breed’s push for an outdoor entertainment zone on Front Street between California and Sacramento streets and the new monthly Chinatown night market and First Thursdays street festival in SOMA — Modi said that isn’t really hitting Sixth Street south of Market Street, which is impacted by open-air drug use and sales.

When reached for comment, Carlo Gomez Arteaga, the co-executive director of the Transgender District, stated to the B.A.R., “We are so sorry to see another business go in the district. However, we are working hard to make sure we continue to build new and existing TGNC-led businesses in the district.”

When asked if the district has a list of transgender and gender-nonconforming-owned businesses available, so that patrons can support them, Gomez Arteaga stated that that is “in the works.”t

Castro Pride flag landmarking won’t happen by Pride

by John Ferrannini

Though the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission unanimously approved plans to landmark the late gay artist Gilbert Baker’s oversized rainbow flag installation in the Castro neighborhood, the supervisor who introduced the proposal is now uncertain of the way forward.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman hadn’t anticipated that, in its May 15 vote to landmark the installation, the Historic Preservation Commission would open the door to flags other than the six-color rainbow flag being flown at the site. Doing so would be counter to what proponents of the landmarking request are seeking, which is to see the flagpole be used solely for the flying of the pride flag.

He told the Bay Area Reporter May 28 that the landmarking won’t be completed in time for Pride festivities at the end of June, as originally anticipated. The HPC recommendation was “not the recommendation I had anticipated and so I’m trying to understand what went into it and what our options are moving forward,” he stated.

Mandelman’s office is in discussions with the planning department and the city attorney. A timeline for

bringing the issue to the Board of Supervisors’ land use and transportation committee is “still to be determined,” according to Mandelman aide Adam Thongsavat.

Under the proposed ordinance the HPC sent to the supervisors May 15, flags other than the rainbow banner could be flown. During a discussion at their meeting, the commissioners talked about what procedures would have to be followed for that to happen.

The commission voted 7-0 in favor of landmarking the flagpole. San Francisco Planning Department staff had recommended it approve the designation of the rainbow flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza, seen as the front door to the LGBTQ neighborhood, just one week prior to what would have been the slain supervisor’s 94th birthday.

Shortly after the HPC voted on the matter, Mandelman had told the B.A.R. it would likely slow down the landmarking process.

“I actually am confused by the commission [HPC] recommendation, so this may take a little more time than I had hoped. I also thought the purpose of the landmarking was to recognize Gilbert’s flag installation as the historically significant work of art that it is,” he had noted in a texted reply about its decision.

The supervisors kick-started the local landmarking process April 2, approving a resolution introduced by Mandelman, who represents the Castro on the board.

The resolution requested that the planning department “prepare a landmark designation report to submit to the Historic Preservation Commission for its consideration of the full historical, architectural, aesthetic, and cultural interest and value of Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza.”

makes provision for a certificate of appropriateness to allow that to happen. Cultural district director Tina V. Aguirre declined a request to comment but stated they support the landmarking.

“The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District is committed to preserving, sustaining, and promoting the rich legacy of the Castro and its significance to San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ community and beyond,” Aguirre stated in a February 6 letter to the planning department.

The Castro Merchants Association is the current custodian of the flag. Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is president of the merchants group, said during the meeting that it was a personal request made of her by the late Tom Taylor – who’d been the flag’s custodian until his 2020 death but who’d been assisted by the merchants in his final years – that the one six-color oversized rainbow flag be flown at the site 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

“It concerns me greatly the line is being put in to have other flags fly on the flagpole,” Asten Bennett said of the proposal. “It was made clear to us that if it was not only the one rainbow flag flying it opened the possibility any flag, even a Nazi flag, might fly on the pole.”

asked, “Does any San Francisco resident have the right to petition to fly a different flag from this flagpole?”

Corrette answered if someone were “getting the attention of the head of the department of public works” they’d be able – under the proposed language in which other flags could be flown with a certificate of appropriateness – to try to get another flag flown from the flagpole.

Corrette said it would be under the jurisdiction of the HPC to decide if any other flags could only be flown for a limited amount of time.

Baldauf also requested Corrette find out from the Human Rights Commission what its guidance is. Mandelman had previously told the B.A.R. he was “hoping to have this project done in time for this year’s Pride celebration, which is especially fitting as Gilbert’s Pride flag made its debut at a San Francisco Pride parade.” Now, his office confirmed that won’t happen.

Charley Beal, a gay man who is president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, made public comment at the meeting, referencing bans of the Pride flag on public property in other parts of the country.

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During the meeting, Planning Department staff member Moses Corrette said that the flag qualifies as a traditional cultural place and as a significant artwork.

“The artwork represents three pillars of Milk’s values which he taught: hope, visibility, and power,” Corrette said. “The rainbow flag, as a symbol, is identified with the global LGBTQ community since about 1980.”

Corrette said that it took six weeks from the first announcement of the installation in 1997 to when it was erected. Therefore, there was not a maintenance plan.

“In some regards, it’s up to whoever holds the key to the flagpole and to the flag,” he said.

Possibility of other flags

Corrette noted at the meeting that some in the community wanted other flags flown from the flagpole from time to time, mentioning the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and said the proposed ordinance

Nonetheless, “all in all the Castro Merchants are fully in support” of the landmarking generally, Asten Bennett said.

Asten Bennett said that “we stopped flying other flags because the [San Francisco] human rights commission was brought in and advised us it was all or nothing.” At different points in the past, the trans and leather flags had been flown at the site.

The Human Rights Commission was not able to provide comment.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu’s office declined to comment, referring the B.A.R. to the human rights commission. At the meeting, the deputy city attorney who staffs the historic preservation commission referred a question on the matter back to Corrette.

Corrette said that “to change the flag would require a certificate of appropriateness” and San Francisco Public Works, which installed the flagpole in 1997, “would have to apply for that and make a proposal to the arts commission and this body.” Commissioner Hans Baldauf

“It is the eighth most recognized symbol in the world after the American flag, French tricolor, the British Union Jack, the McDonald’s arches, the Nike swoosh – well you get the picture,” he said. “But the rainbow flag is more than just a prominent political symbol. It is an important work of art. I was with Gilbert when his flag was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It is now in the permanent collections of almost a dozen museums and more are being added every year. As a work of art, I think it stands on its own and deserves landmark status.”

Asked about the possibility of other flags at the site, Beal stated May 15, “The goal of the Gilbert Baker Foundation is to see Gilbert Baker’s 6 color rainbow flag landmarked in order to preserve this beacon of hope in perpetuity.”

In 2022, as the B.A.R. previously reported, the Gilbert Baker Foundation had hired architectural historian Shayne Watson, a lesbian who is an expert on the city’s LGBTQ history, to conduct research on how

The city landmarking of the oversized rainbow flag and flagpole has been delayed.

Rick Gerharter

Club OMG plans to shutter its doors in early June due to financial troubles and a drop off in business caused by the COVID pandemic.

Courtesy Club OMG

Pride with

Celebrate Pride with FREE Programs at San Francisco Public Library

Programs at San Francisco Public Library

Programs

Art, Activism & Equity

Saturday, June 1, 3 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room, Lower Level

Art activists Jeff Jones, Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle reveal how SF’s BIPOC, Queer artists, activists and their allies changed the narrative from exclusion to empowerment, transforming our City and the country.

Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People

Sunday, June 9, 2 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, 3rd Floor

A discussion with contributors to the book and current Hormel LGBTQIA Center exhibition, Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families , including Lana Patel, Anjali Rimi, Fresh “Lev” White and Jozeppi Angelo Morelli.

Author Therese R. Rodriguez

Thursday, June 13, 5:30 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, 3rd Floor

Don’t miss your chance to see this multifaceted, pioneer Filipino immigrant, nationalist community organizer, human rights activist, unabashed LGBTQIA advocate, Apicha head and iconic leader on Asia-Pacific issues.

Kim Shuck’s Poem Jam

Thursday, June 13, 6 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room, 3rd Floor

San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck invites writers published in the latest issue of the multicultural lesbian literary & art journal Sinister Wisdom to read their work.

Zinething

Tuesday, June 18, 6 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Fulton Conference Room, 3rd Floor

A monthly LGBTQIA zine-making meetup presented by SF Zine Fest. Open to all. Tell your story, tell your truth! Every 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Book Club: Mysteries at Milk Memorial Sunday, June 16, 3:30 p.m.

Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch

1 José Sarria Court

If you enjoy a good whodunit, spend an hour hashing out the details of this month’s mystery novel: Lev AC Rosen’s Lavender House . Join in person or on Zoom.

Teens

Queer & Trans Social Hour at The Mix

Fridays, June 14 & 28, 4:30 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, The Mix, 2nd Floor

Discuss queer ideas, explore fun activities and eat snacks with queer peers and allies at this monthly bi-weekly social hour.

Tween Graphic Novel Book Club: Laura Gao’s Messy Roots

Monday, June 24, 4:30 p.m.

Glen Park Branch, 2825 Diamond Street

Talk about graphic novels with fellow comics fans even if you haven’t finished the book.

For Families

Pride in the Presidio

Saturday, June 1, 10 a.m.

Presidio Tunnel Tops, 210 Lincoln Blvd.

Enjoy a day outdoors with queer history hikes, book giveaways, Drag Story Hour, a Tea Dance Celebration with the Music Connects Foundation and more! presidio.gov

Pride Storytime

Wednesday, June 12, 11:30 a.m.

West Portal Branch, 190 Lenox Way

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride Month with songs, stories and rainbows.

Rainbow Cookie Decorating

Friday, June 21, 3 p.m.

Noe Valley Branch 451 Jersey Street

Pride Jewelry

Saturday, June 29, 3 p.m. Merced Branch 155 Winston Drive

Make your very own unique and colorful jewelry. For ages 5+.

We celebrate Pride all year long! For more LGBTQIA programs visit: on.sfpl.org/sfplpride

Cheer for the SFPL contingent at the Pride Parade on June 30!

Photo:

Hate should be ‘health crisis,’ SF Dems say

by John Ferrannini

The San Francisco Democratic Party is calling on the city to find funds in its public health budget to support victim services and research best practices for hate crime prevention.

The local party’s resolution is one of several efforts to bring awareness to the need to combat hate and prejudice, on both local and state levels – including the release of data from a state hotline where people can report hate crimes.

The reason public health funds should be used, said Bilal Mahmood, a straight ally who’s an elected member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, is because racism and “hate incidents” constitute a “public health crisis adversely impacting the health, mental health, and wellbeing of people of color and marginalized communities,” in the words of the resolution that he authored.

The resolution passed unanimously at the May 22 meeting of the DCCC, or D-triple-C, as it’s known.

As the Bay Area Reporter reported in March, the DCCC – made up of members elected by rank-and-file Democrats as well as other elected officials in the county – garnered national headlines with the near-sweep of a more moderate slate that broadly criticized the previous committee members for progressive stances and for opposing the 2022 recall of then-district attorney Chesa Boudin. The DCCC makes political endorsements on behalf of the Democratic Party.

The B.A.R. asked Mahmood if public funding is realistic considering the city’s budget woes – Mayor London Breed last December asked city departments for 10% cuts across the board. A deficit of

about $800 million is expected over the next two fiscal years, and Breed has said it could reach $1 billion by Fiscal Year 2028. Breed has until the end of next week to submit to the Board of Supervisors her budget proposal for this year.

“The budget is $15 billion,” Mahmood said. “This would just be millions. Our hope is they see this as a different academic. We can act on both fentanyl and hate crimes.”

Breed’s office did not return a request for comment for this report as of press time. Neither did the office of District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston – a progressive who Mahmood is challenging in the November elections. District 5 includes the Haight-Ashbury and Tenderloin neighborhoods.

Mahmood said that the city needs to study the impact of both hate crimes and hate incidents.

The San Francisco DA’s office has a

Victim Services division that provides support to crime victims and their families, according to its website.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has also awarded a grant to Community United Against Violence, or CUAV, which provides services to the LGBTQ community.

The DCCC resolution states public health funds are needed to study the disproportionate impact of hate crimes and incidents on vulnerable populations. Mahmood said it’s appropriate to do this – rather than just relying on the current funding for victim’s services after a crime is committed – because hate incidents aren’t necessarily crimes and because the DCCC sees hate crimes as an “epidemic” in addition to a criminal matter.

The resolution comes just one day after a Black San Francisco dog walker, Terry Williams, saw his Grove Street house damaged by fire weeks after he re-

ported receiving racist threats and packages. His parents were upstairs and had to be rescued by the San Francisco Fire Department, according to NBC News.

Hotline data paints hate incidents picture

The City and County of San Francisco has not seen the precipitous rise of all reported hate crimes since 2020 that has afflicted other parts of the state and nation, according to FBI statistics, the B.A.R. previously reported, though statewide hate crimes were up in 2022 –20.2% over 2021 numbers.

Hate crime incidents against gay men, lesbians, and trans people all rose statewide that year. The most targeted groups in that report were Black individuals, gay men, and Jewish people.

But while hate crimes are tracked by city, state, and federal law enforcement, hate incidents aren’t. Mahmood said that since 2020, the Black, Asian, and queer and transgender communities have reported increasing hate incidents to service organizations, and with the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents are rising, too, Mahmood said.

The DCCC’s resolution comes just after CA vs Hate revealed data from its new hotline’s first year of operation at a Sacramento news conference May 20. Data released by the California Civil Rights Department showed 1,020 reports. Of 560 reports that were reviewed, 35% claimed a bias motivation based on race or ethnicity, 15% based on gender identity, and 11% based on sexual orientation. Of the race or ethnicity-based reports, a plurality was based on anti-Black bias, at 27%, followed by anti-Latino bias, at 15%, and then antiAsian bias, at 14%.

“Advancing the civil rights of all Californians and combating hate in our communities remains a top priority. In California, our diversity is our strength,” state Attorney General Rob Bonta stated in response to the release of the data. “The CA vs Hate initiative is an important effort to combat hate and extremism in our communities. DOJ remains committed to new and ongoing efforts to combat hate and bias.”

Bamby Salcedo, a trans woman who is president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition and vice chair for the California Commission on the State of Hate, stated her organization “is grateful” of its partnership with the statewide initiative.

“This platform has allowed many members of our community to be able to report hate crimes and hate incidents in a way that is supportive and able to connect people to very much needed resources,” Salcedo stated. “CA vs Hate is a platform for all people to be able to see that there is an intentional way to eradicate hate in our beautiful state, because hate is not welcome in our state.”

Out DCCC members co-sponsor resolution

The DCCC resolution was co-sponsored by two gay men who also serve on the committee – Joe Sangirardi and Michael Nguyen.

Sangirardi, who’s running for the District 9 (San Francisco) BART board seat in November, told the B.A.R. that “the LGBTQ community, and especially young queer folks, are disproportionately targets of hate speech and physical violence.” It causes health care issues that need to be addressed, he argued.

See page 13 >>

Vallejo naval museum to show Fish exhibit

compiled by Cynthia Laird

I n observance of LGBTQ Pride, the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum will exhibit “Doris Fish: Ego as Artform” during the month of June.

A news release noted that this is the second mounting of the exhibition. It premiered last year at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood and proved so popular that it was extended twice and ran for 11 months.

Fish was the drag persona of Philip Clargo Mills

In the 1980s, Fish and her genderbending troupe, Sluts-A-GoGo, were San Francisco’s reigning drag queens, the release stated. Fish was larger than life; so were her talent, her ego, and her ambition. She co-produced and starred in the camp underground classic “Vegas in Space,” an outer space adventure musical comedy dealing with the glamorous irrational behavior on an all-female planet in the 23rd century, set in the 1960s.

Before coming to San Francisco, Fish, who died in 1991, trained as a visual artist in her native Sydney, Australia.

The exhibit features her paintings, silk screens, drawings, and a glamor ous table she created from objects found behind a shuttered furniture store.

Ms. Bob Davis, a trans woman who runs the Louise Lawrence Archives in Vallejo and knew Fish, is collaborating with the city’s museum on the project. Davis, who will be at the opening, designed the sound for “Vegas in Space” and helped create the exhibition about Fish.

An opening reception will be held Saturday, June 1, at 10 a.m., followed by a Pride flag raising ceremony. The museum is located at 734 Marin Street in Vallejo. Exhibition hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students. Kids under 12 are free.

SF LGBT center to have Pride block party

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center is holding its inaugural Pride block party Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1800 Market Street. The event is recognized by the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee as the official launch of Pride season, according to a news release.

The block party will bring together dozens of local community resources, LGBTQ+ small business vendors, Black Indigenous and people of color-owned food trucks, drag performances, and live entertainment from Bay Area LGBTQ+ creators, the release noted.

Dubbed “Building the Block,” the event will offer resource connections to LGBTQ+ community members through the center’s programs and services inside the center, while the exterior of the building will offer communitybuilding programming.

Entertainers scheduled to perform include Ms. Ruby Red Munroe, Afrika America with Drag Out The Vote, ASTU, Lalin St. Juste, Lovey, and more.

The event is free. To sign up and get a ticket, go to https://tinyurl.com/ yc7wd987.

Magickal Market in Alameda

The Feathered Outlaw, a queer woman-owned shop in the East Bay city of Alameda, will host its Magickal Market Friday, May 31, from 5 to 9 p.m. on the 1500 block of Webster Street.

A news release noted the event has been going on since 2017 and seeks to build and grow community in the West End Arts District of the city. The market is expected to feature whimsical local artists, small businesses, holistic practitioners, and musicians

The event is free and open to the public. The release noted that the street will not be closed down. Instead, organizers encourage attendees to explore the surrounding area, enjoying the food, drinks, and shopping that the West End offers.

Pride in the Bayview

The San Francisco neighborhood of Bayview Hunters Point will hold Pride on Third Sunday, June 2, from noon to 4 p.m. at The People’s Garden, 4101 Third Street.

Organizers stated the Sunday brunch concert series will feature a special performance by Madame Gandhi, an award-winning artist and activist known for her uplifting, percussive electronic music and positive message about gender liberation and personal power.

DJ NoSilence will open the afternoon set, followed by Oakadelic. Food will be served by Smoke Soul Kitchen SF.

The event is free for all ages.

the B.A.R. previously reported. Sonoma County librarian and queer advocacy team chair Javier Morales stated that the library’s motto of “Free People Read Freely” particularly applies to the queer community.

“Sonoma County Library branches are spaces where the queer community will always be welcomed and celebrated – not just during Pride Month, but every day,” Morales stated.

Interested people can visit sonomalibrary.org/pride for queer book lists, Pride Month-related activities at the branches, and more.

Members of the library’s Here + Queer project will also be available at Sonoma Pride to chat with parade watchers. The project accepts digital content in the form of personal narrative essays, anecdotes, photographs, creative works, audiovisual material, and more. Anonymous submissions are supported, the release stated.

SFAF opens new SOMA space

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation announced it has relocated its main office to a single-tenant building at 940 Howard Street. The B.A.R. previously reported the foundation was set to leave its longtime home at 1035 Market Street when it signed the lease for the new space last November. The move keeps the AIDS foundation in the city’s South of Market neighborhood.

“I felt Doris deserved to be seen,” Davis had told the Bay Area Reporter for a 2023 story about the exhibition and a biography about Fish.

There will be free gender-affirming haircuts and styling offered by Headprint House, a free clothing closet, and a plus-size community flea market hosted by Fierce Fat Flea Market.

The Feathered Outlaw is located at 1506 Webster Street. The Magickal Market is sponsored by the West Alameda Business Association.

Sonoma library celebrates Pride Queer book lists, LGBTQIA+-related events at various branches, and parade participation are just a few of the ways the Sonoma County Library will celebrate Pride Month.

A news release noted the library will have a parade contingent and a booth at Sonoma County Pride, which takes place Saturday, June 1, as

SFAF’s Strut health center at 470 Castro Street in the LGBTQ neighborhood is not moving.

According to a news release, services at the Howard Street location will reopen the week of June 3.

“As our lease at 1035 Market Street approached its end in 2023, and with a significant portion of our staff transitioning to a hybrid onsite/remote

page 13 >>

San Francisco Democratic Central Committee member Bilal Mahmood authored a resolution asking the city to use public health funds to study the effects of hate crimes.

Courtesy Bilal Mahmood

“Doris Fish: Ego as Artform” opened at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco last year.

Courtesy GLBT Historical Society Museum

New HIV cases continue to decline, CDC finds

by Liz Highleyman

New HIV infections in the U.S. continue to fall, with the greatest declines seen among gay and bisexual men, young people, and people living in the South, according to a set of HIV surveillance reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released May 21. An estimated 87% of people living with HIV knew their status, and 65% of those diagnosed were on treatment and achieved viral suppression in 2022, almost unchanged from last year.

“The new HIV incidence estimates show that national prevention efforts are continuing to move in the right direction overall, although substantial disparities exist,” Dr. Robyn Neblett Fanfair, director of the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention, and Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, wrote in a letter to colleagues. “Increases in pre-exposure prophylaxis prescriptions, viral suppression and HIV testing likely contributed to the decline.”

The CDC estimates that HIV incidence fell from 32,700 new infections in 2021 to 31,800 in 2022. This number remains far above the national Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative’s goal of reducing new infections to 9,300 by 2025 and to 3,000 by 2030.

Since 2018, overall HIV incidence has declined by 12%. The five-year figure is useful for discerning trends over time, especially considering that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted HIV testing and other services in 2020. New infection numbers are estimates based on extrapolation from available data. Diagnosis numbers, in contrast, are more dependent on changes in testing. There

were 38,043 reported HIV diagnoses in 2022 – a higher number than estimated incidence because some people who acquired HIV in prior years were newly diagnosed.

The five-year decline in HIV incidence was largely driven by a 30% drop among people ages 13 to 24.

Incidence in all other age groups remained stable. People ages 25 to 34 account for the largest number of new infections, according to the CDC figures.

While gay and bisexual men still make up a majority (67%) of people who acquire HIV, this group also saw the largest decline in new infections. Between 2018 and 2022, new cases decreased by 10% among men who have sex with men and by 27% among gay men who inject drugs. New infections fell by 20% among white gay and bisexual men and by 16% among Black gay and bi men but remained stable among Latino men.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Latino men were the only

Among people diagnosed with HIV in 2022, 82% were linked to care within one month. However, just 54% were retained in care and 65% achieved an undetectable viral load that year – about the same as last year. But everyone did not benefit equally. Viral suppression rates ranged from 61% for Black people to 71% for white people. The Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative aims to raise the overall viral suppression rate to 95% by 2025.

Another report noted that HIVrelated deaths declined by 25% in 2022, showing the impact of early diagnosis and linkage to care and treatment.

group in San Francisco in 2022 to see an increase in new diagnoses.

Meanwhile, new cases among women, heterosexual men, and non-gay people who inject drugs stayed about the same. Looking at both sexes and all transmission routes combined, Black people had by far the highest HIV incidence, but they were the only group to see a decrease – 18% – while numbers remained stable for other racial and ethnic groups.

Similarly, there were more new infections in the South than the West, Midwest, and Northeast put together, but it was the only region to see a decline, falling by 16%, while the other regions remained stable.

HIV care and PrEP

Of the estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV in the U.S., 87% had been tested and knew their status in 2022, according to one report. The Ending the HIV Epidemic target is at least 95% by 2025.

people experiencing homelessness accounted for nearly one in five new diagnoses, and only about half had their HIV under control.

The CDC said it has paused its PrEP reporting “to determine the best methodology for calculating PrEP coverage, and to update PrEP coverage estimates using updated methods and sources,” after a calculation error was discovered. The agency expects to resume PrEP coverage reporting in June 2025.

“While we would have liked to see improved outcomes, federal funding for CDC HIV prevention and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS care and treatment program, along with other critical programs, has remained flat for years,” Carl Schmid, a gay man who is the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, said in a statement. “Without significant increases for care and treatment and prevention programs, including those for PrEP, sadly, we will continue to experience only small drops in the number of new diagnoses, and racial and ethnic disparities will persist. As a nation, we can and must do better.”

San Francisco has done better than the nation as a whole, but the city still faces challenges. New HIV diagnoses fell slightly to 157 in 2022, according to the latest epidemiology report from the SF Department of Public Health, released last fall.

This resumes a declining trend that was interrupted in 2021 as HIV testing picked back up in the wake of the COVID pandemic. An estimated 97% of people with HIV knew their status and 80% achieved viral suppression within six months after diagnosis. But

But it does seem clear that greater PrEP use leads to fewer new infections. At the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Dr. Patrick Sullivan of Emory University reported that states with the highest PrEP coverage from 2012 through 2021 saw the largest declines in new HIV diagnoses. Average PrEP coverage ranged from about 6% in the 10 states with the lowest coverage to about 16% in the 10 jurisdictions with the highest coverage. Over the same period, the HIV diagnosis rate rose by almost 2% in the states with the lowest PrEP coverage while declining by 8% in the jurisdictions with the highest coverage.

“Overall, data from these reports demonstrate that expanding the reach of HIV testing, PrEP, and treatment have been effective – but our reach must extend even further, and progress must be faster, to achieve our national goal of ending new HIV infections in the United States,” Neblett Fanfair and Mermin wrote. “This requires sharpening our collective focus on efforts that address inequities and their drivers, including racism and other social and structural determinants of health, and ensuring that whole person approaches to HIV prevention, care, and treatment are brought to scale and equitably reach all people who need them to stay healthy.” t

Dr. Jonathan Mermin, left, director of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, and Dr. Robyn Neblett Fanfair, director of the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention, said new reports show the number of HIV cases in the U.S. continues to decline.

Courtesy CDC

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Target’s the definition of ‘performative’

We have allies and haters. Generally, the LGBTQ community is quick to spot the difference. Then there are the “performative” allies, those whose actions don’t measure up to their words, like Target, the retail giant that buckled under pressure from right-wingers last year during Pride Month and has maintained that weak retreat this year.

Target, the sixth-largest retailer in the U.S., according to the National Retail Federation, has taken pains to point to its pro-LGBTQ employee policies and the fact that the Minnesota-based company will “have a presence” at Pride events in Minneapolis and elsewhere. “Most importantly, we want to create a welcoming and supportive environment for our LGBTQIA+ team members, which reflects our culture of care for the over 400,000 people who work at Target,” the company stated in response to our questions about the Pride collection 2023 debacle. “We have long offered benefits and resources for the community, and we will have internal programs to celebrate Pride 2024.”

states in the South, and most of the items are for purchase only online.

We reported on four of the artists whom Target approached in 2022 to design merchandise for the company’s 2023 Pride collection. In separate Zoom interviews, Jennifer Serrano and Veronica Vasquez, a queer Latina couple who own JZD, and Ash Molesso and Chase Needham, a queer couple who own Ash & Chase, spoke about the excitement they felt when they were asked to create items for Target. They all expressed frustration and anger as the events unfolded last year that led to many of their items being removed from stores and sold only online. These companies are both small businesses that created some really great items for Target. They said they were given creative control and that the Target staff they worked with never indicated there would be problems.

All of that is great – we certainly want companies to offer benefits and resources to their LGBTQ employees. The national Human Rights Campaign gave Target a score of 95 (out of a possible 100) in its Corporate Equality Index for 2023-24. But when it comes to frontfacing actions that customers see on a daily basis when they walk into a Target store, well, the company falls far short. In other words, it’s performative.

Last year, Target abruptly shifted its long-standing Pride display practice and relocated the merchandise to the back area of stores or moved it entirely online. That was because it gave in to conservative haters who posted nasty comments on social media because Target dared to sell merchandise – much of it created by LGBTQ designers – that really spoke to LGBTQ customers, and was cute. After that fiasco ended up pleasing no one, this year Target decided it would not sell Pride collection merchandise in many stores, particularly those in conservative red

Then, when the criticism came raining down, Target officials pulled a bait and switch on the designers. First they claimed they had to move the LGBTQ merchandise so that they could promote swimwear. Then they changed course and said it was due to employee safety. The swimwear claim was bogus. Anyone who’s been to a Target knows that this time of year swimwear is always at the front. In many instances, the Pride collections were nearby.

The employee safety matter is obviously more serious. We have no doubt that Target employees, especially in those red states, were met with MAGA-like outbursts from crazed shoppers, many of whom filmed their profanity-laden tirades and posted the videos on social media. This, of course, fed the right-wing victim machine, as Jon Stewart so aptly described it on one of his recent episodes of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. In fact, as Stewart pointed out, the right-wingers who constantly complain they are being victims of cancel culture aren’t canceled at all. (Well, except for Republican Liz Cheney, who dared to speak out against former President Donald Trump and lost her Wyoming congressional seat because of it, as Stewart noted.)

“Trump is the real cancel culture,” Stewart said. Instead of caving in to the haters, Target should have kept its Pride collections up and hired more in-store security. Instead of giving up by having most of its 2024 Pride collection online, Target should have gone back to having displays in stores. But it was too afraid of what happened to Bud Light, which suffered a drop in sales last year after partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The beer giant provided a single can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s picture on it for her to crack open on social media, and all hell broke loose. To the point of transphobe Kid Rock showing himself shooting at cases of the product. Target, too, has suffered a sales decline for the last year, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported. The article did not attribute the decrease to LGBTQ issues, but rather price increases, according to CEO Brian Cornell.

So instead of taking the harder road, Target chose the easier path followed by Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, a subsidiary of Belgian brewer AB InBev. And like Bud Light, Target basically threw the LGBTQ designers under the bus. Fortunately, in the case of JZD, they did not have to pay for the countless items that went unsold; Molesso and Needham of Ash & Chess got the rights back to their designs. But the bottom line is that Target did not stand up for them. It did not issue a statement of support for the LGBTQ community – something that both couples said they asked for – and kept giving them the runaround as the designers received hate mail.

Vasquez told the B.A.R. that Target  “is the definition of a performative ally,” and, yes, that’s the definition of performative. We hope that Target executives can somehow see through the manure spread by the right-wing haters and get back on track for its 2025 Pride collection. It needs to once again be loud and proud. t

Butch bodies are beautiful

by Shaley Howard

Acouple of weeks ago, we watched Congressmembers Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) verbally attack each other during a public meeting of the House Oversight Committee. Greene at one point spewed, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” a clearly racist comment aimed at Crockett. Within seconds, chaos ensued. Crockett hurled her own insult back at Greene, calling her a “bleach blonde bad built butch body.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of Greene and honestly think she’s a racist, transphobic, homophobic, xenophobic vile human being. And I do love a good take down. Not to mention, all of this was brought on by Greene herself. I fully understand why people would be celebrating Crockett’s quick comeback. So much so, there’s an overwhelming push for T-shirts to be printed with “Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Body.” Greene is a bully. She does nothing but constantly hurl insults at everyone. So admittedly, at first, I, too, was thrilled and delighted to hear Greene taken down by Crockett.

Crockett, who is serving her first term in Congress, is someone I’ve always admired. She has a “take no shit” attitude that is refreshing, especially among Democrats, a party that usually shies away from throwing shade. And when Crockett is firing back at racists, I’m typically in heaven. It’s not acceptable, nor should it be allowed, for Greene, or anyone for that matter, to shame, degrade or publicly insult any group of people. No one should have to endure that sort of reprehensible, offensive rhetoric. Especially in Congress.

The issue I have with Crockett’s comment, however, is what was buried within it. When she told Greene she has a “bad built butch body,” it was obviously not intended as a compliment. It was a slight, an insult and an attempt to cut Greene deeply. Which it may have? But far more damaging was what it implied – that butch bodies are undesirable and abnormal. That women with masculine features and bodies, or masculine-presenting women, are disgusting. It assumed that women’s bodies are supposed to be more stereotypically feminine in appearance and anything deviating from that is obscene.

I am a masculine presenting, butch lesbian and I’ve had an entire lifetime of people shaming, insulting, and telling me there was something wrong with my body. It’s taken me a lifetime to realize there is

nothing wrong with my butch body. The body I was born with by the way, whether I liked it or not, that I was stuck with. With Crockett’s comment, an entire sub-population of the LGBTQ+ community was body shamed and thrown under the bus.

I thought it was interesting that Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), another politician I admire, was outraged at Greene’s comment and immediately asked for her words to be taken down. “That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person,” she said. What was ironic was there was no similar outrage from her around Crockett’s comment that bashed butch bodies.

Like so many others, I, too, want to see Greene and all these racist MAGA homophobes and transphobes taken down. But celebrating this snap-back at the expense of an entire group of people isn’t acceptable. This wasn’t something on a celebrity television show, with contestants spouting off. This took place in Congress with our elected United States legislators. The place where laws are made. The LGBTQ+ community has historically always been discriminated against. And in our current political climate, we are facing over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills. The last thing we need is more oppressive rhetoric and verbal assaults thrown at us from our own representatives. t

Shaley Howard is a masculine presenting lesbian and an award-winning author of “Excuse Me, Sir! Memoir of a Butch,” and author of numerous articles featured in Curve, Diva, HuffPost, The Advocate, PQ Monthly, and Tagg magazine.

Shaley Howard

Courtesy Shaley Howard

Target has most of its 2024 Pride collection on its website.

Screengrab via target.com

West Coast LGBTQ US House expansion falters in Oregon

by Matthew S. Bajko

Seeing all three West Coast states send LGBTQ people to Congress this year hit a wall in Oregon. Neither of the two out House candidates running in the Beaver State survived their May 21 primary races.

There still remains a chance of seeing Washington State voters elect the first out member to the Evergreen State’s congressional delegation. It holds its primary in August, and queer Democratic state Senator Emily Randall is vying to secure one of the two spots for her state’s 6th District House seat on the November 5 ballot.

California is all but assured of seeing its two gay Congressmembers, Mark Takano (D-Riverside) and Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), be reelected this fall. LGBTQ leaders are also hoping to see out representation among the Golden State congressional delegation at least double with the elections in November of gay candidates Assemblyman Evan Low (DCupertino) and attorney Will Rollins to seats in Silicon Valley and the Coachella Valley, respectively.

LGBTQ leaders in Oregon will have to wait until 2026 to see if they will have another chance to elect an out House candidate. Their doing so will likely depend on the outcomes of this year’s races and what the incumbent officeholders will decide to do in two years.

In the Portland region LGBTQ leaders could find themselves waiting years for their House seat to open up again. Oregon House of Representatives member Dr. Maxine Dexter (D) appears to have a lock on winning the 3rd Congressional District seat come November.

The straight state lawmaker took a commanding first-place lead in her primary contest, with 50.74% of the vote according to the unofficial election results. She defeated queer Grisham City Councilmember Eddy Morales, who received 14% of the vote for third place.

Coming in second, with 28.46% of the vote, was Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal the sister of Washington state Congressmember Pramila Jayapal (D). Dexter will face Republican lawyer Joanna Harbour on the November ballot, as the two women won their party-based primary contests.

Morales called Dexter Wednesday to congratulate her on her victory and pledged to work with her as a House member. In a thread on social media site X, he noted, “No election result will ever change the fact that I will never, ever stop fighting for these values and this community. I am so incredibly proud of all the work and the organizing we’ve done.”

Due to the district’s voter makeup heavily favored toward the Democratic candidate, Dexter is expected to easily win the race and become the first Black woman from Oregon to serve in the House. She is set to succeed Congressmember Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland), who decided not to seek another term this year.

Blumenauer congratulated Dexter on her victory Tuesday night.

“Maxine has proven herself to be a serious and effective legislator, I am confident she’ll take this success with her to Washington, D.C.,” he stated. “I look forward to partnering with her to ensure our district is well-served when she is elected in November. There is a lot of work to do on behalf of our community.”

In the Democratic primary race for Oregon’s District 5 House seat, Jamie McLeod-Skinner again came up short. A lesbian former councilmember in the Bay Area city of Santa Clara, McLeod-Skinner lost to Janelle Bynum, who serves in the Oregon House of Representatives.

Bynum, Oregon’s only Black state lawmaker, received 68% of the vote, based on the unofficial returns. McLeod-Skinner, who lost two previous House bids, conceded Tuesday night.

“I want to congratulate her,” McLeod-Skinner told local reporters.

“Now is the time to bring the folks together because there’s so much at stake in this election in November.”

Republican Congressmember Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Happy Valley was unopposed in her primary race. She had narrowly defeated McLeodSkinner in their 2022 general election race and is once again facing a tough campaign against Bynum. Their race is considered a toss-up by political prognosticators.

Now LGBTQ politicos will be watching to see how Randall fares in her August 6 primary. Washington uses the same open primary system as California, so the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation will advance to the November 5 ballot.

Randall, a former Bay Area resident, is locked in a fierce contest against fellow Democrat Hilary Franz, a Washington public lands commissioner. Also in the race is Republican state Senator Drew MacEwen

ago but has drawn far more significant support from the Democratic Party for his 2024 candidacy. The seat is one Democrats hope to pick up this cycle, though Calvert is seen as having a slight edge in the race.

Yet, a recent poll done by David Binder Research showed Rollins up by one point over Calvert at 45% among likely voters. Rollins will be in San Francisco June 2 for a $100 per person fundraiser with Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; RSVP online at https://tinyurl.com/nh8w2fdd to be sent the location ahead of the event.

They are competing to succeed Congressmember Derek Kilmer (DGig Harbor) in Washington State’s Puget Sound region. He endorsed Franz.

Washington State’s senior U.S. Senator, Democrat Patty Murray sole endorsed Randall in the race.

In mid-May the Truth To Power Political Action Committee, created by progressive Southern California Congressmember Katie Porter (DIrvine), endorsed Randall, who would be the first LGBTQI+ Latina to serve in the House.

Porter’s PAC also endorsed Democratic Delaware state Senator Sarah McBride in her House bid. If elected, McBride will be the first transgender member in Congress.

“I have seen firsthand how important issues for families, like disability justice and paid leave, don’t rise to the top of Congress’ agenda because too many politicians are busy catering to their corporate donors. Sarah and Emily both refuse to take corporate PAC contributions and will be fighters for the American people, not corporate special interests,” stated Porter in announcing the endorsements.

Golden State House races  Porter, who is leaving Congress at the end of her term due to failing to survive her U.S. Senate seat primary in March, also endorsed Rollins in his race against Congressmember Ken Calvert (R-Corona). His 41st Congressional District seat includes the LGBTQ resort and retirement mecca Palm Springs where Rollins now lives. Rollins lost to Calvert two years

Having survived a recount of his primary race that the San Jose Mercury News recently reported received significant funding from a committee controlled by billionaire former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Low is facing a tough fall contest against former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo The fellow Democrat took first place in their primary for the 16th Congressional District seat that Congressmember Anna Eshoo (DPalo Alto) will be vacating at the end of her term.

Three other out congressional candidates are seen as underdogs in their respective fall contests. Of the three, gay progressive lawyer David Kim has the strongest shot of being elected.

He is running again against fellow Democrat Congressmember Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles for his 34th Congressional District seat. Kim would be the first out Korean American elected to Congress should he win.

Progressive activist Derek Marshall is again running against Congressmember Jay Obernolte (R-Hesperia) in the state’s 23rd Congressional District. It covers the high desert areas east of Los Angeles.

In the Bay Area Jennifer KimAnh Tran, Ph.D., a leader within the state’s Vietnamese American community, is running for the 12th Congressional District seat centered in Oakland. The Democrat is partners with Oakland sex shop owner and nightlife venue operator Nenna Joiner

Having also mounted an unsuc

cessful primary bid for the U.S. Senate, Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) will be leaving Congress at the end of the term and is backing fellow Democrat BART board member Lateefah Simon to succeed her. Simon, a straight ally, took a commanding lead in the primary over Tran and is expected to win in November. t

Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, returns Monday, June 3. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko.

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Eddy Morales, left, and Jamie McLeod-Skinner both lost their congressional bids in Oregon.

Courtesy the campaigns

SF LGBTQ senior housing awaits funding

by Matthew S. Bajko

Ayear ago, San Francisco planning officials approved a 187-unit affordable housing project aimed at LGBTQ seniors. It has yet to break ground, however, as the project sponsor is seeking state funding to help pay for its construction.

The delay has pushed back by at least two years the expected opening of the building to be located at a prominent intersection along the upper Market Street corridor a block away from the city’s LGBTQ community center. The earliest it would now welcome residents is sometime in 2028.

But that timeframe is contingent on the state awarding funds to the project this summer. It would be another year before work on the building could commence, and the buildout would take three years to complete.

“We very much look forward to welcoming the first residents of 1939 Market Street to their new home!” Roslyn Sternberg, a communications manager for Mercy Housing California, told the Bay Area Reporter this month.

The affordable housing developer is working with Openhouse, a nonprofit pro-

vider of LGBTQ senior services in San Francisco, on the development of its third building of below-marketrate apartments meant to house predominantly LGBTQ seniors. The agencies had earlier partnered on the 119-units of LGBTQ-welcoming affordable senior housing split between the buildings at 55 and 95 Laguna Street. The campus also includes Openhouse’s

offices at 65 Laguna and a community center it built out at 75 Laguna. It is a short walk from the location of the new 15-story residential building that will include ground floor commercial space.

The city acquired the triangular 7,840 square foot lot bordered by Market Street and Duboce Avenue in 2020 for $12 million from the Sheet Metal Workers Local 104. The union plans to vacate the property nearer to when construction of the new building will begin.

With an estimated construction cost of $117,673,842, the new tower will

have 106 rent-restricted studios and 79 rent-restricted one-bedrooms for seniors. A one-bedroom unit plus a two-bedroom unit will be set aside for on-site managers. Paulett Taggart Architects and YA Studio were hired as the project architects, with assistance from TS studio on the landscaping. The plans call for community gardens on seven levels of the building, with a terrace adjacent to a second-floor community room at the back of the building fronting Duboce with views of Twin Peaks.

A place LGBTQ+ seniors can call their own.

As the nation’s first community-based day program designed for and with the LGBTQ+ community, Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services offers a life-affirming environment where LGBTQ+ older adults can receive care to support their health and well-being. That’s why they affectionately call it Club 75.

The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, after selecting Mercy and Openhouse to oversee the project, had awarded $4 million for predevelopment costs such as design work. The project is estimated to have a total price tag of $159,669,745 once all costs and the developer’s fee is added in.

It was hoped that construction on the building could begin as soon as 2023, allowing it to open in 2026, as the B.A.R. had reported three years ago.

Mercy had sought to be selected last December for state financing, which could have allowed it to begin construction later this year. But its financing application was not selected for the highly competitive program.

“Part of what makes a site competitive is how much money it requests from the state. To remain competitive, developments are left to identify incremental alternate financing to lower their state request,” Matthew Graves, a senior project manager at the mayoral office, had noted to the B.A.R. last October.

In March, Mercy applied for funding from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program overseen by the California Strategic Growth Council and the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. The program will be allocating $675 million in funds toward various projects across the state aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as affordable housing for disadvantaged communities and low-income communities.

For affordable housing projects, the maximum loan amount is calculated based upon the unit’s level of income restriction, the number of restricted units it has, unit sizes, and location in addition to the base amount for loan calculation, according to the state agency.  It noted to applicants that the initial base loan amount would be $250,000 per restricted unit, though there was a maximum amount of $35 million for affordable housing developments.

“AHSC applications are still being reviewed. Awards are expected to be announced by August,” Alicia Murillo, a communications specialist for the state housing department, told the B.A.R. May 24.

Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services is partially funded by the City of San Francisco Department of Aging and Disability Services.

For additional information, contact Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services today at 415-292-8302 or email communitydayservices@onlok.org.

“Club 75 has brought me out of my shell. I can come here as I am. The people here have shown me how to live as myself. I would probably be in a dark place if not for them. They have me for life—they are never getting rid of me.”

Sternberg didn’t disclose how much funding Mercy was seeking via the state program. She told the B.A.R. that if Mercy is selected for AHSC funding, it will then apply for tax credits through the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee.

– Miss Patti Ann, Club 75 Community Member

“If we are awarded funding by August 2024, we will apply for tax credits in 2024. Receiving those credits would put us on track to start construction in summer of 2025,” noted Sternberg in an emailed reply.

Because it met the legislated requirements for affordable housing projects under California’s Senate Bill 35, authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), Mercy’s housing project didn’t need to be approved by the city’s planning commission and received sign-off from planning department staff last May 31.

A rendering depicts the proposed development aimed at LGBTQ seniors located at 1939 Market Street.

TS Studio

Anti-trans measure fails to qualify for CA ballot

by John Ferrannini

Aballot measure to restrict the rights of transgender youth won’t appear on California’s November ballot, according to the group that sponsored the measure. The news came ahead of a legislative hearing on a state bill that would ban the outing of transgender public school students.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Protect Kids California was gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would have banned trans minors from receiving gender-affirming care; banned trans girls from female competitive sports, locker rooms and bathrooms; and required public schools to disclose students’ gender identities to parents if they say they are different than their sex at birth.

Protect Kids California had until May 28 to collect some 550,000 valid signatures in order to place the measure before state voters on the November 5 ballot. In a statement posted to Instagram, Protect Kids California stated it had fallen short. The group claimed to have “collected an impressive 400,000 signatures” from registered voters in every county of the Golden State, and to have raised $200,000 from 1,200 donors.

“While we are disappointed we didn’t meet the threshold to qualify for the bal-

lot, we are encouraged by the amount of support from every sector of the state,” a spokesperson stated. “We gathered more signatures for a statewide initiative than any all-volunteer effort in the history of California.”

Tony Hoang, a gay man who’s the executive director of statewide LGBTQ rights group Equality California, stated, “We are relieved that anti-LGBTQ+ extremists have failed to reach the required signature threshold to qualify their antitransgender ballot initiatives to the November 2024 ballot.

“Equality California will continue to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ youth everywhere, and push back against any and all efforts by extremist groups who seek to discriminate against them,” he continued.

The backers of the proposed measure had been approved to collect signatures late last year, as the B.A.R. reported.

During the signature-gathering phase was a legal fight after Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office titled the measure “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit

February 13 in Sacramento County Superior Court on behalf of Protect Kids California that alleged Bonta’s personal beliefs led to a biased title and summary.

The center contended the ballot measure proponents should be given 180 additional days for signature gathering without discounting signatures already collected.

Bonta “has demonstrated that he personally, and in his official capacity, is opposed to any kind of notification by a public school to a parent or guardian that his or her child is exhibiting signs of gender dysphoria when the child asks the school to publicly treat him or her as the opposite sex with a new name or pronouns, and to allow the child to use the sex-segregated facilities of the opposite sex,” the groups claimed in the suit.

But a Sacramento Superior Court judge sided with Bonta in a ruling first issued tentatively April 19 and was made final April 22. Judge Stephen Acquisto ruled that Bonta’s title and summary are accurate.

“Under current law, minor students have express statutory rights with respect to their gender identity,” Acquisto stated. “A substantial portion of the proposed measure is dedicated to eliminating or restricting these statutory rights. ... The proposed measure would eliminate express statutory rights and place a condition of parental consent on accom-

modations that are currently available without such condition.”

The attorney general’s office has some leeway when it comes to determining ballot titles, the judge noted.

“The proposed measure objectively ‘restricts rights’ of transgender youth by preventing the exercise of their existing rights. ‘Restricts rights of transgender youth’ is an accurate and impartial description of the proposed measure,” Acquisto added.

In its May 28 statement, Protect Kids California claimed that “had the measure qualified for the ballot, its proponents are confident it would pass,” and that “our message is simple: schools shouldn’t keep secrets from parents; we should protect girls’ sports and private spaces at school; and we should protect kids from unproven, life-altering and often sterilizing medical procedures. We vow to continue fighting for these principles.”

Advocates of the outing policy are now turning their attention toward blocking Assembly Bill 1955, which will be heard Wednesday, May 29, by the Senate Education Committee. As the B.A.R. noted last week, gay state Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) gutted-andamended one of his bills to revive the legislation after shelving it last fall.

His SAFETY Act, for Support Academic Futures & Educators for Today’s Youth, would ban the forced outing of transgender students in the state by public school officials unless they determine doing so is in the best interest of the youth. If enacted into state law, it would supersede any such policies adopted by school districts and make them null and void.

The bill also includes a provision protecting teachers who oppose such policies from retaliation by school district officials. It comes as Bonta seeks a final ruling from the San Bernardino County Superior Court against the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education. The court had issued a preliminary injunction order against the school district from carrying out the forced outing policy it had approved then rescinded in March due to the court’s action.

With broad backing from state leaders and education groups, it is expected that Ward’s bill will be sent to Governor Gavin Newsom to sign into law this fall.t

the flagpole came to be as a first step toward declaring it a landmark.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, Baker co-created the first rainbow flag with friends Lynn Segerblom, a straight ally who now lives in Southern California, and James McNamara, a gay man who died of AIDS-related complications in 1999. Baker and his friends came up with a rainbow flag design that had eight colored stripes, with one version also sporting a corner section of stars to mimic the design of the American flag. It debuted at the 1978 San Francisco Pride parade.

“It really is a three-person, not a one-person, flag making. Everybody played their part and then some,” Segerblom told the B.A.R. in a 2018 phone interview from her home in Torrance, southwest of Los Angeles.

Baker would go on to eliminate the stars and reduce the number of colored stripes to six. Over the ensuing years, Baker turned that standard six-color banner into an international symbol of LGBTQ rights. Baker died unexpectedly in 2017 at the age of 65, and the foundation created in his name donated a segment from one of the first rainbow flags that flew in front of San Francisco City Hall during the 1978 parade to the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro, where it is now on public display. t << Castro flag From page 2

Rick Gerharter

A holy site Commentary>>

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Ivisited a holy site the other day.

My partner and I were celebrating our 32nd wedding an niversary and happened to be in San Francisco. We exited the 38 R Muni bus at Taylor Street and walked down to Market Street. Along the way, zig-zagging through temporary barricades shunting people away from ripped up sidewalks – the victim of what looks like some pretty involved infrastructure work – I realized where we were.

Houston, or elsewhere in the world. At the same time, I wonder how many of the buildings around Turk and Taylor are owned by transgender and nonbinary people, how many businesses there can boast the same, and how those owners have taken to being in the Transgender District of San Francisco. Beyond the flags, how much of this area is truly “ours?”

(The Transgender district noted that a list is “in the

The corner of Turk and Taylor streets.

To the uninitiated, this is just another shopworn corner in San Francisco. Many of the structures are a bit frayed after decades of existence, and the sounds of heavy construction and urban traffic added little to the scene.

Across from us was a gray, four-story building, trimmed in blue. The ground floor, featuring hazy, block windows, was vacant. The upper floor boasts transitional housing. Once we had the light, we crossed to this structure, 101 Turk Street.

I mentioned the torn up sidewalks, but one area, on the Turk Street side of the building, were two plaques, untouched, inset into the ground. They told the story.

The area where Turk and Taylor sits is the heart of the Tenderloin, and has been known as one of the rougher neighborhoods in the city. Thanks to 1960s “urban renewal” projects elsewhere in the city, the area ended up with a larger than average gay and trans demographic, and a fair number of sex workers.

In the 1960s, this gray building was once the home to Gene Compton’s Cafeteria.

The cafeteria, at the time, was open 24 hours, and ended up being used as a social space for trans people – predominantly trans women – who were involved in the local sex trade. The cafeteria, meanwhile, sought to deter its trans clientele. It added service fees aimed at them, and would harass them in an attempt to get them to move on. It also would often call the San Francisco Police Department. You see, at the time “female impersonation” was a crime.

One August night in 1966 – the exact date is lost to history – the police were called. An officer reportedly grabbed at one trans woman in an attempt to arrest her. She retaliated, throwing a cup of coffee at his face. A riot quickly ensued. It was the first such riot led by trans and queer people fighting for their rights, predating the far more well-known Stonewall uprising of 1969 in New York City.

As I said, it is a holy site.

In 2017, just a hair over 50 years after the plate glass windows of Compton’s Cafeteria were broken out, the city of San Francisco recognized Turk and Taylor –and much of the surrounding area, as a transgender cultural district. The streetlight at Turk and Taylor sports the colors of the transgender flag, and banners of the same hang throughout the area.

The Transgender District is the first legally-recognized transgender cultural district in the world and, per its website, is on a mission, “to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood.”

It’s a far cry from when Compton’s Cafeteria was calling the police on the trans people of the Tenderloin.

Yet, I find myself wanting. In this era of intense backlash against transgender people, I suspect this will be a “first of its kind” for a long while. While the site of the reported 1959 Cooper Do-nuts (https://www.cooperdonuts.com/) riot in Los Angeles is recognized, it’s not in the midst of a transgender district. The neighborhood around what had been Dewey’s lunch counter in Philadelphia, home of a 1965, pre-Stonewall protest involving queer Black teens, has no trans flag colors painted on its traffic light poles. There are no transgender community districts in New York, in Chicago, in

works,” as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.)

As I mentioned, we’re in a protracted backlash against transgender rights, with a majority of states now actively making it hard for their trans residents to hold jobs, get care, and be recognized for who they are. We now sit on the verge of Pride Month, and see many of the retailers who were showing support for the LGBTQ community pulling back. Most notably, Target has opted not to put Pride merchandise in many of its stores this year, handing a win to bigots.

We stand at a time when decades of progress are being pushed back. Come August, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot will be 58 years old – but we now, once again, live in a time where stores and restaurants around the country can again call the police on transgender people simply for being ourselves.

At 101 Taylor are two plaques, commemorating the riot that took place all those years ago. I find myself wondering how many more plaques may be needed in the future, honoring those of us who have to again rise up for our rights and

try to change the work once more. I visited a holy site the other day, and it sits in one of the few places we, as transgender people, might be able to call ours – yet, we need so much more. t

Gwen Smith then went and visited the BLÅHAJ display at IKEA, (https://www.newsweek.com/ how-ikea-shark-became-transicon-1753400) but that’s a trans icon for another time. You can find her at www.gwensmith.com

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“We could blend that with our queer identities,” Serrano said, referring to creating items that honored their Latina and LGBTQ cultures.

“A lot of pieces were released in Spanglish,” she added, referring to the language variety that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English.

JZD created apparel, including kids’ T-shirts, adult shirts, and unisex items.

For the Pride collection, the women designed and produced the items with their factory and had them shipped to Target for nationwide distribution.

Additionally, there were plans for a commercial. Target flew the women to Los Angeles for what Serrano said was a Spanglish ad.

“It never saw the light of day,” she said. Target’s Pride collection dropped earlier in May last year, and almost immediately, Serrano and Vasquez started hearing about problems.

“Everything exploded before Pride Month even started,” Vasquez said.

Explained Serrano, “We started hearing from Target employees and JZD customers that Target was prioritizing swimwear and moved Pride to the back, but our products were still up. But we started getting Instagrams of the shelves empty along the Bible Belt.

“We went to our Target in Texas and the products were jammed in the back of the store,” she added.

“What had been a full display was moved to one tiny little shelf,” Vasquez added. “The signage was taken down.”

Neither woman initially heard anything from Target officials. Then they learned the reason for the change was to promote swimwear merchandise.

Ash Molesso and Chess Needham, who are a couple and identify as queer and trans respectively, had an eerily similar experience to Vasquez and Serrano. They were contacted by Target in 2022 to create items from their Ash & Chess company for the 2023 Pride collection.

They, too, said they were flown to Los Angeles for a commercial that was subsequently scrapped. Ash & Chess’ commercial featured a father coming out to his daughter, and the daughter giving him one of Molesso and Needham’s greeting cards.

Molesso and Needham are based in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, where they have an eponymous greeting card company and a brick-and-mortar store in Kingston. In addition to cards, the site sells T-shirts, stickers, and other items.

“We were contacted by Target in March 2022 and they wanted to know if we were interested in collaborating with them for their 2023 Pride line,” Molesso said in a Zoom interview. “We took a Zoom meeting with the people running the Target Heritage collection,” which is responsible for products catering to the LGBTQ, Latino, and other communities.

After the meeting, Target contracted with Molesso and Needham to be among the company’s featured artists, Molesso said. The pair came up with 16 different designs – exclusive to Target –to be featured on “T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and calendars,” Needham said.

Molesso said that among the products the pair came up with were a queer tarot card deck, a kids book and a guided journal titled “My Queer Year.”

“Through the entire process we had free reign of everything,” Molesso said. “They had nothing to say about the content.”

Needham said that the pair tried to center the transgender community.

A series of pieces of legislation, then and now, have been restricting genderaffirming care among youth, trans girls’ participation on girls’ sports teams, and trans people’s ability to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. In 2023, over 500 such bills were introduced and 75 passed in state legislatures nationwide, according to NBC News.

“We tried to focus a lot on trans issues anyway, due to all the anti-trans bills in the U.S., we thought that would be important to have,” Needham said. “They thought all that was great.”

On May 24 last year, Target issued a statement, attributing the change in the Pride displays to safety reasons.

“For more than a decade, Target has offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month,” the statement read. “Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work. Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.

“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” the statement added.

About a week and a half later, after Memorial Day weekend, Target began what the Serrano and Vasquez described as “crisis communication” with them, though they did not know the

Target officials that contacted them –they weren’t the ones who had discussed their merchandise beforehand.

“They laid out what they decided,” Serrano said. “They dropped two products completely.” A “Bien Proud” kids’ T-shirt was pulled entirely. Adult “Bien Proud” tees were kept online and instore. A T-shirt design featuring pronouns was pulled from the store and removed online.

“Target picked ‘Bien Proud’ for a family item and they decided we were trying to groom children,” Vasquez said.

They also said customers were not allowed to purchase some items before they were removed. “Orders were canceled for curbside pickup,” said Serrano.

Support lacking from Target

Serrano said that she and Vasquez tried to get Target to make a statement in support of the LGBTQ community.

Needham said Ash & Chess also asked the company to issue a statement.

“Their decision was giving in to the hate,” Serrano said.

Vasquez said that while they were concerned about employee safety, there were other ways to go about it, such as increasing security at stores.

Serrano and Vasquez said they did receive hate mail and negative messages on social media.

“I went off social for a couple of months,” Vasquez said. “They were calling us pedophiles.”

“I had to put it on the back burner for a little bit,” she added. “It was too much. I’d wake up every single day crying. It was a terrible, terrible time.”

Most of the snail mail came from churches, the women recounted.

“Mostly, we got religious people saying they could ‘save’ us somehow,” added Serrano.

Target declined to answer specific questions from the B.A.R. about the 2023 and 2024 Pride collections. It issued a statement attributed to a company spokesperson.

“Target is committed to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month and year-round,” the statement read. “Most importantly, we want to create a welcoming and supportive environment for our LGBTQIA+ team members, which reflects our culture of care for the over 400,000 people who work at Target. We have long offered benefits and resources for the community, and we will have internal programs to celebrate Pride 2024.

“Beyond our own teams, we will have a presence at local Pride events in Minneapolis and around the country, and we continue to support a number of LGBTQIA+ organizations,” the spokesperson stated. “Additionally, we will offer a collection of products for Pride, including adult apparel, home products, food and beverage, which has been curated based on guest insights and consumer research. These items, starting at $3, will be available in select stores and on Target.com.”

Frustration

Molesso, Needham, Serrano, and Vasquez are not participating in Target’s 2024 Pride collection. And they said that their experience soured them on the company.

“You brought us in and asked for our coming out stories,” Serrano said of working with Target. “We were two diversity boxes checked.”

Vasquez said the lesbians were put out front but then not helped in any way. “They said they could email us resources,” she said, but that turned out to be “basically stay off social media.”

As for the items that were pulled, Serrano said most were discarded, though they have no idea where. In retail, what’s known as a “charge-back” happens whereby the manufacturer, in this case JZD, has to pay for items that don’t sell. The women were worried they’d be on the hook for a lot of money.

“We’re a small business,” said Vasquez. “The first thing we worried about was, ‘We’re ruined.’ We made sure to ask, and we didn’t have to pay for the unsold items. But we don’t know what happened to them.”

Serrano and Vasquez didn’t specify

how many items were made, but it was a lot. “The volume was ordered [from their manufacturer] was for front-ofstore placement,” Vasquez said.

The women credited their team with helping them secure the commitment from Target that they wouldn’t have to pay for the unsold merchandise.

Serrano and Vasquez declined to share specific financial information about the Target deal and JZD because of contracts they have.

For Molesso and Needham, the excitement at being featured at one of America’s most popular retail stores came crashing down when, a couple of weeks after they got back from filming the commercial, “two higher-up representatives from Target we had never been in contact with before scheduled a Zoom with us and they told us that the bulk of our trans-related products, except one or two items, were being moved to online only,” Needham said.

“We were supposed to have two to three items online, and they were supposed to be a special thing – exclusive, online only – to entice people to shop online,” Needham said.

2024

When Serrano and Vasquez heard about the issues with this year’s Target Pride collection, they weren’t surprised.

“But I was livid,” Serrano said. “I feel so much for the brands impacted this year. I know what it’s like to be chasing those dreams.”

Vasquez said Target “is the definition of a performative ally.”

“You don’t realize that until they do you wrong,” she said, adding that the company was convincing that it would be there for the couple but was not.

Ash & Chess

Molesso said the original excuse they were given during the May 2023 meeting was also that the Pride collections at Target were being deprioritized in favor of swimwear. But the truth quickly came to light, Needham said.

“We were like, ‘it seems you’re doing this because of all the anti-trans legislation going on right now,’” Needham said. “But they said ‘no, you’re mistaken. It may seem like that but this has nothing to do with this.’ But why else would these specific items be moved out of stores?”

Molesso and Needham said that they were told by people who worked at Target who they were in touch with on social media that the moves were only in Region 300, which is in the South, and that the reason was concerns over employee safety.

Needham said that the higher-ups told them that “they always move things around because it’s swim season in the

Southern states.” But Needham had noticed that, heretofore, swimwear was always prioritized in the front of the store along with the Pride Month collections.

“We get on this meeting with them and they show us a slideshow of items that they are moving to either online or completely pulling – not making available online even – and they go through the list and by the end of the slideshow, there are only two items left,” Molesso said, adding the items were “paper items, greeting cards. No clothing, no accessories.

“By the time June rolled around there were only a tarot deck and I think, like, our guided journal and the two stationery items remained,” Molesso added.

Molesso and Needham are distressed that Target would not make a statement in support of the LGBTQ community in the aftermath of its decisions, and that while it promised it would donate proceeds to The Trevor Project or GLSEN, there’s “no proof they did anything,” Needham said.

“I said, ‘there’s no profits. You didn’t sell anything,’” Needham said. “I suggested they donate to smaller organizations – Trevor Project and GLSEN are extremely well-funded.”

Officials from The Trevor Project did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for GLSEN stated that no one was available to comment.

Molesso and Needham said they had licensed their artwork to Target, which produced the items, and that afterward Target did give them back the rights to their designs.

“We did work with a team of queer people, and it was really nice during that, but it was just so disheartening doing all this work, and it’s too good to be true, and they’re letting us spread visibility, and giving us this platform and after the meeting we were just kind of laughing –is this a joke?” asked Molesso.

Molesso and Needham are working to put the experience behind them. But they said it did have an effect on their business in that they were not receiving as many freelance jobs as before. Instead, they’ve worked on a few collaborations with smaller niche companies, they said.

The couple declined to share financial information about their company.

Like Serrano and Vasquez, Molesso and Needham called Target “performative” in its actions, or lack thereof, regarding last year. Neither were surprised to hear that most of the Pride collection this year will be online and not in stores.

“They had a whole year to prepare,” Needham said, referring to what happened in 2023. t

Dana Piccoli of News is Out contributed to this report.

Models wear JZD’s “Bien Proud” T-shirts, which were designed for Target’s 2023 Pride collection.

Courtesy JZD

JZD’s pronoun T-shirt was designed for Target’s 2023 Pride collection.

Courtesy JZD

Ash Molesso, left, and Chess Needham, of Ash & Chess, had only a few items in last year’s Target Pride collection.

Wynne Neilly

Ash & Chess initially had many items planned for Target’s 2023 Pride collection.

Ash Molesso

SF drag artist Joan Jett Blakk needs help Community News>>

by John Ferrannini

Joan Jett Blakk, a San Francisco drag performer who became famous for running for president of the United States in 1992, is in Oakland’s Highland Hospital after suffering a stroke, according to two friends who spoke with the Bay Area Reporter. They are seeking help from the community to cover her medical bills.

The friends have launched a GoFundMe with a goal of $20,000 to help pay for Blakk’s care. It has raised $9,800 as of press time May 29.

Blakk, the drag persona of Terence Alan Smith, 67, lives in San Francisco. Kokoe Johnson, who is intersex, gay, and president of Comfort and Joy – the queer community and arts collective –told the B.A.R. that Blakk has been at Highland since she “passed out at a bus

“We carry these mental and physical scars throughout your lives, so recognizing and addressing hate at its source – ignorance and intolerance – is a form of preventative health care,” Sangirardi stated. “This resolution takes a stand on two different visions for the future – one led by people who are scared of change and are trying to drag us back to the past, and then there are those of us who embrace change. We’re fighting for a better future rooted in love and acceptance.” Nguyen agreed, stating everyone has “a responsibility to act in ways that focuses on healing from the trauma of these attacks.” The data shows that mental health “is an important part” of the public health crisis caused by hate incidents, he added.

work schedule, we saw an opportunity to re-evaluate our spatial requirements and enhance our community service efforts while also realizing cost efficiencies,” explained SFAF CEO Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay man living with HIV. “Our dedication to serving the community remains unwavering, despite the physical transition.”

Ben Cabangun, MA, chief of staff, added, “We’re eagerly looking forward to extending a warm welcome to our community at our new SOMA headquarters, offering improved accessibility, recently renovated facilities, and plentiful transit options.”

The two-story Howard Street office is between Fifth and Sixth streets. It houses AIDS/LifeCycle; the Stonewall Project substance use treatment program; subsidies and financial benefits; community engagement programs Black Brothers Esteem, the Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network, Healing & Uniting Every Sista (HUES), Programa Latino, and TransLife; and the administrative departments of SFAF.

The new building is less than half a mile from the previous main office on Market Street, the release stated. Operations at SFAF’s Sixth Street

From Facebook

Terence Alan Smith, aka Joan Jett Blakk, recently suffered a stroke.

stop in Alameda County” on April 25. Blakk “started out in the ICU,” said Johnson, who interchanged pronouns

“We need to invest resources to support victims of hate crimes as well as folks reporting bias incidents,” Nguyen stated. “By viewing this issue outside of the public safety realm and as a public health issue, I am hopeful that more agencies will have the funding they need to support and center these marginalized communities.”

The resolution was also co-sponsored by DCCC member Cedrick Akbar, who is Black.

“I am excited to co-sponsor this resolution because we recognize the detrimental health effects of racism,” Akbar stated to the B.A.R. “Let’s meet survivors of racism where they are and provide seamless language access, when necessary, so they feel seen and heard. Also, only by measuring and treating health effects of racism can we be more preventative.”

Center, which provides harm reduction items and counseling, will continue unchanged.

South Bay Pride flag raising

The city of Santa Clara will hold its eighth annual Pride flag raising ceremony Friday, June 7, at noon in the quad area at City Hall, 1500 Warburton Avenue. The event will celebrate love, diversity, and inclusion. There is no cost to attend.

Community Boards’ Peacemaker ceremony

Community Boards, a nonprofit organization that works with San Franciscans to resolve a wide range of personal, residential, neighborhood, consumer, and public disputes, will hold its 14th annual Peacemaker Awards ceremony Friday, June 7, from 10 to 11:45 a.m. in the Grand Salon at San Francisco City Club, 155 Sansome Street.

Community Boards provides mediation and conflict resolution services to the public. The awards program acknowledges and honors the significant contributions of those making San Francisco a city of healthier, safer neighborhoods and communities.

“Community Boards’ Peacemaker awards event recognizes that it takes a village of peacemakers and

his mother; and his sister Elizabeth, of Rye, New York. Images of Robert can be seen around the city, including in a poster in the cage at the Hole in the Wall, and in the motorcycle exhibit at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro. A celebration of Robert’s life will be held at the Hole in the Wall Saloon, 1369 Folsom Street in San Francisco, Saturday, June 1, at 4 p.m. Robert was a gentle soul, with a big heart.

when talking about the drag artist. “He is definitely there but he’s not a full communicator yet.” It is not known how long Blakk will remain z. Johnson said that while in the hospital, Blakk has been spending time listening to music she’s familiar with. She’s receiving physical, occupational, and respiratory therapy, Johnson added. Johnson, who uses he/she pronouns, said he/she wasn’t aware of the matter until Blakk didn’t show up at last weekend’s Oaklash queer and drag festival in Oakland.

“I was supposed to meet her for Oaklash but couldn’t find her anywhere,” Johnson recalled. “I reached out to her biographer, who connected me to her sister in Detroit, who told me. As far as I know, I was among the first visitors.”

Now, Johnson is coordinating Blakk’s care. The two met in Chicago, where

The resolution itself asks for research of the health effects of hate incidents, as well as funding for victims services for hate crime victims.

Nancy Tung, a prosecutor with the DA’s office and straight ally who is the chair of the DCCC, thanked Mahmood for bringing the resolution forward at the committee’s meeting.

“I think it’s a very important and apt way to look at the effect of hate crimes and hate incidents that occur, and looking at the people who are sitting here with us on this stage, I bet that every single one of us has experienced something along those lines during our lifetime,” Tung stated, according to a news release. “Trauma does not exist in a vacuum and it maybe dulls over time but never fully goes away.”

The B.A.R. asked Mahmood if he was aware of the CA vs Hate initiative. As

Blakk moved from Detroit, 37 years ago. It was in Chicago that Blakk began her political career, running against thenmayor Richard M. Daley in 1991.

The following year, Blakk ran for president under the Queer Nation Party as a write-in candidate. A 2021 Los Angeles Times short film, “Beauty President,” shows Blakk on the floor of the Democratic National Convention that year in New York City.

Blakk suºbsequently moved to San Francisco and joined the group Pomo Afro Homos.

Blakk ran again four years later with the slogan “Lick Slick Willie in ‘96!” This was a reference to then-President Bill Clinton. Blakk’s candidacies are credited with drawing attention to LGBTQ issues, particularly the AIDS epidemic.

“Our thing was visibility,” Blakk said in the film. “We were still being beaten

the B.A.R. reported, several community organizations, including CUAV, have received funds through this state anti-hate initiative. The B.A.R. itself received an anti-hate grant from the California State Library.

Mahmood said that he had, and warned that “CA vs Hate is a three-year plan, so it could expire. It may be gutted,” which is why he felt it was important for the local Democratic Party itself to take a stand in union with members of the state Legislature who are also Democrats.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman spearheaded the effort last year to have United Against Hate week – which was held in November but this year will be observed September 21-27 – recognized officially by the city. The resolution passed the Board of Supervisors unanimously and went into

anti-violence activists to build a San Francisco that values dialogue and resolution over conflict, division, and disputes,” stated Darlene Weide, a lesbian who is the agency’s longtime executive director.

up, we were dying of AIDS, we were being denied jobs and housing. The more visible we made ourselves, the less that happened.”

James Wagner, who identifies as gay, nonbinary, and queer, is another friend of Blakk’s.

“Joan is a legend and she was before ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’” Wagner said, referring to the popular reality TV competition. “She was out there as a Black, queer drag queen leading.”

Johnson said that Blakk may be up to seeing visitors, but that people should contact him/her in advance. Wagner and Johnson told the B.A.R. that questions can be directed to Friends. of.terence.and.joan@gmail.com. Johnson stated Blakk “needs visitors” but they need to be mindful of her condition. t

effect when it was returned unsigned by Breed.

Mandelman did not return a request for comment for this report. t

The CA vs Hate hotline is 833-8664283 and operates from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday.

The State of California offers help for victims or witnesses to a hate crime or hate incident. This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to cavshate.org.

This year’s honorees include David

<< SF Dems

Breed answered that she has long supported funding for the city’s HIV services, noting in 2019, a year into her mayoral term, “one of the things I did was add a million dollars to help with housing stability, to support those living with HIV/ AIDS in San Francisco, when there was a deficiency in financial resources.”

A mayoral spokesperson had told the B.A.R. May, it was “too early to tell” if the federal HIV cuts would be filled by the city, as has typically been done in the past. Breed’s office also told the B.A.R. an expected $1.6 million in new federal HIV funds secured by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) had already been factored into the city’s budget.

At the Milk club forum, Breed said one aim with her budget proposal she is set to send to the Board of Supervisors next week is to see the city’s Getting to Zero program reach is goal of reducing new HIV transmissions and HIV deaths by 90% by 2025, in addition to reducing stigma.

“Ever since I have been on the Board of Supervisors I have supported backfilling when the federal government made those cuts. My goal right now is to do so as well in our current budget,” said Breed. “We are still having a lot of budget conversations, but my desire with the community is to get to zero [new infections] and I don’t want us to go backwards either.”

As for LYRIC and the other nonprofits, Breed said she is concerned and reminded the audience that “during the pandemic, no nonprofit organization received cuts and many actually received increases to deal with the challenges of the pandemic.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you today,” she added.

Breed also addressed the recent controversy over a $390 million bond measure that’s expected to be on the November ballot. Initially, the bond included $25 million for the reimagining of Harvey Milk Plaza but no funds to relocate San Francisco City Clinic, which provides services for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. After an outcry from Milk club members and others, Breed included $28 million for City Clinic’s relocation in the bond.

At the forum, Breed said that the money for City Clinic was not initially included in the bond because the plan was to move it from a privately-owned building to a city-owned building.

Each of the major candidates spent 20-30 minutes with Kwong, who said the purpose of the forum was so that the influential progressive club could make an informed endorsement decision next month.

“For the Harvey Milk club, we know that the power and voice of the LGBTQ community will hinge on this mayoral election – knowing which candidates will champion HIV funding, save programs that support queer and trans youth, and uphold district elections that ensure representation,” Kwong told the B.A.R. after the forum.

In addition to Breed, the other four candidates who appeared were: Levi Strauss heir and former nonprofit executive Daniel Lurie; District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí; Board of Supervisors President and District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin; and former supervisor Mark Farrell who served six months as mayor in 2018 after the death of then-mayor Ed Lee, when the Board of Supervisors chose him over Breed.

‘Kids, not pandas’ Breed wasn’t the only one to discuss the potential budget cuts. Safaí mentioned the B.A.R.’s previous reporting on the HIV cuts.

<< News Briefs From page 13

“We got called by the B.A.R. and said we can’t take a step back on HIV prevention,” Safaí said. “We have to prioritize during the budget process.”

Safaí impressed attendees by blasting the proposed cuts to nonprofits.

“Just last week, I’m sure you read all about it, the mayor and her administration cut $24-$25 million from youth programs in our city and a few days later, she announced she wanted to raise $25 million for pandas,” Safaí said. “We put forward a resolution that says kids, not pandas. We can do both, but I think kids are more important so I’ve been a force for kids, a force for working families, on the front lines.”

Safaí was referring to the confluence of two events – a $25 million potential cut in Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families funding at the same time as Breed’s office is asking supervisors to pass a resolution allowing the city to raise money for a habitat for two giant pandas that would be on loan from China. Breed signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Wildlife Conservation Association for the pandas when she was in Beijing last month.

Peskin touted his long record in city government, saying “when Ryan White care dollars were being cut back by the U.S. government, we knew we had to backfill those funds come hell or high water.”

Farrell repeated a commitment he previously made to the B.A.R. to backfill the HIV funds.

“When I was in office [as District 2 supervisor], I always supported thensupervisor [Scott] Wiener and [David] Campos’ efforts to backfill our HIV/ AIDS funding,” Farrell said. “I did it as chair of the budget committee and you have my unequivocal support.”

Farrell also reminded attendees that in the pre-same-sex-marriage era, he spearheaded legislation requiring the city to reimburse its employees for federal taxes they had to pay on benefits provided to their same-sex partners that were not considered taxable for married, heterosexual couples.

“I thought that was important to do,” he said. “I don’t believe the fight for equality is over. … I acknowledge while I am lucky enough to be from here, San Francisco is a chosen family for many others, and it’s a mayor’s obligation to make sure the city is safe and welcoming.”

Farrell, Lurie defend their campaigns

But Farrell’s record in office didn’t pay many, if any, dividends with the crowd.

The forum happened in the aftermath of a TogetherSF Action mayoral debate that had initially been scheduled for May 20 falling apart amid allegations TogetherSF Action was improperly coordinating with the Farrell campaign. Earlier this month, Mission Local published a report about a February text from a Farrell campaign consultant who stated that TogetherSF founder Kan-

Brandon, who will receive the Raymond Shonholtz Visionary Peacemaker Award. Brandon has devoted his professional life to promoting the use of mediation and other collaborative approaches to address and resolve conflict. Since his admission to the California Bar in 1990, Brandon has worked in the alternative dispute resolution field in a variety of roles. For the past 10 years, he has served as managing director of the JAMS Foundation, which provides financial support for conflict prevention and dispute resolution initiatives across the U.S. and around the world, according to the release.

ishka Cheng was, in part, “guiding the ship” for him.

TogetherSF Action focuses on street conditions, public safety, and economic recovery – issues that have become increasingly salient in recent years, leading to the recall of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022, and moderates being elected to the Board of Supervisors. It was launched with millions of dollars from venture capitalist Michael Moritz.

Independent political expenditure committees are prohibited from working with campaigns they have, or likely will, endorse in the future.

TogetherSF Action and Farrell have denied improperly colluding. Kwong asked Farrell about it. Farrell said many nonprofit advocacy groups have been formed in recent years.

“These are all organizations every single candidate up on stage is courting,” Farrell said. “I am seeking the support of organizations all over San Francisco.”

Gwenn Craig, a lesbian, former police commissioner, and former president of the club who worked with Milk in the 1970s, blasted Farrell, in one of the more dramatic moments of the forum, as the chasm opened up between the progressive club and the more moderate figures on stage.

“We all know about the crossover with Cheng and TogetherSF,” Craig said. “We have a reason to be concerned about your reliance on TogetherSF and we know TogetherSF is intent on changing the political landscape of San Francisco and moving us to the right, moving us from the progressive vision Harvey Milk and so many others fought for. You seem to be aligned with the folks who want to change that.”

Craig’s remarks were a preface to a question about charter reform. Both Farrell and Lurie said they supported reducing the number of city commissions.

“You appoint someone to a commission for a four-year term and they are there for that term unaccountable to their appointing authority and unaccountable to the voters,” Farrell said.

Lurie also championed a slimming down of the bureaucracy.

“There’s three to four [commissions] overseeing housing and homeless services. That for me is a problem,” he argued. “When you start a commission, it allows our elected leaders to point fingers and what we’re getting from our elected leaders is a masterclass in finger-pointing. Next year, when I take office, if something goes wrong in this city, I’m going to be the one to hold myself accountable.”

Kwong asked if Lurie was trying to “buy his way into City Hall.”

“We see the big billboards around the city,” Kwong said. “There’s something very visceral for a lot of us who hear someone with a huge family wealth coming in like a kind of Michael Bloomberg of San Francisco,” referring to the billionaire former New York City mayor and philanthropist.

Oscar Rojas Lopez will receive the Gail Sadalla Rising Peacemaker Award. He is an 18-year-old San Francisco native and soon-to-be graduate of Mission High School. He began his journey as a peer mediator at the beginning of his junior year. He has led approximately 20 mediations for his peers at school; he has mediated disputes about

“I’m going to ask all of you, really, to judge me on the choices I’ve made with my life and at every single turn I have devoted my life to serving the community,” Lurie responded. “Every door that has been opened for me I have tried to bring as many people along with me as possible. … We were knocking doors in the Excelsior last night. I am loving this. I am going to work my tail off and nothing is given. Nothing is given.”

Later, after Farrell brought up going to a Roman Catholic parish inclusive of LGBTQ people and mentioned his kids were in Catholic schools, Kwong, also Catholic, challenged the former mayor’s convictions.

“I like to joke Pope Francis turned me into a socialist,” Kwong said. “You’re one of the candidates I listen to and read in the news and it seems your politics are the most opposite of what the church is teaching about economic justice and those inequalities we see in the city.”

“As a fellow Catholic, I couldn’t disagree with you more. Public safety has become the No. 1 concern across our city,” Farrell replied. “Public safety is queer safety. I talk to so many people who feel vulnerable in the LGBTQ community, especially in the trans community. I don’t believe that is antithetical to income inequality or anything else you’re discussing.”

Kwong mentioned tax breaks for real estate interests as an example, to which Farrell replied by mentioning his support for District 2 housing projects while he was supervisor, before his brief time as mayor.

Breed, Peskin talk police reform, corruption

But though Farrell was the target of the most pointed questions, it was Breed who herself challenged the club. Kwong congratulated Breed for attending considering the sometimes-acrimonious relationship between her and the club.

“I’m not scared of nothing,” she said.

In response to a question about housing, the mayor made a dig at Lurie, saying, “having a mayor who never had to pay rent is not a solution.”

Breed defended her record as a pragmatist. When Kwong said that “the perception is Mayor Breed is supporting policies that prioritize the rich,” Breed mentioned her support of Prop A (the affordable housing bond that passed in March) and added “let’s be honest. Where are we going to get all the money to build the affordable housing we so desperately need? It’s not about a giveaway for the rich.”

Breed said that the presence of large businesses helps with the city’s budget.

“There are a lot of businesses who make a lot of money and we know this, and they make enough money to pay the taxes that we charge, but you know what? They’re not staying here. So it’s about finding balance,” she said.

After an attendee shouted “defund the police” at Breed, she got applause

family dynamics and cousin issues, friends getting in between romantic relationships, bullying, gossiping, and harassment, the release stated. Peer Resources will receive the Community Boards Leadership Award. This organization began in 1979 after a near-fatal studenton-student altercation at Galileo High School, the release noted.

with the line “people are hollering ‘defund the police’ but let something happen to you and the first thing you’re doing is calling 911.”

In asking Breed why she is so supportive of a fully-staffed police department, Kwong noted, “When there are bad apples we need to hold them accountable. We don’t want another case like George Floyd in San Francisco.” (Floyd was the Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis back in 2020.)

Breed accused some activists of not going deeper into police reform than attending rallies, bringing up that when they were she and then-supervisor Malia Cohen helped implement reforms to the San Francisco Police Department. (Cohen later served on the police commission before becoming elected as the state controller.)

“When I was growing up in San Francisco, gun violence was at an alltime high and we didn’t have the best relationship with the police department and we worked really hard to work on those relationships to save lives because of what was happening in our community,” she said.

“It was a lot of work with the community and people who were consistently at the table to implement those reforms,” the mayor added. “There have been people who rallied and protested but they weren’t at the table, but my office was, the police were and some members of the community were.”

Peskin got applause when he said that “after a third of a century of leadership that has not been progressive, I want to bring some of that back” – referring to the city having had moderate mayors since progressive Art Agnos lost to Frank Jordan in 1991.

Peskin said he’s concerned about police reform being rolled back, and said Breed hasn’t taken crime seriously enough in city government. Almost two dozen people were implicated in the San Francisco Department of Public Works corruption scandal, leading to Public Works director Mohammed Nuru and others being convicted on charges of corruption.

“The tone from the top has got to change,” Peskin said. “Mayor Breed has not gotten in the way of any of these indictments but there has not been a clear tone from the top: this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. It will be rooted out.”

Peskin was the only candidate asked about supervised drug injection sites, and said the city should find a way to provide for one. He also said he has both the knowledge and the work ethic to bring order to the bureaucracy.

“This job is hard work,” Peskin said. “It’s not fun. It’s not sexy. It’s not about making speeches. It’s about staying up until 2 a.m. with smart people with a high level of care for the details. That’s what executive management is about.t

The premise was that when young people have tools, support, and opportunities to lead, they make the best choices for themselves and their peers.

Tickets for the awards program and continental breakfast are $75-$95. For tickets and more information, go to https://tinyurl. com/4bj73naf. t

Mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie

John Ferrannini

Mayoral candidate Ahsha Safaí

John Ferrannini Mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin

John Ferrannini Mayoral candidate Mark Farrell

John Ferrannini

t Community News>>

“This bill establishes a statewide LGBTQ+ Commission to shine a light on the unique challenges LGBTQ+ people face and make recommendations to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ Californians,” noted statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California in a post on X hailing the bill advancing to the Senate.

May 21, on a 31-8 vote with one abstention, the Senate passed SB 959 by lesbian state Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) that would create a resources website for transgender, gender diverse, and intersex (TGI) people and their families. It is aimed at combating misinformation and providing accurate information about access to trans-inclusive health care, existing legal protections for patients and health care providers, and other available support services for TGI individuals.

AB 1899 by lesbian Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona) would require jury questionnaires used by state courts to ask prospective jurors about their preferred names and pronouns. It would also require that questions about jurors’ familial or personal relationships are phrased in a gender-neutral manner.

It passed out of the Assembly May 20 on a 60-8 vote with 12 abstentions.

Another bill related to legal matters is AB 1979 authored by gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) that is known as the Doxing Victims Recourse Act. Doxing is the release of an individual’s private information online, such as their home address and phone number.

It is a tool utilized by online trolls against their critics, with transgender individuals often becoming doxing victims when they speak out against transphobic legislation or policies.

The bill would allow a victim to pursue civil action to receive restitution for the harms endured as a result of being doxed. It passed out of the Assembly May 22 on a 61-1 vote with 18 abstentions.

Senior housing

Requests are competitive

Last fall, the mayor’s housing office allocated a per unit amount of $280,000 to Mercy in gap funding for the project’s construction costs. The $52,360,000 allocation is contingent on it receiving state financing.

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Peter Elden is using the following Chinese-characterbased name: 蘇彼得. Peter Elden commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Christian J. Foster is using the following Chinesecharacter- based name: 傅思德. Christian J. Foster commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA.

MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Jeremiah Boehner is using the following Chinesecharacter- based name: 簡貝納. Jeremiah Boehner commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Jay Donde is using the following Chinese-characterbased name: 唐德 Jay Donde commenced using this Chinese-character- based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Martha Conte is using the following Chinese-characterbased name: 康瑪莎. Martha Conte commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. She is an individual living in San Francisco, CA.

MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Tom Rapkoch is using the following Chinese-characterbased name: 湯若普. Tom Rapkoch commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA.

MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

individual living in San Francisco, CA.

MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT

Nicholas Berg is using the following Chinese-character- based name: 盧柏格 Nicholas Berg commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA.

MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

CHINESE-CHARACTER-BASED NAME STATEMENT David Cuadro is using the following Chinese-characterbased name: 戴歡卓. David Cuadro commenced using this Chinese-character-based name on 5/4/2024. He is an individual living in San Francisco, CA. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

Under SB 1491 by lesbian state Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) the California Student Aid Commission would have to provide, beginning with the 2026–27 school year, written notice to college students who receive state financial aid if their postsecondary educational institution has an exemption from either the Equity in Higher Education Act or Title IX on file with the commission.

Often religious-based colleges will seek exemptions in order not to comply with providing protections covered by the rules to LGBTQ students on their campuses. The state commission currently is only required to post which schools have exemptions online.

For state-run colleges and universities, they would need to designate a confidential point of contact on their campus for lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, transgender, gender-nonconforming, intersex and two-spirit faculty, staff, and students. The bill was amended to remove having the Legislative Analyst’s Office audit the state’s community colleges and four-year colleges and universities with respect to the quality of life for their LGBTQ students, faculty and staff.

SB 1491 passed out of the Senate on May 21 by a 31-8 vote with one abstention.

LGBTQ health bills

receive broad backing

Gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood) authored AB 2258 to codify longstanding federal guidance that health plans and insurers must cover services that are integral to providing recommended preventive care – including anesthesia and polyp removal during a colonoscopy; and placement, management, and removal of long-acting reversible contraceptives. They would also need to provide without cost sharing ancillary and support services for PrEP, the HIV prevention medication, including screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

“Affordable housing financing programs throughout the state have become extremely competitive because the requests for money outweighs the amount of money available,” noted Graves with the mayoral office. “The increasing number of applicants for financing continues to outstrip available state funding, ever increasing the competition for limited funds and straining projects’ competitive metrics. This

Newsom vetoed a similar bill by Zbur last year. Nonetheless, the Assembly on May 23 passed AB 2258 on a 62-0 vote with 18 abstentions.

Another bill Newsom vetoed last year over its estimated $4 million price tag to implement is now back before the Legislature. Menjivar’s SB 954, known as the Youth Health Equity + Safety (YHES) Act, would expand public school students’ access to condoms.

It passed out of the Senate May 22 on a 29-9 vote with two abstentions.

“SB 954 is a crucial step in destigmatizing the conversation about condoms and sexual health at schools,” stated Sue Oh, a student leader at Generation Up, in a post on X by bill co-sponsor Essential Access Health. “Providing free condoms at schools will generate an atmosphere of non-judgment and security, and a feeling among students that our schools care for our well-being and can be a place where we can go when we need help and information.”

Zbur’s AB 2477 updating state law to clarify that young adults can accumulate cash savings while in foster care passed out of the Assembly April 25 on a 75-0 vote with five abstentions.

Eggman’s SB 1333 would require state and local health department employees and contractors to annually sign confidentiality agreements prior to accessing confidential HIV-related public health records. Currently, they just sign it once then the state or local health department is to yearly review the agreements.

The bill also authorizes disclosure to other local, state, or federal public health agencies or to medical researchers when confidential information is necessary for the coordination of, linkage to, or reengagement in care for the person. The Senate passed it May 23 on a 37-0 vote with three abstentions.

Eggman authored it to address issues that came up during the recent mpox outbreak, where state confidentiality laws prevented health providers from noting in patient records if someone who contracted

oftentimes requires an otherwise viable site to apply for funding multiple times. All affordable sites in the state are facing this issue, not just 1939 Market.”

When the new building does open to tenants, 40 units will be set aside for formerly homeless seniors subsidized by the city’s Local Operating Subsidy Program. Another 75 units are to serve extremely low-income seniors via the city’s Senior Operating

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

STATEMENT

mpox was also HIV-positive, thus potentially impacting the care the person needed. It has also been an issue with people living with HIV who have other comorbidities, such as other STIs or tuberculosis.

AB 3161 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) requires hospitals, as of January 1, 2026, to analyze patient safety events by sociodemographic factors, like race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, and disability status. Known as the Equity in Health Care Act: Ensuring Safety and Accountability, the bill aims to bring to light the disparities in health that communities of color and LGBTQ communities are facing.

Additionally, AB 3161 requires hospital safety plans to include a process for addressing racism and discrimination and its impacts on patient health and safety. It passed out of the Assembly May 21 on a 70-0 vote with 10 abstentions.

“California’s health care system is failing its most vulnerable populations. Lack of clear pathways for justice and accountability leaves marginalized communities at risk of enduring trauma and losing trust in the system,” noted the California PanEthnic Health Network, a backer of the bill.

With housing stability tied to a person’s health outcomes, Zbur’s AB 2498 aims to prevent a wide range of individuals, from former foster youth, older adults, and adults with disabilities to people unemployed or who were recently incarcerated, from losing their housing. Known as the California Housing Security Act, the bill would provide rent subsidies to the various rent-burdened populations and is coauthored by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton).

It passed out of the Assembly May 21 on a 58-8 vote with 14 abstentions.

“Proud to announce that the California Housing Security Act, jointly authored with @QuirkSilvaCA, has passed the Assembly and advances to the Senate! To solve homelessness, we must empower our most housing-insecure Californians to remain in their homes,” wrote Zbur in a post on X.

Subsidy. Nine units will be set aside for the city’s Plus Housing program for homeless seniors who make 50% of the area median income, with the remaining 70 units for seniors with incomes at 50% to 60% AMI.

As with the previous two buildings overseen by Mercy and Openhouse, a lottery will be held to select the residents for who qualify for the units not specified for the city programs. Both straight

As the B.A.R. earlier reported, four other LGBTQ-related bills will also be taken up in the coming weeks. They aim to ban the forced outing of transgender public school students; expedite the medical licensure of gender-affirming care providers; ensure LGBTQ people are covered by governmental emergency or natural disaster plans; and add World AIDS Day to the list of observances officially recognized by gubernatorial proclamations.

Trio of bills not moving forward

AB 2007, which would have established the Unicorn Homes Transitional Housing for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth Program in up to five selected counties, was held in committee in mid-May. It called for training LGBTQ+ affirming households willing to host LGBTQ+ identifying youth experiencing homelessness due to being rejected by their family.

Authored by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner (D-Encinitas), Ward and Zbur were co-authors, along with gay Assemblymember Corey A. Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Perris). It faced tough odds due to the state facing a budget deficit, as Newsom last year had vetoed Boerner’s AB 589 that called for establishing such a housing program in Sacramento and San Diego counties because of fiscal concerns.

Another two bills put on hold last year ended up not moving forward this year. AB 518 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Berkeley) would have extended paid family leave to cover a worker’s chosen family, the term LGBTQ people and others use for individuals they care for and rely on who are not their biological family or spouse.

Menjivar’s SB 729 would have required large group health plans to provide coverage for fertility and infertility care, including IVF. It also would have updated the definition of infertility to be inclusive of LGBTQ+ family planning experiences.t

and LGBTQ seniors will be able to enter it as long as they meet the income restrictions, though the aim is to see a majority of units go toward LGBTQ seniors.

Mercy will oversee construction of the housing units and provide property management for the building. Openhouse will provide services and programming to the tenants, and it could end up utilizing the space set aside for commercial purposes. t

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-24-558757 In the matter of the application of SAMIRA AMIRA DAOUDI, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner SAMIRA AMIRA DAOUDI is requesting that the name SAMIRA AMIRA DAOUDI be changed to SAMIRA AMIRA KHAFRABBI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 30th of JULY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-24-558693 In the matter of the application of DIANA GEORGINA FERRETIZ OLGUIN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner DIANA GEORGINA FERRETIZ OLGUIN is requesting that the name DIANA GEORGINA FERRETIC OLGUIN be changed to DIANA GEORGINA FERRETIZ GARFIAS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 2nd of JULY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-24-558743 In the matter of the application of ANDREW TRAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ANDREW TRAN is requesting that the name ANDREW TRAN be changed to ANDREW TRAN-SHI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 18th of JULY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-24-558690 In the matter of the application of DEBORAH YEN CHIN AKA DEBBIE YEN CHIN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner DEBORAH YEN CHIN AKA DEBBIE YEN

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-24-558777 In the matter of the application of GABBY JUN LE WU, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner GABBY JUN LE WU is requesting that the name GABBY JUN LE WU be changed to JUN LE WU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 6th of AUGUST 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

A-0403134 The following person(s) is/are doing business as USA SUPER MARKET, 499 SILVER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SENAIT AFEWERK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/2024. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/2024. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0403136 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JE HANDYMAN HOME SERVICE, 280 BEALE ST #801, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSE RAMON ESPINAL CERRATA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/2024. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/2024. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0403272 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GIVE GOOD US, 144 DIAMOND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REBECCA HOOPER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/2024. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/02/2024. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0403267 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JANEÉ ROSE, 280 SPEAR ST #180, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed BRITTANY KESLER & JULIA FORTE. 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

FILE A-0403291 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TWS TENNIS TOURS, 45 6TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TRAVELS WITH SOHA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/2024. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/2024. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0403275 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CORNERSTONE REALTOR TEAM, 4620 TASSAJARA RD #A, DUBLIN, CA 94568. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CORNERSTONE REALTOR TEAM, 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 05/02/2024. MAY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0403300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as HECHT LAW PC, 55 PAGE ST #622, SAN FRANCISCO,

by Philip Mayard

From theatre stages to picturesque parks and scenic outdoor locales, the Bay Area’s cultural landscape blossoms in the summer. Whether it’s Davies Symphony Hall or an alfresco performance under Stern Grove’s eucalyptus canopy, San Francisco is the perfect place to experience world-class artistic experiences this summer.

DANCE

FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival

FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival includes eight premieres over two weekends. The first weekend features works by FACT/SF and Jenna Riegel (Amherst, MA). The second weekend is a mixed bill with works by FACT/SF, local choreographers, and visiting artists from Los Angeles and Chicago. FACT/SF is also presenting pop-up

performances around San Francisco on July 27. A highlight of this year’s festival is “Half Time, Full Out,” a high-energy dance routine inspired by halftime shows, aerobic gymnastics competitions, and cheerleading. Ticket prices TBA, August 16-25, ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street. www.factsf.org

ODC/Dance Summer Sampler

ODC/Dance’s annual summer mixed-bill

program includes “10,000 Steps: A Dance About Its Own Making,” a world premiere by choreographer Catherine Galasso built on the self-imposed constraint of exactly 10,000 steps, and the revival of Brenda Way s “A Brief History of Up and Down.” $29-104, July 18– 21, ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street. www.odc.dance

by Philip Campbell

San Francisco Opera’s 101st season continues post-Memorial Day with three productions starting May 30 and playing in repertory through June 30. A new to San Francisco imagining of a Mozart evergreen; the return of a baroque hit, and a major American premiere keep the lights burning at the War Memorial Opera House this summer.

The Magic Flute

Music Director Eun Sun Kim takes the podium May 30 to conduct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved singspiel “The Magic Flute.” Funny, philosophical and brimming with memorable tunes, Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder’s spoken and sung confection is presented with a new visual twist.

Director Tobias Ribitski revives Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade’s production for the Komische Oper Berlin. Influenced by early animation, silent film and 1920s cabaret, the show looks spectacularly entertaining.

New Zealand-Samoan tenor Amitai Pati, Austrian soprano Christina Gansch and, in their SFO debuts, Estonian bass-baritone Lauri Vasar, South Korean bass Kwangchul Youn and Polish soprano Anna Simińska as the Queen of the Night make up an internationally diverse cast.

The Wednesday, June 26 performance marks the Company’s annual Pride Night at the Opera celebration in anticipation of Pride weekend in San Francisco. May 30-June 30.

Christina Gansch and Lauri Vasar in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’

ODC/Dance Summer Sampler

State of Play:

ODC Theatre Summer Festival

State of Play brings together early works-in-progress to fully staged evening-length dances. Additional events include “Revelry,” a benefit in support of ODC Theater, and State of Play Workshop, a dance and movementbased workshop facilitated by State of Play artists. Single tickets 0-$80, Day Passes $80, Festival Passes $300, August 1-4, ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street. www.odc.dance

FESTIVALS

Fresh Meat Festival of Trans & Queer Performance

Now in its 23rd year, the Fresh Meat Festival of Trans & Queer Performance will feature voguing superstars, deaf theater visionaries, queer salsa champions, Trans-Americana music, Taiko, hip-hop, comedy, South Asian contemporary dance, Bomba music

and dance, and more. Advance sliding scale tickets, June 21-23, Z Space, 450 Florida Street. www.freshmeatproductions.org

Marin County Fair: Out at the Fair

Make the trek across the Golden Gate for the annual Marin County Fair. A special “Out at the Fair” day features entertainment by LGBTQ+ artists including Erica Ambrin & the Eclectic Soul Project, story time with Polly Amber Ross & Friends, Derek Jameson, the Glam Show with Polly Amber Ross & Friends, and DJ Cisco. $15-30, July 5, Marin Civic Center, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. www. marinfair.org

San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival

Zaccho Dance Theatre’s 10th annual Aerial Arts Festival features two evenings of performances, a youth matinee, and a site-specific installation by Flyaway Productions designed for the fire escapes at the Fort Ma-

son Center. The festival also includes dance performances by a vast range of local dance artists and companies, young performers from circus and aerial training programs, and an aerial arts film festival. Ticket prices TBA, August 16-18, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, 2 Marina Boulevard. www.zaccho.org

MUSIC

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet commemorated its 50th anniversary in 2023-24 with a 50-city international tour. Now, the ensemble returns home to San Francisco for a four-night celebration, featuring world premiere works, a vast range of special guest artists, and the farewell performances of retiring violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt after 45+ years with the groundbreaking string quartet. $25-75, June 20-23, SFJazz, 201 Franklin Street. www.sfjazz.org

Merola Summer Festival

San Franciscos renowned Merola Opera Program will again offer a full summer of programming, showcasing up-and-coming opera stars from around the world. The season kicks off with “The Song as Drama” at the intimate Taube Atrium Theater. In July, the artists will perform a program of excerpts from “Faust,” Pagliacci,” “La bohème” and others, with full orchestra accompaniment at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall. They return to the Conservatory in August for a fully staged production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” The season concludes with Merola’s popular grand finale performance at the War Memorial Opera House. $10-65, various San Francisco locations. www.merola.org

San Francisco Symphony

The San Francisco Symphony’s packed summer season kicks off with the orchestra’s annual July 4 celebration at Shoreline Amphitheatre, “Defying Gravity,” featuring songs from “Wicked.” The season progresses with special guest performances with 12-time Grammy Award winner John Legend, pianist/singer-songwriter Ben Folds, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Special pop performances include a Beatles tribute night and “The Trailblazing Music of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, & Carly Simon.”

The Symphony’s popular film nights this summer include “Disney: The Sound of Magic,” and an evening with composer Justin Hurwitz, who conducts his Academy Award-winning score for “La La Land,” live-tofilm. If you’re a traditionalist, the symphony’s summer season also includes classical performances at Davies Hall, including works by Beethoven, Barber, and Tchaikovsky. Tickets start at $25, various Bay Area locations. www.sfsymphony.org

Stern Grove Festival

Now in its 87th year, Stern Grove is the nation’s longest running nonprofit festival. Reserve your tickets (released one month prior to each performance), pack a picnic basket, and don’t forget to bring a jacket; when the fog rolls in, the grove can get very

chilly. The 2024 season features acts from across the musical spectrum, including Canadian pop duo Tegan and Sara, Los Angeles rock band Chicano Batman, the San Francisco Symphony, classic soul band the Commodores, Jamaican saxophonist Masego, British electronic duo Franc Moody, and American legends like Lucinda Williams, Herbie Hancock, and Chaka Khan. General admission is free but tickets required, June 23-August 25, Stern Grove, Wawona Street. www.sterngrove.org

THEATRE

The Cher Show For six decades, Cher’s music, fashion, confidence, and campy over-thetop persona have deeply resonated with the LGBTQ community. “The Cher Show” is a celebration of her enduring influence as a trailblazing entertainer, featuring a whopping 35 smash hits, and of course, countless Bob Mackie-designed gowns. $46144, June 19-23, Curran Theatre, 445 Geary Street. www.broadwaysf.com

Company Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s groundbreaking musical comedy broke new ground with its bold sophistication, profound insights into modern relationships, and razor-sharp wit. The show features classic Sondheim songs like “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side by Side,” and “Being Alive.” $55-224, June 5-29, Orpheum Theater, 1192 Market Street. www.broadwaysf.com

Fellow Travelers

Opera Parallele stages the west coast premiere of an operatic adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel “Fellow Travelers.” The tender love story of two gay men, which gained legions of new fans through the recent Hulu miniseries, doubles as a political thriller unfolding against the backdrop of the McCarthyism. June 21-23, $50-120, students $30, Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Avenue. www.operaparallele.org

<< Summer Arts Guide

From page 17

Above: The Marin County Fair

Middle: Ishami Dance Company at the Fresh Meat Festival

Below: Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Aerial Arts Festival

Left: Kronos Quartet Middle: Stern Grove Festival Right: San Francisco Symphony’s film & orchestra concerts

Lenny Gonzalez

Above: ‘The Cher Show’ Middle: ‘Company’ Below: ‘The Glass Menagerie’

Jessica Palopoli

Will Bucquoy

Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade Broadway SF

Sets and sensibility

By Jim Gladstone

Two strikingly different styles of theater-making can be seen by San Franciscans this week. The exquisitely fine-tuned production design of a big-budgeted American history play at A.C.T. offers a fascinating counterpoint to the rough-hewn, shoestring fun of Theatre Rhinoceros’ outdoor take on Shakespeare.

“This show is promoted as having only three actors,” said veteran British production manager Jim Leaver, discussing director Sam Mendes’ and scenic designer Es Devlin’s sui generis manifestation of “The Lehmann Trilogy,” now playing at A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater. “But there are almost always more than three characters on stage.”

In fact, throughout the entrances and exits of the show’s three-man cast, which portrays successive generations of the Lehman financial dynasty from immigrant beginnings in antebellum Alabama to the market crash of 2008, two equally chameleonic figures remain ever-present.

The first is the music, played by an onstage pianist (Rebekah Bruce in the A.C.T. staging) who accompanies the entire three-hour plus production, with composer Nick Powell’s score, an ever-shifting swirl of genres, from Yiddish folk music to classical to ragtime to Eno-esque ambient.

The second –the production’s most celebrated star– is an enormous 800-square foot glass box that hovers above the stage floor, gleaming, rotating, and working in tandem with a cyclorama-style video backdrop (“15.5 million pixels,” emphasized Leaver in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter) to portray dozens of locations over the course of more than a century.

Beyond the script

Devlin, a brilliant conceptualist

by Jim Gladstone

whose cross-pollination of set design and sculpture has brought unexpected artfulness to arena pop shows (Kanye West’s flying wedge; U2’s “Innocence + Experience” and Sphere productions), has described her Lehman design as simultaneously a boxful of dreams and empty vessel; an apt dual metaphor for the rises and falls of American capitalists.

Leaver has supervised this monumental set piece’s construction, dismantlement, redesign and transport as the production has traveled between the New York, London, Los Angeles, Sydney, and now San Francisco over the past six years.

“The cube and the music bring very specific effects and textures to the performance,” said Leaver. “This production is one particular creative team’s very unique conception of the play.”

In fact, the original script, which was written in Italian by Stefano Massini, calls for only a few pieces of office furniture to create its setting.

(The adaptation used here is by Ben Power, a dramaturg, playwright, and associate director of Britain’s National Theater) Prior to the 2018 debut of the

Available’

One of the most frequently mounted shows across the United States in recent years has been “The Play That Goes Wrong,” a mechanical slapstick farce in which a production literally falls apart on stage.

Thousands of ticket holders, happy to switch off their intellects and submerge themselves in silliness, laugh

It’s a tragedy. In fact, it’s part of the larger tragedy that gets alchemized into comedy gold in “Best Available,” now enjoying a wickedly giddy premiere production by Shotgun Players in Berkeley.

The spoils of playing it safe

This new work from ace Bay Area satirist Jonathan Spector, whose vaccinefocused “Eureka Day,” premiered at the

Mendes-Devlin, international productions employed larger casts and considerably less infrastructure.

Seeing “The Lehman Trilogy” at A.C.T. will provide frequent theatergoers with a potent reminder of the distance between a script and a staged production, and of the richness offered by multi-disciplinary creativity.

Rhino charges down Castro

While the production of “The Lehman Trilogy” at A.C.T. requires exquisitely calibrated artistic control during every moment of stage time, Theatre Rhinoceros is pursuing a distinctly different approach to playmaking with a freewheeling al fresco take on Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well,” which has its final four outings this week.

Over the course of each promenading performance, audiences of up to 35 accompany the show’s cast on an eight-block meander from the Rhino’s 18th Street space through a succession of neighborhood settings, including the Pink Triangle Park on Market Street and the heart of the Castro, standing in for the Italian Alps.

Artistic director John Fisher, an-

other quintet of cast members and a wagon-rolling crew rehearsed their outdoor exploits over several weeks in advance of last Thursday’s first preview. One can never predict the serendipities of sidewalk performance, be it an audience that accumulates as the show progresses, or impromptu interaction with self-appointed extras.

“Shakespeare was written to be performed outdoors,” said Fisher in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, “I wouldn’t want to do it otherwise.”

Taking it to the streets

In past years, Fisher has mounted Rhino’s annual Shakespeare plays (which he edits himself for brevity and clarity) at Yerba Buena Center and Salesforce Park, relatively controlled outdoor venues. His initial plan was to stage “All’s Well That Ends Well” in Collingwood Park, but the city locks its gates before the show’s 7pm curtain time and refused to make an exception.

Fisher’s displeasure with that decision is part of what led to this year’s roving, regulation-eschewing approach, which he views, in part, as

an expression of grassroots artistic freedom in the face of unreasonably restrictive public policy toward the creative community.

When another local queer theater company, EyeZen Productions, mounted its tribute to singer Sylvester in the Haight last summer, the city’s permitting fees added considerable expense to the production, making the undertaking a major challenge for a small community-focused organization.

In a city struggling to deal with a soaring cost of living and a depopulated urban core, Fisher says it’s counterproductive to put unnecessary constraints on the theater makers and other local artists who can help make San Francisco a more vibrant and engaging place to live.t

‘All’s Well That Ends Well,’ through June 2. $17.50-$35. Theatre Rhinoceros, 4229 18th St. www.therhino.org

‘The Lehman Trilogy,’ through June 23. $25-$137. A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theatre, 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

It satirizes the self-destructive institutional apparatus of non-profit American regional theater by chronicling an emblematic City Rep’s search for a new creative leader following the scandal-tainted ouster of the white male artistic director who’d been at the helm for decades.

Spector makes plain the fiscal, sociopolitical and artistic conflicts that lead to companies programming seasons composed of riskless Nerf Ball work like “The Play That Goes Wrong” (Spector posits that the ultimate crowd-pleaser/board-appeaser might be a jukebox musical built around old TV theme songs), flaccid social justice tone poems aimed at “reaching new audiences,” and overdone snoozery, be it Stoppard or Shaw.

Backstage dramas have been a theatrical staple for ages, but Spector (who clearly knows of what he writes) pokes his beak deeper into the sausage factory (Meat pie shop?) than we’re used to, flying beyond the wings to give us a carrion bird’s eye view of boardrooms, donors’ dens, and customer service switchboards where appeasal regularly trumps art.

Sketchy motivations

The sickly sweet decay of rampant egomania, pressured compromise, and well-intentioned cluelessness wafts from the stage throughout “Best Available,” gleefully fanned by director Jon Tracy’s cast of eight crackling comic actors.

Steve Price and Dave Maier deliver perfectly dovetailed duets as fatuous high-priced search consultants, more concerned with harmony and happy talk than tough decision-making (Price is also priceless in his second role, the Rep’s Kennebunk-accented billionaire board president).

Denise Tyrell is a deceptively diplo-

matic doyenne benefactor who delivers a masterstroke of racist condescension from beyond the grave. (Projection and sound designer Ben Euphrat nails the glitchy integration of videoconferencing in contemporary workplaces).

In a stroke of conceptual genius, Spector has rendered the theater’s plebeian class – wincingly naïve artistic apprentices who do double-duty as box office workers – as a black clad Greek chorus.

Austine De Los Santos, Storm White, and Linda Maria Giron, bring fine-etched specificity to this troika as well as several additional characters, demonstrating impressive comedy skills while also providing some of the play’s rare moments of pathos.

The play’s most challenging roles are those of the job search’s leading candidate, Maya, played by Regina Morones, who like the box office trio, brings touches of emotional relatability to a show that’s more about wit than warmth; and the Rep’s general manager, Helen, played with delicious brittle efficiency by Sarah Mitchell.

There’s a bit of a strain between the

subtle and strangely well-intentioned double-crossing that goes on between these two ambitious women –potentially the stuff of a more complex psychological drama– and the hardcharging sketch comedy pace of Spector’s script and Tracy’s direction.

“Best Available” offers no summary lessons about how to keep contemporary American theater from going wrong, but it sheds valuable light with a welcome lightness of tone.

The play touches on challenging relationships between art and the marketplace, conservatism and canon, youthful idealism and institutional order.

But as Spector flips through this catalog of problems worth pondering, he also elbows us in the ribs, reminding us not to take ourselves too seriously as we do so.

Theater needn’t be self-righteous. And funny needn’t be empty.t

‘Best Available,’ through June 16. $24-$36. Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkley. (510) 841-6500. shotgunplayers.org

Left: ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ Right: Julie Lamb and Kara S. Poon in Theatre Rhinoceros’ ‘All’s Well That Ends Well.’

Scott Sidorsky

The cast of ‘Best Available’

Ben Krantz

Taking aim

by Victoria A. Brownworth

It was a solemn Memorial Day, in which we remembered all the LGBTQ people who have served in the U.S. military and those who, for generations, gave their lives while hiding their identities.

We also remembered those members of the military who have taken their own lives after returning home; 6,000 each year. This remains a dramatic problem for all our service members, but LGBTQ veterans are especially vulnerable.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has departments to help gay, lesbian and transitioning service members. LGBTQ veterans are more likely to experience depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide ideation and attempt. Transgender veterans diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder under the care of the VA face a 20 times greater risk of suicide than veteran patients in general.

Pride Counts at the Veteran’s Administration (V.A.): “VA is committed to creating a welcoming environment and improving health care for everyone, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Veterans. VA staff play a critical role in ensuring that LGBTQ veterans receive the care they need and have earned in service to our country.”

Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy and Kyle Chandler. Set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce.

“Carol” was the best reviewed film of 2015. The film competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, where Mara tied with Emmanuelle Bercot for the Best Actress award. “Carol” received nominations for six Academy Awards, nine BAFTA Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. “Carol” was ranked by the Brit-

For Pride 2020, the Intrepid Museum hosted a virtual discussion about LGBTQ experiences among veterans and active service members. A veteran once imprisoned for being gay spoke to CBS News. CBS News spoke with multiple veterans who were discharged from the U.S. military because of their sexuality. CBS News chief investigative correspondent Jim Axelrod reported. LGBTQ veterans are still waiting for benefits and corrections to military records decades after serving. An NBC Bay Area investigation reveals tens of thousands of veterans were discharged from the U.S. military because of their sexual orientation and gender identity dating back to World War II.

Margaret Brennan addressed the reality of suicide among service members on “Face the Nation” May 26 with two veterans who now serve in the House. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) is a colonel and U.S. Army Green Beret and author of “Warrior Diplomat.” Rep. Patrick Ryan (D-NY) served in the U. S. Army as a military intelligence officer from 2004 to 2009, including two tours in Iraq.

Brennan noted that a full third of those serving face food insecurity–again, many are LGBTQ. This is just a disgraceful statistic. Brennan also featured Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, a veteran who served in Iraq. Buttigieg spoke at length about climate change–something Californians are dealing with perhaps more than any other state. The whole episode is well worth a look.

Comic relief

Memorial Day was very heavy. So we could use some upbeat Pride content, right?

“Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution” drops from Netflix on June 18. Explore the history of LGBTQ standup comedy in this funny and heartfelt documentary featuring personal stories from an all-star roster of performers who are influential comedians, including Lily Tomlin, Wanda Sykes and Margaret Cho; an evening of gay laughter.

Carol-ing

The best lesbian period film ever, “Carol,” directed by Todd Haynes, is dropping mid-month on Netflix. It took decades to get this film made. The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy is based on the 1952 novel “The Price of Salt” by Patricia Highsmith (republished as “Carol” in 1990). The film stars Cate

ish Film Institute as the best LGBT film of all time. It is must-see. Have lots of tissues nearby.

Did you miss “Tangerine” when it first came out and was hard to find?

Netflix is bringing that indie film back for Pride Month. The story follows a trans sex worker who discovers her boyfriend and pimp has been cheating on her. The film was shot with three iPhone 5S smartphones. Directed by Sean Baker, with Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian and Mickey O’Hagan, it’ll stream starting June 1.

Disco docs

Closer to home on Saturday, June

8, KQED is airing three films back-toback which will have you singing and dancing on a journey back to the disco era when the bars were at their heyday and before AIDS hit hard.

At 8pm, the network debuts the new “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution #101: Rock the Boat” which KQED says, “explores the origin of a global music phenomenon born among gay and Black communities coming together in apartments and basement bars in 1970s New York, where dance floors became a platform in their battle for visibility and inclusion.”

At 9:30pm, it’s “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution #102: Ain’t No Stop-

pin’ Us Now”: “Experience the pinnacle of disco culture during the 1970s, set against the backdrop of Black power and sexual liberation. As disco conquers the mainstream, Black women and gay men rise as superstars and icons.”

At 10:30pm “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution #103: Stayin’ Alive” follows the trajectory “from the basement bars of ’70s New York to the peak of the global charts, discover the story of disco: its rise, fall, and legacy. Reveling in iconic tracks and remarkable footage, this is a powerful, revisionist history of the disco age.”

Oh, my George Who doesn’t love George Takei with his hot takes on Twitter and his occasional ruminations on racism, homophobia and politics? On Tuesday, June 11, KQED is airing “To Be Takei” at 9pm. Over seven decades, George Takei boldly journeyed from a WWII internment camp to the helm of “Star Trek’s” USS Enterprise and shares his playful and profound trek for life, liberty, and love with his husband Brad, engaging five million Facebook fans daily. t

Read the full column, with video clips, on www.ebar.com.

Left: A CBS report on gay veterans Middle: Rosie O’Donnell in ‘Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution’

Right: Brad Altman and George Takei in ‘To Be Takei’

t << Festival

SF DocFest 23

Compton’s, Texas drag, Oliveros, and gay Hungarians

by Brian Bromberger

Known for its eclectic selection of nonfiction features, the 23rd San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (SF DocFest) will be held May 30-June 9. They will screen 38 features and 53 shorts, with 30 films local to the Bay Area. As they’ve been doing for the last few years, the festival presents both live presentations and virtual screenings.

before Stonewall, the riot was the first collective militant queer resistance to police harassment in U.S. history.

As usual, there is a handful of LGBTQ-related films. The first is a 17-minute short “Compton’s 22,” which uses the August 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riot in the Tenderloin as its inspiration. Occurring three years

However, in 2005, filmmakers Susan Stryker and Vincent Silverman researched the event and interviewed several survivors, not only about the riot but what it was like to live transgender in that era. They made the documentary “Screaming Queens” for PBS’s KQED.

Trans director Drew de Pinto uses video clips from that documentary to create an intergenerational conversation between those trans ancestors and millennial trans and gender nonconforming artists today, especially using song and dance to illustrate what it’s like to be trans now.

It’s fine, but honestly, the Stryker clips are far more intriguing and we would rather listen to those brave trans women of the ’60s than watch mediocre performance art. “Screaming Queens” can be screened free on YouTube.

Another short, “The Pride of Texas,” concerns a gay rodeo that takes place in Denton, Texas. With all the bad news coming out of Texas, this brief seven-minute flick is a breath of fresh air. It begins with a voice narration, “gay or straight, we rope our steers the same way as anybody else.” The film refutes the lies that there’s no such thing as a gay cowboy or if there are, they are not real cowboys.

It wants to fight this stigma and celebrate who they are and their chosen families. Their rodeo gives the funds raised to charity and includes drag queens riding steers, with many wearing T-shirts with the logo “Pride Y’All.”

Focusing on overcoming the antiqueer fervor sweeping across the Texas plains, “Queen vs. Texas” is about a drag queen, her majesty, The Hung. The Vanguard is not just a drag show but a declaration and celebration of queer freedom, queer love, and queer existence. The Hung identifies as a Black post-binary, pansexual, polyamorous, pot-smoking parent, and professional drag queen.

There was a bill (among the 96 anti-LGBTQ ones introduced last year) in the Texas legislature that would define drag shows as sexually-oriented businesses that could be banned to protect children. The Hung is shown protesting in Austin, Texas’s capitol, against the bill. The Hung defines drag “as whatever you want it to be, that’s it’s power. It defies everything you say you are. It’s you as you want to be.”

it is jarring to watch people literally beat each other up in this minimal dialogue six-minute short, but different strokes for different folks. One woman testifies that the encouragement she received from the crowds gave her the courage to transition. And there’s definitely a homoerotic component if you can get past the violence.

The provocative feature film “Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros” chronicles the life and career of Oliveros (1932-2016), the only female among the notable post-World War II American composers. She was a master of electronic music, developing with Don Buchia, the first modular synthesizer, but also expanded the horizons of the accordion.

Her atonal and experimental compositions laid the foundation for what we now called multimedia art. She also pioneered pure free improvisation, as well as being a technological innovator and teacher, serving as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Oakland’s Mills College.

Director Daniel Weintraub had his work cut out for him since Oliveros died during the course of making his documentary. There are lots of conversations with Oliveros as well as video clips of many of her performances, plus 30 interviews with people who worked with her or knew her, including her cre-

ative partner and spouse, Ione. There are also contemporary musicians playing some of her older music.

She helped develop software that allows musicians to improvise on the internet with minimal latency and people with severe disability movement to perform beautiful music. Her final composition was designed for the hearing-impaired involving special instruments, a chorus without words, creating an entire language of syllables for the singers, and featured a conductor who is deaf.

Perhaps her greatest achievement was her concept of “Deep Listening,” a kind of meditation where sounds of the external world are combined with the sounds of our innermost thoughts.

“Deep listening involves going below the surface of what is heard, expanding to the whole field of sound while finding focus,” says Oliveros in the film.

Finally, perhaps the winningest film is the feature “Narrow Path to Happiness,” by Hungarian director Kata Olah about an adorable Romani male couple, Gergo and Lenard, who despite prejudice from their own community, proudly fly the Gay flag in their small village. They decide to make a musical film about their big-hearted romance, so they pack up and against all odds move to Budapest, just as the Hungarian government is becoming increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ people. Same-sex marriage is forbidden and same-sex couples cannot adopt. The country is very traditional Roman Catholic. Gergo works construction to support the couple. They find a female writing collaborator with Gergo describing their project as “funky music, lots of dancing, with a pinch of racism.”

The bill did pass and was signed by Governor Abbot, but a federal judge declared it unconstitutional. Both the Hung and the film are inspirational by empowering community through the art of self-expression and the fight for social justice.

Effy’s Big Gay Brunch,” is not going to appeal to all tastes. It’s a snapshot of gay pro wrestlers who use the “ring as the canvas to paint their art.” Effy’s Big Gay Brunch is the actual name of these wrestling matches. Although some are in great shape (most are not)

The older Gergo has no support initially from his family since when he came out to them, saying, “I simply stopped existing for my parents.” Lenard’s mother, however, is reassuring.

One of the poignant scenes is Gergo meeting with a priest who tells him being Christian and gay are not mutually exclusive. The expression on Gergo’s face alone is worth the price of admission. The film has a fly-onthe-wall, cinema verité ambiance to it, especially as they try to convince producers to finance their film.

The documentary can lag in stretches, but audiences will fall in love with the sweetly squabbling couple. There’s joy in their belief in themselves and their desire to make their film, which is a genuine surprise that gives a window into a conservative culture we rarely see in movies.t

‘Queen vs. Texas’

‘Effy’s Big Gay Brunch’

Left: ‘Narrow Path to Happiness’ Middle: ‘Compton’s 22’ Right: ‘The Pride of Texas’

Makabor Studio

t Walking Tour >>

Clyde Always’ ‘Surreal San Francisco’

by Jim Provenzano

I

f you have friends or family visit-

ing, and they want to have some unusual entertainment, set them up on a tour with local folklore storyteller, comic artist and author Clyde Always. His amusing “Surreal San Francisco” walking tour navigates Duboce Park, The Mission and Castro districts with amusing bits of trivia, stories and recommendations for dining and drinking.

The two-hour tour kicks off at Church and Market streets, where Always points out prominent and not so well-known bits of architecture stories and myth in our community.

Starting off with referencing a few points in Mona Caron’s Church Street mural, Always leads his guests to the edge of the Mission Dolores Park for a bit musical trivia about Mission High School, and one of its prominent alumni.

As the tour moves west to the Castro, Always blends some mythical tales about the ivy-covered alleged home of a witch coven, and further west, the former home of rainbow flag cocreator Gilbert Baker. Stopping at the heart of the Castro, the tour offers a brief break for a bit of shopping or a snack from Hot Cookie or other nearby establishments.

In his own affable style, Always, 37, tells his tales in a voice it’s both gruff and mellifluous. His stories are accompanied by strumming his tiny ukulele.

And while he would be probably be comfortable at the Lone Star Saloon, Always, while straight and recently married, acknowledges his potential bear status. He points out a few different Pride flags flapping in the breeze hoisted above the nightclub Beaux.

“When my wife and I go for walks in the Castro, she really enjoys the fact that I get so much attention,” Always said.

History and fables

While most of the guests on the walking tour I attended were visitors who didn’t know much about San Francisco history, they did venture guesses about the history of Mission Dolores, and even the naming of California and San Francisco.

“I get all kinds of people from all walks of life, young and old,” said Always. What inspired the cartoonist, author and actor to create his walking tour? Having performed a solo show at The Marsh, and hosted numerous poetry readings and open mic nights, Always wanted to find a way to blend his talents, including his cartooning, which he shows on occasion when describing certain characters like the mythic Emperor Norton.

Yet he found that his style didn’t fit in with formal theater settings, and was too poetic for stand-up comedy.

“I didn’t necessarily fit in anywhere,” he said.

So, he created the San Francisco Surreal Walking Tour, whose guests include locals but a lot of visitors. The tour is easily walkable and wheelchairaccessible.

“I’ve always been an artist, but to keep the roof over my head I’ve waited tables and done other jobs,” he said. “A few years ago, I figured

out how to combine my talent and put the tour together. This is the first time I’ve been able to combine my talents and almost make a living at it.”

“Storytelling is something that’s universal to everybody,” said Always.

“That’s why instead of saying it’s a poetry tour or a history tour, I just say it’s a storytelling tour, with history, architecture and more. I’m kind of a social chameleon.”

Always prides himself on being able to maintain his artistic sensibility while not conforming to any specific genre. He also manages to maintain the storyline of his tour, despite local distractions like traffic noise.

Even if you’re a long time local, some of the trivia and spots pointed out are intriguing and informative. Booking the tour ($32) can be found on Airbnb Experiences, TripAdvisor, and other websites, all linked on his website.t

www.clydealways.com

Left: Surreal San Francisco Walking Tour guide Clyde Always in front of Mona Caron’s Church Street mural.

Middle: Clyde Always and a walking tour guest on Castro Street

Right: Surreal San Francisco Walking Tour guide Clyde Always at Dolores Park

Jim Provenzano

Clyde Always

Jim Provenzano

t << Ready to Rock

Ivy Riot!

by JL Odom

Pride Month is nearing, and in the East Bay, the owners of The Ivy Room are going above and beyond, hosting an unprecedented 19 Pride events, all within a relatively short period of time. Summer Jager and Lani Torres, co-owners of The Ivy Room in Albany, created Ivy Riot!, a month-long LGBTQ series featuring live music, workshops, panels, resources, performances and dancing, all in celebration of Pride and the queer community.

“We’re really proud of this. I think it’s a great series, and I hope people love it,” said Torres in a Zoom video interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

Safe space

The series, the name a nod to both the venue itself and the historic 1969 Stonewall Riots, started on Monday, May 20, with the Portland, Oregonbased indie rock band Glitterfox kicking things off on the Ivy Room stage. It runs throughout June, with the final show featuring indie singer-songwriter Joh Chase, along with Katie Cash and Brittany Ann Tranbaugh, happening on Friday, July 5.

“As a queer and women-owned music venue in the East Bay, we are very passionate about trying to give back to our community,” said Jager in the Zoom video call with B.A.R.

For Jager and longtime friend Torres, ensuring a safe space for the local LGBTQ community has been a key component of The Ivy Room, which they’ve

owned since 2015. Their aim for such a space carried over into their conceptualization of the Ivy Riot! series.

“We knew what we wanted to do. We wanted to somehow, in some way, help and provide a space and become a vessel for developing creative ways of healing and support and education for our community,” said Jager, who is a lesbian.

The next step was to obtain funding for Ivy Riot! to bring it to fruition. In 2023, she and Torres applied for, and were awarded, a “Music in Action” grant from the Live Music Society, a nonprofit founded in 2020 that supports small music venues in the United States.

From there, Torres and Jager reached out to bands’ and musicians’ agents to see who was available for Ivy Riot!, a feat in and of itself in that Pride Month is a busy time for queer performers.

“We just slowly started putting feelers out, and it actually wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. We thought, ‘Great! We’re in the queer community, we have all these connections, these are our friends, and realized that June is a big month for our community,” said Torres, a former band member herself and The Ivy Room’s talent buyer.

Going Commando

She and Jager still managed to put together an impressive live music lineup for Ivy Riot!, including the gay nü metal band Commando, whose members include Juba Kalamka of the homohop group Deep Dickollective; Lynn Breedlove, former member of the San Francisco queercore band Tribe 8; and Honey Mahogany, director of the SF Trans Initiatives Office, with the Oakland-based post-punk band Boyswitch opening the Saturday, June 15 show. Also in the Ivy Riot! schedule of events are the Los Angeles-based synth-pop band Male Tears (June 1); Oakland-based EDM DJ and producer Bored Lord (June 14); Thelma and the Sleaze, a rock band hailing from Nashville, Tennessee (June 19); singer-songwriter Mya Byrne, a former Bay Area resident who now divides her time between Nashville and New York (June 23); Oakland-based indie rocker Sarah Coolidge (June 26); and the rock band Skip the Needle, featuring Bay Area veteran musicians Shelley Doty, Kofy Brown, Katie Cash and Vicki Randle (June 29).

On June 22, Team Dresch, the punk/queercore band behind the 1990s albums “Personal Best” (1995) and “Captain My Captain” (1996) is playing a sold-out show with Oceanator, The Homobiles (featuring Breedlove) and a DJ set from Allison Wolfe, founding member and lead singer of the punk rock band Bratmobile.

“I kind of just made a wish list of bands, with Team Dresch being one of them at the top of it. We’ve actually had them at The Ivy Room before, but with this particular series, they were so perfect for it, as are the other bands and artists,” said Torres.

Other events

Other live music events include panel discussions, “Queer Prom: Pride Edition,” comic Irene Tu performing a sold-out show on June 8, and empow-

erment panels and workshops that center on the wellbeing of queer and trans individuals.

She and Jager enlisted the help of Oakland-based Christina Villanueva, aka Hot Goth GF, in setting up the QT panels and workshops and some of the shows.

Villanueva, queer, books femme and queer artists in venues in the Bay Area, is the curator and host of the radio show Hot Goth GF Radio and is a DJ. She’ll be DJing at a couple of the Ivy Riot! events.

“[Villanueva’s] very much where we were when we were her age, which is really great to have somebody who’s just in it, doesn’t have children and other things going on. She’s just a wealth of knowledge for a lot of the stuff that we just don’t have our finger on the pulse of as we did when we were 22,” said Torres.

Villanueva, who is queer, expressed enthusiasm about her involvement in Ivy Riot!: “I’m so thrilled to help bring gay goth bands, local trans DJs, and nonbinary BIPOC artists and performers to the Ivy Riot! show lineup, and so proud to curate the QT Power Panel workshop series.”

She also conveyed her appreciation of Jager and Torres, describing them as “queer role models in nightlife.”

“I can’t wait to see this series come to life and I’m so inspired by Summer and Lani for everything they’re doing to hold down queer spaces in the East Bay,” she said.

Jager and Torres’ many months of Ivy Riot! planning and efforts have paid off, as the series is now officially off and running.

She and Jager anticipate the series having a positive impact on the queer community.

“I’m looking forward to seeing everybody out at all the shows and the panels, and I hope that somebody finds something that they’re interested in. We really just put our heart and soul behind this,” said Torres.t

Ivy Room owners Summer Jager and Lani Torres photo

Left: Commando Right: Thelma and the Sleaze

Above: Mya Byrne Middle: DJ Christina C. Villanueva Below: Joh Chase

Deja Whitney

Badlands

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

‘God Made My Face’

by Cornelius Washington

“God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin” is a delicious assemblage of interviews, essays and works of art by talented and learned intellectuals and artists. The book is so lovingly done, leaving one not only breathless, but also avid to learn more about not only Baldwin’s art, but him as a person, lamenting his untimely death in 1987 at the age of 63.

James Arthur Baldwin is, quite simply, immortal. Born in Harlem, New York City, he is the original Black, queer voice of note. The eldest of nine children, he learned responsibility very early. He also learned about oppression. His extremely strict stepfather was a terrorizing figure within the home.

To appease everyone around him, James became a Pentecostal preacher in his teens. He also discovered writing, thanks to his French teacher and mentor, Countee Cullen, a major figure of The Harlem Renaissance. At De Witt Clinton High School, James edited the school’s literary newspaper, Magpie (meeting and working with soon-to-be photography icon, Richard Avedon).

As James slowly began to embrace his homosexuality, he took menial jobs to support his family and played guitar in Greenwich Village cafes at night and writing, always writing.

In 1948, at the age of 24, Baldwin left the U.S. to live in Paris, to escape constant beatings, due to racism and homophobia. He soon found stardom for his essays, plays, novels and personality, keeping a premium on his Blackness and queerdom, which was, at the time, unheard of. He made the planet deal with it. Gender, religion, politics, fame, and social order were completely displaced and simultane-

ously revealed by his work. His second novel, “Giovanni’s Room,” is his most romantic and insightful work, and is considered a platinum standard for many writers. His religious upbringing informs his sense of meter, phrasing, and presentation.

He participated in The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s when he returned to America. All of the important members of the movement (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers) were, on the surface, his friends, but the homophobia of America cast shadows on their relationships.

However, Baldwin quickly became a very powerful voice for Black people worldwide and a very passionate social critic who traveled, lectured and, most importantly, rocked the talk show circuit by being essentially the first openly gay Black celebrity and intellectual.

No one had prepared the planet for that.

Through his rigor, discipline and focus, Baldwin became a world citizen, and that sustained him, making him one of the most notable Black creatives, being the recipient of The Guggenheim and Ford Foundation fellowships. He also won The George Polk Award for Journalism and finally accepted into France’s Legion of Honor, the most prestigious order that the country bestowed.

Fundamentally human

The pattern that emerges from “God Made My Face” (published by Dancing Foxes Press with the Brooklyn Museum) shows that one must be perceived on one’s own terms, an idea that is quintessentially American and fundamentally human, which seems to be denied to people who are Black,

let alone queer. He is revealed by all of this book’s contributors to be so many things simultaneously: seer, sage, martyr, father, “brother with an a,” “sister with an a,” writer, fugitive, coward, and platinum standard.

The many contributors get in where they fit in. Hilton Als sees Baldwin as his polestar. Richard Avedon frames him as a friend and a great literary figure. As a sad, beautiful subject in the cover photo, which borders between a sad commentary figure as mug shot.

Writer David Leeming, a heterosexual white man, became Baldwin’s assistant and is still in “artistic love” with him. As Baldwin’s protegé, he saw the most talented, beautiful, and iconoclastic figures of the 20th century merely being themselves; tuxedo-clad but barefoot Marlon Brando, going out to an elegant soiree; Miles Davis, in the kitchen cooking soul food and being on-set of a film with walking special effect, Charlie Chaplin.

The dignified Black actress, Mari-

anne Jean-Baptiste, defecting in reverse from London to the U.S. in order to take advantage of opportunities to become a better actress, talks of performing in one of his plays, with the exquisite complexities of doing so with such a fresh technical quality from exploring and exposing the Black experience. The art included within the book is impressive, including works by Marlene Dumas, Don Bachardy, George McCalman and many others, which leads to my one critique of the book: the physical object quality. It’s too small and deprives the reader of design, taste and respect worthy of Mr. Baldwin. Other than that, the book is truly a must-have, must-read discussed and celebrated love letter to a great artist. Indeed, Mr. Baldwin gives good face and his face card never declines.t

‘God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin,’ Dancing Foxes Press. $39.95 www.dfpress.org

Left: A first edition of James Baldwin’s ‘Notes of a Native Sun’ Middle: George McCalman’s ‘Baldwin in Harlem,‘ 2023. Pen-and-ink on paper

Right: Larry Wolhandler’s ‘Bust of James Baldwin,’ 1975. Bronze

Words: writer meets publisher

by Michele Karlsberg

An author and a publisher walk into a bar…

Elisabeth Nonas is an accomplished author whose path crossed with Nancy Bereano, a noted publisher. Although Nancy Bereano did not publish Elisabeth Nonas’ works, their professional connection blossomed into a significant personal relationship. Nonas and Bereano, both deeply embedded in the literary world, support each other’s careers while maintaining a partnership that enriches their personal and professional lives. Their partnership stands as a testament to the possibility of a balanced, supportive relationship in a demanding industry. I asked Elisabeth to share their story with all of us.

Elisabeth Nonas: The first time I saw Nancy K. Bereano I thought, I wish that  she  was my publisher. Okay, that wasn’t the actual first time I’d seen her. I’d been to a few of the annual American Booksellers Association conventions and strolled the gay and lesbian aisle where the Firebrand Books booth was.

But it was the first time in a private setting, at a party in the Noe Valley home of Sherry Thomas and Lynn Witt. Sherry was the publisher of Spinster’s Ink, and my publisher, Barbara Grier, had wangled an invitation to the event for me and my then partner.

We were all in San Francisco for the first OutWrite conference. It was 1990. We’d just arrived at the party and this attractive woman with a Leo head of curly silver hair crossed the room: Nancy K. Bereano, Ms. Brand herself. She didn’t see me. We didn’t even speak that night. But that image of that body in motion stayed with me. As did my spontaneous “I wish that she was my publisher.”

Cut to 1995. I’m still living in Los Angeles and am newly single. After some very long, intense phone conversations (long-distance  phone conversations, for those of you who recognize the term), and two crosscountry visits, Nancy and I have begun seeing each other. Nancy felt it only right to call Barbara Grier to tell her she was dating one of her authors;

dating, not poaching. Barbara’s immediate response had been, “She’s not butch enough for you.”

When Nancy told me this, I sputtered and blustered but couldn’t form a coherent sentence because I seesawed between “How dare she, of course I am,” and “What if I’m not?”

Barbara’s prediction notwithstanding, a few months later I moved from Los Angeles to Ithaca, New York, directly into the home of Ms. Brand herself.

Despite my being a novelist and Nancy a publisher, there was never any question of our crossing that personal/ professional boundary. Besides, I was more concerned with finding work than I was in what I might write next.

Six months after my arrival, I was teaching screenwriting at Ithaca College.

The Firebrand offices occupied three rooms on the second floor of what was then called the Home Dairy building. That’s where Nancy ran the press with one assistant plus freelancers. I’d climb the steep stairs and pop in to see if Nancy wanted to take a break and go get coffee. Nancy would first check with her assistant to see if it was okay with her. I was peripherally involved in the book world because I lived with the publisher of the foremost lesbian/ feminist press. And that world had begun changing even before I moved to Ithaca.

“There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.”

—James Baldwin

Elisabeth Nonas on meeting Nancy Bereano

This spring, as I celebrate the launch of my fourth published novel, “Grace Period,” Nancy’s groundbreaking work and Firebrand’s legacy are being honored. The building she worked in has been designated a local landmark. The Firebrand Books

Building is not only the first Ithaca landmark related to women’s and LGBTQ history, but also the first landmark in Upstate New York with primary connections to LGBTQ history and the Second Wave Feminist Movement.

The current owners of the building belong to a racist, homophobic, misogynistic cult and refused to allow a commemorative plaque to be put on the building. So now, instead of what might have been a small, inconspicuous, and possibly ignored sign on the wall in an alley leading to The Commons, a central pedestrian mall in the City of Ithaca, a large plaque detailing the history of Firebrand Books and listing some of its authors will be erected in city-maintained plantings facing the building. In case you’re wondering: Nancy K. Bereano isn’t a model for any of the characters in “Grace Period.” She didn’t even take her red pen to the manuscript until I’d finished a first draft. And despite my bluster and insecurity about whether or not I was butch enough for her, here we are, twenty-nine years later, so I guess I was. Or am. Even better, Dear Reader; I married her.t

www.elisabethnonas.com

Elisabeth Nonas

Nancy K. Bereano

Jill Posener

Nancy K. Bereano and Elisabeth Nonas at a recent literary conference

Richard Jones/QueerForty.com

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