'Kimberly Akimbo'
Rollins holds out hope in CA House race
by Matthew S. Bajko
Despite his Republican opponent already declaring victory, gay Democratic attorney Will Rollins is holding out hope that there is still a chance the late vote count could swing his way. If so, it would be quite the upset in the closely watched race.
It is the lone California U.S. House contest remaining with an LGBTQ candidate still awaiting their race to be called by the Associated Press. As of Wednesday morning, Rollins was trailing conservative Congressmember Ken Calvert (RCorona) by 8,123 votes.
Calvert is in first place with 51.3% of the unofficial returns and could deliver one of the two seats the GOP now needs to maintain control of the House. After the election prediction outfit Decision Desk HQ called the race Monday for Calvert, he issued a statement thanking his constituents for keeping him in his 41st Congressional District seat.
“I’m honored that Riverside County voters have once again placed their trust in me to continue delivering results for them in Washington,” stated Calvert.
Yet, Rollins’ campaign said it isn’t ready to concede the race. It noted in its own November 11 statement there are likely “at least 80,000” ballots still to count.
“We view the race as too close to call and will continue to monitor the results as we wait for potentially 20% or more of the electorate to have their voice heard,” stated Coby Eiss, Rollins’ campaign manager.
Various outside political action committees are raising money off the close race, asking for donations to help with ballot curing programs to ensure voters’ ballots that are flagged for various problems do not get rejected by the county registrar.
The emails all quote Rollins as stating, “We still have a shot to flip this longtime Republican stronghold and retake the House.”
In 2022, after the LGBTQ resort and retirement mecca of Palm Springs had been redistricted into Calvert’s seat, Rollins came close to ousting the long-term congressmember from office. While he fell short, Rollins proved to be a strong candidate and decided to run again, this time with solid backing from the Democratic Party.
He also raised a record amount in funds this year, giving him the resources to maintain a robust campaign. Both national and state-based LGBTQ groups, such as Equality California, funneled resources and volunteers into the race.
See page 11 >>
SF Mayor-elect Lurie pledges to be ally to LGBTQ community
by John Ferrannini
San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie had a message for the city’s LGBTQ community in the wake of the November 5 election, which saw him defeat incumbent London Breed even as Republican Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president.
Lurie stopped by Openhouse, which provides services to LGBTQ seniors and is partners with Mercy Housing of California on LGBTQ-welcoming affordable senior housing split between buildings at 55 and 95 Laguna Street.
“You will have an ally every single day in the mayor’s office in me,” Lurie told LGBTQ seniors at the Openhouse community center near the Castro the afternoon of November 8.
“I understand the dynamics nationally, but all I will say is I will always have your back. Always. Unequivocally.”
Lurie also said the city needs more spaces like Openhouse, which he said was beautiful.
In fact, Openhouse and Mercy Housing were selected by the city to oversee the construction of 187-units of affordable housing aimed at LGBTQ seniors at the corner of Market Street and Duboce Avenue. Breed’s administration bought the labor union-owned property for $12 million in 2020.
The project has been delayed as Mercy officials try to secure governmental funds to help pay for its construction. As the Bay Area Reporter reported in September, a state agency that funds housing projects for the second year in a row rejected Mercy’s application, though it said it welcomed it applying again in 2025.
Breed concedes
by Matthew S. Bajko
IThe meeting with seniors and LGBTQ community leaders came less than a day after Breed conceded the race, which will lead to the end of her tenure January 8. In a statement November 7 Breed – who as of the most recent preliminary returns was at 46% to Lurie’s 56% in the final round of ranked-
See page 10 >>
Trans CA Senate candidate Middleton concedes
2017 Media Kit 0 a
n a blow to an already traumatized transgender community expecting to come under attack by the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, there will not be a transgender member of the California Legislature to champion their needs.
Palm Springs City Councilmember Lisa Middleton conceded her state Senate race Tuesday.
Middleton, who was aiming to break through one of the last remaining pink political glass ceilings in the Statehouse, came in second place with 46.3% of the vote, according to the unofficial returns. She called her opponent, state Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa), late on November 12 to congratulate her on her victory in their hard-fought race for the 19th Senate District spanning Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
“While there are still more ballots left to count, it has become clear that we will fall short of winning this seat,” Middleton acknowledged in a statement she posted to her account on X.
“The outcome is not what any of us fought for or wanted, but I am immensely grateful to the friends, volunteers, supporters and donors who worked tirelessly to build our movement and earn us what will be at least 150,000 votes.”
Middleton will be leaving her District 5 council seat next month, as her four-year term will be coming to an end. She pledged to remain a steadfast proponent of “pragmatic solutions and results” for the Coachella Valley region with her next endeavor.
“We have lost a race. We remain steadfast to our values,” stated Middleton, a former San Francisco resident in the mid-1990s. “I will continue to work with all who are committed to freedom, fairness, and opportunity for all.”
On a more positive note for the LGBTQ community, the state Legislature will see its first bisexual female lawmakers once the incoming members are sworn in next month. Sasha Renée Pérez (D) will be the new representative of the 25th Senate District spanning Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
She prevailed in her bid for the open seat against Republican Crescenta Valley Town Councilmember Elizabeth Wong Ahlers with 60% of the vote, according to the current tally.
As she landed with a strong lead on election night, Renée Pérez had declared victory on November 6. In a post on X, the 32-year-old noted, “Beginning December 2nd, I’ll be the youngest Senator in California and youngest woman serving in the California Legislature.”
Joining her will be Sade Elhawary, who won the open Assembly District 57 seat in Los Angeles County with 61% of the vote against fellow Democrat Efren Martinez. Elhawary, who prefers the term fluid over bisexual when it comes to her sexual orientation, will also be the first out Black Latina to serve in the Statehouse.
At the moment, bisexual Palm Springs City Councilmember Christy Holstege is now behind in her bid to join them as freshmen Democratic members of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. She is now trailing Assemblymember Greg Wallis (R-Bermuda Dunes), whom she narrowly lost to in 2022, in their race for his Assembly District 47 seat. Wallis has taken the lead with 50.3% of the vote as of Wednesday morning. Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes (D), who is queer and bisexual, also has now lost her lead on election night to fall behind Republican Leticia Castillo in their race for the 58th Assembly District seat. Castillo has now taken first place with 50.3% of the vote.
Congressional candidate Will Rollins
Courtesy the campaign
Lisa Middleton came up short in her bid for a state Senate seat.
Courtesy the campaign
San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie made his first public comments since winning the mayor’s race Friday. November 8, in St. Mary’s Square in Chinatown.
John Ferrannini
'Kimberly Akimbo' Audibly autumn
SF voters pass Milk plaza, City Clinic bond
by John Ferrannini
San Francisco voters have passed a bond measure that will give City Clinic a new home and allocate $25 million toward the renovation of Harvey Milk Plaza. Voters also approved another measure that will permanently close the Westside’s Upper Great Highway to vehicle traffic.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Brian Springfield, a gay man who is the executive director of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, was “very encouraged” by preliminary returns showing Proposition B passing late November 5. The measure needed over two-thirds of voters to approve it, and in subsequent days it became clear it had passed that threshold.
Preliminary returns as of November 11 show Proposition B passing 72.4% to 27.6%. Milk plaza and City Clinic are just two of many items in the $390 million bond measure for infrastructure, public spaces, and street safety projects.
Prop B’s passage will move the plaza project significantly closer to the $35 million proponents need to raise before construction on it can begin.
Springfield talked about the importance of the plaza renovation project, which has been discussed for several years.
“The memorial represents more than just Harvey Milk,” Springfield stated.
“This project unites people – advocates, business owners, residents, and artists –who see an opportunity to capture Harvey’s spirit and mission on this historic corner of the Castro.
“Today, we have reached this milestone because people believed in this vision and helped make it a reality,” he added. “This is a powerful testament to what our community can accomplish when we organize at a grassroots level and come together as a community, which is something Harvey understood very well.”
Milk was the city’s first openly gay elected official when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk took office in January 1978 but was assassinated, along with then-mayor George Moscone, 11 months later by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White.
Cleve Jones, a longtime gay and AIDS activist who worked with the slain su-
pervisor in the 1970s. He, too, has supported renovating the plaza.
“It was critical for the team to create a place that could change with the times and put the community at the center,” Jones stated. “Today’s world is different from the one Harvey left, but the issues he fought for – civil rights, fair housing and labor, and cities that welcome people regardless of race, gender, orientation, age, belief, or background – those burn even stronger. The value of a moment like this, we hope, is in renewing the flame.”
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco), had secured $2.5 million in state funding toward the Milk plaza project. He previously said passage of Prop B would be “a game changer” for the fundraising campaign to secure the rest of the money the project proponents need to raise before construction can begin.
“Prop B’s passage is a huge step toward modernizing our public health infrastructure and improving our public spaces,” Wiener stated to the B.A.R. Tuesday. “Prop B will finally allow us to create a Harvey Milk Plaza our community deserves.”
Located above the Castro Muni station, the public parklet is considered the front door to the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood. Its main entrance fronts Castro Street, with the plaza extending along Market Street to Collingwood Street.
At the moment much of the back half
of the space is behind construction fencing due to a city-funded project to add a second elevator for the subway station. It should be completed by early 2026 at a cost of upward of $30 million.
When the elevator was first proposed back in 2016, neighborhood leaders had also brought up redesigning the plaza. It kicked off a lengthy process to come up with a new design for the area amid opposition from those who fought to preserve the plaza’s current configuration, as the B.A.R. has extensively reported on over the years.
City Clinic
Prop B also allocates $28.5 million will be used to relocate City Clinic, which since 1982 has been located in a 91-year-old building in the South of Market neighborhood that was once a firehouse. As the B.A.R. previously reported, the age and patient capacity of the building has at times made it nonfunctional – such as when a flood forced it to close for two days.
While City Clinic is open to anyone needing services, staff noted that 75% of those served by the clinic are men who have sex with men and they rely on the sexual health services it provides. There were over 11,000 appointments made in 2023.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, a major proponent of the bond, told the B.A.R. that she’s “grateful for the voters’ support of Prop B.”
“When we invest in our public health infrastructure, safe streets, and family homelessness, we make our city healthier and more resilient for all,” the mayor stated. “I’m also proud that we are committing to transformative public space projects, especially at Harvey Milk Plaza. For too long this space at the corner of Castro and Market has not delivered on its potential as both a public gathering space and a celebration of the legacy of Harvey Milk.”
Breed lost her race for reelection, as the B.A.R. reported.
Prop K passes
Voters also approved Proposition K, by 54.1% to 45.8%, according to preliminary returns as of November 11. This will lead to the closure of a portion of the Great Highway to make way for a park.
A precinct-level map shows the measure failed in every single precinct except one to the west of 19th Avenue, according to preliminary returns, while largely passing in the city’s densest neighborhoods on the east side.
The highway is currently only open to vehicles on weekdays; a prior compromise led to the current status quo wherein it’s closed to cars on weekends and open to them on weekdays.
But don’t expect things to change anytime soon; Lucas Lux, the campaign manager for Yes on K, told the B.A.R. that after the measure’s passage is certified, the city will need to request a permit from the California Coastal Commission to create a park, and the commission only meets once a month.
Shorter-term, expect benches and seats to be added on what’s currently the Great Highway, he said.
“Longer-term, we’re looking at … a community engagement process” similar to those that occurred before Francisco Park and Crissy Field were created.
“The same will happen here,” he said, adding he hopes the new Ocean Beach Park will be “one of the city’s best spaces in the future,” reminiscent of how the Embarcadero Freeway became today’s Embarcadero back in the 1990s, following the freeway’s demise after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
“Our city’s coast belongs to all San Franciscans, and last Tuesday’s vote
confirmed that they want a bold, forward-looking vision for our coast,” Lux stated. “We thank San Franciscans for their support, and thank westside Supervisors [Joel] Engardio and [Myrna] Melgar for their leadership to put this important question directly to voters.
“Transformational changes like the removal of the Embarcadero and Central freeways, and the creation of Crissy Field, came with passionate debate –and produced some of our city’s most iconic and beloved spaces,” Lux added. “Ocean Beach Park will soon join that list. We look forward to working with residents – supporters and opponents alike – to make the most of our city’s precious coastline.”
Engardio, who is gay and represents District 4 (including the Outer Sunset) conceded on X that “Prop K does not have majority support in the Sunset, which is home to this part of the Great Highway.”
“I understand and respect the views of voters who said no to Prop K,” he stated. “I’ve knocked on thousands of doors the past few months to talk to Sunset residents one-on-one about the future of the Great Highway. I heard from many who were concerned about increased traffic on side streets and losing a convenient driving route.”
Engardio pledged to improve transportation options on the westside.
“In listening to feedback from all Sunset residents, both pro-park and pro-highway people agree that City Hall must be more responsive to westside transportation needs,” he stated. “That’s why I am committed to addressing the traffic and street safety concerns of local residents.
“This includes improving the traffic flow on arterials like Lincoln Way and Sunset Boulevard to discourage cars from cutting through our local streets,” he added. “Traffic signals at Lincoln/41st Avenue and Sloat/Skyline are already funded and scheduled to replace stop signs. Residents must have a greater say in which traffic calming measures they want in their neighborhoods, especially as the city plans for a park.”
Melgar, a straight ally who represents District 7, didn’t return a request for comment. t
Fielder wins SF District 9 supervisor race
by Cynthia Laird
J
ackie Fielder declared victory
November 7 in her race for the District 9 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Fielder, a queer Latina, will join three gay men when she takes office in January, making a record number of out board members.
Fielder will become the board’s first Native American member. Her win also marks the first time in 28 years that an out female has been elected to a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Over that time an out woman was appointed to fill a vacancy but went on to lose her election to keep the seat.
Based on the latest unofficial returns Tuesday, November 12, from the elections department, Fielder won with 59.30% of the vote. Her closest competitor, Trevor Chandler, a gay man, was at 40.70%.
District 9 includes the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Portola. Current Supervisor Hillary Ronen is termed out and dual-endorsed Fielder and queer candidate Stephen Torres, who was eliminated in round four of ranked choice voting.
Fielder commented about her victory on X last Thursday afternoon.
“To every single supporter, every neighbor, every small dollar donor, every person who put up a sign,
every volunteer: I am honored and humbled to represent you,” she stated. “This isn’t just my victory – it’s our victory.” Chandler conceded in an email to supporters Sunday morning.
“After taking time to respect the process and ensure as many votes were counted as possible, today I called Jackie Fielder to congratulate her on winning the race for D9 supervisor,” he stated.
“As for what’s next, I’m not going anywhere,” Chandler added. “I remain honored to be an elected leader of the San Francisco Democratic Party and to be at the forefront of making the change necessary for the
future of our city, state, and country. Now more than ever we need voices communicating Democratic Party values in a way that resonates with all San Franciscans, Californians, and Americans, not just the ideological fringes.”
Fielder, a progressive, will see more moderate colleagues on the new board as they made gains over progressive incumbents or challengers. District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, a democratic socialist, conceded Sunday evening to moderate Bilal Mahmood. Preliminary returns released Tuesday showed Mahmood with 52.84%, followed by Preston at 47.16%. District 5 includes the
Haight, Alamo Square, Western Addition, and the Tenderloin.
“We’ve spent a lifetime fighting for underdogs, often against the odds. I wouldn’t change a minute of it. We can’t win every battle, but we’ll continue the fight,” Preston stated. He wasn’t specific on his future, but stated, “We have big plans coming which we will announce soon.”
Mahmood claimed victory November 12.
“I launched this campaign because of a profound belief that despite the division and challenges our district faces, there is a path forward rooted in our values, unity, and results for residents – a path of pragmatic progressivism that can deliver a safe and vibrant District 5 for all,” he stated. “Today, it’s clear residents are ready for that better tomorrow. I have reached out to Supervisor Preston to ensure a smooth transition towards that future.”
After being tied last week, progressive District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan has defeated her moderate opponent, Marjan Philhour. District 1 includes the Richmond, Lone Mountain, Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park, and the University of San Francisco. Returns released Tuesday showed Chan at 51.79%, followed by Philhour at 48.21%. It was Philhour’s third bid for the seat.
There are still approximately
18,200 ballots left to count, according to the elections department. Additional returns are expected Wednesday afternoon.
District 3, which includes North Beach, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, Polk Gulch, Union Square/ Financial District and Russian, Telegraph and Nob Hills, will see a new supervisor as Aaron Peskin, currently the board’s president, is termed out. Peskin ran for mayor but was unsuccessful, coming up short against Daniel Lurie, who was declared the winner last Thursday.
Moderate D3 candidate Danny Sauter has won with 55.32% of the vote. Progressive candidate Sharon Lai finished second with 44.68% and conceded Friday afternoon.
In District 7, incumbent Supervisor Myrna Melgar has fended off a tougher than expected challenge from Matt Boschetto. Melgar had 52.89% of the vote Tuesday, with Boschetto at 47.11%.
And in District 11, which includes the Excelsior, Oceanview, and Outer Mission, Chyanne Chen has taken the lead at 50.45%. Newcomer Michael Lai (no relation to Sharon Lai) had been leading last week but dropped to second place with 49.55% as of Tuesday. Current Supervisor Ahsha Safaí is termed out of office. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor. t
A rendering of Harvey Milk Plaza shows the familiar corner of Castro and Market streets, transformed and activated with a gathering around the new pedestal feature.
Courtesy Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza
Jackie Fielder has declared victory in the District 9 San Francisco supervisors race.
Courtesy the candidate
SF Night Ministry celebrates 60 years Community
by Liz Highleyman
The San Francisco Night Ministry, best known for its outreach to people experiencing homelessness in the Tenderloin, celebrated 60 years of service on November 1. After walking the streets with ministers in small groups, attendees converged for a celebration at the Tenderloin Museum on Eddy Street, followed by a drag show at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge.
“For 60 years, the Night Ministry has deeply listened to people at night, connecting them to their own spiritual resources through difficult times,” said the Reverend Trent Thornley, executive director, speaking after the November 5 election. “With the recent election and the challenges ahead impacting our most marginalized neighbors the most, we will continue to extend our witness and compassion to folks, one encounter at a time, every night of the year. These days, people need every reminder that they are heard, valued, and loved.”
Thornley is also an ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Churches and a Buddhist dharma leader.
Founded by the San Francisco Council of Churches, the Night Ministry serves some 10,000 people each year, around 40% of whom are LGBTQ. The nonprofit organization, which has a staff of about two dozen, is primarily supported by donations from individuals and congregations; it does not receive city funding. In addition to spiritual care, night ministers offer help with access to housing, health care, legal assistance, and other services.
Although best known for its work with individuals living on the streets, night ministers – clergy members from multiple faith traditions – also
reach out to people at bars and other venues in the Tenderloin and the Castro, and its care hotline serves a much broader population. In a report about the organization’s 50th anniversary, former Night Ministry director the Reverend Lyle Beckman, who retired in 2018, told the Bay Area Reporter that the organization gets calls from people who are “fairly well off but lonely,” as well as those dealing with grief or suicidal thoughts.
The Night Ministry hosts weekly Open Cathedral non-denomina tional Christian worship services at Civic Center Plaza and the 16th and Mission BART station, as well as monthly Open Shabbat Jewish ser vices, Open Sangha Buddhist medi tation, and an annual Drag Street
June.
A long history of service
The Night Ministry has a long history of involvement with San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, offering “an inclusive witness of faith since we first stepped out on the streets of the Tenderloin and Polk Gulch and across the city in 1964,” said John Brett, director of community programs and Faithful & Fabulous minister. The Faithful & Fabulous program engages the LG-
helped organize a January 1, 1965, New Year’s Day drag ball undraiser produced by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, which ended in a police raid, according to Brett. Religious leaders spoke out against the raid, marking a shift in how the San Francisco Police Department treated the city’s LGBTQ population.
That ball, along with the Tavern Guild’s Beaux Arts Ball, were precursors to the Imperial Court system.
Original San Francisco Empress the late José Julio Sarria, a Latino military
were hired, they were taken to an interview with Empress José so that she could give them her blessing – and likely also flirt with them – to ensure that they were safe to work with San Francisco’s queer communities,” according to Brett.
In the 1980s, the Reverend Chuck Lewis, one of the original night ministers, worked with Bay Area churches to encourage inclusion of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. In the 1990s, former Night Ministry head the Reverend Don Fox officiated at hundreds of memorials for people who died of AIDS, especially those whose families would not claim their bodies.
As part of the 60th anniversary celebration, Brett presented a pair of white gloves to Lutheran Bishop Jeff Johnson, a gay man and former night minister who last year was elected bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Johnson was inducted into the Order of Church Ladies for Queer Rights.
Inspired by a longtime contingent in the San Francisco Pride parade, the order, part of the outreach Brett does to the LGBTQ community, attends drag shows and tips the artists “as a form of reparations for religious and spiritual trauma,” Brett told the B.A.R. After the celebration at the museum, several attendees proceeded to Aunt Charlie’s Lounge to carry on the tradition.
“Whether or not participants wear floral dresses or hats or pearls or carry handbags – all of which are optional – the required white gloves visually
Eucharist in the Castro during Pride Month in
John Brett, left, director of community programs for the San Francisco Night Ministry, spoke after giving a pair of white gloves to Lutheran Bishop Jeff Johnson, a former night minister, at the organization’s 60th anniversary gala held at the Tenderloin Museum November 1.
Liz Highleyman
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Senator Chuck Schumer has 1 job
Between now and January 3, Senate
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has one job: to convene the Senate to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees that have already cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. That committee, by the way, also has just one task to do before then: to hold hearings on Biden’s nominees that have not come before it yet and forward them on to the full Senate. Biden, incidentally, nominated two more federal judges last Friday, his 56th round of judicial nominees, according to the White House. January 3 is when the new 119th Congress will begin and the Senate, at least, will be under Republican control. (The leadership of the House of Representatives is still uncertain due to vote counts continuing in several close races.)
The reasons for the focus on federal judges are obvious, and Politico last week reported there are nearly 30 judicial nominees still waiting to be confirmed. For one thing, the upper chamber of Congress will have 53 Republicans, which means they will control all the committees and the calendar for floor votes.
Secondly, with President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House for a second term beginning January 20, he will have the ability to nominate archconservatives to federal judgeships – and we expect him to do just that. He likely will also nominate inexperienced judicial candidates who are not well qualified, like he did with now-federal Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida, who threw out Trump’s classified documents case – on the first day of the Republican National Convention, no less. Cannon is also set to oversee the case of the man charged in the attempted assassination of Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida in September.
After it became clear on election night that the GOP would take back the Senate, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), who herself was easily reelected last week, highlighted this urgent
matter. “While still in charge of the Senate and the White House, we must do all we can to safeguard our democracy,” Warren wrote in a Time magazine editorial. “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer must use every minute of the end-of-year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators – none of whom can be removed by the next president.”
Federal judges are lifetime appointments. According to a list compiled on Wikipedia, during Trump’s first term, the Senate confirmed his three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices; 54 judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals; and 174 to U.S. district courts. In Biden’s first term, the Senate confirmed his one Supreme Court justice; 44 to the appeals court; and 166 to the district courts. Four of Biden’s appeals court nominees are awaiting Senate confirmation, and one is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. At the district court level, 10 nominees are awaiting confirmation votes by the Senate, and 13 are awaiting committee hearings. That all adds up to much work for the Senate to accomplish during its lameduck session.
Congress can be productive when it needs to, even during lame-duck sessions. It was back in December 2010, with House control shifting to Republicans in January 2011, that Congress approved repeal of the military’s antigay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which then-President Barack Obama signed days later. It was one of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-San Francisco) crowning achievements on behalf of the LGBTQ community. It seems that Schumer is getting the message. On Tuesday, the Senate was set to reconvene after the Veterans Day holiday and take up a judicial nomination, according to Politico. But we need to see much more in the coming days and weeks. Congress will take breaks for the holidays, and then Senate leadership will change.
AIDS orgs may
not
We noted last week our deep concern that with Trump winning the presidential election, the lower courts, once the last chance for LGBTQs to secure rights that government and businesses deny, will likely be made up of more conservative judges – that is certainly the case at the Supreme Court – resulting in terrible decisions. The Supreme Court is set to take up a transgender case in early December when it hears oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a challenge brought by transgender youth and their families to a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care. In a recent news release about the case, the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the families, along with the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, noted that Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti “has asked the Supreme Court to expand its ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and allow the state to target transgender people’s autonomy over their own bodies, too.”
“We’ve seen just how far extreme politicians will push to deny us our reproductive freedom, from banning abortion to threatening IVF to even threatening to put doctors in jail for providing emergency care, with deadly consequences for women’s lives,” stated Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. “The same politicians who are trying to control women have now set their sights on transgender people and their families and are trying to control their bodies and lives. Allowing politicians to continue down this road could hold severe implications for the freedom of all people to decide what is right for their own body.”
Extreme indeed. That’s why it’s so important that Biden’s judicial nominees be confirmed, so that the federal courts (with the exception of the Supreme Court, obviously) include judges that are fair-minded and follow the law, rather than pander to the right-wing and interpret the law to meet their own discriminatory beliefs. Schumer must be focused on the judiciary in these final weeks of his leadership. Every nominee that is not confirmed will be replaced by one chosen by Trump. The Senate must not allow that to happen. t
survive to see the end of the pandemic
by Tyler TerMeer
We are extraordinarily fortunate in San Francisco to be making strides in ending the HIV epidemic that has ravaged our communities for over four decades. With every new annual HIV report from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, we let out a collective exhale as the number of new HIV diagnoses continues its downward trajectory. What an incredible victory for our community and what great promise the future holds.
But as we welcome this hopeful shift in the epidemic, I must urge you to remember: We are NOT there yet.
Now is not the time to turn your back on HIV or to forget the decades of activism, resilience, and heartbreak that have shaped this movement. We have immense collective passion and power, but we’re facing unprecedented challenges as individuals and as organizations fighting every day to bring this epidemic to an end. Each year, the gulf between the resources we desperately need and the resources we have only widens – especially for Black and Brown communities, transgender folx, and all those traditionally furthest from access and opportunity. These communities continue to face disproportionate impacts of HIV, and without a united commitment to equity, we risk further leaving them behind.
Each year, I find myself asking, “Will we have the strength – and the resources – to stay the course until we bring this epidemic to an end?” And each year, my answer is unwavering: “Yes, we will.” San Francisco can and will be the first city to reach zero new HIV diagnoses. But it will take all of us united in community, our funders standing strong, and a refusal to step back now when we’re so close.
just a fraction of the challenges our movement is facing.
This month and earlier this year, SFAF was forced to make some difficult decisions: laying off staff, eliminating open roles, reducing some full-time employees to part-time, and cutting direct expenses for program materials and supplies agency-wide. These steps were essential to address a nearly $3 million budget deficit in order for SFAF to remain financially stable amid an uncertain economic and political climate. This was not easy – and it reflects
Perhaps you’ve noticed a shift. Public support for AIDS-related causes has waned as advancements like PrEP and effective treatments make HIV and AIDS “feel” like a crisis of the past. But the battle isn’t over. HIV continues to impact lives every single day, including my own, and we need your continued commitment to end this epidemic, not just manage it. This year, we announced that 2025 would mark the final year of the AIDS/ LifeCycle fundraising event that we produce with the Los Angeles LGBT Center. While this 545-mile bicycle ride has been a lifeline to our community – raising over $300 million over the years, spreading joy, and bringing visibility to the queer and HIV and AIDS communities – it has reached its natural end. Rising costs and declining participation mean it’s no longer sustainable or financially responsible. This shift represents not just the end of a beloved tradition, but the reminder of the larger decline in support that threatens the very future of HIV and AIDS organizations. Similar events like AIDS Walk San Francisco (an event that does not benefit SFAF) have also seen declines in participation, while long-standing corporate funders, including Levi Strauss, have ended their HIV grantmaking after more than four decades. Although we agree with the Levi Strauss
Foundation’s assessment that both the crisis itself and the funding landscape around it have evolved, we worry about grantmakers stepping back just when we’re within sight of the epidemic’s end. We’re also seeing decreased benefits from the federal 340B pharmacy program, which has resulted in nationwide losses for safety-net clinics, estimated at $100 million in HIV prevention funds since 2022 – primarily in the U.S. South. (The program allows certain health care organizations to purchase drugs at a discount.) At the same time, rising costs of programming, staffing, and events stretch our budgets thin. Perhaps our biggest continued threat comes from our government funding – at the local, state, and federal levels. Every year, we find ourselves coming up short in federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funds, and in the position of urging city officials to backfill federal cuts from city revenues. Funding from sources like the CDC penalizes places like San Francisco that have made significant strides in reducing HIV transmission.
As we look toward the uncertain political landscape ahead, we are deeply concerned about the potential for federal cuts to HIV and AIDS services under a new administration. Cuts to federal and state funding make pieces of the “pie” smaller for all of us competing for public health funds (and I should note: we don’t want to compete with other providers!).
On the local front, while leaders and mayoral candidates are currently committed to sustaining quality HIV and AIDS programs, this support may not last if federal funds shrink and public interest fades. Locally, much of our funding comes from the San Francisco Department of Public Health – and those dollars are dependent upon the health of the local economy and how much can be collected from city taxes. We all know the impacts that the pandemic and remote work have had on our city’s economy, the effects of which trickle down to service providers and city nonprofits.
We stand at a critical juncture: the end of the epidemic is within reach, but we need every supporter, donor, and community member with us to close the final gap. The stakes have never been higher, and we can’t afford to take our foot off the pedal now. What can you do?
Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D.
Courtesy SFAF
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
Reuters
Martinez to be 1st LGBTQ Santa Cruz supervisor
by Matthew S. Bajko
Queer mom and longtime nonprofit leader Monica Martinez will be Santa Cruz County’s first out supervisor. After nearly clinching the coastal board’s open District 5 seat in March, she prevailed in the runoff race on the November 5 ballot.
After the vote count was updated on Veterans Day, Martinez declared victory. According to the unofficial returns, she won the race to succeed outgoing Supervisor Bruce McPherson, who had endorsed her, with 56.53% of the vote.
She defeated Christopher Bradford, who had lost his home in the 2020 CZU fire that devastated the region. They faced off on the fall ballot after Martinez fell short on the primary ballot of the 50%-plusone threshold she needed to clinch the seat in the winter.
In a November 12 email to her supporters, Martinez noted, “our community’s voice is clear, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Martinez is now the first woman elected to the District 5 seat, which covers the mostly unincorporated San Lorenzo Valley region of the county. (A woman was appointed to it in 1979 and served two years.)
She also will be one the first two women to serve on the county board since 2012 and the first ones elected to it since 2008, as two female candidates are in a tight race for the open District 2 seat. Martinez will be resigning as CEO of the county’s largest health and human services nonprofit, Encompass Community Services, in order to take her oath of office.
Martinez is a co-parent with her two children’s other mom, from whom she is separated. She had to evacuate with her family from their home in Felton for a month due to the conflagration that swept through four years ago.
“This is just the beginning, and I’m ready to get to work. Thank you for placing your trust in me and for choosing to move forward with hope and resilience. Together, we have a bright future ahead,” pledged Martinez.
“This campaign has been about real issues that matter to us: preparing for and recovering from disasters, making our roads safe, supporting our essential workers, and ensuring affordable housing for those who want to call this place home,” noted Martinez in her congratulatory email. “We’ve run a positive, determined campaign – and it’s clear that message resonated with voters who want thoughtful, effective leadership for our district.”
Born and raised in Bakersfield at the southernmost end of California’s Central Valley, Martinez grew up in a union household. Her father is a retired Kern County fire captain, while her mother is a retired public elementary school teacher.
Looking for a more welcoming environment post high school, Martinez enrolled at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo along the state’s Central Coast. As she worked toward earning her B.A. in political science, Martinez landed a summer job after her freshman year with the YMCA of San Francisco at its Camp Jones Gulch in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She is a devotee of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual fall music festival held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
After Martinez earned a master’s in public administration at the University of Southern California, she worked to provide services to homeless women living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. In 2010, the nonprofit Housing Matters of Santa Cruz County hired her as its executive director.
She co-founded the 180/180 Initiative, a community partnership aimed at helping to house homeless individuals in the county. By 2014, Martinez had taken over the leadership of Encompass Community Services.
Other LGBTQ local races In nearby Monterey, where the county has 40,530 ballots still to process, gay incumbent Mayor Tyller Williamson could declare victory Wednesday once the vote count is updated. He currently stands in first place with 68% of the vote to serve a second two-year term.
But he and the city’s council members will now be term-limited to serving 12 years on the governing body, whether in a council seat or as mayor, due to 80% of voters supporting local ballot measure X. As it is not retroactive, it means Williamson could remain as mayor through 2036 should he choose to seek reelection to five more mayoral terms.
Joining him as a gay elected mayor in the greater Bay Area region will be Tracy City Councilmember Dan Tavares Arriola, having bested his two opponents in his second bid for the position. Elected to his council seat in 2018, Arriola had first sought to become mayor two years later but fell short.
As of Wednesday, Arriola was in first place in this year’s mayoral contest with 47.45% of the unofficial returns. He had all but declared victory the day after the November 5 election based on the initial results in the race.
“I look forward to working with a new City Council, and I am committed to starting a new chapter of progress for our community!” wrote Arriola in a post-election state ment he shared via his X account. In thanking those who voted for him, Arriola noted, “The opportunity to serve the city that raised me is truly the honor of a lifetime.”
His partner of two years, Hay ward public school teacher Charlie Jones, also appears poised to win his race for a school board seat in the East Bay city of Pleasanton where he lives. He is currently in first place with 51% of the vote, with the next vote count update in the county ex pected on Friday.
As for Arriola, he is limited to serving two two-year terms as may
or. Thus, Arriola could lead the San Joaquin County city through 2028 if he’s reelected in 2026.
In Stockton, poised to become the first gay man on his City Council. As of the No vember 11 vote update, he remains in first place for the open District 4 seat with 51.65% of the vote.
He is set to return out LGBTQ representation to the council for the first time since 2012, when its lesbian former member Susan Talamantes Eggman departed for the state Assembly. Now a state senator, she is termed out this year and leaving the Legislature.
Enríquez, who grew up in nearby Lathrop and works for his alma mater the University of the Pacific, had launched his council bid in 2023. After graduating in 2010 with a B.A. in sociology, Enríquez left Stockton to pursue new educational and professional opportunities.
One ended up being with the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s educational arm, the Victory Institute, as its director of constituent engagement. He stepped down from the national nonprofit in early 2022 after being hired by the private college.
He plans to host an election up date live via his Instagram account @marioforstockton at 2 p.m. Thurs day (November 14).
On Monday, in a brief update posted to his Facebook campaign page, Enríquez had noted, “Our people-powered campaign is con tinuing to trend UPWARDS! AD ELANTE!” t
Web Extra: For more queer politi cal news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on gay San Di ego Mayor Todd Gloria’s election to a second term.
Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko.
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Monica Martinez, left, has won a seat on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, while Dan Tavares Arriola was elected mayor of Tracy.
Courtesy the candidates
Election 2024: The fallout
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
T
ypically, at this time of year, I would write about the Transgender Day of Remembrance and the dozens of transgender people who have been killed at the hand of anti-transgender violence. It’s an issue that has driven much of my work since 1998.
There is something bigger that needs to be discussed right now, however, and that is the recent 2024 presidential election.
Now, I’m not all that interested in discussing why former President Donald Trump was elected for a second time or whose fault it was, aside from noting that it wasn’t transgender people who caused it.
The Republican Party, Trump’s campaign, and related forces did spend big on anti-trans issues, with Trump-supported ads running during major sporting events nationwide. Yet the ads themselves were not effective: only 4% of voters said that preventing trans surgeries or stopping trans kids in sports drove their vote, according to an analysis from GQR, a woman-owned polling firm, and the Human Rights Campaign.
Indeed, the only people really talking about transgender issues this election were the right wing, as the left largely remained silent. Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz did speak on it a bit, but presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris – and the rest of the Democratic Party – avoided the issue as much as possible. Even as Delaware state Senator Sarah McBride (D) be-
came the first out transgender woman elected to Congress, it is worth noting that the party did not have her on stage at the Democratic National Convention this summer, nor was her historic campaign touted during this election season.
Post-election, some Democrats are also seeking to throw transgender people under the bus – even though we never had a seat on it in the first place.
Meanwhile, it was LGBTQ voters who made up a huge part of the support for Harris-Walz: 84% of LGBTQ people who voted supported the Harris/Walz ticket, and those votes made up 8% of the overall vote in 2024, per the analysis from GQR and HRC.
But what is done is done, and no matter what Trump and his administration does, we all will be harmed. The right has pushed hard on demolishing transgender rights for years
now, and this is its chance to bring it all to fruition.
Trump has vowed to end President Joe Biden’s “cruel policies” on genderaffirming care on “day one,” though, as with anything that tumbles out of his mouth, it is unclear what that means. In many of Trump’s speeches, he claimed he was ending trans surgeries performed in schools, which is a thing that simply doesn’t happen.
Trump can, however, push to see trans identities stripped from our government documents, he can push for schools that include recognition of trans identities be stripped of federal funding, and he can make it vastly harder for people to acquire needed medications. Of course, any anti-discrimination protections will also be on the chopping block, both from this incoming administration and from a strongly conservative U.S. Supreme Court.
Beyond this, of course, Trump’s victory will embolden anyone who seeks to harm transgender people. This will only encourage our attackers and aid those who take our lives. Since the first Trump presidency, the issue of anti-transgender violence has only continued to grow, and it is surely poised to get much, much worse. Further, the reluctance of the left to even mention transgender people – even McBride, the Democrats’ soon-to-be member of Congress –makes it clear to me that there’s no help on the horizon. No one within this country’s halls of power will be coming to save us. We’re on our own. So, it’s up to us to stay safe. Now is a time for us to come together like never before.
We need to set aside our petty arguments and join together in purpose. We need to watch over each other, provide for each other, and work to keep us all safe and well.
With that in mind, I want to suggest a few things you should be doing right now to watch over your needs.
If you need a supportive voice, please remember that the grassroots Trans Lifeline exists, and it is there to help. Hotline officials also won’t out you to law enforcement. You can reach it at translifeline.org or 1-877565-8860. We need you to remain in the community.
Get your identity documents updated now, before Trump returns to the White House on January 20. U.S. passports are valid for 10 years. The Biden administration approved gender-neutral passports in 2022, and these may be at risk. I assure you, however, that getting your identity down on paper is worth do ing right now. Keep these documents in a safe but easy to access place.
Talk to your medical provider, too, about ex tending your prescrip tions, and stock up on your medications. They could become a lot harder to obtain, so research doit-yourself options for hormone replacement therapy. You can find some tips on that at diyhrt.wiki. (Note that the site is not intended as medical advice.)
in a safe, accessible spot. The state of California has a downloadable form at https://tinyurl.com/ywdsnzzp.
The San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives has a list of community services at https://tinyurl. com/ycktka6y.
Consider now your emergency plans. Make a physical list of contacts and information, and prepare what you might need with you in a case of extreme emergency. I hope it doesn’t come to this, but being prepared is always better than not. Especially now.
If you need a safe place, and if you are a trans person of color, please reach out to Garden of Peace Project at gardenofpeaceproject.org – and if you can, consider donating to it. The organization works to uphold and affirm the lived experiences of queer and trans people of color.
If you can, get a durable power of attorney and an advance health care directive. Those, too, should be kept
And finally: understand that if you need to detransition, go into the woodwork, or go stealth –that’s OK. If you can get out of the country that may be something you’ll want to consider. The important thing to do here is survive, and a retreat is a better option versus many others. Finally, hold onto hope. I’m not going to tell you this future is easy, but we can survive. We have to.
Stay safe and stay well. t
Gwen Smith has already sent in her passport renewal. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.
Events will remember trans victims of violence
compiled by Cynthia Laird
B
ay Area events will take place to observe the Transgender day of Remembrance. The day, started by Bay Area Reporter Transmissions columnist Gwendolyn Ann Smith 26 years ago, is an effort to remember trans people annually killed by violence. Smith started the Remembering Our Dead project, of which the remembrance day is a part, in 1998, after Rita Hester, a young Black trans woman, was found dead in Alston, Massachusetts.
Today, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, or TDOR, formally observed on November 20, pays tribute to the hundreds of trans people killed in the U.S. and around the world.
In Oakland, the LGBTQ Community Center will hold an event Tuesday, November 19, at Fluid 510, the gay-owned nightclub at 1455 Broadway in downtown Oakland. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the event is free.
Organizers stated in an email announcement that the event will include a heartfelt program, food, performances, and a mo ment of silence for those the community has lost.
“Let’s stand together in love and remem brance,” center officials stated.
For more information, call (510) 882-2286.
In Vallejo, the Solano Pride Center, Solano Serenity Center, Solano AIDS Coalition, and the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum will hold a TDOR event Saturday, November 16, at the museum, 734 Marin Street. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; the program is from 6 to 8.
a transgender woman who founded the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archives in Vallejo; Mario Saucedo, CEO of the Solano AIDS Coalition; and Morgan Robison of the Solano Serenity Center. The keynote speaker will be Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, a transgender woman who was elected to the bench in 2010 and is the wife of Bay Area Reporter news editor Cynthia Laird.
Featured speakers include Will McGarvey, an every-gender-loving man who is executive director of the Solano Pride Center; Ms. Bob Davis,
The event is free.
Castro Valley Pride will hold a TDOR event Wednesday, November 20, at 5:30 p.m. outside the Alameda County Office of Education building at 313 West Winton Avenue in Hayward. Austin Bruckner Carrillo, a gay man who is president of Castro Valley Pride, stated in a news release that this year’s gathering takes on a deeper significance due to the recent election results and continued attacks on trans people, particularly trans youth.
“The choice of location – the Office of Education – reflects our response to these direct assaults on the safety and dignity of our community’s most vulnerable members,” he stated. “We will not be silent in the face of this rising hate.
“During the vigil, we will solemnly read the names of those killed since the last Day of Remembrance,” he added. “Sadly, this year we find ourselves reading more names than ever before, a heartbreaking reminder of the violence that continues to target trans lives. Together, we will hold space for grief and honor their memory, while also standing firm in our commitment to fight for justice and the safety of our living community members.”
Carrillo ran for a seat on the Hayward school board last week but came up short, based on preliminary results.
SFPD, Walgreens launch holiday toy drive
The San Francisco Police Department is asking for the public’s help to bring holiday cheer to children
in need. This year, more than ever, the department is encouraging and kindly asking the community to please be generous in supporting the annual holiday toy drive, a news release stated.
Like SFPD’s nine years of collaboration with Walgreens, the department will be accepting donations of new, unwrapped toys at over 40 San Francisco Walgreens locations now through Friday, December 20. Individuals can purchase or drop off a new, unwrapped toy in any San Francisco Walgreens or any district police station. The items will be collected by the police department and donated to children this holiday season. Last year, approximately 6,000 toys were donated at the city’s Walgreens stores.
Horizons to hold State of the Movement
The election results that will see Republican former President Donald Trump return to the White House and GOP control of the U.S. Senate make this year’s Horizons Foundation State of the Movement event
especially timely. The free virtual discussion will be held Thursday, November 21, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. (Pacific Time).
The discussion, with a question and answer session, will feature Horizons President Roger Doughty, a gay man, and LGBTQ leaders Fran Hutchins, executive director of Equality Federation; Andy Marra, CEO of Advocates for Trans Equality; Ricardo Martinez, executive director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders; and Imani Rupert-Gordon, president of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. They will discuss the present and future of the queer movement.
Organizers noted that the political right is sharpening its plans to put its anti-LGBTQ agenda into action. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative supermajority, is scheduled to hear oral arguments on a trans rights case in early December.
The Horizons discussion will look at ways for the community to move from reactive to active in the face of likely attacks and lessons learned from the times and places the community played offense, an announcement stated.
To register, go to https://tinyurl. com/2s44e7vu.
Sonoma supervisor to hold post-election forum
Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who represents District 5 that includes Guerneville, will hold a virtual town hall Wednesday, November 20, at 6 p.m. In the wake of the election, Hopkins stated in her newsletter, “Many LGBTQIA, undocumented, female, and BIPOC folks are staring down the next four years and wondering what it will mean for their families, for their bodies, for their rights, for their safety.”
The theme for the town hall is “We
Christine Smith
San Francisco observed Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, 2022 with a small rally and march that started outside City Hall.
Rick Gerharter
SJ’s Torres arrested, resigns from office Community News>>
by John Ferrannini
G
ay San Jose city councilmember
Omar Torres resigned from office shortly after his arrest November 5, the City Council confirmed to the Bay Area Reporter. Torres faces three felony charges related to allegedly sexually abusing an underage relative decades ago.
The charges are apparently not related to a criminal investigation launched by police last month after Torres admitted in a text message to performing oral sex on a 17-year-old.
Torres remains in jail and was arraigned November 6. He did not enter a plea.
His departure means that once again, the Bay Area’s largest city is without LGBTQ leadership on its governing body. It remains to be seen if an out person will be appointed to fill the vacancy created by Torres’ resignation.
Councilmember Bien Doan confirmed the news as election returns came in Tuesday night. Doan stated that “this action marks a crucial step toward accountability.”
“I am pleased he has finally stepped down in the best interest of the people of District 3. I have full confidence in the integrity of the San Jose Police Department and their commitment to conducting a thorough and impartial investigation,” Doan stated. “It is now crucial that District 3 has new leadership as quickly as possible. The people of the district deserve to be fully represented, and we must move swiftly to ensure that their voice is heard in the council without further delay. Until then the mayor, myself, and the rest of our council colleagues will continue to do all we can to support the District 3 residents.”
Torres, 43, had represented downtown San Jose and the Qmunity District, the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood. His election two years ago had ended a 16year drought of LGBTQ representation
on the city council.
The B.A.R. reached out to the District 3 office on November 5, got no answer, and left a voicemail. On November 6, a second call yielded a message that the number had been disconnected and was no longer in service.
Torres made his first appearance in court November 6, arraigned on three counts of sodomy and oral copulation of a child. KTVU-TV reports that the alleged crimes took place over 25 years ago.
Torres’ cousin came forward after news reports of Torres admitting in the text messages to another man of having sex with a 17-year-old boy. According to prosecutors, the abuse started when Torres was 9 years old and the victim was 4 and continued till Torres was 18 and the victim was 13.
Police also state that Torres called the victim to apologize and in the course of that conversation claimed to have raped him “20 to 25 times” over the years.
Torres is due back in court November 14.
The Santa Clara County DA’s office didn’t return a request for comment.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan stated, “I’m horrified by the possibility that – far
from his claim of outrageous fantasies –he may have in fact harmed children.”
“Omar Torres has been arrested on suspicion of committing some of the most serious crimes imaginable,” Mahan stated. “I trust our Police Department and DA to ensure that justice is served through the due process afforded by our laws. If you have any information related to this case or other cases involving harm to children, I would ask you to reach out [to] the San Jose Police Department.”
SJPD didn’t return a request for comment. Neither has Torres’ attorney, Nelson McElmurry.
A nascent effort to recall Torres had been gathering signatures to get state approval to go forward. Spokesperson A’Dreana Quevedo stated that “with the resignation, our neighborhoods are now able to move forward and begin the healing process.”
“We have faith in the police department, the DA and all involved in this case to see justice through,” she continued. “Our neighborhoods now look toward partnering with the mayor and council to determine how to gain back the representation we desperately need.”
Torres had already been stripped of his committee assignments by his fellow councilmembers, who had called upon him to resign last month. Torres requested extended leave from the council so he could stay in his seat while missing meetings for a month to focus on his mental health, but the request was rejected.
Elected in 2022, Torres was the first gay person of color to serve on the San Jose City Council, and only its second out councilmember. A longtime political aide in the South Bay and Democratic Party leader, Torres previously served as an elected member of the board of the San Jose Evergreen Community College District.
Last month, SJPD confirmed it was investigating Torres on suspicion of
seeking sexually explicit pictures of a minor online. For his part, the councilmember said the allegations were “entirely false” and part of a blackmail scheme waged against him by a Chicago man he had met online.
Then, on October 10, San Jose police released an affidavit. The name of the police officer who signed the affidavit is redacted, but they stated they are currently assigned to the San Jose Police Department Child Exploits Detail/Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The officer stated that Torres initially claimed Terry Beeks, a 21-year-old Chicagoan, had extorted him for $2,500, threatening to release nude photos and videos of the councilmember if he did not pay Beeks, according to the affidavit.
Torres did pay the cash – on that occasion and others, according to investigators. The alleged extortion occurred after Torres made an in-person visit to Beeks during the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Chicago in August, “to discuss their ongoing relationship and find closure.”
A subsequent interview with police revealed Torres and Beeks had a virtual sexual relationship for years, and Torres admitted he’d sent $22,000 over that time to prevent texts and pictures from being leaked.
“Beeks texts the victim [Torres] ‘How if I send your nudes out’ ‘They see how small your dick is an [sic] really laughing,’” the affidavit states.
In the course of the investigation, the Chicago Police Department executed a search warrant on Beeks, according to the affidavit, which stated that Beeks told police he and Torres met on social media three to four years prior, and that Torres “sent him [Beeks] a photo of a younger kid that Torres said was autistic. Beeks stated Torres sent text messages talking about the minor’s penis size and pubic hair. Beeks also stated Torres had asked him about finding minors.”
Another warrant revealed that Beeks
and Torres began interacting on Snapchat in 2022, where Torres paid Beeks for masturbation videos. The warrant also revealed text exchanges, such as one on February 24, 2022, when Torres, who does not have a son, sent an image of an 11-year-old whom the councilmember stated was his ‘”autistic son” and stated “he is like daddy lol he already has a big penis haha.”
On March 10, 2022, the two were discussing the penis sizes of Black men – “every black I have sucked had a huge dick,” the councilmember stated, continuing that “when I worked at a site at a college I sucked a student in the control room. Black 17 year old and boom. 9.5 inches at 17,” according to the affidavit.
Another time Torres asked, “U got any homies under 18.” In California, the age of consent for sex is 18.
“I want hella homies u Will see im wild in bed,” Torres continued.
In a statement posted to Instagram October 4, Torres claimed he was “wrongfully detained by detectives regarding baseless accusations” and that “I want to be clear that I am the victim in this matter.”
“While these attempts to discredit me are deeply troubling, they will not deter my commitment to you and our community,” he stated. “Rest assured, I will continue to serve this community with integrity and determination.”
The Silicon Valley Pride Board of Directors and Qmunity District President Nathan Svoboda joined with BAYMEC Community Foundation in issuing a statement October 25 condemning child sexual abuse and stereotyping of the LGBTQ community. The open letter did not take a stance on the specific allegations against Torres.
The Pride board declined a request for comment for this report. Svoboda and BAYMEC Community Foundation Executive Director Ken Yeager didn’t return requests for comment. t
Wright bests Sangirardi in SF BART race
by John Ferrannini
V
oters already knew a gay man would represent District 9 on the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors – it was just a question of who would be taking gay BART board director and current President Bevan Dufty’s place.
And San Francisco voters made their decision November 5, choosing Edward Wright, who is currently an adviser for strategy and communication for the city’s Muni public transit system. Wright is also a former co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club.
“I’m honored and grateful to San Francisco voters for putting their trust in me, and I’m proud of our grassroots campaign that won in every neighborhood in our district,” Wright stated to the Bay Area Reporter on November 12. “This race was important because BART
choice voting – reminded voters that she initially took office when mayor Ed Lee unexpectedly died in office in late 2017, and that her tenure saw the city through the COVID pandemic.
“Being mayor of San Francisco has been the greatest honor of my lifetime.
I’m beyond grateful to our residents for the opportunity to serve the city that raised me,” she stated. “At the end of the day, this job is bigger than any one person and what matters is that we keep moving this city forward.
“Today, I called Daniel Lurie and congratulated him on his victory in this election,” she added. “Over the coming weeks, my staff and I will work to ensure a smooth transition as he takes on the honor of serving as mayor of San Francisco. I know we are both committed to improving this city we love.”
At a speech and news conference November 8 at St. Mary’s Square in Chinatown, Lurie thanked Breed for what he described as an “incredibly gracious” phone call and for her love of the city.
“No matter who you supported in this election, we stand united in the fight for San Francisco’s future and a safer, more affordable city for all,” Lurie said. “I entered this race not as a politician but as a dad who couldn’t explain to my kids what they were seeing on our streets. In our house, when you love something as much as we love San Francisco you fight for it.”
Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who said he may forgo the mayoral salary of over $300,000, had served as the executive director of the nonprofit Tipping Point Community. The 47-year-old San Francisco native and Democrat has never held elected office and ran on a platform of addressing the problems that have dogged major metro cities nationwide, particularly since COVID and particularly in the Bay Area – street crime and the cost of living chief among them.
Similar concerns led Oakland voters to recall its mayor, Sheng Thao, on Election Day, and saw the highest-ever support for Trump in cities from New
<< News Briefs From page 8
Take Care of Us.”
“We’ll be showcasing local organizations who are dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA folks, women’s reproductive health care, undocumented community members, the social safety net, mental health services, and the environment,” Hopkins stated.
For more information, go to sonomacounty.ca.gov/we-take-careof-us. A Zoom link will be provided soon, the site stated.
is important, and it’s in jeopardy. I ran for this seat because I believe we can overcome the challenges facing BART together. And while our
campaign may be over, the fight for BART’s future is just beginning.”
The district doesn’t encompass all of San Francisco; it’s heavily concentrated on the eastside, from the Western Addition in the north to the Haight and Glen Park on the west, to Croker-Amazon and Visitacion Valley to the south and the Dogpatch and South of Market to the east, excluding the Bayview. It covers the 16th Street Mission, 24th Street Mission, Glen Park, Civic Center, Powell Street, and Balboa Park (partial) BART stations.
“I am also proud of our hardfought win,” Wright stated in an email to supporters. “We were outspent 3:1, and we won by working harder and smarter. I feel deeply grateful to the tens of thousands of San Franciscans who entrusted me with their votes; and to everyone who donated a dollar, knocked on a door, hung a door hanger, or talked to friends and fam-
York to San Francisco (though Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris still won solid majorities).
National results loom large over SF
The national election’s shadow loomed large over Friday’s events, with Lurie saying he intends to make San Francisco a model of governance for the rest of the country.
“Hope alone is not enough, strong values aren’t strong enough – they have to be drivers of actions and results,” Lurie intoned. “Our mandate is to show how government must deliver on its promises – clean and safe streets for all, tackling our drug and behavioral health crisis, shaking up the corrupt and ineffective bureaucracy, building enough housing so our neighbors can afford to live here, supporting our small businesses, and breathing life back into downtown.”
Lurie said he will work with the incoming Trump administration to help address these issues when appropriate.
“I have serious disagreements with President-elect Donald Trump, but I will never let those disagreements get in the way of addressing the problems facing our city,” he said. “I will also say I have everybody’s back here in San Francisco.”
Lurie said his No. 1 focus will be public safety and he will declare a state of emergency over the fentanyl overdose crisis on day one. Lurie did not name specific individuals he intends to ap-
Registration open for Sin City Classic
The Greater Los Angeles Softball Association has announced that registration is open for the 16th annual Sin City Classic Sports Festival that will be held in Las Vegas January 16-20. A news release stated that the festival will feature 23 different sports, including the newest addition of martial arts.
Billed as the world’s largest LGBTQ+ sporting event, around 10,000 athletes and allies from across the globe are expected, the release stated.
ily about our campaign. We ran and won this together.”
According to preliminary returns from the San Francisco Department of Elections on November 11, Wright bested opponent Joe Sangirardi 63% to 36.9%.
Sangirardi was endorsed by Dufty, a former San Francisco supervisor who opted not to seek reelection to the BART board after serving two terms. An elected member of the San Francisco County Democratic Party Central Committee on a moderate slate, Sangirardi is development director at California YIMBY, a housing policy nonprofit.
Sangirardi told the B.A.R. November 12, “I’m still so surprised and excited by how many volunteers I was able to recruit, and a broad coalition of labor unions who came together to endorse our campaign.” (Sangirardi said he had over 100 unique volunteers and 16 union endorsements.)
success while holding them accountable to make sure that San Francisco reaches the potential that we know it can.”
District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí came in fifth place in first-choice votes, with 2.7%, according to the most recent preliminary returns.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to campaign for mayor of this great city over the past 18 months with you in my corner. … I’ve been humbled by all of the support we have received from every corner of this city, from working families in every neighborhood,” he stated. “From teachers, plumbers, janitors – folks from every walk of life who want the same thing we all want: a city that works, safe streets, affordable housing, and a future that includes them too.”
point to various city positions or as his staff.
He also said he intends not to interfere in Breed’s prerogative to appoint a new supervisor in District 2, which includes the Marina. Incumbent Catherine Stefani (D) was elected to the state Assembly in Tuesday’s election and will take office in early December, before Breed leaves. Stefani herself became a supervisor after being appointed by Mark Farrell after he left the seat to become interim mayor following Lee’s death.
Other major candidates concede
The episode of Farrell taking over for Breed – and then Breed being elected in a special election in her own right in 2018 – was part of a long-standing row between the two .
Farrell ran in this year’s mayoral race and came in fourth among first-choice votes, with 18.5%, according to the most recent preliminary returns.
He acknowledged defeat November 7.
“While the election results weren’t what we’d hoped for, together we built a citywide movement fueled by our shared vision for a cleaner, safer, and more vibrant San Francisco,” he stated.
“Let’s make sure as San Franciscans that we get behind our next mayor,” Farrell continued. “It is the right thing to do. Let’s pledge ourselves to cheering for their
“Every year the Sin City Classic grows and evolves. After an exhibition last year, we’re welcoming the martial arts group to the festival in 2025,” stated Sin City Classic Co-Executive Director Jason Peplinski. “We look forward to bringing together our diverse community for a weekend full of competition, camaraderie, and community where we can, at least for the weekend, leave our cares behind, bond with our fellow athletes, and celebrate living authentically.”
In addition to martial arts, this year’s full list of sports includes: bas-
“I really loved to be able to show people a positive vision of the future for BART in this city, which isn’t easy to do with an agency like BART that faces existential challenges,” he continued. “I am, of course, sad I won’t have the opportunity – but I do wish Edward the best.”
BART faces a “fiscal cliff” when federal aid runs out in 2026. While the agency has beefed up safety measures to lure riders back after the COVID pandemic, ridership is not quite up to pre-pandemic levels, though it is inching closer, the agency posted on X this week. Many people who use BART to commute still work from home multiple days a week.
Another gay candidate sought the District 9 seat. Longtime activist Michael Petrelis ran as a write-in candidate and received 15 votes, according to unofficial returns. t
the B.A.R. at Openhouse that “I’m sure it was done thoughtfully that though we are all feeling vulnerable he wants to show his support and strength” to the LGBTQ community in the wake of Trump’s election night victory.
Sister Roma of the drag nun philanthropic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was also on hand.
“I’m excited to work with him and continue the progress Mayor Breed started for the LGBTQ community –especially the trans community,” said Roma.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin came in third place in first choice votes, with 21.6%, according to the most recent preliminary returns.
Peskin told the B.A.R. he called Lurie.
“In my five races for supervisor I have never declared victory until the ballots were counted in a principled show of respect for the voters,” Peskin stated. “There are still over 140,000 voters’ ballots left to count but I did call Daniel Lurie yesterday and wished him an early congratulations and let him know that I look forward to working together to do what’s best for San Francisco.”
Peskin is termed out of his supervisor seat in January. Candidate Danny Sauter is leading in the race to succeed him, according to the most recent results.
LGBTQs react
LGBTQ seniors at Openhouse were pleased with Lurie stopping by.
“I personally was glad to see him out visiting this soon afterward and that he came by our place, the LGBTQ people, the senior, LGBTQ people,” Zwazzi Sowo, a 71-year-old lesbian, told the B.A.R. “I was impressed with that – that he’s not going to forget us. I like that.”
Sowo’s wife, Naomi Prochovnick, a 70-year-old lesbian, said, “I’m disappointed he didn’t take questions.”
“But I’m sure it’s been a busy day,” she added.
Mark Leno, a gay man and former supervisor and state legislator, ran against Breed in 2018, narrowly losing. This year, he endorsed Peskin as his first choice and Lurie as his second. He told
ketball, bowling, bridge, cheerleading, cornhole, darts (soft tip), darts (steel tip), dodgeball, esports, flag football, golf, indoor rowing, kickball, pickleball, rodeo university, soccer, softball, tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, volleyball (indoor), volleyball (sand), and wrestling and grappling.
Each January during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, the festival kicks off with Friday afternoon’s Cornhole for Charity event, which benefits the Ken Scearce Scholarship Fund, the release stated. (Scearce, a gay man, was the director
Indeed, Breed’s efforts on behalf of the LGBTQ community included supporting plans to renovate Harvey Milk Plaza (and Proposition B to fund it, which is passing, according to preliminary returns); appointing the inaugural drag laureate in the city; appointing LGBTQ heads of the fire, transportation, human resources, homelessness, and public health departments; and declaring a public health emergency over the mpox outbreak in 2022 to mobilize city resources in fighting it. (Former lesbian fire chief Jeanine Nicholson, whom Breed appointed in 2019, retired in August and was replaced by Sandy Tong, a straight ally and the city’s first Asian American head of the department.)
Breed also pledged to end trans homelessness by 2027. She allocated $6.5 million in her proposed budget in 2022 and maintained that commitment in the most recent city budget.
Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black man who’s HIV-positive, is the CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
“I want to congratulate Mayor-elect Lurie and thank him for engaging the San Francisco AIDS Foundation through his campaign to learn about the work we do to support the LGBTQ community, people with HIV, and people who use substances,” TerMeer said. “We look forward to a seat at the table as we work together in collaboration to support vulnerable communities.”
Tyler “Tye” Gregory, a gay man who is the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, told the B.A.R. that “we’re proud to have a Jewish mayor in San Francisco” and that speaking “as an LGBTQ Jew, I know he’ll [Lurie] stand up for the rights of our queer and trans San Franciscans … and all members of minority groups.” t
of Sin City Classic until his death in 2021.) That’s followed by the opening night registration party held at the Flamingo Las Vegas, the host hotel. Competitions and nightly social events then take place around the city, with the weekend culminating in the closing party, which this year will be held at the LINQ Promenade’s Brooklyn Bowl. For more information, updates, and to register, go to sincityclassic. org. t
At Openhouse, Kory Powell McCoy, left, shook hands with San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie as Billy Lemon, executive director of the Castro County Club sober space, looked on.
John Ferrannini
<< Lurie
From page 3
BART board Director-elect Edward Wright
Courtesy the candidate
t Community News>>
Castro merchants plan for December events
by John Ferrannini
An event to remember the victims of the AIDS epidemic highlighted an abbreviated Castro Merchants Association meeting November 7. The moving Inscribe event is expected to return, allowing people to recall their friends and others who died of the disease.
Events timed to the upcoming holidays were also discussed.
Castro resident George Kelly, a 64-yearold longtime HIV survivor, has put on Inscribe since 2015 each World AIDS Day, which this year is Sunday, December 1. Kelly said that 25,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS related conditions in San Francisco since 1981 when the then-mysterious infection first made itself apparent.
“Those people used to walk the sidewalks, work in the bars, the restaurants, shops,” Kelly said at the meeting. “It was very much a big loss to our community and so, on World AIDS Day, we remember all the people who died of AIDS and particularly celebrate the people who used to live in the Castro.”
Inscribe consists of people picking up chalk that is provided and then writing a remembrance or drawing an image on the sidewalks in the Cas-
Cervantes ran to succeed her sibling, lesbian Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), a married mom who declared victory Wednesday morning in her race for the open Senate District 31 seat. The legislator bested her Republican opponent, Cynthia Navarro, with 54.2% of the vote.
“Honored by the trust Inland Empire voters have placed in me to represent #SD31 in the State Senate! Knowing I’ll return to our State Capitol to amplify & uplift the hopes & dreams of working families in the #InlandEmpire fills me with purpose & gratitude,” Sabrina Cervantes wrote in a post on X.
She will join former West Sacramento mayor Christopher Cabaldon in the state Senate, where he will be the first Filipino American to serve in it. The Democrat easily won his race for the open Senate District 3 seat that includes portions of Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma and Napa counties as well as Yolo and Sacramento counties.
<< Guest Opinion
From page 6
Join us! We have a lineup of social and fundraising events coming up, including Santa Skivvies, a holiday fun run through the Castro set for Sunday, December 8. Show up and show your support.
From page 3
Not only was it done with an eye toward helping Democrats retake control of the House, it was also seen as one of
tro. This year, to honor those who’ve died, Inscribe will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on World AIDS Day, Kelly said.
“We’ll have festive disco music from our era, our generation,” Kelly said. “I invite you all to come out.”
Kelly said he’s bringing on Rhett Anderson, who is also gay, to help with the event so it can continue for many
Once sworn in next month, Cabaldon will become the first out lawmaker to represent the Bay Area’s northern counties in the Legislature. AC Transit board member Jovanka Beckles, a former Richmond City Council member who identifies as queer and lesbian, lost her bid for the open Senate District 7 seat that spans Alameda and Contra Costa counties to Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín (D). He won with 59.2% of the vote. Following her defeat Beckles, a progressive, announced in a November 11 post on X that she had left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent. But the next day she also took to her campaign account on the social media platform to encourage people to join the East Bay chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, writing, “I’d love to call you my comrade, join DSA!”
In the race for the open Senate District 9 seat that covers much of Contra Costa County and a portion of southern Alameda County, San Ramon City Councilmember Marisol Rubio (D) continues to trail in second with 46.5%
Come on the ride. AIDS/LifeCycle will make its last journey next year. Registration is currently closed to cyclists, but we are still in need of volunteer roadies June 1-7.
Advocate alongside us. Through our HIV Advocacy Network, we’re fighting to end the HIV epidemic and improve the lives of those most
the strongest chances to expand the number of LGBTQ members of the Golden State’s congressional delegation. Currently at three Democrats, it will decrease to two since lesbian U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler opted not to seek a full
years to come.
“Inscribe means a lot to me because, as a younger generation gay guy, I want to remember where we came from, how we got here,” Anderson said. “When I was 17, I went to Planned Parenthood, I asked for HIV prevention, they gave me PrEP. So before I was even having sex, I already had the whole work George’s generation gave us.”
of the vote. Rubio, a mom of an adult daughter who survived terminal brain cancer as an infant, identifies as gendernonconforming, demisexual, and biromantic.
Leading the contest is Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord). He remains in first place with 53.5% of the vote, according to the latest returns.
Former “Amazing Race” TV show contestant Dom Jones (D), a Black queer Orange County resident, fell short in her bid to unseat Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach) in the 72nd District. Jones trails with about 40% of the unofficial vote.
Gay men win election
Former Los Angeles County Democratic Party chair Mark Gonzalez will be joining Lynwood City Councilman José Luis Solache (D) as gay Latino freshmen in the Legislature. Gonzalez defeated gay progressive Democrat John K. Yi in their race for the open Assembly District 54 seat with 56.3% of the vote.
Solache easily defeated his Republican opponent, Paul Jones, to claim the
impacted. Join an upcoming meeting and discover how you can make a difference.
San Francisco can be the first city to reach zero new HIV diagnoses. But we won’t get there without you. Together, we can make history –once again. t
term after being appointed to her seat following the 2023 death of longtime senator Dianne Feinstein.
Gay Congressmembers Mark Takano (D-Riverside) and Robert Garcia (DLong Beach) both were reelected in last
Other events
The 45-minute meeting also included discussion about upcoming holiday events in the neighborhood.
Nate Bourg, a gay man who’s co-owner of The Academy event space where the meeting was held and treasurer of the association, led the meeting because Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is the merchants association’s president, was out of town.
Bourg said that the Castro holiday tree will be lit Monday, December 2, at 6 p.m. in front of Bank of America at Castro and 18th streets.
On Monday, December 9, there will be a menorah lighting to commemorate Hanukkah in Jane Warner Plaza at Market, Castro, and 17th streets. That event is organized by the merchants; the Castro Community Benefit District; and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the LGBTQ synagogue near the Castro.
Later in the month the LGBTQ neighborhood will see the return of the night market Friday, December 20, on 18th Street. The inaugural night market took place last month and was a success, Asten Bennett noted in her president’s message to members.
open Assembly’s District 62 seat. Solache took first place with nearly 66% of the vote.
In the Republican versus Republican race for the open Assembly District 75 seat in San Diego County, gay conservative firebrand Carl DeMaio won with 60% of the vote to become the first out GOPer elected to the state Legislature. The former San Diego city councilmember defeated Andrew Hayes, president of the Lakeside Union School District Board of Trustees who was supported by the Republican Party. It remains unclear if DeMaio will be allowed membership in the affinity group for out state lawmakers. As he has opposed various LGBTQ-related bills over the years, the LGBTQ caucus’ incoming chair, gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), had told the Bay Area Reporter he would allow the caucus members to vote on if DeMaio could join them. Also unknown is if DeMaio will even want to seek membership in the caucus.
Based on the current vote results, there will be a record 15 LGBTQ legis-
The merchants also voted to support Bourg’s upcoming request for a live entertainment permit for The Academy, which will be heard by the city’s entertainment commission later this month.
San Francisco Police Department Sergeant Jeffrey Aloise told the merchants that police have been trying to address organized retail theft at the Walgreens at Castro and 18th streets by being present there on a consistent basis.
Police have also been in the Castro and Noe Valley areas trying to address residential burglaries. Aloise said that one foiled burglary October 31 led to the arrest of a suspect in an unrelated homicide.
The homicide case was out of Southern Station (covering South of Market) October 30; the following day that suspect allegedly broke into a residence at 516 Castro Street while the person who lives there was sleeping, according to Officer Jose Canchola, who’s on the SFPD’s Castro foot patrol beat. The SFPD didn’t return a request for comment as to who was arrested in this matter.
Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman was not at the meeting because he is out of town. t
lators during the 2025-2026 legislative session. Along with Ward, gay incumbents who also won reelection November 5 were state Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and John Laird (DSanta Cruz), and Assemblymembers Corey A. Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Perris) and Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood).
Bisexual Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose) also easily secured another term. State Senators Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley), a lesbian, and Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), a gay grandfather, were not up for reelection this cycle.
Three of the current 12 Legislative LGBTQ Caucus members are departing. Lesbian state Senators Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) are both termed out this year, while gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) opted against running for another legislative term to wage an ultimately unsuccessful bid for an open U.S. House seat in the South Bay. t
Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., is CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation and co-chair of the AIDS United Public Policy Council. He is passionate about improving the health of people living with HIV, ensuring that LGBTQ+ people have access to affirming care, and supporting and empowering Black-led organizations and BIPOC leaders. Dr. TerMeer has been honored by the White House as one of the “Nation’s Emerging LGBTQ+ Leaders,” and as part of the “Nation’s Emerging Black Leadership.”
week’s election. Gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) lost his bid to join them, as he came up short in his race for an open South Bay House seat. Three out progressive Democrats all also lost. They were queer college pro-
t
and
Middleton
fessor Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran, Ph.D., in the East Bay,
gay Southern California candidates Derek Marshall and David Kim.
<< Rollins
George Kelly, the founder of Inscribe, finished a red ribbon symbol at the intersection of Castro and 18th streets as part of a commemoration of World AIDS Day on December 1, 2021.
Rick Gerharter
by Jim Gladstone
“Ilike the way you see the world I like your point of view
A little sly, a little strange
A little bit askew.”
The brisk, bouncing lyrics of “Anagram,” one of the showpiece songs in “Kimberly Akimbo,” aptly sum up the insight and appeal of the 2023 Tony award-winning Best Musical by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire, now playing at the Curran Theatre on its first national tour.
While altogether delightful, little about this show is quite what you might expect. It’s a contemporary dysfunctional family story, but unlike other recent musicals of that genre – “Next to Normal,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Jagged Little Pill,” and Tesori’s own “Fun Home”– it spurns sturm und drang, instead spinning whimsy around its gravitas.
It’s a hit Broadway musical with virtually no dancing, scant plot closure, and no lyrics with repurposable universality. (Even the broad sentiment of “Anagram” is punctuated with so much context-driven specificity – “Icky eyeball, icky earlobe” – that it’s hard to imagine the song reframed in some future cabaret act).
Off-kilter and often unfiltered, this is a show in which parents and children momentarily, with raw honesty, wish each other dead. “Kimberly Akimbo” is refreshingly original and confidently self-possessed. Like another one-time iconoclast now considered a ‘classic,’ it’s a singular sensation. Illness as metaphor
The plot of “Kimberly Akimbo” is typically nut-shelled as the story of a teenage girl with a
‘Kimberly Akimbo’
rare genetic condition that causes accelerated physical aging. But that unlikely throughline is de-centered and set even further set askew, making the show all the richer.
At 16, Kimberly Lovato (62-year-old Carolee Carmello in a delicately calibrated, generously spotlight-sharing performance) is indeed grappling with a disease that effectively forces her
to experience the soul-bearing indignities of adolescence and old age simultaneously.
Book writer and lyricist Lindsay-Abaire (who wrote the original play on which the musical is based) sums up this duality with a brilliant aperçu in the song “My Disease”: “Getting older is my affliction,” sings Kimberly to her sometimes-petty high school friends, “Getting older is your cure.”
But Kimberly’s is not the only unusual pointof-view audiences are privy to in this easygoing but deceptively straightforward show. The most prominent lens through which we see the story belongs Kim’s fellow school outcast, Seth Weetis, the puzzle-loving inspiration for “Anagrams.”
by Philip Campbell
In a world turned upside down, it is hard to know which traditions and institutions are scheduled for the chopping block. The winter holidays seem relatively safe for now, so take some comfort and joy in celebrating the season with live concerts and musical events.
San Francisco Opera As Thanksgiving approaches, the San Francisco Opera’s fall season draws to a close with concerts which celebrate working singers you admire, but probably can’t name, and talented young artists just beginning to find their own place in the world of opera.
Bizet’s “Carmen” Nov 13-Dec 1 at the War Memorial Opera House is hardly a holiday tradition, but any performance of the immortal
Classical & holiday music through year’s end
score classifies as a gala event and music lovers will want to include it in their winter plans.
“The Future Is Now: Adlers in Concert”
The annual showcase for San Francisco Opera’s resident artists returns with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Manis. The Adlers will perform scenes and arias from classics by Mozart, Handel, and Verdi, and an excerpt from Kevin Puts’ contemporary work “The Hours.” The Future is Now’ is a uniquely San Francisco treat. Nov. 15 Herbst Theatre 401 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco Opera Chorus in Concert
The choristers of the SFO are famous for their vocal and acting skills. Chorus Director John Keene conducts, and Associate Chorus Master Fabrizio Corona at the piano join them for an intimate afternoon of works from compos-
ers Gounod, Handel, Verdi, Johannes Brahms, Reena Esmail, and Gwyneth Walker. November 17 Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater 401
Skye Alyssa Friedman, Emily Koch, Darron Hayes, Pierce Wheeler and Grace Capeless in the National Tour of ‘Kimberly Akimbo’
2023 Tony-winning Best Musical plays the Curran
Joan Marcus
Chanticleer
<< Cabaret
Sam Harris gets happy
by Jim Gladstone
Singer Sam Harris has been a favorite of queer audiences since first coming to public attention more than four decades ago on the debut season of “Star Search,” the Ed McMahonhosted ancestor of “American Idol,” in 1983.
On November 17, Harris, who won that competition with an indelible, scale-climbing rendition of “Over the Rainbow” will perform his first Bay Area concert in over five years at the Orinda Theatre.
The sold-out engagement (lastminute tickets may be available on show day) indicates that longtime fans are happy to welcome him back. But Harris is even happier.
The long gap between his live appearances is due not only to the pandemic, but to another health crisis closer to home.
“Four years ago,” said Harris in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter, “I had a vocal cord hemorrhage. It healed, but then I re-hemorrhaged. It happened three times. I went on voice rest, speaking
‘Over the Rainbow’ singer overcomes setbacks
as little as possible for six months,” he recalled with resilient good humor, “Much to the joy of my family.”
Harris lives in Southern California with his husband of 16 years, Danny Jacobsen, and their teenage son, Cooper.
“I finally decided to go in for surgery, but while I was recovering, I got COVID. And after that, I couldn’t find a single note. I was diagnosed with something called COVID-related vocal dystonia, which the doctor described as like having a stroke in my vocal cords. It was so scary, and it quickly became a crippling fear of performing.”
“I had a sense that even if I could sing, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to,” said Harris. “My anxiety about inconsistency and thinking about what might go wrong began to supersede any thoughts about the joy I might feel being back on stage.”
No notes
By May of 2024, Harris had gone a full year without singing a note.
“I was talking to Patti LuPone about how debilitating this fear had become,” he recalled, “And she said ‘Sam, screw your courage to the sticking place. Set that fear aside and see what you’re capable of.’
“After that conversation, I called Michael Orland, who’s my accompanist and music director and told him I wanted to see where I was. I was really doubtful, but I sang, and I sang. And in my mind, there was a total shift. It just felt like I was back. I was rusty, of course, because I hadn’t really used my instrument for over three years. But it was there, and I knew I’d be able to sing again.”
Added Harris, “Having Patti, someone I love and respect, say the right thing at the right time, pushed me to try. And serendipitously, just a few days after I got together with
Michael, my agent called and said, ‘I know you’re not working, but a few opportunities have come in and it’s my responsibility to tell you about them.’
Vocal victory
Over the summer, Harris began putting together “Beyond the Rainbow,” the new cabaret show he’ll perform in Orinda. He recently debuted the set at 54 Below in New York to a warm reception.
“I’m singing strongly,” says Harris, “But with a different kind of ease, more so than before any of this happened. The experience has created a sense of simplicity and confidence and stillness that has me so comfortable. Do I still have a large range? Absolutely. But I don’t feel the need to make singing into a highwire act. I don’t have to constantly be doing quadruple flips vocal-
ly to connect with an audience. I bring art and life experience to my singing now that just can’t be there when you feel you need to prove something.”
Harris offers a hint to an underlying theme in his concert.
“In the new show, I do a version of ‘Cockeyed Optimist’ that’s very slow and considered.
It’s not the zippy, funny version people are used to hearing. The lyrics to that song are very powerful: ‘the human race is falling on its face.’ But I won’t accept that. I won’t let optimism out of my heart.”t
Sam Harris, Nov. 17. $55-$100. Orinda Theater, 2 Orinda Theater Sq. www.orindamovies.com/ concert-series www.samharris.com
A class act
<< Kimberly Akimbo
From page 13
As played by Miguel Gil, with subtly flattened vocal affect and awkward physicality, this production’s Seth – unlike the more aggressively endearing Broadway version, played by Justin Cooley – cannot simply be taken as a gawky, geeky teen. Gil’s Seth is clearly on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum.
Autism or Asperger’s syndrome is not identified by the script, but neither is progeria, Kim’s disease. Lindsay-Abaire suggests that when pathologizing labels and their related presumptions are set aside, each of us has a unique, respectworthy perspective within an overarching human condition.
The immediacy of Seth’s perception allows him to feel unalloyed affection for Kimberly on an earnest, momentto-moment basis. Kim, in the wisdom of her young old age, recognizes the value of this approach and strives to similarly savor the now.
Meanwhile Kim’s family-like most of us-live in the dual grip of hindsight and anticipation. Degrees of grief, regret and recrimination relentlessly inch into our worldview, a condition poignantly described in “The Inevitable Turn,” one of several songs in which the structure of Tesori’s compositions brilliantly echo the characters’ state of mind.
Kim’s bumbling parents and Aunt Debra are played by Jim Hogan, Dana Steingold, and Emily Koch with just the right comic spark and subtextual tenderness to keep them appropriately situated between cartoon and “Roseanne.”
A comic subplot about boisterous Debra masterminding a checkforging scheme executed by Kimberly, Seth and their four schoolmates, who are cleverly deployed as a chorus throughout the show, verges on frivolity. But while it first feels shoehorned into the storyline purely for comic relief, it’s redeemed
by a flurry of character-deepening surprises late in the second act.
I recommend “Kimberly Akimbo” wholeheartedly, but in the wake of the recent election, I recognized something I’d previously overlooked that’s well worth mulling over if you’re fortunate enough to see the show.
The teenage characters are given inner wisdom that transcends their age but also, by implication, their class. There’s a buffoonery baked into the blue-collar adult characters that emits a whiff of condescension. It’s not a kill defect. But it’s there.
Ticket prices may effectively prevent folks who’d take offense from attending the show as it tours the country. Their inability to see it doesn’t give more privileged audiences permission to wear blinders. It’s on all of us to set right what’s akimbo.t
‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ through Dec. 1 $60-$165. Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St. www.broadwaysf.com
Left: Carolee Carmello and Right: Miguel Gil in the National Tour of ‘Kimberly Akimbo’
Both photos: Joan Marcus
Sam Harris
Sam Harris
James Magruder
by Gregg Shapiro
J
ames Magruder is the funniest person alive, and he’s not even a stand-up comic. It’s something I learned about him when we first met, and it’s something that comes through in his writing, be it his fiction or his plays.
You’ll get a sense of it when as he discusses his new book “The Play’s The Thing” (Yale University Press, 2024). Subtitled “Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016),” it’s a serious work of historical significance, which in Magruder’s capable hands manages to “be “seriously delightful and entertaining,” according to Tony Kushner, and is described by Amy Bloom as “a chronicle of joy, vision and knowledge, gossip and witty truths.”
Gregg Shapiro: James, I’d like to begin by asking to tell the readers about the genesis of the book “The Play’s The Thing.”
James Magruder: Around 2014, James Bundy, the Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theater and Dean of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale (formerly the Yale School of Drama) commissioned another writer to chronicle the first fifty years of Yale Rep. He was unhappy with the sample chapters the first writer submitted, so he called me on my birthday in 2015 to see whether I would take over. I was broke, so it was an easy decision. I had no idea how the project would take over my life.
How long did it take for you to complete “The Play’s The Thing” from start to finish?
Eight years. Two years of research, two years of writing, one year spent on a crash editing diet, then a final three years spent running an arduous production steeplechase for Yale University Press. If it were a human being, it would be in the third grade.
The book’s title, “The Play’s The Thing,” is a line from Shakespeare. What do you think of the title and how much, if any, input did you have when it came to titling the book?
I had two other titles in mind: “Staying in the Moment” and “Serving the Play.” I was overruled at some point – marketing reasons, naturally – but when all is said and done, YRT and the drama school have always put the play text first, in the case of the school, for almost a century, so it’s a very appropriate moniker.
Author’s The Play’s the Thing’ documents Yale’s theater history
Author James Magruder
As a Yale alum, with a doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama, how would you describe your memories of your time there?
I was a mean, arrogant, but entertaining SOB. Dramaturgs back then, and to a lesser extent now, carried little status in the American theatrical biosphere. I made a lot of friends and a couple of frenemies. I’ve never regretted matriculating there.
Would it be fair to say that your status as a Yale School of Drama alum made you an ideal and qualified person to write “The Play’s The Thing”?
Yes. If I were a director or design or management alum, the book would have been naturally skewed to their biases. I was trained to read and analyze new plays-in-vitro and assess new and classic plays in performance.
What were the challenges and rewards of a project such as “The Play’s The Thing”?
What started as a money gig became a labor of love by the time I began to write it in 2018. For two decades, I’d been used to “making shit up” in my fiction and my plays. Now I had to write fairly, accurately, and thoroughly.
With no background in long-form non-fiction, I learned as I went. Today, skimming my little hardcover thirdgrader, I feel that the book encompasses my accumulated beliefs (and prejudices) about how to make theater. It is my testament of faith. That outcome I could never have predicted.
Please say something about your interview process regarding the subjects included in “The Play’s The Thing.”
I’m a good listener, but my gregariousness is a front. I never relish meeting or talking to one stranger, much less the 127 people I called or met with for “The Play’s the Thing.” I dreaded every interview beforehand, then wound up 90% of the time having an absolute blast. Theater people are more than eager to share their recollections and opinions.
Robert Brustein, the Yale Repertory Theatre founder, passed in October 2023. How do you think he would feel about the book?
Although he approved my quotes, he didn’t live long enough to read the book. He answered a final question about August Strindberg for me from his sickbed. I’d like to think he’d be proud to see what he had wrought.
Please share a few of the things you learned about the Yale Repertory Theatre in the process of
writing the book that surprised you.
I joked for years by calling YSD/ YRT “Thespis’ House of Horrors,” but the process made me proud to be an alum. Stepping back to look at the entire institution, after decades away, was eye-opening.
In addition to your work as a playwright, you are also a novelist and short story writer. Please say something about the different writing muscles involved in writing a book such as “The Play’s The Thing.” My hitherto underused truth and accuracy and research muscles got a huge workout, but not at the expense of entertaining myself as I wrote—essential to how I work. Yale Press ran a ton of interference along the way, but they didn’t attempt to alter or modify my voice. The book reads like a Magruder. I hope you’d agree with me, Gregg, on that point.
The theater community has a long history with the LGBTQ+ community. Being an out gay man, would you say that such a connection existed at the Yale School of Drama?
Not in the 1980s, when I was a student. The gay actors were not out for fear of never getting hired. Nearly all of the male design students were gay, but they only celebrated their status once a year at an insiders’ party. In the fifty years of the Rep, I covered, there were only a tiny handful of plays with queer content produced. The fifth Artistic Director might change that.t Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
James Magruder’ ‘The Play’s the Thing,’ $60, hardback and ebook, 600 pages, Yale University Press www.yalebooks.yale.edu
“I think I would have died if there hadn’t been the women’s movement. It gave me a vision that I could do something different, and it gave me an understanding that I wasn’t a monster, or sport, or a betrayer of my family.”
Dorothy
Allison (1949-2024)
James Magruder’s previous book, ’Vamp Until Ready’
Ani, Sophie, Sukie, Madi & more
by Gregg Shapiro
Singer/songwriter and indie music
mogul Ani DiFranco released her eponymous debut album on her own record label almost 25 years ago. After releasing (almost) an album a year until around 2008, DiFranco, who maintained a rigorous tour schedule, began taking her time between records.
Her latest, “Unprecedented Sh!t” (Righteous Babe), arrives a little over three years after its predecessor. While DiFranco maintains her reputation as a singular lyricist (see “Virus,” “New Bible,” “Spinning Room,” “You Forgot To Speak,” “The Think At Hand”), it’s her approach to the audio component that offers listeners a revolutionary change.
Sonically experimental (and exciting), with some songs clocking in at under three minutes, and a couple just over five, the “unprecedented” sound (listen to title cut) matches some of the “unprecedented” subject matter she addresses. www.anidifranco.com
As soon as you hear Sophie Gault’s voice on “Kick The Devil Away,” the opening track to her second album “Baltic Street Hotel” (Strong Place Music), you’ll
understand why she was featured as a backing vocalist on Lucinda Williams’ 2023 album “Stories From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart.” The similarities
in their voices are so striking! Gault also has Williams’ knack for balancing rockers (“Christmas in the Psych Ward,” “Fixin Things,” “Jealousy,” “Poet In A Buick”) with breathtaking ballads (“Lately,” “Lights,” “Over and Out”). Gault’s cover of Patty Griffin’s “Every Little Bit” deserves to be heard by everyone. www.sophiegault.com
Speaking of Patty Griffin, you can hear her influence, as well as that of Kacey Musgraves on singer/ songwriter Madi Diaz’s amazing new album “Weird Death” (Anti-). Musgraves even joins Diaz on “Don’t Do Me Good.” An exceptional set of 12 modern folk-pop tunes, Diaz’s ability to musically slip an arm around our shoulder and pull us into her world makes us not want to leave her orbit. Songs such as “Hurting You,” “Girlfriend,” “Same Risk,” “God Person,” “Get To Know Me,” and “KFM.” Definitely one of the best albums of the year. www.madidiaz.com
include “Midnight,” the Amy Winehouse-esque “Bottom of the Bottle,” the subtly brassy “More,” the deceptive simplicity of “Chasing,” and the
begging-for-a-remix “Champagne Flutes.” All in all, it was well worth the wait for this Day to come. www.andraday.com
When you first hear the timeless “On Tonight,” the opening cut on “Bite Down” (Merge) by mono-monikered Rosali, you might think you were listening to a vintage folk-rock tune, but you’d be wrong. To her credit, Rosali (Middleman) has a gift for creating contemporary Americana that sounds deeply rooted in the Laurel Canyon tradition. Backed by fantastic musicians, that retro energy carries on throughout Rosali’s wonderful record, creating a sense of sonic nostalgia, especially on “Rewind,” “My Kind,” “Slow Pain,” “Hopeless,” “May It Be On Offer,” and the keys on the title number. www.mergerecords.com
Louisa Stancioff stands out from the pack in interesting ways. First, her soprano lilt is approachable and pleasing. It’s also tricky in the way that as sweet as it sounds, it belies the darker aspects of her lyrics, as in the case of “Cigarette,” “Nobody’s Watching,” “All Fuck’d Up,” and “Quarantine.” As if that wasn’t enough of a recommendation, she does it all in under 40 minutes. Brava! www.louisastancioff.net
While we’re on the subject of influences, it’s hard to name another artist who wears the impact of Lana Del Rey more audibly than Suki Waterhouse That’s meant as a compliment, especially in the way she takes the Del Rey ball and runs with it and makes it her own on her new album “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” (Sub Pop). It comes through loud and clear on “Could Have Been a Star,” “Faded,” “To Get You,” “Legendary,” “Lawsuit,” “OMG,” “Model, Actress, Whatever,” and “To Love.” Of course, there’s much more to Waterhouse as you can hear on the “Blackout Drunk,” “My Fun,” and “Big Love.” www.sukiwaterhouse.tv
If you don’t count the soundtrack to “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (in which she starred), Andra Day took nine years between her lauded debut album and her new one, “Cassandra (Cherith)” (Warner Records). Beginning with opener “Maybe Next Time,” Day comes across as Erykah Badu crossed with Holiday, and the results are compelling. But we must wait until the next song, “Probably,” to hear Day stretch out, belting to the sky and beyond. Other moments of fantastic brilliance
Adding some international flair to this column, singer/ songwriter Jana Mila, an Amsterdammer, has released her debut album “Chameleon” (New West). A thoroughly pleasant folk-pop mélange, the album opens with the gorgeous “Like Only Lovers Could” which floats in on stunning harmonies and a stirring cello. “Somebody New” picks up the pace and feels like a hit single. The bare bones “Love Let Go” captures the break-up mood, while “I Wasn’t Gonna” builds until it gets its point across. The piano and vocal “In Between” shows another side of Mila. www.janamila.bandcamp.com
Keeping with the global theme, Australian-born Ruth Moody, who made her name as one-third of the Canadian trio The Wailin’ Jennys has released her latest solo effort “Wanderer” (Blue Muse). Even with that pedigree, Moody has crafted some of the loveliest Americana you’re likely to hear. Highlights include “Seventeen,” “North Calling,” “Comin’ Round the Bend,” and the incredible “Twilight.” www.ruthmoody.comt
Old First Concerts
San Francisco Symphony
Davies Symphony Hall (DSH) has been tricked out with Vegas-style lobby lights all year, but the holidays add more traditional greenery and ornaments.
Before Thanksgiving, the Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony Chorus present Gabriel Faure’s tenderly beautiful Requiem. Find spiritual nourishment November 1517 when conductor Kazuki Yamada makes his Orchestral Series debut.
After Turkey day, grab some antacid and head back to Davies November 29-30: to see and hear Miloš Forman’s “Amadeus”- Film with Live Orchestra featuring the SF Symphony Chorus.
The yuletide-specific SFS 2024 holiday season runs December 1–21 at DSH.
Special events include “A MerryAchi Christmas” Dec. 1; Troupe Vertigo in ‘Holiday Cirque’ Dec. 2; vocalists Peabo Bryson, Jackie Evancho, Jennifer Holliday, BeBe Winans, and the Bay Area Super Choir in “The Colors of Christmas” all December 3-4.
Handel’s “Messiah” December 6-7 is performed as part of the Orchestral Series, but the beloved classic always makes the holidays bright. Out tenor Nicholas Phan will make the annual tradition gayer and the SFS Chorus adds support.
Peaches Christ, Lady Camden, Kylie Minono, Alex Newell, Nikola Printz, Sister Roma from The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Latrice Royale, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus raise a jolly ruckus December 13 with “Holiday Gaiety.”
There is much more to look forward to including a screening of “The Muppet Christmas Carol”- a musical charmer with the late great Michael Caine as Scrooge. Susie Benchasil Seiter conducts Dec. 12 & 14. www.sfsymphony.org
Symphony San Jose
“Christmas at the California”
The opulent California Theatre, originally built in 1927 and carefully renovated, will be grandly decorated for concerts featuring Elena Sharkova, conductor; Nathan Stark, bass-baritone; Symphony San Jose; Symphony San Jose Chorale; Cantabíle Youth Singers and New Ballet. December 7 & 8. www.symphonysanjose.org
Old First Concerts brings popular and diverse groups to its acoustically superb venue for ambitious and joyful holiday concerts.
Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco “Carols by Candlelight” Dec. 7. Renowned Gay composer Benjamin Britten’s haunting ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ will be presented with carols and other pieces re-envisioned for chorus and harp.
Golden Bough “Christmas in a Celtic Land” Dec. 13. The modernday minstrels bring rare Celtic songs and better known carols to vibrant life with delightful spirit.
Ragazzi Boys Chorus “Sing, Choirs of Angels!” Dec. 15. Bringing commu-
nities together during this season of celebration is their mission. Youthful optimism should bring cheer to the weary contemplating an uncertain future.
Kitka’s “Wintersongs- Supra: A Seasonal Feast of Song” Dec. 22. Music gathered from across the Republic of Georgia, as well as songs from Balkan, Baltic, Mediterranean and Slavic lands summon warmth and spiritual strength in wintertime.
www.oldfirstconcerts.org
Stocking Stuffer
If you were thinking singer Matteo Bocelli was only a nepo baby, superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli’s second son is one of the fastest rising figures in the
classical crossover field. He is appearing in San Francisco at The Palace of Fine Arts Theatre December 18. The one-night stop in his 2024 tour of North America, “A Night with Matteo” isn’t a holiday concert per se, but he has recorded a Christmas disc with his dad and sister Virginia, which will doubtless be available in the lobby. Tickets to the show would make a great gift to one of his new fans.
www.palaceoffinearts.org www.matteobocelli.it
Chanticleer: An Orchestra of Voices
“A Chanticleer Christmas” The chant processional which traditionally opens “A Chanticleer Christ-
mas” is a once heard, never forgotten trademark of the remarkable a capella group. Gorgeous unison singing and strong solos mark a concert ranging from classical and sacred music to rapturous gospel singing.
December 13-23 Various Northern California venues: churches from Petaluma to Carmel will host the event. Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland Dec. 15; Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley Dec. 19; Mission Santa Clara (matinee and evening performances) Dec.20; First Church Berkeley Dec. 21 and St. Ignatius in San Francisco Dec. 22 are the venues closest to the Bay. www.chanticleer.orgt
<< Holiday music
From page 13
Matteo Bocelli at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre Instagram
Left: San Francisco Symphony Middle: Peaches Christ and Edwin Outwater cohost ‘Holiday Gaiety’ Right: Kitka at Old First Concerts
SF Symphony
William Wayland
SF Symphony
by Victoria A. Brownworth
There are no words for what happened to America and to our community. But one of the best takes was Jimmy Kimmel’s commentary on the day after the election. Kimmel has not let up on Donald Trump for years. And Trump has targeted him constantly– even as he was hosting the Oscars back in March – on his Truth Social account.
It was a powerful and emotional commentary. Kimmel broke down several times while he spoke, “We had a choice to vote for a career prosecutor or a career criminal and America chose the criminal.”
Kimmel said, “Trump is like the emperor from ‘Star Wars.’ He’s old, he’s evil and he keeps coming back with no reasonable explanation whatsoever.”
We were looking forward to what “SNL” would offer for their cold open post-election, but were disappointed. The extended “joke” was about bowing to Trump to avoid any of the blowback he’s promised to journalists, media, talk show hosts and comedians who attack him. It wasn’t funny. It was smart. It wasn’t what we needed or wanted or hoped for.
The cold open was followed by the host, comedian Bill Burr, who
delivered a monologue that was at times racist, misogynist, homophobic and just deeply unfunny.
We note all this because over its 50-year history “SNL” has served up a lot of biting satire. Throughout the Trump administration there was a lot of pushback from the show on Trump’s actions, including the Muslim ban. But this was just back-to-back acceding to the toxic masculinity that propelled Trump to another victory. Erasing the harms that will be visited on everyone – including his own voters – but specifically to women, immigrants and LGBTQ people, is lazy and just plain wrong. The gatekeepers make choices, and choosing a misogynist comic to host after this week was quite the choice.
Yellowstone
the elites coming from California to subdivide paradise, and the Native Americans whose land they abut. It’s a fabulously written and acted show. Kelly Riley is beyond extraordinary as Beth Dutton. But it’s definitely broheavy with lots of sweaty men in chaps riding horses in some of the most extraordinarily beautiful countryside imaginable.
Emilia Pérez
On Nov. 10, Paramount’s epic series you love to hate and hate to love, “Yellowstone,” began its final season with an explosive opening that will rock the Dutton family and Montana itself. It’s a fitting allegory for this current political mayhem as it charts the course of the Duttons, a white Montana ranching family, and how they navigate
Landing on Netflix Nov. 13, see “Emilia Pérez” in all its twisty turny transy queer musical (yes, musical!) glory. This extraordinary film is so many things that you will likely want to watch more than once to discern what is happening and how. The acting is amazing. The direction, by Jacques Audiard, is stellar. The music, featuring songs by composer Clément Ducol and singer Camille, is something we were not expecting.
“Emilia Pérez” won several prizes at the Cannes Film Festival including a history-making win for Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays Emilia Pérez, Gascón is the first openly trans actor to win a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival when she shared the Best Actress Award with her co-stars from “Emilia Pérez.”
This thriller also stars Zoe Saldaña as Rita, an attorney who has been hired to help a cartel boss formerly known as Juan begin her new life she has always wanted to live as Emilia. Rita is also charged with gentling now-Emilia’s wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), who flees to Switzerland with the couple’s children, into understanding and coping with everything that’s happened.
by Emilia whose authentic life has made her reflect on her former life.
Close To You Academy Award Nominee Elliot Page (“Juno,” “The Umbrella Academy,” “Inception”) stars in this 2023 film as a trans man who returns to his hometown for the first time in years. On his journey, he confronts his relationship with his family, reunites with a first love and discovers a newfound confidence in himself. The film is described as a “passion project” for Page who executive produced it. It debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and Page won an award for his performance at the Calgary International Film Festival. With Hillary Baack, Peter Outerbridge and Wendy Crewson, it’s available on Netflix Nov. 16.
There’s a lot to this, including comedy and a subplot about child trafficking and a whole lot of remorse
Cruel Intentions
The original film version of “Cruel Intentions” debuted in 1999 and was a huge hit, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”), Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair as rich high school students in New York City. The film was a younger, modern retelling of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” as well as of the 1988 Stephen Frears film “Dangerous Liaisons” starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves.
“Cruel Intentions” became a cult classic, spawning a prequel in 2000 and a sequel in 2004. There was also a jukebox musical in 2015. And now “Cruel Intentions,” the series starts streaming Nov. 21 on Amazon Prime. This latest iteration is set in a Washington D.C college among rich students and follows two manipulative step siblings who are ready to do anything to maintain their status –Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess) – after a hazing incident jeopardizes their standing. They set their sights on seducing the daughter of the Vice President, Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith). A sexy queer romp, whether it lives up to its progenitors is a question only the viewer can answer.t
Left: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez in ‘Emilia Pérez’ Right: ‘Cruel Intentions’ brats
Marco Calvani’s Provincetown romance
by Gregg Shapiro
With what seems like a minimum of effort, gay filmmaker Marco Calvani, writer/director of “High Tide” (Strand), manages to avoid many of the overused cliches and pitfalls that plague so many of the current wave of queer movies. That’s not to say that we don’t see some immediately recognizable characterizations, but even those are less annoying in Calvani’s skilled hand.
Lourenço (hot Marco Pigossi, who also happens to be in a relationship with Calvani), is an undocumented Brazilian gay man whose Provincetown summer is coming to an end on various levels, beginning with his visa. Season is also ending, as did his relationship with Joe who is suddenly ghosting him.
Living in a coach house on the grounds of a larger house owned by widower Scott (Bill Irwin, playing a very convincing older gay man), who also happens to be friends with the elusive Joe, Lourenço works for Bob (Sean Mahon) cleaning vacation houses and doing other odd jobs for cash. Bob is clearly taking advantage of Lourenço’s undocumented status, something that becomes apparent when he meets Bob’s newly queer ex-wife Miriam (a wonderful Marisa Tomei), who disapproves of the way he’s treated.
Most days, Lourenço finds his bliss at Herring Cove Beach, swimming in the open water or sitting on the sand gazing at the waves. It’s there that he meets Maurice (James Bland), a gay, Black nurse from Flushing who is in Ptown for the week before relocating to Angola on a fellowship. There is electricity between them and Maurice asks Lourenço out on a date. Back at the coach house, Lourenço is sexually cautious with Maurice after a potentially risky encounter he had a few days earlier. Meanwhile, Scott wants to introduce Lourenço to his new neighbor Todd (Bryan Batt), a lawyer whom Scott thinks may be able to help him with his visa situation. Lourenço also hangs out with Maurice’s friends – Crystal (Mya Taylor, who you might recognize from Sean Baker’s
“Tangerine”), Leslie (Todd Flaherty), and BJ (Karl Gregory) – serious partiers who approve of the hot Brazilian. However, a dark undercurrent is lurking. Lourenço is shocked to discover that Scott is a racist after Maurice has an unpleasant encounter with him. Lawyer Todd is as sleazy as he is over-opinionated. An unexpected revelation about the missing
Joe, something Scott had already been aware of, sends Lourenço into a tailspin, leading to a missed opportunity with Maurice. But don’t be discouraged, as “High Tide” is awash with surprises, including a necessary phone call between Lourenço and his religiously conservative mother in Brazil. As I previously mentioned, “High Tide” is a different kind of gay movie.
Sweet small-town lesbian love story
by David-Elijah Nahmod
The Provincetown setting, which Calvani captures beautifully (and may make booking a place to stay there next summer nearly impossible) and authentically rendered characters (even the predatory older and drugfueled younger ones) make this a movie not to be missed. Rating: A-t www.strandreleasing.com
Finally, the inevitable happens. They spend the night together, and it’s great. But after the fact Sam isn’t comfortable, and the two decide to take a break in their friendship.
But neither is able to get the other out of her mind, and it doesn’t help that Sam lives right next door to Bailey’s bakery. Will these two women, who are obviously perfect for each other, ever find true happiness?
“The Holiday Club” is a lesbian film you can watch with your parents and even with your children. It is definitely a G-rated film. Though the lesbianism of the two leads, and of many of the supporting characters, is front and center, and though Bailey and Sam go to bed together, there is no nudity in the film and no four-letter words.
Bailey and Sam are immensely likable characters. Though they live in a small town, they are casually out and open about their sexuality. Swarens and Shealy play off each other beautifully. Each of these actors fully understands who their character is, and they understand each other’s characters as well.
Bailey and Sam are two fiercely independent women who nonetheless yearn for love. These are characters that many women will be able to relate to, though, I suspect, that men will also enjoy this film. A good story is a good story, and transcends things like gender or sexual orientation.
On Valentine’s Day, Sam’s doorbell rings. It’s Bailey (Swarens), who
“The Holiday Club” is a new lesbian romance that may draw comparisons to Hallmark movies. Which isn’t to say that it’s bad. The film is actually likable and sweet and is a goof film to watch while snuggling with the woman you love. It comes via Tello Films, a streaming service and production company that offers films and series by and about queer women. Written and directed by Alexandra Swarens, who also co-stars in the film, “The Holiday Club” tells the story of Sam (Mak Shealy), a lonely computer programmer who moves to the small town of Ashland, Ohio for a job. The film was actually shot on location in Ashland.
owns the bakery next door. Bailey is erroneously delivering a box of pastries for an order that Sam had canceled. Bailey convinces Sam to sample the pastries which Sam does, and their attraction to each other is instantaneous. One problem is, Bailey already has a girlfriend. The two become friends, always flirting whenever they see each other. But the road to love can be a long, dif-
ficult one. Bailey and her girlfriend break up, by which time Sam has a girlfriend. Bailey invites Sam and her girlfriend to a party, and Sam tries to set Bailey up with a friend of hers. Over the course of the next year Bailey and Sam glide in and out of each other’s lives. Whenever they’re together it’s painfully obvious that they’re perfect for each other, yet they don’t seem to be able to get together.
“The Holiday Club” is indeed the fine holiday film. Watch it for Thanksgiving. Watch it on Christmas. Watch it on Valentine’s Day. All three holidays are celebrated in the film. Let “The Holiday Club” bring even more joy to your celebrations.t
‘The Holiday Club’ will be available on November 19 at the Tello Films website, and on other VOD services. www.tellofilms.com/
James Bland and Marco Pigossi in ‘High Tide’
Strand Releasing
Alexandra Swarens and Mak Shealy in ‘The Holiday Club’
Tello Films
Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it precipitate polygonal ice crystals.
‘Tis the Season for Science
November 23 to January 5
Come share the sights, sounds, and science of the holidays— with visiting baby animals, spirited performances, and plenty of falling snowflakes. Make holiday memories that will last a lifetime at the only place on Earth with an aquarium, planetarium, rainforest, and natural history museum all under one living roof. Get tickets at calacademy.org
