November 24, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

World AIDS Day events

ARTS

Martin Moran

Cindy Wilson

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 46 • No. 47 • November 24-30, 2016

Safe-sex activist Buzz Bense dies

SF advocates propose trans historic district

by Liz Highleyman

by Matthew S. Bajko

group of LGBT advocates in San Francisco wants to create the country’s first transgender historic district in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, where in the summer of 1966 transgender and queer patrons of a late-night diner rioted against police harassment.

They have formed the Compton’s Historic District Committee, named after the defunct eatery Compton’s Cafeteria that drew LGBT patrons in the 1950s through the early 1970s. And they have engaged Stacy Farr, a historic preservation professional, to assist them in writing the application to the National Register of Historic Places to create the historic district. See page 11 >>

Mid-Market Street buildings may be demolished but LGBT advocates say they have historical significance to the LGBT community.

DA re-ups hate crime hotline by Seth Hemmelgarn

Kelly Sullivan

of concern” to local officials, and they won’t be questioned about an Francisco District At“whether you have the authority torney George Gascón and or not to be here. ... We care about several other city officials are your safety.” promoting a hate crime hotline Gascón also urged people to number that – while never out stand up for others, and said, “We of service – was republished last would be kidding ourselves if we week in light of reports that atthink as a nation” that people tacks on LGBTs, Muslims, people aren’t capable “of committing Rick Gerharter of color, and other communities horrible things.” have increased since Republican San Francisco Assistant District Attorney and Human Rights He pointed to the internment Donald Trump won the presiden- Commission Chair Susan Christian speaks during a news conference of Japanese citizens during World tial election. announcing the republication of the DA’s hate crime hotline. Joining War II as one example. Trump’s bigoted rhetoric has her were District Attorney George Gascón, left, Paul Henderson “We took their homes, we took been reflected in his Cabinet from Mayor Ed Lee’s office, Human Rights Commissioner Hala their businesses, and they were choices and drawn support from Hijazi and San Francisco Police Commander Greg McEachern. never ever made whole,” Gascón white supremacists and other said. hate groups. At least two hate Hala Hijazi, who’s Muslim and Authorities took Chacon into custody and crimes have been reported in San Francisco charged him with felony vandalism and a hate sits on the city’s Human Rights Commission, since November 8, officials said. crime enhancement. As of Monday afternoon, choked up as she spoke of the “psychological “They’re not theoretical,” Gascón said at November 21, he remained in San Francisco warfare” people are facing. a Friday, November 18 news conference to “This has been personal to me,” Hijazi said. County Jail #2 on $78,000 bail, according to announce the hotline number, referring to sheriff ’s department records. “... I don’t even wear a hijab, but I worry about people’s concerns. “They’re real. The fear in our my sisters that do.” According to CBS, a Latina woman was atcommunity is real.” Commander Greg McEachern, who heads tacked at Fort Mason November 14 by a man In a news release, police said that at about the police department’s investigations bureau, who said, “No Latinos here.” 4:15 p.m. Thursday, November 17, David The station reported that a man was detained said he wants to assure people that police would Chacon, 33, of San Francisco, “was observed “vigorously investigate and send for prosecuin the incident but “his identity has been withheld spray painting a racist epithet and a symbol on while the attack remains under investigation.” tion” acts involving “bigotry and hatred.” the wall of a business” in the 1400 block of EgMcEachern said police have not “had a large “We must make it very, very clear that will bert Street, which is in the Bayview district. “He not be tolerated in San Francisco,” Gascón said uptick” in hate crimes since Trump was elected, then sprayed gold colored paint onto the hood of such incidents. See page 22 >> of a parked Toyota pickup truck.” He also assured people, “Your status is not

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

uzz Bense, a well-known safe-sex educator, sex club operator, and theater aficionado, died Saturday, November 19 in San Francisco due to complications of liver Liz Highleyman disease. He was 67. “Buzz Bense was a Buzz Bense in 2013 wonderful man who saved many lives with his sex-positive approach to HIV education,” said Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, who recently interviewed Mr. Bense for an oral history of his life and work. Mr. Bense was involved in the San Francisco sex-positive and HIV education communities for three decades, an era that spanned the bathSee page 8 >>

Gordon reflects on time in Assembly by Matthew S. Bajko

ext week gay Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park) will be lounging in the South Pacific enthralled by a good book, the title still to be determined. Forced out of his 24th Assembly Dis- Assemblyman trict seat on the Pen- Rich Gordon insula due to term limits – he has served three consecutive twoyear terms – Gordon’s time in the state Legislature’s lower chamber will officially come to an end Sunday, December 4. It will mark the first time in 24 years that Gordon, who formerly served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and, prior to that, on the county’s board of education, has not held elective office. See page 21 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

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oliticians, including Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), remembered former Bay Area Reporter political editor Wayne Friday at a celebration of his life Sunday, November 20 at Herbst Theatre. Feinstein was often mentioned in Friday’s columns, and speakers told the estimated 100 people in attendance that she was his favorite politico. Feinstein herself told the crowd that she had “a great deal of guilt” over the fact that she knew Friday better in the earlier days before she went to Washington, D.C., but that he hade given her good advice over the years. Other speakers included City Attorney Dennis Herrera, former state Senator Carole Migden, current state

Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), state Senator-elect and Supervisor Scott Wiener, Harvey Milk confidants Anne Kronenberg and Daniel Nicoletta, B.A.R. publisher Michael Yamashita, Friday’s longtime housemate Mick Ridolfi, former supervisor and BART director-elect Bevan Dufty, and Audrey Moy, who used to work with him in the district attorney’s office. B.A.R. society columnist Donna Sachet and Sharon McNight provided musical tributes. The San Francisco Police Department had a mounted color guard outside the building; Friday served for many years as a police commissioner. Friday, 79, died by suicide October 12 after battling Parkinson’s disease.

Strut, PRC announce staff moves by Seth Hemmelgarn

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wo San Francisco nonprofits that work to address HIV/AIDS have announced staff moves. At Strut, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s health center at 470 Castro Street, Jared Hemming is the new site director and Joshua O’Neal is the new sexual health services director. Positive Resource Center, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps people who’re living with HIV/AIDS or mental health disabilities, has hired Gayle Roberts to serve as chief development officer. Strut, which opened in January, provides free services ranging from HIV testing and counseling to mental health services. In response to emailed questions, the new directors talked about needing to expand programs while meeting demand for existing services, among other issues. Hemming, 42, who’s been with SFAF since 2012, has held roles including interim director of community engagement and program manager for the Bridgemen volunteer group, as well community organizer for Magnet, the nonprofit’s sexual health services unit. He said his main challenge in his new post will be adapting to “the ever-changing landscape of the HIV world.” SFAF is a leader in San Francisco’s Getting to Zero initiative, which is meant to cut HIV transmission and HIV-related deaths in the city by 90 percent before 2020.

Courtesy Strut

Joshua O’Neal, Strut sexual health services director, left, and Jared Hemming, Strut site director.

“As we get fewer and fewer cases in San Francisco it will be important to keep a pulse on other issues facing our community and how we can address those issues as they arise,” Hemming, a gay man who’s HIV-negative and on PrEP, said. “I want Strut to grow and develop new programming and services that keep us supporting our communities in the best way possible.” He also wants to build community relations. “I plan on being more visible out in the community and fostering collaborations and partnerships,” Hemming said. “It is also important to me that Strut feels like a space for all members of our diverse communities and that we build a sense of unity and fellowship.” He added that he wants to help staff members.

“I believe our employees are our best assets,” Hemming said. “... It is important work that we do at Strut and I want our employees to know that we have their backs and that we want to support them in any way that we can.” O’Neal, who’s 35 and identifies as queer, joined SFAF in 2015. Before becoming the health services director, he served as testing services manager and as Strut’s interim director. One challenge he sees is finding room for all the people who want to take advantage of the nonprofit’s services. “Though the new space is big, we are quickly outgrowing the space due to community engagement and demands,” O’Neal said. “We have to revisit our service provision models to See page 21 >>

Man pleads guilty in trans attack by Seth Hemmelgarn

man accused of trying to fatally stab a transgender woman in a 2015 incident that started on a San Francisco Muni bus is likely headed to prison after pleading guilty in the case. Brodes Wayne Joynes, 55, admitted in a Wednesday, November 16 hearing to a charge of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, according to court documents. A judge had previously ordered him to stand trial on charges including attempted murder and hate crime enhancements, but those charges were dismissed as part of a plea bargain. At his sentencing January 3, Joynes is expected to be sentenced to four years in state prison. Video of Joynes lunging at Samantha Hulsey with a steak knife on a 49-Van Ness/Mission bus January

3, 2015 was shown at a preliminary hearing earlier this year. Joynes allegedly threatened to kill Hulsey and her former partner, Rae Raucci, during the dispute, which started after Joynes complained about the bus’s windows not being open. Raucci testified that Joynes called her and Hulsey “faggots” and told them, “You’re defrauding me by pretending to be women.” Eventually, the bus stopped near the now-shuttered McDonald’s on Van Ness Avenue. Hulsey got off with Raucci and swung at Joynes, who then stabbed Hulsey in the chest. Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Hilton agreed during the preliminary hearing that there was sufficient evidence to support the assault with a deadly weapon count, but not to back up the attempted murder charge. “Every single assault with a deadly weapon is not an attempted

murder,” Hilton said. As for the hate crime allegations, she said, “Just uttering offensive words during an altercation doesn’t make it a hate crime.” Assistant District Attorney Brenna Kantrovitz said it’s true that “not every assault with a deadly weapon is attempted murder,” but in the video, Joynes “doesn’t back away, he follows” the couple, while still wielding the knife. She also said that the progression in his behavior showed what was on his mind: “I’m going to jump off the bus and stab her in the chest.” In a Facebook message, Raucci said that with credit for time served, Joynes will spend only another two and a half years in custody. “Not looking forward seeing this guy around in 30 months,” she said. Hulsey couldn’t be reached for her reaction to Joynes’ plea bargain.t

Join us for a community update on progress toward an HIV cure, featuring leading researchers from the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research. This community update is free and intended for the general public. To RSVP go to www.amfar.org/RSVP2016

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<< International News

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Canada gets LGBT expert by Heather Cassell

HBO doc about Castro daughter

anadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Randy Boissonnault special adviser on LGBTQ2 issues. The Edmonton Center Member of Parliament will develop and oversee Canada’s LGBT policies, starting with implementing suggestions from one of the country’s leading LGBT organizations Egale Canada. In June the group issued “The Just Society Report,” which examines various types of discrimination LGBTs face. Boissonnault, a 46-year-old gay man, said in a November 15 statement that it was an “honor and a privilege to be named to this role.” “I will work hard with the prime minister and the LGBTQ2 community to advance and protect their rights and address historical injustices they have endured,” he stated. Trudeau noted the progress on LGBT rights in Canada, including the recent repeal of Section 159 of the Criminal Code that criminalized anal sex for minors, except for married opposite couples, reported the Washington Blade. The legal age for consent is 16. “We have made great strides in securing legal rights for the LGBTQ2 community in Canada – from enshrining equality rights in the charter to the passage of the Civil Marriage Act,” Trudeau said in a statement following the announcement. Boissonnault’s appointment comes nearly a year and a half after Randy Berry’s appointment as the U.S.’ first-ever special envoy for the human rights of LGBTI persons. The United Nations’ first-ever LGBT expert, Thailand’s Vitit Muntarbhorn, was appointed September 30.

HBO will premier a documentary focused on Mariela Castro and Cuba’s LGBT rights movement. Castro is the daughter of President Raul Castro and the niece of former president Fidel Castro. Cuba has emerged at the forefront of the Caribbean’s LGBT rights movement during the past several years due to the passionate campaign of Mariela Castro, a straight ally. During the Cuban revolution LGBT people were persecuted and even placed in labor camps as unfit to serve in the revolution, as Luis, a gay man who served in the labor camps tells his story about how the revolution ruined his life in Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution. Subjects in the film are only referred to by their first names. “They are the stories of people who suffered greatly because of the discrimination,” said Emmywinning director Jon Alpert about the people who participated in the film. The 67-year-old filmmaker declined to state how he identifies. However, times are changing for Cuba’s LGBT community in large part due to Castro’s constant campaigning from the streets of Havana to the mountains where the Cuban revolution was born. She passed pro-LGBT legislation as a member of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power. The 40-minute documentary premieres November 28 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time on HBO. The film follows another documentary about Cuba, Patria o Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland or Death, which looks at modern day Cuba through the eyes of artists, activists,

African leaders defeated in attempt to suspend UN LGBT expert

Toronto Star

Canada’s new LGBT expert Randy Boissonnault

bloggers, writers, musicians, and everyday people who lived through political unrest and economic inequality. That film will be shown at 8 p.m., Pacific Time, according to an HBO news release. Alpert follows Castro leading up to Cuba’s annual march on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. He also speaks to LGBT Cubans who were affected by the institutionalized and systematic homophobia during the revolution and the social prejudice that continues to affect LGBT Cubans daily. The film also shows LGBT Cubans’ response to Castro’s work on their behalf. While life continues to be difficult for LGBT Cubans in a very macho culture, Castro has made headway, utilizing a multitude of political tools. The film shows her charismatic leadership as she changes people’s hearts and minds one person at a time. As director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education she proposed and passed legislation to protect LGBT individuals. However, not everyone is happy with her work. The film also shows

instances where Castro faces challenges from men who simply aren’t swayed by her and insist that LGBT people are sick. Castro knows that she’s fighting an uphill battle and that there are still many changes that need to be made, but she believes the community and she will win. The film doesn’t address how much she was influenced by her mother, the late Vilma Espin Castro, who was a feminist and sexual education advocate who began working to change perceptions of LGBT people in the 1970s. Castro briefly tells the story of her turning point from being homophobic to fighting for LGBT rights when a close friend of hers who was gay died by suicide. Alpert hopes viewers will learn something about Cuba and the LGBT community from the film. “I think that we can all learn from people who are different from us. I think that it’s important that we learn from people who are different from us whether they are in the United States or in Cuba,” said Alpert.

The attempt by representatives from some African countries to suspend the U.N.’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity failed this week. The aforementioned Muntarbhorn was appointed to the newly created position, charged with investigating violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He started work November 1. Latin American and Caribbean nations, who supported the appointment of the expert, introduced an amendment to get rid of the paragraph in the African-backed resolution calling for a delay in implementing the Human Rights Council resolution and suspension of the expert’s activities. Some Western countries lent support to the Latin American and Caribbean nations. The amendment was adopted 8477. There were 12 abstentions by the assembly’s human rights committee. The amended resolution was then voted on again and approved 94-3 with 80 abstentions without reference to suspending Muntarbhorn’s position. The amendment will now have a final vote from the 193-member General Assembly in December. African leaders – and possibly other member state leaders from China, the Middle East, and Russia – who oppose the resolution could attempt to block it again. At least 76 countries criminalize homosexuality and some uphold life in prison to the death penalty. Global LGBT and human rights leaders lobbied the General Assembly’s Third Committee hard See page 20 >>

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BDRM COUNT

BATH COUNT

SQ FT

FLOOR

PRICE W/ PARKING

MONTHLY HOA

PRICE W/O PARKING

1.5

772

$308,189

$678.03

$237,644

$747.27

303

845

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

304

840

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

205

DOWNPAYMENT REQUIRED 5% of sale price

308

831

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

310

1.5

667

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

403

845

$326,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

408

831

$326,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

501

1.5

676

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

510

1.5

673

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

601

1.5

676

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

602

1.5

673

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

By Polaris Pacific. Floor plans are drawn to varying scales to maximize visibility when printed. The floor plans, elevations, renderings, features, finishes and specifications are subject to change at any time and should not be relied on as representations, express or implied. Square footage or floor areas shown in any marketing or other materials is approximate and may be more or less than the actual size. Real Estate Consulting, Sales and Marketing by Polaris Pacific – a licensed California, Arizona. Colorado, Oregon and Washington Broker – CA BRE #01499250. *Certificate of Preference (COP) holders are primarily households displaced in Redevelopment Project Areas during the 1960’s and 1970’s, but may also include other persons displaced by Agency action. Please contact 415-701-5613 for more information.** Ellis Act Housing Preference (EAHP) holders are long term San Francisco tenants who were evicted because of the Ellis Act as defined by The Ellis Act Displacement Emergency Assistance Ordinance passed into law on December 18, 2013. Please contact 415-701-5613 for more information.

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6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Volume 46, Number 47 November 24-30, 2016 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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<< Open Forum

A sharp rebuke to AHF I

n a couple of the statewide ballot races, Californians served a sharp rebuke to Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its outspoken president, Michael Weinstein. His two pet initiatives, which AHF helped put on the ballot, went down in flames. Proposition 60, Adult Film Condom Requirements, lost 45.7 to 54.3 percent, and Proposition 61, State Prescription Drug Purchase Standards, was defeated 46 percent to 54 percent, according to unofficial returns posted on the secretary of state’s website. Courtesy AHF Weinstein, a gay man, has often been accused of being a bully for not adopting new AIDS Healthcare Foundation President medical advances and imposing his opposi- Michael Weinstein tion to PrEP on gay men. For years Weinstein’s agency was skewing Truvada drug Prop 61 was no better. According to Ballottrial results in ads appearing in gay media pedia, AHF spent $18 million in a losing effort outlets (including the Bay Area Reporter) that may or may not have reduced drug prices. in an effort to dissuade people from taking But Weinstein’s agency wasn’t taking any the HIV prevention pill, which has shown chances – even though it would have extraordinary success, both in rebeen exempt from the proposition’s search studies and the real world. effects. So it spent millions of dolFor Weinstein, only condom use lars on a ballot measure it claimed is effective HIV prevention. And would lower drug prices but that while condoms are very effecitself would not have to follow. tive, new scientific advances like San Francisco’s LGBT commuPrEP offer alternatives, especially nity has long been wary of AHF and for people at risk of HIV transmisWeinstein. The agency opened its sion. Ironically, AHF, one of the Out of the Closet thrift stores largest AIDS service providers in over a decade ago in direct comthe world, officially will fill PrEP petition with Community Thrift, prescriptions at its pharmacies. a longtime local nonprofit that Weinstein’s initiatives were atraises funds for HIV/AIDS agentempts to legislate state worker cies. But Weinstein’s stance on PrEP, coming at safety and health policy from the ballot box. a time when public health officials and HIV/ That’s never a good idea. Prop 60, on which AIDS leaders were working to promote this AHF spent $6.4 million, was a draconian new prevention tool, further alienated local measure. Under Prop 60, adult film producers gay men. could have been sued by anybody – viewers of According to LA Weekly, AHF was involved the adult movies, stalkers, crazed fans – for not on the local level in two Los Angeles-area meausing a condom. And while adult performsures on the November ballot. “AHF also has ers were supposedly exempt, many of them given $10,000 to the campaign against Meastill would have been at risk because they are sure M, which would increase sales tax by half often also producers. As we said in our editoa cent to pay for the construction of more pubrial against Prop 60, government should not be lic transit. ...,” the LA Weekly reported. “And telling people what to do with their bodies.

Polk Street by Cleve Jones

emerge the ruby-lipped, Rasputinbearded Jesus Christ Satan, Crown hen I remember San FranPrince of Arcadia, in his long smelly cisco then, it is always in fog. robes with the little dogs, ferrets, or Cool and grey softly shrouding the rats peering out from the pockets hills, or wet and cold and whipped by beneath his cape. the wind down Market Street. There Or you’d turn a corner and run were sunny days, of course, many of into Cosmic Lady. If you made eye them, but few people wore flowers contact she’d begin her rap, a sort of Henry Walker in their hair anymore, and it seemed stream-of-consciousness update on that the city had drawn over itself a When We Rise the state of the galaxy, including, inauthor Cleve Jones evitably, her admonishment, “Rent’s mantle of mystery and darkness. Boys like me, with no jobs, no due on the planet, folks, rent’s due.” classes to attend, and nowhere else to go, hung If you were lucky, out of the fog would come out on Polk Street. Or, if we needed some the perfect boy: angel-faced, full soft lips, with quick cash, down on Market Street in front of a big cock and a room to sleep in, and breakFlagg Brothers Shoes, where the daddies drove fast and a shower in the morning. by. If you were not so lucky and turned the The city was filled with boys like me. Boys wrong corner, the bashers would be there from all over, all colors, all backgrounds. We’d with baseball bats – screaming “kill come to rock and roll, we’d come to be gay, the faggots” and ready to do it. we’d come to join the revolution. Call the police and they’d beat Other boys chose LA; they bleached their your ass, too. hair and wore gold chains and went to audiSometimes you slept in a park tions. Some boys went to New York; they or on rooftops. If you were cute wore Yves St. Laurent and went to law school or hung, older guys would give or did real theater. But in San Francisco we you money, or pay for dinner wore button-fly jeans, stapled our poetry to and hotel rooms. Sometimes the telephone poles, read about socialism and they would let you move in for anarchy, danced at the Stud and Hamburger a while and give you a room of your own and Mary’s, and after the bars closed we gathered regular meals. Sometimes they were assholes, at the Haven on Polk at California for omelets but usually they were nice enough. (and anything else you might want to score I got Tom’s address from a young feminist in the men’s room in the basement). And if, named Karen back in Phoenix who was pretty as dawn approached, you hadn’t yet found a sure it would be cool for me stay with him bed to sleep in, you’d drink coffee and walk the when I got to San Francisco, though she hadn’t foggy streets. heard from him in a while. You never knew what you’d find coming out Tom’s apartment was in a large Victorian of the fog. Psychotic people sometimes, shakapartment building on the southwest corner of ing their heads and arms and cursing at the sky Sacramento and Larkin, just a block up from while they walked past the regulars: the hookPolk Street, near the northern edge of the Teners, addicts, leather men, and drag queens, the derloin. When he finally opened the door I saw dealers, the cons and the cops. a tall skinny guy with shaggy dark brown hair Or from a passing streetcar you’d see and dark circles under his eyes. He muttered the lithe silhouette in the dark doorway, in something about not hearing from Karen in painted-on pants with the impossible bulge at months, but motioned me in and down the the crotch, and you’d whisper to your buddy, musty hallway. He had a small studio, just a “Look, over there – that’s Peter Berlin.” Or out room with a sink, stove, and refrigerator at one of an alley in a swirl of mist and smoke would end, and a water closet and shower at the other.

AHF sent out campaign fliers urging voters to vote no on Los Angeles city Proposition JJJ (which allows developers to build denser projects in exchange for building affordable housing and paying higher wages) and to vote yes on Proposition HHH, which raises property taxes to build permanent supportive housing for the homeless.” Prop JJJ, which passed with 64 percent of the vote, sounds similar to housing projects proposed by San Francisco officials, yet AHF is opposed to those ideas. State Senate candidate Jane Kim, who finished first in the June primary, was in a good position to win the general election race, according to most observers, but got caught up in the AHF wars. AHF sent out campaign hit pieces aimed at her opponent, gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, and that appears to have turned a lot of voters against her, whether it was intended or not. A group photograph that included her and Weinstein also made the rounds, further cementing the idea that the two were working together. While the AHF mailers were sent independently of the Kim campaign, it appears that voters made the connection between them. And AHF isn’t done injecting itself – and its money – into politics. It is pushing a drug pricing proposal like Prop 61 for Ohio next year, according to Ballotpedia. And, the LA Weekly reported, “AHF has spent an additional $1 million on its own local initiative, set for the March 2017 ballot. The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative seeks to drastically curb largescale development in L.A. by placing limits on zoning variances and General Plan amendments that the city council can give out.” Weinstein intends on being a political player, using a nonprofit agency to spend millions of dollars on initiative races. Those funds could be providing direct services to people living with HIV/AIDS, which is what AHF purports to do. San Francisco LGBT voters are keenly aware of Weinstein’s dabbling in politics, and clearly reject it. AHF should heed the lessons of this election and not stray from its mission to help PWAs.t

No furniture at all, just sleeping bags on the floor, a transistor radio, and lots of mice. It was almost three a.m. and I was hungry, so I walked down to the Haven restaurant and ordered the cheapest item on the menu, a cheese omelet. When I reached the head of the line and paid the cashier the place was full, and I looked around for an open seat. The only one I found was across the table from a beautiful black guy with jewelry on his fingers and around his neck and hanging from his earlobes. Hesitating, I hovered briefly over the chair. The queen looked up and smiled. “Don’t be scared, child, I don’t bite.” I started to sit, and he licked his lips and said, “Unless you want me to.” I reached out my hand and said, “Hi, my name is Cleve. I’m from Phoenix, where are you from?” He smiled back and took my hand. “Nice to meet you too; I grew up in LA.” He arched his eyebrows. “Have you ever heard of the Cockettes? My name is Sylvester. I sing. Have a seat.” It rained hard that night, and I lay on the floor of Tom’s apartment on Sacramento Street, willing the mice away and listening to “Funeral for a Friend” from Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, turned down low on KSAN, as I thought about the day’s events. In the early hours just before dawn, with the radio silent and Tom slightly snoring on the floor beside me, the rain stopped, I could hear the foghorns at the Golden Gate and fell asleep at last.t The above is an excerpt from When We Rise, a memoir by San Francisco LGBT and HIV activist Cleve Jones that will be published November 29 by Hachette Books. Look for more about Jones and the book in next week’s Bay Area Reporter. Jones will be doing several local appearances, including December 3 at 5 p.m. at Strut, 470 Castro Street; December 4 at the Howard Zinn Festival and December 6 at Book Passage (Ferry Building location) in San Francisco; December 7 at Kepler’s in Menlo Park; and December 9 at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.

Politics>>

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Massachusetts marriage ruling inspired Leno by Matthew S. Bajko

n his second year in the California Legislature, gay Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) was among the LGBT leaders who were fighting for state recognition of domestic partnerships. The legal construct adopted by various municipalities was deemed a safer bet in securing the same rights and benefits that married heterosexual couples received from the state for same-sex couples without using the word marriage. And in 2003, shortly before being recalled from office that November, then-Governor Gray Davis signed into law Assembly Bill 205, the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act authored by lesbian former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, during a packed signing ceremony at San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center. “First as an activist, and then as an elected official, I wanted as the bottom line the same rights, benefits, responsibilities, and obligations of marriage. But I didn’t think we needed to fight over a word,” said Leno in explaining why, at the time, he supported the strategy of pursuing domestic partnerships. But then came the November 18, 2003 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in favor of extending marriage rights to same-sex couples in the New England state. And when Leno read the court’s ruling in the case, Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, it came as a revelation. “What they said was the only cure for this discrimination is marriage and marriage alone,” said Leno. The court had concluded, noted Leno, that denying same-sex couples marriage rights “confers an official stamp of approval on the destructive stereotype that same-sex relationships are inherently unstable and inferior to opposite-sex relationships and are not worthy of respect.” The court’s reasoning cemented, for Leno, that the LGBT commu-

Rick Gerharter

Assemblyman Mark Leno rushed to San Francisco City Hall from Sacramento February 12, 2004 to marry same-sex couples, including Ron Regina and Bart Broome.

nity needed to fight for full marriage equality and not settle for domestic partnerships or civil unions. “The court ruled there was no constitutional basis for this discrimination,” recalled Leno during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter just weeks prior to his being termed out of office. “If history has taught us anything, it is separate is seldom, if ever, equal.” Inspired, Leno called Geoff Kors, then the executive director of the statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California, to pitch introducing a marriage equality bill in the Golden State during the 2004 legislative session. “The ink was not even dry,” Leno said of Davis’ signature on AB 205, “when I called Geoff and said let’s do a marriage bill.” They then canvassed the state’s major LGBT rights groups to line up support. “We needed everyone on board. There was some resistance, this was 2004,” recalled Leno. “But we got their cooperation.” Their plan was to introduce it

Thursday, February 12, which they did, but the legislation was largely overlooked due to the surprise decision by then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to order city officials to begin marrying same-sex couples that morning. Leno quickly raced back from Sacramento to City Hall in order to help wed the throngs of gay and lesbian couples who had rushed to marry that day. “It is hard to imagine but back in 2003 and 2004, before we had seen in real time the San Francisco marriages, many of us had been told our whole lives getting married was just not possible,” said Leno. “We couldn’t envision it until we saw it happening.” Newsom’s action also helped quell resistance from Leno’s fellow Democrats in the Legislature about moving forward with his marriage bill. Fabian Nunez, then the Assembly speaker, responded to the pushback, recalled Leno, by saying that he could not prevent the gay Assemblyman from San Francisco from trying to change the very state law that the heterosexual mayor of San Francisco was breaking. “Mark didn’t always put party first, he put whatever was best for his constituents first,” said Kors. “Clearly, in the case of the marriage bills, there were a lot of Democrats who were scared. But Mark pushed through.” And he did so knowing passage wasn’t ensured. “Of course we had to do this,” said Leno. “We knew we didn’t have the votes but we had to get the conversation going.” While he fell short in getting the bill to the Assembly floor that year, Leno revived it in 2005, this time with Nunez as a co-author. The bill made it to the desk that year of thenGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vetoed it and, in 2007, vetoed a similar marriage equality bill. Thereafter the issue became moot as a legislative matter due to the state Supreme Court’s 2008 decision striking down California’s anti-gay marriage statutes. A voter-approved ballot measure that fall overturning See page 22 >>

Milk march to take place Sunday by Matthew S. Bajko

his year’s annual gathering to commemorate the lives of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone will coincide with the 38th anniversary of their assassinations. Disgruntled former Supervisor Dan White killed the progressive political leaders inside City Hall the morning of November 27, 1978. Just a year prior Milk had made history as being the first gay person to win political office in the city and state. Ever since their deaths the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, which was renamed to honor Milk, has held a remembrance in late November for Milk and Moscone. This year’s event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, November 27 at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro district. Earlier in the day members of the Milk club will assemble a flower memorial at the plaza above the Castro Muni station, located at the corner of Castro and Market streets. Later friends of Milk’s and LGBT community leaders will reflect on his life and that of Moscone, followed by a candlelight march to the site of his former camera shop at 575 Castro Street. Milk club President Peter Gallotta told the Bay Area Reporter that

Rick Gerharter

The 2013 vigil in memory of slain Supervisor Harvey Milk and George Moscone marked the 35th anniversary of their deaths and drew nearly 2,000 people to Harvey Milk Plaza.

the theme of this year’s gathering is “Band Together & Fight Back.” It will include reflections on the mass shooting earlier this year at Orlando gay dance club Pulse, said Gallotta, and how to “grapple” with Donald Trump’s election as president following his campaign of “hateful rhetoric targeting women, Muslims, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities.” “Harvey inspired us with a message of hope that we need more

than ever in these turbulent and uncertain times where our community and our rights are under attack,” wrote Gallotta in an email. “On Sunday, we will gather together as a community in memory of Harvey Milk – a leader who showed us that if we band together and fight back, we can create powerful change. Now is the time for us to come together and move forward in coalition to fight back - for our community, for our city, and for our country.”t

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

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gime burning Hirschfeld’s library and marching LGBT individuals to death camps alongside other minority groups. We watched thouwarm as summertime, has turned sands of transgender people murcold, and the day was a rainy one. dered, and countless more beaten Winter is well on its way. into submission and silence. The 2016 Transgender Day of ReWhat’s more, we as a community membrance has been over for about are not alone. In spite of those who two hours local time. This year, 295 would like to see trans rights cut and people worldwide were honored, left adrift from the larger LGBTQ with 27 of those being in the United movement, we need to stand toStates. gether against an administration that Just a couple weeks ago, Donald would surely like to see gay and lesTrump and Mike Pence ended up as bian youth face electroshock therapy our president- and vice presidentas much as they’d like to criminalize Hybrid/City Kid’s Kid’s elect for the upcoming four years. In Hybrid/City Hybrid/City Kid’s trans restroom use. We also have Christine Smith the aftermath, we’ve seen a reported potential allies elsewhere, as this futively easy to lose hope. I want to increase in hate crimes against miture administration gears up against crawl into a hole for a while, bar my norities, including against transpeople of color, Muslims and Jews, door against the cold, and let pain gender people. women, protesters, and even lateand grief envelope me like a thick Meanwhile, many Democrats night television and Broadway musiblanket. At the very least, I find myand Democratic allies are hand cals. This is a time when we can – and self feeling like all my efforts to this wringing, looking for people to should – rise up together. Now Open Thursday to 7pm! point were for naught, as I see fights blame for the loss. One of their It is autumn, and winter is right Road Mountain Road Mountain Mountaintargets has been transgender I championed on the incoming govaround the corner. It is time for us Road ernment’s chopping block Now OpentoThursday to 7pm! people, claiming that they to grab our coats and fight off the Every Now Thursday April between 4 & 7pm Open in Thursday 7pm! while even more violent pushed too soon, too fast to chill. It is time to reach out to our Now Open Thursday to 7pm! Thursday to 7pm!& clothing.* take 20% Now OFF Open all parts, accessories anti-transgender murders see rights recognized in this friends, and a time to push back get tallied up. It causes me against hatred and discrimination. 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by the Healing Order of the K’Thar clubs as legitimate businesses. Provalenc Sissies. Not long after, in 1992, Mr. posed legislation mandated that all From page 1 Bense and his partner, Bob West, rooms must be accessible and lighting opened Eros, a sex club and sauna must be adequate to allow monitoring house battles of early 1980s, which on Market Street in the Castro. by club personnel. The controversial he recounted in a presentation at the “From the devastating epicenter law never passed, but similar rules inGLBT History Museum last year. of the AIDS crisis through the enstituted as health department regulaThe bathhouse debate was highly suing decades, Buzz Bense was crutions currently remain in effect. contentious within the local gay cial to the development of safe and Mr. Bense worked as a graphic community. Bathhouse opponents pleasure-positive sex spaces in San designer, and in addition to helping believed the venues were a breeding Francisco,” Carol Queen, founding produce safer sex posters for local ground for AIDS, while those who director of the Center for Sex and organizations, he collected more wanted to keep them open argued Culture, told the Bay Area Reporter. than 150 posters from San Francisco that they provided an ideal setting “His 890 Folsom space nurtured and around the world. The Center for safer sex education. many diverse sex clubs, from allfor Sex and Culture presented a San Francisco Department of male events to mixed-gender and showing of his collection, entitled Public Health director Dr. Mervyn -orientation parties like our own “Safe Sex Bang,” in 2013. Silverman ordered the closure of the Queen of Heaven. When he and “These posters do more than chart city’s bathhouses in October 1984. Bob West established Eros, it was the tragedy of an epidemic, of an outBut the ban did not target bathing a signal that gay sex could still be sider community reeling from grief, facilities per se, but rather private vibrant and public without being loss, and the decimation of a bloomrooms with closed doors that could unsafe.” ing culture of sexual liberation,” Mr. not be monitored. In a brief phone interview last Bense said in a quote from the show’s In the mid-1980s a new model of month, Mr. Bense said that the time catalog. “The history of these posters sex club emerged with a focus on safer between the bathhouse closures is a story of a fight against stigma, hasex education and activities that miniand the first sex club was “kind of tred, and ignorance; of a community mized the risk of HIV transmission. a complicated story.” Eros, he said, stepping up to take care of its own; of In 1986 Mr. Bense opened a sex was “much more established.” He finding a way to extinguish fear and club in a large warehouse at 890 Folsold Eros in 2005. build pride and self-esteem; and of som Street. The space hosted events In the early 1990s sex club owndevoted efforts of committed activby groups including J.O. Buddies, ers, party operators, and HIV eduists to communicate a path to health Blow Buddies, the San Francisco cators, including Mr. Bense, formed and survival.” Jacks, the San Francisco Golden the Coalition for Healthy Sex, with Showers Association, and the Early life the dual purpose of encouraging Mother Goose Club’s “Jack and Jill” Bernard “Buzz” Bense was born safer sex and defending clubs from parties. It also hosted AIDS benefits in Union, New Jersey, on January police raids like the one that had ocand served as the headquarters of 23, 1949. As a child he lived for two curred at 890 Folsom in July 1989. Nomenus, an organization that creyears in Germany while his father CHS worked with the San Franates sanctuaries for Radical Faeries. cisco Department of Public Health The club at 890 Folsom shut its See page 17 >> to develop standards for licensing sex doors in 1991 with a closing ritual

Buzz Bense

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<< AIDS at 35

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Events mark World AIDS Day by Seth Hemmelgarn

will use colorful sidewalk chalk (provided) to write messages and draw pictures on the sidewalks in the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street (between Market and 19th streets). Inscribe is the brainchild of community activist George Kelly. Last year, the collaboration between the Castro elementary school and a group of long-term HIV survivors called Honoring Our Experience saw the names of more than 1,000 people written out along the sidewalks. For more information, email GeoKellySF@att.net.

HIV Cure Summit

Rick Gerharter

In May, Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, visited the National AIDS Memorial Grove to tape part of the “Surviving Voices Hemophilia Project,” a joint production of the grove and the HIV Story Project. On World AIDS Day she will accept an award on behalf of the hemophilia community in honor of her late son, Ryan White.

the lifetime achievement grand marshal for the 2013 San Francisco LGBT Pride parade. Light in the Grove will also in-

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vents are planned around the Bay Area in the coming days to mark the 28th annual World AIDS Day, which commemorates the lives lost and the work that remains to be done in fighting HIV and AIDS. At its annual Light in the Grove event 6 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 30, the National AIDS Memorial Grove will honor community leader and philanthropist Alvin Baum with it Lifetime of Commitment award. “Al has never stopped being an active civic leader and is well known throughout San Francisco for his decades of unwavering philanthropy, activism and leadership in support of the HIV/AIDS and LGBT communities as well as civil liberties, Jewish affairs and politics,” a news release from the grove said. Baum has worked as an attorney, city planner, and psychotherapist. He’s also served on the boards of numerous groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF. Among his many honors, he was

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clude a candlelight reflection at the Circle of Friends, and a reception with cocktails, a gourmet buffet and musical performances. As of Monday, November 21, limited tickets were still available. For tickets, which start at $250, go to https://www.eventbrite. com/e/2016-light-in-the-grovetickets-27420954814. Funds raised through the event support needs, including programs and maintenance at the grove, which is located in the eastern end of Golden Gate Park at the intersection of Bowling Green and Middle Drive East, across from the tennis courts. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the grove’s creation. Thursday, December 1, the grove will host its 23nd annual World AIDS Day observance from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The program begins at noon and includes an invocation by Rabbi Ted Riter. During the observance, Paul Kawata from the National AIDS Minority Council will receive the National Leadership Recognition Award, and the national hemophilia community will be honored with the Thom Weyand Unsung Hero Award. “The national hemophilia community (50 percent of which perished between 1980-2010 due to a tainted blood supply) is owed an enormous debt of gratitude for its (unintended) role in alerting the country to the contamination of the nation’s blood supply,” a grove news release said. “...The hemophilia community, faced with evidence that pharmaceutical companies and

government regulators knew that treatment for their disorder was contaminated, launched a powerful and inspiring fight to right the system that failed them, and have since stood as guardians of the nation’s blood supply.” AIDS activist Jeanne WhiteGinder, whose late son Ryan White, a hemophiliac, raised awareness of AIDS through his struggles, will accept the award on behalf of the hemophilia community and in honor of Ryan.

The amfAR Institute will hold an HIV Cure Summit Thursday in Robertson Auditorium at the UCSF Mission Bay campus, 1675 Owens Street. The summit runs from 1 to 4 p.m., followed by a reception. Organizers said the forum will include a community update on progress toward an HIV cure featuring leaders from the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research. The event is free and intended for the general public. To RSVP, visit http://www.amfar.org/rsvp2016.

San Jose City Hall

At 5 p.m. Thursday in San Jose, World AIDS Day will be marked with the City Hall tower being illuminated in red. People attending are asked to wear white. “HIV/AIDS continues to disproportionately affect communities of color, youth, women, and the trans community,” organizers said.

“Many think that the threat of AIDS/HIV is over. Others believe that an HIV diagnosis is a death sentence.” –Reverend Maggi Henderson Videos from the “Surviving Voices” project, showing interviews with people central to the hemophilia community’s experience, will premiere Thursday. Visit http://www.aidsmemorial. org for more information.

Inscribe in the Castro

Also Thursday, starting at about 10 a.m., students from Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the Castro district will lead the second annual “Inscribe” event, where local residents, business people, and visitors

Dining Out for Life

In the northern Bay Area Thursday, the nonprofit Food for Thought in Sonoma County will join with numerous area restaurants to honor World AIDS Day with the 15th annual Dining Out for Life. The 87 restaurants and cafes participating will donate 25 percent to 50 percent of the day’s sales to the nonprofit, which provides nutritional services to over 800 people living with HIV and other serious See page 11 >>

Jane Philomen Cleland

Cruz Anderson, left, and Val Cornejo, helped inscribe the names of people living with HIV, as well as those lost to the AIDS epidemic, on a Castro district sidewalk during a World AIDS Day event last December 1.

t <<

Community News>>

Trans historic district

From page 1

It would encompass the building that once housed Compton’s Cafeteria at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets, which was renamed Compton’s Cafeteria Way in June, and adjacent important LGBTQ sites such as Aunt Charlie’s at 133 Turk Street, whose block is also designated Vicki Mar Lane after the late transgender performer and activist Vicki Marlane who hosted drag shows at the gay bar. “We are narrowing in on Compton’s and the trans queer and LGBT historic assets right there. There isn’t a more rich LGBT history area anywhere in the country,” said Nate Allbee, a member of the committee who is also with the San Francisco LGBTQ Legacy Business Coalition. “Creating a transgender historic district would draw more LGBT businesses to the area and create a safe space for transgender people.” The Compton’s LGBT Historic District is modeled after the Stonewall National Monument, which encompasses New York City’s Stonewall Inn as well as the streets and park in front of the gay bar where patrons rioted against police harassment three years after the Compton’s riot. President Barack Obama in June signed off on the monument, which is part of the National Park Service’s initiative to

landmark LGBT historic sites across the country. A report on LGBTQ history the federal agency released in October includes mention of numerous sites in the Tenderloin that would be included in the Compton’s LGBT Historic District. “We are taking inspiration from Obama’s creation of the Stonewall Inn national monument. The blocks around Compton’s are deserving of recognition and equal in importance,” said Brian Basinger, a gay man who co-founded San Francisco’s Q Foundation. The Compton’s district would include four city blocks, said Allbee, a gay man and a former aide to gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos. Starting on Market and Mason streets on the east, it would run west to Jones Street along Eddy Street to the north and Golden Gate Avenue to the south. The eastern boundary includes the buildings at 950-974 Market Street, where several gay bars once operated and helped facilitate gay and transgender prostitution and hustling in the area. As detailed in the Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, the Old Crow Bar opened at 962 Market Street around 1935, while the Silver Rail opened at 974 Market Street about 1942. “Geographically, the bars at 950-974 Market Street historically

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

may have represented a sort of welcoming gateway to this neighborhood, where so many found refuge,” wrote Farr in a letter to the city’s planning officials. Additionally, the Flagg Brothers shoe store that had occupied 950 Market Street was documented in the history report as a well-known gay cruising spot. As longtime LGBT activist and former street hustler Cleve Jones recounts in his memoir When We Rise, set to be published on Tuesday and excerpted in this week’s Bay Area Reporter, when he “needed some quick cash,” he would hang out “down on Market Street in front of Flagg Brothers Shoes, where the daddies drove by.” Backers of the historic district worry its creation could be jeopardized if the Market Street buildings are demolished. Group I, a San Francisco-based real estate development company, plans to tear down the existing buildings in order to construct a 12-story, 120 foot tall building. It would include a 232-room hotel, 244 housing units, ground floor retail, and space for a local nonprofit theater company. As the B.A.R. reported on its blog last Thursday, November 17, the Planning Commission rejected calls by LGBT advocates to delay voting on the proposed development by up to 90 days so they could further research what impact the demolition of the Market Street sites could have

on winning approval from state and federal preservation officials for the Compton’s LGBT Historic District. Instead, the oversight body approved the project on a 6-1 vote, sending it to the Board of Supervisors for review. Planning department staff, in their evaluation of the LGBT historic sites, had determined none of the existing structures would qualify for federal or state landmark status due to the extensive alterations made to the buildings over the years. Nor would their demolition preclude the creation of an LGBTQ historic district in the area, according to the department. Tearing down the buildings, said planner Melinda Hue, “would not result in material impairment on the LGBTQ district.” In her letter to the commission, Farr called the planning department’s evaluation “admirable” but said it fell short of what was needed. She wrote that she believes “the significance of these sites in relation to the larger LGBTQ history of the Tenderloin must be evaluated more comprehensively, to fully understand their historic role within the district.” Allbee told the B.A.R. that the Compton’s Historic District Committee would continue to contest the project when it goes before the supervisors for approval, likely in early 2017. And he said the committee would appeal the planning commission’s decision to not require a

full environmental impact report be done of the project. “We are not against the project but the way they are handling LGBT historic resources and the way it will affect the future Compton’s historic district,” he explained. Meanwhile, the developer has hired Shayne Watson, a lesbian and local LGBT historian who co-wrote the city’s LGBT context statement, to work with an advisory committee on a proposal for memorializing the Market Street sites’ LGBT history in the new development. Watson had filed an appeal last winter against the planning department’s initial analysis of the Group I project for omitting the site’s historical ties to the LGBT community. In response, city planners issued a new preliminary mitigated negative declaration for the project in July that examined the LGBT historical significance of the existing buildings. Watson had told the B.A.R. at the time that she disagreed with their determination that the buildings no longer were historically significant due to their physical alterations over the years. Group I President and CEO Joy Ou, speaking at last week’s planning commission hearing, said she had pledged to the Compton’s committee to work with it in creating the historic district. “We take their concern very seriously and are going to work with them,” said Ou.t

World AIDS Day

From page 10

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illnesses in the county. “It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” stated Ron Karp, Food for Thought’s executive director. “The proceeds from Dining Out for Life ensure that we’re able to keep providing fresh groceries, a congregate lunch program, produce from our organic garden, vitamins and supplements, and nutrition education to our clients, who receive these services for free and for as long as they need them.” Food For Thought hopes to raise over $165,000 from the event. For the complete restaurant list, visit http://www.FFTfoodbank.org. Dining Out for Life spokesman and Project Runway All Stars winner Mondo Guerra will also reveal a video Thursday meant to emphasize “Pozitivity.” “When I was first diagnosed with HIV, I could have chosen to see my status as devastating – and respond accordingly,” Guerra said in a news release. “Instead, I made a conscious choice to live with HIV in ways that challenge and inspire me both as an artist and as an advocate. ... I now choose to live each and every day with a positive spirit, and I’m positive that I am better for it. That’s the power of pozitivity that I hope to share.”

San Francisco Interfaith Council

At 4 p.m. Sunday, December 4, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 290 Dolores Street, will host the San Francisco Interfaith Council in recognition of World AIDS Day. The theme is “Where We Find Hope.” “Many think that the threat of AIDS/HIV is over,” Reverend Maggi Henderson, pastor of Old First Presbyterian Church, said in an email. “Others believe that an HIV diagnosis is a death sentence. Reality lies between these beliefs. My church experienced horrific loss of life in the 1980s and 1990s, but it made us step up, offer support for our members and friends, and advocate for the LGBTQ community. I would love to see the day when this service can be canceled because a cure has been found. However, until that day this service is a place for grief, remembrance, hope, empowerment and advocacy.” The service will include music by the choral group Lady Parts and Cantor Sharon Bernstein, prayers from a variety of interfaith traditions, and various speakers.t

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What is TRUVADA for PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis)? TRUVADA is a prescription medicine that can be used for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection when used together with safer sex practices. This use is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This includes HIV-negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex, and male-female sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to prevent getting HIV-1. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about TRUVADA for PrEP? Before taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must be HIV-negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are conﬁrmed to be HIV-negative. u Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. If you have flu-like symptoms, you could have recently become infected with HIV-1. Tell your healthcare provider if you had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP or at any time while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin. While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1. u You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u To further help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1: • Know your HIV-1 status and the HIV-1 status of your partners. • Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you. • Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you. • Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior. • Have fewer sex partners. • Do not miss any doses of TRUVADA. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection. • If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away. u If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time. TRUVADA can cause serious side effects: u Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats. u Serious liver problems. Your liver may become large and tender, and you may develop fat in your liver. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

u You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver

problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time. In some cases, these serious conditions have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. u Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without ﬁrst talking to your healthcare provider. If your healthcare provider tells you to stop taking TRUVADA, they will need to watch you closely for several months to monitor your health. TRUVADA is not approved for the treatment of HBV.

Who should not take TRUVADA for PrEP? Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status. If you are HIV-1 positive, you need to take other medicines with TRUVADA to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you also take lamivudine (Epivir-HBV) or adefovir (HEPSERA).

What are the other possible side effects of TRUVADA for PrEP? Serious side effects of TRUVADA may also include: u Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u Bone problems, including bone pain or bones getting soft or thin, may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. u Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking TRUVADA or medicines like TRUVADA. Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP are stomach-area (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRUVADA for PrEP? u All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare

provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. u If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, talk to your healthcare provider to decide if you should keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Pregnancy Registry: A pregnancy registry collects information about your health and the health of your baby. There is a pregnancy registry for women who take medicines to prevent HIV-1 during pregnancy. For more information about the registry and how it works, talk to your healthcare provider. u If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. The medicines in TRUVADA can pass to your baby in breast milk. If you become HIV-1 positive, HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. u All the medicines you take, including prescription and overthe-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. u If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA for PrEP, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include ledipasvir with sofosbuvir (HARVONI). You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRUVADA for PrEP including important warnings on the following page.

Have you heard about

TRUVADA for PrEP ? TM

The once-daily prescription medicine that can help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 when used with safer sex practices. • TRUVADA for PrEP is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV through sex. • You must be HIV-negative before you start taking TRUVADA. Ask your doctor about your risk of getting HIV-1 infection and if TRUVADA for PrEP may be right for you.

visit start.truvada.com

Community News>>

t O’Malley condemns violence against trans people

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

by Cynthia Laird

lameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley strongly condemned violence against transgender people during the 11th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance observance in Oakland Friday, November 18. The crowd at this year’s event was smaller than previous years; only about 50 people attended and many of them were elected officials or their aides. But Tiffany Woods, who runs the Trans Vision program at Tri-City Health Center and produces the Oakland TDOR event, said that it’s important to mourn and grieve those who lost their lives to anti-trans violence. Nearly all of the speakers read the names of trans-identified people who were killed, their date of death, and manner of death where it was available. Some of the deaths were haunting: people’s bodies were mutilated in what were signs of overkill. This was O’Malley’s first time speaking at the TDOR event; last year she was unable to attend and sent a video message. O’Malley pointed out that in her department’s work with domestic violence victims, they also have a

“In this county we are very swift and very firm. We stand ready and, frankly, to prosecute.” –Alameda County DA Nancy O’Malley tradition of reading names of those killed in the county. “We’ve actually seen a reduction in homicides,” she said. “I hold that same hope in my heart” for trans people. The DA’s office has a reputation for toughness, and O’Malley said that perpetrators of violence against trans people will be held accountable. “In this county we are very swift and very firm,” she said. “We stand ready and, frankly, to prosecute.” She also said that trans people involved in crime will be looked at, an apparent reference to trans former school teacher Dana Rivers, who is accused of killing a lesbian couple and their child in Oakland. She has not yet entered a plea and remains in custody. O’Malley also noted that violence

against the transgender community is often underreported. “A lot of hate talk goes on,” she said. “And hate words may not be actionable in court, but hate words are actionable in the community. I want you to know that I am your partner and my office is your partner. You should have the ability to be free and live the life you choose and live safely.” Lesbian City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said that in light of the election of Donald Trump as president, the community must rededicate itself to the fight ahead. “We’re making important progress at the local level,” she said, noting that the Oakland Police Department has received training on trans issues and has improved.

Trans Lifeline sees spike in calls after election by Sari Staver

rans Lifeline, the hotline for transgender and gender-neutral people in crisis, is expanding its volunteer training program, following what staffers said was a dramatic increase in calls following the presidential election. Founded in San Francisco two years ago, the nonprofit held an anniversary party Saturday, November 18 at TechSoup, a South of Market company where event organizer Steph Nagoski, 46, is employed as a data scientist. The San Francisco event was livestreamed to a similar event in Chicago, where co-founders Greta Martela and Nina Chaubal, both transgender women, now live. The co-founders announced that a longtime North Carolina volunteer, Z Shane Zaldivar, a transgender man of color, has been hired full time to oversee the volunteer program. Nagoski, who identifies as genderqueer and is one of the lifeline’s volunteer hotline operators, said that more than 400 people called the toll-free number in the 24-hour period following the November 8 election. Operators were only able to handle less than a third of the calls due to the unexpected surge. By midnight on election night, the lead operator realized that there was going to be a deluge and tried to recruit additional volunteers. Nagoski, a volunteer since January who also organized a marching contingent for this year’s Oakland Pride parade, said that Trans Lifeline intends to train 100 new operators to handle the anticipated increase in calls. “People are expressing a lot of despair about how much we could lose,” under the new Republican administration of Donald Trump, Nagoski said. Over 100 people are currently volunteering, Nagoski said. Volunteers must be over age 21 and identify as transgender or gender-neutral to qualify to participate. Trans Lifeline operates on a $200,000 budget that is comprised of individual donations and grants. It requires volunteers to undergo a

Rick Gerharter

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley spoke at the Transgender Day of Remembrance observance in Oakland.

“We’re not done,” she said, ticking off issues such as homeless shelters not welcoming trans clients. “We need to hold the line against any extremist nonsense coming out of the new administration.” Already, however, many LGBT people are concerned about Trump and his policies. Leslie Ewing, executive director of the Pacific Center for Human Growth, told the Bay Area Reporter at the event that the Berkeley LGBT community center saw a 35 percent spike in calls since the election. Most of those, she said, were seeking therapy or other services. City Councilman Abel Guillen addressed the audience and said as someone who identifies as twospirit, he has “affinity for the community tonight.” He read the names of several trans-identified people who were killed in Central and South America. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, the country’s only elected transgender trial judge, said that the

loss community members have experienced is “painful.” “The realization that this happens – we are also potential targets – this hatred is out there and directed at us. You can tell the hatred is so strong just by hearing what’s done to these bodies, to their identities, and you think about where this hatred comes from and it’s fear.” As the transgender community becomes more visible, she said, people become targets. “We’re now in the spotlight. We also deal with fear and internalize it differently perhaps,” she added. “But the only way to move past this is with love and get to know people. We need to address these things head on and be bold and be ourselves – filled with light and joy of who we are. We should be ourselves and offer a brighter path forward for everyone.”t Full disclosure: Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski is the wife of B.A.R. news editor Cynthia Laird.

Sari Staver

Trans Lifeline volunteer Steph Nagoski talks with potential volunteers during an event marking the hotline’s second anniversary.

four-hour online training program, “which we are constantly refining,” said Nagoski. Volunteer operators have access to a list of resources throughout the United States and Canada. According to Nagoski, the overwhelming majority of the callers are looking for “a sympathetic ear” or information about local resources. If callers sound despondent, phone operators are able to contact one of the trained “team leads” who can be patched into the call to assist the operator. There are crank calls, though the number varies widely, said Nagoski, who uses gender-neutral pronouns. “Unfortunately, this is something we deal with all the time,” they said. Another San Francisco volunteer, Evie Salomon, who identifies as a trans woman, said, “You really need a thick skin” to deal with the crank callers. “It’s very upsetting to share personal information with someone who calls, only to realize they are just calling to harass us,” she said. But it is rewarding. “Volunteering on the hotline is very satisfying and certainly an important responsibility,” said Salomon, a 37-year-old software engineer. Nagoski said some crank callers use software that enables them to block their phone number, making it impossible for lifeline operators to permanently block their numbers.

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<< Travel

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Ditch the car and have fun in Los Angeles

by Ed Walsh

dared to go as few have gone before on a trip to Los Angeles last week – I made the visit without a car. It was, in fact, my third car-free trip to LA in as many years. Despite what you may have heard, you can get by and have a fun car-free trip to LA with a little advance planning. You will save yourself stress and money. I took the MegaBus from the San Francisco Caltrain station at 10:30 a.m. Monday and, after a stop at the West Oakland BART station and a quick rest stop in Kettleman City, I arrived at LA’s Union Station a little before 6 p.m. The seven and a half hour trip was a lot less stressful than driving and easier and cheaper than flying. My roundtrip fare was only $43, including the $18 extra I paid to reserve the coveted upper deck front row seat. Expect to pay more or less than that depending on demand or how early in advance you book the ticket.

WeHo

Once in LA, I took the #704 Santa Monica bus and got off in West Hollywood, 45 minutes later. West Hollywood, aka WeHo, is one of California’s most walkable cities. It makes a good home base for exploring Los Angeles and its surrounding cities. A couple of LA’s best tour companies, the not-to-be missed LGBT Out and About Tours (www.thelavendereffect.org) and Bikes and Hikes LA (http://www. bikesandhikesLA.com), are based in West Hollywood. You can also book Starline (www.starlinetours.com) hop on/hop off bus, boarding in WeHo with stops that cover all the highlights in LA. West Hollywood also has a bike sharing program similar to San Francisco’s (www. wehopedals.com) and it offers a free shuttle service on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon and evening that runs along Santa Monica Boulevard from Robertson to La Brea (www.wehopickup.com). As one of the world’s gayest cities, West Hollywood is a destination by

Ed Walsh

Christmas lights were already in place in front of Mickey’s in West Hollywood last week.

itself, combining some of southern California’s best restaurants with great nightlife and entertainment. The city is conveniently sandwiched between Hollywood and Beverly Hills. The famed Sunset Strip, with its music and comedy venues, is the place where you will find some of southern California’s toniest restaurants, upscale hotels, and chic shops. The Sunset Strip, as you might have guessed, is along Sunset Boulevard. Santa Monica Boulevard runs parallel to Sunset Boulevard and it’s where you will find most of WeHo’s gay nightlife. WeHo is just outside of the Los Angeles city limits and that, in part, helped the gay nightlife flourish in the bad old days when LA police routinely raided gay clubs. WeHo was under the jurisdiction of the more lenient Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department. West Hollywood, which used to be known as the town of Sherman, became its own city in 1984. WeHo turns 32 next week – Tuesday, November 29. West Hollywood’s most recognizable landmark is the famed Pacific Design Center complex, a series of three buildings, clad in red, green, and blue, clustered alongside one another like giant gems. West Hollywood’s modern library is right across the street. It opened five years

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Ed Walsh

The Pacific Design Center is the most recognizable landmark in West Hollywood.

Ed Walsh

The hat, scarf, and pipe used by Chicken George, as played by Ben Vereen in the 1977 Roots TV miniseries, is on display in the museum at Warner Brothers studio.

ago and is a destination to itself. It offers a sweeping view of the Design Center and has a large LGBT section. If you are driving, the library validates parking at its garage for up to three hours. A must-do for any LGBT visitor to LA is one of the aforementioned Out and About Tours. The company offers the stuff you will see on a mainstream tour and the LGBTspecific sights that the other tours leave out. One of the tours focuses on downtown Los Angeles and shatters the stereotype of LA being devoid of the activism that often gets overshadowed by Stonewall and gay activism in San Francisco. I had the pleasure of taking Out and About’s walking tour of Hollywood last week. The 2.5-hour tour begins late Sunday morning with a champagne toast at the Hollywood Museum. The tour gives an insight to the booming gay community in Hollywood, which once had as many as 40 gay bars and nightclubs that had to operate through most of the last century under the threat of police raids. Gay rights in Hollywood passed a milestone in 1970 when a group got a permit to close Hollywood Boulevard for a gay parade, a first for any city. A sign and street plaque that honor that distinction is on McCadden Place, just off Hollywood Boulevard – ironically just alongside the Scientology building. Out and About Tours is part of the nonprofit Lavender Effect organization, so proceeds from the tour benefit LA’s LGBT community. Out and About offers both walking and bus tours. In January, it will begin offering a walking tour of West Hollywood. Bikes and Hikes LA offers bicycle and walking tours. It is based on Santa Monica Boulevard in the heart of gay WeHo, so it is an easy tour to catch if you are starting out in West Hollywood. It offers a great selection of tours ranging from daylong bike tours to sunset hikes in the Hollywood Hills. LA’s gay beach is about a 25-minute drive from WeHo. It is a section of Will Rogers State Beach, two miles north of the iconic Santa Monica Pier, opposite Entrada Drive and

West Channel Road. Regulars call it Ginger Rogers Beach. If you are driving, take Sunset Boulevard west to the Pacific Coast Highway. Make a left on PCH and then turn left onto either Entrada Drive or West Channel Road. There is usually free street parking available. There are a couple of pay parking lots nearby, including a public parking lot at the beach. By public transit, take the #4 bus from WeHo and transfer to the #9 bus in downtown Santa Monica. It will take you a little over an hour on the bus.

Greater Los Angeles

The greater Los Angeles area is home to the world’s best-known and -loved amusement parks. Disneyland and its sister attraction, Disney California Adventure Park, are well worth seeing. And be sure and stay to enjoy the closing shows at each of the parks. California Adventure’s World of Color show is an amazing music, light, and sound show. Right now a new Christmas show is playing and it’s unclear if the one with gay actor Neil Patrick Harris is coming back. Disneyland is a little less than an hour’s drive from WeHo but if you are car-less, Starline Tours offers daily express bus service to the parks. Universal Studios unveiled its Harry Potter attraction and it is drawing Potter fans to the park from all over the world. The attraction includes a re-creation of an old English town complete with very realistic snow-covered roofs. If you want to avoid crowds, stay away from the parks during the Thanksgiving or Christmas weeks, but if you can travel there in early December, or in January after New Year’s, you will find much smaller crowds than is typical during summer vacation or spring break times. Universal is easy to get to by public transit. It is on a stop on the Metro Red Line subway. Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Sony all offer studio tours. Warner Brothers is among the best. The tour concludes with a stop at a museum of movie memorabilia where you can take your time exploring your interests. Out talk show host Ellen

DeGeneres is featured in a video introduction of the tour and she introduces the film memorabilia archive room near the end of the tour. By the way, The Ellen Show is shot at Warner Brothers and you can request free tickets, just make sure to do so far in advance (http://www.ellentv.com). You can also request free tickets to the Big Bang Theory but the show fills up as long as a year in advance (http://www.TVtickets.com). The tour also includes the original set of the Central Park coffee shop from the Friends show as well as the living room set from Two and a Half Men. If you get a little homesick, the back lot includes the facade of the San Francisco Victorian home where Full House was filmed. The facade is now being used for the Fuller House Netflix revival series.

Gay nightlife

Most of greater Los Angeles’ LGBT nightlife is centered in West Hollywood. The newest gay nightspot opened just last month next to the Abbey. It’s called the Chapel and is owned by the same company that owns the Abbey. Previously, the space was the Here Lounge. Since the closing of the Palms three years ago, WeHo has no exclusively lesbian bars but the Chapel hosts a lesbian-focused night on Wednesdays and, like the Abbey, it is always very women-welcoming. Ground zero for gay nightlife is along Santa Monica Boulevard from North Robertson Blvd to Palm Avenue. The Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles is about five miles east of WeHo and has also long been gay-popular. It had its own version of Stonewall, in 1967, two years before the New York City riot, outside the Black Cat bar. A plaque in front of the building that housed the Black Cat at 3903 Sunset Boulevard recognizes the location as the place of the first known formal organized gay rights protest in the U.S. Among the mainstay gay bars in Silver Lake are Akbar, the Eagle LA, and Faultline.

Accommodations

There are no exclusively gay hotels in Los Angeles. Longtime visitors to LA might remember the notorious Coral Sands Motel in Hollywood or West Hollywood’s San Vicente Inn. The Coral Sands went mainstream and the San Vicente changed its name and is now an upscale boutique hotel. The Ramada (http://www.ramdadaweho.com) is perfectly located across the street from the 24 Hour Fitness and it is directly on Santa Monica Boulevard, just steps from the city’s LGBT nightlife. If you are looking for luxury accommodations, the Andaz (http:// www.andaz.hyatt.com) on Sunset Boulevard and the London (http:// www.thelondonwesthollywood. com), just south of Sunset, are good choices. Both hotels are known for their upscale accommodations and fine dining.t

National News>>

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Sessions an ‘alarming’ pick for attorney general by Lisa Keen

ne LGBT legal activist called it “chilling.” Others called it “alarming” and “extreme.” Even outside the LGBT community, the reaction was unusually harsh. The NAACP called it “deeply troubling,” and the Center for American Progress said it was a “dangerous choice.” The focus of their concern: President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that he will nominate Senator Jeff Sessions (RAlabama) for U.S. attorney general. Sessions was one of Trump’s earliest and staunchest supporters. Sessions’ hostility to equal rights for LGBT people goes back at least 20 years. In 1996, as Alabama attorney general, he tried to stop an LGBT student conference from meeting on the University of Alabama campus, citing a newly enacted law that prohibited any university from spending public funds or using facilities for a group that “promotes a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws.” The courts eventually struck the law, but Sessions went on that same year to be elected to the U.S. Senate. There, he earned the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard’s lowest possible score – zero – on LGBT-related voting and issues. (In 2011, he did vote to confirm gay nominee J. Paul Oetken to become a U.S. district court judge in New York and raised his grade for one session to a 15.) He has consistently voted for anti-LGBT measures and against pro-LGBT measures. He voted for various attempts to amend the Constitution to limit marriage to only opposite-sex couples and for an amendment that sought to delete services to LGBT victims of domestic violence. He voted against an effort to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and against repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibited open service. In a 2004 Senate floor speech in support of the anti-LGBT Federal Marriage Amendment, Sessions derided a Massachusetts ruling that allowed same-sex couples to marry. Sessions said it would lead to sisters marrying each other or a mother marrying her daughter.

Failed judicial nomination

Sessions is best known for his failed nomination to be a judge on the federal district court for Alabama. During his confirma-

Buzz Bense

From page 8

served in the Air Force. The family moved to White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and he graduated from White Bear High School in 1967. Mr. Bense attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he focused on theater arts. He then moved to Vancouver and completed a master’s degree in theater at the University of British Columbia. After working with theater companies in Canada for several years, Mr. Bense moved to San Francisco in the late 1970s. In recent years he split his time between San Francisco and the Russian River. He died at his San Francisco home where he was in hospice care. “Losing Buzz has re-opened the door to those terrible, painful times of loss and sorrow, once again making me understand that the greatest gift we can give those who went before us is to remember them,” said Ganymede, a longtime friend of Mr. Bense who uses only one name. Mr. Bense served on the boards of Eye Zen Presents, the house theater company of Counterpulse in San Francisco, and the Pegasus Theater Company in Guerneville, as well as

tion hearing in 1986, an AfricanAmerican attorney who worked with him said Sessions had referred to him as “boy.” He said Sessions told him that the Ku Klux Klan was “OK until I found out they smoked pot.” Sessions denied the claims but his nomination, by President Ronald Reagan, was effectively lost and withdrawn. “Trump’s nomination of Sessions for the highest law enforcement officer in our land is chilling,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights legal director Shannon Minter. “His record of opposing racial justice, reproductive freedom, and basic equality for women and LGBT people should be disqualifying – and would have been disqualifying at any time in the past five decades. His abysmal record on civil rights issues was disqualifying when President Reagan tried to appoint him to the federal bench. Someone who was not fit to be a federal judge is not fit to enforce the civil rights laws of our country.” Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, issued a statement, calling Sessions “vehemently anti-LGBTQ.” “It is deeply disturbing that Jeff Sessions, who has such clear animus against so many Americans – including the LGBTQ community, women and people of color – could be charged with running the very system of justice designed to protect them,” said Griffin. Jon Davidson, national legal director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said Sessions’ nomination is “alarming.” “We are greatly concerned about the selection of Sessions, given the attorney general’s role in determining the position of the federal government in lawsuits in which it is sued,” said Davidson. He noted the attorney general also decides how the Department of Justice will enforce the Constitution and federal statutes and is in charge of filling high-level positions at the Department of Justice. President Barack Obama’s appointees for attorney general – Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch – have appointed openly LGBT people to important positions within the Justice Department. They have also put the department on the side of equal rights for LGBT people in major civil rights cases. Most recently, Lynch filed suit against the state of North Carolina for enacting a state law (House Bill 2) that was specifically aimed at allowing discrimination against LGBT the Billys, a group that puts on outdoor gatherings for gay and bi men. In 2014 Mr. Bense worked as assistant director for Seth Eisen’s play Homo File, about the life of erotic author and tattoo artist Samuel Stewart. Despite being in hospice care, Mr. Bense defied the predictions of the “white coats” and arrived by ambulance for the opening of Eisen’s latest show, Rainbow Logic: Arm in Arm with Remy Charlip, earlier this month. “Buzz was an elder to me and really could speak to the history of San Francisco,” Eisen told the B.A.R. “Having been right in the middle of the AIDS pandemic, he was on the cutting edge of saying we’re still allowed to have sex and giving the community permission to embrace sexuality and use that as a way of healing ourselves.” Mr. Bense is survived by his sister Susan Kroon, her three children, Betsy, Julie, and Zander; and by a community of friends and loved ones including Bob West, Harriett Kelly, and William Atkins. A local memorial for Mr. Bense will be planned. Gifts in his memory may be made to the Horizons Foundation at http://www. horizonsfoundation.org.t

Courtesy AP

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions

people. Holder announced that the Department of Justice would argue that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also extends to prohibit gender identity discrimination. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the Defense of

Marriage Act, he instructed Justice Department attorneys to respect the marriages of same-sex couples regardless of the laws of their state of residence. And mostly notably, Holder in 2011 issued the letter stating that the administration believes

Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and would no longer defend it. “We expect tough times ahead,” said Davidson. “Jeff Sessions has a lengthy history of opposing civil rights.” He also has a lengthy record of opposing openly LGBT judicial nominees and grilling other nominees who made decisions that upheld equal rights for LGBT people. He spoke and voted against the hate crimes act in 2009, saying, “I don’t think it [is] ever appropriate” to bring up such legislation in the defense bill. He also said the bill was “unwarranted,” that it would “cheapen the civil rights movement,” and that it “creates a new system of justice for individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, providing them with a special protection ...” “Gays and lesbians,” said Sessions on the floor of the Senate, “have not been denied basic access to things such as health or schooling or to the ballot box.”t

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<< Community News

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Macy’s lights up the holidays Friday compiled by Cynthia Laird

ust in time for the holiday shopping season, Macy’s will hold its 27th annual great tree lighting ceremony in San Francisco’s Union Square Friday, November 25 at 6 p.m. Following an evening of special performances, the ceremony will culminate with Macy’s gift to the city – a beautiful, reusable, 83 foot tree decorated with more than 33,000 twinkling energy-efficient LED lights and 1,100 shining ornaments. Entertainment will include a performance by singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, known for his hit songs “I Need a Dollar,” “The Man,” and “Wake Me Up.” Other performers include the San Francisco Boys Chorus , the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and the cast of She Loves Me from San Francisco Playhouse’s upcoming production. Following the tree lighting, which is expected to take place at about 6:40 p.m., people can visit festive Holiday Lane on the seventh floor of Macy’s Union Square to see lavishly decorated Christmas trees,

ornaments, and other embellishments for the home. Children can visit Santa Claus in Macy’s Santaland starting Friday, November 27 through Saturday, December 24.

ZooLights return to Oakland

The Oakland Zoo is set to turn on the holiday spirit with the return of ZooLights, a festival of lights, Friday, December 2. The nightly event runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. through January 1 (closed December 24-25). Officials said this year’s illuminated event features designs by Impact Lighting and music powered by 96.5 KOIT, 95.7 the Game, Q102.1, 98.5 KFOX, and 102.9 KBLX. Colorfully lit animalthemed structures are situated through the zoo for families to enjoy. The main attraction each evening is a light show with a mash-up of memorable movie lines and music, Christmas characters, and seasonal tunes. There’s also the Outback Express Adventure Train ride, Santa, and local performance groups appearing on select nights. Admission is $8 for adults and

Courtesy Macy’s

Crowds fill Union Square for the Macy’s tree lighting ceremony.

$7 for children. Parking is free. Oakland Zoo members receive a $1 discount. For more information, visit http://www.oaklandzoo.org.

Aging institute to hold cable car caroling

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The San Francisco Institute on Aging will hold its 32nd annual Cable Car Caroling benefit Saturday, December 3. The fun starts at Roosevelt Middle School, 460 Arguello Boulevard, and runs from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. The theme is “From Generation to Generation.” Participants ride on motorized cable cars to bring holiday cheer to older adults and adults with disabilities in the community. Last year saw more than 500 people caroling to more than 1,000 seniors. Seniors benefit from starting the season with the joy and holiday cheer brought by the carolers, and singers benefit in the connection they create with seniors. Organizers stated that singers meet on the day of the event, board the cable cars, and visit assisted living centers, skilled nursing facilities, and individual homes. People can help in a couple ways. They can purchase tickets and join in the event and after-party or they can sponsor a singer; those carolers who raise a minimum of $100 will be able to attend the event free of charge. Last year’s benefit raised more than $100,000. The money from the event supports the institute’s Friendship Line, the nation’s only accredited (through the American Association of Suicidology) 24hour toll-free hotline for seniors and adults with disabilities. The Friendship Line is both a crisis intervention hotline and a warm line of non-urgent calls. Caroling tickets are $75 for adults and $50 for seniors (65-plus) and students. Fundraising challenges are also available. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http:// www.ioaging.org/calendar-events/ cable-car-caroling. The institute’s local Friendship Line is (415) 752-3778; the national helpline is (800) 971-0016.

SFPD’s holiday toy drive underway

The San Francisco Police Department has started its holiday toy drive, benefitting the city’s children in need. From now through December 19, SFPD will be accepting donations of new unwrapped toys at more than 60 San Francisco Walgreens locations. Officials said the goal is to exceed last year’s toy drive, in which

approximately 2,500 items were donated at 30 Walgreens stores for distribution to kids. “Everyone can make a difference in a child’s life,” interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin said in a statement. “San Franciscans are generous, thoughtful people and we believe they will stop up to brighten the holidays for children and provide happy memories for years to come.” Donors can drop off new unwrapped toys at any San Francisco Walgreens that features a brightly colored and marked toy drive collection bin. Those unable to drop off a toy can contribute via a Gofundme account established by the San Francisco Police Foundation. To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/sfpdtoydrive2016.

Post-election help for trans people

The election of Donald Trump as president has unleashed a flood of concerns from many transgender and gender nonconforming people about what the new administration might mean for them. According to the Transgender Law Center, people are worried about their immigration status, increased violence and harassment, and their ability to change their legal name and gender. “While there is still a lot we don’t know, there is some guidance and support we can provide,” Kris Hayashi, TLC executive director, said in an email last week. To that end, TLC has issued an overview addressing what the election might mean for identity documents, along with a quick-guide version of its popular ID Please resource (http://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/13376). Attorneys who are interested in helping people can sign up at TLC’s Cooperating Attorney Network at http://transgenderlawcenter.org/ programs/cooperate. Volunteers are also needed for TLC’s legal information helpline in the Bay Area (http://transgenderlawcenter.org/volunteer-opportunities) and the detention project (anywhere in the U.S., http://transgenderlawcenter.org/about/careers/ volunteer-detention-project). Meanwhile, attorney Christina DiEdoardo, a trans woman, will be leading a self-help document clinic Saturday, December 3 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch of the Berkeley Library, 1901 Russell Street in Berkeley (one block north of the Ashby BART station). DiEdoardo said that trans and non-binary people can receive help drafting petitions to change name and gender, and with updating or obtaining a U.S. passport.

She said that she hopes to hold other clinics before Trump takes office.

Community safety meeting Monday for LGBTQs

A community safety seminar will be held Monday, November 28 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street in San Francisco. Several community groups will join in presenting safety information to address rising concerns since the presidential election. The seminar is specifically for the LGBTQ community and its allies. In addition to staff from SOMArts, other groups participating include the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Castro Community on Patrol, and the SF Bay Area Leather Alliance. For more information, visit h t t p s : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / events/338790603148305/?active_ tab=about.

Community Boards turns 40

Community Boards, a nonprofit that helps residents, businesses, schools, and communities resolve conflicts through low-cost mediation, will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a holiday party and reunion Saturday, December 3 at the Barn at SOMA StrEat Food Park, 428 11th Street (at Division) in San Francisco. The party takes place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Organizers said it is free for families and friends of Community Boards but donations are gladly accepted. It is part of the agency’s $40 for 40 legacy campaign (http:// communityboards.org/2016/10/21/ updates/). Executive Director Darlene Weide, a member of the LGBT community, said that LGBT individuals and organizations are welcome to attend as they move forward post-election. “In this difficult time, we’re here to help individuals talk across the divide with their friends, their family, and their co-workers,” Weide said. “To help LGBT organizations figure out their blueprint of collaboration, and work through difficult conversations together.” At Community Boards, the focus is on facilitating dialogue. Neighborhood disputes often arise from noise complaints, tenant-landlord issues, relationship problems, and more, she explained, adding that over 85 percent of disputes referred to the agency result in a lasting, sustainable resolution. The organization has served some 50,000 clients over the years. See page 20 >>

Community News>>

t ’70s recalled as era when gay community was forged by Brian Bromberger

s the LGBT movement ages, it becomes clearer what a lifechanging decade the 1970s was as the era both when basic civil rights were being fought and a gay identity – both individually and communally – was being forged. San Francisco was at the center of this transformative decade, the place where many LGBTs came to find a new home and to build a selfidentified community. One of the people who witnessed this change and growth is Lou Kief. Born in Detroit in 1945, he fled to San Francisco to get away from his family and to stop answering questions like why wasn’t he married or dating girls. He chronicles his experience of coming to San Francisco in 1971 and life in a city very different from today, including the various personalities (such as colorful restaurateur Juanita Musson and 1906 earthquake survivor Alberta Dolan) he encountered, in his self-published memoir, Let No Stranger Wait Outside Your Door. Now living in Palm Springs with his partner of 37 years, Bill Walls, while visiting San Francisco, he met with the Bay Area Reporter. Kief said he wrote the book to leave a bit of history to others. “I realized that at 71 I’m getting old, and having had open heart surgery in February, I wanted to leave something behind for young kids that weren’t alive in the 1960s and 1970s and hadn’t been exposed to what happened,” he said. “I want them to understand the significance of the period and how it changed for the better the lives of gay men and women.” Kief stressed how he wanted to share what it was like to be gay at a time when society and even one’s own family, “chose to deny our existence, ignored, or ridiculed us,” he said. Kief writes in his book that this period, “is the story about a sudden, great migration of men and women, who like pioneers a century before, found themselves bound for California and San Francisco where happy, exuberant people filled with hope discovered they didn’t need anyone’s approval to live their lives in the open. If you are gay, it was a time you need to know about and embrace.” Kief hopes younger people will appreciate the sacrifices that were endured to secure equal rights over the years. “When I arrived here I was barely surviving,” he said. “The title of my book comes from a verse in the old song ‘San Francisco’ that Jeannette MacDonald sang. The people in this city really did take me in, a stranger, and help me. Harvey Milk found work for me as a carpenter, the only skill I had at the time. Ray Ruehl, who owned the Covered Wagon Restaurant, saved my butt a few times, as did Ray Herth, who had a real estate company and channeled work to me.” He said that being openly gay in the city allowed many to feel selfworth for the first time. “The biggest shock was to see two guys holding hands walking down the street in the middle of the day,” Kief said. “Having a whole neighborhood of gay people, some of who owned gay businesses, was unheard of for most of us. But the family of San Francisco embraced me.”

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

he said. “Intoxicated by freedom for the first time, all you want to do is play. The bar scene was intense, as were the baths, even the streets where you could meet gay men anywhere, anytime. You could have sex six times a day if you were really a pig.” But the job market was tough. “It’s a kind of double whammy when you are new here because people don’t want to hire you because they are not sure if you will stay,” he explained. “Did we want to spend the rest of our lives sitting on barstools and probably become an alcoholic? Or to survive were we willing to step out of gay playtime long enough to allow our talents to surface and make real productive lives in our new home?” While sex was readily available, there was a shadow side to all that freedom. “Sometimes when you came home, there was a pink valentine on your mailbox, a message from the VD clinic that you might have gotten gonorrhea or syphilis. So you had to go down to the clinic on Natoma Street. You would walk in and everyone you knew would be sitting in the chairs of the waiting room. There was no stigma attached at all,” he said. “Yes, we were terribly

Brian Bromberger

Author Lou Kief

promiscuous, and if AIDS hadn’t come along, I think we would still be going along today at the same speed as then. I’m not sure it would have changed. “Still, AIDS was not going to make us backtrack on who we were. It was horrible in the beginning as no one wanted to touch us,” Kief said. “Thank God for the beautiful nurses at San Francisco General who cared for us. But otherwise, such awful treatment made us angry and determined that we weren’t

going to hide anymore after seeing how people we loved in our San Francisco family had been treated.” In addition to playtime, Kief saw that gay business entrepreneurs, especially the ones who owned bars like Toad Hall and the Mint, started getting involved in politics to fight against corrupt police who made life miserable. “People got fed up being abused and not having basic civil rights,” he said. “They wanted to make it better for everyone. The greater the presence of gays in SF, the more people came from the rest of the country. People were still opposed to us, even the remaining Irish in the Castro district, but eventually a critical mass was reached so that the political establishment could no longer ignore us. Lawyers like Melvin Belli helping drag queens like Jose Sarria, spurred along the process of acceptance even if it was a grudging one at first.”

Confusing Castro

Kief in his book comments how the Castro in the early 1970s was a confusing neighborhood in transition. “When you stepped into a store you were never sure how you would be greeted,” he writes. “Many older

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Not all fun and games

Despite the excitement of moving to San Francisco, Kief quickly became aware that it wasn’t all fun and games. “I think it is still true today, but when you arrive in San Francisco you have a tough decision to make,”

business owners embraced us and looked forward to our business, while other merchants were disillusioned, angry holdouts who not only resented our presence, they despised who we were.” Kief wryly noted how money has a way of changing attitudes and that, as the new gay citizens became voters, they were too large a bloc to be discounted. “With business revenues and having disposable income because we were mostly single not supporting any kids, the city government became more supportive because they wanted our money for their campaigns,” he writes. “It wasn’t as if one night they decided they liked us, but they recognized the power we had to influence elections. When we started to fight back, we won respect. Gay people became a powerful voting base because we were determined to fight for our right to live our lives openly.” For Kief, the watershed moment for the gay rights movement was the White Night riot of May 21, 1979, when the gay community protested the voluntary manslaughter verdict Dan White received after having murdered Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk six months See page 21 >>

<< Sports

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Give thanks – then give more by Roger Brigham

here were so many moments for local LGBT sports fans to be thankful for in 2016. We were thankful for the National Football League for always reminding us where its priorities are. Commissioner Roger Goodell, who did a historic job of shutting down Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games either for deflating a football or inflating his own importance, assured he was not concerned with concussions and catastrophic head traumas in the league despite all of the journalistic worry-warts out there. “There’s risk in life,” he assured us. “There’s risk sitting on the couch.” We were thankful also for the sanitized Super Bowl extravaganza that was staged in San Francisco. The commercial event in the Embarcadero provided so many reminders of a not-so-distant time when the 49ers didn’t actually suck and reminded us in advance of how much we will miss the Raiders once they decide to leave for Las Vegas or Los Angeles or God Knows Where now that they are knocking on respectability. We were thankful that Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell’s hometown of San Francisco decided to

News Briefs

From page 18

Services are offered in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. The process is voluntary and accessible, with a $40 fee to open a case. No one is turned away for lack of funds. For those interested in volun-

bid for its 40th anniversary in 2022. The odds are dim that San Francisco can actually succeed in bringing sports’ most inclusive and celebratory global event back to its birthplace – international backlash from the presidential election will likely nix any American bid this year, and there are some very compelling bidders in a large and competitive international field – but it has been great to see so many committed community leaders come together not to chase a buck but to further a mission for social change and engagement. Also we were thankful in March to see the Federation of Gay Games end its appeasement chats with the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association and drop discussions to consolidate the Gay Games with the World Outgames. Those politically pressured talks have prevented either organization from properly focusing on their premier events the past decade; ending them will enable both to focus on their distinctly different events and will allow the FGG to figure out how to make the Gay Games more inclusive and accessible. Now GLISA can try to figure out exactly what it brings to the table to justify continuation – the importance of which was underscored just days later when

organizers announced the cancellation of the 2016 North American Outgames in St. Louis due to poor registration numbers. We’re thankful for all of the executives in the National Basketball Association, NCAA, and in various college conferences who decided to pull playoff and exhibition events from the state of North Carolina because of its recent enactment of the anti-LGBT law known as House Bill 2. Governor Pat McCrory, who at press time was trailing in his reelection bid, may have felt the state had the right to deny individual rights, but a sports world powered by inclusion need not pay the steep asking price. We were reminded in our mourning last June to be thankful our lives had been blessed by the unabashed greatness of Muhammad Ali – and that he had the courage to stand for justice when most of the world thought all he had going for him were his lightning-fast fists and mouth. We were glad that the athletes who survived health conditions in Rio made it through the Olympics unscathed, though we could have done without the fear of a blogger outing closeted athletes from repressed countries and American swimmer Ryan Lochte showering himself with shame by blaming the host country for his own adolescent delinquency. We were thankful that two Af-

teering as a mediator, Community Boards will hold a training February 4-5 and 11-12. For more information, visit http://www.communityboards.org.

Fund has announced it is seeking neighborhood volunteers to spend one hour each week in a public school classroom, tutoring and mentoring students to ensure they graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college and beyond. “With just one hour a week, volunteers can make a big difference,” SF Education Fund Executive Director Kimberly Wicoff said in a news release. Wicoff added that the education fund trains and places volunteers in classrooms throughout the San Francisco Unified School District. A majority of services is in a set of high-need schools that have disproportionate populations of students in need of support, she added. There are 11 schools that the fund is focusing on this year, including the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, Everett Middle School, and Mission High School. The education fund has trained

SF education group seeks school volunteers

The San Francisco Education

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Out in the World

From page 4

to defeat the Africans’ resolution. A statement about the need for all countries to respect the authority of the Human Rights Council and to vote in favor of the independent expert was endorsed by 850 organizations from 157 countries around the world. “The Third Committee’s vote affirms that the right to be protected from violence and discrimination applies equally to LGBT people,”

Trans Lifeline

From page 15

Unlike many other crisis hotlines, Trans Lifeline policy forbids operators to contact first responders without the explicit consent of a caller. “There have been too many transgender people killed by police,” Nagoski said.

Post-election worries

Since the election, lifeline staffers said that many callers report being fearful that the gains made by the transgender community under President Barack Obama will be repealed in the new administration.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

rican-American celebrity athletes, Kevin Durant and Colin Kaepernick, did not let fear of public disapproval deter them from deciding to do things they felt were right for them. Durant chose to find out what it would be like to play for a great team whose style seemed so pleasurably suited to him, and no matter how many talking heads proclaimed that they would never have made the same choice and condemned him for it, how could anyone say personal happiness is an unworthy goal? And though many were shocked and outraged when Kaepernick chose not to stand during the playing of the national anthem due to protesting racial division and violence, wouldn’t we all elect to give up an anthem if we and placed more than 500 volunteers during the 2015-16 school year and has set a goal of doubling that this school year. For more information about volunteering, visit www.sfedfund.org/ community.

Courage Campaign launches anti-Bannon petition

The progressive Courage Campaign has launched a petition drive to condemn President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Stephen Bannon as his senior adviser and chief strategist. Bannon has a history of racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic comments and used to head Breitbart News, known for its nationalist leanings. In an email, the Courage Campaign called out House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California), the state’s highest-ranking member of Congress, who reportedly expressed explicit support for

could eliminate injustice? Wouldn’t that be a step toward greatness? We were thankful most of all throughout the year by the series of scandals of institutions enabling, tolerating, or empowering sexual abuse and harassment (gymnastics and swimming federations, Baylor); the wrist-massaging “punishment” of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman; and the Ivystained scandal of men’s teams at Harvard and Columbia defining their abuse of social privilege with social media “scouting reports” loaded with misogynistic, racist, and homophobic bile. We are grateful for all of those horrible things because they serve as reminders that we must all fight for social justice in sports and not rest our hopes for victory on what we have already done in the fight, but what we will do in the future. So as we stuff ourselves with tofu turkey or stand duty in a kitchen soup-line this Thanksgiving, let us remember to be thankful for every adversity and success of the past year in sports – and resolve to do more and better in the year to come. Let us remember that not all get the same benefits of sports inclusion and opportunity that we have enjoyed and that we owe it to the coaches of our past to pay their efforts forward. Athletes know how to fight and succeed. True champions know who and what to fight for.t Trump’s appointment of Bannon. The Courage Campaign noted that Bannon has called liberal women “a bunch of dykes” and that the Ku Klux Klan endorsed his appointment. “McCarthy’s position is untenable,” the Courage Campaign stated. “The three counties he represents overwhelmingly supported Proposition 58, a measure that ends restrictions on bilingual education in public schools – a clear indication that voters support a more diverse, inclusive California. He cannot claim to support that constituency and the Bannon appointment simultaneously.” The Courage Campaign said its petition to McCarthy and other state House Republicans can be signed at act.couragecampaign.org/ sign/McCarthyBannon/?source= 20161117_org_em_p_McCarthy Bannon&t=1&akid=3531.59002. jrLhTg.t

Boris Dittrich, LGBT rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a news release Monday. “It also respects the integrity of the Human Rights Council as the U.N.’s top human rights body, to ensure that mechanisms are in place to protect rights not just in theory, but in practice.” OutRight Action International, which has consultative status at the U.N., also praised the move. “We are encouraged by this voting result and in the confirmation that states believe in the mechanisms

of the Human Rights Council. It is vital that the integrity of the Human Rights Council remains intact and is not further undermined in the Third Committee,” OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern said in a news release.t

It is “certainly not surprising” that people are scared when Presidentelect Trump has threatened to tear down federal guidelines protecting transgender people, said Nagoski. “And [Vice President-elect Mike] Pence is even scarier.” Pence has advocated conversion therapy and wanted to redirect HIV funding to programs that provide the service, which has been debunked by mainstream medical groups and others. During the anniversary party, James Anderson from the Transgender Law Center reviewed that organization’s guide to identification changes.

According to the Trans Lifeline’s website, the organization is focused on helping transgender people “experiencing a crisis.” That includes people struggling with their gender identity, or any other trans person in need.t

Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com. For a review of Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution see the arts and culture section.

In the U.S., the Trans Lifeline number is (877) 565-8860; in Canada it’s (877) 330-6366. For information about volunteering for the lifeline, visit www.translifeline.org. The Transgender Law Center’s ID guidelines can be found at http://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/13376. For more services for trans people in this post-election period, see the News Briefs on page 18.

t <<

Community News>>

Strut, PRC

From page 2

come up with more efficient models.” He said that in the 18th Street space Magnet occupied before it and other services were moved into the bigger building at Strut, the program would see 40 people a day at most. “In the new space at Strut, we will see a minimum of 50, often 60 or more clients per day,” said O’Neal, who’s HIV-negative and on PrEP. “Even with this expansion, we are having trouble keeping up with community demands. Magnet often turns folks away after reaching our daily capacity, which is problematic. We are working on rapid asymptomatic screening models which would allow us to see more people per day, with quicker appointment times.” In a step that could help Strut assist more people, he said clients would soon be able to access test results online. Addressing health disparities among the city’s many communities is another concern, and O’Neal and others are working on plans to engage people to ensure more of them have access to education, screening, and PrEP. “You will see more collaborations citywide with the hopes of building a more effective infrastructure of support,” he said. Along with hope comes some fear, though, with Republican Donald Trump’s election as president. “Trump is a major concern for

Gordon

From page 1

To mark the occasion, Gordon asked his husband, Dr. Dennis McShane, who is retired, that they take a vacation somewhere near an ocean. “I told my husband when this is finished I just want to sit on the beach and read a book. So he booked us a trip to Tahiti,” Gordon, 68, said during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I said that will work. It seems like a good place to read a book.” When the couple returns in early December, Gordon plans to focus on what his next pursuit will be. He hopes to line up his next job sometime in early 2017 and is looking at various options in the nonprofit sector, private industry, or in government. “I have some conversations underway with various people but nothing formal to announce,” said Gordon, the first openly gay state lawmaker from the Peninsula, where he was born and raised. Nor has he ruled out another run for public office. Gordon established a campaign account for a potential state Senate bid in 2020, mainly so he could continue to raise money and donate to other Democrats running for office. He told the B.A.R. that he is unsure if he will enter the race for the 13th Senate District in four years when Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) will be termed out of office. “Candidly, I think it is unlikely,” said Gordon, adding that “after the first of the year I hope to start some new activities and then will decide seriously if there is an electoral fu-

’70s era

From page 19

earlier. Police cars were set on fire and windows at City Hall were smashed. “It was the ultimate fuck you,” Kief said. “How could a man who killed two people and reload his gun get off because he ate too many Twinkies? It was beyond comprehension. The White Night Riot is when every gay man and woman in San Francisco said, ‘Enough!’ and not just for ourselves, but for gay people everywhere. And there were many straight people marching alongside us. Everyone felt

many of us in the nonprofit realm, especially dealing with LGBTQ communities, and HIV, and sex, and substance use,” O’Neal said. “I am concerned about the way things will play out over the next four years, but I am also excited to be a part of the resistance as an activist and advocate for my communities.” Hemming and O’Neal didn’t respond to questions about their salaries. Hemming is assuming the role of former Strut Executive Director Tim Patriarca, who left in July. Patriarca’s salary was about $188,000. O’Neal takes the place of Steve Gibson, who departed in April to become the HIV prevention branch chief at the State Office of AIDS in Sacramento. Gibson declined to state his salary during an interview in April.

Roberts joins PRC

As chief development officer at Positive Resource Center, Roberts, 54, is responsible for strategic planning and managing day-to-day operations, among other duties, and she’s also overseeing the nonprofit’s fundraising activities. Roberts, a transgender woman, said, “I’m really excited to join this organization. I feel like all my experiences, both personally and professionally, have brought me to this place.” Like O’Neal at Strut, she also expressed concern about Trump’s victory. “With the recent election, there is uncertainty about what some of the fundraising landscape is going

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Courtesy PRC

Gayle Roberts has joined Positive Resource Center as development director.

to look like,” especially in terms of government and institutional support, she said, and she wants to “get out ahead of any of those changes.” Before she joined PRC, Roberts was the senior development officer for Openhouse, a San Francisco nonprofit that works with LGBT seniors. She’s also worked as development director for the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, among other posts. Roberts declined to share her salary information. As the Bay Area Reporter reported in October, longtime Folsom Street Events Executive Director Demetri Moshoyannis has left that organization to become PRC’s managing director of strategic partnerships. PRC declined to say what Moshoyannis’ salary is. In a news release, PRC CEO Brett

While Hemming, the new Strut director, said he would “support” employees and have their backs, a former worker has filed claims against him and a human resources staffer at SFAF. In a claim filed in October in San Francisco Superior Court, Demarus Allen-Batieste, 30, said Hemming owes him $10,000 for “failure to act, wrongful termination, [and] touching repeatedly when asked to stop.” Allen-Batieste, who’s AfricanAmerican and identifies as queer, served as coordinator for Strut’s DREAAM (Determined to Respect and Encourage African-American Men) program before he left in August, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also filed a $10,000 claim against SFAF human resources staff-

er Megan Arganbright. In his claim, his allegations include “emotional distress, racial discrimination, failure to act to prevent sexual harassment,” and “wrongful termination.” In an interview, Allen-Batieste said he went to Hemming after a coworker repeatedly kissed him. The co-worker, who’s white, told him “he kisses friends and co-workers as a greeting,” Allen-Batieste said. He said human resources staffer Arganbright told him “it was a cultural difference.” Allen-Batieste also said Hemming hugged him multiple times, and he asked him to stop. In a complaint that’s been filed with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Allen-Batieste alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Allen-Batieste said in an email to the B.A.R. that he has “PTSD with depression,” related to incidents in which he’s been arrested. He declined to share details on his arrest record but said, “I haven’t been convicted.” The state fair employment agency sent him a right-to-sue notice in September allowing him to file a private lawsuit. Allen-Batieste said lawyers he’s contacted have told him they don’t have time to take his case. SFAF spokesman Chris Richey said in an email, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on HR matters.”t Francisco) to a seat that had been held by out lawmakers for years, Gordon rejected allowing Chiu to join the LGBT legislative caucus. He and its members elected to maintain a rule restricting its membership solely to LGBT lawmakers. While the membership ranks of the LGBT caucus rise and fall each election cycle – come December it will return to its high mark of having eight out lawmakers – Gordon said he believes its future longevity is assured. The caucus will see three new members joining it in the new legislative session along with two gay and three lesbian returning lawmakers. “I think the caucus will do fine,” said Gordon, who is departing the Legislature next month along with gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) due to term limits. While no LGBT candidate ran to succeed him, Gordon believes the power of the LGBT community on the Peninsula will continue to be strong. Both gay Mountain View City Councilman Chris Clark and lesbian San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner Sabrina Brennan won re-election earlier this month, ensuring there is a farm team of LGBT elected leaders to run for higher office in future years. Gordon noted, “There never were that many out electeds in San Mateo County; I was often the only one at the party.” Yet in recent years he said there has been “a greater emergence of an LGBT community” in the area, pointing to the establishment of a countywide LGBT commission to ensure there is local funding for LGBT programs. “I think the future is very bright in San Mateo County,” he said.t here,” Kief said. “Yes, it’s different in that the guys who come today are more established workwise, more educated, [and] have careers as opposed to us who just came with nothing but a desire to escape and be free. But it’s still San Francisco, the most beautiful city in the world and the most beautiful place to be gay.”

Andrews said the nonprofit is “delighted” about Moshoyannis and Roberts joining the organization “in two very important and strategic leadership roles.” “Both have a strong track record of growing and advancing the nonprofits in which they have served,” Andrews said. PRC recently merged with Baker Places, which provides residential substance abuse treatment and other services, and AIDS Emergency Fund, which offers financial assistance to people disabled by HIV/ AIDS. The combined agency is still known as Positive Resource Center.

Ex-employee files claim against Hemming

ture or not for me.” His winning the education board seat in 1992 marked the first time an LGBT person had won public office in San Mateo County. LGBT leaders there praised Gordon, a onetime Methodist preacher who came out of the closet after he and his former wife saw the 1982 film Making Love, for paving the way for others to follow suit and for fighting for the rights of the Peninsula’s LGBT residents. “As a member of our community, Rich has been a shining example of being your most authentic self always. In a time when there were very few elected LGBT officials in the state, let alone San Mateo County, he served our county and region with dignity and thoughtfulness while being an out gay man,” Jeffrey S. Adair, a gay man who chairs the San Mateo County Democratic Party, told the B.A.R. “He, with many other LGBT leaders of the 1990s, led the way and set an example for younger activists coming up through the ranks like myself to be open, honest, and advocate for our community as a whole while being out. I have always looked to him for advice and guidance and am proud to call him friend.” While Gordon’s leadership will be missed, gay Woodside Town Council member Daniel Yost told the B.A.R. he hopes it will mean that Gordon and McShane will now have more time to spend with him and his husband, Paul Brody, and their two children. “I’m sorry to see Rich leave office since he served as a mentor both to me and to many other local officials and community members on the Peninsula,” wrote Yost, elected to his council seat last year, in an emailed

reply. “He was a great representative for our community in Sacramento and his departure there after just six years shows the downside of term limits. The one upside is hopefully I’ll get to hang out more with him and his husband Denny when he is spending more time back home on the Peninsula.” Gordon landed in Sacramento to find the state mired in a fiscal mess and spent much of his first term working with state lawmakers and officials on balancing the budget. In 2011 a new nonpartisan committee redrew his Assembly District to include San Mateo’s coastal areas, yet he sailed to an easy re-election win the following year. His tenure coincided with the election of the state’s first gay and lesbian Assembly speakers, one of the most powerful positions in state government, and he served as the chair of the influential Assembly Rules Committee under three successive speakers. “That had never happened before,” noted Gordon, adding that he oversaw everything from assigning bills to be heard at committee to writing personnel policy for state employees. “For me, personally, that role was a very positive chance to engage in things I think will have an impact moving forward on the institution.” He also helped pass a number of bills advancing rights and protections for the LGBT community. In 2013 he authored a bill that requires health care workers in the state receive LGBT cultural competency training. And last year saw the adoption of Gordon’s bill requiring California public utili-

ties to seek out LGBT businesses as part of their supply chains. Taking effect this January 1 will be a bill Gordon co-authored that caps the prices of specialty drugs that treat ailments such as HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis C. Californians will pay no more than $250 for a single 30-day prescription of their medications. Another key focus for Gordon was environmental issues, passing bills focused on plastic bottle recycling, capturing storm water, and recycling water. During his time as chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, he fought for funding to address sea level rise along the state’s coastline. “When I look back on what I was able to accomplish, I feel pretty good about the work that got done,” he said. “I don’t have any regrets.” His legislative victories were even more rewarding when he secured bipartisan support. “I had Republicans vote yes on my bills. Sometimes I would look at them and go, ‘Are you really doing this?’ They would say, ‘It is your bill and you are OK.’ I think it just stressed how important it is that our community be at the table,” said Gordon. “It does make a difference.” Starting in 2012 he took over as chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus and served a record three consecutive terms in the position. During that time he resisted calls from some LGBT community leaders for the Legislature to create a special committee focused on LGBT issues, telling the B.A.R. he didn’t think it was necessary and would only slow the passage of LGBT rights bills. After the 2014 election of straight Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San

hopeless, like the good years had all ended but remembering Harvey, who was no angel and could be an idiot at times, but had the guts to demand that we help ourselves, so from that night forward we would no longer allow ourselves to be threatened, beat up or murdered by ignorant bigots.” In his book, Kief writes, “Whether with words or willpower and fists, we made it known that we would fight for our rights of inclusion in every phrase of the Constitution.”

tion of Donald Trump might mean for the LGBT movement, Kief interpreted it as a backlash against everything described in his book. “We found freedom in everything, our sexuality, psychedelic drugs, our lifestyle, for all of which the religious right would murder us if they could. But we defied them. We had already been thrown out of the church so we had nothing to lose,” he said. But Kief remains hopeful that even though Trump won the election, his dream is that a day will arrive when “there wouldn’t be a need

to call it LGBT anything, a time coming when sexuality will just be sexuality like anything else, and gay people will be people like everyone else.” He noted the many ways San Francisco has changed since the 1970s where “no one can afford to live here any longer, pricing out artists and minorities.” “But I was up here a few months ago, taking the streetcar down to the Ferry Building. I was watching two young gay guys in their 20s. They were just as excited and having a great time as we did when we were

The future

When asked about what the elec-

A tenure of fights and firsts

Postscript

A day after the interview, Kief emailed with the following incident that happened to him just an hour after meeting with the B.A.R. See page 22 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Political Notebook

From page 7

the court’s ruling led to the federal court fight that saw the resumption of same-sex marriages in California in June 2013. While the legislative efforts to secure marriage equality fell short, Leno said it did result in EQCA deciding to withhold its endorsement from candidates who did not support marriage rights. And none of the lawmakers who had voted for his bills lost their seats, dispelling the notion that backing marriage equality would be toxic at the ballot box. “In fact, Democrats who supported our bill defeated candidates who didn’t,” Leno recalled.

Bernal won’t seek D8 supe seat

Four days after the Political Notebook broke the news that Dan Bernal, chief of staff in Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco office, was a leading candidate to fill the soon-to-be-vacant District 8 supervisor seat, Bernal on Monday informed the B.A.R. he was not interested in succeeding gay state Senator-elect Scott Wiener in the Castro-centered district. Bernal said he and his husband, interior designer Dan Burns, had decided it was best that he remain a top aide to Pelosi. In a message he also posted to Facebook, Bernal thanked those who had encouraged him to seek the supervisor seat, adding it was an honor to be mentioned among those being considered for the vacancy by Mayor Ed Lee. “But my husband Dan and I agree that the right public service role for me is to continue working as Leader Pelosi’s chief of staff to

Hate crime hotline

From page 1

but Gascón said such crimes “are tremendously underreported. ... Many people are fearful of contacting authorities, period.” Human Rights Commission Chair Susan Christian, who’s also an assistant district attorney, referred to recent weeks as “the most divisive time I’ve ever experienced in my life” and she noted that people have been “traumatized and afraid because of the rhetoric” and actions taking place. Christian, an African-American lesbian, added, “This has been an incredibly painful time for me personally.” “The Human Rights Commission is here for everyone, for every San Franciscan,” she said. Among other actions, the agency is working with schools to develop curriculum to help

’70s era

From page 21

“While I was sitting with some friends at a table in the Twin Peaks bar, next to the big windows, I noticed a small group of people, 10 or 15, hanging around the corner. Suddenly there were five or six police near them. More and more people began to arrive and more and more cops too. I went outside and ran right into Cleve Jones on the sidewalk and asked what was going on,” he said. Jones was there as part of a protest against Trump; marchers from downtown were en route to meet demonstrators in the Castro. “The people were young and I suddenly felt very old,” Kief said. “The looks on the faces were the same. I spoke with one of the young women in the group and the first words out of her mouth were, ‘We feel hopeless and didn’t know what to do, so here we are.’

serve her constituents and secure federal resources for San Francisco,” wrote Bernal. “Now more than ever, it’s critically important that we protect and defend the progress that Leader Pelosi and President Obama have made at the national level. That’s where I will be focusing my energies.” The decision by Bernal increases speculation that Lee will likely name gay community college board member Alex Randolph to the D8 seat. Others mentioned as possible picks include Rebecca Prozan, a lesbian Google executive who lost her bid for the D8 seat in 2010, and Paul Henderson, Lee’s deputy chief of staff and director of public safety who this month lost his bid for a judicial seat on the local Superior Court. Don’t look for Leno’s name to be added to the mix of potential candidates who may run for the seat in 2018 when it will be on the ballot, barring a surprise municipal election next year to fill a congressional vacancy. As the B.A.R. reported last week, Leno is contemplating a mayoral bid in 2019 and has been encouraged by friends to run for office sooner to remain in the public eye. Leno, a one-time holder of the D8 supervisor seat, told the B.A.R. he has no desire to return to the board, akin to Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s re-election to his District 3 seat last year and to a full four-year term this month. “It is not in my interest. It should be afforded to the next generation of leadership,” said Leno. As for Wiener, he continued to lead District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, his opponent in the race for Leno’s Senate seat, with 51.4 percent of the vote as of Tuesday afternoon.t youth deal with the problems, she said. “Young people are so much more vulnerable than we are,” Christian said. Paul Henderson, a gay AfricanAmerican who works as deputy chief of staff for Mayor Ed Lee, encouraged people to be vigilant and report incidents. “We can’t expect others to care more about messages than we all do,” Henderson said.t The DA’s hate crime hotline number is (415) 551-9595. The Human Rights Commission can be reached at (415) 252-2500. People may contact the police department anonymously by calling (415) 575-4444 or by texting TIP411. Type SFPD in the subject line. Officials reminded people that emergencies should still be reported to 911.

“Then it hit me and I told her that I had stood on this very spot on Monday, November 27, 1978 about this same hour – the night after the murder of our mayor and Harvey. Thirty-eight years later, suddenly those same feelings of hopelessness, anger, dread, sorrow, and numbness came flooding back. The same scenario, a small group begins to gather, joined by more and more ... I hugged her, embarrassed by my lack of self-control, I lost it completely and began to cry and so did she,” Kief said. “As this new young crowd began to swell, I marveled at how well organized they were, how they quickly turned their despair into anger. I felt a deep sense of pride and comfort knowing this generation is certainly going to be just as active and mobilized to continue the fight we started for human rights so long ago.”t Let No Stranger Wait Outside Your Door is available on Amazon.com.

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Legal Notices>> SUMMONS SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: PATRICIA RAMPE (AKA TRICIA RAMPE), AN INDIVIDUAL; MICHAEL BAKER, AN INDIVIDUAL; GETARTUP, INC., A DELAWARE CORPORATION; AND DOES 1 TO 20, INCLUSIVE. YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: JENNIFER ODELL CASE NO. CGC-15-546031 Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp) your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www. courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The name and address of the court is: San Francisco Superior Court 400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 941024515. The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

ANDY I. CHEN, 2310 HOMESTEAD ROAD, SUITE C1 #429, LOS ALTOS, CA 94024-7302; (650) 735-2436. Date: May 28, 2015; Clerk, by De La VegaNavarro, Rosaly, Deputy.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552496

In the matter of the application of: KARIN ABERG BROOKS, 4086 25TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KARIN ABERG BROOKS, is requesting that the name KARIN ABERG BROOKS, be changed to KARIN MARGARETA ABERG BROOKS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 10th of JANUARY 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOVEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552425

In the matter of the application of: ROBERTO LOBO FILHO, 160 EDDY ST #425, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROBERTO LOBO FILHO, is requesting that the name ROBERTO LOBO FILHO, be changed to ROBERTO DO CARMO GUIMARAES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 22nd of December 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037327600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CUE MARKETING, 1019 MINNESOTA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CELESTE HENKELMANN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/29/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037325600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037326800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MCNERNEY PELICHOFF ROESS HOWARD PROPERTIES, 14 MINT PLAZA, 5TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PATRICK MCNERNEY, SCOTT PELICHOFF, ROESS LLC (CA) & MARTIN MCNERNEY DEVELOPEMENT, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037294800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ADVANCE HEALTH SF, 582A SAN JOSE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ADVANCE HEALTH SF (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION ASIA NOODLE, 5249 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MISSION LILY’S CAFE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037321000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOLLY HOUSE RECORDS, 3924 21ST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SWAGGER LIKE US PRODUCTIONS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037324000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLORES, 2030 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 2030 UNION STREET LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/27/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037292600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GENJI SUSHI CAS, 2001 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GENJI PACIFIC LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/04/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROBOT BOY PRODUCTIONS, 2166 45TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDGAR GARCIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037330200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO THERAPY SERVICES, 45 FRANKLIN ST #213, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEXIS STRICKER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037334600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLEAN LINE CONSTRUCTION, 1580 GREAT HWY #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL CLAYTON HEKKEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/04/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037307100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IMPECCABLE BOOKKEEPING, 1675 26TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAMALJIT BAINS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/13/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037338100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO DETACHMENT, MARINE CORPS LEAGUE, 401 VAN NESS AVE #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-4521. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed BARRY L. MARQUARDT & HENRY ROSE JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS SF EMBARCADERO, 2 EMBARCADERO CENTER, LOBBY LEVEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EMBARCADERO FITNESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA MOVERS LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE INC., 1888 GENEVA AVE #504B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CALIFORNIA MOVERS LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIMPLE MOVE SF, 1888 GENEVA AVE #504B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SIMPLE MOVE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037330400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CITY COUNTER, 115 SANSOME ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CITY COUNTER, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037348500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OCEAN BEACH SF, 2117 48TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY MALIA STANFORD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037346700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KEANE EYES GALLERY, 3040 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed ROBERT L. BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/90. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/14/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037311400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DSG STUDIOS, 564 MONTEREY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANN MARIE GARVIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037337900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CASERO GOURMET SAUCES, 1394 A HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GUSTAVO DELLY PENA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/28/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AAA SOLAR AND DEVELOPERS; GOLDEN GATE SOLAR AND DEVELOPERS; 130 POPE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YOSHIRO MIKUMO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AA BACK FLOW TESTING, 127 KINGSTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN BENETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037322700

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037331200

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037336600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUTOEROTICA; THE DILDO MINES, 4077A 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PATRICK E. BATT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INTOACTIONS, 1850 PAGE ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117-1910. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REINHOLD A. STEINBECK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIENA KIM, 4052 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RIENA Y. KIM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/07/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037347600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PMR PRIME, 350 TOWNSEND ST #405, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INTERNET 404 TECHNOLOGIES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037320400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPEAK E Z (CA), 455 UPPER TERRACE #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SPEAK E Z (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRIDE ROOFING, 650 SOUTH VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAFAEL ALATORRE HUERTA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/24/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/24/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035765000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: CHINO, 3198 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by CHINO-AMERICANO LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/04/14.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037355400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA KIWI BABY, 566A GROVE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRITTANY HOOPER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/21/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037348900

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Classifieds The

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552540

In the matter of the application of: TIMOTHY WAYNE ARNETT, 182 HOWARD ST #141, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TIMOTHY WAYNE ARNETT, is requesting that the name TIMOTHY WAYNE ARNETT, be changed to JAX LELAND MCCLOUD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 12th of January 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

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NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037346200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GERMAN’S ELECTRICAL SERVICES, 1008 LARKIN ST #304, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GERMAN EDUARDO LOPEZ SANCHEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/14/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/14/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037350100

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRAND X ANTIQUES, 570 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIMOTHY J. FLINT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/09/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/16/16.

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NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037327800

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE JACKSONFULLER TEAM; SF MODERN CONDOS PROJECT, 2282 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALABAMA NAPLES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/16.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ABRAMS TOWING, 585 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO AUTO BODY, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/16.

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NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037353700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE RENTAL GAL; BAY AREA RENTAL ADVISORS; BAY AREA REAL ESTATE ADVISORS, 1998 PACIFIC AVE #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAMELA O’BRIEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/06/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/16.

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Vol. 46 • No. ?? • November 24-30, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

More in sorrow than in anger by Richard Dodds

artin Moran wrote a play exploring forgiveness and a play exploring anger, and both have origins in a sexually abusive relationship that began when Moran was 12 years old. That they are both one-man shows written for him to perform emphasizes just how personal they are. But did they bring closure? No, Moran says, because he doesn’t believe there is such a thing. See page 34 >>

Martin Moran presents his companion solo shows The Tricky Part and All the Rage, dramatic journeys that began with childhood sexual abuse, in repertory at ACT’s Strand Theater. Joan Marcus

William Blake, artist in Paradise

“The Virgin Hushing the Young John the Baptist” (1799) by William Blake. Pen and ink and tempera on paper on linen, laid down on canvas. Signed with monogram and dated 1799 at lower left.

by Sura Wood

yger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? – William Blake The first stanza of “The Tyger,” a poem by the late-18th/early-19th century English Romantic poet, painter and printmaker William Blake published in 1794, is one of the most famous in the English language. Blake, the progenitor of the livre d’artiste, who created hundreds of innovative engraved illustrations, original writings, watercolors, and illuminated books exquisitely hand-colored and heightened with gold, at last has a gallery dedicated to him. It’s the only one of its kind since he launched his own in 1809, an unsuccessful venture that failed to sell a single work and closed after only a year. One wag pronounced the contents of its catalogue “the wild effusions of a distempered brain.” See page 28 >>

Courtesy The William Blake Gallery

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

PRESENTED BY

NOV 25 - DEC 11, 2016 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

<< Out There

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016 2pub-BBB_BAR_112416.pdf

10/24/16

2:59 PM

Talking gay turkey

by Roberto Friedman

his week Out There finds ourselves back in Washington, DC, and environs, where we grew up, came out, and spent our wild youth. We’re glad we’re here before the Reactionary Right-Wing Apocalypse transforms this town and the new nightmare Administration takes over, because we’re not sure we’ll be returning any time soon. Would we have wanted to visit Berlin on a pleasure trip in the 1930s? Johannesburg during the Apartheid era? We think not. We spend Thanksgiving in the bosom of our straight family, and you can just imagine how that goes. When we go around the dinner table and say one thing we’re grateful for, most of our relatives will cite spouses, children, or family elders. Here’s what OT will say: “Thank God I was born gay! 100% gay! I knew I was gay when I was a very young boy. So I also knew that I wasn’t headed for a straight, suburban, heteronormative life, because I knew that wouldn’t make me happy. I would need to light off for the territories. To put it into a Talking Heads lyric, I’d have to ‘find me a city to live in.’ “Of course San Francisco filled the bill (after stays of various lengths in Philadelphia, Provincetown, Palo Alto, those three pulsating P’s). Not only could I be my true self there, I’m surrounded by people who are

CMY

similarly liberated. And it’s a melting pot: I’m as likely to hear Spanish, Mandarin or Tagalog as English on the street, with plenty of Russian, German, French and Italian thrown in, too. I know folks of all different kinds of sexualities, backgrounds, and purposes in life. Thank God I’m not stuck in some suburban monoculture. “Thank God for my crazy gay friends! In my 20s, when my pals and lovers were dropping like flies all around me, while straight America yawned and looked away, while the straight President refused to say the word AIDS, it was gay people who supported me, and who mobilized for action. The gay world got me through the worst of the plague. In my 30s, broke, broken-hearted and temporarily homeless, it was my gay family who let me couch-surf and found me a place to live. Gay colleagues helped me survive as a freelance writer

until I got back on my feet. Gay love gave me something to live for. “Thank God for our incredible partner Pepi and all the gay loves of our life. “Thank God for gay writers, musicians, and artists of every kind. For gay culture, which surprises and sustains me. For gay community intrigues and in-fighting, which never cease to amaze. Thank God for the gay press, making sure our voices are heard. “Thank God for gay pot dealers! “Thank God for gay sex! Thank God I found my fun fooling around with other boys from the neighborhood, beginning when I was nine. Thank God we baby gays had the ingenuity to create a rotating sex club, based in our basements, and were ready to move on whenever we were in danger of being discovered. Thank God for the prepubescent sex drive. All true. “Perhaps that’s a topic for the next family dinner. Meanwhile please pass the mashed potatoes.” Then we scrape the family off the floor and carry on.t

Wholly matrimony by Jim Piechota

Before I Do: A Legal Guide to Marriage, Gay and Otherwise by Elizabeth F. Schwartz; The New Press, $14.95 ifficult to forget and even more savory to remember, a landmark ruling on June 26, 2015 decided that LGBT people “are free to commit to each other under the law of every state, and our commitments must be recognized nationwide.” OK, let’s get married! But now what? In her debut guidebook Before

NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER

BY 2016 TONY AWARD-WINNER STEPHEN KARAM

DIRECTED BY NCTC ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE BEN RANDLE

NOV 11 – DEC 18, 2016 BUY TICKETS AT NCTCSF.ORG BOX OFFICE: 415.861.8972 25 VAN NESS AVE. AT MARKET ST.

I Do: A Legal Guide to Marriage, Gay and Otherwise, lesbian Miami attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, whose law practice focuses on LGBT family formation, takes the guesswork out of getting married and legalizing a sacred union. Though at first glance getting hitched might seem as simple as tearfully dropping down on bended knee, there are a multitude of decisions, delicate processes, and precarious legal nuances involved in the creation and execution of not just a same-sex marriage, but any marriage. With an important opening chapter delineating key questions many will have before the big event is planned, Schwartz takes the anxiety out of these issues. Her guide is both easy to read and brimming with information. She addresses key questions involving separation, death, debt, stepchildren, co-parenting, transgender spouses, estate planning, and familial inheritance. But first, she offers a cursory overview of what marriage equality really means by way of its long, serpentine progress into the American history books, its impact on the world, and its implementation, which, Schwartz admits, remains a “work in progress, especially in hostile regions.” Next comes the really hard, sometimes uncomfortable questions couples must ask each other in order for marriage to become a fair-minded, legallybinding negotiation. A marriage can have lasting ramifications on issues of social security benefits, insurance, taxes, immigration, and joint property ownership. Schwartz’s guidebook remains sensible throughout, and even addresses the top 10 reasons couples may choose not to marry, with one reason coming in dead last: “There are those who are politically and philosophically opposed to

marriage on its face.” The author creates hypothetical scenarios that illuminate some of the complex legal challenges many couples may face. Advice from a wide range of gay and lesbian professionals in the financial, legal, and academic worlds offers fresh perspectives. A few vivid anecdotes come courtesy of David Boyer, a freelance radio producer in San Francisco and Brooklyn, who describes how he entered into (and later, separated from) serious relationships with great sense and forethought; and mom, lawyer, and Bay Area stand-up comic Helen Smolinski, who explains the challenges of childrearing with her wife, and the formidable “division of labor” that quickly ensued. These are real stories, and readers will be able to relate to their experiences. While not a substitute for legal counsel, Schwartz’s marriage manual is a must-have preparatory reference book for anyone contemplating a marital union with the same or the opposite sex. “I hope that LGBT married couples can be a catalyst for change,” Schwartz writes, “challenging assumptions about what marriage looks like generally.”t

A new exhibit of old favoritesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;now open. Used in marble masterpieces, the mineral calcite has been making life more beautiful for millennia. Uncover the secrets behind hundreds of striking specimens at this new exhibit. Get tickets at calacademy.org

26739-CAS-Gems-Print-David-Bay Area Reporter-9.75x16-11.10.16-FA.indd 1

11/1/16 3:40 PM

<< Theatre

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Siamese & Western worlds collide by Richard Dodds

lot of dust can settle in 65 years, but director Bartlett Sher has taken his theatrical Swiffer to The King and I, and without having to rearrange the furniture. The touring production now on view at the Golden Gate Theatre, and based on the recent Lincoln Center Theater incarnation, looks very much as you’d expect The King and I should, but instead of dust in neglected crannies, Sher has uncovered nuances that spur renewed vitality even in a musical so often revived. At its core, to be sure, The King and I has strong bones. The songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II have become indelibly etched into popular culture, and Hammerstein’s book is both very specific to its distant circumstances and universally relevant in ways that can have uncanny contemporary weight. There is clarity in this production that illuminates these qualities even if not solving some of the clunkier machinations. The story told in The King and I has been passed down through unreliable filters, beginning with the actual woman of mostly Anglo descent and her 19th-century adventures as a widow hired to teach English to the King of Siam’s multitude of children. Historians have found inconsistencies and fabrications in Anna Leonowens’ two memoirs published in the late 1800s about her experiences. Margaret Langdon then put her own popular spin on the material with her semi-fictionalized novel Anna and the King of Siam published in 1944, and Hammerstein further revised the story to give it a satisfying musical theater framework and to make it palatable to audiences of 1951. (No slaves burned at the stake in Hammerstein’s version, as they were in Langdon’s.) Without stoking forced emphases, this production still makes clear the story’s ongoing relevance. Colonialism, women’s issues, human

Matthew Murphy

Jose Llana as the Siamese king and Laura Michelle Kelly as English governess Anna Leonowens find unexpected rapport during “Shall We Dance?” in the touring production of The King and I, now at the Golden Gate Theatre.

rights, isolationism, Western misadventures in Southeast Asia, and the dangers of forcing one culture’s mores on another continue to resonate, albeit differently in 2016 than they did in 1951. A line that may have

Bangkok, and then decide whether to let people in.” Such resonances and most everything else became overshadowed by Yul Brynner’s increasingly looming presence. The show was originally

“I hope to build a wall around Bangkok, and then decide whether to let people in.” –The Siamese king

seen a throwaway until recently can now rouse murmurs. That’s what happened on opening night at the Golden Gate Theatre when the king says, “I hope to build a wall around

conceived as a vehicle for Gertrude Lawrence, with Brynner receiving below-the-title billing when it opened on Broadway. He won a Tony Award as best featured actor in

a musical, but by the time the movie was made, it was an Oscar for best actor that he took home. During the final decade of his life, Brynner played the King of Siam nearly nonstop on tour and in two returns to Broadway, and the musical became something of a golden throne from which he could reign over audiences. The role of King Mongkut, stretched out of shape in Brynner’s performances, is rendered with comparatively regal modesty by Jose Llana. While not a physically commanding presence on stage, Llana is still an imposing authority figure who adds a mischievous glint as he communicates exasperation through eye rolls, body language, and double takes. Yet Llana is not always able to quickly pull the eye when the stage gets crowded. Laura Michelle Kelly faces no such problem as Miss Anna, always outfitted in an enormous hoop skirt that creates an enlarged personal space.

But Kelly stands out for reasons that go far beyond her attire, with a first-class performance as the very proper but warmly charismatic governess. Playing English governesses is definitely in her wheelhouse; Kelly starred in the London and Broadway productions of Mary Poppins. But she brings specific charm and even skillful physical comedy to her role in The King and I, and when she sings “Getting to Know You” to her Siamese charges, we’re happy to be under her tutelage. Other major roles are expertly filled, especially by Joan Almedilla as the king’s No. 1 wife Lady Thiang, who powerfully explains her devotion to the flawed monarch in “Something Wonderful.” Manna Nichols is both steely and sweet as Tuptim, a slave girl delivered to the king as a gift. Nichols and Anthony Chan, as her doomed lover Lun Tha, effectively deliver the score’s two big love ballads, “We Kiss in a Shadow” and “I Have Dreamed,” then Nichols powerfully narrates her retelling of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for the king and his guests that is subversive enough to provoke horrific punishment in many countries even today. The Small House of Uncle Thomas, a ballet with Jerome Robbins’ nonpareil choreography preserved, remains a highlight of The King and I as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel is informed by Buddhism, Siamese dance, and the “scientific” knowledge that the king has commanded Anna to bring to the kingdom. The crosspollination of cultures manifested in the expansive ballet is deemed a good thing by the musical’s authors. But even in 1951, the musical’s team of American showmen seems to recognize the dangers from believing the delicate balances that hold together any society might be better if only they acted more like us.t The King and I will run through Dec. 11 at the Golden Gate Theatre. Tickets are $55-$275. Call (888) 746-1799 or go to shnsf.com.

William Blake

From page 25

“I must be stark raving mad, too,” concedes antiquarian book dealer John Windle, owner of The William Blake Gallery, which opened on the second floor of 49 Geary in San Francisco last month. Windle, a 40-year veteran of the book trade, also runs the Blake Library and a shop specializing in medieval illuminated texts and illustrated books, and children’s books, just a few steps away from his newest venture. With perhaps the largest collection of Blake available for purchase and clients from around the world, from students offering up $5 for a pocket Blake to venture capitalists willing to drop $100 million, the place has the comforting feel of an old study lined with treasured volumes and rare artistic finds. “Blake was a visionary who saw how to create art that had never been created before, and the first man in the history of Western art to combine art and craft,” says Windle. Blake’s mystical visions and the rueful wit and wisdom of his words have inspired innumerable scholarly books and studies, influenced everyone from the Romantic poets, the Transcendentalists and the Beats to commercial advertisers, and still cast a spell on viewers three centuries later. Blake, the man, was a creature of dualities. Though the subject matter of his powerful imagery could be religious in nature, he staunchly opposed organized religion and never set foot in a church; his spirituality was all-embracing, not judgmental; his politics, inspired by the American and French Revolutions, were

“Blake was a visionary who saw how to create art that had never been created before, and the first man in the history of Western art to combine art and craft.” –John Windle

Courtesy The William Blake Gallery

“The Death of the Strong Wicked Man” by William Blake, from Blake’s illustrations for Robert Blair’s The Grave (London: Cadell and Davies, 1808). Single plate, etching on wove unwatermarked paper.

radical; his goal was no less than the redemption of a woefully flawed human race; and he was a proponent of free love. Always in Paradise: A William Blake Chrestomathy, the gallery’s inaugural exhibition, is one of several shows that will draw from the collection in coming months. Among the works is a pristine suite of 22 plates, issued in 1825/26, of The Book of Job, described by Windle as “arguably the greatest engraved book in English artistic history”; “The Complaint of Job” (ca. 1785), a rare preparatory ink sketch

conveying the suffering of a ghostly white, inconsolable Job and his wife, his weeping friends kneeling beside them; and tortured illustrations to Dante’s Inferno (1838), a project for which Blake taught himself Italian but never completed. Working from 102 pencil sketches and watercolors he had created for The Divine Comedy, the seven unfinished copper engravings here include “The Circle of the Lustful; Paolo and Francesca,” where tormented souls, trapped by a fate they cannot escape, are ferried downriver to their destiny. The exhibit’s only color image, the

splendid, remarkably well-preserved “The Virgin Hushing the Young John the Baptist” (1799), is part of a commission for 50 pen-and-ink tempera paintings, of which only 30 survive. In a style influenced by early Renaissance panel paintings, the golden figures of the Virgin Mary, the Christ child sleeping near her and an impish John glowing in the foreground are contrasted with a dramatic crimson backdrop. Lush in comparison to the starkness of some of his prints and done in an experimental technique the artist called “portable fresco,” it combines the linear clarity of watercolor with the density of an oil painting. Modeled on a medieval emblem book, the tiny intaglio etchings that comprise For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise (ca. 1825) depict the arc of human life from womb to grave and the various emotional states in-between. Some are inscribed with aphorisms, others with a single word: Earth, Water, Air, Death’s Door, etc. But a pair of prints from the series seems particularly emblematic of Blake’s idiosyncratic

cast of mind. In one, a man on the edge of the planet mounts an impossibly tall ladder, attempting to scale a crescent moon in the night sky, with the inscription: “I want! I want!” while the text accompanying the next image, a fellow in the final desperate throes of drowning in choppy waters, reads: “Help! Help! So much for Robert Browning’s musing, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp,” when climbing a stairway to the stars is a ticket to oblivion. According to Windle, Blake couldn’t sell his work during his lifetime and was constantly broke. He died in “genteel” poverty and would have languished in obscurity if not for his rediscovery by the PreRaphaelites in the 1860s. But the reasons for his enduring appeal run deep. “Blake’s ability to connect to the infinite, to the spiritual, and to transcend time gets into people and they don’t even know it has happened,” he says. “There’s nothing like him.”t williamblakegallery.com

Theatre>>

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Coping mechanisms

Lois Tema

A reporter (JD Scalzo, left) hopes to cover the story of a family trauma in which Eric Kerr plays a reluctant central character, as an ornery bus station agent (Loralee Windsor) looks on in Sons of the Prophet at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

by Richard Dodds

e all realize that with life comes suffering. But unlike jury duty or DMV appointments, arrivals of actual suffering have no schedule. You can’t say, oh, this horrible thing has just happened to me, so I guess I’m exempt for another year. Even in a deluge of misfortune, refrigerators need repair, gas tanks need refilling, and bills must be paid. Character can be reshaped by how one slogs ahead, often with spiritual reinforcements redeployed. In Sons of the Prophet, this can be prayers to Saint Rafka, who asked for physical suffering to prove that God had not abandoned her. Or perhaps recitations of the mantra “All is well” that The Prophet author Kahlil Gibran said shortly before his death. Both of these historical figures are frequently invoked in Stephen Karam’s play, though the playwright doesn’t suggest he believes that they offer anything more than a topical anesthetic for what life throws you. Sons of the Prophet may not sound like a source of laughter as well as contemplation, but Karam has woven humor throughout his 100-minute play that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2012. His newest play, The Humans, won him a Tony Award earlier this year. New Conservatory Theatre Center is now presenting Sons of the Prophet, a play of strangely colliding scenes, dialogue, emotions, and characters. Karam may want to keep us off-balance, much as life doesn’t offer itself up in neatly wrapped scenes, and this fractured style has been effectively corralled in director Ben Randle’s production on a utilitarian set accented by girders suggesting the collapsed steel industry in the area of Pennsylvania where the play takes place. The story gets underway with a comic scene of miscommunication in the office of a glitzy publisher banished from New York for authorizing a memoir about the Holocaust that was soon debunked. Her new assistant only wants to do his job, but Gloria can’t help herself from clumsily trying to suss out facts about Joseph’s life he is reluctant to share. Yes, he is of Lebanese descent; yes, his mother recently died; and yes, his father was the victim in a highly publicized accident that began with a high school student putting a deer decoy in the road. And, yes, his family is distantly related to Kahlil Gibran. Gloria seems to have known much of this, especially the Douaihy family’s connection to Gibran. She thinks a book about that connection might help her back to the top of her profession, and she dangles

the promise of health insurance in exchange for Joseph’s permission to allow his very private family to be examined. Joseph is torn because he took the job to get health insurance after various mysterious ailments sidelined him from his athletic ambitions. Meanwhile, with both parents dead, he has to hold together his family that includes his irascible ailing uncle who worships St. Rafka, and his flamboyantly gay younger brother. Joseph is also gay, but as his brother points out, no one would know it since he dresses like a lesbian lumberjack. Family arguments are contentious affairs, with hardly anyone ever allowed to finish a thought before someone else tramples over their words. It creates a prickly feeling, not always pleasant, but there is both authenticity and ongoing humor in the exchanges. A main point of contention is how the family should deal with the high school athlete who caused the accident that led to the family patriarch’s death. A local judge wants to let him play in the football championships before imposing a sentence, and the Douaihy family is torn between revenge and the chance to give this African-American foster child a chance to preserve his college scholarship. Emotions flow from all directions, and those directions are never fixed. All the characters must adapt on the fly, and the performers admirably follow in step. Eric Kerr is appealingly stoic as Joseph, and adept with the character’s low-key sardonic reactions. As his gay younger brother, Stephen Kanaski is his own special creation as he flounces around in a buttoned-down milieu. Donald Currie finds a place between jovial and crotchety as the old-school uncle who likes to push PC buttons. JD Scalzo has a nice turn as a reporter covering the story of the deadly deer decoy, providing Joseph with a brief love interest. Much of the comic relief comes from the desperate book editor that Cheryl Smith plays to neurotic perfection. Marcus Drew Steele brings sensitivity to the thinly written role of the high school athlete, and Nancy French and Loralee Windsor add more humor to the proceedings in a series of roles. Sons of the Prophets is about a lot of things, and it can be frustrating when those things don’t filter down into something that is singularly recognizable. It’s as if Karam is saying, “Life doesn’t give you that, so why should I?”t Sons of the Prophet will run at New Conservatory Theatre Center through Dec. 18. Tickets are $25$50. Call (415) 861-8972 or go to nctcsf.org.

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<< Out&About

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

O&A

Stuffed by Jim Provenzano

ake advantage of the holidays by enjoying the quiet weekend, or walking off the carbs by getting to some cultural events. Either way, no judgement. For nightlife events, see On the Tab in BARtab.

Fri 25

Cirque du Soleil @ AT&T Parking Lot

Home Land Security @ Presidio Trust Park

Wed 23 All Aunt Hagar’s Children @ Z Space Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones’ drama set in 1950s Washington, DC involves a Korean war veteran determined to solve a murder. $20-$58. Tue,Wed,Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Dec. 11. 450 Florida St. www.zspace.org

The King and I @ Golden Gate Theatre The touring production of the Lincoln Center Theatre four-Tony-winning production of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical about a schoolteacher and the King of Siam. $55-$225. Tue-Sat 8pm. Many 2pm matinees. Thru Dec. 11. 1 Taylor St. www.shnsf.com

Through Knowledge to Justice @ GLBT History Museum Exhibits Through Knowledge to Justice: The Sexual World of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), about the early gay rights pioneer and scholar, and Noche de Ambiente, a mini-exhibit of Latino/x LGBT history, curated by Juliana Delgado Lopera and Ángel Rafael VázquezConcepción. (Closed Nov. 24 & 25). 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Thu 24 Indigenous People’s Sunrise Ceremony @ Alcatraz Island Join hundreds of people honoring first Nations and a commemoration of the 1969-71 occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes. Bring warm clothes, snacks, drums. $14 ferry rides. Depart Pier 33, 4:30am-6:30am. Annual 2am-10am. www.facebook.com/ events/1697072080537339/ www.alcatrazcruises.com

Site-specific multi-artist installation in and around the historic gun turrets overlooking the bay and Golden Gate Bridge; curated by Cheryl Haines with the For Site Foundation. Free. Thru Dec. 18. www.for-site.org

Cloud Forests @ SF Botanical Gardens See beautiful floral and foliage displays, trees and plants in various beautiful gardens specific to region. Daily walking tours and more. Free$15. Tours, lectures, classes and more. Also, The Park: A Love Story, nature photos by Stephen Kane; thru Dec. 6:30pm-8:30pm. Free Day Nov. 24! Open daily, 7:30am-sunset. Golden Gate Park. 661-1316. www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

Safeway Holiday Ice Rink @ Union Square The annual ice rink opens once again for holiday fun. Open Nov. 24. Thru Jan. 16. Special events, including Christmas tree lighting. www.unionsquareicerink.com

Fri 25 Cirque du Soleil @ AT&T Park The amazing Canadian circus company performs another dazzling show, Luzia, a Waking Dream of Mexico. $49 and up. Tue-Sat 8pm. Also various matiness thru Jan. 29. 74 Mission Rock St. www.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia

Equus @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros’ production of Peter Shaffer’s compelling drama about a psychoanalyst treating a teenage boy who has a strange relationship with barnyard horses. $15-$40. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Dec. 10. 215 Jackson St. at Battery. www.TheRhino.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs; now with new characters like Sia and Bernie Sanders. Holiday Extravaganza runs Nov. 16 –Dec. 31 (special New Year’s Eve shows). $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm & 9pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd. (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

The Killer Queens, Rebel Rebel @ Great American Music Hall The all-women Queen tribute band performs; the David Bowie tribute band opens. $15. $40 with dinner, 9pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

The Last Tiger in Haiti @ Berkeley Rep Jeff Augustin’s then-and-now story of a group of modern Haitians fleeing to freedom. $45-$81. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 27. 2025 Addison St. www.berkeleyrep.org

Thu 24

Sons of the Prophet @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning and Pulitzer Prize Finalist comic family play about suffering and redemption gets a local production. $25-$50. Previews; opening night Nov. 19. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 18. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Summer in Sanctuary @ The Marsh NPR radio host Al Letson performs his solo show about working as a community writing teacher in Florida. $20-$100. Fridays 8pm. Saturdays 8:30pm. Thru Nov. 26. themarsh.org

Butterflies and Blooms @ Conservatory of Flowers

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Join GLBT hikers of the SF Hiking Club for a six-mile hike at the Sonoma Coast. Bring lunch, water, hat, sunscreen, layers. Carpool meets 8:45 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 740-9888. www.sfhiking.com

Watermelon Woman 3.0 @ Center for Sex and Culture Group exhibit of diverse art works celebrating director Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking African American lesbian film. Thru Jan. 6. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Indigenous People’s Sunrise Ceremony @ Alcatraz Island

Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley

New exhibit of 20 mechanical sculptures by 12 artists, along with interactive science displays. $20$30. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Pier 15, Embarcadero at Green St. www.exploratoratorium.edu

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

SF Hiking Club @ Pomo Canyon

Not Alone: Exploring Bonds Between and With Members of the Armed Forces, an expansive group exhibition featuring works by local and national artists and veteran artists. 6pm-8pm. Thru March 4. War Memorial Veterans Bldg. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfartscommission.org/gallery

Curious Contraptions @ Exploratorium

PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Ammiano returns to the stage with his comic solo show about his life in politics. $20-$100. Thu 8pm, Sat 5pm. Extended shows Nov 26, Dec 3 & 10. 1062 Valencia St. themarsh.org

Sun 27

Bay Area Musicals’ production of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical comedy about a spelling bee and the nervous parents of its kid contestants. $35-$65. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Thru Dec. 4. 650 Geary St. www.bamsf.org

415 370 7152

Mincing Words @ The Marsh

Not Alone @ SF Arts Commission Gallery

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Alcazar Theatre

Steven Underhill

Live circus-theatre show about civil disobedience and justice. $24-$75. Sat 4pm & 8pm. Sun 3pm & 7pm. Thru Dec. 18. 785 7th St., Oakland. www.kineticartsproductions.com

Vintage Prints @ William Blake Gallery New gallery of historic art by the 18th and 19th-century poet and illustrator. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm. Sat 11am-5pm. 49 Geary St. #205. www.williamblakegallery.com

Tue 29 Fabian Echevarria @ Strut Fotohodo, an exhibit of the local gay photographer’s work. 8pm. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint New Sunday program offers tours and exhibits about San Francisco’s history. Explore the fascinating building’s grand halls and vaults. $5-$10. Weekly, 1pm-4pm. 88 5th St. 5371105. www.SFhistory.org

Wed 30 Darren Criss @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s SF tour performs cabaret favorites and some of his own songs.$45-$85 ($20 food/drink min). 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

David France @ Books Inc. Opera Plaza

Sat 26

WINNER Best Wedding Photographer

Inversion: Circus Disobedience @ Kinetic Arts Center, Oakland

Beautiful floral displays, plants for sale, and docent tours. Starting Nov. 17, the live butterflies exhibit. Thru June 30. Tue-Sun 10am-4pm. $2-$8. Free for SF residents. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Enjoy weekly same-sex tango dancing and a potluck, with lessons early in the day. $7-$15. 3:30-6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St., Berkeley. (510) 8455352. www.finnishhall.com

Date Night at Pet Emergency @ The Marsh Lisa Rothman’s solo show about family troubles surrounding a sick dog. $20$100. Sundays, 2pm. Thru Dec. 4. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Matt Yee @ Oasis The funny, saucy adult sing-along show with the affable performer/host returns with a wacky post-Thanksgiving show. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. mattyee.com sfoasis.com

Pink Martini @ SF Jazz Center The bouyant fun orchestra, with vocalist Storm Large, returns for a concert of new and favorite music. pinkmartini.com sfjazz.org

Swing Dancing @ Symbolic Dance Prohibition-themed same-sex-friendly dance night, with lessons and DJed dancing; daytime workshops, too, (11am-&pm). $5-$15. 6:30pm-11pm. www.BalboaFestival.com

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players perform Edward Albee’s classic drama about disgruntled married college town couples. $25-$40. In repertory Nov. 27-Jan. 22. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. shotgunplayers.org

Mon 28 Songs of the Season @ Halcyon Donna Sachet’s 24th annual musicfilled fundraiser (for AIDS Emergency Fund) and variety show includes performances by Sharon McNight, Leanne Borghesi, Brian Kent, Jason Brock, Dan O’Leary, Brook Michael Smith, vocal quartet Dyn4mix, Abigail Zsiga, and violinist Kippy Marks. $60 and up. 8pm. Also Nov. 29 & 30. 5586999. www.aef-sf.org

The director of the Oscar-nominated ACT-UP documentary How to Survive a Plague discusses his book adaptation of the film, and his work with GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick. $30 includes book and partialdonation to the Historical Society). 7pm. 601 Van Ness Ave. www.booksinc.net

A John Waters Christmas @ Great American Music Hall The gay film director tells tawdry hilarious stories. $49-$55. $115 VIP. 8pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

Light in the Grove @ National AIDS Memorial Grove 25th anniversary gala tented fundraiser for the Grove, with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and dinner, featuring music, performance artistry, and evocative light displays throughout the memorial. $250 and up. 6pm-10pm. Nancy Pelosi Drive at JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.aidsmemorial.org

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s James J. Siegel hosts the monthly reading series at the martini bar, with TimDonnelly, Matt Jaffe, Meryl Natchez, Alvin Orloff, and Apollo Rapafrangou. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

Thu 1 The Golden Girls @ Victoria Theatre Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Matthew Martin and Holotta Tymes return in Christmas episodes of the hilarious and popular drag stage adaptation of the hit sitcom about returned women in Florida. Special guest stars Dec. 1-3. $30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Dec. 23. 2961 16th St. at Mission. www.goldengirlssf.com

Linda Eder @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Broadway and pop singer-actress returns with a new cabaret show of Christmas songs from her holiday albums. $90-$110. 8pm. Dec. 2, 8pm, Dec. 3, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

She Loves Me @ SF Playhouse The lighthearted musical by Masteroff, Bock and Harnick follows a comedic misadventures of a straight couple looking for love over the holidays. $30-$125. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Jan. 14. 450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org

Film>>

t Where animals live & flourish

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

by Erin Blackwell

here do animals live when they’re not in zoos? I don’t mean domesticated dogs and cats who crowd our SPCA and living rooms, or the clever rats, bossy pigeons, and sneaky cockroaches who accompany us in city dwellings. I mean the Resistance: wild animals who need great swathes of air and land in order to exercise their Godgiven freedom unimpeded by the exorbitant drain on resources exacted by human infestation. This is the underlying question posed in a new film with the benign title Seasons. Co-produced by France and Germany, this 95-minute documentary captures the glory and mystery of non-human persons going about their daily lives in natural habitat. Opens Friday at Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco, and Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley. Filmmakers Jacques Perrin & Jacques Cluzaud are well-known in the States for their genius epic Winged Migration, and Le Peuple Migratoire, which literally translates as The Migrating People. In this title is contained an attitude toward non-human animals as having civil rights on par with the dominant species. This sentiment pervades Seasons, which is about 85% wordless footage and 15% voiceover, providing prehistorical context in a prologue and then some more modern contextualizing as an epilogue. The film’s raison d’etre is, paradoxically, to capture denizens of the forest in the absence of humans. The chronology onscreen is sketchy. The prologue quickly establishes an Ice Age in retreat with fabulous shots of what I’m guessing are musk ox arising out of the snow to shake off their temporary white winter coats, revealing massive heads, hooves, and nostrils. These people are almost impervious

Courtesy of Music Box Films

Some of the non-human persons in filmmakers Jacques Perrin & Jacques Cluzaud’s Seasons.

to sub-zero, as are the elk we watch running in herds up to the Arctic for some reason. If you know your cave paintings circa 40,000 B.C., you’ll have a vague sense of human-animal interaction in France in roughly this period, but the film doesn’t go into human migration into Europe, any more than it identifies species. Data takes a back seat to visuals. The forest is the star of the movie. After the ice recedes, plants flourish, including those great plants called trees. In their shadows and branches and roots arise the many denizens we know from paintings and novels and myths. And if we’re lucky, from our gardens and National Parks. These animals are particular to the forest, and the forest in question is not the equatorial rain forest of Africa and South America. The focus is on Europe. This is interesting because so much conservation focus is on the charismatic megafauna of Africa and the biodiversity of the Amazon, but the less exotic species of the Northern Hemisphere, which includes the States, also need their homes. For 80 minutes we are submerged in a sort of home movie, shot to the highest professional standard,

of animals living their lives. Birds are here in large number, but so are carnivores such as bears and foxes, and ungulates like wild horses and boar. Few amphibians and only one snake, but it’s a humdinger. Film was shot in a dozen forests in France and two in Poland over two years. This isn’t the work of scientists counting species, and no doubt the several cameramen captured anecdotes as they happened upon them, like the baby foxes retreating to their den at the approach of a juvenile lynx. Not exhaustive, but representative. The presence of humans is discreetly evoked, in glimpses that do not impinge on the forest creatures, first as relatively benign huntergatherers. At film’s end, however, we endure a brief but brutal summary of the clearing of the forests, first for ship-building (3,000 giant oaks for a galleon) and then as avenues for the hunt. I am someone who cries at fallen trees, and now I think these tears are a memory of this time, millennia past, when the forest was cleared for agriculture. Our own wild selves, along with the wolves and hedgehogs, have lost our refuge.t

Inside queer Cuba

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! DON’T MISS THE ACCLAIMED NEW YORK HIT

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“BRILLIANT” “SOULFUL” “HILARIOUS” “POWERFUL”

BO continues to be the go-to network for truthful, cuttingedge programming that puts LGBT lives under a microscope. HBO will debut Jon Alpert’s Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution on Nov. 28 at 9 p.m. Castro, 54, is a member of the Cuban Parliament, and the director of the Cuban National Center For Sex Education. In Cuba’s closed, communist and conservative society, Castro has been a staunch advocate for LGBT equality. Mariela Castro’s March will raise many eyebrows among American viewers who might not be aware of the island nation’s cultural shift. As Castro drives around the country, she chats with LGBT people in both urban and rural areas. We meet people from across the LGBT spectrum such as Margarita, once a champion player on the Cuban national tennis team. Margarita was kicked off the team for being a lesbian. Now living with her partner of 10 years, she is an activist. We also meet two transgenders who have decidedly different stories to tell. Juani calls himself “the happiest man in the world” because of the gender-reassignment surgery that gave him a fully functioning penis. He even shows the scars on his leg where flesh was “borrowed” by surgeons in order to create his appendage. In one of the film’s most powerful moments, Juani is embraced by his mom and brother. The brother asks to be forgiven for not accepting Juani when they were younger. During one of the film’s more disturbing moments, we meet a

—THE NEW YORKER —THE NEW YORK TIMES —BACKSTAGE —THE NEW YORK POST

Courtesy HBO

MARTIN MORAN AT THE STRAND

Scene from director Jon Alpert’s Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution.

transgender woman who reveals why she must always wear thick, dark shades: because of acid that was thrown in her face. She endured the attack specifically because of her gender identity. The film does not shy away from Cuba’s homophobia. Several ordinary citizens speak on camera as they express their disdain of LGBT lifestyles. But in contrast, a surprising number of Cubans also say that they are fine with it. We also learn more about Castro herself. In 2014 she voted against an ordinance that would ban employment discrimination against gay men and lesbians because it did not include gender identity. Castro feels that both sexual and gender-identity status need to be protected. In her world, it’s not an either/or issue. Castro’s advocacy has won her the love and admiration of Cuba’s LGBT community. We see the community applauding and cheering as Castro steps up to the podium at a

rally. In many ways she’s become the Cuban equivalent of Harvey Milk as she leads the community out of the closet and on the road to equality – though, unlike Milk, Castro is a cisgender, heterosexual woman. Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution is an uplifting film about a woman who takes great pride and joy in her work and in her achievements. The film will particularly resonate with American LGBT viewers as the presidency of Donald Trump looms on the horizon. No one ever said that the road to equality would be easy, there will always be bumps in the road. But, as Mariela Castro’s March illustrates, eventually we always prevail. Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution will air in rotation on HBO channels for at least a month. It will also be available for online and on-demand viewing. More info: hbo.com/documentaries/mariela-castros-march-cubaslgbt-revolution.t

ALL THE RAGE THE TRICKY PART IN REPERTORY

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MARTIN MORAN DIRECTED BY

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<< Music

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Concertmaster plays a Stradivarius by Philip Campbell

ew Century Chamber Orchestra, the Bay Area treasure with national respect, is poised on the brink of celebrating the second half of its 2016-17 silver anniversary season. The popular group is also bidding a bittersweet farewell to Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who will step down from her position as Music Director following the ensemble’s three-concert 25th anniversary festival in mid-May 2017. Recently, NCCO warmed the auditorium of the beautifully renovated Herbst Theatre in San Francisco with an exciting bill showcasing the impressive Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen, in a guest appearance as part of the Guest Concertmaster Program. Playing the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, young Chen delighted a full house with a nicely balanced program, surrounding Mozart works with British pieces from early decades of the 20th century. Acknowledging how his Australian accent sneaks back up on him during spoken introductions, Chen charmingly explained the program selections with a quote from his dad. “Mozart is to music like oil is to a wok.” He had most of the audience with him as soon as he entered to play and lead the Mozart Divertimento in F Major. Many of the enthusiastic young faces in the crowd probably knew him already from his social

Sophie Zhai

Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen appeared with the New Century Chamber Orchestra.

media presence, recordings for Sony, and numerous online videos, but he also won new fans with his combination of outstanding technique and mature interpretations. It doesn’t hurt that he is also youthfully handsome and fashion-forward. He has been featured in Vogue, and enjoys support from Giorgio Armani. His obvious pleasure during his NCCO debut was shared by the 19 members of the supportive crew in an evening that showed everyone to best effect.

The rendition of Benjamin Britten’s infrequently performed Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, moved engrossingly through quicksilver moods. I am always pleasantly surprised at the really big sound of the ensemble, and Chen’s muscular tone blended beautifully. He achieved his finest moments with a delightful rendition of the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major. Making a satisfying meal of the cadenzas, his lightning virtuosity slowed to a deep lyricism in the

heavenly Adagio. The absence of a full orchestra never mattered. The performance still reflected all of the 19-year-old composer’s witty selfassurance and emotional depth. The concert ended with a strong reading of Edward Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 (1905). Immersing a string quartet within a string orchestra, the emphatic flow of the memorably melodic score seemed tailor-made for Chen and the shimmering sound of the ensemble.

The encore was an arrangement, almost a re-composition by cellist Stephan Konsz, of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1. It veered close to New Age, but put a fresh and pretty gloss on the old favorite, and proved an interesting choice to end the evening. This coming March 16-19, NCCO returns to the Herbst and other Bay Area venues with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Music Director & Concertmaster, re-uniting with male classical vocal ensemble Chanticleer for a musical visit to Paris during the early 20th century. Satie is on the bill again, but there will be selections by other composers from Faure to Gershwin, and “The Little Sparrow” Edith Piaf, too. Like Chanticleer, New Century is another San Francisco-based institution that enforces and enlivens the uniquely rich musical life of Northern California. Nadja-Salerno Sonnenberg has added her excellence to the mix for nine years, and it will be hard to see her go, but characteristically, she is far from retiring. With guest performances still in her future, she will be teaching a new generation of musicians as she begins her appointment as leader of the newly formed Resident Artist Program at Loyola University’s School of Music in New Orleans. For the NCCO farewell concert in May, she plays two of the best pieces in her extensive repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.t

An inclination toward radiance by Tim Pfaff

f the world’s many current divisions, one of the odder is the operatic one. More American singers are finally making their careers at home, but perplexingly, fewer of Europe’s top singers hop the pond; of the ones that do, fewer yet ford the Hudson. That was far less true during the Cold War. Recordings come to the rescue again. While Alan Curtis was still a professor at UC Berkeley, his fellow music department faculty members grumbled about his going to Europe to make his career as an early-music opera “impresario.” But the out musician and scholar could not have done otherwise, and some of the rare gifts he brought home – the modern premiere of Landi’s Il Sant’ Allesio and the world premiere (you read that right) of the 17th-century Antonio Cesti’s Semiramide, both in Hertz Hall – brought him as much derision as praise. His sudden death

in Florence last year is still felt in the early-music world, and the archival vaults are giving up some previously unreleased material. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi has just released the last “studio” (read, Italian villa) recording I’m aware of, Mitologia, featuring arias, duets and some incidental music from Handel operas, cantatas and oratorios recorded in 1912. Mezzo-soprano Romina Basso, one of the staples in his consort Il Complesso Barocco, is a major presence, but the focus is on Bavarian soprano Christiane Karg, a perfect example of the kind of stellar singer Curtis tapped early on, completely fresh-voiced before post-Mozart music, particularly opera, took them away. Karg’s sole appearance to date Stateside was in a concert with other singers at Carnegie Hall earlier this year, but Mitologia will explain why she’s such a cherished singer in Europe today. Her silvery soprano is, if not exactly a light instrument, a

consistently intimate one. It’s a true soprano that’s in no way “about” high notes; instead, it’s a true, agile voice with an inclination toward what can only be called radiance. The coloratura in two arias from Semele (only one of them, “No, no, I’ll take no less,” actually Semele’s) is nimble and accurate, but throughout the recording, which makes generous use of the Handel pastiches Curtis increasingly came to favor, you can feel her saving herself for a phrase or passing note on which she could work the wizardry of her bright – but in no way coquettish, such an easy default for singers of her voice type – personality. This is “easy” mythology, more Ovid than Homer or Aeschylus, and Karg brings it to sparkling light, over Curtis’ choice instrumental ensemble on its best behavior. She’s also the centerpiece of the most recent release in the indispensible Wigmore Hall Live series, a recital with Malcolm Martineau, as good a Lieder pianist as we have at a time rich with them, from a recital of Schumann and Brahms on November 18, 2014. The first half of the recital is Schumann, balancing four songs of Clara Schumann that Karg has taken so solidly into her repertoire

that at last they have the resonance we’ve all “leaned it” to hear in them with Robert’s Frauenliebe und –leben. Those songs, a cycle of reflections by a wife whose relationship to her husband becomes ever deeper, came close to falling out of favor for its putatively passe sentiments. If anything turned that false impression around forever, it was also a recital at Wigmore Hall with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who lent them the same depth she gave Mahler, and I don’t mean Alma. There’s no tearing of the curtains and upholstery with Hunt Lieberson, just depths of feeling even the cycle’s most devoted adherents had not suspected. There’s measurably less Anna Karenina in Karg’s Frau, but it’s no less interior and involving. As Hunt Lieberson did in her recital (both

women have other essential recordings on the Wigmore Hall series), Karg balances the fare with a Brahms second half, rich with variety and sung with an ear to the proto-chromaticism of Brahms’ harmonies. It so happens I’m listening and writing on the night of the Supermoon, and having looked and admired, I can say that it pales next to the last Brahms song, “Mondnacht” in Karg’s penetrating performance. If Karg is new to you, Portrait (Berlin Classics), a new compilation issue assembled by Karg herself, is an ideal introduction. There are opera excerpts by Gretry, Mozart and Gluck, all rendered with rich character and a keen feeling for style, a concluding Mendelssohn concert aria, “Infelice pensier – Ah, ritorna,” a phenomenal, 12-minute stretch of vocal music you’re unlikely to know, and Lieder. Throughout, the CD captures the voice in a clean, natural acoustic, where it blooms. Three Strauss songs are showstoppers, in an interior kind of way, and she brings such sorcery, delicacy and interiority to Wolf ’s “Auf eine Christblume II” and Schreker’s “Sommnerfaeden” (a leap beyond even the divine Lucia Popp’s) you wonder why we don’t hear them, and her, all the time.t

DVD>>

November 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Nobel undertakings by David Lamble

n 1965 Albert Grossman, manager of the curly-haired genius folksinger Bob Dylan, then 23, approached cinema verite documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker with an intriguing proposal. It was to follow his client around on his English tour for three-and-a-half weeks and film what would prove to be Dylan’s swan song to acoustic folksinging. Grossman knew that Dylan was eager to break loose from his reputation as a spinner of politically-themed “protest songs.” Pennebaker was as eager to break loose from his niche making politically-themed documentaries for PBS. By tour’s end the filmmaker had captured 20 hours, mostly backstage, with Dylan and friends including Joan Baez, Allan Price of the Animals, and British singer-songwriter Donovan, just coming into his own. The film was a hit, giving art-house audiences a tautly edited 96 minutes with articulate, beautiful youth whose careers were approaching warp-speed velocity. Over half-a-century later, Dylan is still a hot property and just as hard to pin down for fans and press alike. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Dylan was slow to accept, then hemmed and hawed about whether he would appear in Stockholm to receive the medal, setting the stage for what could be a postelection sermon. As of this writing, Dylan is a no-show for Sweden. The DVD package Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back might be considered that speech. In the commentary track, director Pennebaker describes his

high anxiety at the thought of Dylan looking for places to cut the film’s often sharp-edged portrait. In the end the artist gave his unqualified approval. Dylan is seen lashing out at a Time magazine writer, offering a scornful but accurate critique of its condescending view of the emerging 60s youth culture. Dylan also chats with a black British reporter representing the BBC’s Africa Service. This provides the cue for Pennebaker’s one major flashback: footage of a younger, short-haired Dylan appearing at an early-60s civil rights gathering in an extremely dangerous Mississippi. Don’t Look Back is an absorbing guide to a volatile chapter of Anglo-American pop history. Afer the British Rock Invasion led by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones hit these shores, Dylan’s English tour was a well-timed answer. Pennebaker had no desire to turn out a concert film, so acted as a cinematic

fly-on-the-wall to show fans how their boy handled himself with both the British public and the British tabloid press. Apart from one crazy moment where Dylan screams at a drunken hanger-on for tossing a glass out a hotel window, the Dylan we observe is witty and polite to a fault. The film’s is enlivened with shots of Dylan pecking away at a manual typewriter, composing a song on a piano and smoking like a chimney. The sight of Dylan lighting up is a visual motif Pennebaker uses in a useful leap back into the hard-to-imagine past. The film lets us stare at the almost-pretty Minnesota native at the moment he was becoming restless with the trappings of success he had long outgrown. Dylan’s world was a virtually all-male preserve, with even the brilliant Baez appearing only on a kind of day pass. Baez has admitted elsewhere that she misunderstood him, a onetime boyfriend. Fifty years later the best one can say about Dylan is that even at 75, he’s very much a human work-in-progress. Also recommended: the Martin Scorsese film No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, which fleshes out the early Dylan years. But there’s not a hint of a gay side to his personality except for his genius-level understanding of humanity. He has aged well, and remains a treasure. Bonus features: commentary with director Pennebaker and tour manager Bob Neuwirth; uncut audio performances; “Subterranean Homesick Blues” cue-card scene; theatrical trailer; Pennebaker filmography; Dylan discography; biographies of cast and crew.t

High above the clouds by David Lamble

he Walk, from Hollywood director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), vividly captures the early-70s campaign by the intrepid Frenchman Philippe Petit to travel across a 140-ft. wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Watching this fearless wire-walker defy national boundaries, authority figures, and the unforgiving laws of gravity was so captivating that I sat through two viewings, with a giddy sense of vertigo from scenes viewed on a 35-in. Sony TV. An iMax screening would have been a bridge too far. Zemeckis and his star and collaborator Joseph GordonLevitt (as Petit) manage from the opening frame to put us inside the prankster’s head as he answers the most unfathomable questions: “Why do you walk on the wire? Why do you tempt fate? Why do you risk death? But I don’t think of it this way. I never even say the word death. La mort. Yes, okay, I said it once, but watch, I won’t say it again. For me to walk on the wire, this is life. C’est la vie.” Many of us have followed Gordon-Levitt since his early stints as the abused adolescent in Mysterious Skin and the high school private eye searching for a murderer in Brick. Here he presents a still youthful but fully grownup protagonist who is not American-born. The young actor uses his college French to convince us that he neither thinks nor acts like one of us. In an effective theatrical device, Gordon-Levitt’s

wire-walker addresses us from atop Miss Liberty’s torch, the Statue of Liberty offering a magnificent view of the Lower Manhattan skyline. The filmmakers use flashbacks to introduce Petit’s early misadventures, walking between church towers or plunging into a Parisian lake. Once we zoom in on the Towers, the movie shifts gears and becomes a Mission: Impossible-style how-to guide that takes us through Petit’s head space from A to Z. Zemeckis and company use every trick of their trade, including one memorable sequence where Petit must hide out from Port Authority cops in an 80th-floor elevator shaft next to a young assistant trembling from his fear of heights. Gordon-Levitt dominates almost every frame, except for early scenes where he gets tutelage from a crabby Czech-born circus performer,

played with curmudgeon flair by Sir Ben Kingsley. GordonLevitt plays Petit as a mostly one-dimensional, obsessivecompulsive, socially bereft jerk, but this doesn’t prevent our identification with the rightness of his mission. He is one of the few actors of his generation who can pivot from jerk to hero on a dime, with no loss of audience empathy. As is usually the case with these films, the hetero love story is but a slight distraction from the boys’-club tone. There are nice comic asides, such as when Petit is asked by an American customs agent to explain why he’s hauling a lot of complicated heavy equipment into the country, and he candidly confesses his mission to walk between the towers, only to be greeted by an incredulous “Yeah, sure buddy, have a nice day.” Petit took full advantage of people’s desire to hear and see only what suits them. By the time official New York caught on to his coup, he was soaring into the clouds. Among the many achievements of this adventure is to provide a benediction to the Towers, those magnificent, doomed monuments to American pride and folly. Bonus Blu-ray features: deleted scenes; short films Learning to Walk the Wire, Pillars of Support; cast profiles; and The Amazing Walk, describing the film’s special effects. 5.1 DIS-HD Master Audio gives clarity to street conversations and heightens our appreciation of the effects of wind and weather conditions at 110 floors above street level.t

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<< DVD

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 24-30, 2016

Past becomes present by Brian Bromberger

hat if you had a second chance at the love of your life, the man who got away? What if things could now work out differently? Can the past be recaptured and lead us into future happiness? These are the intriguing questions at the heart of Lazy Eye, the new DVD just released by Breaking Glass Pictures. Shown at Frameline last June, this film will appeal to middle-aged men wondering about their lost youth and regrets in their lives. Lazy Eye is a gay cousin of the Before trilogy (Sunrise, Sunset, Midnight) from director Richard Linklater, as talky, though not as well-written. Still, it challenges us to wonder about the road not taken, presenting us with answers we might not be so eager to find. Dean (Lucas Near-Verbruggle) is the archetypal successful 40ish gay urbanite living in Silver Lake with a respectable if boring Hollywoodrelated job as a graphic designer creating posters for studio marketing departments. The picture opens with Dean’s eye doctor diagnosing

him with amblyopia (“lazy eye”), a condition he could have prevented if had done exercises years earlier. Now he is prescribed trifocal glasses, which will force him to look differently at the world and (as a flimsy metaphor) at his own unsatisfying life. He receives an email message with the subject title “Ghost from the Past” from a former flame, Alex (Aaron Cost Ganis), a business school graduate he had met in college at an East Village bar in NY. (In a flashback, Dean, the Marxist artist, is sketching a picture of Alex on a napkin.) This encounter began a sizzling summer romance, ending with Alex disappearing without saying goodbye or any trace, 15 years ago. At first when he receives Alex’s note, Dean initially responds, “Fuck off,” but before pressing the Send button he reconsiders and invites him to stay for a weekend at his getaway cabin in Joshua Tree near the Mojave Desert. (Cinematographer Gabe Mahan captures the stark beauty and isolation of the region.) Alex arrives, and before he can put his suitcase down, they’re tearing off

their clothes in feverish sex. Dean eventually reveals he is married to Brian, a film director, who travels frequently. This puts a temporary damper on their romance, but Alex has his secrets and hasn’t been with anyone in a relationship for very long. Thus begins a long conversation on sundry topics such as monogamy, raising kids, passion, art, real estate, creativity, whether Harold and Maude is a great film, all of which sounds more clever than it really is, since much of the talk is superficial and cliche-ridden. Dean in cheating on Brian and dissatisfied with his job, which he realizes is a sellout for his earlier artistic ambitions. He is basically unhappy, while Alex, on first glance carefree, naughty, and mysterious, is really looking for a lasting love and kids. All this occurs amidst a rehashing of their past relationship and what went wrong. Can they stay together amidst their present obstacles and

old grievances? Writer-director Tim Kirkman, best-known for the excellent Loggerheads, has fashioned a mixed bag of middle-age angst tinged by melancholia. What could have been stagy with two men talking continuously

for almost 90 minutes instead keeps us interested and asking whether these two hollow but likable characters can forge a partnership despite their shortcomings. Most of the dialogue is realistic, and there are moments of wit. Near-Verbruggle and Ganis convince us why these two men were and still are attracted to each other, conveying intimacy amidst confessions and revelations. These themes of change and maturity, assessing where one has been and where one is now, engross us, weaved between scenes of mutual lust. But to pursue Kirkman’s metaphor, there is a laziness in the writing that prevents the audience from experiencing depth in the characters, self-awareness as to why they are where they are, or empathy for their predicaments. Lazy Eye could have been outstanding, but with Kirkman’s vision partially blurred, settles for being good. Viewers will leave feeling wistful but frustrated.t

Martin Moran

From page 25

“Closure is not something for human beings,” he said. “We live in a certain ongoing unknowingness, and the journey keeps unfolding until we die – and maybe even after that.” The Tricky Part and All the Rage were first performed off-Broadway in 2004 and 2013, respectively, and Moran has performed them together several times in repertory since then. He will again be offering the solo dramas on alternate nights when performances begin Nov. 29 at ACT’s Strand Theater. While audience reactions to The Tricky Part were an impetus for Moran to write All the Rage, he said it is not necessary to have seen the former in order to appreciate the latter. “There’s a way in which, in a very concise way, certain elements of The Tricky Part show up toward the beginning of All the Rage to give context to some of the questions that formulate it.”

“All of us are these broken beings in this mystery together.” –Martin Moran Moran’s main livelihood comes from performing in big Broadway musicals, including Spamalot, Cabaret, and more than 800 performances in Titanic. But between shows, he began working on The Tricky Part, which explores his journey from being molested over several years by a counselor named Bob at a Catholic summer camp, through therapy and suicide attempts, to finally confronting the abuser some 30 years later. The encounter with the ailing man, confined to a hospital bed, proved more sorrowful than

Spanish fly by Ernie Alderete

Naked Ibiza by Dylan Rosser; Bruno Gmuender, $69.99 (used copies about $40) f gay men ever establish their own country, Ibiza would be the perfect spot for it. It’s a large, gorgeous, sun-blessed Spanish island set in the peaceful Mediterranean Sea. Photographer Dylan Rosser’s Naked Ibiza is a beautiful book, but its main flaw, in my opinion, is the overly posed pictures. One model, contorting his body in an unusual arched-back yoga stretch on the rocky coast, in particular stands out as overly posed. There is not one drop of spontaneity on any page in this handsome volume, no humor, no reality, no playfulness, and no interaction between the models. Very little imagination, just beautiful models standing still in the gorgeous blue sea as if they are lifeless statues, with lovely white clouds overhead. Basically, fashion models without their threads on, looking very much into themselves, as if unaware of their spectacular surroundings. No one ever stops to smell the roses, so to speak. The title is good, Naked always catches the eye. Ibiza is synonymous with gay male party time. But Naked Ibiza doesn’t live up to the expectations the title generates.

angry. Reactions to that denouement would eventually give rise to All the Rage. In the newer show, he reads a sentence from a review of The Tricky Part that remarked on his inability “to blame or despise his molester.” And there were encounters with audience members who were furious with him for not more explicitly condemning his abuser. It was like, he said, “being called out for missing an essential piece, or skipping or being frightened of anger.” But that’s not what The Tricky Part is meant to be about, Moran said. “It’s an inquiry into the complexity of the human experience, and not about casting blame or being angry. But it bugged me enough

Joan Marcus

Martin Moran’s work in solo dramas alternates with performances in big Broadway musicals, including Titanic, in which he played heroic wireless office Harold Bride for more than 800 performances.

that the question of anger kept coming up that I wondered, Wow, did I somehow skip it?” As the years went by, Moran, now 56, realized he had every reason to be angry. “When the abuse started, it was explosive,” Moran said. “Bob was a charming, charismatic, large guy, and it was utterly terrifying and also a source of sheer pleasure. I was a budding homosexual, but I didn’t know that at 12, and it took me many years to say, ‘I am a homosexual, and that guy didn’t make me this way.’ There is a very valid reason why this is a crime in our culture, because it’s the adult’s job to have boundaries, and a kid’s job to fall in love with life.” While The Tricky Part concentrates on the ramifications of a specific experience, All the Rage interweaves a diverse selection of situations encountered by Moran that shed some light on the role that anger plays in our lives. “I really had to put some thinking into it because I realized, ‘Oh my God, I’m still not at the bottom of this pain, and am I not at the bottom of it because I haven’t really purged the anger?’ So the play is kind of a quest to understand that, and to realize that we all of us are these broken beings in this mystery together.” In All the Rage, Moran slides into his subjects, talking first about interactions between drivers and pedestrians on the streets of New York before things become more

personal. He talks about a loathed stepmother, an estranged brother, and his mother, who had her own punching bag to let off steam. There is also the story of an asylum-seeker from Chad who had been tortured by guerrillas. Moran finds himself as a French-to-English translator for the scarred man, and he marvels at the refugee’s lack of animosity. “And then there is the fallout from The Tricky Part, and that includes someone I call Ben, who was another boy molested by Bob, and that becomes part of the story at a certain part,” Moran said. “All the Rage is definitely fractured, like looking through a prism at the many different angles of the function and the energy of anger.” With both plays, Moran takes care to disarm the audience before moving into fraught territories. “My director Seth Barrish and I really strategized on how and when to present information,” he said. “It’s like guiding someone deep into a garden safely, taking really good care of the audience and of myself. I’m nervous, and it helps to laugh together, and it helps me to know we’re in this together. And then I can think, ‘Yeah, the audience is with me. I’m going to be okay.’” The Tricky Part and All the Rage will run in repertory Nov. 29Dec. 11 at ACT’s Strand Theater. Tickets are $25-$60. Call (415) 7492228 or go to act-sf.org.

On the Tab

Leather

Shining Stars Vol. 46 • No. 47 • November 23-30, 2016

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Cindy Cindy Wilson Wilson

The B52s cofounder soars as a soloist by Jim Provenzano

ike her colleagues in the iconic New Wave-rock band The B52s, Cindy Wilson’s solo efforts also bring musical joy to fans. Wilson will perform songs of her own in San Francisco on December 12, preceded by a B52s drag tribute on December 10, both at the SoMa nightclub Oasis. See page 36 >>

Light in the Grove

Celebrating 25 years of healing

by David-Elijah Nahmod

n Wednesday November 30, the AIDS Memorial Grove will celebrate its 25th year with the annual Light in the Grove celebration. Since 1991 the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park has been a place of solace and healing for the surviving families, loved ones and friends of those who were lost to AIDS. See page 39 >>

Y A D I L HO S E D I U G

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

2016

Publishing Nov. 24, Dec. 1, 8, and 15

FOR ADVERTISING RATES & SPECIFICATIONS CALL 415-861-5019 or email advertising@ebar.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

36 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 23-30, 2016

Cindy Wilson

From page 35

Wilson, 59, continues to tour with The B52s, but is also known for numerous inspiring versions of other artists’ songs, from her Georgia pals REM to Screaming Jay Hawkins. “We do little shows in Athens a lot,” said Wilson in a phone interview from her home in Georgia. “I did ‘I Put a Spell on You’ at one of our Halloween parties, but I haven’t had another chance to pull it out and perform it.” Several of her fan-shot performances can be found on YouTube, as well as a few new songs and the somewhat psychedelic teaser for her new solo album. “It’s been really easy to work with my new collaborators,” said Wilson. Her band includes Marie Davon, Lemuel Hayes, Ryan Monahan and Suny Lyons. Her new album is called Change, and earlier this year, Wilson released a limited edition EP titled Sunrise. “We treated it like a bit of an experiment, to see what we could do to make something different, something that my voice hasn’t used before,” said Wilson of the new sounds. Wilson credits collaboration as the key to her creativity with both her new band and the B52s’ four decades of music success. Formed in 1977 as an informal party band, The B52s included vocalist Fred Schneider, vocalist and organist Kate Pierson, percussionist Keith Strickland, and guitarist Ricky Wilson. Ricky, Wilson’s brother, died

Cindy Wilson in an early 1980s portrait.

Cindy Wilson with the B52s in 2008.

of AIDS in 1985. From their first hit single, “Rock Lobster,” the band’s music rose to popularity for its cheerful and unusual sound. Wilson left the band from 1990 to 1994 to raise her family. The band recorded Good Stuff as a trio, and Julie Cruise replaced Wilson on tour. Wilson also took maternity leave in 1999, and returned for the band’s greatest hits tour in 2001. Of her time away from the band, Wilson said, “My clock was ticking, so I chose to take some time off. I was really missing Ricky, and I needed to step back and chill.” Wilson and her husband, Keith Barnett, moved from their New York City home of eleven years, and went back to Athens, Georgia. “Little did I know that I was gonna be coming back.” The band had been touring for many years. Wilson said, “With success, that’s when the hard work happens.” Wilson said the break wasn’t about any conflict, but that “every band has tension. At one point we called in a counselor, just to kind of teach us how to talk to each other, if we had things we were holding back, so that was good.”

Song for a Future Generation

Asked about the unique harmonies with Kate Pierson that make any B52s song immediately recognizable, and enjoyable, Wilson explained the inspiration. “I figured out that our harmonies had an almost Appalachian style that you

Cindy Wilson Jeremy Ayers / Photography

would just make up. That’s what we did,” she said. “What was great about us starting out is we weren’t afraid to be dissonant and combine them with prettier harmonies. That all came out of jamming with Ricky and Keith’s music and Fred’s creative ideas.” “What was great is, Kate was really easy to work with,” said Wilson. “We all hooked into each others’ talent and bounced off of each other, and just turned the tape recorder on, just embraced what came up,” Wilson said of the many unreleased jam sessions and experiments she’s worked on with both bands. “There are hours and hours of jamming that got thrown away,” she laughed. “The work includes making time to sift through all the stuff and try to create a song. It’s hard work, having so many elements, to make it flow and make sense in its own way.” The diverse elements include surf rock guitar riffs, ethereal vocals, interspersed with the sometimes wacky lyrics about space travel, aliens and dancing undersea creatures. And while the B52s’ biggest hit singles have become party classics, their music also includes messages of hope, love, respect for the environment and other issues. “A lot of times everyone was singing something different, and it would magically blend,” Wilson said of the hybrid themes in their music. “It was amazing how it would turn out. Really, one of our favorite things to do is jamming; building a song that you create together and make into a show; it’s amazing.”

Detour Through Your Mind

Wilson’s talent runs in the family. Her two sons, now teenagers, perform music in stage and marching bands at school. Her son Nolan is in three bands outside of school. “Nolan eats, sleeps and thinks music,” said the proud mom. “He reminds me of my brother Ricky as far as his personality and quirky sense of humor.” Of the familial talents, Wilson said, “I think everybody’s a genius in some way, but it’s really a talent to relax and grab whatever’s in the air and go with it.” Wilson said she’s never taken music lessons, but added, “We take what we have; our limitations can be good, you just go with it.” In creating the B52s songs, and her new solo work, Wilson said, “We didn’t follow a music sheet. There were no rules, just a stream of consciousness. We all had influences, but we never had one formula.” In the years between touring and recording their albums, Wilson and her bandmates taken time off for family, and to develop their own music projects. That may be part of why the B52s have stayed together.

Cindy Wilson with Kate Pierson in an early 1980s candid.

The B52s’ album Wild Planet.

After their first extended hiatus, their fifth studio album Cosmic Thing included the 1989 mega-hits “Love Shack” and “Roam.” “After Ricky passed away in 1985, we did Cosmic Thing mostly to see if we could get back together,” said Wilson. “It was a healing thing. We had no idea it would be a colossal hit. Ricky’s spirit was definitely there. It was like it was meant to be.”

She Brakes for Rainbows

Since she’ll perform at a gay nightclub in San Francisco, and will attend the drag show Mother’s B52s tribute, Wilson mentioned that she’s quite aware of the band’s gay following. “Even in 2016, people write me and tell me, ‘Thank you for your music, it’s important.’ That’s really been sweet.” Wilson even performed at a drag show back in 1989 at Wigstock. YouTube videos show Wilson cheerily singing along to recorded tracks of two songs, while wearing a foothigh birdcage-shaped wig. “Would you believe that wig is in the Peabody Library in Athens, Georgia?” Wilson laughed. “I think it’s in the basement in a vault. My husband and I have a lot of B52s memorabilia, and we just wanted to put it in a better place when they

asked for donations.” Wilson recalled a recent Bay Area visit, where she enjoyed one of host and Oasis co-owner Heklina’s stage shows. “I was rolling in the aisles, met her, and just fell in love,” she said. “I was overwhelmed by how wonderful and delightful folks are in San Francisco. The crowds were like a Beatnik club, with people from all over.” With their trademark beehive B52-bomb-shaped wigs dating back to their early days, Wilson’s fauxqueen drag affinity is well-known. These days, she sports a stylish pageboy style. “Definitely, our early days were like an amazing playful kind of dressing up kind of thing, which was a delight. We kind of borrowed ideas from drag queens.” And while the drag show will be wild, Wilson hopes fans will appreciate the more “ephemeral” style of her solo concert on December 12 (In other words, please don’t shout out any requests for old B52s songs). “It’s a totally diffferent thing than the B52s,” said Wilson. “My band is all about thirty years younger than I am. They’re all sexy and goodlooking, so everybody can look at them! I found these exceptional musicians who are just kind of magical. I think people will enjoy the show. Let it flow from beginning to end. It’s gonna be hoot!”t Cindy Wilson will be the special guest at Mother’s B52s tribute night, Saturday, December 10, ($10, show at 11:30pm) and will perform her new music on Monday, December 12 ($25-$40, 8:30pm); both at Oasis, 298 11th St. facebook.com/CindyWilsonMusic www.sfoasis.com

<< On the Tab

Gareth Gooch

38 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 23-30, 2016

On W the Tab

hether you dance off the holiday calories or sit back and abs orb it all, here are fun options for the weekend, including Turkey Day par ties at local bars.

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse

Sir Ma’am @ Lone Star Saloon

Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Grace Towers hosts a Black Friday music (DJs Trever Pearson and M*J*R) and drag –with bears– benefit for Groundswell Institute. 9pm-1:30am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Fri 25

Nov. 23Dec. 1

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Club Papi @ Club 21, Oakland Kat DeLuna performs live at the LGBT Latin dance night’s 21st anniversary party, hot gogos, including porn pup Armond Rizzo. $10-$1. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin Ave., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

DTF Fridays @ Port Bar, Oakland Various DJs play house music at the new gay bar’s weekly event. 9pm2am. 2023 Broadway. (510) 823-2099. www.portbaroakland.com

Thu 24

r Saloon iving Feast @ Lone Sta

Thanksg

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle

Kollin Holtz hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm. Followed by movie night 9:30pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux Ladies night at the Castro dance club. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. beauxsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux adds a new midweek show. $10-$12. 7pm-9:30pm. 399 9th St. redhotsburlesque.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Star Trek Live @ Oasis Enjoy “Mirror, Mirror,” a new episode of the hilarious live adaptation of the classic scifi TV show, with Leigh Crow, Honey Mahogany and other talents. $25, $35 and $225 VIP champagne tables. 7pm. Most Wed-Sat thru Dec. 10. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. 9pm2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

The weekly drag show with DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Picante @ The Cafe

Transgiving @ Thrive Join the staff and volunteers of Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center and its trans-specific programs for a day of giving thanks, great bountiful food and great company. 11am-2pm. 730 Polk St. 4th floor. www.transthrive.org

The Killer Queens, Rebel Rebel @ Great American Music Hall

Steam @ Powerhouse The monthly bath house-themed night celebrates its 6th anniversary, with towel-dancing gogo studs, DJ Rosegold, massages, clothes check, and the wet towel contest. $10. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Tom Shaw @ R3 Hotel, Guerneville The accomplished pianist plays at the Russian River resort. 8pm-1am. Also Nov. 26. 16390 4th St (4th & Mill St), Guerneville www.TomShawTrio.com

Vibe Fridays @ Club BnB, Oakland House music and cocktails, with DJs Shareef Raheim-Jihad and Ellis Lindsey. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Sat 26

Manimal @ Beaux

Latin, hip hop and Electro music night. Oct. 22, Diana Reyes performs live. $5-$25. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Gogo-tastic dance night starts off your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol. 8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland

Thanksgiving Dinner @ SF Eagle The leather bar hosts a complimentary dinner. 4pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Thanksgiving Feast @ Lone Star Saloon The bear bar’s annual dinner includes a buffet of classic turkey dinner food. 2pm-6pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Fri 25

Grace Towers’ Sir Ma’am @ Lone Star Saloon

Seu Jorge @ Regency Ballroom

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. Open Thanksgiving night. No cell phones on the dance floor, please! $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Midnight Show @ Divas

Bounce @ Lookout

Weekly drag shows at the last transgender-friendly bar in the Polk; with hosts Victoria Secret, Alexis Miranda and several performers. Also Saturdays. $10. 11pm. 1081 Polk St. www.divassf.com

Dance music with a view at the Castro bar. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux will titillate and tantalize. $10-$20. 8pm-9:30pm. 399 9th St. Also Sunday brunch shows at PianoFight Theatre, 4pm. redhotsburlesque.com studsf.com

Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. the440.com

Thu 24

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

Sing along and sing out, Louise, with hostess Sister Flora Goodthyme. 8pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. Also Fridays. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Luau Thanksgiving @ Hole in the Wall

Seu Jorge @ Regency Ballroom

Karaoke Night @ The Stud

The Brazilin singer-songwriter performs his concert, A Life Aquatic: A Tribute to David Bowie, covers which were featured in the Wes Anderson film. $42-$50. 9pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. www.theregencyballroom.com

The wonderful dive bar celebrates Thanksgiving with a Hawai’ian theme, because why not? Hosted by Rainbows Motorcycle Club; bring a dish to share. 4pm-6pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show. DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat themed drag performance night. $7. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

The all-women Queen tribute band performs; the David Bowie tribute band opens. $15. $40 with dinner, 9pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Some Thing @ The Stud

Sloane Kanter

Wed 23

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Fri 25 The Killer Queens @ Great American Music Hall

Shenanigans @ Oasis The fun costume theme party takes on frat bros. Togas and ‘bro’ garb welcome. $7-$15 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night. $5-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Dance Party @ Port Bar, Oakland Enjoy relaxed happy hour cocktails early (open at 5pm) and later dancing in the cozy back room at the newest LGBT bar. Daily 5pm-2am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Device/BLUF Invasion @ SF Eagle Leather, uniforms and boots blend with Industrial/Electro sounds by DJs Dimentia, Manny Lo-Fi and Tom Ass. $5; free before 10pm if in kink gear. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Drag Me to Brunch @ Lookout Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1pm. 3600 16th St. lookoutsf.com

See page 41 >>