November 25, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Milk-Moscone vigil Fri.

The state of out electeds

ARTS

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'Frank' Talk

The

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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971 Vol. 50 • No. 48 • November 26-December 2, 2020

SF apartment smoking ban proposal includes cannabis; draws opposition

by John Ferrannini Rick Gerharter

The Circle of Friends in the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park; this year’s AIDS grove program for World AIDS Day will be held online.

COVID brings change to World AIDS Day

by John Ferrannini

E

vents commemorating World AIDS Day have largely been moved into virtual space due to the other health crisis, COVID-19, that has dominated headlines and lives this year.

The day, founded in 1988 by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, is meant to unite people in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV, and remember those who have died from the disease. It was the first-ever global health day, according to http://www.WorldAIDSDay.org.

Fauci to highlight forum

The National AIDS Memorial Grove will present “World AIDS Day: A National Conversation” virtually at http://www.aidsmemorial.org Tuesday, December 1, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and will feature Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci became a household name this year due to his role on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, but many in the LGBTQ community already knew of Fauci from his time as a leading researcher of HIV. Larry Kramer, the playwright and AIDS activist who founded ACT UP and who died earlier this year, initially sparred with Fauci in public but grew to call him “the only true and great hero” in the government’s response to AIDS. The conversation will also feature Dr. David Ho, the director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University. The AIDS grove will be giving Fauci and Ho its National Leadership Recognition Award during the event.

“World AIDS Day is a national conversation, more of a national forum, during this year, with Dr. Fauci as our keynote speaker,” Kevin Herglotz, a spokesman for the AIDS grove, told the Bay Area Reporter. “It’s been 40 years since the first cases were reported, and we’re tying it in with COVID and its effects on marginalized communities and activism.”

Herglotz said that Light in the Grove, the nonprofit’s annual fundraiser at the grove in Golden Gate Park, will not happen this year.

“We’re not doing anything in person,” Herglotz said. “We’re not doing a gala on November 30, but we are doing a little thank you to those donors who still support the grove.”

See page 10 >>

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rogressive LGBTQs are making known their opposition to a proposal in San Francisco that would ban people from smoking tobacco and cannabis in their apartments.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee introduced the legislation, which also includes vaping, that applies to apartment buildings of three or more units.

Yee wrote the ordinance over concern of secondhand smoke traveling into other units.

Yee’s plan includes an exemption for medical marijuana, but that doesn’t satisfy opponents.

Meanwhile, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is seeking an amendment to the proposal that would exempt cannabis entirely.

The legislation will be voted on December 1. The budget committee forwarded it to the board, though without a recommendation.

If it becomes law, individuals who are repeat offenders could be fined up to $1,000 a day.

At its general membership meeting November 17, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club voted to oppose the proposed ordinance, sending a letter to the Board of Supervisors November 18.

Courtesy Cannabis News

Opposition is mounting to a proposal to ban tobacco and cannabis smoking in apartments in San Francisco.

“Last night, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club voted to oppose Ordinance No. 201265 and asks that you reject this legislation based on its discriminatory socioeconomic impact,” the letter reads, in part. “The legislation seeks to protect air quality but would do so at

the cost of the civil rights of San Franciscans living in apartments and condominiums – the vast majority of whom do not have sufficient wealth to live in their own free-standing homes.”

The club was critical of the proposal’s fines.

“The $1,000 per day penalty adds insult to injury since only wealthy people can afford to pay such fines,” the letter states. “Ironically, most wealthy people are already exempted by virtue of having easier access to free-standing homes.”

The fact that marijuana is included in the proposal is also problematic to club members.

“San Francisco has allowed cannabis smoking in private residences for over 24 years since the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996,” the letter states. “If this ordinance is enacted, San Franciscan renters will be liable for many thousands of dollars in fines and fees that we simply cannot afford.”

Another local group has concerns with the medical marijuana exemption.

David Goldman, a gay man who is the president of the Brownie Mary Democratic Club in San Francisco, took issue with a proposed amendment from Yee to exempt medical cannabis users.

See page 10 >>

LGBTQ SF school name ideas abound

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

an Francisco, considered one of the world’s leading cities when it comes to LGBTQ issues, has named only one of its 125 public schools after an LGBTQ person. Twenty-four years ago, after a protracted fight to do so, the school board christened an elementary school in the heart of the LGBTQ Castro district the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.

The honor came 19 years after Milk became the first out gay person to win political office in both the city and state of California with his election to the Board of Supervisors. Tragically, Milk and then-mayor George Moscone, who also has an elementary school named after him, were murdered inside City Hall 42 years ago this Friday, November 27.

A proposal was floated in 2014 to name another Castro district public school, McKinley Elementary School, after gay former educator Tom Ammiano who was termed out of the state Assembly that year.

One of the first public school teachers to come out publicly in the Golden State, Ammiano served on the city’s school board in the early 1990s prior to becoming an elected city supervisor in 1994.

But nothing came out of the effort to honor Ammiano, who had been instrumental in

Rick Gerharter

Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the Castro is the only public school in San Francisco named after an LGBTQ person.

getting the public school named after Milk.

Now, six years later, the McKinley school is one of 42 schools operated by the San Francisco Unified School District that an advisory committee has targeted to be renamed because of the person’s problematic past. Some honor past political leaders who were slave owners or persecuted Native Americans.

The release of the list last month caused controversy and sparked headlines across

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the country, particularly since one of the targeted facilities is an elementary school named after Senator Dianne Feinstein (DCalifornia). The renaming committee said it included the school because when Feinstein served as the city’s mayor following the assassinations of Milk and Moscone she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag that had flown outside City Hall.

See page 10 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • November 26-December 2, 2020

Below Market Rate (BMR) Rental Units Available

235 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 2 studio units at rent $1,182 a month 1 one bedroom unit at rent $1,979 a month 1 two bedroom unit at rent $1,494 a month 1 two bedroom unit at rent $3,080 a month

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Annual Milk, Moscone vigil goes virtual

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he 42nd annual vigil to remember two progressive San Francisco Applicants must not own a housing unit, meet the "Resident Selection Criteria" and be income eligible. politicians who were killed while in Households must earn no more than the maximum income levels outlined below at 65%, 90% and 130% office is going virtual this year due to area median income (AMI) depending on unit: 5 Persons HOUSEHOLD SIZE 1 Person 2 Persons 3 Persons 4 Persons the COVID-19 pandemic.

Max. Annual Income 65% AMI $58,250 $66,650 $74,950 $83,250 $89,950 The event honoring the late gay $80,700 $92,250 $103,750 $115,300 $124,500 Max. Annual Income 90% AMI Supervisor Harvey Milk and former Max. Annual Income 130% AMI $116,550 $133,250 $149,900 $166,550 $179,850 Mayor George Moscone most years Applications available from Wednesday, November 18th, 2020 is held in person in the city’s LGBTQ and due by 5PM Wednesday, December 16th, 2020.

Castro district on November 27, the Applications must be submitted online at housing.sfgov.org day in 1978 when disgruntled former For more information contact Brian Minall (415) 647 7191 ext. 127. supervisor Dan White gunned down brian.minall@caritasmanagement.com both men inside City Hall. Similar to Units available through the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community the candlelight march that took place Development and are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. that evening from the Castro, where Visit housing.sfgov.org for an application and further program information.

Milk operated a camera shop, and headed to the Civic Center, community members each year gather at the corner of Market and Castro streets to Below Market Rate (BMR) Rental Units Available Untitled-4 1 11/17/20 11:13 AM remember the two civic leaders.

345 6th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 On certain occasions the somber 14 Studio units at $1,133 a month walk down Market Street to City Hall Applicants must not own a housing unit, meet the "Resident Selection Criteria" is recreated, while most years attendand be income eligible. Households must earn no more than the maximum ees light candles and head down Casincome levels outlined below at 55% area median income: tro Street to regroup in front of Milk’s HOUSEHOLD SIZE 1 Person 2 Persons former business at 575 Castro Street.

Max. Annual Income $49,300 $56,400 (It now houses the store and action center for national LGBTQ advoApplications available from Friday November 6th, 2020 cacy organization the Human Rights and due by 5PM Friday December 4th, 2020.

Campaign.)

Applications must be submitted online at housing.sfgov.org With COVID-19 cases and hospiFor more information contact Brian Minall (415) 647 7191 ext. 127. talizations on the rise in San Francisbrian.minall@caritasmanagement.com co, organizers of the event are taking Units available through the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community a different approach this year in orDevelopment and are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. der to protect the public’s health and Visit housing.sfgov.org for an application and further program information. avoid the vigil leading to transmission of the coronavirus.

“We didn’t want to hold anything that would encourage the gathering of crowds given we are spiking in COVID cases and about to be plunged into yet another dark period of the virus. So we are going to host a virtual version of the memorial,” said Stephen Torres, a gay man who is secretary of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District.

Torres, who helped produce the virtual birthday event for Milk held

Rick Gerharter

Cleve Jones, right, led the 2018 candlelight march down Market Street to City Hall, which recreated the march held in 1978 following the assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

May 22 on what is officially celebrated as Harvey Milk Day in California, is working with Jackie Thornhill, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club’s vice president for events and fundraising, to plan the memorial the evening after Thanksgiving. The political group is the main presenter of the yearly vigils.

The “42: 2020 Milk-Moscone Vigil” will be streaming online starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday, November 27. As in past years, friends and former colleagues of Milk and Moscone as well as LGBTQ community leaders will make remarks.

“For anyone who is able to make it on and who knew Harvey Milk or George Moscone back then and wants to share their stories, we will try to create space for that,” said Thornhill, a transgender woman who is an administrative aide to District 1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer.

A video memorial that will be broadcast during the online vigil will also be projected on a loop onto the side of the building at 400 Castro Street, which now houses a Soulcycle and fronts Harvey Milk Plaza from where the vigil and march normally kicks off. Thornhill told the Bay Area Reporter the montage of archi-

val footage should be continuously shown between 6 and 8 p.m. that evening.

Political history

Milk made political history in November 1977 by becoming the first out politician of a major American city, and the first in California, after winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to represent the Castro, Noe Valley, and the Haight. It was his third time seeking the political office, and his victory was helped by the city deciding the year prior that supervisors should be elected by district rather than citywide.

Such a factor was replicated this November in the victories of a number of LGBTQ councilmembers-elect in cities around the Bay Area where voters elected their city council people by district rather than citywide. It allowed for young, queer candidates to defeat incumbents or, in the case of Santa Clara City Councilman-elect Anthony Becker, to become the first gay man to win elective office in his city on his third try, similar to Milk.

Milk club co-President Kaylah Williams told the B.A.R. it was important See page 7 >>

Gay man to oversee Point Reyes national park

by Matthew S. Bajko

O

ne of the highest-ranking LGBTQ officials with the National Park Service will be returning to the Bay Area in the new year.

Craig Kenkel, 60, a gay man who has spent close to four decades with the federal agency, on November 19 was named the incoming superintendent of the 58-year-old Point Reyes National Seashore.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in He will start in January. advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial He currently serves as the superinand provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead When your celebration lasting tendent of Cuyahoga Valley National protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, When you remembrance plan your celebration and lasting in Park and First Ladies and James A. allowing themlife to focus what will matter at design that remembrance time—you. in on advance, youmost can every advance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial Garfield national historic sites in Ohio. detail own memorial provide Contact usyour today about theunique beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy At the Point Reyes National Seaatyour theloved San Francisco Columbarium. and provide loved ones with true peace mind.

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Planning more than 80 miles of undeveloped protects your loved onesProudly from unnecessary stressunnecessary and financial burden, ahead protects yourserving loved onesCommunity. from the LGBT coastline in Marin County. It ofallowing them focus on whatburden, will matter most them at thattotime—you. fers stresstoand financial allowing 147 miles of hiking trails, several backcountry campgrounds, focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy and many beaches while being the home to 28 threatened and endanat the San Contact FranciscousColumbarium. today about the beautiful ways to create gered plant and animal species.

Kenkel will also oversee the 32,730a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. acre Phillip Burton Wilderness and One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 Proudly serving our Community. one of only two designated marine SanFranciscoColumbarium.com wilderness areas within the National Proudly serving the LGBT Community.

FD 1306 / COA 660 Park System. The park preserves 120 Coast Miwok archeological sites and roughly 300 historic structures including the 149-year-old Point Reyes Lighthouse, which he had a hand in restoring back in 1987.

“I first experienced Point Reyes early in my career, and instantly connected with its dramatic wildness, ruralness and small communiOne Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 ties,” stated Kenkel in a news release about his being named its superinSanFranciscoColumbarium.com tendent. “When I was a San Francisco resident, the park was often my respite FD 1306 / COA 660 from city life. I’m both excited and

PlanningAhead Ahead isisSimple Planning Simple The benefits are immense.

Planning Ahead is Simple The benefits are immense.

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Courtesy National Park Service

Craig Kenkel has been named superintendent of the National Park Service’s Point Reyes National Seashore.

honored to join the incredible team of employees and partners who care for Point Reyes and serve all who live in and visit the park.”

Kenkel will find himself trying to mediate a contentious debate over the competing interests of commercial ranchers who work on the parkland and environmentalists concerned about the businesses’ impacts on the picturesque site and its wildlife. As the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out, the issue has spawned a prolonged legal battle and controversies over the sanctioned killing of Tule elk, which the park service has defended as necessary to balance the various needs of animals and humans.

“As a 37-year National Park Service veteran, Craig has extensive experience caring for historic and cultural resources in parks and managing them in balance with natural resource conservation and public use,” stated acting NPS Regional Director Linda D. Walker. “Craig’s exceptional ability to work with partners resulted in tremendous success at Cuyahoga Valley

National Park. His collaboration skills make him a great fit for this position.”

His career with the park service began in 1983 while an architectural student at Iowa State University and was assigned in 1988 to the park service’s Western Regional Office in San Francisco.

Sent in 1992 to the park service’s Midwest Regional Office, Kenkel in 2005 transferred to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area as chief of its cultural resources division and was then named in 2009 as its deputy superintendent. A year later he was promoted to superintendent of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, where he remained until being tapped in 2014 to oversee the northeast Ohio park site along the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland and Akron.

In December 2016, he was hired as the sprawling GGNRA’s interim superintendent and returned to Ohio the next year after the park service hired someone else to take on the role permanently. Kenkel had applied to be closer to his partner, Oscar, a native San Franciscan who did not relocate with him to the Buckeye State.

Kenkel grew up on an Iowa corn and hog farm the second oldest of 10 brothers and sisters, one of whom is his twin sister. Talking to the Bay Area Reporter in 2010, he said landing his summer job with the national parks while still in college changed his career path.

“It stirred a passion in me, I guess,” said Kenkel, who had never visited a national park while growing up. “I thought, ‘Wow. We get paid to work in national parks. How amazing is this?’” t

We continue our legacy of compassionate care, support, and love as we remember all of those who have died of HIV/AIDS. The face of the disease is changing, but the fight is not over. Join us as we remember, continue the fight, and imagine a world without AIDS. The Staff, Board, Volunteers & Donors of Maitri Compassionate Care Visit Maitrisf.org for info

The mission of Maitri is made possible through the generosity and support of

<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • November 26-December 2, 2020

Volume 50, Number 48 November 26-December 2, 2020 www.ebar.com

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

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Yee’s ban is a buzz kill

Y

ou heard it right; you’re not high. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee is stressing people out with his proposal for an ordinance that would threaten fines of $1,000 a day for smoking cannabis at home. Um, that’s a nogo, supervisor, and the board must remove cannabis from Yee’s proposal before it votes on the measure December 1. We don’t need this right now while the city is reeling from COVID-19 and its economic fallout. This is absolutely not the time to add to people’s worries, financial and otherwise, for an action in the privacy of their own home that is legal under state law.

Yee’s proposal would ban smoking tobacco and cannabis – and vaping – from apartments in buildings with three or more units. While we understand the intention – limiting exposure to secondhand smoke – including marijuana is wrong. Yee has added an exemption for medical cannabis use, but it’s not enough. These days, one doesn’t need a note from a doctor to enjoy the benefits of cannabis, as recreational marijuana is now LEGAL under CA Prop 64. It’s also not OK to limit a person’s medicinal cannabis choices by restricting it to cannabis edibles. Not everyone likes them, and besides, if you want quicker relief from the symptom you are treating, smoking is better, as Brownie Mary Democratic Club President David Goldman told us in an interview.

Yee’s proposed ordinance is not surprising. Supervisors on the west side of the city have long had an issue with cannabis in one way or another. Yee represents District 7 and outgoing District 1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer

Rick Gerharter

Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee

is a co-sponsor of the legislation. In 2017, former District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang was embroiled in a heated battle to stop a cannabis dispensary from opening in her district. It would’ve been the city’s first Chinese-owned dispensary, but Tang and most of her fellow board members, including Yee, fell for an organized disinformation and pressure campaign led by the Pacific Justice Institute, a right wing legal defense group that is also anti-LGBTQ. D4 residents were riled up in opposition by outright lies spread

by PJI like overdose deaths were caused by cannabis use, a claim that has never been reported in the medical literature or confirmed by sci-

t

ence. Today, there is only one cannabis dispensary in the area.

Yee, a progressive board member, wants to do “legacy” legislation before he leaves the board, but this one is so divisive and problematic for socioeconomic reasons. “The $1,000 per day penalty adds insult to injury since only wealthy people can afford to pay such fines,” states a letter to the board from the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, which opposes the ordinance. “Ironically, most wealthy people are already exempted by virtue of having easier access to free-standing homes.” The Milk club is absolutely right that those who can least afford it will be hurt.

We agree with Goldman that Yee’s ordinance would run afoul of CA Prop 64, passed in 2016, effected in 2018, because cannabis use is only allowed under Prop 64 in private residences and certain private venues.

In San Francisco, private venues are almost non-existent and, even if they were available, they’d likely be closed due to COVID-19. As gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman pointed out, people can’t just step out on the sidewalk and smoke a joint (at least, they’re not supposed to, despite the occasional whiff of pot in the air).

San Francisco already has stringent anti-tobacco laws, and some apartment landlords have no-smoking clauses in their leases. That’s different in effect, since prospective tenants can decide to rent or not based on no-smoking rules.

Yee’s ordinance would make it illegal to smoke in your home if you live in a building with three or more units – period. Yee must exempt cannabis from his proposed ordinance or the board should vote it down if he won’t. Residents are already overwhelmed and don’t need nanny laws controlling the legal, private use of cannabis, medicinal or recreational. t

From one pandemic to another

by Mike Smith

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or the first World AIDS Day on December 1, 1988 the World Health Organization gave a small grant to the fledgling Names Project (its AIDS Memorial Quilt being then a little more than a year old). WHO thought it would be enough to send a person or two to Geneva and one other place with quilt panels (in business class, of course), to help visually unite the world around AIDS on that day. Well, we cashed the check, bought 10 cheap discount tickets, found couches to crash on, stuffed quilt panels into two duffle bags each and displayed quilts that day in eight countries on five continents.

Jack Caster went to London; Lance Henderson and Gert McMullin went to Geneva; Marcus Faigle and Jeannette Koijane to Brazil. Scott Lago laid out quilt sections in the Great Hall of the United Nations in New York; Nancy Katz flew to Halifax, Sue Baelen to Germany, Danny Sauro and Garth Wall to Norway. I loaded up a bag for Australia and laid out quilt sections in front of the Sydney Opera House. (Thanks to a network of conspiring gay flight attendants worldwide, not a single one of us paid excess baggage fees!)

On every World AIDS Day since then, more than half the quilt has been on display in hundreds (in some years, thousands) of venues across the country, opening hearts and minds, honoring our dead, and finding new allies in the fight – telling the story of a compassionate community response to a pandemic, and inspiring action.

With COVID-19 this year, nearly all 48,000 panels are sitting on the shelves. But the pandemic cannot silence us! On World AIDS Day the National AIDS Memorial Grove, which took over stewardship of the quilt last year, will host the first-ever virtual exhibition of the quilt. The exhibition will feature over 10,000 quilt panels representing all 50 states and U.S. territories.

We hope to use the power and beauty of the quilt to help our nation heal during these difficult times. This historic virtual exhibition will also help us bring the quilt to so many people in a year when we can’t do in-person displays. Community partners across the country have curated their own personalized and localized online displays, and they can all be seen together now at http://www.aidsmemorial. org/virtual2020. The exhibition will run through March 31.

Courtesy National AIDS Memorial Grove

A screenshot of the new virtual display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Like the quilt, the National AIDS Memorial Grove has also played an outsized role in past World AIDS Days. Each year, the staff and board of the grove produce the country’s most visible World AIDS Day commemoration, leading the nation and drawing hundreds into a gigantic tent in the grove, which is located in Golden Gate Park.

This year the grove is quieter than usual, a place for personal contemplation with no public gatherings. But our voices will still be heard on the national stage, unbowed by COVID-19. On December 1 online at http://www.aidsmemorial.org, the World AIDS Day National Conversation will bring together powerful voices from the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics for an inspiring national discussion about health justice, social activism, remembrance, hope, and resilience.

The broadcast will spotlight the interconnectedness of both pandemics – the lives lost, the survivors, the activism, and the heroes. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. David Ho are our keynote speakers. Actress Judith Light will be our host. The health justice forum will feature mayors from across the country, AIDS activist Cleve Jones, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Marked by COVID founder Kristin Urquiza. They will join a distinguished list of other special guests, video storytelling, and musical tributes, as we explore how a nation confronts, responds, and heals, and the lessons that must be learned for the future.

You can watch this free event beginning at 10

a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday, December 1, at www. aidsmemorial.org/wad2020.

Those darkest early days of AIDS took a terrible toll. We lost so many, so young, and so quickly. And many of us who carried on were scarred for life. I survived by pushing that pain into a box, inside a box, inside a box within me. In the isolation of COVID-19, I find those emotions now welling up from deep inside, angry to be living through a second pandemic and suddenly grieving again for friends lost in my 20s and 30s. Now I’m losing newer friends to COVID-19 as time pushes me ever deeper into a second high-risk pool.

But these two gigantic virtual events that were pulled together in just a few months are showing me once again the leadership, creativity, resilience, and fortitude of our community in battling a pandemic. We were not defeated by AIDS, and we will not be defeated by COVID-19.

Through the miracle of technology, the virtual quilt display will allow more people to experience the quilt than during any other World AIDS Day, even while all the fabric still sits quietly in a warehouse. And with the online World AIDS Day National Conversation replacing the gathering in the grove? Well, that tent just got a whole lot bigger. t Mike Smith is a co-founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and was executive director of AIDS Emergency Fund and Breast Cancer Emergency Fund from 2002 to 2015. Over the last year, he has been assisting the National AIDS Memorial Grove in its new role as stewards of the quilt.

t

Politics >>

November 26-December 2, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

SF LGBTQ electeds to decrease in 2021

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

s the number of out LGBTQ people winning elective office continues to grow around the Bay Area, San Francisco is seeing a decline. With no non-incumbents winning any of the races on the November 3 ballot, the city’s class of LGBTQ elected officials will drop by one come 2021.

Gay City College of San Francisco Trustee Alex Randolph opted not to seek reelection this month, lowering the number of out officeholders in the city next year to eight. His departure will also mean the city will have only one Black out elected leader, bisexual college board president Shanell Williams, who easily won reelection this month as the top vote-getter in the race for four college board seats.

Gay City College Trustee Tom Temprano also won reelection, as did gay school board president Mark Sanchez, one of two out Latino electeds in the city along with gay city Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros.

The lone out Asian officeholder in the city is BART director Janice Li, who serves alongside gay BART director Bevan Dufty. The other two gay city officials are state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), reelected this month to a second four-year term, and District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

The loss of queer representation in a city long a trendsetter on LGBTQ issues “is a concern,” said Randolph, who told the Bay Area Reporter he has no immediate plans to seek a different political office.

At the same time, he said it is encouraging to see more young LGBTQ people winning election outside of San Francisco, whether it be on a city council in a small city like Pinole or in a more suburban state Assembly district that includes parts of Alameda County.

“I think what people have noticed

Rivendell_Pella_101520.indd 1

Courtesy Alex Randolph

Alex Randolph

and what people know is it’s not easy to run for office in San Francisco. It is very cliquish and you need to have a lot of resources and support,” said Randolph, who works for the ridesharing company Uber. “It is easier now to be openly gay and run for office in smaller cities around the bay; that is an exciting trend.”

Michael Nguyen, a patent attorney who chairs GAPA, a social group for LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islanders that also has its own political action committee and endorses candidates, told the B.A.R. the inability to grow the number of out officeholders in San Francisco is worrisome.

“We are definitely interested in trying to inspire more people to run for office, especially within the queer and transgender API community,” said Nguyen, who as his drag persona Juicy Liu helped with get-out-thevote efforts this fall. “I think part of that is building our community and making sure people understand it is possible to do that.”

He has gone through training for out candidates and this fall took on his first paid campaign position,

serving as a field organizing director for Temprano. As for running for office himself one day, Nguyen has not ruled it out.

“I am keeping my ear down to the ground to see where I can best serve our community,” he said.

Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club co-President Kaylah Williams, who managed San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s campaign last year, told the B.A.R. she hopes the city’s queer community can use 2021 to set the groundwork for seeing more queer and trans people run for office in future elections.

“It does make me a bit bummed to see that there is that decline from queer elected officials and also Black elected officials,” said Kaylah Williams, who told the B.A.R. if the right elective office presented itself she would consider running for it. “For me, it says there is a lot of ground game and internal organizing we need to start working on. In 2021, there are no set elections scheduled, so it is a big opportunity for us to really take a look inwards.”

A queer political chessboard

Should Mayor London Breed decide to step down for a presidential appointment with the Biden administration, District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney has made it clear he wants to serve in Room 200 at City Hall. Were that to happen, a top candidate to succeed him on the board would be Honey Mahogany, a Black queer nonbinary trans person who is his top legislative aide.

And in two years’ time there is potential to see San Francisco’s class of out electeds grow. Three seats on both the community college and school boards will be up for grabs on the November 2022 ballot, as will the evennumbered supervisor districts. Plus any number of LGBTQ leaders could seek to succeed House Speaker Nancy

Pelosi (D-San Francisco) should the Democrat decide her next term will be her last.

Mandelman will be seeking reelection to his seat that fall. With queer educator Jackie Fielder, who ran a strong campaign against Wiener this year, moving into District 8, it has led to speculation she could mount a challenge against Mandelman. But Fielder implied in a recent interview with the San Francisco Examiner that her living arrangement is only temporary.

And it is unclear if her positions on defunding the police and homeless policies would be a winning fit in the district that covers the Castro and Noe Valley, where residents and merchants have harangued Mandelman over sidewalk tent encampments and a lack of police presence. Fielder told the B.A.R. this week that she hadn’t contemplated such a run and was surprised to see such speculation in print.

“Right now, I am focused on thanking my supporters and redirecting our base to advocating for our unhoused,” said Fielder, who received close to 191,000 votes in her Senate bid. “That is nothing I could have ever imagined. With that anywhere else in the country we could have secured even a congressional seat doesn’t see that many votes. It speaks to the size of this district and the policies we advocated for, like expanded tenant protections and more public funding for schools.

“There is still so much to be done,” added Fielder. “Just because we didn’t win this time around doesn’t mean those issues have disappeared.”

Mandelman told the B.A.R. he would see her as “a serious opponent” should she enter the race.

“If she does, she would be a formidable challenger,” said Mandelman, who lost his first race for the D8 seat to then be elected to the college board before running again for supervisor. “She gets to decide what her plans are; I don’t get to decide what they are for her.”

He discounted the notion no woman could win the D8 seat, though none have since the supervisors reverted to being elected by district in 2000 rather than citywide.

“People say it, I don’t believe it. She captured a lot of people’s imaginations. She did better than one would have expected for someone who has never run for office before,” said Mandelman. “I do think the job of a supervisor is very different from a state senator. District 8 has a history of electing people deeply engaged within the community and the neighborhoods for some time.”

Rather than seeing two strong queer candidates pitted against each other again in two years, Fielder could opt to wait until 2024 when District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen is termed out of office. The district based in the Mission favors more progressive supervisors, seemingly providing a better fit for Fielder, a democratic socialist endorsed this year by a wide array of progressive groups and leaders.

“I do think she would be a formidable candidate in D9,” said Dufty, who formerly served in the D8 seat on the board and told the B.A.R. he “would strongly support” Mandelman for reelection.

Kaylah Williams expressed doubt about seeing Fielder run in District 8 but had no question that she would run again for some political office.

See page 11 >>

10/9/20 1:08 PM

<< Obituaries

6 • Bay Area Reporter • November 26-December 2, 2020

Friends mourn loss of Randall Schiller

by Cynthia Laird

F

riends are mourning the death of Randall “Randy” Schiller, a gay man and longtime community leader who died October 4. He was 71.

Mr. Schiller was a resident of San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood, where he had lived for decades.

As proprietor of Randall Schiller Productions, Mr. Schiller played a pivotal role in the early years of venues such as the I-Beam, Harvey’s, Moby Dick, and the Phoenix, while providing a career start to decades of young professionals, an obituary in the Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon noted.

Writing on Mr. Schiller’s Facebook page, DJ Page Hodel recalled that in the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Schiller was “king of the dance party scene.”

“He did sound and lights for all the big ‘mega-parties’ and he was without argument the best in the business,” Hodel wrote, including for Sylvester, the disco sensation.

“He was this great mixture of oldtimer and edge-breaker,” Hodel add-

Courtesy National AIDS Memorial Grove

Randall “Randy” Schiller

ed. “He would show up with that ratty white van, pile out a zillion old funky beer boxes filled with every adapter/ cable/plug carefully labeled and organized for emergency repair and system builds from the ground up, all on the fly.”

Over the years he donated his services to Pink Saturday, Halloween in the Castro, the Folsom Street Fair, the San Francisco Pride parade, and the parties at the Galleria Design Center, the obituary noted.

“Randy was one of those omnipresent glowing beams of light at nearly every event in San Francisco,” Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. “Like most of the nonprofits, the Sisters often approached Randy to work the sound for our fundraisers, and Randy always said yes. From our 10th anniversary to Halloween in the Castro to Easter in the Park, Randy was on board, making sure that everything ran smoothly.

I will miss his calming presence, warm smile and generous heart.”

Mr. Schiller also helped breast cancer and HIV/AIDS organizations, including the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

“It was Randy who first brought magic to the Redwood grove in the early years of our annual fundrais-

ing gala, Light in the Grove – magical lighting, sound effects, and ethereal glowing fireflies,” the AIDS grove wrote on its Facebook page. “Randy gave generously to his community in so many different ways.”

Jon Sugar, a musician and friend of Mr. Schiller’s for more than 40 years, wrote in a Facebook message that Mr. Schiller was an original member of “Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon” and fought against anti-gay zealot Anita Bryant.

“I mixed my music, ‘Gay Type Thang,’ in his living room,” Sugar wrote to the B.A.R. in a Facebook message. “He gave me $100 to help with my eviction; he hired five of my friends to work.”

Sugar added that Mr. Schiller donated his time to KPFA 94.1 FM. According to an obituary posted on Legacy, Mr. Schiller was born in November 23, 1948. Mr. Schiller served his country as a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He graduated San Francisco State University with a degree in film and television.

t

Mr. Schiller was a competition swimmer and a founding member of the San Francisco LGBTQ Tsunami Swim Team. In 1990, Mr. Schiller won a gold medal in the 1500 freestyle at Gay Games III in Vancouver.

His retirement years were spent walking his dog, Lizzie, around the neighborhood and taking trips in his RV. Inner Sunset Park Neighbors also praised Mr. Schiller.

“The Inner Sunset will miss such an important community leader,” Martha Ehrenfeld, current board chair, wrote in a tribute on the neighborhood group’s website last month.

“He always showed up with his sound equipment and brought the best tunes to our community street fairs and holiday parties. He volunteered to represent us on the local police station community group. On a personal note, I loved talking about the first Gay Games with him. I am so saddened by this sudden loss. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.” t

San Francisco light festival kicks off compiled by Cynthia Laird

I

lluminate SF Festival of Light has added some temporary light artworks to its many others to brighten nights as the days get shorter.

One of the newest additions is “The Ladder,” at 1066 Market Street, which will be a permanent installation, according to a news release. “Tara Mechani,” at Patricia’s Green at Octavia and Hayes streets, is temporary through the end of the year.

All told there are over 40 installations from Illuminate, best known for the Bay Bridge Lights. The local arts group also has a permanent work in the Castro, the “Hope Will Never Be Silent” fronting Harvey Milk Plaza.

(As the Bay Area Reporter has reported, the quote is widely attributed to the late gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, though it is unclear when he first said it.)

The San Francisco Travel Association is presenting the light festival. Works are located in 17 different city neighborhoods, the release stated.

“This is the perfect activation for San Francisco this season where we can

Henrik Kam

Ivan Navarro’s “The Ladder,” at 1066 Market Street, is part of the Illuminate SF Festival of Light.

all view these marvels while staying safe, enjoying the new outdoor patios along the way, and get some much-needed exercise with an evening stroll,” stated Brenda Tucker, director of marketing for SF Travel.

Notably, Golden Gate Park will host multiple installations in celebration of its 150th anniversary, in-

cluding the Observation Wheel and “Entwined” in Peacock Meadow.

“Each year San Francisco adds new permanent and temporary installations,” Tucker stated. “This year, we are celebrating five new additions.”

One of those is the aforementioned “The Ladder,” by internationally recognized light artist Ivan Navarro.

The new and existing art installations are included in the Illuminate SF Light Art Trail, a self-guided itinerary that includes 11 installations in

Asia-Vinae Jazzreal Parker

Asia-Vinae Jazzreal Parker’s “Trans AF” is one of the posters in “Radical Imagining: Trans Resilience is Powerful” that is part of an outdoor exhibition at the Haight Street Art Center.

neighborhoods like the Embarcadero, South of Market, Civic Center, Hayes Valley, the Castro, and the Bayview.

For more information, go to https://illuminatesf.com/.

Outdoor art honors trans lives

The Haight Street Arts Center has

unveiled an outdoor art display commissioned by Forward Together that is now available for people to visit.

The exhibition’s opening was timed with the November 20 Trans Day of Remembrance and is on view until January 31.

The arts center reopened November 12, stated Kelly Harris, a queeridentified woman who is the executive director.

The exhibition, entitled “Radical Imagining: Trans Resilience is Powerful,” was created by Forward Together, a Bay Area-based nonprofit, and Micah Bazant, the organization’s artist in residence. Together, they have nurtured the project for the past seven years. Both the Audre Lorde Project and BreakOUT played critical roles in founding and shaping the themes and content of the project, and many of the pieces created from 2015-2020 were done in collaboration with trans justice organizations across the country, a news release noted.

“HSAC is honored to host this engaging work that highlights the resilience, power, and strength of trans communities of color,” Harris stated.

“Our garden gallery will serve as a See page 7 >>

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Community News>>

News Briefs

From page 6

place for empowerment, community building, and healing for the trans community and allies.”

The artists featured in the exhibition are: Amir Khadar, Art Twink, Asia-Vinae Jazzreal Parker, Bishakh Som, Colin Laurel, Ebin Lee, Kosmo X Parker, Féi Hernandez, Glori Tuitt, Hinter Ashleigh Shackelford, Kah Yangni, Mojuicy, and Rommy Sobrado-Torrico.

HSAC is located at 215 Haight Street. People can view the exhibition Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information, visit http://www.haightstreetart.org.

In its fifth year of collaboration with the drug store chain, SFPD will accept donations of new, unwrapped toys at over 54 San Francisco Walgreens. The toy drive runs through Friday, December 18.

According to a news release, people can drop off a new, unwrapped toy at any city Walgreens store. The toys will be collected by the police department and donated to kids this holiday season. Last year, approximately 2,500 toys were donated through the program.

OFC town hall coming up

Our Family Coalition will hold a virtual town hall to hear from peo-

November 26-December 2, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

ple about what their needs are and what they would like to see the LGBTQ nonprofit do in 2021.

The meeting will take place Friday, December 4, from noon to 1:30 p.m.

The Bay Area Reporter recently wrote about the agency’s new executive director, Mimi Demissew, who virtually started in the post this fall.

At the time, OFC board co-chair Lisa Fujie Parks said that the agency was planning to hold a virtual town hall.

For more information, go to https://ourfamily.org/. t

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SF Pride theme chosen

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee has announced the theme for next year’s Pride festivities.

“All in this Together” was selected as the 2021 SF Pride theme, according to a news release. Almost 300 people voted on a runoff ballot after there was a three-way tie, the release stated. The theme brings to mind a familiar saying in this year of COVID-19. The release noted that the theme also is a call to unity amid challenging times.

San Francisco Pride will take place June 26-27. This year’s 50th anniversary celebration was virtual due to the pandemic.

Fred Lopez, executive director of SF Pride, said a decision on the 2021 parade and festival has not been made.

“We are pleased about the theme for SF Pride 2021, ‘All In This Together.’ The board and staff are evaluating the possibilities and will be able to share plans for Pride 2021 around mid-February.”

Shop Local.

Spend Local.

SFPD, Walgreens hold toy drive

The San Francisco Police Department and Walgreens have partnered for a holiday toy drive to help children in need.

<<

Milk-Moscone vigil

From page 2

that the vigil for Milk and Moscone be held this year and not scrapped due to the health crisis so that it can offer some sense of community during a time when so many people are sequestered at home and unable to be with their family and friends on Thanksgiving because of the virus.

“It is important, especially now more than ever, as we are all kind of in our own silos, quarantining and stuck at home. In these moments community is so important,” said Williams, who is bisexual and was furloughed from her job as a flight attendant.

For many Milk club members the group is more than just a political outlet, noted Williams, and has become a part of their chosen family here in the city. And particularly this year, due to the pandemic, protests against police brutality, and a stressful presidential election, Williams sees the vigil as a way to fulfill Milk’s famous entreaty to give people hope for their lives and a better future.

“In 2020, in this time I think you got to give them hope and put that into our organizing. When I think about this year, and it has been fucking hard, I take this time to honor them both and think about the legacy they pass on and hope they have inspired,” said Williams. “Through their assassinations there was not just a lot of anger but also a lot of hope to push forward with what they fought for.

I see this year in a very similar way.

It has been a really rough year and caused a lot of civil unrest but hope keeps us going forward and keeps us progressing.”

To register to watch the vigil via Zoom, go to https://bit.ly/36SnY8Y.t

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<< From the Cover

10 • Bay Area Reporter • November 26-December 2, 2020

<<

Cannabis

From page 1

“I want to see the exception for all cannabis consumers, not just those with a doctor’s recommendation,” Goldman told the B.A.R. November 19. “If you have a doctor’s note that’s currently valid, you’re exempted. If you don’t, you can’t do it; there’s no recourse.”

Goldman said that the legislation would create a “two-edged sword” that hinges on “the status of the smoker, rather than the smoke itself, which is indistinguishable. You have the same smoke.”

Many cannabis users who previously had an up-to-date doctor’s recommendation let those lapse once Proposition 64 came into effect nearly three years ago. That initiative, approved by state voters in 2016, allows for the adult use of recreational marijuana.

<<

World AIDS Day

Virtual quilt display

The AIDS grove, which took over stewardship of the AIDS quilt a year ago, will be unveiling a virtual exhibition of the quilt on World AIDS Day. The online exhibit will will run until March 31. The exhibition will feature about one-fifth of the total quilt panels, according to a news release from the AIDS grove.

“Our hope is to use the power and beauty of the quilt to help our nation heal during these difficult times,” AIDS quilt co-founder Mike Smith stated in a news release. “This firstever virtual display will help us bring the quilt to so many people in a year when we can’t do in-person displays.”

Herglotz said he hopes those who can’t see physical quilt panels in per-

<<

School name ideas

From page 1

Press coverage made it seem that the jettisoning of the targeted school names was a foregone conclusion, but the school district issued a statement stressing that no decisions had been made and none would be until next year at the earliest. Public outrage was also enflamed by school principals being asked to submit new name

where people can otherwise use marijuana legally and some use marijuana medicinally,” Mahogany wrote.

Possible amendment

According to an article in the San Francisco Examiner, Supervisors Shamann Walton and Catherine Stefani said they were supportive of the ordinance, which was co-sponsored by Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer.

Both Yee and Fewer are leaving the board in January.

Mandelman was quoted in the article as raising concerns about the lack of a cannabis exemption to the smoking ban, saying “for folks who do not have a medical cannabis card, there are very few places outside their own home where you can consume cannabis. ... It is not parallel to cigarettes in that way. Cigarettes, there are still places where smokers can go and smoke. That is not so much the case for cannabis smokers.”

Speaking with the B.A.R. November 19, Mandelman made the same distinction and said he has contacted Yee’s office to ask that he include an amendment exempting cannabis.

“I would like to vote for the ban and I imagine my colleagues would, too,” Mandelman said. “I don’t want to vote for it if cannabis is included.

I’ve reached out to President Yee’s office to see if they will work with us. If not, that’s fine – we’re working on an amendment and if President Yee does not do an amendment, I will.”

Mandelman said his team is still figuring out whether to exempt cannabis altogether, or about whether to exempt it until such time as the state law is changed to allow public use of cannabis, which is still illegal under federal law.

“We’re still thinking about how to frame it,” Mandelman said. “My staff identified this problem, I had this concern going into the budget

The Wall Las Memorias Project in Los Angeles has moved its 27th an-

who had sought a seat on the school board two years ago, told the B.A.R. the renaming panel was facing an “uphill battle” before its work caught the attention of the mainstream press.

“We have this view of what our school communities are like and they are attached to names,” said Rawlings-Fein, who has an elementary student and a high school student enrolled in city public schools.

“It can be really hard to break

through with those alumni boards and break through with those people who really have a stake in what they think the name means and what it means in reality.”

In addition to potentially naming a school after Ammiano, another LGBTQ leader who would be appropriate to honor in such a way would be the late lesbian city ethics commissioner Eileen Hansen, said Rawlings-Fein. Hansen, See page 11 >>

Around the bay

Mark Sawchuk, communications manager for the GLBT Historical Society, told the B.A.R. that it has two plans to commemorate World AIDS Day. “First, our December issue of our monthly newsletter, which will go out on November 30, will feature two AIDS-related stories, one of which is about the dozens of interviews with former ACT UP San Francisco members we’ve completed as part of our AIDS Oral History Project,” Sawchuck stated in an email. “Second, we’re going to be hosting a live rebroadcast of five of our virtual programs from earlier this year from our series ‘Lessons from AIDS for COVID-19.’”

These programs will run from noon to 8 p.m. December 1 on the society’s website and are titled, consecutively: “Confronting the

East Bay Getting to Zero is planning a virtual event for December 4, program manager Yamini OsegueraBhatnagar told the B.A.R., though details are forthcoming.

In Oakland, a soft opening of a new wellness clinic has been timed to occur the day after World AIDS Day, December 2, from noon to 6 p.m.

“The new Glenn Burke Wellness Clinic is a project of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center,” a news release states.

It is located at the Oakland center, located at 3207 Lakeshore Avenue.

The clinic is named for Burke, the first player in Major League Baseball to come out as gay to his teammates during his professional career, and the first to publicly acknowledge it after he left the sport.

Burke, who went to Berkeley High School, played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1978, and then played one season for the Oakland Athletics. He is credited with helping to invent the high-five along with Dodgers teammate (and former San Francisco Giants manager) Dusty Baker. Burke died of AIDS complications in 1995.

“Although people are much more accepting today than during the time that Glenn lived in, still Black gay, bi, transgender, and queer individuals struggle with some of the same challenges that Glenn Burke tried overcoming 40 years ago, with few places to turn for support until now,” the release states.

Meanwhile in the South Bay, the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center will be holding a virtual panel viewable on YouTube and Facebook Sunday, November 29, at noon featuring Shoma Sen, Robert Robledo, and Molly Herzig as panelists and Gabrielle Antolovich as the moderator.

On December 1, there will be a flag-raising at the Santa Clara County Plaza at noon, which will be viewable on Facebook; a 1:30 p.m. proclamation at San Jose City Hall by councilmembers Pam Foley and Raul Peralez, which will be viewable on the city’s website; and a candlelight vigil on

suggestions to the naming advisory group while their school sites were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gay school board president Mark Sanchez, a former principal with the district, two years ago had passed the resolution calling for the School Names Advisory Committee to be formed. In an interview in August with the Bay Area Reporter, he had noted that the group had fallen a year behind

its expected timeline for presenting new name suggestions.

At the time expecting to see the committee wrap up its work by December, Sanchez declined to weigh in on any potential names.

The panel now plans to next meet Wednesday, January 6.

“I want them to do their work without influence,” Sanchez had said.

Martin Rawlings-Fein, a transgender bisexual married father

Courtesy NBC News

Dr. Anthony Fauci will receive an award from the AIDS grove.

son due to the pandemic can visit online.

Chad Ngo, communications manager for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told the B.A.R. that the foundation is “promoting the National AIDS Memorial’s virtual quilt display because we want to lift up the work they are doing as the new stewards of the quilt.”

The foundation, too, is avoiding in-person events.

“We’re hosting the ACTivate Fundraising Lunch, and the TogetherRide team is hosting an evening event– the latter event will include a candlelight vigil,” Ngo stated in an email. “SFAF is working with a community artist to create a unique design to be added to our online store.

The design will represent diversity, equity, and inclusion, and carry the message of health justice on World AIDS Day.” Items will be available for purchase at http://www.sfaf.org/shop.

GLBT Historical Society

committee, and afterward we moved forward without a recommendation because of these concerns.”

Both Mandelman and Tom Temprano, a gay man who works as his legislative aide, said they were unsure of the prospects of the passage of the proposed ordinance.

“It’s hard to say,” Temprano said, just moments before Mandelman – who spoke with the B.A.R. on a separate call – “it’s a difficult question.”

Temprano said that while many landlords ban indoor smoking in their leases, it is not illegal to his knowledge.

“What this would do is make it harder for people to smoke in San Francisco unless it’s a two-unit or less apartment [building], or a consumption lounge,” Temprano said. “That’s the real difference – what this law contemplates is if you want to smoke a cigarette you can go to a sidewalk, but you can’t do that with a cannabis product.” t nual Noche de Las Memorias event online.

“This year the event will be virtual due to the current health pandemic, but everyone felt that the event must go on to commemorate those that have lost their lives to the AIDS/HIV pandemic,” spokesperson Shari Mesulam stated in an email to the B.A.R. Scheduled participants include Laura Cerón, Wilson Cruz, Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles), Justina Machado, Kenny Ortega, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Mesulam said.

There will be musical performances by Juan Pablo Di Pace and Lena Marie.

Richard Zaldivar, a gay man who is the founder and executive director of the project, told the B.A.R. that he has “lost some sleep over” how to make the event work in virtual space.

“It’s a huge difference,” he said.

“One being that for our community in L.A., World AIDS Day is our special day to come together in person to remember those who have died.

There’s a lot of emotion, crying, and hugging that because of COVID-19, many in our community can’t get the community and spiritual support they need.”

Zaldivar said he hopes older people accustomed to showing up in person will show up to the virtual event, 80% of which will be pre-recorded.

“On December 1 at 6 p.m. we will go live on Zoom, Facebook Live, and YouTube, and normally I’d go around [the crowd] with a microphone,” for people to share their stories, he said.

“Around 6:40 p.m. we’ll go live to the AIDS monument [in Lincoln Park] and we will go to the Zoom platform and Facebook chat, then we’ll return to the recorded session, ending with prayer and song.”

Zaldivar said he hopes the event can capstone one of the most difficult years in modern American history.

“I’m hoping in this horrible year of anxiety and sadness over politics and COVID-19 that people may find a space to remember another epidemic that killed millions of people around the world called AIDS, and we come together as a community, as a world, to remember those who passed and feel the spirit of each other in this virtual platform,” Zaldivar said. “We can go through any challenge we face knowing there is some bright light on the other end of the tunnel.” t

Stigma of Disease;” “Housing Insecurity & Public Health;” “The International AIDS Conference in San Francisco, 1990-2020;” “Direct Action, Marching & Parading;” and “Pandemic Sex.”

From page 1

The Pedro Zamora scholarships, usually awarded on World AIDS Day, will be unveiled in January, Herglotz said.

Four big-city mayors – straight ally Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta; lesbian Lori E. Lightfoot of Chicago; Robert Garcia of Long Beach, who is gay; and straight ally Bill de Blasio of New York City – will lead a panel on the interconnected COVID-19 pandemic and HIV epidemic, according to a November 20 news release from the AIDS grove.

Another event, Herglotz said, will feature Alicia Garza, a queer woman who is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network; Cleve Jones, a gay man who is a co-founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt; and Kristin Urquiza, a bisexual woman who founded Marked by COVID, the latter two of whom spearheaded a week of mourning for COVID victims earlier this year, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

At 11 a.m. Pacific Time December 1, the federal Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy will be hosting “Live with Leadership – World AIDS Day Edition,” which will be available on the office’s website.

The event will be moderated by Harold Phillips, the chief operating officer for Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America, and senior HIV adviser for the office.

Ending the HIV Epidemic is a Trump administration initiative aimed at reducing new infections by 75% by 2025, and by 90% by 2030.

Goldman alleges Yee’s proposed legislation would run afoul of Prop 64, because cannabis use is only allowed under Prop 64 in private residences and certain private venues.

“I find it amazing Supervisor Yee is promoting this,” Goldman said, adding that encouraging people to switch to edibles is not a good alternative for those who need quick relief from symptoms they are using cannabis to treat.

The offices of Yee, Supervisor Dean Preston, and Mayor London Breed did not respond to requests for comment.

According to a November 20 email from Honey Mahogany, a Black queer nonbinary trans person who is a legislative aide to District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, the supervisor agrees that the ordinance should not include cannabis.

“Supervisor Haney does feel that this ordinance should exclude marijuana as there really aren’t places

t

Courtesy +Life

Los Angeles TV reporter Karl Schmid wears an F+Stigma mask that is part of his new campaign.

Zoom hosted by Nicole Altamirano of Silicon Valley Pride at 7 p.m.

Using masks to fight stigma

Meanwhile, Karl Schmid, a gay man who is a reporter for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, is using World AIDS Day as an opportunity to launch a new campaign against HIV stigma.

Schmid has co-founded +Life, which will be starting the F+Stigma campaign December 1. The idea is to have people wear face masks to prevent COVID-19 transmission that bear the message “F+Stigma” (short for “fight stigma”). Face masks are being distributed to “influencers, some press and thought leaders,” according to spokesman Raúl Rojas.

Schmid hopes the campaign will garner attention.

“I’ve been on this mission for the last two years to tackle HIV stigma head-on. HIV doesn’t kill like it used to, but stigma does,” Schmid told the B.A.R. “We created this campaign to say ‘F+Stigma’ to put it out there as a conversation starter.”

Schmid said when he wore a U=U shirt to the gym before they were closed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to tell people who hadn’t heard about it that those whose HIV infection is undetectable are unable to infect others with the virus. The B.A.R. reported on that campaign last year.

“I cannot tell you the number of times people stop. Once I was buying flowers in Australia and I had a chat with a woman for 10 minutes,” Schmid said. “We need to get rid of the myth that this is the Grim Reaper.”

Virtual Noche de Las Memorias

t <<

Community News>>

School name ideas

From page 10

who died in 2016 two days shy of her 65th birthday from cancer, also worked for a number of AIDS agencies.

Ideas for names

The B.A.R. asked readers in late August to suggest possible new school names, and the suggestions of LGBTQ people to recognize in such a manner varied widely. Several people argued on behalf of the late lesbian pioneering couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, whose Noe Valley home the city is now looking to designate as a city landmark.

Journalists and co-founders of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first political and social organization for lesbians in the United States, Lyon and Martin would make his-

<<

November 26-December 2, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

tory again in 2004 when they were the first couple to be married by San Francisco officials in defiance of California’s prohibition of same-sex marriage.

With that marriage later annulled by the courts, the women were the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California on June 16, 2008. Weeks later, on August 27, Martin died at the age of 87 in San Francisco with Lyon at her side. This past spring Lyon died at the age of 95 on April 9.

Martin, in particular, would be a worthy person to name a school after, pointed out Kathy Amendola, a lesbian who owns the Cruisin’ The Castro Walking Tours.

“Del started the first lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955. The group’s goal was education thru advocating and were responsible for the American Psychiatric Association to remove

Political Notebook

From page 5

“I do get frustrated when I see the idea of pitting queer folks against each other,” she said. “Jackie is a really smart candidate. I feel good knowing wherever Jackie Fielder goes on to next, she is going to be absolutely fantastic. She is smart and strategic about the steps she takes.”

Should she end up moving closer to San Francisco State where she has tought, Fielder could opt to run for Assemblyman Phil Ting’s seat, as the Democrat is already raising money for a likely bid to become state controller in 2022 when Betty Yee is termed out.

“That is not in my lane right now,” Fielder told the B.A.R., adding that she also has “no idea” on if she would move to D9 to seek that supervisor seat. “I made the decision to run for state senator exactly a year ago, so much can happen in a year.

Even looking in the future four years from now is a bit overwhelmingly.

Right now I want to try to return to my roots as an organizer.”

Steven Underhill

BART director Janice Li

Also being encouraged to seek Ting’s 19th District seat is Li, whose first term in the BART board’s District 8 seat will be up that year.

She told the B.A.R. this month it is “way too early” to think about her future political plans. But she did point out that come next year, there will be no women representing

homosexuality as a mental illness,” wrote Amendola. “Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were also the first LGBTQ couple to be married in SF after 50 years of partnership.”

Local leatherman Patrick Mulcahey advocated on behalf of the late Martin Delaney, “a giant of AIDS activism” as the B.A.R. noted in its news obit for the founder of the San Francisco-based HIV treatment information organization Project Inform. Delaney, who changed how clinical trials are conducted and how patients interact with physicians, died of liver cancer in 2009 at the age of 63.

Others on the list included the B.A.R.’s late founding publisher Bob Ross and Milk’s gay successor on the Board of Supervisors Harry Britt, who died in June at the age of 82. Another of Milk’s compatriots mentioned by former B.A.R. assistant editor Dennis Conkin

was Sally Gearhart. She worked with Milk on the 1978 defeat of Proposition 6, a California ballot initiative that sought to exclude gay men and lesbians from teaching in public schools.

Now living in Northern California, Gearhart was the first out lesbian to receive a tenure-track position at San Francisco State University in 1973. She also established one of the first women’s and gender studies programs in the country while at SF State.

Conkin also suggested deceased gay notable locals disco star Sylvester, AIDS and anti-violence activist Hank Wilson, and poets Paul Mariah and Dan Turner. Filmmaker David Weissman suggested “Hibiscus High School!” in honor of the actor and performance artist born George Harris who founded the queer liberation theater collective known as the Cockettes in San

Francisco in the early 1970s.

Transgender housing activist Jordan Davis advocated for a school to be named after the late transgender leader Jazzie Collins, “for all her work with issues facing Black transgender women, disabled folks, and housing rights.”

According to a statement issued in late October by Sanchez, who was reelected to the school board this month, the naming advisory panel will factor in feedback from the public and the individual school sites when it meets in early 2021 to formulate its recommendations and deliver them to the school board in January or February for further action.

“Any final decision to change school names rests with the elected members of the Board of Education,” stressed Sanchez. t

San Francisco, San Mateo, or Santa Clara counties in the state Legislature. There will only be a single female Asian state legislator who is a Republican, added Li, and just three queer Democratic women in the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.

“You would think in California we would be breaking ground and getting more LGBTQ women elected but that is not the case,” said Li. “We need to do better in building a pipeline.”

Randolph agreed, telling the B.A.R. that without “a pipeline of amazing LGBTQ folks, we are going to continue to see a lack of LGBTQ representation, whether on the Board of Supervisors or the City College board of trustees and beyond.”

At no point in the foreseeable future does Dufty envision there not being an LGBTQ supervisor in the city. And despite the inability of out candidates in recent election cycles to win a supervisor seat outside of District 8, Dufty said it is only a matter of time.

“I think a solid grassroots queer candidate can win in other districts,” he said. “I just don’t think

that they have lined up when the opportunities have arisen. I do think San Franciscans will support queer candidates in every district.”

Mandelman also believes queer supervisorial candidates can win in other districts and would like to see a trans and out person of color serving on the board. He does question how important it is within the LGBTQ community to see more than just one out supervisor at City Hall.

“But I don’t think the community, at least we haven’t seen the kind of community demands for more representation,” he said. “So if it is only queer electeds and queer media raising this, and if it is not salient for the broader queer community, I am not sure other people are going to listen.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Martha Guerrero to be their new mayor just two years after she won her council seat.

According to the last count update posted Friday, November 20,

by Yolo County elections officials, Guerrero edged out Cabaldon by just 486 votes to deny him a ninth consecutive two-year term as mayor.

In 1996 he first won a seat on the City Council, having fallen short during his first bid two years prior, and served four yearlong terms as mayor while a council member.

In 2004, Cabaldon was the first mayor to be directly elected by West Sacramento voters. He came out as gay during his State of the City address the following year.

His defeat means the capital area will be seeing two of its highest profile out elected municipal officials leaving office at the end of this year. In the March primary, gay Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen lost his bid for a third term in another close race to political newcomer Katie Valenzuela, an environmental policy adviser. t

and it appearing from said application that petitioner YEE MEN CHAN is requesting that the name YEE MEN CHAN be changed to BOBBY YEE MEN CHAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 29th of December 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DEANNA NGO LUONG is requesting that the name DEANNA NGO LUONG be changed to DEANNA NGOC NGO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 29th of December 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

Gay West Sacto mayor is defeated

In a shock to the LGBTQ community in the Sacramento region, gay West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon has been ousted from office. Voters in the rapidly developing riverside city elected West

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555966

In the matter of the application of MAYA STICKNEY, 5044 GEARY BLVD #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MAYA STICKNEY is requesting that the name MAYA STICKNEY be changed to MAYA FUJIMURA-STICKNEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 10th of December 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555968

In the matter of the application of RALPH CRISTOBAL RASALAN, 3465 25th ST #8, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RALPH CRISTOBAL RASALAN is requesting that the name RALPH CRISTOBAL RASALAN be changed to RALPH CRISTOBAL RASALAN TIETJEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 15th of December 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039177400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as YOGA SHA, 4686 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH A. NAUDZUNAS JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/20.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039175700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ZENFINITE CBD, 265 NUEVA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SYNERGY GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/08/20.

business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/14/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/06/20.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039181300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROUTINE FITNESS, 1601 MARIPOSA ST #406, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SOO MIN HWANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/05/20.

NOV 12, 19, 26, DEC 03, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039180600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SYLISKABEAUTY, 46 BRIDGEVIEW DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SPYNSIR TUCKER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/05/20.

NOV 12, 19, 26, DEC 03, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039182000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LUZ HOTEL, 725 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CANDARI INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/06/20.

NOV 12, 19, 26, DEC 03, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555985

In the matter of the application of MITCHELL CLAYTON CONQUER, 145 CASITAS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MITCHELL CLAYTON CONQUER is requesting that the name MITCHELL CLAYTON CONQUER be changed to MITCHELL CLAYTON SINKLERCONQUER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 29th of December 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26, 2020

NOV 19, 26, DEC 03, 10, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039169200

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555987

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FIORELLA, 2339 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PROJECT PIZZA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact

In the matter of the application of YEE MEN CHAN, 491 GAVEN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court,

NOV 19, 26, DEC 03, 10, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039178300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AURABEAT NORTH AMERICA, 1830 HARRISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BRONDELL, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/22/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/29/20.

NOV 19, 26, DEC 03, 10, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039182800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CALIFORNIA STATE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, 2685 22ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CALIFORNIA STATE REALTY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/20.

NOV 19, 26, DEC 03, 10, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039183000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DR DEE’S MUSIC, 1030 BRODERICK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DIANTHE SPENCER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/20.

NOV 19, 26, DEC 03, 10, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039142100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MURACCI’S JAPANESE RESTAURANT, 307 KEARNY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed TAMIKO FUKUDA &YASUYUKI MURATA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/24/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555994

In the matter of the application of DEANNA NGO LUONG, 1655 MISSION ST #547, SAN FRANCISCO,

NOV 26, DEC 03, 10, 17, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556000

In the matter of the application of ERIK WOLFFINGER & ALMA ESPINOLA, 2011 26TH ST #301, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ERIK WOLFFINGER & ALMA ESPINOLA is requesting that the name TARTUFINO VAN WOLFINGER be changed to MAURICIO WALK WOLFINGER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 5th of January 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 26, DEC 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039186100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as

OSCAR LAUNDROMAT, 200 BRAZIL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OSCAR DUARTE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/26/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/13/20.

NOV 26, DEC 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039179200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHARLIE BARNETT ASSOCIATES, INC, 626 HAMPSHIRE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHARLIE BARNETT ASSOCIATES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/20.

NOV 26, DEC 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039191700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BORDERLESS WINE ALLIANCE, 450 VICKSBURG ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BORDERLESS WINE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/19/20.

NOV 26, DEC 03, 10, 17, 2020

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Peter Macdissi and Paul Bettany in Uncle Frank

by Gregg Shapiro

U

ncle Frank (Amazon Studios), the second full-length feature from gay, Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Alan Ball (True Blood, Six Feet Under), takes us back to the last half of the 20th century, and the less tolerant South. Frank (Paul Bettany) escaped the strangulation of his Southern roots and headed for Manhattan, where he could be himself. During a family, visit he bonds with his bright, young niece Beth (Sophia Lillis), whom he encourages to consider applying to college in New York when the time comes.

His words of support pay off and she gets into NYU. But Beth’s education doesn’t only take place in the classroom as she is soon immersed in the world of her uncle and his lover Walid (Peter Macdissi). Following the death of Frank’s homophobic father Mac (Stephen Root), the unlikely trio returns to the family homestead, leading to lots of emotional fireworks. I spoke with Peter about the movie in November 2020.

Gregg Shapiro: What was it about the character of Walid in Uncle Frank that appealed to you as an actor?

Peter Macdissi: As an actor, what appealed to me is that it was something I had never done before. It was a character who was super positive, super loving and generous. He was sunshine. He was a ray of light. I even asked Alan (Ball), “Are you sure I’m the best actor for this part?” Because I’m normally cast as edgy, intense characters. That was very refreshing and original to play something like that, that I had never done before.

‘Frank’ talk

An interview with actor Peter Macdissi

Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany), the title character, takes a genuine interest in his niece Beth (Sophia Lillis) and encourages her to explore the world beyond her small South Carolina town. Did you have an Uncle Frank or someone like him in your life?

Oh, absolutely! But it wasn’t an uncle; it was my older sister Laura. She was my mentor in so many ways. I was younger than Beth. I was maybe six or seven years old. She would buy me a book every week from the bookshop and I would read the book. I would be excited for the next book she would bring me. I guess she was my mentor in terms of the importance of reading and being knowledgeable and things getting better in life. It was she who was the first person to instill these principles in me.

Beth and her friend Bruce crash a party at Walid and Frank’s which results in Frank

coming out to Beth in front of Walid in an emotional scene. Later, Walid talks about how what Frank did aroused him. What did you think of the way that the movie strikes a balance between seriousness and humor?

Alan Ball is the king of that. If you check his work, not just Uncle Frank, all his work, he’s a master of marrying the drama with the comedy. His work is very deep, very moving, very empathetic to the human condition. He has tremendous amounts of compassion for his characters. Nevertheless, he never forgets the importance of entertainment; getting laughter in between. He’s super at that. I don’t think anybody does it as well as he does.

After Frank’s father dies, Uncle Frank becomes a road movie with some surprises.

The road movie comes from a long cinematic tradition. Do you have a favorite road movie?

I keep getting asked this question. Lady Bird, about the mother and daughter, with the actress Laurie Metcalf who was in Roseanne.

That was a kind of road movie. That was the last one I saw.

Would you say that there are rewards and challenges to working with Alan, as you have done for several years?

We sometimes have different opinions about things that we fight for. But not major things.

It’s never like a crucial element about the project. Little things, here and there, sometimes crop up. We share the same sensibility in so many ways. We understand each other and we complement each other. I feel super lucky and privileged to have a job like that, actually.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com

Books on our gift list

by Gregg Shapiro

T

o some, 2020 is dragging on like an endless nightmare, yet the holiday season will soon be upon us, whether or not we are prepared. Thankfully, books are affordable gifts that can be enjoyed in the safety of the recipients’ homes.

For the visually inclined Steven Universe: End of an Era (Abrams, 2020) by Chris McDonnell with a foreword

by N.K. Jemisin is a colorful tribute to the groundbreaking Cartoon Network show created by Rebecca Sugar which ran for five seasons, featuring all-female superheroes and including the first same-sex marriage in an all-ages animated series.

The late queer photographer William Gedney, who died from AIDS complications in 1989, was notable for his rural Kentucky and gay Pride parade photographs, as well as those of the hippies in San Francisco. A Time of Youth: San Francisco, 1966-1967 (due out in Feb. 2021, but can be pre-ordered from

your favorite indie bookseller) focuses on a specific time frame of his work.

Heartstopper, Volume 2 (Scholastic Graphix, 2020) by Alice Oseman is the second installment (obviously!) in the graphic novel series about “shy and softhearted” Charlie who falls for best friend/schoolmate/ rugby player Nick, and is surprised to find that Nick feels the same way. Now if they can only convince their friends that it’s all going to work out fine.

If there was a queer Cleveland answer to Patti Smith, it would have to be Adele Bertei, who tells her fascinating story in Peter and the Wolves (Smog Veil, 2020). Not only did Bertei also have a close friendship with a photographer (in her case, the legendary Nan Goldin), but she was also part of an influential music scene along with the late (and relatively unsung) Peter Laughner (the book’s titular Peter of Pere Ubu fame).

Additionally, Bertei not only continued to make her own musical mark, but she can also be seen in classic `80s films such as Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames and Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan.

A fantastic combination of memoir and visual art, Golem Girl (One World, 2020) is by Riva Lehrer, born in 1958 with spina bifida. Known for her artistic representations of “people with impairments, and those whose sexuality and gender identity” has been marginalized, Combining vintage and personal photographs, as well as Lehrer’s artwork, with the artist’s story in her own words, makes for an unforgettable experience.

Making good use of the resources at Gerber/Hart Library and Archives (where he is currently board president), gay historian, educator, writer and activist John D’Emilio’s new book Queer Legacies: Stories From Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives (The University of Chicago Press, 2020) aims a spotlight on the city by the lake. As D’Emilio writes, “Most of the stories have a Chicago focus, a city often ignored in the broad narrative of LGBTQ history.”

With advance praise from heavy hitters such as Barney Frank, Andrew Holleran and Paul Lisicky, As Far As I Can Tell: Finding My Father in World War II (Rattling Good

Yarns, 2020), the powerful memoir by Philip Gambone (author of The Language We Use Up Here and Beijing), details his soldier father Arthur’s military odyssey during the second world war.

Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic (Knopf, 2020), edited by Alice Quinn, the executive director of the Poetry Society of America and former poetry editor at The New Yorker, is an anthology comprised of the work of more than 100 poets, including LGBTQ+ voices such as Jericho Brown, Ellen Bass, Richie Hofmann, Eileen Myles, Carl Phillips, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Mark Wunderlich and Rick Barot.

Part of The Croy Cycle of books set in Croy, Oklahoma, If I Remember Him (Le Croyens Press, 2020) by gay writer Louis Flint Ceci takes readers back to the mid20th century for the story of Lerner Alquist’s quest to memorialize his wife in the town suffering as much from weather damage as it is from racial and religious bigotry.t

Read the full list on www.ebar.com

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<< Films & Books

14 • Bay Area Reporter • November 26-December 2, 2020

Ammonite’s allure Francis Lee’s sapphic follow-up film

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in Ammonite.

by Brian Bromberger

F

ollowing his triumph with 2017’s God’s Own Country, writer/director Francis Lee’s sophomore effort, Ammonite, has arrived.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call the movie a lesbian sequel to GOC. Like most follow-ups it’s not as great as the original, but definitely worth watching, primarily for the incandescent, almost inevitable Academy-Award-nominated performances, from its two superstar leads, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.

Like GOC, we return to a harsh wild punishing landscape, this time the rugged Southern English coastline near the village of Lyme Regis, the home of self-taught paleontologist Mary Anning (1799-1847), played by Winslet. Years earlier Anning discovered some famous marine fossils, but now survives searching for stones she polishes to sell to tourists in a curio shop run by her ailing mother Molly (the incredible Gemma Jones). Ammonites are the extinct spiral-shaped mollusk ancestors of octopuses and squid,

Personals People>>

providing the specimens collected

by Anning.

Though fiercely denied by Anning’s descendants, the film is loosely based on her alleged romantic tete a tete with Charlotte Murchison (Ronan). Murchison’s husband, Roderick (James McArdle) is a wealthy geologist with the Royal Geographical Society, who has seen Anning’s prized artifacts displayed at the British Museum (sold to cover her living expenses, though credit for her discoveries was often attributed to her jealous male peers). Tracking her down, Murchison wants to study her field methodology, paying her for the privilege. Charlotte, accompanying him, is suffering from melancholia after a miscarriage.

Deciding the sea air might be therapeutic, he hires Anning to watch her while he leaves to continue his scientific exploits in continental Europe. Anning cannot refuse the employment but resents Charlotte’s interference in her work, though she’ll later become a noted paleontologist in her own right after assisting Anning. The film depicts

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how they overcome their differences and begin a passionate relationship, despite the moral strictures of Victorian England.

Anning provides Winslet with her best role and superlative act-

ing since her Oscar-winning performance in The Reader (2007).

And make no mistake, Ammonite is Winslet’s movie, proving how sometimes great artistry can elevate middling material.

As in GOC, the dialogue is sparse and with no narration, Winslet relies on virtuoso body language to convey her character’s stern sense of control in a meticulously managed lonely daily routine. She shines in registering Anning’s dour resignation at her unfair personal and professional predicaments, especially tending to her sick, disparaging mother.

As counterpoint, Ronan conveys Charlotte initially as pale and fragile in her depression plus starved of affection and attention from her dandy-like, self-absorbed husband.

Slowly she becomes more confident and adamant, as her feelings for the emotionally withdrawn Anning grows. Her youthful spirited optimism is juxtaposed to Anning’s grim, haggard ascetic disposition.

As in GOC, the explosive graphic erotic encounters are the highlight of Ammonite, where feverish lovemaking contrasts with the dim drudgery of everyday existence. They are the best lesbian sex scenes by two heterosexual actresses helmed by a gay director, since Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015) with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

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Unfortunately, Ammonite follows on the heels of last year’s French lesbian masterpiece, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, another 19th-century period drama set on a stark Brittany coastline. Like Ammonite, it’s also concerned with the erasure of women’s intellectual achievements.

The superior Portrait was written and directed by lesbians and is able to show an emotional honesty in character motivation and plot, lacking in Ammonite. We are given only vague hints and visual metaphors (too many) to account for narrative gaps, so there is an opaqueness and inscrutability haunting this sporadically sluggish film, that only roars to life during the combustible sex scenes.

Similar to GOC, Ammonite is all about the search for connection, by overcoming social, sexual, and generational boundaries. While Ammonite doesn’t rise to fulfill all its ambitions and hindered by an ambiguous ending contrary to GOC’s exhilarating fairytale-like conclusion, viewers will find ample satisfaction, both in two breathtaking lead actors and in the film’s postscript announcing 163 years after her death, Anning’s scientific contributions were formally recognized by the Royal Society.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

My Neighbor, Miguel W

hat do you do when your neighbor and former landlord is a famed local costume designer? If you’re Daniel Navarro, you make a film about him. In My Neighbor, Miguel, the life and creations of gay Latino designer Miguel Gutierrez get a well-deserved intimate portrait.

Shot in 16mm film to retain a visual sense of history, Navarro interviewed Gutierrez, now 72, who shows some of his innovative sculptures and costumes. He also shares stories of meeting the love of his life, the joyous celebrations, and living through the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco as an HIV+ man. Included in the film are vintage film clips of people in Gutierrez’ colorful costumes through previous decades.

The film premieres on December 1 in recognition of World AIDS Day.t www.myneighbormiguel.com

Pictures perfect Photo, art and children’s books with a queer eye

The new hours of Orphan Andy’s will be Sun-Thurs 8:30 am-7:30pm Fri and Sat 8:30am--8;30 pm

and in partnership with Twin Peaks serving food at their sidewalk tables Mon--Wed 11 am--6pm Thurs-1pm -8pm Fri and Sat 1pm-9pm Sun 1pm-8pm

3991-A 17th Street, Market & Castro 415-864-9795

T

hree new and recent books, while in different genres, each bring florid color and stories to readers. Ron Williams’ Images of Desert Diversity-Pride in the Desert, René Capone’s A Boy Named Patience and Paul Pycraft & Melissa VanDiver’s The Octopus’s Holiday: A Different Kind of Christmas Story each share a stunning array of visuals in photos, paintings and illustration. Read more on www.ebar.comt

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Theatre>>

November 26-December 2, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Sondheim scores

1997 recording to be released

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1997 recording of the full score of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurent’s cult favorite musical about corrupt politics, a miracle fountain and asylum inmates will be released on December 4, giving musical theatre fans a new score to enjoy.

Maria Friedman, Julia McKenzie, and John Barrowman lead the cast, with a full supporting cast, chorus, full orchestration by Don Walker, and book writer Arthur Laurents as the Narrator. This marks the first fullscore recording of what has become a cult favorite for Sondheim fans, just in time for his 90th birthday.

Premiered in 1964 on Broadway, Anyone Can Whistle tells the story of a corrupt Mayoress in an impoverished town who whips up the fake ‘miracle’ of a curative spring of water (actually a hidden pump) to drum up tourism. Described as a dark satire on conformity, fraud, and a treatise on the question of sanity, the cast includes a nurse heroine, a doctor with a mysterious past, and an asylum of inmates, or ‘cookies.’

With an intricate story, the musical draws apt parallels to today’s troubles: corrupt politicians, mass hysteria and a naïve belief in miracles over facts. Sound familiar? The two-CD recording’s booklet makes the point even clearer, with quoted lies from Donald Trump almost matching lyrics from the musical.

One of few Sondheim ‘flops’ (like Merrily We Roll Along), the show marked the Broadway musical debut of Angela Lansbury (as Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper), almost cast Barbra Streisand as Nurse Fay Apple (replaced by Lee Remick when Streisand booked the lead in Funny Girl), and endured numerous preproduction woes, from a struggle to find backers to a lead actor (Henry Lascoe) suffering a heart attack during the Philadelphia tryouts.

Despite harsh critiques, the original production won a Tony nomi-

nation for Herbert Ross’ choreography. It received mostly negative press reviews and closed its run at the Majestic Theater 12 previews and nine nights after its April 4, 1964 opening.

Cult fave

In the years since, few productions have been mounted, with the exception of concert versions, including at Carnegie Hall in 1995, which was also a benefit for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, with Madeline Kahn, Bernadette Peters and Scott Bakula. Other productions have been staged in Chicago and London.

Yet a recording of all the songs and music was not made until 1997. Along with a full cast, and a 35-member chorus of “cookies” (asylum inmates), the U.K.’s National Symphony Orchestra accompanies, led by conductor John Owen Edwards.

And that London recording was not released until now, as producer John Yap added finishing touches to the recording during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“The brilliance of this recording gives the show more energy and sparkle than it’s ever had. It made me proud of it,” said composer Sondheim in a press statement.

Since the 1997 Anyone Can Whistle recording was shelved, the lead actors went on to many other performing accomplishments. Maria Friedman has starred in the British TV series Eastenders, is an eight-time Olivier Award nominee, and twice won Best Actress in a musical (Passion and Ragtime London productions). Julia McKenzie has performed in four Sondheim musicals, is a sixtime Olivier Award nominee and a two-time winner, and starred in the TV series Agatha Christie’s Marple.

The openly gay Barrowman released several solo albums, performed in numerous musicals, including Sondheim’s Company, starred in the science fiction series

Julia McKenzie, Maria Friedman, John Barrowman and Stephen Sondheim in 1997.

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Actress Maria Friedman, pianist John Owen Edwards, producer John Yap and composer Stephen Sondheim at Abby Road Studios in 1997.

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Torchwood, and has become a fan favorite in his appearances at comic and science fiction conventions worldwide.

“McKenzie, Friedman and Barrowman were undoubtedly at the height of their powers, and all three have never sounded better,” wrote Craig Glenday, Chair of the Stephen Sondheim Society in an advance review. “The power in Julia’s voice is a potent reminder of why she is one of the - if not the definitive Sondheim interpreters.”

With several songs from Anyone Can Whistle having become favorites of leading cabaret stars (particularly the title song), the musical itself has only recently found a better appreciation. In his 2000 book about Broadway composers, Steven Suskin praised the “fascinating extended musical scenes, with extended choral work [which] immediately marked Sondheim as the most distinctive theatre composer of his time.”

The Jay Records recording releases on Dec. 4, with pre-orders available now.t

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