October 11, 2018 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Oakland mayor debate

Revised Milk plaza design

ARTS

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Desmond is Amazing

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Vol. 48 • No. 41 • October 11-17, 2018

Defendant Michael Phillips

Defense rests in Phillips murder trial

by Alex Madison

T

he defense’s case opened and closed in two days in the Michael Phillips murder trial in San Francisco Superior Court. Closing arguments are expected next week.

Phillips, a gay man, remains in custody on $3 million bail. He pleaded not guilty in April to murder, robbery, and other charges related to the death of James Sheahan, a 75-year-old gay man. Phillips, 65, was arrested in November 2017 in connection with the death of Sheahan, whose body was found August 14, 2017 in his Nob Hill apartment.

Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan Maloof called See page 2 >>

SFO seeks photos for Harvey Milk terminal

Farrah Young, left, the Terminal 1 project manager, and San Francisco International Airport Director Ivar C. Satero discussed proposed art and other elements for the new Terminal 1: Harvey B. Milk Terminal at a news conference Tuesday, October 9.

Jane Philomen Cleland

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

an Francisco International Airport is seeking the public’s help in creating an exhibit about the late gay Supervisor Harvey Milk inside the terminal named in his honor.

It is just one of the elements the city’s airport is planning for the under renovation Terminal 1, which was renamed Terminal 1: Harvey B. Milk

Sonoma recovering a year after fires

S

Deciding to stay

Those who decided to stay are in the process of rebuilding, while those on the periphery of the fire zone, or who weren’t scathed by the blazes, have moved forward, focusing on other issues.

However, the fires are still fresh on people’s minds.

Everyone knows someone who was affected, either by losing their home or workplace or both. No one was really left untouched by the disaster.

“A lot of people are having a really hard time,” said Greg Sarris, of Graton Resort and Casino.

The 66-year-old gay tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which owns the luxury resort and casino in Rohnert Park, said he will never forget the scene in the early morning hours of October 9, 2017, when people camped out in the resort’s parking lot and inside the casino as the fires roared in the next city over.

The resort donated $1 million toward the fire relief and gave $5,000 to each of its 1,400 tribal members who had to evacuate. It continued to house more than 200 of its employees for weeks following the fire, Sarris said.

Street, Milk helped organize the neighborhood’s new LGBT residents into a potent political force that in November 1977 led to his election to a supervisor seat.

The first out LGBT person to hold public office in the city, as well as California, Milk was killed inside City Hall the morning of November 27, 1978 by disgruntled former supervisor See page 12 >>

B.A.R. election endorsements

by Heather Cassell

onoma County is recovering from the wildfires that devastated the region last October as they ripped through the northern part of Santa Rosa, Kenwood, Glen Ellen, and Sonoma.

A year later, the charred hills can be seen in the distance hovering over the manicured vineyards from Highway 12 between Santa Rosa and Sonoma. Glimpses of the blackened remains punctuated by homes untouched by the flames in the Coffey Park neighborhood can be seen from Highway 101. The hills hide the devastation in the Fountaingrove neighborhood.

Many people who spoke to the Bay Area Reporter over this past year during several different trips to Sonoma recounted how they were feeling months after the fires and where they are one year later.

The B.A.R. reached out to some people in Napa for this article but didn’t receive a response.

Some LGBT people affected by the fires have moved away.

Terminal by the supervisors and former mayor Mark Farrell this spring. Also to be installed will be new signage and artwork throughout the terminal, as well as a temporary display on a construction wall in a boarding area of the terminal.

The city’s arts commission in early August voted in support of the airport’s plans to honor Milk and present his life story inside the terminal. An owner of a camera store on Castro

GENERAL ELECTION SF Supervisor Offices

Dist 2: Catherine Stefani Dist 4: Gordon Mar Dist 6: Matt Haney Dist 8: Rafael Mandelman Dist 10: Shamann Walton

SF Board of Education Martin Rawlings-Fein Mia Satya Faauuga Moliga

SF City College Board Thea Selby, John Rizzo, Victor Olivieri Mark Vogler

Charred hills are visible above vineyards following the wildfires that roared through Sonoma County in October 2017.

Graton also continues to do other things to aid Sonoma County’s recovery and has brought in social service workers, legal experts, and others to help its estimated 2,000 employees affected by the fires, Sarris said.

Summer brought a rebound of tourism and was, for some businesses, the best they’ve seen so far, many owners told the B.A.R. Not all businesses are bouncing back. Matile Rothschild, an 85-year-old lesbian resident at Fountaingrove Lodge, noted that the local branch of Wells Fargo Bank was closing.

Andrea Beasley, communications consultant for Wells Fargo’s Bay Area region, said that the move was part of the bank’s closure of 300 branches throughout the U.S. announced earlier this year due to “consumer behavior” and internal “technology advances.”

“In the case of the Fountaingrove branch, we’ve seen a decrease in customer traffic over the last few years,” she wrote in an email statement to the B.A.R. The branch closed October 10.

See page 12 >>

Public Defender Jeff Adachi

BART Board, Dist. 8 Janice Li

East Bay Assembly

Dist. 15: Jovanka Beckles

State Assembly (SF) Dist. 17: David Chiu Dist. 19: Phil Ting

State Assembly (Bay Area) Dist. 18: Rob Bonta Dist. 28: Evan Low

US Senate

Dianne Feinstein

State Offices

Governor: Gavin Newsom Lt. Governor: Eleni Kounalakis Attorney Gen: Xavier Becerra Secretary of State: Alex Padilla Treasurer: Fiona Ma Controller: Betty Yee Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond Board of Equalization (District 2): Malia Cohen

Congress (Bay Area)

Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 3: John Garamendi Dist. 5: Mike Thompson Dist. 10: Josh Harder Dist. 11: Mark DeSaulnier Dist. 12: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 13: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Jackie Speier Dist. 15: Eric Swalwell Dist. 17: Ro Khanna Dist. 18: Anna Eshoo Dist. 19: Zoe Lofgren

OTHER RACES Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

Oakland City Council

District 2: Abel Guillen District 4: Pamela Harris District 6: Marlo Rodriquez

Berkeley City Council District 8: Lori Droste

Remember to vote on November 6!

Alameda City Council Jim Oddie

Dublin City Council Shawn Kumagai

El Cerrito City Council Gabriel Quinto

Martinez City Council John Stevens

Redwood City, City Council Jason Galisatus

Richmond City Council Cesar Zepeda

San Carlos City Council Laura Palmer-Lohan

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Dist. 4: Jimmy Dutra

San Francisco Props Yes on: A, C, E No on: B, D

California Propositions Yes on: 1, 2, 4, 10 No on: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

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Police panel OKs preferred gender policy

by Ed Walsh

T

he San Francisco Police Commission unanimously passed a policy last week mandating that police respect a person’s pronoun choices.

The new department General Order requires officers to refer to transgender, gender-variant, and nonbinary individuals by the person’s preferred pronouns. Police officers would also be required to ask individuals for their preference of the gender of an officer who would perform a body search, with a provision aimed at heading off potential abuse of that policy.

During the October 3 meeting, Police Commission President Thomas Mazzucco read a letter from the panel’s former president, Teresa Sparks, a transgender woman whom Mazzucco lauded for being “a pioneer in transgender law.” Sparks cautioned in her letter that there may be some confusion among officers over whether to identify an individual’s gender based on an officer’s perception, which is required

by Assembly Bill 953, rather thanthat individual’s preference, which is now part of SFPD’s policy.

t

to ask for the individual to identify, whereas in the Assembly bill, it requires the officers not to ask, but to speculate,” Mazzucco said.

Lesbian police Commissioner Petra DeJesus noted that, while she supported the new policy she questioned why an individual’s choice over the gender of the officer who would conduct a strip search could be overridden by a supervisor.

SFPD’s transgender liaison Officer Broderick Elton, a trans man, explained that the exception is in place to prevent suspects from abusing the policy.

“I could give you an example,” Elton told the commissioners.

“Say there happens to be people at the bars drinking and they are out having a night, men out there, and there’s nothing about them that suggests that they might be a trans individual and they say, ‘Hey, that’s a really attractive female officer. I want her to search me.’ So it could be taken out of context or misused by people not identifying as trans or in that space.”

The new policy also makes exceptions in cases of emergency or when an imminent danger exists. t

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“Former President Sparks is saying that our department General Order actually requires our officers

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One of the defense’s first witnesses was Michael Suchovicki, an investigator with the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office, who arrived at Sheahan’s Bush Street apartment August 14, the day Sheahan’s body was found by authorities. Maloof asked Suchovicki if he noticed the smell of a decomposing body. Suchovicki testified that he did not smell any odor from a decomposing body when he first entered the apartment. The investigator also testified that he determined Sheahan to have “rigor with slight pressure,” and that he “felt some tension” when attempting to pull his limbs in order to test for rigor, which is the stiffening of the muscles after death. Suchovicki also said on the stand that Sheahan’s body was warm to the touch.

Maloof previously argued that Sheahan died after Phillips was last seen on surveillance camera leaving Sheahan’s apartment August 13, which would have resulted in Sheahan being dead only a day before being found.

The prosecution’s witness, Ellen Moffatt, Ph.D., assistant to the medical examiner, testified last week that rigor had not yet started in Sheahan’s body.

When answering questions from

Kenney, Suchovicki testified that Moffatt has more experience in determining rigor mortis of the body than he does and that he would trust Moffatt’s determination of rigor over his own.

Kenney also showed body worn camera footage from a San Francisco police officer who responded to the scene that showed Suchovicki moving bedding around on Sheahan’s bed, something Suchovicki said he would not have done if he had believed it to be a homicide. Suchovicki testified that he initially thought it was a suicide and, therefore, did not call for a physician to come to the scene to further examine the state of the body, a best practice protocol. The camera footage also showed Suchovicki entering the kitchen in the apartment without gloves.

“Is it possible that you could have touched items in the apartment with your bare hands?” Kenney asked.

Suchovicki replied, “Yes, it is possible.”

Maloof then asked, “Do you believe you touched anything that was suspected to have blood on it with your bare hands?”

Suchovicki replied, “I don’t believe See page 6 >>

S

an Francisco Police Department brass are still not saying whether the department’s handling of the Brian Egg homicide case violated department policy on well-being checks for missing people.

Egg’s headless torso was found in a fish tank in his South of Market house on August 17. San Francisco Police Chief William Scott has not responded to the Bay Area Reporter’s request for comment on the criticism from neighbors who said their concerns over Egg’s disappearance were not taken seriously.

When approached outside the police commission meeting last week, Scott referred a reporter to David Stevenson, the department’s director of strategic communications. He, in turn, said the department would not be commenting because the case is still under investigation.

San Francisco Police commented on the case previously during an August 28 news conference. At that time, Commander Greg McEachern briefed

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reporters on the case and fielded a number of questions focusing on the police not taking action earlier when neighbors reported their suspicions.

McEachern said that police visited the home twice in late July and once in August after getting calls from neighbors and from Egg’s sister. Police didn’t enter the home until August 14 after neighbors reported that a private crime scene cleanup company arrived at the home. After looking in the home, officers immediately became suspicious and had noticed chemicals in the house. They found the torso

hidden in the home three days later.

During the police commission meeting Wednesday, October 3, McEachern was tasked with explaining to the panel the department’s wellness check policy. He did not talk specifically about the Egg case. Lesbian police Commissioner Petra DeJesus had attempted to ask Scott about the policy during the panel’s last meeting September 12, but was prohibited from doing so until the item could be put on the commission’s agenda.

DeJesus told the B.A.R. Tuesday, October 9, that although she couldn’t directly ask about the Egg case, she thought it was important for the public to be aware of the orders police have about how to conduct well-being checks.

When asked if she thought police were using the fact that the case was under investigation as a dodge so they wouldn’t have to talk about the department’s handling of the well-being checks, DeJesus replied, “No, no, I do believe the case is under investigation.”

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told the B.A.R. in See page 12 >>

<<

Phillips trial

From page 1

witnesses to the stand October 4 and 9 to testify about Sheahan’s time of death. The prosecution’s case ended Thursday, October 4, with Assistant District Attorney O’Bryan Kenney calling his last and most extensively questioned witness.

Phillips is also charged with elder abuse and fraud, two counts of firstdegree residential burglary, possession of fraudulent financial documents, theft of an access (ATM) card, and felony possession of stolen property, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.

Authorities allege Phillips brutally killed Sheahan with a sharp object, made it look like a suicide, and then stole thousands of dollars from him, including paintings, forged checks, and attempted cash withdrawals with Sheahan’s ATM card. Sheahan was suffering from Stage 4 lung cancer in the months leading up to his death.

Testimony from last week’s witnesses explained that Sheahan died from multiple traumatic injuries to the head caused by blunt force trauma.

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

Volume 48, Number 41 October 11-17, 2018 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Alex Madison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • Juanita MORE! David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor • Sari Staver Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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t

Bold choices for SF school board I

t’s about time that a transgenelected bodies, and for the der person was elected to the trans and gender-nonconSan Francisco Board of Educaforming students attending tion. Trans candidates have tried San Francisco public schools, in the past and were unsuccessRawlings-Fein and Satya ful. This year, due to unforeseen would be important role modcircumstances, the school board els who are sorely needed. race is wide open. There are no In that vein, Moliga’s elecincumbents for the three open tion would also be groundseats, and one of the leading breaking. A father of three, candidates withdrew after she he previously worked for the was exposed as a transphobe district at Burton High School Courtesy Twitter Cynthia Laird Rick Gerharter (Josephine Zhao remains on and Carver Elementary and Mia Satya Martin Rawlings-Fein Faauuga Moliga the ballot; don’t vote for her). founded the SFUSD Care There are two trans candiCenter, a school supporting push them away – you surround them with supdates running, and we endorse students who were chroniport and encouragement to do the right thing,” both of them: Martin Rawlings-Fein and Mia cally truant to re-enter mainstream education. he wrote, adding that the San Francisco Unified Satya. Additionally, we recommend Faauuga Faauuga, who has a master’s degree in social work, School District is rolling out PBIS to schools as part Moliga, a straight ally who would be the first Pahas spent his entire career focused on closing the of its restorative justice practices. Such a strategy has cific Islander on the board. opportunity gap. been shown to drop suspensions, he added.

Rawlings-Fein and Satya would both bring Importantly, Moliga believes that students Satya is not a parent. We understand that is unique perspectives to the board. Rawlings-Fein, should be able to attend schools in their neighimportant to some voters. But we think who also identifies as bisexual, is the borhood, and that those schools have the repeople should look at the bigger picture parent of two children who attend San sources to meet the needs of kids, especially and past history. There have been several Francisco public schools. We met with kindergarten through fifth grade. trustees who were not parents, and vothim during the height of the Brett KaTo combat bullying, he envisions an environers have chosen candidates based on a vanaugh hearings last month, and one ment that is inclusive, not just for LGBT students, variety of factors. The perspective Satya thing he said really stuck with us: that but for all pupils. can bring to the board is an asset. She has he would like to retire the phrase “boys He’d like to see proposed teacher housing the lived experience of a bullied young will be boys,” which is often used as an eventually expanded to include homeless famiperson, as horrible as that is. She knows, excuse for bad behavior. “It’s an outdated lies who have students in the district. probably better than any other candiphrase,” he said.

Moliga has been endorsed by the San Frandate, what it’s like to experience pervasive disInstead, he would like to see training on the cisco Democratic Party, Mayor London Breed, crimination because of her gender identity. She evolving concept of gender identity and not have and gay former state senator Mark Leno. has mentored high school students to help them it be used as a wedge issue. “We all have a gender Satya has been endorsed by the Harvey Milk achieve their educational and professional goals. identity,” he pointed out, writing in his questionLGBTQ Democratic Club, and both she and She has taught workshops on health education, naire that gender identity is not just a trans issue.

Rawlings-Fein have been endorsed by gay BART civic engagement, and LGBTQ allyship at more Issues like implicit bias can be addressed through director Bevan Dufty and other LGBT leaders. than 10 public schools in the city. positive behavior interventions and supports, or All three would usher in a new era for San Kids should see themselves represented on PBIS. “With PBIS you don’t isolate the bully and Francisco public schools. t

Li stands out in BART board race

F

irst of all, we were impressed with the three leading candidates for the BART District 8 seat. Janice Li, Jonathan Lyens, and Melanie Nutter all told us about important changes they believe will improve the regional transit system. In particular Lyens, who is blind, would bring a valuable perspective to the board. But Li, a queer woman of color, has the edge, in our opinion, with her direct involvement in transportation, and we endorse her for the seat.

Li, an immigrant from Hong Kong, is currently the advocacy director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. She has a substantial background in transportation and transit policy, with a focus on funding. That’s just what BART needs.

There are competing interests on the board, with some directors favoring expansion while others want to make upgrading the core a priority. Safety concerns are foremost in many riders’ minds, and we agree with Li that the agency should shore up the core system. That includes spending money for social workers and other staff (not necessarily sworn

Steven Underhill

BART board candidate Janice Li

police officers) to deploy at stations where there are problems with street drug users and homeless people. Li also talked with us about better station design, starting with fare gate replacements at key stations, including all downtown San Francisco ones. “We need fare gates that are accessible to people with disabilities and people with bicycles that are also making passengers feel safe about who is able to enter BART stations,” she wrote in her questionnaire.

Li strongly supports an effort started earlier

this year by gay director Bevan Dufty (who has endorsed her) to launch a pilot program of elevator attendants at some San Francisco stations. The elevators, as anyone who’s had to use them knows, are often reduced to expensive urinals that break down frequently. It’s a problem for people with disabilities, parents with small children, seniors, and those with mobility issues. If an elevator at your station is out of service, there’s no option but to go to the next station – a major inconvenience. Since the attendant program started, elevator users have noticed marked improvement. Li said she’d like more information in order to understand the resources that would be required to expand the program. “I’m a big proponent of identifying new revenues and prioritizing operations funding so that we can get more adequate staffing at BART stations in general, whether that’s elevator attendants, social workers, or station agents,” she wrote.

The BART board has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. There are younger members, including a gay man, a lesbian, and an See page 12 >>

City College board recommendations C

ity College of San Francisco is percent at the moment.) “We need improving and headed in the to get our fair share of funding right direction. We’re endorsing from Prop W, which I believe is at incumbents Thea Selby and John least 51 percent,” she wrote.

Rizzo, and newcomer Victor OlivAs for course offerings, Selby ieri, Ph.D. All are straight allies. would like to see more online and In her endorsement questionhybrid classes and better use of naire, Selby told us that she is comavailable capacity at the Chinatown mitted to serving with the goal of campus. making City College fiscally stable.

Rizzo also fought to save the colVictor Olivieri, Ph.D. lege when it was at risk of losing its She said that the trustees have hired Thea Selby John Rizzo a permanent chancellor, reaffirmed accreditation several years ago, and the college’s accreditation for seven he co-authored a resolution to crerestrooms are in process, she wrote. And years, and, with the support of ate affordable housing for 500 stushe said the district needs to find those who voted for Proposition W, dents and 200 teachers and staff. He created the money to keep the Queer implemented Free City College, which the local hire policy at the college, which Resource Center at the main eliminates tuition for San Francisco championed the hiring of economically campus open during summer residents. disadvantaged San Francisco residents. months. She said that the colThe suicide of a trans student earlier He supports additional resources for lege’s other campuses need QRCs this year highlighted what some stutrans students, and he would like to too. dents see as a homophobic or transstrengthen mental health and counseling To fund these, and other ideas, phobic culture at the school. Selby services for them.

Selby is advocating for a greater outlined several changes underway He would prefer that the QRC should be portion of Prop W money. (She at City College, including a chosen See page 5 >> said the college is receiving only about 10 name policy for students. Gender-neutral

t

Politics >>

Date 00-00, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Parks bond eyed as funding for Milk plaza project

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he late gay Supervisor Harvey Milk was a fierce advocate for San Francisco’s public transit system.

His support for Muni was captured in historic black and white photos of Milk promoting the system’s new Fast Pass with then-Muni general manager Curtis Green on February 2, 1978.

Staged photos of the two pioneering city officials – Milk being the first gay elected leader of a major U.S. city, and Green the first African-American in the U.S. to lead a major city’s transportation agency – show Milk handing Green a dollar in exchange for the Muni pass while the two stand in front of one of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Boeing light rail vehicles.

Another photo, posted earlier this year to the SFMTA Photo Archive as part of a project to digitize and make searchable archival images from the year 1978, has a smiling Milk shaking hands with Green, who is on the steps of the vehicle, as if he is about to board.

Milk, who was assassinated in November 1978 along with then-mayor George Moscone, is the only city leader to have a streetcar in the F-Line fleet dedicated to him. The Harvey Milk Streetcar, No. 1051, is painted in the same green and cream color scheme it had in the 1970s. First dedicated in 2008, it returned to service in March 2017 after receiving a restoration.

An earlier honor for Milk came in September 1985 when city leaders dedicated the plaza above the then 5-year-old Castro Muni Station after him. It is the de-facto entrance into San Francisco’s gayborhood, which Milk called home and was where he opened his Castro Camera store.

Thus, it is no surprise that a planned reimaging of the plaza to more fully incorporate Milk’s life story and achievements into its design enjoys broad political support.

All of the candidates running for supervisor this year who turned in the Bay Area Reporter’s questionnaire said they would support allocating city funds toward the project.

The group Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza is proposing a wholesale remodel of the area that would see the current sunken entrance into the Muni station be covered with a canopy roof. It would hide a gate that could be rolled down at night and would protect the escalator from the elements.

The canopy would have a meandering path up to a lookout area and include historical elements detailing Milk’s life and the progression of the LGBT community. Behind it would be an open plaza adjacent to a new elevator into the Muni station and a grove of 11 ginkgo trees representing each month that Milk served in office.

The final design, however, is likely to evolve as the proposal wends its way through a lengthy city approval process. It kicks off Monday, October 15, when the arts commission’s civic design review committee weighs in on it for the first time.

Thus, the exact cost for the project is yet to be determined, with gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman

<<

Editorial: City College

From page 4

open year-round, he wrote in his questionnaire.

Olivieri is an educator and was a senior administrator at UC Riverside. He pointed out that the

Courtesy SFMTA Photo Archive

Muni General Manager Curtis Green, left, shows off the new Muni Fast Pass with Supervisor Harvey Milk on February 2, 1978.

recently telling the B.A.R. that the price tag could be $20 to $30 million.

The plaza group has pledged to raise at least $10 million in private donations for the project.

“It is a moving target,” Mandelman said during an editorial board meeting. “It is not far enough along to know the cost yet.”

Mandelman, who represents the Castro district, supports renovating the plaza, which he said is “historicish but has a lot of problems. It doesn’t work in a lot of ways.”

While it is “reasonable” to expect the community to help pay for the project, Mandelman also believes it is “reasonable to expect the city may pay for a bulk of the infrastructure work.”

He recently met in his office with representatives of the plaza group and San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru to discuss the project. Mandelman said he expects to have a better sense of the costs sometime next year as well as sources of funding.

“The project is not going to happen until the city is committed to it,” he said.

One suggestion proposed by both District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani and one of her opponents, Nick Josefowitz, a member of the board that oversees the regional BART transit system that owns the Castro Muni station, is to include the Milk plaza project in the parks bond set to go before voters in November 2019.

“I would argue why wouldn’t it be appropriate. Parks are not just grass but where we as a community get together,” Josefowitz told the B.A.R. editorial board.

“Harvey Milk Plaza is an incredible part of our city’s heritage.”

Stefani noted that similar projects have been included in previous parks bonds.

“The city doesn’t have to fund all of it,” she told the B.A.R. “What I love about local government is there are so many ways to finance what we want to see and is important for us.”

Including the plaza project in the parks bond is “certainly” possible, Mandelman told the B.A.R., as did designer Brian Springfield, secretary of the plaza group. He added that “it is possible there is money already” from previous parks bonds that could be allocated to the plaza remodel.

Public Works recently assigned a project manager to usher the plaza project through the design, approval,

and construction phases.

“We will work closely with the community sponsors. We view this as a public-private partnership,” Rachel Gordon, the agency’s spokeswoman, told the B.A.R. this week.

With the project still in the conceptual phase, Gordon said it is too soon to know what it will cost.

“We do not yet have a final budget, given that the design has not been cemented, nor has the final work scope,” she wrote in an emailed reply. “We will be working closely with the community sponsors on budgeting as we move forward.”

As for the SFMTA’s elevator project, which inspired community groups to propose redesigning the plaza, it should be installed in the spring of 2021. The $9 million project is being considered the first phase the plaza redesign project and has been initially approved by several city agencies.

“We are working in collaboration with the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza (FHMP) team to see if there are opportunities to incorporate some parts of the new plaza vision in the SFMTA design,” explained SFMTA spokeswoman Erica Kato in an emailed reply. “We are treating the two projects as a Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the same overall concept, with the new elevator going in first in Spring 2021 and the new plaza going in next when FHMP completes their design, and gets approval and funding to proceed.”

The plaza project has its detractors, who argue the current layout of the area could easily be enhanced at less cost to better honor Milk and address the accessibility issues with the Muni entrance. A chief critic of the redesign proposal is the plaza’s original architect, Howard Grant.

“To properly honor Harvey, it is not necessary to demolish the plaza (with the attendant expense and hardship that would result for Muni patrons, neighbors, and businesses for over a year)!” wrote Grant in an email sent last week to city officials.t

college has not recovered from the accreditation crisis – it is still under-enrolled – and wrote in his questionnaire that a comprehensive curriculum review and improvements to class schedules are “desperately needed to ameliorate the deficit situation.”

All three would help the college continue on its path to stability. t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. The column returns Monday, October 15.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills www.SchneiderLawSF.com

415-781-6500 *Certified by the California State Bar 400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA

LGBT PROGRESSIVE CATHOLICS † OUR FAMILIES & FRIENDS

Celebrating our Sexuality and Love as Gifts of God Liturgy & Social: Every Sunday 5pm First Sunday Movie Night Second Sunday Potluck Supper Third Wednesday Faith Sharing Group 1329 Seventh Avenue † info@dignitysanfrancisco.org Follow us on Facebook!

<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

Left outside

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

I

n April 2015, a year before the Departments of Justice and Education under President Barack Obama issued guidance to public schools clarifying that Title IX protected transgender students, a school district in Virginia faced a dilemma: a fourth grade student transitioned.

Initially, the school was accommodating, allowing the child access to facilities appropriate to their gender identity. But parents of other students in the school were not so forgiving.

They felt that their children would be, somehow, at risk from the girl, or that allowing this kid to use a restroom that matched their presentation and gender would give carte blanche to predators to prey on their kids at school.

They demanded change, and they got it. The district voted 6-0 to bar the girl from gender appropriate facilities. She started using staff restrooms, apparently unwelcome in facilities for either of the traditional genders.

In another case, in August 2016, a federal appeals court found in favor of transgender teen Gavin Grimm, who was barred from the facilities in his school district. The family of the girl mentioned above cried when Grimm initially won that case and hoped this would move their school district forward.

(In Grimm’s case, last year the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not hear it, and also wiped from

Christine Smith

the books the lower court ruling in favor of him. Grimm has since graduated high school but filed an amended claim and the case is still active.)

In September 2017, with the Department of Education now in the hands of Betsy DeVos, several community members filled a school board meeting on behalf of the girl, whose identity is being withheld, attempting to get it to include proLGBTQ policies.

The girl was still barred from the facilities used by her classmates. Among the speakers was her mother.

The school board was, seemingly, unmoved.

It is now 2018 and another, deadlier menace exists in our schools than was ever conceived in the scare tactics of the far right targeting transgender elementary students

who need a restroom as if they were sexual predators.

This new threat came to Sandy Hook Elementary School, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and to other campuses nationwide.

It was death from those wielding handguns and assault weapons at school, killing scores of students and teachers.

We now live with the daily reality that a tragedy could befall children at any school in the country. Retailers sell bulletproof backpacks today, and schools have instituted active shooter, or lockdown, drills to teach kids how to react.

Just like the “duck and cover” drills of the Cold War. Students are taught to shelter in their rooms, with the doors locked and the windows tightly sealed, perhaps being just as safe as their counterparts in the 1950s, hiding under their desks from the threat of nuclear fallout.

Just a week or two ago, a lockdown drill was held on the campus of Stafford County Middle School in Virginia. It was during physical education classes, and the students dutifully filed into their locker rooms to shelter from an imaginary gunman who intended to murder them.

One girl was singled out. After all, in 2015, she was disallowed access to either locker room, and in spite of guidelines from Washington, D.C., a

precedent in a court case, local protest, and the passage of four years, the girl was still barred from either locker room.

Teachers and staff began to debate: what could they do with this child who they could not apparently send to either locker room to have a sense of safety from this faux shooter?

While they debated, she was made to sit in the gym with a teacher, segregated from her peers.

The staff debated some more, then sent her to sit in the hallway between the locker rooms, by the door but again separated from other students.

The school has since, in response to the outrage the followed, noted that it has a different superintendent than it did in 2016, and that it would be reviewing all the procedures to make sure that, “all children are treated with dignity and respect.”

Whether intentional or not, the message this school has sent is that no, not all students are worthy of dignity and respect. One student in particular has not been treated with either since 2015. One student has been segregated from her classmates, made into an interloper in a place where she should feel included.

What’s more, in the wake of this active shooter drill, the school has made it clear that her very life is worth less than any other student

t

on that campus. If that hadn’t been a drill, would she have been left in the gym or a hallway, an offering to a shooter in the hope that other lives would be spared?

We know that policies like this may lead transgender students to suicide, but I don’t think any of us expected that we’d potentially leave transgender kids in the path of a school shooter’s bullet.

I wonder what this school expected students to do in the locker rooms during this “lockdown.” Do they think that these students will be hitting the showers during a hail of gunfire? Gender shouldn’t even matter when one is in fear of their lives at the hands of a school shooter.

This situation is created out of a fiction that this student opens the doors to legalized sexual assault, either by others on campus or by them – forgetting that first and foremost, this has not happened, and secondly, that allowing transgender people to use appropriate facilities doesn’t invalidate a single law around sexual assault.

Plain and simple, this incident was cruel, and there is no reason for it beyond fear and hatred.

It’s been four years, and the calendar should not change one more time before this transgender child is treated as an equal to her peers. t Gwen Smith wants some of that dignity and respect some day.

You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

Gay entrepreneur invests in blockchain sector

by Matthew S. Bajko

order to simplify the running of the chain and the energy it needs,” explained Brown. “It allows transactions to freely flow through the network without having everyone agree on it first. The ledger is updated by spreading it between people – it is called gossiping – and because of that we can scale up the network.”

Constellation is able to run on mobile phones and other Internet of Things devices, and people who agree to dedicate space on their devices are rewarded in DAG. It is currently in beta testing and plans to launch to the public in late 2019 or early 2020.

“With blockchain, the more people use it the slower it gets. With Constellation, the more people use it, it gets faster with time,” said Brown.

Despite constant headlines about the eminent collapse of cryptocurrencies, Brown insisted the digital coins aren’t going to disappear. He noted that it’s been a decade since bitcoin was unveiled and, compared to some other countries’ currencies, is more stable of an investment.

“The genie is out of the bottle,” he said. “The space is maturing rapidly.”

Emphasizing that he cannot give financial advice, Brown recommended that people do their own research before investing in a cryptocurrency.

Similar to how they should investigate companies they buy stock in, so should people learn about the various digital coins on sale.

“A lot of people think it means investing in fake money. But when you ask them about how the dollar gets value, they have no answer,” he said. “I do think they should explore it more and not be afraid to dive into it.”

Brown, 28, grew up in San Francisco and was a competitive hip-hop dancer for 15 years.

After graduating from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in philosophy, he went to work for a number of startups and eventually burned out. He contemplated moving to Atlanta to pursue a career in dance before a friend approached him about going into business together.

Working in the technology sector, Brown is cognizant of the controversies swirling around his profession, particularly the complaints it is a driving force behind the gentrification of San Francisco’s historically black Bayview district and the de-gaying of the Castro district. In June, ahead of Pride, stickers posted around town declared “Queers Hate Techies.”

Personally unfazed by the slogan, Brown said he is more troubled by its simplification of the issue.

“It seems so blatantly wrong of a statement because it is so resolute.

Yeah, some queers hate some techies, and vice versa, but it is creating more friction than there needs to be,” said Brown. “The broader discussion that is needed is how is tech impacting the Castro neighborhood. Those concerns are real.”

He regularly speaks to high school students around the Bay Area, with a special focus on addressing black students, to encourage them to pursue a career in the tech sector. Due to the lack of diversity among blockchain executives, Brown has attracted media attention and recently began working with a public relations professional.

“I think somebody has to be, I guess, the black face of blockchain,” said Brown. “In order to create a generation of black men or black gay men to be like, ‘Oh, I can do that also,’ then that is what I will be.”

He acknowledged his own company is not as diverse as he would prefer, something he is committed to addressing.

“We grew very quick, so now we can focus on recruiting in a diverse

way. We are always hiring,” he said.

The press attention he receives has its drawbacks, Brown said. One profile dubbed Brown, whose estimated net worth is $1 million, “a self-made, multi-millionaire millennial – a millennionaire.” Apart from the portmanteau making him cringe, Brown took issue with the inclusion of the term “self-made” as he had strong support from his mother growing up and a grandfather who was one of the first black aerospace machinists in Silicon Valley. (Brown had a falling out with his father when he came out as gay; they remain distant to this day.)

“I didn’t get into this incredibly hectic industry for money, and that still rings true. Of course, there is incredible wealth that can be had, but that is true of dedicating yourself to anything you love. In my case it is committing myself to revolutionary technology that is underpinned by philosophical ethos,” Brown explained in a follow up email.

A Golden State Warriors fan, Brown isn’t planning to buy season tickets when the basketball team moves into its new arena along San Francisco’s waterfront. But he does hope to check out a game with friends when work allows.

“Klay Thompson is my boo, obviously,” said Brown.

To learn more about Constellation Labs, visit its website at https://www. constellationlabs.io/. t

on the scene. Suchovicki replied in that conversation that he “did not have time to wait.” Suchovicki eventually moved the body from a face down position to a face up position.

Suchovicki‘s work partner Devin Etheredge, also an investigator with the medical examiner’s office, arrived at Sheahan’s apartment with Suchovicki.

Etheredge testified that he also did

not smell the odor of a decomposing body, only the faint smell of a dead body, which he explained occurs when any human dies, an odor different from decomposition.

Keith McArthur, a private investigator hired by Maloof, also took the stand. McArthur, who owns a private investigation company in San Francisco, visited both Sheahan’s and Phillips’

apartments in February or March of this year.

Maloof showed pictures to the jury that McArthur took, which showed that the building next to Sheahan’s apartment was easily accessible through the fire escape outside of Sheahan’s kitchen window.

Holly Howard, who was staying alone in her friend’s apartment, located

on the same floor as Sheahan’s apartment, the weekend before Sheahan was found dead Monday, August 14, testified. She told the jury that she stayed in the apartment August 13-15.

On the stand she said she remembers hearing an argument in the middle of the night and that her dogs

A

ltif Brown, a co-founder and head of community at Constellation Labs, can count on one hand the number of other AfricanAmericans he knows working in the blockchain sector. He has yet to meet another gay person.

“In the blockchain community, people are very surprised to meet a black founder of a company. I have met zero gay founders and only three black founders that I know of,” said Brown in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “They may exist, but if I have to search for them that in and of itself is a problem.”

He and three others, all straight men, launched Constellation in November last year and have since grown the company to 25 employees. It offers its own cryptocurrency called DAG, short for directed acyclic graph, and is building a new model for distributing the online currency.

“What we are doing is not technically a blockchain. It is part of a broader umbrella,” said Brown.

For instance, the better-known bitcoin stacks transactions vertically atop one another in a chain, creating a large ledger that must be housed on various devices and takes an immense amount of energy to run. Constellation scales up horizontally with each transaction, thus diminishing the amount of space and energy required to run its blockchain.

“We are taking principles from a distribution company to apply it to the blockchain infrastructure in

<<

Phillips trial

From page 2

I did.”

Lastly, Kenney showed Suchovicki a transcript of an in-person conversation between Suchovicki and a police officer on August 14 in which the police officer asked Suchovicki to wait to move the body until a sergeant arrived

Rick Gerharter

Constellation Labs co-founder and head of community Altif Brown.

Got a tip on LGBT business news?

Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

See page 8 >>

t

Community News>>

October 11-17, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SF court denies Boggs motion in HIV data suit

by Alex Madison

A

.J. Boggs and Company’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it for an alleged data breach that compromised the medical records of 93 HIV-positive people in California in November 2016 was denied by a San Francisco Superior Court judge Thursday, October 4.

“We are very pleased,” said Scott Schoettes, an attorney and HIV project director at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “This will allow the case to move forward. It’s clear to us that evidence has already shown that 93 individuals’ information was breached.”

Currently, the suit has only one plaintiff, a California man living with HIV, but Lambda Legal is seeking a class action certification to include the 92 other individuals whose data was allegedly breached.

Schoettes said the case will now go into discovery, in which Lambda Legal will seek further information from A.J. Boggs regarding the data breach, and will submit a subpoena to gather information from the California Department of Public Health and its investigation into the matter.

“We are curious to get more information as to what the results of the investigation were,” Schoettes said.

As previously reported by the B.A.R., Lambda Legal in April filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court against A.J. Boggs, which at one time held the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program contract with CDPH. A.J. Boggs, a private company based in Michigan, was awarded a contract

by CDPH in July 2016 to oversee the

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund attorney Scott Schoettes

state’s ADAP online enrollment system. ADAP, part of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, provides life-saving medication to low-income people living with HIV who have limited or no health care coverage and are not eligible for Medi-Cal. Lambda Legal attorneys claim A.J. Boggs did not do enough beta testing before rolling out the new online enrollment system, also known as a portal. Prior to the system going public, the Los Angeles County Department of Health voiced its concern over the lack of testing and vetting of the online portal, as did various nonprofit HIV/AIDS service organizations in the California HIV Alliance, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

“These medications are life-saving for me, and I could only afford them See page 13 >>

Chanticleer to remember founder

Ultimately, it’s your experience that matters.

To be sure, we’re proud of our 30 years of experience in senior living.

But, to us, what really matters is your experience at our communities.

We do everything with that idea clearly in mind. So, go ahead, enjoy yourself with great social opportunities and amenities.

Savor fine dining every day. And feel assured that assisted living services are always available if needed.

We invite you to experience it for yourself at a complimentary lunch and tour. Please call your nearest SRG community to schedule.

I n de p e n de n t & A s s i s t e d L i v i n g • M e mor y C a r e

Coventry Place • 1550 Sutter Street • San Francisco • 415.737.6120 Cypress at Golden Gate • 1601 19th Avenue • San Francisco • 415.741.1830 I n de p e n de n t & A s s i s t e d L i v i n g

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compiled by Cynthia Laird

C

hanticleer, a male a cappella group, will remember its founder, Louis A. Botto, and consign some of his ashes to the National AIDS Memorial Grove during a public ceremony Thursday, October 18, at noon.

Botto, a gay man, was a Texan who had settled in San Francisco.

He studied early music and singing with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Longing to hear Renaissance music as it was heard originally (with all men), he founded the all-male ensemble around a kitchen table in 1978. Chanticleer’s success was almost immediate, noted Christine Bullin, secretary of the organization’s board.

Botto sang with the ensemble into the 1980s and was subsequently artistic director until his death in 1997 of AIDS. He was 45.

Today, Chanticleer performs up to 100 concerts a year all over the world.

The group is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, with a gala and reunion event Wednesday, October 17, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at the Wilsey Center, War Memorial Building, 301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.

At the AIDS grove event the next day, Chanticleer will sing and a bring-yourown picnic will follow.

Tickets for the reunion gala start at $100 and can be purchased at https://bit.ly/2zUpvvX.

EVNA holds free movie night in the Castro

The Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association will hold an outdoor screening of “Coco” Saturday,

Courtesy Chanticleer

The late Louis A. Botto

October 13, from 6:45 to 10 p.m.

The event will be on the lawn at Rikki Streicher Field, 19th and Diamond streets, near the Eureka Valley Recreation Center.

The event is free, though donations will be accepted.

“Coco” (2017) is Disney/Pixar’s vibrant tale of family as a young musician named Miguel embarks on an extraordinary journey to the magical land of his ancestors. It won Oscars for best animated feature and best original song for “Remember Me.”

Spirit Day coming up

LGBTQ people and their allies will be wearing purple Thursday, October 18, for Spirit Day. The day is meant to show support for LGBTQ youth and speaking out against bullying. It was started in 2010 and is generally held the third Thursday of October, which is also National Bullying Prevention Month.

People can wear purple, change their avatars on social media, and get involved in other activities.

For more information, visit http:// www.glaad.org. t

Largest LGBTQ+ Resource Fair Ever to be Held in San Francisco Over 100 local groups serving our community come together for a day of fun and community building in the Castro FREE entrance, door prizes, food & entertainment

October 20 12:30-4:30 pm Eureka Valley Recreation Center 100 Collingwood at 18th St.

CO-EMCEES: Donna Sachet, Toni Newman, Race Bannon, Natalie Summers Kids & Family Area hosted by Our Family Coalition

Wheelchair accessible • Deaf interpreters courtesy of DCARA

Hosted by OurTownSF, Eureka Valley Recreation Center, TurnOut SPONSORS Alto Pharmacy, Dermatology Center of San Francisco, Dignity SF, Attorney Roger Gross, Elizabeth Taylor 50+ Network, Gilead, Granite Solutions Groupe, Kevin Ho & Jonathan McNarry/Vanguard Properties, Maitri Compassionate Care, Mark D. McHale/Vanguard Properties, Positive Being, Reproductive Science Center, St. James Infirmary, UCSF AHHA Study & Anchor Study, Until There’s A Cure, Walgreens, Wallbeds “N” More, Wicked Grounds

<< LGBT History Month

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

Looking at lesbian erasure

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Part One: Defining lesbianism

by Victoria A. Brownworth

L

esbians exist.

Lesbians, like gay men, have always existed.

If there is a singular lesson to be learned this LGBT History Month, it is that lesbians didn’t just appear suddenly in the 20th century, anomalous figures with no antecedents throughout history. Lesbians have lived and loved and had bodiceripping passionate sex for millennia.

In a brutal irony, the erasing of lesbian sexuality has been done most effectively by female academics who hesitate to define same-sex relationships between women as sexual for reasons that are wholly rooted in male contrivance of female sexuality and the male gaze on it. The theory that women never performed sexual acts together before the 20th century is appallingly smug and not a little homophobic.

Every woman, regardless of her orientation, knows from a young age that lesbians are a trigger for men. The most common retort when a woman rejects a man’s advances or catcalls is to call her a “dyke” or “lesbo.” It happens every day, everywhere. The terms are

meant to be both vulgar and dismissive, like “lezzie,” a diminution and infantilizing of a very real female sexual orientation.

This lesbophobic, misogynist, and blatantly ahistorical erasure of lesbian sexuality is similar to the erasure of all autonomous female sexuality: women’s sexual desire has always been viewed, discussed, and portrayed within the construct and purview of the male gaze, and as such has never seemed complete without the intrusion of a male into that space of wholly female desire.

The trope of a male entering onto the scene of a lesbian sexual coupling just in time to “complete” the sex has been recorded in erotica and pornography since at least the 17th century in the West and far earlier in Asian erotic art.

One of the most notorious depictions of lesbian sexuality occurs in John Cleland’s infamous erotic novel, “Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,” more commonly known by its smutty name, “Fanny Hill,” published in 1748.

(In British slang “Fanny” means vulva, hence “Fanny Hill” was a cheeky play on mons veneris.)

In Cleland’s novel, Fanny engages in lesbian sex with Phoebe,

a bisexual prostitute. Fanny also witnesses – and describes vividly – other lesbian sex scenes. The novel was first banned in the U.S. in 1821 in Boston, and may have been a progenitor for the term “banned in Boston.”

Initially, the American colonies had sought to imprison lesbians.

The criminalization of same-sex female relationships followed that of English Common Law. How often it was actually enforced is unclear.

But in the U.S. alone there were laws against lesbianism as early as the 17th century. If there hadn’t been examples of lesbians and lesbian sex, why the laws prohibiting it?

In 1636, John Cotton of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proposed a law prohibiting sex between two women, punishable by death. The law read, “Unnatural filthiness, to be punished with death, whether sodomy, which is carnal fellowship of man with man, or woman with woman, or buggery, which is carnal fellowship of man or woman with beasts or fowls.” There is no record of this law being enacted.

In 1649 in Plymouth Colony, Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon were prosecuted for “lewd behavior with each other upon a bed.” The trial documents are the only known record of sex between female English colonists in North America in the 17th century.

Hammon, who was the younger of the two, was given a formal admonition, but Norman was convicted.

As part of her punishment, she had to allocute publicly to her “unchaste behavior” with Hammon.

In 1655, the Connecticut colony passed a law criminalizing sodomy between women (and men). In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposed a federal law that included lesbian and gay sex. The law read, “Whosoever shall be guilty of rape, polygamy, or sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro’ the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch diameter at the least.”

Misperception

Lesbianism has been perceived by many – and Sigmund Freud perpetuated this misperception – as a phase of female sexuality that women grow out of. Schoolgirl crushes and teenage experimentation with

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Phillips trial

From page 6

were startled by it, though she doesn’t remember specifically what night it occurred.

“I heard an argument, but I am not sure where it came from. It could have been the back yard, or somewhere from the back,” Howard said.

When shown a transcript of her phone conversation between an investigator and herself after she stayed at the apartment, she testified that she told the investigator that the argument sounded like “a bar fight between a man and a woman.”

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Lyn O’Connor, a bloodstain pattern expert from the crime scene investigators unit at the San Francisco Police Department, was perhaps Kenney’s most important witness in the case.

O’Connor testified October 4 that medical examiners initially deemed the incident a suicide and, therefore, did not follow best practices that would routinely be followed in a homicide.

She testified that she did the majority of her analysis using photos and body worn camera footage from SFPD officers who were at the scene before the medical examiners. Medical examiners moved Sheahan’s body along with a tissue box, bedding items,

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The poet Sappho

lesbian relationships was written about by Freud as a stepping-stone to “true,” “adult” female sexuality: heterosexuality. (Ironically or not, Freud’s daughter, psychoanalyst Anna Freud, was in a lesbian relationship with child psychoanalyst Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham for more than 50 years.)

Is language the problem? It’s true that the terminology itself is fairly recent. “Homosexual” was first coined in an 1869 pamphlet written by KarlMaria Kertbeny to decry anti-sodomy laws in Germany. In 1886, Richard Krafft-Ebing, the noted German psychiatrist, coined the terms “heterosexuality” and “homosexuality” in his work Psychopathia Sexualis.

The term “lesbian” was first seen in poems by men in the 1860s and then more commonly as a medical term for lesbian sex in 1890. The term “Sapphist” occurs earlier, in early 19th century poetry and literature.

The Greek poet Sappho, whose birthplace of Lesbos spawned the term “lesbianism” and whose name has become synonymous with female homosexuals – Sapphists – was born in 630 B.C. The relationship of Ruth and Naomi in the Bible and Talmud, the oft-cited verses in Leviticus, as well as St. Paul’s comments on same-sex relationships in Corinthians, all signal lesbianism as a real – and definitively sexual – fact.

Sappho

Sappho’s extant poetry and other writings explore her love for other girls and women and there are depictions in art throughout the centuries and the medical examiners stood on Sheahan’s bed with their shoes and walked through the kitchen. This, O’Connor explained, made it more difficult for her to piece together what happened, though she was still able to determine many things.

She determined that the assailant moved Sheahan’s body after he died.

A large pool of blood was near his feet, though O’Connor said this pool was likely to have come from Sheahan’s head wounds.

“He was moved after being struck,” O’Connor said. “The head bleeds a lot.

The pool of blood is likely to be from the head injuries.”

She continued explaining what possibly happened at the time of the murder.

“He was likely face down when he was struck multiple times, and the attack came from the back,” she said.

She, along with other witnesses, all agreed that the scene was very bloody.

There was blood found on a bookshelf; all over the floor; on the suspected weapon, a black cordless phone; the couch in the apartment; and more.

A large portion of the blood splatter found on the bookshelf and other furniture items was flung from the blows to the head.

The two sets of gloves that have been questioned in this case, a pair of yellow rubber gloves and clear latex

from classical Greece to the 19th century pre-Raphaelites of lesbian lovers entwined in each others’ arms, often fully naked. At the turn of the last century, Toulouse-Lautrec and other French and German postImpressionists incorporated lesbians into their work as denizens of a Bohemian demi-monde. In Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin communities of lesbians were thriving, albeit underground, which by the turn of the 19th into the 20th century would include large enclaves of American women, expatriates whose names are now revived each year at LGBT History Month as veritable monoliths in our compendia of writers and artists: Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Romaine Brooks, Djuna Barnes, Natalie Barney, Josephine Baker, Renée Vivien, Ida Rubenstein, and more.

While these women fled the U.S. and the mores that made it difficult for them to live the openly – some would claim flagrantly – lesbian lives they led in the U.S., there remained hundreds of thousands of lesbians still in America, leading very different lesbian lives – yet not the neutered lives we have been led to believe. t Victoria A. Brownworth writes the Lavender Tube column for the Bay Area Reporter and writes frequently for other publications. Author’s note: For the purposes of space, except for brief references, this article focuses on lesbian couplings in the U.S. Part 2 is available online at ebar.com.

gloves, were found shoved in a tissue box, but were moved by medical examiners, O’Connor said. The DNA of two people were found on the rubber gloves, Sheahan and an unknown contributor, and only Sheahan’s DNA was found on the latex gloves, as was previously testified by Amy Lee, a criminalist with the SFPD. Maloof, in his argument that someone other than Phillips and Sheahan was in the apartment at the time of the murder, asked if the medical examiner who moved the tissue box and touched the gloves was also wearing gloves, insinuating that the examiner’s DNA would not have been transferred to the gloves.

Maloof also tried to say that testing was not done for all blood samples found at the scene. A photograph of a painting with small reddish colored stains on it was shown in court by the defense.

“Why wasn’t this painting examined for evidence?” Maloof asked O’Connor.

“I determined there not to be any blood on it. I didn’t believe it to have any evidentiary value,” O’Connor replied.

Kenney showed surveillance video of Phillips’ multiple entries and exits into Sheahan’s apartment on the weekend he was alleged to have died. One See page 13 >>

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Community News>>

October 11-17, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

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akland Mayor Libby Schaaf got the first word and the last during a 90-minute candidate forum last Friday at City Hall.

With 10 candidates limited to oneminute answers, and most questions directed to three at a time, there wasn’t much opportunity for people to hear detailed policy positions about police accountability, homelessness, housing, or other issues. Candidates also each had three opportunities to rebut, but not all of them took advantage of that option.

There were no LGBT questions at the October 5 debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oakland.

Candidate Cat Brooks, who with civil rights attorney Pamela Price are the two major progressive challengers to Schaaf, said the city needs a “values statement.”

“No one sleeps outside,” she said, would be first on a statement if she’s elected.

Price pointed out that the city has a large percentage of residents who live below the poverty level.

Most of the candidates said that they support Proposition 10, which would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act that puts limits on how cities can implement rent control measures.

“I definitely support Prop 10,” Schaaf said, adding that she favors regional protections for affordable housing.

Price said repeal of Costa-Hawkins would give cities like Oakland “the right to manage our own situation,” and added that the city needs to address needs of small landlords.

Brooks also supports Prop 10 and added she favors a policy that San Francisco voters passed in June that provides city-funded legal representation to tenants facing eviction.

The candidates did disagree on policing. Schaaf pointed out that gun violence has been reduced 53 percent over the last seven years. She also said that when she ran four years ago, Oakland was number two on a list of crimeridden cities but, today, is out of the top 10. She credited the Ceasefire program, which started under her predecessor.

Price said crime reduction takes “a lot more than barbershop conversations.”

“We need accountability and that starts at the top,” she said, adding she would reform the Oakland Police Department “from top to bottom.”

Candidate Ken Houston said he served on a citizens police panel

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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, left, and challengers Pamela Price, Ken Houston, Cat Brooks, and Nancy Sidebotham participated in an October 5 candidate debate.

and noted “a police department is as strong as its chief.” He, too, favors a new chief.

Current police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick started her job in late February 2017. In an editorial board meeting with the Bay Area Reporter, Schaaf said she is “very pleased” with the chief.

Candidate Marchon Tatmon maintained Oakland “is still in the top 10 in crime.” He would push for more officers to live in the city, rather than commute from elsewhere.

Jesse A.J. Smith said he would have “100 percent civilian” leaders run the police department if elected mayor.

Brooks advocated for expanded community policing.

Candidate Saied Karamooz presented statistics he said showed the city’s homicide rate has risen in the last four years.

Nancy Sidebotham, a longtime resident who has run for local office multiple times, said the problem is that Oakland’s community policing program “went down hill.” She advocated nonprofits, government, and churches work together.

She did point out that OPD has lost “all of the old guard” mostly due to retirements, resignations, and some firings in the aftermath of the police sex scandal that led to the ouster of former chief Sean Whent.

On the subject of young people, Schaaf touted the Oakland Promise program, which, among other things, is an early college scholarship seeded with $100 for all Oakland public school kindergarten students. The program, started by city and school officials, also supports families to open their own 529 college savings accounts, offering up to $100 as an incentive. It is funded by the city, school

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district, and philanthropic donations.

“Hope matters. Expectations matter. I’m very proud of Oakland Promise,” the mayor said. “More than 9,000 students have college savings or scholarships. There are nearly 1,100 scholars in college now.”

Price said nonprofits and faith communities should mentor youth.

“We need to tell our kinds that even if they’re scooped up in the criminal justice system we are with you,” she said.

Smith said he was a former gang member and said “cops basically

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<< Obituaries

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

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ACT UP/East Bay founder John Iversen dies

by Cynthia Laird

J

ohn Iversen, a gay man who fought for people living with AIDS and founded ACT UP/East Bay, died October 1 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley after experiencing a massive stroke. He was 69.

In addition to his activist work, Mr. Iversen was a musician and songwriter.

After being diagnosed with HIV in January 1986, Mr. Iversen eventually had to stop working as the director of a senior center, where he had been for eight years.

It was during this time that Mr. Iversen waged a campaign against Qual-Med, a health maintenance organization, or HMO, because it wouldn’t continue paying for medication to control his diarrhea.

“It was approved for diarrhea caused by cancer but not diarrhea caused by AIDS,” Mr. Iversen said in a 1995 oral history conducted by Jan Schmidt.

The campaign consisted of newspaper ads and pressuring UC Berkeley and UCSF to switch health care providers; the University of California was Qual-Med’s largest employee group.

“The day the full-page ads came out, they wanted to settle,” Mr. Iversen said in the oral history, adding that the company settled with Mr. Iversen just before the ads ran and then settled with an HIV patient group shortly after.

Mr. Iversen also worked as a parttime aide for the late Berkeley City Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek.

He started ACT UP/East Bay in 1989, and Berkeley’s needle exchange program a year later. At that time, syringe exchange was illegal.

“We went six months before someone was arrested,” Mr. Iversen said in the oral history. “In Berkeley, we went through two trials. One was a hung jury, the second one was an acquittal.”

Mr. Iversen also organized demonstrations against Bayer Corp.

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over the bloated price of live-saving medications and against restrictive government and corporate AIDS policies.

He organized actions in support of housing for PWAs. For the Berkeley protests, Mr. Iversen adopted the drag persona “Surely Mean” to criticize then-Berkeley mayor Shirley Dean.

Dean could not be reached for comment.

Darryl Moore, a gay man who is a former Berkeley City Councilman, said that Mr. Iversen would be missed.

“John was an amazing advocate and non-compromising activist in the LGBTQ community,” Moore wrote in a Facebook message to the Bay Area Reporter. “His work on HIV/AIDS is legendary. He helped so many people by making the issue public and part of the public discourse.”

Before Mr. Iversen’s HIV diagnosis, he was diagnosed with Reiters syndrome, a form of rheumatoid arthritis. He said in his oral history that he woke up one morning and couldn’t walk. He eventually began “hobbling,” as he described it, and later his doctors found better medication that helped him.

Early life

Mr. Iversen, part Chippewa and a member of the Bois Forte Tribe, was born February 25, 1949, in Duluth, Minnesota. He went to the University of Chicago, where he participated in organizing against the Vietnam War, and subsequently went on to work with a community kitchen run by the Black Panther Defense Committee and a health center run by the Chicano Brown Berets.

He moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he worked with the United Farm Workers and was later

ACT UP/East Bay founder John Iversen

at Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, for six weeks supporting the standoff by the American Indian Movement, which was responding to an authoritarian reign of Wounded Knee.

He did a short stint at the Columbia School of Journalism before moving to Berkeley, where he performed with a partner at venues, including the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, as the Rhythm and Sleaze Revue. In the late 1980s he started a band called The Stickers, later renamed Dreams Die Hard. A song of Mr. Iversen’s criticizing Oliver North, who was convicted in the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980s (his conviction was later vacated and all charges against him were dismissed in 1991) gained some notoriety with campus radio stations and Dreams Die Hard performed around London after being contacted by Virgin Records.

In the 1980s, Mr. Iversen was on the steering committee for Service Employees International Union Local 535, where he helped win grievances against the city of Berkeley for under-payment of service

workers. He also joined the contract negotiating teams for city workers.

Mr. Iversen became a lifelong supporter of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in the shooting of two FBI agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He unsuccessfully pleaded with former President Barack Obama to grant Peltier clemency prior to Obama leaving office.

In February, Mr. Iversen was one of three Wounded Knee 1973 veterans honored by AIM-West.

Mr. Iversen received other awards over the years. He was recognized by the California Nurses Association with its Patient Advocate Award in 1997. He received the Pryor Conrad Memorial Award from Gays and Lesbians Organized for Betterment and Equality in 1999.

Friends said that Mr. Iversen could be feisty, but was always engaged and active in a broad range of social justice issues. He was a pioneer in creating broad LGBTQ visibility, they said.

Mr. Iversen is survived by his mother, Alice Iversen, and brother, Paul Iversen, in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and a village of colleagues, family, friends, and loved ones.

Mr. Iversen’s remains are being cremated. A public memorial is planned for the spring, friends said.

Individuals are encouraged to make a contribution in Mr. Iversen’s name through taking an action for justice of their choice, or sending a donation to either the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info) or the work of Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth (http://www.honorearth. org/). t

Black Brothers Esteem san francisco founder Norman Tanner Columbariu M Funeral Home dies after hit-and-run THIS IS THE

and

formerly the Neptune Society

by Sari Staver

N

orman Tanner, a gay man who was a nationally prominent leader in HIV prevention and support, died Friday, October 5, two days after a hit-and-run collision in San Francisco. He was 60.

Mr. Tanner, known as “Stormin’ Norman” by his friends, founded Black Brothers Esteem in 1996, the city’s first support group for gay, bisexual, and same-gender loving African-American men.

Mr. Tanner was also a longtime leader in San Francisco’s sober community, where he had mentored dozens of people and facilitated many support groups over the past several decades, according to friends.

According to a San Francisco Police Department report, Mr. Tanner was crossing the intersection at Oak and Baker streets at 9:11 p.m. October 3, when he was struck by a Toyota Prius that had run a red light. The car was driven by a woman, who stopped briefly, but then fled eastbound on Oak to southbound Broderick. Mr. Tanner was taken by ambulance to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s intensive care unit, where he died two days later. Police are still looking for the driver.

Colleagues and friends said Mr. Tanner made enormous contributions and had helped hundreds of people during his four decades in the city.

Anthony Bradford, director of community engagement at the San

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Francisco AIDS Foundation, wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter, “Norman was the face, heart, and foundation of BBE and was always first to be upfront and share the great things with the larger San Francisco African-American community.”

BBE, now formally a part of SFAF, is a prevention and support program to empower men who predominantly live in the Tenderloin, Polk Gulch, and Sixth Street Corridor. Many of the clients are also struggling with racism, addiction, poverty, homophobia, violence, and marginal housing.

Mr. Tanner’s work with BBE “has been recognized from City Hall to the state Capitol and nationally,” Bradford wrote.

Zak Franet, a close friend, said he met Mr. Tanner several years ago, when Franet was “early in recovery ... with no confidence or direction.” Franet, 24, now project coordinator for Association Reserves and a member of the executive committee of the San Francisco Youth Policy and Advisory Committee, wrote in an email to the B.A.R. “Norman had an immense impact on my life and the lives of many others in the recovery community.”

“There were so many things that were inexplicably Norman: his shuffle, his laugh, his propensity to play cards with an ace of spades up his sleeve, his unrelenting kindness,” Franet wrote.

Franet said that as the two got to know each other, Mr. Tanner “became one of my strongest supporters ... attending my swearing in ... and committee meetings that I chaired ... constantly giving me grief for not keeping him properly informed of my progress.”

“Far greater than his achievements and the inspiration that he served to us all was who he was as a person,” Franet wrote. “He constantly inquired about the health ... of my mom and her partner, which he did from the first time he met her until the last time we spoke.”

Jesse Brooks, an HIV advocate, said he has received many calls from community members who are “devastated with grief and sadness.”

“Norman has touched so many in his advocacy of HIV and in the recovery community. His shoes will be See page 13 >>

t

Community News>>

October 11-17, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Milk plaza redesign heads to arts panel

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

revised redesign of Harvey Milk Plaza was unveiled during a reception last week, as project officials prepare for their presentation to a San Francisco Arts Commission committee.

“They have to review the project all the way through final documents,” Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District and president of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, told the Bay Area Reporter. “They give comments, we come back to them. It’s a process.”

The arts commission’s civic design review committee will hear about the plaza proposal at its meeting Monday, October 15.

At least $10 million in private funding would need to be raised for the project. [For more on the plaza, see the Political Notebook column.]

The new design would stand as a tribute to Milk’s life and legacy, backers said at the October 4 reception at 3989 17th Street. Milk, the first openly gay elected official in San Francisco and California, was assassinated along with then-mayor George Moscone at City Hall November 27, 1978.

The redesigned plaza is to be built at the entrance to the Castro Muni station. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is also planning to install a new elevator at the station to make it more accessible.

The escalator leading down to the Castro station would have a concrete awning overhead. Rainbow-colored fluorescent lights would be built into the awning. Inside the Castro station there would be large photos of Milk and photographs of events from his life on display. Quotes from Milk’s famed “You Gotta Give ‘Em Hope” speech would be etched into the walls.

Rick Gerharter

The revised design of Harvey Milk Plaza was presented during a reception in the Castro Thursday, October 4.

Above ground it would be possible for people to walk up the top of the awning to a balcony that would overlook Castro and Market – the balcony would be fully accessible to people with disabilities. Significant events from Milk’s life would be commemorated on bronze plaques leading up to the balcony.

The surrounding plaza would feature 11 ginkgo trees, which represent the 11 months Milk sat on the Board of Supervisors, according to Erich Burkhart of Perkins Eastman, the architectural firm that won an online vote to redesign the plaza. Ginkgo was chosen because the trees turn yellow in November, which commemorates his November assassination.

The plaza would also include poles with fire-colored light to represent the impromptu candlelight vigil that

followed Milk’s assassination.

“I’m really excited,” Aiello told the B.A.R. “I think the design is really beautiful. I’m looking forward to the next phase when we hear from the city and the community and I also look forward to the day we can honor Harvey Milk’s life on the space that bears his name.”

Brian Springfield, vice president of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, said that he was also excited by the design.

“After 23-plus years the community is closer than ever to seeing the vision realized,” Springfield said.

“This is the community’s vision, not the Friends’ vision.”

Springfield was referring to a series of community meetings held earlier this year in which various designs for the plaza were proposed. Community members were invited to offer input

and make comments about the various designs. The final design was put together from the input received at those meetings.

Jim James, a 60-year-old gay man, told the B.A.R. that he liked the rainbow-colored lights coming up the escalator.

“I’m worried about homeless people camping out in there,” James said. “I don’t know what can be done about it. I have a lot of fond memories of events and protests that have gone on in that plaza.”

Anna Damiani, who declined to state her age, is a lesbian who uses a wheelchair and is a former staffer for gay former state senator Mark Leno.

“I’m excited that we’re going to have an attractive gathering place in the Castro,” she said. “I’m particularly excited at the idea of increased accessibility.”

At one point community activist John Goldsmith, who spearheads a small but vocal movement to preserve the plaza as it is, showed up at the reception wearing a veil and a cowboy hat. After being asked to leave he stood outside ringing a small gong as he chanted “Save Harvey Milk Plaza, honor our elders, respect our past.”

“Howard Grant, who designed the current plaza, needs to be honored,” Goldsmith told the B.A.R. Grant, a gay man, is also opposed to the redesign.

Most attendees at the reception ignored Goldsmith.

“I’m very excited about the project,” said Shaun Haines, a 40-yearold queer African-American man.

“We need a world class memorial to Harvey but this will also be a world class community gathering space.

For those who respond to his spirit this space will also serve to unite the four corners of Castro and Market and bring more people into this business corridor.”

Terry Beswick, 59, is a gay man and the executive director of the GLBT Historical Society.

“I think it’s exciting that we have yet another significant opportunity to honor the memory of Harvey Milk,” Beswick said. “The historical society looks forward to participating in the review of the design.

We’re working to establish a new world class museum of LGBTQ history and culture and we’re excited about making this new plaza serve as the museum’s foyer.” t For more information, visit https:// www.friendsofharveymilkplaza. org/. The October 15 meeting of the arts commission’s civic design review committee starts at 2 p.m. in room 125 of the War Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue.

Local pro, college teams plan LGBT events

by Roger Brigham

M

ajor League Baseball playoffs are in full swing and every week NFL teams add more bodies to the injury lists. Yes, it’s that time of year when basketball and hockey will bridge the gap between the end and start of baseball, along the way faithfully offering us various interpretations of Pride, diversity, or inclusion nights. Many local teams are still finalizing schedules. Some do not yet have particulars but most major local college teams say they plan to offer inclusive-themed events – and the Sharks and Warriors say they have plans to build on their previous efforts. Here’s a look at where programs currently stand: San Jose Sharks: The Sharks held an Equality Night in 2016 and an inclusive Hockey is for Everyone event in 2017. This season they plan two inclusion-themed events.

The Sharks say they will partner with Silicon Valley Pride to host a Silicon Valley Pride Event December 13, when San Jose plays Dallas.

Sharks spokesman Kyle Stuetzel said the special event package includes a ticket to the game, a Sharks Pride hat, and a post-game, on-ice group photograph.

“A portion of the ticket proceeds will be donated back to Silicon Valley Pride to promote local programs,” Stuetzel said.

Tickets are available online exclusively at http://www.sjsharks.com/ svpride.

“We are utilizing the same great assets and tools to create a unique experience that we do for all of our group sales initiatives,” Stuetzel said.

“In this event’s first year, it won’t be a full-scale arena activation. We do

Courtesy San Jose Sharks

The San Jose Sharks will host a Pride Event in December.

see this as a great opportunity to kick off a great relationship with the community and use our assets. We truly hope to grow this event into a fullblown Pride Night in the future.”

The Hockey is for Everyone night will be March 30, when the Sharks play the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

“This event aligns with the NHL’s diversity and inclusion campaign and, in the past, has featured Pride tape on sticks during warm-ups, as well as a partnership with You Can Play,” Stuetzel said. “We have LGBT integration in our Hockey Is For Everyone night, but as part of an all-encompassing effort in conjunction with the NHL’s diversity and inclusion campaign. Over the past two years we used elements from the nonprofit of the night package and partnered with the Sikh Gurdwara, which really encompassed the Hockey is for Everyone motto. This event is more of a marketing driven, full-arena innovative, and tickets can

be purchased on Ticketmaster. There is currently no special ticket promotion/code for this event.”

Golden State Warriors: The Warriors said they will host an LGBTQ Night Friday, November 2, when the Warriors host the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 7:30 p.m. game.

Warriors spokeswoman Lisa Goodwin said initial plans include a pre-game mixer, a commemorative T-shirt, and special activities during the national anthem and halftime.

Last year, when the Warriors became the first defending NBA championship team to host an LGBT event, the Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus sang the anthem and Cheer SF performed at halftime.

The franchise first held an LGBT Night in 2010, with SF Cheer and the gay men’s chorus performing and ticket proceeds benefited the SF Rockdogs basketball team and Positive Resource Center.

“This year, we’re aiming to develop a game experience and curate content that will resonate with, excite, and celebrate the LGBTQ community that attends the game,” Goodwin said.

“The Warriors have partnered with Bayview-Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT), a nonprofit social enterprise that provides access, education, and employment for low-income youth, youth of color and young women. BAYCAT, in partnership with the Warriors, will produce a video that highlights and celebrates the LGBTQ community and their allies, focusing on the importance, impact and values of allies.

The video will identify our GSW allies and supporters, and will include tips and ways to be an ally.”

Stanford: Stanford just finalized its season schedule for men’s and

women’s basketball but has not yet assigned special event themes.

“In the past, we have done ‘Equality’ games, which have included messaging promoting equality for all people,” Tommy Gray, executive associate athletic director, told the Bay Area Reporter. “We are considering similar programming this season, but have yet to finalize our plans given the timing of our schedule.”

UC Berkeley: Women’s basketball spokeswoman M.C. Barrett said staff were just beginning to discuss promotional plans but would definitely offer an LGBTwelcoming inclusion event such as the school has offered in the past.

University of San Francisco: The university plans to hold two Pride events during the women’s basketball season. A USF Pride Night T-shirt giveaway will be held Saturday, December 15, when USF plays a 2 p.m. game against UC Davis; and a USF Pride flag giveaway will be held Thursday, January 17, in conjunction with a 7 p.m. game against St. Mary’s.

Tickets are available at www. usfdons.com. Questions regarding the events can be sent to marketing director Vinnie Longo at vlongo@ usfca.edu.

San Francisco State: School spokesman Brandon Davis said the school does not plan any special LGBT event.

Olympic ripple

There’s been a notable disconnect in past Olympics regarding the human rights components

that the movement is supposed to champion. The International Olympic Committee puts words to paper calling for inclusion and acceptance of everyone by host cities and countries, but as often as not hosts have laws that discriminate against transgender people, gays, and women; “undesirables” are trucked out of camera view; and low-income neighborhoods are wiped away to make room for Olympic villages and venues.

A hopeful bucking of at least the LGBT component of that trend appears to be happening in Tokyo, host of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Tokyo passed on October 5 an anti-discrimination law drafted in consultation with Human Rights Watch.

The law states, “This act upholds the goal of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to make Tokyo a city that upholds the human rights values of banning any sort of discrimination as stated in the Olympic Charter. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, citizens, and enterprises may not unduly discriminate on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

Japan has no such nationwide protections.

“Japan is proud to host a human rights-friendly Olympics in 2020, and the government should use the next two years to pass laws and carry out policies that comprehensively protect everyone,” said Kanae Doi, the Japan director of HRW. t

<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

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Milk terminal

From page 1

Dan White, who also fatally shot thenmayor George Moscone.

Tuesday morning airport officials launched a crowd-sourcing campaign and asked anyone with photos of Milk to submit them via the website http:// www.flysfo.com/harveymilkexhibition. The deadline to do so is December 14.

Airport Director Ivar C. Satero, speaking at a news conference inside the airport’s International Terminal, told reporters it was “clear the community really needed to be a part of this.” He encouraged the public to send in not only photos of Milk but also “photos from that era and his campaign. The community piece of this is so important.”

The images selected will be used to illustrate the temporary exhibit in a

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naming the entire airport after Milk.

But due to lukewarm support for the idea, Campos worked out a deal with the late mayor Ed Lee to instead name one of the airport’s four terminals in honor of Milk. An advisory panel last year selected Terminal 1 as the best choice, leading to city leaders approving the selection earlier this year.

The legislation called for the city’s arts commission to approve the designs of the various elements of the terminal renaming. The proposed signage is to be submitted to City Hall for final approval by December.

The SFO Museum is working with photographer Daniel Nicoletta, a gay man and close friend of Milk’s, on the photomontage display for the Harvey B. Milk Gallery. In its presentation to the arts commission, the airport said it was also looking for photographs from the 1960s through the 1980s that document not only Milk and his

political campaigns, but also the city’s LGBT community in the 1970s.

As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last month, those images will be “exhibited salon style on a wood-paneled wall,” according to the airport, in the corner space at the bottom of a bank of escalators that lead to the terminal’s Central Inglenook. Most of the main exhibit will be accessible to the non-flying public, though a portion will be housed inside the secure area of the airport.

“It’s really exciting to see things coming to fruition,” said Alex Walker, a gay man who served on the advisory body that recommended Terminal 1 be named after Milk. “We will have something that will really exhibit Harvey’s full life and career.”

And the plan to utilize blown-up images of Milk “will grab people’s attention as they are running through the airport,” added Walker. t Anderson added, “I want this to work. This is an LGBT retirement community that, to me, is important and is unique and a privilege to be associated with. I don’t need to tear it down. I need to do what I need to do to make it work,” she said.

Oakmont officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Housing had been a serious issue in Sonoma County prior to the fires, which made the situation worse, especially among the most vulnerable populations.

“Housing has become a huge, huge issue in Sonoma County,” said Rick Dean, 64, a gay man who is the executive director of Face to Face, the county’s HIV/AIDS organization.

Dean said that a majority of his staff and clients weren’t directly affected by the fires, but they’ve been affected in the aftermath, particularly with housing.

The organization’s clients who have rental subsidies “cannot find available housing even if there is a way to pay for it,” he said.

“I think that would really be the biggest impact,” he continued. “It may not be directly from the fire that they had the issue, but just because of the fire it just made their lives so much more difficult to live here.”

Rothschild, the Fountaingrove Lodge resident, said that she and her partner of 18 years, Joan “Joni” Zimmerman, 82, were able to move back into their apartment right before Thanksgiving.

“Things feel back to normal in terms of our everyday lives,” said Rothschild, “but for the first couple of months I was really traumatized.

“I was just so shocked by everything and every time I went outside I just cried and cried to see everything gone,” she continued. “In fact, I still cry when I ride up over the hill because it’s just so devastating.”

Since returning the lodge residents working with management and staff have strengthened their emergency alert and evacuation plan. William “Bill” Baird, a 71-year-old gay man, and Linda “Taura” Anderson, a 67-year-old lesbian, are residents at the lodge and head up the community’s emergency response.

Baird lives with his husband, John Kennedy, 75.

They’re now confident everyone in the community is as prepared as possible for the next emergency.

“I have a suitcase packed,” said Rothschild, who is ready to evacuate with her partner at a moment’s notice. “I can tell you that I don’t feel safe enough that I would wait until someone tells me there’s another fire to get out.”

Natural disasters aren’t the only thing concerning lodge residents.

Legal troubles for Oakmont Senior Living, the owner of Fountaingrove Lodge, with California’s Department of Social Services has Rothschild and others on edge.

She and Anderson expressed concerns following a report released by DSS September 4 faulting Oakmont Senior Living for its lack of evacuation policies and staff emergency training at its Varenna and Villa Capri buildings, which are near the lodge apartments.

On September 24, Oakmont representatives dropped plans for a fifth senior care center in Santa Rosa, reported the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

The DSS report didn’t mention Fountaingrove Lodge, but because it’s also owned by Oakmont it makes some residents uncertain about the lodge’s future.

“I don’t think that they would just empty this building and never let anyone live in here,” said Rothschild. “It’s beautiful here.”

well-being check policy. He listed a number of elements that would prompt officers to take more serious action in the case, including entering the home.

“If there’s a threat of suicide or harm, the officer is aware of. If the information leads the officer to know that the person requires immediate medical attention or if the officer suspects foul play or believes exceptional facts exist,” McEachern said.

“If the information leads the officer to know that the person requires immediate medical attention or if the officer suspects foul play or believes exceptional facts exist.”

DeJesus questioned McEachern

about the police policy but was not permitted to ask the key question: Did the police follow protocol in the Egg case?

Neighbors had suspected foul play and communicated that to police. In at least two instances, neighbors were falsely assured that Egg was out of town and safe, information that was left on Egg’s answering machine, in a voice that was not his own. Family and friends say the fact that an answering machine picked up was in itself suspicious since Egg never owned an answering machine in the more than the 40 years he has lived in his Clara Street home.

Police say that Lance Silva, 39, had used Egg’s debit card to pay the crime scene cleanup company. Neighbors say Silva was living in the home after Egg disappeared. The crime scene cleanup crew was met by Robert McCaffrey, 52.

Both men were arrested on suspicion of homicide but the San Francisco District Attorney’s office dropped those charges pending further investigation.

Silva was kept in custody on a probation hold out of Alameda County.

In an editorial board meeting last week, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said he could not comment

on the case because his office is representing one of the men who were initially arrested. But he did say that the city is “extremely lax” when it comes to things like well-being checks on adults.

“Auto burglaries are lax too,” he said. “The culture is anything goes.

It does concern me. When you run a public agency, you have an obligation to respond. I’m not saying my office is perfect, but we have a rule that we respond within 24 hours.”t

with a more holistic approach. The 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer shocked district administrators and board members. It sparked massive protests in Oakland by an angry public.

BART has a wound that in many ways is still raw, especially in today’s polarized society. Significant police reforms have been made, but more work needs to be done. Li expressed some reservations about BART

Police Chief Carlos Rojas. We think he deserves some more time to implement changes.

Li said that for a long time, BART’s philosophy was that running the trains was enough. “I don’t

think that’s good enough,” she told us. “It’s not OK, as any rider will tell you. We need a safe, reliable transit system that puts people first.”

We agree. Li is the best choice for BART District 8. t

Sonoma fires

Police mum

From page 2

an editorial board meeting before the police commission meeting that he would defer to Scott.

“Let’s see what the chief says on Wednesday,” he said, adding that he could request a hearing at the board but that it would have to be scheduled by the board president.

Mandelman did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

The police commander told the commissioners of the department’s

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The last of the artwork featuring Milk would be installed in the terminal’s three-story atrium. Budgeted at $1.1 million, it would be unveiled in November 2022 when the full terminal is slated to open.

The first of SFO’s four terminals, Terminal 1 is undergoing a $2.4 billion remodel that is being rolled out in stages. Milk’s name will be prominently displayed on the facade of the terminal, visible to those entering the airport’s domestic terminal loop by vehicle or the AirTrain.

Those entering Terminal 1 via the parking garage or the AirTrain station will also see Milk’s name displayed on the entrances into the building, noted Farrah Young, the T1 project manager.

The renaming of the terminal in honor of Milk has been years in the making. In 2013, gay former supervisor David Campos had proposed

From page 1

The bank was assisting employees of closed branches find new opportunities within the bank, she added.

Beasley also noted Wells Fargo’s philanthropic support of Sonoma County.

In 2017, the bank donated $1.09 million to Marin, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties and employees logged more than 4,583 volunteer hours with local schools and organizations.

For the most part, businesses, particularly in the hospitality and tourism sector, are rebounding.

“There is a strong sense of resiliency,” said Ryan Miller, a 28-yearold gay man who is co-founder and chief marketing officer of AutoCamp.

“Since the tragedy of October last year, we’ve had our best year ever at AutoCamp Russian River and the community also seems to be experiencing a lot of visitors.”

AutoCamp, an airstream trailer camping resort with a location in Guerneville, raised more than $15,000 for fire relief efforts. Internally, the 36-member staff raised nearly $8,000 to help co-workers affected by the fires, said Miller.

The camping resort also housed emergency and relief workers, fire victims, as well as several of its employees, he said.

Some of those employees are no longer with the company, but those who stayed are continuing to rebuild their lives, Miller added.

The co-founders of AutoCamp are now using their fundraising model from the fires in Sonoma County to benefit other camp locations located in high fire zones.

Currently, they have a campaign to raise fire prevention and relief funding at its new location in Yosemite that will open February 1, 2019, said Miller.

“When we had a devastating experience in Mariposa County, we felt that we could kind of replicate the relief campaign that we’ve done in Sonoma,” said Miller, referring to this year’s Ferguson Fire. “So far, it’s been a great rallying cry for our guests and people booking our reservations.”

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post security area of Terminal 1 that the airport plans to unveil next July.

It will be timed for when passengers return to the terminal due to the re-opening of the first nine gates in Boarding Area B and will remain up through May 2021.

Several of the submitted photos should also be used in the permanent display about Milk that will be located in a pre-security area in Terminal 1 South. Located on the departures level, it will be housed in what the airport is calling the Central Inglenook.

The permanent exhibit, signage, and several art pieces are to be unveiled in February 2020, according to the airport’s current timeline. The cost for the overall architectural components is $1.5 million, according to the airport.

A lighted art piece to be mounted curbside at the Milk terminal is budgeted at $850,000. A call for artists should be announced in December.

Editorial: BART race

From page 4

African-American woman who is legally blind, who understand that the system needs to address issues

t

Mark Vogler

An American flag hangs amid homes destroyed in last October’s wildfires in Sonoma County.

Despite Sonoma County rebounding, the fires remain in the back of Sarris’ and other people’s minds.

“We live in fear of another one,” said Sarris, who personally lives in a high fire area.

Housing crunch

John Triglia is a 92-year-old bisexual man who was a resident at Journey’s End, the mobile home park in Santa Rosa that was destroyed by the Tubbs fire.

For a time, he lived at the Sandman Hotel, and in April, he moved into his new mobile home at another location.

A friend purchased the mobile home, where Triglia lives with his dog, Sophie, and his 75 rose bushes, he said.

Triglia’s other mobile home is still stuck at the site of Journey’s End. He continues to pay the mortgage and rent on the site.

“It’s just there,” said Triglia. “I would think that if they want to build on that property they are going to have to do something to get us out of there. They can’t very well bulldoze without paying us or pay for moving us.”

In February, Ramsey Shuayto, owner of the mobile home park site, announced plans to build new lowincome senior apartments on the site. Journey’s End residents would be given first right of refusal to move into the new apartments. Shuayto was working with Burbank Housing, which is also working with the city of Santa Rosa’s Housing and Community Services, on the project, according to media reports.

Triglia and others haven’t received any updates about what Shuayto planned to do with the 43 mobile

homes that survived the fire.

Laurie-Lynn Hogan, communications and fundraising director at Burbank Housing, told the B.A.R. that they’ve been in a holding pattern with federal and state regulators for about six months.

Managers of the affordable housing organization have been waiting for a response regarding Burbank Housing’s relocation proposal. Until then, Journey’s End’s recovery can’t move forward, she said.

Compounding the situation is that the fire created an unprecedented legal situation at Journey’s End. There are laws about how to close a mobile home park but those laws don’t regulate how to move forward when a mobile home park is destroyed by a major disaster like the Tubbs fire.

“We are not closing it,” Hogan said.

“The fire closed it.”

Concerned about the limbo so many of the residents have been in for a year, Hogan told the B.A.R. the team at Burbank Housing is working to find alternative solutions and that communications with former residents should improve.

Despite the uncertainty, Triglia is moving forward.

“I’m doing very well, all because I have good friends,” said Triglia. “I’m not complaining because I’m so much better off than so many people.”

Grateful, but uncertain

Rebuilding

The first houses were recently rebuilt and occupied in the Coffey Park and Fountaingrove neighborhoods.

In Coffey Park, the first home was completed by the end of May and the owner moved in Memorial Day weekend.

As of August, 400 homes were in various stages of being rebuilt in Coffey Park out of the more than 1,200 lost in the fire, reported the North Bay Business Journal.

The Press-Democrat recently reported that debris removal and other complications have slowed rebuilding in Fountaingrove, where 200 permits have been issued.

On September 15, the first resident of a rebuilt home in Fountaingrove celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony and began to move in. t

Cynthia Laird contributed reporting.

t <<

Community News>>

HIV data suit

From page 7

through the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. That does not mean, however, that I deserved to have my confidential medical information exposed publicly,” said Alan Doe, the plaintiff in the case who is using a pseudonym for purposes of the lawsuit, in a Lambda Legal news release. “With whom, when, and how I share my HIV status is my right and my decision, and A.J. Boggs & Company took both away from me. Lambda Legal is here to make sure a breach like this never happens again.”

In response to the rejection of A.J. Bogg’s motion to dismiss, Schoettes added that his client is pleased.

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Tanner

From page 10

hard to fill but he was also a mentor, preparing our young people to step up,” he wrote in an email.

“A leader, a friend, a positive example in the world, I will truly miss him,” Brooks added.

Curtis Bradford, another close friend, wrote in an email, “Norman

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Oakland mayoral forum

From page 9

terrorize us.”

Peter Yuan Liu, whose occupation is listed as unemployed and who wrote in his League of Women Voters candidate statement that he’s a “selfmade millionaire,” drew chuckles

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Phillips trial

From page 8

clip shows a red stain on Phillips’ gray sweatpants on the front of his calf, which appears only after entering the apartment a few times.

“I noticed the stain only after Phillips left the apartment,” O’Connor said when questioned about the video.

“The stain grows larger at later times.”

Kenney then asked, “Is this stain consistent with a blood stain transfer?”

A bloodstain transfer, as explained by O’Connor earlier, is when something

October 11-17, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

“He is very happy and not surprised, given the strength of the claim, but he’s very pleased it’s going to move forward and vindicate his privacy right,” Schoettes said.

A.J. Boggs CEO Clarke Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.

In California, approximately 30,000 people are enrolled in ADAP, according to a Lambda Legal news release.

The enrollment process requires people to provide sensitive information, including detailed medical records that contain their HIV status, which under state law requires confidentiality.

The complaint filed by Lambda Legal alleges A.J. Boggs became aware of the breach in November 2016, at which point it took the portal offline.

In February 2017, the state health

department discovered that unknown individuals accessed the ADAP system and downloaded the private medical information of 93 people. The state department canceled its contract with A.J. Boggs in March 2017 and now oversees the enrollment system.

Courtney Mulhern-Pearson, director of state and local policy at SFAF, told the B.A.R. in an interview that she is glad the suit will continue.

“I am pleased to see the case moving forward,” she said. “The plaintiff’s statement was pretty compelling to me, in that HIV disclosure needs to be taken seriously. I fully support his position.”

Mulhern-Pearson previously told the B.A.R. in April that there had been issues with ADAP since A.J. Boggs first took control, including patients’

difficulty receiving medicine and being denied care. ADAP has since been running sufficiently.

She also said A.J. Boggs’ process for getting the online portal up and running was “rushed.” The breach set back the state’s PrEP Assistance Program for uninsured people by a year.

That program aims to expand access to PrEP for uninsured people.

Historically, the state has contracted with private vendors to administer the ADAP program. As previously reported by the B.A.R. CDPH previously contracted with Ramsell, a pharmaceutical benefit company, and then split its contract into three contracts: Magellan Rx Management and Pool Administrators Inc., which along with Boggs, were the new contractors.

The state had split up the contract in an effort to get better prices, spokespeople said.

However, Ramsell is suing the state over losing its contract. In court documents, the Oakland-based company alleges that its bid had been “$9 million lower than Boggs’.”

In their response, state officials admitted “Boggs’ proposal resulted in a higher cost (by $9 million) over three years compared to Ramsell’s.”

Lambda Legal is seeking statutory and compensatory damages. It is suing over the violation of California’s medical privacy laws, including the California AIDS Public Health Records Confidentiality Act and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. t

was part of a group of old school recovery folks from Glide known as ‘the Generations’ from around 20 years ago. Norman remained at Glide for all these years since as a teacher, mentor, sponsor, and recovery group facilitator to literally hundreds of folks, many of whom were among the most marginalized in our community.

“He has touched and even saved the lives of so many people, including

mine, a testament to his unending dedication to give back in recovery.

His legacy at Glide will be felt for decades to come. And I’ve lost a true friend,” wrote Bradford, a community organizer at the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

An SFPD statement said investigators are asking residents and business owners in the area of the collision to check surveillance cameras for any

images possibly related to the incident. Also, they are asking anyone seeing a black or dark blue Toyota Prius with front end damage, or anyone with information regarding the incident, to call the SFPD 24-hour tip line at (415) 575-4444, remaining anonymous if they wish.

Mr. Tanner is survived by his family in southern California, including his mother, sisters, nieces, and nephews.

He grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania and moved to San Francisco when he was 19 years old.

A memorial service will be held in San Francisco in the coming weeks.

For further information, contact Bradford at abradford@sfaf.org, who will notify people when plans are finalized. t

from the audience when he said his main goal is to bring giant water slides to Lake Merritt to boost tourism.

On a question about emergency services, candidate Cedric Troupe said the fire department is understaffed.

During closing statements, Brooks said, “we’re living in crucial times.

People are dying on the streets. People are sleeping on the streets. We’re

supposed to be the most progressive city in the country.”

Price said her supporters “have to turn out the vote.” And, because the city uses ranked choice for mayor, she urged a number two vote for Brooks.

Schaaf told the audience about her deep love for her hometown and maintained that during her first term, “We have finally started

building housing, including affordable housing.”

As her time was running out, Schaaf reminded voters that she “never backs down for Oakland.”

“I stood up to the corrupt administration of Donald Trump,” she said, referring to the tweet she sent in February alerting residents to an imminent raid by federal Immigration and

Customs Enforcement authorities.

The advance notice angered both the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who publicly called her out.

Sean Dugar, a gay man who is a nonprofit consultant, attended the forum and said he was still undecided.

“I don’t know who I’m voting for or how I’m ranking candidates,” he said. t

comes into contact with blood after it lands.

“Yes,” she answered.

However, Maloof asked O’Connor in response, “Is this stain consistent with any liquid stain transfer?”

“Yes. Any dark liquid stain transfer,” O’Connor replied.

Maloof had said earlier in opening statements that it would be next to impossible for someone not to have more blood on them if inside the apartment when Sheahan died.

However, Kenney asked O’Connor, “Could someone have entered the

apartment and walked to several areas of the apartment without getting blood on them?”

She answered yes.

Some of the most graphic photos shown to the jury were when Moffatt took the stand. Moffatt performed Sheahan’s autopsy.

From her testimony it was revealed that the weapon used to kill Sheahan could have been a black cordless phone as the 12 or so injuries on Sheahan’s head were consistent with a round edged object. The phone also was found by investigators to have blood

and skin tissue from Sheahan.

Kenney showed the jury every head injury that Moffatt had labeled, A-M. Going through them one by one in court, Moffatt determined that each one was likely the result of blunt force trauma, as opposed to sharp force trauma, which is often caused by a knife.

The time of death was also discussed. Maloof has previously argued that Sheahan died after Phillips was last seen exiting the apartment. Surveillance footage shows that Phillips last left Sheahan’s apartment through

the front door on Sunday, August 13, at 10:30 a.m. Sheahan was discovered and pronounced dead the next day.

Moffatt, however, testified that it is more likely he died 24 to 48 hours before he was found August 14. Though, Moffatt also said it was difficult to determine the exact time of death.

“How likely is it that he died the same morning he was found on August 14?” Kenney asked.

Moffatt replied, “It’s less likely due to his lividity being fixed, no rigor, some skin slippage. It’s not impossible, but more likely he died before that.” t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038299300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038297000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038310200

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038319800

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554226 In the matter of the application of: DIANA SISCA IE-SIEN HARYA, 282 MONTEREY BLVD., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DIANA SISCA IE-SIEN HARYA, is requesting that the name DIANA SISCA IE-SIEN HARYA, be changed to SISCA HARYA HULAND. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 8th of November 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554227

In the matter of the application of: IURII NAKONECHNYI, 1068 HOWARD ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner IURII NAKONECHNYI, is requesting that the name IURII NAKONECHNYI, be changed to NED NYE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514, Room 514 on the 25th of October 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554224

In the matter of the application of: CHELSEA JANET CARRERA, 4132 26TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CHELSEA JANET CARRERA, is requesting that the name CHELSEA JANET CARRERA, be changed to CAT LYNN WHITE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 25th of October 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038278100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PING & YANG, 955 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SIRINA PORNPHANNUKUN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MKMOSAICS, 2230 LEAVENWORTH ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL JOHN KRUZICH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/06/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/06/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038305400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 415PRINTING, 63 OAKRIDGE DR., DALY CITY, CA 94014.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELISANDRO CAMPOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038310000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: METRO SURFACE WASH, 350 BAY ST #100-341, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDWARD G. LAU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/14/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038304800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SYTLEDASH BEAUTY LOUNGE, 2167 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MIKAGLAM INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038304300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GE VEHICLE REGISTRATION SERVICES, 5550 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed JUAN G. ESCOBAR & ROSARIO ESCOBAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/05/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/05/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038310700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LUCHO’S, 2675 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LUCHO’S LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/17/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038304400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YOGO, 435 23RD ST #D90, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SAMADHI TRADING COMPANY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038301300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GAI, 3463 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HOT GAI LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/07/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/07/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038311200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRIPLE NET PROPERTIES; TRIPLE NET REAL ESTATE; ROCKWELL PROPERTIES INC; ROCKWELL PROPERTIES MANAGEMENT, 2489 MISSION ST #30, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ROCKWELL PROPERTIES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BARRY’S BOOTCAMP, 2280 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BBC 2280 MARKET ST LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUNTINGTON HOTEL SAN FRANCISCO; NOB HILL SPA; THE BIG 4, 1075 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed WRC HUNTINGTON, LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/18.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 04, 11, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554250

In the matter of the application of: MEGAN ELIZABETH PANZER, 111 CARL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MEGAN ELIZABETH PANZER, is requesting that the name MEGAN ELIZABETH PANZER, be changed to MEGAN PANZER KAGELEIRY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 6th of November 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038323700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLUEBABE, 545 O’FARRELL ST #108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EVA MADRILLEJOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038322200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IRIS ADVISORS, 57 IRIS AVE SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREW SALZMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/24/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038299800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MORENO’S JANITORIAL, 363 SILVER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALBINO MORENO DIRCIO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/06/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/06/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WINSEN DRIVING SCHOOL, 2409 19TH AVE #A4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WAI WAH LAW. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/21/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038306600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PAW PATCH PASTRIES & PET BOUTIQUE, 701 PENNSYLVANIA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARLA OCFEMIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038314300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JACKIE’S HOUSE CLEANING, 326 ALEMANY BLVD #2B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIRNA JACQUELINE MENCHAA ROQUE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/18/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/18/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038311400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLEOPATRA TRADING COMPANY, 41 EXETER ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed 09/17/18. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/17/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038291800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LATTICE, 22 BATTERY ST, FLOOR 11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DEGREE INC. (DE).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/22/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/30/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11,18, 2018

<< Classifieds

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038308600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE SPACE SF, 1426 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ALISON ESCOBAR & HEBERTO ESCOBAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038311600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TEA 4 YOU, 646 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KJY BROTHERS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/08/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038312700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 101 CALIFORNIA, 101 CALIFORNIA ST, #1050, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ELM PROPERTY VENTURE LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/18/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038018500

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: RISK SALON, 548 MARKET ST, STE. 72588, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104.

This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by NATHAN KUGLAND, SUPRANAMAYA RANJAN & HOI LAM CHERYL KWAN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/18.

SEPT 27, OCT 04, 11, 18, 2018 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF ROSA ISABEL VALLE IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-17-300714

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of ROSA ISABEL VALLE. A Petition for Probate has been filed

by DIANA BONILLA & CESAR BONILLA III in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.

The Petition for Probate requests that DIANA BONILLA be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Nov 13, 2018, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: Philip E. Carey; SBN 155185, 555 University Ave, Suite 116, Sacramento, CA 95825; Ph. (916) 564-0706.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554274 In the matter of the application of: MARK MATTHEW WOJCIK, 1710 38TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARK MATTHEW WOJCIK, is requesting that the name MARK MATTHEW WOJCIK, be changed to ALEXANDER MATTHEW WOJCIK. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 15th of November 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038333400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JUICE E JUICE, 741 ANDERSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELIZABETH PATRICIA ARIAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038330400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE ROCK LAW FIRM, 101 MONTGOMERY ST #1800, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAN A. KOPCZYNSKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038325100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MUGUBOKA RESTAURANT, 401 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KYE SOON LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038328900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHOICE INSIGHTS, 2007 FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTINE NOWICKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038329000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DASMAR CO., 508 SAWYER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed DINA MACHA & ALESANDRO CASEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038320200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHRADER CLEANER, 701 SHRADER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed S&Y CLEANERS INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038321200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IMPACT, 870 MARKET ST #315, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed IMPACT COMMERCIAL INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038326900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GROUPGREETING, 1963 30TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed STERGERON LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/25/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/26/18.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038329800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038342900

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038304900

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038311700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAIGHT STREET TOBACCO, 1827 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HAIGHT & ASHBURY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KAIA ANDERSON-BUCKLEY; INTERACTIVE HYPNOTHERAPY, 863 24TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed S. HEIDI ANDERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/18.

CLEANING PROFESSIONAL

27 Years Exp. (415) 794-4411 Roger Miller

RAMBO WITH A VACUUM Housecleaning Richard 415-255-0389

Hauling>>

HAULING 24/7 – (415) 441-1054 Large Truck

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAKER PLACES; FERGUSON PLACE, 1249 SCOTT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115 . This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BAKER PLACES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/14/93. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038337400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANTISTATIC, ANTISTATIC US, 747 WEBSTER ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY PENDERGRAST. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/18.

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038335200

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038309000

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038341000

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554283

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038339900

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038338200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLOWER MARKET, 714 ARGUELLO BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FLOWER MARKET SHOP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/18/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/18.

In the matter of the application of: ELISHAJOHN GANAL MCINTYRE, 1938 POWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ELISHA-JOHN GANAL MCINTYRE, is requesting that the name ELISHA-JOHN GANAL MCINTYRE, be changed to ELISHA JOHN MCGANAL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514, Room 514 on the 20th of November 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554282

In the matter of the application of: PATRICKJOSEPH GANAL MCINTYRE, 1938 POWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner PATRICK-JOSEPH GANAL MCINTYRE, is requesting that the name PATRICK-JOSEPH GANAL MCINTYRE, be changed to PATRICK JOSEPH MCGANAL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514, Room 514 on the 20th of November 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038341500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KEVIN FRANCIS RAFFERTY ELECTRIC, 18A HALE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KEVIN RAFFERTY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/04/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038345600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BARBEROLOGY, 380 SANCHEZ ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL S. MCGINTY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AQUARIUS VINTAGE SF, 3600 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARA LUNDBERG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VK SOUND, 1215 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IAN LABELLE VAN KEUREN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038335300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HONG KONG PRODUCTS COMPANY, 701 DARIEN WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PETER P. WONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038331400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ON THE MOVE, 198 ROUSSEAU ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OLIVER MANNION. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038335900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMAPOLA, 632 CAMBRIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ARLETTE PEREZ & MARICELA PEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038344200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KABARI, 1788 19TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed APRIL FINANCIAL, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/05/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018

OCT 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018

Movers>>

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038336900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLUB PILATES SOMA, 635 8TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RIVA PILATES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FILLMORE LAUNDRY, 1426 B FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PRK VENTURES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO OPERA; SAN FRANCISCO OPERA CENTER; SAN FRANCISCO OPERA BRAVO! CLUB, 301 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/26/32. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YORKLAND PRODUCTION, 150 HOOPER ST #310, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed YORKLAND CORP (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/31/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038311500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE BEVERAGE CATERING, 3139 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DELIRIUM COCKTAILS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/14/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038338000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOUR FABULOUS ANIMALS, 124 ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed C&L ASSOCIATES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038337000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Z TOUCH SALON, 1930 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Z UNIVERSE LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038328500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNGRAFTED, 2419 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UNGRAFTED LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/18.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036105200 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: KABARI, 1788 19th AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by CALIFORNIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/14.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 01, 2018

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Vol. 48 • No. 41 • October 11-17, 2018

Carmen Giannattasio debuts as 'Tosca'

by Philip Campbell

O

Courtesy Mill Valley Film Festival

Carmen Giannattasio as Tosca, and Brian Jagde as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s “Tosca.”

nce famously derided as “that shabby little shocker” and condemned as “little more than a manipulative melodrama,” composer Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” ultimately triumphed over the naysayers. His superbly melodic and impassioned verismo tragedy has become one of the world’s most frequently performed operas. It is certainly one of the most frequently performed by the San Francisco Opera. The fabulous diva has graced the stage of the War Memorial Opera House in over 30 productions since the legendary first opening night of the BeauxArts auditorium in 1932.

See page 16 >>

More Mill Valley cinema action

by David Lamble

T

he final weekend of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival contains an impressive collection of serious Fall 2018 film fare.

“The Kindergarten Teacher” Maggie Gyllenhaal plays an especially brave public school teacher whose earnest attempts to nurture an extremely bright pupil go seriously awry. The able actor, who first moved out from under her high-flying brother Jake’s shadow with her electrifying performance in the 2001 dark comedy “The Secretary,” will appear for a post-film chat at the Smith Rafael Center following the 10/12 screening.

See page 22 >>

Maggie Gyllenhaal (left) in a scene from director Sara Colangelo’s “The Kindergarten Teacher.”

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

<< Out There

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 4-10, 2018

t

y l s s u u o l o l u u ““FFaabb teerrttai ni ng nt een y.” ay wa erryy w iinneevve

F. – Fanny

Fabian Echevarria

Marga Gomez’s “Latin Standards,” the loving, funny, and true story of life with her Cuban showman father, plays The Marsh Berkeley.

LGBT leading lights

by Roberto Friedman

© 2018 SSPI PHOTO: RiCK MARKOVICH

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ast week Out There was lucky enough to catch two major figures from contemporary LGBT arts & culture live in performance, and to learn what they’re up to these days. Lesbian comic nonpareil Marga Gomez brought her latest, and self-described last, solo show to The Marsh Berkeley, and transgenre vocal artist Justin Vivian Bond headlined the GLBT Historical Society’s annual Gala, unfolding in the posh setting of the War Memorial Building’s Green Room.

Gomez’s “Latin Standards” tells the true story of her relationship with her father, the Cuban-American showman, comedian, producer, entrepreneur, and composer Willy Chevalier.

She uses the framing device of a “final farewell concert” to offer a few of his popular ballads – not sung, but hilariously expounded upon – and give the back-story of life with her performer parents in 1960s Manhattan. Though he was clearly a character, Gomez portrays her father with tenderness,

empathy and nuance.

Marga being Marga, we also get to hear dishy stories from her adult life, from dealing with a terminally blonde girlfriend to putting on a weekly comedy show at the late, lamented gay Latino club Esta Noche in the years before it succumbed to the rapidly gentrifying Mission District. In these tales of show biz and the “creative addiction” they both share, Gomez proves that she’s still her father’s daughter, as much of a “showman” as he ever was.

Directed by David Schweizer, “Latin Standards” plays The Marsh Berkeley through Nov. 17.

Tickets: www.themarsh.org.

Mx Bond does not possess the most dulcet set of pipes, but they (preferred pronoun) can sure sell a song! For their set at the Historical Society shindig, Bond looked elegant and soignee in a sparkly gold wrap and long blonde fall.

Their patter and songs, accompa-

nied by pianist David Sylkowski, were exactly right for their knowing fans: cabaret songbook, world-weary reflection, and early Bowie nostalgia.

The Gala honored community members who have helped make gay history. Bob Ross Foundation president Thomas Horn was given the Willie Walker Award; the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus the History Makers Award; archivist Lisbet Tellefsen the Clio Award; and the late pioneering LGBTQ studies and human sexuality scholar Dr. John Paul De Cecco the honor of having the Historical Society’s Archives named after him. Executive director Terry Beswick and Board Chair Tina Valentin Aguirre presided over it all and helped make the case for the GLBT Historical Society’s continuing mission of preserving and presenting our history through archives and the museum. We feel historical already. t

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Carmen Giannattasio as Tosca, and Scott Hendricks as Scarpia in Puccini’s “Tosca.”

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From page 15

To name just a few on the starry list at SFO who have (spoiler alert) jumped from the parapet of Castel Sant’Angelo in Act III: Renata Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, and the glorious Montserrat Caballe, who sadly died just last Saturday, immediately come to mind.

I mention the women, because, important as the male leads are, the raison d’etre for any new production must be a proper showcase for a soprano capable of personifying the

glamorous essence of an opera star.

After an absence of only four years, fiery and tender, temperamental Floria Tosca has returned in a handsome new production that introduces Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio to SFO in both her Company and role debuts.

The fine sets by production designer Robert Innes Hopkins are remarkable for their attention to detail. Warmly bathed in Michael James Clark’s effective lighting design, they look sturdy enough to last for years, and the gorgeous See page 22 >>

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<< Theatre

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 4-10, 2018

Blue-collar blues in Pennsylvania

by Jim Gladstone

T

he audience feels a jolt when the N-word is shouted during the opening scene of “Sweat.” But Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama defies initial expectations.

Much more than a righteous play about the wrongness of racism, the powerful production now at A.C.T’s Geary Theater is about the destruction of blue-collar communities, the dehumanizing toll of unemployment, and the pain of having your self-image pulled out from beneath you like a rug.

It’s about people who get slammed so hard that they break. And how racism crawls out of the cracks in broken people.

That opening scene, set in 2008 in the fading steel town of Reading, Pennsylvania, toggles between Jason (David Darrow) and Chris (Kadeem Ali Harris). Both in their late 20s, they’re individually meeting with a stern but encouraging parole officer.

While in prison, mild-mannered Chris, who is African-American, took up Bible study. High-strung Jason took up with white Supremacists.

Eight years prior, before the crime they committed together, Jason and Chris were best friends.

So were their mothers, Tracey (Lise Bruneau) and Cynthia (Tonye Patano), whom we meet along with a third pal, Jessie (Sarah Nina Hayon), in a flashback to 2000, just ahead of big trouble. They’re carousing together at the neighborhood tap where most of “Sweat” takes place, celebrating Tracey’s birthday. They always celebrate their birthdays here, and they probably drop by for a drink every day.

Their bar, like their town, is a place where traditions matter. You can see

Kevin Berne

Jessie (Sarah Nina Hayon) and Cynthia (Tonye Patano) discuss the rumors that their positions could be outsourced to Mexico in Lynn Nottage’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Sweat,” playing A.C.T.’s Geary Theater. Background: Tracey (Lise Bruneau).

it in the life-worn details of Andrew Boyce’s beautifully detailed set: the faded red vinyl upholstery in the booths, the green neon Yuengling beer sign, the felt Phillies pennant and old Dr. J. poster tacked to the woodpaneled wall.

The women are longtime coworkers on the same factory floor where their fathers once worked, and where their sons are just getting started (Chris is also taking night-school classes, sensing an eventual need to move to a newer, wider world). Their identities are tied to lives of routine. They’ve never expected much, but to a large extent, their expectations have been met.

Yes, Tracey once had hippie dreams, roaming from Istanbul to Lahore to Kandahar and beyond; but her late husband’s cancer has left her back where she started, grateful, at least, for union medical coverage. And Cynthia is estranged from her husband Brucie (Chiké Johnson), whose hollow mien and haunted stare show the damage done by two years locked out of work in a labor dispute. But the old friends keep plugging away, supporting each other in sisterhood, settled with their lot.

The great unsettling begins when Cynthia wins the rare opportunity to move off the floor for a supervisory job. A pawn in a bigger game,

she briefly becomes one of “them.”

Her friends feel betrayed. And in their contempt, they take note of their sister’s skin color. The rift grows deeper as management demands that labor take a precipitous 60% pay cut or lose the entire factory to Latin America – either by watching it move to Mexico, as other local businesses have, or by seeing their jobs taken over by the Rust Belt’s immigrants, folks like Oscar (Jed Parsario), the quiet barback they’ve never really noticed before, for whom $11 an hour would be a raise, not the crumbs of entitlement.

Profit-driven pressure comes down on these women, crushing their soli-

t

darity along with their souls. In short order, they lose not just their work, but also their deep-rooted identity as working-class Americans. And in this class war, the women revert to a bunker mentality – an Archie Bunker mentality, the sort of reflexive, self-protective racism that Cynthia acknowledges was typical of their fathers’ generation, but seemed to lessen in their own. It’s a terribly misguided effort at self-soothing, as are the opioids and excess alcohol that only end up compounding their misery.

Jason and Chris experience a compounded misery, too, losing not only their jobs, but also the bedrock of community and family their mothers had always exemplified. Where Tracie and Cynthia collapse in on themselves, their sons lash out, irreversibly.

As written by Nottage and directed by Magic Theater artistic director Loretta Greco, “Sweat” plays with a detailed, almost documentary realism rarely seen in recent seasons on Bay Area stages. This is solid, oldfashioned American social drama in the tradition of Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill, but with female characters now at center stage.

Perplexingly, while women are at the heart of this story, Nottage both opens and closes her script with scenes featuring only men.

Uniformly well-acted, “Sweat” invites you to empathize with each of its characters, even when their behavior is at its worst, and to consider the degree to which racism emerges as a symptom of a larger disease.t “Sweat” plays A.C.T.’s Geary Theater through Oct. 21. Tickets ($22-$115): www.act-sf.org.

Statecraft & stagecraft

by Jim Gladstone

I

n September 1993, an optimistic blueprint for peace between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Oslo Accord, was signed. With great international fanfare and attention, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and US President Bill Clinton gathered in Washington, D.C. for the ceremony.

Those three figures loomed large in news coverage of the time, and they do so in a video projection that ever-so-briefly overtakes the set toward the end of the engrossing Marin Theatre Company production of “Oslo,” running through Oct. 21. Briefly, because playwright J.T. Rogers is far less interested in heads of state than in the hearts and minds of the people behind them.

All the world’s a stage, and “Oslo” is dedicated to backstage drama. Its characters are the unsung career diplomats and political scientists of an international “deep state” (thank goodness for it) who steadfastly steer society forward in minute increments while most of us remain distracted by the superficial ceremonies and scandals projected on our screens.

The play artistically extrapolates from real people and incidents, centering on the Norwegian couple who, in the year leading up to the accord, secretly broker back-channel negotiations between Israel and the P.L.O. Terje Rod-Larsen (Mark Anderson Phillips), who helps run a political think-tank, and his wife, Mona Juul (Erica Sullivan), who works for Norway’s foreign ministry, orchestrate and host a series of clandestine meetings at a lodge outside the title city.

Kevin Berne

PLO Finance Minister Ahmed Qurie (J. Paul Nicholas) speaks with Israeli Director-General of the Foreign Ministry Uri Savir (Paris Hunter Paul) while Norwegian mediators Terje Rød-Larsen (Mark Anderson Phillips) and Mona Juul (Erica Sullivan) look on, in “Oslo.”

While the Israeli and P.L.O. attendees are preconditioned to approach each other as foes, Terje and Mona shrewdly leverage one of their unrecognized common enemies: formal protocol. Rather than gathering large government contingents for strict procedural meetings and all-or-nothing decisions, the pair choreograph intimate colloquies of four to six officials. The participants are given the opportunity to interact outside the circumscribed boundaries of international negotiation. As long sessions of eating, drinking, and laughter alternate with periods of nuts-and-bolts negotiation, members of the opposing parties connect with each other personally as well as politically. Seeds of growth are sown, and, like ivy, agreements cultivated at lower levels gradually climb each

government’s chain of command.

Rogers strikes a fine balance between detailed discussions of deal-terms and humanizing banter among the negotiators. Audience members needn’t have much grounding in Middle East politics to follow along, but there are plenty of specifics touched upon for those who do. It’s in demonstrating the slowly accreting impact of those personal relationships that the playwright occasionally oversimplifies. There’s a scene in which the most arrogant Israeli diplomat, Uri Savir (a terrific chest-puffing Paris Hunter Paul), and PLO Finance Minister Ahmed Qurie (J. Paul Nicholas, beautifully conveying both businesslike mantle and underlying sweetness) realize that they each have a

daughter named Maya, and share a moment of goopy communion.

It’s a rare moment of blatancy in a production that generally hums along with elegant nuance. Director Jasson Minadakis keeps things moving at a lively clip while coaxing delicate shifts in tone from his cast of 14 over the length of the play, which covers a nine-month period. Precisely etched characters who are hostile to one another at the start form completely believable alliances by the end. There are no fundamental changes in their personalities, only their perspectives. To convey that so clearly is a triumph of direction and performance, and reason in itself to see this production.

Throughout the evening, Terje and Mona serve as facilitators

for the audience as well as for the diplomats. The practical, altruistic leanings of their real-life counterparts are reflected in the mechanics of the play. Stepping toward the apron of the stage, they provide brief segments of narration to help viewers keep track of chronology. When the lights go down between scenes, they help rearrange the stage furniture. On the world stage, they’ve quietly helped rearrange things as well.

In the end, neither facilitators nor policy-crafters take part in the pomp and circumstance of the signing ceremony featured in headlines and on the evening news. That the Oslo Accord was authorized in Washington, D.C., overseen by Bill Clinton, suggests that the hardworking diplomats – and Norway itself – were regarded as little more than furniture-movers, setting the scene for the stars.

Today, with arrogance and idolatry center stage in American politics, “Oslo” reminds us that, backstage, there is a world of earnest, ongoing effort. It gives a glimmer of hope that some good may yet come of unheralded work and positive intention.

Needless to say, the peace promised by the Oslo Accord never came to the Middle East.

And all the thoughtful diplomacy in the world can be erased with the push of a button. “Oslo” gives the world’s furniture-movers a beautiful, well-deserved moment in the spotlight. But one is still left to wonder if the furniture is those proverbial deck chairs.t “Oslo,” through Oct. 21. Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. Tickets ($25$60): (415) 388-5208, www. marintheatre.org.

t

Theatre>>

October 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Liberating the heroine

by Sari Staver

C

horeographer and performer Monique Jenkinson, in the guise of her drag queen persona Fauxnique, and her longtime partner, electronic composer Marc Kate, will premier their first full collaboration, “Girl,” for two weekends beginning Oct. 11 at the Joe Goode Annex, 401 Alabama St., SF. The performance also marks the debut of the Joe Goode Performance Group in presenting and producing outside artists. In this evening-length performance, Jenkinson and Kate use music, song, spoken word, critical theory, and drag to take a deep dive into the topic of the liberation and empowerment of femininity.

Jenkinson, believed to be the only cis female drag queen to win a major drag pageant, said in a telephone interview with the B.A.R. that the new piece “includes spoken text that conjures a coming-of-age story and uses singing as a means of channeling the scream queen and movement to depict the evolution, victimization, and liberation of the heroine.”

“Girl” draws from a number of different sources, including Viennese Actionism, the short, violent movement in the 1960s that pursued the development of performance art and horror films that “subject heroines to treatments so graphic and obvious they pass the point of camp humor.” The new production “intends to speak to the feminine in everyone with the questions: Who is the girl in you?

What could you tell her?”

In developing the work, “We found ourselves really taken by the work of Carol Clover, who coined the term ‘final girl’ in her feminist reading of horror, ‘Men, Women & Chainsaws,’” said Jenkinson. “This

RJ Muna

Fauxnique (aka Monique Jenkinson) is co-creator of and performer in “Girl,” playing Joe Goode Annex

isn’t a piece about horror or final girls, but it uses horror tropes and the concept of the final girl to focus on power, fear, violence, control, gender, and difference.”

Jenkinson said she and Kate are excited to be able to create and produce “their first from-the-groundup collaboration” in their 31 years together as a couple. Previously, Jenkinson has contributed vocals to Kate’s works, and he has done music, video or sound design for hers, she said. The couple hopes to continue performing the piece in other cities, although “we’ve been so busy rehearsing every day” that they haven’t had the time to think about other bookings.

Research for “Girl” began in residence at Tanzhaus Zurich in 2016, and the production also received support from the Kenneth

Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation and Lighting Artists in Dance.

Jenkinson said her performing career began when she was a child taking ballet lessons in suburban Colorado in the 1980s. Her first foray into drag came when she was 15, and put on a pair of false eyelashes for a production of “The Nutcracker.” “I remember thinking, ‘So this is what my face is supposed to look like!’ I suppose I could go back further and say that I started doing drag when I was playing dress-up as a child. As a performer, I get to continue playing dress-up,” she said.

Jenkinson got a taste of alternative culture in high school when she discovered David Bowie and Boy George, and became friendly with theater geeks, punks, and gays.

After studying dance at Bennington

Statecraft & stagecraft

by David Lamble

T

he new biopic “The Happy Prince” will spark a variety of emotions among devotees of the Irish-born author and gay icon Oscar Wilde. Starring Rupert Everett as Wilde (he also wrote and directed), the film focuses on Wilde’s last days in exile in Paris, looking back at his life, including his two-year imprisonment for “gross indecency.”

“The Happy Prince” features a sublime ensemble, with Colin Firth as Wilde’s friend Reggie Turner, and a commanding Colin Morgan as his ravishing but betraying lover Alfred “Bosie” Douglas. Nude to the waist, Morgan demonstrates the dark talents of a young man capable of luring a prince of letters to his doom. A solid Emily Watson fills out the top-billed cast, taking on the thankless role of Wilde’s long-suffering wife Constance.

A career obsession for the now59-year-old Rupert Everett, the drama focuses on the rapidity of Wilde’s decline once Oscar loses his lawsuit to Bosie’s pugnacious father, the Marquess of Queens-

Wilhelm Moser, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Colin Morgan as Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde in “The Happy Prince.”

berry, ironically usually credited with drafting the modern rules for pro boxing. While those rules meant the adoption of gloves and the end of “bare knuckle” brawling, with Wilde the enraged dad took off the gloves and set out to ruin his dandy son’s male lover.

“The Happy Prince” is a great jumping-off point for Wilde newbies, as Everett and company dem-

onstrate the tragic errors committed by the poet in his efforts to win a public relations battle over sodomy while Queer Victoria still reigned. With its complicated flashback structure, the film also provides our Oscar with a poetic series of grace notes, hinting at the great storyteller’s long-delayed posthumous victory over his brutish foes.t

College, Jenkinson moved to San Francisco, hoping to launch a dance career. But when a friend took her to Trannyshack’s weekly drag show at the Stud, her interests took a turn.

For four years, Jenkinson went to Trannyshack weekly as a fan, absorbing techniques along the way.

“That’s when I really fell in love with performance,” she said.

In 2003, Jenkinson created Fauxnique, who took the drag world by storm by winning the Miss Trannyshack Pageant. Fauxnique quickly pushed drag out of clubs and into the city’s more conventional cultural spaces, creating solo performances incorporating drag into sold-out runs at theaters.

In 2007, Jenkinson became a resident at Counterpulse and ODC, where she created a full-length production, “Faux Real,” stringing

together drag numbers to produce an autobiographical sketch of how she became a drag queen. The show played here at the Climate Theater, as well as on stages in London, New York, and New Orleans.

As Fauxnique, Jenkinson has performed internationally in clubs, theaters, and museums. She performed her solo cabaret show “The F Word” at Harvard Arts’ Oberon Theater, and was in residence at Headlands Center for Arts. She is currently writing a memoir for Amethyst Editions/Feminist Press.

Now in the middle of her third decade as a professional dancer, Jenkinson said the experience of producing a show with her husband Marc Kate has been a welcome change of pace. “When we go into the studio we are having conversations we’ve never had before,” she said. Reconnecting with Joe Goode came at the right time.

Jenkinson had been a student and fan of Goode’s work for years.

“When I first moved to San Francisco, I really wanted to dance with them. It was my dream, which didn’t wind up happening, but I did take a lot of classes” with JGPG. The two stayed in touch over the years, and after Jenkinson hosted a JGPG fundraiser, they began talking about a collaboration. When Goode invited Jenkinson and Kate to inaugurate JGPG’s new series presenting outside artists, “We jumped at the opportunity,” Jenkinson said there will be a discussion of this new collaboration in a post-show conversation on Sat., Oct. 13, in the middle of the run. “By then, I’ll have more to say about it.”t Tickets for “Girl” ($25-$35): www. joegoode.org.

<< TV

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 4-10, 2018

Seven circles of SCOTUS hell

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here we were, debating with friends over dinner which circle of hell as detailed by Dante we are currently on. Some say it is only the first: Limbo. Others, we were among them, argued we’re at the fourth: Greed. Still others claimed we are already at the seventh circle: Violence.

We think we have it right. Not content with one stolen SCOTUS seat, the GOP had to grab up another one. So much of what Trump & Co. are doing comes down to greed.

Unmitigated. But the case can also be made for the seventh circle. We thought that as we watched Trump mock sexual assault victim Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, getting the crowd to cheer him dismissing a 15-year-old girl’s attempted rape.

That was violence. Or was it the fifth circle: Wrath?

We’ve spent way too much time watching CSPAN of late, but we’re grateful for this network devoted solely to the actions of our government in real time. The transparency, sans punditry and commentary, has been welcome, even as the events themselves drove us back to Dante.

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Sen. Ben Sasse (NE-R) gave a tearful rendition of two friends recxassault to him the night the FBI “investigation” ended. But during the hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, Sasse referred to women and LGBT protestors as “hysterics” and “deranged,” like it was Salem, 1692.

Selective concern for women from an evangelical whose wife homeschools the couple’s three children because you never know what ungodliness might be taught in a public school in Nebraska.

But it was Republican Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (TX-R) on Thursday night, after the GOP read the FBI report, whom we found profoundly unsettling. Standing on the floor of the Senate defending Kavanaugh, Cornyn declared, “We remember that Atticus Finch was a lawyer who did not believe that a mere accusation was synonymous with guilt. He represented an unpopular person who many people presumed was guilty of a heinous crime because of his race, and his race alone. We could learn from Atticus Finch now, during this time when there has been such a vicious and unrelenting attack on the integrity and good name of this nominee.”

Yikes. The party that has demonized men of color for generations as rapists (never forget that Trump’s announcement of his candidacy for president was a monologue of racism and xenophobia in which he (mis)characterized all Mexicans as rapists and Muslims as terrorists) is now claiming that Atticus Finch would, were he an actual person and not a fictional character in small-town Alabama in 1960, be representing Brett Kavanaugh. There we were, yelling at the TV, “Oh no, you didn’t!” If we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, we would not have believed it.

There were interstitial horrors from CNN: president pro tem of the Senate Orrin Hatch yelling at sexual assault victims outside the Senate to “grow up,” and Lindsey Graham telling other young women victims outside the Senate chamber to “call a cop.” We were reminded of the Wesen on “Grimm.”

One minute they seem like regular humans, then they shape-shift into monsters.

While we loved the premiere of “SNL,” “Weekend Update” with Colin Jost and Michael Che was fabulous, Kate McKinnon managed a perfect Lindsey Graham and RBG, and Matt Damon’s Kavanaugh in the cold open was genius, the real thing has been anything but funny. Do we really have two more years of this? Or 30, if one counts the Trump SCOTUS?

Not politics

The non-political side of TV is still a golden age, and the fall season has something new to offer every day. There are so many enjoyable, thought-provoking, beautifully rendered things to watch that we have to keep that stack of books glaring at us from the bedside table as a reminder not to forget reading.

There’s never enough LGBT programming – we are still yearning for the return of “Pose,” like Penelope for Ulysses – but “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” is providing a very gay season with some intense leather sex and lots of Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates. Can we add that Gabourey Sidibe looks spectacular, that we love Frances Conroy’s hair in “Apocalypse” so much, that Billy Porter and B.D. Wong are tremendous in their gayness, and when is Evan Peters going to get an Emmy?

To be fair, every day on TV we can watch gay men telling us what to eat,

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ABC-TV

Republican Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (TX-R) on ABC-TV.

what to wear and how to decorate, watch Ellen interview celebs, politicians and just plain folks, see stellar drag with the best drag queen in history, and watch the Real Housewives of wherever for requisite bitchslapping. So the gay is there. We just want more, so much more.

Speaking of gay men and decorating, those “Queer Eye” alums Carson Kressley and Thom Filicia are back on Bravo! The dynamic design duo have a new series, “Get a Room with Carson and Thom.” You’ll want to get a room with them.

It is the month of our gay holiday, so you should be watching all the Halloween prep shows, like the Food Network’s “Halloween Wars,” “Halloween Baking Championship,” “Haunted Gingerbread Showdown,” “Trisha’s Halloween Spooktacular,” “Halloween Cake-Off” and “Chopped.” Watching Martha Stewart do Halloween (she asserts it’s her fave holiday) is always excellent, even if it’s destined to make you feel like a failure.

But we did learn that you can make glow-inthe-dark food with tonic water and gelatin. So if you want to do a brain centerpiece for your zombie theme, that’s a trick.

The Travel channel has “Scariest Night of My Life,” “Most Terrifying Places in America” and “Ghost Adventures: Graveyard of the Pacific” to get you psyched. Still more frightening is 24/7 news and being able to watch the descent into hell, live, every day, then the re-cap every night. At least we have Robin Roberts to start our day queer on “GMA,” and three queer prime-time anchors in Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon. CSPAN has shown us the heroes, among them Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono and Amy Klobuchar.

But the villains have also been unmasked. The return of “The Walking Dead” could not be more terrifying. As our therapist told us: Take breaks. She ordered us to watch non-news TV and listen to black women. So after Cornyn desecrated the memory of Atticus Finch, we fled into the arms of the premiere of “Will & Grace,” reliably hilarious and ineffably gay. Joining the cast is “Friends” alum David Schwimmer as the West Side Curmudgeon, who may become Grace’s love interest.

We’d had such doubts about this reboot working, but the second season is better than the first. Like visiting old friends: fun, comfortable, unpretentious. Love it.

We followed “W&G” with a dive into “Murphy Brown.” Raucously political and virulently anti-Trump: what more could we ask for? There was a cameo (Photoshopped, yet the verisimilitude was striking) of a press briefing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders where Murphy says all the things we want someone to say to her about lying in every briefing. She

tries to get the rest of the reporters to walk out – including her son, Avery, who’s at his first briefing – but it doesn’t happen.

Some of our fave lines from “Murphy Brown” were delivered by Candice Bergen, who’s just as good as she was during the first Bush administration. Murphy, chastised for wearing pajama pants and slippers on set of her early morning broadcast, gives a #MeToo throwaway, saying, “Consider yourself lucky. I hear in the last few years of his show, Charlie Rose didn’t even wear pants.” Whoa.

On trying to get breakfast at their fave hangout, now run by Tyne Daly, Murphy quips, “LeBron would have an easier time getting into Mar-aLago.” Miles fantasizes about Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who reminds him of his strict former Hebrew teacher.

Then we moved on to “How to Get Away with Murder,” with a fully gay storyline. Ah, so revivifying. The fifth season of “HTGAWM” has the same flashback, non-linear storyline as the previous seasons, both irritating and a really good hook. Annalise Keating’s (Viola Davis) students are still pretty, hot and in her thrall.

The show has replaced the dead Wes (Alfred Enoch) with Gabriel (Rome Flynn), so one gorgeous young black man with another. We didn’t lose any characters of color; in fact, we gained three new ones. Connor (Jack Falahee) and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) are still planning their wedding, but are allowed to have sex (unlike so many neutered gay male couples) because the showrunner, Peter Nowalk, is gay.

Annalise has been hired by the firm Tegan Price (Amirah Vann) works for, and Tegan is still one of the most fabulous black lesbians on the tube. (Tune into “Insecure” and “9-1-1” for some others.) We would love to see the bisexual Annalise have an affair with Tegan.

The Oct. 4 storyline was edgy. A black Muslim Rohingya immigrant from Myanmar was charged with the murder of her white wife. The dead wife’s adult son was the chief witness, claiming his mother intended to end the relationship and was killed over a green card.

We won’t give any spoilers (that’s all revealed in the first five), because it was such a compelling and utterly surprising story and we want you to watch. Plus, so many gorgeous shirtless men. It’s gonna be a great season.

We followed “HTGAWM” with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” because Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is our spirit animal. In the two-part season premiere “SVU” took on school shootings. Next up: kids in cages. Still topical, still “ripped from the headlines” 20 years in.

Other gay returns we are grateful for include the fifth season of “Empire,” now that Jamal Lyon (Jussie Smollett) is back home with the fam.

Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) and Luscious (Terrence Howard) are trying to pull things together, but it’s revealed that they are “old and broke” (not sure See page 21 >>

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DVD>>

October 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Racial equality matters

by Brian Bromberger

2

018 has become a banner year for the lesbian African-American playwright-activist Lorraine Hansberry, despite the fact that she died in 1965 at age 34, seemingly lost and invisible. In March, a splendid documentary on her life, “Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart,” was shown on PBS as part of their “American Master” series. And now, just released on Blu-ray by Criterion for the first time, is her masterpiece play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” filmed in 1961. The movie has now achieved classic status, though it was considered something of a flop when first released. It was selected in 2005 by the National Film Registry under the Library of Congress as culturally significant. Sadly, its underlying themes of structural inequality and racism are as relevant today as they were in the early 1960s.

The story concerns the Younger family, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier), his wife Ruth (Ruby Dee), his son Travis, and his sister Beneatha (Diana Sands), who all live in their mother Lena’s (Claudia McNeil) apartment in Chicago’s South Side. They are waiting to receive a $10,000 life insurance check left to Lena by her late husband.

Tired of his chauffeur job, Walter Lee wants to use the money to invest in

a liquor store, while Beneatha would pay her medical school tuition with the inheritance. Matriarch Lena, however, prefers to buy a house that would give more space for Travis, and Ruth agrees with this proposal. There is much fighting about what will be done with the money. Ruth discovers she is pregnant, and, in desperation about finances, contemplates getting an abortion. Beneatha is juggling two suitors: George Murchison (Lou Gossett), upwardly mobile and elitist, versus Joseph Asagai (Ivan Dixon), a Nigerian classmate who wants to marry her and bring her to Africa. But she can’t decide what to do.

Lena makes a down payment on a two-story house in the white Clybourne Park neighborhood, but gives the remaining money to Walter, only asking he put $3,500 in the bank for Beneatha’s education. Meanwhile, the family receives a visit from Mark Lindner (John Fiedler), the head of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, who is willing to repay their down payment plus give them additional money not to move into their neighborhood. The family rejects the offer, but after Walter’s business scheme fails, he is reconsidering accepting Lindner’s money, though the rest of the family objects. This final battle will lead to one of the greatest climaxes in American drama.

“A Raisin in the Sun” was the first serious play written by a black woman to appear on B r o a d w a y, winning Hansberr y the NY Drama Critics Circle award. She based it on her real estate father’s successful attempt to oppose Chicago’s racially restrictive housing covenants in the 1940s in a legal case that went to the Supreme Court. Hansberry wrote the screenplay. Inspired by Italian neo-realist films, she wanted the film to broaden the Younger world outside their apartment to show their real lives, but Columbia Studio nixed that idea, as well as clamping down on black vernacular and getting rid of “excess race material,” fearing it would drive away white audiences. The film was promoted as a family drama not a social one, almost concealing that it dealt

with black people.

Conseq u e n t l y, critics derided the movie as a filmed play, yet the almost claustrophobic interior works as an advantage, in that the legal apartheid threatening to engulf the Younger family in different forms cannot be avoided.

The audience is forced to confront the indignities and dehumanization of racial discrimination facing the Youngers.

The acting is sublime, starting with Poitier, who throughout his films of the 1950s was accused of being assimilationist. “Raisin” was a turning point, in that he was able finally to convey black anger and desperation. Walter, with his focus on money, is largely unlikeable until the end of the movie, when he redeems himself. Poitier had a huge fight with

Claudia McNeil, who felt the focus of the play should be Lena representing traditional family values, while he saw Walter’s transformation as pivotal. McNeil moved beyond the stereotypical Mammy character, reminding audiences of the huge costs and sacrifices it took to get that $10,000 check. Ruby Dee’s Ruth is the transitional figure – she wants change but is hesitant to challenge the status quo. The real revelation is Diana Sands’ Beneatha (a stand-in for Hansberry), an early prototype of the black feminist, a professional woman, self-aware and self-determined, experimenting with different forms of self-expression. Her careerdefining performance reminds us of what we lost when she died so young.

In the Patricia Marx audio interview with Hansberry, one of the outstanding DVD extras, the playwright argues that art is a way to transport us out of our narrow confines, creating meaning and purpose. Each of the characters in “Raisin” struggles to attain racial justice on a personal level. In the age of revitalized white nationalism and a racist President, Hansberry’s concerns seem as fresh as ever, epitomized in Lindner’s declaration, “You can’t force people to change their hearts,” a conundrum we continue to struggle with, thus making “A Raisin in the Sun” very timely.t

Drink” (Epitaph), the solo debut by Justin Courtney Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack, would sound like an emo album? A collective sigh of relief can be released as Pierre doesn’t disappoint. The handclaps and disco beat on “Shoulder the Weight,” with the memorable line, “I used to feel things/ then I got older,” are a nice diversion.

Sebastien Izambard of Il Divo fame makes a break for it on his solo album “We Came Here to Love” (eOne). The vocalist puts some distance between himself and mates as his song selection favors electric guitars and beats.

The dance-oriented “Easy” might be his most obvious declaration of independence.t

More solos & sides

by Gregg Shapiro

W

hen you think of the trio Ben Folds Five, the first man you probably envision is the enigmatic, singing, piano-playing frontman, Ben Folds. That’s a given. But there were two other members, drummer and backing vocalist Darren Jessee, and bass and synthesizer player Robert Sledge. Jessee has kept busy since BFF has been on hiatus, working with Sharon Van Etten and Hiss Golden Messenger, and releasing albums with his band Hotel Lights.

“The Jane Room 217” (Bar None) is

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Lavender Tube

From page 20

that we’re ready to call late 40s old, but.) As always, somebody’s dead as the season opened, but we don’t know who. It better not be Cookie.

Speaking of dead in the opener, three thrillers are dropping this week and next. “The Man in the High Castle” returns to Amazon for Season 3, and the new Netflix original series “The Haunting of Hill House,” based on the very queer 1959 novel by the great Shirley Jackson, debuts Oct. 12.

“Westworld”’s Jeffrey Wright stars in Netflix original “Hold the Dark,” with Alexander Skarsgard

Jessee’s first solo LP. To be fair, there’s a reason that Folds was the lead singer of BFF. But Jessee makes the most of his vocal abilities on the gorgeous “Dying Violins” and “Ruins.” What makes the album worth hearing is the songwriting, at its best on “Leaving Almost Ready,” “All But a Dream” and “Plastic Bag.” R.E.M.’s Peter Buck teams up with Joseph Arthur for “Arthur Buck” (New West). The synth-beats of opener “I Am the Moment” are a good indicator of the level of surprise that follows.

The answer to “Are You Electrified?” is yes, while “American Century,” “Wide

Awake in November” and “If You Wake Up in Time” sound like necessary political statements.

The eponymous debut album by ShadowParty (Mute) opens with “Celebrate” giving listeners a reason to celebrate. Its band members connected to The Rentals, Devo, Bad Lieutenant, and New Order, ShadowParty casts an impressive silhouette. Its electronicmusic influence merges the 1980s with the 21st century, best exemplified on “Vowel Movement,” “Present Tense” and “Reverse the Curse.”

Multi-instrumentalist Chris Thile is a gifted performer who has grown up before our eyes, having released his first solo album at 13. He teamed up with fellow young-uns Sara and Sean Watkins to form the modern bluegrass trio Nickel Creek. MacArthur Fellow Thile has an abundance of energy to burn (he replaced Garrison Keillor as host of NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion”), and Punch Brothers is another of his musical outlets. Along with Punch Bros. Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge, Paul Kowert and Gabe Witcher, Thile creates progressive bluegrass on the quintet’s fifth album “All Ashore” (Nonesuch).

Glen Phillips was in his teens when his band Toad the Wet Sprocket signed its major-label record deal.

TTWS had a few hit singles, including “All I Want” and “Good Intentions.”

Phillips soldiered on with his solo career. His latest solo album, “Swallowed by the New” (Compass) features the exquisite “Leaving Oldtown.”

Did anyone doubt that “In the

and Riley Keough in this new thriller from “Green Room” writer-director Jeremy Saulnier. “Hold the Dark” is set in the Alaskan wilderness and is frankly terrifying.

Finally, RuPaul has had enough.

He wants you to vote. As Vulture reported, the doyenne of drag was in an interview with New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, who is bisexual, at DragConNYC. The two talked politics, Kavanaugh, LGBT and the looming midterms.

Blow said we get complacent when our side is in power, then we get angry when they aren’t. But, he explained, if we didn’t get complacent, we might not lose power. Blow

told the crowd at New York’s Javits Center, “You can’t just participate when you’re pissed off. You have to participate because you believe that you want a future where you don’t have to go through these cycles of anger and depression every decade.”

“It’s very sad,” RuPaul said. “It’s our job to somehow make voting sexy for young people. I don’t know what else to do really. Attach it to Grindr? We’re open to suggestions.”

Res ipsa loquitur.

So for advice from the divas, the lure of CSPAN, pre-Halloween haunts and the blessing of gay comedic reprieves, you know you really must stay tuned. t

<< Music

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 4-10, 2018

Levitating Igor Levit

by Tim Pfaff

W

hat have we before us in the form of pianist Igor Levit?

Who is this guy? His playing is in every way the equal of any of his contemporaries, set apart from them mainly by an unnamable quality that would rightly be called transcendence, had not Daniil Trifonov’s publicists claimed the title.

His music-making seems fetched from the beyond and headed back for it, or to it.

Count on his performing some of the repertory on his new CD, “Igor Levit, Life” (Sony) – complex, rarely performed music a concertgoer would do well to get under the belt pre-performance – at his Herbst Theatre recital for San Francisco Performances on November 1. But don’t assume it will sound the same.

Levit is unquestionably the most intellectual of today’s pianists, and also one of the most feeling, achieving the personal by plunging headlong into the transpersonal. It’s now de rigueur for CDs of mixed repertory to be given poetic, evocative titles. “Igor Levit, Life” perches provocatively above playing of both lofty conception and naked emotion, leaving one wondering whether the pianist is in part winking at the present-day convention.

His program wears, loosely, the mantle of transcription. It opens with Ferruccio Busoni’s “Fantasia after J.S. Bach,” a work that, unlike Busoni’s more explicit re-workings of particular Bach works, is what Indian musicians might call a garland of Bach chorales, composed in memory to the

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Tosca

From page 16

costumes pop in the elegant surroundings.

Add a good tenor as Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi and a menacing baritone as nemesis Baron Scarpia, and you have the right framework. Less favorable to the support structure, director Shawna Lucey’s slightly fussy direction is distracting at times, and conductor Leo Hussain (SFO debut) treats Puccini’s orchestral flow as if it were written by Wagner.

The director makes up for the unnecessary bits with some otherwise telling details: Scarpia wipes his own brow before offering the handkerchief to a suffering Tosca, and the torture of Cavaradossi is staged in frightening silhouette against an opaque window.

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Sony Classical

Pianist Igor Levit.

tita for piano left hand, which Levit plays in one long, illuminating arc.

The impurest, if most involving, is Brahms’ “edition” of the fragments from his friend Robert Schumann’s “Ghost Variations,” his final composition for the instrument before s e l f - co m m i t m e n t to the asylum. Levit investigates it with a reverential hush.

Even at its most exclamatory, this CD never roars. Beneath its unflagging intensity is an engine of elemental, uncorrupted energy. Its two hours of music overtake you from the start and promptly dispense with Earth-time.

Levit the iconoclast ends with “Peace Piece,” a transcription of an improvisation by jazz great Bill Evans that emerged fully formed during a recording session for “Everybody Digs Bill Evans.” The piece is stillness itself, and Levit makes you lean into it, so that you and he can levitate in it together.

As I was proofreading this review, pianist Alexandre Tharaud tweeted onto my timeline a quote from Arthur Schnabel, a pianist of whom Levit could be a reincarnation: “The downside of the piano is that each good note is located between two bad ones.” Levit counters, in Thelonious Monk’s words, that there are no bad notes on the piano.t

composer’s parents, who died in close succession.

There’s a haunting Busoni “Berceuse” near the end of the disc, hinting at the originality of all transcription per the composer’s dictum: “Every notation is, in itself, the transcription of an abstract idea. The instant the pen seizes it, the idea loses its original form.” So, we find with Levit, does every transformation of the idea into sound, however evanescent, in time.

Should you wonder how far this business of transcription can go, consider the CD’s central work.

It’s Busoni’s piano arrangement of Franz Liszt’s monumental, half-hour, three-movement fantasy and fugue for organ based on an original chorale by Giacomo Meyerbeer, who installed it in his epochal opera, “Le Prophete.” The “fake” chorale becomes a lit fuse that ignites an aurora of kaleido-

scopic sound encasing a coiled, rapt Adagio.

Levit considers Busoni’s distillation of Liszt an improvement, with “transcendental pianism.”

The accompanying notes say that Levit is one of the few pianists willing to play the phenomenally challenging work for a live audience. I’ll lay odds on his unfurling it at the Herbst.

His playing dissolves virtuosity in a cauldron of musical argument alchemically coupled with emotional revelation. He is incapable of playing an unconsidered note, but his acuity of perception is balanced with both a grandeur of conception and a nearly extreme refinement of feeling.

He surrenders his personal suspicion of the music of Wagner by giving us two of the composer’s most exalted compositions in Liszt’s knowing “paraphrases.”

“The Solemn March to the Holy

Grail,” from “Parsifal,” charts the path of transcendence itself, and, despite the orthographic oddities of “Isoldens Liebestod,” here we have Wagner’s original: Isolde’s transfiguration.

Levit’s program reflects his reckoning with the death of one of his dearest friends in an accident.

(His poem to Hannes is included.)

This real-life friend here becomes as archetypal as the one lamented in “Der Abschied” in Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde.” Recapitulating that idea, Levit plays the recorded premiere of “A Mensch,”

by Frederic Rzewski, part of a composition called “Dreams” that Rzewski composed for Levit, both sharing their experience of personal loss reclaimed.

The purest example of transcription is Brahms’ famous recasting of the Chaconne from Bach’s Second Solo-Violin Par-

Hussain caresses the score with enough loving care that one can’t help noticing the composer’s imaginative orchestrations and the orchestra’s marvelous response. We wish he would pick up the pace, but the score has rarely sounded so textured.

Supporting roles are well-cast.

Veteran SFO bass-baritone Dale Travis (over 40 productions) is amusing as the crusty Sacristan. New Zealand bass-baritone Hadleigh Adams, fast becoming a Bay Area and SFO favorite, also convinces as the escaped political prisoner Angelotti. Tenor Joel Sorensen makes a paler impression as Scarpia’s slimy henchman Spoletta, but he is in synch with Scott Hendricks’ disappointingly underplayed evil Baron.

Hendricks has a good voice, and

he always hits his mark, but there would be no harm in laying on the prosciutto a little thicker when portraying one of opera’s meanest villains. There is a moment in Act II when Hendricks breathes over Tosca’s shoulder with a sneering malevolence and lust that are genuinely creepy. He might consider amplifying that chilling quality throughout the rest of the run.

American tenor Brian Jagde (New York, New York) has portrayed the heroic political activist-artist Cavaradossi in the last two SFO productions of “Tosca” to notable success. That may be the reason why Management has selected him as the obvious go-to guy for the role.

He looks great on the big stage, with his dashing good looks and believable acting skills. He also has the clarion vocal quality needed to fill

the big auditorium. More cynically, as a rising, albeit fast-rising star, he was probably chosen to avoid making a new “Tosca” all about him.

The current production is meant to spotlight the title character above all else, and thankfully, Carmen Giannattasio’s highly anticipated debut fulfills all expectations. The charming ambassador for the House of Balenciaga and the international opera circuit couldn’t be better suited to the role.

Jagde sings a little too loudly at times, and, while it never sounds effortful or harsh, he doesn’t need to compete with Giannattasio’s subtler squillo (resonant technique). She is wonderfully audible and lyrical throughout, and maintains character – singing softly, in a duet, or riding over a swelling orchestra.

Her portrayal shifts from co-

quette to jealous lover or vengeful tigress on a lira, and she really looks the part. We shouldn’t dwell on physical attributes, but in “Tosca” they only add to the realism. Besides, the abused heroine gets her ultimate #MeToo moment in Act II, when #Time’sUp for Baron Scarpia.

Many recommend “Tosca” as a great first opera, and I won’t argue against it. Seasoned fans may have held their breath when the old warhorse was announced for the SFO’s new season, but they can exhale now. The “shabby little shocker” is vivid as ever in brand-new, notso-shabby-chic finery. With a diva who really fills the bill, “Tosca” is welcome back in town.t

baseball. Docmaker Jon Strong explores how differently life played out for 10- to 13-year-old boys in the still deeply segregated Jim Crow South. Strong shows how one Southern Little League overcame centuries of injustice and paved the way for today’s multi-racial baseball culture. (Rafael, 10/12) “Maria by Callas” Anyone who recalls a parent tuning into the 50s-era, Texaco-sponsored Metropolitan Opera broadcasts from New York, anyone who is entranced by the magic of a soprano voice reaching sublime heights of emotion, and anyone who just relishes the modern artform of film bio-pics won’t want to miss Tom Volf ’s impassioned examination of Callas, lifted from recorded chats. She covers the waterfront from professional struggles to intimate private affairs. (Rafael,10/11, 14) “Too Late to Die Young” Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor Castillo explores the burgeoning sexuality of 16-year-old Sofia, a girl attempting to bloom in a bohemian enclave out-

side of Santiago. (Rafael, 10/12) “Viper Club” Hollywood vet Susan Sarandon, building on her resume of quirky independent films (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Bull Durham,” “Iggy Goes Down”), returns with a powerful story of a mother desperate to save a son held for ransom in an Islamic state. (Rafael, 10/13; Lark, 10/14) “Weed the People” Just when you thought there was nothing remaining to say about marijuana, docmaker Abby Epstein brings us the stories of cancer patients and their families struggling against cruel, archaic laws and the stated aim of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to roll back marijuana reform laws in California and other states.

(Sequoia, 10/12, 13) “Woman at War” An Icelandic female choir director gets radical in Benedikt Eringsson’s eco comedydrama filmed in Icelandic with English subtitles. (Sequoia, 10/12; Larkspur, 10/13, 14 ) t

Mill Valley

From page 15

“Swimming with Men” UK director Oliver Parker pokes around the flabby despair of a small group of middle-aged British men who form a synchronized swimming squad not only to drop some pounds but also to lift their sagging spirits.

In a sly homage to another parody film (“Fight Club”), one of the guys warns, “No one talks about Swim Club.” One timid dad tells his redhaired, nonplussed teen son, “I want you to be proud of me.” Starring former Merchant/Ivory star Rupert Graves (“Maurice”), Jim Carter and Thomas Turgoose. (Sequoia, 10/12) “Collisions” Director Richard Levien helms this Bay Area-set drama about the potentially devastating impact of the Trump immigration crackdown on one family.

(Sequoia, 10/12; Larkspur, 10/14) “Lemonade” A Romanian nurse discovers the underbelly of the American immigration wars as she tries to build a better life for herself and her

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Courtesy Mill Valley Film Festival

Scene from UK director Oliver Parker’s “Swimming with Men.”

young son. Ioana Uricaru’s drama, in English and Romanian with English subtitles, will remind some festivalgoers of the recent Romanian New Wave, comedies and dramas revealing the oddities of life behind the old Communist-era Iron Curtain. (Larkspur, 10/12; Rafael, 10/14) “Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story” It was the year

“’dem bums,” the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, finally won their only World Series, with a racially integrated squad playing at pro baseball’s “Field of Dreams,” the Bedford Avenue-set Ebbets Field. A decade earlier, Dodger head Branch Rickey picked UCLA star athlete Jackie Robinson to smash the half-century-old color bar in Major League

Continues in repertory through Oct. 30. www.sfopera.com.

More info: www.mvff.com.

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Leather

Shining Stars Vol. 48 • No. 41 • October 11-17, 2018

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Big little talent

Meet 11-Year-Old Drag Diva Desmond

by David-Elijah Nahmod

H

e’s only eleven years old, yet Desmond Napoles has already made a name for himself with appearances at New York’s famed Wigstock, and cutting the opening ribbon at DragCon NYC with RuPaul. Performing on queer stages as Desmond Is Amazing, the young man has already declared himself gender fluid, and says that he’s “a boy who enjoys dressing up as a girl.” Desmond even creates his own costumes with the help of his supportive parents.

People are responding quite well to Desmond, delighted to see a child who is accepted and is able to be who he wants to be.

“People should be able to dance, sing or dress in anyway,” is Desmond’s motto. “You can express yourself however you want. It doesn’t matter if you like jazz or rap, ballet or ballroom, dresses or suits. You can just do you. I like Diana Ross. Maybe you do, too.”

On Saturday, October 13, Desmond Is Amazing will perform at Mother, Heklina’s Saturday night drag showcase at Oasis.

See page 25 >> Desmond Napoles, aka Desmond is Amazing.

Literary festival's got plenty for all

Ariel Dovas

LITQUAKE’S QUEER PAGES

by Jim Provenzano

L

itquake’s 19th annual festival runs from October 11 through 20 at venues all over the Bay area. Along with readings galore, parties, celebrations and the lastnight Lit Crawl sprawl over Valencia Corridor promise plenty of fun for wordsmith fans. Of course, neither a fan or author need be gay to attract our attention. But here are a few especially homocentric favorites in the busy schedule.

See page 24 >>

Another packed Lit Crawl event

See page 2? >>

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

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OC T OBER 29 T H

<< Litquake

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

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Litquake

From page 24

Oct 11 The opening night party takes place at the scenic University Club in Nob Hill. Enjoy the view, smart conversation and cocktails. $20$25. 8pm-10:30pm, 800 Powell St. https://sched.co/FQMP.

Oct 13 Virgie Tovar (You Have the Right to Remain Fat) and best-selling author Daniel Handler (the Lemony Snicket series) chat about Bodies and What to Do with Them at Strut, 7pm, 470 Castro St. https://sched.co/FQMX At Up All Night: The Page-Turner, hear compelling tales from Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Julia Dixon Evans, Bonnie C Monte, and Kate Jessica Raphael. Moderated by Barbara Lane. $5-$10., 7pm at SF Center for the Book. 375 Rhode Island St. https://sched.co/Fq6F

Oct 14 Metaphors in the Mission brings poets Jason Bayani, MK Chavez, Heather Gibbons, Brian Laidlaw, Susie Meserve, Kathleen Winter and Aaron Shurin together, 6pm, at the wonderful Alley Cat Bookstore, 3036 24th St. https://sched. co/FQPM

Oct 16 Scott James, whose sex-filled novel SoMa won critical raves, discusses Future Presence: Decoding Virtual Reality with Wired columnist Peter Rubin, 7pm at the Mechanics’ Institute Library, 57 Post St. https://sched.co/FQPY

BARtab

Litquake authors and hosts (start at upper left) Annalee Newitz, Armistead Maupin, Brontez Purnell, Celeste Chan, Daniel Lau, Honey Mahogany, Juliana Delgado Lopera, Karinda Dobbins, K.M. Soehnlein, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Marcus Williams, Matthew DeCoster, Teck Sway-Bien, Trebor Healey and Vergie Tovar are just a few of the talented writers participating in this year’s Litquake and Lit Crawl.

Oct 17 Award-winning gay author K.M. Soehnlein (The World of Normal Boys) will be part of the raucously entertaining Literary Death Match, along with special guest, gay activist Cleve Jones (We Were There), queer poet Maisha Z. Johnson, lesbian comic Karinda Dobbins, and more talented readers and judges. $15-$20. 6:30pm at Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St. https://sched.co/FQRR In possibly the wackiest and leathery-est event, Beefcake: 50 Years of Tom of Finland celebrates the gay creator of super-muscular hunk erotica, oo-presented by San Francisco Public Library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, Dog Eared Books Cas-

tro, GLBT Historical Society, 48 Hills, Bay Area Reporter, and Lambda Literary. Honey Mahogany hosts, with our own Leather columnist Race Bannon judging the Tom of Finland lookalike contest, plus Terry Beswick, Dian Hanson, DJ Bus Station John and Pansy Division’s Jon Ginoli. $20-$25. 7pm-10pm. SF Eagle, 398 12th St. at Harrison. https://sched.co/FQQe

Oct 19 SF Legends Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club) and Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City) share a talk at The Swedish American Hall. $15-$20. 7pm, 2174 Market St. https://sched.co/FeDu

Author, choreographer, filmmaker and queer zine hero Brontez Purnell will be a panelist on Lit by the Lake at the Library, along with Holly Brown, Jasmine Guillory, Laleh Khadivi, Cornelia Nixon, and Dashka Slater. $5. 6:30pm. 125 14th St., Oakland. https://sched.co/FQRq Lambda Literary Award winner Annalee Newitz (Autonomous) will be part of Queer As Us: A Night with Lambda Literary, along with queer authors Lisa Galloway (A Life of Cleavage), Juliana Delgado Lopera (¡Cuéntamelo!), with moderator Lisa Galloway. 8pm at Strut, 470 Castro St. https://sched.co/FQUu

Oct 20: Lit Crawl The ever-expanding Lit crawl finale includes dozens of events in three one-hour time slots, at bars, bookstore, barbershops and stores along and near Valencia Street. Get a drink, buy a book, or share a cookie and venues up and down the Mission district.

5pm

Prudes at the Armory, with writers Matthew DeCoster, Courtenay Hameister, Shannon Hughes, Janine Kovac, Justin McCarthy and Tarja Parssinen. The Armory Club (basement, not W.A.), 1799 Mission St. https://sched.co/G35b

6:30pm Literary Speakeasy, James J. Siegel’s monthly diverse reading series at the intimate martini bar, welcomes to their Lit Crawl slot writers Matt Carney, Jase Peeples, Joyce Young, Emily Zisman and music duo Postcapitalism. 4 Valencia St. Death Dharma and Drag intrigues with “two Sikhs, three Jews and two queers” authors Dawn Gross, Japa Kaur, Awtar Kaur Khalsa, Julia Query sharing the mic at Serendipity, 803 Valencia St.

8pm Perspectives from Coeditoria features a variety of writers (Eric Fain, Sam Gong, Harriet Rohmer Kate Rossikhina and Anna sears) discussing diverse themes, but we’ve got our eye on Teck Sway-Bien, an East Bay writer who’s soon to publish a novel, Memoirs of a Gaysian. Beer Nerds, 3331 24th St. https://sched.co/G57G The Legendary Stud Bar gets memoir and anecdotal reveries with Drag and Words. Host VivvyAnne ForeverMORE! Welcomes Celeste Chan, James Fleming, Julian Delgado Lopera, Brittany St. John Newell and Silk Worm.

Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission St. https://sched.co/G575

We’d be remiss not to toot our own horn. In celebration of our tenth Lit Crawl event, BARtab, the nightlife section of the Bay Area Reporter, returns with Musical Muses, where notable local authors – Bud Gundy, Trebor Healey, Kathy Knowles, Gar McVey-Russell, K.R. Morrison – read excerpts that include a mention of music; Queen, jazz, folk and the blues; hosted by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and BARtab Editor Jim Provenzano, with piano accompaniment by SuCheck out many more events at zanne Beignet Ramsey, aka Kitten https://www.litquake.org/ ▼ on the Keys. Martuni’s, 4 Valencia St. at Market. https://sched.co/G2r7 Foglifter Press and Lambda Literary co-present Queer, Sweet Home with LGBT authors Indira Allegra, Vianney Casas, Vernon Keeve III, Stacy Nathaniel Jackson and Daniel Lau. At Public Works’ loft, 161 Erie St. https://sched.co/G2uR Also at Public Works (downstairs), KQED’s Survivor of the Queerest gathers writers and comcis Luna Malbroux, Anand Vedawala, Luna Merbruja, Marcus Williams, and everyone’s fave literary host, Baruch Porras-Hernandez for a round of QPOC readings sharing words of resistance. 161 Erie St. https://sched.co/G2rF BARtab Get a load (ahem) Kevin Killian reads at a Valencia Street of sexual awakenings at barbershop during a recent Lit Crawl.

▼ <<

Desmond >>

October 11-17, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Desmond

From page 23

Heklina recalls working with Desmond at Wigstock, and found him “hilarious.”

“His mom too is such a stage mom,” Heklina tells Bay Area Reporter. “I kept wondering what it was like for them to experience the backstage bitchy drag-queen minefield there at Pier 17. I also thought it was hilarious that day that he was taking a nap while someone was doing his make-up; already such a diva!”

Asked how he became aware of his sexuality, and his gender fluidity, at such a young age, Desmond said, “I would always have crushes on other boys and I thought it would be nice to have a boyfriend someday,” he said. “Last year I came out to my mom. I feel that I am gender non-conforming, because in drag I feel like a boy in a dress and a girl with short hair at the same time. I feel very androgynous.”

Like any drag diva, Desmond looks up to his drag elders for inspiration.

“I am inspired to do drag because it is a way to express myself and to create my art,” he explains. “I have so many drag role models because each of them has something different, so it’s hard to pick a favorite. I guess my role model favorite would have to be RuPaul. I first saw drag when I was like 2 or 3 years old and my mom was watching RuPaul’s Drag Race.

I was playing with my toys and just stopped and wanted to watch it with her. I thought the queens were so beautiful and amazing.”

One of the things Desmond has become known for is creating his own colorful costumes. He puts a lot of thought into what he wears, often getting help from his mom.

“I am really inspired by a lot of fashion designers so I am always watching old fashion shows from the ‘90s on YouTube,” he said. “I just take inspiration from them and sketch out the ideas in my fashion templates book. My mom and me

Parker Day

Desmond is Amazing

put the outfits together. I also go to Out of the Closet LGBTQ thrift store and find clothes to mix and match. I hate fast fashion.”

Desmond is also an advocate for LGBTQ youth, offering other kids encouragement.

“I performed at New York City’s Youth Pride and Pride Fest,” he recalls. “I loved performing at Youth Pride the most, because it made me so inspired to see the crowd of LGBTQ youth smiling and cheering.

I do a lot of public speaking and events for LGBTQ youth. My motto is Be Yourself, Always. I think everyone should express themselves in whatever way makes them feel beautiful and self-confident. Because if you are expressing yourself, then it makes it easier to deal with negatives but if you are not expressing yourself, it makes it a lot harder. I think

Kegan Marling

Art & Nightlife Events Online October 11-17

Thurs 11

Fabian Echevarria

Zaccho Dance Theatre @ Bayview Opera House Thu 11

parents should love and accept their children and their interests.”

Desmond doesn’t want to say exactly what he’ll be doing at Mother – he prefers to surprise people– but he did say that he likes to perform songs from the ‘90s. “I like to make people just be blown away, I guess,” he said.

Ever busy, Desmond has announced that he plans to write a children’s book on how to express yourself, and he’ll soon be releasing a song. He hopes people will follow his example and be who they are.

“Just pay the haters no mind, because they will never be as fierce as you and I,” says Desmond.

Mother: Divas With Desmond Is Amazing, October 13, 10pm. $15-20, at Oasis 298 11 St. https://desmondisamazing.com/ www.sfoasis.com

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<< Leather

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2018

Embrace the change; create the future

by Race Bannon

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

P

hew! The busy week of events leading up to and amid Folsom Street Fair is behind us, and what a busy and fun time it was. My schedule only allowed me to attend a few of what seemed to be a record number of options for LGBTQ kinksters this year, but what I did attend was all fun and packed to the rafters with attendees. If you were in town and frequented any of those events, I hope you had fun. I sure did.

One of the things I noticed throughout the week was that the array and breadth of erotic interests and fetishes and how they present in the LGBTQ kink communities are continuing to grow and solidify into distinct groupings. Many seem to be developing entire networks and social mores that bind them with shared erotic commonalities.

Pups. BDSM. Rubber. Sports gear.

Rope work. Leather. Uniforms, and so much more. The list of kinks is ever expanding with the various subsets within the larger body of kinksters overlapping in constantly morphing ways. Keeping our gang of erotic adventurers neatly defined and codified is a challenge.

However, because of all these changes, I often hear complaints from people who aren’t necessarily happy with the shifting kink landscape.

They bemoan the loss of full-time leather bars and physical gathering spaces.

They long for a yesteryear of leather when us leatherfolk looked and functioned relatively similarly. It was easier to know the cast of characters without a program back then.

They are sometimes challenged to discern where they fit in among their fellow kinksters.

In short, as is the natural order of things for most of us, they are resisting change, even as that change is picking up pace. I heard friends and acquaintances offer up such concerns quite a few times over the past couple of weeks. But change is the only constant in the universe, including the kinky universe. So, adapt we must.

As kismet would have it, a few days after the Fair, The Guardian UK published an article pondering why the gay leather scene in London is dying.

The article was referencing the gay men’s scene in London specifically, but the article could easily have been talking about many American or European cities. A “the scene is dying” refrain is common lately closely followed by “the scene is changing, and I hate it.”

Yes, the leather scene is changing, not dying. It’s manifesting new versions of itself while creating offshoots and corresponding communities.

That’s reality. That’s not going to abate. If change is an issue for you, not only is the leather and kink scene going to disappoint you, most of life will too.

I’m also going to take an occasionally unpopular stance – the change is good, or at least the changes are making the scene better more than they are making it worse. To channel Winston Churchill for a moment – “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

What I saw throughout the weekend and on prominent display at Folsom Street Fair is a scene that’s alive, vibrant, diverse, sexual, piggish, fun and generally doing just fine. With that said, let me address some of the more common complaints I’m hearing about the direction it’s all taking.

Leather bars are disappearing or not leather-laden enough.

Yes, this is true. That’s not going to change. Most bars host a wide range of event nights to stay afloat. Some of them are leather/kink, and some are not. If we want to keep these bars open, we must give them our business. (This applies to all our spaces such as dungeons, sex clubs, meeting locations, and so on.) It’s that simple.

But we need to stop complaining that a bar isn’t “leather enough” because they’re trying their hardest to stay in business for us.

Younger guys (this mostly seems directed at gay guys) are ruining the scene with their new ways.

No, they’re not. They’re making it better. They’re creating new ways of being kinky, meeting, socializing, playing and developing anew ways of being sexual along with accompanying fresh erotic identities.

One of the things I try to point out to people is that new ways of being kinky in no way stops others from being kinky in their own fashion.

Want to dress in black cow head to toe and hang out? Do it. No one’s stopping you. Want more leatherclad folks to join you? Invite them and swarm our bars and events with your own kind. No one’s stopping that. We can’t and shouldn’t badger or harass anyone’s form of being kinky if they’re not trying to impede our own ways of being kinky.

Think in new ways. Get creative.

Create your own erotic environments and events that work for you. Stop, to use a popular phrase these days, yucking other people’s yum. Leather and kink are not zerosum propositions. There’s plenty of room for all forms of kink and their expressions.

The mixing of genders, orientations and kinks is ruining it for some of us.

There is little doubt that the blending of all sectors of our scene will continue. There are lots of upsides to that blending. Sharing the cost of communal spaces thus keeping them open and available. Cross-pollinating ideas and strategies. Working toward common goals and with projects that can benefit everyone. These are all good things.

What I agree with is that we do not always need to be blended. The various genders, orientations, kinks and identities have every right to also create and maintain their own institutions, gatherings and venues that cater specifically to their focused demographic. Clubs, events and venues for just gay leathermen or gay pups or lesbian BDSMers or bisexual power dynamic players or whoever are okay and, frankly, necessary in my opinion to keep the scene exciting overall.

We can mix. We can be separate.

We can stay in one camp or meander between many camps. It’s all good.

None of it is more correct than an-

Playmates and soul mates...

other and we need to stop haranguing people who want to socialize and play in whatever ways make their sexualities sing.

There just aren’t groups or events catering to my specific erotic needs.

I’m going to echo an old saying, “build it and they will come.” I believe we are increasingly moving toward a more self-service, do-ityourself scene. We can’t expect the handful of producers and venues to create everything for everyone. We just can’t. Costs are rising and physical spaces are diminishing while the need and diversity grows.

Want a play party that meets your needs? Host one. It’s not that difficult, really. We overcomplicate things sometimes. I’ve seen some amazing play parties in people’s homes, hotel or unconventional rented spaces. There are also play spaces you can rent.

Want a gathering catering to your needs and populated with the people you want there? Creating a Facebook event page takes about five minutes, or simply send out emails or texts to those people you want there and tell them where to gather. This is not rocket science folks.

Want a club or group to do something specific in the scene? Form one.

It doesn’t have to be formal, have bylaws, or be anything other than a casual gathering of likeminded people.

Stop complaining. Stop fighting with each other. Start creating. Be the solution and not the problem. I know it’s easier to complain than to actually do something, but that’s a surefire path to unhappiness and discontent. Jump in and do. You and the scene will be better off for it. ▼

Rich Stadtmiller

A flagging dancer at this year’s Folsom Street Fair.

Rich Stadtmiller

Chains of love at this year’s Folsom Street Fair

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Rich Stadtmiller

Diverse fashion styles at 2018’s Folsom Street Fair.

Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. bannon.com For Leather Events, visit www.ebar.com

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A very flexible gogo dancer at the 2018 Folsom Street Fair

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Shining Stars >>

October 11-17, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Shining Stars

Photos by

Steven Underhill

Bohemian Rhapsody @ Castro Theatre

At an October 5, 2018 advance screening of the new Queen film Bohemian Rhapsody, fans at the Castro Theatre enjoyed the Fox/Regency biopic about Freddie Mercury and the band, and free T-shirts.

As cast members did media interviews in the mezzanine, the opening act Killer Queens, the Bay Area all-women Queen tribute band, performed several of the band’s songs.

Just before the film, affable celebrity interviewer Liam Mayclem then chatted onstage with Rami Malek (‘Freddie Mercury’), Gwilym Lee (‘Brian May’) and Joe Mazzello (‘John Deacon’), three of the stars of the rock music film, which opens November 2. www.foxmovies.com/movies/bohemian-rhapsody See more nightlife photos on BARtab’s Facebook page: facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife.

For more of Steven Underhill’s photos, visit StevenUnderhill.com.

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