October 13, 2011 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Bakers pop-up in S.F.

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pages 6&7

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'The Bad Seed' approaches

Gay Peace Corps group turns 20

The

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

Brown signs Seth’s Law

by Seth Hemmelgarn

O

n the last day for taking action on bills, Governor Jerry Brown signed Seth’s Law, an anti-bullying law named in memory of Seth Walsh, 13, of Kern County, who committed suicide last year after experiencing antigay harassment.

AB 9, signed Sunday, October 9, tightens antiRick Gerharter bullying policies in California schools Assemblyman by ensuring that Tom Ammiano all schools have clear policies and shorter timelines for investigating bullying allegations. In an interview, gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), the bill’s author, said that in San Francisco and other cities, schools “are doing a lot already,” but AB 9 helps give some

Vol. 41 • No. 41 • October 13-19, 2011

EQCA shocker – Palencia quits

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

fter barely three months on the job, Equality California Executive Director Roland Palencia is quitting, effective Friday, October 14.

EQCA, the state’s largest LGBT lobbying group, announced the resignation Monday night, October 10.

“I just made a personal decision that I just want to move on,” Palencia told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview Tuesday. He said that nobody on the board had asked him to leave.

Palencia’s abrupt announcement comes a week after the EQCA board voted not to proceed with a ballot initiative to repeal Proposition 8 in 2012. It is not known how the board vote broke down; Palencia said last week during a conference call that he could not disclose the vote.

Palencia, 54, was hired in May to replace Geoff Kors, EQCA’s longtime executive director who resigned in late March.

Palencia started the job in early July.

Other staff members also are preparing to leave, but EQCA spokeswoman Rebekah Orr, who like Palencia joined See page 16 >>

Lydia Gonzales

Equality California Executive Director Roland Palencia talked with guests at a welcoming reception in San Francisco shortly after he started the job; Palencia announced this week he is resigning, effective Friday.

See page 16 >>

Interim Mayor Ed Lee spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for renovation work on the city’s AIDS Office.

Gay pioneer Kameny dies

by Bob Roehr

F

B.A.R. election endorsements General election >> San Francisco Mayor Bevan Dufty, first choice Dennis Herrera, second choice Ed Lee, third choice District Attorney George Gascón Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi

Ballot measures >> SAN FRANCISCO PROPS Vote YES on A, B, C, E, F, G Vote NO on D, H

Emeryville City Council Ruth Atkin REMEMBER TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 8!

Courtesy Mayor’s Office

Mayor’s race overlooks AIDS

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

here was a time when AIDS dominated the city’s headlines and political discussions.

But 30 years into the country’s AIDS epidemic, the issue has largely receded from the front pages and as a top concern.

In this year’s mayoral race, HIV and AIDS issues have largely gone overlooked. Few candidates bother to mention it on their campaign websites and it has rarely come up during debates.

“I think the headline is accurate. HIV is largely ignored,” said Jeff Sheehy, who served for a time as an unpaid adviser on HIV and AIDS policies under former Mayor Gavin Newsom.

AIDS activists have taken it upon themselves to bring attention to HIV and AIDS issues amid the mayoral race. Similar to a forum they held last year with candidates running for supervisor, they are hosting an HIV policy discussion with the mayoral candidates on Wednesday, October 19.

“The needs of the HIV community are

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

See page 13 >>

ranklin Edward Kameny, Ph.D., a longtime civil rights activist who was fired by the U.S. government for being gay in the 1950s, died at his home in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, October 11.

Bob Roehr He was 86.

Mr. Kameny Franklin Edward Kameny apparently died in his sleep of natural causes.

His passing, on National Coming Out Day, was mourned by many.

“Dr. Frank Kameny was an American hero who transformed our nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community,” John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in a statement. “His courage, his brilliance, his force of will led to victory in a decades-long fight for equality. He helped make it possible for countless patriotic Americans to hold security clearances and high government positions, including me. And in so doing, he See page 4 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

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AOF announces partners for 2012 gala

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

cademy of Friends, seeking to rebound from two disappointing fundraising galas, has announced the partners for its February 26 Academy Awards party.

The nonprofit says Huckleberry Youth Programs, Maitri, Shanti, Tenderloin Health, and the Women’s HIV Program at UCSF will all take part in next year’s event. (Only Shanti and Tenderloin Health confirmed their participation with the Bay Area Reporter.)

A launch party for the 2012 gala, which will include a preview of the February event’s theme, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight (Thursday, October 13) in the Paris Ballroom of the Hotel Monaco, 501 Geary Street, San Francisco.

In recent years, AOF hasn’t delivered what partner agencies were expecting. The 11 nonprofits that worked with the agency on the 2010 gala were asked to return for 2011 so AOF could make good on its pledges.

All but one of the groups agreed. The returning groups included the five 2012 partners.

Academy of Friends had initially said it would distribute a combined $220,000 to the 11 organizations.

Lydia Gonzales

AOF board Chair Howard Edelman

But in May, AOF representatives told beneficiaries they were backing out of paying what they owed. About $150,000 had remained to be paid.

In years past, through sales of raffle tickets, gala tickets, and other underwriting, beneficiaries had been required to raise 25 percent of their pledged grant.

Changes have been made, though.

In an email to the B.A.R. last week, Howard Edelman, who became

AOF’s board chair in June, said his organization is “simply asking for the support of our 2012 beneficiaries as much as they are able but not making specific requirements for them ... nor can we make specific dollar commitments before the money has been raised.”

Tenderloin Health Executive Director David Fernandez said in an interview that his nonprofit opted to work with AOF again because “We are supporting them the way they supported the community for the past 30 years.”

Several other organizations have opted not to join in the gala efforts for 2012. Those groups are AIDS Legal Referral Panel, Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Face to Face Sonoma County AIDS Network, Project Inform, and Positive Resource Center. The San Francisco LGBT Community Center, another 2010 partner, had already chosen not to take part in the 2011 Oscar party.

AOF has contributed more than $8.5 million to Bay Area HIV and AIDS service organizations over the years.

Registration for tonight’s launch party is $20, but free for 2012 underwriters. To RSVP or for more information, visit www.academyoffriends.org.▼

Need for LGBT giving greater than ever, Horizons says

by David Duran

A

recent Horizons Foundation survey reveals major impacts of the current prolonged economic downturn on LGBT nonprofits. All but two of the 52 organizations that responded reported that the crisis has had an impact on them.

Nearly half of LGBT nonprofits indicated that they have laid off staff and almost half stated that they had experienced a decline in contributions from individuals, reported Horizons.

Roger Doughty, Horizons executive director, explained to the Bay Area Reporter last week that, “individual giving is becoming more and more important, especially as the public sector and government funding falls further and further.”

Horizons, which provides grants to nonprofits, is now focused on planned giving and building the LGBT Community Endowment Fund.

“If the pains of this recession have taught us anything, it’s that we have to find a stronger, more enduring model for supporting LGBT organizations to do all the vital work they do,” added Doughty.

Nonprofit organizations must occasionally use financial reserves in difficult economic times. In the same report, nearly one-third of LGBT nonprofits reported having no reserves, thereby leaving them highly vulnerable to revenue shortfalls. And with no reserves or predicted revenue, it’s not surprising staffing levels in the Bay Area LGBT nonprofits have been significantly affected by the recession.

More in depth research from Horizons shows that specific populations of the LGBT community suffered even steeper drops in individual donations: 66.7 percent of women-specific LGBT organizations and 75 percent of

Trish Tunney

Google’s Megan Smith accepted the Horizons Foundation’s Cornerstone Award at its annual event earlier this month.

transgender-focused organizations have experienced decreases.

To help organizations with current fundraising, Horizons has been making grants for several years to the LGBT nonprofits for the specific purpose of helping them deepen their capacity to raise money.

Annual gala Horizons held its annual gala earlier this month at the Fairmont Hotel where Google and out actor George Takei were honored. Takei was presented with the Visionary Award for being deeply involved in civic affairs throughout his life, including LGBT rights, politics, and Japan-United States relations. Google was honored with the Cornerstone Award for its outstanding work on behalf of the LGBT community and its LGBT employees.

Megan Smith, vice president of new business development at

Google, thanked Horizons and the room full of supporters.

“As a young company, we are honored and humbled to receive the Cornerstone Award. The Internet has led to the creation of community for LGBT people that crosses borders and has no limits to what can be achieved – we’re proud to support this talented group who are our users, customers and employee leaders,” Smith said.

Smith added that Horizons is seen by the company as an “angel” investor for the LGBT community.

“They have always been at the forefront of every issue LGBT people have faced, granting seed funding and support to talented social entrepreneurs who begin critical community innovations, and training others in philanthropy to do the same,” she said.

Participating as a major sponsor of the event for the second year in a row, Coldwell Banker felt it was “important to give back to the community in which we operate,” said Rick Turley, president. “Once we learned the far reach and breadth of how many LGBT critical service organizations Horizons provides financial support for, we knew it would be a fantastic way for our gift to reach many.”

Horizons board member Kevin Herglotz said that preliminary figures showed Horizons brought in $331,000 at the gala.

Doughty closed out the dinner portion of the evening by reminding everyone that the LGBT movement “is a movement against shame, intolerance and inequity and division.” And that the movement is dedicated to destroying the “prejudices of centuries and falsehoods of millennia.”▼ For more information on Horizons Foundation visit www.horizonsfoundation.org.

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October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

<< Politics

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

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Mayoral candidates hop on Muni issues

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

n San Francisco politicians have as strong of a love/hate relationship with the city’s public transit system as do Muni’s riders, who are never at a loss for words when griping about their daily commute.

Case in point is this year’s mayoral race, where Muni’s performance and plans for a new line cutting through Union Square and Chinatown have generated headlines for weeks. City Attorney Dennis Herrera injected the issue into the race by announcing last month that the Central Subway project is no longer a “prudent investment.”

Although Herrera at first backed the new underground subway line, he switched course and issued a policy paper essentially saying it wasn’t worth the $1.6 billion price tag and would do nothing to improve the commute for the majority of Muni riders.

He has continued to keep up the attacks, saying interim Mayor Ed Lee has “misplaced priorities on transit.”

With federal dollars at stake, Lee and the Board of Supervisors have pushed back against Herrera’s criticisms.

“I think it is late political

Rick Gerharter

City Attorney and mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera, campaigning in Noe Valley last weekend, has come out against the Central Subway project.

shenanigans being posited here,” Lee told the Bay Area Reporter during an editorial board meeting.

He added that Herrera is missing the bigger picture in that the subway project connects sections of the city, such as Mission Bay and Hunters Point, set for major new residential developments in the coming years.

And there is the possibility of seeing the line extended into North Beach

and Fisherman’s Wharf in the future.

“We need for people to be able to traverse north and south in that respect. Not everybody can ride a bike,” said Lee. The board unanimously introduced a resolution in support of the project, with mayoral contenders board President David Chiu and District 11 Supervisor John Avalos expressing their support.

“I’ve been a supporter for years,” said Chiu. “The recent squabbles about it are not based on anything new.”

While Avalos has some questions about the costs of the project, he told the B.A.R. he is “not pleased” with Herrera’s politicizing it.

“It makes for a great wedge issue in the campaign,” he said.

The issue is one where District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener differs with Herrera, his former boss whom he is backing for mayor. Wiener told the B.A.R. that Chinatown is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city and deserves better transit service.

“People can always nitpick any big transit project. I understand the criticisms but I think it is a positive transit project for San Francisco,” said Wiener.

The rhetoric over the subway line continues to ratchet up. This week Tom Nolan, the openly gay chairman of the Municipal Transportation Agency, called for the state bar to look into whether Herrera can continue to serve as its legal counsel due to his public denouncements of the Central Subway project.

“It’s very troubling. He’s our attorney, and he’s supposed to represent our interests,” Nolan told the San Francisco Examiner.

While the public feuding has centered on a specific project, it ties into long-running complaints about poor Muni performance, long wait times for buses and trains, and

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Kameny

From page 1

showed everyone what was possible for every employer in the country.”

Mr. Kameny himself was more modest.

“If I am remembered for nothing else, I want to be remembered for coining ‘gay is good.,’” he once said.

“It sums up and epitomizes what I have worked for for half a century.”

Mr. Kameny, born May 21, 1925, was, in a way, an accidental activist.

He moved to Washington in the mid-1950s with a freshly minted doctorate in astronomy from Harvard, poised to ride the nascent space program into history.

But he was denied a security clearance for a civilian job with the government and that injustice

Jane Philomen Cleland

Sheriff’s candidate Chris Cunnie, second from left, talks with LGBT supporters Sunny Schwartz, Scott Wiener, and Rebecca Prozan.

ever escalating fares. Gay former Supervisor Bevan Dufty tapped into those simmering issues with his first television spot touting his credentials to be mayor.

The commercial, which drew national attention due to Dufty’s daughter playing a lead role, didn’t directly address the Central Subway, which Dufty supports. Instead, it talked about Dufty’s broader vision for improving the city’s transit system.

While it remains unclear how much the subway fight resonates with voters, Dufty said fixing Muni remains a top concern among city residents.

“I think there is a frustration there. They don’t feel city government focuses on the basics and Muni is a fundamental basic,” said Dufty. “We have city policies that are encouraging smart growth, fewer parking spots, and that say we are a transitfirst city but we don’t have transit-first service.”

Gay Asian club endorses for mayor The city’s Gay Asian Pacific Alliance has endorsed three nonranked candidates in the mayoral race: Dufty, Chiu, and state Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco). The club plans to release its candidate questionnaires and a detailed analysis next week.

In an email to its membership, GAPA’s board wrote that it believes the trio “will best represent, critically address, and keep at the forefront community issues that directly affect” the city’s LGBT Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

The endorsement marks the first time one of the city’s politically focused LGBT clubs has chosen Dufty without attaching a second-choice distinction to the endorsement. The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club picked Dufty as its second choice while the Harvey Milk LGBT

sparked a lifelong crusade for equality for gays and lesbians.

“The Civil Service Commission had a gay ban fully as strong as the present military gay ban, the denial of security clearances, the sodomy laws – the general discrimination in those days, if you were known to be gay, you never obtained or retained a job, or an apartment for that matter.

In some places like New York and Virginia, you technically weren’t even allowed into public places like bars,” Mr. Kameny told a reception at the Smithsonian Institution in 2007 when memorabilia from his life first went on public display.

He fought his firing, first before the commission and then in court.

Penniless and often subsisting on little more than cans of beans, he learned enough law to write his own

Democratic Club snubbed him altogether in its picks for mayor.

Sheriff candidates marshal LGBT supporters With no clear front-runner in the sheriff’s race, two of the contenders have been marshalling their LGBT supporters in an effort to connect with the city’s LGBT voters. With few exceptions, most of the LGBT community’s leaders are either backing District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi or former police union head Chris Cunnie.

This week a number of Cunnie’s backers gathered at the LGBT Community Center Monday, October 10 to draw attention to the former policeman and one time undersheriff in the department.

Among those in Cunnie’s camp are Wiener, city Treasurer Jose Cisneros, and former B.A.R. political editor and police commissioner Wayne Friday.

Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Prozan has also endorsed Cunnie in the race, saying of the three candidates he is the only one “who’s going to be able to walk in on the fourth floor at City Hall on day one and actually know what to do.”

Dufty, who endorsed Sheriff’s Captain Paul Miyamoto as his first choice, showed up to give Cunnie his second place endorsement.

“I’ve worked with Chris for 18 years in many different roles and he is an effective leader and a great human being,” said Dufty.

The gay pep rally for Cunnie mirrored a similar event Mirkarimi’s LGBT endorsers recently held at the Castro’s Harvey Milk Plaza. Those in attendance included state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), District 9 Supervisor David Campos, and former Supervisor Harry Britt.

This week the B.A.R. came out with a sole endorsement for Mirkarimi.

Tonight (Thursday, October 13) from 9 to 11 p.m. at Traxx, a gay hangout at 1437 Haight Street, a number of LGBT leaders are hosting a getto-know-the-candidate event for Mirkarimi.▼

legal briefs and appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was the first gay rights petition to reach that body. The court was not ready; it declined the appeal without comment.

Mr. Kameny’s legal document contained “the founding principles of the gay rights movement: that we were a legitimate minority like Jews or Negroes; that we were 10 percent of the population as Dr. [Alfred] Kinsey had suggested, that we had the same rights to citizenship as every other human,” said historian Dudley Clendinen, co-author of the seminal history of the gay rights movement Out for Good.

Mr. Kameny instilled that vision and those values into generations of gay men and women and they have See page 17 >>

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October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

<< Open Forum

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

Volume 41, Number 41 October 13-19, 2011 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Tony K. LeTigre Michael McDonagh • Paul Parish Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Kurt Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER T. Scott King PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith

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Bevan Dufty for mayor F

or more than six weeks the Bay Area Reporter editorial board has been meeting with the numerous candidates for mayor. This is the first city election in many years where there is neither an incumbent nor an obvious heir apparent running. We have come away from the process with a number of impressions. First is the depth of the candidate field. Of the nearly 20 candidates on the ballot, we believe that at least six, perhaps more, have the experience, expertise, intelligence, motivation, and vision to serve as a capable mayor.

The city is indeed fortunate to have such a large number of dedicated public servants from which to choose. We were also impressed that every candidate that accepted our invitation to meet with us (and only one did not), and each had a long history of support for the LGBT community and the issues that are most important to us: full equality in the community, including marriage equality; inclusion in all levels of decision making in city government; full transgender rights and inclusion; total intolerance of bigotry or hate whether it be found in government, in the schools, or on the streets. Regardless of who is elected mayor, we will have a friend and ally in Room 200 at City Hall. And while many are qualified, some particularly stand out. These are our recommendations for mayor.

We recommend Bevan Dufty as voters’ first choice on Election Day. Dufty, who is gay, served two terms as District 8 supervisor and ran the Office of Neighborhood Services under former Mayor Willie Brown, and knows how San Francisco works. He’s developed city budgets and knows that most residents care about their neighborhoods – streets, Muni, the homeless, parks, and preserving the unique character that is San Francisco.

We’re not endorsing Dufty just because he is gay. But political recommendations are part of our responsibility as the leading LGBT newspaper and it would be significant for America’s gayest city to have an out mayor. It’s important to us that one day San Francisco have a gay mayor and Dufty is as qualified as anyone else in the field.

The late Harvey Milk often urged LGBTs to elect their own. We find it curious that Dufty could not secure the top spot from either of the city’s LGBT Democratic clubs; the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club left him off entirely.

It’s part of why Dufty is running. “I think it does make a difference to have a gay mayor in San Francisco,” he told us. “I am going to set the national agenda – responding to LGBT young adults. There is an agenda I’ve been part of setting in this city that I’m proud of.”

“In a decade where we will be fighting for our rights, it does make a difference,” he said.

Dufty is also a parent, which is another important aspect of his life. Gay and lesbian parents are becoming increasingly visible in ways that once didn’t seem possible – on the playground, in parent groups, and at their kids’ schools. Dufty’s first television ad features him and his daughter Sidney riding on Muni and delivers a heartfelt message about why he wants to be mayor. Sidney, he says, loves riding the Muni Metro and arriving “someplace new.”

“I want all of us to see it that way,” Dufty says.

When we met with Dufty, he was insistent in talking about the future of the African American community in San Francisco – and he remains the only major candidate who is doing that.

Dufty, whose godmother was Billie Holiday, said that being mayor means making the diversity of San Francisco “real, meaningful, and true.”

The black community is “in crisis” here, he said, noting the high unemployment rate, among other concerns.

The LGBT community needs someone like Dufty, who is committed to using his personal story to build bridges between the black and LGBT communities. He wants to expand opportunities for city workers, for black-owned businesses, and for LGBT-owned businesses as well.

In terms of public transit, Dufty supports the Central Subway project and thinks it is an important extension for Muni. In fact, if elected, Dufty said he would be a mayor who focuses on getting results, and vowed to improve Muni in part by making connections with bus drivers, encouraging them not to miss work on Mondays, for example, which would save Muni money.

Dufty has an innovative idea about social

Jane Philomen Cleland

Mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty greeted potential voters at the Castro Street Fair.

services and would like to explore so-called wet housing, where chronic, homeless alcoholics can be housed and drink on the premises. A project in Seattle has proven successful and Dufty thinks a similar program might help reduce the millions of dollars the city spends on ambulance runs to the emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital by chronic alcoholics. There are about 225 “high flyers,” Dufty said, and the city spends about $60,000 on each of them a year.

Dufty is attuned to the importance of public safety – in fact, all the mayoral candidates we interviewed pledged to keep Greg Suhr as chief of police – and he continues to take heat for the decision to end Halloween in the Castro in the wake of several violent incidents. That’s the thing with Dufty, if a situation isn’t working out, he will make changes.

This year’s mayor’s race is an opportunity to usher in new leadership and bring about change.

We believe Bevan Dufty is the best candidate for the job.

Dennis Herrera, second choice City Attorney Dennis Herrera is another candidate for mayor who would bring our values to Room 200. We can’t say enough about his steadfast support of – and litigation on behalf of – same-sex marriage. From the moment in 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to throw caution to the wind and ordered city officials to marry same-sex couples, Herrera and his top-notch legal team faced opposition from the state and the homophobes.

Herrera never wavered, going so far as to travel to San Diego to personally lobby Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders to have his city join with many others in filing an amicus brief on behalf of marriage equality. He has been elected citywide and before serving as city attorney was a member of the Police Commission. He, too, knows about balancing a budget and overseeing a large department.

Because the city attorney’s office represents the city, he is intimately familiar with every city department, board, and commission. He has detailed position papers on virtually every issue, and we agree with many of them.

Herrera believes it’s crucial to ensure economic opportunity for all levels on the socio-economic scale. He has called for a tax summit to reform city taxes. And he proposes a revolving loan fund to help small businesses that conforms to the city’s local hire ordinance.

But last month, Herrera threw a curveball into the mayor’s race when he suddenly came out against the Central Subway, a $1.5 billion project that is an extension of Muni’s T Line that will provide rail service to Chinatown, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods.

Herrera cites cost overruns and other issues raised in a civil grand jury report, but these have been known for years.

Most significantly, Herrera’s newfound opposition to the project could place millions of dollars in federal funding – and the jobs that it will generate – in jeopardy, and this money can’t be used for other local projects, including Muni. In short, Herrera is wrong on this one and it’s a mistake to use the Central Subway issue as a wedge near the end of the mayor’s race. If he is elected, we expect him to have the leadership to see the project through like other big infrastructure projects such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Market Street subway, or

BART. Herrera has the endorsement of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and has broad support among LGBT community members.

He would be an effective mayor and we endorse him as our second choice.

Ed Lee, third choice Rounding out our ranked choice endorsements for mayor is Ed Lee, who is now serving in that capacity after he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors in January. Lee for months said he wasn’t interested in running for the job, then changed his mind and jumped into the race a few days before the filing deadline.

In the last nine months, Lee has done a commendable job. He balanced the city’s budget without drastic cuts to vital programs and he has brought a temperament to Room 200 that seems to be having a calming effect in city government. Lee is used to implementing policy he is given, as he did for years as city administrator, but during his stint as interim mayor he has shown an ability to forge his own policy ideas.

Lee has been very visible; his first day on the job he showed up unannounced at the opening of the LGBT History Museum in the Castro. He noticed the event was taking place and made it a point to be there. He was the first mayor to attend the annual Trans March that kicked off Pride weekend. As a young attorney at the Asian Law Caucus years ago, Lee fought discrimination in city government and was the executive director of the Human Rights Commission. He has always been right on our issues, even when it hasn’t always been easy for him. And he can use his political capital to continue working with the LGBT community as it continues efforts to reach out to communities of color, particularly among Asian Americans.

Lee is friends with former Mayor Willie Brown and Chinese community leader Rose Pak, but he told us that as much as he values their opinions, he seeks out others. “I get everybody’s opinions,” he told us. “I get advice from many people.”

Lee is committed to the Central Subway project and said the city can manage the project.

Work at San Francisco General Hospital, he said, is on time and within the budget.

In short, Lee is a solid choice and has proven he can serve as San Francisco’s mayor.

George Gascón for DA It was a surprise to many when Gavin Newsom appointed San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón as district attorney to fill the vacancy created by Kamala Harris’s election as state attorney general. Gascón has proven himself as an exceptional administrator in his nine months on the job and is our recommendation for voters on November 8 as he seeks a full four-year term.

Gascón impressed us when he was hired as police chief. From his many years of experience in the Los Angeles Police Department, where he was a top administrator, and as police chief of Mesa, Arizona, Gascón has shown an ability to reach out to all communities, including LGBTs, in both his running of the department and in communicating with the public. He has continued those efforts as district attorney.

He has created neighborhood courts where non-violent, low-level crimes can be handled in a way that takes them out of the criminal justice system and includes trained arbitrators See page 7 >>

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Open Forum>>

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Ballot measure endorsements San Francisco Propositions Proposition A. School Bonds.

YES. This authorizes the issuance of $531 million of General Obligation bonds to be used for school construction, repairs and related equipment purchases.

Proposition B. Road Repaving and Street Safety Bonds. YES. This authorizes the issuance of $248 million in General Obligation bonds to make necessary capital improvements to streets and roadways. It will pay for needed street repaving as well as pedestrian and bike improvements. It is a needed investment in the city’s infrastructure.

Propositions C: Pension and Health Benefit Reform for Municipal Employees: YES. Failure to adopt city employee retirement benefit reform will sooner rather than later make it impossible for the city to deliver necessary services. Costs are increasing at an alarming rate.

Proposition C is a sensible reform measure that will save taxpayers $1.3 billion over the next decade while providing a safety net for hardworking lower wage city employees by keeping contributions to benefit plans at current levels for those making less than $50,000 a year. It is a consensus measure negotiated by the mayor, Board of Supervisors, public employee unions, and other stakeholders.

Proposition D: City Pension Benefits: NO. This competing measure to Proposition C does not address health benefit reform as does Prop C. It was put on the ballot as a result of a signature drive led by Public

<<

Editorial

From page 6

in a confidential setting. The victim is invited. There are no lawyers, although a prosecutor is supervising the cases. While in a limited number of locations now, Gascón plans to expand them throughout the city.

It’s the type of alternative program that fits San Francisco values and saves resources for more serious crimes that the DA’s office prosecutes.

On the death penalty, Gascón told us that he does not believe in it. It’s not necessarily a good law enforcement tool, he told us, and cited issues such as wrongful convictions and the high cost of keeping a prisoner on death row. And while he said it is state law now, it is doubtful that a San Francisco jury would ever convict in a capital case; he has also pledged to work to repeal it.

Gascón has been aggressive in prosecuting hate crimes, and equally assertive in urging people to report them. “Egregious behavior and hate are unacceptable in our community,” he told us. “No one should be fearful walking [on a] street.”

The DA is aware that his move from the police department to his new office can cause conflicts when dealing with officer-involved incidents. But he told us that he has created a trial integrity unit and is holding police accountable. Asked if there was a conflict, he said, “I’d say the opposite.” He discussed the development of policies to provide information to prosecutors and judges regarding officers because a more formal structure is needed.

In his brief tenure as DA Gascón has provided leadership that is in tune with San Franciscans, including the LGBT community. He is committed to public safety and supports reforms of the criminal

Defender and candidate for mayor Jeff Adachi. It was not the result of compromise and consensus, as was Prop C, and is actively opposed by the mayor, the Board of Supervisors, public employee unions and other stakeholders. It contains provisions that make it vulnerable to legal challenge and if adopted over Prop C would likely result in no reform at all. Vote YES on Prop C and NO on Prop D. Proposition E: Amending or Repealing Legislative Initiative Ordinances and Declarations of Policy: YES. San Francisco voters are often called on to vote on as many as 20 ballot measures submitted to them each election. About 20 percent of those measures are put on the ballot by the mayor or any four members of the Board of Supervisors, often without any real analysis or thought and generally at the last minute. If adopted, they cannot be modified in any way without returning to the voters, even to correct an obvious mistake. This measure, proposed

by Supervisor Scott Wiener, would allow the Board of Supervisors and mayor to amend or repeal these measures after a certain period and with a super-majority vote of the Board of Supervisors. This makes common sense and is a necessary reform in the much over used initiative process. This proposition does NOT apply to initiatives put on the ballot by voter signature.

Proposition F: Campaign Consultant Ordinance: YES. Lobbyists are required to register and to make certain public disclosures, such as amounts of political

justice system. In short, he is a DA that fits well with the city and he has our support.

Mirkarimi for sheriff San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey is retiring after 30 years on the job and with a reputation as the most progressive sheriff in the country. Jail is no place anyone wants to be, but when people are in custody in San Francisco they have access to educational and counseling programs that are rare inside a locked facility. While rehabilitation is often touted as a goal of incarceration, the reality in most jails and prisons is the exact opposite.

San Francisco is different.

And among the candidates vying to replace Hennessey, Ross Mirkarimi stands out as the one best suited to continuing the county’s innovative programs. Mirkarimi, now in his second term as a San Francisco supervisor representing the HaightAshbury and Western Addition, is also endorsed by Hennessey.

One of the most critical issues facing San Francisco – and every other county in the state – is realignment, which started October 1. Spurred by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the state must release some 30,000 prison parolees statewide to reduce overcrowding. All the candidates for sheriff agree that San Francisco can expect to receive approximately 700 prisoners, although it’s important to understand they won’t all be arriving at once. The other important factor is that the county’s jails do have space for these prisoners. The parolees that are being released have nonserious, non-violent, and non-sexual offenses.

Mirkarimi, as chair of the Board of Supervisors public safety committee, has been intimately involved with the sheriff’s department and the

contributions. These rules have not applied to campaign consultants who play as important a role in the political process as lobbyists. Prop F is a transparency measure that applies similar registration and disclosure requirements to campaign con-sultants as apply to lobbyists. It also makes technical changes in the 1997 ballot initiative regulating local political consultants. It would allow future changes to the ordinance to be made by a super-majority of the Ethics Commission and the Board of Supervisors, without the necessity of going back to the voters.

Proposition G: Sales Tax: YES. The 1 percent sales tax imposed by the state Legislature expired July 1. Proposition G increases the city sales tax by one-half percent but only if the 1 percent tax that expired is not reimposed. The money is earmarked for public safety programs and for services for seniors and children.

Proposition H: School District Student Assignment. NO. This declaration of policy initiative was put on the ballot by signature petition. It calls on the school board to revise its policies to make assigning students to the school closest to where they live the number one priority. This is an example of the abuse of the voter initiative process. Running the city’s schools is the responsibility of the elected members of the school board who should be able to consider all relevant factors, such as diversity and racial and ethnic balance, in making assignment decisions.▼

chief probation officer, the two agencies that will deal directly with realignment issues. It is largely due to Hennessey’s innovations in jail programs and services that San Francisco has options for dealing with these state prison inmates.

Decisions on where these prisoners will be placed will be made on a caseby-case basis.

Mirkarimi sees realignment as a tipping point. If it’s done well it may provide options for a smoother reentry into society for those convicted of crimes once they complete their sentences. He also said that it will force the various law enforcement agencies to work together.

Mirkarimi describes himself as pragmatic and during his time on the board fought to bring community policing to the Western Addition. “I wanted the police to get out of their cars,” he said, “and walk the streets.”

He does not anticipate any major shake-ups in the sheriff’s department if he wins and wants to identify areas where deputy sheriffs could augment security duties with the police at special events, which would save the city money as they aren’t paid at the same level.

Mirkarimi is a staunch ally of the LGBT community (“I’m straight but I’m not narrow,” he said) and has always been with us on our issues, including trans and HIV/AIDS matters. He pledged to continue to enhance treatment of transgender prisoners and ensure that they are in a well structured and safe environment. He would use the bully pulpit to advocate for reform of the state’s three-strikes law so that it would not apply to non-violent felonies.

We endorse Ross Mirkarimi for sheriff and believe he will continue San Francisco’s progressive approach to running the jail.▼

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

<< Business News

▼ Gay baker joins pop-up craze

by Matthew S. Bajko

F

or years Irvin Lin has wowed family and friends with his scrumptious sweets he cooks in his San Francisco kitchen. His knack for whipping up the culinary creations pack he and his partner’s apartment during yearly dessert parties.

This month the public had a rare chance to sample his sweet inspirations as the gay baker teamed up with two other cooks to open a pop-up bakery in the Lower Haight.

Lin sold his baked goods under the moniker Eat the Love, which is the same name of his food blog.

He was joined by Nosh This, famous for its “bacon crack,” comprised of bacon, butter toffee, almonds and chocolate, and Jilli Ice Cream and Soda, which churns out raw milk ice cream. Riffing on the speakeasies during Prohibition, they dubbed their underground venue a “sweeteasy.”

Fearful of running afoul of the city’s health inspectors, who frown upon such unlicensed operations, the trio kept the location for the October 2 surreptitious sale a closely held secret. To find out the address, attendees had to sign up for an email notification at the website sfstreetsweets.com/.

The Street Sweets event attracted roughly 150 people despite the competition that day from the Castro Street Fair and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Another one is being planned for sometime next month, said Lin. “It went really well. We sold out of a lot of stuff,” said Lin, who describes his neighborhood near the corner of 18th and Dolores streets as “the Gastro.”

“Tentatively, we will be doing it again near Thanksgiving. But the date hasn’t been set in stone.”

In early 2010 Lin took a reprieve from being a full-time graphic designer to focus more attention on his cooking and foodie interests. He launched his blog at www.eatthelove. com to share with readers his recipes, displayed in photos usually taken by his partner, A.J. Bates.

His twice-weekly posts soon caught attention within culinary circles. In January Saveur.com dubbed his blog one of its “Sites We Love” because Lin’s “beautiful sweets look as good as they taste.”

He has also written about food for publications such as US Masterchef magazine and SF Weekly. Lin also hosts the DIY Dessert events at 18 Reasons, the nonprofit affiliated with Bi-Rite Market on 18th Street. The next event will be a holiday cookie swap Thursday, December 1. (For more info visit www.18reasons.org/.)

Making money off his cooking skills isn’t his focus yet, as freelance graphic design gigs continue to be how Lin makes his money. He recently helped design the logo for Spot Bagel, a local gay-owned bagel company whose products are sold at Bi-Rite and served at both Dolores Park and Duboce Park cafes.

His own desserts are currently not for sale in any local cafes or coffeehouses, though he isn’t opposed to the idea.

“That has never been my goal. But if that were to happen that would be awesome,” said Lin. Having his own sweet shop isn’t a priority, either, he said. But with the success of the pop-up bakery, Lin is thinking of selling his pies.

“I don’t think I want to do brick and mortar but never say never,” he said. “Right now no one is carrying my desserts. I am thinking of doing special orders if people want pies for Thanksgiving.”

The Sun rises again The Midnight Sun, a video bar in the heart of the city’s Castro District, is

Jane Philomen Cleland

Matt Pasternack, right, enjoyed desserts at a pop up bakery in the Lower Haight served up by bakers Jacky Hayward, left, and Irvin Lin, back.

set for a makeover as new owners have bought the 40-year-old gay hangout.

Longtime owner Thomas Ward now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and sold the bar at 4067 18th Street to the same ownership group behind the Castro’s Q Bar and the Edge. The sale to RTJ Rising Sun Inc., which is comprised of Timothy Eicher, Robert Giljum, John Bellemore, and Jeffrey Eubanks, was finalized September 12.

The bar has called its current address home since 1981 and went through a facade upgrade a few years ago that saw the removal of its outdoor television screen. Now its interior will be given a refresh and the outside TV will likely be brought back.

“It will be mostly cosmetic. Mainly, we want it to feel lighter inside so it is not a movie theater or cave,” explained Bellemore during the October 6 meeting of the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro. “It feels a little cold without the TV screen outside anymore.”

The plans call for improving the audio and visual equipment, updating the interior and bathrooms and some exterior changes. The makeover will not jettison the video motif to become a dance club, said Bellemore.

“It is the premiere video bar in the Castro, that isn’t going to change,” he said. “It is such a beloved space.”

The owners did acquire an entertainment license in order to book drag shows, comedy acts, and other live talent with an eye toward hosting more community events and fundraisers for local nonprofits. And they are looking to sponsor local athletic teams.

“We plan to do more promotion of what is going on there,” said Bellemore.

“We want to bring the video bar appeal to a younger generation. We feel that market exists and can come back to the Midnight Sun.”

Monthly events will promote women vintners Tonight (Thursday, October 13), a new monthly wine tasting promoting female vintners launches in the Castro. The events are a collaboration between the Castro Village Wine Co. and Skrewcap. com, a wine blog started by lesbian wine aficionado Pamela Sz. Busch.

Busch, who sold her CAV Wine Bar and Kitchen she opened next door to Zuni on Market Street, is working with the 19th Street wine shop to highlight wines created by women. The inaugural tasting tonight will feature Deborah Schlatzlein, the winemaker and proprietor of Bink Wines, and Andrea Lederle, the national sales manager from Handley Cellars.

The events will take place the second Thursday of each month.

Admission to the tasting costs $20.

It will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the wine shop, located at 4121 19th Street.

For more information contact Busch at (415) 385-1935 or at Pamela@skrewcap.com.

Roaster brews up Gay Coffee A Massachusetts lesbian coffee roaster is selling fair-trade, organic beans under the name Gay Coffee and is donating 1 percent of the proceeds to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Melissa Krueger, who lives in the town of Williamsburg outside the state capitol of Springfield, publicly debuted her artisanal hand-roasted coffee at the Castro Street Fair this month. Her five blends include Good Morning Mary, described as a mixing of medium and darker roasted beans with a caramel sweetness, and Stone Butch Breakfast Blend, a lighter roast of beans from the highlands of Guatemala.

There is also the Red Hanky Roast, the company’s “strongest, heartiest brew.” An online description states “this roast celebrates the power of sensuality and sexuality to change our lives and the world.”

The company’s Second Date blend balances the lemon and berry flavors of dry processed Ethiopian beans with Sumatran beans.

All five blends cost $13.99 and can be ordered online at www.gaycoffeecompany.com/.

Grand opening benefits AIDS agency The grand opening party for the relocation of Castro clothing store Citizen netted $1,567 for Project Inform, a local nonprofit that advocates around HIV policy and serves as a clearinghouse for information about AIDS, HIV, and hepatitis C. The September 1 event celebrated the men’s clothiers move earlier this summer into the storefront at 489 Castro Street. Owner Petyr Kane presented the check to the agency at this month’s MUMC meeting.

He also presented the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy with a check for $840. The money is derived for a portion of the sales of a T-shirt bearing the image of the late gay supervisor after whom the public school is named.

LGBT business gala nears The Golden Gate Business Association’s annual gala takes place this year Thursday, November 10 at the Hotel Kabuki. The celebration for the nation’s oldest LGBT chamber of commerce features performances by singer Veronica Klaus and comedian Marga Gomez.

The event will begin at 8 p.m. and the hotel is located at 1625 Post Street in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Tickets cost $45 per person and can be bought online at www.ggba.com or by calling 415-362-4422.▼ Columnist Raymond Flournoy will return next month.

Have a tip for the monthly Business Briefs column? Email castroshopper@yahoo.com.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

<< National News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

▼

Supremes refuse gay adoption case

by Lisa Keen

T

he U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 11 refused to hear a case that challenged a sort of back door discrimination against a gay couple by a Louisiana state official.

The case, Adar v. Darlene Smith, was filed by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund on behalf of a gay couple who sought an amended birth certificate for a Louisiana boy they adopted in New York. Couples who adopt children routinely seek amended birth certificates to establish the legal relationship between the parents and the child.

Louisiana’s registrar, Darlene Smith, routinely grants them to heterosexual married couples. But Smith refused to provide Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith (no relation to the registrar) with an amended certificate, saying she was barred from doing so by a Louisiana law prohibiting unmarried couples from adopting.

Given that most states do not allow gay couples to marry, the Louisiana law discriminates against same-sex couples and their children in an indirect way. (Adar and Smith lived in New York before that state

allowed same-sex couples to marry; they now live in California, which does not currently enable them to marry.) But the inability to obtain an amended birth certificate can have direct consequences, making it more difficult for the parents to verify their family relationship to schools, medical providers, insurers, and even law enforcement and customs officials.

Jon Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal, said he believes Louisiana’s registrar would have refused the amended birth certificate even if the gay couple had been able to marry in New York. He notes Louisiana also has a constitutional amendment that bars recognition of same-sex relationships.

“I believe they would say that Louisiana does not recognize their marriage ... so that the couple, for purposes of Louisiana law, is still unmarried,” said Davidson. “Their position likely would be that they do not provide amended birth certificates reflecting the names of two unmarried parents and they consider this couple unmarried.”

Lambda Legal had argued that the state official’s refusal to grant the amended birth certificate violated the couple’s right to equal

Rick Gerharter

Lambda Legal’s Jon Davidson

protection of the law, as well as the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution. The full faith and credit clause requires that, “Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” Lambda said that covers the state’s registrar; but Louisiana argued that it covers only courts and judges, not non-judicial officers.

And, in an 11-5 vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

By refusing to hear Lambda Legal’s appeal of the 5th Circuit ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court allows that ruling to stand for the three states of the circuit – Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. But Jennifer Pizer, legal scholar for the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, said the implications are “potentially very substantial.”

“As states continue to diverge – with some offering full equality to LGBT people and others still moving firmly in the other direction,” said Pizer, “interstate questions are likely to proliferate, especially with respect to family issues involving same-sex couples, transgender people, and their children.”

Pizer noted that the U.S. Supreme Court takes only a “tiny fraction” of the cases brought to it each year and that it is also possible the high court will wait until a different circuit court rules differently from the 5th Circuit to take an LGBT-related full faith and credit case.

“But it’s difficult for those affected during that process,” said Pizer, “especially when a new limiting principle newly closes courthouse doors and the needs of parents and children are ignored and, in most instances, ultimately denied.”▼

Gays in the workplace >>

Significant hiring discrimination, study shows

by Dana Rudolph

O

penly gay men face “significant” hiring discrimination in several parts of the country, but there are wide differences from state to state. That’s the finding of a new, large-scale study, which also found that employers in areas where anti-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation are less likely to discriminate.

Additionally, the study found that employers are more likely to discriminate when job descriptions emphasize “stereotypically male heterosexual traits.”

The findings come from “Pride and Prejudice: Employment Discrimination Against Openly Gay Men in the United States,” published in the September issue of the American Journal of Sociology.

The study was conducted by Andras Tilcsik, a researcher at Harvard University, who sent out 1,769 pairs of fictitious resumes in response to online job postings by private employers. The job advertisements were for recent college graduates and covered five occupations (administrative assistant, analyst, customer service representative, manager, sales representative) across seven states (California, Florida, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas).

The resumes in each pair were of similar quality, differing only enough to “avoid raising suspicion” that they were fictitious.

One resume in each pair stated that the candidate was treasurer of a college gay and lesbian organization.

He was given a leadership role, rather than simple membership in the group, because the role required financial and managerial skills, and justified mention on a resume. It would thus be clear the candidate was gay – but employers would not see him as “lacking business savvy”

Bob Roehr

Researcher M.V. Lee Badgett said a Harvard researcher’s recent study pointed to discrimination based on sexual orientation when people apply for jobs.

for including information about “irrelevant” activities, according to the study.

The other resume stated that the applicant was treasurer of a college progressive and socialist organization. Tilcsik explained that because many people perceive LGBT organizations to have a liberal slant, if both resumes implied liberal organizations, any difference in the responses would not be because of an employer’s political bias.

Overall, 11.5 percent of heterosexual “applicants” received a callback for an interview, versus 7.2 percent of gay men, meaning heterosexual men received over oneand-a-half times as many callbacks.

Heterosexual applicants would have to apply for fewer than nine jobs to get an interview, whereas gay men would have to apply to almost 14.

“Until now,” said Tilcsik, “the extent and patterns of this kind of discrimination have not been systematically documented on a See page 12 >>

▼

International News >>

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

LGBT Peace Corps alumni group turns 20

by Heather Cassell

L

iving abroad and “voluntourism” weren’t a part of the American way of life or lexicon 50 years ago when President John F. Kennedy launched the Peace Corps. Only members of the U.S. Foreign Service or the military, along with some expatriate artists, lived abroad in 1960 when Kennedy challenged University of Michigan students to serve the country not in war, but in peace by “living and working” in developing countries.

Since its founding, more than 200,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps and currently there are 8,600, the highest number of volunteers, serving in 77 countries, according to Peace Corps spokesman Nathan Hale Sargent in the Oakland office and spokeswoman Allison Price in Washington, D.C. The Peace Corps is an estimated $400 million program overseen by Congress, according Price.

Another anniversary is being celebrated in the Peace Corps this year: the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, which is also known as the LGBT Peace Corps Alumni, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Half a century ago, the U.S. was five years away from stepping into turbulent times that cost innocent lives on foreign and American soil during the Vietnam war.

In many ways, the Peace Corps retained a sense of good in America and the world by promoting nonviolence and building homes, digging ditches, teaching English as a second language – basically building communities and relationships rather than playing political games and dropping bombs.

Many gay and lesbian Americans answered the “love not war” call to service in the Peace Corps. “[The Peace Corps] gave me much more of a world view of America’s place in the world rather than the world’s place around America,” said Wayne Hill, 66, co-founder of the gay alumni group, about his experience as a corps volunteer in what was then known as Micronesia. He was a part of the first Peace Corps volunteers to serve in the 1960s, he said during a phone interview from the Philippines.

Hill, a former New Englander, has lived all over the world, mostly on the West Coast and Asia, since his time in the Peace Corps. He currently lives in the Philippines with his partner of nearly four years, he said.

Mike Learned, a former gay Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi during the 1960s, said the program changed him.

“It had such an impact on my life as a gay man. ... It gave me a sensitivity to the rest of the world, what was important and what wasn’t,” said Learned, who wasn’t open about his

Rick Gerharter

Former Peace Corps volunteers celebrated the gay alumni group’s 20th anniversary with barbeque in San Francisco during Pride weekend in June.

sexual orientation at the time.

“It’s really unique ... giving Americans the chance to live abroad for two years really makes you a better citizen in the world,” said Hill, who didn’t discover his sexuality until after returning from his service in the corps.

Serving openly as a gay or lesbian volunteer wasn’t something that happened until the 1990s, said Hill.

It is still dangerous to be out while serving in certain places in Africa, China, or Jordan, the only Middle Eastern country the Peace Corps currently has assigned volunteers, gay corps alumni and representatives said.

In spite of revelations within the past year about the Peace Corps’ response to rape victims and one young woman’s murder that led to a congressional hearing in May and a wave of policy changes within the agency, the few reports of homophobia have been dealt with quickly, said Learned. He hopes, like other former Peace Corps volunteers, that the agency handles volunteers’ issues better and it becomes stronger in the next 50 years.

It is unknown how many LGBT individuals served in the Peace Corps during the past 50 years, but more than 600 members interact daily on the gay alumni group’s Yahoo group.

The all-volunteer alumni members work closely with the local Peace Corps recruitment office and lobby on behalf of LGBT issues to change corps’ policies, such as successfully gaining recognition for LGBT service members by establishing a policy within the corps in 1994 and allowing HIV-positive individuals to serve in 2008, two years before the ban on HIV-positive travelers was lifted.

The group is currently working with the corps’ main office in Washington, D.C. to change policies that will allow civil union, domestic partner, or married same-sex couples to serve together openly, like married opposite-sex spouses,

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said Peace Corps LGBT alumni and representatives.

Alumni also mentor and support incoming and active queer service members, donate funds to provide grants for a variety of LGBT Peace Corps service projects, support a network, host social events, and more, said Learned.

Many former queer members of the corps reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, but other members travel far and wide to attend a number of the group’s annual events hosted in the city.

Individual groups in various countries are continuing to develop country-specific and culturally appropriate LGBT sensitivity, acceptance, and awareness training materials for Peace Corps staff, queer trainees, and volunteers. The program, called Safe Zone, was developed by LGBT and ally corps See page 17 >>

<< Gay History Month

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

▼

We Are America >>

Bates wrote lyrics to ‘America the Beautiful’

by Judd Proctor and Brian Burns

F

eminist, poet, and educator Katharine Lee Bates was born on August 12, 1859, on Cape Cod in Falmouth, Massachusetts, to William and Cornelia Frances Lee Bates. Known as Katie early on, things would not be easy from the start. Her father, a pastor of the First Congregational Church, was too sick to officiate or attend her baptism and died just six days afterward.

This prompted her mother to take on odd jobs to support her four children. Bates’s brothers even went to work to support the family.

Bates’s interest in writing started early in life. By age 6, she started keeping a diary, her first being a tiny red leather notebook with the notation “Diary 1866” in gold.

At age 9, one entry stated, “I like women better than men,” and “Sewing is always expected of girls.

Why not boys?”

Bates’s family valued education.

Her mother graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and her grandfather had been president of Middlebury College. She, too, would be well educated.

Just before turning 12, the family moved to Graniteville, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, where she would attend Wellesley High School, graduating in 1874.

Bates would also graduate from the more advanced Newton High School two years later.

That same year, in 1878, at age 17, Bates began her long time association with Wellesley College, entering along with 43 other girls in the class of 1880. She would be president of her class, the second to graduate from Wellesley. At the time, it was a bold move, as women were considered not bright enough to tackle the rigors of academic life.

But to Bates, it was what she craved.

Bates gained a superb education at Wellesley and became grounded in her studies. Her poetry writing began to flourish with her first poem “Sleep,” published in the Atlantic Monthly during her undergraduate years there.

After receiving her B.A. from

<<

Hiring study

From page 10

PERSONAL TRAINER

large scale, across geographic areas.”

Previous studies looked at less objective, self-reported instances of

Wellesley in 1880, Bates entered her career as a teacher, with a stint at nearby Natick High School and then Dana Hall preparatory school. Her big break came in 1885, when she was invited back to Wellesley College to join the English Department. Thus began her 40year legacy at her alma mater.

During her time at Wellesley, Bates became a prolific author of travel books, volumes of poetry, and children’s books.

Today she is credited with popularizing the notion that Santa Claus had a wife in the book Goody Santa Claus On A Sleigh Ride.

Before then, Bishop St. Nicholas was unmarried and later transformed into a secular Santa Claus in the 1820s.

On the cover of an early version of the book, Santa hands two children an apple on snow-swept landscape in full color. It was published by D. Lothrop Company.

Written as a long poem in 1889, it depicts Mrs. Claus as wanting to accompany Santa on his Christmas Eve trip to deliver his toys to all the girls and boys – not a stay-athome wife. Instead, Santa’s wife takes a feminist stance, demanding credit for her hard work in making Christmas possible, including cooking to make Santa plump.

Goody Santa Claus, meaning Mrs. Claus, states her case thus: “Santa, must I tease in vain, dear?

Let me go and hold the reindeer, While you clamber down the chimneys. Don’t look savage as a Turk!

Why should you have all the glory of the joyous Christmas story, And poor little Goody Santa Claus have nothing but the work?”

Like her creator Bates, this Mrs. Claus would stand up for herself and beg the same question: Why can’t women do the same work as men?

Relationship with Coman During her Wellesley years, Bates took trips abroad for sabbaticals and summers off. But it would be her cross-country train trip to Colorado Springs in 1893 – she’d

hiring discrimination, were limited to a small sample, or were conducted outside the United States. And some focused on wage differences, which skeptics could attribute to

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Katharine Lee Bates

been asked to teach a summer session at Colorado College – that would spark the start of her work on her best known poem “America the Beautiful.”

The trip over would be a long one with picturesque views through her train coach window.

Passing through Massachusetts and then to New York, there was a brief stop at one of the continent’s most famous attractions, Niagara Falls. Then it was off to Chicago where Bates would have a weekend stopover at the family home of Katherine Coman, professor of economics and history at Wellesley.

The two had met in 1887, and would live together for more than a quarter of a century in what was then known as a “Boston marriage,” a term used in New England that referred to women living together, independent of financial support from a man.

While in Chicago, they toured what Bates in her diary call “The Fair” – the World’s Columbian Exposition, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the New World.

From Chicago, on July 3, 1893, Bates and Coman boarded a train bound for their summer classes in Colorado, passing field of wheat as they traveled west through Kansas and onto Colorado Springs. They

differences in productivity rather than discrimination.

M.V. Lee Badgett, director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and research director of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, has authored several previous studies of employment discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Badgett said the most important aspect of Tilcsik’s study is that “it rules out differences in the gay and heterosexual applicants’ skills and experience by design, so the fact that gay applicants are much less likely to be invited for an interview

would together view the Rocky Mountains for the first time.

At Colorado College for three weeks, the two instructors had time to tour the area. It was on Saturday, July 22, 1893, that Bates experienced her most exciting excursion. A group of instructors were invited to travel to the top of the mountain that loomed over their town below. At 14,110 feet above sea level, Pike’s Peak, while not the tallest in the Rocky Mountain range, commanded the best view for miles around.

The group went by horsedrawn wagon, which included the sign “Pikes Peak or Bust!” Bates described the experience thus, “One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000foot Pike’s Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy.

All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.”

Inspired by the majestic view, Bates wrote some verses in her notebook – the start of what would later be known as “America the Beautiful.”

It would not be until Bates’s return to Wellesley that she would polish up her verses from Colorado.

Her first version of the poem “America the Beautiful” appeared in the Congregationalist on July 4, 1895. While many tunes, including “Auld Lang Sein,” were matched to the poem’s words and meter, the one that stuck was “Marterna,” written

by American organist and composer Samuel Ward in 1882. Ward never knew of the union of his tune and Bates’s poem: He never met Bates and died in 1903. Known as “the other national anthem,” Bates’s ode has touched so many lives “from sea to shining sea.”

Both Bates and Coman had successful careers at Wellesley College. After graduating as a student, Bates later chaired the English Department, and Coman chaired the Economics Department and was dean of the college.

Their relationship grew over the years until they soon considered

themselves bound as one. Their friendships included other female couples at the college known as “Wellesley marriages.”

While today less well-known than her partner, Coman was ahead of her time as the first woman institutional economist, writing books and articles on the topic.

Coman was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1912. After surgery, Bates helped care for her, even installing an elevator in their home to aid her partner in getting to her office on the third floor of their custom-built house just outside the college.

Coman died on January 11, 1915, at age 57.

“So much of me died with Coman that I’m sometimes not quiet sure whether I’m alive or not,” Bates said to a friend, expressing her grief.

Bates also wrote of their relationship in a volume of poetry published in 1922 entitled Yellow Clover, A Book of Remembrance.

The poem took its name from the little yellow flowers each had pressed into the letters they wrote to each other when apart.

Bates continued at Wellesley until 1925. During her final years, she continued to write and review the works of others. She died on March 28, 1929, at the age of 69. Upon her death, the flag at Tower Court at Wellesley was flown at half-staff.

The local newspaper the Townsman printed her obituary written by a Mr. Bradford: “The death of Katharine Lee Bates means the passing away of one of the most notable citizens of Wellesley, one of the most important figures connected with Wellesley College, and much more than that, a considerable author and creative influence in the whole of American life.”▼

is hard to explain by anything other than discrimination.”

eight jobs to get an interview, versus 27 for gay men.

In Ohio, resumes of heterosexual men received over two-and-a-half times as many callbacks, and in Florida, almost twice as many.

The number of job postings in Nevada during the study period was too small to draw definite conclusions there, according to the report.

When employers were in cities, counties, or states without laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, gay men received fewer than half the number of callbacks of heterosexual men. In areas with such anti-discrimination laws, the gap was smaller but still significant – gay men received three-quarters as many callbacks.

California, Nevada, and New York have statewide protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas do not, although they have some cities and counties with such protections.

Tilcsik cautioned that it is hard to determine whether the lower levels of discrimination were because of the anti-discrimination laws themselves or because people in areas likely to adopt such laws had more positive opinions about gay people to begin with.

Different states, different findings But the overall finding by Tilcsik was significantly different from his findings in various states.

In New York, Pennsylvania, and California, the gap between callbacks for the fictitious gay and heterosexual applicants was insignificant.

But in Texas, resumes of heterosexual men received more than three times as many callbacks as those of gay men. Heterosexual men would need to apply for only

Judd Proctor and Brian Burns host The Rainbow Minute, a community radio show devoted to LGBT history and culture founded in 2006. Proctor is a retired elementary school teacher and staunch gay activist. Burns is an author and horticulturalist. The couple resides in Richmond, Virginia.

See page 17 >>

▼ <<

From the cover >>

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

Mayor’s race

From page 1

not going away. They are only intensifying,” said AIDS Housing Alliance Director Brian Basinger, one of the organizers of the forum.

The issues range from ensuring people have access to their medications and health care services to how to maintain San Francisco’s status as a leader in the fight against HIV. Although commemorations of the country’s AIDS epidemic turning 30 this year were marked with renewed hope of finding a cure for the devastating disease, at the same time federal funding continues to lag behind the needs of those living with HIV and AIDS. Fears are growing that the ongoing economic problems will mean more cuts in state funding that could have devastating consequences for people living with HIV and AIDS. Talk of co-pays for Medi-Cal recipients will be destabilizing if enacted, warned Basinger.

“The state is talking about implementing these co-pays for medical beneficiaries, which are going to destabilize those people with HIV who have not fallen off the cliff,” said Basinger. “People with significant illnesses are going to have serious expenses.”

In San Francisco the picture is similarly mixed. The city continues to experience stagnating HIV transmission rates despite dwindling resources. In an effort to push rates lower, and ultimately bring an end to HIV in the city, last month local health officials instituted a radical shift in how they allocate HIV prevention dollars to focus more on testing people and treating those who are HIV-positive.

Last week the health department broke ground on an expansion and renovation of its AIDS Office.

The $9.5 million project, funded by a grant through the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will provide 17,000 square feet of newly renovated space for the HIV/AIDS Research Center located at 25 Van Ness Avenue.

“The San Francisco AIDS Office will continue to conduct cutting edge research that will improve the quality of life for those living with HIV/ AIDS and aid in finding a cure for the disease,” noted interim Mayor Ed Lee, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the project last week.

In January the city will roll out a pilot project, the first in the nation, examining if a daily pill can keep gay and bisexual men HIV-negative.

Should it prove promising, the city’s next mayor could become embroiled in a funding fight over how to allocate resources between keeping people HIV negative and keeping those with HIV and AIDS healthy and alive.

“It’s very important to know where they stand” on HIV/AIDS issues, said Matthew Pawlowski, 48, a San Francisco resident who’s living with HIV. Pawlowski was asked about this year’s mayoral race by the Bay Area Reporter while attending a recent forum at City Hall about the federal rollout of a national AIDS strategy.

“Historically, San Francisco has been a bellwether of AIDS funding and research,” said Pawlowski, who wants to know whether City Hall will continue to support that.

Weihaur Lau, 33, a gay, HIVnegative San Francisco resident, said it’s important to him “because it’s an issue that impacts many, many diverse residents of San Francisco.”

Lau, who sits on the city’s HIV Prevention Planning Council, said among his biggest concerns are making sure HIV services are “friendly and open to the public.”

Testing should be “easy to access, not shameful,” he said.

During editorial board meetings with the B.A.R. several mayoral

Rick Gerharter

Mayoral candidate John Avalos

candidates touted their support for AIDS services. District 11 Supervisor John Avalos was a social worker when he first came to the city and worked at Clinica Esperanza, an HIV clinic that offers services to HIV-positive individuals in the Mission.

As chair of the Board of Supervisor’s Budget Committee, Avalos noted he championed funding for HIV prevention and AIDS health care and met with leaders of various HIV and AIDS agencies.

Asked if he would appoint an AIDS czar in his administration, Avalos said having such a position is “important” as there is a need to have someone “looking holistically at services.”

City Attorney Dennis Herrera also expressed support for having a paid, full-time AIDS czar position once again at City Hall. It is part of his HIV/ AIDS policy position his campaign recently posted onto its website.

He also calls for increasing funding for HIV prevention services, though his plan doesn’t specify how much money he would allocate. Herrera also states he will make housing and employment opportunities for people living with HIV and AIDS “a major focus” should he become mayor.

In addition Herrera pledges to fight for more federal funding, and should that fail, calls for providing additional money “through the city’s budgeting process so that all of the gains made over the 30 years of the epidemic in San Francisco are not lost due to inadequate resources.”

Beyond HIV and AIDS, Herrera’s policy paper calls for more services for LGBT seniors and culturally competent health care services in general for gay men, lesbians and transgender people.

“In addition, while Healthy San Francisco offers all residents access to care, not all communities in San Francisco have been fully enrolled in Healthy San Francisco and that should be addressed,” states Herrera’s proposal.

Gay former Supervisor Bevan Dufty also outlines several proposals for addressing HIV on his campaign website. In addition to expressing support for continued city funding and pledging to advocate nationally on the issue, Dufty also pledges as mayor to work with health officials in ensuring the new HIV policies are culturally competent.

“For the new DPH ‘Test and Treat’ strategy to be effective, we must fund culturally sensitive outreach that understands how to assess the risk levels amongst communities that may be less willing to discuss sex and share risky behaviors,” wrote Dufty.

He, too, told the B.A.R. he would hire a paid AIDS adviser and would push to see that health officials reach their goal of reducing new HIV infections by 50 percent by 2015.

“I would be an AIDS activist mayor both in San Francisco and at the national level for stronger policies and funding, particularly around AIDS housing,” said Dufty.

Basinger, who has yet to decide on who to support for mayor, said he was pleased to see both Dufty and Herrera address HIV and AIDS on

their websites and is hopeful more candidates will follow suit.

“With so many of the nonprofits that we need to stay alive being under pressure, we need to insure this new crop of leaders really gets what we are going through and prioritizes us properly in relation to all of these competing priorities,” he said.

The HIV forum next week is being co-sponsored by a number of agencies, including Project Inform, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Shanti, and the Castro Country Club.

A panel of HIV-positive leaders will take turns questioning the candidates and audience members will also be able to submit their own questions.

Due to the potential for major breakthroughs in HIV prevention in coming years, this year’s mayoral race could prove to be crucial, said Sheehy, who is backing Herrera as his first choice but has yet to decide on second or third picks.

“This is a time when leadership in City Hall could make a dramatic difference in the course of the epidemic in this city,” he said.

And with speculation that voter turnout could be particularly low this year – some estimates of late have suggested as few as 75,000 people may cast ballots for mayor – Basinger said the HIV community could play an important role in deciding who will be mayor.

He noted the city estimates 18,000 people are living with HIV and AIDS in San Francisco. It is a large enough block that it could help sway the election, he said.

“If the HIV community organizes itself, we have the opportunity to have a significant impact on who becomes mayor,” he said.

The debate next week will be one of the last times people have a chance to hear from the candidates prior to Election Day and is one of the few forums to focus on one topic.

Basinger hopes the HIV community and its supporters will come out for it and flex its political muscle.

“This next year is going to be a

critical time in painting the picture of what HIV services looks like in San Francisco. And we have a unique opportunity to educate all of these leaders about our lives and we need to take it,” said Basinger.

The forum will take place from

5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 19 in the auditorium of the State Building at 455 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco’s Civic Center.▼ Seth Hemmelgarn contributed to this report.

<< The Sports Page

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

▼

Memo to Sharks: Just do it

by Roger Brigham

T

he 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants received major community kudos this year when they became the first American pro sports team to make an It Gets Better video for a national anti-bullying campaign that has produced some 20,000 videos, including one from President Barack Obama. But the San Jose Sharks front office has turned down the request of a longtime fan to make a team video for the campaign, saying it is “too busy.”

“While Sharks sports and entertainment praises the efforts of the It Gets Better campaign, we receive hundreds of requests each season to get involved in a vast array of worthy and admirable causes – yet it is simply not possible to say yes to all such requests,” the Sharks said in a press statement.

Sharks fan and gay rights activist Gloria Nieto, who made the request of the team, has started an online petition at www.Change.org to ask Sharks executives to have the team make the video.

The Giants have the longest and strongest tradition of Bay Area pro franchises courting the LGBT market and addressing LGBT concerns, and most of the other local franchises have LGBT Nights and other efforts. The Sharks have been a little slow to address gay fans but did hold their first LGBT Night last season, though club executives downplayed the significance of that. (See www.ebar.com/columns/column. php?sec=sports&id=334.)

A 2005 study by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network indicates that 65 percent of LGBT students are bullied because of their orientation or perceived orientation, students hear anti-gay taunts dozens of times in a day and teachers almost never intervene.

Memo to Sharks players: Your executives maybe too busy, but nothing is stopping the rest of you.

You make money; now make a difference. You don’t need to be sponsored by Nike to know you should Just Do It.

Gay Bowl XI The same weekend rains that disrupted the start of the American League Championship Series in the Dallas area plagued flag football’s Gay Bowl XI in Houston. After pool play on Friday, October 7 and two rounds

Sharks fan Gloria Nieto has started a petition at change.org in an effort to have the team make an It Gets Better video.

of championship play the next day, the finals rounds of the 25-team tournament were washed out.

The New York Warriors, Phoenix Hellraisers, San Diego Toros and San Diego Bolts all had advanced to the semifinal round before play ended.

San Francisco Crash lost 28-7 to the Warriors and edged the Jacksonville Surge 2019 in the first day of pool play, then advanced to the championship bracket with a 27-21 victory over the Houston Hurricanes.

In that bracket they were crushed by the Phoenix Hellraisers, 41-0, in the first round.

The Gay Bowl is run by the National Gay Flag Football League. Although numerous members of the league who played in the tournament boast of non-discrimination in the club membership policies, including no restrictions on participation by heterosexuals, the Gay Bowl is one of the few LGBT sports events that restrict participation by heterosexuals.

Bowl rules stipulate that clubs are pledged not to have more than a 20 percent straight composition on Gay Bowl teams.

A league player survey this year found that “Straight players in the Gay Bowl has the potential to be a hot topic. While there is very strong support for allowing straight players to play, most believe that the number per team should be limited. The general opinion seems to focus on the difficulty for truly enforcing a straight player limit and that, in a league preaching tolerance, excluding certain people seems counter intuitive. Still, there are those that have a strong opinion that straight players should not even be allowed to play – that this is first and

foremost about gay athletes.”

Overall the survey found 90 percent of players wanting straight players allowed in the Gay Bowl but 70 percent supporting a limit on their participation.

Memo to flag football players: The great service that LGBT sports provide is a safe and accepting forum in which LGBT individuals can excel at and compete in the sports experience and empower themselves through the respect that foster. sBut both the experience and the respect are meaningless if they are a ghettoized phenomenon that does not engage the broader community around us. The longer you keep your self-imposed barriers up, the longer you will fear them coming down and the less opportunity you will have to breath free and excel at your best, and for others outside our community to recognize and share your experience.

Every four years you play in the Gay Games and there is no restriction there to straight participation. The world doesn’t stop spinning.

Gay Games protesters lose lawsuit Volunteers for America, which advocates an anti-gay message in protests and ministries, has been told it may not sue the city of Chicago for arresting three of its volunteers during the Gay Games in 2006, Courthouse News Service reports.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court ruling issued October 5 tosses out the federal claim by Michael Marcavage, James Deferio, and Faith Deferio that the city violated their First and 14th Amendment rights when it arrested them resisting its crowd control efforts.

“At oral argument, the plaintiffs were asked to provide whatever evidence they had of the officers’ hostility toward their message; none was offered,” Judge William Bauer wrote for the court panel. “This shows that the restrictions were contentneutral. The alternate locations were within view and earshot of those traveling to the Games. We harbor no doubt that from these locations, the plaintiffs had ample opportunity to capture the attention of the Games attendees and supporters; they were only limited by their own stubborn refusal to move there.”

The court did order that the permit restrictions policies be reviewed to see if it is appropriate for them to be employed for groups as small as the Volunteers for America protesters.

The Courthouse News report is available at www.courthousenews. com/2011/10/05/40335.htm. ▼

Rick Gerharter

Chorus honors ‘champions’ S

an Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus board Chair Michael Tate, left, congratulates Bay Area Reporter publisher Thomas E. Horn, recipient of the chorus’ Media Champion Award and Pip Jones, representing Diageo Americas Inc., recipient of the chorus’ Corporate Champion Award at the group’s Crescendo gala Sunday, October 9 at the Four Seasons. Not pictured is Stuart Milk, the gay nephew of slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey

Milk, who received the Human Rights Champion Award and had to leave early to catch a flight. During his remarks, Milk said his uncle’s assassination in 1978 was a “tragedy that became this light, this brightness, this world class musical gift.”

The chorus first started on the night Milk and Mayor George Moscone were killed, when a group of men sang on the steps of City Hall.

▼

Obituaries >>

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Former IGLHRC director Paula Ettelbrick dies

by Cynthia Laird

P

aula Ettelbrick, the former executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, died Friday, October 7 in Manhattan. She was 56.

The cause of death was ovarian cancer, according to a statement from the Stonewall Community Foundation, where Ms. Ettelbrick had most recently served as executive director until she stepped down in August due to her ongoing battle with cancer.

“Paula Ettelbrick has been a champion for our community for decades,” stated Matthew Ryan, president of the Stonewall Community Foundation board.

“Stonewall benefited tremendously over the past year from her historic perspective and her unique talent in bringing people together.”

During her career, Ms. Ettelbrick served as the first staff attorney at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1986 and served as the organization’s legal director

Robert “Bob” Emery November 4, 1928 – September 29, 2011

Mr. Emery, who loved this city and was a founding member of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, left us with fond musical, botanical, culinary and leatherman memories. As an avid orchid grower in Noe Valley, Bob would amaze and amuse friends and family with spectacular blooming beauties from his greenhouse. But his 25-plus years singing and working behind the scenes with the SFGMC were his proudest moments on the stage of life (including the San Francisco Opera

from 1988-1993. She received her law degree from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1984.

“We mourn the loss of one of the pioneers of our movement for equality under the law and a woman who never stopped fighting for social justice – it also took courage to stand up in court and in the public eye during that earlier time in our history. Paula was fearless,” Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart said in a statement.

At IGLHRC, Ms. Ettelbrick was the organization’s third executive director. Current head Cary Alan Johnson said on the organization’s website that Ms. Ettelbrick “was so many things to so many people – the movement, the New York City and global queer communities.”

Johnson said that Ms. Ettelbrick was “deeply unfalteringly committed to our liberation as LGBT people.

She also had a deep respect for all progressive movements and causes.”

Ms. Ettelbrick, Johnson said, took IGLHRC to new places in terms of capacity and depth.

“Under her leadership, our budget and the San Francisco Symphony). He was a fine mentor to new singers for the chorus and when he was charged with outfitting the lads with their tuxedoes, he managed measurements/ fittings for coats, trousers, etc. with great professionalism (and he was sure to recheck that inseam measurement for accuracy)!

This fine man stood on the steps of City Hall the night of the Harvey Milk and George Moscone murders for his first performance and should be honored as one of our true stars.

His favorite drink was a Rob Roy because that was his family’s nickname for him and, of course, the beverage.

He is survived by his sister Lois Johnson, sister-in-law Edith EmeryBarnet, nephews, nieces, and his longtime friends John MacDonald and Walt Thorp, who all miss his

Jane Philomen Cleland

Paula Ettelbrick

nearly doubled, our engagement with activists and movements in Africa and the Middle East increased,” he stated. “Thanks to her skills as a lawyer, we became more firmly grounded in international and domestic legal principles. She brought gravitas, humor, and spunk to our organization.”

infectious laugh and warm spirit.

Internment will be in Pomona, California (contact Carol Graupensperger 714-637-3587 for details). In lieu of gifts, please send a donation to the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

LaMarr Fields July 24, 1931 – September 21, 2011

LaMarr Fields, a leading personality in San Francisco during the 1970s and 1980s, passed away from a sudden illness in Detroit, Michigan on September 21. He worked for the Tenderloin Neighborhood

After leaving Lambda Legal, Ms. Ettelbrick went to work at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Empire State Pride Agenda, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Kate Kendell, executive director of NCLR, said that Ms. Ettelbrick served as the organization’s policy director from 1993-94.

“Paula was possessed of singular intelligence, integrity, ferocity, and wit,” Kendell said in a statement.

“She was also unfailingly generous and open-hearted. She will be missed as a tireless advocate of the most disenfranchised. But at this moment what I miss most is her passionate and inspiring friendship.”

Gloria Nieto, who lives in San Jose and was a longtime friend of Ms. Ettelbrick’s, said she would be deeply missed.

“My grief of losing Paula is so immense, so completely overwhelming, I am roaming around my house, lost in the feeling,” Nieto said in an email. “Yet I still have these incredible memories of time with her: the first federation meeting at Highlander Center where we put the

first collaborative efforts together for state groups to work together; numerous fed meetings that are punctuated with exclamation points of a WNBA game in Minneapolis, an evening out dancing in Denver, Paula bursting into any number of songs from The Sound of Music, getting to give her an autographed copy of the book written by the actress who played Liesel ..., dinner with her and Suzanne Pharr in San Diego.

“This was all heady stuff for an organizer from New Mexico, getting to be at the table with thinkers like Paula, Urvashi Vaid, Maria Price, Rebecca Isaacs. Immersed in feminist background and theory we came to change the world,” Nieto said.

Nieto added that Ms. Ettelbrick “certainly changed the world for LGBT people all over the world.”

Ms. Ettelbrick is survived by her partner Marianne Haggerty of Manhattan; her former partner Suzanne Goldberg; and their children Adam Ettelbrick, 14, and Julia Ettelbrick, 12.

A memorial service will be announced at a later date.▼

Development Corporation during those years and was loved for his caring attitude. He lived in San Francisco where live theater was his passion, performing with the SF New Shakespeare Company, the Park Presidio Players, and NBC Light Works.

In 1993 he moved to Dearborn Heights, Michigan to take care of family. His life in Dearborn Heights was filled with directing and producing plays for the Dearborn Heights Civic Theatre and won best director three times. In 2003, LaMarr was inducted into the Dearborn Hall of Fame. Never one to avoid controversy, in 2005 he directed the Laramie Project in the face of protest threats from the Phelps church from Kansas. He was a proud gay man and an avid Scrabble player, often participating in competitions.

A memorial service will be held

at the Cherry Hill Baptist Church, Dearborn Heights, MI, at 11 a.m. on Saturday October 29.

Obituary policy Obituaries should be e-mailed toobituaries@ebar. com. They must be no longer than 200 words. Please follow normal rules of capitalization – and no poetry.

We reserve the right to edit for style, clarity, grammar, and taste.

Please provide the name and contact information for the funeral home, crematory, or organ donation agency that handled final disposition of the body. This is for verification.

Please submit a photo of the deceased. E-mail a recent color jpg. Deadline for obituaries is Monday at 9 a.m., with the exception of special display ad obituaries, which must be submitted by Friday at 3 p.m.

For information on paid obituaries, call (415) 861-5019.

Obituaries can be mailed to Bay Area Reporter, 395 9th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Write the deceased’s name on the back of the photo. If you include a SASE for the photo’s return, write the person’s name on the inside of the envelope flap. All obituaries must include a contact name and daytime phone number. They must be submitted within a year of the death.

For archived obituaries, go to www.glbthistory.org/ obituaries.

Alameda to host gay history program compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he Alameda Multicultural Community Center will host “Honoring LGBT Americans in History,” a film screening and panel discussion on Tuesday, October 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Alameda main library, 1550 Oak Street (Stafford Room).

The evening will feature an excerpt from the documentary Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin. Following the film screening, the Reverend Laura Rose of First Congregational Church Alameda, Jim Marcellus of GayStraight Alliance Network, and a representative from Our Family Coalition will participate in a panel discussion in response to the film.

The program is being held in recognition of October as Gay History Month; it is free and open to the public. The library is near AC Transit bus lines 20, 21, and 51A.

Castro Lions fundraiser The Castro Lions will have a beer benefit fundraiser Sunday, October 16 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Edge bar, 4149 18th Street (at Collingwood).

Pedestrian safety meeting at DTNA After two recent pedestrian deaths in the Castro neighborhood, the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association will be discussing the issue at its meeting Monday, September 17 at 7 p.m. at Davies Medical Center. District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the area, will be in

attendance, as will Ed Reiskin, executive director of the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency.

Additionally, San Francisco Police Department officials are expected to be on hand. For more information, visit DTNA’s Facebook page.

rum is free; museum admission is $5. Saint Mary’s is located at 1928 Saint Mary’s Road in Moraga. For more information on the forum and exhibit, visit www.stmarys-ca. edu/arts/hearst-art-gallery/exhibition-schedule.html.

Hetch Hetchy to be focus of talk in Moraga

Memorial for Arthur Evans announced

Restore Hetch Hetchy Executive Director Mike Marshall will headline a forum on the restoration of Hetch Hetchy as part of “The Comprehensive Keith: 100th Anniversary Celebration” exhibition at Saint Mary’s College on Tuesday, October 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Marshall, who is openly gay, is leading an effort to return the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to its natural splendor while continuing to meet the water and power needs for all communities, including San Francisco, that depend on the Tuolumne River.

The exhibit celebrates William Keith, a lifelong friend of naturalist John Muir and features Keith’s panorama of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which he painted after a November 1907 sketching trip to the valley with Muir.

The forum will include Marshall, a representative from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and Michael Marchetti, Ph.D., a professor of biology at Saint Mary’s. The forum is titled “Can – or Should – Hetch Hetchy Valley be Restored?”

The Keith exhibit will be open until 9:30 on Tuesday, and people can view it after the forum. The fo-

A memorial for gay pioneer Arthur Evans will be held Sunday, October 23 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, 100 Collingwood Street in the Castro District.

Mr. Evans, a longtime resident in the Haight, died September 11 when he suffered a heart attack. He was 68.

Organizers said that the memorial, which is open to the public, will be held in the gymnasium so attendees should wear soft-soled shoes.

Early voting has started in SF; voter registration still open The San Francisco Department of Elections has announced that early voting started this week and that people can cast ballots at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Early weekend voting will be held October 29 and 30, and November 5 and 6 (people must enter at Grove Street.)

In other election news, voteby-mail ballots began arriving

in San Francisco. Those can be completed and mailed back to the Elections Department between now and Election Day, November 8. Requests for vote-by-mail ballots must be submitted by 5 p.m. on November 1.

Finally, if you are not registered to vote in the November election, there is still time to register; the deadline for that is Monday, October 24.

People need to re-register if they have moved since the last election.

For more information on the election visit www.sfgov2.org/ index.aspx?page=599.

‘Housewife’ coming to Project Inform event Countess LuAnn de Lesseps from The Real Housewives of New York will be the mistress of ceremonies at Project Inform’s Evening of Hope benefit on Wednesday, October 26 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street in San Francisco.

The event, which features the popular condom couture fashion show, is sure to entertain. De Lesseps, who was trained as a nurse, is a former model. Her courtesy title comes from her former husband, Alexandre, who is a descendant of the architect of the Suez Canal.

The countess also supports AmfAR and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Henry Lucero, deputy executive director for development at Project Inform, said that although the condom couture fashion show

is “whimsical, sassy, and quite glamorous, it is also an event with a message.” This year, the agency will bestow its Thomas M. Kelley Leadership Award to Drs. Mike McCune and Steven Deeks, both of whom blazed trails early in their careers that have had a far-reaching effect on the science of AIDS and who remain committed to research aimed at finding a cure.

The event also serves as a reminder of the work Project Inform does to prevent new cases of HIV. “Even though PI is supporting the use of HIV medications as prevention, there will always be one very inexpensive and simple tool at the heart of efforts to prevent HIV infection – the condom,” said Executive Director Dana Van Gorder. “Evening of Hope glorifies the role that this little piece of latex plays in protecting the beauty of life from a still serious disease.”

Tickets for the event are $175 and available online at www.projectinform.org.▼

On the web Online content this week includes letters to the editor. www.ebar.com.

ebar.com

<< From the cover

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

<<

Seth’s Law

From page 1

“teeth” to what’s being done.

Ammiano said he’s “thrilled” with his proposal becoming law, but he added, “It’s bittersweet.” The youth who have committed suicide after being bullied and harassed “will never be brought back,” and it’s “shameful” that it took Walsh’s death “to make this happen,” he said.

“However,” Ammiano said, “to me, this signifies he didn’t die for nothing.”

American Civil Liberties Union’s California affiliates, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Equality California, and the Trevor Project were the bill’s sponsors.

Brown also signed several other bills co-sponsored by EQCA in the closing days of the legislative session.

The new laws, all of which go into effect January 1, address a variety of issues, including employment and housing protections for transgender people.

EQCA Executive Director Roland Palencia, who announced his resignation from the lobbying group this week, said in a statement that together with supportive legislators, “[W]e have made incredible strides and we know that, even as we celebrate today, we still have important work to do to ensure that all people in our state can live, work and love with dignity, respect and full equality under the law.”

The signings marked the success of what EQCA called “its most ambitious legislative program since the organization was founded in 1998.”

Brown signed two key pieces of legislation specifically related to transgender people.

AB 887, known as the Gender Non-Discrimination Act, clarifies that “gender identity and expression” are protected categories in regards to employment, education, housing, public accommodations, and other settings. Out Assemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) authored the bill.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach),

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EQCA

From page 1

the nonprofit this summer, insisted that the organization is not in crisis.

“There’s no disarray,” she said.

“There’s no chaos. There’s no headless horse.”

Orr also said, “I truly, truly believe that Equality California is in a position to do really incredible things over the next year and beyond, and to grow the organization and to grow the movement.”

EQCA announced last week that it would be moving into a new public education program, the Breakthrough Conversation.

That effort likely will replace Let California Ring, an outreach campaign focused on marriage equality that started in early 2008 and re-launched in 2009 after voters approved Prop 8, California’s samesex marriage ban.

The news of Palencia’s resignation comes during an already busy period for EQCA. In recent days, EQCA has praised Governor Jerry Brown for signing into law 10 of the 12 bills it had sponsored this year. The legislation addresses everything from student bullying to employment and housing protections for transgender people.

One piece of legislation Brown signed in July was Senate Bill 48 – the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act. The law requires school children be taught about LGBTs’ contributions to the state.

a straight ally, wrote the Vital Statistics Modernization Act – AB 433. The legislation makes it easier for transgender people to get a court-ordered gender change and updated birth certificate.

“The barriers that transgender people face are life threatening,” said a statement from the Transgender Law Center, co-sponsor of both bills. “Our victory is a testament that California is at its best when we work together to realize the ideal that everyone should be treated fairly and equally.”

In an interview, Vicki Estrada, the transgender lesbian who owns Estrada Land Planning in San Diego, said many transgender people “are not lucky enough to own their own company, and not lucky enough to have some of the contacts that I did.”

Estrada, who transitioned six years ago, said she feels “really strongly” that the clarity AB 887 is designed to bring “is going to go a long way to making it easier” for employers, as well.

Another prominent piece of legislation Brown signed in July is Senate Bill 48, also known as the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act. SB 48, authored by openly gay Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), requires schools to teach about LGBTs’ historical contributions to the state. Some parts of the law won’t be effective until after January 1.

Gay-Straight Alliance Network co-sponsored SB 48.

Anti-gay activists quickly launched a referendum effort, but this week the act’s opponents warned that they would need a “miracle” to gather the 500,000-plus signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

Brown also approved Leno’s Domestic Partnership Equality Act, SB 651. That legislation corrects three differences between marriage and domestic partnerships, including requirements that same-sex couples live together before entering into a domestic partnership.

Out lesbian state Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) authored the Equal Rights Bill, SB 117, which the governor also signed. It prohibits the state from

entering into contracts of more than $100,000 with companies that discriminate on the basis of the gender or sexual orientation of their employees’ spouses or domestic partners.

SB 182, the Judicial Applicant and Appointment Demographics Inclusion Act, ensures that voluntary data on the gender identity and sexual orientation of potential judges is gathered through the state’s Judicial Applicant Data Report. State Senator Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) authored the legislation.

Another bill that Brown signed was SB 757, the Insurance NonDiscrimination Act. Authored by Senator Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), the legislation closes a California loophole that allows some employers that operate in multiple states to discriminate by not providing the same coverage for domestic partners as they provide for spouses. Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D-Los Angeles) coauthored the bill, which requires that any insurance policy sold or issued in California must comply with the Golden State’s nondiscrimination requirements.

The Protection of Parent-Child Relationships Act, AB 1349, allows courts to consider the relationship between children and their presumed and declared parents when determining parentage. That bill was authored by Assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo). The Academy of California Adoption Lawyers co-sponsored the legislation.

Assemblyman Marty Block (D-San Diego) authored AB 620, which addressees bullying and harassment in higher education.

Anti-gay activists quickly launched a referendum campaign.

This week, however, they announced that they would need a “miracle” to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. The deadline was October 12.

The repeal effort forced Palencia, who most recently had been the community benefits director for L.A. Care Health Plan, to take the lead in the pro-SB 48 campaign almost immediately after he’d started his new job.

When EQCA hired him, Palencia seemed more interested building broad social justice coalitions than doing what the nonprofit is best known for – pushing legislative bills related specifically to LGBTs and raising money.

In an interview with the B.A.R. in mid-July, Palencia spoke of the need to combat homophobia and “create a conceptual framework to intersect the movement.”

During regular conference calls on the effort to fight the SB 48 referendum, Palencia and Orr repeatedly declined to disclose how much money EQCA had raised in the event a full campaign was needed. Both had expressed over the last several weeks that it would not be a surprise if the referendum did qualify for the ballot, given the right wing’s campaign of fear around children being taught about LGBT people.

Palencia said this week that the work around SB 48 was “a huge, huge endeavor, but we pulled it through.” The effort has included

gathering groups ranging from Gay-Straight Alliance Network to California Faith for Equality.

But that coalition never did launch an aggressive decline to sign campaign and while Orr and Palencia said the coalition was gathering research, that information was not released.

While Kors had initiated a lot of the legislative work EQCA had been involved with this year, Palencia said he himself had been “very engaged” in the efforts to get many of the bills “across the finish line.”

He also said he’d been very involved in “raising funds from individuals and foundations, and being out there talking to people.”

Palencia declined to elaborate Tuesday on the “personal” reasons for his departure. He said the decision by EQCA’s board not to push for Prop 8 repeal wasn’t a factor in his resignation.

He wouldn’t say whether he had wanted to go ahead with a Prop 8 repeal effort.

“There were different opinions about Prop 8,” he said. “I think we came to the conclusion not to go back to the ballot.” He added, “I think a lot of us were torn about going back or not going back.”

Palencia said that he had “pretty much” made his decision to leave Monday. He declined to say when he’d started thinking about resigning.

Orr said the board would release a transition plan by Friday.

Palencia’s salary was $170,000.

EQCA, which also includes the

Vetoes Not all of the bills EQCA was involved in were successful. Brown vetoed two proposals that the organization worked on with Kehoe.

SB 747 would have had regulatory boards that license or certify health care professionals require continuing education on LGBT cultural competency in health care.

Brown said in his veto message that “licensing boards are better suited than the Legislature or the

governor to decide these matters.”

SB 416, the Survey Data Inclusion Act, would have added voluntary demographic questions on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, domestic partnership status and spouse’s gender to two key statewide health surveys.

“We can improve health care delivery to LGBT patients by having baseline data of our needs and by having better communication between patients and providers. I intend to find ways to accomplish this even with the vetoes of SB 747 and SB 416,” Kehoe stated.

EQCA spokeswoman Rebekah Orr said in an interview that the organization would look at what to do next. She said Kehoe’s cultural competency proposal is one area of concern, particularly for transgender people.

Other bills The governor also signed several other pieces of legislation that address LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues.

One of those was AB 641, authored by Assemblyman Michael Feuer (D-Los Angeles). It goes into effect January 1 and amends the state’s long-term health care and nursing home benefits under MediCal, extending benefits to nontraditional families.

“When spouses make the difficult decision to place their loved ones in nursing homes, they should concentrate on finding the best possible care. They should not have to worry that their spouse could lose access to joint financial resources and face poverty due to unequal treatment and discrimination,” said Feuer, a straight ally whose district includes West Hollywood.

The bill was introduced in June soon after the federal government issued a memo giving states more leeway to administer Medicaid’s long-term care benefits. Medicaid and Medi-Cal will now both foot the bill for low-income elderly same-sex couples when one partner enters a nursing home, a protection enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.

Massachusetts extended similar rights to same-sex couples in 2008.

Generally, opposite-sex spouses are protected from being forced to

educational affiliate Equality California Institute, has a budget of roughly $6 million to $6.5 million.

Cathy Schwamberger, the institute’s board chair, said in a statement that Palencia had done “important work to build diverse and inclusive coalitions and engage and reconnect our movement.”

She added, “That work has helped to position our movement to fight back against attacks on the LGBT community and protect advances in equality – the effects of which will impact our movement for years to come.”

EQCA board Chair Clarissa Filgioun didn’t respond to interview requests.

Other changes Palencia’s not the only key staffer leaving EQCA. In an email sent by Orr, finance director Steve Mele said that he has accepted a position with the campaign of Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-Nevada), but that he would continue to be involved with EQCA. Mele’s departure was first reported by blogger Michael Petrelis.

Orr said that Andrea Shorter, marriage and coalitions director, and Mario Guerrero, government affairs director, would also be departing.

Shorter and Guerrero both have been working on a part-time basis since the end of September, Orr said.

She said Shorter is continuing her contract through the end of

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relinquish their assets to the state when one partner enters a nursing home. It’s a different story for elderly same-sex partners. Many same-sex or unmarried couples often suffer a similar fate like Harold Scull and Clay Greene, partners for 20 years, who were separated and placed into nursing homes while Sonoma County officials auctioned off their belongings in 2008. The resulting lawsuit against the county was settled in 2010.

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which assisted with Greene’s case against the county, and Feuer applauded Brown’s courage in standing up to protect LGBT senior Californians during a delicate time in their lives.

The new law will protect same-sex couples from “losing their homes or being thrown into poverty” when their partner needs long-term care, said Kendell in a statement to the Bay Area Reporter October 10.

“Under the new law, California same-sex couples will have equal access to the Medicaid spousal impoverishment protections that have protected different-sex couples for decades,” Kendell said.

AB 673, by openly gay Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles), expands the scope of the Office of Multicultural Health to include LGBTs. Brown also signed SB 41, by state Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco). The bill authorizes the sale of clean syringes to adults at pharmacies statewide without a prescription. Access to clean needles has been an important tool in combating the spread of HIV, hepatitis C, and other diseases.

“Improving legal access to sterile syringes for all Californians will save lives. By signing this bill into law, Governor Brown has taken a bold step to implement sound, evidencebased health policy that will deliver results,” stated Courtney MulhernPearson, director of state and local affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, an SB 41 co-sponsor.

The Drug Policy Alliance was the other co-sponsor of SB 41.▼ Heather Cassell contributed to this report.

October.

“There isn’t a solidified end date” for Guerrero’s contract, Orr said.

Shorter said, “technically, yes,” her contract is up at the end of this month.

Asked whether she’d leave after that, she said, “I have no comment on that right now.” She said nobody’s asked her to leave.

“I am always open and willing to serve our movement in a way that keeps us moving forward, and if that is through EQCA, so be it. If not, we’ll still keep moving forward,” Shorter said.

Guerrero didn’t respond to interview requests.

Orr said, “A handful of other junior staff ” had been laid off.

“We’re focusing staff in certain areas where we haven’t had as much staff support, and trying to figure out how to use those resources in the most judicious way,” she said.

EQCA’s looking for someone to fill a single deputy executive director/political director position.

The organization’s staff was at 18 at the beginning of the year and is now at 11. Orr indicated the decline is part of normal fluctuations at the organization. Some of the reduction was due to attrition, she said.

Orr said “at this point,” the figure, which doesn’t include Shorter and Guerrero, wouldn’t be dropping further.

Palencia said he didn’t have any immediate plans for the future, but he said he’d continue to support EQCA financially “and any way I can in a volunteer capacity.”▼

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Community News>>

Hiring study

From page 12

Tilcsik did not look at whether specific employers had corporate anti-discrimination policies. He explained in an interview that getting accurate information on such policies can be difficult, especially for small companies. And, he said, “previous research suggests that such policies often have little effect.”

Another key finding was that the discrimination was based partly on “the personality traits that employers seek” and stereotypical beliefs about gay men.

When job postings used traditional masculine traits like “aggressive or assertive, decisive, or ambitious” to describe an ideal

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Kameny

From page 4

stood the test of time.

He founded the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. in 1961, the first gay group in the city, and sent its mimeographed newsletters to the president and other top government officials. The closeted FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, was so distraught that he sent agents to knock on Mr. Kameny’s door, requesting to be removed from the mailing list. Mr. Kameny refused.

He would help lead many of the first pickets and demonstrations for gay rights, in Washington, in Philadelphia, and in New York. He served on the founding boards of national LGBT organizations. He ran for Congress in 1971, the first openly gay person to have his name on the ballot for federal office.

He was at the center of the action in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.

Mr. Kameny coined his favorite phrase, “gay is good,” in 1968. It was inspired by a television newscast where black civil rights workers were chanting, “Black is beautiful.”

“I realized immediately that the psychodynamics there were identical to ours,” he said. He passed on several options; “Homosexuality was too clinical. Someone suggested gay is great, but that seemed a bit too colloquial.” He settled on “gay is good” as a proactive and affirmative statement. One of the first handmade buttons with that phrase is now in the Smithsonian.

“No one had dared to say in public ever before, or really even to believe

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Out in the World

From page 11

members. It has gained acceptance from corps groups around the world, according to Learned, who came across the first materials developed by volunteers in Kenya in 2004. The LGBT alumni group now hosts Safe Zone training materials developed and authored by Grant Picarillo with his Guatemala Corps group, on its website, said Learned.

“The Peace Corps sees us as an ally and a resource for LGBT people who are interested in the Peace Corps,” said Learned.

The LGBT alumni group is an “invaluable asset to the Peace Corps community,” said Price in an email.

The alumni group and its satellite chapters are overseen by a national steering committee of an estimated 11 board members, said Learned, and operate on an estimated $1,150, according to a 2010 financial statement on its website.

In honor of the group’s 20th anniversary, organizers revamped the website, lgbrpcv.org. The leadership hopes to attract young newly returned Peace Corps volunteers to hand over the helm of the all-volunteer organization, which has been a challenge, Hill and Learned said.

candidate, heterosexual applicants received almost three times as many callbacks as gay ones. When such traits were not part of the job posting, heterosexual applicants received only about one-and-a-half times as many callbacks.

“The discrimination documented in this study is partly rooted in specific stereotypes and cannot be completely reduced to a general antipathy against gay employees,” said Tilcsik. It demonstrates the “potentially powerful effect” of stereotypes on hiring decisions.

Badgett said Tilcsik’s several findings are consistent with previous research in showing “clear evidence of discrimination.”

Tilcsik’s study, she said, is also “good evidence” that employers “are taking sexual orientation into

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

account at an early stage of the [hiring] process.”

But Tilcsik noted that much more research remains to be done on other parts of the LGBT spectrum, other stages of hiring and employment, and “specific factors that might reduce the likelihood of discrimination” such as anti-discrimination laws, public attitudes, and organizational policies.

Tilcsik’s is the first large-scale study to use the objective paired resume approach to explore discrimination against any part of the LGBT spectrum in the United States. Smaller and more subjective studies have indicated that such discrimination exists for lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people as well.▼

for the most part in themselves – gay is good. Almost no one thought so, almost no one agreed with him” at the time, said Clendenin.

One pillar of Mr. Kameny’s activism was opposition to what he called “the gay military ban.” He enlisted in the Army three days before his 18th birthday, in 1943 at the height of World War II. Homosexuals were considered deviants. Regulations excluded them from the military and if discovered within the service, they were court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and sometimes incarcerated.

At his induction, “They asked [about homosexual tendencies]; I didn’t tell, although, as a healthy, vigorous teenager, there were indeed things to tell,” he would write years later. Infantryman Kameny saw combat in Holland and Germany and was awarded the bronze star for his service.

“I didn’t fight to return to secondclass citizenship, or back of the bus status – or off the bus altogether – as the homophobic opposition would consign us,” he would say.

“I am proud of my military service but I have resented for 64 years that I had to lie to my government in order to participate in a war effort which I strongly supported,” Mr. Kameny said at the Smithsonian and on countless other occasions.

Mr. Kameny saw to it that removing the gay military ban was one of the principle objectives of the D.C. Mattachine Society. It picketed the Pentagon in 1965 and 1966 and when Mr. Kameny ran for Congress in 1971, he held a news conference at the Pentagon in the outer office of the secretary of the Army.

He was one of the few people who were openly gay and quoted in the media during those decades and soldiers called him in the middle of the night for help when they were being drummed out of the military.

He became a self-styled paralegal and soon the scourge of the judge advocate corps. His Harvard-trained mind quickly mastered the regulations and he helped to win the fairest possible treatment for countless GIs. Mr. Kameny viewed enactment of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as simply a new incarnation of decades-long discrimination against gays. He was elated when the policy finally was repealed last month.

“Our nation and our movement have lost a tireless advocate for LGBT rights,” Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement.

“Frank Kameny’s long and hard work laid the foundation for much of the progress we see today, and certainly none more so than the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ It was his great wish to see that law relegated to the history books, and we are so proud that he was able to see that day and be a key part of that shared victory.”

Clendinen summed up the institution that was Mr. Kameny: “He never gave up. He never relented. He never gave an inch. He never yielded a single shred of his dignity. And, as time passed, things changed.”

In San Francisco, the rainbow flag at Castro and Market streets will be lowered to half-staff for 24 hours (beginning Wednesday afternoon) in honor of Mr. Kameny. Steve Adams, president of the merchants group that oversees the flag, said the request was made by flag creator Gilbert Baker. ▼

Poland elects transgender member of parliament

UK threatens to cut funding to anti-gay African nations

Anna Grodzka won her bid for a seat in Poland’s lower house October 11, making her the first transgender woman elected to parliament in that country.

Grodzka, 57, founder and president of the NGO Trans-Fuzja, garnered 19,451 votes in the Krakow II electoral district securing her seat, according to media reports.

“Together we strive for a modern and just Poland. The people of Poland, and equal, for our good place to land,” wrote Grodzka, thanking her supporters for their votes on her blog.

Grodzka, a graduate in psychology, transitioned last year but has been involved with transgender activism for four years, according to media reports.

Transgender organizations applauded her victory.

“This is an incredible step forward for Poland,” said Wiktor Dynarski, TGEU CEE Working Group coordinator, in a new release October 11. “We were aware of the fact that Anna’s decision to actually become a candidate would bring a lot more discussion on transgender issues into Polish politics, but we have never even dreamt of achieving such an incredible success!”

Prime Minister David Cameron proposed the day before National Coming Out Day that the UK should financially penalize countries that receive funding from Britain and threaten the rights of LGBT individuals.

Cameron’s proposed announcement targeted Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda. The countries currently receive an estimated $56,257,200, $312,540,000, and $109,389,000 respectively, according to media reports.

Malawi already had its aid cut to $29,691,300 in direct relation to the jailing of gay couple Steven Jonjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, reported Pink Paper.

Cameron’s announced plan, a part of his equality initiative, comes soon after Nigeria legislators re-introduced an anti-same-sex marriage bill. Not everyone is convinced that cutting aid to developing countries with human rights violations, in particular against LGBT individuals, is the right path to take. Cautious activists cited the delicate and sensitive nature aid plays in people’s daily lives and noted it could cause a backlash, making a bleak situation worse, reported LGBT Asylum News.▼

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41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINE EATING PLACE OCT. 13,2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE Dated 9/29/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : WAN LING CHEN,SHOU CHENG LI. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 4543 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 941122603. Type of license applied for:

41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINE EATING PLACE OCT. 13,2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 7/28/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : ALTERNATIVE EATS LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 469 Castro St., San Francisco, CA 94114-2019. Type of license applied for:

47- ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE OCT. 13,2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE Dated 9/30/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : FAR RESTAURANT GROUP INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 969 Hyde St.,San Francisco,CA 94109-4804. Type of license applied for:

41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINE – EATING PLACE OCT. 13,2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE Date of Filing 10/06/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : FLAT OUT CRAZY LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 170 O’Farrell St., San Francisco, CA 94102-2202. Type of license applied for:

47- ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE OCT. 13,2011 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC-11-548018 In the matter of the application of AMY RAPHAEL HANSEN for change of name. The application of AMY RAPHAEL HANSEN for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that AMY RAPHAEL HANSEN filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to AMY RAPHAEL CORSO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 3rd of November, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT15,22,29,OCT.6,2011 \NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 9/22/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : LITTLE VINE LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1541 GRANT AVE., San Francisco, CA 94133-3323.

Type of license applied for:

20- OFF-SALE BEER AND WINE SEPT 29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC-11-548071 In the matter of the application of VERONIKA CAULEY for change of name. The application of VERONIKA CAULEY for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that VERONIKA CAULEY filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to VERONIKA FIMBRES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 22nd of November, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011

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STATEMENT FILE A-033793600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as R.A. MARKETING, 2095 Jackson St.,Apt.204, SF,CA 94109.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Gerard Roy.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 08/31/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033817900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JAKE’S ON MARKET, 2223 Market St., SF,CA 94114.This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Tim Travelstead.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/09/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033780300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as INSCRIBE DIGITAL,444 Spear St.,Suite 213, SF,CA 94105.This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Robb McDaniels.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/25/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033819700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GOLDEN MOUNTAIN CO.,1654 23rd Ave., #4,SF,CA 94122.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Qunhui Qi.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 09/13/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033782400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THUNDERDOG,,4620 17th St., SF,CA 94117.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Eric Flaniken.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/26/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/26/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033792000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.PURELY DELICIOUS,2.PURELY DELICIOUS GIFTS,2023 44TH Ave., SF,CA 94116.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Brendan Witkowski.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 08/31/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033818900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NEAT ASIAN THINGS, 1825 Post St.,#115, SF,CA 94115.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Etsuyoshi Shimada.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033822400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as S.F. HEALTH CENTER,2721 Judah St., SF,CA 94122.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Haobin Fang.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/14/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033821700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.THE MIDNIGHT SUN, 2.MIDNIGHT SUN, 4067 18th St., SF,CA 94114.This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Jeff Eubanks.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033812000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as INDIGO RESTAURANT,687 McAllister St., SF,CA 94102.This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Michael Whang.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/08/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/08/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033826900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as YUGEN DESIGN,1115 Webster St.,#3, SF,CA 94115.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Christina Cavallaro.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/16/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/16/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033817500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as QUINTERO’S RESTAURANT MEXICAN FOOD, 393 Eddy St., SF,CA 94102.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Jose Jaime-Cabello.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 09/12/11.

SEPT22,29,OCT.6,13,2011

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE INTERFAITH OBSERVER, 2107 Van Ness Ave., #300, SF,CA 94109.This business is conducted by a husband and wife, signed Paul C. Chaffee.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/11.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as REAL VOCAL STRING QUARTET, 1336 Carleton St.,Berkeley,CA 94702.This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Alisa Rose.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/28/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/11.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BALBOA LIQUOR AND DELI, 3524 Balboa St., SF,CA 94121.This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Duc Thai.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/05/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/26/11.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033822200

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033845500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as VIBRANT REIKI,399 Arguello Blvd., SF,CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Anna Dorian.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/06.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/11.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BRODERS, 3251 20TH Ave., #255,SF,CA 94137.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Martin J. Carmody.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/27/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/11.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033857600

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033800700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SECURE WEALTH,960 Baker St.,#3,SF,CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Jason Walker.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/11.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/11.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.EMERGENCE, 2. EMERGENCE HEALING ARTS STUDIO, 3. EMERGENCE HEALING ARTS, 4. EMERGENCE HEALING ARTS CENTER, 5. INTEGRATIVE MASSAGE AND TRAUMA HEALING, 6.MASSAGE AND TRAUMA HEALING, 4052 18TH St., SF,CA 94114.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Tiffany Wade.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/23/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/02/11.

SEPT22,29,oct.6,13,2011 statement file A-033802400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PRIDE OF THE FLEET,3150 18th St., #301,SF,CA 94110.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Roscoe Burns.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/06/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/06/11.

SEPT22,29,oct.6,13,2011 statement file A-033803400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MMMASSAGE,930 Sutter St., #408,SF,CA 94109.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Gilbert Colorina.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 09/06/11.

SEPT22,29,oct.6,13,2011 nOTICE OF APPLICATIoN to sell AlCOHOLIC BEVERAGEs Dated 10/04/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : BYUNG ILL LIM. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 201 Pine St.,San Francisco, CA 94104-2701. Type of license applied for:

41- On-sale beer and wineeating place Oct. 6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033827000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PLAY LAND,1351 Polk St., SF,CA 94109.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Steve Schefsky.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 09/16/11.

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033831300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ART CONSTRUCTION,3627 Ortega St.,SF,CA 94122.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Zhiyi Liang.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/11.

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033831400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as A & K CONSTRUCTION,2348 21st Ave., SF,CA 94116.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Xuanfa Zhou.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/11.

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033840300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as S.F. ANTIQUE & DESIGN MALL.,248 Utah St., SF,CA 94103.This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Randall Markins.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 09/26/11.

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033838400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JING YING CHINESE OPERA INSTITUTE., 146 Waverly Pl., SF,CA 94108.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Xiu Ben Chen.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/28/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/23/11.

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033840400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as COPPER BOTANICALS, 226 Ellsworth St., SF,CA 94110.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Deborah Caperton.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/26/11.

sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011

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oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033844100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CITY KIDS DAY SCHOOL,1424 Vallejo St.,SF,CA 94109.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Lisa Baisman.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/11.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033859000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PAPI CHULO SALSA,999 Wisconsin St.,#10,SF,CA 94107.This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Eleanore A, Biggs.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/11.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# cnc-11-548095 In the matter of the application of KAREN YUNGHWA BENE for change of name. The application of KAREN YUNG-HWA BENE for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that KAREN YUNG-HWA BENE filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to KAREN YUNG-HWA CHI BENE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 1st of December, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# cnc-11-548053 In the matter of the application of ARDATH ALEXANDRIA JUDD for change of name and gender. The application of ARDATH ALEXANDRIA JUDD for change of name and gender having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that ARDATH ALEXANDRIA JUDD filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to ARI ALEXANDER ZADEL and his/ her gender be changed from female to male.

Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 17th of November, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 statement file A-033851000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BASHFORD AND DALE,1019 Church St.,SF,CA 94114.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Sarah Bashford.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/29/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/11.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 statement file A-033859400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SHABU HOUSE,2608 Ocean Ave.,SF,CA 94132.

This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Louis Chang-Lo.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 10/03/11.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011

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sept29,oct.6,13,20,2011 nOTICE OF APPLICATIoN to sell AlCOHOLIC BEVERAGEs Dated 10/0611 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : DE PLACE INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 5700 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94121. Type of license applied for:

41- On-sale beer and wineeating place Oct. 13,20,27,2011 nOTICE OF APPLICATIoN to sell AlCOHOLIC BEVERAGEs Dated 09/30/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : MARTIN YAN NOODLES LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 865 Market St.,Suite 490,San Francisco, CA 94103-1900.

Type of license applied for:

47- On-sale general eating place Oct. 13,20,27,2011 Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name: #A-0298818-00 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as INDIGO RESTAURANT,687 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94103.This business was conducted by a limited liability company, signed Greg Medow.

The ficticious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/06.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033845200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAN FRANCISCO BROCHETTE KING, 2227 33rd Ave.,SF,CA 94116.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Peng Qi.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/27/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/11.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033853900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as APARTMENT 24SF,440 Broadway St.,SF,CA 94133.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Michael Lok.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/11.

oct.6,13,20,27,2011 statement file A-033846600

notice of petition to administer estate of : margaret rose marano Case Number: pes-11-295041 superior court of california county of san francisco 400 Mcallister, sf, ca 94102 petitioner: RUBY ALTAMIRANO To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate or both of MARGARET ROSE MARANO A petition for probate has been filed by RUBY ALTAMIRANO in the Superior Court of California, San Francisco County.

The petition for probate requests that RUBY ALTAMIRANO 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: October 24, 2011, 9:00 am Probate Department, RM 204, 400 McAllister Street, 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 a contingent creditor of the decendent, you must file with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within four months from the date of first issuance of letters as provided in Probate Code scetion 9100. The time for filing claims will not expire before four months from the hearing date noticed above. 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 the petitioner:

CATHERINE A.TULLNER-SBN 253154,799 Castro Street,San Francisco, Ca 94114.

415-294-0829

oct.6,13,20,2011 statement file A-033869400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PIG AND PIE,2962 24TH St.,SF,CA 94110.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Miles Pickering.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 10/06/11.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 statement file A-033866000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GUERRERO HILL MARKET,3398 22nd St.,SF,CA 94110.This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Chris Rantisi.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 10/05/11.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 statement file A-033863400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DAMON DOGG STUDIOS,20 Navajo Ave., SF,CA 94112.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Kacy French.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/04/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/11.

Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name: #A-0331087-00 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as GIOVANNI’S PIZZA BISTRO,3839 Mission St.,San Francisco, CA 94110.This business was conducted by a limited liability company, signed Maricela Perez. The ficticious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/10.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011

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oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 statement file A-033866600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GIOVANNI’S PIZZA BISTRO,3839 Mission St., SF,CA 94110.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Eddy Sosa.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/06/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/11.

oct.13,20,27,nov 3,2011 statement file A-033854000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FULLER SAFETY,182 Flood Ave.,SF,CA 94131.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Barbara Ann Fuller.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 09/27/11.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TRANSWAY,524 Union St., SF,CA 94133.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Vitaly Danekin.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 09/29/11.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as ASPIRE CONSULTING,1032 Irving St.,#312,SF,CA 94122.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Tom Hehir.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/09/96. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/06/11.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as INDO BALI,343 Kearny St., SF,CA 94108.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Vena Shotiveyaratana.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 10/11/11.

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24

Mama Roma

26

Meatyard masterworks

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31

Celebrating Gage

O&A Out &About

The

Vol. 41 • No. 41 • October 13-19, 2011

www.ebar.com/arts

Mean girl

‘The Bad Seed’ haunts the Castro Theatre

T

Film actress Patty McCormack.

>>

Patty McCormack as little Rhoda Penmark, with doll.

o moviegoers, little Rhoda Penmark is a frightening vision. She was a child who knew how to get what she wanted, and she didn’t care whom she had to kill. But P Patty McCormack, who at age 11 scored an O Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Rhoda, jjust wanted to be like other girls. Born Patricia E Ellen Russo in Brooklyn, New York, she recalled h her attempt at going to school with other kids.

“A “Acting was totally not my choice,” she said in a te telephone interview with the B.A.R. “I was four. If yo you say you want to be a doctor at age four, they do don’t rush you off to medical school.” She enjoyed th the work, she said, yet she also yearned for a more sta stable life.

“I had mixed wishes,” she said. “I wanted to be my big sister, who had a nice life in Staten Island.

I wanted her life. I wanted to go home. Home was Brooklyn, where my father was. I wanted to go home and be a child in that house, and go to school.”

For a brief period during her teen years, Patty attended class at New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst section. But this was after her Oscar nomination, after her appearances in other films as well as numerous television roles.

She couldn’t be an anonymous student. She was

by David-Elijah Nahmod

mobbed by other kids, and bumped in the hallways.

“But I’m glad I tried.”

These days, Patty McCormack pursues parts on her own terms. She has let go of the past. “I want to look ahead,” she said. “I don’t want to glamorize looking back. I don’t want to belabor the past.”

One recent role that she’s particularly proud of is her portrayal of the late first lady Pat Nixon in Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon. “I went into the reading with a wig, after looking at pictures of Pat. I got the role the old-fashioned way: I turned myself into the character. It’s so much fun to play someone who isn’t you.” She found Howard to be easy-going, and was impressed with co-star Frank Langella’s intensity.

“He was always in character as Richard Nixon, he never communicated with me. It played well, like the real Pat Nixon marriage.”

After all these years, McCormack is delighted if slightly astonished to attend a screening of The Bad Seed at the Castro Theater. The showing, this Saturday, Oct. 15, is the latest grand extravaganza brought to us by impresario Marc Huestis.

“During my transition to adulthood, it wasn’t considered fashionable to talk about what you did, only what you were doing. Now, everything is honored.”

See page 33 >>

Courtesy Outsider Enterprises

Reality sandwiches 10th San Francisco DocFest highlights

by David Lamble

F

or both film buff and critic, the 10th annual SF DocFest (Roxie Theater, 10/14-27; Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, 10/14-20), spanning the end of baseball weather and the arrival of Gilroy’s giant pumpkins and SF’s Halloween bashes, provides a chance to catch something much better than reality TV. These feature-length docs can be about absolutely anything: this year, ranging from belly dancers to summer camps, truly obscure punk bands to a moving tale of boys becoming soldiers in a land time forgot. Plus special parties and DocFest blowouts like the 80s New Wave SingAlong (Roxie, 10/15).

Donor Unknown Jerry Rothwell’s 2008 short Song of a Sperm Donor, about SoCal Jeffrey and his huge brood of spermdonation kids, seemed like a black-humor spoof straight out of Terry Southern.

This witty and moving full-length sequel follows Jo-Ellen Marsh as she travels from her two-mom Pennsylvania home to a Venice beach where Jeffrey parks his RV. It’s one thing to meditate about Donor 150, and quite another to greet the dog-loving, aging hippie from whom you derive your forehead, eyebrows and a burgeoning universe of half-siblings. There are subtle issues of class and lifestyle as the kids See page 32 >>

SF DocFest

So-called “Donor 150” Jeffrey, in Jerry Rothwell’s Donor Unknown.

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

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Dr. Feelgood

by Roberto Friedman

A

small but distinguished group of gay male artists, photographers, scholars and writers convened at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco last Friday night to honor pioneering gay pornographer Joe Gage, who had just been awarded an honorary doctorate in sexology by the Institute. Dr. Jerry Zientara, IASHS Librarian and Curator for the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas, bestowed the laurels.

Gage’s seminal gay pornos (Kansas City Trucking Co., L.A. Tool and Die), which first appeared in the 1970s, were groundbreaking in their depictions of gay male sexuality and hugely influential in their depictions of gay men as virile sex machines.

He told us that his depictions of masculinity were very much intentional – that he was fed up with Hollywood stereotypes of gay

men at the time, as either flamers or drag queens. So he set his action in blue-collar, no-glam locales like greasepits and gearworks.

A glance at his filmography reveals such titles as Tulsa County Line, Men’s Room: Bakersfield Station and Back to Barstow. We asked if geographical names had intrinsic sex appeal for him. Yes, Gage said, there are some location names that are sexy, others that are not. Colorado, for example, will never appear in one of his titles, whereas Texas has the stench of sex upon it. We know we’re long overdue for an Alabama Takedown!

All in all, it was a butch little confab of fascinating sex talk.

Attendees included artist Dan Becker, art photographer Michael Rosen, author Will Roscoe, and composer John Kyrk. Gage, who makes his home in Amagansett, NY, was on a whirlwind visit to SF, jetting off the next morning. Thanks to these committed sexologists for

getting it on. Check out John F. Karr’s column this week for more fun & sexpertise.

African outreach A group of professional ballet dancers has come together to support orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda, a nation hit hard by HIV/AIDS. The event will include two pas de deux by worldclass dancers, a newly created film, a silent auction, and a wine and cheese reception. Dancing for Uganda, an evening of dance, film, and spirits, takes place this Sat., Oct. 15, 7 p.m. at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, SF. The performance will include renowned dancers Sarah Van Patten and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba in After the Rain, by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon; Frances Chung and Joan Boada in Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers, by San Francisco Ballet artistic director Helgi Tomasson; a song by Nigerian singer and songwriter Nkechi; and a short film newly created by dancers and friends.

All proceeds go to Children of Uganda’s (COU) music and dance program, to support their upcoming Tour of Light in January 2012.

COU serves hundreds of children, providing them with clothing, food, shelter, medical care, and education, including a strong program in traditional African music and dance. The Tour of Light, which has visited the US seven times in COU’s 16 years, aims to raise awareness of the plight of orphaned children in Uganda today, while sharing African culture with American audiences. For tickets, go to: www. dancingforuganda.eventbrite.com.

Here’s another tip from the world of dance. On Oct. 18 & 19, RAWdance premieres A Public Affair, a new duet for artistic directors Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, during dinner at chef Elizabeth Falkner and Sabrina Riddle’s Orson. Performed to a track by Tangled Duo, an ensemble comprised of husband-and-wife team Sarn Oliver and Mariko Smiley of the San Francisco Symphony, A Public Affair pairs creative California cuisine with “a side of violins and a dash of dance.” The 10-minute dance will be performed twice nightly at

Rick Gerharter

Joe Gage and Dr. Jerry Zientara display Gage’s honorary doctorate from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

approximately 7 & 8:30 p.m. The performance will be viewable by both diners and patrons of the bar and lounge. Smith said, “Since this is such a foodie city, creating a work for dinner feels like a surprisingly logical fit. And thankfully Orson is willing to take the risk of some flying napkins and dancers.”

Fassbinder 4ever Here’s an opportunity to see a dazzling new 35mm restored print of the Rainer Werner Fassbinder scifi spectacle World on a Wire (1973), paired with Fassbinder’s other great television epic, the masterful Berlin Alexanderplatz (1979-80), in 35mm restored prints from Germany. They play the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, Oct. 14-28 in a series curated by PFA Senior Film Curator Susan Oxtoby.

Pace PFA: Fassbinder (194582) went from enfant terrible to being the driving force behind the New German Cinema and one of the most influential artists of the postwar European scene. With a stock team of collaborators from an antiteater troupe, Fassbinder created a mirror for postwar German society in the individual souls of his characters. This reprise of his work, with a series of his feature films soon to follow, will introduce a new generation of viewers to the deeply felt humanity his films daringly explore.

World on a Wire (Welt am draht) screens Fri., Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. PFA says: “Largely unseen since its 1973 broadcast on German television, the restoration of Fassbinder’s cyberpunk precursor brings to mind The Matrix or Tron, but with its own astounding visual style. Director of photography Michael Ballhaus, who supervised the restoration, mounts a riot of reflected, refracted, and severely fragmented images in the service of a prescient story concerned with the illusory nature of reality

and the subjectivity of perception.

Subverting the material with characteristic elements of camp, pastiche, and Sirkian melodrama, Fassbinder lends the film his distinctive sensibility, and it is all the richer for it.” Written by Fassbinder and Fritz MüllerScherz. With Klaus Löwitch, Ulli Lommel, Barbara Valentin, Günter Lamprecht. (In German with English subtitles, from Janus Films/Criterion Collection.)

Berlin Alexanderplatz (197980) screens Oct. 16-28, see PFA listings. “Restored in 2006, it’s the summa of Fassbinder’s art and the culmination of his lifelong relationship to Alfred Döblin’s monumental novel of 1920s Berlin. Fassbinder pours knowing tenderness into the characterization of Franz Biberkopf, an unemployed lumpen worker who earns his living as a thief and pimp following a stint in jail for murdering his mistress.

Franz is a jovial if explosive figure in the Alexanderplatz district of Berlin, a man with optimistic dreams, a determination to go straight, and an absurd faith in love. The film chronicles the destruction of this faith, amid the poverty, hypocrisy, and violence of Berlin in the years just before Nazism took full hold.

“At 15 and a half hours, Alexanderplatz comes closer than most film experiences to the engagement that a good novel offers.

The beauty, richness, and cohesion of Fassbinder’s style can here be fully appreciated as it links one chapter to the next.” Written by Fassbinder, based on the novel. Photographed

by Xavier Schwarzenberger. With Günter Lamprecht, Barbara Sukowa, Gottfried John, Barbara Valentin, Hanna Schygulla. (In German with English subtitles, from Bavaria Film International.)

Berlin Alexanderplatz, divided into 13 parts and an epilogue, will be screened in its entirety over four days. More info: (510) 642-1412.▼

RAWdanceSF

RAWdance co-artistic director Wendy Rein will perform at Orson.

▼

Music >>

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Conductor Vasily Petrenko.

Mark McNulty

Eternal youth

by Philip Campbell

T

here were some unexpected hits and misses on the schedule of the San Francisco Symphony during the last two weeks at Davies Hall. A highly anticipated premiere turned out to be not such a big thing after all, an American superstar delivered the goods with reliable virtuosity, and a talented guest conductor resurrected a great English symphony from the late Edwardian past.

Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko made a favorable impression with his SFS debut in 2010, conducting music of Grieg and Shostakovich, but that did little to prepare us for the surprisingly mature grasp he exhibited last week with the noble and restless Symphony No. 1 of Edward Elgar. The First Symphony was born during a time of rigid class consciousness and great social change in Britain, and perhaps that is why it still resonates today. Elgar was an unhappy man of talent and genius, but he couldn’t easily resolve his own conflicts and resentments about his humble beginnings.

He was also an Englishman to the core, and his feelings are apparent with every controlled emotion that tries to break free. That peculiarly British way of smiling through clenched teeth and misty eyes is there in each broad and comforting melody, and every moment of pomp and circumstance.

Petrenko started slowly (way too slowly), but he soon got the tempo right, and what followed was sheer symphonic pleasure. The orchestra responded beautifully to his lithe and clear leadership, playing with clarity and a suitable gravitas. Looking very young (a little like actor Ryan Gosling), Petrenko, at 35, has one big career started, but he also shows he can share the spotlight. The first half of his recent concert bill was partnered with another eternally youthful star, violinist Joshua Bell.

Now approaching his mid-40s (horrors!), Bell is looking only slightly older than the fresh-faced kid who has been wowing us for years. His career has never been hurt by his looks or all-American-boy biography, but his place in the stratosphere of serious musicianship has been most properly secured by his unassailable taste and technique.

It is easy to admire Bell for his pleasant professionalism and even easier to love the sweetness and strength of his tone, his intelligent choice of repertoire and the way he dashes off these bravura pieces with such incredible aplomb. Bell gave us a lovely Tchaikovsky Meditation (arranged by Glazunov from Souvenir d’un lieu cher) to start off.

It amounted to more of a beautiful reverie than very deep thought, but it was sensibly reassigned on the program to serve as more of a set-up than an encore to the Glazunov Violin Concerto in A minor that followed.

Here is where my appreciation of

Bell’s taste comes from. He is a big enough star now to play whatever he wants and still fill every seat in the house. So he doesn’t trot out the big warhorses of the repertoire, rather he showcases a less familiar but equally demanding violin concerto. Bell tore through the charming Glazunov with equal amounts of wit and fiery passion. Conductor Petrenko saw to it that the star was never upstaged, but supported throughout with a backdrop of orchestral excellence.

North star The week before brought the much talked about and, as it turned out, slightly oversold first SFS performances of English composer Thomas Ades’ Polaris.

Commissioned by the New World Symphony, partnered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the New York Philharmonic, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), the Barbican (London), the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony with support from the Jacqueline Hoefer Fund, it takes more time to list the provenance of Polaris than it does to hear it played.

Don’t get me wrong, I was every bit as excited as every other pundit about the local premiere of a work by a composer I genuinely believe to be not only the next big voice in music, but the current and best hope of serious modern music.

It doesn’t take much time to enter the world of Thomas Ades. Most of his scores, the big theater pieces aside (most notably, his marvelous opera The Tempest), are concise and accessible. There isn’t a trace of pandering or pop vulgarity. The composer is building a remarkable catalogue of works at 40, and he is also an accomplished pianist with a much-lauded concert recital career.

Unfortunately, all the pre-publicity about the vastness, cleverness and huge ambition of Polaris simply wasn’t apparent in actual performance. Maybe it was better at the original premiere in Miami. It is a characteristically brief (15 minutes) and attractive piece that might work better as a curtain-raiser to a full evening of Ades works.

Stationed onstage and about the house (mostly in the terrace behind the orchestra), the “glittering” instruments of the orchestra (as conductor and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas called them) – horns, percussion and keyboards – launched Polaris with a thrilling opening. Screens above the orchestra displayed a three-panel visual accompaniment by video artist Tal Rosner that amounted mostly to a day at the beach observing two attractive young women, dressed in retro fashion like my old Mod college roommates, climbing rocks, gathering seaweed and looking out to sea (it’s vast, you know).

See page 26 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

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Theatre >>

Capo crusaders

by Richard Dodds

L

ast year, local playwright Morgan Ludlow pulled off an implausible bit of successful theatrics in Nymph O’ Mania, a loosely rendered modern variation on A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which psilocybinlaced punch brought out both laughs and surprisingly thoughtful introspection at a wedding party.

In Arriverderci Roma, Ludlow’s latest play presented by Wily West Productions at StageWerx, he again throws an oddball concoction of ingredients into the punchbowl, but the results never quite blend.

The setup is the meeting of two Mafia-type families after the patriarch of one dies and his widow now wants not only to run her late husband’s business, but also to take down her main competition. The overall tone might best be described as “wacky,” but it’s a helter-skelter wackiness that doesn’t often find the rhythms and tones to make the absurdities pay off.

When crime boss Alfredo (Keith Jefferds) and his wife Gouda (Barbara Van Dermeer) accept the invitation of mob widow Roma (Gabrielle Patacsil) for a homecooked dinner that could be either a peace negotiation or a set-up, they arrive to find their favorite capo (Christopher Morrell) bound and gagged and wearing a tiara and a tutu.

There are some mild laughs as the gagged Grigio tries to communicate via mumbles. Even when Gouda and Grigio are left alone, she doesn’t think to remove the gag as she

Courtesy Wily West Productions

A mob widow (Gabrielle Patacsil) toys with one of her rival’s capos (Christopher Morrell) in a scene from the new play Arriverderci Roma at StageWerx.

carries on a conversation in a dithery manner that recalls Gracie Allen’s genial obliviousness.

More humor is meant to be mined from the incongruity of getting a veal dish cooked right even as each faction is ready to kill the other, though it doesn’t really pay off. Roma has her own assistant, the androgynous Snapper (Wesley Cayabyab), who occasionally breaks out into martial-arts moves. And in a jolting interlude that suggests the “Pow! Bam! Zonk!” scenes in the Batman TV series, the entire cast breaks into a brief karate-kick dance number.

On opening night, there was some line-delivery hesitancy that sapped some of the comic energy

that director David Stein has some trouble sustaining. There are some serious moments, though it would be unfair to give away the big reveal, and the final scene ends on a rather somber note.

When characters have such surnames as Arugula, Ragu, and Chianti, it’s an easy signal that the main mood is light-hearted. But even a loony-tune world needs bedrock off which the humor can bounce. Veal may be the main course in the play, but it tastes more like flounder.▼ Arriverderci Roma will run at StageWerx through Oct. 29.

Tickets are $24. Go to www.wilywestproductions.com.

Books >>

Bonding with gender

by Jim Piechota Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels by Justin Bond; The Feminist Press, $16.95 paper & e-book

F

www.ebar.com

or the great sake of proper names, political correctness, pronoun accuracy, and the reluctance of this reviewer to piss off anyone important, we’ll call the New York City-based singer, songwriter, and Tonynominated transgender performance artist Mx. Justin Vivian Bond by the preferred “V.” And just leave it at that.

The list of accomplishments this artist has racked up is astounding: V is one-half of performance duo Kiki & Herb, and has appeared on and off Broadway and at Carnegie Hall (“twice”) to critical acclaim; V released two musical CDs and a DVD, and has appeared in John Cameron Mitchell’s film Shortbus, among others, and on television in Ugly Betty and Late Night with Conan O’Brian.

And that’s just a small sampling of a much larger repertoire. A slight,

potent taste of this largerthan-life entertainer can be found in V’s new book Tango, a slender, uneven, anecdotal collection of vignettes describing the childhood and adolescence of this unique persona.

In the book’s lovely preface, Hilton Als, a writer at The New Yorker, calls Bond “Mx.,” a surname pronounced “mix” that V prefers (as noted on his website) because it “clearly states a trans identity without amplifying a binary gender preference.” For V, gender-bending has been innate since grade school, where wearing lipstick was a natural part of life’s “glamour rituals,” much to his mother’s chagrin. Now 40something, the popular performer admits in the book to being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and mild depression, but trudges onward with lively discussions of his Hagerstown, MD childhood as an active Cub Scout obsessed with gowns, while wanting “to be just like Sandy Duncan and survive a brain tumor so that everyone would know what I was made of.”

V’s first sexual misadventures at Scout camp are hilarious: “Bobby said, ‘Blow me, blow me.’ I had no idea what that meant, so I began to blow on his penis.” V eventually mastered oral sex with longtime best buddy Michael, and ditched the huge Christian crosses worn around his neck since “I didn’t really like being called a Jesus freak any more than I liked being called a fag.” Attending college during the height of the AIDS crisis, V somberly writes, “While most of the gay boys in my college class

were experimenting sexually, I was trying to find true love. Most of those boys are dead now.”

V’s engaging story meanders up and over his youth, then abruptly ends with the disclosure of now being “gratefully childless” and mid40something. The unexpected ending of the book comes as a shock and a surprise. Readers will be left wanting more: more modern experiences, more “now-moments,” life on the road with a traveling chanteuse, something more tangible, perhaps.

Whether fans will feel shortchanged or not, Tango is a witty, sardonic, sassy and thoughtful little book. In 134 pages, V’s short memoir draws us in closer to the multi-talented performer who identifies as neither male nor female, but is wholly consumed with the art and dance of life and show.

Just don’t call V “he,” which noted gay author Benoit Denizet-Lewis See page 25 >>

▼

Film >>

DaOctober 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Anna Kendrick and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in director Jonathan Levine’s 50/50, now in theaters.

Survival kit

by David Lamble

I

n the brilliant cancer comedy 50/50, frightened, nervous 27-year-old public radio employee Adam has that dinner chat with the parental units that nobody relishes.

Speaking barely above a whisper to his emotionally overwrought mom (Anjelica Huston) and his early-stage Alzheimer’s dad (Serge Houde), with his girlfriend Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard) at his side, Adam (another career high for Joseph Gordon-Levitt) mutters, “Remember Terms of Endearment?”

That 50/50 is not a rude boys’ Terms of Endearment is less important than the splendid highwire buddy film that it is. Based on the real-life story of its young screenwriter Will Reiser, who survived spinal cancer, the movie is a no-holds-barred tale of two immature lads getting a wakeup call which causes them to grow up before our amused eyes. GordonLevitt’s emotionally nimble Adam bonds hilariously with bro-mance scary guy Seth Rogen to produce a comedy/drama that faces up to cancer’s all-too-real sting while skewering the new sentimental pieties of the “wellness” industry.

There will be some in the queer audience who will find the boys’ night-out edge a little off-putting, but I think it’s an appropriate response to the sea of soap opera gals’ films that completely trivialize hetero guy issues. Instead of another annoying sexist male comedy, 50/50 has great fun with male bonding.

Early on, Rogen and Levitt explore the verbal/physical dimensions of their “relationship.” Adam doesn’t drive, so Rogen’s Kyle adds chauffer to his resume. As Adams buckles up in the shotgun seat, Kyle takes a whiff.

“Did you shampoo with jam?”

“I ran out, I borrowed Rachel’s shampoo.”

“You smell like you fucked the cast of The View.”

The flip side of 50/50’s buddy flick is its tricky juggling of female

<<

Tango

From page 24

made the mistake of doing in a New York Times review where he, some say, is guilty of intentionally misgendering V, even though V’s gender-identifying intentions were made clear at the outset of the piece. The requisite firestorm of rebuttals ensued, even

energy. While Rachel becomes the cover girl for clueless, insensitive, two-timing mates – Bryce Dallas pulls this difficult character off with aplomb – the astonishing Anna Kendrick once again demonstrates her agility at playing strong women with possibly ball-crushing agendas. Playing Adam’s 24-yearold therapist fresh out of grad school Dr. Katherine “Katie” McKay, Kendrick gets off on the wrong foot by pushing the guy, still reeling from his diagnosis, to surrender to one of her therapy mantras.

“How do you feel?”

“I can’t remember feeling so calm in a long time.”

“Wouldn’t you describe what you’re feeling right now as a kind of numbness?”

“No, I’d say calm!”

Kendrick’s Katie becomes the slyly funny face of a young ambitious woman who’s neither hard nor a pushover. Observing pros like Kendrick and Gordon-Levitt spin their sardonic cute-meet scenes is like a rematch of Hepburn/Tracy.

Stolen as it is from Will Reiser’s real-life cancer wars (with Rogen creating a fictional version of the best friend he actually was and is to Reiser), 50/50 has harrowing cancer-ward moments, like Adam’s diagnosing doc with his icy cold, insensitive bedside manner.

The film’s great set-piece is the classic shave-him-bald haircut that Kyle reluctantly administers to Adam. On a press tour for the movie, Reiser and Gordon-Levitt joked on Fresh Air about how Joe’s bald head stood the big-screen magnification test, meaning no unsightly bumps or patchy hairline.

In the movie, Adam adjusts to his hairless look with a wool cap, eventually yielding to Kyle’s urging that he chase after women, playing the cancer-guy sympathy card for all its worth. The Adam/Kyle exchange makes the best of the gay subtext in even the most sensitive bro-mances.

“I look pretty good.”

“I’d fuck you!”

forcing the newspaper to change the review’s header. Yeesh.

While I’m all for the freedom of personal expression, at what point did self-identification become such a prickly, complicated issue? I’m just hoping that I got all the he’s and she’s in the right place for this piece.

I’ll be hiding in the men’s room if you need me. ▼

Director Jonathan Levine, who did such a nifty job with the sweet coming-of-age sleeper The Wackness, here is equally adroit in pulling off some cross-generational hot-button humor, including the moment when a grouchy, aging cancer survivor (Philip Baker Hall) has to practically twist Adam’s arm to get him to indulge in the patients’ ample stash of medical pot.

One comes away from a first viewing of 50/50 giddy with the possibilities it suggests for a run of hetero romance comedies that queers can share and emulate without wincing. ▼

ebar.com

<< Fine Art

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

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Unsettling landscapes

by Sura Wood

R

bartabsf.com

alph Eugene Meatyard may be the most intriguing photographer you’ve never heard of. A Kentucky optician by trade, he picked up a square, mediumformat camera, and in his spare time, began shooting close to home, taking pictures of his wife and three children. What began as a hobby developed into a series of provocative photographic investigations.

Though acknowledged as an important artist and appreciated within an informed coterie of photographers, philosophers, writers and gallerists, Meatyard is by no means a household name. He labored in obscurity, far away from the glare and scrutiny of L.A. and New York, for the majority of his short career, from the mid-1950s through the early 70s, and photographed to please an exacting audience: himself. In a fertile and all-too-brief period (he died of cancer in 1972 at age 47), he produced a potent, off-center and transfixing body of work.

If not for his mentor Van Deren Coke, who headed the local camera club in Lexington, Kentucky, before becoming director of SFMOMA’s photography department (197987), it’s unlikely we’d be privy to the exciting, not-to-be-missed new show at the de Young that features over 50 of Meatyard’s ambiguous, unsettling black-and-white photographs.

It’s bracing to dive into the uncharted territory of the enigmatic psyche behind this particular series, where Meatyard trained his eye on a narrow line of inquiry: dismembered dolls and the disturbing psychological implications of masks, which prompt questions of identity and mutability, and deprive us of an essential key to reading the signals of our fellow humans, their facial expressions.

The pictures intimate that people have multiple faces, though the same could be said of the complicated man behind the camera. Shot against an identical brick background, a set of seven photos of Meatyard’s son, donning different masks and adopting a slightly different posture in each picture, illustrates the point.

A sense of dislocation, mystery and a restless heart pervade the imagery; things are not where or what they should be, like the masked figure that sits in a banged-up rowboat marooned in a field of dying grass, and brandishes a second mask attached to a blonde wig. A mask sits on a window sill, quietly waiting for a host, but for the most part, the oversize masks are worn by children, whom Meatyard photographed in weed-strewn landscapes, abandoned houses, deteriorating rooms with shabby furnishings, graveyards, dilapidated stone entryways and caves. Not exactly your parents’ notion of family photography, perhaps, but irresistible nonetheless.

At a time when many of his contemporaries were taking to the streets, pointing-and-shooting on the run, documenting real life, Meatyard went counter to trend, staging and controlling imaginary realities he conceived, evoking private, forbidden interior worlds. He once said he never took an accidental photograph, and these images, with their orchestrated compositions, props, and posed, costumed subjects whose large masks overwhelm small bodies, are every bit as calculated as a theatrical

<<

SF Symphony

From page 23

The big tune that threads throughout and the gorgeous orchestration (shout out to Robin Sutherland on piano) made this performance, regardless of the

Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Untitled (ca. 1962), by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, gelatin silver print, museum purchase, John Pritzker Fund.

Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Untitled (ca. 1961), by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, gelatin silver print, gift of Christopher and Diane Meatyard.

performance. Coke recalled that Meatyard “carried in the trunk of his car an assortment of flags, artificial flowers, masks, and odds and ends that he had picked up in thrift shops and junkyards. These he would arrange on gravestones, in rooms with cracked and broken windows, or in decaying hallways where dank layers of wallpaper were peeling off the walls.”

In one image, masks are impaled on the posts of an iron fence, a mannequin’s head lays sideways on top of a stone pillar, broken dolls are on the ground, and a child, barely visible, stands in the shade off to the right. In another, a child leaning against the stone frame of a broken window, with a doll protruding from his pocket, wears an old man’s wrinkled visage. In a similarly-themed picture of the disconcerting collision of age and youth, a disproportionately large, gnarled hand emerges from the sleeve of a child wearing an older man’s mask; yet another boy stands in a doorway surrounded by overgrowth as a disembodied forearm offstage reaches into the frame and clasps his hand. A grouping of kids in masks and sunglasses, seated on some steps outdoors, and a related image of mischievous buddies shot in front of

a cavern, have the casually anarchic spirit of teenagers cutting class, or the cultivated rebel stance of a rock band on an album-jacket photo.

Reactions to Meatyard’s photographs say more about the beholder than the artist’s intentions.

In his view, dolls, seen more often than not with their heads separated from their bodies, added what he called “a feeling of humanness,” but they’re also familiar horror-movie tropes – see the creepy trio of dolls’ heads in various states of damage and disrepair – as are masks: remember Freddie Krueger? Halloween?

Poetry, a form that shows rather than tells, hints rather than explains, is a crucial component of Meatyard’s work. Catholic author/philosopher Thomas Merton and poets such as Wendell Berry were among his circle of literary friends. But if you’re looking for illumination, you won’t find it from the photographer, who was famously taciturn when it came to editorializing about his work. He left it others to interpret, decipher and read into it whatever they chose.

In other words, you’re on your own, and as lost as the children in these neglected landscapes, somewhere between the Twilight Zone and the backwoods. (Through Feb. 26.) ▼

unobtrusive video and colorful stage lighting, a memorable experience.

Like all of Ades’ music, Polaris is concise and brilliant. This time, hype got in the way of happening.

The rest of the concert included a fine Mozart Symphony No. 35 Haffner and a truly definitive performance of the 1947 version of

Stravinsky’s Petrushka. MTT may not be my go-to guy with Mozart, though this was a fine and richly textured performance, but he is my hero with Stravinsky. This was a delight and revelation from start to finish. We will never cease to be impressed by Stravinsky’s towering genius, and obviously, neither will MTT.▼

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

<< Out&About

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

The Hula Show

Jeffrey Eugenides @ Books Inc Opera Plaza Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the acclaimed Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides reads from and discusses his latest book, The Marriage Plot. 7pm. 601 Van Ness Ave. www.booksinc.net

Hella Gay Comedy @ La Estrellita Café, Oakland Charlie Ballard hosts another night of multiculti queer yet totally un-PC comedy, with Nick Leonard, Jill Borque, Jenn Dronsky, Cassandra Gorgeous, Morgan, Erin Beiber, Colin Holtz, Sugar Baby, Toni Devereaux and Kristee Ono. Full bar/dining available. $10. 21+. 9pm. 446 E. 12th St. (510) 891-0972. www.charlieballard.com

Guy lines

by Jim Provenzano

Y

es, this week’s lead items include a bit of beefcake. No, I doubt you’ll mind.

The Hula Show, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu’s annual concert, includes a new collaboration with the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, a global tour of dance and song, and the premiere of Hanohano Kapalakiko, a suite of chants composed by Puakea Nogelmeier that celebrate the indelible bond and long historical ties between Hawai’i and San Francisco. $35-$45.

Opens Saturday, October 15. 8pm (VIP post-show reception, $90). Also Oct 16, 4pm, and Oct. 21-23, Fri & Sat 8pm, Sun 4pm. (Oct. 22 Lu’au pre-party, 5:30pm, with VIP seats $150). Oct. 23, 12pm family and kids show $10. 3301 Lyon St. at Bay (limited parking). 392-4400. www. naleihulu.org RJ Muna Alonzo King’s The fall season of Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet Lines Ballet includes a world premiere dramatizing the Sephardic diaspora, set to traditional sephardic music performed by Zakir Hussain, plus King’s Who Dressed You Like a Foreigner? and gorgeous men and women dancers. $15$65. 8pm. October 15-23. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Thu 7:30pm. Sun 5pm. Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. www.linesballet.org It’s back! It’s front(al). Directorplaywright Ronnie Larsen returns with a new production of Making Porn, his popular play about, well, making porn, starring muscle stud Matthew Rush, with guaranteed male nudity; adults only! $25-$50. Thu 8pm. Fri & Sat 7pm & 10pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Oct. 29.

Box Car Theatre, 125A Hyde St. www.ronnielarsen.com Making Porn

Fri 14 >> Arab Film Festival @ Various Cinemas

Diverse array of dramas and documentaries about the Egyptian uprising, Iraq and Lebanon wars, family drama, women’s rights and other themes. Opening night film Egyptian Maidens at the Castro theatre, Oct 13. $25. 7:30pm. $10-$120 (full pass). Also at Embarcadero Cinema, SF, Shattuck Cinema, Berkeley and Camera 12, San Jose. Thru Oct. 23. www.arabfilmfestival.org

Blood is Mere Decoration @ Intersection for the Arts A Ritual for Liberation, writer Anthony Julius Williams’ multimedia solo performance work that critiques the U.S. prison system’s treatment of African American men. $10-$15.

8pm. Thru Oct 15. 925 Mission St. www.anthonyjuliuswilliams.com

Bryan Ferry @ Fox Theatre, Oakland Roxy Music lead singer performs classic hits and new music. Phenomenal Handclap Band opens. $55. 8pm. 1807 Telgraph Ave. www.thefoxoakland.com

Clowns on a Stick @ NohSpace Theatre of Yugen presents a darkly comic clown show, How to Bury a Cat. $15-$18.

8pm. Also Oct 15, 8pm. Oct. 16, 2pm. 2840 Mariposa St. at Florida. (800) 838-3006. www.theatreofyugen.org

A Delicate Balance @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Edward Albee’s brutal comedy of manners about responsibility to others. $10-$55.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Tue & Sun 7pm, also Sun 2pm.

Extended thru Oct. 16. 2081 Addison St. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Desdemona @ Boxcar Theatre A play about a handkerchief, Paula Vogel’s comic romp plays on the backstage drama of three women in Shakespeare’s Othello. $15-$35. Mon-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov 5. 505 Natoma St. www.boxcartheatre.org

Diaries of George Kuchar @ ATA Gallery Selection of short videos by the recently deceased local experimental filmmaker, curated by his brother Mike. $6-$10. 8pm.

992 Valencia St. www.atasite.org

Doc Fest @ Roxie Theatre The amazing array of documentaries showcases teen farmers, Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash, circus and ballet hopefuls, comic guru Stan Lee, flea markets, soldiers, yoga, punk and metal bands, Middle East revolutions, protests, parades and pop culture.

Various times. $11-$160 (full pass). 3117 16th St. Thru Oct. 27. Also at Berkeley’s Shattuck Cinema, 2230 Shattuck Ave. and CellSpace, 2050 Bryant St. thru Oct. 20. www.roxie.com

Edwin Hawkins @ The Rrazz Room Legendary gospel sing performs with his vocal ensemble. $40-$45. 8pm. Thru Oct 16 (7pm). 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.therrazzroom.com

Fear Over Frisco @ Hypnodrome Theatre Thrillpeddlers’ new trio of Noir-Horror one-act plays, penned by “Czar of Noir” Eddie Muller, offers a pre-Halloween thrill.

Prepare to be shockingly entertained. $25$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 19. 575 10th St. at Division/Bryant. 377-4202. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Life Gone Viral @ The Marsh Charlie Varon and Jeri Lynn Cohen perform and co-wrote (with director David Ford) this comic show about the hazards of Internet exhibitionism. $20-$50. Thu 8pm.

Sat 8:30pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Dec. 4. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

▼

Sat 15 >>

Master Harold and the Boys @ Phoenix Theatre

The 41st annual celebration of the seasonal gourd includes live music, food and drink, pancake breakfasts, costume contests, a parade and a huge pumpkin contest. Enjoy rurality, arts & crafts, and even a pumpkin beer or two. 9am-5pm. Also Oct. 16. Main street betwn Kelly Ave and Spruce St. (650) 726-9652. www.miramarevents.com

The Penis Show @ Good Vibrations

Art & Pumpkin Festival @ Half Moon Bay

The Bad Seed @ Castro Theatre Mark Huestis presents another film extravaganza, with a screening of the classic film about an evil sociopath in pigtails; with celebrity interviews galore, including starring actress Patty McCormick, plus drag tribute acts by Matthew Martin, Arturo Galster and others. $12.50-$35. Matinee 12pm. 7:30pm tribute. Film 9pm. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Athol Fugard’s comic drama about British school boys and their gay professor gets a local production. $20-$40. Thu-Sat 8pm.

414 Mason St. #601. (800) 838-3006. www.offbroadwaywest.org

Exhibit of artist Jack Davis’s crocheted penis sculptures. Thru Nov. 5. 1620 Polk St. at Sacramento. 345-0400. www.goodvibes.com

Phaedra @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players’ production of Adam Bock’s commissioned modern tabloid-style adaptation of Racine’s tragedy about a woman who’s in love with her husband’s son. $17$26. Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. thru Oct. 23. 1901 Ashby Ave. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Litquake @ Citywide The annual large-scale multiple-event literary festival includes readings galore, parties and special events. Many events in local bookstores, libraries and lecture halls, even on board Sausalito houseboats!

Free-$50, depending on event. Daily thru Oct 15. www.litquake.org

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh Veteran lesbian comic performs Not Getting Any Younger, a new solo show about her ‘coming of middle age.’ $15-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Oct. 23. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Non-Stop Bhangra at YBCA

Fri 14

The Matter Within @ YBCA The new exhibit of contemporary Indian art gets a special opening night party with performances and Bollywood dancing lessons from Non-Stop Bhangra. Free, $5-$7.

9:30pm, grand lobby. Exhibit thru Jan 29. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Mariinsky Orchestra @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Acclaimed Russian orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s symphonies 1-4 on successive concerts. $30-$125. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 3pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

A Mused Collective @ CounterPulse Abby McNally’s new women’s dance work, with live musical accompaniment, explores the waves of love, loss and personal connections. $15-$20. 8pm. Also Oct 15. 1310 Mission St. www.counterpulse.org

Nymph Errant @ Eureka Theatre 42nd Street Moon’s production of the Cole Porter/Romney Brent madcap musical farce set in 1930s Europe. $20-$45. Wed 7pm. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm.

Thru Oct. 23. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Once in a Lifetime @ ACT The endearing Moss Hart/George S. Kaufman Hollywood comedy gets a visually inventive production by American Conservatory Theatre, with an ensemble cast of 15 playing 70 roles; directed by Mark Rucker. $10-$85. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat, Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 16. 415 Geary St. 7492228. www.act-sf.org

Sundance Stompede @ Various Venues The annual LGBT & friends country western dancing weekend: Thu Oct 13, 6:30-11pm, $10 at 550 Barneveld.

Welcome Dance Oct 14, $15, 7:30pm-1am at The Holiday Inn, 1500 Van Ness Ave. Hoedown with performances, singers and fundraising Oct. 15, 7:30pm-1am, $45, at the Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness Ave. The Stompede Ball includes a line-dance marathon, a dance contest and more, Oct. 16, 5pm-11pm ($10) at 550 Barneveld Ave. 820-1403. Dance workshops each day at the Holiday Inn ($20-$30). www.stompede.com

Trompe L’Oeil @ John Pence Gallery Opening reception for a group exhibit of 70 “fool the eye” realist works by 30 artists. 6pm-8pm. Exhibit the Nov. 12. MonFri 10am-6pm. Sat 10am-5pm. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

The Understudies @ The Garage Jeff Bedillion’s darkly comic take on Genet’s The Maids ; two understudies plot to kill the actress whose role they want. $10-$20. 8pm. Also Oct 16, 21-23. 975 Howard St. www.975howard.com

Unusual Films @ Oddball Film The Wild World of Ted Mikels exploitation filmmaker, narrated by John Waters; plus creepy trailers. $10. 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilm.com

Cabaret @ The Stage, San Jose Kander & Ebb’s Tony Award-winning musical based on the Christopher Isherwood novel gets a local staging, based on the cabaretstyle Broadway revival. $20-$45. Wed & Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 23. 490 South First St., San Jose. (408) 283-7142. www.thestage.org

Don Giovanni @ War Memorial Opera House San Francisco Opera’s production of Mozart’s 1787 serio-comic opera buffa about a lying womanizing nobleman who eventually goes to hell; in Italian with English supertitles. $21-$330. 8pm. Also Oct 18, 21, 28 at 8pm. Oct 23 & Nov 5 at 2pm. Oct 26, Nov 2 & 10 at 7:30pm. 301 Van Ness Ave. 864-3330. www.sfopera.com

Potrero Hill Festival @ Potrero Hill 21st annual street fair of food, drinks, music, kids’ fun, petting zoo, businesses and craftspeoples’ booths, and more. 11am-4:30pm.

20th Street between Arkansas and Missouri. www.potrerofestival.com

Queer Yo Mind @ SF State University One-day LGBT leadership conference sponsored by Pride Allies, the SAFE Place, the Queer Alliance, and Associated Students, Inc.; variety performance show afterwards.

Free. 8:30am-4pm. Register online. 1600 Holloway Ave. www.queeryomind.com

Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup @ Berkeley Rep

San Francisco Night Ministry’s fundraiser, with MC Donna Sachet, live and silent auctions, hors d’oeuvres, beverages and dinner. $75-$150. 5:30pm. 1101 O’Farrell St. at Franklin. 956-2069. www.sfnightministry.org

Tony Taccone and Rita Moreno’s must-see solo show about the award-winning actress’s life and times; with music, two very handsome back-up dancers, and a four-piece band. $14-50-$73. Tue, Fri-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Thu, Sat, Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 6.

Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Harvest Feast @ The Patio Cafe

San Francisco Bach Choir @ Calvary Presbyterian Church

Heklina MCs, and the SF Gay Men’s Chorus’ Lollypop Guild performs at this four-course banquet featuring sustainable local produce at this benefit for the Castro Country Club sober space. $50-$65 single/$500 table of 8 and up. 531 Castro St. 407-9773. www.castrocountryclub.org

Rarely performed 17th-century works by composers from J.S. Bach’s contemporaries, with SFBC Baroque Orchestra and guest artists. $15-$30. 4pm. Fillmore St. at Jackson.

(855) 473-2224. www.sfbach.org

Fall Gala @ St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

How to Write a New Book for the Bible @ Berkeley Rep World premiere of Bill Cain’s new play about religion, and how parents’ sins ruin their children’s lives. $14-$81. Wed & Sun 7pm.

Tue, Thu Fri Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 28. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. at Shattuck. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Line Dance Classes @ ODC Dance Commons New fun line dance classes taught by Sundance Saloon’s Sean Ray, with a special LGBT-inclusive ambiance. $14. Weekly Saturdays, 6pm-8pm. 351 Shotwell St. www.odcdance.org

Lit Crawl @ Valencia St. Venues Litquake’s annual massive multiple reading event, with three hours of lit and drinking fun. Kick it off at 6pm with “Blame It on the Alcohol,” sponsored by BARtab, at Martuni’s. 4 Valencia St. at Market. Other LGBT Crawl events include Radar Readings, 7:15pm at The Lexington Club 3464 19th St. Fabulocity and Fierceness: Lambda Fellows at Viracocha, 998 Valencia St, 8:30pm. Collective Brightness explores faith and spirituality from a queer perspective, 8:30 at Doc’s Clock, 2575 Mission St. www.litcrawl.org

SF Hiking Club @ Bolinas Ridge Join GLBT hikers for a 13-mile hike from Lagunitas Creek, over Bolinas Ridge, across the San Andreas Fault, to a tidal creek at White House Pool near Point Reyes. Carpool meets at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores, 8:45am.

(650) 763-8537. www.sfhiking.com

SF Open Studios @ Citywide Third weekend of a month of events where almost 1000 visual artists let viewers (and hopefully patrons) see their work in studios; includes many LGBT artists. Subsequent schedules each weekend thru October in different neighborhoods. www.artspan.org

Toy Camera Fest @ Other Cinema PXL This 20, the festival of unusual short films made with toy cameras by kids and adults. $6. 8:30pm. 992 Valencia St. at 21st. www.othercinema.com

Treasure Island Music Festival @ Treasure Island Huge array of live concerts by more than a dozen bands per day (Empire of the Sun, Chromeo, Death Cab For Cutie, Friendly Fires, Warpaint). $69-$219. Also Oct. 16. www.treasureislandfestival.com

Trolley Dances@ Muni Stations 8th annual site-specific series of dances performed by several ensembles at Muni train stations, and on the trains, tours led

▼

Out&About >>

Date 00-00, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

each 45 minutes. Free with Muni pass. 11am2:45pm. Also Oct. 16. SF Main Library, 100 Larkin St. to West Portal station via K, L, or M trains. www.epiphanydance.org

Kevin Spacey as Richard III

When I Grow Up @ LGBT Center

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th.

431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Sun 16 >>

Shazia Mirza @ The Punch Line British Muslim comic performs her irreverent stand-up act. $15. 2-drink min. 8pm. 444 Battery St. 397-7573. www.livenation.com

Antiques and Collectibles Faire @ Candlestick Park Furniture, jewelry, knick-knacks and art sold by hundreds of vendors. Food and drinks, too. $5-$10. 6am-3pm. 602 Jamestown Ave. (650) 242-1294. www.antiquesbythebay.net

Wed 19

Archie, Green Lantern @ Cartoon Art Museum

Richard III @ Curran Theatre

Exhibits showcasing original art work and prints of classic comic art. $3-$7. Tue-Sun 11am-5pm. 655 Mission St. CAR-TOON. www.cartoonart.org

Sam Mendes ( American Beauty) directed this eye-catching touring production, and Kevin Spacey stars in the title role of the Shakespeare play about a corrupt king. $35-$150. Wed-Fri 7:30pm. Sat 2pm & 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Oct. 29. 445 Geary St. www.shnsf.com

Fundraiser for Bevan Dufty’s mayoral campaign honors local activists in various fields, including Zoe Dunning, Joseph Rocha, Andrea Shorter, Cecilia Chung, Troy Brunet, Crispin Hollings, Jewelle Gomez, Tek Young Lin and Audrey Joseph. $20. Brunch $100, $500. 11am. 1800 Market St. www.bevandufty.com

Richard Serra Drawing @ SF MOMA Retrospective of drawings by the artist known for his massive steel slabs; Thru Jan. 16. Also, Paul Klee and Andrew Schoultz, an exhibit of works by the Bay Area artist in response to Klee’s drawings and prints; Thru Jan 8. Also, Less and More: the Design Ethos of Dieter Rams; Thru Feb 20; and Sharon Lockhart’s Lunch Break, photos and installation of images of industrial workers.

Other exhibits ongoing. Free-$18. 151 Third St. www.sfmoma.org

San Francisco Symphony @ Davies Symphony Hall Guest singers Olga Guryakova and Sergei Leiferkus perform in a concert that includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No, 14 in G minor and works by Mussorgsky and Ravel. $15$145. 2pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. www.sfsymphony.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the fabulous weekly brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Tue 18 >>

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s

Group exhibit of mixed media art by local LGBT elders. Opening reception today (Oct. 15) 1pm-4pm. Thru Nov. 16. 1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

Heroes Brunch @ LGBT Center

5pm. Sat 11am-5pm. Thru Oct. 29. 501 3rd St. 626-7495. www.gallery16.com

Mon 17 >>

Intro to Tantra @ Good Vibrations, Berkeley Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson share tips from their book The Essence of Tantric Sexuality and Tantra for Erotic Empowerment. 6pm. 2504 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley.

Also Oct. 19 in SF, 6pm, 899 Mission St. 513-1635. Plus, Burlesque Basics for men and women, Oct 20 at the Polk Street shop; 6:30pm, 1620 Polk St. 345-0400. www.events.goodvibes.com

Marga’s Funny Mondays @ The Marsh, Berkeley Marga Gomez brings her comic talents and special guests to a weekly cabaret show.

This week: Natasha Muse, Lisa Geduldig and Amy Miller. $10. 8pm. Thru Oct. 31.

2120 Allston Way. (800) 838-3006. www.margagomez.com www.themarsh.org

Positively Touching @ The Rrazz Room Sean Ray and his many talented singing pals, including MC Anita Cocktail, return for a benefit for Positive Being. $40-$50. 8pm.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.therrazzroom.com

Rex Ray @ Gallery 16 Exhibit of colorful graphic abstract paintings by the local artist-designer. Mon-Fri 10am-

The Shirelles The pioneering girl group, with original member Beverly Lee, celebrates 50 years with their R&B and pop music act. $40$47.50. 8pm. Thru Oct 23 (7pm). 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.therrazzroom.com

Wayne Hoffman @ Books Inc. New York-based author reads from and discusses his new novel, Sweet Like Sugar, about a gay man and an Orthodox rabbi.

7:30pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

Wed 19 >> Christophe Coppens @ Highlight Gallery

Unusual exhibit of the Belgian artist’s selfportraits, videos and installation examining his life-long obsession with Barbra Streisand.

Thru Oct. 30. Wed-Fri 2pm-6pm. 3043 Clay St. 529-1221. www.highlightgallery.com

Mangia del Arte @ Noe Valley Ministry Dinner theatre fundraiser, with local circus performers directed by Tandy Beal, with Calvin Kai Ku, magicians and acrobats, live music and kid-friendly festivities. $20 (kids; under 5 free), 45-$75. 6:30pm8:30pm. 1021 Sanchez St. 282-2317. www.noevalleyministry.org

The Rover @ Hastings Studio Theater American Conservatory Theatre students perform Aphra Behn’s 1677 bawdy comedy of mistaken identities, sex and politics, set in Naples during the Carnival. $10. 7pm.

Wed Thu Sat 7:30pm. Sun 2pm Sat 5pm .

Thru Nov 5. 77 Geary St. at Grant, 6th floor. www.act-sf.org

Smack Dab @ Magnet New York gay author Wayne Hoffman is the featured reader, whose newest novel Sweet Like Sugar explores a friendship between a gay man and an Orthodox rabbi. Larry-bob Roberts and Kirk Read cohost the open mic night. 7:30pm sign-up. 8pm show. 4122 18th St. at Collingwood. www.magnetsf.org

Thu 20 >>

k.d. lang

Berlin and Beyond @ Castro Theatre

16th annual German film festival includes narrative and documentary films about Turkish immigrants, Goethe, communes, mountaineers, cancer survivors, artists and boxers. $9-$40 ($160 ful pass). Thru Oct. 26.

429 Castro St. 572-2075. www.Berlin Beyond.com www.CastroTheatre.com

Judy Rickard @ Books Inc Author of Torn Apart: United by Love, Divided by Law reads from and discusses her book about US immigration discrimination against same-sex binational couples. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

Singin’ sisters They’re lyrical. They’re lesbians. They’re lovely.

Camille Bloom, the Seattle-based lesbian folk-rock musician, performs at the cozy Dolores Park Café. Friday, October 14. 7:30pm. 501 Dolores St.621-2936. www.camillebloom.com www.doloresparkcafe.com Melissa Ferrick stops by on her current tour for a gig at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage. Vandaveer opens. $22.50-$24.50.

Monday, October 17. 8pm. 2020 Addison St. Camille Bloom (510) 644-2020. www.melissaferrick.com www.thefreight.org I’ve seen her five times and next Wednesday will make six. k.d. lang, songstress and crooner par excellence, performs with her new band, The Siss Boom Bang in a concert of new and classic songs. $46. Wednesday, October 19. 8pm. The Fillmore, 1805 Geary St. www.kdlang.com www.livenation.com – J.P.

Melissa Ferrick

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum See the fascinating exhibit from the GLBT Historical Society, with a wide array of rare historic items on display. Free for members-$5. Wed-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Same-Sex Dancing @ Queer Ballroom Ongoing partner dance lessons and open dancing in a variety of styles- Argentine tango, Cha Cha, Rhumba and more; different each night. $5-$25 open dancing to $55 for private lessons. 151 Potrero Ave. at 15th. www.QueerBallroom.com

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

For bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

(((((((((

www.ebar.com )))))))))

<< Society

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

▼

Suited up

by Donna Sachet

Y

ebar.com

es, it was A Perfectly Suited Evening as the Horizons Foundation celebrated 30 years of supporting organizations within the LGBT community at its annual Gala Dinner & Casino Party at the Fairmont Hotel. Who could resist an event at that luxurious location which included music from the SF Gay Men’s Chorus, awards to Google and George Takei, and gambling in the famed Tonga Room? Co-chairs Roberta Achtenberg & Susan Shain really pulled out all the stops for this one! In the excellent company of Chris Carnes and Gretchen Fleischmann, we hobnobbed with Wine Tasting Network’s Chris Edwards & Scott Butler, Rich Chicotel, Jewelle Gomez & Diane Sabin, Julian Chang, Lindasusan Ulrich, Jeff Lewy, Brandon Miller, Sam & Julia Thoron, Dan Joraanstad & Bob Hermann and even stole a few personal moments with the guest of honor, George Takei, and his charming husband Brad Altman.

Positive Resource Center presented their annual fundraiser Windows of Opportunity at RF80 last Tuesday, offering drinks, desserts, and silent auction to its guests and the Keystone Award to Kaiser Permanente. The always amiable Executive Director Brett Andrews welcomed a supportive group, including Gary Virginia, Lenny Broberg, Deana Dawn, Alan Choy, and Jacques Michaels.

Last Thursday’s farewell party for Tom Nolan, Executive Director of Project Open Hand, brought together friends and supporters from all over the city to recognize his years of dedication, sacrifice, and tenacity.

As we entered Project Open Hand’s headquarters, a building purchased by the organization some years ago as part of Tom’s goal of financial

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet with actor George Takei, who received an award at A Perfectly Suited Evening, the Horizons Foundation’s annual Gala Dinner & Casino Party at the Fairmont Hotel.

stability, we greeted Shanti’s Kauchik Roy, AIDS Legal Referral Panel’s Bill Hirsh, Horizons Foundation’s Roger Doughty, Under One Roof’s Beth Feingold, Pets Are Wonderful Support’s Kevin Kosik, Macy’s Glamorama’s Larry Harshbarger, and other charitable organizations’ leaders, certainly a tribute to Tom’s reputation within SF. Food directly from the kitchens of POH abounded, and the short program included remarks from State Senator Mark Leno, City Supervisor Scott Wiener, representatives from Mayor Ed Lee’s and State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s offices, clients, volunteers, board members, and even singer Tracy Chapman. From all of us, thank you, Tom, and we wish you the best for the future!

The line snaked far down the block on Saturday for a rare San Francisco appearance by Pam Ann at the Castro Theatre. Local drag comedienne Sasha Soprano opened the show, looking as svelte and

glamorous as ever. From there, the show became like a convention of airline employees, as Pam mentioned United, Qantas, Delta, and others, and representatives from each wildly identified themselves. Although the nonstop sexual references and profane language kept this squeamish columnist ill at ease, the audience was won over by her bold humor, topical references, and sarcastic put-downs.

She ended with a skillfully edited and hilarious video clip. Such a huge crowd at the Castro Theatre made for an exciting night in the Castro bars and restaurants afterwards.

Heklina successfully brought together a panoply of drag talent at Beatbox Sunday night in support of Bevan Dufty for Mayor of SF. Cookie Dough, Anna Conda, Serenity Heart, Lindsay Slowhands, Ethel Merman, Matthew Martin, Monistat, Kylie Minono, and Yours Truly all performed, as Sister Roma helped emcee and Juanita More served as DJ. Among the attendees were City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, visiting mystery drag queen Baby Love, Audrey Joseph, Cecilia Chung, Suzan Revah, Graig Cooper, See page 31 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Oct. 13: Locker Room Thursdays at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Featuring contests like sweaty balls, hairy crack, etc. Fun & stupid. Free clothes check. 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Thu., Oct. 13: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse (1347 Folsom). Show off your undies for drink specials. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Thu., Oct. 13: SFPD Chief’s LGBT Forum: Hate Crimes Public Information Event at the LGBT Center, Rainbow Room. Learn how to protect yourself and help stop hate crimes. 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.facebook. com/event.php?eid=181504488587552.

Thu., Oct. 13: Effective Flogging – A Paideia Playshop at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Thu., Oct. 13-Sun., Oct. 16: Blood is Mere Decoration at Intersection for the Arts (925 Mission). Anthony J. Williams’ live art interactive ritual, electronic music, dance, and more. 8 p.m. each night. Go to: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/197272.

Fri., Oct. 14: Revolution at the SF Citadel. 8 p.m.1 a.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Fri., Oct. 14: Mr. Bolt Leather 2012 Contest at The Bolt Bar (2560 Boxwood, Sacramento). No cover! 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.facebook.com/event. php?eid=216542208406602.

Fri., Oct. 14: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom). 10 p.m. Live shower boys, drink specials. Go to: www. trucksf.com.

Fri., Oct. 14: Lick It! at The Powerhouse. 9 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Oct. 14: Jockstrap Party at Kok Bar. Free clothes check. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Oct. 15: Hell Hole Fisting Party at Mr. S Leather Playspace (385A 8th St). This is a men’s only event, private party. $25. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Doors close at 12 a.m.

Go to: www.handballheaven.com.

Sat., Oct. 15: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 100% SoMa Beef & Co. 9 p.m.close. Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Sat., Oct. 15: Beat Pig at The Powerhouse. Juanita More! spins saucy grooves. 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www. beatpigsf.com.

Sat., Oct. 15: Open Play Party at the SF Citadel. 8 p.m.-1 a.m. $25 plus membership. Go to: www. sfcitadel.org Sun., Oct. 16: Jock Off Beer Bust at Kok Bar. 4-7 p.m.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Oct. 16: Castrobear presents Sunday Furry Sunday at 440 Castro. 4-10 p.m. Go to: www.castrobear. com.

Sun., Oct. 16: PoHo Sundays at The Powerhouse. DJ Keith, Dollar Drafts all day. Go to: www.powerhousesf.com.

Mon., Oct. 17: Trivia Night with host Casey Ley at Truck. Featuring prizes and ridiculous questions! 8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Mon., Oct. 17: Dirty Dicks at The Powerhouse. 4-10 p.m. $3 well drinks. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Tue., Oct. 18: Naughty Knitters at the SF Citadel. 7 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Tue., Oct. 18: Busted at Truck. $5 beer bust 9-11 p.m.

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Wed., Oct. 19: Underwear Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison). This is a male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Play till late. Go to: www.blowbuddies. com.

Wed, Oct. 19: Bare Bear at The Watergarden (1010 Alameda, San Jose). 6-10 p.m. Go to: www.thewatergarden.com.

Wed., Oct. 19: Nipple Play at The Powerhouse.

Specials for shirtless guys. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www. powerhouse-sf.com

▼

Karrnal >>

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Introducing Dr. Joe Gage

by John F. Karr

J

oe Gage is not his real name, of course. But it became real.

Gage has explained, “When the Tim Kincaid side [of my career] didn’t happen the way the Joe Gage side did, I just went back to concentrating on the Joe Gage side.” That was the side that made Kansas City Trucking Co.. Released in 1976, Gage’s first gay porn movie was a seismic jolt that brought to the screen a uniquely personal filmmaking craft, along with a new vision of masculine gay identity.

So. You probably know the bemused character about town called Dogtor Woof! The exclamation point is not editorial comment, but part of the name.

Professionally, he’s Dr. Jerry Zientara, a Professor of Erotology as well as the Librarian at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. He archives tons of sexually oriented art and literature, and teaches in the Institute’s school, which offers graduate degrees and vocational certificate programs for those wishing academic training in human sexuality. It’s located in a plain brown building on Franklin St., to which the good Dogtor invited me last week to take part, along with the students of this semester’s Wardell B. Pomeroy Lecture Series, as the Institute bestowed upon Joe Gage an Honorary Doctor of the Arts degree, in recognition of his meritorious contributions to the field.

All that sounds very serious, but was indeed in its actual occurrence very casual. Which befitted the awardee, who is a laidback, personably sunny, go-withthe-flow sorta guy. As we watched many excepts from Joe’s movies, Dr. Z and I were poised to ask probing questions and make wise remarks (I was prepared to do a James Lipton at the Actor’s Studio sorta thing). But affable, informative Joe was right in the groove, delivering without prodding all sorts of information about himself and his movie-making. Did you know he was a stunt car driver on The Boston Strangler? Did you know he was a stunt dick in at least one of his own movies? Did you know that his glorification of masturbation derives from advice he found in The Sensuous Woman, by “J”: “Women!

Masturbate for your man!”

If you ask if he enjoys watching porn, you’d better stand back for the answer. “I do, I watch porn all the time, I love it and watch it and collect it, and have it. I live it, I live with porn, porn is my life.” But he doesn’t watch the stuff he’s made. So what’s it like, being a captive audience to

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Rick Gerharter

Newly honored Doctor of the Arts Joe Gage.

half-a-day of watching clips from your own movies? He felt it’s like when you come across someone you know in a porno, it’s hard to cum across them. So he watched technical kinds of things.

He saw edits he didn’t like, and places where he should have made more edits.

Gage brought a solid skill set to the making of his first, visionary features.

He’d worked in many areas of the Hollywood film industry, not only as an actor, but as a writer and director of independent features.

He was inspired by Russ Meyer, Dario Argento, Sergio Leone.

You know, nonlinear narratives, jump-cuts, electroacoustic sound (back when it was called musique concrète). It’s the sort of crafting that was lost when video arrived, and it’s what made legends of the Gage Kansas City Trucking Co., El Paso Wrecking Corp., and L.A. Tool and Die trilogy historic and lasting.

Gage’s recent porn is noted for the elaborate set-ups that segue slowly into sex, and that provide the scenes with a character-based sexual tension that sustains their Brucknerian (for porn) length. These time spans aren’t always Joe’s design, but can be requested by the companies he works for. Joe explained that the reason for this can lie in the way porn is

On the Town

From page 30

Steven Satyricon, Erik Proctor, Skye Paterson, Brandon Espinosa, Tommy Dillon, Rebecca Goldfader, and even the Reigning Emperor Frankie and Empress Saybeline.

Afterwards, many of us joined the exuberant dancing at Remember the Party at the old Dreamland. The disco balls were twirling, the retro music was blaring, and lovely memories were everywhere!

The San Francisco Night Ministry does such important work, reaching out to some of the city’s invisible individuals where they are, offering a personal touch, a heartfelt conversation, and references to social services, often in the middle of the dark night. Their annual fall fundraiser is this Sat. at the Urban

Steven Underhill

Pam Ann appeared at the Castro Theatre last weekend.

Original poster for Joe Gage’s Kansas City Trucking Co.

marketed. A large amount of porn is licensed to hotel and cable networks, where the purchaser requests specific types of sex. So Joe has to supply to his producers so many minutes of oral, so many minutes of anal. He finds this restrictive, and I’ve found it misleading. Like when what I thought was a demonstration of an ostensibly gay guy’s fluid sexuality when he gets fucked by a guy as he’s licking a pussy (Cop Shack 2, Crossing the Line) was actually just Joe delivering content: “What position can I put them in now?” For myriad peeks into Gage’s capricious, sexy mind, check out www.JoeGage.com. ▼

Life Center, 1101 O’Farrell St., with live and silent auctions, dinner, and entertainment. Come see what they do, and you’ll become a dedicated supporter.

Mon., Oct. 17, Sean Ray gathers a group of talented singing friends together at the Rrazz Room for a night of music benefiting Positive Being. If his past shows are any indication, expect powerful voices, tender moments, and touches of laughter. Finally, a Mayoral Forum on Wed., Oct. 19, focuses on HIV/AIDS issues in the city, with a remarkable panel of community leaders and confirmation of attendance from eight candidates. We are pleased to be the moderator, and applaud Brian Basinger for pulling it all together.

Come hear the hard questions, and sort out the best solutions before this November’s election.▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 13-19, 2011

▼

Books >>

The pious atheist

by Jay Blotcher

I

n the new book Sweet Like Sugar (Kensington Books, $15), a 20something graphic artist named Benji Steiner crosses paths with a 70something Orthodox rabbi named Jacob Zuckerman. Their worlds could not be further apart, but they are drawn together, first by a health emergency, and later by intellectual curiosity. The story of their growing friendship in suburban Maryland – and the religious dogma that drives them apart – is the narrative arc of this book, which manages to evenhandedly speak volumes about the mixed blessings of modern Judaism.

Hoffman, a 40-year-old New Yorker who has crafted a thorny but endearing story about modern Judaism, is a gay atheist.

“I grew up Conservative in a traditional household,” he said in a phone interview. “We kept kosher, we went to synagogue every week, I was bar mitzvahed, I went to Hebrew School three times a week.”

But when Hoffman left his family and Maryland suburban life for Tufts University, he experienced a life transition. “When I went away to college, I decided I was done with religion. I’m an atheist, and it struck

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me that there was not much point in keeping up observances if I didn’t believe in God.” At Tufts, Hoffman focused on two goals: his education and his emerging identity as a gay man.

Eventually, he realized that his wholesale rejection of Judaism was only a reaction to the entrenched homophobia of Jewish liturgy, which had made it clear there was no place for homosexuality.

Instead, Hoffman decided to embrace those parts of his religion that nurture him. When he became a Manhattanite, Hoffman once more would celebrate certain holidays that resonated with both joy and nostalgia in his own home: Chanukah, Purim, Passover.

In Sweet Like Sugar, Benji Steiner is also a gay man, but hardly Hoffman’s doppelganger. The protagonist was born in 1980, a decade after Hoffman. The author placed the lead character in his mid20s to allow him flexibility in values.

Benji is “old enough to ask the questions, and young enough that he hasn’t yet answered them.”

He nonetheless struggles with the role that Judaism plays in his life as a gay man, especially when Rabbi Zuckerman becomes his friend. As the interaction deepens between the men, Benji analyzes his

own sense of Jewish identity.

Why, for instance, does he have a predilection for dating blond, non-Jewish men? Like Hoffman, Benji eventually chooses to embrace those parts of his religious heritage that nurture him, and not feel compelled to embrace all aspects of it.

“Saying that you don’t believe in the letter of the law does not mean that none of it can have any meaning,” said Hoffman.

Eventually Benji tests the fabric of this intergenerational alliance and reveals his sexual orientation to his Orthodox friend. Benji learns that the rabbi also harbors conflicts with the unyielding tenets of his religion where love is concerned – in his case, with a woman he met while caring for his terminally ill wife. Both individuals are in need of healing from the wounds inflicted by Jewish dogma.

What of Hoffman’s own current relationship with Judaism? It is, as they say, complicated. For the past decade, the unwavering atheist has drawn a paycheck working for the august Forward newspaper, and currently he is deputy editor of

Nextbook Press, publisher of the Jewish Encounters book series.

“It’s true, I don’t go to synagogue, but I spend 40 hours a week as a professional Jew. I have a place in the Jewish community, and this is it.”

The topic of his second novel differs greatly from that of his debut, 2006’s Hard, a brash, darkly funny tale about creeping conservatism in NYC’s gay community during the 1990s, when sex clubs and

b bathhouses were under fire. Neither book is aautobiographical, said H Hoffman. “Hard was a more d direct translation of real llife into fiction, and Sweet iis much more a mosaic iinterpretation.”

Hoffman said much of JJudaism still rejects gay p people, even as progress h has been made in the last d decade. “But that doesn’t eerase the past,” he said. As for ro romance, Hoffman’s partner si since college, journalist Mark SSullivan, is a blond Irish C Catholic.

To support his new novel, H Hoffman plans a book tour, an and hopes to appear not only at bookstores, but at Jewish sy synagogues and religious conferences.

And what of Hoffman’s status as an atheist, albeit an atheist with a religious novel under his belt?

“Unchanged,” he said. “Very much unchanged.▼ Hoffman reads from Sweet Like Sugar on Tues., Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. at Books Inc, 2275 Market St., SF. On Wed., Oct. 19, he reads at 8 p.m. at Smack Dab, the monthly open mike night at Magnet, 4122 18th St., SF.

SF DocFest

From page 21

enthusiastically bond with each other but are uncertain what to make of their vagabond dad. We see sperm-donation centers including the special masturbatory chambers.

Jo-Ellen, Fletcher and company are eloquent about connecting the dots in their DNA as Rothwell provides an upbeat version of the law of unintended consequences. (Roxie, 10/16, 17; Shattuck, 10/20) Beaverbrook The parental units flirted with sending me to summer camp at 12. I still recall the touch and smell of the wooden bunk-beds.

This unfulfilled dream has inspired all sorts of fantasies: my chat with author Sanford Friedman about his queer classic novel Totempole revealed the dilemma of a gay kid in a hetero world of horny and very desirable counselors.

Matthew Callahan’s doc vividly recalls a time when kids 7-15 could get life lessons sans the boredom and regimentation of the classroom.

The now-adult graduates of Cobb, CA’s Camp Beaverbrook enthuse about snakes, horses and the opposite sex. Eventually, litigious

SF DocFest

Camp Beaverbrook alumnus back in the day, and today.

America made camp too costly for most. As one graduate ruminates, “There’s something oxymoronic about the term Stanford Computer Camp.” (Roxie, 10/16, 19; Shattuck, 10/14) Where Soldiers Come From For a decade I’ve reviewed films involving men at war: Gunner Palace, Occupation Dreamland, Jarhead, The Messenger and Restrepo. They’re films that cut through the tripe and

post-9/11 patriotism to explain the odd, contradictory reasons young Americans give for fighting, dying and suffering untold psyche and physical wounds to secure freedom for people they may neither understand nor especially like. With the demise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” these paradoxical tales of courage under fire will surely come to feature out gay soldiers.

Heather Courtney goes to

SF DocFest

Dominic Fredianelli in Where Soldiers Come From.

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P. to its inhabitants) to follow a small band of brothers with a most unlikely leader. Dominic Fredianelli brings passion and purpose to his graffiti-style canvasses, depicting in sardonic strokes topics like “The Death of Childhood,” with symbols like a teddy bear hanging from a bayonet. Parents Brian and Sharon recall how Dom exuded a depth of empathy and charity untypical of a working-class kid, giving away his birthday money to needy classmates.

A decade later, this spirit moves him to recruit his best friends Cole and Bodi into a Michigan National Guard unit destined for perilous duty in Afghanistan, sweeping highways of IED explosives. It’s the odd fate of these boys to be fighting in a country whipsawed between Russia, Britain and America, “a wild, harsh, and broken land,” as author Robert Traver (Anatomy of a Murder) once described his beloved U.P. But as Traver notes, murders, like wars, “must happen someplace.”

We see Dom, Cole and Bodi taking in a National Guard Afghan history lesson. “Remember, Afghans are not Arabs,” the instructor tells them.

Later the boys shoot the breeze with Afghan age-peers, their Canadiansounding accents further masking

their real feelings behind layers of masculine stoicism.

As concussion wounds take their toll on the boys, Cole’s waitress mom Mary reflects on the haunting resemblance their fate bears to the characters of a Vietnam-era war movie. “Did you ever see that movie, Deer Hunter? They remind me so much of this group, maybe because they’re so close like [those characters]. Just think if something happens to one of them how devastating it would be to the whole group.” (Roxie, 10/16, 23; Shattuck, 10/15) How to Start a Revolution Ruaridh Arrow examines Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gene Sharp’s 198 steps to nonviolent regime change, steps that have guided the Arab uprisings as well as peaceful upheavals in Ukraine and Serbia.

(Roxie, 10/19 & 23; Shattuck, 10/14) The Language of Dating on the Internet In the halcyon days when I first came out, the ugly date ads specified “No fats or fems.” Now San Franciscan Dan Goldes’ short explores the ramifications of today’s Internet insensitive language like “clean” or “disease-free” on the lives and morale of HIV+ men. Consult festival website for time and venues: www.sfindie.com. ▼

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 13-19, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

TV >>

October surprise

by Victoria A. Brownworth

I

t’s hard to believe the new fall season is barely a month old and new shows are already being sliced and diced from the TV menu. One big surprise was the axing of the muchhyped and anticipated NBC drama The Playboy Club, set at the infamous Chicago bunny hutch in the 1960s.

The show, starring Eddie Cibrian, had promised to be the new Mad Men for network, but was cancelled last week after only three episodes.

PC had been targeted by the Parents Television Council, Morality in Media and other religious right groups before it ever premiered. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who had been a Playboy bunny briefly while doing an expose of the club, had also opposed the show, which she said “normalized prostitution and male dominance.”

The cancellation was lauded (and taken credit for) by those who had asserted the show was just porn in prime time. Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in the Media, said after last week’s cancellation, “Clearly viewers are not interested in supporting the brand that normalized pornography and caused immeasurable harm to women, children and to the men who became addicted to porn.”

The cancellation had nothing to do with the religious right’s wellpublicized outrage, but with bad placement of the show and iffy ratings.

PC had the added disadvantage of being on NBC, weakest of the networks, which has difficulty maintaining shows outside the Law & Order franchise and sitcoms like The Office and 30 Rock.

NBC isn’t replacing PC with another drama, but with NBC News anchor Brian Williams’ news magazine series, Rock Center. The show will debut in the PC time slot (Mon., 10 p.m.) starting Oct. 31. NBC is downplaying the early slashing of PC by hyping RC as the first new primetime broadcast to come out of NBC News in almost two decades, since they first debuted Dateline.

There’s been a lot of drama over at NBC about the screwing over of veteran news journalist and Today co-host Ann Curry, who was also the longtime host of Dateline.

(Hard not to see that one as both sexist and racist.) So this new show with Williams must really rankle.

Nevertheless, immune to the controversies, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt noted in discussing the debut that “there’s no one more enlightening or personable

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Patty McCormack

From page 21

The event will be a reunion of old friends. McCormack will be interviewed on stage by Bay Area resident Kathy Garver, who remains beloved as Cissy on TV’s Family Affair. The two worked together briefly on The Bad Seed, though Garver told us that the scene ended up on the cutting-room floor. “I think the footage exists,” she said. Garver, who’ll also judge the Rhoda look-alike contest, will be at the theater armed with photos of herself, McCormack, and Shelley Fabares (The Donna Reed Show) at Griffith Park.

Also on hand will be Oscar winner Patty Duke, in an onstage reunion of Helen Kellers. Both Patties garnered acclaim for their portrayals of Keller: Duke in the Broadway and film versions of The Miracle Worker, McCormack in television’s Playhouse 90 adaptation of the same play.

“It was a memorable three weeks,”

in the news than Brian Williams.”

Which is no doubt why he’s vying for third place on the evening news anchor slot. And we are so sure that this news show is going to be hotter than ABC’s top-rated drama Castle or Monday Night Football. If it was a bad slot for a TV show with sex, hot women in bunny suits and the sexy Eddie Cibrian, it’s not going to be a better slot for more news. Plus, losing PC means one less lesbian character (Maureen) and one less lesbian actress (Amber Heard) on the tube.

NBC also cut its new sitcom Free Agents, which starred The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria and was only sporadically funny.

One show we are gr8ful to see cut is the CW’s h8ful H8R. The premise was ghastly: people talking about celebrities they hate.

Seriously, that was it. Isn’t that what Twitter is for?

The best new show of the season just debuted on Showtime, which has become what HBO used to be. Homeland stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA agent with concerns about a returning soldier rescued after eight years of captivity in Afghanistan. Thriller-y and timely, the focus is on whether or not the guy Mathison suspects, Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damien Lewis), is or isn’t a problem. (The ads for the show lay it out succinctly: “The nation sees a hero. She sees a threat.”)

It’s hard not to make comparisons to 24, which we despised and which was an every-Sunday-night reminder that the U.S. was engaged in torture and a lot of people thought that was just fine. But Carrie Mathison is no Jack Bauer – praise all that is holy – and Homeland, while dealing with similar issues, is not playing in the same grisly and morally bankrupt field. Danes is, as always, magnificent. Lewis is also very good. Morena Baccarin (late of V) is very appealing as Brody’s wife.

What makes Homeland so good is its relevance, and the way in which it delves into the very problematic nature of what we do to people when we send them off to war.

One of our big concerns about Sunday is that arguably the best drama on network, The Good Wife, was moved to that night from Tuesdays.

The show’s second season is brilliant, plus the show has a gay character and two bisexual characters and is soon to add another gay. It has the Emmywinning Julianna Margulies as the lead, and also has out gay actor Alan Cumming. This pretty much makes it the queerest show on the tube, Glee notwithstanding. And there is no hotter bisexual character anywhere McCormack said of her experience in the role. “I learned sign language, and took my direction from Arthur Penn, who also made the film.”

Huestis reports that there’s another connection between the two Pattys: Duke was named after McCormack, but the two didn’t meet for the first time until recently.

“I love them,” Kathy Garver said happily. “We’re a terrific triumvirate.”

In addition to her onstage duties, Garver will also be shooting an episode of her long-running cable access show, Backstage with Barry and Kathy, during the Castro presentation. Details of Garver’s show can be found at her website, www. kathygarver.com.

As with any Marc Huestis extravaganza, the visiting celebrities and the film are only the beginning of what promises to be an exciting evening. Local legends such as Arturo Galster, Marilynn Fowler, Ste Fishell and drag artist extraordinaire Matthew Martin will perform on the

Courtesy NBC-TV

Star Eddie Cibrian and the cast of NBC drama The Playboy Club, which is now cashiered.

on the TV landscape than Archie Punjabi’s Kalinda.

The problem is, Sunday afternoon football has been running overtime every week, so the show, which airs at 9 p.m., has been starting at timeapproximate. Which means many people will just surf over to ABC, Showtime, HBO or BBC America and watch one of the other good shows that are starting at 9. We would urge sticking with GW, which has raised the bar for network drama. Not only does this show take in all the corruption of the Chicago political machine, it also addresses timely social justice issues in every episode in a way that is never self-congratulatory.

GW had one of the most interesting queer storylines we’ve seen recently with an episode that seemed to be about a Muslim/Jewish hate crime, but which turned out to be a gay romance gone wrong. The issues raised in the episode were timely and compelling, and the writing and acting superb. Not to dis Desperate Housewives, which is in its final adulterous season and is the baby of out gay TV maven Marc Cherry, but GW is brilliant, whereas DH is merely good campy fun.

Speaking of good campy fun, we have been enjoying NBC’s new sitcom Up All Night starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett as a middle-aged wannabe hipster couple coping with their first child, and Maya Rudolph as Applegate’s selfabsorbed, Oprah-like boss. The early promos made it seem like a one-note comedy about having a baby in your 40s, but it’s broader-based than that.

Applegate and Arnett are charming as they struggle to cope with parenthood and maintaining their sexuality and adult personhood. Rudolph is as funny as she’s ever been (think of her great portrayal of Donatella Versace on SNL). A little uneven, but routinely good.

Also uneven but funny is ABC’s new sitcom Suburgatory, which falls between The Middle and Modern Family in ABC’s Wed. night sitcom round-up. Modern Family is funnier than ever, btw, and Suburgatory will remind many of My So-Called Life.

Jane Levy is excellent as Tessa Altman, the angry, disaffected teenager great Castro stage. David Hegarty will perform on the mighty Wurlitzer while you revel in a truly twisted stage processional: The Baddest, Seediest Brats of Hollywood. In addition, there will be a Noon showing of The Bad Seed, and McCormack will make a guest appearance after the screening and do a short Q&A. All this, and it’s not even Halloween yet! Boo!▼ The Bad Seed with guests Patty McCormack, Kathy Garver and Patty Duke at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., SF: Sat., Oct. 15, Gala at 7:30 p.m. $25 general admission (orchestra side and balcony), $35 VIP orchestra center, reserved rows. Film only: $10 at the box office night of show, based on availability.

Matinee tickets: $12.50 adults, children under 16 free.

Tickets available through: www. ticketfly.com/event/60475/ or by calling (415) 863-0611.

transplanted from Manhattan to suburbia by her single father George, played by a somewhat miscast Jeremy Sisto (Law & Order). Cheryl Hines is hilarious as Dallas, a sexually voracious Real Housewife, and the supporting cast is seriously good, especially Allie Grant as Tessa’s lesbian and bullied friend Lisa, and Lisa’s disturbing mother Sheila, played with dominatrix aplomb by SNL alum Ana Gasteyer. The show has a lot of queer subtext, and the main character is perceived as queer, although she’s not. Tessa’s guidance counselor, Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee), is a total flamer, and misreads her as gay, too. This show is uneven, but has great potential and a lot of queerness. Unlike Modern Family, which is just pants-pissingly funny, Suburgatory is more edgy and a little dark. Definitely worth catching if you haven’t seen it.

Race relations It’s too late to catch the sweet gay couple (airline stewards) on The Amazing Race, because they were eliminated last week in a doubleelimination round. But the show is as compelling as ever, the best way to see the world without leaving your favorite recliner. It doesn’t have the vicious cut-throat quality of Survivor, but is enjoyable and majorly adrenaline pumping.

Speaking of eliminations, this season’s Dancing with the Stars is clearly going to be a “keep the controversy going” season, rather than a “keep the best dancers” season.

We’re pretty sure all the people who were bitching about Bristol Palin last season are voting every week for Chaz Bono this season. Like so many things, it’s apparently okay when our side does it. So Chaz is still lumbering along (and coming in last, routinely), Carson Kressley is still flitting along and Nancy Grace is still farting along.

Yes, she apparently let one loose last week, and TMZ was all over it. It’s fun, but is it dancing? Once again we ask, why can’t we have Carson dancing with a man, which would be more natural for him? Why we can’t get a truly sexy transwoman on the show like Aneesh Sheth or Candis Cayne?

Stacy Haiduk (Y&R) played

one of the most appalling lesbian characters ever on the tube on CSI last week. Set in Las Vegas, CSI has long been a show that deals with the seamier sides of human sexuality.

But this episode was about a sadistic, murderous, sexually predatory lesbian who was raping, torturing and killing young women. Haiduk was excellent in the role, but then so was Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

CSI is now in its 12th and likely final season. In that entire time (nearly 300 episodes) this show has never had even a tertiary character who is queer. Not one. None of the three CSI franchise shows has any queer characters. That somehow makes the egregious nature of this lesbian rape/murder story more so. This is the problem we have consistently had with the L&O franchise as well: no queer characters in the cast, but numerous episodes where queers are the villains.

One of the positives of the new fall season is how many lead roles there are for women in new shows: two dynamic sitcoms in Whitney and New Girl, and several dramatic leads in Homeland, Ringer, Prime Suspect, Unforgettable, Pan Am, The Secret Circle, Hart of Dixie and Once Upon a Time, which has two great lead female roles, one good, one evil.

Some shows, like Law & Order: SVU, have also been re-tooled to have a leading female role. Body of Proof and Harry’s Law have been renewed because of the strength of the main female characters. And GW and DH have been female-character driven from the start.

One female role that we would like to see changed or cut altogether is Sue (Jane Lynch) on Glee. We love Glee, and there have been some really good changes this season, like exploring characters Mercedes and Mike Chang. But Sue has remained a one-note character throughout, and it’s become tiresome. Her character drags the show down, and Lynch has been pigeon-holed into this tedious hater role in opposition to Glee Club.

It only takes one flat note to destroy a musical number, and she’s that note on Glee.

Ryan Murphy vehicle American Horror Story debuted last week to mixed reviews. Murphy likes overthe-top as he proved with both Nip/ Tuck and Glee, but AHS is about as far over the top as one can get and still be on the same plane. It’s one of those family-goes-to-a-newplace-to-start-over, and-bad-thingshappen dramas. The bad things that happen make Once Upon a Time look easy-breezy. The FX drama is as dark as one can get, but no one can say it’s not compelling. The question is, can you watch every week and still sleep? Ever again.

So with so much fun, edgy stuff to watch on the tube – not to mention a weekly Republican debate to add a touch of heightened unreality – how can you not stay tuned?▼

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