October 19, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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

Vol. 53 • No. 42 • October 19-25, 2023

Newsom signs set of trans bills by Matthew S. Bajko

SF sees September mpox spike by John Ferrannini

an Francisco saw an uptick in mpox cases last month, according to the city’s Department of Public Health. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, DPH had warned August 30 that there’d been seven cases in the prior five weeks. Through June the city had been averaging one case per month since January, health officials noted at that time. On October 13, DPH reported that there were 19 cases in September. According to the health department’s tracker, most of those occurred before the Folsom Street Fair September 24. Health officials had an mpox vaccination booth at the leather and kink festival in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. There has been one case reported so far in October, according to the case count tracker. “While mpox cases remain low compared to 2022, this is an increase from an average of one case per month from January to June 2023,” DPH noted in its San Francisco Monthly STI Report released October 13. Dr. Stephanie Cohen, a straight ally who is the section director for HIV/STI prevention with the health department, told the Bay Area Reporter that it is unclear why the increase in cases is coming now. “We know mpox is circulating in sexual networks and its primarily spread during intimate contact during oral and anal sex. That’s how cases are spread,” she said. “While we don’t know exactly why cases are increasing now, it’s important to point out our cases are much lower than in 2022 because of the robust vaccine rollout that occurred during the 2022 outbreak and the fantastic work of community members, organizations, and health systems providing vaccine to our communities.” Cohen also said that 40% of those who received the first dose of mpox vaccine didn’t return for a second. “It’s never too late,” she added. See page 11 >>

he last two remaining LGBTQ-related bills adopted this year by California lawmakers have been signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Both concern the needs of gendernonconforming individuals. Under Assembly Bill 1163 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Arleta) various state agencies and departments have until July 1, 2026, to revise their public-use forms so they are more inclusive of individuals who identify as transgender, gendernonconforming, or intersex. The agencies also now need to collect data pertaining to the specific needs of such individuals, such as their medical care and mental health disparities, as well as the population size of the various communities. It is the latest effort by Golden State lawmakers to improve the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data by state agencies. But as the Bay Area Reporter has previously reported, the gathering of SOGI information has run into myriad problems at the local, state, and federal levels. The state’s auditor earlier this year called out the California Department of Public Health for its failures in collecting LGBTQ health data. The agency has been working to address the issues cited in the auditor’s report, as it recently noted in a response to the audit findings.

Courtesy Governor’s Office

Governor Gavin Newsom

AB 1487 by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) establishes the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Wellness Reentry Fund in order to provide grants for reentry programming “specifically to support transgender, gender variant, and intersex people who have experienced carceral systems.” Although Newsom signed the bill creating it, there is no funding for it. It will be up to the governor and state lawmakers to allocate funds toward it in future state budgets.

See page 10 >>

Group advocates for SF, Oakland bar patios to be smokefree

by Matthew S. Bajko

ince 2012, San Jose has required the outdoor patios of all bars in the city to be smokefree. Daly City and Fremont have adopted similar bans. More than four-dozen Bay Area cities have enacted laws for 100% smokefree outdoor dining and bar patios, according to a list compiled by the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. The counties of Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma also have imposed such a restriction, noted the advocacy organization. An effort is underway to see San Francisco and Oakland follow suit. The group LGBTQ Minus Tobacco has been meeting with leaders in both cities to discuss the adoption of a smokefree bar patio policy. (https://www.lgbtqminustobacco.org/smoke-free-bar-patios) Next Thursday, October 26, it is hosting a community meeting in Oakland to raise awareness about the issue. “The Oakland meeting is sort of a kick start to our work in Oakland a little bit,” said Brian Davis, the project director for LGBTQ Minus Tobacco. It has been surveying attendees at Pride events in both cities about the policy. It also has had booths at street festivals in San Francisco,

Rick Gerharter

Brian Davis, left, T.J. Lee, and Amaya Wooding staffed the LGBTQ Minus Tobacco booth at the October 1 Castro Street Fair.

such as at this month’s Castro Street Fair and the Bearrison Street Fair. “We have now asked 245 people who named specific bars with patios in SF that they go to whether they would go more often, about the

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same, less often, or not at all if a law passed in SF requiring all bar patios to be smokefree. Forty-four percent would go more often, 48% would go about the same, and 8% would go less often,” Davis told the Bay Area Reporter. See page 11 >>

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San Francisco Department of Public Health staff had an mpox vaccination booth at the Folsom Street Fair September 24.

The bill’s backers have said they would like to secure at least $5 million for the reentry fund. It mirrors the state fund created in 2020 by the passage of a bill Santiago authored that pays for trans health care services across the Golden State. Newsom appropriated $13 million for it in 2022, while the Office of Health Equity within the state’s health department is responsible for administering the fund and awarding the fiscal grants to organizations providing trans-inclusive health care. Newsom’s office announced Friday night that he had signed the two bills into law. Earlier on October 13, the state health department announced it had awarded $2.4 million from the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund to five agencies providing gender-affirming care services. Among them was one Northern California agency, the San Francisco-based Lyon-Martin Community Health Services. The other four provide services in Southern California, such as The TransPower Project, formerly known as Queer Works, and Desert AIDS Project in Palm Springs. The others are Alianza Translatinx based in Santa Ana, the TransLatin@ Coalition and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the St. John’s Community Health and Transgender Health and Wellness Center in Los Angeles.

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<< LGBTQ History Month

2 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

Golden State queer mecca is more than SF

by John Ferrannini

he 1979 police assault on San Francisco’s former Elephant Walk bar on Castro Street after the White Night riots was a defining moment for the LGBTQ neighborhood, helping to cement the solidarity of a new community while the whole world was watching. Earlier that year, in February, there was another, less storied raid that helped connect another LGBTQ hamlet in California. George Raya, 74, an LGBTQ activist who has lived in San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Diego, was in law school when he was visiting the Fourth Avenue Club, a gay bathhouse in San Diego’s Hillcrest LGBTQ neighborhood. Police “sent in two teams of two people trying to get a gay person to solicit them,” Raya recalled to the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview. “And I was watching them for a while that evening and they wanted you to make the first move. Right when I was going to tell the management, the lights went on. ‘Raid!’” “They herded us all downstairs to a corner someplace,” Raya said. “Talk about being scared shitless.” All told, 25 officers arrested 23 patrons, according to the San Diego LGBTQ Historic Context Statement, a 2016 document prepared for the city’s planning department. “It ruined things for those people,” Raya said. “Some of them lost jobs.” But Raya and others didn’t want to take the injustice lying down. They organized a meeting to address police harassment. “The community really came together. Myself and the guy who was the head of the ACLU put together a community meeting, and out of that meeting the community went to the city council and lambasted the police department for wasting these resources on a victimless crime,” he said, referring to the American Civil Liberties Union. The activists honed in on the issue of discrimination within the San Diego Police Department, and though an assistant police chief insisted that they didn’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, tension between the department and the city’s LGBTQ community persisted for years, according to LGBTQ archives at San Diego State University. The Fourth Avenue Club – now Club San Diego – is still standing, the last bathhouse in the city. But as the generation that created the heady days of gay liberation ages, it is stories like Raya’s that are at risk of being lost – the stories of how LGBTQ people found a home in the Golden State, and not just in the City-by-the-Bay.

San Diego

Nicole Murray Ramirez, or Empress Nicole the Great, Queen Mother of the Americas, is a Latino gay activist and a longtime fixture in San Diego’s queerville, Hillcrest, which is northwest of Balboa Park, home of the city’s worldfamous zoo. “Hillcrest before us was an Italian neighborhood,” Murray Ramirez told the B.A.R. “Gays started moving there in the late 1970s and one of our oldest bars, the Brass Rail, was downtown. It’s interesting, for the first time in 100 years, it was sold and we’ll have a gay owner. … So I think in many ways we followed the Brass Rail up here.” According to Hillcrest History, the Brass Rail moved to Hillcrest in 1963. Urban Pelicon, a gay man, is one of the new owners who purchased the bar (now just The Rail) in June. “Before it was always straight-owned, but it was always a gay bar,” Pelicon told the B.A.R. “The previous owner called it The Rail. Originally, it was the Brass Rail, and we are going to go back to the original name in a couple months.” The neighborhood remains vibrant, with restaurants, bars, nightclubs – as well as grocery stores and apartments – stretching along University Avenue. “Hillcrest remains a strong gay presence – obviously most of our bars, if

Photo: P505.103,L2013.63 San Diego Pride Collection, Lambda Archives of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 16 July 1994. Courtesy Lambda Archives of San Diego.

Men danced on the Rich’s bar float at San Diego Pride 1994.

not all, are in Hillcrest,” Murray Ramirez said. “We probably still have about 20 bars, and one of the only women’s bars in the world and of course we were the first to get Harvey Milk Street.” The women’s bar, Gossip Grill, did not return a request for comment. According to Murray Ramirez, there’s been discussion as to whether Hillcrest should be designated a cultural district or a historic district. Benjamin Nichols, a gay man who is the executive director of the Hillcrest Business Improvement Association, said the group supports a cultural district in the area and has been helped by Mayor Todd Gloria, who is the city’s first openly gay elected mayor. Gloria’s office did not return a request for comment. “The city of San Diego for many, many years has been trying to create a historic district in Hillcrest, which would preserve buildings. A lot of buildings people don’t want to preserve because they don’t see them as historic, so there was some resistance,” Nichols said. “The planning commission brought back the idea as an LGBT historic district. … They just rebranded it and the community, rightfully so, got upset about it. Just put a rainbow flag around it.” Nichols said that the best solution would be to establish a cultural district but with legal protections for LGBTQ spaces. “Rather than preserving the buildings, we’d preserve the uses,” Nichols said. Among these would be that nonprofits and businesses with a contributing status could get “certain perks from the city,” Nichols said, for their contribution to the district, giving as an example the Pride parade, which he said would “save $100,000” if it didn’t have to close down city streets and held its event in a park. “But then it wouldn’t be the Pride parade,” Nichols said, adding that if it were a contributor, it could theoretically get its police fees waived. In a statement, San Diego Pride Executive Director Fernando Z. López stated that eliminating police and city fees could present “a monumental shift in city policy.” As Pride has grown – contributing $30 million in regional economic impact, López stated, “We’ve also experienced a sharp increase in fees.” “By eliminating police and city fees, we’d be able to channel more resources directly back into serving the LGBTQ community. Pride worldwide has undeniable social, cultural, and economic value,” López added. “An LGBTQ cultural district plan that genuinely acknowledges and invests in this reality could be a monumental shift in city policy.” Another example Nichols gave was landlords communicating with new tenants that there may be noise from LGBTQ nightlife establishments and trying to mitigate its effects. “Every gay and lesbian nightlife venue in San Diego has an apartment complex going up next door,” Nichols said. “People move in because it’s the gayborhood but they complain because there’s a drag show next door – though the reason they moved here was because of the nightlife and the excitement.” In Nichols’ proposal, developers building next to a nightclub that had received cultural status “would have to meet additional guidelines – noise protection,

notifying tenants that they’re moving into an event and cultural district.” Nichols said he’s hoping Hillcrest sets a “national standard for cultural districts.” “This will allow us to embrace change without losing our soul,” he added, continuing that LGBTQ neighborhoods around the state and nation have to meet the challenges of the present moment. When Nichols came to Hillcrest, he said, “There was an underlying current of ‘Will & Grace’ is on primetime so everything’s fine; we don’t need a gayborhood. In the past four, five years a lot of people have felt really glad Hillcrest is still here, now that the winds have changed direction.” In the past several years, fewer Americans have reported finding same-sex relations morally acceptable. According to Gallup, that number went from 71% in 2022 to 64% this year. Further, over 500 bills – mostly targeting the trans community – have been introduced in U.S. statehouses, prompting the Human Rights Campaign to declare that LGBTQs face a state of emergency. Murray Ramirez said anyone interested in learning more about Hillcrest should consult the Lambda Archives, which did not return a request for comment.

Sacramento

Sacramento resident Terry Sidie told the B.A.R. that in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he’d trek a couple of hours south to San Francisco’s Polk Street bars, people would scoff at the Golden State’s capital city. “They would make fun of Sacramento and call it ‘Sacotomatoes’ and I thought, ‘I’m going to get you guys some day,’” he said. In 1985, he did, opening the Faces nightclub in Sacramento’s LGBTQ neighborhood Lavender Heights – about 10 blocks east of the state Capitol building. When asked how Faces changed the neighborhood, Sidie wasn’t shy. “I think we changed it 100% or more,” he said. Today, Faces sits across from The Depot and Sacramento Badlands – owned by T.J. Bruce, a gay man who also owns Splash San Jose and is co-manager of the soon-to-reopen San Francisco Badlands – and nearby the Mercantile Saloon. But according to Raya, who went to California State University, Sacramento, when he moved to midtown Sacramento in 1970, the center of gay gravity was in West Sacramento, a separate city across the Sacramento River in neighboring Yolo County. “We had a county sheriff for years and years, John Misterly, and he didn’t want any sin in Sacramento,” Raya said. “All the gambling, prostitution and gay bars were in West Sacramento: Log Cabin, Hide and Seek, and a gay bathhouse.” After Misterly left office, LGBTQ bars and baths began to open in Sacramento. The first bathhouse in Sacramento proper, at Fifth Street near Broadway, was opened by the late Rick Stokes, who also co-founded the Steamworks Baths in Berkeley. “Rick was just a real entrepreneur,” Raya recalled. “When Rick Stokes and David Clayton got into the bathhouse business their first was called Ritch Street [in San Francisco] – I used to go to it, that was in the 1970s – and they de-

Sharon Parker and Susan Richards, P201.005, L2010.12 Sharon Parker and Susan Richards Collection, Lambda Archives of San Diego, San Diego, CA. Courtesy Lambda Archives of San Diego.

A long shot of the crowd of attendees standing below the “Hillcrest” sign at the Hillcrest Street Fair in San Diego on August 26, 1984.

Courtesy Outword magazine

Officials celebrate the Lavender Heights district in Sacramento.

cided to open bathhouses in mediumsized cities, so they’d open one here, and in Santa Clara. They had one in Puerto Rico and one in Hawaii.” The estate of Stokes, who died in 2022, is in the midst of an ownership tussle regarding Steamworks, as the B.A.R. previously reported. The Mercantile Saloon, which opened in 1977, was the first gay bar, Raya said, followed by the Wreck Room and the Western Pacific Depot (now simply The Depot), so named because of a nearby railway depot. Faces opened across the street. The midtown neighborhood “was a not-really-desirable part of town,” Raya said, adding it was populated with “seniors, gay people, and hippies, basically.” “A lot of the houses were older buildings not kept up and it was just not popular,” he added. “People were moving to the suburbs for new housing and it was cheap.” The Lavender Heights name came about when the neighborhood was fighting the AIDS epidemic, Sidie said. “There was a group of older queens that went to the Western [Depot] all the time,” Sidie said. “The Fairy Godfather Fund is what they established, and that’s where they came up with the name.” People who want to learn more about Lavender Heights’ history can find resources in the Gender and Sexual Identity Collection of Sacramento State’s Special Collections and University Archives, Raya said, to which he’d given some of his own records. Spokesperson Amy Kautzman told the B.A.R. that the university “received this collection in 2000 from professor emeritus [the late] Ivor Kraft.” “The principal intent was to enable our campus to create a major collection of materials and holdings dealing with all aspects of LGBTQ+ life,” Kautzman said. “Professor Kraft committed to leaving additional funding for the endowment to build a collection that would specifically represent under-represented and targeted minorities in the community. “Our library historically built a strong collection that includes early periodicals like ‘One, the homosexual viewpoint’ magazine that began in 1953,” Kautzman added. “Our collections grew with Kraft’s initial gift and the addition of Kraft’s personal collection of books and magazines collected over decades, all supplemented via our long-time focus on collecting in this area.”

There’s also the Lavender Library, Archives and Cultural Exchange nearby the aforementioned bars, which did not return a request for comment for this report. The nonprofit was established in 1997 as a lending library and archive for the local LGBTQ community. In a related matter, California State Parks’ Office of Historic Preservation is currently working on a historic context statement for Sacramento’s LGBTQ history. The city’s LGBTQ neighborhood has boomed, Sidie said, because of its proximity to the Bay Area. “People left San Francisco and Faces got much more well known,” Sidie said. “Capacity of 1,500 people; three dance floors. And the Merc is still open … The Bolt is open here in north Sacramento doing a good job, so we have a pretty vivacious community. We’ve lost some of the leather crowd, the cowboy crowd; we used to have a wonderful gay rodeo.” There were many LGBTQ spaces that have closed in recent decades, Raya said, including a bookstore and a Hamburger Mary’s. Sidie was one of the co-owners of the Hamburger Mary’s, which had been at 17th and J streets, along with Richard Boriolo and David Mensch. “They had it for 19 years and bought me out after 10 years,” Sidie said. “Closed it 10 years ago or so.” Bruce took over The Depot in 1997. “As things changed with the introduction of the internet, and men could meet outside of the bars, we bar owners had our work cut out for us with what that meant to stay relevant and keep the doors open,” Bruce told the B.A.R. “Suddenly, we had to entertain customers to get them to come out to the bars often enough to pack the place and keep [it] exciting and busy.” Also, as LGBTQ people became more accepted, the bar crowd began to include more and more straight allies. “These days we have to really make sure to remind our straight customers that they are in a gay bar,” Bruce said. “To do so we do many things, including prideful crew work shirts and rainbow flags, as well as keeping go-go dancer men and women and our amazing drag queens a big part of the weekend entertainment. … Even with all of the changes over the past 24 years, I still love the gay bar business and doing my best to be a positive part of my community.” t This article is part of the LGBTQ Media History Project coordinated by Philadelphia Gay News.

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<< LGBTQ History Month

t Queer couple seeks history of their Oakland home 4 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

by Heather Cassell

oan Howard and Rebecca Longworth wish the walls could talk in their East Oakland home, which they discovered was once a working-class lesbian bar. The building’s past began to reveal itself to the couple as they started to give it some tender loving care after they bought it in 2015. The 1940sera two-story building that stands on an island at Bancroft Avenue (formerly Bond Street) between Fremont Way and 50th Avenue had lived nearly nine lives before the couple took ownership. The building survived a fire and experienced some neglect through the decades. Longworth, a 47-year-old queer woman, said the couple discovered that it started out as a cocktail bar and restaurant after the Southern Pacific Railroad stopped using the property as a depot at the end of the 1930s. The Oaklandside reported the building remained mostly a bar and liquor store over the years. It was an easy stop for the former streetcar that ran up and down the street until the 1960s, said Longworth, who is a theater director and high school English teacher. It was briefly the home of Oakland Oaks minor league baseball player Frank “Shorty” Perry. The building’s latest life as a cannabis growing space was short-lived, landing it in foreclosure. That’s how it came into Howard and Longworth’s hands. The couple saw an advertisement for the boxy building on Craigslist. It met their needs for a home and creative space for Howard’s wood workshop and a rehearsal space for the couple’s theater company, The Peripatetic Players. While renovating they found mysterious remnants of a dance floor in the area that is now their

Jane Philomen Cleland

Rebecca Longworth, left, and Joan Howard stand in front of their East Oakland home, which used to be the site of The Jubilee, an old lesbian bar.

office and rehearsal space, said Howard, a 52-year-old nonbinary person. Howard, who is a carpenter and builder when they aren’t working as a clown and doing theater work, added the building had three separate entrances and two staircases at one point. The couple also found a beer can in the ceiling, the back of a pinball machine, and an exit sign once hung in what is now their kitchen. Neighbors would occasionally comment to them that they used to party in the building. The couple was aware their home was a nightclub at one point, but the artifacts never revealed its queer history. They never suspected that one of the lives their home lived was as a mostly women of color working-class lesbian bar. Friends discovered the home’s hidden past at the Oakland Museum

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of California’s 2019 exhibit, “Queer California: Untold Stories,” and told them during a dinner party that year – the building once was the last home to The Jubilee. Curious, Howard and Longworth went to the exhibit. There was their building on display in a photo taken by photographer Kaucyila Brooke. Brooke started documenting lesbian bars – past and present – in 1996 with her project, “The Boy Mechanic” , reported The Oaklandside. Brooke, a professor at CalArts, started her project in San Diego. It took her up the California coast to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland and overseas to Cologne, Germany. “It was exciting to find out that it was a lesbian nightclub, and then find out that it was really for women of color,” said Longworth, who was thrilled to know their home “was a really safe space and an exciting space.” Brooke felt Howard and Longworth’s home, painted a bright blue, was “monumental,” she told the Oaklandside. She explained so many buildings lesbian bars called home are not “archived, and not ‘important’ spaces’ in a mainstream kind of way.” In her artist’s statement, she wrote lesbian bars and spaces are, “so often anonymous or mute, and now waning.” The Lesbian Bar Project reported that in 1980 there were 200 lesbian bars in the United States. In 2021, there were 21 lesbian bars. By 2023, that number grew slightly and now numbers near 30, with a burst of new lesbian bars opening across the country during the COVID pandemic. Many reasons surround the closure of lesbian bars, from gentri-

fication to the mainstreaming of lesbians to sobriety to queer women coupling up and not going out as often. It is unclear if any of these are the reasons for The Jubilee’s closure, or if Betty Arnesen and the late Velma “Val” Souza, who owned the bar for nearly two decades, simply retired. The Jubilee closed sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, neighbors told Howard, but no one who spoke with the B.A.R. or talked with Howard and Longworth is exactly sure when the last drink was poured. Souza remained very active in Oakland’s community through the 1990s, according to the B.A.R.’s archives. The B.A.R. could not locate any official records searching government agencies’ databases or newspaper archives under the bar’s name and the owners’ names. If the Jubilee was registered under a different business entity the name is currently unknown.

The Jubilee

The B.A.R. previously reported that the East Bay’s LGBTQ history “stretches back at least to the 1950s.” While North Beach’s Black Cat is noted in history for being the first queer bar to successfully challenge California’s Alcoholic Beverage Control for the right to serve LGBTQ patrons, it wasn’t the only gay bar to do so. The newspaper reported Oakland’s lesbian bars Mary’s First and Last Chance also challenged the law and won in 1959. The Jubilee was one of 50 known LGBTQ bars that once inhabited the East Bay since the 1950s, according to a list compiled by the late B.A.R. queer East Bay scene columnist Nez Pas in 1985, reported the B.A.R. Nez Pas was the pen name of Peter Palm,

the co-owner of the long-shuttered gay bar Revol. The White Horse, which is on the Oakland-Berkeley border and celebrating its 90th anniversary, is believed to be the nation’s oldest known LGBTQ bar, the B.A.R. reported earlier this year. Arnesen and Souza took over The Jubilee at its original location at 4700 East 14th Street and later at 4712 East 14th Street (now International Boulevard) in 1966. The partners in business more than in life (they reportedly separated romantically but remained business partners), opened The Jubilee the same year as famed late San Francisco lesbian bar-owner Rikki Streicher opened Maud’s in the Haight-Ashbury, reported the Washington Post. The Jubilee moved to the Bancroft Avenue building in late 1975, said Susan Fahey, who was Streicher’s bar manager. She recalled going to The Jubilee’s grand opening party in January 1976, but she remembered The Jubilee’s sports teams the most. Fahey, a 72-year-old gay woman who is retired from the San Francisco Sheriff ’s Office, at various times held all the executive positions in the Bay Area Women’s Softball League and reviewed her records for the B.A.R. The league was founded under various names in 1974. By 1976, the league formalized with teams from both the East Bay and San Francisco playing against each other. She said the Jubilee team dropped off her softball rosters in 1980, but they reappeared in 1981. The Jubilee team did not appear on the 1982 roster or any roster after that. She could not recall when The Jubilee closed. “They never fucking lost. And in those days the loser had to go to the winning bar and pay,” Streicher said in an interview for Wide Open Town History Project, reported The Oaklandside. Fahey agreed The Jubilee’s softball team was very good and its basketball team was even better, she said. Her records showed The Jubilee softball teams won most of the years they appeared on the league’s roster, but they “dominated” in basketball. “I remember playing Jubilee and their basketball team was even better than the softball team,” Fahey said, describing how the women would pass the ball up and down the court, scoring. “It was impossible playing them in basketball.” Ollie’s was the last lesbian bar to close in Oakland in 1986, according to Barbara Hoke, a former Jubilee patron, who wrote a brief account about her experiences at The Jubilee, reportedly affectionately called “the Jube” by regulars, and other East Bay lesbian watering holes on Soul Studio Arts. See page 10 >>

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<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

Volume 53, Number 42 October 19-25, 2023 www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Michael Flanagan •Jim Gladstone Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Gooch Jose A. Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe Shot in the City • Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Christine Smith

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Breed’s ballot measure isn’t about public safety S an Francisco Mayor London Breed this week joined with Safer San Francisco to announce a measure for the March 2024 ballot that proponents said will “remove obstacles that have been put in place that prevent San Francisco Police Department officers from being able to more effectively and efficiently do their jobs.” At a time of understaffing in SFPD, this measure might at first blush look appealing. But there are potential problems, particularly around the desire to change rules regarding police pursuits. Breed is facing a tough reelection next year, and already has two major opponents, District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí and Daniel Lurie, the founder and former CEO of the anti-poverty Tipping Point Community and an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. First, we should point out that the city’s new twoyear budget that Breed signed in late July includes funding for 220 police officers, so the staffing shortage is being addressed. It takes time to hire officers, have them complete an academy class, and undergo other training before they are sent out on the street. But the staffing shortage is real; even when all these new officers are hired, the city will still be down about 80 or so officers. SFPD last revised its pursuit policy in 2013 and the goal was to prevent injuries or fatalities while engaged in high-speed chases. The department’s policy is to “safely apprehend a fleeing violator without unnecessarily endangering the public and/or officers.” In May, however, a man was killed while police pursued a carjacking suspect, as Mission Local reported. Other incidents have also occurred. SFPD has tried to utilize caution with its pursuits, and Department of Police Accountability policy director Janelle Caywood told Mission Local that her team was reviewing whether SFPD’s pursuit policy should be changed. Now here comes Breed and Safer San Francisco who want officers to “actively pursue suspects of felonies and violent misdemeanors, including retail theft, vehicle theft, and auto burglaries as long as the pursuit can be done safely.” It seems like a recipe for more bystander injuries and possible fatalities. High-speed chases are dangerous. Yet only a day before the mayor announced the ballot measure, she issued a statement praising Governor Gavin Newsom for signing Assembly Bill 645 that will allow the city to implement speed cameras under a pilot

Bill Wilson

San Francisco Mayor London Breed

program. “Higher speeds increase the likelihood of severe injuries or fatalities when a collision occurs,” the mayor’s news release stated. So, on the one hand the mayor believes police officers should be able to more easily engage in high-speed pursuits, while on the other she’s “thrilled” the city will be participating in a pilot program to catch speeders. There are other elements to the Safer San Francisco ballot measure, including giving police access to 21st century technology and tools (i.e., cameras and surveillance technologies), reducing administrative paperwork, and preventing the police commission from “prioritizing ideology before community safety,” as the release puts it. The item referring to the commission troubles us. Breed has made four appointments to the commission (the Board of Supervisors makes the other three), and last year caused an uproar when it was reported that one of her appointees, Max Carter-Oberstone, had been instructed by the mayor’s office to sign an undated “draft” resignation letter. It became an issue after he disagreed with Breed’s choice as to who should be president of the commission. The San Francisco Standard then reported that dozens of mayoral appointees had been asked to sign similar letters, presumably as a way to get rid of them if they did something the mayor didn’t like. Ultimately, City Attorney David Chiu, whom Breed appointed, issued an opinion last fall that while the practice wasn’t illegal, it could open

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

the city to legal scrutiny. Breed rescinded all of the resignation letters that had been submitted. Now, this ballot measure wants to “reform” the commission. The mayor’s release states that the police commission micromanages SFPD and is “adversarial to policy solutions supported by community safety leaders.” The release stated that under the measure the commission will require that any changes that the commission wants to make needs to involve engaging with local merchants, neighborhood leaders, and experts like retired peace officers “who understand the day-to-day challenges and impacts of their decisions and what real-life conditions require of police officers.” The measure will “prevent the police commission from micromanaging the police chief and ensure all new policies put in place do not require more than 20% of an officer’s total on-duty time be spent on administrative duties,” the release stated. To be clear, the police commission with civilian appointees dates back to 1878. Its mission is to set policy for the police department and to conduct disciplinary hearings on charges of police misconduct filed by the chief of police or director of the Department of Police Accountability, impose discipline in such cases as warranted, and hear police officers’ appeals from discipline imposed by the chief of police. By and large, we believe the body does a good job even in these challenging times. Passing a ballot measure is micromanaging, in our opinion, and not in the best interest of the city or SFPD. Trying to find consensus among business and community leaders likely will be a fraught practice, resulting in nothing getting accomplished. All of this suggests that Breed is feeling pressure as she runs for reelection. The public safety crisis on city streets and smash-and grab robberies are real problems, to be sure. But hamstringing the seven people who sit on the commission is not likely to change that. It’s possible that SFPD’s pursuit policy needs to be updated, but not to the point where patrol vehicles are speeding down city streets every time a Walgreens is robbed. This does not seem like a good measure; it reeks of desperation on the part of the mayor, who conveniently will be able to be the public face of the initiative and raise gobs of money to promote it. Yes, people are fed up with property crimes in the city. But the better alternative is to move ahead with hiring the more than 200 officers funded in the city budget. t

Matthew Shepard’s legacy still lives by Gary L. Day

Bay Area Reporter

his month marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. On October 6, 1998, Shepard was beaten, tortured and left to die, bound to a fence in a remote Wyoming field, not far from the small town of Laramie. He was found and taken to a hospital where he died from his wounds six days later. Suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly thereafter. They were charged, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder. Both received two consecutive life sentences. The case received national attention. It also proved a turning point for the LGBTQ rights movement once it was learned that Shepard was gay, and that his assailants were motivated by anti-gay hatred. The case energized the LGBTQ movement, assisted by Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, who became powerful spokespeople against hate crimes. This eventually led to the passage of the nation’s first federal legislation for hate crimes in 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed by then-President Barack Obama. The LGBTQ movement was also propelled by another powerful voice making its way through the country’s cultural zeitgeist, a play called “The Laramie Project,” created by members of a New York-based theater collective called the Tectonic Theater Project. In the aftermath of Shepard’s death, LGBTQ communities nationwide began to stand up in solidarity, mourning, and action. Likewise, the members of Tectonic felt called to action. Led by the company’s head writers, Moisés Kaufman and Leigh Fondakowski, a total of 10 members of Tectonic made the journey to Laramie to interview residents. They were initially concerned that the townspeople would be skittish, given the amount of scrutiny by the national media they’d endured in the wake of the murder. However, once people learned that the Tecton-

Courtesy the Matthew Shepard Foundation

Matthew Shepard

ic group was not journalists, but artists looking to piece together a true story, they became trusting and extremely forthcoming. The result was over 200 interviews and over 400 hours of audio recordings. Once transcribed, the writers spent many hours cutting the raw wordage down to the form that became “The Laramie Project.” The play held its world premiere in Denver on February 26, 2000. The cast was composed of the Tectonic members who had first journeyed to Laramie, portraying the people they themselves had interviewed. Six weeks later, the play opened off-Broadway, where it was rapturously received. The New York Times, in its review, wrote, “What Mr. Kaufman and his team are after is less a portrait of any person than one of the ethos of a place. In the deliberate, simple formality of its staging, in which eight radiantly clean-scrubbed performers embody 60 different people against Robert Brill’s bare-bones set, ‘Laramie’ often brings to mind ‘Our Town.’ ... But if ‘The Laramie Project’ nods conspicuously to Wilder, this play is ‘Our Town’ with a

question mark, as in ‘Could this be our town?’ There are repeated variations by the citizens of Laramie on the statement ‘It can’t happen here,’ followed immediately by ‘And yet it has.’” Two years later, a film adaptation of the play was released, which resulted in a massive surge of interest in the play. Between January 2002 and June 2003, there were over 440 productions of “The Laramie Project” in high schools, colleges, and amateur theater groups all across the United States. In the years since, “The Laramie Project” continues to be an invaluable tool in teaching communities, particularly young people, of the consequences of hatred and bigotry. There continues to be countless productions every year by regional theater, amateur groups, universities, and schools; there have even been reports of some schools making it a part of their 11th or 12th grade reading curriculum. One of the more poignant results of the various school productions is that Matthew’s mother, Judy, frequently flies out to attend student and youth productions. When asked why she does it, she refers to the show’s Playbill and says, “Well, I put Matthew here in my pocket. I know that he’s there, and then I can go home.” Clearly, Shepard’s memory and legacy survives after 25 years, and will continue to do so. But then, the debates sparked by his death, and the hatred that caused his death, are also still both alive. Speaking to Playbill magazine, writer Kaufman says, “I often get asked, why does it continue to be relevant? And I feel that it’s unfortunate that [Matthew Shepard] continues to be so relevant. We look forward to the day when it ceases to be relevant, but we’re still engulfed in a lot of the same arguments.” One aspect of Shepard’s legacy, in addition to the ongoing life of “The Laramie Project,” is the Matthew Shepard Foundation, founded by his parents. According to its website, “The Matthew Shepard Foundation’s mission is to amplify the story of Matthew Shepard to inspire individuals, organizations and communities to embrace the dignity and equality of all people. See page 11 >>

Politics >>

October 19-25, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 7

Queer family advocate seeks Oakland school board vacancy by Matthew S. Bajko

queer family advocate is seeking the vacant seat on the Oakland school board this November. If elected, Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez would be the second LGBTQ member of the oversight body. For the past decade Ritzie-Hernandez has worked on family engagement issues with the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network. Currently, she coordinates its collaborative initiative called the Bay Area Coalition for Education Justice. “Definitely, one of the many reasons why I am running is because there has been attacks on the safety and the wellbeing of our LGBTQ students in Alameda County. To me, we need to move into a space where we are not just performative and not just saying we are going to wave our Pride flags. We need a welcoming environment for our students,” said Ritzie-Hernandez, whose wife, Shaniah, is serving as her campaign manager. “Inclusivity is so important and it starts with representation in my opinion. I never saw a queer board member I could identify with when I was a student.” Yet Ritzie-Hernandez, 33, is facing a tough campaign for the District 5 seat on the board that oversees the Oakland Unified School District. A special election is being held for it November 7 due to school board member Mike Hutchinson switching seats earlier this year. Because he was redistricted out of the District 5 area, which covers Oakland’s Fruitvale and East Oakland neighborhoods, Hutchinson ran in 2022 for the District 4 seat in order to remain on the oversight body. Initially, transgender married dad Nick Resnick was declared the winner of that race. But in a shocking turn of events, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis had disclosed December 28 that his office had not properly counted the ballots in the contest, and three others decided by ranked choice, and the true winner of the school board seat had been Hutchinson, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. Nonetheless, Resnick took his oath of office in January to serve in the seat. It led to Hutchinson waging a legal fight to have the courts order a recount so he could be declared the winner. Ultimately, Resnick decided to resign, paving the way for Hutchinson to be sworn in to the District 4 seat. Thus, he resigned from his District 5 seat, which he could have continued serving in until his term was up in early January 2025. Whoever wins the special election next month will need to run for a full four-year term as the District 5 representative on the November ballot in 2024. Ritzie-Hernandez, who uses both she and they pronouns, aims to be the victor and have incumbent status headed into next year’s race. LPAC, which works to elect out women to office across the U.S., recently endorsed Ritzie-Hernandez, while the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund did so in late September. Queer Oakland School board member Valarie Bachelor, elected last year to the oversight body’s District 6 seat, is also supporting RitzieHernandez. So are California Attorney General Rob Bonta and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, as is the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club based in San Francisco. Hutchinson has endorsed retired educator and principal Jorge Lerma, 73, who also was endorsed last month

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Oakland school board candidate Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez stands in front of the mural “Reclaiming Fruitvale.”

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by the East Bay Times newspaper. Former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf is also backing Lerma in the race. In another electoral mishap, Lerma and Ritzie-Hernandez were told by the city clerk’s office they needed to collect signatures from residents within the new District 5 boundaries to qualify for the ballot. In reality, they should have been using the old district lines, leading Dupuis in August to initially disqualify them from being eligible to run before reversing that decision. Speaking to the B.A.R. in early October, Ritzie-Hernandez said she was confident she could win the contest. Even though it is her first time seeking public office, she noted she has deep roots in Oakland because of going to school there and from her community organizing work. “Quite frankly, I feel like the campaign is going really, really well,” she said. Born in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico Ritzie-Hernandez lost her sister and her father’s brother in a car accident in 1990. Seven years later the family “lost everything,” she said, when Hurricane Pauline slammed into the country’s Pacific Coast. With her older brother bullied in school for being gay, he and their father left for the Bay Area in 1999 to live with family in Oakland. It wouldn’t be until 2002, at the age of 12, that Ritzie-Hernandez and her mother left for the U.S. after she was nearly kidnapped by thieves who had broken into their house and “took everything,” she said. After making their way to Nogales, “we walked for a couple days through the Arizona desert until we got to Phoenix,” recalled Ritzie-Hernandez, who with her mother was then driven to Oakland. Twenty years and thousands of dollars in lawyer fees later Ritzie-Hernandez became a U.S. citizen last October 26. She immediately registered to vote with an eye on running for a school board seat as soon as she could. “It is something I always dreamed of,” said Ritzie-Hernandez, who last year also graduated with a B.A. in English from the now-closed Holy Names University. It was where she first met her wife, whom she started dating five years ago. The couple now live with RitzieHernandez’s parents in the Fruitvale neighborhood.

“The whole thing of us having a special election right now serves as testimony to the kind of decisions OUSD is making around budgeting. We are www.SchneiderLawSF.com spending $2 million on this special election,” said Ritzie-Hernandez. Yet the district is bracing for budget *Certified by the California State Bar shortfalls due to declining enrollment, with a projected deficit of $121 mil315 Montgomery St., Ste. 1025, San Francisco, CA 94104 lion by the 2025-2026 school years. It has faced criticism for approving a new contract for teachers in June, which some fear will only add to its Vice President of Advertising fiscal problems, and being unable to advertising@ebar.com close school sites to save on costs. Ritzie-Hernandez told the B.A.R., “I feel we need to assess our spending honestly.” At the same time, she acknowledged she “is not a big fan” of seeing schools be shuttered by the district. One reason being that in the past, it has meant the closure of schools with mostly students of color. 44 Gough Street #302, San Francisco, CA 94103 “It decreases the trust, definitely, of (415) 829-8937 • www.ebar.com our families, and it impacts our students,” Ritzie-Hernandez said. A previous decision to shutter or merge 11 schools over two years animated last year’s school board races, leading the newly installed board to rescind the decision in January. As a member of the school board, RitzieHernandez pledged to ensure that the district’s families are part of the decision-making process when it comes to such an issue. “I think an impact analysis is really important to show the community what the findings are and invite them into the decision-making process,” she said. Ritzie-Hernandez is one of two out candidates running for vacant education seats in the Bay Area this November. In Santa Clara County gay educator Clay Hale is seeking to When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in be elected to the District 7 seat on the advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial seven-person board that oversees the and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead San José-Evergreen Community ColWhen your celebration lasting protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, lege District. When you remembrance plan your celebration and lasting remembrance in allowing themlife to focus on what will matter most at that time—you. in advance, you can design every Gay San Jose City Councilmemadvance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial detail own memorial provide ber Omar Torres resigned from it Contact usyour today about theunique beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning after being elected to his city’s govyour loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead erning body last November. Hale, protects your loved onesProudly from unnecessary stressunnecessary and financial burden, ahead protects yourserving loved onesCommunity. from the LGBT who works for the East Side Union them focus on whatburden, will matter most them at thattotime—you. stresstoand financial allowing High School District, is one of allowing five candidates seeking to serve out the focus on what will matter most at that time—you. remainder of Torres’ term through Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy the end of next year. at the San Francisco The winner of the seat centered in Contact usColumbarium. today about the beautiful ways to create downtown San Jose will need to run a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. for a full four-year term on the fall One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 Proudly serving our Community. 2024 ballot. Equality California, the SanFranciscoColumbarium.com statewide LGBTQ advocacy organizaProudly serving the LGBT Community. tion, this week endorsed Hale’s 2023 FD 1306 / COA 660 campaign.

School issues

On Tuesday, EQCA announced it had hired Hayward Planning Commissioner Shay Franco-Clausen as its new political director. She replaces gay San Francisco resident Tom Temprano, who was promoted in May to be EQCA’s managing director of external affairs. He had first been hired as its political director last year in February.

In terms of issues facing the school board, Ritzie-Hernandez was critical of the three school board members, including Hutchinson, for not reaching an agreement on appointing someone to the vacant seat in a way that included community input. Instead, Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Alysse Castro called for the special election to take place.

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<< Commentary

8 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

In God’s image by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

ongtime readers will note that I don’t often discuss matters of religion. It’s not a topic I am comfortable with. I am predominantly agnostic, with a very strong pagan bent to my spirituality. While I have – over the course of my life – delved into mainstream religion, none of it really seems to fit me well. Because of this, I often feel more than a bit under-prepared to go too far into belief systems. By the same token, I feel religion is, well, a personal matter. I don’t feel a need to try to convince someone that their spiritual beliefs are somehow wrong, because I would take offense at someone claiming mine, too, are in error. I feel that, for the most part, one should be free to hold their religious beliefs as they wish, provided they aren’t causing anyone else any harm in doing so. This, of course, is where the issues lie. For the majority of my life, I have seen mainstream religion used as a way to justify any number of things. Of particular importance to this column, I have seen it used, again and again, as a way to harm trans people like myself. It is something I have been witness to from the earliest weeks of my coming out. I have been told, over and over, that their God loves me, all the while being told that my existence is also one of sin. Of course, in recent years, it has

Christine Smith

gone further: not only are they willing to preach against me, they have demanded the right to shape a culture where I am excluded, where even the mere mention of those like me is against the law. Rather than a place where we can have equality in the eyes of both God and the law, they seek a place where their rights stand proudly against me. This I simply cannot abide. One of my readers, Veronica, sent me a note the other day, alerting me to a September 29 “pastoral letter” from the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, and signed by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and Bishop of Oakland Michael C. Barber, S.J. It can be read in full at https://tinyurl.com/3dyedjeu.

The timing of this was curious, as just several months earlier, in July, Pope Francis spoke about opening the possibility for blessing same-sex unions, all the while reaffirming that marriage in the Catholic Church is between a man and a woman, “naturally open to procreation.” The Vatican released the pope’s letter earlier this month. It came before a major three-week meeting where LGBTQ Catholics were to be discussed. The pope’s letter is, on one hand, much further than we’ve seen before from the Catholic Church, while, at the same time, a fairly weak position that simply does not go far enough. That said, I’ve expected some in the church to push back even at this statement. The aforementioned pastoral letter from Cordileone and Barber quotes Francis as well, referring to “gender ideology” as “one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations.” Now, first off, I will have to go into the notion of “gender ideology” more one of these days. While the letter does go into details as to what the archdiocese means when it uses the phrase, evoking “powerful cultural influences” and such, understand that this boils down to something simple: people understand their gender in a way the church doesn’t like. We can go on about some non-defined “forces,” or realize that we are talking about living, breathing humans, just like me.

The letter goes on: “Throughout her history, the Catholic Church has opposed notions of dualism that posit the body and soul as separate, non-integrated entities. The body is an integral and indispensable aspect of what it means to be a human person. The body and soul come into existence together, in an individual human being at the time of conception. From the beginning of his or her existence, the human person has a body that is sexually differentiated as male or female.” Setting aside the use of a pronoun to describe the body of the church, it is worth noting that the human body is not so differentiated. (The church as “she” comes from the Romance languages, the word for church is a feminine one in Latin, Italian, and Spanish, so it gets a feminine article attached.) In the womb – and yes, I should note that this is a church that believes that life begins prior to one’s first breath on this world – we all start out as a single, proto-gendered being, where our parts will change in the weeks prior to birth. Likewise, not everyone will ever be so differentiated. In spite of their notions of infallibility as expressed above, bodies are messy and imperfect, and not so formed.

Needless to say, the letter continues to attempt to claim to love all people, including transgender people, but denounces the care we need to survive in the world. “Great harm can be done in situations where medical procedures and treatments fail to respect the fundamental created order of the human person,” Cordileone and Barber write, a few paragraphs after claiming, “One can never be said to be in the ‘wrong’ body.” I agree with the latter sentence. This is my body, and it’s not a mistake. It is, however, a trans body and, insofar as it fits their religion, my body is exactly what their deity may have meant for me to have. That same deity also provided the means to form this body and make it perfect, much like one can opt to correct for other needs. Should there be such a God, then surely they made me in their image, just as I am: I am transgender, and no archdiocese may change that fact. t Gwen Smith is just as God and goddess envisioned her to be. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com

SF library unveils AIDS portraits exhibit compiled by Cynthia Laird

he San Francisco Public Library presents “AIDS Self-Portraits: Positive Art,” featuring photographs by Jeannie O’Connor taken at four centers for AIDS services in San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond from 1989-95. The exhibition opens Saturday, October 28, in the San Francisco History Center and the Hormel LGBTQIA+ Center, both located at the Main Library, 100 Larkin Street (sixth and third floors, respectively). A news release stated that the exhibition serves as an important reminder of the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the community and the city’s trailblazing response to the crisis that continues to inform health policy today.

“The self-portraits in this exhibition represent the double bind of visibility and invisibility during the early AIDS crisis. These early 1990s portraits render themselves visible – as socially viable human beings – in order to receive the treatment they needed, from medical to emotional support,” stated Christina Moretta, San Francisco History Center photography curator. O’Connor is an artist who has created portraits of people living with AIDS since the late 1980s. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, and her portraits have been featured in numerous publications and are part of the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA+ Center’s archives, the release stated. The exhibition at the main library showcases a selection of O’Connor’s

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most powerful and moving portraits, which were created while she was a guest artist for Sharon Siskin’s Positive Art classes, a groundbreaking communitybased public art collaboration in the Bay Area that was founded in 1988. O’Connor set up a makeshift studio and brought in a view camera with Polaroid film. A long shutter release allowed each sitter to control the timing of the shutter, making them an active participant in the art creation, the release explained. The final prints were passed around and enjoyed by the subjects and their families, and they became joyful symbols of their survival and resilience as well as a portrait of a disease that does not discriminate based on sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender, or age, the release noted. “Little did I know, when I was invited to take portraits at Rest Stop, that I would land at ground zero in the AIDS crises in the Bay Area,” O’Connor stated, referring to one of the AIDS centers in San Francisco. “For six years, I recorded the faces of young men and women whose newly found freedom of sexual expression was cut short by an unknown and deadly virus. Looking back at this body of work, I’m struck by how far we have come and how far we have yet to go to eradicate this disease. I’m glad my work honors these brave souls and serves as a reminder that HIV/AIDS is still very much with us.” O’Connor’s portraits won praise from the Hormel center.

Courtesy SFPL

Jeannie O’Connor’s “AIDS Self-Portraits” exhibition features an unnamed person at the Center for AIDS Services in Oakland, left, and Brice Anderson at the Shanti Project in San Francisco.

“Jeannie’s portraits are a testament to the resilience and strength of the human spirit, and we are honored to share them with our community,” stated Cristina Mitra, Hormel LGBTQIA+ Center program manager. The exhibition is free and open to the public during regular library hours and will be on display through February 29. An artist talk with O’Connor will be held Saturday, November 4, at 4 p.m., in the library’s history center on the sixth floor. A selection of portraits from the O’Connor collection can be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/4d2y6pu4

through a National Endowment to the Humanities digitization grant “The San Francisco Bay Area’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic: Digitizing, Reuniting, and Providing Universal Access to Historical AIDS Record.”

fessional experiences. After arriving in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965 to pursue his education at UC Berkeley, he obtained his bachelor’s degree and teaching credential. Later, he embarked on a fulfilling career as a general contractor, dedicating over 25 years of service to the San Francisco community. Roy’s dedication extended beyond his local community, as he traveled to New Orleans with his truck and tools to aid in the postHurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts.

A mentor, philosopher, teacher, and dear friend, Roy was widely known for his warm and friendly nature. He was known for many fantastic parties back in the 1980s at his home in Potrero Hill. He greeted everyone he encountered with kindness and genuine interest. His infectious spirit will be deeply missed by his friends in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as his extended “family” in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Churches to sing outside LGBTQ synagogue

Members of Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco will join First Mennonite Church in singing with and for their Jewish neighbors at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the LGBTQ synagogue near the Castro, Friday, October 20, from 7 to 8 p.m. The observation is being held in the wake of renewed violence in the Middle See page 10 >>

Obituaries >> Roy D. Jones July 21, 1947 – July 24, 2023

Roy D. Jones, age 76, passed away on July 24, 2023, in Oakland, California. He was born on July 21, 1947, in McComb, Mississippi. Roy lived a full life, marked by a diverse range of academic and pro-

Community News>>

October 19-25, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 9

Supes delay vote on Castro Theatre legislation by John Ferrannini

ne of the last hurdles for renovations to begin at the Castro Theatre was delayed by a Board of Supervisors committee Monday due to a technical amendment involving second-floor nighttime entertainment. Without a change to the zoning for the main corridor in the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood, the new operators of the venue will not be able to have a bar on the second floor for liquor sales. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee had to continue its voting on the allowance for secondfloor nighttime entertainment in the Castro Street Neighborhood Commercial District to its next meeting for the second time in a row due to making amendments to the item. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who attended the meeting but is not on the committee, stated the motion to continue the item to October 23 was necessary because the amendment – which states that “the non-residential use size limitation shall not apply to Article 10 Landmark buildings located in the Castro NCD” and was approved 3-0 – was a substantive one. “It’s pretty technical but it eliminates a size restriction on nighttime entertainment uses that would otherwise apply to the Castro Theatre,” Mandelman stated to the Bay Area Reporter after the vote. If the committee votes yes next week, the issue will be forwarded to the full board, which will then have the opportunity to remove one of the last barriers to Another Planet Entertainment’s plans to make extensive renovations and changes at the Castro Theatre, which it took over managing in January 2022. B.A.R. readers will recall that in June, the board voted to remove an amendment from an interior landmarking designation it was voting on that would have landmarked fixed, orchestra-style seating at the Castro Theatre. APE’s renovation plans hinge on being able to remove the fixed orchestra seating to make way for seating arrangements that can be moved in and out of the venue. Following the supervisors’ vote, the historic preservation and planning commissions on June 15 both approved a zoning ordinance that allows a conditional use authorization for second floor nighttime entertainment throughout the Castro commercial district No one appealed those votes, and now the board needs to weigh in with the proposed ordinance allowing the second-floor nighttime entertainment.

Scott Wazlowski

A Board of Supervisors committee has delayed a vote affecting the Castro Theatre after an amendment was added.

Mandelman was followed by Audrey Maloney of the city’s planning department, who reminded the committee that it had recommended the fixed, orchestra-style seating be landmarked back in May, but that this was rejected by the full board.

Maloney was followed by public comment: five people spoke in favor of the ordinance, two were opposed, and two wanted the issue returned to the planning department for more study, though they weren’t opposed, per se.

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is the executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District, said she asked the bars and other businesses in the neighborhood what they thought of the proposed ordinance.

“Not one of them opposed this zoning change, and in fact several said they don’t even see this as a change because pre-pandemic the people running the Castro Theatre would often get catering permits to bring in entertainment or alcoholserving activities on the second floor,” she said. “So they saw this as formalizing a practice done through a cumbersome permitting process, as a one-night kind of thing.” Mike Murray, a gay man who’s cochair of Neighbors for a Restored Castro Theatre, also urged a yes vote. “APE’s project has faced many months of delays, during which time the theater continues to deteriorate,” he said. “Allowing nighttime entertainment on the second floor will remove one of the last remaining barriers to the project moving forward.” M Rocket spoke against the proposal, saying, “the threat to affordable housing on second-story venues is potentially threatened by this.” Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person who is manager of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, asked that the effects be studied more by the planning department. See page 10 >>

Theater issues

The imbroglio over the theater began nearly two years ago, when APE – which runs the Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park and the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium downtown – was announced as the new operator of the 101-year-old Castro Theatre. Some Castro neighborhood organizations, and LGBTQ and film groups – such as the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Castro Theatre Conservancy – formed the Friends of the Castro Theatre Coalition in opposition to the proposed changes. APE has stated that it will screen films about one-third of the time the theater is open, which has dismayed moviegoers and many others. “There’s been a lot of talk about the Castro Theatre in this committee and at the full board,” said Mandelman, who represents the Castro, at the October 16 committee hearing. “This is the tail end of that conversation – a change of zoning in the Castro that makes sense with or without the APE project.”

This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to https://www.cavshate.org/.

<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

Newsom

From page 1

“The TGI Fund clinical care grant will save many lives in Orange County and it will help strengthen our ability as an organization to provide access to gender-affirming health care services to TGI community members in OC,” stated Alianza Translatinx President and CEO Khloe Rios-Wyatt. Under AB 1487, the same office within the state health department will have oversight of distributing whatever funding is allocated to the

Queer home

From page 4

Hoke described Arnesen and Souza as “polar opposites” who held court in the upstairs and downstairs spaces at the bar for possibly about a decade. She also mentioned the bar had two softball teams – the Uppers and the Downers (reflecting the two floors). Fahey didn’t know about the two different Jubilee softball teams. She said the Jubilee only played as one team in the league. Hoke wrote that the upbeat Souza was upstairs with the younger diverse crowd of queer women that had the dance floor and DJ. Arnesen tended to the older lesbians at the downstairs bar. Souza also co-owned San Francisco

Political Noteboook

From page 7

A mother of five with her wife, Yolanda Clausen, Franco-Clausen has been serving as the political action committee co-chair for the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, an LGBTQ political group, and on the Victory Fund Campaign Board. The couple moved out of San Jose, where FrancoClausen grew up, in 2021 after being priced out of the South Bay’s housing market and finding a home they could afford to buy in Alameda County.

News Briefs

From page 8

East that started after the Hamas terrorist organization attacked Israel October 7 and has now escalated to war between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Israel. Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed. First Mennonite pastor Joanna Schenk noted, “We will sing for peace, praying for the safety of all who are suffering.” All ages and singing abilities are welcome. Songbooks and candles will be provided. Congregation Sha’ar Zahav is located at 290 Dolores Street, at 16th Street.

SF swap needs Halloween costumes

The Portola branch of the San Francisco Public Library is having a Halloween costume swap Saturday, October 21,

Castro Theatre

From page 9

“We’d like the planning department to be utilized to consider the impact on housing units for this type of legislation,” Aguirre said. “The restaurant across the space from the Castro Theatre, that used to be a Thai restaurant, could be purchased to become a live event venue that would be detrimental to people living around the venue.” Jen Reck, the cultural district’s advisory board executive co-chair, asked for a noise study and for limits on the hours of operation. “We are not objecting to the change in the code itself,” Reck said. “We are asking for the planning department to conduct additional study to ensure the change will be beneficial and not detrimental to the neighborhood.”

reentry fund to TGI-specific reentry programs run by TGI-serving organizations. As defined in the legislation, such programs can include emergency, transitional, or permanent housing provided to TGI people leaving prison. Other programs eligible are ones offering employment assistance, workforce development and career development training, or entrepreneurship opportunities to formerly incarcerated TGI individuals. Mental and general health care, identity document updating services, legal as-

sistance, computer training, services navigation, case management, financial assistance and literacy, and other wraparound and comprehensive services for such TGI individuals are also covered under AB 1487. Working with the California TGI Policy Alliance to see both bills become law was interACT. The agency, which advocates on behalf of the needs of intersex individuals, also had ensured that Rivas’ legislation was amended to specifically include the collection of data on intersex people. “Without this bill, little to no de-

mographic data is being collected on intersex status - which makes it harder to argue for improved rights and monetary support,” noted Maddie Moran, the agency’s director of communications, in an October 10 email asking its supporters to contact the governor’s office and request that Newsom sign it. As for Santiago’s bill, the advocacy organization had noted that intersex, transgender, and nonbinary people are incarcerated at higher rates. In addition to being at increased risk for abuses in prison, such individuals also “face systemic challenges to

reentry,” noted interACT. “Community based reentry services provide logistical and material support to some of the most marginalized people in our community,” wrote Moran, who is intersex, queer, and nonbinary. With his support for the two bills, Newsom ended up signing into law in recent weeks 16 bills that either provide protections for LGBTQ Californians or address their health needs. He also vetoed four LGBTQ-related bills sent to him during the 2023 legislative session. t

lesbian bars Leonarda’s in Visitacion Valley with Peg Clark in the 1970s, and 1001 Nights on Jones Street, reported the B.A.R. and San Francisco Heritage. San Francisco Heritage reported Leonarda’s was famed for its Sunday brunches and live entertainment. It’s unclear when Souza sold Leonarda’s, but it appeared she no longer owned the bar and restaurant in 1974 – when the B.A.R. reported a robbery and murder at The Jubilee. It’s also unclear when she owned and sold 1001 Nights. Souza died at the age of 75 in 2003, according to an East Bay Times obituary on Legacy.com. The B.A.R. was unable to find information about Arnesen. Souza, a Hawaiian native from Kahala, Oahu, was very active in Oakland and the East Bay’s queer commu-

nity. She served on The Royal Grand Ducal Council of Alameda/Contra Costa Counties Inc.’s Privy Court and was given awards for her service from courts from the East Bay to Stockton in the 1980s, according to the B.A.R. archives. She founded the In Memory Foundation, which raised funds and granted up to $200 for the funeral costs for people who died of AIDS until it closed in 1995, reported the B.A.R.

able to locate much information, especially in the way of personal stories about life at The Jubilee. Howard and Longworth wonder what the bar and neighborhood were like in the 1970s and 1980s. “I’m so interested in knowing what was the neighborhood like?” said Longworth. “There must be so many stories.” “I just think about people congregating outside too,” added Howard. “I like to imagine the moments of congregation and what the flow of traffic was like. This is where people gather to smoke. This is where people are coming up to the dance floor and people going down and they’re meeting on the stairway. Just those moments.” The couple continues to work toward preserving the building by re-

storing and caring for the rare wood used to construct it, and installing reclaimed fixtures and cabinets from the mid-20th century period, Howard said, pointing to the kitchen beams and drawers. The couple wants to celebrate the building’s lesbian history. They started with simple metal lettering spelling “Jubilee” above one of the entrances to their home to denote the former bar. “I’m grateful to celebrate the history of the building,” said Longworth, who believes the couple is returning the building to “its heart.” “That feels better than having a random building,” she said. If anyone has information about The Jubilee, email Howard and Longworth at mxlongworth@gmail. com. t

A queer former Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority trustee, FrancoClausen had looked at running for an open East Bay Assembly seat last year. Ultimately, she decided not to move forward with her candidacy. Also this week EQCA endorsed out candidates in two East Bay state legislative contests on the 2024 ballot. On Monday, it announced it is backing gay former West Sacramento mayor Christopher Cabaldon in the race for the open District 3 Senate seat that sprawls across parts of Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma, Napa, Yolo, and Sac-

ramento counties. Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa) is termed out next year. EQCA also endorsed queer California Labor Federation President Kathryn Lybarger, who lives in Berkeley with her wife, in the race for the open 7th Senate District seat that spans western Contra Costa and Alameda counties. It largely mirrors the current 9th Senate District seat that was renumbered during the 2020 redistricting process and is held by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), who will be termed out in 2024. Also seeking the seat is lesbian for-

mer Richmond city councilmember Jovanka Beckles, now an elected member of the board that oversees the AC Transit public transportation agency. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb, and former Assemblymember Sandré Swanson are also running in the March primary where the top two vote-getters will advance to next fall’s ballot. t

book’s online companion. This week’s column reported on gay San Francisco health commissioner Dan Bernal receiving the waiver he needed to become vice chancellor of community and government relations for UCSF this December. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko. Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

from 2 to 4 p.m. at 380 Beacon Street. According to an announcement, people can donate clean, gently used costumes, take a costume, or donate a costume and take one. There is a need for donated costumes, officials noted. The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library is sponsoring the event. For more information, go to https:// tinyurl.com/4vpzx7ak.

lar citywide extravaganza. The event will take place over two days, Saturday, December 2, and Sunday, December 3, from 1 to 6 p.m. at venues throughout the city. Performers who wish to apply should indicate their preferred timeslots for both days. “You will perform with three performers per location,” the announcement stated. The honorarium for services will be $1,000 for both days. To apply, go to https://tinyurl. com/3ad64t3j.

brings together LGBTQ+ professionals, allies, and advocates to explore how the LGBTQ+ community can excel and make innovative contributions across various sectors, according to an email announcement. The event is free, and breakfast and lunch will be provided. Advance registration is required and can be done at https://tinyurl.com/425p3b8f

100-plus drag artists sought for SF extravaganza

San Francisco drag laureate D’Arcy Drollinger and drag artists Juanita MORE! and Honey Mahogany are working with the City Joy Fund on what will be the biggest drag show ever – “San Francisco is a DRAG!” – and have issued a call for participants. They are hoping to bring together over 100 vibrant drag performers, transgender luminaries, nonbinary trailblazers, and allies of all stripes for a spectacuMyrna Melgar, District 7 supervisor and chair of the committee, which also includes Board President and District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin and District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, all straight allies, motioned for the amendment, which was approved 3-0. The supervisors then voted 3-0 to move the vote to next week. Gay APE spokesperson David Perry stated to the B.A.R. after the vote that “the matter was continued as expected today owing to a minor clerical change in the text. We expect the full board will take up the item in the coming weeks so we can get to work restoring the Castro Theatre.” The conservancy did not return a request for comment for this report as of press time. The proposed ordinance was first brought to the committee October 2. At that time, Mandelman told

Preserving queer home and history

Howard and Longworth’s curiosity about the story of their home’s lesbian past drew them to learn more about the building’s history. They’ve asked their neighbors and searched archives over the years, but they haven’t been

County office to host LGBTQ summit in San Jose

The Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs will hold its fifth annual LGBTQ+ Summit Friday, October 27, starting at 9 a.m. at the Holiday Inn San Jose-Silicon Valley, 1350 North First Street in San Jose. The summit, themed “Work is Work,”

the committee, “We learned just last week there was an amendment proposed by the planning commission that had not been added so we would appreciate two weeks.”

Other LGBTQ actions at the committee

In another matter, the committee unanimously voted October 16 for a resolution of intent to establish a street plaza at Eagle Plaza, in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. “Our group has been among three hosting a monthly art event in Eagle plaza – SOMA Second Saturdays,” said Angel Adeyoha, the head of Folsom Street, which puts on that street fair and the Up Your Alley street fair, during public comment. “I do think that, as is kind of illustrated by other items on the agenda, we have a tendency to mark history more than

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the note-

Drag Out The Vote unveils fundraiser

Drag Out The Vote, a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization that aims to promote participation in democracy, is raising funds for its drag ambassador program and for its 2024 national campaign with a matching donation program. A news release stated that Public Wise, a voting rights organization, has created a matching program and, until the end of October, will match dona-

current and future needs, and while our history is important in the leather district, our current and future needs are kind of dire. So to have a space … open and free to our community is crucial.” The committee also voted for a resolution authorizing plaques to be installed on the sidewalks at various historic locations in the Transgender District in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood. The resolution, introduced by gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents a sliver of the district on the Sixth Street corridor between Market and Howard streets where the plaques will be placed, initiates a process in the Public Works Code “to provide for the creation of a program for and installation of commemorative plaques” in the district, it states. Breonna McCree, a woman of

tions to Drag Out The Vote up to $5,000. “Since our inception, Drag Out The Vote has recruited and trained more than 300 drag artists in 44 states, contacted over 750,000 voters, has generated over 1 billion media impressions, and have launched specific statewide engagements and campaigns in New York, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, and Texas,” the release stated. In 2020, two San Francisco drag artists participated in the ambassador program, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. According to its website, the organization will begin looking for its 2024 election ambassadors this fall. To make a donation through the matching fund, email fundraising@ publicwise.org. t

trans experience who is the co-executive director of the district, told the B.A.R., “Transgender history is crucial for promoting inclusivity and understanding within society.” “It highlights the diverse experiences and contributions of transgender individuals, enriching our collective knowledge of human experiences,” McCree added. “Learning about transgender history helps combat prejudice and discrimination by shedding light on the challenges transgender people have faced and the progress that has been made in advocating for their rights. Understanding transgender history is a step toward a more equitable and accepting future, where everyone, regardless of their gender identity, can live authentically and without fear of discrimination or stigma.” t

Community News>>

October 19-25, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 11

Hearing delayed in gay Oakland murder case by John Ferrannini

Waterman’s attorney, David Briggs, objected to the hearing being pushed back. “We were prepared to go today,” Briggs told the B.A.R. “We will be prepared on November 17.” Briggs said significant progress had been made on discovery, which he’d complained was a problem earlier this year. In a previous interview, Briggs demurred when asked about his client’s sexual orientation. Waterman is on administrative leave from his job as a senior custodian at UC Berkeley. Marsh, who was also known as drag artist Touri Monroe, was a hair stylist and a Miss Gay Oakland emeritus who used to sing with the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus. Originally from Iowa, friends described him as fun, helpful, and active in his church. Police responded to Marsh’s home on Vernon Street in the Adams Point neighborhood just before 8 a.m. March 4 after a report

of a disturbance, Oakland Police Officer Darryl Rodgers stated in an email to the B.A.R. The “disturbance” consisted of “reports of an individual screaming,” stated Paul Chambers, the strategic communication manager for the Oakland Police Department. When officers arrived, Oakland firefighters were on the scene extinguishing a fire. “Upon arrival, officers located an Oakland resident with multiple lacerations,” Oakland Police Officer Darryl Rodgers stated. “The victim succumbed to their injuries and medical units pronounced the victim deceased on scene. Investigators from the OPD Homicide Section responded to the scene to begin the follow-up investigation into the circumstances surrounding the homicide.” Neighbors told KTVU-TV earlier this year that the perpetrator set the fire and left the front door and gate open when running away.

No motive has been given, nor the circumstances of if – or how – the two men knew one another. Waterman has six prior convictions dating back to 2002, including felony evasion, forgery, robbery, and vehicle theft, according to Berkeley Scanner. A memorial for Marsh was held March 11 at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center where friends remembered him. Marsh is one of two gay Black men who were killed in Oakland this year. But, so far, no suspect has been found in the March 12 shooting death of Devonte Davis, police told the B.A.R. July 7. Oakland police stated to the B.A.R. October 17, “there are no new updates to provide at this time.” Police had most recently stated no arrests had been made. The two incidents are unrelated. The rescheduled preliminary hearing for Waterman will be November 17 in Department 111 at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland. t

ers to accept everyone as they are.” For more information about the Matthew Shepard Foundation, visit matthewshepard.org. For more information about the Tectonic Theater Project, visit tectonictheaterproject.org. t

Gary L. Day (he/him), a gay man, is a freelance journalist based in Philadelphia. The State of California offers help for victims or witnesses to a hate crime or hate incident. This resource is supported

in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander

American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to cavshate.org.

So far the group has not cemented any firm commitment on introducing a smokefree bar patio ordinance from either a San Francisco supervisor or a member of the Oakland City Council. But Davis is hopeful of seeing the proposal move forward in each city. At this point, Davis said one San Francisco supervisor had tentatively agreed to push for the policy but declined to say which of the 11 board members it was since they had not reached a firm commitment with them on introducing an ordinance. Nor could he say how soon such a policy would be brought up for consideration. “I don’t know when it will happen

because it is tentative,” said Davis. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood, told the B.A.R. he had met with the advocates for a smokefree bar patio policy. But he said he hadn’t been asked to be the lead sponsor for it and had not been told by one of his board colleagues that they would be. “It is not currently on my legislative program, although I would certainly consider it if it was introduced,” said Mandelman. With the city’s nightlife venues being hit hard by their forced closures during the COVID pandemic and still hurting from a drop off in tourism and conventions, Mandel-

man said he would be reluctant about taking any action that could further hurt such businesses. “At the moment anything that is making life harder for bars and restaurants we would need to be careful about,” he said. “That being said, we have had great success eliminating indoor smoking, and that has real benefits for the health of our community.” While he isn’t outright opposed to a smokefree bar patio policy, Mandelman told the B.A.R. that legislatively he has “others things more pressing” to focus on, such as addressing the city’s dual homelessness and overdoses crises, retail thefts, and lack of affordable housing.

“I think we would not be doing anything groundbreaking in doing what they are proposing,” said Mandelman. “I just, I feel like my to-do list is very long right now. I am not opposed in any way to this idea. It might be right.” While the primary focus of next week’s “Dine & Discuss” event in Oakland will be LGBTQ+ tobacco issues, other queer health concerns and solutions will also be discussed. It will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. October 26 at the East Bay Community Space at 507 55th Street, and dinner will be provided. To RSVP, visit the event page on Facebook at https://fb.me/ e/1uEc4vffh t

San Francisco City Clinic prior to June 2022. “The Jynneos vaccine is safe and effective, and completion of the two-dose series provides improved protection compared to one dose,” DPH highlighted in its most recent STI monthly report. “No vaccine is 100% effective and people who have been vaccinated may still get mpox, but vaccination may decrease illness severity and reduce the risk of hospitalization.” While anyone who wants protection from mpox infection may seek a vaccine, DPH strongly recommends and encourages two-dose vaccination for all people living with HIV, anyone taking or eligible to take HIV PrEP, and all men, trans people, and nonbinary people

who have sex with men, trans people, or nonbinary people. These groups are likely to be among those most affected if mpox cases were to increase again in San Francisco, the department noted in its August advisory. The October advisory reiterated six recommendations for clinicians: maintaining awareness of what lesions look like, strongly recommending and administering the vaccine, and counseling patients on risk reduction by using condoms and reducing one’s total number of different sexual partners. Other recommendations include talking about mpox risk assessment and vaccination status in all sexual health visits for men, trans, and nonbinary people; and providing mpox vaccine as

part of a comprehensive package that includes discussion of PrEP, and other HIV and sexually transmitted infectionrelated issues. Local health officials are also asking those who’ve contracted the mpox virus to take part in the STOMP Trial, which is “a national randomized controlled trial on the efficacy and safety of tecovirimat (TPOXX).”

According to the most recent numbers, diagnoses of gonorrhea in San Francisco from January 1 to August 31 totaled 3,296, compared with 3,580 cases over those dates the previous year. For cases of male rectal gonorrhea that number was 1,116, compared with 1,390 in 2022. Diagnoses of chlamydia in 2023 through August 31 totaled 3,946, compared with 4,347 in 2022. Diagnoses of syphilis in 2023 through August 31 totaled 895, compared with 1,204 in 2022. DPH and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation did not return requests for comment for this report as of press time. For information on the mpox vaccine, go to sf.gov/information/mpoxvaccine. t

appointed for the minor child, the court will set the fees and the parents may be ordered to pay the fees if they are able. If you fail to appear at the time and place stated above, the court may terminate your right to custody and control of the minor child. Date: 08/21/2023, Clerk of the Court. Attorney for Petitioners Ashton McCants and Shavontae Golden-McCants: Katie Lester (SBN 323579), 202 Providence Mine Rd. #106, Nevada City, NV 95959; (916) 246-8331; lesterlaw@gmail.com.

ASHLEY MALLOY is requesting that the name ASHLEY MALLOY be changed to ASHLEY MARTIN-PRIDEAUX. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 26th of OCTOBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

TROW be changed to MAX VORTEX VANOSTRILLO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 28th of NOVEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

he preliminary hearing in the case of the UC Berkeley employee charged in the killing of a gay Black man in Oakland earlier this year was pushed back one month during a court hearing Tuesday. Defendant Sweven Waterman, 38, of Oakland, is charged with homicide in the March 4 stabbing death of Curtis Marsh, 53, also of Oakland. Waterman has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the hearing had been set for October 17. However, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kimberly E. Colwell decided to push back the hearing to November after Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jake O’Malley said that he was not ready with a person to testify regarding DNA evidence. At the preliminary hearing, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office will present witnesses and

Guest Opinion

From page 6

Our work is an extension of Matt’s passion to foster a more caring and just world. We share his story and embody his vigor for civil rights to change the hearts and minds of oth-

Smokefree

From page 1

While the group is primarily focused on the health of Bay Area LGBTQ residents, the smokefree bar patio bans would cover all such areas at bars in each city, not just those at LGBTQ establishments. In addition to protecting bar patrons, health advocates note it will protect the health of bar employees, who are subjected to the secondhand smoke from cigarettes and vape pens. “It is pretty clear, and again the data shows, that when spaces go smokefree that they don’t lose money. They often make more money because they get more customers,” said Davis.

Mpox

From page 1

With its most recent update on case counts of sexually transmitted infections in the city, DPH is using the opportunity to tout people getting vaccinated for mpox. According to health officials, two doses of the Jynneos vaccine, given about a month apart, provide the best protection against the disease that has largely been infecting gay and bisexual men. Over 50,000 doses of the mpox vaccine were distributed last year in San Francisco, DPH stated, covering 42% of all people living with HIV in the city and 65% of people who had received PrEP at

Courtesy Oakland LGBTQ Community Center

The preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing Curtis Marsh has been pushed back to November.

evidence, and the judge will decide if there’s sufficient evidence to proceed with the charges against defendant Waterman at trial. The DA’s office declined a request for comment on the case.

STIs

According to the latest monthly report, which covers data through the end of August, STIs are still under 2022 numbers. Public health experts told the B.A.R. in June that the plunge in diagnoses of bacterial STIs could be due to behavior change after last summer’s mpox outbreak.

Legals>> CITATION AND NOTICE OF HEARING IN SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO. ADOPTION OF LAJHANA’E ICEANA BRADDY: ASHTON MCCANTS AND SHAVONTAE GOLDEN-MCCANTS, PETITIONERS. CASE NO. 22AD00125

TO JONATHAN MORRIS BRADDY: By order of this court, you are hereby cited to appear before the Judge of this Court on 10/31/2023 at 11:00am, in Department 124, of the Superior Court of Sacramento County, located at 3342 Power Inn Road, Sacramento, CA 95826, to show cause, if any, why your biological child, Lajhana’e Iceana Braddy, should not be freed from your custody and control. 1) You are further noticed that said Petition alleges that you have left the child in the custody and care of another without provisions for support and failed to communicate with said child since she was an infant; 2) You are further notice that petition alleges that you have been convicted of a Felony and the facts of the crime are of such a nature so as to prove the unfitness of the parent to have the future custody and control of the child. 3) The said petition seeks to terminate claim of parentage and to declare the minor child. Lajhana’e Inceana Braddy, free from parental custody and control. You are hereby notified that you have a right to appear in person and/or through an Attorney. If you want to contest this proceeding but are unable to afford counsel, the court shall appoint counsel for you, unless representation by counsel is knowingly and intelligently waived by you. You are hereby notified that if the court finds that the interests of the child require representation by counsel, the court shall appoint counsel to represent the child, whether or not the child can afford counsel. If private counsel is

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558250

In the matter of the application of KIN CHIN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KIN CHIN is requesting that the name KIN CHIN be changed to NICK CHIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 21st of NOVEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558205

In the matter of the application of ASHLEY MALLOY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558253

In the matter of the application of MADISON KATE VANALLSBURG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MADISON KATE VANALLSBURG is requesting that the name MADISON KATE VANALLSBURG be changed to MADISON KATE VANOSTRILLO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 28th of NOVEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558254 In the matter of the application of MAX VORTEX CARILLO-OSTROW, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MAX VORTEX CARILLO-OSTROW is requesting that the name MAX VORTEX CARILLO-OS-

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401474

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FISHER LAW OFFICE, 505 MONTGOMERY ST, 10TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATHLEEN V. FISHER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401448

A-0401445

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ACON BUILT, 731 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDWARD BRADY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/25/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/18/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401434

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KENSINGTON PROPERTIES, 217 KENSINGTON WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HELENE ST. JOHN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/04/1998. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as REVIVING TOUCH, 1801 BUSH ST #119, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THANAWAN THUCHSUMRITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/18/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/18/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401488

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NUTRITION FOR MOMS, 3129 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JENNIFER SATO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/2018. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/21/2023.

<< Classifieds

12 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401456

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOFAR JANITORIAL SERVICES, 3038 26TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARNOLDO J. TURCIOS CARRANZA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401508

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RJN TRAVEL, 602 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RORY NORDEEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/13/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401463

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MN STAR LOUNGE, 3128 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TEA DE CHINE INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401356

AMENDED ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-557995

In the matter of the amended application of OLIVIA RUTH HERNANDEZ BAMACA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner OLIVIA RUTH HERNANDEZ BAMACA is requesting that the name OSCAR MIQUEAS GUTIERREZ HERNANDEZ be changed to MIQUEAS GUTIERREZ HERNANDEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 1st of NOVEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558252

In the matter of the application of JOHNSON LIAN CHENG WU, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JOHNSON LIAN CHENG WU is requesting that the name JOHNSON LIAN CHENG WU be changed to JOHNSON WU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 28th of NOVEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401261

The following person(s) is/are doing business as COLLINA, 1550 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALISOC CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/04/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/05/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DAZZLING HOMES, 12772 SARATOGA SUNNYVALE RD #1000, SARATOGA, CA 95070. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LINDSEY ANNE DAZEL NICHOLS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/24/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401420

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401417

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 3426 3428 3428A 16TH STREET HOA, 3428A 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an unincorporated association other than a partnership, and is signed JOHN A. CORTEZ, TIMOTHY DOHERTY, MARIO GUERRIERI & 3426 3428 3428A 16TH STREET HOA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/27/2013. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401440

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PHOTO CRAWLS, LLC; AGILE THAT WORKS, LLC, 3435 CESAR CHAVEZ ST #206, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CYBERBEARS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/15/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-0397081

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as SINCERITY REALTY, 1160 BATTERY E ST #100-9928, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by MARY ANN CADORNA. The fictitious business name statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/05/2022. The abandonment of fictitious business name statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/25/2023.

SEP 28, OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

NOTICE OF AMENDED PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF KATHLEEN MARIE SCHOLTEN IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-23-306591

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of KATHLEEN MARIE SCHOLTEN. An Amended Petition for Probate has been filed by LISABETH SCHOLTEN FINCI in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that LISABETH SCHOLTEN FINCI 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: NOVEMBER 09, 2023, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: SCOTT D. ROSS, ESQ. (SBN 104851), 800 OAK GROVE AVE #250, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94025; Ph. (650) 353-3999. REMOTE ACCESS TO DEPARTMENT 204: A) Appearance or Public Access by Video and/or Audio via Zoom: Parties, counsel, and witnesses may appear by video or audio-only telephone through Zoom. For a video appearance, go to zoom.us, click “join a meeting” and input meeting ID 160 225 4765 and password 514879. For an audio-only telephone appearance through Zoom, call 1-669-254-5252 and key in the meeting ID 160 225 4765#, then the participant ID 0#, then the password 514879#. Toll rates may apply. Counsel, parties, and witnesses appearing by video must input their first and last name into the “Your Name” dialogue box. B) Appearance by Audio via CourtCall: Parties , counsel, and witnesses may appear by audio-only telephone through CourtCall by calling CourtCall at 1-888-882-6878 and obtaining an appearance access code for the hearing’s scheduled date and time. A CourtCall appearance may be made by mobile phone. CaoutCall appearances may require the payment of a fee, even for parties with fee waivers. C) Public Access by Audio via CourtCall: For audio-only access through CourtCall, call the mute public line for Department 204 at 1-415-796-6280 and enter access code 12129865#. This line will allow a member of the public to listen to the proceedings; it will not support an attempt to appear before the Court.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401545

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PET CENTRAL SF, 1411 POWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed EJC GROUP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/16/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HJ CUSTOM CRAFT, 134 ARLETA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NORMA O. JUAREZ HERNANDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401493 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CLUAIN MEALA PLUMBING, 545 VICENTE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID MCGRATH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/22/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/22/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401358

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PAPER BOAT ART STUDIO; PAPER BOAT STUDIO, 425 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YING ZHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/05/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/05/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401503

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FABIO’S PAINTING, 3288 21ST ST #180, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FABIO PAINTING & DECORATING INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401535

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CT DENTAL, 771 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SEEWAN CHIU DDS INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401554

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CIRCLE OF FRIENDS ADULT DAY HEALTH CARE, 1550 STEINER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CIRCLE OF FRIENDS ADULT DAY HEALTH CARE, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401564 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BAGATELLA, 3348 STEINER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 3348 STEINER INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401406

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MISSION LOTERIA, 4830 MISSION ST #104, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed L MISSION LOTERIA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/2023.

OCT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401432

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RAMBO CLEANING SERVICE, 1495 CASA BUENA DR #205, CORTE MADERA, CA 94925. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EVELYN PATINO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/14/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401572

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PROSPERPLAY, 1787 OAK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUCIE SCHULZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401457

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MI ZE LA, 777 JACKSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHUNXI LIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/16/2015. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: DONALD CLARK CUNNINGHAM, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PETITIONER: BERSATH VERDUGO DOMINGUEZ AKA BERSAIN VERDUGO-DOMINGUEZ CASE NO. FDI-23-798307

You have been sued. Read the information below. You have 30 calendar days after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpca.org) or by contacting your local county bar association. NOTICE – RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE ON PAGE 2: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them. FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party. The name and address of the court are: Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St. San Francisco, California 94102. The name, address and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney is: BERSATH VERDUGO DOMINGUEZ, 684 ELLIS ST #513, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109; (415) 509-4409. Date: 07/10/2023. Clerk of The Court, Damon Carter, Deputy. STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1. Removing the minor child or children of the parties, if any, from the state without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children; 3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in the manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party. You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs. WARNING – IMPORTANT INFORMATION California law provides that, for purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (i.e. joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling, and not the community property presumption. You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558827

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401555

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PRESTON DILIGENCE, 1653 ALABAMA ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed KM PLANNING STRATEGY (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401594 The following person(s) is/are doing business as UPFRONT, 576 SACRAMENTO ST, 3RD FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed UPFRONT ENERGY INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/04/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/06/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PADMA CONSULTING, 1150 LOMBARD ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARGARET W. SOUTHERLAND. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/09/2013. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401425

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FIRST CLASS PARKING MANAGEMENT, 22 HAWTHORNE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NATHAN KOFF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/14/2015. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401378

The following person(s) is/are doing business as STATE MARKET; BIG TIME MARKET & DELI, 1231 GENEVA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NANCY S. KHARSA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/10/2003. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/07/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401460

The following person(s) is/are doing business as METRO HONG KONG DESSERT, 928 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed METRO HONG KONG DESSERT (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401585

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GIRON CONSTRUCTION, 1485 BAYSHORE BLVD #222, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GECMS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/31/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SUN FLOWER STUDIO, 1541 KIRKWOOD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH IVESON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/08/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/13/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401652

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401509

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401553

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BABY FAMILY DAYCARE, 154 BRIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SU NU ZHENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/2023.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401601

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ONESTOP EVENTS, 1373 CAYUGA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ONESTOP TRADING, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/2023.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558287

In the matter of the application of KADIATU HAJAH KOROMA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KADIATU HAJAH KOROMA is requesting that the name KADIATU HAJAH KOROMA be changed to KADIA HAJAH KOROMA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 9th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558292

In the matter of the application of THOMAS YIM HUNG CHAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner THOMAS YIM HUNG CHAN is requesting that the name THOMAS YIM HUNG CHAN be changed to YIM HUNG CHAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 11th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558289

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558293

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401588

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401637

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558268

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as YS+A ARCHITECTURE, 164 GAMBIER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YOUNG WOO SON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/02/2019. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as UNITED PAINTERS, 1080A CAPP ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OVED MAZARIEGOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/2018. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ZIPPY LOCKSMITH, 674 11TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed QUICKSMITH LOCKSMITH LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/2023.

In the matter of the application of GAVIN OCAMPO SENORA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner GAVIN OCAMPO SENORA is requesting that the name GAVIN OCAMPO SENORA be changed to GAVIN OCAMPO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 4th of JANUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

In the matter of the application of ELIJAH TERRELL DONALDSON JR., for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ELIJAH TERRELL DONALDSON JR. is requesting that the name ELIJAH TERRELL DONALDSON JR. be changed to ELIJAH TERRELL BACCAL DONALDSON JR.. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 21st of DECEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401504

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401561

In the matter of the application of KAREN MARISOL GOMEZ MENDEZ & MAYNOR EDMUNDO FELICIANO TEMAJ, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KAREN MARISOL GOMEZ MENDEZ & MAYNOR EDMUNDO FELICIANO TEMAJ is requesting that the name ISABELLA ABIGAIL FELICIANO GOMEZ be changed to ILEANA ABIGAIL FELICANO GOMEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of DECEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 12, 19, 26, NOV 02, 2023

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MID CITY MARKET, 868 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 2 E SHQAIR INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/2008. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401644

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DAJU VAI ENTERTAINMENT, 1411A WASHINGTON BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94129. This business is conducted by co-partners, and is signed NIROJ GURUNG & AMIT MALLA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/08/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401647

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PRAXIS, 3047 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NORGANICS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/11/2013. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401437

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MCS; MCS-PORTSIDE; PORTSIDE, 401 MAIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SILVA - MANAGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/15/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

In the matter of the application of S. HEIDI ANDERSON, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner S. HEIDI ANDERSON is requesting that the name S. HEIDI ANDERSON be changed to KAIA ANDERSON-BUCKLEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 28th of NOVEMBER 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401606

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RITUAL ARTS TAROT ENTERTAINMENT, 1250 BRODERICK ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THOM FOWLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/23/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401607 The following person(s) is/are doing business as YELLOWSTONE MARKET, 714 O’FARRELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAFWAN SHAIE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401593 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHROMATIC FLOW, 3953 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DEBORAH NUCCITELLI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/06/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401611 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FRISCO KID LIFE COACH, 4048 FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FRANK STROM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/11/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/11/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GROUNDED THRU BIRTH, 2010 GOUGH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOANNA TURNER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/2023.

OCT 19, 26, NOV 02, 09, 2023

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by Gregg Shapiro

ueer comedians are funnier than they’ve ever been. From Wanda Sykes to Matteo Lane and Jessica Kirson to Jerrod Carmichael, they keep the non-stop laughs coming. There’s little doubt that Fortune Feimster is one of the funniest of the bunch. With two hilarious, full-length Netflix specials to her name – 2020’s “Sweet & Salty” and 2022’s “Good Fortune” – numerous acting roles, and a brand new live stand-up comedy tour, aptly titled “Live, Love, Laugh,” there’s plenty of Fortune to go around. A genuinely kind and thoughtful soul, Fortune made time for an interview before heading out on tour, including her Oct. 21 show at Oakland’s Fox Theater. Gregg Shapiro: Fortune, this is my third time interviewing you. In what ways would you say, in those five years, has your standup evolved? Fortune Feimster: I think my stand-up has evolved tremendously, because in 2018 I had just done, the year before, my half-hour (special) for Netflix. So, I think it was with “Sweet & Salty,” which came out in early 2020, where I really found my voice. I landed on that storytelling, talking about my life, sharing who I am, in a more vulnerable kind of way. I felt like that that resonated so much with audiences, that I was like, “Oh, this is what I like doing.” Not as much the set-up/punchline (kinds of comedy), which you feel the need to do more when you’re in a club because there are a lot more distractions. But with theaters, which I was able to move to after “Sweet & Salty,” it really allowed me to dig more into the story side of my stand-up.

Fortune Feimster She’s queer, she’s here, she’s hella funny.

Shortly after we spoke in 2020, everything shut down due to the pandemic. How would you say that the experience of the pandemic changed you personally and professionally? Obviously it was a difficult time. People had no idea what live performance would look like. That was the first in our lifetimes that nobody could perform. No clubs were open. We always thought that live performance was kind of foolproof in that way. But we saw that anything can happen. What came from that was resilience. A lot of comedians figured out a way they could still do what they love, still make people happy, and help alleviate some of the anxiety that people were going through by still finding a way to do comedy and make people laugh. You saw a lot of Zoom shows happening. I did a bunch of outdoor shows. I did baseball fields. I did

parking lots and outdoor movie theaters. It was a very interesting time and I think it showed a lot of us how much we love what we do and will do anything to try to figure out how to make it work. You saw the need for comedy in a way that we haven’t had in a very long time. People were so stressed and full of anxiety. It was a really tragic time. A lot of lives were lost. People needed to have that relief. I think it made me appreciate the medium more than ever. Once you can’t do it for a long time, it makes you that much more determined to do it. I approach it from a much more dedicated place. Just when we thought it was safe to carry on with our lives, war breaks out in the Middle East. Do you feel that, as a comedian, it’s your responsibility to make comedy, or as you’ve said, “adding levity to the world”? I think that’s how I approach comedy in gen-

‘Make Me Famous’

Kathy Dumas

Painter Edward Brezinski and the’80s East Village art scene in a new documentary

Painter Edward Brezinski at Club 57, 1981

by Jim Provenzano

ife in New York City’s East Village in the 1980s was a combination of fabulosity and terror. One could turn a corner and almost bump into Deborah Harry and Chris Stein, only to further down the street trip on a herd of rats. It was splendor mixed with occasional horror. Graffiti artists known for iconic imagery eventually became commodities whose art was sold in fancy galleries. Wannabe artists and their friends (like this writer) attended exhibit openings to drink the free wine, schmooze, scour the crowd for celebrities, and nibble on cheese and crackers, all while a revolutionary turnaround in the art world quickly escalated to a spinning fervor.

One of the artists caught up in this milieu who never quite rose to fame, and then strangely disappeared from the scene, was Edward Brezinski (1954-2007). His brief career as a painter is the subject of the documentary “Make Me Famous,” which visually takes a dizzying journey back in time to the downtown 1980s art scene. “The East Village was ours because nobody wanted to live in the East Village,” says artist David McDermott in the intro to the film. Through a trove of archival videos and photographs, and recent interviews with people who survived that era, director Brian Vincent (coproduced with Heather Spore) captures the era in a fascinating jumble to tell the story of Brezinski, who was gay, and born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. But the film also recounts the rise and

fall of the downtown New York art scene in all its tawdry glamour. “There was [at first] no emphasis on money because there wasn’t any money. In a way everyone was pure,” says painter Duncan Hannah.

Making new rules

In one of many artist and friend interviews, painter Walter Robinson says Brezinski was “definitely one of the art world’s oddballs, especially the circles that I ran in were designed to give oddballs a place where they fit in.” In perhaps an attempt to replicate Andy Warhol’s Factory, Brezinski turned his rundown Loft on 3rd Street into the Magic Gallery. He even painted a series of portraits of “female deity” Bianca Jagger, much rougher than Warhol’s manu-

eral; with the idea of adding levity. I try to come from a more positive place, a more uplifting place. That’s where my focus has been for a while. There’s just so much going on in the world where we live. People are faced with challenges every day. There’s war. There are awful things happening all over the world. You go online you can see a barrage of very intense, very negative, very difficult things that people are going through. If I can provide an hour and a half of relief from that, it’s something I’m glad that I can provide. I don’t know how to fix all these other bigger problems. Obviously, those are beyond many of our capabilities. We can’t control those things. All I can do is find ways to make people feel good, make people laugh, and that’s where I approached my comedy from. See page 18 >>

factured portraits, but produced in his formula. But his style failed to charm the right people. Gallerist Sur Rodney Sur observes how Brezinski felt left out as artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring rose to fame from the slums of unspooling graffiti art on walls and in subways. Sur says, “We were young and crazy and we were doing our own thing and making our own rules.” Brezinski’s boyfriend at the time, David McDermott, now a self-proclaimed dandy living in an Irish mansion, called him “a bit of rough,” which he liked. He posed for some of Brezinski’s best portraits. Scott Covert, a painter and one-time model for Brezinski, discusses how the painter destroyed the portrait before completion, which he did to other works-in-progress.

Glamorous and tatty

Director Brian Vincent captures the era, although he did not know Brezinski. He came to New York in 1990 to attend Juilliard, and missed the ’80s scene, but learned about the painter through others who lived through the time. Brezinski was always organizing group shows. David McDermott brought his fascination for Victoriana into organizing New Wave art and music events that featured his artistic partner, Peter McGough, and other artists. But he eventually quit before one event, which failed to attract uptown gallery owners or collectors. Video excerpts show the glamorous tattiness of a few art openings and parties. The late Richard Hambleton, known for his haunting shadow figures seen mostly on brick walls, shared his disappointment with the monetary shift in the scene. Hambleton mentions how the resurgence of downtown art, with dozens of galleries opening, created an influx and a price boost for art like Julian Schnabel’s. Expressionism with subjects zoomed past pop art like Warhol’s into a new genre. Kenny Scharf discusses his rise to fame and a sudden moment when Brezinski tossed a glass of wine at gallerist Annina Nosei after being rejected, then paid off after a fit of rage, when he accused another artist of plagiarizing a painting. She later healed the rift – despite his previous death threats – when she encountered him on a street, then impulsively invited him to a party hosted by famed art dealer Leo Castelli. From that event, he ended up getting one gallery exhibit. See page 17 >>

<< Film & Comedy

14 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

‘We Are Tenacious’

Trans and queer ranchers in new documentary

by Brian Bromberger

IndieFest’s Green Film Festival streams on-demand and in person at the Roxie Theater through October 22. With 50+ features and shorts from around the world, their one LGBTQ offering, “We Are Tenacious” (Silent Crow Arts) is a major attraction. A classic story of American perseverance, it features transgender Alpaca rancher Penny Logue and her dedicated band of queer ranchers. They battle fierce weather, impossible finances, far-right militia, and their own inner struggles as they pursue true liberation. It also serves as a microcosm of the country’s current bitter political and cultural polarization. It’s not a feel-good movie, but it’s a necessary one.

Welcoming, at first

Logue is the founder of the 40-acre Tenacious Unicorn Ranch, located in a conservative Custer County, Colorado near the small town of Westcliffe, population 5000, average age 63, and overwhelmingly white. Logue created Tenacious as a safe haven for transgender and non-binary people, providing housing, employment, and a chance for happiness.

Both photos: Silent Crow Arts

Left: J Stanley holds a young alpaca in ‘We Are Tenacious’ Right: Penny Logue in ‘We Are Tenacious’

They adopted a herd of alpaca. They supported themselves by making yarn from the alpaca, working for neighboring ranches, and providing recycling services at the local landfill. The film interviews the various members who together have formed a community, their own queer family. They sought to be an anarchist commune for LGBTQ people. Tenacious’s view was to start with kindness and figure it out from there, including the challenges of co-habiting with fragile,

Let’s talk cannabis.

wounded residents. A solar-powered geodesic dome was their prime living space, though there were trailers which provided additional space. They were powered primarily by wind and solar energy. The local townspeople had largely been welcoming and supportive, with their general philosophy being as long as you’re not trespassing on my land, you can do whatever you want. Also, the Unicorn’s (so named by the citizens) desire to help people made it more difficult for the townsfolk to see them as a threat or weird. However, that all changed on July 4, 2020 while on errands in Westcliffe, they got caught in the crowds and encountered a group protesting the COVID cancellation of the town’s Fourth of July parade. Their march consisted of carrying a Confederate flag, banners for the Three Percenters (an altright militia group), white supremacy slogans, and every person was armed. The Unicorns got out of town quickly. Logue went on social media with the line, ‘Wow, Nazis on parade in Westcliffe.’ From that tweet there grew a hatred that has never ended, resulting in harassment and threats of violence to the ranch. When armed intruders were discovered on the ranch to establish dominance, for protection, the residents began carrying firearms and wore bulletproof vests while patrolling the ranch, even posting 24-hour guards at their property’s furthest ends.

This chaos led to a financial meltdown, such that the remaining residents were evicted from their property and to date they haven’t secured another permanent location. Transgender documentarian Ash Kreis, who directed the film, in the production notes asked, “How do we fit into this larger notion of community, especially in an environment that is traditionally conservative?” Sadly, the answer appears to be they don’t, that the divisiveness in our culture concerning the trans experience, invades even what was supposed to be a refuge. Residing in a remote location, this trans commune couldn’t escape the transphobic perniciousness running rampant throughout our nation. The saving grace in an otherwise depressing story is the almost ubercuteness of the alpacas. You will fall in love with these animals, as their docility and loyalty will steal your hearts. If

only human beings could get along as well as the alpacas do with each other. Logue is the tragic figure here, that with all her farm training and her determination to create a safety net for queer people, she couldn’t overcome the interior disintegration of the residents caving in under the outside pressures coupled with these overwhelming divisive socio-political forces, threatening their very existence. We witness the dream colliding with stark reality, the destruction of a noble experiment and we are all the poorer for a vision deferred. Don’t miss this engrossing, devastating documentary and remain tenacious anyway.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com. ‘We Are Tenacious’ streams through October 22. www.sfgreenfest2023.eventive.org/ schedule www.tenaciousfilm.com

Ideology vs. militias

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The stress of no longer feeling safe and the possibility of attack, with little backing from the sheriff ’s department, led to internal dissension, with some residents leaving, including co-owner and business partner Bonnie Nelson.

Silent Crow Arts

Target practice at Tenacious Unicorn Ranch in ‘We Are Tenacious’

Eddie Izzard and Alex Edelman Professional headshots / profile pics Weddings / Events

StevenUnderhill 415 370 7152 • StevenUnderhill.com

Pushing the envelope of stand-up

his month, San Francisco audiences can see two of the brainiest comics currently working in full-length solo shows that have radically different structures. First, queer British entertainer Eddie Izzard comes to town with “The Remix Tour,” an evening of curlicued free-associative humor at the Orpheum Theatre Oct. 19-21. Then, rising star Alex Edelman arrives for four performances of “Just for Us,” his recent Broadway hit that mines unexpected hilarity in probing the limits of empathy, at the Cuuran Theater Oct. 26-28. Read Jim Gladstone’s interviews on www.ebar.com.

Theater>>

October 19-25, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 15

Golden Thread’s ReOrient Festival

Middle Eastern playwrights share their stories

by Jim Gladstone

olden Thread Productions received 113 submissions from around the world for this year’s iteration of its signature biennial program, The ReOrient Festival of Short Plays, running at Potrero Stage through November 4. Just half a dozen made the final cut. And three of the selected shows are by queer playwrights with a focus on queer characters. Given that Golden Thread is first and foremost dedicated to developing and presenting plays about the Middle East and its diaspora, this year’s lineup serves a strong reminder of the intersectional nature of identity. It should also serve as an extra push for theatergoers in the Bay Area queer community who have never been to a Golden Thread show to give the company a look. For nearly 30 years, Golden Thread has been presenting what its guiding principles describe as “socially conscious works with a progressive political sensibility.” In this critic’s experience as a nonMiddle Easterner and frequent playgoer, their productions have been among our region’s strongest showcases of new work, period. I recently chatted with the queer playwrights whose work is featured in this year’s festival.

Adam Elsayigh

Adam Elsayigh’s full length “Drowning in Cairo,” a complex exploration of class and homophobia in Egypt, had its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2022. The Cairo-born playwright returns with “Data Queen,” set in San Francisco. “It’s about an intergenerational gay couple that starts to have trouble after they open their relationship,” he explained.

Left to Right: Adam Elsayigh, Arti Ishak, Hamed Sinno

It’s not hard to guess what issues might emerge in this surprisingly funny, sexually frank piece, but you’d likely guess wrong. “The younger man is an Arab immigrant in his 20s and his partner is a white man in his 50s. The conflict within their relationship doesn’t come from any feelings they have about their age difference at all,” said Elsayigh, “They’re genuinely fine with that. The problems have to do with the assumptions other people make about what intimacy must be like for them, given their races and their ages.”

Arti Ishak

“Closure,” Arti Ishak’s taut twocharacter drama, began with a workshop prompt at the Chicago Muslim writers’ collective they participate in. While the biracial, non-binary Ishak has long worked as an actress, stage director and filmmaker, this is their first play. “The theme they gave us to write

about was ‘On Mute’” said Ishak. “And I immediately thought about how I felt placed on mute when I was being bullied in middle school,” recalled Ishak. “I started to wonder what it would be like to re-encounter my bully as an adult.” A friend who admired the resulting script and had seen Golden Thread’s call for submissions urged Ishak to send in their work. How did it feel to have such a personal story interpreted by others, especially given that Ishak is a performer (They won’t make the play’s premiere because they’re covering a lead role at the Steppenwolf Theatre). “It’s semi-autobiographical,” said Ishak, “but I think the second you start to put something to paper, it takes on its own life. And the actors brought a whole other dimension to it. These actors were so collaborative and asked so many good questions. I told them I wanted the dialogue to be tight and snappy, and to tell me if there were lines that felt uncom-

fortable in their mouths. They really helped to streamline the play and sharpen the characters.”

Hamed Sinno

As lead singer of the Lebanese indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila, artist-activist Hamed Sinno, who identifies as gay and non-binary, achieved enormous popularity throughout the Middle East. The band drew huge crowds and appeared on the cover of the regional edition of Rolling Stone. But as an openly gay public figure, Sinno faced harassment and threats alongside the adoration of queer fans. After a Pride flag was flown at a 2017 Cairo concert by the band, the police arrested several audience members, one of whom, after a traumatic incarceration, committed suicide. “I started to have a lot of cognitive dissonance,” he said, regarding the decision to disband Mashrou’ Leila in 2022, after which he enrolled in graduate school.

His one-act, “The Suicide Bomber,” is a dizzyingly meta work that veers between comedy and tragedy. It has a playwright as its central character, a lengthy passage about military atrocities in the Middle East delivered in rhyming verse, and a queer dancer described in script notes as “someone whose self-worth comes from feeling useful to the world.” Sinno says that watching from the wings as other performers bring his words to life “is really hard, because I’m a control freak. When I’m on stage as a singer, if there’s a problem, part of me feels like I can fix things in the moment. So, this can be nervewracking.” He better get used to it. Sinno has been commissioned to develop a piece for the Metropolitan Opera.t ‘ReOrient: Festival of Short Plays,’ through Nov. 4. $20-$100. Potrero Stage, 1695 18th St. (415) 992-6677 www.goldenthread.org

<< Spooky Streaming

16 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

Thrillin’ & chillin’ by Victoria A. Brownworth

alloween is fast approaching with all its queer delights and every streaming service and some networks are luring viewers with horror classics old and new, so be sure to check out your favorite streaming services. There’s also a slew of queer horror on Netflix and Amazon, so I’ll just list some movies I think are fabulous so you can settle in on a chill night for some thriller viewing. Remember when we were kids and Elvira introduced our scary movies? Two Halloweens ago, Elvira – Cassandra Peterson – broke everyone’s brains by coming out at 70 and reminded everyone that it is never ever too late to be your authentic un-closeted self. In an interview with “ET Canada,” Peterson reflects on her decision to come out in her new memoir, “Yours Cruelly Elvira.” The TV icon also talks about the “fantastic” support that she has received from the LGBTQ community. That’s the shot. The chaser is “Elvira Mistress of the Dark,” starring Peterson as eccentric horror hostess Elvira, from “Elvira’s Movie Macabre.” Elvira inherits a house nestled in the heart of an overtly prudish community. What could possibly go wrong? Not Elvira making a special dinner from what she thinks is a cookbook, but is actually a spell book! Summoning demons by accident is always a reliable horror trope. For good camp and queer fun, it’s on Tubi and Pluto for free and Amazon Prime.

The Lavender Tube on Elvira, hauntings and Halloween hilarity

Haunts, hoots and Hell

A supernatural horror drama and the first in The Haunting anthology series, “The Haunting of Hill House” is loosely based on the classic 1959 novel by Shirley Jackson. The plot alternates between two timelines, following five adult siblings whose paranormal experiences at Hill House continue to haunt them in the present day. Oh, and it’s quite queer. You will never look at gloves the same way. With Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, Victoria Pedretti, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas and Timothy Hutton, it’s on Netflix. “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” also on Netflix, continues the Haunting saga with yet another take on Henry James’s classic ghost and erotic possession story, “The Turn of the Screw,” always scary in every new iteration. When a governess comes to care for two young children, bad things happen. With Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, Amelia Eve and T’Nia Miller, it’s even more queer than “Hill House.” “All About Evil” is fun. “Russian Doll’s” Natasha Lyonne headlines this campy bloody horror flick in which a mousy woman inherits an old movie house and starts making a series of grisly Herschell Gordon Lewis-style splatter flicks, in which, unbeknownst to her fans, the gruesome on-screen murders are actually real. With horror and queer icon Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira; John

Fright flicks

Left: Cassandra Peterson as Elvira Middle: Natasha Lyonne in ‘All About Evil’ Right: The mystery killer in ‘Hellbent’

Waters regular Mink Stole; and writerdirector Joshua Grannell’s drag alter ego, horror hostess, San Francisco’s own Peaches Christ, the cult fave was filmed mostly in SF’s Victoria Theatre. “Hellbent” is that rare slasher film with a group of entirely openly gay characters. A group of gay friends is celebrating Halloween in West Hollywood, which is being prowled by a killer wearing a devil’s mask. One of them, Eddie (Dylan Fergus), who works for the police, brings the others through some woods to check out a recent murder scene. They ignore the mask-wearing killer. Uh oh... With Bryan Kirkwood, Hank Harris, Andrew Levitas, Matt Phillips, the late Kent James, Nina Landey and Samuel Aarons, its’ good bloody fun; on Amazon Prime. Queer horror abounds on AMC’s Shudder this month, so be sure to check out the schedule. We loved this new item.

Starring trans actress Hari Nef, “Bad Things,” a Shudder original horror thriller, follows a hotel trip for a weekend getaway that might not turn out as this group of friends thought it would. Bad Things is what happens when Stephen King’s “The Shining” gets a super queer retelling. Superb. With Gayle Rankin, Molly Ringwald, out queer actor Rad Pereira and Annabelle Dexter-Jones, it’s on Shudder, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Roku. You can also watch Thorndike’s “Lyle,” her totally gay iteration of “Rosemary’s Baby,” with a spectacular Gaby Hoffman, Ingrid Jungermann and “SNL’s” Michael Che. This is an incredibly creepy film and did we mention that Hoffman is spectacular? It’s on Shudder and Amazon Prime.

The Strings

In this Shudder original “The Strings,” the classic horror trope of

slew of horror films are available on various streaming sites and video-on-demand services. Here are a few titles guaranteed to enhance your Halloween season.

Horrors galore

The Criterion Channel offers ‘High School Horrors,’ thirteen films that illustrate just how scary it can be to attend high school. Dating from the 1970s until today, these films are guaranteed to make you shiver, and to be glad that your high school days are behind you. Titles include “Massacre at Central High” (1976), Rene Daalder’s thriller in which no adults are seen until the end of the film. “Massacre” tells the story of a series of revenge killings at an American high school, after which the oppressed students take on their bully oppressors. Despite the lurid title, this is not a slasher film. Rather, it’s a blend of social commentary, political allegory and low-budget exploitation. Other High School Horrors streaming on Criterion include “Suspiria” (1977), Italian horror auteur Dario Argento’s scary thrill ride about an aspiring dancer (Jessica Harper) who encounters a coven of witches at

a deserted locale and a scary house combine with queerness for a very satisfying slow build to terror. In the dead of winter, Catherine (musician and actress Teagan Johnston), a talented musician who, having recently broken up her successful band, travels to her aunt’s remote coastal cottage to work on new material in solitude. Once there, she and local photographer Grace (Jenna Schaefer) spark up a budding romance while visiting an abandoned farmhouse with a disturbing past. Soon after, strange and seemingly supernatural occurrences begin to manifest at the cottage, escalating each night and dangerously eroding Catherine’s sense of reality; also on Amazon Prime and Roku.t

Read more, with plenty of trailers, on www.ebar.com.

Streaming spooky stuff

Left: Jessica Harper in the original ‘Suspiria’ Middle Left: ’70s studs in ‘Massacre at Central High’ Middle Right: Jamie Curtis in ‘Prom Night’ Right: Lillian Bond and Boris Karloff in ‘The Old Dark House’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

an isolated dance academy in Europe. Loaded with atmosphere and stunning visuals, “Suspiria” was the final theatrical film of Joan Bennett, a film noir leading lady of the 1940s and one of the stars of the horror-themed soap opera “Dark Shadows.” In “Prom Night” (1980), scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis stars in a slasher film outside of the Halloween franchise. “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” (1992) is David Lynch’s feature film of his weird, surreal TV show. In “The Craft” (1996) four high school girls dabble in witchcraft. Four young friends are stalked by a hook-wielding killer in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997).

’90s nightmares

The Criterion Channel also offers “’90s Horror,” eleven unsettling films sure to scare the crap out of you, like “In the Mouth of Madness” (1994) from horror maestro John Carpenter and “Exorcist III” (1990), directed by William Peter Blatty, who wrote the original novel which launched the franchise. If you’re in the mood for something really bizarre, check out Frank Henelotter’s campy “Frankenhooker” (1990), a film that has to be seen to be believed. And be sure to check out the fun, scary “When a Stranger Calls

Back” (1993), starring the ever-adorable Carol Kane. For something different, scope out underground auteur Abel Ferrara’s “The Addiction” (1995), a black and white chiller that presents a vampire’s lust for blood as an allegory about drug addiction.

Oldies but goodies

Criterion additional series, “PreCode Horror,” shares 13 films produced before the 1934 production code which prohibited films from presenting sexuality in any form. Violence was also frowned upon post-code. Check out envelope-pushing shockers like “Freaks” (1932), a film that shocked audiences upon its initial release. Also take a look at the grisly “Island of Lost Souls” (1933) in which gay actor Charles Laughton conducts bizarre experiments, turning animals into quasi-humans. Beware the house of pain! The naughty “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1931) and the mysterious “Doctor X” (1932), are two films that dared to present images of prostitution. “Dr. Jekyll” was the first horror film in history to win an Oscar, for Best Actor Fredric March. Then there’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1932) in which horror icon Bela Lugosi performs at his insane

best, conducting weird experiments in order to prove that humans and apes are related. And be sure to check out “The Old Dark House” (1932) from gay director James Whale. In this tale, a group of motley travelers seek refuge in the titular Old Dark House on a dark and stormy night. This ahead of its time chiller features gay actor Ernest Thesiger playing a screaming queen. The film also includes a gender-bending twist unheard of in the 1930s. The 102-year-old family patriarch is played by a woman in male drag. And be on the lookout for 22-yearold Gloria Stuart (Old Rose in James Cameron’s “Titanic”) in one of her earliest roles.

Fresh frights

And now for some new films. “Birth/Rebirth” streams on Amazon Prime. Laura Moss’ chiller stars Marin Ireland as a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She has a singular obsession: reanimating the dead. Sounds like fun! “Perpetrator” streams on Shudder, the streaming site for the discriminating horror fan. Remember Alicia Silverstone, star of 1995’s coming-of-age teen comedy “Clueless?” Well, she’s back as

Aunt Hilde, whose niece Jonny (Kiah McKirnan) undergoes a radical metamorphosis on her 18th birthday via a family spell that redefines her called Forevering. When several teens go missing at Jonny’s school, a mythical feral Jonny goes after the perpetrator. This feminist chiller is directed by Jennifer Reeder, an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been shown around the world. “The Latent Image” streams on Amazon Prime, Google Play and Vudu. Joshua Tonks stars as Ben, a thriller writer who, struggling for inspiration, retreats to a rural cabin to work on his new novel. One night, he awakens to find a wounded man (Jay Clift) in the cabin. Intrigued, Ben decides to use the man as inspiration for his protagonist in the novel. But as the man enacts increasingly dangerous scenarios, Ben finds his life in danger. Written and directed by Alexander McGregor Birrell, “The Latent Image” has screened at a number of LGBT film festivals. “Living for the Dead” streams on Hulu. From the creators of “Queer Eye,” this eight-part paranormal series stars a group of five fabulously queer ghost hunters as they crisscross the country, helping the living by healing the dead. Together they’ll push past boundaries to bring acceptance to the misunderstood, both living and dead. It stars Alex Le May, Juju Bae, Ken Boggle, Logan Taylor and Roz Hernandez, and is narrated by Kristen Stewart. And finally, a little Halloween music. “L’Inferno,” a four song EP from Austin, Texas band Montopolis. Streaming on Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora and Apple Music. Montopolis is currently touring with “L’Inferno,” a silent horror film from 1911 based on the legend of “Dante’s Inferno.” The band has composed an original score to accompany the film, which is the first feature-length horror film ever produced. Now, a four song EP of the film’s score is available. Join Dante on his surreal and terrifying journey through hell. Happy Halloween!t

Film>>

October 19-25, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 17

Left: A self-portrait by Edward Brezinski, 1976 Middle: One of Edward Brezinski’s religious-themed allegorical paintings Right: Edward Brezinski’s hand-tinted block print of First Lady Nancy Reagan, 1983

‘Make Me Famous’

From page 13

The newest gallery’s opening up

Soon, gallery openings became the new nightlife. Meanwhile, Brezinski’s craving for success had yet to happen, due perhaps more to his drinking and behavior than his talent. One dismal scene at one of Brezinski’s gatherings is videotape of art critic Gary Indiana eviscerating his ex-boyfriend David Wojnarowicz; for not showing up? For dumping him? We’re not sure. Indiana’s drunken rambling is incoherent. While a charming and in moments a sad nostalgic jumble, the film jumps between interviews and footage showing how Brezinski tried to create a community in a whirlwind. His later works took on a religious theme to represent or allegorize the growing number of AIDS deaths. As Scharf comments, “There was a period where basically your social scene was funerals.” Brezinski’s “Crucifixion” (1983) remains a standout work of Neoexpressionism. ArtForum’s former Editor-in-chief Joseph Masheck says that Brezinski was more knowledge-

able about art than he let on, being amid the self-taught. “He was a rather learned painter, even though that wasn’t the name of the game on the Lower East Side.”

Donut do it

Wine-tossing aside, the most notorious act was when Brezinski went to the Paula Cooper gallery in 1989 and ate a donut from a Duchamp-esque “simulation” representational art piece by Robert Gober, which was supposed to look like a bag of donuts ($8,000 then, now priced at $240,000), but actually had epoxy and formaldehyde in it. Brezinski hated the exhibit, and as a form of protest proceeded to eat one of the donuts. A shocked Gober warned him that he was probably going to get poisoned. An ambulance was called. Despite the near-death humiliation, Brezinski decided to call a Page Six writer at the New York Post, who wrote an item about it, “Sad Story of a Starving Artist.” The news spread and Brezinski became more famous for eating someone else’s art than for his own. A bloviating Mark Kostabi talks more about his own success, but offers a truth about the success of artists who were also businessmen, which Brez-

inski was not. SoHo became more trendy, with “clever” art like Jeff Koons’ taking precedent. In 1990 Brezinski moved to Berlin, writing letters to his New York friends, often asking for money. Artist and friend Julie Jo Fehrle, while visiting East Berlin, saw painted graffiti, I HATE YOU in allcaps that she recognized from a Brezinski painting she owned, and eventually found the artist in a shabby squatters’ apartment. She bought him food for a

few days before leaving. Despite the squalor, and a violent assault in a bar, he continued to paint. On a trip back to Detroit, director Vincent tours the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, where Neo-expressionist works are on display and clearly show their influence on Brezinski. More background biographical interviews with surviving relatives reveal aspects of how his childhood affected his life, including his mother’s death

Jonathan Postal

Edward Brezinski and Click models for NY Talk Magazine, 1984

when he was 16. Brezinski died in 2007 in a hotel in Nice, allegedly. Vincent’s film goes on to try to decipher the facts of his disappearance. Despite having obituaries written, his body was never found. The last part of the film involves the filmmakers and two friends – former punk musician Marguerite Van Cook, and her partner James Romberger – attempting to get information about Brezinski’s “death” in Nice, to no success. Their eventual discovery in Cannes is bittersweet, as is a posthumous inclusion of a few of his works in a group retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Edward Brezinski never achieved the fame and fortune he desired. But like many other artists, after his death, a reevaluation of his art continues to evolve.t ‘Make Me Famous’ screens Oct. 19-Nov. 3, 7:30pm at the 4 Star Theater, 2200 Clement St. ($12.50-$15). The Oct. 19 screening includes a Q&A with director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore. www.red-splat.com www.4-star-movies.com

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<< Books & Events

18 • Bay Area Repor ter • October 19-25, 2023

Mark Abramson’s ‘Laughing Matters’ P

rolific author and colorful Castro fixture Mark Abramson reanimates his life as seen through the lens of the global pandemic in this energetic, expressive book of diary entries. Keeping a diary is nothing new to the author, who admits to keeping a journal since his 18th birthday, with requisite gaps in time while he worked on other projects or was “simply too high on life or drugs or falling in love.” An unofficial sequel to Abramson’s “Arlene Francis and Me” which consisted of earlier pandemic reflections beginning in 2020, ‘Laughing Matters: Pandemic Diaries from Castro Street 2021-2022’ mirrors those themes and pushes forward from January 2021 when the author roamed the empty Castro district where bars and restaurants were still being ordered closed by the city. He also takes time to grumble about all the Christmas decorations still present in the neighborhood well after the close of the holiday. Some of the details are mercilessly mundane and superfluous, but it’s when the author gets serious, nostalgic, writes poetically, or becomes lightly philosophical and speaks from the heart is when it all becomes worth the trip. A few pages in there’s an entry from January 6, the day the “Trump

Fortune Feimster

From page 13

You have a joke about meeting your wife Jax in a parking lot, due to the lack of lesbian bars. If you could open a lesbian bar, what would you call it, and where would you open it? [Laughs] Gosh, I don’t know! I would maybe open it back in my home state of North Carolina. I feel like those are the places where repre-

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cult stormed the U.S. Capitol” and Abramson calls the media out for focusing on that event instead of the alarming Covid-19 death count. That same month saw the deaths of pioneering sex worker Margo St. James, iconic actress Cloris Leachman, and gay rights activist Ken Jones, all of whom the author fondly acknowledges.

Sacred places

Nostalgia is embedded everywhere throughout the memoir. The author, who remembers falling in love with San Francisco when he was 23, lovingly reflects back on the 18th and Castro location formerly known as “Hibernia Beach” that was both a fun place for gay men to gather and flirt shirtless in the 1970s and ’80s, but also a sacred place of memoriam “covered with photographs of the gay men who died that day or that week or that month” from AIDS. He also contributes his own personal history as a longtime HIV survivor from an initial diagnosis in 1988 to today, through AZT trials to a modernized Biktarvy regimen. He writes vividly and candidly about being shell-shocked by the events transpiring across the last few years (MAGA-madness, climate change, the media’s open denigration of San Francisco, and Covid-19) which only exacerbated his attempt to sentation and community are needed even more. What would I call it? We were doing a radio show the other day and there was a big seagull there. I was like, “Oh, look at that chunky seagull.” And then I said, “That’s a great name for a bar!” So, maybe I would call it The Chunky Seagull [laughs]. With your new show “Live Love Laugh,” you are once again embarking on a stand-up. What

Author Mark Abramson

emotionally reconcile with “aging as a gay man in America.” As diaries go, a good amount of the narrative is freeform and rambling. This results in Abramson writing about his sexy neighbor in one breath, then to the health of his staghorn fern “reaching out with patriotic joy and rebirth in this Joe Biden Era in America” in another, then on to adventures with his cat Rufus, or spiraling down “YouTube rabbit holes,” his jock itch, and frequent sojourns up to Buena Vista Park. Marijuana-inspired or not (“I’m so stoned right now it’s hard to write,” he often admits) it tends to create a chatty, effortlessly breezy reading experience and even tickles the funny bone on are you most looking forward to about this tour? I feel like with every tour I hone my voice a little bit more each time. I know myself a little bit better each time. I’m having fun! That’s what’s most important to me. If I’m having fun, that means you’re going to have fun. I’m really enjoying the stories that I’m telling. I talk a lot about Jax, about our relationship. I’m telling stories about my mom. I always feel weird laughing at my own stories, but my stories about my mom genuinely crack me up. It’s been fun digging into that. I’ve also been interacting with the audience a lot more, talking to them and having some fun crowd-work moments. This has been one of those where every time I’m on stage, I’m pumped to see what comes. With the crowd-work part, especially, you just never know what you’re going to get. I love that aspect because it keeps me on my toes.

occasion. A section on former San Francisco police department sensation Chris Kohrs’s time on the Castro beat is particularly memorable as well. There are also plenty of photographs to enjoy sprinkled amidst all the anecdotes, including a fun shot of Heklina performing outside of Beaux wearing the clear plastic face coverings performers were required to wear in crowds. Dishy, gossipy, and consistently verbose, Abramson escorts readers to the front row seat of his life over the past few years with anecdotes and spirited commentary about his travels, his associations in the Castro neighborhood and beyond, his mo-

Fortune Feimster

Speaking of being on your toes, one of the things that I personally love about your live performance is that you are known to break into song showing off your wonderful singing voice. Do you think you might have a music album, or perhaps a role in a Broadway musical, in your future?

ments of happiness, but also his times of depression, disappointment, and disillusionment. One of the best qualities in Abramson’s epistolary self-portrait is his willingness to share his life with his readers and the fact that nothing is sugarcoated or overly polished. Throughout the months between lockdowns and restrictions stagnating the city, Abramson remains grateful for his life and vitality. A moment when he commemorates the eighteenth anniversary of his heart attack and subsequent open-heart surgery is memorable, though readers will want to know more and the subject deserves its own chapter. The book concludes in the winter of 2022 where Abramson, 71, expresses a sigh of relief (as we all did) that he survived a global pandemic and is now more than happy to meticulously share every moment of the ordeal with his readers.t Mark Abramson will read from and sign copies of his new book October 22, at 4pm at Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro St. www.fabulosabooks.com

‘Laughing Matters: Pandemic Diaries from Castro Street 20212022’ by Mark Abramson. Minnesota Boy Press, $16.95 www.markabramson.net

Oh, gosh, my mom would love that. Every time I bring up stand-up, she’s like, “When are you gonna start singing? People would love it!” I’m like, “I don’t know what you mean by that!” I’m not a songwriter. It’s not like I can go out with a guitar and be like, “All right guys, here’s a song I wrote.” I do try to find ways to sing something in my set because it’s fun to show a different side of myself. I recently got onstage and sang a song with The Chicks in Nashville. I sang “Goodbye, Earl” with them. People were like, “Oh, my gosh, you can actually sing!” I would love to, at some point, do something, but I don’t know what that is; if it’s an acting thing or what. But I’m not gonna go on tour as a music act.t Fortune Feimster performs her ‘Live Laugh Love’ show, Oct. 21, 7pm at Oakland’s Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave. $29.50-$165. www.thefoxoakland.com www.fortunefeimster.com

John Arbuckle

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ohn Arbuckle is a survivor, The painter, who’s endured years with HIV, almost went blind with glaucoma from an accident and eye surgery. Fortunately, thanks to meds and a scleral lens, he’s returned to creating his vivid colorful paintings (www.johnarbuckle.com). He’s just one of more than 130 talented visual artists and musicians showcasing their works at the Hunters Point Shipyard Open Studios, October 21 and 22 (www.shipyardartists.com) We also have plenty more arts and nightlife events, eight days a week, on www.ebar.com.

Music>>

October 19-25, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 19

Q-Music: Say gay all year playlist

by Gregg Shapiro

nyone who has been listening to and following queer musician Meshell Ndegeocello’s compelling music career, from her early ’90s hit single “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night),” the political statement of “Leviticus: Faggot,” and the breathtaking “Bitter” album, through her vast and varied 21st-century sonic explorations, know that her output is anything but predictable or dull. “The Omnichord Real Book” (Blue Note), Ndegeocello’s first album of all original tunes since 2014’s “Comet, Come To Me,” continues her longstanding tradition of being musically daring. Featuring a mind-blowing roster of guest musicians, including Joan As Police Woman, Jason Moran, Jeff Parker, and Josh Johnson, to name a few, the album leans into jazz with a warm and welcoming embrace. The sound throughout is equal parts timeless and forward-thinking, soulful and soul-stirring. Meshell Ndegeocello performs at SF Jazz’s Miner Auditorium, 201 Franklin St., with special guests Oct. 27-29. $30-$105. www.sfjazz.org www.meshell.com The late (and sorely missed) George Michael wasn’t officially or publicly out when he and Andrew Ridgeley were topping the ’80s pop charts as Wham!. But anyone with a functioning pair of eyes (and reliable gaydar) knew the scoop. Michael’s solo career, which included a Grammy Award for the “Faith” album, completely overshadowed Wham!, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve to be remembered. Available in multiple formats, including a double LP vinyl set, “Wham! The Hit Singles: Echoes From The Edge of Heaven” (Sony Music) compiles 11 hit singles, including the nearly flawless “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” as well as “Freedom,” “Everything She Wants,” and a respectful cover of Was (Not Was)’s “Where Did Your Heart Go?” Embarrassing Brit-pop raps including “Wham Rap!” and “Young Guns (Go For It),” don’t sink the project, but neither do they do much to promote Wham!’s early days. A second LP of B-sides and remixes completes the package. It’s the perfect way to keep the music playing after watching the Wham! doc on Netflix. sonymusic.co.uk/artist/wham Gay singer/songwriter and TikTok sensation Jordy is feeling all his feelings on his sophomore album “Boy” (300). Songs such as “I Get High,” “Good Not Great,” “IDK SH!T,” are both cathartic for the singer, and a message to listeners that they are not alone in their struggles, mental healthwise and others. Such openness may be off-putting to some, but Jordy’s delivery makes the songs feel authentic and unforced. “Story of a Boy,” Jordy’s interpolation of Nine Days’ “Story of a Girl” (with the band’s blessing) sounds like it could be a summertime hit single. www.jordy.lnk.to/BOY For every racist country music malignancy such as Jason Aldean, there’s an Orville Peck or a Paisley Fields. “Limp Wrist” (Don Giovanni Re-

cords), Paisley Fields’ latest full-length album, available on bright red vinyl, is exceptional, and not just because it features gay porn star Levi Karter as the cover model. An Iowa native, Paisley Fields’ deeply personal and powerful song “Iowa,” co-written with trans singer/ songwriter Mya Byrne is a must; a queer country take on Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy,” if you will. The rural queer experience also comes through on “Dial Up Lover,” “Black Hawk County Line,” “Jesus Loving American Guy (Limp Wrist),” “Tomorrow Finds A Way,” and “Plastic Rosary.” Paisley Fields also flirts with the dancefloor on “Flex.” www.thepaisleyfields.com

You can learn a lot about a singer/ songwriter by the songs they choose to cover. So, what do we learn about the three singer/songwriters – trans artist Cidny Bullens, Deborah Holland, and Wendy Waldman – who comprise The Refugees on their new album “California” (Wabuho)?

First, they have great taste in music with their respectable interpretations of songs by The Mamas and the Papas (“Monday Monday”), the Beach Boys (“Sail On Sailor”), The Flying Burrito Brothers (“Sin City”), Buffalo Springfield (“For What It’s Worth”), Sly and the Family Stone (“Stand”), Crosby,

Stills & Nash (“Carry On”), and the Byrds (“So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star”). Second, they can stick to a theme, which is a set of songs originally performed by musical acts with connections to California. www.therefugeesmusic.com

Suzanne Sommers 1946-2023

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