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Wine country wanderings
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'Einstein' opens
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 42 • No. 43 • October 25-31, 2012
Feinstein talks about marriage, Milk by Matthew S. Bajko
Courtesy Rainbow Honor Walk
Artist Carlos Casuso’s mockup of one of the plaques for the Rainbow Honor Walk features Keith Haring.
F
acing the easiest political race of her career, Senator Dianne Feinstein is set to win a fourth full term in November. It is a remarkable situation for the Democratic politiRick Gerharter cian, who in 2011 appeared vulner- Senator able to a Republican Dianne Feinstein challenger as polling showed her popularity plunging among Californians. Yet none of the state’s better-known GOP leaders opted to take on Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor who won a special See page 20 >>
Design selected for LGBT Gay Boy Scout delivers petitions history project Jane Philomen Cleland
by Matthew S. Bajko
B
oy Scout Ryan Andresen, center, of Moraga, was joined by his father, Eric, right, and Eagle Scout Matthew Kimball, left, as the trio delivered more than 400,000 petitions to the Mt. Diablo-Silverado Boy Scout Council in Pleasant Hill Thursday, October 18. In the background is Assembly-
woman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) who honored Andresen for his courage to speak out. Andresen, 18, a high school senior, was denied the Eagle Scout award because he is gay. He and his mom, Karen, started a petition on change.org urging the Boy Scouts to give Ryan the award.▼
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he group behind an LGBT history project in the Castro has selected the design for plaques it intends to install in the sidewalk. Known as the Rainbow Honor Walk, the See page 20 >>
BAY AREA REPORTER SF to host gay travel
election endorsements confab, public expo by Ed Walsh GENERAL ELECTION
Local Races: San Francisco Supervisors Dist. 1: Eric Mar Dist. 3: David Chiu Dist. 5: Christina Olague, first choice London Breed, second choice Dist. 7: Francis “FX” Crowley, first choice Norman Yee, second choice Joel Engardio, third choice Dist. 9: David Campos Dist. 11: John Avalos San Francisco Board of Education Matt Haney, Sandra Fewer, Rachel Norton, Jill Wynns San Francisco Community College Board Rafael Mandelman, Amy Bacharach, Rodrigo Santos BART Board, Dist. 7 Lynette Sweet
BART Board, Dist. 9 Tom Radulovich Oakland City Council Dist. 3: Sean Sullivan At-large: Rebecca Kaplan Berkeley City Council Dist. 2: Darryl Moore NATIONAL RACES President Barack Obama/Joe Biden STATE RACES U.S. Senate Dianne Feinstein State Senate (San Francisco) Dist. 11: Mark Leno State Assembly (San Francisco) Dist. 17: Tom Ammiano Dist. 19: Phil Ting State Senate (East Bay) Dist. 9: Loni Hancock
State Assembly (Regional) Dist. 15: Nancy Skinner Dist. 18: Abel Guillen Dist. 24: Rich Gordon Congress (Bay Area) Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 3: John Garamendi Dist. 5: Mike Thompson Dist. 11: George Miller Dist. 12: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 13: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Jackie Speier Dist. 17: Mike Honda Dist. 18: Anna Eshoo Dist. 19: Zoe Lofgren BALLOT MEASURES
San Francisco Propositions Vote YES on A, B, C, D, E, G Vote NO on F California Propositions Vote YES on 30, 34, 36, 37, 40 Vote NO on 31, 32, 33, 35, 38, 39 Remember to vote on November 6!
G
ay tourism will take center stage in San Francisco next week when the city hosts Community Marketing’s 13th international conference on LGBT tourism. The threeday event gets under way on Halloween and will bring together about 200 travel industry professionals. The conference includes a separate Gay Travel Expo, which is open to the public, on Thursday, November 1. The conference attendees will hear from more than 30 speakers on such topics as Internet, print and direct marketing, research trends, sales techniques, community involvement, and press relations. (Bay Area Reporter travel writer Heather Cassell is among the panelists.) The expo will feature many of the travel professionals who are in town to attend the conference, all of whom are eager to promote destinations, tours, hotels, and airlines to the LGBT market. The expo opens at 4 p.m. and ends at 6:30. Most of the exhibitors make the sales pitch fun and many hand out little chachkies to help you to remember them when you are ready to book your next trip. Community Marketing Inc. once ran a gay travel expo that was held every year in San Francisco and other major cities. But the com-
{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }
Ed Walsh
Zach Enea, left, and Steven SpencerSteigner of RSVP Vacations promoted the gay getaways at the 2007 Gay Travel Expo in San Francisco.
pany sold the expo business to another firm that went out of business. Community Marketing took back the reins of the expo this year. Company spokesman David Paisley told the B.A.R. that depending on how the expo goes this year, they may bring it back to San Francisco every year. Community Marketing is based in San FranSee page 21 >>
<< Community News
2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Man accused in carjacking faces trial by Seth Hemmelgarn
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San Francisco man has been held to answer on charges stemming from a July incident in which he allegedly met another man near a Castro bar, attacked him with a knife, and took his car. Antoine Dilworth, 28, who faces felony carjacking and assault charges and is in custody, appeared at a preliminary hearing Tuesday, October 23 before Judge Richard Ulmer Jr. in San Francisco Superior Court. Ulmer ruled there was sufficient evidence for Dilworth to be tried on the charges. The man, whom the Bay Area Reporter is not identifying because he was the victim of a crime, testified that the July 12 incident, which was reported at 4 a.m., occurred after he rejected Dilworth’s sexual advances. But Erin Crane, Dilworth’s attorney, suggested that the two men had engaged in sexual activity. She also implied that a serious cut to the man’s thumb had come from his seatbelt, not from Dilworth stabbing him. Under examination by Assistant District Attorney Tinnetta Thompson, the victim said that Dilworth approached him at a corner near Badlands, 4121 18th Street, after he’d left the bar, which had closed for the night. “He was acting normal, decent,” the victim, a San Francisco resident
Courtesy SFPD
Carjacking suspect Antoine Dilworth
who was 27 at the time of the incident, said of Dilworth. “Nothing seemed strange about him.” The man, who said he hadn’t been drinking, said he agreed to give Dilworth a ride to where he was staying. When they were in the car, which was parked at 19th and Diamond streets, Dilworth asked to give him a blowjob and suggested they have sex. The victim, who said Dilworth had become aggressive, declined. He drove Dilworth the few blocks to Beck’s Motor Lodge, 2222 Market Street, where Dilworth said he didn’t want to get out until there were no more people around, the
victim testified. He pulled into a neighboring driveway and turned away from Dilworth, he said. “That’s when I felt the slash on my neck,” the man said. He said Dilworth had a “mean, scary glare” when he looked back at him, and he was holding something in his hand. He tried to get out of the car, but his seatbelt held him in as Dilworth attacked him again, this time slashing his thumb, he said. He finally got out of the car, and saw Dilworth get in the driver’s seat. He struggled to get Dilworth out of the car, which he said he finally realized was “stupid,” and Dilworth drove off, the man testified. Police soon arrested Dilworth at Bayshore Boulevard and Oakdale Avenue. The man, who wore what appeared to be a brace on his left hand Tuesday, said Dilworth cut through the tendon of his thumb and into the bone, and he’s lost ability to move his thumb. Crane questioned the man about the amount of time that passed between when he and Dilworth met and the alleged attack. She asked if they had passed by Collingwood Park, a spot with a reputation for sexual activity and which is near where the man’s car had been parked. He told her “I think that’s the name,” but said they hadn’t stopped there. See page 21 >>
Vallejo police kill man, arrest another
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by Seth Hemmelgarn
V
allejo police shot and killed a man over the weekend after he and the man he apparently lived with
were involved in a bizarre incident at their home. The surviving man, who according to media reports has been identified as Jason Jessie, 28, was set to be arraigned in Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield Wednesday afternoon, October 24. The man killed was Jeremiah Moore, 29, news accounts have said. According to a Vallejo Police Department news release, at 1:33 a.m., Sunday, October 21, officers were sent to a home in the 2500 block of Alameda Drive, where Jessie and Moore were apparently trying to burn down their house, arguing, and breaking car windows. Officers saw a naked man, apparently Jessie, run into the home, confronted him inside, and tried to gain his compliance, police said. Smoke was visible in the residence. A second naked man, apparently Moore, appeared from inside the back of the house with a rifle and placed the barrel directly against an officer’s stomach, according to police. Another officer saw this and shot Moore, who fell to the floor and was taken into custody, police said. Jessie was also taken into custody. After realizing the house was on fire, officers evacuated the men. The Vallejo Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire, which had engulfed the home, according to police. Moore was later pronounced dead at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo. Detectives discovered that the rifle he’d carried had been loaded with a round in the chamber, police said. Jessie was transported to a hospital for observation and then to the Vallejo Police Department for booking. Neither he nor the officers were injured, police said. Bay City News Service has reported that Jessie is charged with “misdemeanor battery on a police officer or emergency responder and obstructing a police officer.” It’s not clear what the men’s relationship was. According to police,
the men “appeared to be cohabitating.” A neighbor told Bay City News Service that Jessie had screamed, “You’ve killed my partner. Jeremiah, I love you.” A secretary of state staffer said Tuesday there was no record in the agency’s domestic partner registry of either man. No one at the Solano County Clerk’s office was available for comment when the Bay Area Reporter called Tuesday. In the news release, dated October 21, police said the investigation had so far shown that the two men had been on “a violent rampage” at the house, and had shut off their power, broken their vehicle and home windows, and set fire to the home. It initially appeared that one or both of the men “were under the influence of some kind of controlled substance,” police said. According to a KCBS story, investigators said the incident “was fueled by hallucinogens – possibly a toxic combination” of drug commonly known as “bath salts.” Officers found “a recently slaughtered animal” at the home, police said. “The involved officers have been placed on administrative leave in accordance with department procedure,” officials said. The Vallejo Police Department and the Solano County District Attorney’s office are jointly investigating the incident. Police officials didn’t respond to several interview requests Tuesday, October 23. A woman who answered the phone at the DA’s office Tuesday had only limited information to provide, and another staffer there didn’t immediately respond to a phone message. A spokesman for the Solano County Sheriff ’s Department didn’t respond to interview requests. Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to contact the Vallejo Police Department at 1-800-488-9383.▼
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October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3
<< Community News
4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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SFAF to put Magnet, other programs at one site by Seth Hemmelgarn
S
an Francisco’s largest HIV/ AIDS-related nonprofit has announced that it plans to move three of its key programs into one Castro neighborhood space. In a Friday, October 19 news release, San Francisco AIDS Foundation officials said Magnet, Stonewall Project, and Stop AIDS Project will move services into 474 Castro Street. As part of the effort, which is expected to allow for an increase in HIV testing, the nonprofit will work to raise an estimated $7 million. Rumors have circulated for years that the foundation wanted a larger space to consolidate its various programs in a Castro location. In an interview this week, Neil Giuliano, the foundation’s CEO, said his agency wants to be “visionary,” and the future is about health and wellness, rather than disease and sickness. The foundation aims to help people “lead a healthy life,” he said. Advances in treatment are helping people with HIV and AIDS live longer, and the foundation’s statement says a study indicated the new facility would “rapidly” accelerate efforts “to make new infections incredibly rare in San Francisco.” According to the foundation, San Francisco has one of the country’s largest HIV-positive populations, and 20 percent of gay and bi men in the city are living with the disease. Giuliano said the annual rent on the new location is from about $150,000 to $170,000 more than what the foundation currently pays on the rent for the three programs combined. The rent on the new space will be $31,000 a month. The increased costs are worth it, Giuliano said, “because we have to test more people.” He said Magnet, the gay men’s health center which provides HIV testing and other services, would probably leave its 4122 18th Street location by the end of September 2013, which is when the center’s lease is up. Magnet would have to move anyway, Giuliano said. He also said the site is “simply way too small,” and moving Magnet alone would have meant an increase in rent. Magnet will probably have close to 15,000 clinic visits this year, Giuliano said. He referred to the need to find people who are HIV-positive but don’t know it.
Rick Gerharter
Superstar Video, which is closing after 30 years in business, is set to be the new home of three key programs run by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
“We need to keep testing at a very high number,” he said. The agency will be “increasing capacity from a testing standpoint in a very large way when we move into every space,” he said. The total square footage of the new facility will be twice the combined size of the other three sites, which are also located in the Castro. Stonewall, which focuses on substance use among gay and bisexual men, and Stop AIDS are on monthto-month leases. Giuliano said renovations on the new facility would be completed and the foundation would be ready to move services into the building by September or October 2013 “if everything goes as planned.” The site is currently home to Superstar Satellite video store. George “Jorge” Maumer, who owns the shop, as well as the building housing the Castro Country Club nearby, will be the foundation’s landlord, Giuliano said. Maumer wasn’t available for comment for this story.
Fundraising In last week’s statement, foundation officials said they must “identify significant philanthropic support from the community in order to ensure programmatic success.” Giuliano said, “Overall, the campaign is going to be in the $7 million range,” though a final amount hasn’t been set. That money would be used to cover costs such as approximately $1.5 million for the difference between the new and old rents for the first 10 years of the lease, program-
matic expansion, and building out the new space. The lease is for 10 years with an option to renew. The estimated $7 million figure includes money the foundation plans to borrow. Giuliano expressed confidence his agency would be able to borrow funds at 1.75 percent to 2 percent interest, so “it makes sense” to go that route rather than take the money out of the nonprofit’s monthly cash flow. A feasibility study for the fundraising project is being conducted. The timeframe for the campaign is three years. Giuliano indicated the public fundraising campaign would be under way in mid-2013.
Approval needed The project will include the first and second floors of the Castro Street building, with the exception of Blush wine bar, at 476 Castro Street. Due to the size and scope, the Board of Supervisors has to approve the project, and the foundation will also make presentations to Merchants of Upper Market and Castro and other groups. Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the district, said in the foundation’s statement, “I’m excited to see plans for yet another innovative approach to tackling HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and I look forward to engaging our entire community as those plans continue to take shape.”▼ For more information about the foundation, visit www.sfaf.org.
Nudists stage protest of proposed ban by David-Elijah Nahmod
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elf-described urban nudists gathered in Jane Warner Plaza at Market and Castro streets over the weekend to protest the anti-nudity ban proposed by Supervisor Scott Wiener. The mood of the rally, dubbed a nude-in, was generally upbeat,
with some of the nudists expressing concerns over their right to express themselves. The nudists were primarily male, though a small number of women participated in the afternoon event. The age range of the nudists varied from people in their 20s to senior citizens. About 100 people, including a few clothed supporters, were in attendance, the majority of whom were in the buff. Desmond Perrotto, who is not one of the nudists passersby have observed in the plaza for the past two years, organized the Saturday, October 20 nude-in. Perrotto, a Mr. SF Leather titleholder, feels that Wiener’s proposed law goes too far. “People come to the Castro to be gay,” he said in a telephone interview with the Bay Area Reporter before the rally. “People feel safe here.” Perrotto expressed concern that if the nudity ban passes, it could impede the ability of leather community members to walk to the bars in their chaps, which do cover their genitals but expose their buttocks. Wiener said it was doubtful that would happen.
Danny Buskirk
Nudist Ray, who declined to give his last name, sat in Jane Warner Plaza during last Saturday’s nude-in.
“My intent is not to interfere with people’s ability to wear chaps,” Wiener said last week. “I don’t see any chance that the police will stop someone on their way to the Powerhouse.” Wiener told the B.A.R. that he inSee page 21 >>
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October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5
6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
Serving the LGBT communities since 1971
LGBT History Month >>
▼ LGBT historic sites lack protection, recognition by Matthew S. Bajko
T
he Stonewall Inn, the New York City bar considered to be the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement in America, could be torn down tomorrow. The homes of LGBT pioneers Harvey Milk in San Francisco and Frank Kameny in Washington, D.C. could be lost to wrecking balls one day due to the whims of the property owners. It is a fate many sites of historical importance to the LGBT community in America could face, as few have been protected for posterity. Despite the fact that all three aforementioned sites have been afforded either local or national designation as being of historical significance, the
recognition does not automatically guard them against demolition or significant alteration to the buildings. “It sounds impressive that it is a National Historic Landmark. But if the owner wanted to demolish it tomorrow, he has the right to go and apply for that,” said Jay Shockley, a staff member for the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission, referring to the Stonewall. The iconic bar received federal landmark status in 2000, making it the first, and so far only, LGBT site to receive such a designation. Yet it has not been afforded any specific historical designation by city officials. Shockley, a gay man who in 2011 organized a panel on LGBT historical sites at the annual National Preserva-
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7
Rick Gerharter
The Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village, decorated for the Stonewall 25 celebrations in June 1994.
tion Conference, had nominated the Stonewall to be listed last year. His request was denied because the property at 53 Christopher Street is situated in the Greenwich Village Historic District. He plans to resubmit the Stonewall to be listed separately, which if approved would mark a first for the city commission. “To my chagrin New York City has not done any specific designation for LGBT reasons,” said Shockley, who has worked for the commission since 1979. Instead, Shockley and his co-workers have been able to document certain historic sites’ connections to the LGBT community. One example was pointing out that a house in a small See page 20 >>
Panel proposes landmark status for gay bar by Seth Hemmelgarn
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he process is under way to grant landmark status to the Twin Peaks Tavern, a decades-old Castro neighborhood bar made famous by its large, revealing windows. The seven-member San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously Wednesday, October 17 to confirm their nomination of the bar, at 401 Castro Street, as a historic landmark. The tavern first opened in 1935. According to the Planning Department’s draft designation report on the tavern, which became known as a gay destination after two lesbians bought it in 1972, the business is “the first known gay bar to feature full length open plate glass windows,” and it’s “a living symbol of the liberties and rights” that LGBTs have gained since the 1950s. The bar also retains other character-defining
Jane Philomen Cleland
Patrons Jim Degner, left, Drew Jemilo, Tom Chiola, Dennis Wolframski, and Brian Kelty enjoyed drinks at Twin Peaks Tavern this summer.
features, including signage, the report says. City planner Moses Corrette, who
identifies as queer, said in an interview that when Twin Peaks opened, “people could still get fired from
their job for being a homosexual,” even in San Francisco. At the same time, “police were raiding bars,” he said. “That the Twin Peaks had full, open windows really made a lot of progress for the gay community to literally be out, to be seen,” Corrette said. In an email, Jeffrey Green and George Roehm, who have owned the bar for the last nine years, said, “By being in this bar where they could be seen by all walking or driving by, [patrons] were making a statement very early on.” The Historic Preservation Commission’s recommendation will be sent to the Board of Supervisors. If the board approves the designation, which appears to be unopposed, the proposal will go to Mayor Ed Lee for his signature. If the mayor approves the status, it will go into effect 30 days after he signs off.
The process could be completed by the end of the year, although the November elections may delay things. Among the benefits of landmark status, California’s historical building code provides alternative building regulations for permitting repairs, alterations, and additions necessary for the preservation, rehabilitation, relocation, related construction, or continued use of a qualified historical building. “We feel the importance of this action is to preserve this not only for ourselves but for future generations, and not only in San Francisco but as a model for other communities and cities nation wide,” Green and Roehm, who are gay, said. They said their spouses are “silent partners” in the bar.▼ A copy of the Planing Dept’s draft report is available at www.ebar.com
<< Open Forum
8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
Volume 42, Number 43 October 25-31, 2012 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood
ART DIRECTION Kurt Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER T. Scott King PHOTOGRAPHERS Danny Buskirk Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith GENERAL MANAGER Michael M. Yamashita DISPLAY ADVERTISING Simma Baghbanbashi Colleen Small Scott Wazlowski NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863
LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad
Obama is the clear choice I
t should not surprise our readers that we enthusiastically endorse President Barack Obama for re-election. While California is a solid blue state, the November 6 election will be close in several swing states that will likely determine the presidency. Over the last four years, Obama had some major accomplishments regarding LGBT rights. Two stand out in our mind: one a major policy change and the other an important symbolic shift – the Democrats’ gutsy move in December 2010 to push through repeal of the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy with the full support of the president and Obama’s May interview with Robin Roberts in which he came out in support of same-sex marriage.
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the four marriage initiatives – Washington state, Minnesota, Maryland, and Maine – on the ballot in November will pass. Tied in to the president’s support for marriage equality is his administration’s decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act in several federal court cases. By now, several federal courts have found DOMA unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to take up the issue. Obama endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill in Congress to repeal DOMA.
Other issues
DADT repeal The long, slow road to DADT repeal was littered with studies, books, testimonials from retired service members, and op-ed columns. But when then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress in early 2010 that “my personal belief is that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do,” the writing was on the wall. Obama called for an end to the policy in his State of the Union speech that year, and as the months went on more military leaders came to support repeal. With the backing of the top brass, House and Senate members increasingly voiced support for a bill by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut), a known hawk on military matters. After the midterm elections that November it was obvious that the Democrats would lose control of the House in January and so DADT repeal was part of a lame-duck congressional session. The days ticked by and advocates became worried that time would run out. It did not. Following an eloquent speech, Obama signed the bill on December 22. It would be another 10 months until the policy was officially rescinded but during that time the service branches went about creating tools to help implement the new policy. Now, just over a year later, there are few negative effects as gay and lesbian service members are allowed to serve openly in the armed forces. At the time, gay Republicans praised Obama, particularly R. Clarke Cooper, head of the national Log Cabin Republicans, who helped get GOP votes for the repeal (eight Republican senators ended up voting for it). It was disheartening to learn this week that Log Cabin has endorsed GOP candidate Mitt Romney in this presidential election. And while the group said it has a disagreement with Romney on marriage, it’s clear to us that a Romney administration would do nothing to help LGBT Americans and would perhaps implement policies that could
Lydia Gonzales
President Barack Obama smiles at supporters during a campaign stop in Redwood City in May.
harm them. Cooper has to know DADT repeal would not have happened with a Republican in the White House. It’s that simple.
Marriage equality Obama had long frustrated LGBTs with his statement awhile back that he was “evolving” on the issue of marriage equality. As public opinion continued to increase in support of same-sex marriage, the president was still talking about the outdated and ineffective civil unions and it grew tiresome. Obama’s remarks on Wednesday, May 9 came just days after Vice President Joe Biden said on NBC’s Meet the Press that he was “absolutely comfortable” with gay couples marrying and the heat was on the president. The White House quickly arranged an interview with ABC’s Roberts, and a few days later the president had evolved, stating that after talking with friends and family and neighbors and staff, “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” It was, as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said, a political earthquake. Since the president’s statement, public opinion has grown in support of marriage equality. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution in support of marriage equality. Several high-profile gays – CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and musician Frank Ocean come first to mind – came out of the closet. Unfortunately, the president’s remarks came one day after voters in North Carolina passed a state ban on same-sex marriage, but the tide is clearly turning as it’s possible that at least one of
The Obama administration has moved on other issues important to the LGBT community. It created a national AIDS strategy that had input from communities around the country. In October 2009, Obama signed the first major gay rights bill, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expands the 1969 United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The administration also extended hospital visitation and medical decision-making rights to LGBT couples. That’s a big difference from Romney, who recently said that he thinks hospital visitation for same-sex couples is a benefit, not a right. That’s the alternative we’re looking at in November if the Republicans win.
The future In a second Obama administration, we would like to see the president end raids on medical cannabis dispensaries. Attorney General Eric Holder indicated at the start of the administration that the raids, common in the Bush administration, would cease and for awhile they did. But for over a year now the U.S. attorneys in California have been waging a battle that has forced numerous dispensaries to close, depriving patients of easy access to their medicine. Ideally, marijuana should be reclassified from a Schedule I drug, but in the meantime, the administration should stop the raids. We’d like the president to be more outspoken on matters of racial injustice. A New York Times article last Sunday examined the president’s complicated issue with race and we think that the nation’s first black president should step outside of his comfort zone. Of course, there are always qualified LGBT people who can be appointed to various posts in the administration. Obama has done a good job so far, but there are still lavender ceilings to be broken. Progress on LGBT rights will cease if Romney wins. LGBTs will be scapegoated, discriminated against, and relegated to second-class status. Republicans are currently pushing back the rights of women and immigrants. Under this president, we have seen much progress. We want that to continue.▼
Feinstein for U.S. Senate D
BAY AREA REPORTER
▼
ianne Feinstein has been a solid voice in the U.S. Senate for LGBT rights since she was first elected in 1992. Now seeking re-election, Feinstein is the only choice for our readers and the Bay Area Reporter recommends her for another term. While Feinstein is seen as the more moderate of California’s two Democratic senators, she has long stood up for equal rights. To her credit, Feinstein was one of only a handful of senators to vote against both “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act; and these votes occurred at a time when discrimination against LGBT Americans was widespread, including among many Democrats. Four years ago, during the Proposition 8 campaign, Feinstein came out in support of marriage equality and was featured in one of the No on 8 campaign’s more effective television ads, though that was not enough to persuade voters not to ban same-sex marriage. Four years before that, she, of course, famously chided then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for ordering city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying his decision was “too much, too fast, too soon.” But Newsom had a point, and helped further the marriage equality debate. Last year, Feinstein introduced the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal DOMA. Unfortunately because of Senate rules, the bill
has not yet been voted on and in today’s hyperpartisan political climate, it’s not likely to go to the floor in the few remaining months of this Congress. During a recent meeting with the B.A.R. editorial board, Feinstein said that she plans to reintroduce the bill after the new Congress convenes in January. But she added that she hopes the U.S. Supreme Court “beats her to it” – regarding DOMA’s demise – and that is a real possibility now that the anti-gay law has been ruled unconstitutional by several federal courts. One of the realities of today’s Senate is that it often takes years to pass legislation. Feinstein gave us examples of how it has taken her 10 years to see a fuel mileage efficiency bill passed. “It’s a long slog and it takes time, and this is a very controversial bill,” she said of the Respect for Marriage Act. Feinstein is a member of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, and in that role has vetted Supreme Court nominees and other federal judicial officers. It’s an important job, as the president seeks to fill vacancies with appointees who more closely match his philosophy and not that of conservative ideologues who believe that the U.S. Constitution is not a living document and should be read literally. On the issue of immigration reform, we would like to see the senator support the Uniting American Families Act, which was intro-
Rick Gerharter
Senator Dianne Feinstein
duced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in 2011. But she told us that her focus now is on her marriage bill. Until either of these bills finds enough senators to sponsor them, floor votes are unlikely. Californians need Feinstein’s voice in the Senate; she is poised to win re-election, as she faces a Republican candidate with little name recognition. Sending Feinstein, a powerful ally, back to Washington can only help in the march toward LGBT equality.▼
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Letters >>
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9
Pride sponsors should pull support Doug Donnellan of SF Toyota and Val Klein of ClearChannel are 100 percent right. They should not sponsor SF Pride [“Sponsors nervous about Pride Post,” October 18]. They should pull their dollars for sure. But not for the lame reason that they state. I am highly suspect of a businessman saying, on the record, that they would pull their support of the LGBT community based on one guy. I say pull it because that one guy has not had the vision or leadership to bring world class, over-the-top floats to the gayest parade on earth. Pull it because when we go to the Civic Center afterwards the main stage talent is who? It just is not a fun event any longer; that is why they should pull their sponsorship dollars. Pull their dollars because the parade that should be the best gay Pride celebration on earth – that my friends and I have been taking vacation time for many years to travel halfway across the country to participate in – has become mediocre at best. We actually try to use the sponsors that put money into the parade: Virgin America, Clift and W Hotel, and the places to eat like Bisou, Ike’s, etc., Sounds like this Brendan Behan guy has a close friendship with these two sponsors and used them to help him defend his lackluster job. Shame on him for pointing to his board. This guy who is in charge of beverages – Andy Copperhall – is so transparent it’s comical. Of course he will go to bat for Behan; he gets paid by him and is most likely a friend. Any board of directors (especially a volunteer board) can only do so much and then they must protect the agency and find new leadership that will fulfill their core mission. This board has my full support and San Francisco and the world should get behind it. Monica Mosesso Nashville, Tennessee
Pride board member weighs in I do not speak on the behalf of the board of SF Pride even though I am a board member. Not only do I find Seth Hemmelgarn’s article dangerous and irresponsible but just down right bad journalism. He has proven over time his contempt for the board and SF Pride has clouded his ability to fairly and accurately portray the real story. Let’s look at the facts. He spoke to only two sponsors of well over 100. He spoke to two sponsors who have a very close personal relationship with Brendan Behan, the executive director. He spoke to Andy Copperhall, a contractor, who had already, well before our executive search began, tendered his resignation for the 2013 event. He failed to mention that we welcome Behan to apply for the position under the legal terms and conditions of the offer of employment. To somehow imply our sponsors do not care about the LGBT community and all the hard work we do for well over 180 local nonprofits due to their generosity is outrageous. To somehow discount their business savvy that their investment in what they get in return that incredible Pride weekend is insulting to our sponsors. And to hinge our sponsors’ ability to have a successful Pride weekend in connecting with the community and put it all in the lap of one person is just unthinkable. This event is education and outreach; this event is showing the world how proud we are and how far we have come. I am 100 percent sure corporate sponsors are not only smart business men and women but ones that share our vision and dedicated to education, to the commemoration of LGBT heritage, and to the celebration of LGBT culture and liberation. I am very proud of this board – we have been stable for close to two years, we have brought on new members, we are very close to being in the black. We will continue to make sure this organization is left for generations to come and we enjoy making it a parade to remember. This year we are focused still on financial well-being but also to make the float entries over-the-top amazing, to have the biggest most wellknown name perform on the main stage, and to show the
world who we are and what we are made of. Bill Hemenger, Board Member San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee
[Seth Hemmelgarn responds: Our coverage of SF Pride has been extremely fair. It is Hemenger who implies sponsors don’t care about the community.]
Nudity ban is about exclusion If supporters of the nudity ban in the Castro, including your newspaper, are honest about one thing, it should be this: the proposed nudity ban is about exclusion [“Put your clothes on,” Editorial, October 18]. It is about further separating “undesirable” queers from the assimilated, gentrified image that many in the Castro wish to project. Castro merchants and residents have largely succeeded in creating a sanitized, Disneyland-like Castro street. They have made it clear that the Castro is not for homeless LGBTQ youth. It is not for political activists who wish to further the struggle for liberation through street activism. It is not for working people who are unable to afford $2,500-a-month studio apartments. The nudity ban is simply another tool to ensure that the Castro remains exclusive. I moved to San Francisco from downtown Portland, Oregon three months ago to attend law school. Every day I’m grateful for the fact that I chose to move to the Tenderloin instead of the Castro. As a gay man with a visible disability, I do not feel comfortable in the Castro. The Tenderloin is everything the Castro is not – it is welcoming, friendly, diverse, and yes, unsanitized. Much like the Castro 40 years ago, the Tenderloin is a place where people create community outside of mainstream society. As such, the Tenderloin is more “queer” than the Castro – and I would encourage anyone upset about the exclusionary and reactionary policies of the Castro to consider a move to my neighborhood. Unlike the Castro, everyone is welcome in the Tenderloin, and people are far more friendly. Matthew S. Denney San Francisco
Nudist feels escalating anger Walking down 18th Street to the Muni Thursday morning, October 18, a man started yelling at me from his car to get dressed because, his “kid goes to school only one block away.” I chose to ignore him as I was not breaking any laws, but he continued yelling and threatened to “beat my f**king *ss if I didn’t put pants on,” at which point I replied I was not harming his child. He pulled his car over, got out and opened the trunk, and pulled out a skateboard, all the while screaming about “beating my f**king *ss.” I asked a man on the sidewalk to please call the police with his phone. He did so, at which point the guy jumped in his car and took off down 18th Street. I suggest the volume of hatred this confrontation indicates that is currently prevalent in the Castro is the result of Supervisor Scott Wiener’s and the B.A.R.’s exaggeration of the nudist situation and their use of misleading facts and untrue statements regarding the nudists and that which they stand for. The nudists are not “taking over the plaza so as to make it unusable by others,” nor are they engaging in sexual behavior. If they are being indecent, there are already laws in place to handle that situation. Basically, they are not harming anyone. Any harm that is perceived is in the imagination of the one seeing it. I would like to hear from Supervisor Wiener and the B.A.R. regarding the increased level of hatred and violence directed at people who are currently not breaking any laws and how they plan to deal with this issue in the short run. Woody Miller San Francisco
Halloween comes to Oakland Zoo compiled by Cynthia Laird
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uperheroes, princesses, and more will be out in force as the Oakland Zoo hosts its Halloween themed weekend Boo at the Zoo, October 27-28. It’s an opportunity for kids to take part in an outdoor adventure filled with animals and treats. This year’s festivities include a spooky scavenger hunt, costume parade, and trick or treating. Boo at the Zoo takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, with the costume parade scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Admission is $9.75 for children/seniors and $13.75 for adults. Parking is $7 per car. The Boo in the Zoo activities are included with general admission. Kids ages 2-14
who are in costume receive a free ride ticket. Other activities include a live magic show with Gerald the Magician, making treats for the animals, learning about conservation, and face painting. Members of the Oakland Fire Department will also be on hand to meet people. The Oakland Zoo is located at 9777 Golf Links Road, off Highway 580. For more information, visit www.oaklandzoo.org.
Confabs to spotlight trans leaders Two upcoming conferences in Berkeley are focused on transgender issues; one deals with religious leaders while the other looks at leadership in
general. First up is the Transgender Religious Leaders Summit, taking place November 1-3 at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Avenue. The conference is co-sponsored by PSR, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry, and several seminary schools. Organizers noted that faith communities must be educated and inspired to embrace the inclusion and affirmation of transgender, queer, intersex, transsexual, and gender non-conforming members. The summit begins with a welcome from Bernie Schlager, CLGS executive director, on Thursday, November 1 at 6 p.m. A catered dinner will then be held, followed by an evening worship service. The conference continues on Friday and Saturday with a variety of See page 20 >>
<< Politics
10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Out candidates seek East Bay school board seats by Matthew S. Bajko
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ebar.com
wo out candidates are seeking East Bay school board seats this fall, reflecting the growing political presence of the LGBT community in Alameda County. Judy Appel is seeking a seat on the board overseeing the Berkeley Unified School District. Should she win, Appel would be the first out lesbian elected to political office in the famously liberal city. In Oakland Richard Fuentes is running to become the first out LGBT member on the Oakland Unified School District’s board. He is seeking the District 3 seat, which covers West Oakland and several LGBT-centric neighborhoods. The down ticket races may not receive much attention outside of school circles in the two cities. But the elected seats are considered steppingstones for candidates to seek higher office down the road. The pair’s candidacies coincide with a lack of out candidates running for similar office in San Francisco this fall. It is the first time in more than a decade that no LGBT person filed to seek one of the city’s school board seats up for grabs November 6. San Francisco has not had an out member on its school board since 2008, while the Berkeley school board has been without LGBT representation since 2010. That year Joaquin Rivera, who had spent 12 years as a Berkeley school board member, won a seat on the Alameda County Board of Education. Rivera has endorsed both Appel and Fuentes this year, as has the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club. “I think Oakland is becoming more diverse. We do have families from San Francisco who are LGBT moving to Oakland because of the increased cost of living in San Francisco,” said Fuentes, 30, who is partners with Oakland District 3 City Council candidate Sean Sullivan. “I think I am the only candidate running in District 3 who understands the diversity of the district and the needs of the community.” Appel, 47, the executive director of the LGBT nonprofit Our Family Coalition, said there has been growing cohesion and collaboration within the East Bay LGBT community over the years. That, in turn, has led more LGBT people to think about running for public office, she said. “The fact there are two of us in the East Bay running for school board also speaks to the growing involvement at the grassroots level of LGBT people working as a broader part of our community to help make change,” said Appel, who with her wife, Alison Bernstein, is raising two teenagers enrolled in Berkeley public schools. Over the last six years, for instance, Appel has worked with parents, administrators and teachers at schools in both Oakland and Berkeley to adopt LGBT-friendly policies. In 2010 Berkeley became the first school district in the country to adopt the anti-bullying curriculum known as Welcoming Schools. “I feel I have gotten to know the district,” she said. “I come at it with two hats, as a parent and an organizational consultant, to help make the schools welcoming for all kids.” She is one of four candidates seeking two seats on the Berkeley board. Incumbent school board member Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, who is seeking re-election, has endorsed Appel. Appel has endorsed Leyva-Cutler, the mother of a gay son. The two are
Courtesy Appel for school board campaign
Jane Philomen Cleland
Berkeley school board candidate Judy Appel
Oakland school board candidate Richard Fuentes
considered the front-runners in the race, while former teacher Tracy Hollander is seen as a strong challenger. Candidate Norma J.F. Harrison lost her bid for a school board seat in 2010 and is running again. “I feel really positive, I really do,” Appel told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview this week. Should she be elected, one of the first orders of business when Appel joins the board will be to hire a new superintendent. Last month Edmond Heatley withdrew from seeking the job after a memo surfaced in which he recommended a San Bernardino County school board support the 2008 ban against same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8. He had been serving as superintendent of the Chino Valley Unified School District at the time. It remains unclear if the memo represented Heatley’s personal view or that of one of the school board members, as Heatley chose not to fight for the Berkeley job and address such questions. “I wish he had spoken up,” said Appel, who was nonetheless heartened to see so many people voice concerns because the “hateful rhetoric in this memo is inconsistent with what we want in Berkeley.” While Fuentes, like Appel, has not seen any anti-gay attacks pop up on the campaign trail, he is facing a harder hill to climb toward victory. After signaling she would not run for re-election, incumbent Jumoke Hinton Hodge changed her mind and entered the race. Having announced his own candidacy in April, Fuentes opted not to drop out and to take on Hodge. A third candidate, Ben Lang, also entered the race. Despite finding himself pitted against a sitting school board member, Fuentes told the B.A.R. this week that he is “feeling great” about his chances. “The incumbent is very unpopular and has not built a lot of community relationships,” said Fuentes, a member of the Hoover Elementary School Site Council and a leader in the school’s PTA group. “She has not shown what she is going to continue to do if she is elected for four more years.” Hodge contends she has helped the district come out of receivership by the state and has more work she wants to do on the board. As Hodge says in a video posted to her campaign site, “I am proud of the work I have done.” Adding to the complexity of the race has been the emergence of a wellfunded independent expenditure group dubbed Great Oakland Public Schools. Its war chest of $123,000 came mostly from just two wealthy donors, and in the District 3 race, is being employed to re-elect Hodge. Fuentes has tried to use the group’s emergence to his advantage. He sent
out an email this week seeking $5,000 from donors so he could afford to mail another flier prior to Election Day. “While this influx of money backing my opponent concerns me, I know we can still win,” wrote Fuentes. “We have community support. We have teacher and parent support.” The teachers’ union, known as Oakland Education Association, is backing Fuentes, who had already raised nearly $38,000. “I think the key question folks are asking is what would we do differently than the current school board members, who voted to close down schools,” said Fuentes, who works as a legislative aide for Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente. Voters also want “to see a leader who puts an agenda forward and puts students first. That is what I intend to do” added Fuentes.
Davis holds on to Milk endorsement San Francisco District 5 supervisor candidate Julian Davis won some reprieve this week as he continues to grapple with the fallout from allegations that he sexually groped two women several years ago. While Davis has refuted the claims, first reported by the SF Weekly, he has nonetheless seen a number of progressive leaders rescind their endorsements of his candidacy. Both the SF Bay Guardian and SF Examiner also withdrew their support of Davis last week. It appeared the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club would follow suit. The club voted last week to hold an emergency meeting Monday night to consider withdrawing its support of Davis and giving unranked endorsements to the incumbent, Christina Olague, and challengers John Rizzo and Thea Selby. The move brought the club criticism from some members, who complained the item was not properly agendized for the October 16 meeting. A decision by Milk’s executive board not to include the Davis endorsement in slate cards passed out last weekend was also questioned. In the end the move to rescind Davis’s endorsement at the special October 22 meeting fizzled. According to a message posted to the Milk club Facebook page, only 53 percent of those ballots cast called for stripping Davis of Milk’s support, falling short of the two-thirds vote needed. “Our endorsements are final and our Milk Club slate mailers are headed to the printers. Keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks!” stated the message. Ignoring calls that he suspend his bid, Davis remains confident that he can prevail in the race. “Folks in District 5 are remarkably intelligent and well informed. They care about the values this campaign is championing, and won’t be deceived by last-minute shenanigans,” he wrote in an email to supporters this week.▼
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Travel >>
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11
Courtesy Out in the Vineyard
Out in the Vineyard guests at the Winemaker Dinner with B. Wise Vineyards at Estate Restaurant in 2012.
Savor and sip in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino by Heather Cassell
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ravelers seeking a wine getaway in Northern California’s famed Napa, Sonoma, and up- and-coming Mendocino counties can’t go wrong no matter what time of the year they visit, but the best time of the year for a wine vacation is in October. October is known as crush season, when the grapes are rapidly being plucked from the vines and crushed into wine, and the grape leaves turn to a brilliant gold and reds. It is simply magical. California makes 90 percent of all of the wine in the U.S. and is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world after France, Italy, and Spain, earning the state $61.5 billion in 2011, according to the Wine Institute. California’s wine country attracted 20.7 million visitors touring the rolling hills of Sonoma and Napa lined with rows of vines, not to mention the other regions running up and down the Golden State. Tourists spent $2.1 billion in California’s wine regions alone in 2011, according to the Wine Institute. That doesn’t include the $1.39 billion revenue in exports. The wine industry is so influential in California that Governor Jerry Brown declared September “California Wine Month” in 2011. This year the wine industry celebrated with events throughout the month. Father Junipero Serra most likely didn’t see what the future would be when he planted the first grape seeds in 1779, but Robert Mondavi, the late wine mogul of Napa, did in 1966. His vision helped put Napa Valley on the wine map. The region got another boost when France was knocked off of its wine pedestal in 1976 in the blind tasting test now known as the “Judgment of Paris.” It is only natural with wine country’s aura of sophisticated simplicity that LGBT travelers from around the world are drawn to the region. The area also makes for a great weekend getaway for local residents. Increasingly, LGBT wine lovers are doing more than simply imbibing the varieties of fruit turned into a celebrated and savory drink: They are carving their own place in California’s wine country, catering to the community’s travelers.
Napa Valley The Napa Valley is beautiful with its sprawling estates and grand mansions and wineries. The valley is designated an American Viticultural Area and within that are 14 other AVAs with distinct microclimates and terrains, according to the Wine Institute. Napa’s 400 wineries are known for producing Cabernet
Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, and Rhone varietals. It is a perfect weekend getaway, which is what my girlfriend and I have done on several occasions. Our first trip was a birthday celebration with a group of her friends at the Silverado Resort and Spa. We spent the weekend relaxing at the spa, playing golf and tennis, and touring the wineries along the Silverado Trail. It is also a great day trip with friends for a bike ride or a romantic date on the Napa Valley Wine Train. There is nothing like biking along the country roads passing vineyards and stopping to taste wine on a warm sunny autumn day with friends or enjoying a romantic gourmet dinner on the Wine Train. The Wine Train also partners with Out in the Vineyards for the annual Big Gay Wine Train, which attracted 240 guests this year, according to Mark Volger, co-owner of Out in the Vineyards. LGBT travelers looking for more personalized trips with exclusive lodging and tours rather than large social wine events might consider w w w. G ay Na p a G e t aw ay s . co m , based in Napa. “The gay market is totally underutilized in wine country,” said Charles Kimball, a 55-year-old gay hospitality professional who created the company five years ago. At the time there were no other high-end gaycentric full-service hospitality and tour services offered to Napa, Sonoma, or any of California’s wine regions, he said. Kimball developed a portfolio of vacation rental properties from cottages to mansions, created exclusive wine tours, and became certified to plan and perform same-sex weddings. Today, he produces about four or five vacation packages a month, he said. LGBT vacationers planning to stay in Napa will find that there is one gay-owned bed and breakfast, the Inn on First. There are four gayowned lodging options – Chanric Inn, Chateau de Vie, Meadowlark Country House, and Luxe Calistoga – located in nearby Calistoga. For a list of TAG-approved hotels in wine country look up the county or city at http://www.tagapproved. com. Napa doesn’t have a gay bar, but Napa Guerilla Gay Bar, a nonprofit social organization, turns local venues into gay “hot spots” for a day. Napa’s LGBT community has been embraced by the larger community. The second annual Napa Valley Film Festival (http://napavalSee page 12 >>
<< Travel
12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Geena Dabadghav
Deborah “Deb” Schatzlein, co-owner of Bink Wines, at the winery’s tasting room at the Madrones in Philo.
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Sonoma travel
From page 11
leyfilmfest.org), November 7-11 is honoring bisexual actor Alan Cumming at a tribute on November 8 and is showing two LGBT films, Any Day Now, starring Cumming, and Cloudburst. Last year the festival showed lesbian country singer Chely Wright’s bio documentary, Wish Me Away. “We are proud to feature a wide range of stories and characters in our film programming,” said Marc Lhormer, executive and artistic director of the film fest. He told the Bay Area Reporter he is honored to present Cumming for his “talents and contributions to cinematic story-telling” that will be highlighted at this year’s festival.
Sonoma
ebar.com
Sonoma County, located closer to the coast, has 13 AVAs and is part of the North Coast AVA, according to the Wine Institute; 260 wineries call the area home. The region is known mostly for Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc varietals, but also for Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel varietals produced in some of the well-known valleys – Alexander, Bennett, Dry Creek, Russian River, and Sonoma. I have to confess, my girlfriend and I make regular quick escapes to Sonoma. We just can’t get enough of this area’s beauty, great wines, amazing cheeses on the new Cheese Trail, a plethora of events, and popular gay resort town, Guerneville. Recently, we enjoyed a tour of Cowgirl Creamery at its Petaluma facilities and followed the Cheese Trail map, visiting creameries and tasting cheeses. There is always something interesting to do in Sonoma. In October and November alone, Sonoma has four great events. On October 27 is the Healdsburg Farmers Market Pumpkin Festival (http:// www.healdsburgfarmersmarket. org) from 9 a.m. to noon. November events include the Wine Road’s 14th annual A Wine and Food Affair (http://tinyurl.com/3nop8z8) November 3-4 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., (tickets are $30 to $70) and the 29th annual Holiday Open House, on November 23-24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (tickets are $45). For a guide to all of the state’s wine festivals, check out California Wine Festival (http://www.californiawinefestival.com). There are also LGBT events throughout the year. Since its first event three and a half years ago, Out in the Vineyards, the newcomer, has received a great reception from local wineries and attracted more than 500 guests to its annual Gay Wine Weekend, said Gary Saperstein, 52, and Volger, 65.
“We are making a mark here in wine country,” said Saperstein. Greg Bjornsted, owner and winemaker of Bjornsted Wines, added that due to Out in the Vineyards and other events, “little by little” the LGBT community in wine country is “finding each other.” Bjornsted, 52, a gay man, has been making handcrafted unfiltered wines since 2005. A vineyard consultant, he has worked regularly with Out in the Vineyards for the past couple of years, he said. He also distributes his wines at a collective wine tasting room, Vinoteca, which is open on the weekends, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., in Santa Rosa. Many of the LGBT-owned lodging options are located in Guerneville, but there are plenty of gay-friendly lodging options throughout Sonoma. Camellia Inn in Sonoma offers girlfriend getaway weekends and chocolate events for the ladies and Hampton Inn and Suites in Windsor and historic Hotel La Rose in Santa Rosa offers an LGBT-friendly central location for ample exploration of all Sonoma has to offer.
Mendocino A hidden gem is the lesser known Mendocino County. There are 56 wineries but over 340 grape growers. The area is home to many wineries producing the region’s Alsace and Pinot Noir varietals, putting the county on the map along with is secluded location. Mendocino is in the coastal county above Sonoma with its 10 AVAs and six subappellations tucked away between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Unlike Napa and Sonoma, which are well developed, Mendocino is quite untouched. Only a long single lane windy highway leads to the bucolic Anderson Valley. “Anderson Valley, as a region, is still not quite as well-known as Napa or Sonoma,” said award-winning interior designer James “Jim” Roberts, a 49-year-old gay man who owns the Madrones, an Italian styled villa with lodging above wine tasting rooms and a shop. “Napa and Sonoma are pretty crowded. When [travelers] come up here they still get an authentic experience,” he added. “We definitely have a more laid back lifestyle up here.” The Madrones is the most recent addition to the Anderson Valley. The Boonville Hotel and its fine dining restaurant, Table 128, is also gay-owned, along with lesbianowned Bink Wines, which opened its first tasting room, located at the Madrones, for its 10th anniversary. Four spacious guest suites – overlooking the small country road on one side and the valley on the other side – are above four wine tasting
rooms: Bink Wines, Drew Family Cellars, Lula Cellars, and Signal Ridge, and an eclectic shop, also owned by Roberts. Environmental engineers Deborah “Deb” Schatzlein, 54, and her partner of 22 years, Cindy Paulson, 51, bought their Yorkville Highlands vineyard in Mendocino County in 1999 and began producing the winery’s first vintage in 2002. The first year they produced under 100 cases, today they produce 1,200 cases and introduced nine new wines, said Schatzlein. The couple has also provided the wine for the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ annual gala for the past five years and they donate to other animal, environmental, and human rights and women’s causes on a regular basis. Paulson continues to work as an environmental engineer, while Schatzlein focuses on Bink Wines. “It’s a big deal for us,” said Schatzlein. Opening the tasting room this year allowed the couple to create wine to be “celebrated with friends.” One weekend a month the four wine tasting rooms and Roberts, who lives next door and has an exquisite garden, throw open their doors to the public for a free wine tasting event with food and music, said Schatzlein. “It’s been fabulous for us,” she added, talking about other events hosted at the villa in conjunction with local arts and food festivals, including the forthcoming Mendocino Beer, Wine and Mushroom Festival November 2-11. For more information and ticket prices, visit http://tinyurl.com/93okhln. Down the road is Navarro Vineyards. The vineyard, known for its high quality organic wines, has a new venture with Sarah Cahn Bennett, 31, the lesbian daughter of the family-owned vineyard. Bennett started Pennyroyal Farm and Farmstead Cheese with her business and life partner Star White, 46. The couple, who are expecting their first child, teamed up with friend and cheesemaker Erika Scharfen to roll out their brand of goat and sheep milk farmstead cheeses. Bennett still works side-by-side with her father on Navarro’s viniculture, adding to her parents’ nearly four decades of eco-friendly and organic practices by implementing current ideas and technology, she said. “I’m proud of the vineyard,” said Bennett, but she is really excited about the next season of Boont Corners cheeses. LGBT travelers can choose to stay in Boonville and Philo or continue to the coast for ocean-side seclusion at LGBT-friendly Cobbler’s Walk and its sister boutique hotel the Glendeven Inn or beach See page 14 >>
Read more online at www.ebar.com
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13
<< Travel
14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Geena Dabadghav
Sarah Cahn Bennett, general manager of Navarro Vineyards and Pennyroyal Farm and Farmstead Cheese, looks over the vineyards in Mendocino County.
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Sonoma travel
From page 12
town charm at one of the three Blue Door Group inns. Couples seeking to completely unplug can do so at the Glendeven Inn where cell phones, computers, and televisions aren’t welcome. Vacationers who aren’t seeking to be completely cut off from modern luxuries might want to stay at Cobblers Walk, which opened this month across the road from the five-year-old ocean-side Glendeven Inn and was designed by Roberts. All of the Mendocino boutique hotels offer assistance with wine tours and same-sex wedding packages.
Getting to Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino For travelers outside of the Bay Area, any of the airports provide easy access by car, limo, or tour bus to Napa and Sonoma. For travelers who want to see the view over the rolling hills dotted with mansions surrounded by vineyards, especially during crush and foliage season, fly directly into the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa. Napa is easily accessed from the Bay Area and is less than an hour and a half drive across the Bay or San Mateo bridges (if coming from the Peninsula or San Francisco) up I-80 to exit 33, which merges into
CA-37. Take exit 19 to CA-29 North to downtown Napa. Sonoma is about an hour outside of San Francisco. Take the Golden Gate Bridge and continue north on Highway 101. To get to Mendocino, drive about two hours up 101 through Marin and Sonoma counties to route 128, a one-lane highway that winds through the mountains. To go all the way to the coast, continue on 128 to Highway 1 for another 40 minutes.▼ Check ebar.com for links to resources in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino.
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Community News>>
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15
Feminists, sex workers march against Prop 35 by David-Elijah Nahmod
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bout 50 people, including feminists, sex workers, and their supporters, staged a march in the Castro recently to urge people to vote against Proposition 35 on the November ballot. The measure, which was drafted in part by former Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly, would increase penalties for human trafficking. Critics say that Prop 35 has no funding mechanism. They also contend that its language is too general and vague, and that it has the potential to target innocent parties. The Friday, October 19 march was also in support of sex workers and included speeches. Participants handed out fliers and condoms. Afterward, the group of male and female sex workers and supporters marched down Castro Street, turning right on 18th Street. Patrons in front of the Q and Edge bars applauded the No on Prop 35 signage that the marchers carried. The march was organized by Carmen Simon, who identifies as a queer lesbian. Simon preferred not to reveal whether she herself has done sex work. “We need legislation around child sex trafficking,” Simon said. “A lot of people think that sex work is dirty, but you never know who might be doing it. It could be your friends and neighbors. We are good people, and we don’t support child sex trafficking.” Participants in the march included ACT UP member Cyd Nova, who
serves as the harm reduction coordinator at St. James Infirmary, and Stephany Ashley, who is the infirmary’s programs director. St. James is a peer-based health and safety clinic for current and former sex workers and their families. Services include primary medical counseling, holistic services, and a hormone program for transgender patients. Ashley warned that as written, Prop 35 could target consenting adult sex workers. “We support a comprehensive, victim-centered approach to combat trafficking, providing services,” she said. “We believe that sex workers are allies in combating trafficking, because we can see exploitation when it occurs.” Nova is a female to male transgender. “Transgenders are often profiled as sex workers, even if they’re not sex workers,” he said. “Sex workers are still being arrested,” Ashley said. “Condoms have been used to get people to plea bargain. We want to stop the police from using condoms as evidence. Feminism isn’t just about the right to choose an abortion, it’s about choice in all its forms.” The San Francisco Police Department was criticized earlier this year after the Bay Area Reporter found contradictory policies within the department over the seizure of condoms from people suspected of prostitution. Police Chief Greg Suhr later announced that condoms would no longer be confiscated as evidence of prostitution by officers and issued
Professor hopes to reduce stigma among LGBT women of color by Elliot Owen
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nown for her sociological studies of family formation and same-sex practice within certain racial and ethnic groups, UCLA Professor Mignon Moore visited Berkeley’s Ed Roberts Campus to facilitate a discussion about LGBT parents of color, with an emphasis on African American samesex female-headed households. Her recently published book, Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood Among Black Women, served as the basis for the October 19 conversation, which was hosted by Our Family Coalition, UC Berkeley Law, and City College of San Francisco’s LGBT Department. “It’s important to talk about the way that race influences the way black women think about their sexuality,” Moore told the Bay Area Reporter, “the different routes they take to motherhood, and the relationships they have with their families.” Reducing the level of stigma around sexuality for people who identify as LGBT is one of Moore’s main objectives in writing and talking about her work. The more conversations that occur around the multifaceted experiences of LGBT people, Moore said, the less shame people take on and the more normal they feel. Over 50 people attended the event and many shared their experiences around heading same-sex households, being women of color, being in interracial relationships, having children, and navigating the world in ways that heterosexual and even white middle class same-sex couples take for granted. Addressing the intersections of race, sexuality, class and gender were priorities for Moore and the audience alike. “The more they talk about families and experiences,” Moore said, “the more courage and confidence they get. They feel a part of something bigger than their own experience.” Many attendees expressed frustra-
Elliot Owen
Professor Mignon Moore, author of Invisible Children, facilitated a community discussion about African American same-sex female-headed households last week in Berkeley.
tion grounded in their experiences as same-sex parents – even in the Bay Area. Some had experienced or witnessed discrimination on account of having same-sex headed families and spoke of their children having to explain it at school as well. “You have to constantly make the decision about who you come out to as family,” said one parent with a 13-year-old son. “It’s an everyday explanation. There’s no way to just slide in. It’s never simple.” Paramount to the discussion was shedding light on the way African American women negotiate same-sex desire, find partners, and create families. For her book, Moore conducted interviews and surveys from 100 African American women in New York and focused particularly on women that came of age during the 1960s and 1970s and finding out how they shaped their lives within spaces that sometimes rejected their sexual orientation or denied them certain privileges based on race or class. See page 21 >>
Jane Philomen Cleland
Feminists, sex workers, and their supporters marched against Proposition 35, which would increase penalties for human trafficking, last week in the Castro.
a bulletin to department personnel. Condoms could still be photographed. During the rally, it was pointed out that the SFPD had agreed to a six-month moratorium on using condoms as evidence, but that condoms were still being used as evidence in other Bay Area counties. (The SFPD has not confirmed the moratorium directly with the Bay Area Reporter.) “Temporary is not good enough,” said Bryndis Tobin, referring to the SFPD policy during a brief but passionate speech during the rally. “People need to be safe. It’s not worth people dying or becoming disabled. It needs to stop forever.” Added Carol Leigh, “Condoms have been confiscated. This interferes with your ability to protect yourself.” Leigh is well known as the “Scarlot Harlot.” A lifelong advocate for sex workers’ rights, she coined the phrase “sex work” in 1978. As the rally drew to a close, Tobin handed out sandwich bags. Each bag contained three condoms. “People are starting to be afraid to carry condoms, and that means people will get sick and/or die,” she said. “Please pledge and promise to carry at least three condoms with you at all times and encourage others to do so, to protest this stupidity.”▼
<< Sports
16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Karma, thy name is Scutaro by Roger Brigham
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n case you missed it due to the presidential debate this week, the Giants won. Thoughts as we journey through the World Series toward the cold, dark months that await us before spring training resumes.
Who ordered takeout? Much has been made of the rough slide in Game 2 of the National
League Championship Series in which Matt Holliday, former trade bait of the Oakland A’s, took out San Francisco second baseman Marco Scutaro. Many have accused Holliday of intentionally going too far with his slide, but Holliday was not punished by either the umpires or Major League Baseball. The accusation and the lack of sanction are both wrong. I seriously doubt there was any
hostile intent in Holliday when he leaped over second base and knocked the bejeezus out of Scutaro as he was trying to turn a double play. I am sure the late slide was entirely in the heat of the competitive moment. But it was a late and reckless act. Allowing it to pass unchallenged puts the lie to any claim professional sports has to caring about the safety of its players. What should have happened? At a minimum, the runner at first should have been called out because Holliday interfered with the throw well past second base. And Holliday should have been tossed out of the game for reckless disregard. Perhaps best for the Giants, though, that nothing was done. Holliday remained to clog up the Cardinals lineup as the St. Louis offense went into a coma in the final three games of the playoffs and Scutaro emerged as the handsdown MVP.
Honoring the past When I wasn’t watching baseball over the weekend, I was enjoying some great visits with LGBT sports icons in Los Angeles at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Gay Games. The climax of the weekend was the awarding of the Medal of Honor to lesbian author and activist Patricia Nell Warren, presented to her at the House of Blues by Gay Games Ambassador David Kopay, who nearly 40 years ago became the first male professional U.S. athlete to come out of the closet. But for me, the highlight wasn’t the awards presentation, but rather the chance to chat with them both and hear them reminisce about the good old times that weren’t so very good. In a casual session at the public li-
Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro throws to first during Game 1 of the NLDS on October 6.
brary, Warren talked about becoming one of the first women to run unregistered in the Boston Marathon in the 1970s, back in the days when women were not allowed to run in marathons because sports authorities fretted they would drop over dead or damage their reproductive organs. “I was still in the closet, deeply in the closet, and when I ran by I heard people chanting, ‘Dyke! Dyke!’ at me,” she said. “These people did not even know me and they were judging me because I was running.” And she talked about writing the first draft of her book, The Frontrunner, while married and still in the closet, locking the secret manuscript away every night in the bottom drawer of her desk at Reader’s Digest. “I was so afraid someone would find it,” she said. Fortunately, in time we were all able to find it.
East Bay slime Nobody was looking very good when it was revealed this week that varsity male athletes at Piedmont High School for years have engaged in
a “Fantasy Slut League,” in which players scored points for documenting sexual encounters with selected girls. A letter sent by Principal Rich Kitchens told parents the league was “part of ‘bonding’ for some varsity teams during their seasons of sport.” The school said it was holding discussions with students to make sure they understood why that was wrong, and had secured a pledge from current athletes not to continue the practice. A little late, don’t you think? These kids are presumably passing classes, getting ready to head out into the real world, and they haven’t learned about respect rather than objectification of others? There’s a movement on right now to get schools to help their athletes reexamine the word “champion” to take the focus off of winning games and focus on respecting others. Seems to me Piedmont High would be a good place to start. Misogyny is as big a problem in sports as homophobia.
Letters to the commish A drive has been launched to get people to barrage the commissioners of all major professional sports with letters asking them to make public statements of support for LGBT athletes. The campaign at http://www. thelastcloset.org is an initiative of Woman Vision, a nonprofit group supporting diversity and positive role models. The campaign claims that the commissioners for the NBA, NHL, NFL, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer have all refused interviews on the topic of asking gay players to come out of the closet and saying what their support for such athletes would be. The campaign reported 1,046 letters had been sent as of last week.▼ Full disclosure: Roger Brigham is a board member of the Federation of Gay Games.
Film depicts ‘09 Maine marriage fight by Matthew S. Bajko
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ollowed by a documentary film crew as he oversaw the 2009 ground campaign in Maine to overturn a legislatively approved bill allowing same-sex marriage, Marc Mutty confesses to the camera that he is conflicted about the role he finds himself in. “I am not happy to be remembered as the star bigot in Maine,” Mutty says during one of several revealing interviews he granted during the fiercely fought fight over marriage equality. The scene is telling, as it reveals the contradictory feelings opponents of the pro-gay law privately held. One volunteer, Linda Seavy, struggles to explain how opposing marriage equality does not make her a “bad person.” “It’s a choice. Don’t tell me it is a civil right,” says Seavy. The two Mainers agreed to be followed by filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile throughout the campaign to pass the ballot measure known as Question One. Voters approved repealing the same-sex marriage law 53 percent to 47 percent that November. While Fox and Nubile also shadowed the pro-gay side, their resulting film, Question One, presents an unvarnished look at the anti-gay campaign. Their cameras were able to document the Yes side’s concerns about being seen as attacking gay individuals. They also depict the infighting between the campaign leaders in Maine and their California-based consultants led by Frank Schubert over tactics, advertising, and messaging. “Mark quickly revealed himself to have doubts and a lot of conflicts with
A Yes on 1 supporter urges people to keep marriage between a man and a woman in a shot from the new film, Question One.
Courtesy Fly on the Wall Productions
the position his side was taking. He was in a lot of turmoil,” said Fox, 52, who splits his time between New York and San Francisco. “That surprised me, and what surprised me even more was his readiness to express the doubts and conflicts to me.” The other surprise for Fox, who is gay and married, was how much control Schubert and his consulting firm Schubert Flint Public Affairs, which he has since left, exerted over the Yes on One campaign. “Despite the illusion of a campaign run by Mainers that wasn’t the case at all. In reality, the show was being run thousands of miles away across the country by Frank Schubert in Sacramento. His firm was calling all the shots,” said Fox. The resulting film, which premieres in San Francisco Friday, October 26, is a case study into the effectiveness of the Yes on One campaign despite the turmoil within its leadership ranks. “This film is, in part, a lot about how we lost the fight in Maine. It also shows how the other side has won, and really shows the tactics and strategies of how we were defeated in
this crazy battle for us to get married,” said Fox. “As gay people we need to see this; we need to become engaged in this issue. I think one of the things the film can offer is a close up and personal look at how this battle is waged.” This year Maine voters are once again being asked to vote on samesex marriage. But the campaign is a mirror opposite of the previous fight, as now a yes vote on Question One would restore marriage equality. Fox and Nubile, however, are not documenting round two with their cameras. “I devoted three years of my life to tell this story really well. I didn’t set out to make an issue movie; I set out to make a story that captures the humanity of both sides,” said Fox. The film is showing at the Vogue Theater, 3920 Sacramento Street, through November 1. After each 7:30 p.m. showing Fox is planning different talkbacks between the audience and special guests. To purchase tickets visit www. voguesf.com. For more information about the film, visit www.q1-themovie.com/.▼
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October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17
18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19
UOR reveals plans for future without store by Seth Hemmelgarn
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fficials with a nonprofit San Francisco retail shop have shared their plans to continue raising money for HIV/AIDS-related agencies as they prepare to close their permanent storefront. Under One Roof, currently at 518A Castro Street, was created in 1991. In recent years, most of the nonprofit’s money has gone to paying rent and other expenses, rather than its community partners. The agency announced in September that the store will be shut down next year. In an interview this week, board Chair Tony Hart said UOR would introduce its new plan, called Greater Depths, at a community meeting October 23. That plan includes a fundraising project in which they’ll reach out to individual donors, corporations, foundations, and others. The agency expects to close the store by the end of March. Officials hope to raise from $50,000 to $70,000 in the last two months of 2012. Hart said the majority of those funds would go to partners before the holidays. He indicated not all beneficiaries would receive the same amount, and said he and others would “look at the agencies that have the greatest need in this time period.”
Rick Gerharter
Under One Roof board member Jennifer Kutz described the organization’s future plans at a community meeting Tuesday.
In recent years, UOR has distributed about $40,000 a year, Hart said. Agency officials hope to do the same within this fiscal year, he said. The shop’s performance during the holidays, which accounts for a third of the revenue, will help determine that, along with the development campaign, Hart said. The last payout to beneficiaries, which totaled about $11,000, was divided among 22 agencies in June. Hart said the move out of the shop doesn’t mean the organization will “give up on social enterprising.” They
plan to have pop-up stores. Among other work, the agency also intends to sell specialty Castro-related goods and books. At least in recent years, the shop’s community partners haven’t been required to provide volunteers to the organization, and Hart said that wouldn’t change. Besides money, Hart said the agency would continue providing volunteers and other assistance to partners. In December, the agency plans to launch a volunteer network that will allow people to go online
and register their talents and availability to be placed with UOR’s partners. Under One Roof would also continue to ask beneficiaries to promote the agency’s work, Hart said. Beginning in January, a speakers program will run every third Thursday. “We’d like them to be recognizing what we do for them and with them,” Hart said. “We just hope by moving in this direction where we’re not so hampered by these heavy costs we can actually help them even more.” He said UOR would launch a new partnership program within the first three months of 2013. The agency doesn’t intend to cut the number of beneficiaries, he said, and it would “most likely” bring on new groups, including moving “beyond HIV/AIDS organizations” to LGBT agencies.
Money pit After Under One Roof moved to its current shop in 2008, the annual rent went from $85,000 to more than $200,000. A former board member has helped pay the rent, but the space became a money pit, with rent and other expenses far outweighing what’s gone to beneficiaries. For the fiscal year that ended in February, Under One Roof distributed a total of $40,000 to its beneficiaries. That included $10,000 that a former board chair provided for two
of UOR’s partners. Hart, who joined the board early this year, said closing the Castro Street shop was “a tough decision” for the board to make, but after reviewing the nonprofit’s finances, members determined “it makes a lot of sense.” Jennifer Kutz, who joined the board in February 2011, said the store provided more than financial benefits. It’s also been a community space where volunteers and others “can connect and interact locally.” “It’s really sad closing a store that has been there for so long,” she said. The shop’s paid staff includes a store manager and three part-time supervisors. According to Kutz, total expenses for the fiscal year March 2012 through February 2013 are expected to be $451,310. Salaries will be below $200,000. That figure was more than $220,000 last fiscal year, but it decreased after the departure of Executive Director Beth Feingold earlier this year. “After we close the store, there won’t be a need for retail staff,” Hart said. He said a contractor who’s been paid less than $2,000 for her work has recently helped the agency develop its plans, and they’ll likely hire contractors for future needs. For more information, visit www. underoneroof.org.▼
Catholic group gives big bucks to fight marriage equality by Chuck Colbert
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ometimes they dress up like the Three Musketeers, donning fancy, feathery hats, and show up for a grand parade. More often they dress like regular guys, manning pancake breakfasts and parish fish fries. They are the nearly 2 million members of Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic fraternal and service organization with a whopping $16.9 billion in assets. And the group is perhaps best know for its sale of insurance policies to fund a vast array of charitable activities. But it was no act of charity four years ago when the Knights poured $1.1 million into California to help pass Proposition 8. Indeed, newly appointed San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was one of the chief architects of Prop 8, which bans same-sex marriage. Under his guidance, Catholic organizations in California led the charge in financing the Yes on 8 campaign. Still, the $1.1 million were not the only cash infusion that the Knights has doled out to fight same-sex marriage. In recent years, the organization has been funding an anti-LGBT equality crusade nationwide. Overall, between 2005-2012 the Knights donated $6.25 million to anti-marriage equality initiatives. Most of the money went directly to fund ballot measures aimed at banning same-sex marriage in 12 states, according to a new report released last week by Equally Blessed, a coalition of pro-LGBT Catholic groups, which includes Call to Action Dignity/USA, Fortunate Families, and New Ways Ministry. The report is based on public Internal Revenue Service documents and campaign filings. Because the Knights have not yet filed IRS forms for 2011 and 2012, the 37-page Equally Blessed report does not include figures for those years. This year alone, for instance, tithe Knights contributed $250,000 in Washington state and another $250,000 in Maryland, as well as $134,000 in Minnesota and $1,135 in Maine to fight same-sex marriage. Voters in all four states face gay-marriage-related ballot measures next month. Besides direct funding of such
Rick Gerharter
Dignity USA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke
state-level anti-gay initiatives, the Knights, between 2006 and 2010, gave $9.6 million to organizations intending to “build a conservative and political culture,” according the Equally Blessed report, entitled, “The Strong Arm of the Bishops: The Knights of Columbus and Anti-Marriage Equality Funding.” Organizations receiving Knights funding include the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family ($6.1 million), the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty ($1.5 million), and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage ($1.1 million). The Knights also contributed $1.9 million to the National Organization for Marriage. During a conference call last week, Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the advocacy organization DignityUSA, said the Knights’ work “is being done under cover, using the [organization’s] good name and reputation and all the good work they do for the community.” She said that many members of the fraternal organization would find its foray into politics “objectionable and inappropriate.” “It’s vitally important that Catholics know that this huge amount of money is being spent to deprive people of civil rights,” Duddy-Burke said in follow-up phone and email correspondence. “It is also essential
that they understand that this spending hurts people. It hurts LGBT people, many of whom are Catholic, and it destabilizes their families. “We hope the awareness the Knights are aggressively seeking to marginalize LGBT people will compel more Catholics to speak out for justice, and to let the Knights and other church leaders know that they object to what’s been done. Our church should be standing up for the poor and marginalized, not investing millions of dollars on reinforcing discrimination,” explained DuddyBurke, whose father and grandfather belonged to the organization. On the same day that Equally Blessed released its study, the Human Rights Campaign, which funded half of the Catholic coalition’s efforts, issued its own findings. In Minnesota, for instance, HRC found church hierarchy and the Knights of Columbus have funded more than 50 percent of the campaign – spending more than $608,000 – to ban same-sex marriage through a voter-approved constitutional amendment. That figure includes the Knights contribution, as well as thousands of dollars from small parishes all over the country. How do some rank-and-file Knights view their beloved organization’s funding of discrimination? Eighty-eight year old Edmund Burg of Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, said he felt “a sense of betrayal and disappointment with this organization that has done a great deal of good and now has turned on me.” Burg joined the Knights 65 years ago and is the father of three children, including a gay son. “I feel the same way about the bishops and all the hierarchy,” he added over the telephone, “with maybe the exception of a few bishops.” In Minneapolis-St. Paul, some parishioners have walked out of services as pastors read letters against marriage equality from Archbishop John C. Nienstedt. “The Catholic Church hierarchy has positioned itself as the leading religious organization funding discrimination against LGBT people,” said HRC President Chad Griffin in a statement. “Perhaps most disturb-
ing is the number of local parishes redirecting the hard-earned dollars of its members in the name of discrimination.” And yet the all-male Catholic fraternal organization does not see it that way. “The Knights of Columbus supports Catholic social teaching and the bishops of the Catholic Church, and some resources have long been dedicated to promoting that teach-
ing on moral issues,” according to a press statement. That line left Casey Lopata of Rochester, N.Y.-based Fortunate Families scratching his head. “What and where does ‘Catholic social teaching’ say anything to support opposition to LGBT discrimination and marriage equality?” he asked rhetorically. The Knights are not disputing Equally Blessed and HRC’s accounting.▼
<< Community News
20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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News Briefs
From page 9
sessions, including workshops on religious movements and trans liturgy, the transgender Christ, and gender fluidity. Friday’s keynote speaker is the Reverend Megan Rohrer, who will talk about faith leaders acting as bridges to communicate life-changing thoughts and actions. There are also several partner events, including gatherings of gender non-conforming Jews and Muslims. New Spirit Community church, which holds its services in the PSR chapel, will have a special transgender service Sunday, November 4 with Jakob Hero preaching. He is a former New Spirit intern and PSR graduate. The service begins at 11 a.m. Full registration is $95, with a
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LGBT history project
From page 1
project aims to spotlight LGBT people who have made significant contributions to society. A volunteer panel has already selected the first 20 honorees to celebrate. The initiative is aimed at educating the public about important individuals whose sexual orientation or gender identity is not always disclosed. The city-approved project is also seen as a way to drive more tourism to the city’s gayborhood. Earlier this year the project’s steering committee launched a competition to select a winning design for the plaques. After reviewing 21 entrees, a blind jury of six arts professionals voted on the winner, who is entitled to a $1,000 prize, as well as two alternates. Two members of the steering committee observed the selection process but did not vote. The full committee later finalized the jury’s decision, which now must win approval from the city’s Arts Commission.
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Historic sites
From page 7
10-building East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District was once the home of celebrated interior designer Elsie de Wolfe and her companion Elisabeth Marbury. “There are people out there who are trying to have our historic sites preserved,” said Shockley. “I don’t think the recognition of our history and cultural contribution is a minor thing.” Last November Kameny’s house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Its inclusion marked only the second time an LGBT site landed on the list of nearly 80,000 places – the Stonewall was added when it became a national landmark. “Those are the only two we are aware of,” said Patrick Andrus, a historian with the National Register of Historic Places who reviewed and signed off on the nomination of the Kameny residence. But the inclusion of the sites on the list is “largely honorary,” noted Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service. “It draws attention to the significance of the site,” he said. “It does not provide any protection for the structure if someone wants to alter it or, God forbid, tear it down.” Of the 89 National Historic Sites under the auspices of the National Park Service, none were created because of ties to LGBT history. Several
Correction In the October 18 LGBT History Month article, “History shows SF has long been a gay mecca,” Gerard Koskovich should have been identified as GLBT Historical Society founding member and curator, and author Nan Alamilla Boyd’s middle name was incorrect. The online version has been updated.
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It may be raining men on Saturday, December 1, but they will stay dry inside the clear tent at the National AIDS Memorial Grove when the AIDS Emergency Fund holds its 30th anniversary dinner. Legendary singer Martha Wash, who sang backup for Sylvester in the late 1970s and early 1980s, will be honored by AEF and will provide entertainment under the
stars. Wash is perhaps best known for her dance anthem, “It’s Raining Men.” AEF officials noted that Wash and Sylvester performed at some of the earliest AIDS fundraising events in the Castro. When Sylvester died of AIDS in 1988, he bequeathed his future recording royalties to AEF. The organization will honor him posthumously with a Lifetime Achievement Award, to be shared with Wash and accepted by her. As previously reported, AEF is getting free use of the tent thanks to an agreement with the AIDS grove, which is using it for its annul Light in the Grove fundraiser on Friday, November 30. AEF’s 30th anniversary campaign began in January with a $30,000 challenge grant from the Bob Ross Foundation, matching donations from new
donors in 2012. (Ross was the founder and publisher of the Bay Area Reporter and died in 2003.) AEF then announced its Parties with a Purpose that were held throughout the year, designed to raise $3,000 each and to reach out to potential new donors. A $15,000 matching grant from James C. Hormel and Michael Nguyen in July challenged individuals to become new major donors of AEF at $1,000 or more. AEF Executive Director Mike Smith said that by the night of the anniversary dinner, the organization hopes to be able to announce the full amount of additional revenue raised during the yearlong campaign. AEF’s goal was $300,000. Smith said that about 100 tickets for the dinner, at $300 each, remain unsold and will go on sale November 1 at www.aef-sf.org.▼
The winning entrant is Venezuelan-born architect Carlos Casuso, 45, who lives in Madrid, Spain. His proposal calls for engraving the honoree’s photo onto a bronze plaque that is divided into four quadrants. Three would be dedicated to the image. The fourth section would be used to list the person’s name, year of birth and death, and a brief bio about their accomplishments. Each honoree’s signature would be used instead of spelling out their name. Next to it would be an enamel square with the Rainbow Honor Walk’s logo. “I thought it was a really great design, first of all. It jumped off the page to all of us on the committee,” said San Francisco Director of Cultural Affairs Tom DeCaigny, a gay man who took part in the jury process. “It captured the real essence of honoring the individuals we would see on the walk.” Casuso did not respond to questions from the Bay Area Reporter by press time. In a statement sent by the honor
walk committee, Casuso stated that he is “greatly honored to have my work selected, especially by a jury of fellow designers and artists.” He added that he “look(s) forward to working with the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Department of Public Works to bring this tribute to reality.” As it turns out, Casuso is the brother-in-law of the project’s co-founder, David Perry. His brother, Alfredo Casuso, and Perry married in San Francisco in 2008, and Carlos Casuso served as one of the witnesses. During an interview with the B.A.R. to discuss the winning entry of the design contest, Perry disclosed his familial ties to Casuso. He said he was unaware that Casuso had entered until the jury’s decision was presented to the honor walk’s steering committee. (Perry did not sit on the jury.) “When they were unveiled and revealed who they were I was excited but said, ‘Oh my God,’” recalled Perry, who informed the committee members about his relationship to Casuso.
Due to the strength of Casuso’s design the steering committee saw no need to reject his proposal because of his ties to Perry, said member Gustavo Serina, a gay man and longtime Castro community leader. “It didn’t make any difference in the selection to us,” Serina told the B.A.R. “His design stood out far and away beyond the others submitted.” While the other entrees were “good,” said Serina, Casuso’s concept was “the best. It looked very beautiful and distinctive. It looked like it would be durable. Because this is going into the sidewalk, we need something that is going to survive a lot of foot traffic and the elements.” DeCaigny told the B.A.R. he was not aware about Perry and Casuso being related until a reporter asked about it for this article. He said all that the jury members knew about him was that he was from Spain and a few other aspects of his bio. “We had no idea what the names of the people were,” said DeCaigny. “There were a lot of really great de-
signs; it was a tough selection process. We debated very long and hard about our finalists.” The Arts Commission could vote on approving Casuso’s design as early as December, depending on how soon the honor walk submits it for consideration. Otherwise, the matter likely won’t be calendared until early 2013. “We will try to accommodate it as soon as possible,” said DeCaigny, who reports to the commission but does not vote on matters before it. The project’s steering committee must also fundraise to cover the cost of producing and installing the first 20 plaques, which cannot exceed 3 feet by 3 feet in size. It is estimated it needs to raise at least $200,000 and so far has $6,000 in the bank. Asked how soon the plaques could be installed, Perry said, “I think gay Pride next year is a real possibility if we are really aggressive.” For more information about the Rainbow Honor Walk, including the first 20 honorees, visit rainbowhonorwalk.org/.▼
do have connections to LGBT Americans, but it is rare for docents to discuss such information with visitors to the sites. “There are hundreds and hundreds of sites across the country that are listed in historic registers that can be re-interpreted through gay eyes. But they haven’t been and the documentation is not there for why those sites are of LGBT importance,” said Shockley. “There are a lot of historic shrines or houses that had import to our history but are not interpreted as such during the house tours or anywhere else.”
The office “would be able to assist with the application process,” wrote Stearns. According to a spokeswoman for California state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the author of a law requiring public schools to teach LGBT history, the gay lawmaker hasn’t received any calls related to LGBT cultural sites. “I suspect as time goes on and scholarship on this topic advances, we will see more of these sites of local importance. We have not reached that point yet,” said Andrus, with the national register. Even at the local level, there are few cities or states that have given designation to LGBT places. In addition to California, New York and Washington, D.C., there are sites now in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. “There are a lot of people who don’t want to call attention to the whole GLBT movement and what has happened, and in particular talking about places,” said Gerry Takano, an architectural preservation consultant and former staff member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A gay man who now splits residences between the Bay Area and Sonoma County, Takano helped organize the first national conference on LGBT historic preservation, which took place in San Francisco in June 2001. “The public has a hard time understanding historic preservation and how it relates to understanding people,” said Takano. Local historic preservation laws mostly have to do with zoning and planning regulations. While they are meant to make it harder for the owners of such properties to alter them, they do not preclude such a possibility from taking place. In addition to Milk’s residence, which was also the site of his camera shop and campaign headquarters, at 573-575 Castro Street, there is one other location given city historical
status due to its place in LGBT history. The building at 2362 Market Street, now the location of Catch restaurant, was listed in 2004 for being the former home of the Jose Theater and the Names Project, which oversees the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The city is set to add to the list the Twin Peaks Tavern, the first gay bar to have clear windows. And there is an effort under way to designate a portion of South of Market an LGBTQ social heritage district due to its long history of being home to gay bars and bathhouses. Takano is part of a group of local residents that is also looking at the
possibility of setting aside the Castro as a historical district in an effort to preserve its LGBT significance. They are also examining other LGBT sites in California worthy of protection. “We hope to link hands with the GLBT History Museum and look at buildings, places and sites here in San Francisco and throughout northern California,” said Takano, who took part in a recent discussion about LGBT historical sites at the Castro museum. “We want to link this globally so we can begin to get GLBT communities to really understand how important it is to rally around the physical place to tell our story.”▼
student rate of $60. One-day passes are also available for $55. For a complete schedule and more information, visit http://www.clgs.org/ events/2012TransSummit. One week later, November 9-11, the Transgender Law Center will hold its annual Transgender Leadership Summit on the UC Berkeley campus. The conference begins with welcoming remarks by TLC Executive Director Masen Davis Friday at 7 p.m. The summit continues Saturday with a morning plenary and workshops, followed by an evening plenary session and celebration. More workshops are scheduled for Sunday morning ahead of closing remarks. This will be TLC’s seventh annual leadership conference and this year it will feature programs from members of the Transgender Advocacy Net-
work, a national network of advocacy and educational organizations. Organizers said that a range of topics will be addressed, including legal issues, health care advocacy, and organizational development. Registration is $50; limited income is $25. For more information, visit www.transgenderlawcenter.org.
No organized effort There is no organized effort at the national level to pressure the National Park Service to include such LGBT history, according to gay preservationists. Nor is there any organized effort to mark LGBT sites national parks, which would afford them the strongest protection a site can receive. “There are no gay groups on the national level doing this work,” said Shockley. In 1996 the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was designated as a national memorial, similar to the Lincoln Memorial and Mount Rushmore. But it remains under the care of the city and a nonprofit group. In the case of Milk’s former house in the Castro, for instance, there is no record of it being recommended for listing on the national register or being granted landmark status. The request must first come from the state Office of Historic Preservation. In an emailed response to questions, California State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns wrote that, “As of now there are no California State Historical Landmarks or Points of Interest of LGBT cultural significance.” Anyone can submit a request to the historic preservation office via its website at http://ohp.parks. ca.gov/?page_id=21747.
Martha Wash to headline AEF anniversary dinner
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Feinstein
From page 1
election for her Senate seat in 1992. In the end the GOP nominated Danville resident Elizabeth Emken, an autism activist, to take on the formidable Feinstein, who has refused to debate her opponent. Polls have shown the little known Emken trailing in the race by 20 points or more. Feinstein has been sitting down for editorial board meetings with newspapers throughout the state, and for the first time since she went to Washington, D.C., she agreed to meet with the staff of the Bay Area Reporter for a wide-ranging, 90-minute interview. The bulk of the conversation focused on her bill seeking to repeal the federal ban against same-sex marriage and this year’s presidential race. The two are intertwined, as whoever holds the White House will determine if her push to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act will gain traction next year. President Barack Obama endorsed Feinstein’s Respect for Marriage Act even before he publicly came out in support of marriage equality in May. His opponent, former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney, opposes same-sex marriage. Speaking to the B.A.R. Thursday, October 11, a few days after Obama’s lethargic appearance in the first presidential debate, Feinstein disclosed that she is “very concerned” about the race. “I think it is very close,” she said. “The so-called battleground states are very close and within the margin of error in the polls. I am really not a fan of Mitt Romney ... well, I don’t think there has been a lot of truth-telling.” Re-electing Obama “is vital,” said Feinstein, not only for pushing forward on LGBT rights but for a whole host of issues, from women’s rights and health care to America’s standing in the world. “President Obama has restored a positive face of this nation worldwide. Wherever he goes, he is virtually very well-accepted,” said Feinstein, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “He has given the U.S. a new lease on life after the Bush presidency.” Able to attract 33 co-sponsors for her DOMA repeal bill, Feinstein intends to re-introduce it next session. She was one of 14 senators who See page 21 >>
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Community News>>
Carjacking
From page 2
He also said he and a friend had hung out outside Badlands for half an hour or an hour after the bar closed. He told Crane that it had taken him and Dilworth about five minutes to get to his car. She estimated that he’d been with Dilworth for an hour before the alleged attack. The man told her it had been “a little less” than that.
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Women of color
From page 15
“There are many different types of experiences around social class, education and how we come to have children in our families,” Moore said. “I hope to show how these families function, how they run their home, the conflicts they have, their strengths, support networks, things that need improvement and how do we help strengthen the family.” Also in her book, Moore talked about the various ways women gender themselves within the African American community, how they connect with each other based on those presentations, gendered roles between women in same-sex relationships, how those couples chose to bring
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Nudists
From page 4
tends to meet with members of the leather community in order to address their concerns. He also said that “a strong majority” of neighborhood residents supported the ban. “I’ve heard that businesses have been affected by the presence of the nudists,” Wiener said. “I don’t have the numbers, but I’ve heard from the Castro Theatre that the nudists are negatively affecting their attendance.” Castro Theatre general manager Keith Arnold did not respond to emails seeking comment on the issue. The B.A.R. stopped by the theater at the conclusion of the nude-in and was told that he wasn’t at the theater that day. The nudists and Wiener have been in disagreement since the issue came to a head this summer. An increasing number of nudists congregating in the Castro correlated with the rise in complaints about their behavior and led Wiener to determine that his proposed nudity ban is warranted, he told the B.A.R. in an interview earlier
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Feinstein
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initially voted against the anti-gay law in 1996. “In my view it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution, which says you can not discriminate against one category of a group. If you have marriage everybody is due that right,” said Feinstein. Her bill would clarify that samesex couples allowed to legally wed by a state would be covered by the 1,100 federal rights granted to married people. It would have no impact on the state level laws banning same-sex marriages. “It is pretty simple and I think makes sense,” said Feinstein. “It is very important. It’s a fight and it is very hard.” Her own views on the subject have evolved over time, said Feinstein. When she was growing up marriage was only seen as being a union between a man and a woman. “Even when I went into political life, that was the way it was. It takes time,” she said. “I think as you know more people, and know more people who are happily married, our views change.” There is a chance that the U.S. Supreme Court could strike down DOMA next year if it decides to hear
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21
Responding to more questions from Crane, the man said again that they hadn’t gone into Collingwood Park, and that he hadn’t engaged in any sex acts with Dilworth. She also asked if the two had smoked methamphetamine together, and the man said they hadn’t. Crane then asked him repeatedly about the cut to his thumb. The man said that he didn’t remember whether Dilworth had cut
him as he tried to block the attack if Dilworth had sliced it straight on. “You don’t know how your thumb got cut, do you?” Crane said. The man said that wasn’t true, and when she suggested the injury to his thumb resulted from his struggle with the seatbelt, he said that was “incorrect.” “There’s no other way I would have gotten a cut like that,” he said. Ulmer indicated he didn’t see it as logical to think the cut could have
children into relationships and how religious life is negotiated within the community. Judy Appel, executive director of Our Family Coalition, spoke on behalf of the host organizations in expressing her excitement for Moore’s visit to the Bay Area. Our Family Coalition works to make all families visible, Appeal told the Bay Area Reporter, and the event highlighted the need to recognize that LGBTQ families are of every race, ethnicity and class. “This is the first time since I’ve been doing this work that I’ve seen a book that talks about the intersections between queer families and queer families of color,” Appel said. “We feel really fortunate to host an event that’s holding that up.” Moore echoed the importance of
spotlighting certain demographics that have been lost amidst the larger LGBT movement and expressed feeling honored to facilitate a community discussion that addressed that. “It’s critical for people fighting for our rights to understand the myriad issues that exist for our populations, to fully understand who we’re talking about,” she said. “A component that’s been missing is our black, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander families. To best serve LGBT communities, we need a fuller portrait of who’s in those communities.” Moore is an associate professor of sociology and vice chair and director of graduate studies in African American studies at UCLA and a board member of the Council on Contemporary Families.▼
this month. A naked mad handed out a flier at the nude-in that accused the supervisor of lying. The flier further claims that Wiener’s supporters are “a handful of well-heeled yuppies and neurotic prudes.” The nudists are fearful that street fairs and parades will be targeted if the ban passes, though the proposed law specifies that such events would be exempt from the ban. Erin O’Neill is a 57-year-old lesbian who’s lived in the Castro for 22 years. Though fully clothed at the nudein, she expressed her support for the nudists. “I don’t have a problem with naked people,” she said. “I’m more concerned about affordable housing. I’ve never seen anything sexual here.” George Davis is perhaps the best known of the nudists. The former mayoral candidate raised eyebrows when he campaigned for office in the buff in 2007. He considers nudity to be a right, and has no problem if children in the neighborhood see him nude. He opposes putting clothing on children. “Making children ashamed of their
several federal lawsuits where lower courts have found the law to be unconstitutional. Feinstein said she would still “love to have a vote in the Senate. But it is a long, long road.” She noted that it has taken her up to 11 years in certain cases to enact legislation, “so you can’t expect to see this happen overnight.” Facing a “long, hard slog” to repeal DOMA is why she has yet to sign on to other federal legislation that would assist bi-national couples seeking American citizenship for the foreign-born partner. Feinstein said she worries doing so could complicate her efforts to get the 60 votes she needs to pass the DOMA repeal bill out of the Senate. “I don’t want to confuse it with anything,” said Feinstein. Back in 2004 Feinstein faced criticism from LGBT activists when she spoke out against then-Mayor Gavin Newsom’s decision to marry samesex couples. Her calling Newsom’s move “too much, too fast, too soon,” led to Feinstein’s being given a Pink Brick award by the Pride committee. Feinstein told the B.A.R. she was unaware of her getting the dubious honor. She said she remains convinced that Newsom was mistaken and that his actions “brought on Prop 8,” the voter-approved ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in California.
come from a seatbelt. Dilworth also faces allegations of using a deadly weapon and inflicting great bodily injury in the case. If convicted, he could be sentenced to at least 10 years in state prison. Superior Court records show Dilworth’s criminal history includes charges related to a previous carjacking, in which he pleaded guilty to stealing a car; commercial burglary; and possession of methamphetamine.
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Travel confab
The records indicate he’s previously served time in state prison and taken part in at least two substance abuse treatment programs. After the hearing, police Inspector Len Broberg, the investigating officer in the case, said that Crane had been “re-victimizing” the man. “The victim in this case understands that he may be helping someone else from being victimized by proceeding with the prosecution,” Broberg said.▼
cisco and was founded in the city 20 years ago by Tom Roth, who still serves as its president. The firm produces the annual LGBT Community Survey (which runs in the B.A.R.) and provides consulting services to tourism-related businesses as well as banking, retail, pharmaceutical, beverages, real estate, insurance, and government and conducts educational seminars for corporations and organizations. It also certifies hotels as being TAGapproved, meaning that the property is certified as being gay-friendly. TAG stands for Travel Alternatives Group. The conference attendees will in-
clude mostly representatives from various tourist boards from as far away as Australia, all discussing ways to attract more gay visitors. Surveys conducted by Community Marketing and others show that LGBTs per capita tend to travel more than the general population, tend to spend more money per travel day, and are more likely to travel during the slower travel months, including the fall and late spring. Both the conference and travel expo will be held at the Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel, 55 Cyril Magnin Street, a block from Powell and Market streets. The price of admission to the expo is $5, but is free with the ad in this paper, on www.lgbttravelexpo.com, or you can just call up the ad on your smartphone.▼
God-given bodies is child abuse,” he said, as he chatted and posed for photos in his birthday suit. Jack Millam, a local gay father, took issue with Davis’s statement. “I take abuse seriously,” Millam said. “For him to minimize abuse tells me that he’s not thoughtful about abuse. Abuse is oppressive. As a gay man in a gay community, I’m bummed out. As a gay man with children, I’m comfortable with my boys being exposed to nudity within a private safe space. I want them to be comfortable with the human physique, but it has to be in a safe and private environment. I have an issue with this because it’s not safe. They’re advertising their nudity. It’s performance.” David Lago, who is not gay, is father of a 2-year-old daughter. He also took issue with public nudity, and with Davis’s statement. “Public nudity is not a gay right,” Lago said. “It’s a choice made to draw attention to his campaign. It is difficult for me to support people or causes which encourage that type of thoughtless, radical, offensive behavior. I feel that Mr. Davis is out of
touch. The right to censor what children can or should see is a personal choice of the parent that reflects the values, beliefs, and culture they wish to instill in their children.” Lago specified that he supports same-sex marriage, but that the nudists “undermines my confidence in the movement as a whole and the leadership [and] direction it’s taking if they choose to support radicals like Davis.” Perrotto is mindful of the feelings of these and other parents, and is hopeful that a compromise can be reached. “Parents have rights,” he said. “But teach your children that the body is not shameful,” he said. Perrotto agrees that lewd behavior, such as engaging in any kind of public sexual activity, should be addressed by the police. Some of the Castro nudists have begun wearing cock rings, and Perrotto said that, too, should be an issue for police to determine if local laws have been broken. Under current rules a person can be naked in public as long as they are not aroused. He pointed out that there are al-
ready local laws in place regarding such conduct, and that there’s no need for Wiener’s proposed law. “Just standing on a street corner is not lewd,” Perrotto said. The nudists vowed to continue fighting for what they believe is a basic civil right. They urge supporters to converge on City Hall Tuesday, October 30 at noon for a clothing optional art show. Their intent is to display nude works by local artists, as well as classical nude paintings. According to a flier handed out at the nude-in, the purpose of the art show is “to remind the supervisors that the human body is sacred and beautiful, and that an attack on our right to be nude is an attack on sacredness, beauty, love, freedom, art, and creative self expression.” “I completely support their right to protest in the nude,” said Wiener. “I don’t agree with the statements, but we are an open and diverse neighborhood, and we need to embrace everyone.” The Board of Supervisors will hold a committee hearing on Wiener’s proposed ordinance Monday, November 5.▼
“I don’t believe in selective enforcement of the law,” she said. “To just announce you are going to violate the law, I don’t agree with, and Gavin knows this. But that is old history.” As for her participating in a future Pride parade, Feinstein ruled it out, noting she stopped riding in any parade once she stepped down as mayor. “Been there, done that,” she said.
“It is still a very painful chapter for me.” In the beginning White and Milk had a cordial relationship, recalled Feinstein, noting that the two would have coffee in the Castro once a week. “They were very close,” she said. “Dan depended on Harvey.” She described Milk as “a sort of Puckish character,” referring to the sprite in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, who “mixed it up a lot.” White, on the other hand, “was very serious. I think he was truly a manic depressive,” she recalled. She said when a jury later convicted White of manslaughter rather than murder for the deaths of Milk and Moscone, it was “a big surprise for all of us.” “It was planned. He cleaned his gun,” said Feinstein. The subsequent rioting sparked by the verdict “was terrible,” recalled Feinstein, who in 1979 won election to a full-term as mayor. During her tenure AIDS began to ravage the city’s gay male population. Feinstein still remembers the day when Dr. Mervyn Silverman, then director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, first came to her in 1981 to report about patients turning up with purple lesions. “I said to him, go out and find out what it is. That was the beginning,”
she said. Following her re-election in 1983, in a still controversial move, Feinstein led the campaign to close the city’s bathhouses as one way to stop the spread of the killer disease. Over the years, with AIDS no longer a death sentence, some gay men have argued the city’s prohibition against bathhouses is outdated and should be ended. Asked if she would oppose the reopening of the bathhouses, Feinstein replied, “That is right.” The impact of the AIDS epidemic on the city is another painful chapter for Feinstein, who said she “lost a lot of friends” to the disease. “I will never forget going to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and trying to set up a task force on AIDS and nobody wanted to do it. San Francisco really became an information clearinghouse for the nation,” said Feinstein. More than 30 years later, with hopes for finding a cure to AIDS increasing, “I just say, ‘Thank God,’” said Feinstein. She also predicted that San Francisco in the not-so-distant future would elect an LGBT person to be mayor. Several out candidates have tried to achieve that honor but have yet to cinch the deal with the voters. “I have no doubt that is going to happen one day,” said Feinstein.▼
Feinstein recalls Milk, AIDS epidemic During her meeting with the B.A.R., Feinstein did weigh in on several local issues and opened up, a bit, about the 1978 assassinations of Harvey Milk, San Francisco’s first gay supervisor, and then-Mayor George Moscone by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White. At the time president of the Board of Supervisors, Feinstein was one of the first people to discover Milk’s body in City Hall. It also fell to her to announce the shocking news to the media and public. Even now, 34 years later, Feinstein does not like to dwell on that horrific time. Nor has she been able to bring herself to watch the Oscarwinning biopic Milk. Asked to reflect on her impressions of the now iconic gay rights leader, Feinstein at first responded,
From page 1
Serving the LGBT communities since 1971
22 • Bay Area Reporter • October 25-31 , 2012
Classifieds
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The
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034605600
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034618100
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034639900
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: S AND E CAFE, 2406 19th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Wei Hong Liu. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/26/12.
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 7 ELEVEN #2366-35696A, 221 Sansome St., SF, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Mal & S Corporation (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/12.
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 79, 707 Sutter St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed June Sun Park. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/12.
OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034610500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ART ATTACK SF, 2722 A Hyde St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed James Capadona. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/12.
OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034615900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CARMELINA’S TAQUERIA, 500 Parnassus Ave., SF, CA 94143. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Karim Salgado. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/02/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/12.
OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034609800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LITLE CHIHUAHUA MEXICAN RESTAURANT, 581 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TLC Foods Valencia LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/12.
OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034619300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXECUTIVE CHOICE TRANSPORTATION, 690 Cesar Chaves St., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Damone H. Smith. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/02/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/12.
OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE A-031466200 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: S & E CAFE, 2406 19th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by Li, Choi & Fong Inc. (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/08.
OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034629300
OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034628300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STARSEEDS, 599 3rd St. #206, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed Starseeds (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J + H LIMO SERVICES, 1435 5th Ave., Oakland, CA 94606. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Hung Huynh. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/11/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/11/12.
OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034651800
Dated 09/27/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: MXB BATTERY OPERATIONS, L-PSHIP. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 717 Battery St., SF, CA 94111-1501. Type of license applied for
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BIG AL’S ADULT BOOK STORE, 556 Broadway St., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Khaldoun Al-Salti. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/15/12.
57 – SPECIAL ON-SALE GENERAL OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/08/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: WALGREEN CO. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 135 Powell St., SF, CA 94102-2203. Type of license applied for
21 – OFF-SALE GENERAL OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548998 In the matter of the application of: CHELSEA ANN DEMING for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CHELSEA ANN DEMING is requesting that the name CHELSEA ANN DEMING be changed to CHELSEA DEMING ELLSWORTH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 6th of December 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548999
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MICHAEL WILSON’S CLINICAL CONSULTING, 403 Broderick St. #2, SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed John Michael Wilson. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/12.
In the matter of the application of: JOANNA LEA SWYERS for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOANNA LEA SWYERS is requesting that the name JOANNA LEA SWYERS be changed to JOANNA LEA ELLSWORTH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 6th of December 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.
OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034634700
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034638400
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOE CHEN PHOTOGRAPHY, 523 Brunswick St., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Joe Chen. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/12.
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LEAH GOLDSTEIN PUBLIC RELATIONS, 1630 Sacramento St. #4, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Leah Goldstein. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/12.
OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034626200
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034636700
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WHITCOMB MARKETING, 47 Surrey St., SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michael Keady Whitcomb. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COMMUNITY LENDING NETWORK, 1 Sansome St. #3500, SF, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Mark Richard Moonier. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/04. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/12.
OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012
ebar.com
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034642700
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034627800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THREE BEES NURSERY; TRIPLE BK LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 1921 Clement St., SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed Three Bees Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034636400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CUP & CAKE CAFE, 2 Beach St., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed E&Y Enterprises LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/12.
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034613800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRIDGE AHEAD; TRU PERSONA; REQUEST QUOTES; THE HOME PROJECT; 1819 Polk St. #477, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed The Bridge Ahead LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/12.
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034632000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA CHAVELA, 661-663 Divisadero St., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Latin Hospitality Group, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/12.
OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034641500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AVENS INTERNATIONAL, 100 Rae Ave., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kolja Rodici. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/11/12.
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The
Vol. 42 • No. 43 • October 25-31, 2012
www.ebar.com/arts
I feel the earth move ‘Einstein on the Beach’ lands in Berkeley by Michael McDonagh
T
he dim light in the room makes me pay attention. There’s a wall of tiny charcoal drawings in sequenced rows, and strung out on the opposite one is music paper covered with handwritten notes, while projected on the wall between is a black-and-white sound video. It’s a show of designer/director Robert Wilson’s book and composer Philip Glass’ autograph score for their first opera together, Einstein on the Beach (1975-76), with archival footage from its 1976 production, which New York’s Morgan Library is presenting through November at financier J.P. Morgan’s spectacular mansion there. But it didn’t prepare me for what Einstein would feel like live when I caught it this September at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Opera House with a rapt audience. The evocative power of its images and music made it live up to and even surpass its reputation as one of the seminal masterworks of
20th-century music theatre. My late composer friend Earle Brown once told me that he thought that “the avant garde is like a scout who goes ahead to find something, and if it doesn’t come back with anything, there’s no reason to follow.” But Einstein came back with lots, and the stylized theatrics of John Adams’ first opera with Peter Sellars Nixon in China (1987) would have been unthinkable if Einstein hadn’t gotten there first. I bet it will cast a spell as potent as it did at BAM when Cal Performances presents the Philip Glass Ensemble under Michael Riesman, and the Lucinda Childs Dance Company, performing Einstein at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall Oct. 26-28, as part of its international tour celebrating Glass’ 75th birthday year. The 18th-century poet William Blake could have been speaking of Einstein when he wrote that “enSee page 37 >>
Kristinn Sigmundsson (King Heinrich der Vogler), Brandon Jovanovich (Lohengrin) and Camilla Nylund (Elsa von Brabant) in San Francisco Opera’s Lohengrin.
Cast members dressed in Einstein’s trademark baggy pants, short-sleeved white shirts, braces, and sneakers, in a scene from Einstein on the Beach, coming to Cal Performances in Berkeley this weekend. Lucie Jansch
Knight in leather armor San Francisco Opera’s ‘Lohengrin’ opens by Philip Campbell
T
Cory Weaver
he San Francisco Opera opened a newto-San Francisco production of Richard Wagner’s sprawling Romantic opera Lohengrin last week to cheers and general audience approval for an appealing cast well-suited to a somewhat daring concept from an intelligent director. Daniel Slater’s sophisticated and fitfully exciting update of a murky medieval legend (so Wagnerian) may ultimately appeal less to the heart than to the mind, but at least it gets us thinking about the meaning behind the music. Moving the story to an unspecified European state in the Soviet era removes much of the old
Nayland Blake’s participatory art
and tired symbolism of vintage productions, but Slater often replaces it with some new and confusing symbolism of his own. It may not be a perfect vision, but it is always a deeply considered one, and the results are fresh and modern. Lohengrin was Wagner’s last real opera in the traditional sense before he moved into the revolutionary “music drama” stage of his turbulent career. Slater’s production was reportedly booed by the Wagnerian purists in Geneva when it was first performed there. A second mounting in Houston in 2009 was well-received and deemed safe enough for travel to the SFO. We do have See page 37 >>
Artist Nayland Blake.
by Sura Wood
W
ikipedia describes the unusual mixedmedia oeuvre of gay artist Nayland Blake thusly: “Disturbing, provocative, elusive, tormented, sinister, hysterical, brutal, and tender.” There are few individuals who could lay claim to such an entry, but Blake earned it, in part, by creating combos of installation, costume, performance and collage, and hitching them to loaded personal subject matter. A perusal of the slide show on his website is a trip of startling sights inflected with humor: a firing
squad constituted of yellow (model) bunnies, or a single rabbit towing a wooden coffin on a cart (bunnies symbolize gay sexuality, fluid gender, and were inspired, he says, by Bugs Bunny in drag); a menacing glass-and-chrome table whose perimeter is hung with meat cleavers right out of horror town; household items in uncanny groupings; gnomes; and the occasional cartoon-like one that reads: “We’re #1, not you.” His work addresses racial identity – his father is black, his mother white – and themes of domiSee page 26 >>
{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }
Courtesy the artist
<< Out & About
26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Short but sweet by Roberto Friedman
T
he classic Keith Haring poster that illustrates this column is one of the offerings on display at the International Vintage Poster Fair, the world’s oldest, largest sale and expo of original vintage posters, coming to Fort Mason Center this weekend. This year’s feature exhibit, Seven Deadly Sins, showcases vice in poster art. We believe you know our sisters Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy and little baby Gluttony. Count us among those who felt closing down Civic Center for six days of set-up, four days of jocky fun, and who knows how many days of breakdown for the Dew Tour was a sin. Here’s a clue as to how far things have come: the robber barons of the Gilded Age were certainly as greedy as today’s corporate capitalists, but still they sponsored public parks, libraries, etc., to help make urban working-class lives a little easier. In a weird reversal, these days
public parks, squares and amenities are closed off, working people’s lives inconvenienced, for all the whoop-dedoo of corporate functions and parties. Where, oh where, will it all end?
Grateful dead The San Francisco Symphony will deliver its fifth annual Dia de los Muertos community concert on Sat., Nov. 3, at 2 p.m. This year’s Day of the Dead event has got talent to burn, including the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra performing Aaron Copland’s El Salón México and José Pablo Moncayo’s Huapango; the SF Symphony Chorus singing the beautiful Misa Criolla by Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez; narrator and host Luis Valdez, the father of Chicano theater and founder of Teatro Campesino; plus Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán and folkloric dance ensemble Los Lupeños de San José. Starting an hour before the concert, Davies Symphony Hall lobbies will be filled to the rafters with Day of the
Posterfair.com
A Keith Haring poster (1989) is part of the International Vintage Poster Fair this weekend.
Dead altars and installations created for the event by a host of local artists; activities for children and families; choruses, dance performances and complimentary Mexican hot chocolate and pan de muerto. Beats shivering in a graveyard, no? Info at www. sfsymphony.org.
Short stop The just-released paperback original Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story (Picador) is a joy between covers for lovers of that short literary form. For editors Lorin and Sadie Stein, 20
<<
Nayland Blake From page 25
nance and submission in particular and sexuality in general, but he may be best-known for tap dancing in a 150 lb. bunny suit which he hasn’t permanently retired. “Oh, it’s still there,” Blake admitted while on a break from installing FREE!LOVE!TOOL!BOX!, his new interactive exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center gallery. I spied crimson and hot pink fright-wigs on the floor, and a pair of mammoth clown shoes waiting to be filled. For what purpose were those intended, I wondered. “Are you volunteering?” he gently inquired. Engaging and charismatic, Blake is a bearish, friendly man who spent the 1980s in the Bay Area as a performance artist, AIDS activist and strong advocate for younger artists before returning to his native New
contemporary writers choose and introduce their favorite classic short stories. Some stand-outs include Jane Bowles’ “Emmy Moore’s Journal” (introduced by Lydia Davis); Bernard Cooper’s “Old Birds” (Amy Hempel); Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance” (David Means); and Ethan Canin’s “The Palace Thief” (Lorrie Moore). Here’s a small gem from the late great Donald Barthelme’s “Several Garlic Tales” (introduced by Ben Marcus): “The trawler made a smooth landing in the fjord country of Norway. ‘Sightseeing’ would be a
cheap word for what they were experiencing. “Yum Yum wrinkled behind her fan. Paul resolved to ‘have it out’ with her. ‘Have a cigar,’ he said. ‘All the Scandinavian girls smoke them.’ “‘All the Scandinavian girls smoke them! All the Scandinavian girls smoke them! All the Scandinavian girls smoke them! All the Scandinavian girls smoke them! All the Scandinavian girls smoke them! Paul, you are trying to make me something I’m not. Just like when you wanted me to wear those white rubber pajamas!’” ▼
York in 1996. He grew up on the Upper West Side during the 1960s in a racially diverse neighborhood, and now lives in Brooklyn. Acknowledging his tendency to circle back to sex, he says, “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything, so the type of art I make is exactly like the sex I like: thoughtful and surprising and revealing.” For the past few years, he has spent a lot of time in the BDSM community, where has found a type of performance art with lessons he believes the art world could benefit from. “In a BDSM scene, the actors and the audience are the same,” he notes. “People are enacting things for each other’s pleasure. Each person is engaged. No one is sitting there watching. Nobody gets to experience the performance unless they’re committed.” As for what’s in store for visitors to YBCA, he promises to confound expectations. Representing somewhat of a departure for the artist, this outing is a bare-bones show with operating instructions and a free-form, DIY ethos “that’s less about providing a finished product than a platform for people to participate.” There are glory holes for men who prefer not to masturbate on their own; a video booth where you can dress up in costume – a voluminous black tutu hangs on a wall and a supply of white T-shirts are available from handy dispensers, but you can BYO, photograph yourself with a phone camera, and YBCA will post the pictures. In another booth, aspiring DJs can spin recordings from Blake’s private. eclectic collection of over 3,000 LPs. Selections include free jazz from the 70s, Yma Sumac, vintage Rolling Stones, Dylan, Sinatra, Disco Party, Village People, spoken word child-rearing records, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet and Pia Zadora, among others. In another area, shelf space is set aside for people to contribute articles of clothing, like leather hoods or face masks, that Blake will turn into a piece when he returns to reconfigure the work-in-progress exhibit in mid-November. “I make art to find out who I am,” he explains. “The fear of improvising, of not knowing if you’re going
to end up with a piece or a show or whether it’s all going to be crap, is the model for confronting fear in the rest of your life. This is the laboratory.” The Toolbox of the exhibition’s title refers to the city’s first leather bar, located at 4th and Harrison before it was torn down to make way for progress. The establishment was featured prominently in a 1964 Life magazine photo spread, “Homosexuality in America.” The bar’s patrons are shown in the article’s opening pictures, as is Chuck Arnett’s mural, which has been recreated by Blake. “It was the first time that any mass-market magazine had ever shown leather men,” he recalls. “It was a huge thing. It went all over the world and guys realized there’s this physical space where you can gather. Now we can find out about all sorts of arcane sexual practices or obscure artists, but it’s always through the filter of the screen,” and at the expense of stumbling onto new frontiers. “To me, online culture is based on definition, while art and powerful emotions are based on the tolerance of ambiguity. That ambiguity is the reason I make the things I do.” For Blake, the show pivots on two specific historical moments: the 1960s, before the gay liberation movement formulated itself; and the early 1990s, post-ACT-UP, post-Queer Nation period. What links these moments, he says, is that they were times of exploration and “an effervescent wackiness and reinvention.” “In the early 90s here,” he adds, “there was a confluence of the drag communities and a reemergence of gender, kinky sexuality and playfulness at clubs where people created a joyous queerness. Queerness used to be about transforming all of society, not achieving our place within it. Among younger trans people, I see a willingness to disrupt ideas about gender and the standard narratives of what you’re supposed to be, what your body represents and how it’s connected to something we would call sexuality. I want this show to be a reminder – and a location to foster – that impulse for transformation.” ▼ Through Jan. 27 at YBCA. Visitors wanting to DJ can sign up for time slots online: www.ybca.org.
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October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27
<< Theatre
28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Black & blue, 20 years later by Richard Dodds
W
ith a title like Fierce Love, you might think there will be roars emitting from the stage. While time may have mellowed some of the material in the Post Afro Homos’ Fierce Love, the message never had a ferocious bite. Originally subtitled Stories from Black Gay Life, its agenda of outreach was basically, “Hey, we’re queer and we’re here, too.” Original Pomo Afro Homos Brian Freeman, Djola Branner and Eric Gupton have said their first target audiences were people much like themselves: black, gay, and feeling isolated from the gay white community, yet not seeing a black gay community for the communal exchanges most of us take for granted. In 1991, early audiences for their show were black and gay, but word spread into other demographics that the show was a rewarding mixture of fun, satire, bittersweet memories, and sorrows that need not necessarily be codified. The Pomo Afro Homos traveled far and wide before disbanding in 1995. The vignettes that make up Fierce
Love often have the feel of one-on-one storytelling, maybe about this black guy who wants everyone to know that he keeps his gay business on the side, or that black guy heading into the backroom of a mostly white gay bar for the first time and reporting on reactions encountered. There are comic moments, albeit with subtle commentary, as when the uberstereotypical movie-critic queens (Duane F. Boutte and Thandiwe Thomas DeShazor) from the TV series In Living Color are confronted by a militant gay black activist protesting their “snap-happy sissy” stereotypes. Or when the drag queens Peaches, Popcorn, and Pepper note that they are on the outside of a society already on the outside. The most poignant moments come in the monologues that the troupe’s original members created from experiences in their own lives. Brian Freeman gets to recreate Sad Young Man, which takes its title from a Johnny Mathis song that the adolescent Freeman thinks is speaking directly to him. Freeman came from a family that imagined itself as the very model
Courtesy dakotafine.com
Brian Freeman, one of the original members of the Pomo Afro Homos, recreates his monologue that has his adolescent self fantasizing about Johnny Mathis, in Fierce Love (remix) at New Conservatory Theatre Center.
of a modern Negro family, in which he did not quite fit in. His dream: to run away with Johnny Mathis to some paradise not quite understood. Rashad Prigden struts his stuff to a White Snake song while conced-
ing the group may be racist, sexist, and probably homophobic. But he doesn’t want to be boxed in, and rejects the peer pressure to put a “No on 8” sticker on the back of his jacket. “It’d make me feel like my
parents’ Volvo,” he complains. The Prop 8 reference is one of the examples where cultural references have been updated for this “remix” of the original Fierce Love, and while Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, and Usain Bolt are referenced, the time frame is meant to remain in the early 1990s, when AIDS was churning out funerals that excluded the deceased’s actual friends, as related in a passage movingly presented by DeShazor. One update that doesn’t work as well as it should is a homo-hop rap song that suffers because the muddy amplification doesn’t let us make sense of many of the all-important words. But under Freeman’s direction, Fierce Love moves along at a genial pace that reflects the material. More than 20 years have passed since its first production, but the show possesses an inviting humanistic aura that may well be timeless.▼ Fierce Love (remix) will run through Oct. 28 at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Tickets are $25-$45. Call 861-8972 or go to www.nctcsf.org.
Battle-scarred by Richard Dodds
I
t’s an analogy from far out in left field, but after watching the illuminating production of An Iliad at Berkeley Rep, I couldn’t help but picture a punished Bart Simpson having to write, “I will remember the lessons of Vietnam” on the blackboard over and over. Every day. For 3,000 years. Vietnam actually gets but a single reference in Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s unorthodox reworking of Homer’s epic poem, but that was the first war
to have personal, bodily relevance for me (the draft was on), and when it ended so ignominiously, “the lessons of Vietnam” rang out with a rueful optimism that that would never happen again. Our narrator, identified only as the Poet, is a crusty old guy in a thrift-shop overcoat whose worldly possessions seem to be in the abused suitcase he carries. His mission is to roam the world, retelling the story of the seemingly endless battle between the Greeks and Trojans, a story of both men and Gods
so wrapped up in personal pride and jealousies that the war seems to sustain itself long after its original purpose is an increasingly dim light in the haze. “It’s a good story,” our narrator concedes, but makes no secret of his bone-deep fatigue in retelling it and the toll it takes on his psyche each time he must relive the war. His anguish can be lessened by the screams – screams without sound – that can unexpectedly overtake him. But he makes no mention of these disconcerting interruptions and resumes kevinberne.com
Henry Woronicz plays the world-weary narrator in Berkeley Rep’s An Iliad, an adaptation of the Homer epic that can be both deadly serious and highly irreverent.
his story. Henry Woronicz, a journeyman actor befitting the world-weary itinerant character he plays, makes an achingly personal connection in each moment of the 100-minute play. Peterson and O’Hare are working from a translation of the source material by Robert Fagles, but both serious and lighthearted digressions are common, as the narrator clearly exists in our world as well as all that have come before it. Why did the Trojan War slog onward without gains and diminishing aims? It’s like being in a supermarket checkout line, he says. “You’ve been there 20 minutes, and the other line is moving faster. Do you switch lines now? No, goddamn it, I’ve been here for 20 minutes, I’m going to wait in this line. I’m not leaving, ’cause otherwise I’ve wasted my time.” Countering these wry interludes, Woronicz can also wrap us up in the larger-than-life intrigues of the war as such familiar names as Achil-
les, Patroclus, Hector, Helen, and Agamemnon do physical, emotional, and vengeful battle. And then, on the spin of a drachma, the narrator is interpreting for us Hector’s mother’s admonitions. “You know what she’s really saying? She’s saying, ‘I told you so.’” With bassist Brian Ellingsen providing musical punctuation, director Peterson has cloaked the production in a frugality that gives vivid contrast when emotions, rendered in silence or in the collision of unseen armor, overtake our narrator. And then after his 100 minutes are up, the narrator will pack up his suitcase and find another audience that will listen to and maybe, just maybe learn from his melancholy serenade.▼ An Iliad will run at Berkeley Rep through Nov. 18. Tickets are $14.50-$77. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to www.berkeleyrep.org.
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Film >>
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29
Southern comfort by David Lamble
T
he Paperboy Director Lee Daniels’ pulpy tale of Southern debauchery opens in a swampy part of Florida, circa 1969, as a bizarre band of crusaders attempts to free a dangerous character from death row. The Paperboy revels in its trashy contours, a low-life view of the South from a novel by coscreenwriter Peter Dexter. Nicole Kidman is rightly stealing most of the good press on this one for her fearless depiction of a white harlot who has a taste for “prison cock.” Kidman gives her Charlotte Bless a shameless sizzle that needs no moral sanction: she’s prurient as all hell. Matthew McConaughey has perhaps the toughest task as a crusading journalist who happens to have a queer s/m bottom after-hours life that is seriously out of control. Young Zac Efron, in his crusade to escape the career-stultifying stench of Disney, is both a total scream and oddly sexy as the kid brother hooked on Charlotte. David Oyelowo startles as an opportunistic African American reporter who refuses to let conventional ethics block his rise to journalistic stardom. And John Cusack is a very scary sight as a crude and dangerous “innocent man.” Daniels delivers on all the big trashy moments, including a very bloody s/m scene and Charlotte’s famous pissing-on-the-boy beach rescue. It’s seldom that I get so much pleasure recommending a movie condemned by both Rotten Tomatoes and The New York Times. Middle of Nowhere The lessons to be learned from this beautifully crafted, impeccably cast low-key drama can be summed up in the titles of two of Flannery O’Connor’s best short stories: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.” Writer/ director Ava DuVernay says she was inspired by a persistent image. “I started thinking about a woman riding a bus at dawn.” That woman is Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi), trapped in a long-distance relationship with an incarcerated husband, Derek (Omari Hardwick). Ruby has essentially put her life – kids, medical school – on hold until Derek finishes an eight-year sentence. At first, this stand-by-your-man oath seems hard but doable, if he’s really the guy she thought she’d married. But as the slow drip of reality – Derek’s lies, the wretched politics of incarceration, and intolerable tensions bubbling up in Ruby’s family – starts to grind her down, Ruby plans a possible exit strategy. An intriguing option, a kind of free transfer, emerges in the person of a persistent suitor, Brian (a startlingly different spin from David Oyelowo), a bus driver with his own domestic back-story. Firmly rooted in a middle-class African American slice of Compton, California, Middle of Nowhere is a finely wrought fable of a decent human being who slowly decides she’s worth a lot more than can be had by waiting on the fickle finger of fate. Middle of Nowhere is one of the best film stories about the legions of minority women who survive and thrive in a world without men. Wake in Fright My thanks to veteran film curator Hilary Hart for first exhibiting and tipping me off to this truly weird, sort-of-queer Aussie classic that gets its Bay Area run in Landmark Theatres, Oct. 26-Nov. 1. Beginning innocently enough as handsome blonde newbie schoolteacher John Grant (Gary Bond) arrives for a pit-stop in a quaint little outback mining town with the jawbreaking name of Bundanyabba, this Ted Kotcheff-directed study in mano-a-mano madness plays like
Zac Efron in director Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy: a total scream.
a Mad Max episode of The Twilight Zone. Grant is what the Aussies refer to as a “bonded” teacher, meaning he owes the government service in some back-country hell-hole in exchange for his education. Arriving at the mining town’s saloon, Grant is shown the locals’ strange gambling rituals by the sheriff. Losing all his money, Grant is then passed around like a human party-favor until he winds up with a mad crew whose sport of choice is chasing down kangaroos. Warning: the kangaroo hunting scenes are really sickening, literally and metaphorically. There is a disclaimer attached to the end credits, but believe me, the American Humane Society did not vouch for these scenes. Animal-lovers, stay away. For the rest of you, most disturbing are the anal rape scenes between Grant and a desert-rat intellectual given a deliciously mordant spin by veteran character actor Donald Pleasance. With its no-holds-barred scenarios and unapologetic macho credos, Wake in Fright is an Aussie cinema missing-link, a great companion piece to the Nicolas Roeg classic Walkabout, which begins with two adolescents escaping gun violence at the hands of their dad, mad as a hatter. French Cinema Now The San Francisco Film Society offers a chance to brush up on your cuttingedge French language directors with nine features rotating at Landmark’s Embarcadero Cinemas Oct. 25-30. The emphasis is on loners, drifters and wannabes, attractive and in some cases desperately footloose protagonists, many trying to stay one jump ahead of the currency crisis roiling the continent. Sister The kid (prepubescent newcomer Kacey Mottet Klein) is everything in Ursula Meier’s naturalistic study of bottom-feeders, a hapless underclass residing in the shadow of an affluent Swiss ski resort. Barely 12 and just tall enough to ride the lifts, Simon (Klein) is a wellpracticed and well-organized thief who, blending in with the crowd of vacationing private-school brats, is systematically snatching every opulent toy in sight. The kid, charming distracted tourists with his schoolboy English, turns black-market pro, adroitly fencing high-end skis
to both peers and unscrupulous resort-workers. Every euro Simon snags is consumed in a shabby little flat he shares with an older sibling (Lea Seydoux) who is slowly drowning in a sea of temp jobs and feckless boyfriends. Sister will appeal to fans of the Dardenne Brothers’ recent hit The Kid with a Bike. (Embarcadero, 10/30, 6:30 p.m.)▼ www.sffs.org
ebar.com
<< Film
30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Losing his virginity at 38 by David Lamble
A
t 26, having perfected a sort of wild Jewish Afro look that made me, in my head at least, appear like Bob Dylan from the cover of Blonde on Blonde, I was finally ready to shed my humiliating homo virginity. It was well past Midnight at the Jamaica, Queens, Long Island Railroad hub, a scary enough place in the daytime, when I spotted a long-haired musician carrying a guitar case, boarding the last train for Long Beach. Halle was returning from a semester at Penn State to stay in his parents’ oceanside apartment. We made out in the living room, very quietly. They never suspected a thing. It was all about kissing that night – pure ecstasy! Later we attempted what Bill Clinton might consider real sex at the Sloan YMCA: a total disaster, I was unable to please him in any way. My homo virginity remained intact for another year. In the significantly candid and funny new film The Sessions, opening Friday, a painfully shy adult
male, with problems I could not even have imagined at the time of my pathetic first attempt at homo sex, decides that his only option is to hire a professional sex surrogate. “I understand you’ve never had sex?” “Correct.” “You’ve never masturbated?” “Correct. I once asked someone to marry me. Does that count as masturbation?” “How old are you?” “38.” “Why do you now want to have sex?” “I’ve never had the cash before, and I think I’m approaching my use-by date.” You don’t have to know anything about the real Mark O’Brien to appreciate his version of every man’s fear that he will not measure up, never cease to be a child in his own eyes. Cursed by childhood polio at six, O’Brien was blessed with parents who refused to institutionalize him. As the story opens, he’s on his own, his breathing assisted by an iron lung, his daily routine facilitated by a series of disgruntled assistants. Mark’s biggest asset is his ability to use a typewriter by means of a breathing-tube stick. Voila, a journalist and poet is unleashed on his hometown, Berkeley, California. Every Oscar-bait movie that attempts to convey a complicated story to a large audience needs to traffic in lies. Here, an actor of conventional stature plays a character who never reached five feet in height or weighed more than 60 lbs. The attempt to fuse explicit sexuality and transcendent spirituality on the screen usually misses the mark, but this time filmmakers Ben Lewin, Judi Levine and Stephen Nemeth have been dealt a hand with all aces. Among its many achievements, The Sessions is a sort of Hollywood
Steven Underhill
The Sessions actor John Hawkes appeared at the Mill Valley Film Festival earlier this month.
coming out party for a veteran actor whom everyone has seen but few remember. From nebbish shoe salesman to creepily charming cult leader to meth-addicted hillbilly, John Hawkes has become a multipurpose everyman. Here, his own partial nakedness painfully on display, Hawkes lets us suspend our own fears and squeamishness about sex and the disabled, and relax into a story about a poet nerd who seeks the permission of a priest to hold a naked woman in a manner explicitly condemned by modern church teachings. William H. Macy’s many screen talents have seldom been put to better use than resurrecting the Catholic priest as a trusted figure in the life of a desperate man. While not alluding to the pedophile priest scandals, Macy’s pastor allows us to fantasize about what it would be like
if Catholic clerics could shed their feudal attitudes. In an early scene, Mark tests the priest’s tolerance for his sexual project by posing this problem in their confessional. Mark confesses his intense dislike for his current female assistant. “This was one crazy bitch! She swung me wildly about. But she was careful enough so she could say, ‘Those polios are screamers!’ So I kept quiet and plotted my revenge. Father, I want to fire my assistant, but I’m afraid it’s a power trip.” “Is she dishonest or incompetent?” “No, I just don’t like the way she looks at me.” “I’d find somebody I liked.” “I have your permission?” “Unofficially, yes.” All this prepares us for the main event, where Mark will engage a sex therapist, Cheryl (Helen Hunt).
The filmmakers make apt use of O’Brien’s writings, here his journalistic account of the first session. “It’s odd, because normally when I’m naked, everyone else in the room is fully clothed. Now I’m in bed with another naked person; I always thought that my parents would intervene to see that this would never happen.” The sex scenes between the radiantly sexy Hunt and pasty white Hawkes are not sanitized so much as carefully shot to avoid explicitness, the effect of which is softened and humanized by this unlikely pair’s emotional bond. Cheryl’s realization that she is growing a bit too fond of this most unusual client is framed by a domestic subplot where, in a couple of astutely penned scenes, we glimpse her home life with a stay-at-home philosopher hubby and a brazen but nice teenage son who’s rather casual about answering their home landline. “Hey Cheryl, it’s for you.” “I’m not your girlfriend. When somebody calls, especially someone you don’t know, you can call me Mom!” The best test of a boundariespushing film is observing what a mainstream audience laughs at when their sexual tolerance buttons are pressed all at once. While Mark and Cheryl are achieving a breakthrough in a shabby motel room, Mark’s latest and most empathetic assistant is explaining the project to a puzzled motel clerk. “Tell me, what is she really doing?” “I told you, she’s a sex therapist. Today they’re working on simulated orgasms.” “What’s that?” The size of the laugh this moment garnered from a Metreon preview audience bodes well for The Sessions’ run at Oscar gold.▼
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Read more online at www.ebar.com
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31
<< Out&About
32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
Thu 25 >> Assassins @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players’ production of Stephen Sondheim’s dark musical about political murderers. $20-$33. Wed/Thu 7pm. Fri/Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Extended thru Nov 4. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org
Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The weekly LGBT and indie comic stand-up night. Marga Gomez, Natasha Muse, David Hawkins, Cara Tramantano perform. (Nov 1, Marga Gomez, Colleen Watson, Matt Leib, Stefani Silverman.) 7:30-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com
GLAAD’s Haunted Broadway will hopefully attract these hunky Tarzans from last year’s party.
Pumpkinfolk by Jim Provenzano
D
on’t mind me while I horde Trader Joe’s pumpkin ice cream, and impulsively buy yet another cute mini-gourd for the holiday season. And if you’re not too busy watching or attending the SF Giants (w)in the World Series, there are plenty of Halloween-themed events this week, so enjoy those. Check out plenty more nightclub and bar costume parties on www.BARtabSF. com. Our goody bag was just brimming with events.
Thu 25: Shocktoberfest 13 @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers presents Shocktoberfest 13, an evening of horror and unhinged comedy with two world-premiere one-act plays and a classic: Coals of Fire by Fredrick Whitney, The Bride of Death by Michael Phillis, and Rob Keefe’s The Twisted Pair. $25-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Special Halloween performances Oct. 30 & 31. Thru Nov 17. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com
Thu 25: Zombie Nightlife @ Cal. Academy of Sciences Get a zombie makeover, learn about the science of possibly real zombie-ism, plus a zombie drag pageant with Peaches Christ and Heklina, DJed tunes, projections and drinks. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 3798000. www.calacademy.org
Fabulous Costume Contest, and mix and mingle with special surprise guests. $40 and up. 7pm-11pm. 1830 17th St. at DeHaro. www.glaad.org/events/
Sat 27: SuperNatural 2012 @ Cal. Academy of Science Kid-friendly Halloween costume party, with kids’ trick or treating, musical performances, arts and crafts, pumpkin carving demos, comp beverages, swag bags, and more. 5pm-6:30pm Benefactor party with dinner $85-$500 (per family). Gen. Admission: $50 adults, $35 kids, 6:30-9:30pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-5411. www.calacademy.org
Hero
Sun 28: Hero @ Ruby Skye Halloween-themed dance party, with DJs Hector Fonseca, Luke Johnstone and Russ Rich. $25-$30. 6pm-12am 420 Mason St. www.industrysf.com
Sun 28: Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 Special Halloween edition of the popular country western LGBT dance night, with a fun costume contest. $5 (if in costume) $8. 6:30pm-10:30pm with lessons from 7:00 8:00 pm. Also Sundays 5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org
Rasputin’s Marionettes
Fri 26: Rasputin’s Marionettes @ Finn’s Funhouse Charmingly spooky yet kid-friendly show of hand-crafted marionettes made and worked by Matt Scott, in a special Halloween show staged at the intimate Victorian mansion. $15. Kids free w/ paid adult. 7pm & 9pm. Also Oct 27 (7 & 9pm) and Oct 28, 7pm. 814 Grove St. www.rasputin.brownpapertickets.com
Fri 26: Trannyshack @ DNA Lounge Heklina and Peaches Christ cohost the annual drag lip-sync Halloween-themed show. $15. 9:30pm-3am. Show at 11pm. 375 11th St. www.dnalounge.com
Sat 27: Haunted Broadway @ Metronome Fabulous costume ball and fundraiser for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. With a special spooky show theme, don your costume as a famous Broadway musical character (dead or alive!). Enjoy complimentary vodka drinks, wine, beer, and devilishly delicious hors d’oeuvres. Enter to win the Most
Creating a New Black Cinema, screenings of historic African American narrative and documentary films. $5.50-$13.50. Various dates and times. Thru Oct. 30. Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. (510) 642-5249. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu
Memphis @ San Jose Center for the Performing Arts Touring production of the four-Tony-winning Broadway musical about a Tennessee DJ and a soul/R&B nightclub singer’s ascendance to stardom, with a score by Bon Jovi’s David Bryan. $20-$82. Tue-Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru Oct. 28. 251 Almaden Blvd, San Jose. (408) 792-4111. www.broadwaysanjose.com
Shirley Jones @ The Rrazz Room Mrs. Partridge! Marion Librarian! The musical theatre and TV actress performs an evening of story and song. $40-$45. 8pm. Nightly thru Oct 28 (5pm). 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 3803095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com
Topdog/Underdog @ Marin Theatre Company Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play about two Black men, ironically named Lincoln and Booth, whose game of deception blurs the lines between honest and illegitimate work. $36-$57. Extended thru Oct. 28. Tue, Thu Fri & Sat 8pm. Wed 7:30pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley. 388-5208. www.marintheatre.org
Fri 26>>
Thu 25: Horror Movies @ Castro Theatre Dracula (Frank Langella, Broadway adaptation version; 2:30, 7pm), and Cat People (Nastasia Kinski version; 4:35, 9:05pm). Oct 30, The Cabin in the Woods (7:30) and House of 1,000 Corpses (9:25). $11. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com
Jim Provenzano
L.A. Rebellion @ BAM/PFA
Wed 31: Kids Halloween @ Eureka Valley Rec. Center The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence host a Halloween party for kids and their parents, with games, candy, entertainment, a costumes contest, a trick-or-treating parade in the Castro. Sponsored by Cliff’s Variety Store, Walgreen’s and others. Free. 2pm-4:30pm. 100 Collingwood St. www.thesisters.org
Wed 31: Demons & Angels @ Club 21, Oakland Halloween costume party with $2,000 in cash and prizes, drink specials, gogo dancers, hip hop, Top 40 & Latin music all night long. $15. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St. www.club21oakland.com/halloween
Wed 31: Halloween Party @ The Lookout Enjoy drinks, dancing and costumed fun at the bar with a great view. 9:30pm2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com
Wed 31: Halloween Dining, Drinks @ Canela Enjoy an elegant night of drinks and culinary treats at the stylish gay-owned tapas bistro and bar. Special treats for those in costume. 5:30pm-11pm. 2272 Market St. at Sanchez. 552-3000. www.canelasf.com
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson @ SF Playhouse Local singer/actor Ashkon Davaran (the Giants’ “Don’t Stop Believin’” anthem, Beardo ) stars in Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman’s presidential musical, an acclaimed rock rendition of the life of one our first and most controversial elected leaders. $30-$70. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Thru Nov 24. 450 Post St. (2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel). 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org
Einstein on the Beach @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Composer Philip Glass, choreographer Lucinda Childs and director/designer Robert Wilson’s 1976 post-modern masterpiece, the lengthy four-act opera, a non-narrative metaphysical portrait of the physicist. $35-$200. 6pm. Also Oct 27 at 5pm, Oct 28 at 3pm. (Composer Philip Glass speaks at a free music colloquium, Oct 26, 3pm. 125 Morrison Hall, UC Berkeley campus.) Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 6429988. www.calperformances.org
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animated, or something else entirely. $15-$45. 7pm party, 8pm screenings. 429 Castro St.www.goodvibesquickies.com
Tue-Fri 12pm-7pm. Sat 11am-5pm. Sun 11am-3pm. Thru Nov 10. 934 Brannan St. 863-1414. www.somarts.org
Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco @ Mission Cultural Center
Geezer @ The Marsh
Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein, Tony Award winner Stephen Flaherty’s musical about the lesbian poet and art collector. $20-$30. 8pm. Also Oct 27. 2868 Mission St. www.lgcsf.org
MOAD Gala @ Palace Hotel Benefit event for the Museum of the African Diaspora, with a live concert by Eric Benet. $150. 8:45pm. 2 New Montgomery St. (408) 374-1600. www.moadsf.org
Out of Character @ Asian Art Museum Decoding Chinese Calligraphy, a new exhibit of modern and ancient scripted art, with numerous special events, workshops and discussions. Free-$12. Tue-Sun 10am5pm. Thru Jan 13. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org
Play Fair @ GLBT History Museum Play Fair! The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Make Sex Safer, an exhibit of safe sex promotional efforts. Also, For Love and Community: Queer Asian Pacific Islanders Take Action 1960-1990s, an exhibit organized by queer and transgender Asian Pacific Islanders. Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistorymuseum.org
Richard III @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley Shakespeare’s drama about an evil king gets a production by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. $12-$15. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Nov 17. (510) 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org
So You Think You Can Dance @ Paramount Theatre Top ten finalists from Season 9 of the dance competition show perform live as part of their US tour. $38-$90. 7:30pm. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. www.dance.aeglive.com
Trick or Treat @ City Art Group exhibit of paintings and works in other media, with a macabre or Halloween theme. Reg. hours 12pm-9pm, Wed-Sun. Thru Oct. 27. 828 Valencia St. 970-9900. www.cityartgallery.org
The Waiting Period @ The Marsh Brian Copeland’s popular solo show about his struggle with depression. $25-$50. Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm. Extended thru Dec 8. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org
Sat 27>> Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm. (Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com
Calling on the Spirits @ SOMArts Cultural Center Group exhibit of Day of the Dead shrines, installations and artwork. Gallery hours
Veteran comic actor Geoff Hoyle returns with his hit solo show about his youth in England, and growing older. $25-$100. Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Nov 18. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org
Hey, Ghoul, Hey! @ Lexington Club Spooky costume contest, DJs Ms. Jackson and China G, at the fun lesbian bar. No cover. 9pm-2am. 21+. 3464 19th St. 8632052. www.lexingtonclub.com
Man Ray/Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism @ Legion of Honor Photographs, paintings, drawings and manuscripts that explore the creative interaction between gay artists Man Ray and Lee Miller, two giants of European Surrealism. Also, Marcel Duchamp: The Book and the Box. And, Gifts From the Gods: Art and the Olympic Ideal, an exhibit of Greek and Roman artifacts and art related to the lives of athletes of ancient times, and modern works that reflect athletics. Free-$10. Thru Oct. 14. Tue-Sat 9:30am-5:15pm. Lincoln Park at 100 34th Avenue (at Clement Street). www.famsf.org
Mark I. Chester @ Wicked Grounds Exhibit of photographs by the veteran photographer of leather culture; thru November. 289 8th St. www.markichester.com
Miss Richfield 1981 @ St. Aiden’s The Midwestern drag queen performs her solo show, “2012: We’ll All Be Dead by Christmas!” her faux-fundy focus on the year end. $35. 8pm. St. Aiden’s Episcopal Church, 101 Gold Mine Drive. brownpapertickets.com/event/244392
Off the Beaten Path @ Harvey Milk Photo. Center Group exhibit of visually compelling photos of San Francisco’s well- and least-known parks. McLaren Lodge, 501 Stanyan St. at Fell. Photos also on exhibit at the Harvey Milk Center (50 Scott St.) and the Parks Emergency Aid Station (811 Stanyan St.). Thru Nov. 30. 554-8919. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org
Nayland Blake @ YBCA FREE!LOVE!TOOL!BOX , the former Bay area artist’s new exhibit of conceptual and assembled found-object, personal installations and artworks, each with queer themes, including a DJ booth with his own large record collection; and Nathalie Djurberg’s amazing colorful creature sculptures. $12-$15. Oct 27, “John Cage’s Queer Silence,” Jonathan D. Katz. Guest lecture about the gay composer and his work with his partner, choreographer Merce Cunningham. Free-$10. 2pm. Screening Room. Oct 28, SF Contemporary Music Players perform Cage’s Musicircus, 1pm. Cage/Cunningham film, 2pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 979-2787. www.naylandblake.net www.ybca.org
Other Cinema @ ATA Gallery Halloween-themed clips about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, ghosts, goblins, Hangar 18 and more. Only $6.66! 8pm. 992 Valencia St. 648-0654. www.othercinema.com
Halloween: The Ballad of Michele Myers @ CounterPulse Raya Light’s musical drag parody of slasher movies returns, with Trixxie Carr, Miss Rahni, Flynn Witmeyer, Kai Medeiros, Audra Wolfmann, Steven Satyricon and others. $20-$25. Fri-Sun 8pm. 1310 Mission St. at 9th. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org
An Iliad @ Berkeley Rep Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem about the Trojan War and its effect on soldiers and families on both sides, as told by one elderly survivor. $17-$73. Tue, Fri, Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov 18. 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck, Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org
Indie Erotic Quickies @ Castro Theatre Good Vibrations presents the best in a competition of sex-themed films that are funny, serious, straight, queer, kinky,
Thu 25 Fierce Love [Remix] @ New Conservatory Theatre PoMo Afro Homos’ revival and restaging of their award-winning show with humor, music, stories and truths about the joy and contradictions of black gay life; with writer/ director Brian Freeman, members of Deep Dickollective and B/GLAM. Special after-show discussions Oct 25 & 27. $25-$37. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct 28. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org
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Out&About >>
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33
Kaia Wilson
Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com
Mon 29>> Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com
Everyday Monsters @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley A Twilight Zone Trilogy, three staged versions of Rod Serling TV show episodes; one night only. $15. 8pm. 1901 Ashby Ave, Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org
Tammy L. Hall Quintet @ The Rrazz Room Amazing jazz and improv pianist performs with her band. 7:30pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com
Ten Percent @ Comcast 104
The Voice(s) S
everal very different yet very talented women singers take to various stages this week. – J.P.
Thu 25: Lindsay Fuller, Kaia Wilson, Shelley Doty @ Hotel Utah
David Perry’s talk show about LGBT people and issues. This week, Perry chats with Stuart McFaul, President of Spiralgroup, and Sherilyn Adams, Executive Director of Larkin Street Youth Services. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com
Tue 30>> Book Club @ Magnet
Three women’s bands with folk, rock and queercore styles (two of whom happen to be girlfriends) perform. $8-$10. 9pm. 21+. 500 4th St. at Bryant. 546-6300. www.hotelutah.com
Michael Alenyikov, author of the gaythemed California Book Award-winner Ivan and Misha, discusses his work at the gay men’s book club. Free. 7pm. 4122 18th St. 581-1600. www.magnetsf.org
Elect to Laugh @ The Marsh Betty Buckley at the swanky hotel. $40-$75. 7pm. Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason st. 392-4400. www.BayAreaCabaret.org
Tue 30: Betty Buckley @ The Rrazz Room Mary Wilson
Sun 28: Mary Wilson @ The Venetian Room Motown legend and original member of The Supremes performs R&B classics
Party People @ Café Flore Garza hosts a benefit for, and performance by, Dance Through Time, with Mudita Arts for Peace, drag acts by Suppositori Spelling and others, Ken Vulsion DJing, and a costume contest with prizes. 10pm-2am. 2298 Market St. www.cafeflore.com
Sex Summit @ SF Marriott Marquis Good Vibrations’ panel discussions and many other events at a one-day sexuality conference. $99. 8:30am-9:30pm. www.goodvibessexsummit.com
The Sound of Music @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley Rogers & Hammerstein’s classic musical about the Von Trapp family, and their Austrian struggle with a new nanny, and Nazis, gets a local production. $17-$35. Thu-Sat 7pm. Also Sat 2pm. Sun 12pm, 5pm. Thru Dec 2. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org
Strindberg Cycle @ Exit Theater Cutting Ball Theater performs August Strinberg plays in repertory; The Ghost Sonata, The Pelican and The Black Glove, Storm, Burned House. $10-$75. Thu 7:30pm, Fri & Sat 8pm & 2pm. Sun 5pm. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com
Women 我們 @ Chinese Cultural Center
Iconic Broadway, film and TV actresssinger performs “Ah Men! The Boys of Broadway” $45-$55. 8pm. Thru Nov 4 (Nov 3, 7pm & 9:30pm; Nov 4, 7pm). Thru Nov 4. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com
Disney Princess Comedy Night @ Deco Lounge Kristee Ono hosts a night of cartoon comedy, with Clare O’Kane featuring Veronica Porras, Mimi Vilmenay, Jessica Barnes, Mary Alice, Jessica Sele, Lauren Kraut, Ali Brown and Nicole Calasich. $10. 21+. 8pm. 510 Larkin St. www.decosf.com
Imagining Val Travel @ Glama-Rama Salon Local collage artist Tofu’s exhibit focuses on vintage and contemporary travel imagery. Thru Nov. 3. 304 Valencia St at 14th. www.tofuart.com www.glamarama.com
Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com
Wed 31>> Art With Elders @ City Hall Large group exhibit of works by 90 artists in 30+ local arts programs, all seniors with a lengthy life perspective. Thru Jan. 4. Reg hours Mon-Fri 8am-8pm. Ground floor, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. www.sfgov.org
Greg Gandy @ John Pence Gallery Exhibit of stunning realist landscapes of San Francisco and other cities, created by the local painter. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat 10am-5pm. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com
(For more Halloween events, visit www.BARtabSF.com)
Thu 1>> Carmelina @ Eureka Theatre
Amazing post-religious Gospel song stylings. $25. 9pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com
42nd Street Moon’s production of the rarely performed musical about a WWII “widow” who gathers three men who may be the father of her daughter. This is the musical that inspired the Broadway hit Mamma Mia! $25-$75. Wed 7pm. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov 18. 215 Jackson St. 2558207. www.42ndstmoon.org
Outlook Video @ Channel 29 LGBT news show. This month; pet care, Kathy Wolfe on LGBT film piracy, pastor David Harvey, and San Jose Pride. 5pm. Also streaming online. www.outlookvideo.org
PJ Andrews @ Castro Country Club Exhibit of the gay artist’s amusing glitter cartoon character portraits and collages. Thru Oct 31. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org
SF Hiking Club @ Coastal Trail
Sun 28 >>
Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.harrydenton.com
Matt Damon, Kate Winslett and others star in the epidemic thriller; screening sponsored by Skoll Global Threats Fund and other health organizations. 7pm. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com
Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s
Our Lady J @ The Rrazz Room
Exhibit of video works, installation art, photography, sculpture, and more by a diverse array of LGBTQ artists based in China, as well as five U.S.-based artists. Tue-Sat 10am-4pm. Thru Dec. 15. 750 Kearny St., 3rd floor (inside the Hilton Hotel). 986-1822. www.c-c-c.org
Contagion @ Castro Theatre
Will Durst welcomes comic commentator pals to a weekly political humor night. $15-$50. 8pm. Thru Nov 6. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org
Joing LGBT hikers on an 11-mile trek from the Ferry Building to Crissy Field, and Lands End. Meet 10am at Ferry Bldg. 8520875. www.sfhiking.com
Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room
Kenny Washington @ The Rrazz Room “Superman” of the Bay Area jazz scene performs. $30. 8pm. 2-drink min. Hotel
The Hundred Flowers Project @ Thick House Crowded Fire’s world premiere production of Christopher Chen’s political dystopic drama where a theatre troupe struggles with producing a play about the rise of Mao Tse Tung, only to see the world outside their stage changing drastically. $15-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov 17. 1695 18th St. 746-9238. www.crowdedfire.org
San Francisco Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony, with optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com
To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com
<< Society
34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Dashing between parties by Donna Sachet
F
aced with conflicting events on the same night recently, we started at Shanti’’s annual fundraiser at the Hilton Hotel, where House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi received the first Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by her friend and mentor James Hormel. Her gracious and humble acceptance speech reminded us all of how great a partner we have in Washington, dedicated to the fight against AIDS, the push for LGBT equal rights, and the celebration of diversity in our country. The room was teeming with people, including Michael Nguyen, Kaushik Roy, Stu Smith & Dave Earl, Roger Doughty, Mario Diaz, Rebecca Rolfe, Richard Sablatura, and Kevin Shanahan & Michael Montoya. We then dashed over to the Phoenix Hotel for that zaniest of fundraisers, the annual Celebrity Pool Toss benefiting Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), addressing critical services for youth in that part of the city. This year’s dazzling cast of celebrity emcees included Lynne Marie Stewart (Miss Yvonne from The Pee-Wee Herman Show), actor Jason Lewis (Jerry Jerrod from TV’s Sex in the City), ABC7’s Cheryl Jennings, CBS5’s Liam Mayclem, chef and author Tori Richie, actor, author, comedian, and TV host Suzanne Whang, and this humble columnist. Those tossed in the pool by high-bidders included architect David Baker, SF Airport Director John Martin, former Mayoral candidate Joanna Rees, film producer Todd Traina, and businessmen John Mark Rogers, John Stewart, Jack Gardner, and Michael Walker. With entertainment by the Fabulous Bud E. Luv Show, the Devil-Ettes, and swimmers from Fitness SF and SF Tsunami Synchro, and bountiful food and drinks from local establishments, this event had it all, and on a splendid fall night! We made a first-time appearance at SF Beautiful’s Masquerade Soiree at the Westin St. Francis, thanks to
Steven Underhill
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi receives the first Lifetime Achievement Award at Shanti’s annual fundraiser.
executive director Kearstin Krehbiel and Sister Pat N Leather, and it won’t be our last. For over 60 years, nonprofit, community-based SF Beautiful has been recognizing and creating beauty in San Francisco. This posh hotel setting was perfect for a diverse mixture of the city’s population, most festively sporting masks or costumes, and all celebrating the unique beauty of our home. From the cocktail hour and silent auction to the dinner and entertainment featuring Miso Hornay, Landa Lakes, and Cassandra Cass, followed by dancing, this group succeeded. Among the attendees were SF Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, Supervi-
sor Scott Wiener, Grand Duke Moe Jo & Grand Duchess Paloma Volare St. James, Cookie Dough, Gary Virginia, Khmera Rouge, Pollo Del Mar, Sister Roma, Sister Dana van Iquity, Patrik Gallineaux, David Herrera, Jon Paul, Alan Toomey, Carlos Medal, and Kit Tapata. And the major annual fund-raisers just keep coming. AIDS Legal Referral Panel’s (ALRP) 29th annual From the Heart reception at the Green Room of the War Memorial Building sparkled with city Treasurer Jose Cisneros as emcee, community and professional awards, and a fast-paced live auction. The ALRP mission under executive director Bill Hirsh is to help people with HIV/AIDS maintain their health by resolving legal issues at reduced or minimal See page 35 >>
Coming up in leather and kink
ebar.com
Thu., Oct. 25: Koktail Club Happy Hour at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Drink specials and Hamisi doing Hammy Time. 5-10 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com. Thu., Oct. 25: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse (1347 Folsom). Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com. Thu., Oct. 25: Make Up: Get Your Pretty On presented by Tatian at the SF Citadel (181 Eddy). 8 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org. Fri., Oct. 26: Chamber of Horrors Halloween Event at the SF Citadel. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org. Fri., Oct. 26: Fridays Underwear at Kok Bar. Strip down for drink specials! 11 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Go to: www. kokbarsf.com. Fri., Oct. 26: Monthly Strip Night at Kok Bar. Cheap Ass contest at 1 a.m. $100 to the winner. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com. Fri., Oct. 26: Monthly Steam Party at The Powerhouse. Shower, towel dancers. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www. powerhouse-sf.com. Fri., Oct. 26: Ms. SF Leather 2012 Meet & Greet at Truck (1900 Folsom). Meet the contestants! 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.mssfleather.org. Fri., Oct. 26: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom). 10 p.m.-close. Live shower boys, drink specials! Go to: www.trucksf.com. Sat., Oct. 27: Leather Beer Bust at Kok Bar. All beer & well cocktails $3, Rolling Rock beer bust $5. 5-9 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com. Sat., Oct. 27: Asylum pre-Ween Masquerade at the Powerhouse. Padded room, straightjackets, costume contest at Midnight. Benefits Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. 10 p.m.-1 a.m. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com. Sat., Oct. 27: Ms. SF Leather 2012 Contest at the Hotel
Whitcomb (8th & Market). Doors 6:30 p.m., contest 7:30. Go to: www.mssfleather.org. Sat., Oct. 27: Stallion Saturdays at Rebel Bar (1760 Market). Revolving DJs, afterhours fun! 9 p.m.-4 a.m. Go to: www.stallionsaturdays.com. Sat., Oct. 27: 15 Association Play Party at the SF Citadel, male-only event. 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Doors close at 11 p.m. Go to: www.15sf.org. Sat., Oct. 27: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.facebook. com/lonestarsf. Sun., Oct. 28: Truck Bust Sundays at Truck. $1 beer bust. 4-8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com. Sun., Oct. 28: Castro Bear presents Sunday Furry Sunday at 440 Castro. 4-10 p.m. Go to: www.the440.com. Sun., Oct. 28: Jockstrap Beer Bust at Kok Bar. $8 beer bust, guys in jocks. 3-7 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com. Sun., Oct. 28: PoHo Sundays at The Powerhouse. Dollar drafts all day! Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com. Sun., Oct. 28: Age Play Adventures at SF Citadel. Halloween Costume Contest. 1-5 p.m. Go to: www. sfcitadel.org. Tue., Oct. 30: Safeword: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at SF Citadel. 6:30 p.m. Go to: http://www.sfcitadel.org Tue., Oct. 30: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse. 9 p.m.close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com. Wed., Oct. 31: Pit Stop at Kok Bar. Happy Hour prices all night. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com. Wed., Oct. 31: Naked Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison), male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Play till late. Go to: www.blowbuddies.com. Wed., Oct. 31: Nipple Play at The Powerhouse. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com for details.
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Karrnal >>
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35
Kamikaze sex by John F. Karr
intense as he opens his eyes and begins to feel everything. urprised at my strongly But the man in the mirror adverse reaction to the starts to shattered quickly as new LucasEntertainment feait is man against himself”? ture Awake, I watched it twice. A And then, in a personal note And disliked it both times. M MacNamara sent to reviewThe movie’s name, amplieers: “As men we can journey fied by the title tune heard tto another side of ourselves to during the movie, seems to u uncover a heightened illusion ask us to become more aware o of sex and passion we never of the ramifications of love, kknew.” sex, and emotion. Yet its story These statements (only is about anger and emotional ttwo of many similar locudistress, and the sex it delivers ttions) are as fractured as the m movie’s narrative, which passis angry and emotionally disees with its rhythms off-kilter. tressed. Although I expect the M MacNamara lets characters director’s intention was that ta talk so fast you can’t underof porn tradition, Awake trigsstand what they’re saying; gered my anxiety more than h he hurtles their ideas by so my arousal. q quickly (and so tersely) there’s The movie opens with lovn no time for comprehension; ers Jonathan Agassi and Jessy an and he delivers their sex in a Ares careening into knockw welter of hurry that makes us about lust-sex. Slapping, ggrab and go. Can we enjoy the spitting, colliding, devourfirst scene’s sex as it becomes ing, and shouting, “You filthy LucasEntertainment ap apparent that the lovers’ lust is bastard!” and “Stick it up my a cover for the anxiety they feel ass!” With Ares crazily jack- Jessy Ares and Jonathan Agassi on a feeding about their relationship? The hammering Agassi’s hole, frenzy in LucasEntertainment’s Awake. three-way on the rocks may the scene sure has its exciting not express anger, but has no moments, and is capped with time to express pleasure with Agassi greedily devouring both vulnerability and masculine its overwhelming carousel of activthe copious load Ares jets down his strength as he takes one of Ares’ ity. A sexographer once told me that throat. patented piston-fucks and yelps for porn’s sex scenes required an edit evA three-way among friends comes dear life. The sight of his muscle butt ery eight seconds; in this trio, it seems next. It keeps the lust, but dumps the turned into a tight tourniquet when that every eight seconds there’s a new kamikaze for a chummier sort of settled on Ares’ cock is a beaut. Ares activity. The conflicted psychological sport fuck. Adam Killian takes top fucks the cum outta Rock, and then origins of both the Ares/Rock duo honors for inventiveness, Rock gulps Ares’ big load. Yum. and Agassi’s final three-way express physical dexterity, and In the last scene, Agassi dismay more than desire, and their energy, with Trenton is angered by his lover’s distressingly quick changes sacrifice Ducati and Alex Marte infidelity, and retaliates focus. Finally, there’s a trite resolution pretty much keeping by having a three-way – revealing it was all a dream doesn’t up. Doing it atop an with fair-skinned, heal Ares’ underlying drive toward oceanside pile of rocks mean fucker Mathew betrayal and self-hate. certainly is scenic, but Mason, and darker, While a number of small details it’s a lousy place to have strong and silent Edji reveal further directorial sloppiness, sex, forcing the trio to Da Silva. The sex repeats I was most distressed by the director assume especially convoluted posiAgassi’s first scene, all slam-bang bruforgetting he was a sexographer to tions. It’s a relief when they quit their tal. After both the guys fuck him silly, play filmmaker when, at the beach, he precarious perch and move to poolthey feed him their warm cum. ignores the rich potential eroticism side deck chairs. They’re maniacally Okay. That’s the sex. You may think of boners in wet Speedos to insist on sexy. Killian yields his ass to both guys it all sounds pretty good. But things arty underwater swimming shots. for delirious rides, sucking one while aren’t always what they seem. Awake Despite all this, I guess MacNamagetting poked by the other. Then the was both written and directed by Marc ra deserves credit for even attemptversatile dude tops Ducati, and with MacNamara, a relative novice in each ing the themes of Awake – a discusa mighty blast to the left and a mighty capacity (Adam Killian is listed as cosion that’s unusual, courageous and blast to the right, shoots his load into director). Frankly, I think his desire to more than a little foolhardy. Although both of their maws. explore pertinent issues exceeded his MacNamara couldn’t quite clarify his The third scene finds Ares recoilpresent ability to deal with narrative. thoughts, I got the drift. He’s talking ing from his lover’s constant nagging Was the director’s unease at giving his about something mystic – striving, while indulging his own promiscuideas flesh reflected or foreshadowed through sex and love, for an enlightous desire by allowing himself to be in this quote from the movie’s proenment that startles us Awake.▼ seduced by Mitchell Rock, a musclemotional copy: “Jessy begins to reflect pup whose handsome face conveys www.LucasEntertainment.com into himself but journey becomes
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On the Town From page 34
expense. Breast Cancer Emergency Fund’s This Old Bag: The Power of the Purse attracted a record crowd to the St. Regis Hotel as auctioneer Lenny Broberg garnered top bids for handbags donated by designers, boutiques, and celebrities, including Sharon Stone and Liza Minnelli. Attending were Lu Conrad, Joan Pacelli, Gus & Bahya Murad, Elisabeth Thieriot, Geoff Callan & Hilary Newsom Callan, Judith Branch, Joel Goodrich, Mark Calvano, and John Rosin. SF Night Ministry sold out their Star Struck: A Red Carpet Affair, complete with red-carpet entry, extensive silent auction, seated dinner, live auction, and entertainment by Critical Bliss. Attendees included several members of the Imperial and Ducal Courts. This was our 10th year emceeing and assisting with the auction, and every year we are reminded of the compassionate, non-judgmental late-night care and counseling this organization offers to the loneliest, most underserved population of SF. This group deserves your attention and ongoing support. We donned our black and orange and joined the Giants fever on Sun-
Steven Underhill
Seen at the Celebrity Pool Toss benefiting Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation at the Phoenix Hotel.
day as we wandered from a benefit for Muttville Senior Dogs Rescue at Mudpuppies in the Castro, to 440, and then to watch the thrilling game at the new Sliders Café at Market and Noe. Who says our community isn’t wrapped up in sports? We cheered with Gary Virginia, John Weber, Karin Jaffie & Lori Howes,
and Michael Petri until victory was assured. We wish you a safe and festive Halloween, and hope to see you tonight, Thurs., at the GLBT Historical Society’s UnMasked Gala at the War Memorial Green Room, and on Saturday at GLAAD’s Haunted Broadway at Metronome, 1830 17th St.▼
Read more on www.ebar.com
<< TV
36 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 25-31, 2012
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Political punditry & topical humor by Victoria A. Brownworth
R
aise your hand if you can’t wait for the election to be over. If you live in a swing state like we do, you are reciting the texts of TV political ads in your sleep. Which is not very restful. And as one pundit noted on PBS last week, if you haven’t made up your mind yet, you’re an idiot. Of course we’re sick to death of all pundits. But we can’t help finding Donna Brazile, former campaign manager to Al Gore (the first African-American to direct a major presidential campaign), current Vice Chairwoman of the DNC and ever-alluring closet case, amusing and ironic. (But please come out, dear, you would be such a role model for young political queers, especially lesbians and African-Americans.) Brazile is a commentator on CNN’s The Situation Room and American Morning, and is also a consultant for ABC, where as a regular on This Week her deft trouncing of her Republican peers is, well, peerless. We were especially amused this week when she waited for guest Newt Gingrich and fellow conservative pundit George Will to finish bloviating about the final debates, then ripped into them with characteristic flair. At the end she noted that she was trying to be nice, in case they ended up as partners on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. “I’d be leading, of course,” she quipped. Wouldn’t we love to see that? Speaking of people we heart, we are just loving Kate McKinnon, the new addition to SNL. The show is always at its best when it goes topical, and McKinnon’s turns as Ann Romney and Martha Raddatz have been hilarious. She’s also done El-
len DeGeneres so well we think Ellen should have her on Ellen and let McKinnon guest host for part of the hour. We’re pretty sure McKinnon is slated to become the new Amy Poehler or Tina Fey. She’s that good. If you missed the amazingly beautiful commentary from Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters) in support of her gay son Sam Griesman, check it out. Field was given HRC’s Ally for Equality Award last week. We loved Field’s character Nora Walker on B&S, and now we see her support of her gay son Kevin on the show was not just acting. If there were more parents like Field, there would be fewer LGBT kids hating themselves. One final comment on TV vs. the Election Process. CNN’s Candy Crowley has been dissed as much as ABC’s Martha Raddatz was lauded for her moderating of the second presidential debate. TV news remains a male enclave, even in 2012. Crowley was only the second woman to moderate a presidential debate in the 52 years they have been airing. The last one? Carole Simpson of ABC, in 1992. So: two women, 20 years apart, over a 52-year span. Yes, Raddatz was superb. We would say she’s the best moderator ever seen on a political debate: on point, no nonsense. “We’re moving on now.” Was Crowley up to that standard? No. But she didn’t sleep through the debate like Jim Lehrer. Just for the record, both candidates, while touting their individual achievements on women’s issues, shot Crowley down when she tried to get them back on topic or keep them on time. Romney might as well have put her in a binder. ABC’s 20/20 co-anchor Chris Cuomo bagged the exclusive first
Vice Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile: she leads.
broadcast interview with Victim # 1, the young man responsible for bringing to light the long-term sex abuse of young boys by Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, sentenced to life in prison last week. Aaron Fisher was 15 when he went to police about the abuse, which began when he was 11. The story he told on 20/20 was grisly. Fisher detailed trying to escape Sandusky’s advances and stalking. He told Cuomo, “He once followed my bus home from school. I took off running, but he drove on the opposite side of the street, onto oncoming traffic to catch up with me. I ran up an alley, and he went to my house and parked out front.” Fisher’s mother shared how when they first contacted authorities about the abuse, when her son finally revealed what had happened, she was told to “go home and think about it.” “Think about what?” she asked.
Fisher said he was breaking his anonymity to make it clear to other victims of sexual predators that they are not alone and bear no shame. It was Fisher coming forward that forced the three-year grand jury investigation into Sandusky’s assaults on boys, assaults known to Sandusky’s peers at Penn State, notably head coach Joe Paterno, but which were covered up to protect the school’s legendary football program. Sandusky stated at his sentencing hearing that his victims, including Fisher, had invented their stories to gain notoriety (because everyone wants to be labeled a sexual abuse victim, of course). In advance of the interview, Sandusky’s attorney Joe Amendola told ABC that this was exactly what Sandusky had been saying, that he was the innocent victim of young men looking to cash in on a story.
Kohl mine Speaking of abuse, we’re not sure how we feel about the current storyline on CBS’ Emmy-winning political drama The Good Wife involving America’s sexiest TV lesbian. We speak about the kohl-eyed Kalinda (played with élan by Archie Panjabi), the secret or not-so-secret crush of nearly every lesbian TV-watcher in America. Kalinda has lured us in with her leather mini-skirts, smoky eyes and no-holds-barred tactics as an investigator for Lockhart/Gardner. She can wield a baseball bat better than A-Rod. But when her errant, violent yet sexy British thug weasel of a husband Nick finally tracked her down last season, we feared for Kalinda’s safety. When the new season began, Nick moved himself back into Kalinda’s apartment and they began fighting in earnest (she’s tough, but there always seem to be guns nearby), we got nervous. That nervousness was ratcheted up a notch this week when Nick demanded that Kalinda serve him breakfast. After she cracked eggs into a cold pan then tossed them at Nick, we could see things were escalating. Kalinda has repeatedly told Nick that “things are different now,” meaning she’s no longer tantalizingly bisexual but a full-fledged lesbian. Last week, Nick and Kalinda were out together having ice cream. As they sat side-by-side in the little parlor, Kalinda making lesbians everywhere swoon as she licked her ice cream cone with perfect erotic passion, we see Nick slide his hand under her barely-there skirt. Her face changes and we know what’s happening. But she doesn’t give in to his attempts at pleasuring her. He says, “Don’t you remember this?” and she replies, “I remember you used to be better at it.” Enraged, he removes his hand and sticks the two fingers he just had inside her into the center of
her ice cream cone. She sits there for a nanosecond, then just continues to lick her ice cream. If past is prologue, then subtext is everything here: Kalinda is not afraid of a little, shall we say, pussy with her dessert. When The Good Wife cuts from the breakfast scene with Nick, where she tells him to clean up the mess, to Kalinda in bed with her FBI agent lover Lana (the luscious Jill Flint), and Lana comes up from under the sheet, we know that Kalinda really is over Nick, even though he is far from done with her. Kalinda has always appeared to swing both ways, but we’ve only ever seen her in bed with women, even though she uses her sexual powers to entice men into giving her the information she’s looking for in this or that case. When she leaves Lana’s apartment, with Lana standing on her balcony looking out at Kalinda, naked except for a sheet pulled around her, Nick is waiting outside. He doesn’t let her see him. But we see the look on his face. He is so not happy. When Kalinda goes to meet Lana at a bar the next night and Nick pops up behind Lana as if he’s just some nice guy she’s met and has been chatting with, Kalinda has had it. Kalinda pretends to go take a phone call, and Nick follows her. He stands in front of her and spits out, “Dyke!” She punches him right in the face, so hard he falls over. Ah, rough justice. Gotta love it, sometimes. We don’t hear the word “dyke” on TV much. In fact, we can’t remember the last time we heard it in a scripted TV series. It’s like the “n” word. But it does have dramatic power. When Nick says it to Kalinda, it’s violent, vicious, hateful. It’s the worst thing he can think of to say to her. But after he says it, she returns to Lana. The next day Nick tells her, “Stop with the college dorm stuff, I’m back now.” As if Kalinda’s lesbianism was just marking time until Nick hunted her down again. Except it’s real for her, no matter what sexual tension she might still feel with Nick. And so she says, once again, “Things are different now.” And we know they are. CBS seeks to change its failing grade with GLAAD by pumping up the gay on The Good Wife. Kalinda may be the only character playing out queer on the show since Alicia’s gay brother dropped off the storyline, but the show has had out gay actor Alan Cumming for several seasons (he’s magnificent) and added Nathan Lane this season. They have also brought in ER alum Maura Tierney, who plays a lesbian political strategist who in her very first appearance last week asked Alicia out for drinks. Lovely. Speaking of queer shows and showrunners, Ryan Murphy needs to pick one of his three shows and run with it. Glee has deteriorated terribly since Murphy has been putting his energy into The New Normal and American Horror Story. AHS is back for a second season, and the show that would have been cancelled one episode in on network is striving for an ever-moreedgy new season. Out queer actor Zachary Quinto is talking up the new season big time. We loved him on Heroes, and we really love him on AHS. He does creepy better than almost any actor on the small screen. If Murphy is going to pick a show, AHS is the one to focus on. But then turn Glee over to someone who will breathe life back into it. Because while a dozen people are watching AHS on FX, tons of teens who need the positive messaging of Glee are being set adrift on Fox. And that’s just wrong. That said, AHS has a luscious two-parter scripted for Halloween. And nothing says national gay holiday like a queer actor on a show by a queer showrunner, right? So you really must stay tuned.▼
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Read more online at www.ebar.com
October 25-31, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 37
Einstein on the Beach
From page 25
ergy is eternal delight.” The German scientist clearly unlocked its secrets and its dangers when he published his theory of relativity in Bern, Switzerland, in 1905. That theory had as much to do with time as speed, and Einstein’s greatest achievement may be how it toys with both, and keeps its audience with it all the way. Much has been made of how slowly things happen here – this is true of most of Wilson and Glass’ work – and how beautiful it is to look at, which isn’t surprising because Wilson paints miracles with light. But he also gets the look of the scientist down, with most of the cast, including the 12-member mixed chorus, and all 12 Childs dancers, dressed in Einstein’s trademark baggy pants, short-sleeved white shirts, braces, and sneakers. Kate Moran and Helga Davis, who replace Childs and Sheryl Sutton in the 1976 production and its revivals, will be dressed as Einstein, too. The violinist who “plays” the scientist sitting in a chair on the edge of the stage will be costumed as him, and performed
Lucie Jansch
Scene from Einstein on the Beach, presented by Cal Performances: rhythmic exactitude.
for the first time by a woman: the superb Korean-American virtuosa Jennifer Koh, whose part (think 20th-century Paganini) demands fierce concentration, rhythmic exactitude, and a tone both gritty and lyric. Still, Wilson’s “theatre of images” isn’t interested in providing a
story or plot, much less “answers.” The director has no truck with the “social problem” plays of Ibsen and what passes for “realistic” theatre today, and Glass has rightly called opera “a species of poetry.” Wilson’s The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973) and The Life
and Times of Sigmund Freud (1974) were called “silent operas” even when they used music, and Glass’ here, which varies dramatically in temperature and point, is supportive or front-and-center, but never follows or explains the action. What it all “means” is anyone’s guess.
Wilson likes to tell the story of how he once found himself sitting next to playwright Arthur Miller at an Einstein performance. “After about 20 minutes he turned to me and said, ‘What do you think about this? I don’t get it.’ And I said, ‘I don’t get it, either.’” This may sound like an artist evading responsibility for his work. But Glass, who was just awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale for music, has pointed out how Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s first opera together Four Saints in Three Acts (1927-34) attempted a similar Einstein thing when they invited the audience to “complete” it. The BAM audience paused hardly a nanosecond after the last note evaporated, and stood up and applauded like welcome thunder as the 65-member cast and crew (this is a very expensive show) and Wilson and Childs in black, Glass in baggy blue jeans and thin tan jacket, took their final curtain calls. And I was in tears.▼ Einstein on the Beach runs Fri.-Sun., Oct. 26-28, at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. Tickets: www.calperformances. org or (510) 642-9988.
Cory Weaver
Cory Weaver
Petra Lang (Ortrud) and Gerd Grochowski (Friedrich von Telramund) in San Francisco Opera’s Lohengrin.
SFO Chorus under choral director Ian Robertson in Act III of San Francisco Opera’s Lohengrin.
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Lohengrin From page 25
our own Wagner conservatives here, but there was little evidence of their disapproval on opening night. Most of the intermission buzz centered, rightfully, on the singers. As with any production of Wagner from any period, it is the musical performance that makes the experience, and this latest incarnation, the 12th at SFO since 1931, is solid enough to make us want to hear it again. There have been starrier casts and conductors before (OMG, Melchior and Flagstad with Reiner, in 1937), but current music director Nicola Luisotti, conducting the first Wagner opera of his own career, has marshaled the forces onstage (and dispersed throughout the auditorium) for a mightily impressive musical event. In his role debut as the titular knight, tenor Brandon Jovanovich certainly looks like the kind of guy who might arrive on a swan to save a damsel in distress. Following on his tremendous splash as Siegmund in the SFO’s most recent Die Walkure, the physically imposing and vocally gifted singer is more than ready for a full evening of Wagnerian ordeal. When he wiped his brow with a big “Phew” during his curtain call, the audience only raved more for his big night as the star. Jovanovich’s voice, even with the slightest trace of vibrato in the softest passages, is strong and pure enough to triumph in the part. His acting is mostly gen-
eralized (with occasional flashes of real passion), and his carriage seems even more modern than the period of the staging, but this Lohengrin is all man, and definitely of the earth. The character is often played as an emotionally uninvolved stranger from another spiritual plane. Jovanovich and Slater see him as a young man hot to get the girl. Forget all that immortality stuff; he’s in love. And the lady of his affections is Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund as Elsa von Brabant. Looking lovely and chaste in production designer Robert Innes Hopkins’ flattering costumes, Nylund makes the most of her character’s anguish and confusion. Elsa can be an irritating dunce, too easily led astray by devious advisors. Nylund comes across as a sweet and innocent girl genuinely heartbroken by the malevolent forces of her fate. Her experience in the part gives her added poise and a sense of nobility. There is a pleasing purity about her strong and clear tone that makes her Elsa especially sympathetic. German bass-baritone Gerd Grochowski returns to the stage of the SFO, after his successes in the Ring cycle and Janacek’s The Makropulos Case, as a surprisingly understandable bad guy, Friedrich von Telramund. Friedrich appears to be a really mean drunk at the mercy of a shrewish Ortrud. His wife is more Lady Macbeth than witch, however, and he goes to his own fate with an air of de-energized hypnotization. Mezzo-soprano Petra Lang is an-
other Wagnerian veteran, and she inhabits the evil Ortrud with venomous tone and conviction. The nasty old pagan aspects of the character are replaced by the director with a more matronly spitefulness that slightly diminishes her frightfulness. When she rushes in at the last moment to add a little more salt to Elsa’s wounds, it is almost laughable. Oh dear, not that tired old dame again! As King Heinrich, bass Kristinn Sigmundsson returns to the SFO after previously singing the role in Munich, Berlin and Madrid. He looks right for the part and he is a good actor, but his voice was weak at the bottom on opening night, and it proved the only negative vocal distraction of the night. Moving believably as a crowd throughout the functionalist, Soviet-style (albeit seedy and rundown) headquarters, the SFO Chorus under Ian Robertson sounded strong and often thrilling. The various horn players stationed throughout the theatre also added a visceral punch to the proceedings. Unfortunately, Luisotti opted for a very measured approach that was ponderous at times, and he built to the conclusion of each act with an overly careful control, robbing them of their usual power. The orchestra followed the conductor faithfully, and there were many moments of great beauty and detail. As Luisotti relaxes a bit throughout the run, we suspect his interpretation will burn
with more intensity. When the swan comes to the stage at the conclusion, morphed into Elsa’s missing brother – sorry for the spoiler, but that’s what got Lohengrin involved in the first place – Slater employs a tow-headed blonde boy in a brown uniform. Huh? I thought we were supposed
to be in the European Soviet mid50s. Who knows, maybe that’s why they booed the production in Geneva? Here in SF, the audience merely cooed at what a beautiful kid he was. That’s Wagner for you. Like all genius writers, no matter how controversial, he can stand a lot of interpretations.▼
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ite Marks Director Mark Bessenger’s Bite Marks is a delightful gay homage to the creature feature movies the filmmaker watched in his youth. The film stars openly gay actor Benjamin Lutz as Brewster, a redneck truck driver hauling a shipment of coffins to a funeral home. After he picks up a hitchhiking gay couple (Windham Beacham, David Alanson), we see that Brewster isn’t quite the straight, “chick-banging” dude he pretends to be. Things get really interesting when the bodies in the coffins turn out to be vampires. Bite Marks works as both horror and comedy, featuring genuine belly-laughs and some nice jolts. Though obviously shot on a low budget, it’s well made, and features strong performances from a cast that knows how to go for the laugh and when to play it “straight.” One amusing scene has the guys figuring out the best way to battle their undead opponents by discussing how these battles were won in their (and the director’s) favorite 1970s chillers. Fans of the 1985 cult classic Fright Night will enjoy seeing Stephen Geoffreys, who played the maniacal Evil Ed in that film. Geoffreys, now an openly gay Bay Area resident, spoofs his iconic role, even repeating his famous line, “Oh, Brewster!” Lou Cass, a late-80s gay porn star who managed to find post-porn work on prime time TV, is on hand as a doomed trucker who becomes dinner for one very hungry vampire. All About Evil Director Joshua Grannell is the kinder, gentler alter ego of monstrous drag diva Peaches Christ. Unlike other drag artists, Peaches’ persona isn’t rooted in classic Hollywood glamour, but rather in Bgrade horror and slasher flicks. Grannell’s All About Evil is an homage to everything in horror cinema that inspires the auteur’s work. Shot in SF, Evil stars Natasha Lyonne as Deb, the owner of the Victoria Theater, where much of All About Evil was shot. She’s turned the oncedying cinema into quite the happening place. After hours she kidnaps her own patrons and murders them on
camera, turning her snuff projects into wildly popular Midnight attractions. Thomas Dekker, a young actor “open” to bisexuality, plays Steven, a horror fan and Victoria patron who slowly uncovers the terrifying truth. Cult film buff Grannell obviously had a ball shooting this mad, grossout satire. The cast is sprinkled with some of his personal idols. Cassandra Peterson, as Steven’s Mom, is unrecognizable sans her Elvira Mistress of the Dark garb, though her voice is unmistakable. John Waters perennial Mink Stole is on hand as one of Lyonne’s victims. Patrick Bristow, who played the choreographer in Showgirls (1995), Grannell’s favorite film, is amusing as a Perez Hilton type. Everyone is a delight to behold. Grannell w was able to put on a sh show with the very p people whose work in inspires his own ccareer. He’s living eevery fan boy’s fanttasy. Fun factoid: tthe many B-movie p posters seen in the film gracing the w walls of the Victtoria Theater and SSteven’s bedroom aare now on disp play in Grannell’s h home. Pornography: A Thriller Directtor David Kittteridge’s bizarre cchiller combines elements of Hitchcock with a hint of the supernatural. It’s set in the dark world of gay porn. In 1993, after murdering the owner of the L.A. studio that employed him, burnt-out gay porn star Mark Anton (Jared Gray) disappears under mysterious circumstances. Nearly two decades later, upscale gay couple Michael and William (Matthew Montgomer, Walter Delmar) move into a fabulous loft in Brooklyn. They find themselves haunted by Anton’s disappearance, which seems to have a connection to their new home. The story is told in three separate segments, which at first appear to have no connection to each other, but are all tied to the terrifying night when Anton vanished. Some of the cast members double up as different characters – this wasn’t done as a cost cutting measure but is an integral part of Pornography’s mystery. Pornography might stand as the spookiest piece of gay cinema ever produced. It’s a complex jigsaw puzzle that requires intense concentration from viewers. Beautifully shot and well-acted, it’s a grand combo of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, The Haunting and indie gay filmmaking.▼
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