September 19, 2019 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 49 • No. 38 • September 19-25, 2019

Hong Kong Gay Games may be in jeopardy by Roger Brigham

Liz Highleyman

Robert Vasquez, left, joined Brenda Goodrow and Peter Staley outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco after last week’s hearing.

Advocates say Gilead broke antitrust laws by Liz Highleyman

group of advocates has filed a federal class action lawsuit against Gilead Sciences Inc. and its partner companies, alleging that they violated antitrust laws and established an HIV treatment monopoly by agreeing to combine their medications in exclusive coformulations. “It got to a point where a monopoly started happening in HIV antiretrovirals – 89% of newly infected people now take a Gilead drug,” lead plaintiff and longtime activist Peter Staley told the Bay Area Reporter. “They didn’t get there through research. They created one novel product in 1992, they bought up a few others, and they’ve been using teams of lawyers ever since to corner the market.” At an initial hearing in United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco September 5, the plaintiffs requested a jury trial and asked to begin the process of discovery, seeking a slew of legal and marketing documents and personal communications from Gilead and its co-defendants, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen (part of Johnson & Johnson), and Japan Tobacco. Contending that the lawsuit is baseless, lawyers for the defendants sought to have the case transferred to another judge and to delay providing documents. They argued that providing documentation spanning more than a decade would impose an undue burden. Judge Edward M. Chen denied both requests. “The lawsuit filed against Gilead and three companies we partnered with to develop new medicines distorts and misstates Gilead’s history and its collaborations with these partners,” Gilead said in a statement provided to the B.A.R. “Gilead believes this lawsuit and its antitrust allegations are without merit and we have therefore filed a motion to dismiss. The allegations against Gilead are misguided and do not accurately reflect antitrust laws or Gilead’s history of innovative collaboration and competition in HIV medicines.” Gilead, based in Foster City, is also the subject of unrelated legal actions by activists, including patent challenges against Truvada for PrEP and a lawsuit alleging that the company kept a new safer version of one of its drugs off the market until the patent was about to run out on the older version. See page 14 >>

hen Hong Kong was selected in 2017 to host the 2022 Gay Games, several Federation of Gay Games sports organizations and stakeholders expressed concerns that the changing political scene in the semi-autonomous Chinese province would complicate staging a successful event. Now, after months of seemingly nonstop clashes between Hong Kong police and prodemocracy protesters, many Gay Games supporters are doubting the quadrennial event can be held there at all – with some calling for a decision as soon as early November. “Canceling the Gay Games would be hugely disruptive and unfortunate,” Ken Craig, a local martial artist and board member of both Team San Francisco and International Association of Gay and Lesbian Martial Artists, wrote in an email. Craig said much would depend on the timing of such a move. “If the announcement was made early enough to prevent financial losses on the part of attendees, then it would simply be an organizational challenge for the Federation of Gay Games as to why the games could not be re-located,” he added. “If the games

Courtesy EPA-EFE

Protesters rally inside the arrivals hall of Hong Kong International Airport on August 9.

were canceled at the last minute, much as the Outgames in Florida were, it would be a catastrophe for LGBT international sporting events in general as it would encourage many to consider the FGG as inept and incapable as the (now-defunct) GLISA organization.” (The Gay and Lesbian International Sport

Association was the licensing body for the rival World Outgames, which began with an event in Montreal in 2006 that lost millions of dollars and ended with a last minute cancellation in 2017 of the event in Miami because of financial and organizational mismanagement, leaving thousands of LGBT See page 12 >>

Israel sends gay diplomat to SF

by Heather Cassell

an Francisco recently welcomed its latest gay diplomat. Matan Zamir, the deputy consul general of the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco, started his new post August 1. The consulate serves Israelis living in Northern California, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, according to its website. This is Zamir’s second posting in the United States. He spent four years in Boston before returning to Tel Aviv for a year, where he assisted with Israel hosting and promoting this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the global music festival that Israel won in 2018. He also worked with Tel Aviv Pride. Zamir, who turns 38 next week, and his American partner of nearly three years, Dylan Chuilli, 24, are excited to be in San Francisco. Zamir has already become a Warriors fan and the couple, who are avid wine connoisseurs, can’t wait to explore California’s wine country. As an interfaith couple – Chuilli is a nonpracticing Christian – Zamir told the Bay Area Reporter during an interview earlier this month that he looks forward to working with the San Francisco Bay Area’s large interfaith community. “One of the reasons I was extremely happy to come to San Francisco is because of the way that the community is working together,” said

Rick Gerharter

Matan Zamir is the new deputy consul general of Israel in San Francisco.

Zamir, who said he participated in Boston’s interfaith community. Zamir enjoys traveling the world and discovering new places and people. It is one of his favorite aspects of his job. “What I love the most is the opportunity to not only to visit a place, but to really live in it and get to know a culture that is extremely different than mine,” said Zamir. He is usually assigned diplomatic stints of up to five years. Zamir enjoys the “sense of freedom” San Fran-

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

cisco represents, which he said is similar to Boston and Tel Aviv.

Vision and goals

Zamir has three main goals he wants to accomplish in his new role as the consulate’s second-incommand. He wants to highlight shared Israeli and American values and work on business, especially entrepreneurship and technology; cultural exchanges; and humanitarian work. Israel is known as the “startup nation” due to the See page 13 >>

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

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ne of the more visible elements of the under construction Eagle Plaza public parklet will be dedicated Sunday, September 22, at the culmination of the annual Leather Walk. At around 2 p.m. a dedication ceremony will be held for a new 80-foot flagpole at the Harrison Street entrance to the plaza, which has design features celebrating the city’s leather and LGBTQ communities. Plaza backers will raise a brand new 25 foot by 15 foot leather pride flag. Located in front of the Eagle, whose flagpole and leather

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flag can be seen in the above photo, the bar will be hosting an expanded beer bust Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. and will be closing Harrison Street between Division and 11th Street for the party. That stretch of Harrison will be closed to vehicle traffic for the free, 21-and-older event featuring beer and cocktail service, booths, and entertainment. As for the $1.85 million plaza, it should open later this year. The 12,500 square foot parklet is being built on 12th Street between Harrison and Bernice streets.

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ast year, thousands of leathermen danced in a fort by the sea. The year before, they danced in an armory run by Kink.com. This year, no former military structures will become kinky dance halls because Magnitude, the opening dance party of the Folsom Street Fair, has been canceled. A new opening party, Full Fetish, will take its place. It appears that cost was a factor in Magnitude’s demise. Neither Patrick Finger, executive director of Folsom Street Events, which produces the leather extravaganza and Magnitude, nor other staff responded to a request for comment from the Bay Area Reporter. But Finger explained to reporters at The Fight magazine that, “the big reason is cost.” Finger claimed the rental fees of the spaces that used to host the party cost between $50,000-$75,000 and that the expenses for soundstages, lighting, dance floors, and other equipment were high as well. Last year, Magnitude, the proceeds of which go to charity, lost money for the first time, according to The Fight. FSE also had difficulty finding a

Courtesy FSE

Magnitude, the former opening dance party of the Folsom Street Fair, is being replaced with the smaller Full Fetish event this year.

space that would allow what Finger called, “getting frisky.” Low attendance may have also contributed to the dance’s cancellation. Finger told The Fight that the dance had “approximately 2,500 attendees.” Advertisements on the Fort Mason center website for the dance last year say, “join more than 3,000 of the hottest leathermen from around the globe.”

The Folsom Street Fair, set for Sunday, September 29, is the world’s largest leather and BDSM festival. Attendees from all over the world don assless chaps, rubber masks, or nothing all. Attractions at the fair include electronic dance music, vendors selling fetish gear and adult toys, live demonstrations, and erotic art. All the proceeds go to charities, See page 13 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

Volume 49, Number 38 September 19-25, 2019 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith Sari Staver • Tony Taylor • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937

Sex crimes and punishment

ne gay state lawmaker’s effort to treat young sex offenders equally was torpedoed last month by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) who chairs the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee. On August 30, Gonzalez killed a bill for this session that would have – finally – ensured that LGBT adolescents are treated the same as their heterosexual peers when faced with the possibility of being listed on the state’s sex offender registry. For those young queer people caught up in the criminal justice system on sex-related charges, SB 145 would have granted judges the discretion to decide if a person should be registered as a sex offender if that person is within 10 years of age of a consensual sexual partner between the ages of 14 and 17 and engages in oral or anal intercourse with the younger person. Under current law, that person would be added automatically to the state’s sex offender registry. But for cases in which consensual sex involves vaginal intercourse between an adolescent heterosexual couple, judges have the discretion to decide if listing on the sex offender registry is warranted. Not surprisingly, the bill is being used for political ends and is a point of contention in a state Senate race. Although Wiener’s bill had the support of the California District Attorney’s Association and California Police Chief’s Association, one of the detractors was Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse, who was featured in an ad by Democratic Modesto City Councilman Mani Grewal. Grewal, who is running for state Senate, falsely claimed that SB 145 would have prevented registering adults who molest children as sex offenders. (Grewal has since removed the ad.) Grewal is running against lesbian state Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (DStockton) for the state’s 5th Senate District seat in Stanislaus and

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While SB 145 had become a political football in the state Senate race, it’s still incumbent on Gonzalez to explain why she refused to move the bill out of appropriations. In a statement sent Tuesday, she told us: “When the Appropriations Committee deems a bill to be twoyear legislation, it’s a signal that the idea merits further development because it’s a good idea. It’s my expressed interest and the author agreed that the registry system needs to be reformed so that it is equitable between all sexual orientations but also better protects victims in younger age ranges. Because it’s a bit more complicated than attaching simple amendments to the legislation at the 11th hour of the year, SB 145 will require an overhaul of complicated penal code sections that will take more time. Once we make all the necessary changes, this will be moved to the floor for a full vote.” Last month, EQCA took the unusual tact of publicly calling out Gonzalez about her decision. “Today, we are extremely disappointed with Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Lorena Gonzalez for allowing an outdated law that discriminates against LGBTQ people to remain on the books,” EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur stated August 30. “Law enforcement, sexual assault survivors, and civil rights groups alike support this bipartisan bill because it would make California’s sex offender registry more effective and end blatant anti-LGBTQ discrimination.” Wiener told us he specifically introduced the bill during a nonelection year after conversations with his colleagues. Now with Gonzalez’s action making it a two-year bill, it’s headed for hearings and votes next year, which is an election year. For too long, young LGBTQs, particularly gay men, have been punished more severely than straight peers for consensual sex when they were younger. Wiener’s bill would correct that. Wiener told us last month that he’s committed to bringing the bill back in the next legislative session. Gonzalez should get on board or get out of the way. t

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San Joaquin counties, and his comments about SB 145 were labeled as homophobic by Equality California and LGBT leaders. EQCA has been seeking an apology from Grewal and asking those Democrats who have backed his Senate bid to rescind their endorsements. Recently, the Legislature’s Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus did just that. EQCA announced Monday that state Senator Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) and the California Legislative API Caucus withdrew their endorsements of Grewal because he employed homophobic campaign tactics and falsely smeared pro-equality legislation in a campaign ad. Grewal told the Stockton Record that SB 145 “would allow a 21-year-old man to molest his 11-year-old daughter.” That’s false. The bill aligns sex offender registration requirements for LGBTQ young people with those of their straight counterparts. As EQCA noted in a news release, “The bill would not apply to a young adult who has any type of sex with an 11-year-old.” Lesbian state Senator Cathleen Galgiani (DStockton), who is listed at the top of Grewal’s campaign website, has resisted EQCA’s request to withdraw her endorsement. Interestingly, the site also lists Gonzalez as a supporter right under Galgiani.

e’ve made incredible progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS over the past several decades, but the fight is far from over. There are more than 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States, and communities of color and LGBTQ people continue to be disproportionately impacted by the epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the nearly 40,000 Americans diagnosed with HIV each year, African Americans account for 43% of HIV diagnoses. African American gay and bisexual men account for the largest number of diagnoses, with Latinx gay and bisexual men not far behind. In 2017, among women, women of color accounted for 80% of new diagnoses, with black women accounting for 59%. An estimated 15% of people living with HIV in the United States are unaware of their status. These very real health disparities can be seen in my congressional district. Alameda County, which I represent, was identified by the CDC as one of the 48 counties across the country with the highest number of new HIV diagnoses. There were more than 6,417 people living with HIV in Alameda County in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. From 2015 to 2017, 38.2% of people newly diagnosed with HIV in my district were African American, and 26.9% were Latinx, compared with 22% for whites. Of these, 1,027 were women – 84% of those women were women of color. Stigma continues to play a role in preventing people living with HIV, or those at risk of contracting the disease, from getting the care they need. With nearly 40,000 new HIV diagnoses a year, one thing is clear: HIV remains a national public health crisis. We know we have the tools to end the HIV epidemic in the United States – but we need the attention and resources to do it. That’s why I’m proud that the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020) will be cohosted by Oakland and San Francisco next year.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Congresswoman Barbara Lee waves as she rides in the Oakland Pride parade September 8.

It’s important to lift up the phenomenal work of the community advocates who fight to address the HIV epidemic in the East Bay every day, as well as highlight the work that still must be done, especially in minority communities. But it’s not just Oakland. That’s why I continue to fight for increased federal spending to address this issue nationwide. As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I fought for $500 million for the first year of the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative – nearly twice the level that the Administration requested – and an over $100 million increase for critical programs like the Ryan White CARE Act program and the Minority AIDS Initiative. As someone who has worked to address the global HIV epidemic my entire career, I welcomed the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative and believe it is a step in the right direction. However, we cannot truly end the HIV epidemic in the United States without also addressing factors such as stigma and discrimination – and anti-LGBTQ and other counterproductive Trump administration policies that undermine

the goal of ending the HIV epidemic. The Affordable Care Act has been critical to ensuring that people living with HIV can get access to the treatment they need, but President Donald Trump has fought tirelessly to undo this legislation. His administration has undermined efforts at comprehensive, evidenced-based sex-education and re-education on HIV and AIDS. Trump has also proposed significant budget cuts to crucial programs like the Medicaid and the Ryan White CARE program. We know that it will take increased federal resources and coordination on the state, local, and community levels to reach our shared goal of ending the HIV epidemic. We have to address that if we are going to finally end the HIV epidemic in the United States. We are so close to ending the HIV epidemic in this country, and together, I know we can do it. t Barbara Lee represents California’s 13th District in Congress, which includes Oakland and other East Bay communities. She is a co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus and has authored or co-authored every major piece of HIV/AIDS legislation since entering Congress in 1998.

Politics>>

t SF D5 supervisor candidates split on transit issues

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

by Matthew S. Bajko

he two leading candidates in San Francisco’s heated contest for the District 5 supervisor seat both are vocal critics of the city’s mass transit system and its less-than-stellar service in the Haight, Cole Valley, and Fillmore neighborhoods. In separate editorial board meetings with the Bay Area Reporter this month, both Supervisor Vallie Brown and tenants rights activist Dean Preston told of waiting at Muni stops and being unable to board either a cramped bus or packed N-Judah subway car headed toward downtown. They both related how their fellow stranded passengers resorted to taking private transit options instead. “They were going to ride Muni, and then they just peel off one, two, right, and start getting into cars, because they have to get to work on time or their kids to school on time, you know, or a doctor’s appointment, whatever it is. And right there, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Brown, who was appointed to the seat last year after her predecessor and former boss, London Breed, became mayor. It is why Brown said one of her first actions as supervisor was to call for a hearing “about pretty much why Muni sucks, right?” A key finding that came out of the hearing, recalled Brown, was that the starting salary for Muni drivers was below the $46,500 threshold needed to qualify for below-market-rate housing in the city. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency would train people to be public transit drivers and those new recruits would then be hired by other area transit systems that pay more, noted Brown, contributing to Muni’s shortfall in having enough bus drivers and train operators each day. It led to a new contract for Muni operators approved in May that boosted their pay rates and significantly shortened the time it takes for new drivers to receive raises. The aim is to fill the 400 open operator positions Muni had last year. “There’s not enough drivers to drive the trains and buses. They’re sitting in the yards,” Brown said. When asked about his ideas for fixing Muni, Preston replied, “I’m laughing because I’ve been riding the N-Judah every day for 26 years, and I haven’t seen it worse.” He argued the agency’s reported on-time performance for routes is misleading because it doesn’t factor in those times when buses or trains are unable to stop and take on more passengers. It is an issue he has witnessed firsthand all year as he has campaigned for the supervisor seat, which he came close to winning when he ran against Breed in 2016. “So many of these on-time buses, you just can’t get on, and that’s not factored in,” said Preston. “Muni does not even look at the overcrowding issue. It’s like, it’s like, probably the biggest thing that impacts riders, that’s not even factored in, in anything I’ve ever seen.” The two electoral opponents differ, though, on several solutions that have been floated to address improving SFMTA. One would see appointments to the SFMTA’s oversight body be split between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors. Currently, the mayor appoints all seven members of the SFMTA board, which is searching to hire a permanent director of the agency. Voters in 2016 rejected a ballot measure that would have given the supervisors a minority number of seats to fill on the SFMTA board. The idea continues to be talked about, especially with frustration about Muni’s problems at a boil

Rick Gerharter

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

District 5 Supervisor Vallie Brown

District 5 supervisor candidate Dean Preston

among both elected leaders and riders. Preston told the B.A.R. that he believes the SFMTA board appointments should not be entirely in the domain of the mayor. “Yes, I think at minimum split appointments. What I’m undecided on is whether there’s a role for having elected positions as well or not,” said Preston, though he noted he isn’t aware of an effort to return to the ballot to require that. “But definitely just having mayoral appointees has not been a successful formula.” But Brown cautioned against ignoring the will of the voters from three years ago, even though as a supervisor she would like to have more say over the city agency. “I just don’t, you know, like with any commission or any department, I don’t want to have us, you know, kind of tear them apart where they can’t really do their job,” she said. “They need to do their job and not have the politicians go, you know, slugging it out with them. But as a supervisor, yeah, I’d like to have a say in that. Sure.” Preston is working with local leaders who are eying next November’s ballot to bring a measure before voters that would likely tax large corporations with annual revenues of at least $50 million in order to raise an estimated $300 million a year for Muni. Half of the funds could be for infrastructure needs and salaries, with $100 million used to reduce fares and the remaining $50 million for bicycle and pedestrian improvements. “When you make public transit cheaper, or even eventually free, as some European cities have done, you’re going to have way more people on it so you’ve got to be really ready with the infrastructure improvements to get there,” said Preston, who pledged if elected he would work with backers of the measure to come up with a final proposal for the ballot. Brown was noncommittal when asked about the Muni tax proposal, saying she needs to look at the final measure first. “We’ve got to have Muni safe. We’ve got to have Muni reliable,” said Brown, “and I don’t think, I’m not sure if $300 million is going to make it that way.” She suggested a better approach could be having a wealth tax, where the city would tax people on what they are worth, including their stock holdings and other income, instead of a tax based on people’s paychecks, since she pointed out many wealthy people pay themselves fairly little. More immediately, Brown would like to see more police ride Muni instead of their squad cars. And while Preston is calling on the city to move to a completely free Muni system for all riders, Brown cautioned against doing so other than the current free rides offered to students, se-

niors, and people with disabilities. “I just don’t see how it’s going to be free and be reliable,” she said of Muni. “I don’t want to, like, have free Muni and then have it go down and then it’s not reliable because, guess what, people won’t take it even if it’s free.” One transit issue Preston and Brown do agree on is with the city’s prohibition against Uber and Lyft drivers using the red-only transit lanes set aside for Muni vehicles and licensed taxis. Brown told the B.A.R. that the point of the red zones is “to make Muni faster” and allowing the 30,000plus car-share vehicles on the roads to use them would “be a mess.” Preston agreed and said city leaders should be doing more to reign in the rideshare companies, from pressing state lawmakers to pass legislation giving cities the authority to cap the number of such vehicles on the roads to taking other actions they currently do have the power to pursue now, such as suing the companies for violating local traffic laws.

SF bans Iowa travel, contracts

As expected, San Francisco is adding Iowa to the city’s travel and contracting ban due to adopting anti-LGBT legislation. According to the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, the ban will be effective as of October 4. It follows the decision by California to no longer allow taxpayer funds to be used for state employees to travel to Iowa due to the state’s implementation of a discriminatory transgender law. As the B.A.R. reported online Friday, September 13, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is making the Hawkeye State the 11th state on the banned travel list. The state’s prohibition on Iowa travel will also take effect October 4. It is due to the enactment by Iowa lawmakers of House File Bill No. 766 (HF 766) on May 3. The bill repealed existing protections under the Iowa Civil Rights Act that previously ensured Medicaid coverage for genderaffirming care. The new law makes it clear that coverage for this care is no longer required in Iowa, according to Becerra’s office. San Francisco maintains its own banned list of states that have adopted anti-LGBT laws since 2015 that mirrors the state’s “no-fly” list. The local ban however not only prohibits taxpayer-funded travel but also restricts city agencies from contracting with businesses based in those states.t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on the decision to delay state legislation aimed at protecting transgender inmates to the 2020 legislative session.

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

South Bay supes OK hate crimes task force by Heather Cassell

South Bay task force on hate crimes became a reality after the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to establish it. The 5-0 vote came September 10. The task force will be charged with working with government agencies, community organizations, and individuals to tackle violence against vulnerable communities. Board of Supervisors Vice President Cindy Chavez proposed the task force following the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting in July where three people were killed and 17 others were injured. The gunman killed himself. At their meeting, the supervisors all expressed a desire to move quickly, but also to work with federal to local government agencies and community organizations in an effort to discover the best ways to gather data, encourage people to report incidents, and address hate crimes. According to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s 2018 “Hate Crime in California” report, 58 hate crime incidents were reported throughout Santa Clara County, with 37 of those occurring in San Jose. In 2017, to total number of reported hate crimes countywide was 57. Of those 57 incidents, 45 happened in San Jose. In 2016, the total number of reported hate crimes was 40, of which 19 occurred in San Jose. ABC7 News noted that there have been at least 19 reported hate crime incidents in San Jose so far this year. Hate crimes are defined by the San Jose Police Department as “any criminal act or attempted act intended to frighten, harm, injure, intimidate or harass an individual, in whole or in part, because of the victim’s actual or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion or sexual

Heather Cassell

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Vice President Cindy Chavez’s, left, proposed Hate Crimes Task Force was approved at the board’s September 10 meeting.

“We know that hate is a large overwhelming sentiment that will take the entire community to work toward ending” –James Gonzales, LGBT liaison, SJPD

orientation.” Officials didn’t have the breakdown of the hate crime statistics (i.e. LGBTQI, race, ethnicity, etc.) in Santa Clara County or San Jose when the Bay Area Reporter asked. LGBT community leaders applauded the supervisors’ move to establish the task force. “We know that hate is a large overwhelming sentiment that will take

the entire community to work toward ending,” said James Gonzales, a gay San Jose police officer who is the LGBT liaison for the department. “We are happy to have all the help we can get; the task force bringing the community together to focus on this is a good thing.” Mike Gonzalez, the division manager for the Division of Equity & Social Justice who is also currently

serving as the interim director of immigrant relations at the Santa Clara County Executive Office, was pleased with the vote. “I was very happy to hear the vote today and really look at the support that we can provide moving forward,” said the 34-year-old gay man outside of the supervisors’ chambers after the meeting. He said he is ready to put the seven offices under his purview to work to assist the newly forming Hate Crimes Task Force. “We are seeing more division among our communities and we really want to ensure that we can build upon protecting our community,” he said. “Our job now as a county is to come up with recommendations and strategies that we can bring to the board,” he added. Gonzales told the B.A.R. that the police know “these crimes are underreported,” not just for the LGBT community, but other vulnerable communities.

“We are hearing stories and anecdotes of [these issues happening in the LGBT and trans community specifically], yet we know these people aren’t actually coming to the police,” said Gonzales. “We are not seeing those in our reporting numbers”. Gonzalez, the equity and social justice division manager, shared a personal story. “I have been a victim of a hate crime as well, not recently, but back then when it happened in downtown San Jose, I didn’t report it because I didn’t want to put myself out there to be a victim,” he said. “No one ever wants to be a victim,” he continued. It’s an issue that the city’s police department is actively working on improving through its LGBT advisory committee and community listening sessions. The San Jose Police Department had a strong presence at last month’s Silicon Valley Pride and launched a Safe Place program (www.ebar.com/news/ news//281016). These actions will make it easier for people to find safety and report when they are being attacked, officials said. “We are going to try to get out there to understand why that is and try to make people feel more comfortable in doing so,” Gonzalez said. SJPD’s Gonzales hopes that the Safe Place program will continue to spread throughout San Jose. “That will be a big help in addressing underreporting of all hate crimes,” he said. Gonzales said that officials need to figure out a way to empower people, erase societal stigmas around being victims of a crime, create victim allies for support, and “ensure that people are protected” when they do report a hate crime. t

Community News>>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Film on SF’s Central Market Street to premiere by Matthew S. Bajko

“We’ve got Twitter and down the street homeless crackheads.”

here is a brief moment toward the end of the documentary “5 Blocks” where an anonymous woman can be heard screaming “Get off my block!” in the background of a shot showing traffic on Market Street near the intersection of Eighth Street. The street-life vignette is easy to miss in the 47-minute film by directors Dan Goldes and the late Robert Cortlandt, friends who met at a weekly gay country western dance party. Yet the verbal directive encapsulates in four words what is at the heart of the film. Begun in 2011 as city, civic, arts, and business leaders brought renewed attention to the gritty stretch of Central Market Street between Fifth and 10th streets, the film explores the tension at play in those efforts to attract new investment and businesses to the corridor while at the same time not pushing out the residents, nonprofits, and artists who have long called it home. “The affordable housing in the neighborhood, generally speaking, is protected by law. So the question becomes how do you create a neighborhood that works for a very low-income population and a very high-income population at the same time,” said Goldes, referring to the many single-room-occupancy hotels in the area. “I think that has always been the challenge. That is not new.” The film tracks the decline of the once thriving theater district in the heart of San Francisco to the building of the regional BART transit system in the 1960s that saw Market Street dug up to install the underground tunnels for the interurban subway. The construction resulted in a slew of locally owned businesses shuttering and many of the theaters either torn down or turned into adult movie houses. Over the next five decades there was little that changed on those five blocks of Market Street, a place most residents and tourists went out of their way to avoid. Many residents who called it home felt ignored by City Hall. Things began to change in 2011 when the late Mayor Ed Lee and former District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim championed a tax break for businesses willing to relocate to Mid-Market and bring with them new jobs. For doing so, they would be exempt from the city’s 1.5% payroll tax until the incentive expired in May of this year. It became known as the Twitter tax, since the social media company dropped plans to move out of the city and instead moved into the top floors of the renovated former furniture mart building between Ninth and 10th streets. Over the tax’s eight years businesses saved a total of $70.1 million and added 10,000 new employees to the area. Central Market’s commercial vacancy rate declined from 25% to 4%, while 4,333 new housing units were built, with 25% designated as affordable. Whether the tax benefited the city or merely super-charged the gentrification of the surrounding neighborhoods remains open for debate, and is a question left unanswered by the filmmakers. “My way of answering that question when we thought about making this film is the Twitter tax exemption piece was just one of lots of things going on down there. That’s really what interested us,” said Goldes. “There was this movement that had a city policy piece: the tax exemption. But it also had this economic strategy tied to it that included using the arts as a way to revitalize the neighborhoods.” When they began filming in 2011,

at the age of 57, leaving Goldes to complete their film. It will have its premiere, dedicated to Cortlandt, at 1 p.m. Sunday, September 29, at the Roxie Theater as part of this year’s San Francisco Green Film Festival, where it’s a finalist for the Green Fire jury award. “There is no doubt that there are changes in the neighborhood. There are more people, more housing, and still more being built,” said Goldes. “And so, in that sense, obviously things have changed. Some would say that is a positive, some would say that is a negative.” He hopes viewers of the film will come to realize that any city planning process is going to be complex and come with both benefits and difficulties. “It is not linear and sometimes messy,” said Goldes, adding that, “generally speaking people have good intentions but those people are coming from different perspectives when they do this kind of a project.” Tickets for the premiere showing of the film at the SF Green Film Festival can be purchased online at https://www.greenfilmfest.org/. t

–Sylvester Guard, in “5 Blocks” Courtesy Dan Goldes

“5 Blocks” producers and directors Dan Goldes, left, and the late Robert Cortlandt stand near construction of the American Conservatory Theater Strand performance space along Mid-Market while filming their documentary.

recalled Goldes, there was no guarantee that anything would happen along that portion of the city’s main thoroughfare. The filmmakers at first thought they would spend the next five years following residents, arts leaders, city officials, business leaders and others in order to document what changes, if any, would be brought to bare. “There was some sense we would

spend time documenting a project that might never happen, so we didn’t quite know what we were getting into,” said Goldes, 57, who lives in the city’s Glen Park neighborhood, a short BART ride away from Mid-Market. Rather quickly it became apparent that the tax break was having an impact. Not only were businesses drawn to Mid-Market, develop-

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POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including: } Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section. } Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY. } Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY. } Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. } Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain. } The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%). These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

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<< Community News

t Bi blind writer discusses the disability experience 10 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

by Belo Cipriani

ward-winning author and bisexual, blind writer Caitlin Hernandez grew up in the 1990s – a time when adaptive technology, such as electronic Braille notetakers, were in their infancy. The web was just budding and digital accessibility was not in the forefront for many organizations. Likewise, at an early age she discovered that access to characters with disabilities in books was scarce. “Generally, though,” said Her-

nandez, “I could only find disabled characters written by disabled authors in nonfiction and memoirs, such as Erik Weihenmayer’s ‘Touch the Top of the World,’ which I read countless times just to find that disability representation.” While she could find solace in the works of young adult authors like Beverly Cleary, Lois Lowry, Bruce Coville, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, and J.K. Rowling, in fiction Hernandez often found disabled characters to be horribly inaccurate or vaguely problematic. Today, in 2019, she is happy to see

some improvements being made by the publishing world. “I’m a big young-adult fan – it’s what I love to read and write – and I’m delighted to see that #ownvoices representation of disability is on the rise. I’m currently reading and loving ‘The Silence Between Us,’ by Alison Gervais, and I loved Kody Keplinger’s blind character of color in ‘That’s Not What Happened.’”

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But while Hernandez, 29, admits there have been some advances made for disability inclusion in literature, she is also quick to point out there is still some work to be done. “What we often find, unfortunately, are books which either glorify disability or make it pitiable,” she said. “They’re often written to make non-disabled readers, especially children, feel inspired or overly sympathetic. ‘Wonder’ [by R.J. Palacio] is an example which is still garnering a lot of attention, especially after the movie adaptation, which failed to cast an actor with a facial difference.” The book is about a child who has a craniofacial condition. “Simply put,” she continued, “we [people with disabilities] know our experiences best. No matter how much research an author does or how many people they know, they cannot tell a story with as much accuracy, honesty, and heart as we can. It is their responsibility, as an author, to name this truth. This isn’t at all to say that authors should never write outside their own, lived experience; rather, they should use their platform to both acknowledge those marginalized folks who have done the work to educate them, and to amplify the voices of those living in the margins they’re writing about.” Hernandez currently belongs to a writing group of four blind women – who meet via teleconference – that has proved to be a catalyst for her in many ways. “They’re each so warm, caring, and accomplished in multiple ways, and I absolutely love having the chance to commiserate with and learn from

Jack Sanders/Face paint: Haley Brown, www.haleybrown.org

Caitlin Hernandez is beaming as she wears rainbow face paint with stars, dots, and flower petals.

them, not just about writing, but about both our unique and shared experiences as blind women,” she said. t Caitlin Hernandez will be reading from her work Wednesday, September 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the Notre Dame de Namur University Welcome Center, located at 1500 Ralston Avenue in Belmont, California; Thursday, September 26, at 6 p.m. at the Holy Names University library at 3500 Mountain Boulevard in Oakland; and Monday, September 30, at 7 p.m. at Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street in San Francisco. Full disclosure: Caitlin Hernandez is a contributing author to a book edited by Belo Cipriani. Belo Miguel Cipriani is an awardwinning author, prize-winning journalist, and the CEO of Oleb Media – an accessibility firm. Learn more at www.olebmedia.com.

The Plumas County Gay-Straight Alliance’s float in the Plumas Sierra County Fair took second place honors in August.

Plumas County hosts 1st Pride event

by Cynthia Laird

he LGBT community in and around the Northern California city of Quincy is hosting its first Plumas Pride event this weekend. The seat of Plumas County, located in the Sierra between Lassen and Tahoe national forests, will be the site of a block party, drag shows, parade, and festival. The festivities kick off Friday, September 20, at 6 p.m. with a family-friendly block party and drag show hosted by the Drunk Brush Wine Bar and the Knook restaurant in the city’s Grover Alley. The parade will kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday, September 21, followed by a “Come One – Come All” celebration in the town’s Dame Shirley Plaza at 2 with entertainment,

vendors, and food trucks. The Pride event draws to a close at 9 p.m. with a 21-and-over “After Party” at the Main Street Sports Bar, which is hosting a drag show that night. The Pride festival is being organized by the Plumas County Gay-Straight Alliance with the support of the Plumas Crisis Intervention Resource Center. It has drawn mixed reactions on social media in the conservative county, with some residents hailing it as a sign of progress and others questioning why it is needed. The inaugural LGBT celebration is unlikely to draw many residents from the Bay Area, as Quincy is roughly a five-hour drive from San See page 13 >>

Queer Reading>>

t Book reconsiders pioneering gay reporter Shilts by Brian Bromberger

t has been 25 years since brash gay journalist Randy Shilts died of AIDS. Now, a biography of him has finally been written by fellow journalist Andrew E. Stoner, assistant professor of communication studies at California State University, Sacramento. Despite Shilts remaining a lightning rod within the LGBTQ community, Stoner, in “The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts” (University of Illinois Press), has attempted to put his career and achievements into historical perspective, arguing his work is neither dated nor irrelevant. Characterizing the biography as a critical reconsideration of Shilts, Stoner sees him as the archetypal journalist, who lived it out both professionally and personally, such that at his memorial service at Glide Memorial Church, his assistant, Linda Alband, pasted a copy of his San Francisco Chronicle press pass on his wooden casket. Born in 1951, raised in Aurora, Illinois in a religious and politically conservative family with an alcoholic mother, Shilts studied journalism at the University of Oregon in Eugene. He became managing editor of the Oregon Daily Emerald, the student newspaper. He ran for student body president as an openly gay candidate – he lost – but became president of the Eugene Gay People’s Alliance, the gay student group. Graduating in 1975, he became a staff writer for the Advocate and quit when he refused owner David Goodstein’s request to attend a weeklong ESTlike session. Shilts moved to San Francisco in 1971. He became a reporter for KQED television for three years as well as Oakland’s KTVU station for a year. In 1982, the San Francisco Chronicle hired him, making him the first openly gay reporter for a mainstream American newspaper, as well as the first to cover the LGBTQ community full time. He was made a national correspondent in 1988 and, in his final year, an occasional commentator. He had already angered LGBTQ activists by writing articles on out of control sexually transmitted disease rates before AIDS appeared. He published “The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk” in 1982 as much about the cultural and political rise of the LGBTQ community as a biography of Milk. Shilts began covering AIDS from the very start and his 1981-1985 articles on the disease were ranked #44 on the Top 100 Works of Journalism in the 20th century by New York University. While eventually accepted by the staff at the Chronicle, he still faced workplace discrimination; when he introduced the idea of domestic partnership benefits at a NewsGuildCWA meeting, a colleague shouted to him, “Sit down, you little faggot!” and no one defended Shilts. His 1987 bestseller “And the Band Played On” was the first serious attempt to chronicle the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., indicting the federal government, the medical establishment, and even gay organizations ignoring the epidemic in its first five years. Nominated for a National Book Award it was made into an HBO movie in 1993. His third and final book was another bestseller, “Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military,” which he considered his definitive work on homophobia, detailing the persecution of gay and lesbian soldiers. The book was central to the 1993 debate on the issue during the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration, which led to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” compromise, later repealed in 2010. Shilts learned he was HIV-positive on the day he finished the “Band”

manuscript, though Stoner suspects he knew even earlier, but fearing his illness would overshadow his reporting and not wanting to be labeled an AIDS activist, he didn’t publicly reveal his illness till February 1993. He became so ill his editor, Michael Denneny, had to finish the final section of “Conduct Unbecoming” from Shilts’ notes. He died of the disease in February 1994 at age 42. Stoner’s book began as his doctoral thesis at Colorado State University, drawing on over 100 interviews, including Shilts’ family and former lovers, as well as research from Shilts’ archive at the San Francisco Public Library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center. It covers his recovery from alcohol and drug addiction in the early 1980s, his trailblazing journey in the newsroom, and the criticism he endured both during his life and since his death, both within and beyond the LGBTQ community. Stoner, 55, had a conversation about his book with the Bay Area Reporter via email. When asked why he decided to pick Shilts both as the subject of his dissertation and then as a book, Stoner wrote, “Like most people, I knew Randy Shilts only from his books. I was particularly impressed with ‘And the Band Played On’ and ‘The Mayor of Castro Street.’ Both of them not only spoke to me as a young gay man trying to figure my way in 1980s America (I was an undergraduate in Indiana between 1982-86), but also my dreams of being a journalist. I would say his career ascendency as an openly gay man gave me hope.”

Criticized by the community

According to Stoner’s book, Shilts was severely criticized by the LGBTQ community, foremost for advocating closing gay bathhouses in San Francisco as a way of containing the spread of AIDS. Gay men felt at the time that this was a betrayal of the sexual freedom for which they had fought so hard. Stoner writes in the book that guys would spit on Shilts on Castro Street and the late Bob Ross, the founding publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, called him a traitor to his own kind. Stoner was asked how he was able to craft a sympathetic portrait of someone perceived personally (rightly or wrongly) as negative. “Learning that Randy was not universally loved was a bit of a discovery to me,” Stoner wrote in the email. “I knew little of his personality or life when I started out. It was very obvious, however, that he could rub people the wrong way, he could start shit with the best of them, and give as good as he thought he was getting. At the same time, he sometimes would think himself a victim (even in the midst of a back-and-forth that he may have even started). I think it is very hard to be the first of anything – there aren’t that many of those anymore. Being the first openly gay man reporting on gay subjects at a daily newspaper (not a gay paper) was wrought with requisite conflicts. Consider, some of the same subjects he wrote for the Advocate that he later covered for the Chronicle were OK in the former place, and an abomination in the latter.” Stoner’s book reveals that there were also charges from the LGBTQ community that Shilts was a hypocrite, for example, complaining how dehumanizing gay bars were yet patronizing them (“standing around like a tramp waiting for someone to pick you up”); wanting to close down bathhouses after working in one (the Majestic in downtown Portland, 1974) and using them for his own pleasures; and later attacking outing when he had engaged in the practice. “All of this contradiction and remaining conflict is why I think a re-

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

“The Journalist of Castro Street” author Andrew E. Stoner

consideration of Shilts is valuable from a variety of perspectives,” Stoner wrote in the email. “My hope is that I’ve honestly reported these things – and even tried to give context. On outing, for example, Shilts said he favored it only for people in political power who exposed anti-gay positions. His bathhouse viewpoint changed as conditions changed – which is why I question whether he truly did not know of his HIV status as he wrote ‘Band’ – and articles in the same era for the Chronicle. Finally, I think his stated loathing of gay bars probably is an artifact of his growing struggles with sobriety, and the battles he engaged with bathhouse owners and bar owners.”

Dispelling myths

Shilts believed that if he could only report the reality of gay life to the straight world, then the absurd myths it held about LGBTQ people would be dispelled. Stoner was asked whether this was idealistic. “I think his early viewpoints on this were terribly naïve, and I cannot help but think that the ongoing drumbeat

“The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts” reconsiders the gay reporter.

of vitriol and hatred from some people would have killed this viewpoint once and for all,” Stoner wrote. “It’s sad to me that we don’t get to see the fully actualized Randy Shilts. He got sober and was gaining perspective and then his life ended. I imagine that if he was a man alive today (he’d be 68 years old), we’d know a very different Randy Shilts.” Stoner noted that it was difficult to compare Shilts’ reporting work for gay and straight publications. “I’m not sure he took his work for the Advocate (or even later at KQED) at the level of ‘serious journalism’ that he did when he arrived at the Chronicle,” Stoner wrote. “He always wanted to be good, and write good stories, but arriving at a major daily newspaper was a personal and professional milestone for him – as his journals indicate. Some of these feelings also likely flow from the varied level of structure or professionalism in both settings, the level of compensation he received (and likely wanted to protect), and the affirmation he received from sources he

respected. “I think of it this way – he probably could care less if David Goodstein or any Advocate editor was praiseworthy of his work. He more likely craved the approval of the heterosexual newsroom editor at the Chronicle. Again, convincing them seemed more important than almost anything else,” Stoner added. During his research, Stoner said that he found Shilts’ personal claims of objectivity overstated. “He lacked objectivity on many occasions, and I think he understood that completely,” Stoner wrote in the email. “He may not like that that is the assessment of him, but it cannot be denied. He wrote wonderfully researched and well-written news stories and books, but the words never strayed that far from the ‘voice’ of Randy Shilts. “Randy grew up in the ‘New Journalism’ or ‘Literary Journalism’ era that has lost some popularity over the years,” Stoner added. “It’s not that we’ve raced back to more objectivity than ever existed before, because journalism attached to advocacy is a normal, everyday thing now. But there are fewer and fewer people who wrap themselves in the robes of ‘pure objectivity’ – especially in an era where they get called ‘fake’ or ‘enemies of the state’ from high places. I’m certain, however, that he would have transitioned nicely into contemporary journalism and mass media that we experience today.”

‘Patient Zero’

Historian Gary Wills assessed “And the Band Played On,” saying, “This book will be to gay liberation what Betty Friedan was to early feminism and Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ was to environmentalism.” Yet, as Stoner writes in his book, Shilts’ use of Gaetan Dugas, the gay flight attendant made famous by Shilts, See page 13 >>

The 2019 year-end engraving order deadline is October 11. Engravings will take place in advance of World AIDS Day, December 1. For more information, call 415.765.0446 or visit www.aidsmemorial.org.

<< Sports

12 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

Hong Kong

From page 1

athletes stranded mid-transit and triggered the collapse of GLISA.) FGG has its annual general membership assembly October 31-November 2 in Guadalajara, Mexico. That’s seven months after the start of the Hong Kong demonstrations and a little more than three years before the scheduled start of the Hong Kong Gay Games XI on November 12, 2022. Hong Kong games officials had already been scheduled to make a presentation in Guadalajara about their preparations. In the past couple of weeks, assembly members have formally asked that a “Plan B” be developed in case it seems necessary to relocate the event. After FGG leaders and Hong Kong 2022 organizers met in person last May, they released a joint statement that preparations were going

well, the hosts were working on security plans, and that they thought it was “premature to think about alternative host cities for the 2022 games. Federation of Gay Games and the Hong Kong Committee continue to stand by the decision to host the games in Hong Kong.” The FGG did not respond to questions from the Bay Area Reporter about what restrictions to moving the Gay Games there are in its license agreement or if any contingency plans have yet been drafted. Asked to comment for this story, Hong Kong 2022 reiterated its May reassurance that it is optimistic plans can continue to progress, it is premature to consider alternative hosts, and it is monitoring the situation. Comments received this week from sports organizations and LGBT athletes indicate that not only is it now not premature to consider alternative locations and plans, but they have already started to do so – and the FGG should

have had a Plan B from the get-go. “The FGG should always have a Plan B for everything, because in today’s climate, you just never know what could happen, political turmoil or natural disaster,” Gus Penaranda, president of the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association, wrote in an email. “A Plan B is a smart thing to do. My understanding from speaking to many teams and clubs is that fundraising for Hong Kong will begin in full strength next year. So if there is to be the need for a Plan B, it should be identified and announced no later than July 2020 to allow the new host sufficient time to plan.” Penaranda wrote that around the time of the May meeting he advised both the FGG and Hong Kong 2022 about IGLFA’s concerns, advising them that “for the U.S. (teams), the expense of going to Hong Kong is already an issue. The current political climate has added additional stress and IGLFA will not ask teams to travel to a country where their safety may be in question and risk possible loss of their investment.”

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Several cities originally bid to host the 2022 event. Guadalajara and Washington, D.C. were the other two finalists, and most organizations have told the B.A.R. they thought those two cities should be given preference if a new site is needed. Washington’s original bid would have had the event take place July 16-23, 2022. Several attendees at the bidder presentations said they thought Washington had the best presentation, but was hurt by international distaste for the election of President Donald Trump the year before. Guadalajara was previously unknown to many of the voters, but it is the second largest city in Mexico. It has staged major international sports events such as the Pan Amer12:01 PM ican Games, is considered to be one of the gay-friendliest cities in the country, and would have been the first Gay Games in Latin America, which has a steadily growing number of LGBT sports clubs. Voters have also indicated that although sports organizations overall preferred one of those two locations, the FGG board was strongly in favor of Hong Kong and the opportunity to enter the Asian market.

Ongoing discussions

Every LGBT sports organization contacted said it has had ongoing discussions on the Hong Kong situation; some of those conversations have been just among leaders, others have involved broader membership. Gay and Lesbian Tennis Association President Dan Marrithew, for instance, sent out a recent message to members, writing, “Dear players: Understand some of you may have concerns with the recent situation in Hong Kong. As a local player born and raised [there], I can say Hong Kong is still very safe for now compared to many cities or countries as long as we are not trying to go to the center of protest area. Your tournament directors will pay extra attention and keep everyone posted in coming few weeks.” Marrithew lives in the U.S. but was born in Hong Kong and has friends there. But concerns do not seem to focus on the possibility of protests being held at the time of the Gay Games. Organizational worries include the possibility of more repressive government crackdowns on individual rights being imposed; the Chinese government and the Hong Kong Legislature not being disposed to enthusiastically support the event; potential local corporate

Courtesy Facebook

Gus Penaranda is president of the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association.

sponsors being reluctant to provide major funding after having been hurt economically by the current protests; and the uncertain status of the 2022 Gay Games making it hard for sports federations to raise funds, make plans, or recruit participants. “IAGLMA’s initial concern was Hong Kong’s lack of previous engagement with FGG and therefore, lack of understanding the Gay Games philosophy,” local martial artist Allen Wood wrote in an email. “This concern was elevated when they failed to send a representative to Gay Games Paris martial arts. The current political unrest is also a concern. We wonder what kind of distraction it is for the host city. We also wonder whether it is appropriate to have a Gay Games under a totalitarian government.” Waiting to try to make alternative plans such as moving, scaling down, or canceling the Gay Games would be a mistake, some sports representatives said. “If the protests continue and/or escalate and the FGG or the host city doesn’t act in enough time for an alternative site, it would harm the LGBTQ sports movement,” Marrithew wrote. “Having an alternative host selected is not a bad idea. The alternative city would need plenty of lead time to ensure a well-organized event. I believe an announcement/ decision at the upcoming general assembly would be appropriate.”

Protests

A March 31 demonstration in Hong Kong drew thousands of protesters into the streets to demand the Legislature, which is not chosen by Hong Kong citizens in a direct election, withdraw a bill it was considering that would allow Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the communist party and dissidents are dealt with severely. Since then the protests have grown vastly larger, some have been violent, and the demands have shifted to calls for investigations into police misconduct and the right to have direct democratic elections. “My career and current position outside of IGLFA requires me to be current on the issues around the world,” Penaranda, who is in the U.S., wrote. “I feel that now that the protests have become a political pawn for [Trump], China is going to want to put an end to it. This concerns me as we all should remember the last time people rose up against the Chinese government. Unfortunately, I am more confident that this situation will not end well.” Craig echoed that view. “I do not have any confidence that the demonstrators’ demands will be sufficiently or appropriately resolved politically, and have significant concerns that the Chinese government will interfere more directly and decisively to resolve the unrest in undemocratic and unacceptable ways,” Craig wrote. “Ever

since the ‘umbrella’ protests some three years ago, this unrest has been growing and festering within Hong Kong. It can only truly be resolved if China steps back from trying to control Hong Kong politically – or if China asserts itself irrespective of the promises it has made of ‘one country, two systems.’ I fear it will be the latter as China does not have a track record of backing down from political dissent and unrest. I hope for all concerned that I’m completely wrong.” The lead time for a Gay Games to come together makes it imperative that FGG act decisively and swiftly, sports representatives said. Normally, a host knows it has five years after it is selected to put the sports and cultural festival together. Chicago successfully did it in about 28 months for Gay Games VII in 2006 after being named to replace Montreal after Montreal quit prolonged licensing negotiations. “A two-to-three-year minimum advance notice would likely be required for any alternative host to gear up, organize, and even attempt to host such a huge event,” Craig wrote. “This would be especially true as I don’t believe there is any current concept or process of having the runner-up in the 2022 bidding process as an official ‘back-up’ location should the primary host drop out or should they fail to meet prescribed milestones required by the FGG. I believe the FGG should ALWAYS have a back-up or contingency location, especially in light of the prior Montreal problems.” In a worst-case scenario, FGG would have no backup plan, the political turbulence would continue, and the Gay Games would be canceled. In such a situation, sports such as tennis and football are likely to form their own international championships for 2022, while other sports are likely to be left out. Whether those championships would be held in one location or scattered, with the FGG’s endorsement or without, would have to be determined. “If everything is canceled and there is nothing planned for 2022, IGLFA has the ability to put together a tournament within a year and six months, so it could be done for soccer,” Penaranda wrote. “If that were the case, I would reach out to my colleagues in the LGBTQ sports family and discuss options.” As Marrithew noted, “When the Outgames were canceled in Miami, we stepped up and still ran tennis for our players who traveled to Miami.” However or wherever the Gay Games are held, LGBT sports federations hope they go forward. “All organizations understand that these tournaments are more than just competition,” Penaranda wrote. “For many it is part vacation, part tournament. In those circumstances, the monetary commitment is high.” He also said other clubs are already deciding on attending other local tournaments instead of Hong Kong. “If the Gay Games are canceled, that would be a huge blow to organized LGBTQ sports,” Penaranda wrote. “Remember, the Outgames disaster impacted a lot of organizations who said enough with these expensive large tournaments. For the Gay Games to cancel Hong Kong would most likely result in organizations like IGLFA returning to localized tournaments, which is fine – but the Gay Games are more than just sports.” Penaranda added that there are “wonderful stories of individuals who have met their life partners at these games and are now families who support them. I do not think the FGG would cancel the games but if something like that does happen, it will be a difficult time for organized LGBTQ global sports.” t

t <<

Community News>>

Magnitude

From page 2

mainly HIV/AIDS and LGBT nonprofits. According to FSE’s website, this year’s major beneficiaries include AIDS Legal Referral Panel, Berkeley Free Clinic, Castro Country Club, Frameline, National AIDS Memorial Grove, PRC, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, San Francisco LGBT Community Center, and the Sisters of

News Briefs

From page 10

Francisco. Nonetheless, local leaders have been helping to spread the word about Plumas Pride in a show of support for their counterparts in the rural county. “Please support their amazing efforts in rural Plumas County. Quincy is a little over three hours from Sacramento. If you can go play in Tahoe or Reno, or SF and Oakland to support their PRIDES, then you can consider driving up to Quincy for the day and support. Make it a fun road trip,” wrote transgender activist Tiffany Woods earlier this month in a Facebook post to members of the LGBT Caucus of the California Democratic Party, which she helps oversee as its Northern California co-chair. “I am hoping to go myself. We all know how critical support is to our rural LGBTQ families and communities are and how much they put themselves out there

Shilts

From page 11

has marred the posthumous reputation of “Band.” According to Stoner, Shilts’ friend and source, Dr. Selma Dritz, who worked at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, told him about a study of gay men that placed Dugas as the primary sexual transmitter of the disease, saying Dugas intentionally infected others with the virus, becoming the prime agent of the epidemic in America. Shilts and others misinterpreted the letter “O” for Outside Los Angeles for the number 0, calling him Patient Zero. (Dritz died in 2008.) Stoner writes in his book: “Dritz would become a key link between Shilts and the most controversial aspect of ‘Band.’ She was among the first who hypothesized that one man, an Air Canada flight attendant (Dugas), could represent some sort of hideous sexual monster who was infecting his sexual partners with the virus linked to AIDS. Dritz’s version cast Dugas as openly defying logic; he said he didn’t care if he was infecting others with a still unknown infectious agent. Dritz’s story about Dugas – confirmed by variations of it from others – would

Gay diplomat

From page 1

country having the most startup enterprises per capita in the world, he noted. Israel is also the “technology innovation hub” in the Middle East, often called “Silicon Wadi,” which means valley in Arabic, he added. “Israel is the spirit of entrepreneurship,” he said. It’s not lost on him that “there are a lot of LGBTQ entrepreneurs whether in business and technology” or nonprofit organizations in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. Zamir also wants to bring more attention to Israel’s development work aiding humanitarian causes through the Jewish belief, Tikkun Olam, which means repairing the world, he said. He believes that many Americans don’t know the work Israel does around the world. Israel has helped Syrian refugees escape the civil war, fought wildfires in the Amazon and California, and aided Nepal following the 2015 earthquake, he said. “Israel will be one of the first coun-

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Perpetual Indulgence. According to Folsom Street Fair’s website, it has donated over $6 million to charity over the years. The first Folsom Street Fair was intended to support the South of Market neighborhood and prevent urban renewal. Magnitude was founded in 1997, the first year where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a significant decrease in AIDS-related deaths, according to a San Francisco Examiner article. It was

originally an independent, for-profit dance that later became the opening party of the street fair. Jilto Garcia created Magnitude because, “he wanted to bring the gay scene back to life,” according to an October 2002 interview with the paper. This year, the opening party of the Folsom Street Fair will be the smaller, Euro-style Full Fetish party. Euro style is the European variant of “gay male, leather/kink/fetish culture,” according to the B.A.R.’s leather and kink colum-

nist, Race Bannon, “…embrac[ing] a wider range of gear, fetishes, and kinks than North American men’s kink culture.” A gay man who has volunteered at Magnitude for 10 years said he will miss the event. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had trouble getting an answer from FSE staff about why Magnitude was not happening. The Full Fetish party will be smaller than Magnitude, as well as

somewhat more affordable. While Magnitude cost $110-$160 per ticket last year, the Full Fetish party costs $60 per ticket. t

to create change and open hearts.” For more information about Plumas Pride, email plumascountygsa@gmail.com.

Emeryville holds cleanup day

recycled water bottles for the first 100 participants. “I’m proud to see these outstanding businesses and organizations come together and lead an effort like this to clean the streets of Emeryville and to make a difference in our community,” Bauters said in a news release. The city is also holding Coastal Cleanup Day Saturday, where community members can help collect trash bags along the shoreline near the fire station at 2333 Powell Street. Interested people are asked to show up by 9 a.m. To sign up for the plogging event, go to https://bit.ly/2kPlHXV. In other news and an update to last week’s item about the September 21 San Francisco-Oakland friendly cleanup competition promoted by Mayors London Breed and Libby Schaaf, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has issued a late-breaking challenge and joined his city in the volunteer event. For more information, and to sign up for activities in the three cities, visit https:// www.battleforthebay2019.org/.

South Bay hosts nighttime wellness festival

and social responses it inspired. And finally, he was on the forefront of workplace equality for LGBTQ people by exploring the right of gay people to serve openly in the military”. Stoner also thinks Shilts was looking ahead. “Interestingly, evidence exists that one of the ideas he was pursuing for a future manuscript was the issue of child sexual abuse and the role of LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church in America and elsewhere,” he wrote. “We see years later the amazing work of the Boston Globe and others to address this issue. Shilts had a keen sense of ‘what was next’ in terms of the political spectrum.” Ultimately, Stoner finds Shilts’ legacy to be a mixed one. “He inspires admiration and loathing, depending upon whom you ask. He is heavily studied by some, ignored and dismissed by others,” Stoner wrote in his email. “To me, that his legacy resides at the intersection of such controversy (as his life often did) reveals he is an important figure that must figure into the overall consideration of LGBTQ liberation history.” t

A new group for LGBTQ veterans in the North Bay will hold its organizing meeting Saturday, September 21, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Sports Basement, 100 Vintage Way in the Vintage Oaks shopping mall in Novato. According to an email announcement, the group will connect the community of veterans and military members in the North Bay with events, other organizations, and resources to improve their lives and empower them. A second organizing meeting is scheduled for Saturday, September 28, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Corte Madera Towne Center, 770 Tamalpais Drive, Suite 201, in Corte Madera. For more information, email gaypatriotveteran@gmail.com.

The East Bay city of Emeryville will hold “Clean-Up to Green-Up” this Friday and Saturday with support of local businesses and the public. In a news release, gay Emeryville City Council member John Bauters and Jennifer Tetrick, communications director for Decathlon USA, said that Save the Bay will join with Pixar Animation Studies, Clif Bar, Ikea Emeryville, the Golden Gate Audubon Society, and others with a shoreline cleanup Friday, September 20, in which businesses and organizations will form teams for a friendly litter-pickup competition. On Saturday, September 21, Decathlon, Clif Bar, and Ikea are organizing a “plogging” event, a time-honored Swedish tradition that combines running with picking up litter. Open to the public, the event will start at Ikea, 4400 Shellmound Street, at 8:30 a.m. and end at noon at Decathlon, 3938 Horton Street, where people will enjoy food, prizes, and giveaways, including exclusive event T-shirts made from

form a critical and ultimately highly controversial point in Shilts’ book. ... His cavalier, almost excited tone about the concept of a ‘Patient Zero’ at the heart of the AIDS crisis would prove revealing to Shilts’ later writing motives and methodologies.” Stoner’s book also recounts that in 2016, a team of researchers, headed by Michael Worobey, Ph.D., showed that the AIDS pandemic in the U.S. could be traced back to strains spread from Zaire to Haiti in about 1967, years before Dugas was even of age, thus exonerating him. Denneny, Shilts’ editor, was worried the media was going to ignore Shilts’ book and convinced Shilts to promote Patient Zero so it would drum up headlines and sell copies of the book. Stoner was asked how well “Band” holds up. “I’m sure Randy loved Wills’ assessment of his work – not only because it comes from one of our nation’s leading historical scholars and journalists, but also because it comes from a mainstream source. Married to the same woman since 1959, a father and grandfather, we can assume Wills is a heterosexual power source,” Stoner wrote. “I would argue ‘Band’ has story-telling and research value far beyond the as-

pects of what it gets right or wrong. I can recall re-reading it many years later and basically skipping over all of the clinical and medical discussions of HIV and AIDS because the information was outdated, bypassed by new advances. But taking those away, the stories of the people who were experiencing this pandemic and the battles it inspired (both inside and outside of the gay community) are essential to LGBTQ history, in my view. “The stories of the people in the book, however, are overshadowed by the problems created with the construction of the ‘Patient Zero’ myth,” Stoner added. “Gaetan Dugas makes for an interesting, compelling story as told by Shilts, but one that was inherently unfair and wrong. The real story of Dugas – his real struggle and his real coping with HIV and AIDS – is a far better story than the one Shilts wrote.” Stoner wrote that University of Cambridge historian Richard McKay wrote that even when Shilts was researching the book, the incubation period for AIDS was extended from several months to several years of asymptomatic infection, but Shilts was captivated by the Dugas story and ignored that Dugas was initially quite cooperative with epidemiologists and

others attempting to learn more about what was then labeled Gay-related immune deficiency, or GRID. “If Shilts were alive today, surely he would correct all this,” Stoner wrote in his email. “Shilts would have no credibility whatsoever if he had not done so. I think he only escapes some of the criticism by the fact that he died before he could make right this aspect of his work. His death robbed him, and us, of the proper reconciliation Dugas is owed.”

tries to send aid because that is the Israeli spirit,” he said.

ported that there were 20 Pride celebrations throughout the country that attracted thousands of people – 11 which were new this year. Not all Pride celebrations were welcome, such as in Ra’anana, where the conservative Orthodox community opposed the event. Yet, the Ra’anana Pride parade pointed to Israel’s future for changes in attitudes toward Israel’s LGBT community as many of the marchers were under 21, Haaretz noted. This year’s elections also produced progress with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent appointments of two key gay officials: Omir Ohana, Israel’s first out minister of justice, and Evan Cohen, Ph.D., Netanyahu’s spokesman. Tuesday’s runoff election left Netanyahu, who has been prime minister since 2009, and his ruling Likud Party in a dead heat against challenger Benny Gantz of the Blue and White Party. Both men are reportedly jockeying for the endorsement of smaller parties.

In May, five openly gay candidates joined the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Tel Aviv’s newly elected lesbian deputy mayor took office in August. Longtime gay rights activist and politician Nitzan Horowitz became the first openly gay person to head a political party, the Meretz Party. It’s a part of the “amazing progress” Zamir likes to point to in politics and Pride celebrations that have garnered the country international recognition for LGBT rights. “In a tiny country like Israel is a huge deal. It just shows where Israeli society is, the status of the LGBT community is different than what it was 30 years ago,” he said.

North Bay LGBTQ vets group forms

Becoming a diplomat

Zamir found his passion in international relations in 2011. Prior to entering diplomatic work, he practiced civil law and worked for a time as an international business manager at a telecommunications company in Israel following a fouryear stint serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. Zamir started his diplomatic career serving at Israeli consulates in Mumbai, India and Boston. In between international postings, he has worked at the ministry in Israel. During his last assignment he was charged with assisting with this year’s Eurovision festival and Tel Aviv Pride, which was the country’s largest with 250,000 pridegoers, he said. This has been a stellar year for LGBT progress in Israel. In addition to Eurovision and the traditional Pride events hosted in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Haaretz re-

LGBT life today

On one level gay involvement in politics is at an all-time high, AIDS is now largely a chronic disease rather than a fatal one, and lesbian and gay people can serve openly in the military, so many of the issues that faced Shilts now seem irrelevant. Yet bigotry, injustice, political cowardice/indifference, and hypocrisy still exist, so Stoner was asked what Shilts’ legacy is today. “First, for his position at critical times of LGBTQ history,” Stoner wrote. “He was present for the rise and assassination of Harvey Milk, and resulting riots and revealed the growing nature of gay political power. He was front row for the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and in particular, the human impact it was having, and the sorrowful political

Critics

That didn’t stop Israel’s critics from accusing Netanyahu of so-called pinkwashing the elections. “Pinkwashing” is a term that activists use to describe countries and other entities using the LGBT community to mask other human rights abuses.

Full Fetish takes place Saturday, September 28, from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. at 550 Barneveld in San Francisco. The party is for 21 and over. For tickets, go to https://www. folsomstreetevents.org/full-fetishsan-francisco/.

The LGBTQ-inclusive Jubilee Wellness Festival takes place Saturday, September 21, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. in downtown San Jose. Project MORE is once again partnering with the Santa Clara Department of Public Health to produce what organizers said is an incredibly fun evening for local HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted disease services and awareness. Admission is free. Attendees can dance to live DJs, experience live performances, explore diverse local vendors and organizations, and take charge of their health with free on-site wellness screenings. The wellness festival is located on Post Street, between South First Street and Almaden Avenue, and along Lightston Alley. For more information, visit http:// www.poststjubilee.com. t Matthew S. Bajko contributed reporting.

“I know for a fact that pinkwashing is a lie,” said Zamir. “Linking the fact that the gay community in Israel can be who they are to the conflict with the Palestinians is a link that is artificial. We can talk about both things, but the link between them, in my opinion, is not there.” LGBT Palestinians are being persecuted by their own government authorities, he pointed out. “If they look for a safe haven, when they look around, the only place they can run to is Israel,” he said. Israel is selective about Palestinians receiving asylum or refugee status in the country, Zamir said. But no matter what Palestinians’ status is in Israel, the Israeli government provides them with social services. Many times, LGBT Palestinians and other queer Arabs are forced to flee their homelands for their lives. “Unfortunately, they can’t be who they are in the West Bank and in some cases, unfortunately, in the Arab world,” said Zamir. See page 14 >>

<< Community News

14 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

Gilead

From page 1

Exclusive combinations

The crux of the lawsuit is agreements Gilead made with the other three companies to develop coformulations that combine multiple antiretroviral medications in a single pill, thereby increasing convenience and potentially improving adherence. Gilead’s tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine are the common ingredients in the first generation of single-tablet regimens for HIV treatment, as well as the widely used PrEP pill Truvada. These include Atripla (also containing BMS’s efavirenz), Complera (containing Janssen’s rilpivirine) and Stribild (containing elvitegravir, licensed from Japan Tobacco). More recently, Gilead has focused on newer coformulations (Biktarvy, Gen-

Gay diplomat

From page 13

He is proud that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that grants rights to the LGBT community to live openly and freely. “Israel is the gay hub in the Middle East,” he said about the country, which has a population of about

voya, Odefsey, and Symtuza) that contain its updated tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), which is less likely to cause kidney and bone side effects. Generic versions of TDF and lamivudine – a drug functionally equivalent to emtricitabine – have been used in single-tablet regimens from companies not named in the lawsuit (for example, Merck’s Delstrigo and Mylan’s Symfi). But the defendant companies reached agreements that as long as any component of the Gilead coformulations remains under patent, they would not create competing combination pills containing their ingredients plus generic components or allow anyone else to do so. “This was a corruption of the consolidation process by Gilead and its co-conspirators to corner the onepill-a-day market with agreements

that included blatantly anticompetitive language that will not stand up to a constitutional view of antitrust activity,” Staley said in an interview following the recent hearing. The plaintiffs are asking that all collaboration agreements be rewritten and for Gilead to make a generic version of TAF available much sooner than the current patent expiration schedule, according to Staley. He estimates that a single-tablet regimen containing all generic components would cost about $20,000 per year, compared with around $35,000 for Gilead’s current proprietary coformulations. “The bottom line is that there’s a relationship between drug prices and the fact than only half of people with HIV in the U.S. are undetectable,” Staley said. “That’s one of the lowest [viral suppression rates] in the developed world – even some African countries are higher.”

Robert Vasquez, another longtime activist who attended this month’s hearing, added that the company’s anticompetitive agreements are limiting innovation as well as raising prices. “There were many companies looking at many different strategies, but now one company dominates. One company scooping up all the profits discourages others from doing research,” he told the B.A.R. “Health care should not be a business, health care is a right. You shouldn’t have to have money in the bank to get the medications you need to live.” Gilead disagrees with these assertions. “With its own compounds and in combination with those of its partners, Gilead has helped to bring nearly a dozen new combination medicines to people living with HIV over the course of the last 15 years. Most of these medicines would not have been

possible without the partnership between Gilead and the other companies,” Gilead wrote in its statement. “This work was encouraged by federal law, which expressly permits cooperation between competitors when necessary to develop new products for consumers, or patients in this case. ... Before, during, and after each collaboration, Gilead worked hard to develop the next wave of innovation – even if that meant competing with and obsoleting its own medications.” The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 6 in San Francisco. The plaintiffs hope to have at least two advocates present at each hearing, according to Staley. He speculated that Gilead may try to delay the proceedings to keep its products under patent for as long as possible, and the lawsuit could last as long as two to three years. t

8.5 million people. “You can be very openly gay in Israel.” Yet, Zamir isn’t blind to where Israel falls short when it comes to LGBT rights. He is fully aware that “it’s not perfect yet,” said Zamir, who is willing to have a dialogue with pro-Palestinian supporters. “As long as we disagree and we do it respectfully I don’t mind talking to

them,” he said, adding that the discussion would be especially good if “we have good results and find a mechanism to improve the life of the LGBT community in the West Bank. That would be amazing.” Kate Raphael, a member of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, told the B.A.R. that a meeting with Zamir that includes Palestin-

ians might be worthwhile. “There have been years of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians and unfortunately, Israeli government policies of stealing land and diminishing Palestinians’ ability to live has not changed. It’s not a problem of communication, but of power and oppression,” she wrote in an email. “But if Mr. Zamir wants to discuss how he

can best advocate with his government to recognize Palestinian rights to their land and for refugees to return, we would be happy to help set up a meeting that includes Palestinians.” t

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038771000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FINE LINE BARBERSHOP, 1796A SAN JOSE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARLO L. MATIBAG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038770900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038765000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DUMPLING HOUSE, 335 NOE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DUMPLING HOUSE SF (CA).The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/08/19.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038766800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PAGODA, 1704 POST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SEUNG KOON YANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PARTRIDGE, 101 HENRY ADAMS ST #251, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CLARA ROSE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038770800

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038766100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BIRD & BLOOM, 1 ALDER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JASMINE DIXON & SAVANNAH ROSE CRESPO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EATING WITH THE SEASONS, 1925 JERROLD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GRUBMARKET, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038766500

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038765100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PETS CORNER 2, 1232 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed HONG NGOC NGUYEN & ERNESTO WAII CHIEN CHENK LUO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038760400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DLHA LAW GROUP, 155 SANSOME ST #620, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DE LA HOUSAYE & ASSOCIATES, A LAW 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 08/15/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038760500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DLHA DE LA HOUSAYE & ASSOCIATES LAW GROUP, 155 SANSOME ST #620, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DE LA HOUSAYE & ASSOCIATES, A LAW 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 08/15/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DSUDISCOVERY, 155 HARRIET ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DOCUMENT SERVICES UNLIMITED (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038770400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WILDER, 378 SANCHEZ ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THINK WILDER INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038756800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KHAO THAI CATERING LLC, 501 TAYLOR ST #608, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KHAO THAI CATERING 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 08/13/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038764500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SCALP SOCIETY, 1512 PINE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF SMP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038773400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAMPUS, 2241 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TELEGRAPH HILL ASSOCIATES, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/12/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/26/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038773600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EDDIE’S BAR CAR; EDDIE’S MSU, 425 MISSION ST, SPACE 103A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NATOMA PARTNERS, 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 08/26/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038773500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EDDIE RICKENBACKER’S, 425 MISSION ST, SPACE 103, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NRG PARTNERS, 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 08/26/19.

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036055300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DYNASTY SHOP, 1922 31ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by GRACE NONG WU. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/23/14.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555175 In the matter of the application of: ANTOINETTE THADA PAO, 702 ASHBURY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ANTOINETTE THADA PAO, is requesting that the name ANTOINETTE THADA PAO AKA ANTOINETTE PAO, be changed to HAISLEY THYDA PAO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 17th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555173

In the matter of the application of: EMMA FUGLSANG FROEKJAER, 488 ANDERSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EMMA FUGLSANG FROEKJAER, is requesting that the name EMMA FUGLSANG FROEKJAER, be changed to EMMA FUGLSANG HARDING. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 17th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555131 In the matter of the application of: ITIKA DENISE ROBINSON, 37 GROVE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ITIKA DENISE ROBINSON, is requesting that the name ITIKA DENISE ROBINSON, be changed to ITIKA DENISE ROBINSONCURRINGTON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 22nd of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555153

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GNOMAD LABS, 4521 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEORGE REASONOVER.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/09/19.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/08/19.

In the matter of the application of: CALEB IKAIKA SIMA, 548 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CALEB IKAIKA SIMA, is requesting that the name CALEB IKAIKA SIMA, be changed to CALEB FANG SIMA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 22nd of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019

AUG 29, SEPT 05, 12, 19, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038750100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038777700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VISO PURO, 1538 PACIFIC AVE #110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NADINE STRONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038764200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TT CONSTRUCTION CO., 1418 43RD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIMOTHY TAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/19/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038772500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DONBURI YA, 764 HARRISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed IRON GRILL ASIAN BBQ, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/03/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/26/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038777900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TYCOON KITCHEN & CATERING, 276 5TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ASIAN BOWLS INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/29/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038776300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAULIT, 1075 O’FARRELL ST #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HAULIT (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 08/28/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038778300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAL STREET CO., 1398 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DISPLEASED MARMOT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/29/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019

Legals >>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038764600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAVID RIO CHAI CART, 1019 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability partnership, and is signed SF CHAI, LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038461500

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SOMA SUSHI, 764 HARRISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by IRON GRILL ASIAN BBQ, INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/19.

SEPT 05, 12, 19, 26, 2019 SUMMONS SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: MARCO MONROY; YOLANDA MONROY; AND DOES 1 -10 INCLUSIVE, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: JUAN CARLOS GALICIA & PATRICIA GALICIA CASE NO. CGC-19-574309

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/se;fhelp) or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. SAN FRANCISCO SUPERIOR COURT, UNLIMITED JURISDICTION 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney is: Law Office of Andrew Westley PC, 870 Market St., Ste. 788, San Francisco, CA 94102 415-362-2817 March 05, 2019 Clerk of the Superior Court by Bowman Liu, Deputy. Statement of Damages To: Defendant: Marco Monroy Plaintiff: Juan Carlos Galicia seeks damages in the aboveentitled action, as follows: 1. General damages A. Pain, suffering and inconvenience …$250,000 B. Emotional distress…$250,000 E. Other – Lost value of tenancy rights…$500,000 3. Punitive damages: Plaintiff reserves the right to seek punitive damages in the amount of (specify) when pursuing a judgment in the suit filed against you. Date: September 3, 2019 Andrew E. Westley, Attorney for Plaintiff’s Statement of Damages To: Defendant: Marco Monroy Plaintiff: Patricia Galicia seeks damages in the aboveentitled action, as follows: 1. General damages A. Pain, suffering and inconvenience …$250,000 B. Emotional distress…$250,000 E. Other – Lost value of tenancy rights…$500,000 3. Punitive damages: Plaintiff reserves the right to seek punitive damages in the amount of (specify) when pursuing a judgment in the suit filed against you. Date: September 3, 2019 Andrew E. Westley, Attorney for Plaintiff’s

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555190

In the matter of the application of: PENG LI, 1010 16TH ST #644, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner PENG LI, is requesting that the name PENG LI AKA TIAOLI LO, be changed to TIAOLI LI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 24th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555184 In the matter of the application of: YONG QIAN FENG, 40 WESTGATE DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YONG QIAN FENG, is requesting that the name YONG QIAN FENG AKA ADAM YONG QIAN FENG AKA ADAM Q. FENG AKA ADAM FENG, be changed to ADAM YONG QIAN FENG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 24th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038787500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WAN CONCEPTS, 786 MARLIN AVE, FOSTER CITY, CA 94405. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MING YING XU. 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 09/05/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038762400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NITESTAR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, 1939 A 15TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAQIB JALIL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/16/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019

SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, CIVIC CENTER COURT, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: SVETLANA CHEPURKO, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PETITIONER: SEMEN GORSHTEYN CASE NO. FDI-17-788466

You have been sued. Read the information below and on the next page. You have 30 calendar days after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpca.org) or by contacting your local county bar association. NOTICE – RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE ON PAGE 2: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them. FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party. The name and address of the court are: Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St. San Francisco, California 94102 The name, address and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney is: IRINA AEROV (SBN 209005), 789 CABRILLO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118 (415) 290-7001, Date: September 14, 2017 Clerk of The Court, Brie Reddick, Deputy. STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1. Removing the minor child or children of the parties, if any, from the state without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children; 3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in the manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party. You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs. NOTICE-ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE: Do you or someone in your household need affordable health insurance? If so, you should apply for Covered California. Covered California can help reduce the cost you pay towards high quality affordable health care. For more information, visit www.coveredca.com. Or call Covered California at 1-800-300-1506. WARNING – IMPORTANT INFORMATION California law provides that, for purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (i.e. joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling, and not the community property presumption. You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555179

In the matter of the application of: LEWAM GIRMAY / BINIAM GHEBRESELASIE BRHANE, 222 TAYLOR ST #511, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LEWAM GIRMAY / BINIAM GHEBRESELASIE BRHANE, is requesting that the name ABIGAIL BINIAM GIRMAY AKA ABIGAIL GIRMAY, be changed to ABIGAIL BINIAM BRHANE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 17th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555192

In the matter of the application of: JACKY KHAI DANG, 2211 29TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JACKY KHAI DANG, is requesting that the name JACKY KHAI DANG AKA KHANH KHAI DANG, be changed to JACKY KHAI DANG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 29th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555193

In the matter of the application of: ANN THI HONG NGUYEN, 2211 29TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ANN THI HONG NGUYEN, is requesting that the name ANN THI HONG NGUYEN AKA HONG AN THI NGUYEN, be changed to ANN HONG NGUYEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 29th of October 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019

SUMMONS - SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, CIVIL UNLIMITED JURISDICTION NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: MATINA E. MACDANIEL AKA TINA MCDANIEL, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: PLAINTIFF’S NAME IS JANET TAPIA CASE NO. CGC-18-570359

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California CourtsOnline Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The courts lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The name and address of the court is: Superior Court of California, Civil Unlimited Jurisdiction, 400 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or the plaintiff without an attorney, is: JANET TAPIA, 237 KEARNY ST #237, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. (510) 823-5373 Date: April 08, 2019. Clerk of the Superior Court, by Vanessa Wu, Deputy NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: You are served as an individual defendant

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF EMMA EDWARDS IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-19-303152

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of EMMA EDWARDS. A Petition for Probate has been filed by KIM RIDINGER in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that KIM RIDINGER be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: October 02, 2019, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: STANLEY R. FRAZIER (1148030) LAW OFFICES OF STANLEY R. FRAZIER, 870 MARKET ST #1128, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 Ph. (415) 362-3035.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, 2019 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF CHARLENE D. LOWE IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-19-303103

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038772800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038793200

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038780500

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038771400

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038785400

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038792300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRINGE ELECTROLYSIS, 1731-B BUCHANAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATHERINE MARIE CARROLL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/26/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAMIREZ TILE DESIGN, 4049 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAVIER RAMIREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/30/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/30/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SISTERS FASHION, 5243 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JOSE ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ ZAMORA & OLGA MORA OLMOL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/04/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/04/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038764100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KINDERBLAST PRESCHOOL, 15 ALDER COURT, FAIRFAX, CA 94930. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PLANETWORK NGO, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/19/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038774600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIMITLESS, 1 ST. FRANCIS PL #1108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREA SCRIVANO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HELLO YOGA QUEEN; YOGA FITNESS QUEEN, 855 BRANNAN ST #443, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERICA MOSELEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DI DI DA DAYCARE, 436 7TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIANYAN CHEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/28/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/19.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038786600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: US BEACH SOCCER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, 3032 FULTON ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIMOTHY S. O’SULLIVAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/04/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/05/19.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038776800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AURA BRANDS; ROUGE; DALE + COMB, 2132 OAKDALE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TOP HORTICULTURAL CONCEPTS INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EYEBROW BEAUTY BAR, 4792 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed LAL BAHADUR BAN & SANGITA PARAJULI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038775600

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038793300

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038779800

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038792100

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038785600

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038779600

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038786900

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038764800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ICHI SANDO, 1581 WEBSTER ST #150, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE BOMNAL INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MINDFUL LIVING, INC., 200 GREEN ST #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MINDFUL LIVING, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/03/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/30/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLEANERIFIC, 682 26TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CLEANERIFIC, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/04/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CENTRAL REALTY, 32 BYXBEE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JENNY HE REALTY ASSOCIATES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AJ’S, 655 TOWNSEND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ANGELES BENITO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LET’S EAT, 5130 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ANDREW L. THORNTON & MONIQUE HAYES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/29/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DA CHANG YUAN, 860 WASHINGTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DA CHANG YUAN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/03/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/05/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE DISTRICT BARBERS, 897 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE DISTRICT BARBERS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038788000

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038792000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OKI SUSHI, 1740 CHURCH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KIMANA & CO. LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/06/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE GREENWICH, 3154 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed COW MARLOWE SF 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 09/10/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037253200

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038187300

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of CHARLENE D. LOWE. A Petition for Probate has been filed by KAREN CLARK in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that KAREN CLARK be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: September 30, 2019, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: CORA LEWIS, 5032 WOODMINSTER LANE, OAKLAND, CA 94602; Ph. (510) 530-4078 X 105.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOBAL BUSINESS PORTAL, 1 AVE OF THE PALM #415, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAMILLA WADE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/19.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, 2019

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: COLETTA GELATO, 685 HARRISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by GRUPPO D.O.P. LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/08/16.

SEPT 12, 19, 26, OCT 03, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038792500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DANDAN’S CLEANERS ONE, 905 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SUCHAN YU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/19.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038784200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOWARD TAPS & BANH MI PO’BOY, 1599 HOWARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDY NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/03/19.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038794300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: COW MARLOWE, 3154 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by COW MARLOWE SF LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/14/18.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038482400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: KIM AND PROPER, 2443 FILLMORE ST #123, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by KIM BACHMANN LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/19.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038626100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: LOVE IS IN THE HAIR, 1163 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ELIAS LOPEZ SOTO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/23/19.

SEPT 19, 26, OCT 03, 10, 2019

Change happens

Strategic moves

Union victory

Jefferson city

Vol. 49 • No. 38 • September 19-25, 2019

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

www.ebar.com/arts

‘Billy Budd’s all-male travails by Philip Campbell

“B

illy Budd,” Herman Melville’s unfinished allegory of innocence and guilt upon a British war ship, deeply examined and given some spiritual closure by composer Benjamin Britten and librettists E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, is the second offering in San Francisco Opera’s fall season line-up. It turns out a stunning success. See page 21 >>

John Chest as Billy Budd and Edward Nelson as Bosun in Britten’s “Billy Budd.”

B best with the B-52s’ Fred Schneider by Gregg Shapiro

B-52s lead male vocalist Fred Schneider says he has “a voice that’s too weird for radio.”

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Courtesy the subject

hat’s the first thing you think of when you hear the words “Tin roof, rusted?” If you answered “Love Shack” by the B-52s, pat yourself on the back. That 1989 single, the biggest hit of the B-52s’ career, finally earned the group mainstream attention. It was also considered a comeback for the band from Athens, GA, following the devastating loss of co-founding member Ricky Wilson. Fans of the B-52s since the band’s self-titled 1979 debut album gloated as their friends and family caught onto what they knew all along: the B-52s were superstars. See page 21

Theatre>>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Laundry & liberalism: ‘Caroline, or Change’ by Jim Gladstone

“C

aroline, or Change” is more than the title of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s ingenious sung-through musical, now playing in a not-to-be-missed Ray of Light Theatre production. It’s an aphorism we’d be well to heed as the 2020 election approaches. Set in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1963, and originally produced in 2003, the show is still troublingly relevant today. Its plot and themes ingeniously radiate from the charged relationship between Caroline Thibodeaux, an impoverished, black 39-year-old single mother of three who works as a maid (Jasmyne Brice, in a walled fortress of a performance), and Noah Gellman, the 12-year-old only child of the middle-class, white Jewish family that employs her, who has a careless habit of forgetting to remove the pocket money from his pants before dropping them in the hamper (Christopher Apy, maturely modulated in a particularly challenging juvenile role). Just as Kushner (“Angels in America,” “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism”) deftly plays with the titular “change” as both noun (loose coins) and verb (to progress), he gives us “Caroline” not only as a vivid character, but also as the embodiment of the painful, systemically encouraged action taken by her and much of America during the Jim Crow era (to sink into soul-distorting resignation). In flashbacks, we meet the younger, stronger, more optimistic Ms. Thibodeaux, whose opportunities and spirit will gradually be crushed by the intermeshed gears of economic and racial injustice. “To Caroline” is to flatline. Sounds bleak. But to my amazement and delight, “Caroline, or Change” – which, despite its appeal-

ing pedigree, I’d never seen before this production – manages to be not only an upright reckoning, but also an outright toe-tapper. Kushner’s semi-autobiographical book and lyrics deliver his signature political and philosophical insights with a lighter touch than usual, while composer Tesori (“Fun Home,” “Violet”) concocts an engrossing amalgam of milieu-appropriate Motown, Gospel, and Klezmer motifs that bring fizzy carbonation to what could easily have been a stiff drink of a show. Ray of Light’s production is gorgeously sung by the cast, and played with invigorating energy by David Moschler’s 12-piece orchestra. A twist of magic realism also adds further thought-provoking fun to the proceedings in the form of a phenomenally tight, Supremes-like vocal trio (Majesty Scott, Elizabeth Jones, Cadarious Mayberry) that personifies the radios that keep Caroline company at work and home; an anthropomorphized singing bus (Martin Bell, in the most striking of Bethany Deal’s wonderful costumes); and the similarly vivified washing machine (Leslie Ivy) and dryer (Anthone Jackson), whose portrayal by black actors and close association with Caroline raise discomforting parallels between African Americans and appliances in the show’s setting. Broad social conflicts are ingeniously distilled into approachable domestic drama as Noah’s stepmother, Rose (Katie Pimentel), decrees that Caroline should keep any coins she finds while doing the wash, trying to simultaneously teach the kid a lesson and avoid giving the maid a raise. Pimentel is terrific, teasing out delicate nuances in what is simultaneously the show’s most thankless and most psychologically complex role. Imaginative, melancholy Noah turns his dirty clothes into surreptitious charity, purposely

Nick Otto

Jasmyne Brice as Caroline and Phaedra Tillery as Dotty in Ray of Light Theatre’s “Caroline, or Change.”

leaving loot in the laundry – treasure for Caroline to dig up, but also fuel for self-indulgent fantasies of being a hero to her family. Noah’s own mother has recently died, and his father, despite a hasty remarriage to Rose, is adrift in grief. One of director Jenn Bevard’s strongest accomplishments is making the audience keenly aware of Noah’s obliviousness to his privilege without curdling our affection for the boy. Similarly, in conjunction with Bryce’s sorrowful implosion of a performance, Bevard allows us to understand that Caroline’s stoic defeatism is not a character flaw, but a survival mechanism. Scenes shift between the large Gellman home – two stories, plus the only basement in town – and the ragged shack where Caroline struggles to feed her own children: little boys Jackie and Joe (Royal Mickens, Antonio Banks) and firecracker

teenage daughter Emmie (Markalia Dyson), a burgeoning civil rights activist. This trio ends Act I with the exuberant song-and-dance showstopper “Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw,” a highlight of the evening, and closes the production in a coda of hopeful harmony. While they’re not exactly two sides of the same coin, by show’s end we understand that Emmie’s headstrong evolution might never have happened without Caroline’s tucked-tail perseverance. It’s a bit of a populist surprise to hear that Tony Kushner, like Whitney Houston before him, believes the children are our future. But it’s the earnestness of that sentiment – and of the familiar music to which Tesori sets his words throughout the show – that allow “Caroline, or Change” to deliver a sophisticated critique of sociocultural division without ever feeling remote or didactic. Who knew the superficially shared liber-

alism of American blacks and Jews could be the stuff of an enormously entertaining musical? In addition to its hinging on the relationship between children and a domestic servant, “Caroline, or Change” shares “Mary Poppins”’s formidable skill of using a spoon full of sugar to make the medicine go down. An ideal musical for the current moment – another production will be mounted on Broadway beginning in March, just nine pregnant months before the election, or, one fears, The Birth of a Nation – this politically potent show insists that each of us must make a choice: To Caroline or To Change.t Caroline, or Change, through Oct. 5. A Ray of Light Theatre production at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St., SF. Tickets: $15-$40: www.rayoflighttheatre.com.

Class warfare: ‘Exit Strategy’

David Allen

Gabriella Fanuele and Ed Gonzalez Moreno in Ike Holter’s “Exit Strategy,” directed by Josh Costello for Aurora Theatre Company.

by Jim Gladstone

f you’re a fan of the fast-talking, morally complicated characters Aaron Sorkin has written for “The Newsroom,” “The West Wing” and “The Social Network,” don’t miss playwright Ike Holter’s “Exit Strategy,” a bristling ensemble drama now in its Bay Area premiere at the Aurora Theatre Company. Holter, who was recently on the writing staff of Fox-TV’s “Fosse/ Verdon,” transplants the sort of pithy, verbally dexterous workplace dialogue we’ve heard situated in pseudo-realistic Hollywood renderings of network news, the

White House and Silicon Valley into the rougher-edged but no less soap-opera-prone setting of a failing Chicago high school. Bringing the clashes and conspiracies of a gender-, race-, sexuality- and age-diverse inner-city faculty to raucous life in this intermissionless hour-and-45-minute binge of smart talk and social anthropology, Holter declares himself a Riposter Boy for equal-opportunity articulacy. It’s great to see hard-working characters with salaries under a hundred grand get to be bright and impassioned and witty. A superb ensemble of some of the Bay Area’s best actors brings

these clashes, conspiracies, and a gender-, race-, sexuality- and agediverse inner-city faculty to vivid life as they battle on behalf of their beleaguered school, with moments of genuine surprise along the way. The latter have been in short supply on Bay Area stages of late, as our local theater companies have leaned toward ruminative repertoire that addresses contemporary social issues more didactically than dramatically. So settle in and enjoy the fireworks. The estimable Margo Hall sinks her teeth into the role of a flinty 20-year-plus veteran English teacher who sees the writing on the

wall for an institution where 60% of the students fail to graduate. Michael J. Asbery plays another old-timer with an inside line to both the teacher’s union and at the Department of Ed., which is trying to shut the school down. Gabriella Fanuele is sharp and funny as a millennial Latina teacher who is fundamentally sunny despite constant frustration, but may have developed an on-the-job drinking problem. Sterling stalwarts of the local theater scene Ed Gonzalez Moreno and Sam Jackson are also apple-worthy faculty members, and Tre’vonne Bell hits the right balance of youthful enthusiasm and unwarranted arrogance in his role as a student who is preternaturally gifted, both socially and intellectually. But it’s Adam Neimann, as Ricky, the school’s boyish vice-principal, who cranks this already energizing production up several notches. As a closeted gay man and, apparently, the only white person at the school, Ricky has allowed himself to fade into the background, generally ignored by both students and fellow faculty. But the shock of a sudden death and the threat of impending closure light a fire beneath him, and Ricky becomes the vehement flagbearer for his underdog institution, assembling a coalition of students and teachers for an ill-fated protest. With his putty-like face, elastic voice and surprisingly limber doughboy physique, Neimann plays his milquetoast-goes-rogue role to the hilt and then some. Director Josh Costello, also the new artistic director at Aurora, should

probably tighten the leash a bit. Still, while Neimann goes close to overboard, it’s impossible to take your eyes off him.t Exit Strategy, through Sept. 29. Aurora Theatre Co., 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets from $35: (510) 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org.

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18 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

Elegant eatery in the theatre district by Roberto Friedman

to deliver what they’ve prepared directly to diners. It’s an intimate and friendly operation. A procession of small plates delighted and surprised us. Oysters in mignonette and chive oil; a zesty Beef Tartare; Chilled Prawns with charred tomato in Pilsner foam; Halibut and Manila Clams in tomato broth. Piece de resistance: White Sturgeon “Classic” Caviar (5g) served atop Bomba Rice with Leek Butter and Parsnip. Wowsa! Ingredient-driven preparations continued with a Saffron Ravioli filled with Duck Confit, and a Smoked Duck Breast & Leg with Crispy Almonds, Honey and Slow-Roasted Stone Fruit. Dessert

brought Fig Leaf-Baked Brie with Honey, Marcona Almonds, Ciabatta and Summer Fruits. Gibson serves all this family-style to encourage sharing. Chef says these dishes are interpretations of French-inspired cuisine with a minor Italian influence, hearty and rustic. We say our tastebuds were constantly stimulated. Mid-repast, Chapman reappeared and admitted, “Now I’m finally giving you what you want,” uncorking and pouring us a glass of Domaine Eden Chardonnay. This storied wine is from an estate winery in the Santa Cruz mountains whose Mount Eden Estate Chardonnay was named by The Wine Spectator one of its Top 100 Wines of the Year five times in seven vintages over the last 15 years. That’s impressive, and quite understandable after a single glass. Our night at Gibson did impress us. The staff ’s attention to detail and nuance was refined but not fussy; the experience was elegant but not formal. We’ll return, but not necessarily when there’s a curtain to make at the nearby ACT or Curran. There was enough dramatic panache to be found in the cocktail glass and on the serving plate. Gibson is open for dinner service Tuesday through Saturday. For more information or to book a reservation, visit www.gibsonsf.com or call (415) 771-7709.t

within them. From the second movement, an Adagio for which Beethoven asks “great expression,” the gravity that is Levit’s trademark comes as if from above, enraptured as much by the music’s directness as by its poetry. Even when it broods, there’s light in the tone. Levit’s interpretations – somehow performances seems more the right word, since it’s not as though anything is overlaid, but rather, that everything is observed – could be mistaken for no one else’s. The effect is never achieved through overemphasis or eccentricity, but with an enfolding, uninterrupted intensity whatever the tempo (often fast), dynamic or temperature. As the two Beethoven sonatas in Pogorelich’s new Sony CD demonstrate, unmoored extremes and eccentricities masquerading as liberties soon become ghoulish. There isn’t a single throwaway among any of Levit’s sonatas, but the famous ones define new turf. The “Moonlight,” deliberate and on the verge of staccato at its start, lacks nothing in atmospherics by eschewing the commonplace and tracing the harmonic movement with consummate subtlety. The relative angularity of the middle movement sets the stage for a spitfire and accelerating Presto finale with the barkand-roll energy of an earthquake. Levit has commented that he sees the cusp of the cycle – where Beethoven becomes fully himself – in the “Waldstein,” which he plays with an onrush of musical ideas articulated as pell-mell as I’ve ever heard them. They exalt in their contrasts and dance a tarantella at the gates of the possible. Its central Adagio comes as a controlled fu-

sion experiment after the controlled fission explosion of the “con brio” Allegro. It in turn melts into the ensuing Rondo quietly promising the cataclysm of sound to come. If the “Appassionata” were one degree more intense it would be frightening; the “Tempest” is purely post-climate change; the “Pathetique” contemplates deeply contrasting feelings sensitively. If there’s one in the set that feels like it might have been composed with Levit’s specific faculties in mind, it’s “Les Adieux.” It begins with an otherworldly inwardness before vaulting into action. It’s as if the entire first movement were suspended from a garland of staccato high notes, each with its own weight. Part of the way it expresses the valedictory is in the potency of the rests, however brief. The natural decay of sound is at once the end of the world and the promise of richer life to come. There’s nothing remotely anonymous about the sonatas without “titles.” Such as there is a disappointment anywhere here, it’s that the late sonatas, Opp. 101ff., are the recordings Levit made in his electrifying studio debut in 2013. They’ve lost none of their power and sublimity over time; still, one wonders how he’d play them today.t

ow that the fall theatre season has begun in earnest, the search is on to discover new places to go to dinner close to San Francisco’s downtown theatres. Noting that the “theatre district” is often little more than our city’s charming euphemism for the Tenderloin, Out There was lucky to find Gibson, a civilized and sophisticated restaurant and bar housed in the boutique Hotel Bijou on Mason St. We were invited to sample the supper-club dinner experience there last week. OT and convivial consort Pepi were greeted at the door by the restaurant’s anchor Adam Chapman, who oversees Gibson’s innovative cocktail program. Chapman immediately began working his mixologist magic on us at the bar. His Clear Bloody Mary blends concentrated early-girl tomato essence with aged sake, shoyu, seven-year barrel-aged fish sauce, and pepper oil. Safe to say it’s unlike any other Mary you may have had in your mouth. OT is a dedicated gin drinker, and that exalted spirit finds fond expression in the Bijou, which weds gin with sweet white vermouth, cardamom, saffron, bitter dandelion and orange oil. A Manhattan put brown buttered whisky together with leather aged vermouth, peach and walnut bitters. Pepi, incredibly, doesn’t drink alcohol, but he was presented with enticing drinks every bit as complicated and interesting as OT’s liquor caprices. Unusual just begins to describe this beverage program.

Kane Andrade

Gibson Executive Chef Louis Maldonado.

Kane Andrade

The elegant but not overly formal dining room at Gibson.

But we were there primarily to celebrate the appointment of the dynamic Louis Maldonado to the position of executive chef. We watched from a front-seat table

as Chef Maldonado and his staff worked their spells in a large open kitchen. There are no walls between it and the dining room, and the chefs leave their cooking stations

32 by 32: Pinnacle of piano by Tim Pfaff

he pianists who perform and record all of Beethoven’s piano

sonatas in cycle are typically musicians of the keenest intellect and the deepest feeling. With the 2020 Beethoven 250th birth anniversary

coming at us, Jonathan Biss will be performing a complete cycle for Cal Performances, and a word to the wise, Go!, must suffice. The 32-year-old Igor Levit, three of whose four commercial releases for Sony have included Beethoven, has just seen the release of “Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas,” all 32 of them, and the results are momentous in any way you care to use the word. Levit is in the process of performing full cycles in venues around the world, some of which will be favored with all 32, and the word to the wise is Book Now, anywhere you can. We have a crop of pianists Levit’s age technically and interpretively so good that our piano repertory needs are covered for the foreseeable future. But among them Levit alone plays Beethoven as the pinnacle of the piano repertoire, mining the genius within and behind every note. Sony serves up the sonatas chronologically despite their having been recorded in different venues. I dipped in first at an unlikely juncture, Op. 22, in B-flat Major. I came to love it in a happier time in the music world when Ivo Pogorelich made a video performance of it that stopped my wandering ears in their tracks. The piece celebrates its links back to a style not inappropriately called galante, decorative yet with the expressive potential composers such as C.P.E. Bach found in it. Pogorelich, unusually unmannered, was so absorbed in the work’s beauties that he didn’t have to make it sound cosmic. Levit is a truer visionary, finding grandeur in the minute as well as the mighty, which is evident from the specificity and care he lends every note of Beethoven’s very first sonata. In Op. 22 he captures the music’s delicate Mozartian filigree and zest of the music while running the torrents of notes across a broadly terraced dynamic range, injecting the main musical ideas into near-murmurs

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20 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

Take a fresh look at ‘Jefferson in Paris’ by Brian Bromberger

995 should have been a banner year for the gay independent filmmaker team of Merchant-Ivory. They were at the height of their creative powers. Critically acclaimed hits such as 1990’s “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” (an Oscar nomination for star Joanne Woodward) and nowrecognized classics such as their 1992 version of E.M. Forster’s “Howard’s End” (nine Oscar nominations) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Remains of the Day” (eight Oscar nominations, 1993) cemented their Hollywood status. Much was expected from their next film, “Jefferson in Paris” starring Nick Nolte, but it was both commercially and critically unsuccessful. Just released for the first time on Blu-Ray by Kino Lorber, the movie can now be reevaluated in time for its 25th anniversary. Unlike most Merchant-Ivory movies, “Jefferson” isn’t based on a book, but on novelist-screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvalas research, which might account for the criticism that it lacked cohesion. It’s set in Paris from 1784-89. The recently widowed, lonely Thomas Jefferson was appointed ambassador to France, succeeding the popular Benjamin Franklin, in the court of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, right before the

upheavals of the French Revolution. Accompanied by his adult, possessive daughter Patsy (Gwyneth Paltrow in an early role), he develops a close friendship with the attractive Maria Cosway (Greta Scacchi), a musician married to the flamboyant homosexual painter Richard Cosway (fabulous gay Simon Callow). Jefferson’s younger daughter Polly dies in the U.S. When Patsy returns after the funeral, she’s accompanied by their 15-year-old mulatto slave Sally Hemings (Thandie Newton), his late wife’s half-sister. Her older enslaved brother James (Seth Gilliam), already in Paris, was studying French cuisine, so he could return to Monticello as Jefferson’s chef. Slavery now outlawed in France, James had asked for and received a salary from Jefferson. Jefferson becomes enamored of Sally, and impregnates her. The lovesick Maria, warned by Patsy (who resents Sally), retreats. Offered Secretary of State by the new President Washington, Jefferson returns to the U.S., promising Sally and James if they go back with him, he will give them their freedom once he dies. What will they do? When this film was made, Jefferson’s affair with Hemings was gossip, vigorously debated by historians. It wasn’t until 2018, after a 1998 DNA test established a match between Jefferson’s descendants and

the descendants of Heming’s son Eston, and archaeological excavations showed Sally Hemings’ quarters directly adjacent to Jefferson’s bedroom, that the Thomas Jefferson Foundation concluded that the Jefferson/Hemings dalliance was “a settled historical matter.” Another chief criticism was that there were four storylines (Jefferson’s romance with Cosway; his interactions with the jealous Patsy as his “surrogate” wife; his response to the emerging French Revolution; and his relationship with Hemings) competing with each other. But these are all a subset of the principal theme of the movie announced in the opening scene. Jefferson debates with a group of French aristocrats the merits of intellect over passion, quoting from his later famous “My Head and My Heart” love letter to Cosway. Emotional repression masking passion is a central Merchant/Ivory film topic, and it’s enveloped in another favorite Merchant/Ivory obsession, cultural clash and displacement (America vs. France), with Jefferson’s effrontery over the decadence, “monstrous privilege,” and extravagant diversions of Louis XVI’s court as the

country ebbs closer to anarchy. Ironically, Jefferson’s “All men are equal” phrase in the Declaration of Independence as the champion of liberty is the underlying cause of the chaos in the streets, but it is also the paradoxical hypocrisy in Jefferson himself, proclaiming egalitarianism yet owning slaves. The film isn’t intended primarily to be a commentary on race relations, but a portrait of the complex personal conflicts and contradictions that defined his character. Since the duality between Jefferson’s ideals and his actions, just like the collision between his

intellect and emotions, were never resolved in his life, they aren’t resolved in the film. Many have faulted Nolte’s performance, but the remote, stiff paternalism he projects probably is an accurate reflection of Jefferson’s inner state. Ivory originally wanted Christopher Reeves (pre-quadriplegia), who would probably have been ideal, yet was unavailable. The tall, lean, blond Nolte looks like Jefferson, and brings a vigorous masculine presence plus Renaissance-man charm to the role. But the real star is the captivating Thandie Newton as the mischievous Sally, who enlivens the film, contrasting with Scacchi’s flighty, pretentious Maria, where few erotic sparks are lit. All these characterizations are deliberate, as Jefferson’s vitality and nobility only surface when Sally emerges. As always in Merchant-Ivory films, the elegant historical pageantry is spot-on, with flawless period costumes, hair styling, production design, cinematography, and music, making you believe you’re experiencing 18th century Paris in revolt. Hollywood simply doesn’t produce these expensive historical dramas anymore, so we can be grateful the movie exists at all.t

Painted bird springs the coop by David Lamble

f you come away liking “The Goldfinch,” a lavishly mounted art thriller adapted from Donna Tartt’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, as I did, thank the casting gods for seeing that this overlong and confusingly plotted film has at its core a heartbreaking performance from an imp slightly under five-foot-tall, Oakes Fegley. Fegley plays a sweetnatured, owlish 13-year-old, Theodore Decker, whose life is tragically up-ended when a bomb explodes at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art just as his mother is showing him a famous European painting, “The Goldfinch.” As the smoke from the explosion clears, Theo is handed a small package by a stranger, containing the painting, a 1654 representation of a chained bird by Carel Fabritius, a 17th-century contemporary of Vermeer. Theo accepts the painting, keeping it hidden away for most of the film as a memento of his dead mother.

Warner Bros.

Ansel Elgort as Theo in Director John Crowley’s “The Goldfinch.”

For the next 150 minutes, Theo is cast along by the fates, at first becoming the ward of a kindly New York family, the Barbours, headed up by Nicole Kidman. Director John Crowley and screenwriter Peter Straughan do their best to be faithful to Tartt’s densely plotted book while not abandoning the large part of the population who still can read but choose not to. The enterprise gets a substantial boost when Theo is virtually abducted into the Nevada desert by his alcoholic thief of a dad (Luke Wilson), where he’s befriended by a Slavic prankster named Boris (Finn Wolfhard), whose silentfilm-star good looks and devilmay-care attitude sustain his will to survive, while leading Theo into a lifetime addiction to snorting crushed pills. At this point (45 minutes in), “The Goldfinch” flashes forward to the adventures of the adult Theo (now portrayed by Ansel Elgort), who returns to New York to work for a mild-mannered restorer of

antique furniture (Jeffrey Wright), as close to a reliable father figure as Theo will ever see. The weakest part of the film unfortunately arrives in the third act, when Theo and the now-adult Boris team up to defeat some Euro-trash mafia figures in a sequence both confusing and totally out of character with the preceding two acts. “The Goldfinch” cries out for the test that an old screenwriting guru of mine advised me to apply when I was in doubt as to what a movie was truly about. “Watch it with the sound turned off, and you’ll quickly learn what the filmmakers are up to.” The sound-down test reveals the film to be a visually lush tale of a Dickensian teen whose tragicorphan status is relieved by the unexpected arrival of a beautiful male companion. If you allow the homoerotic friendship between Theo and Boris to be your takeaway from “The Goldfinch,” then your 2019 award-season viewing will have started on a truly lovely note. (Now playing.)t

Karaoke hostess by David Lamble

n director Justin Chon’s melancholy but moving drama “Ms. Purple,” a young Korean-American woman is torn between her desire to look after her comatose dying father, her need to reconnect with her estranged younger brother, and the cruel realities of the physical and mental harm inflicted on her in her job as a karaoke hostess trying to please a crowd of drunken, sadistic men. Kasie’s (Tiffany Chu) tightly circumscribed world begins to unravel when her dad’s hospice nurse quits, tired of the pressures of caring for an elderly man whose only signs of life are the bedsores he develops if he isn’t flipped over twice a day like a pancake on a grill. Kasie can’t abandon her father, who raised her and her baby brother (Teddy Lee) when their mom walked out on them. One of a number of films on

family life from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Ms. Purple” is a finely tuned meditation on the struggles of a young generation bravely attempting to provide for their elders while trying to stay afloat in a cutthroat SoCal society that has scant room for humane impulses. This heartfelt sibling drama is greatly enriched by Chu’s impressive portrayal of Kasie, and by Lee’s black humor in the film’s more surreal scenes, where he appears to push his comatose dad’s bed into the dangerous stream of California traffic. Octavio Pizano impresses as a wannabe boyfriend, and James Kang is terrific as the dad, in sunnier days when he expresses his love for Kasie, and in fits of rage. “Ms. Purple” joins a growing body of low-budget indie films that use a melodic jazz score to bridge what might otherwise be disconcerting transitions in the story. Opens Friday.t

Oscilloscope Laboratories

Tiffany Chu as Kasie in director Justin Chon’s “Ms. Purple.”

DVD>>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

The road to marriage equality by David-Elijah Nahmod

movement in the US, so she opens her film with a brief look back at how LGBT people were treated by society during the 1950s and 60s. Police raids of gay bars had been the norm. A cringe-inducing clip from a 1967 CBS News special, “The Homosexuals,” reminds viewers how negatively society viewed LGBT people then. Zaccaro also recalls the formation of the Mattachine Society, an organization of gay men, and the Daughters of Bilitis, a San Francisco-based lesbian group, the first gay organizations in the country. LGBTs fought back in 1969 when the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. The riots that ensued birthed the modern gay rights movement and launched the first

ewly out on DVD, Donna Zaccaro’s documentary “To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor” is a short, succinct explanation of the legal battle fought by Edie Windsor, a lesbian in her 80s who refused to let the US government invalidate her relationship. Windsor and Thea Spyer married in Canada, and were together for 40 years. When Spyer died after a long illness, Windsor was hit with an estate tax bill totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s a bill she would not have had to pay were her marriage recognized by the federal government. She decided to sue. Zaccaro assumes that many younger viewers might not know the history of the gay rights

Billy Budd

From page 16

Staged in revival by director Ian Rutherford, Tony and Olivier Award-winning Michael Grandage’s famous 2010 Glyndebourne production is set in a massive cross-section of HMS Indomitable superbly realized by designer Christopher Oram. Combined visceral physicality and musical force bring theatrical energy to the opera’s tortured intellectual drama, and brilliantly display the Company’s world-class professionalism. Cast from strength and supported by conductor Lawrence Renes and the tightly committed orchestra, the new-to-SFO production seems optimal for an opera sometimes criticized for shallow moralizing and closeted homosexual subtext. I don’t see why detractors make such statements when the librettists’ thoughts, however subtle and complex, are made so open and clear to most sensitive observers. Meaning is evident in the often boldly beautiful and terse English of the script, further conveyed here in easy-to-read supertitles. If anyone in the seagoing tale is closeted or morally ambiguous, it is Captain Vere, portrayed sympathetically by tenor William Burden in a performance of great depth and vocal clarity. Called “starry Vere” by his devoted crew and man-child Billy, tantalized by shocking Iagolike master-at-arms John Claggart,

Fred Schneider

From page 16

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of “Cosmic Thing” (Rhino/ Reprise), the album with “Love Shack,” there’s now an expanded edition featuring five B-sides and remixes and a second 1989 live disc. B-52s lead male vocalist Fred Schneider was kind enough to answer a few questions before the band embarked on a multi-city concert tour. Gregg Shapiro: The B-52s have a long history of working with fascinating producers like Nile Rodgers and Don Was on “Cosmic Thing,” plus Chris Blackwell, Rhett Davies and David Byrne. Yet the band never lost its distinctive personality, style and sound. How were you able to maintain that? Fred Schneider: Because we don’t try to be like anybody else. We all collaborate. We all have a lot of shared likes and dislikes. Everyone brings something unique to it. Keith’s [Strickland] an amazing musician. His music’s very inspiring. As was Ricky’s [Wilson]. We just do our own thing. We don’t follow trends,

and haunted by his own conscience, he is a pivot point for understanding the negative effects of avoiding personal truth. Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn is ideally cast as Claggart, investing the raw evil of the character with enough agonized self-loathing to keep him from becoming a cartoonish villain. He uses the cavernous, oaken sound of his voice to convincingly dominate the frightened sailors and set poor Captain Vere’s troubled mind further ablaze. At the heart of the drama but spiritually above the fray is purehearted Billy. Impressed upon the Indomitable from a merchant ship (ironically) the Rights o’ Man, his mysterious background surely included some early trauma. He stammers whenever confronted with incomprehensible cunning and cruelty. A flaw that forces him to blind action when words cannot be found, his stuttering also brings about his tragic end. Suitably handsome and angelic in a brawny sort of way, American baritone John Chest makes his SFO debut in the title role. The former Merola Opera Program participant comes to the main stage with a perfectly realized depiction. He can climb the forbidding set with the best of the supernumeraries and still maintain a steady, agreeably dark-sounding tone. His acting is unforced, and his final soliloquy is heartbreaking. Memories of Nathan Gunn’s fine portrayal in the Com-

pany’s last production have been beautifully exceeded. Excellent members of the all-male ensemble include bass-baritone Philip Horst (the impressive Gamekeeper in SFO’s “Rusalka”) as Mr. Redburn, Wayne Tigges (the Company’s Judge Turpin in “Sweeney Todd”) as Mr. Flint, current SFO Adler Fellow Christian Pursell as Mr. Ratcliffe, and Robert Brubaker (sublimely slimy Aegisth in SFO’s “Elektra,” and soonto-be Witch in “Hansel and Gretel”) as Red Whiskers. Young tenor Brenton Ryan proved especially convincing as the quite literally tortured Novice, and SFO stalwart American bass-baritone Philip Skinner, who made his Company debut in 1985, offers moments of heartwarming relief in his touching portrayal of kindly shipmate Dansker. Adler Fellow Christopher Colmenero as Maintop, and former Adler Fellow tenor Matthew O’Neill as the pitiable lackey Squeak also stand out. Forty-four men from the SFO Chorus, prepared by Director Ian Robertson, and eight boys from Ragazzi Boys Chorus provide a most realistic underpinning to Britten’s genius evocation of the sea and the men who sail upon it. The crew’s wordless grumbling (spoiler alert) after Billy’s horrific execution was like a punch in the gut. The composer’s writing is so vivid, one is amazed at the variety he achieved without women’s voices. SFO’s voyage with HMS In-

nostalgic because a lot of the songs had to do with Athens [GA]. It’s the way we always worked, jamming and putting the pieces together. There’s a very moving intro in the CD booklet written by T. Cole Rachel, about how meaningful it was to hear the B-52s when he

through in order to get her case heard in the US Supreme Court, no mean feat, made all the more impressive by her advanced age and the fact that she was suffering from health problems. But she persevered, and her case made it to the high court, attracting national attention along the way. Though the outcome of the case is well-known (Windsor won), Kaplan’s oral arguments before the court and arguments from the opposing side play out like a suspense drama. Ultimately, Windsor not only won her case, she paved the way for the establishment of full marriageequality rights at the federal level two years later. Now that she is no longer with us, “To a More Perfect Union” stands as a tribute to her strength and her extraordinary accomplishment. The film paints a portrait of her as a hero, rightfully so.t

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Christian Van Horn as John Claggart and William Burden as Captain Vere in Britten’s “Billy Budd.”

domitable is challenging at many levels, but Britten’s haunting score is served flawlessly in Grandage’s vision and the Company’s breathtaking revival. Days have passed, and was a young queer kid who felt isolated in a rural town. Are you aware of the band’s influence on LGBTQ listeners? We get letters. To this day, LGBTQ fans tell us how we helped them get through the horrors of high school. I was bullied in high school, so I was reticent at first to talk about it [being gay]. I guess it was probably obvious that we were gay. Keith, Ricky and I didn’t have girlfriends! We had friends who were women.

we never have. That’s why we have such a diverse audience. You can’t really pinpoint a year and say, “Oh, this sounds so 80s, or so 70s, 60s or 90s,” or whatever. Unlike previous B-52s albums with songs credited to individual members, the songs on “Cosmic Thing” are credited to the band. Do you remember the songwriting process for that album? Keith contacted Cindy [Wilson], and Cindy was ready to work again. They contacted Kate [Pierson] and me, and we were ready. We would basically jam, as we did with all our albums. We’d all sing at the same time, record and listen back. Sometimes we had an idea for a title, sometimes we didn’t. That particular album was sort of

Pride parades. Zaccaro packs all this into the film’s first 10 minutes. The film also recounts the history of the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton when it looked like Hawaii was going to pass the country’s first marriage equality bill. Lawmakers were afraid other states would be forced to honor Hawaiian marriages. Windsor’s suit challenged part of that law, and demanded full recognition of her marriage to Spyer. The bulk of the film focuses on Windsor’s relationship with Spyer and her subsequent legal battle. Interviewees include Windsor and her attorney Roberta Kaplan, who wisely avoids using complicated legal jargon in her interviews, which makes the details of the case accessible to the average viewer. Viewers will learn what Windsor had to go

Did you have any idea that “Love Shack” would become a big hit? I thought it was one of the most accessible things we’d ever done. Radio didn’t get it at first, except for college and independent radio. I don’t think the record company got it. I have a reputation for having a voice that’s too weird for radio. Even though there are a lot of people

I’m still feeling the impact.t “Billy Budd” continues in repertory through Sept. 22. www.sfopera.com

who really like my voice. Basically, what Don [Was] did with the song was put two pieces together. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it. 2019 is the 30th anniversary of “Cosmic Thing,” also the 40th anniversary of the B-52s’ 1979 major-label debut. When you look back on that album all these years later, how do you feel? Thank God for “Rock Lobster!” It put us on the map. We found out we had a lot of like-minded listeners. Or they thought it was so weird, they loved it. Or they got that it was a surreal trip under the ocean. It really got us going. It made us a huge hit in Australia, of all places. We were playing dumpy little clubs all around the country, then we go to Australia and we’re treated like royalty! Is there any chance there may someday be a B-52s stage musical? Yes! As a matter of fact, we’re pitching ideas and coming up with things. Let’s just say there’s something in the works.t The B-52s will play Oxbow Riverstage in Napa, CA, on Sat., Oct. 26.

Nightlife Events

Shining Stars

www.ebar.com

Vol. 49 • No. 38 • September 19-25, 2019

Frances Ruffelle Broadway singer Live(s) in San Francisco at Feinstein’s JR Rost

by David-Elijah Nahmod

n September 27 and 28, Broadway baby Frances Ruffelle brings her show Frances Ruffelle Live(s) in New York to the elegant stage of Feinstein’s at The Nikko. It’s a show she performs monthly at Feinstein’s in New York, and she’s thrilled to be bringing the show to the West Coast. See page 23 >>

September 19-26, 2019

Arts Events

Frances Ruffulle at Feinstein’s New York.

Roll up for fall arts events in theatre, music, dance and museums.

Sat 21

Project Nunway @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Listings on page 24 > { THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Cabaret>>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Playmates and soul mates...

San Francisco:

1-415-692-5774

Frances Ruffulle

Frances Ruffelle

From page 22

Ruffelle first gained fame for her portrayal of Eponine in Les Miserables, a role she played on Broadway and in London, winning a Tony Award along the way. She made her American television debut in 1987, performing “On My Own” on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. “You have such a big voice for a petite young lady,” Carson told her. According to Feinstein’s publicity, Ruffelle “turns cabaret upside down and crushes it under her high heels to create a refreshing new form of entertainment.” “The show is inspired by my own life,” she said of her Feinstein’s appearance. “I started writing it the

day I started recording my last album, also the day the love of my life walked out, which happened to also be Independence Day. The show is basically about men, booze and a dog. I could say it moves from heartbreak to empowerment.” Ruffelle didn’t want to say too much about the show because that would be giving it all away, although she did say that she wanted to do a theater piece, albeit in a small, intimate cabaret setting. “All my one-woman shows are like mini-musicals, kind of,” she said. “Each song moves the scene forward and there are scenes between the songs, little vignettes. In the latest show the vignettes are in the style of the French poet Jacques Prevert. They are short, dark and

Michael Pour Trench

Frances Ruffulle as Eponine in Les Miserables

funny. Also, I have the attention span of a pea, so I write my shows for people like me. They are fastpaced. I try to keep the audience on their toes, never knowing where they will be taken next.” From the beginning, Ruffelle was destined for the theater. She was raised in London’s East End, where her mother ran a theater school for kids up to age 16. Her father, a former telephone engineer, eventually started running her mother’s office at the school. Her parents are now in their 80s and are still running the school with the help of her younger sister. “I always knew I wanted to act and sing,” she said. “But I really didn’t think I could sing. I always had a husky voice. I couldn’t believe it when I landed the role of Dinah in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. I worked hard to be a singer, took lessons and somehow managed my husky voice and all has worked out quite well, luckily.” She says that she loves to perform, it’s her natural high. Her idols include people like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Elvis Presley and Barry Manilow. “I could go on and on,” she said. “I’ve spent my whole life looking up to people like that.” Ruffelle knew that she wanted to be part of Les Miserables from the moment she heard it, before she was even offered the job. As they rehearsed, she and the cast knew they were on to something special. They were moved to tears by the scenes. But even then, they had no idea of the phenomenon the show would become. “I am so grateful for all the opportunities Eponine and Les Miz have brought me,” she said. “I doubt I’d be living in New York now if I hadn’t done that iconic role in such an iconic show. I’m even so grateful that I still sing ‘On My Own.’” Ruffelle is very much looking forward to playing San Francisco, as well as to other West Coast cities. “My band is super hot, led by my musical director Jude Obermuller,” she said. “Get out of the bloomin’ house and give me a hug at the end, I’ll need it. And you might too!”t Frances Ruffelle, Friday and Saturday September 27 and 28 at 8pm. $40-80. Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinssf.com

18+ MegaMates.com

<< Arts Events

24 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 19 Aunt Charlie’s @ Tenderloin Museum Multimedia exhibit about the historic Tenderloin drag bar, including Beautiful by Night: Photographs from Aunt Charlie’s Lounge by James Hosking. Also, Hot Boxx Girls, photos by Darwin Bell. Exhibit thru Dec 1. 398 Eddy St. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Bill and Flicka: Generous Spirits @ SF Conservatory of Music Opera Paralléle presents a concert with William Burden (Tenor), Frederica von Stade (MezzoSoprano), Christabel Nunoo (Soprano) and Keisuke Nakagoshi (Piano) performing works by Poulenc, Britten, Duparc, and others. $35-$150. 7:30pm. 50 Oak St. www.operaparallele.org

Classic and New Films @ Castro Theatre Sept 19-23: Downton Abbey (various times). Sept 24: Green Film Fest opening night, with Push (7:30pm). Sept 25: Lovett or Leave It (Jon Lovett’s live panel, Q&A quiz show and more, 8pm) Sept 26: Downton Abbey (3:30, 6pm, 8:45). $8-$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Events @ Booksmith, Bindery Sept 19, 7:30pm: John James ( The Milk Hours poetry). Sept 22, 4pm: Petina Gappah ( Out of Darkness, Shining Light ). Sept 23, 7:30pm: Timothy Faust ( Health Justice Now: Single Payer and What Comes Next ). Sept 24, 7pm: Aimee Lucido ( Emmy in the Key of Code ). Sept 2, 7:30pm; Jaqueline Woodson ( Red at the Bone ). 1644 Haight St. www.booksmith.com

Events @ GLBT History Museum

Tovah Feldshuh @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

In Search of Stonewall ; Jewelle Gomez, Steven Dansky, Will Roscoe and Eve Goldberg discuss their contributions to the Gay & Lesbian Review’s anthology. 7pm. Sept 20: Enola Gay: The Birth of Militant AIDS Activism, a living history panel with Robert Glück, Richard Bell and Jack Davis. Sept 26: book launch for E.R. Ramzipoor’s The Ventriloquists: A Novel of Queer Resistance, Each 7pm, $5. Also, exhibits Queering Familias: Building Latinx Resilience & Hope and The Mayor of Folsom Street: Alan Selby’s Legacy (both thru Oct 20). 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

The veteran Broadway actress performs Tovah is Leona!, songs from the new musical about the notorious 1980s New York real estate empress Leona Helmsley. $50-$90 ($20 food/drink min). 8pm. Also Sept. 21. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinssf.com

The Great Wave @ Berkeley Repertory U.S. premiere of Francis Turnly’s drama about Asian family members separated by an ocean. $30-$81. thru Oct 27. 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Love, Cruelty, and SelfDestruction @ Telematic Screening of video/performance works by Monet Clark, Cliff Hengst, Dale Hoyt, The Patchchords (w/ Fred Rinne), and Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle. 7:30pm. 323 10th St.

Mugwumpin, Mabel Valdiviezo with Travis Bennett @ CounterPulse The Looking Glass Self and Metamorphosis: Phase 1 are performed by the two energetic performance ensembles. Free/$30. Thu-Sat 8pm, thru Sept 21. 80 Turk St. http://counterpulse.org

No Regrets: A Celebration of Marlon Riggs @ BAM/PFA Screenings of films by the late African American gay artist and UC Berkeley professor, including Tongues Untied and Black Is… Black Ain’t. Thru Nov 25. Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2155 Center St., Berkeley. https://bampfa.org

You Betta Work Comedy Fiesta @ San Mateo Pride Center Jesus U. Betta Work leads a crew of comic cutups; Alejandro Ochoa, Glamis Rory, Justin Lucas and Emily Van Dyke. $5. 7:30pm. 1021 S. El Camino Road, San Mateo. www.jesusubettawork.com

Tue 24

George Takei @ Herbst Theatre

Readings @ City Lights Bookstore Sept 19, 7pm: Nolan Higdon & Mickey Huff ( United States of Distraction ). 23, 7pm: Isabella Tree ( Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm ). 26, 7pm: Catherine Flynn (James Joyce and the Matter of Paris). 261 Columbus Ave. www.citylights.com

Readings @ The Green Arcade Editor Dani Burlison discusses All of Me: Stories of Love, Anger, and the Female Body, the new PM Press anthology with Tomas Moniz. 7pm. Sept 26, 7pm: Raymond Caballero discusses his book McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks, about a war veteran’s plight and false imprisonment. 1680 Market St. www.thegreenarcade.com

Top Girls @ Geary Theater American Conservatory Theatre’s new season kicks off with Caryl Churchill’s modern classic drama about the cost of progress in a world divided by class, cruelty, and capitalism. Enjoy a special-made Humphry Slocombe ice cream flavor in the lobby. $15-$110. Thru Oct. 13. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

The World Goes ‘Round @ Geary Theater Garret American Conservatory Theatre student production of the Kander & Ebb musical. $10-$15. 5:30pm & 12pm. Thru Sept 19. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Fri 20 Art & MORE! @ The Academy Opening reception for a group exhibit of works by Elliott C Nathan, J. Manuel Carmona and Serge Gay Jr., with an art talk led by Juanita MORE with SF Art Commission President Roberto Ordenana. Free/ RSVP. 6pm-9pm. 2166 Market St. www.academy-sf.com

Charo @ Herbst Theatre The Spanish guitarist and comic actress performs live. $50-100. 8pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.cityboxoffice.com

Dionysus Was Such a Nice Man @ Joe Goode Annex Fools Fury production of Kate Tarker’s modern take on the story of Oedipus from the perspective of the family of shepherds who raised him. $24-$50. Thru Oct. 20. 401 Alabama St. www.foolsfury.org

Enola Gay: The Birth of Militant AIDS Activism @ GLBT History Museum Enola Gay: The Birth of Militant AIDS Activism, a living history panel with Robert Glück, Richard Bell and Jack Davis. 7pm, $5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Sat 21 Events @ Manny’s Sept 20, 6:30: Civic Trivia night. Sept 21, 8pm: Comedy Night. 22, 6pm: Free Press Music. 23, 6:30pm: David Plouffe, Pres. Obama’s campaign manager & 8pm, Ann Ravel, former Election Commission Chair. 24, 7:30: How to Influence Politics. 25, 5pm: Businesses for Social & Environmental Change. 26, 6:30: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. 26, 7:30: Jewher Ilham on Chinese oppression of Ulghurs. Free/$10 and up (donations). 3092 16th St. www.welcometomannys.com

Mark Morris Dance Group @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The acclaimed dance company performs Mozart Dances, with pianist Inon Barnatan and the Berkeley Symphony. $42-$148. 8pm. Setp 21, 2pm & 8pm Sept 22, 3pm. Bancroft Way at Dana, UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

Mike Henderson @ SFAI Honest to Goodness, an exhibit of vibrant colorful paintings by the local artist and musician. Artist reception Sept 20, 6pm-8pm. Thru Nov. 800 Chestnut St. www.sfai.edu

Salman Rushdie @ First Congregational Church of Oakland The author discusses his new book, Quichotte, with author Andrew Sean Greer. $10-$54. 7pm. 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. www.berkeleyarts.org

Smuin Contemporary Ballet @ Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek Dance Series 1, the company premiere of The Man in Black (James Kudelka dances set to Johhny Cash songs), Rex Wheeler’s Take Five and Michael Smuin’s Carmina Burana. $25-$93. 7:30pm, thru Sept 21. 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. Also Sept 27-Oct 6 at Cowell Theater, 2 Marina Blvd., SF. smuinballet.org

Sunset Dances II @ Outer Sunset

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its final year with fun lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Online lottery announced for tix to New Year’s Eve closing shows! $25$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm & 9pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd. (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Brian Dettmer @ Nancy Toomey Fine Art Exhibit of Elegies, the artist’s amazing carved book sculptures. Reg hours Tue-Fri 11am-5:30pm. Sat 11am-5pm (artist reception Oct 5, 5pm-7pm); thru Oct. 12. 1275 Minnesota St. www.nancytoomeyfineart.com

Events @ Alley Cat Books Sept 21, 6pm: 120-Minute Muse, a night of performance hosted by Bloodflower. Sept 25, 7pm: The Racket #34: Celebrity with Leland Cheuk. Sept 26, 6:30pm: contributors to Cat Call: An Untamed History of the Cat Archetype in Myth and Magic. 3036 24th St. 3036 24th St. www.alleycatbookshop.com

The Flick @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players performs Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 drama/comedy about three people working in a cinema. $7-$40. Thru Oct. 6. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgunplayers.org

Jonathan Biss @ Hertz Hall, Berkeley The acclaimed pianist performs a 7-concert cycle of the complete Beethoven Pianos sonatas. $68. Sept 21, 8pm & 22, 3pm. Oct 12 & 13, Dec 15, Mar. 7 & 8. Bancroft Way at College Ave., UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

Opera at the Ballpark @ Oracle Park

Lizz Roman & Dancers’ second annual site-specific dance and live music (composed by Jerome Lindner) concerts in an Ocean Beach home. $30. Fri-Sun 8:30pm thru Sept 22. eventbrite.com/e/sunset-dances

Watch a San Francisco Opera simulcast of Romeo & Juliet ; bring blankets (no alcohol, chairs or hard coolers). Free/RSVP. 7:30pm. 24 Willie Mays Plaza. www.sfopera. com www.eventbrite.com

This Side of Crazy @ NCTC

Project Nunway X @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Previews for Del Shore’s new Southern comedy about four very unusual women brought together for a family reunion. $22-$44. WedSat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thursday night preshow music and drag cabaret concerts. Thru Oct. 20. New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Titus Andronicus @ La Val’s Subterranean Theater, Berkeley Shakespeare’s violent bloody tragedy gets an intimate local production. $15-$25. Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm thru Sept 29. 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. www.tituslunatico.bpt.me

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s tenth annual fashion show benefit, with celebrity judges Trixie Mattel, Chi Chi LaRue, reigning Emperor and Empress of San Francisco, Terrill Grimes and Baby-Shaques Munro; and Mr. SF Eagle, Manuel Ojeda. Silent auction, drinks. $40-$125. 6pm-10pm. 934 Brannan st. www.thesisters.org

Romeo & Juliet @ War Memorial Opera House San Francisco Opera performs Charles Gounod’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic romantic tragedy. $31-$306. 8pm. Also Sept 24, 29 & Oct 1. 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfopera.com

Arts Events>>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

Off the Wall @ Mission Cultural Center Exhibit and sale of historic Mission Grafica Printmaking Studio’s decades of posters and prints; main Gallery, thru Sept. 20. 2868 Mission St. www.missionculturalcenter.org

Wed 25 Africa State of Mind @ MOAD Traveling exhibit curated by Ekow Eshun includes 16 artists’ works focusing on the idea of ‘Africanness.’ Also, The Sacred Star of Isis and Other Stories, photos by Adama Delphine Fawundo; also Rashaad Newsome’s Stop Playing in My Face! Free/$10. Both thru Nov. 15. 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Wed 25

Hot Mikado @ Gateway Theatre

Africa State of Mind @ MOAD

SF Hiking Club @ Point Reyes

George Takei @ Herbst Theatre

Margaret Atwood @ Lowell High School

Join GLBT hikers for an 11-mile hike at Point Reyes; carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. (510) 364-1431. www.sfhiking.com

The actor, activist and author discusses his life, LGBTQ rights, his family history of being sent to prison camps during WWII, and his book They Called Us Enemy, in conversation with Mina Kim. $15$60. 6:30pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.commonwealthclub.org

The acclaimed novelist ( The Handmaid’s Tale and it sequel The Testaments ) discusses her work with Kelly Corrigan. $50-$65. 7pm. Carol Channing Theater, 1101 Eucalptus Drive. www.SFCurran.com

That Don Reed Show @ The Marsh Berkeley The acclaimed solo performer’s show about dealing with racism in show business. $20-$100. Sat 8:30pm, Sun 5:30pm. Thru Oct 13. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

Sun 22 Mental Health Comedy Hour @ All Out Comedy Theater, Oakland

Rob Bowman and David H. Bell’s jazz interpretation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta. $31-$72. Thru Oct. 13. 215 Jackson St. www.42ndstmoon.org

Lovett or Leave It @ Castro Theatre Jon Lovett, former Barack Obama speechwriter, hosts a live podcast show with actors, comics and journalists. $40-$70. 8pm. 429 Castro St. www.ticketmaster.com

The Teen Age @ Cartoon Museum Summer exhibition, The Teen Age: Youth Culture in Comics. Also, Surfside Girls, original work from book illustrator Kim Dwinell; other ongoing exhibits. Free-$10. 11am5pm, except Wed. 781 Beach St. www.cartoonart.org

Mon 23 Justin Hall @ Strut The local comic artist and editor’s Greetings From Dadville, his new collection of illustrations from a new comic book; thru Sept. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Queer as German Folk @ SF Public Library Exhibit of ephemera and memorabilia about Stonewall rebellion commemorations in Germany and worldwide; additional exhibit also at Eureka Valley Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16th; both thru Sept 26. 100 Larkin St. sfpl.org

We Are More @ California Humanities, Oakland Exhibit of art by four queer comic artists; Ajuan Mance, Breena Nuñez, Lawrence Lindell, and Trinidad Escobar. Thru October 27. 38 9th St. Suite 210. Oakland. www.calhum.org

Tue 24 Clare Barron’s dark comedy about competitive dancers in Florida, with teenagers played by adults. $35-$125. Thru Nov 9. 450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org

Andrew Stoner @ SF Main Library Author discusses his biography, The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts. Hormel Center, 3rd floor. 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Naomi Klein @ First Cognregational Church of Oakland The author discusses her new book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, with Mother Jones editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery. $10-$53. 7pm. 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. www.berkeleyarts.org

Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers @ Strut Launch party for a new queer horror comics anthology, with editors Justin Hall and William O. Tyler, and host Peaches Christ. 8pm-10pm. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

#We @ Wolfman Books, Oakland Queer reading and discussion series, formerly at Octopus Literary Salon, features Dena Rod and Juba Kalamka, hosted by Richard Loranger. 7pm. 410 13th St., Oakland. www.wolfmanhomerepair.com t

Hookups =

Wonder Dave and Kristee Ono cohost a night of comedy and comics discussing mental health. $10-$14. 8pm. 2525 Telegraph Ave. www.alloutcomedytheater.com

Dance Nation @ SF Playhouse

Thu 26

Visit www.squirt.org to hook up today

<< Nightlife Events

26 • Bay Area Reporter • September 19-25, 2019

Nightlife Events Sept. 19-26, 2019

Macho Macho @ SF Eagle Latinx and kinks night. $10. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular weekly drag show, with special guests and great music themes, and MadDogg 20/20 in the Fez Room. Sept 21 is a Hamilton the musical night. $10-$15. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Fun is where the heart is, and musicians, cabaret acts and queens all over the bay gear up to entertain your nightlife desires.

Wed 25

Baloney Does Folsom @ Oasis

The Playground @ Club BNB, Oakland Dance night at the popular hip hop and Latin club. $5-$15. 9pm to 3am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Robben Ford @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Gooch

The veteran jazz guitarist performs with his band at the elegant nightclub-restaurant. $34-$74. 510 Embarcadero West. www.yoshis.com

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 19 Dee’s Keys @ Beaux Weekly live piano and open mic night with Dee Spencer. 4pm-8pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Events @ Steamworks, Berkeley The stylish bathhouse’s DJed events take place Thursdays-Sundays. $7$62, plus annual memberships $160. Open 24/7, every day. 2107 4th St., Berkeley. (510) 845-8992. www.steamworksbaths.com

Lez Groove @ The Stud Retro disco vibes and wimmin’s night, with DJs e’Lish, Siobhan Aluvalot, live set with Khalibud. $5-$8. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG KJ Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Ido 8pm. 43 6th St. clubomgsf.com

Queeraoke @ Tamarack, Oakland Dana Morrigan hosts the 1st & 3rd Thursdays queer karaoke night, 7:30pm-1am. No cover. 1501 Harrison St., Oakland. tamarackoakland.com/

Scott Capurro @ Punch Line The veteran gay comic does his witty stand-up. $22-$26 (2-drink min.) 8pm. thru Sept 21. 444 Battery St. www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

Star Trek Live! @ Oasis

Latin Explosion @ Club 21

The hilarious drag king/queen parody performance of a classic episode of the scifi TV series teleports back to SoMa, starring Leigh Crow (Capt. Kirk) and a crew of queens and kings. $27.50-$50. Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Sept 21. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

The popular Latin club with gogo guys galore and Latin music. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Fri 20 Beards & Booze @ The Edge Beers, bears, cubs, snacks and grooves. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. www.edgesf.com

Dark Entries @ The Stud 10-year anniversary of the record company and release of Violet, with Cyrnai, Sepehr and DJ Josh Cheon. 9pm-3am. 399 9th St. studsf.com

Fou Fou Ha @ Oasis The 24 Carrot Show, the circus-variety ensemble’s latest colorful show. $35$70. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Halou @ DNA Lounge Album release for Brutalism for Lovers, the band’s first album in 10 years; also Robeena Diet Biscuit, “tranimal” drag queen supreme. $10. 8pm. 375 11th St. dnalounge.com

Kim Waters @ Yoshi’s Oakland The super-talented jazz saxophonist performs with his band at the stylish nightclub-restuarant. $34-$79. 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West. www.yoshis.com

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Piano Bar @ Martuni’s Musician extraordinaire Joe Wicht leads tasteful sing-along selections. 5:30-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Tovah Feldshuh @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran Broadway actress performs Tovah is Leona!, songs from the new musical about the notorious 1980s New York real estate empress Leona Helmsley. $50$90 ($20 food/drink min). 8pm. Also Sept. 21. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinssf.com

Uhaul @ Jolene’s The popular women’s dance party returns at the new nightclub, now weekly. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

Wuhfff @ Powerhouse Pedal Pups AIDS Life/Cycle fundraiser with sexy gogos and shots. $5.9pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Sat 21 Beatpig @ Powerhouse Juanita MORE’s diverse sexy night, with guest DJ John Fucking Cartwright. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Brandi Carlile @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley Award-winning folk-rock singersongwriter performs at the outdoor ampitheatre; Lucious opens. $40-$96. 7pm. Also Sept 22. 2001 Gayley Drive, UC Berkeley. www.brandicarlile.com

Dance Party @ White Horse Bar, Oakland DJed grooves at the historic East Bay gay bar. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Diana Krall @ Fox Theatre, Oakland The amazing jazz pianist-singer performs with her band. $60$125 reserved seating. 8pm. 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.apeconcerts.com

Fake and Gay @ The Stud DJs Sasha Colby and Boy Sim, plus some drag acts. 9pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Lips and Lashes Brunch @ Lookout Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1:30pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World @ the Warfield Dragstravaganza with Michelle Visage, Asia O’Hara, Detox, Kameron Michaels, Kim Chi, Naomi Smalls, Plastique, Violet Chachki, and Yvie Oddly. $52-$162. 8pm. 982 Market St. www.axs.com

Shake It Up @ Port Bar, Oakland DJ Lady Char spins dance grooves; gogo studs, and drink specials. ‘Thank U, Marsha’ (4th Sat.) and Tinsel Teese’s ‘Kiki at the Port Bar’ (8pm). 2023 Broadway. (510) 823-2099. www.portbaroakland.com

Sirens for St. James Infirmary @ Phoenix Theater, Petaluma Copyslut, Moira Scar and Mystic Priestess play rockin’ sets at a benefit for the sex worker healthcare nonprofit. $10 and up. 8pm-12am. 201 Washington St., Petaluma. www.petalumaphoenix.org

Sun 22 Deven Green, Ned Douglas @ Oasis The duo performs a diverse cabaret concert of classic and unusual song mash-ups. $20-$30. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Drag Brunch @ Hamburger Mary’s Tasty food, bottomless mimosas and drag shows with Kylie Minono, Patty McGroin and other talents. Seating 11am, show 12pm. Also Saturdays. 531 Castro St. hamburgermarys.com

Glam Sundays @ Valencia Room New weekly house, funk, soul T-dance with guest-DJs and no cover. 3pm9pm. 647 Valencia St. www.glamsundays.com

Hippie Dick @ The Stud Honoring Gene Barnes & Portia Manson’s legendary zine with a screening, talk by Keroscene and DJ sets by Tammy Rae Carland (Mr. Lady) and Josh Cheon (Dark Entries). 9pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Leather Bar Showtunes Sing-Along @ SF Eagle Fun showtunes night with Russell Deason. $10. 7pm-11pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Renegade @ Atlas The weekly cruisy semi-private party. 6pm-10pm. $5-$20. Now also Truck Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 9pm-2am. 415 10th St. www.atlas-sf.com

Sack @ Powerhouse Leather Week kickoff with sporty kink attire welcome. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Mon 23 Holy Divers Queer Karaoke @ Ivy Room, Albany Dana Morrigan hosts the weekly amatuer singing night. No cover. 8pm-1am. 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. www.ivyroom.com

Mancrush Mondays @ Port Bar, Oakland Drink & draw night with sexy male models; BYO art materials. 2st & 3rd Mondays. No cover, but 1-drink min. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Munro’s at Midnight @ Midnight Sun Drag night with Mercedez Munro. No cover. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. the440.com

Vamp @ Beaux Women’s night with a sultry vampire theme; goth, red & black, lingerie attire welcome but not required; bondage and BDSM demos, too. DJs Olga T and Jayne Grey. $5-$15. 8pm2am. 2344 Market St. beauxsf.com

Tue 24 Cock Shot @ Beaux The weeknight party gets going with DJ Chad Bays. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Gaymer Night @ Midnight Sun Weekly fun night of games (video, board and other) and cocktails. 8pm12am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am. 44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Sing Out @ Encore Karaoke Lounge Home of drag shows, and hilaraoke karaoke. 9pm-1am. 1550 California St. #2. 775-0442.

Vice Tuesdays @ Q Bar Queer femmes and friends dance party with hip hop, Top 40 and throwbacks at the stylish intimate bar, with DJs Val G and Iris Triska. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Sat 21 Brandi Carlile @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley

Nightlife Events>>

September 19-25, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Zodiac @ SF Eagle

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

New weekly creepy-goth drag show and viewing party for the Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, with hosts Nitrix Oxide and Dakota Pendant. Ghoulish drag/attire appreciated. $5-$10. 8pm12am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Carnie Asada hosts a weekly ‘90s-themed night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Social Distortion, Flogging Molly @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley

Wed 25

Veteran punkabilly bands perform; The Devil Makes Three and Le Butcherettes open. $49.50. 5:30pm. 2001 Gayley Drive, UC Berkeley. http://thegreekberkeley.com/

American Horror Story Night @ SF Eagle Watch AHS 1984, the camp/slasher FX Ryan Murphy TV series. 10pm-12am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Baloney Does Folsom @ Oasis

Spliff @ Public Works Dance party with DJs Sergio Fedasz, Dank and Robin Simmons; stoner raffle, and a variety show with dragsters Pina Busch, Maria Konner, Mama Dora and others. $20. 9pm2am. 161 Erie St. www.publicsf.com

Sat 21

The male burlesque dance show returns for a Folsom kink-themed explosion of dance skits. $35-$70. 7pm. Thru Sept 28. 298 11th St. www.sfbaloney.com

RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World @ The Warfield

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

GAYmes @ Port Bar, Oakland

Cabaret Karaoke @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Dick Bright MCs the new karaoke night at the elegant nightclub. $12$15. ($20 food/drink min.). Thru Sept. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinssf.com

Castro Karaoke @ Midnight Sun Sing out with host Bebe Sweetbriar; 2 for 1 well drinks. 8pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. midnightsunsf.com

Dirty Alley @ Powerhouse Super cruisy Folsomy kink night, with hot gogos, leather demos. $5.9pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Board games night; Baila Conmigo, queer Latinx fundraiser (2nd Wed.), Wet & Wild drag shows (1st & 4th Wed.). 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Musical Wednesdays @ The Edge Sing along to shows tunes on video, lip-synched and live, at the Castro bar, with host Brian Kent; trivia contest, and prizes. 7pm-12am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

NSA @ Club OMG Weekly underwear party. $1 well drinks for anyone in underwear from 9pm-10pm. 43 6th St. clubomgsf.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux Drag divas, gogo studs, DJed Latin grooves and drinks at the Hump Day fiesta 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. www.clubpapi.com

Queeraoke @ El Rio Midweek drag rave and vocal open mic, with Dulce de Leche, Rahni Nothingmore, Beth Bicoastal, Ginger Snap and guests. 10pm. 3158 Mission St. http://www.elriosf.com/

Underwater Wedding @ The Stud Writers and fans gather at the historic gay bar. 5pm-8pm. 399 9th St at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Thu 26 Game Night @ Pause Wine Bar Johnny Rockitt hosts a weekly night of trivia and other games. 8pm10pm. 1666 Market St. www.yieldandpause.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21 Latin beats, Lulu and Jacqueline’s drag show, gogo hotties and a packed crowd. $10-$15. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. www.club21oakland.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

The popular two-stepping linedancing, not-just-country music night, with free lessons. $5. 6:30pm-10:30pm. Also Sundays 5pm10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

TwerkBack Thursday @ Port Bar, Oakland DJ Deft plays hip hop grooves, gogos at 10pm, with hosts Mahlae Balenciaga and Amoura Teese. 2023 Broadway. portbaroakland.comt Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

One Night Only with Hamilton Cast @ Herbst Theater

ast members from the local touring production of Hamilton sang an array of songs themed Protest: Revel with Some Rebels, at the latest benefit concert on Sept. 16, with proceeds going to the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Patrons schmoozed with performers after the show, with drinks and food, plus live and silent auctions. www.reaf-sf.org See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

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