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Out candidates in Oakland
Cat Brooks interview
ARTS
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Arts Fall Preview
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Liberace & Liza together
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 36 • September 6-12, 2018
Oakland Pride highlights displacement of LGBTs Ed Walsh
A growing memorial lies outside Brian Egg’s Clara Street home.
SFPD blasted over headless torso case
by Ed Walsh
A
s friends and neighbors of Brian Egg are preparing to gather next week to remember the man whose headless torso is believed to have been found in a fish tank in his home, serious questions are being raised over whether the San Francisco Police Department’s early inaction in the case effectively jeopardized the department’s current homicide investigation. “I am ENRAGED about the police response to this case,” a woman wrote on a thread about the case on the Nextdoor social media site after the story broke last week. “Multiple reports were made to the police about this!!! What more could a neighbor have done if the police were not willing to take this seriously??? This is appalling!!!!” Echoed Jamie Whittaker, a gay former District 6 supervisorial candidate who is known for his grassroots work in the South of Market area: “If this doesn’t alert everyone that SFPD is asleep at the wheel and just cashin’ paychecks, forget It. Burglars/trespassers just explain, “Oh, the owner is on vacation??” Wow. No words.” Egg’s longtime friend and neighbor, Scot Free, started the Nextdoor posting August 2 to rally support to help find Egg after police did nothing other than knock on Egg’s door and then told neighbors that Egg was out of town, information that police had apparently received from Egg’s answering machine. But neighbors and relatives told the Bay Area Reporter that the message in itself was very suspicious because Egg never used an answering machine before and the message wasn’t in his voice. Egg’s brother, Devon Egg, told the B.A.R. that after getting the answering machine once, he called back and talked to a man who said that his brother was walking his dog and would call right back. No one called back. Police said that they got calls from neighbors in late July and took a missing persons report from Egg’s sister August 7. They went by the home twice in July and again on August 7. Each time, officers knocked on the door and left when there was no answer. Despite neighbors reporting suspicious activity at the home, the police never characterized Egg’s disappearance as suspicious and never attempted to enter the home. Neighbors said shortly after either the first or second time police knocked on the door, there were signs that someone was frantically cleaning the home with bleach. Soapsuds could be seen leaking from the front of the house and the front door was painted. A notice posted last week on See page 14 >>
Oakland Pride supporters installed temporary rainbow crosswalks Sunday, September 2, at the site of the festival at 20th and Broadway. From left, Niko Durr, Ari Curry, Rami KD, Lindha Axelssom, and Tia Cutting help paint the crosswalks.
by Alex Madison
O
akland Pride is back Sunday, September 9, with new additions and a focus on the challenges the LGBT community faces in the East Bay. The theme of the ninth annual Oakland Pride festival and fifth annual parade is “Love.
Community. Resistance.” “It starts with love. It allows us to be out and proud to be who we are,” said Carlos Uribe, cochair of the Oakland Pride board, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “Community holds us together and allows us to move forward. Resistance is important, including resisting the LGBTQ community being pushed out
of Oakland and San Francisco because housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable.” The parade steps off at 11 a.m. at Broadway and 14th streets in Oakland and ends at Broadway and 20th streets, the main entrance of the festival. The festival goes from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. See page 2 >> Jane Philomen Cleland
SFO reveals Milk terminal plans by Matthew S. Bajko
O
fficials at San Francisco International Airport are planning to mount a crowd-sourced exhibit about the late gay Supervisor Harvey Milk inside the terminal named in his honor. It is just one of the elements the city’s airport is planning for the under renovation Terminal 1, which was renamed Harvey B. Milk Terminal by the supervisors and former mayor Mark Farrell this spring. Also to be installed will be new signage and artwork throughout the terminal, as well as a temporary display on a construction wall in the terminal’s Boarding Area B. Next July, airport officials expect to unveil the temporary exhibit, which is slated to remain until May 2021. The permanent exhibit, signage, and several art pieces would be unveiled in February 2020, according to the airport’s current timeline. The last of the artwork featuring Milk would be unveiled in November 2022 when the full terminal is slated to open. The first of SFO’s four terminals, Terminal 1 is undergoing a $2.4 billion remodel that is being rolled out in stages. The city’s arts commission in early August voted in support of the airport’s plans to honor Milk and present his life story inside the terminal. An owner of a camera store on Castro Street, Milk helped organize the neighborhood’s new LGBT residents into a potent political force that in November 1977 led to his
Courtesy SFO
A rendering of the Central Inglenook in the new Terminal 1 shows a wall of photos of Harvey Milk, as well as larger images.
election to a supervisor seat. The first out LGBT person to hold public office in the city, as well as California, Milk was killed inside City Hall the morning of November 27, 1978 by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White, who also fatally shot then-mayor George Moscone. In 2013, gay former supervisor David Campos had proposed naming the entire airport after Milk. Due to a lack of support, Campos worked out a deal with the late mayor Ed Lee to instead name one of the airport’s terminals
in honor of Milk. An advisory panel last year selected Terminal 1 as the best choice, leading to city leaders approving the selection earlier this year. The legislation called for the city’s arts commission to approve the designs of the various elements of the terminal renaming. The proposed signage is to be submitted to City Hall for final approval by December. According to the plans approved last month See page 14 >>
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