September 17, 2020 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Cheating at bridge

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B.A.R. supe endorsements

Queer dist. in SJ

ARTS

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Frameline features

The

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Vol. 50 • No. 38 • September 17-23, 2020

Long-term HIV/AIDS survivors draft SF Principles statement

by John Ferrannini Courtesy Governor’s office

Governor Gavin Newsom

Newsom signs LGBTQ teen sex offender registry bill

by Matthew S. Bajko

G

overnor Gavin Newsom late Friday signed into law a controversial bill that ends discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ young adults faced with registering as sex offenders.

The author of Senate Bill 145, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), has faced death threats and been subjected to anti-Semitic harassment from followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory for months due to the policy change. He has also been falsely accused of promoting pedophilia, not only from online trolls but also from his colleague Senator Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore).

Close to 8 p.m. September 11, Newsom’s office announced he had signed the bill along with 22 other bills. He made no comment about any of the legislation, and the press statement from his office made no mention of the controversy surrounding SB 145. It merely referred to the bill as “Sex offenders: registration.”

In a Facebook post Wiener thanked Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco and long a champion of LGBTQ issues, for signing the bill into law in spite of the lies and homophobic reaction it had generated.

“Proving again that he’s a true champion for the LGBTQ community – even when it’s hard – Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 145, ending discrimination against LGBTQ young people on California’s sex offender registry,” wrote Wiener.

“Thank you, Governor, for seeing through the QAnon lies about this equality legislation.”

Wiener noted that he had “been subjected to a tidal wave of QAnon/MAGA anti-Semitic, homophobic death threats, doxxing, and slander regarding this legislation. #SB145 is supported by law enforcement, civil rights groups & sexual assault survivor groups. Today, equality and justice won.”

On Twitter, Melendez lashed out at Newsom for signing the legislation.

“Well what a shock. Newsom signed SB145, the bill that allows a 24-year-old to have sex with a 14-year-old and escape a felony conviction and requirement to be a registered sex offender. Absolutely disgusting,” she wrote.

The bill doesn’t change any criminal statutes.

In actuality, Wiener’s legislation ensures LGBTQ adolescents are treated the same as their heterosexual peers when faced with the possibility of being listed on the state’s sex offender registry. He has been pushing to pass it for several years now.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, had held it over last summer in order See page 8 >>

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ong-term HIV/AIDS survivors in San Francisco have drafted a statement of principles demanding greater inclusion in policy making.

The San Francisco Principles will be announced at an in-person news conference Friday, September 18, at noon at Civic Center Plaza (masks and social distancing required). Draftees told the Bay Area Reporter September 15 that policymakers often ignore their cohort and that this can only change if they have a seat at the table where government and nonprofit decisions are made.

Hank Trout, the senior editor of A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine, said he and several other long-term survivors held a Zoom call after the 2020 International AIDS Conference, which would have been held in San Francisco and Oakland but for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We came together to talk about our reaction,” Trout said. “We were all pretty disappointed with it. Out of 100 hours of programming there were only two, onehour sessions devoted to long-term survi-

Courtesy SF Pride

Vince Crisostomo is one of the longterm HIV/AIDS survivors behind the new San Francisco Principles.

vors. Simply a statement about the conference isn’t enough.”

Organizers of the 2020 AIDS Conference did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Trout said that they looked to the past

Courtesy Hank Troutå

Hank Trout

of AIDS activism for answers about how to address the lack of representation.

“We were inspired by the Denver Principles in 1983, when people with AIDS demanded they be included and represented in policy, research, treatment and care and we decided on a statement of principles for long-term survivors,” Trout said. “We See page 2 >>

3 props address CA housing issues

by John Ferrannini

H

ousing, one of the most salient issues in California, is a subject of three statewide propositions on the November 3 ballot.

Proposition 15 would repeal some caps on commercial property taxes first imposed by 1978’s Proposition 13. Proposition 19 would allow older, disabled, and some displaced Californians to move their property tax rates with them throughout the state – but would also require the inheritors of homes to live in them in order to claim lower property tax rates. Proposition 21 would grant local governments broader power to enact rent control.

Commercial property tax increase

In 1978, California voters passed Prop 13, which limited property taxes for the owners of both homes and commercial spaces.

The result was a drastic reduction in property taxes, which critics have argued has hurt the state’s schools, which depend on that revenue.

Prop 15 is known as the “split roll” fix, and would repeal the 1978 commercial property tax caps for properties worth over $3 million. It could generate billions of dollars in tax revenue. It does not apply to residential property.

Proposition 15, dubbed the Schools and Communities First initiative, is supported by Equality California, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ

Rich Gerharter

A flat was for sale on Church Street in May.

Democratic Club, and the California Democratic Party. The California Republican Party opposes it. (Neither of California’s major political parties responded to requests for comment for this story. The California GOP only recently issued its ballot endorsements.)

“We believe this is very important because it is a critical step to making sure every child has a safe and supportive school,” Samuel Garrett-Pate, the communications director for EQCA, said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

“LGBTQ students face more risks at school and

our teachers and staff are on the frontlines of protecting our LGBTQ students, but both are underfunded because of these unfair tax laws.

They need the support and funding to support LGBTQ+ people. And this would only apply to commercial, not residential, property.”

Edward Wright, chair of the Milk club political action committee, told the B.A.R. that Prop 15 was the only proposition “pre-endorsed” by the club.

See page 8 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2020

Gay couple caught cheating at bridge as Castro club moves online

by Sari Staver

E

veryone loves to win, but two gay Bay Area bridge players are paying the price for flaunting the rules, drawing a suspension from a national watchdog group that bars them from

playing at games sponsored by local clubs, including Quick Tricks based in the Castro.

Devlin Delaney and David Sweet, a recently married couple who moved from the Castro to Pacifica, are halfway through their six-month sus-

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n o e m Co o t n w do s g n i r p S m l Pa

pension, according to an article in American Contract Bridge League’s monthly magazine, the Bulletin.

Other bridge players, including several prominent ones, have confessed to cheating, according to posts on the aptly named blog Bridge Winners, since the game went online after the pandemic shut down in-person competitions.

Playing online makes cheating relatively easy, either by players swapping information on the phone or in person or using a software program that enables someone to see all four hands, or using a second computer while playing. But it was impossible to estimate how many people have been sanctioned for cheating nationally; a query to the ACBL was not answered at press time.

A member of the ACBL’s ethics committee, Ron Smith, a gay man who is a professional player and a former longtime resident of San Francisco before moving to Chicago, stated in an email to the Bay Area Reporter: “The problem [of online cheating] is very large and very hard to police. How many, I’m sure is a secret. This is something that has to be addressed in order to call tournaments a fair contest.”

Smith has played online with Quick Tricks during the pandemic.

Devlin and Sweet offered an apology.

In an email to the B.A.R., the men wrote, “We regret cheating in online bridge. It was wrong, and we are ashamed of what we did. We would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who was affected by this.

“This happened only while we were in quarantine, never before that or during live play,” Devlin and Sweet added. “We are not only bridge partners, but husbands sharing the same house. It was all too tempting to kibitz while quarantined together in the same room. Now we are rightfully paying the price for it in our suspension, as determined by the ACBL. Currently, we’ve been dealing with health issues, and haven’t decided when we will return to live play.”

Quick Tricks longtime manager, Kim Fanady, a straight ally who has volunteered to administer the organization for the past 18 years, explained in an email how the irregularity was discovered.

The couple “were caught because in one game they had strange results that scored well on one-third of the boards, which the director thought was (ahem) a bit unusual,” Fanady wrote. “I found their impressive record in the QT game after that. I have no idea if they ever confessed after they were busted. I would guess that most people were caught due to a

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Courtesy Facebook

David Sweet, left, and Devlin Delaney

string of anomalous results (Bridge Base Online has software that flags that). Anyone can make a crazy bid or misclick [on the computer keyboard.] But when you keep doing the weird thing that just happens to work and gets you a great score, over and over, well ...”

Subsequently, “the SF directors/ club managers reported them to ACBL” which suspended them, she added. Fanady stated that the men learned of their suspension after they “tried to get into the QT game and were blocked.” When they contacted Fanady to get into the game, she notified them that “they’d been reported, and they were barred from QT” pending a ruling from the ACBL, which made the decision after the men did not respond to an inquiry about the irregularities.

Once the irregularities were reported, Fanady also noticed that the couple had regularly been beating some of the club’s top players.

“Suddenly getting 58% was just the icing on the cake,” she stated, referring to an unusually high score, a difficult achievement when competing against people who have been playing for decades or were young prodigies who had already won many tournaments.

Fanady, one of the club’s highestranked players, went on to explain her feelings about cheating at bridge.

“I personally can’t imagine why the ordinary bridge player would cheat,” she stated, “since there’s no prize money involved, we play for fun and enjoyment. We play for the mental challenge of solving the bridge puzzle, the competitive thrill of winning, and the sense of accomplishment in gaining a certain level of skill – all of which are completely destroyed by cheating.

“You didn’t solve the bridge puzzle – you cheated. Maybe you won, but not fair and square – you cheated. You didn’t gain in skill – you cheated,” she added. “How does any of that make you feel good? Further, you took those things away from honest bridge players. They didn’t have a fair shot at

<<

SF Principles

From page 1

need to be included.”

Trout said that the four initial participants on that Zoom meeting “hashed out drafts in subsequent Zoom sessions” and each contributed significantly.

According to Trout, the lack of inclusion reaches far and wide.

Anyone who has HIV/AIDS or works with HIV/AIDS organizations is invited to sign the statement of principles.

“These are changes that need to happen,” he said. “Once we get a lot of signatures we plan to submit the petition to every AIDS organization in the world and a lot of organizations that set policy.

“We are nowhere to be found in policymaking,” Trout added,

solving the bridge puzzle, gaining in skill, or winning, because your cheating didn’t allow them to do that. How does any of that make you feel good?

I suppose there’s some thrill in seeing if you can get away with it, but anyone over the emotional age of 9 should be able to resist that.

“Why do people take cheating so seriously? Why would anyone play in a game they know isn’t fair?

Cheating ruins the game for everyone. I think the ACBL’s decision re: Devlin and David was 100% appropriate,” Fanady stated.

The cheating scandal isn’t the first topic to rock the stodgy world of bridge, thought of as a pursuit for grandmothers because of the many older, retired people who play the popular game, many at a different club every day. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, multiple media outlets reported on a number of deaths that were traced to bridge club in Colorado, where several people are believed to have come into contact with an infected player and then traveled to a tournament in Arizona, where the virus spread.

Quick Tricks was founded in 1978

by Tadd Waggoner, primarily to provide games for the city’s gay community, according to the club’s website.

Waggoner died of AIDS in 1993. The first location was at the old Gay Pride Center at 330 Grove Street. One of the club’s first directors was a lesbian, Dianne Barton-Paine, whose family has operated a bridge club in the city for decades, now named PIPS. People interested in playing bridge online can go to www.quicktricks.org for further details. Before the pandemic forced the club to switch to online games, Quick Tricks usually attracted over 100 players to its Monday night game at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street. More than half are regularly playing online, the club said. t Full disclosure: Reporter Sari Staver used to play at Quick Tricks.

specifically calling out the White House initiative to end the HIV epidemic.

“There are [organizations] here in San Francisco that do include us – Shanti and the AIDS foundation – but elsewhere they are very few and far between,” Trout said.

“Other than ACRIA in New York, I am not aware of any other organizations that do recognize our needs.”

Vince Crisostomo of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation said that the COVID-19 pandemic is renewing interest in past responses to the AIDS epidemic and this underscores the importance of including the voices of long-term survivors.

“A lot of people feel ignored and invisible, and knowing the role See page 6 >>

Community News>>

t SF Pride board candidates address annual meeting

by David-Elijah Nahmod

C

andidates hoping to serve on the board of San Francisco Pride made their cases for election during the organization’s virtual annual meeting September 12.

The meeting, which is usually conducted in-person at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was attended by about 35 people.

The annual meeting is also where board elections are usually held, but this year they are being conducted via mail and people can vote through Friday.

There are 12 candidates running for the board and seven seats open.

Only one, Elizabeth Lanyon, is an incumbent. The candidates represent a diverse cross-section of people.

SF Pride spokesperson Peter Lawrence Kane said that people may vote for as many or as few candidates as they like. Those receiving a simple majority (50%+1) will fill the seats. In the event of a tie, a runoff will be held between those candidates.

Each SF Pride member in good standing has already received a ballot in the mail. Ballots must be postmarked by September 18 in order to be accepted. Each member may vote only once. SF Pride staff will meet in person September 23 to count the ballots and announce the election results.

Pride Executive Director Fred Lopez, Billy Lemon, and Janelle Luster are serving as election inspectors, while SF Pride members Jokie X. Wilson, Kim-Shree Maufas, and Dana Hopkins will serve as election observers.

During the annual meeting, each candidate was allotted four minutes to speak, which was followed by a 45-minute Q&A session with the candidates. Only one candidate, Aliza Paz, did not attend the meeting.

Candidate Tyler Breisacher said that Google and YouTube were too accepting of hate speech on their platforms and feels that SF Pride should disinvite both companies from Pride events. He was referring to an issue that he and fellow candidate Laurence Berland first brought up last year after YouTube, which is owned by Google, failed to ban a conservative comedian who Carlos Maza, a YouTube content creator, said was directing his followers to harass him. The comedian, Steven Crowder, called Maza a “lispy queer,” among other homophobic and anti-Latino slurs. Google has since updated its harassment policies.

“I really want to have a system of accountability for anyone, any organization, that wants to be part of our celebration,” he said.

J Jha, a trans gender-nonconforming immigrant from India, also spoke.

“I am here because Black Trans Lives matter,” they said. “My immigrant destiny began the day trans women of color put their bodies on riot [and police] who were on duty paid for by a state that institutionalized racism and bigotry using taxpayer’s money. What is SF Pride doing?”

Bivett Brackett said Pride has always been “near and dear” to her heart.

“We have to show up for community, and Pride is one way we do that,” said Brackett, who is Black. “Pride is a way that we celebrate the LGBTQ brothers and sisters, but it’s also a way that we show up for each other.”

Support for communities of color, concern with the behavior of the police, and addressing the ongoing violence against trans women of color were ongoing themes throughout the candidate statements.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, SF Pride has decided to ban the San Francisco Police’s Pride Alliance from marching in uniform next year.

“I recently celebrated my 48th birthday,” said candidate Diana Feliz Oliva, a Mexican American transgender woman. “A huge milestone that many trans women of color do not get to ex-

September 17-23, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

press because of hate and violence that continues to perpetrate our transgender community. As a board member I hope to continue to help shape and develop ideas and discussions that promote strong, diverse and inclusive principles not only for the trans community, but for all communities that need a strong voice at the table.”

The other candidates running are Maxie Bee; Peter Gamez; Tuquan Harrison; George Smith III, a former Pride board member; and Joshua Smith, who’s been involved with SF Pride for

decades in various capacities.

For those who were unable to attend Saturday’s meeting, candidate statements and a photo of each candidate are posted on the SF Pride website.

Also being conducted online this year is the process for choosing a theme for the 2021 Pride celebration.

People can go to Pride’s website and fill out a short form to make suggestions for next year’s theme. Suggestions will be accepted until 5 p.m.

October 12, after which time Pride members will choose a theme.

To see the Pride board candidate photos and statements, or to access the form to make a Pride theme suggestion, visit: https://members.sfpride.org/.

Click Election Information to read the candidate statements and click Suggest a Theme to make a suggestion.

Staff will be at Pride’s office, 1663 Mission Street, Friday, September 18, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to facilitate in-person voting or to accept completed ballots. Masks and social distancing are required.t

Courtesy SF Pride

SF Pride candidate Bivett Brackett

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<< Open Forum

t B.A.R. supervisor recommendations

4 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2020

Volume 50, Number 38 September 17-23, 2020

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T

he Bay Area Reporter is making the following recommendations in this year’s San Francisco Board of Supervisors races.

District 1: Connie Chan

A first-generation immigrant who came to San Francisco from Hong Kong with her single mom and brother, Connie Chan wrote in her B.A.R. candidate questionnaire that the city gave her family a new start. “Now, I want Courtesy Chan campaign to give San Francisco Connie Chan a New Start to protect working people in our city,” she wrote. Her plan includes building more affordable housing and keeping people housed.

She supports a Navigation Center in D1 and pointed out that the Richmond district has not received its share of city resources despite a growing homeless population.

It’s on police reform, however, where Chan has solid proposals. This includes restructuring the role of police officers in communities so they will not be involved with homeless sweeps, mental health and wellness calls, or behavioral discipline for students. She supports Mayor London Breed’s proposal to end having police respond to non-criminal activity. And she wants the state Legislature to reform the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to mandate implicit bias training and stop the hiring, retention, and promotion of officers who fail the testing for such bias.

Chan’s New Start plan also addresses life in the COVID world; specifically, she wants to leverage state and federal funds to support job retraining and assistance for small businesses.

We had one additional question for Chan.

When she was a spokeswoman for Rec and Park and City College, we didn’t always get timely or accurate information or received some pushback from her. “I worked to provide accurate and timely responses to members of the media, understanding there were sometimes instances where we disagreed on implications of policy established by the agency I worked for,” Chan wrote. “As a supervisor, my office will respond to media requests as timely and accurately as possible. I also fully support members of the media utilizing sunshine and other open government requests to verify information as they feel necessary.”

Chan, an ally to the LGBTQ community, supplied the most detailed answers to our questions among the district candidates who responded, and has broad support in this race. We endorse her for District 1 supervisor.

District 3: Aaron Peskin Aaron Peskin is running for his fourth and final full term (non-consecutive) and is expected to easily win his race. He wrote in his questionnaire that he finally won approval for a Navigation Center in D3, at 888 Post Street, which will

provide workforce development opportunities for transitional-age youth.

On the issue of policing, Peskin wrote, “We are living through a profound moment of real and potential transformation in this counCourtesy Peskin campaign try ... where generations Supervisor Aaron of racist systems stand Peskin to be radically transformed.” He continued that he recognizes the historic disparate impact of law enforcement on minority groups, including Black, Brown, and LGBTQ people, particularly trans women of color. “It wasn’t that long ago that law enforcement disparately targeted AIDS and HIV-positive patients seeking medicine at Dennis Peron’s Cannabis Buyers’ Club,” he added.

Peskin also wants to work with Chinatown residents to conduct culturally sensitive and multilingual outreach; the community has experienced multiple high-profile, racially-motivated attacks.

Peskin noted that income inequality and housing unaffordability have only been magnified by the pandemic. The city must recommit to policies to keep tenants in their homes and businesses in their storefronts, he explained. “We will extend eviction moratoria for as long as it takes,” he wrote, “and dealing with the back rent as our neighbors and businesses attempt to recover must be a high priority.”

Peskin has long been an ally to the LGBTQ community and we endorse him for this final term.

District 5: Dean Preston

We did not recommend Dean Preston last year, when he won a special election to fill the term of former supervisor-turned-mayor London Breed. But he has worked hard for his constituents and fought for the rights of tenants Courtesy Preston campaign adversely affected by Supervisor Dean COVID-19. Over the Preston past year, he has stood with Black Lives Matter protesters, as he has for years, he wrote, and helped ban the police from applying the knee to neck chokehold that killed George Floyd. “I authored legislation that permanently protects anyone from ever getting evicted for rent they missed during the state of emergency because of the financial impact of coronavirus, pushed the city to house homeless people in hotels, opened San Francisco’s second safe sleeping site, [and] successfully stopped Muni fare increases for the next two years,” he wrote. He helped establish car-free slow streets around D5 and the Fell Street bike lane.

Preston supports a Navigation Center in his district, and related that he had convened a meeting at which there was overwhelming support for one. Several sites have been identified, but the pandemic has delayed the process.

Preston wrote that he is a strong supporter of defunding the police, by which he means replacing them with unarmed trained professionals to handle homelessness, traffic violations, and mental health calls. He said that funds should be redirected from the police and prisons to social services that aid San Francisco’s Black and Brown communities.

Preston has ably represented his district and voters should return him for a full term.

District 7: Myrna Melgar

Former planning commissioner Myrna Melgar submitted impressive responses.

Melgar said that she supports the package of police reforms that was put forward by MegaBlack SF, a coaliCourtesy Melgar campaign tion of Black organizations and community Myrna Melgar leaders “because I think self-determination by the communities that are most affected is key to this process of change that we are just beginning,” she wrote. She hopes that the Latino, Asian, immigrant, and trans communities get actively involved.

While Melgar was cool to the idea of a Navigation Center in D7, she did state that she supports a safe parking site in the district, so that homeless people living in cars or RVs have a place to park for the night. This seems an effective way to start addressing the issue in her district, and she wrote that she would work to secure a site that includes wraparound services.

On transportation, Melgar wrote that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s budget needs to be restructured to diminish its dependence on fees and that all routes should be fully restored. District 7 is farther away from downtown and many people depend on public transportation, she noted.

Overall, Melgar is in tune with her district and has broad support. We recommend her in D7.

District 9: Hillary Ronen

We have not always agreed with Supervisor Hillary Ronen, but she certainly represents her constituents to the fullest, so much so that she is unopposed for reelection (almost unheard of in San Francisco politics). Ronen has been Courtesy Ronen campaign a strong ally to the LGSupervisor BTQ community, and Hillary Ronen we particularly appreciate all the work she did on Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport. She personally took reluctant airport officials See page 8 >>

Dufty for D9 BART board seat B

evan Dufty is exactly the type of public official BART needs: a “nuts and bolts” director, as he described himself in his Bay Area Reporter candidate questionnaire. First elected four years ago, Dufty, a gay man, has served as board president and been a key part of the progressive bloc of directors working to implement programs designed to be compassionate toward homeless people and increase safety for riders. Those include elevator attendants in the busy San Francisco stations, and ambassadors who steer unhoused people into services. Soon after he was elected, he went down to the 16th and Mission BART station and, along with San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen, picked up a broom and regularly cleaned it until the agency improved services.

Dufty, a former San Francisco supervisor, is seeking reelection this November and we enthusiastically endorse him. His 25 years of government experience has provided him the tools to get the most out of the regional transit agency

Steven Underhill

BART director Bevan Dufty

for train operators, station and maintenance staff, and passengers.

Perhaps most importantly, BART, which was vilified for the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant by a former BART police officer, has reformed the agency’s police department. He

and Lateefah Simon, the current board president, and out directors Rebecca Saltzman and Janice Li, are leading the agency’s efforts to redesign public safety and redirecting funds into more proactive approaches to reduce negative interactions with BART police.

The transit agency has been hit hard by COVID-19; daily ridership has plummeted, resulting in ballooning budget deficits. BART has unveiled a 15-point Welcome Back plan for passengers, and this week announced the addition of more trains during peak commute hours as ridership levels slowly return. Dufty also strongly supports BART’s housing development projects on its properties in Oakland and Berkeley, which requires 30% affordable housing on its land.

Overall, Dufty is the smart choice for the District 9 BART seat.

Also up for reelection this year are Saltzman and Simon. Saltzman, representing District 3, won’t appear on the ballot because she’s unopposed. Simon, a straight ally, has continued many of the progressive policies that are beginning to transform BART. She should also be reelected in District 7. t

t

Politics >>

September 17-23, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Revived South Bay Dem club gears up for November election

by Matthew S. Bajko

L

GBTQ residents of Santa Clara County in 2003 first came together to form the Silicon Valley Stonewall Democrats. The partisan political club ebbed and waned over the years, and largely went silent after the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008.

“It went into hibernation during the Obama years,” said Michael Vargas, 35, the club’s current co-president.

Then came the election of Donald Trump as Obama’s successor in 2016, putting Republicans back in control of the White House. The Trump administration soon started chipping away at the LGBTQ rights gained during the previous eight years.

It prompted renewed interest in having an LGBTQ Democratic club in the South Bay, said Vargas, an attorney who splits his time between his home and practice in San Jose and the apartment he and his husband, Brent Burfield, rent in Sacramento’s The Pocket neighborhood.

“The most recent iteration of the club was founded in 2017 with Donald Trump doing a lot of anti-LGBTQ stuff,” said Vargas, who married Burfield last month. “There was a need for the club to really exist again.”

Vargas, who joined the club that year, was elected to help lead it in February alongside CoPresident Ray Mueller, who is currently working for the US Census Bureau on the 2020 count. They have focused on growing the Stonewall club’s membership – annual dues cost $25 – with an eye toward building it up into the largest Democratic club in the county.

It currently has 45 members. It needs to reach 60 to become one of the South Bay’s biggest, said Vargas.

“Both Ray and I would like to see 200 or more members by the time we get to the 2022 election.”

Another key goal of theirs was having the club endorse in this year’s

Courtesy Gomez campaign

South Bay county education board candidate Ketzal Gomez

elections. Stonewall differs from the other local South Bay LGBTQ political group, the Bay Area Municipal Election Committee, in that its members vote on endorsements while BAYMEC’s board determines who it endorses.

Stonewall was unable to endorse ahead of the March primary but kicked off its endorsement process in time to weigh in on the fall races.

Vargas told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview this week that the club wasn’t expecting the response it received. Particularly since, in previous elections, it had only endorsed in a handful of races.

“We did maybe half a dozen endorsements, but it was very targeted,” recalled Vargas. “This is really the first time we had an open, full process.

We reached out to every candidate and invited everyone to request our endorsement. We got an avalanche of requests that we weren’t expecting.”

This month, the club announced endorsements of a diverse group of 15 openly LGBTQ candidates, along with 60 other candidates running for office in Santa Clara County. Among the out contenders it is backing are five city council candidates and Ketzal Gomez, a queer woman of color vying to join the county board of education.

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist*

The club also endorsed five out school board candidates including Ali Sapirman, who would be the first nonbinary officeholder in Santa Clara County if elected as a San Jose Evergreen Community College trustee.

Four of the city council candidates are also newcomers, while the fifth is gay Morgan Hill City Councilman Rene Spring, who is seeking reelection.

The only other known out councilperson in Santa Clara County, gay Mountain View City Councilman Chris Clark, is term limited from seeking reelection this year. J.R. Fruen in Cupertino and Anthony Becker in Santa Clara are vying to be the first gay men elected to their city councils. Raven Malone, who is bisexual, is running for a seat on the Palo Alto City Council, while Alysa Cisneros, who is queer, is aiming to join the Sunnyvale City Council.

Stonewall also endorsed gay former state Assemblyman John Laird’s bid for a state Senate seat in the Santa Cruz region and South Bay Assembly candidate Alex Lee’s campaign to become the first bisexual person to serve in the state Legislature. Both are expected to easily defeat their Republican opponents in November, as is gay Assemblyman Evan Low (DCampbell), who was also endorsed by the Stonewall club.

Laird, who had served as the state’s secretary for natural resources under former governor Jerry Brown, is aiming to succeed state Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), who is termed out of office this year. Lee is running against GOPer Bob Brunton to succeed Assemblyman Kansen Chu (D-San Jose), who is vying in November to become a county supervisor, in the 25th Assembly District that includes parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

“As a progressive activist, I’m happy to see a progressive LGBTQ+ group forming in Silicon Valley and thrilled to have their support,” stated Lee. To see the Stonewall club’s full list of endorsed candidates, visit http:// www.svstonewalldems.com. Those interested in becoming a member can email svsd.president@gmail.com. t

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Vote no on Prop 21

Two years ago, a carbon copy of Proposition 21 was defeated by nearly 20 percentage points statewide. In November, it deserves to go down in flames again.

COVID-19 has changed the world, particularly the housing world. Yet Prop 21 is the same tired proposal that is viewed by housing experts, economists, and labor as being counterproductive in overcoming California’s affordable housing shortage.

Proposition 21 will result in fewer housing units being built, fewer housing options being available to renters, and it will likely force mom-and-pop property owners – who own the bulk of rental properties – to sell their units to giant corporate landlords.

While the Bay Area Reporter editorial rightly points out that both San Francisco and Berkeley have rent control laws and other communities do not, it fails to note that these two cities have some of the highest rents in the state [“B.A.R. ballot measure endorsements,” Editorial, August 12].

Those two facts are not unrelated. Prop 21 means less housing on the market and less incentive to build affordable housing, which is not exempt from its provisions.

In addition, the nonpartisan legislative analyst has concluded it will cost our communities in the “high tens of millions of dollars.” That means fewer dollars for health care, schools and other critical programs valued by Californians and the LGBTQ community.

Let’s be clear: Prop 21 has nothing in it to prevent evictions. It has nothing in it to prevent homelessness.

What it does do is pours gasoline on the housing crisis facing millions of Californians. That’s about the last thing both renters and property owners need right now, and why Prop 21 deserves a no vote.

Steven Maviglio Californians for Responsible Housing Sacramento, California

Too poor to qualify as low-income

I moved to San Francisco in 1979, and lived in the Castro in an adjacent neighborhood until 2020. Even though I was a full-time college professor, I could no longer afford my rent-controlled apartment in the face of the ever-escalating cost of living. I currently live in a rural community in upstate New York, in bona fide lowincome housing. My current rent is one-third of my monthly income.

At the suggestion of a friend, who knows how much I miss the Bay Area and how pointless my living in the middle of nowhere is, I have been signed up with the San Francisco Housing Authority to apply for low-income housing waitlists. (I am also applying at every Bay Area county.) This has been a very interesting learning process.

The best I have done so far has been slot #562 for 20 units. Of course, I do not qualify for any of the four “special categories” that put people to the head of the lists. (For “gay” or “HIV” I must be a current resident of San Francisco.) For the vast majority of lotteries I am too poor to qualify as low-income.

Recently, I was invited to apply for a listing where the lowest rent is $1,000 a month more than my monthly income. The most outrageous invitation was for what the city laughably calls “low”-income rent of $6,000. On what planet is $6,000 rent “low” income?

One needs to be pretty wealthy to be “poor” in San Francisco nowadays. How sad.

Les K. Wright, Ph.D. Cortland, New York

Letters to the editor policy Send letters to the Bay Area Reporter, 44 Gough Street, #204, San Francisco, CA 94103. Letters must be 400 words or less, signed, and include an address and daytime phone number for verification purposes only. Unsigned, anonymous, and open letters will not be published. Email letters are accepted at news@ebar.com. Please put “letter to the editor” in the subject line, and also include an address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for space.

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2020

t

Leaders launch Qmunity District in San Jose

by John Ferrannini

A

t a press event September 10, South Bay government, nonprofit, and business leaders announced that Post Street will serve as a centralized, queer-affirming space in downtown San Jose.

The event took place in-person on the street, which is near Cesar Chavez Plaza and City Hall and is home to Splash Video Bar, and Mac’s Club, both LGBTQ bars. It was also streamed on Facebook for those who could not attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the poor atmospheric conditions in the Bay Area due to wildfires.

“This will be the Qmunity District,” Nathan Svoboda of Project MORE, an LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit, said at the beginning of the news conference.

“It will be welcoming for LGBTQ visitors, allied businesses, and residents of all kinds.”

To highlight the queer identity, new lighting has been installed on the street, as well as new maple trees and LGBTQ+ artwork in crosswalks and on sidewalks, Svoboda said. Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter afterward, Svoboda said that Project MORE also created banners that were installed by a company that works with the city, and that the lighting was installed by a Christmas light company.

“Soon, the first LGBTQ mural will be coming to the district,” Svobda said, adding that the mural will be created by up to three artists who will be paid a stipend.

Svoboda said that the amount of the stipend is to be determined and people will be able to indicate their interest in participating at https://qmunitydistrict.domoreproject.org.

“What we’re going to do is have our LGBTQ artists in the area submit interest cards to us,” Svoboda said.

“We will pick three of those artists to collect art designs for the mural. On acceptance, they’d be commissioned.”

District 3 City Councilman Raul

<<

SF Principles

From page 2

San Francisco has had in AIDS response, and how Anthony Fauci always references that, we can’t be ignored,” Crisostomo said. “Our experiences in crisis response should not be mentioned just in hearsay.”

Fauci, a physician and the longtime director of the National In-

Screengrab via Facebook

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez spoke at a news conference Thursday announcing the Qmunity District in San Jose.

Peralez said that reimagining Post Street has been in the works for years, calling it a “labor of love.”

“It’s important in this year of 2020 to find things to celebrate,” he said at the news conference. “I was proud to be able to generate the initial funding of $66,000 to produce what Nathan described: the lighting, the murals on the floor, and ultimately the first LGBTQ mural along Post Street, and really inspiring more to come.”

Cindy Chavez, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the representative of the district that covers downtown San Jose, said that the Qmunity District will serve as a “living room” for the whole city.

“When I think of San Jose – 170 square miles of vastness, over 1 million people – I think of downtown as the living room,” Chavez said. “Having the community here at Post Street allows all of our communities to celebrate diversity and be a part of it. ...

Now is a time to look for opportunities for hope and celebration and this allows us to do that.”

Maribel Martinez, a queer, twospirit person who is the director of the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs, said that her office was the first of its kind for a U.S. county. She began her remarks by recognizing the Native Americans and immigrants who have made the South Bay their home.

“But there is a group that has struggled to find a home, to find belonging,” Martinez said, referring to the LGBTQ community. “Even in progressive, innovative Silicon Valley, people have felt the need to hide or whisper who they are.”

Martinez tied the establishment of the Qmunity District to the challenges America is facing this year.

“If there’s anything I’ve learned from 2020 – an election year, a COVID year – I hope we have learned that silence and invisibility does not serve us,” Martinez said. “If we can, we must

be so out that there is no place for hate. ... We must join together in the fight against injustice and oppression not just for the LGBT community but for our Black, Indigenous communities of color.”

Martinez said she hopes the Qmunity will be a place where people can “sing, dance, and come together” and that she has often felt different or ostracized, but on Post Street she “feel[s] at home.”

TJ Bruce, the owner of the Splash Video Bar, said he has been doing business there for nine years. For the previous five, Splash had had other owners.

“It’s very exciting to have this happening here,” Bruce said. “I always knew this was a very special street.”

Bruce said the street has always reminded him of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco or the Lavender Heights neighborhood in Sacramento, where he resides and owns two other LGBTQ bars.

stitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, met with AIDS activists in the 1980s and 1990s and continued to be an advocate for treatment advances and other issues.

He is now a leading medical voice on COVID-19.

Crisostomo said that the experience of virtual conferences, such as the 23rd International AIDS Conference that prompted the drafting of the principles, presents a barrier to access for long-term

survivors.

“The digital divide is another way we are excluded,” Crisostomo said. “Older people in general don’t have the tech savvy regarding new platforms.”

As the decades go on, more and more long-term HIV survivors won’t have first-hand experience of the epidemic as it existed in the 1980s and 1990s – already, 55% of Americans living with HIV are over the age of 50 and that num-

ber is expected to reach 70% in the next 10 years.

Crisostomo said that the principles are part of a multi-generational conversation.

“I’m taking the time to reach out to the younger generation to ask ‘what kind of world do you want to age into?’” Crisostomo said. “If we can get a sense of what you want, we can work together.

It’s not just us. We didn’t think we’d be here.”

“I was always hopeful this would bond our community and bring everyone out, whether it’s to Pride celebrations or Labor Day,” he said.

(Silicon Valley Pride, which was virtual this year, usually takes place in the vicinity.) “I can’t wait to see more businesses come to the street and can’t wait to party again, you know?”

Bruce told the B.A.R. after the event that he was looped into the discussions about the Qmuity District a little less than six months ago.

“People reached out to me and asked me what I thought, and I thought it was terrific,” Bruce said.

“Go for it!”

Bruce said that the mural will be on the side of Splash.

“There’s been a lot of businesses supportive of the gay community and there are a lot of unoccupied retail spaces, and a big building empty for years – three stories – so it’ll be interesting if that becomes some kind of anchor business,” he said.

At the end of the news event, participants drew the colors of the rainbow progress flag on the side of Splash and viewed a video featuring more community members and Ken Yeager, who is the executive director of the BAYMEC Community Foundation and was the first openly gay elected official in the county.

“I’m so excited about more businesses and action on Post Street. We need a location our community can go to celebrate and enjoy each other,” Yeager said. “All other major cities have such a street or neighborhood, and we don’t so I’m excited it’ll happen soon.”

There will be an al fresco dining area on the street to support restaurants forced to move outside due to the pandemic.

The move to establish the Qmunity District comes just three months after the Watergarden, San Jose’s only gay bathhouse, closed after 43 years in business, as the B.A.R. previously reported. t

Crisostomo tied this into the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said has faced government inaction similar to when the AIDS epidemic began.

“One day COVID will pass – what is the world we will step out into?” he asked. t

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Obituaries>>

September 17-23, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

STUDY PARTICIPANTS NEEDED IMPROVE THE LENGTH AND GIRTH OF YOUR MANHOOD Courtesy the Family Link

Sister Ruth Hall, right, with contractor Jim Spotts, during a 1994 remodel of the Family Link home

Family Link founder Sister Ruth Hall dies

by Cynthia Laird

S

ister Ruth Hall, founder and program director of the Family Link, died September 7 at Davies Medical Center in San Francisco following a recent cancer diagnosis. She was 71.

Ms. Hall, a straight ally, worked on behalf of patients and their families for four decades, from the outbreak of AIDS to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Family Link is a nonprofit guesthouse serving families who come to San Francisco to visit and care for loved ones with a lifethreatening illness or traumatic injury.

Ms. Hall and a small group of Anglican sisters emigrated from England to San Francisco in 1974 and established the American Province of the Community of St. Francis, or CSF. According to her obituary, by 1982, when the acronym AIDS was first applied to a mysterious illness that primarily affected gay men, AIDS service organizations were being formed in the city to address diverse needs of the growing epidemic. Ms. Hall was already busy filling a niche that would become her life’s work.

Then a volunteer at the Shanti Project, Ms. Hall realized that many people who came to San Francisco to care for ill loved ones had nowhere to stay. In 1981, she arranged a room for a relative visiting a Shanti client. By 1985, she had rented an apartment, recruited a board of directors, obtained nonprofit status, and was networking with hospital and hospice social workers to identify unhoused guests.

She worked closely with the LGBTQ community, and many Family Link board members over the years have been gay, noted Denis Wade, a man who’s a longtime volunteer for the agency and a former board member.

To avoid competing for scarce funds that could otherwise go to medical care, she insisted on never seeking or accepting government funding, a policy that continues today at the Family Link. Dedicated volunteers and donors have enabled the nondenominational agency to survive. Ms. Hall was

the only full-time employee, and the agency had a part-time assistant and housecleaner. The Family Link’s annual budget is under $200,000, Wade said.

Wade wrote in an email that Ms. Hall did much outreach to the LGBTQ community. She rode in the agency’s float in the 1993 San Francisco Pride parade. The Family Link has participated in the AIDS Walk and has been involved in the Castro Street Fair since the 1990s.

In 1995, the Family Link moved into its own building at 317 Castro Street. Ms. Hall had obtained a contractor’s license, and she worked with contractor Jim Spotts, a board member, on repairs that turned two dilapidated Edwardian flats into a warm family home.

The organization continues to serve visitors who come to San Francisco to visit and care for loved ones with life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Ms. Hall was there 24/7, making sure the guests were fed, comforted, and cared for.

Her successor as program director is Shabnam Gul, a Pakistani American educator who had worked with Ms. Hall since she first came to the Family Link with her infant daughter in 2001 during a family medical crisis.

“Sister Ruth was all love, all kindness,” Gul stated in an email.

“The help she gave our family changed our lives. We will always keep her dream alive at the Family Link.

“My daughters insisted that I take this job. We want to make sure that Ruth’s legacy continues,” Gul added.

Ms. Hall is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Jean Hall, of County Durham, England, and her CSF sisters Jean Lait, Maggie Simpson, and Pamela Clare Magers.

A memorial is planned for St. Francis Episcopal Church in San Francisco at a date to be announced.

Donations can be made to the Family Link, 317 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114. For more information, visit http:// www.thefamilylink.com. t

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2020

<<

Registry bill

From page 1

to address concerns she had with the bill. It resulted in a rare public rebuke from the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California, a lead backer of the bill whose leadership dinged Gonzalez on its annual scorecard for state legislators causing her to receive a less than perfect score.

Nonetheless, Gonzalez had pledged to work with Wiener and LGBTQ advocates on moving the legislation forward this year. The de-

<<

Housing

From page 1

“We felt very strongly about coming out in support of it. It is one of our top priorities,” Wright said. “Reform to Prop 13 is long overdue and this is a common sense proposition to ask Disney, Chevron, and other big companies in our state to pay their fair share of property taxes.”

David Fujimoto, a gay man who is co-chair of the Alice club, said that Prop 15 is “an overdue and much needed change.”

“This measure is consistent with Alice’s policy platform, which supports protecting homeowners and tenants while ensuring commercial property owners pay their fair share of property taxes,” Fujimoto stated. “We must be sure that commercial and industrial property owners are paying their fair share of property taxes that will be reinvested back to the community.”

Assemblyman David Chiu (D), whose district covers about 60% of San Francisco, mostly in the eastern half, said he, too, was supportive.

“I’ve always stood for Prop 13 reform. Prop 13 has had so many negative consequences for our state, from incentivizing commercial development over residential development, to distorting the real estate market,” Chiu said. “Since Prop 13 passed we have massively underfunded our schools.”

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) said Prop 15 makes the tax system fairer.

“I support it because large commercial properties should not be part of Prop 13,” Wiener said. “When Prop 13 was passed, the rationale was to protect homeowners of modest means from creeping property taxes – not the Transamerica Pyramid or the Bank of America building [now referred to by just its address, 555 California Street]. It makes no sense to cap property taxes on large commercial buildings and it’s very unfair because I’ll guarantee the Salesforce Tower is paying an enormous property tax bill, more than [555 California].

It’s an idea whose time has come.”

There is little daylight between Wiener and his opponent in the state Senate race, queer educator and democratic socialist Jackie Fielder, on this issue, though she emphasized aid to schools in her remarks.

“We have to pass Prop 15 to get school funding back to where it needs to be, but that can’t be the bare minimum,” Fielder said. “We have to do more to fund our schools.”

Fielder said she wasn’t sure if Prop 13 should be completely repealed.

Wiener said he doesn’t think it’s po-

<<

Editorial

From page 4

to task to make sure the details of the terminal reflected the respect for Milk that was envisioned for a project of its scale.

There are many Navigation Centers and shelters in the Mission district, and Ronen is advocating for a shared sleeping site at 1515 South Van Ness. She wants to see the role of police limited to the greatest extent possible so that alternative structures and strategies can be safely implemented. And she wants reforms like bias training and limiting the use of force.

lay, however, resulted in Wiener being subjected to the online harassment this spring and summer.

Undeterred, Wiener was able to rally support for his legislation. It grants judges discretion over whether to include on the sex registry people over the age of 18 who have been convicted of oral or anal intercourse with someone between the ages of 14 and 17, provided that the individual so convicted is within 10 years of age of their consensual sexual partner. Under current law, such individuals must automatically register as a sex offender. litically possible to repeal Prop 13’s tax caps on residential property. Prop 13 has long been known as the “third rail” of California politics.

Sonja Trauss, an activist for more housing who is the president of YIMBY Law and who unsuccessfully ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in District 6 in 2018 and is now in Oakland, had good and bad things to say about Prop 15. (Trauss wouldn’t endorse or reject any particular proposition at the time of her interview.) “[Prop] 15 is good and bad. It’s good because it’ll tax revenues from those who can afford it – commercial property owners,” Trauss told the B.A.R. “The downside is cities, especially small cities, already believe that building residential is a net loss on the budget compared to commercial.

If commercial properties are taxed at a higher rate than residential, then there’ll be an incentive for councils to zone for more commercial.”

Prop 15 is opposed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Jarvis was a co-author of Prop 13, along with the late Paul Gann.

“It’s a huge tax increase,” Susan Shelley, vice president of the association, told the B.A.R.“California taxes are high enough. This would be brutal for businesses, job creation, and supermarkets.

It would be extremely burdensome.”

Property tax transfers

Prop 19 would change property tax transfers in two ways. If it passes, Californians 55 and older, the disabled, and those displaced by wildfires could move their property tax rates with them throughout the state.

The proposition would also change rules related to inheritance, requiring children or grandchildren to live in a house if they are also to inherit its low property tax rate.

Prop 19 is supported by the Alice club and the California Democratic Party. It is opposed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Equality California, the Milk club, and the California Republican Party did not take positions.

The Milk club did not reach a consensus on this proposition, Wright said. Although club members agreed about increased funding for wildfire victims, others were concerned about its effects on property tax transfers.

Fujimoto of the Alice club said that Prop 19 should be supported for its benefits to wildfire victims.

“Alice supports Proposition 19 as a way to protect wildfire victims from becoming financially burdened during their time of need,” Fujimoto stated.

“This measure expands protections to She wants to enact Mental Health SF, which she authored (a compromise was worked out with Breed to keep the issue off the ballot) that will “radically transform our mental health system and create the structures and placements necessary to make conservatorships successful when they are needed and appropriate,” she wrote.

We look forward to having an ally like Ronen continue on the Board of Supervisors.

EQCA had co-sponsored the bill with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. A broad coalition of groups had backed the legislation, including the California District Attorneys Association, the California Police Chiefs Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the AntiDefamation League, the California Public Defenders Association, Children Now, the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

EQCA Executive Director Rick

Rick Gerharter

State Senate candidate Jackie Fielder

victims of wildfires by allowing them to pay the same property tax on a new primary residence as the property tax they had for their prior primary residence. It also establishes the California Fire Response Fund to bolster the state’s fire suppression efforts, the need for which has been underscored by the recent devastating fires.”

Chiu said he has “real concerns with this measure because it is an expansion and continuation of Prop 13.”

“I think we should repeal all of Prop 13,” Chiu said. “We should scrap it and look anew at the issue.”

Wiener and Fielder both support Prop 19.

“I know that some of the funding will be used for wildfire defense, and as we see right now, we have a deep need for that,” Fielder said. (Fielder’s B.A.R. interview was on August 28, as smoke from multiple fires inundated much of the Bay Area.)

Trauss also had good things to say about Prop 19 because it will expand the portability of property tax rates.

“The Realtors understand some people want to downsize but can’t afford to, even with the housing shortage,” Trauss said.“We want people to be able to move where they want to. That they can’t due to the tax code is outrageous. Some people live in a house for six people and don’t even want to.”

The Howard Jarvis group said the measure is, on balance, a tax increase.

“It expands the existing tax bill for people who want to move,” Shelley said. “Currently you can move once, if you stay in select counties or move to a county that accepts a transfer. This would expand it three times and anywhere in the state and you can move to a home with a higher value. We don’t have a problem with portability but the problem here is the repeal of the parent-child transfer exclusion of Proposition 58 from 1986. ... Prop 58 says when property is transferred between parents and children it’s excluded from reassessments of value and up to $1 million of assessed value

District 11: Ahsha SafaÍ

We endorsed Ahsha Safaí four years ago and he has been a good ally to the LGCourtesy Safai campaign BTQ community. He Supervisor Ahsha has worked SafaÍ to revitalize District 11 by restoring Rec and Park facilities including Merced Heights, Alice Chalmers, and the Geneva Car Barn; improving pedestrian safety; and procuring thousands of masks

Chavez Zbur hailed Newsom for making SB 145 law.

“We are incredibly grateful to Governor Newsom for his unyielding commitment to LGBTQ+ civil rights and social justice. Dr. King said, ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’ Signing SB 145 was the right thing to do,” stated Zbur, referring to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “It was the right thing to do for LGBTQ+ young people, it was the right thing to do to keep our communities safe and it was the right thing to do for California.”

Rick Gerharter

State Senator Scott Wiener

of other properties are also protected from reassessment.

“It [Prop 19] functions like an estate tax,” Shelley explained. “A lot of small businesses would be lost because they can’t afford to pay 1% of the reassessed property values. This is going to cost people millions of dollars.”

Wiener said that it’s unfair people can keep a low property tax when they inherit investment property.

“What Prop 19 does is it allows, if you live on a property, to inherit the lower tax but if it’s an investment property, you get reassessed,” Wiener said. “It’s very unfortunate for taxpayers to be subsidizing someone who doesn’t live on the property.”

Rent control back on ballot

Prop 21 returns the issue of rent control to the ballot, but in a different way than 2018’s Prop 10.

Like Prop 10, Prop 21 would end statewide limits on local rent control ordinances that were imposed by the Costa-Hawkins Act in 1994. Unlike Prop 10, Trauss said, Prop 21 would have a rolling start-date for rent control on new units.

“The previous iteration would have allowed communities to put rent control on brand new properties,” Trauss said.“Prop 21 is much more functional.”

The debate around rent control has often centered around the question of whether greater rent control would disincentivize the building of new units – which has for decades made for otherwise-strange political bedfellows.

Prop 21 is supported by the Milk club, the Alice club, and the California Democratic Party. It is opposed by the California Republican Party and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Equality California did not take a position.

“We endorsed Prop 21 much as we endorsed Prop 10 a couple of years ago,” Wright of the Milk club said.

“Localities like San Francisco should have more ability to expand rent control. Many members of our club, and on the board, are working class and could not live in San Francisco at all if and other personal protective equipment for frontline workers and fighting to open a testing site accessible to D11 residents in response to the coronavirus.

Safaí supports Navigation Centers and volunteered his district to house a Vehicle Triage Center, which provides shelter, food, and services for those living in their vehicles.

On policing, Safaí wrote that he is “fully committed” to reallocating funding from police to communitybased organizations that uplift and support low-income communities.

He also supports MegaBlack SF’s proposal for $120 million to be redirected from the police department

t

Zbur added, “If we want a California for all, then we need a justice system that treats all Californians fairly and equally – regardless of who they are, what they look like or whom they love. That goal is at the core of SB 145.

Thanks to Governor Newsom and Senator Wiener, California is one step closer to living up to our shared values of fairness, equality and justice for all.” t

not for rent control.”

Fujimoto stated Prop 21 is in line with the Alice club’s policy platform, which supports expanding rent control throughout the state.

“Given the historic housing crisis we are facing, particularly in light of the devastating effects of COVID-19, this measure gives local governments the tools they need to prevent homelessness, displacement, and the worsening of the housing crisis,” he stated.

Chiu, who represents one of the most densely populated districts in the state, also supports the measure.

“I’ve been a longtime champion for tenants,” Chiu said. “Particularly during this time period, we need to ensure we are working together to protect tenants and keep them in their homes.”

Wiener has been criticized for his support for additional housing. He said he does not know how he will vote on Prop 21, but likes the rolling start-date for rent control.

“I support the 15-year rolling window for rent control,” Wiener said.

“A rolling transition into rent control makes sense to me.”

Fielder said she is a strong supporter of the measure.

“This is something I support 110%, especially right now, during a pandemic,” she said. “Tenants need to know they can afford to shelter-in-place and that’s the best way to prevent the spread of the [COVID-19] virus.”

Trauss wobbled on whether to support Prop 10 two years ago. While she praised Prop 21 as an improvement over Prop 10, she wondered why it doesn’t go further.

“Neither one gives you rent control,” Trauss said. “I feel if it passes it’d be good for California but the big problem is neither [Prop 21 nor Prop 10] gives anyone rent control. Why aren’t they asking for a statewide rent control rule? Why are they putting it in the hands of local governments, particularly in small towns without the reputation of being progressive? For example, there’s rent control in Los Angeles but not in much of LA County.”

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has provided almost all of the funding for Prop 21 and did not respond to an interview request.

Wiener has long been critical of AHF, which sued him and the city when he was a supervisor over formula retail legislation.

The Jarvis association opposes Prop 21.

“Prop 21 would allow rent boards to create radical regulations that would cause a reduction in the amount of housing,” Shelley said. “Rent control creates less housing. You see less construction. It makes it worse.” t into the Black community and Blackled organizations and businesses. He co-signed and voted for legislation to close Juvenile Hall by 2021.

Safaí co-sponsored legislation that created the Transgender District in the Tenderloin.

He mentioned that the city needs to do a better job of appointing LGBTQ individuals to city boards and commissions and noted that in 2019, just 5% of commissioners self-identified as transgender. We definitely agree with that.

Safaí deserves to be reelected so that he can continue serving his constituents. t

t

International News>>

September 17-23, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Mexican authorities arrest man in killing of trans activist

by Heather Cassell

M

exican authorities have made an arrest in the killing of a transgender woman.

A Mexican control judge ordered Ivan Arturo G.P. be held in preventative detention for the killing of transgender activist Mireya Rodriguez Lemus.

Rodriguez’s body was discovered September 2.

The court set a hearing for September 18 to determine if evidence discovered by a special task force of investigators is linked to Arturo. The task force will present the evidence to charge Arturo with aggravated homicide for reasons of gender and robbery, reported El Diario de Chihuahua.

Mexican authorities arrested Arturo on a warrant September 13. Rodriguez Lemus was a prominent Chihuahua HIV/AIDS and trans activist.

The special prosecutor office’s serious human rights violations and forced disappearance team discovered evidence that led them to Arturo, said Chihuahua state Attorney General César Augusto

Courtesy KGET.com

Ivan Arturo G.P. was arrested September 13 in connection with the killing of transgender activist Mireya Rodriguez Lemus.

Peniche Espejel during a news conference announcing the arrest.

Peniche Espejel made the announcement following pressure from the United Nations, Mexican government officials, and local transgender activists.

“We are not asking, we are demanding that this hate crime against our sister Mireya Rodriguez be solved. Enough is enough. We are citizens, too,” Devora Alvarez, who leads a transgender group called Colectivo Fanny, told KXAN, an Austin, Texas-based NBC news affiliate.

During the news conference, Peniche Espejel reaffirmed his office’s commitment to carrying out a thorough investigation into crimes against the LGBTQ community.

Rodriguez Lemus was fatally stabbed to death inside her home in Aquiles Serdan, a town just outside of Chihuahua City in northern Mexico.

It appears that her cellphone and car were also missing from her home, according to local media reports.

Rodriguez Lemus was the founder and president of Union of Trans Women of Chihuahua, an LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS prevention organization.

Leading up to Rodriguez Lemus’ killing she received death threats, but the police did not investigate the complaints, members of the organization told reporters.

Members of the organization and friends became concerned and went to authorities after Rodriguez Lemus did not show up at her usual spots where she solicited for sex work.

Rodriguez Lemus’ killing was the first of two within days of each other.

Leslie Rocha, a transgender woman, was slain soon after transgender activists staged a protest outside of the Ciudad Juarez police station call-

ing for action investigating killings of transgender women as hate crimes.

The two women are the most recent victims in the city, which has seen four homicides of transgender women this year, reported KXAN. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights believes there have been seven transgender rights activists killed in Mexico so far in 2020, according to a September 10 UNHCHR statement condemning Rodriguez Lemus’ killing and calling for a thorough investigation.

Reuters reported that 117 LGBTQ people were killed in Mexico in 2019, according to Letra Esse, a local queer advocacy group. The homicide rate was up nearly a third compared to 2018 and the highest since 2015.

However, the group suspects the actual number of killings might be higher.

Despite new pro-LGBTQ laws in Mexico, violence against the community has increased since 2010, when same-sex marriage was legalized in some states, according to the “Report on Human Rights Conditions of Transgender Women in Mexico.”

The report co-authored and published by the Cornell Law School LGBT Clinic and the Oakland-based

Transgender Law Center in 2016, is the most recent information about the situation for transgender women in Mexico. It found that transgender women have taken the brunt of violence against the community.

“They’re torturing them, they’re killing them horribly,” Rocha’s aunt, Leticia Sanchez, told Reuters.

It appears Mexican authorities are listening to transgender women’s demands.

Mexican media outlet Canal 44 reported the investigation into Rodriguez Lemus’ killing was carried out by a special task force made up of prosecutors, investigative agents, and context analysts. The investigators utilized international protocols and standards for investigating human rights and gender expression and identity as their lens for the investigation, something new for Mexico. t

EDMOND BEDROSSIAN TRUSTEE & JASMINE BEDROSSIAN TRUSTEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/04. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/20.

of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

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. Petitioner: COLIN M. GEORGE, 2003 WESTERN AVE #345, SEATTLE, WA 98121; PH. (206) 493-1568.

For a longer veersion of this article visit us online at ebar.com.

Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp: 415-517-7239, or Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555845

In the matter of the application of NEIL LICK & BRUCE SPANO, C/O ALEXANDER TOTTO, THE WALD LAW GROUP, PC, 88 KEARNY ST #1475, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NEIL LICK & BRUCE SPANO is requesting that the name AUGUST HOLDEN CALIFORNIA SPANOLICK be changed to HOLDEN CALIFORNIA SPANOLICK. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 6th of October 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555841

In the matter of the application of ANNETTE CERDAS, 1739 PINE ST #25, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ANNETTE CERDAS is requesting that the name ANNETTE CERDAS be changed to ANNETTE LOYNAZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 1st of October 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039133600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as POCKET, 41 MARS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EMILY FARMER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/07/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039135700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CAKE THERAPY, 2600 HARRISON ST #303, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREW TOLENTINO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/03/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/18/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039132200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as APEX CONSULTING, 330 CONNECTICUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHELSEA GODDARD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/14/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039133700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MARLEY’S PLANTLY THINGS, 600 PORTOLA DR #10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHERRY SPENCER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039129800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as HOTTIE DRIP LASHES, 3850 18TH ST #400, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HOTTIE DRIP 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 08/13/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039138100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as UNEXPECTEDERA CAFÉ, 614 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GOMEZ LINAJE ESCOGIDO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/24/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-03915600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ICAFE CHINATOWN, 133 WAVERLY PL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed XIAO YAN ZHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/28/20.

AUG 27, SEP 03, 10,17, 2020 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF DUDLEY PITTS JR. IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-20-303842

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DUDLET PITTS JR. A Petition for Probate has been filed by PENELOPE ANNE WOODS-PITTS in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that PENELOPE ANNE WOODSPITTS be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. 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 23, 2020, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the 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: PENELOPE ANNE WOODS-PITTS 1089 N. GARFILED AVE, FRESNO, CA 93723; Ph. (559) 352-4253.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039141300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TS4 SECURITY SERVICE, 239 SADOWA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DILLI P. SHARMA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/24/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039146900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as 2332-2336 STEINER ST APARTMENTS, 2332-2336 STEINER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a trust, and is signed

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039147900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PLAZA CERVANTES, 98 CERVANTES BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a trust, and is signed EDMOND BEDROSSIAN TRUSTEE & JASMINE BEDROSSIAN TRUSTEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039148000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHESTNUT STREET PROPERTIES, 2423 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed EDMOND BEDROSSIAN, JASMINE BEDROSSIAN, TIGRAN DAYANS & ODETTE DAYANS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/02/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039138000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CAROLINE WATSON CONSULTING, 2043 PINE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CAROLINE LISA WATSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039146700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BIG STICK ARTS, 10 FUNSTON AVE #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by in individual, and is signed JOHN LEHNUS. 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 08/27/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039126400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MAINLAND MARKET & PRODUCE, 5601 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DAKHAZ INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/22/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/10/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039144400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HOUSE OF BEAUTY SF, 1849 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JENNIFER MARIE ALLIVATO-SANDHOLM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/26/20.

SEP 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555866

In the matter of the application of STEVEN MARK VARNEY AKA S MARK VARNEY, 1375 38TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner STEVEN MARK VARNEY AKA S MARK VARNEY is requesting that the name STEVEN MARK VARNEY AKA S MARK VARNEY be changed to S MARK VARNEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 20th of October 2020 at 9:00am

SEP 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039143100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as KHOR; KHOR CONSULTING; KAEGO OGBECHIE CONSULTING, 1388 GOUGH ST #1108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAEGO OGBECHIE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/25/20.

SEP 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039151300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JUST CUZZ KITCHEN; THE HOT SPOT; 631 MORSE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112 This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZULAIKA W. MAYFIELD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/13/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/04/20.

SEP 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF KATHLEEN ELIZABETH GEORGE AKA KATHY GEORGE IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES20-303881

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of KATHLEEN ELIZABETH GEORGE AKA KATHY GEORGE. A Petition for Probate has been filed by COLIN M. GEORGE in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that COLIN M. GEORGE 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 07, 2020, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039152500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAUCE OF MINE, 2112 MARKET ST #301, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUAN HERRERA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039152200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CRAZY CALIFORNIA COOKIES, 2000 ALEMENY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SCOTT SACHS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039149600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROSE DELIGHTS, 32 SHOTWELL ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed A TRIBE OF US COLLECTIVE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/31/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020

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The Obituary of Tunde Johnson

by Brian Bromberger

H

aving watched Frameline44’s new roster of narrative features, what becomes increasingly evident is that queer cinema is maturing by bravely dealing with often taboo topics in inventive ways, creating not only better quality but thoughtful, even provocative movie-going experiences.

“Tunde Johnson departed this life 9:38 pm, May 28, 2020 at the hands of police officers in Los Angeles, California,” are the ominous words introducing the centerpiece U.S. feature, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, relating to police killing a gay black teenager. The hook here is that Tunde wakes up each morning with the incident of his cop inflicted death rethe first 20 minutes exactly peating itself in a time loop how Beautiful Dreamer will ala Groundhog Day. end. Easy to like, but even Tunde (Steven Silver) is easier to forget. the son of very rich Nigerian Finding where you beex-pat parents, attends an exlong in the world is the clusive all white prep school, heart of the exquisite Gerhas a serious Xanax addicman film, No Hard Feeltion, is having an affair with ings, winner of this year’s closeted star athlete Soren Teddy award for best fea(Spencer Neville) who is in ture. Parvis (luminous a relationship with Tunde’s Benjamin Radjaipour), BBF Marley (Nicola Peltz). the son of exiled Iranian The gimmick is that Beautiful Dreamer parents, is experiencing a Tunde tries to change his haphazard summer, comcircumstances each day but plete with steamy Grindr regardless he’s still shot by hookups and raves. He shoplifts and is senthe LAPD every night, even though he does tenced to community service at a refugee everything right by not resisting and following shelter where he befriends displaced fellow their instructions.

Iranians brother Amon (Eidin Jalali) and sister Surrogacy, friendship, same-sex weddings, Banafshe (Banafshe Arezu). Parvis and Amon and writer’s block are all mashed together in begin a first love crush with the threat of the the lighthearted San Francisco-based Beautiful latter’s deportation hanging over their careDreamer, based on Patricia Cotter’s play The free adventures. Both Surrogate. Margaret (Erin Daniels, The L Word) buoyant and tense, No can’t finish writing her second novel and her Hard Feelings brings long-time partner Jen (Kathryn Smith-McGto fore in an emotionlynn) proposes marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret’s al unpreachy manner best friend Billy (Louis Ozawa Changchien) and the plight of refugees his wife Sarah (Jennifer Mudge) ask them to be and the discriminagodparents to their daughter Tallulah and their tions they endure. upcoming surrogate-birth son. At best a pleasThis affecting drama ant diversion that undoubtedly sounded better reminds us that no on the page than on its screen incarnation, with matter who we are or a few occasional laughs and one unexpected miDry Wind where we come from, nor plot twist, otherwise you can predict after

Frameline features, part II

Queer cinema’s maturity, complexity

Christian Figueroa

Marga Gomez in Spanking Machine.

Marga Gomez keeps us laughing Comic-drama ‘Spanking Machine’ to play online

by Jim Provenzano

I

n her live-streaming queer Cuban comedydrama Spanking Machine, Marga Gomez shares the story of the first boy she ever kissed and how it made them both gay forever.

Shifting across gender, latitudes and generations, her new show, presented by Brava, is funny and a bit disturbing. Gomez recounts growing up brown and queer in New York, and tells tales of sadistic nuns on poppers, tender vampires, childhood misdemeanors, sexual assault and suppressed memory.

Asked what it’s like doing a comedy show at

the height of so many catastrophic events, Gomez replied, “We are hit so hard in California.

Either people are packing their ‘go bags’ and fleeing, or we are sharing the sadness of our friends. But it’s surprising how many show up for online comedy and laugh –to keep from crying, maybe.”

Stand-up performers have had to abruptly shift gears as well, by directly focusing on current events.

“A lot of comics are not relying on our prepandemic material, but finding the absurd in what is happening right now, anti-maskers, the orange sky, the apocalypse; all very gallows humor,” said Gomez. “I’m very proud of comedians

we find our homes in each other; one of the hidden treasures of the festival.

The Dore Alley/Folsom Street Fair crowd haven’t been forgotten at Frameline and will relish the sexually explicit Brazilian entry, Dry Wind. Factory worker bon vivant Sandro has secret trysts with co-worker Ricardo but wants to remain unattached. Then along comes a hot new arrival, who chases Ricardo, producing jealous feelings in Sandro compelled to reassess what kind of relationship he really wants. We’re not talking Foucault here, but the film shows how sexuality in all its dangerous occasionally squeamish diversity can bring couples together. On its own limited eye candy terms, Dry Wind has its erotic appeal and guaranteed you will never look at fertilizer in the same way again.

Ferzan Ozpetek, the great Turkish-born Italian director of such LGBTQ classics as Steam: The Turkish Bath, Facing Windows, and Saturn in Opposition, has given us another gift in The Goddess of Fortune, regarding an aging gay couple, Alessandro (Edoardo Leo) and Arturo (Stefano Accorsi), who after fifteen years together, have lost their passion for one another.

Their relationship who meet the challenge. They are working hard.”

Her new 75-minute show will largely consist of her performing live from her ‘virtual stage.’ Mixed in will be a few short film clips from Spanking Machine’s final invited dress rehearsal at Brava Theatre San Francisco on March 12, before shelter-in-place was ordered.

“My living room looks like a public access studio now,” said Gomez. “When the pandemic’s shelter-in-place started, I invested a chunk of money into live streaming gear. I even bought a microphone stand. I just had a feeling performance venues would be the first to close and the last to open. I geeked out watching hours of tech tutorials on YouTube.

I made a lot of mistakes at first, but so did the networks. The pandemic leveled the playing field between networks and DIY performers.”

Since she’s performing from home, Gomez, joked, “I’ll have to ask my neighbors not to vacuum during those times, and I’ll be wearing pants and shoes like a real show.”

She’s also keeping busy with other online gigs. “This month I’ll be doing some comedy segments for a Frameline party, an event in LA, and a virtual woman’s festival in Maryland and Who’s Your Mami Comedy for Brava Theater as well.”

Other performers are adapting as well.

“When I book talented comedians for Brava, I ask them if they have a strong wifi connection and external microphone and a quiet space to perform,” Gomez explained. “Talent is not enough. Gear up, performers.” t Marga Gomez’s Spanking Machine runs through October 11, Sundays at 5pm.

Zoom tickets ($20 and up) www.Brava.org www.margagomez.com The next Who’s Your Mami Comedy night is Sept. 17.

The Goddess of Fortune

is put to the test when their best friend Annamaria (Jasmine Trinka) facing a medical crisis in a hospital, must leave her two children in their care. They are obliged to deal with their own resentments, regrets, infidelities, and secrets, as they possibly begin to forge a new family together.

Leo and Accorsi are both magnificent and totally believable as a couple searching for reasons to stay together. The film’s mood swings from Fellini-like joie de vivre (especially in the opening gay wedding scene of their friends) to pathos, accomplished with humor and heart without becoming saccharine. Superlatives fail here in what may well be Ozpetek’s masterwork. Discovering a jewel like Goddess of Fortune is the reason to attend film festivals.t

See more of Brian Bromberger’s film reviews, plus additional coverage of Frameline short films, at www.ebar.com

Fall Books Check out Gregg Shapiro’s Fall Books round-up, online arts, community and nightlife events, plus more Arts features on www.ebar.com

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In Memoriam>>

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Apr. 28, 1960 – Sept. 8, 2020 Healer, musician, and drag performer Peggy L’Eggs

by Jim Provenzano

M

atthew Simmons, known to many as his drag persona Peggy L’Eggs, died peacefully and unexpectedly on Tuesday, September 8 at his Oakland apartment.

He was 60.

Simmons is survived by his brothers Stanley Cary Simmons, Chris Ian Simmons, nine beloved nieces and nephews, one great-niece, and sister-in-law Melissa VanGrundySimmons.

Born in Queens, New York City, his family later moved several times; to Iowa, St. Paul, MN, Charlotteseville, NC, then Weisenberg, Germany, Charleywood, England, to Oakville, Ontario, then Prior Lake, MN. He studied theatre, dance, and music and the University of Minnesota at the Guthrie Theatre, and later at a theatre residency with the National Theatre of Dublin.

“He could still wear his Up With People blue polyester flared-leg jumpsuit through all his days,” said close friend John Harry ‘Cayenne’ Bonck.

Before he became known to Bay Area drag and theatre fans as Peggy L’Eggs, Simmons worked in the thengrowing somatic healing movement.

He led workshops throughout the world with Joseph Kramer’s Body Electric gay men’s erotic health and spirituality practice.

During the 1990s, Matthew worked with the Body Electric school and was a massage and spiritual therapist. He began he performance career in San Francisco at the 848 Divisadero Performance Space, with his piece “Midwife to the Dying,” which contextualized his erotic energy work with men dying from AIDS for a larger audience.

A Star is Born Matthew interrupted his time in San Francisco to move to Toronto in 1998, where he first began performative drag as Peggy L’Eggs. He entered and placed in his first drag contest, a Diana Ross contest, and developed his wet dead fish and seaweed performance of the Titanic theme, “My Heart Will Go On,” which was repeated at many events in San Francisco over the years.

A program bio lists his Björk drag number at the legendary Trannyshack (at The Stud) in 1998 as his first San Francisco performance.

Viva Variety producer Steve Murray says that Simmons was part of the inspiration for Viva Variety and appeared in its first production as Peggy L’Eggs in San Francisco on April 19, 1999. He went on to perform in 33 Viva shows over the next six years, including performing a pas de deux as a one-legged ballerina, a Southern beauty pageant contestant, Miss Narcolepsy

and several dozen other characters.

From 1999 until his death, Matthew performed in virtually every drag venue in San Francisco as well as doing corporate appearances as Peggy L’Eggs as well as serious Panto theatre during Christmas seasons.

He performed in many Bay Area theatre works in the 1990s, and later in Seth Eisen’s Homo File at CounterPulse in 2012 and 2014, playing multiple roles.

But it was his drag performances that most recall. As a member of the drag rock band Pepperspray, keyboardist and singer Simmons coperformed rousing covers of songs by diverse bands, ranging from Nirvana to Garbage and David Bowie.

Drag parodies were also part of his extensive career, including costarring in comic adaptations of Absolutely Fabulous, Harry Poofter, and The Facts of Life, which were produced at SF Oasis. Simmons also costarred in ThrillPeddlers’ Club Inferno, Peter Fogel’s rock musical loosely based on Dante’s Inferno.

“I asked Peggy to join Pepperspray based on her keyboard skills and diverse performance background,” wrote composer-musician Peter Fogel. “She was always such a great supporting musician and had the chops to conquer any musical genre. But when she sang lead on her chosen cover songs....watch out! She brought down the house every time.

I believe her slaying of Nirvana’s ‘Smell Like Teen Spirit’ at the Gay Pride main stage in 2003 cinched the deal for Bill Graham Presents offering Pepperspray the opening slot for Cher two months later.”

Simmons also performed in numerous shows produced by Peaches Christ, including Clueless, Legally Black, Femlins and other productions. Simmons also portrayed ‘Glen or Glenda the Witch’ in a trailer for Frameline’s 39th annual film festival, and in Peaches’ drag parody, The Wizard of Odd. Of Simmons’ performances, artist/director Seth Eisen wrote, “He hit every mark and brought down the house always going further than all the way. At the Castro Theater, he accompanied Rufus Wainwright on piano in ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow,’ which was magical and seizure-inducing. Afterwards, he grabs his keyboard underarm, hops off stage, parts the sea of people, exits out the front door and jumps into a cab in one breath. Snap! Epic.

That was Peggy. She had to have the last word.”

“I’ve had the extreme pleasure of working with Peggy consistently for over twenty years and I cannot fathom a world without her,” wrote director-producer and drag icon Peaches Christ in an email.

“She was more than a muse and friend for me. She was immediate-

chosen-family. This is really tough.

I keep going back to pictures of her as Glen or Glinda The Good Witch from our Wizard of Odd show and the Frameline39 trailer because her portrayal of a goofy and clueless “Good Witch” is quintessential Peggy. She truly was the sweetest, and kindest witch in all of Oz.” Simmons also had a wide-ranging talent in visual arts, including costuming, needlepoint, knitting, crocheting and drawing.

Making a difference Since 2010, Simmons worked as a Care Navigator with The Shanti Project.

“The first time I heard about Shanti was in 1984, when I was living in Minnesota, and the first cases of AIDS had just started impacting the community,” said Simmons in a Shanti informational video recorded July 9, 2020. “What I’ve noticed in my journey with Shanti and everything that has led up to this moment in my life, is how to show up for people without judging, without fixing, without changing, without needing them to be anything other than who they are.

One person can make a difference, however that person shows up.”

“Matthew felt very deeply,” said longtime friend Stephen LeBlanc.

“He was the truest shaman I’ve known. He gave of his gifts to everyone who encountered him, but at times carried the burden of his empathy.”

Simmons was also active in the Billys and Radical Faerie communities.

Eisen had spent time with Simmons only days ago, and wrote, “A week before he passed, we went on an amazing walk in the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland. We camped it up and ate fried chicken and laughed our asses off remembering all of the years and stories and doing campy poses next to the roses. It was like a life review. He was so proud of his recent series of drawings about his hand surgery he was about to undergo. I hope we get to exhibit those images. They are gorgeous like his heart. Everyone should see how this angel could take any affliction or hardship and turn it into a life-giving gift.”

Members of Matthew’s familyhosted a memorial Sunday, Sept 13 at the San Francisco Wave Organ. An online memorial, hosted

by Peaches Christ and Heklina, will take place Sept 26, 5pm on www. twitch.tv/sfoasis.

Donations can be made in his honor to The Shanti Project. www.shanti.orgt

Read the full article, with linked videos on www.ebar.com

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