San Francisco Bay Times December 17, 2015

The Year in Queer Film See page 25

Big Style See page 33

December 17-January 13, 2016 | www.sfbaytimes.com /SF Bay Times

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Administrators, faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates from San Francisco State University recently gathered for the San Francisco Bay Times. SFSU offers world-renowned instruction in multiple fields including Sexuality Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Women and Gender Studies. (See pages 15–19)

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A New Year, A New Generation

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In the News

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LGBTQ-inclusive Companies Among Most Financially Successful It comes as no surprise to us that the most LGBTQ-inclusive companies are among the most financially successful. Logo announced its list of the Top 25 Trailblazing Companies, an index that honors the companies that serve as pioneers and advocates for the LGBTQ community. Released in conjunction with the network’s 10-year anniversary, the list evaluates companies based on their public dedication to LGBTQ people and issues through their advertising, communications, and other visible actions. http://www.logotv.com/ shows/top-25-trailblazing-companies/widget/full-company-list Gay Man Murdered in San Bernardino Shootings Saved 4 People’s Lives The memorial service for 42-year-old Daniel Kaufman took place, honoring the gay man who was murdered while working at a coffee cart inside the Inland Regional Center for people with disabilities in San Bernardino. He was shot to death when Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked the facility, ultimately murdering 14 people and wounding dozens more. As shots rang out, Kaufman began pushing people out of harm’s way, rushing them to the safety of the door before he was himself shot and killed. A source close to Ryan Reyes, Kaufman’s surviving partner, says he is credited with saving four people’s lives.

Aaron Peskin Sworn in as Supervisor Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin wasted no time making his intentions known after being sworn in before the Board of Supervisors’ meeting, as he rejoined the group he was a part of from 2001 to 2009. In opening remarks, Peskin urged the supervisors to reject the City’s planned sale of its office building and criticized City officials for failing to address the City’s housing crisis adequately.

Peskin, who beat Supervisor Julie Christensen in the November 3 election representing District 3, ran on a populist message deriding the influence of money from technology interests and developers on politics.

His legislative aides will be Sunny Angulo, who ran his campaign; Lee Hepner, who is on the board of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club; and Connie Chan, who until now has worked in communications for the Recreation and Park Department.

AIDS Housing Alliance Reaffirms Advocacy for Affordable Housing For longtime HIV survivor and current AIDS Housing Alliance SF Executive Director Brian Basinger, no issue facing San Francisco is more important than affordable housing.

While the tech explosion has seen a precipitous drop in unemployment and brought an unprecedented economic boom to the Bay Area, many in the poorer communities have been left out. People with AIDS, a large portion of whom survive on disability checks and food stamps, have been particularly hit hard by the City’s housing crisis. Basinger understands their dilemma all too well, having been Ellis-evicted himself.

McAllister Artist Turns Home into Memorial for Paris and San Bernardino For 15 years, proudly gay Miguel Gutierrez-Ranzi has turned his Victorian home’s exterior on 1269 McAllister into an ever-changing holiday art exhibit, and this year, after the Paris attacks, Gutierrez-Ranzi decided to dedicate his display in

memorial. He constructed a 20-foot tall image of the Eiffel Tower, using 287 feet of rope and 800 lights.

Ornamenting the tower are French flags and a fleur-de-lis a friend gave him from France. While creating the Eiffel Tower, the San Bernardino attack occurred, so Gutierrez-Ranzi expanded his memorial to include a wreath made of black branches covered in gold and silver leaves, colors that symbolize the preciousness of the lives that were lost. A black chain represents the psychological impact of the attacks on the survivors, though the leaves’ allusion to laurel adds hope.

Life Insurance Offered to HIVPositive People Two companies are for the first time jointly offering life insurance to people living with HIV in recognition that their life expectancies are close to those of uninfected individuals.

Previously, HIV-positive individuals would automatically be denied life insurance, said Bill Grant, who cofounded the financial services company AEQUALIS with Andrew Terrell.

The plans will be offered through a partnership between Prudential Financial Inc. and AEQUALIS, which focuses on serving people with HIV. People who qualify will be offered standard plans that are the same as those offered to any other customer.

Equality California Stunned and Saddened by Death of George Zander Longtime Equality California Regional Field Manager George Zander, victim of an anti-LGBTQ attack last month, died on December 10 in Palm Springs at age 71. Zander had served as EQCA’s Desert field manager since June 2009. In that time, he was a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ community across the Desert and Inland Empire regions. As EQCA’s key staff member in the Desert communities, he devoted his work to ensuring that schools are safe and supportive for LGBTQ students, to advocating for the needs of LGBTQ seniors, to advancing civil rights for transgender people, and to electing pro-equality candidates at every level of government. eqca.org

Housing for Gay Seniors Coming to San Diego A local nonprofit is preparing to build San Diego’s first low-income apartment complex geared for senior citizens who are LGBTQ. When the 76-unit complex opens in North Park, San Diego will join Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco as cities that provide this kind of housing. Such housing is considered crucial because members of the LGBTQ community often feel unwelcome in ordinary senior complexes, where the older residents tend to be less open to alternative lifestyles.

Twitter Halts Office Blood Drives Until Gay Men Can Donate Social media giant Twitter has adopted an “All for one, and one for all” policy when it comes to donating blood. The social network won’t be holding any more blood drives until all of its employees—including gay and bisexual men—are allowed to donate. Twitter spokeswoman Natalie Miyake told CBS News that the company would not hold any more blood donation drives until the FDA adopts a policy based on behavioral risk factors, rather than identity. Under current policy, men who have had sex with men, even once, since 1977 are prohibited from donating blood.

An Important Change to a Long-standing Pentagon Policy

Happy holidays to you! This is often a time for reflection and sharing. In this column I want to share some good news and reflect on how we can reach out to those who may not be surrounded by loved ones this holiday season.

This is an important step for full equality in the military for women. Many women will not be capable of passing the physical standards for some arduous combat roles, but as we have seen by the recent graduation of three women from the Army’s RangAs a veteran, I try to stay up er School, it is possible. Inon the news that impacts our stead of using gender as a service members and veterDo Ask, Do Tell proxy for physical capabilans. In case you missed it, ity, let’s use gender-neutral this month brought us a sigZoe Dunning standards and allow womnificant announcement. On en to compete. I applaud December 3, Secretary of the decision and look forDefense Ashton Carter announced the Pentaward to seeing how it will be implemented. gon would open up all military occupations, to include all combat roles, to qualified women.

Secretary Carter took this bold position despite some objections from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who felt his Marine Corps could not comply.

This change in policy, which will take effect shortly after the New Year, will allow women to fill about 220,000 jobs that are now limited to men—including infantry, reconnaissance and some special operations units. Although this is a significant milestone for the U.S. military, it is not unique. Around the world, at least 16 industrialized countries—mostly U.S. allies—allow women in combat roles. Some have been doing it for more than a decade.

One of the strongest arguments for opening up all roles is that, in reality, women have been facing combat situations for years. Of the more than 300,000 women who have served to date in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 9,000 have earned their branches’ equivalent of the combat action ribbon, more than 800 have been wounded, and about 160 have unfortunately died from combat, and non-combat-related, injuries. Any combat death is one too many, but to die in combat, yet have your country declare women are neither eligible nor fit for combat roles, is a slap in the face.

In other veteran news, I want to make readers aware of a great organization serving our veterans. Recently I joined the advisory board of Vets in Tech. Its mission is to assist current and returning veterans with re-integration services, and to connect them to the technology sector. The organization brings together the network, resources, and programs for veterans interested in technology education, entrepreneurship, and employment opportunities.

When veterans return from their service, they bring skills such as leadership, discipline and teamwork. Vets in Tech augments their existing skill set where needed with online and intense classroom programs and then matches Vets with new skills to positions where those skills are needed. It also helps with resume writing and interview skills, connecting vets with mentors to help them find direction in the tech world, as well as providing job matching services and job fairs with local tech companies. For those vets who want to start their own companies, Vets in Tech offers opportunities for hackathons, pitch events, visionary and leadership speaker series, local meet-ups and 9.75 in. and business plan competinetworking events, tions. These are very valuable services that will (continued on page 19)

Kimberly Alvarenga Files, City College Strike Averted (For Now) and Local Control Restored Win Kimberly Win! The only reg ret I have about my recent vacation in Thailand and Cambodia is that I missed my friend Kimberly Alvarenga filing for District 11 Supervisor on the morning of December 11. It has been more than f ifteen years since there was a lesbian on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and aside from Christina Olague’s brief tenure as appointed District 5 Supervisor, it’s been even longer since there has been Latina representation on the Board.

A F T 2121 Ca l ls O f f Strike Vote

Just before Thanksg iving, the leadership of AFT 2121 (City College’s teachers’ union) voted to call off a strike authorization vote precipitated by what the union asserted were unfair labor practices on the District’s part. City College’s teachers are understandably frustrated both with A San Francisco the substance and pace of Kind of Democrat contract negotiations. Our teachers are earning less Rafael Mandelman than they were in 2007, and our full-timers are especially impacted, as they are earning less than almost all their peers at Next year, Kimberly will be offering the voters other community colleges in the Bay Area. of District 11 the opportunity to break those It is an intolerable situation, and yet the Dissorry streaks, but her candidacy offers the vot- trict’s ability to fix it, at least over the short ers so much more than the chance to balance term, is constricted by the reality of the Colout the Board’s demographics. Kimberly is lege’s alarmingly reduced enrollment and the principled, grounded, smart, compassionate consequent prospect of losing tens of millions and effective; in short, she’s exactly the kind of of dollars in State funding less than two years person who should be in elected office. from now.

The race will not be easy; Kimberly has two strong opponents, both straight men. But she is going to work her butt off, and she has some strong allies: former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, current District 11 Supervisor John Avalos, District 9 Supervisor David Campos, and School Board member (and likely District 1 Supervisor candidate) Sandra Fewer all showed up for her filing, along with neighborhood and tenant activists and leaders from the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, the Latino Democratic Club, the San Francisco Labor Council, AFT 2121, and SEIU 1021, where Kimberly is the Political Director.

These folks know how important it is to elect Kimberly, and with all of our help, I know she can best those boys.

At a time like this, you would ideally want a College administration firing on all cylinders, able to respond quickly to union questions and proposals and swiftly analyze and propose creative solutions. Unfortunately, what we have is an administration just beginning to rebuild and reorient itself after years of radical disruption; regular readers of this column know the litany: five chancellors in four years, all three vice chancellors new since the summer, an organization chart checkered with vital positions that have gone unfilled for months, and in some cases, years. I believe in Chancellor Susan Lamb, and I believe she is providing leadership that over time will bring our College back from the brink, but for the moment, the institution is simply not functioning optimally, (continued on page 19)

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Now Is the Time to Think About Your Next Tax Return Keep in mind that one of the biggest tax benefits is maintaining unrealized capital gains—growth in an investment that you continue to hold. Gains are only taxable when you sell an investment.

How about the tax implications of investments I own or am considering?

Money Matters Brandon Miller, CFP Your 2015 tax return isn’t due until April of 2016, but now is the time to consider your options for tax planning. Many of the tax-saving moves you can make for your 2015 return need to occur before the end of the year. Here are answers to questions you may have about tax planning strategies in the days ahead: Are there investment moves I should consider making before the end of the year?

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It is important to know what your tax considerations are before making any moves. For example, many investors worry about capital gains. One effective tax-saving strategy is to offset any capital gains you might realize in your portfolio with capital losses.

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Keep in mind that if you are in the 10 percent or 15 percent tax bracket, you qualify for a zero percent federal tax rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, which is a significant tax savings. In this case, “harvesting” capital losses is not a beneficial strategy. Before selling assets, make sure the move is consistent with your long-term investment strategy.

Tom Taylor and Jerry Goldstein, whose beautifully decorated home in the Castro is a perennial holiday favorite, have a new addition to their seasonal tradition this year. With Gilbert Baker, the creator of the Rainbow Flag, they have made a special tetrahedron ornament. Sales of the ornament benefit Tom and Jerry’s non-prof it foundation Diversitysf.org, which maintains the iconic Rainbow Flag and associated lighting at Castro and Market; provides care, upkeep, cleaning and storage of such f lags every day of the year; and supports many LGBT groups.

Tom and Jerry continue to give to our community in so many ways, so please consider supporting their efforts with a purchase of the foldable, colorful new ornament. More information about their non-profit and ways to give can also be found at http://diversitysf.org/

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Are there steps I can take to reduce taxes on my income?

If you have the ability to manage your income, you may want to pay attention to whether your income level is closing in on a threshold point that moves you into a higher tax bracket.

For example, a married couple filing a joint return in 2015 with taxable income above $74,900 (after deductions and personal exemptions) would be in the 25 percent tax bracket. That doesn’t mean all income is subject to a 25 percent tax rate, as income is taxed in steps (everything under $74,900 would be taxed at a 15 percent rate or less). But by reaching the 25 percent tax bracket, any net long-term capital gains realized would be subject to a 15 percent tax at the federal level.

By keeping income (including any gains) below $74,900, a married couple remains in the 15 percent tax bracket, qualifying them for a zero percent long-term capital gains tax rate. Finding ways to keep income under thresholds can be important for different reasons for people with varying income levels.

Any pre-tax contributions to workplace savings plans or tax-deductible contributions to IRAs (if you qualify based on your income) can reduce your taxable income in 2015. You should also consider making contributions to a Roth IRA if you qualify, as this has the potential to create a source of tax-free income for retirement. Although Roth contributions cannot be deducted from current taxes, it is important to make them annually as contribution amounts are limited. In 2015, you can contribute up to $5,500 to an IRA ($6,500 for those age 50 and older). You have until April 15, 2016, to make IRA contributions for 2015.

When should I make charitable donations?

Your favorite charities would likely prefer any gifts to be made as soon as possible. To claim deductions on your 2015 tax return, donations must be made by December 31, 2015. Keep in mind that to claim a charitable deduction, you need to itemize deductions and have a written record: either a bank statement or a receipt from the charity.

It’s important to note that the advice provided in this article is a general source of information and is not intended to be the primary basis for investment decisions. It should not be construed as tips designed to meet the needs of an individual investor. Please seek the advice of a financial advisor regarding your financial concerns.

Also, before making any decisions that may affect your 2015 tax return, be sure to consult your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific tax issues.

Brandon Miller, CFP is a financial consultant at Brio Financial Group, A Private Wealth Advisory Practice of Ameriprise Financial Inc. in San Francisco, specializing in helping LGBT individuals and families plan and achieve their financial goals.

New Tom & Jerry Ornament Commemorates Rainbow Flag

The ornaments may be found at Tom and Jerry’s house, located at 3560 21st Street in San Francisco and open outside to visitors in the evenings throughout the holidays. Santa Claus literally pays regular visits to the home, delighting awestruck admirers of the enormous Christmas tree, which towers some 65 feet. It is one of the largest privately displayed holiday trees in the country.

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In general, there are many tax implications when it comes to investments.

Let’s take a deeper look into mutual funds. There are different tax considerations with mutual funds because you are subject to distributions made by the fund that are taxable. It is possible that fund positions you own may pay out a significant distribution before the end of 2015, even though the fund itself may have a negative return for the year.

Check to see the status of potential distributions of any fund you own. Keep in mind that this tax treatment doesn’t apply to funds held in tax-deferred vehicles like a 401(k) or IRA.

Are there ways to cut taxes by increasing my savings to retirement plans?

MAKE YOUR OWN !

2015 LGBT HOLIDAY ORNAMENT donate @ diversitysf. org

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Accepting Vulnerability Roland Schembari and Bill Hartman, Co-Founders Randy Alfred, Founding News Editor 1978 Kim Corsaro Publisher 1981-2011

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We honor our history and the paper’s ability to build and strengthen unity in our community.

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Kit Kennedy Poet-In-Residence

Ted was one of the few people of color in the small midwestern town where he grew up. He was also gay, and was targeted because of it even before he was old enough to understand what the word meant. He was beaten up badly a few times as a child, but the most emotionally damaging experiences were the constant racist and homophobic ridicule and rejection he had to endure on an almost daily basis.

In his early twenties he metamorphosed from a skinny kid to a big, muscular man; and he also experienced an intense personal awakening in which he realized that he was a man of worth and dignity with an

inherent right to be treated with respect at all times. He made a commitment to himself that he would no longer live in fear, no matter what the cost to him, and that he would never again tolerate bullying or abuse from anyone. He began to work out daily, learned self-defense, and acquired a black belt in martial arts.

When he visited his hometown in his mid-twenties, he had a couple of (very satisfying) experiences in which local bullies spotted him and tried to target him again—and wound up running away bloodied and bruised. Today, in his late thirties, his external bearing is one of quiet confidence and self-assurance, and people on the street instinctively know not to mess with him.

He is justif iably proud of having overcome the traumas of his youth, but he’s not at peace with himself.

He cannot shake a lingering suspicion that, despite all of the evidence, he’s really a coward. He is intensely ashamed whenever he experiences a twinge of fear. Whenever he is confused or awkward in front of others, is embarrassed in social situations, or doesn’t feel completely in command of himself, he torments himself with shame and self-reproach. He has all of the courage he needs for dealing with the world: his task now is to come to acceptance of the reality of his own vulnerability.

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CONTRIBUTORS Writers Rink, Sister Dana Van Iquity, Ann Rostow, Kirsten Kruse, Kate Kendell, Alex Randolph, Heidi Beeler, Gary M. Kramer, Dennis McMillan, Tom Moon, Terry Baum, Gypsy Love, Rafael Mandelman, Kit Kennedy, Phil Ting, Rebecca Kaplan, Leslie Katz, Philip Ruth, Bill Lipsky, Karen Williams, Donna Sachet, Gary Virginia, Zoe Dunning, Marcy Adelman, Stuart Gaffney & John Lewis Brandon Miller, Jamie Leno Zimron Rebecca Kaplan, Thom Watson, Courtney Lake, Michele Karlsberg Photographers Rink, Steven Underhill, Phyllis Costa, Paul Margolis, Chloe Jackman, Bill Wilson, Jo-Lynn Otto, Sandy Morris, Abby Zimberg

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Children often imagine that, when they grow up, they won’t feel vulnerable anymore, and that an adult is a fundamentally different kind of person from a child. But growing up is really about learning to accept vulnerability rather than to make it go away. Here’s a simple experiment that can help drive home the reality of how much we’re all dependent and vulnerable in every moment of our lives: Stop breathing for a few seconds, or a few dozen seconds, if you can, and see how it feels. Within thirty seconds without air, most people are uncomfortable; after a minute, they’re panicking, and after four minutes, they’re brain-dead. Second by second, your life requires oxygen. It’s also critical to other life processes, from the plants that exhale it to the sun that drives photosynthesis. In every moment of our lives we’re dependent for our well being on the world around us, and are vulnerable to the slightest changes.

Imagine what would happen to you if you were suddenly transported to a planet where there were no other human beings. How long could you keep your emotional equilibrium if you were completely deprived of all the little moments of touch, affection, encouragement and support from others that keep you going every day?

Ted won’t ever be completely independent and self-sufficient. He’ll never completely eliminate loneliness, fear, doubt, confusion, un-safety or insecurity from his life; and he’ll always need the love and acceptance of other people. He’ll sometimes make mistakes, and he’ll experience remorse over some of his decisions.

He’ll sometimes behave badly, and have to apologize and make amends to others. He’ll always be vulnerable.

As a boy, he didn’t have, and couldn’t have had, the resources to fight back against his oppressors. As a man he’s developed those resources; now his job is not to be ashamed of who he once was, but to embrace, love and protect that sensitive child who still lives within him. Fortunately, he has a loyal partner who respects the strong man that he has become, but deeply loves the vulnerable and tender little boy whom Ted allows him to know when they’re alone together.

Most of us, in one way or another, are in the same situation. Often it is the vulnerabilities with which we’re most uncomfortable that others find most lovable in us.

Tom Moon is a psychotherapist in San Francisco. To learn more, please visit his website at tommoon.net

GLBT Fortnight in Review

By Ann Rostow Sad Home, Alabama Here’s some big news out of the Supreme Court, where justices have slapped down the antigay Alabama Supreme Court and restored visitation rights to “VL ,” the adopted mother of three kids. The mother’s ex-partner, “EL,” gave birth to the kids during the women’s 17-year relationship, and in 2007, the pair moved temporarily from Alabama to Georgia in order for VL to adopt the children in the Peach State’s more favorable legal environment.

Fast forward to recent times when the couple broke up and launched the inevitable battle for custody and visitation. Unlike some of our messier intra-lesbian familial bust ups, VL’s status as a legal parent would normally have made this a straightforward matter for the family law court. But thanks to repeated appeals by EL, the case rose to the Alabama supremes, where astonishingly the justices ruled that VL’s Georgia adoption was void.

We say “astonishingly,” because a state court simply has zero authority under the U.S. Constitution to substitute its own opinion for a settled judgment from a sister state.

In addition to reversing VL’s adoption, the Bama justices denied her visitation, at which point the National Center for Lesbian Rights petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review.

The NCLR also filed an emergency motion asking the High Court to put a hold on the Alabama decision and restore VL’s visitation rights while the appeal continues. It was that motion that the Court granted (without comment) on December 14.

Keep in mind that these sorts of motions are granted when it is likely that the High Court will accept review, it’s likely the Court will reverse the decision, and it’s clear that the status quo is causing irreparable harm. We should know if the first assumption is correct by early next year.

Heather Has One Mommy I think I mentioned before that these sorts of cases, lesbian mothers behaving badly, once thrived at a time when lesbians were increasingly settling down and starting families, but were doing so in a legal grey area.

No one could marry. Some women had civil unions or domestic partnerships, but many did not. Some held elaborate commitment ceremonies and signed stacks of legal documents, but while some courts took these efforts into consideration, other judges found them irrelevant. Some of these women broke up as people do, among them a subset of vengeful, angry, lunatic lesbians bent on making sure that the woman they once proclaimed to love was never again to set eyes on the children she helped to raise.

The beautiful ceremony by the river?

Just a gathering of friends. The flowing white dress? The crown of wild f lowers? Um. That was the solstice festival. The ornate list of vows, in calligraphy no less, pledging to be her “hearth mate for all eternity?” Your honor, I don’t remember signing that.

She was really more of a nanny.

The convoluted examples proliferated for a decade, each one creating new law as the hostilities snaked their way up and down the appellate courts. But now, one hopes, they are coming to an end. Five or ten years from now we will still have toxic lesbian mothers and

their desperate ex-partners, but most of them will have married and divorced, just like everyone else. The vicious protagonists will no longer be able to sever their links to their former wives.

And the former wives will no longer be dragged through years of precedentsetting litigation in order to see their children. They will both be obliged to work things out, under court order, in yet another example of the many advantages of marriage equality.

Meanwhile, couples who started families before we won the option to marry will continue to find themselves in a legal netherworld. In Kentucky, for example, the state supreme court is considering the case of a woman who helped raise a child with her partner from 2006 to 2011. The biological mother broke things off and married a man who now wants to adopt the child over the objections of the former partner. Again, had these women married and divorced, the former wife would remain a part of her child’s life, the new guy would become a stepfather and the Kentucky supreme court would have nothing to do with it. How hard is that?

Plus, She Was a Gold Key Client!

There’s nothing like a piece of video, or in this case a piece of audio, to deliver the punch in the gut that a plain old news brief struggles to deliver. Back in July, a woman named Meagan Taylor was traveling through Iowa on her way to a funeral in Kansas City when she and her friend, another transgender woman, stopped at a Drury Inn in West Des Moines.

Meagan and her friend, who are both African American, signed in at the desk using their male-specific driv-

er’s licenses. The funeral was for the friend’s brother.

As soon as the women f inished an overly complicated and lengthy checkin procedure the manager, “Kim,” dialed 911 to report “unusual” clients wearing women’s clothes with male licenses. First she asked if someone could run their names through a police database. When told that such a search would be illegal, she settled for dispatching an officer to the scene.

When pressed for more alarming specifics by the operator, Kim noted that they might be “hookers.”

The following morning, police arrived to interrogate Taylor and eventually arrested her for possessing hormone meds without a prescription.

(Obviously she had a prescription, but wasn’t carrying it around.) The charges were dropped, but not until Taylor spent eight days in jail. Eight.

Days. In. Jail. For no reason.

In November, the ACLU lodged a complaint against the hotel with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, but the reason Meagan’s ordeal is news this week is that the local police just released the audiotape of Kim’s 911 call.

Taylor’s story should have grabbed my attention back in July when it happened. Failing that, I should have noticed last month when the ACLU filed its complaint. But I’m too complacent, sitting here indulging my frivolous musings rather than digging for details on our continual struggle for civil rights and equality. Today, however, I clicked the link to the 911 call, which you too can easily locate if you Google this story.

Listen to the self-satisf ied tone in Kim’s voice as she reports her sus-

picions to the sympathetic sounding operator. The preening goody two shoes just thinks someone ought to be aware that these oddballs are even now doing God Knows What upstairs in their room. Not simply transgendered, their outf its were “over the top,” Good Citizen Kim informed the police. And for all Kim knows, they might be hookers.

At one point, the operator did seem perplexed, asking if the clients’ dress was the only anomaly in the situation.

That’s when Kim tossed in the speculation about prostitution. I’ll send a car, the operator promises. Oh, thank you, Kim says, relieved.

Listen for yourself to this sickening illustration of raw bigotry mixed with pompous sanctimony and think about where you were and what you were doing eight days ago. Now think about spending that period of time behind bars because someone like Kim thought you looked weird.

To the Johns, Citizens!

Our opponents in the fight for marriage learned quickly that the most effective 30-second sound bite focused on the notion that same-sex marriage will be taught in schools. Surely you haven’t forgotten the famous Prop 8 ad where the little girl tells Mommy that the new book Teacher read in story corner says that a prince can marry another prince!

Now, in our continuing effort to pass trans-inclusive civil rights laws around the country, the latest down and dirty attack ads feature bathroom policies, the warning that passage of this or that bill will open the restroom doors to anyone and every(continued on page 19)

Sense of

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Round About - “Nutcracker of Oz” - Dance Along Nutcracker 2015

Round About - Drag Queens on Ice 2015 The 6th Annual Drag Queens on Ice event, presented at Union Square’s ice rink, happened in “fa-la-la-la-laabulous!” style on Thursday, December 10. Donna Sachet served as mistress of ceremonies with special guests Queen Dilly Dally and Sister Roma. Among those presenting holiday-themed performances this year were Mutha Chucka, Paju Munro, Kylie-Pop, Kim ChiChi, BeBe Sweetbriar and Mahlae Balenciaga. Drag Queens on Ice has quickly become a favorite of the season and happens rain or shine - no matter the weather - and it’s a part of the annual activities happening at the Union Square Holiday Ice Rink.

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Photos Courtesy of Union Square Ice Rink

PHOTO BY RINK

PHOTO COURTESY OF SFLGFB

PHOTO COURTESY OF SFLGFB

PHOTO COURTESY OF SFLGFB

PHOTO BY RINK

PHOTO BY RINK

PHOTO COURTESY OF JILL TROTTA

PHOTO COURTESY OF SFLGFB

“A unique and rousing good time” is an understatement when it comes to describing what happens at Dance Along Nutcracker! Held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the 30th Anniversary production of the show’s popular theme “Nutcracker of Oz” was created by San Francisco Bay Times contributor Heidi Beeler and director Flynn DeMarco. Starring in the show were Zelda Koznofski as Clara; Donna Sachet as the Witch & Miss Ratsky; Flynn DeMarco as Scarecrow; Joe Wicht as the Lion; Noah Haydon as the Tinman; Ruby Vixon as Glinda & Ozma; and Leigh Crow as the Wizard, Uncle Drosselmeyer, Mr. Stahlbaum & the Doorman. Congratulations to all on a huge success for marking the 30th year of this beloved extravaganza.

The New LGBTQIA Generation

A few years ago, the New York Times referred to “a battle cry for a new generation of post-gay gender activists,” one that would reach far beyond the familiar four-letter LGBT acronym into other letters, other identities. With 2016 upon us, that generation is now coming into its own, as are our emerging new allies.

We thank them, as well as Dr. Sue Rosser, Dr. Deborah Cohler, Paul Asper, Carla Garcia, Dr. Luoluo Hong, Dr. Amy Sueyoshi, Dr. Jessica Fields, Dr. Kenneth Monteiro, Adrianne Bee, Thao Pham and everyone else at SFSU who helped in the creation of this special section for the San Francisco Bay Times. We are also grateful for their mentorship of LGBTQIA young adults and supporters of our community.

They give us tremendous hope that, in 2016 and beyond, despite the major challenges that lie ahead, the best is truly yet to come.

San Francisco State University Provides an LGBTQIA-affirming Place to Learn and Grow

PHOTO BY ANDREW CORPUZ

To learn more about them—their hopes, goals, concerns and more—we interviewed several students from the Department of Sexuality Studies, the College of Ethnic Studies and the Women and Gender Studies Department at San Francisco State University. These students simply blew us away with their

intelligence, perceptiveness and genuine concern over issues that face all of us, gay and straight.

PHOTO BY CARLA GARCIA

Dr. Sue Rosser

Graduate students from the Department of Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University

By Dr. Sue Rosser The Bay Area is world-renowned for its open-mindedness and inclusiveness, and San Francisco State University mirrors that.

Though LGBTQ people often find their education disrupted by homophobia and transphobia elsewhere, at SF State they f ind an LGBTQaffirming, intellectually stimulating place to learn and grow.

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On-campus resources for queer students include Safe Zone, a network of volunteers trained to offer support for people of all gender and sexual identities; a Queer and Trans Resource Center; and student groups such as Queer Alliance and EROS (Educational and Referral Organization for Sexuality). Students can also get involved in the city’s vibrant queer life, earning course credit for internships at the GLBT Historical Society (where SF State faculty frequently serve on the board of directors), making films as part of the Queer Women

of Color Media Project, serving as youth mentors with LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center) and volunteering with local HIV/AIDS prevention programs and activist organizations.

SF State addresses LGBT issues in the classroom, as well. Undergraduate students can fulfill general education requirements by taking courses in queer and trans theory literature, history, film and culture. They can major in Women and Gender Studies (WGS) with a focus on sexuality and minor in LGBT or Sexuality Studies. At the graduate level, they can get an M.A. in Sexuality Studies or focus their queer research topics in WGS, Ethnic Studies or other units across campus.

In addition, students are actively involved with faculty research at a variety of centers and institutes on campus and benef it from exposure to cutting-edge ideas. This February, for instance, the Department of Women and Gender Studies will host a series of scholarly talks on the emerging field of “Crip Theory”—an area of academic study that brings together critical disability studies with queer studies, feminist theories and critical race studies.

Our goal is to send students on to their next endeavors with an awareness of the powerful ways in which gender, sexuality, race, ability, labor and justice intersect. SF State graduates take that awareness with them—along with their confidence, their energy and their commitment to inclusive community building— wherever they go.

Dr. Sue Rosser is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at San Francisco State University.

In May, CA Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom urged the SFSU class of 2015 to “step up and step in” during his keynote address to the university’s 114th Commencement. He mentioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela as individuals who made a positive difference despite the challenges they faced.

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Goals, Dreams and Concerns of the New Generation

Jay Lykens

Samukezi Ngubane

Nicolette Gulickson

Here we present members of our younger generations, from Millennials to Generation Z, in their own words.

My ideal career would be working inside a queer space that feels safe and productive probably doing work inside queer communities and/or environmental justice inside queer communities. I identify as transgendered so it would be great to remain in the transgender community and help do necessary reparative work there.

issues the community is facing as well as to keep me connected to the community I work to serve.

S a n F r a n c i sc o B ay Ti m e s: Where do you see yourself a few years from now? What would be your ideal career?

Jay Lykens: In a few years I’d love to be even more immersed in LGBTQ research. I’d like to move the medical and psychological field forward when it comes to transgender and genderqueer health. So that would probably be a career in the research or public health field. Within the next five years I’d like to get more experience heading research projects, and hopefully make my way to UC Berkeley’s social psychology PhD program.

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Samukezi Ngubane: I see myself continuing with my grassroots activism. My goal has always been to work with marginalized communities that are often invisibilized. In South Africa, I based most of my work in rural areas, attempting to create awareness of, and advocacy for, issues affecting rural communities. I believe that rural spaces require more activist attention. Not to generalize, but I found that in such communities, conversations about gender and sexuality are often taboo. People are also not aware of their sexual and reproductive rights, or their basic rights to health care, water, and shelter. My ideal career is just starting these conversations with the rural communities, engaging in dialogues, sensitization workshops, and awareness programs.

Nicolette Gulickson: Once I complete the Sexuality Studies Graduate Program at San Francisco State University, I intend to work for an organization that advocates for and provides resources to transgender communities. My ideal career would situate me to make a tangible, positive impact on the life chances of trans people in my community and beyond.

Enkhmaa Enkhbold: Geographically, I see myself in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I hope to work in academia, particularly in the Global South. I am interested in researching Human Rights issues, International Relations, with particular attention to the influence of institutions and organizations such as The United Nation, World Bank, and Peace Corps, etc. in relation to their impact on reproducing global inequalities. Also, I hope to work towards change in patriarchal structures in Mongolia by particularly addressing the representation of women in politics, sexist language/proverbs that promote gender inequality (so naturalized) and representation of LGBTQI communities.

M. Miglio: Ideally, I will continue on in school to get a Master’s Degree.

Lexus Killingsworth: I would like to be close to finishing a PhD program a few years from now! My ideal career would involve studying visual representations of queer black women, especially pornography. I would also love to study anime and manga.

Jillian Salazar: My ideal career would involve working with activists, academics, and researchers to eradicate racism, sexism, ableism and state violence. A few years from now I see myself working for a non-profit that serves those affected by domestic and sexual violence.

San Francisco Bay Times: What are you doing now to prepare for that ideal career?

Jay Lykens: Right now I’m working at a great organization called YTH in Oakland, and doing my best to move forward some projects related to transgender health care access. I’m also working with Dr. Allen LeBlanc over at SFSU on his study, Project AFFIRM, focusing on transgender identity development and resilience.

Overall I think I’m preparing by pursuing research studies that really focus on the positive aspects of what it means to identify in the transgender spectrum.

Samukezi Ngubane: Besides engaging with academic texts and learning constructive ways in which praxis can be effective, I volunteer at Magnet, a clinic that offers health care services for gay, bisexual and transgender men. I am also working on traditional dance scripts based on theories that I am learning from my program such as intersectionality, theories of difference, and disidentification. I am writing these scripts in isiXhosa (my home language) and I hope to use their performance as part of grassroots awareness building.

Nicolette Gulickson: To be the best ally that I can be and to gain the knowledge necessary to not only complete my thesis research, but also to equip me with the skills I will need once I join the workforce. I am volunteering at the Transgender Law Center (TLC) in Oakland. My work there has given me insight into the discrimination and bureaucratic negotiations faced by trans people on a daily basis. It has motivated me to conduct thesis research on the efficacy of state-level protective legislation.

I also attend community events and demonstrations to stay abreast of the

Enkhmaa Enkhbold: I have been doing quite a lot, actually. Education is a vital aspect of my ideal career. I am a senior student of Women and Gender Studies (WGS) at SFSU. The fact that the WGS program at SFSU was originally designed by Angela Davis makes me feel that I am going in the right direction in my ideal career. Davis is a scholar and activist; one of my favorite works is her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?

Practical work is vital to my ideal career; I have been volunteering and interning all around the Bay Area.

With genuine modesty, I list the NGOs that I’ve been associated with: Optional Recovery Center, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Bay Area Legal Aid, Project Homeless, Asian Women’s Shelter, Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at UC Hasting, Mongolian Women’s Association, and the Mongolian Student Association at Laney College.

This summer, I had an opportunity to volunteer in three different NGOs in Ulaanbaatar for three months: National Center Against Violence, LGBT Center, and the Young Women’s Club. Although short, my experiences with these NGOs were rich, as was that of living as a local in Ulaanbaatar, because I left Mongolia when I was sixteen years old. All of my experiences with these NGOs have a profound affect on me as an individual. Also, they have helped me to grow and identify my strength and areas where I need to improve. Of course, I have not volunteered for these organizations just for personal gains; I stood with their mission and vision.

Currently, I have been thinking about doing ethnographic research in the Mongolian community, hoping to contribute to creating an archive for the next generations of Mongolian Americans.

M. Miglio: In order to prepare for my ideal career, I am looking to apply for a Master’s Degree as well as looking into internships and job opportunities that could prepare me for a career in my desired field.

Lexus Killingsworth: I am in the beginning stages of writing a thesis that discusses visual representations of queer black women in the films The Color Purple and Daughters of the Dust.

This has allowed me to read numerous sources on the subject. Outside of academia, however, I just enjoy consuming anything with representations of queer black women. I currently love How to Get Away With Murder.

Jillian Salazar: I am enrolled in a M.A. program is Sexuality Studies and reading everything I can get my

work in organizations where I might not have had experience in their field, but they saw my potential and/ or they believed I was someone that they could invest in, so they gave me a chance. I have been given platforms to learn, to make mistakes, and eventually to excel. Things are changing, slowly, but something is moving.

Enkhmaa Enkhbold

Lexus Killingsworth

Jillian Salazar

hands on about different approaches to trauma and sexual violence. I am also applying to be a rape crisis counselor at a local non-profit.

so I feel like in order to enter the global Academic World, a PhD is a must, and I hope and plan to make my career somewhere in the Global South.

San Francisco Bay Times: Do you think that your chances for future success are better in the Bay Area, or do you plan to leave this region, or perhaps even the U.S., to pursue your goals?

M. Miglio: I would love to leave the U.S., but finically, that is not an option right now. Ideally I will work in the Bay Area until I can leave the U.S. because that is a goal I have.

there is no escape, and it is quite evident that it will continue to be the case. I have no means of independent financial support, so to be a student means to be an employee, regardless of where I end up in the world. Yes, there are grants and scholarships, but when you are a fulltime student and working, it’s not easy to earn A’s in all your classes. Plus, if the language is not your first language, it makes it even harder. But somehow I’ve always managed.

Jay Lykens: I think overall that my chances are much better in the Bay Area. I grew up in the South, so the relative progressiveness here allows me to pursue a lot of opportunities I didn’t have. I still think a lot of work needs to be done here, but the queer community is so close knit, and I think this lets us have strength in numbers when it comes to making real change.

Samukezi Ngubane: My chances of turning my dreams into reality are not in the U.S. Though I admire the Bay Area, its diversity and “freedom” (if I can put it like that), the people I want to work with are not here; the change that I am aspiring for is not here; and most definitely the issues that I want to engage with are not here. Not to say there are no issues here, but I feel I am needed back in South Africa more than I am needed here.

Nicolette Gulickson: While San Francisco is a hub for trans folks, there are many resources already available to trans communities here. My immediate plans for the future include moving to Minneapolis, after graduation, for both personal and professional reasons. There is a large trans community in Minneapolis, and the local government appears to be directly focusing on improving the lives of trans Minneapolitans as well as focusing on combating racial inequality. For example, just this year, the mayor of Minneapolis hired a Black trans man as a senior policy aide and advisor. I would like to be a part of this effort.

Enkhmaa Enkhbold: My plan is to leave, although I love the Bay Area. Let’s face it: it is ridiculously expensive. I can only wait tables for so many hours of the week while being a student. To succeed, it is a necessity for me. Vocational choice is a life choice, so I heard somewhere! Plus, part of my ideal career goal is to work in Mongolia. I want to continue my education there and live as a local. It has been almost fourteen years since I left the country. I’ve changed and the country has changed!

I believe that diverse experiences keep me on my toes and help me make critical analysis of coexisting. They also keep my values and beliefs at hand to be challenged. I plan to go all the way to PhD. For me, it is a necessity.

(Don’t ask me why! Okay, you can ask me why! Because I want to make my parents proud! Little humor!) But with all seriousness, I identify with the Global South, aka “the third world,”

Lexus Killingsworth: I do feel as though my chances are better here.

While I plan to move away for a PhD program, I would definitely like to be back in the Bay Area soon after.

If I am going to make a career out of studying pornography, the Bay Area feels like the best place to do so.

Jillian Salazar: The Bay Area would be an amazing place to further my career. However, if I felt that my skills could be used in a region with fewer resources for those affected by sexual violence, then I would consider relocating. I’ve often felt that my work may bring me back to the Central Valley of California where I grew up because I witnessed a severe lack of services for survivors of sexual violence when I lived there.

San Francisco Bay Times: What are some of your biggest concerns now about meeting your education and career goals?

Jay Lykens: I think it’s rough being a graduate student and working full time. My biggest concerns are juggling my finances with my future educational goals. If I could be a fulltime student and dedicate all of my free time to my studies I would, but that’s unrealistic with how expensive it is to live here in the Bay Area.

M. Miglio: The biggest concerns I have about meeting educational and career goals would have to do with money and safety. It is expensive to stay in school, and I don’t know how long I can maintain that. I was in community college for ten years while I worked retail jobs and survived in the Bay Area. I’m 30 years old and am graduating this year. School is just not sustainable all the time for me, but I’m going to push for a Master’s Degree because I believe it will help me live a life that is more stable.

I also really hope to work in a space that feels safe to me as I continue with my career. As a queer individual, I want to go into a work space where my gender pronouns are respected and I can feel comfortable in the bathroom and so on. It’s hard to find that kind of atmosphere, and without a college degree that was impossible.

Lexus Killingsworth: My biggest concern is money. I do currently live in the Bay Area. Do I even need to say more? However, another big concern is whether I’ll be taken seriously because I want to study pornography and anime and manga.

Samukezi Ngubane: I guess my biggest concern is to be the best that I can be, and to meet my own expectations, both personally and academically. I am not concerned with the work I want to do. I will do whatever it takes to reach out to the communities I want to work with, even if it means I start these conversations alone with no funding.

Jillian Salazar: Trying to balance work and school while living in one of the most expensive cities in the world is a constant concern. If my job were in jeopardy because of school, I would have to choose my job over school to continue to live in the Bay Area. But my studies have become the driving factor in my love of San Francisco, so it would really be a lose-lose situation.

Nicolette Gulickson: My main educational concern lies in the applicability and practicality of the Sexuality Studies Master’s Program. As such, I will be incorporating my work at TLC with my program coursework through SFSU’s community service learning program next Spring. This allows me to receive credit for my volunteer work with TLC and provides practical experience working with an organization that mirrors my career goals. Additionally, I have made connections through my program that will help me to find work in Minneapolis when the need arises.

San Francisco Bay Times: Do you believe that job prospects for students such as yourself are better or worse than they were a decade or so ago?

En k h maa En k hbold: Money, Money, Money!!! Educational institutions are capitalist entities in the majority of the world. I’ve always been a student and an employee. For me,

Jay Lykens: I think they’re undoubtedly better, especially with some of the non-discrimination acts that have been passed. But it’s still difficult to determine if you’re safe in certain areas, especially when it comes to the workplace. I always struggle with deciding to “come out” or not to employers and colleagues. But in regards to the past decade and where I used to live in the South, my job prospects are much better.

Samukezi Ngubane: I think things are slowly changing. From my experience, I have been given chances to

Nicolette Gulickson: Trans visibility in popular culture and political discourse is at its apex, so job prospects for a student like me, who is focused on contributing to the movement, are sure to be plentiful. Ten years ago, the needs of trans folks were not even on the radar of legislators in the U.S. Now, there are so many more trans advocacy organizations, increased trans activism, and policy discussions happening all over the country. There is still much work to be done; I have no doubt that my skills and passion will find a home within the trans movement.

Enkhmaa Enkhbold: For students like me (those whose career goals are similar to mine) I believe that job prospects are getting better because I think that the academic world has been advanced since the World Wide Web became available to the public in 1990. I believe that before 1990, access to the academic world was limited for those in non-western contexts. There were limited spaces to discuss and critique the dominant mainstream ideologies and imbalance of knowledge production. I feel that in this era, the space is expanded dramatically, which has tremendous effect. However, there is much to do and my hope is to take part in it.

M. Miglio: I believe that the rift between wealthy and the poor is getting larger and thus affecting the job market in drastic ways that are only getting worse. The options for good paying jobs, even inside non-profits where I might find community or safety, are slim. There are tons of opportunities on Craigslist to work with youth in inner cities and such, but all the jobs start at $13.00 an hour. I could apply for a job at FedEx and make twice that amount as a starting wage. The reason I am pursuing a Master’s Degree is so that I can have a skill that guarantees a living wage—but who knows if that will work? I have little faith in the job market, which means I have to work twice or three times as hard to develop a good resume. Even then, I could still end up not using my degree. That’s a reality I have to live with.

Lexus Killingsworth: Both. Better because it feels like people in the U.S. are becoming more aware of the importance of visual representations and the need for the further development of that type of scholarship.

Worse because it seems as though jobs want candidates to have travelled to the moon, cured cancer and have been President for two consecutive terms before they even think about considering you! It’s hard to apply for jobs when you feel as though you’ll never be qualified enough, even if you just graduated with a degree in that field.

Jillian Salazar: I believe job prospects for students are much worse than they were a decade ago. The only advice parents and mentors give students nowadays is to stay in school for as long as they can, take out student loans, figure out a job when the economy is better, and not to worry about paying back the loans later.

San Francisco Bay Times: What do you think makes your generation unique, and how do you hope it will make its mark on history?

Jay Lykens: My generation is extremely connected by social media and other technology. It’s easy for me to see what’s going on in other parts of the country and the world, and I feel like we can all make a bigger difference than ever before. It’s also really easy to spread the word about social movements and get more people involved. I think this generation has the greatest potential to really kick-start change from the ground up.

Sa mukezi Ng ubane: Hmmm, unique? I guess technology makes our generation unique. In a sense that activism now happens online: job opportunities, networking, and campaigns now have a platform online that they previously didn’t have. Look at all of the hashtag anti-prejudice, discrimination and awareness campaigns that started online. It is just amazing how our generation is engaging with technology.

Nicolette Gulickson: As I said above, acceptance of the LGBT community has advanced so much in recent years. I’d like to think that my generation would be the one to break the silence on the social justice issues our society has ignored for so long with regards to trans people. I hope that my generation will end the stigma surrounding membership in the LGBT community. I’ve read conflicting research about whether or not millennials are truly more progressive than our predecessors, but I think the shift in cultural attitudes towards the LGBT community speaks for itself.

Enkhmaa Enkhbold: Uniqueness is definitely the advancement in technology. I hope our generation will make its mark on history as the beginning of a transnational paradigm.

In my Utopia, I hope that our generation will be marked as a generation that is disloyal to civilization. This would be awesome. But it is only my Utopia.

M. Miglio: I’m not sure if I qualify as “this generation.” Like I said, I’m thirty years old so I’m a different generation. I think that the youth of this generation will have to join their parents and grandparents to rise up against the environmental injustices that are occurring and reclaim this planet from corporate destruction. I don’t think there is any choice left. I think the mark that the “youth” will make is finding solidarity within their peers and other generations in order to fight racism, white supremacy, classism, homophobia, water shortages and climate change. There is always such a push for “a different or upcoming generation” when so much of that idea is constructed and created. Power lies within human solidarity that values all generations together—not separate and not hierarchal. If there is anything that makes “this generation unique,” I would say it’s the short amount of time this generation has to reject capitalism and take action to save a planet that is not yet dead.

Lexus Killingsworth: My generation feels really connected to technology. I feel as though we have really excelled in taking this new technology and expanding it in order to help others. (continued on page 18)

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STUDENTS (continued from page 17) Jillian Salazar: My generation is unique in the sense that we’ve been coddled more than prior generations.

Most folks may see this negatively, but in a way it makes this generation less willing to put up with things that prior generations would have accepted as “ just the way things are.” I think this generation expects the world to bend over backward for them, and if that means expecting the world to

become more equal and less hateful, then I see that as a positive thing.

Jay Lykens is a graduate student from the SFSU M.A. in Sexuality Studies program.

M. Miglio is a senior who is graduating with a B.A. in Women and Gender Studies at SFSU. Samukezi Ngubane is an SFSU Fulbright Scholar from South Africa who is pursuing an M.A. in Women and Gender Studies.

Enkhmaa Enkhbold is a senior who is graduating with a B.A. in Women and Gender Studies at SFSU, with a Minor in Counseling.

Nicolette Gulickson is an M.A. candidate in Sexuality Studies at SFSU. Lexus Killingsworth is an M.A. candidate in Sexuality Studies at SFSU. Jillian Salazar is an M.A. candidate in Sexuality Studies at SFSU.

San Francisco State University Women and Gender Studies Department

By Dr. Deborah Cohler Founded in 1971, the Women and Gender Studies (WGS) Department at San Francisco State University has been offering courses in LGBT studies for more than four decades. Our undergraduate and graduate students take courses on queer and trans theory, literature, culture, and communities, and study the history of gender and sexual identities in the context of race, community, citizenship, labor and globalization. Our students engage in challenging academics, work closely with professors in small classes and lead community initiatives.

Many undergraduate students interested in LGBT studies and activism major in WGS and minor in LGBT studies. Often WGS senior internship projects take students into queer community spaces in the Bay Area, from LGBT Youth Space in San Jose and the SFAIDS Foundation to activist groups such as Gay Shame.

in Israel/Palestine; and queer native sovereignty. As these topics indicate, WGS graduate students consider LGBT topics in relation to the politics of race, current events, communities and cultural practices. After graduation, WGS students often go on to careers at nonprofit organizations; work in higher education, medicine or law; and share their work as novelists, poets, essayists and performers.

WGS graduate students conduct independent research for their M.A. thesis projects, many of which bring to light important aspects of queer culture, history and activism. Some recent graduate research projects include topics such as butch resilience at the Annual Butch Voices conference; bisexuality in “The Good Wife;” trans male self documentation; a study of queer trans Tumblr; “pinkwashing”

Faculty research topics include the history of queer San Francisco, LGBT studies in Turkey, queer oral history practices and the queer rise of lesbian cultures in wartime. In addition to their research and teaching interests, WGS faculty are involved in community projects, serve on boards for such groups as the GLBT Historical Society, participate in local and national film festivals and contribute to national and international dialogues.

Dr. Deborah Cohler is the Chair of the SFSU Women and Gender Studies Department.

San Francisco State University Department of Sexuality Studies

By Dr. Jessica Fields

The Sexuality Studies Department at San Francisco State University was an early leader in university-based education in sexuality. For fifty years, faculty interested in sexuality studies have offered undergraduate classes across the arts, sciences and humanities, and we now offer minors in Sexuality Studies and in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies. In 2001, we began offering an M.A. in Sexuality Studies—one of the first graduate-level degree programs in the United States specifically dedicated to sexuality studies and housed in a public university.

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Sexuality Studies faculty members include more than a dozen professors from ethnic studies, humanities, and social science departments and colleges across campus. Many department faculty are affiliated with the Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality, which sponsors an annual Summer Institute on sexuality studies. Faculty pursue their own research on, for example, sexual health of marginalized communities, literature and the arts in the context of HIV/AIDS, sexuality education, movements for sexual justice and sexuality and race in San Francisco history. Faculty members also bring their research to the classroom.

The newest member of the Sexuality Studies faculty, Darius Bost, is just one example: His work on black gay literature and culture during the early era of the AIDS epidemic informs his course “AIDS and People of Color in the U.S.”

Working closely with faculty mentors, undergraduate and graduate students pursue independent projects in LGBTQ studies. Topics include sexuality education for LGBTQ youth of color; bisexual women and the ongoing stigma of their identities; and gay characters in contemporary comic books. Still others have studied trans and genderqueer people seeking medical care and LGBTQ social movements at Bay Area universities. Every May, we hold a capstone event in which graduating students present their finished research to an audience

of friends, family, and faculty. All are welcome to join us.

Students and graduates have worked in Bay Area universities and public schools as sexuality educators, community organizations serving LGBT youth and adults, and private companies that promote sexual health and pleasure. Across all of our research and education, we focus on issues of social justice and sexual rights for all, considering sexual well being and sexual health across the lifespan. The M.A. program also prepares students for further graduate study in a range

of disciplines and fields. Recent graduates have gone on to earn M.A.s and Ph.D.s in anthropology, psychology, public health and policy, social work, sociology and women and gender studies.

Dr. Jessica Fields is a Professor of Sociology at SFSU. She is also Graduate Studies Coordinator in Sexuality Studies and Research Faculty at the Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality.

San Francisco State University College of Ethnic Studies

By Dr. Amy Sueyoshi

San Francisco State University Queer Resources

San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies was established in Fall 1969 after an extended student strike demanding a curriculum that respected the diverse intellectual traditions and cultural expressions of communities of color and indigenous people throughout the United States.

Educational and Referral Organization for Sexuality (EROS) http://asi.sfsu.edu/asi/programs/ eros/about.html

Academic Units

EGAY (Everything Great About You) http://www.sfsu.edu/~pride/orgs. html

Sexuality Studies (SXS) http://sxs.sfsu.edu/

The Black Student Union, the Third World Liberation Front, staff and faculty members and community activists mobilized against systematic discrimination on campus. Their efforts resulted in the first, and what continues to be the only, College of Ethnic Studies at an American university.

SF State’s College of Ethnic Studies currently houses four departments— Asian American Studies, Africana Studies, Latina/Latino Studies and American Indian Studies—and a program in comparative ethnic studies titled Race and Resistance Studies. The five units collectively offer more than 175 courses each semester to meet the largely general education needs of 6,000 students each semester.

Queer Alliance http://www.sfsu.edu/~pride/orgs. html

In the past 20 years, the College has more aggressively incorporated curricula in sexuality studies, implementing new courses such as “AIDS and People of Color” and “Latino Sexualities” and hiring scholars working at the intersection of race and queer studies. Today, one in four of our tenured/tenure-track faculty have expertise in queer studies, and a third of our graduate students pursuing one of our two M.A. degrees (Asian

Dr. Kenneth Monteiro

American Studies and Ethnic Studies) are engaged in thesis projects on queer and/or trans people of color.

Last year, the College of Ethnic Studies mounted a queer ethnic studies initiative as part of its strategic plan to mobilize faculty expertise, to begin a graduate student scholarship and to investigate the creation of a major on queers of color.

Notwithstanding all of that, it is encouraging to me that the College and the union were able to resolve the issues that prompted the strike vote without actually seeing a strike. Whether this episode may serve as a foundation for an improving negotiating environment going forward, only time will tell. But ultimately I know that our teachers love and care about our College, as does our Chancellor and the people she is bringing in and up. We should be able to work this out.

The Training Wheels Come Off State Chancellor Brice Harris has informed City College that as of December 31, 2015, Special Trustee Guy Lease will no longer have the ability to overturn decisions of the local Board of Trustees, but will continue on in a purely advisory capacity. In his letter informing the College of his decision, Chancellor Harris expressed his satisfaction with the actions and progress of the

College of Ethnic Studies (ETHS) http://ethnicstudies.sfsu.edu/ home Research Centers Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality (CREGS) http://cregs.sfsu.edu/ Family Acceptance Project http://familyproject.sfsu.edu/

Dr. Amy Sueyoshi is the Associate Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at SFSU.

DUNNING (continued from page 7)

MANDELMAN (continued from page 7) which is, of course, enormously frustrating to those who have to interact with it, including our unions. As it is to the Board. As, I know, it is to the Chancellor.

Queer Trans Resource Center http://asi.sfsu.edu/asi/programs/ qtrc/

Women and Gender Studies (WGS) http://wgsdept.sfsu.edu/

local Board since he initiated the handover of authority from the Special Trustee earlier this year, and noted the extensive professional development activities in which the Board members had participated. I believe this is the right decision; indeed, my view has been that whatever the failings of the old Board, they were not great enough to merit suspending local control.

But I also realize that, right or wrong on that particular question, Chancellor Harris has consistently done what he understood to be necessary to save City College, and without his strong support over the last several years, we might well not have survived. For that, as I have said before, we owe him our gratitude. The Office of the State Chancellor will continue to be a necessary partner in City College’s restoration, but now it’s up to the local Board to show that we are actually up to the job of governing; I am confident that we are ready.

Rafael Mandelman is an attorney for the City of Oakland. He is also President of the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees.

help our veterans to transition back into civilian life after serving our country.

As we celebrate the winter holidays, I ask you to keep in mind our service men and women serving overseas. Not everyone is happy we still have troops overseas, myself included.

And, as long as we do, we shouldn’t forget those serving are humans with families, hopes and dreams. They are separated from their families and friends and it would be welcome to get a care package or letter from home. If you search “care package for overseas troops” you’ll find a number of organizations that can give you addresses, or advice for what to send, or that will even send a package for you. You can give a one-time donation, or adopt a soldier and send monthly packages. It’s a nice way to stay connected and to show a service member that you care.

Feeling alone and isolated, especially during the holidays, is not unique to our troops overseas. Many people right here in San Francisco

can find the holidays depressing, being reminded of lost family or partners. We assume our friends have plans for the holidays, but that is not necessarily so. If you want to demonstrate the true spirit of the season, make sure you reach out to all your friends, particularly your single friends who may not have plans or may be overlooked. You can also volunteer at a number of food donation organizations or those that feed the needy through social service groups or churches, such as Glide. I hope you demonstrate the spirit of the season by sharing it with those who can use a helping hand.

My best to you and your family. Enjoy the holidays!

Zoe Dunning is a retired Navy Commander and was a lead activist in the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. She currently serves as the 1st Vice Chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, as a San Francisco Library Commissioner, and as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club.

ROSTOW (continued from page 11) one regardless of gender. Even pedophiles will be allowed to roam the facilities at will! This comment from an article on a proposed civil rights bill in Indiana is typical: “Imagine your minor daughter in a public restroom with a man dressed as a woman. Imagine your minor son reading all about gender ‘choice’ in his social studies class. Welcome to the LGBT universe. Nothing about the privacy of one’s bedroom but about hoisting upon society behavioral choices that have absolutely ZERO basis in scientific study and forced upon the rest of us.”

Will no one ask this individual whether he or she wants her minor daughter to negotiate the toilettes with a couple of transmen in the house, who will perhaps be obliged by law to join her there? There are indeed some propos-

als to outlaw using the “wrong” bathroom, which would force transgendered men and women respectively to use the ladies’ and men’s rooms. I’ve written this before, but particularly in the light of recent research on how hard it is for men to pee in a crowd, do the guys really want to take a whiz next to a hot trans chick?

It’s beneath us to even engage in the debate, which obviously has no more salience in this context than it did back in the day when people used bathroom phobia to argue against the Equal Rights Amendment. But it’s out there and it’s working. Arguably, the bathroom scare helped to defeat the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance last November. And you can be sure we’ll see it in Anchorage (where a rights referendum is a likely possibility), Indiana and elsewhere.

Nein Nein Nein The bathroom issue is also at the heart of the alarming rise in the request for Title IX waivers from religious schools around the country. The landmark ban on sex discrimination in federally funded education, famous for improving girls’ and women’s opportunities, can be avoided if it conflicts with religious practices, but such waivers had rarely been requested.

In 2014, however, the Obama administration determined that Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination extended to gender identity bias, much as courts and others have determined that Title VII’s ban on discrimination based on sex in the workplace also covers discrimination based on sexual stereotypes and gender identity bias.

We could discuss the legal niceties of these conclusions at length, but we

won’t. Don’t worry! Just know that about three dozen Christian-affiliated schools have since asked to be excused from Title IX! The new interpretation of Title IX recently led the federal government to force a Chicago area high school to let a transgender girl use the girl’s locker room (behind a special curtain) in a lengthy case that we will also discuss only in passing. The point is that “Christian” schools don’t want to make any such compromises. Nor do they want to have to hire, let’s say, married lesbian teachers.

Will the waivers be granted? For most of them, the answer is probably yes. But it’s still possible that a school might have to explain in court why some egregious act of discrimination was required by religious principles.

When AIDS Was Funny Finally, if you would like powerful evidence of how far we have come as a community in the last thirty odd years, look up the short video “When AIDS Was Funny,” which features three clips from the White House briefing room in the early 1980s.

In each segment, a conservative journalist, whose name I forget, pesters White House spokesman Larry Speakes about Reagan’s AIDS policies, or lack of them. Each time, the other journalists laugh uproariously as Speakes makes sophomoric insinuations at the expense of the questioner. The whole subject of gay men dying by the hundreds, and then thousands, provokes giggles and titters from a crowd that should look back in profound shame. arostow@aol.com

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Magnificent Women in Pants

amazement.” They retired as child actors in 1856.

Faces of Our LGBT Past Dr. Bill Lipsky Although Deuteronomy 22.5 expressly forbids cross-dressing as an “abomination unto the Lord,” San Franciscans have adored transvestite performance since the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Like many other admonitions ignored by residents then, and since, no one objected at the time to violations of this particular scripture, at least when it came to the theater. Instead, they embraced the cross-dressing performances of Adah Isaacs Menken, Ella Wesner, and their peers, in both serious productions and vaudeville turns, finding these not always virtuous women “more precious than rubies.”

Possibly the earliest male impersonators to appear in San Francisco were the Bateman sisters, who during the 1850s crisscrossed the United States in Shakespeare’s Richard III. Ellen, nine, wearing a pasted on mustache, played the title role. Kate, 11, appeared as Richmond. Already seasoned troupers, they first performed in the City at the Metropolitan Theatre on April 10, 1854. Audiences, reported the Alta California, were “struck dumb with

Local audiences found Adah Isaacs Menken even more sensational. A true bohemian spirit, she wrote poetry, championed Whitman, praised those who defied social conventions, and followed her own inner guide. Her first performance in San Francisco was on August 24, 1863, playing the title character in Mazeppa, the story of a young Cossack who is banished for adultery by being tied naked to a wild horse. It became her signature role and ultimate “pants parts.”

During the play, her publicity proclaimed, “Miss Menken, stripped by her captors, will ride a fiery steed at furious gallop onto and across the stage and into the distance.” Of course, the horse was more docile than demonic, and Menken was not actually naked—she wore fleshcolored tights—but no one cared.

She simply mesmerized everyone, including Charles Warren Stoddard, the City’s lavender “boy poet.” She was, he wrote, “a vision of celestial harmony made manifest in the flesh.” By the end of her engagement, more than half of the City’s population had seen her perform.

Adah’s behavior and her bohemian friendships generated endless questions, scandal, and gossip about her sexual self. Married five times, she also was amorously linked with both Alexandre Dumas père and Algernon Swinbur ne.

Her “romantic friendships” with women were discrete. “Do you believe in the deepest and tenderest love between women? Do you believe that women often love each other with as much fervor and excitement as they do men?” she wrote to poet Hattie Tyng

San Francisco Chronicle, calling her “inimitable,” praised “her unapproachable portraiture of Male Character.” Because the only entrance to the theater was through a saloon, her performances were for men only.

One reviewer regretted that “ladies can’t go to the Bella Union, they would all fall in love with [her].” At the height of her success, her “rapid changes and songs” earned her as much as $200.00 a week.

in 1861. “I have had my passionate attachments among women… scorching me with a furnace blast, but generally only changing and renewing my capabilities for love.”

Some performers expressed onstage who they were offstage. Diva Felicita Vestvali–known as “The Magnificent” for her masculine figure, vigorous bearing, and deep contralto voice–first specialized in operatic roles previously reserved for men, including Tancred, Orfeo, and Figaro. She then turned to “pants parts” in serious dramas, especially Shakespeare’s Romeo, a signature role that she debuted in San Francisco in 1865, and Hamlet. Rosa von Brauschweig, who also played male characters, believed Vestvali’s later success was due to her friendship with a German actress. That relationship lasted until her death in 1880.

Wesner never married, but after the murder of notorious Robber Baron Jim Fisk, she and his former mistress, Josie Mansfield, eloped to Europe, where they presided over a louche salon at the Café Americain in Paris. When she died in 1917, members of the Actors’ Fund made sure her wishes to be interred dressed as a man were honored.

Of course, Wesner was only one of numerous male impersonators to entertain the public between the end of the Civil War and the start of World War I. Annie Hindle, her

Ella Wesner, the most successful American male impersonator of her generation, first appeared on stage in San Francisco in August 1871. The

Round About - Daughters of

mentor, was the first to capture the public’s affection—and inspire countless imitators—although she did not appear in San Francisco until 1878. Six years later she made national headlines when she married Anna Ryan in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I know all the circumstances,” the minister stated.” I believe they love each other and that they will be happy.”

Indeed they were. When Ryan died in 1891, Hindle declared that “the best of her life is gone.” The next year, however, reported the Chronicle in a page one story, she became “the lawful husband of Miss Louise Spangehl” in a ceremony performed in Troy, New York. “Miss Hindle has three times been married,” the paper explained. “Once she had a husband and twice she has had a wife, once she was a widow, once a widower, and now she is a husband again.” Both onstage and off, she lived her life authentically, “as nature intended.”

Bill Lipsky, Ph.D., author of “Gay and Lesbian San Francisco” (2006), is a member of the Rainbow Honor Walk board of directors.

Bilitis 60th Anniversary Celebration

Photos by Rink and Gerard Koskovich for the GLBT Historical Society A reception honoring the 60th anniversary of the first lesbian organization in the U.S. was hosted by the GLBT Historical Society on Sunday, December 13, at the organization’s Library and History Museum on 18th Street in the Castro.

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PHOTO BY GERARD KOSKOVICH, GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTO BY RINK

PHOTO BY GERARD KOSKOVICH, GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PHOTO BY RINK PHOTO BY RINK

PHOTO BY GERARD KOSKOVICH, GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PHOTO BY GERARD KOSKOVICH, GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PHOTO BY RINK

PHOTO BY GERARD KOSKOVICH, GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The celebration included guest of honor Phyllis Lyon, a founding member of the Daughters of Bilitis, whose complete papers, along with those of her late partner Del Martin, are preserved by the Society. Extending congratulations to Lyon were her sister Patricia and community and civic leaders, including California State Senator Mark Leno, Openhouse founder and San Francisco Bay Times columnist Dr. Marcy Adelman, National Center of Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club co-chair Lou Fischer, artist Lenore Chinn and others.

End of Semester Thoughts Teacher Lyndsey Schlax of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts is teaching the nation’s first on-site high school LGBT course, according to district officials. In this column, students from her class will be anonymously sharing with the San Francisco Bay Times their thoughts about related matters, and what they are learning in the groundbreaking course, “LGBTQ Studies.”

In prior articles, the students were asked to write about particular topics.

Here, the students were given free reign to address subjects of their own choosing.

Student, 12th Grade San Francisco is likely the most well known city in the world for its LGBTQ community. The SF Pride Parade is the largest yearly gathering and celebration of LGBTQ people and allies nationwide. It is not particularly surprising that an arts school in the middle of San Francisco is the first public high school in the country to offer an LGBTQ studies class.

However, as a student in said class, I was surprised when, while doing research for a project in the school’s library, several of the websites I attempted to visit were blocked by our school’s content filtering service. I have since found out that the school district has taken to blocking numerous LGBTQ news and advocacy websites, tagging them as inappropriate content.

Even some of the most well established news sites, such as Advocate.com and The Bay Area Reporter’s website, were blocked. The SF Bay Times site was blocked until recently, when the teacher of our LGBTQ class, Ms. Schlax, managed to get it removed from the block list.

Filtering LGBTQ content in schools is not a new phenomenon. There is an ongoing project of the ACLU entitled Don’t Filter Me, dedicated to combating LGBTQ censorship and informa-

tion restrictions in public school systems nationwide. Lightspeed, the filtering service that is used by SFUSD schools, was actually commended by the ACLU for being one of the fastest filtering services to respond to the Don’t Filter Me project by removing its preset blocking content relating to LGBTQ lifestyles.

This commendation was near the start of the project’s conception in 2011.

School districts in states from New Jersey to Kansas have been in the process of removing such discriminatory filters for years. For some reason, the San Francisco Unified School District has opted to keep its filter in place. It is depressingly ironic that a student in a city once referred to as the Gay Mecca might run into numerous informational iron curtains simply by searching the city’s former title.

Student, 12th Grade Recently in LGBTQ Studies class we watched a documentary called The Celluloid Closet (1995), based on the book by writer and LGBT activist Vito Russo. The film explored the history of LGBTQ people in American cinema.

As a student of the Media and Film Arts department, I was intrigued by the history of Hollywood screen depictions of LGBTQ people. The film consisted of various interviews of people connected to the entertainment industry talking about their own experiences. It chronicled almost everything related to LGBTQ representation and experience in film and television from the silent films to 1995.

It was interesting re-watching clips from certain films with new eyes and realizing that many were indirectly homosexual in theme. Many of the big films from the Golden Age subliminally hinted at homosexuality and often portrayed gay men as sissies or villains.

Even after The Hollywood Production Code faded, LGBTQ people were portrayed cruelly as gay or lesbian stereotypes until the early 90’s.

Film is an extremely powerful medium because it is a combination of all artistic forms and because of its wide reach.

Film and television not only take inspiration from culture, but also can also help to shape culture. That is why it is extremely important to include underrepresented communities in film and television. Only with positive roles will the LGBTQ community generate tolerance and recognition. In recent years there has been an influx of film and television shows with LGBTQ themes.

It is an exciting time for the LGBTQ community after the recent nationwide same sex marriage legalization, but there are still many communities, such as the transgender community, which need to be represented in the mass media, film and television. With greater representation there will be greater acceptance of the entire LGBTQ community.

Student, 12th Grade I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to participate in a class like this.

My school was the first high school in the nation to have an LGBTQ course.

Throughout the semester, we covered many different topics and had many guest speakers come to speak with us.

The guest speakers personally told us their experiences with the LGBTQ community and their personal journey.

The speakers were all very wonderful, and informed us on LGBTQ issues. It was a unique experience having heard what they had to go through.

Coming into the class, I knew next to nothing about the LGBTQ community.

But a semester later, we covered many important topics, such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Lavender Scare, AIDs pandemic, Harvey Milk and many others. An activity I specifically enjoyed was the walking tour we did throughout the city. Each individual walked through a guided podcast tour as we learned about certain landmarks. I liked that we got to experience things first hand.

I am very happy to have been able to take this course. I have learned many things that I never would have otherwise known. Now that I am more informed, I can help spread awareness and to do my part to help the LGBTQ community.

Student, 11th Grade Over the past eleven years of my education, I’ve studied each war, each controversy, each new amendment and each election of United States history at least three or four times. When it comes to the big events, like the World Wars, that number is probably closer to six or seven.

I am not saying that this history is unimportant. To the contrary, history is my favorite class almost every year.

History, the stories we tell about the mistakes and triumphs of our past, makes up the foundation of our understanding of the world around us. Our knowledge of history colors the way we see contemporary issues and, as often stated, prevents us from making the same mistakes over and over again.

So no, I do not want to study less United States or World History. I want to study more. I want to learn not only about the World Wars and the Civil Wars, but also about human beings in all their forms. I want to learn not only about the struggles of prominent, mainstream figures, but also about the struggles of those forced to live in the shadows. This is the fundamental importance of both LGBTQ Studies, which is now drawing to a close, and Ethnic Studies, which I will be taking next semester: to see a more complete picture of the human narrative, one that includes minorities of all kinds and sheds light on their histories, their mistakes, and their triumphs.

Student, 12th Grade As my last submission to the SF Bay Times LGBTQ “Student Voices” column, I’ve chosen to write a letter to

A MONTHLY HIGHLIGHT FROM THE DE YOUNG AND LEGION OF HONOR

Student Voices future students of LGBTQ Studies classes. I hope this letter gives you courage and proves to be helpful: Dear LGBTQ Student, This isn’t going to be like any of the other classes you have taken before. If your teacher is as cool as mine, and if they’re teaching this class they most likely are, you will never worry about making a grade, taking a test, or being uninterested in the subject. This is not an academic class in which you are overwhelmed with facts; you will instead find yourself thoroughly immersed in a whole side of history you might not have been aware of before.

You’re getting the chance to see through a pair of new eyes.

This experience will be new to you and you will make mistakes. In this class, making mistakes is a common occurrence and part of the learning experience. Please, don’t beat yourself up or feel like a failure for using the wrong pronoun or term, because one of the reasons this class was created was to teach students these things. Apologize, move on, say “they” if you’re unsure of pronouns, or ask. You’re going to learn about how to be a good ally over time; don’t sweat.

Some of you may face difficulties from outside forces who don’t agree with you taking LGBTQ Studies. Just know you are not only being open minded, but also brave. It takes a lot of courage to go against prominent beliefs. My advice for students going against the grain, their family, etc.: it is okay to blur your face until you are ready.

Blurring your face doesn’t necessarily mean your mouth will be censored. If you’re like me, you will find yourself telling anyone and everyone who’s willing to listen about the class’ awesomeness, civil rights, your latest project, field trips, films, and guest speakers. A side effect of being an LGBTQ Studies student is bragging about it. Another side effect is having a more accurate view of the world and who’s in it.

I’m so excited for you. I’m excited for all the experiences you’ll have. I’m excited for LGBTQ experiences being taught, and I’m excited for the changes this class will bring. Recently, I learned a major factor in one’s ability to impact society is having a lot of information.

With that information, one can decide how to use it. I hope that all you will learn will influence how you choose to make positive change.

A Very Sexy Comb We love the inventiveness that went into this very anthropomorphic comb. Look at it long enough, and it only seems to become more lifelike. Yet, the object clearly has function as well as distinctive form. We wonder who might have used the comb.

For more information about the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, please visit http://www.sfsota.org/

Consider making regular visits to the Fine Arts Museums of SF one of your New Year’s resolutions. Such trips offer a bit of exercise, a lot of education and plenty of creative and spiritual enrichment. If you’re single, few things make for better conversation starters than talking about eye-catching works, such as this, as you peruse the galleries.

PHOTO BY JO LYNN OTTO

This much we do know: the Asante people of Ghana carved the comb out of wood in the early 20th century. To see the piece in person, you need only to visit San Francisco’s de Young museum in Golden Gate Park.

A322381 Comb, early 20th century.

Wood, 13 x 4 1/8 x 1 in. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Lyndsey Schlax has been a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District since 2008. She is uniquely qualified to address multiple areas of LGBT studies, having also specialized in subjects such as Modern World History, Government, Economics and U.S. Politics. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, and earned her M.A. in Teaching at the University of San Francisco.

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Merry Making at the Famous Tom & Jerry House Photos by Lenore Chin, Paul Margolis, and Steven Underhill stevenunderhill.com

Youngsters and adults alike posed with Santa and his elf beneath the elaborate decorations and lighted tree in front of Tom & Jerry’s famous house on 21st Street where the Castro and Noe Valley neighborhoods combine. Tom Taylor and Dr. Jerry Goldstein were on hand to welcome all for a second consecutive year’s Holiday Party co-hosted by the San Francisco Lesbian/ Gay Freedom Band and the San Francisco Bay Times.

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PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS

PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

PHOTO BY LENORE CHIN

PHOTO BY STEVEN UNDERHILL

Guests enjoyed the ornaments, unique arrangements composed of ribbons and greenery and festive caroling to tunes performed by members of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band (SFLGFB) brass and woodwind sections. Sincere thanks to Extreme Pizza and NAPA Cellars Wines for sponsoring an array of food and beverages and to all who volunteered helping out with coordinating and accomplishing any and every task required for evening. Special thanks to photographers Steven Underhill, Paul Margolis, Jo-Lynn Otto and Lenore Chin.

Round About -

Light up the Night in the Castro

GOOD SEATS STILL AVAILABLE

Photos by Abby Zimberg, Paul Margolis and Guest Photographers Castro Merchants Association in conjunction with Congregation Sha’ar Zahav on Wednesday, December 9, sponsored at Jane Warner Plaza the Light Up the Night in the Castro Menorah Lighting ceremony.

Held on the 4th night of Chanukah, the event drew a lively crowd, including youngsters of all ages, who observed or participated in the “BYO Menorah” lighting ceremony. Remarks and greetings were given by community and civic leaders, including Castro Merchants president Daniel Bergerac.

A uniquely San Francisco Nutcracker.

DEC 16–31

PHOTO BY JO LYNN OTTO

Join us as the lights dim, music soars, history comes alive, and a little girl dreams about a whole new world.

BUY TICKETS TODAY!

sfballet.org or 415.865.2000 LEAD SPONSORS

The Herbert Family The Swanson Foundation

SPONSORS

Yurie and Carl Pascarella Kathleen Scutchfield The Smelick Family

MEDIA SPONSORS

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET IN TOMASSON’S NUTCRACKER (© ERIK TOMASSON)

BAY T IM ES DEC EM BER 17, 2015

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THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF SFGMC

From the Coming Up Events Calendar See page 36 Friday, Dec 18 - Dave Koz with Special Guests - Warfield Theater. $49.50-$125.50.

8 pm. (982 Market Street, SF) davekoz.com/tour

Saturday, December 19 - A Christmas Carol American Conservatory Theater. $20-$105. 2 pm.

(405 Geary Avenue) Through Dec 27. ticketsact-sf.org/oneline/default.asp

The Highs and Lows of 2015 Queer Movies was the film’s biggest asset, and generated much of the film’s humor.

Film Gary M. Kramer In 2015, the LGBT f ilms that received the most attention ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

On the plus side, there was Carol, out filmmaker Todd Haynes’ outstanding adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Price of Salt, about lesbian desire in the 1950s. The film was another unqualified success for Haynes, and actresses Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett were indelible as the lovers.

Another breakout hit was Tangerine, Sean Baker’s funky little comedy, shot entirely on an iPhone. The film featured two motor-mouthed transgender prostitutes Sin-dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and A lexandra ( Mya Taylor) wandering around Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. The f ilm thrived on its characters’ manic energy, and it had tremendous heart.

However, on the negative side, gay filmmaker Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall got a stoning from critics, who found the film cringe-inducing. Even before its release, Stonewall was criticized for “white-washing,” having a fictional white male hero as the central character in a story that should be about the transgender activists, drag queens, and queer people of color who fomented social change.

There were other highs and lows this year for out actors. Lily Tomlin earned raves for her performance as the title character in Grandma, a tough talking lesbian feminist who helps her granddaughter ( Julia Garner) procure an abortion. Tomlin’s feistiness

In contrast, out actress Ellen Page’s passion project, Freeheld, was met with a lukewarm reception both critically and commercially. Page co-starred with newly-minted Oscar winner Julianne Moore as Stacie Andree and Laurel Hester, the lesbian couple that fought for domestic partner pension benefits when Laurel developed terminal cancer. The film was best in its tender scenes between the lovers, but lacked the emotional pull in the grandstanding moments.

In addition to the aforementioned Tangerine, f ilms with trans characters this year included Eric Shaeffer’s romantic roundelay, Boy Meets Girl, about Ricky (Michelle Hendley) a transitioning teen and her friends; the fine Australian drama 52 Tuesdays, about a teenager’s (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) relationship with her gender transitioning mother (Del Herbert-Jane); and The Danish Girl, a handsomely mounted but impassive f ilm starring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne, as the transgender pioneer Lili Elbe. Even gay filmmaker François Ozon teased out a tale of transvestism in his fabulous comedy-drama The New Girlfriend about a cross-dresser (Romain Duris) whose secret is discovered by his late wife’s best friend.

Gay men had a rough year at the movies. In Legend, Tom Hardy had a terrific double role as the Kray twins, and yet the sexuality of the gay brother, Ronnie, was largely unexplored despite some frank discussions of his sexual predilections. Robin Williams’ final starring role, as a sexually repressed gay man in the dull and obvious Boulevard, felt contrived, rather than poignant. And while the biopic Saint Laurent looked as fabulous as star Gaspar Ulliel, the overlong film was all style, no substance.

Bisexuals possibly had it best on screen in 2015. Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior was an hilarious deadpan comedy about looking for love, having sex, and failing to connect with anyone. It was an auspicious feature

debut. Likewise, the naughty couples in the adult sleepover film, The Overnight, were testing their boundaries with some same-sex seductions— when not participating in an unforgettable nude scene. Also exploring their queer sides were Matthew Broderick’s milquetoast character in Neil LaBute’s caustic Dirty Weekend, and Jack Black, whose bromance with James Marsden in the underrated and underseen film The D Train was simply unsettling, but fantastic.

Queer non-fiction film this year offered the divine comedy of Gore Vidal vs. William F. Buckley, Jr. in Best of Enemies, and the human comedy of The Yes Men Are Revolting, in which the openly gay Andy Bichlbaum worries that his work, as an activist creating hoaxes against corporations with his business partner Mike Bonanno, will prevent him from settling down with a romantic partner. There was also the middling comedy, Do I Sound Gay, where filmmaker David Thorpe talks out of both sides of his mouth as he explores the vocal stereotypes of gay men.

Far more fashionable was Dior and I by out filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng, a gorgeous documentary portrait of Raf Simons as he took the helm of the haute couture house. Tab Hunter Confidential was also an enjoyable doc about Hunter’s closeted days in Hollywood and the happiness he found in his off-screen relationships with men, including Tony Perkins.

Gay actors starred in some rather mediocre films this year. Queer icon Ian McKellen had a big indie film hit, as the literary sleuth in out director Bill Condon’s Mr. Holmes, but the film itself was curiously underwhelming. And while Magic Mike XXL didn’t take off at the box office, gay actor Matt Bomer looked good taking it off, but his character was as skin-deep as the film.

Some of the hottest nude and sex scenes in cinemas featured queer couplings. Gaspar Noé’s audacious Love, shot in glorious 3-D, featured a threesome with Karl Glusman (from Stonewall) and his coming-at-you penis, and his female co-stars Aomi Muyock and Klara Kristin. There was also an awkward encounter with a trans character. Love wasn’t for all tastes, but it was, ahem, impressive.

Future Beach by out filmmaker Karim Aïnouz, was a superb drama about two men who bond when one’s friend drowns. The film featured an elliptical narrative, raw emotion, and plenty of skin.

Arguably, the best films of the year had queer twists. The outstanding French entry, Eastern Boys, started out like a sex film about a Ukrainian prostitute, but it became a tense and touching love story. Director/writer Robin Campillo’s film was a quietly (continued on page 38) BAY T IM ES DEC EM BER 17, 2015

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Round About - All Over Town

Photos by RINK

San Francisco Conservatory of Music Brass Quintet musicians performed holiday tunes, sponsored by the Civic Center Community Benefits District, in front of the SF Department of Public Health AIDS office at 25 Van Ness.

Cal Band trumpet section musicians from UC Berkeley performed holiday songs at the Powell and Market cable car turnaround.

Jason Mecier’s Art Opening at Magnet

20th Anniversary Black Brothers Esteem (BBE) Kwanzaa Ceremony

Magnet’s Baruch Porras-Hernandez and Steve Gib- Magnet director Steve Gibson introduces artist Jason son with SF AIDS Foundation’s Matthew Denckla Mecier, who creates images using candy, at the openand Tim Patriarca at artist Jason Mecier’s art open- ing of his exhibit at Magnet. ing at Magnet

SF Department of Public Health’s Vincent Fuqua Spiritual advisor Raephel Rodgers lighting candles at the SF LGBT Tuquan Harrison and Gabrielle with Black Brothers Esteem co-founder Billie Center Crevecoeur Cooper

Maitri’s Holiday Open House

Justine and Bryant Sharifi of Perform for Life GGBA president JP Leddy led a memorial moment for GGBA member Dennis Nix at the December Make Contact mixer held at the GGBA December Make Contact at Nerdwallet.

Guests with Maitri volunteer John Campbell as Santa at Maitri’s Holiday Open House

Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus performed at Maitri’s Holiday Open House.

Castro Community Benefit District executive director Andrea Aiello with Howard Miller and Nerdwallet’s Victor Wong at the GGBA December Make Contact mixer

Jonathan Mangosing of Leftwich Events and Jaime Botello of Sullivan Botello Events at the GGBA Make Contact event

Charity fundraiser Sandra (Mama) Reinhardt with SF Bears’ Jack Sugrue and Cory Elkin at the Toy Drive sponsored by the Bears and Mama’s Family at the Eagle Tavern

Sister Mae Joy with Steve Smith of the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus at Maitri’s Holiday Open House.

Supporters Vijaya Kiran Rupakula and Maitri at Maitri’s Holiday Open House.

Maitri executive director Michael Smithwick (center) with his husband Jerry Weller (left) and Afro Solo Festival’s Thomas Simpson (right) at Maitri’s Holiday Open House

Volunteer Jonie Juster (left) with AEF/BCEF executive director Sandra Nathan and AEF’s Cal Callahan at the World AIDS Day ceremony at the AIDS Grove on World AIDS Day

Akaash Saini at the Equator Coffee and Tea table at GGBA’s December Make Contact mixer

Mark Dunlop with friends Lance and Michael and their dogs Joey and Monkee at the AIDS Grove ceremony on World AIDS Day

Members of Positive Pedalers who road their bikes to the annual AIDS Grove ceremony on World ADIS Day included (left to right) Steven Abbott, Beau Thompson, Buz Miller, Hea Su, Lee Sawn and Bob Katz BAY T IM ES DEC EM BER 17, 2015

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TREAT YOURSELF TO AN EXCITING C ULINARY ADVENTURE WITH M ICHELIN S TAR C HEF SRIJITH GOPINATHAN

Spice Pot — Chef’s interpretation of traditional Indian street food with vegetables, tamarind chutney, and chickpea crackers.

Marriage Equality John Lewis Marriage Equality USA For readers unfamiliar with the word—don’t worry—nonagenarians are not the latest addition to the wonderful and ever expanding alphabet soup that is the LGBTIQ movement. Nonagenarians are people in their 90s, and Stuart’s dad at age 92 is making the most of his years despite the challenges of old age. We recently celebrated Thanksgiving with him and his wife at the Southern California retirement community to which they just moved. The community belongs to a Baptist consortium of retirement communities. One evening as we were walking to the dining hall, Stuart’s dad seemed to be acting a bit curiously. He kept mumbling about introducing the two of us. Although his inclination seemed natural, he appeared a bit preoccupied about it. In the end, we thought little of

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A couple of days after returning to San Francisco, we had the honor to speak about marriage equality, LGBTIQ advocacy, and our journey as activists in a very different setting: the first ever LGBTIQ Studies class offered in a public high school— right here at San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (see page 21). Historic firsts don’t just happen by themselves; they happen with the

We were awestruck by the depth of knowledge and understanding about the LGBT movement and its history that the students had gained from the class and by the students’ engagement with it. They had studied everything from the Harlem Renaissance to the impact of World War II on LGBT Americans to the Anita Bryant anti-gay campaigns of the 1970s. They knew details about the evolution of marriage equality movement over the decades, and the distinctions between the due process and equal protection doctrines that formed the basis for last summer’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. When we showed them a photo of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, they recognized them immediately and knew the contribution they had made. The students had studied LGBT art and created their own art works. And they were integrating the various elements of art, history, psychology, and political science that they had studied in class.

This is exactly what public education should be: Giving young people the knowledge, background and skills to be active, educated, and (continued on page 38)

Samar Hattar: Wedding Planner Extraordinaire their wedding? What do they thank you for?

Journey along India’s Spice Route by way of California at six-time Michelin star winner Campton Place. Chef Srijith’s cuisine masterfully blends the finest local produce with the richness of the region’s seasonal bounty.

Enjoy a six-course Spice Route menu or indulge in our nine-course Degustation menu. For those with lighter appetites we offer a three-course Theatre Menu and Vegetarian Tasting menu.

After all the residents had sat down for dinner, the facilitator of the community offered a Christian prayer before the meal. And then she asked if anyone had brought any guests they wanted to introduce. At this point, Stuart’s dad shot his hand in the air and motioned for the microphone. As soon as he got it, he rose and announced how happy he was that his son Stuart and his son-inlaw, Stuart’s HUSBAND John, were visiting for the holidays. Stuart’s dad didn’t just want to introduce us to a few new friends; he wanted to introduce us to everyone and to make it a marriage equality moment. Stuart’s dad remains an outspoken advocate for progressive tax policy, his professional life work and passion.

And he has brought that passion to marriage equality. Even at age 92, he understands the ongoing need to educate others about the lives of LGBTIQ people. He didn’t just sit there; he made it happen.

passion and leadership of people like Lyndsey Schlax, the brilliant teacher who had the vision to make this class a reality and the savvy to find supporters in the school district and city government to make it happen.

Weddings Reverend Elizabeth River Last month I had the pleasure of officiating a wedding that was orchestrated exquisitely by Samar Hattar of Blissful Events (www.blissfuleventplanning.com). This was a rare treat for me, as I have had only 2 or 3 weddings in 11 years where the couple used a wedding planner.

I interviewed Samar about her work because I was so enchanted with not only the way every detail was handled, but also with her sweet yet firm manner with everyone involved: the couple, the family members, the wedding party, the musicians, DJ, servers, photographers and everyone else, including me.

Rev. Elizabeth River: What do you most love about your work?

Samar Hattar: I love love! I love relationships and developing one with a couple long before the wedding—being able to help them bring their love out into the world in a beautiful wedding. I have never had a bride-zilla; they’ve all been kind, cooperative, and receptive to my ideas.

Rev. Elizabeth River: What do your clients tell you about

Samar Hattar: I hear things like: “We felt so relaxed and at ease all through the process.” “We felt taken care of; we didn’t have to worry about anything on our Big Day.” (Samar also told me every couple should feel like their wedding was perfect, even if it wasn’t really without flaws. Many couples still felt as if it had been perfect, and they were totally delighted.)

Rev. Elizabeth River: What kinds of questions do you ask couples?

Samar Hattar: I really want to know about them—everything they want me to know so I can make their exact dream come true. I ask, “What are your top three things that you absolutely have to have in your wedding?” And then I do everything in my power to manifest them. I also ask them, “What would your perfect wedding day look like?”

Then I work to make that happen, all through the day, so they not only do not worry, but they also relax and have fun, and so do their guests.

Rev. Elizabeth River: Have you had a really unusual or out-of-the-ordinary wedding?

What was it like?

Samar Hattar: Yes, I created a special wedding for a couple from 2 different cultures: a Jewish groom and a Persian bride. In the Jewish part of the ceremony, the couple stood under the chuppah and the Rabbi led the traditional Jewish ceremony, except the pronouncement. For the Persian part of the ceremony, they went back down the aisle to a table covered with sweets,

Wedding planner Samar Hattar on site

with all the guests gathered around.

The couple fed each other little bites from the table while the guests put cones of sugar on a veil held over their heads to ensure sweetness in the couple’s marriage.

Then they did a great humorous ritual. The Persian officiant asked the bride if she really wanted to marry this guy and the first two times, she said “no.” Finally she said, “Oh, okay, I guess I’ll marry him!” Everyone, including the bride and groom, laughed uproariously.

Finally, the Rabbi and the Persian off iciant both pronounced them a married couple, and the groom broke the glass.

I was so impressed with Samar. I can’t say enough about her creativity, her sense of style, her way with people, and her calm manner while handling 19 different things at once.

If you decide to use a wedding coordinator, Samar Hattar is your girl! I highly recommend her as your wedding planner.

Please check out blissfuleventplanning.com to see more photos from this delightful wedding, or check out Samar’s Facebook page at htt ps://w w w.facebook.com/ blissfuleventplanning/?fref=ts Rev. Elizabeth River is an ordained interfaith minister and wedding officiant in the North Bay. Please visit www.marincoastweddings.com or look for Marin Coast Weddings on Facebook.

Writing Historical Fiction sion were very much reality. I wondered what became of him. In that moment, Goodbye Heiko, Goodbye Berlin was born. A story starts to spin when conjuring imaginary tableaux that conceptualize and propel my primary thrust.

Words Michele Karlsberg Michele Karlsberg: When writing historical f iction, is the chosen time period one that you knew a lot about before you wrote your book? If so, did you learn anything new? If not, did you come away with a greater understanding of what this particular time and place in history was actually like?

Owen Lev y: Actually I began Goodbye Heiko, Goodbye Berlin when putting aside another historical work of fiction. That one still requires a great deal more research. After weeks in airless Berlin archives, I was feeling slightly overwhelmed.

Riding home on the elevated subway through former East Berlin neighborhoods, one figure on the crowded street below caught my eye.

In the brief glimpse, I was reminded of an East Berliner I met 20 years earlier when the Wall and diviLynn Ames: I was a history major in college, with a specialty in 20th Century American history, so I knew quite a bit about the 1940s and World War II at the outset. Still, I did copious amounts of research for both of my novels set in that time period: Bright Lights of Summer and Eyes on the Stars.

While I knew a lot about the war and society in general, beforehand, I knew next to nothing of the rich history of women’s softball in that era, nor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (the WASP).

What most people know about women’s ball in the 1940s is what was portrayed in the 1992 film, “A League of Their Own.” That league was the very smallest part of what was happening in women’s ball at the time. Part of the reason I wrote Bright Lights of Summer was to set the record straight. Every softball sequence in the book, every game, every road trip, is painstakingly researched and created from actual box scores, player interviews, and newspa-

So I answer a partial “yes” to your question. Much of the closing Cold War era depicted in the novel I experienced firsthand. Any miscellaneous factual research was easily accomplished online or by reviewing contemporaneous photos, journals and notebooks. My work as a freelance journalist gave me a great deal of access and an overview of the momentous transition Germany was undertaking. It was an unimaginable opportunity. No amount of research can beat being there when it happens.

Technically my first novel, A Brother’s Touch, was also historical fiction. It too required research that turned out to be very hands on. After I called the New York Medical Examiner to ask about autopsy procedures, he invited me to watch one. That was an exception. I came of age when library visits were the only way to ferret out necessary information. Cyber is a godsend!

“★★★★. GORGEOUS, HEARTBREAKING AND UNFORGETTABLE.” REX REED, NEW YORK OBSERVER

“A BEAUTIFUL AND POIGNANT LOVE STORY THAT TRANSCENDS STEREOTYPES OF GENDER, SEXUALITY AND ROMANCE.” ERIN WHITNEY, HUFFINGTON POST

“YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYES OFF EDDIE REDMAYNE WHO IS FLAT-OUT FABULOUS.

Tom Hooper has crafted a work of probing intelligence and passionate heart.”

PETER TRAVERS, ROLLING STONE

Owen Levy lived in San Francisco during the waning days of Flower Power. He moved there after college graduation with his first serious boyfriend. While discovering the city’s 24-hour supermarkets, novel for New Yorkers, they would regularly toke and shop well into the wee hours. per clippings. Likewise, many of the details of the lives of the WASPs in Eyes on the Stars are true. They flew every aircraft in real life that I assigned to them in f iction, suffered many of the incidents/tribulations I described, and traveled to and from every air base included in the novel.

For me, the best fiction is based on truth. I take great pride in providing as much realism as possible in my historical fiction.

Lynn Ames is the author of a dozen best-selling, award-winning novels. She also is the writer/director/ producer of the history-making documentary, “Extra Innings: The Real Story Behind the Bright Lights of Summer.”

This historically important documentary chronicles, for the first time ever in her own words, the real life story of Hall-of-Famer Dot Wilkinson and the heyday of women’s softball.

Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management specializes in publicity for the LGBT community. This year, Karlsberg celebrates twenty-six years of successful book campaigns.

Big Style in a Small Box

Rethink the tree.

Style Courtney Lake Closet space is a luxury in San Francisco, so why would you give up precious real estate to boxes of seasonal decorations?

Instead, follow these tips that will help you to store everything you need for killer decorations in just one bin.

Whether real or faux, a large Christmas tree is the quintessential holiday accessory. However, storing the average-sized Christmas tree can be a daunting and space-eating task.

Think about purchasing a smaller tree that can be tucked in a corner or placed on top of furniture. We loved the tree pictured here because it came pre-lit and in a decorative urn stand, making additional lights and a tree skirt obsolete.

Flat pack ornaments.

Our off ice loves draping beautiful baubles, beads and ornaments onto our clients’ trees, but you can get just as much bang for your buck by shopping the faux floral section of your craft store.

Using dried and faux f lorals on a tree helps to create a more lush and fuller-looking

FOCUS FEATURES PRESENTS A WORKING TITLE/PRETTY PICTURES PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH REVISION PICTURES AND SENATOR GLOBAL PRODUCTIONS A FILM BY TOM HOOPER EDDIE REDMAYNE ALICIA VIKANDER “THE DANISH GIRL” CASTING MUSIC SEBASTI A N KOCH AMBER HEARD BEN WHI S HAW AND MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS BY NINA GOLD BY ALEXANDRE DESPLAT MAKE-UP AND COSTUME PRODUCTION DIRECTOR OF HAIR DESIGNER JAN SEWELL DESIGNER PACO DELGADO EDITOR MELANIE ANN OLIVER ACE DESIGNER EVE STEWART PHOTOGRAPHY DANNY COHEN BSC COEXECUTIVE BASED ON PRODUCER JANE ROBERTSON PRODUCERS LINDA REISMAN ULF ISRAEL KATHY MORGAN LIZA CHASIN THE BOOK BY DAVID EBERSHOFF SCREENPLAY PRODUCED

BY LUCINDA COXON

BY GAIL MUTRUX ANNE HARRISON TIM BEVAN ERIC FELLNER TOM HOOPER DIRECTED

BY TOM HOOPER #TheDanishGirl MOTION PICTURE: © 2015 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ARTWORK: © 2015 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS FO R G RO U P SA L E S I N FO R M AT I O N , P L E A S E V I S I T T h e D a n i s h G i r l G ro u p S a l e s . c o m

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Sister Dana Sez: Words of Wisdumb from a Fun Nun their annual holiday event at Williams-Sonoma Union Square. AOF started as a gathering of friends, and the legacy continues with attendees including past board, volunteers, corporate sponsors, and beneficiaries coming together to support the organization alongside new friends and new faces. Coming on February 28 is this year’s A GATHERING OF ROYALS Gala at the Design Center.

Advocate magazine calls it, “The Place to Watch the Oscars in San Francisco.” academyoffriends.org

By Sister Dana Van Iquity Sister Dana sez, “Donald Trump and Ben Carson could dangle the possibility of independent runs for president well into the primary season next year. State filing deadlines would give the two Republicans until about March to launch independent or third-party campaigns, experts say. That would give a well-financed campaign enough time to gather sufficient signatures on petitions so the candidate could appear on the ballot in every state. So, Santa, my only wish this year is to have both Trump and Carson file as independents - thus siphoning off votes from the Repugnican candidate for Prez and giving the Democrats the well-deserved victory!”

HOLIGAYS ARE HERE at Nourse Theatre was the SAN FRANISCO GAY MEN’S CHORUS prelude to the Christmas Eve show at the Castro Theatre. Highlights included brandnew pieces by Broadway and Cabaret composers Ernie Lijoi and Lawrence Rush; a medley of Meghan Trainor’s “I’ll Be Home” and that old holiday standard “I’ll Be Home For Christmas;” an incredible world premiere by award-winning composer Laura Karpman set to a text written by best-selling author Rebecca Walker honoring the role that mothers play in our lives; and raucous, joyful new takes on classic favorites. All with incredible choreography. And guest performers were HomoPhonics, The Lollipop Guild, SWAG, and Vocal Minority. Upcoming HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS will include some of the “HoliGays Are Here” program, but at the Castro Theatre on December 24th - 5pm, 7pm, and 9pm. In 1990, the Chorus gathered for the first time on Christmas Eve at the Castro Theatre to truly bring the holidays home to those who had none. This year, the 25th Anniversary of that first musical celebration is a real milestone. While things may have changed in the community, it is still the only place to be on Christmas Eve. sfgmc.org/events/home-for-theholidays

On the eve of WORLD AIDS DAY, the NATIONAL AIDS MEMORIAL GROVE again held its annual LIGHT IN THE GROVE fundraising gala at Nancy Pelosi Drive & Bowling Green Drive. This year’s “Light in the Grove” was expressly dedicated to celebrating the unrelenting hope that has carried our community over the past 35 years. This iconic event offered a unique evening in Golden Gate Park; an outdoor, transparently-tented celebration with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and dinner; music, performance, art, and evocative light displays. This stellar event always receives nationwide media attention and drew over 600 attendees. It was a chance to experience the exquisite beauty of this national memorial “after hours.” aidsmemorial.org

www.marcumllp.com Nanette Lee Miller 415.432.6200 I nanettelee.miller@marcumllp.com International Member of Leading Edge Alliance

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ADVISORY

ACADEMY OF FRIENDS put on

PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS

We are proud to be nationally recognized by our peers and the media as the first national firm to launch a LGBT practice ‒ we make it our business to understand our clients’ unique needs.

RICHMOND ERMET AID FOUNDATION’s annual holiday show, HELP IS ON THE WAY FOR THE HOLIDAYS XIV at Marines’ Memorial Theatre was utterly delightful, especially with two featured classic disco divas, original “Weather Girl” Martha Wash and Mary Wilson of the Supremes. The cast also included the Tony AwardWinning cast of A Gentleman’s Guide To Love & Murder; Steve Grand: Internet sensation, singer-songwriter and recording artist; Sharon McNight: Tony nominee/cabaret star; Jake Simpson: two-time Star Search Grand Champion winner/recording star; Shawn Ryan: America’s Got Talent/ TV/cabaret star; Jason Brock: X-Factor, cabaret star; Lea Bourgade: concert violinist; Phantom’s Leading Ladies: Teri Bibb, Mary D’Arcy & Karen Culliver; Barbary Coast Cloggers dance team; Russ Lorenson, Carly Ozard & Jessica Coker: cabaret stars; and BAY AREA MUSICALS’ cast of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Next up is producers Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler presenting another in their ONE NIGHT ONLY CABARET series, featuring the cast of Jersey Boys, February 1st. reaf-sf.org

Sister Lida Christ, Sister Dana Van Iquity, ABC-7 newcaster Cheryl Jennings and Sister Kitty at SF City Hall for the Rainbow World Fund Tree Lighting

DONNA SACHET’S 23RD ANNUAL SONGS OF THE SEASON was held at BeatBox this year. This annual benefit for AIDS EMERGENCY FUND featured gorgeous cabaret by Sharon McNight, Abigail, Brian Kent, Dan O’Leary, Brenda Reed, and Vicki Shepard, as well as Donna (who changed into different outfits several times).

Michael Grossman played piano and Tommy Salami was percussion. As always, we smiled, laughed, applauded, and even shed a nostalgic tear or two as this talented group of performers and friends joined Donna in sharing the magic that is “Songs of the Season.”

For this year’s version of the SAN FRANCISCO LESBIAN/GAY FREEDOM BAND’s 30th annual DANCE-ALONG NUTCRACKER, the Stahlbaum family took us on a hilarious adventure to the Land of Oz! We “Eased on Down” that Yellow Brick Road at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum with a hybrid of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite meets Wizard of Oz meets The Wiz meets Wicked under the baton of Artistic Director Pete Nowlen, resulting in a rousing musical production that awakened our “inner Sugar Plum Fairy.” The characters of this unique fusion of two timeless fairy tales were brought to life by a stellar cast including Donna Sachet (Witch), Zelda Koznofski (Clara), Flynn DeMarco (Scarecrow), Joe Wicht (Lion), Noah Haydon (Tinman), Tina Sogliuzzio (Glinda), and Leigh Crow (Wizard). THE NUTCRACKER OF OZ was cleverly co-created by Heidi Beeler and Flynn De Marco, and brilliantly choreographed by Marilynn Fowler.

As always, we Sugar Plum wannabes

joined the actors on the dance floor to execute “flawless” ballet under the spotlights.

ARTSAVESLIVES presented a festive grand opening ceremony for the new Castro gallery displaying work from ten local artists: Sean Casey,Tim Burns, Martin Freeman, Joel Hoyer, Dominic Martello, Jerry Lee Frost, Ed Terpening, Buddy Bates, Jorge E Gamboa, and Thomasina DeMaio. The 518 Castro Street gallery is currently displaying works by those artists, including many oil paintings of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence by DeMaio. At the opening, there was an ongoing fashion show of hand-painted clothing by models (Sister Dana wore a gorge, fierce, elegant red couture dress with wine bottles painted on). DeMaio is the curator of models and artists, so please contact her on Facebook or at artsaveslives@aol.com if interested in showing your art or modeling. The ARTSAVESLIVES Castro Street Gallery also is the site of Tuesday and Thursday night drawing sessions with female models on Tuesdays and males on Thursdays, 6 to 9:30pm. Live music and snacks provided...15 dollars. facebook.com/ events/1507723316193523 The RAINBOW WORLD FUND’s WORLD TREE OF HOPE is a holiday tree decorated with thousands of white origami cranes, each containing written notes of hope & peace from children and individuals from around the world. The tree - remaining up through New Year’s - is a gift from members of the LGBTQ community to the world - given to inspire hope and promote peace, love, and humanitarianism. The TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY at the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall began with a concert by the Grammy AwardWinning San Francisco Boys Chorus, followed by “A Celebration of Hope” with emcee news anchor Cheryl Jennings. SF Mayor Ed Lee and the Deputy Consul General of Japan, Nobuhiro Watanabe exchanged peace cranes. MezzoSoprano Brianna Sinclaire sang to the rafters; Origami Artist Linda Mihara shared a message of hope; and RWF Founder Jeff Cotter spoke of how the LGBTQ community is promoting peace worldwide. Just before we lit the tree, we Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence led a blessing of the tree. World peace was achieved.

Just kidding.

THE GOLDEN GIRLS: THE CHRISTMAS EPISODES - 2015 have just a few more performances now through December 20th, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays – 8pm; Sundays – 7pm at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street.

The shows are dedicated to the late great Cookie Dough. The four drag stars playing the characters the entire world has come to know and love are Heklina (Dorothy), Matthew Martin (Blanche), and new for 2015 - playing Sophia and Rose are Holotta Tymes (Sophia), and D’Arcy Drollinger (Rose). Manuel Caneri, Nancy French and Tom Shaw are also featured in the cast.

In “Dorothy’s New Friend,” Dorothy enjoys the intellectual stimulation of her friendship with new pal Barbara Thorndyke, a novelist; but Barbara’s superior air and snobby ways rub Blanche and Rose the wrong way.

In “The Accurate Conception,” Blanche’s daughter, Rebecca, intends to become a mother, through artificial insemination, despite Blanche’s opposition. Meanwhile, Rose decides to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming an ice skater. “Thank you for being a (continued on page 38)

What Lights You Up, Lover? lights you up, lover? Stay warm this winter by stoking the fire within.

ARIES (March 21–April 19) Feeling antsy, Aries? Stale patterns in your professional life are screaming for a shakedown.

Experiment with something new!

Sudden bursts of brilliance will spur your efforts. Believe outside the box.

Astrology Gypsy Love Did you know that the “Summer of Love” actually started in the winter? On January 14, 1967, the “Gathering of the Tribes” (aka “Human BeIn”) in Haight-Ashbury set the tone for San Francisco’s hippie movement and served as the prototype for all 1960s counterculture concerts. It’s no coincidence that the cosmic trends that dominated that era are now coming back to address similar issues in our modern world, such as: civil rights, social equality, and personal liberation. What

TAURUS (April 20–May 20) “Toughing it out” is one of your signature trademarks, Taurus. At this time, however, your spirit seeks closure. Surrender your attachment to that which has clearly run its course.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) Ready for a reboot, Gemini?

Spontaneous awakenings are likely to spark new hopes and dreams now. Embrace unforeseen opportunities. The Universe is conspiring to unclog your creative process.

CANCER ( June 21–July 22) Take a chance, Cancer. Career-wise, you’ve reached a crossroad. Coddling other people’s ex-

pectations could cramp your style now. Meanwhile, bright beginnings beckon you. It’s time to climb.

LEO ( July 23–August 22) Unbind your mind, Leo. You’re currently compelled to question some longstanding assumptions. Be willing to widen your perspective.

The soul works best when it can use its wings.

VIRGO (August 23–September 22) Check your vitals, Virgo. The stars illuminate your value system now. Superficial incentives are increasingly unsatisfying.

What motivates you from the inside?

Give authentic passions more room to prosper.

LIBRA (September 23–October 22) A central relationship requires more balance.

Luckily, Libra, you were born with built-in scales! Reserve some private time to reflect in peace before presenting options to your partner.

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) Listen when your

body speaks, Scorpio. Astro-vibes accentuate where your habits could need a healthy overhaul.

Spice up your daily routine with new methods of mind-body bliss.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 21) Smile, Sagittarius! As public projects pick up momentum, you must not underestimate the importance of playtime. Harmonize a hectic schedule with happy, heart-centered practices.

reactive behavior. Timing is everything.

PISCES (February 19–March 20) Your financial perspective is evolving, Pisces. Cash money may reign “king” in the material realm, but your rivers run much deeper. Rebuild your wish list so it reflects less fleeting fortunes.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 19) Pack your bags, Capricorn. A soulful adventure is underway.

Whether your journey is figurative or literal, its milestones are marked with magnificent self-discovery. Happy travels!

AQUAR IUS ( Januar y 20–February 18) Think before you act, Aquarius. As the zodiac’s consummate freedom fighter, your rabble-rousing days are far from numbered. Just remember to rise above irrationally

Gypsy Love Productions is dedicated to inspiring love and unity with music, dance, and astrology. www.GypsyLoveProductions.com

As Heard on the Street . . . Where do you like to go in San Francisco during the holiday season? compiled by Rink

Katie Gilmartin

Vincent Fuqua

Gio Adame

Melinda Adams

Arturo Jackson

“Volunteering with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to serve Thanksgiving dinner at the First Unitarian Church”

“I like to go to the New Year’s Eve music and fireworks show on the Embarcadero.”

“I go to the local businesses that are supportive throughout the year.”

“‘Strangers With XXXMas Candy’ at the Shelton Theater”

“I travel all the way from Sacramento to enjoy the magic of ice skating at Union Square.”

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com BAY T IM ES DEC EM BER 17, 2015

35

compiled by Jennifer Mullen

• 17 : T HURSDAY

SF Ballet’s Nutcracker - War Memorial Opera House $20–$325.

2 pm and 7 pm.(301 Van Ness Ave.) This year, SF Ballet celebrates the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition with its production of Nutcracker, which is set in San Francisco in 1915, the year the Exposition brought the world to San Francisco’s doorstep.

Through December 31. sfballet.org/nutcracker Comedy Returns to El Rio. $7–$20. 8 pm. (3158 Mission St.) Features award-winning Shazia Mirza from London, doctor-by-day Priyanka Wali, Emily Epstein White, Irene Tu, and Lisa Geduldig. http://www.brownpapertickets. com/event/2471929

• 18 : F RIDAY

Kitka Presents Wintersongs

by Candlelight - St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Oakland) $20– $135. 8 pm. (114 Montecito Ave.) Wintersongs is Kitka’s criticallyacclaimed winter holiday program showcasing seasonal music from a wide variety of Eastern European ethnic and spiritual traditions. Also on Dec. 19 at Old First Church. brownpapertickets.com/ event/2413644?utm_ source=GivingTuesday2015&utm_ campaign=Nov+18+Flash&utm_ medium=email Dave Koz with Special Guests Jonathan Butler, Candy Dulfer and the Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley - Warfield Theater. $49.50–$125.50. 8 pm. (982 Market St.) This year marks Koz’s 25th anniversary as a recording artist and the 18th anniversary of the Dave Koz Christmas tour. davekoz.com/tour/ Mittens And Mistletoe: A Winter Circus Cabaret – Dance Mission Theater. $25. 8 pm. (3316 24th St.) Directed by award-winning clown duo Coventry & Kaluza, and featuring live music from New Orleans-based harpist Luke Brechtelsbauer, as well as comedy performances, and performances on slack rope, aerial hoop, hula hoop, and juggling. Through December 27. sweetcanproductions.com

• 19 : S ATURDAY

Barbara Higbie, Alex de Grassi, and Lisa Lynne’s Windham Hill Winter Solstice – SF Jazz. $30–$70. 7 pm and 9:30 pm. Featuring Barbara Higbie (piano), Lisa Lynne (harp), with special guests Aryeh Frankfurter (Swedish nyckelharpe) George Tortorellii (flutes and percussion) and Alex Kelly (cello). www.sfjazz.org/ events/2015-16/1219/windham-hill A Christmas Carol (Matinee)American Conservatory Theater on Geary. $20–$105. 2 pm. (405 Geary Ave.) A preview of the Christmas classic by Charles Dickens. Music by Karl Lundeberg and directed by Domenique Lozano. Evening is also a bike to the theater night! Through December 27. tickets.act-sf.org/ online/default.asp Launch Party for Willy Wilkinson’s new book, Born on the Edge of Race and Gender - Laurel Book Store 36

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(Oakland). Free. 6 pm. (1423 Broadway Ave.) The author is an Asian American trans man and social movement leader who has been advocating for marginalized populations since the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemicl. aurelbookstore.com Unique Derique in Fool LA LA – The Marsh. $12–$100. 7:30 pm. (1062 Valencia St.) Fool LA LA is a circus-inspired show with comedy, dance and music, transforming Unique Derique into a one-man dancing band. Through January 3, 2016. themarsh.org

• 20 : S UNDAY

Debauchery at the White Horse Inn (Oakland). $5–$15. 8 pm. (6555 Telegraph Ave.) A naughty stripclub for queers of all genders featuring unique performers and entertainers in the East Bay! Every third Sunday.

Unicorn: A Monthly Queer Party - Powerhouse. Free. 6 pm.

(1347 Folsom St.) View and hear the works of Abominatrix, Laundra Tyme Phatima Rude and Dakota Pendent with beats by DJ Sailor Saturn. facebook.com/ events/854821367966001 Last night of The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes (2015).Victoria Theatre - $25. 7 pm. (2961 16th St.) Four talented drag actors perform two classic Christmas-themed Golden Girls episodes, featuring Heklina, Matthew Martin, Holotta Tymes and D’Arcy Drollinger. facebook.com/ events/938751199495332/

• 21 : M ONDAY

Piano Bar 101 - Martuni’s. Free.

9 pm. (4 Valencia St.) Sing along to your favorite songs with friends and patrons. 415-241-0205 Monday Night Marsh - The Marsh. $8. 7:30 pm. (1062 Valencia St.) An ongoing works-in-progress series, featuring local emerging solo performers, musicians, playwrights and entertainers. Happening every Monday. themarsh.org

• 22 : T UESDAY

Spreading Rolligion - LGBT Roller Disco - Church 8. $10. 7–10 pm. (554 Fillmore St.) An LGBT roller skating disco happening every Tuesday. 415-752-1967. sfgay.org/spreading-rolligionlgbtroller-disco-e2266691

• 23 : W EDNESDAY Free Outdoor Workout: Stairs, Core & Endurance Alta Plaza Park. Free. 6:30 am.

(Pierce and Clay Streets). Every Wednesday. Join these free halfhour workouts that vary each week. facebook.com/ NovemberProjectSF

• 24 : T HURSDAY

23rd Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy: Jewish comedy on Christmas in a Chinese Restaurant – New Asia Restaurant. 5 pm Dinner Show and 8:30 pm Cocktail Show.

(772 Pacific Ave.) Kung Pao features four Jewish comedians each year. This year’s event has Wendy Liebman, Dana Eagle, Mike Fine and Kung Pao creator, Lisa Geduldig.

Partial benefits to go to Institute

on Aging’s “Friendship Line” and Legal Assistance to the Elderly.

Through December 26.

KosherComedy.com

• 25 : F RIDAY

Christmas Day Lunch – Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Center (San Jose).

Free. 11 am–2 pm. (938 The Alameda, SJ). Bring food, water, and merriments! DeFrank.org Christmas Dinner with Tenderloin Tessie - First Unitarian Church. A meal for those in need. Free. 1–4 pm. (1187 Franklin St.)

F-ing Cartwright and Go BANG! facebook.com/ events/171086483246052

your New Years with DJ Lisa Frank, and SindriSalad. sfoasis.com/event. cfm?cart&id=158308

Party XO LGBT Ladies Night - The Cellar SF. 9 pm– 2 am.

(685 Sutter St.) cellarsf.com/ upcoming-events/

• 2 : S ATURDAY

• 1 : F RIDAY

Polyglamorous – Oasis. $7–$10.

9 pm. (298 11th St.) Come top off

Gay Shame Meeting - Modern Times Bookstore (Tede Matthew Reading Room). Free. 5:30-6:30 pm.

(2912 24th St.) Dedicated to fighting gay shame. Saturdays. facebook. com/gay.shame

“Friday Live” Queer Bands and DJ Emotions – El Rio. Free.

10 pm. (3158 Mission St.) Featuring the best queer music in the Bay Area (HipHop/Salsa/House/World).

Every Friday. elriosf.com/

• 26 : S ATURDAY

Improvised Downton Abbey – Bayfront Theater. $17–$20. 8–10 pm. (B350 Fort Mason Cntr.)

World-class improvisors give their take on the very popular TV show.

The audience’s suggestions help develop a new cast of characters featured in holiday season scenarios. Through December.

Sundance Saloon - The 550. $5.

5 pm. (550 Barneveld Ave.) An LGBT country-western dance club, open every Sunday (and Thursdays!). Beginners welcome. sundancesaloon.org/

• 28 : M ONDAY

San Francisco LGBTQ Sangha – LGBT Community Center. Free. 5:30-6:30 pm. A weekly meditation sitting group.

The group explores mindfulness, meditation, and spiritual practice in our day to day lives and focus on cultivating an open awareness spacious enough to include whatever arises moment to moment. sflgbtsangha.org

• 29 : T UESDAY

Hysteria Feminist and Queer Friendly Open Mic. – Martuni’s. Free. 6 pm. (4 Valencia St.) Jessica Sele is baking cookies, Irene Tu is gonna wear a sweater, and everyone is in the spirit of the holidays. facebook.com/events/ 671132982990043/

• 30 : W EDNESDAY

Clair’s Drop In, Supporting Community In Transition – LGBT Center. Free. 1pm–4 pm.

Clair’s Drop-in is open to provide guidance to transgender community members on their personal evolution with free support services.To RSVP your participation contact: Clair Farley @ clairf@sfcenter.org

CALIFOR NIA REVELS PRESENTS THE 30TH ANNUAL

A VENETIAN MASQUE

Celebrating the Winter Solstice in Renaissance Italy Two Weekends: December 11 – 13 & 18–20, 2015 Ticket prices start at just $20.

Scottish Rite Theater on Lake Merritt, Oakland californiarevels.org 510.452.9334

• 31 : T HURSDAY

Heklina and D’Arcy Drollinger host a New Year’s Eve party (and anniversary celebration) at Oasis. $30–$75.

9 pm (VIP starts at 7:30 pm). (298 11th St.) Join D’Arcy Drollinger and Heklina while they celebrate the begining of 2016 – midnight champagne toast and ball drop. sfoasis. com/event.cfm?cart&id=158023 House of More New Year’s Eve Party – The Stud. $10–$15. 9 pm–4 am. (399 9th St.) Hosts include Juanita MORE!, Glamamore, Dulce De Leche, Miss Rahni, Voodonna Black, Scarlett Letters, Nic Candito, Laundra Tyme, John BAY T IM ES DEC EM BER 17, 2015

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KRAMER (continued from page 25 ) powerful drama about exploited illegal immigrants.

Writer/director/star Sebastián Silva’s Nasty Baby, took an unexpected (and for some, unappreciated) narrative turn when an interracial gay couple (Silva and Tunde Adebimpe) helping their friend Polly (Kristen Wiig) have a baby, get involved in something quite sinister. Nasty Baby may have left a bad taste in viewers’ mouths, but it was memorable, not unlike this queer year at the movies. © 2015 Gary M. Kramer

Do I Sound Gay?

Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” Follow him on Twitter @garymkramer

COURTNEY (continued from page 33 ) tree. Even better is that when the holidays are done, all of these decorations can fit into one boot box!

Use year round greenery.

SISTER DANA (continued from page 34) friend.” eventbrite.com/e/goldengirls-christmas-show-2015-tickets

MARRIAGE (continued from page 32 responsible citizens in a democracy, and helping them find their own creative voices.

On a recent afternoon, the doorbell rang, and when I went to the door I was surprised to see two young Mormon missionaries, one of them only 18 years old. I took a deep breath and decided that I would engage them in conversation. I educated them about Proposition 8, which unlike Lyndsey’s students, the two missionaries had barely heard of, and I talked to them about the harm the Mormon Church sadly continues to do to LGBTIQ people. I encouraged them not just to believe at face value what others told them, but as young people to open their minds, to learn from people with different life experiences, and to study history.

We really wish these Mormon missionaries—and indeed every high school student in America—had the opportunity to take Lyndsey Schlax’s LGBTIQ studies class and to get to know amazing students like hers.

If—and we hope when—they do, they will gain the understanding and confidence to be able to speak up like Stuart’s 92-year old dad.

John Lewis and his husband Stuart Gaffney, together for three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. They are leaders in the nationwide grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA. 38

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS LIVE: THE HOLIDAY EPISODES was at Oasis. This live on stage version of BBC TV’s Ab Fab starred Christian Heppinstall as Patsy and Terry McLaughlin as Edina, with Peggy L’Eggs as Mother and Dene Larson as Saffron, Raya Light as Bubble, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy as Jackie, Marie Cartier as Marshall, Ginorma Desmond as Sarah, J Sykes Iness as Justin, and LavaleWilliam Davis as John Johnston.

Naturally Eddie and Patsy drugged and drank to excess as usual - but with a special holiday flair. Watch for more Ab Fab Live shows, sweetie-darling!

MAN CANDY is sweet art by Jason Mecier at Magnet, the Castro Center for gay and bi men, 4122 18th Street. The display runs now through December 31. Pop Artist Jason Mecier has created one of a kind outrageous mosaic portraits out of candy.

Hunky heartthrobs like Joe Manganiello and Tom Hardy are hangin’ with Jon Hamm. Mario Lopez is one Hot Tamale! Shirtless Nick Jonas has a Jelly Belly belly button.

Yum! sfmagnet.com DREAMS ON THE ROCKS PRODUCTIONS presents STRANGERS WITH XXXMAS CANDY. Live on stage are your favorite Strangers With Candy characters from the Comedy Central TV classic (many in drag). This is your last chance to catch these crazies now through December 19th, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 pm, The Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter Street.

It’s the story of a 46 year old boozer, user, and loser that must set aside all of her personal beliefs of nothing and open her heart to the wrong and sexy feelings of Christmas. Stroll down the halls of Flat Point High as JERRI BLANK finds all of the wrong reasons for the seasons. Directed by Dani Spinks with an original script

by Ralph Hoy, Bob McIntyre and Dani Spinks and stars: Bob McIntyre, Lauren Davidson, Sadie Fenton, Donny Goglio, Lonnie Haley, Ralph Hoy, Becky Hirschfeld, Joanna Kay, Derek Lozupone, Kari McCollough, Ricky Sakow, Jaime San Felippo,

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and Adam Vogel. Tix are $30 at door, or in advance online: facebook. com/strangerswithcandysf or call 415-786-5325.

COMING UP! San Francisco’s own Mardi Gras Club invites you to KREWE DE KINQUE SATURDAYS AT THE EDGE! (3rd Saturdays monthly), presented by King & Queen XII Joe Prince Wolfe & Cotton Candy (David C. Herrera). The fabulous Ginger Snap hosts this next VERY HOLIDAY VERSION of our monthly beer bust benefit for JAZZIE’S PLACE, the LGBTQ homeless shelter. Come get KINKY on Saturday December 19th, 4-6pm with performances filled with holiday cheer, Jolly Jell-O Shots, raffle prizes delivered by Santa, and bottomless beer for $10!

Sister Dana is door whore - collecting yer $$. Krewe de Kinque is dedicated to providing immediate and emergency financial support to service organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. As they say in New Orleans, “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler” (“Let the Good Times Roll!”) sfkinque.com SF IMPERIALS present BEER BUST AT THE SF EAGLE & KRAMPUS LOOK-A-LIKE KONTEST! Win $100 and help support the Pomeroy Center, Sunday, December 20th, 398 12th Street, at 3pm. The mission of the Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center is to provide recreation, vocational and educational opportunities for people with disabilities through programs and services that encourage self-expression, promote personal achievement, and lead to greater independence. What’s a Krampus you ask?! Just a Christmas demon who punishes naughty children, of course! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus Sister Dana sez, “We have had ENOUGH of living in terror created by the gun lobby and the politicians who do their bidding! Enough mass shootings!

Enough terror on our nation’s streets every day! Enough of a small group of spineless politicians putting the interests of the corporate gun lobby ahead of the lives of the American people! Text “EnoughTerror” to 877-877 and tell them to expand Brady Background Checks!”

Succulents placed in votives make a great alternative to f lowers or poinsettias for holiday decorating. For a more traditional look, paperwhite bulbs in miniature marble urns are a beautiful approach to holiday decorating. After Christmas, you can plant both outdoors and recycle the urns and votives for daily use.

Swap out blankets & throws.

One of the easiest ways to switch up your decor for the holiday is by swapping out your soft furnishings. We like using sheepskin and faux fur throws during the holidays, as they provide a space with wonderful glam quality, as well as warmth and texture. For a more rustic approach, try using woolen blankets with subtle patterns, like stripes. The added bonus is that all of these can be used year round.

Purchase clear string lights.

If you looked into my own holiday “decorating kit,” you would see that I have boxes of clear string lights. They are the secret weapons for creating the perfect holiday setting. Placed in a wicker basket, they are a beautiful and simple accent to fill dead space.

Placed in a vintage light cover, they also can create glowing orbs that may be placed on a console or into a vignette for a perfect focal point.

So you see, big style can come in small packages, which may be the first (and last) time I have ever uttered that phrase and meant it.

Courtney Lake is the interior designer and lifestyle expert behind Monogram Décor (www.monogramdecor.com) and its celebrated blog, Courtney Out Loud. His work and writings have appeared on television and in writing including Today.com, “The Wall Street Journal,” “The Nate Berkus Show,” “The San Francisco Chronicle,” “Life & Style Magazine,” “RUE Magazine,” “Real Simple,” “This Old House” and “7x7 Magazine.”

Fitness SF Trainer Tip of the Month From Max Rosenfeld, Fitness SF SOMA

The Bent Over Row is a good compound movement for working not only your back and biceps, but also your core.

Troy Macfarland of Fitness SF provides monthly tips he’s learned from his colleagues who are professional trainers at local gyms.

He can be reached at tmacfarland@fitnesssf.com

We accept Medi-Cal, Medicare, and Commercial Health Insurance Plans and we continue to provide quality service regardless of a person’s ability to pay!

Building on over thirty years of service to our communities, we offer heartfelt primary care to women and transgender individuals. Mental Health Services Available!

Call today to make your first appointment:

415-565-7667

Visit our website today to learn more:

www.lyon-martin.org BAY   T IM ES DEC EM BER 17, 2015

39

WE FOCUS ON HIV TO HELP YOU FOCUS ON

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Ask your doctor if a medicine made by Gilead is right for you.

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© 2015 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. UNBC1848 03/15

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