San Francisco Bay Times - April 17, 2014

Round About - Giants Game at AT&T Park Page 13

Sean Dorsey Dance 2014 Home Season Page 22

Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons Centennial Page 21

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April 17-April 30, 2014 | www.sfbaytimes.com

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The Race to Succeed Tom Ammiano One of the most contested races this election season will determine who will succeed Tom Ammiano in the California State Assembly, District 17. The district is an important one, encompassing close to 60% of the City and County of San Francisco’s eastern region, including its central financial and governmental core.

All eyes are on two key candidates: David Campos, who is openly gay, and David Chiu. In addition to the

shared f irst name, both are Harvard law graduates who were born just f ive months apart from each other. They are both Democrats and San Francisco Supervisors, with Chiu serving as President of the SF County Supervisors. Both also have international ties, with Chiu born to Taiwanese immigrant parents and Campos born in Guatemala.

Major differences, nevertheless, distinguish the two candidates at this

point. According to data released by the California secretary of state’s office, Chiu raised $448,206 as of the end of last year, while Campos raised less than half of that over the same period of time. About $60,000 of the difference comes from Chiu earning more from real estate interests, although both men claim to have strong grassroots campaigns.

Campos calls his campaign “A Tale of Two Cities,” referring to the divide between rich and poor in District 17

and San Francisco as a whole. Chiu counters that he has also been an advocate for renters and has supporters from an array of backgrounds.

Followers of politics in this city are passionate about their candidate of choice, having noted differences in the way that the two men approach their work and what values might fuel those differences, however nuanced. For those of you who are still undecided, we present both candi-

dates to you in their own words that are directed to Bay Times readers.

Statewide Direct Primary Elections tend to draw a low percentage of voters, even though the races, such as those for State Assembly, are important ones. Please be sure to make your voice heard by voting on June 3.

For more information about this, and other future local elections, please visit: http://www.sfgov2.org/index. aspx?page=830

David Chiu

David Campos

When I came to City Hall in 2008, at a time when it was not as functional as it could be, I committed to change the tone of local government by bringing people together to solve problems.

Since then, by focusing on what’s best for San Franciscans, we have built consensus to create jobs, build housing, balance our city budgets, and improve our city for families.

Last summer, the Supreme Court rejected the Prop 8 case and returned the freedom to marry to California. At the same time, the Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional.

These are major victories for LGBT rights. San Franciscans have led the nation in the civil rights movement of our time, and we should be proud of our achievements. But there is so much left to do in order to create full equality for the LGBT community.

After three terms as President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, I am running for the California State Assembly, with the same heartfelt commitment to delivering results for all San Franciscans, particularly for our LGBT community. For decades, San Francisco has been at the forefront of the fight for our diverse LGBT residents and against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and our next Assemblymember needs to continue to be a leading, effective champion for the LGBT community. While I will never know what it is like to live life as a gay person, I have fought, and will continue to fight, for LGBT equality.

Nationally, we must pass The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with at least 15 employees. At the state level, it is vital to implement and enforce AB 1266, passed by Assemblymember Ammiano, which addresses the exclusion of transgender students from classes and activities, and clarifies existing antidiscrimination law to provide clear protections to transgender students.

We must also push for new protection against bullying in schools, and work to defeat discrimination in jobs, housing and health care against our trans brothers and sisters. It would be a great honor to have your support for my candidacy for State Assembly and work side-by-side with you to accomplish these goals.

After law school, I worked as Democratic Counsel to the U.S. Senate Constitution Subcommittee for a true champion for justice, Senator Paul Simon. When the so-called Defense of Marriage Act came to Congress in 1996, Senator Simon was one of the few Senators who stood up against DOMA, and he and I worked with the opposition every step of the way. I will never forget sitting in the Senate chamber on the dark day that 85 US Senators voted in favor of ugly bigotry. That unsuccessful fight reaffirmed my personal commitment to LGBT equality, and was one of the reasons I moved to San Francisco, to be part of a city that shares our progressive values of tolerance, inclusion and diversity.

PHOTO BY RINK

In San Francisco over the past 18 years, in add it ion to working as a civil rights attorney, I was one of the founding members of (continued on page 5)

While progress on civil rights can only be made when we all work together, I believe it is important that we elect authentic LGBT voices to the State Assembly. Our Assembly District has a long tradition of electing LGBT representatives – since 1996, we have been represented by Carole Migden, Mark Leno and Tom Ammiano.

It makes sense, because our Assembly District has the highest proportion of LGBT voters of any district in California. This is more important today than ever, because LGBT rep(continued on page 5)

National News Briefs compiled by Dennis McMillan

Mountain View, CA - Mozilla’s Anti-Gay CEO Hastily Resigns Amid Controversy - 4.11

New York, NY - Band fun. Named UN Free & Equal Campaign Equality Champion - 4.8

Just weeks after the announcement was made, newly named Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich resigned from his post amid impassioned outcries from the LGBTQ community and its allies. The controversy began when news spread that Eich had contributed money in 2008 to the California initiative, Proposition 8, attempting to ban same-sex marriage.

United Nations Free & Equal – the UN human rights office’s public information campaign for LGBTQ equality – has announced that Grammy Award winning band fun. is joining the campaign as equality champion.

The members of the band are the latest artists to pledge their support for Free & Equal by helping to spread campaign messages and materials via social media. They join pop star Ricky Martin, South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Bollywood actress Celina Jaitly, U.S. hip hop artists Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury.

Eich’s views on gay marriage motivated two Mozilla developers to boycott the company until something was done. Although Mozilla tried to brush the issue under the rug with a public statement emphasizing the company’s support of marriage equality, others were not so convinced.

The online dating website OKCupid took a bold stand on the issue, urging users not to access their website through Mozilla software.

fun., comprised of Nate Ruess, Jack Antonoff, and Andrew Dost, earned two Grammy wins for their 2012 album Some Nights, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for the 5x-RIAA platinum “We Are Young.” Bolstered by the massive global success of “We Are Young,” as well as the 4x platinum title track, “Some Nights,” and 2x platinum song “Carry On,” Some Nights debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified platinum. The band, known for its captivating live shows, continues to perform to sold-out crowds around the world.

“OkCupid is for creating love,” the message to Mozilla Firefox users said. “Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.”

To compete for millennial dollars, companies need to be sharply attuned to the values and culture of this generation. It is global, inclusive and especially when it comes to marriage - deeply attracted to equality. This is particularly true in the tech space, which is famously progressive and has been directly shaped by millennials more than any other industry. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other tech giants have publicly embraced marriage equality. Tech is not alone here. Major consumer brands like Starbucks, as well as financial services organizations such as Citi and Goldman Sachs, have all signed on as supporters of marriage equality.

In 2012, fun. partnered with designer Rachel Antonoff to create The Ally Coalition. The Ally Coalition raises awareness about LGBTQ equality and provides resources for people to take action.

“We as musicians stand with the LGBT community in any way we possibly can,” said fun. member Jack Antonoff. “Together, we have the ability to make the world a freer and more equal place.”

Commenting on the announcement, Charles Radcliffe of the UN human rights office said: “fun. is made up of three incredibly talented musicians who are also great advocates for equality and human rights.

Their work with the Ally Coalition is making an important difference in the fight against homophobia and transphobia, and we’re thrilled to partner with them and have their support for the UN’s Free & Equal campaign.”

The moral of Eich’s story is not about the “gay mafia” suppressing freedom of speech or opinion, as political commentator and same-sex marriage supporter Bill Maher surprisingly said. Mozilla is a corporation that is built, supported and used by a global community with an incredible array of diversity.

These are the people who made the most noise about Eich’s appointment, and ultimately, these are the people who brought about his resignation. There is no room for exclusion in a community like that.

Free & Equal aims to raise awareness of homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination, and encourage greater respect for the rights of LGBTQ people everywhere. The campaign was launched

by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 27, 2013.

Perhaps other big corporations will get the hint that equality makes for good business.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

We can now definitively say it’s fun. to have equal rights!

Source: unfe.org

East Hanover, NJ - One Million Moms Hate Nabisco’s Gay Love - 4.3 A right-wing conservative group is crying foul following the debut of Nabisco’s “Wholesome” graham cracker commercial for both Honey Maid and Teddy Grahams, which features a pair of gay fathers with their children.

Auburn, AL - Apple CEO Calls on Congress to Pass ENDA - 4.11 Apple CEO Tim Cook recently took to Twitter to voice his position on a potential new law currently being considering by the United States Congress. “The House should mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act by passing ENDA,” Cook tweeted while mentioning members of Congress in leadership positions from both political parties. Cook also tweeted the quote, “We shall overcome” and said, “Much done, but much left to do.”

The law to which Cook referred, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, would prohibit companies with 15 or more employees from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender. The Apple CEO has previously expressed this position in a Wall Street Journal opinion editorial published last November. The bill has since been passed by the Senate, but has struggled to make it through the House of Representatives.

During his tenure at Apple and especially as CEO, the Alabama native has taken opportunity to express his interest in the movement of equality. Cook cited both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy as inspirational figures in a speech last December at Auburn University’s Lifetime Achievement event.

In his WSJ op-ed, Cook noted Apple’s policy as it relates to the proposed law: “Apple’s antidiscrimination policy goes beyond the legal protections U.S. workers currently enjoy under federal law, most notably because we prohibit discrimination against Apple’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. A bill now before the U.S. Senate would update those employment laws, at long last, to protect workers against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, who leads the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, has previously stated his opposition to the bill becoming law: “I am opposed to discrimination of any kind - in the workplace and any place else. But I think this legislation - that I have dealt with as chairman of the Education Workforce Committee long before I was back in the leadership - is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits. People are already protected in the workplace. I am opposed to continuing this.” Gee. Big surprise!

I must say that Tim Cook is truly a good apple!

Source: 9to5mac.com

Local News Briefs

One Million Moms, which is best known for its failed boycott of JC Penney after the retail chain hired Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson in 2012, claims they are “highly offended” by Nabisco’s “disrespect of millions of American families by supporting the homosexual agenda,” Right Wing Watch first reported.

“Nabisco should be ashamed of themselves for their latest Honey Maid and Teddy Graham cracker commercial where they attempt to normalize sin,” members of One Million Moms wrote on the group’s website. “Right away it shows two men with a baby, followed by other families, and ends with different families pictured including the one with two dads.”

They added, “This commercial not only promotes homosexuality, but then calls the scene in the advertisement wholesome.”

The ad does blatantly state, “Everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family. This is wholesome.”

Earlier this month, conservative talk show host Janet Mefferd also decried the new ad, telling her Facebook followers that she was “so done” with the brand, and “even more done with the constant onslaught from the Gay Propaganda Machine.”

Honey Maid then thanked everyone for their hate mail and did something really cool with it in a new video, making a printout of each hateful comment and rolling it into a tube, then grouping the tubes at one end of a vast, industrial-looking space to create an assemblage that spells out “Love.” See love speak to hate, which is evidently no longer good business, and check out #ThisIsWholesome, and go have you some Teddy Grahams!

Previously, One Million Moms blasted the Disney Channel for including a lesbian couple on its popular Good Luck Charlie program. In 2012, the group threatened Toys ‘R’ Us with a boycott because the toy chain carried the controversial Archie comics issue featuring the wedding of Kevin Keller, an openly gay character.

Will One Million Moms EVER give up their quest against “the Gay Propaganda Machine” of love?

Source: huffingtonpost.com

2014 Pride Grand Marshals Announced SF Pride recently announced the 2014 Pride Grand Marshals. They are as follows: Celebrity Grand Marshals Ross Mathews Janet Mock Community Grand Marshals Jewlyes Gutierrez Tommi Avicolli Mecca Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Melanie Nathan

Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshal Judy Grahn Honorary Grand Marshal Chelsea Manning The Grand Marshals, according to SF Pride’s website, “are the public emissaries of Pride. They represent a mix of individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community. With the help of community input, Pride selects these groups and individuals as Grand Marshals in order to honor the work they have put into furthering the causes of LGBT people.”

In a press release, SF Pride mentioned that it would like to thank all the nominees that participated in the 2014 SF Pride Grand Marshal race, and acknowledge everyone for their stellar contributions to the LGBTQ and ally communities.

The 2014 Pride Parade and Celebration will take place on June 28th and 29th with the theme, “Color Our World With Pride.”

BAY TIMES APRIL 1 7 ,

The official release of the United States Postal Service’s first-ever Harvey Milk stamp will happen on May 22, with a dedication ceremony taking place at the White House on that day.

“It will be May, not June,” said Susan McGowan, director of USPS Office of Stamps and Corporate Licensing. “And we hope people will turn out to experience a very special release ceremony.” The stamp’s coming out party promises to be a big affair for the postal service - one that’s been nearly a decade in the making. “Let’s just say it’s going to be a great celebration,” McGowan said.

Today, Harvey Milk may seem like a shoe-in as a candidate to be honored with the issuance of a U.S. postage stamp bearing his likeness. But according to organizers of the National Harvey Milk Stamp Campaign, there was fervent opposition from some of the country’s most fundamentalist religious groups, as well as from some members of the Citizens Stamp Approval Committee (CSAC), which votes to approve about 25 stamp requests out of about 1,000 requests each year.

“I know for a fact that some of the stamp committee members were absolutely opposed to the idea of a Harvey Milk stamp or a stamp honoring any homosexual leader,” said San Diego City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, head of the International Imperial Court System, which led the national campaign to win approval for the stamp. “That was early on, of course. I think as the process moved on and they saw how much support we had not only from Democrats, but from top Republicans, support grew.”

Although she couldn’t say whether the Citizens Stamp Approval Committee’s vote for the Harvey Milk stamp was divided or unanimous, USPS’s McGowan was adamant that there is no story of impassioned opposition to the stamp on the committee.

“I think you’re trying to find controversy where there wasn’t any,” she said. “It’s quite possible the vote was unanimous; we don’t keep those details because all that is needed is a simple majority for approval.”

What matters, says McGowan, is that the committee did approve the Harvey Milk stamp, and that it will be released on May 22.

And that Republicans actually voted FOR something!

Source: washingtonblade.com

Bill Closing Ellis Act Loophole for San Francisco Clears First Committee Legislation that would help mitigate the negative impacts of a recent surge in Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco has passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. Senate Bill 1439, authored

by Senator Mark Leno, closes a loophole in the Ellis Act that allows speculators to buy rent-controlled buildings in San Francisco and immediately begin the process of evicting long-term renters. This committee is not always friendly to tenants’ rights legislation, so we are off to a good start on the road to reform Ellis.

Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco have tripled in the last year, and hundreds of properties were taken off the rental market.

Organizational Community Grand Marshal Trans March

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Washington, D.C. - Harvey Milk Stamp ‘Coming Out’ in May - 3.19

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“California’s Ellis Act was specifically designed to allow legitimate landlords a way out of the rental business, but in San Francisco this state law is being abused by speculators who never intend to be landlords,” said Senator Leno. “As a result, longtime tenants, many of them seniors, disabled people and low-income families, are being uprooted from their homes and communities. The five-year holding period in my bill would prevent these devastating evictions from forever changing the face of our diverse city.”

SB 1429 authorizes San Francisco to prohibit new property owners from invoking the Ellis Act to evict tenants for five years after the acquisition of a property; ensures that landlords can only activate their Ellis Act rights once; and creates penalties for violations of these new provisions. The bill is co-sponsored

by Mayor Edwin Lee and Tenants Together. It’s also supported by numerous local businesses, labor groups, elected officials and statewide tenant advocates.

“Senator Leno’s bill gives us the critical tools we need to stop unchecked real estate speculators from taking advantage of longtime San Francisco renters,” said Mayor Lee. “Together, we have built a large coalition of tenants, labor and business leaders to fight this battle in Sacramento to keep working families and longtime San Franciscans in their homes.”

A new report from Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights, reveals that most Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco have been initiated by investors, not landlords.

Story by Dennis McMillan

On Leland Yee’s Fall and the Supreme Court’s Fail

A San Francisco Kind of Democrat Rafael Mandelman It was the gun-running that f loored me. The favors in exchange for campaign contributions? Plausible. An envelope full of cash in exchange for assistance lobbying his colleagues on behalf of a marijuana enterprise? Not inconceivable. But helping to organize a scheme to buy guns from rebel groups in the Philippines to sell in the United States? That was just nuts.

“This is how I explain it to my students,” Diaz quoted political strategist, college professor and candidate for Secretary of State Dan Schnur.

“It’s perfectly legal for a legislator to say to a special interest: ‘I’m deciding whether or not to vote for your bill. My, what a beautiful sunset tonight. By the way, are you coming to my fundraiser tomorrow? As long as the politician mentions the sunset between those two subjects…he’s in the clear.”

That the Yee arrest should be followed less than a week later by the Supreme Court’s decision in McCutcheon v. FEC was a particularly bitter irony. Building on the logic of the 2010 Citizens United decision, which had rejected any limits on the amounts wealthy individuals or corporations can spend on independent efforts to help their candidate win an election, McCutcheon eliminated the maximum aggregate amounts that any individual donor can contribute to candidates and party committees over a two-year period.

Although Citizens United and McCutcheon leave in place, for now, the individual contribution limits on amounts donors can directly contribute to a candidate, taken together they pretty much destroy the logic and structure of nearly four decades of campaign finance reforms.

Of course, some folks have barely been able to conceal their glee at State Senator Leland Yee’s fall. Over at BeyondChron, Randy Shaw treated Yee’s arrest and indictment as belated conf irmation of his own long-held contempt for the Senator and vindication for Shaw’s allies, longtime Yee antagonists Willie Brown and Rose Pak. “Leland Yee,” Shaw wrote, “enjoyed a remarkable political run. And having watched him get away with so much for decades, I was only surprised that he was finally caught.”

Tom Ammiano’s posted reaction on his Facebook page frankly resonated more strongly with me. Ammiano, who had grown estranged from Yee in the years since they served together on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, wrote: “Oy Leland, we were thrown together by the ever shifting seismic plates of San Francisco’s political landscape, voted onto the school board by constituencies hungry for change. We became comrades, brothers of a sort, we learned much from each other. The gulf is wider now, by years, and transitions, betrayals, and the what not of personal/political relationships. I still can’t forget the glimpse of your core that many of us related to. Your family is in our thoughts.” Classy Tom. One of the more striking responses to Yee’s humiliation was that of Chronicle editorial page editor John Diaz (“Sen. Leland Yee case illustrates culture of corruption,” April 4, 2014), who placed Yee’s indictment in the context of the recent corruption scandals that ensnared fellow Senators Ron Calderon and Roderick Wright and suggested that the accusations against these Senators only scratch the surface of a broader, deeper corruption that is endemic throughout our political system.

The Supreme Court’s decisions rest on two basic principles: 1) campaign contributions are constitutionallyprotected speech, and 2) the only legitimate public interest in regulating such contributions is in eliminating the type of quid-pro-quo corruption of which Yee is accused.

Meanwhile, in Washing ton, the credit card companies re-write our bankruptcy laws, big agribusiness safeguards its subsidies while the food stamp program is gutted, and corporations and wealthy individuals protect their tax loopholes while our nation’s infrastructure crumbles. In Sacramento, the oil lobby keeps California from enacting an oil extraction tax, while the landlord and realtor lobbies kill tenant protection legislation and ensure the displacement of more and more middle and low-income families from the State’s most expensive real estate markets. And in San Francisco, developer campaign contributions beget access to land use decisions that are routinely based on “who you know” rather than what’s good for the City.

As Justice Stephen Breyer — a San Francisco native, don’t you know — wrote in his McCutcheon dissent: “Taken together with Citizens United, today’s decision eviscerates our Nation’s campaign finance laws, leaving a remnant incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve.” And that frankly seems to me a far graver violation of the public trust that anything little old Leland Yee could have done. Maybe even worse than gun-running.

Rafael Mandelman was elected to the San Francisco Community College Board of Trustees in 2012. He is a partner at Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP.

Check out the new Bay Times website: sfbaytimes.com BAY T IM ES APR IL 17,

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Using Technology to Combat Isolation conduct a search for employment opportunities and to manage their finances safely and securely online.

Aging in Community Shireen McSpadden When it comes to technology, many older adults find themselves left in the dark. And yet technology can help combat one of the biggest challenges facing LGBT older adults: isolat ion. Access to tech nolog y can also provide older adults with a host of life-enriching opportunities, from online classes to new social networks and everything in between.

To combat isolation, folks are going online, and connecting w ith their friends and families through ema i l, Facebook , Sk y pe, a nd a whole range of online interfaces.

While not everyone is interested in being “connected,” San Francisco’s efforts to give all older adults computer access, training and support are proving beneficial. Often, helping others get past their fear of computers and teaching them the basics enables them to connect with others on their own.

Edward Nakatla, a gay older adult, has recently been using ancestry. com to resea rch t he h istor y of his father and his father’s family.

Through his research, he located his father’s Certif icate of Citizenship, dated 1918. Mr. Nakatla, who was born and raised in Alaska, but has lived in San Francisco since 1971, contemplates the meaning of that certificate. For him, it has unearthed thoughts about the Native American customs his father was raised with, and how he took on the role of “civilized white man.” He notes, “The computer is a marvelous tool… W hen we forget what happened to our family, the computer can help us remember.”

Mr. Nakatla attends Castro Senior Center on Diamond Street where he has been a volunteer for the last f ive years and has participated in their computer classes and tutoring.

Like other centers throughout San Francisco, Castro Senior Center offers basic and intermediate computer classes to help seniors and adults with disabilities learn skills such as setting up an email account, navigating the Internet, and using tools like Facebook and Skype. In addition, students can learn how to

Internet access has become a vital link to family, friends, service and health providers. It is also a great source of entertainment and offers ways for engaging creativity and explor ing new areas of interest.

Paired with assistive technologies, Internet access can help individuals overcome a vast range of disabilities to support their goal of aging in their own homes and communities. Also, older adults are using computers to access brain f itness programs. Brain fitness is like a gym class for the brain. Instead of exercising your abs and quads, you’re working your recall, honing your attention skills, and improving brain speed.

In 2010, San Francisco received a $7.9 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant from the federal government to promote the use of broadband technologies and close the digital divide for San Francisco’s underserved communities. Through the grant, older adults and adults with disabilities gained free computer and Internet access, tutoring and training in more than 50 technical lab sites.

Though the BTOP grant ended last fall (2013), the initiative continues through the SF Connected Program thanks to Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The program is housed in San Francisco’s Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) and the Department of Technology. In addition to the Castro Senior Center, twenty-four community-based service organizations continue to provide free computer training and support. All sites welcome LGBT seniors and adults with disabilities.

You do not need to be a member or live in a certain neighborhood to visit any of the sites, access the computers, and take classes.

DAAS and its community partners cont inue to f ind ways to br idge the dig ital div ide. This happens through “Swap Meets,” where older adults and adults with disabilities can learn from tech experts about ways that technology can improve their lives, while the tech experts can learn about the needs of indiv iduals. The partners are also working to develop a tech council, which will help bring technical expertise and funding to the SF Connected Prog ram. To learn more about these programs, or to access the computer class schedules and locations, visit w w w.sfconnected. org or call DAAS at (415) 355-6700.

DA AS prov ides many other services that assist people to live product ive, more meaning ful l ives.

These include, but are not limited to, community services, home care, help u nder st a nd i ng Med ic a re/ Medi-Cal benefits, wellness classes, legal services and meals programs.

To get general information about services for people with disabilities and seniors in San Francisco, call the DAAS or visit www.sfdaas.org.

Shireen McSpadden has served as Deputy Director of the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services since 2003.

She has more than 25 years’ experience providing services to people with disabilities and seniors, in both the nonprofit and public sectors. She holds a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco.

Hearing Today on LGBT Aging Policy Task Force Report and Recommendations The Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing today, April 17, on the final report and recommendations of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force. It will be at 10:00 am, room 250, San Francisco City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.

The complete Task Force report is available online: sf-h rc.or g/s ites/sf-h rc.or g/ f i les/LGBTA P T F_ Fina l Report_FINALWMAFINAL.pdf

Dr. Marcy Adelman oversees the new Bay Times Aging in Community column. For her summary of current LGBT senior challenges and opportunities, please go to: sf baytimes. com/challenges-and-opportunties

LGBT A f f irming Resources • O pen house: open house- sf. org/ •Institute on Aging: www.ioaging.org/ • S AGE: w w w. s a g eu s a .or g/ about/ •Nat iona l Resou rce C enter on L GB T A g i n g : w w w. l gbtagingcenter.org/ •Memor y Cl inic, K a iser Per ma nente Cla r a Med ica l Center: mydoctor.kaiser permanente.org/ncal/facilities/ r e g i o n /s a n t a c l a r a /a r e a _ master/depar t ments/memo ryclinic/index.jsp A lzheimer’s A ssociat ion Programs and Services: www.alz.org/norcal/ •24/7 Helpl ine: 1(8 0 0) 2723900 •Support Groups

Bay Times co-publishers Betty Sullivan & Jennifer Viegas invite you to join their table at the 10th Annual Spring Fling, supporting Openhouse, on Sunday, April 27th.

Contact: Publisher@sfbaytimes.com 4

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P H OTO SO U RC E : R EV LI F E. O R G

•Educational Programs • On l ine Com mun it y: w w w. a l zhei mer sblog.org/lgbt-fo rum •Safety Services

See more Stories @sfbaytimes.com

(CHIU continued from page 1) As Supervisor, during difficult budget times, I have supported local funding to backfill devastating federal cuts to HIV/AIDS programs and shoring up the finances of the LGBT Community Center. I have delivered funding for vulnerable LGBT students at nonprofits like LYRIC, and passed resolutions supporting the reunification of LGBT immigrant families. I have appointed and supported stellar LGBT city commissioners, and was one of the first straight allies to speak out against Russian LGBT policies and support divestment.

I will continue to use my voice to advocate for equality and justice.

LGBT issues are much more than marriage equality, or even civil

rights. LGBT issues are San Francisco issues: LGBT tenants in the Tenderloin concerned about next month’s rent; LGBT small business owners in the Castro trying to grow businesses in the city we love; LGBT families in Bernal Heights who want quality public schools for our kids; LGBT residents who want our tax dollars spent smartly and our government managed well.

In my favorite book about San Francisco politics, Randy Shilts’ biography of Harvey Milk described a visionary leader who understood that the success of this civil rights movement, like those that came before it, would depend on the ability to build coalitions and fight for hearts and minds — one at a time, if necessary — until justice is done. Like other elected officials who have taken Harvey Milk’s lessons to heart, I’ve strived to do that hard work every day, and am committed to bringing this same passion to Sacramento.

resentation in Sacramento is being threatened by term limits. As LGBT Caucus Chair Rich Gordon has said, the LGBT Caucus in the State Legislature is in jeopardy of shrinking by 25%. Already, the LGBT Caucus is smaller than the Women’s, Black, A PI and Latino Caucuses. With both Speaker Perez and Tom Ammiano termed out, it could shrink to just six members – a bare 5% of the state. Why is that important? Consider this: in the past decade, Equality California has tracked legislation of critical interest to the LGBT community. Of the 114 bills it tracked, over 55% were authored and sponsored by members of the LGBT Caucus. Its strength is vital to our community.

There’s another reason. As a wonderful straight ally, Assemblymember Mark Stone, told me, there is simply no substitute for the authentic representation of the LGBT community in Sacramento. It is vitally important that straight legislators from every

corner of California work side by side with their gay colleagues, not just on LGBT issues, but on all issues.

In San Francisco, I have worked with many of you to accomplish goals for our community. Together, we are working to create the first-ever LGBT homeless shelter, and we have created an LGBT Senior Task Force, helped keep the LGBT Center financially af loat and open, fought to protect HIV and AIDS funding, and worked to restore funding for community organizations such as LYRIC, Ella, Aguilas, Trans Latinas, and Community United Against Violence.

I am proud to be endorsed by Equality California, the LGBT Legislative Caucus, Speaker Toni Atkins, LGBT Caucus Chair Rich Gordon and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano. I would be honored to have your vote.

For more information, please visit www.davidcampossf.com/.

I hope that you will join the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, Supervisor Scott Wiener, former Treasurer Susan Leal, Attorney General Kamala Harris, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and many others in supporting our campaign. Please visit our campaign headquarters in the Castro or our website at VoteDavidChiu.com.

P HOTO SOURC E: M TC .C A.GOV

P HOTO SOURC E: SF.ST REETS.ORG

API Equality, which has fought for marriage equality within the Asian Pacific Islander community, served as president of the first Asian American bar association in the country to support marriage equality, and joined picket lines to protest discrimination at Badlands. In 2005, I worked alongside San Francisco LGBT leaders on a successful effort to adopt marriage equality in the official platform of the California Democratic Party.

I ran a technology company whose San Francisco office was 40% LGBT, and whose clients included the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, the Human Rights Campaign, and the International AIDS Trust.

(CAMPOS continued from page 1)

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Your Vote Counts on Election Day! Tuesday, June 3rd!

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Business Outings

Ellen Van den Bergh: Manager and Senior Designer at The Great Frame Up

Photos by Rink We often take framers and designers for granted, and yet their work may be immortalized in your home. Perhaps you have a treasured wedding photo, or an important painting or meaningful document on display. Ellen Van den Bergh of The Great Fame Up in the Castro helps to preserve and beautify such valuable objects, creating powerful memories that go beyond mere décor. They become part of our homes and lives.

Ellen receives some unique requests too, and has already worked on quite a few surprising projects, as you’ll soon learn.

Bay Times: Please tell us about you r l i fe before T he Great Frame Up. Where are you from originally, and why did you decide to come to San Francisco?

Ellen Van den Bergh: Sunny laid back California has always been in my dreams, but I am originally from New York. In my teenage years I realized I wanted to live in San Francisco to be surrounded by my kind of people – authentic, out of the box type people, that is. I U-Hauled it here from Salem College in North Carolina with my then girlfriend, now wife, Bernadette, nearly nine glorious years ago.

Bay Times: What’s it like to wake up every morning knowing you are going to the famous Castro neighborhood?

Ellen Van den Bergh: “Is this real life?” I say to myself and I conclude, “Sorta,” and throw on my funky helmet and pedal there on my bicycle like a mad woman.

Bay Times: What are some of the most memorable projects that you’ve worked on at The Great Frame Up? Ellen Van den Bergh: I have designed a hang-able jewelry case for a big, heavy African necklace, a seethrough shadow box for an ancient mask made of real bone and hair, a six-foot frame for a thousand-year-old scroll, a double-sided frame for a flattened cardboard box that had been painted on both sides, a water-gilded frame for a tiny painting on camel dung, a triple stacked frame and matting for a paper grocery bag, and that is only naming a few.

Bay Times: How do you, as an artist, express yourself through your work as senior designer at the store?

Ellen Van den Bergh: What I like about designing is changing my clients’ verbal ideas into visual realities with creative solutions that are as unique as each individual and art they bring in for framing. People 6

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ask, “What is typical?” and I say, “There’s no such thing.”

Bay Times: How do you think your store is different from, or similar to, other Great Frame Up locations?

Ellen Van den Bergh: Well, when you walk in, you have definitely entered what I have lovingly termed a “framing circus,” because I love color, synchronicity, and we are definitely the ring leaders. I am fairly sure other locations follow corporate more closely, but we do our own thing.

Bay Times: What advice do you have for someone who might be thinking of bringing an item(s) to your business? Should they do a bit of advance homework? What options will they have?

Ellen Van den Bergh: We can expertly accommodate both framing virgins and connoisseurs alike, as our selection is ample, but accessible, since we give thorough design advice to every client. Alternately, if you already know what you want, we will help you to find it as quickly as possible.

Bay Times: Is there a particular time of year when your business is really booming?

I’m wondering if that could be tied to certain events, or seasons or…?

Ellen Van den Bergh: The holiday season is busiest for us because forever encapsulating precious memorabilia in a personalized custom frame is one gushy present for a special someone if I ever heard of one!

Money and Finance Six Ways to Protect Your Identity It may seem tedious to keep a close eye on your identity and the financials attached to it, but it’s worth the effort. After all, it’s doubly aggravating and time consuming to undo the damage caused by identity theft. Do what you can to avoid the headache and hard work of being a victim of identity theft with these simple tips.

Money Matters Brandon Miller, CFP & Joanne Jordan, CFP Recent data breaches at several national retailers illustrate the importance of keeping your identity safe and secure. Not only are identity thieves getting more brazen — hacking into retail computer systems and pilfering data and dollars from millions of debit cards — they continue to find new ways to abuse the electronic systems created to make our lives easier.

Identity theft is a broad term for unauthorized use of your personal data, typically for financial gain. It starts when someone “steals” your name, address, social security number, checking account or credit card numbers, passwords and other personal information. Your information is then used to falsely obtain credit cards, loans, cash, merchandise, medical services — even government benefits and tax refunds.

Not only is identity theft a personal violation, but it is also a costly problem for law-abiding citizens. Even if your personal bank account hasn’t been drained, you pay the price for identity theft every day in the form of higherpriced goods and services, inflated insurance premiums and higher taxes.

Monitor your accounts regularly. Even if you prefer printed versus online bank statements, you shouldn’t wait until the end of the month to check that your accounts are reconciled (and nothing’s amiss).

Take advantage of online access to your financial accounts and watch for fraudulent transactions. You know something’s not right with a transaction if someone has used your credit card to purchase train tickets in a foreign country. In a situation like this, contact your bank immediately.

Keep tabs on your electronic devices. Identity thieves will look for your private information on any electronic device with a wired or wireless connection to the Internet.

Never leave your desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone out and unattended in public places. You may want to rethink plans to sell or give away an electronic device that you’ve used to store sensitive information. At a minimum, clear stored data by restoring factory settings and removing SIM cards (phones) or wiping your hard disk (computers).

Clear your history often. Get in the habit of clearing the cache or history in your Internet browser before you log out or step away from your computer. Doing so may not stop the most persistent thieves with forensic skills, but it will slow down the process of retrieving data you’d rather keep private.

Change your PINs and passwords. If you regularly access fi-

nancial accounts and complete credit card transactions online, it’s particularly important to have several layers of security in place. For example, you can easily require a PIN or password log-in whenever you turn on your phone or start your computer. But if you use the same password to log on to your computer and your bank account, or to open your phone or retrieve your email, you’ve defeated the purpose and made the identity thief’s job that much easier. Make your passwords inscrutable to outsiders. While nonsensical strings of letters, symbols and numbers can be hard to remember, they will be tougher passwords for criminals to crack.

When in doubt, pay with cash.

Another way to limit your exposure to identity theft is by reducing your credit card transactions. For instance, you might try using cash for all transactions under $100. For larger transactions, it’s often better to use plastic.

Not only do credit cards remain more convenient, carrying around large sums of cash makes you more vulnerable to old-fashioned theft targeting your wallet or purse.

Stay informed and alert. Because of the annual cost of identity theft, the federal government is interested in helping consumers stop identity theft before it happens. Stay informed about consumer identity theft with alerts, tips and other resources provided by the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.ftc.gov.

Brandon Miller, CFP and Joanne Jordan, CFP are financial consultants at Jordan Miller & Associates, 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.

Round About — LGBT Center’s Soiree 2014

Photos by Rink

City View at Metreon was the venue for this year’s SF LGBT Community Center benef it, Soiree 2014. Themed “A Jazz Tribute to San Francisco’s Beat Generation,” the occasions was a bohemian, jazz-filled evening designed for the enjoyment of beatniks, hipsters, poets and romantics. Featuring gourmet foods, music, entertainment, dancing and a silent auction, the program also included performer Veronica Klaus and the popular jazz band Josh Klipp and the Klipptones.

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Tyranny of the Comparing Mind most of us constantly airbrush our selfimages by creating self-serving distortions that allow us to think of ourselves as superior to others.

Kim Corsaro Publisher 1981-2011

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Tom Moon, MFT Eric tries on a new shirt and looks at himself in the mirror. “I don’t like the way I look in this,” he tells his partner, Jason. “You look fine,” Jason replies.

“Oh great,” Eric says. “I’ve always wanted to look fine.”

In our competitive culture, we don’t just want to be fine. We want to be special. For most of us, self-esteem means feeling above average in some way. In Garrison Keillor’s fictional town of Lake Wobegon, “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” Everywhere else, though, it’s mathematically impossible for all of us to be above average all the time, so

Studies show, for instance, that fully 85 percent of students think that they’re above average when it comes to getting along with others. Ninety-four percent of college faculty members think they’re better teachers than their colleagues. Ninety percent of drivers think they’re more skilled than other drivers – even when they’ve recently caused a car accident. Other research shows that people tend to think they’re funnier, more logical, more popular, better looking, nicer, more trustworthy, wiser, and more intelligent than others. And, ironically, most people also think they’re above average in the ability to view themselves objectively.

But reality has a way of breaking through our self-deception. When life forces us to notice some imperfection in ourselves that we can’t overlook, the common result is merciless selfcriticism. Much of the anxiety, depression, and insecurity to which so many of us are prone is directly due to the habitual self-attacks that are inevitable by-products of the “comparing mind.”

The comparing mind not only distorts our self-perceptions, but also our perceptions of others as well. If I have

to feel better than you in order to feel good about myself, how clearly am I going to be able to see you? If my sense of my worth and value depends on maintaining an unrealistically positive self-image, then I’ll do whatever I have to do to avoid seeing myself in a negative light.

When I have conflicts in my relationships, I’m going to be inclined to see the fault as yours, not mine. It can be hard to admit that we’ve behaved badly because our egos feel safer when we project our shortcomings onto others.

Even when we know, deep inside, that it takes two to tango, we cling to the need to be “right” as if our lives depended on it because, in a sense, we do believe our lives depend on it. When looked at in this way, it’s easy to understand why the comparing mind is such a notoriously unreliable foundation for happiness.

Is there an alternative? What if we could stop judging and evaluating ourselves altogether? What if we could replace the habit of self-judgment with the habit of self-compassion?

Recently, researchers at Duke and Wake Forest Universities reported the results of five studies on the trait of self-compassion, which they defined simply as the ability to treat oneself with kindness when things go badly.

They found that people with higher self-compassion had fewer negative reactions to bad events, and that selfcompassion made it possible for people to accept responsibility for a negative experience, but had fewer bad feelings about it. They also concluded that selfcompassion seemed to protect people better than self-esteem. That is, the positive feelings of self-compassion didn’t seem to involve “the hubris, narcissism or self-enhancing illusions that characterize many people with high self-esteem.” It appears that selfcompassion provides an island of calm, a refuge from the storms of shifting positive and negative self-judgments.

One of the leading researchers in this area, Dr. Kristin Neff, believes that there is growing evidence that selfcompassion is a form of emotional intelligence that we can acquire and strengthen like any other skill. In her book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, she teaches techniques based on solid empirical research that are very effective in strengthening this vital trait. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to escape from the tyranny of the comparing mind.

Tom Moon is a psychotherapist in San Francisco. His website is tommoon.net.

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Supervisors David Chiu and David Campos spoke at the State Assembly Debate sponsored by the Alice B Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and the Harvard Club, at the LGBT Center. Chiu told the overflow crowd that he would be a more effective assemblyman because he is adept at getting legislation passed, and Campos made the case that he is better at battling gentrification.

Feast or Fashion

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Pride board president Gary Virginia and board member John Caldera at the AtmosQueer volunteer support forum at the LGBT Center on April 14 at the Pride booth, with Pride’s new theme.

Speak Up! Speak Out! Laugh Often!

Karen Williams I began my foray into fashion very early in life. By age nine, I was already aware of making bold fashion statements, like the time I wore my “Happy Birthday” tiara with a pink crinoline dress, laced white socks and shiny black patent leather shoes outside after my birthday party. The fact that I showcased this festive outfit in front of my friends, using the small pink circle park of Soundview

Projects in The Bronx as my runway, only forecast the costume days to come!

every coat that my advertising and marketing plan earned for me. Thus, a fashion entrepreneur was born.

During my early teen years, my father owned a small import/export bout ique in Greenw ich Vi l lage called Postincha. The place was so tiny that if more than three customers showed up, they had to wait outside until those inside were through shopping. My dad is credited with bringing the f irst Afghan sheepskin coats into America. The story goes that one of the coats he sold to Holly’s Harp -- a boutique in Hollywood in the sixties -- was bought

by Cher, who wore the coat on the cover of Vogue magazine. The rest is “his-story...”

I attended the Bronx High School of Science in hand-made leather shoes from A l-Di-La at the costly sum of $65, a full week’s pay. From my ears hung elegant gold-spun chandeliers from India, complemented with denim boy shirts of the sixties, under which no bra lurked as I was completely f lat-chested and totally in sync with my idols of the day, Twiggy and Pat Cleveland...who was the African-American model of the day.

When Pat shaved her head bald, I did the same. My mother was absolutely appalled to cast eyes upon the shaved dome of her fifteen-year-old lanky daughter, though she’d cut her waist-length straight brown locks to a short and demure Vidal Sassoon cut only a short time before. Fashion is in my genes and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it!

My side of the story is that by age fifteen, I had just as many full-length Afghan coats. I wore them crosstown to school on the New York City subway, and when asked about the coats on my travels to high school, I handed out business cards with my initials to my dad’s shop. That way, I could be rewarded with commissions on

Through my father’s work in the New York fashion world, I met Verushka and Penelope Tree, famous

models of that era. Later on, I did some modeling myself, as a runway model for I. Peri in Oakland, as a fit model for Jessica McClintock in San Francisco, and with print ads for Rolo and other local companies.

Today, I continue to do print work as well as television commercials.

Last night, I modeled outfits for my gal pal. She totally feasted on watching me catwalk in five-inch heeled gladiator booties down my hall runway, which conveniently has a huge full-length mirror at the end of it.

Though I loved the attention, there was little time for hanky-panky, as I had some serious coordinating and packing to do. Because besides being funny, I always want to give my audiences a slice of my fashionable life as part of their ticket price.

After all, love may make the world go ‘round, but fashion makes it look so good!

Feast on fashion with Karen on her new YouTube Channel. Let her hook you up at karen@sfbaytimes.com

PHOTOS BY R I NK

Distribution

Fortnight in Review

By Ann Rostow The New Black Swirling through the debate over marriage and gay rights in general is a deeper American colloquy. Is opposition to gay equality a matter of opinion to be respected? Or is it a derivative of prejudice to be condemned?

We’re not talking about some hostile crazy person who says gays will burn in Hell. We’re talking about someone like Brendan Eich, the head of Mozilla, who was forced to resign under duress after it became known that he donated a thousand bucks to Prop 8 back in the day. We’re talking about the head of Barilla pasta, who said his company promoted traditional values and would not use gay families in its commercials. We’re talking about the photographer in New Mexico, who said she’d happily serve gay clients, but balked at taking on a lesbian wedding. We’re talking about Bubba Watson, winner of two green jackets, who believes gays are sinners, but said he loved us anyway (and would have us over to dinner).

Many people, including some ardent supporters of marriage rights, have recently written about the need for comity between activists and what I guess you might call passive resistors—otherwise decent sounding people who happen to believe in traditional values, but who wish us no harm. When a computer guy loses his job because he made a political donation that we don’t like over a decade ago, don’t we look like the intolerant ones? Can’t we win our battles in a polite marketplace of ideas rather than the nasty arena of Internet petitions and politically correct screams in the media?

In some ways, I would love to join the crowd now calling for good manners on the battlefield of gay rights. I’ve always enjoyed sending digs in the direction of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), who used to pop up on cue like an angry Jack in the box, all red faced due to some completely innocuous incident or remark. Not everything is a slur. Even stereotypes are sometimes accurate. Some gay men and lesbians are complete jerks. We are not perfect, nor beyond criticism.

But opposition to marriage equality is not a banality. Or if it is, it’s of the Hannah Arendt variety. Free speech, as we all know, does not guarantee that speech will have no consequence.

It only guarantees that the State will not censor our commentaries absent some compelling reason. Indeed, Internet petitions and boycotts are exactly the sort of tools we have at our disposal to fight notions we find contemptible. And if, and when, someone else f inds our contempt alarming, they have recourse to the same arsenal of Democracy. The marketplace of ideas is more of a street fair than a chic boutique.

Mr. Eich lost his job, not because of an organized campaign from gay activists, but because of several factors: a web site made a big deal about it, an online petition of complaint generated 70,000 names (not such a big number), and Mozilla staffers were upset.

It was bad publicity for a firm in a very competitive and youth oriented f ield. Many other corporate chiefs with unpleasant views have survived.

Much of the reaction against those who don’t favor marriage equality now comes---not from the GLBT community—but from the rest of America, particularly young America. We are the new Black. We are the new Correct. This is the side effect of widespread change in America’s view of sexual orientation.

Is it sportsmanlike? Gentlemanly?

Perhaps not. The LGBT community and our allies aren’t running around looking for adversaries to put to the sword. But nor are we letting people off the hook when they maintain that

they have nothing against us, save a harmless desire to stick with tradition. The tradition of relegating gays and lesbians to second-class status or worse is exactly what we have been fighting for decades, and there’s nothing harmless about it.

I can’t help but suspect that those in and out of the gay community who wring their hands at our inability to be “gracious in victory,” are themselves a product of their times. Baby boomers like me who are so relieved and happy at the amazing progress they’ve experienced that they are inclined to settle for a tolerant society rather than an equal one. But equal is equal. Nothing short of it is acceptable, period. Everyone remains free to maintain their views, but opposition to marriage equality, or any equality, will never go unchallenged as long as the gay rights movement runs forward.

We’ve always been fighting for equality. But we’ve been so far away that it’s been sort of a rhetorical goal. Equality, yes. But f irst, can we remove ourselves from the list of psychiatric disorders? First, can we repeal criminal statutes against gay relationships?

Can we serve in the military? Can we keep our job, our housing? Can our partners see us in the hospital, inherit our assets?

Equality has only become visible in the last few years. Now it seems reachable. And now we have to make our case to exactly the sort of people who protest that they have nothing against gays save a difference of opinion or faith. It’s exactly that difference of “opinion” that we have been trying to reconcile for half a century.

Are we equal or not? For those people who still insist “not,” even those well-meaning nice people, we must continue to express our disapproval.

We can’t be gracious in victory until we’ve reached victory to begin with.

Tenth Circuit Redux So here’s an interesting situation. One week ago, a three-judge panel on the Tenth Circuit heard arguments in the Utah marriage case, specifically the appeal of a federal ruling that struck down marriage discrimination in the Beehive State.

Today, April 17, the exact same panel will hear arguments in the virtually identical Oklahoma marriage case.

Are the judges going to ask different questions? Are they going to drill down on some of the issues raised the week before? Will they play devil’s advocate? Will the Okie lawyers take a different tack than the Utes?

Last week’s headlines were full of ambiguity, but the general theme was “ judges seem split on marriage.” It sounded, as we expected, that our Democratic appointee, Carlos Lucero, was on our side. Our conservative judge, Paul Kelly, seemed wary. And our middle of the road guy, Judge Jerome Holmes, could go our way if we’re lucky.

Much of the discussion revolved around the level of legal scrutiny to be applied to gay marriage and/or sexual orientation discrimination. Unfortunately, the Tenth Circuit recently ruled that sexual orientation bias does not deserve heightened scrutiny (in a 2008 case). On the other hand, the denial of fundamental rights like marriage should also trigger heightened scrutiny when denied. Some judges avoid this conclusion by deciding that, even though “marriage” is a fundamental right, the “right to marry a same-sex partner,” is not fundamental after all. I gather everyone went back and forth over this ground.

According to reports, there was also some discussion on the irritating subject of whether gay men and women are good parents. I won’t go into a full rant today, but I have to note (again) that gay men and women will be parents whether or not they are legally married. Further, the Supreme Court

Professional Services has expressly upheld the right to marry for deadbeat dads and incarcerated prisoners. No one questions that the “right to marry a convicted felon,” or the “right to marry a deadbeat who doesn’t pay child support,” is indeed “fundamental.” But the “right to marry a same-sex partner” is somehow unthinkable? It’s only a matter of time before the semantic strings that are holding up this dangling constitutional construction are frayed beyond repair, and I have to hope that this time has come.

In other federal marriage news, a judge in Ohio has ruled that the state must recognize same-sex marriages from elsewhere, a decision that flowed directly from December’s federal ruling on recognizing same-sex partners on death certificates in the Buckeye State. The judge stayed his opinion for Ohioans in general, but left it in effect for the plaintiff couples in the case.

The Ohio ruling, along with federal marriage victories in Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan, will be headed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit later this year.

The Michigan attorney general has asked that instead of assigning one or more three-judge panels, the full court will review all these cases “en banc.” Of the 15 active judges on the Sixth Circuit, 10 are GOP appointees and five are Democratically named.

If you do the math, you can see why an opponent of marriage equality would want the entire bench to get together and hash it out. Even though many GOP judges have ruled in our favor over the last year, those odds are daunting for marriage activists.

Don’t forget that the Fourth Circuit will take up the Virginia marriage case next month, so we’ll have plenty of action in store. Plus, we are waiting for lower federal court rulings in a zillion other states. In fact, of the 33 states where marriage is not legal, only five are not party to legal action.

Georgia On My Mind I could have gone on with marriage news, but we have to limit our intake.

Otherwise, we wouldn’t have time to register our disappointment that Blubba won the Masters (it’s not just his Biblical literalism, but must he button his polo shirt up to the neck?

I hate that.). Nor would we find the space to mention that Our Gay Bishop Gene Robinson is to give the Easter prayer at the White House, or that some airport cab drivers in Cleveland are refusing to drive taxis with Gay Games ads on the side.

Hey. How about the Chicago man, Kelvin Matthews, who was arguing with a Sprint customer care representative about an account that was supposed to be closed. When Sprint sent him an email to confirm whatever arrangements they made, he noticed it was addressed to: “Sissyboy Kelvin Gay Matthews.” Say what?

Sprint offered him a free iPhone and two months of service, but Kelvin refused and cancelled. Matthews is straight and married, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The story reminds me of the convenience store that was in the news this week because the manager put up a sign that told clients to pull up their pants. Tired of the baggy look, the Georgia man wrote: “Only “FAGS” like to keep their pants down. Pull your pants up or be proud to be a FAG.” “It really offends me by them coming in, pants down,” Anil Patel told the press. “So it is not that I’m against them, gay people or anything like that, but just trying to prove a point.

If you are going to come in my store, make sure you have your pants on.”

You know. It’s hard enough to fight stereotypes. And indeed, as I mentioned earlier, some stereotypes are real. But coming up with completely (continued on page 26)

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Tom Waddell: The True Olympian

P HOTOS C OURT ESY OF RAIN BO W H O N O R WAL K

Jane Addams: Cultural Feminist

Rainbow Honor Walk Dr. Bill Lipsky For Americans living during the first decades of the 20th century, Jane Addams seemed to be a Victorian matron: prim and proper, with a hint of lavender on her lace collars and a mothering instinct in everything she said and did. That characterization did not capture the real Addams, however, who was a determined, tireless advocate for the rights and the dignity owed to us all. With her feminist sensibilities and her resolute commitment to social progress, her public life was a long and unfaltering pursuit of the means to improve the human condition. Her

Jane Addams work made her one of the most renowned and respected figures of her time.

The world into which she was born in 1860 was very different than it is today. It believed that a proper Victorian woman’s place was in the home. Men went out into the world, pursuing careers and social lives denied to their wives and daughters, whose opportunities were limited.

Many women had little choice but to stay at home, hoping that their husband returned soon and sober.

Addams would have none of it. The

public kitchen, and other social services.

It offered kindergarten classes, clubs for older children, a gym, a bathhouse, a music school, a drama group, an art gallery, and a library. Its night school for adults was a forerunner of the continuing education classes offered by many universities today.

Many prominent social workers and reformers visited Hull House. One who stayed was Mary Rozet Smith, who arrived in 1890 and became Addams’ constant companion for the next forty years.

The women worked closely together during the day and shared a home at night.

She and Smith thought of themselves as a married couple, so when they travelled together, Addams always notified their hotels to have a double bed in their room for their comfort; they wrote each other daily when apart.

A scandal about their private lives would have destroyed Addams’ reputation and ended her work, but neither woman made an attempt to hide their relationship. “They understood,” wrote Lilliam Faderman, “that they could rely on the protective coloring of pearls and ladylike appearance and of romantic friendship, which was not yet dead in America.”

The fig leaf of Victorianism, which saw women as essentially unsexual and disinterested in physical relationships, covered a naked sexual truth behind which Addams and Smith – and other couples – could lead their lives together.

Addams, the most visible and influencial woman of her time, was not alone. She was at the forefront of an exceptional generation who also declined to accept their traditional roles of daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Often from wealthy families, which gave them the social and financial stability to pursue their own lives, they typically were the first in their family to pursue intererests outside the home.

eighth of nine children born to an affluent Illinois businessman, she could have lived the life of privilege her father’s wealth and position provided. Instead, she wanted to do something useful in the world. Encouraged by her family, she decided to become a physician and to live and work among the poor. Unfortunately, health problems prevented her from completing her medicical studies at the Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia. Dejected, she returned home, unsure of a new direction for her life.

A magazine article changed her life. In 1887, reading about settlement houses in Great Britain, created to bring all social classes together into a shared community of effort, she saw her purpose. She and Ellen Gates Starr, a dear and intimate friend from college days, visited London’s Toynbee Hall. They were so impressed that two years later they founded Hull House in Chicago, the first settlement house in the United States. “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain,” she said, “until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”

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Named after the building’s original owner, Hull House provided services for the immigrants and disadvantaged living in the neighborhood surrounding it. Over the years, the facility grew to include more than 10 buildings and programs to provide child care, education courses, a

Like Addams, many became activists for social reform. Among them, Frieda Miller and her life partner Pauline Newman led women’s efforts to organize labor unions and eliminate sweatshop conditions. Martha May Eliot, a graduate of Radcliffe College and Johns Hopkins Medical School, where she met her life partner Ethel Durham, served on the faculty of Yale Medical School and strove to improve child hygiene and wellness.

Frances Perkins, the first woman to become a cabinet secretary, worked to better conditions as an investigator for New York City’s Consumer’s League; Eleanor Roosevelt also worked there. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, her constant companion, successfully fought for women’s suffrage and other human rights for women.

Addams’ long career as social reformer moved her to become a deeply committed peace activist. Many criticized her for her pacificism, but the world approved.

In 1931 she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American woman to be so honored. Sadly, Addams, who had been troubled by health problems since childhood, was unable to attend the awards ceremony. She died in 1935, but her “vision of social morality rooted in a life dedicated to social progress” continues to influence social reform for human betterment in the United States and throughout the world.

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

Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith

History Happens

News from the GLBT Historical Society & The GLBT History Museum Museum Undergoing Major Transformation Since April 1, the Main Gallery of the GLBT History Museum has been closed for installation of a new exhibit. It will reopen May 15. This is the first entirely new Main Gallery exhibit since the museum opened in 2011.

“The extraordinarily successful run of our f irst Main Gallery exhibit, ‘Our Vast Queer Past,’ set a high standard,” Executive Director Paul Boneberg said. “Now we’re building on that experience to present new stories in a powerful way.”

Among the more dramatic changes will be the redesign of the gallery.

Craig Harris, who created the overall museum design three years ago, has returned to design the new Main Gallery exhibit. Elisabeth Cornu, formerly with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is leading the installation team.

“The new gallery will be darker in background color and more clearly delineated from the front of the museum,” Cornu said. “This will allow us to feature more multi-media.”

The new exhibit, “Queer Past Becomes Present,” will open May 15.

The lead curators are Jim Van Buskirk, coauthor of Gay By the Bay, and Dr. Amy Sueyoshi, author of Queer Compulsions and Associate Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Associate curators include Boneberg, Juliet Demeter, Darren Arquero and Dave Reichard. “‘Queer Past Becomes Present’ showcases how queer history informs the present and inspires us to build a community that embraces difference,” Dr. Sueyoshi said. “History is not something locked in the past but rather makes the present more compelling.”

Admission will be waived during the new exhibit installation process.

In the Archives The GLBT Historical Society continues to process collections of his-

Artist’s rendering of the entrance to the redesigned main gallery.

torical materials with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The latest collections processed include the papers of Dr. Tom Waddell (1937-1987), the gay Olympic athlete who founded the Gay Games in San Francisco in 1982.

The collection includes memorabilia related to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, where Waddell competed in the Decathlon, and from the Gay Games, which Waddell originally called the Gay Olympics until a successful lawsuit by the U.S. Olympic Committee prohibited him from using the name. Also in the collection is correspondence between Waddell and his f irst lover, Enge Menaker, a radical socialist journalist more than 40 years his senior, whom he met in 1959.

In later years, Waddell worked at the City Clinic in the Civic Center; after his death it was renamed for him. His fight against AIDS is depicted in the documentary “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.”

The collection was donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Sara Waddell Lewinstein.

The processing of the 8.8 linear feet of material by archivist Marjorie Bryer culminated in a comprehen-

sive finding aid which can be found on our website and on the site for the Online Archive of California (http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/glhs/ c8v125gq.pdf ). The OAC provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions in California.

Out on 18th Street During the overhaul of the Main Gallery at the GLBT History Museum, our Front Gallery will continue to present “The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus: Celebrating 35 Years of Activism Through Song.” The exhibit includes a tour recognition certificate from the SFGMC’s 1981 national tour. The tour ended with a triumphant homecoming to 18th and Castro Streets, which was itself featured as a postscript in a letter from the fictional Michael Tolliver to Mary Ann and Brian in Armistead Maupin’s 1981 Further Tales of the City.

Upcoming Events • Colla Voce Concert Benefits GLBT Historical Society Saturday, April 26, 4 pm St. A idan’s Episcopa l Church, 101 Gold Mine Drive in Diamond Heights You are cordially invited to Colla Voce’s benefit concert for the GLBT Historical Society! It is with “Pride and Joy” that Colla Voce presents songs by gay composers like Elton John, Steven Sondheim, Robert Seeley, and Eric Lane Barnes ( just to name a few). You’ll also hear songs of activism like “Marry Us,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “The Great Peace March.” And how could we possibly skip the showtunes?

• Gala Date…Unmasked!

We are happy to announce that Wednesday, October 29, will be a great night to celebrate queer San Francisco’s rich history and vibrant present. That’s when the GLBT Historical Society’s 2014 Unmasked Gala will happen at the elegant Contemporary Jewish Museum in Yerba Buena/SOMA.

The GLBT History Museum: 4127 18th Street, San Francisco; 415-6211107; www.glbthistorymuseum.org

Tom Waddell

GL B T H i stor ic a l S o c iet y : 6 57 M ission St reet , Su ite 30 0, Sa n Francisco; 415 -777-5455, ext. 3#; w w w.glbthistor y.org

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Round About - Giants Game at AT&T Park Photos by Abby Zimberg

Co-publishers Betty Sullivan and Jennifer Viegas joined friends and supporters of the Bay Times for a Giants v Diamondbacks game at AT&T Park on an evening designated as a farewell to Candlestick Park. Among the Giants and 49ers representatives gathered on the field for the pre-game ceremony were legendary Giants greats Willie Mays and Willie McCovey and current SF 49ers players Joe Staley and Bruce Miller. Ian Williams, 49ers defensive tackle; Teddy Palmer, CEO of Creative Edge PR, and their guests joined the Bay Times group. LGBT Nite Out 2014 at AT&T Park is Thursday, June 26.

Round About - Outdoor Adventures Photos Courtesy of Blue Water Ventures

Outdoor guide Kim Powell co-hosted with “Betty’s List” and the Bay Times an annual outing to visit the thousands of elephant seals occupying the beach areas at Año Nuevo State Park. Co-led by wellknown guide Nikki Boyle of Mariah Wilderness Expeditions, the day included a tide pooling session at the beach, the walk of several miles from the Visitor Center to the shore, and opportunities for close-up observations of the seals. The group also viewed the historic remains of a 19th century lighthouse and fog signal station. The guided tour included photo ops of the scenic landscape views and up-close shots of the multitude of seals arranged in pods, each headed by an alpha male. The group also enjoyed lunch at the popular Davenport Roadhouse restaurant. Watch for news of upcoming outdoor adventures to be announced soon.

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Join us for three special evening events with

Foundations San Francisco

April 29th 6 to 8 pm

April 30th 6 to 8 pm

Sam Himelstein, PhD Program Director of the Mind Body Awareness Project

Dave Smith Program Director of the Mind Body Awareness Project

May 1st 6 to 8 pm Noah benShea Poet philosopher, international bestselling author

Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence and Working with Addiction

Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Approach to Recovery from Addiction

Shame & Denial Are the Parents of Addiction — Courage Is the Cure!

Foundations San Francisco 55 Francisco Street, Suite 405 | San Francisco, CA 94133 This is a one-time event! Snacks will be provided. Parking will be validated.

Earn two CE credits at EACH evening event.

RSVP to REGISTER To register for the event, email Katie Barry at katie.barry@frnmail.com

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P HOTO SO URC E : T H E O RDE R O F T H E SAC R E D STAR . C O M

Spring Cleaning for the Lavender Soul

The Reverend Doctor James C. Lovette-Black Spring is in the air, and how sweet it is to see sunshine, enjoy the warmth, and to anticipate the year! The pagan idea of the year is of a great Wheel that turns and on which there are two balance points for natural energies: Samhain (“sow-en”), from October 31 –November 1, and Beltane, from April 30 – May 1, or May Day.

A perfect way to start spring cleaning for the soul is to mindfully examine one’s home, thinking, and relationships. What needs a deep spring cleaning? What needs to be tossed? How can I change my thinking or relationships so they are more compassionate, authentic, loving, and effective? Consider these life dimensions and note them without censuring (brainstorming). Just two or three ideas could start a purgeand-prune.

Then, proceed to sitting (considering/contemplating) with each idea about life change and envision what your life will be when the changes are fully realized. This is the outcome you will manifest, so make it as colorful, dynamic, and affirming a mental image as possible. Now, sketch out an action plan with a few steps that you can, and will, actually take. Put your life action plan for Spring into play, with Summer Solstice as a good evaluation point for checking out if it is effective or not and make indicated revisions.

Finally, create space for honoring your work. Practice gratitude to the universe from which life has arisen.

Wheel of the Year

cleaning products) to remove the detritus from home or apartment windows and prepare them to let the sun shine in. How about donating that extra TV or monitor or computer to a worthy LGBT organization? Look at your living space and consider adding a few live plants to clean up the air and give your eyes the green on which our species thrives.

If you garden, inside or outside, remove and compost dead growth or plants and replace them, so you’ll ride along with the rising wave of Spring’s natural energies. Consider planting a tree somewhere. There are resources online, and many cities sponsor tree planting services.

Honestly look at your health and wellness practices. Change or ditch a habit that is keeping you from achieving your optimal wellness.

Quit tobacco smoking, drop the amount of junk or empty foods consumed, increase vegetable and fruit intake, or start daily walking. Con-

template the relationships in your life, and honestly consider which ones need to be strengthened and which ones need to change.

Look in your clothes closet and think about ditching, sharing, or donating clothes that no longer meet your needs. As well, Spring is the time of year for brightly colored attire and hats, so start thinking about which hat and outfit you are going to create and wear for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s Easter in the Park (in Golden Gate Park this year). Then, go f launt an external reflection of the beauty that we have and that we are discovering about our gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered selves.

Let us soar on the joys of Mother Earth’s rising energy and celebrate the beauty we see and make in the world, that we have inside, and that we discover in each other.

Blessed be!

P HOTO S OURCE : KOMP LETE LY KRIS TA.COM

At the Vernal Equinox, known as Ostara, Mother Earth’s energies are rapidly expanding and rising around, in, and through, us as we journey around Sol (the Sun) toward the Beltane Fire and Maypole Dance. On the Wheel of the Year, the beginning of Spring represents stimulation, dynamism, and soaring, as when f lora grow, bud, and bloom, while fauna mate, give birth, and migrate. Think about how much more energy you are feeling and why you feel compelled to go outside more. We are lavender fauna in the great Circle of Life.

P HOTO SOURC E: ROOTSOF RIT UAL .N ET

Samhain represents the f inal of three great harvests and the time when the Earth literally goes to “ground.” Plants and trees die back or go into a hibernation-like mode, animals hibernate or migrate, and humans complain of a lack of sunshine with good reason. This is a time of grounding, and a season of going within.

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PH OTO SO UR C E: STO N E H EN DG EN E W S. C O M

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As for cleaning in the mundane world, this is a great time to bring out the apple cider vinegar and baking soda (search for organic house-

Utah Should Drop its Appeal and Let the Salt Lake City Weddings Begin Again The State of Utah’s stunning admissions in last week’s oral argument before the Tenth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals and in briefs filed with the court make one thing abundantly clear: the state should drop its appeal of the federal district court’s ruling last December in favor of marriage equality. We’ll never forget the joy we felt seeing over a thousand LGBT couples dash to their local clerk’s offices in Salt Lake City and other Utah environs during the winter 2013 holiday season before the district court’s order was stayed. It’s time for those weddings to begin again.

The State of Utah put forth many baseless, unpersuasive, and convoluted arguments before the court.

The one that perhaps struck us most was the State’s concession that children of same-sex parents would likely be better off if their parents were able to be married. But instead of caring for those children by embracing the right of LGBT couples to marry, the State callously said that their “principal concern” in the case is “the children of heterosexual parents,” leaving the children of LGBT parents in the dust. When questioned at oral argument, Utah’s counsel matterof-factly wrote off the needs of children of same-sex couples by saying that laws involve “tradeoffs.” Not only does their argument suggest

families in their community and in their daily lives.” Further, the Court stated that “DOM A instructs … all persons with whom same-sex couples interact, including their own children, that their marriage is less worthy than the marriages of others.”

Marriage Equality Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, Marriage Equality USA a remarkable lack of human empathy, but it is also unsound as a matter of law.

One thing that rings loud and clear from last summer’s United States Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor striking down section 3 of DOMA is that Justice Kennedy and the majority of the Supreme Court are very concerned about the effects that discriminatory marriage laws have on LGBT families, especially the children on LGBT parents. The Court held that DOMA “humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples…. mak[ing] it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other

The saddest aspect of Utah’s legal argument is that it fails to recognize that marriage equality is not a zero-sum game. Ending the exclusion of LGBT couples from marriage robs no one else of their freedom to marry. Far from hurting anyone else, protecting and caring for kids of LGBT parents benefits everyone, not just LGBT families.

Recognizing our common humanity lies at the heart of the marriage equality movement. In an attempt to appear compassionate, Utah wrote in its brief that it “respects and values [LGBT] citizens and their children as … equal before the law ….” If that’s the case, we urge the State of Utah to drop its appeal, end the marriage ban, and pass legislation to make full LGBT equality a reality in Utah.

John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for nearly 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.

Budgeting, and an Invitation to a Weddings Workshop Brunch Budgeting is one of the most dreaded wedding subjects. Post tax time, it can be all the more stressful for many couples. Money itself is often a sensitive subject, but a wedding is a joyous occasion and one you should enjoy from start to finish. To make coping easier, we have pulled together a few tips for smooth budget sailing.

Set a Budget. When it comes to wedding details, know exactly how much you can spend. It will help you to figure out where you can splurge and where you need to spend. Aim to strike a balance between necessities and luxuries.

Do Research. When you have a budget, you must do research. Shop for different prices and ask your planner to help. Coordinators have relationships with vendors and they can often work in a great deal.

Consider Your Options. The heart wants what it wants, but if you

sacrifice, but look at it this way: It’s your wedding and you should treat yourself like a queen.

The coordinator you decide to work with will have great connections that will save you time, stress, and will help keep your budget on track.

Would you like to learn more methods for easy wedding planning?

Elements of Style Chanda Monique Eddens want sunflowers in the winter, you’re going to have to pay. Be practical with certain details and always consider an alternative.

Seek Professiona l Help. It’s worthwhile to seek coordination assistance. When budgets are involved, a coordinator is the first thing you

Join our Popup Shop on Saturday, April 26, at Napa Valley Linens in Emeryville, 1315 63rd Street. There, we’ll host a brunch from 11 am to 3 pm while offering great wedding advice. We’ll talk linens, budgets, menus and vendors. See you there!

Chanda Monique Eddens is the executive designer and owner of A Monique Affair.

Chanda aims to provide a beautiful and memorable experience, delivering an event that will enchant both you and your guests. www.amoniqueaffair.com

keepsakecakes.com

Danny Pintauro, who played Jonathan Bower for eight seasons on Who’s the Boss, married his partner Wil Tabares.

UCSF’s Judy Young celebrated another happy birthday with wife Cheryl Troup.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, middle left, has confirmed she is engaged to Los Angeles attorney Douglas C. Emhoff.

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Struggling Vines Produce Better Wine ARIES (March 21 – April 19) Your sense of self is likely to be felt like a 2000-piece jigsaw puzzle up in the air, and not connected. See if you can stretch your faith a little, trusting that you will soon have at least a border formed. It’s futile to strain your eyes trying to figure out the full picture right now. I’ll give you a hint… It probably has something to do with relationships. They have clearly been a source of upheaval lately, but they are helping you to form your new negotiable and nonnegotiable needse.

LEO (July 23 – August 22) Remember the famous line from the movie The Sixth Sense? “I hear dead people.” Currently your overall faith and the beliefs that give your life meaning are in a Fukushima meltdown. Listen to your ancestors, your guides, and your dead pets, as they are sending you much needed guidance with your shifting values. These values are the precursor to seeding your future legacy. (And it’s okay if you can’t actually hear the dead people with your ears.) A little faith goes a long way this month!

better.

Astrology Linda Amburgey As an astrologer who owns a metaphysical store, I have all the appropriate language to give you a feel-good, rainbows, dolphins, and unicorns kind of positive reframe. But in good conscience, and in alignment with my own triggers around the above, I have to tell you that this month sucks! The confluence of planetary pressure is likely to crack you. It has what it takes to knock you out of your habitual rut, and into discovering your current evolutionary direction.

Now, before you grab the end of that last sentence and envision yourself skipping merrily down True Purpose Lane, let the celestial influences work you as they will. In other words, resist the temptation to fast forward, prematurely repair, or go numb, during the rough stuff. I agree with Coco Chanel when she said, “Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.” Be willing to bring your total self into the dialogue, and release that which you have been holding so tightly. Many of the structures in our lives are kept well past their due date because we are just too afraid to let them go. Have faith that you are held together by something much greater than your own effort. Allow the cracks in your life to be large enough for your True Essence to emerge onto the fertile soil that is rich with evidence of your Presence.

Remember, struggling vines produce better wine!

TAURUS (April 20 – May 20) Wake up! This is a new beginning for you! Your own personal shakedown that first left you empty has now given you a pocket full of new values. Some of these values you will be willing to negotiate, and others, not so much. It’s time for you to bravely occupy what’s right for you, while offering your service and stability to others who are feeling more chaotic.

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20) What would you like people to say about you when you’re dead? Be imaginative and creative about the direction you want your life to begin taking. Be silent. Listen. There are universal secrets being revealed that only you can hear. They are whispers telling you the form that your self-expression is about to take. Pay attention to the beginnings and endings of relationships or your relationship patterns, as your inspiration is drawn from this field.

CANCER (June 21 – July 22) Massive shifts at work are forcing you to ground yourself in the only home you truly have: the one inside of your own skin and bones. It would not be wise to attach yourself to any specific form right now, because so much is currently unknown. Relationship triggers, or someone pulling rank on you, only strengthen your resolve to practice what you preach. Stay morally attuned to yourself and your confidence will bloom and soar. Choose humility over self-aggrandizement.

VIRGO (August 23 – September 22) Although it is your nature to work hard, to serve something other than yourself, and to master something by figuring it all out, it is now time to let go. Let go of old habits, old people, and old places that keep you rooted in survival mode. There is magic in the air and you will find relationships the source of this beauty. Don’t try to figure it all out. Just keep a bag packed and be ready to follow the delectable crumbs through the forest. It might lead you to a pot of gold, or it might lead you to a stinky swamp. The magic is in the journey, not the outcome.

LIBRA (September 23 – October 22) The seeds of your deeper, and very valid, emotional needs are just beneath the surface of the dark rich soil. Trust, if you can, that the extremely harsh weather at home and with your most treasured relationships is the necessary fuel to massage these needs to the surface. Your future self depends on your letting go of many old habits, codependent relating, and dismissal of your own desires. Your Aries polarity point is trying to send you a message about sacred selfishness.

SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21) The difference between intimacy and drama is that one is rooted in power struggles and one gains its strength from transparency and vulnerability.

You can addictively follow the yummy pleasures and temporary highs that lust, infatuation, and control give you, or risk baring your soul in order to contact and be contacted deeply. Both of these realms belong to your archetype and, like always, you are free to choose between light and dark.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21) You are pregnant with the magic of learning to serve something other than your own philosophical quest. This is something earthy, tangible and physical. All of the resources you need are within your reach, and your family and community are standing by waiting to lend you a hand. After all, it has been your optimism and enthusiasm that has brightened the path for them in the past. Receiving the blessings that are offered is as important as offering them.

CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19) No one will question your position as the King or the Queen.

However, they may question whether or not they want to follow you. Only those of you who have the wisdom of humility will be respected by those around you. Jesus led his followers with gentleness and compassion as his guide. There is a flock ready to follow you. Be willing to show them your sensitivities. Now is not the time to hunker down in your cave just because you are feeling unusually unarmored.

AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18) Your biological and imported clan is a great resource for you right now as you figure out what you truly value. Yes, you will always need your freedom, and I do recommend a VisionQuest journey soon.

However, do not neglect, deny, or overlook your valid human need for others. Sometimes the quest is in your own back yard, and your true liberation occurs because you have a home base upon which to return.

PISCES (February 19 – March 20) Your true currency is always going to be pure energy. Money is nothing more than the manifestation of pure energy. Play with your own wattage and let your energetic being brighten up the world. There is a difference between magical thinking and manifesting miracles. The difference is your involvement. Don’t merge yourself with another’s light; burn brightly with your own. This is a fantastic time to let others hear from you. Write it. Speak it. Sing it. Tell it.

Linda Amburgey has owned Crystal Way Metaphysical Center for 11 years, and has been an Intuitive Reader for 20 years. To book readings, or on-going counseling for couples, individuals or parties, please e-mail her at ConsciousCounsel@gmail.com or call 415-218-5096.

As Heard on the Street . . .

compiled by Rink

AL L PHOTOS BY RIN K

What would your Easter Bonnet look like?

Juanita More

Troy Brunet

Anna Damiani

Ken Henderson

Miguel Guiterrez

“My idea of an Easter Bonnet is a gorgeous wig. I’ve always considered my wigs to be hats.”

“White with blue polka dots, and with an orange lining and a wide brim”

“Lavender, with feathers and purple peeps”

“Crucifixion and resurrection”

“A carousel bonnet”

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Arts&Entertainment Literature

By Renate Stendhal Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), the selfdeclared “literary Einstein of the century,” is one of the most famous and least read of America’s authors.

During her lifetime, her writing was ridiculed and rarely found publication, unless she published it herself.

Her massive oeuvre of 600 titles is still a problem for the academic canon.

And yet, there is a popular Gertrude Stein whom everybody knows and loves to quote. “(A) rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” is the most quoted line of modern American literature, narrowly followed by “there is no there there.” The language revolutionary had a knack for playful, child-like one-liners that, even today, ring in our ears like pop tunes or advertisements. “Pigeons on the grass alas.”

“When this you see remember me.”

“I am I because my little dog knows me.” “Commas hold your coat for you.” “Before the f lowers of friendship faded friendship faded.”

In our post-modern context, her lines sound like “tweets,” and these tweets are loved, repeated, and reinvented by young writers and artists. When

Stein left Paris for an America tour, in 1934-35, she was broadcast reading her own texts. Her delivery of “If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of P ica sso” (1923) comes across like a modern performance piece: “ Shut ter s shut a nd open, so do queens. Shutters shut and shutters and so shutters shut and shutters a nd so, a nd so shut ters. A nd so shutters shut and so shutters shut and so shutters and so.” The rapid-f ire rhy t h m of her da rk , melod ious voice ma kes her t he unm ista kable f irst “rapper” of t he century.

There were other American expatr iates in Europe, major A mer ican writers like Henry James and E d it h W h a r t on , but G e r t r ud e Stein is the one with an enduring i n f luence on ou r contempora r y world.

The modern and post-modern relevance of Gertrude Stein has been recognized in 2011 by two major exhibit ions. Seeing Gertr ude Stein: Five Stories (at the Contemporar y Jewish Museum of San Francisco) was the f irst-ever show focused on Stein’s personalit y and life. The San Francisco Museum of Moder n A r t (SF MOM A) launched a parallel exhibition on the def ining inf luence of the Stein siblings on modern art: T he Steins Collect: Ma t i sse , P i ca sso a n d t h e Pa r i s i a n Avant-Garde.

Both shows, seen by some 350,000 visitors, ref lected the central pos it ion of G er t r ude Stei n i n t he bi r t h of moder n i sm, s ig n i f y i ng t hat she was much more t ha n a “mother” or “muse” to her famous a r t ist a nd w r iter fr iends. A s a n art patron—f irst with her brother L eo Stei n, t hen w it h her l i fe companion A lice B. Tok las—she was a trendsetter and tastemaker,

Renate Stendhal

P HOTO C OURT ESY OF REN AT E ST EN DHAL

Tender Buttons: The Corrected Centennial Edition of Gertrude Stein’s Avant-Garde Text

Gertrude Stein connecting artists and writers at her legendar y Par is sa lon at 27, rue de Fleurus. Row upon row of incend iar y, scanda lous art hung on her wa l ls— Cézanne, Renoir, Mat isse, Manet, t he Fauves and Cubist s —ma k i ng her st ud io, i n Heming way’s words, “one of the best rooms in the f inest museum.”

Now, one of her early cha l lenging texts, Tender Buttons, is coming out in a new edition by San Francisco’s City Lights Books. For the f irst time (since its publication in 1914), the book includes not only Stein’s f irst, original version, but a lso her ow n hand-w r itten ed its and correct ions. This g ives us a glimpse into “Stein’s ‘mind grammar’ operating at full tilt” (Anne Wa ldman). Stein’s revolut ionar y writing in Tender Buttons has been ca l led her met ic a nd “abst ract.”

She d id in w r it ing what P icasso a n d he r ot he r p a i nt e r f r i e n d s were doing in their Cubist painting. Writing had to be moved out of the grip of the nineteenth century. A ll naturalistic description, roma nt icism a nd sent iment a l it y had to be left behind.

I n t h r e e s e c t i o n s , “ O b j e c t s ,” “ Fo o d ,” a n d “ R o o m s ,” Te n d e r

B ut ton s present s Stei n’s opaque, often unrecognizable, sometimes sexy and funny, and always resolutely unconventional envisioning of t hings. “A sparag us in a lean, in a lean to hot.” “A shallow hole rose on red, a shallow hole in and in t h is ma kes a le less.” Readers are invited to decode or (in postmodern academic terms) contextualize her sentences, crack open her word games and double entendres and play along with the four lang uages Stein k new: Ger man, Y idd i s h , Fr enc h , a nd E n g l i s h .

Feminist inter preters cla im t hat those tender buttons of the title are

a lesbian allusion to erotic body pa r t s… I f t h i s g et s you g oi n g, ta ke hear t. Some l ines and passages are as easy as Stein’s evo cation of “A Petticoat”: “A light white, a disgrace, an ink spot, a rosy charm.”

Renate Stendhal, Ph.D. is the awardwinning author of several books, among the m the photo-biog raphy “ G ertr ude Stein in Words and Pictures” and the recently published “Lesbian Marriage: A Sex Survival Kit” (www.lesbiansexsurvival.com). For a related Gertrude Ste in e vent , happening on Apr il 23, please see the listing on page 24.

Teenage Captures Youth Culture’s Timeless Quest for Freedom Wolf, who wrote and directed the film, adapted gay author Jon Savage’s book, Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture, to show how teenage culture emerged over the decades pre- and post-war. One thing is common: teenagers, and youth in general aged 16-24, wanted one thing—freedom. They found it in cars, clubs, clothes, music, and even work, which empowered them.

Film

Gary M. Kramer Openly gay filmmaker Matt Wolf’s illuminating documentary, Teenage, is a fantastic mix of found footage, still photographs, and re-enactments of individual stories. The narration—British and American boys, and American and German girls—are supplied by out actor Ben Whishaw, as well as Jessie Usher, Jena Malone and Julia Hummer, respectively.

Teenage opens in 1904, when children as young as 12 years old would work in factory jobs up to 72 hours a week. Labor laws, the film explains, soon changed that, and adolescents were suddenly free to roam out on the streets. They formed gangs and created a problem for the authorities.

Youth groups like the Boy Scouts were formed to control kids, and also ready them for war. When World War I came in 1914, it decimated the young adult population.

Teens reinvented themselves as Bright Young People, and attended “Freak Parties,” where men and women would dress androgynously. They started taking drugs and soon became politicized, seek-

ing social and political change. Teenage also chronicles the rise of Hitler Youth, as well as youth subcultures including the Swing Kids, Zoot Suiters, and “InBetweeners.

I recently spoke, via phone, with 31-yearold Wolf about Teenage.

Gary M. Kramer: Matt, what were you like as a teenager?

Matt Wolf: Well, I was a very political teenager. I grew up in the Bay Area, and I got involved with other young people to protect gay and transgender teens in high schools. That was my whole world, the politics I was involved in.

GMK: Music is very important in Teenage. What did you listen to as a teen?

MW: A big part of my identity was music.

I chose albums because of their artwork. I got into the Smiths and the Cure. I lightly identified with punk, even though I didn’t look punk on the outside.

GMK: What group of teenagers do you identify with, or would you want to belong to, if you had been a teen between 1904-1945?

MW: It depends on the decade. I think I would be a Jitterbug, because there was a political dimension to them—celebrating African American culture and integrating social spaces. And they had incredible style and verve. In the 1930s I’d be involved in politics, and I’d be fighting for a different kind of future because that’s what I did as a teen in the 1990s.

G M K : C a n y ou t a l k a b out t h e B r i g h t Yo u n g Pe o p l e ?

MW: I was searching for a gay youth movement. The gender play and queer material in the 1920s provides a striking resemblance to the Warhol factory era.

I felt queer teen experience was explored in this part of the film. It was hard to find gender outlaws in the early 20th century amongst youth. I wanted to highlight that. (continued on page 26) BAY T IM ES APR IL 17,

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Interview

Acclaimed Transgender Choreographer Sean Dorsey Tells Our Story Through Dance particularly with those of us who are LGBT. What we also appreciate is that the works of Sean Dorsey Dance—the company he founded—are accessible to all. Go in with an open mind and you will likely come out bursting with ideas and inspired to put on your own dancing shoes.

We are happy to report that Sean Dorsey Dance’s Home Season for this year is just days away. Check out a performance! And find out here, as we did, what a well-spoken, thoughtful and good-natured soul Dorsey is.

Trailblazing transgender choreographer and dancer Sean Dorsey recently won a prestigious Isadora Duncan Dance Special Award for his production “The Secret History of Love.” It should be no secret that Dorsey is one of the most talented and articulate choreographers of our time, using both athleticism and text to deeply connect his projects with audiences, and

Sean Dorsey: All of my dances feature both movement and text. It’s fullthrottle, athletic, high-energy dancing, with clean lines and luscious queer partnering, but it’s all based in story and narrative. I’m passionate about making dances that people can actually understand and relate to. My work is very human; it’s not abstract.

PHOTOS COURTESY SEAN DORSEY

Sean Dorsey

Bay Times: As a choreographer, you are known for creating dances that are full-bodied and sensual, with your unique pairing of storytelling and movement. How would you describe your work?

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Bay Times: Congratulations on your recent Isadora Duncan Dance Award! What does this recognition mean for you and for the LGBT community?

Sean Dorsey: The “Izzie” Awards are like the Oscars for dance here.

As a choreographer, I was absolutely thrilled, and as an openly transgender/ queer artist I was so proud. The Award was for my show The Secret History Of Love, which reveals the underground ways that LGBT people managed to survive and find love and community in decades past. I created the show through archival research and by recording oral histories with LGBT elders across the US. These elders’ voices and stories are heard and seen in the show. It is significant that a dance project rooted in LGBT love/history gained such high-profile praise with this award. It’s really exciting.

Bay Times: You are currently touring The Secret History Of Love to 20 US cities – a feat enjoyed rarely by a dance company, let alone an LGBT dance company.

Sean Dorsey: We’ve toured to 15 cities so far, and every experience is extraordinary. We’ve visited big cities like Boston, Chicago and Miami – but also smaller cities like Chico and Whitewater, Wisconsin. We’ve been blessed with sold-out audiences almost everywhere we go. There’s a lot of national buzz and excitement about the project. In every city, we work directly with the local LGBT community, doing workshops and residencies. A huge treat for me is that it’s my first performance collaboration with my partner, brilliant transwoman singer-songwriter Shawna Virago (who performs in the show).

Bay Times: At your Home Season, you are performing a short “sneak peek” excerpt of the new show you are working on. Tell us about the project.

BAY TIMES APRIL 1 7 ,

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Sean Dorsey: My new show The Missing Generation will explore the contemporary impact of the loss of so much of an entire generation of gay and transgender people to AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. This sneak peek is exciting, because the whole show won’t premiere until 2015.

To create the show, I am traveling to cities across the US to record oral history interviews with longtime survivors of the early AIDS epidemic: people who have been living with HIV/AIDS for 25+ years, early AIDS activists, people who lost partners/friends/family, early healthcare providers. It’s been life-changing. It’s also really important for me as a transgender artist to bring transgender stories from the early AIDS epidemic into the picture. I take the honor of holding and sharing these stories very seriously and with great respect, tenderness and love.

Bay Times: Why did you start this project?

Sean Dorsey: I came to this project with a real sense of urgency. Most people my age and younger have no idea what the early AIDS epidemic was like, nor understand the profound ways it shaped our community. During my lifetime, we will see the passing of the last survivors of the early epidemic. We must capture these experiences and histories before they are lost forever.

Bay Times: I am excited that your Home Season will also include the exquisite piece Lou. Can you tell us about this work?

Sean Dorsey: Lou is a suite of dances based on the lifelong diaries of trailblazing transgender activist Lou Sullivan (1951-1991) who lived and died in San Francisco. Before his death from AIDS in 1991, Sullivan bequeathed 30 years of his diaries to the GLBT Historical Society. To create Lou, I researched this collection, compiled and distilled 30 years of Sullivan’s diary

writings into an original soundscore, and choreographed a piece based on his remarkable journey. It’s a powerful work to perform and to watch. I can’t wait to bring it back.

Bay Times: What’s next for you this year?

Sean Dorsey: Wow – a lot! I’ll tour to 6 cities, launch LGBT Community Creation Residences throughout California, travel and record oral histories, and make a new show! I also produce the Fresh Meat Festival of transgender and queer performance June 19-21.

I cherish my life and feel profoundly blessed to get to do what I do.

Sean Dorsey Dance — 2014 Home Season Thurs-Sat April 24-26 (8pm) Z Space, San Francisco Info/Tix: www.seandorseydance.com

Miss Beth Bicoastal Welcomes You to the Edge, and for Good Causes Too Kippy Marks: Please tell us about your work and achievements.

Gems of The Bay Kippy Marks

Beth Bicoastal She is luscious, beautiful, charismatic, talented and inspiring to so many. Yes, I’m speaking of the one and only bombshell, Miss Beth Bicoastal. I met Miss Beth several years ago and she amazed me with her on stage presence. Not only does she sing and play musical instruments, but she also does a tremendous amount of good within our community. Miss Beth is truly a Gem of the Bay.

Miss Beth Bicoastal: By day, I am an MFT that does social work for a local nonprofit advocating for homeless and low income clients. I have my MA in Expressive Arts therapy and am an adjunct faculty professor at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies). I received my undergrad degree in Psychology from Rutgers University in New Jersey, with a minor in creative writing. I made Dean’s list at Rutgers, and founded the Rutgers Electronic Music Club while I was a student there. At CIIS I learned to blend the medical model of RU psychology with eastern traditions of holistic and creative healing into an urban and modern collaborative approach to mental health treatment. I enjoy life coaching, client advocacy, resource linkage, and creative exploration for groups and individual clients.

By night, I work at the SF Eagle as a booking and promo agent part time. I also perform and MC for various community events and assist in planning charitable events through many different fundraising efforts. I am a singer, comedianne, and burlesque performer- often a combination of all 3. I was first runner up for Ms. SF Leather in 2013, and in 2011 I started a loving leather family we call the Haus of Starfish. We were top fundraisers for the annual Mama’s Family Leather Walk in 2012 and 2013. I host a monthly sexy open-mic event at Powerhouse every 3rd Saturday we call “Haus of Starfish Presents: Kink Salon,” that raises money for the AIDS Emergency Fund and the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund.

Kippy Marks: How does your work represent or otherwise connect with the LGBT community?

Miss Beth Bicoastal: Essentially all of my performances and events are fundraisers for local LGBT-related charities and non-profits. Also, most of my work at SF

(continued on page 26)

Sister Dana Sez: Words of Wisdumb From a Fun Nun

Sister Dana sez, “Well, yippee, it’s income tax time. And on April 17, most of America’s wealthiest citizens will no longer be paying Social Security taxes for 2014. The average member of the 1% of wage earners won’t pay into our Social Security system for the last seven months out of the year. Payroll contributions are only paid on the first $117,000. Even while Paul Ryan’s new budget proposes new tax cuts for these millionaires and billionaires, they don’t even pay Social Security taxes for the whole year. Yes, because they’re the job creators, right?!”

Onto less taxing news... THE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER’s annual fundraising soiree, A JAZZ TRIBUTE TO SF’S BEAT GENERATION, was held at City View at the Metreon. It featured a hosted bar, gourmet morsels, photo booths, music, dancing, and live entertainment by talented drag queens and other performers. It gave beatniks, hipsters, poets, and romantics the chance to celebrate and support all the ways in which the Center inspires our community to be stronger, healthier, and more fabulous. Senator Mark Leno presented a proclamation.

Now realize how much I love the Center, but I have to complain about the venue.

Close to a thousand people attended, but there were way too few bars to serve them. Each bar had lines five deep and stretched all the way to the rear. Also, the food ran out way too early. Perhaps this could be considered when planning next year’s soiree. Just sayin’. Here’s a thought: why not hold the next soiree IN the actual Community Center? No rental fee, bar could be donated, all four floors could serve food and entertainment. It’s a way to get people INTO the Center. And isn’t that the goal of the Center?

THE LESBIAN/GAY CHORUS OF SAN FRANCISCO and CITY SWING presented SWING BREAK, an evening of singing and big band jazz at the Mission Cultural Center. Since 1984, City Swing, an 18-piece big band, has delighted audiences by bringing to life the sounds of big band jazz and its greatest

composers. LGCSF Artistic and Music Director William Sauerland (who mostly sang and only partially directed this time) and City Swing Conductor and Trumpeter Bradley Connlain were co-hosts. Local treasure Tom Reardon gave two mesmerizing solos, “Come Fly with Me” and “Luck Be a Lady.” LGCSF’s full chorus, soloists, and small groups shared the stage with the band. We were enchanted by such vocal classics as an a cappella “Tenderly,” “Orange Colored Sky,” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (soloed by John Gulloto), and instrumental selections by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller. Before and after the show, mostly same-sex couples got to show off their swing dance steps.

“I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” featured Sauerland, Gullotto, Linda Rodriguey, and Fernando Ruelos. The trio of Wendy Tobias, Scott Turco, and Dale Danley gave a vivacious “Pep, Vim, and Verve.” The quartet of Tobias, Sauerland, Ruelos, and Gullotto crooned a dreamy “Moonlight Serenade.” The entire Chorus showed off their snazzy new silver and black vests as well as their silver throated singing. And how better to end a swinging evening than the Chorus doing “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing)!”

SH A N T I P ROJ ECT presented their 13th A nniversar y Margot Mur phy Breast Cancer Pro gram event, DOUBLE DOWN FOR SHANTI at the City Club of San Francisco. They provided casino games (Sister Dana was on a roll at the roulette table, but then got cocky and went belly up), cocktails, entertainment, silent auction, and a short inspirational program.

“There are few events in life more heartbreaking than being with a loved one and watching him or her succumb to a life-threatening disease,” said Executive Director Kaushik Roy. “Some of our most loyal supporters are precisely such individuals. Often, they share with me that, as difficult as it is to lose someone to illness, it is through that process that they discover a reservoir of strength and compassion in themselves that may otherwise not have surfaced.”

The event directly benefited Shanti’s Margot Murphy Breast Cancer Program, which provides care navigation, advocacy, emotional support, and health and wellness activities for more than 450 women with breast cancer annually. Shanti honored Tracy Curtis, past Shanti board member and an amazing community leader. Curtis has helped to raise needed funding. Wells Fargo is (continued on page 26) BAY T IM ES APR IL 17,

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See many more Calendar items @ www.sfbaytimes.com

compiled by Robert Fuggiti

Penny Rosenwasser – California Institute of Integral Studies. Free. 5:30 pm. (1453 Mission St.) www.pennyrosenwasser.com. Author Penny Rossenwasser discusses her book Hope in Practice.

The Vagina Monologues – The Uptown Nightclub. $20. 8 pm.

(1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) www.tvmoakland.bpt.me. The Vagina Monologues dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage, and excitement of womens’ experiences.

LYRIC’s 25th Anniversary Open House – LYRIC. Free. 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. (127 Collingwood St.) www.lyric.org. Enjoy an evening of food, community, and memories.

Grand Reopening Celebration – Castro Country Club. Free. 4 pm to 7 pm. (4058 18th St.) www.castrocoungryclub. org. Enjoy a reopening after the remodel of the Castro Country Club.

DJ Page Hodel – Starlight Room. $10. 11 pm to 1 am. (450 Powell St.) www.starlightroomsf. com. DJ Page Hodel plays a mix of Old School Funk and Soul with modern hits out today.

Lana Del Rey – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. $145. 8 pm. (99 Grove St.) www.apeconcerts.com.

The retro 60s vocalist gives a dazzling performance for one night.

Sean Dorsey Dance returns to the San Francisco stage April 24-26.

Great Egg Hunt – Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate. $3-$5. 12 pm to 3 pm. (2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland) www.dunsmuirhellman.com. Bring your picnic baskets and enjoy a day of fun.

Ellie Goulding – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. $42.50. 8 pm. (99 Grove St.) www.apeconcerts.com.

Ellie’s layered vocal parts bring a haunting complexity to her songs and an electrifying air to her performance.

Funny Tuesdays – Harvey’s.

Free. 9 pm. (500 Castro St.) www. harveyssf.com. Ronn Vigh hosts an LGBT comedy night.

Beatpig – Powerhouse. $5. 9 pm to 2 am. (1347 Folsom St.) www. beatbigsf.com. A themed party happening third Saturdays of the month.

Meow Mix – The Stud. Free. 9 pm. (399 9th St.) www.studsf.com.

A weekly cabaret variety show with drink specials.

Sleeping Cutie – Thick House. $30-$40. 2 pm. (1695 18th St.) www.thickhouse.org. A new musical and modern-day fairy tale in two acts, with music by Doug Katsaros. Through May 11.

Sunday’s a Drag Brunch – The Starlight Room. 12 pm to 2:30 pm. (450 Powell St.) www.starlightroomsf.com. Donna Sachet hosts an elegant brunch with modern dance numbers, classic singing, and hilarious comedy.

BIG! – The Stud Bar. Free. 6 pm to 1 am. (399 9th St.) www.phattestevents.com. A monthly bear dance party with drink specials, go-go dancers and hot Djs.

Alicia Silverstone – Jewish Community Center. Free. 7 pm.

(3200 California St.) www.jcc.org.

The Clueless starlet discusses her latest book, Kinda Mama, about her own take on fertility, pregnancy and birth.

Wanted – Q Bar. Free. 10 pm to 2 am. (456 Castro St.) www.sfwanted.com. Enjoy a night of dance and electronic music along with $2 drink specials.

Karaoke Mondays – Lookout.

Free. 8 pm to 1 am. (2600 16th St.) www.lookoutsf.com. KJ Paul hosts a weekly karaoke night.

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Easy – The Edge SF. Free. 7 pm to 2 am. (4149 18th St.) www.edgesf. com. Enjoy $2 well drink specials and a fun-loving crowd.

Tender Buttons – San Francisco Main Library. Free. 6 pm. (100 Larkin St.) www.sfpl.org. A celebration of the centennial of Gertrude Stein’s infamous Tender Buttons will be held at the Main Library in San Francisco.

Meditation Group – San Francisco Public Library. Free. 12 pm to 12:45 pm. (100 Larkin St.) www.sfpl.org. A weekly meditation group to find inner calmness and peace.

Castro Farmers Market – Noe St. at Market. Free. 4 pm to 8 pm. (Noe St. at Market) www.

pcfma.com. Enjoy fresh produce and local made foods and delicacies.

Happening every Wednesday.

Dining Out for Life – Participating restaurants. More than 3,000 restaurants across North America participate in Dining Out For Life by donating a generous portion of your check to an AIDS service organization. To find participating restaurants in San Francisco, visit www. diningoutforlife.com.

Monster Show – The Edge SF. Free. 10 pm. (4149 18th St.) www. qbarsf.com/edge. Cookie Dough hosts an unpredictable cast for a wild show.

Seventh Annual Lesbian Summer Camp – Pinnacles National Park. $75. April 24 – April 27. (Pinnacles National Park) jamyrson@hotmail.com. A fun, long weekend of women, camping, hiking, playing in the swimming pool, and music by the campfire.

Women’s Social – Francis of Asssisi. Free. 3 pm to 5 pm. (145 Guerroro St.) www.openhouse.org. Come join other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) women for food and conversation.

Jazz Hot Casino Cabaret – Beatbox.

Donation based. 7 pm to 10 pm. (314 11th St.) www.sfgmc.org. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus invites you to soak up the speakeasy vibe on our casino floor and indulge your inner Lana Del Rey will be at the Bill Graham card shark with games from blackjack to baccarat.

Civic Auditorium April 18.

The Missing Generation – Z Space. $15-$25. 8 pm. (450 Florida St.) www.seandorseydance.com.

Sean Dorsey Dance returns to the San Francisco stage April 24-26 with an evening of powerful dance.

Feminine Radiance – Love Journey. $65/person, $105/couple.

11 am to 6 pm. (Sebastopol, Ca) www.lovejourneytantra.com. Enjoy a day of renewal, radiance, fun and connection with Love Journey Tantra.

APIQWTC’s 27th Annual Banquet – The Legendary Palace Restaurant. $45. 5 pm. (708 Franklin St.) www.apiqwtc.org. PIQWTC’s 27th Annual Lunar New Year Banquet includes community performances, silent auction, raffle drawings and more.

Suicide Prevention Community Workshop – LGBTQ Community Center. Free.

10:30 am to 12 pm. (1800 Market St.) www.sfcenter.org. San Francisco Suicide Prevention hosts a free community workshop.

The Party Monsters - The Jazzschool. $15. 8 pm. (2087 Addison, Berkeley) 510-845-5373.

Dance to old school Motown & classic R&B tunes.

Openhouse 10th Annual Spring Fling – Four Seasons Hotel. $175+. 11 am to 2 pm. (757 Market St.) www.openhouse-sf.org.

Help ensure that the pioneers of our community—the LGBT seniors and older adults who paved the way for our rights and freedom today—can age with dignity, security, and community.

9 pm. (4 Valencia St.) www.dragatmartunis.com. Sing along to your favorite songs with friends and patrons.

Radical Vinyl – El Rio. Free. 8 pm. (3158 Mission St.) www.elriosf. com. A revolving cast of well known record collectors spin the most eclectic mix of vinyl you’ll find in San Francisco.

Treasure Island Flea – Treasure Island. $3. 10 am to 4 pm.

(Treasure Island) www.treasureislandflea.com. Shop art, antiques, clothes, furniture and more at this popular monthly flea market.

Video Tuesdays – Lookout.

Free. 8 pm. (2600 16th St.) www. lookoutsf.com. VJ 6PAC plays the best in music videos every Tuesday.

Solo Sundays – Stage Werx. $12-$25. 7 pm. (446 Valencia St.) www.stagewerx.org. A monthly showcase of hilarious, provocative and entertaining solo performances.

Trivia Night – Hi Tops. Free. 10 pm. (2247 Market St.) www. hitopssf.com. Test your trivia knowledge at this popular sports bar.

Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George – de Young Museum. $25.

9:30 am to 5:15 pm. (50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr.) www.deyoungmuseum.org. Presenting Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, organized by The Hyde Collection in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Through May 11.

Piano Bar 101 – Martuni’s. Free.

Beach Blanket Babylon – Club Fugazi. $25-$130. 8 pm. (678 Green St.) www.beachblanketbabylon.com. Enjoy Steve Silver’s famous musical revue packed with hilarious pop culture and political antics.

Sleeping Cutie will be at the Thick House through May 11.

Best Wishes for a Happy and Safe Easter, Passover and Spring!

LGBT Career Fair – SF LGBT Center. Free. 12 pm to 3 pm. (1800 Market St.) www.sfcenter.org. With employers ranging from NASA to Apple, from Macy’s Inc. to Kimpton’s Hotel and Restaurant, this career fair is certain to have something for everyone.

Trivia with Miss Kitty – Wild Side West. Free. 7 pm (424 Cortland Ave.) www. wildsidewest.com. A weekly trivia with fun prices and free to play.

Smack Dab Open Mic Night – Magnet. Free. 8 pm.

(4122 18th St.) www. magnetsf.org. An open mic night for all with host Larry-bob Roberts.

Alicia Silverstone will be at the Jewish Community Center April 21 BAY T IM ES APR IL 17,

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(ROSTOW continued from page 9) erroneous generalizations about our community adds surrealism to insult.

Readers? Have you ever seen a gay man running around gangsta-style with his pants around his hips in public? Emphasis on “public?” Oh, and notice that Mr. Patel “has nothing against us,” a mitigating aside that has become a de rigeur preface to even the most horrif ic antigay remark.

And f inally, keeping the previous item in mind, I recently read an essay (in the New York Times, bien sur) that questioned why the media tiptoes around words like “fag” when used in a news context. Why say that Mr. Patel “used a gay slur” or that someone “told the press to go away using language that cannot be repeated in this newspaper?”

Why not say “fag,” if that’s what was said or written? It’s not as if the media

itself has deliberately selected a slur or an obscenity. It’s part of the news story. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to look up a story ten times before I can figure out exactly what “slur” or “term of denigration” was employed in some situation that I’m trying to describe. We’re all grownups here. If the guy said it, report it. arostow@aol.com

(FILM continued from page 21) GMK: How did you discover Jon Savage’s book?

MW: In college, I read England’s Dreaming, his definitive history of punk, which analyzed culture in a broader way. But it wasn’t academic; it depicted a time and a place. When I heard about Teenage, I was intrigued. I also love hidden histories and stories we think we know about, but are told from a more obscure angle.

We assume youth culture originated in the 1950s, with rockers and beatniks, and there was this whole pre-history.

GMK: What was your approach in adapting the book for the documentary?

MW: At first, I thought it would be narrated by Jon, and an essay-style film. But that didn’t work. Jon was older, British, and spoke with the authority of an expert.

So I thought, how can we match the intensity and quality of the subject matter?

I recorded some first person voices from the material. And I told the story from the point of view of youth in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.

(GEMS continued from page 23) Eagle is linking community organizations to the venue, and promoting their events in order to support the fundraising efforts of our many deserving causes. I have also used my performance and event planning skills to work with various community organizations in San Francisco, such as the Ducal Court.

I had the title of “Prince Royale” in 2011, and am known as “Mama’s Miss Beth” to the large international organization called “Mama’s Family.” I throw toy drives for the holidays and do on-going fundraisers for the annual Leatherwalk.

Kippy Marks: How did you get started in your career, and who were some of the people that inspired and/or mentored you?

Miss Beth Bicoastal: I was a singer and dancer from a very young age, and was instantly attracted to the stage, Broadway and all things theater. I was fortunate enough to grow up on the Jersey Shore and had easy access to on-going performance arts and theatrical opportunities. I was raised Roman Catholic and first started singing in church choir and cantoring. I also participated in school choir, band, and drama programs. I played trumpet for 10 years and was in marching band in High School. I was also band president and section leader in my senior year. I was also in a ska/punk band in my “free time” with friends and we played shows at venues throughout NJ/NY/ PA during my high school years. I learned how to play piano and the basics of improv through this experience as well as (through) my jazz trumpet mentor/teacher Buddy Pastor. My voice teacher in high school, Mr. Ricotta, and my band director Tony Tafrow were great at pushing me to my potential and keeping me on my toes practicing daily and learning important good habits for technique training. In the end of college, I 26

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began experimenting with electronic music production and utilizing analog and digital equipment. In 2005, when I moved to SF, I began a project called Bicoastal Disorder that I still work with today, releasing tracks online that I produce with a friend back in NJ. Bay Times: What are your career goals for the future?

Miss Beth Bicoastal: My dream is to run a creative center for LGBT youth and adults that will give access to arts resources and instruction to those unable to afford materials or private lessons. I hope to have this space available as a performance space and counseling center for those in need of alternative healing as well. I want to use this center as data collection for studies and books to support the arts and counseling in order to improve our current social formal support system. Also, I am currently writing poetry and stories from my life experiences in order to release books in the future that can encourage young people to be outrageous, honest, and fabulous! I hope to continue teaching and performing, and I am always looking for new creative projects to participate in our LGBT community.

You can find me on Facebook at facebook. com/bethbicoastal and www.facebook. com/missbethsf. Some of my music can be found at: www.soundcloud.com/missbethsf Violinist Kippy Marks entertains audiences worldwide with his inspirational compositions and lively performances that draw from classical, jazz, blues and dance. www.kippy marks.us

And the second part of the coin was that this would be a panorama, and I wanted to give emotional beats to the story to break up the march of time. John’s book is littered with obscure figures for a paragraph or pages. So I created portraits of teens who were balanced in race, class, gender, and personality—from larger than life Brenda Dean Paul and Tommie Scheel, to the Hitler Youth and Boy Scouts.

GMK: What about choosing the voice-over talent? Did you have specific actors in mind?

MW: I wanted to work with really good actors. Jena Malone did a voice over in Into the Wild, and there was a singer-ly performance quality to her. I had a mutual friend with Ben Whishaw, and his voice was incredibly cool. He brought Keats poetry to life in Bright Star.

GMK: You mix still photographs with moving pictures and recreation. What can you say about the power of the images?

(SISTER DANA continued from page 23) Shanti’s presenting sponsor and the work- chive Exhibition, HOLY THURSDAY! place of Ms. Curtis, Regional President. MAGNET CELEBRATES 35 YEARS Senator Mark Leno presented Certifi- WITH THE SISTERS, 7-9pm at Magcates of Recognition to both Curtis and net (4122 18th Street between Castro and Shanti.

Collingwood Streets). Then COOKIE DOUGH’S MONSTER SHOW: Each year EQUALITY CALIFOR- “HOLY BROADWAY” is at The NIA (EQCA) honors the inspirational Edge, 9:30pm–12:30am, (4149 18th leaders and outstanding allied organiza- Street at corner of Collingwood Street), tions whose selfless work helps create a featuring us nuns performing. Good Fribetter world for all people. Equality Cali- day, April 18 is the third annual JESUS fornia is the largest statewide LGBTQ CHRIST SUPERSTAR SING -Aadvocacy organization in California LONG, a benefit for the Trans March working to secure full and lasting equal- with Sisters as ushers at the Victoria ity for and acceptance of queer people. Theatre, 7–10pm (2961 16th Street and Over the past decade, EQCA has part- Mission). Tix on sale at the box office. vicnered with social justice advocates, toriatheatre.org businesses, grassroots supporters, and legislative leaders to strategically move Easter Sunday, April 20th is The SisCalifornia from a state with extremely ter’s 35th Anniversary, EASTER IN limited legal protections for queer people GOLDEN GATE PARK: THE EMto a state with some of the most compre- ERALD JUBILEE, A “TRIP” TO hensive human rights protections in the OZ. And since it’s on 4/20 as well as benation. EQCA, together with our allies, ing the Emerald anniversary, this will be has successfully sponsored more than 85 The Greenest Easter Ever! NOT held in pieces of pro-equality legislation. THE Dolores Park, as in previous years, it takes EQUALITY AWARDS-SF was held at place at Hellman Hollow, 50 Overlook the Palace Hotel. The event recognizes Drive, San Francisco (formerly Speedway the achievements of the organization, Meadow), Fulton Street/25th Avenue. its sponsors, members, staff and volun- Children’s Easter starts at 10am. The teers, as well as the LGBTQ communi- Adult show begins noon and ends at 4pm. ty. Scott Shafer, KQED correspondent, This could well be the party of the year acted as emcee. Executive Director John with attendees encouraged to create their O’Connor spoke of the 13 states plus own Wizard of Oz themed costumes. The D.C. with marriage equality, and the fact day will feature some of the old standards that more and more states are coming to as well as all new features. There will be the right side of history every day. “We’re an Easter Egg Hunt and other fun acat the tipping point,” he said. He put in a tivities for the kids, and our adult show big plug for openly gay David Campos, on the main stage featuring music, burwho is running for State Assembly. lesque, and live entertainment - including our traditional Easter Bonnet ConDavid Campos, San Francisco Super- test and the Hunky Jesus Contest. visor (see story on page 1), presented SF With the addition of a new one - Foxy Director of Health Barbara Garcia as Mary Contest. Anyone can enter any Leadership Award Honoree; Fiona of them. Sister Roma and Sister Dana Ma, former Assemblymember, pre- will be judging, as usual. Cum one! Cum sented SF City Attorney Hon. Dennis all! thesisters.org Herrera, as Vanguard Award Honoree; and Terrance Heath presented And here’s something you can drop into transgender activist and technology that Easter basket. In a show of support entrepreneur Dr. Vivienne Ming as for the National Day of Silence on April State Farm Good Neighbor Award 11, JOSEPH NOGUCCI is donating Honoree. Frenchie Davis, finalist on 10% of its proceeds from the sale of the TV’s American Idol , sang two equality designer jewelry piece titled “the Rainemblematic songs: “Firework” by Katy bow Pride Bracelet” to the IT GETS Perry and “We Found Love in a Hope- BETTER Project. The National Day less Place.” of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take R I C H M O N D/ E R M E T A I D S a form of silence to call attention to the FOUNDATION held a fun fundraiser silencing effect of anti-LGBTQ bullying at Marines Memorial Theatre, BIG GAY and harassment in schools. Wear these COMEDY SHOW, produced by execu- lovely bracelets with pride - hand-woven tive directors Ken Henderson and Joe from rhodium-plated charms and handSeiler. It was an evening of outrageous finished with brilliant enamel polish usstand-up and musical comedy by an amaz- ing all of the colors in the rainbow. shop. ing group of performers including Bruce josephnogucci.com Vilanch, Shawn Ryan, Shann Carr, Marga Gomez, Ali Mafi, Kitty Ti- Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Mipata, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Jason chael Feinstein are thrilled to welBrock, Marga Gomez, Cassan- come back THE COUNTESS KATYA dra Cass, Leanne Borghesi, and SMIRNOFF-SKYY – Gaymerica’s B.O.O.B.S! Hilarity! favorite Russian redheaded drag queen – to Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason CUMMING UP! Street, for one-night-only with her hit show, BACK IN THE USSR, A VOYThe Easter Bunny is hop hop hopping AGE INTO THE BEATLES’ SONGdown the bunny trail with THE SIS- BOOK on Sunday, April 27 at 8pm.

TERS OF PERPETUAL INDUL- Katya will take audiences on a musical GENCE, beginning with the Sisters’ Ar- adventure that examines her personal

MW: I worked with recreations before with Wild Combination. (Wolf’s documentary about gay musician Arthur Russell.) I wanted to bring the characters to life, but they were obscure figures, with no footage or photos. So I used this device, but in a more involved process, recreating newsreels and home movies. Jon and I set out a rule that any story we told had to have a basis in archival footage. We were surprised that we found footage of so many of the youth cultures we depicted. I always privileged moving image material, but there are such remarkable photos from these decades, that I had to honor the power of those images when I could find a purpose for them. An image of teenage flapper girls carrying guns is intoxicating.

It had to find its way into the film. © 2014 Gary M. Kramer Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” You can follow him on Twitter @garymkramer.

relationship with the Fab Four, as only Russia’s (self proclaimed) greatest mezzosoprano-understudy-turned-Countess, could envision. It’s Abby Road meets The Met with a good dose of cabaret and “popera.” Tix at 866-663-1063 or visit ticketweb.com, russianoperadiva.com Join LAMBDA LEGAL’s Bay Area Leadership Council for SAN FRANCISCO SOIREE, Friday, April 25th, 6-11pm. Lambda Legal is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization working for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV/AIDS. Supporters will learn of Lambda Legal updates while taking in stunning views at City View at Metreon (135 Fourth Street) and enjoying a fantastic dinner. Call (212) 809-8585 ext. 231. lambdalegal.org One of the community’s most popular spring events, the 10TH ANNUAL OPENHOUSE SPRING FLING is a fundraiser to help ensure that the pioneers of our community - the LGBTQ seniors and older adults who paved the way for our rights and freedom today - can age with dignity, security, and community.

This year’s event will honor two individuals who have made outstanding contributions on behalf of queer seniors. Pam David will receive the Founders Award in recognition of her outstanding activism and community leadership, and Openhouse is also proud to honor Judge Vaughn Walker whose courageous ruling on Proposition 8 set the stage for the eventual overturning of that measure by the U.S. Supreme Court. Featuring the song stylings of Jason Brock. Sunday, April 27, 11am to 2pm at Four Seasons Hotel. openhouse-sf.org PORNUCOPIA: this week’s flick picks are OPEN ROAD, PART ONE AND TWO from ragingstallion.com MAGNET, the 18th and Castro health hub for gays and bi men, is currently exhibiting L AW OF IDENTITY: PORTRAITS BY MATTHEW WIEGAND. As a portrait artist, Matthew invites viewers to cultivate the skills of seeing themselves through the images of others. If viewers can absorb the beauty of the portrait before them, it will naturally reflect upon their own self. I admit, I may not be unbiased, but my two faves are of Bebe Sweetbriar and Sister Roma.

Sister Dana sez, “See you on Easter in Golden Gate Park, hunny bunny!”

P H OTO B Y S T E VE N UN DE R H I LL

P H OTO B Y S T E VE N UN DE R H I LL

P H OTO B Y S T E VE N UN DE R H I LL

Round About – All Over Town

P HOTO BY SAN DY M ORRIS

P HOTO BY SAN DY M ORRIS

P HOTO BY SAN DY M ORRIS

Family Builders supporters, volunteers and staff enjoyed the program and entertainment at the organization’s annual “Gift of Family” Luncheon held at Hotel Monaco.

PHOTOS BY S TE VEN UN DE RHIL L

Jaime Botello of Sullivan-Botello Events at the Pink Candy Buffet display at GGBA’s April Make Contact

Members of the popular band MILF — Karen Rozen, Trina Whiteside Rymland, Lisa Deborah Leal, Jane Summer and Veronica Savage - were among performers at El Rio for the benefit event Half Way to Mich Fest.

PH OTO B Y R I NK

PH OTO B Y JO - LY NN OTTO

Panelists at a session at the Fairmont Hotel during the SF International Film Festival included Rachel Rosen, Rod Armstrong, moderator Noah Cowan, Audrey Chang and Sean Uyehara.

PH OTO B Y JO -LYN N OTTO

PHOTO BY RIN K

The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s A sign was installed at the David Chiu for Sam McClure spoke at the April Make Contact network- Assembly headquarters on Castro Street. ing event held at AMSI Real Estate.

PHOTOS BY SAN DY M ORR I S

PHOTO BY RIN K

PHOTO BY RIN K

Musician Jean Fineberg (left) shared a moment with legendary lesbian artist Alix Dobkin (next to Jean) and her spouse Julie Dobkin (next to Alix) at the final “Third Thursday” women’s open mic event held at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club in Oakland. Event organizers Janet Rachel and Barbara Price welcomed attendees and thanked performers and all who have supported the event, which took place almost every month for the past 17 years.

Lesbian/Gay Chorus of SF members Catherine Dunford and Jeanz Galvan danced to the sounds of City Swing Big Band at the “Swing Operating as a gay bar at its Santa Clara location since 1964, Tinker’s Break” concert at the Mission Cultural Center.

Damn celebrated its nostalgic closing with drag performances and an appreciative audience.

BAY T IM ES APR IL 17,

2014

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