San Francisco Bay Times April 2, 2015 by San Francisco Bay Times

April 2-15, 2015 | www.sfbaytimes.com /SF Bay Times

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Flight Safety and Equality in the Skies

David J. Pettet, National Gay Pilots Association Executive Director

National Gay Pilots Association Represents Global LGBT Aviation Community

PHOTO OF SFO BY KYLE HARMON

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FLIGHT SAFETY AND EQUALITY IN THE SKIES

National Gay Pilots Association Advocates for Safety, Equality

PHOTO SOURCE: DEUTSCHES MUSEUM

Aviation safety is on many of our minds now, after a two-year period of deadly crashes involving everything from the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to last month’s Germanwings Flight 9525 crash involving co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. The latter proves just how important pilots are, given that our very lives are in their hands when we step on board a plane. We can at least take ample comfort in knowing that an incredible organization like the National Gay Pilots Association exists.

PHOTO SOURCE: MOTOR-KID.COM

NGPA is an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender aviation enthusiasts from around the world. It hosts a number of events each year and works to promote aviation safety, aviation excellence and equal treatment. Through education, outreach and annual social events around the country, NGPA works toward the following primary organizational goals: • encouraging members of the GLBT community to begin piloting careers

remember that during this time, members risked losing their jobs or being discharged from the military if they were outed as gay.

• fostering equal treatment of GLBT aviators through advocacy and outreach • promoting aviation safety • providing an affirming social and professional network for GLBT aviators

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NGPA

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, NGPA started off rather humbly. Its first event, held in Provincetown, Massachusetts, included only a handful of gay pilots. Communication then was just via telephone, and members were identif ied by having an airplane on their shirts. It’s important to

Even now there is a certain level of respected privacy, given the inequalities, bullying and more that still exist in all professions, with aviation being no exception. Today the organization is 2,200 members strong and includes some of the world’s most impressive, experienced pilots. Our jaws dropped here at the San Francisco Bay Times when we heard about some of their incredible titles, awards and other achievements.

One such pilot is David Pettet, who is the Executive Director of NGPA and has worked with many major airlines over the years. In fact, as we were interviewing Pettet, he was getting ready for a long flight to Australia, which went super smooth—per usual with him. For most of us, airline travel means the occasional vacation or business trip. For aviation experts like Pettet, it is a way of life. Thanks to his work and that of other talented airline industry professionals, our odds of dying in a plane crash are one in 11 million. To put that into perspective, your odds of dying in a car crash are about one in 491. The next time you get on a plane then, relax in your seat, take comfort in the statistics, and in knowing that NGPA members are working hard for our safety and equality both on the ground and in the skies. For more information, please visit http://www.ngpa.org/

Interview with National Gay Pilots Association Executive Director David Pettet pilots through obtaining their medical certificate to continue flying.

We were lucky to catch up with NGPA Executive Director David Pettet in between flights. The life of a professional pilot is a busy one!

San Francisco Bay Times: Given that you’re so well traveled, what are some of your favorite destinations that you would recommend, specifically for our LGBT readers?

S a n Fr a nc i sc o Bay Ti me s: Please share a bit about the history of the NGPA and the needs it serves. David Pettet: This year we are proud to be celebrating our 25th anniversary. When NGPA started, members didn’t know the last names [of other members] or whom they worked for in fear of losing their jobs. Today we host an annual job-recruiting event where recently we had 22 airlines at our event actively recruiting our members.

Golden Gate Flyers Based in San Francisco, Golden Gate Flyers is an organization for LGBT aviation professionals and enthusiasts. The Flyers host their own local activities, and also join similar groups from across the nation for the national events hosted by the NGPA. Members can network both socially and professionally. Like NGPA, aviation safety is always at the forefront, with members getting a chance to share their expertise with others. Social events for pilots are pretty amazing too. Think f lying to Paso Robles for a wine tasting, which they did last month, or traveling to Patrick’s Runway Restaurant in Napa

to check out the new restaurant in the Napa Airport terminal, which they did just after Valentine’s Day this year. The word “local” takes on whole new meaning too for a pilot, since the Flyers sometimes meet up at places like Palm Springs, Sunriver Lodge, Shelter Cove, Big Bear Lake, Oceano, Santa Barbara, Catalina and even Mexico. Check out the website for the Golden Gate Flyers: http://goldengatef lyers.org/index.php?opt ion=com _ frontpage&Itemid=1

S a n Fr a nc i sc o Bay Ti me s: How is f light safety promoted through your organization? David Pettet: NGPA is proud to offer our members safety tips and programs through our publications throughout the year, as well as safety seminars during our events. San Francisco Bay Times: Your group also of fers important networking, as well as social opportunities. Please highlight some of those. David Pettet: Through our mentorship program we are able to place

David J. Pettet

student pilots with a career pilot in the similar field to help during their training with questions and be an encouragement. NGPA hosts 3 major events a year: Palm Springs, CA, Fort Lauderdale FL, and Provincetown, MA. In addition to the three events, the NGPA is made up of local chapters that usually meet on a monthly basis. You can f ind a local group in most major cities, including San Francisco. San Francisco Bay Times: What are some of the LGBT-specific issues that your organization is focusing on now? David Pettet: The NGPA is working with the transgender community to help assist in equality through their transition. We also help assist HIV +

David Pettet: Personally, I love Europe. My roots are from Germany; it’s always a pleasure to go back to where my family originated from. The great thing about traveling as a job is, it never feels like a job. I’m always on vacation. San Francisco Bay Times: Any other travel advice to share with our readers? Vacations are obviously some of the best moments of our lives, but there is still skittishness associated with f lying. What can the basic traveler do to improve the overall experience? David Pettet: Air travel is still the safest mode of transportation for someone to travel. The NGPA is made up of talented, experienced, and passionate aviators who have a dedication to public safety. We love to share our passion for f lying with anyone who is interested. BAY T IM ES APR IL 2, 2015

FLIGHT SAFETY AND EQUALITY IN THE SKIES Photos courtesy of the National Gay Pilots Association

NGPA’s Education Fund Helps Aspiring LGBT Aviators and Allies Do you know an aspiring aviator? NGPA’s Education Fund provides scholarships to aviators with the desire to develop professional aviation skills and ratings beyond the private pilot certificate, and who have demonstrated community involvement, including support of the LGBT community. The fund has given more than $202,000 in 65 awards since 1998. In 2011, NGPA awarded its first David M. Charlebois scholarship. This is a special scholarship given to an exceptional candidate. The scholarship is named after one of the organi-

zation’s own members, David Charlebois, who was the First Officer on American Airlines Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. To be eligible for the scholarship, an individual must be pursuing a career as a professional pilot, or seeking to enhance their professional piloting skills. The individual must be at least 18 years old at the date of application, and must also have earned at least a private pilot certificate. Scholarship funds may be used to pay for advanced flight training, such as

Plane Queer Tells the History of Male Flight Attendants If you have noticed that there are more male f light attendants now than there were in the past, you are correct. The latest surveys reveal that there are about 25,268 American male flight attendants, which is three times more than there were in 1980. Author Phil Tiemeyer took note of this as well and penned Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants (University of California Press, 2013). The riveting book begins with the founding of the profession in the late 1920s and continues into the post September 11 era. It examines the history of men who joined workplaces customarily identified as female-oriented, and examines the various hardships these men faced. Here’s how the book opens: The Pre-World War II “Gay” Flight Attendant From histories of the flight attendant profession it would be easy to come away with the notion that America’s first flight attendant was a woman. Many accounts describe how a savvy Iowa nurse, Ellen Church, approached executives at Boeing Air Transport (the predecessor of United Airlines) in 1930 and prevailed on them to usher in a new female member of their flight crews who would keep passengers comfortable and assist them in emergencies. Far fewer accounts mention that such jobs actually existed before Church and that men, not women, held them. Pan Am’s inaugural flight between Key West and Havana on January 16, 1928, could be just as immortalized in flight attendant histories as Church’s first flight over two years later. An artist’s rendering of the 1928 flight shows the airline’s very first flight attendant, a nineteen-year-old Cuban Ameri can named Amaury Sanchez, standing in his black-and-white 4

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uniform and greeting passengers as they board the Fokker F-7 plane. While a few other men served before him, Sanchez was the first U.S. flight attendant on a so-called “legacy carrier,” and in that sense he represents the beginning of a line of men and women who would make their careers as airborne ambassadors of reassurance, charm, and service. Plane Queer pays particular attention to the conflation of genderbased, sexuality-based, and AIDS-based discrimination. Tiemeyer also examines how this heavily gay-identified group of workers created an important place for gay men to come out, garner acceptance from their fellow workers, fight homophobia and AIDS phobia, and advocate for LGBT civil rights. All the while, male f light attendants facilitated key breakthroughs in gender-based civil rights law, including an important expansion of the ways that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would protect workers from sex discrimination. In this issue of the San Francisco Bay Times we focus on the history of the labor movement in the U.S. through an LGBT lens (see page 12). LGBT flight attendants—both male and female—have made a positive difference and, although we see them each time we fly, they tend to be unsung heroes. The story of male flight attendants, in particular, is quite a page-turner. It certainly makes for absorbing reading while traveling. To read the f irst full chapter of the book and to order it (there’s a nice discount if you buy another particular well-rated LGBT-themed book) visit: http://www.ucpress.edu/book. php?isbn=9780520274778

instrument, multi-engine, commercial, instructor, or ATP training. An independent selection committee reviews the candidates’ applications and ranks the candidates based on the applicant’s demonstrated excellence in personal and aviation accomplishments including motivation, teamwork, history of achievement, attitude, leadership, and involvement in volunteer and LGBT activities. The 2015 NGPA Education Fund Scholarsh ip appl icat ion is now available: http://w w w.ng pa.org/ content.aspx?page_ id=22&club_ id=189069&module_id=134881

When you’re in good health, we all win. St. Mary’s Has Been Awarded the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Excellence Two Years in a Row. If you’re looking for a hospital where you’ll be treated with kindness and award-winning care, you don’t need to look far. At St. Mary’s Medical Center, we’ve received the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ two years in a row—because caring for our community with expertise and kindness means everyone wins. Learn more at stmarysmedicalcenter.org.

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With over 400 commodities in production, California has unparalleled agricultural diversity. Despite such bounty, nearly fifteen percent of California households faced food insecurity, or inadequate access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food.

Water Future: Will We Have One? gram. This is precisely where my legislation will help. My AB 1321 will set up a state framework to capture and direct a $100 million pot of funds within the federal farm bill to help more families. Since these funds were set aside specifically to expand healthy food access to farmers’ markets serving disadvantaged communities, we have a huge opportunity ahead.

In my hometown of San Francisco, despite today’s economic boom, nearly one-third of residents face food insecurity.

Recognizing that diet is the Assemblymember Phil Ting foundation for good health, I With 2.5 million households am authoring legislation to exprojected to receive SNAP this year, and given pand access to healthy food for low-income famiour rank as 50th among states in the rate of SNAP lies by harnessing the power of our local farmers’ participation, we need this legislation to boost use markets. of this nutrition program. By harnessing CaliforMy Assembly Bill (AB) 1321 would double the purchasing power for families participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the federal food stamps program— when they buy fresh fruit and vegetables at local farmers’ markets. By expanding access to healthy choices, we can put nutrition back at the center of this nutrition benefit program. Bay Area non-profit organizations have pioneered this concept through the Market Match program, which “matches” or doubles the amount of funds that SNAP families can spend at over 150 farmers’ markets across California. Overall, the program has increased participation in nutrition benefit programs at participating markets up to 700 percent. And, as a result of the program, 69 percent of local farmers selling their produce at farmers’ markets report that they have new and loyal customers. A visit to the Mission Community Market in San Francisco, the Jack London Square Farmers Market in Oakland, or the Main Street Farmers Market in Richmond gives you a glimpse of the Market Match program in action. The unfortunate problem plaguing Market Match has been that demand often outstrips available funding to run the pro-

nia’s network of 700 certified farmers’ markets, we can provide an incentive for more families to participate by creating more options for them to put healthy, delicious food on their tables.

The timing of this legislation could not be more critical. The drought has pushed food prices upward, putting a squeeze on families still waiting for the economic recovery to benefit their bottom line. The SNAP nutrition program is almost entirely federally funded. This year, Governor Jerry Brown anticipates that California will receive $2 billion in funding to run the program. Imagine the possibilities ahead of us by tapping into this considerable sum to enable millions more Californians to shop at farmers’ markets. By bringing healthy and nutritious food to neighborhoods with few grocery options, we can harness the power of farmers’ markets to get people excited to try new foods and to eat right. We would also see healthier communities and a boost to our local farming economies. That is an exciting path where California should lead the nation. Phil Ting represents the 19th Assembly District, which includes the Westside of San Francisco as well as the cities of Broadmoor, Colma and Daly City.

Historically, LGBT leaders and elected of f icia ls have needed to fight for our rights even when we were the only ones bringing up a topic, which often made others uncomfortable. In addition to working for progress on LGBT rights, our LGBT leaders also have a history of bold leadership on other issues that might seem unrelated to LGBT concerns, but which also require thinking outside the box, and proposing new, sometimes controversial, solutions.

Out of the Closet and into City Hall

willing to change the ways we do things, such as using greywater/recycled water, charging higher prices for big water users, adopting a moratorium on fracking and injection of dangerous chemicals into drinking water supplies, and changing agriculture patterns to better align with water use (and, by the way, hemp uses far less water to produce similar output as cotton—which is a heavy water use plant).

I recently led the Oakland Oakland Vice Mayor City Council’s unanimous So, Harvey Milk, proudly the Rebecca Kaplan adoption of a resolution f irst openly gay Supervisor in San Francisco, led the adoption of “pooper in support of a fracking moratorium. And last scooper” laws, and fought for racial justice in week, Senator Mark Leno—one of the leaders city hiring and promotion. Other LGBT lead- at the State level pushing the administration to ers have been at the forefront of innovation protect our water supply from poisons—along including undoing the archaic “war on mari- with seven of his Senate colleagues, sent a letjuana,” fighting for sustainable, transit-oriented ter to Governor Brown warning that California’s current oil extraction efforts are reckless development, and more. and that it could lead to a contamination of our Now California faces a new crisis—an incongroundwater. venient truth that our water supplies are not meeting demands, and a combination of warm- Is water an LGBT issue? Well, we certainly all ing weather, heavy water usage, and the pollu- need a future in which we have safe water to tion of our drinking water with toxic chemicals drink, and if we can bring innovative solutions by the petroleum industry has the potential to to California’s long-term viability, and contribthreaten our water supply, human health and ute to the shift needed to accomplish it, then we should do so. our long-term survival. Solv ing this problem requires confronting uncomfortable realities and questioning the practices of the powerful, such as the ongoing use of dangerous “ fracking” for fossil fuel extraction in California, which threatens our drinking water and can increase earthquakes. It requires being

PHOTO BY JO-LYNN OTTO

Fresh Food for All

Rebecca Kaplan has a long history of working for fairness, justice and progress, and is the first out lesbian ever to hold elected office in Oakland. Elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 as councilmember at-large, she represents all of Oakland. Her colleagues elected her as Vice Mayor in 2015.

Know Your Rights/California: Social Security and the LGBT Community

Need more money for rent, food or healthcare? DON’T LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE BY MISSING THESE TOWN HALLS! Learn how you may be eligible for additional monthly benefits resulting from the 2013 Supreme Court Windsor decision, which opened up hundreds of federal benefits previously denied to same-sex couples. Oakland Town Hall (in partnership with Oakland Pride and East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club) When: Tuesday, April 7th at 6:00PM Panel Discussion Moderated by Peggy Moore San Jose Town Hall (in partnership with the Billy DeFrank LGBT Center) Wednesday, April 8th at 6:30PM Panel Discussion Moderated by Wiggsy Sivertsen Sacramento Town Hall (in partnership with Sacramento LGBT Community Center) Thursday, April 9th at 6:30PM Panel Discussion Moderated by Rob Stewart Light refreshments served. For more information on these Town Halls, visit: http://www.ncpssmfoundation.org/Portals/0/know-your-rights-initiative-california.pdf To RSVP, please email knowyourrightsca@gmail.com.

National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Foundation 10 G Street NE, Suite 600 • Washington, DC 20002 202.216.8444 • www.ncpssmfoundation.org

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Know Your Rights/California has been generously funded by The California Wellness Foundation

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Tennessee Williams: Timeless Playwright of The Human Condition fastest selling show in the company’s history. The play has yet to lose its theatrical or emotional power.

Rainbow Honor Walk Dr. Bill Lipsky While working as a contract writer for MGM in 1941, Tennessee Williams submitted a screenplay titled The Gentleman Caller. In a classic “Are you kidding?” moment, the studio rejected the script because it did not have a happy ending; it preferred that he write what he termed “a celluloid brassiere” for Lana Turner. Instead, Williams transformed it into the work of art that debuted on stage in Chicago as The Glass Menagerie in 1944. It opened on Broadway in 1945 to glowing reviews, ran 16 months, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as Best American Play of the year, and revolutionized American theater. Some have called The Glass Menagerie “the perfect play.” Williams had deliberately set out to create a new kind of “plastic theater” that would replace what he saw as “the stale conventions of theatrical realism.” Instead of attempting to depict real people and experiences on stage, Williams wished to convey their spiritual and emotional truths. His concern was not with the crises and triumphs of extraordinary lives, but with “a dark universe that the innocent persist in calling ‘home sweet home,’” a dream world where selfdelusion becomes its own subjective reality. Set in 1937, its characters are alive, if not well, today. They include those who suppress their true selves to be whom others want them to be and who then create a dream world where their fiction becomes their truth. By itself, The Glass Menagerie would have given Williams literary immortality, but he followed it in 1947, only two years later, with A Streetcar Named Desire, which many consider to be the greatest play ever written by an American. It too presents characters who are not so much concerned with truth, but with “what ought to be the truth.” Since its Broadway debut, the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award winning drama has been produced more than 20,000 times around the world, becoming the Davidpopular Perry oversees most Amerithe Rainbow can play ever Honor written. Walk series. version, He is A musician co-founder coOh, Streetcar!,and debuted chair of the nonprofit in 1992, with Marge R a i n b o was H onor Simpson Blanche Walk,Ned which has cre-as and Flanders ated a landmark meStanley. It became an morialwhich in thepremiered Castro toin heroes and opera, San Franheroines of the community. cisco in 1998. InLGBT 2014, 67 years after is performance, also the CEO andproduction Founder itsHe first a new of Dav id Perr y & A ssociates, at the Young Vic became the fastest http://www.davidperry.com/

After Streetcar, Williams was an unstoppable creative force. A list of the plays he wrote over the next dozen years reads like a catalog of the best American theater of the era: Summer and Smoke (1948); The Rose Tattoo (1951); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), for which he received his second Pulitzer Prize; Suddenly, Last Summer (1958); Sweet Bird of Youth (1959); Night of the Iguana (1961), which won him yet another New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as Best American Play of the year; and more. One of the so-called “literary pink triangle” that also included Gore Vidal and Truman Capote (who hated each other), Williams’ sexual orientation was an open secret. From the beginning of his success, he wrote of the destructiveness of the closet—of every closet—concerning the emotional

2014/15

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An Evening with Bruce Hornsby Pianist, composer, singersongwriter, and multiple Grammy Award-winner Bruce Hornsby’s live album, Bruce Hornsby Solo Concerts, is included with the purchase of each ticket. The CD can be picked up at the concert.

Apr 15 Z EL L ER B A C H H A L L

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Alice’s Restaurant: 50th Anniversary Tour Hear inspirational music with timeless stories steeped in social consciousness.

Apr 17 Z EL L ER B A C H H A L L

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater scarring and lasting damage caused by not being your true self, by trying to be whom others want you to be. His goal, he said, was to air out all of those “closets, attics and basements of human behavior,” which he did continuously. For him, there was no excuse for evasion.

Robert Battle Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya Associate Artistic Director See premieres by Shechter, Buglisi, Moses, and Rushing Plus returning favorites, including Revelations

Homoerotic desire permeated his work and its denial, not its reality, precipitates disaster. By showing the destructiveness of non-acceptance of gays by gay and straight alike, Williams “made an immortal contribution both to the American theater and to the gay imagination.” He was even more frank and forceful in his short stories, where he frequently and specifically addressed the damage faced by homosexuals from the repression of a harsh, uncaring, bigoted society. A love for men also suffused his personal life. His most enduring romantic relationship was with Frank Merlo, whom he first met in the late 1940s. It was a time when celebrated gays often hid their homosexuality by appearing in public and going to parties with understanding women. Not Williams. In an especially closeted Hollywood, Vidal observed, “Only Tennessee dared attend these parties with Frank Merlo on his arm.” Merlo became Williams’ personal secretary and provided stability and balance, as well as love and happiness. Although they were no longer together when Merlo died in 1963, Williams went into a deep depression that lasted for the next ten years. The plays Williams produced after Merlo’s death failed to find an audience at the time of their premieres, but many are now being rediscovered and (continued on page 26)

“Unbelievable. Go see Ailey. It’s change-your-life good.” —NBC’s Today Show

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In the News By Dennis McMillan

Groundbreaking Legislation Passed to Prohibit Discrimination of LGBT Seniors On March 31, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the Longterm Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights Ordinance (see story by Marcy Adelman on page 11). The ordinance originated as a recommendation from the LGBT Aging Task Force’s policy report. It prevents discrimination against patients in long-term care facilities based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV status. First Ever LGBTQ Population Survey Shows SF at 6.2% The San Francisco metropolitan area has the highest percentage of the adult population who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender of any of the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, followed by Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas - according to more than 374,000 Gallup Daily tracking interviews. Variation in the percentage who identify as LGBTQ across the largest metro areas is relatively narrow, with San Francisco’s percentage just 2.6 percentage points higher than the national average of 3.6%, and the lowest-ranked metro area Birmingham, Alabama - one point below the national average. San Jose may be the most surprising metro area to be among the 10 lowest, because it is home to the Silicon Valley and many technology companies that have been among the most vocal supporters of LGBT rights in corporate America. pewsocialtrends.org Historic Gay Bathhouse Transformed to Puppy Paradise The building at 130-132 Turk Street has been gutted by the previous owner, and it was full of history. From 1932 to 1983, the building housed the City’s largest and oldest gay bathhouses, The Club Turkish Bath House and later renamed Bulldog Baths. After 30 years of vacancy, Bulldog Baths is a sanctuary again - but this time for dogs. Bulldog Baths Dog Resort aims to provide doggie daycare and overnight lodging services for canines. Bulldog Baths has partnered with Rocket Dog Rescue and Grateful Dogs Rescue to take in fosters seeking new homes. bulldogbaths.com Mayor Lee Boycotts Indiana for LGBTQ Discrimination Mayor Edwin M. Lee issued an official statement after Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law that legalizes discrimination against LGBTQ individuals: “We stand united as San Franciscans to condemn Indiana’s new discriminatory law, and will work together to protect the civil rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.” He said effective immediately, he was directing City Departments under his authority to bar any publicly-funded City employee travel to the State of Indiana that is not absolutely essential to public health and safety. He explained that San Francisco taxpayers will not subsidize legally-sanctioned discrimination against LGBTQ people by the State of Indiana. sfmayor.org Supervisor Christensen to Introduce Ellis Act Resolution

H AVA N A N I G H T S Join Lambda Legal’s Bay Area Leadership Council and supporters for a fabulous night in San Francisco! Friday, April 17, 2015, 6:00 - 11:00 PM City View at Metreon 135 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA Contact Jennifer Bing at 415.800.8127 or info@bing-sf.com For more information about sponsorship and tickets, visit lambdalegal.org/sfsoiree2015

Supervisor Julie Christensen will introduce a resolution in support of State Senator Mark Leno’s SB 364, and will call a hearing to identify programs and resources available to assist in the preservation and retention of existing market-rate housing, particularly rent-controlled units that are high risk targets for eviction. Ellis Act evictions have increased 165% over the last three years with 215 evictions in the last 12 months. But even these numbers do not accurately reflect the true impact of Ellis evictions because until earlier this month, the City had no mechanism for tracking buyout offers. In the short time Supervisor Christensen has been in office, there have already been several egregious evictions, potentially displacing workingclass tenants, artists and seniors from their rent-controlled units. It is hoped that by returning local control of the Ellis Act, the current housing crisis at the local level can improve. sfgov.org Hearing Scheduled Regarding LongTerm HIV Survivors

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Supervisor Scott Wiener and Supervisor David Campos are sponsoring a hearing to discuss the expected financial needs created by the increase of people living with HIV/AIDS who will lose their private dis-

ability insurance as they become eligible for Social Security benefits. This includes discussion on the fact that the percentage of San Franciscans living with HIV/AIDS who are 50 years or older has increased by more than 100% since 2004 and now comprises 55% of the total population of HIV-positive people living, and the projected number of San Franciscans who will be affected by the transition from private disability insurance to social security eligibility. Quit Smoking Program Reaches Out to LGBTQ Medi-Cal Members In order to help more Californians quit smoking, the Medi-Cal Incentives to Quit Smoking (MIQS) program is specifically including LGBTQ Medi-Cal members in its outreach efforts. Qualifying Medi-Cal members can call the California Smokers Helpline at 1-800-NO-BUTTS (1-800662-8887) to participate in free telephone counseling sessions to quit smoking and can receive free nicotine patches. Callers who mention “Promo Code 88” can also ask for and receive a free $20 gift card after completing their first counseling session. Nicotine patches and $20 gift cards are available until supplies last. Counselors are available weekdays, 7 am to 9 pm and weekends, 9 am to 5 pm. nobutts.org/miqs Town Hall Meetings Give Information on LGBTQ Couples’ Social Security Benefits A series of Town Hall meetings about Social Security benefits newly available to same-sex married couples is coming to Northern California. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Foundation, together with local partners, is reaching out to LGBTQ communities and individuals through Know Your Rights California, a series of Town Hall meetings and webinars to educate LGBTQ same-sex married couples of potential benefits they may be missing and motivate them to file claims with the Social Security Administration. Meetings will be held in Oakland - April 7 with moderator Peggy Moore, adviser to Mayor Libby Schaaf; San Jose - April 8 with moderator Wiggsy Sivertsen, BAYMEC cofounder; and Sacramento - April 9 with moderator Rob Stewart, host, Rob on the Road TV Show. foundation@ncpssm.org Second Annual Gay-Straight Alliance Day Available to Students Gay-Straight Alliance Day is on April 8, bringing together 8th grade and high school students in GSA and Diversity Clubs across the San Francisco Unified School District. The inspiring and educational day will feature workshops, speakers and performances geared towards the LGBTQ community. GSA Day will be held from 9am to 2:10 pm at Lincoln High School and the Office of School Health Programs (Quintara Street and 24th Avenue in the Outer Sunset). For more information contact Erik Martinez, LGBTQ programs coordinator, Martineze1@sfusd.edu California Attorney General Tries to Block “Sodomite Suppression Act” California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris has attempted to block a proposed ballot initiative that calls for the execution of those who engage in gay sex. Harris has asked for judicial authorization to quash the so-called “Sodomite Suppression Act,” authored by Matt McLaughlin, an Orange County lawyer. According to the proposed initiative, those involved in gay sex should “be put to death by bullets to the head by any other convenient method.” It also called for those indulging in “sodomistic propaganda” to be fined $1 million per occurrence and/or up to 10 years in jail, and/or exile from California. Harris said she was seeking judicial authorization not to write the title and summary for the Act. rawstory. com Forum Concerning Religion-Based Opposition to LGBT Rights Scheduled Horizons Foundation is presenting a free forum where a panel will explore religiously based opposition to LGBTQ rights,

their evolving tactics and strategies, and how the queer community can respond. They will also touch on some of the broader issues our international brothers and sisters are facing in even less tolerant parts of the world. Panelists are Elizabeth Gill, senior staff attorney, ACLU of Northern California; Michael Keegan, president, People for the American Way; Justin Tanis, managing director, Center of Lesbian & Gay Studies, Pacific School of Religion; with Moderator Bishop Yvette Flunder, City of Refuge United Church of Christ. Thursday, April 9, 6pm to 8pm, Merrill Lynch 8th Floor Conference Room, 555 California Street. Register at events@horizonsfoundation.org SF General Hospital and Trauma Center Is Hiring Nurses San Francisco’s Department of Public Health and Department of Human Resources are partnering to hire registered nurses in preparation for the opening of the new San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center acute care and trauma building in December 2015. More than 100 registered nurses will be hired in many specialty areas, with top priorities in emergency care, medical-surgical, critical care and peri-operative services. The hospital provides inpatient care to more than 100,000 patients annually, so nurses with acute care experience are strongly encouraged to apply. Also desired are bilingual nurses who speak Spanish, Cantonese and other languages to provide compassionate care to a diverse patient population. Prospective SFGH nurses can apply online at sfdhr.org HIV+ Out of Care Responsible for 91% of New Infections According to an AIDS.gov blog post, the CDC study, first published in JAMA Internal Medicine, estimates that 91.5 percent of new HIV infections in 2009 were attributable to people with HIV who were not in medical care, including those who didn’t know they were infected. In comparison, less than six percent of new infections could be attributed to people with HIV who were in care and receiving antiretroviral therapy. AIDS Healthcare Foundation says study results suggest that HIV/AIDS resources be directed toward HIV testing, linkage to medical care and antiretroviral treatment rather than to more expensive prevention methods like PrEP. aidshealth.org Anti-Herpes Drug May Help Control HIV, NIH Study Finds Valacyclovir, a drug commonly used to control the virus that causes genital herpes, appears to reduce the levels of HIV in patients who do not have genital herpes, according to a study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Emory University, Atlanta and Lima, Peru. The study of 18 patients is the first to show that the drug does not require the presence of herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) to suppress HIV in patients. The researchers hope to confirm their results in a larger study. The researchers found that when the patients took valacyclovir, their blood HIV levels declined significantly. Typically, HIV patients take a cocktail of several anti-HIV drugs because a single drug is not enough to suppress the virus. Multiple HIV medications also hinder the virus’ ability to develop resistance to the drugs. exchange. nih.gov Plans Underway to Fix Buena Vista Park In response to ongoing safety problems, irrigation challenges, and an aging urban forest, a long-brewing effort to fix up the oldest park in the city, Buena Vista Park, is finally coming together. The park has not had a written management plan since the City’s Master Plan was written in 1987, and the last capital improvement projects to the southeastern slope of Buena Vista Park ended in 2008. There were two citywide park bonds approved in the last decade, but Buena Vista was not a beneficiary of either. The Buena Vista Neighborhood Association (BVNA) and Friends of Buena Vista Park are working together with the Recreation and Parks and Public Works Departments to create a Capital Improvement Plan. Neighborhood groups and City departments held the first of three meetings to ensure that the oldest park in the city is no longer an afterthought. hoodline.com

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Round About - SF LGBT Community Center’s Soiree 15

Photos by RINK

PHOTO COURTESY OF GARY VIRGINIA

Limitless - Celebrating Our Community’s Future was the theme of the SF LGBT Community Center’s Soiree 2015 held on Saturday, March 28, at Metreon’s City View. The evening began with a sold out VIP Dinner, followed by the party and silent auction with more than 600 attending. Performers included aerialist Nina Stewart, opera singer Breanna Sinclaire, SultryLapel Anderson, Jet Noir, VivvyAnne ForeverMORE and Rahni NothingMore, along with DJ’s Jaqi Sparro, Bret Bowerman and CarrieonDisco (Pound Puppy). Food stations featured selections from Brenda’s French Soul Food, Delessio Market and Bakery, Hard Rock Cafe SF, Kainbigan, Powered By Pork and Proposition Chicken. The annual Soiree is the largest event benefitting The Center which is noted for the array of programs it provides. To learn more, visit www.thecenter.org

BAY TIMES APRIL 2 , 2 0 1 5

LGBT Senior Care Facilities Bill of Rights Unanimously Approved

Aging in Community Marcy Adelman On March 31, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the groundbreaking LGBT Senior Long Term Care Facilities Bill of Rights. The much-needed ordinance, the first of its kind in the country, had been strongly recommended by the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force. “This ordinance is the direct result of the important work of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force,” said Openhouse Executive Director Seth Kilbourn. “By passing this Bill of Rights, Supervisor Wiener and the Board have established critical protections for LGBT seniors who are particularly vulnerable without immediate family members and other personal advocates to ensure they receive the highest quality of care in long-term care facilities.” Last month, before the Board of Supervisors, National Center for Lesbian Rights senior attorney Amy Whelan movingly shared a story about a gay couple who had been partnered for 20 years. A California county separated the pair, such that each individual was placed into a different nursing facility. NCLR stepped in to help, but before the couple could be reunited, one partner passed away alone. Now, with the new ordinance, it will be illegal to discriminate against patients in long-term care facilities based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV status. We know that LGBT seniors in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are at their most vulnerable. At a time in your life when you need to focus all of your resources on getting well and staying as healthy as possible, the last thing you need is to have to fight for your right to be treated with dignity and respect. A survey, however, by the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC, 2011), which included San Francisco and Bay Area respondents, found that these might well be the circumstances you will face.

In the NSCLC’s study, 43% of the LGBT participants reported experiencing and/or witnessing discrimination in long-term care facilities, and almost 90% of LGBT care facility respondents reported that it would be unsafe to be openly LGBT in a facility. One 83-year-old San Francisco respondent reported that the staff of his partner’s nursing facility was so uncomfortable with his being gay that they refused to bathe him for more than two weeks. The LGBT Aging Policy Task Force prioritized the need to protect this vulnerable population by recommending legal protections and by providing clear and simple guidelines to prevent mistreatment, especially for transgender seniors. Guidelines for culturally competent LGBT client-centered services are not only necessary, but are also often requested by senior service providers themselves who are unsure how best to serve their transgender clients. The new city ordinance is detailed in its description of the senior serving facilities’ responsibilities towards LGBT residents. Discrimination in admissions, transfer, eviction, room assignment and visitation are clearly laid out. For example, in regards to transgender seniors, the law mandates that facility staff respect transgender and gender non-confirming individuals’ identity and expression for bathroom use, preferred names, pronouns and dress. To ensure the effectiveness of this proposed ordinance, facilities are required to designate a staff member as an LGBT liaison and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission is empowered to investigate and mediate any complaints. Chair of the Task Force’s Legal Committee, Daniel Redman, an attorney at Johnston, Kinney & Zulaica LLP, in his testimony before the committee remarked, “This law is the result of the contributions of over a dozen LGBT and long-term care organizations, government agencies, and facility officials. It draws on the latest research and policy recommendations…The hope is that this ordinance will signal a shift. The rights and needs of our extraordinary, resilient, and courageous LGBT seniors—the people who built this community and built this movement—must be addressed and must be protected.” Dr. Marcy Adelman, a clinical psychologist in private practice, is co-founder of the non-profit organization Openhouse and was a leading member of the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force.

BAY T IM ES APR IL 2, 2015

LGBT Labor History in the Bay Area By Miriam Frank The Bay A rea’s vibrant heritage of queer community is matched by a long and powerful history of labor organizing. Labor/ gay connections hearken back to the mid-1930s, when the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union organized men and women who cooked and served meals and tended passenger cabins on luxury cruise ships that plied the South Pacif ic. Union members were gay and straight, Afri-

can-American, Asian and white. “No race-baiting, red-baiting or queerbaiting” was the union’s radical creed. The postwar red scare destroyed the MCS, but members survived. Some men found jobs tending bar and cooking in cafes along the waterfront, and others worked on the docks. In other parts of the city, semi-secret homophile groups were starting up: the Daughters of Bilitis was founded by lesbians in 1955, and the Mattachine Society for men arrived in 1956. Although labor was not a topic, union members were in those groups. Gay liberation opened a new and brilliant queer scene, especially in the Castro. In 1973, Harvey Milk was among thousands of gay male migrants seeking a better life. He tried gay community politics but found his first luck with beer truck drivers Local 888 of the Teamsters. Allan Baird, a local off icer and a longtime homeowner in the neighborhood, was building a campaign to boycott Coors beer and its Bay Area distributors. Baird had already enlisted African-American, Arabic and Chinese gro- Miriam Frank cers by highlighting Coors’ racial hiring practices. Baird asked Milk to help him with the Castro gay bar scene. Coors was using polygraph tests to screen out gay job applicants, but the Tavern Guild, an association of gay bars, would not endorse Milk’s boycott bid. Then, early in 1974, a new organization showed up: Bay Area Gay Liberation. Howard Wallace, a founder, invited Baird to speak at one of BAGL’s

BAY TIMES APRIL 2 , 2 0 1 5

first meetings. That gathering—and every other meeting for months to come—concluded with BAGL activists congregating at bars that still sold Coors with leaflets, rowdy chants and persuasive denunciations. Throughout the nation, right-wing movements rose to block queer progress, but where labor was strong they rarely succeeded. California’s unionists understood that efforts to repeal standing gay rights ordinances, or to enact new restrictions on employment, were harsh for individual gay workers as well as disruptive to collective bargaining. In 1978, State Senator John Briggs sponsored Proposition 6 as an amendment to California’s constitution; the amendment would “protect children” by firing queer school workers and their straight allies. Californians joined the fight in big cities and in rural towns and brought their unions, their liberal churches and their civil rights and community organizations into the fray. Labor got out the vote during the final weeks, including a front-page “Vote No” endorsement in the statewide AFLCIO newsletter and volunteer-staffed phone banks and more volunteers to hand out 2.3 million advisory palm cards on election day at the polls. Proposition 6 failed by 58 percent. Gay/labor projects of the 1980s focused on direct needs and pragmatic solutions that could be replicated by

other workplace activists. One remarkable development was the sustained work of the AIDS committee of Service Employees Local 250, which represented hospital workers in San Francisco facilities. By 1983, these hospitals and clinics were at the epicenter of the AIDS crisis. In 1984, the AIDS committee produced “AIDS and the Health Care Worker,” a simple fact sheet that explained safe practices and summarized what little was then known about the growing epidemic. SEIU expanded the booklet and between 1984 and 1987 distributed it nationally through five editions, including a Spanish-language version. By offering important, life-saving guidance about AIDS in the hospital workplace, the project modeled good sense and deliberate self-care during dangerous times. These are just a few Bay Area labor stories from Out in the Union. Readers will find an entire chapter about union drives at Bay Area cafes, hotels, and small businesses and social service centers owned or managed by LGBT people, from the Patio/Bakery café in the Castro (1979–80) and continuing to the unionization of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation through two contract cycles (1994–2001). Miriam Frank will read from her book “Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America” (now out in paperback from Temple University Press) at two area events at Laurel Bookstore, 1423 Broadway, in Oakland at 6:00 pm on Thursday April 23 and Modern Times Bookstore, 2919 24th Street in San Francisco at 3:30 pm on Saturday April 25.

Sister Dana Sez: Words of Wisdumb from a Fun Nun

By Sister Dana Van Iquity Sister Dana sez, “Well, Spring has sprung, and Peter Cottontail is hippity hopping down the bunny trail for Easter- and that’s no April Fool!” PEACHES CHRIST PRODUCTIONS gave us yet another smash hit Castro Theatre show, THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, especially with Peaches’ terribly clever liveshow parody, THE WITCHES OF EAST BAY starring three classic drag queen witches playing themselves: the legendary MISS COCO PERU in the Susan Sarandon role; RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4 winner CHAD MICHAELS in the dead ringer for Cher role; PEACHES CHRIST in the Michelle Pfeiffer role, and TV’s quirky Backstrom’s former male prostitute/gay sidekick to Backstrom, THOMAS DEKKER, in a spot-on Jack Nicholson role. All Flawless! The show opened with the three DQs lip-synching to Cliff Richard’s “Devil Woman.” They have been summoned to Walnut Creek (“Where Nothing Ever Happens,” according to the billboard) - newly emancipated from Heklina - by the only drag there, religious fanatic Miss Fellatio Alden (Peggy L’eggs) on a dark and stormy night (beautifully utilizing the

giant Castro screen for many different visual effect scenes). The devilishly nasty Daryl Van Horny (Dekker) arrived to eventually seduce all three ladies. But not before Chad can lipsynch “If I Could Turn Back Time” in Cher’s daring battleship costume from decades ago and “Dark Lady,” and Coco “fiddles around” with her cello and sings live Annie Lennox’s “Here Comes The Rain Again” and “Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me” from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Daryl lips an operatic “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot to seal the deal for a four-way relationship. Meanwhile busybody Miss Alden is hexed into a broken leg and finally a mental collapse after barfing and pooping out a ton of cherry pits and singing “Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb” among eight dancing devils. The witches fashioned a voodoo doll of Daryl to try to break away from his spell; but alas, they still became pregnant and each gave birth to baby drag queen devil spawn. Then the entire cast joined together to do Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” in a brilliant finale. Bewitching! Sister Dana sez, “Don’t miss the next spectacular PC Productions parody by Peaches Christ of Drop Dead Gorgeous on May 9th starring Bendelacreme, Jinkx Monsoon, Peaches, Pandora Boxx, and Suppositori Spelling!” K REWE DE KINQUE, the only Mardi Gras-themed LGBTQ fundraising society in EssEff, celebrated our 12th annual Mardi Gras masked ball, FULL MOON OVER SHANGHAI at Balancoire, a fundraiser for HOUSING RIGHTS COMMITTEE OF SF. There we crowned our Krewe de Kinque King XII Gio Adame & Queen XII David Her-

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rera, and held the stepping down ceremony for Krewe de Kinque King XI Joseph Nunez & Queen XI Li’l Kim Chee. Our Grand Marshal, former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (a stalwart advocate for housing as a human right), led our Second Line Parade around the premises (followed closely by KDK founder King I Gary Virginia). The VIP Reception was hosted by Southern Comfort & Balançoire. Laissez les bons temps rouler (We “let the good times roll”) with the Dixieland Dykes +3 band and “Shanghai Discotheque” with DJ Sergio Fedasz (Go BANG!). Emcees were KDK Queen IX BeBe Sweetbriar & KDK King X Kippy Marks. National Anthem was by KDK Member Aaron Priskorn. Empress Khmera Rouge & KDK Queen X Kit Tapata performed «The Empress is a Man!» KDK King X Kippy Marks played electric violin with “Strings of Shanghai.” Performers and their acts included: Tom Basch - “Great Wall of China, Eight Miles Wide;” Kipper Snacks -”Take Me On A Trip, Boy;” KDK King XI Joseph Nunez - “Hong Kong Garden;” KDK Queen XI Li’l Kim Chee - “Listen, Queen!;” Tiger Lily - “Wake Me Up in San Francisco;” KDK Queen II Deana Dawn - “Chop Suey on Grant Avenue;” Miss Eva Sensitiva - “Swing from the Moon;” Emperor Kevin Lisle - “Year of the Ram;” Nicole Monsoon - “Blue Moon of Kentucky;” Empress Misty Blue - “Can’t Fight the Moonlight ; and KDK Queen VIII Garza - “Butterfly Over the Moon.” KDK Queen VII Sister Dana sez, “It was a ball! Literally!” OUT & EQUAL WORK PLACE A DVOC ATES celebrated MO -

MENTUM at their annual gala dinner at Nikko Hotel. A record crowd was on hand to honor the groundbreaking TV show Transparent, about a late-in-life transition. Actor Amy Landecker accepted the award and spoke movingly about what being part ofTransparent means to her. She said the Momentum Leadership Award for Transparent’s impact on the LGBT community was more significant than winning a Golden Globe. We were entertained by the fabulous humorist Kate Clinton. When applauding Salesforce’s decision to suspend business in Indiana after the passing of a discriminatory bill, she quipped, “I’m not going to vacation in Indiana anymore!” The Klipptones provided the perfect soundtrack to the evening, even stepping outside their jazz repertoire for the perfect ending to the gala. The Momentum celebration followed three days of their Executive Forum that convened 50 LGBT executives to discuss best practices for achieving LGBT workplace equality. SOIREE 2015 was THE SF LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER’s largest fundraising event of the year, held at City View inside The Metreon, with a VIP dinner followed by a party until midnight. This year’s theme was LIMITLESS, and promised to be “a celebration of our community’s future” that “will invoke a vision of the future and the world we are all hoping to create.” SFLGBTCC Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe gave an inspiring message about our limitless future. She gave us a little autobiography of how she first came out in the ‘80s (“Think flannel shirt,” she joked) and fast forward to today, when her partner Susan and she got married this year. She looked forward to the

U.S. Supreme Court once and for all giving queers Federal marriage equality. Senator Mark Leno presented a Certificate of Recognition to the Community Center. Mayor Ed Lee spoke of the importance of the Community Center. He said, “We have a lot of work ahead of us, and I need a great community and community center behind me.” He noted despite the cuts in the Federal budget, “San Francisco has been strong enough to fill those gaps.” He added the need to assure for more affordable housing here. VIP entertainment was provided by gorgeous high opera by Breanna Sinclaire, the first transgender graduate of the SF Conservatory of Music to receive a master’s degree in opera. She was accompanied by Ms. Jackson on sound. Sinclaire closed out the VIP show with the truly thematically appropriate “Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music. Performances for the party were by graceful, daring aerialist Nina Sawant; drag queen VivvyAnne ForeverMORE lip-synching Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” and teaching us the proper choreography for that number; Jet Noir with some space-age dance moves; and the incredible Miss Rahni NothingMore as The Fifth Element alien creature lip-synching opera and then bursting into some very hot Whitney Houston stuff. DJs Jaqi Sparrow, Bret Bowerman, and Carrie on Disco gave us fierce music for dancing. CUMMING UP! The live-stage version of the hit British sitcom, ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: Season Two, is playing at The Exit theatre, 156 Eddy Street, April through June. Yes, Edina and Patsy (continued on page 26)

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Up Your Games! Napa Golf & Business Retreat for Women

The KiAi Way Jamie Leno Zimron In addition to being an amazing mind-body game, golf is truly “The Business Sport.” Last week I copresented a webinar entitled “What Playing Partners Can Tell You About Business Partners.” Wearing my hats of LPGA golf pro, psychologist, and corporate speaker, it was really fun and helpful to explore all the ways we reveal who we are and what we learn about others during a round of golf. No other places come close to the importance of the golf course and clubhouse for starting conversations, opening business doors, establishing rapport and relationship-building, and promoting sales calling as well as deal making. The ability to play golf enhances careers, not to mention fitness, well being, and just plain good times outdoors with friends and potential colleagues. So if you’re a woman golfer, or are contemplating becoming one, I’d like to invite you to join in the inaugural Every BusinessWoman Golf Retreat, at Chardonnay Golf Club in Napa, April 10–12. You’ll be treated to the finest in holistic and business-golf instruction, practicing and playing on a gorgeous golf course winding through the vineyards of the valley, good food and wine, a great spa, networking with other businesswomen…plus a rare opportunity to work with LPGA Tour legend Renee Powell. Renee is a true trailblazer. She was only the second African-American woman ever to play professionally, and recently became one of the first

7 women ever admitted to the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland. We’ll be teaming up in Napa to offer all women—novices, average and serious players—three chock-full days of golf instruction, along with everything you need to know to capitalize on the business opportunities of the game. It used to be that golf wasn’t seen exactly as a sport, or golfers as athletes. All of that has changed, with the advent of Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam raising the bar through powerful physical and mental conditioning regimes. Other changes are needed as well in golf, beginning with getting more women and more people of color out on the links and into the business game. The days are done when golf, even jokingly, might have meant Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. The PGA of America dropped its “Caucasian Only” clause in 1961, and the game is now becoming global in scope. Cultivating diverse women in the sport and in leadership can make real inroads into the way things are done in business and the world, so that things start working for everyone! It really is remarkable how much goes on while golfing, as we valiantly go about trying to steer one of the tiniest balls in sports across miles of green grass, through all kinds of hazards and ‘rough’ on one of the largest playing fields in sports, to proportionally the smallest target. Standing over a golf ball you’re confronted with…yourself! Self-talk and emotions are right there as you prepare to take a big swing, or finesse a short shot or putt into the hole. And then there is all the time between shots, to manage your mind, keep your body relaxed and energized, take in the scenery, and socialize with your playing partners.

Sometimes I hear non-golfers say, “Maybe I’ll take it up later, when I’m older, it’s so slow and boring.” But getting people interested in golf actually isn’t very hard, once they realize what they might be missing out on business-wise, not to mention all of the challenges, pleasures and joys of the game. I consider myself a true “ jock,” having always loved baseball, football, tennis, etc; training in the martial arts since college; and having been everything from a runner to a river raft guide. So I feel qualified to say that golf is not only not boring, but also it’s an endlessly interesting and wonderful game that you can play for life. It’s never too soon to at least gain the basic skills and ability to be in the business game. There is still time to be part of the Every BusinessWoman Golf Retreat. A great group is gathering, including a woman who is a veteran of 2 Iraq wars and is now a decorated police officer. She will be coming as a representative of Renee’s groundbreaking Clearview Hope golf program for female vets in East Canton, Ohio. Together with my new business partner Kim R. Jenkins, I am deeply excited to offer new EBWG peak performance trainings and programs. Kim co-founded Jenkins, Taylor & Associates and is VP of The Emerald Agency, a woman and minority-owned company that has been a leader in executive legal recruiting for the past 3 decades. This her-storic EBWG Retreat in Napa is coming up fast, and we’re happy to extend the Early Bird rate to San Francisco Bay Times readers. We also offer a special Commuter discount for Bay Area residents who choose to stay at home rather than partake of the full Retreat package with hotel. In closing, I’d like to share one of my all-time favorite quotes. It comes

from Shivas Irons, the fictional golf mystic in legendary Bay Area author Michael Murphy’s classic work Golf In The Kingdom (think Scottish brogue as your read!): Golf is “an odyssey, an adventure from hole to hole…World upon world, all the heavens and hells of our daily lives…Golf is a way of makin’ a person naked…An x-ray of the soul…A projection of our hopes and fears…A vehicle for training our higher capacities…The game is a mighty teacher— never deviatin’ from its sacred rules,

always ready to lead us on…A good stage for the drama of self-discovery.” See you in Napa! EBWG Retreat information and registration is available at www.everybusinesswomangolf.com, or contact Jamie directly: jamiesensei@thekiaiway.com, 760-492-GOLF(4653). Jamie Leno Zimron is an LPGA Pro, Aikido 5th Degree Black Belt, and Corporate Speaker-Trainer. Please check out her website: http://www.thekiaiway.com

Springing into Tennis Fitness SF Trainer Tip of the Month From Fitness SF Mid-Market trainer Miguel Cavasos: “Gain more strength and burn more calories by using compound exercises such as the bench press.”

Sports Tony Jasinski The Gay and Lesbian Tennis Federation, one of the largest LGBT sports organizations in San Francisco, has a full events calendar for the spring that promises to be a blast for tennis players and fans alike. First up is the “Bunny Hop” this Saturday, April 4, from 9am to 1pm at San Francisco State University. This is a special one-day mixed doubles event with plenty of tennis, lunch, an awards ceremony and sweet spring-themed treats for all. On the third Friday of every month, the Federation offers social doubles. The next one is on April 17, when members and non-members alike can meet on the great rooftop courts at 645 Fifth Street at 6:30pm. The free event goes on until 9pm. It’s a very good way to “test drive” the club if you’re considering joining. 14

BAY TIMES APRIL 2 , 2 0 1 5

If you go, you might meet Dennis Sanchez, who is the new president of the GLTF. He has participated in their tennis events since 2002, and joined the board in 2014. Dennis played collegiate-level tennis for two different colleges. He brings tremendous enthusiasm and talent to the federation. In May, the 35th United States Gay Open will be held on Memorial Day weekend, May 22–25 at Golden Gate Park. The USGO is the second oldest LGBT tournament in the world and is part of the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance tournament circuit. The Federation holds that “parties, lovely folks, great gear, and lots and lots of tennis representing all levels of play will be there! If you are a wily USGO veteran or brand new to a GLTA event, it is a fun, intense, thrilling weekend!”

There’s also good tennis-related news right here in the Castro. The GLTF has been making significant improvements to the courts at 15th and Buena Vista Terrace. With so much sunny spring weather, now is the perfect time to pull out your racket and play a few sets with friends. It’s easy to get hooked! Check out http://gltf.org/ for more information about the GLTF, including how to join this venerable, well-organized LGBT sports federation. Tony Jasinski is the former president of the San Francisco Gay Basketball League.

San Francisco Bay Times welcomes Troy Macfarland of Fitness SF as our new contributor. Troy will be providing monthly tips he’s learned from his colleagues who are professional trainers at local gyms. He can be reached at tmacfarland @fitnesssf.com

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While dabbing impeccably fresh and savory tomato sauce from my chin in a food swoon, I looked up to see Poesia waitress, Sara. She asked, “It was delizioso, right?” Oh-yes, I replied. Sara said, “Rossella Pascuzzi made that dish. Everything she cooks, I love. Her taste is my taste.” It is certainly my taste too, and it seemed to be for the other diners there that recent balmy spring night. Pascuzzi is new to Poesia, the romantic and cozy Italian osteria right in the heart of the Castro on 18th Street. In my view, she has made an already superb restaurant even better. The aforementioned tomato sauce, for example, was in her “Rustico” appetizer, made with ethereal layers of buttery puff pastry filled with not only the sauce, but also creamy mozzarella and aged parmesan. It paired well with the restaurant’s classic “Pappa al Pomodoro” rich tomato-bread soup. Waiting for the next courses, my tablemates and I enjoyed Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, projected on a wall inside the restaurant. The dreamy decadence of the film was the perfect backdrop for the meal, which continued with two of my favorite Poesia pasta dishes (shared with others at the table): “Gnocchi di Ricotta con Pomodroni” (ricotta cheese gnocchi served in orange juice and fresh cherry tomato sauce) and “Pappardelle Rosa con Gorgonzola e Noci” (homemade beet pasta with gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and radicchio). A cauliflower side dish, “Cavolfiori al Forno,” was equally delicious, as was a salad piled high with carpaccio splashed with a bright hit of red onion and citrus.

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It’s no wonder that Oprah Winfrey dined at Poesia during her most recent trip to the Bay Area. I hear that she too was bewitched by Rossella’s culinary wizardry, not to mention that of Francesco, Sara and the rest of Poesia’s warm and gracious team.

“I have a passion for cooking,” she said with such conviction that it seemed as though sparks were flying from her eyes. “Truly, I love it. Here we do Calabrian dishes, but with an emphasis on California seasonal ingredients.” Next up was dessert. We split the “Tartufo,” which was made with some

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Those dishes, and many others, are recipes that originated with friends and family members of owner Francesco d’Ippolito, who opened Poesia in 2008. He still greets guests at the door of the restaurant, which looks more like the dining room of a Castro Victorian than a commercial dining establishment.

While eying perfectly cooked filet mignon and seabass dishes at the next table, I asked d’Ippolito if any changes were in the works. He informed me that, after he comes back from a trip this month to Italy, he plans to serve lunch at the restaurant on Sundays from 12–3pm. Rossella mentioned that she’ll be preparing her famous lasagna dish for the lunches, which should start later this month.

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SPECIAL MENU Michael & Wendy invite you to come for dinner at Sweet Inspiration of the best gelato I’ve ever had (not too sweet and with clean creamy goodness), and the “Tiramisu,” a dish that I normally don’t even like. This version was so perfectly done, though. I will definitely order it again. The amaro (Italian herbal liqueur) that Sara recommended was also splendid. The check at the end didn’t dampen our spirits either. We had arrived early, and therefore took advantage of some of the drinks and dishes offered during the Happy Hour, which happens every day at the restaurant from 5 to 6:30pm.

As we left, the words of the lead character in 8 ½ came to mind: “Life is a

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party, let’s live it together.” Poesia is at 4072 18th Street in San Francisco. For more information, please go to poesiasf.com or phone 415-252-9325. Elaine Viegas grew up on a farm in Appalachia before moving to California and training as a chef. She is the mother of “San Francisco Bay Times” co-publisher Jennifer Viegas.

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Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful talking with anyone. A man walked up to me and started telling me I was the hottest guy he’d ever seen and that he wanted me to go home with him immediately. This wasn’t about alcohol because he wasn’t drunk.

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Examined Life Tom Moon, MFT From an email I received a while back: “I’m a very good looking guy. People say I have movie star looks and everywhere I go, people stare. I’m not bragging about this; it’s just a fact. I understand that I didn’t do anything to earn my looks, and I know full well that they don’t make me better than anyone else. But I just wish more gay guys knew that! Here’s something that happened recently that is fairly typical. I went into a bar after work to have a drink and unwind. I sat in the back and avoided eye contact because I just wanted to relax, and didn’t feel like

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ADVERTISING Display Advertising Standard Rate Cards are available online at sfbaytimes.com or calling: 415-503-1375. Custom ad sizes are available. Please inquire! The Bay Times reserves the right to reject any advertising at the discretion of the publishers. National Advertising: Contact Bay Times / San Francisco. Also represented by Rivendell Media., Mountainside, NJ 908-232-2021. Circulation is verified by an independent agency CALENDAR Event listings for consideration to be included in the Bay Times online or print Calendar section should be sent by e-mail to: calendar@sfbaytimes.com. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR If you would like to write a letter to the editor with comment on an article or suggestions for the Bay Times, email us at editor@sfbaytimes.com. © 2015 Bay Times Media Company Co-owned by Betty L. Sullivan & Jennifer L. Viegas Reprints by permission only. 16

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He went on and on about what a wonderful guy I was without knowing anything about me. It turned me off. I tried to be polite and tell him ‘no thanks,’ but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He started pawing and kissing on me and I literally had to break his grip. I finally told him to leave me alone and walked to the other end of the bar. A few minutes later he followed me, yelled at the top of his lungs, told me I had ‘attitude’ and then stalked out. Some of the other guys in the place, who hadn’t seen what had just happened, gave me hostile looks as if I must have done something wrong. I went to the bar to relax, but left completely stressed out. Don’t tell me that this happens all the time in bars and just to get over it. I know it sometimes happens to other people, but I get harassed like this all the time—on the street, in coffee shops, in buses, everywhere. More and more I just avoid going out alone. People give me all this power to make

them happy, and put expectations on me that I can’t live up to, and then feel rejected when I don’t do what they want. I wish more guys understood that being good-looking doesn’t mean I’m the cure for all their problems. I know that because of my looks I have privilege that not everyone has—I really do—but there is a downside, and it’s real.” I’ve shared this communication with a number of people. Their reactions are usually strong, and often split along gender lines. In general, women are empathic and sympathetic with the writer, while men are far more likely to respond contemptuously— he must be doing something to cause these reactions, he should stop feeling sorry for himself, etc. To me, this email is a reminder of how invariably destructive “otherizing” is. When we demonize people, it’s easy to lose sight of their humanity. That’s obvious enough. But when other people are the objects of our idealizing projections, whether because of their wealth, their power, or their sexual attractiveness, something similar often happens. When we’re captivated by someone’s beauty, it’s easy to attribute positive

personality traits to them that they may or may not have, and to ignore negative traits that might be glaringly obvious. I’ve met so many gay men who uncritically assume that they’d find true happiness if that hot man over there would just deign to love them, or at least have sex with them. And if he doesn’t show any interest, their self-doubts instantly mobilize. It’s me: I’m not handsome enough, not cool enough, or not lovable enough, to be worthy in the eyes of this walking god. Too often defensive anger, indignation and bitterness ensue, and the scene that the writer described follows. Meanwhile, the man on the receiving end is reduced to being the spectator of a drama of seduction, betrayal and abandonment that, in reality, isn’t about him at all. This is a particular instance of a fact that seems to be very difficult for many people to grasp—that much of what we assume about the people we admire or envy is a figment of our imaginations, a creation of our own projected fears and longings. Tom Moon is a psychotherapist in San Francisco. To learn more, please visit his website at tommoon.net

Round About - Out & Equal’s Momentum Leadership Celebration Photos by Rink SF Bay Times contributor Kate Clinton was the celebrity emcee for Out & Equal’s Momentum Gala Dinner held at Hotel Nikko on March 26. Special guest Amy Landecker, star of Transparent, received the Momentum Leadership Award. The dinner is the culminating event of a multi-day program beginning with the Executive Forum and includes a State of the LGBT Movement address, interactive panel discussions, receptions and more. Out & Equal is committed to ending employment discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. To learn more, visit outandequal.org

GLBT Fortnight in Review By Ann Rostow Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike The reaction to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act has been heartwarming to all of us true believers in the vibrant and colorful world of LGBT activism. After a total meltdown of national outrage, Indiana Governor Mike Pence said on Tuesday, March 31, that the state legislature would shortly find a way to “clarify” a bill, which for all intents and purposes appeared to sanction discrimination against gay and lesbian customers. Who knows what that means, but at the very least it’s a step back from the thinly disguised animosity that characterizes our community’s relationship with the state legislature. It’s hardly news that the GLBT community is confronting a backlash against our recent success in the fight for marriage. We’ve all been reading and writing about it. We’ve seen the court cases, Groovy Gay Guys v Big Bad Bakers, Lovely Lesbians v Dastardly Dress Designers, Same-sex Sweethearts v. Insidious Inn Keepers. We’ve covered the antigay legislative attacks, including near misses on “religious freedom” bills in Kansas and Arizona, and nasty debates throughout the south. So why the national explosion over Indiana’s new RFRA, or RiffRaff as I like to call it? Is it really that much worse than the antics in other states? Isn’t this law similar to something Mississippi passed a year ago? That wasn’t such a big deal. Isn’t it about the same as the other 19 state RiffRaffs, and the federal version that passed in 1993? Those haven’t done that much damage to our community, have they? Most importantly, given that Indiana does not protect gays and lesbians against discrimination on a statewide basis, why does this law matter at all? Technically, most Hoosier businesses are perfectly free to discriminate against gays and lesbians already. Not to belabor the point, but it’s worth remembering that every single court case against Christian business owners has been won by our side for one simple reason. Every one of those cases has been filed in a state that outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation, which is why the violations were cited in the first place! If, on the other hand, you’re doing business in a state, or community, that does not ban gay bias, you can discriminate to your heart’s content. So what gives? Corporations are pulling out of the state, newspapers are outraged, op-eds abound, the Governor can’t cope, conventions are canceling, Charles Barkley wants the Final Four moved out of Indiana! NASCAR’s all mad. Why is this happening? In my opinion, it’s because the (diminishing) antigay far right has a problem. It’s no longer okay to despise gay men and lesbians. They can’t tag us as perverts. They can’t hate us. They can’t call us evil. They have been backed into a corner that allows them very little freedom of movement. The only explanation for an antigay attitude that still survives public examination in this day and age is a devout adherence to traditional Christian beliefs. Further, even a religious preference for heterosexual families must be expressed with respect for people who disagree, and with a general acknowledgement of the humanity of the GLBT community. But even this last bulwark against an increasingly gay friendly America is weakening. People don’t believe it anymore. There are plenty of Christians who like and respect gay men and women. There’s no scriptural imperative that says businesses shouldn’t serve gays. Indeed, I think there are quite a few paragraphs about kindliness, not judging, being neighborly, and so forth. If you’re still spouting Bible-based anti-

gay rhetoric in 2015, you’re not fooling many people. You’re a bigot. So basically, Indiana lawmakers just inadvertently announced to the rest of the country that they support bigotry and the country just gave them a national thumbs down. Everyone agrees that—as a general rule— the government has no business interfering with your ability to practice your faith. But if your faith requires you to drive a hundred miles an hour through residential streets, we make an exception because the government has a compelling interest in road safety. Likewise, most people agree that the government has a strong interest in making sure that the public square is equally accessible to all citizens. That means stores, jobs, housing, restaurants. Is guaranteeing that equality a compelling interest? Where racial bias is concerned, the answer is yes. Where sexual orientation is concerned, the answer has been maybe yes, maybe no. But increasingly, the answer is also yes. Increasingly, the notion that religion might dictate antigay prejudice is as dubious as the concept of faith-based racism. And this growing consensus is the driving force behind the outrage over Indiana’s “religious freedom” law. Really? America is asking. Religious freedom? The Constitution isn’t good enough for you? What’s behind all this? And for all his hemming and hawing, Indiana governor Mike Pence can’t hide the fact that the two men standing directly behind him, looking over his left and right shoulder during the March 26 signing ceremony, were Indiana’s top two antigay activists. Business As Usual (Not) Cycling back to some of the questions we were asking at the start of this column, the main answer is yes, Indiana’s law is, in fact, significantly different from its predecessors. Mississippi’s 2014 Riff Raff was a straight forward copy of the older ones around the country, and keep in mind, the Mississippi law only passed after it was revised to get rid of the most egregious antigay implications. The revised version obliged the government to prove that a law that burdens someone’s faith is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. I guess that’s okay. After all, the whole point of these laws was to protect individual liberty, and indeed one of the main advocates of the 1993 federal version was the American Civil Liberties Union. Should a Native American be allowed to use peyote in a ritual? Should a Muslim prisoner be allowed to grow a beard? Should an Amish buggy driver have to use a light at night? These are the usual suspects for a RiffRaff case, hapless individuals struggling in good conscience against the indifference of a powerful state and its one-size-fits-all mandates. Oh. But then there was Hobby Lobby, a for-profit corporation that decided to strip female employees of federally mandated insurance for contraception. Surely this religious freedom law wasn’t intended to help a large employer mess around with staff benefits! Well, you know the end of that story. The gay community was outraged by last year’s High Court Hobby Lobby ruling, in large part because it elevated the self-identified religious proscriptions of businesses to an exalted constitutional status. What was to stop other for-profit Christian businesses from indulging in antigay policies based on faith? The answer, as we’ve said before, is that the only thing that can prevent such abuses are laws against LGBT discrimination. Not only does Indiana lack such a law, but also lawmakers expressly rejected gay protections during the debate on the RiffRaff. They knew exactly what they were doing.

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Taking their cue from the Hobby Lobby ruling, Indiana lawmakers made clear that the RiffRaff didn’t simply protect individuals from government, but also included businesses in the definition of “persons,” and then protected these businesses from individuals, a ridiculous role reversal. Moreover, the Indiana law does not even require that the government be involved in a violation. Bear with me and read this section: “A person whose exercise of religion has been substantially burdened, or is likely to be substantially burdened, by a violation of this chapter may assert the violation or impending violation as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding, regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding. If the relevant governmental entity is not a party to the proceeding, the governmental entity has an unconditional right to intervene in order to respond to the person’s invocation of this chapter.” Hmmm. What, beyond some state policy, could possibly burden a “person’s” faith? How about a gay customer who won’t go away? Note that if the gay customer, who may be likely to burden the idiosyncratic faith of a business owner, decides to complain about service, the government has an “unconditional” right to intervene. Did I mention that the winner of a RiffRaff claim might get money damages plus court costs and legal fees?

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“Tolerance is a two-way street,” Mike Pence said on Sunday March 29, bemoaning the “avalanche of intolerance that has been poured on our state,” in the aftermath of the law’s passage. Okay. If we’re the ones sending intolerance down one side of the street, who exactly is sending tolerance down the other side? Indiana? Or are we supposed to tolerate a law that allows antigay discrimination in order to be rewarded with tolerance from, whom exactly? In other words, what the Hell is Mike Pence talking about? I don’t even disagree; he’s just incoherent, and that bugs me. And a Genius Will Lead Us Sound a loud trumpet blast. Mary Bonauto has been named to argue our main case before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28. If Evan Wolfson is the Godfather of marriage equality, Bonauto is its Godmother, the author and winner of seminal marriage cases in Vermont and Massachusetts and the strategist responsible for our attack on the Defense of Marriage Act. Bonauto, the top civil rights lawyer for the New England-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), filed the first DOMA challenge and won the first appellate court victory against the law. Eventually, the High Court picked a different DOMA case to review, striking down the law’s main section, but Bonauto was instrumental in its downfall. Bonauto, who has ties to the Michigan case, was selected by a group of GLBT lawyers involved in the four cases now pending before the Supreme Court. While Bonauto will argue the main question of whether or not the Constitution mandates marriage equality, a second lawyer, Douglas HallwardDriemeier, was selected to argue the subsidiary issue of whether or not states must recognize legal marriages from elsewhere. The Court will hear 90 minutes on the main issue, and one hour on the side question. I gather from the L.A. Times that all the lawyers from these four cases wanted to argue for 15 minutes each, or something like that. Come on, you grandstanders! Thankfully, the Court told them to pick two lawyers, as did the states on the other side of the cases. Arguing against Bonauto will be former Michigan solicitor general John Bursch, while (continued on page 26)

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Stopping New Anti-LGBT Laws in Their Tracks

Marriage Equality Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, Marriage Equality USA As the momentum builds toward a United States Supreme Court decision in favor of nationwide marriage equality, the LGBT community in recent weeks has faced an onslaught of proposed or newly enacted state laws aimed at encouraging government officials, businesses, individuals and other organizations to refuse to serve LGBT people. Some of these laws specif ically identify LGBT people as their target; others appear neutral on their face, but, in fact, are intended to discriminate against LGBT people, other minorities, and women. The national political strategy behind many of these laws is to try to instill unfounded fear that ensuring equality for LGBT Americans will somehow impinge on American’s freedom of religion. Frank Schubert and Jeff Flint, the campaign managers for the 2008 Yes on Proposition 8 campaign that took away same-sex couples’ freedom to marry in California, explained in a 2009 Politics Magazine article how this fear-based strategy was a key component of their campaign.

Shubert and Flint stated that in developing the Yes on 8 campaign, they “strongly believed that a campaign in favor of traditional marriage would not be enough to prevail” and that “passing Proposition 8 would depend on [their] ability to convince voters that same-sex marriage had broader implications for Californians and was not only about the two individuals involved in a committed gay relationship.” They reported they “probed long and hard in countless focus groups and surveys to explore reactions to a variety of consequences [their] issue experts identified.” Shubert and Flint came up with the message: “Tolerance is one thing; forced acceptance of something you personally oppose is a very different matter.” They focused on three areas to manipulate voters as to this imagined “conflict of rights,” one of which was “religious freedom.” With nearly 60 percent of Americans supporting marriage equality according to a March 2015 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, many opponents of equality are attempting to fabricate a threat to religious freedom now, as Shubert and Flint did in California in 2008. For decades, opponents of equality have attempted to use whatever message and strategy they have found effective to raise money, to motivate their base, or to scare voters. These tactics are political at their core and shift over time as Americans come to reject each one of them. The same type of strategy based on a fabricated threat to religious freedom is also being employed to undermine women’s lives. For example, laws of this type have already been used to enable some large businesses and organizations to impose their owners’ religious views regarding

contraception on women employees’ medical decisions. Indeed, Indiana’s recently enacted law invites individuals, businesses, and other organizations to refuse to serve any person simply based on what the individual or business claims is their religious view. The law could subject women, LGBT people, and millions of other Americans to discrimination and exclusion from vital services. We are encouraged by the recent strong response that many sectors of American society have made against such laws in Indiana and other states. Last year, an outpouring of outrage led even conservative, former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto a similar bill the Arizona legislature passed. A 2013 poll by Third Way and the Human Rights Campaign revealed that 69 percent of Americans believe business owners should not be allowed to refuse services to lesbian or gay people, with only 15 percent believing they should. We as Americans from many diverse backgrounds must come together to stop these laws and the cynical strategy behind them in their tracks. We look to the Supreme Court in the marriage equality cases to be decided this June to move America forward, not backward, and toward true equality and inclusion for all Americans. John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. They are leaders in the nationwide grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA.

Tune Out Fictional Weddings and Tune in to Your Own Marriage Desires

Weddings Howard Steiermann While going from dinner at the food court in San Francisco Centre to ODC’s dance performance in Yerba Buena Center, my boyfriend and I walked through Bloomingdales. Their lower level sales floor contains china, crystal and all sorts of housewares. He said that while he appreciates the aesthetics of many of the items, he didn’t feel the need to fill up his apartment with them. I responded that it can sometimes be difficult not to buy into our consumer culture. This column could be about alternative gift ideas. However, what our interaction got me pondering is:

How much is the wedding event a reflection of the couple getting married, versus how much does it reflect what’s seen in movies, television and two-inch-thick wedding magazines? It’s true that as an officiant, I am involved with the wedding industry…even if the income I derive from it isn’t what motivates me.

of a wedding, or what etiquette books may say is the correct way of walking and talking, I hope a ceremony allows each member of the couple to feel like we have fashioned a ceremony that speaks from their heart, even (or especially) if they’re not doing any of the speaking, other than “I do!”

I encourage couples to make their wedding their own. It is their wedding. I enjoy customizing a ceremony to include stanzas from a couple’s favorite poet, lyrics from their favorite songs and readings from their favorite authors. If a couple wants a ceremony with no reference to God, I can easily accommodate their request. I’m happy to conduct a wedding anywhere a couple chooses, other than a hot air balloon (a phobia of mine). I invite couples to explore what rituals, if any, will make the ceremony richer for them.

Now that I’m well into my 50’s, I have finally come to trust my instincts. My groundedness allows me to support couples to hear and then trust their instincts. In this way, they can counterbalance any media messages or comments from family or friends that don’t feel right.

Overall, I encourage couples to think about what will make the ceremony feel like it was tailored exactly for them, since this is what I love doing! Rather than pattern the ceremony after Hollywood’s more than difficult to live up to portrayal

We’re bombarded with hundreds, possibly thousands, of consumer messages and social expectations daily. We can learn not to let the stimuli blindly guide our actions if we learn to cultivate our own unique visions, which can help to guide wedding ceremonies and so much more. Howard M. Steiermann is an Ordained Ritual Facilitator based in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www. SFHoward.com

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Imperial Investiture

Photos by RINK and Steven Underhill stevenunderhill.com Kevin Lisle, The Red DAWG Emperor, and Khmera Rouge, The Golden Crouching Tigress Hidden Draggerina Empress, welcomed participants to Oasis on Sunday, March 29, for the Investiture 2015. The event benefits the Monarchs Administrative Fund of the Imperial Court of San Francisco. SF Bay Times photographers Rink and Steven Underwood were there to capture images from the proceedings and celebration.

#KateClinton2015 Our 50-year-old LGBTQ identity movement still freaks out the 2000-year-old Christian identity movement! Put that in your Easter Bonnet.

Arts & Entertainment Donnetta Lavinia Grays Infuses A.C.T.’s Let There Be Love with Emotional Honesty

San Francsico Bay Times: So many of us over a certain age are dealing with parent/caregiving matters. Do you think that Gemma handles her particular situation well?

Talented actress Donnetta Lavinia Grays is a great conversationalist who loves the art of storytelling, as evidenced by her standout work on compelling TV shows such as “The Blacklist” and “Law and Order.” Theater is where her focus and intensity especially resonate, as in American Conservatory Theater’s upcoming production, Let There Be Love. This intimate family drama tells the story of Alfred, a cantankerous and aging West Indian immigrant living in London. He has managed to alienate all of those around him—including his equally headstrong lesbian daughter, with whom he rarely sees eye to eye.

tions he has set for her. Conversely, Alfred is far from the ideal father Gemma imagines. The play doesn’t examine the journey of coming out to your parents or being out as a point, but takes this interesting turn that deals a little bit more with the power of information. There are things both Alfred and Gemma know about each other, but refuse to let the other in on as a means of maintaining their emotional distance. It’s often biting and hurtful. Their relationship is damaged to the point where withholding these major life details—either joyful of painful—becomes a weapon. It’s pretty powerful stuff.

That’s where Grays comes in, as she plays the daughter, Gemma. Here, Grays shares more about her role, the distinguished playwright who wrote the drama, and what she hopes to do when she is in San Francisco.

San Francisco Bay Times: What attracted you to the role?

San Francisco Bay Times: Please describe your character and how LGBT issues and culture are addressed in the play. Donnetta Lavinia Grays: I play Gemma, a thirty-something-year-old lesbian whose strained relationship with her father Alfred—around whom the play is centered—serves as a major thru line in the play. She is the daughter of this strong-minded surly immigrant man from Grenada who, in his mind, hasn’t lived up to the expecta-

Donnetta Lavinia Grays: It has always been important to me as a queer woman to fill spaces where we are being represented on stage. I hope to bring honesty and specificity to these roles, and possibly fill awareness and cultural gaps when a playwright from a different experience may not have fully considered our perspective in crafting their queer characters. More to the question, in regards to this piece, I have never played a role like Gemma before—someone whose emotional cracks are exposed despite her best efforts to hide them. I’m usually asked to have more control and authority, and it has been lovely to be a bit more rebellious.

Donnetta Lavinia Grays: That is a tricky question. Gemma and Alfred’s relationship has a healthy tarnish on it. But, there is an awesome responsibility children have for their aging parents’ care. Gemma makes the choice, along with her sister, to have an outside professional care person, Maria, take on the major responsibilities of Alfred’s care. A decision made without his input. For many of us, there is a tremendous amount of stigma surrounding getting outside care or putting our parents in homes. In Gemma’s case, however, I have to consider her willingness and ability to actually take on Alfred’s care and his willingness to receive it from her. Everyone’s story and resources are different. For Gemma, I think she is doing the best she can. San Francisco Bay Times: How is jazz woven into the drama? Donnetta Lavinia Grays: Ah, the music. The music is the fourth character in this play. It’s the audience’s guide, in a way, into Alfred’s emotional state and, at times, our narrator. Music is Alfred’s source of solace. Whom he invites into that space is touchingly thoughtful and moving. San Francisco Bay Times: Please tell us a bit about playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah and what it was like to work with him and his words. Donnetta Lavinia Grays: This is actually the first time I’ve worked through to production with Kwame’s text. I got the chance to work with him on a workshop of his next play about

the life of Bob Marley last fall. I think that he is a smart writer who pulls from his own experience as an actor when constructing a play. He writes with an emotional subtly that brews beneath the surface, and just sort of punches you in the gut without expecting it. He is generous and listens to his cast and treats them as collaborators. It is a similar way in which I like to work as a writer myself. So, I have now observed his process to my own benefit. San Francisco Bay Times: What do you hope audience-goers come away with after having seen the play? For example, do you think there are any lessons to be learned, or insights that audiences might gain? Donnetta Lavinia Grays: Oh man, I think this play will touch a lot of people. The themes and relationships are familiar enough to hit home. And it says a lot about the demands and assumptions we make of each other, pain we carry and how we communicate through all of it. I hope people leave with a sense that they can move past situations they never thought possible, and take control of their lives through the power of forgiveness. And, with that said, I hope they laugh a lot. There is a tremendous amount of humor in this play. There’s joy. I hope the play helps them find a little bit of that to take home with them. San Francisco Bay Times: Have you been to San Francisco before? If so, what are some of your favorite places to visit here? Donnetta Lavinia Grays: I have been here twice but just passing through. Now that I am here for a couple months I hope to eat at as many restaurants as possible and head back to New York ten times heavier. Thanks.

San Francisco Bay Times: Your resume is incredible. Please highlight some of your work that our readers might have seen you in. Donnetta Lavinia Grays: Gosh, thank you. I spent four seasons on “Law and Order: SVU” as a tiny uniformed cop named Officer Ramirez. You probably saw me briefly in the movie “The Wrestler.” I played Evan Rachel Wood’s girlfriend in that. Slammed the door in Mickey Rouke’s face with purpose! But, honestly, I’m kind of that hidden yet familiar face on TV—played a lot of cops, nurses and indifferent ladies behind desks. San Francisco Bay Times: What else would you like our readers to know about you and your work? Donnetta Lavinia Grays: Let’s see, I am a playwright as well and my plays usually have queer women of color at their center. As a matter fact, the day Let There Be Love closes, my newest play Sam will be having a workshop at Portland Stage Company in Maine. I fly right out the next day to be there with my director, dramaturg and company of actors for a week of diving into that. Shifting gears is one of the greatest parts of being a theater practitioner and I am grateful to be able to do so. Also, please hit me up online. I’d love to hear what folks thought of our show and continue the conversation: www.donnettagrays.com and www. facebook.com/DonnettaLaviniaGrays Let There Be Love runs from April 8– May 3 at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco. For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit www.act-sf.org BAY T IM ES APR IL 2, 2015

Imminent Change that Sets You Free

Astrology Linda Amburgey The unstable realm of relationships is coming full circle with patterns that have been active for the entire year.  Closures can be painful, even when our more authentic self is granted permission to rise and flourish in the newly carved space. Cataclysmic eruptions are occurring, and change is imminent as the insecure environment of relationships beseeches that your barriers topple and your blockages crumble, until you are set free in your deepest truth. Be true to yourself and be willing to allow an integral part of your defense structure to whither, and eventually die. End anything in your life that keeps you out of your unique and essential Truth.

ARIES (March 21–April 19) All of your relationships are so intense right now that you may want to partake in a few guilty pleasures to take the edge off of the heat. However, remember that a temporary suspension of reality is prescribed only for you to catch your breath before getting back into the ring of fire.

CANCER ( June 21–July 22) Another tidal wave of disruption pummels the shores of your Universe. Although counter intuitive, open your door for those pesky people that irritate and frustrate you. They hold the necessary friction that eventually leads you to inner peace and a new direction in your outer life.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20) You may feel out of sorts with unidentifiable feelings of pressure bubbling up with no apparent source. It’s as if there are hidden landmines in your pasture, and you sense danger with every step, but have no idea where they are buried. Take each fateful step trusting that you are held in a larger tapestry, and that life is bringing you exactly what you need.

LEO ( July 23–August 22) I am picturing a fierce, hungry lion wandering the open fields searching to feed her primal hunger to know her True path. She comes upon a gentle lamb that she circles for days, toiling with how to serve the highest interest of all. She must take that gentle lamb into her consciousness, but the form that this takes is not as obvious as it seems. How will you balance your fierce lion and your gentle lamb?

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) You are wandering through the jungle, and I’m picturing you circled around a sacred f ire with a newly formed tribe. Your initiation ceremony has you purging outdated emotional garbage and expressing the artistic beauty of your deepest truth. Don’t take this lightly, as part of this vision quest requires a type of ego death that is often painful before liberating.

VIRGO (August 23–September 22) Although compelling, the easy and the gentle route will not be appreciated unless you spend some time on the dark and narrow path where courage and ingenuity are imperative. Your backpack should include a flash light of hope, creativity, dexterity, and a willingness to write your obituary for some outdated aspect of yourself.

LIBR A (September 23– October 22) Sacred selfishness is your good medicine now. In order to have anything of yourself to give and share, you must have a self to give. When we drudge up that which has been left behind, it often gets expressed with an explosion and putrid purge. This frequently bypassed step is necessary to release your full relationship potential. SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) Abstract and supernatural beauty will enchant your heart, leaving you breathless and awestruck. However, when the gentle brush of expression reaches the canvas of your everyday life, bold and intense colors fill the space. The result is an omnipotent, tenderly raw, divulgence of your complex human spirit. SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 21) You are needing to surround yourself with edgy, bold friends who help you let off steam. Just remember that drama is far less intense than true deep contact. Run wild with the wolves, but be clear about the maturity and integrity of the pack.

CAPRICORN (December 22– January 19) You are learning to take more interest in the needs and input of others, rather than taking the entire burden and control on your own shoulders. Continue to let your family be the razor sharp edge that slices and dices you into an individuated free agent. Your worth is more valuable when you are true to yourself. AQUA R IUS ( Januar y 20 – February 18) You have a backlog of weird, wonderful, and deeply truthful aspects of your being that implore you to speak from your heart. You are inspired right now to tell your truth. However, don’t confuse it with the actual truth. Your beloved freedom lies in your own hands and on your own tongue. PISCES (February 19–March 20) It’s time to draw up a peace treaty with your inner demons. Your devalued reflection is morphing into an abundant full plate of possibilities. Take risks like you never have before, and witness your fallow field becoming generous and bountiful.

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

As Heard on the Street . . . What do you like to wear when you “dress to impress”?

compiled by Rink

Garza Peru

Marie Rodin

Andrea Shorter

Hank Donat

Brent Calderwood

“A Wonder Woman costume.”

“A nice pair of cowgirl boots.”

“A nice sharp shirt and jacket.”

“Black tie, of course.”

“I lost 50 pounds in the past year, so anything tight and tucked in.”

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com 22

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LGBT Highlights at the San Francisco International Film Festival

Film Gary M. Kramer The 58th San Francisco International Film Festival unspools at area screens April 23–May 7. The festival includes several films by American and international LGBT filmmakers. San Franciscobased Jenni Olsen’s The Royal Road is one of the highlights of the festival. An affecting cinematic journey, Olsen’s eloquent docuJenni Olsen mentary consists of gorgeous still shots of empty streets, bridges, and buildings—many of which have an Edward Hopperesque quality—and her poignant voice-over observations. She chronicles the history of the El Camino Real, while waxing poetically about the “pure industrial beauty” of the Oakland port. She traces Spain’s colonization of California and provides a brief, but cogent, history lesson about manifest destiny, the territorial expansion of the U.S., and the MexicanAmerican war. And Olsen discusses nostalgia and love and loss, as well as her flirtations with potential girlfriends (that never quite seem to work out).

The Royal Road is also a nuanced essay/ memory piece about movies. Olsen describes the impact films such as Sunset Boulevard, The Children’s Hour, Vertigo, and Roman Holiday have had on her outlook on life. She explains how films provided an escape for her growing up as a tomboy in the Midwest, and how the catharsis of narrative continues to inform her life in San Francisco, where “self-discovery is a civic value.” The Royal Road is very much a trip worth taking. Another fabulous film is Dólares de arena (Sand Dollars). Set in the Dominican Republic, this romantic drama depicts the relationship between Anne (Geraldine Chaplin), an elderly French woman who is in love with Noeli (Yanet Mojica). Their relationship consists of playful moments of the lovers swimming, dancing, or lying together in bed pressing the soles of their feet together affectionately. The way Anne looks at Noeli conveys her tenderness towards the much younger native woman, and Chaplin is particularly expressive with her eyes and smile. But Noeli asks Anne frequently for money, which she sometimes explains is for her brother, Yeremi (Ricard Ariel Toribio). Yet viewers know Yeremi is not Noeli’s relation, but is actually her boyfriend.

Dólares de arena becomes a love triangle, with Noeli at the apex, and things come to a head when Anne makes a decision to return to France with or without her beloved Noeli. Filmmakers Israel Cardneas and Laura Amelia Guzman have crafted a sensitive film about the love and money, and the film’s authenticity is one of its many strengths. The San Francisco International Film Festival is also presenting the Director’s Cut of Mark Christopher’s 54. This 1998 feature was heavily reshot and edited because of studio pressure before its unspectacular original theatrical release. Christopher’s version, which includes 35 restored minutes, proves the movie’s line “excess leads to wisdom,” as more is indeed more, and better. Studio 54 is only the setting of the film, not its subject. The venue provides nineteen-year-old Shane O’Shea (Ryan Phillippe) a crucible for coming of age and the getting of wisdom, albeit through the aforementioned excess. A not-too-bright pretty boy from Jersey City, his looks—he has what one character describes as the body of David and the face of a Botticelli—appeal to owner Steve Rubell (Mike Meyers) who hires him. As he gets caught up in the club’s sex, drugs, and disco, Shane makes friends with married colleagues Anita (Salma Hayek) and Greg (Breckin Meyer), and falls in love with soap actress Julie (Neve Campbell). Shane may be portrayed as green and a sex object—and Christopher does fetishize Phillippe frequently shirtless and occasionally naked—but Shane’s naïveté is charming. In one of his early leading roles, the actor delivers a fabulous performance. Mike Meyers also gives a notable turn as Rubell, and his come-on to Greg is fabulously awkward-creepy. 54 deservers another look, and thankfully, the festival is giving fans of the film and the just plain curious an opportunity to see this underappreciated period piece.

Other LGBT films at the festival (not available for preview) include out director François Ozon’s latest, The New Girlfriend, about a widower (Romain Duris) who dresses in his wife’s clothes to help care for his child, and Sworn Virgin, a drama about an Albanian woman (Alba Rohrwacher, the lesbian daughter from I Am Love) who poses as a man to obtain the rights denied to her gender. A transgender character also appears in Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere, an abortion-themed drama from Vietnam. Lastly, The Lexington, a short film about the famous lesbian bar, will be part of Boomtown: Remaking San Francisco, a program and panel discussion that is part of the festival. Happy movie going. © 2015 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.” Follow him on Twitter @garymkramer

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See many more Calendar items @ www.sfbaytimes.com

compiled by Robert Fuggiti

Shostakovich Trilogy will be at the San Francisco Ballet April 8-19.

• 2 : T HURSDAY

Castro Merchant Members Meeting – Eureka Valley Recreation Center. Free. 9 am. (100 Collingwood St.) A monthly meeting to cover updates and agenda items for things happening in the community. info@castromerchants.com Endeavor Foundation for the Arts Fundraiser – Balancoire. $20-$50. 6:30 pm. (2565 Mission St.) BeBe Sweetbriar hosts an evening of entertainment and

fun, with funds benefiting the Endeavor Foundation for the Arts. www.effta.brownpapertickets.com Passion – Davies Symphony Hall. $25-$90. 8 pm. (201 Van Ness Ave.) The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus presents a musical concert celebrating the beauty of life. www.sfgmc.org

• 3 : F RIDAY

Sing-Along Jesus Christ Superstar – Victoria Theatre. $11. 7 pm. (2961 16th St.) The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence present the

fourth annual Sing-Along Jesus Christ Superstar. www.singalongjcs2015.brownpaper tickets.com Billy Porter – PBS. Free. 9 pm. (Local PBS Channel) Tony and Grammy Award Winner Billy Porter will perform selections from his latest album, Billy’s Back on Broadway. www.pbs.org Some Thing – The Stud. $10. 10 pm. (399 9th St.) Enjoy a drag variety show with special Easterthemed performances. www.thestudsf.com

• 4 : S ATURDAY

Hard French X Honey Soundsystem – El Rio. $10. $2 pm. (3158 Mission St.) Enjoy a daytime dance party and free BBQ. www.elriosf.com Amy Meyers Band – The High Street Station. $10. 7 pm. (1303 High St., Alameda) The band features Joyce Baker on drums, Paul Olgiun on bass, Rick Cuevas on guitar, and Judea Eden on backing vocals. www.amymeyersmusic.com Mother-Ship to Reno – Peaches Christ. $150. April 4-5. (910 Valencia St.) Heklina and Peaches Christ present the 18th annual road trip drag show to Reno. www.store.peacheschrist.com

• 5 : S UNDAY

Easter Celebration – Lookout. $2. 11:30 am. (3600 16th St.) Join ALC Team Unpopular as they host the annual Easter celebration and a pop-up brunch. www.lookoutsf.com Hunky Jesus Contest – Golden Gate Park. Free. 12 pm to 4 pm. (Hellman Hollow, Golden Gate Park) Enjoy the annual Hunky Jesus Contest, hosted by the Sisters of 24

BAY TIMES APRIL 2 , 2 0 1 5

Perpetual Indulgence. www.thesisters.org RoyalTEA Dance – Oasis. $15$20. 6 pm. (298 11th St.) RoyalTEA is back and ready to pour it hot on Easter Sunday. www.sfoasis.com

• 6 : M ONDAY

LGBT Sangha – SF LGBT Center. Free. 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm. (1800 Market St.) All are welcome to join for a mindful meditation and spiritual practice. www.sfcenter. org Tim Gunn – Castro Theatre. $35+. 7 pm. (429 Castro St.) Join Project Runway’s Tim Gunn for a candid, inspirational and witty discussion of life’s lessons and “making it work.” www.castrotheatre.com Wanted – Q Bar. Free. 10 pm to 2 am. (456 Castro St.) Enjoy a night of dance and electronic music along with $2 drink specials. www.sfwanted.com

• 7 : T UESDAY

Queer Youth Meal Night – SF LGBT Center. Free. 5 pm. (1800 Market St.) Queer Youth Meal Night is a safe space to meet with trans/queer/ally friends and enjoy a warm meal. www.sfcenter.org The News – SOMA Cultural Arts. Free. 7:30 pm to 9 pm. (934 Brannan St.) On the first Tuesday of each month The News, presented by SOMArts Cultural Center, features new, queer work by Bay Area artists. www.somarts.org Beach Blanket Babylon – Club Fugazi. $25-$130. 8 pm. (678 Green St.) Enjoy Steve Silver’s famous musical revue packed with hilarious pop culture and political antics. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

• 8 : W EDNESDAY

Warehouse Sale – Chronicle Books. 9 am to 7 pm. (680 2nd St.) Save 65% on everything in the store. This location only. April 8-10. www.chroniclebooks.com Sister Play – Magic Theatre. $25+. 8 pm. (2 Marina Blvd., Building D) A heartwarming comedy by Magic Theatre audience favorite John Kolvenbach (Mrs. Whitney, Goldfish). Enjoy 20% off with code ‘SISTERS’. www.magictheatre.org Let There Be Love – A.C.T. Theater. $20-$65. 8 pm. (405 Geary St.) Let There Be Love is an intimate and often humorous family drama by Kwame Kwei-Armah. April 8 through May 3. www.act-sf.org

• 9 : T HURSDAY

Yuri’s Night – California Academy of Sciences. $10. 6 pm. (55 Music Concourse Dr.) Nightlife celebrates space exploration pioneer Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space. www.calacademy.org In a Word – SF Playhouse. $20. 3 pm. (533 Sutter St.) A young mother battles the confusion and grief of her missing son by summoning the awesome power of language. www.sfplayhouse.org Lesbians of Color Discussion Group – Pacific Center. Free. 7 pm to 9 pm. (2712 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley) Network and social with women discussing a range of various topics. www.pacificcenter.org

• 10 : F RIDAY

Laurie Lewis – First United Methodist Church. $20. 7:30 pm. (201 Martina Ave., Point Richmond) Bay Area bluegrass legend Laurie Lewis and her band, The Right

night long. www.beauxsf.com

• 14 : T UESDAY

Kaleo – Rickshaw Stop. $10. 8 pm. (155 Fell St.) This four piece band blends folk, blues, country and rock for an unforgettable performance. www.rickshawstop.com

Hands, perform live. www.pointacoustic.org Bitch and Tell – Exit Theatre. $10-$20. 8 pm. (156 Eddy St.) A hybrid of entertainment, from storytelling to improv. April 10-25. www.theexit.org The Party Monsters – California Jazz Conservatory. $15. 8 pm. (2087 Addison St.) The Party Monsters is a high energy, good time band which plays Motown, R&B and Classic Rock. www.cjc.edu

• 11 : S ATURDAY

night to the month of April, with songs like Stormy Weather, It’s Raining Men and many more. 415-241-0205. Hedwig and the Angry Inch – The New Parkway. $10. 12 pm to 2 pm. (474 24th St., Oakland) Join LGBTQ leaders, activists and professionals from across the Bay Area for an afternoon of LGBTQ film, community, great pizza drinks and more! www.horizonsfoundation.org

• 13 : M ONDAY

Shamanism Arts and Crafts Class – SF LGBT Center. Free. 10 am. (1800 Market St.) Bring a project of your choice to work on while in a shamanic trance state. www.sfcenter.org

Shostakovich Trilogy – SF Ballet. $25+. 2 pm. (San Francisco War Memorial) Alexei Ratmansky’s emotionally charged tribute to one of Russia’s greatest composers. Through April 19. www.sfballet.org

Lear’s Shadow – The Marsh San Francisco. $20. 8 pm. (1062 Valenica St.) King Lear’s jester, recently unemployed, tells his side of the story. Written and directed by David Ford. Through May 30. www.themarsh.org

Marga Gomez’s Performerama – Oasis. $8-$10. 8 pm. (298 11th St.) Marga Gomez’s Performerama featuring new theater and variety by Marga Gomez, Karen Ripley and Ben McCoy. www.sfoasis.com

Bad Ass Boots Band – La Pena Cultural Center. $12. 8 pm. (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) Bad Ass Boots has a unique sound all their own with songs that are sensual, tough and fun-loving. www.badassbootsband.com

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

• 15 : W EDNESDAY

Castro Farmers’ Market – Noe St. at Market. Free. 4 pm to 8 pm. (Noe St. at Market) Enjoy fresh produce and local made foods and delicacies. www.pcfma.com BINGO – The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center. $15 to play. 7 pm. (938 Alameda, San Jose) Early game starts at 6:30 pm. www.defrank.org Smack Dab Open Mic Night – Magnet. Free. 8 pm. (4122 18th St.) An open mic night for all with host Larry-bob Roberts. www.magnetsf.org

This Month at The Market! APRIL 21: Earth Day is coming! Enter to win a very nice herb kit so you can grow fresh fragrant herbs on your windowsill. And if you bring your reusable shopping bag to the Info Booth you'll receive a free basket of strawberries. Supplies are limited! FROG HOLLOW FARM: Look for late season citrus and apples, Haas avocados, and jams and preserves. Watch for cherries in late April/May. FEEL GOOD BAKERY: Artisan breads, pretzels, baguettes, cookies, and other baked goodies. Yum! SHELLY’S FARM FRESH: Fresh pasture-raised eggs that are out of this world! Still have time to pick up a dozen Pullet eggs, young hen eggs that have larger yolks. pcfma.com/castro

1.800.949.FARM

fb.com/castrofarmersmarket

DESIGN : LOGOMAN : logomantotherescue.com

Bad Ass Boots Band will be at La Peña Cultural Center April 11.

Kiesza – Mezzanine. $25. 9 pm. (444 Jessiet St.) Indie singer, Kiesza performs songs from her Sound of a Woman album. www.ticketfly.com

Intercollegiate LGBT Alumni Mixer - B-Restaurant. Free. 6:30 pm. (720 Howard St.) FFR/Princeton BTGALA present their first mixer of the year! www. tigernet.princeton.edu

Opulence – Beaux. Free. 9 pm. (2344 Market St.) A hip-hop night with happy hour drink specials all

• 12 : S UNDAY

Janeare Ashley – California Jazz Conservatory. $20. 4 pm. (2087 Addison St.) Vocalist Janeare Ashley gives passionate and thrilling performance of songs at the crossroads of soul and jazz. www.cjc.edu Stormy Weather – Martuni’s. Free. 7 pm. (4 Valencia St.) A tribute

BAY T IM ES APR IL 2, 2015

RAINBOW HONOR WALK (continued from page 7) praised by a new generation. Always he wrote with deep sympathy about the tragedy of “those souls too fragile or frightened or tender or broken to live.” Even when their portrayal required violent imagery, Williams was “a poet of the human heart” who “made pulsating plays out of his visions of a world of terror, confusion, and perverse beauty.” His men and women may be flawed, emotionally unstable, frustrated, and fatally damaged by repressed desire and suppressed emotion, but their feelings as sensitive people “punished by a harsh, uncaring world” touch upon the humanity shared by us all. Bill Lipsky, Ph.D., author of “Gay and Lesbian San Francisco” (2006), is a member of the Rainbow Honor Walk board of directors.

Save The Date! Saturday, June 13 for the San Francisco Bay Times Pride Party!

“Kiss for the Bay Times” Photo Exhibit Sweet Inspiration 2239 Market Street Now Through Mid May Tennessee Williams

SISTER DANA (continued from page 13) are back in town after a smash-hit run of Season One at Stagewerx last fall. Directed by Christian Heppinstall, costume designer: Craig Marotzke. Featuring the original six episodes: Hospital, Death, Morocco, New Best Friend, Poor and Birth. Friday and Saturday, 8pm, Hospital and Death: April 3rd-4th, 10th-11th. theexit.org

Miguel Florez and Sister Phyliss Withe Litaday, and will feature a costume contest including a prize for Best Chunky Jesus! The event is a benefit for the San Francisco Trans March, one of the largest trans* events in the world. April 3rd, 7pm, Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street. badflower. com

Last year, our beloved COOK IE DOUGH offered her MONSTER SHOW as a fun(d)raiser for The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on the Thursday before Easter (our anniversary). In her memory, we are back for round two! Join The Sisters on Thursday, April 2nd at The Edge, 4149 18th Street, 10pm, for HOLY BROADWAY! a night full of excitement, camp, and a little blasphemy - as we offer our unique interpretations of some of your favorite religiously themed Broadway musicals. Sister Dana will even perform, so bring rotten fruit!

It’s Easter in Golden Gate Park with your SISTERS OF PERPETUAL INDULGENCE, INC. once more. Join us while we celebrate our 36th Anniversary with a Post-Modern San Francisco County Fair theme, #W T F M A RY ?! H U NK Y JE SUS TAKE THE WHEEL! Tons of LIVE Performances including: Red Hots Burlesque • Empress Khmera Rouge • Kippy Marks • Sundance Saloon • Joe Rut • The Monster Show • FouFouHa! • Boys of Bearlesque: San Francisco • Momma’s Boyz • GayC/ DC • TrashKan Marchink Band - TKMB. Sunday, April 5th, adults = noon- 4pm; Children’s Easter, 11am; Bonnet Contest,1pm, Foxy Mary Contest, 2pm; Hunky Jesus Contest, 3pm. Hellman Hollow, Golden Gate Park. Sister Dana and Sister Roma judge contests as usual.

BAD FLOWER PRODUCTIONS and THE SISTERS OF PERPETUAL INDULGENCE will help kick off The Sisters’ Annual Easter Weekend with the wildly fun and outrageous FOURTH ANNUAL SING ALONG JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at the Victoria Theatre. The Good Friday event will be hosted by local transgender musician, Storm-

Frame 123

San Francisco’s only all-male revue is back by popular demand! Oasis

proudly presents an encore performance of the sold-out debut show with added numbers that will leave you begging for more. BALONEY is back with a vengeance, now with TWO nights of scantily-clad boys behaving badly. Choreographed by Rory Davis, Directed by Michael Phillis, featuring Rory Davis, Adam Roy, James Martin, Shaun Mullen, Moe Arikat, Michael Phillis, Tim Wingert, Simon Palczynski, Alex Steinhaus, & Aaron Sarazan. Oasis Nightclub & Cabaret, 298 11th Street, boxoffice@sfoasis.com, (415) 795-3180 A MBER’S DISCO CA B A R ET is Saturday, April 11th, 9pm-2am at Club OMG, 43 6th Street, a fundraiser for COMFORT & JOY. “Come out and play with us, meet new friends, bitch with old friends, dance all night, cruise heavily, get silly, and most of all be LOVED!” says Amber. Sister Dana sez, “Congressional Repugnicans just won’t quit being heartless. Last week, when the Republicans controlling the U.S. House and Senate introduced their budgets, between them they called for a commission to cut Social Security and to destroy Medicare and Medicaid outright. Do they care for nothing but the oligarchy?! Will they not rest until they demolish the entire middle class and poor?!”

ROSTOW (continued from page 17) *

Tennessee associate solicitor general Joseph Whalen will take on HallwardDriemeier. Hallward-Driemeier, for the record, is a former assistant solicitor general who has argued several cases before the High Court. We can’t get any better than Bonauto, who is calm, collected, brilliant and warm. She recently won a genius MacArthur Fellowship, which I think is up to something like $650,000. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

Sam’s Club Now what? Just a couple of lines left, not enough space to launch into a big new topic, but far too much to leave blank. Did you read that Michael Sam said he met a number of closeted gay football players during his brief stint in the NFL? He even said that some famous names might be secret members of the club. You know, I don’t have much sympathy for closeted adults at this stage in our movement. But if it’s going to cost

you eight figures, I might give you a gay break. Yes, it would be courageous to be the first active superstar to come out. On the other hand, if I were in that position I might just stay private for a few more years. Ka ching, ka ching. But now that I think about it, it would be the great athlete who would have less to lose, right? It’s the journeyman who gets benched or traded. So come out, guys! arostow@aol.com

Heard about “Queens at Court?” Queens at Court, a documentary film directed by Shiv Paul, chronicles the stories of four diverse LGBTQ tennis players over the course of 8 months and 2 amateur tennis tournaments. The film was selected for screening in 2014 by GLAAD and was sponsored on the Emirates Airlines US Open Series Professional Tennis Tour by the United States Tennis Association. The film was featured on March 28 at the Sonoma International Film Festival 2015. To f ind out more: queensatcourt.com

BAY TIMES APRIL 2 , 2 0 1 5

Round About - All Over Town

Human Rights Commission executive director Theresa Sparks with commissioners Michael Pappas and Mark Kelleher at the SF LGBT Center for the presentation by the HRC’s LGBT Advisory Committee of findings from the recently completed LGBT Violence Report Prevention Study.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is featured in a prominently placed poster installation on Castro near the Market Street intersection.

Photos by RINK

Chris James Walker and Bobby Blue of the Promise Kings band (center) were surrounded by friends and family at Magnet on the evening of the Smack Dab open mic.

Smack Dab hosts Larry-Bob Roberts and Dana Hopkins with visiting open mic host Baruch Porras Hernandez (right) at Magnet with Dana’s dog Wilbur

Volunteers Courtney Greene and Jeffrey Noehren served as event coordinators for Magnet’s Smack Dab, a program of the SF AIDS Foundation.

Ryan Souza and Marie Rodin of Rodin Farms in Modesto offer high quality nuts for sale at the Castro Farmers Market.

Composer, lyricist and pianist Scrumbly Koldewyn with performer Lisa McHenry enjoying the VIP party at the opening night of Jewels of Paris at the Hypnodrome Theatre.

Partners Chris James Walker and Bobby Blue, members of the band Promise Kings, celebrated their first anniversary and performed during the Smack Dab open mic at Magnet.

Trumpeter Chirstopher Lowell Clankor and Dwayne Oakley on bass and vocals performed at the Castro Farmers Market, which is held every Wednesday 4-8pm at Noe and Market next to Cafe Flore.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s billboard on Polk Street announces a free HIV testing service.

Steven Satyricon and Andrew Darling on stage at the opening night of Jewels of Paris at the Hypnodrome Theatre

Customers heading to or from the doorway created a bustling street scene outside of Hot Cookie, the popular bakery on Castro Street owned by Dan Glaser, known for supporting many LGBT community organizations.

Husbands John Davis and Steve Porter, Harvey’s general manager, enjoyed lunch at Wasabi Bistro on Castro.

Performers on stage in a scene from Jewels of Paris at the Hypnodrome Theatre

Performer Noah Haydon with guest Vincie at the Jewels of Paris opening night The Rock N’Roll Half Marathon 2015, following a route from the Golden Gate Bridge down Polk Street to the SF Civic Center

A group of participants striding down Polk Street in the 2015 Rock N’Roll Half Marathon BAY T IM ES APR IL 2, 2015