August 4, 2022 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Uncoupled

Newsom declares monkeypox emergency in CA

by Cynthia Laird

Three days after California public health officials declined to issue a state of emergency for the monkeypox outbreak, Governor Gavin Newsom did so late Monday afternoon.

In an August 1 statement, Newsom said he was making the declaration to bolster the state’s vaccination efforts. The proclamation supports the work underway by the California Department of Public Health and others in the administration to coordinate a wholeof-government response to monkeypox, seek additional vaccines, and lead outreach and education efforts on accessing vaccines and treatment, Newsom’s release stated.

“California is working urgently across all levels of government to slow the spread of monkeypox, leveraging our robust testing, contact tracing and community partnerships strengthened during the pandemic to ensure that those most at risk are our focus for vaccines, treatment and outreach,” stated Newsom. “We’ll continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccines, raise awareness about reducing risk, and stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization.”

San Francisco’s public health department declared a public health state of emergency July 29 because of the city’s rapidly growing monkeypox outbreak. New York state also did so, and over the weekend New York City followed suit.

Most of the Golden State’s monkeypox cases, and the vast majority in San Francisco, have occurred among men who have sex with men.

Last week, Dr. Tomás Aragón, director and state public health officer of the California Department of Public Health, declined to declare a statewide emergency during a teleconference with reporters, as the Bay Area Reporter reported.

To expand vaccination efforts, Newsom’s proclamation enables Emergency Medical Services personnel to administer monkeypox

See page 10 >>

Hangin’

on at Up Your Alley

Gay SF men share monkeypox stories

by Eric Burkett

With 386 confirmed cases of monkeypox in San Francisco as of August 2, it’s getting to the point where probably just about everyone in the city’s LGBTQ community knows someone who has had or has the virus.

The Bay Area Reporter interviewed several San Francisco gay men about their experiences with the virus and there were numerous common threads. From where many of them contracted it – likely June’s Pride weekend – to its initial flu-like symptoms, monkeypox is becoming more widespread among men who have sex with men in the LGBTQ community. Alarmingly, another thread, though not as common, was the initial reluctance of some medical professionals, even in the San Francisco Department of Public Health, to take the experiences of victims seriously. For one man,

See page 10 >>

LGBTQ Asians push to stem hate crimes tide

by Matthew S. Bajko

LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander Californians are part of a coalition of community groups and state lawmakers pushing to stem a tide of hate crimes against API individuals and others that has been rising since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are focused this week on advancing two bills in the California Legislature collectively called the No Place for Hate Campaign.

The first, authored by state Senator Dave Min (D-Costa Mesa), is Senate Bill 1161. Called “Improving Public Transit Ridership Safety” it aims to protect LGBTQ+ people, cisgender women, and other vulnerable public transit riders. The legislation would require California’s 10 largest transit agencies, including LA Metro, BART, and Orange County Transportation Authority, to recognize street harassment as a rider safety concern, gather data, and create non-carceral solutions to prevent hate and harassment that occurs in their vehicles or at transit stops. BART is among the bill’s supporters.

The second is Assembly Bill 2448 by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) and is titled “Expanding Civil Rights Protections at Businesses.” If adopted, it would require large businesses to train their employees on how to protect, report, and respond to hate crimes for the safety of their customers.

“I would just have to say that now is the time for our state legislative leaders to act. This is such an important opportunity for them to combat such a widespread circumstance for our API community members who continue to face hate and harassment,” said Andy Wong, a gay Chinese American who is director of advocacy for Chinese for Affirmative Action. “We really need them to step up and make sure these bills are passed, so we have concrete tools to continue to combat street harassment that is impacting not

just the API community but women and girls, the LGBTQ community, and other impacted communities.”

Janice Li, a queer woman who in January took over as director of the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice where she focuses on AAPI community-based safety initiatives, told the Bay Area Reporter she feels “as confident” as she can that the bills will become law.

See page 10 >>

Emily Armstrong

Courtesy Governor’s office

Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a state of emergency for the monkeypox outbreak.

Andy Wong, left, joined Shanti Elise Prasad and Nicholas Gee outside the state Capitol for the Ignite Advocacy Day.

Courtesy Andy Wong

Tom Nolan retires

The Up Your Alley fetish and kink street fair returned in all its glory July 31 in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. After being sidelined the past two summers due to the COVID pandemic, which is ongoing, this year’s attendees also had to confront the monkeypox outbreak, which has mainly affected men who have sex with men in the Bay Area. Public health staffers were on site with information about both viruses, and people managed to have a good time, as this rope suspension demonstration created by Twisted Windows shows. Next up on the kink and leather calendar will be the return of the Folsom Street Fair September 25.

Gooch

FALLARTS PREVIEW

Biden names gay judge to federal CA bench

by Matthew S. Bajko

President Joe Biden has nominated a gay California state superior court judge to the federal bench. It follows criticism that the Biden administration has been slow to appoint LGBTQ federal judges.

Friday, July 29, Biden announced he had nominated Judge Daniel Calabretta to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. If confirmed, Calabretta would be the first openly LGBTQ judge to serve on the federal district court.

Calabretta had served as a law clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens from 2004 to 2005. The year prior he had clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge William Fletcher, who serves on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes California.

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In late 2018 former California governor Jerry Brown named Calabretta, his deputy legal affairs secretary, to the Sacramento County Superior Court. Calabretta, who graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 2003, joined the state bench in early 2019.

He had served as deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice from 2008 to 2013, during Brown’s time as California attorney general then for two years under Kamala Harris, now Biden’s vice president. Between 2005 and 2008 Calabretta was an associate at the California law firm Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP.

Born Daniel Joe Powell, he grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Princeton University in 2000. In 2014, Calabretta married Jonathan McClean Calabretta.

Daniel Calabretta was among nine judicial appointments that Biden announced Friday. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Rita F. Lin would be the second Asian American woman and first Chinese American woman seated on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, while Araceli Martinez-Olguin, a supervising attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, would be the second Latina to serve on the federal district court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will now take up the judges’ nominations. In announcing them, the Biden administration called the jurists “extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.”

California’s two Democratic U.S. senators – Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein – called for the trio of California judges to be confirmed in a statement they jointly released Friday.

“We applaud President Biden’s nominations of Judge Daniel Calabretta, Judge Lin, and Araceli Martinez-Olguin to serve on California’s district courts,” stated Padilla and Feinstein. “Each has unique and extensive experience in the legal field that will serve California well on the bench. We urge our colleagues in the Senate to support their swift confirmation.”

The White House’s announcement also noted that the nominations “continue to fulfill” Biden’s “promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country – both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.”

Yet in a report released in February, the LGBTQ law group Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said that during his first year in office Biden “fell short on LGBTQ+ repre-

sentation” with his appointments for the federal judiciary.

It reported there being only 14 active federal judges who openly identify as gay or lesbian, which is a mere 1.6% of the 870 Article III judgeships in the federal judiciary. It also noted only 20 openly gay or lesbian people, at the time of the report’s issuance, had ever been nominated to the federal judiciary since the ratification of the Constitution.

“More disappointingly, there has never been an openly transgender, nonbinary, or bisexual nominee in the history of the federal judiciary,” according to the report.

In April, Biden nominated Ana Reyes, a lesbian who is an attorney at the D.C.-based law firm Williams & Connolly LLP, for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She would be the first Hispanic woman and the first out lesbian who would ever serve on the court, noted the Washington Blade LGBTQ newspaper.

This year also saw the confirmation of Biden nominee Alison Nathan, a lesbian former federal district court judge in New York, to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last November, the U.S. Senate confirmed Biden’s first lesbian nominee to the 2nd Circuit: Beth Robinson of Vermont.

The 2nd Circuit includes Vermont, New York, and Connecticut. That confirmation marked the first time an openly LGBTQ woman had been appointed to a federal appeals circuit seat, as the Bay Area Reporter had noted.

“It is essential for the judiciary to reflect the communities that it serves. Not because it guarantees a particular outcome in a particular case, but because it helps to ensure that all who walk through the courthouse doors will be treated with dignity and view the court’s decisions with legitimacy, because they will see themselves represented in the institution,” stated Lambda Legal in its report. “This is particularly important for LGBTQ+ people, as there is overwhelming evidence of bias by the courts towards these communities.”

Biden’s latest round of federal judicial nominations is his 24th since being sworn into office last year. It marked his 11th slate of nominations this year and brings the number of his announced federal judicial nominees to 132.

“President Biden has spent decades committed to strengthening the federal bench, which is why he continues to move rapidly to fill judicial vacancies. And he has won confirmation of the most lower court judges for the first year of a presidency since the Kennedy administration,” noted the White House.t

Judge Daniel Calabretta, would be the first LGBTQ judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Ballotpedia

Senate vote on marriage bill pushed back to Sept.

by Lisa Keen

Hope for a quick vote on the Respect for Marriage Act in the U.S. Senate this week has faded, but lesbian Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) said over the weekend that she has 10 Republican senators willing to vote for the measure and believes that vote could take place in September.

The House of Representatives passed the Respect for Marriage Act on July 19, by a vote of 267-157, just one day after Congressmember Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) introduced it. Even though only three Republicans voted for the Equality Act in the House last year, and only two Republicans voted for an LGBTQI+ data inclusion act in June, 47 Republicans voted for the Respect for Marriage Act.

Shannon Minter, a trans man who is legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, pointed to polling that shows 55% of Republicans support marriage equality. A poll in June indicated that 72% of registered voters opposed the idea of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning a decision that enabled same-sex couples to marry.

But popular support for legislation has not translated into bipartisan votes on other LGBTQ legislation. Nearly that same percentage in another poll said they would favor laws protecting LGBTQ people against discrimination in jobs, housing, and public accommodations, yet only three conservative Republicans voted for the Equality Act.

Nor are all 47 Republican House members who voted for the marriage bill in tight midterm elections this year. Only 17 had single digit margins of victory in 2020. Of the 27 who were scored by the Human Rights Campaign’s rating of their votes on LGBTQ issues, 20 scored between zero and 11.

Baldwin told National Public Radio that she thinks same-sex marriage is more acceptable now because “it’s now part of most people’s everyday reality to know somebody who has married in order to provide legal protections for their family.” Until recently, she hoped the Senate would vote before August 8, when Congress takes its summer recess. And she has emphasized that the Respect for Marriage Act has become critical because the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade has “implicated” other decisions based on similar grounds. Among those cases is Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 opinion striking down state bans on marriage licenses

for same-sex couples.

Baldwin, the Senate’s first openly LGBTQ member, is leading the charge to get the body to vote on the Respect for Marriage bill. With the Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, she needs all 50 Democrats and at least 10 Republicans to agree to break the inevitable Republican filibuster that would ensue with any attempt to bring the marriage bill to the floor.

Baldwin told a Wisconsin media outlet July 29 that she has five Republicans publicly committed: Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), and Ron Johnson (Wisconsin).

“Five additional members have indicated they are leaning in support,” said Baldwin, “but I think because of how crowded the [Senate] calendar is for next week, which is our last week before the August recess, and in light of the fact that we can’t have any absences – we need everybody there, and we have a few members with COVID – this is probably going to be a vote that occurs, what I would hope would be early September.”

Meanwhile, it’s not clear that some recalcitrant Democratic senators – like Joe Manchin of West Virginia – are on board. Collins told The Hill newspaper that Manchin’s recent agreements to go along with Democratic bills on climate change might cause the Respect for Marriage bill to lose Republican votes.

But bisexual Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) is supporting the marriage bill.

What Respect for Marriage Act says Baldwin introduced the Respect for Marriage Act (S. 29) in the Senate on July 18, along with Senators Dianne

Feinstein (D-California) and Collins.

The House bill, H.R. 8404, was introduced the same day and is slightly longer. Both bills have language to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that barred recognition of same-sex marriages. A key provision of that law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013 via U.S. v. Windsor.

Both bills also include language to make it clear that a marriage validly obtained in one state shall be recognized by the federal government and by other states.

Neither bill says that all states must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Charles Moran, president of the national Log Cabin Republicans group, said he thinks the House bill got Republican votes because “the GOP is calling the Democrats’ bluff on this issue and that’s why we saw 47 yes votes.”

“The antics of [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and Nadler, in dropping this bill with less than 24 hours notice before a full floor vote, no committee hearings, etc. rankled a lot of GOP members ... and some voted no as a protest to that style of governance... not because of their opposition to gay marriage,” said Moran, referring to the Democratic speaker from San Francisco. “I believe that if I had an additional 24 hours to whip votes, we could have gotten 70+ yes votes. If I had 48 hours? Probably 100 yes votes.”

But Moran said he also thinks the 47 Republican votes are a reflection of the huge differences between the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act.

“The Respect for Marriage Act was a clean bill. The Equality Act is messy, [and] tramples over a lot of things like religious freedom that GOPers won’t go along with,” said Moran.

Some ultra conservatives affiliated with religious groups say they believe the Respect for Marriage bill is an attack on them. In a July 26 letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), representatives of Alliance Defending Freedom and 79 other anti-LGBTQ and conservative religious groups write that the Respect for Marriage bill is an attempt to silence people who believe marriage can be only one man and one woman. The bill, the letter states, “does much to endanger people of faith,” and anyone who supports the bill, it states, is “aiding and abetting the persecution of people of faith.”t

Senator Tammy Baldwin is leading the Senate effort to pass the Respect for Marriage Act.

As gay manager retires, SF LGBTQ aging plan reviewed

by Matthew S. Bajko

Nearly a decade after it was released, a groundbreaking LGBTQ aging policy plan received a three-month review this year to examine how San Francisco city officials are implementing its proposals. The community-led panel issued its report to City Hall August 1, a day prior to the retirement of a gay man who helped shepherd the initial report’s creation then implementation.

In recognition of his work the last 10 years as a manager of special projects for San Francisco’s Department of Disability and Aging Services (DAS), formerly known as the Department of Aging and Adult Services, Tom Nolan was honored by having August 2 be declared Tom Nolan Day in the city by the Board of Supervisors. It was Nolan’s third such honor.

The late mayor Ed Lee had declared April 18, 2017 as Tom Nolan Day to mark the occasion of Nolan stepping down from the board that oversees the city’s transit agency. Former mayor Gavin Newsom had first appointed Nolan to the volunteer position in 2006, and according to Nolan, had declared a day in his honor on September 1, 2004 to mark his 10th anniversary as executive director of Project Open Hand.

Nolan stepped down in late 2011 from leading the nonprofit food pantry begun for people living with HIV. The following year he was hired by the city’s department for aging services on a part-time basis to provide support to the task force created by the supervisors to develop a plan for addressing the needs of San Francisco’s LGBTQ seniors.

As for how he planned to celebrate his special day, Nolan told the Bay Area Reporter he was going to be “finally cleaning my office.” He and his partner, Larry Friesen, planned to mark his retirement by taking a trip on the wine train in Napa Wednesday, August 3, and spending the night in the North Bay.

“At the age of 77, it is about time, huh. Everybody agrees, too,” quipped Nolan, joking to the B.A.R. that when it came to LGBTQ aging issues, “I have got those all resolved.”

At the start of the year Nolan had spoken to DAS Executive Director Kelly Dearman, a straight ally named to the job last spring, about convening a group of LGBTQ community leaders to examine how well the city has been doing in implementing the LGBTQ aging plan, which was divided into 13 areas of concern. He told her it would serve as a coda to his work for the city agency.

“This was the 10th anniversary of the creation of the task force, so I felt it was appropriate for my final thing to be to work on that. She agreed,” recalled Nolan, adding that he is confident Dearman will hire someone as his replacement to continue to push forward on the LGBTQ aging initiatives and needs. “I don’t know that Kelly has made a decision but I am quite sure someone will be brought on.”

Dearman told the B.A.R. she is looking to bring on a new person later this year but is aiming to make the position full-time. In a phone interview that coincided with the start of Nolan’s retirement, she said it was “kind of a sad day” but knew she could reach out to Nolan if she ever needed advice or support.

“It is a great day for Tom and we are super excited for him,” said Dearman. “But he has been a force in the LGBTQ+ community and the aging community. It is a huge loss for us that he is retiring.”

Gay former city supervisor and state lawmaker Mark Leno, who served on the committee that reviewed the LGBTQ aging report, praised Nolan, who

in the 1980s became the first LGBTQ person elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

“To Tom’s credit, he has made sure that his successor can carry on the great work he has done,” said Leno, adding that, “I was pleased to see that so much of the to-do list has been attended to. But, clearly, there is always much more to do and we laid that all out in our final report.”

Progress made

Over the years the city has made progress in implementing a host of recommendations included in the 120-page plan, titled “LGBT Aging at the Golden Gate: San Francisco Policy Issues and Recommendations,” in order to address the needs of LGBTQ seniors, including those with a disability or living with HIV. Within a year of its issuance in 2014, a number of the report’s proposals had already either been put into place or received pledges from city leaders that they would work to implement them, as the B.A.R. first reported in 2015.

“I honestly feel that DAS has done an excellent job. It is vey impressive what they have achieved and how thoughtful they have been over the last 10 years,” said Bill Ambrunn, a gay man who chaired the LGBTQ aging task force and helped assemble the committee members who reviewed its report. “I represented the community in this process, or tried to, so from the community perspective, we have always looked for opportunities to keep this issue on the radar of city leaders.”

In its assessment sent to city leaders this week, the community review group noted that “overall, DAS has done an excellent job implementing the task force’s recommendations.” It noted that the department “has been thoughtful and proactive in creating new programs for LGBTQ+ older adults and adults with disabilities recommended by the task force.”

It thanked both Dearman and her predecessor, Shireen McSpadden, one of the city’s highest-ranking bisexual leaders who now leads the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, for their support of the review process. And it said, “San Francisco is a better place because of Tom Nolan.”

The review group was comprised of nonprofit executive directors, former LGBTQ elected leaders in the city, and several of the original members of the task force that compiled the aging report.

“I really hope they keep listening to the voices of many people, especially what I have been talking about: clients who really need to receive services in the community,” said review committee member Jesus Guillen, a gay man and long-term HIV survivor who has advised the city’s health department on HIV and aging issues. “I really hope they especially take into consideration

“This might include the pursuit of future DAS funding for a new outreach specialist to execute new strategies for outreach to previously unserved or underserved LGBTQ+ older adults and adults with disabilities,” it suggested.

In terms of SOGI collection, the review committee commended DAS for its achievements on gathering the LGBTQ demographic data of its clients. It called for the department to improve its assistance to other city agencies that continue to struggle with their SOGI efforts.

As the B.A.R. has previously reported, the city’s public health department has been an especially egregious laggard when it comes to SOGI data. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is expected to call for another hearing this fall on SOGI data efforts in the city.

housed, it also recommended there be a drop-in center in the LGBTQ Castro district for LGBTQ+ unhoused older adults in need of “safe and welcoming shelter or housing.” Of particular concern, it noted, were transgender seniors.

“While San Francisco and DAS specifically have created programs to address a variety of housing support issues facing LGBTQ+ older adults and adults with disabilities, more can always be done in this area, and more is needed,” stated the review committee.

Dearman told the B.A.R. she is “in agreement for the most part” with the findings and suggestions of the review committee. Reaching those LGBTQ seniors not utilizing DAS services has been an issue she has been trying to address.

the voices of clients.”

Noting “the huge wave of LGBTQ elders,” meaning people 50 years of age and older, San Francisco is set to see, Guillen questioned if the city was equipped to meet their needs.

“I am not sure we are ready to really help our community,” he said. “We haven’t intertwined senior services and the LGBTQ HIV community, so that is sad.”

Housing remains an issue

As for his own assessment on how well the city has done on implementing the LGBTQ aging plan, Nolan told the B.A.R. “mostly very well.” He pointed to the work toward collecting LGBTQ demographic data in the city, the passage of a bill of rights for LGBTQ seniors in long-term care facilities, and programs teaching financial and legal literacy to older adults as some of the achievements that have been made.

But he acknowledged that affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors remains a serious concern in the city and one of the “most difficult issues” to address in San Francisco. The city has purchased land on upper Market Street to build a third housing development welcoming of LGBTQ seniors.

It is a short walk away from the two buildings jointly operated by Openhouse, a nonprofit provider of LGBTQ senior services, and the affordable housing developer Mercy Housing. The two are now working on the design for the new building, which is not expected to open until 2026 at the earliest.

The community review group highlighted “accessible, supportive housing” for LGBTQ older adults as an ongoing concern. It also highlighted that despite DAS’ work over the years on SOGI data collection, it remains a challenge for not only it but also other city agencies.

Another ongoing concern, per the review group, is the relative few LGBTQ seniors who access the various city-funded or provided services for them. It highlighted the need to improve “outreach to particularly marginalized LGBTQ+ adults who have not traditionally turned to DAS for aging services as an out member of the LGBTQ+ community.”

According to a report issued this year on the Dignity Fund, which assists the city’s seniors to age in place at home and is administered by DAS, LGBTQ+ older adults account for 12% of all older adults in San Francisco but account for only 5% of the clients served by the Dignity Fund.

“Either DAS is serving a higher percentage of queer older adults than wish to admit they are members of the community when data is requested, or DAS is just not serving them,” said Ambrunn.

The review committee called for Nolan’s successor to focus on marketing DAS’ programs to LGBTQ seniors.

“In order for the LGBTQ+ community to be fully and fairly represented in the way the city provides not only aging services, but services across the board, other city departments must get up to speed not only in the collection of SOGI data but in its use to devise new and improved programs and services that adequately serve the LGBTQ+ community,” noted the review committee.

In terms of housing, the review committee not only called for a variety of services to keep LGBTQ seniors

She also agreed that DAS staff can serve as policy experts in terms of educating other city agencies on the needs of LGBTQ+ older adults and collecting SOGI data. In terms of addressing the housing issues, Dearman told the B.A.R. there are certain challenges in her agency doing so.

“It’s hard. We don’t build housing, we offer support,” she noted. “We really need to work with other departments to get the housing built. Our commitment is to work with other departments that are tasked with building housing to keep our population at the forefront of those discussions.”t

Tom Nolan, fourth from right holding a bouquet, was honored by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman July 19 for his nearly four decades of public service. August 2 was declared Tom Nolan Day in San Francisco.

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Newsom must sign SB 57

San Francisco is in the midst of a drug overdose crisis. Indeed, the situation led Mayor London Breed late last year to declare a state of emergency in the Tenderloin, which the Board of Supervisors approved after a marathon meeting. That enabled the city to open the Tenderloin Center, which offers services to people with substance use issues and will be open until this December. We have reported that Tenderloin residents have said they’ve walked past dead bodies on the street. Overdose deaths have risen sharply since the onset of the COVID pandemic. There were 711 overdose deaths in 2020, and 640 in 2021. The city is on track to meet or exceed those numbers this year, officials have stated. In short, this is unacceptable in the city.

For further context, there were 1,287 cumulative overdose reversals – using naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose – performed by San Francisco emergency medical services citywide between December 13, 2021 and June 19, 2022. Of those, 721 were performed in the Tenderloin. In roughly the same time period, in the same neighborhood, there were 73 overdose deaths, according to figures compiled by the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative.

Now, Governor Gavin Newsom has an opportunity to do something about it. He must sign Senate Bill 57, which would legalize safe consumption sites as pilot programs in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles – both the city and county. (These are different from the Tenderloin Center program.) The bill, authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) passed the Senate August 1 on a concurrence vote of 21-11, the bare number of affirmative votes needed. That was the bill’s last legislative hurdle and it’s now on its way to Newsom’s desk. Wiener has been pushing for this pilot program for years. Safe consumption sites, also known as supervised injection facilities, allow people to use drugs under the watch of medical staff, reducing the risk of overdose deaths. They provide sterile needles, which prevents transmission of HIV and hepatitis B and C, and offer clients an entry point for seeking medical care and addiction treatment. Indoor sites also reduce street-based drug use and improper syringe disposal, which is a problem in San Francisco.

Wiener was on the cusp of seeing a similar bill signed into law in 2018, only to be thwarted by then-governor Jerry Brown’s veto at the last minute. In his veto message, Brown stated that he simply didn’t believe in the program, which was unusual as he had long championed out-of-thebox thinking on various issues. Brown wanted a requirement that people undergo drug treatment. The problem with that approach, as many public health and addiction treatment leaders will argue, is that it doesn’t meet people where they are. One can’t force someone into treatment and have it be successful; the person has to be ready to make that

decision on their own. Indeed, that’s one of the benefits of supervised consumption sites – they do allow for a harm reduction approach so that if someone is ready to take that step to begin recovery, it’s available.

The other problem back in 2018 was the federal government. The Trump administration was hellbent on opposing such programs and threatened cities or other jurisdictions with aggressive action as federal law doesn’t allow for these sites. But a change in administrations with President Joe Biden has led local and state officials to believe there wouldn’t be repercussions if pilot programs operated. San Francisco has in fact ramped up in anticipation of Newsom signing SB 57. Last December, the supervisors authorized spending $6.3 million to purchase a site in the Tenderloin that may be used as a supervised consumption facility, as we reported at the time. Wiener is committed to the pilot programs. “California – like our nation as a whole – is experiencing a dramatic and preventable increase in overdose deaths, and we need every available tool to help people stay alive and get healthy,” he stated in a news release.

He also noted that safe consumption sites are models in helping people avoid overdose deaths. Over the decades more than 170 facilities have operated in other parts of the world, not a single overdose death has occurred in one of them, he noted.

Rhode Island legalized safe consumption sites several years ago, as did Philadelphia. Most recently, New York City opened two safe consumption sites, and in the first three months of operation, staff at these sites were able to halt over 150 overdoses, according to an Associated Press report.

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Icaught monkeypox

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An internet friend, a Berlin artist, sent me a WhatsApp message in May: “Excited we’ll finally meet. But a little worried for you – you’ve heard about this, right? Happening all over the venues I think you’ll be interested in.”

She linked to a report about monkeypox, a virus once endemic to parts of Central and West Africa now getting some international buzz as cases started showing up among gay men from more privileged and media-connected countries. I laughed it off, but I also knew she was right:

I was headed to Berlin for a month to study the formation of urban subcultures around sexual behavior. With only a few reported cases at the time, contact with the virus seemed an abstract and improbable concept, but it hung in my mind.

My first week in Berlin, I got it. Another internet friend, a gay student and porn actor, took me out with his boyfriend in Berlin’s gay district. We went to a naked bar night. Thursday was a little lifeless, so the three of us got to know each other more intimately. Four days later, my friend – let’s call him Ernst – called to say he’d had a terrible fever the previous night. His tonsils had swollen up intolerably. The clinic suspected monkeypox and advised him to isolate with his boyfriend pending test results. I thanked him, offered my condolences, and began a weird waiting game.

Unlike COVID, there’s no evidence monkeypox spreads asymptomatically. And the incuba-

tion period is relatively lengthy, as long as 21 days, although most people experience symptoms between seven and 14 days after contact. This set off a mental crime-scene-reconstruction of my contact with Ernst. He hadn’t had obvious symptoms when we’d gotten closest. But he said he’d felt oddly exhausted that day I kissed him hello. And, now I remembered, that first night he’d complained of an inexplicable backache.

When Ernst’s test came back positive, German public health officials interviewed him and his boyfriend, cheerfully and efficiently, and then, just as cheerfully and efficiently, informed them there wasn’t much they could do. The hulking machinery of German bureaucracy hadn’t figured out how to distribute vaccines yet, so any close contacts would have to wait and see, and there wasn’t any treatment available for Ernst, either.

Two doctor friends, an American and a German, agreed: with treatments tied up, the only thing contact with the health system was likely to do was entangle me in that bureaucratic bondage. It might be hard to leave the country if my status was registered officially. So they said to lay low and examine myself carefully.

For 10 days, I thought maybe I’d had my intimate contact before Ernst was contagious. Like Ernst’s backache, my first symptoms weren’t distinctive enough for me to take note. Was I tired just because I’d been up till 5 a.m. with a cute kilted bear? Were the nightsweats because I was ill, or because it was 90°F in a country that doesn’t believe in air conditioning? Finally, two mosqui-

safe consumption site in Vancouver, Canada, 336 overdoses were reported – but in every instance, the person overdosing lived. This is because there were trained professionals onsite to administer live saving treatments like Narcan, and get people emergency help. Studies also suggest that overdose prevention programs reduce the burden on emergency services – like ambulances and emergency rooms – that traditionally respond to overdose events. This would save money in pilot program cities like San Francisco.

Newsom is a former mayor of San Francisco and as such, he knows first-hand of the drug overdose crisis on the city’s streets. Wiener noted that the legalization of overdose prevention programs has broad support from the leadership of San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles County, as well as public health and addiction treatment leaders. What’s more, Newsom has not outright opposed such legislation. On the campaign trail in 2018, Newsom said he was “very, very open” to such a policy. Fast forward to 2022, however, and Newsom, who’s expected to be easily reelected to a second term in November, has future political moves to consider, as Politico’s California Playbook stated. Though he has said he has “sub-zero” interest in running for president in 2024, he certainly has been making news trolling his Republican counterparts in Florida and Texas.

Governing is about making those tough decisions, however. These supervised consumption site pilot programs do not mean that the cities will become drug-use havens, as opponents want people to believe. Newsom knows that, and he also knows that in order to decrease HIV and hepatitis B and C transmissions, these programs deserve a chance – and so do the people who will use them.

Governor Newsom, sign SB 57. t

to-bite-esque red spots on my forearm raised my alarms. I took a photo and went to bed. Next morning, they’d grown, and I felt a new bump on my ass.

That night, the lymph nodes in my neck were sore enough to wake me once or twice. I was lucky: I never developed a fever, and in total about 15 or 20 sores appeared over the 12 or 13 days be-

Kevin Stone

Courtesy Kevin Stone

Governor Gavin Newsom

Courtesy AP

SF Dem Party endorses Mandelman, Mahogany for supervisor

by Matthew S. Bajko

Of the five LGBTQ San Francisco supervisor candidates on the November ballot, two received sole endorsements from the local Democratic Party. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and Honey Mahogany, a queer leader and drag queen who is seeking the District 6 seat, will now be featured on the party’s mailers and endorsement cards.

Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, appointed in May to fill a vacancy, did receive six votes from members of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee during the July 27 endorsement vote.

But it was far short of the votes Dorsey needed to pick up a second place endorsement. As under the city’s rankedchoice voting system, voters are able to rank the candidates on their ballot in the order they support them.

The outcome was hardly a surprise, since Mahogany is an elected member of the DCCC and has served as the local Democratic Party chair since 2021. She received 22 votes to secure the party’s backing of their candidacy to become the first transgender and nonbinary supervisor in the city, as well as the first LGBTQ Black member of the Board of Supervisors.

Mahogany had been chief of staff to former District 6 supervisor Matt Haney and had sought to be named his successor after Haney was elected to the state Assembly last spring. But Mayor London Breed chose Dorsey, who is living with HIV, to serve out Haney’s term through the end of the year.

He is now vying against Mahogany for a full four-year term representing the city’s South of Market, Mission Bay, and Treasure Island neighborhoods. Also on the ballot are Black transgender advocate Ms. Billie Cooper and Black labor leader Cherelle Jackson

In a tweet posted July 28, Mahogany thanked her DCCC colleagues for their support using the hashtag #superhoney. In a texted reply Thursday to the B.A.R., Mahogany noted that as a native San Franciscan who has long volunteered for the local Democratic Party, having its endorsement “is really meaningful” to her.

“I was elected chair of the party last year and I’ve been using my skills learned from 20 years as a social worker to try and calm down the divisive rhetoric, and try and bring Democrats together around the issues most important to San Franciscans,” wrote Mahogany. “This work hasn’t been easy, but it’s absolutely necessary to get things done. I’m honored to have received broad support last night and to have earned the respect and endorsement of my colleagues.”

A few DCCC members expressed their disappointment in not hearing directly from Dorsey or the other candidates ahead of the vote.

“I am very disappointed other candidates haven’t reached out to participate in this process or at least contact myself directly about this race,” said DCCC first vice-chair Leah LaCroix, adding that she was “excited to support Honey. Our endorsement is a big deal.”

Dorsey had filled out the local party’s candidate questionnaire and took part in its interview process. But he told the B.A.R. he knew he wasn’t going to be endorsed by the DCCC so didn’t bother calling every single member on it. He had to quarantine earlier in July after contracting COVID and had prioritized his work on

the board, such as passing the new two-year city budget that Breed signed July 27.

“I have been part of Democratic politics for long enough to be able to count. As someone who served on the Democratic County Central Committee, I knew the endorsement wasn’t there for me,” Dorsey told the B.A.R., adding that he has been making “some individual calls” and working on questionnaires sent out by various groups that make endorsements. “Even if I am not going to get an endorsement, I think it is important to honor the process.”

Mandelman currently serves as an elected DCCC member, so his being endorsed by the local Democratic Party was also not much of a surprise. He received 28 votes to secure the sole endorsement and is seen as the clear frontrunner in his contest for the seat that now spans from Cole Valley over Twin Peaks to the LGBTQ Castro district and Glen Park.

“Thanks everybody,” Mandelman said after the DCCC endorsed him.

As he seeks a second and final term on the board, Mandelman is running against political newcomer Kate Stoia, a lawyer who lives in Noe Valley with her husband, their two biological children, and a teenage foster son. As a straight candidate seeking what has been viewed for decades as the “gay seat” on the board, Stoia is facing strong headwinds in the race.

She acknowledged as much in an interview with the B.A.R. But she also has strong ties to the LGBTQ community, including her late gay father and his partner who has been a stepparent to her and grandfather to her children, as detailed in the Political Notebook in the July 28 issue of the B.A.R.

In the other supervisor race with an out candidate, the DCCC backed District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar’s bid for a second term. Also an elected member of the local party’s oversight

committee, Mar tweeted out his thanks to his colleagues for their support.

“At a time when Democratic values are under attack across the country, and as a lifelong Democrat and leader of our local Democratic Party, I will continue to fight for climate action, the right to choose, housing for all, and social and economic justice,” wrote Mar, who was recently subjected to racist and homophobic attacks on fliers posted in his Sunset-based district.

Running against Mar is Leanna Louie, who works to address various issues in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood, and gay married former journalist Joel Engardio. This is Engardio’s fourth bid for supervisor, as he previously sought the District 7 supervisor seat but was redistricted this year into District 4.

In the other even-numbered supervisor races on the fall ballot, incumbents District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who is board president, received the DCCC’s sole backing. Stefani is unopposed in her Marina-based district, while Walton is facing a challenge from educator and engineer Brian Sam Adam to represent the city’s southeastern bayside neighborhoods.

The DCCC also sole endorsed Public Defender Mano Raju’s re-election bid. Seeking to oust him from office is assistant district attorney and former deputy public defender Rebecca Young

San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Joaquín Torres also received the local party’s endorsement Wednesday. He is running unopposed.

The DCCC will vote in August on endorsing in the other fall races for school and City College board seats, as well as on local ballot measures.

To see its current list of endorsements for the November 8 general election, visit its website.

The Harvey Milk and Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Clubs are cohosting with the Rose Pak Democratic Club a debate with all four of the District 6 supervisor candidates at 4 p.m. Saturday, August 6, at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium in the main branch in the city’s Civic Center. To RSVP for updates, visit the event Facebook page .t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

sole endorsement.

Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman also received the DCCC’s

Rick Gerharter

District 6 supervisor candidate Honey Mahogany received the sole endorsement from the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee in her race.

Courtesy the candidate

AIDS confab hears of another HIV cure patient

by Liz Highleyman

ASouthern California man appears to be cured of HIV after undergoing a stem cell transplant to treat leukemia, researchers reported last week at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal. While the risky procedure is not suitable for most people living with HIV, it offers clues for more feasible approaches.

“These cures are no longer anecdotal – we now have a real case series. That this approach is curative is no longer really questioned,” Dr. Steven Deeks of UCSF told the Bay Area Reporter.

The man, dubbed the City of Hope Patient, was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, and his CD4 T-cell count fell so low that he was diagnosed with AIDS before starting antiretroviral treatment in the 1990s.

In early 2019, he received a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare mutation, known as CCR5-delta-32, that blocks the virus from entering T-cells. Two years after the transplant, with an undetectable viral load, he and his doctors decided to stop his HIV treatment.

Now, three years after the transplant and more than 17 months after stopping antiretrovirals, he has not experienced viral load rebound and has no detectable HIV DNA, an indicator of hidden virus in cells. His leukemia also remains in remission, Dr. Jana Dickter of City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California, reported at a media briefing.

The man, age 66, is older and has been living with HIV longer than the handful of other people previously cured after such a procedure, suggesting that this approach may be feasible for a wider subset of people with both HIV and cancer.

“The City of Hope Patient’s case, if the right donor can be identified, may open up the opportunity for more older patients living with HIV and blood cancers to receive a stem cell transplant and go into remission for both diseases,” Dickter said.

“When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence,” the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in

Guest Opinion

From page 6

fore the scabs fell off, marking the end of contagiousness. I know at least one guy whose symptoms lasted longer than the 21-day quarantine guideline. Even my relatively mild experience was not one I’d recommend: while the lesions were mostly itchy, they cause

inflammation when they appear on mucous membranes, and they cluster at the site of entry. Acetaminophen took care of the pain, but there were three days where the inflammation kept my bowels from moving. And for another month after the sores, the new skin there was rather tender. I was still able to conduct my research in isolation, but the length of the infectious

Sam Thal

December 31, 1925 – July 25, 2022

Dr. Sam Thal came to San Francisco, the city he loved, in 1955 after receiving his MD degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine and doing a residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic. He worked for the Veterans Administration in the East Bay and was on the UCSF Clinical Faculty for 47 years, retiring as Clinical Professor of Medicine.

He was a long-time donor and/or volunteer for the American Conservatory Theater library, Merola Opera Program, San Francisco Ballet Horizons Foundation, the Castro Senior Center, the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society, and the Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights (BAPHR). He served on the BAPHR Board of Directors for over 30 years and was also secretary, historian, and editor of their newsletter. In addition, he was a member of New Leaf (closed in 2010), Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, Commonwealth Club, American Legion Alexander Hamilton Post 448, Prime Timers, and other medical, cultural, and historical organizations. He was a founding member of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco.

He died July 25, 2022, at The Sequoias San Francisco. A private memorial service was held at the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park. Donations in his memory may be made to any of the organizations listed above.

a City of Hope news release. “I never thought I would live to see the day that I no longer have HIV.”

A handful of cures

Former San Francisco resident Timothy Ray Brown, known as the Berlin Patient, was the first person cured of HIV. His physician in Germany, Dr. Gero Hütter, came up with the idea to use cells from a donor with the CCR5-delta-32 mutation, speculating that it might cure both his leukemia and HIV.

Brown stopped antiretroviral treatment at the time of his first transplant, but his viral load did not rebound. Researchers extensively tested his

period could cost many wage workers their jobs. I dearly wish vaccines had been available to those who were exposed, as they are now in well-populated areas of the United States. While the rollout in the U.S. has been embarrassingly slow, I’m heartened to see San Francisco’s strong LGBTQ health care system springing into action. Most of my friends – though, glaringly, it’s the ones who work professional jobs with self-set schedules – have gotten the first dose of the vaccine. The virus’ physical characteristics take advantage of gay culture’s greater comfort with touch, and I have my fingers crossed that a targeted vaccination campaign could stop the chains of transmission before we

SF

ushers

blood and tissue samples, finding no evidence of functional HIV anywhere in his body. At the time of his death in September 2020, due to a recurrence of leukemia, he had been free of HIV for more than 13 years.

The second man to be cured, Adam Castillejo (known as the London Patient), underwent a stem cell transplant to treat lymphoma, receiving cells from a donor with the same mutation. He stopped antiretroviral treatment a year and a half after the transplant and has now been HIV-free for more than four years.

Earlier this year, researchers reported that a middle-aged woman in New York was free of HIV after receiving a combination of umbilical cord blood cells with the CCR5-delta-32 mutation and partially matched adult stem cells from a relative. She stopped antiretroviral treatment three years after the transplant, and her viral load remains undetectable a year and a half later.

A German man, dubbed the Dusseldorf Patient, reportedly has not experienced HIV rebound three years after stopping antiretroviral therapy post-transplant, but less is known about his case and it has not been widely reported in the media.

Researchers are not yet sure why these individuals were cured after stem cell transplants while other attempts have failed.

Prior to his transplant, Brown, then age 40, underwent intensive chemotherapy and radiation (known as conditioning therapy) to kill off his cancerous immune cells, allowing

have a new pandemic.

But public health communicators are in an impossible bind. Stating straightforwardly that nearly all the cases so far have been found in the context of men having sex with men, often at public venues like the bar I went to in Berlin, could help target the vaccines. But in a country like ours, where gay men are tolerated only at our most sexless, that could bring a wave of retaliation against gay men, businesses, institutions, and sexuality.

I do think the efforts of San Francisco institutions like Strut are our best bet: frank communications about sex and risk, by and for LGBTQ people who understand and participate in our

the donor stem cells to rebuild a new HIV-resistant immune system. But the donor cells attacked his body, resulting in near-fatal graft-versus-host disease.

Such a harsh conditioning regimen was not considered suitable for the City of Hope Patient, so he received reducedintensity chemotherapy designed for older and less fit patients, Dickter said. Although the chemotherapy did not kill off all his existing immune cells, the HIV-resistant donor cells nonetheless appear to be doing the job.

Even with milder chemotherapy, stem cell transplants are too risky for people who do not need them to treat life-threatening cancer. What’s more, the procedure is medically intensive and costly, and it would not be scalable to treat the millions of people living with HIV worldwide. But the new case adds more evidence that could lead to feasible cure approaches.

“These cases are still interesting, still inspiring and illuminate the search for a cure,” International AIDS Society president-elect Dr. Sharon Lewin told reporters.

Researchers are exploring one potential strategy that uses gene therapy to snip out the genes that encode CCR5 receptors, hopefully leaving immune cells resistant to HIV.

“The key is to come up with a safer, more affordable and more scalable approach,” Deeks told the B.A.R. “I am hopeful that with emerging gene editing technologies, we will one day leverage these cures for something that could have a global impact.”t

communities, away from the Sauroneye of national culture wars. But Strut, operated by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, is the result of decades of hyperlocal politics, and viruses are an international problem. Instead of the well-coordinated government-andlocal-community action that could forestall a pandemic, I fear we’ll have that well-worn American response to a crisis: “Save yourself, if you can.”t Kevin Stone is a Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature and critical theory at UC Berkeley. He lives in the Castro with his partner and friends from the community.

in trans history month

Mayor London Breed, center, on August 1 joined elected and city officials and community members to raise the transgender flag at City Hall in honor of San Francisco’s Transgender History Month.

“San Francisco has been, and always will be, a place where we embrace our diverse communities to ensure everyone has the freedom to be who they are without scrutiny,” Breed stated in a news release. “Last year we declared August Transgender History Month in San Francisco, making it our country’s first of its kind. We are setting a new standard that celebrates the history and cultural milestones of transgender people in this city. Today and the entire month of August reflect the resilience of the transgender community and our city’s

commitment to supporting and protecting the rights of trans people.”

Transgender History Month honors the 56th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria riots, which occurred in August 1966 in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, marking the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco. A response to violent and constant police harassment, this incident was one of the first LGBTQ uprisings in United States history, preceding the better-known 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City.

The Tenderloin is now home to the Transgender District, created in 2018, which is the nation’s first legally recognized district dedicated to the transgender, nonbinary, and intersex community.

Dr. Steven Deeks of UCSF hailed the latest news of a person cured of HIV due to a stem cell transplant.

Rick Gerharter

A monkeypox lesion seen on Kevin Stone’s arm. Courtesy Kevin Stone

Jan Brittenson

B.A.R.’s Besties voting is now underway Community

compiled by Cynthia Laird

Voting is open for the Bay Area Reporter’s readers’ poll known as the Besties.

The reader-generated contest was dark in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. The 2020 edition was published shortly after the lockdowns began, as the paper had advertising commitments; voting had been completed before coronavirus disrupted life.

This year, the B.A.R. asked readers to help design the ballot by nominating their favorites in the following categories: Dining Out, Nightlife, Arts Scene, Community, Shopping and Services, and Weddings and Destina tions. Those nominations are in, and now anyone can vote in the contest.

There are also prizes, and people who vote are au tomatically entered to win. (B.A.R. staff are not eligible for prize drawings.)

On August 25 there will be an early bird drawing for a pair of tickets to see RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World Tour at the Masonic Auditorium on September 8 (Live Nation).

The grand prize is $500 cash.

First prize is a pair of tickets to see gay rapper Lil Nas X at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on October 23 (Another Planet Entertainment). Second prize is a pair of tickets to see gay “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness at the Castro Theatre on December 11 (Another Planet Entertainment). Third prize is a pair of season tickets to New Conservatory Theatre Center’s 2022-2023 season.

Obituaries >>

David Roos

October 16, 1957 – July 6, 2022

David died peacefully in his Chicago home while waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant.

David is probably best remembered in San Francisco for his Perfect Paws dog daycare and training school. Perfect Paws won awards as the Best dog training and dog daycare by San Francisco magazine. After 18 years he closed his business and moved to Chicago to be the head trainer at Tucker Pups Pet Resort.

He is survived by his parents, Carl and Shirley Roos, of Holly, Michigan; sisters Barbara and Beverly and brother Raymond; and nieces and nephews. He also leaves many friends in the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, and London.

A celebration of David’s life will be hosted by Tucker Pups in Chicago on August 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Emily Hotel, 311 N. Morgan St. Chicago. Please RSVP at https://tuckerpups.com/ tools/rsvp/index.php

A memorial mass will be given at St. Ignatius Church, 650 Parker Avenue, at the University of San Francisco campus on November 19 at 5 p.m. and will also be livestreamed. Log in at https://stignatiussf.org/

David’s full bio and obituary can be seen at legacy.com David requested that his ashes be scattered in the Pacific near San Francisco.

Randy P. Conner

1952 – 2022

Randy P. Conner, Ph.D., (1952 –2022) went to ride with Charon to the Otherworld on May 5, 2022 –Cinco de Mayo. He passed through the Veil in the night at home in the arms

Other prizes are: a pair of tickets for the GLBT Historical Society’s Reunion Gala on October 19; $250 worth of product from the Apothecarium for just $1 (gift card); and a $250 gift card to Cliff’s Variety. Prizewinners and results of the Besties will be published in the September 29 issue.

To vote, go to bit. ly/3d2mK1p

Castro Theatre town hall sneak preview meeting

A special meeting will take place

Monday, August 8, that is a sneak preview of the Castro Theater town hall scheduled for Thursday, August 11.

The August 8 meeting is from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Castro Community Meeting Room above Bank of America at 501 Castro Street. Masks are required.

Longtime cineaste and gay activist Michael Petrelis has organized the preview meeting. In an email, he wrote that Another Planet Entertainment, which took over management of the historic movie palace in January, will have representatives present. Bevan Dufty, a gay

of David Hatfield Sparks, his longtime companion and husband of 43 years, with his Bast (ancient Egyptian cat god) kitty at his side guarding him.

Conner was a gay spiritual seeker, activist, author, artist, and teacher. He received his B.A. and M.A. in English literature/composition from the University of Texas at Austin, where he also taught in the 1970s the first gay and lesbian workshop at the Student Union. He received his doctorate in humanities and religion in 2007 from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he also taught courses in LGBTQ+ and women’s spirituality.

He was a contributor to several LGBTQ+ publications including the Advocate and the old San Francisco Sentinel. He also served as fiction editor for RFD magazine and taught a course in gay spirit at the Harvey Milk Institute in the mid-1990s. He taught humanities and LGBTQ+ studies at several other colleges including Florida State University, Austin Community College in Texas, Los Medanos College, and the College of Alameda in the Bay Area. He was most recently associate professor of multicultural humanities at Moraine Valley Community College near Chicago, where he created a very successful LGBTQ+ humanities course. In honor of Conner, a scholarship has been created in his name to support LGBTQ+ students studying in the fine and performing arts program by the Moraine Valley Community College Foundation. To donate, go to https://www.morainevalley.edu/randy-conner/

As an activist for LGBTQ+ rights, he testified in the mid-1970s at the Texas State Legislature for inclusion of gay and lesbian student organizations on campuses for which he was fired from his graduate teaching position. After moving to the Bay Area in 1978, he became a member of Bay Area Gay Liberation, campaigned against the Proposition 6 Briggs initiative, and for social/political justice for the queer and people of color communities. He also co-curated with Sparks the El Mundo

man and former city supervisor who’s serving as community liaison for APE, will be on hand, along with APE’s Margaret Casey, the project manager for the theater. They are expected to deliver short presentations.

In a text message, Dufty confirmed the meeting.

Petrelis said that film lovers, residential and commercial neighbors, and theater patrons are encouraged to attend. All are welcome.

The town hall next Thursday will be at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. As the B.A.R. previously reported, the Nasser and Nasser-Padian families, which own the theater, will hold that meeting with representatives of APE. Dufty will moderate.

In the months since APE took over management of the theater, various organizations and individuals have raised numerous concerns, including APE’s plan to replace the seating on the main floor of the theater.

LGBTQ center offers anxiety support group for youth

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center is launching a managing anxiety, stress, and fear support group for LGBTQ+ youth ages 16-24. Facilitated by the center’s mental health team, the weekly support group is an affirming space where queer youth can learn coping skills and gain tools to support managing anxiety and stress, according to an email from the center.

In the 1970s Peter found community in San Francisco and worked as a waiter and bartender at Café San Marcos (now The Café on Market Street) and enjoyed a successful 30 year career in commercial real estate. He was a proud benefactor to many LGBTQ causes. He will be fondly missed and remembered.

In the 1970s Peter found community in San Francisco and worked as a waiter & bar Café San Marcos (now The Café on Market St) and enjoyed a successful 30 year ca commercial real estate He was a proud benefactor to many LGBTQ causes He will missed and remembered

Sunday, August 14, 2022

2 pm - 6 pm

Sunday, August 14, 2022 2 pm - 6 pm ~~~

The support group will meet in person at the center on Thursdays from

See page 11 >>

Surdo poetry series at Small Press Traffic in Noe Valley, created by Gloria Anzaldúa, his “hermana espiritual,” and participated in Mainstream Exiles organized by San Francisco trans-activist Tede Mathews.

Conner’s spiritual path was focused on LGBTQ+ spirit and people found since antiquity and across cultures, especially as related to European Neo-Pagan, Indigenous, and African Diasporic traditions. Conner was an initiate and practitioner of both Jaitian vodou and Regla de Ocho (Santería), studying primarily with Mama Lola, a well-known Haitian American Manbo/priestess. He received his “elekes” (spiritual beads) as a Santero in Cuba, later earning the title of Oungan. Also a practitioner of Neopaganism, he studied metaphysics and psychic arts with Tamara Diaghilev, and Wicca/witchcraft with Bay Area ecofeminism leader Starhawk. Conner also studied Tarot and mystical symbology with spiritual teacher and scholar Angeles Arrien. He became a Radical Faery in the 1980s, and attended many gatherings over the years.

These interests, projects, and publications he shared with Sparks and their daughter Mariah, a Bay Area librarian and community theater artist. He is survived by Mariah, her husband, Prado Gomez, director of operations at the Shanti Project in San Francisco, and many other chosen/extended family. Among his many essays, articles, books, speeches, presentations, workshops, and other publications, several were nominated for Lambda Literary Awards, including “Blossom of Bone: Reclaiming the Connections Between Homoeroticism and the Sacred,” (Harper San Francisco, 1993), “Encyclopedia of Queer Myth,” (Cassell, 1997), and “Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in AfricanInspired Traditions in the Americas,” (Routledge, 2004). In 2019, Conner published his five-volume study “The Pagan Heart of the West: Embodying Ancient Beliefs and Practices from Antiquity to the Present,” (Mandrake Press, Oxford).

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Planning Ahead is Simple

Planning Ahead is Simple

Planning Ahead is Simple

The benefits are immense.

The benefits are immense.

The benefits are immense.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

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to create a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium.

Proudly serving the LGBT Community.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium.

Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium.

Proudly serving our Community.

Proudly serving the LGBT Community.

FD

One Loraine Ct. |

Voting is now open for the B.A.R.’s Besties reader awards.

Jay Cribas

“I do think given in the state Legislature and API legislative caucuses there is visibility and leadership on addressing API hate and violence across California, I think the time is now. I think the state Legislature gets that,” said Li, who is also an elected member of the board that oversees BART. “I really see these two bills as putting an onus on both the public sector and recognizing the need for the private sector to step up. It is saying ... when it comes to addressing hate, sexual harassment, and street harassment we need everyone to be all in.”

Ting told the B.A.R. in mid-July that he is “very optimistic” about seeing the two bills be approved by state lawmakers. The Senate Appropriations committee was set to vote on AB 2448 Monday, August 1, while the Assembly Appropriations committee has scheduled a vote on SB 1161 for August 3.

If approved then both bills will be sent to the committee’s respective suspense files, with the next step for them to be sent to the floor of the chamber for a final vote. The deadline for sending bills to Governor Gavin Newsom to sign is August 31.

“Hate crimes, unfortunately, have been on the rise,” said Ting, as for why the legislation is needed.

Reported hate crimes in California increased 32.6% from 1,330 in 2020 to 1,763 in 2021, according to a report compiled by the California Attorney General’s office and released in late June. Anti-Asian bias events rose from 89 in 2020 to 247 in 2021, an increase of 177.5%, noted the report.

One of the “biggest issues” for those trying to stem the increase in hate crimes, noted Ting, has been getting accurate reports on such incidents. He noted that in the hate crimes report for last year, several counties in the state reported no such incidents had occurred. They were relatively rural counties like Alpine and Calaveras.

It points to problems related with how such incidents are reported, Ting suggested.

Monkeypox CA

From page 1

vaccines that are approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, similar to the statutory authorization recently enacted for pharmacists to administer vaccines. The state’s response to monkeypox builds on the infrastructure developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to deploy vaccine clinics and ensure inclusive and targeted outreach in partnership with local and community-based organizations, the release stated.

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) hailed the emergency declaration from the state. He had called on California and San Francisco to do so last week.

“The monkeypox outbreak is an emergency, and we need to use every tool we have to control it,” Wiener stated in a release. “I’m deeply grateful to Governor Newsom for recognizing the

Monkeypox stories

From page 1

the onset, well before monkeypox became widely recognized in San Francisco, was terrifying.

Fortunately, and unlike COVID in the earliest days of that pandemic, there’s a vaccine for monkeypox. Unfortunately, it’s in short supply as the experiences of the many men queueing up at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center at 5 a.m. to get the shot would attest. And, as figures from the DPH show, at least in San Francisco, the outbreak has affected only men – including some trans men and some who indicated “other” for their gender – so far.

That said, it’s hitting the Latino community particularly hard. While

“All I can think is that people didn’t want to report that they were the victims of a hate crime or their incidents weren’t identified as a hate crime,” said Ting.

Data collected over the last two years by the Chinese for Affirmative Action, AAPI Equity Alliance and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department backs up that contention. The groups launched the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center in March 2020 and received reports on 11,500 hate incidents across the U.S. over the last two years.

An analysis of that data released in July noted that two in three reported incidents involve harassment, such as hate speech or inappropriate gestures, and cannot be considered hate crimes.

California, with 4,333 incidents, accounted for the largest number of incidents reported to the center.

“The majority of hate incidents are non-criminal behaviors that contribute to an unwelcoming environment, such as spitting or the use of racial slurs,” noted the report. “Many formal federal and state datasets often only capture hate crimes. By reporting on the broader category of hate incidents, Stop AAPI Hate is able to shed light on the non-criminal incidents that comprise the majority of hate incidents that AAPI communities face on a daily basis.”

The report didn’t break down the respondents by LGBTQ demographics, though 3% did identify as non-

peril we face, and thus declaring a state of emergency. This declaration will help expand vaccination, testing, and other critical strategies around the outbreak.

I look forward to working with the governor and his administration to combat this dangerous health situation.”

Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, also praised Newsom’s declaration.

“Equality California applauds the leadership of Governor Newsom to ensure that Californians are protected from the fast growing monkeypox outbreak in our state,” stated EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang. “While anyone of any sexual orientation can get monkeypox, the fact is that, monkeypox continues to disproportionately affect gay, bisexual, and queer men here in California and across the country.

“Equality California is committed to continue working with government officials, public health leaders and other LGBTQ+ organizations to in-

Latinos comprise just over 15% of San Franciscans, Latino men make up nearly 28% of confirmed monkeypox cases, according to demographic statistics published by DPH July 29 (as of that date, there were only 261 confirmed cases in the city). White men comprised just over 41% of cases, while Asian men accounted for 10%, and Black men 3.8%. Other/multi-ethnic men, as well as men of unknown ethnicity comprised the remaining 12.2%.

Non-Latino Caucasians make up 38% of San Francisco’s population, while Asians comprise 37.2% and African Americans 5.7%, according to United States Census figures released in 2021.

As of yet, in the United States, there have been no known fatalities related to monkeypox although two have been reported in Spain, and more than 70 in

binary. It did note “AAPI individuals who are also female, nonbinary, or LGBTQIA+ experience hate incidents that target them for their multiple identities.”

Wong, 42, who lives in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, told the B.A.R. that he had been verbally harassed over the last two years on several occasions walking near his apartment. He added that he didn’t bother reporting them to police since he wasn’t violently attacked and verbal harassment doesn’t receive a police response.

“Since the start of the pandemic, I have been the target of a number of racist incidents. People telling me to go back to China,” recalled Wong. “I was running an errand and someone passed by and said, ‘China virus.’ It was very subtle and abrupt. It happened so quickly; they just kept walking past me.”

Such incidents may not be physically harming but they can have an impact on a person’s mental health and well-being, said Wong. It is why the Stop AAPI Hate coalition wants to see California officials take a more concerted response to addressing street harassment.

“This has never been done in California or any other state, which is to really lay the groundwork for the first-of-its-kind public health movement to end street harassment,” said Wong. “Public health movements are not quick and easy; change in people’s behavior takes time. We are taking this approach because the data shows us most incidents are not criminal. You can’t solve it through the criminal justice system.”

Pre-pandemic Wong had been subjected to verbal harassment while riding a San Francisco Muni bus. Another rider yelled at him, “Fuck you, faggot.”

“I did not feel safe,” recalled Wong. “I ignored him and looked down. He eventually left the bus.”

Need for legislation

With 76% of the incidents reported over the last two year to the Stop AAPI Hate center having occurred in public spaces like the street, on public transit, or in businesses, it illustrates the need

crease awareness and education while fighting stigmas,” he added.

Vaccines have been in short supply, leading to long lines at places such as Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. It reopened Monday after receiving more doses of the vaccine and plans to reopen Tuesday to distribute doses as supplies last.

Earlier Monday, Wiener tweeted that he and several of his legislative colleagues put in an emergency funding request to combat the outbreak.

“Today we added detail to our request for an emergency state budget appropriation to help counties respond to the monkeypox outbreak: $38.5M for expanded testing, vaccination, treatment & outreach,” he tweeted.

Newsom stated that last month, California public health leaders urged federal partners to make more vaccine doses available to the state as quickly as possible so that the state can expand eligibility to both confirmed

Africa, where two strains of the virus are present, including the more virulent central African clade (a clade is a group of organisms which have evolved from a common ancestor). Both the central African or Congo Basin clade and the milder west African clade have been identified in the United States but the west African clade is, so far, more widespread, health officials said.

“The case-fatality ratio for the West African clade of monkeypox is reported to be 1% and might be higher in immunocompromised persons,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It begins like COVID

While most of the men interviewed by the B.A.R. reported relatively easy experiences with the virus – and the

for the package of legislation before California legislators, argued Wong. In terms of addressing harassment on the state’s public transit agencies, Wong pointed to the effectiveness of BART’s “Not One More Girl” campaign launched last year to stop the harassment of young female riders and other women on the Bay Area regional transit system.

Such a campaign is one that state leaders and transit officials should be funding and replicating on other transit systems, contended Wong.

“Now we have the data that it improved the sense of safety for women and girls. There was less reporting of sexualized harassment,” said Wong. “Their public education initiative helped to create a better sense of safety on BART.”

Li noted that the campaign came out of a community-based drive to address gender-based harassment and violence on BART. At the helm of it were straight, LGBTQ, and nonbinary young girls who pushed the transit agency to take action.

“What I love about the marketing campaign is it centered transgender, nonbinary, and LGBTQ folks as part of that campaign,” said Li, who told the B.A.R. as a frequent rider of public transit she has experienced harassment herself and seen other passengers, particularly elderly Asian riders, be harassed. “I have seen many times other riders saying, ‘Speak English, you are in America.’ That kind of harassment, unfortunately, just is really commonplace.”

Since asking on its Passenger Environment Surveys, “Have you experienced gender-based sexual harassment in the last six months at BART?” beginning in October 2020, those answering “Yes” have fallen from a high of 12% in the first half of 2021 to 8% in April through June of this year, according to the data BART posts online.

“We need to work together because we know this is one aspect of safety that impacts LGBTQ folks and women riding transit,” said Li, who is seeking reelection this November to her BART board seat representing San Francisco’s western neighborhoods.

and probable exposures, as well as to individuals who are at high-risk of contracting the virus.

“To date, the state has distributed more than 25,000 vaccine doses and will make additional allocations in the coming days and weeks,” the release stated. “Los Angeles County has received a separate allocation of vaccine. In all, the state has received more than 61,000 doses. The state is also supporting overall vaccination efforts in collaboration with locals, including helping provide staffing and mobile clinics. The state allocates doses to local health departments based on a number of factors, including the number of reported monkeypox cases in an area and estimate of at-risk populations.”

The state has also expanded testing capacity to more than 1,000 tests per week, the release stated. Treatment options have also been expanded. Access to the antiviral prescription drug tecovirimat (TPOXX) used to treat

key word here is relatively – being sick is no picnic. Each of the men was hit at first with flu-like symptoms, which led some to think they might be coming down with COVID.

When James Zengerle, a 29-yearold grad student, came home from work in mid-July, he wasn’t feeling great.

“That day, I went to work and came home,” he said. “Took a shower, and got really bad chills.”

The symptoms felt like COVID, said Zengerle, which he had had only the month before. He slept for 16 hours for the first two days, and had back and neck pain.

Other guys experienced similar symptoms and, during that first couple of weeks when monkeypox was making its way into the community

State funding for anti-hate programs

The advocacy around the two bills comes after California awarded $30.3 million in early July to 12 organizations to aggressively address hate crimes and provide services to victims. The state has funded $110 million in anti-hate programs over the last year and established a Commission on the State of Hate, which is the first statewide commission to monitor and track hate crimes and is tasked with making policy recommendations to state lawmakers and agency officials.

“It comes as no surprise that as the flames of hatred and bigotry have been stoked in our society, acts of cowardice and violence have increased at an alarming rate. In California, we are investing millions to prevent this hate from taking hold in our communities. We simply will not tolerate intolerance,” stated Newsom in announcing the latest round of grants.

Among the myriad organizations that have received “Stop the Hate” funding from the California Department of Social Services Civil Rights, Accessibility and Racial Equity Office are Chinese for Affirmative Action ($80,000) and the Equality California Institute ($125,000), the educational arm of the statewide LGBTQ advocacy group. The Translatin@ Coalition in Los Angeles was awarded $3,210,144.

While “incredibly grateful” for the financial assistance toward addressing anti-Asian racism, more is still needed to be done to fully resolve the issue, said Wong, such as passing the two bills lawmakers are considering.

“We also know there is a lot more our elected leadership can do in addressing hate and racism in our state,” he said. “We believe these measures to combating street harassment would be another positive step.” t For more information about the No Place for Hate Campaign, visit its website at www.noplaceforhateca.org/

monkeypox is limited, the release stated, but the treatment can now be administered at more than 30 facilities and providers across the state.

The state continues outreach and education efforts to inform Californians about monkeypox and ways to limit its spread. The state has hosted multiple webinars for local health departments, community-based organizations, and other health care providers and has attended various town halls and community meetings to speak with and hear from the public and local leaders, according to the release. CDPH is also scheduling listening sessions with the LGBTQ community. CDPH is currently running paid ad campaigns on various digital media platforms to promote awareness and engage communities at higher risk of contracting monkeypox.t

A copy of the emergency declaration is at https://bit.ly/3d0mgJo

before being identified, many of those interviewed said they assumed they were coming down with COVID, as well. Zengerle took COVID tests, which came back negative.

Property manager Daniel Blair, 31, had a similar experience.

“I started experiencing symptoms in the first week of July,” Blair said. “I woke up and I had a fever, body aches. I didn’t feel myself ... I swore it was COVID.”

Like Zengerle, Blair took a couple of COVID tests that came back negative. He had decided against immediately going to the doctor, though.

“I kept telling myself ‘If it gets worse, I’d go to the doctors,’” Blair said. He checked in with some of his sexual

Assemblymember Phil Ting AP

t Community News>>

May, as well. That was certainly when Joshua Alexander experienced it.

partners and they told him they were feeling fine.

At that point, Blair didn’t have any of the telltale lesions associated with monkeypox but he was beginning to experience internal pain, which is another marker of the virus. Many of those who become sick experience lesions in their rectums and around their anuses, making passing stool difficult, if not incredibly painful.

While the symptoms were unusual, Blair said, he figured it was “because of everything else going on.”

By the time Monday rolled around, he was still sick. He had a virtual appointment with his doctor who, after hearing Blair’s symptoms, told him it was hemorrhoids. Blair said he was frustrated with the doctor’s advice, which was to “give it a couple days.”

“I got misdiagnosed,” said Blair. ‘I felt some fear for my life’ Monkeypox is not new. Human cases of monkeypox have been seen since 1970 in Africa, likely having crossed over from animals. In 2018, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Disease and Research Policy, human-to-human transmission had been documented but “monkeypox does not transmit readily among humans; human disease is most often linked to eating contaminated bush meat or coming into contact with infected animals.”

Human-to-human transmission had been documented by that point, however, as CDRP noted, and one case had been documented in Britain that year. A Nigerian “likely contracted the rare viral infection in that country before traveling to the United Kingdom” in 2018, according to CDRP.

The next time monkeypox would show up in Britain would be May 6, 2022.  Before the end of the month, additional cases would appear in Spain and Belgium. It likely showed up in San Francisco before the end of

From page 9

4 to 5 p.m. for eight weeks beginning August 11. Masks are required. The center is located at 1800 Market Street.

The email stated that potential clients will participate in a brief assessment call before joining the group. There are limited slots available. Those interested should contact Emma Ewel, a youth mental health specialist at the center, by emailing emmae@sfcenter.org by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 9, to reserve a spot.

Legals>>

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557255

In the matter of the application of YOSHIKO MAEKAWA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner YOSHIKO MAEKAWA is requesting that the name YOSHIKO MAEKAWA BURROW be changed to YOSHIKO MAEKAWA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 18th of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557256

In the matter of the application of NATASHA BAHRI, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner NATASHA BAHRI, is requesting that the name NATASHA BAHRI, be changed to NATASHA SETIA BAHRI,. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 18th of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557265

In the matter of the application of TAMMY HSUEH, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner TAMMY HSUEH is requesting that the name TAMMY HSUEH be changed to TAMERAH HSUEH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm.

Like Blair and Zengerle, Alexander’s case began with flu-like symptoms around May 25. “I had flu-like symptoms: backache, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion,” he said.

Then, about five days later, a sore appeared on his nose.

“That seemed unusual,” said Alexander, 41, “and then it wasn’t getting better.”

It wouldn’t get better before it got worse. The lesions had begun to appear in more places on his face. In fact, he didn’t experience lesions anywhere else on his body but his head. They showed up on his face, on his scalp. He tried taking Valtex, an antiviral often used for herpes, shingles, and genital herpes. At that point, however, he hadn’t made the connection with monkeypox, he said.

“It was rough,” Alexander said. “When, like, the second and third sores appeared, my experience was ‘Oh, shit. I have no idea what this is, it’s spreading.’ I felt some fear for my life. What went through my head was, what if this is something no one knows how to help me with?”

Then, at the suggestion of his partner, Dr. Drew Maris, a family physician, they Googled photos of monkeypox. That wasn’t quite as helpful as they had hoped as the photos depicted lesions like round bubbles on the skin, and his weren’t really like that, said Alexander. Maris, despite his close relationship with Alexander, did not contract the virus.

Alexander made his first visit to urgent care at SFGH on June 1. The first diagnosis: impetigo, a highly contagious skin infection that typically shows up on infants and young children, often around the nose and mouth. He was given medication for that, but on a second visit, on June 2, another nurse practitioner thought it might be Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a source for staph infections that can be very difficult to treat. The nurse then told him he need-

Town hall on trans income program

The Transgender District and Lyon-Martin Community Health will hold an in-person and a virtual town hall to solicit feedback on a guaranteed income program for trans people.

As the B.A.R. reported last year, San Francisco Mayor London Breed proposed a universal basic income program for transgender people.

The in-person town hall is scheduled for Wednesday, August 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Counterpulse, 80 Turk

ed to be on a different medication.

“It felt like she just wanted me out of her face,” said Alexander.

On his third visit on June 6, he asked for a monkeypox test from a third nurse practitioner. The nurse first had to call DPH for advice, Alexander said, and then he took samples to test for a variety of things. Later, Alexander got a call from the communicable diseases office of DPH and was told they had looked at his case but they were not going to test the samples for monkeypox.

The photos of the lesions didn’t look like monkeypox, they told him.

Stonewalled by DPH Maris, who has a private practice in Marin County, wrote an email that same day to Dr. Darpun Sachdev, an infectious disease specialist at SFGH. In the email, Maris tells Sachdev he had sent his partner, whom he describes as his patient, to Urgent Care specifically to be tested for monkeypox as he had been observing the spread of the lesions since “day two of their appearance” and, given that Alexander fit the profile of at-risk groups, and the lesions “have progressed precisely according to the European/American presentation of the disease” he felt a test for monkeypox was in order.

Maris goes on to insist that SFGH perform the tests Alexander had requested.

Street. The virtual meeting is set for Wednesday, August 10, from 3 to 5 p.m.

To RSVP for either town hall, email Aubrey@transgenderdistrictsf.com.

Silicon Valley history doc now on YouTube

The BAYMEC Community Foundation’s documentary “Queer Silicon Valley” is now available on YouTube. The film memorializes the work of a generation of activists who were all part of the LGBTQ+ movement in San Jose and Silicon Valley, from the 1970s to now.

“Mr. Alexander informed me that your department has declined testing despite samples being collected,” he wrote. “While I understand that even if this is monkey pox (sic) Mr. Alexander should recover without incident, the risk to public health is real and your department is charged with protecting same.

“I disagree with your assessment and refusal to run the assay and I am noting it in the patient’s chart,” Maris continued. “As Urgent Care already obtained the specimens and this test is clinically indicated I request that the assay be performed.”

The following day, June 7, Alexander visited the dermatology department where he found himself the subject of a group visit by several personnel curious about his case.

“All these people came in to look at me,” he said. The dermatologist took a

six-millimeter sample from his cheek and sent it off.

“The head guy (I think that’s the guy attending?) was the one who said it didn’t look like monkeypox even though he had never seen monkeypox before,” Alexander later told the B.A.R. in an email.

Those samples were not tested for monkeypox, despite the urging of the dermatologist.

Alexander and his partner Maris were left angered and frustrated by their experiences with SFGH and DPH.

“As a physician, I really felt we were being stonewalled by DPH,” said Maris. “I can understand the frustration of the dermatologist. We keep sending the tests and they keep refusing them.”

In a statement to the B.A.R., DPH said that its ability to test for monkeypox was “limited due to state lab capacity for volume and a very strict criteria was applied by the state.”

Although DPH didn’t outline the criteria, the statement goes on:

“At the beginning of the outbreak, all samples had to be sent to the state lab in Richmond for orthopox testing. After the samples were processed by the state, the positive samples were then shipped to the CDC for confirmation. California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) approval was required for all tests, according to strict criteria established by the state. SFDPH provided clinicians and facilitated transportation of samples to the state lab. There are various reasons why a test might have not been processed, including mislabeled samples or the individual not fitting the very strict criteria established by the state for testing at the time.”

By early July, the ability to test for monkeypox had increased and the department was “no longer constrained by state resources,” the statement continued. “The San Francisco Public Health lab is able to test and confirm monkeypox specifically, though samples are still sent to CDC for additional characterization.”t

103N on the 23rd of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557261

In the matter of the application of JOHN ALLEN NALLS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JOHN ALLEN NALLS is requesting that the name JOHN ALLEN NALLS be changed to JOHN TYRELL NALLS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

103N, Rm. 103N on the 23rd of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557262

In the matter of the application of DAVID GUSTAFSON, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner DAVID GUSTAFSON is requesting that the name MANUEL DAVID NEGRETTE III AKA DAVID GUSTAFSON be changed to DAVID GUSTAFSON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 23rd of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397659

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DUKE HONOR, 1170 MCALLISTER ST #402, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

Spanning almost 50 years, this groundbreaking documentary showcases 22 history-making activists as they recount the struggles and discrimination they endured to ultimately build a local society that was accepting and inclusive, an email announcement stated. The film features many of the people who helped shape the vibrant and cohesive queer culture that exists today.

The film is directed and co-produced by award-winning documentarian and San Jose State University

transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/07/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/22.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397639

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GORPHIN, 390 28TH AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GORDAN DENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/22.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397669

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MCCAULEY REAL ESTATE GROUP, 1320 GREEN ST #100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RYAN ALLEN MCCAULEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/22.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397526

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CRYSTAL WAY, 2335 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CRYSTAL WAY, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/03/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/22.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0394592

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MARK ADAM & CO., 3024 PIERCE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a married couple, MONICA K. ZIMMERMAN & ALAN P. ZIMMERMAN, and was signed ALAN P. ZIMMERMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/73. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/13/21.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397552

The following person(s) is/are doing business as INSPIRING ACCOUNTABILITY, 2250 BAY ST #321, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ELAINA NOEL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/22.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUG 04, 2022

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF JUDITH ARMSTRONG NEWMAN AKA JUDY ARMSTRONG NEWMAN IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-22305487

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of JUDITH

ARMSTRONG NEWMAN AKA JUDY ARMSTRONG NEWMAN. A Petition for Probate has been filed by FINTAN SULLIVAN in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that FINTAN SULLIVAN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal

professor Bob Gliner for the BAYMEC Community Foundation.

Co-producer and BCF Executive Director Ken Yeager – also in the film as the first openly gay elected official in the county – stated: “Each of these 22 inspirational people interviewed deserve their own documentary. Their impact on queer culture has been that profound.”

The documentary is about an hour and 15 minutes long. To watch it on YouTube, go to https://bit. ly/3vwEVmk.t

representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: AUGUST 08, 2022, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: MICHAEL WOODS, 395 WEST PORTAL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127; Ph. (415) 759-1900.

The monkeypox vaccine continues to be in short supply.

Courtesy DHHS

Gooch

The San Francisco Department of Public Health had an informational booth at last Sunday’s Up Your Alley street fair.

by Gregg Shapiro

Hard rocking L.A.-based band Dead Sara has been at it for 20 years, even scoring a minor hit with the 2012 single “Weatherman,” a song that was featured in a Fiat ad. Label issues impeded some of the band’s progress, however, after a six-year gap between full-length albums, Dead Sara rose up and released “Ain’t It Tragic” (Warner Records).

At a time when Dead Sara’s brand of heavy-hitting rock is taking a backseat to other genres, the songs on “Ain’t It Tragic” deserve to be heard for the way they revive our interest in fist-pumping rockers such as “All I Know Is That You Left Me For Dead,” “Heroes,” “Starry Eyed,” “Lights Out!,” and “Gimme Gimme.” Queer lead singer Emily Armstrong was kind enough to answer a few questions about the new album before the band returned to the road for its concert tour as the opening act for Demi Lovato.

Gregg Shapiro: Emily, for those not in the know, I’d like to being by asking you to say something about the genesis of the band’s name, Dead Sara.

Emily Armstrong: Well, we changed that a lot [laughs]. It’s basically just a misheard lyric, is what it comes down to. There’s no meaning to it. But right now, we’re telling people that it was an imaginary friend I had when I was a kid [laughs].

The songs on the new Dead Sara album “Ain’t It Tragic” are credited to you, Siouxsie, Sean, and other co-writers. What can you tell me about the band’s songwriting process?

I feel like the first two albums were strictly just us and the producer. For some reason, we were very in-the-box on what we did for those two albums. It wasn’t until the third EP where we were just kind of like, “Why don’t we get some breathing room? Why don’t we see what we can discover

Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara

Certain songs pop out at me going through playlists and stuff as I’m rolling into the future. Obviously having to do the production ourselves with “Ain’t It Tragic,” with Sean Friday at the helm. I’m starting to think more like that. It’s very interesting how you relive these songs very differently. You see them in a different light because you’re starting to put yourself in that seat as an engineer or a producer. You start to find fun things that the average person who doesn’t write music might not hear. That is super-inspiring to me. It just so happened that I had that realization, that inspiration recently.

In the song “Heroes” you sing that “you never wanna meet your heroes” and that “all my heroes are dead.” Is this song about a specific hero who disappointed you or is it more of a composite?

[Laughs] I thought it was a kind of funny thought when I jotted down that lyric. It had nothing to do with the song. The song was already pretty much written in its form and had been sitting for a couple years. When we were working with producer Noah Shane, at the time, we knew that we had to breathe new life into it. We had to finish the song. It wasn’t quite there.

I was looking down at my phone where I write all kinds of bits and things that I like and hear and think of or people say. I was singing. We were just jamming in the room, seeing how we could break it in real time. I started singing, “All my heroes are dead” in that pre-chorus.

The band was like, “Wait, what did you say? That’s cool! That’s sick!” That was it. I reframed and rewrote those verses fitting that title. It was very easy. For some reason that was the piece of the puzzle that put it all together. It wasn’t necessarily that I thought of somebody. It seemed to make sense once I wrote it down.

Dead Sara is embarking on a multi-city concert tour. What are you most looking forward to about that?

working with other people?”

We don’t have to keep anything, but just learn a little bit more about what we do. This is all we knew. We were all self-taught. It was an experiment, like a school for us. We worked with a lot of writers, half of whom were people that do it for a living. We made some really good friends out of it and learned a hell of a lot.

From that, we took that experience into this album. I don’t think we worked with one actual songwriter. It was more friends that came in.

Like on “Heroes,” (co-writer) Kane Ritchotte, he’s been a friend forever. We said, “We’re in the studio if you wanna come by.” It wasn’t like, “Let’s set up a time and talk about what you know you wanna write about.” That’s how all these songs came about.

Who are some artists from whom you derive inspiration?

There are so many. I was listening to Pretenders just now. That’s somebody that comes to mind. It’s always refreshing! How do they do that? Where you listen to it, and it’s always refreshing. They’re obviously very popular, but never to the point where you say, “Oh, turn this song off.”

When you listen to that first album, it still sounds timeless, like it could have been made yesterday.

Yeah! I was listening to it today and yesterday, and I’m like, “Whoa!” My mind is being blown by the production of it even though I’ve heard the songs many, many times. They were so ahead of their time. This is probably an album that I’m going to return to a lot moving forward.

Just trying new songs. Hopefully to play new songs too, even newer ones. We’re starting to write more, to get ahead of everything. So, that’s gonna be exciting. But also play songs that we haven’t played in a long time or probably never played live. We’re getting very excited about that. I would definitely expect something like that to happen. On the last tour that we did, I don’t think we played the same set every night at all. We played a different set pretty much every night. That was the first time we’d ever done that.t Read the full interview, with music clips, on www.ebar.com.

Dead Sara opens for Demi Lovato Sept. 27 at The Masonic, 1111 California St. $20-$130. www.deadsara.com

acter who is supposedly mild-mannered but also self-obsessed, bitching about how much the world has changed (“I’m not supposed to know about Botoxed buttholes, PrEP, and no condoms. I’m supposed to be sitting on my couch, watching TV while my boyfriend is chewing way too loud beside me”) and critical of younger queens, ignorant of the AIDS Quilt, unappreciative of how their elders paved the way for them.

The other major flaw is the series pivots on a privileged, cis white (with one exception) axis. Similar to “Sex” and “Emily in Paris,” we’re treated to the sparkle and glittery ostentation of an upper-class contemporary Edith Wharton-like New York, with chic gorgeous multi-million dollar condos sporting breathtaking views of the city, while characters consume lavish dinners at exclusive Michelin-type eateries, and take weekend vacations at luxury ski resorts. Aren’t middle-class, non-white, non-metropolitan gay relationships worth exploring?

“Uncoupled” improved with each 30-minute episode, moving along at a zippy pace interspersed with biting satire on dating mishaps and self-help seminars, so a firmer footing second season appears likely. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that “Uncoupled” can rise above its superficiality and potentially say something meaningful about gay men’s vulnerability at growing older solo in a youth-obsessed, body beautiful society.t

by Brian Bromberger

Darren Star, the creator of “Sex and the City” (also “Emily in Paris”) has joined forces with Jeffrey Richman, producer of “Modern Family” and “Frasier,” to craft the new Netflix show “Uncoupled,” which largely lacks “Sex’s” droll panache, resembling more “Sex’s” recent turgid deflated HBO update “And Just Like That.”

“Uncoupled” would seem fresh and relatable fodder for a contemporary gay comedy of manners with Michael Lawson (Neil Patrick Harris), who seems to have it all: a fabulous career as a successful high-end New York City real estate agent, a bevy of close friends, and a loving relationship with his partner of 17 years, affluent hedge fund manager Colin (Tuc Watkins). However, Michael is completely blindsided when on the eve of throwing his spouse a surprise 50th birthday

party, Colin abruptly leaves him, moving into his own apartment. Michael suddenly finds himself a single gay man in his late forties, leading to a predictable mid-life crisis.

A sad and grieving Michael is aided by his two catty best friends, the snobbish, clever, stocky, thriving art gallery owner/dealer Stanley James (stage actor Brooks Ashmanskas, an acquired taste), but less accomplished in the romance department and handsome, charming, celebrity Lothario TV weatherman Billy Burns (Emerson Brooks, adequate) who frequently hooks up with younger men.

Michael also gets support from his business partner and loyal confidante, Suzanne Prentiss, (Tisha Campbell, sassy), the quick-witted randy single mom with an early 20s son. Then there’s Claire Lewis (Marcia Gay Harden), an aggrieved prickly Upper East Side socialite in the midst of a contentious divorce from her husband, who ran

off with his young Pilates instructor. She becomes the female kindred equivalent to Michael’s unexpected breakup, as he negotiates selling her opulent penthouse.

The eight-episode series revolves around Michael coming to terms with the end of his relationship and the terrifying prospect of starting over in middle age, complete with denial, anger, navigating dating via Grindr (which unbelievably he’d never heard of), rebound affairs, and finally something approaching acceptance, with a curve ball thrown in the finale.

While Michael is having an identity crisis, so is the series, because it can’t decide whether it’s a comedy or dramedy. The series is awash in stereotypes: the horny, wisecracking Black woman, gay men only interested in casual trysts, sexting, bad dates, and trendy urban culture, all while sipping cocktails and adorning stylish garb.

We’re supposed to empathize with a lead char-

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

Brooks Ashmanskas, Neil Patrick Harris and Emerson Brooks in ‘Uncoupled’

Neil Patrick Harris’ gay series: comedy or dramedy?

Neil Patrick Harris and Tisha Campbell in ‘Uncoupled’

Queer & local faves at Outside Lands t

Rina Sawayama

7:05-8:05, Twin Peaks stage

Kali Uchis, 8:55-9:55, Twin Peaks stage

by Jim Gladstone

Whether you’re a total music fan or just curious, some of the musicians performing at this year’s Outside Lands three-day music festival this weekend bring their grooves with style and pizzazz. Here are a few queer and/or local favorites.

Friday, August 5

SZA

8:45 to 9:45, Lands End stage

Phoebe Bridgers

8:35 to 9:50, Twin Peaks stage

Call them SZA Sisters. When Solana Imani Rowe (aka SZA) takes the Lands End stage this Friday night, capping off the first day of this year’s Outside Lands festival, she’ll be the event’s first queer headliner since

Elton John played the polo field in 2015. But a scan of this year’s talent roster shows no shortage of community representation, with a particularly strong slate of queer women, including Rina Sawayama, Pussy Riot, Empress Of and Mitski.

Simultaneous with SZA’s set, Phoebe Bridgers will play the festival’s second largest stage. Both highly personal songwriters, they draw from distinct sonic palettes. On her debut album, “Ctrl,” SZA draws on contemporary R&B and pop in songs that drip and pulse with synthesized background sounds even as her voice remains largely unprocessed, front and center in the mix.

Bridgers’s vocals are much less crisp. Her sometimes fragile singing voice melds with gentle emo-rock accom-

paniment in broad washes of sound. Rather than pricking up your ears and commanding attention, her music envelops you in an atmospheric vibe. Choose Bridgers on Aug. 5 if you want to end your long day in a chilled out haze, SZA if you’d rather be riveted.

The BLSSM

Noon-12:40, Panhandle stage SPELLLING

12:05-12:50, Sutro stage SZA and Bridgers aren’t the day’s only overlapping queer acts. The fest opens with a dilemma, too: The BLSSM, a non-binary native of Australia, has a grabby kick-drum driven sound that bridges grunge and pop; it’ll make for a great midday wake-up call. At the same time, you could opt for the Bay Area’s own SPELLLING (aka Chrystia Cabral) who pairs melodramatic goth-inflected electronics with an incantatory singing voice, often multiplied and otherwise manipulated with a loop pedal; if you’re already tripping by the time the festival gates open, this is the way to go.

Lido Pimienta

3:00-3:40, Panhandle stage

For some of the most refreshing, singular sounds on tap at this year’s fest, check out Lido Pimiento, a Colombian Canadian performer, whose bright voice and cheerful, chiming mix of acoustic and electronic instrumentation are hard to resist. Pimiento, who sings mainly in Spanish, won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize for the year’s best album in 2017.

Pimiento’s music blends African and Latin rhythms and her lyrics reflect a distinctly feminist perspective. Engaged in the social justice movement, she’s been known to invite “brown girls” to come up front at her shows, asking white audience members to step aside and make room.

Rostam

6:10-6:50, Panhandle stage

The most important gay male artist at Outside Lands this year is the criminally underappreciated Rostam Batmanglij, a founding member of Vampire Weekend, whose solo work is more intimate and less slick. It’s also achingly romantic, a potion of rhythmic strums, pit-a-pat percussion and the rough silk of Rostam’s warm, declarative voice.

Songs like “From the Back of a Cab” and “4Runner” work like short stories set to music, summoning up images and making you anxious to hear what comes next. Rostam received a Grammy nomination for producing Haim’s latest album

Saturday, August 6

L’Rain

12:15-1:00, Sutro stage

L’Rain is the musical moniker of Taja Cheek, whose past work as a curator at MoMA PS1 is altogether unsurprising given the highly conceptual nature of their music, which incorporates field recordings, samples, instruments and synthesizers in an almost complete dismantling of genre. Their performances feel less like concerts than immersive, almost hypnotic soundscapes that tug the listener between meditative states and periods of highly attentive listening.

Michelle 12:50-1:35, Twin Peaks stage

“After Dinner We Talk Dreams” is the pitch-perfect title of the unexpected second album by Michelle, a queer, “mostly BIPOC” sextet of New York teens and twentysomethings that specializes –almost by default– in harmony. Influenced by ’90s R&B groups including TLC, SWV and Boyz II Men, Michelle’s music is breezy summer pop featuring impressively tight four-part harmonies.

The group’s first album, “Heatwave” (2018), was intended to be a one-off, a collaborative project by mutual musical friends, all of whom have other projects or are members of other bands. But it captured a youthful magic that listeners loved and the group members wanted to linger in for a while. They look like a Benetton ad, they sound like a dream, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll still be together another four years down the road. Catch them while you can.

Empress Of 4:10-5:00, Twin Peaks stage

The first-generation Honduran American singer/producer Lorely Rodriguez creates layered swirls of danceable electronic dream pop peppered with surprising dynamic shifts as Empress Of. Rodriguez cites the Cocteau Twins and the Beach Boys among her influences, and she’s collaborated with experimental queer favorites Blood Orange and Perfume Genius. While she’s been releasing critically-praised music since 2011, the 32-year-old took creative control two years ago, extracting herself from past contracts to start her own label, Major Arcana, on which she’s just released her first fully self-determined music, the EP “Save Me.”

Toward the end of a busy day navigating the crowds to get from stage to stage on a make-your-own-musicaladventure, it’s a relief when you can settle into a single spot for two or more acts in a row. So consider spreading out a blanket and making the last two acts of your Saturday a queer double feature of Rina Sawayama followed by Kali Uchis on the Twin Peaks stage. Sawayama’s grandiose emotional pop has caught the ear of influential fans, including Elton John, who collaborated with her for a lush revamp of “Chosen Family,” from her debut album. Her second, “Hold the Girl” has just been released, and the first single, “This Hell,” not only has undeniable Gaga vibes, its lyrics namecheck Britney Spears and Whitney Houston. The ambition is palpable.

Kali Uchis, the rising ColombianAmerican star, offers a genre-melting bilingual blend of Amy Winehousestyle torch singing and hip-hop inflected jazz meanderings. Working with cred-building collaborators like Tyler the Creator, Kaytranada and Friday’s headliner SZA, she’s won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording (“10%”), a Billboard Latin Music award for Latin Pop Album of the Year (“Sin Miedo,” 2021) and has been nominated for a Soul Train Music Award as Best New Artist. Uchi-wahwah!

Sunday, August 7

Planet Booty

12:00-12:45, Lands End stage

Make Sunday a fun day out of the gate with local party-starters Planet Booty at the stroke of noon. The Bay Area trio preaches body positivity and sexual inclusivity with rump-shaking funk and campy charisma. Having warmed up shows for Lizzo, Big Freedia and Peaches, they’re pretty much guaranteed to make an energizing opening act for your final day at the fest.

Pussy Riot

4:10-4:50, Panhandle stage

Music and politics have always danced together in San Francisco and this year’s festival couldn’t feature a timelier act than Pussy Riot, led by founder and linchpin Nadya Tolokonnikova, who spent 21 months in a Siberian prison for agitating against the policies of one Vladimir Putin more

See page 15 >>

Highlights of Friday (Left to Right): SZA, Phoebe Bridgers, The BLSSM, SPELLLING, Lido Pimienta, Rostam

Highlights for Saturday Above (Left to Right): L’Rain, Michelle Below (Left, Right): Empress Of , Rina Sawayama, Kali Uchis

Unreal Estate t Theater>>

by Jim Gladstone

You have an uneasy feeling. Snapshot images arise in your memory, then fade into silence. You’re sure that fantastic events have occurred, but can’t put a finger on exactly what’s happened. You have a sense of urgency, but no rational explanation for it.

So it goes when you wake from a dream. So it shouldn’t when you rise from your seat at the end of a theater performance.

Alas, “Dream Hou$e,” being presented by Shotgun Players through August 14 has been written with no more coherence than a recollected dream. There are some incredibly vivid fragments and themes in play here. They just don’t hang together.

Playwright Eliana Pipes’ foreground story –two adult sisters, Patricia (Elana Ester) and Julia (Linda Maria Giron), are selling a longtime family home after their mother’s death– is rich territory for drama and indeed, in occasional bits of dialogue scattered hither and yon, the womens’ conversations touch on poignant universal topics: Legacy and loyalty; gen-

<< Outside Lands

From page 14

than a decade ago. Now, she’s got most of the world on her side. Expect the agit-punker and her crew to articulate vehemently against Russia’s current war on Ukraine and the United States’ current war on women. Expect a set that’s at once lively and dead serious.

Dominic Fike

5:05-5:55, Land’s End stage

One of the most engaging musical acts on the bill this year, Dominic Fike, hasn’t made any on the record statements about his sexual orientation, though he surely has fans of every stripe eager to embrace him. You may have seen Fike playing Elliot opposite Zendaya’s Rue on HBO’s “Euphoria” or making out with Lil Nas X in Brockhampton’s “Count On Me” video, but he was a musician long before dipping his toe in thespianism.

Bubbling under the mainstream for several years now, Fike is an alt-Bruno Mars. His lightly gritty R&B influenced pop has more subdued hooks, less production sheen and rhythmic indie guitars instead of a glitzy horn section. He raps with swinging musicality and sings with cool restraint on tunes that exude earnestness despite throwaway Gen Z titles like “Chicken Tenders” and “Acai Bowl.” Fike’s debut album, “What Could Possibly Go

erations-old secrets coming to light; sentimental value vs. economic value.

But in what amounts to a fatal collision for the play, Pipes also tries to give audiences a black comic satire about class division. The sisters place their property on “Fix It and Flip It,” a real

estate program whose crew –through both decoration and demolition– will stage it for sale.

The sisters are Latina and the TV show host, Tessa (Libby Oberlin) is not only white, but a parody of white privilege. Under Karina Gutierrez’s

direction, Oberlin plays the role skillfully, with an exaggerated hauteur and painful obliviousness that could make for a brilliant comedy sketch.

In a full-length play though (especially one being presented to socially conscious Bay Area theatergoers), the character is low hanging fruit that Oberlin –with her spot-on officious tone, presentational posture and condescending attitude– efficiently plucks in her first five minutes on stage. Watching it be redundantly pulped for another 80 minutes is painful.

(Later in the evening, there’s what amounts to a sketch-within-the-overextended-sketch as Tessa suddenly jumps into another reality TV genre and seems to become the host of a genealogy research show.)

The show’s two modalities –family drama and social satire– never merge, leaving the entire production tonally unbalanced.

Still, what could have just been wobbly becomes a full-tilt flop with the further addition of a magical realist element that allows the sisters to snap their fingers (cue pulsing lights by Claudio Silva) and slip into a side-

bar plane of existence where they can hold tete-a-tetes commenting on the rest of the action. Ester and Giron never gain solid footing as they’re asked to shuttle between planes of existence and between writing styles.

Once, and only once, Tessa somehow slips into the sisters’ woowoo realm. And while she’s there she convinces Patricia to indulge in some dental self-care right out of “Marathon Man.” It’s the evening’s most intense scene, with a sinister subtext about racial prejudice and upward mobility. Approached academically, one can easily draw connections between this scene and the rest of the play, but dramatically, it lands like a stand-alone, at once disturbing and disconnected.

With its ever-shifting busyness, “Dream Hou$e” is never a snore. But its construction is rickety. Enter at your own risk and watch out for flying thought-debris.t

‘Dream Hou$e,’ through August 17. Shotgun Players, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave, Berkeley. $7-$30. (510) 841-6500. shotgunplayers.org

Her music juxtaposes deceptively mellow keyboard pop with strong antiestablishment sentiments, touching on topics from global warming, to consumerism to self-sabotage. Mitski has said that her live performances are inspired by Butoh theater, also a major influence on David Byrne and the Talking Heads. Her Outside Lands appearance is the first U.S. show of a new tour.t

Read this feature, with music videos, on www.ebar.com.

Wrong” is a gem, with music ideally suited for Sunday afternoon chilling.

Kim Petras

6:30-7:30, Twin Peaks stage

Kim Petras originally came to fame as the youngest person to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Erroneously deemed male at birth, the Germanborn singer began her transition at 13, under the glare of documentary and talk show cameras. By 16, she’d begun performing as a guest vocalist on other artists’ projects and releasing digital singles of her own, but it wasn’t until 2019 that her first solo album, “Clarity,” was released, followed the next year by a second, “Turn Out The Light”.

Both were poppy modest successes and Petras toured with Troy Sivan and Camilla Cabello. Then, this February, Petras set her aims on immodest success, dropping the steaming, gleaming pure Eurotrash EP “Slut Pop.” Grab a cocktail and get ready to get sloppy with audacious electro bangers like the title track which urges listeners to “Whip your dick out/Get your tits out” and the so-shocking-its-funny “Throat Goat”

(Sample lyric: “I just sucked my ex/No gag reflex”). Have fun, little monkeys.

Mitski

8:10-9:20, Sutro stage

Bring your fest to an end with a highly anticipated set from Mitski, returning to the stage after a three-year

hiatus that many fans assumed to be an early retirement from the music industry. Having spent portions of her childhood in Asia, Africa and Eastern

Europe as the daughter of a diplomat, Mitski now today lives in Nashville and arrives at Outside Lands as one of the most intriguing acts on the bill.

Single-day tickets $175; three-day pass $409 and up. www.sfoutsidelands.com

Libby Oberlin, Elena Estér, and Linda Maria Girón in Shotgun Players’ production of Eliana Pipes’ ‘Dreamhou$e’

Ben Krantz

Highlights for Sunday (Left to Right): Planet Booty, Pussy Riot, Dominic Fike, Kim Petras, Mitski

“Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going. Space travel benefits us here on Earth.

we ain’t stopped yet. There’s more exploration to come.”

Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura, ‘Star Trek’)

Help Is On The Way… back!

by Jim Gladstone

Sally Struthers, Debby Boone and a gay plumber walk into a bar.

If you happen to be a gay plumber, that’s no joke. It’s an experience you can have this Sunday night.

The bar is at the luxe Beacon Grand hotel (the reinvented Sir Frances Drake) and the occasion will be the afterparty for the 26th Richmond/ Ermet Aid Foundation (REAF) “Help Is On The Way” concert, the first to be held in person since 2019.

In addition to the artist formerly known as Gloria Stivic and the “You Light Up My Life” singer, at Marines Memorial Theatre around the corner from the hotel, the concert will feature Tony and Grammy winner John Lloyd Young, the original Frankie Valli in “Jersey Boys” on Broadway, Garrett Clayton, the former Disney heartthrob best known to non-tweens for playing gay porn star Brent Corrigan in the 2016 film “King Cobra,” acclaimed jazz singer Paula West, and half a dozen other volunteer performers. None of the artists are paid for their participation.

Since 1995, the Help Is On The Way shows have raised funds for local AIDS and hunger charities by offering ticket buyers the unusual opportunity to see eclectic collections of stars from stage, screen and television perform in a single night, and then to meet them over celebratory cocktails after the show.

Mingle, mingle little star

“The afterparties have always been such a fun part of the Help Is On The Way shows,” said Shawn Ryan, the gay comedian and cabaret performer who

has appeared in many of the REAF extravaganzas. “It’s a chance to meet and talk to these artists on a whole different level. I think the performers enjoy it as much as the audience members.”

Along with emceeing and performing a musical number Sunday night, Ryan will be honored for his years of service to REAF, having performed in their shows for 17 years. Theater and cabaret singer Leanne Borghesi will be similarly honored.

In a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Ryan recalled the aftermath of his own first postshow hobnob with Sally Struthers, one of many repeat volunteers.

“We had this nice chat. And then, somehow she found out the next time I was performing in LA, where she lives, and she came to my show. My mother, who was a huge ‘All In the Family’ fan, was also there. When Sally approached me and gave me a kiss hello, my mother was just floored.”

Having attended a Help Is On The Way benefit as a fresh-out-of-college

audience member before ever performing in one of the shows, Ryan, who also coaches young performers, says this weekend will present a sort of full-circle moment for him.

“One of my students, Ava Frances, who I’ve been coaching since she was nine years old, will be making her REAF debut.”

Social distance and SoCal distance

Ken Henderson, the Executive Director of REAF, told the B.A.R. that the foundation is feeling the impact of the pandemic.

“We were able to do some online events over the past two years, but its not at all the same in terms of fundraising.”

While Help Is On The Way is making a happy return, a second significant fundraising engine remains down. For years, a staple of REAF’s benefit programming has been a series of intimate “One Night Only” cabaret performances by cast members of

Road to the Runway

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“Transis beautiful,” says Cece Asuncion in the first episode of “Road to the Runway,” a six-episode documentary series premiering on HereTV August 5. Asuncion is the model director for Slay Model Management, a trans modeling agency based in Los Angeles. The series will follow the lives of twenty trans models as they compete in Slay Model’s annual model search.

“I am the most famous Black trans model on planet Earth,” model Arisce

Wanzer says as the first episode gets underway. “Name it and I’ve done it. And if I haven’t done it, they’re probably transphobic.”

Wanzer is seen sitting at a desk with Asuncion as they go over the contact sheets for the women who hope to enter the contest. Each one of these young ladies is stunning.

The series promises to go beyond the model competition by showing the audience who the models are. In the first episode, viewers meet Mylla James, a model from Texas who is fortunate to have the love and support of

her conservative family. James’ parents, grandmother and brother all speak of how much they love her, and how easy it was to accept her transition.

The second episode introduces Jasmine Basanes, 28, who lives in Georgia. Basanes was inspired to go into modeling in part by her maternal grandparents, who worked in fashion doing alterations in the Philippines. Growing up, she was always into fashion and was fascinated by “Project Runway,” where she saw contestants create lavish gowns. She also became interested in make-up artistry.

“I pretty much want to do everything that’s in the fashion world,” Basanes said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “And I like being in front of the camera.”

Basanes heard of Slay before she transitioned and began sending them photos, saying that she was thinking of transitioning. When she finally transitioned in 2020 she sent in a new sheet of photos and was offered an interview. Before she knew it, she was in the competition.

Monday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

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Thursday 8am Open 24 Hours

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Sunday 7am (last seating 9:45pm)

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touring Broadway productions on dark nights during their engagements at the Golden Gate, Orpheum and Curran Theatres.

Now, in light of the COVID breakouts that continue to wreak havoc among the theater community nationally, tour producers and performers are imposing protective restrictions on off-stage activities in order to keep these shows on the road. In any other year, cast members of highly promoted upcoming productions of “Oklahoma!” and “Moulin Rouge” would be likely do “One Night Only” REAF benefits. But for the time being, the curtain remains down on such “extracurricular” performances.

Another significant change at REAF is the relocation of Henderson and Joe Seiler, his partner and fellow benefit impresario, to Palm Springs.

“We’d been talking about Palm Springs over the years, but when the real estate market there started to spike during the pandemic we thought that we’d better go ahead and make our move.”

In the desert, Henderson and Seiler have initiated a new model of fundraiser for REAF.

“We’re doing ticketed house parties at these huge, fabulous homes that people love getting a chance to see. The homeowners agree to host the events and donate food and we bring in the booze and entertainers.”

“We’ve already had two very successful events here,” said Henderson. “The community is very accepting of us.”

While acknowledging that there will “inevitably” be changes to REAF’s Bay Area operations with his and Seiler’s home base having shifted, Henderson says there are no plans to stop producing Help Is On The Way shows in San Francisco; Sunday night’s marks the first to be planned from afar.t

Help Is On The Way XXVI, Aug. 7, 7pm at Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St. 10pm afterparty at Beacon Grand Hotel, 450 Powell St. $45-$150. www.reaf-sf.org

Proudly serving the community since 1977.

3991-A 17th Street, Market & Castro 415-864-9795

“One thing with Cece is that he really wants the world and companies know that trans people have always been here,” she said. “We’re not just here for Pride month, which is June. We don’t just disappear, and we’re not supposed to be blacklisted by these companies after June. We really want consistency, and we just want to work it. Cece has chosen the perfect name for his agency.”

Basanes feels that it’s important to be out and visible, given all the anti-trans laws that are being passed in Republican-led states, such as so-called “bathroom bills” which deny trans people the right to use the public restroom which matches their gender identity, or bans of trans people on sports teams.

“I feel that I do have a responsibility to make sure that we’re visible and I talk about the fact that we’re here and we’re not going anywhere,” she said. “I wish that I had someone like me growing up. I want to be the person that I

needed growing up. Now that I have my platform, I want to inspire people to be themselves even through the hardships.”

She added that it’s important to have a strong LGBTQ support system when transitioning and warns those who are considering a transition to be ready to lose people.

“That’s really terrible for me to say but it’s the reality,” she said. “Some people like you for who you are now, but when you start becoming yourself, they get very intimidated or scared or they won’t accept you. And for the most part they’re just jealous because you’re strong enough to be yourself and they’re not.”

Beyond modeling, Basanes hopes to have her own non-profit organization that will help LGBTQ kids and teens, especially the kids who are disowned. She sees a lot of potential in LGBTQ youth and wants to give them the opportunity to show the world what they can do.

But for now Basanes is focusing on her modeling career.

“I want to thank all of the sponsors, designers and everyone who helped make the competition and the agency possible,” she said. “It is a lot of work. So I want to thank the sponsors and Cece for creating such a great agency and a platform and for being in the forefront of trans human rights.” t

“Road to the Runway” premieres August 5 on HereTV. www.heretv.com

Alexis Perez in ‘Road to the Runway’

Above: Model Arisce Wanzer

Below: Jasmine Basanes in ‘Road to the Runway’

Faith Kotee

Left: Leanne Borghesi in a 2014 concert Middle: Shawn Ryan in a 2017 REAF concert Right: REAF Executive Director Ken Henderson

How do artifacts from the past inform our understanding of the future? Get an up-close look at rare specimens from our collections and learn how scientists are unlocking their secrets to help conserve and regenerate our world.

Now open | Get tickets at calacademy.org

Every visit supports our mission to regenerate the natural world.

Up Your Alley Street Fair

photos by Steven Underhill

Fetish fashion flourished at the return of the Up Your Alley Street Fair in South of Market on July 31, where thousands showed off their leather, rubber, furry and kinky gear, while others in more casual attire merely looked on in amusement. www.folsomstreet.org

Enjoy more nightlife albums at facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife

And see more of Steven’s work at www.stevenunderhill.com

Chilling tales about what it means to be different

by Laura Moreno

“From the other, all terrors flow.”

Thus begins the Introduction to “Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology,” released this week.

Editors Vince Liaguno and Rena Mason, both Bram Stoker Award winners, have put together a chilling collection of original short stories by a diverse group of some of today’s biggest names in horror as well as new authors.

Liaguno is perhaps best known as co-editor of “Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet” and

as the author of “The Literary Six.”

Mason received acclaim for her debut novel “The Evolutionist” and “East End Girls.” Of Thai-Chinese descent, she runs a website feature called “The Seers’ Table” to promote diverse writers and their work in the horror genre.

What frightens us most? Fear of the unknown, the things we do not understand, and even more frighteningly, fear that dark malevolence lurks beneath the surface of the most familiar everyday faces and places and things?

Or is it when our own eyes deceive us, and no one else shares our perception?

Or perhaps might it be when we have no power to change who we are and how we ourselves are perceived in the world, accurately or not?

This trailblazing anthology features stories that explore the power dynamics of “otherness” in ordinary situations that contain all the elements of horror, striking fear into the human heart almost instinctively: homophobia, racism, ageism, colonialism. Who, really, is the other?

An innocent game of hide and seek goes terribly wrong, a beauty pageant features zombie contestants, a water aerobics class becomes terrifying, among many other unlikely nightmarish scenarios.

In several of the stories, the other turns out to be one that is supposed to be a member of your own tribe. Right out of the gate, Christina Sng’s “Other Fears,” the only poem in the collection, is about a long-time partner whose abuse slowly over the decades distorts her mind until she has become the thing she fears even more than she fears his malignant presence. Duplicity even or especially in intimacy is a far greater source of horror than the random monster or alien that has traditionally been written about.

“He hates me

Because I am human,

Because I have emotions.

Because I can feel love

And most of all, because I see his true face now.”

Unfortunately, I am not able to write about each of the lyrical, poetic, cinematic tales, such as the story “Where the Lovelight Gleams.” Queer writer Michael Thomas Ford, like Sng, finds horror in the familiar when his character returns to his old haunts in his hometown only to find that his car can’t speed away fast enough to leave the memory of his estranged family and the place behind. Are the events of our lives just totally random, perhaps precipitated by dark forces without rhyme or reason?

Interestingly, “Invasive Species” by Ann Davila Cardinal approaches otherness as something that can shift according to the situation and our perceptions. The group has always had ways of making people conform, and hammering them down when they don’t, as when Jose sees the potential for evil that he can’t quite get anyone else to see at a community meeting of residents.

In Jennifer McMahon deliciously frightening “Idiot Girls,” teen gay lovers stumble onto the trail of a serial killer during a secret rendezvous, but ignore the warning signs that things are not what they seem.

Local Oakland author M.E. Bronstein has written a unique horror story, “The Voice of Nightingales.” In it, a female academic’s research into longforgotten (or suppressed) queer, pagan

medieval Latin poetry turns out to be more than she bargained for, and she must learn to “sing the poison out.”

“Not pretty books, but stained with water damage, riddled with holes, tears stitched together with pale red and white threads. The volumes’ history had left them with scars...like wounds...

“While everyone else left for lunch in the refectory, Lynn lingered. She sat on the floor, then stretched out on her back, and studied the ceiling.

“Serpents. Very faint, but you could make them out if you looked closely enough. Clouds of carved snakes, coiling around the birds.”

The hair-raising story by crime writer S.A. Cosby in “What Blood Hath Wrought,” features retribution, supernatural powers, and the generational curses that have turned a descendant of a sadistic slave owner into a charming serial killer that no one suspects. And it all happens during the graveyard shift of a Pancake Shack.

If the opposite of love is fear (not hate) as the Bible states, then living on earth is becoming an increasingly scary place indeed where any of us, all of us, at some time or another are the other. Fans of horror will appreciate

“Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology” for many generations to come.t

“Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology,” edited by Vince Liaguno and Rena Mason, HarperCollins, paperback, $16.99 www.harpercollins.com

Editors Vince Liaguno and Rena Mason

EARLY BIRD DRAWING: On August 25 we will draw a winner for a pair of tickets to see RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World Tour at the Masonic Auditorium on September 8

FIRST: A Pair of tickets to see Lil Nas X at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on October 23

SECOND: A Pair of tickets to see Jonathan Van Ness (Queer Eye) at the Castro Theatre on December 11

THIRD: A pair of season tickets to New Conservatory Theatre Center’s 2022-2023 season

FOURTH: A pair of tickets for the GLBT Historical Society’s Reunion Gala on October 19

FIFTH: $250 worth of product from the Apothecarium for just $1 (gift card)

SIXTH: $250 gift card to Cliff’s Variety