February 9, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Gay man reportedly beaten, hospitalized after leaving SOMA bar

by John Ferrannini

Agay man said that he was beaten near a South of Market LGBTQ bar over the weekend, leading to his hospitalization, and a GoFundMe has been set up to help pay for his living expenses.

Barry Miles posted a picture of himself post-attack to his Instagram page Monday, February 6. Miles wrote, “Last night I got jumped when I left powerhouse by two guys. My wallet was taken? I also had a heart attack. They put in two stents. From high cholesterol. my face hit the sidewalk. also a front tooth was knocked out, and a small fracture in my neck. I’m pretty banged up.”

Allison Maxie, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, corroborated Miles’ account in a statement to the Bay Area Reporter on Tuesday.

“On February 5, 2023 at approximately 12:02 a.m., San Francisco Police Officers from Southern Station responded to the unit block of Langton Street regarding a call for a well-being check,” Maxie wrote. “Officers arrived on scene and located an adult male being treated by medics. During the initial interaction with officers, the victim was unable to provide details regarding what led up to his injuries.”

Then, “officers responded to a business on the 1300 block of Folsom Street where the male stated he had come from and during their initial investigation, officers were unable to determine that a crime had occurred at that location,” Maxie added.

“At this time, we do not have evidence that this incident was hate-motivated,” Maxie stated.

Scott Richard Peterson, the general manager of Powerhouse, stated to the B.A.R. that an officer showed up after midnight.

“A policeman came by after midnight,” Peterson stated. “The incident didn’t happen at Powerhouse, on the alley or on Folsom [Street] that we could see ... Officer didn’t give me any details.

See page 10 >>

Family of gay son demands formal inquest into his death

by John Ferrannini

The family of a gay 20-year-old Korean/Filipino man found dead in a San Francisco high rise nearly three years ago are demanding several local and state law enforcement officials call for a formal inquest into his death.

Jaxon Sales died March 2, 2020 in the Rincon Hill apartment of a 41-year-old man, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. But his death was deemed accidental by officials and wasn’t investigated at the time by police as possibly a homicide.

The Sales family wants the death of Jaxon Sales be looked into as potentially a homicide. They are calling on California Attorney General Rob Bonta, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, and San Francisco Police Chief William Scott to “compel the San Francisco Medical Examiner to fully investigate the circumstances of their son’s death.”

A representative for the Sales family provided the B.A.R. with an advance copy of their statement ahead of its release Tuesday.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told the B.A.R. January 26 that the “investigation is closed.”

“There has not been any criminal filing from the investigation,” the chief added.

However, when asked to confirm Scott’s comments, Officer Robert Rueca, an SFPD public information officer, stated February 6, “The chief may have been referring to a different case, but this investigation is still open.”

Last January – before the Sales family spoke extensively to the press about their desire to see the investigation opened – the police department had told the B.A.R. that it did not intend to open an investigation on account of the medical examiner’s office not suspecting foul play.

“This death investigation is led by the [office of the chief medical examiner] and they determine the cause of death (i.e. overdose, etc.) for death investigations. We do not conduct a criminal investigation if there is no evidence of foul play, which we investigate at every scene of a death,” Rueca stated in January 2022. “If the OCME suspects foul play at any point in their investigation, our investigators would conduct a homicide investigation.

“For this death investigation officers did not find evidence of foul play during the initial investigation and the OCME did not find evidence of foul play,” Rueca added. “If there was an overdose in the same location that did not result in a death or involved a crime, medics may have responded to this. We do not investigate or respond to medical calls.”

National LGBTQ Task Force’s Creating Change heads to SF for 1st time

by Heather Cassell

Thousands of LGBTQ activists from around the United States will descend upon San Francisco for the National LGBTQ Task Force’s 35th annual Creating Change conference.

It will be the first time for San Francisco to host the task force’s signature grassroots fiveday conference in the city, which historically has been a hotbed of LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activism as well as other progressive movements. The event takes place February 17-21.

Oakland hosted Creating Change in 2005, as the Bay Area Reporter noted at the time, and in 1999. Back then, same-sex marriage (legalized nationwide in 2015), LGBTQ people in the military and the homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (repealed in 2010); racial justice; Social Security; and transgender rights were priorities of the task force and at the forefront of the LGBTQ movement. Today, many of those issues remain on the organization’s agenda.

The upcoming conference theme is “The State of the Movement: Our Past. Our Present. Our Future.” and w ill kick off the task force’s 50th anniversary. The task force was founded in 1973 as the National Gay Task Force, and later renamed the National Gay and Lesbian

Task Force, to advance the “full freedom, justice, and equality for LGBTQ people,” which remains its goal five decades later. The organization is viewed as more progressive than the Human Rights Campaign, the other national LGBTQ rights organization.

This month’s gathering will be the first time more than 2,500 activists and movement

thought leaders will convene in person since the COVID pandemic began in 2020. Creating Change was last held in person in Dallas in January 2020, shortly before pandemic lockdowns were in place in much of the country that March.

Keynote speakers for Creating Change are

Bobby

Kierra Johnson, right, now the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, joined then-executive director Rea Carey on stage at a Creating Change conference.

The family of Jaxon Sales is demanding city and state officials compel San Francisco’s chief medical examiner to open an inquest into the young man’s 2020 death.

Courtesy Sales family

Barry Miles, left, before he said he was attacked by two men, and right, after he was hospitalized.

Via GoFundMe

Couple spices things up

Panel recommends expanded landmark for theater

by John Ferrannini

The San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission unanimously approved a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors that would preserve the interior of the Castro Theatre with the “presence of seating” after a marathon meeting that stretched into the evening hours February 1.

Sparks flew throughout the afternoon as the commission was asked to consider whether to recommend an amendment to the Castro Theatre’s landmark status to apply to the building’s interior, including the seats. In the end, it did not specify “fixed seating,” as several speakers requested.

Public comment went on for over five hours in a showdown between those who want to preserve the current raked, permanent seating and those who agree with the plan of new management Another Planet Entertainment to replace these with a motorized floor.

A San Francisco Planning Department staff report gave a preliminary recommendation in support of the expanded landmarking, which staff member Alex Westoff reiterated at the top of the meeting after a short presentation.

Prior to the 6-0 vote, several commissioners pointed out that they were only considering the proposed recommendation regarding expanding landmark status to the interior of the building. And several were critical of APE’s apparent lack of understanding the significance of the theater to the LGBTQ neighborhood. (Commissioner Jason Wright, the body’s only out member, recused himself.)

Commissioner Richard S.E. Johns said that “we cannot consider economic viability.” He was referring to many speakers who debated whether the theater could survive with the fixed seating or be allowed to have more flexible programming with APE’s proposal.

“Likewise there’s been a lot of discussion of if Another Planet is a good guy or a bad actor. That’s not in front of us and we just don’t consider that at this stage,” Johns said. “All the other things are for another day in front of us, or are of a political nature, and those are the things the Board of Supervisors will want to hear in depth and will want to consider.”

“This is the Castro,” Commissioner Kate Black said, referring to how APE did not initially grasp the significance of the theater, which she noted was the site of so many demonstrations for LGBTQ rights over the decades, and a beacon to queer people the world over.

Black said that the theater is “central to the neighborhood for which it is named.”

The resolution included an amendment to add some 1922 seats in the balcony.

After the initial publication of this report, David Perry, a gay man who is a spokesperson for APE, told the B.A.R., “Another Planet has always supported the landmarking of the interior of the Castro Theatre.” (Although many in support of APE’s plans urged a no vote during the meeting.)

APE is “gratified by today’s unanimous vote to do so,” Perry stated. “Equally, we acknowledge all who spoke at the hearing both in support of and in opposition to our project. This is good news for all of us who share a passion for saving the Castro.

Castro Theatre Conservancy Executive Director Peter Pastreich called the night “kind of disappointing” after the meeting. He’d wanted the “presence of seating” line clarified to “make clear it’s the kind of seating that the architect had in mind and that’s really characteristic of the theater.”

“What they did was ignore the question of the downstairs seating, which is central to the whole controversy,” Pastreich said. “I don’t think they listened to most of the arguments made.”

Disapproval by community groups

As the B.A.R. reported last week, the Save the Castro Theatre Coalition is made up by a number of neighborhood groups, such as the conservancy and the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, that disapprove of many of the changes that have come to pass or are proposed after APE took over management of the building from the Nasser family last year. The 100-yearold moviehouse is still owned by the Nassers – the longtime owners of the theater since it was founded by Abraham Nasser in 1922.

Last year, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman introduced a resolution to the Board of Supervisors for an expanded landmarking of the theater (the facade of the cinema became the city’s 100th landmark in 1977). The board supported it unanimously. The historic preservation commission on Wednesday considered a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which has final approval.

Jim Abrams, an attorney representing the Nassers, told the commission during public comment that “the family strongly opposes any amendment to the ordinance in front of you,” referring to the orchestra seating.

“They’ve shown the most love, care, and respect for the theater and the neighborhood,” Abrams said. Abrams showed internal numbers from the theater’s hundredth anniversary last year, showing that out of 1,400 seats some screenings – such as a matinee of “Casino” on June 10 –got as few as 16 patrons.

The theater “operated on a loss on over three-quarters of the days only films were shown,” Abrams said.

Abrams said that the Nassers would oppose a plan from the Castro Theatre Conservancy sent just this past day to sublease the theater from APE. The B.A.R. reported last week that the three entities had been in discussions, but Abrams said that the plan did not adequately describe how the conservancy would restore the theater. Pastreich, on behalf of the conservancy, said, “that’s disappointing too,” since the Nassers solicited the proposal.

Rob Byrne, the board president of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, spoke after Abrams, saying that he’s been able to fill all 1,400 seats.

“That is a perfectly viable motion picture theater,” Byrne said to the applause of dozens of supporters of keeping the seats who showed up to the meeting, many clad in red in honor of the seats. “I agree it can be used for multipurpose. It’s radically drastic the plans APE has in place, but I do want you to take into consideration [that] the Nasser family is being disingenuous. To say it is no longer viable is completely absurd and disingenuous.”

Michael Petrelis, a gay activist whose public records act requests revealed that Mandelman thinks APE has “put their pencils down” on the project, evoked his days in ACT UP.

“Act up! Fight back! Fight APE!” Petrelis said. “Since the last meeting there was a five-week gap of absolutely no programming. From December 24 to January 27 nothing was shown. There were no concerts at the theater. That absence represents the commitment of Another Planet.”

Queer historian Gerard Koskovich asked the commission to amend the proposed language so that it protects the specific seating currently in the theater. (The current language only protects the “presence of seating,” which Koskovich and others said is too vague.)

David “Gaybraham Lincoln” Thompson showed up in full rainbow attire to argue for changing the seats.

“I can tell you with absolute certainty those chairs that have been there only 20 years have no character,” Thompson said. “They have no character whatsoever other than to

make my derrière go running toward the door.”

Thompson said that the Castro neighborhood needs to accept and celebrate the presence of straight allies.

“If you go to Beaux, fabulous Beaux, one of the most fabulous gay bars in the Castro, half of the people are not LGBTQ,” Thompson said. “They are allies. We need more and more people in the Castro. We need fabulous events; we need fabulous allies. Let’s get going with a new Castro, with a new fabulous feel and future.”

Thompson fears that the theater will close entirely if people are too attached to the past.

“I don’t know if you spend as much time as I do there [in the Castro] but it is one of the most depressing sights in San Francisco today,” Thompson said.

“We need change in this neighborhood. We need to change the seats. We don’t want the Castro Theatre to end up like the theaters on Mission Street, which is the direction we are ending up in right now.”

Others feared that it is change that will destroy the neighborhood.

“We do not stand by the removal of the seats,” said Meat Flap, a transgender drag king. “The Castro Theatre is incredibly special to me. If there is a heaven I believe it is that theater. It is our church. I first went to that space as a cis straight person and I am now a trans, very queer person. I’ve been to other venues APE is stewards of, and they’re soulless.”

APE is responsible for the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, as well as the Fox Theatre in Oakland and the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco.

Matthew Carhart, a San Mateo native who now lives in San Francisco, told the commissioners what the theater meant to him as a young gay child.

“You could be in a crowd of people without being in a parade. It was a quiet, safe way to do that,” he said, arguing in favor of keeping the current seating. “Even more thrilling was seeing a guy make that classic movie house move of throwing his arm around the seat to land it on his date. That was thrilling to a boy from San Mateo. I knew we were welcome and I knew we were safe, because after all it was the Castro.”

by Matthew S. Bajko

San Francisco officials are eying a March start date for the construction of a new elevator at the Castro Muni station in the city’s LGBTQ district. The $11.5 million project is expected to take 20 months to complete.

Under that timeline the fourstop glass and steel elevator would be ready for usage by subway riders sometime in early 2025, nine years after the new lift was first proposed. Last summer, Castro residents had received a notice in the mail from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to expect construction on the project to begin “in Winter 2022.”

Yet it wasn’t until their January 20 meeting that the four members of the commission that oversees San Francisco Public Works unanimously approved a contract with CLW Builders Inc. to build the elevator. The city agency is overseeing the design and construction of the project for the SFMTA.

The San Francisco-based construction company was the lowest bidder last August out of three firms

that had applied for the contract.

The two others, Rubecon and Trico Construction, had submitted bids both roughly around $19 million, largely due to higher estimates for construction materials.

Security concerns had complicated the issuance of the contract. Because the project involves a subway station, the design schematics included aspects of the underground

structure deemed to be confidential, requiring bidders to obtain the necessary paperwork in person and sign nondisclosure agreements.

Protests filed by the two losing bidders further pushed back the timeline for selecting a contractor. It required additional legwork by city staffers to address the issues raised before bringing the contract before the Public Works Commission last month.

Lauren Post, chair of the oversight body, said the elevator had a “lovely design” and added that “it looks like a terrific addition to the neighborhood and the city.”

Final sign off on the permit for the construction project is still needed by BART. The regional transit agency built the Castro Muni Station in the 1980s and leases it to SFMTA.

As of Monday, February 6, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told the Bay Area Reporter the agency had completed its review of the elevator project but it had yet to sign off on the necessary permit. Until that happens, the project can’t break ground.

“Gaybraham Lincoln” Thompson addresses the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission February 1.

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SF Pride permanently hires trans ED Ford

by John Ferrannini

Suzanne Ford has been selected to serve as the permanent executive director of the nonprofit organization that puts on the San Francisco Pride parade and festival, according to a February 8 news release.

Ford, a transgender woman, had been serving as interim executive director of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee since February 2022, after then-executive direc-

tor Fred Lopez, a gay man, abruptly resigned, as the Bay Area Reporter contemporaneously reported.

Lopez returned to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where he had worked before leading SF Pride.

Ford wrote in a Facebook post after assuming the interim position that she is not the first trans executive director of SF Pride. She cited Tita Aida, also known as Nikki Calma, as serving in that role but Aida served as board co-chair, as have a number of other trans people over the years, as

the B.A.R. has reported. Since Teddy Witherington was hired as SF Pride’s first full-time executive director in 1997, the organization’s paid executive directors have been cisgender.

Ford led the organization in 2022 through its first parade after COVID restrictions lifted.

The nonprofit did not immediately respond to an interview request.

“In joining SF Pride, I found a great way to give back to the LGBTQ+ community and I found my family,” Ford stated in the release. “I

want to preserve the legacy of the parade, while making sure there will be a thriving SF Pride event for future generations. As a tight-knit team, we are excited and humbled to host the second in-person SF Pride Parade and Celebration post pandemic.”

Nguyen Pham, a gay man who is president of SF Pride’s board of directors, stated that the group is grateful for Ford.

“I am excited for the first trans person to hold the position of executive

See page 5 >>

AIDS researcher Jeff S. Stryker dies

by Sari Staver

ney Bill Aseltyne.

Mr. Stryker, a 68-yearold gay man, lived in San Francisco from 1990-2007,

former executive director of CAPS, wrote in an email. “He was an amazing intellect and brilliant writer. His perspective on HIV prevention was

was vice president and deputy general counsel at Sutter Health. Mr. Stryker pivoted his part-time writing to a fulltime job. In addition to HIV, LGBTQ,

Suzanne Ford has been named the permanent executive director of San Francisco.

time spent together,” Aseltyne said.

“Jeff fervently believed it was a privilege to be Darius’ father. After Darius reconnected with his birth mother last year, Jeff was eager to travel to meet her and draw his son’s two families together,” said Aseltyne.

Bevan Dufty, a gay man who’s a former San Francisco supervisor and currently an elected BART director, met Mr. Stryker years ago when the two lived in Washington, D.C. In an email, Dufty wrote, “Jeff Stryker became a thought leader and public health advocate around HIV and AIDS. He was an important voice, challenging [then-President] Ronald Reagan and others who ignored AIDS and allowed gay men to die.”

Dufty also recalled Mr. Stryker’s “mischievous” sense of humor. “Jeff had a great sense of humor,” Dufty added. “Back in the 1980s many gay men would pause and sometimes blanch when Jeff introduced himself. He would quickly smirk and say that he wasn’t that Jeff Stryker –acknowledging the biggest, most iconic porn star of that generation.”

Dufty, who now has a son, kept up with Mr. Stryker at family week in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they compared “how much our kids had grown in the past year. Jeff and Bill were such a loving and strong couple,” he added.

Aseltyne is mourning the loss of his husband.

“I’m totally devastated,” said Aseltyne. After 37 years together, “we were still very much in love,” he said. On the evening before his passing, to demonstrate to Darius the love in their marriage, “We slow danced to ‘We Kiss in a Shadow’ from ‘The King and I,’” he wrote in an obituary.

Mr. Stryker also was a devoted guardian over the years to dogs Whitney, Jodie, Foster, Rosebud, Frosty and Houston, who spurred him to live by the phrase “wag more, bark less,” said Aseltyne.

Mr. Stryker was born September 28, 1954 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in two years, majoring in medical sociology.

He held positions on the President’s Commission on Bioethics, under Barack Obama; the U.S. Congressional Office on Technology Assessment; the Hastings Center; the Institute of Medicine; the National Coalition on Healthcare; and the University of Michigan School of Public Health; according to the obituary.

Mr. Stryker was co-editor of a 1993 National Research Council report on the social impact of AIDS and served as staff director of the National Commission on AIDS. He also taught a seminar for the Yale Bioethics program and contributed to the New York Times, Salon, the San Francisco Examiner, the Advocate, Michigan Radio, KQED, and Marketplace.

A memorial service will be held in the spring. Aseltyne asked people who want to donate to a charity to “please choose one that works to make the world a gentler place for others.” t

HIV researcher Jeff S. Stryker, a highly

Jeff S. Stryker

Courtesy Bill Aseltyne

Courtesy SF Pride

Spice shop shakes up couple’s wedding plans

by Matthew S. Bajko

Four days shy of Christmas in 2021, Matthew Green and Phuong Mai got engaged and began making wedding plans. Together nearly six years, the San Francisco couple had expected to set a date sometime in 2023.

But life has a tendency of throwing a wrench into one’s plans, and so it was for the fiancés. Their decision last April to get into the spice and seasonings trade has put their marriage on hold for the time being.

“We thought we would get married in the spring of this year, but the shop has pushed back our plans,” said Mai.

That shop is Perfectly Seasoned, which Mai and Green opened for business on December 17 last year, right in time for the crucial holiday shopping season. It is located at 4017 24th Street in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood.

While the couple live in the city’s Excelsior district, they felt it wasn’t conveniently located or had the foot traffic they were seeking to ensure the spice business would succeed. They had looked at storefronts in the Castro LGBTQ district but didn’t fall in love with any of the retail spaces that were for lease there, recalled Mai.

With Noe Valley in the heart of the city and easy to reach via public transit, the couple turned their attention there and secured a storefront last May.

“I knew Noe Valley would be the spot,” said Mai, who grew up in San Jose.

It also helps that the neighborhood’s

SF Pride

From page 4

director at San Francisco Pride,” Pham stated. “We are privileged to have Suzanne at the helm of many key projects as she continues to advocate for trans

year-round, weekly Saturday farmers market and Whole Foods location draw home chefs to the commercial corridor. Plus, the block they opened on is home to the popular Noe Valley Bakery, another foodie draw.

“We knew there would be good foot traffic here,” said Mai. “Saturdays we do see a big uptick in traffic from people down the street, if not from the farmers market then from shoppers at Whole Foods.”

The idea for opening a spice shop was sparked during a trip the men took last April to Des Moines, where Mai’s in-laws reside. They had popped into such a store in the Iowa capital’s downtown and purchased a number of items with which to return home.

“We were showing our friends all the great things we had gotten from

visibility while championing diversity in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Ford, 57, served on the board of directors from 2018, where she was treasurer for three years.

Ford’s previous service to the community includes a seat on the board of Trans Heartline and as board presi-

this other shop during a birthday party we hosted for Matthew. The next day Matthew said to me if I want to open a spice shop, you can,” recalled Mai, who had left his job in publishing in the fall of 2019.

He had gotten a job at the Devil’s Teeth Baking Company in the city’s Outer Richmond district as a baker.

It wasn’t his first foray into the food business, as roughly 15 years ago Mai worked at a family-owned Pho restaurant in Fremont as a waiter.

Owning his own spice shop also tied into his personal culinary pursuits.

“I am a big home cook. I love cooking up things at home,” said Mai, 38, who started preparing meals at home while attending UC Santa Cruz, from which he graduated in 2006 with a sociology degree.

His research last year into the spice trade turned into a business plan. It also revealed that there are few options in the Bay Area when it comes to stores dedicated to selling spices directly to consumers. Spice Ace, hailed as San Francisco’s best spice shop, had shuttered in early 2019.

“There is the Spice & Tea Exchange at Fisherman’s Wharf. But what resident in San Francisco goes all the way down there to shop?” asked Mai.

While Green helps out at the shop on weekends as a co-owner and co-manager of it, he works full time during the week at Pacific Eye Associates, a multispecialty ophthalmology practice in the Haight. Coincidentally, the ground floor retail space the couple leases for

dent of the Spahr Center, the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS community center in Marin County.

According to the release, she also co-founded SF Pride’s Pro-Am Golf Tournament fundraiser, which is the first PGA-endorsed LGBTQ golf event in the world. The fundraiser has

the spice store had been the longtime home of an optometrist who ended up moving to a new location nearby.

Complete makeover

The couple gave the storefront a complete makeover. Gone are the walls that had formed consultation rooms and the creaky floor, replaced with a light-filled unobstructed interior showroom and brand new wooden floor.

Mai is the main proprietor for the spice store. He carries more obscure spices and seasoning blends, such as Grains of Paradise, ($9.69 for 1.8 oz. or $13.79 for 2.6 oz.) a pepper that has notes of coriander and nutmeg, said Mai.

“People are grinding it up like regular pepper,” he explained.

He also carries Long Pepper, which Mai said has a muskier aroma and flavor than traditional black peppercorns. (A 1 oz. jar is $5.99; 1.8 oz. is $7.99.)

One of his most popular items is of his own creation, Egg Seasoning ($8.49 for 1.8 oz.; $5.89 for 1.1 oz.). Mai combines smoked paprika, Parmesan, whey, buttermilk solids, sodium phosphate, salt, onion powder, sesame seed, chervil, poppy seed, salt, and black pepper to make it.

“It is similar to a pork seasoning and a steak seasoning,” explained Mai, who recommends using it not only on

raised almost a quarter-million dollars over four years.

Also according to the release, Ford was honored with the Legacy Award, Celebrating Trans Joy on the occasion of the Trans Day of Visibility last year.

The nonprofit did not respond to an inquiry as to Ford’s salary as

egg dishes. “People can put it on eggs, potatoes, popcorn, anything they can dream of.”

Green had encouraged him to stock it.

“I asked him if I should do an egg seasoning. I had never heard of it before and wanted something that wasn’t meat based. Matthew said, ‘Sure, people will go for it,’” recalled Mai.

Other unique spices on sale are Gumbo Filé Powder, ($7.29 for 1.4 oz.; $5.09 for 0.8 oz.) made from sassafras and used to thicken sauces, and Gochugaru, ($7.99 for 1.7 oz.; $5.59 for 1.1 oz.) a mild, sweet Korean pepper used in kimchi.

For the summer Mai plans to have different grilling spice blends and meat rubs for sale. He makes everything on site and intends to roll out different products depending on the season. For example, he will bring back mulled spices in the fall.

“I also take suggestions all the time on things we don’t carry,” he said. “Some things work out, some don’t. If it sells well, we will keep it; if not, at least we made a customer happy.”

The store is open daily at 10 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and at 4 p.m. Sundays.

To learn more about the products for sale, and to sign up for email alerts about new spices and seasonings added to the list, visit the store’s website at www.perfectlyseasonedsf.com/ t

of press time. According to its IRS Form 990 for Fiscal Year 2018-19 (the last year for which a 990 is publiclyavailable when an executive director served a full fiscal year), then-executive director George F. Ridgely Jr. received $108,631 in total compensation. t

Perfectly Seasoned co-owners Phuong Mai, left, and his fiancé Matthew Green stand next to a display of spices at their Noe Valley store.

Art Bodner

Volume 53, Number 06

February 9-15, 2023

www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER

Michael M. Yamashita

Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013)

Publisher (2003 – 2013)

Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003)

NEWS EDITOR

Cynthia Laird

ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR

Jim Provenzano

ASSISTANT EDITORS

Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Christopher J. Beale • Brian Bromberger

Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell

Heather Cassell • Michael Flanagan • Jim

Gladstone • Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell

• Lisa Keen

• Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno •

David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff •

Jim Piechota • Marijke Rowland • Adam Sandel

• Jason Serinus Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn

Smith • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION

Max Leger

PRODUCTION/DESIGN

Ernesto Sopprani

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE

Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch

Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja

Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller • Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe

Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson

ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS

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VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING

Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937

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Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL

Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

Biden’s job isn’t finished yet

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday left no doubt that he is running for reelection – and thank goodness for that. While much of his speech focused on the economy, Biden (D) showed the nation why he is a leader for all of us, including the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities. Contrast his remarks with the transphobic comments delivered by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders during the Republican response to the State of the Union and, well, there’s simply no getting around the fact that whether it’s former President Donald Trump, for whom Sanders once served as press secretary, or Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, today’s GOP is all about seeing who can be the most virulent, the most extreme, and the most hateful when it comes to LGBTQs – especially trans young people.

Biden went with a bipartisan theme Tuesday night. “Let’s finish the job,” he said more than once, asking Congress and the American people watching at home to support policies that will help seniors, the middle class, and kids. He hit upon several topics important to us. Near the top of his speech, he noted that since taking office just over two years ago, he has signed hundreds of pieces of bipartisan legislation. One of those was the Respect for Marriage Act, which removed the shameful federal Defense of Marriage Act from the books once and for all.

“In fact, I signed over 300 bipartisan laws since becoming president,” Biden said. “From reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, to the Electoral Count Reform Act, to the Respect for Marriage Act that protects the right to marry the person you love.”

But Biden also expended some political capital when he called for passage of the Equality Act. Frankly, we were impressed he mentioned it at all. It languished in the Senate in the previous Congress, and now the House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans, making any future action on it unlikely. (The House under Democratic leadership did pass the Equality Act on a bipartisan vote in 2021.) The Equality Act is critical, as we’ve mentioned before, because it would add sexual orientation and gender identity to

the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protecting millions more Americans, including those who aren’t married. “Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity,” the president said.

The Human Rights Campaign welcomed Biden’s remarks. As Kelley Robinson, HRC’s new president, noted in a statement, “President Biden called attention to the campaign of hatred that is driving discriminatory legislation that targets transgender kids in statehouses across the country,” she stated, adding that HRC appreciated that Biden made a point to “focus national attention on this urgent topic and stand up for transgender kids, because we need our nation’s leaders to show up and prove that collectively, we are greater than hate.”

On health issues, Biden praised the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. That was started by President George W. Bush 20 years ago and is up for reauthorization this year, after previously being extended in 2018. It’s been a game-changer in the global fight against AIDS by supporting countries with treatment and investing resources in their health systems. In a January 28 statement, Biden noted that since 2003, PEPFAR “has saved more than 25 million lives and dramatically improved health outcomes in more than 55 partner countries.” He voted for PEPFAR when he was in the Senate. On Tuesday, he said, “20 years ago, under the leadership of President Bush and countless advocates and champions, we undertook a bipartisan effort through PEPFAR to transform the global fight against HIV/AIDS. It’s been a huge success. I believe we can do the same with cancer. Let’s end cancer as we know it and cure some cancers once and for all.”

Transphobic response

Sanders’ hate-filled response to Biden’s State of the Union speech will do little, if anything, to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal ahead of the 2024 presidential race. It was weird that she didn’t mention Trump by name, simply referring to him as “the president.” Trump, who declared

in November that he’s running for president next year, went full-on anti-trans in a video he posted January 31 on his social media platform. He said he would “protect children from left-wing gender insanity,” and unveiled a slate of extreme policy proposals targeting transgender identities, including a federal law that recognizes only two genders and bars transgender women from competing on women’s sports teams, as The Hill reported.

Sanders spewed misinformation as she attacked trans and nonbinary people and leaned into the culture wars. “I’m the first woman to lead my state, and he’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is,” Sanders said.

Predictably, it went downhill from there.

HRC noted that the Arkansas Senate is expected to soon send Sanders a bill to prohibit transgender students from using public school restrooms consistent with their gender identity. As the B.A.R. reported online this week, Arkansas’ legislature is also considering a bill that would classify drag shows as “adult-oriented” businesses in an effort to restrict them. We have no doubt she will sign them.

No comparison

Listening to Biden and Sanders, it’s crystal clear which political party has the backs of LGBTQ people and those living with HIV/AIDS, in addition to communities of color, which also includes us. One of Biden’s most moving moments came when he spoke about police killings of unarmed Black men as the parents of Tyre Nichols sat in the audience. “Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter will come home from walking down the street or playing in the park or just driving their car,” Biden said. “I’ve never had to have the talk with my children – Beau, Hunter, and Ashley – that so many Black and Brown families have had with their children.”

That resonated with many people of color, some of whom commented on social media that they’d never heard a president reference “the talk” in a speech like the State of the Union.

It’s just one example of Biden standing with all people in the country – and we’re glad about that. t

Creating Change makes me sick

by Emmett Patterson

On February 17, the National LGBTQ Task Force will gather thousands of activists in San Francisco for Creating Change, a national conference for queer movement building. From the growing attacks on trans people to proposed legislation erasing queer theory and Black history from education, being organized to fight for our people is essential.

being a trans man. Doing so radicalized me around health equity and disability justice. I grew into my activism every time I was denied health services or was assaulted by medical providers. That anger built as other trans men, some lovers and mentors, died around me from easily preventable illnesses, only because they were discriminatorily denied access to basic health care and insurance.

track of your COVID status.

You can find info on when to test, how to mask, and how to connect with others safely at SeeYouSafer.org.

Creating Change is a place where many of us meet up with lovers, hookups, play partners, and other people we want to be extra close to. Check out COVID-cautious sex practices at BHOCpartners.org/coronavirus.

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However, the task force is knowingly putting thousands in our community in harm’s way without any plans to prevent the spread of COVID at the conference. Officials are not requiring vaccination or masking, offering COVID testing, or planning for how to support attendees who get sick.

In its Creating Change Public Health Policy, the task force absolves all responsibility for preventing COVID and instead will rely on what the local public health authority determines is a high enough case count for masking at the local level. As of February 1, 93% of people in the U.S. live in an area of substantial or high transmission of COVID, which matters when thousands of attendees are traveling from outside of San Francisco. The Community Transmission Level in San Francisco alone is substantial and growing. COVID cases are vastly undercounted since many of those still regularly testing use athome tests and may not report positive results to health departments.

The task force refusing to offer decisive protections demonstrates that those of us who are at higher risk for COVID harms aren’t valued as movement builders and organizers. The COVID pandemic continues to disable and kill thousands a week in the U.S. and is an intersectional reality for queer people. COVID infections, deaths, and now long-COVID disproportionately impact Black people, Indigenous peoples, and people of color as well as disabled people, elders, and lower income people.

Before I became immunocompromised and vulnerable for COVID harms at the beginning of the pandemic, a decade prior, I embraced

In 2013, this rage brought me to the task force, where I worked as a Policy Institute Fellow and supported the organization’s fight for non-discrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act. In my 20s, I became part of Creating Change’s Sex Track Faculty and found myself in HIV activism. I saw how a pandemic could galvanize our people to organize while the government looked the other way.

In the past year, the U.S. govern ment has left vulnerable people in our queer movement for dead and put us all at risk of developing long-COVID. Rather than creat ing a safer gathering or extending legitimate virtual access to those of us who are staying in place as it did in 2021, the task force chooses to fall in line with our government and look the other way as this pandemic rages on.

Since the task force is ignoring the reality of COVID and has not compiled any COVID prevention information, here’s how you can care for yourself and others if attending:

Bring high quality masks (KN95s and N95s). These masks have proved to be the most protective, but any mask you can access is better than no mask. Project N95 has a free mask program (ProjectN95.org/free-masks). You can also find free masks at your local health department (tinyurl.com/FreeN95s).

If you have access to free testing, PCR test or rapid test before the conference. Consider bringing some rapid tests for you to keep

If you’re feeling unwell before the conference, stay home and reach out to a health care provider. Consider creating an emergency plan before you arrive if you develop COVID symptoms, which may include having point people to bring you food, alternative sleeping arrangements if sharing a room, and having masks to wear if you need to leave to get medical treatment.

Aside from trying to make the conference safer, make a point to emphatically call out the task force for excluding those vulnerable to COVID: It’s those of us who cannot travel during this pandemic; those of us who could meaningfully attend and organize with our fellow activists if Creating Change continued its virtual model from 2021; and those of us just trying to survive the violence of ableism, racism, and poverty at the core of this pandemic.

There are other realities where more of us could safely gather. The task force isn’t willing to protect you more than they are willing to pocket your $600 registration fee and sponsorship money, choosing to embrace a “normal” that is exclusionary and willfully negligent.

Creating Change 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the task force itself. The organization has forgotten its history and the history of the people it supposedly represents. In doing so, the task force makes me sick, and it is perfectly content to make you sick, too. t

Emmett Patterson (he/him) is a disabled, trans health activist and writer living in Washington, D.C.

Emmett Patterson

Courtesy Emmett Patterson

Lesbian CA Senator Menjivar settles into Sacramento

by Matthew S. Bajko

P roviding a video tour of her Sacramento office via Twitter in early January, lesbian state Senator Caroline Menjivar (DSan Fernando Valley) showed off the entry area and shared workspace for her staff. She also gave a glimpse of the separate room for her chief of staff.

Walking into her own private office space, Menjivar pointed out one special aspect found right behind her chair and desk.

“And I have the privilege of having a giant pillar in my office. Only certain members get that. Yay!” said Menjivar in the video posted January 4 to her official Twitter account @SenatorMenjivar.

Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter during a recent phone interview, Menjivar joked she had found a way to make the obstruction a useful object. Her warning to lobbyists who find their photo posted on it is they should turn around and walk out her office door.

“It is my pillar. People I don’t want to talk to will find their faces on there,” quipped Menjivar.

The previous occupant of Suite 6720 in the temporary state office building at 1021 O Street, Senator Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera), offered Menjivar some advice about its distinctive feature. “You will come to ignore it,” he advised her.

“If that is my only complaint, I will take it,” Menjivar told the B.A.R. when asked about her office assignment.

Her having to field meeting requests from representatives of special interests in the Capitol is just the latest turnaround for the freshman lawmaker. Two years ago she was on the other side of the door, seeking an audience with members of the Legislature to ask for their support of her candidacy for the 20th Senate District seat set to be vacated by termed out senator Bob Hertzberg

Running against the legislator’s gay son, Daniel , Menjivar had attracted little support in the Capitol ahead of last year’s June primary. She had taken her exasperation public, faulting in particular the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus for “rewarding a culture of nepotism” by endorsing her opponent without conducting a formal interview with her, as the B.A.R. had reported.

“I was frustrated, to be honest,” recalled Menjivar. “As a woman of color who is qualified, completely qualified and had done the work, I had to prove myself.”

If anyone had doubted her tenaciousness as a candidate, they were proved wrong after she broke her ankle while knocking on voters’ doors in the district. Undaunted, she bought herself a motorized scooter in order to continue her get-out-the-vote efforts in person.

“People underestimated my tenacity, my grit,” said Menjivar, 32, who is married to Jocelyn Tapia , a marriage and family therapist.

After a nail biter of a primary ballot vote count, she emerged the second-place finisher days after initially landing in third on election night. Come November, Menjivar easily defeated her opponent to become the first out LGBTQ state legislator elected from the San Fernando Valley.

She also returned out representation in the state Senate from Los Angeles County since the departure of gay senator Ricardo Lara in 2018 following his election that fall as the state’s insurance com -

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“It felt like such a beautiful way to kick off my tenure,” said Menjivar, who had been employed as a social worker.

As the East Valley representative for former Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti , Menjivar had organized the San Fernando Valley’s first ever LGBTQ+ Pride Car Parade. She had attended her first Pride in San Francisco at age 18.

Her coming out to her parents, who fled El Salvador’s civil war for the U.S., strained their relationship. Rejected for a firefighter position with the city of Los Angeles, Menjivar enlisted with the Marine Corps and served under the homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

While working as an EMT she earned her bachelor’s degree from California State University, Northridge. She went on to earn a Master of Social Welfare from UCLA while working in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Gender Equity Office as a David Bohnett Fellow. Menjivar would later serve as a field deputy in the office of former Los Angeles Councilwoman Nury Martinez , who resigned last fall after a recording of her making racist remarks during a meeting at a union office was leaked.

“It broke my heart,” said Menjivar, who learned about the audio recording while canvassing for votes with members of labor unions. “When they say never meet your heroes, it is true, right?

I was very quick to denounce it.”

She also called on the other council members on the tape, including former state legislator Kevin de León , to resign. It became a flashpoint in Menjivar’s campaign, with those opposed to her candidacy trying to use her ties to Martinez against her. Hit pieces landed in voters’ mailboxes claiming that Menjivar was just like the council member and asking, “Why do you want her?”

“It had additional repercussions,” she told the B.A.R. “We are trying to increase engagement in minority communities, and that really hindered that.”

As for Karen Bass becoming the first female Black mayor of Los Angeles, Menjivar said she has already met with the mayor’s team and has been impressed by “the energy she is bringing” to City Hall and prioritizing homelessness during her first year in office.

“I want to support her at the

state level,” said Menjivar.

As the Political Notebook previously reported, Menjivar will be able to do so as chair this year of the Senate’s Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services. She is also a member of six other committees, including ones focused on health, human services, and veterans.

The workload doesn’t faze her, said Menjivar, as she is used to putting in long hours. As a college student she would leave her graveyard shift as an EMT at 6 a.m. and two hours later be back in the classroom.

“Having a heavy plate is not new to me,” said Menjivar.

She enjoys meeting with her legislative colleagues and stakeholders. The hardest part has been trying to remember the names of the people she meets, noted Menjivar.

“It’s been so amazing. I don’t think I have stopped smiling,” she told the B.A.R. about serving in the Legislature. “To have the honor and privilege to be at the table to address these issues is not something little Caroline ever thought she would do. So I am completely honored. It is long days, but they don’t feel like long days.”

Menjivar is one of 12 members in the LGBTQ caucus, the highest in its history and the first to represent 10% of its legislative body. She already has endorsed several out non-incumbent candidates running in 2024 and is looking forward to the day when there are legislators representative of the community’s full acronym.

“You know, it feels so wonderful to be part of this,” said Menjivar, adding that, “We need to make sure we are creating a pipeline for our transgender family to become legislators as well. This isn’t the ceiling for us, that we have reached 10% and are done.” 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. This week’s column reported on a push to collect LGBTQ data on the country’s scientific workforce.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

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

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Menjivar, center, took her oath of office in December.

Being dragged into a culture war

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

D ecades before the upper floors of a three-story building at the corner of Broadway and Kearny in San Francisco became a co-working office space, it was home to a nightclub called Finocchio’s. Unique among its North Beach contemporaries, the club featured “female impersonation” acts.

Indeed, growing out of its seedy speakeasy past, the club became known for its shows featuring gay and straight men performing as women. While in the parlance of the time, the club hosted what it called female impersonators, though we’d consider it more a progenitor of the drag of today.

Finocchio’s, which closed in 1999, was quite popular for decades, with celebrities ranging from Frank Sinatra to Bette Midler counted among its clientele. It was also a huge hit with the tourist crowd that visited the city including, I note, a young couple who honeymooned in the city in 1960. That would be my mom and dad.

However popular the show and its performers were, the business did have one rule I find especially noteworthy, both then and today. Even though the club made its name presenting “female impersonator” shows, every performer was required to enter and exit the club as a man.

Indeed, we served not for our-

Christine Smith

selves, but at the pleasure of a non-trans, non-gay club owner, to a predominately non-gay, nontrans audience. Deviating from that would get you removed from the club.

Now pardon me: I want to deviate for a moment, and address an elephant in this room.

In the decades between Finocchio’s heyday and now, drag performance and trans identity have, shall we say, not been the closest of friends. Many in drag circles have looked down on trans identities, and many in trans circles have looked askance at drag.

I’m of the opinion that much of the dictates expressed by both groups may be born out of fear.

Those in drag may not want to be associated with transness, and will insist that they are merely portraying a character, perform -

ing, and that this has little to do with identity.

Meanwhile, many trans people will say something very similar, noting that being trans is an innate part of their identity, and should not be equated with simply wearing a costume for some cheap laughs.

Both have points, but if you think that presenting a drag persona is going to cause others to think you are trans, or you think that your trans self is going to be delegitimized by others equating it with drag, and you lash out as a result, that is a fear reaction – and in these days, we have plenty to fear without fighting each other over some phobias.

Those who stand against us, both drag and trans, really don’t care about the distinctions, and if they can regulate us both out of existence while we continue to fight among ourselves, that’s just a bonus in their eyes.

At this time, there are anti-drag bills coursing through statehouses across the country. (See this week’s online LGBTQ Agenda column for more on that.) Many of these seek to list venues with drag shows as “sexually oriented businesses,” with many such bills defining drag as broadly as possible, such as declaring it encompasses anyone who dances, sings, or monologues

while wearing attire associated with a gender different than they were assigned at birth.

Yes, this is so broad, that many suspect it would move many of Shakespeare’s plays to be declared adult, as well as potentially relegate any male performer in eyeliner or tights to be declared “adult entertainment.”

Not that they’re likely to use such laws in those cases: we know exactly who they’d be aiming this at.

For the last 14 years, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has graced the small screen, growing the pop culture popularity of drag. Indeed, drag moved from the bars to MTV, becoming big business for successful contestants as well as for the show’s titular star, RuPaul Charles.

I would contend that much like transgender people reached our pop culture “tipping point” in 2014, as declared by Time magazine , followed by the culture war backlash of today – and the torrent of anti-trans legislation – drag also reached its own tipping point where it crossed over from a purely “in community” activity to an Emmy-award winning medium that often lands its stars on Broadway.

As the Republican Party and its de facto leader, former President Donald Trump, flail about to find grievances to appeal to their

rabidly bigoted base, both trans rights and drag performance have been found in the crosshairs.

At Finocchio’s, we were welcomed onto the stage and allowed to perform, provided we were pretty, had a good singing voice and, just as important, were still willing to pack up our finery and assimilate at the end of the night. Again, we served at the owner’s pleasure, not our own.

Likewise, it was fine if drag performers stuck to the clubs and bars – but becoming a fixture of American pop culture was a road too far, and now the right wants to make sure we know our place. The fight – sometimes very literally –over drag queen storytime and the like illustrate this perfectly. The conservatives don’t want anyone to think there is anything aspirational about drag, or transness, and seek to quash both by any means possible.

Now is a time for our communities to stand up, together, and let it be known that, drag or trans, we will be exactly who we are, and no one else is going to legislate us out of existence. We need to learn to work together, and set aside our fears and differences, for the betterment of all. t

Gwen Smith later became a friend of one of the performers who entertained her parents. You’ll find her at gwensmith.com

Walking tour will explore site of North Beach queer bars

by Marijke Rowland

A n upcoming guided tour of North Beach will shed light on the neighborhood’s sometimes forgotten role in San Francisco’s LGBTQ history.

The San Francisco Historical Society’s latest walking tour, “Unspeakable Vice,” takes participants back in time to the old Barbary Coast era to see where the city’s first LGBTQ bars once stood. Before the city’s Castro neighborhood became known as an international beacon for queer activism, North Beach was home to an active LGBTQ community. Tours will take place February 18 and March 25.

The program was developed by gay San Francisco designer Shawn Sprockett, who leads the tour through more than a dozen former LGBTQ bars in what experts consider the city’s original “gayborhood.”

Sprockett began researching North Beach’s LGBTQ history after moving to the neighborhood from the Castro following a breakup a few years ago. He said he was heartened to learn his new home has its own rich queer history. In 2018, he created the “Queer North

Beach (Gay SF Before the Castro)” walking tour.

“I thought I was leaving behind the gayborhood and all connection to the community,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I was surprised to learn there was a lot of gay history and connection in North Beach.”

Sprockett said he continued his research at the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society Museum and Archives and was aided by Nan Alamilla Boyd’s 2005 book “Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965” (University of California Press).

The tour covers a period in the city from roughly the 1840s to 1965, predating the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement and the Stonewall riots, which took place in 1969, as well as the Compton’s Cafeteria riots that took place in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood in 1966.

The 90-minute walk includes a stop at what was once the Black Cat Cafe on Montgomery Street, considered one of the first gay bars in California. As a hangout for artists, bohemians, and LGBTQ people, the bar was often raided by police. But in 1951 its straight owner Sol Stoumen scored one of

the first legal wins for gay rights when the state supreme court ruled it wasn’t illegal to serve homosexual patrons.

As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last week on the late San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, the legal victory was shortlived as it led to the formation of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which then began raids on gay and lesbian bars, often with the help of local police.

Among the notable LGBTQ historical figures mentioned on the tour includes José Julio Sarria, a well-known Latino veteran and drag performer in San Francisco who founded the Imperial Court System, a charitable organization that continues today. Sarria, who died in 2013 at the age of 90, was also the first out gay candidate for public office in the United States. He ran unsuccessfully for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961. There is currently an effort underway to see Sarria inducted into the California Hall of Fame, as the B.A.R. has reported. Additionally, there is a campaign to have Sarria’s image included on a U.S. postage stamp as one of several drag icons along with the late Marsha P. Johnson and the late Sylvia Rivera.

Sarria was honored in December with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, as the B.A.R. noted.

“I think Harvey Milk is an amazing figure in gay rights history, but he is not the beginning.

It is important to see there were people, and a lot of people of color, who came before him,” Sprockett said, referring to the first gay elected official in California who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for 11 months until his assassination in November 1978. “When you see the life of José Sarria or straight allies or lesbian bar owners, their stories were hard fought battles, and for them to disappear from history would be a tragedy.”

The tour will begin at the San

The

Francisco Historical Society Museum, at 608 Commercial Street, and end with a complimentary drink at Maggy McGary’s pub, at 1353 Grant Avenue, which was once an “infamous lesbian hookup spot,” according to Sprockett. The tour, which first started last fall, will run from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. February 18 and March 25. Tour tickets are $30 ($10 for current SFHS members) and participants must register at least a day

in advance. Tours are limited to 15 people and open to all ages, but only those age 21 and over can enter the final stop for a drink.

For more information contact the San Francisco Historical Society Museum at 415-537-1105 or visit https://www.sfhistory.org/

The San Francisco Historical Society Museum is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. t

<< LGBTQ task force

“Pose” star and activist Angelica Ross and X Gonzalez, who survived the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida and is a gun violence prevention activist.

Ross, a trans woman, is a Task Force Policy Institute fellow alumna. Best known for her role as Candy in FX’s “Pose,” she is accomplished on the screen as well as behind the scenes as an award-winning producer and actress. She is also president and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises , a career training organization for transgender people.

Gonzalez received the task force’s Changemaker Award in October 2022. The annual award is given to an individual or group that embodies the task force’s vision where LGBTQ people are free to be themselves, work toward removing barriers, and is committed to transforming society for future generations, according to a news release from the organization.

Recent attacks from drag story hour events to numerous proposed anti-LGBTQ bills to targeted violence against the queer community are some of the key issues that will be addressed at Creating Change this month, organizers said.

Better together

“What we know is that the LGBTQ community is stronger and strongest when we are back ... in community,” said task force Executive Director Kierra Johnson.

Johnson stepped into the role to lead the organization after longtime executive director Rea Carey stepped down in early 2021. This will be the first time Johnson will address Creating Change attendees in person as the organization’s leader and give its State of the Movement address.

The task force has a budget of about $10.4 million, according to its 2020 IRS Form 990. Johnson, a 46-year-old bisexual Black woman hired as deputy director of the organization in 2018, was unanimously selected by the board of directors to lead the task force and started in the position February 1, 2021. Carey earned about $297,000 in salary and benefits as executive director; while Johnson earned about $182,000 in salary and benefits as deputy director, according to the 2020 IRS form, the latest available.

The B.A.R. noted that since 2020, five of the United States’ major LGBTQ organizations are now led by queer Black women, including the task force.

From page 1

Medical examiner’s report

The medical examiner’s report lists the cause of Jaxon Sales’ death as acute mixed drug intoxication, including gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The manner of death is listed as an accident.

However, Jaxon Sales’ family contends that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not do its due diligence in investigating the death.

According to the Sales family, an official with the medical examiner’s office told them “no investigation is needed as ‘the gay community uses GHB,’” a statement they said is discriminatory, and which was previously reported by the B.A.R.

When reached by the B.A.R. last year, a spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office neither confirmed nor denied the GHB statement was made to Jaxon Sales’ parents but said that an individual’s sexual orientation does not influence their medical determination.

While GHB is used recreationally by some gay men, it has also been linked to date-rape and murder.

David Serrano Sewell, a straight ally who is executive director of the medi-

“We are on the precipice of a new movement,” Johnson said.

(The others are Kelley Robinson at HRC, Imani Rupert-Gordon at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Stacey Stevenson at Family Equality, and Melanie Willingham-Jaggers at GLSEN.)

Giving voice

One of the hallmarks of Creating Change has been the diversity of its attendees and giving voice to every community and identity within the queer rainbow.

“I fell in love with it because I found a space where I could be my whole authentic self as a queer person of color,” said Jeremy Rye, whose first Creating Change was in 2002. “I found those who are like me … like-minded individuals who straddle many different roles and who care passionately about social justice and making change for queer and trans communities and the other communities that we belong to. That’s what keeps me coming back.”

The 43-year-old San Francisco gay man who joined the task force’s board in 2020 is proud Creating Change is happening in the city. He believes “the rich legacy that San Francisco offers to our communities from the Compton riots to Harvey Milk to the first samesex marriages being performed here [in] 2004,” will provide inspiration to attendees, he said.

Matt Foreman, a gay man who is a former executive director of the task force, said the grassroots conference is important to the LGBTQ community.

“Creating Change has been, I think, an essential part of [a] diverse movement coming together on a regular

cal examiner’s office, stood by the agency’s findings.

“In [the] case of Mr. Sales, the OCME conducted a full forensic investigation, including complete autopsy and post-mortem toxicology testing,” he stated. The chief medical examiner carefully reviewed these records and the investigative file and again confirmed the certification of cause of death as acute mixed drug toxicity; there was no evidence of life-threatening traumatic injuries or natural disease.

“As to the serious allegation that OCME staff were biased against Mr. Sales because of his sexual orientation and that it impacted the OCME’s approach to or findings in the case, OCME does not tolerate discrimination of any kind in our office or in our work,” Serrano Sewell continued. “A decedent’s sexual orientation, race, religion, gender identity, or other factors do not influence our medical death investigations, findings, or conclusions.”

Glenn D. Magpantay, an attorney for Jaxon Sales’ parents, made the request on their behalf pursuant to a little-known provision of California law known as an inquest.

According to the release, “The parents demanded that the inquest must be without prejudicial LGBTQ bias to

basis to hear about what’s going on, to plan for the future, to learn about successful strategies,” said Foreman, who led the organization from 2003-2008. “It really has been a homecoming for people that work in the movement for a very long time. It’s been a really great introduction to … young people to meet their peers across the country.”

Foreman said Creating Change provides the space for LGBTQ activists to “understand new challenges on the electoral front, on the legislative front, [and] violence against our people.”

Since stepping down in 2008, Foreman has funded the movement as the San Francisco-based Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund’s senior program director of LGBTQ equality. However, the Haas fund’s LGBTQ grants will end this year, as the B.A.R. reported in 2022.

50 for the next 50 years

Eric Marcus, founder and host of the Making Gay History podcast, will kick off Creating Change’s opening plenary.

Creating Change was founded in 1988 after the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. According to a conference timeline, in 1990, Creating Change brought together 700 LGBTQ activists from across the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C. That conference resulted in activists launching the “It’s Time Minnesota” campaign to pass the country’s first gender identity-inclusive non-discrimination law in 1993.

Since then, Creating Change attendees have been on the ground to push for inclusion of LGBTQ people

determine whether Jaxon’s ‘death was caused by the criminal act of another’ as required by the inquest law.”

Magpantay did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the release, further bolstering the parents’ petition is the fact that the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was not accredited and “conducted several faulty investigations during the time in which it considered Jaxon’s death.”

According to a December 15, 2022 news release from City Administrator Carmen Chu’s office, the medical examiner’s office achieved full accreditation from the National Association of Medical Examiners in December 2022. Its accreditation had lapsed in 2017, the release stated. It received provisional accreditation in 2021, which was good for a year.

The Sales family’s petition for the inquest states, “The lack of a proper investigation resulted in the inability to determine whether Jaxon’s death was caused by a criminal act of the white man who may have lured Jaxon to his apartment.” Because the OCME attributed Jaxon Sales’ death to an accident, the police could not conduct a criminal investigation into his death, over nearly three years ago. Absent a conclusive investigation, the district

in the U.S. census and transgender rights, among many other issues affecting the queer community.

“Creating Change has always been about continuing to celebrate who we are unapologetically,” said Johnson, “but it is also about reinvigorating ourselves for the fight and reminding ourselves that we’re not alone.

“That we are moving this country, we are moving our communities, we are moving policy towards equity and liberation and we’re doing that together,” she continued.

The task force will honor the late Urvashi Vaid, a previous executive director of the organization (1989-1992). ALOK, Vaid’s gender-nonconforming relative and a performance artist and activist, will help honor Vaid, who died from recurring cancer in May 2022, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Vaid co-founded Creating Change with Sue Hyde, a longtime LGBTQ activist with the task force, during her tenure at the helm of the organization.

“We’ll have an opportunity to just mourn together, which we haven’t had a chance to do in many years, and so it will feel good to be in community with each other in that way,” said Johnson about the loss of Vaid and many other activists and community members during COVID.

Creating Change is one of the task force’s hallmarks. The conference brings together activists and thought leaders from academia, business, and government to discuss issues, learn, and strategize.

More than 150 workshops and caucuses, including about 22 daylong institutes February 17-18, are planned

attorney has been unable to prosecute those responsible for Jaxon Sales’ death, the release stated.

Angie Aquino-Sales, Jaxon Sales’ mother, stated in the release, “We have been pleading with San Francisco officials to know the truth behind the death of our son and to hold those responsible for his death accountable so that justice is served for the irreplaceable loss of Jaxon.”

The release went on to draw a parallel to the case of Ed Buck, a gay West Hollywood businessman and political donor who was convicted in the drug deaths of two Black men. Buck was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison last year.

“Jaxon’s death is a San Francisco Asian version of the Ed Buck case, where a white gay man was convicted of drugging, sexually assaulting, and killing young gay Black men,” the release stated. “The case has generated media attention with an article in BuzzFeed and a Change.org petition with 147,024 signers.”

Magpantay stated in the release, “The deaths of LGBTQ people of color are too often under-investigated or ignored.

Chiu stated, “Jaxon’s death is a horrible tragedy, and I want to express my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. We will be reaching out to

to address issues such as gun violence prevention; climate change; housing justice; economic justice; faith; race; intersectionality; education; families; digital strategy; and more. Plenaries will be streamed for those who are unable to attend Creating Change in person.

“Regardless of what you’re into, we’ve got something for you,” said Johnson.

Gonzalez will speak about gun violence. The 23-year-old activist will be joined by Club Q owners Matthew Haynes and Michael Anderson, and Becky George, senior adviser for external engagement and programs at Everytown for Gun Safety .

Club Q has been closed since the November 20, 2022 shooting outside the LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs. The lone gunman, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, faces 309 charges, including first-degree murder for killing five people and injuring nearly 20. Four new felonies – attempted murder and two hate crime charges – were added in January, reported CNN.

“LGBTQ people are nine times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent hate crimes,” according to a report that analyzed hate crimes from 2017-2019 released in December by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think-tank at UCLA School of Law.

On a lighter note, attendees will also play trivia with “Jeopardy!” champ Amy Schneider, a trans woman who lives in Oakland, and party and socialize.

Ross will close the conference with fellow “Pose” cast member and activist Dyllón Burnside, speaking about “the future of the movements in our community,” said Johnson, who will join in the conversation.

Creating Change organizers are being “mindful of both COVID and security,” said Cathy Renna, communications director for the task force.

President Joe Biden’s administration announced January 30 it planned to end the national public health emergency for COVID in May. California will end its health state of emergency February 28, Governor Gavin Newsom announced last October.

Online registration for Creating Change ends February 13. On-site registrations open February 16 at 4 p.m.at the Hilton Union Square, 333 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco. Conference tickets are $600. Some financial assistance is available, according to the website.

Volunteers are still needed. Sign up to volunteer at https://bit. ly/40yxBVd.t

our client departments on this matter.”

The city attorney’s office represents city departments.

Bonta’s press office stated, “We’re unable to provide legal advice or analysis. Local authorities would be best positioned to comment on the matter at this point in time.”

The San Francisco DA’s office did not respond to requests for comment for this report as of press time.

The GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, or GAPA, joined the Sales family in holding a vigil outside San Francisco City Hall on February 26, 2022, which was attended by more than 80 people, as the B.A.R. previously reported. At the time of the vigil, Scott said he would like to meet with the Sales family, and the meeting was being facilitated by the city’s human rights commission, but the Sales family did not say whether the meeting had ever happened. Scott confirmed to the B.A.R. last month that he did have the chance to meet with them. GAPA did not respond to a request for comment for this report.

The Sales family’s release noted that “hundreds of LGBTQ activists” from across the nation will be in San Francisco beginning late next week for the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Creating Change conference. t

Former National LGBTQ Task Force executive director Kerry Lobel led a protest during Creating Change in Oakland, following an anti-trans attack, in 1999.

Courtesy National LGBTQ Task Force

“This city is getting rough,” he added.

Maxie said that “the male was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Officers provided the male with a follow up form for this open investigation.”

Gary Virginia, a longtime gay activist and friend of Miles, set up the GoFundMe for him.

The fundraiser has raised $8,000 out of a $10,000 goal as of press time.

Virginia found out from the social media post that Miles had been hurt.

From page 2

“The SFMTA Castro Muni Station elevator plans have been reviewed and approved. The permit is pending insurance certificate from SFMTA, which our real estate team is working with them to finalize prior to issuing of BART permit for the construction,” wrote Trost in an emailed reply.

Years of debate

After years of debate and pressure from neighborhood leaders and transit advocates, SFMTA in 2020 had agreed to include four stops in the new elevator on the other side of the Castro station. They will be located on the platform level for eastbound trains, the concourse level with ticket machines, a walkway accessed via the station’s entrance plaza off Castro Street, and via a

Expanded landmark

From page 2

Deep love for theater

Perry, the APE spokesperson, told the B.A.R., “Everyone here today shares a deep love and respect for the Castro Theatre and its irreplaceable place in

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-557674

In the matter of the application of BRETT MARTINEZ-RASSO, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner BRETT MARTINEZ-RASSO is requesting that the name BRETT MARTINEZ-RASSO be changed to BRETT RASSO. 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 FEBRUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-557677

In the matter of the application of SARA RANJBARVAZIRI, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner SARA RANJBARVAZIRI is requesting that the name SARA RANJBARVAZIRI be changed to SARA VAZIRI. 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 FEBRUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399240

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DANY ROO’S KITTY CARE, 935 SUTTER ST #26, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANY PETELLE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/04/23. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399249

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FILLMORE SANDWICH SHOP/CATERING, 2121 GEARY #108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TREVOR GREEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399179

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MASSAGE BY TIDA, 1615 POLK ST, 2ND FL, RM 9-10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIDARUT TOJAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/23. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399221

The following person(s) is/are doing business as YAMA SUSHI RESTAURANT, 850 HOLLOWAY AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by

Since Powerhouse is between Ninth and 10th streets, and Miles lives on Sixth Street, Virginia said Miles was probably on his way home.

Virginia has been communicating with Miles via text since “I didn’t want him to feel pressure to answer the phone or talk.”

“He lives on a tight budget,” Virginia told the B.A.R. “He’d had stents put in, a neck fracture, a heart attack, and lost a front tooth. I thought ‘that’s going to be a long time of recovery for him.’”

Virginia said that he’s known Miles for about two decades.

“We’ve been friends through the Castro and leather communities,” Vir-

short bridge to Market Street where several bus lines make stops.

It is purposefully being made out of glass so it is easy to see inside the elevator when it is being used, and passengers can observe what is happening outside. It will also provide more light for Harvey Milk Plaza, the public parklet that serves as an entryway for the Muni station that can be rather dark at night in certain areas of it.

“The idea of the design is we didn’t want this just to be an elevator. It serves the functions of an elevator, but we also wanted it to be a destination, a landmark at this corner of Castro and Market streets,” said Jane Chan, an architect with San Francisco Public Works who is the project manager. “We are envisioning a lantern, if you will, at that corner.”

Public Works Commissioner Paul Woolford, a gay man who previously had voted on the design

the soul of the LGBTQ communities.

“We all want it to survive and thrive,” Perry continued. “Another Planet’s revised seating plan guarantees a raked floor for film events. This new revised seating arrangement, which would be done at considerable additional cost, shows APE’s deep

a corporation, and is signed X JIA GROUP, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/11/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399181

The following person(s) is/are doing business as INCREDIMEDS, 2121 NEWCOMB AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BAY AREA GREEN CROSS DISPENSARY INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399254

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KINMON GAKUEN, 2031 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GOLDEN GATE INSTITUTE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/16/1924. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/2023.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399180

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AUSTIN HILLS ARBORISTS, 2546 JACKSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AUSTIN ERIK HILLS PHOTOGRAPHY (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/23. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399150

The following person(s) is/are doing business as INTERSTATE COMMERCIAL LOGISTICS, 537 JONES ST #3333, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BEAUTIFUL SKIN, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399234

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MUUKATA6395, 4217 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 6395 LUCK EATERY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/12/23. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/12/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399253

The following person(s) is/are doing business as

ginia said. “I don’t really know when he moved here.”

The two are involved in Krewe de Kinque, a Mardi Gras-themed club. Miles was King XIV of the club (there’ve been 20 kings thus far, one per year).

Virginia said Miles needs about $5,000 for a tooth implant.

Virginia said he would text Miles to ask if the latter would be interested in speaking with the B.A.R.; Miles was also messaged directly by the B.A.R. via Instagram, but has not responded as of press time.

“I feel there could be some trauma he’s not realizing from the attack,” Virginia said.

of the elevator when he served on the city’s arts commission, said the project would go a long way toward improving access to the subway station for people with mobility issues. Once complete, the elevator should become a new defining feature for the Castro neighborhood, he added.

“The design of it is intended to be a beacon of light,” noted Woolford, a licensed architect.

The current elevator used to access the Castro Muni Station is across the street near Pink Triangle Park where 17th Street meets Market Street, which can be hard to access for wheelchair users and others with mobility issues. The elevator, which services the Castro station’s platform for westbound trains, was upgraded last year.

It was done as part of the Muni Elevator Safety Modernization Project that is upgrading a dozen elevators at various subway stations

commitment to film at the Castro and that APE has heard and listened carefully to input. This recent update to APE’s plans has led in rapid succession to support by Frameline International LGBTQ Film Festival, the Silent Film Festival, the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Francisco, the Castro Organ

APPTASTIC PRO, 2671 38TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BAZ SOCIAL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/23. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE 594641

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BAY AREA REAL ESTATE COMPANY, 3832 MARKET ST, OAKLAND, CA 94608. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CLAUDIUS JOHNSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/18. The statement was filed with the County of Alameda, CA on 01/10/23.

JAN 19, 26, FEB 02, 09, 2023

SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL) NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO): MARVELL SEMICONDUCTOR, INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, CHING LIN WANG, DBA BEST BUY MARKET SUPPLY AND DOES 1-50, INCLUSIVE. YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: (LO ESTA DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE): AMERICA FRESH, INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION

CASE NUMBER: NUMERO DEL CASO: 22CV00360

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courlinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www. lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courlinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

!AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 dias, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la informacion a continuacion.

Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO despues de que le entreguen esta citacion y papeles legales para presenter una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefonica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es

Virginia said there’s no indication he has heard yet from Miles that this was an attack motivated by anti-gay animus.

San Francisco Pride President Nguyen Pham, a gay man, condemned “this horrific attack against a member of our community.”

“While we might not know the motive for the attack, we cannot ignore the growing nationwide trend of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, from the streets to the statehouses,” Pham wrote in an email. “We remain in solidarity with Barry, as well as other victims of anti-LGBTQ+ hate, and we will hold him in our

with “modern, state-of-the-art technology,” according to the SFMTA. When it is out of service, there is no way to access the station without using stairs or an escalator.

“The new elevator adds multiple points of access,” said Woolford.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, the elevator project includes several upgrades to Harvey Milk Plaza, named in honor of the city’s first gay supervisor who represented and lived in the Castro. Several of the existing lighting fixtures will be replaced, plus the red paver bricks will be removed to install sparkle grain integral color concrete that matches the paving installed when the sidewalks along Castro Street were widened.

The elevator project will also result in a wider segment of sidewalk fronting Market Street headed toward Collingwood Street so it is usable for people in wheelchairs.

Devotees Association, and numerous disability advocates.”

Terry Beswick, a gay man on the Castro Merchants Association board, called APE’s plans an example of “hetero-normative gentrification.”

“The neighboring LGBTQ bars and restaurants will continue to lose busi-

posible que haya un formulario que usted pueda usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y mas informacion en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de /leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentacion, pida al secretario de la corte que le de un formulario de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso par incumplimiento y la corte le podra quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin mas advertencia. Hay otros requisitos legates. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remision a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org}, en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov) o poniendose en contacto con la corle o el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperacion de $10,000 o mas de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo o una concesion de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corle pueda desechar el caso.

The name and address of the court is:

(El nombre y direccion de la corte es): Superior Court of Santa Cruz, 701 Ocean Street, Room 110 Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiffs attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

(El nombre, la direccion y el numero de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado,es): DAVID J. TERRAZAS (SB#256132), BRERETON, MOHAMED & TERRAZAS LLP, 1362 PACIFIC AVE. SUITE 221, SANTA CRUZ, CA 95060; (831) 429-6391

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2023

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

CNC-23-557689

In the matter of the application of AZUCENA

LEMUS MARTINEZ, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner AZUCENA LEMUS MARTINEZ is requesting that the name AZUCENA LEMUS MARTINEZ AKA AZUCENA LEMUS AKA AZUCENA MARTINEZ be changed to AZUCENA HUGEL. 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 7th of MARCH 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399261

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DAWSON’S WIG’S, 461 CASTRO ST #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JASON EPPS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/17/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/2023.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2023

hearts toward his speedy recovery.” Powerhouse, a leather and cruise bar, is an anchor of the LGBTQ community in the SOMA neighborhood. It’s located on Folsom Street, once dubbed the “Miracle Mile” for its string of queer establishments. Powerhouse opened under its present ownership in 1997 after a variety of bars had done business in the space. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and start the message with SFPD.

To donate to the GoFundMe, go to https://bit.ly/3lkyHnf.t

New plantings, bench seating, and interpretative signage about Milk will also be installed in the plaza’s below-grade area adjacent to the subway concourse level.

City officials had pushed back their initial timeline for the elevator project in order to allow for community discussions to take place on a proposal to completely redo Harvey Milk Plaza.

It is a separate project being overseen by the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza that has also faced delays, and gone through multiple architects and design concepts.

Initially estimated to cost $10 million, an exact price tag and funding source for the plaza project remains unknown. Its proponents now expect the plaza renovation to be “shovel ready” this summer, and are seeking private donors and other fiscal sources to pay for it.t

ness,” Beswick said, alleging that the planned inclusion of libations at the theater is because APE fears heterosexual audiences attracted to music shows won’t visit the Castro’s LGBTQ bars. “That, my dear commissioners, is what gentrification looks like.” t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399264

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CLK BUILDERS, 238 RICHLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHINSOO KIM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/17/2023.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/2023.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399295

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by Jim Gladstone

Local Broadway buffs who couldn’t make it to the New York for the pandemicstraddling revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” can play a bit of catch up over the next few weeks.

Beginning with Bobby Conte, who brings his solo concert, “Along the Way,” A.C.T.’s Strand Theater this Friday, four members of the acclaimed production’s Tony-winning cast will be swinging through the Bay Area with their own solo shows this month.

Patti LuPone also performs this Friday at Stanford; Jennifer Simard, next weekend at Feinstein’s at the Nikko; and Clayborne Elder, Feb. 22, also at Feinstein’s. (Matt Doyle, the Marin native who won a supporting actor Tony for “Company” brought his cabaret act to town last September.)

Like Doyle, Conte has Bay Area roots, having spent the first eight years of his life in Palo Alto and then moved with his single mother to Noe Valley and later Potrero Hill. He attended the progressive Urban School in the Haight and studied theater at the A.C.T. Young Conservatory.

“My voice teacher lived in the Castro,” recalled Conte, in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I started singing in a choir when I was three and did lots of community and children’s theater.”

Bobby Conte

Broadway star comes home

Life in Emerald City

At age eight, Conte played a member of the Lollipop Guild in “The Wizard of Oz.” By 18, he had his first major professional role in a Boxcar Theatre production of “Equus,” for which he spent 15 minutes of each night’s performance in the nude.

“Living in San Francisco and being involved in theater was a wild way to grow up,” said Conte, now 30. “You’re constantly surrounded by people who are not like you. It’s a very eclectic scene. I

Mark Morris Dance

by Philip Mayard

This month, Cal Performances welcomes back longtime artistic partner, Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), for the Bay Area premiere of Morris’ latest creation, “The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach.” Having performed at Zellerbach Hall annually for more than 30 years, Berkeley has become the New York-based company’s home away from home.

Among MMDG’s loyal Bay Area fan base, there is one Berkeley native who has come to know and love the company perhaps more than anyone. Sam Black grew up ten minutes from Zellerbach and attended performances of MMDG as a child. Black, who is gay, ultimately ended up dancing with the company for 14 years and now serves as the Company Director.

In a recent conversation with the Bay Area Reporter, Black said, “Growing up in Berkeley, I got to see Mark Morris and Alvin Ailey every year. I saw shows at Berkeley Rep and Contra Costa Civic Theater in El Cerrito. The arts were a huge part of my life growing up.”

Since his early childhood, Black has gravitated towards the spotlight. “I loved being a ham,” he said with a chuckle. “I was always the ‘emcee’ at family dinner parties, doing comedy, singing and dancing.” His parents enrolled him in classes at Katie’s

think that really helped me develop the skills of empathy that I’ve been able to tap as an actor.”

The theater scene also provided Conte some balance to what he describes as a challenging home life, lacking a father figure.

“The best part of working in the theater for me is building a family unit with each production,” said Conte. “That family atmosphere and being around people who think you’re good at what you do helps you feel very free and present and in a flow state.”

Love’

‘The Look of Love’

Dance Studio in El Cerrito, where he trained in jazz and tap dance through high school.

Black inherently understood how fortunate he was to have his family’s support, as well as the advantages of growing up in progressive Berkeley.

“My parents were so supportive of everything I did,” he said. “But I played baseball for a couple of years too, mostly to appease my dad. I was sort of self-conscious about telling people I was a dancer. I was aware that it wasn’t something most boys did, but I was never bullied for it.”

Backstage pass

As a teenager, Black also got a firsthand taste of the life of a professional dancer.

“When I was in high school, through a family friend, I knew the hair and makeup supervisor for Mark Morris. Each year when they came to Berkeley, I got to go backstage, sit by her and be her assistant, and I got to take class with the company. I was so nervous, being around all of these adults who I had watched for years. Mark would teach class, and he wouldn’t edit himself just because there was a 14-year-old there. That in and of itself was an education! I remember trying to be a wallflower and just take it all in. I knew this was something I couldn’t take for granted.”

After high school, Black completed his B.F.A. in dance at SUNY-Purchase, during which time he had the opportunity to understudy a role for MMDG and ended up performing with the company.

“It was really serendipitous,” he said. “After I graduated and the company needed someone, they already knew me and asked me to join. I was so lucky.”

Black danced with MMDG from 2005-2019, performing and originating numerous roles in Morris’ repertoire. Upon his retirement, Morris appointed him to be Rehearsal Director, and in 2021 he was promoted to the position of Company Director.

‘Bronx’ on Broadway

After attending the University of Michigan’s acclaimed musical theatre program, Conte made his way to New York where, following work in several regional productions, he won the lead role of Calogero in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film “A Bronx Tale,” Chazz Palminteri’s 1960s saga of race and romance.

The show placed Conte amidst a remarkable

See page 13 >>

When asked about the rewards and challenges of working with one of the icons of the dance world, Black said, “Mark talks a lot about his work embodying the full range of human emotions, and he operates in that full spectrum of feelings and emotions. He can be incredibly dry, sarcastic, and witty one second, then he’ll turn around and say something so beautiful and profound.”

Now that Black is working even closer with Morris as a member of his artistic team, he said he is more cognizant of the demands a MMDG dancer must meet.

What the World Needs Now

This past October, MMDG premiered Morris’ latest work, “The Look of Love,” set to the music of Burt Bacharach, and featuring costumes by Morris’ longtime collaborator, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. Black is confident that Bay Area audiences are going to love it.

“Working behind the scenes,” he said, “it’s always such a mystery as dances come together. Being in the room with an audience seeing it for the first time, you really have no idea what’s going to happen. But it’s been getting incredible reviews and great audience responses every time. These songs are so well known, even if you think you don’t know them. Like all of Mark’s work, it has the full range of emotions. This is going to sound so cheesy, but I really believe what the world needs now is love, and that song opens the show. It’s so pure, earnest and just joyous. People are responding to the sheer beauty of the piece.”t Mark Morris Dance Group, Feb. 17-19, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. $36-$150. www.calperformances.org

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

The Mark Morris Dance Group performing ‘The Look of

Company director and Berkeley native Sam Black returns to his roots

Group’s

Skye Schmidt

Bobby Conte at a Cleveland Playhouse concert

Mark Morris Dance Group’s Company Director Sam Black Sam Black performing at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in 2014

Jamie Kraus

‘Knock at the Cabin’

by Gregg Shapiro

If you’ve seen episode three of HBO Max’s “The Last of Us,” then you’ve already witnessed the most perfect depiction of queer life in a dystopian/ apocalyptic world. The writing, acting, and direction added up to a heartwrenching experience and one that will not soon be forgotten.

With that in mind, you have to wonder about writer/director M. Night Shyamalan going after the gay audience with “Knock at the Cabin” (Universal), a move that didn’t prove to be as lucrative as Billy Eichner thought it would be. Nevertheless, Shyamalan, and co-screenwriters Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, chose to adapt Paul Tremblay’s award-winning 2018 novel “The Cabin at the End of the World” for the big screen. Shyamalan wastes no time in establishing the creepiness of the story. The opening credits include doodles of disasters and disturbing weaponry. The first scene is more idyllic, with Wen (Kristen Cui), who will be eight in six days, catching grasshoppers in the Pennsylvania woods, and putting them in a large jar with holes punched in the lid. She hears footsteps and sees

M. Night Shyamalan’s gay-inclusive apocalyptic thriller

front of them by their companions. The deaths are followed by TV news reports of the predicted fallout – first a devastating tsunami with hundreds of thousands dead, and then a killer virus that targets children, and so on.

If Shyamalan is good at anything, it’s creating tension and suspense, two things that “Knock at the Cabin” has in abundance. The movie also makes good use of flashbacks, establishing the strength and endurance of Eric and Andrew’s relationship and commitment. The other characters’ unwavering dedication to their mission is also believable, despite its implausibility.

a large man coming towards her. Instructed not to talk to strangers, she is put at ease by Leonard (Dave Bautista), a school teacher well-versed in speaking to children. Leonard tells Wen he’s there to make friends with her and her two adoptive dads, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and to communicate to them the importance of the job they have to do. Leonard is soon joined by three others, sending Wen running in terror to the cabin in which her dads are enjoying a leisurely morning.

Leonard and his “associates” – Redmond (Rupert Grint), nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuki-Bird), and line cook Adriane (Abby Quinn) – were strangers until recently when their shared visions of a forthcoming Armageddon brought them together to convey to Eric and Andrew the essential part they play. In order to prevent the total annihilation of the planet and every living thing on it, Eric, Andrew, and Wen must sacrifice one of themselves in a mortifying ritual. If they don’t, they will be the only survivors

Wilde times in Britain

by Tim Pfaff

Tom Crewe’s debut novel, “The New Life” (Scribner), has been rightly praised as historical fiction at its finest. The irony, richly deserved, is that its two main protagonists, John Addington and Henry Ellis, not only did not meet in real life but in fact could not have, given their different life trajectories.

The models are John Addington Symonds, a real-life gay scholar hoping to crown his life’s achievement with an examination of “Greek love” (he was among the first writers to unpack the notion seriously) and the straight (if suitably kinky on his own) sexologist Havelock Ellis. The plot revolves around their slow-to-form collaboration to produce a masterwork on “inversion,” one of the many scientificsounding euphemisms for homosexuality at the time, the time in this novel being 1894 and 1895.

Close students of that slice of history will recognize in those years the trial of Oscar Wilde for his admitted – and proudly asserted – queerness, an awkward time, to say the least, for the men to bring out their book of case studies, “On Inversion.” Crewe finds the drama latent in his retelling of history, in the process making real the dangers at the time living as an active queer.

The marriage conundrum

In Crewe’s telling, both men, married to women, have achieved a level

<< Bobby Conte

From page 12

team of collaborators. It was co-directed by Robert DeNiro, who’d directed and starred in the movie version, and Tony-winner Jerry Zaks. His love interest was played by future Oscar winner Ariana DeBose.

The score is by Alan Menken, whose stage version of “Beauty and the Beast” Conte recalls seeing “seven or eight times as a kid. I think that’s what made me know I really wanted to do musical theater.”

His own show, which Conte performed late last year at the Orinda Theatre, features a rich selection of show tunes and standards, artfully sequenced by Conte and arranger/ music director James Sampliner to align with the story of Conte’s path to Broadway from the Bay.

of liberation in their private lives that nevertheless leaves an emotional deficit. Addington, independently wealthy and the father of three grown daughters (still living at home with Addington and his wife, Catherine), has established a habit of bringing his male tricks home. Shortly after we meet him, he has imported – for good or at least for the remainder of the novel – the deadly handsome Frank Feaver, a gay version of D.H. Lawrence’s gamekeeper, from the rudeness of Frank’s room in a boarding house to the Addingtons’ comparative palace, to the consternation if not the surprise of the Addington nuclear family.

Ellis, a virgin when he married Edith, a lesbian who solves the problem of householding by living separately and having her flames live with

her, more or less remains one, not that he is unsympathetic to Addington’s intellectual pursuit. The point of contact for the main characters is the Society for the New Life, an assembly of freethinking intellectuals who contemplate and plan a better, more equitable, even ideal world.

Only midway through the book does actual, verifiable history impose itself, in the enactment of Oscar Wilde’s trial for indecency of a specifically homosexual kind.

“These were John’s days of dread.” Crewe writes, “His months: March to May. When everything secret, hidden, whispered, was shouted, pasted, printed. When what was unmentionable was warmed in every maudlin, moral mouth. When what was nameless was become nothing but names.”

gan alumni, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“Dear Evan Hansen”) and the program also includes an unearthed Menken treasure from the onceplanned musical adaption of “The Honeymooners,” and, of course, some Sondheim, including “Time Heals Everything.”

“In a show like this one, I’m performing without having a character to hide behind,” he said. “I found choosing and putting together the songs to be very illuminating. I’ve learned that being an actor is to be in a constant state of self-awareness.”t

Bobby Conte in “Along the Way,” Feb. 11. $64-$89. A Feinstein’s at the Nikko concert at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater. 1127 Market St. (415) 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

of the devastation and will be forced to spend their remaining days walking the planet alone. Fun times!

Naturally, the gay dads are skeptical. Initially, they see the home invasion by these “four horsemen of the apocalypse” as an example of homophobic targeting. This is especially true when Andrew is certain he recognizes Redmond as a man who gay-bashed him when he and Eric were in a bar in Boston. Nevertheless, with each daily refusal, Eric, Andrew, and Wen are forced to watch as others are slaughtered in

‘The New Life’

Sex writing

Illuminating – verbally enacting – man-on-man sex is, by contrast, so much a Crewe specialty that he begins his novel with the stunning content of a gay wet dream of Addington’s. It’s potent stuff that only gradually reveals itself as a dream. Sexual encounters recur throughout the novel, sometimes surprisingly but never sublimated. Cocks are called cocks, and they’re described in detail. Those cocks shoot sticky semen that adheres to the reader almost as discomfitingly as it does to the men alternately embarrassed and thrilled by it.

Writing about sex is famously difficult to bring off, so to speak, but Crewe’s is as forward as anything you’ll read in Garth Greenwell or other present-day writers who take frankness about sex out of the realm of the pornographic or sensational directly into the realm of the senses.

The constant, often startling surprise and joy in reading Crewe’s evocative prose is that it’s tirelessly in-

What would Vito Russo think of M. Night Shyamalan’s movie? Would he have been impressed by Shyamalan casting two gay actors (Groff and Aldridge) as the gay dads? What about GLAAD’s Vito Russo Test (glaad.org/ sri/2021/vito-russo-test)? Yes, to parts of it, no to others.

Not nearly as silly as or pointless as “The Happening,” “The Lady in the Water,” or “The Village,” calling “Knock at the Cabin,” a “comeback” for Shymalan is kind of a stretch. At the very least, it’s not a complete waste of 100 minutes. Rating: Bt

www.knockatthecabin.com

dividual without being arch. He takes his audience to the brink of purple prose but reliably pulls out before the language sours. His writing is literally arresting in that it stops you only long enough to savor it without blunting the narrative arc.

Hearing Edith speaking for the first time, Ellis perceives “a voice with decision in it, cinching, clipped, concentrated, but with the potential to skid on its own hard surface.”

In my estimation, the great gay novel of 2022 was Briton James Cahill’s “Tiepolo Blue,” which unconscionably has yet to find an American publisher. Crewe’s “The New Life” cannot compensate that omission, but Scribner has given us a splendid start to a new year.t

‘The New Life’ by Tom Crewe. Scribner, 390 pages, $28. www. simonandshusterpublishing.com

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

The evening’s title song, “Along the Way,” is a reflection on coming-of-age by Conte’s fellow University Michi-

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

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Left: Ben Aldridge, Kristen Cui and Jonathan Groff in ‘Knock at the Cabin’

Right: Abby Quinn, Nikki Amuki-Bird, Dave Bautista and Rupert Grint in ‘Knock at the Cabin’

Author Tom Crewe

Bobby Conte with Nick Cordero in ‘A Bronx Tale’ on Broadway.

Joan Marcus

t

Who’s Your Mami Stand-up

by David-Elijah Nahmod

On Thursday February 16, lesbian comic Marga Gomez and friends return to Brava Cabaret with “Who’s Your Mami Comedy,” a show that promises to offer fearless stand-up, sarcastic social comedy and unladylike mayhem. The monthly comedy series first premiered in August 2019. The show packed the house with high-energy audiences of gay, straight, young and older comedy fans. But then the pandemic hit, and Gomez was forced to take her shows to Zoom for a year.

“It was cool to be able to book comedians anywhere in the world for our virtual monthly show,” Gomez told the Bay Area Reporter. “But the reality was we were all jones-ing to be back on a real stage. The Zoom shows kept us writing material during the quarantine and we could perform it in pajama bottoms.”

Gomez explained that the name “Who’s Your Mami” is a play on the expression ‘who’s your daddy.’ Her title, she says, puts women comics on top.

“There’s so much happening with this Spanish term Mami, which literally translates to Mommy,” Gomez

with a feminist twist returns to Brava Cabaret

The March installment of “Who’s Your Mami” will feature Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, host of KQED’s “Dating With Dhaya.” Gomez notes that the April show will take place on 4/20, a day of celebration for marijuana lovers, and will feature comedy superstars Sampson McCormick and Natasha Muse, both of whom Gomez promises will get everyone high on laughs.

Gomez said that she loves working at Brava.

“What I like best is that Brava survived the pandemic,” she said. “We’ve lost too many community venues. Brava is a grand absolutely beautiful iconic treasure in the Mission. Brava has allowed me to become a comedy curator as well as teach performance and develop a few one-person shows. Also I’m part of the giant mural on the exterior.”

said. “Sometimes it is slang for a badass woman who gets what she wants and is comfortable in her body. When I was growing up in the hood, Washington Heights in New York City, Mami was a dreaded catcall from the guys on the street corner.”

But as Gomez explained it, Mami has since morphed into a term that Latinas call each other.

“And that gives me a little boner when they do,” she said. “My dream is that all women will use the term Mami as a greeting the way guys use bro. We need something like that for women.”

When Gomez takes to the stage at Brava on February 16, she’ll be joined by Chelsea Bearce and Carla Clay, both of whom Gomez describes as “bold and fearless.” Clay has headlined

Collective currents

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Must-see TV for Black History

Month begins with “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” a 2021 anthology of essays and poetry by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the PulitzerPrize winning journalist and MacArthur fellow at the center of the conservative firestorm over Critical Race Theory. Her writing “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ history.”

“The 1619 Project” is named for the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. Now Hannah-Jones has crafted a six-part docuseries on this history of Black America, which is the history of America. The Hulu series is an on-screen adaptation and expansion of Hannah-Jones’s 2019 Pulitzer Prizewinning New York Times series, which has since also included her best-selling book, a podcast and controversial school curriculum.

Hosted by Hannah-Jones, the series features some of the journalists and historians who contributed to the original “1619 Project.” But the docuseries is also new and freshly imagined: a collaboration among Hannah-Jones, executive producer Oprah Winfrey and a team of producers and writers led by the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams.

The new format created new story lines, added new reporting and culled new voices, including the civil rights activist MacArthur Cotton and pop-music pioneer Nile Rodgers. The series is divided into individual segments: Democracy, Race, Capitalism, Music, Fear and Justice.

The imagery of Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” is by turns beautiful and stark, the interviews by turns colloquial, warm, engaging to confrontational and angry, at times so intense, you squirm in your seat.

Not surprisingly, the conservative reviews have excoriated the series.

Armond White (who is Black), wrote

Let’s talk cannabis.

a particularly vicious long-form piece for The National Review on the series titled “Oprah Revives the 1619 Project Fabrications.”

“The 1619 Project” is streaming on Hulu and the book is available everywhere.

The Last of Us

“If you don’t think there’s hope for the world, why bother going on?” So says Ellie, the main character in HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama television series, “The Last of Us.” Joel says to her, “You keep going for family.” Ellie looks at him and says, “I’m not family?” to which Joel replies, “No. You’re cargo.”

That shattering exchange is indicative of the complicated relationships and emotions at the heart of “The Last of Us.” The series is based on the 2013 video game developed by Neil Druckmann at Naughty Dog that sold some 20 million copies. Druckmann also co-created and wrote the HBO series.

“The Last of Us” is set in 2023, twenty years into a global pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which forces its hosts to transform into zombielike creatures. The main story is that of the 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) who, because she is immune to the fungus, could be the hope for humanity and a cure. Joel (Pedro Pascal) is a smuggler tasked with escorting Ellie out of a quarantine zone and across a post-apocalyptic United States. As they travel, stuff happens.

So there are some layers of queering going on in this series. Ramsey, who has been acting since she was a toddler, said in an interview with The New York Times last month that she identifies as gender-fluid.

Ramsey told the Times that she

at San Francisco Punchline, while Bearce was a finalist at the San Francisco International Comedy Competition. Gomez has been voted Best Comedian by B.A.R. readers several times.

“I’ll be wearing my tiara,” she said. “We also have a cute gay emcee, Riley Manlapaz, who can really get the party started.”

And what does she like best about being a comedian?

“Sleeping until noon,” she said.t ‘Who’s Your Mami Comedy,’ Thursday February 15 at 7:30 pm, and every third Thursday thereafter. Brava Cabaret, 2781 24th Street. $15 and up. www.brava.org

doesn’t care which pronouns are used to refer to her. “I’m very much just a person. Being gendered isn’t something that I particularly like, but in terms of pronouns, I really couldn’t care less.”

Embedded in the tale of Ellie and Joel is the unlikely love story of two bearded 50somethings, Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), a pair of survivalists living in an isolated town.

Bartlett, who also co-starred in the ill-fated but compelling “Looking,” came out as gay eons ago. During a 2021 interview about “The White Lotus,” in which he starred as Armond, Bartlett said that coming out was never an option for him. He said, “I didn’t feel like I really had an alternative. I just never felt I could ever be anything but myself.”

“The Last of Us” is not lateral to “The Walking Dead” or “Fear the Walking Dead.” Rather it’s about loneliness and longing and the ways in which we try

to make sense of ourselves in an oftenbarren emotional landscape. Offerman and Bartlett are unlikely heroes of love and community, symbols of how to be in a world where nothing and no one can be trusted and survival is an overwhelming task.

There are spoilers galore online for episode 3 in which Bill and Frank debut, but we suggest you watch the series to see how the episode and the placement of Bill and Frank evolves. It’s truly beautiful to see these middle-aged men in the midst of a harrowing dystopia loving each other in big and small ways. It will – it did us – take your breath away for sheer loveliness.

“The Last of Us” is streaming and has nine episodes. The series was just signed for a second season.t Read the full column, with video clips, on www.ebar.com.

Comics Marga Gomez, Carla Clay and Chelsea Bearce

Left: A scene from ‘The 1619 Project’ Right: Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of ‘The 1619 Project’ and host/creator of the Hulu miniseries

Left: Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in ‘The Last of Us’

Right: Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman in ‘The Last of Us’

t Drag >>

Betty Fresas Repping Latin culture in the Castro

by Christopher J. Beale

“Betty’slook is very regular girl, very approachable, very easy,” said San Francisco-based drag performer Betty Fresas (real name Salvador Gurrola Jr.), “But she’s super colorful!” Betty Fresas is a tall, slender classic beauty with a twist. She retains a certain camp that shows Fresas doesn’t take herself too seriously to have a good time.

Media Noche is giving people what I didn’t have growing up!” Fresas said. Media Noche is the festive, upbeat and regularly packed Latin party that Fresas, a first-generation Latin American, hosts on Thursday nights at Castro mainstay Midnight Sun. Accentuated by a revolving cast of drag queens and gogo persons, Fresas & Co have grown Media Noche into a popular, visibly Latin, queer community space in San Francisco.

“We should have somewhere to go all the time,” said Fresas of the gay and Latinx communities. She told the Bay Area Reporter that Media Noche is tailor-made for people like that, people like her.

Origins In Mexico

Salvador Gurrola Jr. was born in Nogales, Arizona right against the US/ Mexico border. The Mexican side of the city, called Nogales Sonora, is where Gurrola was raised until the age of 15.

“I act like I’m 35 sometimes,” said Gurrola, who comes across as an ambitious overachiever and presents more mature than his 27 years. As a child, Gurrola says, “If the adults were

having conversations, I wanted to be there listening to the chisme (gossip).” This continued throughout school too, when he got along better with his teachers than with his peers.

“I didn’t want to open myself up to people because opening up would mean accepting things about myself that I can only accept behind closed doors.” said Gurrola. In Arizona and Mexico, Gurrola said he tried to fit in with the other kids, but didn’t really have any real friends.

In 2010, Gurrola’s sophomore year, his father announced he was moving the family to the San Francisco Bay Area where he was starting a new job. His father saw it as a chance at a new life, but Gurrola remembers being depressed.

“It was such an isolated time for me,” recalls Gurrola, “I didn’t want to go, I didn’t want to start something new. I was scared.” The family decided on a home in Los Gatos.

“I think ‘High School Musical’ is based on Los Gatos High School. Look it up,” said Gurrola on just how white his alma mater was; “Tons of privilege.”

Coming Out

“I have a boyfriend and I’m gay,” Gurrola said to his parents, preparing for a fight. In college, Gurrola fell in love with a boy he met working a summer job, and soon came out to his parents with a bang, “And if you don’t like it, that’s fine! Take it or leave it, choose right fucking now!”

Luckily, Gurrola’s parents were accepting, and a new journey began

Lady Bunny

see it come to fruition and be so successful.” So successful that in March of 2022, Fresas quit her job at Sephora and began doing drag full time.

On a recent visit to Media Noche, Fresas worked the entire room, kissing each cheek in the bar and welcoming people into what she now sees as her home.

“I want Media Noche to be so inclusive that whether you’re locals or visiting for the night that you feel welcomed, and entertained,” said Fresas, whose journey from the southern border to San Francisco mirrors that of countless children of immigrant families, fighting for a life more authentically theirs.

where he had the support to tackle anything.

“My Sephora uniform was my armor,” said Gurrola, who after college found himself working for cosmetics giant Sephora. The job allowed him to express himself through makeup as vibrantly as he could conceive, under the guise of ‘doing it for work.’ Before long, he was doing it for himself. That armor would evolve into a drag queen named Betty Fresas.

“The first time I performed in drag was the day after the 2016 election,” the day Donald J. Trump was elected

New York drag legend lands at Oasis

Stay away from me if you’re young, thin or pretty! Actually, I’d suggest learning enough stage presence to do a whole song. On “Drag Race” and in clubs, we rarely see full songs performed any more. I perform medleys myself, but many of the mixes I see performed don’t make a ton of sense. Or they rely more on gimmicks than the ability to sell a song.

I’ve asked this before, but I’m so fascinated by how you travel with those gigantic wigs. Have you had any problems with the airlines recently?

No problems, but I need to get a drum case like Elvira has. She glues a stick to the bottom of it and places the wig head and styled wig on the stick. They arrive in perfect shape. Unlike mine, which are crammed into the increasingly small overhead compartments. In keeping with my age, I’m switching to turbans with bangs!

As the co-creator of Wigstock, do you see any other drag festivals that you think are inspired by it? And is there anything you miss about those days?

by Jim Provenzano

As a grande dame of drag with a hilariously crass wit, Lady Bunny has long been a prominent figure in the drag world, particularly as the cofounder of New York City’s Wigstock. Along with DJ gigs in nightclubs, Bunny is also in “Playland,” a new feature-length film by Georden West that will screen at film festivals in coming months. Fans can look forward to her giant wigs in song parodies and routines in her new show, “The Greatest Ho on Earth,” at Oasis on February 10 and 11.

You’re now touring with your new show. What are some of the favorite cities you visited so far or look forward to seeing?

Rikers Island and Sing-Sing.

You love to poke fun at your old pal RuPaul and his show. Did

you ever think Ru would come to such fame when you, Ru and others left Atlanta to make the scene that you created in New York City in the 1980s?

Ru always had star quality and looks, even before he became a star. That was obvious to most who came up with us in Atlanta. But he was also lazy, and would refuse to work at Popeye’s or other jobs we all used to do.

In New York City, at a club where we both worked weekly, Ru was so lazy that he would lip-synch the same song every week. At least it was a good song: Nicole McCloud’s “Don’t You Want My Love.”

Who’s your favorite drag queen, living or dead?

Bianca Del Rio is both living and dead to me.

What advice would you offer an aspiring drag performer?

Yes, and I’m performing at Miami’s Wigwood this weekend! I was also at Bushwig in Brooklyn in September. Drag festivals are a lot more fun when I don’t have to organize them!

What can your fans expect from the new show when you perform at Oasis?

Demented new parodies from everyone from Lizzo to Todrick Hall and Beyoncé, an original song or two, lots of laughs, and monkeypox transmission. But no classified documents. Or even class!t

Lady Bunny’s “The Greatest Ho on Earth,” at Oasis, February 10 & 11, 7pm. $30-$50. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com www.ladybunny.net

Read the full Q&A, with video clips, on www.ebar.com.

President and Fresas said, “Being able to perform and express myself helped.

That’s when I began to form another kind of family.”

Betty performed at The Port Bar in Oakland, and then with Club Papi, and at Beaux and various clubs and events around the San Francisco Bay Area. Then the manager at Midnight Sun had an idea they wanted Betty to spearhead. That idea became Media Noche.

“Somewhere between booking the show and hosting, Media Noche has really become my baby,” said Fresas beaming, “It makes me the proudest to

Betty has found her home here among San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, and has created space for others to do the same. In addition to Midnight Sun, she has her sights set on sharing Betty Fresas with a worldwide audience. When asked if she is currently aiming for a spot on MTV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” she just smiled and shrugged. So often in life, no answer might be an answer. Buena suerte, Betty Fresas!t

Media Noche, Thursday nights at Midnight Sun, 4067 18th St. in The Castro.

Follow Betty Fresas on social media @BettyFresas

Visit Christopher Beale at christopherjbeale.com

Listen to the podcast version of this story at www.stereotypespodcast.libsyn.com

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Betty Fresas at the Midnight Sun

Christopher J. Beale

Lady Bunny

Stephen Menendez