January 26, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Slain gay security guard ‘had little, and gave a lot’

by John Ferrannini

The friend of a gay Native American security guard who was shot and killed in San Francisco’s Japantown earlier this month remembered him as someone who “was always striving to make his dreams come true, and summoned the dreams of others without judgment.”

The life of 40-year-old Gavin Boston was tragically cut short January 4 just after 5 p.m. at 1581 Webster Street in Japantown. His longtime friend Castle Russell, a nonbinary lesbian, reached out to the Bay Area Reporter to share more about who Boston was because they didn’t like people making comments on social media sharing “reactionary” sentiments.

San Francisco police arrested a 15-yearold boy in connection with Boston’s death who was charged with suspicion of murder. His name has not been released, because of his age. He pleaded not guilty on January 9. A 14-year-old who did not appear in court that day was arrested on suspicion of accessory to murder.

Police said the teenagers were in a dispute with Boston outside a collectibles shop in Japantown when the guard was fatally shot, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

While Boston was gay and Native American, “he was also straight passing and white passing, and as a result some people on the internet have used his death to fortify their racist and classist beliefs,” according to Russell.

The two met in Orange County “before either of us moved to San Francisco,” Russell said, which was in early 2009.

“Gavin came up to San Francisco because he – and I can’t speak entirely for him – but it was my understanding that he grew up in Northern California and left home at a very young age, like 15, to come to San Francisco to get away from a homophobic small town,” Russell said.

‘Heartbroken’: Harvey’s closes after 27 years in apparent sign of the times

by John Ferrannini

Harvey’s, the LGBTQ bar and restaurant that welcomed tourists and regulars alike to the Castro for over a quarter century, abruptly closed its doors late Sunday, striking a blow to the queer neighborhood seeing more and more empty storefronts.

The restaurant paid tribute to the late supervisor Harvey Milk, who promoted the neighborhood’s LGBTQ identity and forged its businesses together 50 years ago. Sitting at the key intersection of 18th and Castro streets, and containing much Milk memorabilia in addition to bearing his name, its closure was greeted as a sad milestone.

Harvey’s will be hosting “One Last Night with Friends” Saturday, January 28, beginning at 4 p.m. and lasting “all night long,” to raise money for the now ex-staff members, former Harvey’s General Manager David Facer stated. The bar will be open and some food options may be available, supply pending.

“Harvey’s is an iconic restaurant and location in the Castro,” stated gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who represented the Castro on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “As a 25-year resident of the neighborhood, I’m heartbroken it’s closing and hope it’ll reopen

soon as a new restaurant or bar. My office will be available to the laid off workers to help them obtain unemployment benefits.”

Wiener’s current successor on the board, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, stated that Harvey’s was “an anchor business and home to countless memories for so many Castro residents.”

“This is a huge loss for the neighborhood and I hope to see a new gay bar or restaurant open there soon,” Mandelman stated. “Rolling back the Castro’s ban on new bars last year was an important step toward helping new queer entrepreneurs gain a foothold in the community, and my office is working on getting in touch with the building’s owner to encourage

California Justice Evans honored by East Bay attorney group

by Cynthia Laird

Both women have been in their positions on the California Supreme Court for less than a month, but Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero and Associate Justice Kelli Evans received standing ovations at the recent dinner of the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association.

Guerrero, who previously served as an associate justice, was elevated by Governor Gavin Newsom last year due to the retirement of former chief justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and sworn in January 2. The state’s first Latina chief justice, she delivered the evening’s keynote address.

Evans, the first queer Black woman on the court, was nominated by Newsom to succeed Guerrero and was also sworn in that day. Evans had previously served as a judge on the Alameda County Superior Court and was honored by the trial lawyers as one of two judges of the year at the January 19 gala, held at Bloc 15, an event space near Jack London Square.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Leslie Landau was the other judge of the year recipient.

In a brief interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Evans said that her first couple of weeks on the high court has been “tremendous.”

California Supreme Court Associate Justice Kelli Evans spoke at the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association dinner January 19.

“I’ve been learning about the court from an insider perspective,” she said, adding that she heard her first oral argument her first week. She said her judicial colleagues have been welcoming and are of the “highest caliber.”

Attendees with whom the B.A.R. spoke praised Evans’ appointment.

“Justice Evans is one of the most friendly, unassuming, and down-to-earth people I’ve ever met,” said Alameda County Court Commissioner Bentrish Satarzadeh, a lesbian who was appointed to her position in 2018. “She really makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the room.”

“She will do a great service to our state,” Satarzadeh added.

Kristin Rosi, a lesbian who’s president of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges, called Evans’ appointment “monumental.”

“It’s monumental to have our first lesbian supreme court justice be a Black woman,” Rosi said. “She’s a role model for law students, lawyers, and judges throughout the country.”

Rosi added that Evans is a member of the LGBTQ+ judges organization.

Oakland attorney Casey Kaufman, a straight ally, said as a member of the trial lawyers association, he appreciated the diversity of the organization and of the area’s bench officers.

“That’s why I come and that’s why I like this,” he said of the event.

Jayme Walker, an ally who’s a past president of the trial lawyers association, echoed Kaufman’s comments.

William 'Bill' Longen dies

'Getting There' Queer

Oasii Lucero/Courtesy ACCTLA

People walked in front of Harvey’s in the Castro Sunday, January 22, the day the restaurant and bar announced its closure.

Sari Staver

Gavin Boston, who was killed January 4, was remembered by friends as a caring person.

Courtesy Castle Russell

Dignity/SF turns 50 with a year of celebrations planned

by Heather Cassell

Dignity/San Francisco, a group for LGBTQ Roman Catholics, is marking its golden anniversary with a year of celebrations.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared January 22 as Dignity/ San Francisco Day, coinciding with a reception the group held, and issued a proclamation on January 15.

The group thanked Breed on its Facebook page.

“Thank you, Mayor London Breed, for recognizing Dignity/San Francisco as not only an organization but as a community that is truly a part of this beautiful city,” the organization posted.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the national DignityUSA, based in Dunkirk, Maryland, of which Dignity/SF is a chapter, stated that for the community to make this milestone was “truly incredible.”

“For any queer group to survive and make an impact for 50 years is truly incredible,” wrote Duddy-Burke in an email interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I hope many in the SF queer and broader community, as well as Catholic organizations around the city, will take time to honor this incredibly tenacious and prophetic group.”

Beginnings

Duddy-Burke wrote that Dignity/ SF, one of the founding 10 chapters when groups began organizing in local parishes in 1972, has been important to queer Catholics.

“It has been critical to our movement to have a Dignity chapter in what has long been thought of as the center of LGBTQ+ life in our country,” she wrote, noting the community’s longevity even at the epicenter of crisis and triumph. She pointed to the assassination of California’s first openly gay elected official, San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Dignity/USA communities being pushed out of the Catholic Church, and the triumph of same-sex marriage.

“Queer people here were bolder than those in many other places in demanding visibility, equality, and human rights,” she stated.

Milk and the late-San Francisco

mayor George Moscone were assassinated by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White November 27, 1978.

Paul Riofski, a 65-year-old gay man, has been a member of Dignity/ SF since 1978 and has held leadership roles there.

“We are a significant part of LGBT history in San Francisco,” said Riofski, noting Dignity/SF is one of the “longest established continuously operating gay organizations in the city.”

Duddy-Burke pointed out the significance of Dignity/SF’s leadership through the years.

“Dignity/San Francisco has offered incredible leadership to our national movement for decades, people who pushed us to do more, be more professional, communicate better, rethink how we gather, and more,” she wrote.

Duddy-Burke noted Dignity/SF hosted two of DignityUSA’s “most impactful national conferences” on the national organization’s 20th and 40th anniversaries in 1989 and 2009, respectively.

“The chapter is also among our most diverse, and has modeled how to draw from the experience of Catholicism across various cultures for our national community,” she added.

Today, Dignity/SF is one of 37 chapters across the United States registered with DignityUSA. Dignity/SF’s community of more than 38 members is operated by five board members and a staff office administrator who oversees the nearly $180,000 annual budget, according to Riofski, who serves on Dignity/SF’s finance committee.

DignityUSA celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019.

Early Dignity/SF leaders and members told the B.A.R. that the group began to meet under the Dignity banner at St. Anne’s Hall at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in the Mission district in 1973.

Prior to DignityUSA, LGBTQ Catholics gathered in people’s homes and in various parishes to practice their faith in the 1960s. Former Augustinian priest Patrick X. Nidorf, who was also a psychologist, started leading meetings in San Diego in 1969. In 1970, the late Father John McNeill, a Jesuit theologian, published works about LGBTQ Catholics and the church. Nidorf established the

first official Dignity community in a parish in Los Angeles that same year. McNeill was influential in establishing Dignity/USA.

McNeill inspired Dignity/SF director-at-large and longtime member Ernest L. Camisa to write “A Transparent Translation of the Ancient Bible Concerning Homosexuality,” examining Biblical text against McNeill’s theories.

In San Francisco, founding Dignity/SF member Thaddeus “Thad” Trela, 95, said the leadership of Madeline Ritchie, a 77-year-old lesbian, and Michael Weller saved the LGBTQ Catholic group from faltering during its first tumultuous year forming in 1973.

“Mike Weller said we should form more of an organization,” Ritchie said, recalling that many people were against the idea, explaining that in the 1970s it was still illegal to be gay. “People were still being harassed. It was against the law to do certain sexual activities in public. They were very frightened.”

Once Dignity/SF received its official organization status from the IRS, “We were able to be more than a casual hobby group – a legitimate group. [We were able to] practice the Catholic faith, have people come to do preaching and talk with us, and have Mass,” Ritchie said.

“It was all really novel groundwork at that time,” she said.

Weller passed away in the late 1980s or early 1990s, Ritchie said, adding that while she couldn’t remember the exact date, he did not die of AIDS.

“Without them, Dignity would have disappeared, at least for that time,” Trela told the B.A.R., referring to Ritchie and Weller. The retired education expert and philanthropist shared photos and newsletters from the early days of the Catholic group’s social gatherings, such as a picnic and marching in the San Francisco Pride parade.

Ritchie and Weller secured the group’s nonprofit status as a religious organization, allowing the group to grow and serve the community, Dignity/SF historians said. The historians said the community swelled in membership in the 1970s and 1980s, growing to nearly 400 members by 1988. The community moved from St. Peter to St. John of God in the late 1970s to St. Boniface Catholic Church in the Tenderloin in the mid-1980s until the late-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, pushed Dignity communities out

of the church, as the B.A.R. recently noted.

In 1986, Ratzinger sent his infamous “Halloween letter” to the bishops of the Catholic Church calling homosexuality an “objective disorder.” In 1987 the Vatican expelled Dignity from Catholic parishes across the U.S. after a yearlong struggle among churches and church leadership. McNeill was also expelled from the Jesuits the same year.

“We were one of the last,” Dignity communities to host a liturgy at a Catholic parish, said Riofski. “Our last liturgy at St. Boniface was on December 18, 1988.”

Gino Ramos, a gay man who is co-chair of Dignity/SF and Riofski’s spouse of 14 years (the couple has been together 30 years), told the B.AR. last week that the “objective disorder” label from Ratzinger was “a slap in the face.” Benedict, who retired as pope in 2013, died December 31.

“I remember when he was elected pope, I was co-chair and my statement was ‘my heart sank,’” Ramos told the B.A.R. “I hope he’s at peace and I hope he has found the truth about LGBT people now that he is with the God of the way, the truth and the life.”

In the 1980s, Riofski described Dignity/SF’s relationship with the late San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn, who was head of San Francisco’s Archdiocese at the time, as appearing to be somewhat more sympathetic to Dignity/SF and LGBTQ Catholics.

However, the differences between the church and Dignity could not be resolved as each entity stood its ground on queer Catholics. The forced break from the institutional church and local parishes started to fracture Dignity/SF’s membership, Riofski said.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, left,

Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

Also on hand were White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu and other leaders. The grant was announced in late December, and will complete the final phase of the bridge’s seismic retrofit, according to a news release from the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District.

Father Jack Lau conducted a special service for Dignity/SF honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 11, 2022.

Rick Gerharter

Dignity/San Francisco members had a picnic in San Francisco in the early 1980s.

Courtesy Thaddeus Trela

Bill Wison

Since the storms arrived on December 30, more than 5,000 PG&E employees worked day and night to safely and quickly restore power. Hundreds more worked behind the scenes to help coordinate relief efforts. In total, our crews restored power to nearly 3 million customers.

But we didn’t do it alone. Crews from across the country and Canada came to help our customers. And first responders—police, fire, and medical—and community partners like the Red Cross, local food banks, 211, and many others worked to support our crews and keep our customers safe. As the days wore on and the storms kept raging, responders didn’t stop until the job was done. We are truly grateful for the sacrifice, tenacity and endurance of all those who worked with us.

We understand how important electricity is to keeping you and your family safe in the winter months, and we will always work tirelessly to restore your power. And now, as communities begin to rebuild, we stand ready again to help you in any way we can.

Californians showed that teamwork, courage and compassion were stronger than a 100-year storm. Thank you.

Gay vet Rocha seeks San Diego Assembly seat

by Matthew S. Bajko

Two months after losing his bid for a state Senate seat, gay veteran Joseph C. Rocha of Escondido has launched his campaign for an open San Diego County Assembly seat that will be on the ballot in 2024. Rocha is the third LGBTQ candidate to officially announce his candidacy for a legislative seat next year.

In November, Rocha lost his contest against state Senator Brian Jones (RSantee) in the newly drawn 40th Senate District in San Diego County. He had initially sought a U.S. House seat, announcing in 2021 his bid to oust Republican Congressman Darrell Issa from his suburban seat northeast of San Diego.

Facing long odds to win that race, Rocha, 36, then switched ambitions and jumped into the state legislative race. He again faced steep odds as a

tions during the Trump administration.

“I’m running for state Assembly to put duty and service over self and to

care, safer neighborhoods and a more just society for all communities.”

As the Bay Area Reporter reported last month, lesbian Assemblymember

rissa

Should the sisters win their races, it would mark the first time an LGBTQ California legislator has been succeeded by their out sibling. They would also be the first pair of LGBTQ siblings to serve together in Sacramento.

The primaries for state legislative races will be on the March 5, 2024 primary ballot, as the election is being held early due to it being a presidential election year. Under California’s top-two primary system, the trio of out candidates will need to place either first or second in their respective Southern California contests in order to advance to the November 5 general election that fall.

Number of endorsements

Rocha announced January 19 he had endorsements from a number of

members of the affinity group: gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (DWest Hollywood), gay Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), and lesbian Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley).

“The hard working communities across North County deserve a leader like Joseph who will roll up his sleeves and get to work just like they do,” stated Padilla. “I know Joseph’s ability to bring people together will help build consensus and find solutions to address some of California’s biggest issues like affordable housing, homelessness, healthcare, and job creation.”

Gay Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), co-chair of the Legislative Jewish Caucus, and lesbian Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), a U.S. Army veteran and current chair of the LGBTQ caucus, also are backing Rocha’s Assembly bid.

“Joseph has always had the courage to lead with his convictions,” noted Eggman. “When he was discharged from the Navy for being gay, Joseph showed he’s not afraid to stand up for what’s right and fought to overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ – then returned to the military as a Marine Corps Officer. As a fellow veteran, I am proud to endorse a servant leader like Joseph Rocha for State Assembly.”

Rocha’s grandparents emigrated from Mexico in the 1960s and found work in California’s tomato fields and canneries. His mother struggled with drug addiction and lost custody of Rocha when he was 7 years old after leading the police on a high-speed car chase.

Rocha’s father, a truck driver, raised him and his siblings in Riverside. They had a falling out when Rocha came out of the closet at 17 and his father kicked him out of their house.

A year later Rocha enlisted in the Navy and served as a bomb dog handler in the Persian Gulf. But, in 2007, he was discharged under DADT due to his sexual orientation, having been hazed by fellow service members who suspected he was gay. Shortly thereafter Rocha’s mother died.

He lent his story to the public, legal, and political fights to overturn DADT, pledging to re-enlist if the anti-LGBTQ policy were overturned. Meanwhile, he graduated first from San Diego City College then the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2016.

Rocha interned with the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. He also served as a field coordinator on gay former supervisor Bevan Dufty’s unsuccessful 2011 bid to become mayor of San Francisco.

After former President Barack Obama signed the bill repealing DADT in December 2010, Rocha was accepted to the Marine Officer Candidate School. He rose through the ranks and served as a judge advocate.

Having satisfied his eight-year commitment with the Marine Corps, Rocha two years ago moved back to the San Diego area from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to focus on running for elected office. The San Diego Union Tribune had endorsed him for the state Senate seat last year.

“As someone who has dedicated my life’s work to defending our nation and protecting our freedom, I’m excited to stay in the fight, building a broad coalition and earning the support of voters in every corner of the 76th District,” stated Rocha.

Should he win, Rocha would help maintain there being three out members of the Legislature from San Diego County. In addition to Padilla, who will not be up for reelection until 2026, gay Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward also represents a San Diego seat.

With lesbian Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) termed out in 2024, Ward could opt to seek to succeed her in the Senate. Elected in 2020 and now vice-chair of the LGBTQ caucus, Ward could also choose to seek reelection to his Assembly seat next year. t

Cervantes, 32, who uses she and they pronouns, identifies as bisexual and queer.

Gay veteran Joseph C. Rocha, with his dog Daytwa, has announced he’s running for a San Diego County state Assembly seat in 2024.

Courtesy Rocha campaign

Parivar receives over $225K in grants from SF

compiled by Cynthia Laird

ParivarBayArea, a nonprofit organization for South Asian trans and nonbinary people, has received two grants from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development for programs aimed at strengthening unity and emerging leadership for trans and nonbinary people.

According to a news release from the organization, the grants total $225,000 for the 2022-23 fiscal year and are the first to be awarded to an organization both led by and centering trans people from the Global South Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora.

“We are grateful to have such dedicated support from the LGBT Asylum Project and champions at the city of San Francisco, including the mayor’s office, the Office of Transgender Initiatives, and the Board of Supervisors,” stated Anjali Rimi, a trans woman who is co-founder and president of ParivarBayArea.

The first grant, Trans and Gender Nonbinary API Leadership Development, is $100,000 for fiscal year 202223 and will fund a 10-week Transgender Emerging Leaders Program for trans, nonbinary, and intersex leaders interested in careers in advocacy, civic engagement, or government.

Following successful completion of the program, participants will receive assistance in pursuing employment opportunities with local nonprofit organizations and government agencies, the release stated.

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, a straight ally who was vice chair of the board’s budget and appropriations committee, stated that he made funding for the trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming community a priority during the board’s budget addback process.

“PavivarBayArea does amazing work to ensure that all of our diverse communities are included in these services,” he stated.

Brian Cheu, a gay man who’s director of community development at MOHCD, stated that the office was “delighted” to expand support for the trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming communities.

“These grants also recognize the important intersectionality that these communities share with San Francisco’s immigrant and refugee communities,” Cheu stated.

The second grant, Support Trans and GNB Immigrant and Refugee Global South API Diaspora, is $125,000 for FY 22-23 and another $125,000 for FY 2023-24. It focuses on transgender intersectional unity and community building, the release stated. In particular, the grant will support dedicated case management for trans people experiencing hardships due to poverty, violence, discrimination, and uncertain immigration status.

Additionally, the grant will also help cover multiple trans-centered events organized by ParviarBayArea and coalition partners, the release stated. These will include bi-weekly peer support groups, artist showcases,

and in-person social gatherings, according to the release.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who presented ParivarBayArea with a proclamation last weekend on the occasion of QTAPI New Year, stated that the city is a “beacon of hope for LGBTQ people seeking refuge from hate around the world.”

“These grants will support Parivar’s work to provide a safety net for queer immigrants and refugees when they need it most,” he added.

Lana Patel, vice president of Parivar, stated that the organization’s mission is to “build a community of light, love, and acceptance.”

For more information about Parivar, visit its website at https://www. parivarbayarea.org/, where there is a link to apply for the emerging leaders program.

“This week marks one year since the terrible news broke that the Nasser family turned over management of the movie palace to Another Planet Entertainment, and a year since we last rallied at the theater,” Petrelis wrote in an email, referring to the family that owns the theater.

Another Planet has proposed renovations for the theater. The most contentious of those is removing the movie house’s banked orchestra seating in favor of level platforms that could hold both removable seats for film screenings and standing audiences for live music performances.

The rally comes four days before the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission is expected to consider gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s legislation to landmark the interior of the building. (At the commission’s meeting in December the item was continued to February 1.) The proposed expanded landmarking would bring the theater’s interior into line with the already established landmark status of the theater’s facade. In 1976, the exterior of the building, designed by prominent San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger, was designated San Francisco Historic Landmark #100.

guarantee the Castro will be on the February 1 agenda,” Petrelis stated.

Petrelis said that the rally will happen between sold-out SketchFest movie and Q&A programs featuring the cast of “A Mighty Wind” and Elliot Gould, the star of “The Long Goodbye.”

Separately, as the B.A.R. reported last week, the Friends of the Castro Theatre Coalition will meet Thursday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street.

UCSF is deeply committed to providing care for LGBTQ+ people and their families that isn’t just equitable as crucial as equity is.

We’re committed to giving you care that’s warm, welcoming, and knowledgeable, too.

That’s why we’re a longtime Equality Leader in HRC’s Healthcare Equality Index and why we offer a uniquely wide range of support for our LGBTQ+ patients and employees.

We look forward to warmly welcoming you and offering the great, supportive care that you and your family deserve.

ucsfhealth.org/lgbtq-care

The proposed removal of the banked orchestra seating at the Castro Theatre is the most contentious part of renovations planned by Another Planet Entertainment, which manages the theater.

Rally to save Castro Theatre seats

Gay activist Michael Petrelis and his partner, Mike Merrigan, have organized a rally to save the seats at the Castro Theatre Saturday, January 28, starting at 2 p.m. under the marquee of the classic movie house at 429 Castro Street.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, however, documents Petrelis received under a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Mandelman questions whether Another Planet wants to remain manager of the Castro Theatre. “Given my recent disclosure of public records showing the supervisor doubts APE’s commitment to the theater, and that the commission has twice continued delaying even hearing from Another Planet, there is no

Grass dancers performed at a Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits Powwow.

BAAITS powwow coming up

The 12th annual Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits Powwow will be held at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion Saturday, February 4, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The Exhibition Gourd dance will start at 11, with featured dancers making their Grand Entry at noon. The event is free and open to the public.

Angel Fabian has been named BAAITS executive director.

“I take the role of executive director with great honor and humility and have learned the importance of becoming the elder I would have liked

Anjali Rimi, left, president of ParivarBayArea, talks with San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

Courtesy ParivarBayArea

Rick Gerharter

Courtesy BAAITS

Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

Movement on SF consumption sites

At long last, there is movement among city leaders to establish privately-run safe consumption sites in San Francisco. Last week, Mayor London Breed and District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen announced local steps the city is taking to address a recently identified permitting barrier to move forward with non-city-operated overdose prevention sites. It seems that when the Board of Supervisors approved legislation establishing a permitting structure for city-funded overdose prevention sites in 2020, the law as written does not allow for any overdose prevention program – run by the city or a non-governmental entity – to open until federal and state legal issues have been resolved. As we have written over the past few years, the federal government still does not recognize safe consumption sites. At the state level, also as we’ve reported, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill last year that would have allowed pilot programs in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. We know that these legal issues have been the main concern of San Francisco leaders and that even though the city purchased a building that could be used for such a program, it was unlikely to do so under city control. Hence, the need for a nonprofit agency to operate a program that’s not on city property – at least for now.

Nonprofits, such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, have expressed interest in running a safe consumption site, but as it stands now, it would not be able to. The proposed legislation by Breed and Ronen would repeal the 2020 permitting structure, thus allowing a nonprofit to open a site with private funding before state and federal legal issues are resolved. The legislation was to be introduced Tuesday, and Breed has asked board President Aaron Peskin to expedite the ordinance. We agree. The Board of Supervisors needs to hear this in committee and approve it as quickly as possible so that sites can get up and running. Safe consumption sites allow people to bring their own drugs to the facility and use them

Our

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Legislative sessions have started in statehouses across the country, and with them, scores of new anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans bills. Many of these, of course, build on legislation introduced in the last year or two, including, of course, Florida’s House Bill 1557, popularly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

In its most basic form, HB 1557 states that public school teachers may not instruct on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades kindergarten through third grade. In practice, however, its wording is so vague as to cause any LGBTQ content to be scrubbed from Florida schools by both overly-cautious and deliberately malicious school administrators.

For those of us who are transgender or nonbinary, as well as our siblings in the larger LGBTQ movement, we know that laws like this seek to hide our existence and, by extension, erase us from history.

I know that way back, when I first was looking for information about just what it means to be transgender, I had to rely on my local public library – and I found it lacking in any texts about trans issues.

This was at a time, of course, when there simply were less texts to be had and, when they did exist, were just less likely to be carried in a smaller library. Even the bigger-name autobiographies of the time were unavailable.

To my young eyes back then, before the access afforded by the internet, this meant that we simply did not exist, aside from some far-off whispers. We were relegated to tabloid fodder and tawdry magazines.

What I did not know is that we have a rich history.

There are, of course, stories of transgender people back to the dawn of recorded history. There are tales that date back 4,500 years ago of the Gallae, trans priestesses in Sumeria who were ancient rulers who may have been trans, and many more stories in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and beyond. This, too, discounts scores of other cultures outside the Western World, where gender has long been a far more expansive concept.

There were trans people in the early U.S. colonies, in the Revolutionary War, and in the Civil War, and scores were chronicled worldwide through the early parts of the last century thanks to Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institut für Sexual-

under the supervision of staff, thus reducing the possibility of overdose deaths. The city’s overdose problem is real, even though deaths have been slightly decreasing the last two years. According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which used data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the city recorded 620 accidental drug overdose deaths in the 2022 calendar year, compared to 640 deaths reported in 2021 and 725 in 2020. So, the downward trend is definitely good news, but 620 accidental overdose deaths is still far too many. There are also racial disparities, as DPH noted. “Black individuals continued to be disproportionately impacted by overdoses,” the health department stated. “Preliminary data shows that overdose death rates among Blacks are more than five times the citywide rate, on par with 2021. The 2022 data shows a 14% decrease from the 2020 number when drug overdose rates were at an all-time high in San Francisco, in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing presence of the deadly synthetic opioid known as fentanyl.”

In announcing the proposed legislation, Breed said the city is working with nonprofits.

“We are committed to opening overdose prevention sites in San Francisco, but due to legal restrictions, there remain significant challenges,” Breed stated in a news release. That said, Breed, who supports such programs and even had a demonstration project set up in 2018 so that people could see what one might look like (no drug use was permitted), has been reluctant to flout federal and state laws. While it seems unlikely to us that the Biden administration would go after local programs, Newsom’s veto last year of Senate Bill 57, authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), really quashed momentum among city leaders, who were expecting the state legislation to provide adequate cover. Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, surely knows about the open-air drug dealing and drug use that has occurred on city streets for years, so not supporting Wiener’s legislation was a head-scratcher (it was more likely a cautious move in case he runs for president).

Safe consumption sites are up and running in New York City – operated by nonprofit OnPointNYC – and they have proved effective and have the support of Mayor Eric Adams. As Ronen stated, “There are enough barriers to open safe consumption sites as over 150 cities have done around the world without creating additional local obstacles.” She added that she looked forward to swift board action repealing the 2020 ordinance so that safe consumption sites, which she referred to as wellness centers in San Francisco’s hardest hit neighborhoods.

City Attorney David Chiu is also on board –his office defends the city, and while he also supports safe consumption sites, the city could have opened itself up to liability if it operated them.

“To save lives, I have fully supported a nonprofit moving forward with New York City’s model of overdose prevention centers,” he stated.

It’s heartening to see this development. Now, once the supervisors repeal the old ordinance, qualified nonprofits should be given the necessary directives so that they can get these centers up and running soon. t

have benefitted from the Institut were sent to concentration camps.

This said, I also want to point out something very important:

Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft, organized by the Nazi party, parade in front of the Institute for Sexual Research on Beethovenstraße, Berlin, May 6, 1933.

wissenschaft, a private sexology institute in Berlin.

It is worth noting that it was through the Institut that some of the earliest transfeminine surgical procedures were pioneered, with Dora Richter and Lili Elbe being the first two known cases of surgery that went beyond orchidectomy (testicle removal) and penectomy (surgery to remove the penis) procedures.

It is also worth pausing for a moment and considering what happened to the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft: it was ransacked by the Nazis on May 6, 1933, and its library was set on fire.

One might argue that Hitler’s faithful helped promote the first “Don’t Say Gay” laws 90 years ago. This and subsequent actions by the Nazis set back LGBTQ people for decades, and the loss of that history reverberates to this day.

Indeed, its echoes can be heard in HB 1557 and any copycat laws in state legislatures today. The ransacking of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was, for all intents and purposes, a popular political action of the time, just like we’re seeing today with drag queen storytimes being shut down by rightwing agitators while states remove LG BTQ content from libraries, schools, and elsewhere.

In the wake of the Nazi raid on Hirschfeld’s center, one German newspaper called the Institut “un-German,” and the Institut was forced to shut down. Hirschfeld, who was out of the country when the raid occurred, never returned to Germany. Richter may have been killed in the initial raid, or a subsequent one. Many other LGBTQ people who may

Trans history did not end in the flames of that raid. Even as the United States entered World War II against Nazi Germany, U.S. news magazines wrote articles about Barbara Richards, a trans woman. A few years after the war, Christine Jorgensen would push nuclear bomb tests off the front page after she sought surgery in Copenhagen. Two decades later, Lou Sullivan started FTM International, leading to a greater awareness of trans men. Countless others followed in their footsteps.

We took part in the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City; the Cooper Do-nuts Riot in 1959 in Los Angeles; the Dewey’s Lunch Counter Sit-Ins in 1965 in Philadelphia; and the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in 1966 in San Francisco. We have learned to fight back against injustice whether it is ours, or others, who are in need.

We have also grown in visibility, from the first of us who spoke out to those of us now in statehouses across the country. That is, when those same statehouses aren’t seeking to strip us of our rights.

In these many decades we have learned to share our histories. We have written countless books; taken to the stage, screen, and airwaves; and have been active online from the earliest bulletin board systems to current social media, just to tell our stories. Even this column is but one small part of a far larger tapestry, woven by transgender, nonbinary, and all LGBTQ people across the world.

Our rich history, once thwarted, is continuing to thrive.

Yes, the Nazis did hold back our progress – but they did not stop us any more than Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or any other leader who wants to push their own version of “Don’t Say Gay.” That is what our history – no matter who tries to hide it away – can tell us. t

Gwen Smith gently suggests a protest for the 90th anniversary of the destruction of the Institut. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com

Wikipedia

San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen, left, and Mayor London Breed have proposed legislation to remove a barrier to nonprofits operating safe consumption sites.

Rick Gerharter

Complaint filed against opponent of trans Seal Beach, CA council candidate

by Matthew S. Bajko

The runoff race opponent of a transgender City Council candidate in Seal Beach, California is facing questions about her eligibility to seek the district seat, the ballot designation she used, and her professed three decades of experience as an accountant. It comes as the two women will face voters again January 31 in their bid to help lead the coastal city.

In their November 8 matchup Stephanie Wade, a trans veteran, received the most votes, 967, in the three-person contest for the District 3 seat on the Seal Beach City Council, while Lisa Landau came in second with 912 votes. Because neither garnered more than 50% of the vote to win outright, they landed in next Tuesday’s runoff race.

Wade, who works for an Orange County supervisor, would be the first transgender person elected in the county should she win. She would also be one of only a handful of trans elected officials in California.

Two weeks prior to the runoff election, a voter filed complaints with California elections officials questioning Landau’s residency in the council district, the Bay Area Reporter has learned. It contends that Landau really lives in the city’s District 1 and that the address she re-registered at last year is merely an investment property that has been under construction for years and isn’t habitable.

It is also unclear why Landau’s ballot designation did not include any professional information and merely described her as a “community organizer.” According to the California Department of Real Estate Landau is a licensed salesperson under her married name of Lisa Anne SunsteinElder – which she had changed back to her former name in 2010 – and most recently worked for Seal Beach real estate firm American Beachside Brokers.

As explained in the handbook for Orange County candidates in 2022, the use of “Community Volunteer” is only to be used by someone working pro bono for a nonprofit, government agency, or educational institution at such a level that it is their “sole, primary, main, or leading professional, vocational or occupational endeavor.” It is not to be used if “the candidate does have a principal profession, vocation, or occupation.”

The handbook also advises that candidates with up-to-date business licenses issued by the state are “entitled to consider it one of his/her ‘principal’ professions, vocations, or occupations.” Landau’s state license doesn’t expire until 2024.

Other online records have listed Landau as an executive and investor in a real estate development company specializing in vacation homes and waterfront properties in Baja California. Up until September 2021 at her Twitter account, https://twitter.com/ lisalandau714, Landau would retweet posts from the account of the company, the International Land Alliance.

Yet in her ballot statement to election officials, and on her campaign website bio, Landau makes no mention of her real estate experience. Instead, she boasts about being “an accountant with over 30 years of experience.”

The Orange County Register newspaper had listed Landau’s current job title as “accounting manager” based on the responses to a questionnaire it had sent her. However, a search via the website of the California Board of Accountancy found no one licensed under any name matching that of Landau.

‘Georgette Santos’

“This is Georgette Santos; this is his sister,” Wade, 55, told the B.A.R. during a recent phone interview, referring

to gay Republican Congressmember George Santos from Long Island, New York, who has been found to have lied about myriad aspects of his life, from where he attended college and his professional pursuits to his family’s religious background and how his mother died.

“She says she is an accountant. But there is no record of her having a job as an accountant,” said Wade. “No one heard her describe herself as an accountant until she ran. We believe she has only an associate’s degree.”

Landau, 60, has yet to respond to the B.A.R.’s requests for an interview about her professional background and where she resides in Seal Beach. According to her campaign bio, her family has called the northwestern Orange County city home for more than four decades.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page told the B.A.R. Monday in emailed replies to questions that he “cannot confirm or deny whether a complaint has been filed” with his office about a candidate for elected office. He did say his office’s standard protocol is to forward any complaints it receives to the county’s district attorney or to the office of the secretary of state, who oversees elections in California.

Neither the office of Orange County D.A. Todd Spitzer nor of Secretary of State Shirley Weber has responded to the B.A.R.’s request for comment regarding the complaint filed against Landau. As of press time the county registrar’s webpage for the Seal Beach runoff races, as no candidate won the District 5 council seat outright in November, indicated that they would both take place next week as scheduled.

In regard to questions about Landau’s ballot designation, Page directed the B.A.R. to contact Seal Beach City Clerk Gloria Harper, as she signed off on listing Landau on the ballot as a “community volunteer.”

“The Registrar of Voters is administering the election at the request and direction of the city. The City Clerk approved the candidate ballot designations, not the Registrar of Voters,” wrote Page in his emailed reply.

Reached at her office Monday, Harper told the B.A.R. that she doesn’t “respond over the phone” and requested questions about Landau’s candidacy be emailed to her. As of press time, Harper had yet to respond to the B.A.R.’s emailed inquiries.

Ed Hirsch, 55, who grew up in Seal Beach and relocated to his hometown a decade ago, filed the initial complaint regarding where Landau lives with city and county elections officials last week. Speaking to the B.A.R. by phone January 23, he said he began digging into her candidacy filings after being incensed by seeing Landau and her supporters repeatedly refer to Wade as a recent transplant to Seal Beach.

Landau has contended Wade did so in order to use election to the council seat as a jumping off point for higher office. The attack strikes Hirsch as having more to do with longtime Seal Beach residents who are white wanting to keep people of color and others from moving there.

“Lisa just kept calling Stephanie like some kind of interloper, nonlocal, out-of-towner who has not been here long enough and is bringing in these outside influences,” said Hirsch, a retired lawyer. “It really bugged me, having grown up here in this town with this locals’ only culture.”

It also struck a wrong note for Hirsch, as he lives two blocks from the house that Landau said she lived in on her candidacy paperwork. Yet the house, which Hirsch passes on a daily basis, has been under construction for some time, he told the B.A.R.

“The more they said Stephanie Wade had only been here a year, I would think, ‘Wait a minute, Lisa hasn’t been here even for a year.’ Lisa hasn’t been here at all in the district,” said Hirsch. “I am as surprised as anyone to find when I dug into this that Lisa Landau never lived in that house. She has already tried to flip that house twice. It is uninhabitable now.”

According to Hirsch’s complaint, court filings and other documents reviewed by the B.A.R., Landau changed her voter registration to 1771 Crestview Avenue on the day last August that was the deadline for candidates to file to run for office on the November ballot. Until then, Landau had declared her residency as being at 138 6th Street, a rental property in Seal Beach located in the City Council’s District 1.

Filings in a court proceeding in which Landau is suing the owners of the 6th Street property show that in both late November last year and January of this year, Landau listed the rental home address as her primary residence, noted Hirsch in his complaint.

“Based on all the aforementioned documents, I believe there is sufficient evidence to show that Ms. Landau does not currently reside in District 3 and should be removed from the race expeditiously. At minimum, there appears to be issues of perjury and at worst – fraud,” wrote Hirsch in his emailed complaint to elections officials. “The residents of District 3 deserve to have a representative that lives within their boundaries, so as to best represent the needs of their community.”

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Referring to the Crestview property in her campaign bio, Landau wrote, “My younger son and I were blessed to be able to purchase the McNerney home on the Hill last year. Pat McNerney was a beloved member of St. Annes Church and loved Seal Beach ... her paradise, like all of us do.”

Stephanie Wade, left, is seeking a Seal Beach City Council seat against Lisa Landau, and has raised questions about whether Landau lives in the district she is seeking to represent.

Wade, courtesy the campaign; Landau, courtesy Facebook

Emmy-winning TV news producer William Longen dies

by Cynthia Laird

William “Bill” Longen, a gay man who was an Emmy-winning TV news producer, a former manager of the Castro Theatre, and the co-founder of an early AIDS support group, died January 1, his friends recently announced.

Mr. Longen, 75, died at Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco, his friend veterinarian Dr. Ken Gorczyca wrote in an obituary he prepared.

Mr. Longen had a creative interest in film at an early age and graduated in 1966 from Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. He studied film at Temple University and the Eastman Kodak Film School.

He moved to San Francisco with his love, Stanton Schaffer, shortly before the start of the AIDS epidemic. Mr. Longen worked from 1977-1997 as a film editor at Cox Broadcasting (KTVU Channel 2) where he was supervising editor for the 10 O’clock evening news for his last three years at the station. He was an Emmy-winning editor/producer with eight additional Emmy nominations. He also was the winner of multiple gold, silver, and bronze awards from the International Film and Television Festival of New York. When his health declined, he had to take an early retirement from his beloved film career.

Mr. Longen and Schaffer then became founding members of Positives Being Positive, an early HIV/ AIDS peer-to-peer support group

with Pierre Ludington, for which the first meeting was in February 1998, according to an article in the old San Francisco Sentinel newspaper. Mr. Longen and Schaffer were also early pioneers of RSVP Cruises, where they found solace on the open ocean while befriending the late gay comedian Danny Williams. Schaffer died in 1995 at home surrounded by his friends and cat companions. Mr. Longen became a long-term survivor of over 40 years and remained one of only four of the 25 support group members to survive, Gorczyca wrote. With Mr. Longen’s passing, now there are three. Ludington died in July 1994.

Mr. Longen eventually returned to his love of films and was manager of the Castro Theatre for almost a decade, from 2005-2011, according to his LinkedIn profile, bringing his creativity and knowledge of film to the Castro community. He also was a

projectionist, film editor and owner/ operator of Ironwood Cinemas. Prior to working at the theater, Mr. Longen lived for awhile in Palm Springs.

David Perry, a gay man who’s in public relations, once interviewed Mr. Longen for his show “10 Percent,” and expressed sadness at his passing.

“He was a ubiquitous and muscular presence when I first moved to town and dedicated to his years at the Castro Theatre,” Perry wrote on Facebook. “A few months ago he reached out, wanting to know how he could support the efforts by Another Planet Entertainment to restore and revitalize the Castro Theatre. More than anyone, he understood the challenges of running a film venue. He was a mensch and a true San Francisco original.”

Perry is a spokesperson for Another Planet, which is in a contentious fight over its proposal to remove the banked orchestra seating so that temporary seating or no seating can be in place for non-movie events.

In the summer of 2019, Mr. Longen moved into one of the senior apartments at the Marcy Adelman and Jeanette Gurevitch Community at 95 Laguna Street that Openhouse, a nonprofit provider of LGBTQ senior services, and Mercy Housing operate. He talked with the Bay Area Reporter in 2020 during the COVID lockdown.

“It’s been OK. You always start to develop a little cabin fever after a few days in the apartment. I deal with it. I always find things to do,” he said at the time about sheltering in place.

Gorczyca noted that Mr. Longen “was a true survivor and thriver – and recreated his life multiple times mirroring the nine lives of his beloved feline companions.” He participated in the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam, where he won the gold medal for body building in the men’s master’s competition (age 50-60). He became a workout trainer in San Francisco and Palm Springs.

After the loss of Schaffer, his true loves were his friends and his feline companions Wheezer, Darla, and Petey (two of which are 17), Gorczyca stated.

“I first met Bill and Stanton at the San Francisco Pet Hospital where I worked, and we became quick friends – especially since all three of us were originally from Philadelphia,” Gorczyca wrote in an email message. “Bill’s strong bond to his felines is more anecdotal evidence of the healing power of animal companionship. One of his close friends has now adopted all three cats, honoring Bill’s wishes to keep them together as a family.”

Mr. Longen donated a videotape collection of raw news footage to the GLBT Historical Society in 2006. According to a description of the archive material, Mr. Longen set aside raw tapes of news segments that reported on LGBTQ topics, so that the segments would be preserved and the tapes would not be recorded over. “In doing so, he managed to collect over 20 years of footage documenting LGBTQ life in the Bay Area with the hope of educating LGBT young

Another HIV vaccine fails in large study

by Liz Highleyman

Another large trial has been halted after Johnson & Johnson’s experi-

mental HIV vaccine failed to prevent infection, according to a January 18 announcement from the National Institutes of Health. The latest results add

to a long string of disappointments in the HIV vaccine research field.

The news is “disappointing but not surprising,” said Mitchell Warren,

executive director of AVAC, an organization working to accelerate the development and global delivery of HIV prevention methods. “The hard truth is the science of HIV vaccine development is extremely challenging, but this is not the time to dial back support for ongoing research. Far from it – HIV remains a global threat, and a safe, efficacious and accessible HIV vaccine is still needed to provide a durable end to the pandemic.”

The phase 3 Mosaico trial, which began in 2019, enrolled some 3,900 cisgender gay and bisexual men and transgender women in North and South America and Europe. A scheduled review by the study’s data and safety monitoring board found that although the vaccine was safe, the number of people who acquired HIV was equivalent in the vaccine and placebo groups. These participants were promptly referred for medical care and treatment.

As the study ends, trial participants – including 30 people enrolled in San Francisco through the Department of Public Health – will be informed of the findings and told whether they received the vaccine or the placebo, according to Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of Bridge HIV, DPH’s clinical trials unit, and a professor at UCSF.

“We will also be conducting study close-out procedures, including HIV

people about the community’s past,” the description stated.

Items in the William A. Longen Videotape Collection include interviews at LGBTQ marches, festivals, and parades; HIV/AIDS support groups; and the 1996 San Francisco “gay marriage” event when thenmayor Willie Brown deputized himself and presided over the ceremony for about 150 same-sex couples. (The unions had no legal status.) Most of the collection has been digitized, according to the historical society.

Mr. Longen was born on July 20, 1947, in Philadelphia.

He was hospitalized for the final two months of his life, yet his hope to survive was strong. His doctors treated him with hope and dignity. He kept his amazing humor until his last days and expected to survive this final illness once again, Gorczyca wrote.

Mr. Longen is survived by his siblings Regina, Mary, and Joe, and extended family in Philadelphia and on the East Coast. His beloved sister Susie, a Roman Catholic nun, preceded him in death. Mr. Longen will be cremated, and his ashes spread at sea at the same latitude and longitude of his life partner Schaffer off the coast of San Francisco in the Pacific. Donations in his honor can be made to Pets Are Wonderful Support/Shanti or the National AIDS Memorial Grove, both in San Francisco, or any charity of your choice.

A public memorial will be held Sunday, February 26, at 4 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street. t

testing, counseling, and linkage to HIV prevention services, as we have done throughout the course of the study,” Buchbinder told the Bay Area Reporter.

What’s next for HIV vaccine research?

The Mosaico results are not unexpected, as a companion trial called Imbokodo was halted in 2021 after interim results showed that a similar vaccine regimen did not provide adequate protection for young women in Africa.

Both trials tested four doses of a vaccine called Ad26.Mos4.HIV that uses an adenovirus vector – the same common cold virus used in the J&J COVID vaccine – to deliver a computer-designed mosaic of antigens from multiple strains of HIV. Participants also received two doses of a second vaccine containing either gp140 envelope proteins from the most common HIV subtype in southern Africa or a mosaic of gp140 proteins from a variety of HIV strains.

Earlier studies showed that this vaccine regimen induced potent antibody and T-cell responses and protected monkeys exposed to an HIV-like virus. But the vaccines did not generate broadly neutralizing antibodies that target a hidden portion

William “Bill” Longen

Courtesy Ken Gorczyca

Dr. Susan Buchbinder from the San Francisco Department of Public Health said studies would be done to determine why an experimental HIV vaccine trial failed.

Liz Highleyman

“Our organization, one of the core values is to promote diversity,” she said. “I was thrilled to see Kelli Evans appointed.”

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Tara Desautels, who was the presiding judge and administered the oath of office to Evans when she began her tenure on the lower court in October 2021, said that Evans came highly recommended from Newsom’s judicial appointments secretary.

“There was no assignment she wouldn’t be willing to take on,” Desautels said.

Prior to her appointment to the

bench, Evans had served as Newsom’s chief deputy legal affairs secretary. She had also worked for former state attorney general Xavier Becerra, now the U.S. health and human services secretary.

During her remarks, Evans said it was a special honor to be appointed.

“I will be forever grateful to be a judge in Alameda County,” she said, even though hers was a short tenure.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Elena Condes, a lesbian who won election to the bench in 2020, said that Evans “brings something unique” to her new role.

“I genuinely believe that all of us in Alameda County will benefit from her perspective and intellect on the

bench,” Condes said.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Bowen, now the assistant presiding judge, summed up Evans’ new position succinctly.

“It’s exciting,” he said.

Former chief justice praised During her remarks, Guerrero praised Cantil-Sakauye.

“Tani Cantil-Sakauye was the first person of color to serve as chief justice,” Guerrero said, adding that she had a “constant focus” on ensuring access to justice.

“She never lost that focus,” Guerrero added.

She also acknowledged the late associate justice Cruz Reynoso, the first

Latino to serve on the state’s high court.

“I look forward to this challenge,” Guerrero said of her new position.

Contra Costa judge honored Landau, the Contra Costa judge who was recognized, has served on the bench for 20 years. During her law school years and early career, she said, she never had a woman or person of color as a law professor and there wasn’t a woman on the U.S. Supreme Court until Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

“Things change,” she said, adding that the best decision she ever made, aside from marrying her husband,

was leaving her law practice for the bench.

“We make decisions that affect real people in real ways,” she said of herself and her judicial colleagues.

She nodded to the diversity on the Contra Costa bench since she first began serving, noting that there are gay judges now.

She also commented on changes in the public’s perception of judges.

“Judges used to be revered,” she said. “Not so much anymore. Judges are now threatened and stalked.”

Landau outlined her guiding principles: integrity matters, decency matters, and perspective matters. “Let’s all do something,” she said. “Let’s resolve to do more.” t

Members who wanted to remain connected with the church joined LGBTQ-welcoming parishes, like Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the Castro. Dignity/SF partnered with the church for some actions, especially supporting people suffering from HIV/AIDS.

“San Francisco is unusual in having welcoming parishes,” said Riofski, such as Most Holy Redeemer, St. Agnes, Old St. Mary’s Cathedral and Chinese Mission, and St. John of God.

Other members followed Dignity/ SF to its popular midnight Christmas masses at the Castro Theatre in 1986 and 1987 and to its home at Dolores Street Baptist Church in 1989. The community dwindled to 150 members at that time, said Riofski. The Baptist church burned down in 1993. Dignity/SF found a permanent home at Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church in the Inner Sunset in 1994.

Unwelcomed

The San Francisco archdiocese hasn’t been as welcoming. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who was appointed to the seat in 2012 by Benedict, has actively worked against LGBTQ rights, reported the New York Times. The Human Rights Campaign called him out on this publicly in 2015 for characterizing LGBTQ sexual relationships as “gravely evil” and his attempt to insert anti-LGBTQ language into teacher contracts at Catholic schools in his jurisdiction.

Many Dignity/SF members, who still feel the sting, expressed displeasure about conservatives in the church scapegoating the LGBTQ community during the sexual abuse scandal but were hesitant to talk about it on the record.

Current Pope Francis hasn’t neces-

sarily disavowed LGBTQ Catholics, but he hasn’t put the Vatican’s full weight toward advocating for queer Catholics either.

Duddy-Burke expressed hope “that Dignity/SF finds a way to influence the Archdiocese of San Francisco to be as welcoming and affirming as the Catholics of San Francisco, and as the rest of the community,” she wrote.

The San Francisco archdiocese and Cordileone did not respond to the B.A.R.’s request for comment about Dignity/SF’s 50th anniversary by press time.

Gratitude

Dignity/SF members expressed gratitude for the organization. Those who struggled with their faith and sexuality, those seeking a spiritual connection, those who wanted social justice aligned with their Catholic faith, and those who wanted a social community found a home at Dignity/SF.

Angelo, a 76-year-old gay man who only wanted to be identified by his first name, believes that without Dignity/SF, he would have “gone crazy.”

“Dignity was instrumental in the

acceptance of myself because I could finally put my faith and my sexuality together,” he said.

Seeking gay Catholic community in 1973, Trela, the community’s oldest member, discovered Dignity/SF in an advertisement in a local paper.

“I was just surprised and we all kind of looked at each other,” said Trela, recalling the group of about 25 people.

“It was the first time a group of Catholics wanted to have something to do with a gay Catholic group.”

Angelo, who joined Dignity/SF in 1979, was pleasantly surprised to “see that many gay Catholics, to see a priest that was talking about God loving us as we are,” he said.“I just kept coming back.”

Emmanuel Romero, a 38-year-old Filipino gay man, was raised Catholic but didn’t pay attention to the church’s anti-gay rhetoric until he came out as an adult. The moment his family’s parish priest led an anti-gay sermon during a mass, he walked out, he said.

“I immediately knew that what the church was saying about gay people was wrong,” Romero said. “People should not be forced to choose between who

they are and their spirituality.”

Romero still wanted the Catholic spiritual community.

“I very much grew up with that as part of not just my spirituality, but also my cultural identity,” said Romero who found Dignity/SF.

Activism

Dignity/SF members were active in political movements, but Dignity/ SF as an organization rarely got involved in movements, Riofski said.

The LGBTQ Catholic community’s priests supported social justice issues through sermons. Community members participated in “prayer of the faithful,” where members would pray for issues of the day.

Some Dignity/SF members organized the now-defunct Catholics for Human Dignity, a political action organization to mobilize against the 1978 Briggs initiative, which attempted to bar LGBTQ teachers in schools. It was ultimately defeated, Riofski said.

Dignity/SF members also responded quickly to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

“Dignity was the first one to offer support for the HIV crisis,” said Angelo. “Then the group was just decimated by AIDS.”

Dignity/SF partnered with Most Holy Redeemer to respond to the epidemic and eventually turned the operation over to the church, “because they had greater resources,” Riofski said.

Some Dignity/SF members participate in social justice movements independently.

Responding to modern-day attacks on the LGBTQ community is one of Dignity/SF’s goals to be more in line with DignityUSA and its members.

“Dignity/San Francisco, as a chapter of DignityUSA, really offers younger Catholics an opportunity to learn about the history of social justice within the Catholic Church,” Romero said. He would like to see “DignityUSA take a more active role in promoting social justice causes that aren’t necessarily related to the Catholic Church,” he said.

It is something Dignity/SF could offer to young queer Catholics as it steps into its next 50 years.

Future

In its 50th year and starting to bring the community together for inperson gatherings amid the ongoing COVID outbreak, Dignity/SF leaders and members are excited about the community’s future.

“We’ve found a way to be of service here to the larger community and we want to expand that in the coming years,” Riofski said.

“Our goal is to think big,” he continued. “Our goal is to welcome everyone to the table.” t

For information about Dignity/ SF’s future events, visit https://dignitysf.org, although the site was not updated at press time.

to have had, and of being open to learning and teachings from all members in the community, including the young and aging,” Fabian stated in a news release.

A powwow is a traditional Native American event that gathers all tribes as well as inviting non-Native guests to learn more about Native culture, the release noted. Last year about 5,000 people attended. Vendors will be on site selling frybread, buffalo burgers, Native art and jewelry, and

other crafts. The powwow features several hours of ceremonial honor dances, contest dances, and a drum contest. All powwow dancers and drummers are welcome.

Two-Spirit is a Native American term for people with both female and male energies, the release explained. Two-Spirits may or may not identify as LGBTQ.

The powwow is family-friendly and a clean and sober event. Street attire is encouraged for non-Natives. Organizers ask that costumes be left at home.

Fort Mason is located at 2 Marina Boulevard in San Francisco. For more information, go to baaits.org.

of HIV’s envelope protein, which may be necessary to confer broad protection. Mosaico was the last large trial testing a traditional vaccine approach for HIV prevention, and most experts now think more sophisticated strategies will be needed.

“We don’t yet know why the vaccine didn’t provide protection, but studies are underway to evaluate the immune response generated by the vaccine,” Buchbinder told the B.A.R. “The results of this trial suggest that

other approaches, such as those that are designed to generate broadly neutralizing antibodies, may be a more successful path forward.”

Studies exploring different HIV vaccine strategies are already underway. For example, scientists with IAVI (formerly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) and Scripps Research in La Jolla, California are testing a series of vaccines that aim to encourage the development of specialized B-cells and train to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies. The same mRNA technology used in the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech CO-

Aging with Pride conference

The Alzheimer’s Association will host a half-day conference focused on resources and support for LGBTQIA+ caregivers, community members, and families taking care of their loved ones. The conference will take place in-person Thursday, February 9, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the California Endowment Regional Office, 2000 Franklin Street in downtown Oakland. The event is free.

According to a news release from the Alzheimer’s Association, in California there are currently 690,000 people living with that disease or de-

VID vaccines could help this process move faster.

In a recent early study, all but one of the 36 participants who received the initial vaccine developed specialized precursor B cells. However, it could be years before this approach is ready for large trials, and a vaccine regimen that requires multiple shots would be difficult to roll out worldwide.

What’s more, HIV vaccine research has become more challenging now that experimental vaccines must measure up against PrEP pills or longacting injections, which are highly effective when used consistently.

mentia and the number is expected to double by 2040. LGBTQIA+ seniors are twice as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to develop dementia, the release stated, and may face additional challenges and discrimination compared to non-LGBTQIA+ individuals with the same illness.

Additionally, LGBTQIA+ people may have a past discrimination that can be triggered by the cognitive decline associated with dementia, the release stated.

The upcoming conference is open to everyone, as dementia doesn’t discriminate based on race, national ori-

“We only enrolled participants not on PrEP after they had been given an authentic choice to go on PrEP, with barriers removed to accessing these drugs,” Buchbinder said. “One thing we’ve clearly learned from study participants is that people want a choice, and that a vaccine will be an important option for those who don’t want PrEP.”

The latest disappointment has led some to question whether an effective and widely accessible HIV vaccine will ever be available, making other prevention tools even more crucial. Despite its effectiveness, PrEP is still not widely used outside urban gay communities

gin, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The event will focus on dementia in the LGBTQIA community, the 10 signs of dementia, community resources for caregivers, and overcoming barriers: caregiving while Black and queer.

The conference is being presented in partnership with the Pacific Center for Human Growth in Berkeley, Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, and Openhouse, the LGBTQ senior agency in San Francisco. To register, go to https://bit.ly/3XLsP4u t

in the United States and Europe.

“[W]e now have more proven HIV prevention options than ever before, but they are not reaching everyone who needs and wants them,” Warren said. “Even as researchers continue the necessary work of accelerating HIV vaccine research, the broader HIV response must act as if we may never have a vaccine and prioritize the rollout of existing prevention options and research for additional ones. Ending this pandemic requires simultaneous action on multiple fronts of research, development and delivery.” t

Dignity/San Francisco members get ready to march in the San Francisco Pride parade in the early 1980s.

Courtesy Thaddeus Trela

them to offer new tenants a reasonable rent.”

He was referring to legislation he spearheaded that changes bars’ zoning status from not being permitted at all to being permitted conditionally in the Castro Street neighborhood commercial district, or NCD, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

In Milk’s day, Harvey’s was called the Elephant Walk, which first opened in 1974. The disco diva Sylvester performed there, and it was a site of reprisal early May 22, 1979, when San Francisco police officers came in and attacked patrons following the White Night Riots downtown, which were a response to Milk’s killer, Dan White, receiving only a seven-year sentence for his crimes. (White ended up serv-

Political Notebook

From page 7

Hirsch told the B.A.R. he voted for Wade after meeting her at a candidate event and liking her platform’s focus on environmental issues. He faults current city leadership for not doing anything to address the impacts Seal Beach faces from climate change, coastal erosion, and pollution from the San Gabriel River, which serves as a natural border between the town and Long Beach, which is in Los Angeles County.

“I tried for years to get the city council to address it and bring it to their attention,” Hirsch said of the polluted river. “Everyone will not, or cannot, deal with it.”

Environmental issues are a major concern for Wade, a longtime member and leader of the Surfrider Foundation who specifically moved to Seal

ing five years and later died by suicide.)

After a fire almost destroyed it in the late 1980s, the Elephant Walk required extensive remodeling. Harvey’s was opened in the space in 1996 by Paul Langley, the property owner, who had refused to renew the Elephant Walk’s lease.

Harvey’s closure was announced to the public early January 22 via a statement written on a chalkboard on the side of the business, where happier messages had been common.

“This is our last day being open,” the statement read. “What is next? We don’t know, But we know we will miss all of you!”

A spokesperson for Harvey’s declined to comment to the B.A.R. for this report with a further statement about the closure, other than to say more will be coming soon to inform the community.

Beach in order to live near the ocean. It is a major part of her campaign platform.

“I am a surfer. This is really where I wanted to live for years, but I worked for a congressman in northeast Orange County,” said Wade, who had been employed by Congressmember Gil Cisneros (D-Anaheim) and moved to Seal Beach on September 15, 2021.

Originally from New York, where she first took up surfing, Wade served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain, infantry officer and a combat engineer corporal. She then taught social studies and physical education at a public school for 14 years and was its founding track head coach.

She initially moved to California with her former wife in 2013 to Culver City in Los Angeles County. The couple finalized their divorce in 2020, but the co-parents of a teenage daughter and adult son remain close friends.

Business closures have been a persistent problem in the Castro for many years, and the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated it. Up the block from Harvey’s, the Badlands nightclub shuttered in 2020 and has not reopened, and a location of El Capitan Taqueria at the intersection of 18th and Collingwood streets closed just one week before Harvey’s.

Longtime gay activist Cleve Jones told the B.A.R. he visited Harvey’s late Sunday, where they gave him a photo of himself and Milk at his own 24th birthday party on October 11, 1978 that’d been hanging on the wall.

“I didn’t loot the building,” Jones said, adding that he would be happy to return it if they want it back, or to a successor business.

“Last night was a pretty sad night for me,” said Jones, who worked for Milk and founded the AIDS Memo-

Anti-trans attacks

Last year, with no one seemingly interested in seeking the council seat, Wade decided to mount her first bid for elected office and announced her campaign in May. During the general election Wade said she was misgendered by one male speaker at a candidate forum and faced what she described as “dog whistle” coded antiLGBTQ language about “family values” from Landau and her supporters.

It wasn’t until she came in first place in November, said Wade, when the blatant anti-trans attacks began against her.

“The transphobic attacks on social media started hot and heavy right away,” said Wade. “Now Lisa Landau’s supporters are canvassing door to door saying to people, ‘You don’t want this place to turn into West Hollywood, do you?’”

She refutes suggestions from her

rial Quilt. “I went down to Harvey’s, which still in my mind is Elephant Walk, and I can still hear Sylvester’s voice echoing in there, and it makes me very sad. Then I went for a little walk. I walked past the Castro Theatre, which appears to be shuttered. I saw Cafe Flore still empty. So those were three places that were so hugely important to me and to everyone during the time this neighborhood was so important. There’s going to be more to come.”

(David Perry, a gay man who is a spokesperson for Another Planet Entertainment, reached out to the B.A.R. after the initial publication of this report to clarify that the Castro Theatre is running programming. It has not been consistent, however, and sometimes the theater goes weeks without an event or screening.)

opponent and detractors that her ambition is to use being a councilmember to seek higher office.

“I did not move to the city with this in mind,” Wade told the B.A.R. about being a council candidate.

Rather, she had become concerned about what plans the city had to address the frequent flooding it now faces, said Wade. The morning she spoke to the B.A.R. she was dealing with a flooded home and had turned off a dehumidifier in order to talk to a reporter.

“I live on the first floor of a building with a slab foundation on the river. The house is flooded as we speak,” said Wade. “My district floods several times a year, and the city doesn’t even manage that very well.”

Having worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and spent years in federal and local government, Wade felt she had the skill set needed to be an effective city councilmember. Open

“After that he traveled around and ended up in Orange County. Coming back to SF was like a homecoming for him.”

According to an essay of memories written by Russell’s spouse, Hannah Russell Laws, who is also nonbinary, Boston was born February 7, 1982.

“His childhood was complicated,” Russell Laws stated. “Much the youngest of a family of six, he was born to a working-class white mother and a Native American wanderer – while the husband that would help raise him languished in prison. He came out as gay as a young teenager in the 1990s, in a religious household, in a small town.”

Russell said that the two met at a coffee shop in Orange County, and they got along initially because “he was very protective of me.”

“There were lots of different kinds of people who went there to hang out and there were some people there who weren’t super

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF

NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557649

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

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557650

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

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

trustworthy and he saw me as a lost kid,” Russell said. “He always made sure I had something to eat and, you know, looking out for me. He respected what I had to say even though he was older than me. He encouraged me to say what was on my mind.”

The two loved movies and museums, Russell said. It irritated them that strangers assumed the two were a couple even though they were both queer.

For a brief time, Boston went to live in Paradise, in Butte County, and was there “when it burned down in 2018” during the Camp Fire, recalled Russell. He went there to take care of his sister’s dogs and “because he wanted to get out of the city for a while and be in nature. Sharing art and being outside were the ties that bind with everyone,” Russell said.

“Under a blackened sky, he would drive down the only road out-oftown, coagulated with smoke and traffic, flanked by exploding gas pumps, with his sister’s two terrified dogs barking in the backseat,”

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557657

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

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557659

In the matter of the application of MICHELE PATRICE ADAMS AKA BLAIR PATRICE ADAMS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MICHELE PATRICE ADAMS AKA BLAIR PATRICE ADAMS is requesting that the name MICHELE PATRICE ADAMS AKA BLAIR PATRICE ADAMS be changed to MICHELE PATRICE ADAMS. 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 14th of FEBRUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

the essay stated about Boston’s experience surviving the Paradise fire. “And he would survive.”

Russell learned their friend had died from Boston’s roommate, who sent a mass text message to friends.

“He was just a purely creative person,” they said. “He created the life he wanted and was always striving to make his dreams come true, and summoned the dreams of others without judgment or trying to make you fit into what he thought. … He could be very stubborn, because he wanted you to stick to your dream.”

Russell Laws wrote in the essay that Boston “had little, and gave a lot.”

“At any one time, Gavin owned only four shirts, two pairs of pants, and two pairs of shoes,” the essay stated. “He assigned value to people and nature, but never to things. He was incredibly generous, with friends, family, and strangers alike. Instinctively compassionate and nurturing, Gavin especially loved giving his time towards helping kids, and kids truly loved him right back.”

CAUSE

TO SHOW

ORDER

FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557663

In the matter of the application of JULIE LEE AKA JULIE IM, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JULIE LEE AKA JULIE IM is requesting that the name JULIE LEE AKA JULIE IM be changed to YEJIN JULIE LIM. 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 16th of FEBRUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399109

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NATURAL ALIGNMENT ROLFING, 4827 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MING LI JIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/22.

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399112

The following person(s) is/are doing business as I’M COMING OUT MINISTRIES (ICO), 10 CASHMERE ST #1B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CITY PREACHERS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under

Jones said that while COVID was a “devastating and protracted mess,” some businesses (he named Anchor Oyster Bar and Catch) were able to survive because “they had good, strong management, consistent quality, and a really dedicated loyal staff.”

“I have been trying to sound the alarm about the death of the gayborhoods for a few years now, and I don’t see anything productive in blame games but people have to realize this isn’t just a phenomena in San Francisco,” Jones said. “The gayborhoods are going away and with that we risk losing political power, cultural vitality and the ability to provide specialized social services for the most vulnerable.”

The Castro Merchants Association did not respond to a request for comment for this report. t

about her gender identity, Wade said her becoming the first trans elected official in Orange County was never the motivation behind her candidacy.

“I saw a way of life here under threat. The government needs to protect us and our property and way of life,” said Wade. “I can help with that.”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 the new Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club president.

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) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com

Regarding the criminal case, since a minor can only be charged as an adult once they reach 16, as per state law, proceedings are taking place in juvenile court. The San Francisco Public Defender’s office accused the San Francisco District Attorney’s office of leaking information to the media, and asked the judge to order the prosecutor’s office to preserve all communication about the case, the Chronicle reported.

“The Public Defender’s office will be exploring all avenues for holding the District Attorney’s office accountable for violating state law,” the office stated. The public defender’s office also requested a gag order on future hearings regarding the minors.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Roger Chan ordered that the 15-year-old boy remain in custody.

The District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this report regarding the status of the suspects, or regarding the allegations by the public defender’s office.

the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/22.

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399004

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHRISTA SWEET MARKET, 3001 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JAMELA MOUSA INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/14/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/14/22.

JAN 05, 12, 19, 26, 2023

NOTICE OF AMENDED PETITION TO ADMORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557651

In the matter of the application of HALEY LARKIN ELIZABETH READ, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner HALEY LARKIN ELIZABETH READ AKA HALEY LARKIN ELIZABETH GRANOFF is requesting that the name HALEY LARKIN ELIZABETH READ AKA HALEY LARKIN ELIZABETH GRANOFF be changed to HALEY LARKIN READ GRANOFF. 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 16th of FEBRUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted. JAN 12, 19, 26, FEB 02, 2023

Gavin Boston

Boston had only been working as a security guard at the location of his death for two months, Russell said.

“I just needed to do what I could to try to make sure the real Gavin is out there,” Russell said. t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE CITY COUNTRY GROUP, 2501 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD LESTER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/12/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/16/22.

JAN 12, 19, 26, FEB 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399134

The following person(s) is/are doing business as URBAN FLOWERS, 4029 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VERONICA REYNOSO GUTIERREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/23. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/23.

JAN 12, 19, 26, FEB 02, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399154

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TALAVERA-BALLON STUDIO, 3712 25TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CLAUDIO TALAVERA-BALLON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/23/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/23.

JAN 12, 19, 26, FEB 02, 2023

Courtesy Castle Russell

world premiere commission debuts at NCTC

by Jim Gladstone

“Getting There,” Dipika Guha’s shifting, shimmering new play is an elegant work of Rubik’s Cubism. Instead of six colors, the play –commissioned by the New Conservatory Theatre Center, which officially opens its world premiere production on January 28– asks its characters and audiences to puzzle over a halfdozen abstract but interrelated concepts: loneliness, desire, friendship, love, guilt, and aging.

These themes twist and turn in each other’s presence; jostling, harmonizing and sharing space in sometimes comfortable, sometimes clashing combinations. The play manages to successfully meld the cerebral and the melodramatic.

Set in Paris, “Getting There” revolves around five women of color whose relationships are gradually revealed over the show’s intermission-less 70 minutes. Guha touches on railway connections and airplane flights, but the journeys she’s fundamentally concerned with are the psychological and existential ones taken over the course of a lifetime.

The play unfolds in a teasing, non-chronologi-

cal series of scenes that will repeatedly upend –or at least complicate– opinions audience members have formed about the characters just minutes before.

“We get unhappy when characters contradict themselves,” said Guha in a recent phone conversation with the Bay Area Reporter from her home in Los Angeles. “It fights against traditional dramaturgy. But that’s part of what I wanted to do here. Because we all sometimes contradict ourselves.”

Experimenting with expression

While the Calcutta-born, Los Angeles-based Guha has worked in the writers rooms of television series, including “Sneaky Pete” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” she counts the experimental Irene Maria Fornes (“Fefu and her Friends”) and Caryl Churchill (“Love and Information”) among her playwriting influences. With “Getting There,” she aspired to crafting dialogue that has an almost total absence of subtext.

“There’s no pretense to these characters,” Guha said, “They’re emotionally transparent. I wanted to have their thoughts come directly out of their mouths. They say what they know at a given moment.”

“Getting There” began as a very specific thought experiment for Guha, inspired by the queer writer and MacArthur Fellow Maggie Nelson’s “Bluets,” a collection of fragmentary observations and meditations that slowly coalesce into a dazzling, faceted coherence. Guha tried to write a non-linear, non-narrative play that reflected her consciousness while musing on the idea of friendship.

“Well, there’s always a difference between the play you intend to write and the play you actually write,” she said with a verbal shrug. “I started out capturing just thoughts and moments. But eventually these characters arrived.”

Spare, smart and substantial

Nonetheless, the play’s quick transitions across time and place and some of its thrillingly irresolvable tensions carry a poetic residue of Guha’s initial process. And the dialogue offers up juicy aperçus that could easily stand alone outside of any particular narrative context; to wit:

“When you travel with someone…you cannot experience your own self.”

Even Guha’s stage directions exude a philosophical bent. Describing two characters, her notes read:

“Julie. She is in her twenties. She has no idea how young she is.”

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Dry January and post-holiday doldrums can leave us aching for a pick-me-up and that’s where queer TV comes in.

The Traitors

Oh, do we love Alan Cumming. We were blessed to see him on stage in  “Cabaret” and will never forget it. Cumming hosts Peacock’s new unscripted reality competition series, “The Traitors.” It’s described as “a nail-biting psychological adventure in which treachery and deceit are the name of the game.”

Twenty contestants compete in a series of challenges to earn a cash prize. The series takes place in a castle in the Scottish Highlands, and the prize is a cool $250,000. The players are referred as the ‘Faithful,’ but among them are the eponymous ‘Traitors,’ a group of contestants selected by Cumming, whose goal is to eliminate the Faithfuls and claim the prize for themselves. Should the Faithful contestants eliminate all the Traitors, they will share the prize fund, but if any Traitors make it to the end, they steal the money.

Each night the Traitors get together to choose one Faithful contestant to ‘murder,’ and that person will leave the game immediately. The remaining

Faithful contestants will not know who has been eliminated until the following day when they will not enter the castle for breakfast.

This series is so much fun, and of course there are queer folks among the contestants who include some big names from other reality TV series including “Survivor,” “Below Deck,” “Big Brother,” “Summer House” and “The Bachelor.” Enjoy lots of backstabbing, lots of in-fighting, and Cumming in some pretty cool regalia including a tartan and a beret. You will love it. As he says to one contestant, “And you thought the ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ was bad.”

Poker Face

Poker Face, starring “Orange Is the New Black” alumnus Natasha Lyonne, is fabulous. Are you missing “The White Lotus” and “Only Murders in the Building”? This new Peacock series, which debuts January 26, is for you. With Emmy- and Tonywinning lesbian actor Cherry Jones, queer-friendly icon Chloë Sevigny, British actor Jameela Alia Jamil who publicly declared herself as queer after her appointment as a judge of the voguing reality series “Legendary,” Oscar-winner Adrien Brody, Emmywinner Ellen Barkin, and lesbian actor Clea DuVall.

Alan Cumming (center) and contestants in ‘The Traitors’

Natasha Lyonne in ‘Poker Face’

Laura Domingo and Lauren Andrei Garcia in ‘Getting There’

Simone Bloch and Desiree M. Rogers in ‘Getting There’

Lois Tema

Lois Tema

<< Getting there

From page 12

“

Ira. She is in her late thirties. She has every idea of her age and then some.”

ººAsked whether she considers her creative approach to be more emotional or intellectual, Guha said, “I think my work comes from exactly the place where those notions meet, exploring intellectual questions that have their roots in emotional moments.”

“Even at times when I may be more intellectually inclined, in playwriting you’re always dealing with actors’ bodies and how words and ideas end up being expressed. So there’s always an emotional component there.”

“I will say that I don’t think of myself as sentimental,” Guha said. “I reject a lot of sentimentality in writing.”

Indeed, even as the characters in “Getting There” grapple with issues as

From page 12

Created by Rian Johnson (“Knives Out,” “Glass Onion”), this mystery-ofthe-week series follows Charlie Cale (Lyonne) and focuses on her uncanny ability to know when someone is lying. Traveling across the country in her Plymouth Barracuda, she meets a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve every time she stops. An inverted detective series, the crime and perpetrator are shown at the beginning of each episode, then Charlie tries to solve the mystery a la “Columbo.” This show is so queer and you are so going to love it. Lyonne is spectacular and the cast is extraordinary.

potent as abortion, sexual identity and declining health, Guha keeps them in moment-to-moment forward motion, never wallowing or reminiscing.

The contemplative, premonitory minimalism of “Getting There” marks a significant leap forward in Guha’s playwriting from her idea-packed but over-embellished comedy “Yoga Play,” which was produced at the San Francisco Playhouse in 2019.

With “Getting There,” Dipika Guha has arrived. t

‘Getting There,’ through Feb. 26. Wednesday nights preshow includes Parisian piano stylings by Suzanne ‘Kitten on the Keys’ Ramsey, 7pm-8pm. $25-$65. New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level (415) 861-8972 https://www.nctcsf.org/

“Velma” serves as an alternate universe origin story for Mystery Inc., pitched as a “love quadrangle.” It primarily focuses on Velma as she tries to solve a mystery regarding the disappearance of her mother, as well as the numerous murders of local teenage girls.

Velma is a snarky teenage would-be detective with a lifelong passion for solving mysteries, a trait she inherited from her mother. Velma is portrayed as bisexual and a South Asian American due to Kaling’s ethnicity, a first for the character.

Velma was revealed as a lesbian last fall, but now is bi, so whether the new series will address that shift is still a question. Nevertheless, it’s Mindy Kaling and Constance Wu, whose Daphne has “complicated feelings” for Velma. (Also, Daphne has two lesbian moms.) The cast of voice actors has a lot of lesbians and queer women: Cherry Jones, Jane Lynch, Fortune Feimster, Nicole Byer and Shay Mitchell.

Sky Rojo: Season 3

Velma

New from HBO Max, “Velma” is an American adult animated mystery horror comedy series based on the character Velma Dinkley from the Scooby-Doo franchise. Developed and created by Charlie Grandy (“SNL,” “The Daily Show”) for HBO Max, it stars executive producer Mindy Kaling as the voice of the eponymous character, with Sam Richardson, Constance Wu and Glenn Howerton in supporting roles. Grandy also serves as the showrunner.

The series revolves around Velma and the other human members of Mystery Inc. before their official formation, making it the first entry in the franchise to not feature the Scooby-Doo character and as a sort-of prequel to Scooby-Doo. Kaling is also a writer on the series.

A Spanish black comedy action drama television series, “Sky Rojo,” created by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato, follows three sex workers –Coral, Wendy, and Gina– who flee from their pimp, Romeo. According to the creators, the series shows “the impunity, ambiguity and brutal reality of prostitution, and the psychological portraits of those on both sides.” Pina and Martínez Lobato have described “Sky Rojo” as “Latin pulp.”

The series stars Wendy (Argentine singer Lali Espósito) who’s described as “a lesbian woman from Buenos Aires who flees Villa 31 and becomes a sex worker in the brothel to make money so she can provide a better life for herself and her girlfriend.” With Verónica Sánchez as Coral, Yany Prado as Gina and Asier Etxeandia as Romeo, it’s filmed on location in Madrid and Tenerife. Watch it on Netflix.

Finally, the 49ers meet the Eagles January 29 in the game that will determine which team makes it to the Super Bowl (where queen Rihanna is the half time entertainment!). Both teams trounced their competition in the playoffs, so expect a great game. t

playwright Dipika Guha

Velma

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Carly Ozard

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Carly Ozard is a rising star in the world of cabaret. The singer has graced the stages of a variety of prestigious venues including Feinstein’s at the Nikko, Oasis and 54 Below in New York. She is also a musical theater performer, having been seen with The Lamplighters, 42nd Street Moon and the legendary Lincoln Center.

Ozard is now launching a new monthly series at popular San Francisco piano bar Martuni’s. Beginning Sunday, January 29, and continuing on the last Sunday of each month through the end of 2023, Ozard, accompanied by Barry Lloyd at the piano, will offer “Live at Martuni’s: Carly Ozard and Friends.” These performances will team Ozard with top names from the drag, comedy, theater and nightlife communities in Martuni’s music lounge. Performances will include selections from musical theater, rock and pop, as well as original music.

Ozard, who identifies as nonbinary, tells the Bay Area Reporter that as a child, performing was the only thing she knew how to do.

“When I was growing up in Belmont, I went to the public library a lot and

singer launches monthly shows at Martuni’s

checked out a bunch of Broadway musicals on cassette and eventually CD,” she recalled. “I was probably the only eight-year-old in Belmont who checked out all the recordings of “Gypsy” and could tell you who Tyne Daly was and why I liked her better than Rosalind Russell.”

Her music covers a wide range of genres. She sings originals and covers, with a focus on easy listening, electronic dance music, folk rock and musical theater. She recently joined a Grateful Dead band.

Ozard has enjoyed many musical adventures. During her New York days she sang on subway platforms and recalled that as a lesson in vulnerability and exposure.

“I made friends, connections, booked gigs from my time there, and also experienced some eye-opening realities about the mental health of unhoused folks who we really, as a society, need to be helping out more,” she said. “It drove me to learn more about mental health struggles in the Black and brown communities, and it broadened my compassion and empathy towards the epidemic affecting so many people who call the tunnels of the subway home.”

Guest stars

Of course she is very excited to be launching her new series of shows at Martuni’s. Ozard will be seen with new guests each month, and the shows they do will celebrate what the guest brings to the table. The evenings will be casual. It will be as though a group of friends were getting together to sing songs they love, with a loving audience on hand to enjoy the music.

Ozard is delighted to be accompanied by Barry Lloyd.

“His skills and his authenticity are unbelievable,” she said. “He plays piano and harpsichord masterfully, and then his background in acting, musical direction and even ballet dancing makes him a wonderful and well-rounded performer. There’s no one like him, and we are so lucky to have him in San Francisco. His love of vintage jewelry and awesome style also lets me know he’s a fun and interesting person to spend time with.”

The guest performers come from all walks of San Francisco nightlife.

Appearing with Ozard on her debut night at Martuni’s will be JOAN!, a new drag queen on the scene. JOAN! is played by Caleb Haven Draper, a seasoned musical theater performer who has been seen at SF Playhouse, Center Rep, 42nd Street Moon, Berkeley Playhouse and Oasis.

Coming up at future shows will be drag artists Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Dusty Porn, soprano Nikki Arias, Brazilian duo Grupo Tribulacion, Ozard’s own folk trio Colorblind Dilemma, and an acoustic Grateful Dead show for Halloween. Ozard feels that Martuni’s is the perfect venue to perform these shows.

“Skip Ziobron, the owner, is a San Francisco treasure,” Ozard said. “And the talent and music lovers who frequent the space are supportive of each other. Many folks got their start practicing their craft using the open

mics as their canvas, and shows have been running successfully there for years. It’s also affordable, with reasonable cover charges, and there are all types of genres showcased, so there’s something for everyone.”

Ozard would love to be able to use her singing and songwriting careers in support of causes near and dear to her heart.

“I recently found out that George Michael attached a friend’s name as a songwriter to one of his songs, and it set him up for life,” she said. “I would love to link my songs to causes, charities and individuals who need help, but the song needs to take off first.” t

‘Live at Martuni’s: Carly Ozard and Friends,’ Sunday, January 29, 7pm and the final Sunday of each month thereafter, at Martuni’s, 4 Valencia St. $16. 21 and up. www. carlyozard.com

Brittney Griner’s drama in a comic

by Laura Moreno

Brittney Griner’s inspirational life story has now been immortalized in a new comic book published by TidalWave Comics.

“Female Force: Brittney Griner,” the 22-page comic book, chronicles her meteoric rise to basketball stardom and legendary career, as well as her detention and dramatic release from prison in Russia. Written by Michael Frizell and illustrated by Martin Gimenez, it is part of the popular “Female Force” series. Reportedly, it was in production before her detention in Russia.

Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Queen Elizabeth II and others have been featured in the series.

“My initial approach was to explore her history to show her growth as an athlete and person,” said Frizell. “I’ve found Brittney’s story fascinating… I hope readers will walk away understanding the person behind the headlines.”

Brittney Griner’s phenomenal sports career was abruptly put on hold in February 2022 when she was found with less than one gram of hashish oil in her luggage in a Russian airport en route to the Ural region to play basketball professionally.

Convicted of “drug smuggling with criminal intent,” she was sentenced to nine years in a forced labor colony. Her appeal was denied.

The US Government successfully negotiated Griner’s release on

December 8, 2022 in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

In 2016, Russia revived its reviled forced labor camps. The Stalin-era gulags previously imprisoned millions of people, many unjustly, until Nikita Khrushchev dismantled them in the 1950s. Despite its ideals, Communism operates de facto like “state capitalism,” with the government keeping the profits.

After her release, Griner wrote on Instagram: “It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.”

Carly Ozard in a 2019 show

Carly Ozard Gooch

basketball star’s life told visually

Brittney Griner

Headline goes right here

New operas for the new year: ‘Everest’ and ‘Prospero’

by Philip Campbell

Two new opera productions from groundbreaking creators are coming to San Francisco in February and March. Collaborations between a veritable Who’s Who of contemporary artists give encouraging evidence of the state of the art.

Innovative Opera Parallele (OP) introduced its adaptation of the opera “Everest” in 2021 streaming a “graphic novel opera” video during the pandemic shutdown. British composer Joby Talbot and American librettist Gene Scheer originally dramatized a true-life 1996 Mount Everest expedition that took the lives of eight hikers. The world premiere in 2015 was a fully staged production at Dallas Opera.

The later reimagining brought the work to a wider audience with a brilliant workaround, using graphics and pre-recorded voices to assure social distancing while still providing a uniquely intimate experience.

Tickets are on sale now for the opera’s newest iteration, “Everest: An Immersive Experience” at Z Space on February 3-12.

Directed by Brian Staufenbiel and conducted by OP’s General Director and Conductor Nicole Paiement, the husband and wife pillars of the Company lead the production team of illustrator Mark Simmons; projection designer and director of photography David Murakami; sound engineer Miles Lassi; and scenic designer Jacquelyn Scott.

Featured singers include two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and bass-baritone Kevin Burdette, repeating their roles from the Dallas production, along with tenor Nathan Granner, a member of Sony Masterworks The American Tenors and barihunk Hadleigh Adams (well known from San Francisco Opera and West Edge Opera). Their voices, mixed in a digital soundtrack, are visualized with “motion capture” technology.

Audience members will be surrounded by 360-degree imagery and sound and offered white smocks to become part of the projected landscape,

Griner

At 6 foot 9 inches tall and wearing a size 17 men’s shoe, Griner is one the most impressive women’s basketball players in history. Since being named the #1 high school basketball player in the nation, she has earned many accolades as a star player.

And she is the only NCAA basketball player to ever score over 2,000 points and also block over 500 shots. Griner won a gold medal at the Rio

fully immersed in the experience. It might sound a little gimmicky, but judging from OP’s impressive artistic record, it will probably be cutting-edge.

A few matinees require masking, but most performances do not and Z Space is a 13,000-square-foot venue with 40foot tall ceilings, so there’s plenty of breathing room. “Everest: An Immersive Experience” could be just the ticket to get audiences back into live performances. It is also a great way to show case opera as an evolving art form.

Island Magic Allen Shearer and Claudia Stevens’ chamber opera, “Prospero’s Island” comes to the Herbst Theatre for its world premiere Saturday March 25, 7:30pm. Presented by Ninth Planet and InTandem, the one-night-only event is a modern (1950s) take on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” moved to the Falkland Islands and featuring seven characters from the play with an additional chorus of penguins sung by members of the Grammywinning San Francisco Girls Chorus.

Respect for the natural world is a subtext of the opera and the titular main character is given a darker past in Stevens’ libretto. His transgressions (crossing animals with humans, which have produced the sprite Ariel, and the loutish Caliban) breached ethics and basic humanity.

Despite his efforts at apology, he still rules his island autocratically. With his teenaged daughter Miranda, Prospero remains marooned in his own world. The real world comes to him when Stephano and Trinculo, reimagined as rowdy female members of an aircrew parachute down, and join with Caliban to plot and party.

The Shearer and Stevens partnership has produced ten chamber operas, with well-received recent works including “Middlemarch in Spring” and “Howards End America.”

Andrew Dwan stars as Prospero. In my 2019 review of his performance in the Merola Opera Program’s 62nd season opener, singing Mephistopheles’ serenade from Gounod’s “Faust,”

de Janeiro Olympics and another gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

After her release on Dec. 8, Brittney Griner entered reintegration treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas to give her the tools necessary to move ahead with her life in the U.S.

Griner announced that she intends “to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to

I noted his “rich and flexible tone and convincing acting.” The title role here seems well cast.

Coloratura soprano Shawnette Sulker as Ariel has many Bay Area credits including roles at San Francisco Opera (SFO). Baritone Bradley Kynard as Caliban has also appeared with SFO, OP, and Opera San Jose.

Soprano Amy Foote is Miranda. She has sung at the San Francisco Symphony in the trendy SoundBox series. Tenor Sergio Gonzalez is Miranda’s suitor in the role of Andy (Fernando). He graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has appeared with OP.

Soprano Candace Johnson, in the comic role of Trish (Trinculo), Soprano Julia Hathaway as Steffi (Stephano), and tenor Michael Mendelsohn, as Captain Al (Alonso) complete the cast.

Nathaniel Berman conducts the chamber orchestra and Phil Lowery is stage director.

Ninth Planet is a music ensemble and organization dedicated to fostering new music, especially works by young composers and artists and those from underrepresented communities. Their concert programs cover a range of styles highlighting local composers, women and LGBTQ composers, and composers of color.

“The Tempest” has enjoyed a long history of interpretations including ballet, opera, symphonic tone poems, incidental music, and film (anyone remember “Forbidden Planet” with Robby the Robot or Paul Mazursky’s “Tempest”?). “Prospero’s Island” continues the tradition with an intriguing premise and a promising production. t

‘Everest: An Immersive Experience’ at Z Space, February 3-12. $20-$115 (opening night gala). 450 Florida St. www.operaparallele.org

‘Prospero’s Island’ at the Herbst Theatre, Saturday March 25, 7:30pm. $25-$45. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.prosperosislandopera.com

those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon.”

She told ESPN, “Don’t worry about what other people are going to say, because they’re always going to say something, but if you’re just true to yourself, let that shine through. Don’t hide who you really are.” t

‘Female Force: Brittney Griner’ is available in print softcover $7.99, hardcover $19.99 and digital formats $2.99. www.tidalwavecomics.com

<< Brittney

(L-R) Sasha Cooke, Kevin Burdette, Nathan Granner, and Hadleigh Adams in ‘Everest: An Immersive Experience’

(L-R) Shawnette Sulker, Andrew Dwan and Bradley Kynard star in ‘Prospero’s Island’

Designer’s rendering of ‘Everest: An Immersive Experience’

showing the basketball player’s detention in ‘Female Force: Brittney Griner’