March 16, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Police arrest

UC employee in Oakland killing of gay man

by John Ferrannini

Oakland police have arrested a UC Berkeley employee in the recent stabbing death of a gay man, they confirmed to the Bay Area Reporter.

Sweven Waterman, 38, of Oakland, was arrested Thursday, March 9, and charged the following day by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office with the homicide of Curtis Marsh, 53, according to the University of California Police Department and Oakland Police Department Public Information Officer Kim Armstead.

Marsh was identified by police to the B.A.R. last Thursday afternoon after notification of his next of kin. Police said that so far their investigation shows no evidence of a hate crime, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

The University of California Police Department assisted in apprehending Waterman, Armstead stated, but Oakland police have not responded to a follow-up email asking if the arrest was made on the UC Berkeley campus.

Waterman works for the university, according to the Berkeley Scanner, which stated he is a senior custodian with UC Berkeley’s housing and dining services. He’s being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and has six prior convictions dating back to 2002, the publication reported, including felony evasion, forgery, robbery, and vehicle theft.

An arraignment was scheduled for March 13 but Waterman did not enter a plea and the next court date will be March 21. The UC Berkeley press office declined to give a statement but Janet Gilmore, the school’s senior director of strategic communications, stated, “Waterman is on administrative leave from his position of senior custodian” and provided a statement from the UCPD. This statement contradicts an earlier Oakland police assertion that the arrest was made Friday.

“On March 9, 2023 at 3:38 p.m. the University of California Police Department (UCPD) assisted the Oakland Police Department with the apprehension of a university employee wanted in connection with a homicide that occurred in Oakland,” the UCPD statement read.

See page 2 >>

Entering 4th year, Castro grapples with effects of COVID

by John Ferrannini

The beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020 marked a dark turning point in the lives of many people around the world, and that’s as true of San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood as anywhere.

But even as the pandemic’s direct influence on day-to-day life ebbs and COVID enters its fourth year – President Joe Biden took heat last fall for saying “the pandemic is over” though hundreds of people continued to die on average each day – the aftereffects are hard to overstate.

“It has been a really crazy three years and the impact is still being felt but it’s harder to say directly COVID at this point because there’s so much on top,” Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is general manager of Cliff’s Variety, told the Bay Area Reporter. “The war in Ukraine, the gas prices, it has an impact on a number of fronts. … I saw on the news people saying the supply chain will be fixed in six months and I laughed.”

The supply chain has been severely impacted by the pandemic, resulting in delayed shipments of many goods to retailers, car dealerships, and others.

Bennett’s shop on Castro Street was a lifeline

for many during the pandemic’s early years, as it remained open as an essential business. Since then, the store has leaned on the cautious side, providing masks and hand sanitizer, but its policies reflect the general relaxation of COVID prevention measures in the past two years.

“The last time I mandated the public wear [masks] was when we had 10 staff members get it in a week,” Bennett said, adding that this was during the late 2021-early 2022 Omicron surge. “That was awful. It was a really awful 10-day period, but when a quarter of the store comes down with COVID, you’ve got to do something.”

Masks have been optional for employees since the end of February, Bennett said.

“Within a week of it being optional people who chose not to [mask] all got the flu,” she noted.

San Francisco and California’s states of emergency ended February 28, and the federal state of emergency is set to end May 11.

“While the threat from COVID-19 is not over, as both the virus and the tools to respond to it have evolved over the past three years, San Francisco is now in a significantly better position today than at any prior time in the pandemic due to the city’s high vaccination and booster rates and the availability of effective COVID-19 treatments,” stated a recent city Department of Public Health news release.

See page 8 >>

Crucial Castro Theatre hearing dates pushed back to April

by John Ferrannini

Three city hearings relating to the future of the Castro Theatre’s landmark status and the appropriateness of Another Planet Entertainment’s plans for the interior of the historic movie palace have been pushed back to April, the Bay Area Reporter has learned.

Initially, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ land use committee was set to take up the Historic Preservation Commission’s interior landmarking recommendation on March 13. The Historic Preservation Commission on February 1 had approved a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors that would preserve the interior of the Castro Theatre with the “presence of seating” after a marathon meeting that stretched into the evening hours, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

That upset advocates who want to save the orchestra seating in the historic movie house. They had urged the commission to instead amend the recommendation to include “fixed seating.” But the panel declined to do so. (The commission did vote to approve an amendment to extend interior landmark status to balcony seats that date to 1922.)

One of Another Planet’s most contentious plans calls for the orchestra seating to be removed. Just days before the Historic Preservation Commission meeting last month, David Perry, a gay man who’s spokesperson for APE, announced a revised seating plan for the theater that would preserve the raked element for film events. It includes a mo -

torized floor that makes both raked seating and tiered standing arrangements possible, according to an announcement on the theater’s Facebook page.

Now that the Historic Preservation Commission has weighed in, the interior landmark proposal goes back to the Board of Supervisors for final approval, and the first step in that process is the committee hearing. The land use committee hearing will now be held Monday, April 3.

Last May, the Board of Supervisors voted in support of the enhanced interior landmark status, as the B.A.R. previously reported. That vote sent the item to the Historic Preservation Commission.

The exterior of the theater was designated a city landmark in 1977.

Other meetings

In addition to the supervisors’ voting a final time to expand the theater’s landmark, the Historic Preservation Commission was set to take up a certificate of appropriateness on APE’s plans for the building’s interior on March 15, followed by the planning commission on March 16. Those meetings have now been combined and been moved to April.

See page 2 >>

Three hearings on the Castro Theatre that were to have taken place this week have been pushed back to April.

Scott Wazlowski

People cross Castro Street at Market Street. Neighborhood leaders and residents hope the LGBTQ neighborhood can continue recovering from the COVID pandemic.

John Ferrannini

Curtis Marsh was found fatally stabbed in his Oakland home March 4.

“The subject was safely taken into custody and turned over to the Oakland Police Department. OPD is the lead agency, please direct any additional questions to the Oakland Police Department.”

Marsh, also known as drag artist Touri Monroe, was a hair stylist and a Miss Gay Oakland emeritus who used to sing with the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus. Originally from Iowa, friends described him as fun, helpful, and active in his church. A memorial was held March 11 at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center where friends

remembered Marsh. Police responded to the 200 block of Vernon Street in the Adams Point neighborhood just be -

hill said. “The next land use meetings are full so [April] the third is when that’s going to be heard.”

fore 8 a.m. March 4 after a report of a disturbance, Oakland Police Officer Darryl Rodgers stated in an email to the B.A.R.

That “disturbance” consisted of “reports of an individual screaming,” Chambers confirmed. When officers arrived, Oakland firefighters were on the scene extinguishing a fire.

“Upon arrival, officers located an Oakland resident with multiple lacerations,” Rodgers stated. “The victim succumbed to their injuries and medical units pronounced the victim deceased on scene. Investigators from the OPD Homicide Section responded to the scene to begin the follow-up investigation

into the circumstances surrounding the homicide.”

Neighbors told KTVU-TV that the perpetrator set the fire and left the front door and gate open when running away. No motive has been given, nor the circumstances of if or how the two men knew one another.

The Alameda County Public Defender’s office stated to the B.A.R. that it is not representing Waterman, and an attorney for him could not be immediately located.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office has not responded to a request for comment for this report as of press time. t

The delays have been for different reasons, according to Jackie Thornhill, a trans woman who is

It is typical procedure that what the land use committee – which consists of District 7 Supervisors Myrna Melgar, chair; Dis

take up hearings on a certificate of appropriateness on APE’s plans to make significant changes to the theater’s interior.

“They [the two commissions] are going to consider whether to reward a certificate of appropri

Thornhill said she understands the reason for a joint meeting to be “to streamline the process because it’d take twice as much time to do two separate hearings.”

Perry told the B.A.R. that “Another Planet is looking forward to

“We are especially gratified by Frameline, Oasis Arts’, and BuildOUT California’s early and ongoing support and also the recent endorsements by the Castro CBD, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Donna Sachet, Movies for Maniacs, Lesbians Who Tech, and numerous ADA and accessibility advocates and local Castro residents and businesses,” he stated.

He was referring to Frameline, which holds its LGBTQ film festival at the Castro Theatre; Oasis Arts, a residency program for Bay Area artists in the LGBTQIA community; and BuildOUT California, an LGBT industry association focused on the construction trades and related businesses.

Those working to save the seats are also girding for the upcoming hearings.

The Castro Theatre Conservancy, a leading group behind the Save the Castro Theatre Coalition (which opposes the proposed changes), did not respond to a request for comment for this report as of press time.

But the coalition did elaborate on its position in an email announcement sent to supporters March 6. It is “requesting that the Draft Ordinance properly identify the character-defining features outlined in the Landmark Designation Fact Sheet. The Fact Sheet states, ‘The seating constitutes a defining characteristic of the space as a historic cinema, configured in classic movie palace fashion in gently curved rows,’ and further expresses that the raked floors and sloping aisles in the orchestra mark the Castro Theatre as a classic movie palace.

“Given the significance of the orchestra configuration and the movie-palace seating for film heritage and LGBTQ intangible cultural heritage, and to properly reflect these findings, we are asking the Committee to clarify the language in the Draft Ordinance: replace ‘presence of seating’ with the words ‘fixed theatrical seating configured in movie-palace style,’” the coalition added.

Stephen Torres, a queer man who is secretary of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District Board of Directors (a coalition partner), called the delays “frustrating” but added that nonetheless the district is “pleased that the Theatre’s landmark status will be approved before APE tries to move forward with plans to gut this important LGBTQ community hub and turn it into some exclusive venue.”

Torres stated the coalition has a number of supporters of its ideas.

“Our community coalition includes the Castro Merchants, the GLBT Historical Society, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, the Harvey Milk and Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic clubs, SF Heritage, film festivals, and literally thousands of community members who have signed our petitions,” he stated. t

DeeDee Twine, right, lifelong friend of Curtis Marsh, spoke at a vigil Saturday, March 11, at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.

Jane Philomen Cleland

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Magical India has everything queer travelers want <<

by Heather Cassell

As I’m packing my bags to return to India to visit my girlfriend’s family, I am revisiting my trip to India in 2020 right before the COVID pandemic. Sorting through interviews and photos, I have been transported back to that amazing journey. I only hope this trip will be just as wonderful.

On Christmas Day in 2019, my girlfriend and I boarded a plane for India to celebrate her parents’ 61st wedding anniversary at the turn of 2020 and for me to meet her extended family for the first time.

Late fall and winter are the best times of the year to visit India. The weather is perfect. It’s warm and balmy in the south and chilly in the north. Many people travel to India for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in the fall, and Holi, the festival of colors, in the spring.

I was also going to India to meet with LGBTQ travel experts for stories and activists for international news articles to learn more about the state of the LGBTQ movement in the country. In 2018, India’s Supreme Court struck down the British colonial-era anti-sodomy law, Section 377. The law was often used to criminalize LGBTQ people, especially gay and bisexual men. It was the second time Section 377 was struck down. The Delhi High Court first struck it down in 2009. India’s Supreme Court reinstated the law in 2013.

At the end of 2019, India’s parliament passed several controversial laws that impacted the transgender community, the Transgender Persons, two national citizenship laws , and two amendments to the country’s citizenship laws .

The citizenship laws largely affected all non-Hindu people living in India, but also LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, due to not having proper government IDs for various reasons. The laws prompted some deadly protests.

Three years later, as I prepare to return, the country’s supreme court is expected to start hearings for samesex marriage. On March 13, the India Supreme court referred the marriage equality cases to a Constitution Bench, which is a larger group of judges. It will be exciting to see queer Indians’ response to the hearings at this momentous moment in the country’s history.

Journey through India

Planning an LGBTQ trip to India, even for the skilled traveler and journalist I have become, has its challenges. In the past – and even now – there are tour operators and hotels that said they

were LGBTQ-friendly, but turned out only to be after the pink rupee (pink dollar), falling short on how to handle LGBTQ travelers’ needs once queer travelers are on the tour. Finding India’s queer community and businesses, especially for queer women, is getting easier in India’s most populous cities, New Delhi, the capital, and Mumbai, its financial center. Stepping outside these hubs, finding community continues to be a challenge because businesses aren’t publicly out for safety and financial reasons.

However, over the last 15 years, India has been opening up to queer Western travelers. Since 2009, some LGBTQ travel companies, both Indian- and foreign-owned, have paved the way by planning legitimate LGBTQwelcoming packaged trips. In 2020, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association launched its India Task Force (now the India Initiative), of which I’m a member. The initiative is making headway into opening India to queer travelers. In February, IGLTA hosted its first India LGBTQ travel symposium at LaLiT New Delhi and appointed Keshav Suri, a gay man, the new chair of the India Initiative.

The Indian luxury hotel chain is owned by the LaLiT Suri Hospitality Group and operated by Suri. Suri was one of the plaintiffs in the case that repealed Section 377. The hotel’s nightclub, Kitty Su, hosts drag shows and gay DJs on specific nights.

“It’s the perfect time to come” to India because the country is opening up to LGBTQ people and offers diverse experiences from culinary to wildlife, wrote Robindro “Robin” Saikhom, a gay man who is the founder of Serene Journeys,, one of the Indian gayowned travel companies, in an email interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

“India has virtually everything the world traveler is looking for, all set in a festive, friendly environment,” he added.

I selected New Zealand-based Out in India to help me plan most of my trip in India. I also booked an Intrepid Travel’s eight-day Golden Triangle tour that started in New Delhi and traveled to Jaipur, known as the “Pink City,” and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Intrepid Travel launched a women-only tour of India in 2020.

To travel to India, Americans need a visa. I used a service, like Atlys or iVisa, but to save money, skip the additional administrative fee on top of the visa fee and get an evisa directly from the Indian Consulate. This can take 24-48 hours.

My girlfriend and I traveled to Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Kochi (also known as Cochin) in the state of Kerala. I traveled on my own to Rajpipla in the state of Gujarat, and then to New Delhi, before joining the tour. Traveling through India for five weeks was one of the best journeys I’ve ever experienced. I was taken in by the busy streets, the blend of spices that waft into the air from street markets and restaurants, the juxtaposed poverty and wealth neighboring each other, the art and culture, the layers of history, and the friendliness and warmth of its people. I enjoyed meeting many LGBTQ Indians and learning about their fight for LGBTQ rights and their hopes for the future of their movement and country. India is truly an unforgettable adventure.

My girlfriend and I found a country growing into its modern identity, a fusion of old India and the Western world while keeping its native and colonial history. We found ourselves turning corners and eating at restaurants that made us question if we were

in India at all and then being reminded around another corner that we were very much in the country.

Art, culture, and history

India has a layered history from centuries of invasions, from the Mughals and the British, and people escaping persecution, such as Jews from Israel and the Parsis from Iran to the country’s own tribes and enslavement of Africans. Each community left its mark on the artistry, design, and architecture in antiquities and present day India. In India’s cities, from the palaces and country clubs of the British Raj to the temples and edifices of the Mughals, art and history were etched in stone and evident in the engineering of each building. It was breathtaking and overwhelming at times and also thought-provoking.

I couldn’t have gone on my first trip to India without seeing the Taj Mahal in Agra. The ivory Mughal mausoleum lives up to its hype from its impressive stance and history. Perched above the Yamuna River it is stunning at sunset when the marble gets that golden glow captured in thousands of photos, but nothing will ever beat seeing it in real life.

Not as impressive, but close, is the Hawa Mahal (Pink Palace) in Jaipur. . It was built out of red and pink sandstone in 1799 and is an extension of the Royal City Palace for women of the royal court to enjoy peering out into city life without being seen. There is also the mystical appearance of Jal Mahal (“Water Palace”) settled on top of the water as if it is floating in the middle of Man Sagar Lake; it is believed to be a former summer palace of the royals built in 1699. The Amber Fort, built in 1592

out of red sandstone, rests on top of a hill over the small town of Amer. Each historical structure has an interesting story behind it.

In New Delhi, I enjoyed visiting the Lotus Temple and the famous Sikh temple, Sheeshganj Gurudwara, where they feed 10,000 people daily.

Queer India

Never in her wildest dreams did my girlfriend believe she would kiss her significant other at a queer party in her father’s hometown, she told me. Yet, on New Year’s Eve 2020, we were surrounded by more than 700 LGBTQ partygoers at Mist LGBTQ Foundation’s party to ring in the new decade and year at the Hyatt Pune. At the stroke of midnight in a crowded room, we clinked glasses and locked lips.

India’s LGBTQ community is vibrant, creative, and full of life. In Mumbai, I spent a fun evening at a lively queer trivia night hosted by Gaysi Mumbai, an LGBTQ group that promotes queer events, at the Independence Brewery Company in Andheri West.

One of the wonderful things about India is its art and culture and literary scene. I was pleased to discover LGBTQ artists and art experts, like Kalki Subramaniam, a transgender woman, gallery founder, and director of Sahodari Art Gallery.

The gallery, which features 45 LGBTQ artists, mostly transgender people, is located about four hours outside of Kochi by car.

Valor LX2 3-sided gas fireplace shown here with Murano glass, and reflective glass liner

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India did not disappoint and was a highlight of the trip.

Heather Cassell Priya Dali, left, Gaysi Mumbai art director, and Sakshi Juneja, founder of Mumbai’s LGBTQ cultural hub, attended the Queer Quiz Night at the Independence Brewing Company in Andheri West in Mumbai on January 15, 2020.

Heather Cassell

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So no matter who you are or who you love, know that you are welcome here.

Volume 53, Number 11 March 16-22, 2023

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Shame on Concord City Council

Inwhat has to be one of the most shameful outcomes by a Bay Area municipal body in recent years, the Concord City Council last week doled out $7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to nonprofits and not one dime went to an LGBTQ organization. The Rainbow Community Center in Concord, which had applied for $270,604, was not among the 22 groups selected. The vote occurred after a lengthy public comment period that saw RCC staff and supporters plead with the council for funding – to no avail.

But another strange aspect of the ARPA debacle was who decided on the recommended applicants in the first place. Instead of using the city’s Community Services Commission – which usually makes recommendations for grant funds – the council selected two of its own members – Mayor Laura Hoffmeister and Councilmember Dominic Aliano, to go through the 73 applications, score them, and make the list of recommended funding. (Three applicants were deemed ineligible due to either not being a recognized nonprofit or not providing services to Concord residents, as stipulated by the grant application.) This Ad Hoc Committee, as it was called, selected many worthy agencies, and also a couple of head-scratchers. For example, Visit Concord, the city’s tourism bureau, received two allocations –$50,000 and $200,000 – and Leaven Kids, a nonprofit with strong ties to police and religious conservatives, received $105,000 in funding. (Leaven Kids has previously been awarded money from Chick-fil-A, according to a news release the company issued last year. You know, the fast-food chain notorious for its hostility to same-sex couples and LGBTQ people.

Even odder was a last-minute offer by Vice Mayor Edi Birsan to provide funding for groups that were not recommended. He proposed shaving 5% off the amounts for all of the approved groups, and then letting himself and the other two councilmembers, Laura Nakamura and Carlyn Obringer, choose how to allocate about $116,600 each. But there was a catch – the Ad Hoc Committee’s list had to be approved in its entirety. Suddenly, as Obringer noted during the meeting, the council found itself negotiating with Birsan. “If we’re doing 95%, why not 90%, or why not a 10% cut across the board,” Obringer said. But Birsan

Courtesy City of Concord

Concord Mayor Laura Hoffmeister, left, and City Councilmember Dominic Aliano recommended that 22 nonprofits receive federal funding, but no LGBTQ organization was selected.

was firm, he said he wanted to respect the work of his colleagues, Hoffmeister and Aliano. In the end, Aliano made a motion to accept the Ad Hoc Committee’s list, which was approved 3-2, with Nakamura and Obringer in dissent. In response, RCC has let the City Council know it wants more from its leaders than just showing up at flag raisings and other events.

“We are profoundly disappointed by the decision of Concord City Council not to provide any ARPA funding to Rainbow Community Center,” interim Executive Director Dodi Zotigh wrote in a letter to the councilmembers.

“The leadership of Rainbow Community Center is writing to express our profound disappointment in the egregious handling of last week’s council meeting on Tuesday, March 7. We have concerns about the overall conduct and lack of leadership of this council in relation to ARPA federal funds of $7 million disseminated by the council for nonprofit organizations serving Concord.”

In an email to the Bay Area Reporter, Zotigh was blunt: “We call for an end to performative allyship by Concord City Council and demand the investment from our city that we deserve and urgently need to survive and thrive as an underresourced community center based in Concord.”

And Zotigh added that RCC staff “strongly contest the marginalization of Rainbow Community Center and the LGBTQIA+ community by the City Council.”

“Their exclusion of us in ARPA funding does absolutely nothing to sustain and expand the lifesaving work we do for individuals, youth, and families in Concord,” Zotigh stated. “Furthermore – disregarding all public input from Tuesday’s meeting and implementing the full Ad Hoc proposals unaltered sends a clear message that the city not only does not care about public opinion – but uses unilateral decisionmaking practices that are un-democratic.”

RCC was going to use the federal grant funds to sustain and expand its youth programming. As several speakers pointed out to the City Council, LGBTQ youth – even in Concord – are regularly subjected to bullying and other things that can affect their mental and physical well-being. All the speakers in support of RCC pointed out the importance of the community center and its programs that help youth, LGBTQ seniors, and many others. Now that it has this financial gap, RCC has launched a fundraising campaign at www.bit.ly/cococountycaresaboutrcc.

We hope it is a big success and if readers are inclined to help out, so much the better.

In the future, should the Concord City Council be in a similar position to award public funds to nonprofit organizations, we strongly recommend a vetting process that does not involve the councilmembers. Obringer told us this week that she was against the Ad Hoc Committee when it was discussed last fall, and said she supported having the Community Services Commission, whose members are appointed by the council, take on the task for the ARPA grants. We also urge the council to find some funding for the Rainbow Community Center this year. LGBTQ people – especially youth – are under attack in this country and we need our allies not only to raise the rainbow flag, as we pointed out last week, but also to provide resources to LGBTQ nonprofits that help their communities. On this, Obringer said that she did not want to make any promises, but that some possible funds through cannabis businesses might be generated, though those dollars likely would be a fraction of the amount the city received from the feds.

“It’s a big missed opportunity and it didn’t have to be,” Obringer said of the ARPA grant process.

On that, we agree. t

What we lose when an LGBTQ bar closes

by Michael Yamashita

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Shortly after the new year, I was stunned after learning another neighborhood business was closing. I was surprised by the abrupt message handwritten on a sign outside – and perhaps ironically revealed on Instagram – Harvey’s, an LGBTQ+ bar in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro district announced its last day before closing for good. Once ground zero of the national gay liberation movement, as it was called in the 197090s, it is located at the southwest corner of Castro and 18th streets, once known as the gayest intersection in the world.

If you’ve ever been to the neighborhood, you would have passed the bar named in memory of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California and who served for 11 months in 1978 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until he was assassinated by a disgruntled former colleague. You probably stopped in for a drink, looked in the plate glass windows passing by, were taken there by locals, or it was pointed out by the guide of the neighborhood history walking tour. An iconic bar of gay pride and liberation for a founding generation of LGBTQ+ residents, it was quietly and abruptly closed for business Jan. 22 amid an outpouring of wistful reminiscences and resignation on social media – perhaps, a sign of the times. Some of the staff organized a closing party Jan. 28.

What do LGBTQ+ people lose when a “gay” bar closes (or the later iterations lesbian bar, queer bar, leather bar, or drag bar)?

To understand what we lose when a “gay” bar closes, we have to look at our own history.

It’s no accident that the contemporary LGBTQ+ movement was purportedly born in 1969 at a gay bar, New York’s Stonewall Inn, where drag queens and others led a spontaneous rebellion that fought back against police harassment. It was a clarion call for all LGBTQ+ people to come out of the closet and

People enjoyed food and beverages at Harvey’s Restaurant and Bar in the Castro on January 22, its last day in business.

live openly, and fight back against shame, discrimination, violence and hatred.

Up until that time for most of the 20th century, as LGBTQ+ people became aware that we were not alone, we mostly socialized in private homes or private clubs or speakeasies before moving into more public spaces. After World War I and especially after World War II, many LGBTQ+ people left their small towns and found each other while serving in the military or moving to urban centers. Bars catering to LGBTQ+ people were usually dark and dingy dives that poured expensive watered down drinks, were run by the mafia, and prone to raids and shakedowns by the police. In the drive to find community, many risked a night out that could end in a police raid, being charged for breaking indecency laws, spending time in jail, having one’s name, address and crime published in the morning newspapers, and ultimately losing one’s job, home, and family.

On November 27, 1974, two gay men –Fred Rogers and David Manducca – opened the Elephant Walk at 500 Castro, the former site of Anderson’s Pharmacy. Named after the film starring gay icon Elizabeth Taylor, it sported an upscale tropical theme, posters from the movie, elephant motifs, and automated waving palm fans on the walls. Following the lead of another bar up the block, large plate glass windows were installed – a statement that patrons no longer needed to feel ashamed being seen in a gay bar. Gay men and lesbians were both welcome – a break from the usual segregated bars. Sylvester, legendary disco superstar and singer of “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” was a regular performer on Sunday afternoons with backup singers, Two Tons of Fun (later the Weather Girls). The gay bar became a symbol of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship, neighborhood institution, community, safety, pride and liberation.

By the mid-1970s, San Francisco was the gay mecca of the universe and LGBTQ people migrated to the Castro, transforming a largely Italian and Irish American neighborhood into the gayest ZIP code in the country.

In an historic election in November 1977, an initial glass ceiling of LGBTQ political power was finally shattered when Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors for the district that included the Castro. The next year he served for only 11 months before being assassinated in his City Hall office by former supervisor and former police officer Dan White, who also assassinated the mayor, George Moscone, that same day on November 27, 1978. Later that night, stunned, grieving citizens of San Francisco marched from the Elephant Walk in a silent candlelight memorial that ended at City Hall.

Sari Staver

With eye on ’24 reelection, gay SF treasurer rolls out new taxes

by Matthew S. Bajko

Ever since former mayor Gavin Newsom, now the state’s governor, appointed him to fill a vacancy in 2004, gay San Francisco City Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros has had a long-running joke with the Political Notebook that he is only of interest to cover when he stands for reelection. Serving in an elected position that doesn’t often get the media’s attention, Cisneros has one of the lowest public presences of any of San Francisco’s LGBTQ elected leaders.

That is partly by choice, as Cisneros tends to favor staying out of the limelight when it comes to proposed taxes to be voted on by the electorate or policy fights at City Hall. As he has often said over the years, his job is not to influence but to institute the city’s tax policies and inform the impacted entities, whether property owners or local businesses, about them.

Such is the case with several new taxes Cisneros’ office will be responsible for collecting in the coming years. One is the city’s Empty Homes Tax that goes into effect in 2024 with the taxes due to be paid in 2025. Cisneros and his staff will roll out ahead of the due date for it a public awareness campaign to inform property owners what their obligation will be under the new tax. (A group of landlords in January filed a lawsuit against Cisneros and the tax, known as Proposition M on the 2022 November ballot, as the San Francisco Standard reported.

“While the work of our office is not in the headlines very often, we still do vitally important work,” said Cisneros, the only LGBTQ person to hold one of the city’s seven elected executive positions. “I am proud of the team here that works very, very hard to make sure we do it successfully.”

It had been expected that Cisneros would stand for reelection this fall, but the voters once again disrupted his election schedule. Due to the passage last November of Proposition H, San Francisco is moving its off-year municipal elections to coincide with the presidential elections.

Thus, elected leaders like Cisneros and Mayor London Breed had an extra year added to their current four-year terms and will need to seek reelection to new four-year terms in 2024. Cisneros told the Bay Area Reporter this month that he will run for a sixth term.

“I will stand for election whenever the city and voters decide to schedule it. I am happy to have the job and happy to stand again for election,” said Cisneros, 67, who is married to San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner Mark Kelleher

This isn’t the first time his election schedule has been disrupted. Because of another voter-approved change, which had moved his and several other citywide races to being held in odd years, Cisneros only served a two-year term before seeking a full four-year term in 2015.

So his serving in 2024 will make up for one of the two years in office he had lost last decade. This September, due to his initial appointment, Cisneros will mark his 19th year of being San Francisco’s treasurer. (The position is not term limited.)

“You are keeping track better than I am,” he quipped. “I love the work of our office, and the work we do is very important. We bring in the revenue that allows the city to implement all the measures that city leaders and the voters have put into effect.”

He had cakewalked into his current fifth term, as no one opposed him in

2019. Cisneros also has the distinction of being the longest-serving openly gay elected official at the city level. The previous record holders, Tom Ammiano and the late Harry Britt, both served on the Board of Supervisors for 14 years.

No one has challenged Cisneros since he first ran for the position in 2005. It remains to be seen if anyone will run against him next year.

In response to the COVID pandemic, now entering its fourth year, Cisneros and his office worked with city leaders to provide assistance to local taxpayers whose incomes were impacted by the health crisis. They extended the deadline for certain taxes and worked to ensure taxpayers could pay their bills online and find the information they needed on the treasurer’s website.

“We had to, No. 1, change our systems to reflect all those decisions, and number two, reach out to the taxpayers as well as we could to inform them about the new deadlines for tax relief and extensions they were getting so they could best plan for what made sense for them,” recalled Cisneros. “At the same time the governor made similar payment extensions for property taxes for property owners affected by the pandemic as well. Some of those were for nearly a full year of delay.”

With City Hall back open to the public, Cisneros said his office has not seen in-person traffic return to the same level as it had been prepandemic. He credited it to many people becoming comfortable paying their tax bills online over the last three years rather than feeling like they have to show up in person.

“My office has seen a vast and lasting change in terms of taxpayers being hugely remote now in the way they deal with us,” he said. “Far fewer people actually show up in person and come into our office either to make payments or ask questions to get support or help.”

It wasn’t unusual prior to 2020 for there to be thousands of taxpayers showing up at his office in City Hall to pay their property taxes, noted Cisneros, ahead of the deadlines for them to do so in April and December each year. Those crowds are now a thing of the past, he said.

“We have pretty much eliminated long lines ... so come on down, there are no waits,” said Cisneros. “We have seen no lines like that since the pandemic. People have learned far more convenient and easy ways for them to make their tax payments.”

One change

One change Cisneros’ office has put into effect is moving how the city taxes businesses from a calculation based on payroll to being based on a company’s gross receipts. The switchover was staggered so companies had time to prepare and was recently adjusted via a ballot measure to en-

sure the same amount of tax was be ing collected as had been using just a payroll tax.

In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the city brought in business taxes totaling more than $1.3 billion. Last fiscal year, which began last July 1, the amount was $828,804,969, per the city con troller’s office.

A downside to how the city calcu lates taxes owed by businesses is that it is partly based on the number of em ployees working in the city. With more people working remotely, there has been a drop in tax revenues for the city, resulting in municipal budget deficits projected for this year and next.

“What we don’t know yet, and is something the controller’s office and city economist and others are looking at and doing their best to analyze, is what the impact of remote work is going to be,” said Cisneros. “Initially, it looks like it could be large, to the tune of millions of dollars coming in less to the city. But that is a best guestimate.”

The data that will be coming in from this year’s tax filings on the impact of remote work policies in terms of city revenues may lead to changes or additional taxes that Cisneros and his staff will need to implement. They just oversaw the first deadline at the end of February for people to pay a new commercial vacancy tax.

As for how he and his staff ensure the taxes owed are paid, Cisneros declined to go into the specifics.

“We know how to do our work and we do it very well,” he said. “I am promising you that everyone who owes a tax will pay it. If they are late, they will pay a penalty.”

For those needing assistance, his office contracts with outside groups to provide free financial coaching sessions in the city via its Smart Money Coaching program. Because of the program, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center has a full-time staff member who works with low-income LGBTQ people, noted Cisneros.

His office continues to be involved in the effort to launch a city-run public bank, though the decision to launch it is under the purview of the mayor and supervisors. The City’s Reinvestment Working Group last month released detailed draft plans for doing so.

“I don’t know what role we would exactly play,” said Cisneros. “We would be open to those discussions, particularly if they create a standalone bank.”

And this year will mark the first time the entire class of seniors in the city’s public schools will be graduating with some amount of money in a college savings account. Known as Kindergarten to College, or K2C, Cisneros had helped set up the program, which opens an account for all students enrolled in kindergarten with a starter amount of $50.

Students and their families can then put whatever amount they can afford to save in the account each year. While Cisneros said he didn’t know how much money this year’s seniors had saved, he does know the accounts for the roughly 45,000 students who have one now total more than $11 million in savings for their higher education needs.

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“It is exciting that it has been around long enough that all of the graduating seniors are graduating with some amount of funds to pay for college or whatever educational opportunities they are pursuing,” said Cisneros. 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 several 2024 U.S. House races in California with LGBTQ candidates.

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“SFDPH encourages eligible residents to seek out COVID-19 resources such as at-home tests, treatments for those who test positive, and the updated bivalent booster, which are currently free. Information on all these resources can be found at sf.gov/covid.”

Bennett agreed.

“With restrictions having been rolled back and the [antiviral] Paxlovid seeming like it works – and our population seems pretty well vaccinated compared to other places and for that I’m very grateful – people seem to be recovering from [COVID] faster,” she said. ‘I chose to get out’

Another effect of the pandemic was an exodus of people out of the Bay Area – 125,000 residents, according to the United States Census, which noted the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area had the largest population percentage decrease of any major American region.

In San Francisco, 55,000 people –about 6% of the population – left, according to census data. This brought the city’s population to 815,201, its lowest level since before the 2010s tech boom.

This departure of people and businesses – as well as many people continuing to work from home at least part of the time – has implications for

the city’s budget, which is projected to see a $728 million deficit over the next two fiscal years, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Terry Beswick, a gay man who’d lived in the Castro for 13 years by 2020, was one of the people who decided to pull up stakes, though only briefly. He’s back in town now and is on the board of the Castro Merchants Association.

“The community was experiencing a lot of trauma,” Beswick said as he reflected on 2020. “There were other personal reasons for moving too, but what really was demoralizing was the state of the neighborhood for me. It was during the time the shelters were shut down. … The spaces for services for homeless people were inhumane and I felt helpless to do anything about it. Everywhere was boarded up and shut down, and I chose to get out.”

Beswick lived in Palm Springs for much of 2021. Now that he’s back he said he’s “seen some encouraging signs.” For example, the cutting of red tape due to the exigencies of the pandemic can be used to help revitalize the Castro in a post-lockdown world.

“One thing I found encouraging during the pandemic was to see that the city can take action quickly when there’s an emergency – regulations can be waived, funds can be materialized, and we are seeing some shift in the zeitgeist that we don’t have to do things the ways they’ve always been done,”

Beswick said.

“I try to look at the silver linings,” he added. “Obviously we lost a lot of businesses, which did not come back. ... But that creates an opportunity for new businesses to come and allows us to be intentional about what community we want to be.”

One new business – for which, as the B.A.R. previously reported, Beswick was a fierce advocate – is the Welcome Castro visitor’s center and store that will open at 525 Castro Street and is being spearheaded by Robert Emmons, a gay man who is the owner of SF Mercantile in the Haight.

The welcome center was kickstarted by a $50,000 grant from the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Emmons pledged up to 50% of his net proceeds to the merchants association for 10 months so that money can be used for “multiple additional pop ups,” Beswick said, that hopefully can become viable businesses. The total grant was for $100,000 and the other half is “going on related costs for all pop ups: marketing, administration, visitor programs, etc.,” Beswick added.

“If we filled multiple vacant storefronts with $100,000, what could we do with a million?” Beswick asked. “That creates revenue for the city” that could increase its tax base.

Emmons told the B.A.R. Wednesday that he hopes to open in April, but he’s going to be set back a “a couple of weeks” because he was the victim of

a hit-and-run. He is “waiting to hear back from the police” after what started as a road rage incident led to him receiving a hip replacement. “It’s painful but I’m healing,” he said.

Hardships

Beswick and others were insistent that the area’s housing crisis is an obstacle to restoring vitality to the Castro.

While the median San Francisco rent declined 10.9% from March 2020 to December 2022, according to the San Francisco Business Times it’s still a whopping $2,238 a month.

And the Castro LGBTQ neighborhood is even more expensive, with a median rent of $3,850 per month, according to renthop.com.

“One of the reasons it’s difficult for so many people to move into the Castro is the high rent and low availability of housing,” Beswick said. “That’s also why the Castro is not as queer as it used to be.”

George Calderon, a 22-year-old gay San Francisco resident, concurred.

“For young queer folks like myself, I know it can be a challenge securing housing in a housing market such as San Francisco,” he said. “Statistically, homelessness tends to skew higher amongst the LGBTQ+ community as well, making this issue that disproportionately affects a community that I and the Castro closely identify with.”

Calderon suggested the Castro needs “maybe a brick and mortar

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Juanita’s List housing agency for queer folks,” referring to the online housing group created by the drag artist Juanita MORE!

“By providing a Juanita’s List styled place that lends resources, information, and support to LGBTQ+ persons and aids them in securing a safe place to live, the Castro can go even further in its institution as an LGBTQ+ haven,” Calderon said.

MORE! told the B.A.R. that there are over 12,000 members of the Facebook group, which seeks to connect queer people with supportive rental options.

“The group has become a vital community service,” MORE! stated. “Across the United States, many queer people still dream of leaving home to follow the rainbow that glows over San Francisco. Though, the cost of living is so high that it’s becoming more and more difficult to survive here. So many people flee rejection from their families, unsupportive schools, and communities due to homophobia and transphobia.

“So many of them are arriving without employment, housing, or a supportive network and face incredible hardship in finding affordable housing,” MORE! added. “Because of this list, they are finding housing not just in the Castro district; but throughout the entire city.”

Calderon also suggested the Castro could benefit from more “social spaces without alcohol.”

“I think being gay in San Francisco can include much more than three vodka sodas and sloppy tongue touching,” Calderon said.

The Castro Country Club is located in the neighborhood and provides a sober space for people, as well as Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step meetings.

Calderon, who is Latino, also stated that the neighborhood needs more “BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] representation,” a theme that comes up time and again in relation to the Castro specifically over the years. Sixty-eight percent of Castro residents are non-Hispanic whites, according to 2021 census estimates.

“By cementing a presence, there is a comfort and coziness afforded to the Castro that people from all walks of life deserve when they visit this space,” Calderon said.

Bullish on Castro

Terrance Alan, a gay man who is president of the merchants group, was bullish on the neighborhood’s future. Having recently turned Cafe Flore over to new restaurant proprietor Serhat Zorlu, Alan said a Castro renais-

See page 12 >>

Obituaries >>

Shanti’s LGBTQ+ Aging & Abilities Support Network (LAASN)

Since 1974, Shanti has trained over 20,000 Bay Area volunteers to offer emotional and practical support to some of our most marginalized neighbors. LAASN offers emotional and practical support to LGBTQ+ older adults and adults with disabilities who face isolation and need greater social support and connection.

Shanti LAASN peer support volunteers: Go through the internationally recognized training on the Shanti Model of Peer SupportTM

Make a commitment of 2-4 hours a week for a minimum of 6 months Get matched with one client, for whom they serve as a non-judgmental source of emotional support and reliable practical help Have one of the most rewarding volunteer experiences of their lives!

To learn more about how you can be a Shanti volunteer, contact Volunteer Services at 415-674-4751 or email acone@shanti.org. For more information about LAASN services, call 415-979-9950 or email djohnson@shanti.org.

January 18, 1938 – January 14, 2023

Richard (Dick) Allen passed away in the early morning hours on January 14, 2023, after a brief illness and only four days before his 85th birthday. Born and raised on the East Coast, Dick came to California in the early 1970s and immediately became involved in the gay liberation movement. After receiving his nursing degree from City College of San Francisco, he went to work at California Pacific Medical Center and became a charge nurse on the AIDS unit throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He lived in the Castro for many years. He made numerous friends through walking his dog Pepper, playing and teaching bridge, as well as enjoying happy hour at Twin Peaks Tavern. He was an excellent chef and loved traveling, musical theater, and going to the movies.

He will be sorely missed by his chosen family and his many friends in his beloved Castro neighborhood. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

Richard F. Allen

SF supervisors OK repeal of contracting ban

by Cynthia Laird

T he San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an ordinance that would repeal part of the city’s administrative code relating to its contracting ban with companies headquartered in states that have adopted anti-LGBTQ laws.

The vote was 7-4 to approve the ordinance put forward by District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí. A second and final vote is expected next week. Supervisors Shamann Walton (District 10), Connie Chan (D1), Myrna Melgar (D7), and Dean Preston (D5) voted in dissent.

The contracting element is one part of Chapter 12X, as the administrative code is known. It also bans city-funded travel to states that have adopted anti-LGBTQ laws and has been amended over the years to include states with restrictions on abortion and voting rights laws. The list of prohibited states now numbers 30.

A separate legislative proposal by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman would repeal Chapter 12X in its entirety. Mandelman’s proposal has yet to be heard by the supervisors in committee.

Safaí proposed ending the contracting ban because it prevented companies in those banned states from bidding on construction projects that could result in a better deal for the city, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. But advocates for LGBTQ-, minority-, and women-owned small businesses had opposed removing the contracting provisions from Chapter 12X. The executive committee of the San Francisco Labor

Council adopted a resolution February 27 in support of keeping it in place.

During the meeting, Safaí asked his colleagues for support, noting he had the item continued for two weeks so that he could meet with small business leaders who opposed the plan.

“I’m committed to working with them in a working group,” he said, adding that removing the contracting provision would lead to increased competition and lower prices, but would not reduce the city’s commitment to equality.

Walton, who was against the ordinance in committee, said he remained opposed, in part because he did not know what the effects would be on local subcontractors.

Mandelman asked to be added as a co-sponsor to Safaí’s ordinance.

See page 12 >>

I NCLUDING M INORITY, WOMEN, AND DISABLED VETERANS

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí

Courtesy Ahsha Safaí

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companies.

In Mumbai and New Delhi, I learned about the city’s LGBTQ art scene and history with gay art historian Aditya Ruia, the owner of Bombay Art Gallery. Ruia also leads an LGBTQ art tour guide in Mumbai. On one of my memorable nights in Mumbai I randomly toured Colaba’s Art Deco architecture, art galleries, and boutiques with filmmaker Faraz Arif Ansari.

In New Delhi, Serene Journeys’ Saikhom leads guests through about 55 public murals on the Lodhi Art Public Art Tour . Sambhav Dehlavi, the gay owner and tour guide of Purani Dilliwala Iqbal, leads an LGBTQ history tour through the city.

The tour with Dehlavi was one of the most memorable tours I experienced during my trip. One of the sites he showed me was a tomb of a king and his male or transgender lover buried side-by-side. There were many other sites throughout New Delhi where it is suspected that LGBTQ history took place.

India also hosts a number of LGBTQ festivals from Pride celebrations, including Queer Azaadi Mumbai (January/February) and Delhi Pride (last Sunday of November), and the 18-day transgender festival, Koovagam (March/April) south of Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai. There are also events, like New Delhi’s Rainbow Lit Fest (December), and film festivals, like Mum-

<< Guest Opinion

From page 6

Six months later, on May 21, 1979, White’s murder trial resulted in conviction on lesser charges: two counts of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison – although he could be freed in five years with time off for good behavior. Gays erupted in outrage and a protest at City Hall turned violent by nightfall. In what became known as the White Night Riots, City Hall was pelted with stones and stormed, and numerous police cars at the scene were set ablaze.

Hours later at 1 a.m. in an unauthorized raid, two-dozen police officers massed in the Castro, beat people who happened to be on the street, trashed the Elephant Walk, and shattered its windows and pummeled its patrons. A police captain reportedly told a journalist, “We lost the battle at City Hall. We’re not going to lose the battle here.”

In December 1988, a fire nearly destroyed the building, but in 1996, the landlord reopened the bar as Harvey’s, in memory of the slain supervisor. It was filled with historical LGBTQ+ memorabilia and photographs like a

bai’s KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival (June).

Food, beer, and wine

Microbreweries are all the rage in India. Pune is the birthplace of India’s microbrewery scene. In 2020 there were 12 craft breweries in the city and many more throughout India. My girlfriend and I were thrilled to discover the craft breweries that served excellent beers with delicious bar food. We barhopped through Pune and Mumbai, stopping at Effingut Brewery, Independence Brewing Company, and Toit Brewery in Pune, and Doolally Taproom and Drifters Tap Station in Mumbai.

Nashik is the birthplace of India’s emerging wine industry. India’s wine country boasts more than 30 wineries. Nashik was inspired by, and has roots in, California’s wine country, but it won’t be mistaken for California’s Napa Valley or Sonoma County.

Milk campaign poster, one of Sylvester’s gold records, and a pair of Greg Louganis’ Speedos – and was campily called the gay Hard Rock Cafe.

With the HIV/AIDS epidemic at its height, the gay bar had transformed from a sanctuary of liberation and pleasure into a gathering space that accommodated community support, fundraising, and memorials. In our bars, drag queens performed to raise funds, community groups came together to support each other and the cause, and we gathered to mourn the dead.

October 6, 1989, was AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power’s National Day of Action. The ACT UP/San Francisco chapter held a rally and march that stopped for speeches at the Burton Federal Building, City Hall, and the U.S. Mint. The overwhelming police presence forcefully harassed marchers along the way, strictly enforcing traffic codes against marchers who strayed into the street or crossed streets illegally by jaywalking or against red lights. When the march, involving almost 500 people, ended in a die-in and sit-down protest closing Castro Street, nearly 200 police officers in riot gear converged on the Castro and in formation mowed down and beat anyone along the block and again stormed the bar at the corner of Castro and 18th streets.

enough with groups to vote on the item Tuesday.

Nearly a quarter century since the first grapes were planted at Sula Vineyards in 1996, to its first bottle crafted and corked in 1999, producing quality Indian wine is still a work in progress.

Sula Vineyards was founded by former Bay Area resident Rajeev Samant, who transformed his family’s table grape farm in 1996 into a winery with the help of his friend and Sonoma winemaker Kerry Damskey

During the few days that we hung out with my girlfriend’s cousins on her mother’s side of the family in Nashik, we went to Sula and visited York Winery. However, the best Indian wine we discovered was at a bar in Fort Kochi, produced by Big Banyan Vineyard in Bengaluru. It gave us a glimpse of the possibility that India could one day produce Californiaquality wine.

Kochi, Kerala is where I got my fill of seafood. On the shores of the Ara-

The brutal police response was known as “The Castro Sweep.”

Rite of passage

For every LGBTQ+ person who comes out, gay bars are a rite of passage – it’s a personal transformation from innocence to experience, from shame to pride, from despair to joy, from isolation to community. Everyone remembers their first time: the hesitation and pacing outside, and the moment when you could summon the courage to dart in without anyone seeing you, and you entered a fantasy land with vivid colors and people, and music that transported you to find love in the dark corners and dance away the cares of the world until the late hours.

But sadly – and perhaps again a sign of our times and a reminder of our struggle – LGBTQ bars and clubs are now a potential site of murder and a target of irrational hatred. Any gathering place for LGBTQ+ people today can become another Pulse Nightclub or Club Q as the right wing supremacist backlash continues to grow in vitriol and action.

As the Bay Area Reporter recently reported Harvey’s suffered from chronic problems in the neighborhood exacerbated by the COVID shutdown, the resulting drop in foot traffic and

bian Sea the port town is known for its Chinese fishing nets, beaches, and backwaters traversed by boat to see the wildlife.

Where to eat

We cautiously ate our way through India. We took recommendations from friends and looked for modern eateries that we would expect to see back home and places that looked clean. Some of our favorite restaurants included:

Mumbai: The Birdsong Cafe, a charming organic eatery tucked away on a narrow street in Bandra West, and Loya at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and Jimmy Boy, a local Parsi restaurant that Ansari introduced me to in Colaba, Mumbai.

Pune: We happened upon the Pan Asian restaurant Malaka Spice and enjoyed cocktails at Culture.

Kochi: In Kochi, we enjoyed freshly caught fish grilled and poached at Fort Cochin around the corner from the Trident Hotel Cochin, where we stayed.

New Delhi: I enjoyed a variety of excellent cuisine in New Delhi. On my last night there I ate a wonderful Italian dinner at lesbian-owned Diva restaurant. Chef Ritu Dalmia, one of the plaintiffs in the 377 case, opened her new restaurant in Greater Kailash-2, an unofficial gayborhood where rainbow flags wave freely outside many businesses. I enjoyed another good Italian dinner at Fat Jar Cafe & Market . LaLiT New Delhi’s Pan Asian restaurant, OKO, offers the flavors of Asia and views of the city at the top of the hotel. The Spice Market - Kitchen

attendance, individuals on the street suffering from mental health issues and substance use, changing demographics of the neighborhood, different socializing options for LGBTQ+ people, as well as rising rents and the economic challenges of living in San Francisco. But despite these pressures, there’s nothing as devastating as when we don’t support our own community institutions to keep them alive. If we don’t, who’s to blame? Ourselves or the state of our culture?

What do we lose when a “gay” bar closes? The same can be asked when the last lesbian bar in San Francisco, the Lexington Club, closed in April 2015. Women’s only spaces have always struggled to survive and rarely do. Could this point to the future of the gay bar? Perhaps not if we value what we could lose. It’s hard to prove a negative but we know what we’ve lost when we reflect on our rich history and commit to not forgetting.

Cleve Jones, the founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt (now the AIDS Memorial Quilt), who as a young gay man worked on Milk’s campaign and served as an aide, said in an interview with the B.A.R. when he heard of Harvey’s closing, “Last night was a pretty sad night for me. I went down to Harvey’s, which still in

& Bar in the city’s Southern Park Mall served up spicy tandoori and flavorful dishes.

Where to stay

In Mumbai and New Delhi, I stayed at the LaLiT Hotel . I also stayed at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, India’s ecofriendly Orchid Hotel, and a vacation rental in Bandra West in Mumbai.

In Pune, we stayed at the Hyatt Pune. In Jaipur, our tour group stayed at the Hotel Arya Niwas, and on our way to Agra we stayed at Hotel Bhanwar Vilas Palace in Karauli, a town in the mountains between Jaipur and Agra.

In Nashik, we stayed at the threestar business focused Ibis Hotel. Getting off India’s beaten path, I stayed as a guest of the LGBTQ Community Ashram, the community center and retreat in Rajpipla owned gay Indian Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil and his husband, DeAndre Richardson. The ashram was being built on the banks of the Karjan River to provide services for the local LGBTQ community and a retreat for queer organizations.

Getting around

My girlfriend and I flew on United Airlines from San Francisco to Mumbai, stopping briefly in Newark airport in New Jersey. We flew Swiss Air from New Delhi through Zurich back to San Francisco for our return trip. We flew on IndiGo, an Indian domestic airline, to destinations within India.

We used Uber to hail rickshaws and cars throughout our trip. t

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.

“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.”

Perhaps when a gay bar closes, we may lose more than we realize until after it is gone. t

Michael Yamashita, a gay man, is the owner and publisher of the Bay Area Reporter. This essay originally appeared in News is Out, (http:/newsisout.com) of which the B.A.R. is a collaborating member.

Chan said more time was needed, and Melgar said she didn’t think the board had engaged

But District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen disagreed, telling her colleagues that she was against what she called “performative legislation” like 12X. “I’d rather up -

date the legislation to more directly give a leg up to small businesses in contracting,” she said.

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) had first authored the city policy when he served on the Board of Supervisors in response to the rollback of LGBTQ rights in other states. He now favors its repeal.

Safaí recently told the B.A.R. that Chapter 12X is a “very cum -

<< COVID

From page 8

sance is burgeoning.

“COVID impacted the Castro dramatically because it relies on tourism for much of its revenue and COVID stopped tourism dead in its tracks,” Alan said. “This crippled businesses catering to the tourist crowd and even businesses that were hyper-local were impacted. That led to a string of closures.”

bersome ordinance.”

“We thought if we are acting as a large purchasing power and a large entity that spends capital, we can influence people on the other end, the supervisor said. “It sent a message if you are not providing equal benefits to LGBT people, not allowing people to vote freely, and not allowing reproductive rights, we don’t want to do business with you, with the hope that

However, citing developments at Flore, soon to be known as Fisch and Flore, inquiries into the shuttered Harvey’s space at Castro and 18th streets, and “a tremendous amount of activity preparing for places to be reopened,” he’s hopeful this summer will bring more vitality to the queerville.

In just the past several days, a Salvadorian restaurant called Los Amigos opened in the former Castro Republic space (2295 Market Street), which

would change people’s policies. In fact, we have only changed one since the introduction of 12X as a policy and as a concept.”

The only state to be removed from the city’s banned list has been Massachusetts. The Bay State was delisted in 2021 after it rescinded an anti-abortion law. t

had been shuttered for years.

Still, even the confident Alan had to qualify his remarks – things take time.

“We’re in San Francisco,” Alan said. “There’s a lengthy approval process for opening a business.”

Just as COVID was a global problem, dealing with social and economic change is too, Beswick said.

“Economic inequality is increasing more and more,” Beswick said. “Until there’s an economic shift ... we’re chipping around the edges.” t

Sambhav Dehlavi, the owner and tour guide of Purani Dilliwala Iqbal, leads an LGBTQ history tour through New Delhi.

Heather Cassell

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Oasis will come alive with the sound of The Cockettes on March 23-25. For those who may not know, The Cockettes were a queer theater troupe that performed in San Francisco from around 1969-1972. The Cockettes combined elements of drag, silent movies and musical theater to create shows that celebrated the then-burgeoning queer community and the sexual revolution. Performers included gay disco legend Sylvester, and even Divine did a show. Their performances became events, playing to packed houses and attracting celebrities as fans. To this day, one of The Cockettes’ most ardent admirers is filmmaker John Waters, the famed “trash” auteur.

The Oasis show, titled “Cockettes: Res-Erection,” will be performed in the spirit of the original group. Local celebrities scheduled to appear include Steven Satyricon, Kitten on the Keys, Birdie-Bob Watt, Carl Linkhart, Matt Bratko, Bonni Suval and Scrumbly Koldewyn, who performed with the original Cockettes all those years ago. Kolewyn, now 77 years old, spoke to the Bay Area Reporter about why The Cockettes resonated so strongly with the public.

“Because we had the balls to mount that stage and flaunt ourselves as the free-form freaks we were, with no pretense to being unworthy or superior because of our lack of or abundance of conventional talent,” Koldewyn explained.

Koldewyn is the only original Cockette who will be performing in the new show. He never thought he’d be doing Cockettes revivals all these years later.

The troupe remains popular. In 2002 they were the subject of a feature-length documentary by David Weissman and Bill Weber. Nearly 20 years

later, the Victoria Theater celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Cockettes with a tribute/revival show that played to a sold-out house. There was also a show performed at Oasis in June of last year.

While only one actual Cockette will be seen in “Cockette: Res-Erection,” the new show promises to capture the spirit of the performances from a half-century ago. Part of the cast will be comprised of alumni of Thrillpeddlers, a now defunct theater group that was inspired by the Cockettes.

“It will be a revue of songs, solos and group numbers that encapsulates a Cockettes show-like experience,” said Koldewyn. “Unlike the previous Oasis show, which was more or less a re-celebration of the 50th anniversary show, this will let the story tell itself, with the theme and structure held together in a very Cockettes way, with plenty

of non-sequitur and stoned psychedelic logic. Hopefully full of a million laughs, some really pretty excellent singing, lots of costume changes, and sex, sex, sex.”

The new show will be a colorful musical mayhem revue featuring new songs and classic Cockettes numbers inspired by the changing season, bunnies, love and lust. Koldewyn spoke of how the new show came to be created.

“Like all good collaborations, it’s hard to come up with who thought that up,” he said. “But Dan Karkoska, Noah Hayden, Birdie-Bob Watt and I were in the room. You know, I think I mentioned Easter, and someone mentioned Spring, or was it the other way around? Once we had the ingredients, we just cooked. Generally Birdie and I came up with the ideas, Dan chiming in as

by Laura Moreno

When Leslie Absher was ten years old, she asked her father what he did for a living. He responded that he was in the Army. Later he said he worked for the State Department. His rotating stories made her suspicious. When, during a family car ride, her mother challenged him to tell the family what he did for a living, he talked in circles, saying he “managed people.”

Finally, her mother challenged, “You work for the CIA, don’t you?”

No answer. Absher’s thoughts flashed to James Bond. Bond was portrayed as having endless cash and an enviable life. He romanced models on yachts, wore elegant suits, and drove sexy sports cars, nothing like her father.

She recalls thinking, “Dad was a nerd. How could he be a spy?”

“Dad kept his secrets to himself, and so did I,” Absher writes. “Just like him, I lived a double life. One life had my queer self in it, and the other didn’t.”

Absher ultimately decided to tell her truth. And she decided that her life as a spy daughter was also hers to reclaim. The result is an intimate portrait of personal healing. She discussed her memoir in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

well, and encouraging us. It was his idea to write a new Act 1 about the Res-Erection. Then Noah, as director, takes the wild ideas and further makes us define/refine them, and brings them to life with his staging ideas.”

Koldewyn added that Watt is “really great” at ordering the songs so that the show flows best for smoothness and impact.

And what does Koldewyn hope the audience will take from “Cockettes: Res-Erection?”

“That cutting loose on stage is the thing to do,” he said. “Make good with whatever you have, and celebrate who you are.”t

‘Cockettes: Res-Erection,’ March 23, 24, 25, 7pm. Oasis, 298 11th Street, $40-60. 21+ only. www.sfoasis.com

Laura Moreno: Your story involved coming out of two closets. Do you agree that the CIA closet was the more difficult of the two?

Leslie Absher: Coming out of the spy daughter closet was in many ways more difficult than coming out of the queer one. When I came out in the late 1980s and earl ’90s in Boston, there were support groups at local women’s centers. It was a queer-friendly time even though so many battles were still to come like same-sex marriage and transgender rights. It wasn’t easy to come out to my father, but I felt essentially supported. But being the child of a spy felt quite lonely. There were no support groups and it felt to me like the CIA was a dirty word in left-leaning circles. So in that way, it was easier to come out as gay, at least at first, than it was to talk about what my father did for a living since it opened me up to judgment and criticism. I felt I had to keep it a secret.

Interestingly, I was interviewed last summer by Kathimerini, a prominent Greek newspaper. The article ran on the front page and described my process to come to terms with his role in the Greek military coup in the late ’60s. My being gay was completely left out of the article. The reporter focused on the spy angle, which I understand, but coming out as a lesbian is also a huge part of the story and that wasn’t included.

See page 19 >>

Cockettes ‘Res-Erection’ performers

Oasis musical revue recalls famed queer theater troupe

‘Cockettes: Res-Erection’

Robert Moses Kin

Bootstraps Initiative connects choreography and community

by Philip Mayard

For more than 25 years, Robert Moses has been a powerful force in the Bay Area arts community. His choreographic work for his own San Francisco-based troupe, Robert Moses Kin (RMK), and companies around the world has attracted both praise and controversy, as it often deals with subjects such as race, identity, social justice and power.

Beyond the stage, Moses, who identifies as straight and is the father of two teenagers, is deeply committed to education, having served in teaching positions at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, Mills College and University of San Francisco. He’s also been a master teacher at international dance festivals in Mexico, Russia and India. But for the past few years, Moses has been focused on his work here at home, not only with RMK but with students and seniors in some of our city’s most under-served communities.

In 2021, with funding from Mayor London Breed’s Dream Keeper Initiative – a citywide program that aims to break the cycle of poverty and involvement in the criminal justice system in San Francisco’s Black community –Moses was able to launch a program that he had been dreaming about for years. Bootstraps: Lyric Legacies is a collaborative initiative with RMK, San Francisco Unified School District and Boys & Girls Clubs, which brings teaching artists and members of the

RMK company out into schools and senior centers to conduct multidisciplinary workshops that allow participants to tell their own cultural stories.

Christine “Teen” Joy Ferrer, Educational Program Coordinator for Bootstraps, believes the program is a natural extension of RMK’s work on stage. Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter, Ferrer said, “The beautiful thing about Robert’s work is that it incorporates dance, poetry and original music he often creates himself. For Robert, it has always been about the creative process. That’s what the Bootstraps program does as well.

“There are lots of workshops out there that focus on technique and preparing for a performance,” she explained. “But Bootstraps isn’t just about dance. It’s about creativity, mindfulness and wellness. We bring in cultural artists of all kinds, so this program is connecting with people of all ages from a very ancestral, elemental space of thinking.”

Bootstraps workshops flip the student/teacher narrative, Ferrer said.

“Teachers may plan on working on dance, but if the students aren’t responding, they might shift gears and focus on breathing and allow the students to tell a little bit of their stories, then try to transform that into music or drumming. Whatever participants want to focus on in that moment, we will acknowledge and support.”

At the conclusion of each session, RMK company members create and

perform works-in-progress inspired by workshop participants, who are invited, but not required, to participate.

To date, Bootstraps has touched the lives of more than 200 participants, but Ferrer’s goals for the program are far loftier.

“This is not only a dope experience for students, but for us as teachers, to learn and appreciate the creative process. This is so much more than learning a dance and performing it. I want this program to remind us and our community of our divinity, and to see that we are all connected. If we just bring a little of that to our students, we’ve done our job.”

Return to Presidio Theatre

As with all performing arts organizations, the last few years have been extremely challenging for Moses and his company.

“When the pandemic hit,” Moses said with a deep sigh, “our dancers scattered everywhere across the country. It was challenging to just keep things running. We created work virtually, and we had keep funding going and people employed.”

Although in-person performances have returned to Bay Area stages, Moses says the challenges continue.

“Audiences have shifted, and we just don’t know if they will all come back. Some people are still struggling, but we need folks to see what we are doing! Here’s what I say: ‘Quit binging stuff on TV. Get off your butt, come

to the theater and have an actual experience. Sit next to someone who is sniffling because something touches them deeply. Be with people who understand the beauty of the work these people are doing on stage.’

“We did all the virtual programming and that was fine, but the mode that works best for us, how we touch people’s hearts and make them feel something, is by having them come into the theater with us. Come to the theater and we will move you!”

Long known for work that expands the boundaries of contemporary dance, RMK’s spring season will no doubt feature works incorporating modern, ballet, hip-hop and jazz.

However, with less than a month before the curtain rises on the company’s spring season, Moses has purposedly not yet named the three works that will be presented.

When asked about it, Moses said, “Well, sometimes it takes time to get what you’re after. If I say too much too early about a piece, then audiences will be looking for that, and it might not be there, and they might feel taken advantage of.”

He was willing to give a few hints about what’s on his mind and how that might play out on the stage.

“There’s a story about a child who is sitting down for a big cry, saying, ‘I want everything and I ain’t got nothing!’ His friends come along and say, ‘Don’t worry about that, we’ll figure this out,’ and we go on a journey inside the child’s mind. And I’ve been thinking a lot about the stuff that’s going on in Florida around Black education.”

Having performed on stages around the city since its inception, Moses has made the beautifully renovated Presidio Theatre his company’s new home.

“It’s such a lovely space in a beautiful part of the city. It’s a place where you can spend more time before or after a performance. You can sit on the green and talk about what you’re going to see, or have dinner, or walk in the woods. We’re all so busy with the stress of life. The Presidio gives you time to have a slow life for a moment.”t

Robert Moses Kin Spring Season, March 24-26, Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center, 99 Moraga Avenue, San Francisco. $8-$45. www.robertmoseskin.org

MTT conducts Mahler’s Sixth Symphony

by Philip Campbell

The remarkable nexus between Gustav Mahler’s intense Symphony No. 6, the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas has captivated listeners, both at home and on tour, for many years. Whether by coincidence or design, previous concerts have also frequently corresponded with significant world events and SFS milestones.

At the end of March, Thomas returns to Davies Symphony Hall for three evening performances and an open morning rehearsal to explore again the spiritual transcendence of the Sixth, often called ‘Tragic’ symphony. For the first time since shortly before the pandemic lockdown of Davies Symphony Hall and the cancellation of a scheduled European tour, Mahler’s towering masterpiece with its famous “hammer blows of fate” in the finale resounds live once more, the way it should be heard.

The fearless maestro is making the most of his Indian summer resurgence after a brain cancer diagnosis and sur-

gery. It seems characteristic of him, if a little worrying for us, that he is tackling such a daunting and physically demanding task at this late point in his career. If his husband Joshua Robison does not object, we will look forward guilt-free to the upcoming visit. When Thomas was last here in late January, his

walk to the podium prompted a prolonged standing ovation. Warm wishes can equate with good medicine.

Mahler wrote the massive Symphony No. 6 in A minor during a relatively happy period in his own life, but still agonized over its reception and was reportedly highly anxious, even tearful backstage at the premiere. Called the greatest symphonist after Beethoven, and sometimes the greatest composer of symphonies ever, Mahler has come to define modern music, the transition between musical eras, and perhaps, the best exemplar of what a symphony is supposed to be.

He thought the symphony should embrace the world, and if he really meant universe, the ‘Tragic’ Sixth certainly exhibits his endlessly fascinating, sometimes pessimistic philosophy, with deep insights into the very meaning of life (or lack thereof).

Critics and listeners have sometimes complained the piece does not offer hope and that Mahler’s vision was unrelentingly bleak. Many others, including generations of appreciative musicians and audiences (including

myself) disagree. It may be convoluted and end in silent darkness, but “It’s a sheltering darkness, one that peculiarly enough offers refuge,” says Music Aeterna conductor Teodor Currentzis. It also contains some of the most thrilling theatrical moments in classical music.

Thomas has made his own highly quotable observations over the years. Almost three decades ago he called the Sixth, “the symphony I am most afraid of” and, “I find it both wonderful and nearly unbearable.” Strong words from an artist who admits to an “obsessional thing” for the score.

Despite the challenges, he keeps going back to find more understanding. One of his opinions has remained constant; we can listen to the music and know we are not alone in tragic times. Music has a healing power that communicates universal empathy. This was memorably apparent in the grim, sobering days following 9/11 when Thomas and the SF Symphony performed the Sixth for stunned audiences lost in grief and contemplation. The profoundly moving experience

provided a necessary group ritual that transcended tragedy. It was a moment of ethereal solace we can still use today.

Thomas has never expressed which Mahler Symphony is his favorite, though he comments most lovingly about the Ninth. I suspect his favorite may be whichever one he is working on. 25 years on the podium and the historic legacy of The San Francisco Symphony Mahler Recording Project on SF Symphony Media testify to his commitment. He first conducted the Symphony in 1974, leading Gustav Mahler’s Ninth.

My favorite Mahler symphony is whichever one I am listening to, though I confess, like Thomas, to having something of an “obsessional thing” for the Sixth.t

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Mahler’s Sixth Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave. Open Rehearsal, March 30 10am, $30-$40. Performances March 30-April 1, 7:30pm. $35 to $165. (415) 864-6000 www.sfsymphony.org

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas

Brandon Patoc

Robert Moses Kin in rehearsal

Steve Disenhof

Robert Moses Kin’s Bootstraps workshop at the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center in San Francisco

Steve Disenhof

Robert Moses’ dance, ‘Crystaldawn Bell’

RJ Muna

by Gregg Shapiro

With a name like Smut, you might not expect the Chicago-based band to sound like a Great Lakes version of The Sundays on the album “How the Light Felt” (Bayonet), but it does. Lead vocalist Tay Roebuck could easily be mistaken for The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler, especially on the title song, “Let Me Hate,” “Supersolar,” and “After Silver Leaves.” That said, Smut has no trouble carving out its own identity throughout the album, as is obvious on “Unbroken Thought” and the synth-driven “Morningstar.” In other words, with a name like Smut, it has to be good.

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it, before we started to hear from the next Billie Eilish or the next Lorde (or Lana Del Rey, for that matter)? Enter Nessa Barrett and her debut album “Young Forever” (Warner). Already a social media star (who isn’t these days?), Nessa Barrett wears these aforementioned comparisons on her designer sleeve, while also establishing her own singular voice. Traversing some dark subject matter, including mental health struggles and bullying, Barrett gives listeners a lot to think about on “Gaslight,”

“Forgive the World,” “Talk to Myself,” “Fuckmarrykill,” “Madhouse,” and “Unnecessary Violence.”

Nessa Barrett performs on March 19, 8:30pm at The Masonic, 1111 California St. $17-$400. www.livenation.com

If you’ve been following the incredible singer/songwriter Sunny War (aka Sydney Lyndella Ward) since her 2018 breakthrough album “With The Sun” and 2019’s “Shell of A Girl,” you might be surprised at how much of a leap forward she makes on her new album “Anarchist Gospel” (New West).

Beginning with opener “Love’s Death Bed,” with its hot harmonica work by Chris Pierce and the call-and-response choir backing vocals, featuring a guest appearance by queer artist Allison Russell, you know you are in for something new and attention-getting. The same can be said for the thrilling instrumentation on “No Reason,” a song that puts War in a whole new league of commercial and immediately accessible music. The truth is, there’s not a bad song to be found with “Swear to Gawd,” “His Love,” “New Day,” “Test Dummy,” and worth special attention.

Singer/songwriter Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Laura Mering) had her work cut out for her when it came to following her universally acclaimed 2019 album “Titanic Rising.” The good news is that she met the challenge with grace and delivered the worthy successor “And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow” (Sub Pop), the second album in a trilogy that began with “Titanic Rising.” Weyes Blood is a purveyor of timeless pop with influences from the 1970s through the present day. Each of these ten songs is nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful, surrounding the listener with the warmth of

Weyes Blood’s distinctive vocals and instrumentation that perfectly suits each song. Standouts include “Twin Flame,” “Grapevine,” “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” “God Turn Me into a Flower,” and the deceptively poppy “The Worst Is Yet to Come.”

Weyes Blood performs on March 25 & 26 at The Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness Ave. $27.50-$40. www.theregencyballroom.com

Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall got lucky right out of the gate. Her 2006 debut album “Eye to the Telescope” contained the ubiquitous hit single “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree,” which earned her a Grammy nomination and other accolades. Since that time, Tunstall has released six more albums with “Nut” (Blue Elan) being the latest; a worthy showcase for all of her gifts, including her skills as a guitar player and songwriter. “Nut” kicks into high gear with album opener “Out of Touch,” featuring wily wordplay. The soaring “I Am the Pilot” is asking for club play and Tunstall brings the record to a close with the stripped-down ballad “All the Time.”

Known for their rocking approach, New Zealand’s The Beths move in a slightly softer direction on the poppy, but still amplified, “Expert in a Dying Field” (Carpark). Lead vocalist and guitarist Elizabeth Stokes injects the dozen songs with emotion, a welcome warmth occasionally obscured on previous releases. From the opening title tune through songs including “Your Side,” “Knees Deep,” “When You Know You Know,” “I Want To Listen,” “Change in the Weather,” and the rocking blast of “I Told You I Was Afraid,” The Beths prove they are experts at versatility.

When she was a member of the British post-punk band Goat Girl, Naima Bock was known as Naima Jelly. After leaving her former bandmates, her stage name, and that musical genre behind, Bock steps forward with her gorgeous solo debut album “Giant Palm” (Sub Pop). Experimental folk in the best sense of the term, the ten songs, which drift towards us via Bock’s airy vocals are mesmerizing, and often too brief, leaving us wanting more. Standouts include the title number, “Camp-

ervan,” “Working,” “Every Morning,” and her cover of Jobim’s “O Morro.”

One of the most exhilarating debut albums of 2022, “Versions of Modern Performance” (Matador) by Chicagobased female trio Horsegirl, blazes with youthful daring and exuberance. Taking cues from Sonic Youth, as well as a host of `90s alt-rock acts, Horsegirl synthesizes its influences into a wholly original sound. “Beautiful Song,” “Option 8,” “Live and Ski,” “The Fall of Horsegirl,” “Anti-glory,” “World of Pots and Pans,” and “Billy,” all deserve to be on your playlist.

There’s no question that Californiabased vocalist Judy Whitmore can carry a tune on her new album “Isn’t It Romantic” (Arden House Music). She has a pleasant and expressive voice and is respectful of the material. The arrangements are appropriately jazzy if a bit safe. The trouble is that Whitmore doesn’t really add anything new or original to her renditions of welltrodden songs by Ray Charles (a swinging “Hallelujah I Love Him So”), Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (“Just A Little Lovin’”), Johnny Burke and Johnny Van Heusen (“It Could Happen to You”), Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington (“The Nearness of You”), Kurt Weil and Ogden Nash (“Speak Low”), and the Rodgers and Hart title tune. Maybe the left-coast cabaret acts didn’t get the memo about expanding their repertoire beyond the Great American Songbook of the 20th century.t

by Gregg Shapiro

S hortly before Benjamin (Cooper Koch) leaves town to start his gay porn career in Los Angeles, he and straight best friend Dom (Jose Colon) hang out in a Maine gay bar in Carter Smith’s “Swallowed” (All The Dead Boys Productions). Benjamin tells Dom he’ll miss him, and the bar, but can’t think of a good reason to stay.

Dom tells Benjamin he has a going away present for him, but they must make one quick stop first. At a work site, Dom meets up with Alice (Jena Malone), a friend of his cousin’s. Alice is a drug dealer and Dom has agreed to make a drug run for her across the border in Canada in exchange for $15,000, which he intends to give to Benjamin. But the drug run isn’t a simple one, and it involves Dom swallowing said product drug-mule style. When he refuses, Alice pulls a gun and he complies, swallowing five mysterious packets. Benjamin swallows one, too. As you may have guessed, the one quick stop is anything but.

At the designated rest area where Dom is to make the delivery, he gets

into a fight with a local redneck who was harassing Benjamin. The redneck punches Dom in the gut, setting off a potentially dangerous chain reaction. Alice shows up at the rest area, prom-

ising to get Dom to a hospital, but in truth diverts them to a cabin owned by her boss, Rich (out actor Mark Patton) so she can extract the drugs. En route, Alice explains what it is

exactly they’re transporting. It’s an exotic bug whose bite, when first hatched, provides an intense high resulting in, among other things, a nine-hour erection. But unfortunately, it also tempo-

Spring Fling

rarily costs the user the use of their legs. Pros and cons, don’t you know?

Once inside the cabin, Benjamin greases up his hand and assists Dom with the delivery. Because, as Alice says while she’s pointing a gun at Benjamin, “You don’t want them hatching” inside of Dom. And then Rich arrives. His presence ratchets up the tension, but in terms of horror, there’s not much to speak of. However, one of the sacks does break and Dom dies. But this is a lost horror opportunity for director Smith. Why didn’t the beast burst forth from Dom’s chest a la “Alien?”

Not long after, Rich, who’s in a frenzy over the loss of profit dead bugs symbolize, kills Alice. That leaves Benjamin and Rich, and the creepiness potential increases. What follows is a hot bath, an attempted seduction, a full-frontal nude scene (Benjamin’s, not Rich’s), a daring escape, and a brutal act of revenge.

Cooper Koch is in the process of becoming the Scream Queen of 2022 with his performances in “Swallowed,” as well as Peacock’s “They/Them.” While he’s the best part of “Swallowed” (and that’s not saying much), it’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here. Rating: Ct

It’s no surprise that thousands of readers flock to our expansive arts and nightlife listings. Each week, we sort through hundreds of press releases for the most interesting events. Enjoy the bounty on www.ebar.com.

— Willa Cather

A family affair

by Tim Pfaff

The title of Richard Mirabella’s debut novel, “Brother & Sister Enter the Forest” promises the sinister, and Mirabella makes good on the promise. The plot sits queasily somewhere between “Hansel and Gretel” and “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” The title characters – brother, Justin, and sister, Willa – are mired in the emotional wasteland of upstate New York.

Justin, a prodigal brother as well as son, is gay and, in his own estimation, “a fuckup.” He’s never far from the novel but ghosts his family for years at a time. Willa is a nurse with aspirations to make art with her dioramas. Her inner nurse cannot abandon a brother she genuinely loves, but his attempts to “move back in” work her last nerve.

Unable to solve a problem like Justin, she runs interference between him and their mother, Grace, perhaps predictably to no one’s benefit. Early indications are that Justin’s problem is alcohol, and he certainly fails every breathalyzer test from beginning to end of our uncomfortable acquaintance of him. But his mental illness turns out to be a much headier brew.

“Brother & Sister” has been welcomed as a gay coming-of-age story, but, contrary to many such stories, Justin’s life trajectory is ineluctably downward rather than up. The literal stink of him only gets more concentrated and penetrating. The crazier he gets, the more he garners the sympathy of readers, but he’s anything but an example to anyone.

Mirabella makes clear that Justin has earned his madness. Grace is hardly the cliché of the overbearing mother, but the inconstancy of her feelings toward both of her children has tried Willa and battered Justin.

“She wasn’t comforting. She became

angry when he or Willa got sick; she blamed them, though she did what she thought a mother should.”

Justin has had a literal battering from an older classmate, Nick, who has a taste for abuse frosted with humiliation. Nick isn’t just a bad apple of a particularly middle-American variety. In the novel’s most gruesome passage, he becomes the perpetrator of a violent crime visited on a younger boy. The event overshadows all else in the novel, resurfacing every time we’ve put it out of our minds and eerily changing in its depiction of what happened.

The heart of the matter

At the fulcrum of the novel, Mirabella describes Justin’s eroding handwriting as observed by Willa. “The handwriting worried her. A sentence would begin with clarity and run into trouble by the end, the words transforming into hieroglyphics.”

The two sentences lay out Mirabell’s overall plot line. Despite the atmosphere of deep family dysfunction that

pervades the book, earlier chapters horrify only on their indictment of suburban American practices– there being no values to speak of. The story gets steadily stranger until, in its final chapters, it’s feverishly hallucinogenic. No spoilers, but it warrants noting that the events that unfold become so deranged as to be nearly incomprehensible.That’s anything but sloth on the author’s part.

On the other hand, befitting a novel of its fundamental realism, Mirabella’s writing is largely straightforward. There are occasional turns of phrase that attest to a writerly sensibility, “[Nick] looked older and terrifying, the way beautiful things could be when you were not beautiful yourself.” “To have only one friend in the world is a dangerous thing.” “The sky scabbed the clouds.” “His body looked skeletal and wild, like a boy raised by wolves.” But most of the writing is in service of the advancement of the plot in a way that has all but been forgotten as genre-bending has become nearly

spy! That’s so cool!” to people giving me chilling looks and shunning me. My dad was either a hero or a villain.

A couple of years ago, I was part of a podcast featuring Stewart Copeland, the drummer for the ’80s band The Police, whose [American] dad was in the CIA. The producers wanted a counterpoint to Copeland’s point of view, which was pretty favorable. It was difficult to be the daughter of a spy and I struggled with the political and human implications of what the CIA did and does in the world.

I know a lot of children of spies now and most have responded really positively to the book. I think there has been a sense that I’ve sort of voiced things that are hard to say out loud. There’s still so much secrecy. It’s part of our DNA. We feel like we have to protect our spy parents so it can be hard to give ourselves permission to tell our stories.

de rigueur in gay fiction.

One of the few lapses from that aesthetic posture comes in a passage that interrupts the narrative rather than adding to it. It’s the bit about being a writer few debut novelists can resist.

“In the past [Justin] had tried writing, but he couldn’t focus. He had trouble reading. How could he write? He told [boyfriend] Shivam he wanted to, as it was better to have something you wanted to do besides your little office job, though he stressed to Shivam that he enjoyed his little office job, too; he didn’t require money or status, wanted to live simply.” Personality calving off from identity.

Shifts in narrative time are sometimes breakneck, sentences depicting events from different time periods jostling for place in the same paragraph. If I were to cite a tic that got under my skin, it would be Mirabella’s tendency to front load a sentence with proper names and then deploying a pronoun in the ensuing independent clause that has no clear antecedent. Who’s that again? It’s a tiny matter, but one that impedes the kind of reading this

propulsive novel fosters.

None of the subsidiary characters is as well drawn as the three principals, but further elaboration of them would also slow the swift narrative. Boyfriends – Willa’s Luke and Justin’s Shivam – function largely as foils. Their unwavering devotion to difficult partners is slightly at odds with the book’s savaging of the bad guys.

Mirabella’s bravery is in taking his readers inside the tortured mind of a man pummeled by mental illness. It’s not uplifting in the way such “comingof-age” novels are supposed to behave. But it’s part of the larger gay picture and is every bit as worth acknowledging (not that it’s been exactly overlooked in literary fiction).Virtually all the characters – at times including Nick – are, at their best, sympathetic participants or witnesses of Justin’s basically good-hearted but disastrous downfall.

Richard Mirabella, “Brother and Sister Enter the Forest,” 275 pp., Catapult Press, www.books.catapult.co www.richardmirabellawriter.com

From page 15

One of the things I love about this memoir is that it is very personal, and you really go into how you worked on yourself to heal through yoga and finding a good therapist. Do you have any advice for how young people can come to terms with their sexuality?

I feel like if you’re a young person and you are struggling with anything, you need to find your advocates and allies. Adults who have been through what you have or are open to supporting you.

There was that campaign not too long ago of “It gets better” and I agree. Once you leave childhood, in many ways it gets better if you’re queer. But I think no one should wait for adulthood. Find your supporters in your family, community, or in safe online chat groups. It’s easy to feel alone while in the midst of a life transition but I guarantee you others feel similar. No one should feel alone.

That said, I live in the Bay Area Bubble. My rights are protected and will likely continue to be. This isn’t the case in many other parts of the U.S. Look at Florida with its “Don’t say gay” bill that bans public school teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity. I think young people have to stay safe, find allies and keep organizing for change. We all have to do that. We have to overturn these laws.

The Vietnam War had a very negative impact on the image of the CIA, but do you find that today’s ‘spy kids’ are viewed as kind of cool, against the evidence?

What responses have you received to your book?

What it’s like to be a spy or the child of a spy is dominated by Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Spydom has colonized everyone’s minds including my own.

In my 30s when I started to come out as the daughter of a CIA officer, I got very divergent responses, everything from, “Wow! Your dad was a

And like all groups, we are varied in our views and experiences. Some are 100% believers in what their parents did, whether they know what that is or not, and some are more critical. I know spy daughters who are probably more critical than I am.

We would also likely agree that being a spy wasn’t like the exciting Hollywood image of sexy cars and hightech gadgets. My dad often talked about how tedious it could be. I try to make space for all of the experiences someone dealt with in terms of growing up the child of a spy.t

Leslie Absher will read from ‘Spy Daughter, Queer Girl’ March 18, 4pm at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, 3207 Lakeshore Ave. www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org ‘Spy Daughter, Queer Girl: In Search of Truth and Acceptance in a Family of Secrets,’ Latah Books, $29.95 hardcover. www.latahbooks.com www.leslieabsher.com

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

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Richard Mirabella’s ‘Brother & Sister Enter the Forest’

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Teenage Leslie Absher with her father

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