March 28, 2024 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

The U.S. Postal Service has rejected a stamp depicting slain gay college student Matthew Shepard.

Postal service rejects Shepard stamp proposal

by Matthew S. Bajko

The United States Postal Service is rejecting the idea of a U.S. postal stamp honoring murdered gay college student Matthew Shepard for being too “negative.” The reasoning has shocked LGBTQ leaders who have called for such a commemorative stamp to be issued.

Bob Lehman, a gay man who founded American Veterans for Equal Rights based in San Diego, had sent the postal service a letter in support of the Shepard stamp. He was surprised to receive a letter dated March 15 informing him it didn’t meet the criteria used by the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee for selecting who and what is featured on commemorative stamps.

“Unfortunately, this subject does not meet current criteria for commemoration on a postage stamp. The stamp program commemorates positive contributions to American life, history, culture and environment; therefore, negative occurrences and disasters will not be commemorated on U.S. postage stamps or stationery,” wrote Shawn P. Quinn, manager for stamp development.

Speaking by phone March 26 Lehman told the Bay Area Reporter that he wholeheartedly disagreed with the letter’s insinuation that Shepard had not had a positive impact on Americans. He noted that the Shepard family launched a foundation in response to his murder to address homophobia and promote LGBTQ rights, while an award-winning play based on his killing called “The Laramie Project” has been produced across the globe and helped educate audiences how to counteract bigotry.

“To read what it said was kind of shocking. Other people who have been assassinated or died in a horrific way have been commemorated on a stamp,” noted Lehman, a Marine veteran who serves as vice chair of the nearly year-old San Diego County Arts and Cultural Commission. “One of the lines in the letter mentions the subject does not meet the criteria that the stamp program commemorates positive contributions to American life. Matthew’s death has certainly done that in a very big way.”

Shepard was brutally attacked on the night of October 6, 1998, tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die. Found by rescuers and taken to a local hospital, he would succumb six days later on October 12 to the severe head injuries he had received.

See page 13 >>

For Easter, SF Sisters mark 45 years

by John Ferrannini

There’ll be multiple opportunities for contests and pictures with the Easter bunny this weekend in San Francisco’s Castro LGBTQ neighborhood.

Chief among those is the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s 45th anniversary Easter celebration in Mission Dolores Park Sunday, March 31. The charitable drag nun organization got its start parading through San Francisco decades ago.

Brother Sinthetic Soul, the chair nun of the event, told the Bay Area Reporter that it will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the flat area of the park’s north field with an Easter egg hunt and story time for the kids.

“There’s some bunny hop races; there’s photos with an Easter bunny and those kinds of things. Cheer SF is performing – they’re doing a little show for the kids,” Soul said, referring to the pep squad made up of LGBTQ and allied members.

After the children’s program, the main stage starts at noon.

See page 12 >>

Big changes eyed for street parklet in Castro LGBTQ neighborhood

by John Ferrannini

Ever since its debut 15 years ago, the design and look of a public parklet by the main entrance into San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro district has been less than desirable. An update to it that saw an aqua-green paint applied to its ground surface was met with derision.

Carved out of a side street adjacent to a gas station and built around the terminus for the city’s trolley line featuring historic streetcars from around the globe, the space is a challenging one to transform from a roadway to an outdoor neighborhood amenity.

Nonetheless, city officials are making another stab at upgrading what is known as Jane Warner Plaza. San Francisco Public Works presented a potential future design for the parklet at a meeting for Castro community stakeholders March 22.

The concept is in the preliminary stages, according to William Bulkley, a landscape architect with Public Works. There are currently no meetings scheduled for the general public, he said, but if the concept moves forward there will be.

With plans to also transform Harvey Milk Plaza across the street from Jane Warner Plaza, Bulkley said it was a good time to think about a more cohesive reimagining for the entire area.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to think conceptually about this intersection,” Bulkley said, referring to the intersection of Castro, Market, and 17th streets that makes up Jane Warner Plaza. “It’s a difficult intersection. … We’re hoping this can connect in a very linear way with Harvey Milk Plaza to create an urban destination, from Collingwood [street] to The Cafe [nightclub].”

One of the reasons Jane Warner Plaza is challenging is the F-line Muni streetcar makes its turn from 17th Street to head east down Market Street en route

to Embarcadero and Fisherman’s Wharf. The train tracks and loading platform for the trolleys are in the center of the plaza and can’t be moved.

Public Works architect Julie An said that the purpose behind the redesign is to “celebrate the leadership and community activism of Jane Warner” and to “provide a space for … both planned and unplanned events.”

See page 12 >>

A rendering shows the long-term “Green Embrace” proposal for Jane Warner Plaza’s street view at Castro and 17th streets.

Courtesy SF Public Works

Sisters apply some touch-ups to their colleague during last year’s Easter celebration at Mission Dolores Park.

Courtesy the Shepard stamp campaign committee.

Morgan Hill councilmember Spring won’t seek reelection

by Cynthia Laird

Gay Morgan Hill City Councilmember Rene Spring announced March 22 that he will not seek reelection to a third term this year.

In a letter to the editor sent to the Bay Area Reporter and Morgan Hill outlets, Spring wrote that he felt it was time to pass the baton to a new leader. He has represented District C in the South Bay city for the last eight years.

“While I will continue to serve diligently for the remainder of my term, I believe it is time for new ideas and energy to move our city forward,” Spring wrote.

He stated that he has given the idea a lot of thought.

“After much consideration and discussions with my husband, Mark Hoffmann, I have decided not to seek reelection to the Morgan Hill City Council (District C) in 2024,” Spring wrote. “I have had the privilege of serving our city for 12 1/2 years, first as a planning commissioner for 4 1/2 years, then as a Councilmember for District C for eight years. Additionally, I also served one term as commissioner of the Veterans Commission of Santa Clara County from 2016-2020.”

Spring, 60, will not leave the council early, he stated, and will serve until December. And while there are no term limits for the council, Spring stated he “firmly” believes in them.

Spring first ran for the council seat in 2016, as the B.A.R noted in a 2020 article. He was elected, becoming the first known LGBTQ person to serve on the governing body, and in November 2020, he handily won a second four-year term.

In a phone interview, Spring said that when he first ran for the council, people

didn’t think he had a chance. While he did not run as a gay candidate, Spring didn’t hide it either, he said.

“I won in a landslide,” he recalled.

As the city’s first out elected councilmember, Spring said that he used his visibility to help advocate for services in Morgan Hill, a community of about 45,000 people in southern Santa Clara County.

“Just showing up and showing community members we are a safe city,” Spring said of his early tenure. “The Pride flag flying was something I initiated.”

He also sought municipal services for the LGBTQ community as the city had none at the time. “We have spaces and the county acknowledged we need services,” Spring said. Today, there are safe spaces for youth and some health services, but more are needed, he pointed out.

Spring, a native of Switzerland, became a U.S. citizen in 2006. He works fulltime at Cadence Design Systems.

He previously told the B.A.R. that he sought reelection four years ago because he wanted to continue serving on the council so there was a progressive, LGBTQ voice on the body advocating for smart development that includes more affordable housing and office space so

residents do not have to commute north to their Silicon Valley jobs.

Spring has been a strong advocate for the protection of Morgan Hill’s rural charms and wild landscape. The city is the gateway into the sprawling Henry Coe State Park, which saw roughly 56,000 acres burn due to the SCU Lightning Complex Fire in 2020.

“One of the reasons I ran for council was I really wanted to stop the urban sprawl outside of our city limits. We still have ag land and open space, that means a lot to me,” said Spring in the 2020 interview. “I want to preserve it, as do a lot of the people here. It is why they voted for me four years ago.”

Spring first moved to the Bay Area in 1998 and met Hoffmann, an artist, that year in San Francisco. They married in 2008, and Spring is a step-dad to the couple’s three adult children and now a grandfather called “Opa” to three grandkids. Hoffmann retired from the U.S. Postal Service in April 2023, Spring said.

Ken Yeager, a gay man and former Santa Clara supervisor and San Jose councilmember, is now the executive director of the BAYMEC Foundation.

In that role Yeager has started featuring biographies of LGBTQ Silicon Valley

electeds and other leaders as part of his Queer Silicon Valley project. He posted one about Spring that was written by Lorraine Gabbert.

Spring said that he announced his plans now to give others time to prepare. He thinks it’s unlikely an LGBTQ person will run for his seat. “We’ll see who comes forward,” he said. “I hope someone who’s similarly open-minded – an ally – is welcome. The next best would be a great ally.”

In his letter, Spring thanked his constituents.

“I am grateful for the support I have received throughout my time in office, from my small campaign team to all those who believed in me, supported us one way or another, and, of course to the many who voted for me,” he wrote. “I want to thank everyone for their support and friendship, and I look forward to spending more time with my husband and supporting his art projects, to hanging out with friends and family.”

Spring said that he has no plans to seek another elected office in the future.

“I hope my decision today will encourage other residents of District C to run for office and bring fresh perspectives to our community,” he wrote. t

Ceasefire banner damaged at Belmont church

by Cynthia Laird

It wasn’t anti-LGBTQ related but, for the second time in less than a year, vandals damaged a banner at a Belmont church –this one urging a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Congregational Church of the Peninsula, formerly known as the Congregational Church of Belmont, was vandalized sometime overnight March 19, church officials stated in a March 22 news release.

A banner in front of the Belmont church reading, “Love and Life Demand a Permanent Ceasefire Now,” was sprayed with brown paint sometime overnight Tuesday, March 19. It was discovered Wednesday morning, the release stated.

Later, on Wednesday, two photos featuring Israeli children who are being held by Hamas were attached to the banner, according to the release.

Tensions have been high in the Bay Area and across the country since Hamas invaded Israel October 7, when Hamas terrorists crossed into Israeli territory and killed 1,200 people in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Israel responded with an extensive bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas, and a ground invasion, which has

led to the deaths of at least 30,000 Palestinians, according to media reports, making it the deadliest conflict in the region in over four decades.

Since then, numerous protests have been held in the Bay Area and beyond demanding a permanent ceasefire.

Various city bodies, including the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Oakland City Council, have adopted resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

Last summer, the church’s rainbow Pride banner was slashed in two, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. Both vandalism events have been reported to the Belmont Police Depart-

ment, which has promised increased patrols in the area, church officials stated.

Belmont Police Corporal Brian Vogel confirmed to the B.A.R. March 22 that officers have increased patrols and the investigation is ongoing. At this point, he does not see the ceasefire banner incident as a hate crime. The Pride banner incident, however, is being investigated as a hate crime, Lieutenant Pete Lotti told the B.A.R. last summer.

The Reverend Jim Mitulski, a gay man who is pastor at the church, stated he and the congregation were “disappointed” in the recent vandalism.

“While disappointed at this violent

response to our call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire,” Mitulski stated, “we are not discouraged from proclaiming the message. A ceasefire applies to all parties and is consistent with our church’s commitment to live out the call from Jesus, ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers.’

“This banner has already brought largely positive feedback, especially, but not solely, from our Muslim neighbors, one of whom offered to help us replace it,” he added. “I pray for the people who vandalized our church and invite them to engage us personally in dialogue.”

Mitulski said he makes the same invitation to whomever damaged the rainbow Pride banner last summer. Mitulski recently told the B.A.R. that he has not heard any updates on the Pride banner vandalism.

“This is what I believe Jesus would do,” Mitulski stated.

Mitulski previously stated that some in the congregation were a bit apprehensive about displaying the ceasefire banner after the incident with the Pride banner. The ceasefire banner went up earlier this month.

The B.A.R. had reached out to Mitulski earlier this month after the Coast Pride Center in Half Moon Bay was vandalized.

As the paper reported, in that incident, which occurred overnight March 4, two people cut and removed the Progress Pride flag, tore down rainbow bunting, kicked and cut a “No home for hate” lawn sign, smeared mud on a wooden trans heart, threw the center’s painted rocks onto the sidewalk and street, and threw a rock into one of the building’s front windows.

There was also another incident in February whereby the center’s Pride flag was stolen and the “No home for hate” sign was torn down, Coast Pride officials said.

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office stated that in the Coast Pride incidents, deputies believe they were the work of juveniles. A sheriff’s spokesperson stated that the department believes the incidents were isolated.

Last May, Palo Alto police opened a hate crime investigation into the vandalism of a Pride flag flown by the city’s First Lutheran Church.

A church employee had found it ripped down and reported the incident to police in the Santa Clara County city on May 16, as the Mercury News reported.

See page 3 >>

Morgan Hill City Councilmember Rene Spring

Courtesy Rene Spring

The Reverend Jim Mitulski stands next to the damaged ceasefire banner outside of the Congregational Church of the Peninsula.

Courtesy Congregational Church of the Peninsula

on Egg case

for drag friend Pippi

by Ed Walsh

Wilma Parker remembers well some very peculiar and alarming behavior from a police horse next to her South of Market home on Clara Street. It was a day in mid-May 2018. The place was 228 Clara Street. She recounted the story recently to the Bay Area Reporter.

A group of police horses was there to commemorate the historic dedication of the drayhorse stables that once stood on the site of her home. One of the horses broke away from the others and sniffed the doorway of the Clara Street residence. The horse became agitated and reared up on its hind legs as if it was spooked by something.

Three months later police would discover the rotting torso of a man in a fish tank there in one of the most grizzly homicides in San Francisco history. Parker believes her gay longtime neighbor, Brian Egg, 64, was already dead in the home and that the horse likely was the first to notice something was very wrong.

For weeks, neighbors say they phoned police about Egg’s disappearance but they said those calls were not taken seriously. The case remains unsolved. The homicide will be the subject of a Fox Nation streaming true crime program scheduled to drop on April 1. It was originally supposed to be narrated by Nancy Grace, but she has since parted ways with Fox Nation and the program will instead be hosted by well-known and prolific author James Patterson.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Dis-

trict Attorney’s office appears to be taking a new look at the case. Parker told the B.A.R. that an investigator from the office recently questioned her and Egg’s sister about the case. Calls and emails to the DA’s office were not returned.

Benefit for

Pippi Lovestocking

Egg’s longtime neighbor and friend, actor and drag performer Scot Free, known widely as Pippi Lovestocking, was among the first to raise concerns about suspicious individuals and activity in and around Egg’s home after he disappeared in 2018. Free, 56, is now dealing with his own health struggles.

Last year, he suffered a cardiac event after giving a memorial tribute to his friend, drag performer Heklina, aka Stefan Grygelko, at the Castro Theatre. That eventually led to him contracting a sepsis infection, resulting in the amputation of both of his hands and feet. He is living in an assisted living facility in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs.

A benefit to support a documentary on Free’s life as drag performer Pippi Lovestocking and his current challenges will be held at the Palm Springs Cultural Center Saturday, March 30, at 6 p.m. The documentary is called “Parts of Pippi.”

(Search for that title on the internet for more information on the fundraiser and the documentary.)

Egg’s home was purchased in 2019 for $1.5 million by Sonoma resident Shahram Bijan. He obtained an entitlement to build a five-story nine-unit building.

He apparently decided to sell the property for a $3 million asking price. The listing includes an artist rendering of the building entitlement obtained by Bijan. Neither Bijan nor the listing real estate agent returned the B.A.R.’s calls.

Egg’s former house remains boarded up. Parker said she has had to deal with a steady stream of squatters, including some who have crawled over her roof to wire electricity from a nearby construction project. The building is tagged with graffiti and the backyard strewn with trash, including what appears to be a small refrigerator. A couple of holes, including one with wires coming out of it, were punched into the side of the wall of the house next to a beware-of-the-dog sign in Spanish: “Cuidado Hay Perro.”

The sign may not be discouraging

any trespassers now, but when Egg lived in the house in 2018, his dog Lucky may have kept trespassers away. Neighbors believe, however, that the people who were responsible for Egg’s death were likely not trespassers but people whom he invited into his home.

Lance Silva and Robert McCaffrey were initially arrested in connection with Egg’s homicide. McCaffrey was released without charges two days after his arrest but Silva was kept in jail on an unrelated parole violation until April 2019, about eight months after Egg’s torso and feet were found in a fish tank in his home.

Now, nearly six years since Egg’s murder, no one has been charged or pros- ecuted for the crime. Egg’s severed head and hands were never recovered. t

A

photo of the Clara Street home where Brian Egg lived shows boarded up

Ed Walsh

Brian Egg’s friend, Scot Free, aka Pippi Lovestocking, now

Courtesy Scot Free

by Lou Chibbaro Jr., Washington Blade

Arecently published academic jour-

nal article by two University of Indiana researchers reports on problems faced by LGBTQ+ older adults living in the nation’s nursing homes and recommends actions nursing homes should take to ensure LGBTQ+ residents are treated equitably and without bias.

The article, entitled “Postacute Care and Long-Term Care for LGBTQ+ Older Adults,” was published November 9 in the peer reviewed journal Clinics In Geriatric Medicine. It is co-authored by geriatric physician Jennifer L. Carnahan, a research scientist with the Regenstrief Institute, which is affiliated with Indiana University’s Center for Aging Research and Andrew C. Picket, an elder care researcher and assistant professor at Indiana University’s School of Public Health in Bloomington. Carnahan also serves as an assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

“Cultivating an inclusive and LGBTQ+ culturally competent nursing home culture means that all staff and clinicians should receive train ing specific to working with this group and time should be allocated for this to reduce staff bur den,” the article states. It points out that while some older LGBTQ+ adults fear being forced into the closet while in a nursing home, “they also simultaneously fear unwanted disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity status, and their autonomy should be respected either way.”

the invisibility and health disparities” that LGBTQ+ nursing home residents experience.

“For transgender individuals, the personal care received in nursing homes can be supportive, as intended, or traumatic,” the article states. When nursing home staff provide assistance to transgender persons unable to care for themselves, “such as toileting or bathing, they may become newly aware of a resident’s transgender status,” the article says, adding, “If staff are not prepared for such an unintentional outing and how to react in a supportive manner, they may demonstrate microaggressions.” That type of biased reaction can be psychologically harmful for a transgender resident, the report states.

“We think about younger LGBTQ+ individuals and the challenges and risks of their lifestyles, but older adults in this  population are often forgotten,” co-author Carnahan said in a statement.

“They’ve experienced many health disparities. As these accumulate over a lifetime, we see the potential long-term ill effects of being from a marginalized population,” she stated.

The article says there are more than 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. that provide rehabilitative and skilled nursing care to mostly older adults. It notes that nursing home residents fall into two distinct groups – post-acute care residents who often can return to their own home after recovering from an illness or injury; and long-term care residents who are no longer able to care for themselves. It says that among the long-term care residents in nursing homes, about 50% are living with dementia or another type of cognitive impairment.

According to the article, LGBTQ+ older adults “at a minimum have the same risk of dementia as the general U.S. population, and dementia increases the risk of nursing home admission.”

Among the article’s recommendations is that when new residents are being admitted to a nursing home, whether for short term or long term, “standard practice should be to ask sexual orientation and gender identity questions of every new resident along with other demographic identifiers.” Doing this “normalizes sexual and gender minority status,” and can also “help to reduce

“More and more LGBTQ+ older adults are comfortable being out with their providers, while many living in nursing homes fear unwanted disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity status,” Carnahan stated. “Their autonomy should be respected either way so they can age in an environment where they feel safe, where they feel comfortable and where they are able to live with dignity.”

The article points to a 2018 survey conducted by AARP, which advocates for people over the age of 50, that found most LGBTQ+ older adults, when considering entering a nursing home, “anticipate neglect, abuse, refusal of services, harassment, and being forced back into the closet.”

The article says this fear of abuse and stigmatization may be related to older LGBTQ+ adults’ experiencing anti-LGBTQ+ bias in their younger years.

“Health care workers across disciplines are not well trained in care for LGBTQ+ older adults,” the article says. “Stereotypes and inadequate knowledge of the LGBTQ+ population are not uncommon among those who care for older adults,” it says. And it says LGBTQ+ residents in nursing homes may also face stigmatization from other residents.

“Training programs that engage nursing home staff in LGBTQ+ cultural competency can remediate staff knowledge and ensure more equitable care,” the article stresses.

In addition to calling for better training, the article includes several other recommendations, including providing legal advice to LGBTQ+ nursing home

Volume 54, Number 13

March 28-April 3, 2024 www.ebar.com

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Dems need to repeal Pride flag ban

We’re unsurprised that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) feels so proud of himself for the passage of a provision in the government spending bill that prohibits U.S. embassies from flying rainbow flags during Pride Month in June. It takes a skilled politician such as Johnson to recognize that with all of the issues facing the country, one of the most important was banning a symbol of joy and empowerment from flying outside diplomatic buildings. Yes, President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion spending deal to keep the government open with that poison pill – a shutdown would have been disastrous – and the administration said it would promptly work to repeal the provision, as the Washington Post reported.

Yet, there is no prohibition on embassy officials’ personal use of Pride flags, so we expect that might be the case this June. Or perhaps they could paint a side of the building in rainbow colors, which is another workaround.

Sarcasm aside, the community did dodge a bullet during the spending bill debate as there had been more than 50 anti-LGBTQ provisions included before they were excised. The flag ban was the only one to make it into the bill. The flag prohibition is temporary and lasts until September 30, when the spending bill expires. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had authorized embassies to fly the Pride flag back in 2021 in support of LGBTQ rights after former President Donald Trump forbade it during his administration, as NBC News reported in 2019.

Of the other 50-plus riders, they targeted everything from gender-affirming care to diversity, equity, and inclusion bans to sports bans, as the Washington Blade reported.

One policy rider proposed for the Food and Drug Administration would have defunded any hospital that “distributes, sells or otherwise uses drugs that disrupt the onset of puberty or sexual development for those under 18,” a measure targeting not only transgender youth but

also those experiencing precocious puberty, the Blade noted. The Gilbert Baker Foundation, which was established after the gay rainbow flag co-creator’s death in 2017, was not pleased with Johnson’s shenanigans. And foundation President Charles Beal hit the nail on the head when he stated in a news release, “The Republican agenda is an obvious one: distract from real issues by assaulting the most vulnerable.”

added. “After years of legislating book bans, curriculum bans, bathroom restrictions, and withholding medically needed gender therapy, their latest act is a signature Republican cruelty: For a crucial trillion-dollar budget that would prevent a government shutdown, the GOP slipped in a measure to ban the display of rainbow flags at U.S. embassies all over the world.”

The danger in what the Republicans did, as Beal noted, is that in many of these countries, being LGBTQ is punishable by imprisonment or even death. That’s why having the rainbow flag fly outside of U.S. embassies is so important. Thanks to Johnson and his fellow GOPers, however, governments in these countries have been given a “green light,” as Beal stated, to advance violence and homophobia both at home and abroad.

Now the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers must work to repeal the flag ban and expend the necessary political capital. Johnson is already on shaky ground as House speaker. And it’s the Democratic Party that positions itself as an ally to the LGBTQ community. Biden is in a tough reelection fight, as we all know. The prospect of a second Trump administration puts our rights at risk, not to mention the rights of LGBTQs in foreign countries.

“That’s why they have focused their hatred on the LGBTQ+ community,” Beal

Ready for resurrection

by Jim Mitulski

I ’m ready for resurrection: new life, meaningful life, new beginnings, and hope in place of despair, love that is stronger than death. And Easter is this week!

In anticipation of Holy Week services, the choir at the Congregational Church of the Peninsula, where I am the pastor, has been rehearsing pieces from the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” so it’s embedded in my mind. As a child, I stereotypically and shamelessly acquired the habit of memorizing every word to every original cast recording I could lay my hands on. My musical tastes were promiscuous: from “Carousel” to “Fiddler on the Roof” to “Hair” to “Godspell” – to this one, my very favorite, with its memorable chorus: “Jesus Christ, Superstar, who are you, what have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ, Superstar, Do you think you’re who they say you are?”

This musical always filled me with hope, even though the question of whether or not Jesus is resurrected from the dead is never actually addressed. It’s been over 50 years since I first heard the musical Mary Magdalene scandalously sing, “I don’t know how to love him.” These words still capture both my ambivalence and my desire to find meaning in the Easter story. While I lost faith for some years in the church as a credible institution to proclaim liberation, the musical planted seeds in my spirit that nurtured my hope that somehow love would prevail even when human beings disappoint.

I learned about the power of Easter and resurrection when I was the pastor of the historically gay congregation at Metropolitan Community ChurchSan Francisco, located then on Eureka Street in the Castro. I worked there through the 1980s and 1990s during the most challenging years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today MCC-SF continues its ministry in another location (in St. Mary’s Chapel at Trinity-St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1620 Gough Street, at Bush), focusing on celebrating queer identity and spirituality. In those days though, MCC-SF was described in the press as the “pink and purple church where AIDS funerals take place,” and “the church with AIDS.”  We proudly reclaimed that nickname and said, “We are the Church Alive.”

In the height of those years, we sponsored a theater company, Metropolitan Community Theater. We presented musicals and dramas – and we had a lot of drama, on and off the stage. Though we never really said this at the time, probably half or more of the actors, musicians, and even the audiences had HIV. This was before medications we have today had become available. We were partly able to stage these elaborate productions because of the volunteer energy of a community where so many were on disability. We turned our suffering into art and music. And “Jesus Christ Superstar” was one of the musicals we presented to the community. We channeled all the intensity and passion of our lives into the production. There was no resurrection at the end of the story, but we achieved resurrection while working together as a community.

In Christian practice, we narrowly focus Easter and resurrection on the life and crucifixion of Jesus, a revolutionary lover of humanity who demonstrated that love is stronger than death. In those years I learned to enlarge the meaning to apply it to our own lives. Acts of love that evoke our best selves and community spirit that result in beauty, generosity, and

This flag flap is distressing, but temporary. What cannot happen in the next budget battle is inclusion of anti-LGBTQ riders, including another flag ban. Budget battles should be limited to fiscal matters, not inserting prohibitions on genderaffirming care or other red herrings. In today’s hyper-politicized environment, however, we’re not holding out too much hope for that. The solution is to ensure that Democrats take back control of the House in November’s elections, as well as keep the Senate and presidency. t

inspiration are tangible signs of resurrection. When I hear the music of “Jesus Christ Superstar” today, I still remember several cast members who are no longer alive; and I can hear their voices. I remember Walter, who lived long enough to leave Leyland House, one of the local hospices, because new medications turned the trajectory of his disease around. People leaving hospices became a regular occurrence at one point, which had been unimaginable a few years earlier.

There are still signs of crucifixion all around us. The impulse to separate transgender and nonbinary people from the gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer struggle is a betrayal as deep as the one depicted in the Bible accounts of Holy Week. When Anita Bryant emerged from Florida and stormed America with her gospel of hate in the 1980s, we rallied together to turn the tide of prejudice; we need to do the same today – especially for transgender people in Florida, Missouri, Texas, and other states. It’s time to summon the same commitment to civil rights generally, and transgender rights and women’s reproductive health care specifically, as we demonstrated in the past. Advocating for peace abroad and the release of hostages and political prisoners, and working for racial justice at home and for migrants exercising the human right of migration at our borders are the best way to say “No!” to crucifixions and “Yes!” to resurrections here and now. Preventable starvation is a crucifixion. Sending food to the starving people in Gaza and other places where famine threatens is resurrection. My favorite synonym for resurrection is solidarity. I invite you to look for signs of resurrection and to make it real. Listen for voices that remind you that you aren’t finished yet and that more unprecedented life awaits. The ancient story portrayed in “Jesus Christ Superstar” and the events of Easter still invite us to the possibility of new life in our own day, because resurrection is about life before death and our ability to live and love each other into abundant life. t

The Reverend Jim Mitulski is a United Church of Christ and MCC pastor at the Congregational Church of the Peninsula UCC in Belmont, California. For more information, go to ccpeninsula.org.

The Reverend Jim Mitulski Courtesy Jim Mitulski

A Pride flag was displayed on the wall of the U.S. embassy in Moscow in 2020.

Tass

Gay SF treasurer Cisneros hopes electoral luck returns

by Matthew S. Bajko

Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day gay San Francisco Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros helped welcome to town gay Ireland Senator Jerry Buttimer, who as leader of his chamber is known as Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann. He presented Buttimer with a mayoral certificate of honor before a meeting of the city’s human rights commission.

The next day Cisneros joined his husband and longtime commission member, Mark Kelleher, at the Twin Peaks bar in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district to treat Buttimer to one of its Irish coffees.

Joining them was Micheál Smith, consul general of Ireland, whom the couple has become friendly with since he took over the diplomatic post in 2022.

Along with rubbing shoulders with the out Irish political leader, who hails from San Francisco’s sister city of Cork, Ireland, Cisneros likely was hoping some proverbial Irish luck also rubbed off on him as he prepares to officially launch his bid for reelection on the November 5 ballot. He is seeking a sixth term this year.

When it comes to the electoral process, Cisneros has been exceedingly lucky since he first ran for his citywide position in 2005. In each successive election no one has challenged him on the ballot.

It is likely his streak of uncontested elections will carry through this year. As of Tuesday, Cisneros was the only candidate listed as having pulled papers for the fall race with the city’s elections department.

“I haven’t heard anything as far as an opponent. Certainly, plenty of people tell me they don’t expect anybody else would enter the race,” Cisneros told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview. “My feeling is I still have to take the election seriously. I think it comes as part of taking the job seriously.”

to the debate raging around how old is too old to seek public office stemming from the ages of this year’s presidential candidates, with Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, and his Republican challenger, Donald Trump, 77.

Cisneros joked he wasn’t too keen about being lumped into the same age group as the presidential contenders. Nonetheless, he said he “appreciated the question” since it has grabbed public attention of late.

Biden and Trump have refuted contentions they are too old to stand for election this year. To Cisneros, the answer comes down to the individual candidates.

“We have seen people young and old be able to do not only a competent job but an excellent job,” he said. “I certainly want this job because of the great results we have been able to produce out of our office and I would like to keep that going.”

The filing deadline to enter the race is in early August. So far City Attorney David Chiu and San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto also have yet to draw opponents as they seek reelection in the fall.

Even if they face no opponents, they will still appear on the November 5 ballot.

Cisneros told the B.A.R. he will campaign for his position no matter what happens.

“I certainly hope to get engagement and even support from members of the community who I hope want to see the great work we have done in the office be able to continue,” he said.

Cisneros is the only LGBTQ person to hold one of the city’s seven elected executive positions. As of now, it doesn’t appear that the fall election will change that fact.

Having turned 68 in January, Cisneros will turn 72 in 2028 when his next term would be up if he does win reelection as expected. The B.A.R. asked Cisneros what his reaction has been

Letters >>

More on ‘Unpacking in P’Town’

Unlike other elected positions in the city, San Francisco does not impose term limits on its treasurer. This September, Cisneros will mark two decades in the office, as former mayor Gavin Newsom, now the state’s governor, appointed him to fill a vacancy in 2004.

Over the past 20 years Cisneros has twice seen his normal four-year term changed. He only served a two-year term before seeking a full four-year term in 2015 because voters had approved a ballot measure moving his and several other citywide races to being held in odd years.

Two years ago voters adopted another ballot measure that changed the oddyear city elections to being held during the presidential elections in even years. Thus, Cisneros is currently finishing up a five-year term.

Cisneros is San Francisco’s longestserving 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.

And he could extend his record by another eight years, as Cisneros didn’t rule out running for reelection again in 2028.

“I haven’t decided if this will be my last term that I will seek. I try not to predict

I recently was present for this wonderfully rousing and thoughtfully written and produced show at New Conservatory Theatre Center. As a person who has a history connected to stories of artists of color and survivors of multiple attacks, I am wounded by the review that was published about the show [“‘Unpacking in P’Town’ premieres at New Conservatory Theatre Center,” March 14].

There are several instances where it is blatantly clear that the writer did not listen to the play – as his ears were most likely already biased in what he thought that play should say and how it should be said. These characters all deliver their histories and what they have been doing since the end of their active careers in Vaudeville. In truth, they all mention it several times in the show.

the future, even when it comes to me,” he said.

In the meantime Cisneros is focused on his tasks at hand as the city’s tax collector. Due to a number of voter-approved ballot measures in recent years, he and his staff have been rolling out a variety of new taxes since he last stood for reelection.

“I don’t take any positions for or against taxes, but each of these taxes becomes a major significant effort. Our office, in a relatively short period of time, has to set up a system for collecting the new tax,” noted Cisneros.

There is the commercial vacancy tax, which kicked in last year and impacts landlords with storefronts that have been vacant for more than 182 days in a calendar year. Another is the overpaid executive tax for businesses with wide disparities in pay between their top executive and lowest paid employees.

The newest one Cisneros and his staff are working to implement is a tax on vacant homes. While it is facing a legal challenge, they have been devising ways to figure out which property owners will need to pay it should the courts allow it to stand.

“We have been very busy,” said Cisneros, noting that, “nearly every year for the last four or five years, voters have voted in new taxes in San Francisco.”

While he demurs when asked for specifics about how his office ensures that individual taxpayers pay the right amount in taxes they owe to the city, Cisneros said his office is diligent in its approach and enforcement.

“We are very vigilant in making sure everyone pays the taxes they owe,” he said.

In a year where both the state and city are grappling with record budget deficits, the work of his office is particularly critical. With the growth of workfrom-home policies due to the COVID pandemic and a glut of businesses giving up their office spaces downtown, Cisneros and the city’s former controller, Ben Rosenfield, who retired in February, worked on recommendations https:// www.sf.gov/news/controller-benrosenfield-and-treasurer-jose-cisnerosissue-recommendations-business-tax they presented to Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors earlier this year for how to once again

When

See page 12 >>

done and said in the past) in our lives among ourselves (discussing topics that are just now current to him) is actually revealed in this instance. I remember my parents reacting to the word MASTER throughout my life and I am 70 years old now.

We are and were quite eloquent about our lives, the political realities, and interpersonal relationships – both straight and gay – because we were and are particular artists coming into being in a particular time. Recognizing the depth of the literary and linguistic talents that Jewelle Gomez brought to this work was refreshing and novel and entertaining as well as historic. Who better to tell the stories of Native community and the Black community intersecting than someone who is a product of those relations.

He says he is surprised that Lydia is “articulate” about her mixed ancestry. And he doesn’t think a Black person would be sensitive to use of the word “master” [the reviewer used the term “master bedroom”] as early as 1959! What universe is he in? Oh, yes, a white universe. The revelations of what we do and say (and have

Please let your writer know that his approach to reviewing this show was received and we understand now who he is. You might want to reconsider who he reviews in the future – not being shady, just being aware.

Harry

St. Paul, Minnesota

Planning Ahead is Simple

Planning Ahead is Simple

burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

Waters Jr.

The president of the Irish Senate, Jerry Buttimer, center, was welcomed to the Castro district by a local diplomat and elected officials, Irish Consul General Micheál Smith, left, city treasurer José Cisneros, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and state Senator Scott Wiener.

Rick Gerharter

Booksellers uncover market for LGBTQ titles

by Matthew S. Bajko

One of the items Australian rare bookseller Douglas Stewart had prominently on display at his booth at the 56th California Antiquarian Book Fair held for the first time in years in San Francisco in February was a campaign sign from Harvey Milk’s ultimately unsuccessful bid for supervisor in 1975. The 22 by 28 inch screenprinted sign on heavy card had metal grommets at its corners for mounting it and some scuffing of the blue painted “K” in the last name of the gay leader.

Milk would go on to win a supervisor seat two years later, becoming the first out elected official in both the city and state of California. Tragically, he was killed 11 months into his term along with thenmayor George Moscone by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White.

Stewart was selling the sign for $4,000. It had been owned by Paul V. Turner, a professor emeritus of architectural history at Stanford University who was friends with Milk and had displayed the campaign sign in a window of his residence near the city’s LGBTQ Castro district. Stewart had purchased it from San Francisco-based Bolerium Books at its booth during last year’s fair held in Pasadena.

“Obviously, Milk was most pertinent to the people of San Francisco, but he has implications for people around the world,” Stewart, who is gay, told the Bay Area Reporter when asked why he felt a collector of LGBTQ ephemera would be interested in acquiring it.

Although it drew notice at the fair, no attendee opted to buy it, so Stewart had

shipped it back to his Douglas Stewart Fine Books shop in a suburb outside Melbourne. Yet days later a private collector in the U.S. who saw it on Stewart’s website (www.douglasstewart.com.au) purchased the sign.

“We had a great deal (of) interest in the Harvey Milk poster. A number of people stopped and told me stories about that time in the city, a couple of people actually knew Milk and reflected on their experiences working with him,” wrote Stewart in an email to the B.A.R.

“A couple of people found it a little emotional, remembering the trauma of the assassination and later riots, which disrupted so many people’s sense of security. Everyone was positive about it being exhibited for sale, many somewhat

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startled that such an iconic piece of San Franciscan history was to be found with an exhibitor from Australia!”

The Milk campaign sign’s oceancrossing journey reflects how antiquarian booksellers have uncovered an international market for LGBTQ titles and ephemera. A leader in the trade has been Bolerium Books, which first opened in 1981.

John Durham, an original cofounder and senior owner, was acquainted with Milk and worked with the city’s gay liberation movement as a political organizer. His father, the Reverend Lewis Durham, ran Glide Memorial Church in the 1960s when it began working with LGBTQ residents of its Tenderloin neighborhood.

Today, the by-appointment-only bookseller at 2141 Mission Street is brimming with boxes of LGBTQ books, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and other ephemera waiting to be catalogued by its staff. In one room are bookstacks filled with titles arranged under topic sections such as gay and lesbian.

“There have always been a lot of gay collectors,” noted John Durham, who’s married to longtime Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club member Susan Englander, Ph.D., a teacher of history at local colleges. “Today, institutions are paying more attention to collecting LGBTQ materials.”

Alexander Akin, Ph.D., who became a co-owner of Bolerium in 2013, estimates that 50% of its business now stems from the sale of LGBTQ ephemera and titles. A straight ally like Durham, Akin told the B.A.R. that has not always been the case.

“In the 1980s, it used to be a very lonely road to hoe. It has changed a lot,” said Akin, who was just elected president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and helped organize its fair. “It is a lot more mainstream. Dealers have caught on to it.”

A regular attendee of the fairs is Joey Cain, a gay book collector in San Francisco who gravitates toward gay British authors, especially those from the late 1800s and early 1900s like Edward Carpenter and Rupert Croft-Cooke.

“I fell into it,” Cain, a former leader of the city’s Pride committee, told the B.A.R. as he strolled this year’s fair held at the Pier 27 port terminal for cruise ships.

“It is like coming to a museum. You get to see a (first edition) copy of a book you may own a reprint of that is going for $490,000.”

Acknowledging he is a “a niche within a niche” collector, Cain said he doesn’t find an abundant amount of books by authors he is interested in as he checks out the various fair booths.

“You never find a lot, but Bolerium in San Francisco is a godsend,” said Cain.

Eight years ago at a rare book fair in Boston, Akin said he didn’t come across much LGBTQ items for sale. Today, he encounters more sellers carrying such titles, even though at times they may not realize it relates to LGBTQ topics.

“Part of it is the mainstreaming of gay culture. Another is a younger audience coming to the events,” said Akin,

who plans to bring the Golden State’s fair back to the city in 2026. “Also, a lot of money is being spent by institutions trying to make up for lost time.”

Last year, Bolerium sold a collection of items from out DJ Page Hodel to the Cornell University Library’s Human Sexuality Collection. As its website notes, (https://rare.library.cornell.edu/ human-sexuality-collection/) it focuses on U.S. lesbian and gay history and the politics of pornography.

Ahead of this year’s fair the UC Riverside Library’s Special Collections & University Archives bought the original cover art for Ursula Le Guin’s award-winning 1969 androgyny-themed novel “The Left Hand of Darkness” for its Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy, as the B.A.R. reported in January.

Mill Valley bookseller Mark Funke had it on view at his booth before shipping it to the Southern California university, where it should go on public display this summer.

At Bolerium’s booth fair attendees could find all sorts of LGBTQ items to purchase, from copies of magazines like “One: The Homosexual Viewpoint” and “La Culture Physique” to posters such as one lambasting the depiction of people living with HIV in movies that featured an Oscar statuette partly covered in red surrounded by the text “AIDSPHOBIA PROTECT YOURSELF FROM HOLLYWOOD.”

“We tend to bring a lot of ephemera to the fair because of the small space of our booth,” explained Akin.

Much of its business these days is conducted online. Via its website Bolerium has more than 70,000 items for sale running the gamut from LGBTQ to the labor movement and radical politics. People can search the holdings using keywords, such as gay pulp novels or lesbiana (or lesbian, gay studies, or queer theory).

“We are pretty omnivorous,” Durham said of the materials and titles it is willing to acquire. “There is something for everybody.” Bolerium also sells to customers from “all over the U.S. and also worldwide,” said Durham, who noted it routinely sells to Australian dealers.

Stewart, 43, told the B.A.R. he started dealing in rare books at age 13 and started his own business when he turned 17. Over the years he has seen interest in LGBTQ-related materials spike, particularly among academic institutions and collecting museums. The National Gallery of Australia acquired from him a photo collection tracing the evolvement of how the male body was captured from the 1950s through the early 1990s.

“It showed the changing way men were portrayed in photography,” said Stewart, from being more covered up and progressing to full nudity.

Last year, he sold an edition of the board game “Gay Monopoly” released in 1983 to Stanford University’s library. Stewart routinely donates items to the Australian Queer Archives (https:// queerarchives.org.au/) in Melbourne, as he is one of its community members.

He credits the growth of the LGBTQ rare book trade partly to the LGBTQ community coming out of its closet in recent decades and showing an interest in its own history. At the same time it has led to greater acceptance of LGBTQ people and their history by institutional leaders, who now want to bolster the LGBTQ holdings in their organizations’ collections, Stewart added.

“One of the joys of this business is to handle so many interesting historical objects, of course I can’t own every piece forever, but while it is in our possession we get to learn about the stories and share them with others at the book fairs,” noted Stewart in his email. “While I was in San Francisco I visited some of the bookshops which specialise in queer culture, and acquired a variety of interesting books, magazines and ephemera which document gay history in San Francisco and the United States. We will be listing these on our website over the coming months and hope to find good homes for them in Australia and beyond.” t

Got a tip on LGBTQ business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ ebar.com.

Some of the LGBTQ-related books available at Bolerium Books in

Matthew S. Bajko

LGBTQ-related items from Bolerium Books were on display at the recent California Antiquarian Book Fair that was held in San Francisco.

Matthew S. Bajko

Douglas Stewart stands next to his poster for Harvey Milk’s 1975 campaign for San Francisco supervisor at the California Antiquarian Book Fair, held last month in the city.

Matthew S. Bajko

Nonprofit seeks to change anti-trans narrative

by J.L. Odom

Anew trans-led national nonprofit has started that aims to change the narrative on the transgender community.

GRACE, short for Gender Research Advisory Council and Education, has a lofty aim, particularly in light of the abundance of anti-LGBTQ laws that have been proposed and passed in states across the country.

“Our model is to work hand in hand with the local organizations at the state level and to empower and enable them with our research and the facts behind the issues,” said GRACE President and founder Alaina Kupec.

Kupec and GRACE board members hosted an event last month in San Francisco to connect with Bay Area organizations and provide insight into GRACE’s focus on equality, dignity, and respect for transgender people and corresponding interest in supporting fellow trans advocacy groups.

“For us, it’s about making sure we’re getting the word out there about who we are, how we can help and what we can do that’s unique and really try to make a difference by enabling other organizations in ways that help them accomplish their goals,” Kupec told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview.

The featured speaker at the San Francisco event was Jamison Green, Ph.D., a trans man and GRACE board member. He’s also the former president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

“One of the unique things about GRACE as an organization is that it has a specific mission that does not conflict with other nonprofits in the LGBTQ or transgender-specific space. We aim to assist other groups in addressing misinformation about transgender people. We have no intention of taking away from any other organization in these spaces,” Green stated in an email to the B.A.R. Green noted that he and fellow

GRACE board members have established careers and roles outside of the organization; they are taking on the additional work due to its significance.

“We are all accomplished professionals with busy lives responding to a need we feel is not being sufficiently addressed. Ideally, if we are successful, GRACE will no longer have to exist, and we can go back to our regular lives,” he said.

Kupec similarly told the B.A.R. that the intention of GRACE is not to replace any other organization. “We’re here to share how we can use our deep research and the resources that we have and the way we’re approaching the work to augment what organizations are doing,” she said.

Kupec, who shared that she identifies “first as a lesbian, then as a woman, and then as somebody who’s transgender, in that order,” was on the board of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund for eight years, with seven of those serving as the chair or co-chair. She also worked at Pfizer for three years, meeting with members of Congress and state lawmakers working on policy issues. Currently, she is the senior director of global value and access for the research-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc.

Her professional background, interactions with policymakers, and personal experience as a transgender individual

inspired the formation of GRACE in the fall of 2023.

“There was nothing that existed in the trans-led space that was specifically focusing on the policy narrative that big groups were using to define us. It felt like this was the opportunity to take on really trying to change the public narrative of who we are as a community,” she explained.

For Kupec and GRACE, changing the narrative involves better equipping trans advocacy organizations with tools that will contribute to establishing a dialogue with the political middle and moderate conservative right – i.e., the source of some anti-trans rhetoric and legislation.

“Each side is very passionate about this topic, and it’s leading to a stalemate. The people who have been hurt the most are the trans people who live in states that are deeply affected. And so our goal is to work on the movable middle, in the middle right, which is where these policies come from,” she said.

GRACE will advance this change and tackle challenges through a movementadjacent lens that is communicationsand public affairs-driven, with the goal to maintain credibility with and the respect of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

“We’re a nonpartisan nonprofit. We just want to provide information and resources and not get caught up in the political rhetoric,” she noted.

According to Kupec, GRACE differs from social movement organizations with large infrastructures and numerous staff members. These organizations, postmarriage equality, have had to “alter their mission and focus to sustain themselves,” she noted.

“Our focus is solely on humanizing the transgender community and addressing anti-transgender policies. When our work is done, it is easy to wind down the organization,” she explained.

Kupec shared that GRACE’s budget for the current fiscal year is $500,000, with the organization intentionally adapting a consultancy model to reduce overhead expenses.

She said, “Our goal when starting GRACE [was] to not create an organization that becomes focused on self-sustainment, but rather can focus first on the needs of the community and resourcing up and down appropriately based on the need.”

Since its founding, GRACE has worked with a number of LGBTQ+ and grassroots organizations on the ground to proactively thwart discriminatory policies. They worked in Ohio, for instance, alongside transgender parents, ally groups, Equality Ohio and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, to defeat the anti-transgender health care House Bill 68. The effort resulted in Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s vetoing of the bill in late December 2023. (Ohio’s state Senate later voted to override the veto in January.)

Effective partnerships

In an email to the B.A.R., GRACE Executive Director Jennifer Williams noted the effective partnership with these groups. Said Williams, “We participated in many calls hosted by Equality Ohio and the Ohio ACLU and provided communications and public affairs assistance to groups located there. GRACE continues to assist in the fight for transgender liberty, freedom and equality in the Buckeye State. “Both organizations did an excellent

job in creating and maintaining the coalition of groups from all over the state and we are quite proud that we were able to help,” she added.

Representatives from Equality Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio did not return requests for comment.

Both Williams and Kupec emphasized that GRACE does not take over local leadership efforts but rather contributes its perspectives and experiences and assists in myriad ways.

It provides groups with educational research on relevant topics, support with search engine optimization and social media, and ways to ensure their voices are effectively heard during debates.

Said Kupec, “We’ve shared how they can use information to bolster their case with lawmakers instead of just shouting at the other side, which is oftentimes because of the raw passion and the deep impacts on our communities. In the policy world, that commotion can sometimes hurt you if you can’t build a dialogue.”

GRACE will also be launching some communication efforts this spring to humanize the trans community and demystify what it means to be transgender.

“I think that the reason these [antitrans] arguments land so easily with many people out there, especially the middle, is because there is no counternarrative,” Kupec said. “There’s so few of us that without the ability for people to see people like myself and others who are transgender in a true light, then these hate messages are falling on fertile ground. And so we’re really focused on trying to change that narrative.”

In the coming months, GRACE initiatives and outreach include a fundraiser and advocacy work in Washington, D.C. in April, writing op-eds on transgender liberty and equality for media outlets and supporting advocacy groups in Ohio and other states. t

To learn more about GRACE, go to grace-now.org.

Alaina Kupec started a new nonprofit, GRACE, to help change the narrative on transgender issues.

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Openhouse gets $2M grant from Yield Giving Community News>>

compiled by Cynthia Laird

Openhouse, the San Franciscobased nonprofit that provides LGBTQ senior services, announced that it has received $2 million from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving program.

The award to Openhouse was part of $640 million given to 361 small nonprofits, according to the Associated Press.

A news release from Openhouse noted that Yield Giving’s open funding call was for groups working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the U.S.

Scott is the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She has been distributing financial grants from the fortune she received in their divorce and launched Yield Giving in December 2022.

Openhouse, founded in 1998, enables San Francisco Bay Area older LGBTQs to overcome the unique challenges they face as they age, the release noted. It provides housing, direct services, and community programs.

“In the near future, Openhouse will be the largest provider of LGBTQ+ affordable housing for older adults in the nation,” Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D., a lesbian who is executive director of the nonprofit, stated in the release. “This gift is a great start to our capital campaign for that project and will ensure that we can create the most beautiful welcoming space for our community.”

Sullivan was referring to Openhouse’s new affordable housing project that will have 185 units in a 15-story building, according to plans submitted to the city in 2022, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

It will be the third such development specifically geared for LGBTQ seniors in the city.

The project is to be built at 1939 Market Street and estimated to cost $106,117,600. The city acquired the triangular 7,840 square foot lot at Market

and Duboce Avenue in 2020 for $12 million from the Sheet Metal Workers Local 104. The union plans to vacate the property nearer to when construction of the new building will begin.

In 2021, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development chose affordable housing developer Mercy Housing and Open house to partner on the project. The agencies partnered on the 119-units of LGBTQwelcoming affordable se nior housing split between the buildings at 55 and 95 Laguna Street.

The campus also includes Openhouse’s offices at 65 Laguna and a new community center it built out at 75 Laguna. It is a short walk from the upper Market Street location of the new residential building that will include a ground floor commercial space.

for 250 awards of $1 million each, Openhouse’s release stated. After reviews, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount.

The Yield Giving open call received 6,353 applications, and initially planned

Other LGBTQ or HIV/AIDS organizations also received grants. They include: the Pacific Center for Human Growth in Berkeley ($2 million); MPact Global Action in Oakland ($1 million); the Sacramento LGBT Community Center ($1 million); the LGBTQ Center Long Beach ($2 million); the Wall Las Memories, an LGBTQ monument in Los Angeles ($1 million); The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland ($2 million), and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders in Boston ($1 million).

Tenderloin Tessie

Easter dinner

Tenderloin Tessie will hold its annual free Easter dinner Sunday, March 31,

Low 2 votes down in House race

by Matthew S. Bajko

The primary race for a South Bay U.S. House seat remains undecided three weeks since voters went to the polls. As of Tuesday evening, gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) is now two votes short in his bid to survive the primary race.

After clinging to a bare-bones lead for second place last week, Low had fallen into third place Friday in the race for the open House District 16 seat that spans San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. He now has 30,232 total votes in his bid to become the Bay Area’s first LGBTQ congressional member.

Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian had retaken the second place posi-

– March 13, 2024

Steven Casavant, aka DJ Pirate Steve, passed away in his apartment peacefully on March 13, 2024 with his partner by his side. Steve was born in Glendale, California on February 6, 1955. William Brogan and Steve were partners for 26 years.

Steve’s younger brother Scott lives in Bakersfield, California. Steve had a happy childhood and remained close to his mom until she passed away in 2015. Steve was a brother to William’s two sisters and William’s mom became his second mother.

Steve’s life journey was filled with more than most people experience in a lifetime, both good and bad. Steve was sweet, kind, and brave. His music was his ministry and his way to share joy. Steve also loved his cat Wiwi,

tion Friday to lead Low by four votes. His vote total now stands at 30,234.

One of the two Democrats will move on to the fall ballot and compete against Democratic former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo. He placed first in their March 5 primary contest and currently has 38,470 votes.

The winner of the November 5 race will succeed Congressmember Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto). She decided to retire when her current term expires.

Low’s campaign has remained silent about the ongoing vote count over the last two weeks. In a post on X last Saturday, Simitian had noted, “sometimes it takes a while for democracy to work. This is one of those times.”

Elections officials in San Mateo

watching “The Price Is Right,” staying fit, church, sharing Madonna with his partner, and going biking. Steve was loved and will be missed.

A celebration of life will be held Saturday, April 20, at 2 p.m. at St. Francis Lutheran Church, 152 Church Street (between Duboce and 14th streets). There will be interment of the ashes and a meal afterward. Donations are welcome for “Casavant memorial service.”

For more information, people can call Brogan at (816) 610-0918 or email him at wbrogan3@comcast.net

Paul Lima

January 26, 1968 – March 15, 2024

Paul was born on January 26, 1968 in Vila Nova, Terceira Azores to parents Dulce and Jose Lima. He is survived by his brother Michael

from 1 to 4 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary Boulevard). Organizers said that all are welcome.

In addition to a meal, there will be live entertainment by Vanessa Bousay; free haircuts by LoveCuts, a pop-up barbershop; a free gift bag; and free clothing from St. Anthony’s, TendeCourtesy the campaign

oon, noon to 4 p.m., and 3 to 6 p.m. Interested people must show proof of COVID vaccination and an ID, organizers stated.

Helpers are also needed on Saturday, March 30, from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesday, April 2, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Both of these are for truck workers to help retrieve and then return supplies, organizers stated.

To volunteer, contact Michael Gagne, Tenderloin Tessie president, at (415) 584-3252 (landline, no text), or email tenderlointessie@gmail.com

Tenderloin Stations of the Cross

The annual Tenderloin Stations of the Cross will take place Friday, March 29, from noon to 2 p.m. People should meet in front of San Francisco City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place.

The event is sponsored by Temenos Catholic Worker. Father River Sims with the organization noted that this is the 23rd year of the event. During the event, Sims will lead people through the Tenderloin for Good Friday.

For more information, email temenos@gmail.com

Trans visibility event

In addition to Easter Sunday, March 31 also marks the annual Transgender Day of Visibility to celebrate and recognize the achievements of trans, gender-nonconforming, intersex, and Two-Spirit individuals. In San Fran-

cisco, community members will hold a celebration at the Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy Street, with a brunch, show, and dance from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The brunch takes place at noon, followed by a show at 1 and a tea dance from 2 to 4.

A news release noted that this year, organizers seek to center the importance of trans joy as a form of resistance. In spite of many obstacles and attacks from right-wing leaders and others, the community continues to make significant contributions to society, such as arts and culture, activism, and advocacy.

The event is free, organizers told the B.A.R.

For more information, check out the event’s Facebook page at https://tinyurl. com/3dfm5t33.

Benefit for

East Bay AIDS garden

The East Bay Getting to Zero’s POZ+ Committee, in collaboration with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and other organizations, will hold its first fundraiser for the East Bay AIDS Memorial Garden on Friday, March 29, from 7 to 11 p.m. at Nectar Social Club, 408 15th Street in downtown Oakland. There will be an after-party from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The event, called Taking Root, will feature food, live music, DJs, spoken word, art, auctions, and more, organizers stated in an email. In recognition of Women’s History Month, there will be a panel discussion from 8 to 9 p.m. centered on women and HIV. Panelists include Diane Spain, Billie Cooper, and Karen Mourning.

There is a suggested donation of $15 at the door, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

To register, go to https://tinyurl. com/5tv4cw9y. t

Margaret (Peggy) Hughes

1950 - 2024

County are down to 525 challenged ballots that need to have issues with them addressed. They will post another update Wednesday by 4:30 p.m.

In Santa Clara County the registrar of voters continues to process ballots and will post another update Wednesday by 5 p.m. It reported having 725 ballots left to tabulate as of Tuesday morning and 700 challenged ballots left to review by the April 2 at 5 p.m. deadline to correct or “cure” them.

It has been working through roughly 100 ballots a day in each category. At that rate it should wrap up its count by early next week. t A longer version is available at ebar.com

Lima and sister-in-law Elizabeth Reis Lima. Paul has been a proud uncle to Andre and Logan and he’s recognized for being a loving, caring, hardworking, life of the party. Paul has been a well-known icon of his community working for Moreno and Associates, and their clients, for whom they present the best face forward. The essence of Paul was being one of a kind and always thinking about how best to help others. He is truly missed by so many. His longtime partner, Randy Moore, said Paul “was the wonderful life of the show.”

Visitation will be held Thursday, April 4, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Willow Glen Funeral Home, 1039 Lincoln Avenue in San Jose. A rosary service will be held at the funeral home the same day at 6 p.m. A graveside service will take place Friday, April 5, at 10 a.m. at Calvary Catholic Cemetery, 2650 Madden Avenue in San Jose. For more information, go to https://tinyurl.com/4us8v29j.

Margaret (Peggy) A. Hughes passed away on March 13, 2024, at the age of 73 in San Francisco, CA after a long battle with chronic heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Peggy was born on September 16, 1950, to James Joseph Hughes and Catherine Ann Teresa McCruden in Newark, NJ. In 1994, she moved from New York to San Francisco, where she lived until the date of her passing.

She was owner and founder of Peggy Hughes Associates, a professional moving and organizing company which happily took clients "from boxes to dinner parties in 48 hours!"

Over the course of her career, she made significant contributions to various professional and civic organizations. From 1994-2024, she held multiple leadership roles at the Continental Breakfast Club, a sister organization to the Golden Gate Breakfast Club. She served as a founding board member of the SF LGBT Community Center from 1996-2000. In 2008, she served as president of the Golden Gate Business Association, the world’s first LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce.

During 2007 to 2016, Peggy held various leadership positions at Business Network International SF (Midtown and Ace chapters), the world's largest business networking and business referral organization.

From 1996-2000, she served as director of the Artist in Residence program at Recology (formerly known as NorCal Waste Systems), an art and education initiative that offers studio space and stipends for emerging and established artists to create artwork from the waste stream.

Peggy was predeceased by her son Jim Gleason, grandson Mohammed White, and brothers Jay and Kevin Hughes. She is survived by her son Christopher Gleason, daughter Jennifer Gleason, as well as granddaughters Rasha White and Jessica Gleason. She is also survived by her sister Catherine Fitzgerald Angioletti (husband Sal Angioletti), brother Bill Fitzgerald, nieces Suzanne Angioletti Vaskas (husband Jay Vaskas); Caitlyn Angioletti Hall (husband Jo Hall); nephew Sal Angioletti, Jr. (wife Marina); great nieces Margot Vaskas and Sorella Angioletti, along with great nephews Trent Vaskas and Levi Hall. Peggy truly enjoyed her time in San Francisco and the interactions with a myriad of community members.

Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D., executive director of Openhouse, was pleased the agency has received a $2 million gift from Yield Giving.

Courtesy Openhouse

Sisters

From page 1

“We are canonizing a couple people,” Soul said (though who specifically is being kept a secret). “There will be progressively more adult entertainment starting at noon until 4 p.m. The hunky Jesus and foxy Mary contests start at approximately 3 p.m. There’s also an Easter bonnet competition.”

The celebration first started Easter Sunday 1979. As the B.A.R. reported, the beginning of the Sisters can be traced to Ken Bunch (Sister Vicious PHB), Fred Brungard (Sister Missionary Position), and Baruch Golden. They went in full, traditional habits through the streets of San Francisco and down to the nude beach, according to the Sisters’ website. They were met with shock and amazement, but captured the public’s interest.

The founders came up with the name Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the group’s mission: to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt. In 2022, Bunch was honored with a portion of Alert Alley near Dolores Park ceremonially renamed Sister Vish-Knew Way, as the B.A.R. noted at the time.

‘Walk a mile …’

For its first two decades, the Sisters held Easter in the Park at Collingwood Park, a small Castro neighborhood park in Eureka Valley. In 1999, on its 20th anniversary, the Sisters went big and closed down Castro Street for a block party that was met with strong resistance from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which fought to have the street closure denied. (That led to gay then-Board of Supervisors president Tom Ammiano’s famous “walk a mile in

Parklet

From page 1

Warner, a lesbian, was a longtime Castro Patrol Special Police officer. She died in 2010 after a yearlong battle with ovarian cancer. Warner also penned the Bay Area Reporter’s Crime and Punishment column for many years, and a plaque in her honor can be found at the entrance to the plaza accessed from Castro Street.

Plaza concepts

Bulkley said Public Works’ prior meetings with the stakeholders (of which this was the third, the first having been in September) led to the current concepts. There are two on the table – one short-term and one long-term – based on an initial proposal called the “Green Embrace.”

The short-term version would add “vegetative buffer zones on both Castro and Market streets” and add pedestrian lights, Bulkley said. It would extend (or, “bulb out” in the technical language) the space of the sidewalk. Emergency vehicles would have access between 17th and Market streets. Past proposals would not have had emergency access between 17th and Market streets, but those were rejected.

The longer-term version imagines the space without the Chevron gas station at 2399 Market Street, and adds a sculpture to “honor the power of women,” Bulkley said. It may feature Amanda Gorman’s poem “We Rise.” Gorman first rose to public attention when she recited a different poem at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021.

After the presentation stakeholders had the chance to ask questions. Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is president of the Castro Merchants Association and co-owner of Cliff’s Variety at 479 Castro Street, asked if the city had reached out to merchants on 17th Street

<< Political Notebook

From page 7

reform the city’s tax structure in light of the current economic trends.

“In general terms the reality is that working from home is affecting the city’s revenues,” said Cisneros. “That is a major change. We all have to be responsive to changes when they happen in order to keep the ship afloat.”

Among the ideas presented in their final report were reducing the rates of

my pumps” comment to then-fellow supervisor Alicia Becerril during a heated board meeting held in the South of Market neighborhood where the street closure was approved on a vote of 9-2.)

The Sisters party that year garnered international media attention and CNN aired footage from the event. After that, it was held at Dolores Park until 2014, when the park underwent renovations and the event moved to Golden Gate Park; it returned to Dolores Park in 2019.

Soul has been involved with the group since 2020, “when we had to make the call to cancel because of COVID.”

“That was a very difficult decision, but it seemed the right thing to do at the time, and that turned out to be the case –we’re excited to be back in Dolores Park,” Soul said.

The main stage this year will be hosted by the Sisters’ own Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany, a trans person who is the outgoing chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party.

“There’s nothing more San Francisco than Easter in the Park with the Sisters,”

to ask how deliveries to their businesses would be impacted.

Bulkley said that they had, except for Nice Cuts at 3997 17th Street. He said that Orphan Andy’s and The Cafe had told the city that their trucks “don’t need to pull up to their store[s].”

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District, asked about garbage collection. Bulkley said, “Recology doesn’t pull up there. Recology pulls up on Castro.”

Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person who is manager of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, asked about Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility. Bulkley assured them that the curb from the crosswalk to the F streetcar platform would be ADA accessible.

Asten Bennett asked if the extension of the sidewalk would make the plaza legally a park, and how that might change the legal situation regarding tent encampments. Bulkley said he did “not have the answer to that.”

Asten Bennett said that issue is a “critical concern to merchants,” and asked “is it a viable use of funds if it’s not usable” to the general public.

Bulkley responded, “We have an amazing opportunity to do something fantastic in this city.”

“We have problems in the city,” he said. “We have recent legislation that might change all of these things. Who knows what will happen,” and assured “we understand that’s an issue” but it shouldn’t stop the plan from moving forward.

The B.A.R. asked, considering recent neighborhood concerns over alleged anti-car animus from the city government, why develop plans assuming the Chevron will be no more.

Bulkley responded that “the likely economic benefit of that property with these property owners, who have been work-

the Overpaid Executive Tax by 90%; and reducing the rates of the Commercial Rents Tax by 25%, while preserving the same dedicated funding for early childhood care and education. It also suggested shifting away from calculation of taxes based on payroll in San Francisco toward sales in the city.

“What we were working on with business leaders and labor and the community overall was to see is there an agreement on how San Francisco business taxes could be changed to

Roma stated. “I’m so excited to return as co-host with Honey Mahogany as we celebrate 45 years of community service, fundraising, and perpetual indulgence. I can’t wait to share the joy of the day with our community. It’s going to be magical.”

Mahogany did not return a request for comment.

The National Weather Service says there is a chance of rain for Easter Sunday as of press time.

Soul said, “There is no humanly possible way to have contingencies for an event like this.”

“It’s rain or shine unless it rains so hard we can’t have people in the park – if that should happen, we will look to having the contests at a host bar on a future weekend,” Soul added.

The event is free and open to the public.

EggStravaganza

The prior day, Saturday, March 30, there will be a Castro Merchants Association-sponsored event from noon to 6 p.m. on Noe Street next to the Lookout (at 16th Street).

ing the gas station for many years, they likely will develop that site.”

An employee at the Chevron took a message for owner David Sahagun, who did not return the B.A.R.’s request for comment by press time.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro, was one of the dozen people who attended the morning meeting at the Castro Country Club, a sober space at 4058 18th Street. Mandelman is also chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority Board. While the Milk plaza renovation project will cost tens of millions of dollars, Mandelman expects the price tag for the Jane Warner Plaza project will be upward of $5 million.

“Our immediate focus in the intersection is Harvey Milk Plaza,” Mandelman said. “But there is another plaza, and it made some sense to think about how this [Jane Warner] plaza would relate to that [Harvey Milk] plaza.”

There’s no shovel-ready funding for a redo of Jane Warner Plaza allocated as yet, Bulkley said. He said that the Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza project across the street was the inspiration for thinking about the adjacent space.

Adam Thongsavat, a legislative aide for Mandelman, clarified to the B.A.R. March 25 that though no funding has been allocated to construction, the supervisor did secure $100,000 in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to plan the renovation project, “with a focus on improvements to pedestrian and bicycle safety in this busy multi-modal zone,” according to an allocation request form he shared with the B.A.R. The funding was used to come up with the renderings. A total of $75,000 went to Public Works and $25,000 went to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

better meet the needs of the time,” said Cisneros.

Those conversations are ongoing, Cisneros said. Ultimately, it will be up to Breed and the supervisors to decide what measures, if any, to place on the fall ballot to be approved by voters.

“The difficulty we are seeing in the local economy here, particularly in the downtown area, is troubling, and it is having an impact on the revenue the business tax is collecting for the city,” said Cisneros. “That is why a couple

Lauro Gonzalez, a gay man who is the CEO and founder of ArtyhoodSF, told the B.A.R. that “what Artyhood has been doing is not only creating these events, but engaging with all the small businesses and encouraging them to participate in this program we created, like a passport experience or a scavenger hunt kind of thing where all the people who come to our events can visit these businesses and get a stamp and they can go back to the event and redeem it, so it’s a way for people to see what the businesses in the Castro are about.”

Similar events are held on Pink Saturday in June and around Halloween and Christmas. The Easter EggStravaganza will feature a bunny hop and an Easter passport that attendees can take around to participating businesses.

“They’ll ask them for a stamp and they’ll have special treats for them and after they collect a certain number of stamps they’ll come back to the event and redeem it for a shirt, a drink ticket, or some other swag we’re planning to have,” Gonzalez said.

On Noe Street there will be drag performances, DJs, a petting zoo and the “premiere of the Castro Drag Performer of the Year Contest,” which will take place in two parts, with the second part on June 29 – Pink Saturday, Gonzalez said. People interested in participating in the contest can email info@artyhoodsf.com.

“We’re gonna have arts and crafts for the kids – over 20 artists’ booths – our Castro Easter bunny photo opportunity: there’s gonna be an Easter bunny there to take pics through the whole day – lots of arts and crafts for the people, and a lot of fun overall for families and the community.”

From noon to 1 p.m. there’ll be a drag story hour hosted by Per Sia.

Milk plaza project needs $35 million

As the B.A.R. recently reported, $500,000 in federal funding toward the Milk plaza revitalization project was allocated by Congress, courtesy of Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). That project needs to raise about $35 million.

Some of that money had already been raised, according to Brian Springfield, a gay man who is executive director of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza. That includes about $1 million in private funds and $3.3 million in public funding. Of the public funding, $2.5 million was secured by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

The Milk plaza project aims to reconfigure the public parklet above the Castro Muni Station to make it more accessible and honor its namesake, who was the city’s first openly gay elected official when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk took office in January 1978 but was assassinated, along with then-mayor George Moscone, 11 months later by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White.

While in office, Milk was a big supporter of public transit. The plaza was named in his honor in 1985.

The Milk plaza project is meant to coincide with other changes at the site, such as a separate $11.5 million project to construct and install a new four-stop Castro Muni elevator, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Work on it began last year, and San Francisco Public Works expects the elevator to be operational by early 2026.

The new elevator had first been proposed in 2016, as the current elevator for the Castro Muni Station is across the street from its main entrance near Pink Triangle Park where 17th Street meets

months back the mayor asked Ben Rosenfield, at the time the controller, and me as the treasurer to begin a conversation working with the community here to see if everyone in the city can come together on a tax reform ballot measure that could stabilize the city’s revenues.”

With his reelection race now aligned with that of the presidential campaign, Cisneros acknowledged his own campaign isn’t likely to receive much attention from the press or by voters. None-

“I’m so excited,” Per Sia told the B.A.R. “I am part of Drag Story Hour, the organization. I was the first performer to do it back in 2015 in the Castro – the Eureka Valley Branch [S.F. library] so I’ve been doing it ever since then. I’m extremely excited to be returning back to the Castro to read drag story hour. I have so many books I’m going to read before I get there, because I have the audience choose the book for me and read whatever they want me to read.”

Per Sia said hopefully people can “enjoy the festivities with their families.” (Per Sia has not stopped leading drag story times even after the event she participated in at the San Lorenzo public library was hijacked by members of the Proud Boys in 2022, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Other events

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is presenting a Spring Fling at the Crocker Amazon Playground from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 30.

The event will be “featuring carnival rides and games, egg hunts, a climbing wall, arts and crafts, live entertainment, and food for sale! Community partners, including the San Francisco Public Library and its Bookmobile, will also be on hand,” Rec and Park states on its website.

The Springline community will be hosting its own Easter Eggstravaganza from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 30, at the Plaza at Springline at 1302 El Camino Real in Menlo Park.

“Join us for a fun-filled day of egg hunting, face painting, live music, bunny petting zoo, and delicious food! Kids under the age of 12 can participate in the Easter egg hunt and look for hidden eggs throughout the park. If you would like to participate in the egg hunt, please bring your own basket,” a news release states. t

Market Street, which can be hard to access for wheelchair users and others with mobility issues. If out of service, then there is no way to access the station without using stairs or an escalator.

Springfield stated to the B.A.R. about the plans for Jane Warner Plaza, “It’s exciting to see this vision for further developing and activating this important public space at the intersection of Castro and Market.”

“We are very grateful for Supervisor Mandelman’s leadership on this project and his commitment to ensuring spaces in our neighborhood are vibrant and alive with queer cultural expression,” he added.

Wiener stated, “As we move toward a reimagining of Harvey Milk Plaza, it’s a great time to think about improvements to Jane Warner Plaza as well. I’m confident that under Supervisor Mandelman’s leadership this process will move in a positive direction.”

Aiello told the B.A.R. after the meeting, “The conceptual drawings are great.”

“I am glad that Supervisor Mandelman is thinking about the entrance to the Castro and how the city can develop great public spaces in the Castro,” she stated. “I am also glad DPW is working with the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza so that, visually, both spaces will look connected when completed.

“The Harvey Milk Plaza project will be shovel ready this summer,” she added. “It needs funding to move forward.

I know that Senator Wiener, Mayor Breed, Supervisor Mandelman and Speaker Emerita Pelosi are hard at work looking for ways to fund the redesigned Harvey Milk Plaza. I personally thank them very much. When both public spaces are completed, the Castro will finally have the entrance it deserves.” t

theless, he hopes they continue to have trust in him to do the job as treasurer and tax collector.

“I and the office do incredibly important work for the city. We bring in billions of dollars in revenue and keep the city’s investments safe,” Cisneros said. “It is why I am proud of the fact we can stand by our continuing to do the job well and continue bringing in revenue for the city. I want the chance to do that for four more years.” t

The crowd at Mission Dolores Park appreciated performances during the 2023 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s annual Easter party.

Gooch

by Jim Provenzano

Since its inception in 1958, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has broken new ground for innovative dance works that have become classics. The company, created by Alvin Ailey (1931-1989), has performed around the world in multiple countries, wowing audiences in the millions.

The company returns to Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley for its 55th annual residency, with concerts, classes for students, and a gala fundraiser, from April 2 to 7.

With five programs of dances, from the classic “Revelations” to new and West Coast premieres, the company continues to innovate. To get the best enjoyment, fans will want to buy more than one ticket to the different programs.

It’s impossible to fully describe the breadth of the company and the late Alvin Ailey’s influence on modern dance, specifically for providing performance and training opportunities for dancers. Scholarships with the Ailey School have aided hundreds of Black students and broadened opportunities for many others.

The other choreographers’ works in the current tour – by Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, Amy Hall Garner, Hans van Manen, and Alonzo King – range from abstract to emotive and narrative styles, set to jazz, blues and hip hop music.

One of the many Ailey dancers coming to Berkeley is Chalvar Monteiro. While on tour, he answered a few questions via email about his experience before joining the company, and what it’s like to perform such classics and new works, as well as setting dances on other companies.

Support system

“My first dance class was tap and I was immediately in love with generating rhythms and sounds with my body,” said Monteiro. “I remember seeing Dance Theatre of Harlem on ‘Sesame

Jart for the LGBT community and beyond Muralist Joset Medina

by David-Elijah Nahmod

oset Medina’s art has been seen in South America, Europe and the United States. Art is his passion. Born in Venezuela, Medina has lived in Panama, Spain, and now San Francisco. In all the places he’s lived, he’s worked as an architect while developing a second career as an artist. As an architect he has worked in commercial and residential projects. As an artist he creates drawings, paintings and murals.

“I’ve been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember,” Medina said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “As a child I used to create drawings and cartoons of my family, especially since I grew up surrounded by women who were my initial subjects. I began addressing their female connection through my art.”

Medina recalls being a shy child. High school wasn’t easy for him. When he was bullied by some of his classmates, he responded by making funny cartoons of them, exaggerating their unflattering features in order to cope and protect himself.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Dancer Chalvar Monteiro on living dance history

Dario Calmese

Street’ and had the itch to dance ever since.”

While he had support from his family, “Scholarships were a bit hard to come by,” he said. “It wasn’t until I was able to train consistently that a career in dance seemed within my reach.”

Monteiro saw Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater shortly before he started high school.

“That’s when my world was forever changed,” he said. “It was at that moment that I knew pursing Ailey was a way to focus and hone my natural talent of movement into a refined language that could impact audiences around the world.”

Monteiro studied at The Ailey School before receiving his BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase, and performed and choreographed with other companies.

Yet it was Ailey’s company where he grew into

“Painting and drawing are like therapy for me,” he said. “I love channeling my personal experiences into my art. It’s like a way to grow and learn from life’s challenges. I get a lot of inspiration from nature, my travels and especially the strong women in my life. Although, since tying the knot, and my connection with my husband, I’ve started incorporating more male subjects into my work.”

Bay Area freedom

While living in Panama, Medina worked for a multinational architecture firm based in Southern California. He traveled quite a bit for work, and San Francisco was always high on his list of places he wanted to visit. He finally made his way here and instantly fell in love with the city. He was enchanted by the freedom he felt here after seeing guys holding hands and kissing on the street. It was a refreshing change from Panama and Venezuela, where there is still a great deal of prejudice against LGBT people.

While in San Francisco he met an interior designer with whom he clicked immediately. They agreed to work together, though that had to be put on a temporary hold while he worked towards getting an O1 (extraordinary abilities) visa. Once that was approved, he returned to San Francisco and has been here ever since.

He’s kept busy. Last year he created “Sunset Caress,” a mural painted in the backyard of a gay couple in Oakland who wanted to work with an LGBTQ artist and support the community. They were looking to create a mural as the main featured art piece on their background wall. Medina said that he couldn’t reveal the couple’s names as they prefer to remain private.

“What I wanted to convey was primarily based on conversations with the clients,” he said. “They expressed a desire for me to incorporate elements from my previous artworks into the design, such as the female subject, vibrant colors, and the wavy, organic shapes of my line work, all tied to their landscape design.”

The completion of the mural took Medina about sixteen days.

“I worked on weekends since my architecture job keeps me busy during the weekdays, so I’d say that it took me eight weekends total,” he said. “My husband Robert (Wiesner) was a huge help during this time. He often assists me with painting my murals when he’s not working. Also, my friend Alex helped me paint on a few days as well. When I get assistants or hire someone, I usually ask them

becoming an essential performer, and an assistant in setting Ailey dances on several other companies.

“Learning the classic works excited me more than they were intimidating,” he said. “It was finally my turn to bring myself into a role and get to bring an era, musical score, or character to life.”

Repertory and new dances

With both new and classic Ailey works, Monteiro said he enjoys performing both.

“What I appreciate about the repertory of Ailey is the range of style, musicality, theatricality, and personal flair we all possess and highlight through our work. The new works this season range from very individual experiences to broad topics that affect us all. Each work invites dia-

See page 16 >>

to help with prepping the mural and painting the large flat area, so I can focus on the detailed line work, which tends to take me more time.”

Design and vision

Medina’s latest project is a mural for a kid’s room in San Francisco, commissioned by the children’s parents. For this project he is collaborating with the parent’s interior designer.

“They were looking for a mural that they could keep for several years, not just for the early age of their kids,” he said. “I would say they were looking for something timeless, playful, dynamic, with organic shapes that relate to natural elements or a landscape.”

His approach to this project is unique and is keeping in step with what the parents want.

“I’ve approached this project with both an artist and an interior designer mindset because the mural design has been coordinated with the elements that the client’s interior designer team has already placed there,” he said. “The millwork elements, line work and colors are integrated with the mural. I can’t give more details until the project is complete.”

See page 17 >>

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Chalvar Monteiro and Yannick Lebrun

Muralist Joset Medina with ‘Sunset Caress,’ one of his works at an Oakland home.

Creating

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Chalvar Monteiro

Joset Medina with one of his paintings in Toledo, Spain

Joset Medina

Joset Medina

Theater & Dance

Fairies, romance, and a memorable Bottom

by Jim Gladstone

You can call it a romance. You can call it a comedy. But there’s probably no better way to describe Shotgun Players’ new production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” than to just call it a Play.

Mounted with whirligig energy by director William Thomas Hodgson, this is as playful a take on Shakespeare as Bay Area stages have seen in several seasons. It’s loose and goofy and genuinely joyful, set in a groovy grove of tree stump platforms that would make Sid and Marty Krofft proud (Sarah Phykitt is the scenic designer).

Sure, you’ll get your fix of Bardic beauty here, but the limber, nimble cast of eleven – seven of whom play multiple roles – manages to deliver all the poetry without a whiff of pedantry.

(Well, not all the poetry. Some judicious, largely inconsequential trims keep this iteration’s run time to just over two spritely hours).

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of the most frequently produced of Shakespeare’s works. Among the reasons for this is surely the sheer number of goings-on it’s got going on.

The script’s busy quintet of interlocking plots is punctuated by musical interludes and broad comic schtick that add layers of nuance (if you’re parsing the Art of it all) but also goose its pure entertainment value.

Abundant fun

This production leans into Midsummer’s muchness. There’s pre-show

<< Alvin Ailey

From page 15

logue, encouraging our audiences to engage with each other just as much as the love they pour onto us.”

Asked about some of his notable touring experiences, Monteiro said,

tomfoolery as the audience takes its seats, with cast members clowning downstage and wandering the aisles to joke, flirt and serenade.

The intermission raffle, a Shotgun tradition, here feels part-and-parcel with the main attraction, one more lark in the evening’s exaltation.

The play’s braided narratives are made relatively easy to follow, even if you’re uneasy with Elizabethan English (Kudos to costume designer Madeline Berger and fellow Abigail Cregor for helpfully telegraphing which character an actor is playing at

“Performing at The Kennedy Center is always a highlight of the tour for me. Life on the road is challenging as we bounce in and out of different time zones, climates, hotels. Keeping up with family and loved ones can also get tricky, which also makes every trip back home all the richer. You come

any given moment).

Should you get lost in the woods or dizzily disoriented like Shakespeare’s star-crossed couples do, there’s no need to plotz from the tangle of plots. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy this production’s moment-to-moment merriment.

Comedic star turns

Oscar Woodrow Harper III earns big laughs as a top-notch Bottom. Playing the workmanly would-be thespian who gets hexed with the head of a donkey by Puck (Jamin Jollo, in a Pilobolus-meets-Alice Cooper turn),

back with a firsthand account of what the country is like in 2024 and the art that connected you to so many people.”

In addition to performing, the company provides a unique learning experience. Monteiro also benefited from his university years.

“College is where you build a dis-

Impish Kevin Rebultan alchemizes a trio of minor roles into comedy gold with off-kilter line readings and facial expressions that never stop surprising. As gal pals Helena and Hermia, Rolanda D. Bell and Celeste Kamiya turn dialogue into music with the lovely counterpoint of their voices. Fenner Merlick as Demitrius, and Veronica Renner as Theseus, fill the stage with swashbuckling self-possessed androgyny.

A lucid dream

Director Hodgson pulls everything together in a gossamer net, creating an overall tonal coherence while allowing each performer to showcase their own idiosyncrasies. It’s a deceptively difficult feat. There’s a sense of freedom throughout the production, but no hint of chaos.

At two moments toward the performance’s end, this all-encompassing harmony fully transcends the stage and envelops the audience.

Harper’s in full “Hee Haw” mode even before he gets turned into an ass, braying his lines in a Southern-fried drawl that somehow also incorporates a British accent. Susannah Martin makes Peter Quince, leader of Bottom’s drama troupe, an irresistible dimwit. Countering her sharp features and the heavy black eyeglasses out of an Alison Bechdel cartoon, she exudes uncomplicated happiness as she plonks a nursery xylophone, hums through a kazoo, and leads along her loyal pup (a toddler’s pull toy).

tinct voice and approach to life,” he said. “It’s a safe space to fail, succeed, and try new things with the time to build a character that will sustain many important life decisions in and out of the industry.

“I learned how to work with people from many backgrounds and varying principles and values and still find common ground. College was the first place I had ballet and modern classes on a daily basis, affording me an opportunity to build an artistic foundation and social network that continues to grow year after year.”

And in helping to set Ailey dances on different companies, Monteiro said, “The first thing I do is invest in

The first is a subtle, near-hallucinogenic lighting transition that evokes the break of dawn, practically bypassing the eyes to go straight to the emotions (The lighting design is by Stephanie Anne Johnson).

Soon after comes the second, as the full cast sings in unison, not belting, but embracing; holding us all together in a most pleasant play-full dream.t

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ through April 14. $20-$40. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. shotgunplayers.org

the world the choreographer created; movement language, costuming, lighting, and sound, as all of those elements inform the other. Depending on the time I have, I approach the process differently. But I do my best to get a collective understanding of the work while prioritizing individual attention and exploration. As a professional, memorizing the vocabulary is just the beginning of storytelling.”t

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, April 2-7, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus. $50-$125. April 4 gala tickets start at $500. www.calperformances.org www.alvinailey.org

“Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.” —Gertrude Stein

Left: Veronica Renner (back) as Oberon, Jamin Jollo as Puck (front) and Right: Oscar Woodrow Harper III as Bottom Transformed and Radhika Rao as Titania in Shotgun Players’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Both photos: Ben Krantz

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Chalvar Monteiro, Patrick Coker and James Gilmer in Alvin Ailey’s ‘Revelations’

Dario Calmese

t Opera >>

Birds, balls & battles Opera Parallèle

by Philip Campbell

Innovative Opera Parallèle is re-teaming with SFJAZZ April 5-7 for a world premiere double bill. Two one-act operas, “Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera” and “Balls” extend the partnerships’ repertoire of edgy contemporary works and clever musical hook-ups.

Opera Parallèle (OP) also remains especially supportive of LGBT composers, writers and performers. The highly anticipated West Coast debut of the opera, “Fellow Travelers,” based on a 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon and subsequent Showtime miniseries, by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce celebrates June Pride Month 2024.

“Birds & Balls” is lighter in tone, but there are layers of meaning in both of the upcoming shorter pieces. Grammy Award-nominated composer David T. Little and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek’s fanciful “chamber opera with wings,” “Vinkensport” is a spoof of the obscure (to say the least) 400-yearold Flemish folk sport of professional Finch-sitting. Contestant trainers battle to see who has the most melodious bird. Their competitive drive and personal secrets reveal complex relationships to life and to each other.

A recent chat with OP’s General & Artistic Director (and conductor) Nicole Paiement made clear her intelligent case for pairing the one-act scores to create a longer production. Not only has she known and admired both composers (some of her favorite people) for a long time; she has been waiting for a chance to work with them.

Bird in hand

Producing short operas is problematical, but combining similarly themed works can create satisfying and seamless results. This is not a new concept for OP. One very successful past pairing celebrated the birth centennial of Leonard Bernstein, meshing composer Jake Heggie’s “At the Statue of Venus,” libretto by Terrence McNally, with Bernstein’s (lyrics and music) melancholy 1951 one-act opera “Trouble in Tahiti.”

The idea of connecting “Vinkensport” and “Balls” is a little more tenuous, but the theme is sports and competition. Composer David T. Little has also re-orchestrated the former to blend coherently with Laura Karpman’s sound world.

Nicole Paiement has been aware of Oscar-nominated (“American Fiction”) Hollywood and television composer Laura Karpman, and New York Times Op-ed columnist and librettist

Gail Collins’ “Balls” for years, but had to find a harmonizing opera.

“Balls” is a multimedia work about the sensational Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. The live television event, watched by 90 million people worldwide, was reality TV at its best.

King trounced the buffoonish male chauvinist Riggs, breezily changing attitudes about women in sports, scoring major points for the women’s rights movement.

Oscar nom Composer Laura Karpman lives and works in Los Angeles with her

<< Joset Medina

From page 15

Since moving to San Francisco, Medina has established a strong bond with the LGBT community. However, as an architect and an artist, he maintains a vision that goes further than any one specific community.

“I believe that by stepping out of my comfort zones, working with different people, communities and even businesses, I can continue to grow and learn.”t

www.josetmedina.com

pairs two one-act operas

wife, composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, their son and two dogs. After founding the Alliance for Women Film Composers, she became the first woman governor in the music branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. She achieved changes, helping to create the Academy Women’s Initiative and The Academy Code of Conduct, and updating language of the Academy bylaws to be inclusive and representative of the membership.

Karpman is also determined to bring more visibility to LGBT art, saying, “Queer people have always been making art.”

A rollicking operatic homage to Billie Jean King (who was among the first class of inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame) fits nicely within her own game plan. Stage and Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel describes the upcoming show as “one of those rare productions where even the most wild outcomes of our imaginations will be surprised and surpassed!”

“Birds & Balls” is a mashup, a dance, a wild ride, with visitors from the past, love, rivalry and redemption: it is contemporary opera at its best. Featured members of the cast include Bay Area mezzo-soprano

Nikola Printz as Billie Jean King (Balls); tenor Nathan Granner as Han Sach’s Trainer (Vinkensport) and Bobby Riggs (Balls); baritone Daniel Cilli as Atticus Finch’s Trainer (Vinkensport) and Larry King (Balls); soprano Shawnette Sulker as Sir Elton John’s Trainer (Vinkensport) and Susan B. Anthony (Balls); tenor Mark Hernandez as Referee (Vinkensport) and Howard Cosell (Balls). t

“Birds & Balls” SF Jazz Center’s Miner Auditorium, April 5, 7:30pm. April 6, 2pm & 7:30pm. April 7, 2pm. www.sfjazz.org

Left: Nikola Printz as Billie Jean King in ‘Balls’

Above Left: ‘Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera’ composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek

Right: ‘Balls’ composer Laura Karpman

Mathew Pham

Coutesy the subjects Instagram/ Laura Karpman

Artist Joset Medina with ‘Waves,’ one of his commissioned home murals

Joset Medina

by Laura Moreno

The new poetry collection by Cianga, “Congo, seen from the heavens,” contains 18 intriguing poems, including highly innovative poetry forms. This chapbook delivers dramatic, exhilarating, tragic, sardonic, but always creative. Based in California, Cianga is currently an MFA candidate. Their work has been published in Foglifter Journal, Rappahannock Review, and EcoTheo Review.

The title poem of “Congo” is an ode of sorts to the rat who was the first resident of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) to travel in outer space: “from the troposphere, every human is a rodent.”

Be forewarned, however; the subject matter is heavy. The poems reflect the brutalities of Congo’s almost constant state of war since the Belgians barbarously enslaved its people, committing endless atrocities while the world averted its eyes. With 105 million people (down from 112 million), it is the largest French-speaking nation.

The 24-hour news ignores Africa, where between 1998 and 2003, there were 5.4 million deaths and untold “forced disappearances.” We scarcely heard a word about it.

With this inhuman backdrop, war

Author Cianga

and the warped mentalities it leaves in its wake figure prominently in this groundbreaking book.

War is the most racist thing possible. In the poem “the good soil we own(ed),” we see the point of view of an avenger against a man guilty of no crime other than living in Congo while white, a hard-working man browned by the sun, a mere “2 shades lighter.”

Intent on murder amid pleas and wails, there is a sudden realization that reality does not fit the narrative that skin color determines who the colonizer is. Plan averted. Numb. “unloving, unhating.” The reality just didn’t fit.

The cleverly-named poem, “hemo/ phobia” is beautiful, with a telling reference to Genesis, one of my favorite books in the Bible. Cain’s jealous rage. The soil soaked in blood, still, as Ciara writes:

“when this land forgives as one would welcome death, no corpse alives themselves home. then all our blood, vengeful platelets clotting graves— where does it go?”

At times, the language conceals. One of the last poems, “run-

ning to[ward],” feels different from all previous poems. It works up to an apology, but the subject matter remains opaque. Like an abstract painting, beautifully constructed:

“pain/full break/age so/raw”

Of particular interest is “the monolith: a psalm.” It conveys spoken word performance art with Congolese drum (Ngoma), annotated as a simple musical score. Rich and full of meaning, but instead of a sacred psalm of praise, this sacred poem is a glimpse into want so cruel it distorts the mind.

Author D’mani Thomas said of this collection, “In between moments that some might call a graveyard, are reminders of triumph. The difficulty in finding joy, or a joy adjacent, can feel impossible at times. It’s hard to find the words to accurately describe the space this collection occupies when this collection takes the reader so, so many places: To space and beyond. It is a privilege to have read these poems, and an honor to witness them enter the world.”

Cianga is one of two inaugural winners of the 2023 Evaristo Prize for African Poetry. The awards committee noted “an arresting economy

‘Cocktails with George and Martha’

by Brian Bromberger

It can be argued the definitive end to the family-friendly 1950s cultural homogeneity occurred with the 1962 Broadway debut of Edward Albee’s drama, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” which is as far as one could get from the idealized “Father Knows Best.”

This is the persuasive polemic set forth by gay writer Philip Gefter in his new book, “Cocktails with George and Martha,” an analysis of both the play and the 1966 Hollywood film, which despite its vulgar language and venomous wit, helped end the industry’s Hays Code censorship.

Gefter, author of two outstanding biographies, claims the movie was “both a product of the 1960s and a catalytic influence that came to define that decade.”

Gefter uses this now classic drama to explore how recent movies have depicted marriage in light of Woolf,

asserting it as “the truest portrayal of love in marriage that I know…and my standard against which all movies about marriage are measured.”

Anatomy of a marriage Gefter views the couples’ tumultuous marriage as an anatomy of marriage itself (aka existential torment), that underneath the surface of what happens between George and Martha, occurs in every polite suburban marriage. The first three chapters are devoted to the gay Albee and his play, while the remaining ten focus on the making of the movie.

Albee was very involved in the bohemian Greenwich Village scene, such that Gefter contends, he based George and Martha on a real-life Wagner College faculty couple he knew, who had epic, drunken arguments.

However, Albee forcefully rejected the insinuation that Woolf was a gay play in drag, and squelched any re-

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vival of Woolf onstage with gay male couples or four men.

“The dialogue is brilliant and hilarious (i.e. “I swear if you existed, I’d divorce you,” “Musical beds is the faculty sport around here.”). One minute you’re laughing out loud, and the next minute you’re gasping at what they’re actually saying and doing to each other.”

The play was a wild success with mostly rave reviews, running for two years. It won the Tony Award as Best Play. Pulitzer drama jurors had selected it, but the prudish board of trustees rejected their choice, calling it a “filthy play,” because Albee pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable Broadway content. So, in a deliberate snub, there was no Pulitzer Prize for Drama that year.

Elizabeth Taylor was doubtful about playing Martha in the film, but her thenhusband Richard Burton convinced her this was the role of a lifetime. She only agreed to play Martha if Burton was cast as George. And the couple insisted that their friend Mike Nichols direct, which would be his debut film.

Intimate ambiance

Nichols, who could be arrogant and impatient, clashed immediately with Lehman. Gefter calls the pairing “the blind leading the blind.” Lehman had to condense Albee’s three-and-a-halfhour play to a two-hour movie. Nichols sought to retain Albee’s original dialogue, saying, “My job is not to ‘fix’ what Albee wrote, but to reveal it.”

Taylor agreed to gain 20 pounds for the role to look more middle-aged and wear a frumpy wig. However, rather than play Martha’s age of 52, she drew the line at 48. She stormed out of the studio when Nichols told her to recite the exact lines in the script.

Off-set, Taylor would scream at Burton, then say, “That wasn’t me, it was Martha.” As expected, Taylor and Burton argued on the set, bringing their stormy relationship (also fueled by alcohol) to Martha and George.

It was precisely this blurry contrast between real-life husband-and-wife and their characters, which drew audiences to theaters making them voyeurs hoping the film might reveal secrets or insights about the couples’ actual marriage.

Jack Warner’s initial worried reaction to the film was, “We’ve got a $7.5 million dirty picture on our hands.”

But the public begged to differ. They

and density of language” in the poetry, “and an ear for the multiple directions in which a single word can gyrate.”

Excerpt from “the anger of man”:

i spit a new world when she calls. i name the ocean between us a child, capricious; we must learn to discipline our rage. no one says i’m so angry i could kiss you. but i am. so angry it’s melancholic. to bandage a tongue; sharpen a feather. as one would a machete.

forget a blade can be windborn. believe each call is a fight. and all we have left.t

‘Congo, seen from the heavens’ by Cianga, Foglifter Press. $12. www.foglifterjournal.com www.cianga.com

Author Philip Gefter

and critics loved the movie. It snagged 13 Oscar nominations and won five awards, including one for Elizabeth Taylor, considered her greatest film performance, and for Dennis as supporting actress. Burton, Segal, Nichols, and Lehman were nominated, but lost.

Rewatching the film, one is struck how it doesn’t have the shock appeal it did when originally released compared to recent reality series and films. But those films and TV shows are inconceivable without Woolf paving the way.

Gefter has produced a dishy, terrifically written, engrossing, page-turning cultural history. Even if you are very familiar with the film, its history, or Taylor and Burton, prepare to be sur-

prised with new revelations. Cinematic stories about marriages were never the same after “Woolf,” and we can all be grateful that the film still continues to force us, whether straight or queer, to confront our myths about relationships, sex, family, and yes, love.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com.

‘Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ by Philip Gefter. Bloomsbury Publishing, $32. www.bloomsbury.com www.philipgefter.com

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1966 film ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’

Warner Bros. Pictures

Julio Torres makes it easy to love ‘Problemista’

by Gregg Shapiro

It should come as no surprise that gay writer and actor Julio Torres’ film directorial debut “Problemista” (A24) would not only be quirky and original but also deeply moving, while subtly making a political statement. After all, Torres is the same person behind some of the most unforgettable “Saturday Night Live” sketches of the last ten years, including “Wells for Boys” (which is a favorite of Stephen Colbert’s).

Additionally, his HBO projects, the special “My Favorite Shapes” and the series “Los Espookys” have garnered Torres raves and a sizeable audience. And who can forget his brief but memorable performance as Jules in “Together Together.”

With “Problemista,” in which he plays struggling toy designer Alejandro, alongside Tilda Swinton, RZA, James Scully, and Isabella Rossellini, among others, he has given viewers the most delightful movie of the season. I had the pleasure of speaking with Julio in person while he was in Miami Beach promoting his new film.

Gregg Shapiro: The release of “Problemista” was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. What does it mean to you that your movie can finally reach its audience?

Julio Torres: It’s huge! I didn’t really mourn the push at all. Anyone who’s made a movie knows how long it takes. To me, personally, it was neither here nor there when it was going to come out, so long as it came out one day. I’m happy that the time is now and that it gets to be not compromised or not subverting any greater effort. Yeah, I’m happy.

“Problemista” features narration and humorous commentary by Isabella Rossellini. What made her the right voice for that role?

I think that it’s because she is one of those voices that just echoes in my head and has been in my head for so long. I think the same is true of so many queer people. “And now a warning,” from “Death Becomes Her,” or “Blue Velvet.”

Tilda Swinton is alternately hilarious and terrifying as Elizabeth. Was that part written with her in mind, if not, what was involved in casting her for that part?

I did not have anyone in mind when I was writing it. I love writing for people that I know, but I didn’t know anyone personally that could play her. I didn’t know Tilda. Sometimes I would think of an actress, and then I would be like, “Well, I don’t know these people. Why would they ever be in this?” I didn’t want to paint myself into a corner. No, I didn’t write with her in mind even though I was such a colossal fan of hers for so long. Then the script got to her and she was familiar with “Los Espookys” and the “My Favorite Shapes” special on HBO and she was excited to work with me on something. It was just such a dream come true.

Alejandro has this beautiful and supportive relationship with his mother Dolores (Catalina Saavedra). Do or did you have something similar with your mother?

I do, yeah! It’s very much based on my relationship with my mother. It’s a bit of a thank you card to her.

Has she seen the movie, and if so, what does she think of it?

Yes! She doesn’t speak English, but she’s a very visually driven person. She really loved it!

Please share your decision to have Craigslist personified as a character, played by Larry Owens in “Problemista.”

The incredible Larry Owens. That was a crucial decision that really opened the door to the rest of the movie. At first, I was writing or attempting to write a sort of a barebones, slice-of-life version of this movie. I was just so bored by it. I was so disinterested in it, and then suddenly I was like, “What if Craigslist was a person?” That unlocked the tone and style of the movie. It was one of the first pieces that came to me.

“Problemista” is timely in the way that it is also an immigration story.

People keep referring to it as timely, but I feel like this is a subject that’s always happening because it’s never fixed. The problem gets a different face. People say it’’ timely, but I say when hasn’t it been timely in recent history?

I feel like the anguish of feeling trapped in a system that has your fate in its hands, a system that has no face and makes no sense, is something that feels very relatable to people. It’s something that I think that people now experience regardless of whether they’re immigrants or not.

I’ve had people connect with it because they dealing with an insurance nightmare or bureaucracy or they’re in a crazy amount of debt and they’re trying to find their way out of that. Immigration happens to be the card that I was dealt, but I think we all share this common frustration for these systems that we are constantly told to just keep our heads down, work really hard, and to overcome them. Even though this story is partially about someone who does that, it’s also, I think, a story about someone who questions that well.

Have you started thinking about or working on your next creative project?

Oh, my God, I have started daydreaming of getting the time to work on the next project. I do have a couple of seeds of ideas that I hope to get to.t Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

‘Problemista’ screens at AMC Kabuki 8 through April 7, and at the Roxie Theatre starting April 5. www.a24films.com

Julio

This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to https://www.cavshate.org/.