October 6, 2022 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Historical Society names new ED

by Eric Burkett

at the September 25 Folsom Street Fair.

SF MPX cases declining

by Eric Burkett

Just

in time for LGBTQ History Month, the San Francisco’s GLBT Historical So ciety has chosen a new leader, and it’s a familiar one to many in the community.

Roberto Ordeñana who, until now, had been working as deputy executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, will take over as executive director of the so ciety in mid-October, the society announced in a news release October 3. He’ll make his formal introduction at the organization’s Re union gala on October 19.

The hiring comes just over a year after for mer executive director Terry Beswick stepped down as executive director of the society, which includes significant LGBTQ archives and a small museum in the Castro.

Fun at the Castro fair

Alter of Dolores Flow danced with

of the troupe at the Castro Street Fair October 2. There were good crowds reported at the downsized event,

U.S.

SENATE

SAN FRANCISCO

Board of Supervisors

Dist.

Cupertino City Council: J.R. Fruen

East Bay MUD Ward 3

Marguerite Young

El Cerrito City Council

Gabriel Quinto

Oakland School Board

Dist. 4: Nick Resnick

CONGRESS

District Attorney: Brooke Jenkins Public Defender: Mano Raju City College Board

Short Term:

Green 4-year

Thea Selby, John Rizzoand William Walker

SF Board of Education Lainie Motamedi, Lisa Weissman-Ward Karen Fleshman Assessor-Recorder: Joaquín Torres BART Board,

Janice

OTHER RACES

AC Transit At-Large: Alfred Twu Alameda County Board of Supervisors Dist.

Rebecca Kaplan Cabrillo College Board

Adam Spickler Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors

Redwood City Council Chris Sturken Richmond City Council Dist. 2: Cesar Zepeda Dist. 4: Harry Jamin Pursell

San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Dist. 3: Laura Parmer-Lohan

San Mateo City Council

Sarah Fields

San Jose City Council Dist. 3: Omar Torres

San Jose Mayor Cindy Chavez

San Leandro City Council

Victor Aguilar

San Leandro School Board

James Aguilar

Santa Clara Mayor

Anthony Becker

Sonoma County Superin tendent of Schools

Amie Carter, Ph.D. Sunnyvale City Council

Richard Mehlinger

SAN FRANCISCO PROPS

Yes:

No:

CALIFORNIA PROPS

Yes:

by Matthew S. Bajko

Both

locally and nationally, health care and medical officials are allowing themselves to feel something they haven’t enjoyed in a while: cautious optimism.

Monkeypox infection rates are declining across the country and, after weeks of steady progress in administering vaccinations to more than 800,000 people nationwide, including more than 30,000 in San Francisco, officials are cautiously optimis tic that the vaccinations are working.

As a result, San Francisco – like many other large cities around the United States – has seen its MPX infection rates drop. As of October 2, the city reported 807 cumulative cases but, as of late, those case numbers have been climbing at a very slow pace. Compared with July 27, when the city

Newsom signs trans refuge law, other LGBTQ bills

As

of January 1, California will become a refuge for parents and their transgender children seeking gender-affirming health care banned in their home states. Under a law set to take effect at the start of 2023, officials in the Golden State will refuse to participate in any le gal action the families’ home states take against them.

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Fran cisco) gutted and amended legislation before the Assembly to introduce Senate Bill 107 in April. It makes it California policy to reject any out-ofstate court judgments removing trans kids from their parents’ custody because they allowed them to receive gender-affirming health care.

The bill also bars state health officials from complying with subpoenas seeking health re cords and any information related to such criminal cases. Public safety officers will also be instructed to make out-of-state criminal arrest warrants for such parents their lowest priority.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 107

into law September 29. In a signing message, he called out those states that have passed laws “to demonize the transgender community, especially transgender youth and their parents.” In contrast, California believes “in equality and acceptance,” wrote Newsom in his letter to members of the state’s Senate.

“We believe that no one should be prosecuted or persecuted for getting the care they need – in cluding gender-affirming care,” wrote Newsom. “Parents know what’s best for their kids, and they should be able to make decisions around the health of their children without fear. We must take a stand for parental choice.”

In a statement Friday, September 30, Wiener thanked Newsom for “standing with” the LG BTQ community.

“As so many states work to erase trans kids and criminalize their families, California must always have their backs,” stated Wiener. “With SB 107 signed into law, California is forcefully pushing back against the anti-LGBTQ hatred spreading across parts of our na tion. The rainbow wave is real, and it’s coming.”

Praise

Ramash

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill September 29 making California a sanctuary state for trans youth and their families from other states.

Courtesy Governor’s Office

Courtesy GLBT Historical Society Roberto Ordeñana has been hired as the new executive director of the GLBT Historical Society.

including Cheer-SF, the city’s official cheer team, and lots of go-go boys dancing at the bars.

Gooch

Rick Gerharter

The San Francisco Department of Public Health administered MPX

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MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:

Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months, and may give you HBV medicine.

ABOUT BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults and children who weigh at least 55 pounds. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS.

Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains:

dofetilide

rifampin

any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY

Tell your healthcare provider if you:

Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

Have any other health problems.

Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.

Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

BIKTARVY and other medicines may a ect each other. Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:



Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section.



Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that may have been hidden in your body. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.



Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.



Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.

 Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.



The most common side e ects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

These are not all the possible side e ects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.

You are encouraged to report negative side e ects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

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Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION

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Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5

If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

History

More sites eyed for SF leather history walk plaques

by Matthew S. Bajko

An additional 46 historic sites throughout San Francisco’s South of Market district are being eyed for inclusion in what has been dubbed the Leather History Cruise. It is a planned walking tour of the neighborhood’s current and former locations of gay bars, bathhouses, nightclubs, LGBTQ-owned business es, and other sites that played a role in making the area a world-famous leather and LGBTQ destination.

The Board of Supervisors last year approved installing sidewalk markers at 50 locations tied to San Francisco’s leather and LGBTQ culture in SOMA. The first set of bronze plaques are to be installed as part of the streetscape improvement project underway along Folsom Street that at one point was known as the city’s “Miracle Mile.”

It earned that nickname due to the many gay bars and bathhouses that operated on or near the main artery through the South of Market district in the 1960s and 1970s. But the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s soon would diminish SOMA’s leather scene. The health crisis resulted in most gay bathhouses and sex clubs in the area closing their doors.

In the 1980s there were at least 40 LGBTQ venues, bars, and businesses in SOMA. Today, the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District knows of just 11.

“The leather and LGBTQ com munity has been established in SOMA since the mid-1960s and has

experienced significant displacement through gentrification and redevelop ment,” said Bob Brown, president of the leather district’s board.

The district’s leaders have been working with city officials to turn the history walk project in western SOMA into a reality. It is just one of its initiatives aimed at preserving the area as an LGBTQ neighborhood.

The supervisors’ land use and trans portation committee unanimously voted 3-0 Monday, October 3, three days into LGBTQ History Month, in support of expanding the list of loca tions for the walk. The full board is ex pected to approve the resolution when it next meets on October 18.

human sexuality studies.

Ordeñana, a 45-year-old gay man, is a San Francisco native, the son of Nicaraguan immigrants, and a gradu ate of San Francisco State University, from which he received his B.A. in social sciences with an emphasis in

Saying he was “thrilled” to join the society as its new leader, Ordeñana noted in the release that the work of the organization is more important than ever.

“We are at a pivotal moment of history for LGBTQ+ people, women, immigrants, and communities of col

Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, appointed in the spring to the seat that includes SOMA, sponsored the resolution. Gay District 8 Supervi sor Rafael Mandelman signed on as a co-sponsor, as did all three members of the land use committee: chair Su pervisor Myrna Melgar (District 7) and Supervisors Aaron Peskin (Dis trict 3) and Dean Preston (District 5). Robert Goldfarb, executive director of the SOMA LGBTQ cultural district who moved to the city in 1997 largely due to its thriving leather scene, had urged the committee members to sign on as cosponsors and support the reso lution in order to help commemorate the leather and LGBTQ communities’

or,” he stated. “Our hard-fought gains are under attack by political extrem ists who wish to force us back into the closet, lock us up in cages, or make us disappear altogether. Now more than ever it is vital that we preserve and ex hibit our queer history and contribu tions to culture and society.”

Although he grew up in San Fran

“vibrant history” in San Francisco.

“This feature will help draw people to the area, both visitors and residents alike,” said Goldfarb. “It is a symbol of San Francisco’s acceptance of all.”

The estimated $120,000 price tag for the first plaques to be installed is coming from local developers of proj ects in the area who are required to pay for community improvements as part of their permit approval process.

The cultural district has collaborated on the sidewalk markers with the city’s arts commission, Public Works Department, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

Leather district officials told the Bay Area Reporter Monday the time line for when the first set of sidewalk markers would be unveiled remains unknown. The ones along Folsom Street are expected to be one of the last things done as part of the Folsom Streetscape Project. The website for the project now has construction be ginning in 2023.

As the B.A.R. first reported two years ago, such storied establishments as the Folsom Street Barracks, The Arena, Ramrod, The Brig, and the Club Baths of San Francisco are to be memorialized with historical markers, as are the B.A.R.’s former SOMA loca tions. The paper’s longtime home at 395 Ninth Street next door to the Stud nightclub’s old location at the intersec tion of Ninth and Harrison streets was on the list of sites approved last year.

The paper’s other SOMA location at 1550 Howard Street is among those

cisco, Ordeñana told the Bay Area Reporter he had, as a kid, been bul lied at school for being gay. That ex perience, he said, directed him to the career path he’s followed for nearly two decades, working his way up the ladder at the community center where he served in a number of leadership positions, including director of com munity programs and director of development and marketing, before assuming the post of deputy executive director.

Ordeñana also brings a great deal of additional community service to the table. He has served as president of the board of directors of Bay Area Young Positives and as a member of the LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. In 2012, Ordeñana was appointed to the San Francisco Arts Commission, where he served as president of the Commission from 2019 to 2022. He is, however, stepping down from that position, he told the B.A.R.

“I’m very concerned about any per ceived or real conflicts of interest,” he said. “I will be stepping down. That’s very bittersweet.”

In its search for a new leader, the historical society hired a firm that interviewed 11 candidates for the po sition, said society board Vice Chair Lito Sandoval.

“It was less than we thought it would be, but pretty much everyone was solid,” said Sandoval. “But in terms of going through everything, Roberto stood above the pack.”

Sandoval, a queer man, said Orde ñana was exactly the person they were looking for.

“Roberto’s going to come into a lot,” Sandoval continued. “But his experience and demeanor are ex actly what we need, with politicians, stakeholders, and museum patrons. For me, it was definitely his experi ence and also his presentation skills. It was obvious he did his homework on the organization and seemed to ask the right question of someone who would be leading an organization.”

For Andrew Shaffer, director of development and communications, Ordeñana’s hire means he’ll be able to step down from the temporary posi tion of interim co-executive director, which he has shared with society ar

up for being added to the list this year. Plaques would also be installed at 1137 Folsom, where Bald Billy’s Bath House and Billy’s Locker Club Hotel were located; at 209 Stevenson, where My Room and Latex Lilly’s Saloon once were; and 735 Tehama, once the home of the Phallic Church of San Francisco.

The SOMA LGBTQ plaque project is similar to one undertaken several years ago by the Top of Broadway Commu nity Benefit District in the city’s North Beach neighborhood. It has installed sidewalk markers at the site of historic businesses in the city’s Italian district, in cluding a trio of LGBTQ nightlife spots shuttered decades ago.

A number of historic SOMA leather businesses have already been memorialized on stone plinths in the San Francisco South of Market Leath er History Alley. Dedicated five years ago and recently refurbished by the leather district, the side street project spans Ringold Alley between Eighth and Ninth streets and sports bronze boot prints embedded in the sidewalk honoring various leather community leaders, some of whom owned the re membered businesses.

“It is vital to establish place making markers such as these sidewalk plaques to commemorate our rich history that has also been leading to the rich culture of this city,” said Brown.

A full list of the new sites to be included on the history walk can be found at https://bit.ly/3UTKB4W. t

chivist Kelsi Evans for the past year. But he won’t be leaving the post en tirely right away.

“I think it’s going to take a couple of months, especially for a job of this caliber,” Shaffer, a gay man, said, add ing that he was excited to work with Ordeñana.

“The most exciting thing about this job is getting to know and work with all the people who support us and like us,” he said. “I think Roberto is adept at building those relationships and building new relationships, as well.”

Museum plans Ordeñana, who will earn a base pay of $150,000 as executive director, inherits an institution that has grown considerably over the past five years. When Beswick, a gay man, took the position in 2016, the society was in debt and operating on a budget of just over half a million dollars per year. When he left five years later, the orga nization was financially stable and had more than doubled its budget to $1.2 million. Beswick, who now leads the Golden Gate Business Association, an LGBTQ chamber of commerce, also secured $12 million in funding from City Hall to build a full-scale LGBTQ history museum. The task of finding a location for that museum, preferably in the Castro, now falls to Ordeñana, who said a new location is of great importance.

In addition to the city funding, gay

Correction

The article “Palm Springs to honor drag icon José Sarria with a star” in the September 29 issue misspelled Gene Brake’s last name. Also, after publication of the story, Brake informed the Bay Area Reporter that the Palm Springs Walk of Stars posthumous honor for Sarria will be unveiled December 12 near the Marilyn Monroe statue on Museum Way in the Southern California city, with the time TBD. The online version has been corrected and updated.

A Board of Supervisors committee unanimously recommended approval of additional sidewalk plaques for what is now being called the Leather History Cruise.

Courtesy Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District

FEDERAL OFFICES

Catherine Stefani,

Joel Engardio,

District

STATE OFFICES

Gavin Newsom, Governor

Eleni Kounalakis, Lt. Governor

Shirley Weber, CA Secretary of State

Fiona Ma, California Treasurer

Malia Cohen, California Controller

Rob Bonta, California Attorney General

Ricardo Lara, CA Insurance Commissioner

Tony Thurmond, Supt. of Public Instruction

Sally Lieber, CA Bd. of Equalization, Dist. 2

Matt Haney, CA State Assembly, AD17

Phil Ting, CA State Assembly, AD19

LOCAL RACES

David Chiu, San Francisco City Attorney

Brooke Jenkins, District Attorney (Sole Endorsement)

Joaquin Torres, Assessor-Recorder (Sole Endorsement)

Mano Raju, Public Defender (Sole Endorsement)

Janice Li, District 8 BART Board of Directors (Sole Endorsement)

Board of Education (3

Lainie Motamedi;

Position

City College

Murrell Green,

Supervisor

Matt Dorsey

Honey Mahogany

Rafael

WRITERS

SF ballot prop endorsements

With 14 propositions on the San Francisco ballot, it’s a long one this year. Measures in clude everything from housing to whether vehicles should be allowed on certain roads to funding for City College of San Francisco and the San Fran cisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Below are the Bay Area Reporter’s recommendations.

Proposition A: Supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment; Retirement Board Contract with Executive Director. YES.

This one is easy. It restores the cost of living adjustment to those retired city workers who had it taken away in 2011. The retirees – about 4,400 – impacted by this situation are generally older, including many above the age of 75. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to place this on the ballot. Vote Yes on Prop A.

Proposition B: Public Works Department and Commission; Sanitation and Streets Department and Commission. YES.

Several supervisors and Mayor London Breed support this cleanup of a measure voters passed two years ago to take sanitation and streets out of Public Works and create a separate department. The problem, as proponents state in their ballot argument, is that an analysis by the city administrator found it will cost $6 million in the first two years and $10 million every year after that to run the new bureaucracy with no funds going to actual street cleaning. Prop B will keep streets and sanitation in Public Works but maintain the two commissions. The streets commission will set street cleaning policy while the public works commission will provide transparency and critical guardrails against corruption, proponents noted. This makes sense to us; the city should be spending public works funds on actual projects and programs – like graffiti removal and street cleaning – not another bloated, redundant office. Vote Yes on Prop B.

Proposition C: Homelessness Oversight Commission. YES. This was placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing does need some oversight. A series of articles earlier this year in the San Francisco Chronicle detailed issues with the agency, such as people fatally overdosing in cityfunded hotels and the number of homeless people in the city actually increasing since HSH was created in 2016. The department’s budget is now $672 million but conditions for many unhoused people have not improved. This measure would establish a commission that would hold public meetings, investigate department activities, and set clear goals for success. Commission appointments would be split between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors and include vetting by the board’s rules committee, like other commission nominees. Prop C is a start to the city finally having some oversight measures in place for the hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds spent on homeless services. Vote Yes on Prop C.

Proposition D: Affordable Housing, Initiative Petition. YES.

This is one of two similar measures on the ballot but the only one that will actually see affordable housing built. It will make it easier and faster to build affordable low- and moderate-income housing, according to proponents. It removes bureaucratic roadblocks and requires prevailing wages and health care for workers. By streamlining the approval process, affordable homes can be built for teachers, nurses, firefighters, small business owners, and nonprofit workers. We recall that earlier this year the Board of Supervisors killed a housing project on a vacant parking lot that would have provided 495 units, with 24% of those affordable. The state has announced that the city must redo its housing element with a realistic plan to create 82,000 units of housing by 2030. Prop D would help meet that goal. It is supported by Mayor Breed, gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, and trans D6 supervisor candidate Honey Mahogany. Vote Yes on Prop D.

Proposition E: Affordable Housing, Board of Supervisors. NO.

Don’t be fooled. Supervisors Connie Chan and Aaron Peskin put this on the ballot to counter Prop D. Yet, it is filled with poison pill provisions that would actually prevent new construction, op ponents noted. It subjects 100% affordable proj ects to stringent environmental review – exactly what killed the project at 469 Stevenson Street (the empty parking lot) – thus making it harder to build affordable housing. Vote No on Prop E.

Proposition F: Library Preservation Fund. YES.

This is another easy one. Voters have twice approved this fund and proponents, including the mayor and Board of Supervisors, are seeking a 25-year renewal with no additional taxes. San Francisco property owners already pay two and a half cents per $100 assessed valuation and that will continue to be collected and set aside for the library system. The measure will require that the main library and all 27 branches stay open and increase the minimum number of hours; maintain library infrastructure; and provide a consistent source of funding. Vote Yes on Prop F.

Proposition G: Student Success Fund – Grants to the San Francisco Unified School District. YES.

This measure provides up to $60 million a year from existing city funds to pro grams that improve academic suc cess and social/emotional wellness. It does not raise taxes. It allows indi vidual schools to apply for grants up to $1 million while requiring partici pation from parents, teachers, com munity members, and staff. Such programs could include academic tutoring, math and literacy coaches, arts and science programs, men tal health programs, and nonprofit partnerships. This seems like a good idea, espe cially since so many students fell behind during remote learning in the early years of the COVID pandemic. Vote Yes on Prop G.

Proposition H: City Elections in Even-Numbered Years. NO. We’re not convinced this measure is needed to increase voter participation, as proponents maintain. San Francisco traditionally has very good voter turnout, as witnessed by the three elections held this year alone (a recall, a special election, and the primary). We also think that media coverage of local races, like that for mayor, would be overshadowed by attention spent on presidential elections. That would be a grave disservice to voters. We don’t think elections are burdensome on voters or that fewer elections are better than more elections. People who are regular voters are going to cast their ballots whenever an election is, and newcomers are always welcome to register to vote. Vote No on Prop H.

Proposition I: Vehicles on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Drive and the Great Highway. NO. Like the dueling housing measures, this is one of two dealing with JFK Drive. During the early years of the COVID pandemic, the Great Highway was closed to vehicles at the sugges tion of District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar to provide miles of new open space for residents and visitors to walk and bike. The change has been transformative, Mar told us. When schools and businesses reopened in 2021, Mar and Breed worked to reopen the Great High way to vehicles on weekdays and maintain it as a weekend promenade. This compromise has largely been successful. Prop I would change that and reopen the Great Highway to vehicles everyday.

Regarding JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, Breed sponsored legislation that was approved banning cars on 1.5 miles of the road, which has also become a popular destination for walkers, bikers, and bicyclists. Prop I would change this too, bringing back vehicles to this stretch of JFK Drive. We think the car-free portion of JFK Drive and car-free weekends on the Great Highway have been a huge benefit to residents and visitors alike. Vote No on Prop I.

Proposition J: Recreational Use of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park. YES.

This measure, dubbed Safe Parks for All, affirms the car-free Golden Gate Park Access and Safety Program passed by the Board of Supervisors in April, making JFK Promenade a permanent, safe, and accessible space. Vehicles would not be allowed, but shuttle service runs every 15 minutes connecting park goers to all major attractions and Muni. Vote Yes on Prop J.

Proposition L: Sales Tax for Transportation Projects. YES.

Like the library measure, Prop L extends an existing portion of sales tax (0.5%) for 30 years to fund transportation improvements.

Proponents argue that Prop L is necessary for the city’s economic recovery. The money will be used for road and sidewalk repair, pedestrian safety, Muni buses, and to strengthen paratransit services, among other projects. The expenditure plan was created by a coalition of community members from across the city to ensure equity in every neighborhood. The mayor and Board of Supervisors support Prop L, as do first responders, Muni drivers, advocates for pedestrian safety, and the chamber of commerce. Vote Yes on Prop L.

Proposition M: Tax on Keeping Residential Units Vacant. NO.

While we know there is a shortage of hous ing in San Francisco, taxing property owners who keep their homes vacant isn’t an answer.

Proponents argue that safeguards are in place to prevent neighbors from ratting each other out, but we still see lots of problems with this. The Board of Supervisors and planning com mission should be approving housing projects that would provide many more units at all af fordability levels. Vote No on Prop M.

Proposition N: Golden Gate Park Underground Parking Facility; Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority. YES.

Mayor Breed is the chief proponent of this initiative that would improve accessibility to Golden Gate Park for people who depend on driving by giving the city more flexibility over parking rates and management of the Golden Gate Park Music Concourse parking garage.

Currently, Breed states in the voter guide, the parking rates are high and the garage sits empty most of the year. Under Prop N, the city could subsidize parking rates for visitors with disabilities and those who are low-income. It would also transfer jurisdiction from the concourse authority to the Recreation and Parks Department, ultimately repealing Prop J that was passed by voters in 1998. Vote Yes on Prop N.

Proposition O: Additional Parcel Tax for City College. YES.

This measure only needs 50% plus 1 to pass and would provide critical funding for cashstrapped City College of San Francisco. This is a temporary 20-year tiered parcel tax, with higher rates for commercial properties; homeowners would pay $150 a year or $75 per unit for two or more residential units, according to the voter guide. City College has seen declining enrollment for years, partly due to its financial situation, and this revenue would help restore classes that have been cut.

Students of all backgrounds benefit from City College’s programs and workforce training.

Yes on Prop O.t

San Francisco ballot measures include the car-free future of JFK Drive, left, street cleaning, and funding for Muni and the public library system.

SF Parks Alliance, Cynthia Laird

Despite vetoing 2 LGBTQ bills, Newsom garners praise

by Matthew S. Bajko

Despite vetoing two LGBTQ bills this legislative session, Cali fornia Governor Gavin Newsom is garnering praise from LGBTQ groups for signing into law 17 oth er pieces of legislation expanding rights for LGBTQ individuals. He also picked up the endorsement this week of a national LGBTQ advocacy group.

In announcing October 4 that the Human Rights Campaign PAC was endorsing Newsom’s reelection this November to a second four-year term, the organization’s senior vice president for policy and political affairs, JoDee Winterhof, noted the governor’s long track record for advancing LGBTQ rights dur ing his political career in contrast to “extremist elected officials” in other states who have been rolling back the rights of their LGBTQ+ citizens.

“First as the mayor of San Fran cisco and now as the governor of California, he has been a tireless champion of equality for all Cali fornians and a national leader in the fight to keep LGBTQ+ rights from being rolled back elsewhere,” stated Winterhof. “As one of the most proequality governors in the nation, Newsom has prioritized advancing the freedoms and rights of the LG BTQ+ community, and the Human Rights Campaign is proud to en dorse him for reelection.”

Newsom’s campaign has yet to schedule an editorial board meeting with the Bay Area Reporter ahead of the November 8 election. He is expected to easily win against his Republican challenger, state Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber).

In a statement released by HRC, Newsom pledged “under my watch, California will continue to prioritize freedom and equality for all – even as extremist politicians in states across the country attempt to roll back LGBTQ+ rights.”

He also stated that he’s “worked to build a better future for Califor nians, especially our kids.”

Yet one of the bills he vetoed this year, Assembly Bill 2663 by As semblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), would have created a five-year pilot project called the Youth Acceptance Project to as sist LGBTQ foster youth. As the B.A.R. has previously reported, the Oakland-based nonprofit Family Builders by Adoption had worked with Ramos and LGBTQ lawmakers on the bill.

Family Builders is al ready providing such as sistance in the Bay Area and would have been able to expand to other parts of the state. Jill Jacobs, a lesbian who is the agen cy’s executive director, told the B.A.R. this week that she plans to send Newsom a let ter expressing her disappointment in his decision to veto AB 2663.

It was one of two LGBTQ bills that Newsom spiked with his veto pen due to the millions of dollars it would have cost the state to imple ment them. The other was Senate Bill 1234, the STI Prevention & Treatment Fairness Act authored by Senator Dr. Richard Pan (DSacramento), which would have ex panded access for sexually transmit ted infections care to low-income LGBTQ+ patients via the state’s Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment program.

Understanding of the fiscal con siderations, Jacobs told the B.A.R. she did take issue with Newsom’s veto message for AB 2663 in which he wrote that the state needs to pri oritize “safety-net programs.” There

are no such programs for LGBTQ foster care youth, said Jacobs.

“He has been a huge advocate about being a sanctuary state for trans kids from other states. But there is nothing here for LGBTQ foster kids in California,” said Ja cobs, who plans to talk with law makers about reintroducing Ramos’ bill next year.

She was referring to Newsom’s signing SB 107 authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) that protects transgender youth and their families who may face prosecution from their home states for seeking gender-affirming health care in California. A number of states, such as Texas, Alabama, and Idaho, have banned such proce dures and plan to prosecute parents who allow their children to undergo them, though LGBTQ advocates are challenging the transphobic laws in the courts.

Wiener told the B.A.R. he was disappointed that Newsom vetoed the two bills but wasn’t shocked by the decisions due to the governor referring to fiscal concerns in nu merous veto messages he issued this year.

“He vetoed a number of bills I am pretty confident he didn’t have a policy disagreement with but was focused on cost. He was quite con sistent this year,” said Wiener. “Even though I am disappointed he vetoed those bills, and wish he hadn’t, it was not shocking to me given that lan guage we saw over and over again.”

Gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Campbell), chair of the Legisla tive LGBTQ Caucus, told the B.A.R. that the governor has different con siderations to make than lawmak ers do when it comes to bills, so he understood his reasoning behind the vetoes.

“At the same time, I am hopeful about finding the resources so that we can not only support the policy but also support the implementation,” said Low, adding that re introducing the bills is “to be decided, but I still stand by the policy. The question really is how do we advance the policies impacting the LGBTQ-plus community in the state of California while also under standing the fiscal constraints.”

The vetoes make it “challenging,” noted Wiener, to revive the bills next session, but he didn’t rule out doing so. With Pan leaving the Legisla ture this year and creating “a mas sive void” in terms of leadership on health-related issues, Wiener said he would consider taking over author ship of the STI Fairness Act.

“I know I and others need to step up in a big way to pick up the ba ton from him. Sexual health issues are near and dear to my heart,” said Wiener.

Because Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organi zation, did not sign on as a co-spon

sor of AB 2663, it will not ding New som for vetoing it when it releases its 2022 legislative scorecard for the governor and state lawmakers, spokesperson Jorge Reyes Salinas told the B.A.R. (It is likely to issue the annual report in early January.)

But EQCA was a co-sponsor of SB 1234 so could deduct points from Newsom’s score for not sign ing that bill. After receiving perfect 100% scores during his first two years in office, the governor earned a score of 88% in 2021 due to veto ing a bill related to substance use treatment that Wiener authored and EQCA co-sponsored.

Speaking to the B.A.R. Tuesday, Salinas said EQCA has yet to decide which bills it will grade Newsom on for his 2022 score.

“We don’t have that scoring yet,” he said.

Wiener told the B.A.R. he doesn’t weigh in on how groups score law makers. He personally would give Newsom “a solid A” this year, adding he was “really happy and grateful” to see him sign the trio of LGBTQ bills he had authored.

“Gavin Newsom continues to be a staunch ally to the community. He really is willing to go above and beyond for LGBTQ people,” said Wiener.

Low also told the B.A.R. that Newsom deserves an A grade this year.

“We continue to build off the historic nature of the legislative pro posals we have enacted, especially when you compare that to and see the devastating attacks on the most vulnerable in our community in other states,” said Low.

SB 1234 went unmentioned in a news release EQCA sent out Octo ber 3 praising Newsom for signing “legislation strengthening protec tions for LGBTQ+ Californians.” It specifically pointed to nine LGBTQ bills he signed in September, plus two bills he had signed earlier in the year.

Among them were three Newsom signed September 30, the last day for him to do so. AB 2436 co-authored by Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) and Sa brina Cervantes (D-Corona), a lesbian mother of triplets, requires death certificates to list a decedents’ parents without referring to the par ents’ gender. The change will benefit LGBTQ+ parents as they navigate estate proceedings and other mat ters following the death of a child.

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The state’s pharmacists and phar macy technicians will need to un dergo at least one hour of culturally competent training about the con cerns of LGBTQ+ patients before receiving a license under AB 2194 authored by gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego).

And AB 2315 by Assembly member Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) requires the governing

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Governor Gavin Newsom earned praise for LGBTQ bills he signed this legislative session.

Courtesy Twitter

Trans law center to mark 20th year

compiled by Cynthia Laird

The Transgender Law Center will mark its 20th anniversary with a virtual party Thursday, October 13, starting at 5 p.m.

The Oakland-based agency that works in California and other states started two decades ago as a project of San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights. Since be coming a standalone nonprofit, the organization has done impact liti gation in the areas of employment, education, and immigration.

“Spark is Transgender Law Cen ter’s largest annual event where we celebrate and resource TLC’s transand BIPOC-led work challenging violence and demanding justice, grounded in the principles of the Trans Agenda for Liberation,” Ex ecutive Director Kris Hayashi, a trans man, stated in an email, referring to Black, Indigenous, and people of color. “This year we are all also celebrating 20 years of TLC doing what it takes to keep trans and gen der-nonconforming communities alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.”

The emcee for the eve ning will be Donato Fat uesi, an actor, model, and writer of Pasifika (Pacific Islanders) heritage who is inspired to increase trans visibility and trans inclusion across the enter tainment industry.

Also appearing will be Chico Chi, a queer nonbinary transmasculine DJ, producer, creative, and fashion istx based in the Twin Cities of Min neapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The Spark event is free and open to all, though donations are gladly accepted. For more information, visit https://transgenderlawcenter.org/

SF seeking feedback on monuments and memorials

Three San Francisco agencies have joined together to create an online survey about monuments and me morials in the city. The Monuments and Memorials Advisory Commit tee is a partnership between the city’s arts commission, human rights commission, and the Recreation and Parks De partment.

According to an an nouncement, the com mittee will also hold hearings with com munity members and establish the criteria and guidelines by which to determine the future of historic monuments in the city’s art collection. Few of the works at present include LGBTQ people, according to a map of the various works.

The committee’s task is to exam ine the history of monuments in the public realm in San Francisco; the individuals, events, and ideals they venerate; and how the narratives associated with these monuments align – or do not – with San Francis

co’s values today, the announcement stated.

In addition to the survey, there will be two virtual feedback sessions via Zoom on Saturday, October 15, from 10 a.m. to noon, and Wednesday, Oc tober 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, go to https://bit. ly/3fEhthP

To view a map of the monuments and memorials in the civic art collec tion, go to https://bit.ly/3RvgqxZ

To take the survey, which is offered in multiple languages, go to https:// bit.ly/3RvqeIr. It will accept respons es until Monday, October 31, at 11:59 p.m.

Livermore Pride to cel ebrate throughout October Livermore Pride has changed things up this year and will now hold numerous events throughout Octo ber – rather than a single Pride fes tival – to recognize LGBTQ History Month.

With smaller, unique events, orga nizers hope to foster opportunities to meet new people and create last ing community connections, a news release stated. “Although we will al ways love a good festival, and may go

back to that one day, right now seems like the perfect time to move toward more intimate community building,” stated Jodi Mikel, Pride board mem ber and event coordinator.

Another core of Livermore Pride is to support the local economy.

“Small businesses are community leaders who are vital to creating and maintaining a sense of welcome that allows us all to thrive,” stated Pride board secretary Amy Lehman-Sex ton.

Some of the upcoming events in clude the second annual Livermore Pride Pooch Parade dog show on Sunday, October 9; drag and vino at Big White House Winery on Sat urday, October 15; and Pride on the Square – live music with Swirl and Tap 25 at Blacksmith Square on Sat urday, October 22. Wives Kristen and Briana Iosco reopened the taproom in February, as the Bay Area Re porter’s monthly Business Briefing column noted in March.

“The LGBTQ+ community is as diverse as any other,” Mikel added.

“With a wide range of events, we have something for everyone to en joy.”

Many other events are planned. For a full list, go to https://www.liver morepride.org/.

SF State to have Coming Out Day program

San Francisco State University will have a special program Tues day, October 11, National Coming Out Day, featuring a presentation by

Professor Marc Stein, “Queer Trans formations at San Francisco State, 1969-1972.” His talk will explore the early emergence of LGBTQ activ ism at San Francisco State, including queer support for the Third World Liberation Front and faculty strikes, the formation of the Gay Libera tion Front, LGBTQ labor activism, the police shooting of a student at a gay bar, protests of an airline that refused to board a student wearing a “Homosexuals for Peace” button, the hiring of an openly lesbian professor, and the first LGBTQ studies courses, a news release stated.

The event, which is free, takes place from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Special Collections Reading Room, Library Room 460 (4th floor), at SF State, 1600 Holloway Avenue.

The event is co-sponsored by the SFSU History Department, the Queer & Trans Resource Center, and the Labor Archives and Research Center.

Stein is the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at San Francisco State University. He is the author of five books, including “The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History” (NYU Press, 2019), “Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism” (University of California Press, 2022), and “Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement,” 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023).

Nonprofits can apply for security grants

The California Department of So cial Services Office of Equity has an nounced that the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is accepting proposals for the Fiscal Year 2022-23 California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

The grants, according to DSS’ Civil Rights, Accessibility, and Racial Justice Office, provide funding sup port for target hardening and other physical security enhancements to nonprofit organizations that are at high risk for violent attacks and hate crimes due to ideology, beliefs, or mission.

The request for proposal is due by October 28. For more information, go to https://bit.ly/3UZxA9V t

Shanker departs Spahr Center after 6 months for Biden gig

by Eric Burkett

Adrian Shanker, the highly ac complished activist who left the community center he founded in Allentown, Pennsylvania, only six months ago to lead Marin County’s Spahr Center, is on the move again. This time, he’s been poached by the Biden administration.

The New York native has been hired as the senior adviser on LG BTQI+ Health Equity for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services led by Dr. Rachel Levine, the highest-ranking trans person in an administration. She was formerly the Pennsylvania secretary of health.

Known under the acronym OASH, the office oversees the federal health department’s key public health offices and programs, a number of presiden tial and secretarial advisory commit tees, 10 regional health offices across the nation, and the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, according to its website.

In the spring Shanker, a gay man, had taken on the post of executive director of the Spahr Center, Marin

County’s nonprofit community agency serving the county’s LG BTQ community as well as those living with HIV. He began working there on April 1, after leaving the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Commu nity Center in Pennsylvania that he founded back in 2014.

His new employer at the federal health agency noted his past work with both national and state leaders in an email to the Bay Area Reporter.

Brittni

Adrian Shanker Courtesy Spahr Center

Book details history of 1970s-era LGBTQ attorneys

by Eric Burkett

[Editor’s note: Welcome to LG BTQ History Month! This is one of several articles we will be publishing on various aspects of LGBTQ history during October. Some, like this one, are in partnership with Philadel phia Gay News and its LGBTQ History Month Project.]

Stephen Lachs remembers the 1970s as being a particularly wonderful era in the history of the LGBTQ liberation movement.

Lachs, 83, was the first out LGBT person appointed to a judgeship in the United States. Tapped by thenGovernor Jerry Brown, the Los An geles County Superior Court com missioner was appointed in 1979 to sit as a judge on the county’s Supe rior Court.

Commissioners, Lachs explained, did essentially the same work as judges but, unlike judges who were appointed or elected to the bench, commissioners had to be agreed upon by both parties in the case.

“Governor Brown had received a lot of support from the gay and lesbian community,” said Lachs in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “During those

first two terms he served, he sought the nomination for president, and the gay and lesbian community was very supportive and helped him.” (Brown had run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980.)

But there had also been grum bling by members of the commu nity that, despite having served a full term already, Brown hadn’t ap pointed anyone from the gay and lesbian community to anything.

“A lot of people in the com munity were upset with that,” said Lachs. So, after looking for the right person, Brown decided upon the Superior Court commissioner from L.A. With four and half years of ex perience at the court already, and well established within the commu nity not only socially but politically, Lachs got the nod.

It was a huge deal, and was re ported around the world, said Lachs, who still keeps a clipping from a Greek newspaper of the time covering the event. Wikipedia sug gests he might have been the very first openly gay judge serving any where in the world.

But, despite the historic appoint ment, Lachs was really only one of hundreds of attorneys and, later,

Lachs

judges around the United States at the time who were fighting for change. The 1970s saw an explosion of political organization by nascent gay and lesbian groups, and the le gal profession was very much at the center of much of that.

That period, to many of those who braved a society hostile to their kind, was “really a remarkable time,” as Lachs described it. “You were doing exciting things, meaning ful things and, I don’t know, it just seemed like a wonderful, wonderful period.”

That era has been memorialized in “Memory Book,” a documenta tion of the people – men and wom en, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans –who fought for change in the 1970s. The book is part of a larger project titled Birds of a Feather, commemo rating the 50th anniversary of the first forum on gay rights of the American Bar Association in 1972.

“The seventies saw the formation of the first gay law students associa tions,” writes “Memory Book” edi tor Thomas F. Coleman in the intro duction. “The first few were formed in 1972 with others following as the decade progressed. The first forum on gay rights occurred in 1972 at an annual meeting of the American Bar Association, with positive position statements and committees on gay rights happening within the ABA in the next few years. Being an openly gay or lesbian law student or lawyer was not yet common at the ABA, but it was no longer a rarity.”

as the first

as the first out

person appointed as a

lawyer in the

in the

Thomas V. Halloran General Manager

Many present-day lawyers, as well as the public and the LGBTQ community, take for granted many of the rights we have now, he said, and many of those rights were ad vanced in the 1970s.

“I think it’s important our histo ry is documented,” Coleman said.

“Especially to a large extent, in cluding people who were still alive, who were participants, but also to tell the story of people who weren’t grabbing the headlines, but whose actions really contributed to ad vancing the moment during what I call ‘the breakthrough decade.’”

Many of those who didn’t grab the headlines were working in plac es like Minnesota.

had written to the Florida Bar as an act of revenge because Robert would not perjure himself in a law suit.”

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, ruling that “an applicant’s ad mission of having a homosexual orientation, in and of itself, would not preclude admission to the bar. However, the court said that it was not ruling on what would happen if the applicant admitted to engag ing in criminal sexual acts. Homo sexual conduct between consent ing adults in private was criminal in Florida. During the two years he was waiting for a decision in Florida, Robert was practicing law in Philadelphia,” according to the biography.

Nor was it easy.

Coleman’s book, which he said he spent almost a year researching and compiling, details the achievements and struggles of hundreds of individuals from all over the country although, notably, many of those celebrated are from North ern California where, he pointed out, there exists much more documen tation of their work thanks to the archives of the Bay Area Reporter, which was founded in 1971.

Coleman, a gay man, undertook the project, he said, when he real ized the 50th anniversaries of a number of events – the formation of the first gay law association and the ABA’s forum on gay rights – was coming up.

“I thought, 50th anniversaries only come once,” said Coleman, 74. ”There needs to be something to commemorate the 50th anni versary.”

The bigger question, of course, was who was going to do it?

“I’ve got the memory, the inter est, the ability,” he said. And then he decided to broaden the project’s scope beyond 1972 to encompass the whole decade. It was, he said, “a breakthrough decade.”

Steven Block, who was a founder of the groundbreaking Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom in San Francisco in 1980, eventu ally moved to Minnesota, where he died from AIDS-related complica tions in 1984 just shy of his 34th birthday. However, during his short career, he represented clients for Gay Rights Advocates and did pro bono work for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“As a person and as a professor, Steven made a lasting impression on his colleagues and students,” wrote Coleman in Block’s biogra phy. The University of Minnesota Law School annually awards the Steven M. Block Award for the “[m] ost outstanding paper or article by a graduating student in the area of civil rights and/or civil liberties.”

In Florida, in 1974, attorney Robert Eimers was summoned shortly after passing the state bar “for a special hearing by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners where he was asked if he was a homosexual. Robert answered affirmatively,” the biography states.

Such a procedure was unusual, Coleman noted in Eimers’ bio, but Eimers explained that “someone

The ruling proved a relief to LG BTQ law students in other parts of the country where the matter was still unsettled. Eimers died in 1999 in Florida.

Katharine English, a bisexual woman who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 18, attend ed Lewis & Clark College’s North western School of Law in Portland. She graduated in 1978.

English “started her own law firm with her lover, Janet Metcalf, a wellrespected lawyer who had clerked for the Oregon Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals,” states her biography. “English and Met calf are both distinguished lawyers who might have had their pick of work at downtown Portland’s large corporate law firms. Instead they opened their own office in a mod est five-story, brick building in an older district near the Willamette River. Because of their legal skill and dedication to equal rights for lesbians and gay men seeking child custody, English & Metcalf was a success from the beginning.”

Image: Courtesy “Memory Book.”

Attorney and former Bay Area Reporter publisher Thomas E. Horn represented many LGBTQ clients in the 1970s.

Courtesy Thomas E. Horn

Former SF State prof Michael Ritter dies

by Cynthia Laird

Michael Ritter, a retired San Francisco State University pro fessor and longtime Castro resident, died September 16 while swimming in San Francisco Bay. He was 67.

Peter Toscani, Mr. Ritter’s hus band, told the Bay Area Reporter that the apparent cause was hypothermia, though he said the medical exam iner’s office is still in the process of completing an autopsy.

An experienced swimmer, Toscani said that Mr. Ritter often took part in the Alcatraz swim.

Mr. Ritter taught graduate coun seling and psychology courses at SF State to students who were pursuing

English told Coleman “that be ing a lesbian was partly responsible for the development of her interest in the law. She is the mother of two boys and her own child custody dispute prompted her involvement in gay rights and family law.”

As Coleman was working on “Memory Book,” he said he real ized that the book needed one more element: everyone he was writing about from that era was white. As he researched, he said he was unable to find people of color who were doing similar work at the time. He asked a present day law student, Maria Reyes Olmedo, to write a chapter. (Olmedo was unavailable for comment for this story.) The result is in the post script: “The Emergence of Nonbi nary, Transgender, and Students of Color as LGBT Activists.”

Thomas E. Horn, the publisher of the B.A.R. from 2004 to 2013, also has a chapter. A lawyer himself, Horn spent much of his practice in the 1970s representing gay clients.

“He defended men who were be ing separated from the military due to their sexual orientation,” Cole man wrote. “He also engaged in criminal defense, representing men who had been arrested for lewd con duct by undercover vice officers.”

“I represented a lot of gay ser vice people, back in the day when they were still busting men for hav ing indiscretions in the park, or entrapping people in public rest rooms,” Horn told the B.A.R.

Horn did much more than that, however, both in his native New Mexico, where – still closeted – he advocated for gay rights and sexual civil liberties as legal director of that state’s ACLU. In that capac ity, he challenged New Mexico’s sodomy law and, while the court declined to address the matter be cause, it determined, Horn’s client lacked standing to raise the issue, the dissent written in that case “was later cited favorably in judi cial opinions in other states,” noted Coleman.

Horn, who moved to San Fran cisco in 1976, would eventually go on to become active in local poli tics, working with the likes of slain gay supervisor Harvey Milk, and was eventually one of the found ers of BALIF. He also served as the attorney for the B.A.R. for many years.

AIDS, too, raised even more work to be done, Horn, 76, said.

“We learned early on we had to take care of ourselves,” he said. “Be cause the government wasn’t going to look out after us.”

Horn looks back on that era, though, with a great deal of pride.

“We were at the forefront of the gay movement,” he said. “The legal community came to the forefront of the gay liberation movement very early on.”

master’s degrees, Toscani said. The couple were married in 2018,

Celebratory events

Toscani said, and were together for 35 years.

“He was totally non-judgmental,” Toscani said in a phone interview. “He was the beauty in everybody. He was an incredible, caring, and kind hearted man.”

Toscani said that Mr. Ritter liked recognition from people and that he was approachable. “He was a human being – with the frailties we all have,” Toscani said. “But he cared about people and often did things without recognition.”

Local publicist Lawrence Helman, a gay man who knew Mr. Ritter for many years, noted in an email that Mr. Ritter “was a teacher, an activist, committed to social justice, a person

of the highest moral values who was trying to make a difference in the world.”

“He was truly ‘walking the walk,’” Helman added.

Born on October 26, 1954, in Wal terboro, South Carolina, Mr. Ritter was raised in Florence, South Caro lina. Toscani said that Mr. Ritter ran away from home at 14 and told his parents he was headed to Atlanta to help young runaways.

“He told me later that he ran away for himself,” Toscani said.

Mr. Ritter earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Col lege of Charleston and his master’s in counseling from San Francisco State.

“He had a range of friends across

the socioeconomic spectrum,” To scani said. “He was a caregiver and he took real good care of me – he made my life so much better.”

The couple enjoyed traveling, and Mr. Ritter loved to cook and garden.

He was also a writer and had fin ished a novel that Toscani said he hoped to have published posthu mously.

In addition to Toscani, Mr. Ritter is survived by his sister, Karen Mi chael; his brother, Rudolph Ritter; three nieces, one nephew, and many grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

A memorial is planned for No vember 13. For more information, people can contact Toscani at pto scani43@gmail.com. t

Michael Ritter

Courtesy Peter Toscani

Book” is just

State governments, such as those of Alabama, Texas, and Idaho, have adopted laws that call for prosecuting parents who allow their trans children to have gender-affirming care. Fami lies in the Lone Star State have already found themselves being investigated by state agencies and facing the possibility of being prosecuted and seeing their trans children placed in foster care.

In Alabama, parents and physicians face being imprisoned for up to 10 years for either allowing their trans kids or providing their trans patients gender-affirming care. Both laws have been put on hold by judges as LGBTQ advocates challenge them in state and federal courts.

All eight members of the Legisla tive LGBTQ Caucus co-authored SB 107, as did straight allies such as As semblymembers Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), and Lori Wilson (D-Fairfield), the state’s first known legislator who is the parent of a trans child. Statewide LGBTQ advo cacy organization Equality California, Planned Parenthood, and Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis all signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang thanked Wiener “for his com mitment to protecting the most vul nerable members of our community” in a statement September 29 following the governor’s signing SB 107 into law.

<< Historical society ED

From page 4

state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) secured $5 million in state funds for the museum project, bring ing the total to $17 million in public funding.

“The current museum receives three times the number of visitors per square foot compared to similar cul tural organizations,” Ordeñana said, referring to the small storefront loca tion at 4127 18th Street in the Castro.

Last month, Queen Máxima of the

“While small, hateful men like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis attack trans children and their families, Governor Newsom today made clear that Cali fornia will welcome them with open arms. SB 107 officially makes Califor nia a state of refuge for trans kids and their families,” stated Hoang, referring to the governors of Texas and Florida, respectively. “SB 107 will continue Cal ifornia’s legacy of leadership in protect ing and advancing the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ communities in a time when we cannot take our rights and protections for granted.”

Anti-LGBTQ leaders, however, were quick to condemn both New som and Wiener for the legislation. Catholic League president Bill Dono hue warned their “goal is to undercut the right of states to ban this form of child abuse.”

Other LGBTQ bills become law

Newsom signed four other bills September 29 relating to various LG BTQ issues that EQCA had signed on to as a co-sponsor and two additional bills backed by LGBTQ groups Friday morning. One also authored by Wie ner, SB 923, requires medical profes sionals who interact with transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex patients to receive cultural compe tency training, and health providers will need to create searchable online directories of their gender-affirming services.

Known as the TGI Inclusive Care Act, it builds on the state’s Transgen

Netherlands stopped by the museum and had a brief tour during her visit to the Castro.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the LG BTQ neighborhood, recently told the B.A.R. during an editorial board meeting that property owners of po tential locations in the Castro want too much money. He said that if the historical society was willing to look outside the neighborhood, it could probably find a building quicker.

While Ordeñana didn’t say he was opposed to building the museum in other parts of the city, he stressed

Shanker began his work on the presidential advisory council in 2021 as one of eight appointments to the body.

der Wellness and Equity Fund cre ated in 2020 and allocated $13 million last year. The Office of Health Equity within the State Department of Pub lic Health administers the fund and awards grants to organizations pro viding trans-inclusive health care.

“Today is a momentous day for trans-inclusive health care,” stated Wiener. “California is setting ground breaking standards that will help us create a better, more culturally com petent healthcare system for trans, gender diverse and intersex people. No one should have to educate a doc tor in order to get the care they need. Thank you Governor Newsom for being an ally to the TGI community.”

On September 30 Newsom also signed AB 2521 by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), which renames the fund as the TGI Wellness and Equity Fund. The bill from Santiago, a main champion for its creation, also calls for the health equity office to establish a community advi sory committee of TGI individuals that will recommend which organizations and entities should receive funding and how much each grant should be.

Assembly Bill 2417, the Youth Bill of Rights by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), requires in carcerated youth, many of whom are LGBTQ+, to be informed of their existing rights under state and federal law and have easier access to that in formation.

“With the state DJJ closing, in carcerated youth can now know and defend their rights in the new system,”

the importance of its location in the Castro, saying he has heard “loud and clear” the need to do so.

“We have to hold that as a priority, and not take anything off the table,” he said.

As the B.A.R. reported in October 2019, the archival group had deter mined it made the most sense for it to construct a full-scale LGBTQ mu seum and research center somewhere in the Castro neighborhood based on the recommendations of a feasibility study it had conducted. The consul tants estimated that a combined fa cility would require a gross building

“He is no stranger to OASH as he recently served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS,” the statement read. “He also previ ously served as Health Committee Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania Com mission on LGBTQ Affairs in Penn sylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s ad ministration.”

Wolf, a Democrat, was elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018. He is termed out and a spirited race is un derway to replace him pitting Repub lican Donald Trump supporter Doug Mastriano against Democrat Josh Shapiro, the state’s attorney general.

recorded a record high of 31 reported infections during a week, San Fran cisco now goes a few days at a time without reporting a single new case.

At a White House teleconfer ence on September 30, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters, “This progress is a re sult of our comprehensive effort to get shots into arms, bring vaccines directly to the impacted, and work closely with community groups and health departments to help reduce risk behaviors.

“But let me be clear: We are not done with this fight,” she added. ”There is still a lot of work to do. We must continue to reach more of the highest-risk communities, especially Black and Brown communities.”

In San Francisco, local health of

In a statement following his appoint ment at the time, he said, “I am grateful that President Biden, Health and Hu man Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine have prioritized health equity, and I am grateful for the oppor tunity to serve alongside the other PA CHA members as we all work toward the end of the HIV epidemic.”

His new job puts him in an even more influential position. In a news release issued October 3, Shanker ex pressed surprise at the recent turn in his professional career.

“It has been a tremendous joy to

ficials observed that the decline does seem to be a trend, something they weren’t quite ready to commit to a couple of weeks ago.

“I would say that the decline is real,” said Dr. Susan Philip, San Fran cisco’s health officer. “We always like to see repeated trends over time.”

The Jynneos vaccine, of course, has played a huge role in that de crease, despite the difficulty local health officials have had in acquiring quantities sufficient to beat back the outbreak due to a lethargic federal response, but more is at play, Philip said. And much of that was because of the response from the local LG BTQ community.

“I think it really has been behav ioral,” Philip said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. In addi tion to the large numbers of people turning out to get vaccinated – more than 31,000 first vaccinations have been completed in San Francisco so

work with the team at the Spahr Cen ter to enhance and expand programs and services for LGBTQ+ and HIV+ community members in Marin,” he stated. “When I started at the Spahr Center, I did not anticipate a short tenure, however, I am confident that the organization is in a strong posi tion to continue its positive momen tum in service to Marin’s LGBTQ+ and HIV+ communities. I am deeply humbled by the invitation to join the Biden-Harris administration in this role and I look forward to supporting the administration’s efforts to advance health equity for the LGBTQI+ com munity.”

Shanker was not available for direct comment. The news of his appoint

far – people have been changing their behaviors, as well. (Two doses of the Jynneos vaccine are required, usually given a month apart.)

“The second thing is that people are making decisions about harm re ductions,” Philip said, which includ ed reducing the numbers of sexual partners they might have.

Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, agreed.

“It really was community in that moment that created support for one another in a difficult and painful time and created systems of commu nications and access because the fed eral system abandoned them,” said TerMeer, a gay man who described himself as “cautiously optimistic in these times.”

“We’ve had as successful a re sponse as we could have hoped for, especially considering the federal re sponse,” he said.

tweeted the California Association of Student Councils, referring to the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice that will be shuttered by June 30.

AB 1041 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) expands family leave provisions for workers to include their chosen family members in addi tion to their biological relatives, spous es and children. It aims to take into account how many LGBTQ people are estranged from their biological fami lies and have households comprised of close friends they may need to care for during times of illness.

Friday Newsom also signed SB 951 by Senator María Elena Durazo (DLos Angeles) that will boost leave ben efits for lower- and middle-income employees to cover more of their regular income while they take muchneeded time off to care for loved ones.

LGBTQ family advocates, such as the San Francisco-based Our Family Co alition, had supported the bill.

It extends increased wage replace ment rates for State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave that were set to sunset at the end of the year. Under the legislation’s phased increase in benefits, by 2025, workers earning less than the state’s average wage could receive up to 90% of their regular wages while taking leave, noted Newsom’s office.

“California families and our state as a whole are stronger when work ers have the support they need to care for themselves and their loved ones,” stated Newsom. “California created the first Paid Family Leave program in the nation 20 years ago, and today

size of 40,000 square feet, with around 20,000 square feet dedicated for the exhibit area, and draw upward of 106,000 attendees per year.

Ordeñana joins the historical soci ety at an important juncture in its his tory, and he sees the role of the mu seum as critical to the well-being, and survival, of the LGBTQ community.

“I think in the best picture for me, I think we’re at this really pivotal moment in the history of the LGBT movement,” he said. ”Extremist po litical forces are trying to erase us. They’re attacking the most vulnerable members of our community, trans

ment to OASH was quickly noted back in Allentown, the city he had left for Marin. The Morning Call, Al lentown’s daily newspaper, ran a story about his appointment Tuesday, not ing his work in that city.

“Under his leadership, the [Brad bury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center] gained a statewide reputation for promoting LGBTQ health,” the paper reported. “He created the bi annual Pennsylvania LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment, which is one of the largest and most consequential statelevel LGBTQ health data collections in the country.”

Replacing Shanker will be Cindy L. Myers, Ph.D., as interim executive director. Myers, a lesbian, also stepped

Funding issues

In early September, the Biden ad ministration requested $4.5 billion for the nation’s response to MPX, part of a larger $47 billion package which included additional money for COVID, as well as aid to Ukraine to help in its fight against invading Russian forces. Last week, however, Congressional Republicans nixed the additional funding for both CO VID and MPX. The funding would have included $1.6 billion for vac cine manufacturing, and hundreds of millions more to support state and local testing efforts as well as vaccina tion and treatment efforts.

LGBTQ officials were critical.

“The failure of Congress to re spond with the urgency and funding necessary to prevent the physical and emotional suffering felt by the LG BTQ+ community is beyond disap pointing. Despite the declaration of human monkeypox as a federal pub

we’re taking an important step to en sure more low-wage workers, many of them women and people of color, can access the time off they’ve earned while still providing for their family.”

SB 1194 by Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) authorizes lo cal governments in the state at either the city or county level to require, by ordinance or resolution, that public restrooms constructed within their jurisdictions be designed to serve all genders. West Hollywood city leaders had worked with Allen’s office on the bill, modeled after a law they had ad opted in 2014.

According to queer West Hol lywood Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne, who co-sponsored the city’s multi-stall gender neutral bathroom ordinance, the LGBTQ enclave was the first U.S. city to require bathrooms be accessible for people with disabili ties who have opposite-sex caretakers, or who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender non-conforming siblings, as well as for same-sex and single parents of the opposite sex of their children.

Last year, the city began drafting an ordinance requiring that newly built places of public accommodation and those that undergo substantial renova tions incorporate multi-stall genderneutral bathrooms. But it was discov ered that state building codes barred such a rule; SB 1194 removes them.

Gay West Hollywood City Coun cilmember John M. Erickson, Ph.D., posted to Twitter a video of himself doing a happy dance over SB 1194 be coming law. t

and trans children.”

Ordeñana said he wants to strengthen the society’s archives to make sure they “represent the entirety of the LGBTQ community. We’re lift ing up the history of marginalized communities.”

To do that, he said the society “must ultimately land in a space that allows us to exhibit the incredible col lections the archives hold.”

“I think it’s a challenge and oppor tunity to sit down and really listen,” said Ordeñana. ”This is an organi zation that has grown for nearly 40 years.” t

in as interim executive director at San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights following longtime leader Kate Kendell’s departure at the end of 2018.

“Dr. Myers brings 30 years of ex ecutive leadership experience in the behavioral health and human services fields to the Spahr Center,” the orga nization stated in a release. “She has served as an interim chief executive, chief operating and chief clinical of ficer for a diverse range of businesses and organizations, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Additionally, the organization will conduct a new national search for an executive director, which will be led by Kevin Chase Executive Search.” t

lic health emergency, there are still too many members of Congress who do not care about our communi ties,” stated Los Angeles LGBT Cen ter CEO Joe Hollendoner. “What’s most appalling is that the COVID response has provided us with les sons on how to properly manage a public health crisis. Still, the lessons learned to prevent an outbreak from becoming a pandemic are not being used for the LGBTQ+ community.”

Last month, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LG BTQ rights organization, and San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights wrote a letter to elect ed leaders requesting the funding be restored. PrEP4All, an advocacy group, and the National Coalition of STD Directors, were among the more than 100 agencies that signed on to the letter.

Still, despite the high numbers of San Franciscans who have gotten the vaccine so far – particularly men who have sex with men – as of Sep tember 30, only a little more than 9,000 have actually gotten their sec ond shot, which the CDC says is vi tal to being fully vaccinated against the MPX virus.

Nationally, of 802,993 cumulative vaccinations in arms as of September 17, only 226,613 are second doses, according to figures from the CDC. That drew criticism from some na tional activists.

“The CDC prominently touts on its website that 803,596 vaccines have been administered between May 22 and September 24, but that number doesn’t distinguish between first and second doses,” stated Dennis Jaffe of Washington, D.C., and a member of the PrEP4All MPX Working Group. “Data on second doses is almost bur

ied. The total number of people who have received two shots has not been reported until now.”

Locally, officials are also worried that not everyone is getting the sec ond dose.

“I have some level of concern as I look at this lower uptake of people getting the second dose,” said Ter Meer. “I worry about the possibili ties of reinfection. We have not seen much around the country, but there have been cases of people being symptomatic.”

The city will continue its work to get as many people vaccinated as possible, said Philip. Much of that effort lies in offering vaccinations at events where target populations are expected to gather.

“We are working with the com munity and asking the community what events we can get first doses to,” Philip said. “We’re really trying to say, what smaller events can we go to? So we have nighttime events, weekend events.”

with AB 2315 commencing with the 2023-24 academic year.

As part of that effort, DPH began offering vaccinations at various street fairs and bars around the city, most notably at Folsom Street Fair, which took place September 25, and the Castro Street Fair on October 2. The vaccinations for both those events and others came from a special 10,000 vaccination allotment dis tributed by the federal government specifically to reach the thousands expected to attend those events.

More than four months after MPX began to appear in San Francisco, men who have sex with men are still by far the largest group affected by the out break. As a result, said Philip, “We’re still not at a place where we’re saying everyone should get an MPX vaccine.”

According to September 28 fig ures compiled by DPH, of the 807 cumulative cases of MPX in the city, 95% have been men, with less than 1% of cases being trans men. The largest number of infections – some 88.9% – have been found in people ages 25-54, with the largest share

of those infections – 38.6% – oc curring among people ages 35-44.

Thirty-one percent of infections were among 25-35 year olds, and the rest – 19.3% – occurred among 45-54 year olds. Those over the age of 55 on up accounted for 7.6% of infections and 3.5% occurred in people aged 18-24. There were no cases among those 17 and under.

Among the city’s various ethnic and racial groups, whites still make up the largest percentage of cases at 45.8%. Caucasians make up 51% of the city’s population, according to U.S. Census estimates for 2021.

However, Latinx and Black individu als are being particularly hard hit with Latinx people accounting for 28% of cases, despite the fact they comprise only 15.7% of the popu lation, while Blacks, at 5.7% of the city’s population, comprised 6.1% of cases, as the B.A.R. previously reported. Asians, who account for 37.2% of San Franciscans, made up only 8.9% of MPX cases.

Gay, lesbian, or same-genderloving individuals account for the lion’s share of cases overall: 68.9%. People who identify as bisexual com prise 3.8%, and those who declined to identify their sexual orientation comprise 28% of infections. Hetero sexuals accounted for 2.5%.

While health officials are feeling hopeful, they are still quite worried about those who haven’t gotten the second shot, which the CDC says should be given 28 days after the ini tial vaccination. In the earliest days of the outbreak, places such as Zucker berg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center were giving out only first doses because of the very small amount of vaccines available. Now, however, they’re all about that second jab.

“Numbers could go up,” noted Philip, referring to MPX cases. There are still plenty of people who are sus ceptible and have not had even the first shot, she said. “Please come get your second shot.” t

board of each community college district in California to implement a process by which students, staff, and faculty can declare an affirmed name, gender, or both name and gender identification to be used in records where legal names are not required by law. The community colleges need to be in compliance

Legals>>

NOTICE OF CITATION FOR FREEDOM FROM PARENTAL CUSTODY AND CONTROL OF SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO: CASE NUMBER 22AD000410N

In the matter of NEVAEH PRESLEY MCLEMORE, date of birth 10/15/2017, a minor, to STEPHEN KOPERSKI: You are ordered to appear in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, 325 South Melrose Dr., Vista, CA 92081, in Department N-23 on November 17, 2022, at 8:30am, to show cause, why NEVAEH PRESLEY MCLEMORE should not be declared free from parental custody and control for the purpose of placement for adoption as requested in the petition. This hearing will be conducted by video or telephone through the North County Division 325 S. Melrose Drive Vista. CA 92081. IMPORTANT: STEPHEN KOPERSKI please call the court promptly for instructions on how to attend this hearing (760) 201-8720 Monday Friday 8:30am 11:30am PST At the hearing, the judge will read the petition and, if requested, will explain the effect of the granting of the petition, any term or allegation contained therein and the nature of the proceeding, its procedures and possible consequences, and may continue the matter for not more than 30 days for the appointment of counsel or to give counsel time to prepare. The court may appoint counsel to represent the minor whether or not the minor is able to afford counsel. If any parent appears and is unable to afford counsel, the court shall appoint counsel to represent each parent who appears unless such representation is knowingly and intelligently waived. Someone over the age of 18 not the petitioner - must serve the other party with all the forms and complete a proof of service form, such as Proof of Service (JC Form #FL-330 or JC Form #FL-335), telling when and how the other party was served and file that with the court. If you wish to seek the advice of an attorney in this matter, you should do so promptly so that your pleading, if any, may be filed on time. Dated 08/26/2022, Kelly C. Mok, Judge of the Superior Court.

ATTORNEYS: MARK E. GOLDMAN (CA SBN 193207) & AMBER C. CARLSON (CA SBN 323964), 21800 OXNARD ST #790, WOODLAND HILLS, CA 91367; (818) 789-1012; markg@adopthelp.com; amberc@adopthelp.com.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557390

In the matter of the application of ZAID SULIMAN SAMMOUR TASHMAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ZAID SULIMAN SAMMOUR TASHMAN is requesting that the name ZAID SULIMAN SAMMOUR TASHMAN be changed to ZAID TASHMAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 27th of OCTOBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557394

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

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398121

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OMEGA ELECTRIC GROUP, 1367 THOMAS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RONY JESUS PEREZ VELASQUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/31/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

“While far-right politicians in Texas and Florida were attacking trans kids and criminalizing abor tion, California remains a beacon of hope and keeps its commitment that our state will lead by example and understands the values of our democracy,” stated EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang. “This legis lative cycle our signed sponsored

legislation will help advance trans gender equality and health, protect diverse LGBTQ+ families, safeguard reproductive freedom and ensure public documents reflect the identi ties of transgender and nonbinary Californians – advancing full, lived LGBTQ+ equality.”

Based on a tally kept by the B.A.R., Newsom signed into law 16 bills related to LGBTQ rights that lawmakers passed this year and one

bill passed during the 2021 legisla tive session that wasn’t sent to the governor until June. That bill, SB 357 by Wiener, repealed California’s “walking while trans” loitering law.

Newsom signed two LGBTQ bills last Friday not included in EQCA’s list. Cervantes’ AB 2466 explic itly prohibits an agency that places foster children from declining to place a child with a resource fam ily because a resource family parent

identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

The other bill was Low’s AB 1432, which updates the annual procla mation California governors have issued declaring June as LGBT Pride Month to now refer to it as LG BTQ+ Pride Month. t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JOSE’S HAULING & HOME IMPROVEMENT SERVICES, 126 PRENTISS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSE M. DEL CID. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/21/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/19/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398132

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEALTHY HABESHA PRODUCTS, 696 GUERRERO ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YONAS ANDEMARIAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/24/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/02/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398125

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OP TIMAL HEALTH SAN FRANCISCO, 22 BATTERY ST #918, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHADY F. WONSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/29/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/01/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398095

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEBI NO AATO, 2338 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RACHEL MUQATTASH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/12/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398136

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GOLDEN GATE DONUTS, 6 6TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VANNARA OUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/02/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/02/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397959

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BUZZ LANDSCAPE, 601 VAN NESS AVE #702, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID BUZZELL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/15/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397941

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GAO VIET KITCHEN & BAR, 1900-1906 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HOME COOKING SM888 INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/10/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/11/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397976

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BAT TERIES USA, INC., 1 INDUSTRIAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WINCHESTER PACIFIC BATTERIES USA, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/19/92. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/16/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557397

In the matter of the application of MUN NOR MENNOR CHAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said ap plication that petitioner MUN NOR MENNOR CHAN is requesting that the name MUN NOR MENNOR CHAN be changed to MENNOR CHAN. Now there fore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 20th of OCTOBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the applica tion for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 15, 22, 29, OCT 06, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557403

In the matter of the application of DAN & LESLIE AR ROYO, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner AVA SUSAN ARROYO is requesting that the name AVA SUSAN ARROYO be changed to AVA SUSAN LEILA ARROYO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all per sons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 25th of OCTOBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 15, 22, 29, OCT 06, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557412

In the matter of the application of KATHARINE MARIE MCGINTY, 2251 FRANCISCO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KATHARINE MARIE MCGINTY is requesting that the name KATHARINE MARIE MCGINTY be changed to KATHARINE HOLLISTER MCGINTY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 25th of OCTO BER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted. SEP 15, 22, 29, OCT 06, 2022

Department Announcements

Child Support Services

Child support matters can be complicated, stressful, and confusing. The Department of Child Support Services helps parents understand the process so they know their rights and options for making and receiving support payments. The Department of Child Support Services are available to assist you in person or by phone. Call today at (866) 901-3212 or visit online at www.sfgov.org/dcss to learn how we can help you. Schedule an appointment to open your case at https://sfgov.org/dcss/ opening-case

Department of Public Health Families Grow Healthy with WIC!

San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program provides healthy foods, nutrition tips, breastfeeding support, health care referrals and community information. You may qualify if you:

• Are pregnant, breastfeeding, just had a baby; or

• Had a recent pregnancy loss; or

• Have a child or care for a child under age 5; and

• Have low-to-medium income; or

• Receive Medi-Cal, CalWORKS (TANF), or CalFresh (SNAP) benefits; and

• Live in California

To learn about California WIC Program, visit www.MyFamily.WIC.ca.gov or call 1-888-942-9675

To enroll in SFDPH WIC Program visit, www.sfdph.org/wic to start your application or call 628-2176890 to make an appointment.

Newly pregnant individuals, working families, including military and migrant families are encouraged to apply! WIC welcomes dads, grandparents, foster parents, or guardians who care for eligible children.

This institution is an equal opportunity employer.

Current or Upcoming Board or Commission Vacancies:

The Assessment Appeals Board (AAB)

The AAB resolves legal and value assessment issues between the Assessor’s office and property owners. Board vacancies are as follows: Board 1 – two; Board 2 - four; and Board 3 – five. Hearings are quasi-judicial, conducted in a manner similar to a court setting, with evidence and testimony presented by the parties. The Board then evaluates the evidence and testimony and renders its decision.

To be eligible for seat appointment, you must have a minimum of five years professional experience in California as either a:

public accountaQnt;

real estate broker; (3) attorney;

(4) property appraiser

For a full list

The

by

the State

current

or

by either the Office

Real Estate Appraiser

Ramesh

by Gregg Shapiro

Ramesh (Srivastava), who goes by one name (like Cher or Madonna), is the queer mu sical genius behind Austin-based Voxtrot, a band whose distinctive Britpop-influenced sound made an impression on listeners over the course of three EPs and one full-length album in the early 2000s.

After a 12-year hiatus, Voxtrot has returned to live performance with a current tour. Their Sept. 23 SF gig at The Independent was sold out weeks in advance.

Additionally, Voxtrot’s first two EPs have been combined on one full-length album titled “Early Music” (Cult Hero). Even more archival record ings have been compiled on the album “Cut

From the Stone.” Ramesh himself hasn’t been sit ting idle. Earlier this year, he released his second album, “Eternal Spring.” I recently spoke with Ra mesh about Voxtrot and his solo work.

Gregg Shapiro: For the uninitiated, what can you tell the readers about the genesis of the Voxtrot name?

Ramesh: I wish I had a more exciting story, but the Voxtrot name was born strictly out of neces sity [laughs]. We had our first show coming up back when I was 18, when we started the band, and we didn’t have a name yet. I don’t know how it popped in my head, but it just came up like that, and I thought, “Well, there aren’t many bands whose names start with V. We do have some stiff competition with the Velvet Underground, for example [laughs], but I said, “How about

Voxtrot?” For some reason, the mood of it just seemed right.

Can you talk about the formation and dissolution of Voxtrot?

Yes. I’ll just do it in order. Voxtrot was never re ally intended to be a band. I had already been ac cepted to go to college in Scotland, so I was about to move to Glasgow anyway. I had written some songs and I just wanted to record these songs as an EP. So that when I got to Scotland that would kind of be my calling card, that I would start a band there.

I put this group of musicians together that summer before leaving, and we recorded five songs. They’re somewhere on the Internet, but they were never officially released after that. We recorded a five-song EP. Then when I was coming

by Victoria A. Brownworth

home for Christmas or the summer, we would get together and play again. It just slowly over a course of a few years organically grew and then eventually just became Voxtrot.

About a dozen years after Voxtrot reached its conclusion, two new collections are being released. Why was now the time to release these compilations?

I actually don’t know other than it’s more of just a feeling. It’s come up a lot over the last seven years or so. I’m usually the one that says no, because I was working on my solo career, and I didn’t feel it was right. But, strangely, the same year that I finally released my second solo album, it seemed like the right time to do this also.

Niecy

Nash-Betts is having a moment, starring in two very high profile series. She made history this week as the first out Black lesbian to star in a network TV series when her ABC series “The Rookie: Feds” pre miered. She also stars in “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” the limited series for Netflix.

“The Rookie: Feds” is a spin-off from “The Rookie,” which follows John Nolan (Nathan Fil lion), a man in his 40s, who becomes the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Depart ment. The new series has a similar prem ise, and stars Nash-Betts as Special Agent Simone Clark, who is switching careers in her late 40s. Simone initially was a student counselor, but is now training to become an FBI agent. After spend ing her first day with the Los Angeles Field Office’s Background Check Unit, she was assigned to SSA Garza’s (Felix Solis) Special Investigative Unit. We didn’t think “The Rookie” would last three episodes and it’s now in its fourth season, so we aren’t going to project about NashBetts’s new show as we clearly are not the target audience for this police procedural. Nash-Betts has been growing her brand in both comedy and drama since her quirky breakout hit, “Reno 9-11.” She was a saving grace in Ryan Murphy’s atro cious “Scream Queens” and delightful and hilari ous in the much more enjoyable “Claws.”

Nash-Betts is a great comedian, but she was gutting in Ava DuVernay’s incredibly powerful dramatic miniseries “When They See Us,” for

which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. Nash had also co-starred in Du Vernay’s Oscar nominated film, “Selma.” In 2020, she portrayed feminist leader Florynce Kennedy in “Mrs. America.”

In “The Rookie: Feds,” Nash-Betts is very good and believable as Simone. She balances the show’s comedic aspects with the drama. There’s a back story of her living with her father, Cutty (Frankie Faison) who’s a community organizer who helps people who are in the criminal justice system. They have a talk where he asks her to take off her gun and badge before she comes through the door.

It’s a significant point in the sto ryline. Black people and Black com munities have not been well served by the police and law enforcement even as they are disproportionately victimized by crime. “The Rookie: Feds” has potential to address some significant issues related to racism and law enforcement, as well as the complexities of women changing ca reers in mid-life; Tuesdays on ABC and Hulu.

Shark Tank

So there we were, watching one of our fave guilty pleasures on Sept. 30–the premiere of Season 14 of “Shark Tank.” This show is a perfect decompressafter-a-hellish-week show to watch for an hour on a Friday night before delving into something more heady, like a Brit crime or a docuseries. It’s fun, it’s fast moving, we get to love and hate the Sharks in equal measure.

Niecy Nash-Betts in ‘The Rookie: Feds’

The

Gay musician discusses his solo work and Voxtrot’s reunion

‘Aunt Jack’

by Jim Gladstone

“Aunt

Jack” is full of surprises.

Playwright Nora Brigid Monah an’s enjoyably overstuffed comic fam ily drama, now in its premiere West Coast production at New Conserva tory Theatre Center, has several genu inely unexpected narrative twists.

That’s a rare treat in theater these days. When was the last time you were genuinely startled by an unexpected character entrance or plot develop ment?

But the biggest surprise of all is the provocative intellectual and emo tional engine Monahan has tucked be neath the hood of what at first appears to be a vintage sit-com jalopy. You’ll still feel it revving after the play ends.

“Aunt Jack,” directed by Jeffrey Hoffman, will most likely catch you off guard if you’re part of what Mo nahan’s younger characters might call the old guard: Baby boomer gays and lesbians like George, Jack and Phyllis, the three loving, concerned parents of a struggling Gen Z son, Norman. (A dialogue reference to the 1970 gay play “Norman, Is that You?” makes it

Ramesh

Did you feel like there was ac ceptance for what you were sing ing about, 20 years later?

I did feel that there was acceptance. I never feared that our audience was homophobic. Maybe I just feared that the world was homophobic. I feared that for me to truly have a long, suc cessful career as a musician, that I didn’t have to be in the closet per se, but that I would always use general pronouns; that I could never write a song that is a love song addressed to “he,” which barely ever happens, actu ally, with even the most famous out gay artists. If you think about it, there are very few big songs where you have, let’s say, a cisgendered man singing “he” to another man.

Would you say that Voxtrot had a gay fan base of which you, and the other band members, were aware?

I was not really. No, it’s only in this reunion and reissue experience, that I am now aware of this fan base and have received all these messages from people who were young back then and who are young now, talking about how Voxtrot’s music was an important queer touchstone for them, which is very surprising to me that somehow that essence just came through even though there weren’t that many inter views or statements about it.

How does that make you feel?

It makes me feel great [laughs]. I’ve always said to people, and to myself, that if I ever got a second chance in the spotlight I would be very open about my homosexuality because I had wished that I had that more when I was young and beginning to accept my gayness. That I wish I had more culture and pop culture heroes.

Norman (Nick Trengrove), un deremployed and recently split with his long-term boyfriend Ian (Ryan Marchand), introduces his new love, Andy (Emily Steelhammer), to the family, leading to a cascade of revela tions around sexual fidelity and fluidity.

This unsettles the ostensibly liberalminded older generation to great comic effect, but –to Monahan’s great credit– is also without uneasiness for the younger queer characters, even as they advocate for shifts in social standards.

George and Jack are paired para gons of late 20th-century out-andproud identity. George (Jim Rupp) is a one-time firebrand gay rights activ ist; Jack (Joseph Alvarado) is a famed drag performer who generally sports women’s attire at home as well as work. Both performers do a fine job, round ing out characters who could easily have read as stereotypes.

Phyllis, alas, is somewhat under written; a histrionic New York Jewish mother who doesn’t evolve much over the course of the evening. Fortunately, she’s played by Jennifer McGeorge,

who underpins her genuinely funny eye-rolls, spit-takes and fist-clenching frustration with an earnest, dithering warmth that effectively contrast with Alvarado’s camp fire.

While fundamentally lighthearted and always pointed toward a happy ending, “Aunt Jack” resists being the oversimplified generations-in-conflict comedy it could have been.

It’s no shocker that the open-heart ed Boomers end up accepting the next generation of queers, even if they don’t quite understand them.

But while the relationships between the three younger characters –fraught with jealousies, insecurities and over confidence– are temporarily tidied in time for curtain call, they are hardly resolved.

One leaves “Aunt Jack” keenly aware that pansexual, polygamous identities pose challenges not only those who consider them askance, but also to those who embrace them.t

‘Aunt Jack,’ through October 16. $30-$56. New Conservatory The atre Center. 25 Van Ness Ave. (415) 861-8972 www.nctc-sf.org

Do you think if you were in vited, either solo or with Voxtrot, to play a Pride festival, that you would?

Oh, I would definitely do that.

Preceding the Voxtrot com pilations, you released your second solo record, “Eternal Spring.” Why was now the time to do that?

That one, because I paid for most of it myself, took me a really long time to make [laughs]. It wasn’t tech nically even ready until this year. I planned to release it two years before that, but then with the vast effects of coronavirus, I was like, “I don’t want to work on this thing for five years and then release it at a time when

clear that Monahan knows of whom she spoofs).

Big laughs with unexpected

L to R: Joseph Alvarado, Nick Trengove, and Jennifer McGeorge in ‘Aunt Jack’

Lois Tema

Voxtrot

Theatre Rhino’s ‘Bad Hombres’

by Jim Gladstone

“I want to do queer theater and I want to do weird theater,” says River Bermudez Sanders, 24, who makes their San Francisco di rectorial debut with “Bad Hombres,” the first show in Theatre Rhinoc eros’ 46th season, which opens this Friday.

In a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Sanders, who grew up in Fremont, said that while “the typical trajectory for someone like me who gets a degree in theater at an east coast school is to move to New York,” the Bay Area felt like a better fit, with a scrappier, more like-minded theater community.

“When I started school, I was more focused on performance,” Sanders ex plained. “But through that period, I was changing the way I presented. I’ve changed my name, I’ve changed my appearance. And now I’m pursuing behind the scenes work more; direct ing, stage managing and writing.”

Asked whether they felt pushed away from performing on account of a non-binary presentation, Sanders –who uses they, he and she pronouns – replied pointedly, “I definitely felt a bit pushed by the industry’s standards. But I really wanted to put myself in a position where I can help push things in the other direction.”

Sanders’ opportunity to direct at the Rhino demonstrates that the support

ive queer theater network he hoped to find in the Bay Area indeed exists.

When John Fisher, Theatre Rhinoc eros’ artistic director, was looking for someone to helm “Bad Hombres” –a new collection of comic monologues by Guillermo Reyes, whose “Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown” was an earlier hit for the company– he reached out to another past Rhino col laborator, Justin Lopez.

As it turned out, Lopez’ own play “The Re-Education of Fernando Mo rales” had recently been presented in a staged reading at Lafayette’s Town Hall Theater, with Sanders directing.

Impressed with Sanders after meet ing him, Fisher decided to give the newcomer a shot.

Older audiences, open minds

“I love our aging audience,” said Fisher of the Rhino’s historic subscriber base, many of whom are in their 50s and older. “I adore them. They’re the generation that fought for queer rights. And they still have the theater bug.”

And like Sanders and other emerg ing queer theater artists, says Fisher, “Our loyal audience is open to work that explores intersectionality and the stories of other minorities.”

“The American college system is still producing good theater people,” Fisher told the Bay Area Reporter, “We don’t always have to wait until someone’s a socalled ‘seasoned director.’ River has the chops and he understands the material. The Rhino isn’t just about putting on plays. It’s about cultivating a local queer community of artists.”

Growing up in the East Bay, River Sanders was unfamiliar Theatre Rhi noceros, only learning about the com pany and its nearly five-decade history after returning home after college. Now, thanks to Fisher’s openness, he’s lending his youthful perspective to the venerable institution.

“Bad Hombres” undermines Don ald Trump’s broad-brush take on La

tino men by showcasing an eccentric crew of characters, including a closeted luchador wrestler, all played by Rudy Guerrero, whose star turn in Rhino’s “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” won a Best Actor award from the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle award in 2017.

Slipping a bit of 21st-century the ater kid perspective into the show, Sanders has worked in a bit of physi cal comedy involving literal Books of Mormon. He’s also staged one of the monologues as a TED talk.

“I hope I’m bringing a bit of Gen Z humor to the production, a bit of our sense of absurdity,’” said Sanders.

Subscriptions to the Rhino’s new season, including “Bad Hombres,” four additional productions, a read ing series and several special events are $150.t

‘Bad Hombres,’ through October 30. Theatre Rhinoceros, 4229 18th St. $15-$25. (415) 552-4100. www.therhino.org

For more theater reviews, including A.C.T.s “Passengers,” visit www.ebar.com.

you can’t tour on it and people’s at tention is so diverted.”

I ended up waiting until this year and it felt like the right time because it gave me time to make the accom panying video, etc. As a self-sustain ing artist, a lot of times it has to do with money. In retrospect, I feel like

did come out at the right time. I feel good about it. But it has a lot to do with how long it takes you to pay for something.

the full interview, with several music clips, on www.ebar.com

Rudy Guerrero as multiple characters in Guillermo Reyes’ ‘Bad Hombres’

Director River Bermudez

Sanders Theatre Rhino’s John Fisher

Ramesh

Daniel Everett Patrick

‘See How They Run’

by Gregg Shapiro

We have Rian Johnson and his critically acclaimed box office hit “Knives Out” to thank for the re vival of the comedic murder mystery. Advance word on the sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” is that it’s as good as the original.

While we patiently await the release of “Glass Onion,” we can be some what sated with “See How They Run” (Searchlight), the feature-length de but by director Tom George, with a slightly derivative screenplay by Mark Chappell. It’s no “Knives Out,” but it’s head and shoulders above either of Kenneth Branagh’s unnecessary pair of 21st-century Agatha Christie re makes.

Opening in London’s West End in 1953, shortly after Agatha Christie’s murder mystery play “The Mousetrap” began its eternal run, the premise of “See How They Run” revolves around

a proposed movie adaptation (of which there never was one). Boorish American director Leo (Adrien Bro dy), described as an “expected com munist, blacklisted in Hollywood” came to London to make the movie. But he ends up dead instead.

Of course, there are a few suspects. Gay screenwriter Mervyn (David Oyelewo), who introduces his Italian lover Gio (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) as his “nephew,” is at the top of the list. Leo and Mervyn didn’t get along and had public disagreements. Also a prime suspect is actor Dickie (hot Harris Dickinson), a leading-man actor who is displeased at Leo for hitting on his wife, actress Sheila (Pearl Chanda)

Philandering producer John (Reece Shearsmith), who was being black mailed by Leo (after Leo catches mar ried John with his mistress his hotel accommodations improve greatly with a suite at The Savoy), has his reasons for wanting to see the direc

tor dead. As does theater impresario Petula (Ruth Wilson), who is repulsed by Leo and his antics.

On the job to solve the murder

A handsome young Black man in a hip suit and artfully trimmed beard, no mustache, came out, the last inven tor of the night. He introduced him self as Braxton Fleming from Mays Landing, New Jersey We read him as a trans man and thought, “Okay, how cool is this?”

Then he introduced himself as a trans man, which was cooler still, and began talking about how his transition journey created his product, Stealth Bros & Co., which produces very cool kits to carry one’s testosterone and sy

ringes and has a sharps container and, well–wow.

Fleming’s LinkedIn profile de scribes his company: “Stealth Bros & Co is a luxury supply company pro viding medical storage supplies in a stealthy way. We’ve revolutionized medical storage to make our clientele feel safe, neat, and discreet while be ing able to express themselves as indi viduals.”

Fleming told the Sharks how he had tried to figure out how to carry all his gear discreetly to work and play when he was first taking testosterone. He talked about his community, about his journey, about his loving family, about

his coming to terms at 27 with his gen der identity.

It was, as the kids say, a moment. We were verklempt. The Sharks were moved. Barbara Corcoran talked about her years-long journey to get pregnant and how her shots were huge. She said she hollowed out the pages of a book to carry her equip ment surreptitiously. She said she would have loved this product.

The Sharks all said how much Brax ton’s story was something that needed to be on his website, that it was mov ing and powerful and that his cha risma shown through. There was a bidding war and then Corcoran and

Mark Cuban made a deal together, Braxton took it, and we all cried. Brax ton left the Shark Tank, went out into the anteroom and cried and we cried again along with him.

October 11 is National Coming Out Day and we cannot emphasize enough how seeing ourselves and members of our diverse community is a game changer for every kid strug gling with their identity and every closeted adult who is seeking support to come out.

Alaska Daily

Possibly one of the sleeper series of the new fall season, “Alaska Daily”

provide much of the movie’s comedic energy. Stoppard, a drunk divorcee, and Stalker, a war widow with two young children, take a while to warm up to each other, but eventually, after a series of mishaps (including Stop pard’s wrongful arrest), they find a way to work together and solve the crime.

No spoilers here, however, if you pay close attention, you may be able to determine the killer’s identity before Stoppard and Stalker. There are lots of devices at play, including a voiceover (lazy!) from dead man Leo. Addition ally, the fact that some of the charac ters are based on real people, includ ing Dickie (Richard Attenborough) and his wife Sheila (Sims), movie studio head John (Woolf of Romu lus Films), and even Christie (Shirley Henderson) herself, feels contrived, although possibly difficult to avoid.

t

stars multiple-Oscar winner Hil ary Swank. The series is the creation of Tom McCarthy, whose 2015 film “Spotlight” won the Academy Award for Best Picture, won McCarthy the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned him a nomina tion for the Academy Award for Best Director.

“Alaska Daily” charts the exploded career of recently disgraced reporter Eileen Fitzgerald. Like many Alaskan transplants, Eileen has fled one life to recreate herself in the still-wild, still-open social landscape of Alaska. She leaves her high-profile New York journalism career to be a reporter for a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage.

Eileen’s journey is all about re demption, personal and professional. She’s trying to recreate herself with a big story. The death of an Indigenous woman –which could be a homicide–becomes that story.

Swank told Deadline her reason for taking the role in “Alaska Daily” and becoming an executive producer on the series was in line with all her film work. She said, “At the heart of these stories, all everyone wants is to be seen and everyone deserves justice. I think a lot of the roles that I choose have that theme in one way or another and I feel like Eileen Fitzgerald is a truth seeker.”

“Alaska Daily” premieres October 6 at 10 p.m. on ABC.t

Castro Street Fair

photos by Steven Underhill

mystery are Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and inexperienced Consta ble Stalker (Saoirse Ronan, who has a knack for comedy). Their interactions

Pearl Chanda and Harris Dickinson (front), Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan (in mirror) in ‘See How They Run’

Left: Nathan Fillion and Niecy Nash-Betts in ‘The Rookie: Feds’ Middle: Braxton Fleming on ‘Shark Tank’ Right: Grace Dove and Hillary Swank in ‘Alaska Daily’

Zimerman and

record Szymanowski

more

A glorious change of instruments

Out and then some conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin programs Szy manowski into his most recent release (DG) by way of the First Violin Con certo, with his frequent concert part ner Lisa Batiashvili and his own Phila delphia Orchestra. A one-movement work from 1916, it stems from a root of Polish music but soon sets sail into more exotic climes.

It asks everything of a violinist, in cluding a willingness to be saucy, and Batiashvili revels in her music. But the wonder is at least as much in the suave playing of the Philadelphians, who indulge the colors lent by Debussy while Stravinsky looks on from the wings. But it’s as a totality that it scores, Szymanowki at his most extravagant, yearning, and unbuttoned.

by Tim Pfaff

There’s a handful of musicians of such eminence that, although they perform and record relatively sel dom, their appearances are command performances for their colleagues and devotees alike. The Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman is one, and he has just released a special recording of his countryman Karol Szymanowski’s solo piano works (DG).

For his part, Szymanowski (Shi manofsky) is a composer of such sub stance and refinement that every time you hear his music, your first question is why you don’t hear it more often. The esteem in which it is currently held is at least as high as any time since his death in 1937.

Still, such as he has a bigger “name” today it’s as the composer of the opera “Krol Roger,” in which homosexual longing plays a central role. Increased focus on his own homosexuality has won Szymanowski some currency in recent years, but his audience today is mixed.

His greatest proponent in the last century was the Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who recognized the com

poser’s importance at the first glimpse of a score and became a friend as well as an advocate of his music. A friend of Rubinstein’s, Zimerman completes the circle –for now.

A Pole apart

Born into a wealthy Polish family in Ukraine, Szymanowski was at liberty to refresh his creativity in the manner of many of his counterparts, with trav el to countries in the Mediterranean and North Africa. There he, like many of the others, found it easier to express his gay side, with locals of the under class willing if not eager to participate in that expression.

Szymanowski’s music is generally divided into three periods, from the influence of Wagner and Strauss to a phase of the “Orientalism” that swept most of Europe and finally to a full embrace of the music of his mother land.

Perhaps what most needs saying now is that, for all its individuality and high pedigree, all of Szymanowski’s music is immediately accessible, even to first-time listeners. At its most seri ous, it bothers to be ravishingly beauti ful, and occasionally, beyond the Ori

entalism, otherworldly.

Other pianists, several also Polish, have made vital all-Szymanowski re cordings, but Zimerman’s is in a league of its own. There’s an iridescence to the playing that pairs exquisitely with its lucidity and deep feeling.

Three Preludes show the influence of Chopin on his fellow Pole, as do the four Mazurkas, which also share the forward-looking musical language of Alexander Scriabin. Recorded in 1994, the Mazurkas are released for the first time here. Between them are three Masques, which, in keeping with their name, indulge programs. The

first, “Sheherazade,” is a dramatic ex emplar of Szymanowski’s Orientalism.

The set most likely to carry you away is the “Variations on a Polish Folk Tune,” from the composer’s stu dent years. It has the flair and ambition of a young man’s work. It’s captivating even in its overreach, such as its spec tacular fugal finale, though it’s also deeply musical and deeply felt. It’s the kind of music to which Szymanowski returned at the end of his life, if here

Like many classical CDs these days, it flies under a title, “Secret Love Let ters,” that in this doesn’t stretch the notion beyond the breaking point. The Violin Concerto is nestled in a program that begins with a reading of the Cesar Franck Sonata (with pianist Giorgi Gigashvili) of equal parts pas sion and tenderness. I love this piece to the point of being possessive about it, but I’m perfectly willing to have this duo take me away.

After the Concerto comes Ernest Chausson’s Poeme for Violin and Or chestra, and Debussy’s “Beau soir” in a Jascha Heifetz arrangement, with Nezet-Seguin at the keyboard. The Chausson is a rapturous weave of rich sonority and fine filigree in a perfor mance that sits comfortably alongside the best. The Debussy is unusually haunting and makes an ideal ending to the fare. When Nezet-Seguin gets time to practice is beyond me, but he’s as remarkable a performing musician as the others on this fine, cumulatively enchanting release.t

Krystian Zimerman, Szymanowski Piano Music, Deutsche Grammo phon, $13.98.

Lisa Batiashvili, violin, Secret Love Letters, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor and pianist, Deutsche Grammophon, $13.98. www.deutschegrammophon.com

Left: Krystian Zimerman

Lisa Batiashvili

‘No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies’

by Mark William Norby

Iknew very little of the Chomorro people who populate Guam until reading “No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies” (Astra House, New York 2022) by queer Indigenous writer and human rights lawyer Julian Aguon. The largest of the islands of Microne sia, Guam is located about 1,500 miles south of Japan and has been a United States colony since 1898.

The United States Department of Defense maintains a military presence in Guam to support and defend its in terests in the western Pacific Ocean.

Currently in the process of relocating 5,000 Marines from Okinawa, Japan to Guam, the addition of a 59-acre multipurpose machine-gun range will be built 100 feet from the last remain ing reproductive håyon lågu tree in Guam.

That’s one of the endangered species currently in danger in Guam where, for example, the yo’åmte, or native healers who perpetuate Chamorro traditional healing practices, are ex periencing the added endangerment to native plants used for medicines to treat everything from anxiety to arthritis.

“No Country for Eight-Spot But terflies” is part memoir and part mani festo. The writing is deeply interested in what ultimately is a question of hu man survival, and in preserving and respecting minority cultures so we can at the same time respect the earth and its geographical regions and microcultures of the larger human species.

For our purposes in queer journal ism, we research and write on queer identity and the challenges we face therein. But “No Country for Eight Spot Butterflies’’ has larger lessons for us to learn. As much as I love this book, I had to look further into LG BTQ Indigenous identity outside of its pages.

Typically called “Two-Spirit” by

non-Indigenous people, Two Spirit is a question of gender, not of sexual orientation. Most indigenous com munities around the world have spe cific tribal terms for sexual and gender fluid members, and naturally they differ from Indigenous language to language.

Indigenous tribes embraced gen der fluidity prior to colonization and many Indigenous tribes recognize at least four genders: feminine female, masculine female, feminine male, masculine male. In terms of identity and the Indigenous, there exists here opportunity for non-Indigenous queer people to choose. That is, the opportunity to address gender roles and orientation/reorientation and to

step into one’s identity anew.

Author Julian Aguon

Chamorro people have tradition ally accepted LGBTQ tribal members and homosexuality has never been prohibited.

From there, I decided to engage in an interview with Aguon and asked him questions that generated a further sense of our collective responsibility, queer or non-queer, Indigenous or non-Indigenous.

Mark William Norby: Why should LGBTQ individuals be interested in “No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies?”

The book is, at least in part, a coming-of-age story that traces my journey as a queer, Indigenous boy

growing up on the island of Guam, il luminating how my broader set of in tellectual and political commitments (i.e., global justice activism) are rooted in and informed by that upbringing.

How do LGBTQ identity, decolonialism, and environmental justice intersect?

Queer people are particularly well-suited to understanding inter sectionality, so much so that the book doesn’t address this pedagogically or even explicitly; it takes it for granted.

I think that’s an important point. We shouldn’t always be in the business of explaining ourselves. Part of what I love about this book is that it seeks to crash every party at once. It isn’t neatly categorizable, and that’s work we queer people have been doing since day one. And to your question, there are simply no silos anymore. Silos, like borders, are over.

What are the current social conditions of Two-Spirit Cham orro individuals in Guam and Mi cronesia and what is the most im portant issue in their struggle for respect and equality in the civic communities of the island nations and/or “colonies” of Micronesia?

The people of Guam, generally speaking, are incredibly warm and loving people. You might say we wel come first and judge (on merits) later. The same is true for queer members of the community, however they happen to define themselves.

Guam is a special place in that way; large extended families, or clans, are still strong. They are the fabric of our society. And most of my friends have families who accept them without question. Of course, that is not the case for everyone. I’m painting with a broad brush here, but this has defi nitely been my experience and that of many of my closest friends.

What can U.S. LGBTQ main landers do to help Guam in the struggle for environmental justice?

They can start foregrounding Guam in their conversations about empire; about militarism, coloniza tion, and climate change. Guam is by definition a colony. And it’s a colony that is also a frontline community when it comes both to the escalat ing threats of militarization and the adverse effects of climate change. Despite this, we are but a blip on the national radar. We are hardly ever considered let alone discussed.

As Aguon and I ended our inter view, I realized how profound, heartmoving, and alluring the arguments are in addressing not only Chamorro identity and climate change, but also the different ways of seeing and en gaging our world and in the process, of saving it.t

“Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”

Fall books roundup 4

by Jim Piechota

In a concluding section to our Fall books roundup, we present sev eral new and upcoming memoir and nonfiction titles of note. Shocking and surprising autobiographies from lo cal talent Blue Bailey as well as from notorious whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and some mindful reflec tion on the legacy of Prince, queer dis ability, and life in LA.

MEMOIR

“Blue Movie” by Stephan Ferris, $29.95 (Unbound Edition Press)

Complete with its own accompany ing Spotify soundtrack, Ferris, a Bay Area attorney and adult performer (aka Blue Bailey), lays bare the raw details of his life in this unfettered, he donistic, and often shockingly graphic memoir. A self-described sexual out law, Ferris considers himself “lucky to have survived” the experiences he chronicles and recounts his life from adolescence right into his battles with disease, drug addiction, alienation, and sexual compulsion.

Recounted in 77 dramatic scenes, Ferris is masterful at recalling the

mood and the motives behind his sexual liberation as well as his down ward spiral into dark depression and self-harm. Memoirs as direct and outspoken as this are extraordinary to read as they leave no dark dingy corner unexplored and never gloss over the unsavory details. A work that’s obviously been cathartic for the author, this soul-bearing confessional is a triumph on many levels and suc ceeds in drawing the reader deep into the trenches of compulsion, violence, self-destruction, mental collapse, and sexual escapism. Don’t miss this one. www.unboundedition.com

“Some New Kind of Kick” by Kid Congo Powers; $29 (Hatchette Press)

Co-founder of the punk group The Gun Club, author Powers details his life as a queer Mexican-American beginning in the 1970s when, greatly influenced by The Ramones, he was drawn into the druggy, sex-heavy early punk scene. By his 20s, he was street smart and gritty, yet still yearned for his break into the live music scene.

With encouragement from a variety of notable rock luminaries, Powers’ as

cent up the rock ‘n’ roll ladder includ ed stints with The Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds before settling back into his own band, the David Bowie-inspired Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds. Rock fans who remember the early days of the punk scene will find this memoir a bit rough around the edges, but a forthright, im mensely entertaining throwback into the genre nevertheless.

www.hachettebooks.com

“README.txt”

by Chelsea Manning, $27.49 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Activist and infamous whistle blower Chelsea Manning details her experience in the US Army in 2010 as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. She ille gally smuggled out thousands of clas sified military records on her digital camera and was subsequently charged with unauthorized possession and sentenced to thirty-five years in mili tary prison in 2013.

Manning diligently and passion ately describes her decision to transi tion soon after her conviction as well as the days leading up to and follow ing President Obama’s commutation

of her sentence and prison release, which became a swirling media scan dal; certain to inspire heated debate and critical discussion among readers and political enthusiasts alike.

www.us.macmillan.com

“Crybaby” by Cheryl E. Klein, $17.99 (Brown Paper Press)

Subtitled “Infertility, Illness, and Other Things That Were Not the End of the World,” lesbian author Klein’s problematic navigation of the chil drearing process begins with her struggles with open adoption after discovering she’s developed infertility issues. Stacked upon that stressful and emotionally taxing set of circumstanc es is the temporary separation from her wife and diagnosis of breast can cer, for which she would soon begin exhaustive chemotherapy treatments.

NON-FICTION

“Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons” by Anthony Christian Ocampo $28 (New York University Press)

Sociology professor Ocampo ex plores his history as a queer Filipino American as well as the experience of being a queer person of color in America today. The book compiles a series of interviews with men ranging in ethnicity from Mexican and Latin American to Filipino, all of whom the author considers as sons of im migrants.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557457

In the matter of the application of MADI SON SUZANNE MADDERN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MADISON SUZANNE MADDERN is requesting that the name MADISON SUZANNE MADDERN be changed to MADISON TABOR MADDERN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all per sons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of NOVEMBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557458

In the matter of the application of HUNG CHAN TANG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner HUNG CHAN TANG is requesting that the name HUNG CHAN TANG be changed to DAVID HUNG CHAN TANG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of NOVEMBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557460

In the matter of the application of JOE ANTHONY MATA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JOE AN THONY MATA is requesting that the name JOE ANTHONY MATA AKA ANTHONY RAY MATA be changed to ANTHONY RAY MATA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of NOVEMBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557464

In the matter of the application of SHEL LEY LYNN O’GRADY BRATTAIN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that pe titioner SHELLEY LYNN O’GRADY BRATTAIN is requesting that the name SHELLEY LYNN O’GRADY BRATTAIN be changed to SHELLEY LYNN O’GRADY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

103N, Rm. 103N on the 15th of NOVEMBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398280

The following person(s) is/are doing busi ness as STIRRED, NOT SHAKEN, 3334 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAN IEL PONTICELLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/03/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/22.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398279

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EMBER AND FOG, 955 PINE ST #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JACLYN HUGHES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/05/22.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/22.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398389

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CENOTE, 388 MARKET ST #104, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed R VENUE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/22.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398419

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SISTERITA, 669 COMMERCIAL ST, SAN FRAN CISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SERISTA GROUP LLC (CA),. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ficti tious business name or names on 09/24/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/22.

OCT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398414

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MELLOW SESSIONS, 1401 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AQUA BEAT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/22.

Classifieds

lassifieds

The end result is an emotional roll ercoaster of raw, palpable anger, loss, regret, frustration and finally, relief and excitement when there is a hope ful chance for the couple to adopt a baby boy. Anyone struggling with a cancer diagnosis or the desire to have children but find bureaucratic red tape or physical limitations blocking the path will share Klein’s journey into and out of each process enlightening, solidaric, and empowering. www.brownpaperpress.com

“Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More” by Fatima Ali, $28 (Ballantine/Penguin Random House)

Queer Pakistani-American ex ecutive chef Ali won a James Beard Foundation Award for her essay in Bon Appetit magazine on living with Ewing sarcoma, a type of soft tissue cancer that would ultimately take her life in 2019 at age 29. Her posthumous memoir is a moving, delicately written journal of her life and culinary career beginning with a keen interest in food as a child and well into school days as her mother encouraged her to pursue cooking professionally.

As the first Pakistani woman to win Food Network’s “Chopped” competi tion, Ali went on to establish pop-up restaurants with aspirations of open ing her own eatery. A cancer diagnosis, a hopeful remission, and a terminal recurrence in 2018 are somber and sobering to read, but Ali’s inspiring thoughts and encouraging anecdotes coupled with passionate essays from her family make this one unforgettable.

These are coming-of-age narra tives, so they are inclusive not only of the journey each man has taken to embrace their separate identi ties, but also of the dreams they hold for themselves to be successful in America; a hope also held by their parents. The book also dives into sociological themes of manhood, cultural compliance in queer White spaces, and how queer men of color struggle to fit in but also strive to develop communities and distinct voices of their own.

www.nyupress.org

“Queer Silence: On Disability and Rhetorical Absence” by J. Logan Smilges; $24.95 (University of Minnesota Press)

This important study probes the nature and the ramifications of silence on differing aspects of queer culture. As a sixteen-year-old victim of con version therapy, Smilges harnessed the power of silence as something that could be imminently “transformative” and even “world-building.”

Turning the tables on what was formerly construed as acquiescence and surrender in many queer spaces, the potential for silence to disarm ho mophobic politics and embolden dis abled populations is examined with thoughtful, compassionate, scholarly, and colorful consideration through out this thought-provoking and em powering report.

www.upress.umn.edu

“The Future is Disabled” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; $19.95 (Arsenal Pulp Press)

This urgent essay collection from award-winning Seattle-based author Piepzna-Samarasinha seeks to destig matize the theory of disability justice

‘Juanita: 30 Years of MORE!’ @ SF Arts Commission Gallery

The September 30 opening reception for ‘Juanita: 30 Years of MORE!’ at the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery was a who’s who of local nightlife and arts notables (Sister Roma, Honey Mahogany, Gooch, Manny Yekutiel, Khmera Rouge, Lance Holman, Dulce de Leche, Monique Jenkinson, K.M. Soehnlein and Kevin Clarke, Veronica Klaus, Bruce Beaudette, Barbara Liu and many others).

Along with remarks by Commission President Roberto Ordeñana, curator Marcel Pardo Ariza, MORE! and Mr. David (Glamamore), Landa Lakes led an acknowledgement to the Ohlone tribe, and then guests took in the portraits, posters, select Mr. David couture gowns and hats, plus a display case packed with MORE!’s costume jewelry.

Read our earlier interview with MORE! and curator Marcel Pardo Ariza in last week’s issue.

‘Juanita: 30 Years of MORE!’ at the San Francisco Arts Commis sion Main Gallery, 401 Van Ness Ave. through November 12. Wed.Sat., 12pm-5pm. www.sfartscommission.org www.juanitamore.com

more nightlife albums at facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife

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

and spotlights the plight of disabled people during the isolated pandemic times of Covid-19 or through the damaging presidential administration of Donald Trump.

In this insightful, important book written over the course of two years (while the author was in “disabled isolation”), they include informa tive illuminating essays and share perspectives on the criticality of dis abled community building, interde pendent care, survival strategies, and how familial networks can have life or death implications for the disabled community at large.

www.arsenalpulp.com

“My Pinup: A Paean to Prince” by Hilton Als, $11.95 (New Directions)

In this diminutive yet powerful ponderance on the power and influ ence of Prince, Pulitzer Prize winner

Hilton Als ruminates on how his sex uality commingles with an obsession with the superstar. A unique braiding of memoir and essay, Als gushes over

backstage encounters with the star at numerous concerts, particularly during the 1988 “Lovesexy” tour at Madison Square Garden where Prince “was showing his ass again, and every one in the audience could taste it.”

He also dissects the influence Dorothy Parker had on Prince’s music as well as on his own identity. Through prose that’s witty, clever, and unapolo getically frank, Als exhibits sheer frus tration at many Black artists (Prince

paramount among them) who pan der to record industry producers and white audience expectations and sur render themselves to career directions that are based on revenue rather than on creative inspiration.

Coming in at just 48 pages, don’t be fooled by its brevity. This is an outspo ken, exacting work of observation and conclusion on Black brotherhood, racism, and celebrity fandom. www.ndbooks.comt

SHANTI’S 48 TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER

OCTOBER 13, 2022 PALACE HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO

P.M.

P.M.

and Formal Program

Kevin Joyce

FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY Tongo Eisen-Martin, San Francisco Poet Laureate Joe Warner Jazz Combo

Jiten Daiko

WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US

2022 Nancy Pelosi

Lifetime Achievement Award Presented to

THOMAS E. HORN Community Activist and Philanthropist

purchase

2022 James C. Hormel Community Spirit Award Presented to

DR. MONICA GANDHI Physician and Professor