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Gay travel agent dies by Seth Hemmelgarn
E
ven as Jonathan Klein’s depression, housing troubles, and other problems finally overtook him, the beloved Castro travel agency owner sought to help others. “An hour before he jumped off the bridge, he was thinking about people,” Peter Greene, who launched Now, Voyager with Klein alCourtesy Ken Ferraris most 30 years ago, said Tuesday, April 9 Jonathan Klein – one day after Klein, 61, apparently plunged to his death from the Golden Gate Bridge. “Through everything, he kept helping me in my situation, even though every day must have been torture for him,” said Greene. Greene, who frequently broke down in tears Tuesday, said that Klein, who was gay, sent an email Monday morning “that gave some indication he was going to do something.” But “even in his last moments,” Klein was trying to “make it easy for everybody,” Greene said. He had even closed out the most recent sales report for the business, at 4406 18th Street, so that Greene wouldn’t have to deal with it. After he received his longtime business partner’s last note, Greene called the police. “I told them he’s probably in his car, and I suspect he might go out to the bridge,” he said. “I guess they found him out there shortly after.” In an email to the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday, Lieutenant Keith Boyd, assistant chief deputy coroner for Marin County, said, “We are working a case involving Jonathan Klein ... who is a suspected suicide related to the Golden Gate Bridge.”
Longtime connection
Greene and Klein met on a gay bike trip in China in the early 1980s and started Now, Voyager, which is named after a Bette Davis film, in 1984. Klein bought out Greene’s half of the business about 20 years ago. Greene lives upstairs from the agency and had continued to help Klein with the work. At one time the bustling travel agency had five employees, Greene said. It was an exciting time as gay men and others could look to Klein’s knowledge in booking trips, including gay cruises. The convenience of the Internet brought challenges for Now, Voyager, but Greene said people were still “flocking” to the business, drawn by the expertise of Klein, who had been a leader in the International Gay and See page 13 >>
Vol. 43 • No. 15 • April 11-17, 2013
Healthy Penis returns to SF by Matthew S. Bajko
L
ater this spring the health department’s most famous mascot for STD testing is coming out of retirement. In May the Healthy Penis will be popping back up in San Francisco as officials address spiking rates of various sexually transmitted diseases and aim for further reductions in the number of new HIV cases among gay men. “We want to resurrect the Healthy Penis campaign,” said Joseph Imbriani, a health educator with the Department of Public Health’s HIV Prevention Section. When it debuted in 2002 the campaign, initially begun by the health department’s STD Prevention and Control Section, featured cartoon advertisements starring penis characters and was solely focused on combating rising rates of syphilis. It ended after a five-year run but never fully went away; it has returned in some form over the ensuing years. This time the character is coming back as stress relief squeeze toys stamped with the message that sexually active gay and bisexual men should get tested for HIV every six months (and every three months for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis). They will
Rick Gerharter
The Healthy Penises, including Byron, Pedro, and Clark, promoted safer sex in the Castro in 2009 with their nemesis Phil the syphilis sore.
be part of safer sex packets given to clients at the city’s HIV testing sites over the course of the new initiative. The expansion of the Healthy Penis’ testing message to include HIV is just the latest
example of the collaboration the health department’s various sections have embarked on in recent months, explained Dr. Susan Philip, director of the STD section. See page 12 >>
New museum puts Bay Area on exhibit by Matthew S. Bajko
T
he trunk and partial root system of an old growth Douglas fir grace the bayside East Gallery inside the Exploratorium’s new waterfront museum. Discovered in Olema on a woodland spiritual retreat owned by the Vedanta Society, the seven and a half ton specimen has been carved into four sections with benches made from its wood providing respite for tired visitors. “We wanted to have a large object or a large organism because it helps represent the life all around us,” explained Michael Brown, a gay man and local artist who helped conceive of the installation. “I refer to it as my big wood.” Look closely at the base of the 343-year-old tree; there growing on the bark are moss and a young blackberry plant. “It is supporting life,” said Brown, 52, who was hired two years ago to help design the exhibit, titled “The Tree Experience.” He began his collaboration with the science institution two decades ago as an artistin-residence, which led to his exhibit titled “Meanderings.” Over the years he assisted with the museum’s “Revealing Bodies” and “Frogs” shows. This time he scoured the state’s old growth forests, with trips north to Humboldt and Mendocino counties, in search of the right tree to import back for the new exhibit. He found it about an hour north of San Francisco pre-
Rick Gerharter
Artist Michael Brown “stabilizes” a 343-year-old Douglas fir tree that he carved and formed into “The Tree Experience,” an exhibit at the new Exploratorium on the Embarcadero.
served on a hillside where it had come to rest after being toppled by the wind 10 years prior. Pointing to a small circular ring in one cut section of the trunk, Brown explained that, “here, you can see where a little branch popped out.” As the relocated Exploratorium readies to open its doors at Piers 15 and 17 along the Embarcadero Wednesday, April 17, Brown took part in a sneak peak media day Tuesday, April 9
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to show off the renovated warehouse and outdoor spaces now teeming with science displays and exhibits that showcase the bay and city life. “If you are at all interested in science, this is a great place to come to,” said Brown. Exploratorium officials are betting visitor numbers will increase now that they are housed in a more centrally located facility. Until last year the museum, founded by Frank OpSee page 13 >>