Sisters’ celebration to highlight SF’s Easter weekend
by John Ferrannini
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are putting on their 46th annual Easter celebration Sunday, April 20.
This year the charitable drag nun group is focusing on transgender representation, as the community faces attacks from the Trump administration.
There are also other events around the city, from a free meal for those in need to activities for kids.
The Sisters’ Easter in the Park theme this year is “No Easter without the T,” Sister Roma told the Bay Area Reporter. The event will be held at Mission Dolores Park.
“The Sisters are making a very bold statement this year in solidarity with the trans community, as they are under attack in today’s social climate and political climate,” Roma said. “We feel it’s very important that trans people are honored, recognized, and respected and for all to thrive, and so we’re focusing our stage show on trans talent and entertainment.”
Trans and gender-nonconforming performers will include Breanna Sinclairé, an opera singer who was the first trans woman to sing the national anthem at a professional American sporting event (a 2015 match between the thenOakland Athletics and the San Diego Padres at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum); as well as the ladies of AsiaSF 2.0, Roma said.
The big day will start at 10:30 a.m.
“We’re kicking off the day like we always do with a special children’s Easter event with an Easter bunny, an Easter egg roll, [and] face painting,” Roma said.
The main, more adult-oriented program will begin at noon and will be emceed by Roma, drag artist Alex U. Inn, and Honey Mahogany, a trans person who is executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives.
Inn, who was sainted by the Sisters, helped put together the People’s March last weekend to protest President Donald Trump. Inn stated to the B.A.R. that, “Bringing joy to people is also something I deeply value.”
“No matter who you voted for, there are undoubtedly disappointments in the current climate within the United States,” Inn continued. “In the face of this chaos, holding onto our joy and love for each other is vital. I hope to bring that spirit of fun and enjoyment as one of your emcees at what’s sure to be a hilarious event featuring Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary.”
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More than 1,000 say ‘no’ to Trump at People’s March
by David-Elijah Nahmod
They brought banners and placards emblazoned with slogans, including for the Salvadoran and U.S. governments to free a gay man the U.S. deported to a notorious prison there. They rallied and marched from the foot of Market Street to San Francisco City Hall, all the while saying “no” to President Donald Trump and his administration.
The People’s March: Fight Fascism for Democracy took place Saturday, April 12, and saw more than 1,000 people gather at Embarcadero Plaza. The crowd represented the full spectrum of the LGBTQ rainbow, and they were protesting not only the policies of Trump, but also the actions of billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency. Since Trump took office, DOGE has fired thousands of federal workers and cut off funding for HIV, cancer, and Alzheimer’s research, among other reductions.
See page 8 >>
SF Pride defends decision not to recognize gay deported migrant
by John Ferrannini
The San Francisco Pride organization is defending its decision not to recognize a gay deported migrant as an honorary grand marshal in this year’s parade. Instead, the organization will make Andry Jose Hernández Romero’s case and those of other migrants a focal point of its Pride Summit in June.
Hernández Romero was whisked to an infamous Salvadorian prison by the Trump administration. It has prompted widespread outrage within the LGBTQ community and calls for his return by various community leaders and elected officials.
2017 Media Kit 0 a
Longtime gay leaders Cleve Jones and Nicole Murray Ramirez have requested that Pride organizations across the country name Hernández Romero, a makeup artist, an honorary grand marshal in their parades. To date, only SF Pride has responded to the Bay Area Reporter’s requests for comment.
After a weekend of online criticism of both the Bay Area Reporter, for reporting on SF Pride’s initial denial of the request by Jones and Murray Ramirez, and SF Pride, for not recognizing Hernández Romero, Executive Director Suzanne Ford issued a statement Tuesday, April 15.
First, she reiterated that Hernández Romero “should be released immediately.”
“After receiving a text from a community mem-
Andry Jose Hernández Romero is a make-up artist from Capacho, Venezuela, famed for its epiphany celebrations.
ber demanding SF Pride name José an honorary grand marshal, I shared that request with our board president,” Ford stated. “We deeply honor the sentiment behind that call. At the time, we felt the best thing we could do was issue a public statement calling for his release.”
Afterward, Ford said they “consulted with members of our board, including those from queer mi-
grant communities. We also reached out to other queer leaders of migrant organizations here in the Bay Area. What we heard was clear: the issue deserves more attention than a symbolic gesture – it requires deep, sustained action and input from those living this reality every day.”
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
In conclusion, they decided to “partner with Michelle Meow to bring queer and migrant leaders together so that the broader community can hear directly what is being done and what resources are needed. We will also dedicate a significant portion of the Human Rights Summit on Thursday of Pride Week to highlight this important issue and center the voices of impacted communities.”
The Human Rights Summit takes place annually. Last year, amid spirited debate in the community over the Israel-Hamas War and how Pride celebrations across the U.S. should address it, the issue went unmentioned during the 2024 summit, as the B.A.R. reported.
Ford’s statement concluded, “This is how we are supposed to tackle issues: Speak with the affected community. Listen to how they want you to show up. Accept criticism with love and humility. Then, take action with responsibility. I know that not everyone will always agree with my decisions in this role, but this work is not about me. It is about the people that we serve. I have the greatest job in the
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Wilinton Barco/Reuters
Sister Luna Loveagoodtime posed at last year’s Easter in the Park.
Steven Underhill
Gooch
People waved placards as they marched up Market Street during the April 12 People’s March: Fight Fascism for Democracy.
Taylor ahead of Lee in Oakland mayor’s race
by Cynthia Laird
Former Oakland city councilmember
Loren Taylor has a slight lead over former congressmember Barbara Lee in the hotly contested race for mayor. The winner will finish the term of Sheng Thao, who was recalled by voters last November.
Preliminary returns released by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters April 15 showed Taylor with 51.17%, followed by Lee at 48.83% after nine rounds of ranked choice voting. Additional results should be released Friday.
Political observers had thought that Taylor would have a lead with the first returns. He had previously run for mayor against Thao in 2022 and lost by fewer than 700 votes. Lee, who served for decades in Congress representing the city, was believed to have a formidable advantage when she entered the race in January. But Taylor made it a contest in recent weeks. He outraised Lee in the final weeks of the campaign.
“Our campaign continues to gain momentum because Oaklanders are stepping up to demand a city government that actually delivers for them,” he stated in a pre-election email to supporters.
Lee was upbeat at her election night party and told supporters that she expects it to be a long week as she awaits further results.
Lee had the backing of the Alameda Democratic Party and LGBTQ organizations, including the Bay Area Reporter, which endorsed her. A strong ally to the queer community, Lee ran on a campaign of increasing economic opportunity for Oaklanders.
Both candidates also ran on public safety as a leading issue.
During the campaign, LGBTQ advocates had raised concerns about Taylor’s association with Seneca Scott, a 2022 mayoral candidate who has made homophobic and transphobic statements in the past.
the company you keep. I’ve pushed back on hate anytime. It’s an indication of how my opponent will govern.”
In an interview that aired on NPR April 15, Taylor seemed to agree with comments made by Governor Gavin Newsom when he came out against trans women and girls playing on female sports teams. “Well, it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that,” Newsom said to his guest, right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk.
Asked about Newsom’s comments, Taylor said, “I do think it has some truth to it.”
At an LGBTQ mayoral forum held March 1, Taylor was asked by a member of the public about his connection to Scott and if he would directly condemn his anti-LGBTQ comments.
“I completely condemn any homophobic or transphobic comments from
The Alameda County Democratic Party and the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club in 2023 condemned Scott’s homophobic social media posts, some of which were directed at Brandon Harami, a gay man who was then Thao’s director of community resilience and her de facto LGBTQ liaison. In his posts, Scott used an old trope that equates gay men with pedophiles. (Harami, who had continued in his job under interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, was let go, along with other staffers, last week in a City Hall shake-up.)
Mr. Scott or anyone else,” Taylor said, according to a video of the forum. “Absolutely, I stand with the LGBTQ community.”
In a phone interview with the B.A.R. before the election, Lee decried hate speech leveled by Scott. “Hate does not belong in any community,” Lee said. “You’re known by
In another matter Tuesday, Oakland voters appeared to approve a sales tax hike that should generate about $30 million in revenue for the cash-strapped city. Preliminary returns showed Measure A passing overwhelmingly 64.24% to 35.76%. The measure will increase the sales tax from 10.25% to 10.75%.
There were 10 candidates running for mayor, but the race quickly became a two-person affair between Taylor and Lee. All of the other candidates finished at 1.53% or lower, according to the unofficial results. t
Wang wins in Oakland, Tordillos poised to advance in SJ
by Matthew S. Bajko
While out candidates in special elections for seats on the Oakland and San Jose city councils await final vote counts in their respective races, they find themselves in polar opposite positions. The South Bay contest is headed toward a recount, whereas the East Bay race appears to have been won outright on the first vote count.
In both contests a candidate needed to surpass 50% of the vote in order to clinch the council seat. For the Oakland race, the outcome is decided by ranked choice voting if no candidate reaches that threshold on the first round of tabulations.
After polls closed in Tuesday’s special election for the District 2 seat on the Oakland City Council, lesbian civil rights and environmental justice expert Charlene Wang found herself in first place with 50.45% on the initial vote count. And after five rounds of instant runoff voting, she had a commanding 66.49% of the vote, according to the unofficial returns as of Wednesday morning.
In second place with 33.51% of the vote is Kara Murray-Badal, the director of Terner Lab’s Housing Venture Lab who had been endorsed by the former elected holder of the council seat that includes Oakland’s LGBTQ cultural district near Lake Merritt. The next vote count in the race will come on Friday,
when a new tally will also be posted in the special election to decide Oakland’s next mayor. (See related story.)
As of Wednesday morning, Wang had yet to declare victory. In an Election Day post on Instagram, Wang noted, “District 2 is home to Oakland’s Chinatown, Little Saigon, and LGBTQ+ cultural district. I’ll fight for safety and opportunity for all of Oakland’s communities!”
For the last week, only a handful of votes has determined if gay San Jose Planning Commission chair Anthony Tordillos was in second or third place
in his race for his city’s District 3 council seat. After the April 15 vote update, he saw his second-place showing edge up by five votes to 2,005 for 22.19% of the total counted.
Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who had sole endorsed him, stands in third place with 22.13% of the vote for a total count of 2,000. Whoever takes second place will face off against first-place finisher in the April 8 special election Gabriela “Gabby” Chavez-Lopez.
A single mom who is executive director of South Bay nonprofit the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, ChavezLopez is in the top spot with 29.98% of the 9,100 ballots cast. Her total stands at 2,709 votes and is assured of moving on to the June 24 runoff election.
Meanwhile, in Southern California, bisexual Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre is headed to the July 1 runoff for the open District 1 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The Democrat placed second in her April 8 contest with nearly 32% of the vote, according to the unofficial returns, and will face off against Republican Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, who placed first with 42% of the vote.
Bay Area council contests
Wang was one of six candidates vying in the special April 15 election to serve out the remainder of the term through 2026 vacated by Nikki Fortunato Bas after her election last November to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Wang is set to be one of three out women on the council and one of the few out female Asian elected leaders in the Bay Area.
Lesbian interim District 2 council-
member Rebecca Kaplan will be stepping down as soon as Wang is sworn into office. She opted last year not to seek reelection to the council’s at-large seat that she had held for close to two decades and then was tapped by the council as a caretaker of Bas’ seat.
In the South Bay, Tordillos is aiming to return out leadership to the San Jose City Council and be only the third LGBTQ community member to serve on it. The District 3 seat covering much of the city’s downtown and its Qmunity LGBTQ district has been represented since earlier this year by engineering firm owner Carl Salas.
He was selected as a caretaker of the seat by the council following the resignation last fall of gay former councilmember Omar Torres due to his arrest for allegedly molesting a cousin years prior. As the final day of voting was underway to decide who will serve out the remainder of his term through 2026, Torres that Tuesday was in a Santa Clara County courtroom pleading no contest to child sex crimes and is now awaiting his sentencing.
Elected in 2022, Torres was the first gay Latino and out person of color to serve on the San Jose City Council, and only its second out councilmember.
The governing body had gone 16 years without a member from the LGBTQ community until Torres took his oath of office two years ago.
According to the county registrar, it had 30 ballots to process as of April 15 and will count any ballots postmarked as of April 8 and received as of Tuesday. The next vote count will be posted Wednesday, April 16, by 5 p.m.
Under the county’s election codes, if the vote difference between Tordillos and Quevedo is less than .25% then there will be an automatic hand recount. Tordillos leads by .06% at the moment.
Since no candidate captured more than half of the votes, the election will be decided by the summer runoff, which will coincide with this year’s Pride week celebrations in cities around the Bay Area and across the country.
Should she win the seat, ChavezLopez, 37, would be the second Latina to represent District 3 and the first to do so since 2006. The Santa Clara County Democratic Party had dual endorsed Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos, 33, an engineering manager at YouTube married to cancer biologist Giovanni Forcina. Quevedo, 36, had thrown his support behind a recall attempt of Torres prior to his resignation last year. From a Mexican-American family, Quevedo is a San Jose native who has two sons with his wife, A’Dreana.
San Diego candidate has Bay Area ties
Born in San Francisco, Aguirre moved at age 8 back to her parent’s hometown of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and relocated to Southern California in 2001 to pursue her higher education and compete as a top bodyboarder. In 2022, she won election as mayor of her city, where she resides with her husband, Delio, and their dog, Dasha. Aguirre jumped into the supervisorial race following the surprise decision in late December by former San Diego County supervisor Nora Vargas that she was resigning despite being elected to a second term last November.
The election for her seat has been followed closely throughout the state as it will determine if Democrats or Republicans will have a three-person majority on the county board. It is currently evenly split between the four supervisors on it, including nonbinary and pansexual District 3 San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, a Democrat who won reelection last year.
The top three Democrats running in the special election combined received nearly 53% of the vote Tuesday. It bodes well for Aguirre if she can consolidate support from her party’s voters in the summer runoff.
She suggested as much in an election night statement, arguing that voters in the district had sent “a clear message” and “want a supervisor who fights on the side of working people who are struggling, gets results on the sewage crisis, and pushes for the more affordable San Diego County we need.”
The seat represents the cities of Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and National City, along with a large swath of San Diego and several unincorporated communities. Like Tordillos and Wang, Aguirre had received support from state and national LGBTQ groups for her candidacy.
In a statement congratulating Aguirre for her making it to the runoff election, gay Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang noted that her opponent is “a far-right extremist aligned particularly with Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, is out of step with the values of District 1 voters. The people of San Diego County deserve a leader who will fight for all communities— not just a select few. Equality California is proud to support Paloma and will continue working to ensure her victory in June.” t
Barbara Lee was upbeat at her election night party April 15.
Jane Philomen Cleland
Loren Taylor has taken the lead in the race for Oakland mayor.
Cynthia Laird
Charlene Wang, left, won the District 2 City Council seat in Oakland, while Anthony Tordillos is ahead in a bid for second place to advance to a runoff in San Jose’s District 3 race.
Courtesy the candidates
Gill Foundation names Kendell as new CEO
compiled by Cynthia Laird
The Gill Foundation, a national LGBTQ philanthropic nonprofit, has announced that former National Center for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell will become its new CEO. Kendell is expected to begin the new job May 7.
Most recently, Kendell, a lesbian, served as chief of staff for the California Endowment. She had led NCLR for 22 years before stepping down in 2018. After that, she served as interim co-legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Gill Foundation was founded by gay software entrepreneur Tim Gill in 1994. He now serves as co-chair of the organization’s board.
“Kate brings with her not only a remarkable legacy of LGBTQ activism, but a deep belief in the dignity and potential of every American – values at the heart of everything we do at the Gill Foundation,” stated Gill and board co-chair Scott Miller in a news release.
In a Facebook message to the Bay Area Reporter, Kendell, who turned 65 April 15, said she would be splitting her time between Denver, where the foundation is located, and her home in Oakland. She said she is looking forward to working at the foundation.
“At this moment of unprecedented peril for everything I worked for during my career at NCLR, I cannot sit on the sidelines and not fight back,” Kendell wrote. “I am humbled and honored to assume this role at the Gill Foundation to help support the organizations beating back the worst of the attacks against the most vulnerable in our community and helping with strategies to see us through this exceedingly dangerous chapter.”
While at NCLR, Kendell advocated for LGBTQ people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education, the release stated. She was a key architect on a wide range of legal issues and policy victories for the LGBTQ community, including
the right of same-sex couples to marry, non-discrimination policies, protection of undocumented immigrants and asylees, the rights of incarcerated individuals, transgender rights, and the needs of youth and elders.
She was a leader of the No on 8 campaign in 2008 but despite the campaign’s efforts California voters passed Proposition 8 and banned same-sex marriage in the state. After a federal lawsuit, the courts restored marriage equality in June 2013.
The Gill Foundation describes itself on its website as one of the nation’s leading funders of efforts to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Since its inception, the Gill Foundation has invested more than $446 million in programs and nonprofit organizations around the nation, substantially contributing to many of the country’s watershed victories for LGBTQ equality, the website stated.
The foundation expressed its thanks to outgoing CEO Brad Clark, who announced earlier this year that he was stepping down in the spring after 10 years at the organization.
“We are enormously grateful to Brad Clark, whose essential contributions at the Gill Foundation have helped shape and secure fuller LGBTQ equality for millions of people across the country,” the board stated. “To ensure a seamless transition,
Kate will work side-by-side with Brad.”
According to the foundation’s 2022 Form 990, the organization had assets of $227 million, expenses of about $1.5 million, and distributed $15.3 million. Clark’s salary was $352,509.
In a follow-up message, Kendell stated that she wanted to check with the foundation board to see if it was comfortable with her releasing her salary information, which she stated was not a problem for her. She is currently out of the country on vacation, as she shared on Facebook.
Exhibit pays tribute to artist Bolingbroke
A new exhibit opening this week showcases the work of Richard Bolingbroke, a gay man and artist who died December 28, 2024. “Cycles of Life” celebrates the life and work of Bolingbroke, with an opening reception Friday, April 18, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Paul Mahder Gallery, 222 Healdsburg Avenue, in Healdsburg.
Mr. Bolingbroke lived in the North Bay and maintained a studio in San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard.
The gallery noted in a news release that the exhibit pays tribute to Mr. Bolingbroke’s watercolor years of intense colored still-lifes and mandalas that reflect on the “cycles of life.”
One of Mr. Bolingbroke’s other projects was assisting transgender queer artist Craig Calderwood with their huge murals for Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport, as the B.A.R. noted in an article last year.
To read Mr. Bolingbroke’s obituary go to www.ebar.com/story/337760/redirect
SF small business workshop
The City and County of San Francisco is hosting a free workshop designed for small businesses that would like to contract with the city. The workshop will be held Wednesday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 49 South Van Ness Avenue.
A news release noted that attendees will
learn about the steps to becoming a city contractor, key terminology that the city uses, and essential compliance requirements for small businesses. Participants will also have the chance to connect with city departments for hands-on support with the contractor registration process.
For more information, go to sf.gov/ smallbizworkshop2025.
To register, go to https://tinyurl. com/35jrt5n9.
East Bay LGBTQ town hall
Indivisible East Bay will hold an LGBTQ+ town hall Saturday, April 26, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Tarea Hall Pittman/ South Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1901 Russell Street, near the Ashby BART Station. Organizers said that allies are welcome. The event is free.
Titled “Courage in Chaos,” the town hall will feature opening readings by Achy Obejas, Gar Russell, Sam Duffy, and Lucy Jane Bledsoe. Afterward, people can share and mobilize as they create community, an announcement noted.
The event is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Public Li brary. For more information and to sign up, go to https:// tinyurl.com/bddeunyw
learned that “a number of other organizations doing work for communities under threat, under heightened threat, felt even with the modest changes I was proposing that they were still made more vulnerable to harassment and violence.”
In particular consultation with the community of people helping victims of domestic violence, some changes were made, such as changing the standard for “redaction of information to avoid personal harm” to redaction of information “that may compromise personal safety,” as the initial legislation stated.
A personal privacy redaction justification had been introduced in 2023, stating that redactions were possible when disclosure would violate laws about personal privacy, which came at the same time the reports started to be published online. Reporting requirements were first introduced in 1981.
Supes pass nonprofit redaction legislation
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation April 15 to amend the administrative code to permit the redaction of information required to be released by the city about nonprofits.
The legislation had undergone some changes from when it was first introduced in late December, according to board President Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who represents District 8. Mandelman told the supervisors’ rules committee March 24 that the legislation had been intended for LGBTQ organizations that might be targeted by violence, but in the process he
Another change was putting a minimum threshold of $1 million in annual funding – the same as the federal audit standard. Much of the information that can’t be disclosed in the new legislation is disclosed “in various forms” anyway, Mandelman conceded, but “we just won’t make it all super easily available.”
During that meeting, Beverly Upton, the executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, thanked Mandelman’s staff for working on the issue.
“As we all know, San Francisco is being watched very closely, and domestic violence survivors are used to being watched very closely,” Upton said. “We just want to make sure we keep people as safe as possible, and this will help us do that.”
The amendments were accepted March 24, and the legislation was forwarded to the full board April 7. It will have to be voted on again April 22. t
John Ferrannini contributed reporting.
Kate Kendell will become CEO of the Gill Foundation in May.
Courtesy Gill Foundation
NIH axes HIV research funding
by Liz Highleyman
The Trump administration continues to make cuts that threaten people living with, or at risk for, HIV and sexually transmitted infections, including cancellation of National Institutes of Health research grants. Scientists who lost funding and advocates have filed a lawsuit challenging the cuts.
“Over 400 NIH grants have been terminated since [President Donald] Trump took office, with an intensification over the past two weeks,” Dr. Monica Gandhi, medical director of the Ward 86 HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, told the Bay Area Reporter. “Many of these grants involve HIV research, since the stated reason [for cancellation] is diversity, transgender research or even sexual minority research – all topics disproportionally represented in HIV research.”
NIH is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and other federal health agencies. Without a formal announcement of the cuts from NIH or DHHS, journalists and advocates have had to rely on reports from defunded researchers and sporadically updated government listings. The Washington Post estimates that total NIH funding has fallen by more than $3 billion compared with the amount issued during the same period last year.
world that allows me to fight injustice every day.”
Reached for comment via phone April 15, after Ford’s statement was released, Jones had no further comment.
As the B.A.R. first reported April 11, Jones, who co-founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Murray Ramirez, a San Diego-based gay activist who, as the Queen Mother I of the Americas and Nicole the Great, is the titular head of the Imperial Court system, had asked Pride organizations across the country to name Hernández Romero, 31, an honorary grand marshal.
Hernández Romero was featured on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on April 6. He was one of 238 Venezuelan migrants flown to the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in El Salvador several weeks ago after the Trump administration made an agreement with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele to house them there. Human Rights Watch reports that the prison is the site of human rights abuses. Hernández Romero had been detained in a San Diego immigration jail since last year, when he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to attend a pre-arranged asylum hearing in the Southern California city, the Daily Mail reported.
Jones told the B.A.R. on April 11 that Ford told him, “There was pushback about grand marshal being used that way.” Ford had issued a statement to the B.A.R. April 10 decrying the treatment of Hernández Romero in response to a B.A.R. question about if Pride would be open to naming him an honorary grand marshal. According to Jones, she told him she hoped the statement helped.
“I am very disappointed that SF Pride has chosen to take no substantive action to try to save this man’s life,” Jones previously said. “It’s shameful and sad.”
Ford did not return an April 11 phone call after Jones’ statement.
But she did post on Facebook that day, seemingly referring to the issue.
“I am fucking exhausted,” she wrote.
“The outrage that we have the audacity to not agree with someone’s preferred method of protest. Where was all of your methods and outrage when trans people were being killed? Will anyone be calling me tonight telling me how to resond [sic] to that? It is time that we quit cancelling each other over how we choose
Even without knowing the full scope of the cuts, it’s clear that HIV and STI research has been heavily impacted as the federal government implements new DHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s desired shift from infectious diseases to chronic health conditions.
Many grants were canceled as part of the administration’s push to eliminate “gender ideology” and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). HIV disproportionately affects gay and bisexual men, transgender people, Black and Latino people, and people who use drugs, so much of the HIV research focuses on these populations.
In addition, grants awarded to specific universities have been canceled across the board, including Columbia, due to its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, and the University of Pennsylvania, because it allowed transgender swim-
to fight. It is enough that we agree on what we are fighting. This division does nothing for anyone.”
Reached for comment by phone April 11, Murray Ramirez responded, “Are you kidding me?”
“I think with San Francisco being, like, the gay capital of the world, it’s just a disappointment.”
Murray Ramirez said, “I’m very disappointed and hurt, to be honest.”
Murray Ramirez said other Pride organizations may be signing on to their request as early as this week.
Response has been “very positive,” but, “I respect they have procedures and all that,” Murray Ramirez said.
Hernández Romero has received support from state political leaders.
The Los Angeles Times reported April 10 that Governor Gavin Newsom had sent a letter requesting that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem bring Hernández Romero to the U.S. for a judge to evaluate his case.
The San Francisco Democratic Party is expected to discuss and possibly act on a resolution at its April 23 meeting.
Gays Without Borders held a rally outside the Salvadoran Consulate in San Francisco last Saturday in support of Hernández Romero.
Trump ‘all for’ deporting Americans to El Salvador, he says
The detention issue comes as the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled April 10 that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of another immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom it conceded was deported by mistake. The Trump administration nonetheless argued in court that because he was no longer in U.S. custody, the judicial system could not order his return.
Abrego Garcia also had not been charged or convicted of a crime and is married to an American citizen. He also had a permit from the Department of Homeland Security to legally work in the country.
The justices also ruled that the administration “be prepared to share” the efforts it’s been ordered to make to return Abrego Garcia. The Supreme Court’s ruling sent the matter back to Judge Paula Xinis, a Maryland federal district court judge, who ordered that the government had to issue a release plan for Abrego Garcia by 6:30 a.m. Pacific time April 11. Xinis later ex-
mer Lia Thomas to compete in women’s sports. Funding for research in South Africa, the country with the highest number of HIV cases, is also under fire.
6 UCSF grants terminated
Six NIH grants to UCSF have been terminated so far, according to Gandhi. She also noted that the notice of award for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group – the major funder of HIV research worldwide – has been delayed. Funding for the HIV Prevention Trials Network and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network has also been suspended, STAT reported this week.
“In the history of the NIH, it is rare to terminate grants, and they are only terminated if there is fraud or any other demonstrated abnormality,” Gandhi said. “These cuts will have a negative effect on our ability to prevent HIV, to prevent sexually transmitted infections through the highly successful strategy of doxyPEP, and to help address important topics in HIV. I hope these terminated grants are refunded and these policies affecting LGBTQ+ health especially are reversed.”
In March, the NIH canceled $18 million in funding for the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Intervention, which aims to prevent and treat HIV in adolescents and young adults. One of the largest single grants on the chopping block funds a study of HIV prevention and hepatitis C care for people who use drugs, coordinated by Columbia. The Fenway Institute in Bos-
tended the deadline to 8:30 a.m. but denied a government motion to push it to Wednesday. (Xinis was appointed by former President Barack Obama.)
WUSA-TV reported that an hour after the deadline the justice department stated, “Defendants are unable to provide the information requested by the Court on the impracticable deadline set by the Court hours after the Supreme Court issued its order.” In court Friday, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew C. Ensign stated that the department would be able to respond by April 15.
In a court filing April 13, Evan C. Katz, the assistant director of enforcement and removal operations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stated the government’s contention that “Although Abrego Garcia has an order of removal issued by an immigration judge, I understand that he should not have been removed to El Salvador because the immigration judge had also granted Abrego Garcia withholding of removal to El Salvador. However, I also understand that Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
(Abrego Garcia was accused of being a gang member in 2019, which led to an arrest while he was working as a day laborer; however, he was not charged.)
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a motion in response April 15, charging the government with ignoring the Supreme Court’s order.
“The government contends that the term ‘facilitate’ is limited to ‘remov[ing] any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here,’” the motion states. “Not so. The Supreme Court ordered the government ‘to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.’ That order is rendered null if construed solely to require removing ‘domestic obstacles.’ To give any meaning to the Supreme Court’s order, the government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia. To date, the government has not done so.”
It would seem that’s the president’s intention based on his public statements April 14. Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele was visiting the White House, and said he won’t be returning Abrego Garcia. Nobody has ever been released
ton, which focuses on LGBTQ health and HIV, reportedly lost five NIH grants in one day. Funding for several studies of doxyPEP– taking a single dose of doxycycline after sex to prevent gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis – have also been axed.
About 7% of the NIH budget is devoted to HIV, a disproportionate share of funding given that less than 1% of the U.S. population is living with the virus. But funding for HIV research has paid off in advances for other diseases. The rapid development of COVID vaccines, for example, was possible thanks to HIV immunology and vaccine research.
“I’ve been involved in HIV research since 1993, and NIH has been very generous to us,” Dr. Steven Deeks of UCSF said at a March 10 “Save Our Sciences” rally coinciding with the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held this year in San Francisco. “We collectively have received billions of dollars over the decades, and everybody in the United States who contributed as taxpayers to NIH needs to know that the return on the investment goes well beyond HIV.”
HIV Medicine Association chair Dr. Colleen Kelley made a similar argument for continued HIV funding.
“The National Institutes of Health’s abrupt termination of hundreds of HIV research grants threatens to halt decades of progress,” Kelley said in a statement.
“The return on investment in HIV research goes well beyond HIV with the discoveries laying the foundation for cu-
from the CECOT, nor does the government of El Salvador have plans to do so.
“How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States?” he said. “The question is preposterous.”
Trump, on the other hand, contradicted the Justice Department’s earlier admission that Abrego Garcia was deported by mistake. He also floated the idea of sending U.S. citizens to CECOT.
“The homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places,” Trump said to Bukele. “It’s not big enough.”
Asked by reporters, Trump said he would deport Americans to El Salvador.
“I’m all for it,” he said. “Because we can do things with [Bukele] for less money and have great security. And we have a huge prison population, we have a huge number of prisons, and then we have the private prisons, and some are operated as well I guess and some aren’t.”
In a court hearing April 15, Xinis said “what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing,” to bring back Abrego Garcia. Trump administration officials may be forced to testify under oath on the matter, Politico reported.
“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” the judge said, according to Politico. “There are no business hours while we do this. … Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments. I’m usually pretty good about things like that in my court, but not this time. So, I expect all hands on deck.”
Speaking on the Abrego Garcia case, Murray Ramirez said, “The other man, who is married, he’s getting a lot of attention, and rightfully so. But people forget real quick. This situation is unlike any. I understand why his family fears for his life. We’re not gonna forget.”
The Trump administration is using a novel interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as its legal basis, as its presidential powers had in the past only been thought to apply in wartime.
The high court ruled earlier this week that the act can be used to deport Venezuelan migrants, but that they must have “reasonable time” to get a court hearing beforehand. It did not rule on the flights that already transported the migrants to El Salvador, such as the one Hernandez Romero was on.
The B.A.R. reached out April 9 to organizations that are producing upcoming Pride festivities in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, New York City, Chicago, and Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. Only San Francisco
rative therapies for hepatitis C and treatments for cancer. Turning our back on HIV research – before we have reached all who need it with HIV treatment or prevention and discovered a cure – will leave us all more vulnerable to HIV and other infectious diseases and have serious consequences for global health security here at home and around the world.”
The depth of the cuts has left researchers and advocates both concerned and somewhat surprised, as they seem contrary to the goals of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative, which Trump himself launched during his first term.
Lawsuit
On April 2, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit aiming to halt the grant cancellations on behalf of the American Public Health Association, unions representing scientists, and individual researchers who lost funding. The plaintiffs argue that the NIH actions are part of an “ideological purge” and a violation of the First Amendment.
“The NIH’s efforts to shut down research that so much as references LGBTQ people or racial minorities is a direct attack on public health,” Olga Akselrod, senior counsel for the ACLU Racial Justice Program, said in a statement.
“By censoring studies that include these populations, they are also undermining critical research on cancer, HIV, and Alzheimer’s – diseases that affect us all.” t
Pride returned the abovementioned comment.
SF Dems to vote on resolution
Michael Nguyen, a gay man who is on the San Francisco Democratic Party County Central Committee (the governing body of the local party) plans to introduce a resolution condemning the extrajudicial deportations at its April 23 meeting.
“Fifty years ago this month, my parents escaped an oppressive regime known for disappearing dissidents,” Nguyen stated, referring to the communist government of Vietnam. “I am heartbroken that lawful immigrants have been similarly detained, disappeared and deported. We must use whatever power and platform we have to fight for our rights under the Constitution, which includes due process and the freedom to speak out against this lawlessness.”
The Trump administration alleged that the migrants are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. (CBS News could not find U.S. criminal records in 75% of the cases.)
In Hernández Romero’s case, the government argued in court that crown tattoos he had were evidence of gang affiliation. Hernández Romero has a crown tattoo on each wrist, with the words “Mom” and “Dad.” His hometown of Capacho in Venezuela is known for its celebration of Epiphany, the Christian holy day when three wise men visited Jesus Christ.
Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger told CBS News that he was at the prison site when the migrants arrived, and that he heard a young man say, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist.” He was crying for his mother while he was slapped and had his head shaved, Holsinger continued.
Hernández Romero left Venezuela in May 2024, citing his political views and homosexuality as reasons to seek asylum. Venezuela is run by a dictator, Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. contends illegally claimed the presidency of the country after losing an election.
The B.A.R. reached out to Hernández Romero’s attorneys but has not heard back. They contend their client is innocent and that it’s illegal for the U.S. government to deport anyone to a foreign prison. t
Dr. Monica Gandhi said that hundreds of NIH grants have been canceled.
Liz Highleyman
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We must all advocate for Andry’s release
Gay makeup artist Andry Jose Hernández Romero sits in a notorious prison in El Salvador for no good reason. He was one of 238 Venezuelan migrants flown to the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in El Salvador about four weeks ago after the Trump administration made an agreement with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele to house them there. Hernández Romero had been in a detention facility in San Diego, where he was awaiting a pre-arranged asylum hearing.
Yet, it is increasingly likely that Hernández Romero will remain in CECOT for the foreseeable future even though he has committed no crime in the U.S. and had followed the steps to seek asylum. Bukele, the dictator who rules El Salvador, met with President Donald Trump on Monday and flatly said he could not release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully deported and is now at CECOT as Trump just sat and smiled. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. Trump and Pam Bondi, his attorney general, are flagrantly disregarding the high court. While flouting the rule of law has long been a Trump trademark, the current situation of ignoring due process is taking things to a whole new level.
Gay Congressmember Ritchie Torres (D-New York) summed it up well during an interview on CNN. “Of all the abuses of Donald Trump’s presidency, there is no greater threat to liberty than his complete contempt for due process,” Torres said. “Without due process, what stops Donald Trump from wrongfully labeling any American as a noncitizen gang member and abducting them?”
And that’s the point that Trump himself mused about on Monday, urging Bukele to build more prisons and musing he would like to send U.S. citizens to them. LGBTQ people, particularly trans Americans, are rightfully wary as Trump has shown no limit to the chaos he will cause, whether one is a U.S. citizen or not. He is ignoring court orders, even from the Supreme Court, to which he appointed three mem-
bers, cementing a conservative majority. We are seeing the start of an authoritarian presidency before our very eyes.
SF Pride’s misstep It is important for Hernández Romero’s plight to remain front and center. Hernández Romero had his story told on a recent “60 Minutes” episode, bringing nationwide attention to his case. Of the hundreds of migrants flown to El Salvador by the U.S. government, Hernández Romero and Abrego Garcia are two of the well-known examples of Trump’s blatant disregard for due process.
Recently, there were calls from gay longtime activists Cleve Jones and Nicole Murray Ramirez to have Hernández Romero recognized as an honorary grand marshal at Pride parades across the U.S. this year. Unfortunately, San Francisco Pride has declined to recognize Hernández Romero in this way. Had it done so, it would have significantly amplified the issue at one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world and in a city that is a beacon for LGBTQ people. SF Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford, a transgender woman, issued a statement Tuesday calling for Hernández Romero’s release and indicating that the organization will highlight Hernández Romero and migrant issues at its Pride Summit that takes place a few days before Pride weekend. While this is important, we will note that at last year’s summit, the biggest global issue of the day – the Israel-Hamas war and the LGBTQ community’s differing opinions of it – wasn’t discussed at all. Here’s hoping this year’s summit will be an improvement.
SF Pride typically has numerous community and honorary grand marshals each year. We continue to believe that Hernández Romero’s inclusion would have been a net positive for keeping the spotlight on his case and SF Pride’s advocacy work for our community. Sort of like how in 2016, just weeks after the tragic Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, the parade featured a contingent in honor of the vic-
tims, mostly LGBTQ Latinos. We would also be remiss if we did not again acknowledge the terrible time it is now for trans Americans, many of whom are fearful due to Trump’s executive orders demeaning them, stripping them of rights, and seeking to take away access to health care, among other major issues. We, as a community, can and do advocate both for Hernández Romero’s return to the U.S. to complete the asylum process and for the trans community, including those lost to violence this year. It is not the either-or proposition that some make it out to be. It’s worth noting that continuing to publicize Hernández Romero’s case may be one of the few ways to prod U.S. and Salvadoran leaders. Already, California Governor Gavin Newsom has sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requesting Hernández Romero’s return to the U.S. so that his case can be examined. The Human Rights Campaign has started a petition. At its April 23 meeting, the San Francisco Democratic Party will take up for discussion and possible action a resolution condemning the deportation of Hernández Romero and all the other extrajudicial deportations by the Trump administration. Gay San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee member Michael Nguyen is the author. Attendees at last weekend’s People’s March carried signs calling for Hernández Romero to be released. Gays Without Borders has held vigils outside the Salvadoran Consulate in San Francisco, with another one planned for Thursday at 3 p.m.
It’s critical to keep up that pressure. Since SF Pride won’t formally recognize Hernández Romero, contingents in the parade should make their own placards and signs calling for his release. They can take to the streets in solidarity with migrants like Hernández Romero, who came to the U.S. to seek a better life, only to be carted off to a horrible prison in a foreign country without due process. The U.S. should be better than that. But with Trump at the helm, the country is drifting further into the abyss. t
Scary times call for resolve
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
I
’ll admit, you likely don’t need me to tell you how scary these times are. That goes double if you are trans.
The United States government, now largely an authoritarian body, has set its sights on, among many others, transgender people. The Department of Defense under Secretary Pete Hegseth, in part thwarted by the judiciary, continues to find new, creative ways to purge trans people from the ranks.
Likewise, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is making bold moves to halt transgender health care.
Not to be outdone, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in addition to attempting to demolish the whole department, has also reversed earlier guidance on Title IX, seeking to prevent trans students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity and using facilities such as locker rooms. This is leading to a showdown in Maine, where schools in the Pine Tree State may lose all federal funding due to a single transgender girl on the Greely High School track team.
Likewise, the Trump administration has pulled funding from Maine prisons as well, and has said that the state will not be the last to lose such funding if it doesn’t start housing trans women in men’s prisons. In February, a judge blocked the administration’s attempt to transfer four other trans women to men’s facilities.
That sinking feeling in my tummy tells me that this is far from the worst transgender people will see from this administration.
Meanwhile, the states themselves continue to attack transgender people, with 851 bills filed in 49 states. Sixty-four of those have already passed. This compares to 674 bills over all of 2024, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker at translegislation. com. https://translegislation.com
All of this is having ripples throughout the culture, as some people step away from supporting transgender people, preferring a safer route that allows them to retain funding and avoid other negative actions from the administration.
Perhaps, we’re also seeing true colors appear as some feel they can now stop having to be vocally supportive of transgender people, among other minority groups. Certainly, many are emboldened to lash out at trans rights in part due to this administration.
Yet, in the midst of this, transgender people are still coming out.
I’m not going to tell you that we’re thriving out here. This is most likely the hardest road the community has been down in a long while. Every transgender person I know is, at best, hunkered down, keeping a weather eye on the ho rizon.
For example, I know that many trans folks – myself very much included – are stockpiling our hormone pre scriptions, even cutting back on our dosages to try and build a supply of medications we can tap into in times of need. Others are sharing methods to gain such illicitly, or home brewing their own as needed.
across the political spectrum, see that as an obvious response to such a dangerous time. It probably seems deceptively easy.
Yet, for a vast majority of the trans community – those just starting out and others who have been here for a long, long time – this is no option. If anything, it speaks to the obvious error in how many view transgender people.
I’ve written about this before. I firmly believe that when a non-transgender person ponders why someone who is trans might transition, it’s because they are somehow forced to do so, or they might be doing this to illicitly gain something. It’s viewed through the framing of a disguise. This permeates pop culture – we’ve all seen movies like “Mrs. Doubtfire” or “Some Like It Hot” – but that remains the notion of why a trans person might exist.
The arguments of this administration are that we are deceptive and dishonest, that we are only to be viewed as our birth gender and – in the case of trans women – that we are a clear threat against other women and girls.
We’re being cautious about travel, out of fear of precious identity documents being voided by this administration. Meanwhile, many others have uprooted their lives, moving to states that may be safer in the short term, or migrating out of the country altogether.
I would also be lying if I didn’t say that some have not made it. Dark times can cause dark thoughts, and some have succumbed to the same.
Yet many more of us, even in these bleak times, continue to survive as best we can.
There’s one supposed option I haven’t mentioned, and that is simply not transitioning or, if one already has, halting a transitioning. Certainly, in these times, why would one want to be transgender?
I feel that many non-transgender people,
The thing is, the framing placed upon transgender people from those who are not transgender is wholly incorrect. We are not our birth gender, and spent a lot of time reaching that realization. Our transition is not deceptive. If anything, it is a pure truth far beyond what many may ever experience. We are showing you exactly who we are.
Those of us who are transgender today have no more ability not to be transgender than Dora Richter and others who navigated their transitions in the shadow of nascent Nazi Germany. We stand in the shadows of those who navigated a time before modern care, such as Michael Dillon, who had the first phalloplasty, or Christine Jorgensen, who pushed the atomic bomb off the front page with her transition in 1952.
Like them, our time is now, and we can’t choose the optimal moment any more than we could choose to continue to live in the wrong gender. No amount of repression and animus stops us from being ourselves. t
Gwen Smith simply is herself. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com
Christine Smith
Andry Jose Hernández Romero
From HRC
Commissioners criticize SF ethics fines
by Matthew S. Bajko
Two San Francisco commissioners facing ethics fines for missing required trainings are criticizing the financial penalties they are being levied as volunteers on their oversight bodies. Both contend city staff did not do enough to inform them they were in violation of ethic codes.
Gay Human Rights Commissioner Mark Kelleher, who has served on his panel since December 2010, didn’t file his required annual ethics training certificates and sunshine ordinance declarations for 2022, 2023, and 2024. He failed to do so even after the Ethics Commission said it had sent him notifications each year that he was out of compliance with the filing requirements.
According to a report by the Ethics Commission’s compliance staff, Kelleher voted 27 times on HRC matters that he should not have, including approving on consent eight grants totaling $1.68 million for the city’s Dream Keeper Initiative, the scandal-plagued program that factored into the resignation of former HRC director Sheryl Davis. None of his votes were on matters that involved a financial conflict of interest, the ethics staff noted in its report.
Kelleher, the husband of gay San Francisco Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros, had agreed to pay a $2,500 fine in order to settle the matter. Last October, he completed the required trainings and came into compliance by filing his required certificates after being contacted by Ethics Commission investigators as part of their investigation, according to the staff report.
Ovava Afuhaamango, a member of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board since January 2022, was found not to have complied with the training and filing requirements last year. According to an ethics staff report, it resulted in her voting on 12 agenda items that she should not have; like Kelleher, none of Afuhaamango’s votes involved a financial conflict of interest.
codes and requirements. In response, ethics staff noted the secretaries have an obligation to announce at the start of meetings if any commissioners are disqualified from participating.
As they’re not doing so has been raised in various investigations taken up by the ethics staff, the agency is looking at the issue.
Comparing the fines ethics staff have imposed in settlements with others making the same error as Kelleher, such as the amount Afuhaamango must pay for one missed training, Feng questioned why Kelleher isn’t being levied a higher fine.
“It does seem, given you can give a penalty up to $5,000 or three times the amount, this seems very low,” said Feng.
“panicked” phone calls, emails and texts over the last day from other city commissioners worried they, too, could face steep fines because they “inadvertently” had fallen out of compliance.
“I believe these fines are pretty heavyhanded,” said Sutton. “It is important to remember these are volunteer commissioners” who are “law abiding people” and not “flaunting the law because they don’t want to comply. It is completely the opposite.”
William Walker, a gay former community college board candidate, is facing as-yet-to-be determined ethics fines for six campaign violations he is accused of making during his bid for public office, according to a staff memo on the matter. He has refused to agree to a settlement, contending he doesn’t feel he has been treated fairly by ethics staff.
The Ethics Commission deferment to using emails to correspond with people it is investigating is also problematic, argued Walker and Sutton, as they can be easily missed and go unread. Walker is asking to also receive in the mail correspondence related to his ethics investigation, as he contended that his emailed replies can also go unread by ethics staff.
“If we are engaging with these departments, and no one is responding to us, we should not have the book thrown at us,” argued Walker.
While the commissioners approved moving forward on three matters related to Walker’s investigation, it delayed voting on three others to its next meeting.
She agreed to pay a $1,000 penalty as part of her settlement agreement with the Ethics Commission staff. Yet, at the April 11 meeting of the Ethics Commission, Afuhaamango decried the amount she is being fined.
Unable to reach the commission by phone during the discussion and vote on her fine, which the commissioners approved 4-0 with the body’s vice chair absent, Afuhaamango showed up in person and spoke during public comment on another matter. She noted that city commissioners are “taking time off of our day jobs” to provide their service and that her missed training and filing deadline last year was her first offense over her four years on the oversight board.
“A $1,000 fine is ridiculous. It is crazy,” said Afuhaamango.
Kelleher did not attend or call in to the hearing. The ethics commissioners ended up tabling his settlement, as they felt his fine should be higher for his infractions.
Kevin Yeh, a city attorney appointee on the Ethics Commission, said he found it “egregious” that Kelleher missed three yearly filing requirements in a row and no one at the HRC flagged his being out of compliance and shouldn’t have taken part in the 24 meetings that he did. He expressed disbelief that “that body did not seem to put a stop to this.”
Ethics Commission Executive Director Pat Ford, named to the position last year after first being hired as a staffer in 2017, responded, “I don’t disagree.”
Commission Chair Argemira Flórez Feng, the assessor-recorder appointee on the body, agreed with Yeh and questioned what responsibility the secretaries of the city’s various oversight panels have in notifying commissioners they are not in compliance with ethics
Noting the length of time that Kelleher has served on the HRC, thus he should be aware of his ethics requirements, and that there was nothing in the staff report to indicate he wasn’t receiving his reminder notices, Yeh said, “this seems pretty egregious to me” and moved to have staff renegotiate its settlement with Kelleher. The motion was approved 3-1 with gay ethics commissioner David Tsai, appointed by the city attorney, voting no.
Reached by the Bay Area Reporter immediately after the meeting, Kelleher at first said he couldn’t comment since it was the first he was learning about the commission’s decision. He later sent the B.A.R. a statement in which he expressed befuddlement at its rejection of his agreed upon settlement and noted his missing the trainings and filings were inadvertent.
“Although I am not yet certain why the Ethics Commission tabled the recommended fine, they may be responding to questions raised at the meeting about whether these fines are too high for inadvertent omissions by volunteer commissioners,” stated Kelleher. “I have always filed my Form 700 on time each year and have always made sure that there are no conflicts of interest through my voluntary service as a San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner. Likewise, I have completed many of the Ethics Commission training webinars over the years, only inadvertently missing a few.”
Kelleher added that, “HRC staff did not inform me that I should not vote on commission agenda items after missing a training webinar. As a public servant, I take our work on the HRC commission very seriously, including my own ethical and good governance responsibilities. I look forward to working with the Ethics Commission to resolve this.”
Speaking at the Ethics Commission meeting Ruton & Tucker LLP partner Jim Sutton, a leading political and election law attorney in California, lambasted the high amounts being levied against city commissioners, whom he stressed are volunteers and not city employees.
Noting he was not representing Kelleher in his matter, Sutton said he had received
In a news release issued after the meeting, the Ethics Commission noted, “It is essential that public employees and officials complete the annual Ethics and Sunshine Training to ensure that they are consistently reminded of the requirements of the ethics rules and the Sunshine Ordinance, as well as to help enhance their understanding of these rules. Additionally, failing to complete the trainings and file the relevant forms disqualifies a Commissioner or Board Member from participating in and voting on matters agendized before their Commission or Board.”
It added that the rule exists “to ensure that if an official has not undergone training in ethics rules and the Sunshine Ordinance as required, they will not par ticipate in government decisions during the time that their trainings remain out standing.”
Kinksters diss
gay SF supe Dorsey
Gay District 6 San Francisco Super visor Matt Dorsey is one step closer toward his self-professed desire to be the Susan Lucci of the Golden Dildeaux Awards. He got spanked by kinksters in the “Best Impact Player-Bottom” catego ry, coming in seventh place out of eight contestants.
The annual awards are voted on by the public, with each vote cast costing $1. The funds raised benefit the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District, which took over management of the Woodys, as the statues given to award winners are called, three years ago. The 2025 awards far surpassed the $15,000 raised last year, netting the district a record $19,540.
“We are quite happy about it. We are very excited,” said Bob Goldfarb, a gay man who is executive director of the district based in western South of Market. “It is certainly a record since we have been doing it. We believe it may be an all-time record.”
The late gay B.A.R. leather columnist Marcus Hernandez known as “Mister Marcus” had launched the awards in 1971. They honor various members of the local kink and leather scene in a variety of categories, with gay politico Scott Wiener the lone sitting supervisor to win a Woody in the last two decades. Currently a state senator, the Democratic lawmaker took home the “Has Not Had Sex in Recent Memory...(The ‘Winter Sleep’ Award)” in 2015.
San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner Mark Kelleher faces an ethics fine for missing required trainings.
Drew Altizer Photography
Of course, the festivities wouldn’t be complete without the Easter bonnet, Foxy Mary, and Hunky Jesus competitions. (The Hunky Jesus portion starts at about 3 p.m., according to a news release, and the event wraps at 4.)
“Some people spend months preparing for these contests,” Roma pointed out.
The highlight of the Easter event means it hasn’t been without controversy – in 1999, on its 20th anniversary, the Sisters went big and closed down Castro Street for a block party that was met with strong resistance from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which fought to have the street closure denied.
That led to gay then-Board of Supervisors president Tom Ammiano’s famous “walk a mile in my pumps” comment to then-fellow supervisor Alicia Becerril during a heated board meeting held in the South of Market neighborhood where the street closure was approved on a vote of 9-2.
But these days, Easter in the Park has become a beloved sign spring has sprung in the city: the social event of the season, as shirts finally come off in the park after gloomy winters.
“This has honestly become one of the most anticipated annual events in San Francisco,” Roma said. “People just love Easter in the Park with the Sisters and, honestly, I cannot think of an event that exudes more joy, creativity, and celebration than this really special day. It’s absolutely beautiful to witness. You’ve seen how many people come to the park. It’s just insane – thousands.”
Anyone can volunteer to help out at https://www.thesisters.org/volunteer.
<< People’s March
From page 1
People were also enraged by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has deported hundreds of people without due process, including people who were in the United States legally, such as Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and gay makeup artist Andry Jose Hernández Romero, who had been in a detention facility in San Diego awaiting a pre-arranged asylum hearing when he was whisked away to a Salvadoran prison. (Politico reported that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office Monday he would not return Abrego Garcia, whom the U.S. government admits was mistakenly deported, dimming the hopes of seeing Hernández Romero released.)
“How can I return him to the United States? Am I going to smuggle him? Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said while sitting beside Trump. “The question is preposterous.” (The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the Trump administration needs to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.)
At the People’s March, a number of people were holding up signs that read, “Free Andry,” and “Bring Andry Home,” referring to Hernández Romero. Concern is that Hernández Romero’s life is in danger for as long as he remains in the prison. An effort to see Pride organizations across the U.S. name Hernández Romero an honorary grand marshal to keep the issue in the minds of people and the media has been met so far with muted reaction, except in San Francisco, where Suzanne Ford, the executive director of SF Pride, last week declined the request made by longtime gay rights icons Cleve Jones and Nicole Murray Ramirez.
Attendees at the march supported Hernández Romero.
“I’m here against my will,” said Blair Camp, a 74-year-old gay man. “I did this in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and I never thought we’d have to do this again.
Free Andry!”
The People’s March, which included speeches, chanting, and a march up Market Street, was organized by well-known drag activists Alex U. Inn and Juanita MORE! The two founded the People’s March that occurs during Pride Month in 2020 and expanded the march’s brand
Easter meal, bunny hopping, and more
The Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, which meets at St. Mary’s Chapel of Trinity-St. Peter’s Episcopal Church at 1620 Gough Street, will be walking down to Pistachio Kitchen at 1535 Franklin Street, after its Sunday service “IN OUR EASTER BONNETS” for brunch, according to an email. (The LGBTQ-affirming church service starts at 9 a.m. April 20.)
“In order that all may join us, the church will pay for the meal on one ticket and ask members to contribute what they can to offset the cost of the meal. We will collect cash at the brunch for this purpose,” the email states. For those who want to supplement
for the pro-democracy event. (An LGBTQ-themed People’s March is planned for June 22, Inn and MORE! said in promoting the democracy event.)
“When we organized the first People’s March in 2020 we knew we had to represent people of color,” MORE! told the Bay Area Reporter as the crowd was gathering. “That was the year of the George Floyd killing and COVID. Everyone had anxiety doing the march then. It feels just as important today, especially with everything that’s happening with our government. It’s going to feel really good today to have everyone who feels as I do be together.”
There was a program of speakers before the march, but before that began, drag artist Landa Lakes led the crowd in an invocation acknowledging the Native people who lived here before the settlers came.
More than a protest
MORE! explained that the march was more than simply a protest.
“Today we are not just gathering in protest, we are also gathering in love,” said MORE! as she addressed the crowd.
“These are people that love all of us and each of us for who we are. That is most important. Thank you for being with us today, I appreciate it very much.”
The next speaker was Don Romesburg, a gay man who’s a professor of women and gender studies at Sonoma State University. Romesburg said he was being fired because the university is eliminating the LGBTQ studies and women’s studies departments. He spoke of how LGBTQ people were being erased by the Trump administration, including the removal of the words “transgender” and “queer” from the Stonewall National Monument’s web page.
“It’s easy to feel powerless, but I’m here to tell you, fight back,” he said. “Take action to preserve queer and trans knowledge not just for our community but for everyone. Everyone deserves a full education, including an education of LGBTQ+ histories. Fight for free and open public libraries, and go to savewgs. com and write to California’s legislatures and demand that they preserve LGBTQ inclusive K-12 and college education. California must be the model for the rest of the United States. Tell our politicians to stand up, tell our governor who has abandoned our community to stand
their religious services this weekend, or aren’t participating in them, there are plenty of other options, including Tenderloin Tessie’s free Easter dinner at the First Unitarian Church at 1187 Franklin Street, from 1 to 4 p.m. April 20.
The dinner will include live entertainment by a bluegrass band, free haircuts by pop-up barber shop LoveCuts, a free gift bag, free clothing from St. Anthony’s Foundation, free pictures with the Easter bunny, and of course, candy.
There are volunteer shifts available noon to 4:30 p.m. April 19, and 10:30 a.m. to noon April 22, for truck workers; and 9 a.m. to noon, noon to 4 p.m., and 3 to 6 p.m. April 20. Volunteers must show proof of vaccination and an ID, according to Tenderloin Tessie board president
up. And finally, create queer and trans knowledge as widely as you can.”
The crowd applauded and cheered Romesburg’s words.
The crowd also heard from Aida, a 10-year-old Black girl who said that she doesn’t understand why people are so mean to each other, as well as why health care is being taken away from people, and why innocent people are being arrested and deported.
“I want to tell everyone that being kind is important,” she said. “I want to say that everyone deserves to be safe and happy. I want to tell everyone that we need to celebrate each other’s differences and work together for a better world.”
Former District 3 supervisor Aaron Peskin also spoke. Peskin, a straight ally, reminded people that silence equals death, referring to the battle cry of ACT UP, the AIDS activist organization that was active in the 1980s and 1990s and which still exists.
The next speaker was Xochitl, an immigrant activist and drag artist.
“I am the illegal alien that is taking your jobs,” Xochitl said. “I am the dreamer taking your taxes. I am the undocumented immigrant that’s draining your economy. And America, I am the drag queen that’s turning your kids gay. I am who you’re supposed to be scared of. I am the reason you can’t afford your rent. I am the reason your life is too expensive. America, you have been fed a lie. The political and economic elite are distracting you, they’re blaming me, while they run off, play tennis and run off with the country’s wealth. Wealth and income inequality are the biggest threats in our lifetime. Not immigrants. Not drag queens.”
Xochitl then called on people not to forget the immigrants in the queer community.
“Make so much noise that they can’t ignore us,” she said, as the crowd applauded and cheered once again.
The program continued as the Black national anthem was sung by Ariel Bowser and Lambert.
Inn thanked U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D), the New Jersey lawmaker who recently spoke on the Senate floor for over 24 hours, expressing his contempt for Trump and the administration. Once again, the crowd cheered.
“Thank you, senator, for showing us what ‘good trouble’ really means,” Inn
“Food trucks will be available when you work up an appetite,” according to a news release.
Castro events Typically, the Castro Merchants Association sponsored an event on Noe Street between Market and Beaver streets on the day before Easter. Similar events are held on Pink Saturday in June and around Halloween and Christmas.
This year, however, a spring event will take place at that location, but on May 3, according to Nate Bourg, a gay man who is the association’s president.
“The board agreed it would be good to try something different this year,” Bourg said. The event will be produced by CG Events.
Chris Carrington, co-founder of CG Events, told the B.A.R. that the event will be from noon to 5 p.m.
Michael Gagne. To volunteer, call him at (415) 584-3252 (landline, no text).
The Easter bunny can be found hopping around the San Francisco Zoo’s celebration from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 20. (The zoo is at Sloat Boulevard and the Great Highway.) The bunny’s meetand-greet will be at the Sculpture Learning Plaza, adjacent to the Elinor Friend Playground. There’ll also be special arts and crafts making, according to an email from the zoo.
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s Spring Fling will be held at Crocker Amazon Park, at 799 Moscow Street, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 19. The fling will include “live entertainment, carnival rides and games, egg hunt, arts and crafts, and more.
said, referring to what the late congressmember John Lewis (D-Georgia) used to say and which Booker referenced in his remarks. “Thank you for reminding us that sometimes the only way to be heard is to disrupt the status quo. To stand firm in our convictions and to refuse to be silent.”
Inn referred to themself as a Black female presenting person, a nonbinary elder who refuses to be confined.
“A voice who will not be silenced,” they proclaimed.
Inn fought tears as they said, “Everything I am is being questioned in this country. So we cannot be silent. Even in the darkest moments, remember this: we are not defined by the forces that seek to diminish us.”
Trans activist Honey Mahogany, the executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives, was the last to speak.
“We have seen the way this current federal administration has systematically undermined and attacked every one of this nation’s principles,” said Mahogany, a former chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party. “Every one of the people’s protections. Every one of our rights. Right now trans people specifically, and immigrants specifically, are the canaries in the coal mine. And we really need to think about that because there are a whole lot of miners in here, and the canaries aren’t dead yet, we’re still flapping around and screeching.
“We need to address the problem before those canaries die, and guess what, once we die, everyone else is next,” Mahogany continued. “Once we go down, it’s on to the next community and the next community. We’ve seen the attacks on every single community here. We are all in this together. Our liberation is collective. So thank you for being here, let’s make this one hell of a march and protest and let this not be the last, let this be the first, or the fifth, or the hundredth, every day that this administration tries to take something away from us, we will return to the streets and fight back.”
Mahogany then led the crowd in a chant of “We the people united will never be defeated!”
Peacefully marching After Mahogany spoke the crowd took to the streets to march, led by the Dykes on Bikes.
That being said, there’s no shortage of events in the Castro area, either. On Friday, April 18, the Castro Night Market returns from 5 to 10 p.m. between Collingwood and Hartford streets. This month’s theme is “Neon Nights.” The event is free and open to the public.
Concurrently, the Lookout bar, at 3600 16th Street, is celebrating a milestone of $2 million the bar has raised for LGBTQ organizations since its opening in 2007. There’ll be a viewing of the finale for Season 17 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” from 8 to 9:30 p.m., with DJs spinning the rest of the time, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Organizations that have benefited include the Sisters, the Imperial Court, the Ducal Court, the San Francisco LGBT Center, and, of course, “a plethora of sporting leagues and teams,” according to a news release. t
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the drag nun philanthropic group, were out in force as the marching began. The march was loud but entirely peaceful. Market Street was shut down as buses and trolleys parked on the side of the street so that the marchers could pass. Some bus drivers honked their horns in support of the marchers as passengers on one bus applauded. There were more “Free Andry” signs and signs that proclaimed “Dykes against fascism,” and “No! In the name of humanity we refuse to accept a fascist America.” There was also a large banner that proclaimed “Drag up! Fight Back!”
People chanted “Fight Back!” and “This is what democracy looks like” as onlookers cheered.
The march went up Market Street from the Embarcadero to the former Twitter building at Market and 10th streets, where everyone stood for a moment of silence. (Musk owns X, formerly Twitter, and he vacated the San Francisco office space last year.) The march then continued to Van Ness Avenue, turning right onto Van Ness and up to City Hall where the march concluded on City Hall’s Polk Street side. There was a loudspeaker playing dance music and people were invited to dance for as long as they liked. The mood was jubilant. People felt energized to have stood up to Trump.
“Queer and trans people deserve equal rights in the USA,” Castro LGBTQ Cultural District Director Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person, told the B.A.R. “I’m here to show that the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District centers us during these challenging times. We have mobilized before, and it’s important that we mobilize now. Get out in the streets, do what you can.”
The B.A.R. also spoke with Martin Rawlings-Fein, a co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club.
“We’re here to resist the current administration and everything they’ve put forward so far,” said RawlingsFein, a 47-year-old bisexual transman. “I’m heartened by this community that’s shown up. They’re going to keep pushing, and we need to keep resisting, and we need to sustain our joy. Alice is here and we’re ready.” t
People packed Mission Dolores Park for last year’s Easter in the Park, which celebrated the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s 45th anniversary.
Steven Underhill
by Adam Sandel
The history of a legendary Tenderloin nightclub will come alive with a onenight event at the Great American Music Hall on Wednesday, April 23. Historian Michael Flanagan will recount Club 181’s epic history live onstage, with special guest interviews and performances.
San Francisco jazz legend Veronica Klaus will headline, with a set in homage to her time at Club 181, accompanied by jazz pianist Tammy L. Hall and her quintet. Other performers include Connie Champagne, who will revisit the role of Neely O’Hara, which she played in the club’s stage adaptation of “The Valley of the Dolls.”
A very queer history
In 1954, famed “female impersonator” Lynne Carter opened and performed at Club 181 at a time when the queer community’s right to assemble in bars was being challenged in the courts. In the early 1970s, legendary trans performer Vicki Marlane did shows with Empress Pat Montclair, and in the 1980s, Club 181 played host to Arturo Galster (as Patsy Cline) and Doris Fish, with her madcap drag troupe Sluts-aGo-Go.
Over the years, drag queens, go-go boys, hustlers, jazz fans, and new-wavers mingled with Tenderloin denizens. Named for its Eddy Street address, the after-hours club skirted the law and criminal activity, yet those who patronized it or performed there recall the place as having a mythic allure.
In a recent phone interview with the Bay
Club 181 Live!
Legendary
Tenderloin nightclub celebrated at Great American Music Hall
Area Reporter, Michael Flanagan discussed this history-lesson-as-variety-show, and Veronica Klaus recalled her memories of performing at the legendary club in the 1990s.
The right place at the right time
In 2017, historian Michael Flanagan wrote a seminal history of Club 181 in the Bay Area Reporter. The Tenderloin Museum’s Program Director Alex Spoto approached him to emcee the upcoming event, and to suggest potential performers.
“I suggested Collette LeGrand, who’d been there in the 1970s, and Kitten on the Keys (Suzanne Ramsey) and Leigh Crow (who can really croon) to recreate the spirit of Arturo Galster in the 1980s,” said Spoto.
Flanagan’s own history with Club 181 dates to a challenging time.
“I moved to San Francisco in 1980, and in the early 1980s, I went there and was blown away by the club. It felt like a 1950s jazz club. It had red velvet curtains, and it was a classy place. For me, the club came along at the same time a lot of bad news came along. It was the Reagan era, and the AIDS epidemic, and we could all use something to distract ourselves. Club 181 did a bang-up job of that.”
Hosting the event will provide a new challenge for the historian.
“I’ve done lectures on history, but this will be the first time I’ve done it in a performance venue. I’m doing emcee duties and providing context, along with the musical performances. It gives me a different kind of discipline. I have to say my piece and get off the stage so the performers can get out there.”
by Myron Caringal
For nearly three decades, the Sundance Stompede was more than just a dance event. It was a home, a haven, and a heartbeat of LGBTQ country-western culture in San Francisco. Now, the story of its final bow is being told on the big screen.
The San Francisco Dance Film Festival will host the world premiere of “Last Dance at the Sundance Stompede” on April 26 at Brava Theater Center, offering a poignant tribute to a community that built joy and belonging through dance.
Directed by Graham Clayton-Chance, the documentary captures the last Sundance Stompede held in November 2023, and weaves together reflections from founder Ingu Yun and 15 participants as they celebrate the legacy of an event that defied expectations and created a space where everyone, regardless of gender, sexuality, or skill level, felt free to be themselves.
Film
“The Stompede derived its culture of welcoming acceptance from our weekly event, the Sundance Saloon,” Yun said. “Everyone dances with everyone else. It’s truly a place where folks can feel they belong, even if it’s their first time. And there is so much joy.”
The film is a reminder of how dance can be a vehicle for survival, celebration, and change in LGBTQ spaces.
Deep connections
The documentary itself is a beautifully shot and meticulously pieced-together tribute, featuring stunning cinematography, warm and vibrant color grading, and a diverse set of interviews that capture the deep emotional connection so many had to the event. It truly immerses audiences in the joy and spirit of the Stompede.
Its roots trace back to a serendipitous beginning. In 1996, Ingu Yun hosted what was meant to be a big birthday party, inviting his friends and encouraging them to invite their friends.
What started as a simple gathering quickly transformed into a much-needed space for LGBTQ people to come together through dance at a time when safe spaces for same-gender dance partners were rare.
Founded as a single-night fundraiser for the AIDS Emergency Fund, the Stompede grew into a cornerstone of queer country-western dancing, drawing hundreds of people each year from around the world.
“Never in a million years did I imagine it would become such an institution,” Yun admitted. “In fact, after that first benefit event, I didn’t think there would even be a second.”
Cherished tradition
But as the event expanded into a multi-day festival featuring workshops and social dances, it became a cherished tradition.
“There was an energy to the weekend that none of us had ever experienced before,” Yun recalled.
The jazz singer returns Veronica Klaus has been a legendary fixture of the San Francisco jazz scene for more than thirty years. She currently lives in a converted church in the Upstate New York village of Sharon Springs, but she returns for Bay Area performances a couple of times a year.
Her history with Club 181 goes back to when it reopened as a supper club in 1994.
“I had my twelve-piece band with a horn and rhythm section; we called it The Heart and Soul Revue. We performed every week for several months, and we had such a great time,” she said. Even then, Klaus knew that Club 181 was a special place.
“I just knew it had such a great history. It was one of those places that was so chic and cool and retro. You could smell the history.”
One of the most powerful aspects of the final Stompede was its intentional departure from the rigid gender roles traditionally found in countrywestern dance. While line dancing and square dancing have historically followed heteronormative conventions, designating men as leaders and women as followers, the Stompede embraced a fully degendered approach.
Here, dancers were simply leaders and followers, allowing for greater inclusivity and fluidity on the dance floor. This philosophy reinforced the event’s broader mission of acceptance and belonging, making it a safe and welcoming space for the LGBTQ community.
The Stompede also provided an alternative space for queer people to find community outside of the traditional party and nightlife scene. This made it particularly meaningful for those seeking a sober, intergenerational, and movement-based way to build relationships and belong.
“It was exciting to know that a record of the last Stompede would be preserved,” Yun said. “I think the attendees that year were also thrilled about it. We went about our dancing as we always had.”
Among the many touching moments in “Last Dance” is the story of Chris Baines and Skip Davis, an interracial couple who found love on the dance floor, from meeting while dancing to getting engaged and eventually married on the dance floor. While their journey is just one vignette of the profound connections fostered by the Stompede, they were the only couple to have married at the Stompede, making their love story a unique and cherished part of the event’s legacy.
“I hope that people see that if we can be welcoming, inclusive, accepting, and basically just kind to one another, that something magical can emerge,” Yun said. “It doesn’t have to be through dance. It can be any activity or cause, or even everyday life.”
It’s a love letter to the LGBTQ community’s ability to create chosen families and carve out spaces of belonging, even in unexpected places like a countrywestern dance hall.
The April 26 screening will offer audiences a chance to witness the magic of the Stompede and reflect on the power of queer community-building. And while the Stompede may be over, the dance isn’t done just yet.
“Sundance Saloon still offers dancing with lessons every Sunday and Thursday and maintains the same spirit as the Stompede, just on a smaller scale,” Yun said. “And the biggest surprise is that we’re going
Veronica Klaus
A scene from the film ‘Last Dance at the Sundance Stompede.’
Queer faves at SFFilm’s 68th festival
by Brian Bromberger
R
eturning to its traditional 11-day run after last year’s unsuccessful weekend marathon, the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival screens April 17-27, based mostly in the Marina, Presidio, and Mission neighborhoods, as well as in Berkeley. The lineup encompasses more than 150 films from more than 50 countries.
SFFilm always has a healthy lineup of LGBTQ-related films. This year’s six queer narrative films include the closing night feature, “Outerlands,” shot in the non-touristy Outer Richmond area.
Nonbinary Cass (Asia Kate Dillon) is barely surviving paycheck by paycheck in SF’s increasing gentrification environment, as a waiter at a highend restaurant, a nanny, and parttime party drug dealer. Cass drinks themself to sleep, and has a one-night hookup with Kalli (Louisa Krauss), a new waitress at the restaurant. She has a potential job in Reno and asks Cass if they will watch her 12-yearold daughter Ari (Ridley Asha Batemen).
But after a few days, there’s no contact with Kalli, so Cass must take care of Ari. They are both lonely, hurt people, but they bond over a video game, Outerlands. Ari’s abandonment by her mother provokes anger but also sparks memories of Cass’s mother’s abuse of them. It’s a compelling character study, though the screenplay could’ve been improved with more background material on Cass, who’s hard to connect with in the film’s first half. This empathetic tale on the healing power of kindness, belonging, loss, and chosen family includes outstanding performances from Dillon and Batemen.
The National Geographic documentary “Sally” is one of the festival’s winners, detailing the life of an American hero, Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut in space, who flew in the Challenger space shuttle in 1983.
The core of the film is an interview with her life partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy. Ride wasn’t out publicly in her lifetime. She met Tam as an adolescent at a tennis camp run by Billie Jean King. After King was outed and sued by a female ex-lover, consequently losing endorsements, the negative publicity scared Ride from emerging from the closet (much to Tam’s consternation), despite her sister Bear being a lesbian.
Incredibly ambitious and competitive, she could be prickly, all business,
and hard to read, attributed to her emotionally closed-off mother. Ride even married a fellow astronaut Steven Hawley, unaware she was lesbian until she asked for a divorce.
NASA was sexist, with other astronauts decrying she hadn’t paid her dues. The press was awful to her, asking prying questions about her private life, family, and makeup.
The film adroitly shows how Ride’s personal and professional lives were intertwined, though cheesy, nondialogue reenactments are unnecessary and distracting. Still Ride was a trailblazer for women and finally is getting her due, 13 years after dying of pancreatic cancer at age 61.
From Mexico, writer/director Rafael Ruiz Espejo chronicles a teen’s initial exploration of his sexuality in “The Last First Time.” Arriving from a small rural town, shy Eduardo heads into Guadalajara to take his college entrance exam. While there, he meets charismatic city urchin Mario. They spend time together, attending a surprise birthday party.
They pursue an evening of wild partying with drugs followed by sex. Eduardo’s conservative family wanted him home right after his exam, but he keeps offering excuses why he needs to stay. It’s too bad we hear none of those conversations, as it might give us some clues as to why the traditional Eduardo is willing to risk everything in a night of total abandonment. It’s a coming-of-age theme we’ve seen many times, but there’s a potent chemistry between the two actors that keeps us engaged. We are drawn into their revelry even as we suspect a potential train wreck might ensue.
Korean writer/director Joonho Park scores a home run with his debut feature “3670,” which concerns Cheol-jun, a North Korean defector living in Seoul. He’s made some close friends with other exiles, but hides from them that he’s gay. He connects with the LGBTQ community by joining a meet up group who plays games, goes to bars and parties.
He feels more comfortable with his sexuality, yet becomes stressed from trying to keep these two worlds separate. Park brilliantly explores these two marginalized groups, revealing they’re both outsiders. He shows great compassion for Cheol-jun trying to maintain integrity and form his unique identity. Park is a compelling voice we look forward to hearing in future films.
The hypnotic Vietnamese film Viet and Nam” both entices and frustrates. It’s two interweaving sto-
ries in 2001. The first half opens in a coal mine with Viet and Nam, two miners, passing themselves as brothers, who are secret lovers only able to have sex in the dark at the beginning and end of shifts. Nam recognizes it’s a dangerous dead end and wants to leave the country with the help of an agent who smuggles people in shipping containers. Viet accuses him of just wanting to have sex with white people.
The second half is the search for the remains of Nam’s father, who died a few months before he was born, fighting for the Viet Cong in a jungle near the border. Nam’s mother has dreams about seeing him. They all travel south with veteran Ba, who served along Nam’s father and might know where the bones are buried.
Banned in Vietnam, not for its queer protagonists, but because of its gloomy image of the country, “Viet and Nam” is deliberately paced, quite slow at the beginning. Two hours is too long and its esoteric murky mo ments might make it inaccessible for some, but other viewers will be en tranced by the luminous, beautiful images and Nam’s dreamlike journey towards the past so he can move onto his own future. t
www.sffilm.org
courtesy SFFilm
‘Eugene Onegin’
by Tim Pfaff
Far worse things happen to characters in other operas by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, but “Eugene Onegin” sweeps the competition for its depiction of crippling interpersonal damage. By the time Ralph Fiennes directs it for Paris Opera later this year (his opera-directing debut), will the drama even be endurable? For now, we have Laurent Pelly’s production for Belgium’s La Monnaie in a new DVD from Naxos.
Pelly literally squares the circle with some geometric stagecraft that provides one degree of distance from the pain. The story plays out on a quadrangular raised platform which, with some overhead lighting, can be made to look circular. Playing spaces are empty and lack any sense of locales. Floors are blond wood, and, in accordance with current European directorial clichés, walls are as high as the sets themselves and completely unadorned.
In a note to this production, Pelly’s first Tchaikovsky, the director allows that his objective was to create an abstract space, to keep the focus on the characters and their isolation within themselves and from each other. The gamble doesn’t quite pay off. The sense of “frustration” that in his view accompanies all the characters’ experiences and expression of love gradually melts into a more ordinary kind of frustra-
Tubey, or not
T here’s no shame in staying in to watch your favorite TV shows or explore some new ones. Our prolific Lavender Tube columnist Victoria A. Brownworth offers updates on the highly anticipated return of “The Last of Us” in its second season, and the season 6 series finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale” (which may offer some tips on revolutionary actions to take in real life).
Brownworth also nods to a very queer episode in the new batch of “Black Mirror.” It’s all on www.ebar.com, along with our weekly arts and nightlife events listings in Going Out. t
tion from the audience.
Tchaikovsky and his fellow librettist, Konstantin Shilvosky, based their story on Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel. The focus is on three characters, the aristocratic Onegin, his friend, Lensky, and Tatyana, a girl from a lower (but hardly low) class experiencing the exquisite pains of first love.
Only Lenski dies –onstage, not at the end but midway– the victim of Onegin’s bullet in an early-morning duel. But what cuts across class and gender boundaries is the isolation that suffocates everyone.
The plot is predictable (No one gets what they want), the psychological climate is bleak, and the tone vacillates between the adamant and the hopeless. Not a note in the score suggests that there will be a happy ending. A particularly Russian strain of doom hangs over everything. Passing beauties are bittersweet at best.
Reading romantic literature is the seed of Tatyana’s emotional trauma.
Pelly puts an attractively bound volume in her eager, clutching hands, and she both loses herself in it and hides behind it. To get her attention, people have to peer over it. It’s the only element with a right to be wooden, though everyone has a turn with functional anonymity.
Director Laurent Pelly tames Tchaikovsky’s opera
Pelly fields a cast of singers who know how to execute his direction; he’s blessed with a strong trio of principals, singing actors all of them. What they share is, for once, visible youth and young adulthood. As the dastardly Onegin, baritone Stephane Degout is made up to look much younger than usual. These are people tripped up by their inexperience. t
Read more of this review, and a short review of Thomas Adès’ , opera and ballet suites with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, on www.ebar.com.
FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2025
Baritone Stephane Degout
The Handmaid’s Tale’
Spring books 2025 round-up, part 3
by Jim Piechota
Here’s the third installment of our Spring books round-op where you’ll find thought-provoking stories from a trans author, a few interesting and self-reflective queer memoirs including one from a longtime AIDS-era survivor, a ‘Wicked’ prequel and more.
“Soft Core” by Brittany Newell
$28 (FSG)
Local Bay Area queer author and Stanford graduate Newell’s gritty, enchanting first novel, 2017’s “Oola,” about a young male artist who becomes obsessed with a female writer, was a hit, and her sophomore effort is just as tangy and addictive.
It follows Ruth, who, at 27, casts aside her master’s degree and resorts to stripping at a club using the moniker “Baby,” living in the Mission with Dino, her drug-dealing exboyfriend, and enjoying affairs with wealthy men. When Dino suddenly goes missing, she recalls him telling her not to panic if this happens and she becomes a dominatrix to fill the time and space while she worries more desperately as each night without Dino passes.
Newell fills these pages with such an array of sensory detail, it’s easy to read and re-read paragraphs numerous times just to get that thrill of exacting prose into your head again. If you don’t already know the author, she and her wife currently host the monthly drag and dance party “Angels” at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge in the Tenderloin District. While you wait to enjoy her parties, go read her new novel. It’s in its own category of amazing. www.us.macmillan.com/books
“Stag Dance” by Torrey Peters, $28 (Random House)
This unorthodox collection of boundary-pushing short stories and a novella spring forth from the same creative mind responsible for the smash-hit novel “Detransition, Baby.”
In the post-apocalyptic, Seattle-set story “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones,” a pandemic has wreaked havoc on the general population, making everyone’s sex hormones impossible to produce. The trans narrator is on her own, but finds another person offering hope and even love, but in this hellish landscape of death and decay, can she truly trust anyone?
“The Chaser” is another story populated by insecure characters where a young, closeted boy decides to begin a relationship with his femme boarding school roommate, but the results are difficult and messy.
Perhaps the best of the bunch is the title novella where Babe, a strong, ugly, hulking logger, discovers a new facet of himself after attending a stag dance where some of the other loggers attend dressed as women. Babe finally addresses his suppressed yearnings and finds himself attracted to and obsessed by the prettiest boy at the dance. Written over the course of a decade, Peters shines in this offbeat story collection encompassing themes of identity, belonging, love, desire, and acceptance. www.penguinrandomhouse.com
“Unsex Me Here” by Aurora Mattia, $18.95 (Nightboat)
Another story collection about queer and trans characters that will dazzle readers is this new work from the Hong Kong-born writer, Aurora Mattia. The best entries in the volume consistently employ characters involved in bizarre behavior.
“Cradle Me, Lucifer” features a female narrator whose close relationship with her pet python, Milky –whom her ex gifted to her– affords her great time and freedom to consider herself, her life, her surroundings, and what all of it truly means.
The two trans women in “Celebrity Skin” fall in love while searching for a ritualistic cult that will make their dreams come true in this tale borrowing from Greek and Roman mythology.
“Valentine’s Day” follows Raphael, a gay man who attempts to get over the boy of his dreams through a rapid succession of one-night stands, courtesy of Grindr.
The most evocative tale chronicles the wild escapist journey of two lovers in “Wild and Blue” who steal a memory-altering drug from an experimental pharmaceutical company. As Sandy’s memories begin to falter, his trans lover Peach wonders if their fate might be doomed should the drug make him see her in another form other than the one she presents to him. This is a mystical, ethereal, and often emotional ride, but it fits wonderfully into the remainder of Mattia’s masterfully crafted collection.
www.nightboat.org
“Elphie” by Gregory Maguire, $30 (Morrow)
Prolific children’s author Maguire charmingly turns back the “Wicked” clock to unveil Elphaba Thropp’s uniquely green origin story. Isolated since childhood with only her younger siblings for companionship (her sister, Nessa, is armless, even), Elphie’s eccentric traveling minister father does little to socialize his greenskinned daughter and this has a drastic effect on her growth toward young adulthood.
Maguire stacks the deck just enough to present the psychological twists and misfires that conspire to turn young Elphie from a sympathetic lonely girl into a vengeful witch. This may be an overly chatty entry in the series for some, but it is one that will nevertheless tickle diehard fans from the first page to the very last, as well as enchant newcomers to the “Wicked” family. The Maguire magic is in full effect in this lighthearted and impeccably detailed prequel.
www.harpercollins.com t
For memoirs and nonfiction books, see the full article on www.ebar.com
Irwin Keller’s ‘Shechinah at the Art Institute’
by David-Elijah Nahmod
According to a Hebrew glossary at the end of the book, a Shechinah is “the immanent presence of the Divine, also the Divine Feminine.” His feminine side as it relates to his Judaism is but one of the topics that Irwin Keller explores in his new book, “Shechinah at the Art Institute,” now out in paperback and Kindle.
Reb Keller (Reb being the Hebrew word for Rabbi) has worn many hats over the years. He felt the call to be a rabbi at a young age, but when he came out as gay in the early 1980s, no Rabbinic school was open to him. Instead, he became a lawyer, becoming the primary author of Chicago’s first gay rights law.
to host a major event in Reno, Nevada in October as a part of the World Gay Rodeo Finals.” t
‘Last Dance at the Sundance Stompede,’ $30.65-$46.65, Saturday, April 26, (5:30pm reception, line dancing; 7pm screening, then Q&A and lobby reception), Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St. www.sfdancefilmfest.org www.lastdancefilm.co www.sundancesaloon.org
For 21 years he toured with the Kinsey Sicks, the performance troupe known as “America’s favorite dragapella beauty shop quartet.” He performed in drag as Winnie with the Kinsey Sicks, but the call to become a rabbi continued to burn within him.
Today he is the spiritual leader at Congregation Ner Shalom (Light of Peace) in Sonoma County, having finally become ordained a few years back. He was still performing with the Kinsey Sicks when he moved to Sonoma and joined what would become his congregation. His journey to becoming the congregation’s leader began in 2008 when the interim rabbi quit right before the High Holy Days. He shares aspects of his life in a series of essays and poems. t
www.ebar.com.
<< Club 181
From page 11
The upcoming performance will be a homecoming for Klaus in more ways than one.
“I’m excited to have horns again
which I haven’t used in quite a while. I’ll do a set of my old stuff and some new stuff. The Great American Music Hall is always an exciting place to perform. And I haven’t played with my dear friend and amazing pianist Tammy Hall in a while, so this will be a reunion of sorts with her.”
Klaus also acknowledges the historical importance of the upcoming event.
“It’s hugely important to celebrate our history as a trans community and an LGBT community,” she said. “Club 181 has such a long history. At age 60, it’s important for me to revisit that time.” t
‘Club 181 Live!’ $20-$50, April 23, 7pm, Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell St. www.tenderloinmuseum.org www.gamh.com
Other performers at the Club 181 tribute include (clockwise from left) Leigh Crow, Suzanne Ramsey, Connie Champagne, Collette LeGrand and Tammy L. Hall.
Gooch
[left] Event host Michael Flanagan, [right] The 1986 Naked Brunch ensemble included (L-R) Sandelle Kincaid , Philip Ford, Doris Fish, Tippi and Miss X.
Dan Nicoletta Nick Fuller
<< Sundance
From page 11
top left: A scene from the film ‘Last Dance at the Sundance Stompede.’
