The mpox virus, shown here, is of the same family of viruses that cause smallpox. However, mpox is rarely fatal. It has been circulating worldwide among men who have sex with men at least since a 2022 outbreak.
SF mpox cases rising, with most among those vaxxed
by John Ferrannini
Cases of mpox are rising again in San Francisco, according to an announcement from the city’s public health department August 14. Most are in people who have gotten vaccinated against the virus and their symptoms are mild, reported local health officials.
“Since late June 2025, 14 San Francisco residents have been diagnosed with mpox, which is an increase from an average of ~1 diagnosis per month from January-May 2025,” an email stated. “A summer and fall increase in mpox cases has occurred in San Francisco since 2022, which may be associated with larger events and summer and fall gatherings.”
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, mpox cases ticked up in fall 2023 and there were more cases by the end of May 2024 nationwide than by the same time in 2023. At no point, however, did the number of cases reach the severity of the 2022 outbreak.
The city saw 840 cases total that year. As of August 9, 2025, San Francisco has only seen 142 since that time.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health reports that this year, “most mpox cases in SF have occurred among individuals fully vaccinated with Jynneos.”
“These cases have typically been mild, with no signs of severe infection or need for hospitalization,” according to an update from the agency’s Population Health Division. “While no vaccine is 100% effective, Jynneos continues to offer the best protection against the virus.”
Dr. Julia Janssen with the health department told the B.A.R. in a phone interview that “a little over half” the cases this year have been in people fully vaccinated.
“If someone is fully vaccinated and they get a rash, we want to remind people to get tested and confirm it is mpox,” Janssen said. “Oftentimes, in people who are fully vaccinated, we are seeing less serious illness than in people unvaccinated, and especially compared with we saw in 2022.”
Back in November 2023, the department reported that most cases, 57%, were in unvaccinated San Franciscans. Of those who’ve been fully vaccinated, less than 1% have reported a case of mpox, the department continued.
The two doses are administered 28 days apart. If a person received one dose over 28 days earlier, the second dose can be administered immediately. Vaccination is not recommended in patients who have previously been diagnosed with mpox, as infection likely confers immune protection.
Janssen said that people should ask their health care providers or systems for the vaccination if they are men who have sex with men or are transgender and they have not received it.
Black Pride comes to SF ready to uplift, educate, and dance
by Dominic Laituri
It all started on a lunchbreak in April.
Gyasi Curry, a queer man who was then
KQED-TV’s school partnership manager, posted a Reel to Instagram posing the question, “Wouldn’t it be cute if all the Black queer party curators and collectives got together to throw a Black Queer Pride in San Francisco? Let me know what y’all think!”
It turned out “cute” was an understatement.
“The Reel went locally viral,” Curry, also known as LBXX, said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, and within 48 hours, after thousands of views, hundreds of comments, and offerings from City Hall and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Curry organized a Zoom call for over 60 folks eager to help, organize, and plan the inaugural San Francisco Black Pride.
“This is being driven by the community; there is a hunger for more visibility and more space. The current administration ignited this fire, so we have to make sure spaces are open and welcoming to people of color,” Curry said, referring to President Donald Trump’s administration. “Everyone is welcome at our Black Pride events. We can’t fight exclusion with exclusion, we enjoy allyship. This is not being done alone.”
A native of Long Beach, California and Buffalo, New York, Curry joined AmeriCorps after college
and was sent to San Francisco in 2017, where he volunteered at a Catholic school in the Mission. He also co-founded Makeroom, a Bay Area artist collective designed to uplift underrepresented voices.
“My friends and I weren’t seeing a lot of Black people out in mainstream nightclubs; Makeroom has helped bring more Black people into more spaces,” Curry said.
San Francisco Black Pride will be turbocharging Makeroom’s agenda.
Celebrations will take place the last week of August in the Castro and other parts of the city, an intentional week due to “Black August,” which commemorates milestones in the civil rights movement and Black history, and the fact that Burning Man will be taking place on the playa in Nevada. The dates – the end of the week coincides with Labor Day weekend – were an overwhelmingly popular idea brought up during the first Zoom call.
Curry explained, “We want to give Black people who’ve lived here the opportunity to take up more space. The city is empty during Burning Man, it feels like a ghost town. Economically, this is a great opportunity for businesses to make up on lost revenue. This could be powerful.”
Castro Merchants President Nate Bourg said having San Francisco Black Pride take place in the city’s LGBTQ district is important in light of the history around Black patrons of several gay Castro bars facing discriminatory entry policies in the past and people of color in general not feeling welcome in the neighborhood.
“I think it is exciting that it is centered in the Castro because our neighborhood has a history of not being as welcoming to Black people as it should be,” said Bourg, a gay man who co-owns LGBTQ social
See page 6 >>
Outside Bay Area, LGBTQ community centers facing new reality
by John Ferrannini
Outside the Bay Area, the Sacramento and Los Angeles LGBT centers are addressing budget cuts similar to their counterparts.
In Northern California, the Sacramento center is dealing with uncertainty over a federal grant, while in Los Angeles, there has been a small victory, at least for now.
The Sacramento LGBT Community Center is located at 1015 20th Street, in the California capital city’s queer Lavender Heights neighborhood. Executive Director David Heitstuman, a gay man, told the Bay Area Reporter that ongoing federal funding for the center provided through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was pulled earlier than expected this spring and after the center had already provided the services it funded.
“It was going to expire at the end of June,” Heitstuman said in a May 20 interview at the center. “We got a notification on the second of April, I believe, that it had been terminated on March 24. That grant paid for a number of different mental health services, but it fully funded two mental health clinical positions and two peer-support specialists, so four full-time employees.”
Thankfully, that funding was restored after California won a court injunction, Heitstuman stated when asked for an update this month.
“The state of California fought back against the illegal federal cuts and won an injunction, which temporarily restored SAMHSA funding for our mental health programs through the end of August, but we remain deeply concerned about what lies ahead,” Heitstuman stated August 7. “Additional federal cuts, political intimidation, and coercion by the Trump administration on institutions, and the trickle-down impacts on state and local government, are also harming our community.”
When the cuts were first learned of earlier this year, the center successfully worked to “ensure people who already had appointments or were engaged in services didn’t have those abruptly terminated,” Heitstuman said.
conference.
But while the center was able to find spaces for people, they were of a temporary nature, he said.
“We won’t be able to sustain that long term,” said Heitstuman.
The cuts also led the center to scrap a summit and conference meant for mental health providers, Heitstuman said. The loss was some $500,000 in federal funds; the latest IRS Form 990 for the center – for the year ending in December 2023 – shows it brought in $6.2 million and spent $5 million.
The same day as the B.A.R. visited the center, it lobbied the Sacramento City Council to provide $417,000 in funds from the Sacramento Children’s Fund to replace what had been axed from the feds. According to the center, it serves 400 youth ages 14-24, 42% of whom are unhoused or at risk of homelessness.
“We need to support the Sacramento LGBT Community Center mental health programs (through the Sacramento Children’s Fund), I know a lot of queer youth who would benefit from the Center’s time and support,” stated Navaeh Trigo, a queer member of the center’s youth advisory
board. “We need our youth to know that they are more than just a number or statistic, they’re real, their experiences are real and they matter.”
On June 8, the Sacramento City Council did allocate $17.9 million to Sacramento Children’s Fund grantees. The center received $400,000 of that.
“We are grateful that the Sacramento City Council recently approved the first Children’s Fund allocations, which will help partially fund affirming mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth and build capacity through training new therapists,” Heitstuman stated.
The Sacramento center provides HIV testing and other sexual health services, free counseling for crime victims, a transitional living program, and short-term transitional emergency placement programs for up to 24 months for 18-to-24-yearolds who’ve been victims of crimes. (The transitional living program houses 18-to-24-year-olds for an average of 90 days.) It also runs the Q-Spot youth program, open Monday-Friday, noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Brian Justin Crum
David Heitstuman, executive director of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, spoke at a news
Courtesy Sacramento LGBT Community Center
San Francisco Black Pride organizer Gyasi Curry is excited about the upcoming inaugural celebration.
Sammy Peace
Rickleffs retrial pushed back due to attorney issue
by John Ferrannini
Aman previously convicted of killing a gay hair stylist whose homicide and robbery convictions were overturned more than a year ago is going to wait a little longer for his case to be retried. As jury selection was underway in San Francisco Superior Court Monday, defendant James Rickleffs fired his attorney and is seeking new counsel.
The 2019 conviction of Rickleffs, 58, had been reversed in October 2023 by a California Court of Appeal threejudge panel. He’d been found guilty in the 2012 killing and robbery of Steven “Eriq” Escalon in San Francisco’s Diamond Heights neighborhood. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, a new trial was set for this summer.
And indeed over 100 prospective jurors were waiting to see if they’d be selected August 18 when Rickleffs decided to fire his private attorney,
Michael Meehan, according to Edward Mario of the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, who described the events in Department 22 at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street, during a hearing August 19. Rickleffs then “indicated he needed time to hire private counsel,” Mario said, “so the jurors on the panel were dismissed and we were sent back here today.”
No jurors had been selected yet; but the jury panel refers to the group of potential jurors selected from the pool called for jury duty. After voir dire, a smaller number are selected to actually serve as jurors or alternates. Voir dire was supposed to begin August 18.
Rickleffs then “indicated he needed time to hire private counsel,” Mario said, “so the jurors empaneled were dismissed and we were sent back here today.”
Rickleffs, who remains in custody, apologized for the inconvenience.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry L. Jacobs remarked that, “I’m not inconvenienced. How much time do you need, realistically?”
Rickleffs said he didn’t “want to come up empty-handed,” and both Jacobs and Rickleffs agreed a month would be reasonable. The matter was set for Department 22 at 9 a.m. September 23, for the appearance of the new counsel.
Meehan stated to the B.A.R. August 19 that the court granted Rickleffs’ request that he be fired because the defendant “stated that he would no longer communicate with me as his attorney.”
“The court explained to Mr. Rickleffs that he had been well defended to that point, but [Judge Alexandra Robert Gordon] felt she had to grant his request even though we were in a jury trial because he was not going to communicate with his counsel going forward,” Meehan said.
Meehan did not answer a question about why Rickleffs said he fired him.
A friend of Escalon’s didn’t return
a request seeking comment. Randy Quezada, communications director for the DA’s office, told the B.A.R. August 18 that due to the change in attorneys, “This case is not going to trial any time soon.”
Rickleffs was sentenced in 2021 to 50 years to life in state prison. That conviction, however, was overturned by a state appellate court two years ago.
The Fifth Division of the state’s 1st District Court of Appeal ruled October 24, 2023 – in an opinion written by Justice Mark B. Simons – that “appellant’s murder conviction is reversed, although the People may accept a reduction of the conviction to involuntary manslaughter. Appellant’s conviction of robbery is reversed, although the People may accept a reduction of the conviction to petty theft.”
The appellate court panel gave several reasons for its decision. For one, a California Supreme Court ruling in People v. Brown (2023) threw out the very jury instructions for a murder by poison charge that were used in Rickleffs’ case.
Simons also questioned the forensic evidence presented at trial – including a key NMS Labs report that found nitrates and gammahydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in Escalon’s system.
Simons stated that the instructions on the robbery charge were also wrong because Escalon rendered himself unable to resist.
“Whether Escalon tied himself up ... or whether appellant tied him up at his request, Escalon would have knowingly and willingly taken action to render himself unable to resist,” Simons stated. “In either instance, his resistance would not have been overcome ... without the voluntary cooperation of the subject whose resistance is repressed. ... We thus agree with appellant that the force required for a robbery must be
non-consensual and the court erred in failing to so instruct the jury.”
Simons was joined in the opinion by Justices Gordon Burns and Danny Chou.
The original charges stem from 2012, when, according to prosecutors, Escalon and Rickleffs met during underwear night at the bar 440 Castro in San Francisco’s LGBTQ neighborhood.
“Rickleffs, as a straight-identifying man, went to the Castro with tape and a knife, sat there drinking, and, I believe, snorted narcotics in the bathroom, waiting for someone,” Escalon’s friend Roberto Tiscareno said during the August 2021 sentencing hearing.
After going home with Escalon to his Diamond Heights apartment near Twin Peaks early on the morning of June 12, 2012, prosecutors said Rickleffs tied Escalon up, gagged him, and poured poppers on his face to immobilize him. Then he left Escalon’s apartment with a suitcase of items including a laptop, Escalon’s checkbook, and a bankcard of one of Escalon’s roommates.
Escalon died of an overdose of amyl nitrates and GHB, according to the medical examiner’s report. He was found dead by his roommates, and Rickleffs was arrested September 12, 2012, in possession of the suitcase.
The jury explained their reasoning behind their 2019 decision to convict. Most said that they felt Escalon’s death was caused by many factors, including the obstruction of his breathing from the gag, his inability to move from being bound, and the drugs found in his system. They did say, however, that although they unanimously agreed that Rickleffs did not intend to kill Escalon, it was the robbery and disregard for human life that swayed them to find him guilty of felony murder. t
Gay man upset by SFPD response to alleged homophobic attack
by John Ferrannini
At countless community meetings on public safety, San Francisco Police Department officials and others regularly tell audience members to report alleged hate crimes and other incidents. Yet a gay Castro neighborhood resident claims that police asked him to choose between going after the perpetrators of an alleged homophobic attack or filing a report on the matter.
Devin Shaffer, 33, was holding hands with his husband, Bee Kittipalo, also 33, at 18th and Sanchez streets on July 30 in the 10 p.m. hour when he “got popped in the side of the head,” he told the Bay Area Reporter.
“It felt like a paintball,” Shaffer said. “And I see this group of teens. They were on what looked like fancy electronic bikes. So, I said, ‘Fuck you,’ and gave them the middle finger. They turned around and hit me again. These things hurt. Then they called me a ‘faggot,’ of course, and sped off.”
It wasn’t a paintball, Shaffer said; rather, he’d been pelted with eggs.
Shaffer had been hit “behind his ear and neck,” according to Shaffer’s husband Kittipalo. “I was OK. … I called the police. 911.”
SFPD officers arrived 15 minutes later. According to Shaffer, officers “dissuaded me from a report because it would take more time for them. … They had something more important to do; that’s how I took it.”
Shaffer said officers said a report would distract from going to look for the apparent teenage suspects.
But Shaffer didn’t believe police actually went to look for the people
because they went in the opposite direction of where he said the alleged assailants went after the incident.
“Then, when they [police] left the scene, they did not go in that direction,” Shaffer said. “They [the alleged perpetrators] were going westbound, but the cops went eastbound.”
Reached for comment, a police spokesperson told the B.A.R. that body-worn camera footage showed the officers offered to write a report, but said they could look for the suspects instead, and the reporting parties said they’d prefer the police try to apprehend the suspects.
The B.A.R. asked if perhaps that phrasing could have been taken as giving the reporting parties a choice of either making the report or having the
officers try to find the suspects. The spokesperson said, “To me, it didn’t feel like discouragement.”
When the B.A.R. related this to Shaffer, he said that it did feel like an either/or choice.
“That’s precisely what happened,” he said.
SFPD Public Information Officer Allison Maxie provided information about the incident.
“On July 30, 2025, at approximately 10:48 p.m., San Francisco Police Officers from Mission Station responded to the area of 18th and Sanchez Streets regarding a report of an assault,” Maxie stated via email.
“Officers arrived on scene and met the reporting party who stated that a group of unknown juveniles on bicycles approached him and his husband, threw eggs at them and used homophobic slurs before fleeing westbound on 18th Street towards Noe. Officers searched the area for the suspects to no avail. The reporting party declined medical treatment and further police action at the time of the call for service.”
Shaffer told the B.A.R., “I would say I’m grateful they [the police] have all that information. That’s reassuring. What I was frustrated by was the language they used that was misleading; I was under the impression no report would be possible to make. That was the thing that upset me the most.”
The alleged perpetrators have not been apprehended.
“Right now me and my husband, we’re scared to go out at night,” Kittipalo said. “We are careful when we walk home. We can’t hold hands together.”
Defendant James Rickleffs fired his attorney, so his retrial has been delayed.
Courtesy SFPD
Devin Shaffer said that a group of juveniles hurled eggs at him as he walked with his husband in the Castro neighborhood last month.
Courtesy Devin Shaffer
Lesbian leader oversees SF workforce programs
by Matthew S. Bajko
Tasked with overseeing San Francisco’s city-funded programs that train unemployed, underemployed, and hard-to-employ residents and connect them to sustainable job opportunities in myriad fields is Iowayna Peña. Since January, the well-known lesbian leader has served as director of San Francisco Workforce Development.
The division is within the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, at which Peña years ago had worked as a development project manager. She had left in 2020 when the San Francisco Giants baseball team hired her as its director of government affairs and real estate development.
In that high-profile position, Peña played a critical role in the Giants’ Mission Rock mixed-used development built on a former parking lot across from its Mission Bay ballpark. Two years ago, she landed among the San Francisco Business Times’ “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.”
One issue she tackled with the project was helping more women and other underrepresented groups enter the construction trades, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in a 2022 story. https:// www.ebar.com/story/66592 She did so via an apprenticeship program dubbed the Mission Rock Academy.
Leaving her job with the team “was one of the hardest decisions I had to make,” said Peña, 43, a former co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club.
The B.A.R. met up with Peña in early June at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Southeast Community Center in the Bayview to talk about her new role. Returning to the city office had been “heartwarming,” she said, since so many of the people she previously worked with are still employed there.
Obituaries >>
John Harrington
December 13, 1947 – August 12, 2025
Harrington died August 12 at his home in San Francisco after a long battle with cancer, surrounded by family who had come over from his native Ireland. He was 77.
John was born in Cloughland, Bere Island, Co. Cork, Ireland to his parents, Bernie and Nan Harrington.
Mr. Harrington moved to San Francisco in 1987, according to an obituary. “Leaving brokenhearted parents and family, we said goodbye to John,” the obituary stated. “However, John forged a happy and successful life in San Francisco, and in time, his family realized this was the right decision for John. Then in 1998, John was granted American citizenship, which was a very proud day for him.”
His ambition had always been to set up and develop his own construction company and so he began studying to gain his contractors’ license. This he achieved in 2004, and John then set up Harrow Construction Corporation.
He was probably best known in the Castro community as the creator of the parklet in front of the 440 Castro bar during the COVID pandemic. It’s still one of the busiest places in the Castro, especially on warm days, friends said.
John’s name became known in construction circles in San Francisco, the obituary noted, and his work was known for its high quality and precision. John was also renowned for his care and generosity to his employees, for which he gained their loyalty and respect.
Mr. Harrington is survived by siblings Jerry, Catherine, Bernard, Mary, Liz, Jim, Ann, Margaret and Geraldine, in addition to nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews, and other family members, according to the obituary.
“This is an interesting time to be leading an office that does the work we do,” said Peña.
One reason she pointed to is her office’s involvement with the California Jobs First https://jobsfirst.ca.gov/ initiative. The Bay Area is one of 13 regions across the Golden State that Governor Gavin Newsom and state leaders are supporting with financial investments and other resources to ensure they have good-paying jobs for the residents of those areas.
Via a $20 million grant from the state for the nine-county Bay Area, the various workforce development offices in each jurisdiction are collaborating on what kinds of projects to support in the region. It is enabling her division to “play a regional role,” noted Peña, in bolstering the local workforce development system.
The aim, she explained, is to assist people as “they enter the workforce and ensure they are successful once they land a job that is part of their career journey.”
According to the city division, it an-
He was predeceased by his partner, David Friedmann, and his parents. Friends will gather to say farewell to Mr. Harrington Sunday, August 24, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the bar 440 Castro.
Louie Quesada Lopez
August 24, 1940 – July 23, 2025
Louie Quesada Lopez was born on August 24, 1940, in Merced, California, to Josephine Quesada and Sal Reyes. Louie found his calling early in life as a soughtafter barber, treasuring the opportunity to style the hair of both Elvis Presley and the legendary Little Richard, as well as many other celebrities in major hotels and salons in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Australia. Those who knew Louie will remember him as a man who lived life with elegance and joy. He traveled the world, experiencing the culture of many countries. A bon vivant, he was always impeccably dressed and, in drag, he was stylishly beautiful. He was deeply religious and loved to meditate.
Louie passed peacefully in San Francisco, surrounded by those who loved him most, his devoted partner, David McCrady; his loving sister, Rebecca Maravilla; his best friend, Paul Lee; and his niece, Josephine Smallwood. He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Ramona Gonzalez; and brother, Joe Laurian.
In addition to McCrady, Maravilla, and her husband, John, he is survived by loving siblings Ernie Hernandez and Jerry Pineada (Helen), as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and extended family members who will carry his memory in their hearts.
There will be a celebration of life for Louie from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, August 24, at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge on 133 Turk Street in San Francisco.
seniors, young adults (ages 16-24), and people who are justice-involved.”
OEWD maintains a database with thousands of job seekers that employers can tap into, noted Peña. Her division puts special focus on crucial sectors like health care, with an 85% placement rate for individuals it helps get training in such jobs. With the local tourism industry another economic driver, it also offers hospitality programs with an 88% placement rate for those who complete the training.
“Oftentimes, we are people’s saving grace,” noted Peña. “People are often at their wit’s end when they seek out our programs.”
nually serves between 7,000 and 8,000 job seekers and, in 2024, helped place more than 4,300 people in jobs. It supports 28 job centers located in different neighborhoods around the city, such as the employment services offered at the SF LGBT Community Center on upper Market Street.
A person needs to be a San Francisco resident in order to access the workforce development division’s programs. But it can refer people to programs they are eligible for in other counties.
“We have partners and orgs that provide specialized support for LGBTQ+ jobseekers and understand the unique needs and challenges of our community,” Peña told the B.A.R. “Our specialized job centers also offer tailored support for other groups to find employment, including veterans, people with disabilities,
“We don’t turn folks away because they don’t have work experience and don’t have the education,” noted Peña.
“Wherever you are in life, we want to help you.”
Earning a salary of $205,000, Peña saw her division’s budget cut by roughly $8 million in the fiscal year that started July 1 amid the city’s need to address a deficit. It was set at $38,031,028 for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 and set to increase to $44,584,150 in Fiscal Year 2026-2027.
“The vision I have is strengthening the work we do to create pathways for careers for folks,” said Peña of her focus
in the coming months. “We are not just here to get people a job. We are here to get you on a path to be economically stable.”
While the headlines of late have reported on downsizing of jobs at various technology firms and other Silicon Valley employers, impacting many San Francisco residents, other fields are growing – like crypto currency and AI –and hiring, with other sectors like travel and tourism beginning to bounce back to pre-COVID levels. According to the most recent federal data, the city’s unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in June, which marked a significant drop from the 14.1% it saw in April of 2020 at the start of the COVID pandemic.
The city controller’s “Status of the San Francisco Economy” report covering July and released August 8 had an air of caution about the city’s job market, noting that most of the job gains since April have been “seasonal,” with the leisure and hospitality sector the biggest driver of job growth this spring. It also found “softer” job listings in the San Francisco metro market, similar to other metro markets in the U.S.
“San Francisco’s downtown recovery has continued throughout the summer, even as the macroeconomic context becomes more challenging, and there are few signs of sustained growth in hiring in the labor market,” wrote the city’s Chief Economist Ted Egan, Ph.D., and senior economist Asim Khan, Ph.D.
and Russell Thoman (1951-present). He graduated from Homestead High School in 1971 and enrolled in DeAnza Junior College before transferring to Arizona State University, where he graduated with a degree in Communications. He then moved to San Francisco, which remained his home and the city he loved beyond all others. For many years, he worked at Macy’s West in both the advertising and legal departments. He also wrote regularly for the Bay Area Reporter in the 1980s and early 1990s, reporting on queer sports in the city and region.
His passion for track and field began in high school, but it became a driving force once he moved to San Francisco. Among the distinguished legacies of Rick’s remarkable life, he was a member of the cohort that organized and participated in the first Gay Games in 1982 – originally called the Gay Olympics until the U.S. Olympic Committee pursued legal action to deter the organizers from using that name. Tom Waddell, the main founder of the Gay Games movement, personally encouraged Rick to join these efforts, and with the wave of enthusiasm following the first Gay Games, Rick worked together with other track and field athletes to co-found the San Francisco Track & Field Club (SFTFC), which aimed to promote the future of the Games and create a more inclusive space for those who felt excluded from competitive sports due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. One of the core elements of SFTFC’s philosophy was and continues to be striving for personal best achievements, an idea that shaped the mental scaffolding of Rick’s athletic career for over four decades.
These foundational experiences in 1982 were pivotal in Rick’s personal journey. One of his chief goals was to attend every Gay Games during his lifetime, and this he accomplished, medaling in all eleven games thus far, most recently in Guadalajara (2023). He consistently demonstrated his athletic prowess in the 100- and 200-meter sprints, team relays, shotput, discus and javelin into his early 70s. In order to realize his belief that sports could be a safe space for queer athletes, he helped SF Track & Field to endure as one of the oldest, continuous LGBTQ sports organizations in the nation as an active team member, trainer, club officer, and unofficial cheerleader for multiple generations of teammates. Rick also served with both Team San Francisco and the Federation of Gay Games, and he helped create SFTFC’s Pride Meet, a USATF-sanctioned meet that encourages athletes of all sexual orientations and gender identities to compete together in an open and welcoming environment. Though San Francisco was his home, Rick loved to travel. He would fondly recount the concerts and shows he saw in Las Vegas or Reno, the surprisingly sunny days in Seattle, the pretzels in Munich, the colorful bars in Budapest, the architecture of Vienna and Paris, the stillness of the Normandy cemetery, the giant spiders in Australia, the tequila in Guadalajara, the diverse neighborhoods of Toronto and New York, the summer heat of Chicago, or his drives with close friends to Oakland, Vallejo, Sausalito, Muir Woods, Half Moon Bay, Russian River, Sonoma Valley, San Rafael, or the Santa Cruz boardwalk. He often referred to his travels as
Brenda’s biscuits and Boogaloo’s chorizo scramble, fried artichokes and lomo saltado, shark cookies and It’s-Its, taking long walks in Golden Gate Park, and visiting card stores, bookstores, donut shops, and San Francisco’s public libraries. He was an avid film buff, who watched classic movies almost every evening at home and caught the current Hollywood releases on most Friday nights in the theater, when he especially delighted in his weekly “popcorn dinners.” Having worked in an ice cream shop in his younger days,
Iowayna Peña is director of San Francisco Workforce Development.
Benson Tran
Volume 55, Number 34 August 21-27, 2025 www.ebar.com
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Kaiser’s gender care decision is wrong
Add Kaiser Permanente to the list of health care providers bending to President Donald Trump and his administration. Late last month, Kaiser announced that it would pause gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth under 19. It was a slap in the face to many LGBTQ patients; Kaiser is one of the leading providers of health insurance in the Bay Area. Even if you’re not a trans youth, Kaiser’s decision is deeply troubling. The new policy goes into effect on August 29.
As we reported, Kaiser laid the blame squarely at the federal government, and its decision came shortly after the Department of Justice issued subpoenas to 20 unnamed doctors and clinics across the U.S. It also cited a Federal Trade Commission review of the matter. https://www.ebar. com/story/156187
“In response to these federal actions, many health systems and clinicians across the country have paused or discontinued providing genderaffirming care for adolescents,” Greg A. Adams, the chair and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, stated in a joint statement with other Kaiser leaders. “As the legal and regulatory environment for gender-affirming care continues to evolve, we must carefully consider the significant risks being created for health systems, clinicians, and patients under the age of 19 seeking this care.”
Kaiser joins Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Stanford in ending at least some gender-affirming care. CHLA ceased all such care in July; Stanford adopted a policy similar to Kaiser’s, and stopped gender-affirming surgeries to patients under 19 in June. This all comes as nearly 20 health systems across the country had also decided to end or pause various gender-affirming care services for minors. The list included Yale New Haven Health and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Denver Health, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In short, Trump, who has issued executive orders stating there are only two genders and others designed to strip trans people of their rights, is exerting his power
will pause gender-affirming surgeries to trans youth under 19, effective August 29
to negatively affect the most vulnerable. California is supposed to be a refuge state for trans youth and their families, but the actions by Kaiser and the other health care providers undermine that effort. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) to do just that, effective in January 2023. Under the law, officials in the Golden State refuse to participate in any legal action the families’ home states take against them.
(Newsom’s more recent comments that it’s “deeply unfair” for female trans athletes to compete on girls’ and women’s sports teams has dampened enthusiasm for him in the trans community and called into question his commitment to trans rights.)
In another development, state Attorney General Rob Bonta on August 1, the first day of Transgender History Month, announced that he and other state AGs have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration regarding the issue. Bonta and the other plaintiffs argue that Trump’s Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” interprets federal law to prevent the procedures at health providers that are recipients of Medicare or Medicaid coverage. The lawsuit refers to the executive order as the “denial of care” order.
“The president and his administration’s relentless attacks on gender-affirming care endanger
already vulnerable adolescents whose health and well-being are at risk; their demands that our health care providers discriminate against transgender individuals and deny them access to medically-necessary healthcare is cruel and irresponsible,” Bonta stated in a news release. “The Trump administration’s unlawful threats have not only undermined state rights but have directly contributed to diminishing access to genderaffirming care.
“These actions have created a chilling effect in which providers are pressured to scale back on their care for fear of prosecution, leaving countless individuals without the critical care they need and are entitled to under law,” he added.
Bonta’s right about that. The fear of prosecution is real indeed. Kaiser, CHLA, Stanford, and the others have seen the Trump administration sue universities and other entities over perceived wrongdoing. We would argue the administration is demonstrating its authoritarian bent in going after hospitals, colleges, law firms, and other groups. But these medical centers should have stood up for trans youth and their access to care. While there are conflicting studies around the issue, it seems more research is needed, not gutting such care completely.
We’re most disappointed in Kaiser. It has regularly won our readers’ poll for best health care and has long been a supporter of the LGBTQ community, advertising in the Bay Area Reporter and participating in Pride parades and other activities. Many LGBTQ people work for Kaiser, and they, too, are angered by the pause in gender-affirming care for trans patients under 19. LGBTQ parents with trans kids have also been adversely affected, as several told us last month.
But more than that, Kaiser’s decision sends a chilling message to all of its other patients: they, too, could one day learn that services they depended on are no longer available.
At the moment, however, this is about the youth themselves. Under the care of physicians, and with input from their parents, they had been able to access gender-affirming care, including surgery, at these medical facilities. Now, they are
My short film helped me heal
by Marc Huestis
On March 9, 2023, I was sexually assaulted by an accused serial rapist. My name is Marc Huestis, and I am 70 years old.
From 1975 through 2020 I lived in San Francisco. For many of those years I was the slut of all time and did crystal meth for over two decades. In 2008, I became clean. It was also hard for me to have sex without being high, so I was basically celibate.
In 2020 during the height of COVID, like many older gay men, I moved to Palm Springs. After the COVID coast was clear in 2022, a friend suggested I check out Grindr and Scruff to alleviate my loneliness and again become a sexual being.
So, I tried it, and had a few successful hookups.
In 2023, I saw a decent looking man in his 50s on Grindr. His profile picture had him smiling and hugging his dog. Sweet. I “cruised” him and he answered me right away.
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The encounter started innocently enough then quickly devolved. Without my consent he gave me a huge booty bump – a massive anal infusion of crystal.
I have never been so high in my life.
He then proceeded to bruise, cut, burn, and rape me. When the violence became unbearable, I begged him to stop. He slapped me in the face and shouted “shut up.” Then he became even more violent.
After many hours I finally got him to leave. Afterward, I felt overwhelming feelings of guilt and shame. I told hardly anyone, and did not report it to the police. I fell into a deep depression. I hated myself. All common reactions to rape.
But then a miracle of nature occurred. Outside my window I noticed a small hummingbird nest. I watched as the two eggs hatched.
After a filmmaking hiatus of 28 years, I decided to pick up my camera and film them as they grew and then finally took flight. These nestlings and their nurturing mom saved my life. They gave me a reason to live.
Several months later, after they left the nest, I scrolled my feed on Facebook and I noticed an article about an alleged Palm Springs serial rapist
who had just been arrested. I was shocked. That was him. The very same man who had brutally assaulted me. It was then when I realized mine was not an isolated incident. I reported my own assault to the police.
I’ve heard 20 men have stories of sexual assault by this perpetrator. Seven, including me, came forward to the authorities. He is also suspected of one murder.
The accused rapist is now being held on $1 million bail, and two and half years later he has yet to go to trial. I don’t feel vengeful, but I hope he receives justice. I sat on my hummingbird footage for over two years. This assault was too painful for me to revisit. But with my alleged assaulter behind bars, I finally got up the strength to make a short film about it. I titled it “Baby Hummingbirds,” inspired by the brave assault episode in “Baby Reindeer.”
My film evolved from a story of repulsion into redemption. And believe it or not, it ends on an optimistic note. The last line is a quote from Carrie Fisher –“Take your broken heart and turn it into art.”
On a personal note, since the assault, I am no longer on Grindr and basically stopped having sex. At 70, it was harder to find partners anyway and I’m not the husband type. Recently, we have been inundated anew with the Jeffrey Epstein story, and his cruel history of systematic sexual assaults. I deeply empathize with the victims. But these experiences are not limited to girls and women. It has been suggested that at least one in six men have been sexually abused or assaulted. Gay men represent a large part of these statistics. Our stories need to be heard. Yet, they are a deep dark secret in the gay community, barely discussed.
Vulnerable older gay men are often targets of these attacks. Particularly in places like Palm Springs, where there is a large, lonely retired community, we can be sitting ducks ripe for elder abuse.
Silence=Death. Through “Baby Hummingbirds” I decided to come forward to shed light on this issue. So far, I have privately shared the film with some of my friends. Many have messaged me with moving stories recounting their own very personal accounts of assault and drug usage. They are deeply poignant and reinforce the power of film.
And “Baby Hummingbirds” is finally seeing the light, showing to larger audiences at several film festivals. I’m excited that it will have its San Francisco theatrical premiere this weekend. It also will be seen in Mexico City, Chicago, and Palm Springs.
My therapist reminds me that even if no one sees the film, creating it should have been a personal catharsis. I push back and say what’s the point of making art if no one sees it. Now people will.
If it affects even one person with similar stories and makes them feel less alone, I will have done my job. That is my pride. t
“Baby Hummingbirds” screens Sunday, August 24, at 1 p.m. at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street, as part of the SF Queer Film Festival. For more information about Marc Huestis and his other work, visit www.marchuestispresents.com.
Marc Huestis as he appeared two days after his reported assault.
Marc Huestis
Kaiser Permanente
Cynthia Laird
Gay Minneapolis mayoral candidate Davis stumps in Bay Area
by Matthew S. Bajko
During a Bay Area trip with his husband to mark their 34th anniversary with friends, the Reverend Dr. DeWayne Davis mixed in some politicking amid the personal celebrations. The gay Democrat is seeking to be elected the first out mayor of Minneapolis come November 4.
Should he do so, the African American leader and former congressional aide would be one of the highest-ranking LGBTQ political leaders in the Midwest and one of a handful of out Black male mayors elected in the U.S. Backing his candidacy is the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which works to elect out candidates across the country and is now led by gay former California assemblymember Evan Low
“Minneapolis is uniquely situated to weather whatever the current federal administration throws at us. I think we can be a model for other cities on how to be vigilant for your citizens, how to bolster morale and how to be fighting back,” Davis told the Bay Area Reporter when asked about the importance of his being his city’s first out mayor.
Low called Davis “a changemaking leader for Minneapolis” who “will stand up for equality and vulnerable communities as mayor.”
“Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis brings the right mix of experience, compassion and perspective to the race for mayor of Minneapolis, and we are proud to endorse him in his history-making campaign,” Low told the B.A.R. “As a clergy member and a public servant, Rev. Dr. Davis is deeply connected to the city and its residents and will fight for solutions that work.”
Minneapolis mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis visited San Francisco’s Castro district while in the Bay Area to celebrate with close friends the 34th anniversary of meeting his husband.
mayoral campaign last October, Davis resigned from his minister position in June in order to focus on his candidacy full-time.
“We feel really good about where we are,” said Davis about the state of the race to date.
A poll released in the spring had Frey’s disapproval as mayor at 50% and unfavorable rating at 51%. Just 28% had him as their first choice in the mayoral race, with Fateh at 15% and Davis at 10%. A plurality, at 44%, were unsure, while a third challenger, college adjunct professor and mediator Jazz Hampton, who is CEO and general counsel of tech company TurnSignl, polled at 4%.
Davis, 54, and his spouse, Kareem Murphy, 53, a deputy county administrator for Hennepin County, have long been friends with Alameda school board president Ryan LaLonde and his husband, Christopher Moody They co-hosted a fundraiser for Davis August 16 at the gay-owned LGBTQ nightlife venue Fluid510 in downtown Oakland that attracted a bevy of out local leaders and others, netting more than $8,000 for Davis’ campaign coffers.
“He has been my husband’s and my best friend for 30 years. He is the person who will be executing our will if we were to die,” LaLonde told the B.A.R. “We have complete confidence in his ability to not only lead Minneapolis but find solutions for the city where everybody is sure they are the right thing to do right now.”
The day prior, the B.A.R. invited Davis to meet up for an interview about his candidacy in the cafe of the Castro Country Club, a nonprofit sober space in the heart of San Francisco’s LGBTQ district. A first-time candidate for elected office, Davis has emerged as a top contender alongside Mayor Jacob Frey, who is seeking a third four-year term, and state Senator Omar Fateh
With the city and Frey still contending with the fallout from the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in 2020, the election was already sure to draw national interest. Then came New York City mayoral contender Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory earlier this summer to be the Democratic Party’s candidate in his race. Comparisons between him and Fateh, being they’re both Muslims and Democratic socialists, ratcheted up the mainstream media’s coverage of the Minnesota race.
And as voters begin to pay more attention to the contest post the upcoming Labor Day weekend, the unofficial start to the fall campaign season during election cycles, attention on the contest to lead Minnesota’s largest city will only intensify. Having quietly launched his
“It is not either or. We need police but we need police who are trained, respect ful and responsive,” said Davis.
Capitol Hill career
Raised in Indianola, Mississippi the 15th child of a minister and a kinder garten teacher, Davis grew up as a queer Black boy in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic. He felt supported by his family and came out at age 14, though kept his then-boyfriend a secret.
Howard University drew him to the East Coast, and Davis graduated in 1993 with a B.A. in economics and philoso phy. He went on to earn an M.A. in gov ernment and politics from the Univer sity of Maryland at College Park in 1998.
His career on Capitol Hill spanned two decades starting in the mid 1990s, from being a legislative aide for Demo cratic congressmembers closky of Texas to serving as an Appropriations Committee aide to the early 2000s. Davis’s policy portfolio included such areas as LGBTQ rights and health care to financial services and housing.
“All of my portfolio was focused on human needs,” recalled Davis.
After being hired as director of fed eral and industry relations for Sallie Mae Inc., Davis felt lost in his professional life.
“As a lobbyist, I felt so distant from people and policy,” recalled Davis, whose therapist at the time recommended he go back to attending church services. “I did and it tapped into something I was missing.”
The city will use rankedchoice voting to determine the winner, similar to how San Francisco and Oakland run their mayoral elections. Rather than have a runoff election if no candidate on the first ballot secures more than 50% of the vote, those with the least votes are eliminated and their voters’ ranked mayoral choices are then tabulated until a winner emerges with a majority of the vote.
Davis doesn’t have a ranked-choice strategy lined up with any of the other candidates. He sees himself as most likely to be the second choice for both Frey’s and Fateh’s supporters, giving him a pathway to victory.
“Myself, Senator Fateh, and Jazz represent a majority of voters or likely voters who want new leadership,” contended Davis, who co-led the City Community Safety Working Group to offer police reforms and other measures for Frey and local leaders to implement in the wake of Floyd’s murder.
The need for continued police reform was a major motivating factor behind his entering the mayoral race, said Davis. It is the number three issue on his platform listed on his campaign website at https://www.dewayneforminneapolis. com/platform just below building more affordable housing and investing in the city’s neighborhoods and commercial corridors outside of downtown.
“We are only five years out from George Floyd’s murder and we are nowhere near where we need to be on this,” Davis said of reforming the city’s police force. “We need to keep attention and pressure on this in order to do the work.”
He pushed back against any notion that doing so is “going after the police,” arguing the local community wants to hold the department accountable as it would any other profession. Davis likened it to wanting to hold a hospital to account should an investigation find it with lapses in procedures or safety measures, which doesn’t mean “you are antidoctors or anti-nurses.”
Supportive of ensuring the city has the police force it needs, Davis also wants to make sure they are properly trained and there is “zero tolerance” for misconduct among officers.
The first church in D.C. he and his husband attended was that of the LGBTQ denomination Metropolitan Community Church. It was “such an amazing experience,” said Davis, that he continued to attend its services.
One day, the pastor asked if he had ever considered entering the ministry. It prompted Davis to enroll in the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., where he received his Master of Divinity degree with honors in 2012. He also that year became a cleric ordained by the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.
But he had an “identity crisis,” Davis acknowledged, since until that point he had worked in the political arena. So, when an opportunity arose to become a policy adviser for the Episcopal Church in its D.C. office, he jumped at the chance and once again was on Capitol Hill lobbying lawmakers on policy matters and bills like the Affordable Care Act signed into law by former President Barack Obama
That work resulted in Davis and his husband relocating in 2013 to Minneapolis after he was hired as senior pastor of the city’s All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul and became lead minister at Plymouth Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in downtown Minneapolis.
He would be named chaplain of the Minnesota state Senate, several members of which had suggested that Davis run for mayor, something he had also heard from city residents impressed with his leadership of the police reform advisory body. It wasn’t until seeing then-President Joe Biden falter in his debate last summer with then-candidate Donald Trump and thinking the former president could win reelection that Davis cemented on the idea to run for mayor rather than move away because of Trump’s antiLGBTQ policies.
Matthew S. Bajko
“People can also check with CVS, Walgreens, Safeway, or Costco,” Janssen said. “We also recommend people check with insurance to see that it’s covered.
Especially if they are in specific health systems like Kaiser, we recommend you seek vaccination there as it may not be
club The Academy on upper Market Street housed in a building once home to a gay bar.
Addressing his association’s members at their August 7 meeting, Bourg noted San Francisco for years has recognized the Black LGBTQ community as part of its Pride celebrations held in late June. The committee that oversees it has long had Black community members in prominent leadership roles, and there has long been the Soul of Pride stage, for instance, at the festival held in the Civic Center featuring Black performers and speakers.
“This is something new,” said Bourg of the SF Black Pride event, whose orga-
Heitstuman said that the SAMHSA funds are the only federal monies that’ve been terminated. But that could change, he warned, as the center has about $1.2 million in other federally-funded activities, such as the center’s housing programs.
“The ongoing uncertainty around federal support puts entire care infrastructures at risk – not just for our organization, but for communities across the country who rely on these essential programs,” Heitstuman stated August 7.
The center also puts on Sacramento’s annual Pride festival and parade, held the second weekend of June. The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee made headlines earlier this year when it announced some corporate sponsors withdrew after President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in January. LGBTQ community centers in the Bay Area told the B.A.R. they too saw trepidation.
A similar drop off occurred in Sacramento, with Heitstuman noting corporate sponsorships for the city’s Pride festival were down roughly 30% this year from past years. And Greater Palm Springs Pride announced August 8 that it was facing a reduction of $325,000 in corporate sponsorships but that the November 6-9 event will go on as planned.
“I am concerned that the trend is continuing, whether it’s economic uncertainty or people’s personal economic problems, or, you know, just nervousness and fear generally? I’m not sure,” said Heitstuman. “Pride’s an incredibly expensive enterprise. To produce it costs
covered at a retail pharmacy or check with your insurance first. If you do not have insurance, sf.gov/mpox lists other locations where the vaccine is available.”
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation encouraged people to get vaccinated.
“The slight uptick in the number of mpox cases this summer should not be cause for alarm since the number
nizers were unable to attend the business group’s meeting as scheduled.
San Francisco joins a growing number of cities with Black Pride events.
The first Black Pride was held in 1991 in Washington, D.C., and today the largest is in Atlanta. Houston, Detroit, and New Orleans also have significant celebrations. Oakland has also held a Black Pride celebration in recent years.
A week of events
The San Francisco events kick off August 25 with Movement Monday, where people can join hip-hop or yoga workshops at the LGBT center, at 1800 Market Street, or a Vogue class with Sir Joq at the Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th Street.
Talk Tuesday will screen a Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project
double what it did before the pandemic. I’ve heard a lot of event providers say that since the pandemic things have doubled or even tripled.”
Indeed, as the B.A.R. reported, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center held their final AIDS/LifeCycle ride in June, citing increased event production costs since the pandemic. SFAF will launch a new three-day fundraising ride through the North Bay May 29 ending with a twonight stay in Guerneville, registration for which is set to open this fall.
LA center gets funding back, for now
SFAF and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, after having had funding cut by the Trump administration, were two of several nonprofits that took the president to court, which as the B.A.R. reported last month, led to their funding being restored, at least for now, after a judge grant-
of overall cases remains quite small,” stated Jorge Roman, who has a master of science in nursing and is director of nurse practitioner and research services at SFAF. “That said, we do encourage community members to get vaccinated for mpox if they may be at risk and have not yet received the Jynneos vaccine, since vaccination significantly reduces risk of infection. We also remind folks
short film about the displacement of the Bay Area’s Black community. Taking place at Ruth’s Table, 3160 21st Street, the film will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Honey Mahogany, a Black trans person who is executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives.
“We want to give space for healing and conversation for people who don’t have a platform,” Curry said.
A historical walking tour through the Mission, Duboce Triangle, and the Castro makes up Walk It Out Wednesday.
All those steps will help the crowd gear up for Ball Out Thursday, a night of dancing, performances, and all-Black DJs at 1015 Folsom.
Freestyle Friday will host simultaneous happy hours at Detour, 2200A Market Street, and Propagation, 895
ed a preliminary injunction blocking the funding cuts while the case proceeds.
U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar ruled the Trump administration can’t use executive orders the president signed earlier this year to defund nine LGBTQ and HIV-related organizations.
Specifically, the suit – San Francisco AIDS Foundation v. Trump – challenges executive order No. 14168, which states that, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” and defines sex as “an individual’s immutable biological classification” and not a synonym for gender identity. This order on gender identity also prohibits federal contractors and grantees from recognizing and respecting their identities or advocating for their civil rights. The lawsuit also challenges executive orders Nos. 14151 and 14173, which terminate equity-related grants and prohibit federal contractors and grantees from employing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibil-
to get screened for mpox if they experience symptoms. Community members are encouraged to call or make an appointment at SFAF’s Magnet clinic or another clinical provider with questions or concerns.”
The health department asks doctors to counsel patients on condom use, and to reduce the number of their sexual partners, to avoid transmission of the mpox virus. The antiviral TPOXX is used to treat mpox in immunocompromised people, and others at risk for serious illness.
Post Street, along with a scavenger hunt through the Fillmore District.
The Satur-Allday Festival begins at noon at the LGBT center, and while no formal parade is planned, Curry expects the walks to the post-festival parties at QBar, 456 Castro Street; Beaux, 2344 Market Street; and Mother, 3079 16th Street, to be uplifting and triumphant.
The Castro’s past that Bourg mentioned is why it was intentional to stage several events in the neighborhood.
“We want to take up space there, the Castro is part of the queer experience. QBar has historically held space for Black people, and QBar reached out immediately after I posted my Reel,” Curry said.
Soulful Sunday will host a reflection celebration at Mission Dolores Park, and then the crowd will head to Beaux
ity principles in their work.
Joe Hollendoner, a gay man who used to be CEO of SFAF, is now the LA center’s CEO. For this article, the center made available Terra Russell-Slavin, a gender-expansive lesbian who is its chief strategy officer. She told the B.A.R. in a June 12 phone interview (before Tigar restored the funds) that, “I would say there was about $6 million in canceled funding but over multiyear periods.”
The center is, “the largest LGBTQ service provider in the country,” she said, and it provides comprehensive social services, HIV testing and treatment, and is one of the largest providers of genderaffirming care in the state of California. It operates out of 10 locations across Los Angeles County, but its administration is headquartered at the Anita May Rosenstein Campus at 1118 North McCadden Place in Los Angeles.
Thankfully, Russell-Slavin said, “We have not had to eliminate services” due to the Trump administration’s attempt to cancel their federal contracts.
“But what we do know is if the money doesn’t come through, it’s going to lead to more wait lists, it’s going to mean people untreated for medical conditions, including STIs, and that we will have long-term impacts that will likely cost the state and federal governments more money than the upfront, preventative work,” she said.
The situation for trans people seeking health care has been affected in Southern California. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles ended care for transgender patients July 22. It’s one of a number of medical facilities across the country that have either stopped trans care or reduced services for trans minors.
Asked about isolation guidelines, Janssen said, “Each individual will have different symptoms, so we recommend people talk to their health care providers about specific isolation guidelines.” t
for a late night show with “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” winner Angeria Paris VanMicheals.
The celebration week is fiscally supported by the SF LGBT center and most events there are free.
Curry is ecstatic.
“I was just sitting there on my lunchbreak, I wasn’t trying to start a movement,” he said. “Now, I’m thinking five years out already. When do we get to have bigger conversations about rent and the Fillmore being too expensive? We’re not just a party, we are calling into existence that we are here and we want to uplift Black voices.”
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One person -$16,350; 2 persons - $18,700; 3 persons - $21,050
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One person - $32,750; 2 persons - $37,400; 3 persons - $42,100
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*Subject to change based on annual release and publications by Federal, State of Local Agencies
Application information found on the SF Housing Portal - DAHLIA at housing.sfgov.org.
Applications due by 5pm on Friday, September 5, 2025. Please contact the Chinatown Community Development Center for building information at (415) 821-8950 or TB2W@chinatowncdc.org.
Reached for comment August 6, Russell-Slavin said the LA LGBT Center still provides care for trans adults and makes referrals for trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive youth.
“The Los Angeles LGBT Center continues to provide the same broad range of gender-affirming care services for LGBTQ+ patients ages 18 and older that we offered prior to President Trump taking office,” she stated. “No one – not even the president – can erase the transgender community. While the center does not provide medical care to individuals under 18, we work closely with TGNBI+ youth through many of our other programs to ensure they have affirming access to support, resources, and care.”
After Children’s Hospital LA announced in June that it would stop providing gender affirming care to people under the age of 19 to comply with Trump’s Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” the LA center helped facilitate four weeks of protests.
manente location across the street after the Oakland-based health care provider announced it would pause gender-affirming surgeries for trans people under 19. That goes into effect August 29. Pudlo is a candidate for the open state Senate District 26 seat in next June’s primary. They are an elected member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.
“I’ll say I’m a big fan of the Los Angeles LGBT Center,” Pudlo said in a phone interview. “They do a lot for our community. They are open and welcoming in many different ways. They do a lot in terms of helping folks get back on their feet. They have people addressing homelessness, accessing gender-affirming care, and they do a tremendous amount of work for the community.”
The B.A.R. spoke with Russell-Slavin at the height of the immigration enforcement raids that galvanized Los Angeles. She said it was “absolutely awful that the Trump administration” had not only called in the National Guard, but also the Marines, against local civilians.
“Our clients are scared. We have many clients who are immigrants, and regardless of status, they are fearful in this moment because there is a lawlessness to this,” she said. “What used to be fundamental due process rights are being thrown out the window. The feeling that at any moment members of the community can be attacked feels palpable. We are resolutely standing by our immigrant community that is LGBTQ and shoulder-to-shoulder with immigrant groups.”
San Francisco Black Pride takes place at various venues August 25-31. For more information, visit sanfranciscoblackpride.org t 31 Studios and 89 1-bedrooms affordable rental units available at
Units available through the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. Visit sf.gov/mohcd for program information.
Many of the military personnel have since left Los Angeles, but people are still scared. A reported 300 or so Guard forces remain in the city.
“While we welcome the removal of the National Guard and military presence, the harm has already been done. The fear caused by increased ICE enforcement, violent raids targeting predominantly Latinx/e communities and businesses, and ongoing threats of federal policy rollbacks is palpable,” Russell-Slavin told the B.A.R. August 6. “This fear is especially acute for LGBTQ+ immigrants - many of whom are low-income, undocumented, or formerly incarcerated. As a result, many are avoiding vital services or, in some cases, staying home entirely out of fear of arrest or deportation, regardless of their immigration status.”
Russell-Slavin also agreed that, “We’ve seen a nervousness around funders.”
According to the latest IRS Form 990 for the center – for the year ending in June 2024 – it brought in $211.5 million in revenue and spent $179.7 million in expenses.
“We’ve had some people who’ve stepped up and provided more, and some who are hesitant to respond,” she said. “Now, more than ever, we need that money. What we’ve seen is more people long-term committed to the movement are interested in meeting this moment, but there’s a lot of hesitancy.” t << LGBTQ centers
Maebe Pudlo, who identifies as trans and nonbinary and is also known by their drag name, Maebe A. Girl, told the B.A.R. that the demonstrations have expanded to the Los Angeles Kaiser Per-
Terra Russell-Slavin is chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
Courtesy LA center Maebe Pudlo, aka Maebe A. Girl, is supportive of the LA LGBT Center.
Courtesy the subject
by Adam Sandel
The vocal powerhouse who first came to international attention on “America’s Got Talent” in 2016, Brian Justin Crum is fresh from a life-changing experience in the Hollywood Bowl production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” alongside Cynthia Erivo, Adam Lambert, Phillipa Soo, Josh Gad, and Raul Esparza. Up next, he’ll headline “Broadway Night” for Marin Jazz at the Lark Theater in Larkspur on Thursday, August 28.
Since age 17, the San Diego native racked up regional and Broadway credits in shows including “Wicked,” “Altar Boyz,” “Grease,” “Next to Normal,” “Tarzan,” “The Addams Family” and in Queen’s rock theatrical “We Will Rock You,” singing with the original Queen band members Brian May and Roger Taylor.
In a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Crum shared insights on his recent mega-gig, on becoming TV’s overnight sensation, and on how theatre made him a better singer.
Adam Sandel: Let’s start with “Jesus Christ Superstar.” How did you get that gig?
Brian Justin Crum: My agent submitted me, and I’d worked with the director Sergio Trujillo and musical director Stephen Oremus years ago. I sent in an audition tape for a different role, and then I was told that I was their first choice for the role of Annas.
The cast was a who’s who of Broadway superstars. Which of the performers did you already know, and which were new to you?
I’ve known Adam Lambert since I was 14. We grew up together in San Diego and we had the same voice teacher. Everyone else was new to me. I stepped away from doing theatre about ten years ago, so it was nice to work with theatre people again. I was especially excited to meet Cynthia Erivo and Phillipa Soo, and I’ve always admired Raul Esparza and Josh Gad.
San Francisco Queer Film Festival
by David-Elijah Nahmod
On Friday August 22 the fifth annual San Francisco Queer Film Festival will commence for a three-day run at the Roxie Theater. During that time short films and features, documentaries and narrative films, representing the full spectrum of the LGBT rainbow, will be presented on the big screen.
The stated mission of the festival is, in part, “to provide an inclusive platform for LGBTQ+ filmmakers to share bold, innovative, and authentic stories. We aim to foster a creative space where filmmakers are celebrated for their unique perspectives, regardless of premiere status, budget or industry connections.”
Looking over the festival schedule one can indeed see a diverse mix of storytelling. Opening night offers a double feature, the short documentary “Babaylan,” a San Francisco story about a group of drag queens who are reclaiming and celebrating their queer Filipino heritage. This is followed by a feature length documentary “Love Me, Bait Me,” which explores the relationship between Hollywood, television, and the authentic portrayals of diverse LGBTQ experiences across the past century.
Day two, August 23, features six programs, some of which will be seen in the Big Roxie, some in the small Roxie. Scheduled to be shown
in separate programs are films which celebrate the trans and bear communities. There’s also a program that shares stories of people who live with HIV/AIDS, among other programs.
Day three, August 24, also features six programs. The day begins with a program of short foreign films in the Small Roxie. In the Big Roxie there will be another program of short films, all of these run under thirteen minutes. These include “Baby Hummingbirds,” the latest work by former Castro Theater impresario Marc Huestis, who has a shocking story to tell. Huestis recounts his experience as a survivor of a violent sexual assault, and how a family of hummingbirds in his backyard gave him the strength to carry on.
As the day continues, there will be a program of lesbian short films and a feature length documentary on Dean Johnson, a New York drag queen and escort who died mysteriously. It is indeed a diverse mixture of films. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Director of Programming Kevin Thomas spoke about the festival.t
Read the full article on www.ebar.com.
SF Queer Film Festival, August 22-24, Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. $13.63-$300. www.sfqueerfilmfest.com
Justin Crum with Cynthia
the
forming artists today working together on the same stage, in this venue, at this time. It was a really full experience. I can’t believe that we pulled it off.
What impact has your acting background had on your musical performances?
I’ve been performing since I was five years old, and I was always such a vocal technician. Then I realized, especially doing “Next to Normal” on Broadway, that the acting lane is much more important. Cynthia doesn’t do so much technically, she’s always doing the story. It’s all about what emotion you’re feeling, and what you want the audience to be feeling.
How do you think your life might be different today if you hadn’t been on ‘America’s Got Talent?’
What was the rehearsal process like?
It was very quick. We had about 12 days to learn all the music, the staging, and the choreography. Even though it was a concert version, it was fully staged. People would get pulled out of the rehearsal room to get a wig fitting. It was very hectic and ‘all hands on deck.’
What was the most memorable thing about doing the performances?
The fact that it was the highest caliber of per-
Where I lean in now is on the cabaret shows like I’ll be doing the Bay Area. “America’s Got Talent” introduced me to millions of people, which is invaluable. But I’ve always been able to create new projects, identities, and lanes. Each one of them is a stepping stone to a new journey.t
Read the full interview, with music clips, on www.ebar.com.
‘Broadway Night’ with Brian Justin Crum and Daniela Innocenti Beem, The Lark Theater, 549 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. $70$80, August 28, 7:30pm www.marinjazz.com www.brianjustincrum.com
APatricia Quinn, Tim Curry and Nell Campbell in ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’
Shiver with antici…pation for multiple celebrations
by Jim Provenzano
ugust 14 marked the 50th anniversary of the first screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the cult favorite adaptation of the successful stage play. The story about fiancés Brad and Janet’s wild night in the castle of a strange scientist has become a cult favorite in queer communities and among allies as well. Along with a new Blu-ray for home viewing, multiple screenings and Q&As with some of the film’s stars will take place across the country, and in San Francisco, where the nightclub version of the musical will return.
Although Richard O’Brien’s musical was not at first a success in its film adaptation, the legendary midnight showings, thought up by a young 20th Century Fox executive, attracted college students and fans who eventually started talking back to the screen, bringing props and costumes and, initially at downtown New York City’s Waverly Cinema, developed into what came to be known as shadow casts, comprised of superfans who mimicked the action on-screen up and down the theater aisles.
Audience members would throw toast, squirt water pistols, and protect their heads with newspapers, depending on the accompanying onscreen. Many devoted fans were known to attend screenings hundreds of times. Some fans credit the film for their sexual awakening. You’re into a time slip
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, a new 4K restoration will be screened at cinemas around
the U.S. A special screening at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will include several of the film’s stars, and a North American fan tour features cast members like Barry Bostwick, Nell Campbell, and Patricia Quinn. The San Francisco stop on the tour will include Nell Campbell in a Q&A and screening, with a shadow cast, at the Curran Theatre on October 23.
A new Blu-ray edition will also be released for sale. Additional events include official conventions, Q&As with the cast and crew, and some new merchandise from brands like Funko and Loungefly.
And for fans of the musical stage show, Oasis Arts and Ray of Light Theater company collaborate once again for an immersive hilarious nightclub version of the musical starring D’Arcy Dollinger as Frank-N-Furter. The show runs October 9 through 31, and will be the last of this version of the show, as Oasis will unfortunately close after 2025.t
Read more about the local history of “Rocky” on stage and screen, on www.ebar.com.
‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ U.S. tour: www.scottstander.com/rocky.html
Nell Campbell at ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Curran Theatre screening and Q&A, $67-$100 VIP, Oct. 23, 8pm. Afterparty $30. 445 Geary St. www.broadwaysf.com
‘The Rocky Horror Show’ at Oasis, $52, 7pm, Oct. 9-31, 395 11th St. www.sfoasis.com
‘Cutaways’ in the SF Queer Film Festival
All the colors of the LGBT rainbow at the Roxie
Brian
Erivo and Adam Lambert after one of
Hollywood Bowl ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ concerts
Gay singer’s road to success from ‘America’s Got Talent’ to ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
Brian Justin Crum
‘The Return’ Personal and political Middle East conflict
by Jim Gladstone
International and intimate affairs
commingle to harrowing effect in “The Return,” by Hannah Eady and Edward Mast, now being staged by Golden Thread Productions and Art2Action, Inc.
The intense, 70-minute drama makes excellent use of the Garret, a small fifth-floor space at the Toni Rembe Theatre rarely used for public performances, placing every audience member discomfitingly close to the argument at hand.
To live in the state of Israel is to live in a state of suspended animation, suggests “The Return.” Arabs, many of whom identify as Palestinian, make up 20% of the Israeli population. are perpetually regarded with suspicion and surveillance. Respect is denied; upward mobility an impossibility. Society is frozen in conflict.
“If we exist, it’s a threat,” explains an Arab auto mechanic (Nic Musleh), to Talia (Elissa Beth Stebbins), a distraught Jewish woman who shows up at the garage where he works. The duo’s conversations, which begin adversarially and gradually evolve into mutual desperation, comprise the entire piece.
Within minutes of Talia’s unexplained arrival, she begins peppering the workman with prying inquiries. Why is he allowed to repair Israeli
military vehicles? Doesn’t his being an Arab make him a dangerous choice?
What did he do before he worked here?
Where is he from? Where is his family?
Where Stebbins places Talia on the verge of hysteria. Musleh plays his character, who his interrogator sug-
gests once went by the name “Avi,” with a taciturn poignance, conveying a deeply internalized sense of defeat and sorrow.
She seems wracked by guilt and privilege. He seems resolved to take whatever grief life gives him. But what
brings these two together?
That’s the question that writers Mast and Eady, who also directs this production, leverage to generate suspense. It’s a tactic that weakens the play.
The difference in the characters’ temperaments creates a compelling tension
‘The Mechanix’ Two old friends reunite for a wild thrill ride
by David-Elijah Nahmod
From August 23-September 6, old friends Sara Toby Moore and Matthew Martin will reunite at Z Below
for “The Mechanix,” described by its creator Moore as “a science fictionmagical realism-human cartoon production.” Sounds like a wild ride. Moore and Martin have been
performing together for twenty years, most notably as Mr. and Mrs. Roper in Oasis’ “Three’s Company” parodies. They have also appeared together in Michael Phillis’ outrageous “Trog Live,” as well as “The Hand That Rocks the Crawford.” Martin is well known for his portrayals of several of Hollywood’s legendary ladies, with Mommie Dearest herself, Joan Crawford, being among his best-known characters.
“Matthew has always been a touchstone for me,” Moore said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “Not only as a fellow stage artist but as a close and treasured friend. I mean, he’s one of two emergency contacts on all my damn forms!”
Moore explained what they mean when they refer to the show by its “science fiction-magical realism” subheading.
“Well, that subheading was just pitch-perfect because that’s what it literally is,” they said. “The show has elements of sci-fi in that many of the characters are supernatural and exist in an enchanted landscape. Magical realism is an artistic device that blurs reality and magic together, which is spot-on for an amusement pier that yields portals to other dimensions, and human cartoon is my own brand of, well, really both of those things combined.”
The show has four principal actors: Moore, Martin, Maureen McVerry, and DeMarcello Funes. There will also be an onscreen appearance from queer comic Erin-Kate Whitcomb. Moore wrote the show, while Colin H. Johnson serves as director.
“The music for the show is all found and woven into that very dynamic mashup of sound and image that Colin and I have been experimenting with since our days collaborating in Clown Conservatory at Circus Center,” Moore said. “Which of course culminated in our first production together, ‘The Supers’ at Z Space in 2020.”
Moore promises that Martin will be doing some serious acting in this show, which will include a couple of “Grayson Hall” moments. Hall was the actress who played Dr. Julia Hoffman on the classic TV series “Dark Shadows.” She was also nominated for an Oscar in 1964 for “Night of the Iguana,” the first such nomination for
on its own; plenty to carry an audience through just over an hour, especially since the pair’s attitudes are informed by political disparities and social pressures which are well-articulated over the course of their conversations.
The script’s initial elusiveness about the backstory of these encounters puts only the audience on tenterhooks. It’s obvious from early on that, reluctant as they may be to admit or discuss it, Talia and the mechanic both know exactly who each other is, and exactly what unfinished business stands between them.
Rather than deepening our empathy for the characters and our understanding of their conflicted motivations, the imposition of this mystery (and the elliptical dialogue it mandates early on) distracts from the play’s pith.
Still, despite feeling a bit hurried due to the coy set-up, the characters’ substantial later conversations effectively reveal their wrenching emotional contradictions.
“The Return” not only humanizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it reveals new dimensions of its impact: Damages that travel far beyond battlefields and bomb sites, and burrow deep in civilian psyches.t
‘The Return,’ through Aug. 28, $20-$130. A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St. www.goldenthread.org
playing a lesbian in Academy history. Hall was known for her somewhat over-the-top performances and Martin has said that Hall was one of his drag inspirations.
All drag
The B.A.R. also spoke with Martin.
“All theater is drag,” he said. “And I will be playing two roles, that of an aggressive interrogator, and then a wizened fortune teller, Irene the Machine, in Toby’s new production.”
Martin described the show as he sees it.
“It’s definitely a tragicomic odyssey with an amusement park setting,” he said. “The production is extremely funny and at the same time profoundly thought-provoking about who we are as people, and the reclamation and rediscovery of ourselves. Toby’s script is a unique melding of reality and fantasy together, taking the audience to another world of possibility and philosophy. Without getting too grand about it, you have the best clowns on display holding a comic mirror to the illusion we all call reality.”
Moore added that the show is definitely for an LGBTQ audience.
“As a queer human myself, along with Matthew, we definitely want our LGBTQ family to come through and see this hilarious, heartfelt show,” they said. “Especially now when we need to laugh and also be reminded how interconnected we all are in these terrifying times. ‘The Mechanix” is not only about restoration of enchantment, it’s how we fix and care for each other in times of trouble, all told through highly animated theatrics. We gays love our theatrics! And we love, love, love to laugh.”t
‘The Mechanix,’ August 23-Sept 6, Thursday–Saturday, 8pm; Sunday, 2pm, $25-$45, Z Below, 470 Florida St. www.zspace.org/mechanix
Above: DeMarcello Funes & Sara Toby Moore in ‘The Mechanix’ Below: Matthew Martin and Sara Toby Moore in ‘The Mechanix’
Colin H. Johnson
Matthew Martin and Sara Toby Moore in ‘The Mechanix’
Randall Whitehead
Nic Musleh and Elissa Beth Stebbins in ‘The Return’
David Allen
Gilded Age’
by Brian Bromberger
Variety reported that with Season 3 of Baron Julian Fellowes’ “The Gilded Age,” just concluding last week, the show gained 30 percent more viewers than Season 2, with its highest audience for the final five weeks in a row.
Perhaps the reason more people are watching the series is that realizing with the nation now headed by a rapacious billionaire intent on favoring the rich and cutting aid to the poor, that we are indeed living in a new Gilded Age, so they might as well find out what the old Gilded Age was like.
Or perhaps the opulent sets and clothes (gloriously over the top ornate, reminiscent of “Dynasty” at its mid1980s peak, complete with extravagant hats) appeals to our sensibilities, a campy soap opera.
But this season has been a watershed for the series, because it is much better than the previous two seasons.
“The Gilded Age” is one of those rare series that improves with each season, rather than the usual creative ennui.
The pace is much faster, advantageous here so you don’t notice how paper thin and cliched the plots are.
The key turn was in the second season shift from the traditional old money Van Rhijn sisters to the rapacious nouveau-riche Russell couple, even though Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) is still channeling the acerbic world-weary sarcasm of the Dowager Countess of Grantham (played by the late Maggie Smith) of “Downton Abbey” so she still gets to utter the series’ best lines (i.e. “Unhappy? What is this babble?”)
In the first two seasons, there was the veneer of being socially conscious, so we had appearances by Clara Barton, with ‘journalist’ Peggy (Denee Benton) traveling down South to experience Jim Crow. Any pretense about wanting to promote social change has virtually vanished. Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon) mourns the loss of her minister husband, who incidentally, came from a stinking rich family. After Agnes’ gay son Oscar (Blake Ritson) lost all her money in the 1880s version of a Ponzi scheme, leaving her penniless, last season, Ada saved the day with her unexpected windfall.
To deal with her grief, Ada takes up the temperance movement because she thinks it would have appealed to her late husband. Her inconsolable mourning takes her to a fraudulent
medium, played to comic genius by Andrea Martin. The biggest issue in the Van Rhijn household is who gets to sit at the head of the table (Agnes or Ada) and tell the staff what to do.
Meanwhile, the dead-in-the-water romance between sweet but vacuous Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and prim-to-a-fault van Rhijn niece Marian Cook (Louisa Jacobson) could unite the two dynasties. But the entire season revolves around the anger she has because he visited a whorehouse (but didn’t do anything), yet didn’t tell her.
The peak of the season for queer viewers is when Oscar’s male lover John Adams (Claybourne Elder) is killed. Being closeted, he can’t share his grief with anyone, though family and friends are picking up on his lingering sorrow. The show gives some
insight into the cost of what it meant to be queer in an intolerant era.
Unfortunately, this downturn only lasts two episodes before the recovering Oscar is once again looking for a potential female suitor he can marry to provide a cover for his gay affairs, specifically the freshly widowed and wealthy
Enid Winterton (Kelley Curran). Why is it that often the most unsavory characters in Fellowes’s series (remember the shady under butler Thomas Barrow in “Downton Abbey”) are gay? It’s actually a creative feat that we give a damn about the antihero Russells, both of whom are despicable. Of course, deep down we want these wealthy characters to be miserable, believing that fabulous riches don’t protect you from the vicissitudes of life (or attempted murder). It’s all hilarious fluff with delicious eye candy, trivial historical pomposity masquerading as prestige television, though this series will never be the cultural touchstone “Downton Abbey” briefly became. Still, it’s an entertaining, pleasant diversion that doesn’t deserve to be this enjoyable and yet it is, so we will eagerly be watching next year, now that the series has been renewed for a fourth season.t
Read the full article on www.ebar.com.
hbomax.com/shows/gilded-age
by Tim Pfaff
The fact that Nathan Kernan spent three decades writing “A Day Like Any Other” (Farrar Straus and Giroux), which must stand as the definitive biography of American poet James Schuyler (pronounced “SKYlar,” 1923-1991), speaks to the complexity of his subject.
The Preface recounts Schuyler’s first-ever public reading of his own poetry –at the age of 65– with his audience, many of the artistic celebrities of his time, by all accounts in rapture. It establishes, movingly and from the jump, Schuyler’s importance in and influence on the American poetry scene.
The gods of physical beauty visited Schyler early on but did not linger. Beyond the usual ravages of aging, Schyler’s assortment of mental illnesses, six hospitalizations by his own reckoning, his more or less chronic dipsomania (“I’ve been on a bender since I was 16”) his dependence on drugs, prescription and otherwise (“You could hear them rattling in his pockets,” a friend remarked) gradually sent his good looks packing.
“What it all boils down to,” Schuyler wrote later in life, “is to get a light liquor high, throw in the upper of your choice, toke away at the Nepalese Blue Streak Hash, and keep the amyl handy.”
After quitting a diet and returning to heavy cigarette smoking, he had, he said, “gained 800 pounds and now look like something you find glowering in a back alley of Naples.”
The handsome, twenty-something Schuyler provides the biography’s cover shot. Oil portraits by Fairfield Porter, a bisexual man smitten by Schuyler, further hint at why this chronically shy young man was catnip to many in the poetry circles he inhabited and beyond. The biography tells the rest, again, literally, with pictures.
Sexually, he was promiscuous and credibly insisted he was an expert at fellatio. His progress to S&M was
steady, he of course being the bossy M. A stand-out fable of his sexual heyday has it that, when he was staying with W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman when those two were a couple, on a sweltering New York night he pulled the mattress from his lower-level quarters out onto the balcony below, engaged in “rough sex” with his bisexual flame at the time, who wanted to take it inside. Schuyler responded with a resounding, “Don’t stop,” to the bemusement of his illustrious hosts.
Outrageous behavior colored his entire life. Another legend has it that he was taken in by the “bisexual” painter Fairfield Porter and his “understanding” wife Anne –who later commented that “Jimmy” came for the weekend and stayed for eleven years. Once, when the notion of his moving out on his own was floated, Schuyler responded with, “I’ll think about it,” and thought about it for three more years without leaving. It makes for reading as charming as Schuyler himself was said to be, if less so to those who tried to help him.
What’s consistently notable about the almost overwhelming detail in all matters is that biographer Kernan, who was an associate and friend in the poet’s last years, writes about it all with
deep compassion and good humor worthy of his subject.
“A Day Like Any Other” makes no pretense to being a critical study, and Schuyler’s poems make appearances mostly as lodestars in the overall biography, not that they pass through in the least superficially. The saga of this singular man, a “late bloomer” whose introduction to the idea that he might become a poet began with being the typist for Auden, regularly astonishes.
The three long, book-length poems, the last of which remained unfinished, affirm Schuyler’s latter-day debt to the poetry of Walt Whitman.
The freshness his fellow poets found in Schuyler’s work had and still has everything to do with his deployment of common words to, cumulatively, uncommon ends. You can digest one over your morning coffee and then be haunted by it and its ever-expanding meanings the rest of the day, or of your lifetime, if you so choose.t
Read the full review on www.ebar.com.
‘A Day Like Any Other: The Life of James Schuyler,’
Author Nathan Kernan
Left: Taissa Farmiga, Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector in ‘The Gilded Age’ Right: Claybourne Elder and Blake Ritson in ‘The Gilded Age’
