August 28, 2025 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

New LGBTQ club opening in Oakland

by John Ferrannini

As Oakland readies for Pride early next month, it’s also welcoming a new LGBTQ nightclub from a familiar face.

Valentino Carrillo, a gay man who owns the Latino LGBTQ nightclub Que Rico at 381 15th Street, is opening Next Level at the former Level 13 Ultra Lounge space at 341 13th Street. A soft opening celebration is set for Thursday, August 28, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. (Level 13, which described itself as LGBTQ-friendly, quietly shuttered earlier this year.)

The first 100 attendees will receive gift bags, Carrillo said, and there will be a ribbon cutting at 9, along with appetizers, go-go dancers, other performers, and drinks. Free entry tickets are available at www.nextleveloakland.com (Table reservation tickets are $135.23.)

Coinciding with the three-day Labor Day weekend, Carrillo has “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Coco Montrese booked for a Janet Jackson tribute on August 29, Paraguayan singer Carmen Jara on August 30, and Club Papi Oakland Latin Labor Day Weekend on August 31.

Next Level’s website also has a lineup of events listed for Oakland Pride weekend, September 6-7.

Speaking exclusively to the Bay Area Reporter, Carrillo, who in addition to owning Que Rico co-produces the Latin stages at the San Francisco and Oakland Pride festivals, said that there will be cover charge reciprocity between Next Level and Que Rico most nights, so that “people will be able to have access to both clubs.” The venues are roughly a five-minute walk from each other.

Asked what will differentiate Next Level from Que Rico, Carrillo said, “The main thing that’s going to set it apart is they’re going to complement each other by offering counterprogramming each night. For instance, Friday will be Latino night at Que Rico, but at Next Level, maybe a hip-hop, pop, or EDM [electronic dance music] party.

“At Next Level, Saturday will be Latino night, and Saturday at Que Rico will be Delicious Saturdays, more of a hip-hop, top 40 pop party,” he added. Carrillo elaborated on the changes at Que Rico.

See page 8 >>

Silicon Valley Pride’s ‘Unstoppable’ for 50th anniversary weekend

by John Ferrannini

Silicon Valley Pride is proud to be celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend, August 30-31. This year’s theme is “Unstoppable: 50 Years of Love, Legacy and Liberation,” according to Nichole A. Denson, a proud Brown Native American Mexican lesbian woman who is the CEO of Silicon Valley Pride.

The events of the second Trump administration, including stripping rights from transgender people, helped inspire the theme, Denson said.

The queer community needs to fight those who seek to “push us back in the closet, and back in time,” Denson said. “Everything speaks on a larger scale to everything going on, not just with things that affect the LGBTQ population but the entire population of the country. We need to be unstoppable together, and be vocal for everyone.”

The festival will be held at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez, 1 Paseo de San Antonio, in downtown San Jose on Saturday, August 30, from 6 to 11 p.m. and Sunday, August 31, from noon until 6 p.m. On Saturday, admission to the festival will be $45, and on Sunday, admission will be $15. Tickets are available online at https://tinyurl.com/yujexcss

Denson said that the high price of the Saturday ticket is for two reasons; first, the organization’s budget has been “drastically reduced” due to donors not giving money amid economic uncertainty and the

Trump administration’s hostility toward diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. This has led to there being less entertainment at this year’s event than in the past.

“In prior years we had multiple stages,” Denson said. “This year, we’ve cut it down to one stage, which is unfortunate.”

The second reason, Denson said, is the cost of entertainment. Saturday will be headlined by Snow Tha Product, a San Jose native and bisexual rapper.

by Cynthia Laird

S“We’ve spent half a century breaking barriers and embracing every facet of who we are, and this historic festival – featuring Snow Tha Product – is our boldest statement yet: we are truly unstoppable,” Denson stated in a news release. “Whether you’ve been with us for decades or you’re new to Pride, we invite everyone to feel the magic and the momentum that has carried us through five remarkable decades.”

See page 8 >>

Date of Compton’s riot remains elusive

2017 Media Kit 0

an Francisco’s Transgender History Month, observed in August for the past several years, often brings attention to the fact that an exact date of the 1966 riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin remains elusive. The former eatery, which was frequented by drag queens and trans people, among others, has been in the news this year, as activists work to reclaim the historic site that is now a reentry facility for formerly incarcerated people.

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The ground floor commercial space at 111 Taylor Street had housed Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, where one night in August 1966 a drag queen reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a police officer who tried to arrest her without a warrant. The exact date of the altercation has been lost to time. But the incident sparked a riot by trans and queer patrons of the 24-hour diner and cops, as detailed in the 2005 documentary “Screaming Queens” by transgender scholar and historian Susan Stryker, Ph.D.

The property earlier this year became the first one of its kind granted federal landmark status specifically for its connection to the transgender movement in the U.S. It is also now on the California Register of Historical Resources.

In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared the intersection in front of Compton’s and the exterior walls of 111 Taylor Street as the city’s 307th landmark. It provides some level of protec-

tion to the building facade from being altered. Today, 111 Taylor Street houses the facility operated by GEO Reentry Services, a subsidiary of GEO Group Inc. Activists with the Compton’s x Coalition want to reclaim the site and have tried to get GEO Group’s zoning determination revoked, which would require it to vacate the premises. Thus far, they have been unsuccessful, as the Bay Area Reporter has noted.

Several dates offered Dates for when the Compton’s riot occurred that the Bay Area Reporter have heard about or seen recently range from August 12, to the 14th, to later in the month. Stryker, an academic and professor emerita at University of Arizona, is now a visiting professor at Stanford’s Clayman Institute. She is credited with being an expert on the riot, even as she has been unable to find the date of it.

See page 8 >>

Luis Felipe Chávez

David Archuleta

Valentino Carrillo stands behind the bar at Next Level, a new LGBTQ venue in Oakland soft opening August 28.

Cynthia Laird

111 Taylor Street once housed Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, the site of an August 1966 riot by drag queens and trans people against the police.

Cynthia Laird

Members of Dykes on Bikes took part in a previous Silicon Valley Pride parade.

Courtesy SVP

New book documents SF’s trans history << LGBTQ History

by David-Elijah Nahmod

To commemorate Transgender History Month, the Reverend Dr. Megan Rohrer, a transgender man, published a new photo book this month about the history of the trans community in San Francisco. In “Images of America: San Francisco’s Transgender District,” Rohrer offers hundreds of archival photos, dating back to the 19th century, as well as more recent images.

The book’s cover may bring a tear to anyone who was in the city 40 years ago. It features a black and white photo of “Naked Brunch,” a drag show that was performed in the city in the mid-1980s. The cast of “Naked Brunch” is seen in all their gender-bending glory, including the late Doris Fish (the drag persona of Philip Clargo Mills) and the late Tippi (Brian Douglas Mead), roommates and performing partners who were among the biggest drag stars of that era.

In his introduction, Rohrer pays homage to the first legally recognized Transgender District, located across six blocks in the Tenderloin and a sliver of Sixth Street South of Market, which in decades past was a hub for the trans community and remains so. Rohrer defines transgender as “the many ways that gender-diverse people identify, embody, and organize. From drag to bodily and hormonal changes, there is a wide spectrum of trans embodiment and expression.”

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Rohrer said that he was inspired

to put the book together by conversations he had with Jupiter Peraza, a trans leader who led the efforts to get August recognized as Transgender History Month both in San Francisco, which started in 2021, and California, which is officially being recognized for the first time this year.

“We wanted trans and gender-nonconforming people of all ages to have access to the inspirational artistry, activism, and embodied beauty of our elders and ancestors who have lived in San Francisco for more than two centuries,” Rohrer said.

In an email, Peraza noted that the book is needed.

“Dr. Rohrer’s book is incredibly important – not only because it memorializes transgender history during a time in which the federal administration is violently erasing the existence of trans people from public record – but because it provides a lifeline for transgender people across the country who have no access to community networks, transgender cultural enrichment, and collective future ideation,” she stated. “Dr. Rohrer has produced a piece of work that is timeless, visually powerful, and culturally significant. It is truly exemplary of trans people crafting our own historical narrative for perpetuity.”

Peraza also stated that the Transgender District is “an essential component to San Francisco’s cultural and historical footprint and spiritual essence.”

“Transgender and gender-expansive individuals have undoubtedly played a critical role in fashioning San Francisco into a world-class city,” she explained. “The Transgender District is also a resounding symbol of belonging – directly serving as the antithesis to the White House’s claims that trans people do not belong in society. The reality is: trans people are cultural bearers whose spirit and essence have cultivated innovative cultural practices and vibrant placemaking.”

As the B.A.R. has reported, Rohrer has been making history for quite a while. Rohrer is the first openly transgender minister to be ordained in the Lutheran tradition. He served as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, having been elected in 2021. He resigned in June 2022, at the request of Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA. Rohrer, as bishop, had fired a popular

Latino minister, the Reverend Nelson Rabell-Gonzalez, pastor of Misión Latina Luterana in Stockton. The firing took place on December 12, 2021, which was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a sacred day for the congregation’s largely Latine congregants. The congregation was enraged and allegations of racism followed, as well as a petition to remove Rohrer as bishop.

Rohrer tells the B.A.R. a different story.

“In the days after my election, the Synod office was flooded with so many harassing and inappropriate calls and letters that we had to switch to an automated answering service that recorded messages,” Rohrer said. “The San Francisco Police Department helped me purchase a bulletproof vest, which I wore from time to time based on the recommendations of safety advisers. My family made efforts to increase the security at our home and at my kids’ elementary school. Being a historic first in a community is an honor, but it is also a lot to carry.”

Prior to becoming bishop, Rohrer had served as community chaplain coordinator to the SFPD.

According to Rohrer, the pressure to leave his post was enormous. Rohrer claims that the national bishop spread disinformation about him through news releases while telling a local gathering via livestream that Rohrer had followed the rules of the church. Despite this, the former bishop claimed, attendees of the gathering continued to spread disinformation about him, misgendering him 44 times.

A year after resigning, Rohrer filed a lawsuit against the Sierra Pacific Synod, alleging harassment and breach of contract, among other charges. That suit has been settled.

“My lawsuit, which outlined the near daily hate mail and death threats I received for following the direction of church superiors, was resolved in a way that satisfied my claims,” he said, declining to offer specifics. “My personal journey healing from the trauma and spiritual betrayals have been a much longer journey of wellness and recovery. Researching centuries of trans San Franciscans who acted up, turned tragedy into art and paved the way for future generations has given me strength for my own journey forward. I hope it will also inspire others to navigate the slings and arrows they encounter.”

The Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA did not respond to the B.A.R.’s email and voicemail messages requesting comment.

Today, Rohrer is part of the Chaplaincy Institute, an interfaith community that credentials faith leaders and

provides justice-centered education for interfaith leaders, professional chaplains, and spiritual directors. He teaches a few courses for its seminary, including a course in chaplaincy to the transgender community, as well as courses about caring for people at protests, vigils, and other public gatherings. Rohrer is also actively involved in preserving trans history, leading tours in the Transgender District in San Francisco.

The book

“Images of America: San Francisco’s Transgender District” features dozens of archival photographs of trans and gender-nonconforming people who performed in drag in San Francisco during the 19th and early 20th centuries. There’s an extensive section devoted to Finocchio’s, the popular North Beach club that for decades featured drag performances, then known as female impersonators. The book also includes more recent photos, such as San Francisco Trans Marches. Throughout the book each photo is captioned with identifying and historical information about the photo’s subject.

“I spoke with community leaders, local photographers, traveled to libraries and archives around the country, purchased photos and ephemera from other collectors, and recreated a few photos to ensure that BIPOC leaders are also represented in the book,” Rohrer said, referring to Black, Indigenous, and people of color. “I combed the archives of the San Francisco Chronicle, from the 1800s through the 1970s, the time period centered in the ‘Images of America’ series. It was much more work than I imagined when I first began the book. To make these photos easier for future researchers to find, all the historic photos I acquired for this book will be donated to the GLBT Historical Society after the promotional events conclude.” Compton’s riot

Perhaps the most famous site in the Tenderloin is the former Gene Compton’s Cafeteria at 111 Taylor Street. Now a reentry facility for formerly incarcerated individuals run by GEO Group Inc., the property earlier this year became the first one of its kind granted federal landmark status specifically for its connection to the transgender movement in the U.S. It is also now on the California Register of Historical Resources.

In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared the intersection in front of Compton’s and the exterior walls of 111 Taylor Street as the city’s 307th landmark . It provides some level of protection to the building facade from being altered.

Courtesy Arcadia Publishing

At 1440 By The Bay, diversity isn’t just welcomed – it’s celebrated. Our vibrant community is home to residents from all walks of life, creating a warm and inclusive environment where everyone belongs. With cultural events, interfaith discussions and cooking classes featuring flavors from around the world, residents celebrate different traditions, perspectives and backgrounds. Every story matters, every voice is heard and true connections are formed.

More than just a senior living community, 1440 By The Bay is a place to call home – where individuality is embraced, friendships flourish and support is always within reach.

Report offers roadmap for funding senior housing

by Matthew S. Bajko

When New England’s first LGBTQ-affirming affordable senior housing development opened its doors in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood, it had a plethora of governmental and private funding sources to thank. Known as The Pryde, the 74-unit complex built inside a former public middle school cost more than $47 million and just marked being fully occupied in June.

“Financing affordable housing is enormously complicated,” noted LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. Executive Director Gretchen Van Ness. “We had over 22 funding sources. They call it a funding stack for a reason.”

Across the country in San Francisco, the LGBTQ senior services provider Openhouse and its development partner, Mercy Housing, have been trying to secure state financing to jumpstart construction on 187-units of affordable housing aimed at LGBTQ seniors. It will be a short walk away from the former college campus they teamed up on turning into 119 units of belowmarket-rate apartments affirming of LGBTQ seniors along with offices, meeting rooms, and a community center for the nonprofit agency.

It has been five years since the city bought the property for the additional housing, and Openhouse and Mercy officials are hopeful they will secure state financing this December after Mercy’s application was rejected in the last two selection rounds. Once Mercy constructs the new building, Openhouse will provide services to the residents.

“We know at Openhouse that it takes housing and services to support our community members so they can age in place, enjoy improved health outcomes and continue to be a part of our community,” said interim Executive Director Vinny Eng, 42, a gay man

who will depart later this year once incoming Executive Director Morey Riordan settles into the role.

Van Ness’s nonprofit teamed up with for-profit developer Pennrose in 2017 to bring the Massachusetts project to fruition. It wasn’t until 2022 that construction began, with the first residents welcomed into The Pryde in spring last year.

“It was very much an eye-opening experience,” recalled Van Ness, 67, who lives with her wife in the same neighborhood as The Pryde. Eng and Van Ness both shared their experiences working on such LGBTQ senior housing projects with Milken Institute staff for their Financial Innovations Lab market landscape report “Models for Financing Affordable and LGBTQ+-Affirming Elder Housing at Scale” released in May. In partnership with national LGBTQ senior advocacy organization SAGE, the nonprofit think tank interviewed dozens of experts from LGBTQ service providers and housing developers to government officials and academics for the resulting 22-page document.

Five market-tested solutions

It lays out five market-tested solutions for how to finance LGBTQ senior-focused housing developments, such as social bonds, impact investment funds, and pay-for-performance contracts. Another idea calls for offering an LGBTQ+ elder housing prize to elicit ideas that can be funded and replicated in different communities across the country.

Also proposed are ways to incentivize private investment into such projects. Private equity firms could create a pooled fund to support LGBTQ+ affirming elder services or supportive financial institutions could offer preferential loan terms for LGBTQ senior welcoming housing projects, according to the report.

Help for HIV and Hepatitis B

San Francisco’s Openhouse LGBTQ-affirming senior housing complex has affordable apartments at 75 and 95 Laguna Street.

“Part of the challenge for why people don’t want to invest is they are terrified it is going to take 15 years when it should take two or three years,” said lead author Caitlin MacLean, a straight ally who is the managing director for innovative finance at the Milken Institute. “Realistically, it takes seven to eight years. But you are asking them to hold on to capital a long time until you get people into the doors and before you start charging rents or selling the units.”

Developers of such housing projects face a “chicken and the egg” challenge, noted Ma cLean, with government officials often wanting to see private fiscal support lined up before approving the developments or providing public financing for them, whereas a private investor may want to see shovels in the ground before they get involved.

“A big challenge we are seeing is the need for better and smarter and more inclusive design of the housing itself that takes into account how people live and where they live. That is extremely important and nuanced,” said MacLean.

Of the five solutions detailed in the report, Eng and Van Ness both pointed to Solution 1 calling for social bonds to pay for both housing and services as the idea they liked best. Doing so is a cost-savings for the long-term, noted Eng, as it prevents unnecessary and costly visits by seniors to the emergency room for health care and keeps people in the community they have long called home.

MacLean said she and her co-authors heard from many project sponsors that “nobody wants to invest in us until we get told we can build.”

With many service providers stating how essential it is to provide onsite, wraparound services for residents of the housing developments, MacLean hopes the report prompts larger real estate firms and others to find “creative ways to fund the programming,” as “that is particularly challenging to fund upfront while you wait for Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement, if you ever get that.”

“The report highlights the need to colocate services with housing. That, at the core, is the solution we want to continue investing in,” said Eng. “We save money when we approach the care of our community members in this way. This is a front-end approach.”

All of the ideas highlighted by the Milken Institute are important to share with potential investors of LGBTQ senior housing projects, said Van Ness. Of the nearly 14 million LGBTQ+ Americans, 1.1 million are 65 years of age or older, according to a 2024 Gallup survey, with that age group expected to number more than 7 million by 2030.

But Van Ness added, “We are not actively looking right now.”

That is partly due to her nonprofit still adjusting to being a co-owner of its housing development and addressing the needs of the residents there in addition to acting as Boston’s de facto LGBTQ community center now that it is also providing services and meeting space at The Pryde to nonresidents.

“Our current undertaking is quite demanding,” noted Van Ness, who is scheduled to be on a panel at the 2025 LeadingAge Annual Meeting taking place in Boston this November to talk about her experience working on The Pryde project and the need for more affordable housing for seniors, particularly those affirming and welcoming of LGBTQ older adults.

“A lot of folks outside the LGBTQ community assume the LGBTQ community has a lot of money. I can tell you if you have a household headed up by two women who have been lesbians their whole life, they will have half the income of a straight white guy out there,” said Van Ness. “Also, our current elders, and this will be true for another couple of decades, grew up with no legal protections. Being LGBTQ meant they lost homes, lost jobs, and were kicked out of the military. A lot were not able to get benefits, and if their partner died, they don’t have survivor benefits.”

The Milken Institute report notes that 40% of LGBTQ+ older adults live below the federal poverty line, set at an annual income of $15,560 for a single person. It makes it difficult for them to even afford subsidized housing, highlights the report, while seniors with very low incomes are priced out of some affordable housing programs that don’t set rents based on individual earnings.

“Despite these growing challenges, the housing supply remains scarce,” notes the report, which found there were roughly 1,500 affordable housing units affirming of LGBTQ+ older adults across 20 states as of 2023, “with 37 such developments in various stages of planning or operation.”

With Republicans now in control of the federal government and talking about disinvesting in public housing programs, having ideas for how private investment can help pay for such developments is more important than ever, said Van Ness. Though she hopes not to see federal support be withdrawn, she added.

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As for the prize competition idea, MacLean pointed to how where people live and how social their lives are can be determinants for their health outcomes and quality of life. It has been shown in various studies and surveys that isolation is a leading cause of negative health outcomes for seniors, especially for LGBTQ older adults who may be estranged from their biological families, don’t have children to care for them, and are without a significant partner to share

“I think it is fantastic to really inspire a conversation and have investors think about different ways to do some good with the dollars they have,” Van Ness said.

Recognizing the need for such housing will only grow as more and more members of the LGBTQ community age into their senior years, LGBTQ Senior Housing formed a real estate task force this year to help it navigate the process when it tackles its second housing development. Van Ness told the Bay Area Reporter she has dubbed the advisory group the Next Project Task Force “so we are aware of opportunities as they arise.”

“That would be devastating at a time when the need to fund such projects is growing. The fastest growing group of people who are unhoused are senior citizens,” said Van Ness. “This is critical for all of our elders but especially our LGBTQIA elders who go into their retirement years with fewer resources. I don’t know what this landscape looks like without state and federal support. Housing is expensive to create.”

Added Eng, “I think it is important to continue to share best practices across all the different providers across the country right now, more than ever, on how to build affordable housing for LGBTQ older adults in the community.” t

babies and blessing same-sex marriages at 95. He was a great man and will be missed. Vern is survived by his large and loving family, and many friends all across the globe. He was a wise and loving man, and his memory is a blessing to all who mourn. Vern passed peacefully in his sleep August 17, 2025 in the care of Buena Vista Manor House.

A memorial service will be held at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94108 on Thursday, November 6, at 2 p.m. There will be a reception with light refreshments following. Please RSVP to Revvernjones@yahoo.com. Vern would have liked guests to dress in any color of the rainbow for the memorial, in honor of Genesis: “The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth.”

Please direct donations in his honor to Grace Cathedral at gracecathedral.org/tribute-giving.

Cynthia Laird

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Sunset voters should reject Engardio recall

Recalls of elected leaders used to be rare, but that has changed in the last three years, with citizen-led efforts in San Francisco and Oakland seeing officials toppled at the ballot box well ahead of their terms ending. On September 16, residents in San Francisco’s District 4 will weigh in on whether to boot gay Supervisor Joel Engardio from office. They should reject the recall and vote no on Proposition A.

Recall proponents started their effort shortly after last November’s general election when Proposition K passed citywide. That measure permanently closed a portion of the Upper Great Highway to vehicle traffic and turned it into a park, now known as Sunset Dunes. While voters across the city supported Prop K, those residing in Engardio’s D4 strongly opposed it, by 64%. Engardio said during his 2022 campaign for supervisor that he supported a compromise that would leave the Great Highway open to cars on weekdays.

But then he changed his position. As a supervisor, Engardio supported Prop K, and, with four of his colleagues, got it on the ballot. It was at this point that Engardio, to his detriment, vastly underestimated just how angry many of his constituents were about the possibility of their main thoroughfare being closed to cars and their fears of increased traffic on side streets negatively impacting their quality of life. All of the other positive things Engardio had done during his time on the board, such as initiating the popular Sunset night market, quickly went out the window as his constituents focused on the Great Highway issue. That anger turned into action after the election.

Asked about his 2022 statements by the Bay Area Reporter earlier this year, Engardio pointed to his campaign website that year, which stated he supported the possibility of a park between Lincoln Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. He also said that he “supported the compromise in 2022 because that was the best we had in the moment.”

It’s interesting to note that major traffic fears in D4 have largely not materialized. City transportation officials released a report in July that showed that while some routes, such as Chain of Lakes Drive, a main route to cut through Golden Gate Park, saw an increase in congestion, another key route, the still open section of Upper Great Highway between Fulton Street and Lincoln Way, saw a decrease in traffic, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

But by the time that report was issued, the recall was already on the ballot. Just after the November election, with talk of a recall escalating, Engardio pledged to work with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to mitigate traffic issues. He has done that this year. Engardio has wanted to be a city supervisor for years. He had run for supervisor three times (in District 7) before being redistricted into D4 and ousting incumbent supervisor Gordon Mar in 2022. It was the first time a sitting supervisor had been defeated since district elections were re-introduced in 2000. But Engardio, though a moderate, was not a city power player.

While he received support from some Democratic clubs and elected officials, he was more of an outsider in the City Hall political scene. That has shown up in the recall fight – Engardio has not won the bushel of endorsements that one might expect. The more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club has opposed the recall (Engardio formerly served on its board). The progressive Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club voted not to take a position.

As an out elected official, Engardio has brought LGBTQ visibility to the Sunset, and that’s a positive thing, in our opinion. For too long, the neighborhoods west of Twin Peaks were viewed as more conservative. That has changed in recent years, with more out community leaders residing there. Engardio’s surprise victory showed that voters were willing to give him a chance, and, in the process, open up the Sunset to diverse voices. Engardio has proudly marched in community parades, including San Francisco Pride and Chinese New Year, with his husband.

Recalls should be reserved for elected officials who’ve demonstrated negligence in office, or been convicted in a criminal case. We supported the recall of three San Francisco school board commissioners in 2022 because they were incompetent and put their interests ahead of students, parents, and staff. Conversely, we did not support the recall of former district attorney Chesa Boudin that same year because he was largely acting on what he said he’d do during his campaign, though we didn’t agree with him on everything.

The San Francisco Democratic Party was expected to hold an endorsement vote August 27 (after we had gone to press), a mere two and a half weeks before the special election. It’s unknown whether Engardio supporters on the party’s central committee will be able to muster the necessary votes for a No on Prop A endorsement.

Which brings us to Engardio. He has not committed malfeasance while in office. He rightly points out that if residents are dissatisfied with his job performance, they can vote for someone else next year, when he would be up for reelection. As it stands now, if Engardio is recalled, Mayor Daniel Lurie would appoint a successor, presumably someone moderate like Engardio, who would then face voters at the next election, likely next June.

Engardio has an uphill climb to hold onto his seat. However, if D4 voters judge Engardio on his overall job performance, there is little reason to recall him. Unfortunately, many Sunset voters appear aggrieved and fixated on the Great Highway issue. And almost nothing motivates voters more than anger.

That being said, and with a couple of weeks before voters must turn in their ballots, we urge D4 voters to vote no on Prop A. t

The Joker as queer icon

by Samuel Garza Bernstein

That Cesar Romero was a gay man is not a revelation at this point – scandalous or otherwise. During his years as a studio contract star in the 1930s to the early 1950s, he participated in the dream machine fantasy of dating eligible Hollywood actresses, but looking back at his fan magazine coverage today, it never seems forced or false. He and Joan Crawford laugh uproariously in each other’s arms; he shares a cigarette with Ann Sheridan with a gleeful, conspiratorial gleam in his eye; he winks at Betty Furness with a clear sense of intimacy.

He’s clearly having a blast. Romero is lucky that something he is genuinely passionate about –dancing and nightclubbing – makes him appear as something of a hetero wolf to movie fans. He doesn’t have to pretend as much as other gay stars. Tall, masculine, and graceful, he satisfies the dictates of the era in terms of what being a man is all about. That his ironic nickname is “Butch” is never given much scrutiny. So how does this hunk become a gay icon?

Of course, as far as I’m concerned, dancing with Carmen Miranda is enough to qualify. Miranda dances with many others in her fruity Technicolor fantasies – Wallace Beery, Steve Cochran, Groucho Marx, Dean Martin – but no one else matches her energy level and attitude the way Romero does in “Week-End in Havana” and “Springtime in the Rockies,” though in the latter it’s a group number. Miranda is part of his legacy in other ways. There’s also a censored Fox publicity photo where he is hoisting her in a lift that reveals Miranda is no fan of a Brazilian wax. And a woman in California identifies as the daughter of Miranda and Romero, though without DNA analysis, the claim is impossible to prove or disprove. For the record, she acknowledges Romero’s sexuality – just claims that Miranda brought out his fluidity. And if a gay man is going to sleep with a woman, it does seem appropriate that the woman in question would be Miranda.

Romero is in the business almost 40 years before “Batman” comes along in 1966. In those years he goes from Broadway dancer to Latin lover, from Shirley Temple’s “exotic” kidnapper to the Cisco Kid, from sociopathic gangster to perennial variety show guest star. Always a leading man. Always a romantic possibility. He is almost 60 when he plays the Joker for the first time. His full-bodied, hammy, joyful

I recognize these men as projections of my future self. While I don’t imagine myself growing up and plotting the demise of grown men who wear their underpants outside of their tights, I recognize the humor, the mannerisms, and the undercurrents if not the physicality of the innuendos. And Romero takes no shit. By the end of the first of each two-episode story, he’s always winning. I know he will lose by the end of the second part, but on some level, I recognize that as a fulfillment of the narrative demands of the form rather than as a personal loss for him. To me, he is a winner, and I like that very much. I’m an effeminate kid, thankfully not bullied or particularly singled out, but for a variety of reasons, I don’t feel very powerful. The Joker’s wild abandon is inspiring and empowering in a cockeyed sort of way. It has nothing to do with conforming to anyone’s idea of being masculine, and it has everything to do with proudly letting your freak flag fly.

performance vaults him into pop cultural superstardom. He’s on lunch boxes, school supplies, board games, T-shirts, jigsaw puzzles, and trading cards; he becomes an action figure and a Halloween mask; toys inspired by him include joy buzzers, squirting flowers, and trick guns; and the character goes from being one of many “Batman” villains to rivaling the popularity of the Caped Crusaders themselves. I believe that letting go of the masculine myth of leading man stardom is really what makes the Joker possible. It’s what lets Romero cut loose so wildly. There are usually a few buxom girls hanging around his lair, but Adam West gets his full attention. It isn’t until the late 1970s, when “Batman” is in afternoon reruns, that I see Romero as the Joker for the first time. I fall in love immediately, and it is the camp element that attracts. This is not just my introduction to the Joker and Romero; it is my first real exposure to live-action superheroes of any kind, leaving me with a sense of the genre being great fun and, more important, as a place that is queer friendly, though I don’t have the vocabulary or sense of cultural identity to articulate it in that way at the time. The only other nascent LGBTQIA+ representation in the media I remember from that era is also camp – with the usual suspects – performers like Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul Lynde, Rip Taylor, and Wayland Flowers and Madame (a phenomenally popular ventriloquist and his garrulous drag queen-like puppet). More serious fare, like “That Certain Summer” and “Boys in the Band,” is not in my childhood experience, and the idea of lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people is not yet on my radar.

In 1989, when “Batman” gets its historic reboot, the menace of Jack Nicholson is startlingly different from Romero. By the time of the Oscar-winning performances of Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix, as well as Jared Leto, where the Joker becomes a truly frightening psychopath, Nicholson comes to seem relatively lighthearted, closer to Romero than to Ledger or Phoenix. The camp is mostly gone, but not the queerness. An underlying gender fluidity still informs the Joker through all of the live-action performances, and the character’s erotic obsession with Batman has deepened. With Romero it never had a truly carnal edge. By the time we hit Ledger, Phoenix, and Leto – the character appears entirely pansexual – frankly it’s the most recognizably human part of him that remains in his current incarnation. My original notion of the superhero space being LGBTQIA+ friendly has proven spectacularly accurate – prescient even. Now, Robin, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Batwoman are all queer identifying across various media. But Romero got there first, and for me, his lighthearted, gleeful camp performance will always be a part of my own gay coming of age. Hail Cesar. t

Samuel Garza Bernstein, a gay man, is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and playwright. His latest book is “Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild,” which was published August 26 by University of Kentucky Press. Bernstein and his husband, Ronald Shore, have been together for over 30 years and split their time between Los Angeles and Porto, Portugal.

Cesar Romero, who played the Joker in the “Batman” TV series, is the subject of Samuel Garza Bernstein’s new book, “Cesar Romero: The Joker is Wild.”

Cover, Courtesy University of Kentucky Press; Bernstein, Joshua Michael Shelton

San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio

Courtesy the subject

New mom Perea seeks Fresno Assembly seat

by Matthew S. Bajko

Having just welcomed the birth of her twin children, lesbian Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea is juggling motherhood with being a candidate for an open state legislative seat. Should she be elected to the Assembly District 31 seat next year, Perea would be the first LGBTQ member of the Legislature from that part of the Central Valley.

She and her wife, Gabriela Gonzalez-Perea, have a newborn daughter, Luciana, and son, Julian, who were just shy of being five weeks old when Perea spoke to the Bay Area Reporter on August 19. Having parents seek and hold elected office is needed right now, contended Perea.

“I think a really important part of this campaign is the fact that I personally feel we need more mothers running for office,” said Perea, 38, who married her spouse last October two years into their relationship. “I know, historically, women were expected to stay at home and be the homemaker and raise the kids, which is why being elected, historically, always has been dominated by men.”

Rather than postpone her running for higher office until her children are older, Perea is aiming to serve as a role model for other parents, especially moms, who may also have political ambitions of their own. She acknowledged it will bring added obstacles to her candidacy, making her bid for the Assembly seat a unique one to observe over the coming months.

“It is really important to see if I can do this and win, then nobody should shy away from running for office, whether an expectant mom, a new mom, or a soon-to-be mom,” said Perea. “Running for state office is challenging. Having babies is challenging. And so, the fact that I am taking both on at the same time is going to be a unique challenge.”

for the Central Valley. She has a proven ability to bring opposing sides together to deliver real results, and she will bring that same effective leadership to Sacramento.”

Perea is vying to succeed termed out Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), who had won a special election to serve out the remainder of Henry Perea’s third term after he resigned from the Legislature in late 2015 for a private sector job. Arambula is now running for a Fresno City Council seat next year.

And via her own story, Perea hopes other parents will think, “I can do this too,” and become political candidates as well.

“My goal is to prove you can do just about anything you put your mind to if you are willing to put in the work,” said Perea, a Fresno native who graduated in 2009 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in city and regional planning.

Perea wouldn’t be the first parent among the members of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus in Sacramento, as several current and former out legislators have children. Lesbian state Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), who will become the affinity group’s vice chair on September 15, gave birth in 2019 to triplets, two boys and a girl, while serving in the Assembly at the time.

In doing so, she became the first out member of the Legislature to give birth while in office, as the Political Notebook reported at the time.

The LGBTQ caucus in April early endorsed Perea in her Assembly race.

“Being a new mom, it has taught me the importance of one, why we need more women in public service,” Perea told the B.A.R. “But I firmly believe if we had more moms in elected offices that all of our communities would be better places to live and work.”

The sister of Democratic former assemblymember Henry T. Perea, who left his Fresno council seat for the Legislature in 2010, Annalisa Perea became the first out member of their city’s governing body with her election in 2022. She had been sworn in a few weeks early due to her Democratic predecessor, Esmeralda Soria, winning a state Assembly seat that year and taking her oath in early December.

Soria endorsed Perea’s Assembly bid back in May, stating that, “from day one, Annalisa has been focused on solutions

“It has been an honor to just be able to represent a segment of our popula tion that has historically gone underrepresented,” said Perea, whose city has long had an active and vibrant LGBTQ community call it home, with an annual Pride parade and LGBTQ film festival.

Trump administration cuts

During her time on the council, she has supported the creation of Fresno’s first LGBTQ community liaison and the setting aside of $300,000 in grants for LGBTQ nonprofits in the city’s budget.

“It is sort of the first of its kind not just in Fresno but really the whole Central Valley. The city stepped up and committed to make historical investments in our community in a way we haven’t before,” she said, pointing out that many local service providers have been subjected to federal funding cuts under the Trump administration. “So, I have been working with several of them to get creative in how we are helping them find funding.”

It is a fiscal and policy matter she pledged to lead on in the Legislature.

As the B.A.R.’s online Political Notes column recently reported, during the first half of 2025 Annalisa Perea raised the most money of the nine known out Democratic legislative newcomers who filed campaign fundraising reports in June. Perea netted nearly $300,815 for her coffers, with $256,666 to spend as of July 1 on her race.

“I was really blown away with the amount of support I got early on. I would say about 90% of this money is just local dollars,” said Perea. “These are just average day people willing to invest in me. The fact that it amounted to over $300,000 is overwhelming. I don’t take that for granted.”

She is expected to face a competitive contest to survive the June 2 primary.

Under the state’s open primary system, only the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation in the legislative races will advance to the fall ballot.

And the field of fellow Democratic candidates for the Fresno-based Assembly seat is beginning to expand. Sanger City Councilmember Esmeralda Hurtado, the sister of state Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), recently pulled papers to run for the seat, while Fresno Building Healthy Communities President and CEO Sandra Celedon reported raising $108,736 in the first half of the year for her bid.

Pointing to her 2022 city council race, where she secured more than 50% in a crowded field on the June ballot to avoid a runoff election in the fall, Perea told the B.A.R. she is undaunted by the prospect of another hard-fought primary election.

“My family has always taught me to work hard and stay true to my cause. It is something I have carried with me not just in my professional career but my public service career as well,” said Perea, whose parents and grandparents were Mexican American farmworkers in the Central Valley. “During my council campaign I outworked my competition. It is what led me to actually win my city council race in the primary.”

She credited her victory, becoming the first out person elected to the Fresno City Council, to staying true to her values and having a message that resonated with the voters of her council district. She is now bringing that playbook to her Assembly race and hopes to break through another pink political glass ceiling.

“Right now, a lot of our state legislators are doing what they can to safeguard the LGBTQ community. And so, I see my role when I am up in Sacramento as joining the LGBTQ caucus to make sure we are prioritizing legislation focused on protecting our most vulnerable populations, whether it be the trans community or our youth community,” said Perea. “Right now, just about everyone is at risk of some kind of funding cuts. It is up to folks like myself to make sure we are not just putting forth good bills but really fighting to prioritize these issues.”

Another matter that has come under attack by the Trump administration and seen its federal funding clawed back is California’s high speed rail project. The Central Valley segment, which cuts through downtown Fresno, is currently under construction and already bringing benefits to the city, with one project that rebuilt a major downtown artery under the existing train tracks to provide a safe connection to the city’s Chinatown just opened to vehicles and pedestrians this month.

“I am a big supporter of the California high speed rail project,” said Perea, who was impressed by such a line she took five years ago during a vacation in Italy.

It puts her in line with a majority of the state’s residents, based on a recently released poll from Politico and the Citrin Center-Possibility Lab. It found 62% of registered voters back the long-delayed and criticized project, even though 54% agreed there is a “low likelihood” of seeing it ever connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles.

“California has always led the way in innovation and technology, and transportation is one sector where we need to see innovative advancements,” argued Perea, adding that she “personally would love to see high speed rail be quicker. There are a number of roadblocks that have popped up along the way and that has delayed the project. Now, more than ever, it is important to ensure we do have leaders who are innovative in their way of thinking and not afraid to invest in needed things for our state.”

Come next December, Perea hopes to be sworn into her Assembly seat and provide such leadership in the Legislature. And to do so as the mother of young children.

“This campaign is going to be a unique one to watch this election cycle,” noted Perea. “We are hoping for the best and for a win. When that does happen, knock on wood it does happen, I am hoping I can inspire other soon-to-be parents or young parents to also put their hat in the ring to run for

too.” t

“The biggest thing is changing our format on Saturdays. We’ve always been known primarily as the Latino bar, but we’ve always had a pretty diverse clientele. A lot of people may not like Latin music all night,” he noted.

DJ Jaffeth is among those who’ll be performing at the Next Level opening event, from 11 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. Jaffeth, who is gay and performs regularly at Que Rico, told the B.A.R. he’s excited at the new opportunity.

“Valentino is my friend, and so I’m

Snow Tha Product didn’t return a request for comment.

On August 31 at 10:30 a.m. the parade will kick off from Julian and Market streets and make its way to the park. Among those marching in the parade will be freshman Congressmember Sam Liccardo (D-San Jose), a straight ally and the former mayor of San Jose. People who want to sign up to march with Liccardo can do so online at https://tinyurl.com/369z9c6f

Also joining will be Santa Clara County District 5 Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, a straight ally. People who want to march with Abe-Koga can also sign up online, at https://tinyurl. com/2k6un8ks. She’s encouraging members of her contingent to wear purple.

“The LGBTQ+ community is a deeply valued part of our county, one that has long endured systemic attacks and may soon be facing the re-litigation of marriage equality,” Abe-Koga stated in her

“I have no question that it did happen,” Stryker said in a recent phone interview. “The date thing is curious.”

She’s convinced the demonstration occurred August 21 or 28, both of which would have been Sunday nights, based on conversations she’s had with people around at the time. One was with a guy whose birthday was the first week of September and he’d have to report for the draft. Additionally, the Tenderloin became more racially mixed later in the month, when “the Brown girls would go to the Tenderloin to hustle at the end of the month,” Stryker said.

“We also know a more racially mixed spot is more likely to be raided,” she added.

Another thing, said Stryker, is the absence of evidence. At the time, KGOTV had its studios right down the street from Compton’s. The station filmed a picket outside of Compton’s on July 17. “It’s recorded in the handwritten logs for July 17, 1966,” said Stryker.

But the TV station didn’t film news on Sundays back then, she explained.

“That, to me, suggests the wee hours of the morning on a Sunday at the end of the month,” said Stryker. “August 21 or 28, probably the 28th.”

Stryker said that there are no city archives of police records for that time, and there was no coverage in the San Francisco Examiner or San Francisco Chronicle.

“At the time, the gay press did not cover trans people in the Tenderloin,” Stryker said. (The B.A.R. didn’t begin publishing until April 1971.)

Another interesting tidbit Stryker came across is that the KGO-TV reporter who covered the July 1966 pickets at Compton’s was Dick Carlson, a transphobe who later outed Renée Richards, the trans tennis star. He also outed Liz Carmichael, a trans woman who created the Dale, a three-wheeled, low-cost, high-efficiency car she was convinced would upend the auto industry. (HBO aired a documentary, “The Lady and the Dale,” about Carmichael’s life.) Dick Carlson, who died in March, was the father of conservative anti-LGBTQ media figure Tucker Carlson. Adrian Ravarour, Ph.D., a gay man

so excited,” he said. “I’ve been with him almost 10 years, so it’s something fantastic for me. He has been including me in all his projects, so it’s awesome. I can call him my boss, but he’s mostly my friend. I’ve had a lot of great moments with him.”

Que Rico is also known for serving food; Carrillo said, “Next Level will eventually serve food” but not until “we have staffing up to par.”

There’s already “about 10 employees, but we definitely need to hire much more,” he added.

“A lot of employees will be back and forth [from Que Rico] as well, especial-

newsletter to constituents. “In this moment, representation is not a luxury; it’s a lifeline. Public leadership must reflect the full spectrum of our communities, and this summit made that truth unmistakably clear.”

Anthony Tordillos, a gay man who is the newly-sworn in representative of the San Jose City Council’s District 3, where many of the Pride festivities will take place, stated August 26, “It’s not lost on me that this is not only my first time celebrating Silicon Valley Pride as a councilmember, but that we are celebrating in spite of a political climate that seeks to undo all the progress we’ve made.

“Providing proud queer representation here on the dais [at City Hall] in San Jose is a privilege and a responsibility that I don’t take lightly, and I’m excited that we’ll be celebrating 50 years of Silicon Valley Pride in the heart of my district in downtown San Jose,” he added.

Other activities

Before the main Pride festivities, there will be a new street mural unveiling in the Qmunity District in downtown San Jose, home to LGBTQ bars such as Splash

and former San Francisco resident, told the B.A.R. that the riot happened August 12 “to the best of my knowledge.”

He based that on the Vanguard organization holding its first dance the following day, he said in a phone interview this spring. Vanguard was an early LGBTQ organization based in the Tenderloin. It operated from 1965-67 and focused on social justice and trying to gain acceptance for LGBTQ people. Keith St Clare, a gay man who published the Vanguard magazine even after the organization ended, died earlier this year. https:// www.ebar.com/story/154014

Joseph Plaster, a queer academic and lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, told the B.A.R. he has done quite a bit of research on the Vanguard organization.

He noted Vanguard held a picket outside Compton’s in July 1966, before the riot. And he said the organization held a dance that month as well.

“A dance on Saturday, July 23, a few days after Vanguard picketed Compton’s Cafeteria, attracted ‘over 100 young people,’ Glide’s Ed Hansen wrote a few days later. ‘The kids all had a good time, and no one caused any trouble. Channel 7 – T.V. – had been there taking pictures and interviewing some of the TL kids.’ Unearthed Channel 7 footage from that dance shows a barebones basement, crowded with roughly 50 people,” Plaster wrote in an email. “This is all to say that the first dance would not have been held in mid-August.”

“In the wake of the riots, Vanguard appeared to gain traction in its efforts to curb police harassment and exclusion,” Plaster wrote. “In late 1966, a reporter noted that Vanguard worked with a police [official], likely Elliott Blackstone, to ‘act as an intermediary between Vanguard and Compton’s.’ Raymond Broshears also recalled that Blackstone and cafeteria management negotiated ‘a settlement’ at Glide Methodist Church.”

Blackstone, who is featured in Stryker’s documentary, was a straight ally who worked with the trans community. He was a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department and its first liaison to the LGBTQ community when he was named to the position in 1962.

After the Compton’s riot, he helped organize the first U.S. transsexual support group, Conversion Our Goal, at Glide Memorial United Methodist

ly in the beginning,” Carrillo said.

B.A.R. readers may recall that Que Rico has been burglarized 11 times since its 2021 opening, most recently April 29.

On that occasion, burglars stole an ATM, did $5,000 worth of damage and stole “a ton of liquor,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo has a plan for security at Next Level.

“With this new location, one of the main things I was looking at was how secure the building is,” he said. “We’ve made it a lot more secure so it won’t be an easier target like Que Rico.”

Que Rico opened over a year after

Video Dance Bar and Mac’s Club and near the park, on Friday, August 29, at 6 p.m., according to Nathan Svoboda, a gay man who is Qmunity’s president. Afterward, entertainment, performances, and a block party continue till midnight.

For those who want to take a trip down memory lane on this golden anniversary there are at least a couple of other options. One is “Pride and Politics: The BAYMEC Story,” an exhibit on the history of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee. The exhibit is open at 240 South Market Street, Suite 10, across from the park, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m., including August 30 and 31.

BAYMEC is a political action committee that has advocated for LGBTQ rights in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties since 1984. Ken Yeager, a gay man who cofounded BAYMEC, was the first openly gay elected official in Santa Clara County. He previously served on the San Jose City Council and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Before that he was a trustee of the San Jose-Evergreen

Church and, with funding from transgender philanthropist Reed Erickson, established the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first-ever peerstaffed transgender social services agency, as the B.A.R. reported in June 2006 when Blackstone was honored by the trans community.

Things appeared to change at Compton’s after the riot, according to Plaster’s research.

“At a Vanguard organizational meeting in late 1966, Vice President John Colvin explained that Compton’s ‘had agreed to end discrimination, more or less,’ according to a reporter,” Plaster stated. “‘The kids would not be specifically harassed, but, if they lingered an hour over a cup of coffee or invited non-paying friends to the tables, they would be –well, pushing their luck.’ Meanwhile, the policemen ‘who had been roughing the kids up had been removed, and the new ones had orders not to use force.’”

Ravarour was reached last week and told of Plaster’s research. He continues to maintain the August 12 date for the riot.

“I am 100% confident that the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot occurred on Friday night, August 12, 1966,” he wrote in an email. “Around 1:45 a.m. Saturday morning after the riot, after leaving the Vanguard dance, my boyfriend and I stood outside Compton’s assessing the damage.

“Late Saturday afternoon, Dixie Russo, who had been a participant inside the riot, met with me and disclosed further

the closure of Club 21, which had been an LGBTQ Latino club at 2111 Franklin Street.

Club BNB (formerly the Bench and Bar) at 2120 Broadway in downtown Oakland closed at the same time.

The Port Bar at 2023 Broadway closed in February 2024.

But Oakland’s LGBTQ scene has seen openings too in recent years; specifically, Town Bar and Lounge at 2001 Broadway, Summer Bar and Lounge at 526 Eighth Street, and Fluid510 at 1544 Broadway from former Port owners and couple Sean Sullivan and Richard Fuentes. Closer to the Berkeley bor-

Community College District.

“What better day than Pride Sunday to visit the Queer Silicon Valley gallery to learn about local queer history. Included in the exhibit are photos and programs from past festivals and parades, so please come by and say hi,” Yeager told the B.A.R.

There’s also “Snapshots of Pride,” on view at the New Museum Los Gatos, 106 E. Main Street in Los Gatos, Thursdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through October 5. The exhibit features the work of the late Ted Sahl, a straight ally who photographed Silicon Valley’s LGBTQ community during the 1970s and 1980s.

“If it were not for Ted and his interest in these photographs and in the community, these would not have been documented at all,” Jamie Donofrio, a spokesperson for “Snapshots of Pride,” told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. Donofrio said that the museum’s staff will be marching in the parade.

The exhibit was curated by Amy Long, a freelance history photographer.

“Ted Sahl was a prolific photogra-

details,” Ravarour added.

Broshears, a gay man who published the Gay Crusader newspaper, also published a San Francisco Pride Guide, the first one of which was June 25, 1972. There was a parade that year, and in the guide, Broshears writes about the 1966 Compton’s riot, six years after the fact.

“In the streets of the Tenderloin, at Turk and Taylor on a hot August night in 1966, Gays rose up angry at the constant police harassment of the drag-queens by police,” Broshears wrote. “It had to be the first ever recorded violence by Gays against the police anywhere. For on that evening, when the SFPD paddy wagon drove up to make their ‘usual’ sweeps of the streets, Gays this time did not go willingly.”

Broshears wrote that the dispute did begin once they entered the cafeteria.

“But when the police grabbed the arm of one of the transvestites, he threw his hot coffee in the cop’s face, and with that, cups, saucers, and trays began flying around the place and all directed at the police,” he wrote.

He reported that a police car “had every window broken,” a newspaper shack outside the cafeteria “was burned to the ground and general havoc raised that night in the Tenderloin.”

Greg Pennington, a co-founder with the late Willie Walker of the GLBT Historical Society, told the B.A.R. that as an amateur historian he compiled a chro-

der is historic LGBTQ bar The White Horse, located at 6551 Telegraph Avenue and in operation since 1933.

The B.A.R. reported August 18 that DJ Lady Ryan and her partner Dennise are raising funds to open Golden Ratio, a women-owned bar at 1517 Franklin Street. The GoFundMe has raised $16,913 as of press time August 20. They did not return a request for comment by press time.

People interested in applying to work for Next Level can email nextleveloakland@gmail.com t

pher,” Long stated to the B.A.R. “He took over 12,000 photographs of the South Bay LGBTQ+ community on his own time and own dime (remember, it’s film, not digital!). He showed us that there was just as much power, strength, and community here as in San Francisco, which traditionally gets much more attention. The LGBTQ+ community in the suburbs was a microcosm of what was happening in larger cities, but just as important and successful.”

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority wants people to know that the VTA Pride Bus “is cruising through Santa Clara County this month, featuring eight LGBTQ+ icons wrapped in a bold, pop-art-style design that captures the energy of 1970s visual culture,” according to VTA spokesperson Marina Chakmakjian. Among those being honored are Yeager, Harvey Milk, Angela Davis, Marsha P. Johnson, Keith Haring, Audre Lorde, José Julio Sarria, and Billy DeFrank, the namesake of San Jose’s LGBTQ community center.

For more information on Silicon Valley Pride, visit svpride.com. t

nology of early gay history. It is now in the archives of the historical society. The B.A.R. was unable to locate it while visiting the archives recently, likely due to it being combined with other documents, according to archivists.

“I never had any formal training in archives,” Pennington said in a recent phone interview. But he recalled that his timeline indicates August 1966 for the Compton’s riot, though without an exact date. His chronology also cited Broshears’ Gay Crusader newspaper, he said, adding that Broshears mentioned the riot “after the fact.”

The Reverend Dr. Megan Rohrer, a transgender man whose book “Images of America: San Francisco’s Transgender District” was published this month, was also unable to find a date for the Compton’s riot, Rohrer told the B.A.R.

“I went through the police records at the library for that full year surrounding it – it is not listed in the police report. I think the only mention of it is from the Reverend Ray Broshears in his Gay Crusader paper,” Rohrer stated.

Stryker said that SFPD’s records from that time “disappeared.”

“There are no files for Central Station,” she said, referring to the police station that oversees the Tenderloin. “Nothing in newspapers.”

An outlier

Adding to the hunt for a date, Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, sent out an email two weeks ago indicating the riot occurred on August 14.

“59 years ago today, in a San Francisco diner, a hot cup of coffee ignited a revolution,” the email stated. “Three years before Stonewall, drag queens and transgender women stood up against police harassment – and refused to back down. That August night in 1966 was loud, unapologetic, and the beginning of the movement we’re still fighting for today.”

The fundraising message was signed by Tom Temprano, a gay man who is EQCA’s managing director and a San Francisco resident. He was asked how EQCA determined the date.

In response, Jorge Reyes Salinas, a gay man who is communications director for the organization, clarified the date issue in a message to the B.A.R.

Susan Stryker, Ph.D., is known as an expert on the Compton’s Cafeteria riots.

Courtesy Susan Stryker

The Reverend Raymond Broshears published his San Francisco Pride magazine in June 1972.

Cynthia Laird, from the GLBT Historical Society Archives

by Gregg Shapiro

Whether or not you are a fan of “American Idol,” and a follower of those who have been on the show, sometimes there is a story about one of the competitors that can catch your attention. For many, especially LGBTQ people, David Archuleta is a perfect example.

Only a teenager, and still in high school, when he made the cut for season seven of the show, Archuleta finished in second place (to David Cook) in 2008. But his story was far from over. Raised in a Mormon household, he came out in 2022 and, along with his mother, left the LDS Church. In August 2025, Archuleta is releasing “Earthly Delights,” a marvelous six-song EP. He’s following up the release with a multi-city tour during September and October. David graciously made time for an interview in early July.

David will perform on September 27 in San Francisco at The Independent.

Gregg Shapiro: You recently performed at several Pride events in June, right?

David Archuleta: I performed at quite a few Pride events throughout the U.S., which was really great. I just came back from Oklahoma City Pride and St. Louis Pride. I performed at World Pride (in DC) and Utah Pride, which is where I where I grew up, which is really special, as well, and Pittsburgh Pride. It was a month of celebrating.

Your new EP “Earthly Delights” was just released. About the EP you’ve said, “I’m in my indulgence mode when it comes to giv-

had a river/Had a case of you.” Are you a Joni Mitchell fan?

Definitely, yes! Ever since junior high, I’ve been a fan. I even considered covering a Joni Mitchell song on “American Idol.” I was trying to do that, but it didn’t work out, so I picked a different song. But I’ve always loved Joni Mitchell. In the writing session I had during that song (“Dulce Amor”), one of the writers and the producer, we were in the studio, and they had a painting of Joni Mitchell. I said, “Why not just mention her in the song?” So, we did.

You didn’t get to sing a Joni song on “Idol,” but have you ever covered a song of hers in concert?

David Archuleta

ing into my sensuality.” In what ways do you think the songs on this EP represent that?

I think just the fact that I’ve written romantic songs, period, has been a big step for me. They reference more of a sensual side to life, (which is) something I always avoided. I look back, and I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, this is still pretty wholesome for probably most people’s standards, especially in pop music, when it comes into like romance and sexuality.” But for me, I think it was very hard because I always avoided that by a mile. To me, it feels like I’m indulging. But maybe for a Momon, it’s indulgence, because probably for most people, this is just love.

by Jim Provenzano

While he’s only been in San Francisco for almost five years, painter Luis Felipe Chávez has already exhibited at several local galleries with his impressive array of work, ranging from the personal to architectural symbolism.

His next exhibit, “INTERmedio,” opens at Jonathan Carver Moore Studios on August 28, and focuses on large works over the past few years that blend architectural sites and buildings in San Francisco and Mexico City that intersect

like photographs. For Chávez, it symbolically blends his personal journey of immigration from Mexico.

In the interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Chávez, 29, discussed his other work that includes self-portraits, religious iconography, and even themes of queer sexuality.

“This is about my immigration path, my story of integrating from here to the States from Mexico,” said Chávez. “All these paintings that I’m presenting are about these physical places that we are existing, like the streets in the city, monuments, or buildings, and what conversation we have with those places or with those buildings.”

The EP contains the songs “Crème Brulée” and “Dulce Amor” which begs the question, do you have a sweet tooth?

I have definitely gained a sweet tooth. I love my chocolate chip cookies, I love crème brulée, I love ice cream with peanut butter on it. Molten lava cake is also really good. I may need to take a step away from the sweets because singing so much about sweet things and all that, I’ve gotten a little overwhelmed with the sweets.

In “Dulce Amor” you sing, “You’re my favorite record/Joni Mitchell ‘Blue’/Wish I

While he originally worked in his apartment, he’s recently moved into a studio at the Pacific Felt Factory, enabling him to develop larger paintings. Chávez created some of his paintings in the series in 2020 at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

“I thought, ‘What’s going to happen?’ I was pushing myself to do something more photographic. It’s the first time that I’m doing something like that. It was more like a challenge to find this balance between doing a painting that looks like a photograph but not really that realistic.”

Being t/here

The irony is not lost on the artist that most of California was originally part of Mexico.

“Yes, yes,” Chávez agreed. “One of the biggest paintings that I’m presenting is of a statue of Miguel Hidalgo [called ‘the father of Mexican independence’], and it’s this overlap of the one that’s in Dolores Park, and the other statue is of the same guy in Guadalajara, the city where I grew up. So, I’m doing this overlap of the same person, but I’m not focusing really about this persona or this guy who helped to liberate Mexico. My point of view here is more, what is the concept or what is this image that we have about freedom, or what is freedom for us?

“The one that we have here in Dolores Park is more really looking pretty, really calm, and just presenting himself, and the one that we find in Mexico is really aggressive, and he’s breaking a chain.”

While the “INTERmedio” exhibit may be more austere, some of Chávez’ other works are more visibly personal, even erotic or gothic in tone.

“Seven of the paintings that I’m presenting are in black and white, and usually I paint in color. My desire was speaking about my immigration journey, but I don’t want to be that literal. I want to talk about the places where I exist in Mexico and which places I am existing right now, and that conversation that I’m having with those places and what relationship have my past with this present that I’m living.

“In that way, it’s telling my story, but it’s not my particular story. It’s just I’m talking more about the places. These places are public places, so everybody’s existing there or the people here in the city or the people who is living now in Guadalajara.”

Chávez has also exhibited at Queer Arts Featured, Ruth’s Table, both in San Francisco, as

I have not. “Both Sides Now” is probably only one of two songs that I can play on guitar. It was the first song I learned on the guitar, and, unfortunately, because I didn’t really keep it up, I’ve forgotten how to play it a bit. But I loved her enough that it inspired me to at least learn a song of hers on the guitar.

You are embarking on a multi-city tour in September and October. How many months out of the year would you say that you are on the road?

I wouldn’t say I’m on the road very often. I’ve done these Pride shows, and I do a few shows here and there throughout the year. I wouldn’t say I love to be on the road half of the year, 3/4 of the year. I did that during “American Idol” and the year after “American Idol” and it was a bit much for me. I try to pace myself and give myself a time frame and time limits on how often I’m out. I like to have my own space, my own routine. It’s hard to do that when you’re constantly on the road. I do love to go out on the road, but just for a certain amount of time. Maybe two to three months out of the year, if that.

As part of the tour, you’ll also be performing in Salt Lake City on September 19. What’s it like for you to do hometown shows?

There’s a sense of we’ve been through a lot of the same things. It’s literally like neighbors and friends and family. But even if they’re not direct family or neighbors, you’ve still grown up in the same culture, the same environment, the same kind of belief system, particularly with people

well as in Palm Springs galleries.

“My intention is open more my panorama and show my work in more places,” he said, adding that working with Moore was “easy and really professional. I feel so lucky that now we can have these places for POC artists and for queer people.”

Sense of self

Some of Chávez’ earlier works include pencil figure studies with a double-image twist, and a few that lean toward the gruesome.

“I grew up Catholic, and I think that part of my work is related to Catholicism,” said Chávez. “I grew up with all these images of Jesus covered in blood and all the stories in the religion, so I think it comes from that. I’ve also existed with depression and anxiety. The world that we are living in now is too much sometimes. There’s a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. I guess I want to have a conversation with that and feel myself representing that in my painting.”

His self-portraits offer insight as well.

“With some of those, like ‘Rupture,’” he said, “I used a photo from when I started college at 18,

Gay singer on performing his music out, loud and proud

Painter blends his personal journey into new works

Luis Felipe Chávez

‘Pegasuses, goddesses and skyscrapers. Ciudad de México, San Francisco California.’ (2020, oil on canvas)

Teen crush tale takes a wildly witty edge

by Brandon Judell

Nicholas Colia might well be the greatest living gay, Boston-raised director and screen writer America has ever cultivated. There’s no guarantee. After all, he’s only made one feature and several shorts. But what a feature!

Colia’s “Griffin in Summer” (Honor Role Films), a wildly witty study of unbridled youthful hormones, last year walked away with a boatload of awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, including Best U.S. Narrative Feature and Best Screenplay, while earning a Someone to Watch nomination from the Indie Spirit Award folks.

So what’s this hullabaloo all about? Well, it’s summer vacation in the suburbs, and 14-year-old gangly Griffin (startlingly embodied by Everett Blunck) is planning to produce “Regrets of Autumn,” a play he’s written about his parents’ dissolving marriage. This highly precocious, ginger-haired and freckled youth, who’s never thrown a ball in his life, let alone shimmied up a rope in gym class, has entrapped four of his classmates into acting in and directing his magnum opus.

Harriet: “Walter, where’s my scotch?”

Walter: “Harriet, it’s nine o’clock in the morning.”

Imagine “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” being performed by the cast of “Hannah Montana.” Sadly, Griffin’s teen ensemble, currently experiencing a post-pubescent high which includes dating and partying, are not as professionally focused as Griffin, causing the lad to have a few meltdowns.

All is not going well for this youth, not at least until Mom hires a hunky, tattooed handyman and pool boy, Brad Rizzo (Owen Teague), who’s 25, straight, slightly alcoholic, and clearly not that bright.

Suddenly, Griffin is in love, and when he learns Brad is a performance artist who in his last show

wore diapers, spit out whole eggs, and screamed a lot, he offers the chap a leading role in a rewritten “Regrets of Autumn” that might necessitate having Brad’s torso being rubbed down with mayonnaise.

Precocious kid

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Nicholas Colia insisted there are autobiographical elements in the film.

“I didn’t have the kind of handyman experience of having a crush on an adult when I was a kid,” he shared. “The part that is mostly autobiographical is the theater stuff. I definitely

spent my adolescence doing plays and films out of my parents’ basement that were very overly ambitious. I was always more interested in comedy.”

He agreed that a gay main character alters any work’s focus.

“I think it absolutely colors everything,” he said. “But what I meant by that is that I don’t think Griffin’s struggle in the film is that he’s uncomfortable with or rejecting being gay. Or worried about how his friends or his environment or how his mother or father will react to it. He’s very privileged in that sense. His struggle is more about just that the person he’s attracted to for the first time in his life is not available to him for multiple reasons.”

Colia himself said he was also not uptight about coming out at 19, having been raised in the south end of Boston.

“I was privileged and lucky that way,” he said. “I think that’s why that’s my point of view with Griffin’s story. I’ve had other hard matters in my life but nothing about being gay.

“With Griffin,” he continued, “the whole thing of him being 14 and being able to verbalize his feelings really came more out of the experiences that I had later in life and just from people telling me what a common experience that having an adult crush is, whether it’s a teacher which for students tends to be a common

experience. Though that was not an experience I had specifically.”

Asked if he’s received any complaints about the underage aspect of his film, Colia said, “We really haven’t had much pushback at all. Certainly not from anybody who’s seen the film, which is refreshing. I have certainly been surprised that there hasn’t been more. I view the film as fairly innocent.”t

‘Griffin in Summer’ releases on August 28 on Apple TV, with a theatrical release from Vertical Entertainment. www.instagram.com/honor.role www.tv.apple.com

An uplifting riff on addiction and Alzheimer’s

by Jim Gladstone

“You know, it’s feast or famine over here,” said queer playwright Jake Brasch, whose comic drama, “The Reservoir,” begins performances at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre on September 5.

The Colorado native was speaking with the Bay Area Reporter in a video interview from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he was overseeing the premiere of a new piece earlier this month.

Fortunately, he noted, audiences in Scotland were hungry for “Hole!”

“It’s a butt plug musical,” explained Brasch, 33, who clearly lives up to his surname. “Are you ready for this?” he widened his eyes and tossed his luxuriant beyond-shoulder-length tresses.

“It’s a two-person show about a group of Nebraskans whose pastor tells them he had a dream in which God told him that everyone has to wear butt plugs at all times, or they might be sucked into the heavens to burn on the face of the sun. Folks are loving it. It took us a second to find our audience, but then it sort of exploded.”

One critic deemed the musical, which Brasch wrote and performed with frequent collaborator Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, “a gloriously bonkers…show about the dangers of toxic masculinity.”

Another, writing that they had already bought tickets to see it a second time called “Hole!” as “beautifully

and then in the middle when I was 22, and then at the end when I was 24 or 25. It was more like all this process and anxiety of being in college, trying to be an artist and being in the academy and all that. I created that painting when I finished college. In some way, I thought, ‘I kind of want to kill my past,’ but not really. I just wanted to start again, with my own knowledge, trying to build myself as really integrated with all of the things that they taught me.”

Chávez also shared a darker side to why he needed to express himself through his art.

“My depression was so bad during

bizarre” and “so gleefully unhinged it practically redefines theatrical irreverence.”

While “The Reservoir” can fairly be described as hinged relative to Brasch’s Fringe piece, it similarly reflects his zig-zagging, non-lateral creativity, drawing unlikely, insightful connections between seemingly disparate topics.

“The Reservoir” began as a commission to write a play inspired by scientific ideas. It evolved into a fictionalized autobiographical work about Josh, an alcoholic young writer who, crawling up from rock bottom, returns home to Colorado from New York and reconnects with his grandparents.

“I started out focused on collabora-

tive, devised theater pieces,” explained Brasch, who graduated from the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU/ Tisch and the playwriting program at Julliard, describing the influence of that early work’s improvisational nature on his own writing process.

Brasch has also helped support himself by working as a clown at children’s birthday parties in New York.

Improvising survival

The kernel of “The Reservoir” was a scientific concept called cognitive reserve, which is the subject of studies around Alzheimer’s disease.

“The idea,” explained Brasch, “is that someone with Alzheimer’s can build up this reserve so that when

they start to experience symptoms, they can improvise around them and be able to increase the time of lucidity they have as the disease continues to develop. When I was doing my research into the science, it made me think that this was an incredibly freeing way to confront the disease.”

Eventually, Brasch began to draw parallels between the mental and emotional states of Alzheimer’s patients with those in the throes of chemical addiction, as he had been just a few years earlier.

“There’s a kind of semi-permeable membrane that allows you to come in and out of reality,” Brasch suggested.

“When I moved home to get sober, I did reconnect with my aging grandparents. And having my soupy brain of early recovery at the same time they were slipping into dementia and Alzheimer’s, there was a sense that we were on a parallel plane.”

After taking some down time to wrestle with addiction issues, Brasch said, “I felt like I was falling behind my peers.”

But now, “The Reservoir,” Brasch’s first work to be produced professionally has sent their career into hyperdrive. Over an intense three-month span, “The Reservoir,” is being mounted in three distinct productions across the country.

The world premiere, a collaboration between the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theatre, and the Geffen Playhouse was called

that time that I had thought of suicide,” he said. “I had two friends who passed away in that way. My creative practice and my painting helped me to find a catharsis of those feelings. I was trying to do the symbolic act, to kill all these ideas and get over that and just continue with my daily life. When I’m creating, when I’m working in the studio, I’m building, creating this kind of mirror when I can see myself, and then I can build myself during the time that I’m working.”

Asked if he feels more comfortable now –or even perhaps obligated– to visualize an aspect of being gay into his art, Chávez said, “I feel an obligation to express myself, and with that, saying that involves everything or all the parts of the persona that I am. It’s

“hilarious, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful,” by one LA critic. sense that the play is taking place in the protagonist’s mind as much as in the literal world.

Yet another director will bring their vision to Brasch’s script in an OffBroadway production later this fall. Meanwhile, Brasch is working on several more plays and potential television opportunities. The day after closing night in Edinburgh, he flew to California to begin Berkeley rehearsals. The protagonist of this story, it seems, has triumphantly emerged from his hole.t

‘The Reservoir,’ Sept 5-Oct 12. $25$135. Berkeley Repertory’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St. www.berkeleyrep.org www.jakebrasch.com

my queerness there, also the Mexican aspect of my vision.”

“I’m trying to not hide anything. I grew up in a small town and in church, so the way that I grew up was like hiding myself. So now, yeah. Part of my artistic practice, is just, ‘No. Just express yourself there and put yourself there with your queerness, with your softness, with everything that you have.’”t

Luis Felipe Chávez’ ‘INTERmedio,’ August 28-September 27 at Jonathan Carver Moore Studios, 966 Market St. Opening reception Sept. 4, 6:30pm-7:30pm. Thu & Fri 12pm-6pm; Sat. 12pm-4pm or by appointment. www.jonathancarvermoore.com www.luisfelipestudio.com

<< Luis Felipe Chávez

page 11

Everett Blunck and Owen Teague in ‘Griffin in Summer’

‘Griffin in Summer’ writerdirector Nicholas Colia

Left to Right: Lee Wilkof, Carolyn Mignini, Jake Horowitz, Geoffrey Wade and Liz Larsen in ’The Reservoir’ at Geffen Playhouse

Jeff Lorch

Jake Brasch

Thomas Brunot

t << Music

‘Mostly Marlene’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

W

hen Kim David Smith performs, the audience feels it.

Smith, an Australian native who now calls New York City home, performs with an intensity that’s palpable. The openly gay singer has a particular affection for the Weimar era, that time between the end of World War I and the rise of the Nazis when artistic freedom flourished in Germany. He recreates that era whenever he sets foot on stage.

In his latest album release, “Mostly Marlene,” which was recorded live at Joe’s Pub in New York, Smith sings songs made famous by the late screen icon Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), the German actress and songstress who began performing during the Weimar era, and whose stage persona emulated that era even after she moved to America and became a Hollywood star. But as the album’s title proclaims, it’s “Mostly Marlene.” In addition to paying homage to Dietrich, Smith bows his head to other muses of his, such as Kylie Minogue.

Pop blending

Smith sings in German, French and English. Whichever tongue he invokes,

Smith makes the audience feel each song. In “Johnny” he sings in German to a man he has a crush on. In the middle of the song he switches to an English monologue, concluding the song by intoning “erotic…erotic…put your hands all over my body,” invoking Madonna. It’s a moment made all the more sensual to album listeners who can hear Smith, but cannot see him.

In “You’re the Cream in My Coffee” Smith pays tribute to Sidney Myer, his “cabaret father,” who he refers to as “Sidney, Darling.” The tune becomes a love song from one man to another.

One of the highlights of the concert is Smith’s rendition of two Minogue songs, “In Your Eyes,” and “Slow,” which he sings as a piano mash-up. Other highlights of the album’s 21 tracks are the plaintive “Lily Marlene,” which he sings in English, and “Cabaret,” which is sung in German. He opens that number by announcing that his show is all about “divine decadence.”

Other tracks that are dedicated to Dietrich include the legendary “Falling in Love Again,” which is sung beautifully in both German and English, as well as the haunting “Just a

David Smith

Gigolo,” which is sung in English.

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Smith spoke about his musical journey.

David-Elijah Nahmod: This is the gayest album I’ve heard in years. What do you hope gay people will take from it?

Kim David Smith: My hope for queer folks listening to the record is that feelings of community and sisterhood are fostered, no matter the physical miles between us all, and that my queer brethren will feel inspired to

slap on a red lip and put on a show of their own. Let’s keep telling our stories, slinging our jokes, and singing our songs. It’s the only way we’re going to get through the madness of the 2020s with our hearts intact.

What is it about Marlene Dietrich that attracts you to her music?

The era in which Marlene began working in Berlin, just ahead of the Nazi takeover and Germany’s slide into fascism, gee, I wonder what that’s like, was my launching point into cabaret in general. To study and research

cabaret is to befriend Marlene, or at least, her painstakingly maintained public-facing persona.

What is it about the Weimar era that fascinates you?

The boldness, the playfulness, and the creativity in art and art-making make the Weimar Republic a time of particular interest to me. The art and artists who survived that beyond-tumultuous period in human history and the mess that immediately followed give me hope that despite the horrors we currently face, we may yet be able to participate in something wonderful. And I’m not just talking about music. Get out there and make queer art of any sort with your friends. Paintings, music, porn, anything. The generations behind us are depending on it.t

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

‘Mostly Marlene’ by Kim David Smith is available wherever you download music. kimdavidsmith.com instagram.com/kimdavidsmith

‘Gypsy,’ pop grooves and savory songs

by Gregg Shapiro

New tunes and a classic musical are among the fresh batch of recordings for your pleasure. Maia Sharp, Kristen Ford, Joviale, Dagger Polyester and –Here she is, boys!– the double LP “Gypsy: 2024 Original Broadway Cast Recording.”

In the interest of full disclosure, “Gypsy” is not my favorite musical. It doesn’t matter if Mama Rose is played by Bette Midler, Patty LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Tyne Daley, Angela Lansbury, Ethel Merman, or Rosalind Russell. The book by gay, Tony Award-winning playwright and director Arthur Laurents, is a musical dramatization of the life of a stage mother from hell and her two daughters, from vaudeville to the burlesque circuit.

Deeply unlikeable characters? Check! But here’s where things get juicy. The musical has at least 10 songs, co-written by gay Tony Award-winner Stephen Sondheim (lyrics featuring his trademark wordplay) and Jule Styne (music) that have become immediately recognizable standards in the Great American Songbook.

So, what could possibly make a Broadway revival of “Gypsy” a draw

for 21st-century audiences, 60 years after it debuted? First, you get gay, Tony-winning director George C. Wolfe to helm it. Then you cast the extraordinary Audra McDonald in the lead role of Mama Rose and round out the cast with a multitude of talented performers, including Danny Burstein and Joy Woods, and there you have it. Whether or not you were able to catch this cast while it was performing on Broadway, you have the opportunity to take them home with you on the deluxe, double LP “Gypsy: 2024 Original Broadway Cast Recording” (Arts Music/Octoverse Media).

Featuring a full-color 64-page book, this exceptional cast recording will entertain listeners for years to come. www.octoversemedia.lnk.to

If you aren’t acquainted with the wonderful queer singer/songwriter Maia Sharp, and her distinctive honeydipped vocals, here are a few fascinating facts about her. Maia is the daughter of Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Randy Sharp, whose songs have been recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Tanya Tucker, The Chicks, Reba McEntire, and Art Garfunkel.

Like father, like daughter, Maia’s songs have been covered by Cher, Trisha Yearwood, and Kathy Mattea, as well as The Chicks and Art Garfunkel. She’s also an outstanding live performer and opened for Bonnie Raitt on her concert tour a few years ago. “Tomboy” (Crooked Crown) is Sharp’s tenth solo album, and the personal opening title track is the kind of song to which many in our community will relate.

If there’s any justice, “Is That What Love Does,” deserves to be a hit single. Over the course of the album, Sharp is also joined by stellar guest artists including Terri Clark on the moving “Asking For a Friend,” and rising queer country artist Fancy Hagood on “Fool in Love Again.” On the album’s lone cover tune, a powerful rendition of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” Sharp is joined by Garrison Starr, another fantastic queer singer/songwriter. www.maiasharp.com

<< David Archuleta

From page 11

who grew up in the same religion as I did, as Latter-Day Saints. Whether or not they’re still in it, you understand each other; why you think the way you do, why you believe what you do. Especially when you’ve left.

I left the religion a few years ago, and to connect with people who’ve been through that and had to do with the same kind of discrimination, misunderstandings, and judgments. It’s nice to connect with everybody. To see people who are still a part of it and

Remember that surge of electricity you felt the first time you heard Melissa Etheridge belt out “Bring Me Some Water” all those years ago? You may well experience the same thing while listening to “Pinto” (Righteous Babe) by queer, biracial singer/songwriter Kristen Ford. On her first album for Ani DiFranco’s record label, Ford is joined by the righteous babe herself on album opener “Here’s to You Kid,” which combines electronic and organic instrumentation with irresistible results.

DiFranco’s presence is felt throughout, playing on several songs and co-writing a few. However, Ford is the focus here, whether she’s singing queer love songs (“Grrrl in the Mirror,” “The Fall,” “Whiplash,” “Brand New Pair,” and “Richest In the World,” a duet with John Driskell Hopkins) or making powerful queer statements (“White Man’s Dream,” “Wild Heart”), she never fails to hold our attention.

www.kristenfordmusic.com

Easily one of the most original albums of the year, “Mount Crystal” (Ghostly International) by nonbinary North London performer Joviale boasts an experimental theatricality reminiscent of Bjork. Opener “The Mountain” flirts with off-kilter jazz,

while “Soul” inspires nostalgia for mid-1980s R&B.

In fact, Joviale often touches on various soul influences, putting a futuristic and personal spin on them, as you can hear on “Wishing,” “Foul Play,” “Both Ways,” and “Heavy.” Joviale should also be commended for thinking far outside the box on daring cuts including “Let Me Down,” “Hark!,” and “Crush.” Highly recommended. www.joviale.bandcamp.com

Produced by Chris Robinson (of The Black Crows, if you can believe it!), “Perversion For Profit” (Silver Arrow/The Orchard), the debut album by transmasculine performer Dagger Polyester has arrived to (punk) rock your world (and then some). With a shriek that conjures memories of Lene Lovich and vintage Patti Smith, the opening track “We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants” is a reminder that we owe a debt to those who came before us.

Bet you never thought you’d find yourself dancing to a song called “Conversion Therapy,” but Dagger Polyester dares you to sit still for this one. The moody “Spin” and “Affection” offer a respite from the musical chaos, before picking up with “She Kissed the Gun” and club-banger “The Tower.” www.daggerpolyester.comt

you already, and so they’re invested in staying by your side. I think that’s a really sweet thing. Before all of the national recognition, they’ve seen me grow up. It’s a special thing, and you get to have fun and celebrate.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

David Archuleta performs Sept. 27, 9pm at The Independent, 628 Divisadero St. Alexandra John opens. $38-$260 (meet & greet). www.theindependentsf.com www.davidarchuleta.com

Kim David Smith

Queer sparks of unvarnished truth

by Laura Moreno

“WildFailure” is the debut book of short stories by best-selling Canadian author Zoe Whittall, who has written five novels to date.

The short story collection features 10 thought-provoking stories that delve into the complexities of urban living. It includes themes of attachment, disconnection, the rise of stealth crime, addiction, anxiety, shame, and explores a world that often sows chaos and devalues people.

Zoe Whittall’s prose is intimate, accessible and vivid. She does not shy away from heavy contemporary themes, but handles them with grace and refreshing candor, managing to blend raw emotion with humor and real insight.

In a way, Whittall’s writing refuses to be neatly packaged. Some say it lacks a theme running through the stories, but “Wild Failure” definitely positions the outsider as a vital, authentic voice in Canadian literature. For this reason, the book is literary fiction and can also be considered “outlaw literature,” a genre that champions the outsider and those who carve their own paths.

In that vein, the author also evokes

a gritty, individualistic feel by including a number of apt musical references to artists like Iggy Pop, Def Leppard and others throughout the book.

Author Zoe Whittall was born on a sheep farm in 1976 in Quebec, lived in Montreal and Toronto, and has now returned to the countryside. Inspired by the feminist punk movement of the 1990s, she is also a poet and award-winning television scriptwriter who wrote for “Baroness Von Sketch Show” and “Schitt’s Creek.”

Truth from Canada’s margins

One of Whittall’s strengths is her ability to craft characters who are so real we feel we know them, as in the story “Oh, El.” El is Eleanor, a cunning workplace bully who relentlessly manipulates and provokes her co-worker. Exploiting the subtle hierarchies and tensions of the workplace, she pushes the power dynamics to the limit. The result is that Whittall has crafted a perceptive psychological exploration of control, vulnerability, hidden resentments, and the toll workplace antagonism takes on work life.

Next is the quietly brilliant short story “Half-Pipe.” A half-pipe is a Ushaped skateboarding ramp, a symbol of freedom as well as danger, and

Aaron Smith

by Gregg Shapiro

the backdrop of much of the story of a 15-year-old girl grappling with the aftermath of a sexual assault she has evidence of, but can’t quite remember.

The ending of this story has been criticized as “anti-climactic,” but I find it ingenious, a truly transcendent picture of her uncle’s genuine caring.

Uncle Marty got his soul crushed in the Gulf War, but because he’s always welcomed to sleep on the couch when

need be, he’s there for his niece, which is more loyalty than many families demonstrate.

The equally captivating title story “Wild Failure” centers around the unlikely romance between an agoraphobic woman and an avid hiker. Opposites may attract, but when they attempt to enjoy a road trip together, their conflicting needs simmer beneath the surface until neither can

stand it. The premise is a creative way of discussing the psychological fears and anxieties that usually remain hidden beneath the surface.

The book’s title may also be extrapolated to refer to a number of negative trends happening in the wider society that have made their way into this collection. In this way the book can be read as a critique of a society that often fails the individuals living within it.

“Wild Failure” is comparable to books like “Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado, and “Rat Bohemia” by Sarah Schulman, two LGBT works that also deliver a smart mix of emotional depth and social critique.

Whittall’s previous books include “The Best Kind of People,” “The Fake,” and “Holding Still for as Long as Possible,” which won a Lambda Literary Award and was an American Library Association’s Stonewall Honor Book. No doubt Zoe Whittall’s unapologetic voice will resonate for years to come.t

‘Wild Failure’ by Zoe Whittall, Penguin/Random House, 176 pages, $18. www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.instagram.com/zoe_whittall

The gay poet discusses creating ‘Beautiful People’/’Tilt’ with the late Maureen Seaton

To call the 2023 passing of awardwinning lesbian poet, writer, and educator Maureen Seaton an immeasurable loss is no exaggeration. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, including two Lambda Literary Awards, Pushcart Prizes, and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, among others, Seaton, who died of cancer at age 75, also made a name for herself via her collaborations with other poets, most notably Denise Duhamel.

The posthumously published “Beautiful People”/“Tilt” (Bridwell Press) contains two books of collaborative poetry. “Tilt,” Seaton’s final collaboration with Duhamel, and “Beautiful People,” a collaboration with gay poet Aaron Smith. A fantastic and exhilarating poetry collection, it ranks among the best books of the year. In a recent interview, Smith discussed his experience working with Seaton on the “Beautiful People” section of the book.

Gregg Shapiro: As both you and Denise Duhamel verified by what you wrote in your intro-

ductions to the book “Beautiful People/Tilt,” everyone has an interesting story about how they met Maureen. Have you had a similar experience with other poets, or do you think this was a one-time thing?

Aaron Smith: I have never had an experience like this with another poet, and I doubt I will again. I think Maureen is why this experience was so

“Storms

special. She was a spectacular person. Her energy and joy were contagious. Her love of poetry and people and the world made me want to show up and write with her. We were becoming friends while (and through) making poems together.

Maureen was an educator, and you are too. Did you ever have a chance to see her in action in the classroom?

I saw Maureen in a Zoom classroom setting when I invited her to visit one of my undergraduate classes. I was teaching her book, “Furious Cooking,” and I reached out to see if she’d be willing to come. She said “yes” immediately. The students loved her. Her love of poetry practically made the screen glow. That’s really where she and I connected. After that class, we communicated how much we wanted to spend more time with each other, which ultimately led to the collaboration.

Can you compare the distinctions in your writing styles and how they meshed in collaboration?

Her poems and my poems both think about queerness, popular culture, and how a body moves through the world. We had those commonalities. As far as differences, she was more interested in traditional forms and used a more playful diction than me. I have a tendency to be more direct, and I write mostly free verse.

We ended up using the prose poem, or as Maureen called them “prose chunks,” while interspersing traditional forms and free verse throughout. The prose form gave us both room to bring ourselves to the project. Because of her, I wrote poems in traditional forms that I probably never would have. My first successful sonnet ever (“Sissy”) ended up being published in the Academy of American Poets’ “Poem-a-Day.” I think we each pushed each other to experiment.

What does it mean to you to share space in the book with Denise Duhamel, a poet with whom you have a history?

It’s amazing. Denise is the reason my first book got published. She chose it for publication in 2004 for the University of Pittsburgh’s Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. I’ve now been with the Pitt Poetry Series for twenty years. In addition to Denise having a hand in my first book being

published, I love her work and her as a person. She’s a poetry hero to me and so many other queers.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

‘Beautiful People’/’Tilt,’ Bridwell Press, $12 paperback, $16 hardcover services.publishing.umich.edu/

Author Zoe Whittall

Poet Aaron Smith

The late poet Maureen Seaton