August 8, 2024 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Cain

Walz picked as Harris’ VP nominee

by Cynthia Laird

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz won the veepstakes, as he was selected August 6 by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to be her running mate, according to multiple media outlets.

Harris confirmed the selection a couple of hours later. According to the White House, President Joe Biden spoke to both Harris and Walz.

dies

by John Ferrannini

Jerry Berbiar, a gay man known widely in the San Francisco LGBTQ community as Jerry the Faerie, died August 5. Mr. Berbiar was long a fixture in the Radical Faeries, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and the Bound Together Bookstore. He was 69.

Joey Cain, Mr. Berbiar’s longtime friend and a caregiver for him, in April had traveled  with him to Buffalo and Rochester, New York for the solar eclipse. In late June, Mr. Berbiar had returned from a Radical Faerie Gathering at the Wolf Creek Sanctuary in Oregon.

But weeks later he had posted on his Facebook page that he was experiencing “chest pain and weakness.” Cain told the Bay Area Reporter that on July 31, Mr. Berbiar had gone to CPMC Hospital in San Francisco for an angioplasty and stent insertion.

That evening, Mr. Berbiar had posted to his social media a note saying he was “alive!” and expected to only be in the hospital overnight and released in the morning. “I’m ok,” his post had ended.

Unfortunately, despite being on many anticoagulants, Mr. Berbiar had a “massive heart attack” later that day following the procedures, Cain said.

Tom Ammiano, the gay longtime political leader who was once a city supervisor and state assemblymember, said Mr. Berbiar “had a big heart, a fighting spirit, and he was really very, very funny and he’s really going to be missed. I posted about his passing on my Facebook and the responses are so warm and encouraging.”

Mr. Berbiar was born April 23, 1955 and was initially from Chicago, Cain said in a phone interview.

“He had a rough childhood,” Cain said. “His parents separated and his father let his mother take him.”

The two went to Los Angeles, but Mr. Berbiar’s mother died by suicide. After a “couple of years in Madison, Wisconsin,” Mr. Berbiar moved to San Francisco in 1977, Cain said.

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“This morning, the president and vice president spoke on the phone ahead of her official announcement that she selected Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential nominee. The president also spoke with Governor Walz to congratulate him on his selection,” the White House stated.

Walz, 60, hit the campaign trail with Harris Tuesday in Philadelphia. The two are scheduled to make campaign appearances in several battleground states this week. They will formally accept the nomination when the Democrats hold their convention in Chicago beginning August 19.

In Walz, Harris found a governing partner who’s progressive and brings a down-home charm to the ticket. He’s also not afraid to go after Republican former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance. It was Walz who first started using the

word “weird” to describe the Republican ticket, to great effect among Harris supporters and others. The media has picked up on that mes-

LGBTQ history finds a home in downtown San Jose

by Matthew S. Bajko

Alittle over a year after receiving a significant grant from state lawmakers, Queer Silicon Valley is opening its first physical space to present the South Bay’s LGBTQ history. A ribboncutting ceremony will take place Sunday at its new home in downtown San Jose.

Along with a permanent installation about the growth of the local LGBTQ community, the new Queer Silicon Valley Gallery will feature a special, limited-time exhibit on two prominent LGBTQ+ choruses, the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus and Rainbow Women’s Chorus. Titled “Sing Out With Pride: A Celebration of Queer Voices in Silicon Valley,” the museum-quality show is the first to feature a collection of photos, programs, clothing, song sheets, and awards of the two groups, with a highlight being a loop video of performances by both choruses.

“I think, personally, it is wonderful because I think a lot of times queer history in the Bay Area gets focused primarily on San Francisco. San Francisco is a big part of that, but there are so many other stories that should be told and need to be told, and this gives an opportunity for that to happen,” said gay San Jose resident Kevin Brownstein, board president and a member of the men’s chorus.

The new sidewalk-fronting museum space is

page 10 >>

opening inside the United Food & Commercial Workers Building at 240 South Market across from Cesar Chavez Park and a few blocks from San Jose’s LGBTQ Qmunity District centered along Post Street. It is making its debut ahead of Silicon Valley Pride Week, which kicks off August 19 and culminates in the annual parade and celebration in downtown San Jose Sunday, August 25.

The LGBTQ archival project is under the auspices of the BAYMEC Community Foundation, overseen by executive director Ken Yeager. The foundation is the nonprofit arm of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, known by its acronym BAYMEC, which Yeager co-founded four decades ago on August 13, 1984.

See page 8 >>

Jerry Berbiar, aka Jerry the Faerie,

Jerry Berbiar, aka Jerry the Faerie, traveled to Rochester, New York, in April to view the solar eclipse, and stopped by the Lower Falls in the downtown area.

Joey

saging in recent weeks, reporting that Trump said he is not weird.

See

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, left, has been selected as Kamala Harris’ running mate.

From FB; White House

A mockup shows the exterior of the new Queer Silicon Valley Gallery in San Jose, which opens Sunday, August 11.

Courtesy Ken Yeager

Castro eyes night market to boost foot traffic

by John Ferrannini

Ever since gay District 4 Supervisor

Joel Engardio organized a successful night market in the Sunset last year, other neighborhoods have been getting in on the action. The latest possibility would see one in the Castro LGBTQ neighborhood, merchants learned Thursday.

Night markets are held regularly in Chinatown and the Richmond district, and Engardio is planning another two in his district, on Irving Street between 19th and 26th avenues on August 30 and September 27.

The Castro Merchants Association leadership is trying to find out if it’s possible to host a night market in the neighborhood, according to the group’s president.

The potential night market, crime in the neighborhood, a 2026 temporary Fline closure, and a Castro Street vacancy were among the topics discussed at the association’s August 1 meeting, returning from a post-Pride recess in July.

Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is the association’s president, said that the merchants are “currently in discussions with the city, the MTA [the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency], and the Civic Joy Fund about starting a Castro night market.”

“Fingers crossed,” she said, laying out a vision for a six-times-a-year, food truckcentric night market on 18th Street.

“Eighteenth Street is the street that has made the most sense for an outdoor, sober event,” she added. “People associate night markets with food. It’s all very, very early, but just as a heads up, we are working toward that.”

The Civic Joy Fund seeks to revitalize San Francisco post-COVID. It was co-founded by Manny Yekutiel, a gay man who is proprietor of an eponymous cafe and events space in the Mission neighborhood.

Civic Joy Fund has already funded a number of events in and around the Castro, including a reinvigorated Halloween last October ,, a December weekend of pop-up sidewalk drag performances, and a glow-in-the-dark party over Memorial Day weekend.

Civic Joy Fund has also helped establish popular night markets in the Chinatown and Richmond neighborhoods. The Sunset neighborhood had kickedoff the night market craze last year, with a major boost from Engardio.

Engardio stated to the B.A.R. that “more than 10,000 people showed up to the first-ever Sunset night market last fall. They were 10,000 antidotes to San

Francisco’s ‘doom loop narrative,’” referring to the negatively reinforced economic downturn that some day is aided by stories showcasing the decline of San Francisco’s downtown core.

“The Sunset night market showed what was possible and now there are night markets in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco,” Engardio continued. “Visit them all.”

Engardio also talked up a “beach party edition” on the Great Highway at Taraval September 21.

Yekutiel told the B.A.R. that while Civic Joy Fund was not involved in the initial Sunset night market, it is helping with current efforts.

Yekutiel stressed to the B.A.R. that while “Civic Joy Fund is trying to make San Francisco the night market city,” the group will only move forward if merchants and residents are interested.

“It’s still unclear if it’s feasible, or even desired,” Yekutiel said. “I think the Castro would be a great place to do a night market, because we have lots of proof people like to engage in the streets of the Castro. It’s just a question of which streets, what hours, how much it would cost, and most importantly to me, is it something the merchants actually want, and the community?”

Asten Bennett said that last year’s Halloween was such a success that the Civic Joy Fund “once again wants to sponsor some merchant activations the weekend before Halloween.” For funding from the nonprofit, businesses are asked to submit budgets of $1,000 or less to info@ castromerchants.com.

Crime

Dave Burke, a straight ally who is District 8’s public safety liaison, recounted the tale of two nudists who defended tourists from an alleged serial offender accused of terrorizing Castro residents. The San Francisco Standard reported on the story, which allegedly involved Zero Triball.

The B.A.R. has reported in the past about Triball’s alleged pattern of harassment and violence, including an incident in which he allegedly assaulted someone leaving a Castro bar on Halloween 2023.

According to Burke, two nudists protected tourists from Triball on July 2. Triball, 39, was arrested and is at San Francisco County Jail, where he is charged with a number of crimes, including assault with a deadly weapon, not a firearm. His next court date is August 16.

According to the San Francisco Standard, an attacker punched a tourist after brandishing a blowtorch and threatening to burn the tourist’s face. The attacker fled after being smacked by one of the nudists.

“Not all heroes wear capes, or pants,”

Burke said. “We were looking at possibly honoring the gentlemen – one of the gentlemen doesn’t want to be honored because he’s private.”

Burke added that while Triball’s attorneys are seeking diversion, he has already been through a diversion program.

The San Francisco Public Defender’s office is representing Triball.

“We are working with Mr. Triball to examine all the factors that may have played a role in what happened, and among the things we’re looking at is his mental state at the time. We support Mr. Triball fully and hope we can get him the support he needs,” Deputy Public Defender Will Helvestine stated to the B.A.R.

Burke said the incident shows the need for additional officers.

“We don’t have enough cops out there,” Burke said. “The fact civilians, regular individuals, had to intervene with this guy is shocking. ... It’s the same pattern. He’s relatively restrained for a while, and he goes off.”

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who usually appears at the merchants meetings, is on vacation. His legislative aide, Adam Thongsavat, said that enforcement operations against open-air drug use in the Castro will be ramping up, including on 16th Street near Super Duper Burgers.

“A lot of people continue to use drugs in open spaces,” he said. “What we see in feedback is it’s either late at night or early in the morning.”

Thongsavat invited interested merchants to a 5 p.m. meeting the last Monday of each month with Mandelman’s team to discuss street conditions.

On the topic of meetings, the Castro Community Benefit District is seeking new members for its board, which has some vacancies.

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is the CBD’s executive director, stated the CBD would “love to have merchants on the board.” The CBD meets every even-numbered month on a Wednesday, she said.

Merchants support 2-day F-line closure

As the B.A.R. previously reported, a 187-unit affordable housing project aimed at LGBTQ seniors is coming to 1939 Market Street, at the corner of Duboce. Blake Nelson, with the

construction company Swinerton, came to the merchants to ask the association’s blessing not on the project but on shutting down the F-line streetcar for a weekend in fall 2026.

“We’re here today to talk about us taking down our crane after we erect the building,” Nelson said. “We have to put a mobile crane on Market Street to remove the crane on our job site and, to do that, we have to shut down the Fline for the weekend. One main concern is Castro businesses.”

Nelson assured the merchants that “we will not be doing this on the weekend of the Castro Street Fair.”

“I attend the Castro Street Fair every year, so I’m happy I won’t have to work that weekend,” he said. “There will be buses to replace the F-line.”

The proposal gained the merchants’ support without any no votes. As the B.A.R. reported in May, Mercy Housing California is awaiting word this month if it will receive state funding so it can break ground on the nearly $160 million housing tower it is constructing in conjunction with LGBTQ senior services provider Openhouse.

Castro Street storefront needs filling, owner says Sam Daughman, owner of Rossi’s Deli at 426 Castro Street, revealed to the merchants he bought the building that housed the old Body store, at 450 Castro Street.

“I’m here to ask for your support,” he said. “We’re trying to do something in that vacant space. A bakery, a donut shop, something the neighborhood doesn’t have. That’s all I need from you guys.”

Daughman is seeking someone to rent the space from him.

“It’s very difficult to get anyone there in this market,” he said.

Body closed in 2019 after a fire that also shuttered Q Bar and Osaka Sushi. The latter space reopened as Fratelli Pizza in June. Meanwhile, gay Q Bar co-owner Cip Cipriano has not answered the Bay Area Reporter’s requests for comment on when it will reopen since October 4, 2023, when he stated “we won’t announce a date until we have everything completely done.”

Daughman said he’ll listen to any proposal, not necessarily a bakery or food establishment. Having the 1,400-foot space filled “makes it better for the neighbors,” he added. t

Parole again denied for Magidson in Araujo killing

by Cynthia Laird

Michael William Magidson, the last of the four murderers of trans teenager Gwen Araujo who is still incarcerated, was again denied parole following an August 1 hearing from Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California where he is being held, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

According to the CDCR website, Magidson, 44, was denied parole for the second time. His next hearing will be in five years.

At his initial parole hearing in 2016, Magidson stipulated that he was not suitable for parole for three years. His last hearing was in 2019. Sylvia Guerrero, Araujo’s mother, wrote in a text message to the Bay Area Reporter that she attended the virtual hearing last week.

According to a portion of the audio from the hearing that Guerrero shared, the parole board felt Magidson hadn’t addressed issues such as anger management, substance use, and domestic violence in his group programming, among other factors. It did not appear that Magidson had been attending the groups, the board said. Araujo’s family

members who attended the hearing said that Magidson told the board he did not like group settings.

In a phone interview August 5 with the B.A.R., Guerrero praised the parole board.

“I’m suffering the punishment of this crime, and he’s still not remorseful,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero said that Magidson talked about how he’s always been judged.

“This was exactly my daughter’s life,” Guerrero said, stating that Araujo was often judged by others.

Araujo, 17, was killed in October 2002 at a house party in the East Bay city of Newark, California. Two men at the party had reportedly had sex with

the young woman they’d known as Lida, and they murdered her after their suspicions that she was a trans woman were confirmed. The men then drove Araujo’s body to a grave in the Sierra foothills.

Araujo’s murder brought unprecedented attention to transgender issues and prompted a state law barring the use of the “panic defense,” where people charged with murder defend themselves by claiming the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity triggered them.

Other speakers at the parole hearing included Guerrero’s sister, Lupe Downing, who had also attended the proceeding five years ago.

“This go-around I was very impressed with the questioning they gave him, because he is a threat to society,” Downing said in a phone interview.

“He has not changed his mindset,” Downing added. “He believes he was wronged.”

Downing added that the pain and loss is still present 22 years later.

“It’s never ending for someone who loses a loved one,” she said.

Michelle Palafox, Guerrero’s niece and Araujo’s cousin, also attended the hearing. In a phone interview, Palafox said she’s the oldest of the kids, and had known Araujo her entire life.

“We went through the whole parole hearing,” she said. “We heard about his behavior and that he hasn’t actively been doing any of the groups.”

As the B.A.R. noted after Magidson’s last parole hearing in September 2019, Guerrero said that Magidson, for the first time, had said he was sorry. “He admitted to his part in her killing,” Guerrero wrote. “He took all of the blame for her death. He also admitted that he strangled her and that he could have saved her life but didn’t.” She also stated at the time that she didn’t believe his apology was sincere.

This recent hearing was different, family members said.

Palafox said that Magidson did not show remorse. “It was pretty intense to hear him blame friends, blame his upbringing, blame everything,” she said. “He did admit he did most of the acts of murder.”

“I’m satisfied with the decision,” she added. “I felt if he’s let out, it’d be a huge risk to society. Crimes are rising against the gay and transgender community. I told them this is where he belongs.”

Magidson was sentenced in 2006 to 15 years to life with the possibility of parole after being convicted of seconddegree murder in Araujo’s death.

The three other men who killed Arau-

jo have all been released from prison.

Jose Merel, 44, was granted parole in 2016.

Jason Cazares, 44, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was discharged from prison in 2012.

Jaron Nabors, 41, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for his testimony and was sentenced in 2006 to 11 years in prison but was released early.

A GoFundMe campaign to help Guerrero is still accepting donations, she said. She stated on the site that she has suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder since Araujo’s death. To donate, go to https://tinyurl.com/ypnsswyj

In the years since Araujo’s murder, life has been tough for Guerrero, who has experienced financial and health issues. She has been outspoken in her advocacy for the transgender community and has received awards for her efforts. Two years ago, a civic remembrance took place at the San Francisco Public Library to mark the 20th anniversary of Araujo’s death. Guerrero attended, as did many trans and LGBTQ leaders.

“I took something negative and turned it into something positive,” Guerrero said this week of her efforts to help the trans community. t

Castro Merchants Association leaders are looking at the possibility of having a night market in the LGBTQ neighborhood, similar to one in Chinatown that took place in May.

John Ferrannini

Michael William Magidson as he appeared in 2019.

Courtesy CDCR

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SF mayor, LGBTQ leaders mark Beaux ‘reinvention’

by John Ferrannini

The Castro LGBTQ nightclub Beaux held a “reinvention” celebration Saturday, August 3, that featured a ribbon cutting for recent renovations and a party. It’s the latest effort by a small business to “double down” on the future of the neighborhood, bar officials stated.

Several of the Beaux staff are also involved with the effort to open Pink Swallow, an LGBTQ restaurant and bar.

It’s slated to occupy a prime location at Castro and 18th streets that formerly housed Harvey’s, which closed a year and a half ago.

Meanwhile, Q Bar at 456 Castro Street has been closed since a 2019 fire.

Gay co-owner Cip Cipriano has not answered the Bay Area Reporter’s requests for comment on when it will reopen since October 4, 2023, when he stated, “we won’t announce a date until we have everything completely done.”

The vibes seem better at Beaux, located at 2344 Market Street. Joshua J. Cook, a gay man who is the club’s manager, told the B.A.R. that the redesign of the club’s interior concluded last month. He said that the redesign increased the space of the dance floor by 40%.

“We were trying to find out how to make the dance floor bigger. This created a lot more space,” Cook said, adding that another reason for the work was because the club recently celebrated a decade in business.

“Looking forward to the future of our next 10 years, we thought it was a good time for us to update and reinvent ourselves for the new era of the Castro,” Cook

said, adding that Beaux wants to “present a new, modern version of ourselves.”

To that end, Beaux utilized Gi Paoletti Design Lab, a San Francisco firm.

“Some of the changes [were] we built a whole new seated, luxurious lounge in the front of the venue with all new builtin seating,” Cook said, adding that the designers also “removed the small bar that was underneath the mezzanine and moved the DJ booth under the mezzanine to a new location.”

There’s also a 20 foot LED screen wall, Cook added, and “new updated club lighting, which is really focused at night when it’s dance club status. It’s been 10 years and that industry and that tech has changed. ... We went down to the Las Vegas Nightlife and Restaurant Convention and took a look at the gadgets

and all the stuff and talked to a lighting designer who took us through all the lighting.”

Paoletti, of the eponymous design firm, stated to the B.A.R., “I welcomed the opportunity to help Beaux continue its success with a refresh of the space. We knew from watching how patrons interacted within the space that enlarging the dance floor was eminent, but equally important was adding color, shimmer, texture, new furniture and lighting that would encourage carefree enjoyment of the already familiar space. “

The August 3 lineup started with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring San Francisco Mayor London Breed, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), Sister Roma of the drag nun group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,

and drag artist Juanita MORE!

Roma stated to the B.A.R. that “Beaux is the Castro’s Pink Pony Club,” referring to a 2020 Chappell Roan song.

“It’s home to established performers and also showcases the newest kings and queens on the scene,” Roma continued. “I am thrilled to join them for their big reveal.”

Wiener, who lives nearby, told the B.A.R. that “Beaux is such a huge part of nightlife in the Castro, and I’m thrilled Beaux is continuing to invest in our neighborhood.”

MORE! told the B.A.R., “I’m excited about Beaux’s remodel and reinvention. For Pride in June, they created a cocktail named after the weekly party I hosted with Joshua J for eight years, aptly named ‘Booty Call.’

“The drink consists of passion fruit, citrus, Olga Vodka, Aperol, and Tajin –delicious and dangerous,” MORE! continued. “It was such a success that they added the cocktail to their new craft cocktail menu and will donate a portion of the sales to LYRIC. Beaux already exists as one of the Castro district’s premiere bars. The remodel will secure its place in San Francisco’s queer nightlife.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, LYRIC, a center for LGBTQ youth, has seen some cuts to its city funding as San Francisco faces a fiscal reckoning.

MORE! DJed a private reception featuring an expansion of the club’s cocktail menu.

Pink Swallow

Cook is also a member of, and the spokesperson for, the ownership group

that took over the old Harvey’s space at 500 Castro Street for the future Pink Swallow. He said Gi Paoletti Design Lab is also redesigning that space.

“We had already finished the conceptual design for Pink Swallow,” Cook said. “Since we had design on the brain, we thought ‘why don’t we redesign Beaux as well?’”

But Cook stressed that the “design of Beaux will stand completely on its own and there will not be any similar elements.”

Cook told the B.A.R. that work on Pink Swallow has been held up due to an outdated kitchen. The B.A.R. reported in February that the city’s planning commission approved a conditional use authorization that month to establish a nighttime entertainment zone on the first and second floors of the space.

“It’s still moving forward,” Cook stated. “There was a small pause as the owners of the building investigated or discovered what needed to happen to bring the kitchen to current city codes. I don’t think it’d been brought to code for decades to be honest, so it took exploration to figure out what to do.”

Pink Swallow had been slated to open by this summer – Cook stated that the group doesn’t have an estimated opening time, but it’ll happen hopefully sometime next year, he stated.

“We already received a conditional use permit and now we’re getting ready to apply for permits with all the different departments in the city, and we’ll be accepting bids from general contractors,” he said, later stressing the opening time depends on that permitting process.t

CCOP ‘pleased’ by arrest of nonprofit head

by John Ferrannini

Castro Community on Patrol is still seeking public financial support after allegedly being stuck with over $10,000 in unpaid bills by its nonprofit sponsor – the disgraced former head of which was indicted July 30 on 34 felony counts.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, CCOP, the longtime volunteer safety group, had been fiscally sponsored by nonprofit SF SAFE. A city controller’s report found that SF SAFE spent $80,000 of public money from the police department on expenses not eligible to be reimbursed, including a trip to Lake Tahoe and limousine service.

The nonprofit’s executive director, Kyra Worthy, was subsequently fired.

Worthy was arrested July 30.

Mission Local reported that SF SAFE – which has ceased operations, according to prosecutors – owes half a million dollars to its landlord at an expansive space in the Mission neighborhood.

Former workers at the nonprofit filed a labor complaint to try and get some of their unpaid wages.

In November 2023, weeks before the scandal broke, SF SAFE ended its affiliation with CCOP, without explanation, according to Greg Carey, a gay man who is CCOP’s chief of patrol.

Carey told the B.A.R. July 31 that “we had been informed in August 2023 that we had $82,000 in prior funds that had accumulated through the pandemic.”

But when SF SAFE cut ties with CCOP, “we found ourselves with nearly $11,000 in unpaid bills,” he said.

“We have no idea whether the larger funds had been spent without our knowledge or whether the city pulled them back,” Carey stated. “We have repaid the inherited debt, but have much higher costs to cover. The biggest new expense is insurance, which had been covered by SF SAFE when they were our sponsor.”

Accordingly, CCOP is still seeking assistance through a GoFundMe, which has raised $3,385 of a $22,000 goal as of press time.

“Castro Patrol has since become a stand-alone 501(c)(3) corporation and has been building a budget based on

private donations and charging for some services, such as training, that we were able to provide at no cost when we had access to city funds,” Carey continued.

Carey stated CCOP is “pleased” that Worthy has been arrested. The 49-yearold Richmond city resident is accused of misusing $700,000 in total, according to a news release from the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.

Jenkins did not give a statement as part of the release because she has recused herself from the case.

“During the course of this investigation, district attorney investigators determined that at least some of the money allegedly stolen by Ms. Worthy was derived from a substantial donation to SF SAFE made by a person with a professional relationship with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins,” the release states. “Accordingly, out of an abundance of caution and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, DA Jenkins recused herself from the investigation and potential prosecution of this matter in February of this year.”

The complaint alleges that more than a half million dollars from the Office of Employment and Workforce Development didn’t get to contract subgrantees Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) and the Calle 24 Latino District (Calle 24), which are part of the Latino Task Force.

Further, Worthy is charged with a count of grand theft by embezzlement, with the DA’s office alleging she used over $100,000 for her personal use.

Twenty-four of the 34 counts are for wage theft, allegedly committed between September 2023 and January 2024.

An affidavit in support of the arrest warrant “describes a pattern of activity over several years in which Ms. Worthy both stole and grossly misspent the nonprofit’s funds, culminating with a series of crimes in 2023 when SF SAFE was unable to meet its financial obligations,” the DA’s office stated. “The affidavit states that when Ms. Worthy was hired at the beginning of 2018, SF SAFE had cash reserves in excess of three hundred thousand dollars. Despite SF SAFE receiving millions of dollars in public and private funds over the next five years, Ms. Worthy’s theft and mismanagement resulted in the 48-yearold charity having no assets and ceasing operations in January of 2024.”

Worthy also paid rent using SF SAFE cashier’s checks, the release stated, and spent “$20,000 for desserts and ice cream; $15,000 for a taco

truck; $19,000 for a petting zoo, face painting, bouncy houses, carnival games, and a climbing wall; $20,000 for event planners; and $7,000 for ‘mobile luxury restrooms.’ The affidavit also describes an SF SAFE holiday party – which was not a fundraiser – for which she spent $6,000 on an event planner and nearly $50,000 on catering. The event featured a champagne greeting, open bar, and prime rib carving station.”

Daniel Lurie, a former nonprofit executive and founder of Tipping Point Community and Levi’s heir who is running for mayor, blasted “City Hall insiders that got us into this mess” and “continuing to rubber-stamp funding year after year.”

Lurie is running against incumbent Mayor London Breed; former mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell; Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and District 11 Supervisor

Ahsha Safaí. The B.A.R. contacted all the campaigns to respond to Lurie.

A spokesperson for Farrell pointed out Worthy was hired the same month Farrell left the Board of Supervisors for his brief time as mayor, and that SF SAFE had been upstanding in its relationship with the city before that time.

Safaí called the situation “disappointing but not at all surprising.”

“Breed has allowed a pervasive culture of corruption at City Hall, and as a result, San Francisco voters are becoming desensitized to the severity of scandal after scandal, while taxpayers continue to foot the bill for corruption,” he stated. “We can’t keep giving this mayor a free pass every time yet another example of her administration’s unbridled corruption becomes public. It’s well beyond time for change.”

Manager Joshua J, Cook cut the ribbon to celebrate the renovation of Beaux bar in the Castro district Saturday, August 3. Helping with the celebration were Mayor London Breed, left, state Senator Scott Wiener, and Sister Roma.

Rick Gerharter

Former SF Safe executive director Kyra Worthy was arrested on allegations of misusing more than $700,000.

Francisco Mayor London Breed was joined by

Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), trans leaders,

transgender Pride

Month.

DPH heads to clubs to promote OD awareness Community News>>

compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he San Francisco Department of Public Health, the city’s entertainment commission, and drag artists are teaming up this month to promote overdose awareness.

The partnership coincides with Overdose Awareness Month and International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31. The two agencies have partnered since 2022 to host overdose prevention trainings at nightlife venues and to produce an instructional video and other content on how to access and administer naloxone, an opioid reversal medication, as well how to use fentanyl testing strips, a news release stated.

The two agencies will also provide naloxone trainings to the city’s nightlife, entertainment, and LGBTQ and Black communities, the release added.

This year, the campaign will continue to advance this work through its partnership with drag artist Kochina Rude and will join forces with drag queen Nicki Jizz, a BIPOC artist and overdose prevention advocate.

“Overdose education is important for everyone to know and understand because someone having the knowledge can save a life while emergency services are on the way,” stated Jizz. “Overdoses can be prevented with the right education and a dose of naloxone. Since I have learned about overdose prevention, I’ve been able to put it to use and save someone from overdosing. It’s also a way to bring our community together and show that every life is precious.”

According to DPH and the entertainment commission, more than 75% of the overdose deaths in San Francisco are a result of fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. Naloxone is one tool to help prevent a deadly overdose. Fentanyl test strips also allow users to test their drugs to determine if fentanyl is present, the release stated.

Scheduled events for the overdose prevention campaign include Jizz hosting “Reparations: An All-Black Drag Show and Dance Party” at Oasis, an LGBTQ nightclub at 298 11th Street, on Friday, August 9, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Jizz is the current winner of the Drag Queen of the Year pageant and will provide naloxone and fentanyl strip training.

Rude will appear at Oasis for “Princess: A Disco-Pop Dance Party and Drag Spectacular” Saturday, August 10, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. A Chicano drag queen and harm reduction advocate, Rude will provide training and distribute naloxone to partygoers.

Beaux, an LGBTQ nightclub at 2344 Market Street in the Castro, will see drag artist Mercedez Munro host “US: Celebrating BIPOC Excellence in LGBTQIA Nightlife” Saturday, August 31, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Jizz will provide the training for naloxone and fentanyl strip testing.

For more information and overdose resources, go to https://tinyurl. com/2rfzpkpn

District 8 mayoral candidate forum

The Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association has announced a San Francisco mayoral forum that will take place Thursday, September 5, at 6:30 p.m. at the Randall Museum Theater, 199 Museum Way. All five major candidates are scheduled to participate (a candidate must be polling with at least 5% of firstchoice votes in ranked voting in the next San Francisco Chronicle poll).

The forum is strictly a nonpartisan, public education forum, organized by several neighborhood groups.

Drag queen Nicki Jizz, seen here at a Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club Gayla, will be helping with the city’s overdose prevention education activities.

Seating will be limited.

Volunteers are needed. To help out, fill out the form at https://tinyurl.com/mryt6jc4.

Newsom announces grants for nonprofit safety

Nonprofits and eligible agencies can now apply for $76 million in state grants that Governor Gavin Newsom has announced to bolster their safety and security. The funding is intended for synagogues, mosques, and Black and LG BTQ+ organizations, as they are at higher risk of hate-based crimes, according to a news release from New som’s office.

The California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program provides non profits with funding for security enhancements including reinforced doors, gates, high-intensity lighting, access control systems, and inspection and screening systems, the release noted.

Recent data points to an increase in hate crimes carried out against Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQ+ communities in 2023, according to the state Department of Justice’s report.

Anti-Black bias incidents remained the most prevalent, despite a decrease in total reported incidents from 2022 to 2023.

“Despite facing significant budget challenges, the California Legislature will continue to stand firm in our commitment to supporting vulnerable communities targeted by hate,” stated Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the budget chairs of the Legislature. “We are particularly grateful to Governor Newsom for his long-standing leadership in funding the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and for his efforts to expedite the disbursement of these vital grants.”

Wiener is also a member of the Legislative Jewish Caucus, which praised Newsom for the program.

The request for proposals can be found on the governor’s Office of Emergency Services website at https://tinyurl.com/yjnfjmm6. There are also some free webinars that applicants can attend. Information is at https://tinyurl.com/yckfr2w6.

The deadline to submit applications electronically is Monday, September 23.

Gender website chosen for National Library of Medicine

The Gender Confirmation Center, a pioneering health care practice specializing in surgical treatments for transgender individuals, has announced the inclusion of its website, genderconfirmation.com, in the National Library of Medicine historical collection of web content. The addition ensures the perpetuation of significant health care information provided to patients and the trans community, the center stated in a news release.

“Over 10 years ago, we created this website to help patients be empowered and sophisticated participants in their conversations regarding gender surgery,” stated Dr. Scott Mosser, the center’s founder. “I am really pleased that [the website] is of value to the community and is being recognized by the National Library of Medicine as a collection of content worth preserving.”

The library’s mission is to “collect, preserve, and make available to the public materials that provide crucial information in medicine and public health,” the release stated.

For more information, go to genderconfirmation.com. t

Gooch

Volume 54, Number 32 August 8-14, 2024 www.ebar.com

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Walz is inspired choice for VP

We weren’t surprised that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate. The veepstakes had basically come down to him and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) in recent days, and of the two, we think Walz is the more inspired choice. A Midwesterner through and through, Walz is a hunter, a veteran, a former teacher, congressmember, and a two-term governor with executive experience. Walz will be able to effectively speak to the very working class voters whom the Democratic Party has largely failed to attract in recent elections. He will play well in the swing states. He also knows what the party is up against – as we noted last week, it was Walz who first used the word “weird” to sum up Republicans’ many, well, weird ideas – especially GOP vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance. Now Republican former President Donald Trump, making his third bid for the White House, has had to say that he’s not weird. Which, of course, just proves Walz’s point.

Then there’s the really important part of Walz’s resume that speaks to us – he is a staunch ally to the LGBTQ community. From his days in Congress, when he voted for the Matthew Shepard James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and legislation to repeal the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” to his time as governor of the Gopher State during which Walz has signed LGBTQ-related legislation, he has demonstrated that he cares deeply about the queer community – and more significantly, has the muscle to follow through with proactive results.

In 2015, Walz signed an executive order banning conversion therapy for minors in the Gopher State. Last year, he signed a package of bills designed to make the state a refuge for those seeking gender-affirming care and abortions, according to MPR News. He also signed a

bill that expanded his executive order on conversion therapy to include vulnerable adults, the outlet reported.

His actions are similar to those of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has signed legislation making the Golden State a refuge for trans people and those seeking reproductive services, among countless other pro-LGBTQ laws.

We see in Walz an effective governing partner for Harris who, according to reports, “clicked” with him more than the other vice presidential contenders. That’s important, as the country needs a strong administration that’s on the same page.

One of Walz’s most significant actions as governor took place last year when he signed legislation providing free breakfast and lunch to every student in schools that participate in the

National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, regardless of their family’s income. “As a former teacher, I know that providing free breakfast and lunch for our students is one of the best investments we can make to lower costs, support Minnesota’s working families, and care for our young learners and the future of our state,” Walz stated when he signed the bill. He’s absolutely right. Just as impressive were the photos of smiling, happy kids at the signing ceremony, a sharp contrast from when Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law in 2022 and was surrounded by kids who didn’t know what the heck was going on.

That’s exactly the point. In Walz, Democrats have a leader who gets things done for everyone –the middle class, working families, and LGBTQs.

“I know something about that commitment to the people,” Walz said in Philadelphia Tuesday during his first appearance with Harris at Temple University after briefly discussing Harris’ background as a prosecutor, state attorney general, U.S. senator, and vice president.

“Minnesota’s strength comes from our values –our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to lending a helping hand,” he continued. “These same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students, I took to Congress and the state capital, and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take them to the White House!

“Donald Trump – he sees the world differently,” Walz said. “He doesn’t know the first thing about service – because he’s too busy serving himself.”

Walz’s record, combined with Harris’ accomplishments, means that should they win in November, the country will not go back to the bad old days of Trump’s first term – filled with fear and grievance – but instead be propelled forward, as they build on the legacy of President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama before him.t

On Harris and trans rights

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

More years ago than I care to think of, I was a member of the San Francisco Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force for the City and County of San Francisco. We worked on a number of projects, including getting singleperson restrooms in the city designated for all genders, as well as forcing insurance benefits for city employees to cover health care related to being transgender. In some ways, I look back at this, amazed at what we managed to get done, while at other times, I’m frustrated with how little has been done since.

During this time, we heard of a deputy district attorney who wasn’t very good for trans people. Some of us eventually did meet her, as she went on to a position in the San Francisco City Attorney’s office. I found her to be ambitious, and wondered what would happen to her. She later was elected as San Francisco’s district attorney.

Not long after, this same person would end up as the attorney general for California. While there, she argued that a trans prisoner should be denied surgery. She also supported the criminalization of sex work.

This was Kamala Harris.

On July 21, faced with mounting concerns over his reelection viability for 2024, President Joe Biden halted his reelection campaign – and endorsed his vice president, Harris, for the position. In the wake of this, she has gained numerous endorsements, hundreds of thousands of volunteers, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of the November 5 election.

Based solely on what I wrote above, you may think that I would be against Harris’ candidacy. You would be wrong.

First and foremost, it’s obvious that I am not going to vote for her opponent. The racism that Republican former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, represent must be stopped. This simply must be done and, with that in mind, I’d even vote for Pigasus J. Pig for president if that’s what it took to stop them – even though the swine in question likely perished decades ago.

Yes, I absolutely think that Harris made the wrong call on the above-mentioned cases. So does she.

trary to my beliefs ... The bottom line is the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for what my office did.”

After my time on the aforementioned task force, I became very involved in the anti-transgender murder of a teenager from the East Bay city of Newark, California named Gwen Araujo. Her murder was a landmark case, in part due to her killers’ use of the “trans panic” defense to claim innocence. In short, such a defense is that one cannot be held liable for murder when they discover someone they may have been intimate with is transgender, as they would have felt threatened by this revelation, and not been able to help themselves.

At the time, Harris was the district attorney of San Francisco. She had no jurisdiction regarding a murder case in Newark, regardless of the defense in use. This did not stop her from hosting a symposium in the city, titled “Defeating the ‘Panic Defense.’”

In 2019, Harris spoke about denying trans care for inmates in California, saying that “there are, unfortunately, situations that occurred where my clients [the state] took positions that were con-

“The panic defense is an insidious strategy based upon prejudice and hate,” read a statement from Harris’ office at the time. “It has been raised in homicide and assault cases nationwide, inviting jury nullification and attempting to justify violent crime based upon the identity of the victim.”

Indeed, it is just a second antitransgender act, but this time on the part of the jury that considers it.

Nearly a decade later, it would be Harris, as California attorney general, who would co-sponsor legislation to ban such defenses. That bill was

signed by then-governor Jerry Brown in 2014. In 2018, she also attempted to get a federal ban in place while serving as a United States senator. It’s not the only work she has done for the LGBTQ community. She refused to defend Proposition 8, California’s ban on marriage equality, which was later ruled unconstitutional, and pushed to investigate the death of Roxsana Hernández, a trans woman who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in New Mexico.

I feel Harris’ career has had both hits and misses for trans and LGBTQ rights, but I think the hits are significant. They are enough to win my endorsement.

I’m far from alone in this. Miss Major, a Stonewall veteran and longtime trans advocate, and Advocates for Trans Equality – an organization made up of both the former National Center for Transgender Equality and Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund – have come out to support Harris.

“A Harris administration would not only uphold but also expand upon the protections for transgender Americans established by the Biden administration,” stated an Advocates for Trans Equality news release. “Her leadership promises to fortify and enhance the efforts to address and meet the needs of transgender people, ensuring continued progress in our nation’s history of civil rights.”

I will add one more thing.

In the wake of Biden’ decision to drop out of the race and the birth of the Harris campaign, I have found myself re-energized. I was not aware of the level of malaise I was feeling from watching two ossified white men once again fighting for my votes. And while I would have been more than willing to vote a second time for Biden to protect my country from the fascists, I still felt I was only voting against something, and not for anything. It’s a hopeless feeling, and one that leads to a disappointing turnout.

Today, I see there being at least some possibility that this never-ending anti-transgender onslaught can be slowed with a new administration in place, one that might actually do more than make claims of having our backs. t

Gwen Smith recently did her duty, and wrote to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to help keep one of Gwen Araujo’s killers behind bars. (See related story.) You’ll find her at www. gwensmith.com.

Vice President Kamala Harris

Christine Smith

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz AP file

Gay SF mayoral candidate Freedman fights for attention

by Matthew S. Bajko

F eeling ignored by the city’s leaders has been a driving impulse for why Keith Freedman has become more involved civically and politically in San Francisco. Years ago, he helped launch and get chartered the Home Sharers Democratic Club in order to give voice to the concerns of those in the short-term rental sector at City Hall.

A gay Jewish man who lives in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district, Freedman owns Hostwell, a company that manages short-term housing rentals in the city. He also represents short-term rental hosts on the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District Board.

And he serves on the board of the South of Market Business Association, as he has a business location in SOMA. Via his business and leadership roles, Freedman has been trying to attract more tourists to the city and counteract the negative headlines about crime and vacant storefronts that have dominated news coverage about the City-By-The-Bay of late.

This year, he is taking his most public-facing step yet by running to be the city’s next mayor. Freedman, along with Jon Soderstrom, a gay man who lives near the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, are among the 13 mayoral contenders who will appear on the city’s November 5 general election ballot.

Lacking name recognition and significant fiscal resources to mount their campaigns, the two are underdogs in the race. They have yet to be invited to any of the mayoral debates held to date with the top tier of five candidates, which includes Mayor London Breed, former mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell, current supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí, along with nonprofit founder and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune Daniel Lurie

“I know many of you don’t know me very well,” Freedman, 53, acknowledged during his endorsement interview last month with the members of the committee that runs the San Francisco Democratic Party.

(His interview begins at the 47-minute mark of the video posted to the party’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SFDemocrats/videos/328837476966588. As the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column had predicted was likely to happen, the party leaders solely endorsed Breed in the race.)

Freedman is likely to remain unknown by most voters as well due to the criteria civic groups are using in sending out their debate invites. For example, several Castro neighborhood groups are co-hosting a mayoral forum at 6:30 p.m. September 5 at the Randall Museum Theater. To be invited, candidates must be polling with at least 5% of first-choice votes in ranked voting in the next San Francisco Chronicle poll.

Yet the newspaper didn’t include Freedman by name in its poll it conducted early in the year. Nor has his last name been listed among the candidate choices in other polls conducted on the race, as he is lumped in with the generic “someone else” option.

“It really comes down to fundraising. The debate invitations tend to be tied to fundraising,” Freedman noted when asked by the local Democratic Party what his plan was for winning the mayoral race. “That is really my priority now, is to get the fundraising to get the proper press attention.”

Freedman had made a similar point during an interview with the B.A.R. at the Castro’s Spikes Coffees

and Teas a short walk from his apartment in early July. At the end of that month, he reported raising just about $8,700 during the first half of the year. But in order to qualify for the city’s public financing for candidates, Freedman needs to raise $50,000 from at least 500 contributors.

If 500 B.A.R. readers who are city voters kicked in $100 each to his campaign, noted Freedman, he would be able to tap into the program and access the resources he needs to better publicize his platform and candidacy.

“Once you get past the matching funds threshold, everything gets easy,” Freedman said, adding of his current predicament, “I blame the press a little bit. The major media haven’t given the other eight candidates airtime. How are the voters supposed to hear about them?”

A Colorado native drawn by tech sector

The last six years Freedman has called the Castro home. His apartment on the 500 block of Castro Street is right next door to where Breed has her mayoral campaign headquarters.

He grew up in Aurora, Colorado outside of Denver. Freedman received a B.A. in computer science information systems in 1991 and then earned a master’s degree in computer science from Colorado State University in 1993.

As a student intern at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, he had worked on radar tracking systems for the U.S. Counter Drug Initiative. A job managing the IT Operations Department for RCM Technologies Inc. brought him to San Francisco in 1996.

“I had to then drop everything to go clean it,” he said.

Eventually, Freedman hired a friend who drove for a car pickup service later in the day to come clean in the mornings. It sparked a pivot in his career, leading him to launch Hostwell with another friend as a coowner whom he eventually bought out. Today, his focus is on overseeing the renting out of short-term stay properties he manages, while he contracts with another company for cleaning services.

“This May, somehow, was one of my best months ever. June was OK and July has been awful,” he told the B.A.R. “The first year after the pandemic in 2021 was really good, and now it is kind of bad. It is partly what led me to run for mayor.”

Rather than just stew privately about the state of the city, Freedman made the decision last year to seek Room 200 at City Hall. It is the first time he has run for elected office.

“I could just complain or do something about it. I had thought about running for mayor for many years,” he said.

“My first office was on the 29th floor of the Embarcadero Center. I could look straight down Market Street to Twin Peaks,” recalled Freedman, who hadn’t been out of the closet in Colorado. “I don’t think most of my work colleagues knew, but I wouldn’t lie if they asked.”

He quickly made friends with other gay men in town, in contrast to his college friends who moved to other big cities and struggled to make connections.

“Why I love San Francisco, I think, is it wasn’t hard to find community,” noted Freedman, who has a brother now living in Los Angeles and the rest of his family mostly living in Colorado.

Working 70-hour weeks in the corporate tech sector, Freedman also began renting out a second bedroom to tourists and others making short trips to the city. But finding cleaning people to make up the room who were reliable turned into a constant headache.

Using out-of-state consultants, due to them costing less to hire, Freedman has been meeting with various groups in the city to seek their support and drum up donations to his campaign coffers. A sign of his tech expertise, Freedman has a rather extensive campaign website at mayor.keithfreedman. com where he has posted his plans to address myriad issues, from his “Rising Tide Initiative” to address the city’s housing needs to his stances on improving public safety, the business environment, and homelessness.

It is meant to show that he should be taken as a serious mayoral contender, argued Freedman. Now his task is to promote his candidacy and his positions to an electorate he is confident wants to see new leadership at City Hall.

“I don’t want to change the character of San Francisco, I just want to make it better,” said Freedman. “Let’s take what is good and let’s multiply it.” t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column previewed a queer congressional candidate’s August 6 primary in Washington state. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko.

Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Mayoral candidate Keith Freedman works to promote his vision for leading San Francisco.

Matthew S. Bajko

Edgar Earl “Ed” McCanless of Campbell, California.

August 6, 1956 – July 11, 2024

Ed was a devoted son, loyal brother, and steadfast friend to many. An accomplished Engineer, he spent his entire 25+ year career at IBM San Jose, earning numerous awards. He was also a pioneering LGBT leader at work and in the community.

Ed was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Edgar Harris McCanless, a decorated World War II veteran, and Alice Claire (Altick) McCanless. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and then followed his older brother, Henry Richard McCanless, to Georgia Tech. Both Ed and Harry were gay and childless. Ed survived both his parents and his brother.

Ed was an accomplished lifelong learner who graduated in 1978 with honors and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering. He was sponsored by IBM and graduated in 1990 with a Master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems from Stanford University. Ed was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.

Ed was also a talented athlete. He started swimming in grade school and continued on through college and ultimately competed in the 1994 Gay Games in New York. Ed was known for his “life-guard” voice. He was also an avid cyclist and long-term supporter of the AIDS Lifecycle. He once rode his bike from Campbell to Yosemite.

An avid Yosemite advocate and camper, Ed was happiest in Yosemite National Park. He shared this joy with countless friends, including bi-annual trips to Yosemite Valley with the Baylands and San Francisco FrontRunners clubs. Close friends joined Ed for decades in hiking the loop of High Sierra Camps in the Tuolumne high country.

One of Ed’s proudest accomplishments was his advocacy for gay and lesbian employees at IBM. In the early 1990s, Ed was part of the underground network of gay and lesbian employees pushing for domestic partner benefits. In 1995, Ed joined the IBM Gay/Lesbian Task Force with IBM’s new diversity initiatives. As a result of this work, IBM created diversity network groups, initiated mandatory diversity training for all managers in the United States, provided domestic partner benefits to gay/lesbian employees, and included sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in its global equal opportunity policy. As a top 10 Fortune 500 company, IBM’s leadership in these achievements helped drive momentum across industries and employers to broadly offer domestic partner benefits and support LGBT employees long before the legalization of same-sex marriage in the US.

As President of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bi-sexual Awareness Program (LGBAP), he was instrumental in bringing conversation, violence prevention, and understanding of Lesbian and Gay people’s experience with secondary and college students in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties in the 1980s-90s. This groundbreaking work paved the way for today’s culture of acceptance, one conversation at a time. Ed also volunteered at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Center in San Jose.

Plagued by severe back injuries, Ed left his career early due to permanent disability in 2004. Following two decades of severe back issues, Ed’s body was transformed from a competitive athlete into one with severe handicaps and mobility limitations. In 2023, health complications compelled him to move into assisted living.

Ed was a fan of many local cultural organizations, including Shakespeare Santa Cruz, San Jose Ballet, Smuin Ballet, and his summer favorite, the Mountain Play on Mount Tamalpais.

Please direct donations in memory of Ed to one of his favorite charities:

● The Billy DeFrank LGBT Center, San Jose (https://www.defrankcenter.org/)

● Santa Cruz Shakespeare (https://santacruzshakespeare.org/)

We

Gay SF government watchdog Larry Bush dies

by Cynthia Laird

Larry Bush, a gay man who was a government watchdog and once served as a San Francisco mayoral aide, died July 26 at an assisted care facility in Daly City. He was 78.

A cause of death was not provided by Mr. Bush’s family, though he was about to enter hospice when he passed away, friends said. A resident of the city’s LGBTQ Castro district, Mr. Bush was known for the holiday decorations adorning his house throughout the year.

Mr. Bush had served on the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury and was “an ethics warrior,” in the words of Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who adjourned the board’s July 30 meeting in Mr. Bush’s memory.

“He shaped our modern ethics commission,” Peskin said during his remarks. “Larry Bush understood government, understood how it could work for the citizens, and what was necessary to bring improved services to the citizens of the city.”

Peskin recounted that Mr. Bush served as an aide to former mayor Art Agnos, creating the mayor’s task force on the HIV epidemic and setting up a coordinated response with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“His extensive contacts in Washington led to the acceptance by surgeon general C. Everett Koop to speak on AIDS to a joint session of the California Legislature for the first time anywhere in the country,” Peskin said.

Mr. Bush also coordinated efforts to create the state’s first domestic partner law, Peskin added.

Agnos did not return a message seeking comment.

Focus on ethics

Peskin said that while Mr. Bush served on the civil grand jury in the 1990s, the panel’s recommendations became “the starting point for a major reboot in the ethics commission, including areas of disclosure, transparency, citizen involvement, and accountability.”

Mr. Bush served on the ethics commission from 2020 to early 2023, after he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors. In May 2023, he applied for reappointment and told the supervisors’ rules committee that he had been on the

panel for the last two years in an interim capacity. He was the only applicant to apply in 2020, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

(The supervisors ultimately decided to appoint attorney Yaman Salahi to the seat last year; he is the first Arab American on the commission.)

In an email to the B.A.R. after that May 2023 meeting, Bush stated, “I wanted greater and broader public involvement, which is why I was involved in new definitions of family that included families like ours, for a full time commission secretary, and better minutes and an advisory panels that make use of former commissioners and staff, and other resources.”

He helped write the charter amendment for the ethics commission in 1994.

Previously, Mr. Bush served on the Friends of Ethics citizens group before resigning in 2018. According to a San Francisco Examiner article at the time, Mr. Bush was angry that the commission and Board of Supervisors could not agree on a series of reforms to speed up revelations of big money backers funding super PACS and other items.

Peskin pointed out that Mr. Bush made several contributions to the city.

“He influenced the creation of spending limits for San Francisco candidates, electronic filing of campaign reports, and expanded conflict of interest reporting,” Peskin said.

Early life

Mr. Bush was born July 31, 1945. Peskin noted in his remarks, which were compiled from Mr. Bush’s resume he submitted with his ethics commission

Adrian Ray Evans

November 19, 1953 -- June 30, 2024

Adrian Ray Evans, a long-time San Francisco resident, died quietly at home on Pride Sunday, June 30, 2024.

Adrian was born in Newport, Rhode Island, later relocating to San Francisco. Adrian was retired after a long career in Information Technology. Both a Dog-lover and an animal advocate, in his spare time he enjoyed pool, painting, and was an elite Monopoly Deal player

Adrian is survived by his father, Adrian Ray Evans, Sr., brother Frank Evans of Portland, OR, and sisters Bonnie Petosa, Linda Green, and Kaleina Needham. Adrian was preceded in death by his mother Marilyn Boland, and his sister Sandy Evans.

Adrian will be missed by many close friends and acquaintances.

There are no services planned.

application, that he came from a distinguished family with a history in federal government service. Mr. Bush attended Brigham Young University in Utah but did not finish because he was dismissed for being gay. He later attended the University of Salzburg in Austria. As a young man, Mr. Bush traveled to Europe on his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Finland.

Mr. Bush was a gay political pioneer in Washington, Peskin said. He worked as a speechwriter for the agriculture secretary under then-President Gerald Ford, where he was also outed and fired for being gay.

He then served as the Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Advocate LGBTQ publication, and was the first openly gay reporter accredited by the White House, according to his resume. Mr. Bush also wrote for straight publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, the Village Voice, and Playboy.

For a time, he published the Bush Report, which was concerned with gay political and cultural issues.

Mr. Bush served as a liaison for the National Gay Task Force (now the National LGBTQ Task Force) and later worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

His nephew, Joel Bush, stated in an email that Mr. Bush was his dad’s brother.

“I loved him dearly,” Joel Bush, an ally, wrote. “He and I became close as I traveled to San Francisco often and briefly lived in Sacramento during a few short years when I was involved in California politics in the 2000s. During that time I learned a lot more about him and the things that really stood out to me (and clearly to others that have known him) are his incredible and razor sharp intellect, his humor, his focus and commitment to taking on injustices, and his huge heart.”

Joel Bush eventually became Mr. Bush’s power of attorney.

“In the process of taking over the day-to-day affairs on his behalf, I’ve found it amazing just how many lives he’s touched – and not just his close friends and colleagues. It’s the gardeners (his house was amazingly decorated for all major holidays, by the way) or even the people who run a long term storage facility on Treasure Island. Those who knew him truly appreciated him and the kindness in how he treated those around him. He loved unconditionally and could always be counted on for a detailed and in depth conversation on just about anything ... but he definitely preferred politics!”

In fact, Ms. Bush’s Christmas decorations were featured in the B.A.R. in 2018. He lived at 245 Diamond Street at 19th Street just up the block from the Eureka Valley Recreation Center and around the corner from the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy public school in the heart of the Castro. t

<< LGBTQ history

From page 1

A former Santa Clara County supervisor and San Jose city councilmember, Yeager was the first gay person to win election in the South Bay, to a community college board seat in 1992, and to serve on his respective governing bodies.

“I am just ecstatic. There are so many stories to be told in San Jose and Silicon Valley,” Yeager told the Bay Area Reporter during an August 5 interview. “I wouldn’t want to lose any of the incredible stories that we have about our community in San Jose. I think this, again, will be able to showcase the various organizations and significant history events so people can come and learn about them.”

After terming off the county board in 2018, Yeager turned his focus toward collecting archival documents, personal narratives, photographs, interviews, and

See page 11 >>

Adrian Ray Evans Obituary.indd 1

McCanless

Former ethics commissioner Larry Bush Mike Housh

Queer Washington state Senator Randall leads in congressional primary race Election 2024>>

by Matthew S. Bajko

It could likely take until Monday before a definitive count in her congressional race is known, but so far queer Democratic Washington state Senator Emily Randall has a commanding firstplace lead in the primary race for her state’s 6th District U.S. House seat. She is aiming to become the first LGBTQ Latina sent to Congress.

If elected to the open seat, Randall would also be the first out member of the Evergreen State’s congressional delegation. A victory by her in November would also double the number of West Coast states with LGBTQ congressmembers.

As of Wednesday morning, Randall was in the lead with 33.28% of the vote, according to the preliminary results. In second was Republican state Senator Drew MacEwen with 30.49% and trailing in third place at 25.66% was Democrat Hilary Franz, a Washington public lands commissioner.

Only the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation will advance out of the August 6 primary to compete to succeed Congressmember Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) and represent Washington State’s Puget Sound region. He had endorsed Franz last year when he announced his decision not to seek another term.

Obituaries >>

Clifford “Don” Howard

June 14, 1934 – June 29, 2024

Washington state Senator Emily Randall is leading in her primary race for a congressional seat.

Reached by phone Wednesday morning, Randall told the Bay Area Reporter she wasn’t yet ready to declare victory and was waiting for the updated vote counts over the coming days to do so. Ballots cast or mailed on Tuesday still need to be tabulated, she noted.

“With all the mail-in ballots in the state, I think it is really important we wait to let every single person’s vote be

counted. Your vote is your voice,” said Randall. “I am feeling very encouraged by the early results.”

LPAC, which works to elect out women and nonbinary candidates to public office, isn’t waiting to call the race for Randall. In an August 7 news release the organization declared her the winner of the primary contest.

“Today, the voters of Washington’s 6th Congressional District made clear that Emily Randall is exactly the kind of leader they want to represent them in Congress: a tireless advocate with deep roots in her community,” stated LPAC Executive Director Janelle Perez. “Emily has been a proven leader for LGBTQ and women’s rights in the Washington State Senate and will continue to lead the way for our community in the halls of Congress.”

A former Oakland resident with inlaws who live in the Bay Area, Randall in 2015 and 2016 had managed institutional partnerships for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. She left to work for Planned Parenthood.

With her partner of 19 years, Alison Leahey, working at the time for Microsoft, the women had relocated to Washington state in 2017. Today, Leahey works as a carpenter in the construction field.

Randall was born and raised in Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula, which is part of the 6th Congressional District. It also includes the cities of Tacoma and Bremerton, where Randall and Leahey own their home.

Upset by the 2016 election of Donald Trump as president, Randall decided to seek public office herself. With her win six years ago to the 26th Senate District in her state Legislature, Randall became the first Latina elected to represent it. Claire Wilson, a lesbian who grew up in Seattle, also won a Senate seat that November.

They became the first out women elected to their Legislature’s upper chamber and both won second terms in 2022. Wilson endorsed Randall in the House race.

In both of her legislative races, Randall faced a tough contest against her Republican opponent. She entered the congressional race viewed as an underdog but proved to be a formidable contender.

Washington State’s senior U.S. Senator, Democrat Patty Murray, sole endorsed Randall in the race. Randall also in recent weeks picked up endorsements from her state’s former governors Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire.

Randall told the B.A.R. she credits the support she received from her 5,800 donors and volunteers who spent “so many hours of their time to help us knock on doors and make calls and send texts to tens of thousands of voters in the 6th District” for her strong showing in the primary on election night.

“I am so proud of the work the community has done and so excited about what it means to make history together and keep working towards a brighter, more rainbow-colored, more equitable future for all of us,” said Randall.

If elected come November 5, Randall would serve alongside gay Latino Congressmember Robert Garcia (DLong Beach). He and gay Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside), who both endorsed Randall, are expected to easily win their reelection bids in November, ensuring California’s congressional delegation continues to have LGBTQ representation.

Several out House candidates this year in the Bay Area and Southern California are hoping to join them on Capitol Hill. Seeing Oregon also have out congressional representation came to an end in May when neither of the two LGBTQ candidates survived their primary races. t

Sad to report the passing of Clifford “Don” Howard, who died peacefully at home on June 29, 2024 at the age of 90. Don was the son of Irene and Dewey Howard. He was born in Covington, Kentucky on June 14, 1934. He was reared by Mae and Howard McKinsey, his aunt and uncle, of Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Following high school, he attended Campbellsville Junior College in Kentucky, and later, Georgetown College in the same state, where he majored in music. He studied piano at both the Cincinnati and New England Conservatory of Music schools.

He later worked in Cincinnati, Boston, and New York City before moving to San Francisco in 1966, where he worked for the Department of Social Services for 20

years, retiring in 1986. Besides Don’s passion for music (particularly opera), he also loved animals and owned a beautiful cat, which was often found on his lap while watching TV or listening to music.

Don is survived by his close friend, Bernard (Bernie) Jones of San Francisco.

The deceased was buried privately beside his mother at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 250 Florida Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (sfspca.org).

Holey Moley Mini Golf Club Swings into San Francisco

San Francisco's Mission District just got a whole lot more fun with the grand opening of Holey Moley Mini Golf Club, a vibrant, two-story entertainment wonderland that combines mini-golf, delicious eats, creative cocktails, and a heavy dose of 80s and 90s nostalgia.

The newest gem on S. Van Ness boasts two pre-bookable ninehole courses packed with pop culture references that will have millennials and Gen-Xers grinning from ear to ear. Neon signs and playful decor create an atmo-

sphere that's part neon-filled bar, part modern Instagram paradise. Hand-painted murals, including a San Francisco cityscape, by renowned artist Goodluck Buddha make the experience truly one-ofa-kind.

Each of the 18 holes is an opportunity for San Franciscans to show off their putting skills (or lack thereof), making for a fun twist on date night or destinations for large groups. In "Making It Rain" golfers will battle a wind vortex filled with swirling dollar bills. "Sugar and Slice" takes a savvy

swinger to get through a bright and cheery candy shop under the watchful eye of a giant teddy bear. Art lovers will appreciate "Art Tee Par Tee," a museum of classic pieces that includes an interactive Mona Lisa that puts players "resting Da Vinci face" to the test.

The Caddyshack, the venue's full-service bar and restaurant offers Americana twists from a from-scratch kitchen including Cali Loaded Fries, Grilled Elote Corn Ribs, artisanal pizzas and more, alongside creative cocktails served in cheeky vessels. The "Rub

A Dub in the Tub" comes in a miniature bathtub complete with rubber ducky garnishes, while the "Pop Till You Drop" is served in a ceramic unicorn. The large-format "Trophy Tee" cocktail, served in a golden golf trophy, is perfect to share amongst friends and on social media.

Holey Moley isn't just for casual outings – it's also primed to become the next hot spot for corporate events, bachelorette parties, birthdays, and more. While all ages are welcome until 8 PM daily, the venue becomes 21+ after that

time, perfect for adults looking for a unique evening out.

Whether you're seeking a nostalgic trip down memory lane, a fun-filled date night, or simply a new way to hang out with friends, Holey Moley Mini Golf Club promises an experience that's anything but par for the course. Grab your putter, channel your inner Happy Gilmore, and get ready for a hole lot of fun in the heart of San Francisco!

https://www.holeymoley.com/ locations/san-francisco

Photo: Michaela Joy Photography

Photo: Michaela Joy Photography

Courtesy the campaign

Gay former MLB player Billy Bean dies

by Cynthia Laird

Billy Bean, the second former professional baseball player to come out as gay and who went on to work in the commissioner’s office, died August 6. He was 60.

According to Major League Baseball, Mr. Bean had fought an 11-month battle with acute myeloid leukemia.

“Our hearts are broken today as we mourn our dear friend and colleague, Billy Bean, one of the kindest and most respected individuals I have ever known,” Commissioner Rob Manfred stated. “Billy was a friend to countless people across our game, and he made a difference through his constant dedication to others. He made baseball a better institution, both on and off the field, by the power of his example, his empathy, his communication skills, his deep relationships inside and outside our sport, and his commitment to doing the right thing. We are forever grateful for the enduring impact that Billy made on the game he loved, and we will never forget him. On behalf of

“Like many of us in the mid-1970s, he moved here because of the gay community and San Francisco’s reputation for the counterculture, to live a better queer life,” Cain said. “He certainly partook of San Francisco’s thriving gay community life. He loved the bars, he loved the bathhouses. He became very involved in the Radical Faeries in the early 1980s.”

The Radical Faeries is a non-assimilationist gay men’s spirit/culture exploration group that started in 1979. The late Harry Hay, who also co-founded the Mattachine Society, another early gay rights group, helped start the Radical Faeries with his partner, the late John Burnside; Mitch Walker; and Don Kilhefner.

Mr. Berbiar also became engaged in the Bound Together Bookstore, an anarchist co-operative in the Haight where he volunteered; and in the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club.

Tom Alder at Bound Together Bookstore remembered Mr. Berbiar as “bigger than life.”

Peskin stated, “I was the one who called for the audit and held the public hearing on this matter and uncovered the fraud!”

Peskin continued that [Police] “Chief [William] Scott needs to explain why he resisted my request for an audit of SF SAFE for over a year and why he opposed my attempts to eliminate funding for SF SAFE from the budget.”

Walz is a former U.S. Army National Guard member and a former teacher.

According to his bio on the Minnesota governor’s website, he was first elected governor in 2018 and won reelection in 2022. Accomplishments from his time as governor include providing universal free school meals for students, protecting reproductive freedom, strengthening voting rights, laying the groundwork to get Minnesota to 100% clean electricity by 2040, cutting taxes for the middle class, and expanding paid leave for Minnesota workers.

Prior to being elected governor, Walz served five terms in Congress.

LGBTQ groups pleased

LGBTQ organizations reacted positively to the selection of Walz. The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, stated that Walz is a “pro-equality leader.”

“There is no doubt – Kamala Harris has electrified the nation and breathed

Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Billy’s husband, Greg Baker, and their entire family.”

Mr. Bean had most recently been MLB’s senior vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He joined the commissioner’s office in July 2014, hired by then-commissioner Bud Selig, as MLB’s first-ever ambassador for inclusion, according to the league.

MLB promoted Mr. Bean to vice president and special assistant to the commissioner in March 2017, adding

“He had quite the presence,” Alder said in a phone interview. “He volunteered at the bookstore for quite a number of years.”

Alder said Mr. Berbiar was involved in a number of caretaker groups, including those who helped look after Hay and Burnside in their later years.

“We’ll miss him,” Alder said.

Steve Heilig, a customer at the bookstore and a Haight denizen for 40 years, got on the line to share his thoughts about Mr. Berbiar.

“I always knew Jerry as a positive presence on the street,” Heilig said. “Everybody liked him and he did kind things for street people.”

Ammiano told the B.A.R. that Mr. Berbiar was “a fighter.”

“He’s from that generation that knows the difference between gay Pride and gay liberation which, alas, some of our present queer leaders seem to have lost sight of,” Ammiano said in a phone interview.

When asked about that difference, Ammiano said that while the visibility of gay Pride is important, it’s gay liberation that allows people to thrive. He gave as an example of Mr. Berbiar’s fighting spirit an

Peskin continued that [Police] “Chief [William] Scott needs to explain why he resisted my request for an audit of SF SAFE for over a year and why he opposed my attempts to eliminate funding for SF SAFE from the budget.”

Evan Sernoffsky, the San Francisco Police Department’s director of strategic communications, told the B.A.R. that there’d been talks during the budget season, some months earlier.

“In hindsight, things obviously look

new hope into the race,” stated HRC President Kelley Robinson. “Her pick of Governor Walz sends a message that a Harris-Walz administration will be committed to advancing equality and justice for all.”

HRC noted that Walz has been a longtime champion of the LGBTQ community. As a history teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School in 1999, he sponsored his school’s first gaystraight alliance student group. Walz opposed efforts to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution.

While serving in Congress, Walz co-sponsored legislation to repeal the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” policy that was finally repealed in 2010. In 2009, he voted for the Matthew Shepard James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and introduced legislation to protect LGBTQ service members from discrimination in benefits.

As governor, in 2015, Walz signed an executive order banning conversion therapy for minors in the Gopher State.

Last year he signed a package of bills designed to make the state a refuge for

anti-bullying efforts to his plate, an article on MLB’s website noted.

Five years later, Mr. Bean was promoted to senior vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a senior adviser to Manfred, Mr. Bean’s role focused on player education, LGBTQ inclusion, and social justice initiatives.

The California native played in six big league seasons from 1987 to 1995, making his debut with the Detroit Tigers in a four-hit performance that tied a record for a player in his first game, according to the Associated Press.

He also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He was a two-time All-American outfielder at Loyola Marymount, leading the team to the NCAA Men’s College World Series in 1986, AP reported.

It wasn’t until 1999, more than three years after his final game, that Mr. Bean came out, becoming only the second player ever to do so, MLB stated. (Glenn Burke, the former Oakland A’s player who retired in 1979 and came out in 1982, died in 1995.)

Mr. Bean became a national story,

incident in which the two were accosted by a woman while protesting the ongoing Castro Theatre renovation project.

“He dressed her down in a way that even shut her up, and trust me, she was on a tear,” Ammiano said. “It’s just who he was, and it’s going to leave a hole in a lot of people’s hearts that he’s gone. With AIDS, we lost so many people near and dear and so many years have passed, and we’re losing some of the original warriors. Jerry the Faerie – he was a real Viking in the best sense of every word.”

The theater is in the midst of a renovation after Another Planet Entertainment took over as manager in 2022. After numerous hearings by local government bodies, APE was cleared to remove the fixed orchestra seating and replace it with modular elements. The proposal led to a spirited debate in the community, with preservationists and many film lovers arguing against the changes. APE said the new plans were necessary to keep the theater competitive and to be able to have concerts and other events besides movies.

Ammiano characterized it as a “desecration” of the space, a view that Mr.

different but that budget talk was before the controller’s report,” Sernoffsky said, adding that the SFPD requested the report “immediately after” officials had heard murmurings of impropriety.

“I’m not sure with Aaron, if he’d independently heard something,” Sernoffsky said.

Breed’s campaign spokesperson defended the mayor’s record.

“Mayor Breed has initiated a series of good government reforms to increase

those seeking gender-affirming care and abortions, according to MPR News. He also signed a bill that expanded his executive order on conversion therapy to include vulnerable adults, the outlet reported.

Gay U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who initially had been under consideration by Harris as a possible VP pick, called Walz “an exceptionally effective governor – and also great to work with,” in a post on X praising his selection.

“I’m excited for what his Midwestern voice, military experience, and common-sense values will bring to our winning ticket, and for everything the Harris-Walz administration will deliver for Americans,” wrote Buttigieg, who had run against Biden to be their party’s presidential nominee in 2020.

Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, and its affiliate Silver State Equality in Nevada, praised Harris’ decision.

Tony Hoang, EQCA executive director, and Andre C. Wade, Silver State Equality state director, stated that in

with media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, and ABC covering his coming out. In 2003, Mr. Bean published his memoir, “Going the Other Way,” which became a national bestseller.

Nine years ago, after Mr. Bean was named MLB’s ambassador for inclusion, he spoke with then-Bay Area Reporter sports columnist Roger Brigham.

For eight years Mr. Bean played ball and kept his sexuality secret before finally abandoning his career in his chosen sport, Brigham wrote. Mr. Bean said he left “for all the wrong reasons,” believing there was no way he would be accepted if he disclosed his sexuality. All that changed when MLB announced his hire.

“MLB saw what was happening with players in other sports coming out – players like Jason Collins and Michael Sam,” Mr. Bean told the B.A.R., referring to the former professional basketball and football players, respectively. “They felt the need to be in front of the curve. My hiring is about the idea of empowering people.

Berbiar shared.

Larry-bob Roberts, another longtime friend, recalled Mr. Berbiar had multifaceted interests.

“I first met Jerry the Faerie in 1988, when he accompanied Harry Hay and John Burnside to the first Northwoods Radical Faerie Gathering, held in Wisconsin, following a talk by Harry in Minneapolis,” Roberts wrote in a Facebook message. “Jerry’s enthusiasm and personality were magnetic, and I met up with him when I visited San Francisco in 1990 and moved here in 1992.

“A longtime resident of the Haight, Jerry was involved in the Anarchist bookstore collective Bound Together, but also volunteered in district electoral politics,” Roberts added, “After being evicted from the Haight, he moved to housing near the train station.”

Cain noted that Mr. Berbiar also did stand-up comedy.

When asked what Mr. Berbiar was most well known for, Cain said, “his kindness. When people had problems, Jerry would help and take care of them.”

To that effect, Mr. Berbiar was part of a group that moved Mattachine So-

accountability and has established ethical leadership for city departments that needed reforms,” stated Joe Arellano, Breed’s campaign spokesperson. “Daniel Lurie has never run an organization that is responsible for any level of operations. His organization, Tipping Point, has 50 employees. San Francisco is a city with a $14 billion budget and 34,000 employees. Do we really believe someone with a morsel of experience is going to solve San Francisco’s biggest and most press-

Walz, Harris has chosen a “staunch LGBTQ+ ally.”

“Vice President Harris’ own record on LGBTQ+ issues – including being one of the first statewide elected officials to perform same-sex marriages – is exemplary, and the selection of Tim Walz to be her vice president sends a message that her administration would continue the gains we have made under President Biden’s leadership, and undoubtedly be one of the most pro-LGBTQ+ administrations in history,” they stated.

Since Biden decided last month not to seek reelection and endorsed Harris, his vice president, she has reset the presidential race. CBS News reported Sunday that she has a 1-point edge nationally –something Biden never had (he was down by 5 points when he left the race) – and Harris and Trump are tied across collective battleground states.

The percentage of Democrats who say they’ll “definitely vote” has risen to its highest point this year, CBS reported. That narrows the partisan “turnout gap” that’s been seen throughout the campaign.

If they had something like this when I was a player, I would not have quit. I would have felt someone out there actually cared about me.”

In the interview, Mr. Bean said the homophobia he experienced in and out of baseball was often unspoken but never out of sight.

“Homophobia is inherent in so many parts of our culture that it still seems okay and we have to unlearn what is ingrained in us,” he said. “In 10 years of playing professionally, no one called me a bad name. But my father was an ex-Marine and he used the word ‘faggot.’ I wasn’t being called names as a player, but I was hiding a big secret. Our ultimate goal now is to put the best, healthiest product on the field.”

After receiving his diagnosis last September, Mr. Bean made it public in December, the MLB article noted. MLB’s annual Winter Meetings Charity Auction supported Stand Up to Cancer, which was selected after Bean and Catalina Villegas, MLB’s director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, were both diagnosed with cancer in 2023.t

ciety and Radical Faeries co-founders Hay and Burnside to San Francisco to care for the gay rights pioneers in their final years. Hay died in 2002; Burnside passed away in 2008.

Mr. Berbiar had been a computer operator but, after contracting HIV in the early 1990s, went on Social Security Disability Insurance, Cain said.

He had acquired a space in the San Francisco Columbarium, and Cain hopes to hold a large memorial there in September or October, he said. Details will be forthcoming.

Mr. Berbiar, an only child, was not in touch with any relatives, Cain said, except elderly aunts who have since died.

“We were in a circle of loving companions who chose non-hetero ways of having relationships,” Cain said. “We had a close circle of gay men who took care of each other.”

Roberts wrote that he will miss his friend.

“I will miss Jerry’s spark and vigorous community involvement,” he stated. “They aren’t making characters like Jerry anymore, and with his loss goes an irreplaceable part of San Francisco.” t

ing issues? Daniel Lurie is barely qualified to run a small city department.”

Arellano also pointed out that Scott initiated the audit that led to the arrest. Anyone with knowledge that might be useful to the investigation into Worthy and SF SAFE is urged to call the city’s Public Integrity Task Force tip line at (628) 652-4444. Tipsters may remain anonymous.t

And today much higher numbers of Black voters say they’ll vote, compared to July when Biden was the nominee, the network reported. Harris would be the first Black female president, the first South Asian president, and the first woman president if she were elected. A former junior U.S. senator and attorney general for California, Harris started her political career by defeating San Francisco’s incumbent district attorney in 2003; in all three positions she was the first female woman of color elected to them.

Last week, during an appearance at the National Black Journalists Association, Trump used racist language to describe Harris, saying he didn’t know “when she turned Black.”

Harris clinched the votes to become the Democratic Party’s nominee August 2 after a virtual meeting of the Democratic National Committee. That became official Monday, August 5, according to party Chair Jaime Harrison. t

Former baseball player Billy Bean threw out the first pitch at a game that celebrated LGBTQ Pride.

Courtesy MLB

Outside Lands is outer than ever

Queer representation hits a high note this year

by Jim Gladstone

From the disco era charisma of Grace Jones to the girlie-pop twinkle of Chappell Roan, there’s a bumper crop of music from queer artists and icons to harvest at this year’s Outside Lands festival, from Friday, Aug. 9 through Sunday, Aug. 11.

While the Dolores dance floor will cater to the LGBTQ+ crowd from start to finish, here’s a dayby-day guide to queer highlights on the festival’s other stages.

Friday, Aug. 9

The Last Dinner Party (2:35pm, Land’s End)

One of the year’s biggest UK breakouts, this grandiose queer quintet sounds like the Kate Bush crossed with Florence + The Machine and looks like a gleeful raid on a well-stocked thrift shop. Gowns, corsets, suit jackets, and Harajuku mini-skirts provide the visual garnish on dramatically unfurling anthems like “The Feminine Urge” and “Nothing Matters” (Expect a sing-along to the repeated lyric: “I will fuck you like nothing matters.”) Outside

The Japanese House (3:55pm, Land’s End)

If we’re lucky enough to get sunshine on Outside Lands’ opening afternoon, the gauzy pizzicato pop of Amber Bain will provide the perfect soundtrack for an afternoon sprawl on the grass to inhale and recharge. The non-binary Brit’s delicately arranged layers of electronics and vocals are a soothing, dreamy delight.

by Robert Brokl

“The World According to David Hockney,” by Martin Gayford, Thames & Hudson publishers, seems designed as a holiday stocking stuffer: colorful images by Hockney, including several greatest hits, and Hockney quotes, or “epigrams” as Gayford describes them, grouped by topics. This nouvelle appetizer of a book (I’ve only viewed the advance copy pdf) won’t burnish Hockney’s reputation much, but that’s beside the point. Hockney’s decades long run and commercial success is unique.

He exploded on the scene with student work at London’s Royal College of Art. His painterly figurative work, in a faux naive style, with handlettering citing his heroes like Whitman and Gandhi with sly gay references, put him on the map, eclipsing the other “Young Contemporary” British artists garnering attention right out of the

gate. The reaction to this work, with collector and dealer interest, propelled him, and he says, “In about 1963, I realized I could live from selling the work I made, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m rich.’”

But his exposure to California, “home of sunny movie studios and beautiful semi-naked people,” the light and shadows, vegetation, swimming pools, male bodies gleaned from softcore physique magazines, and portraits of collectors and wellknown literary and art world figures, offered him his great themes and made his reputation.

Even today, “New York Times” critic Walker Mimms reviewing “The Swimmer,” a summer group show dedicated to swimming and pools, had to mention “…the absence of David Hockney, the Rembrandt of pools.”

Coming out

As for coming out, Hockney explains, “What I heard about Diaghilev was, he was homosexual and absolutely accepted it, and I thought, that’s what I will do, just accept it…These (early) pictures are partly propaganda of something I felt hadn’t been propagandized …. homosexuality. I felt it should be done…because it was part of me it was a subject that I could treat humorously.”

And characteristic of his work going forward, he made work suitable for living room walls, eschewing anything too lurid or explicit, or political content. More sophisticated viewers might know that subjects like Christopher Isherwood and Dan Bachardy, Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott were couples, and that handsome young

Rapp (6:55pm, Twin Peaks)

Like Ben Platt of “Dear Evan Hansen” fame, Rapp has turned a Broadway star turn into unlikely pop success. As a North Carolina theater kid, Rapp won the prestigious national Jimmy Award for best female high school musical performer in 2018. Within a year, she was cast as Regina George in the Broadway version of “Mean Girls” and later played the same role in the film version. For the past two years, Rapp has focused

men like Peter Schlesinger (a student plucked out of one of his painting classes at UCLA) were his boyfriends, but he mainstreamed his stylish California milieu, along with the palm trees and pools. A Hockney print of a bather makes a suggestive appearance in Richard Gere’s lair in the 1980 stylish noir “American Gigolo.”

Hockney’s wide-ranging interests besides traditional two-dimensional painting, drawing and prints extended to opera set designs and videos. His peripatetic lifestyle meant homes and studios on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, Malibu, rural Yorkshire, England, and now in the countryside in Normandy, France.

Hockney enthuses about image-making using new technologies like copy machines, Photoshop (several of his paintings suggest Disney on acid), and iPads. Several epigrams, however sincere, are platitudes for cushion embroidery: “Paint what you love. Love is the only serious subject. Art should be about joy.”

Others are amusing, as in this dumb/smart Andy Warhol-like remark: “The art of the past is living, the art of the past that has died is not around.”

Hockney manifests an admirable dedication to work, and exploration, but also perhaps tunnel vision: “I just let politics do what it’s doing. I’m not interested enough. I’m interested in other things.” The closest he comes to an environmental perspective is the observation that “the world is beautiful and if we don’t think so, we are doomed as species.”

Dark thoughts, times

While admitting to loneliness (Sykes suggests it was because of short-lived affairs given his penchant for much younger men), he is critical of “… people who simply live for sex. They want somebody new all the time, which means it’s a full-time job, which means you can’t do any other work.”

And “Aids (sic) changed New York. The first person to die of Aids that I knew was in 1983, and then for ten years it was lots of people. If all those people were still here, I think it would be a different place.”

Which perhaps explains this (undated) put-down: “We were recently in San Francisco. It’s a very boring city now. Where are the Harvey Milks?”

The book, in general, is marred by the abbreviated quotes, without context, dates, or index. The curious would be wise to consult Christopher Simon Sykes’ 2014 two-volume Hockney autho-

Lands marks the band’s second San Francisco appearance, following a sold-out debut at Bimbo’s in April.

Renée

Grace Jones

‘Man in Shower in Beverly Hills (1964) and a quote in ‘The World According to David Hockney’

Swimming pools, beautiful boys, and cigarettes

David Hockney at 87

on her music career, scoring her biggest hit with “Not My Fault” which features Megan Thee Stallion.

Kevin Abstract (7:20pm, Sutro)

If you’re still disgruntled by the replacement of Tyler the Creator with Sabrina Carpenter (She says “Me Espresso,” I say Flat White) as Saturday night’s headliner, Abstract may provide some solace. Playing a similar role to Tyler’s in OddFuture, Abstract was the queer creative force behind the late, great Brockhampton collective and his collage-like experimental hip-hop shares both the oblique sincerity and occasional prankishness of Tyler’s work.

<< Hockney From page 13

rized biography, “A Rake’s Progress” and “A Pilgrim’s Progress.”

For example, Hockney’s assertion that he “suffer(s) from the urge to jump off high places like a bird” gets additional meaning when he quotes Hockney on suicidal thoughts: “We all have sometimes, but it lasts a short time. When you go to the Grand Canyon, you can drive to the edge and just go on driving, but I know the minute I would go over the edge, I would regret it.”

Sykes also reveals the backstory of the enigmatic “Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy” painting, perhaps his most famous other than the auction recordbreaking “Portrait of an Artist.” The subjects are Celia Birtwell Clark, who became Hockney’s close friend and favorite subject, ever youthful like Alex Katz’s Ada, and Ossie Clark, a fashion designer and briefly Hockney’s lover from student days, who later met a tragic end at the hands of an Italian vagrant/boyfriend.

Daniel Caesar (8:40pm, Sutro)

You may only know Daniel Caesar as a guest vocalist on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” or his kerfuffle with Dave Chapelle after the comedian pejoratively described him as “very gay” on John Mayer’s podcast. In either case you owe yourself a dip into his excellent solo work. And you’re familiar with the Canadian-born crooner only from his pleasingly woozy recordings, evocative of classic romantic R&B, you’re in for a surprise when you see him live. A fierce instrumentalist, he jolts his smooth vocals into new dimensions with jazz-inflected keyboard solos and serious shredding on guitar. Hail Caesar.

Saturday, Aug. 10

Darumas (12:15pm, Sutro)

Kick off your festival day with the cheerful blast of this all-female trio; Haitian-Chilean vocalist Vedala Vilmond, Argentinian bassist Aldana Aguirre, and queer singer-guitarist Ceci Leon, a Cuban-American from Miami. The band’s ingratiating, upbeat sound blends funk, disco and Latin pop. Their lyrics are Spanish; their groove is universal.

Ryan Beatty

(2:35pm, Twin Peaks)

This gay Northern California native’s March show at Bimbo’s was a stunner. The audience stood in rapt silence as Beatty and a six-piece acoustic band played elegant, immersive versions of his contemporary folk compositions, accented with pedal steel guitar. At this point in his career, Beatty may be best known for co-writing three of the most beautiful songs on Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album (“Bodyguard,” “II Hands II Heaven,” “Protector”), but his solo work is not to be missed.

K. Flay

(2:45pm, Lands End)

A Stanford graduate who dual majored in psychology and sociology, Illinois-born Kristine Flaherty has a reputation for ferocious live performances, blending hip-hop and headbanging vibes against a background of power pop guitar. Five albums in to a career build on streaming and touring, her latest, “Mono,” finds Flaherty grappling with the 2022 hearing loss that has left her deaf in one ear.

Fletcher (4pm, Lands End)

Winner of the 2023 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Music Artist, the New Jersey-born Cari Elise Fletch-

er has come a long way since first entering public consciousness as a contestant on television talent show “The X Factor” a dozen years earlier. An outspoken advocate of the #MeToo movement, she released the single “I Believe You” as a show of support in 2018, and has been an active supporter of It Gets Better and The Trevor Project. Her March release, “In Search of the Antidote” debuted at number 3 on the Billboard album sales chart.

Romy

(4:10pm, Sutro)

Best known as a member of the xx, Romy Madley Croft has written for queer pop luminaries King Princess and Halsey. Her solo album “Mid-Air,” influenced by Peaches, Robyn, and Tracy Thorn of Everything but the Girl, was released to critical acclaim last year.

<< Festival & Fine Art

t

STRFKR (5:30pm, Sutro)

Perhaps best known for their electropop cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” this Portland-based quartet has seen its original dance tunes widely licensed for TV, film, and commercials. They made their San Francisco debut 16 years ago at the Eagle bar.

Medium Build (5:00pm, Panhandle)

Queer singer-songwriter Nick Carpenter built a substantial fanbase in his native Alaska before a recent move to Nashville. His intimate, lo-fi sound and plainspoken lyrics create a strong connection with listeners, reminiscent of the “Juno”-era ascent of Kimya Dawson and the Moldy Peaches.

Grace Jones

(6:55pm, Lands End)

At 76 years old, the iconic Jones has been reaching a fifth generation of fans in recent years with concerts and festival appearances that find her distilling her vocal power and statuesque stage presence into a sort of ambient, percussion-driven mass hypnosis; not to be missed.

Sunday, Aug. 11

Chappell Roan (4:00pm, Lands End)

The Polo Field will become a Pink Pony Club (and hopefully not a stampede) as the ascendant pop superstar takes the stage for a mid-afternoon gig booked months before she blew up to her current Cusp of Gaga magnitude. Roan may well draw the largest crowd of the festival weekend.

Victoria Monet

(7:00pm, Twin Peaks)

Winner of the 2024 Best New Artist Grammy and a nominee for Best R&B album and Record of the Year, now openly bisexual Monet has spoken out against industry pressures to play it straight, pointing to the adverse effects of the closet on artists, including Whitney Houston. Her single “On My Mama” made Barack Obama’s list of favorite songs of 2023.

Crystal Waters (7:40pm, Dolores)

In the first half of the 1990s, it was virtually impossible to spend time at a queer dance club without hearing Waters’ two smash hits, “Gypsy Woman” and “100% Pure Love.” The former, a house music portrait of a homeless person, probably couldn’t get recorded today, but its “la-da-dee, la-da-da” chorus is an indelible earworm for a generation of gay men.

Kaytranada (8:40pm, Twin Peaks)

The first Black producer and openly queer artist to win a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album (for “Bubba,” in 2021), the Haitian-Canadian DJ and performer will provide a grand finale for Outside Lands’ queerest year ever.t

Outside Lands, Aug. 9-11. Single day tickets from $226. 3-day tickets from $528. Golden Gate Park. https://www.sfoutsidelands.com

Smoking section

The book opens with a now elderly Hockney self-portrait, cigarette jammed defiantly in mouth. This fixation on smoking (“I just love tobacco and I will go on smoking until l fall over”) can’t, unfortunately, be passed off as “English eccentricity” or cranky libertarianism. Hockney is dead serious and Sykes mentions his splenetic attacks upon British Labor politicians for supporting bans on smoking in restaurants and bars. He was even angry with Hillary Clinton for no-smoking rules in the White House.

“It used to be you couldn’t be gay. Now you can be gay but you can’t smoke. It’s always something.” Hockney

brags he’s never set foot in a gym, but he underwent an angio-

plasty in 1990 and suffered a stroke in 2012. He’s 87 now, but let’s hope he makes it to 100, working away in a cloud of smoke.t

‘The World According to David Hockney,’ by Martin Gayford, Thames & Hudson, $19.95 hardcover. thamesandhudsonusa.com

Above to Below:

The Last Dinner Party The Japanese House Renée Rapp Kevin Abstract Daniel Caesar

Above to Below: Darumas Ryan Beatty K. Flay Fletcher Romy

Above to Below: STRFKR Medium Build Chappell Roan Victoria Monet Crystal Waters Kaytranada

Author Martin Gayford

Left: ‘Self-Portrait with Charlie’ in ‘The World According to David Hockney’ Right: David Hockney self-portrait in 2021, in ‘The World According to David Hockney’

Both photos: Thames & Hudson

Going for the gold

The Lavender Tube on Olympics and election fever

by Victoria A. Brownworth

The Paris Olympics have unquestionably been the best in years. From the return of queen Céline Dion in the riveting opening ceremonies to the return of America’s GOATs, Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, it’s been a stunning time with some performances –and OMG the bodies– that have been just breathtaking.

Watching Katie Ledecky, now the most medaled woman in Olympic history and she’s ours!, swimming in the opposite direction from the other women in the pool because she was that far ahead was an incredible sight.

Simone Biles flying through the air on vault with a higher score than ever before winning gold for the tenth time was electric.

In Biles’ floor routine, she propelled herself to 11 ‘8”–she herself is 4’ 8”. It’s just an amazing experience that gives one chills, makes one cheer and weep and just feel the most amazing jingoistic pride.

While American swimmer Caleb Dressel didn’t meet the gold medal challenge that was expected of him, seeing him lounging in an ice bath with hundreds of cubes on top was something and just one of many moments of fun in this absolutely riveting extravaganza.

France’s swimming ace Léon Marchand could not be cuter as he’s been swimming to beat American Michael Phelps’ record as all-time male Olympic medal winner. Phelps spoke lavishly about Marchand as an athlete. Marchand got the loudest response to his first win, brought Macron to his feet and had all the fans cheering.

member of the Arizona State University swim team. Marchand is the son of former French medley swimmers Xavier Marchand and Céline Bonnet. And America’s own male gymnastics team did fabulously. Stephen Nedoroscik, the “Pommel Horse Guy,” with his Clark Kent-style take-off-theglasses-and-save-the-day routine that wowed everyone and became an internet meme brought Team USA to a historic medal for the U.S.–the first in 16 years for the men!

Downside

And let’s face it, the French national anthem is just far superior to our own, whether that’s due to that scene in “Casablanca” or not. The entire place sang along to “La Marseillaise” with the 22-year-old swimmer who is also a

But there’s always a downside to the games where someone hates losing and has to make a fuss about it. In Paris that person was Italy’s Angela Carini, who didn’t like getting hit by Algerian fighter Imane Khelif, so stopped their fight after 46 seconds (how did she get to the Olympics?), saying her nose, which wasn’t even bleeding, was too injured to continue. Carini then gave a tearful press conference in which she claimed Khelif was not female.

It doesn’t take much to trans a female athlete. We’ve seen it happen for

decades. No shock that the women under assault are nearly always women of color like Khelif.

There’s never a whiff of a gender controversy without the world’s most famous –or infamous– transphobe weighing in and within moments of Carini’s tearful drama as she held her nose she got hit in like it was, you know, a boxing match, J.K. Rowling had blasted a hashtag on Twitter to her 14.2 million followers, doing her best to destroy the young woman from rural Algeria who was born female, raised female, submitted all the appropriate paperwork to be considered as a female participant in the Olympics and had played fairly as a female.

The transing of lesbian athletes has been going on forever. Martina Navratilova experienced it and yet has made her own awful transphobic statements. Brittney Griner is going through it yet again at the Paris games. She’s a lesbian, she’s not trans, she’s not intersex and yet she’s being attacked brutally on social media as she performs in Paris.

Also being attacked is Ledecky, who is not trans, not a lesbian and is just apparently too good of an athlete to be considered female. The comments about her online are disgustingly transphobic.

It’s a grim controversy and it should never have happened. Khelif’s medals will now be challenged as will her entire identity. It’s a black mark on an otherwise extraordinary Paris Olympics.

Athletically fun and funny

One of our fave bits in the Paris games has been Snoop Dog for NBC/ Peacock and especially the segments with his friend Martha Stewart. Another fun turn is “SNL’s” Colin Jost in Tahiti covering surfing. And who can forget French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati’s unfortunate mishap in his second attempt to place when a certain part of his anatomy tipped the bar.

Vote for your life

It’s only been two short weeks since President Biden withdrew from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the putative Democratic nominee, but in that time, there’s been a tectonic shift in the country. The entire tone of the political landscape has changed and it is evident on our TV screens 24/7 as well as in the streets

and of course on social media. It’s Kamala time and we are so here for it.

The Democrats had been in a state of despair and disarray while the GOP had been riding the sick wave of the attempted assassination of their disgraceful and disgraced candidate Donald Trump. Trump was up in every poll, both overall and in the seven swing states that will determine the election.

But the arrival of the youthful, confident, soignée Harris marching down the steps of AirForce Two and striding across the tarmac of city after city has signaled a new day. The first Black, South Asian female nominee has changed everything. The “dangerous San Francisco liberal,” “radical progressive prosecutor” and “senator with the most progressive record” that Trump’s and the GOP’s ads are depicting has energized Democrats and Independents and set Trump, JD Vance and the GOP team into a whiny, tantrum-throwing spin.

Supportive readers

Finally, we spent two weeks in the hospital, eight of which were in the ICU. In that time, we received a humbling 20k+ messages on Twitter/X of support and healing. Among those

were many tweets from Bay Area Reporter readers of this column and we are so appreciative of your concern. It’s been a grueling time and we are facing a long cancer struggle, but the support is such a help. Thank you.

We wrote about what our own experience meant and means for our community and how the Democrats have to shift the narrative to things that matter from things that do not. Hang on, folks. To paraphrase Bette Davis in “All About Eve,” it’s gonna be a bumpy ride until November. So, for the thrills, chills and spills, you know you must stay tuned t

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Vice President Kamala Harris at her recent Atlanta rally

Left: U.S. gymnast Simone Biles Middle: French swimmer Léon Marchand Right: U.S. gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik NBC

Left: Algerian fighter Imane Khelif Right: French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati

Latina Lesbians at The Marsh

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Now through August 25, the Marsh presents the inaugural In Front of Your Eyes Performance Festival. This series of live performances will present developing work by women and nonbinary performers and will include solo works by two lesbian performers.

The Latina lesbian experience will come to life with Tina D’Elia’s “The Break Up! A Latina Queer Torch Song” on August 10 and 11. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, D’Elia described the show as “a queer dramedy mixed with magical realism that explores loss and how a quirky queer community may birth healing, hope and solace.”

D’Elia is proud of her mixed-race Mexican heritage. She is an actor, writer, solo performer, casting director and producer and she strongly aligns herself with BIPOC LGBTQIA+ social justice politics, spirituality and movements.

“All my solo shows are fictional,” D’Elia said. “My style of solo performance is spending a couple of years taking solo performance classes with David Ford and my director Mary Guzman. Spending a couple of years developing characters and bringing complexity, authenticity, and realness to each one.”

D’Elia will be playing multiple characters in the show. She began developing this style in the 1990s when she was working on a solo show in which she played Groucho Marx. She feels that her comedic and farce sto-

rytelling style is her strongest point. Her intention with the current show is to have the characters connect with the audience through their vulnerability, humility, messiness, and reflection. D’Elia said she hopes that the show will help the audience to see that isolation can be detrimental to their lives.

“My first draft of this show was during the pandemic, and what truly got me through a time of extreme isolation was the friends I could see in person,” she said.

D’Elia hopes that people outside of the Latinx community will give “The Break Up!” a chance.

“There is a universality to ‘The Break Up!’,” she said. “Especially for

anyone who has gone through a break up and has a desire to find a way through it.”

Marga, charming

For many Bay Area theatergoers, Marga Gomez needs no introduction. One of the first openly lesbian performers in the U.S., she has performed stand-up and solo plays to packed houses in the Bay and beyond. She has appeared on HBO, Logo and Comedy Central and is the recipient of a GLAAD Award. Most recently she won another BAR Bestie Award for comedy. Gomez’ contribution to the “In Front of Your Eyes Festival” is titled “Spanish Stew” and will perform on August 10. It’s her 15th solo play.

“It’s based on my life and constructed as a series of funny vignettes set in San Francisco from 1976 to 1977,”

Gomez said in an interview with the B.A.R. “To me, the city at that moment was a wonderland. I was twenty years old, new in town, having escaped my authoritarian parents in New York for the gay mecca of San Francisco.”

Her first stop was the Castro, which she didn’t know was a gay neighborhood. She thought it was the city’s Cuban neighborhood.

“With just a few hundred bucks in my pocket and perky boobs I easily lied my way into a job as a cook in a neighborhood cafe that threw pot parties in the walk-in fridge,” she recalled. “As a cook, my soups

Social comedy, overcomplicated

by Jim Gladstone

W

hen I imagine avant garde theater in the Bay Area, circa 1974, the picture in my mind is not far from what’s currently on stage at the Ashby Theatre, where Berkeley’s Shotgun Players are mounting a bracing, madcap, riotously raunchy production of Jen Silverman’s “Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties,” which is sub-subtitled, “In essence, a queer and occasionally hazardous exploration; do you remember when you were in middle school and you read about Shackleton and how he explored the Antarctic? Imagine the Antarctic as a pussy and it’s sort of like that.”

You’re probably already clear as to whether this is a show for you. But even if you’re game to venture into this realm of tundral pudenda, you may still need some grappling hooks.

Character sketches

More a collection of overlapping sketches than a linear, logical narrative, Silverman’s very funny but ultimately unsatisfying script gives us five

characters in search of themselves.

Each of the titular crew is a finelined caricature, giddily etched by cast members who, under Becca Wolff’s disciplined direction, remain

of the day were based on my Cuban dad’s recipes hence my show title. Thematically ‘Spanish Stew’ is about how food brings people together of different cultures, beliefs and gender expressions.”

During the course of the show Gomez plays herself at twenty, herself now, her mom, her dad, her space case roommate on Duboce Street, the snotty waitress she wanted to sleep with, and an English sheepdog.

“The first challenge is to establish how they stand and move,” Gomez said. “Of course, their sound is crucial and takes more hours to nail. Characters need to be distinct for clarity. I’ve played my parents in other shows, so I’m off to a good start. Like many of my shows, I switch from talking directly to the audience to being the character in the current scene.”

Gomez added that her goal is to make “Spanish Stew” universal, unique and kitschy.

“It will rekindle some past joys for gay people who were there in 1976,” she said. “I’m writing it with a contemporary sensibility and hope it will eventually attract all generations, genders and ethnicities. A good story is a good story and love is love.”t

In Front of Your Eye Festival at The Marsh, 1062 Valencia St.

‘The Break Up! A Latina Queer Torch Song’ by Tina D’Elia, August 10, 8:30pm, August 11, 1pm.

Marga Gomez’s ‘Spanish Stew,’ August 10, 5:30pm. Each $15-$100. www.themarsh.org

Shotgun Players’ ‘Collective Rage’

extraordinarily consistent throughout their performances. This is the best comedic ensemble I’ve seen locally in years.

Betty 1 (Nicole Odell) is an Upper East Side housewife, prim, prudish and privileged; unappreciated by her unseen but oft-discussed husband, Richard (Read: Dick)

Betty 2 (Atosa Babaoff) seems similarly blessed financially, but is single, lonely, a touch dimwitted, and ready for unhinged adventure. (Babaoff’s elastic facial expressions are a hoot).

Betty 3 (Linda Maria Giron), brassy and over-confident, is a literal lipstick lesbian (She works at Sephora).

Betty 4 (Raisa Donato) is a tender, sad-eyed butch dyke who silently carries a torch for Betty 3.

And Betty 5 (Skyler Cooper) is a stoic “gender-nonconforming, masculine-presenting, female-bodied individual who’s comfortable with female pronouns” who runs a boxing gym.

Alas, each Betty has trouble seeing herself beyond the same highly circumscribed role in which the audience sees her. Through the evening, they will strive to imagine themselves out of cartoonish consistency and into three-dimensional humanity.

Messily meta

The vehicle for the Betties’ personal transformations is a play within the play. Betty 3 corrals the rest of the crew into a ‘Let’s put on a show’ scenario. The play they’ll perform is a dramatization of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which is also the source of the play performed within Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which itself, a tangle of role-playing and facades, has much to say about the malleability of identity.

In the end, “Collective Rage” proves too play-within-a-playful for its own good. The acting is terrific, the stagecraft delightful (Erika Oba’s music direction combined with James Ard’s bloopy-glitchy sound design is a comic performance in and of itself), but Silverman’s script never effectively fleshes out its flashy intellectual underpinnings. The show ends with a whimper disguised as a bang; the tension between its genuine fun and would-be profundity awkwardly unresolved.t

‘Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties,’ through August 18. $28$36. Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgunplayers.org

Marga Gomez and Tina D’Elia among festival solo performers

Atosa Babaoff as Betty 2, Nicole Odell as Betty 1, Skyler Cooper as Betty 5, linda maria girón as Betty 3, Raisa Donato as Betty 4 in Shotgun Players’ ‘Collective Rage’

Ben Krantz

Left: linda maria girón as Betty 3, Raisa Donato as Betty 4 in ‘Collective Rage’ Right: Skyler Cooper as Betty 5, Nicole Odell as Betty 1 in ‘Collective Rage’

Both photos: Ben Krantz

Left: Tina D’Elia Right: Marga Gomez

Sarah Deragon

Cynthia Smalley

‘Karma’ - Boy George tells all

by Cornelius Washington

One of the primary prerequisites of being a true star is that the general public never grows tired of seeing or hearing you. Boy George’s “Karma: My Autobiography” (Blink Publishing) proves to be the standard by being sterling. As the front man of the New Romantics group Culture Club, his pen, voice, and beautifully surreal appearance were instrumental in selling millions of records worldwide.

As a solo artist, he has released nine studio albums, five compilation albums and dozens of singles. His most achingly beautiful of the latter is his soulful remake of the Dave Barry classic, “The Crying Game,” from the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated film of the same name, with George receiving nominations from The Grammys, MTV and the NAACP.

It all seemed too good to be true, until Boy (born George O’Dowd in 1961), at the height of his fame, fell into severe drug addiction, a scandalous media shaming, and community service, after being sentenced to pick up trash on the streets of Manhattan.

But he knew we’d miss him, and it’s hard to keep a good man down. He’s returned to touring, this time with Squeeze, including an August 17 show at The Fox Theatre in Oakland.

George has slowly rebuilt himself with a staggering range of work, reality shows, as a judge on talent contests,

stints as a DJ, touring as both a solo artist and member of Culture Club and a very successful limited stint as Harold Zidler in the Broadway musical “Moulin Rouge.” He left the show in May, which for his run added a few of his songs to its extended curtain call number.

His return to the stage was better received than his earlier Broadway show, “Taboo.”

Yet George challenges perceptions as easily as he draws on his eyebrows. His revealing autobiography finds him now a more focused, but still dishy George, as he continues to circumnavigate the world as someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, his mind on his sobriety and his ongoing battle with his weight.

Armed with glittering suits, Philip Treacy hats and the full beat (gay slang for makeup application), he serves the tea with his positive encounters (Muhammed Ali, Smokey Robinson, Dolly Parton) and negative ones (Janet Jackson, Sam Smith, Luther Vandross). He also offers heartfelt advice on songwriting and fame, with advice that any true creative would lap up like an alley cat.

Fame game

What is most compelling in the book is his embrace of Buddhism and chanting as his weapon of choice against a homophobic world.

At the book’s outset, though, George’s complains about his former lover, Jon Moss, the drummer of Culture Club and the man who discovered him. Moss handled the group’s legalities, duties with which George did not concern himself.

When he and his fellow bandmates decided to fire Moss, they discovered that they must each pay him very handsomely, so the group went to work for very lucrative fees.

One of the book’s most hilarious episodes involves performing for Elon Musk, who was simply not sophisticated enough to merely sit back and enjoy the group’s performance, walking out within three minutes of the

start of their set.

Undeterred, Boy’s sense of both curiosity and discernment keeps him vibrant and appreciative of true talent, versus phobias and mindsets that people have developed about their lives and the world around them.

He chronicles his painful attempts at weight loss, all the while being an inspiration to Donatella Versace and Jean-Paul Gaultier. An obsession with astrology should greatly amuse Bay Area readers and, yes, he goes into convincingly precise detail.

Also very interesting is the in-

grained homophobia that he has faced from gay reporters about not being considered an “acceptable” spokesperson for the LGBTQ community, compared to the more masculine cisgendered-presenting George Michael. Boy George had to confront his own contribution to it by appearing sexless, saying that he “would prefer a good cup of tea.”

“Karma” is an excellent book, particularly in light of relentless tutorials on makeup on social media. Boy deserves his own makeup line. With the recent discussions over pronouns,

gender identity and queer representation, Boy George should serve as a pioneering gender-blurring dandy.t

‘Karma: My Autobiography,’ by Boy George, Blink Publishing. $26$29 paperback and hardback, also Kindle and audiobook ($14, $24). www.bonnierbooks.co.uk www.boygeorgeandcultureclub.net

Boy George performs with Squeeze at the Fox Theatre, $78-$300, Aug. 17, 7:30pm. 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.thefoxoakland.com

Boy George in ‘Moulin Rouge’ CultureClub.net

Culture Club in the mid-1980s

t << Books & Events

‘Seeing through’

by Tim Pfaff

Well into “Seeing Through: a Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera,” a longwinded but often touching first-person memoir of the prodigious American composer, Ricky Ian Gordon, I thought I might have to begin my review with disclaimers. Gordon declares that his favorite opera is Berg’s “Lulu” and that Benjamin Britten’s best opera is his last, “Death in Venice.”

On a more personal level –and Gordon is at his best in person– he has an almost pathological distaste for all things fart, expelled gasses to be sure but even references to farts or their noises. For Gordon, as with me, the fart joke is an oxymoron.

Then, there’s Gordon’s self-identification as a “working composer,” full irony included, or so I think. It gets downright eerie when he notes that his mother won a singing contest by performing “Indian Love Call” in Central Park. Minus the park, the song was the one my own mother, also prized for her singing, took to the piano whenever she needed to get things out.

Who could not like this guy?

Throwing down names

Then, midway through his immensely readable book, Gordon says he went to a performance of “Rags” because Teresa Stratas was in the cast

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon’s sex, drugs, and opera memoir

but, more to his point at this time, “my friend Mark Fotopoulos is in it.” I don’t know if I stopped reading or stopped breathing first.

Mark was my housemate in San Francisco the last year and a half of his life beyond the competing clutches of what we call, antiseptically, the “birth family.” At that point Mark was more than six years into what can only be described as AIDS celebrity. He was adored, often idolized by his new West Coast friends (and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, which rightly

doted on him), and while he never abandoned his AIDS activism, neither was it all rage. Mark was funny, and fun.

There’s a fair description of Mark’s “looks” at the end, but it doesn’t even touch the vitality, the irrepressible hopefulness –the stunning attractiveness at all levels– of his being “at the end,” which New York was not. I no more begrudge Gordon’s take on a man he was clearly taken with than if he had written otherwise. But Gordon’s few paragraphs about Mark did little more than expose the prejudice of New Yorkers, then and now, that life west of the Hudson was somehow a waste.

You would respect Gordon’s namedropping in a memoir that asks nothing less. To paraphrase a friend of his in Manhattan gay AA, gossip is the fruit of love –sustenance, anyway– and Gordon is typically tender in his recognition of named others. But his occasional adventures into name throwingdown discolor his perceptions.

Personal, even confessional

The gold in “Seeing through” is Gordon’s take on himself –on “Rrricky,” as his aunt would have it. There’s healing candor in his reflections on growing up “in a climate of intense sexuality –an atmosphere of forced complicity,” his obsession with his father’s penis, and his “prodigious underage sex life.”

Better yet, and deeper –more relatable by most people– his chronic body

dysphoria.

“I have always been afraid of my body, its desires and its functions,” he writes. “Seeing through” is a text about how difficult it is to dislodge fears that deep, how hard it is to move beyond looksism. Mostly Gordon offers the comfort of the fellow sufferer.

The drugs and the compulsive trawling for sex are New York normal, except that the drugs were merely disabling and not life-threatening. As told by him, his recovery is convincing and frequently more (clean and sober after Halloween 1989), at times verging on the philosophical. More down to earth, his cognitive dissonance at remaining HIV-negative –against the odds– while tending to others less fortunate is not just admitted but fully explored.

Humor intended and not

At the core of Gordon’s likeability, which is considerable, is his sense of humor, particularly about himself. I couldn’t quite tell how much he intended the self-parody in his naming of clearly influential developments –masturbation, pornography, “The Victor Book of Opera,” desert-island recordings (the Janet Baker Mahler song cycles with Barbirolli, another match with me)– as life-changing. It’s tricky business keeping the drama queen in check while indulging in unsparing self-revelations, but Gordon manages it to a commendable degree.

He talks about growing up in a house full of women, and a bad father ultimately a no-show. For intended humor at its most successful, he recalls trying to avoid going to school to escape the bullying. Returning home holding his stomach, he told his mother and sister, “I am getting my period!” He’s generous even in his accounts of the foibles of the others in his life. His chronicle of the friends, boyfriends, and, as we used to say, lovers, exhibits an appreciable lack of takedowns or other gestures of revenge. Reflecting on his colleagues in the musical and theater worlds, he sometimes settles scores up. He speaks of his admiration for any number of other composers while adding a comment that, among them, Hugo Weisgall took the most unfair rap for inaccessibility. (Again, we concur.)

His view of his own compositions is exhaustive without somehow becoming exhausting, in the book’s later sections making a bid for completism. Other than expressing his appreciation of the readers of his manuscript, he has little to say about his own writing, which is terrific and, as with the most readable of memoirs, satisfying.

If occasionally it gets “too-too,” it’s only in the interjections of what could be called his writing process. At one point, apropos of nothing in particular, he confides, “I am listening to the great and glorious ‘St. Matthew Passion’ as I write. Christ has risen.”

It would be unfair not to indulge Gordon’s occasional what’s-it-allabout reflections.

“All my life I have been in love with beauty: the beauty of music, of art, of poetry, of foreign films. I thought I needed to mirror such beauty. Bad smells and fat had no place in my exacting aesthetic. That’s why I had to make an opera out of Frank Bidart’s ‘Ellen West.’

“Perhaps by writing about shitting, farting, bad breath, body odor and baldness, I can get to a deeper place in myself. Though probably not.”t

Ricky Ian Gordon, ‘Seeing Through: A Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera,’ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 466 pages, $32. www.fsgbpooks.com www.rickyiangordon.com

Author Ricky Ian Gordon

by Gregg Shapiro

Deadpool, as portrayed by the irresistible Ryan Reynolds (even beneath burn make-up and a bad toupee, literally stapled to his head), is the Marvel Comics Universe superhero for people who loathe MCU superheroes. His suggestive homoerotic patter is as hilarious as it is filthy (just wait for the “get out the special sock” line).

Deadpool’s true superpower is his sharp tongue, and his attacks on movie studios and other pop culture phenomena are on full display in “Deadpool & Wolverine” (20th Century), the third installment in the popular series.

A retired Deadpool (Reynolds) is living his best worst life as Wade Wilson. He’s a car salesman with a cokeaddicted, foul-mouthed, visually challenged roommate named Blind Al (a flawless Leslie Uggams).

His one true love, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, whose resemblance to Ashley Judd and Gal Gadot is uncanny), has moved on without him. But that meh life changes when, at his surprise birthday party, he is visited by TVA (Time Variance Authority) police and transported to the HQ of rogue agent Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen). Paradox has typical villain universe-

destroying plans involving something called a Time Ripper.

Suited up again as Deadpool, on a mission to prevent the coming apocalypse, he seeks out Logan (Hugh Jackman) aka Wolverine as his cohort.

Once Deadpool finds Wolverine, it takes some convincing, rehabilitation and some of the old ultraviolence to get him to commit. Before they even have chance to insult or pulverize each other again,

they are whisked into the uberpowerful clutches of Cassandra Nova (queer actor Emma Corrin), twin sister of Charles Xavier, the late X-Men mutant legend. Drawn-out fight scenes, delightful cameos and

reunions, and a seemingly endless stream of hilarious and exhilarating moments, all combine to make “Deadpool & Wolverine” this summer’s blockbuster to beat (to a pulp).

Reynolds, who also gets writing credit (as he did on “Deadpool 2”), completely outshines Jackman. For example, the addition of the longhaired, sexy, and very Canadian Nicepool (also Reynolds), and his unique canine Dogpool, gives the actor the chance to stretch and show off his comedy muscles.

The epic and over-the-top special effects deserve to be seen in IMAX, at least the first time. When you see it for a second (or third) time (because you will need to so you may catch all the zingers and visuals) seeing it on a regular screen shouldn’t diminish the impact.

Regarding what sounds like a perceived backlash, courtesy of a pair of youngish writers at Out, Vox, and elsewhere, who are probably addicted to trigger warnings, it feels like much ado about nada. The character of Deadpool is comfortable in his queer (and scarred) skin. The sexual innuendos he spouts are about camp, not copulation. He’s the pansexual poster-boy, who is still in love with his ex, Vanessa.

Rating: B+t

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

20th Century

Don’t miss this gold medal deal

We’re celebrating Team USA with a gold medal deal on internet, mobile, and streaming. Don’t miss out. When the Olympic Games end, this deal does, too.