August 27, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Bargain travel to Puerto Vallarta

ARTS

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Fall theatre

Wigged out

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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 45 • No. 35 • August 27-September 2, 2015

LGBTs see change under San Jose mayor

CA pushes statewide AIDS plan

S

C

by Matthew S. Bajko

by Matthew S. Bajko

an Jose should see its score rise significantly on the 2015 Municipal Equality Index compiled by national LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign due to a number of changRick Gerharter es ushered in by Mayor Sam Liccardo during San Jose Mayor his first eight months Sam Liccardo on the job.

One visible marker of the improved relations between San Jose City Hall and its LGBT constituents should appear sometime in 2016 as Liccardo’s administration is working with leaders of the city’s Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center and the City Council to install a rainbow colored crosswalk near the building.

In a phone interview last week with the Bay Area Reporter, Liccardo pledged to maintain an open door for LGBT leaders going forward, whether through regular meetings with himself or with his mayoral liaison to the LGBT community, the city’s first.

“As we think about opportunities to be more responsive as a city, the best ideas tend to percolate up from the community and not from City Hall,” said Liccardo.

The Bay Area’s largest city was dinged points on the HRC’s 2014 municipal index for not having an LGBT liaison at either City Hall or within the police department. Out of a possible score of 100, San Jose earned a mark of 88.

Speaking to the B.A.R. late last year as he prepared for his swearing-in ceremony, Liccardo, 45, pledged to address the items on the index that caused San Jose to fall short of a perfect score. One of his first moves to do so came in March when he named Khanh Russo as his director of partnerships and liaison to the LGBT community.

Russo, 35, a gay married man, had previously worked as staff director for Liccardo when he served on the City Council. More recently the San Jose resident worked for the Cisco Foundation and Cisco Systems in the dual role of public benefits investment manager for both.

“This is a great opportunity to leverage the skill sets I have developed in the tech industry and in public service,” said Russo, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family left Vietnam; two months later they immigrated to San Jose. “For the mayor it is very important that the LGBT community has someone to go to at a senior level who is able to bring those issues to his attention quickly.”

See page 17 >>

Responding to black trans murders O

Rick Gerharter

ver 200 people attended a rally in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza August 25, which Get Equal, Black Lives Matter, and other groups designated Black Trans Liberation Tuesday. In nearly 20 cities across the country, organizers used the hashtag #SayHerName to acknowledge the threats of violence facing black transgender women, and to call attention to the at least 20 transgender

women and gender non-conforming individuals who have been murdered since the beginning of the year, including 13 black transgender women.

The day of action was called after three black trans women – Elisha Walker, Ashton O’Hara, and Kandis Capri – were reported murdered in a 24-hour period on August 17, and trans leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement decided to respond.

alifornia lawmakers want to create a statewide plan to end the transmission of HIV, following similar plans adopted in New York and Washington state as well as by San Francisco officials.

Rick Gerharter The Assembly Select Committee on Infectious State AIDS chief Diseases in High Risk Dr. Karen Mark Disadvantaged Communities, chaired by Assemblyman Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), is spearheading the effort. It kicked off the initiative by holding its first hearing in San Francisco Friday, August 21.

“President Obama released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (in 2010), but California has no plan. That was the impetus,” Gipson told the Bay Area Reporter in a brief interview prior to the start of last week’s hearing. “I was surSee page 17 >>

Hennessy, a sheriff’s vet, hopes to head agency

Kelly Sullivan

San Francisco sheriff candidate Vicki Hennessy speaks at a recent campaign event.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

O

f the San Francisco races leading up to this November’s elections, sheriff ’s department veteran Vicki Hennessy’s bid to unseat embattled Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is one of the most closely watched.

Hennessy, 62, who worked for the agency for decades, has the support of the deputies’ union,

while Mirkarimi, who took office in 2011 after pleading guilty in a domestic violence-related case, has continued to face scandals.

In a recent interview, Hennessy said her experience, skills, and other traits set her apart from Mirkarimi, who was a two-term city supervisor before being elected sheriff, “as well as my temperament and ability to lead.”

When she talks to people as she’s campaign-

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

ing, Hennessy said, “A lot of people bring up the issues in the newspaper” concerning the controversies around Mirkarimi. Many people “want the department to be running without being in the paper all the time.”

Mirkarimi, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to a false imprisonment charge stemming from a fight with his wife, Eliana Lopez, escaped being officially removed from office when four Board of Supervisors members voted in October 2012 not to sustain Mayor Ed Lee’s official misconduct charges against him. He won a judge’s order this spring to expunge his conviction from his record. Lee had appointed Hennessy to serve as interim sheriff while his case against Mirkarimi was pending.

Other issues Mirkarimi has had to confront as sheriff include the death of a patient in a stairwell at San Francisco General Hospital, which is guarded by sheriff deputies; allegations of a fight ring in a county jail run by sheriff deputies; and low morale among the rank and file of the safety agency.

Making international headlines was the killing last month of a woman on a city pier, allegedly by a man in the country illegally who had been released from custody by the sheriff’s department after a long ago drug possession charge against him was dismissed. Due to the city’s sanctuary city policy, the sheriff’s department released the individual without alerting federal immigration authorities, a decision that came under blistering criticism from Lee and other officials.

See page 6 >>

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Community News>>

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Man held for trial on Castro arson charges

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

judge this week ordered a San Francisco man who was convicted of accidentally choking to death a sex partner in 2011 to stand trial for allegedly burning his boyfriend’s car and the storage area of a hair salon last winter in the Castro district.

David Munoz Diaz, 25, faces felony counts of arson of an inhabited structure, arson of property, and possession of an incendiary device.

Retired Superior Court Judge Ellen Chaitin ordered Monday, August 24 that he be held on all three counts.

Diaz, who’s in custody on $500,000 bail, showed no obvious reaction.

Chaitin’s ruling came just before the August 26 anniversary of Diaz’s manslaughter conviction.

During his trial last summer, Diaz testified about how he fatally choked Freddy Canul-Arguello, 23, in Buena Vista Park in June 2011. He said it was an accident that occurred after Canul-Arguello asked to be choked during a sexual encounter.

He also said he set fire to a cup in a recycling bin but said he did it to signal for help. The melted bin was

found with Canul-Arguello’s heavily charred body.

Jurors acquitted Diaz of seconddegree murder but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, arson, mutilating human remains, and destroying evidence. He was released in September after spending more than three years in custody.

At Diaz’s sentencing in November, Deputy Public Defender Alex Lilien, who’s also representing Diaz in the current case, requested that Superior Court Judge Donald Sullivan dismiss all counts but the involuntary manslaughter. Sullivan dismissed only the arson count.

Diaz is currently charged with setting fire to his boyfriend Larry Metzger’s Hyundai and also to the Up Hair salon, at 4084 18th Street.

The salon is in the same building where Diaz and Metzger live and where the Mix bar, 4086 18th Street, which Metzger owns, is located.

Both fires caused thousands of dollars in damage. Diaz pleaded not guilty in January.

According to testimony during the preliminary hearing, which started Friday, on December 21, just before

Rick Gerharter

David Diaz at his January court appearance.

3 a.m., surveillance footage from a nearby home showed Diaz driving Metzger’s car into a parking space at 132 Hartford Street after another man got out of the car to open a gate.

Six minutes later, “the car erupted in flames,” Assistant District Attorney Andrew Clark said in court Monday.

In the salon incident, which occurred January 17, Clark said video footage from the Mix shows Diaz “acting very suspiciously” alone in

the bar after it had closed.

He could be seen going upstairs to the second floor, where the salon is located, and “shortly after,” the fire broke out, Clark said.

The prosecutor noted that according to fire department investigator Laura Kelly, a Mix manager had seen Diaz in the bar as she and others were closing it. A few minutes later, the manager had seen the second floor door propped open and Diaz standing nearby.

Kelly testified that the woman had told her when she asked Diaz why the door was open, he told her, “Someone obviously wanted it like that and she should leave it like that.”

Clark acknowledged the evidence against Diaz was “circumstantial,” and prosecutors don’t have any video of Diaz actually starting the fires, but “nevertheless, the circumstances are powerful and rise to the level of probable cause” to hold him on the charges.

Chaitin said the car fire was “a close call,” but given the timing, “it would be very, very difficult for someone else to have set that fire.”

Lilien, who’s representing Diaz, said the prosecution’s evidence for the current charges was “pretty thin.”

He argued strongly against the possession of an incendiary device count, saying that there had been “no evidence” of an incendiary device.

He also said there’d been no indication Diaz, who had appeared at the scene of the car fire, had smelled of smoke when authorities spoke with him.

But when Chaitin said the “most inculpating fact” Diaz faces “is the timing,” Lilien said, “I agree ... it’s the timing.”

A conviction of arson of an inhabited structure alone can result in a maximum sentence of eight years in state prison plus lifetime registration as an arsonist.

Outside the courtroom Monday, Lilien said a plea deal is “not out of the question,” but neither side has proposed a resolution yet.

Metzger, who continues to be supportive of Diaz, was in the courtroom Monday. He declined to comment on the case.

Diaz’s next court date is September 8 for arraignment.t

SF gay man’s death ruled homicide

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he death of a gay San Francisco man who was attacked just over a year ago has been ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office.

To many, the agency’s conclusion on the manner in which Bryan “Feather” Higgins died is likely obvious, but the reason it took 12 months to determine it was a homicide may not be.

Police have long had a person of interest identified in the case, but as of Tuesday, no arrests had been made.

Higgins, 31, was punched outside 100 Church Street, across from the Castro district Safeway, August 10, 2014, according to a witness. Higgins died three days later at San Francisco General Hospital after his family had him taken off life support.

The agency’s report on Higgins’ death lists the method of death as “assault,” and the cause as “complications of ruptured cerebral artery aneurysm,” with “physical altercation” noted by other conditions. The report is dated August 19 and was made available for the first time last week.

In recent years, the Bay Area Reporter has written about at least one case that took 10 months to complete, but the medical examiner’s review of Higgins’ death took lon-

ger to complete than any other the B.A.R. has covered in recent years.

Asked about the length of time it took to complete the examination, Christopher Wirowek, the deputy director medical examiner administrator, said in an email that the Higgins case “was an interagency investigation involving the San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division, the San Francisco Fire Department assessment reports, and records documenting the decedent’s hospital course. This investigation took on a [collaborative] approach” to reach its determination.

Wirowek declined to respond to questions about the size of his agency’s case backlog, or whether that caseload had an impact on how long it took to close the Higgins review.

A San Francisco Chronicle story in January, published around the time current Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Hunter was hired, said the agency had “a backlog of more than 800 death cases – some dating back to 2012.”

The medical examiner’s report on Higgins’ death says, “The most likely cause of the aneurysmal rupture” that Higgins suffered “is a blow to the left side of the head. If the aneurysm was pre-existing, a blow to the head may

have caused the rupture, or the effects of being in a fight with concomitant rise in blood pressure and stress may have caused the aneurysm to burst.”

The report also notes that when Higgins was examined at the scene, he had “no visible trauma, bleeding, or deformity anywhere on his body.

No head injury was noted,” and there was “[n]o injury to his mouth or bleeding from his ears.”

Higgins, who friends have remembered as a kind, free-spirited person, was part of the Radical Faerie community and was also known as Feather Lynn.

Police investigating

Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman, said in an email last week, “Homicide has handled this case since it occurred,” and the case remains “open and active.”

Soon after Higgins died, police released a video that they say shows a man chasing after him and starting to assault him.

Several months ago, a source told the B.A.R. the name of the man he believes hit Higgins.

In an email exchange earlier this year, Esparza confirmed that the man is a “person of interest” in the case but expressed concern that

Bryan Higgins

naming the man might compromise the investigation. The man is “not a suspect,” Esparza said.

“We are waiting still on the results of the medical examiner’s autopsy to see if it’s a homicide,” he said. “We have to wait for the cause officially.”

Facebook photos of the man identified as a person of interest appear to match the man in the video footage.

In response to emailed questions about whether police have spoken to the person of interest or if an arrest

is forthcoming, Esparza said Tuesday that police have met with the district attorney “to discuss the case. Persons of interest are not public info unless there is an arrest made.”

Brian Busta, 51, a friend and neighbor of Higgins’, said in a text exchange with the B.A.R. this week that he’s “glad” the medical examiner’s office “came to a result, so now things can move forward” with the case.

Busta has said that hours before he was attacked, Higgins had been dealing with “medical issues” and behaving erratically.

John Stone, who saw Higgins being attacked, said he’d been antagonizing people who were waiting in line for breakfast at a nearby church. A man from the line told Higgins to stop and eventually followed him into the street, then punched him repeatedly and left him lying on the sidewalk.

The toxicology report released last week says that Higgins had marijuana in his system, but no other drugs besides caffeine and nicotine.

Esparza asks that anyone with information about suspect or other details in the case contact the police anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text-a-tip to TIP411 with SFPD at the start of the message. The police report number is 140 665 807.t

Manner of SF man’s drowning ‘undetermined’

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

gay San Francisco man whose body was found in the Bay in November drowned, but the manner of his death is “undetermined,” according to the medical examiner’s office in a report released this week.

The finding leaves unclear whether Dan Ha, 26, a software engineer, was killed, died by suicide, or died accidentally. The report, which is dated August 20 and was released Tuesday, August 25, indicates the condition of Ha’s body made it impossible to make a specific determination on the manner of death.

Ha, who friends and family remembered for his compassion and humor, was last seen alive Halloween night, October 31. People formed search parties and posted fliers seeking Ha, whose body was found November 11. The remains weren’t positively identified until late January.

In a November statement, Ha’s

Dan Ha

family said that it did not suspect suicide. One of Ha’s family members said no note was found. (Friends and family of Ha have told the Bay Area Reporter he was gay.)

Told of the medical examiner’s findings Tuesday, Alexa Lee, a friend of Ha’s, said, “Hearing this news definitely brings back the reality of how tragic his passing is, that someone that was so well-loved and had so much potential left this earth in a truly unfortunate manner.”

Lee, who lives in San Francisco, added, “The cause of death being a drowning” makes her feel that Ha’s death was “an extremely untimely accident of some sort.”

“It doesn’t answer a whole lot of questions,” she said of the report’s findings, including whether someone drowned him or it was accidental.

However, Lee said, “I really don’t think that he would have killed himself. It just feels like a very bad, unfortunate accident.”

Ha’s family has informed the Bay Area Reporter they are no longer commenting on the case.

A passenger on a ferry traveling from Marin County toward San

Francisco was the person who spotted Ha’s body “floating in the water,” the medical examiner’s report says.

There had been “significant decomposition and marine life depredation,” according to the file.

“The ability to discern any obvious external trauma was not possible,” but there was “no evidence of overt trauma or foul play.”

The agency also found there were “no acute fatal traumatic injuries,” and his skeleton didn’t show any fractures.

Signs of drowning included “mildly hyperinflated lungs with pulmonary vascular congestion. ... “ No drugs other than alcohol were found in Ha’s system.

The medical examiner’s report indicates Ha’s wallet, $74, a cellphone, and keys, among other property, were found with his body, which was fully clothed except for a missing sock and no shoes.

The identification of Ha’s body was made with help from the Bu-

reau of Forensic Services DNA Laboratory at the California Department of Justice, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Christopher Wirowek, the deputy director medical examiner administrator, said in an interview Tuesday that if someone comes forward with video or other material indicating what happened to Ha, the medical examiner’s office may reopen the case and make a more specific determination of the manner of death.

Wirowek said that his agency didn’t know how long Ha’s body had been in the water.

Officer Albie Esparza, a San Francisco police spokesman, indicated in November that his agency would not investigate Ha’s death unless the medical examiner’s office determined foul play was involved.

In an email exchange Tuesday, Esparza said, “We made it clear this was not a criminal case a while ago. ... [W]e are not investigating it.”t

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

Volume 45, Number 35 August 27-September 2, 2015 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Authentic help for trans people

M

ost transgender people choose to change their names as part of their transition.

This is a big deal, not only because it enables trans people to present in their preferred gender, with their preferred name, but it is also a legal issue with important ramifications. Once a name is legally changed, other identifying documents can be changed accordingly. However, completing the task is tedious and expensive. In spite of a California law that improved the process for updating name and gender documents, it still requires a court hearing and court fee. Locally, that fee is $450 in San Francisco and $435 in most of the surrounding counties, like Alameda, which includes Oakland. Given the pervasive unemployment and underemployment experienced by a lot of trans women and men, it’s not surprising that a name change is often a lower priority: they may want or need hormone therapy or other medical procedures first, or have other immediate needs.

To help trans people in our community, we think the Transgender Law Center should consider creating a grant program that would cover the cost of court fees. We realize that TLC, like most nonprofits, has limited resources.

But the organization has been able to expand services in the South, due to its partnership with Southerners On New Ground, and we think the cost would be relatively minor in an agency that has a $1.4 million budget. Ideally, TLC could even fundraise specifically for a grant program, say the Gwen Araujo Grant.

After all, following Araujo’s tragic murder in 2002, TLC was able to obtain a court order to legally change her name posthumously on her death certificate. It would be a fitting tribute to Araujo all these years later to help other trans women and men make this life-affirming change that they otherwise could not afford to pay themselves.

Currently, California courts do have a

fee waiver form, and certainly some people would qualify under its criteria. It’s based on three areas: government services that people receive, like Medi-Cal and food stamps; household income; or if applicants don’t have enough money to pay for their household’s basic needs and the court fees. A judge decides whether to approve the fee waiver. The grant we’re discussing would be available if a fee waiver is denied. Applicants also need assistance filling out the waiver form.

We’ve written about trans people enough over the years to know that there is a practical reason for a grant program such as this, especially in the Bay Area. Regularly, trans people acknowledge in interviews that they postpone changing their names because of the cost. Perhaps as a first step TLC could undertake a pilot program to study the need while at the same time helping a smaller number of

t

people. Ideally, a legal self-help center could provide these services (except a cash grant).

Trans people feel more comfortable talking to other trans people about name and document issues – that’s just the reality. TLC is the ideal organization to do that.

In fact, document changes have been an area of focus going back to the beginning of trans law services. It is still an issue today.

Having updated documents that match one’s gender identity greatly enhances self-esteem, makes it easier to fill out applications for jobs or housing, and contributes to well-being.

It is an important accomplishment that allows trans people to live authentically.

We reached out to TLC staff recently about our ideas but haven’t heard back yet. We hope that TLC is able to give it some serious consideration.

Later this fall, TLC will hold Spark, its annual fundraiser. It would be a perfect opportunity to announce a grant program.

Seems like a win-win to us.t

A local victory against Big Tobacco

by Brian Davis

S

ilicon Valley Pride is coming up this weekend, and there are many things to celebrate this year, including a victory for the LGBT community over Big Tobacco in San Jose.

For many years, tobacco company representatives regularly visited bars in that city, including frequent visits to at least one gay bar/club with a young clientele. During 2013 and 2014 alone, just one tobacco company scheduled 564 visits to bars in San Jose with 25 percent of those visits to that gay bar. At the bars, the tobacco representatives would swipe people’s I.D.s through a machine that captured all of their information. In exchange they would hand out discount coupons including a “One Pack for One Buck” offer that could only be redeemed at the bar that night.

Over 100 studies have shown that offers like these make it easier to start and harder to quit smoking – the higher the price, the less likely that young adults will become smokers.

During recent months, the tobacco representatives had begun to offer free electronic cigarettes as well, encouraging our young adults to get addicted to nicotine without ever smoking a traditional cigarette.

The good news is that as of July 10, this activity is now illegal in San Jose.

You may be wondering why this is a big deal for LGBT people. The reason is that we smoke more – a lot more than everyone else. According to a community survey conducted by the health department in 2013, LGBT people in Santa Clara County smoke three times as much as the general population of that county.

This kind of disparity is not unusual.

Why do we smoke more? The short answer is that the stresses of homophobia and transphobia during our youth drive us to look for a way to escape, and many escape through tobacco. Big Tobacco knows this, which is why they target us with major discounts, advertisements, sponsorships, and other means. It’s tough to fight back against Big Tobacco’s deep pockets, but this time we succeeded.

This victory happened because of a two-

year campaign led by community leaders like Gabrielle Antolovich, the board president of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center.

She shared the following thoughts: “It was a great campaign to promote LGBTQ health in San Jose and to remember a gay bar is not just where people do negative things to themselves – it actually is a positive environment to be your gay self, meet people in a safe LGBTQ location, safely flirt, network, and make friends. It is only fair to keep the place safe from tobacco temptations, the smell, and promote the long-term health of our community. I was also heartened by the overwhelming support we had from the San Jose City Council, who so eloquently spoke to our issues and passed the ordinance.”

Cassie Blume, the program coordinator at the LGBTQ Youth Space in San Jose, was another active participant in the campaign.

“Addressing the health and wellness disparities faced by queer and transgender people is a constant struggle,” Blume said. “We need education, community building and resources. At the LGBTQ Youth Space and in our new LGBTQ wellness program we celebrate policies, like these, that prioritize our health and safety. This local success is all the more meaningful as it was won with the support and advocacy of our friends on the City Council and our coalition partners – allies who truly understand and seek to advance

change regarding our communities’ most pressing health concerns.”

Much more work remains to be done.

Gay bars in Sacramento, West Hollywood, and communities all over the country continue to be visited by tobacco company representatives offering extreme discounts on cigarettes and free e-cigarettes that addict our youth to tobacco products.

There is also work to be done in our own backyard. The Just for Us: LGBT Tobacco Prevention Project, based at Tri-City Health Center in Fremont, is now working in our home city to protect LGBT and other youth from tobacco company targeting. Tri-City Health Center is the home of TransVision, a program that provides services to the transgender community in the East Bay. That community smokes at extremely high rates due to the enormous transphobia in our culture. It’s time for action to protect our home base.

One of the ways that tobacco companies make it easier for young people to smoke is by selling “little cigars,” which often look just like cigarettes, except that they are wrapped in a tobacco leaf instead of paper, for less than $1. Cigarettes are legally required to be sold in packs of 20 or more, and flavorings that appeal to kids – like cherry and bubble gum – are banned. Little cigars face no such restrictions, and kids are using them to get hooked on tobacco.

We are working to raise awareness of issues like these in Fremont. One way we are doing this is by building a team of LGBT and LGBT-allied youth to educate our local community and fight for change. A similar group of engaged youth was at the forefront of the successful campaign in San Jose.

Our youth are leading the way to end homophobia and transphobia in so many ways, including working to undo the damage inflicted upon us by years of discrimination. Join us.t Brian Davis runs Just for Us: LGBT Tobacco Prevention Project at the Tri-City Health Center in Fremont.

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Letters >>

Counterfeit bestseller

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Go Set A Watchman has dominated summer book sales, as well as the narrative backstory. Speculation abounds over the mystery manuscript “discovered” by Harper Lee’s attorney, who now has control over her affairs.

Critics at the New York Times have assiduously followed the trail of ambition where it leads, reporting how Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate wrapped its tentacles around the author’s caregivers, conjuring from thin air this blockbuster.

Times’ senior literary critic Michiko Kakutani infers the likelihood of Lee’s muchballyhooed new release as being a first draft of To Kill A Mockingbird, a conclusion columnist Joe Nocera draws explicitly.

Kakutani notes the advice Lee got from editor Tay Hohoff “was shrewd.” On the other hand, the two manuscripts in comparison reveal a fundamental shift in point of views, which suggests a complete rewrite, rather than extensive editing.

Now the plot thickens as we’re reminded by Alexandra Alter that Lee and Truman Capote dictated material to each other beginning in junior high. Lee described her partner in literature as having “the face of an angel and the cunning of a stoat.”

Capote was a literary genius, whose “nonfiction novel,” In Cold Blood astonished me. Lee wrote 150 pages of notes for it, among other duties, and he credited her in the acknowledgments. But she seems to have expected co-authorship and they became estranged. Capote was

vindictive and behaved cruelly to others, including to Lee Radziwill.

She similarly slaved for him, helping produce his renowned New York City parties. Radziwill also provided entry into a social circle that otherwise would have ignored him. Though hardly beloved by marquee competitors like Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal, Capote was their equal or superior in talent.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Capote’s other short stories surely are immortal. Just the title of Breakfast, and the description of how he got it from a hustler, did more for straight consciousness of queer issues than either Gore or Williams did after years of trying. It wasn’t until Vidal took on transsexualism that he had a similar impact, and he had to sacrifice literary quality to get it.

Capote died aged 59. Lee’s postmortem was, “Drugs and alcohol did not cause his insanity, they were the result of it.”

Capote’s cohort succumbed as well to the occupational risk of defying heterosexual dictatorship. Vidal was a lifelong megalomaniac who was delusional after Howard Austen died. Though he was fortunate to retain Austen’s allegiance, it didn’t stop him from allegedly indulging in sex tourism in Thailand.

Williams became more and more addicted and finally killed himself, mixing liquor with Nembutal.

Everything we do now is on their shoulders.

Frederic Millen San Francisco

Lack of out electeds concerns South Bay leaders

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

n the course of its 238-year history, San Jose has elected just one openly LGBT resident to serve on its City Council. And that person resigned nine years ago after becoming the first out elected member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

Since then several gay men have tried to win a council seat in the state’s third largest city but none were successful. It is a track record concerning to South Bay LGBT political leaders, and not just in San Jose.

Only one city among the 15 in the county, Mountain View, currently has an out elected City Council member, Councilman Christopher Clark, who will be up for re-election next year. And only one other city, Campbell, has had out LGBT people serve on its City Council.

“It is of great concern to me, not only for the city of San Jose but for the other 14 cities in the county as well,” said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who became the county’s first openly gay elected official in 1992 when he won a community college board seat and then its first city council person when he won a seat in San Jose in 2000.

Quick to add that many of the people elected to city councils in the county are allies of the LGBT community, Yeager nonetheless said there are benefits to having elected leaders from within the community itself seated at the tables of power.

“There is example after example if an LGBT person isn’t there then issues are not addressed,” said Yeager, pointing to his calls for the county to create an LGBTQ affairs office and re-open its STD clinic, both of which he contended would not have happened if he wasn’t in office advocating for them. “Again, it isn’t an issue of our allies not supporting us but their attention is often focused on other policies and other groups.”

San Jose resident Omar Torres, elected last year to serve on the board of the Franklin-McKinley School District and this spring as the California Democratic Party’s District 7 region director, said electing LGBT people to public office should be a priority for the community.

“What we are seeing is a lot of folks who were involved politically in the South Bay, right after Prop

8 passed, they disapthe members are very peared,” said Torres, 33, supportive of the LGBT referring to the voter community, said Gapassed ban against samebrielle Antolovich, a sex marriage adopted resident of the city who in 2008. “We are not as is the board president of strong and united as we the Billy DeFrank LGBT should be.”

Community Center.

Torres is working to “It is not as if we are establish a South Bay Longtime South lacking a consciousness Stonewall Democratic Bay LGBT at the city council. We are Club focused on electing community leader just lacking a representaLGBT Democrats to vari- Wiggsy Siversten tive,” said Antolovich. ous offices throughout “You can have lots of gay Santa Clara County. He hopes to people with no consciousness about formally launch the new group by gay issues. I have to say, the gay the end of the year. consciousness at the City Council is “As an openly gay Latino man amazing to me.” who lives in East San Jose, I want Asked about the lack of an LGBT to do that,” he said. “We are a small council member, San Jose Mayor community but we are loud and Sam Liccardo acknowledged to the need to be more orgaBay Area Reporter in a recent internized in recruiting view that it was not something he LGBT candidates and had focused on. He added that he making sure they win.” doubts it is due to voters unwilling In San Jose, at least, it to support such candidates. likely will be years before “Certainly, the past indicates this an LGBT is again seated is a community very receptive to on its council. To date, LGBT community members taking no out candidates have leadership positions,” said Liccardo, filed to run for the five pointing to Yeager’s electoral suceven-numbered council cess. “It is a question of developing seats on next year’s balthat pipeline” of qualified candilot, including for the open dates, he added.

District 6 seat. Once held by Yeager, He pledged to work with LGBT it is considered one of the districts community leaders in identifying most likely to elect an out council qualified candidates to serve on the member. city’s appointed oversight panels.

One steppingstone to running Khanh Russo, Liccardo’s LGBT for political office is to first serve liaison, also pledged to make such on a city board or commission. The appointments a priority. positions can prepare potential can“It is not something I have been didates on how to handle planning actively communicating but defiand union issues as well as create nitely something I will do,” Khanh, a name recognition among voters. gay married man who started in the “In most cities people care very position in March, told the B.A.R. much who their council member during an interview this week. is,” said Yeager. “If you don’t have To contact Russo, call his ofexperience, it is hard to generate the fice at (408) 535-4826 or email support you need.” khanh.russo@sanjoseca.gov.

Not everyone within the South Anyone interested in joining the Bay LGBT community is as wornew South Bay Stonewall club can ried about the lack of out electeds. email Torres at omartorres2014@ Sometimes the straight candidate is gmail.com.t more preferable than the LGBT perCorrection son running, pointed out Wiggsy Last week’s Political Notebook Sivertsen, who with Yeager coerred in reporting there are two founded the South Bay LGBT politicompeting campaigns regarding the cal group BAYMEC, which stands city’s CleanPowerSF program. In for Bay Area Municipal Elections fact, the proponents behind PropoCommittee, in the early 1980s. sitions H and G, which will both ap“I have been here a long time pear on the fall ballot, struck a last and seen gay people run for office I minute compromise and are now would never vote for,” said Sivertsen, solely backing Proposition G. The 79, a lesbian who lives in Los Gatos. online version of the column has Pointing to the current make been updated.t up of the San Jose City Council,

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<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

Whatever Jeans (or Genes) You Own

You Can Still Be Jewish (Even our Torah scrolls are dressed in jeans — thank you Levi Strauss.)

Please join us for the High Holidays.

At Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, you are encouraged to be your full self. No need for a new holiday outfit. No need to hide your ink.

Come pray with us, welcome the New Year and (re)connect.

Donations are appreciated, but not required.

However, you need to reserve a seat.

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API Wellness Center’s clinic receives federal funds

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides health services to the city’s Asian and Pacific Islander LGBT community and residents of the Tenderloin neighborhood will be expanding its wellness clinic hours after receiving federal recognition and funding.

The Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center learned this month that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had designated it as a new Federally Qualified Health Center. The qualification comes with an annual allocation for the next two years of $650,000 to operate its free medical clinic, which opened in 2011 and has been providing services three days a week.

Come December the agency plans to expand the Wellness Clinic hours to 40 per week. It is reviewing what hours would best serve its clients, with evenings and weekends a possibility. It has been operating from 1 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

“Reaching this designation is a huge achievement for us and allows us to build with the support of the federal government,” said Lance Toma, executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center since 2006.

When Toma joined the agency, he created a community task force to look at what health care services were needed and what role the agency should play in providing them.

One result of the feedback was API Wellness applying for a license to open the medical clinic.

Until now the agency had been financially supporting the clinic through its own operating budget at a cost of $200,000 to $300,000 a year. It also relied on volunteer doctors and nurses to work at the

<<

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Contact: Geri Lustenberg (650) 403-4300 Ext 4389, glustenberg@peninsulafamilyservice.org www.peninsulafamilyservice.org

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Hennessy

From page 1

This month, the headlines focused on how Mirkarimi’s driver’s license was suspended earlier this year after he failed to properly report a fender bender he was involved in last October while driving a city-issued vehicle to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Mirkarimi’s office said soon after he learned of the suspension, he “contacted his insurance representatives to determine why the proper report was not submitted to the DMV.” The matter has since been resolved, according to the sheriff’s office.

Hennessy said the driver’s license issue shows Mirkarimi’s “failure to follow the rules,” and she said the head of the department needs to “set a good example.”

Aside from those comments, however, Hennessy hasn’t said much about Mirkarimi’s troubles.

“People are going to judge for themselves based on these stories they read and hear,” she said. “I’m not going to add fuel to the fire, because I don’t want to look like I’m picking on him, because I’m not.”

Hennessy, whose husband, Jim Hennessy, is a retired San Francisco mounted police officer, has plenty of her own experience to talk about.

Longtime sheriff’s staffer

When she served as interim sheriff in 2011, Hennessy declined to discuss Mirkarimi with the Bay Area Reporter. Instead, she spoke about her own history. She started work at the sheriff ’s department December 24, 1975.

Hennessy came into the department at a time when many other women, LGBTs, and other commu-

Jane Philomen Cleland

API Wellness Center Executive Director Lance Toma

clinic, and more recently, the agency formed a partnership with the University of San Francisco’s School of Nursing and Health Professions to provide staffing.

It has been seeing 650 patients a year, with 13 percent self-identified as gay, lesbian or queer and an additional 2 percent as bisexual. Fifteen percent of patients are transgender women, while transgender men account for 3 percent.

The medical clinic provides HIV testing and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases as well as prescribes the HIV prevention medication known as PrEP, short for preexposure prophylactic. Transgender patients can also access hormone replacement therapy and social support services.

“Once we launch in December we want to be the provider of their primary care,” said Toma. “We want to provide patients a medical home for all of their needs.”

Last year API Wellness submitted the paperwork to the federal government to become an officially nities that hadn’t previously been sought were being recruited.

“I think I feel a special connection” to the gay community “because I was there when so many people died,” she said in an interview last week, adding that she lost friends and co-workers as the AIDS epidemic hit its height in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Bill Barnes, who’s running Lee’s re-election campaign, contributed $100 toward Hennessy’s bid. In a text exchange with the B.A.R., Barnes, a gay man who’s HIV-positive, said, “In the LGBT community, there’s a long history of mistrust with law enforcement. Vicki Hennessy joined the first sheriff ’s department class with out lesbian and gay members, and she has fought for inclusion all of her career.” He added that she’s “the most qualified woman for the job of sheriff.”

Among other achievements, Hennessy “increased training and developed security plans for elections and public buildings,” according to her campaign.

In 2008, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed her to be director of the city’s Department of Emergency Management. She retired in 2011.

Mirkarimi’s problems have frequently overshadowed his work as sheriff, but he has taken action toward helping transgender people in custody.

The sheriff recently announced that he plans to stop classifying transgender inmates who have not had surgery according to their birth sex. The move would mean that trans women would no longer be housed with men. The same would be true for transgender men, but the jail population generally sees more trans women inmates.

recognized health center. The agency intends to maintain its internal financing of the clinic, bringing the total annual dedicated budget to roughly $1 million.

Its goal is to increase the clients accessing the medical services to 4,000 per year by the end of 2017, said Toma, which will require additional funding. The agency plans to leverage its new revenue source for the clinic to seek out financial support from corporations and foundations, as well as the state and local government.

“We are going to need a lot of support,” said Toma. “We will continue to be fundraising and including our donor community and our patients to help us build a financially sustainable model.”

In early August, prior to learning about the federal recognition, the agency hired Dr. Tri Do to be its director of medical services. A volunteer with API Wellness since 1998, Do had been serving as the clinic director on a pro bono basis since January.

“I have had a real passion for LGBT health and the Tenderloin community for a very long time,” said Do, 41, a gay man who had been employed by Roche Molecular Diagnostics as its global head of clinical research. “Part of it for me was I saw a real unmet need for LGBT health in the Bay Area and the Tenderloin specifically. I thought this was a great opportunity for me to get back to doing what I love to do and that is to end health disparities right here in San Francisco.”

API Wellness Center’s Wellness Clinic was the only one in San Francisco to be awarded federal designation this year. It will need to reapply in two years to maintain its qualification and funding.

For more information visit http:// www.apiwellness.org.t One of Hennessy’s biggest backers is the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association. Deputy Eugene Cerbone, a gay man who serves as the association’s president, told the B.A.R. in June that he thinks Mirkarimi’s plan could work.

However, he expressed concerns about inmate safety, and said when it comes to the custody setting, he doesn’t consider people who have not had surgery to be transgender.

“Transgender is you have the surgery,” he said. “What I know of someone who’s actually transgendered [sic] is they’ve had the complete change.”

Hennessy recently said at a meeting with the B.A.R.’s editorial board that she supports Mirkarimi’s policy change, and she disagrees with Cerbone’s statement about genitalia defining someone’s transgender status.

However, she said, it’s important to implement policy change carefully in order to ensure safety.

Those involved need to be “very careful and very cautious, and make sure we do it right the first time,” Hennessy said. “I don’t know that we get a second chance.”

Hennessy said training and educating on the new policy would need to include staff and other inmates.

Transgender inmates make up a “very, very small” part of the inmate population, Hennessy noted, but it’s important to make sure prisoners have “the information they need in order to live side by side.”

She pointed out that Human Rights Commission Executive Director Theresa Sparks, a transgender woman, “has been working on this a long time,” and she called Sparks “a beacon.”

See page 18 >>

t

Community News>>

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SF orgs get CDC HIV prevention money

by Liz Highleyman

A

trio of San Francisco agencies – the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Glide, and St. James Infirmary – have been awarded $3.7 million by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund “high-impact” HIV prevention, the agencies have announced.

The grant, which will be spread out over five years according to SFAF, will be used to increase HIV testing, help HIV-negative and HIV-positive people obtain prevention and care services, and expand access to pre-exposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP. Glide, part of Glide Memorial Church, provides HIV and other health services to a diverse population of homeless and low-income clients, largely in the Tenderloin, while St. James Infirmary provides health and social services for current and former sex workers of all genders.

“This new collaborative will enable the expansion of our existing and highly effective initiatives with PrEP and navigator services to serve neighborhoods and communities in need,” outgoing SFAF CEO Neil Giuliano said in an August 11 announcement about the new grant.

The CDC’s high-impact prevention initiative aims to focus resources on the groups most affected by, or at greatest risk for, HIV, including people of color, men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender women and men, and people who inject drugs.

Giuliano noted that the goals of the new collaborative closely align with those of the city’s Getting to Zero Consortium, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

Courtesy Glide

Glide HIV services manager Paul Harkin

The Getting to Zero Consortium aims to make San Francisco the first U.S. city to eliminate new HIV infections, HIV-related deaths, and HIV stigma using a three-prong strategy of expanded access to PrEP, rapid access to antiretroviral treatment, and retention of HIVpositive people in care.

As previously reported, an updated version of the White House National HIV/AIDS Strategy, released July 30, emphasizes PrEP and early HIV treatment, focusing on heavily affected groups including gay and bisexual men – especially queer youth – and transgender women.

Studies have shown that HIVnegative people who take once-daily Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) for PrEP lower their risk of becoming infected by more than 90 percent, while HIV-positive people who take combination antiretroviral therapy and have undetectable viral load reduce the risk of onward transmission of the virus to near zero.

See page 17 >>

<< Community News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

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Berkeley agency responds to bias claim

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

Berkeley nonprofit that provides services to people with disabilities is defending itself after city leaders announced they would investigate a bias claimed filed against it by a transgender former employee.

As the Bay Area Reporter reported last week, Orchid Bakla has accused Easy Does It Emergency Services staffers of discriminating against her based on her race – she is of Filipino and Caucasian descent – as well as her gender identity after she began transitioning from male to female while employed at the agency.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing last November issued her a right to sue the agency in response to the claim she filed with it. Her attorney plans to file a lawsuit in September.

Bakla also has alleged the agency retaliated against her for pointing out discrepancies in its reports to the city, such as one employee inflating their time sheets, and claims her warnings to a city contract monitor were ignored.

In light of the accusations, and at the request of gay City Councilman Kriss Worthington, interim City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley agreed to launch an inquiry into the matter.

April Wick, executive director of Easy Does It, initially told the B.A.R. she could not comment on specific employees or specific personnel matters due to privacy laws, as well as on the advice of the agency’s legal

Courtesy Orchid Bakla

Orchid Bakla

counsel due to the likelihood of legal action. She did note that the agency has a policy banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and pledged to work with city officials on their inquiry.

After the story ran, Wick emailed the B.A.R. a 452-word statement “to clear up some factual inaccuracies” contained in Bakla’s emails to city officials and her claim filed with the state agency.

Responding to a claim made by Bakla’s attorney, Joshua Watson, that a supervisor admonished her for not dressing in men’s clothes, Wick wrote that the incident in question involved the agency asking all employees to dress for a “business casual work environment.”

It came, wrote Wick, in response to complaints by clients and staff

t

about employees, including Bakla, “wearing clothing that was excessively revealing and that bordered on evening wear” at the workplace.

“EDI’s dress restriction focused on sexually provocative attire across the board, and had nothing to do with Ms. Bakla’s gender identity or gender expression,” wrote Wick. “At no time did a supervisor with EDI pass out a new dress code or ask Ms. Bakla or any other employee to dress in a manner consistent with outdated gender norms.”

Wick also addressed Bakla’s claims that management ignored her when she brought to their attention her concerns about being discriminated against by a fellow employee. Wick said Bakla’s supervisor “immediately” spoke to the employee in question to make it clear “comments about another person’s appearance or dress would not be tolerated.”

The agency also arranged for conflict resolution sessions, wrote Wick, when the conflict continued between Bakla and the other employee. But she wrote that Bakla did not show up for the sessions even though she agreed to attend.

Wick also wrote that the agency “worked hard” to accommodate Bakla’s needs after she started to transition from male to female. The agency allowed her to work a flexible schedule or work from home when needed, according to Wick.

“We consulted with and arranged for staff training from a local LGBTQ resource center to ensure See page 18 >>

Items sought for Duboce tag sale compiled by Cynthia Laird

R

esidents in the Duboce Triangle and surrounding neighborhoods are being urged to clean out their closets and garages and donate items for the popular Friends of Duboce Park Tag Sale, which takes place Saturday, September 12 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the park, located at Duboce Avenue between Steiner and Scott streets.

The event is an annual community get together that neighbors look forward to for both shopping and socializing. Organizers said that people of all ages walk away with bargains after shopping.

All proceeds from the sale are used for improvements to Duboce Park. The nonprofit Friends group has used funds to help build the children’s playground that opened in 2000, the Scott Street Labyrinth that opened in 2007, and the youth play area that opened in 2012.

Donations of items for the tag sale will be accepted at a rental truck that will be parked on Duboce Avenue near the Muni stop at Noe Street from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 8 through Friday, September 11 and before the event the following day. A list of items that can be accepted is online at http://friendsofdubocepark.org/ events-activities/tag-sale/. People can also sign up to volunteer for the event.

Access to the park is available via Muni’s N Judah line, which stops at the Noe Street entrance to the park, or other Muni lines that stop a block or two away.

Sonoma County issues Russian River advisory The

Environmental

Health

Courtesy Friends of Duboce Park

The annual Friends of Duboce Park Tag Sale usually draws a crowd of bargain shoppers.

and Safety Section of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board are encouraging recreational users of the Russian River to take precautions and practice healthy water habits.

Signs went up at public beaches last week.

The advisory was prompted by detection of small amounts of bluegreen algae and toxins mixed in with otherwise harmless filamentous algae in the shoreline mats.

Officials said in a news release that algae, including blue-green algae, is a normal inhabitant in many water environments. Warm water, low flows, and abundant nutrients can cause algae to grow more rapidly than usual and create algae mats, or “blooms.” The current drought and summer conditions are contributing to the algae blooms in the Russian River. Most algae, including blue-

green algae, do not produce toxins.

Some species of blue-green algae have the ability to produce toxins, which can create health effects for humans and animals. It is important to note that although some bluegreen algae can produce toxins, they do not do so all the time.

Officials recommend that recreational users of the Russian River do not drink river water; do not cook or wash dishes with river water; avoid algal scums or mats, which are found most often along the shoreline; carefully watch young children, even if algae is not present, and warn them not to swallow the water; do not let pets drink the water, swim through scums or mats, play through scums or mats on shore, or lick their fur after contact with scums or mats; wash yourself, your family, and pets with clean water after river play; and consume fish only after removing guts and liver – which should be discarded – and rinsing fillets in clean water.

People should seek medical atSee page 18 >>

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<< International News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

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U.N. Security Council hears persecuted LGBTs’ stories

by Heather Cassell

I

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n a historic meeting with the United Nations Security Council this week, two Middle Eastern gay men spoke of atrocities they witnessed, their fear, and plight escaping their homelands.

It was the first time the council has ever addressed LGBT rights during a special closed-session meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York City.

“Today we are making U.N. history,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the attendees during a briefing.

“This is the first time in history that the council has held a meeting on the victimization of LGBT persons.

It is the first time we are saying, in a single voice, that it is wrong to target people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. It is a historic step. And it is, as we all know, long overdue.”

The meeting was called by Power and U.N. Ambassador Cristian Barros Melet of Chile to address the atrocities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. The informal meeting, known as an Arria, was open to all 193 representatives of U.N. member states and the 15-member security council. Eleven council members were in attendance, including four countries that have troubling records on LGBT rights – China, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Russia – that remained, but didn’t speak, throughout the briefing.

Chad and Angola refused to participate.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was unable to attend the meeting, but sent remarks.

Gay Syrian refugee Subhi Nahas addressed the session. A gay Iraqi using the pseudonym Adnan, who attended the meeting by phone from an undisclosed location for safety reasons, also told his story.

They were joined by Jessica Stern, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, who also briefed the council.

The men, citing some examples, said that if people wore jeans, styled their hair or shaved a certain way that the militants didn’t like, or spoke out against ISIS, they were labeled as being gay by their community and their families, whether they were or not.

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In prepared remarks, Nahas, 28, recounted the government’s antigay campaign and raids of known gay social hangouts, arrests, tortures, and said some people were not heard from again at the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011.

Things got worse in 2012 when Jabhat Al Nusra, a branch of al-Qaida, infiltrated his small town of Idlib, north of Damascus. The militants promised at mosque to cleanse the town of “those involved in sodomy,” and used an effeminate man they arrested as their example, Nahas said. More sweeps followed, where people were arrested, tortured to confess their sins, and killed.

During this time Nahas said he became a target while on his way to university. Soldiers stopped the bus at a checkpoint and removed all of the young people and took them to a secluded location, he told the council. They assaulted the captives, but noticed Nahas’ effeminacy and detained him longer and mocked

Courtesy ORAM

Gay Syrian advocate Subhi Nahas

him more than the others.

“Calling me faggot, sissy, and other profanities,” Nahas said. “I feared that one of them – or all of them – would rape and kill me.”

The situation became worse as ISIS took over in 2014 and members used social media to publicize their exploits such as executions of accused LGBT people.

ISIS claimed responsibility of the executions of at least 30 people accused of sodomy, Stern told the council, providing a timeline of the executions.

Adnan was also targeted. He told the council in a prepared statement, “In my society, being gay means death. Most people are happy because they think we are evil,” he said.

Nahas agreed, describing scenes where people celebrated gay executions “like they were at a wedding,” he told the council.

Adnan said ISIS is “professional when it comes to tracking gay people.”

“They hunt them down one by one. When they capture people, they go through the person’s phone and contacts and Facebook friends,” he said. “It’s like dominoes. If one goes, the others will be taken down too.”

Nahas was lucky. He was released by the militants.

However, home wasn’t a safe place for either of these men as they isolated themselves in fear for their lives from their community and their own family, they both told the council.

Nahas bears a scar from his father as a reminder of the danger he once lived in until he escaped to Lebanon, then Turkey before coming to the U.S. a few months ago with the help of the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration.

“There’s a community in the Middle East that is now standing up, and we want to push back,” said Nahas, who currently works for ORAM as an advocate for LGBT and other refugees and as a systems administrator. “We want our voices to be heard, we want our rights to be acknowledged, and we will prevail in the end.”

Meeting hailed

LGBT human rights experts, the U.N., and the White House hailed the meeting as a step forward to address ISIS’ ongoing violent attacks against those suspected of being LGBT. “ISIS’ horrific violence is a haunting reminder of humankind’s capacity for evil,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in an August 24 blog post by the organization. “By convening this meeting, Ambassadors Power and Melet have made clear

that these human rights abuses against LGBT people are not only deeply heinous and inhumane, but also a matter of utmost importance to global security.”

In a statement following the meeting, White House spokesman John Kirby agreed. “This historic event recognizes that the issue of LGBT rights has a place in the U.N. Security Council,” he said.

He reiterated President Barack Obama’s position in line with Ban’s position that LGBT people have a right to live with dignity and without harm simply for “who they love.”

However, not everyone praised the meeting.

LGBT rights advocate Scott Long, who formerly worked for Human Rights Watch, called the meeting “useless” and expressed concern about the repercussions on LGBT communities living in ISIS-ruled territories in a critical article on his blog, Paper Bird.

“It’s vital not to confuse talk with the ability to act,” he wrote. “Discussions aren’t ‘historic.’ Change is.”

He called the praise of the meeting “cruel to LGBT people whose lives are at risk to celebrate so gushingly a discussion that has little chance of leading to change,” and warned “It’ll lead to that indolent repletion where people feel they’ve acted when they’ve actually done nothing. At worst, it’s going to cause more killings.”

There were unconfirmed reports of the killing of more than nine accused gay people in Ninawah, a northern province of Iraq, during the weekend in response to the meeting, Long wrote August 25. Images of one of the executions were posted on ISIS site Justpaste August 22, he said, citing an Iraqi News story.

Stern responded to questions about Long’s criticisms pointing out that the council has hosted discussions of ISIS’ treatment of women; minority communities like the Yazidi; and Christians. It was important to include LGBT people to document ISIS’ brutality, she said.

“The international community must understand anti-LGBTI persecution as a component of how ISIS treats those it labels as ‘impure,’” Stern said. “We must recognize that these threats exist on a continuum of violence and discrimination before, during, and after conflict.”

Power also said that the meeting would do good.

“Condemning ISIL’s violent and systematic targeting of LGBT individuals is the easiest step we can take today,” said Power, using another acronym for ISIS. “While today’s session is focused on the crimes against LGBT persons committed by ISIL, we know the scope of this problem is much broader.”

Open your gates

In spite of the Council’s inability to act, Nahas urged the body to “rally your nations to save my people – those who are trapped in Syria and those who like me have lost everything and have become refugees.”

ORAM Executive Director Neil Grungras and Stern, whose organizations have worked for years pushing for LGBT human rights and urging countries like the U.S., the Netherlands, Canada, France and others to take in LGBT refugees, backed Nahas up.

“Of the millions of LGBTI people who face human rights abuses each year, only a handful manage to escape and become refugees,” GrunSee page 17 >>

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

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12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

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August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

16 vie for seats on SF Pride board

by David-Elijah Nahmod

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hospital corpsman.

“I have over 10 years of service with SF Pride,” Caldera said. “I’ve served on the safety team and have been the Pride parade’s grandstand volunteer coordinator for seven years.”

Caldera said that one of his missions was to honor Pride members who have passed away.

“I believe SF Pride should produce an in memoriam to acknowledge and share with the world the passing of those that mattered to us and left an impression on both our city and our lives,” he said.

Taylor and Sanford did not return messages seeking comment.

and female perspective at the SF Pride website to the board,” she said. at http://sfpride.org/ Pacheco said that she was about/board-elections. a skilled fundraiser and html. has worked toward comThe annual meeting munity building. will take place at the San “I’ve enjoyed being a Francisco LGBT ComPride volunteer, donor, munity Center, 1800 and active member in the Market Street, Saturday, Courtesy SF Pride past year and have a sinSeptember 12 at 1 p.m.

Ronda Pacheco cere passion for Pride’s Each candidate will have mission that inspires an opportunity to make and welcomes everyone a statement to attendees to our world-class event,” Pacheco and answer questions. There will said. be three election inspectors presCandidates who did not respond ent who will verify voter eligibility to the B.A.R.’s request for comment and tally the votes. Pride Executive include Mahnani Clay, Alex MonDirector George Ridgely was autosanto, and John Weber. Bios and matically appointed to fill one of the additional statements can be found inspector positions.t

field of 16 candidates is vying for seven seats on the board of directors that oversees San Francisco Pride.

Voting takes place at the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee’s annual general Courtesy SF Pride Courtesy SF Pride meeting Saturday, September 12.

John Caldera The current board’s decision Tom Temprano not to ban Facebook from participating in this year’s parade may be a reason for some of the candidates running, although none explicitly mentioned the social media company in comments to the Bay Area Reporter.

Facebook is under criticism from some in the drag and transgender communities over Courtesy SF Pride Courtesy SF Pride its policy on people using their Adam Mehis David Waggoner real names for accounts.

Other candidates Two of the more well-known The B.A.R. received statechallengers are Tom Temprano ments from several of the and David Waggoner. Both are other nominees regarding their gay men and former presidents candidacies. of the Harvey Milk LGBT DemAdam Mehis, a housing advoocratic Club, which has been cate for the AIDS Housing Alliactive in the Facebook dustup. ance/San Francisco, described Waggoner’s an attorney and himself as being community Temprano, co-owner of a local centered and said that he has Courtesy SF Pride bar, is currently running this fall the skills needed to serve on the Courtesy SF Pride for a seat on the City College of Carmen “Alex” Pride board. “I have experience San Francisco board. in event planning,” he said.

Donald Dewsnup Morrison “I believe at this historical “My background being on WE’VE GOT THEM ALL moment, Pride must center the working boards would strengthvoices of queer and trans people en Pride and its desire to remain of color. We can raise the most a model for global LGBTQ celecorporate cash ever and have brations,” Mehis said. “I have the the biggest parade ever, but if we energy to face major decisions allow our message of ‘Equality facing the board and the bandWithout Exception’ to be nothwidth to begin to plan for next ing more than a platitude, then year’s festivities.” we might as well stay home,” Candidate Donald Dewsnup Courtesy SF Pride Courtesy SF Pride Waggoner told the B.A.R. in an cited the late gay San Francisco Melanie Nathan email, referring to this year’s Joey Stevenson Supervisor Harvey Milk, who Pride theme. “I have great rewas assassinated at City Hall in spect for the board and staff, but 1978, as his personal hero. we can and we must do better “I am an openly gay housing to ensure every member of our advocate, not only for the LGBT community feels welcomed and community, but for the collecspartacusworld.com/app respected by the decisions of tive communities of people who this organization.” remain marginalized or diminTemprano said that his expeished by inequality both in the rience at SF Pride as a teen was law and in our society,” Dewsnone of the reasons he moved to up said. “I uphold Harvey Milk’s Courtesy SF Pride Courtesy SF Pride the city. core beliefs, hold dear a timeless 02_Spartacus_App_95x127mm.indd 1 15.01.15 Lori Bilella Marsha Levine “It’s important for locals and vision for a better world, and visitors to have a really positive with Pride’s broad reach and community-oriented Pride exglobal reputation, I would be April. She is also a supporter of the perience,” he added. “I’m running honored to earn members’ votes to My Name Is ... campaign. because I have the background to serve as a director.”

“I am eager to make Pride more The Bay Area Reporter, the undisputed newspaper of record make sure that happens with over Candidate Melanie Nathan is an of a community-focused event,” half a decade experience in comattorney with a long history of adStevenson said. “One that listens for the San Francisco Bay Area’s LGBT community and the munity event production as well as vocating for LGBT people around to and supports women, people of nation’s longest continuously-published and highest audited a background in fundraising and the world. Currently the executive color, trans people, and working circulation LGBT newspaper, has immediate openings for community advocacy. I have the director of the African Human class people.”

Freelance Reporters. skill sets that the Pride board needs.”

Rights Coalition, Nathan, a lesShe also said that she’d like to see Another candidate is Carmen bian, has also served on the Marin SF Pride less dependent on corpoResponsibilities include: attend assigned meetings or events; “Alex” Morrison, who is well known Human Rights Commission, hanrations that have a “mixed track necessary interviews, and writing news articles weekly. for her performances in the drag dling police brutality and discrimirecord” with queer and other marking troupe Momma’s Boyz, where nation. Nathan was a grand marshal ginalized communities. she uses the stage name Alex U. Inn. at Cape Town Pride in 2011 and at Coverage includes breaking news, City Hall, health, LGBT Morrison was recently honored at Incumbents San Francisco Pride in 2014. organizations, and other matters of interest to the the Milk club dinner for her work In addition to those four, 12 “I bring many crucial skills to community. Availability should include at least one of the with My Name Is ..., the coalition other candidates were nominated at Pride, especially with no lawyers following: weekday daytime hours, evenings or weekends to of activists who are fighting Facethe board’s August 11 meeting. The currently on the board,” she said. “I cover assigned events. News reporting experience preferred; book’s real names policy.

Pride board has 13 members, Presisupport more women and lesbians newspaper background a plus. Candidates should Morrison said that she’s been part dent Gary Virginia said, adding that on the board and am honored to run of the community for 30 years. seven seats are open this year. The among these worthy candidates.” demonstrate ability to write under deadline and be “My interest in serving on the incumbents running for re-election Candidate Lori Bilella and her detail-oriented. Send cover letter, resume & writing SF Pride board comes from my life are Vice President and parade manwife moved to San Francisco in samples to c.laird@ebar.com work and passion as an advocate ager Marsha Levine, secretary Justin 2011. She currently works as a prifor justice and equality,” she said.

Taylor, and members John Caldera mary consultant for a global engiCynthia Laird, News Editor, “My social justice lens requires me and Jesse Oliver Sanford. neering and consulting firm. to speak truth to power. I’m skilled Virginia, who is not up for elec“Through my mechanical engiand willing to do that.” tion this year, explained that the neering and MBA education I have Candidate Joey Stevenson told other three open seats were created learned in-depth problem solving the B.A.R. that she’s spent the last 16 by resignations of directors in April, and strategic thinking skills,” Bilella 44 Gough Street, Suite 204, years involved in the trans and dyke July, and August. said. “I have also learned what it San Francisco, CA 94103 communities.

Levine, a lesbian, explained the is like to keep moving forward 415-829-8749 “I have been mourning the loss of basic mission of San Francisco and trust my instincts as a gender the San Francisco I came of age in,” Pride. minority in a male-dominated she said. “My grief has manifested “To educate the world, commemenvironment.” in anti-eviction/capitalism/gentrifiorate our heritage, celebrate our Bilella also said that she was concation of a punk rock working class culture, and liberate our people,” tinually inspired by the energy of Mission dyke variety.” she said in an email. the LGBT community.

A participant in Dykes on Bikes Caldera, a gay man, pointed to Candidate Ronda Pacheco hopes since 2009, Stevenson said that she his history of standing up for people to bring a new perspective to the organized and hosted a memowith HIV, the homeless, women, Pride Board. rial for the Lexington Club, the San and veterans. Caldera said that he’s “As the only straight ally candiFrancisco lesbian bar that closed in an honorably discharged U.S. Navy date, I feel I would bring a unique

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t Plunging peso means bargains in Puerto Vallarta 14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

by Ed Walsh

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Ed Walsh

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ttention travel bargain hunters: Now is a great time to visit Mexico’s most popular gay destination, Puerto Vallarta. Just last week, the Mexican peso plunged to its all time lowest level, sinking to nearly 17 pesos per dollar. That means you can live it up at some of the city’s finest restaurants and bars on the cheap. For example, a gourmet dinner at the fabulous Taste (http:// www.taste.com.mx) restaurant at the luxury gay resort Casa Cupula will set you back less than $18. At the down-home gay Frida’s Kitchen, you can get a cheeseburger and fries for $3.50. Beers at Bar Frida are about $1.20. A quick bite at a street food stand will run less than a dollar. The very favorable exchange rate means everything from taxi rides to spa treatments are on sale for anyone with dollars.

Weather wise, early fall is a great time to visit Puerto Vallarta. You will still enjoy bargain low-season hotel rates with drier, sunny weather.

Puerto Vallarta’s rainy season extends through September, but PUB: Bay Area dry Reporterout in Octhings Issue: 5/28 The beach town tober.

Client: getsAston about 15 inches of AD:rain Hotelin Renew September, but Size: 1/3 Page October rainfall is only (5.75” x 11”) about Colors: Full four inches and the precipitation average drops DUE: 5/19 to less than an inch in November and December.

The city’s hotel rates inch up as it gets closer to Thanksgiving but you can still find bargain rates from now through October. For example, you can get a room at the budget gay Hotel Mercurio for $56 (including taxes and a delicious hot breakfast).

The rate bumps up to $101 in the winter. Puerto Vallarta’s newest gay men’s boutique hotel, Pinata PV, is offering fall rates starting at $99 (including tax) with the sixth night free. Winter rates go up to about $135. That is a bargain considering the quality of that property.

You can live it up in style without busting your budget at the upscale Casa Cupula over the fall. A room in October that includes use of a great gym and sauna in an upscale resort setting is $141 (including tax); that rate kicks up about $40 more for the winter. And if you can book a room by the end of this month for travel until the end of September, the fourth night is free.

Puerto Vallarta’s biggest gay event is held over our Thanksgiving weekend. White Party Puerto Vallarta, a.k.a. Latin Fever 2015 (http://www.willgorges.com) runs November 27-30. By the way, the city celebrates Pride (http://www. vallartapride.com) in the spring, over our Memorial Day weekend.

That event is especially welcome in Puerto Vallarta because late May is traditionally a slow time of year for the resort town.

But don’t wait for an event to go.

If you can travel now through the early fall, you will be greeted with lower hotel rates, fewer crowds, and warmer ocean water. The hills will also be a lush green and the rivers flowing after a summer of rain.

For the uninitiated, Puerto Vallarta is on Mexico’s west coast, a three hour, 40 minute flight from San Francisco International. United and Alaska airlines fly there nonstop and Virgin America will begin its seasonal service in mid-October.

Puerto Vallarta is about a fourhour drive from Mexico’s secondlargest city, Guadalajara. Incidentally, a new highway between the two cities is set to open in 2017 that will reduce the Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta drive time to two and a half hours, making it that much easier to combine the two cities in one trip.

Mexico City is more than a 10-hour drive away.

Gay neighborhood

The gayest part of Puerto Vallarta is in an area known as Zona Romantica, or the Romantic Zone.

It is a neighborhood just south of downtown, on the south side of the Cuale River.

Some also call it the South Side or “Old Town,” although the latter is a bit of a misnomer because downtown is much older. Don’t rent a car if you are staying in Zona Romantica or downtown. Parking is scarce and you can easily walk between downtown and Zona Romantica and to all the gay stuff in the city. The 25-minute taxi ride to Zona Romantica from the airport runs about $17.

The taxis are a little cheaper if you walk across the pedestrian bridge to the yellow cabs across the street from the airport because those cabs don’t have to pay the airport surcharge.

Things to do

There is plenty to do around the clock in Puerto Vallarta. The city has a number of gay-focused and mainstream tours that will appeal to every taste and budget.

In its 16th year, Diana’s Tours (http://www.dianastours.com) runs a daylong gay and lesbian cruise on Thursdays (and sometimes on Wednesdays and Fridays, depending on demand). The cruise makes a snorkeling stop at the city’s famed Los Arcos, hollowed-out rocks through which you can swim and kayak. The cruise also makes a stop at a private beach and a beachside restaurant before coming home.

Drinks, snacks, and food are included. The cruise took off this summer and will return in October.

The Wet and Wild (http://www. pvsunsetpartycruise.com) cruise is directed toward gay men and follows a similar route as Diana’s Tours but is very sexually charged. They

Not combinable with other discounts or promotions. Valid for travel through 12/19/15. Offer is based on availability and subject to change.

Ed Walsh

Ronnie Lee, left, and David Tovar are the owners of Pinata PV, Puerto Vallarta’s newest gay hotel.

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announce at the start of the cruise that they expect everyone onboard to get drunk and laid. A big staff of friendly locals work the cruise, work for tips, and keep you company if you would rather chat them up than other passengers. Both cruises are a great way to meet fellow travelers and many arrange to meet at other times. Wet and Wild cruises run on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The city’s unofficial gay beach is the Blue Chairs Beach, the section of the Los Muertos public beach that is directly in front of the Blue Chairs Hotel. As long as you order something from the bar or restaurant, you can sit on the blue chairs under an umbrella. The green chairs, right next door, are just as gay and are serviced by another restaurant. Or you can always lay a towel down on the sand for free. Leave your valuables back in your hotel safe or ask a friend to watch your stuff when you go in the water.

Gay-friendly Vallarta Adventures (http://www.vallarta-adventures. com) offers a number of tours of Puerto Vallarta and beyond. Its Hidden Mexico tour includes a stop at the beautiful gay-founded Vallarta Botanical Gardens (http://www. vbgardens.org). The Marietas Eco Discovery tour includes a stop at the world-famous “Hidden Beach,” a small beach accessible by swimming through a cave. The San Sebastian Del Oeste showcases the charming colonial town of San Sebastian.

At an elevation of 4,500 feet, it is a good way to escape the sea-level heat and humidity.

Be sure and take a walk along the Malecon, a beachfront walkway lined with shops, restaurants, and nightclubs and dotted with whimsical metallic sculptures as well as spectacular sand sculptures.

Nightlife

All of Puerto Vallarta’s gay bars and nightclubs are in the Zona Romantica area, so if you stay there, it will be very easy to barhop on foot. For a good introduction to the city’s gay nightlife, check out the gay bar hopping tour (http://www.gayvallartabarhopping.com). It is a walking tour given on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights that includes food and drink stops. The business changed hands this month and is now run by GAYPV (http://gaypv.mx/) magazine publisher, Tim Wilson. The tour will undoubtedly keep up the high standards set by the previous owner and it is offering special pricing through the end of September.

Puerto Vallarta, like most of Latin America, has a very late nightclub scene. Generally, the city’s gay bars are busy earlier in the evening, until about 1 a.m. Puerto Vallarta’s gay sauna, Spartacus Spa (http://www. spaspartacus.com) is also busy early.

Dance clubs don’t attract a crowd until after midnight and stay busy until 4 or 5 a.m. Most of the gay bars are along Olas Altas and around the intersection of Lazaro Cardenas and Ignacio L. Vallarta. A notable exception is the rooftop bar and restaurant atop the Blue Chairs Hotel, famous for its entertainment at sunset.

The city’s three main nightclubs, Paco’s Ranch (http://www. facebook.com/pacosranch.pv), CC Slaughters (http://ccslaughterspv. com/), and Club Enter are all within a couple of blocks of each other.

There are no lesbian bars in Puerto Vallarta, but the city’s gay nightclubs as well as the lesbian-owned gay bar, Apaches (http://www.facebook. com/apachespuertovallarta), are very women-friendly. For an excellent up-to-date guide and map of gay Puerto Vallarta’s nightlife check out the online guide at, http://www.

GayGuideVallarta.com or pickup a guidebook when you get in town.

It is published by former Bay Area resident Mark Page.

Hotels

Puerto Vallarta has nine pre-

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Ed Walsh

Carmen Porras, owner of El Arrayan restaurant, is also involved in the Puerto Vallarta Pride steering committee.

dominately gay hotels, but most others are gay-friendly. The newest gay hotel, Pinata PV (http://www. facebook.com/PinataPV), is a modern and upscale boutique hotel that artfully blends minimalist chic with touches of colonial Mexico. The property is perfectly located close to all the gay attractions, has a pool and spa, is clothing optional, and marketed to gay men. Pinata PV is home to the model and go-go group SkinnyBoysMX. The group volunteered its time and tips recently in support of SETA, Puerto Vallarta’s gay community center. Pinata PV also has a wonderful storefront juice bar and the property’s owners, Ronnie Lee and David Tovar, are known for their support of community projects.

Casa Cupula (http://www.casacupula.com) is a gay and lesbian boutique luxury hotel and is one of the finest hotels in the city. It is owned by San Franciscan Don Pickens, whose attention to detail has kept this property first-rate.

The newly remodeled hotel includes a gym and full-service spa. Even if you are not staying there, be sure and check out its Taste Restaurant for a romantic dinner in a beautiful, intimate setting.

Hotel Mercurio (http://www.hotel-mercurio.com) is a great gay and lesbian hotel just a half-block from the very gay Olas Altas street and just a short walk to the gay beach.

If you are traveling by yourself, the hotel is a great place to meet new friends. The hotel has a delicious breakfast that is included and a poolside happy hour that is open to hotel guests and locals. Mercurio has budget prices without the feel of being in a budget hotel.

Vallarta Cora (http://www.vallartacora.com) is a men-only clothing optional hotel that is open to the public in the early evening. A lot of folks migrate there after the beach for a drink at the hotel’s bar. It has a steam room, hot tub and pool, and a very cruisy early evening scene. The rooms are budget-priced.

The aforementioned high-rise Blue Chairs Hotel (http://www. bluechairsresort.com) is the place to be if you want to be right on the beach. The multi-level rooftop bar and restaurant offers great views. A beachside restaurant is in the front of the hotel. The hotel’s concierge service offers information on tours and attractions.

Villa David (http://www.villadavidpv.com) is the only gay hotel not in Zona Romantica, but it is an easy 10-minute walk away. It is situated on a hillside behind the city’s landmark church and is just steps from downtown and the city’s famed Malecon beachside walkway. The men’s bed and breakfast has a clothing optional pool with a charming Mexican hacienda theme.

Eating out

The lesbian-owned El Arrayan (http://www.elarrayan.com.mx) deservedly makes it to the top of many Puerto Vallarta best restaurant lists.

The downtown eatery is known for its authentic Mexican food. Res-

taurant owner Carmen Porras is active in the city’s LGBT community and is part of the Pride steering committee.

The Swedes Bar and Restaurant (http://www.facebook.com/ swedespv) is owned by a gay Swedish couple and is on a hill overlooking Olas Altas. The restaurant gives diners a taste of Northern Europe in the tropics.

Archie’s Wok (http://www.archieswok.com) has been going strong for nearly 30 years serving some of the best Asian food just a block from the beach.

The lesbian-owned Apaches Bistro is a perfect place to dine and people-watch along Olas Altas street.

The aforementioned Frida’s Kitchen, part of Bar Frida (http:// www.facebook.com/fridas.kitchen), is known for delicious comfort food at bargain prices.

For your morning caffeine fix or a quick bite, check out the gayowned Coffee Cup Cafe in the heart of Zona Romantica on Rodolfo Gomez Street, just off Olas Altas.t For more information, visit the city’s tourism board website at http://visitpuertovallarta.com.

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16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

Louganis, me, and HIV

by Roger Brigham

I

n case you haven’t seen it yet, it would be worth your while to make an extra effort to catch the HBO documentary Greg Louganis: Back on Board, which the channel is broadcasting this month. It provides a brief sketch of the financial problems that have plagued the Olympic diver since the publication of his autobiography 19 years ago, the death of his former boyfriend and his current marriage, and his return to diving as a mentor with the U.S. national team. Most of all, it is well worth watching as a reminder of the narrow escape so many of those infected with HIV in the 1980s were fortunate to survive and how they have managed to carry

on with their lives.

For me, the show offers a chance to reminisce on a few of the most heartfelt and funniest moments of my journalism career.

I did my first extensive interview with Louganis at the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival and the Pan American Games, where he was his usual brilliant self in sweeping the golds in platform and springboard. After that one-on-one interview, he held court in a group press conference in Indianapolis, where a number of the reporters coyly hinted around about his sexual orientation but never ex-

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plicitly asked him about it. It was a silly charade and Louganis never took the bait, just wryly answered the questions that were asked.

I scarcely remember anything about those Pan Am Games. My mind was focused elsewhere.

Back in Los Angeles, my newspaper, the Herald Examiner, had started to publish a lengthy series I had written on death and disability in football, a project that had consumed virtually every spare moment I had had for the previous 10 months. And just a week or so earlier, at the Olympic Festival in North Carolina, I had struck up a professional friendship with Toni Ginnetti, a sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times who was a pleasant diversion from some of the more troglodyte attitudes that plagued most of the press boxes we frequented.

Flash-forward a year to Orange County in southern California. The diving nationals are being held, a preview of the Olympic Trials to be held a few months later back in Indianapolis. Ginnetti isn’t there to cover them, but Wilt Chamberlain is in the crowd. I am scheduled to do a lengthy interview with Louganis in one of the few available time slots he will have before the Olympics themselves.

Now, I have never gotten chummy with my sources. I am not gregarious by nature with most people. When I am interviewing someone, I don’t open up. But I kept thinking about that silly song-and-dance I’d seen at the news conference a year earlier and I decided to send Louganis a subtle signal that I was a sympathetic gay voice if he ever needed one.

I did something I am sure no one ever did before for an Olympic interview. I donned a skimpy pair of shorts and a tight white Bundeswehr tank top – the gayest emblem in my entire wardrobe. We had a pleasant, professional interview in which the biggest unknown might have been which of us was showing more cleavage.

I have two standout memories of that competition. The first was when a diver jumping right before Louganis struck his head on the springboard. Bloody mess. Louganis was performing the same dive next and he had his worst score of the meet on it. Fortunately for him, he rebounded the next day to take first place.

The platform was another matter. Louganis always had the cleanest entries into the water I had ever seen, things of beauty in which his body cuts cleanly through the surface and the water implodes inward with a distinct, hollow “thunk.” But in the prelims and the finals in California, he entries were consistently messy. Not enough to cost him the gold, but definitely a problem.

Flash forward a few months to the trials in Indianapolis. The trials are being picketed because Bruce Kimball is being allowed to compete despite having fatally run over two teenagers with his car shortly before. In the pool Louganis is his

Olympic diver Greg Louganis

usual dominating self in both the springboard and the platform, but his platform entries remain messy.

I call my office in Los Angeles.

“I know we don’t have the dayby-day assignments for our Seoul Olympics coverage set yet, but put me down to cover Louganis in the platform finals,” I told my editor.

“He’s had a few months to clean up his entries and he hasn’t done it. It could cost him the gold and a shot at history. I think something is going wrong in his training.”

Louganis had not paid any special attention to me since our Bundeswehr interview in California, but the night after the meet was finished I got a call in my room. It was his manager/boyfriend, Jim Babbitt.

“We’re going out for drinks,” Babbitt said. “Why don’t you come by the room and we’ll head out.”

I’m not a big drinker – club sodas and lime, thank you very much – but I figured my Bundeswehr message had gotten through and I would be able to have a real heartto-heart with Louganis at last. I got ready and showed up at the allotted time.

I knocked on the door and Babbitt answered, barefoot and dressed in only a T-shirt and a jockstrap.

I assumed I had arrived too early and they were still getting ready. As I stepped in the room, Babbitt informed me in short order that we weren’t going out, Louganis wasn’t coming, and hey – manufacturers send Louganis swimsuits all the time that don’t fit him so if I try one on and it fits I can keep it.

Mama never prepared me for this.

What followed was about 20 awkward minutes in which Babbitt did his best to convince me it was in everyone’s best interests if we did the nasty and who was it going to hurt?

Lie after lie poured out of his mouth about his “platonic” relationship with Louganis and his ownership of the house Louganis lived in and come on – try on the suit!

I beat a hasty retreat, vowing never to wear Bundeswehr again.

Well, at least not for an interview.

A few months later we are in Seoul for the Olympic Games. The preliminaries in springboard don’t figure to generate any news of interest, so I am off covering something else, volleyball or basketball probably. Suddenly a whisper spreads

Obituaries >> Rhoberta Hirter February 21, 1945 – August 18, 2015 Rhoberta Hirter passed away peacefully August 18, 2015 after living with cancer for several years.

A native of Kentucky, Rhoberta lived in Oregon through the 1970s before relocating to San Francisco in 1982 with her partner, Elaine Levine. The two launched a personal coaching business, which operated in a number of forms, most recently as Deep Nurturing, until 2013.

Rhoberta also worked as a massage thera-

pist well known in the Bay Area bodywork and alternative care community for her gentle and healing touch.

Rhoberta is survived by five stepchildren, Beth Weissman, of Oregon; Julie Marto and James Weissman of Massachusetts; Ellen Carenza of Connecticut; and Eric Weissman, of Maryland; and their spouses and children. Levine, her partner in life and business of 37 years, died in 2014. Rhoberta also is survived by her former husband, Mark Alter, of Oregon, and numerous close, longtime friends in the Bay Area, Oregon, and beyond.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Zen Hospice Center, 273 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 94102. A private memorial will be arranged for a later date.

t

through the press box: Louganis hit his head on the board!

I quickly alert Ginnetti and head over to the natatorium to catch the last few dives. Louganis rebounds but looks shaken. I realize I am the only reporter there who was around when that other diver smacked his head on the very same dive at the nationals, so this gives me some nice exclusive material to provide my readers. Hey, that’s what they paid me the big bucks for.

But it occurs to me that something remains wrong with Louganis’ diving, that somehow his training has not run smoothly, and so I stay for all of the platform preliminary dives.

Dive after dive, Louganis splashes badly on his entries. He looks so in control in the air, so out of control entering the water. Unthinkably, he enters the final dive trailing.

And then, the final dive. I had some moments in Seoul that left me choked up and teary-eyed. Watching Matt Biondi churn the final lap of the pool to pull out a narrow relay win for the U.S. Janet Evans windmilling relentlessly lap after lap in a Zen quest for the gold. One-handed pitcher Jim Abbott celebrating his gold medal victory alone on the mound by slapping his glove against his thigh, the sound of one hand clapping, as his teammates raced through the outfield.

But that final dive – that topped them all. Louganis barely parted the molecules of the water as he entered and sliced toward the bottom of the pool. The only sound in the natatorium was the collective whoosh of the audience sucking in its astonished breath – then erupting with shouts and screams and applause as they realized they had just witnessed a dive for the ages. On his most difficult dive of the meet, Louganis was perfection incarnate and had racked up an insurmountable lead to complete his second Olympic sweep of the diving medals.

He climbed out of the water, stood in the embrace of his coach, and sobbed. Never before had I seen him show much as a fraction of that emotion. This wasn’t the emotion of a historic performance, or the end of a dominating run, or the thrill of a clutch dive. This was something darker and deeper.

I turned to Ginnetti.

“Something’s going on with Greg,” I told her. “He’s not this demonstrative. He hasn’t looked right all season. Something is going really wrong in his life or his training that we haven’t been told about.”

I never saw Louganis again until he stopped in San Francisco in 1996 for a book signing after the release of his autobiography. I had thumbed through the book transfixed. I read about his manager, Mr. Jockstrap and T-shirt, turning tricks on Santa Monica Boulevard a few blocks from my apartment. I read about the abuse and the betrayal and the depression. I read about the HIV infection he had learned about in the months leading up to that bloody dive in Seoul and the triumphant final plunge thereafter.

For the first time, I saw a connection between my life and the life of one of my news subjects.

We’ve spoken on a couple of occasions over the years for stories when I’ve written about one of his projects, but a friendship never formed. We could have swapped horror stories about the KS we endured, the weight loss we suffered, the near death experiences that left us still standing and stronger than ever.

So there were a few tears in my eyes as I watched the HBO special. I was so happy to see that Louganis didn’t disappear below the surface, never to be seen again. He’s back, happier and healthier, and helping others.

As I say, worth watching.t

t <<

Community News>>

CA AIDS plan

From page 1

prised to learn that California has no plan. California normally leads the nation, and here, we are following other’s leads.”

Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), told the B.A.R. that ending the country’s and the state’s AIDS epidemic is achievable due to several new developments, such as the use of a once-a-day-pill to prevent HIV infections and the adoption of the “test and treat” policy that focuses on testing those most at risk for contracting the virus and encouraging those who are positive to immediately start on AIDS medications.

Both are key components of San Francisco’s Getting to Zero plan, announced in late 2014, which has a goal of reducing new HIV infections by 90 percent come 2020. The city reported there were 302 new HIV infections last year, an 18.5 percent decrease from 371 in 2013, continuing a years-long decline in new infections.

“It is a great aspiration to shoot for ending AIDS,” said Ting. “We need to put these aspirational goals out there.”

Assemblyman Evan Low (DCampbell), who is gay and in his early 30s, said during the hearing

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Out in the World

From page 10

gras told the council members in a statement. “It is up to the nations of conscience represented here today to open their doors and give these refugees the safety they need.”

Power pointed out that the U.S. has resettled 75 to 100 LGBT refugees annually, but she fell short of supporting reserved spots for LGBT refugees or fast-tracking their applications. Instead, she called for Congress to increase the number of refugees resettling in the U.S., which are currently 70,000. An estimated 60 million people are displaced globally.

“The main thing is we need to work together to insure that there’s more political support up on the

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CDC

From page 7

More PrEP in more places

The CDC funding will enable the agencies to increase PrEP provision, offer more HIV and hepatitis C testing, and create a new navigation services program for both HIV-positive and high-risk HIV-negative people.

SFAF will expand its PrEP clinic at Magnet in the Castro, which is currently at capacity. This fall Magnet and other SFAF services focused on gay and bi men will be consolidated in a new building on Castro Street

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San Jose mayor

From page 1

One of the first things Khanh did at the mayor’s request was to research if city employees’ health insurance from Kaiser included transgender benefits. The HRC’s index had said San Jose did not offer such coverage to its transgender employees.

It turns out that it does, said Khanh, due to a 2013 directive issued by the state Department of Managed Health Care requiring all HMOs to provide transgender individuals with the same coverage benefits that are available to nontransgender individuals. It prohibited exclusions or limitations based on gender, or related to gender transition services, explained Khanh.

Therefore, he added, sexual reassignment surgery and mastectomy with chest reconstruction services, in addition to behavioral health and hormone therapy services, are covered.

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

AIDS Legal Referral Panel Executive Director Bill Hirsh, who cochairs San Francisco’s HIV/AIDS Providers Network, told the B.A.R. that no plan to address HIV infections would be achievable unless it addresses the housing crisis many people living with HIV and AIDS are facing, particularly in the city and Bay Area at large, as housing costs across California surge.

“I think housing is a critical issue that has to be addressed in any plan that is going to talk about HIV,” said Hirsh. “Housing is health care; housing is HIV prevention. If people do not have stable housing, it is really impossible to manage this epidemic.”

Another key ingredient for a successful plan, pointed out Hirsh, is increased financial commitment from the state to end HIV transmissions and care for the people living with HIV and AIDS. “I think it is great that the state is looking at this issue more closely,” he said. “I wish the state had put more resources into fighting the epidemic over the years.”

The lawmakers plan to hold their next hearing in Los Angeles in October. Additional hearings will be held in San Diego and Palm Springs before a final plan is submitted to lawmakers and the governor for review and adoption some time in 2016.t

that it was particularly important for lawmakers to address the issue of AIDS at a time when the millennial generation – those people in their teens and 20s – often do not hear much discussion about HIV or AIDS any longer, despite there still being no cure.

“This is seen as an issue of the past. It is not talked about any longer,” said Low. “Our job as legislators is to bring up these issues. I see this as an opportunity for us to lead.

It is acceptable for us as lawmakers to ask what should we be doing as a state.”

Dr. Karen Mark, chief of the state Office of AIDS in the California Department of Public Health, has been working to implement in California the national strategy for reducing HIV cases. Its targets include having at least 90 percent of those people living with HIV retained in care and at least 80 percent of people living with HIV to be virally suppressed, meaning their risk of transmitting the virus is close to zero.

In California, 45 percent of people living with HIV are virally suppressed.

“That is important for fighting new infections. If we could raise this to 100 percent, we could eliminate transmission of HIV in California,” said Mark, a lesbian who was appointed to her position by Governor

Jerry Brown in 2013 after having served as the interim state AIDS office chief for 16 months.

In an interview with the B.A.R. at the time, Mark said she would like to see HIV infections reduced 25 percent statewide by 2015. Two years ago it was estimated there were 5,000 new HIV infections in the state each year. Thus, under the targeted reduction, that number would drop to 3,750 this year.

The most recent year for statewide statistics, noted Mark during her presentation, is 2013, and California recorded 4,636 new HIV diagnoses, according to the national HIV Surveillance Report. Nationally, there were 41,287 new HIV diagnoses that year.

It put the state second, behind Florida with 5,200 cases, for having the most HIV diagnoses, accounting for 11.2 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV infections in the U.S. “We’ve seen a steady decrease in infections,” Mark told the lawmakers, pointing out that gay and bisexual men now account for nearly 70 percent of new HIV and AIDS cases in the state.

According to the statistical information she presented during the hearing, Mark also pointed out that Hispanics, at close to 41 percent, now account for the majority of new HIV and AIDS cases seen

in California. Whites make up 30.4 percent, with African Americans accounting for close to 19 percent and Asians 6.2 percent.

And she stressed that many people with HIV or AIDS are living into their 40s, 50s, and 60s, complicating the sort of health care they require as they age.

“It makes their care much more complex,” said Mark. “We are not just taking care of their HIV/AIDS, we are taking care of their co-morbidities that come with aging.”

Hill to fund and to accommodate a larger pool of refugees,” she told BuzzFeed.

For more information, visit http://iglhrc.org/content/iglhrcexposes-targeted-violence-againstlgbt-iraqis-new-publications and IGLHRC’s “Don’t Turn Away” campaign against ISIS at http://iglhrc. org/dontturnaway, or http://www. oraminternational.org/en/.

Pemberton was charged with the murder of Laude in December and has been held at the Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group inside the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

If convicted, Pemberton faces up to 20 years to life in prison. A verdict is expected next month, reported the Global Post.

In a court hearing this week, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton admitted to strangling, but not killing, Jennifer Laude, a transgender woman, in a hotel room in Olongapo City in the Philippines last year.

Pemberton claimed self-defense to the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 on Monday.

During the hearing Pemberton told the court that on October 11, 2014 he was out on “liberty time” when he met Laude and another unidentified woman. They all went to the hotel where one of the women performed oral sex on him and left.

Laude was engaged in oral sex too when Pemberton reached down between her legs and he discovered she was transgender. He got angry.

They fought and he choked her then tried to revive her in the bathroom, he said.

Authorities later found Laude with her face in the toilet. Medical authorities testified in May that Laude died due to strangulation and asphyxia by drowning.

that is now nearing completion.

In addition, SFAF will launch a new PrEP clinic at its headquarters at 1035 Market Street, between the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods.

“St. James and Glide will be two of the primary referrals to the PrEP program we are setting up at the SFAF main office for clients who would not go to the Castro for PrEP,” Magnet director Steve Gibson told the Bay Area Reporter. He said this clinic is scheduled to open in late August or early September.

Glide and St. James Infirmary will

be able to increase the number of community-based testing venues and expand their hours of service – including late-night hours – to better meet the needs of their target populations.

The CDC funding “will help us significantly increase our HIV and hepatitis C prevention, testing, and linkage to care services, which is much needed good news for the most vulnerable and high-risk communities in the Tenderloin,” said Glide HIV services manager Paul Harkin. “By providing direct support to marginalized and stigmatized individuals, we not only connect them

to treatment and the system of care, but we remain in touch and are there to support them if they struggle.”

Specifically, “Glide will now increase our harm reduction outreach and increase our HIV and hepatitis C testing as well as adding a staff person to directly link folks to HIV and hepatitis C treatment,” Harkin told the B.A.R. “Also, we have the staff to help educate our community about PrEP and provide access to it as a prevention option for those who previously had very little information or access.”

While Glide and St. James Infirmary are much smaller and have

fewer resources than SFAF, they have the demonstrated ability and experience to engage people with some of the biggest barriers to accessing HIV care, officials said.

“The St. James Infirmary has been providing high-impact HIV services for years but has never had the capacity to grow them to meet the full need of our community,” said St. James Infirmary Executive Director Stephany Ashley. “Through this collaborative, we have finally been able to secure the resources to reach further into the communities in ways we’ve never been able to before.”t

“I have been talking to the folks at HRC. This is why having an LGBT liaison is helpful,” Khanh told the B.A.R. in a phone interview this week. “The way they did the indexing is they do their own investigation first and then ask for verification. I don’t know if in the previous administration there was someone helping to verify.”

Court’s decision legalizing samesex marriage nationwide. Earlier in the month Liccardo attended the ceremony to raise the rainbow flag outside of the building in honor of June being Pride month.

“I think Mayor Liccardo is doing a great job,” said gay Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, who lives in San Jose and has been friends with the mayor and his wife for years although he endorsed his opponent in the race. “He is a 180-degree turn better than Mayor Reed, who was a disaster for the city.”

Liccardo also has won praise from Wiggsy Sivertsen, who with Yeager co-founded the South Bay LGBT political group BAYMEC, which stands for Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, and is serving with the supervisor as co-grand marshals of Sunday’s Silicon Valley Pride parade.

“We did not support Sam because we were afraid he would go down the route Chuck Reed took. He has not; he has been his own person,” said

Sivertsen, a lesbian who lives in Los Gatos, in explaining BAYMEC’s endorsement decision. “He is certainly responsive to our community.”

This week Liccardo sent all city employees an emailed invite to join him in the Pride parade, in which the avid cyclist expects to ride a bike.

This marks the 40th anniversary of the LGBT event, whose theme is “Looking Forward from Forty,” and marks the first parade since 2008.

“We are especially excited about the return of the parade, which has been an honored tradition of the festival,” wrote Liccardo in the email.

In his interview with the B.A.R. Liccardo broke the news that he had allocated money toward paying for the rainbow crosswalk near the DeFrank center, which is located on The Alameda in downtown San Jose.

“We are partnering with the local Billy DeFrank center and want to see how we can revitalize that center as an important community gather-

ing space for the LGBT community,” said Liccardo.

The project, similar to the rainbow crosswalk installed in San Francisco’s gay Castro district last fall, is expected to cost $5,000 to $7,000 depending on if the city installs one sidewalk or four at an intersection near the DeFrank. The mayor’s office has set aside $2,000 while another $3,000 has been allocated from the budgets of five council members, with the community being asked to foot the rest of the costs.

The idea was initially broached at a public event the mayor attended this spring at the DeFrank by the center’s board President Gabrielle Antolovich. With City Hall’s backing, center officials are now meeting with nearby businesses and neighborhood groups to seek their support for the specialty sidewalks.

“He loves the idea because what it really does is it brings all of the busi-

U.S. Marine admits he strangled Filipino transgender woman

New outlook at City Hall

Due to his refusal to back samesex marriage, former Mayor Chuck Reed had a testy relationship with the South Bay’s LGBT community during his eight years in office. Thus the election of Liccardo, despite his not having the support of many LGBT leaders in last year’s mayoral race due to his being seen as antilabor, was viewed as a harbinger for repaired relations between City Hall and the LGBT community.

He has not disappointed, so far, with his office helping to coordinate a rally outside City Hall in late June following the U.S. Supreme

Barriers to treatment

A wide array of local AIDS researchers and leaders of HIV agencies addressed the lawmakers at the hearing, placing particular focus on the various groups most at risk of contracting HIV and what barriers people face in accessing treatment.

“Everyone agrees there is great value to have a plan in California,” said Project Inform Executive Director Dana Van Gorder.

As the legislators develop the statewide strategy, Van Gorder stressed that it not be called “a plan to end AIDS.” Doing so, he said, would sound to people living with AIDS that the plan’s goal is “to rid the world of them. That of course is not what we are proposing to do. We need to be careful what we call it so people feel good about it.”

Jerusalem Pride attacker charged

Orthodox extremist Yishai Schlissel was charged August 24 with firstdegree murder in the death of Shira Banki.

Schlissel, who was admitted to a psychiatric ward last week, is facing one count of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder, and

with causing injuries under aggravated circumstances for his alleged July 30 knife attack on Jerusalem Pride.

The attack left 16-year-old Banki dead and five others injured, one seriously.

This was Schlissel’s second attack on Jerusalem Pride. He served 10 years in prison for his 2005 assault on the parade.

Schlissel refused representation, rejecting the court’s authority. The prosecutor’s office said that Schlissel should remain in custody through the end of the legal proceedings, reported Gay Star News.t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-2213541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

See page 18 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

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Hennessy

From page 6

In response to an email asking whether she was supporting Hennessy or Mirkarimi in the election, Sparks offered positive comments about both candidates. She said in an email that she endorsed Mirkarimi’s re-election bid before Hennessy entered the race. Now she supports both candidates, she said.

“I am very pleased that Vicki Hennessey is supportive of the community’s project to increase the safety and accessibility to programing for trans inmates,” Sparks said. “... Sheriff Mirkarimi has been very helpful in working with the community to craft a workable pilot program that will initially re-institute in-custody programing for trans inmates, ultimately resulting in the integration of the inmates into housing units consistent with their gender identity and expression.”

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News Briefs

From page 8

tention if they think that they or their family or their pet might be having a reaction. Officials said that people should be sure to tell medical professionals about possible contact with blue-green algae.

For more information, visit http://www.sonoma-county.org/ health/services/bluegreen.asp.

Cycling benefit for LGBT center

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center will have a “charity ride” at SoulCycle, an indoor cycling center, Tuesday, September 1 from 8:15 to 9:15 p.m. (class begins at 8:30). SoulCycle Castro is located at 400 Castro Street.

A $30 donation books your bike and includes shoe rental and a bottle of water. Proceeds go directly to the center’s programs and services.

As of last week, the event was almost full. To sign up, visit www. sflgbtcenter.eventbrite.com.

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San Jose mayor

From page 17

nesses on The Alameda together with the DeFrank center, which is what Sam Liccardo is about, businesses working together,” said Antolovich, who lives near the center and works part time as a substance use prevention consultant.

Both the mayor and his LGBT liaison, she said, “have been fantastic” to work with. Relationships are also strengthening between the center and the San Jose Police Department, added Antolovich.

In response to questions from the B.A.R. about if the public safety agency had named an LGBT liaison this year, Antolovich inquired with one of her contacts, Assistant Chief of Police Edgardo Garcia, about

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Berkeley agency

From page 8

appropriate steps were taken during the transition,” wrote Wick, who told the B.A.R. the agency reached out to the Pacific Center for Human Growth, Berkeley’s LGBT community center.

Watson, Bakla’s attorney who agreed to handle her case pro bono, derided the agency’s response to the issues he and his client have raised.

“People do not lose the right to work in peace and support themselves and their families just because they ‘look different.’ Yet, EDI continues to mistreat Orchid now, just as they did when she was their employee,” wrote Watson in an emailed response to the B.A.R. “It is disheartening to see EDI misrepresent facts to the press, and equally disappointing to see their counsel publicize inaccurate and damaging

Sparks estimated that’s she’s known Hennessy for 15 years, and said she believes, “if elected, she will make an excellent sheriff. During this entire time both Ross Mirkarimi and Vicki Hennessey have both been accepting and supportive of me and the trans community. I also appreciate the friendships I have with both individuals.”

Hennessy has been racking up endorsements, including the San Francisco Democratic Party; seven members of the Board of Supervisors, including gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener; Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California); Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom; and Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco).

Hennessy said the hallmarks of her campaign include restoring “leadership and accountability” to the sheriff ’s department, bringing back “a balance of criminal and social justice” so that city residents

are safe and people don’t return to jail, and “collaboration and open communication.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to agree, but communication is essential,” Hennessy said. “You can’t just close those doors.”

In an email exchange with the B.A.R., Cerbone, of the deputy sheriffs’ association, sited the killing at the pier as one example why people should support Hennessy “if they want a safer community.”

He added that Hennessy “had over 30 years of experience in the department and knows the ins and outs. Ross came in with zero experience, and it shows. Hennessy was the interim sheriff and there were no issues.”

John C. Robinson, a retired sheriff ’s deputy who now owns a private security company, is also in the race.

For more information on Hennessy’s campaign, visit http://www. hennessyforsheriff.com.t

SF Pride seeks 2016 theme suggestions

Heroin overdose fatalities in San Francisco have declined substantially since 2000, from over 120 annually to approximately 10 deaths annually from 2010-2012.

This change occurred in the con-

text of the Department of Public Health and community partners institutionalizing drug treatment on demand and making the opioid reversal agent naloxone, also known as Narcan, available to drug users as an overdoes antidote. The Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, or DOPE, distributes naloxone through a collaboration with the health department’s Community Health, Equity, and Promotion branch and Behavioral Health Services.

The DOPE Project and its community partners will observe International Overdose Awareness Day Monday, August 31 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at United Nations Plaza/ Civic Center. People will gather to celebrate the lives saved by drug users and their friends and community. Naloxone trainings will be offered, along with food and live music. There will also be an opportunity for those affected by overdose to tell their stories, and an altar will be erected to memorialize those lost to drug overdose.t

doing so. Garcia, a straight married father of three, agreed to be the contact person for now.

In an email to the B.A.R., Garcia said the department planned to name an official LGBT liaison who would start in January. They would be tasked with seeing that the city’s police have a strong relationship with the local LGBT community.

“Bias in policing, as has been documented recently not only locally but nationally, is not simply restricted to race and that needs to be recognized,” wrote Garcia. “This also would serve as a great opportunity for recruiting purposes, as we need to reflect the community we serve.”

Repairing relations between City Hall and the police rank and file has been a key concern for Liccardo,

who was eyed with open hostility by the police union’s leader during last year’s campaign. Tuesday the mayor and council members, by a vote of 10-1, approved a new contract not only with the police department but also with the San Jose Fire Department union.

Other issues the mayor has prioritized during his first months in office include addressing San Jose’s growing homeless population and services for disadvantaged youth.

“I feel really blessed. In many ways I am the luckiest mayor of the country coming into San Jose at a time like this with so much opportunity and so much growth,” said Liccardo. “I wouldn’t trade our city’s problems or opportunities with any other city in the country.”t

claims about Orchid’s work performance, honesty, and integrity.”

Another issue both sides present differently is why law enforcement was contacted after Bakla left the agency. Her complaint says the agency accused her of hacking into its computer systems.

But in the statement to the B.A.R., Wick wrote the agency went to law enforcement “after our systems administrator confirmed that our agency computer system had been compromised by Ms. Bakla following her departure from EDI.” Watson dismissed the agency’s statement as “absurd” and said the problem was due to “their own inability to use and manage GoogleDocs, which they confused with a data breach.”

He added, “It’s just another sad example of EDI searching for a way to distract from its own misconduct. I note this ‘hacker’ received a

promotion and a raise – before she complained about not being treated fairly.”

The two parties also disagree about which one has refused to meet to discuss Bakla’s claims.

Watson had told the B.A.R. that his entreaties went unanswered, which Wick refuted in her statement, saying the agency’s counsel had asked for a meeting.

“It was Ms. Bakla’s attorney who did not continue communication with us,” she wrote.

Watson told the B.A.R. this week that he and Bakla, who now works for the San Francisco-based Women Donors Network, remain open to resolving the issue “informally.” But he said he has yet to hear from the agency’s attorney.

“Currently, although I would like to see some alternative, EDI leaves us little choice but to proceed with litigation,” wrote Watson.t

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee is now accepting theme suggestions for the 2016 parade and festival. Themes are chosen by the San Francisco Pride membership at the annual general meeting, which will take place on Saturday, September 12 at 1 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

Interested people can email their theme suggestions to theme@sfpride.org by Wednesday, September 9. For more information, and a list of previous Pride themes, visit http://sfpride.org/celebration/ theme-suggestions.html.

SF observes overdose awareness day

t

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551369

In the matter of the application of: JULIE TISHKOFF, 2837 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JULIE TISHKOFF, is requesting that the name JULIE TISHKOFF, be changed to JULIE COHEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 1st of October 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036603000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HP ONE, 5600 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LEE EDWARD WARREN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/29/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036583000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY CITY PAWS, 468 BARTLETT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AMBER PEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036605500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CIRRUS CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, 365 12TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INTELLIGENT REAL ESTATE SERVICES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036605800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHIEF SULLIVAN’S, 622 GREEN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed NOELLE CALIXTO, RICHARD HOWARD & JUSTIN GHIGLIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036596500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UPTOWN, 200 CAPP ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BYODB LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036612800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREEN SIGNZ & COMPANY; SIGNZ SF; 710 C ST #206, SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NONPAREIL VENTURES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/04/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036618600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MP ENTERPRISE; SF REEDS; 3917 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARCUS PHILLIPS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/15.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036617200

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036596700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOCALGRID, PROPERTY OPTIONS, 829 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PHILIP L. MILLENBAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/17/08. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036624600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EYEBROW QUEEN SALON, 4792 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed SANGITA THAPA & SWASTI THAPA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/11/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036622000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALTHY KANGEN WATER, 919 GENEVA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed CUONG HUY DO & CONG CHI VU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/10/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036618900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY-LA EXPRESS MOVING; NIMBUS MOVING AND STORAGE; 950 BAY ST #15, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAPIEN ENTERPRISES INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036618500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF SUPER CAB, 120 WILLOW ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SF SUPER CAB CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036609000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JUNIOR, 535 MISSION ST, 19TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALL JUNIOR, INC (MI). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/31/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551427

In the matter of the application of: YEE-TING SHIH, 463 NEVADA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YEE-TING SHIH, is requesting that the name YEE-TING SHIH, be changed to PETER SHIH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 27th of October 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036628100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PODESTO PROPERTIES, 431 VICENTE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GINA ENRIQUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/13/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036631200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RACHEL LARK, 4010 FULTON ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RACHEL ANTONY-LEVINE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/06/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TIPWAREE OLIVE SPA, 38 BRYANT ST. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KARAKIT TIPWAREE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036582000

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036613900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUKAKE MOON, 1001 FRANKLIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN ENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/29/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ABC AQUATIC, 286 26TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT EMILIO LAU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/04/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015

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August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRONZE ORGANICS, 558 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GERALDINE L. CAMP. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/14/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/14/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036628200

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AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036633200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE GO WEST GROUP ENGEL AND VOELKERS, 582 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE GO WEST REAL ESTATE GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036626301

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ENGEL & VOLKERS LAKE TAHOE; ENGEL & VOELKERS NEWPORT BEACH, 582 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS, INC (UTAH).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/12/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036612200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMNESIA, 853 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SOMA BOYS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/03/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036632100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ORO, 305 GRANT AVE FL2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ORO SALON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036534300

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRESS ENGAGED, 1372 PINE ST #210, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JENNIFER LONA SALTZMAN PHILLIPS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/15.

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AUGUST 27, SEPT 03, 10, 17, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036641400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIGSBEE LEGAL, 124 BURLWOOD DRIVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN T. RIGSBEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/15.

AUGUST 27, SEPT 03, 10, 17, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036629000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 5TH AVENUE DELI & MARKET, FOUR EMBARCADERO CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KHALAID AZAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/14/15.

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AUGUST 27, SEPT 03, 10, 17, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036640500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NIMBUSSCALE CONSULTING, 8200 OCEANVIEW TER #216, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH KEEGAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/15.

AUGUST 27, SEPT 03, 10, 17, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036628000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UX CURIOUS, 584 CASTRO ST #655, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed UX CURIOUS, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/03/15.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/13/15.

AUGUST 27, SEPT 03, 10, 17, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036640700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOSTRA, 280 VALENCIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PLIN LICENSE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/21/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/15.

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32

African son

Miranda rites

30

Out &About

Grandma knows best

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O&A

23

F O R W A R D !

Vol. 45 • No. 35 • August 27-September 2, 2015

Fall preview: Theatre

by Richard Dodds

I

t’s still summer when autumn arrives, at least as far as local theaters’ fall seasons are concerned. And in the autumnal spirit of abundance, serving platters are again piled high with offerings that should please a myriad of theatrical tastes. Categories are provided below to help focus this look at highlights spilling from the seasonal cornucopia.

See page 28 >>

P.A. Cooley plays a 1930s burlesque performer popular for his portrayal of an effeminate character but whose own gayness causes problems in The Nance at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

Sophie Spinelle

Fall preview: art galleries

by Sura Wood

F

all is nearly here, a time when local galleries roll out a fleet of eclectic exhibitions.

Gallery Wendi Norris, noteworthy for its solid suite of female artists and a tilt toward surrealism, launches the season with Chitra Ganesh: Protest Fantasies, a show of new mixed-media works with layered, vividly colored imagery that addresses gender issues, mythology and sexual politics. In allegories of sexual power, politics, science fiction and fantasy, infused with her Indian heritage, Ganesh incorporates sculptural elements such as fake fur, sequins, toy asps, shards of glass and peacock feathers into color-saturated canvases. Spurred by themes of resistance, from the upsurge of police violence and vanishing wildlife habitat to Russian punk rocker activists Pussy Riot, Ganesh has more than beauty on her mind.

See page 24 >>

Camera Contact (2015) by Chitra Ganesh. Acrylic, glass pebbles, beaded necklace, automotive glass, false hair braids, sequins, plastic snakes, sand, charm bracelet.

Courtesy the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Spring and summer mean later sunsets and later hours at the Asian Art Museum. We’re open ‘til 9 PM on Thursdays and for just $5 after 5 PM, you can spend an evening in our beautiful building enjoying the galleries, special exhibitions, fun talks, lively gatherings and intimate hangs with artists. On first Thursdays, there are even cash bars, DJs and more. For details, visit www.asianart.org/thursdays

AT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

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<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

A literary life

by Roberto Friedman

Spender telling tales about earlier encounters with W.H. Auden or Evelyn Waugh. Or as in, “I saw Angus [Wilson] take from the inside pocket of his jacket a little notebook and open it and write what I imagined he noted about the scene,” which is then described in Plante’s little notebook. The mind boggles.

A

Summer at the Cliff House Cliff House and Beyond!

Guided Historical Walks Spend a memorable Saturday morning exploring Lands End. Start at the historic Cliff House with a continental breakfast then walk through Adolph Sutro’s magical ‘kingdom by the sea’ with historian guide John A. Martini.

Regarded as the ultimate authority on this part of the City’s fabled past, John’s walks will be offered on September 5 and October 10.

For more information and to make reservations please visit www.cliffhouse.com/history/Johns_Walk.html

t first we weren’t sure we would enjoy reading Worlds Apart: A Memoir (Bloomsbury) from the novelist David Plante, just released. While we’re aware of Plante’s literary reputation (his The Family was nominated for the National Book Award), we’re not a particular fan, and his authorial tone can be high-minded, austere, even precious.

But in an author’s note at the book’s beginning, Plante writes, “I met Nikos [Stangos] on June 28, at 6:00 p.m., 1966, and I saw him breathe out but not breathe in and felt his body go quickly cold at 10:00 a.m. on April 16, 2004. Those were the years of my life, and it was during those years with him that this book has most meaning.” This preface imbues the subsequent scenes of the partners’ times together with poignancy, as when at book’s end Stangos shows Plante the family plot where he will be buried. Our highest criterion for art or literature is that it moves us, and this memoir is moving indeed.

In its 360 pages there’s plenty of travel, dinner parties, and intimate friendships with such personages as poet Stephen Spender, artist Jennifer Bartlett, feminist theorist Germaine Greer, and novelist Philip Roth. Artist David Hockney shares his stash of porn: “David

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showed us a stack of naked young men – Americans, he said: they’re always the best.” Plante evinces a dry sense of humor, as when Spender confides that he is in love with his student at the University of Florida in Gainesville: “Bryan Obst, who is eighteen to Stephen’s sixty-eight.

He repeated, ‘It could be a disaster.’”

At first this all comes off as just so much name-dropping, but then it becomes clear that Plante really does have close and fertile relationships with all of these famous folk.

He shares a house in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with Greer while they’re both on the university faculty there. He makes a trip to Jerusalem and other Israeli locales with Roth, recounted in a chapter that is a sort of memoir-within-the-memoir. Roth is responsible for one of the book’s most amusing lines when he tells Plante, “You’ll come to America. I’ll take you to a baseball game. You’ll like it.

The players wear uniforms now that show off their asses.”

There are all sorts of insider anecdotes, as when art curator and critic Henry Geldzahler cruises a boy in the park outside a Hockney opening. But ultimately the memoir and the diaries it’s drawn from come most alive when they observe the life partnership of David and Nikos, and their times together in London, Umbria, Lucca, Greece and rural Ireland. They clearly led a rich and full life together, sadly truncated.

At times the diaries have the curious property of a game of telephone, as when Plante recounts

Out There was in the house at the Marsh Berkeley last Saturday night for a performance of comic Karen Ripley’s newest solo show, Oh No, There’s Men on the Land, her stories of lesbian adventures in the Bay Area and beyond. Ripley is a pioneer of gay comedy, having been on the scene since 1977. Her hilarious and poignant look back at decades of gay life takes its title from her visit to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. When biological males came to the fest to empty the port-a-potties, the alarm went up: “Men on the land!” Ripley was there to perform with the all-lesbian band The Wombmates.

Oh, the stories she tells!

Backing SF legend Jane Dornacker on drums and coke! Unwittingly high-hatting Bill Graham! Becoming a member of a lesbian collective – that’s where eight people share one salary – in Berkeley, where everyone must go to therapy – “it’s the law!” Ripley plays the Marsh Berkeley Saturdays at 5 p.m., through Oct. 3. Info: themarsh.org.

Free fall

This week’s issue begins two weeks of fall previews in Arts & Culture. In this week’s pages, find samplings of autumn offerings in theatre, art galleries, TV and classical music recordings. Next week, we continue with previews of the symphony and opera seasons, films and art museum exhibitions. Hard to believe the new season is about to begin, but here it comes.

Finally, this week arts writer Tavo Amador describes the life and legacy of Carmen Miranda, who died 60 years ago this month. Amador tells us that there is a YouTube video of her appearance on Jimmy Durante’s TV show. The viewer can see her shortness of breath – she even mentions it – and her falling to one knee when they finish a number. Those seem to be symptoms of the heart condition that would kill her the very next day. Ay yi yi yi yi, RIP!t

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Film>>

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

The importance of being Grandma

by David Lamble

I

n the delicious new road comedy Grandma, a 75-year-old lesbian, Elle Reid (Lilly Tomlin), gets behind the wheel of a 1950s clunker and, with her very pregnant granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) riding shotgun, sets off to collect on some very old debts. They’re from a bevy of aging girlfriends, a pissed-off adult daughter (Marcia Gay Harden), and a sarcastic, white-haired ex-boyfriend (Sam Elliott) whom Elle wouldn’t give the time of day if she didn’t so desperately need $600 for Sage’s abortion. In 80 briskly paced minutes we witness some bitter if wickedly funny truths, relish the sight of Elle wielding a hockey stick to the groin of Sage’s shiftless college-age boyfriend (a comely Nat Wolff), and discover a risky path for passing on the rules of the road from a disgruntled septuagenarian to a smart but socially clueless millennial.

The core pleasure of this acidly funny comedy is the pungent backand-forth between Grandma and granddaughter in the front seat of a family sedan.

Sage: “What happened?”

Elle: “A little girl punched me, a karmic boomerang!”

“You’ve got an anger problem.”

“No, I’ve got an asshole problem!”

“That’s a horrible solution!”

“I’m a horrible person.”

While they may not represent a return to the classic age of screwball comedy, director Paul Weitz (About a Boy, Being Flynn) and comedian Lily Tomlin (Nashville, 9 to 5) know how to deliver a roughhouse brand of big-screen hijinks with an adroit mix of verbal and physical gags above and below the belt. Grandma is Paul Weitz’s 10th film as director.

Our conversation ranged from the origins of his latest comedy to lessons learned from his unique po-

Glen Wilson, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Aaron Epstein, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Julia Garner as Sage and Lily Tomlin as Elle in director Paul Weitz’s Grandma.

sition as a mainstream filmmaker whose work displays the heart and soul of a true indie.

David Lamble: Did the idea of Grandma originate with the obvious pleasure of creating a splendid comedy vehicle for Lily Tomlin?

Paul Weitz: I had done a film with Lily called Admission, where she played Tina Fey’s mom. Just hanging out with her, I felt there was unfinished business, and I wanted to see a film where she’s in every scene.

Writing it, I heard her voice and the character took over. I sprung it on her over lunch. She ordered steak salad, and I remember thinking, “Oh, I hope she doesn’t choke on the steak when I tell her.”

Her character in Admission, the 2013 prep school comedy with Paul Rudd and Tina Fey, really stands out. She’s very feisty when she’s onscreen.

This is a deepening of that character. More important was spending a little time with Lily and realizing so clearly, if you were in the position of this girl [Sage] who has no

idea how to stand up for herself and has zero concept of women’s history in America, how much you would have to gain from being with Lily.

At the same time, Lily, while she appears to be completely accurate in her cynicism about human nature, is also very kind. I loved the idea of doing a mentorship movie where the mentor was able to overcome some things in herself while teaching her granddaughter.

She’s also a bit of a misanthrope.

She attacks Sage’s ex-boyfriend, who’s impregnated her granddaughter.

That wasn’t her idea when she comes in, although she comes in with some swagger. But when the guy claims he’s not the one who knocked her up, then calls Lily’s character “a bitch” and starts swearing at her, he gets his comeuppance.

You do those zero-to-60 scenes very well, like the one in Being Flynn where Robert De Niro leaps out of bed to attack his neighbors with a stick with a nail on the end.

I like the idea of a character who does the things we think we would

Lily Tomlin as Elle and Julia Garner as Sage in director Paul Weitz’s Grandma, opening Friday in the Bay Area.

like to do but never do. People have compared Lily’s character, somewhat oddly, to Stiffler, Seann William Scott’s character in American Pie, who’s pure Id. I love a character who’s completely out of control and a septuagenarian.

The granddaughter, Sage, has obviously strayed from the path.

Now she wants 600 bucks from Grandma, and Grandma has to pull a lot of changes to get the dough.

I don’t think she’s intending to spend the day with her grandma, but Lily dangles the carrot – “I think I’ll be able to get the dough” – which leads to this odyssey, which leads to the much-feared figure of Lily’s daughter (Marcia Gay Harden), the one person both of them are intimidated by.

Lily’s character has just cut up her credit cards and made them into a wind chime, an act that really screws them.

She’s mourning the loss of her longtime female lover. She’s finally paid off all these medical bills, and she cuts up her credit cards. Like a lot of people living from paycheck to

paycheck, in a couple of weeks she’d have some cash, but she doesn’t now.

You’re great at creating characters who bottom out, then recover quickly, like Paul Dano’s alcoholism-recovery counselor in Being Flynn. Here Lily unintentionally shows her rocky journey to her naive granddaughter.

At one point Lily’s character was in a similar state to Sage’s now.

There’s this man who’s been carrying a torch forever since. He keeps a little safe where there’s a picture of a 21-year-old Lily, a picture Lily graciously loaned me for the movie, her at 21 lounging across a car.

Elle and her daughter have this insult fest that’s a fairly erudite one where they call each other “solipsists.” Sage says, “Me and my friends pretty much call each other bitch, ho and slut.” Lily replies, “Who are these friends? I don’t want to hear you use those words again.” Sage is suffering from the consequences of not knowing how, historically, women have had to stand up for themselves.t

Contemplating Africa

by Erin Blackwell

L

“

et me tell you, people like the Europeans and the Americans went away from home and began to colonize other people, which they took by force. There was a lot of fighting, and they divided Africa into sections like Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria, and so on. And later, they called them ‘free nations.’ After that, they went high into space and to the moon! Did you know the moon belongs to the white man?” Thus begins a passionate, perceptive, poetic documentary about an Africa still being snookered by non-Africans.

We Come As Friends opens August 28 at the Roxie in San Francisco and the Rialto in Berkeley.

Hubert Sauper is that rare Austrian documentarian who builds his own prop plane around a motorcycle engine and flies it to the Sudan.

His technical prowess is matched not only by guts, but by an eye for anachronism and irony, making for some warily poetic voiceover. “This planet Africa is where humans originated. And much later, it was discovered, over and over, and enslaved and dispossessed and colonized. By foreigners who had invented maps and compasses, engines, airplanes.

Now [as you land your craft] you might start feeling strange. You recall some sinister memories that you’d prefer to forget.”

Sounds like that other Austrian, Sigmund Freud, who used to make people lie down on a divan and talk about their deepest fears. In his director’s notes, Sauper calls We Come As Friends “a kind of psychoanalysis

Hubert Sauper

Adolescent boy from the Bari tribe, South Sudan, apparently imitating the tribal tradition of warriors putting ashes on their body. This is the ash produced from burning trash. From We Come As Friends.

of a collective pathology: colonialism, the colonial mindset, domination, and patriarchy. The title reflects an old lie of our civilization. But as sad as this sounds, the movie is a kind of dark comedy.” Freud would approve, having demonstrated that comedy is nothing but a wrapper for hard emotional truth. The filmmaker focuses his mind, senses, and camera on the Sudan as wars for resources fragment the country.

The history of European and American prospectors cutting up the continent of Africa is highly charged with emotions like regret, shame, sorrow, and their corollaries denial, disbelief, displacement. After

centuries of self-promoting triumphalist tales of empire builders and gilders, brought to a fine and static art from under chubby lesbian-eraser Queen Victoria, the disconnect between what was reported and what actually occurred has steadily grown into a sinkhole down into which the burden of the white man has sunk like a giant sloth in a tar pit. Sauper’s clear, fresh, rich, surprising, tantalizing images update us on realities the “news” ignores.

“There was this mighty queen named Victoria,” continues softspoken Sauper in voiceover as a handheld out a plane window panning a vast savannah picks out

a train traveling an impossible straight line. “She had never been to Africa. With her finger she drew a line on a map and in the distance a line of steel would be cut into the sand. And along the track came the soldiers and their rifles and the British flag. But also the queen sent her only god and set him up against someone else’s god. And so the war became holy.” And so Victoria and her ilk still haunt us today via the consequences of bad, I mean greedy, arrogant, covetous decisions that continue to pervert geopolitics at home and abroad.

We Come As Friends, with its title of heartbreaking irony, is not agit-

prop but something much worse: a sensitive, curious, unswerving look at modern Africa from a compassionate, intelligent, informed perspective.

The word “documentary” might be unavoidable but should be qualified as “subjective” or “poetic” because Sauper dares to write his own narration with all his sensibilities intact.

Too many documentaries lose focus pinning the mike on a series of talking-heads, whose blah-blah might or might not add up to a kaleidoscopic lowest denominator. Rare is the documentarist willing to synthesize his own complex reactions into an evocative grab bag of impressions inviting reflection and further study.

“French and British armies have planted their flags here,” says Sauper’s voice as we watch elegant tall men in brand-new camouflage uniforms striding past traditional huts.

“Two grand imperial dreams collide. The British desire to connect the Nile to the Cape, the North and the South. The French fantasize to possess Africa from the East to the West, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. On such a crossroads, the villagers must learn how to wear uniforms, how to march in step, how to need money and to give up ancestral lands. The masters from London, Paris, and Berlin draw lines in the Savannah. Borders that separate resources from people, that divide cultures and people.” We Come As Friends is not a pretty picture, but a beautiful and moving monument to one of Freud’s great discoveries: repetition compulsion, the urge to repeat experience, however painful, however pointless.t

<< Fine Art

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

<<

Fall galleries

From page 21

In For Animated, Oakland-based artist Chris Fraser’s perforated metal sculptures, anchored to the floor, ceiling and walls, emit light produced by helium, neon, argon and krypton gases. The sculptures suggest old-fashioned zoetropes containing images triggered by viewers as they move through the space.

Both shows on view Sept. 10-Oct. 31.

SF Camerawork: Fourth World: Current Photography from Colombia spotlights the work of four nativeborn photographers who bear witness to the conflicts that afflict their home country, each bringing their own unique perspective to issues

ranging from the drug trade and its victims, the toll of a 60-year civil war and the burden of history to class, identity and poverty. Sept. 10-Oct. 24. John Sanborn’s V+M, a theatrical, 35-minute, nine-channel video fresco and sound installation, incorporating dance and music, examines the balance of power in relationships and the origins of myth and desire in his cross-gender retelling of the mythic pairing of Eros and Chaos.

The union of Venus and Mars, banished from heaven for their illicit love, and restored to grace by Cupid, who proclaimed that love is love and rules all, has, according to the artist, long fascinated poets and philosophers alike as a representation of the tension between opposing energies

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– beauty and brutality, order and magic, grace and strength – a preoccupation he takes beyond the usual “heteronormative” gender labels.

Nov. 13-Dec. 3.

Hosfelt Gallery: Jay DeFeo: Alter Ego is an exhibition of paintings, drawings and collages, most of which haven’t been shown before, by the late Bay Area icon whose work is a sublime balance of the heart and the mind. How fitting then that this particular show, drawing from a variety of series, explores the concept of the doppelganger, yin yang and a penchant for twinning and re-appropriation (of her own creations) as it applies to DeFeo, who re-imagined everyday objects in splendid sensual artworks. Sept. 12-Oct. 10.

Jenkins Johnson has an intriguing stable of artists including Julia Fullerton Batten, whose Teenage Stories, photographs of dioramas where comparatively giant adolescent girls reign over Lilliputian realms, were part of a recent group show there last month. The gallery kicks off the fall with The Light in Cuban Eyes, a contemporary photography exhibition whose timing couldn’t be more providential. The pictures, in black & white and color, created after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1992, convey both the lilting tropical beauty and battered old cars of the island, and the economic hardship of life there. Sept. 10-Oct. 31. Melanie Pullen of the remarkable and notorious High Fashion Crime Scenes, a largescale photography series that gave new meaning to the term “fashion victim,” harkens back to her New York City childhood with her latest, milder, nonetheless off-kilter project, Soda Pop!, which gently ridicules the addictive Candy Crush Soda game that made it even more impossible for people to part with their cell phones. A nocturnal creature who likes to live dangerously, Pullen approached young men from her L.A. neighborhood in the wee hours, paid each $20 to take off their

t

Courtesy the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery

Untitled, from the series Improper Conduct (2008), archival pigment print by Alejandro González, part of The Light in Cuban Eyes.

shirts and then pose with their favorite soda bottle, and yes, she lived to tell the tale. Nov. 5-Jan. 9.

Jack Fischer Gallery: Ward Schumaker: Dogon Kayak. Though many of Schumaker’s collages, acrylic paintings and stepped wood sculptures are influenced by the Dogon people of Central Mali in West Africa, a region he visited in 2005 and admired, they don’t mimic their art; the paintings, some of which resemble patchwork quilts, do reflect the artist’s emotional attachment to the place: “the sand, dirt, dry heat, poverty, and above all,” he says, “the sense of being there.” Sept. 12-Oct. 17.

Modernism: Jerry Kearns: Give and Take. Invite a red-faced, horned devil, a haloed Jesus Christ and the Lone Ranger to a party, and integrate them into an animated cartoonish universe, and you get a taste of what’s in store for you with lefty New York artist Jerry Kearns’ sociopolitical, “psychological pop” paintings. Sept. 10-Oct. 24.

Robert Koch Gallery: Memory City, a collaborative exhibition of elegant, elegiac works by the husband-and-wife team Alex Webb, a charter Magnum photographer known for his widely exhibited street photography, and poet Rebecca Norris Webb, features work from a 2014 monograph of the same name. Their subtle, poignant images examine the impact of the closing of Eastman Kodak on the residents

of Rochester, NY. Sept. 10-Nov. 14.

French artists Petra Mrzyk & Jean-François Moriceau tailor their latest immersive installation, Everything Butt, to the Ratio 3 gallery space. The duo’s detailed, sometimes naughty, often humorous ink drawings, wall paintings, and sculptures walk the line between commercial illustrations, comics and graphic design, creating a wiggedout flight from reality where animals are anthropomorphized and inanimate objects come to life. Sept.

11-Oct. 24. Local boy/iconoclastic graffiti sensation Barry McGee, whose work is charged by propulsive energy and the dynamic visuals and cast of characters of his Mission District neighborhood, will spend two weeks installing his new show, a follow-up to his 2012 midcareer retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum. Nov. 6-Dec. 19.

Robert Tat Gallery All About the Light, a group exhibition centered on fine art photographs in which artists paint with light and shadow, showcases an array of works drawn from the gallery’s collection, by Ruth Bernhard, Fan Ho, Barbara Traub, Imogen Cunningham and others, as well as a wall of photograms, one-of-a-kind images made sans camera by placing objects on photographic paper and exposing them, a medium popular among Man Ray and other surrealists. Sept.

3-Nov. 28.t

Courtesy the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery

Soda Pop Boy #1 (from Soda Pop!) (2015), c-print by Melanie Pullen.

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<< Film

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

Slaughterhouse five

by David Lamble

T

he new French-produced food doc Steak (R)evolution, opening Friday at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas in San Francisco and Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, is an engaging if curious mix of first-rate culinary history, cooking tips, and a Jonathan Swift-like savage satire about human carnivores and their odd affection for the animals they raise for slaughter.

One of the fascinating aspects of watching this film is observing the incredible variety of cows grazing somewhere in the world. These animals range in appearance from traditional black-and-white moocows to tawny-colored creatures that resemble nothing as much as well-bred sheep dogs or large brown bears. French director Frank Ribiere means for his 110-minute excursion through fancy kitchens, grass-fed cattle farms and the dining rooms where steak fanciers chow down to be both a mind-expanding experience on the future of the planet and a guide to fine dining in pricey steakhouses from Park Slope, Brooklyn, and Paris, France, to Argentina, London, and both Frenchand English-speaking Canada.

One of the most illuminating and funny talking heads on Ribiere’s panel of steak experts is Mark Schatzker, a Toronto-based writer who set out to discover what it would be like to raise a cow at home then kill it for food, an experience that allowed him to write a Canadian bestseller, Steak. “I wanted to know, What would a steak taste like if the cow was fed on apples? I wanted to walk the walk. If I’m going to eat meat, I need to know what it’s like to raise an animal then kill it. I thought it was going to be a heartbreaking, difficult thing, that maybe I’d flirt with vegetarianism.

But I actually found it an uplifting experience. I was so happy that [my cow] had a good death, that she sort

of walked into a new room, looked around, and before she knew it there was a bolt in her head, the world faded to black and it was over, and it was very happy.”

Staring into the camera and aware that he might be approaching selfparody or worse, Schatzker, a handsome, hyperarticulate Torontonian, reminds his audience that a violent death has always been the fate of wild creatures not raised for meat.

“Let’s not forget that death in nature is not peaceful. A deer falls through the water or is eaten by wolves. And [in the case of my cow,] the beef was delicious!”

One of the things that Steak (R) evolution does best is provide a statistical baseline for measuring how much beef is actually consumed by the average Westerner. According to Ribiere, the high end of steak-eating occurs in Argentina, where the average person consumes 60 kilos of red meat per year. Europeans eat around 18 kilos, while Americans weigh in at between 25 to 30 kilos. Another fascinating factoid is how the average European went from boiling his or her meat, prior to WWII, to appreciating grilled beef and the smallscale gourmet agriculture necessary to produce steaks suited for grilling.

Steak (R)evolution’s oddlyspelled title derives from the paradoxes involved in traditions of meateating in the West that are both slowly evolving and at times changing with dizzying speed. Ribiere illustrates this paradox by shooting small segments of his world steak tour in time-lapse-photography speed. In a film where vegetarians and vegans are given no time to rebut this carnivore-centric universe, the meat-eaters are very conscious that their way of life has often been attacked as bad for the future of the planet. Brooklyn butcher Tom Mylan weighs in on the desirability, from an ecological perspective, of raising grass-fed beef.

“The concern of grass-fed beef

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Kino Lorber

Will he wind up on your plate? Scene from Steak (R)evolution, opening Friday in the Bay Area.

“And we have to wrap our mind around the fact that in the future we’re going to be eating less meat, but of a higher quality, and it’s going to cost more.”

–Tom Mylan and pastured pork is ecological.

There’s no future in factory farming. We are using too many antibiotics, we’re throwing grain that can feed people at cows that should be eating grass. And that’s not the future, that’s the past. One-hundredpercent grass-fed beef, whether we like it or not, is the future if we’re

going to continue to be able to eat meat on this planet and not burn our planet down. And we have to wrap our mind around the fact that in the future we’re going to be eating less meat, but of a higher quality, and it’s going to cost more.”

The money side of the grass-fed steak equation is driven home in

a Park Slope butcher shop where a boyish butcher barely out of his teens displays a tiny sliver of meat on his block. “$24.99 a pound, and that’s probably a quarter of a pound.” The kid butcher has another game-changing fact to share with audience members whose parents probably relied on US government standards to assure themselves that the meat they bought was both fresh and safe to eat. “None of our meat is graded. Grass-fed meat is not set up for the USDA grading system.”

In the end, Steak (R)evolution is a well-curated trip through the brave new world of sustainable agriculture whose products are already dominating outlets as diverse as highend farmers’ markets and the meat counter at your neighborhood Safeway. This revolution/evolution may not have been televised, but it’s been underway for quite a while, and the results are there for the tasting.t

What does it mean to be a gay director?

by Brian Bromberger

Gay Directors, Gay Films?

by Emanuel Levy; Columbia University Press, $25 oes a film written and directed by a gay person always mean it is a gay film? Are gay directors making gay-themed movies targeted mostly to gay audiences, or are they attempting to reach a wider public that can become aware of gaythemed issues? Are gay movies less a matter of content and more a matter of sensibility or point of view? And if so, how does one define gay sensibility? These are the questions underlying a new book by professor of film and sociology Emanuel Levy, who attempts to develop a framework for interpreting what it means to make a gay film. In Gay Directors, Gay Films?, Levy examines the oeuvre of five openly gay movie directors who have been working for three decades, comparing the “North American” attitudes of Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven), Gus Van Sant (Milk) and John Waters (Pink Flamingos) with the European approaches of Pedro Almodovar (Spain, Talk to Her) and Terence Davies (England, Deep Blue Sea). Having interviewed these pioneers and read up on each of them, Levy outlines each director’s biography, chronologically dissects each of their movies and histories as directors, and examines their body of work. None of these five directors invented gay cinema, but all have made it “more explicit, accessible, and acceptable.”

By finding a “distinctly gay gaze

D

and sensibility” in these five openly gay directors and revealing what is unique to their personal auteur styles, Levy claims he is breaking new ground in cinema criticism. He observes that all five have generally disregarded ideological and stylistic conventions, identifying themselves as outsiders, refusing to apologize for their “distinctive approaches as far as gay images and sexual politics are concerned.” At the onset, Levy makes clear that a director’s sexual orientation is not necessarily the primary factor in their creative endeavors, and as he proves here, its

influence can vary from one career phase to another and even from one picture to the next. Wanting to reach an educated general audience, Levy largely avoids dull academic cinema-studies jargon but also eschews banal popular film journalism, finding a middle ground between these two extremes.

Levy asks whether there is a distinctly gay way of looking at the world. Is a film gay because of its content or by its implicit meanings or subtext? He notes how classic closeted gay directors in Hollywood’s Golden Age, such as George

Cukor, James Whale, Vincent Minnelli, and Mitchell Leisen, did not make overtly gay films, but did infuse standard genre films with a gay sensibility. Because these five directors have neither concealed nor selfcensored their sexual orientations, they’ve been able to exert greater freedom in choosing material, going beyond the standard issues of coming out and stereotypical gay characters, by showing radical positions on gender, desire, and sexuality.

Levy sets out to prove that gay directors often create alternative ways of seeing the world that can be countercultural, even subversive when it comes to issues of masculinity and femininity. Another issue raised by Levy is whether gay directors tend to elevate style over content, especially by using camp strategies and expecting viewers to catch on to their artifice. While these five directors have a gay sensibility, there is no one model that fits all of them, with only some of them employing camp.

Gay Directors, Gay Films? is one of the finest books ever written on gay filmmaking. One of the hallmarks of good criticism is that when the author re-envisions a work of art you want to see it again but with new eyes. After reading Levy, most readers will have a long list of these directors’ films that they will want to see again. All five portraits are insightful, but the Almodovar and Waters chapters are especially outstanding. I suspect Levy will be faulted for including only gay white male directors, but alas there are hardly any people of color or female

openly gay narrative film directors with as long a track record as the five depicted here. This hopefully will be rectified in a future second edition of what will likely become a standard textbook in this field.

Levy concludes that each director has made personal films that “have challenged societal taboos, particularly in sex and gender, driven less by a need to be irreverent or a disregard for authority, than by a genuine interest in changing reality, on screen and off, because there should always be on-screen representation of the marginal aspects of society, especially by putting such characters center stage.”

In this process, each director has created a distinctive way of looking at the world (Weltanschauung) by breaking down narrative and aesthetic boundaries as well as taboos, perhaps the closest definition of gay sensibility we can construct. All five filmmakers have refused to reduce gay characters to sexuality alone as their principal feature, yet are willing to present realistic, flawed images of gay people we can recognize from our own lives. This is an ongoing process, as three of the profiled directors have upcoming fall releases: Davies (Sunset Song), Van Sant (Sea of Trees), and Haynes (Carol).

This makes Levy’s book timely and relevant. Levy doesn’t resolve any of the issues he poses at the beginning, but he clarifies their importance, and anyone seeking to explore the features and meanings of gay films in the future must read Gay Directors, Gay Film?t

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<< Theatre

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

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kevinberne.com

Samantha Barks has the title role in Amelie, A New Musical, based on the 2001 French movie and having its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in the new fall season.

<<

Fall theatre

From page 21

Making their debuts

That most desirable of labels – world premiere – turns up with reduced frequency this fall. But the first attraction in this category is promising enough to make up for the shortage. Amelie, A New Musical runs Aug. 28-Oct. 4 at Berkeley Rep, and if it can capture but a fraction of the charms of the 2001 French movie, it could be a winner. Nobody is talking Broadway yet, at least not out loud.

Samantha Barks (Eponine in the movie Les Miserables) takes the title role as a young woman in a fanciful Paris who benignly orchestrates the world around her. The film has been adapted by Craig Lucas, whose work includes Prelude of a Kiss on Broadway and Longtime Companion on screen. The songs are by Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen, and Tony Award-winner Pam MacKinnon is directing.

A very different sort of world premiere will bring ACT back to its second home at the Strand Theater.

Monstress, running Sept. 16-Nov. 22, is the result of ACT’s commissioning program, with local playwrights adapting two of the short stories that make up Lysley Tenorio’s Monstress, about the FilipinoAmerican experience. Philip Kan Gotanda’s Save the I-Hotel focuses on the relationship between two men living in SF’s threatened landmark residential hotel. Sean San Jose’s adaptation of the title story follows a Filipina actress and her B-movie director-husband as they chase the Hollywood dream.

Sarah rules

The Bay Area can’t claim playwright Sarah Ruhl as one of its own, but rare is the season when at least one of her plays does not turn up.

This fall brings three plays by Ruhl, following such previous productions as Dead Man’s Cellphone, In the Next Room (the vibrator play),

Joan Marcus

Idina Menzel heads the cast of If/Then, bringing her acclaimed Broadway musical performance to the Orpheum Theatre in November.

The Clean House, and several others.

Marin Theatre Company is opening its season with Ruhl’s latest play, The Oldest Boy, running Sept. 10Oct. 4. Seen at Lincoln Center Theatre last year, it explores the dilemma raised when a couple’s 3-year-old American son is identified as the reincarnation of a beloved Tibetan teacher who must be sent to India if he is to fulfill his calling.

Another recent Ruhl play, Stage Kiss, will play Nov. 11-Jan. 9 at San Francisco Playhouse. The backstage comedy finds two performers whose past affair is uncomfortably recalled as they find themselves cast in a play about a man and woman with a past affair. Meanwhile, Shotgun Players is looking back to Ruhl’s 2003 Eurydice, running through Sept. 20, in which she puts a quirky spin on the Orpheus myth of his wife’s descent

into the underworld.

Comrades, queers & kids

New Conservatory Theatre Center, the city’s most prolific presenter of theater for the “queer and allied communities,” opens its season with three very different plays new to the area.

First is Michael Kerrigan’s For the Love of Comrades, running Sept.

4-Oct. 11. It’s the U.S. premiere of the play that debuted in Northern Ireland in 2013 under the tabloidinspired title Pits and Perverts. The time is 1984, when gay activists rallied behind striking miners in an epic showdown with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The unlikely alliance also inspired the 2014 movie Pride.

The Nance, running Oct. 1-Nov. 2, stars P.A. Cooley in the role that brought acclaim to original Broadway star Nathan Lane in 2013. Set during the waning days of burlesque, the play takes its title from a stock character, a stereotypically effeminate man played by a presumably straight performer. But in Douglas Carter Beane’s story, the stage nance is also an indiscreet gay man whose personal and professional travails alternate with scenes from the burlesque show itself.

To procreate or not, that is the subject upsetting the balance between two lesbian couples in The Kid Thing. Running Nov. 6-Dec. 3, Sarah Gubbins’ comedy-drama starts off with casual dinner-party banter when one couple surprises the other with news of a coming child. The second couple has never discussed having kids, but the newly introduced topic sends them into soul-searching arguments.

Pulitzer pair

Berkeley Rep and ACT are both introducing recent Pulitzer Prizewinning plays to the Bay Area. The 2015 winner Between Riverside and Crazy, running Sept. 2-27 at ACT’s Geary Theater, comes from the author of The Motherfucker with the Hat and Jesus Hopped the “A” Train. In his newest play, Stephen Adly Guirgis tells the story of an ex-cop and his recently paroled son struggling to hold onto their rent-stabilized apartment as sketchy houseguests arrive and old wounds are opened.

Disgraced, the 2013 Pulitzer winner, brings forth the dilemma of a thoroughly assimilated Pakistani Muslim man living in New York whose heritage catches up with him in unnerving ways. Ayad Akhtar’s play, seen on Broadway last year, runs Nov. 6-Dec. 20 at Berkeley Rep.

Getting in tune

A Broadway hit, a near-miss, and a curiosity are among the locally

produced musicals headed to local stages this fall. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is the Broadway hit, introducing the newly created Bay Area Musicals! with performances Nov. 28-Dec. 19 at Marines Memorial Theatre.

BAM! founder and artistic director Matthew McCoy is staging the 1961 show. The season will continue with Hair and La Cage aux Folles.

Noel Coward wrote the book and score for Sail Away, a 1961 Broadway musical that elevated Elaine Stritch from supporting player to starring role during the out-of-town tryouts. The show ran a modest 167 performances and is seldom revived, making it a prime candidate for a 42nd Street Moon production.

The tale of a brash American divorcee working as a cruise director will run Oct. 28-Nov. 15 at the Eureka Theatre.

The musical Lizzie has been a long time evolving into its current form, starting as a short theatre/ rock show in 1990. Through various developmental productions, the musical took its final form in 2013 as a mostly sung-through rock musical featuring four women to tell the notorious story of alleged 19thcentury ax murderer Lizzie Borden.

The musical’s local debut will run Sept. 25-Oct. 17 under the aegis of Ray of Light Theatre at the Victoria Theatre.

On the road

Two of the fall attractions on SHN’s schedule of touring Broadway musicals deserve special attention, one for its star and the other for the show itself. That star is Idina Menzel, who powered If/Then during its Broadway recent run. In the musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal), Menzel plays a newly divorced newcomer to New York whose two best friends suggest different trajectories for her new life, and the musical alternates between these scenarios. Joined on tour by other original cast members, Menzel got most of the credit for the show’s original popularity. It runs Nov. 10-Dec. 6 at the Orpheum Theatre.

On the other hand, in the case of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, coming to the Golden Gate on Dec. 1-17, it’s the musical that is the attraction. A sleeper hit that opened on Broadway in 2013 and took home the Tony Award for Best Musical the following year, it’s a frolicsome story of a mass murderer told in deliberately old-school fashion. The plot centers on a young Englishman who attempts to elevate his social standing by murdering members of his wealthy family – and all eight victims are played by the actor whose character is doing them in.t

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Music>>

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Summer soul

tomorrow exchange buy * *sell*trade sell*trade

by Gregg Shapiro

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emember the name Shamir, because you’ll probably be hearing it a lot when Grammy time rolls around. Easily the most original modern soul act since Blood Orange (sorry, Jason Derulo), with Ratchet (XL), Shamir Bailey has released one of the most memorable debuts in any genre. Shamir is talented enough to do just about anything, from the strippeddown acoustic strumming of bonus track “KC,” the hippest hip-hop of “On the Regular,” the fiery house of “Hot Mess” and the Derulo-like brass play of “In for the Kill” to the vintage disco of “Call It Off ” and “Head in the Clouds,” the electronic experimentation of “Vegas” and “Make Scene” and the bold balladry of “Darker.” Shamir’s nearfalsetto delivery and non-committal gender ID has made him a favorite of queer listeners everywhere. At 20, Shamir is an artist with the brightest of futures ahead of him.

Speaking of Jason Derulo, after releasing a handful of albums, the soulful stud finally hit it big with the title track of his 2014 Talk Dirty disc, as well as with the song “Wiggle.” Wasting no time, Derulo quickly follows up that album with Everything Is 4 (WB/Beluga Heights). If you’re looking for the eclectic electronics that made “Wiggle” so irresistible, you have to get through dance-pop tunes such as “Want To Want Me” and “Cheyenne” before you get to the suggestive “Pull-Up.” “Broke,” a collaboration between Derulo, Stevie Wonder and Keith Urban, attempts to fix the “more money, more problems” issue, and “Love Me Down” and “X2CU” complete the dance circuit that kicked off the disc.

Leon Bridges’ Coming Home (Columbia) comes close to being the most exciting modern-vintage soul album since Raphael Saadiq’s 2011 Stone Rollin’. From the retro album art and CD label to the general musical mood of the songs, Bridges has a firm grasp on the era, and salutes it with 10 original tunes. Running the gamut from the gospel-inspired “Shine” and “River” to the Sam Cooke-style R&B of “Brown Skin Girl” and “River,” to doo-wop, Bridges burns up the distance between then and now.

It’s a wonder that Jamie Foxx has the courage to show his mug in public after the abomination that was the Annie remake. He starred as Will Stacks, a humiliating and insulting Daddy Warbucks update.

But clearly Foxx has no shame. Why else would he put his name on the Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses (RCA) CD? Faux soul songs such as “You Changed Me” (featuring notorious girlfriend abuser Chris Brown), “Another Dose,” “Text

Message” and “On the Dot” sound like the kind of thing Bill Cosby would have listened to while getting ready to allegedly drug and rape his victims. As genuine as a dozen plastic roses, Foxx has sunk to a new low. Is it too late to ask for him to return his Oscar?

Twenty years since she released her debut album, Maysa is still going strong as she proves on her new disc Back 2 Love (Shanachie). Lyrically, some of the songs have simplistic sentiments that have been expressed countless times and in more original ways. But for sheer dance exhilaration, club-bound tracks “Miracles” and “The Radio Played Our Song” can’t be beat.

Tamia’s Love Life (Def Jam), her first studio album in three years, is like two discs in one. On the first one, Tamia tries to put her own spin on tunes that sound like they were abandoned by Janet Jackson (“Lipstick”), Toni Braxton (“Like You Do”), and various other soul sisters (“Chaise Lounge,” “Love Falls Over Me”). The second, superior album is a fascinating combination of dance music (“You Give Me Something”) and respectable ballads (“Black Butterfly” and “Rise”).

Who says you can’t teach an old Dogg new tricks? After a brief reggae detour as Snoop Lion, OG rap legend Snoop Dogg sniffs out another new direction on the Pharrell-produced, George Clintoninfluenced Bush (Doggystyle/I Am Other/Columbia), a full-fledged dance record. Snoop Dogg gets down on clubby track “This City,” the funky “R U A Freak,” “I Knew That” and the Gwen Stefani duet “Run Away.” Snoop hasn’t entirely abandoned his rap roots, but the addition of the Parliament-ary influences and serious dance beats are welcome additions.

If you prefer your hip-hop to be more hip-hoppy, full of samples and thought-provoking rhymes, consider I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt (Tan Cressida/Columbia). Underground 21-year-old rapper Earl Sweatshirt is going through some stuff, including mourning (“Grief ”), and if staying inside provides him with a creative outlet, then so be it. Not an easy listen, but it’s not supposed to be.t

MISSION DIST: 1210 Valencia St. • 415-647-8332 HAIGHT: 1555 Haight St. • 415-431-7733 BERKELEY: 2585 Telegraph Ave. • 510-644-9202

BuffaloExchange.com

MINNIE DRIVER

TONY DANZA

MEGAN HILTY

September 11 - 13

September 18 - 20

September 25 - 27

For tickets:www.feinsteinsSF.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street 855-MF-NIKKO | 855-636-4556

<< Out&About

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

18th Annual California Independent Film Festival PRESENTS

At the historic Castro Theatre Friday, September 11

TWO GIRLS ONE GUN THE MOB

7PM

Short: Make Us Laugh 1 PM Short: Wild Wild West and a Wild One 3 PM Paper Planes 5 PM

9PM

US Premiere!

by Jim Provenzano

utumn arts reveals a bevy of beautiful openings in galleries, theatres, and music venues. Dig in!

Thu 27

9PM

Other Saturday Showings

Short: Let’s Make Movies 1 PM Short: Relationships 3 PM My Brother’s Shoes 5 PM BFFs 7 PM

With star Gerald McCulouch, Dan Via, and Jamie Cepero (from tv show “Smash”) in attendance*

Castro All Access Pass and Daddy/Paternity LeaveVIP ticket info available at

CAIFF.ORG

Save 10% on your order. Use code BAR

*Attendance subject to change.

1

7/27/15

7:06 PM

8/25/15 9:58 AM

Barbary Coast Revue @ Balancoire The third season of the popular cabaret show returns, with Danny Kennedy as Mark Twain, a cast of diverse performers, and guest performer Connie Champagne.

Thursdays weekly thru September. $14-$64. 8pm. 2565 Mission St. at 22nd. www.BarbaryCoastRevue.com

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh

Breaking the Code @ Eureka Theatre

Fri 28

D’Arcy Drollinger’s sequel to the hilarious hit comedy Shit & Champagne, with a women’s prisonthemed parody and suspense-filled action-comedy show. $25-$200 (fourperson VIP table). Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Sept 12. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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Aug. 27: Killer’s Kiss (6:20), Witness to Murder (7:45) and Dementia (9:30). Aug. 28-30: The Little Mermaid sing-along. Aug. 30: The Crowd, a classic silent film, accompanied by Bruce Loeb on the outgoing mighty Wurlitzer Organ (7pm). Aug. 1: Amy (Amy Winehouse documentary, 6pm., 9pm). Sept. 2: We are Blood (8pm). Sept. 3: Nightfall (6pm, 9:30) The Burglar (7:40). $10$15. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Unusual Movies @ Oddball Films

Champagne White and the Temple of Poon @ Oasis

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New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre

Echo Brown’s comic solo show follows a young women’s impending sexual encounter, and its political implications. $20-$35. Thu 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru Oct. 29. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Theatre Rhino’s return engagement of Hugh Whitmore’s acclaimed stage play about the life and sad death of Alan Turing, the gay code-breaker credited with helping end World War II. $10-$30. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm.

Thru Aug. 29. 215 Jackson St. www.TheRhino.org

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I’m Still Standing @ Strand Theatre

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Saturday, September 12

2pub-BBB_BAR_082715.pdf

Fall fun

With star Chris Salvatore in attendance*

The Country House @ Theatreworks Silicon Valley West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Donald Margulies’ dramedy about a revered stage and film actress who summons her family for a summer stock gathering. $19$80. Tue-Wed 7:30pm. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Wed & Sun 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Sept.

20. 500 Castro St., Mountain View. www.TheatreWorks.org

Eurydice @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Sarah Ruhl’s update on the Orpheus myth, from the viewpoint of his love, who is lost in the Underworld. $20$30. Wed-Sun. Thru Sept. 27. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

I’m Still Standing @ Strand Theater American Conservatory Theatre student production of Craig Slaight’s fun jukebox musical with songs by Elton John. $20. Thu-Sat 7pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 30. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Don Quixote @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael Ron Campbell stars in Marin Shakespeare Company’s production of Peter Anderson and Colin Heath’s new adaptation of Cervante’s classic quest novel. $10-$35. Fri & Sat 8pm; some Sundays 4pm & 8pm. Thru Aug. 30. 890 Belle Avenue, Dominican University of California. marinshakespeare.org

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Other Friday Showings

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Thu 27

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Weekly screenings of strange and obscure short films. $10. 8pm Also Fridays. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilm.com

Amelie @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre World premiere of Craig Lucas and Daniel Messé’s new musical based on the popular French film about an enchanting young woman who creates magic and joy in Montmartre. $29-$97. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 4. 2025 Addison St. (510) 6472949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. beachblanketbabylon.com

Club Inferno @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious rockin’ production of Kelly Kittell and Peter Fogel’s glam rock musical spin on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, where the road to fame can be hell, literally! $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Sept.

12. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

Jeff Goldblum @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran actor shares his musical side, with songs and piano-playing with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. $60-$75 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Also Aug. 29, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. ticketweb.com

L7 @ Regency Ballroom The fantastic all-women punk/metal band returns! Frightwig opens. $27.50-$30. 9pm. 1290 Sutter St. (888) 929-7849. l7theband.com www.theregencyballroom.com

Mary Poppins @ Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park Encore performances of the summer theatre company’s staging of the Broadway musical adaptation of the Disney film and P.L. Travers’ book. $16-$26. Fri & Sat 7pm. Sat & Sun 1pm. Thru Aug. 30. Codding Theatre, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park.

(707) 588-3400. spreckelsonline.com

Mud Blue Sky @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Bay Area premiere of Marisa Wegrzyn’s edgy comic play about the early days of air travel. $32-$60. Teu & sun 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 27. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

The Mystery of Irma Vep @ California Shakespeare Theatre, Orinda Charles Ludlam’s comic satire of gothic mysteries, with werewolves, ghosts, ex-wives and a mansion full of fun, gets an East Bay production. $15$84. Tue-Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 4pm. Thru Sept. 6. 100 California Shakespeare Theatre, Orinda. (510) 548-9666. www.calshakes.org

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore Baruch Porras-Hernandez and Blythe Baldwin cohost the lively reading, performance and music event. 7pm.

2919 24th St. 282-9246. www. queeropenmic.com www.mtbs.com

The Phantom of the Opera @ Orpheum Theatre The new lavish touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony-winning hit musical based on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 book, about a mysterious man who haunts a Paris opera house and kidnaps a beautiful singer. $40-$225.

Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat 2pm. Sun 2pm & 7:30pm. Thru Oct. 4. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Comedy Noir @ Balancoire

Sat 29

Valeria Branch’s new weekly comedy night, where she embodies her faux queen character Pia Messing for some offbeat wit, with guest comics. $5.

8pm-10pm. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

The months-long outdoor performing arts festival, with music, dance and readings. Free. Different dates and times thru Oct. 31. 543-1718. ybgfestival.org

Arts Festival @ Yerba Buena Gardens

Tue 1

Salome, Dance for Me @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Trixxie Carr’s beguiling solo musical show loosely based on Oscar Wilde’s play about the dancing biblical temptress. $20-$25. $90 includes private front row table and bottle of wine. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 29. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Jok Church’s art @ Magnet

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Out&About>>

Chile Con Comedy @ Magnet Chile Con Consuela hosts a diverse lineup of comics, including Victor Cruz Perez, Shannon Murphy, Just Morgan, Nasty Ass Bitch, Ira Summer, Glamis Rory and Jennifer Dronsky. Free. 8pm.

4122 18th St. www.jesusubettawork. com www.magnetsf.org

Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh Berkeley Jinho Ferreira returns with his autobiographical solo show about being a hip hop star, law encorcement officer and Oakland resident. $20$55. Saturdays, 5pm. Thru Sept. 26.

2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Sun 30 Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley Enjoy weekly same-sex tango dancing and a potluck, with lessons early in the day. $7-$15. 3:30-6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St., Berkeley. (510) 8455352. www.finnishhall.com

Atlas Genius @ The Independent The fun pop/alt band performs; Dreams and The Shelters open. $20.

8pm. 628 Divisadero St. www.theindependentsf.com

Erika Sanada, Henry Schreiber @ Modern Eden Gallery

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s

Exhibit of the Tokyo-based artist’s unuual canine ceramic sculptures, and Here, Hold This, Schreiber’s cute yet strange groundhog portraits. Thru Sept. 5. 801 Greenwich Ave. www.moderneden.com

Best Female Crooner is the category for this installment of the 6th annual talent competition, with host/MC Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Joe Wicht accompanying; guest judges Amanda King and Linda Kosut. $9. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. 241-0205.

Freedomland @ Various Venues SF Mime Troupe’s musical satire of government invasions and political corruption; at multiple Bay Area locales thru Sept. 7. www.sfmt.org

Godless Perverts Story Hour @ Women’s Building Performance, literary reading and storytelling event focusing on non-faith sexualities, with Bridgett Crutchfield, Juba Kalamka, Liberty N. Justice, Anthony O’Con, Simon Sheppard, Kate Sirls, and co-hosts Greta Christina and Chris Hall. $10$20. 7pm. Audre Lord Room, 3543 18th St. www.godlessperverts.com

Karen Ripley @ The Marsh Berkeley The veteran lesbian comic returns with her solo show, Oh No, There’s Men on the Land, her stories of self-discovery and life in 1970s Berkeley. $15-$100.

Saturdays, 5pm. 2120 Allston way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Live in the Castro @ Jane Warner Plaza Outdoor free concerts and shows, weekends usually at noon. Castro St. at Market. www.castrocbd.org

Other Cinema @ ATA Gallery Weekly screenings of unusual, rare and strange short films and videos. $7. 8:30pm. 992 Valencia St. 6480654. www.othercinema.com

Radical Presence @ YBCA Subtitled Black Performance in Contemporary Art, this new exhibit explores identity in a variety of media.

Thru Oct. 11. Also, Maggot Brains: Black Sci-Fi, Punk & Experimental Film, screenings thru Aug. 29. Also, the multimedia installation Won Ju Lim: Raycraft is Dead, thru Dec. 6. Also, Earth Machines : Exploring the environmental impact of our high-tech world, thru Dec. 6. $5-$12.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Romeo and Juliet @ Various Venues San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s annual summer outdoor performances begin with the classic tragic romance.

Fri-Sun 7:30pm. Various venues thru Sept. www.sfshakes.org

Stranded! @ Conservatory of Flowers Tropical Island Survival, a new interactive exhibit of tropical plants, with castaway kitch, island survival displays and more. Thru Oct. 18. Also, permanent floral displays, plants for sale, and docent tours. Tue-Sun 10am4pm. $2-$8. Free for SF residents.

100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Wilde Chats @ Sweet Inspirations Community Initiative’s weekly informal discussion group at the dessert shop. 10:30am-12pm. 2239 Market St. 621-8664. www.sweetinspirationbakery.com

Disney & Dali @ Walt Disney Family Museum New exhibit documenting the unlikely collaborations between Salvador Dali, the Surrealist artist and Walt Disney, the cartoon icon; curated

by Ted Nicolaou. Thru Jan. 3. Also, Tomorrowland and other exhibits. 104 Montgomery St, The Presidio. 3456800. www.waltdisney.org

Exquisite Nature @ Asian Art Museum Exquisite Nature: 20 Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings, and Woven Luxuries: Indian, Persian and Turkish Textiles; both thru Nov 1. Free (members, kids 12 and under)-$15.

Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

J.M.W. Turner @ de Young Museum Paintings by the landscape master.

Thru Sept 20. Other exhibits of modern art as well. Free/$25. Thru Sept. 20 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.famsf.org

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

See blooming floral displays, trees and plants in various beautiful gardens specific to region, plus Fotanicals: the Secret Language of Flowers, an exhibition of photographs by artist joSon. Daily walking tours and more.

Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park.

661-1316. www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

Exhibit of collected drawings, paintings and sculptures from three decades of queer donations, guestcurated by Elisabeth Cornu. Free (members)-$5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Amy Winehouse @ Contemporary Jewish Museum A Family Portrait features images of and ephemera from the estate of the deceased soul singer; Thru Nov. 1. Also, Night Begins the Day : Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty, which focuses on 25 contemporary thinkers, scientists and designers; curated by Renny Pritikin; thru Sept.

20. Also, Tzedakah Box, Bound to be Held: A Book Show, Lamp of the Covenant ; lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Carol Cunningham, Dave Fox @ Lost Art Salon Dual exhibit of the Northern and Southern California artists, along with many vintage prints and art work.

Mon-Sat 10am-5pm. 245 South Van Ness Ave. 861-1530. www.lostartsalon.com

Sat 29

Silicon Valley Pride @ Downtown San Jose 40th annual LGBTQ celebration, with a kickoff party Aug. 28 (entertainment, DJs; 21+; 8pm-2am, 72 N. Almaden), and parade and fair Aug. 30. Festival includes a parade, and fair includes performances by Steve Grand, Chase & Ovarion, MK Nobilette, Jeanie Tracy and Debby Holiday. DJed dance music, drag shows, and comedy acts, too. $10$15. 12pm-7pm at Almaden Blvd. at Park Ave. After-party at Continental Bar with DJs David Harness, Ruben Macias and others; 5pm-2am. , $10$15. www.svpride.com

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint New Sunday program offers tours and exhibits about San Francisco’s history.

Explore the fascinating building’s grand halls and vaults. $5-$10.

Weekly, 1pm-4pm. 88 5th St. 5371105. www.SFhistory.org

New all-male striptease revue with a storyline of San Francisco’s history, from the Gold Rush to the tech boom.

Weekly thru Sept. $20. 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink

Fri 28 Tracy Baim’s new book, Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer @ SF Public Library

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.” Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday’s Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. churchof8wheels.com

Jok Church @ Magnet Be My Porn Star Tonight, an exhibit of photo illustration collages on canvas by the local gay artist. 100% of art sales benefit Magnet. Thru Sept. 30 (reception Sept. 25, 8pm). 4122 18th St. makemagic.org magnetsf.org

OUTspoken @ City Hall Outspoken: Portraits of LGBTQ Luminaries, an exhibit of photographs

by Roger Erickson. Ground floor, North Light Court. Thru Sept. 11. 1 Carlton B. Goodlet Place. sfgov.org

Queer Ancestors Project @ LGBT Center Exhibition of prints of iconic LGBTQ people, made by queer artists aged 18 to 26 (Corey Brown, daveron, Roxana Dhada, Hanna Kelly, Holly McHugh, Onyinye Alheri, Roxy Schoenfeld, Sasha Solomonov, madhvi trivedipathak, Weyam) and artistic director Katie Gilmartin. Thru Sept. 23. 1800 Market St. www.katiegilmartin.com/ queer-ancestors www.sfcenter.org

Pacific Worlds @ Oakland Museum

New dance works in progress by Gerald Casel, Maurya Kerr, Nicole Klaymoon and Sheldon B. Smith & Lisa Wymore. $20. 6pm. 351 Shotwel St. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

Man Francisco @ Oasis

30 Years of Collecting Art That Tells Our Stories @ GLBT History Museum

The weekly LGBT TV show, with updates on current events. 9:30pm. www.outlookvideo.org

Resident Artists Unplugged @ ODC Dance Commons

Exhibit of contemporary works and historic exhibits of African cultures, with a shared group of works from SF MOMA. Thru Oct. 11. Free/$10. 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Mon 31

OutLook Video @ Channel 29

New exhibit focuses on the contemporary lives of and historic cultures of Pacific Islanders and California; thru Jan. 3. Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact thru Sept 20.

Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Portraits and Other Likenesses @ Museum of the African Diaspora

Wild Flowers @ SF Botanical Gardens

Bridgett Crutchfield at Godless Perverts Story Hour @ Women’s Building

Color of Life @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; new exhibit focuses on vibrantly colored species of octopus, snake fish and other live creatures.

Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Margaret Keane @ Keane Eyes Gallery Paintings, prints and other items by the creator of the famous kitschy “big eyes” paintings of children and animals; featured in the recent Tim Burton film. By appointment. 3040 Larkin St. 922-9309. www.keane-eyes.com

Tue 1 Barnaby’s Babes @ Oasis Enjoy a saucy burlesque show, with The Century Sisters, Magnoliah Black, the Tartlettes, Bohemian Brethren and The Phishnets. $15-$25. 8pm. 8pm.

298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 2 Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer @ SF Public Library Author Tracy Baim (and Chicago’s Windy City News publisher/executive editor) discusses and signs copies of her new biography of the lesbian activist who was a pivotal member of the early pre-Stonewall Philadelphia gay rights movement. 6pm. James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Between Riverside and Crazy @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy about an elderly man trying to hold on to his rent-controlled New York apartment. $20-$70. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sat 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Sept. 27. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Brandon Flowers @ Fox Theatre, Oakland The lead singer for The Killers performs music from his new solo album, plus a few Killers favorites.

Rey Pila opens. 1807 Telegraph Ave. $37.50. 8pm. thefoxoakland.com

Follies @ Oasis Holotta Tymes hosts the weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Weekly LGBT and friends skate night, with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www.rainbowskate.net www.facebook.com/rainbowskating

Science Exhibits @ The Exploratorium Visit the fascinating science museum in its new Embarcadero location. Free$25. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Thu night 6pm-10pm, 18+). 528-4893. www.exploratorium.edu

Exdysis: The Molting of a Cucarachica @ Galeria de la Raza Xandra Ibarra (aka Chica Boom)’s exhibit of costumes, photos, fake products, and other items as a form of parodic character disintegration.

Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm (Sun til 5pm).

Thru Sept. 6. 2857 24th St. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Thu 3 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. Check for times on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/10Percent/66629477326 www.ComcastHometown.com

Hardcore Cronenberg @ YBCA Three months of weekly screenings of David Cronenberg’s artful unusual films. Thursdays 7:30pm, repeats Sundays 2pm. Thru Sept. 5. Free (members)-$8. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Project 24 San Francisco @ Dryansky Gallery Group exhibit of unusual local images set at different times in a day by 24 local photographers. 7pm. Thru Sept.

10. 2120 Union St. at Webster. 9329302. www.thedryansky.com

Ryan Berg, D.A. Powell @ Books Inc. The authors of No House to Call My Home read from and discuss their new book about LGBT homeless youth.

7pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

San Francisco Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Theatre David Facer’s solo magic show, The World of Paradox, entertains and beguiles. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. Openended run. 433 Powell St. at Post. www.MagicParlor.blogspot.com

Tender Bears/Osos Amorosos @ Oasis The new night of bilingual drag, music, poetry and performance, with Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Kevin Seaman, Chilean gay singer Sebastián, Sue Veneer, Kay Nilsson, DJ Cholula Caliente and more. $15. 9:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com To submit event listings, email events@ebar.com Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

<< Film

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda

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by Tavo Amador

T

he New York Times and the [UK] Guardian both published articles commemorating the 60th anniversary of Carmen Miranda’s (1909-55) death on August 5. Although her indelible Hollywood image is one of flamboyant camp, her legacy is more complex and controversial in Latin America, especially in Brazil.

To North American audiences, she personified the sounds, rhythms, and dress of South America. Upperclass white Brazilians, however, were embarrassed because the music she made famous and the costumes she designed and wore were associated with Afro-Brazilian descendants of slaves. Many North Americans thought she was Spanish. Hollywood paired her with gay CubanAmerican actor Cesar Romero or had her sing with Spaniard Xavier Cougat’s orchestra. Spanish-speaking South Americans felt she perpetuated the “spitfire” stereotype.

She was born in Portugal, but her family moved to Rio de Janeiro when she was about a year old. She sang and danced as a child, and by 1930 was Brazil’s most popular recording star, a position she kept for a decade.

She made a few Brazilian movies, and while appearing in an elaborate stage show, was seen by producer Lee Shubert, who offered to star her in his Broadway revue, The Streets of Paris. She accepted, but only if he hired her band as well, which he did.

Her samba music, sung and danced to while she wore elaborate hats decorated with a cornucopia of fruits, bare midriff gowns, and amazing platform heels (she was five feet tall), created a sensation.

Hollywood beckoned. She appeared, as herself, singing “South American Way” in 20th Century Fox’s Down Argentine Way (1940),

Upper-class white Brazilians, however, were embarrassed because the music she made famous and the costumes she designed and wore were associated with Afro-Brazilian descendants of slaves.

Carmen Miranda: her legacy is complex.

starring Betty Grable. The public’s response was overwhelming, and 20th signed her to a contract, christening her “the Brazilian Bombshell.”

She returned to Brazil, was greeted by cheering fans, and invited by the President’s wife to entertain at a swank charity event. Miranda finished singing, but was met by silence from the wealthy white audience. As she left the stage, she was booed, causing her to weep in her dressing room.

Despite that humiliation, she returned to Tineseltown. 20th showcased her in two hit Alice Faye musicals, That Night in Rio and Weekend in Havana (1941). In the former, she unforgettably sang “Chica

Chica Boom Chic” and “Ay Yi Yi Yi Yi, I Like You Very Much.” She performed the title song in the latter film. The popularity of Latin American music, especially Brazilian music, soared. The Samba became the rage. Mickey Rooney donned drag and brilliantly impersonated her in 1941’s Babes on Broadway, performing “Mama Yo Quiero.”

Miranda spent Springtime in the Rockies, superbly singing a Portuguese version of Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” and hit the pinnacle of her Hollywood career in Busby Berkeley’s extravagant The Gang’s All Here (1943).

In the latter, she sang “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” while dancing between rows of animated, phallic

bananas. She wore an extraordinary fruit-laden hat. That hallucinatory number became a favorite of potsmokers during San Francisco’s Hippie era. She became the inspiration for Chiquita Banana.

She played herself in Four Jills in a Jeep, moved to Greenwich Village, and offered Something for the Boys (1944), the film version of Cole Porter’s hit Broadway musical. The next year she was in Doll Face and was the highest-paid woman in America, although her phenomenal popularity was abating. She was billed fourth in If I’m Lucky (1946), but was wellteamed with Groucho Marx in the manic Copacabana (1947), playing both a Brazilian singer and a French chanteuse.

MGM gave her a good part in A Date with Judy (1948). Jane Powell thought her father, Wallace Beery, was having an affair with Miranda, whose costumes were chic and soigne, different from those she had previously worn. Backed by Cugat, Miranda memorably performed the jazzy “Cooking with Gas” and “Cuanto le Gusta” in this wholesome musical, which also featured 16-year-old Elizabeth Taylor. She was back home in Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), and made her final bigscreen appearance opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in Scared

Stiff (1953). At one point, Lewis gets into full Miranda drag and lipsynchs “Mama Yo Quiero.”

As Hollywood lost interest, she began to resent having been typecast. Still, nightclub audiences flocked to see her and she worked steadily on television. While taping a Jimmy Durante Show, she suffered shortness of breath and fell to her knees after completing a number.

The next day she was found dead from a heart attack.

The Brazilian government declared her burial date a national day of mourning. An estimated 60,000 people attended her funeral. Approximately 500,000 mourners accompanied her funeral cortege.

Many Brazilians still have mixed feelings about her image, but Rio boasts the Carmen Miranda Museum, which chronicles her short life and contains many of her celebrated hats, gowns, shoes, and a great deal of memorabilia. It’s worth a visit.

Miranda respected the traditions she made famous. That respect is now more common than it once was. She was a gifted singer whose colorful persona continues to delight. She remains instantly recognizable. People who saw her perform in person inevitably say she made them feel happy. That’s a terrific legacy.t

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34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 27-September 2, 2015

Fall preview on the lavender tube

by Victoria A. Brownworth

T

V truth: Summer goes faster now that there are so many different shows to watch and there’s a whole summer season where once spread only a vast wasteland of reruns and reality shows. Plus: Netflix binge-watching of all the shows you didn’t have time for in the winter and spring. Plus: Netflix streaming originals. Plus: real life off the tube.

Yet as lovely as the summer season has been, everyone knows The Big Season is fall. The major debuts with the biggest stars are all fall.

The summer season has sometimes seemed a little like one big trailer for fall, with the nonstop promos for the hot new shows. Truth be told, they all (or mostly all) look great, and some we really can’t wait to see.

Is there anyone who isn’t waiting for Stephen Colbert to slip into David Letterman’s old seat on CBS’ top-rated The Late Show? The promos have been funny, Colbert was mostly funny (sometimes we wearied of the shtick), and we want to know what comes next. Usually comedians go from network to cable, like Conan O’Brien, not the other way round, and one of Colbert’s promos plays on that fact.

Colbert holds up a male puppy with a black box over its penis which he points to, incredulous. Yet the majority of TV watchers, cable and Netflix and the Web aside, are still watching, yes, network. Or network shows on cable or Netflix. The interesting news about network this season is the slow and steady takeover by some key gay showrunners and some big new series with gay and lesbian leads.

But first, Colbert. For those like us who were wearying of the shtick well before Colbert left Comedy Central, that Colbert is done, over, kaput. According to CBS News, Colbert’s “test run” this summer with a public-access program in Monroe, Michigan, where he interviewed rapper and Detroit native Eminem, was a preview of the “new” Colbert.

What we want to know, and won’t until the show debuts on Sept. 8 on CBS, is how Colbert will handle politics. His first guests will be George Clooney and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush. Clooney leans decidedly left, and Jeb leans more right by the hour.

Last week Colbert told reporters at the Television Critics Association tour, “I got into comedy to do improvisation. When you’re interviewing people, you don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s much closer to how I learned my craft.”

Colbert is the cover interview for September’s GQ mag. One thing Colbert says that struck us is he wants to do something that “feels wrong.”

Colbert says, “I just want to do things that scratch an itch for me.

That itch is often something that feels wrong. It’s wrong because it breaks convention or is unexpected or at times uncomfortable. I like that feeling.” We like the sound of that, and hope it means Colbert will take Jeb on in the way his predecessor, David Letterman, always took on politicians. One of Colbert’s promos for the show features Mitt Romney in a very funny bit that makes us think Romney would make a good sidekick for Colbert.

But we shall see. One of the things we liked most that Colbert said in that GQ interview? He’s grateful to be alive. We happen to think there’s not nearly enough gratitude out there, so go Colbert. We will definitely be watching the roll-out.

We will also be watching the roll-out of Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris, which debuts Sept. 15 on NBC. Harris was the first TV actor to come out as gay while still working in the medium and the first openly gay man to host every major awards show: the Tonys, Emmys and Oscars. In his recent book Choose Your Own Autobiography, NPH revealed how a kiss on the mouth from Burt Reynolds during filming on B.L. Stryker may have sealed the deal that he was gay.

One thing NPH says that we loved, we think should be embroidered on pillows. Coming to terms with his own gayness he says, “You are gay. You know that you are; you like that you are; you’re proud that you are. You are totally gay, and it’s wonderful.” Tell the kids. Tell the married guys on the down-low. Tell yourselves on those bad days.

This summer NPH was a guest judge on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, which is our fave variety/contest show. Better than American Idol, better than So You Think You Can Dance?, better than The Voice.

We think NPH’s new show will be a lot like AGT, and that makes us interested in watching. We have been loving James Corden’s revision of The Late Late Show on CBS, which is very variety-ish in a special kind of British way. If you aren’t watching Corden, do check out his show. He’s delightful and very pro-gay. Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris is hosted and co-produced by NPH and is an American adaptation of the British variety series Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. No, we

Courtesy NBC

Gay host of Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris.

never heard of it, either, but then we never heard of Pop Idol before American Idol. Best Time Ever will feature appearances by A-list stars, stunts, comedy skits, various performances, mini game shows, audience giveaways and hidden-camera pranks. Think The Carol Burnett Show or The Ed Sullivan Show.

It sounds like a packed hour, and with five Emmys of his own as well as a Tony for his role as a transwoman performer in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, NPH, who loves magic, song and dance, seems like a natural to host this one. We are ready to forgive him for his failed hosting of the Oscars and move on to something new.

Guardian angel

Jane Lynch is one of the few out lesbian actresses on the tube these days, and the only one about to step into a lead role. Since 2013, Lynch has been hosting the NBC game show Hollywood Game Night, for which she won an Emmy in 2014.

For six years Lynch was one of the leads on Glee, playing the acerbic gym teacher and coach of the Cheerios, Sue Sylvester. She’s also had major recurring roles on Criminal Minds and Two and a Half Men. Angel from Hell will mark Lynch’s debut as the star of her own series.

Lynch plays Amy, a homeless alcoholic who claims to be the guardian angel of Allison (Maggie Lawson), a neurotic doctor. It’s unclear if Amy is indeed a guardian angel or just, you know, nuts. Amy makes predictions that come true, and it’s implied that she has been watching over Allison since she was born.

At the Television Critics Association press tour, Lynch said of her role in the new sitcom, “I love what a mess she is, and that she has no shame around her alcoholism or the fact that she lives in her car.” Lynch explained that because she is an angel in human form, Amy can have intimate relationships but she can’t fall in love. “She loves being in human form. She loves food. She loves sex. She loves drinking.” Also, that sex thing? “Not necessarily gender specific.” Lynch said. “I could go through the whole family if I wanted to.” Okay then.

Tad Quill is the showrunner for Angel from Hell. He was previously writer, executive producer, and co-executive producer for the cult fave Scrubs (2001-10). Angel from Hell also co-stars the hilarious Kyle Bornheimer and Kevin Pollak.

Bornheimer plays Allison’s younger brother Brad, who lives above her garage. We would probably watch this show for Bornheimer alone, but the fact that it stars Lynch? We will definitely be tuning in.

If you are in the mood for comedy/quirky, IFC’s new show Documentary Now! is a must-see. The show stars SNL alums Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers.

Meyers was head writer on SNL for years and left to helm Late Night on NBC. Armisen is the co-creator

and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia, for which he’s been nominated for several Emmys.

Hader, was on SNL (2005-13) and has been a cast member on both The Mindy Project and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

We would watch anything with these three because they are so funny. Hader’s Stefon was a flamboyantly gay New Yorker who would give tour advice on Weekend Update, talking about clubs and using faux pop-culture portmanteaux language while he smoothed his hair and flirted with Meyers. Hader channels Stefon for Documentary Now!, comprised of sketches satirizing actual documentaries. Armisen and Hader doing Grey Gardens might possibly be the funniest thing we have ever seen. IFC has already signed on for two more seasons of Documentary Now!, and the show just debuted this week. Its director is Rhys Thomas, a long-time unit director at SNL. Thomas is responsible for mimicking the documentaries the show is satirizing, and he is just genius at it. And Armisen and Hader in drag are just brilliant.

Ryan Murphy has long been the gay showrunner in the news, because his hits were so big and the trajectory of their popularity kept us watching. We may have faltered toward the end of Glee, but we came back with love for the final season. Even when American Horror Story has gone way off the rails, it’s still been compelling. Popular and Nip/Tuck were terrific shows also, and the only failure seemed to be The New Normal, which felt like warmed-over Will & Grace. Murphy has two new series debuting in the 2015-16 season, but American Crime Story on FX is not due out till next year, so we won’t talk about it till then, although it is definitely buzz-worthy with a stellar cast that will include Cuba Gooding Jr, Sarah Paulson, Nathan Lane and John Travolta, among others.

Murphy’s other new series is on everyone’s Top 10 to watch list, and why not? It looks fantastic. Scream Queens will air on Fox starting Sept.

22. Scream Queens is to college and sorority/fraternity culture as Glee was to high school. It’s a horrorcomedy anthology, which kind of makes it a mash-up of Glee and American Horror Story, but Murphy is playing on the best aspects of both shows in this new one, created with his usual team of Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. The first season will be centered on a series of murders involving the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority. The murders on the college campus may have some connection to something that happened 20 years earlier.

Scream Queens is high camp and has an amazing cast. The show stars Emma Roberts as Chanel Oberlin, the president of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority who is intent on keeping things status quo, which means murders really are outside all the guidelines. Jamie Lee Curtis plays

t

Cathy Munsch, dean of the university. This is tour de force casting, as Curtis is a veteran of big-box-office horror films of the 1970s like Halloween. Her comedic talents are renowned as well.

Glee star Lea Michele takes on a wholly different role in Scream Queens as Hester “Neckbrace,” a girl with scoliosis who is a Kappa pledge.

Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin plays Chanel #5, a member of Kappa and one of Chanel’s henchwomen.

There are a host of other names in the cast. from Oliver Hudson to Niecy Nash to Nick Jonas. There’s a lot of bitchy girls in this show, plus laughs, plus blood. You will love it.

We’ve been watching Greg Berlanti shows for 17 years, which is a hella long time. We didn’t know he was gay at first, we just fell in love with show after show he was creating. Now it seems that Berlanti kinda owns the CW and the whole comics-turned-TV-series genre. But that hasn’t kept him from invading other networks. Berlanti is now the most prolific gay showrunner on the tube.

The new Berlanti creation we are most excited about is Blindspot, which premieres on NBC Sept. 21.

This show has the aura of Christopher Nolan’s indy thriller Memento about it, as well as a soupçon of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Blindspot stars Jamie Alexander as Jane Doe, a woman covered in tattoos who has no memory or clue to her own identity, and who turns up naked in a duffel bag on Times Square.

Alexander was Sif on Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Jessi on Kyle XY, so she’s perfect as the mystery woman. Jane Doe’s strange appearance garners attention, and the FBI starts to investigate. Turns out those tattoos tell a story, clues to the criminal conspiracy that led Jane Doe to the present. As the FBI determines that each tattoo relates to a crime in real time, Jane Doe attempts to uncover her own identity. Blindspot also stars Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton, British actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Rob Brown.

Another highly anticipated new show is Supergirl. Berlanti developed this series with Ali Adler, Sarah Shechter, and Andrew Kreisberg.

The series will air on CBS and is based on the DC Comics character Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, and stars Melissa Benoist as the title character. Supergirl is a costumed superhero who is the biological cousin to Superman and one of the last surviving Kryptonians. She must learn to embrace her powers after hiding them. This series airs in October and also stars Calista Flockhart and Chyler Leigh.

Berlanti already has The Flash and Arrow series on the CW, so expect crossover with Supergirl. The trailer has gotten a lot of buzz, and this is one of the most eagerly awaited shows of the new season.

Berlanti has yet another show premiering, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which is a spin-off from Arrow and The Flash. This one will debut in January at the start of the mid-season, so we will tell you more about it then, but it stars out gay actor Victor Garber and British actor/musician Arthur Darvill (Broadchurch). (Here’s the official trailer: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4MubNoWQiSc ) The promos for CBS’ new sitcom Life in Pieces are soooo hilarious.

This Modern Family-esque series has an incredible cast that includes Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, Colin Hanks and Betsy Brandt. The series is the creation of Justin Adler. If that name rings a faint bell it’s because Adler was behind the brilliant if See page 35 >>

Music>>

t Fall preview: classical releases

by Tim Pfaff

B

efore we get to the outright hysterics, let’s pause a moment to contemplate the important imminent classical releases that do not feature Jonas Kaufmann. At the top of that list would be the late-October release of Igor Levit’s Sony three-fer of variations. In a characteristic bit of sage programming, the young German plays Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations and Frederic Rzewski’s 36 Variations on “The People United Will Never Be Defeated,” the last a timely reminder of Levit’s trenchant political views. I’ve heard him play the Rzewski on a gripping German radio broadcast, and reliable sources who have heard his live Goldbergs and Diabelli are still being resuscitated. Just sayin’.

Another 20something piano phenom who’s also the real thing, Danil Trifonov, has a recording of Rachmaninov Variations (DG) out at the end of the month; it includes the Paganini Rhapsody with the Philadelphia Orchestra under its out music director Yannick NezetSeguin, plus the (solo) Corelli and Chopin variations. And lest anyone regard Yuja Wang, touring with the SF town band, as old news, she has a new Ravel disc, including both concerti, out on DG in October. And in what must be a nail-biter for the artist once known as Yundi Li, Yundi, who has also changed labels, back to DG (which does know how to market to Chinese teenagers), will continue his projected survey of the complete Chopin with the Preludes, which has to be his last-chance Texaco. I heard his Chopin in Bangkok a couple years ago, and it confirmed my suspicion that the Thai Cultural Center is haunted.

The social-media-shy Jonas Kaufmann, along with Anna Netrebko the most bankable star in opera today (and in his case rightly), took to the airwaves to warn fans off a crude Decca compilation of “Puccini-era” tunes that does look like a shameless attempt to profit

<<

Lavender Tube

From page 34

short-lived Better Off Ted. He also did Samantha Who? and Less than Perfect. So yes, LIP will be edgy and hilarious. Debuts Sept. 21.

Another series we are looking forward to, ABC’s Blood & Oil, debuts Sept. 27 and looks like it will be the new Revenge. B&O stars Don Johnson, Chace Crawford, Scott Michael Foster and Rebecca Rittenhouse, and looks thriller-y and soap-y.

from Sony’s September release of the golden-voiced tenor’s Nessun Dorma, a promising compilation of new recordings of Puccini arias including early and little-known music that is, until release, being guarded like the Pentagon except, you know, probably better.

I would have counseled Kaufmann to skip the Puccini for Pfitzner’s Palestrina and Debussy’s Pelleas, but then I would have been wrong. No singer since Callas has so brought me on board with Puccini than Kaufmann has, and Sony is seizing the moment with autumn video releases of Manon Lescaut, with the equally persuasive Kristine Opolais, and La Fanciulla del West with reigning Wagner soprano and SF favorite Nina Stemme as Minnie, that famous Birgit Nilsson role.

But Kaufmann’s giving notice of his forthcoming Verdi Otello at Covent Garden with a studio Aida (Warner Classics), also conducted by Antonio Pappano and with the tenor’s regular European colleague Anja Harteros, still criminally underappreciated in the US. A live concert performance in Rome, just after the recording sessions, suggested that this is an Aida to bring Egypt back from the precipice.

Pappano tickles the ivories for Joyce DiDonato, who tickles everyone (and is opera’s other legitimate bang-on superstar, a word I would use for no one else) on Erato’s Joyce & Tony: Live at Wigmore Hall. One can only hope the fans check out the top-drawer Haydn and Rossini on the first disc on their way to the (for me) overpitched hits from Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” (like you’ve never heard it) to Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” (ditto) on the second disc.

Nezet-Seguin continues his DG Mozart series (all with Rolando Villazon; why?) with Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail in August. Any inclination to call it off-the-beaten-track repertoire is trumped by the fact that Rene Jacobs comes out with his new recording (Harmonia Mundi) in October. The buyer’s remorse Think Dallas updated to now. This show has the big oil family headed

by Hap Briggs (Johnson), who also has the problematic socialite wife, bad son, illegitimate biracial daughter and then some.

Finally, our fave new gay show from last season, Lee Daniels’ fabulous Empire, returns to Fox on Sept.

23. There are a bazillion more new shows that will be premiering over the next two months, but we wanted to get the gayest ones in first. So be sure to stay tuned.t

straw is up for grabs.

In its ongoing Leonard Bernstein series under out lesbian conductor Marin Alsop, ever-enterprising Naxos takes on the youlove-it-or-you-hate-it Symphony No. 3, Kaddish.

I loved the piece (still do) in its original incarnation, with Lenny’s then-wife Felicia Montealegre as the raging, grieving Speaker, a part Alsop says belongs to a woman, and which will be taken by Claire Bloom in the recording. “The symphony,” Alsop told Gramophone, “is about [Bernstein’s] relationship to Judaism, to his father, to his wife and to sexuality.

He wrote the original narration for his wife. [Revising it for a male speaker] was a terrible idea.”

Getting the jump on Chicago Lyric Opera’s December stage premiere of Jimmy Lopez’s Bel Canto, in October DG drops its new recording of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna. Itzhak Perlman turns 70 on Aug. 31, and DG celebrates by releasing his first new recording in a decade, of the Faure and Strauss sonatas, with Emanuel Ax. Then Perlman stands back to watch the avalanche of reissues, tall enough to block out the sun.

Saving the best for last, rumor has it that Placido Domingo will sing Oroveso on a new recording of Norma that he also conducts; will release a Hugo Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch with Netrebko; and will record, but not perform, the longlost, newly discovered Walkuere Alberich. Rumors that he is retraining as a countertenor have been reliably debunked.t

August 27-September 2, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

I am the future of the LGBT community.

I’m gay.

I’m 55. I’ve been out to my family for twenty years. I married a wonderful woman six years ago, and we adopted a baby girl from Vietnam. My family is everything to me.

That’s why I’m an avid follower of LGBT rights. Not just marriage, either. I want to make sure that I can travel safely, enjoy my retirement and have my child benefit from my life’s work.

I’m the future of the LGBT community. And I read about that future every morning on my work laptop. Because that’s where I want it to be.

The person depicted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

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On the Tab

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PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 35 • August 27-September 2, 2015

Gareth Gooch

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Wigged Out Hair salon for drag and with a cause

by David-Elijah Nahmod

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Cruzin d’Loo (left) celebrates with David Carver-Ford at his salon opening. photo: Gareth Gooch

Henry Lelue

n August 7, David Carver-Ford’s Diva Hair opened for business. The new enterprise seeks to reach a clientele not often served by mainstream salons: Diva Hair will be a wig studio for drag performers and transgenders.

See page 41 >>

Going Downtown Sutter’s Mill and Ginger’s Trois – San Francisco’s Historic Bars

r Historical Transgende

Society.

by Michael Flanagan

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al, sbian, Bisexu the Gay, Le Courtesy of

hen you think of downtown bars, you probably immediately think “Tenderloin.” Nowadays, that is entirely true, with bars such as the Gangway, Aunt Charlie’s and Club OMG, which are actually more mid-Market. The history of Tenderloin bars is long and storied, with bars like the Gilded Cage at 126 Ellis, which featured Charles Pierce on stage for six years before it closed in the late 1960s.

See page 38 >>

Left: Ginger’s bar in the 1970s Middle: Flyer for Ginger St. John’s “one-man drag show” at Ginger’s Too!.

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

38 • Bay Area Reporter • August 27-September 2, 2015

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Rick Gerharter

Inside Ginger’s Trois in January 2008.

<<

Going Downtown

From page 37

But from the mid-Sixties through 2008 there was another type of downtown bar – the businessman’s bar. These bars varied widely in their styles and included Chuck Holmes’ high-end Trinity Place, which was patterned after “gentlemen’s clubs” and in fact inhabited the old Le Domino Club on 25 Trinity Place (described by GQ in 1965 as having “a continental menu and walls covered with paintings of nudes”).

Others included Belden 22, which was as much a dining spot as a bar and existed in the 1980s (it is now Café Bastille) and Wilde Oscar’s (at 59 2nd Street) which was open in the early ‘70s and does indeed

sound wild, and not nearly as high end.

The early Bay Area Reporter columnist Perry wrote in his “Tidbits by the Bay” column from January 1974, “I hope you did not miss the Wilde Oscar’s Xmas décor. A drag queen’s delight. Hundreds of mirrors.”

The two downtown bars which lasted the longest and had the biggest impact, however, were Sutter’s Mill and the various incarnations of Ginger’s (Ginger’s, Ginger’s Too and Ginger’s Trois). Their stories give us both a window into another time and presage some of the problems that LGBT bars have had in more recent times, with the several moves of Sutter’s Mill due to lease problems and the mixed crowd at Ginger’s.

Sutter’s Mill has an amazing history (and client loyalty) in that it moved five times in its thirty year existence: from an unknown location on Kearny to 315 Bush, back to 70 Kearny St, then to 77 Battery and ultimately to 10 Mark Lane.

Perry was already indicating that there were lease problems in a 1973 column. In a 1991 “Around Town” article “Downtown and Dependable,” a B.A.R. columnist (with no byline) traced its history: “The first Sutter’s Mill opened in 1965 on Kearny Street. In 1967 the business moved to Bush Street, where it remained for 13 years. Kearny Street became home to the bar again until it lost its lease and opened at 77 Battery Street. There it remained, all 12,000 square feet of fun, until the

operation of such a large space became more of a liability than an asset.”

Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.

It was difficult for me to understand how a bar that moved so many times Ginger’s, Too! holiday events listing. retained a loyal clientele, so I asked Ron Williams (author of San Francisco’s NaUnion Square just a few blocks away. tive Sissy Son) who was living here Railroad companies, transportation when the bar was thriving about the companies, department stores and scene there. major corporations headquartered “I worked downtown in 1967 in the city were all big employers. and ‘68 and the first Sutter’s Mill Once the gay bar boom started in opened on Kearny between Bush the ‘70s, it was a natural business and Pine…. I would drop in for opportunity to capture the lunchlunch. It was packed with “ticker time business crowd. tape queens” from the financial dis“The Southern Pacific railroad trict. San Francisco had a huge gay has a building that was referred to workforce in the financial district as the ‘Swish Palace.’ If you were and the shopping district around See page 39 >>

Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.

Flyer for a Christmas party at Ginger’s Trois in 1996.

Rick Gerharter

Ginger’s Trois in June 2005.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 27-September 2, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 39

Rick Gerharter

Left: An ad for a (very young) Lea DeLaria show with Jeanine Strobel at Sutter’s Mill in the 1980s.

Above: Rich Tafel speaks at a meeting of the Log Cabin Republican Club at Sutter’s Mill in January 1994.

The bar had a decidedly mixed crowd. In the 2001 San Francisco guide Savvy in the City: San Francisco: A ‘See Jane Go’ Guide to City Living

by Jayne Young and Sheridan Becker it was described this way: “Come one, come all to this odd little clubby bar that is squarely out of place among the tall buildings in the Financial District! It’s a strange place with a disco ball and walls covered with Ginger Rogers posters (hence the name). The jukebox is as eclectic as the crowd, a mixed bag of drag queens, gays and financial whiz kids, all looking to drink the night away in a non-intimidating atmosphere.”

Jayne and Sheridan obviously didn’t know that the owner’s last name was Rogers and that perhaps provided another hint to both the posters and the name of the bar (but does still leave unanswered who exactly was Fred Astaire).

I remember Ginger’s Trois as a fun place I used to visit on my way to and from North Beach – something of a way station and a home away from home. But the See Jane Go guide was right about the eclectic crowd. When the bar closed in 2008, Rogers said that he thought of it as a “people’s bar” and that, “I didn’t know for sure who was gay and who wasn’t. I didn’t care.”

Ginger’s Trois was purchased by the owners of Bench and Bar Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society. and it became Rickhouse. The new owners had a good working An ad for a Barbary Coast-themed event at Sutter’s Mill in 1986. relationship with Rogers – they had purchased Ginger’s Too in 2002 and it became Anu. To their dollar in their new premises was also Going Downtown credit, Rickhouse still has a drink their first customer when the origi From page 38 called Ginger’s Trois (“this bubnal bar opened in 1965.” bly cocktail provides every minty Ginger’s Trois at 245 Kearny was new in town, you could almost get answer you desire, and all without an entirely different sort of bar and a clerk job at SP. It was a time before the trouble of having to ask a single was something of a mixed bag.

That computers and everything adminisquestion”). was, in large part, because the owner trative was done by hand and with As for Sutter’s Mill – it is hard to Don Rogers had owned bars in the paper. The financial district gay bars say exactly when it closed. I found Tenderloin as well as downtown really served the lunch and cocktail a notice for a Log Cabin Republiand his clientele came from both the hour crowd and some of it spilled can meeting there in February 1995 business and the Tenderloin worlds. over into the evening.” (they met there often). By June 1996 Rogers began his entertainIt’s certainly clear that the owners it had become the bar which was ment career at LeBoeuf Restaurant of Sutter’s Mill retained the loyalty initially called the Bank of Ireland (545 Washington) in the 1960s of its staff throughout their various and is now called the Irish Bank. You and opened Ginger’s (100 Eddy) moves and that probably helped can still meet Republicans there, but in 1978.

This first bar lasted until keep its long-term downtown gay they’re more the Gerry Adams raththe late Eighties and by the time it clientele as well. er than the Terry Dolan sort. closed he had opened Ginger’s Too In the 1991 article it mentions This story has a coda. In 2012 the on 43 6th Street.

Ginger’s Trois that the bartender George Lowy had Bench and Bar’s owners sold Anu to opened in December, 1991. It was a been at the bar for 19 years and the Rakesh Modi, who reopened it as favorite of the late B.A.R. columnist chef Bill Brown had been doing his Club OMG. And so the era of the Sweet Lips, who would often call it “famous Southside Chicago barbedowntown gay bar (or is it a Ten“an inexpensive bar for people with cue” since 1965. It also states “the derloin bar?) is not quite over in San money” – which became the motto same customer who spent the first Francisco.t of the bar.

<<

Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.

An ad for Aldo Antonio Bell’s Bessie Smith show at Sutter’s Mill in the 1980s.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

40 • Bay Area Reporter • August 27-September 2, 2015

Regal romps

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By Donna Sachet

L

ast weekend, we joined many of Mama’s Family for a reunion organized by Ray Tilton at the Russian River. The legendary r3 Hotel (formerly the Triple R) was headquarters for the many people touched

by Mama Sandy Reinhardt and inducted into her family, now numbering in the thousands. For nearly 20 years, Mama has recognized tireless volunteers, Leather and other title-holders, and many of the quiet workers in the background, giving them campy nicknames and new recognition.

We raised money for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence River chapter with poolside games, coemceed with Sister Wilma Titzgro, and participated in a lively musical show headed by Tora Hymen and including talent from Daft-nee Gesuntheit, Patty McGroin, and Rodger Jensen. Sometimes a nice visit north to the Russian River is the perfect remedy to the hustle/bustle of the City!

As a regular reader of this column, you are surely aware of the increasing frequency of roasts in our community, usually a good-natured opportunity to point out the foibles of well-known people, while reinforcing their popularity, and often a source of fundraising. We fondly remember those of Sister Roma, Lenny Broberg, Queen Cougar, Andy Cross, and even this unfortunate columnist.

The latest was hosted last week

by Openhouse, the local organization that focuses on the needs of LGBT elders, held in the Rainbow Room of the LGBT Community Center, and titled a Love Roast of Marlena the Magnificent! The hard work of committee chairs Bob Glas, China Silk, Collette LeGrande, and J.P. Leddy and Marlena’s decades of service, fundraising, and popularity guaranteed a sold-out event.

The evening began with a clever slideshow, created by Will Roscoe of Openhouse, that shared Marlen’s Modesto origins and remarkable life in San Francisco and her close friendship with Jose Sarria, the namesake of this second annual Jose Sarria Community Celebration.

After gentle roasting and certificates of honor from State Senator Mark Leno and Supervisor Scott Wiener, a regally dressed Marlena made a grand entrance accompanied by body-painted feline boys provided by Terry Sidie of Sacramento. Then, an invited and preapproved selection of roasters each took their turn, carefully balancing

Gareth Gooch

Marlena and body-painted feline boys at her Love Roast at the LGBT Center.

a bit of witty roasting with genuine admiration for this much beloved local icon.

From musical performances by T. J. Istvan, Galilea, and Misty Blue to funny remembrances by Paul Gabriel, Bradley Roberts, Jay Harcourt, and Ron Ross and a blessing

by Sister Dana van Iquity, Marlena bravely suffered through it all. Lenny Broberg again demonstrated his acumen at auctioning by raising nearly $1,000 from a generous audience with only two items.

The Reigning Grand Duke of San Francisco T. J. Wilkinson and the Reigning Emperor Kevin Lisle and Reigning Empress Khmera Rouge then presented Marlena with a commemorative book of tributes.

The evening ended with a performance by Marlena herself, a medley of three powerful anthems, bringing the crowd to their feet with applause. We then all joined in a champagne toast and a rousing rendition of “God Save Us Nellie Queens,” often sung by the late Jose Sarria during civil rights protests and other events. We can’t imagine a more perfect Love Roast for this treasured personality.

Ballots & Beaux

As of last week’s Review Board, there are two official candidates for the next Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of San Francisco. On Sep-

tember 19, vote yes confidently for Aja Monet for Grand Duke and Olivia Hart for Grand Duchess, both time-tested volunteers, dedicated to their community. Grand Ducal Coronation is Saturday, September 26, at Hotel Whitcomb.

The Imperial Council of San Francisco proudly announces their newest title-holders: After a field of five contestants sold over $15,000 worth of raffle tickets, the new Mr. Golden Gate is Leandro Gonzales and Miss Golden Gate is Ronda Pacheco. They follow in the footsteps of so many tireless volunteers, including last year’s Mr. Golden Gate Colby Michaels and Miss Golden Gate Sadie Ladie.

Don’t miss Joshua J’s Big Top eighth anniversary at Beaux this Sunday, from 8PM until closing.

With listed talent like Au Jus, Raja Gemini, Sister Roma, Honey Mahogany, BeBe Sweetbriar, and Carnie Asada, you can’t go wrong!

The following Sunday, at Midnight Sun, from 4-7PM, Patty McGroin’s Doll House pays tribute to the legendary Marlena’s bar in Hayes Valley while raising money to complete the documentary film 50 Years of Fabulous! This historic film deserves your attention and support.

We wish you a very happy Labor Day wherever you may find yourself. Remember, the arrival of September means Folsom Street Fair is not far behind. Get those outfits ready and explore a different side of yourself!t

Gareth Gooch

Joel Evans, Openhouse Director of Development and Marketing, with Empress Marlena.

Top: Steven Underhill; Bottom Left: Rich Stadtmiller; Bottom Right: Gareth Gooch Gareth Gooch

Emperor Kevin Lisle, newly elected Miss Golden Gate Ronda Pacheco and Mr. Golden Gate Leandro Gonzales, and Empress Khmera Rouge.

Top: The second annual celebration of Jose Sarria at Twin Peaks bar. Bottom Left: Tora Hymen with Mama Sandy Reinhardt at the Russian River Reunion at the r3 Hotel. Bottom Right: Patty McGroin pitches at the Imperial Gaymes at Eureka Valley Rec Center Park.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 27-September 2, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 41

Gareth Gooch

Cruzin d’Loo (left-right) David Carver-Ford, his mother, and Philip R. Ford at Diva Hair’s opening.

<<

Wigged Out

From page 37

“It’s a private and intimate scene for wig fitting and purchases,” Carver said as he prepared for the opening earlier this month. “I like to call the style of the studio pink, plum and persimmon. A 1960s mod theme with pops of bright yellow and pink furniture and accessories with an eclectic mix or art. It’s calm, artsy place for clients to come, relax and sit over a cup of coffee while purchasing wig ideas.”

Diva Hair will be a salon with a social conscious. Part of CarverFord’s service will include wigs for people suffering hair loss due to

David Carver-Ford onstage at Oasis.

cancer or alopecia, a disorder in which the immune system attacks the hair follicles.

“I have created wigs for Peaches Christ, Heklina, Mutha Chucka, and Cookie Dough when she was alive,” Carver-Ford said. “I have collaborated on and designed outrageously big drag queen wigs for their performances.”

Carver-Ford recently celebrated his own drag coming out at the Oasis.

“This included a variety show of Phyllis Diller-inspired skits and a runway fashion show of my wig work,” he said. “With many of the drag queens performing and modeling, I held a raffle for my favorite charity, Wigs For Kids.”

For the past thirty years Wigs For Kids has provided hairpieces for children who have suffered hair loss due to cancer or other illnesses.

“Helping children look themselves and live their lives,” states the Wigs For Kids website.

While the work he does for people suffering from illnesses is fairly simple and natural, Carver-Ford’s work with drag performers is another matter entirely.

“What I’m trying to convey and present is big and campy beautiful hairpieces,” he said. “I get my ideas from old Hollywood. I think of movies from the ‘20s and ‘30s with stars like Claudette Colbert, Jean Harlow and Mae West. That was a time of glamour hair!”

He explained what the work means to him.

“It’s an artistic and meaningful desire to express myself, and to work with talented, creative people in my community,” he said. “I see the community as being all about self-expression and thoughts of ‘you can be whatever you want’ through performing. Dreaming big, working hard, making friends and to belong sums it up.”

Carver-Ford was once a high school dropout who always knew he wanted to work with hair. It was while studying at Zenzi’s Beauty Academy that he went back to school to get his diploma. It was Zenzi who personally mentored the young Carver-Ford, becoming a second mother to him, nurturing him as we went for his cosmetology license.

“Around that time, bolstered

by Zenzi’s invaluable support, I found the strength to come out to my family about being gay,” he recalled. Zenzi also gave Carver-Ford his first job.

“I learned what it was like to have a job and be responsible,” he recalled. “I earned my teaching certificate soon after, and taught classes to the art of cosmetology.”

Eighteen years later, Carver-Ford is living a life that he loves. He’s fulfilled his dreams.

“I’m still amazed at what I’ve accomplished in the last year,” CarverFord said happily.t Diva Hair by David Carver-Ford offers service by appointment only.

The salon is located at 3150 18th Street, #318. (415) 378-3728. www. divahairbydavidcarver.weebly.com

Gareth Gooch

Nightlife patron Linda Lee tries on a wig with David Carver-Ford.

<< On the Tab

42 • Bay Area Reporter • August 27-September 2, 2015

On the Tab

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Jeff Goldblum @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Party Nights @ Club BnB, Oakland

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover.

9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

The veteran actor shares his musical side, with songs and piano-playing with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. $60-$75 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm.

Also Aug. 29, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Different events each week; 1st Fri: Taboo with DJ Harness. 2nd: Menage with DJ Rapture. 3rd: Seduction Feroce, a burlesque cabaret show (9pm). 4th: Bleu Sugar shows with hotess Miss Lady Lana. July 30: eight-year anniversary party. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Aug. 27Sept. 3, 2015

Music with local and touring bands.

398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sfeagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Xcess Thursdays @ The Café

Thu 3 Sebastian at Tender Bears @ Oasis

O

h my gravy, it’s already autumn, or at least almost September.

Back to schoolin’! Here are this week’s events of fun nightlifery.

Thu 27

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Champagne White and the Temple of Poon @ Oasis D’Arcy Drollinger’s sequel to the hilarious hit comedy Shit & Champagne, with a women’s prisonthemed parody and suspense-filled action-comedy show. $25-$200 (fourperson VIP table). Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Sept 12. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men’s bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Aug. 27: DJed music

by Sleazemore and Richie Panic, SF Bazaar arts and crafts showcases, mini-book workshops and more. $10$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Painted Palms @ The Rickshaw Stop Pop duo perform at the 2nd album release party; also, Antwon + Sad Andy, Meat Market. $15. 8pm. 155 Fell St. at Van Ness. www.rickshawstop.com

Thirsty Thursdays @ The Cafe Drink specials, Top 40, gogo studs and no cover. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Frisco Robbie and Persia’s dance and pop music night gets the weekend started, with gogo guys and gals, plus drink specials and guest DJs. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Fri 28

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Karaoke Night @ The Stud “Sing Til It Hurts” the new weekly night with hostess Sister Flora (Floozy) Goodthyme. 8pm; happy hour drinks til 10pm. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes weekly drag show does a Grace Jones tribute night, with Honey Mahogany, Kendra Munroe, Bridget Weslet and Camille Tow. $5. 10:30pm show. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show continues, with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Hard Fridays @ Qbar DH Haute Toddy’s weekly electro-pop night with hotty gogos. $3. 9pm-2am (happy hour 4pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

L7 @ Regency Ballroom The fantastic all-women punk/metal band returns! Frightwig opens. $27.50-$30. 9pm. 1290 Sutter St. (888) 929-7849. www.l7theband. com www.theregencyballroom.com

Steam @ Powerhouse Celebrate birthdays of Walter G and Marke B (who also DJs), with $100 wet towel contest, massages, and wet gogo guys. $5 benefits 48 Hills, the progessive news site.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www. powerhousebar.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox The saucy women’s burlesque revue’s weekend show; different musical guests each week. Also Wednesday nights. $10-$20.

7:30pm. 314 11th St. www.redhotsburlesque.com www.beatboxsf.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 12pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night.

10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Fri 28 Friday Night Market @ UN Plaza

They’re back! The saucy sexy LA studly gogo guys (nine of ‘em!), led by Mario Diaz, return for more dancing and debauchery. $10. 10pm-3am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Boy Bar @ The Cafe Gus Presents’ weekly dance night, with DJ Kid Sysko, cute gogos and $2 beer (before 10pm). 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Brüt @ Beatbox The New York leather party returns, with DJs Dan Darlington and DAMnation, leather-clad men and dancing. $10. 10pm-3am. 314 11th St. www.brutparty.com www.beatboxsf.com

Comedy Noir @ Balancoire Valeria Branch’s weekly comedy night, where she embodies her faux queen character Pia Messing for some offbeat wit, along with guest performers. $5. 8pm-10pm. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Friday Night Market @ UN Plaza Free monthly outdoor party, with live music, a full cash bar, food trucks, booths with wares from local artists, kid play spaces. 5pm-9pm. McAllister St at Leavenworth and Market. www.fridaynightmarketsf.org

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Lulu, Jacki, and Vicki cohost the festive gogo-filled dance club that features Latin pop dance hits with DJs Speedy Douglas Romero and Fabricio; no cover before 10pm. $6-$12. 9pm4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic dance night starts off your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Midnight Show @ Divas Weekly drag shows at the last transgender-friendly bar in the Polk; with hosts Victoria Secret, Alexis Miranda and several performers. Also Saturdays. $10. 11pm. 1081 Polk St. www.divassf.com

Sat 29 3rd Anniversary @ Club OMG

Celebrate three years at the midMarket intimate nightclub, with a drag show, dance party, snacks and cake. No cover. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Beat to the Beat @ SF Citadel Dancing and BDSM combined at the leather DJed event. 8pm-1am. 181 Eddy St. 757-0090. www.sfcitadel.org

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust.

4pm-8pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Franko DJs the weekly mash-up/ pop music night. No cover. 2 for 1 well drinks, 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Sing your heart out at the free lively night. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Big Fat Dick @ Oasis

Homo Thursdays @ Qbar

Karaoke Night @ Club BnB, Oakland

t

Fri 28 Big Fat Dick @ Oasis

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays. 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland’s premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Chile Con Comedy @ Magnet Chile Con Consuela hosts a diverse lineup of comics, including Victor Cruz Perez, Shannon Murphy, Just Morgan, Nasty Ass Bitch, Ira Summer, Glamis Rory and Jennifer Dronsky. Free. 8pm.

4122 18th St. www.jesusubettawork. com www.magnetsf.org

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland Get groovin’ at the weekly hip hop and R&B night at their new location. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

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On the Tab>>

August 27-September 2, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 43

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe

Fri 28

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

L7 @ Regency Ballroom

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland

Opulence @ Beaux

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s

The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night include big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm.

2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone).

9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www. dragatmartunis.com

Hysteria @ Oasis

Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Irish Dance Night @ Starry Plough, Berkeley

Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious, tonight with RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist Kennedy Davenport. $15-$25. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Saturgay @ Qbar Stanley Frank spins house dance remixes at the intimate Castro dance bar. $3. 9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Sugar @ The Cafe Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sun 30

Atlas Genius @ The Independent The fun pop/alt band performs; Dreams and The Shleters open. $20.

8pm. 628 Divisadero St. www.theindependentsf.com

Baby Love @ Oasis Dusty Moorehead’s fundraiser (for Rainbow Stork, the LGBT surrogacy agency) and drag show, with Roxy Cotton Candy, Kylie Minono, Heklina, U-Phoria, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and many more; raffles, silent auction, too. $20. 5pm doors, 7pm show. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Big Top @ Beaux Eight-year anniversary of the fun Castro nightclub, with Sister Roma, Bebe Sweetbriar, Raja, Honey Mahogany, Au Jus, Carne Asada, DJs Becky Knox and Ms. Jackson, and sexy gogo guys and gals. $5. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s Best Female Crooner is the category for this installment of the 6th annual talent competition, with host/MC Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Joe Wicht accompanying; guest judges Amanda King and Linda Kosut. $9. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. 241-0205.

Brunch @ Hi Tops Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle Enjoy part two of DJ Bus Station John’s Donna Summer tribute, with classic dance floor hits at the historic leather bar. $5. 7pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Tejeda. 7pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe Pollo del Mar’s weekly drag show takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Jock @ The Lookout Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Morning After BBQ @ Oasis The weekly barbeque brunch on the newly opened rooftop deck, with Mimosas and Bloody Mary cocktails.

11am-3pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Silicon Valley Pride @ Downtown San Jose 40th annual LGBTQ celebration, with a kickoff party Aug. 28 (entertainment, DJs; 21+; 8pm-2am, 72 N. Almaden), and parade and fair Aug. 30. Festival includes a parade, and fair includes performances by Steve Grand, Chase & Ovarion, MK Nobilette, Jeanie Tracy and Debby Holiday. DJed dance music, drag shows, and comedy acts, too. $10$15. 12pm-7pm at Almaden Blvd. at Park Ave. After-party at Continental Bar with DJs David Harness, Ruben Macias and others; 5pm-2am. $10-$15. www.svpride.com

Sunday Brunch, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; shows at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:45pm. After that, T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Sunday Brunch @ Thee Parkside Enjoy $12 bottomless mimosas from 10am-3pm at the fun punk rock bar.

1600 17th St. 252-1330. www.theeparkside.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Mon 31 Beat It @ Oasis

80s music party, with black light, cheap beer and acid-wash jeans welcome. No cover. 8pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Mother @ Oasis

No No Bingo @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Weekly dance lessons and live music at the pub-restaurant, hosted by John Slaymaker. $5. 7pm. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. thestarryplough.com

Karaoke @ The Lookout Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany’s weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Mash Up Mondays @ Club BnB, Oakland Weekly Karaoke and open mic night.

9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 7597340. www.club-bnb.com

Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Underwear Night @ 440

Tue 1

13 Licks @ Qbar The “lezzie queer dance party” brings out the femmes and butches. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. 864-2877. www.qbarsf.com

Barnaby’s Babes @ Oasis Enjoy a saucy burlesque show, with The Century Sisters, Magnoliah Black, the Tartlettes, Bohemian Brethren and The Phishnets. $15-$25. 8pm. 8pm.

298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

See page 44 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

44 • Bay Area Reporter • August 27-September 2, 2015

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

t

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Fri 28 Brüt @ Beatbox

<<

Switch @ Q Bar

On the Tab

From page 43

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

FREE TO LISTEN AND REPLY TO ADS Free Code: Reporter

FIND REAL GAY MEN NEAR YOU San Francisco:

(415) 430-1199 Oakland:

San Jose:

(510) 343-1122 (408) 514-1111 www.megamates.com 18+

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum.

9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Weekly women’s night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Booty Call @ QBar Juanita More! and her weekly intimate –yet packed– dance party. $10-$15. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Bondage a GoGo @ Cat Club The (mostly straight) kinky weekly dance night, where fetish gear is welcome; DJs Damon and Tomas Diablo play electro, goth, industrial, etc. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.bondage-a-go-go.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Churchturned disco roller skate party space, hosted

by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.”

Actually, every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday’s Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged).

Also Wed, Thu, 7pm10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10.

Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www. churchof8wheels.com

Wed 2

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. No cover. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Brandon Flowers @ Fox Theatre, Oakland The lead singer for The Killers performs music from his new solo album, plus a few Killers favorites. Rey Pila opens.

1807 Telegraph Ave. $37.50. 8pm. www.thefoxoakland.com

Sat 29 Kennedy Davenport at Mother @ Oasis

Sun 30

Gaymer Night @ Eagle Gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Follies @ Oasis

Dusty Moorehead’s Baby Love @ Oasis

Holotta Tymes hosts the new weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. Also, Yuri Kagan’s comedy set. $20.

7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse

Homo Hump Day @ Various Bars

Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

The weekly roving pop-up gayvasion of notable and welcoming straight bars. www.popupgaybar.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG

The weekly themed variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents; MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7. Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Kingdom of Sodom/Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Get strippin’ with the strippers; refreshments, a show and a cruisy ambiance. $20. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. thenobhilltheatre.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am.

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry Weekly game night for board and electronic gamers at the warehouse multi-purpose nightclub. 21+. 6pm12am. 1425 Folsom St. www.showdownesports.com

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland Vicky Jimenez’ drag show and contest; Latin music all night. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials; different hosts each week. $3. 10pm2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Man Francisco @ Oasis The weekly all-male striptease revue with a storyline of San Francisco’s history, performed by sexy local hunks. $20 (plus optional $30 lap dances!). 9:30pm. Thru September.

298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

See page 46 >>

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 27-September 2, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 45

a-Kross-dicks

by John F. Karr

A

The movie’s set is curiously inhospitable; it couldn’t have inspired the performers.

And Sebastian’s match-up with Casey More is a washout. More’s as pretty as a runway model, and just about as distant, not at all giving. I was thinking he’s probably str8, and then my on-set spy at a previous movie reported his constant stream of self-reassuring str8 talk.

h, Sebastian Kross. I’ll never dance with another, since I saw him standing there. Naturally, I saw his dick before I saw the rest of him.

It was jutting out, and it was so thick I felt my lips stretching sideway like Faye Dunaway’s playing Joan Crawford, and it was so rigidly perpendicular to his body that I thought my heart would crack.

A dick like that, would thrill your brother.

But, I swear, there are other things I like about Kross, like his delicious height. It’s been variously reported from 5’4” to 5’6”. I think he’s on the lower side of those figures, and that gets me hot.

Lots of guys are turned on by smaller men; not as a fetish, but in appreciation of their particular qualities. It’s unfortunate that filmmakers pay so little attention to letting us salivate over size. But they generally have no idea about what’s actually erotic, so to them, everyone’s the same size, whether short or tall.

Well. Another thing I like about Kross? His rosy cheeks. And I like the way his doe eyes droop a little downward at the outside. That gives him a vulnerable look, which is pretty Sebastian Kross hot in tandem with his stance as a determinately dominating top.

And then Sebastian was in MagHe declares doggie is his favorite nitude. It’s a vehicle for Pierre Fitch, position: “I like to be in control.” And who appears in three scenes, flipthen he swears almighty that he’ll fucking excitingly with Brent Corrinever get fucked. We’ll see how long gan, feeding his cum to the snorting, that lasts. Because he says he’s doing lip-smacking Ryan Rose, and giving it for the money, honey. it up to the plowman of And also, bless his heart, because, the hour, Mr. Kross.

“It’s a fun job to have” (he said one For a twist in Magniof the best things about working at tude, Sebastian’s almost Falcon was that they let him walk entirely shaved his around in the nude all day. Probably crotch. The sight of his with a hard-on. How do I let SebasTower of Power ristian know that nudity’s de rigueur a ing so cleanly from the chez Karr?) smooth terrain of his There’s a lot more Krossiana I’d groin is awesome. Well, love to linger on, but I’ve got to get doggone it, I’ve dampened my unto his last couple of movies before dergarments just thinking about it. my medication wears off.

Kross’ fuck here is a hearty one, So, next up on our Sebastian energetic and unstinting (even survey is Cruising for Ass. I didn’t if it’s exactly what he gave all his find it engaging, despite scenes of previous partners). All that energy Boomer Banks and then Jimmy Duis good, but energy is not a talent. rano screwing Alexander Gustavo.

We’ve seen Sebastian fuck. Now I

want it to mean something. The kid’s had three or four directors so far, and here’s what I expect a director to do—orient Sebastian toward deeper relationships. Perhaps sit down with him, and screen his scene with Johnny V. in Tahoe; Keep Me Warm, and ask, why is this night different from all other nights?

While you’re enjoying Magnitude, take a look around. David Hall’s set is an imaginative cradle for sex. It’s a minimalist Gothic dungeon, with soaring arcs that vault the room, a grate blocking off the rear, and a full moon glowing amber behind it as backdrop. It’d be perfect for a production of Salome; that grate would be Jokanaan’s cistern.

And check out Hall’s set for Double Kross. It was sleekly moderne: matte black walls decorated with empty matte black picture frames.

That sounds too austere, but it looks rather classy, and warm.

The most recent Kross movie I’ve got is the generally pleasing Sidewinder. I love a warm environment, and this one’s set in a hacienda and the surrounding scrub country.

The movie’s scenes Falcon Studios have an easygoing, spontaneous feel, and feature two newer faces.

Handsome and uncut Armando De Amas is paired with Nick Sterling—one hairy, one humpy. And in two fine scenes, Letterio Amadeo plugs into Sean Zevran and then commandeers Johnny V., who loves it thick and uncut. Mr. Zevran is always a scene booster, and he’s swell with Sebastian.

They spice it up with some novel positions for sex, and Sebastian offers his biggest load ever.

Are you keeping score? In First Place is Sebastian with Johnny V in Tahoe: Keep Me Warm; second is Sebastian with Ryan Rose in Double Kross, and in third, in the same movie, is Sebastian with Chris Bines. And I wouldn’t spit out that all-oral scene with Brenner Bolton in Tahoe: Cozy Up.t

Falcon Studios

Sebastian Kross deserves more giving partners than Casey More, in Cruising for Sex.

Falcon Studios

Sebastian Kross and Pierre Fitch, behind the scenes in Las Vegas.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

46 • Bay Area Reporter • August 27-September 2, 2015

Personals

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<<

On the Tab

From page 44

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm.

398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux Weekly women’s happy hour, with allwomen music and live performances, 2 for 1 drinks, and no cover. 5pm-9am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink

Rookie Night @ Nob Hill Theatre New talent night at the historic strip club; contestants sign-up 8pm, for a $200 first prize. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes.

Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com Torey Mundkowsky

Weekly LGBT and friends skate night,

with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www. rainbowskate.net www.facebook. com/rainbowskating/

FIND REAL GAY MEN NEAR YOU

(415) 430-1199 Oakland:

San Jose:

(510) 343-1122 (408) 514-1111 www.megamates.com 18+

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440 Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Thu 3

After Dark @ Exploratoium The monthly cocktail party at the hands-on museum includes special demos and exhibits on math, patterns and the structure of objects. $10-$15.

6pm-10pm. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. www.exploratorium.edu

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (with a contest at midnight), and dance beats spun

by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show.

DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mazel Top @ Oasis The social night for Jewish gay guys and their admirers. $3-$5. 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

Brandon Flowers @ The Fox Theatre

personals

San Francisco:

Sun 30

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Wed 2

ebar.com

Steven Underhill

I’m a Tall Latin Man in my late 40’s. If you’re looking, I’m the right guy for you. My rates are $80/hr & $120/90 min.

My work hours are 10 a.m. to midnite everyday.

415-515-0594 Patrick call or text. See pics on ebar.com

Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Steve Grand headlines Silicon Valley Pride

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana leads the weekly amateur singing night. 8pm. No cover. 43 6th St. 896-6473. www.clubomgsf.com

Tender Bears (Osos Amorosos) @ Oasis The new night of bilingual drag, music, poetry and performance, with Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Kevin Seaman, Chilean gay singer Sebastián, Sue Veneer, Kay Nilsson, DJ Cholula Caliente and more. $15. 9:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Thursday Night Live @ Eagle Live bands- usually, rock, punk and always good- perform at the famed leather bar. 8:30pm first band. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Eleventh anniversary year of the retro disco night with DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 27-September 2, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 47

Shooting Stars Steven Underhill photos by

Marlena’s Love Roast

T

he Love Roast of Absolute Empress XXV Marlena, held August 20 at the LGBT Community Center, also raised funds for Openhouse, the LGBT senior care nonprofit. Luminaries in many different local communities stepped up to honor the Imperial Court elder, and Senator Mark Leno presented legislative honors. www.openhouse-sf.org More event photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife.

See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

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