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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Cafe Flore is for sale
Vol. 46 • No. 28 • July 14-20, 2016
LGBTs debate gun laws
by Sari Staver
T
he Castro’s iconic Cafe Flore, a popular LGBT hangout for the past four decades, is for sale. On July 11, the business, including use of its liquor license, was offered for sale for Jane Philomen Cleland $495,000. The funky dining Cafe Flore and drinking spot, is for sale. which was awarded best place for lunch and best outdoor patio in the Bay Area Reporter’s Besties readers’ poll this year, has hosted many charity fundraisers and community events, including last year’s 25th anniversary party for ACT UP. Steven “Stu” Gerry, one of the owners, told the B.A.R. in a phone interview that the current partners would also be open to selling an interest in the business to people who could provide the capital to make some necessary improvements. “Our hope is that Cafe Flore will continue,” said Gerry, who said he was showing the business to three prospective buyers just one day after it was listed. The property itself, owned by J.D. Petras, is not for sale. “We’re willing to stay on in some capacity” to keep the business operating, said Gerry. “There are all kinds of possibilities” in structuring the deal, he said. The decision to sell “was a tough call,” he said. Gerry and two other partners invested in the business two years ago, when Petras put it on the market. Gerry, who had the listing for the property and has a background in the restaurant business, decided to “make some improvements” and then determine whether to keep it or put it back on the market. After two years, “and many, many improvements,” Gerry said the partners had exhausted their capital. “I’m not sure any of us really realized all we were getting into when” they invested, he said. Unlike the sale of many other local businesses, the owners were not prompted to act by a rent increase, said Gerry. But, he added, “doing business in San Francisco has become increasingly difficult,” citing both the recent increase in the minimum wage and Healthy San Francisco universal health care, which increases costs for businesses with 20 or more employees. “Old buildings need a lot of love,” said Gerry. “We reached our capacity and could not invest any more money.” Cafe Flore has had ongoing issues with is prep kitchen, which is located across the street from the restaurant (http://ebar.com/ blogs/planning-commission-approves-cafeflores-off-site-kitchen/). That facility is now “within inches” of being in compliance with city codes, he said. See page 13 >>
Athonia Cappelli fires a gun during a Pink Pistols training session in San Jose.
by Seth Hemmelgarn
A
s the U.S. reels from recent gun violence that includes the massacre at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the fatal police shootings of two African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota; and the ambush killings of five Dallas police officers, California officials are taking a look at the state’s gun laws while LGBT firearms enthusiasts say additional legislation is unnecessary. See page 10 >>
Milk’s bullhorn returns to gay museum Jo-Lynn Otto
by Matthew S. Bajko
uary 1974 during the beer truck drivers’ boycott of Coors Brewing Company. fter another star turn in a Hol“The union gave me the bullhorn,” lywood production about San recalled Baird, at the time employed by Francisco’s LGBT community, Teamsters Local 888, which was fighting the bullhorn once used by the late gay for a better contract for the beer truck Supervisor Harvey Milk is back on disdrivers it represented. “I requested it beplay at the GLBT History Museum in cause I couldn’t keep yelling in front of the city’s gay Castro district. the businesses we picketed. We were in It had been removed for two weeks front of stores, restaurants, anyone who so it could be used during filming of sold Coors beer.” When We Rise, the forthcoming ABCBaird, 84, spoke to the Bay Area miniseries about the city’s LGBT comReporter while seated at a table inside munity that is inspired by the soon-toEureka Cafe on Castro Street, in the be released memoir of the same title heart of the neighborhood he has by gay rights activist Cleve Jones, who called home his entire life. Over his Kelly Sullivan created the AIDS quilt and is currently shoulder, on the wall, hung a black Allan Baird, left, holds the bullhorn that he gave to Harvey Milk working with labor union Unite HERE. and white photo of himself, described as he joined Cleve Jones outside the GLBT History Museum. Jones, who helped elect Milk in as “Teamster ‘Allan Baird,’” along with 1977 as the city’s first openly gay ofMilk at a Coors beer boycott in 1976 mains to be seen if the scenes with the bullhorn, ficial, went on to serve as an intern in that was taken by Dan Nicoletta. his City Hall office. Milk gave him the red and featured prominently in posters for this year’s “It has a lot of history in it. I can’t tell you gray Japanese-made Model MV-85-C bullhorn, Frameline LGBT International Film Festival, all the things that happened with this bullhorn,” will make the final cut of the show. officially known as a Fanon Transistorized said Baird. “It all still works,” Jones said of the bullhorn, Megaphone, shortly after his election. It was Milk who suggested to Baird that he which is now dented and scratched in various seek the LGBT community’s support of the In 2008 the bullhorn was used during filming of Milk, the Oscar-winning biopic about the iconic places and includes the initials “HM” etched beer boycott. onto it. gay leader. Both Sean Penn, who won an Academy “Before the strike, Coors was in the Castro While more attention has been paid to Milk’s bars. Harvey told me gays drink Coors too,” reAward for his portrayal of Milk, and Emile Hirsch, who played a young Jones, can be seen speaking use of the bullhorn, and later Jones’ utilizing it called Baird, who years ago retired as president during various protests and demonstrations in of Teamsters Local 921. through it in the Gus Van Sant-directed film. the 1980s and 1990s, the device has a history that In the seven-episode TV series, set to air in Milk introduced him to the late Bob Ross, the 2017, Austin P. McKenzie plays a young Jones predates their ownership of it. Union organizer founding publisher of the B.A.R. who was close Allan Baird initially deployed it beginning in Janwhile Guy Pearce portrays him as an adult. It reSee page 13 >>
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