September 17, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

5 elected to SF Pride board

ARTS

2

17

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SF Opera opens

Kyle Dean Massey

The

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Vol. 45 • No. 38 • September 17-23, 2015

Men can soon Strut into SFAF center mr. Pam/NakedSword.com

Porn actors Bray Love, right, and Austin Keyes in a still shot.

Condoms in porn law likely headed for ballot

San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Neil Giuliano, left; James Loduca, vice president of philanthropy and public affairs; and Tim Patriarca, the executive director of Strut, descend the staircase to the second floor of the new facility.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

C

alifornia voters likely will have a chance next November to decide whether porn actors should have to wear condoms in films made in the state. Many in the porn industry are fighting the idea.

The proposal, which is being pushed by the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, needs 365,880 valid signatures to be on the state ballot in 2016. AHF and its allies announced Monday, September 14, which was the filing deadline, that they would be submitting 557,136 signatures of registered voters.

In a news release Monday, AHF President Michael Weinstein predicted victory. “[U]nlike most politicians, voters are not squeamish about this issue, seeing it as a means to protect the health and safety of performers working in the industry,” Weinstein said. “It’s only fair that adult film performers be afforded the same safeguards as other Californians in their workplaces.”

AHF was behind a similar law that passed in Los Angeles County in 2012.

Among other provisions, the California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act would require porn actors to use condoms when they’re filming scenes depicting sexual intercourse. It would also allow any California resident who complains to the California Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety and Health about a suspected violation to potentially file a civil action against an actor if he has a financial interest in the film if the agency doesn’t start an investigation within a certain time period.

A gay San Francisco porn actor who goes by the name Bray Love said he always wears condoms in his scenes, but AHF’s measure “is a little bit ridiculous.”

“I understand both sides. I really do,” Love, 23, said. “But really, when it comes down to it, it’s our bodies. It should be our choice.”

When he first started in porn about six years ago, “I did a couple of bareback scenes,” by his own choosing, he said, but he now works for Naked Sword, a local company that requires condoms.

Love, who’s HIV-negative, is on pre-exposure See page 14 >>

by Seth Hemmelgarn

G

ay and bisexual men will soon have a new health center in the Castro, which will be called Strut, San Francisco AIDS Foundation officials announced this week.

At the same time, SFAF, the city’s largest AIDS-related nonprofit, has launched a new public campaign to raise $2.8 million for the

470 Castro Street facility, which it hopes to open in October after years of delay.

The organization has already raised $12.2 million for a total goal of $15 million for programmatic expansion and renovation costs for the center. The public campaign runs through December 2017.

See page 4 >>

Oakland Pride doesn’t miss a beat

Rick Gerharter

by Cynthia Laird

ple watching the parade, which stepped off at about 10:30 a.m. he sixth annual Oakland Sunday, more people came to the Pride event didn’t miss festival afterward, stopping by a beat as the parade and booths like the Front Runners’ festival saw increased attendance and many others. and people enjoying all manUribe also said that more ner of entertainment, from pony people watched this year’s parade, rides for the kids to a bucking which saw crowds along Broadbronco for young and old alike. way that increased in size closer to While attendance figures the 20th Street festival entrance. weren’t available by press time, “The lines were about twice as Oakland Pride board Co-Chair long to get into the festival after Carlos Uribe told the Bay Area Rethe parade,” Uribe added. porter that there were more people East Bay Municipal Utility Disat this year’s event than in 2014, trict board member Andy Katz, a which was held over the Labor bi man, took in the festival while Day holiday. Pride organizers Kelly Sullivan also worrying about the drought earlier this year decided to move Crowds filled Franklin Street at the sixth annual Oakland Pride and the Butte Fire raging in the the event date to the Sunday after festival Sunday, September 13.

Sierra foothills, which was just Labor Day, and it looks like that upriver from the district’s wawill continue next year, Uribe said. tershed. As of this week, no EBmany others. The Golden State Warriors drum “We definitely surpassed 2014,” MUD-owned watershed land had Uribe said in an email. “Based on that and very line enlivened the Kaiser Permanente continbeen affected by the fire, which was 35 percent gent, one of the parade’s largest, and Oakland little ‘negatives’ about the date change, I think contained as of Tuesday.

Mayor Libby Schaaf rode atop her famous snail that we will be keeping this date.”

Katz said that he enjoyed the communityart car, which spouted flames every so often.

He added, however, that the full board is exoriented nature of Oakland Pride.

Festival attendees seemed to notice the pected to make that decision by the end of the “It’s more of a hometown pride,” he said. improvements. month.

Oakland Pride is run by volunteers and Uribe “The parade was bigger and more people told the B.A.R. last week that the organization This year’s second Pride parade saw more were watching,” said Don Fritsche, president contingents. Politicians, kids groups, local busiis in the black this year, thanks to large sponof the East Bay Front Runners, a running and sorships from Kaiser and Oakland-based Pannesses, East Bay churches, the San Francisco walking group for LGBTs and friends.

Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, and the Alameda See page 13 >> Fritsche added that as a result of more peoCounty Leather Corps all took part, along with

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2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 17-23, 2015

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SF Pride elects new board members, selects 2016 theme LGBT PROGRESSIVE CATHOLICS † OUR FAMILIES & FRIENDS

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by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

he board that oversees San Francisco Pride is gaining several new members, as only two incumbents were re-elected during the organization’s annual general meeting last weekend.

The membership of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee also selected as its theme for 2016 “For Racial and Economic Justice,” which won with 36 votes.

While there had been seven seats up for election, only five candidates met the 50 percent plus one criteria for placement on the board, according to a blog post by SF Pride.

For the board seats that were up for election this year, Melanie Nathan, a former San Francisco Pride community grand marshal and a well-known global gay rights activist, was the top vote getter, receiving 104 votes.

“I’m stunned and didn’t expect such a vote of confidence,” Nathan told the Bay Area Reporter immediately following the election. “I’m very appreciative and excited to serve San Francisco Pride. I feel that San Francisco is synonymous with Pride and that Pride is synonymous with San Francisco.”

Nathan, a South African native, has also been a grand marshal at Cape Town Pride. She is an attorney and also an advocate for immigration rights.

“I look forward to being a part of Pride’s future where I hope it will continue to be a beacon for LGBT people in San Francisco and around the world,” she said.

Other SF Pride board members who were elected included Joey Stevenson, who received 86 votes; incumbent Justin Taylor, 85 votes; John Weber, 82 votes; and incumbent Jesse Oliver Sanford, 77 votes.

The day’s biggest surprise came from the losing candidacy of Marsha Levine, who currently serves as Pride’s vice president. Levine has been involved with Pride for 31 years in various capacities, including the contracted position of parade manager.

Incumbent board member John Caldera also came up short in his re-election bid.

Prior to voting, the approximate-

Rick Gerharter

The candidates for the open seats of the San Francisco Pride board of directors sat on stage at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center at last Saturday’s annual general meeting.

ly 200 Pride members who attended the September 12 meeting at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center heard a two-minute statement from each candidate.

“This election will determine the scope of Pride for 10 years,” Taylor said during his statement. “Do we put a cap on how big it gets, or do you want it to get so big that the city takes it over?”

Taylor cited his two lesbian mothers as among his personal influences. “My moms are poor and Southern,” he said. “If you believe as I do to give a voice to those who have none then I’d like your vote.”

Sanford said that he hopes to connect SF Pride to tech. He also said that SF Pride needs to reduce corporate sponsorship and increase the support it gets from City Hall.

Stevenson stated her support for My Name Is, the coalition of activists fighting Facebook’s policy on people using their real names for accounts. The issue has angered some in the trans and drag communities.

“I’m mourning the loss of women’s spaces,” Stevenson said to strong applause. Stevenson recently hosted a memorial for the Lexington Club, the recently shuttered lesbian bar in the Mission.

Weber has a long history of advocacy with the Imperial Court System.

“I stand on the shoulders of Harvey Milk and Sylvester,” he said, as he also pointed to his many years of fundraising experience.

“I am running to make sure that

we get a measure on the ballot to insure a 10-year funding stream for this organization,” Weber said as he was applauded.

Pride theme controversy

Controversy erupted as Pride members voted on the 2016 Pride theme. Trans Lives Matter proved to be a particularly popular theme among voters. Others felt that a trans-specific theme excluded cisgender community members, while African American Pride members felt the proposal was disrespectful to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The transgender community has been plagued by nearly 20 murders across the country this year, mostly among trans women of color, while African Americans have seen a spike in unarmed black people killed by police or while in police custody.

Mahnani Clay, who is African American and was unsuccessful in her campaign for a board seat, spoke to the B.A.R. about the use of Trans Lives Matter as a possible Pride theme.

“All five of the black folks in the room agreed: we stood up together to ask SF Pride not to dilute the message and power of the Black Lives Matter movement by removing the word ‘black,’” she said. “No matter how well intentioned you are or what equally important cause you might be trying to support, it’s insulting to us and dismissive of the clearly articulated will of our founders.”

See page 14 >>

A bases-loaded reunion

by Roger Brigham

L

eather is sure to be all the fashion during Folsom Street weekend as fetishists and their admirers prowl the booths at the street fair in a communal bond-fest. A very different sort of leather, however, will be on full display at a very different communal bonding event that same weekend in Redwood City.

On Saturday, September 26, the first-ever reunion of former women’s professional and amateur softball players and fans will be held starting at 10 a.m. in Redwood City’s Red Morton Park, 1120 Roosevelt Avenue.

“Many moons ago there were two different pro softball teams in San Jose, the San Jose Sunbirds followed by the San Jose Rainbow,” organizer Gloria Nieto told the Bay Area Reporter.

Plans call for a softball game at noon followed a picnic, memorials, and memories.

“There’s never been a reunion like this,” former player Diane Kalliam, 72, said.

A lefty swinging and throwing

Former player-manager Rayona Sharpnack, left, and former player Diane Kalliam

centerfielder, Kalliam competed on a softball field for the first time her senior year at San Mateo High School in 1961.

“The day I walked out onto that field, I knew I was home,” she said. “Did I know any of my teammates were lesbian? No. Did I know I was lesbian? No. Did I know of a single gay person? No. But I knew I was home.”

She came out to her mother that same year. Her mother, she said, had to raise four kids virtu-

ally on her own, and, in retrospect, handled the news head on as best she knew.

Still, this was the 1960s, and discretion was, for most, a key to survival. So, she was relatively out around teammates but not so much in the rest of her life.

Her rookie season that year with the Redwood City Jets, Kalliam batted .407 and stole 33 bases while leading the team to its first region title and being named MVP of the NorCal Women’s Softball League.

It was also the first of five times she was named to the All-America team.

She has a career batting average of .425 with 1,060 hits before leaving amateur ball to join the pros. She was 32 at the time, and professional women’s softball was just becoming a reality. She entered the league a star ready to hit the ball on the field and speak her mind off it.

Fans and players can follow news and announcements about the event at www.norcalwomenssoftballreunion.com or on the NorCal Women’s Softball Reunion Facebook page.t A longer version of this column is online at ebar.com.

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Community News>>

September 17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Oakland Pride revives talk of LGBT center

Kelly Sullivan

A group of people watches the Oakland Pride parade on Broadway Sunday, September 13.

by Matthew S. Bajko

F

ive years ago when organizers relaunched Oakland’s Pride festival, their ultimate goal was to use the LGBT event to raise money for opening an LGBT community center in the East Bay city.

According to its mission statement, Oakland Pride “is committed to facilitating leadership and coalition building for the funding and development of the first LGBTQ community center in Oakland for everyone.”

But that objective has been hindered by the Pride committee’s fiscal realities. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last week, this year marked the first time that the volunteer-run nonprofit group that puts on Pride is not running a deficit.

Organizers raised a record $150,000 in sponsorships for the 2015 event, due to the participation of Oaklandbased companies such as Kaiser Permanente and Pandora. The total is $70,000 more than what the Pride board netted in past years and allowed it to retire the $40,000 in debt it was carrying from the 2014 event.

“In the beginning an optimistic goal they had was we can use this festival to raise funds for a center,” said Pride board Co-Chair Carlos Uribe.

“The reality is the festival has been either cost neutral or, some years, it’s put us into debt, which is unfortu-

nately a pretty common thing with most LGBT festivals across the country, as we are coming to learn.”

With it now on firm financial footing for the first time, the Pride committee is beginning to seriously consider if an LGBT community center in Oakland can become a reality. Later this month Uribe, a local political consultant, is flying to New York to meet with leaders of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing to homeless LGBT teens and other services through its drop-in center, as part of a fact-finding trip.

“It is an amazing model of how an LGBT center is run,” said Uribe.

Oakland Pride officials have had initial conversations with funders of LGBT centers, such as the Horizons Foundation in San Francisco, said Uribe, to assess what sort of financial assistance is available. They are also aiming to elicit feedback directly from the community about what they would like to see offered at an Oakland LGBT community center.

“One thing we want to do post Pride and early next year is to start to reach out and have roundtables and community meetings with shareholders in the community to really learn about what we need from a center,” said Uribe. “If we know nothing about Oakland, the cookie-cutter model doesn’t work here.”

See page 10 >>

Ducal Court to honor Bajko, B.A.R. compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he Council of Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses of San Francisco Inc. will honor the Bay Area Reporter and assistant editor Matthew S. Bajko at its upcoming coronation.

The Saturday, September 26 event takes place from 5 to 10 p.m. at the Hotel Whitcomb, 1231 Market Street. Tickets are $40 at the door.

The coronation, which begins at 7, will see new titleholders crowned for grand duke and grand duchess of San Francisco. The ducal council is a predominately gay nonprofit fundraising organization.

In an email, Collette LeGrande, executive director of the ducal council, said that Queen Mother of the Americas Empress Nicole the Great, who will be making a state visit, decided to honor the newspaper and Bajko for coverage of LGBT issues and the court system over the years.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for my coverage of the Bay Area’s diverse LGBT community,” Bajko said.

“All of us at the B.A.R. are very proud of Matthew and delighted at his and the paper’s

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Responsibilities include: attend assigned meetings or events; necessary interviews, and writing news articles weekly. Coverage includes breaking news, City Hall, health, LGBT organizations, and other matters of interest to the community. Availability should include at least one of the following: weekday daytime hours, evenings or weekends to cover assigned events. News reporting experience preferred; newspaper background a plus. Candidates should demonstrate ability to write under deadline and be detail-oriented.

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recognition by the Ducal Council,” publisher emeritus Thomas E. Horn said in an email. “We try very hard to cover stories of interest to our readers, including the excellent work done over the years through the court system.”

For more information, visit www.sfducal. org.

See page 13 >>

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4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 17-23, 2015

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SF HIV infections and deaths fall, report says

by Liz Highleyman

N

ewly diagnosed HIV infections and deaths among people living with HIV in San Francisco reached new lows in 2014, and the city continues to do a better job getting people tested and treated than the state or nation as a whole, according to a new report.

But some notable disparities persist with regard to race, age, gender identity, and homelessness, according to the

SF Department of Public Health’s latest HIV Epidemiology Annual Report.

The report, which covers data through the end of 2014, and was released earlier this month, shows that the number of new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco fell by 18.5 percent, from 371 in 2013 to 302 in 2014 – the lowest number since the start of the epidemic. The total number of new HIV infections (known as incidence) – estimated at 358 in 2014 – is higher than the number of

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newly diagnosed cases because not everyone is tested immediately.

“The 2014 report shows a decrease in newly diagnosed infections, among other successes in HIV prevention and care,” said Tracey Packer, the health department’s director of community health equity and promotion. “This decrease is due to the success of new HIV prevention strategies developed in partnership with community members, HIV prevention and care organizations, and the health department.”

The decline in new infections is thought to be due to a combination of factors, including widespread testing, early antiretroviral treatment, and possibly early signs of the impact of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. In 2010, San Francisco was the first city to recommend antiretroviral therapy for everyone diagnosed with HIV regardless of CD4 T-cell count; U.S. treatment guidelines adopted the same recommendation in 2013. Prompt treatment lowers the risk of illness and death, and people on treatment with an undetectable viral load have a nearzero risk of transmitting the virus.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead Science’s Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) for PrEP in July 2012, but adoption was initially slow. Interest began to rise more steeply after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in May 2014 that people at substantial risk for HIV infection should consider using it. But the level of PrEP uptake was likely not yet high enough to have had a substantial effect on last year’s HIV incidence numbers.

Fewer deaths, more people in care

The number of deaths due to all causes among HIV-positive people in the city decreased by 15.3 percent, from 209 in 2013 to 177 in 2014. As deaths have declined thanks to effective treatment, the total number of people living with HIV (known as prevalence) has risen, reaching 15,979 in 2014. Of these, 9,567 people had stage 3 HIV disease, or AIDS. San Francisco continues to do a good job of encouraging people at risk for HIV to get tested and those living with HIV to access care and start treatment, the report noted.

According to the report, 93 percent of people with HIV in San Francisco know their status, compared with 87 percent nationwide. Among San Franciscans newly diagnosed with HIV in 2013, 83 percent were linked to care within three months, 70 percent were retained in care three to nine months later, most were prescribed antiretroviral therapy, and 67 percent achieved viral suppression. Among all people living with HIV – whether diagnosed or not – the city estimates that 60 percent have undetectable viral load, com-

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Strut

From page 1

SFAF officials gave the Bay Area Reporter a tour of Strut Monday, September 14.

The building, which had housed a video shop and office space, includes almost 15,000 square feet spread over three floors, with rooms for counseling, medical exams, and meetings, a lab and pharmacy, and large spaces with tables and chairs for people waiting for services and for community events.

The open layout includes a lot of flexible space and the front of the building consists largely of glass from top to bottom. A gas hearth will greet clients when they enter the building.

“Gay and bi men are worth it,” SFAF CEO Neil Giuliano said of the new building. “Gay and bi men deserve a nice place where they can come without shame, without stigma.”

Giuliano, who said the center’s

Courtesy SF DPH

New HIV diagnoses, deaths, and prevalence in San Francisco, 2006-2014

pared with just 30 percent nationwide.

“These data show that San Francisco leads the nation in progress against HIV,” Project Inform Executive Director Dana Van Gorder told the Bay Area Reporter. “They result from an intense emphasis on assuring high levels of HIV testing and linkage to care, encouraging early uptake of HIV treatment, and PrEP implementation – in addition to an extensive network of social services.”

But not everyone in the city has benefitted equally from efforts to stem the epidemic.

The majority of living HIV cases in San Francisco are gay men age 50 and over. African Americans – who make up under 6 percent of the city’s population – account for 13 percent of HIV-positive people, while Latinos account for 18 percent. Homeless people are also disproportionately affected by HIV. According to the report, the majority of new HIV infections in 2014 occurred in the 30-49 age bracket.

That age demographic accounted for 54 percent of people newly diagnosed with HIV last year. The number of new infections among people age 18-29 fell to 29 percent, from 34 percent in 2013, whereas the number of new infections in people age 50 and older increased 5 percent to a total of 17 percent in 2014.

Only 6 percent of San Francisco residents with HIV were non-transgender women, while trans women accounted for 2 percent of cases – far higher than their percentage in the population. No children have been diagnosed with HIV in the city since 2006.

African Americans, young adults, people over age 50, people who inject drugs, and women – both cisgender and transgender – were less likely to access HIV care and achieve viral suppression.

“Even with this good news, there are HIV health disparities that we need to continue to address,” said Packer.

The findings in the annual report show that the city is making progress

toward Getting to Zero – a collaborative effort to make San Francisco the first U.S. jurisdiction to achieve the UNAIDS goals of eliminating new HIV infections, HIV-related deaths, and HIV stigma, using a three-prong strategy of expanded access to PrEP, rapid access to antiretroviral therapy, and retention of HIV-positive people in care.

Some people, however, have suggested that the news is not all good.

Brian Basinger, director of the AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco, told the B.A.R. that people with HIV are being displaced from the city due to the high cost of housing, while others say the people most vulnerable to HIV infection can no longer afford to live here.

name reflects “pride” and “confidence,” said the facility is meant to be “inviting.”

The first floor consists mostly of staff workspaces.

What has been known as Magnet, popular for offering HIV tests, will now be called Sexual Health Services at Strut and will be on the second floor, which will also host art exhibits and community events, similar to what occurs now at Magnet. The new space is more than twice the size of the 4122 18th Street facility.

Tim Patriarca, SFAF’s executive director for gay and bi men’s health and wellness, who will oversee dayto-day operations at Strut, anticipates that in the first year there will be an increase of 25 to 40 percent in the number of clients coming for services that have been offered at Magnet.

Sexual health services will be the first program to relocate to the new site. Other services will make the

move in the weeks after that.

The third floor will feature substance health services such as what’s been available through Stonewall and community engagement and support programs that have been a part of the 50-Plus Network and other groups, including DREAAM, a program for young gay and bi African American men.

The third floor also features more multi-purpose space and has sliding doors that open up to a deck overlooking Castro Street.

Each floor will have a “concierge” at a reception area to “create a welcoming space” and answer questions, Patriarca said.

Throughout the building are laminate hardwood floors and multi-colored carpet. The latter reflects the nonprofit’s efforts to save some money.

“The carpet is my favorite color, which is free,” Giuliano quipped.

More funds on the way

On September 8 the CDC announced that SF DPH is among 17 organizations across the country that will receive more than $185 million in total funds to prevent HIV among gay and bisexual men and transgender people, particularly African Americans and Latinos.

San Francisco is receiving funding, to be provided over three years, to accelerate PrEP uptake and engage more people in HIV care, according to CDC media liaison Nikki Mayes.

The new CDC money – along with funds provided by Mayor Ed Lee and forthcoming PrEP funding allocated by the Board of Supervisors – are expected to help address the disparities highlighted in the annual report.

“As well as we have done, San Francisco must address key challenges in order to get to zero,” Van Gorder concluded. “Young gay men of color, transgender women, and women of color need greater focus and strengthened services. And, once linked to care, we have to do a much better job of making sure that all people with HIV are supported to remain in care and treatment – these encouraging data suggest that we can succeed in doing so.”t

See page 13 >>

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<< Open Forum

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 17-23, 2015

Volume 45, Number 38 September 17-23, 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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Two critical bills for Brown to sign

A

few months ago, we urged the state Assembly to pass the End-of-Life-Option Act, which would have allowed doctors to prescribe drugs to terminally ill people so that they could choose when to end their life.

Shortly afterwards, however, the bill died and it looked like the issue was over for the year.

But during the summer session, a new bill, ABX2-15, which also allows aid-in-dying, passed both the Assembly and Senate and is now on its way to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk. He needs to sign the bill. Brown has not tipped his hand as to what he will do. In his younger days, he studied to be a Jesuit priest, and has not spoken publicly about aid-in-dying legislation. The hearings before the Assembly and state Senate were emotional on both sides of the issue. People on each side made strong arguments. But on balance, we think it’s important for people to make their own, informed decisions, and this legislation isn’t going to dramatically increase patient deaths, or lead to high rates of assisted suicide. The Senate voted on a party-line vote of 23-14 last week; the Assembly passed it days earlier by a vote of 43-34, with three Republicans supporting the bill.

This is an issue that is not going to go away.

The Legislature has tried – and failed – four times between 1995 and 2008 to permit aidin-dying, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In 1992, state voters rejected a ballot measure to authorize assisted suicide.

But a lot has changed since then. Medical advances are able to prolong life for many people, and some people will not be interested in ending their life by taking medication.

Those who are, however, should be afforded that right, and not be forced to relocate to another state, as former East Bay resident Brittany Maynard did last year. Maynard, who suffered from terminal brain cancer, shared her story of moving to Oregon, which has a Death with Dignity Act that was enacted in 1997.

As with the previous incarnation of the aidin-dying bill, ABX2-5 has several safeguards that will prevent misuse, and ensure that people who want the prescription make that decision knowing the ramifications. It would require two California doctors agree that a mentally competent person has six months or less to live before a lethal dose of drugs can be prescribed. The patient would make the ultimate decision of whether to take the drug, and could not have assistance from others.

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Additionally, patients would need to affirm 48 hours in advance of taking the drugs that they were doing so on their own. Significantly, without additional legislation, the bill would lapse in 10 years.

We noted in our previous editorial the fact that during the height of the AIDS epidemic, many gay men probably would have opted for an end-of-life option rather than the immense suffering and pain they endured where there were no real treatment options available. The aid-in-dying bill now before the governor sets a clear protocol that patients and their doctors must follow.

Another bill for the governor

Now that the Legislature’s session has ended, there is another LGBT-specific bill that Brown should sign, AB 959. This was authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), a straight ally. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Disparities Reduction Act would ensure that California public policy meets the needs of the LGBT communities. It would require various state agencies that provide health and human services to members of the LGBT community to collect voluntarily provided information about sexual orientation and gender identity in the regular course of collecting other types of demographic data.

According to a fact sheet from Chiu’s office, the bill would also require that the aggregated sexual orientation and gender identity data that act as indicators of disparities be reported to the Legislature and made publicly available.

This piece of legislation is critically needed.

The state routinely collects lots of other demographic data, such as race, ethnicity, age, and disability. These data are used to develop and guide health and human services programs.

Because sexual orientation and gender identity data are not collected, significant disparities exist in state programs. LGBT people face disproportionately high rates of poverty, suicide, homelessness, isolation, substance abuse, and violence, and low rates of health insurance. As the fact sheet notes, these issues are even more pronounced for youth and seniors, communities of color, and transgender and undocumented communities. Collecting voluntary data on sexual orientation and gender identity is a necessary first step to understand the extent to which our communities are experiencing disparities and whether government programs are effectively reaching LGBT folks in need of care and assistance.

Equality California, a sponsor of the legislation, has made it a priority this year to get this demographic data recorded.

Brown can extend his record of supporting pro-LGBT legislation by signing AB 959. It would be a relatively small cost to redo various state forms, and in the long term, the state and its LGBT residents will benefit.t

Navigating the name change process

by Danny Kirchoff

BAY AREA REPORTER

t

rom opening a bank account to getting on a plane to picking up a prescription, everyone needs an accurate ID just to successfully negotiate daily life. For transgender people, and particularly transgender people of color, the stakes of not having an accurate ID are dangerously higher than for most others. Mundane events of daily life can suddenly transform into a violent confrontation for a transgender person when their transgender status is discovered due to handing over an ID that doesn’t accurately reflect who they are.

Just a few months ago, a black transgender woman, Meagan Taylor, was simply trying to check into a hotel in Iowa when staff called the police on her after seeing the gender marker on her ID. A campaign rose up advocating for Taylor, but most cases of discrimination don’t make national headlines or garner such incredible support.

Taylor’s story is depressingly common for transgender people. According to the National Trans Discrimination Survey, only 21 percent of trans people have updated all of their documents. The number is unsurprising when you consider the many and significant barriers transgender people face in updating their IDs, starting with the legal name change.

To get an accurate ID, everyone needs to get a name change through a court order.

The state of California has some of the most progressive laws in the country for supporting transgender people who need to change their legal name and gender. Still, there is a cost: a

the court for how they currently name change fee for a court order support their daily needs and/or can be as high as $450. This is a why they cannot afford some or all steep cost for many, particularly of the filing fees may want to check considering the high rate of unthe box on the lower left hand corner and underemployment our comof page 2 of FW-001, next to “Check munity faces. here if you attach another page.” The Fortunately, California has written explanation of a person’s fia relatively straightforward fee nancial circumstances can either be waiver program to support just an attached sheet of paper or can people who need to change their be written on form MC-025. name but struggle with the high Once someone has filled out cost. People who receive any kind and signed both forms, the next of public benefits – for example, Danny Kirchoff step is to file them at the county’s Medi-Cal or Cal Fresh, as well as superior court. individuals who can show that The clerk should approve the fee they cannot afford to pay for waiver and assign a court date for your name their basic needs (such as food and change hearing. If the clerk has questions rent) AND pay the full court fees – about your eligibility, they might schedule a are eligible for a fee waiver, which separate hearing for you to bring evidence exempts them from paying the fee of your financial situation. If the clerk denies associated with a name change. your fee waiver application, you have 10 days The process for applying for a to petition the court to request a hearing by fee waiver can be daunting, so submitting two new forms, FW-006 and FWwe’ve broken it down a little to 007. The court will process the new forms and help folks navigate the process. then provide information about the date and The first step is to fill out the time of your fee waiver hearing. fee waiver forms (the forms are Once the legal name change is complete, the called FW-001 and FW-003), which process of amending documents can begin. are available at www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelpOur resource ID Please supports people in feewaiver.htm, along with several other forms changing their name and in the next steps of that might be needed in the process. If a perupdating social security, passports, or any of the son is low-income, but not receiving public other documents that help transgender people benefits, it is important that they accurately list navigate the world as their authentic selves.t any sources of financial support on the forms.

It should be clear to the court what expenses a person has and how they are able to pay for Danny Kirchoff is the helpline manager those expenses currently. at the Transgender Law Center.

For more information, visit Anyone who feels like the numbers listed on www.transgenderlawcenter.org. the form alone may not paint a clear picture for

t

Letters >>

LYRIC is an essential resource

September 17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Late Friday afternoon as a friend and I left our Castro Tarts sidewalk table, we paused for the light at 18th and Castro. A tousled kid with a cardboard sign looked at me.

He needed money for himself and his dog. As the light changed, I quickly pulled a dollar from my wallet, handed it to him, and started across the street. “God bless,” the boy said. I nodded and continued with my friend.

My friend and I parted at Walgreens and I looked back at the kid with the sign – maybe an 8th or 9th grader – the age I’d taught for 33 years. And I knew I couldn’t just walk away. I redirected, walked back past the boy again, who once more said, “God bless.”

I continued up 18th, turned left to 127 Collingwood, headquarters for LYRIC, the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center. It was late, nearly 5:30 as I climbed the flight of stairs and rang the bell. It took a couple of minutes, but having explained my purpose, the response was everything I could have hoped for. A young woman from upstairs brought down a plastic sack of edibles and toiletries. Two case managers, Gustavo Banuelos and Cris Youssef, actually set out with

me in search of the kid with the sign, who was no longer at 18th and Castro. Could they walk with me to Harvey Milk Plaza and Jane Warner Plaza where so many homeless people gather? We checked pizza parlors along the way, in case the kid had gathered enough to eat. No luck.

Banuelos had to leave. Youssef and I started back down the block, then noticed huddled figures across the street near Cliff’s Variety.

We crossed and – effort rewarded. The kid was there with a buddy, and their dog. I introduced Youssef, who explained that the pair should come to LYRIC where they would get the help they need. “What about my mom?” asked the kid who had twice blessed me. “Can you help her?” “We can help her,” Youssef said without missing a beat and handing the boys the supplies he’d brought.

It was a moment of sheer relief and deep gratitude, knowing that such a deeply needed resource as LYRIC exists in this city and that stranded kids have care waiting for them.

Ron Schmidt San Francisco

Oakland City Councilman Guillen adjusts to 24/7 role

by Matthew S. Bajko

Alice early endorses Wiener, Harris

H

is cellphone rings at all hours of the night with alerts about shootings or other critical incidents in his district. His days are packed with meetings and community events.

The last nine months have been a period of adjustment for freshman Oakland City Councilman Abel Guillen, 40, who identifies as Two Spirit. Prior to his election last fall as the representative for the city’s District 2, which includes Chinatown and the Grand Lake neighborhoods, Guillen had been serving on the Peralta Community College District board.

“This is more than a full-time job, whereas the community college trustee role essentially was part-time, although sometimes it didn’t feel that way,” Guillen told the Bay Area Reporter during an interview a few days ahead of the city’s annual Pride event, which took place Sunday, September 13. “The city never closes down. In that regard, it is a 24/7 job.”

What has struck Guillen the most since being sworn in in January is how cumbersome, at times, the legislative process at City Hall can be. As a member of the council’s public safety committee, he has experienced this first hand with overseeing the Oakland Police Department.

“People say we should just hire more police, but it is more complicated than that,” said Guillen, who would like to see the number of local residents, especially LGBTs and people of color, hired for the force increase. “It makes a difference when you have people from the community serving in the police department.”

One issue making it harder to retain and recruit not just police officers, he noted, but other city employees is Oakland’s rising rents and housing costs. With more San Franciscans priced out of their city and turning to the East Bay to find cheaper housing, longtime Oaklanders are increasingly concerned they will be unable to afford living in their hometown.

“I want to ensure longtime Oaklanders can stay here, but at the same time, build new housing so longtime Oaklanders don’t get pushed out by newcomers,” said Guillen, adding that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf asked him to be part of her housing cabinet, which met for the first time last week.

[In an interview earlier this summer, Schaaf told the B.A.R. that she and Guillen “absolutely work well” together. She added that both he and Councilwoman Annie Campbell Washington, who succeed her in the District 4 seat, have been “fantastic.”]

With many parcels slated for development throughout his district,

Jane Philomen Cleland

Oakland City Councilman Abel Guillen took part in last Sunday’s Oakland Pride parade.

Guillen has taken a lead role in trying to broker compromise between developers of market-rate housing projects and activists pushing to see more affordable housing be built.

“The big issue here is we don’t have a set sort of criteria for what equitable development should look like here in Oakland,” said Guillen.

“We tend to put an emphasis on individual projects when we need to find citywide solutions.”

Another key concern of his has been Lake Merritt, which forms the northern boundary of his council district and where, as of last year, dogs on leash are now allowed.

He pushed to see the city set aside funds for maintenance of the park, which in the recently passed budget totaled $800,000, enough to hire a second gardener to care for the city’s “crown jewel,” said Guillen.

“Definitely, it has gotten better.

There is so much activity around the park,” he added. “People are using the park all hours of the day.”

One change in use he has championed is allowing people to barbecue using gas grills in designated areas around the park. Signage went up last month alerting people to the new rules and allowed hours.

“Formerly, barbecuing was illegal at Lake Merritt,” he said.

This fall one issue he will be watching closely is how the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth develops its new Strategic Investment Plan for 2016-2019. The fund has been criticized in the past for not allocating enough funding to LGBT youth programs.

“I’ve been pushing to make sure our LGBT youth are factored into the equation and funded,” said Guillen, who is a member of the council’s life enrichment committee, which is slated to review the plans for the fund on October 13. “Whatever program gets put in place, I want to make sure our youth get the services they need.”

As expected, the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club this week gave early endorsements to the 2016 campaigns of Supervisor Scott Wiener for the state Senate District 11 seat and Attorney General Kamala Harris for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, who is retiring next year.

Wiener, a gay man who represents District 8 at City Hall, is a former co-chair of the Alice club. He is the endorsed successor of gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who is termed out of office next fall.

Harris is San Francisco’s former district attorney and is considered the Democratic frontrunner in the Senate race, although Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of Orange County has strong support among Latino voters, according to a new poll released this week.

“Kamala and Scott have been tremendous leaders for San Francisco, period. And having a long history of support from Alice, we wanted to demonstrate our unwavering and early support for their campaigns in 2016,” said Alice Co-Chair Zoe Dunning.

Milk club reschedules SF sheriff endorsement revote

After the board of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club late last week axed a planned endorsement revote in the race for San Francisco sheriff, the members voted Tuesday night to hold the doover Wednesday, September 23 at a location to be determined.

In July the embattled incumbent, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, failed to secure the Milk club’s support by a few votes. The club ended up with a no endorsement in the race, which incudes retired chief deputy sheriff Vicki Hennessy and retired deputy sheriff John C. Robinson.

As the B.A.R. reported last Thursday, Mirkarimi’s supporters pushed through a revote on the club’s endorsement at a special meeting held earlier this month to mend fences between Milk club members upset with the initial endorsement result and those who supported the outcome.

But the board determined the motion for the revote violated its bylaws and announced late Friday it would not hold it at its September 15 general membership meeting as planned.

After a civil 40-minute debate about that decision during the meeting, the members present then cut off discussion and overwhelmingly voted to move forward with reconsidering its endorsement in the sheriff ’s race next week.t

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills www.SchneiderLawSF.com

415-781-6500 *Certified by the California State Bar 400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

If you lived in or were located in California and called Priority Club® Rewards or any of IHG’s hotel brands you could receive money from a Class Action Settlement A proposed $11,700,000 class action settlement has been reached in a lawsuit called McCabe, Simpson & Sarabia v. Six Continents Hotels, Inc., USDC ND CA Case No. 12-cv-04818-NC. The lawsuit claims that Six Continents Hotels, Inc. recorded and monitored telephone calls of persons calling toll-free reservations and customer-service lines while residing or located in California without telling callers that the calls may be recorded and monitored allegedly in violation of California law. Six Continents Hotels, Inc. has denied the claims. Nonetheless, Six Continents, Hotels, Inc. and the Class Representatives have agreed to settle the dispute to avoid the uncertainty and costs of litigation.

The $11,700,000 settlement fund will pay eligible claims, notice and administration costs, attorneys’ fees and expenses, and named plaintiffs’ service awards.

Who is a Class Member?

You are a Class Member if you called Priority Club® Rewards, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts®, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites® and Hotel Indigo® on a toll-free number while residing or located in California and spoke to a representative between March 1, 2011 and July 18, 2012.

What are my legal rights?

To receive a settlement payment, eligible class members must submit a claim. It is expected that eligible class members who submit a timely and valid Claim Form will receive at least $100. The amount of each individual settlement payment will depend on the total number of claims filed. Regardless of the claims rate, the payment to any individual class member will not exceed $5,000.

Whether or not you submit a claim, if the Court approves the settlement, you will be bound by all of the Court’s orders. This means you will not be able to make any claims against Six Continents Hotels, Inc. or affiliated entities covered by the settlement.

If you wish to submit a claim, visit www.HotelCallRecordingSettlement.com or contact the Claims Administrator at 1-888-972-6585 to get a Claim Form. The deadline to submit claims is December 13, 2015.

If you do not wish to be a member of the settlement class, you must submit a letter to the Claims Administrator at the address below postmarked by December 13, 2015. You may request to opt-out or be excluded from the settlement. If you opt-out you cannot submit a claim form. Visit the settlement website for more information.

If you wish to object to the settlement, you must do so by submitting your objection to the Court in person or writing postmarked by December 13, 2015. Visit the settlement website for more information.

A final hearing will be held on February 3, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. in the San Francisco Courthouse, to determine the fairness, reasonableness and adequacy of the proposed settlement and to award attorneys’ fees and costs and plaintiffs’ service awards. The motion for attorneys’ fees and costs and plaintiffs’ service awards will be posted on the settlement website after they are filed. You may attend the hearing, but you do not have to.

This is only a summary. For detailed information including, the full text of the Settlement Agreement, the Class Notice and the Claim Form, visit www.HotelCallRecordingSettlement.com, call 1-888-972-6585, or write to the Settlement Administrator at: McCabe v.

International Hotels Group, c/o Heffler Claims Group, P.O. Box 1040, Philadelphia, PA 19105-1040.

www.HotelCallRecordingSettlement.com 1-888-972-6585

As San Francisco AIDS Foundation prepares to open the new home for health and wellness at 470 Castro Street, I have been thinking a lot about how our community has always envisioned and created the change we have needed and deserved.

Today, people who struggle with their sexual identity no longer face the same threats to employment, relationships, or starting a family that many once did, but threats to their health still exist. In the United States, gay and bisexual men make up about 2% of the population yet account for about 60% of new HIV into return HIV as a central focus of the LGBT movement for full equality: We are not fully equal if we are not healthy.

Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, we’ve been working hard to put an end to HIV transmission and help those living with HIV gain access to care that they need to live longer and stronger.

in care, and helping them achieve viral location, the number of people we serve suppression. will dramatically expand. We’ll also be able to initiate and integrate promising Because of our community’s histor- new initiatives, like our new program to expand PrEP and PEP to HIV-negative HIV/AIDS, San Francisco is positioned people. mission. Expanding our capacity in the More than thirty years ago when the Castro to reach a greater number of clients with even more services is a critical came together to serve and care for each component in realizing that goal. other in a time of crisis. As a community, we refused to be stigmatized. We demanded better treatment options. Now, for gay and bi men will be called “Strut,” thanks to decades of community leada name selected for its multidimension- ership, support and engagement, we are ality: Strut is both a verb meaning to in a position to end HIV transmission, - stop AIDS-related deaths, and eliminate ferring to an architectural beam of sup- HIV stigma. port.

Learn more about Strut at When clients walk through our doors, strutsf.org, and together we will become - even stronger.

Bridgemen, the DREAAM Project, In service, the Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network, Magnet/Sexual Health Services, Positive Force, the Stonewall Project/Substance Health Services and Neil G. Giuliano, CEO San Francisco leads the nation in get- our many community engagement ac- San Francisco AIDS Foundation ting people tested for HIV, linking them tivities. Not only will it be easier for clito care, making sure they are able to stay

Campaign Progress The Campaign for Health & Wellness is a major fundraising campaign to support the free programs and services for gay, bisexual and transgender men at Strut. Thanks to individuals and institutions who committed to the campaign during its quiet phase, 100% of the capital costs of renovating 470 Castro Street have been covered. The next phase of the campaign is to ensure that the programs at Strut remain fully-funded for the next few years. Learn more about the campaign at strutsf.org/wellnesscampaign.

15

19% 12

9

81% 6

3

0

Watch this video at strutsf.org

<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 17-23, 2015

t

Same-sex couples look to surrogacy

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A

s more same-sex couples decide to have children, surrogacy is factoring in as an option for some of them.

Later this month, Families Through Surrogacy will hold a conference in San Francisco where attendees can learn about the process, how much it costs, and how the consumer nonprofit organization is solving issues that can arise.

The conference will bring together older children through surrogacy, parents, intended parents, surrogates, and surrogacy experts from the U.S., India, and Mexico to learn about best practices and maximizing success in what can otherwise be a stressful journey.

According to Sam Everingham, global director of events and content for Families Through Surroga-

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Estate Planning for Singles and Same-Sex Couples Speaker: Deb Kinney of Johnston, Kinney & Zulaica, LLP

Thursday, October 1, 6-7:30 p.m.

180 Redwood St., Suite 350 • San Francisco The law provides a default estate plan for every person, but it may not reflect your wishes. Create a plan tailored to your own life and priorities.

For same-sex couples, changing laws may also impact your estate plan. Know your options.

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(415) 526.5580 or www.hbtb.org

cy, there has been a rise in Bay Area same-sex couples utilizing Mexican clinics in their quest to create family via surrogacy. The agency bills itself as run by parents for intended parents. Everingham himself is a parent through surrogacy.

Setting up surrogacy in Mexico took a while to complete as the early cases were problematic, Everingham said, adding that the organization ensures that medical, legal, and psychological issues of the process do not spiral out of control and avoids unethical operators.

“Lengthy periods were required in Mexico post-birth for gay couples in order to secure U.S. and Mexican travel documents in order to allow legal exit,” said Everingham.

“Intended parents need to fly from Tabasco state to the administrative center, Mexico City.”

Everingham said that the average cost for surrogacy in Mexico is $45,000, although the price can vary. A news release from Families Through Surrogacy said that increasing costs in the U.S. are pushing people offshore to countries like Mexico.

One Bay Area gay couple that had help from Families Through Surrogacy in Mexico spoke with the Bay Area Reporter.

Aaron and Scott Douglas recently went through the surrogacy process for their nearly 4-month-old twins, Stella and Edie.

“Mexico was a ‘new’ alternative place to do surrogacy,” Aaron Douglas, 34, said in an interview with the B.A.R. “We did a lot of research and it was the way to go for us. Why not, right? It’s convenient – a plane ride just a few hours away. Mexico was also just slightly more expensive than India and much cheaper than the United States, of course.”

Aaron Douglas is a newscast director for a local television station. His husband, Scott, is a flight attendant.

Courtesy Families Through Surrogacy

Aaron and Scott Douglas hold their twins, Stella and Edie.

Both grew up in large families, so the couple decided early on in their relationship that they wanted their own children. If surrogacy failed, adoption would be their second option.

The surrogacy process took a long time as it involved everything from sperm donation to egg stimulation to egg retrieval to preparing the surrogate, they said.

“We started looking at researching adoption and surrogacy and anything we could find back in January 2011,” said Scott Douglas, 42. “After months of research we figured surrogacy would be our best option; but surrogacy in the United States was not an option. We would have to do international surrogacy.”

India was the most popular location and the couple tried in 2012 but faced many obstacles. After coming across a possible surrogacy ban on gays and singles in India, the couple tried other options and discovered surrogacy in Mexico.

The Douglas family had the help of Leon Altamirano, of Altamirano and Associates, a surrogacy law firm in Tabasco. Altamirano has successfully worked on similar cases for the past three years.

“There was no difficulties,” Altamirano, 34, a straight man, said of the Douglas case. “I present all the documentation needed to apply for the birth certificate, as well as present the DNA kit in the U.S. embassy before the appointment. The civil registry director checked everything in accordance to the law and authorized the issuance of the birth certificate. The case was smooth, as expected.”

At the upcoming conference, the focus will be on rapidly changing international surrogacy options. Families Through Surrogacy works with gays, straights, singles, and couples.

“With 10 parents (including a single dad), U.S. and Mexican sur-

<<

Oakland LGBT center

From page 3

There are already several LGBT community centers operating in the East Bay. The Pacific Center for Human Growth, which opened in Berkeley in 1973, serves LGBT residents of northern Alameda County.

Five years ago the Pacific Center had looked at relocating to Oakland when its building was put up for sale. But it was able to remain after the property owner pulled it off the market.

In Contra Costa County, the Rainbow Community Center in Concord has been operating since 1992. It began as an offshoot of the Pacific Center and became its own nonprofit in 1996.

A third LGBT center, the Lighthouse Community Center in Hayward, shuttered last year due to a lack of support. LGBT centers in San Jose and San Francisco, which have both struggled at times with their finances, continue to operate.

The idea for an LGBT community center in Oakland first gained momentum in 2009 when then newly sworn-in lesbian City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who holds the at-large seat, revived an LGBT Roundtable after she took office.

rogates, and 14 industry professionals from the U.S., Mexico, and elsewhere participating in panels and talks,” said Everingham, “we hope to provide intended parents with advice and confidence to help them control costs, make responsible decisions, and be aware of what best practice in surrogacy arrangements looks like.”

Kim Bergman, Ph.D., a psychologist and co-owner of Los Angelesbased surrogacy agency Growing Generations, will deliver the keynote address at the San Francisco conference. Bergman will discuss what motivates women to become gestational carriers.

“These women want to help someone know the joy of parenthood,” Bergman said in a news release. “They do not develop maternal connection to the child they’re carrying and, when properly screened, want nothing more than to hand the child over to the awaiting parents.”

Through the Douglas’ journey, they have a few words of advice to couples inquiring about surrogacy.

The first is to research everything from clinics to agencies to hospitals and to talk to as many people involved in the type of surrogacy they are considering.

“If they are doing surrogacy in Mexico, patience is key. Pack your patience,” Aaron Douglas said. “That’s basically the only thing we can think of. Do not expect to have the process go as smoothly as you think it might go. You are a guest in a different country. You do it their way. You can try to push and push, but don’t be surprised if that doesn’t help. Not everyone’s experience or journey is the same. Everyone has their own.

Have patience, do your research, be committed and cautious.”t The Families Through Surrogacy conference takes place Saturday and Sunday, September 2627 at the Jewish Community Center, 3200 California Street.

It runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sunday. Tickets are $100 for the two days, including meals.

There is a 50 percent discount for B.A.R. readers – use BAR@50 in the promotional code area when registering at https://www.eventbrite. co.uk/e/2015-us-surrogacyconference-tickets-17421921436.

For more information about the conference, visit www. familiesthrusurrogacy.com/.

The committee of LGBT community leaders identified opening an LGBT center as one priority. Back then Kaplan, whose office met with leaders of Chicago’s LGBT center, said she could see a community center opened by the end of her first term in 2012.

While the idea remains a concept in name only, the need for such a space, if anything, has only grown since it was first floated as the city has seen an influx of LGBT residents priced out of San Francisco and other areas.

“What sort of safe spaces do we need for queer folk to come together, I think, are the conversations we are having,” said freshman Oakland District 2 City Councilman Abel Guillen, who identifies as Two Spirit.

How to pay for an LGBT center in Oakland and ensure such a facility could remain fiscally solvent continues to present a quandary for supporters. For now, establishing a center remains a “longer-term goal” for the Pride committee.

As it states on its website, “Oakland Pride wants to be of assistance in providing a sustainable solution to implement or support needed services for challenges in our community – especially in low-income, multi-cultural elder and young LGBT communities.”t

Community News>>

t Book looks at lesbian who helped in ’06 SF quake

by Brian Bromberger

T

he year was 1893. Marie Equi had fled New Bedford, Massachusetts to an Oregon homestead with her first longtime woman companion, a teacher named Bessie Holcomb. The school superintendent, also a Southern Baptist minister, had not paid her full salary, so Equi, 21, took a horsewhip and went to his downtown office, daring him to come outside. At first he refused, but then he tried to escape into the crowd unnoticed.

Intercepted by Equi, she whacked him on the shoulder with the whip while the crowd cheered her on, as he was regarded as a scoundrel. The next day a newspaper reporter interviewed the two women for a feature article that became one of the first public accounts of women living together as a same-sex couple in the west, with Equi becoming the first well-known lesbian in Oregon.

Equi later came to San Francisco to help with relief efforts after the devastating 1906 earthquake.

Reading an online account about this incident by a gay Portland historian inspired local journalist and public historian Michael Helquist, 66, to devote 10 years toward writing his new biography, Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions (Oregon State University Press).

Now launching a book tour both in the Bay Area and in Oregon, Helquist spoke with the Bay Area Reporter about why he was attracted to such a well-known lesbian figure in her own time who is forgotten today.

“She was a passionate woman devoting massive energy to issues and relationships about which she cared, always ready to mount a soapbox,” Helquist said. “She was an outsider both because of the causes she supported, her radical politics, and being a lesbian, a sexual outlaw. She broke boundaries in all areas of her

life. There is very little gay and lesbian history for this time period in the west – 1890s-1920 – and I wanted to make a contribution by giving voice to this significant pioneer.”

Equi self-studied her way into a San Francisco medical school and obtained her license in Portland to become one of the first practicing woman physicians in the Pacific Northwest (everyone calling her “Doc”), leveraging her professional status to fight for women’s suffrage, labor rights, reproductive freedom, a living wage, affordable housing, and an overhaul of the criminal justice system, nearly a century ago.

Raised by working class parents in a manufacturing town, Equi’s parents insisted she leave high school after one year and take a textile job to support the family. She saw the dreadful working conditions – with so much lint in the air workers would vomit cotton balls – and low wages. She was also sensitized to the plight of the poor and marginalized through her father inviting striking men over for dinner and hearing their heartbreaking tales of survival.

She was radicalized when policemen hit her on the head during her first demonstration for worker’s rights.

One of Helquist’s favorite stories about her was at a cannery strike with women picketing low wages and being beaten by the cops. Equi announced to newspapers that she had access to a deadly virus (not true) that caused a slow painful death. At her next demonstration to protect herself, she would dip her hatpin into the virus and would stab any policeman who threatened her.

Quake relief

Because San Francisco was her favorite city, when word reached Portland (which had many social and business connections) of the devastating 1906 earthquake, she was the only woman physician who volunteered to join a medical relief

September 17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Courtesy Michael Helquist

Brian Bromberger

Marie Equi

Author Michael Helquist

train. For two weeks at an army hospital in the Presidio she presided over the Oregon ward, saving lives.

She received public praise from the governor, the mayor, and a medal and commendation from the U.S. Army. She also provided entertaining stories to the Oregon press of her adventures, such as rescuing patients in a wheelchair during a fire.

A fierce advocate for economic and social justice, especially for the unemployed, but never an ideologue, the Oregonian newspaper in 1913 declared her “dangerously insane,” to which she replied: “It was beyond the imagination of these people, who repeatedly attacked me, that a professional woman of established practice and reputation, of some money and high standing in the community could put these aside and get out and work for her unfortunate sisters and brothers – therefore I must be insane.”

She took the risk and provided abortions, illegal at the time, having witnessed her mother having to care for 11 children on starvation wages.

Equi also distributed birth control information, also illegal, and met famed advocate Margaret Sanger

when she visited Portland. They spent the night in jail together.

Equi fell in love with Sanger, saving their letters, which left no doubt about their physical affection for each other. She soon met a younger woman, Harriet Speckart, who became the love of her life and the two women adopted and raised a baby daughter, Mary Equi, an unheard of situation in the 1910s.

Equi protested the U.S. entry into World War I, opposing capitalists pressing the country into war to make a huge profit. Under the Espionage Acts passed by Congress and restricting free speech during war, she was convicted of sedition and sentenced to three years at San Quentin prison. However, she appealed to President Woodrow Wilson to pardon her.

She made an enemy of J. Edgar Hoover, then in the Justice Department’s War Emergency Division, who convinced the attorney general not to “give her a break, as if it would look like the government had succumbed to this bold, degenerate lesbian.”

Wilson commuted her sentence to one year and she served 10

months. Ironically, because all of her personal papers were destroyed after her death in 1952, much of what is known about Equi during this WWI period is due to the eight Department of Justice agents who provided around the clock surveillance (even undercover), screening her prison correspondence, including letters to her 5-year-old daughter.

Equi never quite recovered from her imprisonment, but for the rest of her life she always looked out for the underdog. Her radical politics (later involving communism but never doctrinaire) and transgressive sexuality have kept her hidden from history.

Because of the advocacy of gay historians, her name is included in the memorial Women of Honor walk in downtown Portland.

“More than an Oregonian character, she is a model and inspiration of someone who achieved independence despite considerable odds and obstacles, staying true to her beliefs at great risk to her health and well-being,” Helquist said. “She provides a window into lesbian life during this period, as well as a glimpse on how an outsider engaged in the social and economic issues of her time, the very same issues we struggle with today. Like these controversies she was complicated but showed courage under fire and provides a model of what activists must do to take care of themselves.

She refused to compromise her principles in the face of enormous opposition and paid a steep price for living by her convictions. The LGBTQ community has much to be proud of in Marie Equi.”t Michael Helquist will hold a book launch event Wednesday, September 23 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the McRoskey Mattress Company, 1687 Market Street, third floor, presented by Green Arcade Books.

Rocky road

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

S

ometimes I am reminded that I’m not a spring chicken. Indeed, I’ve been public as a transwoman for 22 years now, and that is still less than half my life. I’ve got a bit more gray in my hair than I’m altogether comfortable with, and a growing crop of wrinkles to my skin.

Recently, another trans friend of mine – one who had yet to start pre-school when I was coming out to friends and family – was relating to me a disagreement she had with an older transwoman.

The argument stemmed from that underground classic of 1975 cinema, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For the uninitiated, the film – and before that, a musical – is a parody of schlocky sci-fi films, featuring a “mad scientist” character with a penchant for women’s lingerie.

The movie itself spawned a near-religious following of fans who would attend midnight showings for decades, pelting the screen with props, shouting “call back lines,” and generally behaving like freaks while surrounded by scores of others letting their freak flag fly. This was a youth culture growing out of the era of Ziggy Stardust, simultaneously moving forward from and disillusioned by the hippies. Rocky Horror was like the weekly church ritual for this subculture.

The film also gained a lot of trans

devotees. Here was a movie with a main character hailing from “Transsexual, Transylvania,” parading across the screen in bold makeup and a black-and-glitter body briefer.

Costuming was welcomed at showings, even expected, allowing one to be accepted in public while donning their own crossgender look.

It was a big deal in the 1970s and 1980s, and that seemed to be the point this other older transwoman seemed to want to make to my younger friend. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it came out: Rather, she branded this younger transwoman and her friends as “dumb” for not enjoying Rocky Horror.

Sometime around 1982 I first saw a private showing of Rocky Horror, courtesy of a bad VHS copy of a bad VHS copy off a showing of the movie.

I was entranced by the movie, and amazed by the seemingly pervasive attitudes of both my friends who took me, and the others present.

I would see the film again the next night, and many other times after that. Eventually, I scored my own scratchy VHS bootleg a few years before an official release became available. As a result, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I’m sure it’s scores upon scores of times.

As much as I can sing along with “Superheroes” or rattle off callbacks throughout the floor show,

Courtesy 20th Century Fox

Tim Curry played the iconic role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

however, I also know that those young transwomen are not dumb, and that they very much have a point.

The story is problematic if we look at it with modern eyes. The main character is a cross-dresser who is also a sex-obsessed sociopath who ends up – sorry for the spoiler – dead in the final reel. Dr. Frank-N-Furter is neither going to make the reel of positive transgender role models, nor can the film, on its own, be considered a positive one for transgender people. This is the case even knowing that the film was made while Richard O’Brien, its screenwriter, was dealing with his own gender identity.

While many who attended those showings were a sort of family, and

usually very accepting, the crowds also included plenty of people there simply to “sneer at the queers.”

But that was all we had. Perhaps it’s a bit like being on a desert island with only a coconut tree to sustain you: you’ll develop quite a taste for that particular fruit.

We live in very different times today, and transgender people are not strangers on far-flung isles. In the 40 years since the movie came out, we have developed true role models among ourselves. We have gained rights that we did not have in 1975, from local laws about wearing cross-gender clothing to federal Title VII protections. We have movies and television shows galore to choose from, and they represent many forms of gender identity and

expression far beyond the few scraps we could dig up way back when. If those are not enough, we have the wealth of the Internet to points hither and yon, providing panoply of possibilities.

So where does the Rocky Horror Picture Show belong today?

For those of us old enough to remember that first strange taste of a broader world, it will always have a fond spot in our hearts. This movie was one of those things that gave us hope, showed us possibility, or otherwise kept us going from week to week. I’m reluctant to toss it in the dustbin of history, knowing that it was vital to so many. Without what it provided then – problematic or not – we would not be where we are now.

At the same time, this is not 1975, and we cannot look at The Rocky Horror Picture Show as part of the world of today’s transfolks any more than we can expect to see polyester leisure suits on the fashion runways.

I can remember the joy I had at midnight showings, and that isn’t going to go away. Yet I can also acknowledge that is a part of my history, and not something I expect everyone today to live through.

We don’t expect people to use a typewriter when a computer is available, nor should we expect every transperson to have our same experience.

I may be older now, but I hope to never be so set in my ways not to acknowledge change.t Gwen Smith never was in a shadow cast. You can find her on Twitter at @gwenners.

<< Commentary

t Stanford prof writes about life with her guide dogs 12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 17-23, 2015

by Belo Cipriani

W

e all know that guide dogs provide the blind people they assist with freedom and independence. But what many may not realize is these amazingly smart dogs don’t work their entire lives. Like the rest of us, guide dogs reach a point in their career where the job becomes taxing or less interesting. Thus, they get to retire.

Lesbian sociologist and Stanford

University Professor Susan Krieger’s recent book, Come, Let Me Guide You (Purdue University Press, 2015, $24.95), skillfully captures the experience of retiring a guide dog and receiving a new one.

The book, which is a collection of vividly woven memories and reflections, directly places the reader in the center of the bond between a blind person and their guide dog.

But unlike other books in this category, the vignettes that make up

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the relationship between Krieger and her aging guide dog, Teela, are not syrupy, nor is the language cloying.

And even when Krieger imagines what Teela may be thinking or feeling – a personification approach that doesn’t work for all stories – one can’t help but draw closer to the pair.

While the focal story is the relationship between Krieger and her first guide dog, Teela, and, later, her second guide dog, Fresco, the book also touches on issues of personal identity. Krieger dedicates a chapter to feminist and disabilities studies and pulls from her experience in teaching a course on disabled women at Stanford University.

“The idea that a disability is a product of attitudes and institutions that disable, rather than strictly of a physical or medical condition, is new to some of the students,” she writes. “One example they find helpful is that it is not the physiological limitations of a woman in a wheelchair that makes her disabled when crossing a street but the fact that there are curbs.”

Another storyline that’s carefully stitched throughout the book is the relationship between Krieger and

Stanford Professor Susan Krieger’s new book focuses on her guide dogs.

her partner, Hannah.

“A week ago, after thirty-two years of being together, Hannah and I got married when same-sex marriage became legal in California and in federal law,” Krieger shares. “’Teela will be with us, of course,’ Hannah said to me when we contacted City

Hall to reserve the date – surprising me, again, with her inclusiveness.

The day before the ceremony, we went to a flower stand and bought a bunch of white freesia, which I made into a corsage and attached, with gardening wire, to Teela’s harness. She became our bridesmaid, our flower girl, smiling in all the pictures.”

Come, Let Me Guide You plays with themes of grief and letting go, but also touches on embracing change. And while these themes are applied to a blind person, they are universal feelings that a general reader can appreciate.

The book is available in print, e-book, audio, and through bookshare.org for the print disabled.

For information, visit http://susankrieger.stanford.edu.t Belo Cipriani is a freelance journalist, the award-winning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams, and a spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind. He was voted “Best Disability Advocate” in the Bay Area in 2015 by SF Weekly. Learn more at BeloCipriani.com.

Couple’s video travel diary transformed into film

by Khaled Sayed

of hope from the It Gets Better project and bring it to the world.” lesbian couple’s video Dazols, 36, is a licensed clinitravel diary in which they cal social worker working in interviewed LGBTs around the HIV care at UCSF. Chang, 33, is world brought people to the a business manager for eBay. The Castro Theatre one night this couple met doing the AIDS Life/ week, as part of a Lesbians Who Cycle in 2007 and have been toTech and eBay event. gether since. They were married The documentary, Out and in 2013. Chang said that she is Around, stars Jennifer “Jenni” still struggling to get her parents Chang and Lisa Dazols and folto accept her as a lesbian and aclows their journey, interviewing cept her relationship with Dazols.

LGBT activists from countries Without any film experience, with very different laws and they bought a book on how to Khaled Sayed cultures. make a documentary, and went Lisa Dazols, left, and Jennifer “Jenni” Chang The couple were inspired in search of the people who discussed their film, Out and Around, at the by the videos from the It Gets are leading the movement for Castro Theatre Monday night.

Better Project, which started LGBT equality. in 2010 in response to young Dazols said that the film has LGBT people who took their exceeded their expectations in video camera, traveling to 15 counown lives after being bullied in every way. They are now officially tries through Asia, Africa, and South school. The project features homepartners with the It Gets Better ProjAmerica for one year. made YouTube videos where people ect and Logo TV, which premiered “I think we did a good job filling share their own stories of growing the film last month. It’s scheduled this theater with our friends,” Chang up gay, coming out, and voice ento be shown at the I Imagine Film said during the Monday, September couragement to LGBT youth.

Festival in New York this weekend.

14 event at the Castro Theatre. “This Chang decided to take a year off “This is home for us, so there are film started out as a very small idea from her day job at eBay to travel many people in the audience who by two people who had no business the world with the love of her life, were with us for the very first launch making a film, but we wanted to do Dazols. In 2011, they left their norparty, following our blog, and backsomething meaningful with our time mal lives behind and picked up a ing us on Kickstarter,” Dazols said. off. We wanted to take the same spirit “What we learned is that there are Obituaries >> no ideas too small. They can actuloved ones request that donations go to Pets ally happen when you plug into a Michael Holland Are Wonderful Support, where Mr. Holland shared mission by others.”

August 28, 1962 – August 28, 2015 volunteered for many years.

While interviewing LGBT leaders across the world, Chang and Dazols Rinaldo Sebanz Michael Wayne Holsay they realized that their journey land passed away unex1958 – 2015 could have larger impact beyond pectedly in his home in just self-growth. Their documentaSan Francisco’s Mission ry captures the momentous changes district. He was 53. Mr. Rinaldo Sebanz Holland was born in passed away peacefully occurring in the status of queer Washington, D.C., grew in Kauai, Hawaii this people around the world today. up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and earned a spring. Rinaldo was The screening event was hosted degree from Michigan State University. once presented in the by Leanne Pittsford, founder and Mr. Holland moved to San Francisco press as “one of San CEO of Lesbians Who Tech. in the early 1990s for a career in banking.

Francisco’s favorite “A lot of people take time away However, he developed AIDS in the late dudes,” and for good reason. He was well 1990s, and left his position to tend to his known to many in San Francisco and in his from work, but they made a decision health. He also worked as a bartender in final home of Kauai. Rinaldo was a native to interview LGBT people from all Kimo’s bar on Polk Street. of South Africa who came to America in over the world to give them a chance In the mid-2000s, he was admitted to the 1970s and worked his way from New to tell their stories, so they can share a graduate writing program in poetry at York to San Francisco, where his career these stories with you,” Pittsford said San Francisco State University. In 2007, he progressed from a chocolatier to one of the in introducing the women. joined the Laguna Writers’ Group, where he community’s favorite bartenders to a hairextensively honed his skills. Mr. Holland’s stylist to San Francisco’s elite clientele at the Before the movie screened, the work has been published many times, and famous Mister Lee’s and Fairmont Hotel. audience heard from Kate Kendell, he maintained a Facebook page of his poRinaldo moved to Palm Springs, where he executive director of the National etry that was followed by thousands. met his future husband, Mike Place, and Center for Lesbian Rights.

Mr. Holland is survived by David together they moved to Kauai where he Devin Wenig, CEO of eBay, was Hawkins (boyfriend), Nellie Holland continued his career as a creative hair stylist interviewed about diversity in the (mother), Rick Holland (brother), and three and enjoyed his life in Hawaii with his husnieces. A memorial will be held Sunday, Sepband, friends, and pets. Rinaldo is missed workplace at tech companies by tember 20 at 4 p.m. at Alley Cat Books, 3036 and will not be forgotten by his friends Kara Swisher, co-CEO of Re/code.t

A

24th Street, San Francisco. In lieu of flowers,

around the world.

t <<

Community News>>

September 17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

Oakland Pride

From page 1

dora, the streaming music service, and more sponsors overall. The Pride organization raised a record $150,000, Uribe said, which was $70,000 more than what the board raised in past years and it has helped retire the $40,000 in debt the nonprofit was carrying from 2014.

Uribe said Tuesday that there were no issues requiring police attention at the parade or festival. Oakland police were on site at both events, generally mingling with people and enjoying the festivities.

Pride breakfast

The East Bay Stonewall Democratic club held its third annual Oakland Pride Breakfast Sunday morning at the California Nurses Association headquarters on Franklin Street. It included a packed house of local politicos, honorees, and others.

Schaaf said that despite incredible victories like the national marriage equality U.S. Supreme Court decision in June, much work remains in terms of social justice and other issues.

“Our pride is that we as a city value diversity,” Schaaf said.

But the mayor, who attended a benefit for homeless youth the night before Pride, also pointed out that 40 percent of homeless youth in the city identify as LGBTQ. Former state Senator Carole Migden served as emcee, and presented four awards. The Trailblazer Award went to out Richmond City Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles, who endured anti-gay hostility at public meetings and beat back a challenge from Chevron-backed candidates to win re-election last year.

“We have to assert that black lives matter,” said Beckles, an African Amer-

<<

News Briefs

From page 3

Actor to receive Jose Sarria award

In other court news, actor Jason Stuart, the national co-chair of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ LGBT Actors Committee, will receive the Jose Julio Sarria International Civil Rights Award from the International Imperial Court System. The presentation will occur during an LGBT in the News panel series Thursday, September 24 at 7 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Stuart, who came out 22 years ago, is cast as a straight plantation owner in the upcoming film The Birth of a Nation, which is about the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. According to a 2014 story in Variety, the new movie is using the same title as the controversial silent 1915 film that is credited with reviving the Ku Klux Klan.

The LGBT in the News panel will include Stuart, Bajko, LGBT Weekly columnist Nicole Murray Ramirez, AIDS quilt founder Cleve Jones, and San Francisco Bay Times copublisher Betty Sullivan. The panel’s topic will be “History in Mind, Future in Sight,” and will feature a lively discussion about how the LGBT equality movement’s history informs the continuing struggle for equality.

<<

Strut

From page 4

Market Street services will continue

Most of SFAF’s administration and many of its services will continue to be housed at the agency’s headquarters at 1035 Market Street.

James Loduca, SFAF vice president of philanthropy and public affairs, said programs related to services such as housing and syringe

Kelly Sullivan

Members of the Alameda County Leather Corps marched in the Oakland Pride parade.

ican Latina lesbian. “Our responsibility for liberation extends to all.”

Queer youth Rafael Johns, a member of Youth Radio, received the Emerging Leader Award. He told the crowd that while he’s worked on a lot of stories for the media production company, the ones he enjoys the most are those on queer issues. But he said it’s about more than covering coming out stories.

“People come out and you don’t often hear about them after that,” Johns, 20, said, adding that topics such as depression and alcohol abuse affect LGBTQ people too. “I’ve attempted to use my work” to help others.

Johns was also a parade grand marshal.

Lavender Seniors of the East Bay received the club’s Community Service Award.

“If you aren’t already a senior, you will be as you become dependent on others for your daily lives,” said Lavender Seniors volunteer Deadre Bruetsch in accepting the award.

Finally, the Port of Oakland was

the recipient of the club’s Corporate Leader Award. John Betterton, secretary of the board at the Port, delivered a sobering assessment of how the entity, which runs the Port of Oakland and Oakland International Airport, has evolved.

“When I began working at the Port in 2002 it was the most homophobic workplace I’d been in,” he said, adding that there was one out person among 600 workers that year.

He said that over the years, the agency has changed dramatically, thanks in part to the appointment of gay commissioners such as Michael Lighty, who previously served on the panel, and Michael Colbruno, a current member.

“Lighty turned it around,” Betterton said.

He also noted that Colbruno and San Francisco Port Commissioner Leslie Katz, a lesbian, helped establish an LGBT group of statewide port officials to deal with LGBT workplace challenges and other issues.t

Constitution Day event to feature marriage equality talk

Academy of Friends to announce beneficiaries

San Francisco State University will observe Constitution Day with a twoday conference that includes a keynote address on same-sex marriage.

The conference, “Rights and Wrongs,” takes place Thursday, September 17 and Friday, September 18 at the SFSU campus, 1600 Holloway Avenue.

The conference begins Thursday afternoon with a screening of the 2014 award-winning documentary Private Violence that addresses domestic, intimate, and partner violence against women. The 2 p.m. event is at McKenna Theatre.

Friday’s events will feature panels on campaign finance and economic inequality, pornography and copyright, the Americans with Disabilities Act, corporate education and the neoliberal classroom, free speech and hate speech, technology and the Bill of Rights, immigrant rights and left politics, and the politics of under-studied rights.

The afternoon keynote address takes place at 4 p.m. by Professor David Cruz, from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, who will speak on “Marriage/Equality.” The event takes place in the Rosa Parks Room of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. A reception follows at 5:30.

The conference is free and open to the public. For more information, including schedules, visit http://history.sfsu.edu/content/ constitution-day. access, as well as Black Brothers Esteem, Latino Programs, and TransLife will remain at 1035 Market.

Help with pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis – known as PrEP and PEP, respectively – designed to help prevent HIV, will be offered at both facilities.

For some people used to getting help at the mid-Market Street space, the Castro may seem far away.

Giuliano said if someone wants to receive testing, counseling, PrEP,

The Academy of Friends, which raises money for HIV/AIDS programs primarily through its Oscar viewing party, will have an event Thursday, September 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Vince, 36 Geary Street in San Francisco’s Union Square.

AOF’s 2016 beneficiary partners will be announced at the reception.

Organizers said that the clothing store is holding a shopping party that night, offering an opportunity to view its fall collection. The store will also offer complimentary champagne and bites and donate 10 percent of proceeds to AOF. For more information, visit www. academyoffriends.org.

Harm reduction community event

The San Francisco Department of Public Health will have a community event Wednesday, September 23 from 5 to 8 p.m. at 25 Van Ness Avenue, Room 610 that will focus on harm reduction.

The event, titled, “Spotlighting Harm Reduction in San Francisco,” will feature community members, health advocates, planners, and experts who will discuss the need to reprioritize and reinvigorate harm reduction in the city. Gay former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and Cecilia Chung, a transgender woman who is a senior strategist at the Transgender Law Center, will moderate the talk.

or similar services, “I don’t think there’s anything in those broad categories that someone cannot receive” at the Market Street site.

Patriarca said, “We do a lot of strategizing to make sure that no one is left behind.”

Asked about whether some would question SFAF investing $15 million in the Castro, Giuliano said his agency “has always been driven by the data and driven by the evidence,” and he said at least 90 per-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Pierre-Luc, left, and Gabriel Millaire, right, ride in a teacup with their daughter, Sophie, 2, in the Family and Children’s Garden at the Oakland Pride festival.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Oakland Police Sergeant Clark, who declined to give her first name, ran into college friends Beth and Maria Gomezalso, who took a break to check their phones during the Oakland Pride festival while Clark gave their baby, Gabby, a bottle.

The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Vincent Fuqua at Vincent. fuqua@sfdph.org.

SF Elections Dept. seeks poll workers

Want to make some extra money and help with San Francisco’s November 3 election? The city’s election department is now recruiting San Franciscans to serve as poll workers and about 2,000 are needed throughout the city.

Those who are interested can apply in person at the poll worker recruitment office, which is open every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Department of Elections, located in the basement of City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. High school students can apply through the department’s high school student poll worker program. People fluent in Chinese, Spanish, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, or Japanese in addition to English are encouraged to apply.

For their one-day service, poll workers receive a stipend that varies between $142-$195, depending on their assignment.

For more information, visit www. sfelections.org.

SF HRC announces grant opportunities for LGBTQI support services

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission has announced three grant opportunities totaling

cent of people in the city diagnosed with HIV are gay and bi men, “and that informs our work.”

The Castro is still “the heart of the community for gay and bi men in San Francisco,” he added.

Loduca said, “Ultimately, the impact of our work here is going to extend far beyond the confines of the Castro and San Francisco,” as other agencies throughout the world will see their latest efforts as a model.

The nonprofit’s board has con-

$510,000 for LGBTQI support services in the city.

The grants are: $200,000 for transgender coalition building and organizational support; $160,000 for violence prevention and intervention services for LGBTQI survivors of violence; and $150,000 for leadership development and legal/ support services of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated trans people.

The grants build on the HRC’s recent work with the LGBTQI communities. Last year the commission partnered with the San Francisco LGBT Community Center to commission a first-of-its-kind needs assessment report on LGBTQI violence prevention in the city. The report found that high proportions of community members, and particularly trans persons and trans persons of color, experience physical violence, sexual violence, and harassment.

The HRC has also been partnering with El/La Para Translatinas to provide case management, education and advocacy, and community building services to the city’s trans Latina community. That partnership began in 2013 and was recently renewed for another one-year term.

Requests for proposals for each grant are available at http:// sf-hrc.org/grant-opportunities.

Applications are due Monday, October 5 at 4 p.m. The commission expects to make award decisions by late fall and begin service delivery by December 1.t tributed a total of $2 million toward Strut, which will have an annual operating budget of about $5 million.

Delayed opening

Strut will come online later than expected, and there’s still no specific opening date for the center.

SFAF, which has a budget of about $29 million, announced in October 2012 that it would combine many See page 14 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 17-23, 2015

<<

Porn law

From page 1

prophylaxis, or PrEP, which involves taking HIV medication and has been shown to be effective in preventing transmission. He tops sometimes but bottoms at others.

He prefers wearing condoms in his scenes, “because of the many things that you can contract by doing bareback.”

However, he said, “I don’t hold anything against anybody that does bareback.”

“I know a lot of people who don’t like the whole condom aspect” while watching porn films, Love said. “It can turn them off” by “getting in the way of their fantasy.”

Naked Sword production director Pam Dore, also known as mr.

Pam, echoed Love’s comments.

“I believe the government shouldn’t be regulating the porn set,” Dore said.

Proponents of the proposed ballot measure say that almost twodozen performers became infected with HIV while working in porn from 2004 to 2014, but Dore said such claims are “misleading.”

There haven’t been any transmissions of HIV “on a regulated set since 2004,” she said, and “none of those people became positive on an adult set.”

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SF Pride

From page 2

Clay emphasized that she is a supporter of the transgender community. “Many of us in the activist community are working together to create an alternative slogan/hashtag that supports trans liberation without diminishing black liberation,” she said.

Clay also said that people needed to listen to the communities they were supporting.

<<

“This is not a problem,” Dore said.

“I don’t understand what their assault on the gay porn industry is about.”

Naked Sword doesn’t require HIV testing, since its actors have to use condoms in films “and I don’t want to discriminate against people who are positive,” she said.

Although the company requires condoms in sex scenes, Dore’s open to the possibility of filming bareback porn, since “PrEP is 100 percent effective on stopping HIV transmission.”

The company’s condom requirements were established before prevention methods like PrEP were available.

[A recent Kaiser PrEP study found that none of its 650 subjects – mostly gay and bi men – reported an HIV infection since 2010.]

If the proposed measure becomes law, she said, porn producers will “just move out of California.” Some already have, Dore said.

Naked Sword and others will be working against the ballot measure, but “it’s hard” with AHF spending large sums on the campaign, “when they should really be spending that money on helping people,” she said.

AHF held a barely audible conference call Monday to discuss the proposal. A spokesman for the group didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

Tim Valenti, Naked Sword’s president and CEO, is the board president of the Free Speech Coalition, which is the trade association of the porn industry.

Diane Duke, the coalition’s executive director, said in a statement this week that AHF’s proposed measure is “an outrageous initiative that would allow any citizen of the state of California to sue a porn star for not using condoms on film, and gives them a financial incentive to do so. ... In an effort to patrol community morals, Mr. Weinstein’s initiative turns the state courts into a legalized method of stalking” harassing, and exploiting porn stars.

In its review of the proposal, the state legislative analyst’s office said the law would mean “potentially reduced state and local tax revenue of millions or tens of millions of dollars per year,” as well as “Likely state costs of a few million dollars annually to administer the law.”

Although the analysis found, “If the measure resulted in a lower number of HIV or other STD infections in California, then there could be state and local public health savings of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per year,” the state office also said, “The ongoing net costs or saving for health and human service programs are difficult to predict.”t

“If you want to speak for us, you have to speak with us first,” she said.

“We need you and we appreciate your ongoing support.”

“For Racial and Economic Justice” was ultimately the winning 2016 theme.

The newly elected Pride Board members will be seated at Pride’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 6 at 7 p.m. Two board seats remain vacant and will be filled by appointment.

“There is no decision at this time regarding the two vacant seats on

the board,” Pride board President Gary Virginia told the B.A.R. “We will look at the diversity, skills, and experience of the new board composition of 11 directors, and seek what we might be missing in any possible new directors.”

The board will look at other criteria as well.

“We will also look at what committees directors choose to serve on in the coming year, and see if we are missing interest, skills or depth on a particular committee,” he added.t

Strut

From page 13

of its free services including sexual health, substance use and mental health, and community engagement at the space. At the time, the nonprofit said it hoped to move into the building in October 2013.

One cause for delay had been making minor changes, such as increasing the height of some baseboards, for the center’s licensing as a health facility.

Giuliano said that work’s been completed, but the center still needs to be given final approval from state health department inspectors.

About 42 people will work at Strut.

SFAF has hired nurse practitioners and is bringing on at least two more people to help clients navigate insurance and benefits programs.

More help for mental health

The nonprofit also plans to provide more help for people with mental health issues. A full-time counselor has been hired and there are already nine clinical interns.

Most of the interns are pursuing master’s degrees in counseling, psychology, and similar fields.

“There are isolation issues and depression issues,” in the gay men’s community, noted Patriarca.

There has been a need for mental health services since the closure of New Leaf: Services for Our Community several years ago. The UCSF Alliance Health Project took on some of those duties, but last year that agency had a round of staff layoffs.

Some in the community are already praising Strut, which is part of SFAF’s efforts to reduce the number of new HIV transmissions in San Francisco to zero as part of the Getting to Zero Coalition.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the Castro, said Strut is “an extremely positive project for the neighborhood. When you look at the success Magnet has

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Neil Giuliano walks through the sexual health services area on the second floor of the new Strut facility.

had, expanding Magnet and combining it with prevention, substance abuse, mental health, and other health services makes all the sense in the world.”

Tez Anderson, of the group Let’s Kick ASS, which stands for AIDS Survivor Syndrome, said, “We’ve turned a corner in San Francisco, which is remarkably exciting.”

Anderson, who said, “l lost a lover and more friends than I can even count” to AIDS, added, “I’m glad to see the change in the epidemic, and glad to see [SFAF] being part of that.”

Naming rights

Throughout the new center, there are placards that describe the service offered and a “Your Name Here” line, intended to attract donors for naming opportunities. Virtually everything is up for a name, from the building itself to its grand staircase to the medical records room.

Loduca said the brand name Strut “is distinct from the philanthropic naming rights,” so the center could still be named after an individual.

Giuliano, who recently an-

nounced that he’s leaving SFAF in a couple months to become president and CEO of Greater Phoenix Leadership, a business organization focused on civic improvement initiatives, said “there still may be” a large donor who comes forward that will lend their name to the center.

There are also naming opportunities for major donors in programmatic areas.

For example, the 50-Plus Network is being renamed the Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network after the late actress’ AIDS foundation made a five-year pledge to support and secure naming rights to the seniors group.

Those interested in volunteering at Strut, for now, can go to www. magnetsf.org/about/volunteer.html.

SFAF is holding its annual Tribute fundraising gala Saturday, September 19 at the Exploratorium, Pier 15. The VIP reception begins at 6:30 p.m. The gala reception starts at 7. Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) will be honored at the event.

For ticket prices and other information, go to https://goo.gl/zTlDEj.t

t

Legal Notices>> SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN MATEO, 400 COUNTY CENTER, REDWOOD CITY, CA 94063 NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: YEVGENIYA TSERNOH, YOU HAVE BEEN SUED. PETITIONER’S NAME IS LEONID TSERNOH CASE NO. FAM0127822

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs.

For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately.

Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpca.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

NOTICE: RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE ON PAGE 2: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.

FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party. The name and address of the court are SAN MATEO SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, 400 County Center, Redwood City, CA 94063 The name, address and telephone number of the petitioners attorney are: Constantine Zhukovsky, Esquire; SBN207181, The Law Offices of Constantine Zhukovsky, 450 Taraval Street, Unit 147, San Francisco, CA 94116 Telephone: 415-260-1045, facsimile: 415-7043383, E-mail crass50@yahoo.com January 16, 2015 Clerk of the San Mateo Superior Court, John C. Fitton, Deputy E. Melas.

STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1.

Removing the minor children of the parties, from the state or applying for a new or replacement passport for those minor children without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children; 3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in a manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party.

You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs.

NOTICE – ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE: Do you or someone in your household need affordable health insurance?

If so you should apply for Covered California.

Covered California can help reduce the cost you pay towards high quality affordable health care.

For more information, visit www.coveredca.com.

Or call Covered California at 1-800-300-1506.

WARNING – IMPORTANT INFORMATION California law provides that, for purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (i.e., joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling, and not the community property presumption. You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551488

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036638900

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.

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.

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.

AUGUST 27, SEPT 03, 10, 17, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551490

In the matter of the application of: SUNG HEE HONG, 1650 OCTAVIA ST #310, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SUNG HEE HONG, is requesting that the name SUNG HEE HONG, be changed to ARIANA HONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 19th of November 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036648300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SWOOP COMMUNICATIONS, 269 BRADFORD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAULA A. MURPHY. 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 08/27/15.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036648500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRUZITO’S JEWELRY & REPAIR, 2521 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANA K. SANCHEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/15.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036645800

In the matter of the application of: MARY L. LEIX, 1700 BROADWAY #506, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARY L. LEIX, is requesting that the name MARY L. LEIX, be changed to MARY LEIX NELSON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 24th of November 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO AUTO TOW & RECOVERY, 1 AVE OF THE PALMS SUITE 10B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DENNIS M. FALLON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/25/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/25/15.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036651600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FEAST STUDIOS, 1366 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HERRGOTT ENTERPRISES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/15.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035949500

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: OASIS CONVENIENCE STORE, 4 EMBARCADERO LOBBY LEVEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 94111.

This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by NAJEB M. DABIT & MICHAEL DABIT. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/2014.

SEPTEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036662500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SARAH JUAN, 2828 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARGARET AHN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/03/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036648100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COOKIEKU, 8200 OCEANVIEW TERRACE #105, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NATALIA TAN. 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 08/26/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0366608-00 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAYS INN-SLOAT, 2600 SLOAT BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SBS HOSPITALITY INK, CA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/02/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0366527-00

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: B&A BODYWORKS/TOWING INC; APPLE TOWING INC; B&A TOWING; 1080 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed B&A BODYWORKS/TOWING 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 08/31/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036636100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANGKOR BOREI RESTAURANT, 3471 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ANGKOR BOREI CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/18/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036639200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GRAND FINISHES LLC, 500 QUINTARA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GRAND FINISHES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036661400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CREPE AROUND, 635 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CREPE AROUND LLC (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 09/02/15.

SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036673900

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF THOMAS FENNER DALLMAN IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: SECOND AMENDED FILE PES-15-298529

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of THOMAS FENNER DALLMAN. A Petition for Probate has been filed by ANN DALLMAN in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that ANN DALLMAN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval.

Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: September 29, 2015, 9AM, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: Heather R. Stoneman, Esq. Jewel & Stoneman, LLP, 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 678, San Francisco, CA 94104 Ph. (415) 394-6800.

September 10-16, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

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SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036671700

Pet Services>>

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VISION GRAPHICS, 1207 PLYMOUTH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MANUEL AMILCAR SAAVEDRA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/15.

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036670400

650.289.6429

HOUSECLEANING SINCE 1979 –

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO IN FLOOR HEATING AND HYDRO SOLAR SYSTEMS, 518 24TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD D. SEAMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/15/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BARRISTER LAW GROUP; MONARCH MEDICAL GROUP; MONARCH REALTY GROUP; METRO MEDIA MARKETING; ENG DESIGN; ENG ENTERPRISES; SPYGLASS PROPERTIES. 2261 MARKET ST #198, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN J. ENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/15.

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SEPTEMBER 10, 17, 24, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036679900

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036672100

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036649700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HA-RA CLUB, 875 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BROOKLYN ROSE, LLC (CA). 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 08/28/15.

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036673300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NINA RAABE, 1530 CALIFORNIA ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KIM EHLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/09/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SILKROLL, 833 MARKET ST #312, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MAKANA LLC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/15.

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036645000

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036673500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LATER DAZE, 631 O’FARRELL ST #1214, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANA A. CHRISTY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDERS LEADERS FORUM, 500 WASHINGTON ST #325, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 21ST CENTURY ISSUES FORUM (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 08/25/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO LUGGAGE COMPANY, 865 MARKET ST #327, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SHAPIRO TRAVELWARE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/15.

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015

SEPTEMBER 17, 24, OCTOBER 01, 08, 2015

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20

Magic realism

Checkmate

24

Out &About

Camaraderie

19

O&A

19

Vol. 45 • No. 38 • September-17-23, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

Grand night for singing

by Philip Campbell

T

he San Francisco Opera’s 93rd season opened last Friday with an unlikely production for a party. Giuseppe Verdi’s pivotal opera Luisa Miller, based on a domestic tragedy with political overtones by Friedrich Schiller, is a pretty heavy affair for the haute couture set. Luckily, it turned out to be just the ticket for music-lovers and anyone willing to settle for a grand night of singing over dramatic involvement.

See page 18 >>

Vitaliy Bilyy as Miller and Leah Crocetto as the title character in Verdi’s Luisa Miller.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Classic Rhino

Noel Coward will be represented with two plays in Theatre Rhino’s recently announced 2015-16 season.

Anais Demoustier and Romain Duris in director Francois Ozon’s The New Girlfriend.

by Richard Dodds

T

heatre Rhinoceros has announced its 38th season, opening with a new play by its executive director and closing with a classic comedy by Noel Coward.

The five-show season will take place at several venues around the city, with Eureka Theatre continuing to be its principal home base.

See page 21 >>

French kink

Obscured Pictures

by David Lamble

T

he New Girlfriend, the latest kinky tale from the diabolical Frenchmen Francois Ozon, commences with an intense close-up of lipstick being applied to a freshly dead young woman. The sassy director arranges for his “a film by” credit to flash on the screen just as a hand gently

Allan Walker

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

BLOGS DIGITAL EDITION ARCHIVE ONLINE EXTRAS

closes the young woman’s eyes and the lid of her coffin slides shut, and a church organ is heard in the swelling climax of “Here Comes the Bride.”

The camera pulls back to reveal a church chapel full of mourners intently listening to See page 21 >>

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September-17-23, 2015

Season-opening night at the Opera

by Roberto Friedman

stand-out moments. Oh, the year we (accidentally, inadvertently) stepped on the train of arts patroness Dede Wilsey’s gown, and she looked at us like she’d just had a bad piece of fish! The year the opera trotted out a real-live camel for our amusement at the ball, and it was easier to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of heaven! The year that the San Francisco Chronicle finally fessed up that their columnist, gala attendee Willie Brown, a registered lobbyist, consistently writes about politics and development projects in which he has a compelling interest. Oops, just pulling your leg, that last one hasn’t happened yet.

We came, we saw, we partied, we descended deep into the Valley of Décolletage, and we survived to tell the tale. Thanks as always to the SFO press office for their gracious hospitality. Thank you to the Company for putting on such world-class productions. Thank you to the SF fog bank for breaking the oppressive heat wave just in time for opening night. Thanks to Bacchus, the god of wine. Now bring on the season!t

L

ast Friday night’s San Francisco Opera gala opening signaled the official start of the San Francisco arts season. Out There made it to the War Memorial Opera House just in time for cocktails in the lobby, wine in the press room, cocktails on the loggia, oh yes the opera Luisa Miller in the theater, and postperformance cocktails in the Opera Ball Pavilion. The early Verdi opera was easy on the ears – see the review that starts on the front page of this very issue.

Everything else was terrific for our liver.

San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley, ever the gentleman and a giant in his field, approached B.A.R. music critic Philip Campbell and OT to remark upon how consistently excellent he’s found our arts coverage to have been over the years. Thank you for acknowledging Phil’s and our good work, sir, and thanks for your huge contribution to the musical life of our city.

We remembered previous opera openings we’ve attended and their

<<

Luisa Miller

ting. Stage designs by Michael Yeargan remain handsome if too sleekly stylized, and the beautiful costumes

by Dunya Ramicova – especially the gorgeous crimson tones of the aristos’ gowns – add needed visual impact. Gary Marder’s lighting is in keeping with the general atmosphere. With the stellar cast on hand and the understanding of Luisotti emanating from the pit, the singers frankly could have stood at lecterns to tear into Verdi’s unforgettable tunes as a theatrical concert.

Former SFO Adler Fellow and Merola Opera Program alumna soprano Leah Crocetto has been caught at just the right moment in her growing career to essay the title role of the innocent middle-class girl done to dirt by the lords and ladies of a provincial court. Crocetto’s seemingly limitless vocal strength has enough power to maintain a creamy tone at both ends of her vocal register. Her top notes and coloratura are beautifully achieved – a perfect voice for Verdi, as she proved

From page 17

A large and encouraging crowd of standees cheered throughout the night, backing the slightly overheated but surprisingly well-behaved patrons of the orchestra and boxes.

The gentry quickly calmed down to attentively savor the long performance done with only one intermission. Dramatic action and deep emotions were in short supply. Any thrills to be wrung from librettist Salvadore Cammarano’s superficial take on Schiller’s melodrama were most definitely delegated to the musical company under Nicola Luisotti’s suitably intense direction.

Francesca Zambello’s coolly efficient production of 15 years ago has been faithfully restaged by director Laurie Feldman to the point of sterility. Everything moves like clockwork, but reduces the drama to something one might observe in an oil painting. It has all been tastefully curated in a modern museum set-

t

Steven Underhill Steven Underhill

San Francisco Opera gala attendees David Laudon and Randy Laroche arrive at the Opera House.

San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley and SF Opera patron extraordinaire Dede Wilsey pose at the gala.

most memorably in her performance in the Requiem in 2013. Not much of an actress, but she makes the right facial expressions at the right times and lets her voice fill in the rest. She earned her spot center stage and triumphed with an oldstyle “golden age of singing” performance.

Winner of the trifecta (voice, acting and looks) for the musical marathon was, not unexpectedly, American tenor Michael Fabiano. In the role of Luisa’s tortured lover Rodolfo, he simply owned the stage on every appearance. Here was the necessary jolt of adrenaline for a static show. The handsome star (and he is officially in the big-time now, fans) opened his voice with amazing ease, filling the house with an ardent tone and commitment to character. He got a truly deserved avalanche of approval from the thrilled audience.

There are more singers in the story, and each character is given a moment in the spotlight to make an impression, but perhaps the most Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Tenor Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller.

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subtly shaded role is assigned to Luisa’s veteran soldier father Miller.

Verdi would go on to explore the complexities of father-daughter relationships for the rest of his own career, but he really started getting serious here. Making his SFO debut in a role he has performed at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Ukrainian baritone Vitaliy Bilyy brought a commanding believability and pathos to the part. His exchanges with his daughter in the final moments of her life evoked emotions that would be sharpened more dramatically later in the conclusion to Rigoletto.

As Rodolfo’s big bad dad Count Walter, former SFO Adler Fellow and Merola program alumnus bassbaritone Daniel Sumegi was slightly overshadowed, but there is an appealing edge to his voice that added villainous character.

As the cruel (and inadvertently, but appropriately named) Wurm, who cements the whole shameful plot against Luisa and her true love, bass Andrea Silvestrelli made a meal of a surprisingly underwritten character.

Again, it all had to be portrayed in the singing, and Russian mezzosoprano Ekaterina Semenchuk made her SFO debut as the duchess

betrothed to Rodolfo by his father (and who has loved him since childhood) with penetrating vocal skill.

Her entrance on an oversized statue of a horse is impressive, but the horse sticks around for no apparent reason (sort of like Luisa’s bed from the first act), and Semenchuk must use her own devices to keep the audience focused. Like everyone else, her voice carried the day.

Ian Robertson’s Chorus slips convincingly and seamlessly from peasant to noble garb, and they supply emotion where the staging falters from too much stateliness.

The most important part of the production (for my money) and certainly the illuminating spark to an ultimately satisfying experience flowed electrically from the orchestra and maestro Luisotti’s baton. At one moment I looked to his extended hand in the spotlight and caught what was truly enlivening an otherwise overly careful performance. A touch of passion, combined with an obvious love for the details in Verdi’s boundless flow of melody, set the final seal on a big opening night.t Luisa Miller runs in repertory through Sept. 27 at the War Memorial Opera House.

t

Theatre>>

September-17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Lesbians, gays & coal miners united

by Richard Dodds

I

t may sound like an alphabet stream timed to the Folsom Street Fair: “LGSM.” But for many in Britain of 1984, those letters brought to mind an alliance of a different sort of bedfellows. Michael Kerrigan’s For the Love of Comrades draws on a coal miners’ strike across the UK, an epic showdown between labor unions and the policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

“LGSM” was shorthand for Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a support many of the labor leaders were reluctant to embrace, but which found welcome among the rank and file.

Kerrigan’s play was first staged in 2013 in Derry, Northern Ireland, where he was born and raised, and it is now having its U.S. premiere at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

While the recent movie Pride looks at the big picture of LGSM and its founder Mark Ashton, For the Love of Comrades takes matters down to a more intimate level. A gay couple living in a London flat provides lodging to wary strikers from Wales, with all of the action taking place in the couple’s living room (designed

by Devin Kasper).

This means that exposition is often delivered secondhand, with characters talking about what has happened offstage or reading newspaper articles to each other, and through television news reports. But Kerrigan is able to draw us enough

Lois Tema

Stephan McFarland, left, and Miles Duffield play a gay couple sharing a toast with a striking miner (Shane Fahy) who is lodging with them in For the Love of Comrades at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

into the specific worlds of his characters, whose issues often transcend politics, most effectively in the first act as relationships are established, and less so in the second act where there is less to reveal.

This is a first play for Kerrigan, a college teacher and veteran gayrights activist, who lived in London during the LGSM days. With script development by Patricia Byrne, it is an impressive debut with but a few glaring missteps. Director Jeffrey Hoffman provides the perform-

ers with space to develop natural rhythms among the characters in almost all cases.

Gay partners Sean and Gene are a somewhat mismatched pair, with Sean an impetuous full-time activist from Derry and Gene a fastidious music student from Canada. Sean, often haunted by memories of a friend killed during the Bloody Sunday carnage of 1972 Derry, tries to forget with a manic devotion to social-justice causes. Gene has a more subdued interest in politics, and is

She’ll always have Paris

mostly focused on preparing for a concert that is part of his final exams.

Gene is slow to get onboard when Sean arrives with two burly strikers who need a place to stay. But miners David and Rhys aren’t too comfortable either when they realize their hosts are a couple of poofs, and much of the play is built around the confidence that slowly builds among the quartet even as Sean and Gene face cracks in their own relationship.

Miles Duffield anchors the play with his performance of the take-

others to happiness. It is around these events that truncation lessens the impact of Lucas’ book, both in her beneficent actions and her occasional pranks against the story’s sourpusses. But Amelie’s is still a Paris of pop-up-book enchantments rendered in a kaleidoscope of consciously low-tech visual effects.

As the cinematic Amelie, Audrey Tatou gave the movie an irresistible twinkle that Samantha Barks matches in her own way. When not playing specific roles, the other cast members work as an ensemble who can become as one as they push Amelie toward her romantic destiny. Adam ChanlerBerat charmingly plays the object of Amelie’s mostly long-distance infatuation, a quirky artist who must endure her cat-and-mouse game that finally leads him to her door.

Other colorfully drawn characters include Maria-Christina Oliveras’ former trapeze artist, Amelie’s comically stiff father played by John Hickok, Alyse Alan Louis’ mousy waitress, Paul Whitty’s cynical cafe patron, Tony Sheldon as Amelie’s wise neighbor, kevinberne.com

Samantha Barks stars in the title role of Amelie, a New Musical at Berkeley Rep, playing a shy young woman in Paris whose mission is to create happiness for others.

by Richard Dodds

A

melie, the 2001 French movie, is a pop-abstract extravaganza, playfully employing magic realism to create a rose-tinted Paris where the title character’s mission of “anonymous good-deed doing” is amply rewarded. To put that world on stage would require either the budget of a Spider-Man musical, and still come up wanting, or completely reimagining it with theatrical invention replacing its cinematic equivalents. Wisely, and with imagination bursting forth from every square inch on Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre stage, the creators of Amelie, a New Musical have taken the latter route, with felicitous results.

It’s been nearly 15 years since I saw the movie, at a time when I needed a feel-good boost, and that good-

will carried forth into this worldpremiere production that clearly is thinking about life after Berkeley.

Only after the performance did I consider that cinematic memories were being played forward, filling in some of Amelie’s adventures in frisky philanthropy and fearful human contact that have been condensed for the intermissionless musical.

I came in already caring about the title character, while my theatergoing companion, who had not seen the movie, never quite reached that state. But it’s difficult to conceive that anyone would not be swept up in the carnival-like swirl of the production, from an ear-pleasing score

by Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen, to the inventive choreography by Sam Pinkleton, the wondrous costume and scenic designs of David Zinn, and Pam McKinnon’s fluid

and endlessly ingenious direction.

Craig Lucas’ adaptation of the original screenplay is able to make use of a surprising amount of both the story and what might seem like throwaway atmospheric curlicues. As with the movie, the musical starts with Amelie’s childhood with her emotionally repressed parents and the imagination that helps her cope with her isolation. The production finds its own screwball visual language to deal with her tedious homeschooling, the loss of her pet goldfish, the sudden death of her mother, and her father’s obsession with garden gnomes.

Setting out on her own in Paris, with a waitress job at a cafe filled with oddball regulars and a closequarters apartment that lets her benignly spy on her neighbors, Amelie becomes an anonymous puppet master setting up situations to spur

charge Sean, though he is embarrassed by panic attacks brought on by the ghostly appearances of his dead friend (Adam Odsess-Rubin).

Stephen McFarland has a jittery intensity as music student Gene. Shane Fahy and Paul Rodrigues warmly navigate from gruffly masculine miners to revelers at the LGSM’s fundraising Pits and Perverts Ball (an actual event headlined by Bronski Beat). Where the playwright and the production have problems is in the recurring appearances of Gene’s opera-singer school partner, a character of one-dimensional hauteur played with a pushed posh by Alyssa Stone.

It’s the play’s one big false note.

For the Love of Comrades was actually titled Pits and Perverts when it premiered in Derry, a moniker adopted by the LGSM group after a headline in a tabloid newspaper coined the phrase. It’s a catchier title than the manifesto-y For the Love of Comrades, but maybe a harder sell away from the original happenings.

And the current title does better reflect the mutual benefit that came from the alliance, as coal miners returned the original favor with support for gay-rights causes. Go-go boys are fine in a pride parade, but a few marching coal miners can really give homophobes the shaft.t For the Love of Comrades will run at New Conservatory Theatre Center through Oct. 11. Tickets are $25-$45. Call (415) 861-8972 or go to nctcsf.org.

Savvy Crawford as young Amelie, and Randy Blair as the cafe’s resident poet, who doubles in an outlandish performance as Elton John in Amelie’s fantasy version of Princess Diana’s funeral.

There is no song list provided in the program, and some of Messe and Tysen’s compositions meld gracefully into the action even with an occasional left-field lyric designed to pull you up by surprise. But there are several stand-alone songs that have the sound of potential hits outside the show. An eight-piece band led by musical director Kimberly Grigsby surrounds the show in a rich sound.

At this early point, Amelie could use some elaboration on why the title character is special enough for us to fully invest ourselves. But it is still an amazing enterprise, filled with visual delights, lovely music, ingratiating performances, and a story whose main purpose is to make you smile.t Amelie, a New Musical will run at Berkeley Rep through Oct. 4. Tickets are $29-$97. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.

<< Film

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September-17-23, 2015

Have matatu, will travel

by Erin Blackwell

tion, even though it’s named for a relatively humble form of transport.

More economical than a taxi, surely, from the medieval Latin word for tax. Yet not so humble, perhaps, as a tuk-tuk, a popular three-wheeled scooter affording more independence of movement. Less flashy than the piki-piki, a small motorcycle with a 125cc engine. Less enterprising than the boda-boda, a bicycle with a cushion for transporting one or two clients. In case of rain, tariffs have been known to double. At the festival, events range from $12 to $30, come rain or come shine.

Whatever your means of transport in Oakland, you will “navigate through four days of music, film, and performance inclusive of artists and films from all over the world,” to quote the press release. The fun starts at Miss Ollie’s on Washington St., at 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Sept.

22, where a $70 pre-festival dinner will be curated by Michelin Star award-winning chef Sarah Kirnon, as inspired by this year’s cinematic offerings. Aesthetic luminaries will include Saul Williams, Bryant Terry,

W

hat the hell is a matatu, you ask. It is neither your tattoo of your mother, nor your mother’s tattoo of you. Matatu is a Swahili word for a form of public transport particular to Kenya, equipped with 13 to 19 seats, each with its own safety belt since the 2007 reforms. The name comes from the Swahili word for three, tatu. When they were introduced in 1992, the fare was three Kenyan dimes, or mateni matatu.

This information might be of no use to you, or you could attempt to bring it up in conversation with your new friends at the Matatu Film Festival, now in its third year and opening on Wed., Sept. 23, in Oakland.

Admission to the Matatu Film Festival will set you back much more than 30 Kenyan cents, which is hardly surprising, since this isn’t Kenya and even their rates are bound to have increased in 20-odd years, and besides, it’s not a bus! It’s a film festival named after a bus. Film festivals tend to be rather swanky affairs, and the Matatu is no excep-

t

Courtesy Matatu Festival

Scene from Asni: Courage, Passion & Glamor in Ethiopia, part of the Matatu Film Festival.

Mahader Tesfai, and Donte Clark.

Next year, maybe some women artists will respond to their invitation?

A slate of 10 carefully selected films begins to roll on Wed., Sept.

23, with the 7 p.m. showing of Necktie Youth at the Starline Social Club on Grand Ave. More about that in a minute. My own personal

Courtesy Matatu Festival

Scene from Romeo Is Bleeding, part of the Matatu Film Festival, coming to Oakland.

pick, having seen none of them, is Asni: Courage, Passion & Glamor in Ethiopia, screening Fri., Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. I love the subtitle. I love seeing glamor in the same phrase with Ethiopia. And I love the film-guide description comparing Billie Holliday and Edith Piaf to an Ethiopian singer named Asnaketch “Asni” Worku, who, like female artists everywhere, braved the censure of patriarchal meanies who threatened to close Heaven to her.

Judging from the production stills on the website of the Tribeca Film Festival, which screened 23-yearold Sibs Shongwe-La Mer’s debut feature this year, Necktie Youth is more taxi than tuk-tuk. Shooting in luscious black-and-white accentuates, distills or defines the blackand-white skins of the characters, who appear to be romping around a high-art interior in designer castoffs. Stunningly, one wall is covered in the taxidermied heads and skins

of horned and striped mammals in the sort of décor that really works in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the action is set. The sort of digs Oscar Pistorious should have lived in.

After the screening of Necktie Youth, Saul Williams will pitch his upcoming book of poems, US(a).

The poet promises to “stop and frisk the moment, make it empty its pockets, and chronicle what’s inside.” Seems an unfortunate metaphor, but does I suppose beat simply shooting the moment and asking questions later. Also on the bill is Black Spirituals, “a locally venerated duo of creative sound-makers” who “mediate a three-fold vernacular presence.” I think there’s no point trying to imagine what all this is going to feel like. The point is to get on the bus and see where it takes you and who’s sitting next to you. And whether their seat belt is fastened.t Info: matatufestival.org

All the world’s a chessboard

by David Lamble

boxing is not the only sport where a man can go 15 rounds with himself.

Like a boxer, Bobby Fischer grew up in a world that was a blood sport in all but name. Raised by a single ethnically Russian mom, Joan (Lily Rabe, with Sophie Nelisse as young Joan), young Bobby (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick is teenage Bobby, with Aiden Lovekamp as Bobby at 10) is furious that mom won’t tell him who his dad is. Mom is frustrated by her son’s obsessive pursuit of chess, punching way above his weight and defeating middle-aged opponents with a blinkered glee.

P

awn Sacrifice portrays the tragic rise and fall of Nixon-era international chess whiz Bobby Fischer.

In the hands of director Edward Zwick and producer/star Tobey Maguire, it’s a gripping bio-thriller, a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows reinforced by the courageous way the filmmakers have confronted their protagonist’s demons and the honorable way they have refused to overlook his hideous flaws.

The movie is the international chess world’s Raging Bull, showing that Lily

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While Maguire (5 ft. 8 in., 40 years old) is a tad short and a wee bit too old to play the 6 ft. 2 in. Fischer (who was just shy of 30 in 1972 during his chess war with the Russians in Reykjavik, Iceland), he compensates with a lowkey performance that hints of Fischer’s inner turmoil. His performance allows both an appreciation of the inside baseball of international chess and the film’s governing paradox that the more Fischer dominated his Russian opponents (Liev Schreiber appears as Russian champ Boris Spassky), the closer he came to a mental breakdown.

We also listen in on Spassky’s frustration with his Soviet handlers, who see championship chess as war by other means. As often is the case, the subtitles are hard to read, due to the small size of the font and the failure to outline the letters in black or yellow.

In the film’s closing coda we see

and hear the real older Bobby Fischer, who was about 65 when he died in 2008 from a damaged liver. One of the virtues of this tragic tale of a truly unpleasant individual is the great supporting cast assembled by director Zwick, whose reputation was carved out by underdog gems like 1989’s Glory, the Oscar-winning tale of the first black unit of soldiers to serve in the Civil War. Veteran character actor Peter Sarsgaard shines as a priest who becomes a most unlikely spiritual advisor to Fischer, a man who appears beyond such help. Michael Stuhlbarg is one of Fischer’s put-upon handlers, and Robin Weigert appears as Fischer’s sister Regina just long enough to call Bobby on his chutzpah when he claims to be persecuted by Russians and Jews: “Bobby, you’re Jewish!”

Pawn Sacrifice is well-served by exteriors shot in 2013 in Reykjavik. The

balance of the interior scenes were captured during 41 days in Montreal.

I mention this because indie-film buffs often fail to grasp how important authentic locations are to diving inside the head of a complicated, conflicted personality like Fischer, a steaming cauldron of rabidly “incorrect” ideas who would end his life as a fugitive from American justice.

I’m glad I could encounter Bobby Fischer in this extraordinarily sensitive turn from Tobias Vincent Maguire, a Santa Monica, CA native whose father was part Irish, Austrian, Puerto Rican, Danish, French, and German, while his mom was of English stock. It’s real early in the Oscar sweepstakes – there’s a ton of diverse and eclectic film releases between now and New Year’s – but Tobey Maguire has earned a spot in the Best Actor Oscar competition.t

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Tobey Maguire and Liev Schreiber face off over the chessboard in director Edward Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice.

t <<

Film>>

New Girlfriend

From page 17

a eulogy from the girl’s best friend.

“Laura was my best friend. My friend for life. The moment we met, it was love at first sight.” Adapting short fiction by Ruth Rendell with an A-list young French cast (Romain Duris, Anais Demoustier, Raphael Personnaz), Ozon renews his credentials as the French filmmaker most capable of infusing normal rites of passage with delicious injections of morbidity, inappropriate thoughts and actions, all culminating in the cinema-smashing of social taboos.

My first exposure to Ozon’s world was Criminal Lovers, a film that explored jealousy, young love, murder and cannibalism, a mix Ozon admitted to me that was a little too toxic even for critics pushing the envelope. After the first misstep there have followed a series of hits in France and along the American arthouse circuit, including 8 Women and Swimming Pool.

Accepting his intentions, The New Girlfriend is first-rate adult

<<

September-17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

entertainment, with the hook of a male character (Duris) who derives wicked pleasure from public crossdressing, displays that make his best female friend (Demoustier) increasingly uncomfortable as their story arc spins more and more out of control.

Without providing additional spoilers, suffice it to say The New Girlfriend should win Ozon a host of new fans, as well as providing cutting-edge social commentators with some spicy talking points.

East Side Sushi Have to admit I’m a sucker for well-produced movies about food, cooking and family restaurants: Babette’s Feast,

Mostly Martha, The Big Night.

First-time fiction feature director Anthony Lucero takes a stab at this delicious category with an Oaklandbased tale of a plucky food worker who harbors big dreams for herself, her small daughter and Mexican immigrant dad.

We first see Juana (Diana Elizabeth Torres) as she sets out to run a neighborhood food truck. Sadly, she picks the wrong hood, and is taught a painful lesson and robbed of her grubstake by the local thugs. In Act II, Juana turns the page and nabs a kitchen prep job at a nearby Japanese family restaurant. She sets her sights on learning to be a sushi chef

and moving up to the front of the joint, while developing a fan-base for her way with raw fish.

Standing in her way is the “Women don’t belong working out front where the customers can see them” old-school views of the restaurant’s owner, Mr. Yoshida (veteran Tokyoborn TV/film actor Roji Oyama).

Juana tries to win the old sourpuss over with the tacit support of the restaurant’s #1 chef, Aki (Japaneseborn Yutaka Takeuchi, who has been seen in such high profile films as director Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai and Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, which presented the Japanese point of view of the

ferocious naval, air and land battle for these strategic South Pacific islands).

It’s tempting to oversell the virtues of small “little engine that could” local movies with their boosts for the economy and local pride components. But taken on its own terms, East Side Sushi is a leisurely 100 minutes of light drama and conversational acting, whose draw is our ability to almost smell what it’s like to work in a restaurant kitchen where your critics are downing your work a few feet away.

One thing for sure: you’ll be prepared for a terrific restaurant feast as the credits roll.t

Rhino season

From page 17

A new play by Executive Director John Fisher has often been part of a Rhino season since he took over the theater’s top spot in 2003. Shakespeare Goes to War is Fisher’s newest offering, running Nov. 3-29 at Thick House. “Everything I know about Shakespeare, I learned from my high school drama teacher,” Fisher says. “This is his story.”

A Song at Twilight, the first of two Noel Coward plays in the 38th season, runs Jan. 20-31 at a location to be announced. It was first produced in 1966 with Coward in the central role as a closeted writer of considerable renown confronted with love letters he wrote to a young swain years ago. The character was generally perceived to be based on Somerset Maugham, and many also saw it as the closest that Coward ever came to publically acknowledging his own homosexuality.

A straight white couple who missed the biological baby boat decide to adopt a child from Africa, while their best friends, a black lesbian couple, offer slightly wary encouragement in The Call, running Feb. 20-March 12 at Eureka Theatre.

Early enthusiasm for the adoption wanes as worries and realities begin to mount in playwright Tanya Banfield’s recent off-Broadway success.

Barfield, a biracial lesbian, herself adopted two children from Ethiopia.

It’s a return to Noel Coward for the season’s final show. Present Laughter, running May 21-June 19 at Eureka Theatre, was described by the playwright as “a very light comedy and written with the sensible object of providing me with a bravura part.”

That part, which Coward played in the original 1942 production, is an actor facing a middle-age crisis and dealing with an onslaught of admirers, employees, and an estranged wife.

The season will also include a one-night-only performance of Are We Almost There? on Dec. 31 at the Eureka Theatre. Subtitled The Travel Musical, it’s part of a series of comic revues by Morris Bobrow, including Foodies! The Musical and Shopping! The Musical, that all have had long runs at the Shelton Theatre. Rhino season tickets are now on sale at therhino.org.

Forward thinking has always been part of Comcast’s philosophy.

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Feinstein’s at the Nikko, which has been without a New York counterpart since flagship Feinstein’s at the Regency closed in 2012, is joining forces with Manhattan’s 54 Below. The new operation will be called Feinstein’s/54 Below. According to The New York Times, 54 BeSee page 25 >>

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After promotional period, or if any service is cancelled or downgraded, regular rates apply. Comcast’s current monthly service charge for Starter XF Triple Play is $136.99–$141.99 and for Blast!® Internet is $12 (pricing subject to change). TV and Internet service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. TV: Limited Basic service subscription required to receive other levels of service. Internet: Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. WiFi claim based on November 2014 study by Allion Test Labs, Inc. Reliability claim based on 2014 FCC Measuring Broadband America report. Prepaid card mailed to Comcast account holder within 18 weeks of activation of all required services and expires in 90 days. Cards issued by Citibank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa® U.S.A. Inc. and managed by Citi Prepaid Services. Cards will not have cash access and can be used everywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted. Call for restrictions and complete details. © 2015 Comcast. All rights reserved.

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<< DVD

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September-17-23, 2015

Long hot summer

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he heat is sweltering in rural Netherlands. Teenage Anne (Sigrid ten Napel) is suffocating.

Not only is the heat oppressive, so is her dysfunctional family and the town itself. Anne’s life changes forever when Lena (Jade Olieberg) moves to town to care for her ailing mom. Anne has never met anyone quite like Lena, an outgoing, mo-

The film is based on a play by Marjorie Bierens.

“It’s a film about growing away from your youth, from where you came from,” Bothof said. “But without being too judgmental about it.

It is still where you came from, although you hate it and it may never feel like home again.”

Bothof, who said that she personally identifies as bisexual, added that she considers Summer to be less a film about lesbianism and more of a coming-of-age story.

“The main character, Anne, doesn’t struggle much with the fact that she falls in love with another girl,” Bothof said, “but more with the unwritten laws of the environment she grew up in. It’s essentially a film about becoming your own person and daring to be different when everyone else stays the same.”

The film includes a scene in 15TH ST | which Catering Anne and Lena are ridiculed

by Anne’s friends when they discover that the pair have become a 16TH ST the hocouple. Bothof addressed mophobia that can still flourish in cultures that perceive themselves as beacons of equality.

17TH ST “In the Netherlands we like to believe that we are tolerant and accepting,” Bothof said. “But in practice young LGBT people – and older ones – encounter explicit and implicit discrimination and find it hard to come out, especially in a high school environment or in more traditional or religious communities.”

Bothof told the B.A.R. that prior to her career as a filmmaker, she did a bit of traveling and studied psychology and communication.

“What drew me to filmmaking is that as a filmmaker you can comKE T

T

torcycle-riding, mixed-race lesbian who exudes a raw sensuality unheard of in the town.

Anne is mesmerized by Lena. The feeling is mutual. As the two fall in love amid the disapproving stares of Anne’s family and friends, Anne experiences a sexual, spiritual and political awakening.

Director Collette Bothof spoke to the B.A.R. from the Netherlands about her film Summer (Zomer).

M AR

by David-Elijah Nahmod

t

bine all of your own interests, obsessions, opinions, jokes and stories in film,” she said.

Film, Bothof feels, can also reach people on a deep, emotional level.

“You can really touch an audience and reach them on a subconscious level, in their guts and hearts,” she said. “You can really draw an audience into lives and stories they

would otherwise ignore and make them feel things they have never felt before. So for me, filmmaking combines everything that fascinates me.”t Wolfe Video will release Summer on DVD and Video on Demand on Oct. 6. The film is in Dutch with English subtitles.

Sexually committed

by Brian Bromberger

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Take this Man: Gay Romance Stories, edited by Neil Plakcy; Cleis Press, $16.95 ith the Supreme Court’s legal ratification of same-sex marriage in all 50 states in June, there has been a celebration of committed relationships in all their forms.

Neil Plakcy, the author of more than 20 novels and story collections and editor of many Cleis Press anthologies, is intrigued by the intersection between love and lust found in married couples. In his introduction to Take this Man, Plakcy asks, “How much sexier can an encounter be when the two men involved have been together for long enough to make some sort of commitment to each other?

When you know what turns your partner on, and vice versa, your encounters can be even hotter. When you are making love to a man, not just having sex. When your pleasure is so much deeper because you’re with him, and you have a history together?”

Plakcy has collected gay romantic erotica focused on committed relationships, marriage proposals, and lovemaking before and after wedding ceremonies. Plakcy argues that sex between men who have been together for a while is just as thrilling as new lovers exploring each other’s bodies as they meet each other’s desires. As one of the characters in Rhidian Brenig Jones’ “A Good Heart Is This Day Found” observes, “Marriage has to be consummated, doesn’t it?” Too often, marriage is depicted as the death of passion, but these stories attest that wild, steamy sex can happen just as easily in your

W

own bedsheets with your husband as it can at Blow Buddies.

All these stories can be classified as explicit literary erotica, leaving little to the imagination, featuring a torrent of bodily fluids and sex-play positions, but encompassing mostly vanilla sex. The one exception is Jameson Dash’s “Table for Three,” about a restaurant-owning couple taking their new waiter, eager to please his new bosses, into their bed. One could imagine married couples reading these tales aloud to each other to spice up their sex lives, a break from the usual video porn.

According to these stories, the hottest sex occurs minutes before a marriage ceremony, with the aid of Xanax and/or margaritas. Also, apparently with the repeal of DADT, the military is now a steamy carnal free-for-all. Not surprisingly, several of the stories are written by women,

a now-established tradition of female authors expounding on gay sex begun by Patricia Nell Warren in the 1970s (The Front Runner). In anthologies, some stories invariably are better than others, but here they are all pretty much on the same keel. They use lines such as, “You sure know how to put the ‘come’ in ‘comforter,’” or, “First National Bank of Aidan, now open for deposits,” which, depending on your mood, can be seen as clever or cheesy. All of them feature mostly white, middle- to upper-middle-class men with hot, muscular bodies. Any conflicts are quickly, sometimes unrealistically resolved so lusty urges can be sated.

A few tales have special appeal, acknowledging that maintaining a long-term partnership involves hard work and compromise. I especially enjoyed Michael Bracken’s “Blue Heart,” about the evolving relationship of two undergraduates who met at the University of Texas in 2001, and how a gray chest hair sparks old memories. Oleander Plume’s “Never Too Late” explores how to recover pizzazz in a 15-year relationship sidetracked by materialism. And you will never look at caves in the same way after D.K. Jernigan’s “Into the Dark,” where a bickering couple seeks refuge after a hike in the woods goes awry.

Justin Josh’s “Homecoming,” about a practical joke involving a fat-suit that almost backfires but leads to a wedding proposal, was probably the most fun. All these stories will remind marriage partners of what brought them together and the importance of recapturing that original spark.t

t

Fine Art>>

September-17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Spanish elegies retain their potency

by Sura Wood

I

n 1937, Robert Motherwell, the painter, printmaker and towering figure of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, attended a rally in San Francisco where he heard French author and theorist Andre Malraux deliver a rousing speech about the Spanish Civil War. Motherwell was one of many writers and artists of his generation moved by the uprising or who joined or covered the fight – George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway spring to mind. But for this particular artist, the speech would be a turning point and its subject a life-long preoccupation. From that time forward until his death in 1991, he created over 250 paintings and works associated with the devastating failure of democracy in Spain and the rise of Fascism personified by the oppressive Franco regime.

Between Life and Death: Robert Motherwell’s Elegies in Bay Area Collections, a modest but potent exhibition now at the de Young Museum, includes 13 works from Elegies to the Spanish Republic, one of his most significant bodies of work. Displayed in a gallery of its own, the series, which he called “a funeral song for something one

cared about,” a reference to the tradition of pathos in Spanish culture, offers a refuge for museum visitors clamoring for the last gasp of the big summer shows, while providing a view into both Motherwell’s versatility across media and his erudition. Highly educated with interests in painting, literature, especially modernist and symbolist authors and poets, as well as European modernism, Motherwell spent his formative years in San Francisco and Northern California, where he was an undergrad in philosophy at Stanford before attending Harvard and Columbia.

Of course, it wasn’t simply disillusionment with what transpired in Spain that compelled his interest, it was the larger philosophical implications of the conflict for the human condition, the state of the world and the dualities of existence; oppression and rebellion, joy and suffering, and the vexing issues ignited by war, repression and the struggle to be free.

Mining the chaos and moral ambiguities of the era, the paintings and works on paper, rendered in different scales and media, are distinguished by similar, subtly differentiated images of dark, undulating curvilinear pod shapes, sometimes

Courtesy FAM-SF

“Burning Elegy” (1991) by Robert Motherwell, part of Between Life and Death: Robert Motherwell’s Elegies in Bay Area Collections at the de Young Museum.

framed by soft deep squares, and painted in velvety blacks and winter whites, sporadically indulging in surprising bursts of gold and blue.

It’s theorized the ovals represent the testicles of a dead bull that would be severed and triumphantly paraded around the ring after a bullfight. Or they could be read as sym-

bolizing Spain’s nascent democracy, not only gored but emasculated by the Fascists.

Whatever one’s interpretation of their meaning, the works have the agility and improvisatory properties of jazz, and the repetitive images here, refracted through a range of mediums, constitute variations

on a theme. Influenced by Goya and Picasso’s magnificently visceral anti-war screed “Guernica,” Motherwell was shaped by exiled Surrealists, their relationship to poetry and literature, and their fondness for automatic drawing.

The latter, a free associative exercise ruled by the subconscious mind – circumventing rationality and going for the gut was the Surrealist way – was the genesis for “At Five in the Afternoon” (1950), one of the earliest pieces in the series and part of FAMSF’s collection.

The painting’s name is derived from a refrain in Federico Garcia Lorca’s poem “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias,” an ode to a mortally wounded Spanish matador who perished at cocktail hour. The seminal work was born as a modest pen-and-ink drawing conceived in response to “A Bird for Every Bird,” a poem by art critic Harold Rosenberg that Motherwell characterized as “savage.” Not long after, he enlarged it into a painting that became the defining aesthetic moment for the Elegies series. But I’m partial to the intimate, small-scale oil “Spanish Elegy” (ca. 1959), as a distillation of the visual motifs he See page 25 >>

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24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September-17-23, 2015

Fall, in love

Sat 19 His Wedding Dress at the Latin Film Fest @ Roxie Cinema

by Jim Provenzano

W

ith so many plays, exhibits, films and music events filling up the autumn calendar, you’ll have to look online for the full potpourri (www.ebar.com). But here are the hearty highlights, some with a little extra-gay love. For concerts and cabaret events, see On the Tab (page 27).

Thu 17 Avenue Q @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse’s production of the Tony-winning musical comedy with naughty puppets. $17-$60. ThuSun, various times thru Oct. 11. 2640 College ave., Berkeley. (510) 8458542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.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

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh 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. themarsh.org

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. Extended thru Oct. 4.

1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8416500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Raymond Rigoglioso @ SF Public Library The author of Gay Men and the New Way Forward discusses the concepts of gay men finding their gifts, spirituality and identities. 6pm.

Latino/Hispanic Room, lower level.

100 Larkin St. gaymenofwisdom.com www.sfpl.org

Fri 18 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. 11. 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

For the Love of Comrades @ New Conservatory Theatre Center U.S. premiere of Micheál Kerrigan play about the 1980s British group of gay rights activists who joined striking mine workers in a rural town.

Previews; opens Sept 12. $20- WedSat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 11. www.nctcsf.org

Mark I. Chester @ Center for Sex & Culture

Karen Ripley @ The Marsh Berkeley

Opening reception and slideshow talk with the veteran local photographer’s historic collection of images and his new photo book, City of Wounded Boys & Sexual Warriors. 6:30pm10pm. 1349 Mission St. www.markichester.com

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. Thru Oct. 3. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Mud Blue Sky @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley

Latino Film Fest @ Roxie Cinema

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

Day-long screenings of various features and short films, including the LGBT-themed His Wedding Dress, the documentary el Canto del Colibri and Life After. Also Sept 20. 3117 16th St. www.roxie.com

The Phantom of the Opera @ Orpheum Theatre

Ann Randolph returns with her seriocomic solo show about family loss and death. $20-$100. Saturdays, 5pm.

Thru Oct. 17. 1062 Valencia St. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

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

Monstress @ Strand Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s staging of Philip Kan Gotanda and Sean San José’s drama about Filipino-American Bay Area life and struggles. $20-$100.

Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Wed & Sat 2pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Nov. 22. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Sept. 17: Nashville 40th anniversary screening (7:30). Sept 18-20: Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm (2pm & 7pm). Sept 22: Tangerine (3pm, 7pm) and Magic Mike XXL (4:45, 8:45). Sept. 24: John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (7pm) and The Falcon and the Snowman (9:05). $10-$15. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

The site-specific work, This Beautiful Space, is performed in multi-leveled areas of the industrial warehouse, with a live sound score by WaterSaw. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Sept. 26. 1425 5th St., Oakland. lizzromananddancers.com

Queer Ancestors Project @ LGBT Center Exhibition of prints of iconic LGBTQ people, made by queer artists aged 18 to 26. Thru Sept. 23. 1800 Market St. www.katiegilmartin.com/queerancestors www.sfcenter.org

Byb Chanel Bibene at West Wave Dance Fest @ Z Space

Richard III @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael Marin Shakespeare Company’s production of the Bard’s classic drama about an ambitious king. $10-$35. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru Sept 27.

890 Belle Ave, Dominican University, San Rafael. 499-4488. www.marinshakespeare.org

Sweeney Todd @ War Memorial Opera House Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Awardwinning dark musical about The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is performed by the San Francisco Opera. $26-$381. Sept 23, 26, 29 at 7:30pm. Sept. 20 at 2pm. 301 Van Ness Ave. 864-3330. sfopera.com

Tony Danza @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran TV, film and Broadway actor-singer performs his cabaret show Standards & Stories, (after premiering at NYC’s Carlyle Hotel) at the intimate upscale nightclub. $80$95 ($20 food-drink min.). 8pm. Sept 19, 7pm. Sept. 20, 3pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Nina Haft

SF Hiking Club @ Purisima Creek Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike along Purissima Creek and through a forest of redwoods, Douglass firs, big-leaf maples, and ferns. Carpool meets 9:00 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 845-4940. sfhiking.com

Sun 20 Art in Nature @ Redwood Regional Park, Oakland The annual outdoor free art, music (Charming Hostess) and performance event is set in the beautiful redwood forest. 11am-5pm. samavesha.org

SF Punk Renaissance @ Various Venues Week-long festical of shows, exjhibits, panels and more, all about 40 years of punk music. Free-$10 per event; $65 full pass; at Verdi Club, Public Works, 111 Minna and other venues. www.punkrocksewingcircle.com

The Waiting Period @ The Marsh Brian Copeland returns with his acclaimed solo show about gun right, suicide attempts and his personal struggles. $30-$100. Sundays 5:30pm. Thru Oct. 25. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Avenue Q @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley

Lizz Roman & Dancers @ Civic Corps Job Training Center, Oakland

Bay Area premiere of Peter Duchan, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s musical adaptation of the film about a young Marine in the Vietnam era who dares to ask an “ugly” girl on a date, only to find empathy and love. $20-$120.

Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 7. Kensington Park Hotel, 2nd floor, 450 Post St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Wed 23

Mon 21

Those Women Productions’ staging of a collection of modern feminist takes on classic stories ranging from Cinderella to the Trojan War. Paywhat-you-can-$30. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm. thru Sept. 20. 2702 Regent St., Berkeley. www.thosewomen. brownpapertickets.com

Dogfight @ SF Playhouse

Showcase of 16 choreographers’ new works in two programs; modern, ethnic and other styles. $28-$50.

8pm. Sept 19, 8pm. Sept. 20 4pm & 7pm. 3153 17th St. www.pushdance.org

Thu 17

In Plain Sight @ Metal Shop Theater, Berkeley

Tue 22

Pushfest @ ODC Theater

The Lion King @ San Jose Center for the Performing Arts The touring production of the Disney megahit Broadway musical, based on the animated film about African wildlife, with amazing puppetry, music, choreography and costumes. $33-$138. Tue-Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6:30pm.

255 S. Almaden Blvd. Thru Oct. 4.

(800) 982-2787. www.lionking.com www.broadwaysanjose.com

Loveland @ The Marsh

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Sat 19 Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh Berkeley

30 Years of Collecting Art That Tells Our Stories @ GLBT History Museum Exhibit of collected drawings, paintings and sculptures from three decades of queer donations, guest-curated by Elisabeth Cornu. Free (members)-$5.

4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Jok Church @ Magnet

Wed 23 Michael Helquist @ McRoskey Mattress Company The author of Marie Equi; Radical Politics & Outlaw Passions discusses his biogrpahy of the outspoken 19th century lesbian activist; presented by Green Arcade Bookstore, with intros

by Terence Kissack. $3 (free with book purchase). 7pm. 1687 Market St. 3rd floor. www.thegreenarcade.com

West Wave Dance Fest @ Z Space 24th season of new works, including choreographers Janey Madamba, Laura Elaine Ellis and Nina Haft, Sean Dorsey, SoulSkin Dance, Mary Carbonara and many others. $15-$20.

8pm. Thru Sept 27. 450 Florida St. Thru Sept 27. www.safehousearts.info/westwave24

Thu 24 Amara Tabor-Smith @ ODC Theater Premiere of EarthBodyHOME, a multimedia ritual-based performance inspired by Cuban artist Ana Mendieta. $30-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm.

3153 17th St. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

DIFFA Designs @ NWBLK Cocktail and food fundraiser showcases designs for sale via silent auction, and Bay Area AIDS/ HIV nonprofits from the past three decades. $100 and up. 6pm-9pm.

1999 Bryant St. www.diffasf.org/2015event/

Joe Goode Performance Group @ Joe Goode Annex

Jinho Ferreira returns with his autobiographical solo show about being a hip hop star, law enforcement officer and Oakland resident. $20$55. Saturdays, 5pm. Thru Sept. 26.

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

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. www.makemagic.org www.magnetsf.org

The innovative dance-theatre creator presents Poetics of Space, an interactive work inspired by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. $30.

Thu & Sun 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 7:30 & 9:30pm. Thru Oct. 11. 401 Alabama St. at 17th. (866) 811-4111. www.joegoode.org www.zspace.org

From Como to Homo @ Exit Theatre

Oscar Unmasked @ Marines’ Memorial Theatre

Star Trek Live @ Oasis

Lynne Jassem’s solo show about her childhood as a dancer on The Perry Como Show, a demanding stage mother, and teenage gender confusion; part of the SF Fringe Festival. Sept 19 at 1pm & 25 at 9pm.

156 Eddy St. www.sffringe.org/from

Cast members of the local residency of The Phantom of the Opera perform their own other favorite songs at this benefit concert for the Richmond/ Ermet Aid Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. $30-$75.

7:30pm. 609 Sutter St. www.reaf.org

Enjoy another wacky parody of a TV script, this time the classic sci-fi show, with Leigh Crow, Honey Mahogany, Jordan L’Moore, Amber Sommerfield, Jef Valentine and others. $25 and up.

Thu-Sat at 7pm. Thru Oct 31. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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Theatre>>

September-17-23, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

OscarUnmasked.BAR-Ad_Layout 1 8/27/15 10:07 AM Page 1

THE RICHMOND/ERMET AID FOUNDATION PRESENTS

Lee Meyer

Charles Busch has been added to the Feinstein’s at the Nikko fall schedule with his newest cabaret show.

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Rhino season

From page 21

low has been hemorrhaging money while Feinstein’s at the Nikko has thrived. A collaborative relationship between the two clubs is planned.

Michael Feinstein will help inaugurate his new namesake club with a late December engagement, but its SF counterpart will see him first, on Oct. 7-11. A new booking of note at the Nikko location is playwright-actor-drag artiste Charles Busch, who returns with a new show on Oct. 2324. That Girl/That Boy is a collection of songs, characters, and reminiscences. Tickets at hotelnikkosf.com.

Meanwhile, up the hill at the Fairmont Hotel, Bay Area Cabaret is readying its new season for the Venetian Room. It launches with an opening-night gala on Oct. 4 with Stephanie Blythe performing We’ll Meet Again: The Songs of Kate Smith. Blythe, a noted mezzo-sopra-

no, is a crossover artist who moves among opera, musical theater, and popular songs. She’s currently starring as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with SF Opera.

The season continues with two performances by Jane Monheit on Nov. 8. The jazz and pop vocalist will perform a greatest-hits collection of her most requested songs, as well as a preview of her upcoming Ella Fitzgerald album.

Broadway couple Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley return to the series on Dec. 13 with Broadway and Beyond, made up of songs from the musicals in which they have appeared, as well as selections from the Great American Songbook.

Guitarist John Pizzarelli and vocalist Jessica Molaskey, another husband-wife team, have two performances set for Jan. 10. When Grownup Songs debuted in 2014, Stephen Holden in The New York Times praised the couple’s “ability

to infuse pop and jazz with a Chekhovian wisdom about life’s ups and downs.”

Broadway veteran Emily Skinner makes her SF concert debut on March 6 with Broadway, Her Way. The star of such musicals as Side Show on Broadway and A Little Night Music at ACT, she is headed this fall to Tokyo for the debut of The Prince of Broadway, a Hal Prince retrospective that has its sights on Broadway.

Patina Miller, who won a Tony Award in 2013 as the Leading Player in the revival of Pippin, makes her West Coast concert debut on April 17. Performing her songs from her recent Lincoln Center concert, she’ll weave her own story of a little southern girl with big dreams with classic popular and Broadway songs.

Sisters Ann Campton Callaway and Liz Callaway, who each have their own performing careers, are reuniting for From West Side Story to Wicked to conclude the BAC season. Both series and individual tickets are now on sale. Call (415) 3924400 or go to bayareacabaret.org.t

A One Night Only Benefit Cabaret for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and REAF Featuring the Company of the New Production of

The Phantom of the Opera An Evening of Academy Award Winning Music

Sep. 21, 2015, 7:30 pm

Marines’ Memorial Theater Tickets: 415-273-1620 or www.reaf.org

CHANTICLEER

Kevin Yatarola

Opera star Stephanie Blythe crosses over into popular music with her tribute to Kate Smith as part of Bay Area Cabaret’s new season.

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Motherwell

From page 23

would expand upon in a multitude of ways. It’s presented in an elegant, recessed frame that suggests dimension, enclosure and economy, while accentuating its rich tones.

In later pieces such as “Elegy to the Spanish Republic (with LemonYellow Panel)” (1971), Motherwell departed from the somber black &

white menu to return to his youth, the palette of the West Coast and the promise of the Pacific Ocean.

A big, brash acrylic, the usual black orbs are central to a balanced composition bordered on the left with playful blocks of marine blue and sunny yellow.

Throughout his career, Motherwell felt a close affinity to poetry underscored in the exhibition. He reacted to and visually transmuted the

verses of the aforementioned Spanish scribe Lorca as well as Octavio Paz and Rafael Alberti, whose poem “El negro” is included in a book on view, containing the artist’s lithograph, “Elegy Black Black” (1983).

With its torn edges, irregular shape, dribbles of black and hints of powder blue, the print looks as though it was painted on a piece of cloth, and ripped from the headlines. Through March 6.t

Sept 19 @ 8pm - Mission Santa Clara Sept 20 @ 5pm - St. Francis Church, Sacramento Sept 23 @ 8pm - St. Mark’s Episcopal, Berkeley Sept 25 & 26 @ 8pm - SF Conservatory of Music FOR TICKETS: www.chanticleer.org | 415-392-4400

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Pierce Party

NIGHTLIFE

DINING

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These boots are made for...

SPIRITS

Shooting Stars

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

Kyle Dean Massey

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 38 • September 17-23, 2015 Matthew Murphy

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

Broadway and ‘Nashville’ star sings at Feinstein’s

by Jim Provenzano

W

ith roles in a slate of iconic Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, Kyle Dean Massey has already charmed musical theatre audiences by the thousands. But he’s recently jumped to greater fame as the love interest of a gay country singer on the hit TV show Nashville. The actor-singer’s own Southern roots are near the country music mecca.

See page 28 >>

Kyle Dean Massey

On the Tab Sept.

17-24, 2015

Sat 19 Empire of the Sun @ Bill Graham Auditorium

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

BLOGS DIGITAL EDITION ARCHIVE ONLINE EXTRAS

A

utumnal action includes fun fundraisers, campy club nights, celebrity concerts, and down & dirty dance nights. Shed a few leaves and get out.

See page 30 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2015

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Joan Marcus

Joan Marcus

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Kyle Dean Massey 1. as Fiyero, and 2. with Nicole Parker in Wicked. 3. With Ciara Renee in Pippin. 4. In Next to Normal. 5. As youngster in a school talent show.

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Kyle Dean Massey

From page 27

Massey will make his Feinstein’s debut October 2 and 3, with a show full of favorite songs, but possibly not the ones you’d guess, given his repertoire. Massey will perform Things that Weren’t, a collection of songs he hasn’t performed in the numerous shows in which he’s starred.

Whether he’ll perform iconic songs from Wicked or Pippin, you’ll have to attend his cabaret show to find out. Although the characters he’s played in those two shows are at first a bit shallow, Massey himself is sincere, appreciative of his success, and devoted to several causes offstage.

When we spoke, Massey had flown back from Amsterdam, where he performed excerpts from Pippin at Uitmarkt, a televised Dutch out-

door concert series. Shortly after his nearly one-year run in the show, Massey said he found a better appreciation for it when he took on the role, compared to having seen it as a teenager.

“I don’t know if it was just growing up and having life experience behind me, or if it was this revival production that connected to me in a different way,” Massey said. “It was probably both. I got to see the show before I was in it, and I was thrilled to do it.”

To prepare for the role, Massey underwent five weeks of circus training. “I learned to do a backflip, stand on another performer’s shoulders, climb up a pole, and even knife throwing.” The action-packed revival was more demanding for Massey than previous roles. “Usually, when you replace another actor in a Broadway show, you get two weeks of rehearsal, so five weeks was a lot.”

The notably fit 33-year-old actor trimmed down his gym training during the run of Pippin in the title role, which costarred John Rubinstein, who starred in the show’s original cast. Rubinstein played the elder Charlemagne in the recent Broadway revival.

Show Kid Massey’s show business dreams started young, when at age six, he followed his sister to ballet classes after seeing her in a production of The Nutcracker in his home town of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Along with dance classes, he studied piano and sang in choirs, even performed in a makeshift yet popular Lunchroom Dinner Theatre at his school. As a youngster, Massey saw The Will Rogers Follies national tour in Memphis’ Orpheum Theatre, his first touring Broadway show.

But he didn’t perform in musi-

Courtesy ABC

Kyle Dean Massey with Chris Carmack in Nashville.

cals until later in high school, where he was also a jock. “I was always a swimmer, it was one thing I always did,” said Massey, who was a nationally-ranked competitive swimmer.

“But I had this love for performing. I did puppet shows and magic shows, put on plays a lot as a kid.”

While attending a private Catholic prep school, he enjoyed the arts, but later, at a larger public high school, “I got made fun of for taking dance classes,” said Massey, who realized that he was gay. “Boys would call me a girl, ‘ballerina.’ It was not exactly supportive. That’s when I quit. There were hundreds of kids, and I needed to fit in.”

Fortunately, Massey returned to performing. “I got back into it in tenth grade,” he said. “The theatre choir at my high school was a cool thing to do. It wasn’t an outcast thing to do. That’s when I did my first musical.”

Despite his talent, getting into a performing arts college program wasn’t easy. But even before he graduated from Missouri State, he built up his resume with summer stock, sometimes performing ten shows a week, including in the role of Danny Zuko in Grease, where he made a whopping $90 a week.

“I took a semester off after my sophomore year and moved to New York City,” said Massey. “During my senior year, there was a group audition for several theatre companies at once; cruise ships, national theatres, summer stock. I went to that and had interest from the 42nd Street touring company, and ended up booking that show.”

His new job as Billy Lawlor started three days after college graduation. “We rehearsed in New York, and then went right on to touring in the U.S. and Japan.”

Wicked Good In 2007, after a year long run in the Off-Broadway production of Altar Boyz, Massey was cast in the first National Tour of Wicked. He eventually left that tour to make his Broadway debut playing Thalia in Xanadu (the tongue-in-cheek musical comedy loosely based on the cult film that starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly). After Xanadu, he joined the Broadway company of Wicked only to leave once again from 2009-2011 to play the role of Gabe in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning family drama Next to Normal.

He then originated the role of Billy Ray Jackson, a rising Country Western singer, in the short-lived Lucky Guy, which included notable costars Leslie Jordan and drag star Varla Jean Merman. Kyle Dean again returned to Wicked, now graduated to the role

of Fiyero, the romantic interest of the green witch Elphaba. He has gone on to play Fiyero both on Broadway and Los Angeles on several different occasions throughout the years and as recently as last year.

“Every time I go back to the Gershwin Theatre (where Wicked continues to run), it feels like I’m going home,” Massey said of the unique family atmosphere of the hit show, which is adapted from the Gregory Maguire novel. “It’s great to see everyone, from the crew to the cast and the musicians. Many people have been there for more than a decade. So you’ve seen their kids grow up. You’ve been a part of these people’s lives. And that is a really rare and special thing in this business.

Most shows cannot offer that kind of history.”

Massey also credits Stephen Schwartz, who composed the score for Pippin and Wicked. “Stephen can write a melody for sure. He’s so smart and great. I owe him a lot.”

Asked about the similarity between the roles of Fiyero and Pippin –young men who start off naïve and self-absorbed, but who learn to find empathy for others– Massey said, “I think that’s just a common trait in characters in musical theatre. You want to play someone who starts the show in one light and learns something and changes. Those are the kinds of roles that people play; I wouldn’t say its typecasting. They’re both kind of spoiled little boys who grow up.”

Another highlight was playing Tony in a 2013 St. Louis, Missouri production of West Side Story (which he also played in college).

His grandfather took him to shows as a child to the outdoor theatre.

Country Boy And although it’s a supporting role, Massey’s fame got a boost on the ABC show Nashville’s third season, as Kevin Bicks, an out gay composer paired to write songs with the then-closeted Wil Lexington, who is played by former Bruce Weber model Chris Carmack.

At last season’s finale episode, Lexington had awkwardly romanced Bicks, then came out as gay in a press conference, where he was expected to deny the rumors fueled by tabloid photos of the pair caught hugging at a private home. The two characters became intimate while Lexington struggled with both public and private honesty about being gay.

Lexington’s coming out leaves fans of the two gay characters wondering how much more we’ll get to see as the two handsome men develop their relationship.

See page 29 >>

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

September 17-23, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Broadway World

Kyle Dean Massey in the 2012 Broadway Bares.

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Kyle Dean Massey

From page 28

Carmack’s role sort of matches the real life coming out of two country musicians Ty Herndon and Billy Gilman in 2014. Massey is one of a few other musical theatre stars in the Nashville cast. Laura Benanti and Will Chase are also Broadway leading actor-singers.

Understandably, Massey could not reveal any plot points, but the fact that he was filming for the fifth episode is a good sign that his character’s relationship with Lexington will continue. “If you watch the show, you know things happen quickly,” said Massey.

Nashville’s new season premieres Sept. 23, 10pm on ABC. Despite playing a songwriter, Massey said that he won’t be belting out any songs just yet. “Part of me is enjoying the break. When you sing eight shows a week for years, you cherish the moments to just act.”

Asked about the significance of playing an openly gay character, Massey said it is important, yet sometimes confusing to see responses.

“People like to put labels on me, like I’m an activist for being out. I think for people who want to have any sort of peace in their lives, the best thing you can do is let people know you’re gay. Letting people know you have a happy and healthy life is the best thing you can do for people who are struggling, especially with family issues, and like me, especially being from the South. I got so many tweets from people who say what a big deal it is. The Southern demographic watches Nashville. It makes me feel good that people can be more accepted. It is changing their minds about gay people.”

Benefits and Beefcake It should be said that Massey never exactly ‘came out,’ as much as it wasn’t an issue by the time he came to notoriety for his performances.

He was one of the first Broadway actors to make an ‘It Gets Better’ video.

“It was never a big issue for me,” said Massey. “My coming out was around the time I was doing Next to Normal. It was the first time people had any interest in me. I didn’t want to lie or skirt on the issue, but it was very much a non-issue.” Massey has a boyfriend, but that’s one part of his life he prefers to keep private.

Now, he’s one of Broadway’s most successful out gay actors, and performs at benefits and celebrity showcases, including performing in an all-male modern gay version of the song “A Weekend in the Country” from A Little Night Music for

Broadway Backwards (where gender roles are reversed).

One highlight was the benefit concert for marriage equality with the cast of Next to Normal. “It was fun, and I got to sing with my friends,” said Massey. “It was just thrown together the day of the show, but for some reason, that concert has lived on in people’s memories. People still come up to me and remember it.”

Another unusual benefit was a concert called “The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken,” comprised of all the songs cut from the original workshop version of Wicked. Timed with the show’s fifth anniversary, “We did a big benefit for Broadway Cares, an entire one-act show with songs, with different celebrities playing the roles. It was very different.”

Massey pauses. “It was kind of … not good.” He laughed.

“I think they thought it was going to be a great night, but then we remembered, there’s a reason those songs got cut. But we had a great time and drank a lot backstage.”

Massey assured me that composer Schwartz approved of the event.

“There are some really great songs, but that’s what so great about him.

Other composers get stuck, but if it doesn’t tell the story, he’s not afraid to cut it.”

Lucky New Yorkers who got tickets to the sexy Broadway Bares benefits enjoyed Massey in 2012’s Edition XXII as the lovelorn protagonist looking for a happy ever after through a series of sexy dance numbers (very loosely) based on classic fairy tales. His character did find his happy ending, with a wedding to a prince, actor John Carroll.

The show brought in $1,254,000, a record for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. When he’s not performing, Massey also teaches theatre master classes, and has worked with Camp Broadway, Broadway Artists Alliance, Broadway Connection, The Offstage Group, VIP Tours of New York, The Missouri Fine Arts Academy and Arkansas State University.

He also foster-cares the occasional shelter puppy in his New York apartment.

Asked about the difference between performing in TV and theatre, most of which are obvious, I mention the recent notorious –and deserved– anger from actress Patti LuPone when an audience member was taking photos with a cell phone in the middle of her show.

“I don’t wear my glasses onstage, so I don’t see anything anyway,” said Massey. “The only time it bothers me is in a small intimate setting when it is actually

distracting. But it does bring up my thoughts on the nature of art in general. What we do is theatre; it’s a fleeting art form. It’s not going to hang on a wall forever like a Van Gogh painting. It happens live with a new audience every night. It’s an ‘in-the-moment’ art form. We perform it that way and it’s meant to be enjoyed that way. So it does bother me that people feel they have to record it. They’re missing the essence of makes theatre what it is… an ephemeral and sometimes magical moment in time.”t Kyle Dean Massey performs ‘Things That Weren’t’ at Feinstein’s at the Nikko. $35-$50.Oct. 2, 8pm. Oct. 3, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. kyledeanmassey.com www.ticketweb.com

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<< On the Tab

30 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2015

<<

On the Tab

From page 30

Thu 17 Baloney @ Oasis

The sexy comic gay all-male revue, created and choreographed by Rory Davis and Michael Phillis, returns for a special Folsom edition. $20-$25 ($200 champagne group VIP specials). 8pm.

Thru Sept 19. 298 11th St. www.sfbaloney.com www.sfoasis.com

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

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Will Durst headlines the monthly night of comedy, with guest-host Dan St. Paul, Eloisa Bravo, Nick Leonard, Lydia Popvich. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. (800) 838-3006. www.elriosf.com

Confess @ Oasis Storytelling night with the Austinbased BedPost Productions. 10pm. $15. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Some Thing @ The Stud

Lust @ The Stud

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

Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night.

10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www. studsf.com

Cruisy new night with DJ Bugie and hunky gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Design Meets Divas of Drag @ SF Design Center Designer showcase, variety/runway show, with local drag celebrities garbed in unique outfits made from textiles at the show; Khmera Rouge, Kylie Minono, Heklina, Mercedez Munro, Katya Smirnoff-Skky, Pollo Del Mar and more. $25-$40 and up. Proceeds benefit the Navigation Center , a homeless program. 6pm-8:30pm. 101 Henry Adams St. www.sfdesigncenter.com

Divas of Drag @ Oasis After-party for the Design Center show, with performances by Kylie Minono, Persia, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Pollo Del Mar, Roxy-Cotten Candy, Madison McQueen, Vanity, Paju Munro and Cassandra Cass; DJ Pinky Ring.

No cover. 10pm-1am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Fauxgirls @ Infusion Lounge The classic monthly drag show (3rd Thursdays), now in its fifteenth year, features Victoria Secret, Alexandria, Chanel, Mini Minerva, Kipper, Ruby LeBrowne, and Lulu Ramirez. Dinner seating 6pm on. 8pm show. No cover.

124 Ellis St. 421-8700. www.fauxgirls. com www.infusionlounge-sf.com

Full Frontal Comedy @ Lookout Sandra Risser headlines a night of comedy, with Joe Tobin, Nicole Calasic, Michael Brandon and Yuri Kahan; Valerie Branch hosts. $5. 8pm.

3600 16th st. www.lookoutsf.com

Godless Perverts Social Club @ Telegraph Beer Garden, Oakland The LGBTQ and poly, kink-friendly group discusses issues of sexual freedom and the law, including the recent shut-down of Rentboy.com, with advocate and lawyer Kristina Dolgin, at the popular bar/restaurant.

Free. 7pm. 2318 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 444-8353. www.telegraphoakland.com

The queer hip hop night, with hostess Kelly Lovemonster, includes DJs davO (Double Duchess), Essex and Uniiqu3. $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Franko DJs the weekly mashup/pop music night. No cover. 2 for 1 well drinks, 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.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

Ladies of San Francisco @ Club OMG

TBD Fest @ Bridge District, West Sacramento

Fri 18

Uniiqu3 at Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

Boy Bar @ The Cafe

Miss Galilea Avila hosts the new weekly “old school drag show” with guest performers. Shows at 10:15 and 11:30pm. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Gus Presents’ weekly dance night, with DJ Kid Sysko, cute gogos and $2 beer (before 10pm). 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Maria Konner @ Martuni’s

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

Enjoy jazz, blues and rock with Maria and her trio, and open mic for new talents. 6:30-8:30pm. 3rd Thursdays.

4 Valencia St. at Market.

The weekly drag show continues, with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Bob Mould @ Swedish American Hall

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

Homo Thursdays @ Qbar

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Fri 18

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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 90-cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm2am. 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

Night at the Jewseum @ Contemp. Jewish Museum

Comedy Noir @ Balancoire

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

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. $6-$12. 9pm-4am. 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

El Mundo @ Empire Ballroom

Enjoy soul music, specialty cocktails, dancing to DJ Phengren Oswald (of Saturday Night Soul Party) and view of Amy Winehouse and other exhibits. $5. 6pm-9pm. 736 Mission St. at 3rd.

655-7800. www.thecjm.org

The new weekly Latin night at the Civic Center renovated nightclub features drag shows, gogo guys and gals, and DJed grooves. 9pm-3am.

555 Golden Gate. www.theempireroomsf.com

Thrill Kill Kult @ DNA Lounge

Octoberfest @ Downtown Redwood City

Chicago’s darkly fun electro-industrial rock band performs; Night Club and Striplicker open. $15-$20 and up.

8:30pm. www.dnalounge.com www.mylifewiththethrillkillkult.com

Traditional German beer and food festival, with music, dancing, and lots of Germanic merriment. $10-$18.

5pm-10pm. Sept 19, 5pm-9pm. Sept 20, 12pm-4pm. www.redwoodcity. org/events/oktoberfest

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music with local and touring bands.

398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.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 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. 9pm2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Fri 18

Bob Mould @ Swedish American Hall The alt-core master (formerly of The Pixies, Sugar) performs. $25. 8:30pm.

2174 Market St. Also Sept. 19 at City Winery, Napa. www.bobmould.com

Party Nights @ Club BnB, Oakland

Three-day music festival (Tears for Fears. Dinosaur Jr., Glitch Mob, Purity Ring, Pretty Lights, and dozens more), plus food, art and design exhibits. $69$209. Riverfront Street, West Sacramento. www.tbdfest.com

Tony Danza @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran TV, film and Broadway actor-singer performs his cabaret show Standards & Stories, (after premiering at NYC’s Carlyle Hotel) at the intimate upscale nightclub. $80$95 ($20 food-drink min.). 8pm. Sept 19, 7pm. Sept. 20, 3pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Sat 19

Beatpig @ Powerhouse Juanita More, Walter Gomez and Sidekick’s festive diverse cruisy monthly event. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.beatpigsf.com www.powerhousebar.com

Big Deck @ SF Eagle Daytime dancing at the famed leather bar (3rd Saturdays), with DJs Collin Bass, Mark O’Brien and M*J*R. 2pm8pm. 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

Empire of the Sun @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium The Australian pop-electro band, known for iconic fantasy costumes, performs their uplifting style of music; St. Lucia and Holy Ghost also perform. $46.50. 7:30pm. 99 Grove St., Civic Center. www.ticketmaster.com

Grand Ole’ Party @ El Rio Fundraiser for the campaigns of Broke-Ass Stuart (for Mayor) and Tom Temprano (for College Board) with live funky fun music by Planet Booty, Double Duchess, Heartwatch and DJ Jamie Jams. $10-$20. 3pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. brokeassmayor.nationbuilder.com www.tomtemprano.com www.elriosf.com

Mascara @ Castro Country Club The monthly drag show at the sober space, hosted by Somoa That, includes DJs Downtown Donna and Jennifer Junkyard. $15-$20. 8pm-1am. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious. Sept. 19, RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist Miss Fame. $10-$25.

10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Prowl @ The Edge Saturday night’s alright for cruising at the neighborhood bar. 9pm-2am.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.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

Tour de Fat @ Golden Gate Park New Belgium Brewing Company’s annual cycling and beer party in the scenic park. Enjoy a costume bike parade, live music, kid-friendly entertainment, tricked out bikes, food and beer. Free bike parking. 10am5pm. Lindley Meadow, 1000 JFK Drive. www.sfbike.org/event/fat_2015/

Tribute Celebration @ Exploratorium San Francisco AIDS Foundation cocktail party and awards presention honors Congresswoman Jackie Speier, with comic Scott Nevins. Cocktail attire. $100 and up. 6:30-11pm. Pier 15. www.sfaf.org www.exploratorium.edu

You Betta Work Comedy @ Brainwash Cafe Jesus U. BettaWork’s fun standup show (3rd Sat.) , this time with Marcus Williams, Kelly O’Kelly, Mark Shrayber, Yvette Fernandez, Chris Barylick and Justin Lucas. No cover.

8pm. 1122 Folsom St. www.brainwash.com

Sun 20

Afternoon Delight @ The New Parish, Oakland Enjoy the one-year anniversary of DJ Justime’s airy patio party with dance music. 3pm-8pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. www.thenewparish.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 (Check the website for a list of recipients). 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.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: eightyear anniversary party. 8pm-2am.

2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox The saucy women’s burlesque revue’s weekend show; different musical guests each week. Sept. 11 is a special Red Hots’ Hottest at 10pm ($12-$25).

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

Sat 19 Grand Ol’ Party fundraiser for Tom Temprano and Broke-Ass Stuart

See page 31 >>

t <<

On the Tab>>

September 17-23, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

On the Tab

From page 30

Big Top @ Beaux The fun Castro nightclub, with hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Daytime Realness @ El Rio It’s a ‘Back to School’ theme at the patio party with drag (Kylie Minono, Carnie Asada, Miss Rahni, Honey Mahogany, Scarlet Letters) BBQ and fun party; Heklina, Tom Temprano, DJs Stanley Frank, Vicki Powell and Kevin O’Connor. $8-$10. 2pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. www.elriosf.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle Pull up to the bumper! It’s all about Grace Jones (in advance if her Sept.

26 Oakland concert) at the monthly dance party with DJ Bus Station John. $5. 7pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Honey Mahogany’s weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge 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

No No Bingo @ Virgil’s Sea Room Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Switch @ Q Bar Weekly women’s night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials; different hosts each week. $4. 10pm2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Wed 23

Booty Call @ QBar

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Thu 24 Jon Shield hosts Men at Work @ Oasis

Morning After BBQ @ Oasis The weekly barbeque brunch on the newly opened rooftop deck, with Mimosas and Bloody Mary cocktails.

11am-3pm. $10. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Femme, 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

Spillin’ Tea @ Oasis DJs Ruben Mancias and David Harness spin grooves at the new (3rd Sunday) T-dance on the rooftop deck, with grilled food, and tea cocktails. $10.

2pm-9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.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 21

Opulence @ Beaux Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Oscar Unmasked @ Marines’ Memorial Theatre Cast members of the local residency of The Phantom of the Opera perform their own other favorite songs at this benefit concert for the Richmond/ Ermet Aid Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. $30-$75.

7:30pm. 609 Sutter St. www.reaf.org

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Tue 22

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

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night, 2014’s last of the year. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

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

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade

Gaymer Night @ Eagle

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe

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

Hysteria @ Oasis 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 Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Yuri Kagan hosts the monthyl (4th Wed.) comedy night, with Erik Escobar, Jason Maxck, Allison Mick, Natasha Muse and Daymon Ferguson. $5. 7:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Enjoy live music with Nina jo Smith and the Buds, plus Three Sisters Belly Dance, readings by Jan Steckel, Lani Ka’ahumanu, and Carol Queen, and comedy

by Ginorma Desmond/ Nick Leonard; food, prizes and happy hour til 8pm.

Donations. 6pm-9pm.

3158 Mission St. at Precita. www.elriosf.com

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Tejeda. 7pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Karaoke @ The Lookout

Shit Talk @ Oasis

Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am.

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Bisexuality Day @ El Rio

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG

Pollo del Mar’s weekly drag show takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:3011:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro

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

Meow Mix @ The Stud 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

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down at the famous strip club for dancer shows and refreshments. $20.

9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Juanita More! and her weekly intimate –yet packed– dance party. $10$15. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.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

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge The classic drag show at the intimate bar, with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. 9:30-11:30pm. 133 Turk St. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Follies @ 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

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Marc Broussard @ Great American Music Hall The popular new Bayou-soul singer performs; Fairground Saints opens. $26-$30 (51 with dinner). 8pm. 859 O’Farrell St. 885-0750. www.marcbroussard.com www.slimspresents.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West 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, from the Gold Rush to the tech boom, performed by sexy local hunks. $20 (plus optional $30 lap dances!). 9:30pm. Extended thru December. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

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

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Thu 24

Chris Cornell @ Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa The lead singer-composer for Soundgarden performs as part of his solo tour. $50-$60. 8pm. 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. (707) 527-7006. www. wellsfargocenterarts.org Also, Sept.

26 at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. www.paramounttheatre.com www.chriscornell.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn stud Billy Santoro leads the very interactive event (before his stage act Sept. 25 & 26)at the famed strip club. $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

DIFFA Designs @ NWBLK Cocktail and food fundraiser showcases designs for sale via silent auction, and Bay Area AIDS/ HIV nonprofits from the past three decades. $100 and up. 6pm-9pm.

1999 Bryant St. www.diffasf.org/2015event/

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland Weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show.

DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Men at Work @ Oasis Jon Shield hosts a night of porn dudes Tyler Rush, Rob Skelton and Cass Bolton doing pre-Folsom fetish demos. $10. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol.

8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Star Trek Live @ Oasis Enjoy another wacky parody of a TV script, this time the classic sci-fi show, with Leigh Crow, Honey Mahogany, Jordan L’Moore, Amber Sommerfield, Jef Valentine and others. $25 and up.

Thu-Sat at 7pm. Thru Oct 31. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Will & Anthony Nunziata @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Twin brother singing duo performs classics, pop, Broadway and standards. $25-$40 ($20 food/drink min). 8pm.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 6631063. www.ticketweb.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2015

Pierce party Needle play’s sticking points

by Krissy Eliot

I

t’s insane when people suggest we face every single fear we have.

Some fears are useful, and can prevent us from doing things doctors wouldnt recommend: like getting together with 19 other humans in a stuffy house to pierce each other, possibly releasing blood-borne pathogens that could result in the next viral zombie apocalypse.

Or at least, in theory, fear would

prevent us from engaging in this.

But as it turns out, curiosity is fear’s greatest contender. So I joined the ranks of the nutty and decided to go to Points: A Celebration of Artistic Needle Play, run by a husband and wife team known as the TooBadMice.

The event was being held at The Black Thorn, a large house in a secret location in the East Bay. Unassuming from the outside, the inside of The Black Thorn is dungeon-

t

esque, with red-painted walls, skulls, and sex slings aplenty. I went to Points with a tattooed, blue-haired girl who calls herself “Butter.” She’s really into this shit, and functioned purely as immoral support.

After the TooBadMice, known as “M” and “H,” gave us the typical sex party safety talk, I spoke to the other participants, and soon found out that fear was hardly a deterrent, but a driving force behind why people pierce.

A curly-haired girl told me she was squeamish about needles, but liked to watch. Another attendee said, “Needles freak me out, but I wanna give them a try,” and some chick in pink said she’s into needles because she likes most things she’s afraid of.

M explained to me that he pierces himself because it’s a way to overcome his fear of medical needles.

“Needle play has special significance for me,” M wrote in his Fetlife blog. “It is deeply rooted in fear: old fear, childhood fear, and the strength needed to master that fear and overcome it.”

When I asked him if he had yet to kick the needle-nervousness, he said no. He’s been doing this for 14 years.

I guess it takes awhile.

M introduced me to his play partner, known as K. She took off Krissy Eliot her shirt and laid stomach-down on a massage table in the house’s main DivineMSM pierces model _impysh_ ; both are members of the kink room. As everyone gathered around web forum https://fetlife.com/ to watch, M wiped her down with some antiseptic, put on some gloves gone,” M said to the group of brave One attendee had gold string tied and began poking needles under the souls who dared remain. “If you’re up the center of her back piercings surface of her skin. Pushing them needle-phobic, I recommend you like a corset.

Another woman had in, then up and out, like he was sewpierce yourself.” bells put on her tit-piercings, fondly ing, he wove two lines of needles And he did. He took the first neereferring to them as “jingle boobs.” into her skin, capping the protruddle and poked slowly through the M crisscrossed six needles under ing ends with little plastic hubs. The bottom of his scrotum and into the one spot on Butter’s back, creating end result looked like ladder rungs butterfly board. He exhaled slowly, a big, white skin blob not unlike a down her spine. his penis turning purple. monstrous whitehead. M called it “a As M was about to put the last K and a redheaded dominatrix button.” and 30th needle in, he stopped and pierced the rest of his ball skin so it As the event was beckoned me forth to was stuck to the board, then pierced coming to a close, it take a turn. Resisting the the underside of his shaft with five was time for the big urge to ask for a Hazmat needles. M grunted and clenched finish, which involved, suit, I put on some gloves his teeth, assuring the captive audinot ironically, a dick. and stepped forward. ence that it “hurt less than a norM lied face-up on On the off chance that mal piercing.” One of the remainthe massage table you’ve never pushed a ing men in the corner covered his while K tied a string needle through somemouth in stunned horror. tightly around the one’s back skin before, M stood up and danced around bottom of his junk. let me tell you, it requires with the board still stuck to him, She then proceeded to some force. The needles in what appeared to be celebration; put his dick and balls through a butbeing used were thin, and as I first the skin on his penis now black and terfly board (a piece of cardboard dipped down into her skin and atbrown where he’d been pierced. He with a hole cut out) — the whole tempted to push the needle out the pulled the needles out with a smile, scene not unlike that of a cornhole other side, it started to bend and I wiped the blood with paper towels, beanbag toss. feared it would break. and then bid his guests adieu. It was “When you’re self-piercing, “Keep going!” M urged. So I did. all over. you’re so focused, your fear is After poking around haphazSo against my betardly, I gave one final ter judgment, I went jab and managed to into an enclosed space get it through and cap with bloody strangers it off. People clapped. and escaped without a I removed the gloves desire to consume huand shifted uncomman flesh, or to once fortably as sweat rolled more pierce it. Even down my back. Could though no zombies someone have cracked were present, the event a window? still featured a special No. “Because of any kind of gore — one screaming that may ocwhich taught me that cur,” M said. the human body can When I asked K what take more pain than the needles felt like, she I’d ever imagined, and said they itched, but one which will prevent soon, they’d feel great. me from ever enjoy“Sometimes M ing a game of cornhole doesn’t even let me again.t drive home after,” K said. “I get an endorphin high from piercFollow the ing. It’s like being TooBadMice on www.Fetlife.com; drunk.” search for And she wasn’t kidBadMouseM and ding. About an hour afBadMouseH. ter the piercing session, she was slurring her Readers can contact words, speaking loudly Krissy by email at and struggling to keep thekrissyeliot@gmail.

Krissy Eliot the Trader Joe’s cookie com and view her crumbs from falling Our daring columnist pierces M’s back. previous work at out of her mouth when www.krissyeliot.com. she talked.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

September 17-23, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 33

These Boots are Made for Walking

by Race Bannon

net proceeds to selected beneficiaries.

So this new agreement now distribn Sunday, September 20, utes raised funds across a wider cross 2015, one of the San Francisco section of community nonprofits. leather and kink community’s longI asked Demetri Moshoyannis, Exstanding traditions takes place – ecutive Director of FSE, how the new LeatherWalk. arrangement came about and why.

The event serves many purposes.

“Mike Smith, former Executive It officially kicks off the busy LeathDirector of AEF/BCEF, came into er Week leading up to Folsom Street my office and asked me point blank Fair. It raises lots of money for if we would have any interest in takworthwhile nonprofits. It declares to ing it over. He believed that it could San Francisco that we are an importhrive under our leadership as a tant and vibrant aspect of the city. leather organization that focuses But for me though, its greatest value exclusively on special event producis the community building it fosters. tion and fundraising. After careful We can never have enough of that. consideration from both Boards of LeatherWalk was founded in 1992 Directors, we executed a one-year

by Art Tomaszewski, former AIDS agreement to see how things would Emergency Fund (AEF) Board Presigo. So far, so good, I think.” dent, Bare Chest Calendar Man and Demetri hopes that Folformer Mr. Headquarters som Street Events can conLeather. Art was intinue to take the lead on spired to start an event the production and funthat would raise visibildraising efforts so that ity, comradery and funds they might consider for AEF. using LeatherWalk as In 2001, Sandy ‘Mama’ a stand-alone fundraiser Reinhardt, a tireless that could exclusively bencommunity fundraiser efit small, local leather and and founding advisor at fetish organizations.

Breast Cancer EmergenAnyone who wants to walk cy Fund (BCEF), took over event must register. You can ideally register production of LeatherWalk. Each ahead of time online at www.Leathyear, Mama and Mama’s Family erwalk.org where you will also find have held LeatherWalk fundraisers more information about the Walk, across the country. Today, under a or you can show up at 10am at the new agreement, LeatherWalk raises bar at 440 Castro where onsite regisvital funds for Folsom Street Events trations will take place. Walkers can (FSE), AEF and BCEF. then proceed to Jane Warner Plaza at In 2015, FSE entered into an agreeCastro and Market where they will ment with AEF and BCEF to take gather as they enjoy some entertainover the production of LeatherWalk. ment starting at 11:30am.

The new agreement has FSE retaining For those who arrive early, or 75% of the proceeds and 25% will be wish to have a nice meal prior to the split between AEF and BCEF. FSE is walk, the LeatherWalk organizers a charitable nonprofit that donates its are encouraging community members to eat at The Cove on Castro, 434 Castro (right next to the 440 Castro registration site).

The Cove on Castro has been a longtime supporter of San Francisco’s leather and kink community.

The Mistress of Ceremonies this year will our local icon Sister Roma.

Also featured will be performances by Grace Towers, Raquela, and many others.

At about 12:15pm the Walk itself will begin. Walkers will start from Jane Warner Plaza and walk down Market Street, eventually ending up South of Market. The route includes stops at some of San Francisco’s favorite watering holes such as Powerhouse, Oasis and BeatBox before wrapping up with a beer bust at the SF Eagle.

Everyone from the leather and kink communities are invited to participate.

Demetri echoes that sentiment.

“With LeatherWalk being the kick-off of the week, it’s a great opportunity for all of us to come together and have a little fun before things get crazy. There aren’t many chances for us to build community over the year, Top: Tireless fundraiser Sandy “Mama” Reinhardt (left) with Bevan Dufty (right) at and LeatherWalk is a fantastic space in which to be the kickoff to LeatherWalk 2008. Middle: Demetri Moshoyannis (left), Executive visible, raise awareness, Director of Folsom Street Events, and and fundraise in the proSan Francisco’s one-and-only Sister Roma cess. I’m very much hop(right). Bottom: Beth Bicoastal (left), ing to see representatives Floor Manager and Events Coordinator at from all of the leather and SF Eagle, and Jason Husted (right), Chair- fetish groups, businesses, man of the San Francisco Leather Pride bars and clubs.”

Contingent, taken at the Mr. San Francisco LeatherWalk particiLeather 2015 contest. pants have some great stories from the past. I asked Beth Bicoastal

Case Quinn McManis

Rich Stadtmiller

O

Rich Stadtmiller

Hundreds of leatherfolk walk down Folsom Street during LeatherWalk 2014.

many people if they had interesting stories to share, but this one from Beth Bicoastal of the SF Eagle, who is a LeatherWalk organizer and active fundraiser, stood out for me.

“I will never forget two years ago meeting a woman on the street during the parade. I was wearing boots, short shorts, and my typical animal print tape over my nipples. She stated, ‘I would never have the courage to do what you are doing!’ And I told her that we are all beautiful and that I praise our bodies for their variety.

She and I continued to discuss various topics as the parade was marching on and I informed her of places she could safely explore kink in our community here in SF. I was so happy to run in to her months later at an event in SOMA and hear that she was exploring! It made my heart sing.”

Jason Husted, one of the LeatherWalk’s organizers and the new Chairman of the San Francisco Leather Pride Contingent, also expressed his excitement about this year’s event.

“I’ve been an active fundraiser for LeatherWalk for the past six years with my leather family, Haus of StarFish,” he said. “This year I’m honored to be helping FSE take the reins and continue this ‘one of a kind’ event. There’s a small team of us working together to bring this event to life.

“With FSE being involved this year, of course we’ve added a few things making it that much better.

For the first year ever, we are crossing the street and hosting our opening ceremonies at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro and we’ve booked entertainment at all of our stops, including our newest stop at Oasis. I’ve been working with the scheduling of the event to make sure that all participating bars are in the know, working on outreach to current leather titleholders throughout the Bay Area (and beyond), and making sure all of the traditions from previous LeatherWalks are kept in place. No one throws a party quite like FSE, and it’s great to see the energy and hard work they are known for being attached to this really unique event.”

I plan to be walking with my fellow leatherfolk and kinksters this year. I hope my readers will also.

Come join me and hundreds of others at this amazing event. Let’s raise some money for some great causes while at the same time having a blast being the awesome kink community we in the Bay Area are. See you there!t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through his website, www.bannon.com

Leather Listings, see page 34 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • Bay Area Reporter • September 17-23, 2015

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“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”

—Noël Coward

Leather Events, September 17 – 27, 2015 Thu 17

Sun 20

Art Opening @ Wicked Grounds

LeatherWalk 2015 @ Harvey Milk Plaza

This year’s 6th Anniversary & Leather Month will also be an art opening for a special art show featuring several kink artists from the local community. 289 8th St., 7-11pm. www.wickedgrounds.com

Fri 18 Mark I. Chester @ Center for Sex & Culture City of Wounded Boys & Sexual Warriors, a 38-year retrospective of the photographs of San Francisco gay radical sex photographer Mark I. Chester (also showing through September). 1349 Mission St., 7pm. www.sexandculture.org www.markichester.com

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma Gear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men.

442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

Sat 19 Alden Spafford Progressive Dinner @ SOMA Progressive dinner held annually in memory of Alden Spafford, $15 ($20 at door), 4-9pm. For details, see www.leatheralliance.org

Leather Social @ SF Eagle Gear up, get out of the house and hang out with other leathermen in a cigar-friendly space. The intended focus is just to meet up. 398 12th St., 9pm. www.sf-eagle.com

BLUF Invasion @ SF Eagle Bar night for all gear men; Mingle with the men of BLUF, Hot Boots and Bay Area Cigar Buddies. 398 12th St., 9pm. www.bluf.com

LeatherWalk is the official kick-off of San Francisco Leather Week; it raises awareness and visibility and helps to build community. 2401 Market St., 10am. www.leatherwalk.org

Kinky Coders @ Wicked Grounds Afternoon of working on programming projects, networking, picking up new languages, and making new friends at the Kinky Coder munch. 289 8th St., 1pm. www.wickedgrounds.com

Re-Bound @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Queer Sphere presents a queer rope salon with hosts Doug, The Dragon Lord, and his muse SaraMara for a fun and sexy demo and instructional kink night. 6551 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, $5, 3pm. www.queersphere.net

Mon 21 & 28 Ride Mondays @ Eros A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros; bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Tue 22 GameGear @ Wicked Grounds Game night hosted by Rubber Men of San Francisco. 289 8th St., 7:30pm. www.rmsf.org

Movie Night @ Renegades Bar, San Jose A showing of Folsom Forever, the documentary about Folsom Street Fair. 501 W. Taylor St., San Jose, 7:30pm. www.renegadesbar.com

Wed 23 Leather/Gear Buddies @ Blow Buddies Erotic fun for leather and gear guys, $15, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Tom of Finland Night @ SF LGBT Community Center Leathermen’s Discussion Group hosts a silent auction, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, and an interview with Durk Dehner of the Tom of Finland Foundation. 1800 Market St., 6:30pm. www.sfldg.org

Fri 25 Kibbles & Bits @ SOMA StrEat Food Park SF K9 Unit’s informal pup and handler dinner social. Dutch treat - buy your own food/drink or just socialize. 428 11th St. (at Harrison), 6pm. www.sfk9unit.org

KuF (Plus) @ SF Citadel SF Kinksters under Forty (KuF) presents a sexy all-ages men’s play party in SF’s largest dungeon space.

181 Eddy St., 6pm. Tickets and info at www.SFKuF.org

Folsom Sunset Cruise @ Pier 40 Doing it in leather over one of the biggest weekends SF has to offer, Folsom Street Fair Weekend.

Boarding begins at 6pm. www. folsomsunsetcruise.eventbrite.com

Leather Gear & Boots Banquet @ Stompers Boots Formal leather extravaganza for those in the Stompers Nation. 323 10th St., $95, 7pm. www.stompersboots.com

Jok Church @ Magnet Closing reception for Be My Porn Star Tonight; Church’s show illustrates the beauty of man in a kaleidoscope of body parts. The colorful show also features some familiar faces of the San Francisco porn industry. 4122 18th St., 8pm. www.makemagic.org/magnet

Leather Buddies @ Blow Buddies Erotic fun for leather and gear guys, $15, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Beers, Steer & Queers @ SF Eagle SF Eagle and Jello Biafra’s Incredibly Strange Dance Party are proud to present Beers Steers and Queers the dance party. 398 12th St., 9pm. www.sf-eagle.com

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma Gear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men. 442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

Brüt @ Beatbox A place to dance where you can be your kinky selves. 314 11th St., 10pm. www.brutparty.com

Sat 26 Rope Bondage Fair @ Wicked Grounds Whether you are just beginning to get curious about bondage rope, or have been tying partners up for years, attend this very special preFolsom rope festival. 289 8th St., 1pm. www.wickedgrounds.com

Folsom Saturday Beer Bust @ SF Eagle Join the Folsom Street Fair weekend crowd; see all the hot men and women in from all over the world.

398 12th St., 4pm. sf-eagle.com

Leather Cruise @ San Francisco Bay Golden Gate Guards and BLUF host a cruise with leather men and women; complimentary cap, pin, lei and photo, complimentary food service, cash bar. 4:30pm, $75.

Meet at Pier 40. www.ggguards.org

15 Association @ Alchemy A men’s BDSM play party. Advance tickets required. No tickets at the door. 1060 Folsom St., 6pm. www.the15sf.org

Radicals @ Books Inc. A Folsom Eve reading on the theories and fictions of BDSM. Radicals celebrates human sexuality on the eve of Folsom Fair 2015. 2275 Market St., 7pm. www.booksinc.net

Magnitude @ The Midway SF The official Saturday night dance event of Folsom Street Fair. 900 Marin St., 9pm. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Sun 27 Aftershock @ City Nights Bring your friends and join the sexiest men from around the world at San Francisco’s epic afterhours dance party. 715 Harrison St., 4am. www.aftershocksf.eventbrite.com.

Folsom Street Fair @ Folsom St. from 8th to 13th Street This is the world’s largest leather and fetish event, attended by thousands. Multiple bands, booths, kink demos, and more. Gate donations. 11am-6pm. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Queer Oasis @ Folsom Fair The Queer Sphere’s Relaxation Station at Folsom Street Fair. Stop by for sun screen, a bit of shade, a sip of refreshing spa water, a bandaid for that nasty blister or to freshen up at the Pitz & Titz Spritz station.

9th St. next to Venus Playground between Howard and Folsom, 11am. www.queersphere.net

Victory Party Stage on 12th Street @ SF Eagle Featuring The Limousines, Pansy Division, Black Sabbitch, The Club Meds, and more; hosted by Violet Chachki, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7. 398 12th St., 11am. www.sf-eagle.com

Boot Party @ Stompers The annual traditional party held during Folsom Street Fair, this year with two kegs on the patio to quench everyone’s thirst. 323 10th St., Noon. www.stompersboots.com

Deviants @ Mezzanine The official closing party of Folsom Street Fair. 444 Jessie St., 6pm. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Real Bad XXVII @ 1015 Folsom Huge dance party following Folsom Street Fair. 1015 Folsom St., 7pm. www.realbad.org

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shooting Stars

September 17-23, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

photos by Steven Underhill GAPA Runway 27 T

he Gay Asian Pacific Alliance’s 27th annual Runway pageant combined camp drag and classy entertainment, this year with an ‘Under the Sea’ theme. Mermaids and mermen splashed about onstage at the Cowell Theatre at Fort Mason, as Dez Kwok was crowned Mr. GAPA, and D’Lady Ito was crowned Miss GAPA. www.gapa.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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