by John Ferrannini
Newly-appointed San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong said he would support Mayor Daniel Lurie’s family zoning plan after he was sworn in December 1 – but will wait to hear from community stakeholders before speaking more about the future of the Great Highway. Until Monday, Wong had been an elected member of the City College of San
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Voting in the Bay Area Reporter’s readers’ poll is now open.
by Cynthia Laird
Yes, the Bay Area Reporter is back with its 2026 readers’ poll, the Best of the Bay. For the LGBTQ newspaper’s 15th iteration of the contest, voting will be done online only, and is open.
Now is the time for readers to cast their choices for their favorite people, places, and things in the Bay Area. There are multiple categories, and voting continues through midnight Wednesday, December 31. The survey should take about 1015 minutes, a great thing to do during a quick break in your holiday festivities.
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by JL Odom
San Francisco’s Castro LGBTQ neighborhood is brighter around this time of year, with homes and storefronts aglow with lighted decorations and trees. The clearest – and tallest – marker of the season in the Castro is its holiday tree at the Bank of America Plaza.
On Monday, more than 100 people gathered near the corner of Castro and 18th streets for the annual Castro holiday tree lighting ceremony, which took place from 6 to 6:30 p.m. on what was also World AIDS Day. The event, emceed by Donna Sachet, was full of laughs, smiles, Christmas songs and uplifting statements about San Francisco and its LGBTQ community.
“The Castro tree lighting is one of those traditions that reminds us what this neighborhood is all about: joy, resilience, and chosen family,” Nate Bourg, board president of the Castro Merchants Association, told the Bay Area Reporter. “During a time of year when not everyone feels supported or accepted at home, gathering under the lights together creates a sense of belonging that’s uniquely Castro.”
The merchants group sponsored the tree lighting. Bourg, a gay man, assumed the association’s leadership role in early April, following a two-year stint as the organization’s treasurer, as the B.A.R. previously reported. He’s also the co-founder of The
Academy SF, a private LGBTQ-focused social club.
“It’s a beautiful moment where our LGBTQ+ community, our allies, families, and neighbors all
stand together and celebrate the spirit of hope this neighborhood has always represented,” he added about the ceremony.
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by Matthew S. Bajko
With the Bay Area one of the regions that will play host to the 2026 World Cup soccer matches, a hospitality suite catering to LGBTQ fans is being planned for when the competitions kick off next June. Fundraising for it is already underway, while programming decisions will be finalized in the new year.
Dubbed Pride House San Francisco Bay Area 2026, it will be located in San Francisco even though the six games scheduled for the region will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. It is to be housed largely at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, which has partnered with the San Francisco Spikes, an LGBTQ-focused soccer club, and the global equality group All Out to open the Pride House.
The Pride House is a way to ensure LGBTQ soccer fans, whether locals or those visiting for the World Cup matches, have an enjoyable time with like-minded fans while watching the games or accessing the other activities being planned, from speaker series to community-building workshops, said Zac Brown, 33, who is queer and vice president of the Spikes.
“And I think a priority for myself as well as the entire club is owning the space and making sure that queer folks know that the World Cup is a space
House organizers Nick Ward, third from left, and Zac Brown, second from right, joined with attendees at a recent soccer watch party at Rikki’s women’s sports bar in the Castro.
for them, but also that World Cup fans know that queer folks are here to support the World Cup as well, right? And how can we make those two things related as a part of that?” asked Brown, a goalkeeper on his soccer team.
“And you know, our city is going to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors next summer, many of which will be queer folks, and we
want to make sure that they know what to do and where to be in community while they’re here and how they can embrace the great culture that is San Francisco’s queer community.”
The Pride House is modeled after the similarly named LGBTQ offerings now found in the host cities for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The first Pride House debuted at the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games co-hosted by Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.
They now fall under the auspices of Pride House International, a global charity registered in Scotland. A temporary structure is to be built at West Hollywood Park for the 2028 Summer Olympics hosted by Los Angeles, with the West Hollywood City Council recently approving $1 million to sponsor the Pride House LA/WEHO, as the Los Angeles Blade reported.
The Pride House set to open in San Francisco for the World Cup matches is expected to cost far less, according to the local organizers, since its homebase will be at the LGBTQ center located in the city’s upper Market Street corridor. The current fundraising goal is $300,000, with the center launching a dedicated online page for people to donate at give.sfcenter.org/ pridehouse.
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Cast your votes for the best businesses, non-profits, people, events, places to go, and things to do in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first 100 readers to complete the survey, answering at least 75% of the survey questions, will TWO TICKETS to see
Vote once per day per device until midnight on December 21. Vote online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/Besties2026 or scan the QR code at right.
by John Ferrannini
Like a lot of kids, gay, straight, and in-between, Cade Bradley recalls his middle school years as having been a “socially awkward and confused phase in life.”
“I had trouble making friends,” recalled the now-23-year-old from the Minneapolis suburbs. “I didn’t know my place in the world, struggled with sexuality, and didn’t know what to do about being gay.”
Having been brought up in what he described as a “vaguely Catholic household,” Bradley got involved in a local parish youth group. However, it was the internet that brought him to Catholic traditionalism, a movement at the edges of the Roman Catholic Church that opposes many of the ways in which the institution has changed – especially the more open attitude toward LGBTQ people initiated under Pope Francis and, so far, continued by his successor, Leo XIV, who became the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination earlier this year.
“You get to feel like you’re saving souls,” Bradley said in a recent interview. “‘We have the truth within our group.’ It’s a crazy feeling that makes you feel super alive.”
In traditionalism, Bradley found traditions, prayers, hymns, and celebrations – some of which date to ancient times – that the mainstream church has abandoned.
“It gave structure to daily life and it felt like every moment of every day,” he recalled. “I was changing the stakes of the world, praying and evangelizing and reading books … and feeling I was a superhero on a mission from God in a certain sense.”
But Bradley, exhausted from worrying about theology, left the Catholic Church when he was 21.
Having been an insider of the traditionalist sect, Bradley doesn’t begrudge his now-former co-religionists.
“It’s not that people know they’re wrong,” he said. “They genuinely think these bad ideas are good ideas.”
Now, Bradley is one of a cohort of young, queer people who once floated in traditionalist, or otherwise less than tolerant, quarters of the church who are using social media to try to reach other people who may be in the same boat he once was.
The Bay Area Reporter spoke with several for this report, who also discussed ties to so-called conversion therapy just as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is advocating that the U.S. Supreme Court strike down bans against the practice. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a conversion therapy case out of Colorado earlier this year, and the conservative justices who make up the majority appeared skeptical of allowing a ban against the practice for minors to remain in place.
Bradley explores the intersection of queer identity and Catholicism on his “Intrinsically Ordered” podcast.
“It sounds prideful,” he said, “but many of the people in the traditionalist Catholic world are scared of what I do. I used to make the same arguments. I read all of the books. I did a lot of the debates.
… It’s almost like a lab leak.”
A 2025 analysis from Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, found that the decades-long decline of Christianity in the U.S. stalled after the COVID pandemic. Members of Gen Z (born beginning in 1997) are more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials (born between 1981 and 1996), he reports.
Further, while among older cohorts women are more likely than men to attend services, that trend is bucked by Gen Z men, who are less likely than Gen Z women to say that they never go to church. Burge said if trends continue, it
will close the long-standing religiosity gender gap.
And among Christian denominations, Catholicism is among those reporting more participation. According to the National Catholic Register, which reached out to every diocese in the U.S. last year, some dioceses “are reporting increases of 30%, 40%, 50% and even more than 70%” in members.
These numbers were reported just prior to the church’s cardinals choosing Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, in early May. (In the U.S., however, there are twice as many Protestants as Catholic Christians.)
Stan JR Zerkowski, a gay man who is the director of LGBTQ+ ministries for the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, and the executive director of the Catholic LGBTQ+ affinity group Fortunate Families, told the B.A.R. that he’s seeing more and more young people show up to church and to his ministry.
“I think it’s a generation that longs for some answers,” he said.
However, in Bradley’s case, that quest for answers took him away from mainstream Catholic parishes and institutions and toward those skeptical of, or that outright reject, the church’s most recent ecumenical council, Vatican II, which from 1962-65 reconciled the institution with the modern world in various ways.
Vatican II allowed the Eucharist – the central ritual of Christianity – to be celebrated in vernacular languages, rather than in the centuries-old, Latin-only rite known as the Tridentine Mass. It also promoted laypeople reading and studying the Bible, declared all people have the right to religious freedom, and in the aftermath of the Holocaust repudiated millennia of antisemitism by declaring that the Jewish people should not be held responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
In the 1980s, bishops who in disobedience of then-Pope John Paul II rejected Vatican II reforms were excommunicated, though many traditionalists remain members of the institutional church in good standing. Whether to respond by being more tolerant and inclusive of the relatively small number of traditionalists, as Benedict XVI was, or whether to restrict their ability to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, as Francis did, is an ongoing debate within the church.
Zerkowski agreed with Bradley that traditionalism has its appeal, particularly for young people.
“There’s a growing number of young people in my experience, in my ministry, attracted to traditional Catholicism,” he said. “I think it’s because they just want answers. They’re tired of wrestling.”
While Catholic teaching since Vatican II has given more leeway to individual decision-making, Zerkowski said that people looking for guidance from the church “get clearer answers by going to older sources, more blackand-white answers.”
“For example, our young people are sometimes questioning – particularly our queer young people – how they can
Conversion therapy
Simon Fung, a 41-year-old gay Catholic from Denver, hosted the “Dear Alana” podcast, which concluded in 2023.
Alana Chen was 24 years old when she disappeared from Boulder, Colorado in 2019. As it turned out, she had died by suicide after years of conversion therapy.
Chen’s experience was reconstructed through her surviving journals.
“She was a person who really loved God, who really took seriously the teaching of the church,” Fung said.
Chen confessed to a priest as a teenager that she was attracted to women, her journals showed, Fung said.
live out their queerness and chastity at the same time,” Zerkowski said. “Traditionalist Catholicism addresses that really, really clearly: The church has a stance you must be chaste, you must be celibate. Holy friendship.”
Official Catholic doctrine remains that homosexual actions are gravely sinful, and that having a gay orientation is “intrinsically disordered.” However, Francis made a number of high-profile overtures toward the LGBTQ community, becoming the first pope to use the word “gay,” advocating for the decriminalization of homosexuality, allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, and generally encouraging priests to interpret Catholic teaching in a more nuanced way.
When he died earlier this year, some LGBTQ Catholics were worried his tone would die with him. However, in a recent interview, Leo indicated he plans on continuing to try to welcome LGBTQ people while opposing changing church teachings.
“I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the church’s doctrine in terms of what the church teaches about sexuality, what the church teaches about marriage,” will change, Leo said. “We have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the church says about any given question.”
LGBTQ Catholics were pleased Leo met with the Reverend James Martin, a New York-based Jesuit priest who is an outspoken advocate for inclusion of LGBTQ Catholics, and that he welcomed an LGBTQ pilgrimage group to Rome, as the B.A.R. previously reported.
Zerkowski said that traditionalists “view our continuing discernment of human sexuality and its relationship to the church as muddy waters and not black-and-white enough for them. The journey I find valid is not valid for them. They want clear, concise answers.”
“Because of the guidance she was getting from her spiritual director, who told her not to tell her family, to other mentors who directed her to conversion therapy and conversion therapy ministries, there was a lot we share in common, and I wanted to share her story as truly and honestly as I could and help people outside this particular subculture in the church understand as much as possible what it’s like to be inside it,” Fung said.
Like many, Chen went between traditionalist and conservative subcultures within the church.
“Her spiritual director was a priest who has become very traditionalist and quasi-schismatic [rejecting papal authority] at this point, and he took her under his wing,” Fung said.
Conversion therapy is an umbrella term to describe efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation, same-sex sexual activity, or gender identity from LGBTQ to heterosexual. Practitioners of such therapy use not only talk therapy but also electroshock therapy and forced vomiting, among other things. Some studies have indicated the treatment often leads the minors to attempt suicide. It has been widely discredited by major medical associations.
“In this case, she applied to, but didn’t end up attending, a ministry called Desert Stream Living Waters,” Fung said, “which is rooted in ex-gay theory and practice, but would disavow the label of conversion therapy in its approach. They’re very sensitive because of the stigma against conversion therapy. A lot of these groups have rebranded, and taken off explicit promises of sexual orientation change but use more coded language.”
Desert Stream Living Waters didn’t return a request for comment.
This more coded language sometimes includes promises that therapy can help someone heal from “disordered affections” or that it can “resolve distress” around sexual orientation.
“On the surface, that’s great,” Fung
said. “Who doesn’t want healing?”
He’s among those who once participated in conversion therapy, when he wanted to be a priest.
Christopher Damian, a 34-year-old gay Catholic writer, agreed that conversion therapy came in more coded ways through Catholic institutions. When Damian – who was not a traditionalist per se but was firmly committed to what he saw as Catholic orthodoxy – was a sophomore in college, he explored the works of the Reverend John F. Harvey, who founded Courage International, which treats homosexuality with a 12-step program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous.
“Harvey cited works of conversion therapists and promoted the ex-gay narrative – the view that someone experiences same-sex attraction because of a core wound earlier in life,” Damian said. “With a boy, issues of attachment with same-sex, or opposite-sex parents, and because of that, they reject masculine identity but have a desire for that identity, manifesting in same-sex attraction. The idea is if you cure that core wound, you’d express heterosexual desires and identities.”
Courage International, an approved apostolate of the church, did not return a request for comment. Reached for comment, Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco spokesperson Peter Marlow pushed back, stating that Courage International states its goals on its website and “none of these goals have to do with ‘conversion therapy.’”
“I am not aware of any way in which Courage goes beyond the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding its teaching on those who struggle with samesex attraction,” Marlow stated. “In fact, Courage offers authentic compassion to individuals struggling with same-sex attraction by promoting chastity, recommending frequent reception of the sacraments for those who are properly disposed, and encouraging fellowship through chaste friendships that serve as role models for others.”
Damian said that another promoter of these ideas was the Reverend Tony Anatrella, who was one of the advisers behind a 2005 declaration banning gays from the priesthood, but who was banned from priestly ministry after allegations he sexually abused patients over the course of therapy sessions.
Damian said he was dissuaded from pursuing conversion therapy when a graduate student explained it could be dangerous to his faith were it not successful. t To
by John Ferrannini
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted December 2 to settle the second of two lawsuits against the city and county due to a now-lapsed program that sought to provide guaranteed income to some transgender people. The settlement is for $50,000 and nonmonetary terms.
On December 2, the board voted 11-0 to approve the settlement. Because it is an ordinance, a second and final vote needs to be taken next week.
The Bay Area Reporter noted last December that the first suit, brought by attorneys from Judicial Watch on behalf of San Francisco residents Paul Wildes and Reed Sandberg against then-Mayor London Breed, gay City Treasurer José Cisneros, City Administrator Carmen Chu, and John Doe, had settled for less than $4,000.
Both suits were brought against the city due to the pilot Guaranteed Income for Trans People, or GIFT, program that Breed established in November 2022. As of December 2023, there had been 55 people in the program who received $1,200 a month for 18 months. No further monies have been disbursed since the program quietly ended in September 2024. Both suits claimed the GIFT program ran afoul of nondiscrimination laws.
The second suit was filed in May 2023, as the B.A.R. reported that year. It alleged that GIFT violated the 14th
The exact price tag is still to be figured out. It will be dependent on the final plans for the Pride House and attached programming to be offered during the sporting event, plus the cost for the rights to stream the various matches at the viewing parties it will host.
Watch parties planned
“A big component of our programming will be watch parties. Some of those will be at the SF LGBT center. We’re going to be asking the city for support in engaging different parks and spaces in the city to hold watch parties as
Richard “Dick” Schulist
September 24, 1938 – October 20, 2025
Richard “Dick” Schulist was born in Cleveland, Ohio and studied economics at Washington & Lee University. He earned a master’s in business, served in the Army, and built a career in banking as a loan specialist. Dick kept a wide circle of friends, especially through the San Francisco MAX social club, and was known for playing the piano entirely by ear simply for the enjoyment of it. He moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s and spent decades work-
Mayor London Breed, center, was joined by elected officials and transgender activists in August 2022 as she raised the trans flag from outside the Mayor’s Balcony at City Hall.
Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the latter of which the U.S. Supreme Court applied to gender identity and sexual orientation in its 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County.
It was brought by the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, San Francisco resident Ruth Parker, and former mayoral candidate Ellen Lee Zhou against
well,” said Nick Ward, the center’s community programs manager.
Ward, 45, who is nonbinary, grew up in Manchester, England where their family members are major fans and season ticketholders of their local soccer team Manchester United. Having lived in the United States for nine years now, Ward told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview they are more into basketball these days and haven’t really watched past World Cups.
Nonetheless, they teamed up with Brown, who like Ward lives in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district, to help bring the Pride House to the city next spring and summer. Brown is serving as executive director of the Pride House SF organiz-
ing for Barclays and Liberty National banks. He also taught evening economics classes, which gave him no shortage of stories about his students, told with a dry, deadpan humor. Dick lived a private life and stayed remarkably fit, walking his daily 3-plus miles around the city and ate healthfully long before it became fashionable. In his San Francisco home of 50-plus years, he referred to the Ferry Building as his living room clock.
Dick traveled the world widely and developed a soft spot for animals, especially ducks, which became an endearing theme in his home and in many family jokes. He’ll be remembered with love for his wit, his curiosity, his warmth, and the steady presence he offered throughout his life.
the city, the San Francisco Unified School District, the Regents of the University of California, and Mark Ghaly, in his capacity as secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. It initially also included programs that help artists, pregnant women, and Blacks, but early on the plaintiffs agreed to remove the UC regents and the school district from the suit; they had been named in
ing committee, while Ward is its director of programming.
“I mean the Spikes are inherently a soccer club, right? And the World Cup is inherently a soccer event. And I think something that’s really key for us is we are about owning and having positive experiences around sport,” said Brown when asked why he and his teammates wanted to organize the Pride House.
“And as we all know, queer folks growing
connection with programs aimed at helping Blacks after the agencies claimed they’d been listed mistakenly.
The other programs the suit alleged were illegally discriminatory were the San Francisco Guaranteed Income Plan for Artists, the Abundant Birth Project, and the Black Economic Equity Movement, or BEEM, which is not funded by the city.
The now-concluded San Francisco Guaranteed Income Plan for Artists, run in collaboration with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, was launched in 2022, and provided $1,000 to 60 eligible artists. According to the complaint, “YCBA and Mayor Breed largely achieved their ‘intended’ discriminatory goals” because Native American, Native Alaskan, LGBTQ, Black, and Hispanic artists were chosen more than their rates in the city’s population “all while choosing Asian artists at a rate less than half their share of the city’s population; and omitting any indication that any of the program’s beneficiaries are White heterosexuals.”
The Abundant Birth Project, which started in 2021 and is seeking sustainable funding for its future, aims to improve maternal health among Black and Pacific Islander pregnant women in San Francisco – communities that face significantly higher rates of infant mortality – by providing $1,000-$1,500 per month for the duration of the pregnancy. This was the program that allegedly involved a volunteer who’d concurrently worked at the school district, but does
up don’t always get those experiences and don’t always get those abilities to be young and enjoy sport in the, in the natural ways that a Mancunian should from Nick’s childhood or any kid really should.”
Recently brought aboard to help with communications is Xorje Olivares, 37, a gay man who is a sports enthusiast and works in media. He joked that his “claim to fame” in his family is that he was the
Recognition for ‘Bachelor Father’
Thanks to the Bay Area Reporter for publishing Elinor Gale’s Guest Opinion piece about “Bachelor Father” Bill Jones. [“With thanks to ‘Bachelor Father’ Bill Jones,” November 27.] I have the honor of knowing Bill and I can testify that at 97 years old, he is still the feisty activist he was when he was the first single man in the U.S. to adopt a child. Bill’s lesson is available for all of us, that persistence, love, and chosen family can create waves beyond expectations.
When I asked him if he imagined his memoir being made into a film, he confirmed that and immediately volunteered the actor he wanted to play him; I wouldn’t want to divulge his answer but the actor’s singing and dancing skills are wickedly on display in theaters around the world.
Correction
In the November 27 article, “Gay couple’s connection lives on in quilt panels,” the name of Barrett Lindsey-Steiner’s current husband, AC Griffing, was misspelled. The online version has been corrected.
no longer.
Finally, the Black Economic Equity Movement, or BEEM, is run in coordination with UCSF and UC Berkeley and funded through the National Institutes of Health, according to its website. https://beemproject.org/ It provides $500 a month to Black young adults “in certain areas in San Francisco and Oakland” for up to a year “so they have a little breathing room, can take care of immediate needs, and plan for the future,” according to its website, which also states it is no longer accepting new applications.
When the first lawsuit against GIFT was settled, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, the board’s lone African American member, and then-supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin voted not to approve the settlement.
Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, stated that the decision to settle at this point is a wise one.
“We believe this narrow settlement is an appropriate resolution given the inherent costs of continued litigation,” Kwart stated. “It gives the city the flexibility to implement programs that uplift and support vulnerable communities. All payments under the GIFT Program and Abundant Birth Program have been made, and program participants received the full payments they were promised.”
The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation did not return a request for comment. t
first person to score a goal on the soccer team he played on when he was 10 years old.
“Granted, the goalkeeper had fallen and the space was wide open for me, but I still made that goal,” recalled Olivares, who lives in the city’s Mission district and is volunteering his time like the other Pride House organizers.
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New Castro elevator is enough
The new elevator at the Castro Muni Station is nearing completion, and it is a handsome structure. I’m sure it will meet the needs of the Castro station. However, I say that not one penny more should be spent on the redesign and renovation of the remainder of the surrounding Harvey Milk Plaza area. The entrance to the Muni station is perfectly adequate just as it is. I think with all the other pressing financial requirements of the city, it is foolish to spend money trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. After all, at the end of the day, it’s just a subway entrance.
Bill Blackburn Novato, California
by John Ferrannini
Agay doctor is suing Waymo and Alphabet, its parent company, claiming “algorithmic discrimination” after he allegedly was flagged by an artificial intelligence program and refused service due to his Middle Eastern background.
Dr. Nasser Mohamed, an internationally recognized LGBTQ activist born in Qatar, downloaded the selfdriving car application Waymo in 2023 “but consistently received error messages preventing him from accessing the service,” according to a copy of the civil complaint he filed in San Francisco Superior Court on November 4.
After getting through to customer service, “Waymo Support told Plaintiff they had encountered an issue when attempting to verify his information for account setup but did not provide him with specific information about why he was being denied service.”
When Mohamed raised the specter of discrimination, the ticket was closed, the complaint stated.
Alphabet, which also owns Google, employs an AI program as part of its identity verification process, according to the civil complaint. For security reasons, the AI program scans the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List. Under the auspices of the Treasury Department, the list identifies individuals subject to sanctions by the U.S. government for reasons
Dr. Nasser Mohamed, who runs Osra Medical in San Francisco, has sued Waymo and its parent company for discrimination.
related to foreign policy and safety.
“Plaintiff’s name is not on the OFAC Sanctions List,” the complaint continued. “However, there are other Middle Eastern and Muslim names on the list that are similar to Plaintiff’s name. Alphabet’s AI software erroneously flagged Plaintiff’s name due to its similarity to other Middle Eastern and Muslim names on the list. Plaintiff – a user of a number of services provided by Alphabet subsidiaries like Waymo – is now internally flagged as a national security risk by Alphabet.”
Waymo, and other autonomous ride-hailing services, have become ubiquitous in San Francisco, the world’s tech capital. Waymo recently announced a significant expansion of its footprint. While it had started on roadways in the city proper, on November 12 it announced it will soon operate on the entire San Francisco Peninsula, all the way to Norman Mineta International Airport in San Jose.
It’s in the process of launching its taxi service at San Francisco International Airport.
The company’s expansion has not been without controversy – queer District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is asking state legislators to give voters the power to decide if the autonomous vehicles should be allowed on California streets after a Waymo killed KitKat, a beloved bodega cat in the Mission district. She represents the heavily Latino neighborhood at City Hall.
Supporters cite studies claiming automated vehicles are safer than human-driven vehicles.
Reached for comment, a Waymo spokesperson stated, “Waymo does not discriminate use of our service. We are committed to providing access to all in the communities we serve. We disagree with the claims made.”
Alphabet didn’t return requests to comment about Mohamed’s suit.
The complaint alleges two counts: violation of the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and an allegation of unfair
business practices.
Mohamed declined a request for an interview, citing the need to “remain consistent with my messaging as this is a case going through active litigation.” Among questions asked over email was how Mohamed found out about the alleged discriminatory activity on the part of Waymo and Alphabet, as Waymo disputes the claim of discrimination.
However, he did provide a lengthy statement in response to the Bay Area Reporter’s inquiries about his lawsuit.
“Without referencing the ‘why’ of what happened, I can tell you that I have been denied service for two years by Waymo and I was not allowed to contest that decision,” Mohamed stated.
“Automating an identity verification step in the sake of efficiency, and not allowing users to contest those decisions, is the reason I am filing a complaint to protect my own self and the public from such practices. Companies that employ AI for their main product or at any point during their interaction with humans must adhere to civil rights and not violate them. I think most of us would reject a world where automation defines who we are, speaks on our behalf, and forces us to live with its mistakes – without any way to challenge or correct them.”
The B.A.R. did interview Mohamed’s attorney, Shounak S. Dharap. He said the suit is asking for the com-
panies’ practices to be changed.
“The primary remedy in the complaint is injunctive relief,” Dharap said. “Basically, a change in the way the systems operate to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”
Dharap said that Waymo and Alphabet have not responded yet to the suit.
“They usually have about 30 days from the date of service,” he explained.
Dharap said that with AI becoming more and more entrenched in different areas of American life, expect to see more cases of algorithmic discrimination. He also predicted people should expect AI to exacerbate other legal issues.
“We are in a pretty perilous time with respect of reliance on automated systems,” Dharap said. “It’s definitely been a huge area of litigation in all kinds of different fields. We see it in the insurance industry, employment laws – automation is everywhere. It’s already happening. There are a slew of cases out there of algorithmic discrimination, and oftentimes it’s because we rely too heavily on these systems without proper human oversight.”
Dharap warned that, “especially with AI, everyone’s leaning in, but of course, what we’re also seeing is a lot of potential issues, whether it’s biases or lack of oversight over how these systems operate. This can create issues that fall within the civil rights statutes California has to protect people from discrimination or arbitrary actions.” t
by John Ferrannini
The proprietor of the Castro Street coffee shop whose lease wasn’t renewed earlier this year told the Bay Area Reporter that he is hopeful a solution will be reached that will see the business remain in the LGBTQ neighborhood. The lease dispute involves the Castro Theater, where manager Another Planet Entertainment wants to expand the box office.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, straight allies Ken Khoury of the Castro Coffee Co. at 427 Castro Street and his brother, Riyad Khoury, who owns the Castro Nail Salon at 431 Castro Street, had hoped to stay in their storefronts. However, their leases were not renewed at the end of June by their landlords, the Nasser family, who own the three-unit building that contains both their businesses and the Castro Theatre, at 429 Castro Street.
A proposed solution would see both small businesses remain in the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Since 2022, the theater has been managed by APE and is currently closed for an ongoing restoration and renovation
project. As of July 1, APE began subleasing the three-unit building that includes the theater and the two storefronts from the Nasser family, the brothers said.
Initially, APE disavowed involvement in the non-renewal of the brothers’ leases. Later, however, APE changed tact, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that it wanted to use the spaces for an expanded box office. The theater is slated to reopen in February.
Now, Ken Khoury confirmed to the B.A.R. December 2 that the Nassers offered a lease to him September 23 –but the brothers made a counteroffer that would involve the Nassers paying $150,000 to each for relocation costs. As per the counteroffer, the nail salon would move to a location on the 500 block of Castro Street, the coffee shop would move to 421 Castro Street, where Lisa’s Hair Design is now. Lisa’s would move to the former location of Double
Rainbow Ice Cream at 417 Castro Street.
Lisa’s Hair Design didn’t immediately return a request to comment\.
The building north of the tripartite, containing the former ice creamery and the current hair design shop, is owned by relatives of the Khourys.
Asked if he had anything else to say, Khoury stated, “We still think there is room for a solution going forward. Hopefully, we’ll hear from the other parties soon.”
The Nasser family didn’t return a request to comment for this report (and they haven’t since the B.A.R. began reporting on the imbroglio earlier this year.)
Gay activist Michael Petrelis first shared the news of lease developments through an email list with documents he received through a public records request from Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman’s office.
APE spokesperson David Perry stated that the concert promoter and theater operator is also hopeful. APE has spent over $40 million on renovations. The theater is slated to open February 10, with a residency featuring genderqueer and nonbinary singer Sam Smith.
“We’re happy to hear that the Nassers and their tenants are in discussion and wish them an amicable outcome,” Perry stated. “As we have said numerous times before, as we are not the owners of the building, we are not party to those negotiations. We are busy getting The Castro ready for its grand reopening in February, and anxious to return this cultural and LGBTQ landmark to service.”
Mandelman, who represents the Castro as District 8 supervisor, didn’t immediately return comment December 2, as he was preparing for Tuesday’s board hearing. t
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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has a knack for wiggling out of situations. During the recent government shutdown, he used a variety of excuses for why he kept postponing swearing-in Congressmember Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona). He would often use the phrase, “I haven’t heard about it,” when responding to reporters on various issues, when, of course, he most certainly did know about what he was being asked.
Grijalva had to wait 50 days to take her oath of office all because she was the 218th vote on a discharge petition to release the Epstein files. After the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved that petition, President Donald Trump reversed course, signed the bill, and now the country waits to see what, exactly, will be released.
Johnson is also known for his transphobia, and willingly goes along with Republican congressmembers who seek to bully and misgender the one out trans lawmaker, Congressmember Sarah McBride (D-Delaware), as well as paint all trans people as a risk to this country.
Before McBride was even sworn into office, Congressmember Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) last November introduced a bill banning trans women from using women’s restrooms in House office buildings. It was Johnson who then informally implemented the policy.
next year’s midterm elections. It is the House that controls the federal government’s purse strings, but you wouldn’t know it because the Republicans have willingly gone along with all of Trump’s initiatives, from gutting USAID funding to a massive budget increase for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ raids to clawing back funds Congress had already allocated.
But it is the transphobia present in the Republican Caucus that has reached a breaking point for Democrats.
In their letter, Democratic House members called attention to the legislative attacks on the trans community that have occurred. “We have also heard calls by members of Congress to institutionalize all transgender people, comments referring to transgender people as mentally ill, and false suggestions by high-level political figures that transgender people are inherently violent and must be addressed as a national security threat,” the letter stated. “This language, coupled with the rising number of legislative and administrative attacks we have seen against the transgender community, is taking a real toll on the transgender community with many members fearing for their safety.”
Last month, many House Democrats had had enough. In a letter to Johnson signed by 213 of them, they took the speaker to task, urging him to “strongly condemn the rise in anti-trans rhetoric, including from members of Congress, and to urge you to ensure members of Congress are following rules of decorum and not using their platforms to demonize and scapegoat any marginalized community, including the transgender community.”
The letter painted a stark picture of a House of Representatives that has been dysfunctional this year. Republicans control the chamber yet have abdicated their oversight responsibility to curry favor with Trump and insulate themselves from his name-calling and threats to primary them in
The letter goes on to cite the latest federal hate crime statistics for 2024 that show a reported 463 hate crime incidents motivated by gender identity bias. This, of course, is likely an undercount because many law enforcement agencies don’t report hate crimes or report zero hate crimes to the FBI, the congressmembers wrote.
Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was one of the signatories, along with all 12 of the out LGBTQ congressmembers: McBride; Mark Pocan (Wisconsin); Mark Takano and Robert Garcia of California; Sharice Davids (Kansas); Angie Craig (Minnesota); Chris Pappas (New Hampshire); Becca Balint (Vermont); Emily Randall (Washington); Eric Sorensen (Illinois); Ritchie Torres (New York), and Julie Johnson (Texas). The letter was led by the Congressional Equality Cau-
cus, which Takano chairs and McBride co-chairs. In a news release, Pelosi, herself a former House speaker, pointed out that the signers represent the diversity of the Democratic Caucus. It should be noted that when Pelosi was speaker – from 2007-2011 and again from 2019-2013 – we didn’t see this kind of immature behavior coming from Democratic members. And while there were plenty of policy disagreements, members didn’t wage verbal attacks against entire groups of people. As speaker, Pelosi kept her caucus in line, producing signature legislative achievements like passage of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” How times have changed.
It’s clear that many Republican congressmembers don’t seem to care about governing at all. Johnson certainly doesn’t. He put Congress on recess during the entirety of the government shutdown, while the U.S. Senate continued to try and solve the impasse. It could be argued that having the House out on recess prolonged the shutdown because members weren’t in town to negotiate or vote.
Johnson, as the leader of Congress, owes it to the American people to take action against members who denigrate other people, whether it be trans people, immigrants, or other minorities. His acquiescence to members’ overt transphobia is greatly adding to the polarization in this country. The House of Representatives has rules on decorum that Johnson is not enforcing. If he did, this country might actually see civil discourse on these issues. At the very least, he should put into practice the Christian piety he publicly displays and professes.
We know that politics is not for the faint of heart. But it is frustrating to see week after week the anti-trans animus that spews forth from Washington, D.C. Much of that is because Johnson lacks the capacity to lead; instead, he seems to treat the whole governing enterprise as one big joke. It’s time for that to end. Democrats have proved in the offyear elections this year that they can win, and next year may be a rude awakening for Johnson and his fellow Republicans. t
by Scott Wiener
T his week, President Donald Trump tried to cancel World AIDS Day – but San Francisco recognized it anyway.
This is the grim reality our community faces: an extremist right-wing movement using every opportunity to score political points by erasing the suffering, joy, history, and humanity of LGBTQ people, and by attacking our health care, civil rights, dignity, and at times our very existence.
In a moment like this, it is not enough to have just allies in the room. We need our own people at the table – people who know our lives, our history, our battles – and who will fight back without hesitation.
That’s a key reason I’m running for Congress.
We must pass the Equality Act; restore access to HIV treatment and gender-affirming care; protect LGBTQ seniors who live in long-term care facilities; safeguard LGBTQ youth; and end new HIV infections once and for all. As a gay man, I’ve seen these challenges up close and personal, and I will fight relentlessly to overcome them for our community.
These critical needs go hand in hand with the broader community priorities I’ve fought for throughout my time in public service: Building more housing, expanding access to health care, including mental health and addiction treatment, accelerating the clean-energy transition, defending immigrant communities as they face brutal assaults.
Coming of age as a gay man during the height of the AIDS crisis shaped everything about my life and values.
Shortly after coming out in 1990, I volunteered on an AIDS crisis hotline in North Carolina, listening to people in deep despair, some suicidal, as they absorbed life-altering diagnoses. Watching so many die due to government and societal neglect taught me that politics isn’t about slogans – it’s often about life and death.
time – how hopeless things felt, and how much changed because we fought. We pushed our government to fund research that transformed HIV into a manageable illness and that created powerful prevention tools like PrEP. We won civil rights protections, marriage equality, and greater visibility. Transgender people stepped into public life, claiming legal rights and dignity they had long been denied.
We won these victories because we organized, confronted power, built alliances, and refused to back down. To meet this moment, we must do it again.
I bring a lifetime of work for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community to this fight. Long before holding office, I devoted myself to community work here, in the city I call home.
I was part of the core team that built San Francisco’s LGBTQ community center – a flagship space for our community to gather, heal, and access services. When gay men were being raped in the Castro, I co-founded Castro Community on Patrol to protect our neighborhood.
traordinary statement helped focus me on the disastrous unaffordability of housing in San Francisco and the need to do something about it. If a longtime resident with HIV had to choose between his health and housing, something was severely wrong.
When I became supervisor, my work expanded dramatically. We passed laws to protect LGBTQ seniors, ensure trans residents received full gender-affirming care in our health system, and backfill every dollar of federal cuts to HIV care and prevention. I fought hard to secure the resources that allowed us to widen Castro Street’s narrow sidewalks – a project that revitalized the neighborhood and still ranks among my proudest accomplishments. Every time you walk across the rainbow crosswalks or see plaques honoring LGBTQ icons, you’re seeing the result of that effort.
In the state Senate, I’ve authored and passed laws making California a refuge for transgender people; allowing pharmacists to dispense PrEP over the counter; addressing health disparities; repealing discriminatory criminal laws targeting people with HIV and transgender people; supporting LGBTQ youth; and creating a Bill of Rights for LGBTQ seniors in long-term care. In Congress, I will fight to make these protections national. Eventually, Trump and his cronies will end up on the garbage heap of history, and the cruelty of their attacks on our community – and so many other communities – will be clear. But getting there requires hard, sustained work, which means standing up and fighting hard for our community’s future. Every generation, we face forces that try to erase us – and every generation, we’ve fought, organized, and moved forward. We’ll do it again.
I also witnessed the incredible resilience of a community facing the worst devastation imaginable. Out of that fear and desperation grew hope and a fierce determination to survive and thrive.
This year, as our political climate grows more frightening, I’ve thought often about that
My early LGBTQ work also led me to housing policy. As a young attorney in the late 1990s, I represented a long-term HIV survivor facing eviction. He told me he could either return to the South for housing and lose access to quality HIV care, or stay in San Francisco for the care he needed but become homeless. That ex-
It has been a profound honor to serve our community at the local and state levels and to deliver for San Franciscans over and over again. Now I’m ready to take this fight to the national stage and represent the greatest city on the planet in Congress. t
Scott Wiener represents San Francisco in the California State Senate and is running to represent San Francisco in Congress. He has lived in the Castro since 1997. For more information, go to scottwiener.com.
by Matthew S. Bajko
More than a year after being appointed to his oversight body, gay San Francisco school board president Phil Kim is gearing up to seek election to his seat. He will first appear on the June 2 primary ballot to serve out the remainder of his current term through 2026.
Kim, 35, will then need to run on the November ballot for a full four-year term. Former mayor London Breed had tapped Kim in late August last year to fill the vacancy created when thenpresident of the school board Lainie Motamedi resigned because of personal and health issues.
“I am incredibly committed not just to our city but ensuring our district delivers for the kids we serve and maintains its focus on student outcomes,” Kim told the Bay Area Reporter this week on why he wants to continue serving on the board that oversees the San Francisco Unified School District.
Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Kim held his first and only campaign event of 2025, a fundraiser at a private home in the Castro. He and his fiancé Andrew Tremblay, who plan to wed in September 2027, live nearby in the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood.
Kim’s campaign website should go live by the end of January, and he is planning to hold an official kickoff event for his candidacy in the spring. At his November 19 fundraiser, which the B.A.R. was invited to cover, Kim noted he was talked into having it by co-host Bevan Dufty, a gay dad of a college student who formerly represented the Castro on the city’s Board of Supervisors and later was elected to the board that oversees regional transit agency BART.
for the district and the board is to ensure we have someone in our superintendent who understands our local context and school communities. We believe Dr. Su is well positioned to continue to stabilize our schools and our district in the path we are in right now,” said Kim.
As of December 2, Kim was the only candidate to have filed for the special election next spring, according to the city’s ethics commission. As for the November election next year where three of the seven school board seats will be up for grabs, Kim is one of two candidates who have already filed with the ethics agency in order to begin fundraising for their candidacies.
“I am very focused on my responsibilities for the school board as president right now. That has been and continues to be the driving force of my energy right now,” explained Kim about the soft launch to his campaign in speaking to the B.A.R. this week.
At the event last month Dufty told the B.A.R. he is supporting Kim’s continued tenure on the school board due to “his passion for teaching and learning” as well as his willingness to “dive in” to a leadership position at a time when the school district is facing myriad issues, from budgetary cuts estimated as of last month at $48 million and possibly closing school sites to a looming threat of a teachers’ strike. (At an impasse on contract talks with the district since October, the United Educators of San Francisco held the first of two required strike authorization votes Wednesday with its union members.)
“You know, we need our schools to be successful, and the way finances are going with municipal finances, school finances are very challenging. And so I just, I feel like he’s the right person,” said Dufty, adding that he and others have taken note of “how serious and thoughtful that Phil is, but also how warm and gregarious and kind he is to people. So, the qualities that he brings, I think, are exactly what our schools need, and our students need.”
SFUSD has a $1.2 billion budget and nearly 9,000 employees, serving approximately 49,000 students. Superintendent Maria Su, Ph.D., and the board earlier this year dealt with a $114 million deficit in its 2025-2026 budget that began July 1, and will be tackling the current fiscal shortfall in the coming weeks.
Earlier this fall the district reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement for the next three school years with the United Administrators of San Francisco, the union representing school principals and others. The school board just extended through June 2028 the contract for Su, who like Kim was first appointed to the position by Breed.
“At this moment a significant priority
The other is nonprofit education leader John Jersin, who came within 248 votes of being elected to the school board in the November 2024 election. That race saw bisexual married mom Jaime Huling be elected to her school board seat with the most votes of the four winners. She and Kim are currently the only LGBTQ members of their governing body.
Kim took his oath of office in late August 2024 and resigned as executive director for school strategy and coherence in the SFUSD superintendent’s office. Earlier this year he was elected president of the school board then, in April, was named deputy director of the city’s Human Rights Commission, whose previous leader Cheryl Davis resigned in disgrace last year amid a contract scandal.
Kim serves under Mawuli Tugbenyoh, a gay man named the agency’s permanent executive director by Mayor Daniel Lurie in September. Breed had named Tugbenyoh to the position in an acting capacity last fall following Davis’ ouster.
Wanting to respect the boundaries between his city position and role on the school board, Kim declined to talk in depth about his job for this article since it is focused on his reelection bid.
“I am deeply committed to our city.
I believe deeply in the HRC, and it is an honor to be working here,” said Kim, who had stepped down as the national senior director of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for the public charter schools network the KIPP Foundation when recruited to work for the city’s school district at the start of 2024.
A one-time science teacher with KIPP, Kim twice lost bids to be elected to an SFUSD board seat in 2016 and 2018. He had also entered the school board race in 2022 but ended up suspending his campaign that year.
“It’s been a while,” Kim acknowledged at his fundraiser since he last ran for the education post. “And I have learned a lot since. I have quite literally grown up a lot since.”
The classroom, whether it be in grades K-12 back in Michigan where he grew up the child of South Korean immigrants or college where he struggled not just academically but also financially
to pay for it, has always provided him a haven, said Kim. It is what drives him now as a school board member and as a candidate for the elected office, he explained.
“That whole experience, the thing that I reflect back on, is that the people in my life who kept me going along the way were educators. Always,” recalled Kim. “They were the ones who stood up and said, ‘You can do this. In fact, you have to do this.’ And it’s a huge part of the reason why I chose to go into the teaching profession.”
In order for the city to thrive, it needs a thriving school district, argued Kim. Due to investment from the community and the city, SFUSD “is on the right track,” he said.
“But it requires focus; it requires consistency; and it requires stability,” continued Kim. “And that is part of the reason why I’m running. And that stability is so critical for us, not just from a board level, but from a district standpoint.”
Among Kim’s supporters is queer dad Ed Center, who with his husband, Chris Punongbayan, has an 8-yearold third grader enrolled at the district’s Rosa Parks Elementary School, which he said they love. Their eldest child, now 14, had been a student at SFUSD but is now at a boarding school.
“I actually have been supporting Phil since early on in his first run for school board and what impressed me about Phil that remains impressive today is he is a practical person who is really concerned about the quality of education for kids in San Francisco. And that’s his focal point,” said Center, the founder of The Village Well that focuses on the needs of students with disabilities and supports their families. “And so political divides and debates are far less interesting to Phil than are we getting the right resources to the right people to have amazing teachers with great curricula create great educational experiences for our kids.”
It is unlikely that Kim will be uncontested in the special election in June; the deadline for candidates to file is in early March. He will also be navigating a host of hot-button issues prior to election day, with a potential teachers’ strike one of the more pressing.
“I am very hopeful our district will continue to work in partnership with UESF to come up with an agreement that honors their profession, respects their work, and maintains stability in our financials,” Kim told the B.A.R. when asked about the matter.
He remains noncommittal on keeping open the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, the elementary school in the Castro named for the late gay city supervisor killed nearly 50 years ago. The school is again among about a dozen school sites with low enrollment mentioned as possibly being shuttered in order to consolidate classrooms and save costs for the district.
Jesus didn’t discriminate so neither do we.
Come and see Dignity/SF, which affirms and supports LGBTQ+ folks. Catholic liturgy Sundays at 5pm, 1329 7th Avenue (Immediately off the N Judah line)
Come for the service and stay for the fellowship. dignitysf@gmail.com for
James Kerr, who lives in the Castro neighborhood, shared that she and a group of her friends have gone to the ceremony for the past six years, with their children in tow.
“It’s a good time to get together, celebrate the community and kick off the holiday season,” she said.
The tree itself donned a new look, with large rainbow-colored bows replacing the orbital ornaments of years past.
“It looks a little different, you’ll notice, this year – everything’s a little different this year – but it’s better,” Sachet told the crowd. “People won’t be stealing the balls this time.”
In past years, the merchants group has had to contend with the ornaments being stolen off of the tree.
Among the speakers Monday night were gay state Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Matt Haney, both Democrats representing San Francisco, and gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who represents District 8, which includes the Castro. San Francisco Mayor Dan-
Francisco board.
It was the second time that Lurie has appointed someone to the previously vacant District 4 seat, which represents the Sunset. His first appointee, Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz, resigned November 13, a week after being sworn in, amid allegations that she left her former pet store in shambles and questions arose over her taxes and business expenses.
The seat had been vacant since gay former supervisor Joel Engardio was recalled by voters in September. His last day in office was October 17.
Lurie is expected to appoint a replacement for Wong on the college board. Wong intends to run for the D4 seat in June.
The Great Highway is a central issue in District 4. Voters’ citywide decision last year to turn the highway into a park called Sunset Dunes led to the recall of Engardio, prompting the at-times chaotic search for a successor for the past two months. Proposition K, which was passed by voters citywide but largely rejected in District 4, saw a portion of the Great Highway permanently closed to vehicles.
Voted against Prop K
Asked during a press gaggle about the highway, Wong, a straight ally, said he, along with most Sunset residents, voted against Prop K. Wong also added he supported the previous status quo compromise that allowed the highway to be used as a park on the weekends and as a roadway on weekdays.
But asked if he supports a ballot measure to repeal Prop K – something District 1 Supervisor and congressional candidate Connie Chan has said she will explore – Wong said he would speak with both supporters and opponents of the permanent closure before committing to future policy specifics.
“I understand this community,” the Sunset district native said. “I can commit to be someone who listens to everybody, who is open-minded.” Engardio, for his part, continues to support the roadway’s closure and the park.
<< Readers’ poll
From page 1
“We need a supervisor who will consider Sunset Dunes settled,” Engardio stated. “We don’t need a cynical ballot measure that uses the park as a political wedge issue. The park is popular, traffic is fine, and before long a majority everywhere will see how Sunset Dunes is good for the environment, local businesses, and the well-being of everyone enjoying the coast in new ways.”
Lucas Lux, the president of Friends of Sunset Dunes, seemed cautiously optimistic about Wong’s appointment in a statement. Despite Wong opposing Prop K and not committing to a plan going forward until he meets with both sides, Lux stated, “As Sunset residents, we know what our neighborhood needs most after a recall, two Great Highway ballot measures, and a supervisor appointee resignation: a leader who can show us the way forward, not work to destroy Sunset Dunes Park. Park opponents have fought against a coastal park for five years, and their latest ploy is no different. The weekend road closure they are pushing would force the city to close the park and rip out seating, play and picnic areas, beloved public art, and the skate and bike parks – all to turn it back into a crumbling, frequently-closed, expensive-tomaintain road that has lost its purpose due to coastal erosion.”
The choice of Wong, 38, a past president of the City College board, was announced November 30, just in time for a Board of Supervisors vote on the family zoning proposal December 2, though Wong explicitly denied Lurie demanded he support any particular policy decisions. Nonetheless, Wong said he would vote for the plan, as the city’s failure to allow for denser housing might mean the state government would have control over future local policies.
The plan passed the Board of Supervisors December 2, with Wong and six other supervisors voting in favor.
“If we don’t offer our own solution, Sacramento will dictate a solution for us,” Wong said. “That’s unacceptable. San Franciscans know our community best – not Sacramento.”
Under state law, San Francisco must adopt a compliant rezoning plan by
Categories include Arts and Culture, Community, Dining, Nightlife, Nightlife Venues and Events, Services and Shopping, and Weddings and Destinations. This year’s nominees are a mix of previous winners, runners-up from prior years, and new entries. Nominees are included for each category, along with a writein option if readers have a better idea. The paper didn’t have a readers’
<< News Briefs
From page 3
Nominations open for Sin City Classic award
Nominations are now open for the fifth annual Ken Scearce Leadership Award
that is presented at Sin City Classic, the world’s largest LGBTQ sporting festival that takes place in Las Vegas next month.
Scearce, a gay man who died in 2021, was the festival’s former executive director.
The award recognizes athletes, coaches, referees, officials, and other volunteers
“As we were driving up, I was told how amazing this event is, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m excited,’” he told the crowd. “And here we are, and it is joyful, and it reminds me how much I love the city, and how much I love the Castro.”
Attendee and straight ally Bernardo Diaz had come from Mission Bay, where he works as program manager for the UCSF Patient and Family Cancer Support Center. It was also his first time at the ceremony.
“I didn’t know that Castro had this kind of tree,” said Diaz, 35. “For me, it’s always emotional seeing a tree lighting. It’s really beautiful.”
Notably, this year’s ceremony was held on World AIDS Day, honored globally on December 1. Its observance on Monday marked its first state proclamation, in line with Senate Bill 1278 which California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2024, as previously reported by the B.A.R. Kerr, 50, had taken notice of the many names scrawled in chalk on Castro Street as she made her way to the tree lighting event. That was part of the day’s Inscribe event, where people marked the sidewalks with sentiments
mayoral election.
January 31, 2026. Lurie’s plan aims to increase housing by legalizing the development of more and taller buildings, with a focus on the city’s western and northern neighborhoods that currently have restrictive development policies, as KQED reported. https:// www.kqed.org/news/12065204/everything-you-need-to-know-about-sanfranciscos-family-zoning-plan
Wong said serving as supervisor “is the greatest honor of my life,” noting his priorities will include public safety and cutting red tape for small businesses. He promised he’d devote half his staff to addressing constituent concerns.
Wong, who has served in the California Army National Guard for more than 15 years, said he will bring a “public servant’s heart” to the role.
Wong is the third supervisor for the district this year. After Alcaraz’s resignation, Lurie apologized for what he said was a lack of proper vetting. “This is not the first time that I have gotten something wrong,” the mayor said. “It won’t be the last.”
At the swearing-in ceremony in front of Abraham Lincoln High School, Wong’s alma mater, Lurie said that the vetting process had been fixed. Indeed, the names of several people, including Wong, who were reportedly under consideration were published in media outlets in recent weeks, and at least one, Asian Art Commissioner Wannong “Tiffany” Deng, was withdrawn from consideration after it had turned out she was a Republican until 2022 who missed nine consecutive elections.
Mission Local reported that another contender, Albert Chow, a leader of the Engardio recall effort, had failed for years to file tax forms for the nonprofit he oversees.
The selection process brought wide criticism to the mayor, who has otherwise notched strong support in a number of polls conducted with city residents throughout his freshman year. After the recent headlines about Deng and Chow, lesbian arts commissioner Debra Walker over the weekend had posted on social media, “How about appointing someone who knows what they are doing? For starters.”
Monday, she praised Wong’s selec-
poll this year, but looks forward to 2026. The results will be published in the April 2 edition, timed with the B.A.R.’s 55th anniversary as America’s longest published LGBTQ newspaper. The first 100 people to complete at
who dedicate their time and skills to promoting the value and importance of LGBTQ+ sports, a news release stated.
“Ken absolutely loved having the opportunity to bring together LGBTQ+ athletes, not only for a weekend of competition, but to also surround himself
and dates to remember the lives of those lost to AIDS.
“It’s a poignant intersection of what makes [the Castro] great,” said Kerr, who is bisexual. “In times of celebration, there’s also thoughtfulness and remembrance of the foundation of the neighborhood. It makes me proud to live here.”
Toward the end of the ceremony, Sister Roma, of the drag nun philanthropic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, recited a tree lighting blessing to the crowd. Before doing so, she shared that a child in attendance had gifted her a handmade ornament.
“It’s absolutely made my entire Christmas already,” she said. “This is going to go right on my refrigerator, like any good parent would do.”
Roma, who emcees annual city events like Tenderloin Tessie’s Holiday Dinners and the Sisters in the Park Easter celebration in Mission Dolores Park, conveyed that such acts of kindness matter.
“People are always like, ‘Why do you show up? Why do you always do the things you do?’ This is why,” she said, the ornament in hand. t
tion, writing that he “has the potential to bring folks together – on the westside and citywide. We have so many challenges these days – we need our city hall leadership to get things done for everyone.”
Lurie said that Wong meets his criteria.
“From the very beginning, I’ve been clear about the kind of Supervisor District 4 needs: Someone who lives and breathes the district, and someone who can build bridges within it. Alan Wong is that person, and I am proud to appoint him as the new District 4 supervisor,” Lurie said. “Throughout my conversations with the residents of the Sunset and Parkside, one message came through clearly: This district needs a supervisor who can be a strong, steady voice on the issues that matter most. With Alan Wong as the supervisor, District 4 will have that voice.”
Wong only lived outside of the Sunset when he was at UC San Diego, from which he graduated at the age of 19 before pursuing a master’s degree at the University of San Francisco. During his remarks Monday, Wong paid tribute to his parents, who were immigrants from British Hong Kong and became unionized hotel workers.
“Because of those wages, my family was able to build a life here, living in inlaw units in the neighborhoods,” he said.
Wong is a former legislative aide to Gordon Mar, who was the District 4 supervisor before he was defeated by Engardio in 2022. Mar had crafted the Great Highway compromise that was superseded by Prop K.
Will run for seat
Wong, who has won citywide elections for the college board, said he intends to run for the District 4 seat in the June 2026 election that will fill the remainder of Engardio’s term. There will be another election in November 2026 for the next four-year term.
Already there are at least two declared candidates – Natalie Gee, chief of staff to District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, and David Lee, an educator and the 20-year executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee who unsuccess-
least 75% of the poll will win two tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s new show, “Echo,” now in performance at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Readers’ identity and answers are completely confidential and will be used to contact the winners of Cirque
with friends from across the country who shared his passion for queer athletics,” stated Jason Peplinski, Sin City Classic’s co-executive director. Sin City Classic will be held over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, January 15-19. As the B.A.R. previously
fully ran against then-supervisor Catherine Stefani for State Assembly from District 19 last year.
Gee was among those on Lurie’s list of people under consideration. She stated to the B.A.R. December 1, “For me it was never about receiving the appointment, rather it was about demonstrating my willingness, desire and qualifications to serve as supervisor. Throughout this process, Sunset residents were clear that they believed in our message. I look forward to working tirelessly to earn the trust and vote of every one of my neighbors in June.”
Lee stated flatly, based on Wong’s inaugural address, that the new supervisor “isn’t interested in representing the people of the Sunset.”
“Being null on the reopening of the Great Highway and showing his support for the mayor’s family zoning plan is a disaster for the Sunset,” Lee stated. “The Sunset still needs a voice and true representation that is different from the mayor’s office, and working for people of this district. The District 4 voters are smarter than this and will see through this appointment.”
Stefani stated, “Alan Wong is exactly the kind of steady, communityrooted leader the Sunset deserves. He brings deep experience, a lifelong connection to the neighborhood, and a genuine commitment to public safety, good governance, and ensuring families can thrive. I’m confident he will serve District 4 with integrity and a clear focus on delivering results for the people he represents.”
Apparently, Wong showed an interest in public service from a young age.
Frank Noto, co-founder of Stop Crime SF, said at the swearing-in he’d met him when he was a teenager and asked how he could be involved with a local Democratic club. Wong is a former member of the Stop Crime SF board.
“Alan shares the mayor’s support for public safety as a top priority,” Noto stated. “No one is more qualified than Alan. He has the requisite policy, political and community experience to serve as an exemplary member of the board serving the Sunset.” t
du Soleil’s “Echo” tickets. Entrants will be added to our newsletter recipients. People may vote once per day, per device. Vote now at www.surveymonkey.com/r/Besties2026. t
reported, registration is now open at sincityclassic.org.
To submit a nomination for the Ken Scearce Leadership Award, go to https:// tinyurl.com/3jcb5rzk. The deadline to make a nomination is Sunday, December 21. t
by Jim Gladstone
It’s hard to imagine a better gift for local theater lovers than the chance to see two first-rate productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals running on Bay Area stages simultaneously.
The opportunity to take a fresh look at, and listen to, “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into the Woods” in tandem is more intellectually rewarding and emotionally nourishing than seeing either show on its own. It’s a delectable holiday treat.
‘Sunday in the Park with George’
the welcome opportunity to see both within a few days, or weeks, will appreciate the shows’ thematic overlaps and structural echoes.
Sondheim, an afficionado of puzzles, would surely endorse the teasing out of connections between these unexpectedly well-paired plays.
Rather than a full-fledged critique of either show (they’re both terrific), consider this a provocative field guide to the park and the woods.
Be sure to schedule your outings promptly; tickets are going like December daylight.
All-too-true stories
while off to the right, Jack, of beanstalk notoriety (William I. Schmidt), is comforted by one of Sondheim and Lapine’s original characters, the Baker, sung with radiant tenderness by Phil Wong, whose performance throughout is among
the show’s highlights.
But the song is a momentary balm: The two clinging pairs remain separated from each other across a dark hollow.
Over the course of their often self-serving journeys through a landscape of perpetual ambiguity, the show’s characters come to recognize that even the closest, most earnest relationships are at constant risk of accident and instability.
‘Happily ever after’ itself seems the fairy tale. Sunshine and shadow dance in perpetuity. Everyone is alone, together.
Art and intimacy
The bittersweet tension between solitude and communion also provides a dramatic engine in “Sunday in the Park with George.”
Fictionally embroidering upon the real life of pointillist painter Georges Seurat, Sondheim, with book writer George Furth, ponders the balance between outsider artists’ sense of alienation and their willful seclusion.
Seurat (played at Shotgun by Kevin Singer) unable to see (or unwilling to look?) beyond his obsessive artistic vision, blinds himself to the emotional needs of his paramour Dot (Marah Sotelo, in a powerfully sung performance) and the stylistic conventions demanded by the art.
His perspective ultimately leads to both a mutually agonizing breakup and a history-making masterpiece (the painting “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte”).
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
by David-Elijah Nahmod
Circus Bella, the popular one-ring circus that has kept audiences enthralled for years, returns with a spectacular new show to help celebrate the holiday season. Conceived by Abigail Munn, who is Circus Bella’s co-founder and director, the show will feature all kinds of acts, including duo hand balancing, a contortionist, foot juggling, a tight wire act, and clowns.
Dubbed “Starlight: An All-New Winter Spectacular,” the show opens on December 13 and runs until January 4, 2026. It will be performed in a Big Top tent at The Crossing in the East Cut, and will include a band along with the thirteen acts that will be performing.
“I created ‘Starlight’ to bring joy, sparkle and brightness to the shortest days of the year,” Munn told the Bay Area Reporter. “It’s a place where we can recharge, reimagine, and paint a picture of the world we want to live in. ‘Starlight’ celebrates human potential, what people can do, create and share, and the magic of coming together as a community.”
Agility and strength
Two of the performers are transgender, and both spoke to the B.A.R. One of them is Toni Cannon, who will be performing as part of a duo handbalancing act. It features two people, a base and a flyer. Instead of the flyer doing handstands and flips on the floor, they do it on top of the base. Cannon is the base in this act.
Cannon hails from Los Angeles and lived there until he was 21, finally making it to the Bay Area at 24.
“Back then the circus wasn’t on
From page 11
The show’s second act jumps forward a hundred years and focuses on Seurat’s great-grandson, George (also played by Singer). He’s an electronic artist with a successful career that’s been bolstered by his skills at biting his tongue to schmooze with the gatekeeping critics, curators, and collectors that Great Gramps would have blown off.
In Act I, Sondheim illuminates Georges and Dot’s split with the wrenching “We Do Not Belong Together.” In Act II, George’s strategic compromises are satirized in the superficially celebratory “Putting It Together.”
The ironies gnarl marvelously, like a tangle of trees in the woods.
my radar,” he said. “I was actually an optician making prescription lenses for glasses. I had dabbled with handstands through yoga and had always been an active person. When I finally found the circus, it felt so right to go all the way in and become a performer.”
Cannon first discovered the circus when he went in search of alternative gyms. He had stumbled across a recreational circus gym called the Athletic Playground, and was hooked shortly thereafter. He studied at the Circus Center with Master Lu Yi, a renowned circus teacher who brought Chinese acrobatics to the west.
“What I love most about the circus is that there’s a ceiling,” Cannon said. “You can always be better in your skills and more comfortable on stage. That was so fascinating to me coming from a profession that was always the same.”
Personalities on parade
Both musicals are heavily populated with characters, elegantly and economically drawn by Sondheim. The distinctiveness of their personalities and sub-narratives within the shows’ broad frame stories is finely honed by directors Damilano at SF Playhouse and Susannah Martin at Shotgun Players along with their keenly cast ensembles.
While there’s not a dud in the bunch, standouts among the woodland crew include Ruby Day, who brings an impressive emotional range to her take on the Baker’s Wife, perfectly proportioning the ratio of comedy and pathos in every moment
Alison Ewing throws down couplets with hip-hop flair as the Witch (Call her Margaret “Hamilton”); Trevor March tickles as Cinderella’s
He added that it takes a great deal of training to perform acrobatics in a circus. Cannon said that he starts each day with a 45-minute walk in Golden Gate Park. He lifts weights three times a week and goes on bike rides.
“That’s what I do to keep my base strength,’ he said. “The walking and the bike rides are a great way to make sure I get a regular amount of sun. Then for my circus disciplines I train my skills Mondays through Fridays three hours at a time working skills like handstands, juggling, tumbling, and Chinese pole. Right now my training is a bit different because I am working on a new act. My acro-partner and I meet three times a week to work on new skills for our act.”
The B.A.R. also spoke to Ori Quesada, a transgender queer person
Prince, a one-man odd couple of basso voice and baby face; and Maureen McVerry makes the most of a minor role, the cow Milky White (Her pinktasseled teats are among many clever touches in costume designer Kathleen Qiu’s enormous wardrobe).
Madeline Berger’s equally impressively dressing at Shotgun–note the subtle brushstroke markings on the Victorian outerwear–goes a long way toward creating visual coherence among the characters Act I’s tableauin-motion.
In the Seine scenes, Alex Rodriguez toggles marvelously from Jules, a sharp, condescending gallerist, to Louis, a sweet, peoplepleasing pâtissier.
Lucy Swinson brings delicious specificity to her first-act role as a strolling flirt and her post-intermis-
<< Wicked From page 11
Heart’s desire
Glinda’s real love interest isn’t Fiyero but Elphaba, and their sparks outshine anything either woman does with Bailey. The film’s highlights are when Elphaba and Glinda meet together reinforcing their female friendship. Though if you were hoping the sexual chemistry implied in “Wicked,” will burst out here, you will be disappointed.
Still, their duet “For Good” is easily the movie’s showstopper. Regrettably, there aren’t enough scenes with the two women together. Because they generate sparks when they interact, the film sags when they are apart.
Gay Oscar winner Paul Tazewell’s costumes are spectacular as is Nathan Crowley’s innovative production design. Yet once again, the color grading is off at times (though not as much as it was in “Wicked”) with some scenes too dim while others are too bright with lots of murkiness, so you can’t tell some of the lesser nonhuman characters from each other. The CGI effects feel hokey at times, particularly when applied to the animal figures.
and Bay Area native going back five generations. Quesada performs Rola Bola, which is a balancing act. The basic concept of Rola Bola is to balance on top of a plank of wood on top of a rolling cylinder.
“There are infinite ways to expand on that basic concept,” he said. “The style of Rola Bola I perform is a traditional Chinese acrobatic style of Rola Bola which combines balance and object manipulation, so you can consider my act as a kind of a hybrid of balancing and juggling.”
In addition to Rola Bola, Quesada debuted a new Acrobatic Bicycle Act that he had been training for through the past two years.
“The new act is very special because it was passed down to me from Diane Wasnak, who was given the act from my teacher Mr. Lu Yi,” he said. “I get to continue the legacy of the act now
sion turn as a fatuous socialite.
And William Brosnahan lends his “bro” to an arrogant soldier and a smug ’80s artist, who both seem descended from the princes of “Into the Woods.”
The gift of a twist
Each of these shows’ first acts could almost stand on its own as a complete and satisfying production (In fact, a version of “Into the Woods” marketed to student and community theater groups omits its Act II), but both are enriched and complicated by postintermission twists.
In their second acts, the narratives drop all semblance of straightforwardness. Audiences are challenged to shift perspectives and question assumptions. It’s exhilarating.
One suspects that Steven Sondheim
that she has retired from it. It is a huge honor and a privilege.”
Quesada added that he loves being a part of Circus Bella.
“That feeling of family and camaraderie is essential to how Circus Bella operates and Abigail takes incredible care of all of us as performers,” he said. “I feel extremely valued for what I bring to the show, and honored to get to work with so many incredibly talented and seasoned professionals that I also consider my friends. It really is the best job I have ever had and I hope I get to continue to be part of the company for many years to come.”t
Circus Bella’s ‘Starlight: An AllNew Winter Circus Spectacular,’ December 12-January 4, $55-75, The Crossing at the East Cut, 221 Beale St. at Howard. www.circusbella.org
would never give a kid simple wooden blocks as a Christmas gift. He’d prefer to give Rubik’s Cubes.t
‘Sunday in the Park with George’ through Dec. 30. $15-$90. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgunplayers.org
‘Into the Woods’ through Jan. 17. $52-$145. 450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org
(Also, for yet more Sondheim pleasures, a filmed performance of the acclaimed Broadway revival of Steven Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, will screen at local theaters starting December 5. www.sonyclassics.com)
For rabid fans of “Wicked” (the book, stage musical or film), nothing critical we say will dissuade you. “Wicked: For Good” is an event. If we focus on Erivo/Grande, all is good. Had both been condensed into one film, it could have been a glorious triumph, the latter’s inherent narrative weaknesses compensated by the first’s musical heights.
Instead, it’s an average mishmash held together by the pizazz of Erivo/ Grande. It’s already on course to become one of 2025’s blockbusters. Yet
it’s similar to Dorothy in “Wizard of Oz,” who discovers the great and terrible Wizard is all smoke and mirrors, despite its box office magic.
While it might not be ‘popular’ to say it, “Wicked For Good” feels underwhelming and a waste of the almost unlimited available resources. But with its sapphic underpinnings, drifting off into a quasi-gay fantasy is hardly the worst way to spend two + hours, so enjoy the bumpy ride.t
www.wickedmovie.com
by Gregg Shapiro
Whether there’s a music fan on your gift-giving list or you yourself want a tuneful self-gift, enjoy classic album reissues from Elton John, Pansy Division, Thompson Twins, KT Tunstall and Fall Out Boy.
By 1975, much of Elton John’s artistic output, including “Tumbleweed Connection,” “Madman Across the Water,” “Honky Chateau,” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” had not only been greeted enthusiastically by critics but also by fans who were eager to accept his musical genius combined with his antics. Then he stumbled slightly with “Caribou,” which, while containing classics such as “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and “The Bitch is Back,” felt like a letdown.
Then he, and longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin, pulled out all the stops and delivered what, to this day, is considered his masterpiece. The first album to debut in the top spot of the Billboard 200 at the time of its release, “Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy” (UMe/Rocket/EMI), has been reissued in a 50th anniversary edition, available on double LP colored vinyl, as well as double CD and digital, including unreleased demos and 2005 live recordings.
Remember, this album came out in the same year as Patti Smith’s “Horses” and Joni Mitchell’s “The Hissing of Summer Lawns,” to give you an idea of what was happening in music at that time. While “Captain Fantastic…” yielded only one hit single (the breathtaking “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”), there’s not a dud to be found, with the title cut, “Bitter Fingers,” the rocking “(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket,” the blue-eyed soul of “Tell Me When the Whistle Blows,” and the high drama of album closer “Curtains,” worthy of mention. www.eltonjohn.com
Here’s a fascinating fact about queercore band Pansy Division In 1994, at the time of the release of Pansy Division’s second album, “Deflowered,” newly reissued on limited edition deep red vinyl by Sounds Rad, Pansy Division was invited to open for Green Day on the latter’s tour in support of its major-label debut “Dookie.” At that time, Pansy Division was signed to the Northern Californiabased indie Lookout, the same label that released Green Day’s 1992 album, “Kerplunk!” How’s that for queer musical history?
San Francisco-based (yet now somewhat dispersed) Pansy Division’s “Deflowered” arrived a year after the band made a splash with its debut album “Undressed.” Performed in the band’s trademark power-punk style, with most of the songs written by cofounding members Jon Ginoli and Chris Freeman, the songs mix humor and commentary, capturing the zeitgeist of the time.
Originals “Groovy Underwear,” “Fluffy City,” “Denny” (based on a poem by gay writer Trebor Healey), “Deep Water,” and “Beercan Boy” (yes, it’s about what you think) are all recommended, as are the fantastic covers of Jonathan Richman’s “A Song of Remembrance for Old Boyfriends” (with the genders changed), and the late Pete Shelley’s “Homosapien.” www.pansydivision.com
A few more quick facts. None of the members of the popular 1980s British synthpop act Thompson Twins is named Thompson (they are, in fact, Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie, and Joe Leeway). Additionally, there were no twins present in the trio. The good news is that none of those things impeded Thompson Twins from making great music and creating unforgettable hit singles.
“Industry & Seduction” (BMG) is a double LP (one green and one orange) testament to that. The twenty songs represent what Thompson Twins did best: crafting timeless electropop that sounds as good today as it did 40 or more years ago. In addition to songs featured in movies, “If You Were Here” (from “Sixteen Candles”)
and “Nothing in Common” (from the Tom Hanks movie of the same name), all the classics are here, including “In The Name of Love,” “Love On Your Side,” “Lies,” “You Take Me Up,” “Hold Me Now,” “Doctor! Doctor!,” and “Lay Your Hands on Me.” www.thompsontwins.tmstor.es
Believe it or not, KT Tunstall’s debut album, “Eye to the Telescope” (BMG), newly reissued in an expanded edition on double LP (one pink and one blue), was released 20 years ago. Containing a trio of stateside hit singles, “Suddenly I See,” “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” and “Other Side of the World,” it was a wonderful introduction to a talented singer/songwriter who continues to release albums,
with the most recent one coming out in 2023. The reissue expands on the original by 12(!) songs, including nine live recordings, as well as three previously unreleased tracks. www.kttunstall.com
You might not expect it, but even suburban Chicago’s very own emo band Fall Out Boy has a queer connection. The band’s lyricist, Pete Wentz (the hottest of the Fall Out Boys), teamed up with gay entrepreneur Stephen Westman when he first opened his Clandestine Industries store in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood (mere steps from the Halsted Street gayborhood), with clothing designed by Wentz. Now you know! Fall Out Boy is also celebrating
an anniversary, the 20th of its major label debut “From Under the Cork Tree” (Island/ UMe). Available as a triple LP deluxe box (in addition to a double CD deluxe box with an abundance of bonus material and all sorts of visual goodies), “…Cork Tree” is in true emo spirit, addressing personal (and personality) struggles with pop-punk energy, exemplified by hit singles “Dance, Dance” and “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” and with titles such as “I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me,” “Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year,” “Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends.”
www.falloutboy.comt
by Adhip Aditya
Razid Season of-
Writer-director
fers a quietly crushing short on identity, family, belonging, and existence itself in “Elijah.” In just nineteen minutes, the short condenses the fierce struggle between love and tradition within a working-class immigrant family, and in doing so, delivers an extremely emotionally dense short drama.
The movie follows a young BengaliAmerican’s gender transition while trying to juggle his turbulent relationship with family. Instead of a grand social commentary on the current state of intolerance in the world, “Elijah” delivers a raw and grounded story from lived experience. The tale is told in fumbling silence over family dinner, the hurt of unexpressed secrets, the longing to be embraced without explanation, and to be loved without fitting a prescribed narrative of life. This emotional reality sets the movie apart from voyeuristic efforts at recording others’ lives, and encourages us to live in the world of the protagonist with sympathy rather than feigning philosophical allegiance.
“Elijah’s” tone is one of restraint and gentleness. The film’s visual language contributes heavily to its tone. Half-lit kitchens, tight spaces, and long, narrow corridors seem to hold
generations of unvoiced struggle. Performances in the short employ visual language to convey emotions instead of loud words. Their inner fight is more profoundly expressed through body language, a turn of the head, a muted sigh.
The parents are not presented merely as obstacles in Elijah’s transition, but as fleshed-out characters with struggles of their own. They embody love and fear; love for their son, and fear of cultural obsolescence in a world they no longer understand. The
script ensures that no character becomes a villain but instead reveals real people trying their best to fit in while also struggling to adhere to their own individualistic ideologies.
Among them, Haider, Elijah’s father, undergoes one of the film’s most quietly moving yet profound transformations. A stubborn authoritarian figure fixed in his cultural rigidity, Haider represents generational oppression through tradition, faith, and masculine pride that defines many immigrant fathers.
Through lived experiences of his own and non-stop tête-à-têtes with Elijah, we see Haider’s hostility give way to recognition; not of ideology, but of love. His journey from bigotry to acceptance unfolds with remarkable realism. His change isn’t seen overnight; he doesn’t abandon his own cultural values. Haider rather learns to make room for both his cultural upbringing and acceptance of his son side by side.
While focusing mainly on Elijah’s transition, the short also explores ideas of the failed “American Dream.”
The hollow promises of prosperity and progress turn into misery and struggle, especially for the immigrant diaspora. Distanced from home and forced to work inhumane hours, Elijah explores the impact of what a mechanistic capitalist approach to
living seeps through the cracks across generations.
What is so effective about “Elijah” is its refusal to neaten everything out. There are no big monologues or tearful reconciliations. The story is delivered through the mundane, boring regularities of life. The movie ends not with a loud celebration of change, but on a hesitant sense of possibility. There is no fairytale happily-ever-after, but a strange tingling of hope and acceptance. It knows that healing among immigrant families is a long, slow process; sometimes wordless, but always worth pursuing.
In a culture overwhelmed with noise and extremities, “Elijah” is distinct for its quietness. Societal pressure, religious persecution are explored, not as a valiant savior movie claiming to have found the solution, but as an intimate study of the everyday life of an immigrant family and the possibilities within. It teaches us that courage sometimes appears in the form of quiet tenacity, and that being seen can be an act of love.t
www.razidseason.com
‘Elijah’ will be screened by CUNY LGBTQ Consortium on December 11 at 9am PST. This is a hybrid event in-person and on Zoom. www.eventbrite.com
by Michele Karlsberg
Vincent Traughber Meis may be a familiar face around the Bay Area, especially in San Leandro, where he has long made his home. But his literary reach extends far beyond the region. The author of eleven page-turning gay fiction works, Meis has built a body of work notable for its breadth, its bold storytelling, and deeply human characters. His novels crisscross genres from mystery and adventure to queer coming-of-age stories, historical fiction, and socio-political drama always anchored by his sharp eye for detail and an emotional honesty that pulls readers in from the first page.
A longtime English instructor at City College of San Francisco, simultaneously honing his writing craft behind the scenes, as Publications Coordinator for Union Action, he shaped countless articles, contributing to the multiple honors from the California Federation of Teachers.
ity, and geography. Why is that important to you as a storyteller?
That early editorial rigor is evident throughout his fiction, where vibrant settings, diverse casts, and layered identities intersect with his trademark narrative drive books that refuse to be put down because their worlds refuse to let you go.
Meis has a second home in Puerto Vallarta, where he has quickly become part of the city’s growing literary community. Vincent recently has signed a deal with a publishing house in Spain to publish and distribute the Spanishlanguage edition of his novel, “Iguana” to the market next year.
Michele Karlsberg: Your novels and short stories span genres from historical fiction to YA, mystery, and LGBTQ narratives. What draws you to such a diverse range of stories and characters?
Vincent Traughber Meis: Except for the one YA novel I wrote, I don’t deliberately choose a genre. Stories form in my head based on the life I’ve lived, and the genre follows naturally. A mysterious death becomes a mystery; a loosely autobiographical comingout story becomes historical fiction simply because I’ve lived long enough that my past counts as history.
Many of your characters live at the intersections of race, sexual-
Growing up as a middle child in a large Catholic family in the middle of the Midwest, the expectations for me were narrow: marry a local girl, have a family, pursue a respectable profession, or become a priest. None of that fit. Reading showed me a wider world filled with unusual people in places far from home. Later, traveling and living abroad gave me firsthand experience with diverse cultures, races, and sexual identities. When I began writing, the characters naturally reflected these broader realities.
Your novel “Four Calling Burds” and its spin-offs revisit the same family across genres and generations. What inspired that? It was my fifth novel, and until then I resisted sequels. I wanted readers to imagine what happened after a book ended. But one fan insisted they needed to know what happened to the Burd siblings. I eventually decided to explore their futures and even brought in characters from “Tio Jorge” and “Deluge,” placing them all in one shared setting. “First Born Sons” follows five parallel stories that occasionally intersect, and “Colton’s Terrible Wonderful Year” grew from watching my stepson navigate adolescence during a turbulent period. Telling the story through the eyes of a mixed-race teenager in an LGBTQ community felt essential.
In “Eddie’s Desert Rose,” you weave personal trauma with political and historical forces. How do you balance those elements? Personal stories never exist outside political realities, even if people claim they’re not “into politics.” Some readers say my novels are too political or that my beliefs are obvious on the page. I don’t hide it. I want to entertain and also educate. After living and working in Saudi Arabia, I saw firsthand the tension between forces pushing for modernization and those wanting stricter conservatism. Eddie becomes caught in that struggle. At the time, no one had heard of Osama Bin Laden, yet the dynamics I described were already simmering.
You often write about Americans abroad. What keeps bringing you back to that theme? Travel—and living abroad. Being immersed in another culture opens the mind and reveals both the world and one’s own country in new ways. An American abroad occupies a dual space: inside a culture but not fully of it. That perspective provides endless material to write about. There is always something new to observe, question, or discover.
Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
www.vincentmeis.com
Photos by Steven Underhill
Cosplay ruled as Fan Expo San Francisco filled the Moscone Center West with comic book, science fiction and fantasy fans, plus artists, actors and designers and vendors, on November 27-29. www.fanexpohq.com/fanexposanfrancisco
For more photos, visit www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and www.stevenunderhill.com
For upcoming nightlife and arts events, see Going Out each week at www.ebar.com.
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