February 4, 2021 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Supes back Eagle landmark

UOP dental changes

Recall deadline nears

ARTS

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Whitney Houston

The

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Vol. 51 • No. 5 • February 4-10, 2021

SFAF chief to succeed Los Angeles LGBT center CEO next year

by John Ferrannini Rick Gerharter

SF City Clinic director Dr. Stephanie Cohen

SF may see rise in STDs post-COVID

by John Ferrannini

E

ven though most reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases were down in San Francisco in 2020, Dr. Stephanie Cohen said she is “quite concerned” because the low statistics bely an even more significant decline in testing.

“We know that STI testing rates have dramatically declined and it’s most likely the decline in testing that is behind the decrease in case counts,” Cohen, a straight ally who is the medical director of the Department of Public Health’s City Clinic in the South of Market neighborhood, told the Bay Area Reporter, using the acronym for sexually transmitted infections. “It could be a change in behaviors that is decreasing community transmission of STIs, but I am quite concerned, because HIV and STI screening is one of our core strategies for promoting healthy sexual lives.”

The year-end STD (the terminology used by DPH) numbers will probably be released in midFebruary, Cohen said. But the numbers until November 30, 2020, released January 13, show declines across the board.

There were 3,737 year-to-date cases of gonorrhea in 2020, compared to 5,055 year-to-date in 2019. This included 1,060 cases of male rectal gonorrhea, compared to 1,403 the previous year.

There were 5,307 year-to-date cases of chlamydia in 2020, compared to 8,719 year-to-date in 2019. This included 1,477 year-to-date cases of male rectal gonorrhea, compared to 2,219 the previous year.

Total year-to-date syphilis cases were down, too, from 1,719 in 2019 to 1,567 in 2020. However, cases of congenital syphilis had risen (from three year-to-date in 2019 to five year-to-date in 2020), as well as cases of syphilis in people assigned female at birth, from 146 in 219 to 164 in 2020.

“Historically, syphilis in San Francisco was very much predominantly affecting men,” Cohen said.

“In the last three years, we have seen a steep rise in syphilis cases among cisgender women, as well. This has been going on in the state for some time, and this can result in stillbirths or severe birth problems.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, intravenous drug use is thought to be a major cause for the increase in cases among women, and cases of the bacterial infection are still predominantly spread between men who have sex with men.

Cohen was less willing to speculate when she spoke with the B.A.R. in the summer, but is now raising the alarm that reported cases after the COVID-19 pandemic ends may skyrocket due to the decline of testing now, which presumably means a lot of sexually transmitted infections are going untreated.

Gonorrhea treatment guidelines changed

In other STD news, San Francisco updated its treatment guidelines for gonococcal infections on December 30 to align with new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Heretofore, the standard treatment for the sexually transmitted bacteria was a shot of 250 milligrams of ceftriaxone and a single oral dose of 2 grams of azithromycin.

See page 9 >>

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he CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation will be stepping down in May so that he can succeed the current CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center next year, both organizations announced in separate news releases January 27.

Joe Hollendoner, a gay man, has led SFAF since 2016, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported coming to the West Coast from Chicago. He will join the center’s staff in July.

“Leading San Francisco AIDS Foundation with its incredibly talented and dedicated workforce has been an incredible experience that has meant so much to me professionally as well as personally,” Hollendoner said in the agency’s release. “I am proud of what we have achieved together, and am certain that the board will find a new CEO who will champion health justice and continue our commitments to transforming SFAF into an anti-racist organization.

“Racial disparities in health and in HIV are injustices and we must continue to do everything we can to break the systemic barriers that prohibit all people living with or at risk for HIV from thriving,” he added.

Lorri L. Jean, a lesbian, announced in Sep-

Courtesy SFAF, LA center

San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Joe Hollendoner, left, will leave in May to take over as the leader of the Los Angeles LGBT Center when CEO Lorri L. Jean departs next year.

tember that she would be departing from the role as CEO of the LA center in July 2022, as the B.A.R. previously reported. At that point, Hollendoner will assume the role.

Jean built in a transition process for her successor.

“Joe will be joining the center this July to work alongside Lorri and senior staff for an entire year to assure a smooth transition by the time Lorri steps down,” Gil Diaz, a spokesman for the LA center, wrote in an email.

See page 9 >>

Out San Francisco artists spread some ‘Heart’ love

by Matthew S. Bajko

K

aytea Petro’s “What We Do For Love” giant heart artwork is filled with Easter eggs to San Francisco’s queer community and artistic scene. There is a white-masked gay couple and their dog all sporting bunny ears as she encountered the trio in the Castro last Easter as they delivered gourmet baskets to their friends for the holiday.

Her neighbor and longtime leader of the city’s annual Pride festivities, an orange-masked Bruce Beaudette, is seen hoisting his dog Yoko Oh Yes atop his head. Also making appearances are Cesar the Superstar pole dancer; couple Christopher Campbell and Chris Conlisk and their dog Leo; and Petro herself.

“There are more dogs than children, just like in San Francisco,” said Petro of her montage populated with friends, acquaintances, and strangers she has met in the city where she was born and raised.

Due to the COVID pandemic, everyone she depicted on her heart is donning a mask. This is the first time she has been selected for the annual art-based fundraiser for the city’s public hospital, having applied several times in the past.

She entered a few hours prior to the deadline to do so last year after seeing another artist post a reminder on social media. Able to see people going to a city dog park from the window of her office in her Cole Valley home, Petro drew inspiration from those adorned in face coverings because of the health crisis.

“I was really enjoying people being themselves, living life in San Francisco, and wearing masks,” said Petro, 42, who is bisexual and married to Julian Barber. “In life we are nice to other people even if we don’t know them or don’t like their politics.”

Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter by phone last week as she eyed Beaudette and his dog stride by her window, Petro noted her heart artwork also encapsulates her years of riding public transit and drawing the people she encountered on buses and trains.

Rick Gerharter

Kaytea Petro stands near two of her murals that are on the facade of The Green Arcade bookstore.

“I have notebooks and notebooks of people doing their thing,” noted Petro, who last rode public transit March 11 when she rode Muni to BART out to Antioch in the East Bay and back home to the city.

Her heart taps into the zeitgeist of the last year and honors all of the ways people have sought to look out for other people, from socially distancing and wearing masks to stem the spread of COVID to protesting for Black lives and voting in the elections.

“We love each other even though we don’t love each other or know each other or want to know each other,” said Petro.

Noe Valley resident Daniel Dallabrida, 64, a gay man who has been living with HIV for more than 30 years, drew inspiration for his tabletop heart “Slow Blue Love of Delphinium Days” from British filmmaker Derek Jarmen’s “Blue” made while he was dying from HIV-related complications. The 70-minute film shows a static blue image, as it was the only color Jarmen could see due to being blind, while the artist shares his memories.

“I am one of the lucky ones who survived at least that part of it,” said Dallabrida of the AIDS epidemic.

He told the B.A.R. during a phone interview that he has always drawn inspiration from Jarmen’s film.

“It is a fever dream of a very sick man but who had a good life,” said Dallabrida.

In the 1990s Dallabrida launched his own firm helping to mediate discussions between AIDS activists and drug companies. He sold it to his employees in 2003 when he and his partner, Deary Duffie, decided to move to Italy so he could pursue his art.

Prior to the COVID pandemic the couple, who will celebrate their 21st anniversary together this Valentine’s Day, were splitting their time between San Francisco and Tuscany. Because he spent all of last year in the Bay Area, Dallabrida had the time to work on a heart so applied for the first time after wanting to do so for some years.

“The stars lined up perfectly this year,” he said.

Not only does his heart artwork draw out the beauty within melancholy, it will transform over time as the layers of unfired porcelain and clay pigments gathered from around the world that he used to construct it fall away. Its blue hue will slowly evolve to look rust-like then give way to additional colors.

See page 8 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • February 4-10, 2021

Couple open holistic health store in SF for pets

Essentially

by Sari Staver

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Wear a mask Maintain social distancing Wash your hands Shop at Cliff’s

IT....

E V A ’T H N O D IT! IF WE ON’T NEED YOU D

Proud to support the community

479 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114

www.cliffsvariety.com

Cliff's Variety_043020.indd 1

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or Jen and Kristi Maxwell, 2020 was the year they began “living the dream.”

The couple, who married in 2008 (when Kristi took Jen’s last name), had the same vision: to open a neighborhood-centric business that would add value to the community. The specific idea of opening a pet-related business was Jen Maxwell’s, who learned about pet health and nutrition while working at Pet Food Express.

In late November, they opened the doors to Maxwell’s Pet Bar at 1734 Church (between 28 and 29th St.) a storefront previously occupied by a dog groomer, VIP Scrub Club, which closed last year and had been owned by a lesbian couple, Sage Cotton and Lancy Woo. (The Maxwells said that they don’t identify as lesbian or queer because they “don’t like labels.”)

Maxwell’s features more than a dozen brands of fresh natural pet food as well as supplements, including the trendy CBD, which has become increasingly popular for use in quelling anxiety in dogs and cats. In addition, five oversized orange bathtubs are available for self-washes. Most days, Hazel, the couple’s 3-year-old rescue terrier, is at the shop.

The day I visited in early January, I asked the women to put together a selection of their favorite foods for my cocker spaniel to try. When I told them I normally served Trader Joe’s dog foods, they

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Sari Staver

Jen Maxwell, left, holding Hazel, and her spouse, Kristi Maxwell, recently opened Maxwell’s Pet Bar in Noe Valley.

grimaced – the same reaction I’ve gotten from a number of veterinary professionals, who seem to agree that natural, whole foods are higher quality than the kibble sold in most grocery stores.

The women suggested a handful of products, including a 2.2 pound bag of “gently air dried” New Zealand free-range chicken, which my dog inhaled at record speed. I loved the product too: the smell, the look, the package, and the fact that the food was 96% chicken, organs, and New Zealand Green Mussels. I also brought home a container of frozen winter squash and a roll of raw duck, all eaten with gusto by my spaniel.

But I had a case of sticker shock

when I saw the $46 price tag on the 2.2-pound bag of chicken. While it is true that fresh foods typically go further than kibble, I generally pay $25 for a 20-pound bag of kibble; it was like switching from a Volkswagen to a Tesla.

“Our furry friends deserve to eat as well as we do,” Jen Maxwell said. “Grocery store kibble contains renderings, carbohydrates, and fillers. Whole foods are the way to go.”

The women are both true believers in the cannabinoid cannabidiol, or CBD, for use in dogs and cats. (CBD, which is non-psychoactive, is one of at least 85 active compounds inside cannabis plants and has quickly gained favor among the wellness crowd.)

See page 8 >>

SF supervisors back Eagle bar landmark request

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he San Francisco Board of Supervisors is supporting a request to landmark the gay-owned Eagle bar in the city’s South of Market district.

The supervisors unanimously voted 11-0 Tuesday to back District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney’s resolution initiating the process to designate the Eagle as a city landmark. It would be the third gay bar location in San Francisco given such status if approved, and the first LGBTQ city landmark located in SOMA and related to queer leather culture.

The city’s historic preservation commission now has 90 days to take up the matter. Following its decision, the supervisors would need to vote on officially designating the bar at 398 12th Street a local landmark.

“The city needs to do more to acknowledge the critical role that places like the Eagle continue to play in making San Francisco such a special place, and I am proud to put forward one of SOMA’s most beloved legacy businesses and gay bars for this important distinction,” stated Haney following the board vote.

The nightlife venue is seen as a focal point for the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District. It provided the name for the Eagle Plaza public parklet honoring leather culture in the city built into the street in front of it.

“Not only is it a landmark and a safe haven for everyone, they continuously do work on fundraising,” noted Tammy Lg Hatter, the first and reigning Ms. SF Eagle, of the money the bar has raised for numerous community groups at last week’s hearing of the supervisors’ land use and transportation committee that also voted 3-0 in support of Haney’s resolution.

The Eagle opened in May 1981 and closed in 2011. At the time LGBTQ community leaders had called

Rick Gerharter

The leather pride flag flew outside the Eagle bar in 2018 as construction continued on a mixed-use development that paid for a leather-themed public plaza nearby.

for the city to landmark the site, but their suggestion was not taken up back then.

Lex Montiel and his late business partner, Mike Leon, who died in 2019, bought the business in 2012.

They reopened in March 2013, reviving the Eagle’s enormously popular Sunday beer busts held on its spacious outdoor patio until the COVID pandemic forced it to close last March.

“Why I got personally invested in saving it,” Montiel told the committee last week, “was to continue the tradition of fundraising for the community and provide a safe space for everybody in San Francisco and everybody from across the world who comes here.”

The sale of the property on which the bar is located at the corner of 12th and Harrison streets last September spurred Haney, who represents SOMA, to seek landmarking the bar.

Doing so would afford it some protection, as any development proposals would need to be approved by the city’s oversight bodies.

According to property records Robert G. Scypinski purchased the site. He has yet to speak publicly about his plans for it.t

t

Health News>>

February 4-10, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

Some patients upset after dentist departs UOP

by John Ferrannini

T

he University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood is answering questions about recent changes in its care for people living with HIV/AIDS following the departure of a dentist who volunteered services.

David Varela, a 61-year-old gay San Francisco man who had been a patient of the care clinic, told the Bay Area Reporter that care had been temporarily suspended at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis early last year, and in the fall the patients were informed that Maria Flores, DDS, who’d been having appointments at the school, would not be returning.

Then, last month “a letter from the school was sent and it states that for continued care, we would be scheduled with ‘students’ and or we have the option of going to another dentist,” Valera stated in an email to the B.A.R.

Rick Gerharter

The University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry is in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.

Valera told the B.A.R. in a subsequent interview that the problem with students instead of faculty-staff dentists is that it is difficult to establish a long-term relationship with them as care providers. To see faculty-staff, instead of students, patients would have to pay out of pocket, Valera said.

Further, Valera said that the other dentists offered wouldn’t necessarily

accept Denti-Cal – the state’s dental insurance program – or clean teeth free-of-cost more than once a year.

The UOP School of Dentistry website states that it is funded by the Ryan White Federal CARE grant, and that “services are provided at no charge to eligible patients.”

Liam Connolly, the senior director of media relations for UOP, stated to the B.A.R. that the university is still receiving Ryan White funding. Connolly said that Flores saw patients from the care clinic on a volunteer basis.

“Patients were only able to see her without paying out of pocket because she was volunteering her time to see them,” Connolly said. “It was a special case and it is no longer available since she concluded her practice. ... the funding is only available for the patients to be seen at the main clinic.”

According to Valera, he first met Flores on Webster Street, and her office was later moved to the site of the dental school campus on Sixth Street.

“Dr. Flores was assigned an operatory in the Faculty Practice Clinic area on the second floor in our building to see her patients on Tuesdays,” Connolly stated. “We had to utilize all the chairs in the clinic for our students.”

Flores did not respond to a B.A.R. request for comment.

“My understanding is that Dugoni is complying with [Ryan White] and in terms of funding, the funding is through the main clinic,” Connolly said.

Connolly said that the school does not anticipate hiring a new facultystaff member, since Flores’ role in dental care was a volunteer position.

“I believe the community who trusted Dr. Flores deserves an apology from the school and what led to the decision for not having a care clinic provided by another staff member,” Valera stated to the B.A.R., when asked his reaction to Connolly’s answers.

Connolly said that the UOP care clinic will continue to accept DentiCal, and it will clean teeth once every

six months for covered eligible patients at the clinic.

Varela stated that Flores “never stated she was a volunteer.”

“All instruments were part of the school, so I can’t imagine that a fullfledged doctor would volunteer once a week for free; maybe it’s possible,” he continued.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (https://hab.hrsa.gov/ about-ryan-white-hivaids-program/ about-ryan-white-hivaids-program), administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was funded nationally at $2.3 billion in Fiscal Year 2019-2020. It provides primary HIV care and other services through the form of agency grants to help people living with HIV, particularly those who are low income. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration website, for Fiscal Year 2020, San Francisco was awarded a total of about $14 million in Ryan White Part A funds. t

CDC unveils new HIV prevention resources

by Cynthia Laird

T

he new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention has unveiled new resources that are part of the agency’s Let’s Stop AIDS Together campaign. .

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a gay man, was appointed HIV prevention division director in December.

In an email newsletter, he noted the new resources represent one of his first acts since he took over.

“These materials represent an important expansion of the campaign’s

Courtesy CDC

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis

prevention resources and are designed for all who can benefit from HIV pre-

THANK YOU to all our healthcare heroes

vention information,” he wrote.

As part of the rollout, there will be a number of social media activities in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, February 9, from 3:30 to 4 p.m.

Pacific Time, Daskalakis will participate in a Facebook Live event with the National Black Justice Coalition.

On Saturday, February 13, from 8:30 to 9 a.m. Pacific Time, there will be a program on the CDC’s Stop HIV Together Instagram page featuring David Lester-Massey, one of the Together ambassadors.

The new materials represent an important expansion of the campaign’s

prevention resources and are designed for all who can benefit from HIV prevention information, Daskalakis stated. “The new materials are built around a status neutral theme: Whatever your HIV status, there are options to prevent HIV. Know your options and choose what’s best for you,” he wrote.

He added that the materials were developed through the division’s first-ever virtual production.

“Our campaign participants from

across the country represent highly diverse populations, including Black and Latino gay men, heterosexual cisgender Black and Latina women, and transgender people,” Daskalakis stated. “These participants did a phenomenal job in becoming their own athome production crews and the result is a new and vibrant suite of materials created in English and Spanish.”

See page 8 >>

<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • February 4-10, 2021

Volume 51, Number 05 February 4-10, 2021 www.ebar.com

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Turning around the COVID vaccine debacle S

o far, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has largely failed to manage a comprehensive COVID vaccination effort for California.

It’s critical to inoculate as many people as possible before new strains proliferate and mutate further, possibly rendering the available vaccines useless. As time passes, the probability of effectively containing the pandemic diminishes.

There are a number of reasons why the vaccination effort has faltered. As the Los Angeles Times reported, “For weeks, vaccine access was limited to only health workers and nursing homes. Data snafus complicated the picture, as did the structural barriers of such a large, decentralized state that leaned heavily on 61 local health departments. But the biggest and most persistent problem has been beyond the state’s control: Officials have been hamstrung by vaccine supply shortages and lack of predictability from the federal government and the manufacturers.”

For it’s part, the federal government is making changes to address the supply problem. The Biden-Harris administration will increase overall, weekly vaccine supply to states, Tribes, and territories to 10.5 million doses nationwide beginning this week, the White House stated February 2. “This is a 22% increase since taking office on January 20,” the White House said. “The administration is committing to maintaining this as the minimum supply level for the next three weeks, and we will continue to work with manufacturers in their efforts to ramp up supply.”

Newsom announced Wednesday that with help from the Biden administration, large-scale vaccine sites would open by mid-February in Oakland and Los Angeles. It’s a pilot program that is part of a larger effort to set up 100 vaccination sites nationwide in 100 days.

But there’s been a problem quantifying health consequences for the LGBTQ community that’s been looming over the state from the beginning. As we’ve written before, the lack of sexual orientation and gender identity data means that the LGBTQ community doesn’t have a clue as to the severity of the virus’ impact on us, although some early surveys have pointed to unique health

Sari Staver

People sit at a COVID vaccine site in San Francisco.

risks that put LGBTQ individuals at greater risk of contracting COVID. Without accurate data, health policy cannot be written to identify and prioritize LGBTQ people most in need of early vaccination.

And it turns out that no matter how many inquiries gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) makes to state health officials, they are hampered by an obscure federal panel that he didn’t even know about until the former acting director of the California Department of Public Health told him of it late last year – months after he started sounding the alarm about the lack of SOGI data and nearly a year after the pandemic started. As we reported last week, the Public Health Work Group oversees what are known as Health Level Seven International (HL7) standards that provide guidance on the collection of certain patient characteristics, such as racial and ethnic data. But they do not include sexual orientation and gender identity data, which has hampered efforts in California and other states to collect health information about LGBTQ people in order to better address unique health risks related to COVID infection. Wiener and Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s health secretary,

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had written to the Public Health Work Group, asking that it immediately include the SOGI questions in such a way that labs in the state can incorporate the information and the state’s electronic disease reporting and surveillance system can read it.

The Public Health Work Group responded that it’s working on the issue. Unfortunately, that’s likely to take a lot more time. And, as Wiener pointed out, the group’s response lacked specificity.

Again, time is of the essence: mutant strains threaten to undo the progress made against this virus and may leave us without options. Newsom needs to quickly loosen up the vaccine logjam – more supply from the feds is crucial, of course, but so is opening more sites and leaving room for some flexibility. One Bay Area site was shut down recently because it was reportedly giving shots to people deemed ineligible.

Questions of equitable access to vaccines must be balanced with a common sense approach to uncommon situations. The doses should not go unused – there was a great story that made the news about health workers stranded on a snowed-in road in Oregon who, instead of allowing their batch of vaccines to expire, just started vaccinating other stuck motorists. In so many ways, the clock is ticking down, and we’ve no time to lose. t

Who is that in the mirror? It’s us and we look so beautiful with our disability

by Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Bay Area Reporter

t

had to create my mirror and now it is an international reflection as a Black disabled person through my activism that helped create organizations from DisabilityAdvocatesofMinorities. org with Gary N Gray in the 1990s to Sins Invalid with Patty Berne in early 2000s to the National Black Disability Coalition in 2000s with Jan Dunham to Krip-Hop Nation in mid-2000s with Keith Jones & Rob DA’ Noize Temple. These organizations also forced Black History Month to open its doors to Black disabled history from many Black disabled/Deaf artists and activists.

From the streets to social networks, Black disabled people have changed the framework in art, music, activism, school curriculum etc., with Harriet Tubman Collective, Donna R. Walton’s Divas with Disabilities, Black Disabled Creatives

by Jillian Mercado, and many more. Through social media, Krip-Hop Nation has many chapters around the world and has traveled to the U.K., South Africa, and Toronto. Disabled people have used – and worked off of – social media, and now in the COVID era we have seen the whole world use the internet for work, ordering food, and to communicate. The question is, will everybody continue to learn from the disability community and give us our props?

Even though we all are online, I’d like to see more of Black disabled artists/activists – including LGBTQs – in Black events, from hiphop to new books.

At Krip-Hop Nation we have created our own lingo to redefine ourselves, like Afro-Krip, a term I thought of in 2016 to help unite Afro disabled people around the African diaspora and associate Krip-Hop during and after becoming politicized. As a Black disabled activist/artist living in America, having a need and vision of connecting with other disabled artists/activists in the African

Courtesy Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.

diaspora made me realize there must be terminology that speaks to our experiences.

Many have written that Africans brought to the Americas the greatly varied cultures of their homelands, including folklore, language, music, and food. In forging new lives with one another, as well as neighboring Europeans and Native Americans, rich varieties of African diaspora culture took root in a New World, decidedly shaped by the cultural innovations of Africans and their descendants. Through folklore, music, dance and more all had connection to disability but very few know about this connection.

Folklore like the tale/song of “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd” with a main character, Peg Leg Joe, who gave direction to freedom for Africans through a song to an elderly disabled man, Jim Crow.

The Bulk dance was where Africans who were shackled at the ankles, causing disabilities, were made to dance. Lastly, there is the story of “The Dozens” that many hip-hop artists and scholars researched. It was discovered that those who were disabled were separated and placed in groups of dozens on slave ships and created verbal competition stories in a rap version. So if you uplift this story, we can say disabled African Americans laid the roots of hip-hop.

The future is sweet for Black disabled people. On my plate in 2021 is to have a building for a Krip-Hop Institute that will hold a visual art gallery, a Black disabled library, Krip-Hop music studio, and an international room with large screens so Krip-Hop Nation can continue to hold international events under SoulTouchin Experience. Under SoulTouchin Experience’s press, called Soulful Media Works Press, I will put out my anthology entitled: “For You BDYM: Black Disabled Young Men” at wwwdasoultoucha.com. The National Black Disability Coalition continues to work on Black disability studies and our upcoming National Black Disability campaign. For more information, go to http:// www.blackdisability.org.

This Black History Month and beyond we have many events like the below list.

Visibility: A Selection of Black Deaf & Disabled Performance Artists, an online event February 5 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time at http://www. ikouii.com.

Black Disabled Lives Matter: Voices & History of Black Disability Justice Wednesday, February 10, at 1 p.m. on Zoom. For more information, go to https://bit.ly/36CjYKf. Ableism in Hip-Hop: Krip-Hop Artists Drop Knowledge, February 20, from 2 to 4 p.m. Register at https://bit.ly/3tlKPnS. Last but not least, is the ADA Lead On-Black Futurism Month Events, March 25-27. For more information, contact Keith Jones at kpjones@dasoultoucha.com.

The biggest thing that I did with Krip-Hop Nation in 2020 was that I was chosen to do the theme song for the Paralympics and will be performing in Tokyo August 24.

Who is that in the mirror? It’s us and we look so beautiful with our disability! t

Leroy F. Moore Jr., an ally, is a poet and activist who helped found Krip-Hop Nation.

Politics >>

t Newsom recall backers race to meet March deadline

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

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Gay former San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio is one of the proponents of the effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom.

Tiffany Woods and Lester Aponte contended the Golden State can ill afford “a contentious and expensive recall campaign that will only serve to further divide Democrats and Republicans and hinder vaccine distribution, prevention, and testing efforts.”

They noted that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting California’s low-income, Latino, Black, and Pacific Islander, and LGBTQ+ communities, requiring the full attention of the state’s leaders in the months ahead.

“These disparities will only increase as much needed resources and attention are diverted to an unpopular effort to remove Governor Newsom from office,” wrote Woods and Aponte. “If Republicans truly feel that Governor Newsom does not deserve to retain his position, our democratic process provides for a regular election in November 2022. We should all be focused now on working together to end the pandemic and begin recovery efforts, not worsen it while tearing the state apart.”

Newsom tumbles in polls

A poll released this week by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies confirmed that Newsom’s standing with the state’s voters has taken a hit in recent months.

His implementing a statewide shutdown in December that only lifted this past weekend and slow rollout of vaccinating Californians led to an 18% drop in his job approval, which is now at 46%.

According to the IGS poll of 10,357 registered voters in late January, 48% said they disapproved of Newsom’s job performance. There was better news for the governor in terms of the recall, with 45% of those polled opposed.

Thirty-six percent favored removal, while 19% said they were undecided.

A poll of 1,703 adult Californians conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California in late January didn’t ask about the recall but did find that a majority (54% adults, 52% likely voters) approve of how Newsom is handling his job. But that is also a sharp decline from last May when the PPIC found 65% of adults and 64% of likely voters approved of the governor’s performance.

In a February 2 blog post PPIC President and CEO Mark Baldassare predicted about the recall that “the math favors the effort to qualify for the ballot,” but he raised doubts on there being enough support to remove and replace Newsom.

“If Californians are satisfied with the COVID-19 response, a recall election may not gain much traction. But if Californians are frustrated, it could set the stage for a recall

WALLBEDS

AND

s California Governor Gavin Newsom faces mounting criticism of his handling of the state’s COVID pandemic response, backers of an effort to recall him are racing to meet a March deadline to gather enough valid signatures to qualify it.

If they do then the recall vote would be held later in 2021, and several Republicans have already said they would run to succeed the Democratic Newsom. Among them are former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, whose exploratory committee already has raised $1 million since launching three weeks ago, and businessman John Cox, who lost to Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial race.

“I’m running for governor to lead the California comeback and fulfill California’s promise of freedom, fairness, and opportunity,” Faulconer said at his official campaign kickoff Tuesday, February 2. “I’m running to be a voice for Californians suffering during this pandemic because Sacramento can’t do the basics, to restore balance and common-sense to California, and to get people back to work, back to school, and back to being proud of our state.”

Within the state’s LGBTQ community there are varying thoughts about both Newsom’s leadership in recent months when it comes to the health crisis and on the recall. There is more support for recalling Newsom among out Republicans, with gay former San Diego city councilman and failed congressional candidate Carl DeMaio one of the main proponents of removing the governor from office.

DeMaio, who has ruled out running in the recall himself, has also been vocal about his opposition to Faulconer’s gubernatorial bid. He contends the moderate GOPer isn’t a viable statewide candidate.

“He can’t win the governor’s race in California. He can’t get the support of Republicans,” said DeMaio during a Zoom town hall he held in late January to discuss the recall campaign.

DeMaio, who chairs the group Reform California, also blasted Newsom for the disarray at the state agency that has botched the payout of unemployment benefits, his “draconian COVID-19 lockdowns” over the past year, and the state’s “bungled vaccination” plans.

“He is incompetent at his role,” DeMaio said of the governor, adding that Newsom’s “ineptitude” has been covered up by the “liberal media” outlets in the state. “It is up to us to expose it so voters know their suffering is because of his incompetency.”

By March 17 recall backers are aiming to submit a total of 2 million signatures to the secretary of state, said DeMaio, in order to have enough valid ones to certify the recall. They need roughly 1.5 million valid ones, and as of the end of January had 410,087, according to the secretary of state’s office.

“I think we will make the ballot for the recall,” predicted DeMaio.

While out Democratic lawmakers have not been shy about criticizing Newsom’s leadership approach, none support recalling him a year ahead of his having to seek reelection in 2022. (Faulconer plans to run next year if the recall fails.)

In a statement to the Bay Area Reporter California Democratic Party LGBTQ Caucus Co-Chairs

February 4-10, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

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election that upends the political status quo,” he wrote.

Gay Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters’ views on the recall have been evolving in recent weeks.

When the B.A.R. first contacted him last month about the prospect, Bauters acknowledged he was on the fence about the recall as he was upset with what he felt was Newsom’s “wishy-washy indecisiveness,” particularly on the decision to allow outdoor dining and other nonessential businesses to reopen even as questions remained about ICU capacity in many parts of the state.

Open Saturday With Newsom and state lawmakNoon-5pm and ers last week announcing an extenby appointment sion to the eviction moratorium until June 30 in addition to financial Visit our Showroom 415.822.0184 assistance for low-income renters 1355 Fitzgerald Ave, SF www.roomax.com and small property owners, Bauters has since come to be against the Platform Storage Beds • Closet Systems • Armoires • Home Office • Dressers recall but unsure on how he would vote should it make the ballot.

“While I am not personally supporting the recall campaign, I believe the governor needs to do a better job responding to the COVID pandemic. California committed to following the science, but the governor seems to be more interested in responding to the threat of a recall than providing leadership,” stated Bauters. “It’s local government officials that field calls from businesses who can’t keep with the ever-changing landscape of state and county regulations; we are the ones talking to anxious residents who can’t get anyone at the state’s unemployment offices to answer the phone or timely process their claims; and we comfort desperate and scared families terrified about the prospect of facing eviction, wondering if the state has done enough to protect them.”

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in He added that, “People want advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial competent state leadership that is and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead When your celebration lasting laser-focused on policy solutions protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you. and delivering relief to those most remembrance in advance, you can design every impacted by the economic impacts advance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial detail own memorial provide Contact usyour today about theunique beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy of this pandemic. That’s what the at the San Francisco Columbarium. your loved ones with true peace mind.

Planning ahead your loved ones with true peace ofof mind.

Planning governor needs to do more of and and provide that’s what Californians deserve.” protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial ahead protectsProudly yourserving loved onesCommunity. from unnecessary burden, the LGBT Gay San Francisco Supervisor allowing them focus on whatburden, will matter most them at thattotime—you. stresstoand financial allowing Rafael Mandelman told the B.A.R. he understands people are angry focus on what will matter most at that time—you. due to the health crisis but that isContact no us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy reason to oust Newsom from office. at the San Contact FranciscousColumbarium. today about the beautiful ways to create “I am enormously frustrated by the predicament that San Francisco a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. finds itself in, which seems to be at One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 Proudly serving our Community. least partially the result of missteps SanFranciscoColumbarium.com Proudly serving the LGBT Community. at the state level,” said Mandelman, FD 1306 / COA 660 acknowledging that “oh no, people are angry; people are frustrated; I get that. But I don’t see a recall as the right remedy. California has better things to do than fight over a recall.” t

PlanningAhead Ahead isisSimple Planning Simple The benefits are immense.

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Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column looked at the ties between California and Missouri found in a new virtual LGBTQ history exhibit.

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<< Obituaries

6 • Bay Area Reporter • February 4-10, 2021

t

Women’s Building founding director Carmen Vázquez dies

by Cynthia Laird

C

armen Vázquez, the founding director of the Women’s Building in San Francisco and a longtime activist for the LGBTQ community and social justice, died January 27 in New York City. She was 72.

The cause was complications of COVID-19, according to the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, where Ms. Vázquez had been a board co-chair.

According to a statement on the foundation’s website, Ms. Vázquez, a butch lesbian, was the founding director of the Women’s Building in San Francisco, helped found the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center in San Francisco, and the LGBT Health & Human Services Network, a coalition of over 55 organizations and groups in New York advocating for LGBTQ health and human services.

“Her work integrated a focus on racial and economic justice with her focus on sexual freedom and she took the human rights framework to heart,” the foundation stated.

In 2016, on the occasion of the Women’s Building’s 45th anniversary, Ms. Vázquez told the Bay Area Reporter that it’s a “living, breathing expression of women’s power.”

“The power to create, to nurture, to struggle and fight,” she wrote in an email. “She is a political symbol of our strength and a literal expression of how rooms of our own are portals to imagination, hope, and resilience.

Courtesy Woodhull Freedom Foundation

Carmen Vázquez

May she stand tall for generations of women to come.”

Roma Guy, a lesbian and a founder of the Women’s Building, told the B.A.R. that Ms. Vázquez “was a person from my heart.”

“We’d spend hours discussing liberation versus freedom,” Guy said, adding that ultimately “liberation is for all of us.”

A community organizer, Ms. Vázquez “worked with people collectively – always,” Guy said.

Guy noted that she and Ms. Vázquez “worked together intensely” at the Women’s Building.

And Ms. Vázquez had an intuition about how to bring people together, especially when there were disagreements.

“She was helpful in restorative justice before that concept was invented

in the common iteration we have today,” Guy explained. “She became a role model for people.”

In 2012 at the inaugural Sex Summit in San Francisco, Ms. Vázquez, who at the time was the coordinator of the LGBT health and human services unit for the NYS AIDS Institute, expressed frustration with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention policies regarding HIV/AIDS prevention and sex education. The policies threaten the loss of funding of programs that teach sex education. Instead, testing and treating is the new prevention model, she said.

“Twenty-five years of doing incredible work on hot and safe sex down the drain,” said Ms. Vázquez, who called the policies “close to genocide.”

Rea Carey, the outgoing executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said that Ms. Vázquez’s loss “tears open a hole in the heart of the LGBTQ+, social justice, immigration, reproductive justice, and sexual freedom movements.”

“I’ve never known this movement without Carmen in it,” Carey stated.

“A fierce Puerto Rican butch, who spoke, wrote, organized, mobilized, and willed with her small but powerful body justice and liberation into this world.

“Carmen was Task Force family, having served on our board of directors, and as a colleague, adviser, and friend to a long line of executive directors,” Carey added. “That laugh.

Those cowboy boots. The ties. I never

thought I’d say this, but part of me is glad we aren’t in person for Creating Change this year because I don’t think I could bear not seeing her there. And yet, the cruelty of having to mourn her loss, while not being together as a community she loved so much, is overwhelming. Rest in power, Carmen. We will continue your work for liberation.”

Ms. Vázquez was outspoken about being a butch and appeared at the 2010 Butch Voices’ Southwest conference in Los Angeles.

“We have the right to present as we want to present ... we should be free to do what we want with our bodies,” Ms. Vasquez stated to the B.A.R. in an article ahead of the conference. She was concerned about new pressures placed upon butch women to adopt an androgynous identity or to transition into a transman. She recalled a time during the lesbian-feminist movement of the 1970s when it was a “struggle” to identify as butch.

San Francisco-based Horizons Foundation issued a statement January 28.

“Ms. Vázquez spent nearly two decades in San Francisco, where she co-founded the Women’s Building, helped found Horizons’ grantee partner LYRIC, and served as executive director of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and coordinator of Lesbian and Gay Health Services for the San Francisco Department of Health,” Horizons stated.

“Her activism never stopped,” Horizons’ statement read. “She continued in New York City at the LGBTQ Community Center, Empire State Pride Agenda, and the LGBT Health and Human Services Unit of the AIDS Institute at New York Department of Health. She also served on the boards of a number of critical LGBTQ organizations. Throughout it all, she recognized the key insight that the fight for LGBTQ justice is closely intertwined with the fights for racial and economic justice.”

LYRIC said it was “deeply saddened” by Ms. Vázquez’s passing “Carmen was one of the community leaders that founded LYRIC in 1988 to create safer spaces and provide critical services for LGBTQQ youth,” the organization said in a statement sent by Rui Bing Zheng, the nonprofit’s development and communications director. “As a longtime LGBTQ activist and organizer, Carmen worked tirelessly to improve the lives of others and advance economic and social justice. We thank Carmen for her remarkable contributions to our community and the greater social justice movement.”

Representatives for the Women’s Building did not respond to a request for comment.

Ms. Vázquez was born January 14, 1949 in Puerto Rico and raised in Harlem. She attended the City University of New York, earning a bachelor’s in English and a master’s in education. t

Bay Area AIDS advocate William Hershon dies

by Cynthia Laird

W

illiam M. Hershon, a gay man and longtime San Francisco AIDS advocate and attorney, died January 29. He was 67.

Mr. Hershon died at his home in Alameda, his longtime friend Jonathan Joiner, Esq., told the Bay Area Reporter Friday evening. He was surrounded by friends, family, and his beloved 15-year-old orange tabby, Cheddar.

Mr. Hershon, known widely as Bill, had planned to take advantage of the state’s end of life option, he told the B.A.R. in several phone calls and emails last fall. Ultimately, however, Joiner said that he did not use that method and passed away naturally.

Mr. Hershon contacted the

Courtesy William Hershon

Longtime gay and AIDS advocate William Hershon

B.A.R. the day before his death, stating that he did not have much time left but had hoped for a couple of more weeks.

“His life’s work was rising up to bring help during the beginning of

the crisis in the 1980s,” Joiner said in a phone call, referring to the AIDS epidemic.

“He was a beautiful man,” Joiner added. “He saw a lot and didn’t think he’d make it past the age of 30.”

Prior to his passing, Mr. Hershon discussed his decision to end his own life and said he felt at peace with it, though it did not turn out that way.

“Having witnessed the decimation, heartbreak, and suffering in our community since 1981, and having volunteered at Coming Home Hospice from 1987-1989, then serving on the board of directors of another AIDS hospice for six years, I felt well acquainted with the dying process,” he wrote to the B.A.R. of his decision. “Burying hundreds of

friends and bearing witness to their unimaginable ordeals I chose to face the inevitable with a modicum of dignity and grace.”

Joiner said that Mr. Hershon “did it exactly the way he wanted.”

Mr. Hershon himself tested positive for HIV in 1985. In recent years, however, he suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis combined with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema.

He said that five physicians assured him that there was nothing else that could be done.

“I feel it a blessing to pass on at home, with friends and family at a time of my choosing with some degree of serenity,” Mr. Hershon wrote of his decision last fall.

‘Walked the walk’

A longtime community leader, Mr. Hershon “walked the walk” for over 38 years, he wrote in an obituary he prepared before his death.

“He may not have ‘talked the talk’ particularly well, except when speaking ‘truth to power,’” he wrote.

Mr. Hershon served on the former Mayor’s HIV CARE Council in the 1990s. That body developed priorities for spending the millions of dollars in federal Ryan White CARE Act funds allocated to San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. (Today, it has merged with a similar HIV prevention body and the amount of federal money has decreased dramatically.)

See page 7 >>

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Obituaries>>

February 4-10, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Inclusive family life educator EB Troast dies

by Cynthia Laird

E

B Troast, a queer educator in Petaluma who specialized in LGBTQ-inclusive family life and sex education curriculum, died January 15, following a medical emergency.

She was 37.

Ms. Troast, who used female pronouns, was rushed to a hospital January 11 after collapsing and going into cardiac arrest during a Zoom meeting, according to an article in the Petaluma Argus-Courier. She had been pregnant with her third child, who was stillborn.

Ms. Troast had been a member of Amor Para Todos (love for everyone), a Petaluma-based organization that supports LGBTQIA+ youth in schools and the community, said Renee Ho, the founder of APT. Ms. Troast’s partner, Kawai Carvalho, who also identifies as queer, told the Bay Area Reporter that the couple practiced gender open (neutral) parenting and had not assigned genders to their 3- and 1-year-old children.

“Her career as an educator had a wide reach, especially in the Bay Area,” Carvalho wrote in an email.

Ho stated that Ms. Troast was “the most knowledgeable human being in regards to family life/sex ed. curriculum around.”

“She was my ‘go-to’ person while APT has been advocating to get gender-neutral family life/sex ed. curriculums into school districts in Petaluma,” Ho added.

Ms. Troast worked for Planned Parenthood of Northern California for over a decade in various positions, including senior education manager, education manager, program manager, and senior health educator. She wrote grant propos-

<<

Courtesy Kawai Carvalho

EB Troast

als and tracked programming data across a 20-county service area, according to her resume, which Carvalho provided.

Several years ago, before moving to Petaluma, Ms. Troast lived in San Francisco. Ho said that Ms. Troast co-wrote a family life/sex ed. curriculum Be Real, Be Ready, which was adopted by the San Francisco Unified School District.

“EB deeply touched each and every life of those she was in contact with, whether an acquaintance, co-

worker, friend, or family member,” Ho wrote.

Ms. Troast was an instructor, grader, and course monitor in the MPH program at San Jose State University, where she taught master’s level public health students the basics of epidemiology, both in-person and virtually.

From 2005-2007 Ms. Troast was the lead sex educator at Good Vibrations in San Francisco.

She served as a volunteer trainer for San Francisco Sex Information and provided workshops for Gender Spectrum’s conference.

Ms. Troast received her MPH, with a concentration in community health education, from San Jose State in 2016. She earned a bachelor’s in psychology from San Francisco State University in 2005 and graduated summa cum laude. She also received a certificate in American Sign Language from Berkeley City College.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help with expenses for Carvalho. As of Tuesday it had raised over $95,000 of a $100,000 goal. t

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William Hershon

From page 6

He went on to establish the HIV Re-Entry and Empowerment Project, a nonprofit that provided full scholarships to over 60 people living with HIV to finish college and graduate school programs. He noted that of the graduates – all LGBTQ people – over half were people of color. The project received millions of dollars in donations and garnered national attention, he wrote in his obituary.

Mr. Hershon was a long-term non-progressor, meaning that he maintained a CD4 count greater than 500 without antiretroviral treatment with a detectable viral load. He took part in a five-year volunteer study under the auspices of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This involved multiple surgeries and Mr. Hershon was featured in the New Journal of Medicine.

Additionally, he participated with Dr. Jay Levy, a co-discoverer of the HIV virus, at UCSF for over 30 years. Mr. Hershon also took part in numerous other life-saving treatment studies still employed today, he wrote in his obituary, and co-authored a paper for Nature magazine.

Early life

Mr. Hershon was born June 19, 1953 in Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois and went on to John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

“Answering the call of Harvey Milk ‘to come out of the closet and come to San Francisco,’ Mr. Hershon packed up his VW bug and arrived in the city in July 1980,” his obituary stated. Barely one year later, the See page 8 >>

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • February 4-10, 2021

<<

‘Heart’ love

From page 1

“As the piece ages different layers will chip off or wear away and other colors underneath will be revealed,” Dallabrida explained. “Like all of us, it is a work of progress and will continue to change over time.”

Two of hundreds of heart artists

The two out artists were among the more than 200 artists who submitted drawings and concepts for the annual fundraiser for the foundation that raises money for the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, led by CEO Dr. Susan Ehrlich, a lesbian and a longtime physician. Now in its 17th year, the “Hearts in SF” event has produced 480 hearts of various sizes since its inception and netted more than $32 million for various hospital programs.

It is particularly important to Petro to be selected, as her mother was a nurse who did her residency at SF General and many of her friends have received medical care there.

“They have helped them all and treated them all with dignity,” said Petro.

This marks the first hearts fundraiser for Kim Meredith, who became CEO of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation in June. The straight ally told the B.A.R. via a phone interview that she and her team have put together a “fantastic” digital event the evening of February 11 with special appearances by musi-

<<

Bay Area Cannasseur

From page 2

Often plugged as useful for overall health and wellness, both women say they have seen for themselves how useful CBD can be when used for anxiety. According to Jen Maxwell, studies now underway on CBD promise to yield scientific data on the compound’s usefulness in humans and animals.

Kristi Maxwell, who has worked in the hair industry for almost three decades, owns a shop in San Bruno, which has been closed due to the pandemic.

<<

News Briefs

From page 3

Digital and print materials include public service announce-

Rick Gerharter

Daniel Dallabrida stands near one of his sculptures in his backyard garden.

on view through October 31.

A map detailing where all of the publicly displayed hearts bought over the years are located can be found at https://sfghf.org/hearts-in-sf-2/.

“As the city opens up carefully and people go out for walks, as we can do masked and socially distanced, it is a place people can go and take their family for a walk and enjoy this really iconic art collection that is the largest public art collection in our country,” said Meredith.

Dallabrida hopes the buyer of his heart will continue to note how Jarmen inspired it. Because it is made of ceramic, he predicted it would last for millennia.

“Using it in the context of telling a story, especially telling a story about our lives and my life, there is a hope that story will continue on,” he said.

As for Petro, she hopes her heart ends up somewhere like a lobby or waiting area where people have time to spend to carefully observe her artwork.

“You really have to walk around it and walk around it and look at it to get the details,” said Petro, who painted her heart at Engine 43 Art Studio, the former firehouse in the Excelsior where the movie “The Princess Diaries” was filmed. “Everyone kept going around and around looking at different things, saying, ‘Hey, did you see this?’” t

cians Bob Weir, Carlos Santana, and the Kim Nalley Band.

“In an optimistic way it is reminding us of how we have come together in supporting each other,” Meredith said of this year’s hearts as they bear designs inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, the wildfires that raged across the West, and the health crisis.

It has been fully underwritten by sponsors and already met a goal of raising $1.1 million. The foundation is now aiming to surpass $1.5 million raised to support the city’s public hospital and trauma center.

“We invite the entire community at no charge to participate and look and enjoy this year’s hearts. This year’s event is a celebration and in honor of our essential health care workers and physicians and all those who keep our city safe,” said Meredith. “Amazingly enough San Francisco over the last

year has had under 300 deaths from COVID because of the leadership at the hospital and civic leadership and the courageous coming together of public and private entities in San Francisco to keep our city safe.”

Some of the money raised helps fund a yearly grant program the foundation awards to innovative programs and projects SF General staff members are undertaking. In 2020, the foundation handed out 22 such grants and will announce the 2021 grants in the fall.

A $10,000 grant last year went to the Gender Diversity and Pelvic Health Physical Therapy program at SF General, which provides transgender patients with skilled pelvic health physical therapy and adequate medical equipment. In 2019, a $40,000 grant went to the hospital’s Sojourn Chaplaincy, which works with trans patients and

She is optimistic that the new business will succeed. When I visited, the shop had only been open nine weeks, but already, business was gradually climbing.

“We’re doing better than we had expected,” Kristi Maxwell said. “We feel like we’ve been very well received.”

For more information, go to htt ps://maxwel lsp et bar.com/.

560 Valencia Street, between 16th and 17th streets, formerly the home of Blu-Dot Furniture.

The new business, dubbed Project 560 according to an article on Mission Local, expects to begin construction in June and is set to open in early 2022. It will have an 835 square foot consumption space, according to the company’s application.

Project sponsor William Dolan, a real estate attorney, said in the application that he received 212 letters of support from the community, including the Mission Merchants Association and the Valencia Corridor

Merchants Association.

And in the Castro, the Flore Store at 258 Noe Street, between Market and Beaver streets, has announced its grand opening on 4/20, the unofficial national holiday for cannabis.

Co-owner Terrance Alan, who bought the business in 2018 but has had numerous delays, made the announcement in a prepared statement.

Alan, who is gay, has a long history in the cannabis industry and was the chair of the San Francisco Cannabis State Legislation Task Force, which advised the city on how to regulate the industry under state Proposition 64.

And in news about a proposed cannabis dispensary that will not open, the cannabis magazine High Times had announced that it was putting a dispensary at Geary Boulevard and 20th Avenue, one of two the highflying company planned to open in San Francisco. But when High Times’ initial public offering fell through, the company announced it would not be entering the San Francisco market at this time. t

kalakis noted that the division is continuously adding new materials across the Together portfolio that address testing, treatment, and stigma.

For more information, go to https://bit.ly/3cAwn5h.

older adults, developed in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services, is now live.

According to an email, the survey will help identify the unmet needs of LGBTQ+ older adults, age 50 and over who live and or work in San Francisco, by collecting data on health challenges and barriers accessing health services during the COVID pandemic. The information from this survey will help guide city policy and government and philanthropic resources to the most pressing health related issues.

The survey is being funded by DAS, Horizons Foundation, and the Bob Ross Foundation.

To take the survey, go to https:// bit.ly/39DxLT1.

At long last, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission is seeking members for its revamped LGBTQI+ Advisory Committee.

As the Bay Area Reporter noted in an article last month, the committee has been on hiatus for three years, after quorum problems resulted in it not holding meetings.

It is being relaunched this year with a new leadership structure.

The new committee will have 25 seats, including five for elected officials, 10 for executive directors and CEOs, and 10 seats for community members. To afford more flexibility in representation, the advisory committee removed the San Francisco residency requirement, according to a news release.

Interested people can fill out a membership application at https://bit.ly/3r8YeO7. The deadline is Wednesday, February 17 at 5 p.m. t

SF dispensary approved

In other local cannabis news, the San Francisco Planning Commission has approved a 5,000 square foot dispensary and consumption lounge at ments, posters, web banners, palm cards, brochures, GIFs, memes, social media videos, and a webisode.

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Thomas V. Halloran General Manager A native San Franciscan with 40 years of professional experience assisting families in need.

A longtime resident of the Eureka Valley, Castro and Mission Districts; a member of the Castro Merchants Association and a 25 year member of the Freewheelers Car Club.

At Duggan’s Funeral Service, which sits in the heart of the Mission, we offer custom services that fit your personal wishes in honoring and celebrating a life.

We are committed to the ever-changing needs of the community and the diverse families we serve.

Please call for information 415-431-4900 or visit us at www.duggansfuneralservice.com FD44

women seeking abortions.

San Francisco resident Nesi Mafuaofa, 32, a transgender woman who is of Black, Tongan, and Samoan ancestry, has been a patient of the physical therapy program for a year. Her primary care doctor referred her to it due to her experiencing issues following her gender reassignment surgery.

“You have no idea how helpful it has been,” she told the B.A.R. by phone.

Mafuaofa was finding it extremely painful to use the dilators she needed to insert into her vagina to ensure it did not close up as she healed. The program’s staff taught her how to relax and release her stress and tension.

Last month, they also provided her with a new dilator design to test out that Mafuaofa called “amazing” after using it for just a day.

“I think the clinic is amazing. I love the fact it is so warm and accepting.

They make you feel like you are not going to a hospital,” said Mafuaofa, who works for a property management company and part-time at a nursing home. “I had a lot of emotional trauma at hospitals and from doctors at other clinics and dentist visits. It is very refreshing to come to a place where I know I am respected and people give a damn.”

t

Event commemorates Black HIV/AIDS awareness day

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation will hold an online event commemorating National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Friday, February 5, from 5 to 7 p.m.

“Umoja,” as the event is called, honors and preserves Black lives by unity, mobilization, outreach, justice, and action.

For the Zoom link and more information, go to https://bit. ly/2YwWxxI.

LGBTQ older adults survey now online

An online survey for LGBTQ+

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William Hershon

From page 7

New York Times reported on July 3, 1981 of a new rare cancer afflicting gay man. That was Kaposi’s sarcoma.

Mr. Hershon began as a volunteer for Coming Home Hospice in 1987, and continued volunteering throughout the Bay Area until his death.

After testing positive, he dedicated the next 35 years in the never-ending battle that consumed his life, his lover (whom he declined to name), his friends, and virtually all he loved.

Hearts on display

The event’s smaller tabletop and mini hearts can be seen in the windows of the Flood Building at 870 Market Street through February 14.

The six large hearts are on display in Union Square and most will remain

Members sought for revamped SF LGBTQ advisory panel His law career was largely consumed by pro bono work on behalf of the gay community and for people living with AIDS. Mr. Hershon was the recipient of numerous community service awards and other recognition over the years, including the one he was most proud of: having his name engraved in the Circle of Friends at the National AIDS Memorial Grove, a decision made by the grove’s leadership. He received two mayoral proclamations declaring “William Hershon Day” by former mayor Willie Brown; six certificates of honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; a

For more information about this year’s event and all of the participating artists and their heart designs, visit https://sfghf.org/ hearts-in-sf-2021/.

Bay Area Cannasseur runs the first Thursday every other month. To send column ideas or tips, email Sari Staver at sfsari@gmail.com.

certificate of recognition from the California Assembly; and a number of other honors.

A “Friend of Bill’s” for over 18 consecutive years, Mr. Hershon wrote that he was “grateful to the many who helped” him along the way.

Mr. Hershon is survived by his brothers, Dr. Jim Hershon and Peter Richard Hershon, M.Ed; nephew, Wyatt Hershon; and close friends Joiner; Raymond Kong; Dr. Mark Higgins; Tony Gargiulo; Brian Worhl; Michael Blegen; and Jeff Baker. t

t <<

From the Cover>>

STDs

From page 1

Now, the CDC and the city’s public health experts are dropping the azithromycin and increasing the dosage of ceftriaxone to 500 milligrams for uncomplicated urogenital, rectal, and pharyngeal gonorrhea.

“Since 2010, CDC has recommended dual therapy for gonorrhea with ceftriaxone and azithromycin,” a DPH news release states. “Increasing concern for antimicrobial steward-

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SFAF chief

From page 1

Jean served as executive director of the center from 1993 to 1999 and has served as CEO since 2003. She helmed the National LGBTQ Task Force for a time in between her stints at the LA center.

“I am delighted that the board selected Joe,” Jean stated in the LA center’s news release. “He has been an extraordinary leader at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, with whom we partner on the AIDS/LifeCycle. I’ve seen him in action and watched him grow the foundation and infuse his progressive values throughout its work.

I respect him, I like him, and there is zero doubt in my mind that Joe will become a successful and powerful leader of the Los Angeles LGBT Center.”

Hollendoner stated it will be “an honor of a lifetime” to lead the LA center.

February 4-10, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

ship, in conjunction with the continued low incidence of ceftriaxone resistance and increases in azithromycin resistance, has led to re-evaluation of this recommendation.”

Cohen said that there are three main reasons for the change. The first, mentioned in the above statement, is the need to decrease antimicrobial stewardship, which is to say, “minimize exposure to antibiotics where the benefits don’t outweigh the risk,” she said.

The second reason is that the higher

dose of the shot has been shown to be “what is needed to eliminate the gonorrhea in and of itself,” she explained.

Third, doctors are trying to stop further bacterial resistance to azithromycin, which does work in gonococcal infections but not as effectively as ceftriaxone. Medical experts have been worried (https://www.who. int/news/item/07-07-2017-antibiotic-resistant-gonorrhoea-on-therise-new-drugs-needed) for years about the increasing antibiotic resistance to gonorrhea, which, in the

words of the World Health Organization, will make it “much harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat.”

When asked about the potential confluence between untreated STIs, antibiotic resistant STIs, and the expected resurgence of socializing this year and beyond, Cohen paused and said “Yes,” that it is a legitimate concern, but wants to make clear that public health officials do not want to demonize sex, which many have been deprived of due to the COVID-19 crisis.

“I think our approach is a sex-posi-

tive approach to sexual health,” Cohen said. “So being sexually active is part of that. It’s been a difficult year and returning to intimacy and connection will be part of healing from the pandemic. We want people to do that in the safest way possible.”

Cohen recommends people get screened regularly for sexually transmitted infections, access HIV care if they are infected, and consider condoms and PrEP. t

“II look forward to working with the center’s board, staff, and partners to ensure that the Center not only continues to be a trusted provider of care to the communities it currently serves but that we deepen our work to address the racial disparities and systemic racism that prohibits all members of the LGBTQ+ community from thriving,” Hollendoner stated in the center’s release. “I also remain committed to maintaining and expanding the center’s role as a national and global LGBTQ+ movement leader.”

SFAF’s board of directors announced it will begin the process of looking for a new CEO. “While we are sad to see Joe leave San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Bay Area, we are grateful for his principled leadership over the last nearly five years,” SFAF board chair Maureen Watson stated in the foun-

dation’s release. “SFAF has become a stronger and more effective organization because of Joe’s work developing our strategic plan and building a strong leadership team. I am confident that the Foundation will be able to continue to build on Joe’s successful work.”

The two organizations collaborate on AIDS/LifeCycle, which is expected to resume in person next year. This year a virtual model called TogetheRide is taking place.

In a joint statement January 27, gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), the chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, and lesbian state Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), the vice chair, expressed their gratitude for Jean’s tenure.

“It is impossible to encapsulate Lorri Jean’s full impact on the LGBTQ community, but she has been a pioneer and a force to be reckoned with

during her four-plus decades of advocacy,” the pair stated. “Lorri Jean will leave the Los Angeles LGBT Center as one of the most influential people to ever take up the fight for equality, and we’re especially grateful for the way she has shepherded the Los Angeles LGBT Center into a world-renowned organization.

“Under her stewardship, the center now has multiple campuses, a fully functional health care center and pharmacy, transitional housing, and a retail cafe that is staffed by graduates of the center’s culinary arts program – and all of this barely scratches the surface of Lorri Jean’s accomplishments,” Low and Eggman added. “We wish her the best as she moves closer to retirement, knowing full well that her legacy of saving lives and empowering members of the LGBTQ+ community will endure for generations to come.”

The lawmakers are hopeful about Hollendoner’s upcoming tenure.

“We also look forward to continuing our work with incoming executive officer Joe Hollendoner, who has been exceptional during his time with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation,” they stated. “We have no doubt Joe will build upon the incredible foundation Lorri Jean has put in place.”

According to SFAF’s IRS Form 990 for Fiscal Year 2018-2019, the most recent that is publicly available, the organization had total revenue of $48.1 million and total expenses of $44.2 million. Hollendoner made $355,129 that year.

According to the IRS Form 990 for the Los Angeles LGBT Center for Fiscal Year 2017-2018, the most recent that is publicly available, the organization had total revenue of $119.2 million and total expenses of $108.9 million. Jean made $524,171 that year. t

registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/16/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/12/21.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039226500

the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/15/21.

BELKACEMI, 1222 HARRISON ST #6409, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ABDELYACINE BELKACEMI is requesting that the name ABDELYACINE BELKACEMI be changed to YACINE BELKACEMI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 16th of March 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556037

In the matter of the application of KENNETH HWANG, 1935 PACHECO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KENNETH HWANG is requesting that the name KENNETH HWANG be changed to SAGE KUROYAMA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 18th of February 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039216900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LOCKDOWN BEAUTY, 345 DAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY CRISPEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/28/20.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039217900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KANDEELICIOUS COCKTAILS, 1434 INNES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANASSA STEWART. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/20.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039220900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HAULIT415, 1075 O’FARRELL ST #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOEL L. MENDANHA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/06/21.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039220500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as A GOOD PLACE THERAPY PACIFIC, 582 MARKET ST #1110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed A GOOD PLACE THERAPY BY KERRIE MOHR, LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER, PC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/09/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/21.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556047

In the matter of the application of FERNANDO PROIETTI ORLANDI, 215 EDNA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner FERNANDO PROIETTI ORLANDI is requesting that the name FERNANDO PROIETTI ORLANDI (First: Fernando, Middle: Proietti, Last: Orlandi) be changed to FERNANDO PROIETTI ORLANDI (First: Fernando, Last: Proietti Orlandi). Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 23rd of February 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039222800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ENGINEERING SPACE, 241 LIBERTY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DEREK LANG. The

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039217700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FASHION HOUSE, 910 STOCKTON ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed QI FU LIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/29/20.

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039224400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MAC REPAIR SF; EN LA MIRA IMAGES, 721 ARGUELLO BLVD #302, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUIS LAMASSONNE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/14/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/14/21.

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039223100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TAPROOT FOUNDATION, 600 CALIFORNIA ST 11TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TAPFOUND, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/12/21.

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039223900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LARKINS BROTHERS TIRE, 370 SOUTH VAN NESS BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed KEWL AUTOMOTIVE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/03/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/21.

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038070100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as PEAK CONSTRUCTION, 4323 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by TED TEIPEL. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/29/18.

JAN 21, 28, FEB 04, 11, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039224200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PALM AND MILK, 1275 WASHINGTON ST #1C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GERALDINE LECUYER LOUVEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/14/21.

JAN 28, FEB 04, 11, 18, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039226600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TEMPOSITIONS HOSPITALITY, 650 CALIFORNIA ST 7TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TEMPOSITIONS, INC. (NY). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/07/02.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/21.

JAN 28, FEB 04, 11, 18, 2021

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SCHOOL PROFESSIONALS, 650 CALIFORNIA ST 7TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TEMPOSITION, INC. (NY). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/30/04.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/21.

JAN 28, FEB 04, 11, 18, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039220000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SRIRACHA THAI CUISINE, 1319 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SOI GOW LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/23/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/21.

JAN 28, FEB 04, 11, 18, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039221700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CALIFORNIA TRANSACTION COORDINATORS; SAN FRANCISCO TRANSACTION COORDINATORS, 1686 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ELLEVATE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/27/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/21.

JAN 28, FEB 04, 11, 18, 2021 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038901600

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as SAN FRANCISCO TRANSACTION COORDINATORS, 1686 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ELLEVATE LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/12/19.

JAN 28, FEB 04, 11, 18, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556068

In the matter of the application of THOMAS PATRICK MCGEE, 1385 GREENWICH ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner THOMAS PATRICK MCGEE AKA PADRAIG JOSEPH MCGEE is requesting that the name THOMAS PATRICK MCGEE AKA PADRAIG JOSEPH MCGEE be changed to PADRAIG JOSEPH MCGEE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 9th of March 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556069

In the matter of the application of JESUS SANCHEZ PEREZ, 1200 WALLER ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JESUS SANCHEZ PEREZ is requesting that the name JESUS SANCHEZ PEREZ be changed to ADEMAR JESUS PEREZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 4th of March 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039225600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ALL TIRE, 359 POTRERO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BENJAMIN R. SANCHEZ II. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039229100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as INNEN STUDIO, 3 COMMONWEALTH AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HANA MATTINGLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/21.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-032931900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JESSIMPORTS, 332A GUERRERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSICA GASTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/21.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039228000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BOTTEGA 90 INC, 90 CHARTER OAK AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BOTTEGA 90 INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/21.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039228100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as COMPASS DEVELOPMENT MARKETING GROUP, 1699 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE MARK COMPANY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/14/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/21.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556055

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039229300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROTTEN TREASURES, 1535 EDDY ST #404, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANNY HARRIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/21.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556062

In the matter of the application of HARRISON PITTS, 317 29TH ST #307, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HARRISON PITTS is requesting that the name HARRISON PITTS be changed to HARRISON PIZZI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in DEPT. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 4th of March 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039229500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BANK ROBBERY INCORPORATED; BANK ROBBERY INC.; HEIST INCORPORATED; HEIST INC., 1305 18TH ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BRI PRODUCTION INCORPORATED (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/21.

FEB 04, 11, 18, 25, 2021

In the matter of the application of ABDELYACINE

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 Yelp reviews

Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown

by Cornelius Washington

D

o we really need yet another Whitney Houston documentary? Do we need yet another look at the tragedy, fame, dysfunction, beauty, distortions, glamour, selfdestruction, love, betrayals, rise, fall, redemption and final end that befell both mother and daughter? Do we need yet another opportunity to envy, marvel at, judge and satisfy ourselves with the inevitably of drug use and the suffocation of fame?

The short answer is…yes.

Produced by Entertainment One and Creature Films for the Lifetime television network and scheduled to premiere on February 6, 2021 on Lifetime, Whitney & Bobbi Kristina: Didn’t We Almost Have It All? delves into more of the personal, human side of the legendary music icon, her interpersonal relationships and the consequences of poor choices.

The film artfully avoids rehashing the welltrod tales of Houston’s rise to fame, choosing instead to focus on her abilities to handle the spotlight once she’d achieved it, the accompanying scrutiny of every aspect of her life and the public denial of her humanity by a tabloid press that seemed hell-bent on exploiting the divisions within the African-American community between those who idolized her and demonized her, unwittingly promulgating the kinds of unwarranted criticism that tends to follow every popular black artist who refuses to “stay in her place” and record music other than jazz, gospel, blues or screeching soul music (See Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, etc.), but, in years to follow, become a benchmark of African-American excellence, opening doors for future artists.

Whitney Houston remembered New documentary explores the star’s rise and tragic fall Instead of focusing solely on the media’s purposeful misperceptions of Houston’s supposedly “opposites attract” relationship with “bad boy of R&B” singer Bobby Brown, the film’s participants (including Whitney’s goddaughter, Bobby’s sister, etc.) relate how truly similar the two were in background, temperament and hunger for love and interpersonal acceptance from one of the few people in the world who could actually understand their personal and professional circumstances, crises, joys, etc., and the decisions required to maintain a stellar career. That only grew in

scope upon the release of the 1992 film, The Bodyguard and its accompanying soundtrack, which became the greatest-selling of all time.

Revealed for perhaps the first time are miscarriages suffered in silence by Houston, one of which occurred during the making of the film, signaling a personal resilience and sense of duty to her colleagues rarely seen in today’s unprofessional celeb climate. Throughout these painful moments, Brown is said to have never left his wife’s side. In the Black Baptist church, there is an oft-repeated Psalm.

30. “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy Billy Stritch: It really means everything to me, and it certainly wasn’t something I was anticipating when this all started. I started doing the live-streams in late March with my friend Linda Lavin, the actress. We started doing them from her apartment. She lives three floors above me here in my building. We just thought we would do things on Wednesday afternoon and just kind of put some stuff out there.

Then a few weeks in, I started to realize that there were people that I knew or people that knew me from all over the country that don’t necessarily have much chance to see me live or come to New York and see me on my regular gigs. All of a sudden, the light went on. “Oh, I’m reaching so many more people than I ever had a chance to before.” It’s a wonderful way to reach people

A Stritch in time

an interview with Billy Stritch

by Gregg Shapiro

T

exas-native Billy Stritch is a gay man as comfortable in the limelight as he is in the background. Known for his creative collaborations with Liza Minnelli, Linda Lavin, Christine Ebersole and others, Stritch has been making the most of the pandemic lockdown with his Billy’s Place live-streaming performances.

On his new album, also titled Billy’s Place (Club44 Records/Provident Entertainment), Stritch performs songs from the Great American Songbook, as well as more contem-

porary fare and even some originals. At a time when travel is restricted, tunes such as Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager’s “Planes,” John Wallowitch’s “My Love Went to London” and Stritch’s own “Since You Left New York,” take on even greater meaning. Billy was kind enough to answer a few questions in January 2021.

Gregg Shapiro: Your Billy’s Place livestreams on Facebook Live, which share a name with your new album, began during the pandemic. Can you please say something about what it means to you to still be able to reach your audience at a time when audiences are forced to social distance?

Your long history of collaboration is great – from your early trio Montgomery, Plant and Stritch (which you mentioned) to Christine Ebersole and Klea Blackhurst to, of course, Liza Minnelli. What is it about you that makes you so good at playing well with others?

I’ve always loved collaborating. The first time I saw a great connection like that was years ago when I was still living in Houston and I discovered Marilyn Maye. I knew who she was, and I remember being young and seeing her on Johnny Carson, but just kind of fuzzy memories of that.

I guess I was about 17 or 18 and I was already going out and listening to music and making friends with musicians.

Everybody was like, “Oh, you’ve got to go see Marilyn Maye.”

Of course, no one my age was interested in that kind of music, but I went. I had never really seen a nightclub entertainer. She was with a trio. The connection between the accompanist and her was something I picked up on right away. I just thought it would be so much fun to be on stage with somebody else. I have been so lucky in that the singers that I’ve accompanied have also been people who I just adore person-

comes with the morning.” On March 4, 1993, Bobbi Kristina Brown was born.

One relationship that is never mentioned by any of Houston’s or Brown’s friends, relatives, etc., is her sexual, professional and personal relationship with former assistant, the openly lesbian Robin Carter.

The film spends less than five minutes discussing the undoubtedly complex interpersonal issues that brought the two women together, despite intense public pressure that ultimately, drove them apart, signaling the ever-present denial of bisexuality in the African-American community. While this topic was delved into by documentarian Rudi Dolezal in his previous Houston documentaries, Whitney CloseUp and Can I Be Me?, it should be noted (and lamented) that he is the only person in this documentary who actually mentions Houston’s bisexuality.

The rest of the film examines Houston’s role as a working mother, and its divided energies.

Unfortunately, the behavior that Houston chose to model for the daughter whom she cherished may have been based upon her unresolved issues related to her adolescent sexual abuse, issues she shared with Tina Brown, Bobby’s sister, with whom she later used drugs.

Laurie Starks, Houston’s drug counselor, describes her attempts to detox Houston, with Bobbi Kristina in tow. Others can debate whether that was a good choice, as the film observes without judging.

As Houston’s decline and untimely death are detailed, the film transitions to Bobbi Kristina’s subsequent mental breakdown, seemingly inevitable capitulation to her own drug addiction and death, following a six month-long coma in hospice (later officially found to be due to unnatural, but, undetermined causes) amid glamorous surroundings and people vying for her attention (and money), including apparently violent partner Nick Gordon, who was later found civilly responsible for Bobbi Kristina’s death, before dying at age 30, of an accidental heroin overdose.

Didn’t We Almost Have It All succeeds where many Whitney Houston documentaries fail: presenting the humanity of two women who were denied the opportunity to be loved for being themselves by a world that wanted them to be anything but.

This Black History Month, celebrate Houston’s greatness and-always-embrace your authenticity.t ally, and I get along with great. We share humor and a love for the same kind of material.

“Since You Left New York,” another song you co-wrote with Sandy, is on the Billy’s Place album. What makes Sandy a good songwriting partner?

Again, it’s collaborating. It’s finding someone who you could laugh with and you can have an easy rapport with; you kind of get each other. Sandy and I have been friends since back in Houston. She used to come hear me when I was first starting out. I’ve known her for 40 years now. We have so much of a great frame of reference together in that sort of background. We did a lot of writing together back in the ‘80s. That’s when we wrote “Does He Love You.” Then Sandy went to Nashville and pursued a career as a full-time songwriter.

I would make regular trips down there to write with her.

This song, “Since You Left New York,” was written all that time ago. We demoed. We sent it out. Nothing really happened with it. I had forgotten about it, it’s been so long. When this pandemic started, just a few weeks into it, Sandy emailed me and asked, “What do you think about “Since You Left New York,” and I said, “Remind me” [laughs]. I kind of remembered the title.

She sent me an MP3 of the song and I was like, “Holy cow, that song is perfect for now.” The way it starts, “They turned off the lights on old Broadway.” That’s exactly what’s happened.

People tend to think it’s something we wrote this year, and it’s not. It’s a great example of how sometimes a song has to find its time. It may not be right when you write it, but if it hangs out long enough, and luckily Sandy did remember it, so hopefully it’s going to get a new life. Now, that’s a song I would love to get somebody big to record, for sure.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com

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Books, Films & Community>>

Civilian superman

Author Donovan Russo

by Jim Piechota

Y

oung author Donovan Russo is a busy man. In addition to pursuing his MBA at Seton Hall University, working as a prolific media journalist for CNBC and Yahoo! Finance, and producing a short film, he is currently on the promotional bandwagon for a new action-adventure novel.

The story is solidly grounded in the poverty-stricken, desolate, heroin-addled town of Salem City where violent corrupt gangs rule with an iron fist. It’s 2009 and closeted US Marine Steven Cahill is discharged from duty in Afghanistan during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era after some particularly nasty battlefield trauma and forbidden nights of affectionate intermingling with fellow

soldier, Anthony Johnson.

Now as a civilian, Steven is wracked with PTSD and his solitary nights are filled with nightmares of his time on the war torn battlefield in scenes Russo vividly brings to life and depicts with meticulously realistic detail.

After witnessing the desolate conditions that have morphed his town into a haven for the drug-addicted and the homeless, his personal ‘war’ is with those parties responsible for keeping the town stuck in such a vicious cycle of destitution.

Efforts to clean up the town bit by bit are countered by Steven’s nemesis, Frank Paine, a “mysterious businessman” who claimed several restaurants, apartment buildings, and construction companies as his own version of a town monopoly.

Frank’s controversial controlling tactics emerge as Steven edges closer to discovering just how deadly his motivations really are. But after a senseless tragedy befalls his troubled kid brother Jamie, he throws caution to the wind and is up to any challenge the town could throw at him with great pleasure.

His efforts to rid Salem City of arch-enemy Frank Paine and his family’s evil stronghold are met with strong resistance consisting of a devilish task force (a.k.a.

“Salem scum”) who will stop at nothing to squash Steven and his altruistic efforts.

Eventually, Steven blossoms into an unbridled and quite fierce vigilante and in the process, decides to fully embrace his homosexuality without the fear and shame that kept him in the closet for so long.

As a unique hybrid of human superhero and LGBTQ+ fiction, the novel is more than just a classic ‘good versus evil’ story, it also incorporates themes of identity, belonging, coming out, masculinity, and the reinforcement of that life-affirming fight against injustice in all its myriad forms. Russo notes how he “grew up loving superheroes and wanted to give back to the incredible community of fans,” and with this terrific, exhilarating debut thrill ride, he does just that.t

February 4-10, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Creatives in Place shares stories of endurance

by Jim Provenzano

H

ow are Bay Area artists enduring the pandemic? Find out through Creatives in Place, a new listening project featuring 22 Bay Area artists. Their stories of surviving and thriving during a time of great upheaval, may provide some inspiration.

The multimedia online projects Artist Sydney Cain asks questions beyond the pandemic, about ongoing economic disparities, and the debate over art as product versus creative outlet.

Curator Tammy Johnson chose the participants, mostly women and People of Color, ho each share their progress, determination and barriers in maintaining an artistic focus in their various genres.

Described as “a digital altar for culture makers who span ethnicities, races, gender identities, sexualities, and modalities,” the website presents their poetry, dance, drag, charcoal, beading, painting in audiograms, images and videos.

In a short interview, performer Lisa Evans discusses the making of her work, ‘Sermon for the Black and Crazy.’ Sydney Cain, whose multimedia work embodies impermanence and transformation, uses paper, dye, graphite and powdered metals. She discusses the ephemeral nature of her work amid a time of unrest. Mexican poet Yosimar Reyes discusses the development of his writing that explores migration and his elder care, navigating resources on their behalf. Musician Kev Choice’s profile includes excerpts from his music, as well as an interview in which he explains ‘remote’ music-making with others.

Interview audio clips have English transcription and accompanying videos and/or photo slideshows. Get to know these Bay Area artists at https://creativesinplace.orgt

Steven’s War by Donovan Russo; New Degree Press, $17.99 paperback/e-book https://donovanrusso.com/

Virtual Valentine

Richmond Ermet Aid Foundation’s February fundraiser

Steven Underhill

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OF S.F. TRAFFIC DEATHS INVOLVE DRIVERS MAKING LEFT TURNS.

Sharon Gless, Kimberley Locke and Bruce Vilanch at a 2019 REAF benefit.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

V

alentine’s Day comes a day early when the Richmond Ermet Aid Foundation offers All You Need Is Love: A Valentine Concert Celebrating Broadway. The virtual event will be streaming at Facebook Live on Saturday, February 13, at 7 PM. The evening will offer quite a star-studded line-up. Those scheduled to appear include 1960s songstress Petula Clark, Broadway legend

Barbara Cook, actress Sharon Gless, gay funnymen Leslie Jordan and Bruce Vilanch, actress Susan Anton, gay singer/songwriter Spencer Day, plus more localized names such as Carly Ozard and Steve Knill, among many others.t

Read the full article on www.ebar.com Tickets range from $25 to $100. www.reaf-sf.org/reaf-valentine-concert.html

LET’S TURN THAT AROUND.

T

Indiefest’s queer flick picks

he 23rd annual SF Indiefest will screen dozens of feature and short films online February 4-21, including three world premieres. For some short write-ups of four LGBT-interest films (girl’s romance with a an amusement park ride, morticians in Texas, Dennis Peron’s pot legalization battle and a woman’s bold steps into erotica), visit www. ebar.com. To browse films, go to www.sfindie.comt

1

2

3

TAKE IT SLOW

MAKE IT SQUARE

STAY AWARE

5 MPH IS SAFEST

90-DEGREE ANGLES ARE BEST

LOOK OUT FOR CARS, BICYCLISTS, AND PEOPLE IN THE CROSSWALKS

VisionZeroSF.org/LeftTurns

VISIONZEROSF

VZ SF

VISION ZERO SF

<< Community

t AutoErotica’s fundraiser gains new fans and donors 12 • Bay Area Reporter • February 4-10, 2021

Bradley Roberge

Framed bar posters and more at AutoErotica.

by Jim Provenzano

A

s Castro district businesses endure the pandemic, while some have closed permanently, one unique store has gained support from a devoted fan. AutoErotica, the longtime resource for vintage gay-themed sexy collectibles, has already raised more than $11,000 of its $16,000 fundraiser goal.

Since 1996, Patrick Batt has run the small upstairs shop at 4077-A 18th Street.

“When I first started, this was basically a sex toy store,” said Batt, 74, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter at his shop. “Then, other sex toy stores opened in the neighborhood. I had put magazines in the front room before that time, and it occurred to me that maybe I should do more with collectible and historic memorabilia. It was a good thing, because now I’m the last man standing in the country doing this

kind of thing. As a result, people visiting from around the country come by, before COVID, to seek out items.

So, what was a survival move turned out to be a very good move, in the big picture.”

During the initial full lockdown of the pandemic, Batt spent those months organizing his stock, in preparation for re-opening, by refining his inventory. “I discovered treasures that I didn’t know I had,” he said.

Batt worked at Drummer magazine in 1981-82, formatting the personals ad, among other duties.

Before moving to San Francisco, he also worked in the Chicago gay and leather communities. For a time, he managed the Gold Coast bar in 1978 and ’79, and also started the first International Mr. Leather contest.

Around that time, he started saving bar posters. “I tend to collect stuff.”

“Back in the days, I would buy anything,” said Batt. “But I soon

discovered that some don’t sell, like Men magazine; common as dirt. I sell them for two bucks now.”

Understandably, older periodicals and magazines do better, “stuff from the ’60s and early ’70s,” said Batt. “Physique Pictorials; they’re getting harder to find, and as a result, prices have gone through the roof on those. Drummer has picked up, because it’s no longer around, in its original form. It’s been reconstituted as a quarterly. The original’s a snapshot of old San Francisco.”

So along with being a store, it’s also an archival resource.

“AutoErotica, gay-owned and operated, located in the heart of the world-famous Castro district, is both a living museum of LGBTQ history as well as a retail shop selling items of interest to those interested in saving that history,” wrote fundraising organizer Bradley Roberge.

“I was visiting a lot,” said Roberge in an interview at the shop. “It’s been kind of a happy place for me.

Patrick and I started chatting. It was always so slow in here, and I just had a feeling he could use some help.”

Roberge set up the fundraiser, and has spruced up the shop’s Instagram account with a series of photos of items on sale. Roberge is a currently unemployed event photographer.

AutoErotica owner Patrick Batt

Collectible pins at AutoErotica

Along with paying for six months’ rent, the fundraiser’s helped Batt pay off his advertising account with the Bay Area Reporter. Additional costs include smaller fundraising fees. Because his business was deemed ‘adult entertainment,’ Batt was denied small business relief funds. He also had his long-running eBay account cancelled in 2018, with no explanation.

Batt noted that sales and visits have increased since Roberge started the fundraiser.

He says that tourists comprise many of his visitors. “Before the pandemic, there would be people from New York and LA every day,” said Batt. Now, he said, locals itching to shop and go out safely are rediscovering the store.

So, another way fans can support AutoErotica, of course, is to shop there. Batt said that some of his store’s most popular items are framed and unframed vintage bar and leather event posters. Other items include commemorative event pins, sexy books, magazines and adult DVDs. One would think that in an era of digital downloads that fans would not be interested in print adult media. Yet, as Batt explained, new fans show up every day.

“Guys in their 20s say, ‘I’ve only seen these photos online.’ Some people may have scanned pages.

They want to see more; the full photo shoots in magazines. They’re fascinated by there being something before hardcore erotica. They’re fascinated by the old stuff after seeing it online. That’s brought in a lot of people who find out there’s a place to buy this stuff.”

Also, he added, “Younger people are fascinated by the classifieds in Drummer. They say, ‘I can’t believe people put all this information in a magazine ad,’ and I look at them and say, ‘Do you have a Grindr profile?’ Back in the day, the only outlet people had was a classified ad.”

Another way to show support for AutoErotica is to donate items.

“Anything that’s older or collectible is worth considering,” Batt said. “If it’s gay, it’s part of our history.”

But please; no old VHS tapes.

That’s one form of media that’s past its prime.

Batt noted an amusing frequent occurrence at his store.

“Younger guys will ask for ‘vintage’ items, which to them are the 1990s, but to me that was last week.

It makes the job interesting. It’s nice to see how many people don’t want to see this kind of place to go away.

That’s refreshing, because for me it’s a labor of love.”t

50 Donate at www.gofundme.com/f/autoerotica

Writing the first draft of LGBTQ history...since 1971

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his April 1, the Bay Area Reporter, America’s longest continuously-published and highest circulation LGBTQ newspaper will celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

Our anniversary issue will include highlights of our five-decade history and include a timeline of our impactful coverage of LGBTQ rights from the early-1970’s to the present time.

Reserve your place in history.

Advertising space reservations for this special commemorative edition are now being accepted.t

The

Call Scott Wazlowski at 415.574.6406 or email advertising@ebar.com for advertising rates and specifications.