February 6, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 44 • No. 6 • February 6-12, 2014

World watches as Olympics begin SF protest to mark Sochi games

by Roger Brigham

Jane Philomen Cleland

Human rights and sports experts, Krista Hanson, Ph.D., left, Julie Dorf, and Helen Carroll discussed the Winter Olympics during a Commonwealth Club forum February 4.

LGBT Russians at risk, panel says

The Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi will host the figure skating and short track speed skating events at the Winter Olympics, which begin Thursday (February 6).

Courtesy rt.com

by David-Elijah Nahmod

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GBT Russians, more so than their Olympic counterparts, are at risk under the country’s anti-gay propaganda law, human rights and sports experts said this week.

See page 3 >>

Neighbors walked their dogs past LGBT activists picketing in front of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco last August opposing the gay propaganda ban in that country.

Rick Gerharter

LGBT viewers’ guide to Sochi games

by Lisa Keen

T

ensions are high as the 2014 Winter Olympics prepares to get under way Thursday (February 6) with figure skating and skiing events and then with the globally televised opening ceremony Friday.

While there is a tremendous amount of anxiety over the possibility of a terrorist attack against the games in Sochi, Russia, there is also considerable uncertainty around who might protest the country’s new anti-gay laws and how and when they might do so. Beyond the expectation that some might wear rainbow pins or hats that include “P6,” a reference to the Olympic charter’s non-discrimination policy, there are hints of bands playing “YMCA” and one skater promising to “rip” into Russian President Vladimir Putin after she’s finished her competition.

There is even more uncertainty about what the Russian government will do to anyone who does protest or violate its laws by expressing some positive message about being gay.

For U.S. television audiences interested in watching the Olympics for signs of LGBT demonstrations or visibility, there are two options: watch a condensed broadcast of the events each evening on NBC, which is covering the games; or watch live webstreams at NBCOlympics.com, keeping in mind that Sochi is 12 hours ahead of West Coast time.

The following is a list of specific events at which the potential for LGBT visibility is

higher than most: Thursday, February 6: Dutch lesbian Cheryl Maas will be competing in the Ladies Slopestyle snowboarding event. She has a profile video, Through My Eyes, that talks about her wife and child. She has spoken in the Dutch press about her unhappiness with the International Olympic Committee choosSee page 13 >>

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he Winter Olympic Games open this week in Sochi, Russia with a worldwide audience expected to be focused as much on who will make a politically charged stand as who will win medals.

Protests of Russia’s anti-gay laws are planned in San Francisco and other cities around the globe. With millions of dollars of sponsorship money from the likes of Coca-Cola and McDonald’s on the line and NBC television cameras trained on every medal ceremony, the anticipation for many LGBT and allied viewers will be for an athlete – any athlete – to test the line between sports and politics and publicly denounce Russian laws aimed at rendering LGBT individuals invisible.

Russia has spent $51 billion in infrastructure upgrades and operational costs for the event – more than the cost of any previous Summer or Winter Olympics. Concerns over potential regional Islamic terrorism have the country on full military alert, with warships and drone aircraft deployed along with tens of thousands of military and police personnel. Competition begins Thursday (February 6), with men’s figure skating, women’s moguls and men’s snowboarding – the first time Winter Olympics competition has started before the opening ceremonies, which are Friday, February 7.

Activists plan to picket outside the Russian consulate, 2790 Green Street in San Francisco from noon to 1 p.m. Friday. Team San Francisco will sponsor a “virtual Pride House,” one of many around the world, at HiTops bar, 2247 Market Street, during the opening ceremonies, while sign-waving is expected at Harvey Milk Plaza beginning at 5 p.m.

A rally is planned for Saturday, February 8, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at UN Plaza, organized by the Freedom Socialist Party.

Also that Saturday, the quadrennial Rainbow Run, which takes place in the cities that have hosted previous Gay Games, will begin at 9:15 a.m. at Stow Lake and run through Golden Gate Park, with a stop at the National AIDS Memorial Grove. Several of the participants plan to continue the run to the rally at UN Plaza. Earlier this week, the Commonwealth Club held a discussion entitled “From Russia Without Love: The 2014 Winter Olympics and Human Rights in Russia.”

Such demonstrations and discussions would not be allowed in Russia, where reports of unprosecuted gay-bashing are on the rise. Last year, Russia passed a law outlawing any “propaganda” of “non-traditional sexual relationSee page 13 >>

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<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

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Powwow draws Two Spirits

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ative Americans presented the colors, including the rainbow flag, as others drummed at the Bay Area American Indian Two Spirit’s third annual powwow, held February 1 at the SOMArts Cultural center. The daylong event included cultural traditions and celebrated the diversity of Two Spirit people.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Not guilty plea in skirt burning case

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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Surrogacy • Adoption • Prenuptial Agreements Divorce • Custody • Parentage Disputes

he teenager who allegedly set fire to a gender non-conforming teen’s skirt in November recently pleaded not guilty in the incident, while his attorney indicated he would keep trying to have the case heard in juvenile court.

Richard Allen Thomas, 16, who’s being charged as an adult and is in custody, entered his plea through attorney William Du Bois Thursday, January 30 in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland before Judge Gregory Syren.

The district attorney’s office has charged Thomas with aggravated mayhem and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Thursday, Du Bois also denied the hate crime clauses attached to the charges. If convicted, Thomas could face life in prison.

Thomas is accused of setting fire to the skirt of Sasha Fleischman, 18, November 4 as they rode an AC Transit bus in Oakland. Fleischman suffered severe burns in the incident. Both Fleischman and Thomas are of Oakland.

Du Bois has been working to get access to Thomas’s criminal records, which are confidential because he’s a juvenile.

After Thursday’s hearing, Du Bois said, “We haven’t abandoned our attempts” to have the case sent to juvenile court. He said he believes the DA’s office used Thomas’s history in its decision to charge him as

Sasha Fleischman in an undated photo.

an adult, but “I have reason to believe the records are inaccurate.” He didn’t elaborate.

A judge previously denied a motion from Du Bois to have Thomas’s case heard in juvenile court, but Du Bois said he may try again once he’s seen the details of his client’s history.

In response to an emailed question, Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, said, “The factors that go into any charging decision are not something that I am able to comment on.”

Du Bois said the court has ordered that he be given access to Thomas’s juvenile records and he was “thinking about” reviewing them Friday, January 31. He said he

didn’t know how many files there are, but the amount is “not huge, by any means.”

Thomas has spoken to him about his past records, said Du Bois, and “I feel good about what he’s had to say to me so far.”

Clergymen were also present at Thursday’s hearing. They weren’t available for comment immediately afterward, but Du Bois said they were from juvenile hall and he indicated they had volunteered to support Thomas, who has “has such an engaging and youthful personality.”

Du Bois hasn’t disputed that Thomas set fire to Fleischman but has said, “As far as I can tell,” the incident “was the result of a juvenile prank that went horribly wrong.”

He’s also said members of Thomas’s family are gay and “he doesn’t have a homophobic bone in his body.”

A pretrial hearing is set for February 19. The preliminary hearing is set for February 25.

Du Bois said it’s “always possible” that the case may be resolved before the preliminary hearing, when a judge will determine whether there’s sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.

“Hope burns eternal,” he said.

Thomas, who appeared in court behind a glass partition, gave a small wave to members of his family who were in court Thursday. His family members declined to comment after the hearing.t

Campos open to crack pipes as prevention tool

by Seth Hemmelgarn

pipes, while one refused to discuss it at all. an Francisco city supervisors Gay Supervisor David Campos and health advocates are consaid in an interview last week that tinuing to greet the idea of dishe didn’t know enough about the tributing crack pipes with a mix idea “to take a position.” that includes open-mindedness “I’m supportive of harm reand silence. duction efforts, but I don’t know Some believe such a program enough about this to know if this could help decrease transmission is the right approach,” said Camof HIV, hepatitis C, and other dispos. He has questions about lieases. In January, members of the ability and other issues. One of the HIV Prevention Planning Counthings he’d like to know about is cil, an advisory group to the health whether the city would be liable “if department that sets priorities for someone overdoses.”

HIV prevention in the city, voted He said he hadn’t approached unanimously to support an action anyone in the health department plan that includes collecting data to discuss the idea of distribuJane Philomen Cleland and exploring legal issues around Supervisor David Campos tion, but he said he’d schedule a crack pipe distribution. meeting with Garcia.

One advocate recently called “I certainly want to sit down tributing crack pipes, but others, crack cocaine use “a significant with [her] and learn more about including District Attorney George driver” of HIV infection in San her thoughts,” he said.

Gascón and gay Supervisor Scott Francisco, with risks including Campos said he’d also be “happy Wiener, have expressed openness to crack smokers being likely to engage to sit down with people proposing the idea. in unprotected sex. this idea to learn more from them,” Some supervisors approached for Public Health Director Barbara and he also planned to meet with this story also offered their thoughts Garcia and Mayor Ed Lee have vemembers of the HIV Prevention on the idea of distributing crack hemently opposed the idea of disSee page 13 >>

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Election 2014>>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Gay man, trans woman run for SF school board

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

gay man and a transgender woman pulled papers this week to run for seats on the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education in the fall election.

Jaime Rafaela Wolfe, who lost her first bid for a school board seat in 2010, is again seeking to join the board. Mounting his first bid for political office is Mark Murphy, whose husband is an elementary school teacher in the district.

“I want to make sure, and continue to ensure, San Francisco public schools continue to thrive and get the tax money they need,” said Wolfe, 36, a behaviorist and floor manager at Oakes Children’s Center Inc., a nonprofit that provides educational and therapeutic services to children with emotional and developmental issues.

“Parents and children should feel fully supported by someone who knows how schools operate. I have the passion and will to really be that person.”

Murphy, 48, a communications and marketing consultant for hightech companies as well as the city’s recreation and parks department, co-chairs a community advisory committee that recommends how the school district should allocate $50 million it receives from the city’s general fund due to the passage of Proposition H, which will expire with the 2014-15 fiscal year unless voters renew it.

“I have long cared about education, children, and our youth,” said Murphy, who had served on the LGBT advisory committee for the city’s Human Rights Commission.

The Board of Education has not had an out LGBT member since early January 2009. Rather than seek re-election in 2008, gay former school board member Mark Sanchez unsuccessfully ran for a supervisor seat that year.

In the 2010 race, all three out school board candidates who sought seats came up short. Two years ago no out candidates filed to run for the board.

This November three school board seats will be on the ballot, with at least one an open seat. KimShree Maufas plans to step down when her term expires at noon on January 8, 2015, having promised to just serve two terms on the board.

Hydra Mendoza has yet to an-

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LGBT Russians

From page 1

Speaking at the Commonwealth Club on the eve of the Sochi Winter Games, the panelists agreed that LGBTs are an easy target for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The February 4 panel was entitled, “From Russia Without Love: the 2014 Winter Olympics and Human Rights in Russia.” The room was packed with about 150 people.

Last summer, Putin signed the antigay law that makes it a crime to “promote” homosexuality to minors. The vague law means that such things as public displays of affection could subject LGBTs to fines or jail time. There have been reports of violence in the months since the law took effect.

Putin and Olympic organizers maintain that LGBT athletes will be safe during the games, but it’s unclear what would happen if someone spoke out in favor of LGBT rights.

“Putin feels the need to bolster his power by uniting people against a common enemy,” said Krista Hanson, Ph.D., a professor of Russian culture at San Francisco State University. “LGBTs are an easy target. Laws now allow for gays to be detained for saying anything which compares gay relationships to straight relationships.”

Hanson pointed to weaknesses

Courtesy Mark Murphy

Rick Gerharter

School board candidate Mark Murphy

School board candidate Jamie Rafaela Wolfe

nounce if she will run for a third term on the board. Her dual roles as being a school board member and Mayor Ed Lee’s education adviser have recently raised questions about conflicts of interest and speculation is building that she may opt to leave the board when her term expires.

(Mendoza did not respond to a request for comment on her election plans by press time.)

Incumbent Emily Murase is seeking a second four-year term, while three community members have already formed campaign committees: Stevon Cook, Trevor McNeil, and Shamann Walton.

Considered a down ticket race, the campaign for school board is often overshadowed by higher profile races on the ballot. It receives scant media attention, and candidates often struggle to attract voters’ interest.

Both Wolfe and Murphy are hoping that LGBT voters, at least, will pay closer attention to the race this year. Not only are LGBT residents of the city increasingly having children, issues such as school bullying and transgender students’ access to appropriate school facilities have become key concerns within the LGBT community.

“We have no LGBTQ representation on the school board of San Francisco, that is unacceptable,” said Wolfe. “I know I am qualified, as an LGBT person, to be on the school board.”

Murphy agrees that LGBT parents, students, and district staff need to have someone from the LGBT

community on the school board.

“For our LGBT staff and professionals, I want to be that voice at the table for them,” said Murphy.

“For our LGBTQ, and I, students in the district, I want to be that per-

in the Russian Judiciary. “The idea that a leader could be held accountable in Russia is foreign,” she said.

“President Putin acts to return the country to authoritarian rule. He controls all TV broadcasts in Russia, which is where most Russians get their news. There have been many murders of journalists who investigate corruption.”

Julie Dorf, a senior adviser with the Council for Global Equality, pointed out that LGBT life in Russia was relatively good before the crackdown began.

“The crackdown has been dramatic,” she said. “The fear across the community is pervasive. People want to flee. Daily discrimination includes people being harassed by neighbors, firing teachers, and taking children away from lesbian parents.”

Dorf described what’s called an “occupy pedophilia” movement across Russia. People have been entrapped and tortured, which is filmed and put on the Internet.

One panelist pointed out that the International Olympic Committee’s charter prohibits discrimination.

Helen Carroll, director of the sports project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said that Principal 6 of the Olympic Charter recognizes the practice of sports as a human See page 12 >>

son they can turn to and look to in a leadership role in the district and someone who has their back.”

While neither Murphy nor Wolfe are parents themselves, both argue that they care deeply about the state of public education in the city.

“Education is my life. I love being an advocate for our public school children,” said Wolfe, who used to teach at a private elementary school in the city. “I want to be that public advocate, that elected person, who is looking after our children and looking after equitable opportunities for our public school children.”

In addition to his work on the Prop H committee, Murphy has taken part in the school district’s visioning exercise for what it will look like in 2025. He has attended numerous Board of Education meetings, he said, and has spent quite a bit of time at Argonne Elementary School in the city’s Richmond district where his husband, David Allyn, works.

“With an open seat,” said Murphy, “it feels like the right time to step in

now and have the conversation to talk about what I feel are important issues to talk about in this race.”

Murphy’s platform will focus on the district’s new curriculum and assessments being implemented; addressing the achievement gap between African American and Latino students compared to their Caucasian and Asian counterparts; and seeking more community and business support for the schools.

“I don’t believe our children’s success in the San Francisco Unified School District is dependent on what happens between the morning and afternoon bell and within four square walls,” he said.

Key issues Wolfe plans to focus on in the race include budgetary oversight and encouraging healthy lifestyles, food choices and activities for students. Another key focus will be supporting LGBTQ students, she said.

“Of course, I want to ensure LGBT students, or questioning and queer students, are fully supported,” said Wolfe.t

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

Volume 44, Number 6 February 6-12, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • James Patterson • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Philip Ruth • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION T. Scott King PRODUCTION/DESIGN Jay Cribas PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Let the anti-gay games begin

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he 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi will be remembered as the most antigay in the history of the modern games. And that legacy will fall squarely on the shoulders of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he simultaneously enforces an anti-gay propaganda law across the country that is ludicrous for its depth while saying with a straight face that Olympic athletes will not be discriminated against. While that may hold true for two weeks in the small resort town, all bets are off after the world spotlight is directed elsewhere, which, if you believe Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, has no gays in it. (But it does have gay nightclubs, go figure.)

The anti-gay propaganda law seeks to make LGBTs invisible, with possible fines and jail time for those who “promote” homosexuality among minors.

The attempt to deny reality and change present-day demographics with a press statement shows the world just how backward Russian attitudes on gays are.

That Putin rules with an iron fist is no secret, so it is gratifying that some world leaders, including President Barack Obama, are not playing into his hands.

Obama will be skipping Sochi, along with his family and Vice President Joe Biden. Instead he is sending out sports figures Brian Boitano and Caitlin Cahow to represent the U.S. and who will, by their presence, spoil Putin’s coming out party at the opening ceremonies.

As much as Putin is to blame, the International Olympic Committee is not better and has made itself a laughingstock. Just this week, with reporters and athletes arriving in Sochi, IOC

President Thomas Bach ripped into foreign leaders for staying away from the games. In remarks to the Associated Press that seemed directed at Obama, but without naming any individuals, Bach said, “People have a very good understanding of what it really means to single out the Olympic Games to make an ostentatious gesture which allegedly costs nothing but produces international headlines. ... In the extreme, we had to see a few politicians whose contributions to the fight for a good cause consisted of publicly declining invitations they had not received.”

Oh, really Mr. Bach? The international outcry over the anti-gay law is overshadowing the games, and it’s a hopeful sign of support for LGBT activists and allies. Every time a corporate sponsor’s social media campaign was disrupted by gays (see: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s) more people learned about the issue, especially younger people, who by and large see discrimination against LGBTs as a loser.

If the decision to stay home by Obama and

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other world leaders is an insult to Putin, so be it. LGBTs in Russia risk their personal safety every day; and even before Putin signed the draconian law last summer many faced the threat of arrest and suffered police harassment.

Rather than casting blame on Obama and others, the IOC should have taken a strong stand in support of LGBT athletes and visitors to begin with, and told Putin in no uncertain terms that the law was antiquated, not needed, and should be abolished. The IOC’s own Olympic Charter prohibits discrimination, yet Bach and his cronies didn’t have the will or the courage to say more than “Da, Vladimir.”

The IOC should have spent these last six months devising a security plan to keep LGBT athletes safe, not intimidating them into staying quiet or speaking out from the medal podium. The IOC should have welcomed the Federation of Gay Games’ Pride House, a tradition at past Olympics that was welcoming of all athletes; instead, it acquiesced to Putin and prohibited the facility.

It’s amazing that the IOC has proven itself to be so weak and squeamish when dealing with Putin. One of the most powerful sports organizations in the world has been reduced to groveling and asskissing. Bach has tried, without success, to argue that the IOC is a sports organization with limited responsibilities. That’s ridiculous since the IOC has total control over the games, everything from site selection to the competitions.

Its charter explicitly supports human rights and anti-discrimination, which it developed over the years showcasing young athletes pursuing their dreams and fostering good will among nations.

Now the IOC is saying that if you’re an LGBT athlete, you don’t count. By caving in to an anti-gay dictator like Putin, the IOC has shown the world how little it respects human rights.t

Whatever happened to the city’s commitment to harm reduction?

by Michael Siever

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ears ago, San Francisco made a commitment to reducing harms for residents who take drugs. In 1996, the Board of Supervisors committed to a policy of treatment on demand (TOD) to ensure that San Franciscans requesting help for alcohol and other drug use received it without delay.

The TOD Planning Council advocated a harm reduction approach to helping folks who do drugs (including alcohol) even if they were not ready or willing to endorse abstinence as their goal. A harm reduction approach views any step toward improved health as a positive step.

In 2000, the Health Commission endorsed harm reduction and made it the policy of the Department of Public Health and a guiding principle for all DPH contractors.

Fast forward to 2014 and we find Mayor Ed Lee and Health Director Barbara Garcia balking at a recommendation by the HIV Prevention Planning Council that DPH consider the evidence supporting the distribution of crack pipes, a harm reduction approach with aims similar to those of needle exchange.

The suggestion that DPH should investigate and evaluate the research supporting this public health intervention seems to have caused a moral panic at the highest levels. Despite the oft-heard commitment to “evidence-based practices,” both the mayor and the director of health outright refused to even evaluate the evidence. They both flatly said, “No, we will not even consider this.”

All this was prompted by a unanimous resolution of the HPPC recommending that DPH evaluate the available research on the health and other impacts of distributing crack pipes and investigate the legal options for doing so.

The HPPC is the city’s official community planning body charged with developing plans to reduce new HIV infections.

Community activists had made a presentation to the HPPC showing the effectiveness of crack pipe distribution in other places. Results

include more effective outreach to people who smoke crack, reductions in crack use, and improved health including a drop in the acquisition and transmission of HIV. Thus, the unanimous approval of a rather mildly worded resolution that merely recommended that DPH consider the evidence and possibilities.

In fact, the DPH’s own 2010 HIV Prevention Plan lists crack use is an independent driver of HIV in San Francisco. Yet DPH has neither developed nor funded any programs specifically for crack smokers.

Ironically, while the mayor and the director of health were refusing to even contemplate the evidence, the San Francisco Police Department, district attorney, and city attorney have recently become advocates of harm reduction.

The police department stated that it would be happy to support the distribution of crack pipes if the health department did. The city attorney has gone on record supporting supervised injection facilities. And the district attorney recently joined the San Diego police chief in calling for a statewide reduction of drug possession charges from felonies to misdemeanors.

These positions result from research on effective methods of reducing the harms caused by alcohol and other drug use. Yet the mayor and the director of health seem to be operating on moralism and political expediency rather than reason and evidence.

Despite the knee-jerk reaction moral outrage by the mayor and health director, there is ample evidence supporting the effectiveness of harm reduction approaches. Crack use has gone down in Vancouver, B.C. and other cities throughout Canada and the world since the introduction of crack pipe distribution programs. Activists in Seattle have recently begun distribution of crack pipes and the initial data on its effectiveness is good.

Another irony is that this all occurred shortly after the 25th anniversary of Prevention

Point, the needle exchange program started by activists in San Francisco to halt the spread of HIV among people who inject drugs.

In 1988, in an act of civil disobedience, these activists started exchanging used needles for sterile ones. These brave women and men, many of whom were members of the LGBT communities, risked arrest since needle exchange was then illegal in California.

Five years later, Mayor Frank Jordan declared a State of Public Health Emergency to justify ignoring state laws outlawing needle exchange. Until 2006, the Board of Supervisors had to pass a resolution every two weeks reiterating the State of Public Health Emergency to allow needle exchange to continue without legal repercussions.

Needle exchange programs are now well established in San Francisco and have been credited with keeping HIV infection rates in people who inject drugs among the lowest in the nation.

Hopefully, the mayor and the director of health will reassess the situation, be willing to evaluate the evidence from other localities, and take a brave stand similar to what the city did 20 years ago with needle exchange.

For many years, San Francisco was a model for the nation, a source of cutting-edge public health interventions. We can regain that role in the nation and the world by once again taking enlightened, forward-thinking positions on public health policies.

These are not merely theoretical policy debates – these are decisions that have real life consequences – think of how many lives have been saved by and the health and wellness impact of needle exchange programs, equally controversial at its beginning.

Michael Siever, Ph.D., is a psychologist with over 30 years of specializing in addictive behaviors and harm reduction. He founded the Stonewall Project and Magnet.

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Letters >>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Flu season or anti-gay season?

Last Saturday I stepped into the Castro Smoke House (the tobacco shop with the New York Times awning) as I frequently do because they are convenient and have the best prices for cigarettes anywhere in the Castro. However, this time the clerk had a friend with him, sitting in the back and wearing a surgical mask.

I recall how during the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s some people visiting Eureka Valley wore these masks so as not to “catch the gay disease.” I even encountered several homeless men wearing the mask while at the same time panhandling. So I found it highly offensive to see this mask worn once again after so many years, here in a shop that profits from the queer dollar.

Once making my purchase I asked the clerk, “Why is your friend wearing a mask, flu season?”

And he replied, “Yeah, something like that.”

Then I turned to that person seated in back and queried: “Are you wearing that mask because you’re in a gay neighborhood?”

He shrugged his shoulders and answered: “Yeah, something like that.”

So I told him what a piece of shit he is, to which the clerk commented, “That isn’t very nice.”

“Not very nice?” I demanded. “You think what your friend said is nice? You just lost a customer!” And out I went with a slam of the door.

In short, I implore all gay residents, visitors, and their allies to boycott the tobacco shop. It is located at 409 Castro Street, just around the corner from Twin Peaks Tavern.

Zeke Krahlin San Francisco

group or schedule an assessment with one of our clinicians for individual, group, or psychiatric services. AHP has been providing HIV counseling and testing, substance use services, crisis intervention, and professional individual and group therapy, and psychiatric care to uninsured members of our community for 30 years. We are located at 1930 Market Street.

Call (415) 476-3902 for an appointment and visit our website http://www.ucsf-ahp.org for further information.

James Dilley, MD, Executive Director UCSF Alliance Health Project San Francisco

Castro eyesore

On the corner of 18th Street and Castro, the heart of our historic gayborhood, sits Bank of America. It’s home of the “Wailing Wall” and memories of Hibernia Beach for many of us. For all of Bank of America’s claims of celebrating diversity, and being inclusive, I have to wonder if the bank truly means it. Outside and in, this branch is an eyesore. Outside one sees peeling mismatched paint, bird shit, stained stonework, and boring windows. Inside appears not to have been touched since 1978. This is how Bank of America shows respect for our Castro community. This sad branch says to me: “We like your gay money, but we aren’t spending a dime to improve your neighborhood, because we don’t care.”

With the exciting sidewalk widening starting later this month, Bank of America needs to step up and invest in improving this tired eyesore.

Daniel Bergerac, Vice President Castro Merchants San Francisco

More support groups for older HIVers

I enjoyed your piece “Agencies hold health fair for HIV-positive older men” [January 23] and want to take a moment to acknowledge the work provided by our colleagues at 360: Positive Health Care, Magnet and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Research focusing on the needs of older LGBTQ patients is something that medical and social service providers are anxious to see more of, and I am happy to see that my colleagues are conducting this research.

I also want to take this opportunity to remind your readers that the UCSF Alliance Health Project has a support group for older gay men and provides individual therapy and group therapy for people with HIV (as well as LGBTQ folks without HIV).

Eligibility for AHP services is based on individual income and insurance coverage. AHP also refers those we cannot serve to other LGBTQ-affirming mental health care providers, e.g., Openhouse, Queer LifeSpace, and Mission Neighborhood Health Center.

Our staff provide mental health services on a daily basis and know all too well the struggles that older LGBTQ folks face. As such, we welcome them to join a support

Thanks to planning dept. staffer

I enjoyed reading the article published December 12 about the Twin Peaks Tavern historical designation, which was awarded the 2013 Governor’s Historic Preservation Award by the California Office of Historic Preservation [“Bar landmarking wins award,” News Briefs]. Not mentioned in the story is that the research and interviews for the landmark designation were conducted by out queer planning department staff member Moses Corrette. The Governor’s Award is the highest honor awarded by the California Office of Historic Preservation. Moses accepted the award for the planning department in Sacramento on November 21. Moses also wrote the landmark designation report and shepherded the designation through the public hearing process at the Historic Resources and Planning Commissions and at the Board of Supervisors. His hard work was in large part responsible for the Twin Peaks Tavern being designated a city landmark by the board and Mayor Ed Lee. Neil Hart San Francisco

Drought hits SF as residents asked to conserve 10%

compiled by Cynthia Laird

S

an Francisco residents are being asked to conserve 10 percent of their water use, city officials said last week, as drought concerns mount throughout the Bay Area and the state during the driest year in recorded state history.

While last Sunday’s rain was much needed, it was not enough to ease drought concerns.

At a press briefing January 31, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials said that voluntary water conservation is the first step in stretching available water supplies for their customers, some of whom reside in the South and East Bays as well as the city.

The SFPUC said that precipitation in regional system watersheds to date is only 25 percent of normal, the worst it’s been in recorded history.

Easy water-saving tips include turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth or doing the dishes (saves two gallons per minute); taking shorter showers with high-efficiency showerheads (each minute saves 2.5 gallons); using a broom to clean sidewalks instead of hosing them off; and watering gardens and lawns before dawn or at night.

If people hear their toilets running or see faucets dripping they can

State and local water officials advise people to only water gardens and lawns before dawn or at night.

contact their water agency for information on locating their water meter and detecting plumbing leaks using meter readings.

San Francisco residents can receive free, waterefficient kitchen sink aerators and showerheads by going to the SFPUC’s office at 525 Golden Gate Avenue with proof of address Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Water agencies in other parts of the Bay Area may offer similar programs.

In mid-January, California Governor Jerry Brown called on state

residents to voluntarily conserve water use by 20 percent.

Sheehan said that the city’s call for a 10 percent reduction takes into account the system’s storage sources, supplies, and usage patterns. By and large city residents already do an excellent job of conserving water, he said.

The voluntary rationing is the first step for the SFPUC. If the drought persists, the agency will look at other conservation efforts, including mandatory rationing.

For more information, including rebates for low-flow toilets, visit www.sfwater.org/supplyupdate.

See page 6 >>

<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

Discrimination’s due

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

A

new study conducted by Ann P. Haas, Ph.D., and Philip L. Rodgers, Ph.D., of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Jody L. Herman, Ph.D., of UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute, forges an important link between suicide attempts by transgender people and the discrimination they face.

Specifically, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, or NTDS, states that 78 percent of those who responded to the survey

and had suffered physical or sexual violence while at school attempted suicide. Further, 65 percent had attempted suicide after suffering the same at their workplace.

The survey was based on responses from 6,456 selfidentified transgender or gender non-conforming adults ages 18 and over.

The study covered more than just violence in workplace and school: it shows that 57 percent of transgender people who were rejected by their family attempted suicide, 69 percent had ever been homeless, 60 percent were refused treatment by a doctor, and 57 to 61 percent had been disrespected or harassed by a member of law enforcement.

Let’s step back and put this in context, by way of a study based on the same data from October 2010, conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Their findings showed that 41 percent of transgender people in the United States have attempted suicide; this is almost nine times the national average.

It is with no pride that I say that while I am not in that 41 percent who attempted suicide, I most certainly have been very close on more than a few occasions. I’ve been lucky, nothing more, not to be part of this statistic.

I have also had a great many

Maitri, a 15-room residence for people living with AIDS, seeks compassionate people to provide emotional and practical support for our hospice, end-of-life and respite residents.

Training dates: March 22, 23, 29 & 30, 2014.

transgender friends who have attempted suicide, and a handful or so who were successful.

To be frank, I don’t think I needed this study to tell me that transgender people are more likely to attempt suicide based on the discrimination and ill treatment we may face. This link seems brutally obvious.

It is damned hard to be transgender in this society. We live in a culture that is very rigidly gender divided. We segregate the lives of our children from before birth, selecting pink or blue from the first ultrasound while holding gender reveal parties to share the news with family and friends.

Everything from womb to tomb is built around a notion that we’re either one or the other, and we must live up to sometimes unrealistic expectations around same.

Transgender people, in this culture, are treated as someone who everyone is free to mock and everyone is allowed to hate. To some, we’re “traps,” existing only to somehow turn straight people queer – and deserve all the hate, derision, and violence sent our way.

I am of the belief that it is gender that lay at the heart of not only the discrimination that transgender and gender non-conforming people face, but the same core lies at the heart of homophobia. It is not the sexual practices that create an aura

of fear, but the sense that they will be viewed as somehow less a member of their gender for having a same-sex attraction.

That notion that we are cruel deceivers is the basis of every cliche Hollywood has foisted on us, from The Silence of the Lambs to Mrs. Doubtfire: the only reason, according to the mass media, for a person to appear as the opposite sex is for some illicit gain.

That is when they’re not trying to tantalize the audience with stories about our genitals and what they may or may not look like.

Those who try, again and again, to thwart transgender rights, particularly surrounding public accommodations, tell anyone who will listen that we’re akin to rapists and molesters aiming for your wives and daughters in the ladies room, ignoring that we – like nearly everyone else – merely want a safe, clean place to go to the toilet.

When we’re not viewed as deceptive, we’re presented as some form of tragic disability. We are disordered, a victim of gender dysphoria. We’re not to be feared, it would seem, but rather pitied for the cruel fate that is our lot in life. That we are suicidal is simply part and parcel of us poor dears being in a body that does not match our spirit.

Hogwash. If there is one clear thing from this most recent study, it is not that being transgender drives us to suicide: it is the discrimination and violence we face for being transgender.

t

As I noted above, every time a transgender person faces physical or sexual violence at school, there’s a 78 percent chance they will attempt suicide. It’s not being transgender that is causing that, but the way they are treated by others for being transgender.

This is why laws like California’s AB 1266, the School Success and Opportunity Act, are so vital. This is not about peeping toms in bathrooms, but about affording transgender and gender nonconforming students an equal footing in schools.

This is also why the story of Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt’s outing by writer Caleb Hannan – and her subsequent suicide – was such a blow.

We do not know for sure that one led to another, but we do know that Vanderbilt had attempted suicide prior, and we can infer that this report outing Vanderbilt to an investor – and telling her that he was going to take her story public – certainly could not have helped matters.

I wish this was not such a radical notion that if you stop discriminating against us, and let us live our lives on an equal footing, a lot less of us would end up dead. The findings of the NTDS survey should be obvious and very much common sense.

It’s high time that transgender people were given a fair shake.t Gwen Smith still misses many great people, lost along the way.

You’ll find her at gwensmith.com.

Mixed momentum on LGBT rights, report says

by Lisa Keen

A

n independent think tank that studies the progress of the movement on equal rights for LGBT people recently released its latest report and the assessment is a surprising “mixed.”

The Movement Advancement Project’s biennial Momentum report acknowledges “unprecedented progress” toward marriage equality in the past two years but noted that, while 17 states allow same-sex couples to marry, 33 don’t. And progress on other issues of importance to the LGBT movement, such as bullying and employment discrimination, “have slowed significantly.”

“In fact, over half of U.S. states lack even the basic laws protecting LGBT people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations,” said MAP, a Denver-based group whose work is funded by 13 foundations and LGBT supporters, including the Gill Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the David Geffen Foundation, and James Hormel.

“The fact is, most states have passed few or no laws protecting LGBT people,” stated the report.

<<

News Briefs

From page 5

B.A.R. launches, rebrands ‘Best of’ readers poll

The Bay Area Reporter this week launched its fourth annual readers poll, now known as The Besties: The LGBT Best of the Bay. The name change, from Best of the Gays, was done to be more inclusive to the paper’s readers, said advertising director Scott Wazlowski.

The readers poll is now available online and can be accessed by clicking the banner ads or thumbnail image on www.ebar.com. Paper bal-

“In the spirit of Charles Dickens’s famous line, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’ the remarkable progress of recent years in some states has obscured the fact that in a majority of states, LGBT people still are treated under the law as second-class citizens.”

The report divides the states into three categories: “High Equality” states (20 plus Washington, D.C.), “Medium Equality” states (Wisconsin and Indiana), and “Low Equality” states (the rest). High equality states include California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York. The low equality states include Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Texas.

The report said momentum favors continued progress in marriage equality, in large part because public opinion polls show a growing percentage of Americans accept the fairness of allowing same-sex couples to marry. But it noted that, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision striking down a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, the availability of benefits involving certain federal agencies – Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, to name three big ones – remains “unclear.”

The report also noted “real progress” in fighting discrimination through local government ordinances and major employer policies.

It noted that 188 local governments in states with no sexual orientation discrimination protection now prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, as do 91 percent of Fortune 500 corporations.

Among the more interesting facts included in the report this year are: every state but one has an openly LGBT elected official (the report didn’t name the state); there are more than one million LGBT veterans; 71,000 are serving in the military currently; there are about 140,000 transgender veterans; only 21 states and D.C. have “unambiguous laws” allowing samesex couples to adopt children; 20 percent of hate crimes reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI in 2012 involved sexual orientation bias; three times as many people between the ages of 18 and 29 self-identify as LGBT compared to people 65 and older; and “the number of regular and recurring LGBT characters on broadcast network television reached its highest point in five years during the 2012-13 season.”t

lots also appear in this week’s print edition (arts section and BARtab).

Balloting will remain open this month. Categories include Community, Restaurants, Nightlife, People and City Living, Shopping, Arts and Entertainment, and the East Bay. So fill out the ballot or go online and vote for the LGBT Besties.

cisco State University, Jack Adams Hall, 1600 Holloway Avenue. Public parking is available on campus.

In a letter to constituents, Speier pointed out that the enrollment period for the new health care marketplace under the Affordable Care Act (known here as Covered California) is coming to a close and people who have not already signed up should enroll by March 31. This is the last day to enroll into the exchange until the open enrollment period later this year.

“Everyone has a different set of circumstances and those circumstances will affect your insurance options See page 14 >>

Speier holds health care enrollment event

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) will hold a health care enrollment assistance event Friday, February 7 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at San Fran-

t

Politics>>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Newsom at ease as lieutenant governor

by Matthew S. Bajko

F

our years after being elected California’s lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom has come to embrace the job. One advantage of serving in the post, he has found, is being free to speak his mind.

In late 2012, for instance, he made waves when he came out publicly in support of legalizing marijuana in a New York Times story. Last October, Newsom announced he was working with the American Civil Liberties Union to review the issue and possibly ask voters in 2016 to make pot legal in the Golden State.

“I can say what I think now. It is so great,” said Newsom, 46, San Francisco’s former mayor who gained worldwide recognition a decade ago this month when he ordered city staffers to marry samesex couples despite state laws barring such marriages.

In a recent editorial board meeting with the Bay Area Reporter, Newsom’s frankness was on full display. He was particularly critical of LGBT community members who embrace politicians that do not fully support their rights.

“I find it mesmerizing that the gay community is so indulgent to certain politicians and support them even though they weren’t supportive of them in their lives,” said Newsom, who did not refer to any specific lawmakers. “It’s a stunning, unbelievable thing. I still sit here mesmerized about it.”

And he is “dumbfounded” at how certain political leaders still sanction discrimination against LGBT people.

“The only community you can

Rick Gerharter

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom

get away with discriminating against is the gay community. If it were the African American community, you would be finished,” said Newsom.

“Overtly discriminating against gays and lesbians is still okay.”

LGBT people’s countenance of leaders who aren’t 100 percent supportive of them runs the gamut, he added, from presidential candidates and senatorial candidates to gubernatorial candidates.

“You can ask them for money and look many members of the community in the eye and get it. You can’t make that up,” said Newsom. “I was always dumbfounded by that.”

Newsom still recalls the haranguing he received from national LGBT leaders for his decision in 2004 to buck state law and allow same-sex couples to receive marriage licenses.

Some felt he had no right “to get in-

volved” in the issue, added Newsom.

“Remember, the gay community came down hard on me,” he said, though Newsom was quick to add that local LGBT leaders “were incredible.”

He also came under attack from fellow Democrats, many of whom he considers to be good friends to this day. In response, Newsom did not shy away from responding to his fellow party members.

“I got a little pissy when all these fancy politicians are saying civil unions are good enough. Fuck you,” said Newsom. “Seriously, they were having a fundraiser with the LGBT community two minutes later.

Screw you, seriously.”

He gets a “quiet little smile” when he turns on the TV and sees someone who was “vehemently against” marriage equality and “yelling at me five years before” now saying, “As our state goes so goes the nation” when it comes to same-sex marriage.

“I can’t criticize,” said Newsom.

“When a person comes on their journey, you have to celebrate it.”

He welcomes seeing many politicians, especially Democrats, “publicly evolve” on the issue of marriage equality, so much so, that the issue is now being used as a “litmus test” within the party.

“You would be hard pressed to get out of a primary as a Democrat and not support gay marriage,” said Newsom, who lives in Marin County with his wife, actress and film producer Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their three children, Montana, Hunter, and Brooklyn.

Seeks re-election as Lt. Gov

This year Newsom is focused on his re-election to another four-year term as lieutenant governor. To date, no serious Republican candidate has entered the race to challenge Newsom, whose re-election campaign fund reported last week having more than $1.7 million in cash on hand.

“It shows you the state of the Republican Party,” he said of not having a high-profile GOP opponent.

He acknowledged that his working relationship with Governor Jerry Brown, who has been a longtime friend to Newsom’s family, has been bumpy over the past four years.

“After that first year, I hit some walls and expressed my frustration publicly,” said Newsom. “I thought I had a strong partnership with the governor’s office and saw that change.”

While he questioned whether to seek re-election, Newsom said he

came to the decision that he “didn’t want to give in” and could still make a difference.

“I don’t want to walk away; I have something to contribute,” he said.

Coming to understand that Brown “is just not collaborative,” Newsom believes the two do have a “great relationship” these days.

“Maybe I am naive, but I think I have had some influence on the governor’s office,” he said. “I am holding him accountable and not letting him off the hook.”

He added that Brown “is doing a great job and needs to be re-elected,” predicting the governor will win re-election to a fourth term come November with at least 73 percent of the vote.

One change Newsom would like to see is having the governor and lieutenant governor candidates run together as a ticket as opposed as individual candidates.

“We get along well, that is why we should run as a damn ticket. It is ridiculous,” said Newsom.

A likely candidate to succeed Brown in 2018, Newsom did not rule out one day serving in the U.S. Senate. He was adamant, however, of having no desire to be elected to a House seat.

“Oh God, no way,” said Newsom.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on LGBTs in Solano County gaining Democratic Party posts.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8615019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Gay WeddingFair

<< Community News

t Tenderloin tenants strategize against housing crisis 8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

by Peter Hernandez

N

ot far from Twitter’s gleaming headquarters, yet surrounded by looming cranes and prevalent squalor, some 150 people met recently to talk about housing and living issues in the Tenderloin and to strategize methods for combating the dynamic housing crisis in San Francisco.

At last month’s Tenderloin Tenants Convention, Tenderloin workers and residents described their neighborhood as vibrant, eclectic, central, and service-rich. Organizers say that an increasing cost of living, an exponential increase in Ellis Act evictions, and insubstantial returns to the community from the towering tech industry in the nearby South of Market district jeopardize those qualities.

“They’re going to be here for better or for worse. How do we keep them accountable, talk about the wealth that’s not being taxed, and get the city to take responsibility for what they created?” asked Hatty Lee, a community organizer at Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Lee and several other nonprofit workers fielded questions at the workshop, asking what people liked and disliked about the neighborhood, then asking for solutions to those issues. People offered solutions like improved mediation between tenants and landlords and low interest loans to renters for buying their own building from their landlord.

Ideas that were discussed at a Castro Tenants Convention, also held last month, were allowing tenants to purchase their building from a speculator to prevent displacement, placing a moratorium on Ellis Act evictions, restricting rent to 30 percent of the neighborhood’s median income, and placing a 100 percent tax on excessively high rent.

But these approaches are far from seeing legislative fruition. Supervisors Jane Kim and David Campos were present at the Tenderloin convention to observe the frustrations felt by Tenderloin residents. This week, Campos introduced legislation to help tenants evicted under the Ellis Act, a state law that allows landlords to get out of the rental business. [See related story below.]

“Even higher income people are feeling pressure because of this housing crisis because there are so many buildings developed post1979 in South of Market,” Kim said while surveying the crowd. Buildings constructed after 1979 do not qualify for rent control and many are in SOMA and the Tenderloin, which are part of Kim’s district.

Tenderloin and SOMA have a unique amalgam of widespread poverty and an influx of new wealth.

Kim said that she wants to see 30 percent of all housing in her district become affordable.

Peter Cohen, of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, said that presently there is a need for 61 percent affordable housing in Kim’s district, with very lowto moderate-income people making up to 120 percent of the area’s median income. That means there is an overwhelming need for affordable housing even for families making up to $120,000 a year, said Kim. Campos, who represents the Mission district, initiated an analysis of tenant displacement in October and introduced legislation calling for an increase of tenant relocation assistance, which can currently cost up to $5,100 per person today but would increase according to the difference between the pre- and posteviction housing rates.

Campos’s analysis found that 42 percent of tenants displaced in 2012 were disabled, and many who are debilitated by AIDS-related com-

Peter Hernandez

Brian Basinger, executive director at AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco, shares some housing crisis solutions developed by a working group at the recent Tenderloin Tenants Convention.

plications who have found refuge in the network of services and housing aid in the Tenderloin are in danger of being displaced by Ellis Act evictions. Citywide, according to an October 2013 memo to Campos from legislative and budget analyst Fred Brousseau, such evictions have increased by 170 percent between 2010 and 2013.

Common ideas

Participants at the convention sought engagement with the tech industry, seeking youth tech training programs and monetary donations for nonprofits that work with the chronically ill and homeless. They also wanted a cleaner and safer Tenderloin – not far from the desires of tech workers like former AngelHack CEO Greg Gopman, who demeaned the homeless on Market Street in a Facebook rant last year.

“How can we get people from what they don’t like to what we can do about it?” asked Fernando Marti, co-director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, an

organization of 20 nonprofit housing organizations and faith-based groups.

Meanwhile, Bobby Chambers, a 45-year-old entrepreneur who has worked in tech, participated in the convention as a note-taker. He feverishly scrawled laments from Tenderloin tenants on oversized white paper, with a list reading, “Dislikes: Pedestrian safety, diminishing services, feces” and others.

A newcomer to San Francisco

via Dublin, Chambers sees himself as a liaison between tenant advocates and tech. Seven months ago he moved into a high-rise apartment at Geary and Jones, where the nearby Geary Courtyard Apartments charge $3,000 for a one-bedroom apartment. He got into a legal feud with his landlord, who wanted him out, and now empathizes with the tenant movement.

Brian Basinger, director of AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco, said that Mayor Ed Lee encouraged gentrification in the Tenderloin with the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. Those funds purchased several arts buildings in District 6, encouraging higher rents and luxury housing development. Alongside tax exemptions for large tech companies, Lee’s multi-pronged approach to redeveloping the MidMarket and Tenderloin area has culminated in rising rent for both nonprofit office space and for housing units, he said.

“You don’t even need a degree in urban planning to understand what [CAST] is supposed to do. It’s radically changing economic diversity,” Basinger said.

A citywide tenants convention will be held at the Tenderloin Elementary School at Turk and Van Ness streets on February 8 at 1 p.m.t

Campos unveils Ellis Act fix

Please join the Jewish Community Relations Council in celebration on the 10th anniversary of the first same-sex marriages performed in San Francisco

Behind the Scenes 2014 Honorees The JCRC Courageous Leadership Award Dennis Herrera, San Francisco City Attorney, and Therese Stewart, Chief Deputy City Attorney The JCRC Jewish-Civic Leadership Award Inspired by Rita Semel

Douglas E. Goldman, M.D.

Rick Gerharter

Longtime San Francisco renter Rosemarie Guitron-Diaz, center, describes the disruption she and her family are facing due to a pending Ellis Act eviction at a February 3 news conference. She is flanked on either side by other tenants facing a similar situation, Theresa Flandrich, left, and Joshua Stein, second from right.

Supervisor David Campos is at right.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

C Wednesday, February 12, 2014 6:00 pm Light Dinner Reception followed by Program & Dessert JCCSF, 3200 California Street

Celebrating our Community Champions To become a sponsor or to purchase tickets, please go to www.jcrc.org/behindthescenes2014.htm

oncerned with landlords who invoke a state law to legally evict tenants, one San Francisco supervisor this week proposed a local fix to the problem.

Gay Supervisor David Campos this week introduced legislation that would require landlords who use the Ellis Act to pay more money to affected tenants.

Under the proposal, landlords who evict using the Ellis Act will be required to pay the difference between the tenant’s rental rate prior to eviction and what would have been the market rate for that unit for two years.

A news release from Campos’s office said that the proposal would ensure that relocation payments adequately represent true market costs and allow displaced tenants who would face dramatically higher rent costs the opportunity to stay in San Francisco.

Passed by the state Legislature in 1985, the Ellis Act allows landlords who wish to “get out of the rental business” to evict tenants without warning. Although the tenant is

paid to leave, many lower income people, particularly the disabled, seniors, and people of color, are forced to leave the city due to the current market’s high rents.

In recent years out of town real estate developers have purchased multiple buildings and evicted the tenants. Campos’s district includes the Mission, a traditionally working class Latino community. Now considered trendy, the Mission has been particularly hard hit by the wave of evictions as young tech industry professionals move into the neighborhood.

The Castro neighborhood has also been hard hit.

Campos held a news conference Monday, February 3 that included tenants facing eviction.

“This will help tenants buy time to stay in the city,” Campos said of his proposal.

He also hoped that the increased cost to landlords would help to dissuade Ellis Act evictions. Currently, each evicted tenant can collect approximately $5,261, with an additional $3,508 paid to the elderly and disabled.

Campos’s proposal would keep these amounts as a minimum, but See page 10 >>

Community News>>

t DA: Nearly 1 in 10 DV cases are LGBT

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

by Seth Hemmelgarn

N

early one in 10 domestic violence cases presented to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office in recent months involve samesex or same-gender couples.

The data, the first time the agency has compiled the statistics since it started collecting them electronically, may be low due to underreporting, but it could help law enforcement officials and advocates for survivors help people who’ve been involved in violent relationships.

The DA’s office compiled statistics from March, the first month for which data is available electronically, through November. During that period, 101 of the 1,099, or 9.2 percent, of the domestic violence cases presented to the DA’s office involved same-sex or same-gender couples.

Not all cases that were presented to the DA’s office resulted in charges being filed.

Assistant District Attorney Marshall Khine is the managing attorney for the DA’s Domestic Violence Unit. In a recent interview, Khine said, “It’s hard to say what the reason is for the percentage” of overall cases that are same-sex and “whether there is underreporting or not. ...

It could be that there are fewer domestic violence cases in the LGBT community.”

He added, “I certainly have no doubt that in every community, far more goes on than is reported.”

Not surprisingly, male couples accounted for most of the 101 cases.

There were 71 cases with a male suspect and a male victim, or 70.3 percent. Female couples were second, with 15, or 14.9 percent, of the 101 cases.

Cases involving a transgender suspect and male victim accounted for 10, or 9.9 percent, of the same-sex and same-gender incidents. It’s not clear from the data whether the transgender people are male or female.

Electronic data were not available for all cases that were presented in March and April.

Khine said that last year, the DA’s office reviewed 1,700 domestic violence cases for prosecution. Prosecutors acted on between 35 and 40 percent of those, meaning the cases were charged, or prosecutors proceeded by way of probation revocation or referral to another jurisdiction or agency. Domestic violence charges are most commonly related to battery.

Underreporting

In a June 2013 meeting with the Bay Area Reporter, District Attorney George Gascón described how his office had begun looking at how it can gather data on LGBT crime victims, and possibly offenders, “so we can be more informed about the way we approach the community,”

THIS IS YOUR MOMENT! Rick Gerharter

Assistant District Attorney Marshall Khine

and better direct services and staffing to meet the community’s needs.

As a trial project, the DA started with domestic violence cases and found figures that are roughly similar to the more recent data. In March, for example, about 9.2 percent of cases reviewed by the DA’s office involved same-sex couples.

“I would have a hard time believing” that the numbers of same-sex cases are so low, Gascón said in June. “I don’t see why the LGBT community would have any less of a problem” than couples in general, he said.

In an interview in January, after the more recent statistics had been compiled, Gascón again suggested more LGBTs may be experiencing domestic violence than are reporting it.

“I’m a little unsure as to whether the data reflects the actual scope” of the problem “or we have underreporting,” he said.

Gascón said that he hopes “we continue to get the message out,” and he encourages people to report incidents.

“People should feel very, very comfortable” going to authorities when they’re experiencing domestic violence, he said.

Khine said, “We want to know about these cases, even the most minor of cases that don’t result in injuries.”

He said the DA’s office “could always benefit from more public awareness and public education,” but it’s not clear whether the agency will do any formal campaigns around the issue.

“It’s still early to talk about what campaigns are coming up right now,” said Alex Bastian, Gascón’s spokesman.

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Potential uses

Khine indicated that the DA’s data could be helpful in ensuring there are enough resources in the right places.

See page 12 >>

Same-sex and same-gender DV cases presented Number March through November*

Percentage of all same-sex/ same-gender DV cases

Male-Male

71

70.3%

Female-Female

15

14.9%

Transgender-Male

10

9.9%

Type

Male-Transgender

3

3.0%

Transgender-Transgender

2

2.0%

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*Electronic data were not available for all cases that were presented in March and April.

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<< National News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

t

Prepping for LifeCycle ride

V

olunteers Cailin Lafontaine, left, and TJ Chaparro staff a booth selling AIDS/LifeCycle riding gear during the kickoff event Saturday, February 1 at the County Fair building in Golden Gate Park. The 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a fundraiser for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and LA Gay and Lesbian Center, takes place June 1-7. For more information, visit www.aidslifecycle.org.

Rick Gerharter

Experts release new hepatitis C guidelines

by Liz Highleyman

T

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Availability should include at least one of the following: weekday daytime hours, evenings, or weekends to cover assigned events. News reporting experience preferred; newspaper background a plus. Candidates should demonstrate ability to write under deadline and be detail oriented.

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he American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and International Antiviral SocietyUSA last week released updated hepatitis C guidelines that include new drugs recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration that are expected to revolutionize treatment.

The recommendations, available on the newly launched website HCVguidelines.org, will be updated frequently to reflect emerging data from clinical studies.

“Recently approved medications and several others on the horizon promise to cure nearly all treated patients without the many side effects that have plagued past treatment regimens,” said AASLD panel co-chair Donald Jensen during a January 28 media teleconference.

An estimated three to four million people in the U.S. have chronic hepatitis C, which over years or decades can lead to severe liver disease including cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Until now the standard of care has included pegylated interferon, which must be injected weekly and can cause side effects ranging from flu-like symptoms to depression, plus ribavirin, which can cause anemia.

The first oral direct-acting antiviral drugs for hepatitis C – boceprevir (Victrelis) and telaprevir (Incivek) – were approved in 2011.

But these drugs, used as add-ons to pegylated interferon and ribavirin, come with their own side effects and drug interactions.

Many prospective patients and providers have therefore been waiting for better-tolerated, all-oral, interferon-free options. The first of a new crop of next-generation direct-acting antivirals were approved

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Ellis Act fix

From page 8

in most cases, it would make relocation reflect market increases.

During the press conference, Campos and housing activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca questioned the legalities of some recent evictions, and whether landlords who buy multiple buildings specifically to evict all the tenants were ever in the rental business at all.

Several tenants facing eviction spoke at the news conference.

“I’ve lived in the Haight for 33 years, 23 years in my current unit,” said Joshua Stein. “We got a notice right before Christmas, either accept a buyout or face Ellis Act. The landlord wants us to move in 60 days, but with the housing market what it is, that’s impossible. We’ll have to leave because of the rental market.”

Theresa Flandrich has been in her North Beach unit for 30 years. She spoke of raising her son there, and of neighbors caring for each other when some became sick or elderly.

“I want to stay in my community

Liz Highleyman

Hepatitis C researcher Michael Saag

in December: Janssen’s simeprevir (Olysio) and Gilead Science’s sofosbuvir (Sovaldi). As with antiretrovirals for HIV, hepatitis C drugs must be used in combination to prevent resistance.

Treatment recommendations

A panel of two-dozen hepatitis C medical experts and patient advocate Daniel Raymond from the Harm Reduction Coalition developed the evidence-based guidelines released last week. They are intended for both specialists who have traditionally treated people with hepatitis C, as well as for primary care providers who will be called on to treat the growing number of people seeking care.

The first iteration of the new guidelines covers testing, linkage to care, and specific treatment recommendations. They include off-label

where I have loved people and they have loved me,” she said. “It’s being destroyed. Twenty-one people on one street got Ellis Act evictions in one year.

Eight Italian families left out of fear.

Too many neighbors took buyouts for less than the Ellis Act payments. The relocation fees would help.”

Mission resident Roseanne Guitron-Diaz spoke of being forced to leave the building she shares with her cousin and brother.

“I grew up in the Mission,” she said. “It’s my community. It’s been my home. For $5,000 each it’s impossible to move in three months.”

Guitron-Diaz said they don’t even look at listings in the Mission, in part because of the current cost, and also because each unit has an average of 40-50 people applying. “I thought we could look after each other in our old age,” she said. “Now I fear ending up on the street, and that’s getting real close. The Mission isn’t a ‘scene’ for me, it’s a place I’ve lived.”

Campos said that the evictions have led to neighborhood changes.

“We are losing the character of these communities,” he said. “We

recommendations that go beyond the FDA-approved indications listed in the drugs’ package inserts, and they provide guidance for special patient groups including HIVpositive people and liver transplant recipients.

“FDA only will approve drugs that have gone through rigorous testing,” said IAS-USA panel CoChair Michael Saag. “We cannot run a phase 3 trial on every possible [drug] combination or every possible patient population.”

Looking at first-time treatment, the panel recommends that people with hepatitis C genotype 1 – the most common type in the U.S. and the most difficult to treat – should start with sofosbuvir plus pegylated interferon and ribavirin for 12 weeks. Simeprevir plus pegylated interferon and ribavirin for 24 See page 13 >>

are losing who we are.”

The proposed legislation was introduced at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, February 4. Supervisors John Avalos, Jane Kim, and Eric Mar co-sponsored the measure. It will be sent to committee for a hearing and then return to the board for a vote.

Some board members seemed receptive to the idea.

“I’m definitely open to it,” said Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, who is running against Campos for the open 17th District Assembly seat. “We are all extremely concerned about the impact of Ellis Act eviction. The only way to bring an end to these speculative evictions is to reform the state Ellis Act, which I’m committed to doing. In the meantime, we need to consider all options to stem the loss of rent controlled housing.”

Campos staffer Hillary Ronen told the Bay Area Reporter that the proposed ordinance was vetted by the city attorney’s office.

“We believe there is a strong chance it will be upheld if it’s challenged in the courts,” she said.t

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Community News>>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

School adds lesbian role to Breakfast Club play

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

North Bay high school production of the play based on the classic 1980s teen film The Breakfast Club is deviating from the script to feature a lesbian character.

The drama department at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, roughly an hour north of San Francisco, had initially stuck to the lead characters’ genders as seen in the critically acclaimed 1985 movie by the late filmmaker John Hughes.

The story follows five archetypical students, such as the geek, beauty queen, and jock, as they bond one Saturday morning while in detention. The film’s stars, including Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall, became highly sought after actors in Hollywood and were dubbed the “Brat Pack.”

When the male student cast as John Bender, described as a “criminal” in the script and played by Judd Nelson in the film, had to leave the school production, a female student stepped into the role.

“Bender wasn’t there to rehearse one day because he was grounded. I was just there to read his part. They liked me a lot and they wanted me to play the role,” explained junior Natalie Anderson, 16, on how she came to take over the role. “Yeah, I was really surprised when they did because I never saw myself playing a guy part.”

To make the casting switch work, the character was renamed Jean Bender and given a backstory to explain why she is so angry and a troublemaker at school. Her parents, explained Anderson, wanted to have a son instead of a daughter.

“That is why I am a mean girl,” said Anderson, adding that the reasoning helped her to better understand the character and her motivations. “It makes sense why I am just

produced a version of the play in his each other.” senior year. The biggest hurdle with The issues Bender is dealing with the latest production, said Gibble, go beyond whom she is sexually atwas working with the student who tracted to, added Abbott. plays Claire to become comfortable “That is part of it, but it is not performing against a female Bender. limited to sexuality,” he said. “It is “She had to get used to it,” he more what kind of person I am and said. “After two or three rehearsals, how do I live up to the expectations she was more accepting of Bender CharlesSpiegel_2x2_0614 put on me by others.” as a girl.”

Eleventh grader Rachel Zshack, One scene that involves Bender 17, who plays Sheedy’s “basket case” under a desk looking up Claire’s character Allison Reynolds, said her skirt was kept for the play. But rathschool is very accepting of LGBT er than have them kiss on the mouth students and has a gay-straight alat the end, Bender now kisses Claire liance on campus. Nonetheless, she on the cheek. said she expects “people are going to “We did take the kiss out of the be surprised” by the casting change. end so as not to anger homophobic “We don’t want to follow the Courtesy Rancho Cotate High Drama Dept. people in the community. We did movie perfectly,” said Zshack.

North Bay high school students will perform The Breakfast Club do away with that scene so it isn’t so This is the first time that a prothis weekend. From left, Rachael Zschach (plays Allison Reynolds), obvious,” said Gibble. “But we kept duction has featured one of the five Natalie Anderson (Jean Bender), Nick George (Brian Johnson), Lukas when Bender goes under the desk high schoolers as being an LGBT Blondina (Andrew Clark), and in front, Lexi Alfano (Claire Standish) and the flirtatious dialogue. They student, said Don Gibble, 44, who kiss on the cheek instead of a full holds the rights to produce the play so mean and why I am so saddened wright’s lines as he wrote them,” said on kiss; it is just enough so the audias a fundraiser for high school draby it.”

Abbott. ence understands these two girls like ma departments. It has been staged When Anderson stepped in to The cast did decide that the aneach other.”t more than 20 times. read Bender’s lines, it was an “aha tagonism between a female Bender “We were so impressed with moment,” recalled Brian Abbott, and the school assistant principal, Natalie, we had to have her play this The play runs from 7 to 9:30 p.m. the school’s drama teacher the past known in the film as Richard “Dick” Thursday, February 6 through role,” said Gibble, who performed Saturday, February 8 at Rancho eight years.

Vernon, was more believable by in the original 1985 Off-Broadway Cotate High School, 5450 Snyder While a same-sex story line may changing the character to a woman. production of the show in the role Lane in Rohnert Park. Tickets have caused trouble at other schools, She now goes by Ms. Vernon. of the jock. cost $7 and can be purchased at the drama department’s casting de“It didn’t feel realistic to have a Gibble, who is bisexual, attended the door, all proceeds benefit the cision hasn’t caused any controvermale authority figure be physically the School of the Arts public high school’s drama department. sy, said Abbott and his students. The threatening of this female student,” school in San Francisco where he department doesn’t seek permission said Abbott. “It was more likely in from school administrators, as it is close quarters that people of the free to stage whatever productions it same gender have more palpable chooses to, said Abbott. conflict. The students felt that was Collaborative Family Attorney-Mediator “We have artistic liberty,” he said. most realistic.”

Oakland: Separating with Heart & Smarts Yet the production didn’t want The production doesn’t explicitly to skew too far away from the origilabel the Jean Bender character as a Monday Feb. 10, 6 to 8 pm nal script. Apart from changing the lesbian, said Abbott, noting that toname and pronouns, the lines spoday’s high school students use less SF: Child Custody Workshops ken by the cast are nearly identical explicit language to refer to their Thursdays. Feb. 13 and 20, 6:30 to 8:30 pm to the original. Bender still flirts sexual orientation. with and teases Claire Standish, the “In high school right now the stuCharlesSpiegelLaw@gmail.com popular redhead Ringwald played in dents are less brandy,” said Abbott, a www.CharlesSpiegelLaw.com T:9.75” the movie. straight married father of two kids.

Contact for Workshop Locations “We wanted to leave the play“They are not so quick to brand

CHARLES SPIEGEL

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<< Obituaries

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

Senior, AIDS advocate Stu Smith dies

by Cynthia Laird

S

tu Smith, a gay man who served on the boards of several local organizations, including the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force, died Monday, February 3 in San Francisco. He was 73.

According to Facebook postings by his partner, William David Earl, known as Dave, Mr. Smith had been dealing with serious health issues; in January he was diagnosed with stage 4 liver and lung cancer and was hospitalized for a time at UCSF Medical Center.

Attorney Marty Courson was a close friend of Mr. Smith’s for several years and had visited him three times Monday, the last time after he had died.

“To say the least, January was a tough month for Stu,” Courson said. “Last Thursday, his medical team gave him the bad news that he was not a good candidate for cancer treatments due to his frail condition.

“Stu was lucky to have had a rich and fulfilling life,” Courson added.

“But it was only in the last few years that he met the man that would become his partner, Dave Earl, whom he intended to marry this very week.”

Earl could not be reached for comment. A message on his Facebook page said he was “completely distraught.”

“Rest in peace my polar bear,” Earl wrote. “I loved you from the moment I first met you. You were

my better half, mentor, comedian, and husband.”

Task force officials, who are in the midst of finalizing their recommendations to the Board of Supervisors, were saddened by Mr. Smith’s passing.

“Stu was an invaluable member of the task force and we will miss him greatly,” task force Chair Bill Ambrunn said in a statement. “It is a sad and unfortunate reality of our mission to serve LGBT seniors and those aging in San Francisco that we have lost two dear colleagues in the brief year and a half we have been doing our work.”

Ambrunn was referring to the death last year of Jazzie Collins, who had served as the panel’s vice chair.

Mr. Smith also served on the board of the Castro Country Club, a nonprofit 12-step recovery gathering space, from 2012-2013, said Terry Beswick, who manages the organization.

“Stu was a longtime supporter and friend to the Castro Country Club,” Beswick said in an email. “He and his partner, Dave, brought gravitas and class and humor to every important occasion and celebration.”

Beswick said that Mr. Smith served as a personal role model who generously gave of his time to mentoring members of the LGBT recovery community “and demonstrating through his actions a better way to live.”

Mr. Smith also volunteered with the district attorney’s office. San Francisco District Attorney George

Wedding announcements

Rick Gerharter

Stu Smith

Gascón said that he provided a valuable service.

“For over two years Stu Smith served as an adjudicator for our neighborhood courts program in the South of Market district,” Gascón said in an email. “He was exactly the kind of neighborhood voice we wanted; he made sure victims were heard and allowed offenders the opportunity to change. His service and leadership will be sorely missed.”

According to his biography submitted to the LGBT aging task force, Mr. Smith, who was born December 7, 1940, was a fourth generation San Franciscan who was born in the city but raised on the Peninsula.

Mr. Smith left San Jose State Uni-

Tommy Baker 1924 – 2014

Raymond Combs and Mark Hugret

As a popular entertainer from 1950 to 1970, Tommy Baker appeared at the Beige Room and Finocchio’s and toured with the Jewel Box Revue. At 90 years old, he outlived most of his friends. Rest in peace.

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LGBT Russians

From page 3

right and states that athletes must be able to practice without discrimination of any kind. The charter says that the group being discriminated against must be named according to race, religion, or otherwise.

“It does not specify LGBT status,” Carroll said.

Dorf added, “Principal 6 protects from discrimination but bans protest.”

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DV cases

From page 9

He referred to 52-week batterer programs, a “prominent feature of probation” for defendants in domestic violence cases. San Francisco’s Adult Probation Department has been working to make sure there are more groups “appropriate for LGBT batterers,” he noted.

For example, he said, “It’s difficult to put a transgender person

versity to become CEO of a Silicon Valley start-up and had found business success. He retired from that business at 29 in 1974 and opened his first restaurant in the city, Harpoon Louie’s. The biography noted that Mr. Smith owned and operated half a dozen successful bar/restaurants.

His volunteer work began with the San Francisco Firefighter’s toy program and the St. Anthony’s Kitchen Penny Toss with the late Ed Moose. Mr. Smith became disabled in 1989 and had to stop working in 1994, which allowed him to devote considerable time to various nonprofit causes.

A longtime AIDS activist who was HIV-positive, Mr. Smith volunteered with and served on the board of the Shanti Project, which he said saved his life.

Kaushik Roy, executive director of Shanti, told the Bay Area Reporter that he was “reeling” and “heartbroken” from the loss of Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith twice served on the Shanti board, Roy said, once in the late 1990s and then currently, until the time of his passing. He was board chair from 2010-2012 and was honored as Shanti’s first-ever board chair emeritus last year.

“He’s been involved with Shanti for over 25 years as a client, volunteer, and at times, staff,” Roy said.

Mr. Smith was also very open about his sobriety, Roy said, “and has probably supported the hundreds, if not thousands, of folks in

their recovery. He is leaving behind a tremendous legacy of compassion, and is going to be missed so much.”

Mr. Smith also volunteered with the Positive Resource Center, the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation, and the UCSF AIDS Research Center.

Other community work included serving on the boards of the Community Television Corporation and the San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club, which awarded the B.A.R. best community newspaper in 2006.

In December 2010, Mr. Smith dressed up as Santa for the cover shot of BARtab, the B.A.R.’s nightlife section. In an article accompanying the photo, Mr. Smith talked about the tough time he had coming out and his dependency on alcohol.

“When I was drunk, I would be openly gay, so I got more drunk,” Mr. Smith said. “Then I got sober and seriously started coming out.”

Mr. Smith launched his own nonprofit, Tin Pan Alley Productions, where he served as executive director.

Until his death, Mr. Smith wrote a column for the San Francisco Bay Times and hosted the television show, Face 2 Face with Stu Smith.

At press time, plans for a memorial had not been announced. At the request of Supervisor Scott Wiener, the Board of Supervisors adjourned its Tuesday meeting in Mr. Smith’s memory.t

ing 60 marathons and winning several medals during his running years. Tom was awarded the Apex Award in 1990 for his achievements. He also participated in the first four Gay Games – two in San Francisco in 1982 and 1986, one in Vancouver in 1990, and one in New York in 1994. He brought home a silver medal in the marathon in his age group from these competitions. Tom ran well into his 80s, however, he eventually stopped running due to declining health. Although soft spoken, Tom loved being in the mix of his friends. He was loved like a brother by many, including longtime FrontRunner Jon Borset. Tom welcomed all to the club and the sport. His essence will be greatly missed by the club and the community. A celebration of life service took place January 26 at the Noe Valley home of his friends Bob Callori and Christopher Goodwin. City Supervisor Scott Wiener attended the service and adjourned a Board of Supervisors meeting in Tom’s honor.

uary 3, 2014 after a 12-year struggle with kidney disease. He died in Cincinnati, the city in which he spent a large part of his youth and where most of his family still live, leaving behind four brothers, six sisters, and many nieces and nephews.

Paul graduated from a vocational high school with a major in commercial foods, an interest that led him to become a trained pastry chef. He was also a graduate of Central State University in Ohio, where he was a member of ROTC. It was this pursuit that became his career: He rose to the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy.

Here in San Francisco, many will remember Paul as a beloved member of the San Francisco FrontRunners gay and lesbian running club. He took on various roles within FrontRunners, not the least of which was opening up his comfortable home in Ingleside for all variety of club events. As a chef, Paul turned out great food at these gatherings. He was chosen as FrontRunner of the Year early in his membership with the club.

The specialness of Paul lay in a combination of drive, grace, and character on one hand and warmth, playfulness, sense of humor, and outgoing nature on the other. Those who knew him will miss that combination of strength and dynamic personality that made him both a leader and a friend.

Obituaries >>

compiled by Cynthia Laird

On Saturday, January 18, at 9:05 p.m., Raymond Victor Combs, 53, and Mark Lynn Hugret, 44, both residents of San Francisco, were bound in marriage at the Lodge of the Regency Ballroom on Van Ness Avenue.

The happy couple’s elopement to the Edwardian Ball in high-spirited Edwardian/Steam Punk fashion was preceded by a champagne reception at the couple’s nuptial suite at the Holiday Inn Golden Gate. The best men and ring bearers to the grooms were Mr. Richard Winchester and husband Mr. Mark Sargent of San Francisco. The rites of marriage and the sacred handfasting were performed by Sister Lilith of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, also San Francisco. Those who encircled and bore witness to the solemnization of the marriage vows included Sister Mora Lee D’Klined and betrothed

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Tom Pait October 16, 1924 – January 9, 2014

Alixx Ortiz of Berkeley; Michael Campion of Los Angeles; Dana Sanchez of Oakland; and of San Francisco, Sister Violet Sinbloom and husband Mike Barnette; Sister Gina Tonic the Sparkling; Kurt Yeakel and Herb Green; Harris Maslow and Michael Carpenter; Mark Souza and Mike Grauer; Richard and Sherry Birdinham; Sue Stevens; and Sylvia Kundig.

The couple intends to reside at their Potrero Hill home in San Francisco after their honeymoon to Malta and Italy in April.t

A resident of San Francisco since the 1950s and an original member of San Francisco FrontRunners running club, Tom Pait passed away January 9, 2014 after several years of declining health. He was 89.

Born in Kalamazoo Michigan, Tom ventured west as a teenager and came to San Francisco. He worked in the food service industry before his retirement in 1993. He was an original member of the Lavender Runners when the group adopted its present name San Francisco FrontRunners in 1979.

Tom was an avid marathoner, complet-

Hanson said that having the Olympics in Russia were important to Putin.

“If President Obama and several European heads of state aren’t going, and Obama sends Billie Jean King [an out lesbian tennis champion] instead, then Putin isn’t happy.

It’s a snub. The White House did a fantastic job,” she said.

The audience applauded.

(On Wednesday, the White House announced that due to an illness in her family, King would no longer be

attending the games. Out hockey medalist Caitlin Cahow, originally scheduled to participate in the closing ceremony, will join gay skating champion Brian Boitano at the opening ceremonies.)

“The risk to athletes is low,” Hanson said, referring to possible prosecution under the law. “The Olympics are Putin’s baby. He wants them to go without issues. They want Sochi to look gay-friendly. It’s LGBT Russians and allies who are at risk.”

Dorf then spoke of a Russian

ninth grader who came out and was put on a sexual predator list.

Carroll said the IOC could have acted once Putin signed the anti-gay law.

“They could have moved the Olympics,” said Carroll. “That would have taken a bold move. The Olympic committee isn’t bold. They should look at host countries’ human rights records.”

Dorf said there were no easy answers.

“There is no perfect country,” said Dorf. “These choices are made

10 years out. These laws did not exist then. Future Olympic countries might start looking like Norway, France, and Canada.”

The panel called for keeping the pressure on the Russian government, holding Olympic sponsors accountable, and doing whatever possible to help asylum seekers.

“The National Center for Lesbian Rights is looking closely into helping asylum seekers,” said Carroll.

Added Dorf, “Stay informed. Plug in and don’t forget about them.”t

into an all-male batterer’s intervention program.”

Hediana Utarti is the community project coordinator at Asian Women’s Shelter, a San Francisco nonprofit that, like several other domestic violence-related agencies, offers a shelter, a crisis line, support groups, legal assistance, and similar services for LGBTs and others who are experiencing domestic violence. Despite its name, the agency is open to all survivors.

Utarti said data such as the DA’s could help find more funding for LGBT shelter space.

“We don’t have enough space for heterosexual clients in general, let alone LGBTQ clients,” she said.

AWS has 15 to 18 beds available at a time in the shelter.

Utarti said she was “afraid to draw conclusions at this point” about the DA’s statistics, but she indicated the DA’s numbers roughly match statistics from the shelter.

Last fiscal year, five out of the 52 people, or 9.6 percent, that the agency served in the shelter identified as LGBTQ, she said. In the first two quarters of the current year, six out of 49, or 12.2 percent, have identified as LGBTQ. Most of the shelter’s clients are women, who may identify as lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, and they also serve transgender men.

But Utarti, who herself is a survivor of a same-sex relationship that

included domestic violence, said there are more LGBT people who decline services, and she said incidents are underreported.

It’s “very seldom” that “LGBT cases actually go to the desk of law enforcement,” said Utarti.

Many people decline the nonprofit’s services because they don’t want additional help “or they don’t want to have anything to do with the criminal justice system,” she said.t

Paul Edward Williams September 14, 1945 – January 3, 2014 Paul Williams, a longtime resident of San Francisco, passed away on Jan-

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Community News>>

SF protest

From page 1

ships,” which the government has interpreted to include anything neutral or positive about LGBT issues. Arrests have been reported, including one protester who was carrying a sign that said, “Gay is Normal.” Pride Houses, which have been held as welcoming havens at previous Winter and Summer Olympics, have been specifically banned in Sochi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the law is designed to “protect children” and has linked homosexuality to pedophilia. He said Russia does not discriminate against LGBT individuals. Currently the country is considering a law to remove children from households with gay or lesbian parents, and it is believed this would be applied to Russian children being adopted by anyone living in a country that recognizes same-sex marriage.

IOC’s mixed messages

Although the Russian law is triggering the protests, targets also include the International Olympic Committee, Olympic sponsors, and NBC, which has exclusive broadcast rights to the games in the U.S. The Olympic Charter includes a section, Principle 6, which disallows discrimination of any kind. It does not mention sexual orientation specifically, but IOC President Thomas Bach has said, “Sexual orientation is included in the charter – whether

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Viewers’ guide

From page 1

ing Russia for the Olympics given its hostile laws.

Friday, February 7: Two openly gay people are part of the United States’ five-member delegation to the opening ceremony, and there seems little doubt that cameras will focus on them from time to time.

They are Olympic figure skating medalist Brian Boitano and hockey silver medalist Caitlin Cahow. (On Wednesday, the White House announced that due to an illness in her family, tennis legend Billie Jean King would no longer be attending the games.) There are several things to watch for during the opening ceremony: Do individual athletes

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Hep C guidelines

From page 10

weeks is listed as an alternative.

For people who are unwilling or unable to take interferon, the panel recommends sofosbuvir plus simeprevir, with or without ribavirin, for 12 weeks. This off-label regimen has not been through phase 3 testing, but performed well in the phase 2 COSMOS trial.

For easier-to-treat hepatitis C genotype 2, the panel recommends an interferon-free combo of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin for 12 weeks, while those with genotype 3 can use the same regimen for 24 weeks.

For retreatment of people who

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Crack pipes

From page 2

Planning Council.

Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, who is running against Campos for the 17th Assembly District seat soon to be vacated by gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (DSan Francisco), said he’s against the idea, but open to changing his mind.

“My initial thought is that distributing crack pipes is not a good idea,” Chiu said in an email. “I believe there are other ways of engaging with people who have substance abuse issues, and I don’t think the health issues with crack pipes are the same as with needles. All that

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

away from showing gold medal diver Matthew Mitcham kissing his boyfriend – and has said it would only cover the protest issues if they became relevant news.

NBC may get away with not covering the news that isn’t visible in Sochi – German President Joachim Gauck has attended Olympics before but is virulently against the Russian regime and is one of many state dignitaries who will skip the Winter Games, as will President Barack Obama – but will have more difficulty ignoring the patently visible news. That will begin at the opening ceremonies, where the official U.S. delegation will include gay skating champion Brian Boitano and out hockey medalist Caitlin Cahow. (The White House announced Wednesday that tennis legend Billie Jean King would not be going due to an illness in her family.) And the State Department produced a oneminute video of support for all of its athletes, which it said “showcases U.S. Olympians, Paralympians, and recreational athletes of various backgrounds, including gender, race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and abilities.”

Major corporate sponsors have already seen a backlash. Coca-Cola

had a campaign in which people could create digital versions of personalized Olympic Coke cans with their names on it. The marketing campaign triggered protests when it was discovered that the word “Gay” could not be used (the site gave a message saying it would “pretend” that word hadn’t really been typed, even if it was somebody’s name) but did allow the word “Straight.” Coke subsequently shut down the campaign.

Queer Nation New York took a shot at Coke by re-editing its famous commercial “I Want to Teach the World to Sing” to play the song while showing images of Russian protesters being beaten. Aiming at another sponsor, Visa, Queer Nation posted a photograph online with the caption of some of those protesters being arrested with the caption, “Use @Visa for your bail!”

McDonald’s had been using the Twitter hashtag #CheersToSochi to send encouragement to Olympic athletes, but activists hijacked it to take shots at the corporation.

“Hey, @McDonalds: You’re sending #CheersToSochi while goons wearing Olympic uniforms assault LGBT people,” author Dan Savage tweeted.

Media observers will be paying particular attention to how NBC handles the controversy. The network has been criticized for its Disneyesque sensibilities in past Olympics – for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the network showed athletes hugging and kissing family members and friends but shied

wear anything or do anything in the procession of athletes to identify themselves as gay or as supporting equal treatment for gay people? Will Russian President Vladimir Putin voice anything about the highly publicized controversy during his remarks to the opening ceremony?

And to what degree will NBC report on the controversy?

Sunday, February 9: Speed skating starts (3:30 a.m., Pacific time) and three openly lesbian competitors are on the oval track. One of them, Canadian long-track competitor Anatasia Bucsis, told outsports. com, “I could never promote that message of concealing who you are with all of this going on in Russia.

I’m kind of happy that I did it on my own terms.” The other out speeds-

katers are both from the Netherlands, Ireen Wust (short track) and Sanne van Kerkhof (3000 relay).

Their presence on the track may be a particularly interesting time to watch. The Washington Post reported that a Dutch brass band Kleintje Pils (Small Beer) “always performs at Olympic speed skating ovals” and signaled it might play the iconic gay anthem “YMCA” this year. “We will see if we can get one or two songs into the selection, knowing that in the Netherlands it will be seen as a signal we are thinking of [gays],” said Ruud Bakker, the band’s leader.

Sunday, February 16: The Women’s Cross Snowboarding takes place. Australian Belle Brockhoff, the only openly gay person on Australia’s Olympic team, has told

home country papers she plans to wear a “P6” logo and make her unhappiness about the anti-gay laws in Russia known. “The Australian Olympic Committee has been really supportive and they want me to be safe. They don’t recommend me waving a [rainbow] flag around, which I won’t do,” Brockhoff said in an interview published January 23 in the Courier Mail. “The most I’ll do is hold up six fingers to represent Principle Six. Possibly I’ll do it on camera here or there, and maybe after the heats of my event.” After her event, Brockhoff said she plans to speak freely about her thoughts.

“After I compete, I’m willing to rip on his ass,” she said. “I’m not happy and there’s a bunch of other Olympians who are not happy ei-

ther.” Also on the 16th, the Australian Men’s Bobsled team will carry a “Principle 6” logo down the track on their two-man bobsled. Team captain Heath Spence has spoken out against discrimination of gay and lesbian athletes. He’ll be competing in both two-man and fourman sleds.

Sunday, February 23: Closing ceremony: The five-member delegation representing the United States at the closing ceremony will include openly lesbian Olympic silver medalist hockey player Caitlin Cahow.

Any athlete who might want to make a show of protest could save their plans for the closing ceremony so as not to risk jeopardizing their competition and medals.t

did not respond to previous interferon-based therapy, the panel recommends 12 weeks of sofosbuvir plus simeprevir, with or without ribavirin, for people with genotype 1. People with genotype 2 or 3 should be retreated with sofosbuvir plus ribavirin for 12 or 24 weeks, respectively.

Recommendations are similar for people with HIV and hepatitis C coinfection, but the panel favors sofosbuvir plus ribavirin for 24 weeks for those who cannot take interferon. Sofosbuvir plus simeprevir for 12 weeks is also an option, but simeprevir can interact with several HIV drugs.

Next steps

The HCVguidelines.org website does not yet include recommendations about one of the most vexing questions facing people with hepatitis C and their providers: Who should start treatment and when?

Given the difficulty and modest cure rates of interferon-based therapy, treatment has traditionally been recommended only for hepatitis C patients with progressive liver disease, as determined by a liver biopsy.

Now that highly effective and better-tolerated drugs are becoming available, many experts think more people will be eligible for treatment.

But given the rapid advances in the field, it is often unclear whether to

treat someone now with available drugs or to “warehouse” them while waiting for something better.

Better options expected to be approved by the end of this year include Gilead’s sofosbuvir/ledipasvir coformulation and a three-drug combination from AbbVie (formerly Abbott).

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s daclatasvir – a candidate for combination with sofosbuvir – is also in the running.

Another issue the panel did not address is the cost of treatment, which may be a barrier as insurers decide which drugs to cover and whether to pay for off-label indications. “The guidelines are not designed to address cost,” Jensen explained. “Our recommendations are based on what

we think is best for a patient who needs treatment at this time.”

Wrapping up last week’s teleconference, IDSA panel Co-Chair David Thomas from Johns Hopkins emphasized the importance of being tested for hepatitis C. “All of the major advances in treatment are insignificant if a person doesn’t even know they are infected,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that all baby boomers born between 1945 and 1965 should be screened for hepatitis C at least once, as should anyone of any age with known risk factors.t

said, if our public health professionals make a case that this is a good idea, I’ll listen to their case.”

As the representative of District 6, it may seem that Supervisor Jane Kim would have more to say on the topic than almost any other supervisor. Her district includes the Tenderloin neighborhood, which is home to many crack users.

But Kim hasn’t responded directly to interview requests, and her aide Sunny Angulo has worked to discourage the inquiries.

In an email this week, Angulo wrote, “Like I said, the office is not leading this initiative and has not been approached by community groups or advocates. Last week was

the first time seeing the proposal in the press. Jane doesn’t have comment for the story currently, but we’ll be monitoring the issue as it develops.”

She said that since the Bay Area Reporter will continue reporting on the issue, she’s “assuming there will be plenty of opportunities to engage.” She added, however, “We also want to make sure we’re giving informed, substantive contributions to the conversation.”

Garcia and Lee haven’t offered specific explanations for why they object to distributing crack pipes.

Garcia didn’t respond to an interview request this week, and in an email, Christine Falvey, Lee’s spokeswoman, declined an inter-

view request by saying, “The mayor is relying on his public health director to assess, recommend, and implement the best interventions for HIV prevention. For more information, please contact the Department of Public Health.”

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which is the city’s largest HIV/ AIDS-related nonprofit and receives funding from the health department, has been involved for years in syringe access programs. The programs are credited with helping to cut local HIV infection rates.

Neil Giuliano, the AIDS foundation’s CEO, said that “a number of years ago,” his agency added “crack kits” to its syringe access program.

The kits don’t include a pipe, but do contain sterile water, caps that can help protect people’s lips, and other equipment. He said including the kits “helps us increase the level of client engagement and linkages to service,” among other benefits.

Giuliano said the AIDS foundation would review data in order to “better understand” whether adding pipes to the kits would “significantly impact” HIV transmission rates among the people the nonprofit serves.

The AIDS foundation’s leadership team has had a conversation about the topic, but “We don’t have a position on it. It has not gone before our board,” he said.t

you name it expressly or not is more symbolic an issue. It doesn’t change the legal quality.”

But IOC officials have warned athletes and coaches against making any “political” statement and urged them to “respect” the Russian laws that ban expression. At the world track championship in the country last August, high jumper Emma Green Tregaro painted her fingernails in rainbow colors in support of gay rights. She was pressured to replace the rainbow with a uniform red polish.

Bach and the IOC have spent the past few months saying they have been assured by the Russian government that there will be no discrimination at the Winter Olympics while simultaneously warning athletes and coaches that they will not tolerate any political posturing on the medal podiums. What is not clear is what will happen if and when any athletes choose to speak out on LGBT issues at the event news conferences. And initiatives, such as the Principle 6 campaign, have been launched to pressure the IOC and its members not to stage future events in countries with discriminatory laws. Snowboarder Belle Brockhoff and alpine skier Mike Janyk are among the Sochibound Olympians who have joined the campaign.

Backlash at corporate sponsors

Symbolic gestures

Kissing, hand-holding, words, rainbows – all are symbolic gestures that may appear in Sochi. Canadian long track speed skater Denny Morrison, a gold medalist four years ago in Vancouver, is one athlete who has said he will speak up. Morrison, who is straight, is being sponsored

by Calgary gay nightclub Twisted Element. Morrison says the very kind of access to conversation and information that is now outlawed in Russia made it possible for him to learn and accept others.

“The people who know me and some of the friends I’ve lost, they might see this and think, ‘How is that even possible?’” Morrison said.

“It would be interesting to have a conversation with them and halfapologize and half tell them, ‘I really feel differently about you now, because I’ve educated myself on the subject.’”

In January, Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov told BBC there were no gays living in the resort city, which features several gay bars. Apparently the Russians aren’t taking any chances: a gay dating website, Hunters, has been blocked in Sochi and some 72,000 user profiles deleted, the site’s founder told towleroad.com. People attempting to use the site, which is similar to Grindr, saw an anonymous warning that read “You will be arrested and jailed for gay propaganda in Sochi according to Russian Federal Law 135 Sektion 6.”

Saying that he was in the process of trying to move his servers out of Russia to get around the problem, the founder, identified only as Dmitry T., added, “I urge the entire gay community and all of those who consider the Internet to be a free zone to boycott not only Russian vodka but also everything that is linked to the Olympics and not to buy any Olympic souvenirs.”t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 ••BBAY 10 AYA AREA REAR REPORTER EPORTER • February February6-12, 6-12,2014 2014

<<

News Briefs

From page 6

during this important shift in our health care system,” she wrote. “As a result, we’ve ended up in a situation where many people have specific questions without enough Covered CA representatives to answer them.”

At Friday’s event, dubbed Healthcare 411, there will be repeating Covered CA workshops, one-onone assistance with Covered CA representatives, and free preventative health screenings. There will also be a number of insurance companies present with detailed information on services that they are able to provide.

Speier also noted one of the reasons for having the event on a college campus, although it is open to members of the community at large.

“It’s also important to remember that, in order for the Affordable Care Act to work, we need young healthy people to contribute to the insurance pool,” she stated, adding that there are still a great number of people under 30 who have yet to enroll.

To sign up for Healthcare 411, visit http://tinyurl.com/m5e7uty.

Citywide tenant convention

Following several successful tenant conventions in various San Francisco neighborhoods last month, activists will come together for a citywide confab Saturday, February 8 at the Tenderloin Elementary School, 627 Turk Street. Lunch is at noon and the convention begins at 1 p.m.

Organizers hope that the citywide meeting will incorporate ideas brought up at the neighborhood events to build tenant power in the city, which has seen stark rental increases and evictions of longterm tenants over the past several months. Key neighborhood issues will also be discussed, as well as ideas for a fall ballot measure to address tenant concerns.

MCC-SF to install new pastor

Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco will hold an installation service for its new senior pastor, the Reverend Robert Shively, Sunday, February 9 at 3 p.m. at the church, 150 Eureka Street in the Castro.

The Reverend Elder Darlene Garner, director of emerging ministries for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, will preside at the service.

A reception will follow.

For more information, visit www. mccsf.org.

Gay bingo at DeFrank center

The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose will hold a bingo party Wednesday, February 12 at the center, 938 The Alameda.

An early-bird game starts at 6:30 p.m., followed by gay bingo at 7.

Special guest caller will be Frank Layton.

Players must be at least 18 years old and everyone entering the bingo hall must buy his/her own first bingo pack

for $15 (10 games). After that, packs are $5 each. There’s a free raffle ticked distributed with each game (one ticket per person) and concession snacks will be available for purchase.

For questions, email bingo@defrank.org.

Grace Cathedral to mark 10th anniversary of ‘Winter of Love’

Grace Cathedral will hold a special Evensong service and reception to commemorate the 10th anniversary of San Francisco’s “Winter of Love” Thursday, February 13 at 5:15 p.m. at the church, 1100 California Street.

Ten years ago, on February 12, 2004, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city officials to issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The weddings, which took place for a month before the California Supreme Court halted them, became known as the Winter of Love and jump-started the national debate on same-sex marriage. Last year, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the federal Proposition 8 case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, same-sex marriage returned to the Golden State.

Officials at Grace Cathedral said that they are celebrating “the prophetic boldness and courage of those who, 10 years ago and throughout the ensuing decade, have worked to make marriage equality a reality in California.”

Special guests at the service will include the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus and Voices Lesbian Chorale Ensemble.

The collection from the service will benefit housing programs for local, homeless LGBTQ youth at Larkin Street Youth Services and Grace Cathedral’s social outreach programs.

Lesbians Who Tech confab coming up

Lesbians Who Tech, a community of queer women in and around tech and the people who love them, will host a summit February 27-March 2 in San Francisco. It is the only conference focused on increasing visibility and tech participation in two historically underrepresented segments: women and queer communities.

The summit is expected to bring together hundreds of queer women, and will highlight leaders and those who have paved the way.

The event kicks off Thursday, February 27 with a welcome happy hour, followed by the summit and an after-party Friday, February 28 at the Castro Theatre. March 1-2 will see a hackathon and satellite events around the city.

Lesbians Who Tech was started in December 2012 by Leanne Pittsford, an entrepreneur, technology strategist, UX designed, and tech investor. The group has more than 3,000 members with chapters in 12 cities in the U.S. and three overseas.

Registration for the conference is $299; organizers said some scholarships would be available. The Horizons Foundation is offering a 25 percent discount with the code LWTHORIZONS. To sign up, visit www. lesbianswhotech.org/summit.t

Legal Notices>>

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035578600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE THERAPY LOUNGE, 364 HAYES ST. 2ND FL., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/09/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035578500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LESS IS MORE PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZING; LESS IS MORE SF; 1833 24TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAREN LESLIE ROORDA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035575500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOMA LUXURY PROPERTIES, 2 TOWNSEND ST. #3105, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN F. VALDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/07/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035541600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DENIS O’KEEFFE HANDYMAN, 430 21ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DENIS O’KEEFFE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/17/13.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035561700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAILY BEVERAGE, 190 FUNSTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL S. DAILY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/31/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/13.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035580900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BALLET TO GO, 128 EUREKA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JOSEPH SCHMITZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035572400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAGIKID, 156 2ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ANGELL ECHO, INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/13.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035581600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VETS IT, 5 THOMAS MELLON CIRCLE #108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SELECT BUSINESS PRODUCTS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035581000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLT EXPRESS INC, 1630 DAVIDSON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CLT EXPRESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035571000

Reach more than 120,000 consumers per week and the only audited and verified audience of LGBT newspaper readers in the San Francisco Market.

Call 415-861-5019 or email us at advertising@ebar.com

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOTEL UTAH, 504 4TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HOTEL UTAH INVESTMENT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/26/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035584800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNO DOS TACO, 595 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed APMEX LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/14/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014

NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Dated 12/27/13 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: GARFIELD BEACH CVS LLC, LONGS DRUG STORES CALIFORNIA LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1 JEFFERSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 941331217. Type of license applied for

21 - OFF-SALE GENERAL JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035584600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SORRO SOUNDS AND MEDIA, 1302 HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARTIN SORRONDEGUY RABOTTI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/07/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/14.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035588000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YUKI LASHES, 1840 TURK ST #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MINH DU DINH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/15/14.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035598600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SWEET BEAN FOODS, 57 CHATANOOGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAURIE AGEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/21/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/14.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035597800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SITE FOR SORE EYES, 176 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NEW VISION OPTICAL INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/14.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035588500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EPIC TRADING, 284 LELAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed RICKY WONG & MARCO LAU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/15/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/15/14.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: HUAI CHEN YAP YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: ROVSHEN KERIMOV CASE NO. FDI-13-780509

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120 or FL-123) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnerships, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs.

If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. If you want legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. You can get information about finding lawyers at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

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

NOTE: If a judgment or support order is entered, the court may order you to pay all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for yourself or the other party. If this happens, the party ordered to pay fees shall be given notice and an opportunity to request a hearing to set aside the order to pay waived court fees.

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. The name, address, and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, is: IRINA AEROV, 789 CABRILLO ST., SAN FRANCSICO, CA 94102, PH (415) 387-9028 NOV 27, 2013 Clerk of the Superior Court by Timmy Kyu, Deputy.

NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: You are served as an individual.

JAN 30, FEB 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035602500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KML ASSOCIATES, 274 15TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KENT M. LIM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/14.

JAN 30, FEB 06, 13, 20, 2014

t

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550034

In the matter of the application of: EMILY GAIL WEEKS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EMILY GAIL WEEKS, is requesting that the names EMILY GAIL WEEKS, aka EMILY G. WEEKS, aka EMILY WEEKS be changed to JILL DAPHNE ARMOUR. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, 5th Fl. on the 13th of March 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550051

In the matter of the application of: ALHAJI JEFFERY KAMARA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ALHAJI JEFFERY KAMARA, is requesting that the name ALHAJI JEFFERY KAMARA, be changed to JEFFERY NATURE KAMARA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, 5th Fl. on the 18th of March 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) ALAMEDA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: SUGAN SUKSAWANG YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: ROSEMARIE DIAZ CASE NO. HF12627002

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120 or FL-123) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnerships, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs.

If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. If you want legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. You can get information about finding lawyers at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

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

NOTE: If a judgment or support order is entered, the court may order you to pay all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for yourself or the other party. If this happens, the party ordered to pay fees shall be given notice and an opportunity to request a hearing to set aside the order to pay waived court fees.

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, 24405 AMADOR ST, HAYWARD, CA 94566; PREPARED BY DAN CASEY, LDA #120, SANTA CLARA COUNTY, 1261 LINCOLN AVE #201, SAN JOSE, CA 95125, PH (408) 295-6955; the name, address, and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, is: ROSEMARIE DIAZ, 3955 VINEYARD AVENUE #44, PLEASANTON, CA 94566, PH (510) 706-5809 APR 17, 2012 Clerk of the Superior Court by S. DebacaArredondo, Deputy.

NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: You are served as an individual.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035603400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RC LEADS, 2025 BRODERICK ST. #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTOPHER JAMES PORTUGAL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/14.

JAN 30, FEB 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035603800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOGAN POTTER SALON, 28 SOUTH PARK, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LOGAN POTTER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/14.

JAN 30, FEB 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035610300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRINKERS INTL., 888 BRANNAN ST. #1177,SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TRINKERS INTL (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/14.

JAN 30, FEB 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035611400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SURE ROOFING & WATERPROOFING, 118 SAGAMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SURE ROOFING SYSTEMS INC (CA).

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JAN 30, FEB 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035611100

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This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDGAR A. CERON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035633200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NICK FIT, 379 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS SMITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/05/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035617100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: APS IMPORTERS, 309 WALLER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CAROL ELLEN BERBERICH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035626500

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FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550090

In the matter of the application of: GEYLOR RODOLFO BALMACEDA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner GEYLOR RODOLFO BALMACEDA, is requesting that the name GEYLOR RODOLFO BALMACEDA, be changed to DILLON BALMACEDA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 10th of April 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

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FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550086

In the matter of the application of: DINO MARIO RENAUD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DINO MARIO RENAUD, is requesting that the name DINO MARIO RENAUD, be changed to NICHOLAS RENAULT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 8th of April 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035631200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HENG FENG TRADING USA, 652 BELLEVUE AVE, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHI QIANG HUO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035629411

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BOOST; BOOSTED; BOOST CAR; BOOSTER; GET BOOST; BOOST INC; BOOST CORP; BOOST ME; BOOST NOW; ZEPHYR; ZEPHYR CAR; ZEPHYR CARS INC; 1366 TURK ST. #3C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ZEPHYR WAY INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035599400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION TIRES, 3160 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO CAR CARE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035603000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOVING SERVICES, 1567 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CAL BAY INC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034138300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: ZADIN, 4039 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by TWO COUSINS LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/17/12.

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Vol. 44 • No. 6 • February 6-12, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

The eclectic gender of Taylor Mac

by Richard Dodds

O

ne comfort that growing up in Stockton did not provide Taylor Mac was complacency. “It was a horrible, screwed-up city,” he said. “I just had to get out of there.”

And so began the performer-playwright’s elaborate journey through stints in Beach Blanket Babylon, years of slamming up against closed audition doors in New York, and finally deciding to putting on his own works in clubs and bars that have gone on to giving him a substantial career with ultra-queer extravaganzas like The Lily’s Revenge, some Brecht at the Public Theater, and a two-man sound-and-dance show about the end of the world with Mandy Patinkin.

San Francisco audiences first met Mac in 2011 when he performed in his five-hour, extravagantly costumed, and large-cast phantasmagoria about the plague of nostalgia in general and anti-gay marriage agendas in particular. Now he’s back at the Magic Theatre, this time confining his role to author of Hir, and in a sense, he’s also back in Stockton. “Although the play is not literally set in Stockton,” he said, “in my mind it’s set in Stockton.”

See page 26 >>

Taylor Mac, author of Hir, doesn’t necessarily measure transgender feelings by the clothes he wears.

When The Lily’s Revenge played the Magic Theatre in 2011, Taylor Mac was both the author and its flamboyant star.

Karl Giant

e c n a d e m ti Big last week

Xanthe Elbrick

by Paul Parish

S

top me if you’ve heard this one, but the big dance event last week came the night the two Borzois who are extras in San Francisco Ballet’s excellent production of Giselle started humping each other, and also the Duchess Bathilde, near the end of the first act. Picture a stage set that looks like the clearing in front of Snow White’s cottage, into which suddenly sweeps an aristocratic hunting See page 27 >>

San Francisco Ballet dancers Yuan Yuan Tan and Davit Karapetyan in Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle.

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

Erik Tomasson

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<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

LGBTQ characters meet pen & ink

by Roberto Friedman

C

omic books are visually stimulating and verbally engaging, a two-for-one that’s hard to resist.

Last week Out There had our nose buried in two delectable collections of transgressive comics, QU33R: New Comics from 33 Creators edited by Rob Kirby, and Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond “Gay” and “Straight” edited by Charles “Zan” Christensen, both published by Northwest Press. Let us share our delighted impressions.

Pushing past boundaries is an important part of both volumes.

As editor Kirby writes in his introduction to QU33R, the artists included “are of varying statistics and life views – some of whom may not necessarily identify as queer artists, some challenging even what queer is. All of which is our privilege, maybe even a sort of duty.” Contributors include such well-known gay comics artists as Eric Orner and Justin Hall, as well as a lot of newcomers unknown, at least to Out There. Territory covered runs the gamut, from the expected – coming-out tales, melodramatic love affairs – to the unexpected. For example, artist Michael Fahy sets a much-quoted line from a Frank O’Hara poem to four panels of intimate portraits in “O’Hara Song”:

“Someone comes along with a very bad character/he seems attractive./is he really. yes. very. he’s attractive/as his character is bad. is it. yes.”

There’s also an insightful story about the appeal and perils of exacting revenge on a high-school gay-bashing tormentor (Steve MacIsaac’s “Vacant Lots”) and a poetic meditation on past loves (Rick Worley’s “For Fletch and Ruski, Spooner, and Calico”). Jon Macy writes about his heroes Oscar Wilde, Djuna Barnes, Raymond Chandler and Charles Mingus. And the book makes a strong case for the efficacy of comics in conveying up-to-date health information. In Carlo Quispe’s “Political Will,” a sex party pick-up is a font of info about the pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, he is taking. And in Andy Hartzell’s “Manning/Lamo Project,” the cartoonist illustrates dialogue taken from the consequential chat-logs between then-Pvt. Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning and hacker Adrian Lamo, first published by Wired magazine in 2011.

The transcripts and accompanying pictures show how integral to Manning’s whistle-blowing were his personal experience and torment with his gender identity.

With an introduction by Carol

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Queen, Ph.D., Anything That Moves is a good journeyman’s guide to the wide spectrum of sexualities and identities that exist apart from the gay/straight binary divide. Editor Christensen writes, “The common thread that united them [the book’s contributors] is not their sexuality, but their humanity. These are people who want love, affection, companionship, security, fun, adventure, solace – all the things that you and I and anyone would want.”

Bill Roundy writes that “I was (and am) a Gold Star Gay, i.e., a gay man who’s never had sex with a woman. But lately, my credentials have come under question because I’ve dated transgender guys (three of my last four relationships have been with transmen*). *men who were assigned ‘female’ at birth, felt that didn’t fit, and transitioned to ‘male.’” When we see the butch little numbers he’s referring to, Roundy admits another sort of preference: “I may have a thing for short guys.”

In fact, we discover, one’s sexuality can even preclude sex. In “This Time It’s Personal,” Powflip tells the tale of a latex-loving girl who discovers that her neighbor is a latex-loving boy. “The more experience I had with sex, the more I realized that the stuff I found most gratifying was the introspective exploration of my personal sensuality.

That’s why I got into latex. It physically, mentally, and sensually insulates one.” But the two rubber-lovers find each other and fall in love. “Two years on, and we still haven’t had sex with each other. What more could one ask for?”

Kevin Boze makes a case for his thesis that “Bisexuals are the platypus of human sexuality. Early Europeans thought platypus were fakes.

t

Arts’ (CCA) Architecture program were challenged to think about the specific history and needs of the LGBT senior community, and how that might inspire new strategies for multi-unit housing in the city.

Also, Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts (QCCA) will present Aaron Betsky: Queer Space (revisited) on Mon., Feb. 24, 7 p.m. at Timken Hall, CCA, 1111 8th St., SF, a lecture free and open to the public. In his groundbreaking book Queer Space (1997), Betsky examined how same-sex desire is creating an entirely new architecture. Both of these events are co-presented by the Queer Cultural Center (QCC).

Platypus lay eggs, but they suckle their young. They’re unusual, true.

But they are real.” We didn’t even know the plural of platypus was platypus!

In “Swimming Pool Suitor,” Leanne Franson’s “bi-dyke” Liliane finds herself on a date with a gregarious guy. Thought bubbles during their dinner show what they’re really thinking, a convention in comics that comes off as overly broad or absurd in other forms, like an aside in theatre. When Fred orders – “Well, I’ll have de steak, well-done, wit’ tomado catsup, potatoes, no salad, no veg’ables an’ a pitcher of draft, t’anks!” – Liliane thinks, “Gosh! He wears an earring and a necklace, but what a boy!”

Post-dinner rumination: “Too weird: talk about ATV racing, beers with the guys, he pays the bill. Is this what straight girls live all the time?

Is this what ‘normal’ is like?” Read a few of the compelling pieces in Anything That Loves, and you’ll agree that “normal” comes in a whole range of human behavior.

Dance chatter

Last Friday night’s San Francisco Ballet performance of Giselle was the first in the season’s NiteOut series, designed to appeal to LGBT audiences. At the afterparty up in Dress Circle bar, hosted by gorgeous SFB principal dancer Damian Smith, ballet-fanciers were still talking about principal dancer Vanessa Zahorian’s amazing feat of endurance at the opening gala, when she fractured a bone in her foot as she stepped onstage yet danced her pas de deux as if nothing whatsoever were wrong. We learned that she even appeared at the gala afterparty – in high heels!

“Plus she’s just really a genuinely nice person,” one ballet insider told us.

Unlike some of the other prima ballerinas?

“Allegedly.” (People have learned to be so shrewdly circumspect when speaking to the gossip-minded press!)

So Zahorian’s turn in Giselle will have to wait for another season.

Meanwhile, Bordeaux-born principal dancer Mathilde Froustey danced the part on Friday night, opposite dashing Tiit Helimets, and nailed it. Veteran ballet-goers were saying it was the best production of Giselle they had ever seen. Dance maven Paul Parish’s review appears in this issue.

Queer architecture

Alternative Futures, an exhibition of visionary architectural designs inspired by the new LGBT senior housing project at 55 Laguna St., is on display on the third floor of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center through March 15, with a free reception open to the public on Sat., Feb. 8, from 1-3 p.m. Using 55 Laguna, an LGBT senior housing project currently being developed in SF, as inspiration, Masters students in the California College for the

Veddy British

Advance word from one of our favorite local film fests: “The Mostly British Film Festival returns to the Vogue Theater Feb. 13-20, showcasing 25 classic and new films from the UK, Ireland, Australia and India. It opens with Le Weekend, a comedic drama starring Oscar winner Jim Broadbent as an Englishman who takes his wife to Paris to reignite their stalled marriage. The closingnight film, Summer in February, features Dan Stevens fresh from his lead role in Downton Abbey, as part of a love triangle in a bohemian artists’ colony in pre-WWI Cornwall.

“Valentine’s Day is devoted to romantic fare, kicking off with Love Me Till Morning, a tale of love among 20-somethings that proved a sold-out hit at the London Film Festival. Love Actually follows love affairs among Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Liam Neeson. The 1998 hidden gem Sliding Doors stars Gwyneth Paltrow with a credible British accent as a London single caught between two romances.

“On Feb. 15, the festival will pay tribute to Michael York, a 50-year acting veteran known for his famous roles in Cabaret and Murder on the Orient Express. He will be here for an onstage conversation with Ruthe Stein and a screening of England Made Me (1973), in which he gives one of his favorite performances, as an ambitious Englishman trying to better himself in pre-WWII Europe.”

The MBFF is presented by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation and the California Film Institute. On Feb. 1820, the Rafael Theater in San Rafael will show three films selected from the festival. Tickets for the Vogue are available at the theater box office or at www.mostlybritish.org.

Crab wrap

Without a doubt the Meal of the Week for Out There came last Thursday at the Crab & Champagne Dinner served up at the Americano in the Hotel Vitale. Talented young Executive Chef Kory Stewart’s three-course family-style menu started with avocado salad with baby kale, quinoa, scallion, housemade cumin yogurt and toasted seeds. Then came the star: local Dungeness crab with crab butter and salsa verde, a shell-cracker, a bib and plenty of cloth napkins.

Dessert was pear and huckleberry pie with crème fraiche ice cream.

All paired with Moet White Star sparkling wine, not too shabby a libation!

Out There grew up enjoying our gold-standard crustacean, the Chesapeake Bay blue crab. But we converted to Dungeness when we moved to the West Coast, and the meaty-clawed creature is pretty much one of our reasons for living. We weren’t able to shake Chef ’s hand when he came to our table, because our paws were all crabby, but we doff our hat to him now: You do Dungeness proud!t

t

Theatre>>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Into the woods

by Richard Dodds

H

e’s a pie-eyed piper, a Peter Pan with a potbelly presiding over a Neverland that soon will be never more. The iconoclastic Johnny Rooster alternately lives in denial, recalls past glories, and thunders like a Shakespearean tragedian against unjust gods. And he parties with the abandon of a Falstaff and the aggressiveness of John Os-

borne’s angry young men. Welcome to Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth’s epic play set in an English countryside enclave that Johnny Rooster considers a holy land he is duty-bound to preserve.

San Francisco Playhouse is presenting the West Coast premiere of Butterworth’s London and Broadway success in a raucously controlled production that shakes the auditorium. But what the three-

Jessica Palopoli

Brian Dykstra, right, views the results of a recent bacchanalia with acolytes Paris Hunter Paul, Joshua Schell, and Ian Scot McGregor in Jerusalem at San Francisco Playhouse.

hour-plus play is not is a tidy march to its thematic destination, often leaving the audience adrift in the meandering lives of the various hangers-on, angry villagers, and bureaucrats carrying eviction notices who make their ways to Johnny’s demobilized mobile home. The playwright is clearly interested in building themes through the atmospheric accrual of meandering events, but the forward dramatic drive can be lost in the process.

“Jerusalem,” a song set to a William Blake poem, is Britain’s unofficial national anthem, imagining Jesus blessing the country for its sprawling green pastures, now being overtaken by “dark satanic mines” of the industrial revolution. This information, plus a four-page glossary included with the program, offers American equivalents of dozens of regional references and colloquialisms. “Squaddie,” for example, is a derogatory terms for an off-duty soldier, whom you should probably not ask for “whizz,” which are better known as amphetamines.

The play is set in the recent past, and may be the only angry-man play to come out of England in recent decades that does not invoke the name of Margaret Thatcher.

The messages the play conjures are almost like smoke signals that cannot be comfortably categorized. Yes, bucolic pastures are more beautiful than the housing estates that will displace Johnny, so score one for the Rooster. But his caravan is also a way-station for a changing population of runaways and stoners, many of them underage, who score drugs and guzzle his whiskey.

Paris Hunter Paul, and Richard Louis James as members of Rooster’s lost-boy tribe, and from Christopher Reber as a costumed reveler promoting a local pub, Maggie Mason as Rooster’s former girlfriend and mother of his young son, and Joe Estlack as a local thug on the prowl for his stepdaughter.

Sitting through Jerusalem can definitely be an intense theatrical experience, but I understand if you wonder at times just why you are having this particular experience.t

So officialdom wins back a point.

And the ground continues to shift until Johnny himself loses faith in his dominion.

Director Bill English, who designed the realistic, cluttered set, has managed to create the impression of free-form chaos with the control needed in the sprawl of Butterworth’s text. The play’s anchor is obviously Johnny Rooster, and the production could go adrift without a performance like Brian Dykstra’s ironclad grip on the role of a selfmade icon who is variously a tyrant, a hero, a junkie, a drunk, a braggart, and a teddy bear. There are strong, distinctive performances from the surrounding characters, including Ian Scott McGregor, Joshua Schell,

Jerusalem will run at the San Francisco Playhouse through March 8. Tickets are $30-$100.

Call 677-9596 or go to sfplayhouse.org.

Valentine’s Dinner at special prix fix menu ~ menu to be announced ~ $60/person live accordion and… the romantic feel of Provence! two seatings available: 6pm & 8:30pm

reservations: email request directly from website www.lanoterestaurant.com

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Love inspires movement

by Richard Dodds

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ou are not alone if you wonder if he will or if he won’t. Even though Mikhail Baryshnikov, at 65, has transitioned to a movement-based style of dance acting, audiences must still harbor a few kernels of hope that a terpsichorean impulse will let loose.

In Man in a Case, adapted from two short Chekhov stories, there are teases in that direction.

Early on, Baryshnikov’s character offers to display a dance only to have his onstage colleagues squelch the moment before he can even arise from his chair. But later, when Baryshnikov’s hermetically sealed character gets his first taste of love, he breaks into an increasingly joyous freeform jitterbug. At least his limbs get to do their stuff before the group of bored wild turkey-hunters puts it to an end.

But Baryshnikov was not simply known for fancy footwork, as his whole body forcefully communicated the emotions of dance. But even as a tightly wound Greek professor hardly given to superfluous motion, Baryshnikov manages to both diminish his physical form while creating a mesmerizing stage persona.

While several actors remain seated at their command-center folding table, Baryshnikov finds an exquisite stage partner in Tymberly Canale, who brings love into both of the Chekhov stories before it must depart.

Time, technology, and locale collide in unexpected and often humorous ways. Video screens periodically flash alive with extreme close-ups of action happening in the moment, or may make a sardonic point with a prerecorded loop. The styles used by directorchoreographer Paul Lazar and choreographer Annie-B Parson/Big

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T. Charles Erickson

Tymberly Canale and Mikhail Baryshnikov perform a dramatic pas de deux of love between an unmarried man and a married woman in Man in a Case at Berkeley Rep.

Dance Theater may be reminiscent of mash-up theatrics by Emma Rice (Tristan & Yseult), Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses), and Morris Panych (The Overcoat), whose works have played the Bay Area, but Man in a Case is more subdued, and clearly focuses on Baryshnikov and Canale’s characters, while the other characters most noticeably practice their turkey calls from stage right.

At barely 75 minutes, Man in a Case is a lovely, evocative, enigmatic, and restrained reinvention of Chekhov. And it disproves one axiom of love. Men who wear galoshes in all weather can indeed fall in love.t Man in a Case will run at Berkeley Rep through Feb. 16. Tickets are $45-$125. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to www.berkeleyrep.org.

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510.642.9988

Download the Cal Performances mobile app for iOS or Android and buy tickets on-the-go. Now with select your own seating!

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<< Music

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

Quirky rhythms & rich harmonies

by Philip Campbell

Guest conductor Osmo Vanska has a command of Sibelius’ works.

Pianist Daniil Trifonov.

belius since the old glory days with former Music Director, now Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt.

The complete set of all seven symphonies with Blomstedt and the SFS has been reissued as a box set if you want to draw your own parallels.

The Night Ride is Sibelius at his most pictorial, and if the piece seems a little too on-the-nose, we can still revel in the trademark clarity and beauty of the orchestration.

The Symphony No. 6 is a lengthier but likewise concise exhibition of the composer’s abrupt and complicated thinking.

The rush of melody and quicksilver mood swings of the Sixth’s four movements end with unexpected

mediately leapt to their feet for a prolonged ovation, but it was the encore that finally got me on my feet. The remarkable and generously long excerpt, transcribed for piano, from Stravinsky’s Firebird was an absolute knock-out. There may have been a few clunkers buried amidst the young virtuoso’s flying fingers, but they couldn’t make the impact any less astonishing.

The week before, Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik conducted members of the SFS strings in a charming and smaller-scaled bill that was notable for the youth of the composers included. Felix Mendelssohn was a mere 13 when he wrote the Violin Concerto in D minor (not

the famous one, but still delicious), and Mozart was only 16 when he penned the Divertimento in F Major. Benjamin Britten, another prodigious wunderkind, wrote his Simple Symphony at 20, but it was based on themes he composed in his early teens.

The more mature members of the SFS strings had no problem springing into youthful action with all three delightful inventions, and Barantschik himself was predictably adept with the playful solo assignment of the energetic Mendelssohn Concerto. Hearing the young Britten as part of the centennial celebrations of his birth made us marvel again at the British composer’s wit and melodic invention.

The theme of the night was dramatically altered with the closing items on the bill, Astor Piazzolla’s Melodia and Libertango, arranged for orchestra by Jeremy Cohen of Quartet San Francisco. The striking contrast of the haunting tango music, so evocative and subtly (and not so subtly) erotic, came as a breath of smoky air after the effervescence of the preceding pieces. But no one was complaining at the suavity of Barantschik’s violin cadenza, and everyone was equally enthusiastic about guest soloist Seth Asarnow’s masterful contributions on bandoneon. It was a wonderfully astringent and exciting end to a concert that proved that smaller portions can be very satisfying.t

ing his obedient wife, The Woman, a feminine demiurge who has been kept barefoot and illiterate.

The Man, whose “property” has gone into ruin while The Boy effectively rewrites him, doesn’t see the “Heaven” he insisted be depicted.

The Woman, who has become Agnes, the only character with a name and thus an individualized identity, through the consuming fire of Eros, sees only “Hell,” and asks where the pictures are. On a secret page, responds The Boy, painted in words.

“My work,” he says, “is done.” But the full horror of Eros unbound has yet to work itself out, as it does in the opera’s stunning final scene.

The exemplary Nimbus audio recording of the Aix-en-Provence premiere proved the stand-alone integrity of Benjamin’s score. But it was meant to be seen and not just heard, and not accidentally, found an ideal staging in a brilliant physical production directed by Katie Mitchell, which has been making the rounds of the commissioning opera houses and arrived at Covent Garden with essentially the same cast – Barbara Hannigan, Christopher Purves, and Bejun Mehta – the best singing actors of the day, deeper into their roles than ever. “It’s short opera,” openly gay countertenor (this is not a redundancy) Mehta, The Boy, says with a knowing laugh in an accompanying interview, “but it packs a lot into an hour and a half.”

The scorching kisses between The

Boy and, in sequence, The Woman and The Man, make the infamous onstage blowjob in Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face seem like tame stuff.

The verbal-musical cognate, more erotic yet, is in the fully fused music and text when The Woman, becoming Agnes, exults, “What can she hear inside of her? Her own voice. What does the voice want? To wind and wind itself around another.”

Mehta’s artistic depth, recognized by Leonard Bernstein when Mehta was still an adolescent and now making him the most complete performer among the many outstanding countertenors working the scene today, has led him to wind his voice around an extraordinary range of music from Handel to music written for him. His latest release, Che Puro Ciel (Harmonia Mundi), explores music from the period bridging the Baroque and the Classical, in the process demonstrating how artificial those boundaries are.

The singing is spectacular, and the instrumental support by the Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin under Rene Jacobs ear-opening even by their standards. The “accompaniment” of the opening aria, from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, shows how much we have yet to learn about this supposedly familiar opera. Together the musicians do so much to bring this forgotten music to life that it left me wondering whether Mehta might one day follow in the footsteps of former countertenor Jacobs and start leading the repertoire – as only a performing musician can.t

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ecent weeks at Davies Symphony Hall have sustained the regular San Francisco Symphony season with concerts showcasing the amazing versatility of the orchestra itself.

A welcome guest conductor and a conductor pulled from the ranks, performing alongside colleagues from the string section he ordinarily first-chairs, presented two highly contrasted programs while Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas is on winter hiatus.

Last week, Osmo Vanska returned for a guest stint at DSH with a program bookended by works of Jean Sibelius. Vanska is the former music director of the Minnesota Orchestra who resigned during the musicians’ more-than-one-year lockout. The only recently resolved strike may have long-range results for all involved, and despite the wishes of his former orchestra members and a surprising and deserved Grammy win, Vanska may not return to his old post.

The award-winning disc features Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 by Sibelius, but Vanska decided on leading the rarely performed Night Ride and Sunrise and Symphony No. 6 in San Francisco. His command of the great Finnish composer’s quirky rhythms and rich harmonies was telling throughout every moment of the swift-moving performances.

We haven’t heard such satisfying interpretations and command of Si-

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suddenness, but Vanska’s sure understanding of the big picture made lyrical logic of it all. As it was helped by the strong playing of the brass section, I found myself wondering why the beautifully strange Sixth doesn’t get more exposure.

Included on the bill, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov made his SFS debut and tore the roof off DSH with a sensational reading of Rachmaninoff ’s ever-popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. I could live with hearing the bravura piece only on the occasional Pops program, but the thrilled subscribers (myself as well) couldn’t help but respond to the young Trifonov’s agility and power. Everyone around me im-

Courtesy SFS

Singular voice & vision

by Tim Pfaff

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verything about George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin exudes distinction, but it’s its fierce originality that makes it the finest opera of our young if rapidly aging century. It’s no surprise that the other contenders are, like Ben-

jamin’s, by openly gay composers.

But, considering the short list, Written on Skin is the most wholly “new.”

Not that, as music, The Tempest, Moby-Dick, Dead Man Walking, and just now, Brokeback Mountain, are derivative, but it’s fair to say that in all those cases, audiences arrive with some idea of what they’re in

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for, at least story-wise. When Benjamin got the commission to compose his second opera, about which he knew nothing at the time, none of the commissioners would have thought that an imaginary telling of a tale grounded in the ethos of the 12th-century troubadours was, for that reason, going to sell tickets.

I’ve long since forfeited my right to say how Written on Skin would strike a first-time viewer (though I vividly remember the impact of my first encounter with it, holding my breath for 90 minutes). But having just watched the newly released DVD of the Covent Garden production of last March (Opus Arte), I was struck first and foremost with how contemporary – in the sense of timely – the work is, how much it has to say, and the clarity and directness with which it says it.

Those competitor operas had to contend with – and, if critics are to be believed, overcome – their librettos. But it’s not hard to imagine how the singular voice and vision of Martin Crimp’s intricate yet plain-speaking text for Written on Skin – perfect from the title to the wrenching Tosca sendup of the final tableau – might have stunned even a composer who had worked with him before. Benjamin says, credibly, that he dropped everything else, all but eating and sleeping, for the next two years to work it out in music as original and telling.

By the time, an hour into the continuous piece, you are hauled into the third act, the text announces a new subject: the power and poverty of words. The Boy, one of the three principal characters and a combination troubadour figure and, to use Crimp’s word, “Angel,” has finally delivered the illuminated manuscript (written on skin in a myriad senses, by that point) commissioned by The Man (also known, with chilling irony, as “The Protector”) to show “in Paradise” him and his “property,” explicitly includ-

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Film>>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Murder in the gay cruising grounds

by David Lamble

making passionate love? And I really wanted to deal with the drowning.

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he provocative new French release Stranger by the Lake may be one of the queerest films I’ve encountered, and that’s saying something. Taking on a subject, gay male cruising, that has eluded many, most notably William Friedkin in his still-controversial 1980 melodrama Cruising, director Alain Guiraudie sets us down in a fairy-tale-pretty environment, a crystal-blue lake 150 kilometers north of Cannes, where a motley assortment of gay male cruisers gather on one shore, while unseen on a distant shore lie bourgeois families whose values are the antithesis of the cruisers.

Eons ago I would pass tantalizing summers in a wooded gay male cruising area near Austin, Texas, affectionately known as “Hippie Hollow.” There, under the long shadow of the Texas Sodomy law, guys of all ages would cavort in the bushes, mostly unmolested by the long arm of the law. Guiraudie rekindles the spirit of Hippie Hallow and reboots its activities into a noir-style, addictive thriller.

“Good evening, can I share your towel?” With that come-on, a hunky, mustached stranger, Michel (Christophe Paou), introduces himself to the already-smitten prettyboy Franck (Pierre Deldonchamps).

The two men will soon be an item, at least by the lake and in the bushes.

Franck will come to want more, despite his guilty knowledge that this

Scene from director Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake.

tall, dark stranger is capable of murder. The film climbs several notches with a running subplot in which Franck befriends a lonely, corpulent guy, in what turns into a rather intimate, chat-only relationship.

Guiraudie’s knack includes the ability to duplicate the duality of excitement and ennui that hangs over gay nude-beach cruising spots worldwide. With a naturalistic, ambient soundtrack and a nuanced grasp on how cruel queer guys can be when they’re on the make, this gripping erotic thriller will take you on a rough and psychologically troubling ride.

Having myself once witnessed what may have been a homicidal

Tall tales

by Jim Piechota

Best Gay Stories 2013 edited by Steve Berman; Lethe Press, $18 e all may be just breaching the threshold of 2014, but 2013 was a memorable year for literature, including the fantastic collection Best Gay Stories 2013. Edited by talented scribe Steve Berman, founder of New Jersey’s Lethe Press (also the publisher of the book), the journey encased in these pages spans a diverse spectrum of issues, conundrums, joys, and fears, all springing from the wildly creative imaginations of a handful of multitalented, well-known, and fledgling gay authors. From tentative queer youth to confident and proud gay men at their prime, there is something for every taste (and generation) in this brilliant anthology, the sixth incarnation in the Best Gay Stories series, which editor Berman delightfully describes as a smorgasbord of “friendship, films, food, even a fair amount of fornication.”

The collection’s opening story by Alex Jeffers also happens to be its longest, and tells the tale of Luke and Levent, an American man and his Turkish deckhand, flirting and frolicking aboard a large sailboat adrift on the Aegean Sea. Completely switching gears is Matthew Loney’s barely two-page entry “Two Variations on the Theme of Envy”; not a story, but a pair of clever rumina-

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tions on the twinned themes of inner beauty vs. outward appearances, and how looks can deceive even the most nonjudgmental of us all. Similarly, seasoned novelist Jameson Currier presents his droll, insightful inner monologue on aging and that selfcritical everyman in the mirror in “What Comes Around.”

Thomas Kearnes spears the gay male drug and party culture with a wincingly truthful sword in his take on tweaking in “I Will Forget the Sound of his Voice.” Brooklyn writer Nicholas Boggs presents the first chapter from his novel-inprogress The Figurines, with the adventures of a man yearning for independence from his family and desperately coveting his gay uncle’s apartment, where he “pays eighty dollars a month for a one-bedroom apartment with a view of Tompkins Square Park.” Boggs’ story, “East Tenth Street, 1999,” is an accomplished tale, enticingly written, and foretells larger things to come for this talented new voice in gay fiction.

Elsewhere, the subject matter ranges widely from sexuality, relationship failures, commitment, infidelity, history, violence, eroticism, desire, and the splendor of love.

Nostalgic readers will find Mark Ameen’s amazingly astute stroll down memory lane “Irrespective of the Storm” one of the collection’s best. It’s a beautifully rendered autobiographical scrapbook of memories beginning when the author first arrived in New York City from Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1978, “rendered speechless by the beautiful men,” and soon losing himself in the underground culture of casual sex, leather cock rings, and bleached 501s. The same can be said of the sexual initiation of the unnamed character in Saeed Jones’ “Boy, A History,” where a young man comes of age in the face of childhood homophobia and militant parenting.

Two sensitive, immensely thought-provoking essays close out the book. Eddie Sarfaty’s “Next Year at Sonny’s” interconnects friends,

crime-in-progress late one night on the cruise block in Houston, I can appreciate the ambivalence of our hero Franck, and the odd moral charge his conduct adds to the proceedings. My appreciation of Stranger by the Lake was significantly enhanced by a phone chat with director Alain Guiraudie.

David Lamble: I enjoyed your film very much. I was wondering where the idea for the story comes from.

Alain Guiraudie: I wanted to do something at a lake, men at a lake.

Like you, I had memories of those kind of places. I also wanted to make a film about some of the bigger issues: What is desire, the idea of

family, and Jewish culture into a rousing testament to the power and healing strength of tradition, while Montreal-based writer Peter Knegt tracks the progression of his ca-

It’s voyeuristic, the audience really feels like we’re Franck watching this. It’s shocking and also intriguing in a way – the audience identifies with Franck and why he goes on with this guy, even though he knows the terrible truth.

I wanted to play with the conceit that every murder we see is from Franck’s point of view, but I also wanted to show other things through my own point of view. So at certain moments, what Franck is seeing and I, the director, see merge.

And it’s those moments when they merge that viewers suddenly feel that they’re seeing everything from Franck’s point of view.

Watching it a second time, it’s still thrilling and exciting erotically, but it’s also funny, I hope in an intentional way, that the gay cruising rituals are so specifically recorded.

Oh, it’s the reality of it that makes it funny. I can’t really tell you how I did that to make that funny, but I think showing that something is funny is really important. Because it’s the humor in the film that makes the tragic scenes much more tragic.

explicitness. But I think you get the right balance of a noir-like film and an explicitly gay film that is, at the same time, not pornographic.

It’s very hard to get any kind of balance in film, and if I can go back to my two previous features, it was to capture that balance between comedy and uncertainty.

I liked the police inspector. It’s not, obviously, an ordinary murder case.

In the case of the inspector, I think he knew what was going on right away. What was interesting was for him to be conducting far more of a sociological investigation than a criminal investigation. He’s someone who’s interested in finding out about the homosexual community because maybe he has some homosexual feelings himself. You don’t know.

I was looking at the Internet Movie Database, and there was one viewer who liked the film (probably a heterosexual man) who was a little put off by its

Finally, the character of the portly man Henri, whom Franck becomes sort of domestic with on the beach, a guy he can talk to and have the other part of the affair. I thought that was a special part of the film.

Henri is based on somebody I knew. He’s not really like him, but his heart is kind of like a person I knew. I was trying to show two kinds of love stories, a love story with sex, which was Franck’s relationship with Michel, and another love story, a love story he had without sex, with Henri.t

reer as an adult-film actor, ending with a reliving of his childhood in a screening of The Little Mermaid at the Castro Theatre.

As a whole, Berman’s collection is

a masterful feat, a treat for the brain and the senses, and a reminder that being a gay man can encompass a multitude of emotions, predicaments, successes, and failures.t

LADY RIZO

JOHN BUCCHINO

PAULA WEST

CHEYENNE JACKSON

February 6 - 7

February 13 - March 9

February 8

March 14 - 16

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

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<< Out&About

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

SF Sketchfest @ Castro Theatre

Out &About

O&A

The massive multi-venue comedy festival returns, with events at dozens of venues, including a tribute to actor Alan Arkin (Feb 6, 7pm, $25, Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St.), Feb 7, Peaches Christ presents a screening of Cabin Boy (Feb 7, 7:30pm, $20, Castro Theatre). Full festival (thru Feb. 9) schedule at www.sfsketchfest.com

Unusual Films @ Oddball Films Enjoy wacky offbeat vintage short films.

Feb 6, Visions of Dystopia. Feb 7, What the F(ilm)?, some real oddities. Thu & Fri, each $10, 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Fri 7 Thu 13 Bettye LaVette

Skirt the issue

by Jim Provenzano

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etting your pre-Valentine’s Day blues? Plan to run and hide from the flowers & chocolates flock? Pondering whether to boycott the Sochi Olympics, sponsors NBC, Visa, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola? Perhaps you may peek a view just to see how horribly it will go. In between those possible anti-activities, consider positive local arts events that require little, if any, politically salient indecision, but merely a welcoming heart and mind.

Thu 6 Askew Film & Performance Festival @ YBCA Femina Potens’ second annual festival of experimental performance, reading, film and dance includes We All Live Here: Primal Expressionism (Feb 6, 7pm), Breaking Stones: Defining New Roles of Masculinity (Feb. 7, 7pm) and The Sacred and Profane (Feb 8, 6pm & 7pm). Thru Feb. 8. $8-$10. Yerba Buensa Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. at 3rd. www.ybca.org

Healthier Living @ LGBT Center Openhouse presents weekly workshops for LGBT adults ages 55+ that share information and motivation. Weekly thru March 13. 10am-12:30pm. Community Room 306, 1800 Market St. www.openhouse-sf.org

Hir @ Magic Theatre World premiere of Obie Award winner Taylor Mac’s play about Paige, a mother determined to forge a liberated life for her two kids; Isaac, a discharged soldier, and Max, a third-sex youth. $20-$60. Tue 7pm.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Opens Feb. 6.

Thru Feb. 23. Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd floor. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org

Jerusalem @ SF Playhouse Local production of Jez Butterworth’s Tony and Olivier-winning witty British drama, where the values of losing ancient Celtic ruins vs. building council flats compare to the loss of family cohesion. $20-$100. Tue & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru March 8. 450 Powell St., 2nd. floor. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Kevin Fisher-Paulson @ Books Inc. Author of A Song for Lost Angels reads from and discusses his real-life experience with his partner; how they adopted triplets, only to lose them because of antigay prejudice. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Kronos Quartet @ Z Space The acclaimed modern string quartet presents Under 30/#5 World Premiere, a series of diverse musical concerts. With Friction Quartet (Feb. 6), Mobius Trio (Feb. 7), The Living Earth Show (Feb. 8) and Amy X Neuberg (Feb. 9). $20-$25. 8pm.

Thru Feb. 9. 450 Florida St. (866) 811-4111. www.zspace.org

Marcus Shelby Orchestra @ Yoshi’s Enjoy a special Black History Month concert with the bassist-composer’s big band orchestra, and guest vocalist Miss Faye Carol. $20-$58 (with dinner). 8pm.

1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

The Scion @ The Marsh Solo performer Brian Copeland’s new show focuses on privilege, murder and sausage in his retelling of the triple murder crime at the Santos Linguisa Factory. $15-$60.

Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

San Francisco Symphony @ Davies Symphony Hall Lionel Bringuier conducts the symphony, with guest pianist Helen Grimaud, in a concert of works by Brahms, Dutilleux and Ravel. $15-$152. 2pm. Also Feb. 7, 8pm. Lunar New Year concert Feb. 7, 4pm, $30-$74. Chamber Music concert (Mozart, Schoenberg, Stookey) Feb. 9, 2pm, $36.

The symphony performs works by Mozart, Sibeius, and Tchaikovsky Feb 12 8pm, and Feb 14, 8pm. $15-$152. 864-6000. www.sfsymphony.org

SF Indiefest @ Various Venues 16th annual festival of amusing unusual independent feature and short films; special events and parties thru the run; at Brava, Roxie and New Parkway (Oakland) theatres. Thru Feb 20. www.sfindie.com

Student and Faculty Concerts @ SF Music Conservatory Feb 6, 8pm, Voice department students perform classical works. 50 Oak St. 5036215. www.sfcm.edu

Aszure Barton & Artists @ Lam Research Theater San Francisco Performances presents the Bay Area debut of the Canadian choreographers’ strikingly visual new dance, Awáa. $35-$50. 7:30pm. Also Feb 8. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org www.sfperformances.org

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Man in a Case @ Berkeley Repertory Mikhail Baryshnikov stars in Annie B. Parson and Paul Lazar’s theatre-dancemusic adaptation of two short stories by Anton Chekhov. $45-$125. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed 7pm. Sun 2pm (Jan. 25 7pm).

Thru Feb. 26. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

The Oy of Sex @ The Marsh Alicia Dattner’s solo show explores her life with ex-boyfriends, family, love addiction, and how they all sometimes clash. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. $20-$100. Thru Feb 22. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Pamela Z, Christina McPhee @ Joe Goode Annex

Thu 13

Carbon Song Cycle, a duo concert of multi-instrument experimental music and projected visuals explores themes of ecosystems. $12-$25. 8pm. Also Feb 8. 401 Alabama St. at 17th. www.pamelaz.com

Felice Picano and other authors at Valentine’s Day with Cleis Press

Dance Brigade @ Dance Mission Theater The politically vibrant women’s dance company presents Hemorrhage: An Ablution of Hope and Despair, a dance installation that explores local and world politics. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 6pm.

Thru Feb. 8. 3316 24th St. at Mission. (800) 838-3005. www.dancebrigade.org www.dancemission.com

Gideon’s Knot @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Johnna Adams’ award-winning twoperson drama between a teacher and a problem student’s mother explores issues of personal responsibility, freedom of expression, bullying and blame. $32-$50.

Tue 7pm, Wed-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm & 7pm.

2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 8434822. www.auroratheatre.org

Haute Dog Show @ SF Design Center The third annual canine fashion show benefits Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, with drinks, bites (for humans and dogs), raffles and many local pet products sponsors showcasing their wares. $35. 5:308:30pm. Galleria Atrium, 101 Henry Adams St. www.hautedog14.eventbrite.com

House of Floyd @ Yoshi’s The acclaimed Pink Floyd cover band performs the entire album Pulse ; part 1 at 8pm ($24) and part 2 at 10pm ($18). $35 20show pass. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Imbibe @ Mission Branch Library Friends of the SF Public Library present the annual love-filled event, with beer, wine, cocktails, food, dancing to Bill Belasco & Aguibella All-Star Latin Band, plus Valentine’s card-making. $40 (free for Friends of the Library members). 7pm10pm. 300 Bartlett St. www.friendssfpl.org

Josh Klipp and The Klipptones @ Palace Hotel The local jazz crooner and his band perform weekly shows at the hotel’s lounge, which draws a growing swingdance audience. 7pm-11pm. 2 New Montgomery. www.joshklipp.com

Major Barbara @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents a co-production with Theatre Calgary of George Bernard Shaw’s classic satirical play of morality and religion, centered around a Salvation Army official who must confront her organization when it takes donations from a weapons manufacturer, who happens to be her estranged father. $20-$140. Thru Feb. 2. 415 Geary St. 7492228. www.act-sf.org

Wed 12

The Paris Letter @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Jon Robin Baitz’ drama concerns a Wall Street powerhouse who finds his personal and professional life threatened by the unraveling secrets of his past. $25-$45.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 23. 25 Van Ness Ave. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

The Pornographer’s Daughter @ Z Below Liberty Bradford Mitchell’s one-woman show tells her story of growing up on the fringes of an X-rated world as the daughter of notorious pornography pioneer Artie Mitchell; performed with the three-piece band The Fluffers; directed by Michael T. Weiss. $32.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 10pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Feb. 16. 470 Florida St. PDtheplay.com

Ubu Roi @ Exit on Taylor

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Cutting Ball Theater’s production of Alfred Jarry’s 1896 parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (the original premiere induced riots, and is considered a pivotal early experimental absurd comedy), newly translated by Rob Melrose. $10-$50. Thu 7:30, Fri & Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm.

Thru Feb. 23. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

Venice Baroque Orchestra @ First Congregational Church, Berkeley The orchestra and Phillippe Jaroussky share a discussion about, and concert of, countertenor repertoire, castrati and travesti roles, and the high male voice in pop music today. $68 (16 and under half-price). Talk 4:40pm, 125 Morrison Hall. Concert 8pm, 2345 Channing Way. (510) 642-9988. calperformances.org

Sat 8 The Art of Bulgari @ de Young Museum La Dolce Vita & Beyond, an exhibit of 150 pieces of exquisite Italian jewelry made between 1950 and 1990, including gems from Elizabeth Taylor’s personal collection.

Thru Feb 17. $10-$25. Tue-Sun 9:30am5:15pm. (til 8:45pm Fridays) Thru Dec. 30. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Crosscurrents @ MoAD Africa and Black Diasporas in Dialogue, 1960-1980, an exhibit of contemporary art.

Thru April 13. $5-$10. Wed-Sat 11am-6pm.

Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

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Out&About>>

Duncan Sheik @ Yoshi’s The Grammy and Tony-winning musiciancomposer performs his own original music from his albums, including ‘80s covers, and songs from his musical Spring Awakening and even, perhaps his latest, the musical adaptation of American Psycho. $21-$34. 8pm & 10pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600.yoshis.com

Elevate Oakland @ Fox Theatre Percussionist Sheila E. headlines the benefit concert she organized with other award-winning musicians to raise funds for East Bay school music programs; with Michael Franti & Friends, Judith Hill, Ozomanti, Goapele, Orianthi, Kev Choice and the Future Oakland Trio. $40-$500.

VIP reception 6pm, concert 8pm. 1807 Telegraph Ave. www.elevateoakland.org

Feisty Old Jew @ The Marsh Charlie Veron’s new solo show about a fictional elder man who hitches a ride with surfer-hipsters, and rants about what he hates about the 21st century. $25-$100.

Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm. Thru March 16. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

John Bucchino @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Singer-songwriter, whose music has been performed by Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Nathan Gunn and many others, performs his popular hits with guest singers Nanci Zopii and Maggie Hollinbeck. $25-$35. 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. No cover. 7pm-10pm.

394-1111. hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Gardens See blooming magnolia trees and exhibits.

Special events include walking tours and more. Thru March 31. Also, hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a centuryold grove of towering Coast Redwoods.

Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 66121316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Fri 7 Aszure Barton & Artists

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh Lovebirds, the lesbian comic’s new solo show, portrays an array of wacky characters, from different eras, each searching for love. $15-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm.

Sat. 8:30pm. Thru March 15. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum

Linedrives and Lipstick @ SF Public Library

Betye LaVette @ Kanbar Hall

See the exhibits, Vicki Marlane: I’m Your Lady, which displays video, images and ephemera documenting the pioneering local drag, cabaret and carnival perfomer, known for decades of performances. Thru Feb 28. Also, The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus: Celebrating 35 Years of Activism Through Song, includes archival materials from the historic chorus. And, Premarital Bonds: Creating Family Before Marriage Equality. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm (closed Tue.) Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

The Untold Story of Women’s Baseball, an exhibit of images, and ephemera that, with text, tells the story of the world of women’s baseball since the 1870s. Thru March 16. Jewett Gallery, main branch, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

The veteran blues-gospel vocalist performs in a rare local concert. $35-$45. 8pm.

Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. 292-1233. www.jccsf.org/arts

Sun 9 Ana Popovic @ Yoshi's The award-winning blues/funk singerguitarist performs. $24-$28. 7pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Battle of the Seasons @ Regency Ballroom RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants from several seasons (Sharon Needles, Alaska Thunderfuck, Pandora Boxx, Ivy Winters, Carman Carrera and others) perform in over-the-top routines. $30-$60. 9pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. 673-5716. www.theregencyballroom.com

Bryan Schiller @ Stagewerx Theatre The comic actor performs his solo show, How I Lost My Virginity At 29 & Other Embarrassing Tales. $10-$15. 7pm. Also Feb 10. 446 Valencia St. www.stagewerx.org

Elizabeth Allende @ The Chapel The popular bar-restaurant-nightclub’s literary events welcomes the international bestselling author, whose new thriller Ripper is set in San Francisco. $60 includes brunch and a signed book. 12pm. 777 Valencia St. www.booksinc.net www. brownpapertickets.com/event/547085 [update: sold out/waiting list only]

Gay Vanity Fair @ Bently Reserve See and meet dozens of LGBT and gay-friendly wedding planners, event producers, caterers, clothiers, jewelers and providers of other services for nuptuals at a lavish afternoon event. $25-$30. 11am4pm. 301 Battery St. at Sacramento. www.gayvanityfair.com

Love Bites @ Martuni’s

The House That Will Not Stand @ Berkeley Repertory

The Speakeasy @ Boxcar Theatre

World premiere of local playwright Marcus Gardley’s historical drama about Creole Women in 1830s New Orleans who had common-law marriages with wealthy white men. $29-$59. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm.

Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm.

ThruMarch16. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2918. www.berkeleyrep.org

Nick A. Olivero’s immersive up-close experiental theatrical spectacle, where audience members enjoy a three-hour retro-drama while gambling and drinking at a “speakeasy” dive bar. $60-$90. Thu, Fri & Sat, admission times 7:40-8pm. Thru March 15. (hush! Address provided for guests only!) www.boxcartheatre.org

Thu 6 Askew Festival

The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco performs their annual witty antiValentine’s Day cabaret concert. $10.

4pm. Also Feb 10, 7:30pm. 4 Valencia St. 779-LGBT. www.lgcsf.org

Pop! @ Martuni’s Joe Wicht hosts a new showcase of talented local singers performing pop hits in their own style, including Essie Hyun, Jesse Cortez, Alexander Concas, Gilbert Beltran and pianist Katy Stephan. $7. 7pm.

4 Valencia St. at Market. 241-0205.

Proximities 3: Import/Export @ Asian Art Museum An exhibit that explores Asian uses of commodities and ideas; thru Feb. 23.

Special events include a Lunar New Year celebration Feb 2, and a Year of the Horse celebration Feb 9. Free (members)-$12.

Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 5813500. www.asianart.org

Mon 10 Ginger Snap @ Glama-Rama Exhibit of abstract sculptural works by the local drag performer and DJ, at the local hair salon. Thru Mar. 2. 304 Valencia St. 861-4526. www.glamarama.com

LOL @ OMG The intimate mid-Market nightclub celebrates its first anniversary with a night of comedy, with stand-up performers Valerie Branch, Tuesday Thomas, Andrew Orolfo, Sandra Risser, Steve Lee, and Donald Lacy. 7pm-10pm. 43 6th St. 89-OMGSF. www.clubomgsf.com

Geoff Hoyle @ The Marsh, Berkeley The veteran comic actor returns with his solo show, Geezer, a nostalgic meditation on his lengthy career and life. $25-$50. Thu 8pm. Sat. 5pm. Thru March 1. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. themarsh.org

Tue 11 It's Everything @ KOFY-TV Local nightlife host and singer BeBe Sweetbriar’s new streaming web talk show welcomes local celebrities. 7pm. Audience welcome at KOFY-TV, 2500 Marin St. www.BeBeSweetbriar.com

Veteran Documentary Corps @ Castro Theatre The Documentary Film Institute, SF State University, and the SF Film Society present seven new short veteran documentaries with stories ranging from WWII to our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. $10-$50 (VIP reception). 7pm. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

Wed 12 Napoli! @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents Beatrice Basso and Linda Alper’s vivid new translation of Eduardo De Filippo’s poignant Italian comedy about a woman’s black market business during the tumult of World War II in Italy. (Special events include valet parking night Feb 12; Out with A.C.T. Feb 26) $20-$120. Wed-Sun various times. Thru March 9. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Octopalooza @ Aquarium of the Bay Enjoy all kinds of brews while enjoying aquatic life exhibits, squid dissections, drink tickets, a silent disco, snacks, and souvnier steel cups (for the first 75 patrons) at this SF Beer Week night. $35.

6:30-9:30pm. The Embarcadero at Beach St. www.aquariumofthebay.org

Sweet Honey in the Rock @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The acclaimed women’s quintet celebrates their 40th anniversary with a concert of harmonies and rhythms of the African Diaspora. $22-$58. 8pm. Bancroft Way at Dana Place, UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Thu 13 Arthur Szyk and the Art of the Haggadah @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Opening day for a new exhibit of 48 fascinating illustrations of Hebrew stories by the early 20th-century artist (thru June 29). Also; Jason Lazarus: Live Archive, an exhibit of unusual work by the Chicago artist who explores collective public archives, personal memory, and the role of photography and collecting in contemporary art and identity (thru March 23). Also, To Build & Be Built: Kibbutz History (thru July 1). 2pm-5pm.

Free (members)-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm (Thu 1pm-8pm) 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Fri 7 Haute Dog Show

Joe Gore @ El Rio The super-talented guitarist, who’s accompanied Tom Waits, Tracy Chapman, Courtney Love and many others, performs at the monthly Strung Out solo series.

7pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

The Music Man @ Berkeley Playhouse The East Bay youth theatre company performs Meredith Wilson’s Tony Awardwinning musical about a con artist and small town values. $17-$60. Thu & Fri 7pm. Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm.

Thru Mar. 23. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Nora Chipaumire @ YBCA Forum The New York-based former member of Urban Bush Women, along with her dancers, perform Miriam, an immersive dance-installation work where the audience interacts with performers. $25-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Feb 15. Also, Feb 9, 11am-5pm, 50 Cent Tabernacle features Chipaumire, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Robert Moses. $0.50.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 979-2787. ybca.org

Paula West @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The renowned Bay Area jazz vocalist performs an all-new show with her fourpiece band in a special four-week residency at the elegant nightclub. $35-$50; $20 food/beverage min. Thu 8pm, Fri 7pm & 9:30pm, Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru March 9.

Hotel Nikko lobby, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinssf.com

Valentine’s Day with Cleis Press @ Books Inc. The Bay Area publisher welcomes three gay authors, the prolific Felice Picano ( Tales: From a Distant Planet ), comic/genre author Rob Rosen ( Vamp, Queens of the Apocalypse ) and Lewis DeSimone ( The Heart’s History) for a celebration of saucy sexy stories. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 8646777. www.booksinc.net

Victoria Loustalot @ GLBT History Museum The journalist and California native reads from and discusses her acclaimed memoir, This is How You Say Goodbye, about her gay father’s struggle with the closet and AIDS. $3-$5 (free for members). 7pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar. com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For bar and nightlife events, go to bartabsf.com, and our new merged section, ebar.com/bartab

<< Music

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

New scholarship aids LGBT musicians

by Ben Carlson

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he Rainbow Scholarship is a new way to help youth pursue their dreams of becoming professional musicians. The annual scholarship supports tuition costs at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for a student who demonstrates significant financial need, academic excellence and service to the LGBT community. San Francisco resident Lawrence Dillon established the Rainbow Scholarship to honor the philanthropic wishes of his late partner, Donald Oestreicher, who was a longtime supporter of the Conservatory.

“Music crosses all cultural and socio-economic boundaries, and it’s something that everybody benefits from,” Dillon said. “The fact that the Conservatory embraces this scholarship sends a message to young people that they’re accepted and valued for who they are.”

The recipient of the scholarship is chosen from among candidates nominated by the Student Advisory Committee. The first recipient is Andres Ramirez, 23, a Southern California native who is studying for a Master of Music degree in voice at the Conservatory after graduating from Pepperdine University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in music.

The tenor aspires to sing with his heroes in all the major opera houses.

He said he came out as “bi-curious” to a few friends in middle school,

Katt Newlon

Tenor Andres Ramirez is the first recipient of the Rainbow Scholarship.

and now identifies as a gay man.

“I am so incredibly honored and grateful for assistance in pursuing my passion and career choice,” Ramirez said. “This scholarship makes me feel like I belong to a strong community of artists and art supporters. Opera has helped me navigate some of the roughest times I have faced. I recall shutting off all the lights and listening to my favorite recordings of Maria Callas, Jose Carreras, or Placido Domingo, and going on journeys to far-off lands. Music helped me escape my own head and then return in a much better state. I cannot wait

to be in a position to give back to future generations of artists.”

Founded in 1917, the Conservatory provides education and training to approximately 400 collegiate, 500 pre-college and 100 adult extension students annually at state-of-theart facilities in the Civic Center arts corridor. Notable alumni include Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Jeffrey Kahane, Aaron Jay Kernis and Robin Sutherland, among others.

“We are committed to providing an extraordinary education to a diverse student body that prepares our graduates to pursue fully engaged lives as citizens of the world, and the Rainbow Scholarship helps us accomplish that,” said Conservatory President David H. Stull.

Dillon and Oestreicher attended many concerts at the Conservatory during their 18 years together. Oestreicher was an electrical engineer who always dreamed of being an artist, said Dillon, and prior to his death in 2008 he had become a major supporter of the Conservatory.

The Rainbow Scholarship began with a $25,000 grant distribution from a charitable trust created by Oestreicher. The level of the scholarship is determined by a draw amount set by the Conservatory’s Board of Trustees. The first award, given to Ramirez, was $1,200. Because tuition at the Conservatory is currently $38,900 per year, Dillon hopes other music-lovers will

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Betsy Kershner

Tenor Andres Ramirez performing the role of Eisenstein in the Conservatory opera department’s spring 2013 production of Die Fledermaus, composed by Johan Strauss II.

contribute to the scholarship and thereby increase the amount of the award. Dillon said his goal is to grow the Rainbow Scholarship Fund by at least 5% per year.

Meri Jaye, a longtime friend of Dillon and Oestreicher, was the first person to donate to the scholarship fund after it was established. The naval architect, San Francisco resident and amateur harpist was thrilled to be introduced to Ramirez at a luncheon arranged for her and Dillon by the Conservatory, after which she and Dillon were permitted to attend one of Ramirez’s classes with master

voice teacher and former opera performer César Ulloa.

“School cutbacks in the arts should cause all of us to recognize the necessity of doing what we can to encourage and support young aspiring artists,” Jaye said. “Music is a common denominator, and we all benefit so much from our musical geniuses, whatever their background.”

Anyone interested in contributing to the Rainbow Scholarship may do so by contacting June Hom, Manager of Individual Giving, at (415) 5036201 or jhom@sfcm.edu.t

debut disc Traveling Like Light.

But it’s been a long wait for the follow-up (following the scrapping of a previous second album). It’s actually a good thing because this allows listeners to put some distance between her first record’s retro style and the distinctly modern sound of the new one, Samson & Delilah (YOY). A dramatically futuristic set of songs, Samson & Delilah not only reinforces Brown’s songwriting skills, but also her gifts as a performer, making it a strong comeback effort.

Standout cuts include “Nothing Really Matters,” “Igneous,” “I Can Give You More,” “Ghosts,” “Knife” and the exceptionally tasty “The Apple.”

Produced by Grammy-winning lesbian jazz goddess Terri Lyne Carrington, Beautiful Life (Concord) is one of Grammy-winner Dianne Reeves’ best and most daring recordings. Covers of hits by Marvin Gaye (“I Want You”), Fleetwood Mac (“Dreams”) and Bob Marley (“Waiting In Vain”) stand alongside songs by Ani DiFranco (“32 Flavors”) and Esperanza Spalding (“Wild Rose”), as well as stellar Reeves co-compositions such as “Feels So Good (Lifted),” “Unconditional Love (For You)” and “Long Road Ahead.”

Folks of a certain generation will remember Sandra St. Victor as the lead vocalist of The Family Stand. The trio had a hit with the song “Ghetto

Heaven,” and went on to write a hit for Paula Abdul with “Promise of a New Day.” As a solo artist, St. Victor has only released a few albums, the latest being Oya’s Daughter (Shanachie).

Alternately grounded (“Stuff Mama Used to Say,” “Sugarfoot Is Dead”) and ethereal (“Spirit Talk,” “Eternal”), it’s a pleasure to hear St. Victor having her say again.

J. Cole doesn’t waste any time showing his true homophobic colors on “Villuminati,” the opening track of Born Sinner (Roc Nation/ Columbia). Predictably sexist and misogynistic as well, J. Cole is nevertheless a first-rate wordsmith, and his production skills are solid. Consider yourself warned.

Amsterdam native Giovanca has done her homework. On Satellite Love (Dox), she sounds like she could be a contemporary of Erykah Badu, especially on “How Does It Feel,” “Bad Wishes” and “Come Around.” But she really soars when she’s working her retro mojo on tracks such at the vintage disco of “Lockdown” and “No More,” the Latin heat of “Uphill,” and the light pop of “I Will Wait.”

It wouldn’t be a Black History Month celebration without some Duke Ellington. The CD reissue of The Ellington Suites: The Queen’s Suite/The Goutelas Suite/The Uwis Suite (OJC Remasters) features orchestration and compositions by Ellington’s longtime gay collaborator, Billy Strayhorn.t

The soul of February

by Gregg Shapiro

F

or someone with a track record as a sexual predator, you’d think R. Kelly would find something else to sing about on his new album Black Panties (RCA). But as you might conjecture from the title, the sexually obsessed R&B legend seems to have only one thing on his mind. Black Panties is so explicit, a parental advisory simply isn’t sufficient. Black Panties ought to come with an Oraquick home HIVtesting kit, a Gardisil patch, a cum rag, and step-by-step instructions on how to take a Silkwood shower.

Obvious as a boner in silk boxers, Kelly doesn’t mince words. But he’s so busy pushing the erotic envelope that he forgot to write memorable and distinctive melodies to accompany the lascivious lyrics. There are a couple exceptions, including “Crazy Sex” (a showcase for Kelly’s

sense of humor) and the bragging broadcast of “My Story” (featuring 2Chainz). If Kelly is looking for enlightening topics for future releases, he might want to consider protecting a woman’s right to choose, the benefits of higher education, and homophobia in the black church.

On The Song Is You (Shanachie/ Euphonic), Tony-winning original Dreamgirl Jennifer Holliday’s first secular album in 20 (!) years, she shies away from the commercial pop of her previous major-label releases in favor of a jazz-oriented approach. It’s an admirable move on her part. On the whole, the disc feels like a tribute to idols and icons, beginning with “Love Dance,” dedicated to Nancy Wilson. She shows respectful restraint on “The Look of Love” (dedicated to queer music legend Dusty Springfield), but rightfully roars on “At Last” (“in

loving memory of the late Miss Etta James”). Her interpretation of the title tune will make some listeners long for an entire album of Holliday singing vintage Broadway standards. “Love Me By Name” (cowritten by out singer/songwriter Lesley Gore), dedicated to Barbra Streisand (whom Holliday refers to as “The Voice”), is followed shortly thereafter by “Nobody Does It Better” (“in loving memory” of “one singular sensation” Marvin Hamlisch), on which Holliday sounds like she’s having the most fun on the whole disc. Holliday’s cover of the late Phyllis Hyman’s “It’s Not About You” is also a treat.

Also returning after a lengthy absence (eight years), Earth, Wind & Fire (down to a trio of Philip Bailey, Verdine White and Ralph Johnson) opens its new album Now, Then & Forever (Legacy) with the brassy, funky and soulful “Sign On.” There’s no mistaking the EWF sound, which is at its fiercest and freshest on “My Promise” (co-written by Siedah Garrett), “Dance Floor” and “Night of My Life” (both of which could be dance-floor fillers with the right remixes) and “The Rush” (co-written

by Allee Willis, who was responsible for some of EWF’s biggest and best hits from back in the day).

Young soul rebel V.V. Brown made an impression with her 2009

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Film>>

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Independently yours

by David Lamble

F

or some time, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival has been my Sundance, sans snow, slopes and pricey condos. For their Sweet 16 edition, Jeff Ross and his SF IndieFest program elves have cast a wide net and produced two weeks of edgy provocations and hip parties, all running Feb. 6-20 at the Roxie Theatre, the SF Women’s Building, Brava Theatre and Oakland’s New Parkway Theatre.

Sex: M While SF IndieFest is all about the coolest of under-theradar fiction films, I think director Kate Elston’s thoughtful sitcomlength documentary qualifies. The protagonist, one Lucas Waldron, a 21-year-old SF politics student, has an official State of California ID that unambiguously reads “M,” for male.

This intimate video, perhaps the pilot episode for Lucas’ post-college adulthood, opens on a shot of our hero detailing a drugstore shopping spree. “We’ve got some alcohol wipes to clean my wounds with, a bio-hazard box for my needles, and a vial of testosterone.”

We flash back seven months to a less confident Lucas YouTube confessional: “I’m not a woman. It’s uncomfortable sometimes when I get lumped together with women.”

Dad Vince recalls his kid acting like a “tomboy.” Mom Kathleen remembers him playing on all-boys’ basketball teams into the 7th grade.

Lucas envied those boys. “I want to look like him, act like him, all these girls like him, and that’s what I want to be.” Director Elston matter-offactly informs us that “Lucas will inject testosterone into his thigh twice a month for the rest of his life.”

A high point in the film is a moralsupport party for Lucas’ first home injection. The film covers the waterfront, from the once-dreaded trip home for the holidays to the tricky job of getting access to his campus’

SF IndieFest

Anna Rose Holmer, courtesy of Cinereach

Lucas Waldron in director Kate Elston’s Sex: M.

only single-occupancy restroom, to thoughts of future surgery, to finding suitable hetero-female dating partners. The film is finished; the life remains a work-in-progress. (Real Talk shorts program, Roxie, 2/15, 18) Proxy It’s not often you get a lesbian-themed psycho-thriller that manages to pull off allusions, sly and blatant, to classic horror-suspense films like French master Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Diabolique, while holding you in its insidious grip right down to the final blackout with gunshots.

Director Zack Parker’s thriller kicks off with a pregnant woman mugged in an alley. The young woman develops powerful feelings for a female member of her victim-of-violence support group, managing in the process to drive her female lover – fresh out of prison, hot-to-trot, and tattooed – mad with jealousy and thoughts of revenge. And that’s just the setup. This one sizzles for two hours with comic riffs on the role of psychobabble, crime reporters and prudish female cops in the scheme of things. Proxy deliciously illustrates Hitchcock’s theory about the scariest things unfolding in broad daylight.

(Roxie, 2/16 & 20)

Rose Schlossberg, Elizabeth Raiss, and Alden Ehrenreich as 1940s teenagers in director Matt Wolf’s Teenage.

Teenage Director Matt Wolf, whose unconventional bio of queer music artist Arthur Russell Wild Combination was a highlight of Frameline 2008, here provides a foundfootage history of adolescents with eloquent narrations by Jena Malone, Ben Whishaw, Julia Hummer and Jessie Usher. In the film, based on Jon Savage’s book Teenage: The Creation of a Youth Culture, 1875-1945, we travel in effect from my British dad’s Edwardian childhood through my American mom’s WWII Frank Sinatra “jumping at the Paramount” teen years. Wolf and Savage’s research not only makes clear how revolutionary the whole idea of adolescence was, but also manages to find German teen rebels who resisted the Hitler Youth movement, notably the swing music-loving Tommie Scheel (Ben Rosenfield). (Roxie, 2/9 & 12; New Parkway 2/20) The Big Lebowski party & film If anything defines SF IndieFest, it’s the Coen Brothers’ loopy set-up for every straight-boy drug, booze, and gender joke capable of being hatched at a bowling alley. Imagine a jovial blue-collar crowd on four tabs of acid. A scruffy Jeff Bridges is “The

Exposing injustice

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

lice Walker: Beauty in Truth will air Sun., Feb. 9, on PBS’ American Masters series. At the beginning of Pratibha Parmar’s new feature-length documentary tribute to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet, Walker pays homage to her Great Great Great Grandmother, who walked, as a slave, from Virginia to Georgia with two babies in tow. Her ancestor lived to be 125, according to Walker, who retains her maiden name as a tribute to that walk, and to the woman’s strong spirit.

As a child growing up in the South of the 1940s and 50s, Walker felt the sting of segregation. She recalls landowners who would hire entire families to work their farms, paying all of them a paltry salary that should have been paid to one worker, not five or six.

“Your children should be working my field,” Walker recalls her mother being told.

“These children are my children,” replied Mrs. Walker. “They’re going to be educated.” With the $17 she earned per week, Mrs. Walker bought Alice a typewriter.

Walker says that her mother never said, “I love you” until she was elderly. “But the love was apparent,” she said with a tearful smile.

The film follows Walker through a childhood in which she was showered with love in a place where hate loomed just over the horizon. During the 1960s, she met Martin Luther King, Jr., through her involvement in the civil rights movement.

In The Color Purple, the book that won her the Pulitzer, Walker dared to shine a light on topics that had not been discussed before, such as lesbianism and spousal abuse in the African American community.

When Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film version of the book was released, the film was harshly condemned and picketed by African Americans.

News and talk-show footage from the period reveals the community’s objections to the portrait that Walker had painted. More recently, it’s been pointed out that Walker was attacked because she had the courage to tell the truth.

Nothing is held back in Parmar’s film, and Walker courageously, if sometimes sadly, faces each issue head-on. Estranged from her daughter, who has publicly denounced her, Walker expresses her deep hope that she will one day meet her grandchild. Walker today continues writing and fighting for the rights of all oppressed peoples.

Through it all, she never expresses rage, but rather tries to spread harmony and love even as she exposes injustice.

“All of Alice’s writings urge us to think differently and critically about things we take for granted,” said longtime activist Angela Davis.

“And that can change the world.”

At the end of the day, Walker finds peace in her garden. “A tree will never call you a nig--r,” she said.

Next week, we’ll have an interview with actress Margaret Avery, who played Shug in the film of The Color Purple, which screens at the Castro Theatre on Valentine’s Day.t C

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The Color Purple author Alice Walker.

She looks back upon that time in which social unrest changed the course of African American lives.

The movement had white supporters, and Walker admits that she was among those who didn’t want whites to be involved.

That changed when she met Melvin Leventhal, a white, Jewish lawyer who was involved in civil rights.

Their courtship took place during demonstrations and civil disobedience actions, and they were the first mixed-race married couple to walk down the street together in Georgia.

Over the years, Walker had other relationships, with men and with women, including a high-profile 1980s romance with pop/folk singer Tracy Chapman. She says she’s neither lesbian, straight nor bisexual, but curious. “If you’re really alive, how can you be in one place the whole time?” she asks. “For me, that doesn’t work.”

K

Dude,” the righteous goofball who only gradually learns that he’s in with a far rougher crowd than his bowling bros. The 11th Annual Big Lebowski Party unfolds Feb. 15 at 518 Valencia (at 16th St.), 8 p.m., with a 35mm Roxie screening at Midnight.

Almost Human If you prefer your backwoods Maine zombie horror fare to be strongly laced with deadpan comedy, then director Joe Begos’ debut feature is the best thing down the pike since the Jessie

Eisenberg/Woody Harrelson vehicle Zombieland. With a no-nonsense, working-class ensemble having the usual assortment of icky real-life problems – losing shifts at the local diner, alien-abducted boyfriends – this zany spine-chilling romp, set circa 1987-89, takes a cascading series of increasing bizarre zombie attacks to the end of the line. (Roxie, 2/15 & 17)t www.sfindie.com

<< Film

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

Sean Paul Lockhart plays truth or dare

by Gregg Shapiro

What more could you really expect from someone in Caleb’s frame of mind?

T

ruth (Left of Center Entertainment & Border 2 Border Entertainment), written, directed by and co-starring Rob Moretti, is a romantic thriller full of its fair share of twists and turns. In the lead role of Caleb, Sean Paul Lockhart (who may be recognizable to some viewers from his porn career as Brent Corrigan) brings the right amount of naïve and not-quite-right to the character.

When the film opens, Caleb is in jail being questioned by psychiatrist Barbara (Blanche Baker of Sixteen Candles fame), and as the story progresses we learn that a murder has been committed. Whether or not it was the trusting Caleb, who became involved with the older Jeremy (Moretti) only to discover that his new lover hasn’t been completely honest with him, will keep you guessing until the end. I spoke with Sean about the movie and his career shortly before Truth became available via VOD and DVD. Gregg Shapiro: Sean, what was it about the character of Caleb in Truth that made you want to play him?

Sean Paul Lockhart: Caleb is tormented by many things. Not meaning to, at one point, he just lets it all hang out. He’s not a confused kid, even after everything everyone around him has put him through.

But more than anything I was attracted to the trajectory that Caleb experiences as the film progresses.

He’s not just one person from beginning to end. There’s a very clear and present arc presented to the viewer.

Horses were Caleb’s childhood fantasy, and Caleb’s childhood fantasy comes true when Jeremy adopts the horse Nero Fiddles for him. What were your childhood fantasies, and how do you feel about horses?

I think we have all kinds of dreams. What we want to be when we grow up, what we want for ourselves, and the things we want to be surrounded by. Horses have always been a part of that for me, personally. [Writer/director] Rob [Moretti] wrote that into Truth, a gift for me. I think he saw how deeply rooted my

<<

Taylor Mac

From page 17

Having its world premiere this week at the Magic, Hir is stylistically far away from the world of The Lily’s Revenge. Mac calls it a “kitchen-sink drama,” a realistic family play that rides along occasional waves of absurdism. “It’s very different from anything I’ve ever written before,” Mac said. “Honestly, I tried to make the play more theatrical, and it kept telling me it wanted to be a kitchen-sink drama.”

Hir (pronounced “here”) takes place in an unremarkable home complete with a family spiraling away from its unremarkable patterns. An abusive husband and father has been dethroned following a stroke, and his wife is emboldened in her new responsibilities by an unlikely source. Her 17-yearold daughter has begun crafting a third gender for herself (or hirself, the pronoun this character prefers), and rather than rattling the mother, it shines a light on heretofore unknown opportunities for her own liberation. Adding to the fray of this fraying family unit is the soldier son who reenters the scene after three years overseas.

“The play has a lot to do with the

t

Actor Sean Paul Lockhart plays Caleb in the movie Truth.

Sean Paul Lockhart in an earlier incarnation, as porn star Brent Corrigan.

love for horses was, and he wanted to incorporate that into Caleb. It made Caleb real. Bias aside, I think it was a solid artistic choice. While I love horses and I’ve been obsessed going back to my first memories, I’ve never been able to really get as close as I wanted. Then again, I could’ve grown up on a horse farm with 100 head of equine and I’d still be sitting here saying the very same thing. They’re the most majestic, regal and attractive things on this Earth. The way we’ve bred them to wholly encompass our needs and our dreams of what a perfect specimen should be. We stopped raising them for food and began breeding them for their domestic capabilities about 3,000 years ago. I love acting, I love making films, but if I could drop all of it to go live and work on a horse farm somewhere I’d be in heaven. For me true happiness, true bliss, is being surrounded by these creatures.

I had two Jackson chameleons.

After about two years they both fell ill and died within months of each other. They are very sensitive creatures. They need really fresh, pure air to live, and I think having the windows of my flat open all the time was not good for them. I live in downtown San Diego, so lots of soot and heavy dust comes through my windows. Someday I want a pet Wallaby and zebras grazing on my front lawn. It’s actually a lot easier to acquire a captive, bred zebra than one might think. It’s the ones that are trained to be ridden that are way more costly.

it’s very telling why Caleb visits his mother after being adopted.

Having spent most of his life in foster care, Caleb talks about finding his real mother to get closure. If you were in a similar situation, would you do the same thing?

I don’t know my biological father.

My stepfather raised me, and as far back as I can remember he has always been there. He stepped up to the plate in a way that most men wouldn’t. Even when my mother and father separated, he was there supporting all four of us, even though only two were of his blood.

I don’t feel I’m missing anything within me to be compelled to find my blood father. What a lot of people might miss the first time they watch Truth is that Caleb seeks out his mother in desperation. If you piece the film together (there are three different linear stories that are told of Caleb throughout the film),

As it turns out, Jeremy wasn’t being completely honest with Caleb, and when Caleb discovers the truth, he exacts his revenge on Jeremy. Do you think what Caleb did to Jeremy was appropriate?

Morally, I don’t think that either party is in the right. However, I don’t think it’s fair to judge both parties on equal ground. We have to take into account the background of abuse Caleb suffered at the hands of nearly every adult figure in his life. Those entrusted with Caleb’s health have prescribed all kinds of tranquilizers and sedatives to quell his volatility without addressing the root of the problem. It makes Caleb a ticking time bomb. He’s the sort of poor soul that just can’t catch a break. And then someone comes along that presents himself as some sort of savior, but it’s all a sham.

Caleb has a pet tarantula. How do you feel about spiders?

I think I have a healthy fear of the ones I should be afraid of. I didn’t handle Hermie on set. Personally, I don’t really care to palm a big, ugly, hairy spider. Like anything else in our world, they serve an important purpose. If I find one in my home, I catch it as best I can and set it free outside. They don’t bother me, so I don’t bother them.

Do you have any pets, unusual or otherwise?

patriarchy, and is it something we may very well want to have disappear,” Mac said. “If the patriarchy is disappearing from our lives, and I do kind of think that is a good thing, then how do we mourn its passing in a respectful way?”

With Hir, the play’s kitchen-sink form reflects its content.

“I wanted the form to be about a form that is theatrically dying, and I wanted to write a play about a way of life that is dying,” he said. “But I mean the play isn’t just a kitchen-sink drama, it’s a realism play that is absurd, and actually people really do the crazy things that people do in the play. Nothing is totally abstract.”

The difficulty of creating a language to reflect the transgender emergence is one of the topics of the play. “The mother and the transgendered child are really eloquent,” Mac said, “and they’re embracing words, so it’s both a parody of all of that and also in support of it.”

As for Taylor Mac, he likes to say his preferred gender pronoun is “Judy,” and his gender is “performer.”

More seriously, he says, “I personally identify as transgendered, but most of the time when I walk down the street people would not think I’m

When Jeremy tracks down Caleb’s mother, Caleb is upset.

How would you have personally reacted in such a situation?

I don’t have the connections to my mother or my family the way Caleb does. His reaction is understandable. We’re meant to sympathize with him. As an actor, my instincts told me more than anything he was embarrassed. This turns to rage when someone very important to him begins chipping away at the perfectly poised exterior that Caleb has set in place to protect himself.

Truth and honesty play a central role in the movie. The word is tattooed on Caleb’s bicep. Do you have any tats? If so, where are they?

I’ve gone back and forth about getting more tattoos. I love ink.

I especially love men with wellthought-out, meaningful artwork on their body. However, today, you’re almost more original for not having any tattoos. I have one blue star on my left butt cheek. Someday I may get a seahorse on my left delt, but I’m torn. I already have the art chosen, I just need to take the plunge.

Caleb tells Jeremy that what he went through in his life made him who he is today. Would you say that the same is true for you?

Absolutely. I am fortunate to have lived through some rather harrowing experiences. I turned 27 on Halloween 2013. I used much of my background, the relationships in my past, and the way I feel about certain people to arrive at a genuine performance when making Caleb a real, whole person on camera. Without these experiences I know Caleb wouldn’t be as well-crafted a person up there on the big screen.

As an actor who has appeared in comedies and dramas, do you have a preference for one over the other?

I love them both! But for now I need to lighten up and take on a bit more comedy. Between Truth, my first directed film Triple Crossed (TLA) and my forthcoming The Dark Place [by the same guys who did Judas Kiss], I just need to laugh a little. Drama can really weigh you down. This is especially true when you take the method approach to your performance. I dredged up all kinds of things in my past that were needed while doing Truth. Right now I am finishing Common Cupid.

It’s a screenplay I’m writing about a kid who uses the magic of divine deities to shape the love lives of his friends around him. He gets himself into all kinds of trouble, and at the end everyone learns that love has to happen from free will, or what’s the point?t

transgendered at all. I spend a good deal of my life in some sort of aesthetical gender confluence, a crazy, wild outfit, or T-shirt and jeans. The older I get, the more I realize it’s not necessarily about the aesthetics that created my own personal transgenderism.”

Mac has been in a relationship for 16 years with a man – no special qualifiers or pronouns needed – and he imagines most people casually encountering them would consider it a gay relationship. “But it’s not what I considJennifer Reiley er a gay relationship,” In the world premiere of Hir, wife and mother Nancy Opel foresees a new life as her he said. “I consider family goes through major changes. Her son (Ben Euphrat) has returned from war it a kind of genderunder dubious circumstances, her daughter (Jax Jackson) is transitioning into a thirdqueer relationship.” sex gender, and her husband (Mark Anderson Phillips) is recovering from a stroke.

After Hir opens, Mac heads back to and I feel that people are essentially cert for each decade that we perform New York for a coneclectic by nature, so I like to emwith wild abandon. Eventually we’re cert at Lincoln Center as part of the brace all of that.”t going to put all the decades together American Songbook series. “I’m doand do a big 24-hour concert. You ing songs from the 1920s, and it’s should bring sleeping bags.” part of a larger project called 24Hir will run at the Magic Theatre Taylor Mac’s final words on his Hour History of Popular Song. I take through Feb. 23. Tickets are $20$60. Call 441-8822 or go to life and work: “I have an eclectic music from the 1770s to the present www.magictheatre.org. gender and I have an eclectic career, decade, and there’s a different con-

t <<

Dance>>

Giselle

From page 17

party. They make an important entrance, first young men with hawks on their hands, then elaborately dressed gentlemen, the majordomo in scarlet, and finally the Duchess comes in on the big music leading two magnificent wolfhounds, who are totally well-bred and expensivelooking and behave like majesty itself till they get to their spot across the stage, when suddenly one dog gets on the Duchess’ leg, and the other mounts behind her (him?), and they have at it.

The Opera House went into uproar, the audience was howling with laughter, the orchestra had to stop, the Duke of Courland (Ricardo Bustamante) had to take both dogs and con forza haul them into the wings, whereupon the majordomo (Myles Thatcher) broke the fourthwall convention, turned to us, and adopted the famous “There you have it!” posture of Jack Benny. It stopped the show, it brought down the house – and then the orchestra picked back up and events resumed.

There were many small mishaps the rest of the night, though nothing disturbed the concentration of the ballerina (Sarah Van Patten), who proceeded to give us a deep, rich interpretation of the peasant girl who dies of a broken heart when she finds out that the charming new guy she’s fallen in love with is not who she thought he was, but in fact a nobleman in disguise, indeed the fiancé of the lady in the very fancy dress. Van Patten’s mad scene was so powerful it almost upstaged the dogs.

Your reporter saw two performances. The show was not ruined

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

on the wild night, though Van Patten was not well-supported by her partner, Luke Ingham, who was unconvincing from his first entrance, long before the dogs came on. He did his steps just fine, but he lacks projection in a role that calls for much more than dance technique.

We have to know how he feels about her – is he toying with her, is he at least a little in love with her, is he really in love with her, when does he fall in love with her? All these things a great dancer/actor can show through their dancing. No-one who saw Baryshnikov in this role will ever forget what a nervous wreck he was whenever he was not around Giselle, and how only she could give him a reason to stay alive.

The other performance was an altogether different affair. Mathilde Froustey and Tiit Helimets were magnificent in the second act, when the ghost of Giselle rises from her grave to save her broken-hearted lover from the vampirish Wilis who want to see him dance till he drops down dead. Froustey’s a new ballerina to us. She comes from Paris, and with her training and her superlatively flexible body can create imagery that defies credit. But seeing is believing. Her neck seems to begin between her shoulder-blades, and when she arches her throat, she is pleading for his life. It is a mute appeal, but this is ballet, and she completely wins us. She can seem to melt through his hands when he reaches out, half-believing she is really there, until the moment comes when his hands do close around her and he lifts her overhead like a chalice at the Mass.

Helimets also understands this style, and he builds his effects so that the impossible seems to be more

and more likely; at the climax of the action, when he is under command to dance till he drops, he seems to enter a zone of fatality, and begins a series of entrechats way upstage – again and again, he springs up, his legs scissor back and forth almost imperceptibly, just barely off the ground, and as he continues to do the same step, we see his image gradually grow clearer and larger (he’s moving forward imperceptibly, as if a camera were panning in on him, and jumping imperceptibly higher each time), as the music mounts in excitement, repeating the same motif modulating upwards a half-tone with each repetition. The audience begins applauding after 16 of these, but he continues, seemingly in a trance, under the Wilis’ compulsion, and keeps going through the music, so we’re screaming, and then he falls, panting, begging for his life, and then must get up and jump some more, and then Giselle jumps in and dances for him, and saves his life.

That’s what a classic can do.

They showed us something in it that, though I’ve seen Giselle many times, ranks with the very greatest I’ve seen, and included feelings I’ve never felt before.

One of the ways art becomes classic is to outlive the era in which it was old-hat. Giselle survived a time when it had died out in Paris but was kept alive in St. Petersburg, then got a whole new lease on life under the Soviets, who amped up the class conflict and made Giselle a heroic figure from the moment she stepped out her cottage door.

Company at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley that made it seem that those ballets have material in them that young fresh dancers would not willingly let die.

Graham was already going out of style by the 1960s, and lived on into the 90s, many, many years after her initial triumphs. What was fascinating to see in Appalachian Spring, Cave of the Heart, and Maple Leaf Rag was how magnificently stageworthy they still are. The secrets of stillness that she commanded are riveting to see – her dancers can stop in mid-air, just as Nijinsky was famous for doing, and can also hold a standing position with complete, riveting outline for great stretches

of time, while on another part of the stage a character dances his heart out. Noguchi’s sets provide razoredged perches, but the dancers’ outlines are as clear and sharp as his – almost as if they’d been drawn there.

Their silhouettes are as legible and unforgettable as those in a painting of Warhol’s – the pioneer woman, the bride, the preacher of Appalachian Spring are literally iconic in their dancing, and even more in their stillness.

They received wonderful support from the Berkeley Symphony, who played Copland’s music, and Barber’s score for Medea. Marc Shapiro played the Scott Joplin with style on a piano onstage.t

Graham crackers

Later in the week, we saw a mixed bill from the Martha Graham Dance

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Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet dancers Yuan Yuan Tan and Davit Karapetyan in Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle.

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San Francisco Ballet dancers Yuan Yuan Tan and Davit Karapetyan in Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle.

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Complete and mail this ballot to the address below before March 5, 2014 or vote online at: www.ebar.com by clicking on the Besties logo You could win one of the following prizes just for voting for your favorite places, people and things to do in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

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Chocolate!

Dragtime

NIGHTLIFE FOOD

6

SPIRITS

SEX

On the Tab

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

Recipe for Romance

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 6 • February 6-12, 2014

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Get Your Heart on for Late-Night Bites

A stylish appetizer at Verbena

by Sean Timberlake

V

alentine’s Day is the most fraught of dining holidays, a day when romance is not merely encouraged but mandatory. Yet all the things that are intended to enhance romance – the lackluster gifts, the obligatory and invariably subpar prix fixe dinners, perhaps one too many glasses of red wine – are in fact obstacles, not enablers to a passionate night.

See page 2 >>

Shiva adorns a wall at Dosa

Crispy octopus, roasted peanuts and avocado at 1760.

Rubber Runway Fetish Fashion Show at Beatbox

by Race Bannon

W

hile this column is a leather column, at least historically, the truth is that the term leather encompasses a wide array of kinky sexualities and identities. Among them is rubber. Wearing rubber. Playing in rubber. The rubber fetish aesthetic has been quite popular in Europe for a long time, and has always percolated under the surface in American kink culture, but in recent years it’s become a more accepted and widely adopted fetish.

See page 8 >>

Red and black rubber gear at last year’s Tenacious fashion show.

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

t

The spacious Urban Tavern

Take a stab at the fried duck sandwich at 1760.

<<

EDITOR Jim Provenzano DESIGNERS Jay Cribas, Scott King ADVERTISING SALES Scott Wazlowski 415-359-2612 CONTRIBUTORS Ray Aguilera, Race Bannon, Matt Baume, Heather Cassell, Coy Ellison, Michael Flanagan, Dr. Jack Fritscher, John F. Karr, T. Scott King, Sal Meza, David Elijah-Nahmod, Adam Sandel, Donna Sachet, Jim Stewart, Ronn Vigh

Recipe for Romance

From page 1

You’re doing it wrong. Start the night off at home. Have sex first.

Build up an appetite. Then clean yourself up, get a little dapper, and indulge in a late bite together. Linger over some shared small plates. Have that extra drink. Then you can come home and snuggle and, if you’re up to it, go for round two.

Here’s a handful of restaurants open late on Valentine’s Day that go beyond the predictable prix-fixe.

(Many will have special items for Valentine’s Day, but were not finalized at press time.)

Verbena

One of San Francisco’s newest restaurants is also one of its most exciting. Expanding on his Berkeley restaurant Gather, Chef Sean Baker is on a mission to make vegetables

Spiced rack of lamb at Dosa

sexy, involving veg both familiar and fancy. Humble button mushrooms get a one-two herbaceous punch with celery root puree and lovage leaves and super-umami tomato vinegar. Splurge for the bread to sop this stuff up. (Yeah, they charge for bread, but it’s worth it. Also: housemade butter.) Earthy beets, creamy hazelnut curds, bitter radic-

2323 Polk Street 415-441-2323 www.verbenarestaurant.com Dinner until 11:30 pm

PHOTOGRAPHY Biron, Marques Daniels, Don Eckert, Lydia Gonzales, Rick Gerharter, Jose Guzman-Colon, Georg Lester, Dan Lloyd, Jim Provenzano, Rich Stadtmiller, Monty Suwannukul, Steven Underhill

1760

If I were to steer you to a very fancy, very elegant restaurant for a very romantic meal, it would be at Acquerello. Instead, I’ll point you to their newer, more casual outpost, around the corner on Polk Street.

At 1760, Chef Adam Tortosa extrapolates off Acquerello’s Cal-Ital menu, drawing in global flavors.

The tight yet diverse menu is full of imminently sharable plates. Have a Lady and the Tramp moment slurping their signature bucatini with uni, garlic, red pepper and bread crumbs. Get your tentacles on the crispy octopus with peanuts, avocado and potatoes, or tuck into a fried duck sandwich with slaw, pickles and spicy aioli for something a little meatier. Cocktails are a big draw here; the eponymous 1760 plays smoky mezcal and cumin against fresh mint, tonic and gin. The place can get loud, but the crowd should be tapering off as it gets later.

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Sumptuous trout at Urban Tavern

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1760 Polk Street 415-359-1212 www.1760sf.com Dinner until 11:30 pm

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chio treviso and bright supremes of citrus harmonize beautifully. The menu is far from exclusively vegetarian. Mild, fluffy seafood puree fills a plump, white sausage, or for something a little more saucy, don’t miss the duck meatballs in black molé. (See? White wieners and black balls. Sexy.) Save room for the artful desserts, like squares of nottoo-sweet cheesecake on a bed of turmeric marshmallow and drizzled with neon-green kaffir lime syrup.

Dosa The Ginger Ante at Dosa

The Hanging Gardens cocktail at Dosa

For my money, there is no sexier cuisine than Indian. There’s something about the complex aromas and piquant spices that engages the

libido. With two locations, Dosa serves forth specifically South Indian cuisine, which is a thing apart from the average curry house chow you get elsewhere. Their namesake dish, a thin crepe made from lentil and rice flours filled with seasonal ingredients, is meant to be eaten with the hands, dipped in masalas to heat it up and cool it down–sensuous stuff. Both locations will be making a few special additions for the night; at press time they hinted at dishes like a dry-spiced rack of lamb with pistachio sauce and a heart-shaped beet-saffron utappam (a slightly thicker dosa) with a berry chutney.

The Valencia location is more homey; Fillmore rocks a slightly clubbier vibe and slightly broader menu.

The cocktail program is designed to complement the zesty food; be sure the try the custom house gin, made with curry leaf. Swoon.

995 Valencia Street 415-642-3672 and 1700 Fillmore Street 415-441-3672 www.dosasf.com Dinner until midnight

Urban Tavern

In the event that your early evening plans run, ahem, long, you’re not necessarily relegated to greasy spoon diners for a late bite. Downtown gastropub Urban Tavern will be turning out hearty, drink-friendly dishes well into the wee hours.

Best of all, you can order from any menu. Late-night lounge snack?

Breakfast at midnight? Knock yourself out. Myself, I’d stick to the finger foods, like the soft pretzel with beer sausage and kraut, though the burger also gets good marks. Have a drink! It’s a tavern, after all, and the selection of mostly local, mostly hoppy beers is respectable, as is the surprisingly unpredictable wine list.

333 O’Farrell Street 415-923-4400 www.urbantavernsf.com Dinner until 2 am t

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February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

A Little Bitter, a Little Sweet Chocolate done classy

by Sean Timberlake

T

here’s a reason chocolate is a traditional romantic gift. When you eat it, your body releases oxytocin (no, not oxycontin), the same hormone that’s released when you form the bond of friendship, hug someone – or have sex. Beyond enhancing intimacy, in men specifically it’s been found to encourage monogamy, so if you’re aiming to land that man, bust out the bonbons.

For the optimum oxytocin dose, you gotta go dark. Stay away from mass production chocolate, which can have as little as ten percent cacao by government regulation. Besides, the Bay Area is something of a mecca for artisan chocolatiers and confectioners; here’s a few favorites to try.

Charles Chocolates (535 Florida Street; www.charleschocolates.com) features a box of shimmering, heartshaped truffles filled with raspberry, passion fruit and mojito ganache,

but I can’t stay away from their peanut butterflies, milk chocolate filled with smooth peanut butter or dark filled with crispy peanut praliné.

If you must go for something heart-shaped, try repeat Good Food Awards winner Feve Artisan Chocolatier’s (Available at specialty markets; www.fevechocolates.com) Valentine’s Heart Box, with three glossy hearts each of three flavors: Sea salt caramel, passion fruit and vanilla latté.

Coco Délice (1555 Park Avenue, Suite A, Emeryville; www.cocodelice.com) also took home a Good Food Award this year for their Black Magic Beer Truffles, filled with ganache infused with organic stout beer. Magical, indeed.

Recchiuti Confections (One Ferry Building #30 and 807 22nd Street; www.recchiuti.com) perfected the salted caramel. But for something a little more playful, dip into their boxes of truffles designed for

pairing with red wine or whiskey.

Poco Dolce’s (2419 3rd St; www. pocodolce.com) tiles of dark-asnight chocolate come in several flavors, but I can’t stop nibbling on the Aztec Chile, infused with chile peppers, another oxytocin-releasing food.

For the serious chocoholic, Dandelion Chocolate (740 Valencia Street; www.dandelionchocolate. com) is a bean-to-bar operation producing only unadulterated 70% cacao single-varietal dark bars. Try the Madagascar bar, with bright notes of citrus and raspberry, flavors that naturally occur in the beans.

Chez Panisse alumna Alexandra Whisnant got her patisserie chops in Paris, opening Gaté Comme des Filles (available at Bi-Rite Market and via Good Eggs; www.gatecommedesfilles.fr) last year in Oakland.

Her exquisite confections are intended to be eaten within five days of production, so hop on it.t

Heart chocolates from Feve Artisan Chocolatier

Coco Delice’s Black Bison Magic

“ON THE EDGE 4”

An Ambanja, Madagascar bar from Dandelion Chocolates.

Erotic Photography Exhibition

Assortment from Gaté Commes des Filles Molly DeCoudreaux

Colin Price

24 photographers 450 photos

fine art nude to extreme erotica 3 fashion shows & pole dance Fri. and Sat. evenings

February 14-16

Fri: 4-9pm, Sat: 1-9pm, Sun: 12-5pm Adm: $10 - Free on Sunday 18+ No Host Cocktail Bar, Fri & Sat 4-9pm SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan (bet. 8th & 9th), SF A boxed assortment of peanut butterflies from Charles Chocolates

www.eroticartevents.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

Resilience

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Club night connects HIV-positive men

by Peter Hernandez

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Write for the Best!

FREELANCE NEWS REPORTERS The Bay Area Reporter – San Francisco’s largest LGBT weekly newspaper – has immediate openings for freelance news reporters. Responsibilities include: attending assigned meetings or events; necessary interviews; and writing news articles weekly.

Coverage includes breaking news, City Hall, health, LGBT organizations, and other matters of interest.

Availability should include at least one of the following: weekday daytime hours, evenings, or weekends to cover assigned events. News reporting experience preferred; newspaper background a plus. Candidates should demonstrate ability to write under deadline and be detail oriented.

Send cover letter, resume, writing samples to: Cynthia Laird, News Editor,

225 Bush Street, Suite 1700, San Francisco, CA 94104 or e-mail to c.laird@ebar.com.

en cradled drinks and chatted in small enclaves near the luminescent bar while a gogo dancer’s neon green underwear was fed dollar bills. A club owner and a bartender slung drinks. A DJ enthusiastically spun house dance music as a group of men shook to the tempo under the dance floor’s illuminated dome.

To outsiders, it may have seemed positively typical. But to the club goers, the party was an act of resilience and redemption from the social isolation and depression that can accompany testing positive for HIV. January 11 was the first of several HIV-positive club nights called Resilient, by and for HIV positive men and allies–the only one of its kind in San Francisco.

Drinks poured throughout the night as couples huddled in booths. A shirtless man energetically bounced around the dance floor as a man in a cowboy hat slung his moves across the slick floor. Strangers chatted near the bar. And attendees regarded these typical exchanges as redemptive and affirmative, and sometimes seldom seen by HIV-positive men.

“When I moved here I wanted to be around HIV-positive men, but I didn’t have many friends. I went into depression. I socially isolated myself,” said Chad Morris, a 42-year-old software engineer who organized the evening. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1999 when he lived in Seattle.

He eventually found solace in volunteering for Magnet as a desk person. There, he learned about events for the HIV-positive community, like Club Life, which Morris said brought some 150 people out for its parties at the now-defunct Club Eight in SoMA back in 2006. That party, which was organized by Stop AIDS Project’s Positive Force program, was short-lived.

Morris suggested that the fundraising and interventional elements at that party contributed to its end.

“We don’t need an affiliated organization to have a party. We can make it what we want it to be, and if you’re socially isolated, paying to get in isn’t going to break you out,” Morris said.

Resilient didn’t have an air of fundraising or intervention. It was low-key and intimate, with no HIV literature to be seen, except for in the bathroom, where a poster for Positive Force was posted next to a poster for Resilient.

At the peak of the evening, some 30 men came through the club, while veteran DJ Paul Goodyear spun his signature house and disco music. Some men said they didn’t go out often. Others worked for HIV/AIDS service organizations and came to support the party.

Last year, research by Case Western Reserve University showed that people under 50 living with HIV suffered from greater levels of stress and isolation than the older generation living with HIV. Stigma and a lack of empathy from those not living with HIV were cited as possible causes.

The median age at the event appeared to be 40. Connection and conversation seemed sparse, as most people were paired as couples or dancing on their own on the dance floor. Respondents to Morris’s questionnaire, however, wanted just that–dancing, a DJ and a gogo boy.

The party was effectually serosorting men who are HIV-positive, while contextualizing HIV disclosure.

“I didn’t feel reluctant to share my status because it’s part of the party.

It’s not a difficult thing for me to talk about,” said Manuel Vasquez, a treatment advocacy coordinator at Positive Force.

Peter Hernandez

Gogo dancer Justin poses for a photo.

Being in an environment where HIV-positivity was the premise for the party may have destigmatized disclosure. But that feeling, Morris said, needs to be more widespread among all LGBT club culture.

“Here, stigma isn’t so bad. But in the club, it’s still a problem when disclosing that someone’s HIV-positive,” Morris said.

He added that there is an abundance of ignorance in the HIVnegative community about the risks of being infected by HIV someone who is undetectable, and that lends isolation and depression to many people living with HIV. “Lots of negative people aren’t educated about HIV or about being a positive person,” Vasquez said.

Events like Resilient, he said, are important to validate positive people

who don’t feel a sense of community, and that men in the gay community are not familiar with the HIV-positive life experience and often shun them.

Vasquez attended the party for two hours and said he met five or six people, and felt that the party was a great way to discover camaraderie.

Morris said that everyone he talked to said they had a good time and that he is expecting twice the size of a crowd next month.

“There’s a lot of positive energy about the event,” he added.t Resilient occurs once every second Sunday of the month at Club OMG, 43 Sixth St., at from 5pm to 9pm.

February’s DJ is Matt Consola and March’s DJ is Sergio Fedasz. www.clubomgsf.com

Peter Hernandez

A man dances underneath Club OMG’s illuminated dome, which was designed and fabricated specifically for the club.

Peter Hernandez

DJ Paul Goodyear spins house and disco dance music.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Dragtime

RuPaul’s Drag Racers’ Showdown

by David-Elijah Nahmod

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f you love RuPaul’s Drag Race and miss the glory days when Michelle Visage co-hosted RuPaul’s much missed chat show on VH1, then the Regency Ballroom is where you want to be come Sunday, February 9. At 9pm, Visage will co-host and judge Battle of the Seasons, a thrilling night of madness and mayhem, as contestants from all five Drag Race seasons perform and compete, presenting the wild, crazy acts that have endeared them to thousands of fans.

“I keep the queens in line,” Visage said to BARtab. “If they get out of line, I cane them.”

It’s all in good fun. “I’m the hostess with the mostess,” said Visage.

“I make sure things are running smoothly. Queens need their stage mother, I’m Mama June.”

Visage has been in show business for thirty years. In addition to her work with close pal Ru, she’s had hit records, and has performed as a solo act. She retains fond memories of the talk show she and Ru co-hosted.

“The show was before its time,” she said, noting that it was hugely popular. Its cancellation after two seasons took many by surprise. “The talk show will be coming back at some point,” Visage promised, but said she couldn’t provide details at this time.

She cites Madonna as a major influence on her own life and career, and on the sea change now occurring in society. “She’s one of my heroes, one of the pioneers,” said Visage. “She didn’t care. She went for it.

She’s done so much work that you can’t take away. Kids today should do their homework. Madonna paved the way and opened doors.”

Ivy Winters

Michelle Visage

Manila Luzon

Some of Madonna and RuPaul’s “descendants” talked about their upcoming “battle.”

Ivy Winters offers one of the more unusual acts. She loves her drag sisters and assured everyone that, in spite of being a competition, there’s a lot of affection between them.

“The tour is not part of the TV show,” Winters said. “We’re travel-

ing around to all these wonderful venues. We don’t often get a chance to perform together, so this is a good way to reconnect, and for people to see our personalities on stage.”

Winters says that her act is “my wonderful break from heels. I do stilt-walking, juggling and fire-eating. It’s classy, old school, circusy.”

She explained that, while she’s not

a good dancer, she has an extensive resume as a clown performer.

“I was Dusty the Clown,” Winters said, revealing that Winters is in fact her real family name. “I started around age eight or nine. I saw my first drag show at 18. I can’t dance, so I combined drag with a circus clown act. I’m lucky to have a supportive family. You hear these traumatic sto-

ries, but I didn’t experience that. My brother and sister are both gay.”

Drag Race contestant Manila Luzon also spoke to us. Luzon presents a more traditional pop star persona, and has indeed scored a few hit records. “I’ll be doing a confab of stuff,” she said. “I’ll do some lip synching, and I’ll do some actual singing. It’s the same fabulousness as Beyonce and Lady Gaga, but on a smaller scale.”

Luzon says that the Regency is a new kind of venue for the queens.

“We’re used to nightclubs and bars, wherever the gays will have us. The regency is a big rock and roll venue.

It’ll be drag queen after drag queen.”

Luzon said that she and her drag sisters adore their judge and stage mama. “We love and respect Michelle,” she said. “She’s our favorite judge. It’s really fun to go all over the country with her.” She noted that Visage’s “long, clackity-clack nails and stripper pumps” were a definite attention getter at airports.

Luzon’s new song might be an attention-getter in its own right. It’s called “Helen Keller,” a song she recorded with hip hop hunk Cazwell.

“I hope people will check it out,” she said. “It’s my rap debut. I’m giving my Mariah Carey notes a rest.”

While Ru Paul, sadly, will not be in attendance, Winters and Luzon will be joined by other popular Drag Race competitors like Sharon Needles, Alaska Thunderfuck, Pandora Boxx and Carmen Carrera. VIP Ticket holders get to meet Visage and the cast.t Battle of the Seasons, Feb. 9, 8pm. $30-$60. The Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness Ave. 673-5716. www.axs.com

<< On the Tab

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

House of Floyd @ Yoshi's

eON THE T- AB f February 6 13

★

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Wed 12

The acclaimed Pink Floyd cover band performs the entire album Pulse ; part 1 at 8pm ($24) and part 2 at 10pm ($18). $35 20show pass. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Biffy Clyro

Imbibe @ Mission Branch Library Friends of the SF Public Library present the annual love-filled event, with beer, wine, cocktails, food, dancing to Bill Belasco & Aguibella All-Star Latin Band, plus Valentine's card-making. $40 (free for Friends of the Library members). 7pm10pm. 300 Bartlett St. www.friendssfpl.org

Josh Klipp and The Klipptones @ Palace Hotel The local jazz crooner and his band perform weekly shows at the hotel's lounge, which draws a growing swingdance audience. 7pm-11pm. 2 New Montgomery. www.joshklipp.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Smashing Pumpkins bassist Nicole Fiorentino’s band The Cold and Lovely

Sat 8

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ove is in the air. You might want to wear a facemask, as pre-Valentine’s Day events will either welcome your romantic coupledom, or assure your perpetual singularity as a good thing. Either way, get out and love the nightlife. Several quite rocking bands of various genres may woo the hardcore Cupid in you.

Thu 6 Comedy Thursdays @ Esta Noche The revamped weekly LGBT- and queerfriendly comedy night at the Mission club is hosted by various comics (1st Thu, Natasha Muse; 2nd Thu, Emily Van Dyke; 3rd Thu Eloisa Bravo and Kimberly Rose; 4th Thu Johan Miranda). No cover; one-drink min.

8pm. 307916th St. www.comedybodega.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, half-off locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar. 10pm-2am.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Jukebox @ Beatbox Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

Marcus Shelby Orchestra @ Yoshi's Enjoy a special Black History Month concert with the bassist-composer’s big band orchestra, and guest vocalist Miss Faye Carol. $20-$58 (with dinner). 8pm.

1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Underwear Party @ Powerhouse Strip down to your skivvies at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am.

Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Picante @ Esta Noche Weekly show with drag queens and the Picante Boys; hosted by Lulu Ramirez; DJ Marco. 9pm-2am. 3079 16th St. 841-5748. www.jceventssf.com

Shit & Champagne @ Rebel D'Arcy Drollinger's "whitesploitation" drag satire musical play kicks up the laughs; also starring Matthew Martin. $20-$25. Fri & Sat, 8pm. Extended thru March 1. 1772 Market St. at Octavia. shitandchampagne.eventbrite.com

Some Thing Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Sat 8 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Fri 7 Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. lexingtonclub.com

Fedorable @ El Rio Free weekly queer dance party, with gogos, prizes, old groovy tunes, cheap cocktails. 9pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. 2823325. www.elriosf.com

Go-Beaux @ Beaux Gogo-tastic weekly night at the new Castro club. Bring your dollahs, 'cause they'll make you holla. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. midnightsunsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge; the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm.

1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Bibi SF @ Café Flore The queer Middle Eastern and North African social night at the popular café. No cover. 8pm-11pm. 2298 Market St. at Noe. 621-8579. www.cafeflore.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland's premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

The Cold and Lovely @ El Rio

Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

The new LA-based band, comprised of members of The Weepies, Smashing Pumpkins and Hole, perform music from their EP Ellis Bell at the fun Mission nightclub. Here Come the Saviors headlines. 3158 Mission st.

282-3325. www.thecoldandlovely.com www.elriosf.com

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover.

9pm. 3152 Mission St. 829-2233. www.virgilssf.com

Duncan Sheik @ Yoshi's

Amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

The Grammy and Tony-winning musician-composer performs his own original music from his albums, including '80s covers, and songs from his musical Spring Awakening and even, perhaps his latest, the musical adaptation of American Psycho. $21$34. 8pm & 10pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

John Bucchino @ Feinstein's at the Nikko

Pan Dulce @ The Café

Singer-songwriter, whose music has been performed by Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Nathan Gunn and many others, performs his popular hits with guest singers Nanci Zopii and Maggie Hollinbeck. $25-$35. 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. No cover. 7pm10pm. 394-1111. www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

The weekly live rock shows have returned. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday. $4. 10pm-2am.

133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Tue 11 The Whoa Nellies Greg Wharton

Tenacious 2014 @ Beatbox SF Rubber Men of San Francisco's afternoon dance party and fashion show includes stylish fetish gear, Suppositori Spelling, cohosts Dr. Tim Selig (SF Gay Men's Chorus) and Clammy Faye. 3pm7pm. 314 11th St. www.rmsf.org www.beatboxsf.com

Wine & Chocolate Weekend @ Madera Wine Trail Enjoy sweets and the grape nectar in a tasting tour of several Sonoma wineries. $25-$30. www.maderawinetrail.com

Writers With Drinks @ The Make Out Room The monthly boozy literary event this time includes local and visiting authors sharing odd tales and excerpts. $5-$10. 7:30pm.

3225 22nd St. 647-2888. www.makeoutroom.com

Sun 9 Ana Popovic @ Yoshi's The award-winning blues/funk singerguitarist performs. $24-$28. 7pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Battle of the Seasons @ Regency Ballroom RuPaul's Drag Race contestants from several seasons (Sharon Needles, Alaska Thunderfuck, Pandora Boxx, Ivy Winters, Carman Carrera and others) perform in over-the-top routines. $30-$60. 9pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. 673-5716. www.theregencyballroom.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk.

3pm-6pm (Also now open daily 11am-2am).

398 12th St. at Harrison. sf-eagle.com

Cocktailgate @ Truck Suppositori Spelling's wild weekly drag show night. $3. 10pm-2am. 1900 Folsom St. www.trucksf.com

Dragula @ SF Eagle The Boulet Brothers and Heklina present a local edition of the LA wild drag-vampire show, with exorsisters Laganja Estranja, Grace Towers, Saint Peter D'Vil, Ridge Gallagher and others. $200 prize to the most dragulastic queen. Men's Club Soundsystem spin tunes. $10. 10pm-2am.

398 12th St. trannyshack.com sf-eagle.com

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On the Tab>>

Gay Vanity Fair @ Bently Reserve See and meet dozens of LGBT and gay-friendly wedding planners, event producers, caterers, clothiers, jewelers and providers of other services for nuptuals at a lavish afternoon event. $25-$30. 11am4pm. 301 Battery St. at Sacramento. www.gayvanityfair.com

GlamaZone @ The Café Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge.

8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Jock @ The Lookout The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers. 3pm-6pm.

3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Love Bites @ Martuni's The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco performs their annual witty antiValentine's Day cabaret concert. $10.

4pm. Also Feb 10, 7:30pm. 4 Valencia St. 779-LGBT. www.lgcsf.org

Pop! @ Martuni's Joe Wicht hosts a new showcase of talented local singers performing pop hits in their own style, including Essie Hyun, Jesse Cortez, Alexander Concas, Gilbert Beltran and pianist Katy Stephan. $7. 7pm.

4 Valencia St. at Market. 241-0205.

Resilient @ OMG New monthly dance/social event by and for HIV+ guys and allies. DJ Paul Goodyear will be in the club and playing some amazing music for the launch of this event. Second Sundays at 5pm. No cover. 43 Sixth Street. www.clubomgsf.com www.facebook.com/ResilientSF

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Mon 10 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pm-closing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Irish Dance Night @ Starry Plough, Berkeley Weekly dance lessons and live music at the pub-restaurant, hosted by John Slaymaker. $5. 7pm. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.thestarryplough.com

LOL @ OMG

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Sports Night @ The Eagle The legendary leather bar gets jock-ular, with beer buckets, games (including beer pong and corn-hole!), prizes, sports on the TVs, and more fun. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tue 11 13 Licks @ Q Bar Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Equality Awards Kickoff Party @ Jones

The tournament-winning ruggers offer up 16 of their very athletic players for bids on dates.

Proceeds benefit their trip to sydney for the annual Bingham Cup tournament. 4pm-8pm.

1354 Harrison St. www.sffog.org www.lonestarsf.com

Sundance Saloon Sweethearts' Ball @ Space 550

Mon 10 Tuesday Thomas at LOL

The popular country western LGBT dance night celebrates Valentine's Day with the annual underwear dance party for couples and singles (free coat/ clothes check!). Enjoy fun foot-stomping two-stepping and line-dancing. $5. 5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm.

Also Thursdays (regular dress code). 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:3011pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

Torch @ Martuni's

Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. lookoutsf.com The intimate mid-Market nightclub celebrates its first anniversary with a night of comedy, with stand-up performers Valerie Branch, Tuesday Thomas, Andrew Orolfo, Sandra Risser, Steve Lee, and Donald Lacy. 7pm-10pm. 43 6th St. 89-OMGSF. www.clubomgsf.com

Sun 9 Geof Teague

Veronica Klaus hosts the weekly night of cabaret, jazz and blues music, with Tammy L. Hall and special guests. $15. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.facebook.com/veronica.klaus

Karaoke @ The Lookout

SF Fog Rugby Bachelor Auction @ Lone Star Saloon

SF Fog Rugby Bachelor Auction

Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Whoa Nellies @ Martuni's Our favorite local retro pop band share a concert of pre-Valentine's Day love songs from the 1960s and early '70s. $5. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

Wed 12 Biffy Clyro @ Great American Music Hall The alt-rocking Scottish band performs in a stop on their international tour. Morning Parade opens. $20-$45 (with dinner). 9pm.

859 O'Farrell St. 885-0750. www.slimspresents.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Broadway Bingo @ Feinstein's at the Nikko Joe Wicht and Katya Smirnoff-Skyy cohost the weekly fun musical theatre trivia singalong night. Pull up a comfy chair or sofa, enjoy a cocktail or three, and test your Broadway knowledge. Kanpai Lounge, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. No cover. 7pm10pm. 394-1111. www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge San Francisco's classic monthly drag show features Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. No cover.

9:30-11:30pm. 133 Turk St. 441-2922. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Junior Brown @ Yoshi's Country singer-songwriter and Guit-Steel master performs. $26-$30. 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Octopalooza @ Aquarium of the Bay Enjoy all kinds of brews while enjoying aquatic life exhibits, squid dissections (!!), 4 drink tickets, a silent disco, snacks, and souvnier steel cups (for the first 75 patrons) at this SF Beer Week night. $35.

6:30-9:30pm. The Embarcadero at Beach St. www.aquariumofthebay.org

Rookie's Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch competitors vye for a $200 first prize in stripping, or sign up yourself by 8pm. The audience picks the winner. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall New weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm.

4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Spider Heart @ The New Parish, Oakland The ultra-rockin' Oakland band performs with headliners The Surgeon Generals, plus Moon Fox and Blue Oaks. $7-$10. 8pm.

579 18th St. (510) 444-7474. www.thenewparish.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover.

8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 431-4278. www.harveyssf.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am.

4067 18th St. 861-4186. midnightsunsf.com

Thu 13 Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar. 10pm-2am.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. HiTopsSF.com

Joe Gore @ El Rio The super-talented guitarist, who's accompanied Tom Waits, Tracy Chapman, Courtney Love and many others, performs at the monthly Strung Out solo series. 7pm.

3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Equality California cohosts Suzy Jones and Bevan Dufty, along with EQCA's Executive Director John O'Connor, welcome supporters to a cocktail fundraiser for their annual gala (April 12 at the Palace Hotel).

Donations. 6pm-8pm. 620 Jones St. (323) 848-9801. www.620-Jones.com

My Sucky Valentine @ Feyboy Mansion

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's

Pan Dulce @ The Café

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Enjoy amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse

Paula West @ Feinstein's at the Nikko

Enjoy an alternative anti-romance yet sexy night with Fey Boy Collective and their friends. Events through Sunday. For info, dates and times, visit: www.feyboy.com

Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell.

397-6758. thenobhilltheatre.com

Tommy Igoe Band @ Yoshi's The accomplished percussionist and his band performs with eleven-time Grammywinning vocalist Tony Lindsay of Santana. $22. 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Sun 9 Sundance Saloon’s Sweetheart’s Ball

The renowned Bay Area jazz vocalist performs an all-new show with her fourpiece band in a special four-week residency at the elegant nightclub. $35-$50; $20 food/beverage min. Thu 8pm, Fri 7pm & 9:30pm, Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru March 9.

Hotel Nikko lobby, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinssf.com

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 6-12, 2014

<<

At the forefront of rubber’s higher profile in San Francisco is Rick Holte, the main front man for the Rubber Men of San Francisco (www.rmsf.org). They are dedicated to providing more social experiences and fetish events for rubber enthusiasts and they welcome maleidentified individuals of all legal ages and experience levels. The organization started in 2001 when two guys asked the owner of the Loading Dock bar if they could gather local rubber men and form a club. The organization has been significantly energized in recent years through Holte’s leadership and is now a strong force in the overall San Francisco kink community.

Last year Rubber Men of San Francisco brought the first ever rubber fetish fashion show to San Francisco with a look at the hottest collections from the rubber scene’s favorite gear designers. On February 8 they offer us the second of what appears to now be an annual event – Tenacious: Rubber on the Runway. This year Tenacious will be a peep show featuring fetish looks that combine classic and new pieces from top gear designers on the runway.

Tenacious will be held at Beatbox at 314 11th Street in San Francisco from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Ten percent of all ticket sales will be donated to The Carter Johnson Leather Library (www.leatherlibrary.org), a non-profit organization that hosts a traveling collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish and BDSM erotic history.

The rubber fashion runway event is part of an overall rubber weekend called Rubbdown. Tickets for the entire weekend or just the fashion show can be purchased at www.rubbdown.com.

I asked Rick Holte his thoughts on why rubber has become a much more popular fetish in the U.S. in recent years. Among the reasons, Holte said, “I believe that we owe thanks to pop culture. In the past few years, thanks to pop icons like Lady Gaga and movies like The Fifth Element, we have started seeing rubber in everyday fashion, from shoes and bags to club wear and high fashion for both men and women. At the same time, rubber has become increasingly popular in the fetish community where it has become very typical rather than exceptional to see rubber at events like IML.” When asked to describe the appeal of rubber to its enthusiasts Holte said, in part, “There is a huge

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Rick Holte, the driving force behind Rubber Men of San Francisco.

physical attraction to the texture and constriction of wearing rubber. The increased temperatures are prime for sexual energy. I also find that it creates a tactile buffer that mutes unwanted sensations like tickling while amplifying the sensuality of rubbing and caressing.

Visually rubber is associated with things like superheroes, which creates a fantasy of physical perfection even for someone who doesn’t have a muscular build.”

Luckily for the Bay Area, rubber has become a normal part of the local kink scene for both men and women.

As I’ve attended various events in San Francisco and throughout the area, as well as nationally, I’ve seen rubber garb popping up more often lately. The rubber fetishists seem to always fit in quite nicely with the leatherfolk and others who populate this increasingly diverse alternative scene that is often encapsulated by the moniker of leather. But how

does a newcomer to rubber dip their toes into the bathwater and begin to experience the joys of rubber without feeling uncomfortable or pressured? I asked Holte that question.

“Thanks to the advantage of technology, today someone can search for rubber fetish on Google and Facebook and find others to hold their hand. Still, there is a certain code that will help to find the right people. Since rubber is all about gear, that is the key. No one expects a newbie to show up at a party decked out in full rubber, but an ice breaker can be to ask for advice about gear and where to get it. Most kinksters can weed out people who just want to get their rocks off talking about kinky scenes involving gear from those who actually have a craving to explore it as a serious fetish.

“My advice is to put yourself out there, whether it’s online or visiting stores like Mr. S Leather or going to any event that even suggests it’s kinky. Wear the closest thing you have to the gear you want, even if it’s running tights and rain boots with a harness made of older inner tubes and duct tape with a wrestling hood (yeah, I used to wear that to a fetish nightclub). Find the people that have what you want and approach them with respect and say, ‘I want what you have. Can you show me how?’ It shouldn’t be a come-on or a pick-up line, just honest interest in what they are into.”

So if rubber might be something you’re interested in exploring, there is a growing community of people willing to embrace you and your interests. Aren’t the growing range of erotic options wonderful? t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through the contact page on www.bannon.com.

Rich Stadtmiller

Sir Brent Gannetta and boy Element Eclipse at last year’s Northern California LeatherSir/boy and Community Bootblack Contest. See Sat. 15 listing for info on this year’s event.

Leather Events, Feb. 6-15, 2014 >> Photo Credit: Hot House

ANGEL ROCK

Rubber Runway

From page 1

t

T

here’s always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

Thu 6 Beyond The Gasmask @ Bulldog Tattoo Rubber Men of San Francisco host a Rubber 101 for both newcomers and experienced rubber enthusiasts, free but donations welcome. 7pm. 2275 Market St. www.rubbdown.com

Fri 7 Rubber Men @ Kink.com Join the Rubber Men of San Francisco for a look behind the scenes at kink.com, $25.

7pm. 14th St. and Mission. www.rubbdown.com

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members. 9:30pm. 4058 18th St. www. castrocountryclub.com

Sat 8

Wed 12

Tenacious: Rubber On The Runway @ Beatbox

Golden Shower Buddies @ Blow Buddies

A Rubber Men of San Francisco fetish fashion event showcasing collections from the rubber scene’s favorite gear designers, $20. 4pm. 314 11th St. www.rubbdown.com

A men’s water sports night, Golden Shower Buddies. $15 with membership. 8pm. 933 Harrison St. www.blowbuddies.com

GearBox @ Mr. S Leather Part of RubbDown weekend, hosted by Mr. West Coast Rubber $20. 7pm. 385 8th St. www.rubbdown.com

Sun 9 Mary Rubber Men Brunch @ OMG The brunch closing out Rubber Men of San Franicsco’s RubbDown weekend. $25.

3pm. 43 6th St. www.rubbdown.com

Robert Shively’s Installation as Senior Pastor @ MCCSF Service and reception to install the new leather-friendly MCC Senior Pastor, formal leather encouraged. 3pm. 50 Eureka St. www.mccsf.org

Fri 14 Northern California LeatherSir/boy and Community Bootblack @ Powerhouse Meet and mingle with the contest contestants and many others. 7pm. 1347 Folsom St. northerncalifornialeather.com

Sat 15 Northern California LeatherSir/boy and Community Bootblack Contest @ Beatbox Come cheer on the contestants and have a good time. 7pm. 314 11th St. northerncalifornialeather.comt

t

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February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

On the Road

by John F. Karr

A

lthough Raging Stallion and Falcon share directors, performers and an editing style that I find disrupts continuity, it’s apparent there are basic differences in their content. Falcon movies seem to me more middle of the road; Raging Stallion aims for an edge.

For instance—in the last issue, we found that Falcon’s Bucks County is a sunny romp at a farm, with younger, smoother men, and without any oral cum shots. This week we’ll see that Raging Stallion’s new Open Road may visit similar rural settings, but with a moodier tone; its men are slightly older, tattooed and bearded, and it has three oral cumshots (OCS).

I liked the two parts of Open Road. But not anywhere near as much as I liked Raging Stallion’s Timberwolves. Yes, it’s over a year old, but I just got to it. And boy, did it get to me. It was directed, videographed, and edited by Chris Ward’s most significant protege, Steve Cruz. Like directors mr. Pam and Adam Killian, Cruz evinces energy, connectivity and impact from his performers. Check out Timberwolves, or Monster Bang titles like Hole 1 & 2 and Hung Americans 1 & 2, and you’ll see. And as editor, he shores up continuity in his scenes (and trumps his RS/Falcon peers) by including those all-important insertion shots.

In Timberwolves, Cruz hosts a battery of big, hairy bruisers, and he’s got these guys all over each other. He’s got Boomer Banks (think dour-looking but heavy fucker with the biggest cock currently in porn) making his debut in a scene with

Marcus Isaacs (think Tommy Defendi’s younger brother, with only slightly less dick), who takes a wild RC and is rewarded with a generous OCS. Then there’s handsome Adam Ramzi (think of a blackhaired Shawn Wolfe) in his second film after the hot Hole 2 , whom Cruz successfully launches into an ardent bout with Tommy Defendi.

I have no idea why RS made Defendi an Exclusive, after he’s worked 24/7 everywhere possible that a porn star can be porny.

But Cruz’ videography sure accentuates Defendi’s cock, and the sight of Ramzi settling his furry butt down on that thick shaft is swell.

Defendi finds it a great favor and slathers Ramzi’s face with a fusillade of cum.

Then Shawn Wolfe, that sweet honey of young hairy boy, gets the privilege of partnering Aleks Buldocek in his film debut. With his unique ink, and burly body swathed in manly muscle and fur, as well as a strong bearing, and a long spike of a cock that’s got a gracious upward tilt, the dude makes the Yikes! meter melt down. As did his scene’s killer kombo of CBF and OCS. What’s this acronym, CBF? It’s short for CumByFuck, and I’m going to begin using it to signal that a bottom’s orgasm has arrived during and because of his getting fucked, not by any manner subsequent to fucking. It’s a climax that to me heralds the success of a duo’s partnership in sex. CumByFuck is kinda reminiscent of Kumbaya, a word (and song) which is associated with unity, closeness, and compassion. The very qualities whose presence during a fuck would stamp it as a good one, and no doubt cause

RagingStallion

Adam Ramzi tangles with Tommy Defendi in Timberwolves.

RagingStallion

Seven Dixon makes his big and thick debut in Open Road, Pt. 1.

RagingStallion

It’s a ferocious face-off for Adam Ramzi and Aleks Buldocek in Open Road Pt 1.

a CBF. Personally, a CBF is as important to me as an OCS (oral cum shot). It’s something to be aimed for.

The finale of Timberwolves stars red-haired wonder James Jamesson.

To play a wild man of the woods who beds a wild boy, Jimmy Fanz, he’s grown a huge and bushy backwoods beard àla Duck Dynasty’s Robertson brothers. Despite Jimmy’s many and loud vocalizations while his ass is torn asunder by JJ’s thick cock, the fuck is a mite milder than expected, probably because Jamesson’s uncharacteristically laconic. But still pretty scenic. All told, Timberwolves pays off mighty strong.

It’s curious that Steve Cruz and Bruno Bond share credits for filming and editing both parts of Open Road, when they’re separately credited as directors. Could that explain the film’s lack of a clean profile— we’re seeing random episodes in the lives of backroad drifters, with the potential through line of the hitchhikers meeting up going missing.

Why are hitchhikers walking along railroad tracks? You can’t stick out your thumb and stop a locomotive.

This misfired attempt at capturing a mood is like many of the details in these two movies—just too nonspecific, like the cars that are only heard and not seen passing the hikers, or the bartenders who haven’t been given realistic tasks to perform.

I can see the creators drooling over filming their B-roll with its envisioned moodiness. But going from disenfranchised and aloof to hot?

From downbeat lives to upbeat sex?

I praised Cruz’ stand-alone scenes earlier, but his storytelling here, with Bond, needed more thought.

Even so, the sex in both parts of Open Road ranges from decent to really swell, with plentiful insertion shots, CBFs and OCSs (especially Pt 2). After all, you’ve got Adam Ramzi getting the works from Aleks Buldocek, Christian Wilde pounding Jimmy Fanz, foxy newcomer kid Esteban Del Toro undulating all over Donnie Dean, and, in two scenes, Tommy Defendi and then Boomer Banks giving it to majorly cute, impossibly thick-dicked and high-spirited muscle stud Mike Dozer—who is, peculiarly, the only guy in these movies who sweats. In addition to Dozer, you’ve got the impressive debut of Seven Dixon, a solidly built stud-bottom (oh, those boulder buns!) who gets a tasty OCS from Adam Ramzi.

Why is Tommy Defendi an RS Exclusive, but Buldocek, Dozer, Del Toro, and Seven Dixon aren’t? And why did I recently credit Tony Buff instead of Tony Dimarco as the excellent director of Big Top? Sorry, Tony D.t www.RagingStallion.com

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February 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Shooting Stars photos by Steven Underhill R

oyal Daddy 17 and Grand Cavalier Sir Colby Michaels, in conjunction with the Grand Ducal Counsel of San Francisco, presented the second annual Shady Fish Bowl 2014 at The Edge bar on February 1. Drag performances and hot gogo guys were featured at this pre-Super Bowl-themed afternoon event and fundraiser for the Ducal Court.

Supporters of the Academy of Friends enjoyed cocktails and champagne at The Bubble Lounge on January 23. Nominees for this year’s Academy Awards were toasted, and the theme for AOF’s upcoming 34th annual festive Oscar night gala was revealed to be a Wizard of Oz-themed “Return to the Emerald City.”

Perhaps attendees at the March 2 event at Terra Gallery can expect Scarecrow and Tin Man gogo guys? To be sure, there will be plenty of Friends of Dorothy, and emerald green bowties will be in demand.

For info on tickets to AOF’s gala event, visit www.academyoffriends.org and www.aofgalaeventbrite.com See more photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf. nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com

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Tell us who your Besties are!

Complete and mail this ballot to the address below before March 5, 2014 or vote online at: www.ebar.com by clicking on the Besties logo You could win one of the following prizes just for voting for your favorite places, people and things to do in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

• Grand Prize: MAUI SUNSEEKER VACATION: Win a 7-night stay at Hawaii’s largest gay-owned and operated resort • Second Prize: SAN FRANCISCO BALLET: Two Tickets to the San Francisco Ballet’s Nite Out on April 4 • Third Prize: SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS HOME GAME & VIP PARKING: Two club level tickets behind home plate and VIP lot parking to a San Francisco Giant’s home game (date to be determined)

COMMUNITY Best LGBT Event _______________ Best LGBT Fundraiser _______________ Best LGBT Blog/Website _______________ Best LGBT Nonprofit _______________ Best LGBT Sports League _______________ RESTAURANTS Best Breakfast _______________ Best Brunch _______________ Best Lunch _______________ Best Dinner _______________ Best Dessert _______________ Best Outdoor Patio _______________ Best Restaurant with a View _____________ Best Late-Night Restaurant _____________ NIGHTLIFE Best Bar Food (place) _______________ Best Mixed Drink _______________ Best Place to Meet Men _______________ Best Place to Meet Women _____________ Best Place to Meet Transgender People _______________ Best Dance Floor _______________ Best Gay/Gay-Friendly Bar ______________ Best Bang for Your Buck Bar ____________ Best Neighborhood Bar _______________ Best Bar with a Patio _______________ Best Bar with a Pool Table ______________ Best Sports Bar _______________ Best Theme Night _______________

PEOPLE/CITY LIVING Best LGBT Activist _______________ Best LGBT Youth Activist (25 and under) _______________ Best Bartender (Individual) _____________ Best DJ _______________ Best Personal Trainer _______________ Best Resource for LGBT Seniors _______________ Best Photographer _______________ Best Local Politician _______________ Best Local Politician You Love to Hate _______________ Best Place to Pamper Your Pets _______________ Best Dentist _______________ Best Healthcare Provider _______________ Best Attorney _______________ Best Tax Preparer _______________ Best Day Spa _______________ Best Place to Get Your Hair Done _______________ Best Nail Salon _______________ Best Place for a First Date _______________ Best Place to Breakup _______________ SHOPPING/SEX/ROMANCE Best Wedding Venue _______________ Best Place to Buy Wedding Attire _______________ Best Jewelry _______________ Best Place to Buy Eyewear _______________

You must answer at least 30 questions and submit to Bay Area Reporter, 225 Bush Street, Suite 1700, San Francisco, CA 94104 by Wednesday, March 5, 2014 to qualify. Or go to www.ebar.com to submit online. Ballots will be accepted from February 6, 2014 to March 5, 2014. One ballot per person. Bay Area Reporter staff are not eligible for prize drawing. Prize winners and results of the Besties will be published in our 44th Anniversary Issue on April 3, 2014.

Best Bank _______________ Best Bookstore _______________ Best Adult Store _______________ Best Bicycle Shop _______________ Best Clothing Store (Men) _____________ Best Clothing Store (Women) ____________ Best Vintage Clothing Store _____________ Best Shoe Store _______________ Best Place to Get Fit _______________ Best Place to Buy a Car _______________ Best Auto Mechanic _______________ Best Place to Buy Sex Toys _____________ Best Sex Club _______________ Best Cruising Spot _______________ Best Medical Marijuana Dispensary _______________ ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Best Drag Show _______________ Best Fair or Festival _______________ Best Live Music Venue _______________ Best Theater Group _______________ Best Movie Theater _______________ Best Museum _______________ Best Dance Company _______________ EAST BAY Best Politician _______________ Best Bar _______________ Best Restaurant _______________ Best Fair or Festival _______________ Best Reason to Cross the Bay Bridge _______________

NAME ___________________________________* CITY_________________________STATE_______ ZIP__________COUNTRY____________________* EMAIL ADDRESS __________________________* *Required to qualify for prize drawing. One ballot per person.