January 10, 2013 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Former DJ faces eviction

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Lefties look to unseat Wiener

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SFPD updates condom policy

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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he San Francisco Police Department will no longer take photographs of condoms or mention them in police reports in prostitution cases, ending the city’s practice of using condoms as evidence in such cases. A bulletin will be released by the end of this week, a department spokesman said Tuesday, January 8.

Sex worker advocates, public health Rick Gerharter officials, and others Police Chief have expressed conGreg Suhr cerns that using condoms as evidence of prostitution discourages people from using them, thereby putting them at greater risk for HIV and other diseases.

The SFPD was criticized this past summer after the Bay Area Reporter found contradictory policies within the department over the seizure of condoms from people suspected of prostitution. Police Chief Greg Suhr later announced that officers would no longer confiscate condoms as evidence of prostitution and issued a bulletin to department personnel. However, condoms could still be photographed.

The latest change comes after officials from the SFPD met September 20 with representatives of the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices, the Human Rights Commission, public health officials, and others to discuss the policy.

In a September 28 email to HRC Executive Director Theresa Sparks, Suhr, who wasn’t at the meeting, said, “... [I]n light of the DA/ PD’s agreement not to allude to condoms in any way (up or down) as an indicator of any criminal conduct, we will no longer be even mentioning the possession of and/or taking photos of condoms (we had long since stopped seizing them as evidence).”

Suhr’s message refers to the DA’s and public defender’s offices. In an October 31 letter to Sparks, District Attorney George Gascón included an agreement between his and the public defender’s staffs that from October 1 through December 31, in misdemeanor cases involving prostitution charges, no argument would be made “regarding the presence or absence of condoms.” Gascón said the impact of the policy change would then See page 12 >>

Vol. 43 • No. 02 • January 10-16, 2013

Marlena’s bar to change hands

by Matthew S. Bajko

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he new year is set to bring big changes to Marlena’s, as the famous Hayes Valley gay bar is being sold.

Proprietors Garry McLain, better known as Absolute Empress XXV of San Francisco, Marlena the Magnificent, and his business partner, Janice Buxton, entered into escrow with the buyers Friday, January 4. If the sale goes as planned, the new owners would close the bar sometime in March for several months to remodel it and bring it up to current state and city codes.

Marlena has hinted for several years that he was thinking of turning over control of his eponymously named establishment to new owners. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter this week, McLain said the time was right now that he is 73 and Buxton is 70.

“At our age, it was something to think about,” said McLain.

He said he feels “fine” about the decision to sell, especially since, “I won’t have to work seven days a week.”

For now, the new owners’ identities are not being revealed. Nor would McLain discuss the purchase price for the bar, saying only that, “A lot of people wanted the bar.”

He described the buyers as “young” and

Garry McLain stands behind the bar of his namesake Hayes Valley establishment, Marlena’s.

Rick Gerharter

“eager,” though he did not know if they are gay or straight. At least one already owns another bar in the city, he said.

“They want to keep this a neighborhood bar that is welcoming to both gay and straight,” said McLain, adding that the Saturday night “Follies” drag shows are also ex-

pected to be maintained.

As for the name Marlena’s, McLain said he told the buyers “they could have the name if they want it” but it is unclear if they will opt to keep it or rename the bar.

He has also offered to sell them his collecSee page 12 >>

Gays mixed on Hagel nomination

by Lisa Keen

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enator Tammy Baldwin said this week that she wants to see whether Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel’s apology for anti-gay remarks 14 years ago is “sincere and sufficient.” But former Congressman Barney Frank said his opinion of Hagel has gone from opposition to reconsideration.

Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, made her remarks Monday, January 7, just minutes after President Barack Obama officially nominated the former Republican senator from Nebraska to the top Pentagon post. During an interview with MSNBC, Baldwin said she did not know Hagel, but that she plans to ask him “some tough questions.”

Baldwin does not sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee but, as a member of the Senate, will vote on Hagel’s confirmation.

She told MSNBC she plans to give Hagel’s nomination a “thorough review” and will “be fair.”

“But I do want to speak with him particularly about his comments 14 years ago to ... see if his apology is sincere and sufficient,” said Baldwin. “I want to see how he’s evolved on this issue in the last 14 years” and how he will contribute to the successful implementation of the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who retired last week, told the Boston Globe Monday while he was hoping Obama would not

Getty Images

President Barack Obama, right, nominated former Senator Chuck Hagel to be his next defense secretary.

nominate Hagel to the position, “With the attack coming out of the right, I hope he gets confirmed.” Frank, who is both gay and Jewish, said last month that he thinks Hagel would be “very good” with respect to Israel and the defense budget but that his anti-gay comments in the past were a “disqualification from being appointed.”

“Then-Senator Hagel’s aggressively bigoted opposition to President Clinton’s naming the first openly gay ambassador in U.S. history was not, as [former] Senator Hagel now claims, an aberration,” said Frank, in the statement re-

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leased last week. “He voted consistently against fairness for LGBT people and there does not seem to be any evidence prior to his effort to become secretary of defense of any apology or retraction of his attack on James Hormel.

And to those of us who admire and respect Mr. Hormel, Senator Hagel’s description of him as aggressive can only mean that the senator strongly objected to Hormel’s reasoned, civil advocacy for LGBT people.”

Last week, Frank expressed interest in being named Massachusetts’ interim senator should John Kerry, the current occupant of the seat, win confirmation to be Obama’s next secretary of state, which is widely expected.

Others opposed

It’s not just gays who have tough questions for Hagel. A number of Republican senators, including John Cornyn (Texas) and Dan Coats (Indiana) are opposing Hagel’s nomination.

Coats told Fox News that Hagel “has moved from a conservative Republican coming out of Nebraska to someone that looks like they are out of the most leftist state in the country...”

Senator Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) predicted “very little Republican support for his nomination.” Neither pegged their opposition to Hagel’s apology for anti-gay remarks, but there was widespread media attention last month when Hagel issued a statement apologizing for his remarks against the nomination See page 12 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

City College trustees sworn in

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ssemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), left, administered the oath of office Monday, January 7 to two members of the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees, Rafael Mandelman, center, and Chris Jackson.

Mandelman, a gay man, won a seat on the college board in

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Rick Gerharter

November and plans to work to help the community college maintain its accreditation and get out of a fiscal crisis. Jackson will begin his second term on the board. Trustees Steve Ngo and Natalie Berg also begin new terms on the sevenmember panel.

Grant named for Martell to help trans women

by Elliot Owen

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fter last April’s murder of Brandy Martell, the staff at TransVision, an East Bay HIV prevention and treatment program for transgender women, experienced a tragic drop in morale as they mourned the loss of one of their own peer advocates to a senseless act of violence.

Now, the 10-year-old program overseen by TriCity Health Center in Fremont has something exceptional to celebrate in Martell’s name.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has allocated a Health Resources and Service Administration grant to TransVision under the initiative of enhancing engagement and retention in quality HIV care for transgender women of color in the form of $300,000 per year for five years.

“This has been a long, hard year for us as a program,” said Tiffany Woods, coordinator of TransVision.

“We’re most excited about naming the grant the Brandy Martell Project to honor her memory.”

Martell, 37, died April 29 after a gunman shot her as she and some friends sat in her car near 13th and Franklin streets in downtown Oakland. The case remains unsolved.

HRSA is a federal agency tasked with improving access to health care

Tiffany Woods

Brandy Martell, who was murdered in Oakland last year, has had a new project at TransVision named in her memory.

for people that are uninsured, isolated, or vulnerable, which includes those living with HIV/AIDS. This is the first year HRSA money has been directed toward trans-specific services. A total of nine trans-centered organizations were awarded the same grant – two in Chicago, two in New York and five in California, three of which are in the Bay Area (TransVision, the Pacific Health Institute, and the San Francisco

Department of Public Health partnering with the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center).

“It’s a big deal for HRSA not only because they’ve never done transgender funding before,” Woods said, “but also because they’re designating specifically transgender women of color. They’ve acknowledged there are issues with keeping them in care.”

HRSA required grantees of the Special Projects of National Significance program to select a structural issue affecting transgender women of color then to formulate a plan to address it. TransVision opted to identify the specified demographic as particularly vulnerable to being profiled by police for solicitation.

Incarceration in men’s prisons, poor court treatment and citation fees often ensue after arrests, further entrenching the cycle of oppression upon an already disenfranchised population, according to Micah Ludeke, author of a 2009 paper, “The War on Sex.” TransVision clients affected by profiling will now have access to a lawyer that will help them navigate the criminal justice system to reduce penalties incurred, Woods explained.

“We think it’s going to make a big See page 12 >>

Former DJ ‘bugged’ by landlord

by Tom Kilduff

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ormer disc jockey and outspoken LGBT personality Jon Zuckman is facing an eviction hearing next week after a long simmering feud with his landlord centered on bed bugs in his apartment.

The property in question, 901 Stanyan Street, is a large yellow apartment building that sits across from the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park and contains about 20 units. Zuckman, better known in the community as Jon Sugar, has been living in apartment #14 since 1982, and took over the lease in 1987. Although he is the only party listed on the lease, Sugar lives with two roommates in his two-bedroom unit, where the rent is $1,217 per month.

Zuckman, 63, suffers from a triple disability of partial deafness, arthritis and post-traumatic stress disorder. He first complained about the

Tom Kilduff

Former DJ Jon Zuckman, better known to many as Jon Sugar, faces an eviction hearing next week.

bedbugs two years ago.

“In 2010 I suffered a bed bug

infestation,” Zuckman told the Bay Area Reporter. “My landlord strung me along for six weeks until I became strident and asked what he was going to do about the infestation. He responded, ‘I ain’t spending no money on any bugs.’ I went back to my apartment and proceeded to call the Department of Public Health, my disability advocate, and my district supervisor, all of whom gave him a call.”

Zuckman said his landlord, Al De Lorenzi, left a message on his voice mail yelling, “You got them all on me, don’t you?”

Zuckman said that the city had to empty his entire apartment and put his possessions in freezer storage for 10 days.

“The landlord hired an unlicensed exterminator, and the bedbugs came back in six months,” Zuckman said. “My landlord proSee page 3 >>

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Community News >>

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

Book shares Tenderloin lives, deaths

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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ives and losses in one of San Francisco’s poorest neighborhoods are the subject of Death in the Tenderloin, a recently released book that shares the stories of people whose passing generally received little notice.

A launch event for the book, which the nonprofit Study Center Press published in December, is set for Monday, January 14 from noon to 2 p.m. at the main library, Latino/Hispanic meeting rooms A and B, 100 Larkin Street. The event, which will include a panel discussion, is free.

The collection of 99 stories was drawn from the obituary pages of Study Center Press’ Central City Extra, the free, monthly newspaper devoted to the neighborhood, which is home to many LGBTs and people living with HIV/AIDS. Geoff Link, the book’s editor, is executive director of the Study Center and Extra’s editor and publisher.

“I think for anybody who’s interested in the Tenderloin, this book gives an understanding not only of the people who live here and die here, of course, but of the neighborhood itself,” Link, who’s been with the Study Center for almost all of its 40 years, said in an interview. “The fact is that in a lot of ways there’s a lot of community here, and you don’t realize that from the outside.”

Hank Wilson, the longtime gay and AIDS activist who died from lung cancer at age 61 in 2008, is one of the people portrayed in the book, which notes he was known as the “Mother Teresa of the Tenderloin.”

The story on Wilson tells how he came to San Francisco in the 1970s and was eventually involved in founding numerous organizations, including some devoted to AIDS. In 1978, Wilson, who later became infected with HIV, leased the Ambassador Hotel, which “became a haven for the poor and afflicted,” the book recalls. “Wilson seldom said no to anyone.”

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Former DJ

From page 2

ceeded to tell my neighbors the most homophobic stories.”

One of Zuckman’s roommates, Dave Smith, elaborated on this last point.

“The landlord told us that the bed bugs happened because Jon was bringing boys upstairs and said, ‘I don’t know what he does to them,’” Smith said.

Although Zuckman has been in contact with nine social service and tenant agencies, he still hasn’t found a lawyer to represent him. On December 12, he received a Three Day Notice to Cure or Quit that accused him of several violations to his rental agreement including “allowing homeless people to come into the building and sleep in the hallway” and interfering “with the health and safety and quiet enjoyment of other tenants in the building.”

Nader Shatara, a senior environmental health inspector at the Department of Public Health, confirmed that his unit is infested with bed bugs.

“On October 17, 2012,” Shatara wrote, “a bed bug infestation was verified at 901 Stanyan and a notice of violation was issued; treatment was scheduled for October 22, 2012; several pest control companies evaluated the conditions but were not able to treat a room filled with more than 1,000 vinyl records and CDs.”

A new book shares the stories of Tenderloin residents who have died over the years.

Death in the Tenderloin tells how most of the memorials for those remembered take place in single-room occupancy hotel lobbies or community rooms.

“Sometimes only a couple of people show up and a few who do may not even have known the deceased,” the book says.

The Reverend Glenda Hope, a Presbyterian who’s director of pastoral ministries for San Francisco Network Ministries, oversaw most of the memorials and is profiled in the book.

The Tenderloin is known for drug dealing, robberies, murders, and other crimes, and in an interview Hope said people tend to think of the neighborhood and its residents as “scary.”

However, she said, “I think what this [book] does is show that the people who live here are individuals like people who live anywhere else, and that they have names and faces and lives and stories and people that care about them, and that we regard them as God’s children, no different from anybody else.”

Besides Wilson, the book shares the stories of people like Steven Alexxis Silva Jr., a transgender woman who died in a car crash in

Shatara said that the pest treatment required the removal of Zuckman’s materials and that Adult Protective Services was helping Zuckman.

An abatement conference was held December 18, Shatara said, and the items were to be removed and treated.

Shatara went on to explain that the first moving company refused the job because they didn’t know that Zuckman’s records may have been infested.

Zuckman said this week that all the apartments in his building have been treated except for his, because the records have not been able to be removed.

Two phone calls to De Lorenzi seeking comment were not returned.

Zuckman is praised by author Martin Joseph Quinn as “the hippest guy I ever met.”

He is “a walking rock [and] soul encyclopedia, strip show comedienne, ex-lead singer of the White Trash Debutantes, former KPFA radio personality, and ex-sex club operator,” Quinn said.

Zuckman founded the Gay Artists and Writers Kollective, a loosely connected social group for people involved in the arts. He’s been staging free events in San Francisco since 1986.

His hearing is set for January 16 at 1:30 p.m. at the courthouse at 400 McAllister Street.t

2005 at age 30. The story, in which a friend recalls Silva having “the most hilarious sense of humor,” notes her parents came to her memorial. Hope is quoted as telling them, “We so rarely have parents at the memorials here in the Tenderloin, and I know coming was an act of courage for you.”

The portrayals, most of which two Extra staffers wrote, don’t appear to gloss over any details.

People who knew Ted Carson, who died in 2009 at age 79, mostly remembered him for his “wittiness and generosity,” and one nurse recalled dancing with him in her office, his obituary says. But several also described him using words like “ornery, grumpy, [and] a hoarder,” according to the book, which doesn’t list Carson’s cause of death but says he had diabetes

and other ailments.

Link said of the book, “We hope we will get back enough in sales to be able to cover at least the cost of printing.” Anything that comes in beyond that will go toward publishing Extra, which has a circulation of 8,000.

Death in the Tenderloin is avail-

able in color for $29.95, or in black and white for $17.95, plus tax and shipping.

Copies will be available at the January 14 event for $20 (color) and $10 (black and white only).

For more information, visit http://www.studycenter.org or call (415) 626-1650.t

<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

Volume 43, Number 02 January 10-16, 2013 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn 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 • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

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Military’s hit and miss

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n the same day that President Barack Obama nominated Chuck Hagel to be his next defense secretary, the Pentagon quietly settled a class action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. Now gay troops who were forced out under the old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy will be given full discharge pay.

According to the ACLU, if someone served six years in the military and was discharged involuntarily, Congress entitles the service member to separation pay to help ease their transition to civilian life. But the military had a policy – not required by any law – of cutting that separation pay in half for people who were discharged, even honorably, for “homosexuality.”

The ACLU noted that the policy “needlessly compounded the discrimination inflicted by the now-repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law in the first place.” Two years ago the ACLU filed its class action lawsuit against the Defense Department seeking full separation pay for the lesbian and gay service members who were shortened pay when they were kicked out. Under terms of the settlement announced January 7, service members involuntarily separated from the military after November 10, 2004, will receive the remainder of their pay.

The lead plaintiff was former Air Force Staff Sergeant Richard Collins, who served nine years before being discharged. According to an ACLU statement about the case, Collins was seen kissing his civilian boyfriend, in a car at a stoplight, when he was off duty, out of uniform, and 10 miles off base. After being discharged under DADT, Collins discovered that his severance pay had been cut in half just because he’s gay.

He approached the ACLU not about challenging his discharge under DADT but about getting his full separation pay – another $12,000.

The ACLU said that the Pentagon withheld about $2.4 million from at least 180 other honorably discharged veterans.

James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s

LGBT and AIDS project, called the policy change “wonderful (if overdue) recognition that these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines deserve no less than all the others who served honorably and defended their country with their lives.”

It’s a good thing the Pentagon settled the suit now, before Hagel takes over. The former Nebraska senator spewed a string of anti-gay remarks in a 1998 interview and, although he has apologized for his remarks against former Ambassador James Hormel, his nomination leaves many LGBTs wondering what will happen to the military if he wins Senate confirmation.

In additional news a more disturbing development was reported over the weekend by John Aravosis of Americablog. It seems that the Defense Department uses web-filtering software made by the company Blue Coat Services that unfairly blocks access to LGBT and progressive websites including the Human Rights Campaign and Towleroad, while censor-

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ing other LGBT sites like Americabog and Pam’s House Blend. Aravosis noted this week that the Pentagon “has gotten the message and will be investigating” the situation.

Of course, the software did not block antigay sites like the National Organization for Marriage.

We expect the Pentagon to remedy this situation quickly, especially now that gays are openly serving in the military. Some sites are banned because they are labeled “LGBT,” “personal,” or “political.” This “personal” distinction is confusing to us because most of the gay blogs are not really personal in nature; they share LGBT news and information. At least one of the Pentagon’s filters has a censorship category called “LGBT,” Aravosis wrote, “and if you’re deemed ‘LGBT’ by the Pentagon, they ban you.”

These Internet filters crop up in school libraries too, and the suggested categories are just an example of programmers equating “LGBT” with porn or perverts. It’s time for filtering firms to realize that, as gay pioneer Frank Kameny – who himself was fired by the federal government – said, “Gay is good.”t

Hagel’s offensive apology

by James Patterson

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n a few days a high political drama will play out in the U.S. Senate. President Barack Obama this week nominated former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (Nebraska) to be his next defense secretary. Obama likes Hagel because he opposed the Iraq war and has held a longtime view that the Pentagon budget was “bloated.” He has told Obama he would relish the opportunity to manage large scale cuts in defense, which may come if the sequester occurs in March.

But first things first for Hagel. After meeting with Obama, Hagel offered an open apology to former Ambassador James Hormel for anti-gay remarks he made to an Omaha newspaper in 1998.

The Human Rights Campaign rushed to accept the apology before Hormel was even aware of it.

Though initially skeptical, Hormel later graciously accepted the apology. Ordinarily that might have ended the matter, but this is Washington.

Senate Republicans are outraged Hagel apologized to Hormel. The Congressional Record is littered with anti-gay remarks by Republicans and they damn well don’t intend to start apologizing for them. When Senate Republicans call gays such things as “perverts,” and “disgusting people” in Senate speeches, they mean it and want it recorded for eternity in the pages of the Congressional Record.

In addition to the apology, Hagel also pledges to “aggressively” work for the “homosexualization of the military.”

(This was a popular Republican charge against President Clinton in the 1990s.) Hagel supports “open service” and says he will be sensitive to the needs of LGBT military families. This is heresy to Senate Republicans. They see Hagel as a danger, especially the

Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel

Dixieland Republicans.

In the South, military bases are incubators of sexual tolerance. If that should spread to contractors, other small businesses, churches, communities, schools, etc., it would undermine the GOP’s anti-gay politics in the Deep South. In the long run, it might even result in the GOP returning to minority status in the region. No wonder, Senate Republicans want to defeat a Hagel nomination.

Immediately after his apology, Senate Republicans began having “grave concerns” on Hagel’s views on Israel, Iran, Hamas, Cuba, Iraq, etc.

These “grave concerns” are all fake issues. The real issue is gays.

Unnamed Republican sources have been telling the press that, “Hagel is not one of us,” “Hagel is not in the mainstream,” and “Hagel has severed ties with the GOP.” Hagel has not left the Republican Party. He may want to leave it after Senate Republicans trash him, but as it stands now he is still a Republican.

Many Senate Republicans have already announced they will vote against Hagel. Southern Republicans, as a bloc, oppose him. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, once rumored to be gay, said that his vote will depend on Hagel’s Senate hearings. Tea Party Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said that he may place a hold on Hagel’s nomination. His “grave concerns” are because Hagel once dared to suggest the U.S. might someday normalize relations with Cuba. For this, Rubio charges he is soft on communism. This is not only a fake issue, but a stupid one.

Despite the HRC embrace, few other LGBT groups support Hagel’s nomination. After first supporting him, the dysfunctional Log Cabin Republicans announced their opposition to him in a full-page ad in the New York Times.

Do they really think they have any influence in Washington?

Former Congressman Barney Frank (DMassachusetts) announced his “strong opposition” to Hagel and then, a few days later, announced his support for him. That was a quick reversal. Frank, angling hard to become interim U.S. senator from his state, might get the chance to vote for Hagel.

It would add to the Senate drama if Hormel went to Washington to support Hagel. It just might solidify Senate Democrats around the nominee. And that is what Hagel and Obama need. In fact, Hagel’s only chance of becoming defense secretary lies with the Senate’s majority Democrats. He is just too LGBT-friendly now for his own political party.t Former Foreign Service Officer James Patterson was the first gay, lesbian, bisexual program manager for the federal government. A longtime Washingtonian, he is now a San Francisco-based writer.

He may be reached at JamesPatterson705@gmail.com.

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Politics >>

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Wanted: A Wiener opponent

BarrySchneider_Redesign

by Matthew S. Bajko

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floated recall never got off the ground. Attempts to block his nudity ban, so far, have fizzled. Even their campaign opposing his bid to be board president went bust when he took himself out of contention.

It seems the only thing gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener’s opponents – from urban nudists to progressives – have achieved in the past 12 months is assisting their political nemesis in gaining a national platform, as their policy disputes with the moderate lawmaker have garnered press coverage in mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

Behind the scenes Wiener’s critics have been falling short on another effort: finding a credible candidate to run against him in 2014 when Wiener is up for re-election to his board seat.

Now at the halfway mark of Wiener’s first four-year term, no one has yet formalized plans to oppose him for the seat representing the Castro, Diamond Heights, and Glen Park neighborhoods at City Hall.

The person most often mentioned by Wiener foes as an ideal candidate, newly sworn in City College trustee Rafael Mandelman, has ruled it out. Mandelman ran against Wiener in 2010 and came in second place.

He has told the Bay Area Reporter on several occasions that he has no plans to challenge Wiener again for the seat.

Mandelman reaffirmed that stance this week.

“I have not been arm-twisted in to it and I don’t believe I could be,” said Mandelman. “I am 100 percent not going to run in 2014.”

Although they often are on opposite sides in policy fights, Mandelman said he has found common ground with Wiener on a number of issues.

“I do not agree with everything Scott has done, but he is an extremely competent and effective lawmaker,” said Mandelman. “He enrages a lot of people, but I think most of the district is pretty happy with him.”

Another trial balloon floated as a potential contender has been that of San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Neil Giuliano, a former mayor of Tempe. Last summer he told the B.A.R. he could foresee a return to politics, either in San Francisco or Arizona, where he maintains his residence and is registered to vote.

Asked this week about his name being mentioned as a D8 candidate, Giuliano deflated any such notion.

“Very nice of people to toss my name about, but I live in SOMA, District 6,” wrote Giuliano in an emailed response.

One of Wiener’s most vocal critics, Gary Virginia, also said this week that he does not see himself competing against the supervisor.

The Castro resident ran for the D8 seat in 2000 when the city reverted back to district elections.

“It is not on my immediate radar,” said Virginia. “It is a very stressful job. As a long-term HIV and AIDS survivor, I don’t know it would be in my interest, health-wise.”

Virginia said he isn’t too worried at the moment about seeing Wiener be unopposed for a second term in 2014. He said there is still plenty of time to find a candidate.

“It is two years away still. I think that leaders will emerge,” said Virginia.

Yet whoever does decide to take on Wiener faces formidable chal-

Rick Gerharter

Supervisor Scott Wiener sits at his desk in the board chambers during Tuesday’s inaugural meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

lenges to defeating him. Wiener proved to be a smart and competitive candidate in 2010, had significant political and financial backing, and spent countless hours knocking on doors throughout the district to secure residents’ support.

Despite the constant criticisms leveled against him, he remains very popular in District 8. And in 2014 he will have the added advantage of incumbency if he does seek a second term.

“Supervisor Wiener’s re-election prospects are good but by no means assured,” City Hall watcher and District 8 resident Larry Bush told the B.A.R. Bush, who publishes the online CitiReport website, said that in addition to well-financed campaign coffers Wiener will be able to run on a number of legislative successes that appeal to many D8 voters.

“So an opponent will have to have access to at least $100,000 in addition to public financing and have endorsements that signal a serious candidacy,” wrote Bush in an emailed response. “The past elections have pitted candidates who ran ‘against’ a competitor and a candidate who focused on what they wanted to do for the district. That’s how Bevan Dufty won and how Scott won.”

Articulating a clear vision for how to tackle the district’s issues is key for any D8 candidate, wrote Bush.

“This time an opponent will have to do more than talk about what’s not working with Scott as the supervisor but also about what needs to work – and have the money and outreach to get that message across,” he wrote.

Raising money may not be as important to winning the D8 seat, countered Virginia, as having support from the city’s two LGBT Democratic clubs, Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk, which send out mailers to voters and enlist their members for get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of their endorsed candidates.

“Someone doesn’t have to have a war chest,” he said. “You need to have money, volunteers, and get endorsements. It is hard to do if you are an unknown grassroots person or not part of one of the two major clubs going into it.”

No one may yet be out campaigning against Wiener, but his detractors are pressing forward with their plans to oppose him legislatively.

A new group calling itself “Wiener Watch” is forming and holding its first meeting this weekend. An email announcing the group’s formation says its aim is “to plan and

execute creative, public actions that target Supervisor Wiener with the goal of making him more accountable to SF residents.”

Gus Feldman, with the group District 8 Democrats, who is helping to spearhead the new group, could not be reached for comment.

A separate initiative to bring voice to progressive stances in D8 debates is also being organized under the moniker Vibrant Castro Neighborhood Alliance. The group was behind an online petition opposed to Wiener being elected board president and had urged supporters to speak out against Wiener during Tuesday’s board meeting.

Their plans were upended, however, when Wiener announced at the meeting that he had asked his colleagues not to nominate him for the position, and instead, endorsed District 3 Supervisor David Chiu’s nomination for a historic third term as president. It had been expected for months that Chiu had a lock on being re-elected.

Bids by District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim to be the first female president in nearly 25 years failed to gain steam. After first nominating each other, the two withdrew their names from contention leading to a unanimous vote for Chiu.

The steering committee for the Vibrant Castro Neighborhood Alliance is still formalizing a mission statement and agenda. Virginia, who is a member of the new group, said the alliance plans to hold a community meeting in the coming weeks for those interested in joining it.

It is possible that the new group could be a launching pad for one of its leaders to take on Wiener in 2014. In a press release announcing its formation, a quote from steering committee member Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a longtime LGBT activist and housing advocate, hints at such a possibility.

“Wiener represents the monied interest, the upscale folks, those who are gentrifying the neighborhood. He doesn’t represent me, a long-term tenant of the Castro who doesn’t make a six-figure salary,” Mecca is quoted as saying.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

The column returns Monday, January 14.

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.

Barry Schneider, Esq. Experienced Attorney For All Personal Matters

r

Wills and Probate Certified Family Law Specialist and Conservatorships Domestic Partner and Trust Issues 400 Montgomery St., Suite 505 • San Francisco, CA 94104 415.781.6500 • BSLaw55@gmail.com

Barry Schneider, Esq. Experienced Attorney For All Personal Matters

r

Wills and Probate Certified Family Law Specialist and Conservatorships Domestic Partner and Trust Issues 400 Montgomery St., Suite 505 • San Francisco, CA 94104 415.781.6500 • BSLaw55@gmail.com

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

t

Kaplan celebrates second term

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akland at-large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, center, received congratulations from new City Council President Pat Kernighan, right, at an inauguration party Monday, January 7 at Faz Restaurant in downtown Oakland. Kaplan, an out lesbian, won a decisive victory in November and was sworn in to her second four-year term, along with new councilmembers Dan Kalb, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, and Noel Gallo. Kaplan was also named council president pro tem by her colleagues.

Elliot Owen

New year brings changes

by Raymond Flournoy

couples, both registered domestic partners and married couples. To read more about Couch & Associates, visit their website at http:// www.couchtaxes.com. To RSVP for the grand opening, visit http://www. taxhelpsf.eventbrite.com.

W

ith the new year dawning, Castro businesses have begun the process of sweeping up the tinsel, boxing up the holiday ornaments, and facing some new citywide changes and initiatives that will affect life in the ‘hood.

D&H celebrates a year in the Castro

Minimum wage slightly less minimum

Beginning January 1, San Francisco’s minimum wage increased from $10.24 to $10.55 per hour. The amount of the increase is pegged to the previous year’s increase in the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area, as outlined in the city’s Minimum Wage ordinance.

San Francisco’s minimum wage laws cover all employers within the city limits, including small businesses and nonprofits. The minimum wage for California is $8 per hour and has not been raised since 2008.

No more free parking on Sundays

As of January 6, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has begun enforcing parking meters on Sundays, bringing an end to what has long been a free parking day.

The meters will be enforced between noon and 6 p.m., with a limit o f four hours. For the next couple of weeks, warnings will be issued before parking enforcement personnel begin handing out citations to violators.

According to SFMTA’s website, “Parking has traditionally been free on Sundays since parking meters were first installed in the 1940s. At that time, most businesses were closed on Sundays, so there was no need to use parking meters to create parking availability. Now, parking demand is the same on Sundays as on Saturdays, so San Francisco is finally updating its parking management to help businesses and motorists.”

Castro sidewalk project in planning stage

San Francisco voters approved the Road Repaving and Street Safety Bond back in November 2011, and, as previously reported, one of the projects enabled by this funding is the widening of Castro Street sidewalks between Market Street and 19th Street. The project is officially in its design phase, with the first of two community workshops to be held on Wednesday, January 23 at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center (100 Collingwood). The meeting will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and is open to the public.

Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2013.

Andrea Aiello, executive director of

Steven Kasapi

Volunteer Eloy Garcia dismantles the Christmas tree in the front window of Under One Roof (518A Castro Street), adding the ornaments to the tables of holiday clearance items. It was previously reported that the store, which benefits HIV/AIDS nonprofits, would close this year and staff said recently that the last day will be January 31.

the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, said that a draft idea is based on the CBD’s Neighborhood Beautification and Safety Plan, which is available online at http://www. castrocbd.org/index.php/ our-services/streetscapeimprovement.

For more information on the bond, visit the San Francisco Department of Public Works website at http:// www.sfdpw.org/index. aspx?page=1580. To add yourself to a mailing list for updates on the Castro project, visit http://signup. sfplanning.org.

Cover up by February

A new law banning nudity in parklets, streets, and sidewalks goes into effect on February 1. The legislation, authored by Supervisor Scott Wiener, was passed by the Board of Supervisors on December 4 on a 6-5 vote, and was signed by Mayor Ed Lee on December 6.

Nudists are fighting the measure in court.

Couch & Associates opens SF office

Accounting firm Couch & Associates is opening its first San Francisco office this month at 649 Mission Street. The new location joins the current El Cerrito and Martinez offices. The firm invites the public to meet its team of tax and accounting experts at a grand opening celebration on Tuesday, January 15 from noon to 5:30 p.m.

One of the firm’s areas of specialty is tax issues related to same-sex

D&H Sustainable Jewelers (2323 Market Street) celebrates its one-year anniversary this month. The gayowned business specializes in jewelry featuring sustainably and ethically sourced materials, with many of the pieces produced by local artisans.

To celebrate a year in business, the shop is offering free informal jewelry appraisal on Saturday and Sunday, January 12-13. Free cleaning and repair consultation will also be offered.

Pica Pica set to open

When The Cafe closed for remodeling several years ago, a new commercial storefront was created facing 17th Street. In the three and a half years since then the space at 3970 17th Street has sat empty, but this month Pica Pica Maize Kitchen is finally set to open.

The Castro location will be the third for the local mini-chain, which focuses on gluten-free Venezuelan fare. An exact date has not been set, but Pica Pica staff confirmed this week the eatery will open toward the end of the month.

Sonoma is out and proud

At the close of 2012, the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau elected Gary Saperstein as the new president of its board of directors. Saperstein is the founder and principal partner of Out in the Vineyard (http://www.outinthevineyard.com), a tour company and event organizer for the wine country, specializing in the LGBT market.

Business Funding Factory set in motion

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center (1800 Market Street) is sponsoring a six-week workshop to help new and aspiring small business owners as they begin their journey into the complicated world of commerce.

Under the auspices of the center’s Small Business Services office, the Business Funding Factory series educates participants about how to develop business plans, seek funding, understand legal and financial issues, and bring dreams to reality.

At the end of the workshop series, participants will present their business plans to a mock panel of business experts, investors, and other financial experts.

The first session will be held on Tuesday, January 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information and to register for the workshops, visit http://www.businessfundingfactory.eventbrite.com.t

National News>>

t Illinois, Rhode Island move on marriage laws

by Lisa Keen

T

he race to become the 10th state to provide marriage equality for same-sex couples is under way, with Rhode Island and Illinois running neck-and-neck.

Marriage equality bills were launched in both states’ legislatures last week.

In Illinois, a marriage equality bill passed its first vote in a Senate Executive Committee 8-5. But, with the new legislative session starting Wednesday, January 9, supporters decided to “go back to square one” rather than try to rush votes in the lame duck legislature.

In Rhode Island, identical bills were introduced in the state House and state Senate. Noting that Rhode Island is the only New England state without marriage equality, House sponsor Arthur Handy (D) said the legislation is long overdue. Openly gay House Speaker Gordon Fox (D), who took considerable criticism two years ago for setting aside a marriage equality bill to pass a civil unions bill, said this month he will call for a House vote on the marriage bill by the end of January.

“Marriage equality is going to be an important issue,” Fox told reporters last week. “Won’t stand alone, but I do want to do it early, send it over to the Senate. I do think we have the votes to pass marriage equality in the House of Representatives, so that’s a priority.”

Ray Sullivan, director of the Marriage Equality for Rhode Island campaign, said he expects the House Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing and vote within the next couple of weeks.

“We are not taking anything for granted, of course,” said Sullivan, but he added the prospects for success look good in the House.

Prospects for the bill in the state Senate are a little tougher, where the Senate president, Democrat Teresa Weed, is opposed. But Sullivan said she has promised to allow the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on the matter if the House passes the bill.

Openly gay Senator Donna Nusselbush is sponsoring the bill in

Openly gay Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox expects a marriage bill to pass this year.

the Senate, and voters in November elected five new pro-marriage equality legislators to the body. The campaign to pass a marriage equality bill is being led by Sullivan, a former Rhode Island representative.

This year, the bill starts off with 42 co-sponsors in the 75-member House, virtually assuring passage. It has 11 co-sponsors in the 38-member Senate. Democrats hold 32 of those seats.

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee (I) signed a civil union bill into law in 2011 but said the bill failed to “fully achieve” the goal of providing same-sex couples with equal rights. Fox derailed the marriage equality bill that year, saying it had no realistic chance of passing the Senate. Fox told the local papers that he did not even have the votes to pass the marriage equality bill in 2011 in the House, where Democrats outnumbered Republicans 65 to 10.

Illinois

In Illinois, where the marriage equality bill got off to a bit of a false start last week, the state Senate is 35 Democrats, 24 Republicans. The state House is 64 Democrats, 53 Republicans.

Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of

RCC spirituality group to meet

compiled by Cynthia Laird

L

ooking for something more spiritual in the new year? The Rainbow Community Center in the East Bay may have the answer.

RCC’s spirituality group will be holding its first meeting of 2013 Saturday, January 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at the center, 2118 Willow Pass Road, Suite 500 in Concord.

“Spirituality is an important, but often downplayed, aspect in the lives of many in the LGBTQ community,” Joselito Laudencia, pastoral intern and the group’s facilitator, said in a statement. “The RCC spirituality group offers a unique and safe space for LGBTQ people in Contra Costa County to come together to explore what spirituality can look like in our lives.”

There is no cost to attend the workshop. The group meets on the

second Saturday of every month.

For more information, call (925) 692-0090, ext. 338 or visit www. rainbowcc.org.

Gay bars topic at forum

The state of gay bars in San Francisco will be the topic at a forum Monday, January 14 at 4 p.m. at the San Francisco Public Library’s main branch, 100 Larkin Street, in the Stong Room, first floor.

The Community Leadership Alliance is sponsoring the forum, which will look at the dearth of gay bars and if there will ever be a gay bar renaissance. Panelists expected to be on hand include representatives from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, San Francisco Pride, and some LGBT historians.

Bay Area Reporter society columnist Donna Sachet will moderate.

The meeting is open to the public.t

Equality Illinois, said on January 4 that, although the marriage equality bill there had just cleared a historic hurdle – passing the Senate Executive Committee – supporters felt they simply did not have enough time to get the bill through the Legislature before the new sessions opened this week. Plus, three supportive senators were absent due to family emergencies last week, making the vote more difficult.

“It’s never simple and easy in Illinois,” said Cherkasov. “But it’s just timing. With three key yes votes in the Senate suddenly gone for emergency reasons, we didn’t have their votes and time ran out.”

But while supporters went “back to square one on Wednesday,” said Cherkasov, with the new session comes a “progressive majority, which will be broader and stronger.”

“It’s never going to be easy, but having had the debate already in the Senate and having a Senate leader building coalitions, we do expect a much more civil debate and expect they will vote the right to marry,” said Cherkasov.

Because the Illinois Legislature essentially goes into recess soon after it convenes, Cherkasov said he does not expect any votes until after the body reconvenes January 31.

And the chances for passage?

“Really strong,” said Cherkasov.

There are progressive majorities in both chambers. Both President Barack Obama and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) have urged the Legislature to pass a marriage equality bill. Democratic Governor Pat Quinn has pushed the Legislature to pass the bill. Even the Illinois Republican Party president is backing the legislation.t

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

ebar.com

<< Sports

8 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

Coach calls the shots, fights stereotypes

by Roger Brigham

S

tephanie Wheeler has won gold medals in Athens and Beijing.

She was a longtime member of national teams before retiring from competition and becoming a head coach at the University of Illinois.

But when I asked her about when her athletic life started, she talked about the accident that nearly ended it before it began.

“When I was 4 or 5, I started playing T-ball and gymnastics,” Wheeler recalled. “My mom put me into sports; I don’t know why. Then when I was 6 years old, I was in a car accident. It left me paralyzed from the waist down. That took me out of being able to play sports with my same-age peers. But my short involvement in sports had lit a fire in me, if that’s possible. It started a love of sports and physical activity in me.”

The accident had left Wheeler without mobility and without her mother. For the next few years, she said, she had to create her own opportunities for physical activity during school recess or in the backyard after school.

Then, when she was 12 years old and waiting in a doctor’s office, an adult came up to her and told her about wheelchair basketball.

It was a casual conversation with lifelong impact. Seldom has such good fortune been found in a waiting room. A fledgling passion for sports was rekindled and a life reborn.

“My whole world changed that day,” she said. She begged her grandparents to let her go to wheelchair

Tamra Parker

University of Illinois head women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler calls out to her team.

basketball classes and attended her first a week later. “I would have played any sport presented to me,” she said, “but being in North Carolina’s ‘Tobacco Road’ with all of that great basketball all around, basketball fit me perfectly.”

She made every practice and every tournament.

For Christmas she wished for her own backyard hoop and Santa came through.

“My neighbors hated me,” she joked about her endless hours of pounding the ball in the backyard.

She played on a regional team through high school, then was recruited by Illinois. Before she graduated in 2004 she and her Illinois teammates won three national

Intersections

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

W

hen we talk about transgender rights we often view it as a singular, monolithic entity, uniquely positioned and separate from everything else. Indeed, this is often the way that transgender activists and activists within other community groups may view trans issues. It is not that simple, however.

The transgender community is, itself, a widely diverse group. It does not contain one of anything. We are all races, all religions, and all backgrounds. We can be found among any other demographic group, and even contain an all-encompassing diversity of gender identities and expressions. We’re everywhere, and contain just about any possible “type” of person.

There are some factions within the community itself that seek to divide some of this. Some transsexuals resent their inclusion in such a diverse space, and others frown on the inclusion of, say, drag kings or queens, transvestites, or those who choose a space outside of traditional gender definitions.

For all I know, we may be simply too large of a community, or trying to cover too much ground with one term. At the same time, I can’t help but see that each group that falls under the transgender banner can and does transcend the gender they were identified as at birth – that just happens to be true for an awful lot of us.

While I’ve discussed it before,

too, I feel it’s important to note another one of the big divisions: the transgender community and the larger LGBT community. Sure, not all transgender people are gay, lesbian, or bisexual identified – but that doesn’t seem to be the point. We all face rights battles. The only difference is that the first three tend to be focused on sexual identity, while the latter is more an issue of gender.

Yet when a lesbian is assaulted, it is often more due to her gender presentation than her overt sexuality – and when a transgender person is discriminated against, they’re more than likely to face slurs against their sexual orientation as well as their gender expression. Oh, and our marriages are often the first challenged under Defense of Marriage Act-like bills.

It’s bigger than just the intersections between the LGBT community, however, and stretches across socioeconomic lines, racial lines, and much more.

One of the bigger examples of this, to me, is the death of Tyra Hunter, an African American trans woman living in Washington, D.C. On August 7, 1995, a car struck Hunter.

As she lay bleeding, medical personnel sliced her pant leg open – revealing her genitalia. One of the D.C. firefighters on scene was quoted as saying, “This ain’t no bitch. It’s a n-----. He’s got a dick and balls.” At that point, the emergency personnel backed away from Hunter, and made

t

championships, with Wheeler being named MVP one year.

She also made the national team starting in 2001. While working toward her postgraduate degree in adaptive physical education at Alabama, she played for the U.S. team that took gold in the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics, silver at the 2002 and 2006 World Championships, and gold at the 2010 World Championships.

It wasn’t until just after the 2008 Paralympics, Wheeler said, that she “fully understood that I was gay. It was just shortly after Beijing that I realized I was gay and this is who I was. I played sports just two more years after that.”

She started coaching women’s wheelchair basketball at Illinois in 2009, and in 2011 coached the Under 25 national team to the world title.

“My favorite part of coaching is the change I get to see in my athletes on a day-to-day basis,” Wheeler, 31, said. “When an athlete finally gets it, when an athlete picks up a particular skill, hitting a 15-foot jumper or making a pass. And I love seeing my athletes grow into young women and being part of that development. In our population, people have a certain expectation of you and it’s not necessarily a good expectation. I like turning that expectation on its head.”

A little more than a year ago Wheeler attended a social event in Illinois sponsored by an LGBT support group. The first person she met was photographer Laura Leonard Fitch, and the women are now a couple.

“We hit it off really well,” Wheeler said. “We talked all night. We’ve seen or talked with each other every day since then. Coaching is very demanding. It takes you away for days and weeks. It’s absolutely essential to have See page 12 >>

jokes for approximately 15 minutes.

They only returned to work due to the outcry of bystanders.

Hunter was eventually taken to the hospital, where subpar treatment may have further exacerbated her situation. She died due to internal bleeding at the hospital.

Was her wrongful death and ill treatment the result of anti-transgender attitudes? Yes, absolutely. At the same time, there was racist language, misogyny, and likely even some homophobia in there. Some also point to socioeconomic issues impacting the quality of her care at the hospital.

Indeed, anti-transgender attitudes may have been at the top of the list in her care – or lack of – but there is no shortage of things that helped lead to her death.

The majority of transgender people who are murdered are trans women of color, and often from a lower socioeconomic class. Many may have been involved in sex work.

Each of these may well be a factor in their death. Again, while it is key, it is more than solely an anti-transgender issue.

Congress recently allowed the Violence Against Women Act to expire. The loss of VAWA is an issue for all women: this includes transgender women and those who may have an “F” on their legal paperwork regardless of self-identity. As such, we should all be holding this Congress accountable for not renewing VAWA. We could see similar issues with the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act, up for reauthorization in 2013, which would affect treatment for all low-income, See page 12 >>

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National News>>

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

The 113th Congress >>

GOP uses rules to highlight DOMA defense

by Lisa Keen

T

he Republican leaders in the House of Representatives started off the 2013-14 congressional session giving unusual prominence to their legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. As part of a routine package of rules by which the House is to govern itself during the 113th Congress, Republican leaders included language authorizing the continued legal defense of DOMA. Drew Hammill, spokesman for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), said the request runs counter to the Republican “mantra” to find cuts in spending and counter to the trend toward acceptance of same-sex couples marrying.

“Republicans will take the extraordinary measure of including an authorization of their efforts to defend DOMA in the Rules of the House of Representatives and by doing so, continue to spend taxpayer funds, already adding up to $1.7 million, in their attempts to defend this shameful law in federal courts and the Supreme Court,” said Hammill.

Even Log Cabin Republicans complained.

“At a time when sound fiscal policy should be front-and-center, diverting taxpayer funds to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act should not be a priority, period,” said Log Cabin’s interim Executive Director Gregory Angelo.

The draft of the text for the rules bill, passed along partisan lines January 3, was made known to Democrats on the evening before the first day of the 113th congressional session. It was, otherwise, a day of celebration for most in the LGBT community as Vice President Joe Biden swore in the first openly gay elected person to the U.S. Senate – Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin). The House also swore in its largest ever LGB caucus with six members, all Democrats, including Representatives Jared Polis of Colorado, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Mark Takano of California, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Sean Maloney of New York, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Polis, now the senior most openly gay member of the House, went to the

Associated Press

Vice President Joe Biden administers the Senate Oath to Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) during a mock swearing in ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, January 3, as the 113th Congress officially began.

floor January 3 to express his disappointment with the DOMA litigation language.

“Big spending Republicans on Day One spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money on a federal takeover of marriage and lawyer stimulus – wrong foot to start off on,” said Polis.

Legal fees

The DOMA legal fees provision appears in Section 4 of House Resolution No. 5. It authorizes the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to continue its legal defense of DOMA “or related provisions” in the United States v.

Windsor case, which heads to the U.S. Supreme Court March 27, and “other cases that involve a challenge to the constitutionality” of Section 3 of DOMA. The provision states that BLAG “continues to speak for, and articulate the institutional position of, the House in all litigation matters in which it appears, including Windsor v.

United States.”

The provision does not identify a dollar amount authorized to continue this defense, but a spreadsheet from Democrats on the Committee on House Administration in October showed BLAG had paid out more than $1.4 million in legal fees between April 25, 2011, and October 9, 2012.

The fees were paid to Republican former Solicitor General Paul Clement and his legal team, who were hired by House Republicans.

Two years ago, House Democrats criticized Speaker John Boehner (ROhio), who heads the five-member BLAG committee, when House General Counsel Kerry Kircher and House Administration Committee Chair Dan Lungren (R-California) signed a contract to pay attorney Clement $500,000 to defend DOMA after the Obama administration said it believed the law to be unconstitutional. (The Obama Department of Justice continues to enforce DOMA but said it would no longer defend the law in court. Lungren is no longer in Congress.) The Committee and Congress had not authorized expenditure of the funds for such litigation. Democrats said the contract was made without proper authorization for the funding.

Hammill said he does not believe the language in the rules bill satisfies that need to authorize funding, saying it was still “outside the appropriations process.”

LGBT groups were quick to criticize inclusion of the language in the rules bill.

“It is particularly disappointing that this historic Congress – with the largest-ever class of openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual members and samesex congressional spouses – has begun with a vote that disrespects those new members and all LGBT Americans,” said Allison Herwitt, legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign.

Obituaries >> Tod Epperson

Bruce Robert Riggs

September 18, 1987 – January 1, 2013

June 28, 1947 – December 3, 2012

Tod Epperson died on January 1, 2013, leaving family and friends with irreparable loss, but beautiful, eternal memories. A longtime employee of Powerhouse bar in San Francisco’s South of Market district, he brought smiles to all who encountered him. His love of life and celebration of friendships could be seen on dance floors throughout the city, in Dolores Park on sunny days, and at various house parties where the energy was high and the party never ended.

He is survived by his devoted partner Sid Payne; father Todd Edward Epperson and mother Lisa Ann Flynn; sisters Amanda Nicolle Epperson and Cassandra Epperson, brother Sean Epperson; and his loving family and San Framily who will never be the same without his smiles, his hugs, and his laughter. We are still searching for words which may never come.

A celebration of life will be held this Saturday, January 12 at 1 p.m. at Beatbox, 314 11th Street, San Francisco. A memorial display at 18th and Castro reflects some of the beauty Tod offered to the world. Contributions to the Tod Epperson Memorial Fund will be used to cover final expenses and then donated to San Francisco Suicide Prevention in Tod’s name.

Born June 28, 1947, in Groton, Massachusetts, Bruce passed away on December 3, 2012, in San Francisco. Bruce is survived by: his mother Pauline A. Riggs of Keene, New Hampshire; brother Robert F. Riggs Jr. of Winchendon, Massachusetts; five nieces, three nephews, eight grandnieces and three grandnephews; and in San Francisco, ex-wife Rose N. Riggs, close friends Tom, Kent, Mary, Larry, and Tom and fellow volunteers from Shanti.

Bruce came to San Francisco on New Year’s Day, 1970, from Massachusetts and settled here, falling in love with this great city of diversity. Bruce was a longtime member of Trinity Episcopal Church.

He served in the U. S. Army during the Vietnam conflict. He was a long-term survivor of AIDS, which he had been battling since July 1985. Bruce was a leading advocate and activist throughout the 1980s and 1990s for people living with AIDS. He helped create and fought for programs for those living with AIDS and HIV, and was a longtime volunteer with Shanti and other related AIDS nonprofit organizations in San Francisco.

There will be a Eucharist funeral service Saturday, February 2, 2013, 2 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1668 Bush Street (the corner of Bush and Gough in San Francisco), with interment in the columbarium. In lieu of flowers, the family

and friends request that any donations in his memory be made to Trinity Episcopal Church or Shanti.

William (Bill) Joseph Toner October 4, 1967 – December 23, 2012

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bill passed away unexpectedly on December 23, 2012 at home in San Francisco. A 1989 graduate of Occidental College, Bill moved to San Francisco and started his banking career at Wells Fargo Bank N.A. He subsequently became an examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In recent years, Bill enjoyed creating video art and music and singing at Christ Church Lutheran, where the Reverend Thomas McQueen, his partner of 20 years, is associate pastor, minister of music.

In addition to his partner McQueen, Bill is survived by his sisters, Marianne Toner Caulfield of Alexandria, Virginia and Patricia Toner Boyer of Berwyn, Pennsylvania; his brother, Paul Gerard Toner of Ko Olina, Hawaii; and five nieces. Bill is preceded in death by his father, William Davis Toner, and his mother, Ellen Solodow Toner.

A memorial of Bill’s life will be held on Saturday, January 19 at 2:30 p.m. at Christ Church Lutheran, 1090 Quintara Street, San Francisco, California 94116.

In lieu of flowers, contributions to the Christ Church Lutheran Music Fund, in memory of Bill, would be appreciated.

Marc Solomon, national campaign director of Freedom to Marry, called it “truly disheartening.”

DOMA, he said “has been struck down as unconstitutional 10 times, with support from judges appointed

by Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes.”

“It’s past time for the Republican leadership to listen to their constituents, a majority of whom support the freedom to marry, and stop wasting precious resources in an effort to treat fellow Americans as second-class citizens,” said Solomon.

That shift is not likely to hap-

pen before the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the constitutionality of DOMA, in the Windsor case, in two months.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Roll Call newspaper reports that there are 51 senators ready to back a new rule change that curb the use of filibustering to stall or block legislation.

Currently, nearly all legislation has to gain at least 60 votes in order to pass a procedural vote to close debate and move to a vote on the bill itself. The fight over that rules change is not expected until after the inauguration, January 21.t

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January 10-16, 2013 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034769600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FERNANDO’S HAIR SALON, 5763 A Mission St., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jose A. Alvarado Garcia. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/13/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034765300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DATEBOOK, 472 Union St. #2, SF, CA 94133.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Melissa Edwards. 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 12/11/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034773600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: B&B INVESTMENTS, 125 Gilbert St. #8, SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Brent Huigens. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/17/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034776100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRANCESCA’S FLOWERS & GARDENS, 128 Woodland Ave., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Francesca Perez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/18/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034775600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRENELATED DIPHTHONG PRESS, 1526 Anza St., SF, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Sarah Corr. 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 12/18/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034760300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FILLMORE LAUNDRY, 1426B Fillmore St., SF, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PRK Ventures 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 12/07/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034757200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIKE’S GROCERY & LIQUOR, 2499 Mission St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BIKO Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/03/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034761400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034776300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF SHEN YUN PRESENTER, 601 Van Ness Ave. #E808, SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed San Francisco Falun Buddha Study Association (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 12/07/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRITTANY BARR CONSULTING, 3501 DIVISADERO ST. #20, SF, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Brittany Barr. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/18/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034777200

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034784500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE, 301 Main St., SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Woodstream Advisors LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/18/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034775900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIME TREE, 450 A Irving St., SF, CA 94122.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Siok Ming Tjong. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/18/12.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032369600 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: MIKE’S GROCERY & LIQUOR, 2499 Mission St., SF, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by Basem Hasan Kurd.

The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/06/09.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032624900 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: FILLMORE LAUNDRY, 1426B Fillmore St., SF, CA 94115. This business was conducted by a husband & wife and signed by Hang Vuong & Sreewan Vuong. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/10/10.

DEC 20, 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034774200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WAVEWORKS COACHING, 9 COLERIDGE ST., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Anne Elizabeth Moellering. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/17/12.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034786000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN KING VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT, 757 CLAY ST., SF, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Philip Vuong. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/21/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/21/12.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A TRAN’S BAY BIKE SHOP, 1 AVENUE OF THE PALMS #21, SF, CA 94130. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Tammy Sheila Powers. 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 12/20/12.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034774800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 2BY4 PRODUCTIONS, 3560 24TH ST #3, SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Paul Cello. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/17/12.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034760600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MASON PACIFIC, 1356-1358 MASON ST., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MTomato LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/07/12.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034739100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAM’S CABLE CAR LOUNGE, 222 POWELL ST., SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Sirhed Gallery Market LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28/12.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034014700

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: GOLDEN KING VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT, 757 & 759 CLAY ST., SF, CA 94108. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed

by Philip Vuong & Huong T. Vuong. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/21/11.

DEC 27, 2012; JAN 03, 10, 17, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034787600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-03479300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: L J C, 101 UTAH ST. # 210-A, SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Reinfrido Z. De Guzman. 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 12/28/12.

JAN 03, 10, 17, 24, 2013 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 12/20/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: SAN FRANCISCO CULINARY VENTURES LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 124-140 COLUMBUS AVE., SF, CA 94133. Type of license applied for

47 - ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE JAN 10, 17, 24, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034799600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PANORAMA PROPERTIES, SFBA, 47 PANORAMA DR., SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ricky R. Shankar. 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 01/03/13.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034796300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRYANT AUTO BODY, 974 FOLSOM ST., SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ian Shin. 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 12/31/12.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034801200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HELIX ATELIER, 3110 CASTRO ST., SF, CA 94131.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Mark A. Hanks. 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 01/03/13.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034792200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOGGIE ROMP, 9 MARITIME PLAZA #30, SF, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kaleen Wong. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/27/12.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034771100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: METALMAN, 2275 MCKINNON AVE., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kwok Yam Jung. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/24/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MALIGEN MOBILE BARTENDING, 2 RIO VERDE ST., SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Eugene Santos & Liza Sanchez. 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 12/13/12.

JAN 03, 10, 17, 24, 2013

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013

The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034797300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J TU CAFE, 582 SUTTER ST., SF, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Serena and Jayden, 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 01/02/13.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034795600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ENCORE.ORG, 1201 RALSTON AVE #202, SF, CA 94129. This business is conducted by a corporation non-profit 501(c)3, and is signed Civic Ventures (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/18/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/12.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034786600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GAUNTLET GALLERY, 1040 LARKIN ST., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Art for the People, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/21/12.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034808500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA URBANA, 661 DIVISADERO ST., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Latin Hospitality Group, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/08/13.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034632000 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: LA CHAVELA, 661-663 DIVISADERO ST., SF, CA 94117. This business was conducted by a limited liability corporation, and signed by Latin Hospitality Group, LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/12.

JAN 10, 17, 24, 31, 2013

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<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

<<

Marlena’s

From page 1

tion of Santa Claus figures, which numbers more than 1,400 and decorates the bar every Christmas season.

“I think they are going to purchase the Santas for the annual display. They want to keep it going,” McLain said.

According to state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control records,

<<

Hagel nomination

From page 1

of Hormel to become ambassador to Luxemburg under Clinton. At the time of those remarks, in 1998, Hagel characterized Hormel’s openness about his sexual orientation as an “aggressive” act that could inhibit his ability to represent the United States in a foreign post.

“My comments 14 years ago in 1998 were insensitive. They do not reflect my views or the totality of my public record, and I apologize to Ambassador Hormel and any LGBT Americans who may question my commitment to their civil rights. I am fully supportive of ‘open service’ and committed to LGBT military families,” said Hagel in his statement.

The Human Rights Campaign initially criticized the choice of Hagel but backed off after the apology.

HRC President Chad Griffin issued a statement last month when Hagel’s name was floated as a likely nominee, saying Hagel’s past comments on gays and his congressional voting on gay-related issues “unacceptable.” But after Hagel issued his apology HRC softened its

<<

Condoms

From page 1

be reviewed and “[b]ased on the outcomes we will determine the appropriate next steps.”

It appears that Suhr’s message hadn’t made it to everyone in his department.

Officer Carlos Manfredi, a police spokesman, said there’d been no policy change regarding photographs of condoms when the B.A.R. spoke with him last week and told him of the other agencies’ agreement, of which he hadn’t been aware. The interview was before the paper knew about Suhr’s email.

Sparks shared Suhr’s email this week. In an interview Tuesday, after the B.A.R. had asked Manfredi about the message and passed it along to him, he said a bulletin was “in the

<<

Martell project

From page 2

difference because now they won’t be stuck with thousands of dollars in fines,” Woods said. “If their legal issues are taken care of, that frees them up to focus on their health care.”

HRSA grant money is also en-

<<

Jock Talk

From page 8

someone who supports your career and loves it as much as you do.”

Wheeler wants her athletes to have no part of other people’s diminished expectations of them.

<<

Transmissions

From page 8

uninsured and under-insured people living with HIV/AIDS – naturally including transgender people dealing with the illness.

Sure, there are some issues that are

t

the liquor license for the bar, located at 488 Hayes Street, was first granted February 8, 1978 and the primary owner is listed as J Buxton Inc. Janice Buxton and her nowdeceased husband, John, opened the establishment that year as the Overpass. The name referred to the double-decker highway structure that had overshadowed the neighborhood until it was torn down beginning in the early 1990s following the Loma Prieta earthquake.

In 1990 McLain, who describes himself as “a proud gay man,” came on as a co-owner of the bar while he was the reigning empress and it was renamed Marlena’s. He and Buxton are also co-owners of the mixed-use building that houses Marlena’s and burger joint Flipper’s. McLain lives in one of the upstairs apartments and will retain ownership of the sixunit building.

He moved to the city in 1989 from Modesto, where in 1976 he

was crowned the Third Empress of Modesto. Two years prior he helped open the well-known Central Valley gay dance club the Brave Bull.

McLain sold his ownership in the bar years ago.

Although he is now selling his stake in Marlena’s, McLain intends to remain involved in the business, putting on fundraising events “and all kinds of stuff.”

He does intend to focus on more leisurely pursuits, with plans to

travel to Australia and New Zealand later in the year. Traveling has been logistically difficult, said McLain, due to his bar duties.

“If I go anywhere I have to get someone to cover for me because I am an on-hand operator,” he said.

Before he finalizes his travel plans, though, McLain wants to assist the new bar owners with reopening Marlena’s.

“I want to help them get this going first,” he said. t

opposition.

“Senator Hagel’s apology and his statement of support for LGBT equality is appreciated and shows just how far as a country we have come when a conservative former senator from Nebraska can have a change of heart on LGBT issues,” said Griffin.

“Our community continues to add allies to our ranks and we’re proud that Senator Hagel is one of them.

“The next defense secretary should get off to a fast start and ensure LGBT military families have access to every possible benefit under the law,” added Griffin. “Every day these families continue to face unfair treatment and the Secretary can take meaningful action to remedy this discrimination.”

This week, HRC added, “We look forward to Senator Hagel’s testimony on how he intends to ensure equal benefits for gay and lesbian service members and their families.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force initially expressed “grave concerns” about Hagel and this week said it continues to have “concern.”

“Though Chuck Hagel has recently apologized for past anti-gay remarks, we expect him to fully ex-

plain his views during the confirmation process and what steps he intends to take as defense secretary to demonstrate his support for LGBT members of the military and their families,” said NGLTF Executive Director Rea Carey. “We recognize that people do evolve on these issues and we hold out hope that, if confirmed, Hagel will meet the bar set by other cabinet secretaries and the administration when it comes to ensuring fairness for all LGBT military families and for women in the military.”

Log Cabin Republicans is bluntly opposed and says he’s “not the right nominee.”

The national LGBT Republican group ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post Monday, saying Hagel’s apology for past anti-gay remarks is “too little, too late.” The ad highlights his previous opposition to repealing the military ban on gay service members and his opposition to allowing equal marriage rights for gay couples.

“Until his name surfaced as a potential nominee for secretary of defense, he has stood firmly and aggressively against not only gay marriage, but also against gay people in general,”

said Gregory Angelo, who took over as interim executive director of Log Cabin less than two weeks ago. “Log Cabin Republicans helped lead the charge to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and is extremely invested in seeing that we don’t lose any ground due to a lack of sincere commitment to gay people and their families on the part of the incoming defense secretary.”

In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Angelo said he thinks people should “pause and question” the timing of Hagel’s “so-called apology.”

“I’m not about to hypothesize what was in his head, but the timing of the apology does seem rather suspect – that his evolution [on gay issues] came days after his name floated” as a nominee, said Angelo.

“Log Cabin Republicans spent a lot of time and money on repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ – a bipartisan effort,” said Angelo. “Now is not the time to roll the dice on a nominee who may or may not smoothly implement” that repeal.

“He’s not the right nominee,” Angelo added.

Zeke Stokes, spokesman for OutServe-SLDN, said his organization

never opposed Hagel’s nomination and believes the apology was worth consideration.

Specifically, said Stokes, OutServe-SLDN wants to hear from the nominee whether he will “take a serious look at the inequities” for gay troops serving today “and make an immediate commitment to remedy those inequities...”

In a press release January 4, OutServe-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson said Hagel “clearly has the military credentials and experience” for the secretary’s job but that it is “incumbent upon him during the nomination and confirmation process to lay out demonstrable actions he will take” to support his words.

The press release said OutServeSLDN wants the nominee, if confirmed, to add “sexual orientation” to the language of the military’s non-discrimination policies and extend “all benefits” possible to married same-sex couples while the Defense of Marriage Act is still in force.

Neither the president nor Hagel referred to any opposition to the Hagel nomination during a White House news conference Monday afternoon.t

process” of being prepared. He didn’t know how people in the department were supposed to know about Suhr’s September message when a bulletin hadn’t been issued.

In a subsequent email Tuesday, Manfredi said, “In light of the district attorney and public defender’s agreement not to include condoms as an indicator of any criminal conduct, Chief Suhr has approved these changes and a department bulletin is in its final process to be released by the end of this week. No condoms will be photographed or mentioned in police reports in regards to prostitution.”

Elizabeth Hilton, managing attorney in the misdemeanor unit at the public defender’s office, attended the September meeting. Told Tuesday of the pending bulletin, Hilton said, “That’s wonderful, because that’s re-

ally what we were trying to accomplish. That’s very exciting.”

In June, Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said prosecutors “would never charge a case simply because someone is in possession of condoms” and said use of condoms as evidence was rare.

“A vast majority of prostitution cases brought to our attention are either not charged, dealt with at the neighborhood courts, in the community justice court, or lead to a successful completion of the SAGE program and are dismissed entirely,” he added, referring to the group Standing Against Global Exploitation Project, which he said aims to “educate and help prostitutes who are in a detrimental situation.”

In response to news of the pending bulletin, Sparks said, “I think that’s great, and I think it’s going to benefit

everyone in San Francisco.”

Sparks said there would be another meeting “to sit down and memorialize [the policy change] with everybody to make sure everybody is on the same page.”

Naomi Akers is executive director of San Francisco’s St. James Infirmary, which offers medical and social services for sex workers. The nonprofit was represented at the September meeting. Asked in an interview in late December whether she had heard of clients’ condoms being used against them during the 90-day period, Akers said, “There’s been no real comment one way or another. We haven’t done outreach on it.” She also said, “We were asked not to publicize the period” while it was in effect.

In July, the international nonprofit Human Rights Watch released a report on San Francisco and some

other cities’ policies around using condoms as evidence of prostitution.

Sparks said the local change could have an impact beyond San Francisco.

“Based on what we do, it potentially could become nationwide policy in major urban areas,” she said.

More changes could be coming in California. Gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) recently indicated he’s interested in addressing the issue statewide.t

abling TransVision to hire consultants to implement a series of life skills classes. The workshops will include GED/high school diploma preparation, financial management information, “Know Your Rights” training, immigration 101, and domestic violence education. Monetary compensation for taking the classes has also increased, which will

contribute to a rise in class enrollment and retention, Woods said.

In addition, clients will be linked to individual case management that will oversee their health care and life skills development.

Last year, TransVision operated on a budget of $85,000. With the HRSA grant, the budget now sits just under $400,000 per year, en-

abling a significant expansion in services. Awarded last September, the various components of the Brandy Martell Project have not been fully implemented yet, but, Woods said, are definitely under way. The organization has begun interviewing for legal advice personnel and has already hired three more peer advocates and another

full-time staffer – all of whom are transgender.

“While Brandy’s name will always be attached to her murder, which remains unsolved,” Woods said, “now we’ll read it in a positive light. It’s all over federal documents, which is another way to create awareness around violence against the transgender community.”t

“There are a lot of people who see you as below average: they judge you by your wheelchair or disability,” she said. “I don’t want them to be OK with that. I want them to have higher expectations of themselves. Then once they start projecting that, they start projecting it to others and people

start to change what their expectations are.”

Wheeler values the empowerment sports give gays and the disabled alike in being able to counter limiting stereotypes.

“It’s an equalizer,” she said. “It’s a way for me to be on a level playing

field with my peers. When I played, it changed perceptions of what I could do. People will come into the gym with a certain mindset of what they are going to see. They expect a slow game. Then they see what the game looks like and what their athletes are like and they change. Then they take

it out onto the street. Maybe next time they see someone in a wheelchair they wonder, ‘I wonder if they play sports.’”

For more information about wheelchair basketball, visit the National Wheelchair Basketball Association website http://www. nwba.org.t

pretty specific to transgender people.

Getting a gender marker changed on a driver’s license or birth certificate is going to be a greater issue for transgender people than anyone else. Fights for transgender anti-discrimination bills to include gender identity and expression in local, state,

and federal law are primarily going to protect transgender people above all else.

Yet with the Obama administration making it clear at nearly every turn that gender expression and identity is covered in existing law, most notably in Title VII

of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, transgender people should be all the more involved in the broader fights, too.

Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. We are uniquely positioned to secure not only protections specific to all transgender people, but

to assist in larger battles. We need to understand that the rights of women are the rights of transgender women, and protections for people of color will affect transgender people of color as well.

Let us be part of that metaphorical tide that raises all ships.t

On the web Online content this week includes the Out in the World column, letters to the editor, and the second part of the article about Justice Antonin Scalia. www.ebar.com.

Valentine's way

17

Summer love

Young bucks

18

Out &About

15

O&A

14

The

Vol. 43 • No. 02 • January 10-16, 2013

www.ebar.com/arts

Two Boys composer Nico Muhly.

Lyndsy Kail is the object of an author’s desires in Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A Graphic Novel, opening Jan. 17 at ACT’s Costume Shop.

Two boys out of line

Composer Nico Muhly on his ‘gay opera’

by Michael McDonagh

L

ife is full of surprises. There I was at Philip Glass’ former studio in New York’s SoHo to get a CD of composer Nico Muhly’s work from Cat Celebreeze, and just as she was giving it to me, Muhly – tall, with a pale, open face – appeared and said hello. A first listen to this non-commercial dub of live performances of nine of his pieces struck me as a journeyman’s effort – he was born in 1981, and still at Juilliard when he studied with the composer of “the AIDS symphony,” John Corigliano. But when I listened more closely I heard a personal voice, which his former employer Glass believes doesn’t usually come early – Schubert and Prokofiev being the great exceptions – under its seemingly haphazard gestures.

Muhly is a star on the new music scene with an enviable track record of commissions cum performances for one so young, and his film score for Stephen Daldry’s preposterous The Reader (2008) was its only saving grace.

But the biggest buzz is for his “gay opera,” Two Boys (2010), which bowed at London’s English National Opera in 2011, and takes the stage at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in its 2013-14 season. Is he worried about its gay content? “I’m not sure of any opera that doesn’t have gay content, and murder.

Don’t they all?” he asks in an e-mail, firming up our lively phone chat from his East Village apartment this past fall.

“I’m not worried, and at the same time See page 16 >>

Chesca Rueda

Pixie liberation

by Richard Dodds

A

quick quiz in cinematic pop-culture terminology: What do the following screen performances have in common?

Natalie Portman in Garden State, Kirtsen

Dunst in Elizabethtown, Charlize Theron in Sweet November, Melanie Griffith in Something Wild, and in case these examples don’t See page 14 >>

Matthew Murphy

Jessica Chastain as Maya in director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty.

Torturous manhunt

by David Lamble

Z

ero Dark Thirty opens sans credits, with a black screen and a soundtrack filled with random voices, the anxious and gradually terror-stricken voices of office-workers trapped on the upper floors of the Twin Towers.

“We’re okay, we’re in the South Tower.”

“When is someone coming for us?

The heat is unbearable.”

The filmmakers, Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, open on the first of a series of settings with an industrial funk (identified onscreen by slugs like “CIA black site”), a chamber of horrors where humans do specifically unpleasant things to subjects who can’t resist, and for whom no help is coming. We close in on a badly bruised face. Ammar (Reda

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

Kateb) has clearly been worked over before we arrived. His interrogator, Dan (Jason Clarke), bears a slight resemblance to actor Seth Rogen, providing an edge to the proceedings that, while not exactly comic, is slightly off-kilter. The boyish-appearing, bearded CIA op is obviously working from a script whose psychological impact has been carefully calibrated in the bowels of Langley, Virginia.

“I own you. You belong to me. You move off the mat, and I’m going to hurt you. You don’t look me in the eyes, and I’m going to hurt you. Hey man, everybody cracks in the end.

It’s biology!”

“Please help me!”

“You can help yourself by being truthful.”

See page 17 >>

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

Dream Arias

by Roberto Friedman

I

t warmed our tiny gay hearts last week when we heard Django Unchained director Quentin Tarantino on NPR waxing rhapsodic about our very own Castro Theatre, naming it his “dream theatre.” We too have a hard-on for our beloved theatre. And we had a wet dream when we got word that dream-pressario Marc Huestis will be bringing none other than NY drag superstar Joey Arias to ye olde Castro for a Valentine’s Day concert extravaganza. For those in the know, Arias is a performing legend, sharing the stage with such greats as David Bowie, Klaus Nomi and Grace Jones, as well as wowing crowds in a two-year stint in Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity and the stage phantasma Arias with a Twist, a collaboration with puppet visionary Basil Twist. The New York Times called Arias “downtown NY’s answer to Cher.” At the Castro, he’ll be

t

sharing the stage with our own local legends Veronica Klaus and Connie Champagne. Also on the bill: video by Homochic boy wonder Leo Herrera, and a mad Felliniesque VD fashion show by design wizard Mr. David. Cum with your honey or cum alone, just cum.

For ticket info, call (415) 863-0611, ask for the “dream discount,” and get $5 off!

Brits are coming

The Mostly British Film Festival opens on Jan. 17 at the Vogue Theatre (3290 Sacramento St.), then presents 25 new and classic features and documentaries from the UK, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. The weeklong fest benefits the nonprofit San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation. Opening-night film is Hunky Dory, a musical starring Minnie Driver as a free-spirited drama teacher in South Wales who leads her class in putting on The Tempest set to popular 1970s music.

Driver, an Oscar nominee for Good

Decca/Andrew Eccles

Soprano Renée Fleming is coming to Davies Symphony Hall.

Heath McBride

Performer Joey Arias is coming to the Castro Theatre.

Will Hunting, will attend and participate in a post-film Q&A. On Jan. 22, the MBFF will present the documentary 56 Up, latest in director Michael Apted’s series following a group of British citizens at seven-year intervals, beginning in 1963 when they were seven. Director James Marsh’s spy drama Shadow Dancer starring Clive Owen closes the fest on Jan. 24, the story of a M15 official who recruits a young woman whose brothers are with the IRA in 1990s Northern Ireland.

Other programs include the popular British Noir evening on Jan. 18 featuring Odd Man Out and The Deadly Affair, both starring James Mason and introduced by noir expert Tony Broadbent; and a Jan. 19 double bill of David Lean’s This

<<

Manic Pixie

From page 13

flutter forward in memory or experience, consider also Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Barbra Streisand in What’s Up, Doc? These characters have all been labeled Manic Pixie Dream Girls in a trope that has elbowed its way into hipster-scented film analysis. Now it is arrived on stage, not only as a char-

dest daughter is to be married. Her dilemma: She’s in love with someone else, and he has shown up for the nuptials. For free tix, send a request to adam@cinemasf.com and put Cheerful in the subject line. Indicate how many tix you’d like (limit of four). MBFF passes are on sale at the Vogue Theatre and www.cinemasf.com. Visit www.mostlybritish. org for more info.

Happy Breed and Brief Encounter.

Among the new films having their SF premiere are Stella Days, an Irish comedy starring Martin Sheen (Jan. 18); Swerve, an Australian thriller starring up-and-comer Jason Clarke (Jan. 20); and the Irish comedy of errors Stand Off with Brendan Fraser, directed by Terry George (Jan. 21).

The MBFF will offer a free preview screening of Cheerful Weather for a Wedding on Sun., Jan. 13, at 11 a.m. A cross between Downton Abbey and Rachel Getting Married, this family drama stars Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern as the selfpossessed matriarch of an English country manor with marriage-age daughters. Set in the early 1930s, the film zeroes in on a day when the el-

Song birds fly in

acter, but also as the title of a world premiere beginning performances Jan. 17 at the ACT Costume Shop.

The full title of Katie May’s play adds yet another touchstone of the alt-cool: Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A Graphic Novel.

Assuming a generalized knowledge of the graphic novel as a grown-up comic book, here is a definition of “manic pixie dream girl” by the film critic who coined the phrase. An MPDG, according to critic Nathan Rabin, is “that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.”

In the new stage play, MPDG

explores the stock film character through the lens of a graphic novel and via the confines of an intimate theatrical experience. In other words, three genres for the price of one. As director Jon Tracy says, it’s “a sardonic play for a sardonic world created by a sardonic company.”

The playwright has fashioned a dark, comic story that follows a struggling graphic novelist who falls in love with a mysteriously silent manic pixie dream girl and explores what happens when she becomes more than just a character type. Artwork by Rob Dario figures prominently into director Jon Tracy’s production.

“Manic Pixie Dream Girl was born out of a need to write a play for my See page 22 >>

Soprano Renée Fleming joins MTT & the San Francisco Symphony in concerts on Jan. 10, 12 & 13 featuring the world premiere of Robin Holloway’s C’est l’extase, an orchestral arrangement of Debussy’s 1887 song cycle for voice and piano Ariettes oubliées. The six songs of Debussy’s cycle are based on poems of Paul Verlaine, and the piece includes additional Verlaine poems that Holloway has set to music.

Fleming returns to Davies to join forces with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham for a recital on Jan. 16, performing works by Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, Berlioz, and others. Hearing these two dynamite women perform together should be a TNT blast.t

Kent Taylor

Lady Bear, Trixxie Carr, Heklina, and D’Arcy Drollinger take on Manhattan in their renderings of scripts from the series Sex and the City, beginning an open-ended run on Jan. 16 at Rebel Lounge.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Theatre >>

Tennessee Williams on the beach

by Richard Dodds

I

t’s rare when you can experience a great playwright collaborating with himself at both the beginning and end of his career. Certainly, Tennessee Williams had the proclivity to return to plays that missed the mark the first time around, making changes in plot, tone, and even titles. But Something Cloudy, Something Clear differs from these other adjustments. Instead he is working with a short play written in 1941 – three years before the world took note with The Glass Menagerie – and interweaving two of the characters from it 40 years later, for rueful ruminations on what took place on a Provincetown beach in 1940.

Theatre Rhino Executive Director John Fisher has an interest in exploring the crannies of the Williams canon plays that are often overlooked, having entered 2012 with The TwoCharacter Play, and now another new year with Something Cloudy, Something Clear at the Eureka Theatre.

The 1940s play that drew Williams back to his typewriter 40 years later was titled The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer, and it’s unlikely he could have imagined a society that would allow it someday to be produced.

The end of that summer brought an end to Williams’ first head-overheels romance, and the play was his

Gilbert Johnson

Aaron Wilton plays a young writer who becomes infatuated with a draft dodger (Kayal Khanna) during a summer at the beach in Tennessee Williams’ Something Cloudy, Something Clear.

personal eulogy to the affair. Not even the name of the object of abject desire has been changed. He is Kip, a draft-dodger from Canada with a resemblance to Nijinsky who sways the playwright away from his usual habit of messy one-night-stands. But Kip comes with a wife, sort of, who also serves as a pimp, sort of, and this menage a trois can’t quite figure out what to do with itself.

FineArt >>

Humanizing escorts

by David-Elijah Nahmod

O

n Jan. 4, a lively crowd of about 100 attended the Magnet SF opening of Escort: The Classic Beauty of Male Sex Workers in San Francisco. The show serves as a month-long exhibition of photographs taken by Tom Schmidt, and as a launch party for Schmidt’s new book featuring many of the photos. Schmidt, a member of the Radical Faeries, is also known by his Faery name, Dot. The event raised funds for St. James Infirmary, a South of Market medical clinic that provides health services for sex workers and their partners.

According to director Steve Gibson, Magnet is the perfect venue for the Escort opening.

“Magnet promotes the health and well-being of gay men in San Francisco,” Gibson told the B.A.R. during the party. “We believe that the health of the community means creating opportunities for gay men to come together to share their common experiences.”

Magnet services includes providing STD and HIV testing.

The men in Schmidt’s photos debunk the stereotype of the sleazy, burnt-out gay male street hustler. These men are vibrant and healthy in appearance. Some of the models are nude in the photos, while others could be posing for a fashion magazine. One photo features gay porn star Antonio Biaggi elegantly draped in a long, flowing cape. In another photo, two lovely young men, possibly a couple, stand together nude. One has his hand wrapped around the other, while the second touches his partner’s cheek. They’re kissing each other gently.

Cyd Nova, an FTM transgender, poses in a pair of shorts with his fists displayed. An activist for sex workers’ rights and health care, Nova looks more like a prizefighter than an escort. Nova currently serves as the Harm Reduction Coordinator at St. James

Tom Schmidt/Dot

Model Cyd Nova.

Infirmary.

“My intent was not to sexualize them,” Schmidt said at the event. “I wanted to show escorts who were real people. They can be sexy and beautiful. They’re not what you expect. They’re not completely defined by escorting.

They’re students, activists, software engineers, artists, uncles, and brothers.”

For Starchild, a longtime bisexual-identified escort and occasional political candidate, participating in Escort was a chance to break down barriers. “We’re still socially marginalized by law,” he said to the B.A.R. as he sipped a glass of wine. “It’s good to see positive representation of us in the community.”t Escort: The Classic Beauty of Male Sex Workers in San Francisco is on display through Jan. at Magnet SF, 4122 18th St., SF. The Escort book is available at Blurb.com or photobydot@ yahoo.com.

While you can certainly hear viscous Williams poetry in the dialogue,

it seldom finds the lift or humor that’s found even in the playwright’s

heavy-handed later works, owing in part, perhaps, to the solid Aaron Wilton’s earthbound performance as the young playwright. It is also hard to hear poetry as Gwen Kingston declares her lines as if she were a character in a musical comedy on her way to a box social. Kayal Khanna takes more of an understated approach to Kip, while Jeffrey Biddle and Maryssa Wanlass play a series of visitors to Provincetown including a B-movie villain actually named Bugsy.

Gilbert Johnson’s scenic design captures the feel of sand-swept dunes around a Provincetown beach shack.

But what the play and this production can’t capture is an essence of Williams that usually can be counted upon to make an appearance – be it graceful or clumsy – in whatever bears the playwright’s name.t Something Cloudy, Something Clear will run through Jan. 13 at the Eureka Theatre. Tickets are $15-$30. Call (800) 838-3006 or go to www.therhino.org.

<< DVD

16 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

Conflicted woman

by Tavo Amador

T

he Portrait of a Lady is one of Henry James’ most ambitious and highly regarded novels. Published as a book in 1881 following its serialization in The Atlantic Monthly, it tells the story of an independent-thinking young American woman who is determined to defy her presumed destiny, but instead becomes seduced by the sophisticated world she encounters in Europe.

Jane Campion’s 1996 film version has just been released in DVD, and although uneven, it is compelling.

Following the death of her father, beautiful Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) of Albany, NY, is invited by her maternal aunt, Mrs. Touchett (Shelley Winters), to visit her in England. There, Isabel is befriended by her kind cousin Ralph (Martin Donovan) and welcomed by her uncle (John Gielgud). Lord Warburton (Richard E. Grant), a neighbor of the Touchetts, surprises Isabel with a marriage proposal, which she declines. Caspar Goodwood (Vito Mortenson), whom she had known in America, has come to London, and he, too, proposes, and is also rejected. When her affectionate uncle dies, Isabel is stunned to discover

that he has left her a substantial fortune. Now a woman of independent means, she travels to Italy.

In Florence, she meets the charming American Serena, Madame Merle (Barbara Hershey), who introduces her to fellow countryman Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich), an artist and aesthete who has little money. He has a daughter, Pansy (Valentina Cervi), from his earlier marriage. Pansy is being educated by nuns. Gilbert is charming and unlike any man Isabel has met. Surprising herself and her family, she agrees to become his wife.

The couple enjoys the endless pleasures of life among the Italian and expatriate upper classes.

Slowly, however, Gilbert reveals his controlling nature and indifference, perhaps even contempt, for Isabel. She tolerates his mistreatment and befriends Pansy. The girl returns her affection, but lives only to please her father. Pansy is in love with Edward Rosier (Christian Bale), a French artist who has a comfortable but not enormous income. He wants to marry her, but Gilbert refuses his permission because the young man is not rich enough. Lord Warburton calls on

Dream states

by David Lamble

Campfire - Four Films by Bavo Defurne (Strand Releasing)

T

hree of the shorts in this collection by Belgian queer filmmaker Bavo Defurne capture adolescent gay boys in dreamlike trances; the title piece Campfire, the only one with dialogue, has a 20-minute narrative arc and a complete story, clearly the work of an artist ready to tackle a feature-length canvas.

Fans of Defurne’s feature North Sea

Texas will treasure this early sketchbook, with works as lyrically erotic and playful as a comparable period in the career of the young Gus Van Sant.

Campfire (2000) Two Boy Scouts (as is often the case with Defurne’s films, a blonde and a brunette) share a rapturous night under the stars, which leads the blonde to fall back in homo panic while the brunette is eager to take matters further.

This, the first of Defurne’s shorts to depict boys and girls competing for the same prize, ends in a stiff right

the Osmonds, and seems interested in Pansy. Gilbert wants her to marry him, and entrusts the arrangements to Isabel. When Gilbert’s ambitions are stymied, he becomes even more abusive to his wife.

Isabel learns that Ralph, living in England, is gravely ill. Gilbert refuses to let her visit him, but she defies him, saying goodbye to Pansy before leaving. Pansy asks her to please come back, a promise Isabel reluctantly makes.

The frail Ralph is delighted to see his cousin. She is the only woman he ever loved.

Isabel realizes that she loves him as well. She also learns that it was Ralph who persuaded her uncle to leave her the large inheritance. She is deeply saddened by his death. Caspar returns and begs her to leave Gilbert and live with him. Initially she rejects the idea, but later appears to consider it.

Kidman looks right, although she doesn’t seem especially American.

She tries hard to convey Isabel’s internal conflicts, but the complexity of the character often escapes her.

She handles each crisis by crying, so

often that the viewer tires of it. Cate Blanchett would have been a better choice.

The rest of the cast is excellent.

Malkovich reveals Osmond’s true nature with a subtlety that becomes shocking. His cruel treatment of Isabel and Pansy is unnerving. It is one of his finest, most disturbing performances, comparable to his memorable Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Hershey is terrific

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as the manipulative Madame Merle, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Donovan is heartbreaking as Ralph. Grant is effective as Lord Warburton. The viewer wonders if he really cares for Pansy, or if he simply wants to be closer to Isabel. Mortenson’s Goodwood is virile, intelligent, and charismatic. Bale is convincing as Pansy’s sincere suitor. His reaction to Gilbert’s callous rejection of his proposal is moving, underscoring how little Osmond cares about his daughter’s happiness. Winters, in an atypical role, is surprisingly good, as is Gielgud in his few scenes. The rest of the cast, which includes Shelley Duvall and Mary Louise Parker, is fine.

Campion’s direction is smooth, showing the emotional turmoil often hidden by good manners. Laura Jones’ screenplay is faithful to the novel, capturing its nuances and outlining its feminist themes. The ending is appropriately ambiguous. The cinematography, which beautifully shows the different light in each country, is by Stuart Dryburgh. The lavish production was designed by Janet Patterson, who also created the sumptuous, Oscar-nominated costumes. The rich art direction is by Martin Childs and Mark Raggett.t

to the blonde’s jaw, a nice reversal on the usual beatdown of the gay character. It’s to Defurne’s credit that the kisses and punches are equally lovely.

Saint (1996) Gay-boy patron saint Sebastian, the original queer masochist, is dispatched by a gang of boy archers with more than a hint of the fable’s homoerotic metaphors.

Particularly Now, in Spring (1995) The English-speaking narrator of Defurne’s daydream poolside mood piece – the short most suited for a long life on YouTube – closely resembles a protagonist from Van Sant’s 16mm era. “Why is it that people are not always the people you want them to be? I sometimes think that time won’t move here, everything will just stay as it is right now.”

Sailor (1998) A Frameline audience favorite, this visually driven reverie begins with an adolescent playing with a toy boat in the bath, then magically glides through a series of nautically-cued fantasies reminiscent of the homo-stylized worlds of Pierre et Gilles.

David Lamble: In Campfire, the two boys are at a co-ed camp, but they go off and have sex in a tent. The blonde, who was very flirtatious, then becomes shamefilled. He flips over entirely.

Bavo Defurne: I like that a lot about Campfire. Someone from the funding body came to the premiere and said, “You cut something out of the script.” And we did, which is that before the boys have sex, they get drunk. We thought, “Why should they get drunk? Maybe he’s just really horny and wants to have sex with another boy, and maybe

<<

Nico Muhly

From page 13

I’m worried about everything all the time. I think it was Maira Kalman who said that the ordering principle of her life was fear and snacks.”

Fear may be the ordering principle, but the subject of Two Boys ain’t exactly a snack. A teenage boy in an industrial town in the north of England, Brian (tenor), is caught on tape after apparently having stabbed another, slightly younger boy, Jake (baritone), to death. The case is investigated by Anne (alto), and things turn out not to be what they seem. Muhly, who speaks rap-

he doesn’t need the excuse of being drunk.” So we have no excuses, and maybe the guy was bi or straight or just curious. It’s his private thing.

Although he is a character in my movie, still I respect whatever he is, but I thought the character doesn’t need an excuse. All my shorts deal with loneliness and rejection. Everything plays out in a very con-

fined world.

idly with emphases like unequivocal downbeats, expands. “There was a real thing on which it was based. It started with one thing, and then different stories, but basically it’s about boys behaving badly.” Their behavior, like so much these days, centers on and is facilitated by the Net, where even the most honest people end up inventing themselves a bit.

The space between what’s real and what’s invented is a natural for his librettist, Craig Lucas, whose 1988 The Dying Gaul, made into a 2003 film, dealt with characters whose invented Net identities cause all kinds of havoc. Muhly is quick to praise Lucas. “Craig is so great at writing

naturalistic, and we were with it from the start. We were all operating under the same obsession, and it’s a still many years ongoing obsession.”

Putting any show together is a lot of work, and Muhly is actively involved in rehearsals “in a room many feet down from the main stage of the Met, where we had about a dozen singers doing name parts. But once you get onstage, everything changes. Timings are different. Sitting around in a workshop is incredibly useful, but onstage everything is completely expanded, contracted.”

Two Boys, directed by Bartlett See page 22 >>

Hermetically sealed?

Yes, in my movies there are no cars, almost no televisions, no neighbors. I like it to be really clear, it’s more artful. Belgium is a country where a man can marry a man, but we are still, as a gay community, obsessed by things we don’t like.t

t

Film >>

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Just us kids

by David Lamble

I

n the impeccably cast new narrative doc Only the Young (opening Friday at the Roxie), we meet Garrison, Kevin and Skye, the coolest teens in a sprawling desert kingdom commonly used as a low-budget Hollywood back-lot. The three demonstrate how to push definitions of friendship and “homo-social bonding” to the max, keeping a check on primal fears while luxuriating in the last carefree moments of being goofy kids.

The gifted filmmaker duo Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mimms drop us into one of Garrison and Skye’s endless chats. The pair is side-byside but upside-down to us as Skye opines with mock cruelty to her not-quite boyfriend.

“Everything that goes into your life never comes out, just like me.”

“Like a bad stain.”

“Yeah, and no Tide can get rid of it. I got involved in being your friend, and now I’m stuck in your black hole, and you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”

Moments later we get a different reading as Garrison hangs out with Kevin, his skateboarding partner and best male friend since age 13.

“You can, like, wait on your feelings to change. Like, if you want to like a chick, you know, it sucks!”

“Want to try to like a chick?”

“Well, because it’s like you like them, but you don’t really like them.

And it’s like, let’s give it a little time and maybe I’ll start to really like her, and things will work out great. And it never happens!”

“You either get it right or you don’t get it at all. And if you don’t get it at all, you don’t make it worse.”

<<

Zero Dark Thirty

From page 13

The speaker of this last line wears a black hood, but it’s clearly a female voice, nicely upping Zero Dark Thirty’s well-honed sense of unreality. When she takes off the hood, Maya (Jessica Chastain) is revealed to be a red-headed girl-next-door who seems to be scout’s-honor truthful when she claims, deep into the story, to be working a job she took right out of high school.

By all the parameters of Hollywood’s book of casting clichés, Clarke and Chastain would seem spot-on for another Judd Apatow hip rom-com shagfest. This casting against type, along with Bigelow and Boal’s determination to keep adrenaline-rush action set-pieces to a bare minimum for a 156-minute film, creates an almost disorienting suspense, odd because we know where we’re headed: by film’s end, Navy Seals are going to smash into an innocuous fortress – ironically located less than a mile from the Pakistan military’s West Point – and assassinate its male occupants, including mass killer Osama Bin Laden.

Push a movie critic hard enough, and they’ll eventually admit that every movie they plow through most reminds them of another movie. It’s her seamless ability to work against the grain of all the obligatory bigmoment movie horseshit that allows Bigelow to grab the inside rail to Best Picture Oscar contender.

She does this with a film that some will see as a subtle editorial against CIA “enhanced interrogation” techniques, or what the guy on the street would call “torture” if he weren’t being quoted for the elitist media.

With an elastic narrative arc stretched to the breaking point, Zero Dark Thirty compresses a wretched decade’s worth of bum leads down blind alleys into a circumstantial case that the “needle-in-a-haystack” clue to Bin Laden’s lair was the result

For kids who change their hair color almost daily, the dye in their stories is set from the get-go. At 5’11”, Skye is a socially perceptive if physically awkward borderline tomboy who thinks her birth mom’s dead, knows her dad’s in prison, and is passive-aggressively competing for the affections of Garrison. He’s an instinctively charismatic, too-cool-forschool, hornrim-wearing mophead.

Garrison prefers to hang with his slacker buddy Kevin, who blows off steam breaking skateboards by leaping from the roof of the boys’ secret clubhouse, and by issuing sardonic one-liners accompanied by a daffy stare-down to the camera. “Children are the gods of this city, and there is still nothing to do here!” To break through the torpor, Kevin periodically cuts his arm with a razor, which causes Garrison no end of grief.

Garrison and Kevin are part of a church youth group whose adult leader Shannon performs a very funny outreach ministry to Canyon Country’s skateboard-obsessed kids by offering free tacos, chips and water in exchange for listening to his Jesus rap. “A lot of skateboarders are looked on as punks, outcasts and what-not. We kind of accept that, so when you really want to be different, go ahead and skate for Christ.”

Soon Skye has big issues: Garrison has broken up with her; she’s been replaced by a sassy, hip-hopdancing “liberal” spitfire, Kristen; her grandpa has fallen behind on the mortgage in a county where “underwater” is the norm; and to top it off, her mom ain’t so dead after all.

“I was on Facebook, and I got a friend request from my mom. I declined. I think that after 16 years,

of good cop vs. bad cop methods.

Chastain’s Maya manages to walk the line between them so cleanly that you’ll have her back morally when she finally recommends to the CIA director – a James Gandolfini cameo that nails every one of the spy agency’s bureaucratic “clusterfucks” in a few strokes – that the president order the Seals in. Earlier, a male colleague warns Maya of the high cost of being in the crosshairs of Washington’s anti-torture morality squad at the wrong moment in history. “You don’t want to be the last one holding the dog collar when the oversight committee comes.”

Bigelow and her cool female leads, including Maya’s buddy Jessica (Jennifer Ehle talking the talk, and walking the walk), make the heavy involvement of female ops in high-risk anti-terrorist strategies seem astonishingly matter-of-fact.

Here, girls are playing with and getting dirty with the boys. The thematic button on this comes as the crew casually watches President Obama’s 2008 60 Minutes chat in which he rather emphatically states, “America doesn’t torture.”

All of the above is mere foreplay for audiences waiting for “the money shot,” the beautifully orchestrated third act where the Seals attack the Bin Laden compound. As she did in her extended chase scene between Keanu Reeves’ surfer cop and Patrick Swayze’s surfer bank-robber in 1991’s Point Break, Bigelow keeps lengthening the Navy Seals’ penetration into the compound until everything finally comes to a head in a crescendo of wailing kids punctuated by deadly bursts of assault-weapon fire. As the Seals reach for Bin Laden’s computer hard drives, Bigelow’s camera zeroes in on a spreading bloodstain on a white carpet.

Zero Dark Thirty is as ruthlessly efficient in relating the story of America shedding its last iota of innocence as the Seals were in bagging the Bearded One. In the end,

Kevin and Garrison up on the roof in Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mimms’ Only the Young.

Facebook isn’t the right way to contact someone. Like, honestly, no matter how much technology progresses, it’s still not okay to do personal things impersonally!”

The young filmmakers keep us visually engaged with shots of the area’s breathtakingly beautiful big sky, and clouds that roll past like puffy, inverted mountains. The boys win the battle for screentime since they keep upstaging the girls with stunts like Halloween dressup as twin Gandalfs. Later they sit at a suburban curbside still sporting fake beards, checking their

trick-or-treat candy haul while comparing notes on what it was like to kiss Skye. Turns out only Kevin did, revealed in a moment that recalls the early reality-show highs of Lance Loud on PBS’ An American Family.

After 70 minutes of the world according to Garrison, the filmmakers seem to be telling us that even the most hetero-likely boys often prefer large gulps of same-sex hang-time.

As the boys wonder if they’ll still connect after Kevin moves to Tennessee for school, Garrison riffs on possible Valentine gifts for Kristen,

getting a surprisingly sweet response from his pal.

“I don’t know what I’ll get her. I don’t want it to be too cliché, like a box of chocolates, cause I’ve done that, and I don’t think that’s very cool.”

“I think it’s pretty cool. I’d be flattered.”

“Is that what you’d like for Valentine’s from me?”

“That would be nice.”

Only the Young is sweet soul-music for those incapable of enduring counterfeit Hollywood fiction about what’s up with kids these days.t

Bin Laden opted to end his days not in some cold borderlands cave, but

in the kind of gated-community fortress of the type most prized by

the very sort of American who will probably skip this movie.t

<< Out&About

18 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

Thu 10

The Waiting Period @ The Marsh

Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha

Brian Copeland returns with his popular solo show about chronic depression and his near-suicidal thoughts while awaiting a gun permit. $30-$35. Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm.

Thru Jan 26. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd.

282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The weekly LGBT and indie comic stand-up night. 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

I Want It All @ Oddball Films Consumer Culture on the Skids, a screening of ‘50s to ‘80s shorts films and commercials from the crass consumerist culture.

8pm. Fri Jan 11, a ‘Triple Fisher’ night with screenings of the three –count ‘em; three– biopics made about slutty attempted murderess Amy Fisher. 8pm. Each night $10. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.com

The Lion King @ Orpheum Theatre Disney’s long-running musical (and the highest grossing Broadway show in history) based on the animated film, makes a return to the Bay Area. $32.50-$150.

Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm. (closed or different times for some holidays). Thru Jan. 13, 2013. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Budding

by Jim Provenzano

S

ome of us were born this way. It’s a fact of nature; beautiful, diverse flowering nature, where out here in California, in the dead of winter, we can enjoy wildflowers, sunshine and flagrantly fabulous gayness.

“We should declare our fabulousness,” says Paul Vitagliano, the Los Angeles DJ and editor of Born This Way, the fabulous book based on blog posts about our young gay preteen awareness, along with some fab photos (see above!). Paul V. discusses his acclaimed project Thursday, Jan. 17, 7:30pm at Books Inc. 2275 Market St. www.borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com www.booksinc.net For more about Born This Way, read the online article on our website, www.ebar.com. And now for some more nature-themed events sure to bring out your re-blossoming love of life.

Sun 13: Rebels With a Cause @ Dance Palace, Point Reyes

Sat 12: Navigating Queer Pacific Waves @ Galeria de la Raza Opening reception for a group exhibit of new works in various media by Jean Melesaine, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Jorge Manuel Gonzales, Joy Enomoto, and collaborating artists, who focus on their Pacific Islander roots, and explore Colonialism and LGBT oppression.

7:30pm-10pm. Exhibit thru March 2.

Tue-Sat 12pm-6pm. 2857 24th St. at Bryant. 826-8009. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto’s documentary about the history of the environmental activists who saved the coastal wonders that became the Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreational Area is narrated by Frances McDormand. $15.

6pm (3pm screening sold out). 503 B St., Point Reyes. 663-9480. www.ptreyesbooks.com

Sun 13: SF Hiking Club @ Eastern Shore Join GLBT hikers for a 7-mile hike along San Francisco’s eastern shore from the Bayview to India Basin and China Basin. See hidden gardens and parks and the port and power station. There will be hills, stairways, and murals. If the sky is clear, Mt. Diablo, Mt. San Bruno, Mt. Sutro, and Mt. Tam plus the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge will be visible. Meet at 10am at the Muni T line stop at Third and Le Conte (the T line train leaving Castro at 9:17 and leaving Embarcadero at 9:27). Bring water, lunch, layers, hat, comfortable shoes. 794-2275. www.sfhiking.com

The Marvelous Wonderettes @ New Conservatory Theatre Center NCTC’s production of the upbeat hit Off-Broadway musical about three women who reminisce while singing ‘50s and early ‘60s pop tunes. $20-$50 (fun-pack). WedSat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Jan 13. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level.

861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Really Rosie @ New Conservatory Theatre Carole King’s musical adaptation of the popular Maurice Sendak children’s book series Nutshell Kids, about some imaginative Brooklyn children; performed by NCTC’s Youth Conservatory Program. Sat 2pm & 4pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Jan 13. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Russ Lorenson @ Live at the Rrazz The local crooner performs his Bobby Darin tribute. $30. 2pm. 1000 Van Ness Ave. (800) 380-3095. www.liveattherrazz.com

Something Cloudy, Something Clear @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros’ production of Tennessee Williams’ rarely-produced play about a game of love and death between a playwright and two drifters. $10-$15. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Jan 13. 215 Jackson St. (800) 838-3006. www.TheRhino.org

Fri 11 Alfred Hitchcock Films @ Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Screening of the major works of the master of cinematic suspense. Tonight, The 39 Steps. 7pm. Sabotage at 8:45pm. Jan 12, 6:30pm, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Jan. 16, 7pm, Rebecca (7pm). Other films thru April 24. $5.50-$13.50. UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley.

(510) 642-1124. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Cherrelle & Alexander O’Neal @ Yoshi’s R&B duo known for ‘80s hit singles perform live. $34-$42. 8pm & 10:30pm. Also Jan 12. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Hippy Icon @ Berkeley Marsh Wavy Gravy performs his informal unpredictable solo show Hippy Icon, Flower Geezer and Temple of Accumulated Error, his stories of Woodstock, meeting Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, and other people and events. $15-$50. Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 10. 2120 Allston Way at Shattuck. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

New and Classic Films @ Castro Theatre

Sun 13: Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Garden New seasonal exhibit of colorful floral displays, with special events for evening adult parties, lectures, and kids events. Also, beautiful floral drawing exhibit of watercolor works by Ernest Clayton (see above) Thru April. $2-$15.

9am-7pm. Thru March. 9th Avenue at Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park. 6611316. www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

Thu 17: San Francisco Days @ Rayko Photo Center Opening reception for a group exhibit of historic and contemporary Bay Area prints by several photographers.

6pm-8pm. Exhibit thru Feb 24. Tue-Thu 10am-10pm. Fri & Sun 10am-8pm. 428 3rd St. 495-3773. raykophoto.com

Jan 11: Midnites for Maniacs screens Wayne’s World, Step Brothers and Freddy Got Fingered. Jan 12: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman, the Movie (Christopher Reeve version). Jan 13: Cloud Atlas. Jan 15: Argo. Jan 16: Holy Motors and Being John Malkovich. Jan 17: Taxi Driver and Drive. $8.50-$12. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Santa Rosa Symphony String Quartet @ Old First Church The North Bay ensemble performs works

by Boccerini, Beethoven and Haydn. $14$17. 8pm. 1751 Sacramento St. www.oldfirstconcerts.org

Woyzeck @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players’ production of Robert Wilson’s re-conceived musical revision of Georg Buchner’s stage play, with music and lyrcis by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan; a tragic tale about a soldier who returns home to find his girl is having an affair. $25-$35. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Jan 27. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Your Body is Not a Shark @ ODC Theater Choreographer Cid Pearlman, composer Joan Jeanrenaud and other performers and artists’ performance work that explores the creative impulse inspired by physical limitations and disability. $18-$24. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Jan 13. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. www.odctheater.org

Sat 12 Acid Test @ The Berkeley Marsh Warren David Keith performs Lynne Kaufman’s solo show Acid Test: The Many Incarnations of Ram Dass, a biographical look at a spiritual contemporary of Timothy Leary. $15-$50. Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Feb 17. 2120 Allston Way at Shattuck. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

Bell, Book and Candle @ SF Playhouse Romantic comedy about a mortal man and a witch (the play and film inspired Bewitched ). $30-$60. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Jan 19. 450 Post St. above Farallon Restaurant. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws: Gay San Francisco, 1985-1988 @ SF Public Library Thomas Alleman’s exhibit of fascinating new large-print photos from San Francisco’s mid-1980s gay community, from the onslaught of AIDS to nightlife and arts celebrations. Exhibit thru Feb 10.

Jewitt Gallery, lower level, 100 Larkin St. at Grove. www.allemanphoto.com www.sfpl.org

Frank Jackson @ Live at the Rrazz The veteran vocalist performs jazz favorites with his band. $30. 8pm. Also Jan 13, 4pm. 1000 Van Ness Ave. (800) 380-3095. www.liveattherrazz.com

Jasper Johns, Jay DeFeo @ SF MOMA Two exhibits of the American artists’ works. Thru Feb 3. Also, Paul Klee’s Circus, Alessandro Pessoli, the photo exhibit South Africa in Apartheid and After (Thru Mar 3), and other works and ongoing Modern art exhibits. Free-$18. 151 3rd St. at Mission.

Thu-Tue 11am-5:45pm (8:45 Thursdays).

357-4000. www.sfmoma.org

The Listener @ The Marsh Charlie Varon performs his new show of five origianl comic stories in a workshop production. $15-$50. Sat 8pm, Sun 5pm.

Thru Jan 27. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Queer Dharma @ San Francisco Zen Center Monthly Zen Buddhist meditation and discussion group offered by and for members of the LGBTIQ community. Everyone is welcome. 1-3pm. 300 Page St. with speaker Tova Green. www.sfzc.org

Tom Wopat @ Livermore Performing Arts Center TV and Tony-nominated Broadway star ( Dukes of Hazzard, Annie Get Your Gun ) performs his cabaret act of jazz and standard songs in his husky baritone. $34$54. 8pm. 2400 First St., Livermore. (925) 373-6800. www.mylvpac.com

Troublemaker @ Berkeley Rep Previews begin for Berkeley Repertory’s production of Dan LeFranc’s commissioned Troublemaker, or The Freakin Kick-A Adventures of Bradley Boatright , about a teenager who sees himself as a protective superhero. $29-$77. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm.

Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 3. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2917. www.berkeleyrep.org

t

Vision Your Best 2013 @ Rainbow Community Center, Concord The RCC Spirituality Group kicks off its first monthly meeting in 2013 with the workshop, “What do you want your life to be like in 2013?” Free/donations appreciated. 10am-12pm. 2118 Willow Pass Road Ste 500. (925) 692-0090 ext 338. www.rainbowcc.org

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads @ Gauntlet Gallery Witty group exhibit of pop art in various media, all dealing with imagery from 1980s movies, at the new gallery. 11am6pm Tue-Sat. Thru Jan 17. 1040 Larkin St. (650) 209-0278. gauntletgallery.com

Sun 13 Antonio Iturrioz @ Old First Church Enjoy Romantic and Post-Romantic music

by Bach-Godowsky, Chopin, Liszt, Strauss, Scriabin and other composers, performed by the acclaimed concert pianist. $14-$17.

4pm. 1751 Sacramento St. 474-1608. www.oldfirstconcerts.org

Arrival From Sweden @ Yoshi’s ABBA cover band performs many of the Swedish pop quartet's hits, with an open dance floor so you can shake it in your ‘70s groovy garb. $22 (6pm) & $28 (8pm). 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Boys With Balls @ Classic Bowling Center, Daly City Annual bowl-a-thon for charity, with lots of gay guys, DJs Jamie Torres and Matt Consola, and VIP lane vouchers. Proceeds benefit the Castro Country Club and GLBT History Museum. $40-$200. 5pm-9pm.

900 King Drive, King Plaza Shopping Center, Daly City ($6 party bus to and from Castro district). www.boyswithballs.com

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s The Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Mrs. Trauma Flintstone cohost the schedule announcement of the singing competition, with performances by Cara Burgoyne, Anne Marie Burgoyne and Dennis Sanchez. $7. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

Jonathan Poretz @ Live at the Rrazz The Vegas-style crooner perfomrs his Sinatra songbook. $30. 7pm. 1000 Van Ness Ave. (800) 380-3095. www.liveattherrazz.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host 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.harrydenton.com

Whoa Nellies @ Hemlock Tavern The local retro-fun cover band performs with La gay country singer Glen Meadmore. $5. 7pm. 1131 Polk St. www.thewhoanellies.com

Mon 14 Comedy Returns @ El Rio Laugh it up with stand-up comics Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Steven Alan Green, Kenny Yun, Bobby Golden, and Lisa Geduldig. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Missioon St. www.koshercomedy.com www.elriosf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm-1:30am.

4 Valencia St. at Market.

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s talk show about LGBT people and issues. This week, Perry interviews Martin Rawlings-Fein, organizer for the Bay Area Bisexual Network, and special events guru Andrew Freeman. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com

Tue 15 Feast of Words @ SOMArts Cultural Center The montly series A Literary Potluck , with performer-playwright Thao K. Nguyen leading a writing workshop, and culinary expert Celia Racicot sharing French comfort food; potluck, bring food. $5-$12.

7pm-9pm. 934 Brannan St. at 9th. www.somarts.org

t

Out&About >>

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Boys with Balls.

See Sun. 13.

Thu 17 4000 Miles @ American Conservatory Theatre A.C.T. presents Amy Herzog’s Obie Awardwinning comic drama about growing up and growing old; when a 19-year-old visits his grandmother after a cross-country cycling trip, political and personal sparks fly. Special Bike to Theater Night Jan 17, with valet bike parking (bring your own lock!). $30-$125. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 10. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Curtis Stigers @ Live at the Rrazz The popular saxophonist and singer performs music from his new album, Let’s Go Out Tonight./ $35. 8pm. Also Jan 16. 1000 Van Ness Ave. (800) 380-3095. www.curtisstigers.com www.liveattherrazz.com

Dear Harvey Preview @ SF Public Library Preview some scenes and meet the cast of Patricia Loughrey’s new play based on the writings by and about Harvey Milk; presented by New Conservatory Theatre Center. Free. 6pm. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, Main Library Third Floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Dot (Tom Schmidt) @ Magnet Exhibit of photos from the photographer’s book, Escort, portraiture of local male sex workers. Proceeds from book sales benefit the St. James Infirmary. Thru Jan. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

The Drag Show @ Various Channels Stu Smith’s weekly LGBT variety show features local talents, and not just drag artistes.

Channels 29 & 76 on Comcast; 99 on AT&T and 30 on Astound. www.thedragshow.org

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Kadir Nelson @ SF Public Library Author of the new illustrated book edition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech discusses his work. 6pm.

Latino-Hispanic Meeting Roomn, lower level, main library, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Wed 16 Candlelight Flow Yoga @ LGBT Center David Clark leads various yoga poses and practices, plus meditation and breathing exercises. Bring your own mat and water bottle, etc. $10. 7pm-8:30pm. 1800 Market St. www.4dbliss.com

John Waguespack @ 111 Minna Gallery Large-scale pop culture icon portraits and paintings by the local artist. Thru Jan. 26.

Wed-Fri 12pm-5pm. 111 Minna St. 9741719. www.111minnagallery.com/2012/ new-works-by-john-waguespack/

Quit Smoking Class @ LGBT Center LGBT community weekly support group and class on quitting cigarettes. 7pm-9pm. 1800 Market St. 339-STOP. www.lastdrag.org

Play Fair @ GLBT History Museum Play Fair! The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Make Sex Safer, an exhibit of safe sex promotional efforts. Also, For Love and Community: Queer Asian Pacific Islanders Take Action 1960-1990s, an exhibit organized by queer and transgender Asian Pacific Islanders. Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistorymuseum.org

The Witch House @ The Garage Anthony Julius Williams directs a production of Morgan Bassichs’ queer take on the Salem witch trials, where some young boys set out to make some money, but wind up involved in a supernatural adventure. $15.

8pm. Also Jan 17, 25, 26 (also 11:30pm) and 27 at 8pm. 715 Bryand St. at 5th. 6636746. www.715bryant.org

Maggots and Men.

Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The new weekly LGBT and indie comic stand-up night. This week, Comedy Bodega’s one-year Anniversary Show, with Mark Davis, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Marga Gomez, Kate Willet, Miss Per Sia and other talents. 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

Gallery Crawl Nightlife @ Cal. Academy of Sciences Enjoy pop-up gallery showcases from Ever Gold and others; an All-Draw event, science art exhibits, plus food, cocktails and DJed dancing. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Jefferson Starship @ Live at the Rrazz The groovy rock band performs their hits and classics. $55-$65. 8pm. Jan 18 & 19, 7pm & 9:30pm. Jan 20, 7pm. 1000 Van Ness Ave. (800) 380-3095. www.liveattherrazz.com

San Francisco Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony. with optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The popular country western LGBT dance night. $5. 6:30pm-10:30pm with lessons from 7:00 - 8:00 pm. Also Sundays 5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Sat 12: Timmy Spence Birthday Bash @ Rebel Heklina and Peaches Christ cohost a 60th birthday tribute to a “legendary drag fossil,” with Arturo Galster, Miss X, Laurie Bushman, Darlin’, Pippi Lovestocking, D’Arcy Drollinger, Deena Davenport, Sexitude and others. Also, a tribute to the films of Doris Wishman.

DJs Chicken and Dank. 8pm-1am. 1760 Market St. at Octavia. www.rebel-sf.com

Gender blender

V

ariations on the staid binary gender code get a deserved shake-up in film, theatre, music, performance and a nightclub party. – J.p.

Thu 10: Maggots and Men @ Roxie Cinema Frameline presents a one-night screening of Cary Cronewett’s innovative faux-retro Russian-esque B&W film about sailors of the Soviet, and gender expression, performed by an all transgender cast.

7pm. 3117 16th St. www.frameline.org www.roxie.com

Fri 11: Hedwig and the Angry Inch @ Boxcar Theatre New local production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s popular transgender rock operetta, with multiple actor-singers perfoming the lead (Arturo Galster, John Lewis, James Mayagoitia, Ste Fishell, Nikkie Arias, Nicole Julien, Anastasia Bonaccorso, and CC Sheldon). $25-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 5pm.

Thru Jan 26. 505 Natoma St. 967-2227. www.boxcartheatre.org

Thu 17: Lady Gaga @ HP Pavilion, San Jose The pop music icon performs her Born This Way Ball concert. Madeon and Lady Starlight open. $50-$240.

7:30pm. 525 W Santa Clara, San Jose. www.Ticketmaster.com

Fri 11: Peterson Toscano @ Quaker Hall, LGBT Center The gay performance artists presents two of his comic queer takes on the Bible; Jesus Had Two Daddies, Donations, 7pm, SF Friends Meetings Hall, 65 9th St. Then, Jan 17, at 6:30pm, Transfigurations, Transgressing Gender in the Bible, his multi-character solo play about gender-variant biblical characters. 1800 Market St. www.petersontoscano.com

Thu 17: Fauxgirls @ Infusion Lounge The classy drag revue (3rd Thursdays) has moved to a new location, and celebrates its 11th year; Victoria Secret, Alexandria, Chanel, Maria Garza, Mini Minerva, Kipper, Daffney Deluxe and Ruby LeBrowne, with special guest Anya; dinner seating at 7pm. Show at 8pm. No cover. 124 Ellis St. 421-8700. www.fauxgirls.com

<< Leather

20 • Bay Area Reporter • January 10-16, 2013

t

Scott Brogan

Mr. Hayes Valley Leathermen Desmond Perrotto, Jay Harcourt, Sean Kline, Michael Zane, Bryan Duke, and JB Kern pose at last Saturday’s Mr. Hayes Valley Leather stepdown/title retirement party at Marlena’s.

End of an era

by Scott Brogan

L

ebar.com

ast Sunday marked the end of the Mr. Hayes Valley Leather title. After 11 great years, the last Mr. Hayes Valley Leather (2012: Michael Zane) stepped down. The event, held at the title’s home bar, Marlena’s in Hayes Valley, was more than a farewell, it was a joyous celebration of a title that gained the respect of an entire community. Just a look around at the packed bar and seeing the “who’s who” of men and women who were there in support was proof positive.

In 2001, when it was announced that Marlena (Gary) and Ray Tilton were creating a new leather title in Hayes Valley, many in the leather community scoffed.

“A drag bar having a leather title?” “There’s no ‘leather’ in Hayes Valley!” were a few of the incredulous outcries. Little did many know that Marlena’s was, and is, more than “just a drag bar.” Sure, the bar features regular Saturday night (and sometimes more) drag shows. It’s also ground zero for the Imperial Court system; Marlena is a former Empress of San Francisco herself. Just as we like to say that there are gay people everywhere, so are there leather folk everywhere.

Especially in San Francisco!

That neighborhood feeling and attitude is part of what has made the title so successful. The men who have been named Mr. Hayes Valley Leather have exemplified time and again what a real and true leather titleholder should be. They have a brotherhood and camaraderie second to none. They help each other and support each other as they help and support our community. They have exemplified the definitions of fraternity, integrity and brotherhood. While I’m sad to see the title retired, I’m glad for what it has given our community. Congratulations to all involved, and thank you for everything you’ve done for us.

For the record, the Mr. Hayes Valley Leathermen are: 2002: Michael Schaefer; 2003: Michael Dumont; 2004: Darryl Jansson; 2005: Jay Harcourt; 2006: Sean Kline; 2007: Steve Mayers; 2008: Desmond Perrotto; 2009: Bryan Duke; 2010: Gary Rhodes; 2011: JB Kern; 2012: Michael Zane.

Congratulations, Race Bannon: The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has announced our very own Race Bannon will be awarded the prestigious Leather Leadership (NGLTF) Award for 2013. The award honors a lifetime of distin-

guished service and leadership in our community. The SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group (SFLDG) is hosting a send-off for Race at the LGBT Center’s Rainbow Room (1800 Market St.) on Jan. 23; thanks to the folks at Folsom Street Events sponsoring this event. Everyone’s invited! A glance at the previous recipients reads like a “who’s who” of the community: Chuck Renslow, Vi Johnson, Hardy Haberman, Graylin Thornton, and Guy Baldwin. I can’t think of anyone more deserving to follow in their footsteps than Race Bannon. Want to find out why Race is so great? Check out his website: www.bannon.com.

It’s just the tip of the iceberg, but a great place to start. The SFLDG promise that the event will be “informative, provocative, and possibly just a little rowdy,” just like Race himself.

The evening will begin at 7:30 p.m. with the SFLDG’s discussion topic “Leadership, Social Sex, and Celebration,” featuring speakers Bannon and Larry Shockey (of FistFest fame).

Shockey is one of our community’s most loved leaders, and probably a future recipient of the NGLTF’s award. So be sure to get there early to get a seat, and to stay for the party/celebration afterwards. Go to: www.sfldg.org for details.

Sad news: Our community was recently reminded of the continuing need for education and open dialogue/communication on the issues of depression and suicide.

In just the past few weeks, news hit that both Matthew Majewski and Tod Epperson had taken their young lives. Both young men were much loved, outgoing, and positive life forces in our community. Their lives touched so many.

The Beatbox (314 11th St.) is sponsoring a celebration of Epperson’s life this Saturday at 1 p.m. A memorial fund has been set up in his name to help cover the funeral costs. All excess money raised will be donated to the SF Suicide Prevention Center in his name. You can also donate via PayPal to “klwells[at] gmail.com.”

Depression and suicide are very real, unspoken issues that plague our community – much more than we usually know. If you or someone you know is having feelings of crisis, or just need to talk – about anything – please contact the SF Suicide Prevention Center at (415) 781-0500. You can chat live online with them from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. on their website, www.sfsuicide.org.

Also available is the HIV Nightline at (415) 434-AIDS (2437) or 1 (800) 273-AIDS (2437). You’re not alone.

All of us are here for you. Reach out to us. We really do understand how you feel because we’ve all been there.t

Liz Highleyman, courtesy of the SFLDG

Two pillars of our community, Race Bannon and Larry Shockey.

t

Karrnal >>

January 10-16, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Dirty dancing

by John F. Karr

U

p-and-cumming porn stars might lay off choosing Ryder for their last name. The TLA search engine positively spews Ryder boys, starting with the classic Lee Ryder before disgorging over 50 others. I think Redd, Ruff and Rodd Ryder are swell names – too bad the guys weren’t triplets. And fanning my flames are Ashley, of the prodigiously talented asshole, who seems to be retired, and the recent sleek and shiny Tate, who seems to be raging.

Even newer to me is a Ryder with the sturdy first name of Max, whose unique look roped me in before I’d even drooled over his sweet long cock and his cutest tiny tush. The impossibly thin and lithe 20-yearold has a chameleon-like ability to alternate modes of Peter Pan, street tramp, and cheekboned supermodel. Meaning he’s a winsome and warm slut-boy who can switch on an icy hauteur. Then stick a steely poker waaaay down your throat.

The Cockyboys’ feature Project GoGo Boy is a highly fictionalized, faux-reality show purporting to expose the harsh realities of the go-go profession. It was introduced in individual episodes at the Cockyboys website, and now appears in toto on DVD. I’m not too big on series, and reality shows? I watched one and could only think of the time wasted when I could be masturbating. But I watched this one, because Max Ryder, a Cockyboys Exclusive, is one of its stars, along with another winning youngster, Jake Bass.

Project GoGo Boy portrays the dancers’ insidious means (which don’t include talent) to attain the exalted “top of the box” position.

This would be a wood crate, painted black and much scuffed, which elevates the performer to star status above the floor-bound others. “I’m on top of the box!” Jake crows about reaching the (pitiful?) pinnacle of a go-go boy’s career, which he can only retain through backstabbing and betrayal. What with a shaky handheld camera, a shrill and repetitious plot, approximately 57 minutes of plot to 84 minutes of sex that only infrequently show the performers at their best, and the petulant and immature behavior of the boys, the whole thing can be fatiguing.

But yes, Project GoGo Boy is different, and sometimes inventive.

The filming and editing are creative, perhaps strenuously so. There’s grit to the cinematography of gritty scenes, yet a harsh glare of lighting in many sex scenes. These include three scenes that are way too brief. There’s

Cockyboys

Max Ryder and Gabriel Clark in Cockyboys’ Project GoGo Boy.

Max bottoming lustily in a locker room for Pierre Fitch, an enthusiastic three-way in which Tommy Defendi and Sebastian Young fuck hot twink Seth Knight, and a fair duo for Jake Bass and a low-down Hispanic (I think), Stephen Forest.

But the movie is mostly talking heads taking turns denigrating one another with specious and foully stated remarks. This disheartened me. Isn’t it enough to call Max a backstabbing whore? Must he also be a cunt among bitches? Scriptwriter and director Jake Jaxson could have called Max a prick or a fuck-ass. Why do the pejorative words all reference women?

Yes, I understand how “real” this is. But it’s a reality that doesn’t have to be perpetuated. In this way, GoGo Boy, like much gay porn, continues to purvey gay misogyny.

I will give a shout-out to writer Jaxson for having the club owner explain two points. “Dancers are there to take the customers’ pain away,” he accurately says of his performers’ sexual show-off. “It’s a spiritual practice as much as it is superficial.”

I just wasn’t expecting profundity, you know?

Playing the club owner is Gabriel Clark (aka Gabriel Lenfant), a sly fox who smiles charmingly when at his trashiest. He’s a lusty performer who can put to practice what his lines preach. In the movie’s best

scene, he leads his employees in a group yoga class. His cosmic spiel leads so slowly and believably into entendre and then outright dirty talk that soon the entire class is jacking off. Whatta sight! The 12-man suck-n-fuck that follows is marvelously paced, with an inexorable build that’s unfortunately broken when Clark fucks Max. Yet the scene regains its force, and with the dancers entertainingly yelling, “You like that, boss!” and “You’re so beautiful, boss!” it culminates in boss Clark’s feasting on the staff of life: the copious semen of his entire staff. Just imagine cheerleading your boss into eating your cum. Jaxson gets a director’s award for this scene’s handling, as does Clark for its enactment.

In the last scene – spoiler alert! – we learn that ostensible rivals Max and Jake are, in truth, lovers. Finished with their charade, they get it on. Ryder’s fine cock gets its best showcase in the film, before a surprising flip-fuck. I didn’t find it entirely engaging, but that yoga scene would be hard to trump.

Bonus features include a worthless music video (brief), revealing interviews with three of the movie’s professional GGBoys (long), and a fab half-hour fuckarama that should have been part of the movie. It features Gabriel Clark and Arnaud Chagall, who delivers a five-star amazement of an orgasm while atop Clark’s cock, then, parched from panting, smacks his lips and lets the top’s load lube his throat. www.TLA.comt

Cockyboys

Max Ryder and Pierre Fitch in Cockyboys’ Project Gogo Boy: Ryder is a winsome and warm slut-boy.

<< Music

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

22••BBay AYA Area REAR Reporter EPORTER •• January January10-16, 3-9, 2013 2013 22

Refresher course

by Gregg Shapiro

O

ne of the most iconic artists to emerge from the singer/songwriter scene of the 1970s, Carly Simon gave music-lovers much to enjoy and remember her by. Songs such as “You’re So Vain,” “Anticipation” and “You Belong to Me” have become a part of the Great American Songbook. In the early 1980s following her divorce from James Taylor, Simon predicted rock-n-roll’s future romance with standards (see Linda Ronstadt and Rod Stewart) with her beautiful Torch album. Shortly before her acclaimed association with the now-defunct Arista label, which included the hit single “Coming Around Again” and an Oscar for “Let the River Run” (from Working Girl), Simon recorded Spoiled Girl for Epic. The expanded reissue of Spoiled Girl (Hot Shot) provides a new opportunity to revisit the underrated 1985 album.

Beginning with opener “My New Boyfriend,” the album goes for a mid-80s dance vibe, complete with synths and drum machines. The best of the dance cuts, “Can’t Give It Up” should have been a club hit.

Those longing for classic Carly can

<<

find her on “Tonight and Forever” and “Make Me Feel Something,” while the pithy “The Wives Are in Connecticut” is also a treat. Bonus tracks include “Black Honeymoon,” the single “Tired of Being Blonde,” and 12” remix and dub versions of “My New Boyfriend.”

In 1986, Peter Gabriel put out So, the biggest-selling album of his career. Gabriel was an iconic figure of the 1970s, first as a member of art/prog-rock act Genesis, then as a solo artist. His first three selftitled solo discs set the standard for modern pop. So (Realworld), newly reissued in a 25th anniversary, three-disc limited edition, including the double-disc Live in Athens 1987 set, opens with “Red Rain,” a song that updates Gabriel’s solo sound. But nothing could have prepared listeners for the soulslammer “Sledgehammer” (and its groundbreaking video). This was Gabriel at his funkiest, and all these years later the song still thrills. “Don’t Give Up,” a glorious duet with Kate Bush, also retains its ability to move listeners. Gabriel also duets with Laurie Anderson on “This Is the Picture – Excellent Birds,” a song they co-wrote that appeared on Anderson’s Mister

Manic Pixie

comes an entrepreneurial playground for a group of 11-year-old boys who think there is money to be made in evoking the legacy of the town’s witch trials of three centuries past. But in Morgan Bassichis’ The Witch House, the spirits of the afflicted and accused of 1692 are aroused into a vengeful state. Performances begin Jan. 16 at the Garage.

The Garage, founded by Joe Landini in 2007, is designed as a “safehouse” for local performers in various disciplines. Bassichis, a staffer at Community United Against Violence, is a recipient of the Garage’s AIRspace

From page 14

friends,” said playwright and producer Katie May, who is working under a PlayGround commission. “I find myself surrounded by people in their 20s and 30s who appreciate art and performance but don’t go to the theater because so few productions speak directly to their own experiences.”

Performances at ACT’s recently opened Mid-Market performance space will continue through Feb.10.

For tickets, call 799-8530 or go to www.manicpixiedreamgirl.org.

Transsex and the city

Proving that age is only a state of mind, some of the gang that played Sunshine State senior citizens in The Golden Girls have tasted at the fountain of youth and are now making merry in Manhattan in scripts appropriated from the Sex and the City archives. Under the aegis of Velvet Rage Productions, members of the crossdressing troupe will perform two episodes each evening from the HBO series beginning Jan. 16 for an openended run at the Rebel Lounge.

Surprise is slight that it will be Heklina stepping into the Manolo Blahniks once worn

by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw.

Other members of the BFF quartet are D’Arcy Drollinger (also the director) as the hot-to-trot Samantha, Lady Bear as the romantically conflicted Miranda, and Trixxie Carr as the

<<

Nico Muhly

From page 16

Sher, also features a sort of interactive video set by Leo Warner that, from the bits I’ve seen on YouTube, mines the space between what’s real and what’s invented. Composers from Monteverdi to Muhly have always used the latest technology to make their operas speak.

Muhly is from a generation that, unlike that of Glass and Reich, didn’t have to do battle with Schonberg’s 12-tone school, so his horizons are open and in a way more porous. As he puts it, “My generation makes music with stuff around us. A couple of years ago, I had a revelation that was the opposite of ‘don’t listen to

Heartbreak. Further standout tracks include “Mercy Street” (dedicated to poet Anne Sexton), “Big Time” (an exercise in funk) and the anthemic “In Your Eyes.”

With the Partridge Family firmly in his past and his solo career in full swing, David Cassidy released his first live album, Cassidy Live (Bell/Real Gone), in 1974. Recorded in England, the live set includes only one of Cassidy’s domestic hit singles (“How Can I Be Sure?”), but is notable for his renditions of songs by Neil Sedaka (“Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”), Kim Carnes (“It’s Preying on My Mind,” co-penned by Cassidy), Leon Russell (“Delta Lady”), the Beatles (“Please Please Me”) and Stephen Stills (“For What It’s Worth”).

The UK also comes into play on Cassidy’s 1985 disc Romance (Arista/ Real Gone), available domestically on CD for the first time. Recorded in Britain after Cassidy relocated there in the early 1980s, the disc benefits from his access to performers George Michael and Basia, who can be heard on “The Last Kiss” and the title cut, respectively.

1972 was a good year for Jethro Tull, too. Coming off the commer-

cial and critical success of Aqualung, the prog rockers delivered the album-length epic Thick As a Brick (Chrysalis), now available in an expanded CD/DVD set. As envisioned

by Ian Anderson, Thick As A Brick is, according to engineer Robin Black in the new liner notes, “continuous, with one song bleeding into the next with no gaps.” Thick As a Brick still commands your attention from the first notes through the proggy freak-out 21 minutes in. The DVD includes two additional mixes of the original album.

Step back 10 years to 1962, and dig Booker T. & the MG’s Green Onions (Stax), available in a 50th anniversary edition featuring a pair

residency for emerging queer artists.

Director Anthony Julius Williams predicts that The Witch House “will resonate with anyone who has ever been made a scapegoat.” More information is available at www.facebook. com/thewitchhouseplay.

Dropping anchor

The touring cast of Anything Goes will switch berths on Jan. 21, sailing from the Golden Gate Theatre to the Theatre on Pier 39, for the S.S. American Variety Show. The songdance-comedy revue is part of the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation’s

▼ t

of live bonus tracks. The title cut on the all-instrumental recording remains one of the standout tracks of any era.

Saucy and earthy, it’s the kind of tune that connected the 1950s to the 60s and beyond.

It’s got a great beat and you can dance to it. Other classics on this Stax staple include “Mo’ Onions” and a cover of “Lonely Avenue.”

Fast-forward almost 40 years, where the Mashed Potato dance moves of 1962 have been replaced by the more freeform gyrations of the 21st century.

The new wave sound of the late 70s/ early 80s underwent a revival, and The Faint, a band from Omaha, NE, was one of the purveyors. The Faint’s breakthrough album Danse Macabre (Saddle Creek) has been reissued in a considerably expanded 10th anniversary edition. The first CD includes the original album, featuring the scream-disco of “Agenda Suicide” and other dance-floor burners such as “Your Retro Career Melted” and “Posed to Death.”

The second CD contains six bonus tracks, including covers of songs by Sonic Youth and Bright Eyes. The DVD consists of eight videos.t

One Night Only series that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS as well as REAF. Erich Bergen, who plays Billy Crocker in the Anything Goes revival, will emcee the evening that, in addition to his fellow castmates, features LaToya London (American Idol), Lindsay Pearce (Glee), and Tim Hockenberry (America’s Got Talent). Tickets are $40 and $60, and an extra $20 will provide admission to a post-show dessert party with the cast at the Hard Rock Cafe. More information at 273-1620 or www. helpisontheway.org.t

Personals The

Kelley Puleio

Morgan Bassichis and Tyler Nunn are featured in Bassichis’ play The Witch House at the Garage, where victims of the Salem Witch Trials plan their revenge.

prim-and-proper Charlotte. Carrie’s all-important romantic interest Mr. Big will be played by Leigh Crow.

Limited tickets are available at the door of the small venue, but guaranteed seats can be had in advance at www. brownpapertickets. com.

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this.’ Anything you’re told is not true is true.” It’s a non-hierarchical brave new world, and Two Boys is the one in which we currently happen to live.

Muhly’s career is in high gear. He looks at his PC as we talk and says, “I’m booked until May 2015.” But he also has the innate taste which separates the men from the boys, as in what he calls his “spider music” in his elegant and moving 2003 piece Clear Music, which he wrote for cellist Wendy Law, harp and celeste.

“It doesn’t get more personal than chamber music writing,” he notes, and Two Boys sounds like an original take on the way we live now. The same old desires – to be loved, to be remembered – the same old pains and joys.t

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