January 4, 2018 by Bay Area Reporter

Laughter for a good cause

Oakland center seeks co-tenants

ARTS

Carey Perloff

Nightlife events

The

www.ebar.com

Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community

Vol. 48 • No. 1 • January 4-10, 2018

Pot is legal in California Redwood City resident Jarys Maragopoulos hailed the new state law that allows people to choose non-binary for their gender on stateissued IDs and other documents.

CA rings in new LGBT bills by Seth Hemmelgarn

egislation that allows people to identify as non-binary on their birth certificates and other documents and a bill that decriminalizes HIV are among those that went into effect in California on January 1. Two of the bills aim to ease the state’s name change procedures for transgender, intersex, and non-binary individuals, though implementation of the new rules will be staggered throughout this year and next. Lesbian state Senate Pro Temporeelect Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and gay Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) co-authored SB 179 - the Gender Recognition Act of 2017 - so See page 8 >>

Rick Gerharter

by Sari Staver

fter thousands of people lined up to buy legal weed on New Year’s Day at dispensaries in Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and San Jose, San Franciscans are still waiting to find out where and when they’ll be able to purchase weed locally.

As of Wednesday morning, some 20 San Francisco medical marijuana dispensaries had filed applications with the city and state to obtain approval to begin selling cannabis to adults over age 21, according to Nicole Elliott, the director of the city’s Office of Cannabis. In an email to the Bay Area Reporter,

Elliot said that the city is working “around the clock” to process the paperwork in hopes that they’ll be able to finish before Saturday, January 6, the first date dispensaries in the city are allowed to legally sell pot to people without a medical card. Among those that have applied are the

B.A.R. archives go digital

Statewide food program launches in California

by Matthew S. Bajko

See page 6 >>

by Matthew S. Bajko pilot program to feed low-income people with chronic illnesses after they have been discharged from the hospital is launching statewide this month in California. Proponents of the new initiative hope to prove it can keep those who are enrolled from being readmitted to the hospital, as well as save the state money on the cost of providing health care to the individuals. The San Francisco-based Project Open Hand is acting as the lead agency on the new “Food is Medicine” initiative and has teamed up with other nonprofit providers of meal programs throughout the state. The coalition includes Ceres Community Project and Food For Thought in the North Bay, the San Josebased Health Trust, and several organizations in Southern California. “This is our next coming out party,” said Project Open Hand CEO Mark Ryle. “The state recognized our model is the right model for people with conditions such as diabetes and congestive heart failure all around California.” State lawmakers last summer approved $6 million to launch the pilot program. The money will target 1,000 Medi-Cal patients, mainly in urban areas of the state, who have chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and diabetes.

See page 14 >>

Rick Gerharter

Adrian Barrow, the executive chef at Project Open Hand, chops mushrooms in the San Francisco food agency’s kitchen.

“We had to go small at first because we want to get it right,” said Ryle. “This is a first-in-thenation project. There has never been something like this before.” Paul Hepfer, the senior vice president of

programs for the Health Trust, expects to sign up 150 people in Santa Clara County over the coming months for the pilot program. The See page 2 >>

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

MORE! Stuff

INTRODUCING

see page 25

PHOTO: Alan Purcell

or years researchers, students, historians, and the curious interested in reading old copies of the Bay Area Reporter, at least those printed prior to August of 2005, had two options. They could either scroll through microfiche versions of the paper at the San Francisco Main Public Library, or they could make an appointment with the GLBT Historical Society’s archivist to read through its collection of past B.A.R. issues. As of the New Year there is now a third option, as copies of the country’s oldest continually publishing LGBT newspaper have been digitized and added to two online collections for periodicals. Now anyone on the globe with an internet connection can access the historic record of the Bay Area’s LGBT community without leaving their home. “For the first time, readers from all over the world will be able to conveniently access the nearly 50-year archive of the B.A.R.,” said B.A.R. publisher Michael Yamashita, a longtime staff member who last month bought out two minority owners of the paper to return it to being a fully gay-owned publication. “It’s fascinating to browse through the years and appreciate

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2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

<< Community News

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relief to Sonoma County for a good cause at the beginning of the New Year. They are raising money to support the temporary needs and rebuilding of the only nonprofit school for children with autism Kid’s and other learning disabilities in Hybrid/City Hybrid/City Kid’s the county. 2016 WINNER The Tubbs fire that ripped through the North Bay wine region this past October destroyed the Anova Center for Education’s Santa Rosa campus. According to the education center, about nine of its 125 Courtesy of Anova center students from ages 5 to 22 also lost The Anova Center for Education’s their homes to the fire. Road Mountain Every Thursday inRoad April between 4 & 7pmMountain Santa Rosa campus, above, Within three weeks of the fire, Now Open Thursday to 7pm! suffered extensive damage from take 20% OFF all parts, accessories & clothing.* Anova administrators were able the Tubbs fire in October. Now Open Thursday to 7pm! Now Open Thursday to 7pm! to return the Santa Rosa campus Comedian Jenny McNulty, right, students *Sales limited to stock on hand. back to the classroom due will headline a comedy benefit for Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm to assistance from the Bennett ValEvery Thursday April between 4 & 7pm the education provider. Every Thursday in April between 4 &in7pm take 20%Thursday OFF all parts, accessories & clothing.* ley School District and the city of Now Open 7pm! take accessories 20% OFF to all &parts, accessories & clothing.* take 20% OFF all parts, clothing.* Healdsburg, which are both leasing limited to stock on hand. acquisitions at Naked Wines, in an *Sales to stock on hand. classroom space to the center. They *Sales limited to stock on*Sales hand. limited email to the Bay Area Reporter. Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm expect to remainSPRING in the three rented The winery’s entiregot staff and locations for several months until m take 20% OFF all parts, accessories We’ve & clothing.* many customers expressed a desire their school can be rebuilt. ready to ride *Sales limited to stock on hand. to help their neighbors who were To assist the educational center’s victims of the fires not only recover, rebuilding effort, lesbian Laugh Celbut rebuild. Anova fit their vision of lar owner Lisa Pidge has pulled tothe best way to help the community, gether a stellar lineup of comedians explained Roberts. for the benefit show this Saturday, 1065 (Btwn & 107721st Valencia SF 1065 & 1077 Valencia & 22nd(Btwn St.) •21st SF & 22nd St.) •January “What better way to help rebuild 6, at the 120-seat comedy ( Btwn 1065 &SALES 1077415-550-6600 Valencia 21st & 22nd St. )415-550-6601 • SF Hybrid/City SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS a community than to invest in the • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 club in Santa Rosa. The bill includes school will be back to normal, if 1065Sat. & 1077 (Btwn 21st &Sun. 22nd11-5 St.) Jenny • SF McNulty, Ronn Vigh, and children of that community and the SALES 415-550-6600 •Valencia REPAIRS 415-550-6601 Mon-Sat Sun 11-5 Mon.Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, not better than it was before the fire. Mon.10-6,10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 their education?” asked Roberts. Half of the proceeds from ticket Eve and all415-550-6601 day NY DayIrene Tu. Mon-Sat 10-6, SunSALES 11-5 415-550-6600 • Closed 4PM NY• REPAIRS Leaders of Anova, which opened Pidge was inspired to produce the sales for the queer comedy show 1065 & 1077 Valencia 21st &Thu. 22nd 10-7, St.) • SF Mon.- (Btwn Sat. 10-6, Sun. 11-5 fundraiser for the school because in 2000 and also has a campus in will benefi t the school’s rebuilding SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 the East Bay city of Concord, have she and Grace Villafuerte, a lesbian effort, which it has dubbed its Phoebeen awed by the support they have Mon.- Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 who is hosting the comedy event, Road nix Campaign. Funds will also be received from the community. Anhad friends whose children went to raised through beer and wine sales Now drew Bailey, co-founder of Anova, the school. from the bar that night and through O expressed his gratitude for the com“[It’s]HAPPY kind of difficult for kids a silent auction. Attendees will be Ever y Thur munity’s support for the school to with autism to make that move,” able to bid on wines from local wintake 20% OFF the B.A.R . said Pidge, 48, who opened the eries, restaurants, hotels, and comThe father of a lesbian, who deLaugh Cellar in July nearly two years edy classes and shows, along with clined to state his own sexual oriafter launching Crushers of Comother items. entation and age, Bailey is looking edy, which was a circulating comedy “We have a lot of great prizes,” forward to the comedy benefit along club in Sonoma County, with her said Pidge, who hopes to raise sevwith his staff. Quoting Oscar Wilde, wife, Carlee Pidge. eral thousand dollars for Anova. he said, “Life is too important to be Villafuerte wasn’t available for The comedy benefit, noted Pidge, 1065 & taken seriously.” 1077 comment, but McNulty, who is travis the first of severalVale events and SALES 415-550 “Having comedians joking eling from Los Angeles to headline dance parties to raise money for the Mon.Sat. around and helping by making the benefit, is excited to perform in school that Villafuerte will be hostvalenc people laugh is completely approSonoma along with Vigh and Tu, ing in January. priate and I’m eternally grateful,” he who are from San Francisco. A dance party with DJ Lady Char said, noting that it isn’t so much the “It’s just heart-wrenching,” Mcwill follow this weekend’s comedy money being raised, but “the feeling Nulty said of the destruction the show. Tickets, which cost $35, are Receive the Bay Area Reporter delivered by first that people care.” Anova Center suffered, adding that selling fast, but some are still availclass mail, every week, to your home or office. Located in the Luther Burbank the local community’s rallying to asable, said Pidge. Center for the Arts, the school was sist it is “very cool.” The Laugh Cellar is located at housed in the only section of the In early December, Nakedwines. Our convenient mail subscriptions are available for 5755 Mountain Hawk in Santa building that was destroyed by the com donated $500,000 toward reRosa. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the 3, 6, or 12 month periods and ensure you’ll always fire. Anova is working to raise $1 building the school and pledged to comedy show begins at 7 p.m. The keep up with the latest and most comprehensive million to replace teaching equipoffer its continuing support. Anothdance party will take place from coverage of national, state and local LGBTQ issues, ment and supplies as well as vans to er $170,412 has come through a Go 8:30 to 11 p.m. arts & culture, and nightlife. transport students to the school. Fund Me campaign aiming to raise For more information, visit www. Bailey said the school plans to $475,000 for the school. crushersofcomedy.com/jan-6.html move into temporary trailers along 13 weeks $40 “The Anova organization sufor email info@thelaughcellar.com. with space inside the building creatfered tragically from the wildfi res 26 weeks $75 To donate to Anova, visit www. ed by the art center to resume operaand we were honored to be the ones gofundme.com/anova or https:// 52 weeks $140 tion by the end of January. However, to step in and help in their time of goo.gl/Avf6yt.t he anticipates a long journey before need,” wrote Cari Roberts, head of

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Food program

From page 1

agencies involved and the state Department of Health Care Services have created specific enrollment criteria for who is eligible to participate, and referrals will come from hospitals and other health care providers. The pilot is an extension of the food programs the Health Trust has provided for 25 years, said Hepfer. The agency helps feed 700 low-income South Bay residents through its Meals on Wheels program and the Jerry Larson Food Basket it runs.

“The years of providing these services to people with HIV and AIDS really helped us hone our skills and competency for what it takes to provide food and for using food as a medical intervention to help people be healthier,” said Hepfer. “It is not just to deal with food insecurity, it is helping people improve their health through good food nutrition.” Richard Ayoub, a gay man who is the executive director of Project Angel Food in Los Angeles, expects his agency to enroll between 50 to 60 people per year into the pilot program. The preventative approach, he predicted, will keep

people out of the hospital longer, keep them healthy longer, and result in saving money for the entire health care system. “We are so thrilled and so excited about it,” said Ayoub. “It is going to be groundbreaking research. All eyes will be on California because we are leading the way with this type of research project. We have a very progressive, smart government that really wants us to help heal people.” The program is officially known as the Medi-Cal Medically Tailored Meal Pilot Project. Those enrolled will receive three meals a day for See page 14 >>

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What Is Mytesi? Mytesi is a prescription medicine used to improve symptoms of noninfectious diarrhea (diarrhea not caused by a bacterial, viral, or parasitic infection) in adults living with HIV/AIDS on ART. Do Not Take Mytesi if you have diarrhea caused by an infection. Before you start Mytesi, your doctor and you should make sure your diarrhea is not caused by an infection (such as bacteria, virus, or parasite).

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Should I Take Mytesi If I Am: Pregnant or Planning to Become Pregnant? • Studies in animals show that Mytesi could harm an unborn baby or affect the ability to become pregnant • There are no studies in pregnant women taking Mytesi • This drug should only be used during pregnancy if clearly needed A Nursing Mother? • It is not known whether Mytesi is passed through human breast milk • If you are nursing, you should tell your doctor before starting Mytesi • Your doctor will help you to decide whether to stop nursing or to stop taking Mytesi Under 18 or Over 65 Years of Age? • Mytesi has not been studied in children under 18 years of age • Mytesi studies did not include many people over the age of 65. So it is not clear if this age group will respond differently. Talk to your doctor to find out if Mytesi is right for you

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Rx Only Manufactured by Patheon, Inc. for Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. San Francisco, CA 94105 Copyright © Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mytesi comes from the Croton lechleri tree harvested in South America.

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

Volume 48, Number 1 January 4-10, 2018 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy Joshua Klipp • David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Michael Nugent • Paul Parish • Sean Piverger Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor • Sari Staver Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson

Resolutions for the New Year A

s we usher in a new year that augurs to be politically portentous in the U.S. Capitol, the statehouse in Sacramento and City Hall in San Francisco, we have three resolutions for readers and local leaders to consider. First and foremost, as the Trump tax cuts go into effect and American workers will presumably see a bump in their paychecks, think about putting that extra money toward a good cause if you are financially able to do so. Consider what issues are important to you, whether it be tackling homelessness, advancing LGBT rights, or protecting the environment – a trio of issues the Trump administration is seemingly unconcerned with – and find a nonprofit to support throughout 2018. In particular for San Francisco, we would encourage LGBT residents with financial means to consider supporting a local community land trust that could purchase rentcontrolled buildings in the city’s gay Castro district and other neighborhoods in order to protect tenants from eviction. A number of LGBT activists involved in housing issues last year banded together to propose forming a Queer Land Trust - http://www.queerlandtrust.org/ - following the news that the owners of the building on Castro Street that houses the Sausage Factory restaurant, and whose tenants include members of the Radical

by Bevan Dufty

ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini

NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is conﬁdential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

groundbreaking LGBT community. Lastly, it is way past time LGBT leaders develop a plan to cultivate more members of the community to run for elective office in the city. As we have documented in past reporting, the LGBT community’s political power has been slipping for years, with currently only one LGBT member on the Board of Supervisors and just a handful holding citywide elected office (a state Senate seat, city treasurer, and college and school board seats). No lesbian has won a district-based supervisor election in San Francisco since 2000, when the city’s 11 supervisors reverted to being elected from districts rather than citywide. And San Francisco voters have yet to elect a transgender candidate to any municipal office. It is not enough to only focus on helping elect Mark Leno as the city’s first gay mayor in the June special election to serve out the term of former Mayor Ed Lee. Nor is it good enough to simply back the bid of either appointed District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy or City College trustee Rafael Mandelman, the two gay men vying for what many consider to be the “gay seat” on the board. As of now, they are the only LGBT people running for supervisor in 2018. Instead, LGBT political leaders need to actively recruit and support out candidates in districts all across the city. LGBT politicians should not be ghettoized into one supervisorial district any more than residents should be.t

BART needs a second tube under the bay

ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith

VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937

Fairies, planned to sell it. Rather than seeing it fall into the hands of a developer, who could move to evict both the tenants and business, the better resolution would be for it to become protected affordable housing. In the same vein, we would like to see whomever wins the elections this June for mayor and supervisor of District 8, which includes the Castro, to work with the city’s transit agency to develop one of the city-owned parking lots in the heart of the gayborhood as the site of a permanent home for the GLBT Historical Society’s museum with below-marketrate housing units on the floors above. The city should step up and offer the same financial assistance it has given for decades to mainstream museums toward building a worldclass museum showcasing San Francisco’s

ore cars on the road and renewed talk of prioritizing the expensive construction of another Bay Bridge is not how I envisioned starting off 2018. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and East Bay Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) have called on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to “expeditiously” examine that very thing. I can summarize the immediate response in San Francisco: “Where exactly is this traffic going to go when it gets here?” Or chuckle at StreetsBlog SF’s headline: “The 1950s called: They want their Transportation Policy back.” To be fair, Senator Feinstein and Representative DeSaulnier’s brief letter to MTC Director Steve Heminger includes mention of an additional BART crossing, perhaps as part of the new bridge - but for the sustainability of San Francisco and the Bay Area, a second Transbay Tube for BART and other rail should be the discussion and our regional priority. I agree with state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco), “We have limited resources for transportation improvements, and we need to prioritize moving people via public transit, not one car at a time across a toll bridge.” More than twice as many people travel westbound to San Francisco each morning on BART than in cars, and we should be investing in infrastructure that supports this preference. As one of San Francisco’s BART directors, I know a second Transbay Tube is absolutely essential to supporting the Bay Area’s economy and planned growth patterns, and it’s the highest long-term priority for our agency. A second Transbay Tube can double BART’s transbay capacity and creates the potential for 24hour service. It offers greater redundancy and reliability - in other words, when there are disruptions they can be managed without bringing our system to a standstill. BART can partner with Caltrain, Capitol Corridor and High Speed Rail to explore a project with standard rail tracks as well. Speaking of a standstill, it’s worth noting that in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, BART’s Transbay Tube was shut down for 12 hours then began offering 24-hour service while the Bay Bridge was closed for over a month.

Steven Underhill

BART director Bevan Dufty

A second tube also allows us to consider accessing new markets in San Francisco. It would be exciting to look at a BART subway serving Mission Bay, SOMA, and the Financial District and Union Square districts. In future phases, BART could extend out Geary Boulevard to serve Kaiser Hospital, the University of San Francisco campus, the eastern end of Golden Gate Park, UCSF’s Parnassus campus, connect with the L-Taraval Muni line, and serve Stonestown Galleria and San Francisco State University as it travels down 19th Avenue, eventually connecting back to BART at the station in Daly City. As I offer this aspirational view of what a second tube can do to meet our region’s transit needs, I acknowledge that BART directors are hearing the anger and frustration of our riders. Current day experience riding BART isn’t acceptable. Just over a year ago, the voters of San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties overwhelmingly approved Measure RR providing $3.5 billion in bond funding to reinvest in BART after our first 45 years. We are replacing tracks and systems, such as train control and electrical systems, and escalators and elevators that are beyond their life expectancy. We also have a separate program funded federally and locally that is adding 775 state-of-the-art new BART rail cars in phases through 2022 (current fleet of existing rail cars is 669) - 19 cars are on BART property as we complete safety testing.

In my first year on the BART board, we have established a fare evasion policy and youth fare (extending the youth discount from age 13 to age 18) and we are adding station cleaners, prioritizing filling 38 BART Police Department vacancies, and have established the first SFHOT team in our downtown stations to address the impacts of homelessness. In the next three to six years we will begin what I believe will be a Golden Era for BART. Our riders will be able to rely on a better riding experience, greater reliability and less crowding - new trains, train control and other planned projects will increase peak transbay capacity by over 25 percent. But the Bay Area will continue to grow both in population and jobs, and we must do the planning now to have the second tube when the region needs it. BART will be more than ready to meet the demand when a second tube is built. In fact, there are funds in Measure RR to study a second Transbay Tube, and we are working with MTC now on a Project Advancement Plan that defines all the steps that are needed to get us to a groundbreaking. We will start with a megaregional market study that looks at the region from south of San Jose to north of Sacramento, consider service plans that define how BART and other rail operators can best serve the demand, and then define how that service can be operated. We will be beginning these steps this year. Building a second tube will take many, many years and use much of the federal and state funding coming to the Bay Area. Looking at younger generations I see rapidly changing habits that are less car-centric. By building a world-class transit system that brings together rail transit, commuter and high-speed rail, and water transportation, we are making the responsible and right decision to address global warming and climate change as well as our regional economy. A second Transbay Tube is the right priority. t Bevan Dufty, a gay former San Francisco supervisor, is an elected member of the BART Board of Directors.

Politics>>

January 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

LGBT politicos see 2018 as a bellwether year by Matthew S. Bajko

omentous changes in the country’s political landscape are in store during 2018 predict local LGBT leaders, impacting not only the White House and Congress but also the state Capitol in Sacramento and San Francisco’s City Hall. A yearly tradition to mark the start of the New Year, the Political Notebook asks LGBT community leaders to weigh in on what they believe is in store over the next 12 months. Like last year, President Donald Trump figures strongly as the source of the undercurrents set to rock the country in 2018, whether it be policies he imposes or his impact on the congressional races for House and U.S. Senate seats. As has been the case during his first year in office, Trump has proved that anything is possible with him occupying the White House. What in the past appeared to be predictors of future political trends can no longer be looked at for guidance during the Trump era. That uncertainty means it is anyone’s guess if the sextet below will be proved right at the start of next year. As 2017 participant Troy Bodnar, the former president of Log Cabin Republicans of San Francisco, told the Bay Area Reporter this week about his predictions, mainly that Trump would prove his LGBT detractors wrong, “I take back everything I said and apologize to the LGBTQ community. I was clearly delusional.” Check back next January to see if any mea culpas are warranted from this year’s prognosticators.

2018 Predictions 2018 portends to be a year of continued political upheaval. The resistance that began with marches the weekend after the inFormer California auguration Assemblyman of President Rich Gordon Trump will solidify into a movement to overturn Republican control of the U.S. Congress. Californians will be traveling to states across the country to help this movement elect Democrats in key House seats. Women will play a revitalized role in our politics. Building from the #MeToo Movement, women will continue to expose the power inequity and claim additional seats at the table. An unprecedented number of women will run for office and be elected. The culture change that needs to occur in the corridors of our city halls and statehouses, however, will be slow, as the “good old boys” network remains entrenched. The California governor’s race will see two Democrats in the November general election vying for the office in the horseshoe at the Sacramento Capitol. It will not be a pleasant election, as the soul of the California Democratic Party remains divided between “progressives” and “traditionalists.” The California Legislature will spend much of the year responding to federal initiatives including healthcare, tax reform, and immigrant rights. The Legislature will also look internally to respond to workplace and sexual harassment and externally to respond to fire and drought resulting from climate change. There will be great opportunities for the LGBTQ community to engage in the political process and be key players in shaping cultural and

governmental change. These efforts should see more from our community serving in elected office. The resistance and progressive movements will benefit from our perspectives, insight, and action. Rich Gordon Former California assemblyman Although this sounds hyperbolic, I truly believe that 2018 will be one of the most consequential years in Rick Gerharter American Equality California histor y, Executive Director and for the Rick Zbur LGBTQ civil rights movement. With repeated attacks from the Trump administration on institutions that are vital to preserving our democracy - and accelerating revelations of Trump business ties to, and communications with Russia, and attempts to thwart various investigations related to the election - I believe we are heading toward a constitutional crisis in 2018. Sadly, it seems highly unlikely the GOP-controlled Congress will provide a real check on the threats posed by this incredibly racist, sexist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ president. So we will see additional attempts to roll back the federal social safety net - health care, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and programs that help low-income Americans - to fund the $1.5 trillion hole left in the federal budget from the Trump tax cut. We will see bigoted right-wing judges continue to be confirmed to the federal bench at record pace. But I have great hope that the American people will reject the hateful Trump agenda in the 2018 mid-term elections. There are at least seven winnable congressional seats in California that are represented by virulently antiLGBT and pro-Trump Republicans. Equality California will be active, and we will take back one or both houses of Congress in 2018. Here at home, California will continue to be the beacon of hope for our country. We will continue to pass new laws and programs to help LGBTQ students, youth, seniors and transgender people; to combat hate-based violence; to tackle LGBTQ homelessness and unemployment; to address the needs of people living with or at risk of HIV, and much more. We will win our lawsuit protecting the right of transgender people to serve in the military. And we will advance equality by electing LGBTQ and pro-equality allies up and down the ballot. California for the first time will elect an openly LGBTQ person to statewide office – gay Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) as state insurance commissioner. We will re-elect lesbian state Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona) in Riverside, and ally Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) in Orange County, both running in tough swing districts. With more highly qualified LGBTQ candidates than ever, we will elect a record number of openly LGBTQ people to our Legislature and to Congress. And of course, we will elect a new proequality governor. Our endorsement will be completed and announced in January. Rick Zbur Executive Director, Equality California

I think that 2018 will be a comeback year for Democrats and Independents across the nation, and LGBTQ candidates will play a BAYMEC Vice significant President Paul A. role. As an Escobar alternative to our polarizing national discourse, LGBTQ candidates - in fact, all minority and female candidates - will offer a more inclusive vision for the nation. This could be a significant year for female candidates, in particular, at all levels nationwide. By November, we could see a resounding rejection of the current administration’s politics and rhetoric. There will be a small but growing cadre of Republicans alarmed by the direction of their party who will begin to gain some strength. But this will happen against an extraordinarily challenging backdrop: the intensification of the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign and White House, as well as its expansion to include the Republican National Committee. We could experience a true constitutional crisis, as the White House and certain Republican leaders redouble their efforts to interfere with, diminish or outright end the investigation. If this happens (and I sincerely hope that it doesn’t), it will be nothing less than a fight for our republic. I think people will understand that, and the public outcry will be enormous. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime will continue its efforts to influence our elections - and those of our allies - through social media. This will likely skew in favor of Republicans, but not exclusively. Citizens of all political persuasions will need to be on alert. The outcome of this year’s coming political storm, ultimately, will depend on an informed and engaged citizenry. Whether we continue down a path that erodes our democratic norms and institutions, or we choose to heal our communities and attempt to bridge the partisan divide in recognition that we are not enemies, but neighbors and fellow citizens, is entirely in our own hands. Which will you choose? Paul A. Escobar Vice President, Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee Lambda Democrats of Contra Costa will get the city of Concord to finally issue a Pride proclamation and to fly Jane Philomen Cleland the rainbow Rainbow flag over city Community Center hall. Mark- ED Ben-David Barr ing a major transition for the town that passed Measure M in the early 1990’s - the campaign that promoted hate against LGBTQ people. Special counsel Robert Mueller will indict Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and his oldest son Donald Trump Jr. but not 45 himself. Trump’s laziness and inattention to detail will save him but not us. See page 12 >>

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<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

For collective, legal pot could put wrinkle in free program

by Sari Staver

ore than 150 low-income, terminally ill people in the Bay Area could lose their supply of free cannabis under new government regulations that have not carved out rules enabling collectives to donate pot to medical cannabis patients. For the past two decades, longtime activist Joe Airone has been distributing fresh flowers to patients in the Bay Area, including many gay men diagnosed with HIV or cancer. Airone, 41, a straight ally, launched Sweetleaf Collective in 1996 after Proposition 215 legalized medical marijuana, with pot donated from growers in Humboldt County. He asked farmers to donate the “shake,” or trim, from their plants to people in need. “We used the same model as Food Not Bombs, which takes waste from the produce industry to distribute to homeless people. We copied the model,” said Airone in a telephone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. At first, Sweetleaf donated several pounds of cannabis to some five to 10 patients. By last year, Airone had delivered over 100 pounds to more than 150 people in the Bay Area. The patients all

Sari Staver

Steve Stevens, who uses medical marijuana, with his dog, Punkin.

had medical cannabis cards, and Airone verified their diagnosis with their physician to be sure the people most in need were helped. But when Proposition 64, which legalized adult recreational use, was approved in 2016, Airone worried that the program he built from scratch might be in jeopardy. Recreational cannabis began being sold in California January 1; sales are expected to begin in San Francisco Saturday, January 6. The issue, according to Airone, is that neither the state nor the

local laws enable a collective to apply for a license. “We want to continue to operate legally,” said Airone, but without a license, he fears his distributions to patients could be considered illegal. Local officials said the situation is murky. “It’s a gray area,” acknowledged gay District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who is a medical cannabis patient and uses pot to treat his HIV-related symptoms. Sheehy, one of the authors of the city legislation to regulate recreational cannabis sales, added amendments to the law “to provide for free or low-cost medicine for patients that need it,” he said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. “While the state finalizes its regulations, I remain committed to fighting for patients.” Airone’s attorney, Patrick Goggin, a senior lawyer with the Hoban Law Group, shares Airone’s concerns but is optimistic that the program will find a way to continue. Goggin, whose firm specializes in cannabis-related issues, has represented Airone and Sweetleaf for the past six years, he told the B.A.R. in a telephone interview. Goggin hopes a solution can be

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Pot

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Apothecarium, SPARC, Harvest, Bloom Room, Purple Star MD, Green Door, Green Cross, Barbary Coast, and BASA. The legalization of cannabis in California came about after voters approved Proposition 64 in November 2016, joining Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Nevada in implementing legalized and regulated recreational cannabis sales. In 1996, California approved Proposition 215, legalizing cannabis for adults with a physician’s approval. The system put in place was intended to have strict criteria for approval but deteriorated into a sham where anyone could go online, and for $25, get a physician to authorize an applicant’s need for pot. After voters approved Proposition 64, it was left to local governments to iron out the specific rules governing the sale of cannabis in their jurisdictions. In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors had several lengthy public hearings where hundreds of people from the Chinese community arrived in buses to demonstrate in front of City Hall, demanding that the city provide strict regulations such as increasing the distance dispensaries must be from schools from 600 to 1,000 feet, a proposal that was eventually defeated. The supervisors’ lengthy debate on what rules to enact delayed their final vote to November 5, giving San Francisco dispensary owners little time to fill out the necessary paperwork required to be permitted to sell marijuana for recreational use. Among the dispensaries waiting for their license is SPARC, which has locations in South of Market and the Lower Haight. Founder and CEO Erich Pearson, a gay man and longtime cannabis activist, said that both dispensaries if approved would look “very much the same” as they did when they were only

found, such as Sweetleaf partnering with a licensed retail dispensary. “I’ve planted a few seeds that I’m watering and hope one of them will grow,” he said, referring to contacts he has made with colleagues in the industry. “These are challenging times. People are overwhelmed with paperwork to get geared up for all of the new requirements to be legal,” he said. “I’m an optimist and hope that Joe’s program will be able to continue. It would be heartbreaking if it couldn’t.” Steve Stevens, a 64-year-old gay man, agrees with Gogan. Stevens, who was diagnosed with HIV 15 years ago following his partner’s death from AIDS in 1984, has been the recipient of Sweetleaf medical cannabis for the past 10 years. “I live on a fixed income and don’t know how I’d obtain cannabis otherwise,” said Stevens in an interview with the B.A.R. “It has been an enormous help” to alleviate the side effects of the HIV drugs, he said, “to say nothing of helping with stress and depression. “I am so grateful to Joe and the wonderful people who deliver my medicine,” added Stevens. “If it is legal to distribute methadone, why not pot?” he asked rhetorically.

In an email to the B.A.R., Sheehy referred to a section of the city law that says “retailer may operate a compassion program in which it provides medicinal cannabis and/or medicinal cannabis products at no or nominal cost to low-income individuals who are qualified under California Health and Safety Code Sections 11362.7 et seq. to use medicinal cannabis.” Additionally, the law states that cannabis cultivation facilities and cannabis manufacturing facilities “may provide medicinal cannabis and/or medicinal cannabis products at no or nominal cost to storefront cannabis retailers for distribution through a compassion program.” “The door is open for compassionate access,” said Sheehy, adding that it was a priority for him to make sure that the city clarifies the regulations so that programs like Sweetleaf are able to continue. Medical patients interested in receiving cannabis or donating money to the collective can contact Airone at SweetLeafBayArea@ gmail.com. Licensed retailers who might be interested in partnering with Sweetleaf can contact attorney Patrick Goggin at Patrick@ Hoban.law.t

serving medical cannabis patients. Prices, however, will be up about 15 percent, said Pearson, reflecting the state excise tax. An eighth of topshelf flowers that previously cost $50 will now be $57.50, he noted. Pearson does not anticipate long lines of local residents due to the change in the law. “It’s been easy to get a medical recommendation here, so the long lines we’ve seen in Nevada and Colorado after legalization” probably won’t be seen in San Francisco, he predicted. There could likely be an uptick in sales to tourists from overseas or other states, Pearson said, as they will only need a picture ID with their date of birth to buy something. Another change will be a decrease in product offerings from some of the small cannabis cultivators, many of whom have closed their businesses to avoid the high costs of being in compliance with state regulations. Because SPARC grows most of its own cannabis, the company will be better positioned than other dispensaries to grow some of the varieties they used to get from the artisanal growers. SPARC also manufactures and sells its own line of oils and cartridges; a private line of edibles is “in the works,” Pearson said. At its SOMA location on Mission Street, SPARC’s vaporizing lounge was “grandfathered” into the regulations and may be enlarged if there is increased demand, he said. Missing will be the occasional vendor sampling tables, said Pearson, as they are now illegal in the state. “At least until we can figure out how to finesse” the law, he said. At the Castro’s Apothecarium, operations director Chase Chambers predicts that waits of 30 minutes or more “are possible” in the days following approval to sell recreational weed. New customers will have to “register” before purchasing cannabis, said Chambers, just as they did under the medical cannabis system.

The Apothecarium, which also has locations in the Marina and in SOMA, is in the “middle of hiring” at all locations, said Chambers, a gay man. Within a year, the increased business from recreational cannabis will probably increase staffing by about 50 percent, he expects. Positions are open for budtenders and drivers, said Chambers. In the past, the company always had “more than enough” applicants to fill their openings, he said. “We don’t anticipate having any difficulty filling jobs.” Over time, said Chambers, customers should expect price increases on some of their favorite products, as manufacturers pass along their increased costs under the new regulatory system. “We welcome the mandatory testing” now required under state law, he said. “We’ve been doing it on our own for years, so this will level the playing field” now that others are also required to test. In the works is an opening day 20 percent discount on everything bought by people who bring their mother into the Apothecarium, said Chambers. “We want you to know this is a safe place to bring your mom,” he said. Until the city and state approve the dispensary license applications, people will have to cross the bridge to the East Bay to get recreational pot. “We are working diligently to move this process forward knowing that January 6 is the first day sales could legally occur in SF,” Elliott wrote in her emailed reply to the B.A.R. t

Bay Area Cannasseur runs the first Thursday of the month. To send column ideas or tips, email Sari Staver at sari@bayareacannasseur.com.

/lgbtsf

Community News>>

January 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SFMTA to unveil plaque for gay former board chair compiled by Matthew S. Bajko

an Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency officials will dedicate a bronze plaque Thursday afternoon at the Castro Muni station honoring Tom Nolan, a gay man who sat on the transit agency’s oversight panel for 11 years and served several terms as board chair. Nolan, 72, first joined the SFMTA board of directors in 2006 and was elected chairman three years later. He stepped down early last year due to term limits after helping to usher in major changes to the city’s public transit system, including a controversial overhaul of many Muni bus lines aimed at increasing route times. Under his leadership, the SFMTA became the first city agency in California to adopt “Vision Zero,” San Francisco’s goal to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024. The agency also instituted a program offering free rides on Muni for low-to-moderate income seniors, youth, and people with disabilities. Nolan led other transportation projects in the Bay Area, including serving as the founding chair of the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board. He formerly served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, becoming its first LGBT member after being elected in 1985. Many in the LGBT community know Nolan from when he served as executive director of Project Open Hand, which provides meals and groceries to people living with HIV/ AIDS and other illnesses. He oversaw the agency for 17 years until stepping down in 2012. Nolan currently works for the city’s Department of Aging and Adult Services and assisted the task force that created a groundbreaking report on the needs of LGBT seniors. Throughout his career, Nolan has advocated for projects like the extension of BART into San Mateo County and to San Francisco International Airport, and Muni’s expansion into Chinatown with its Central Subway line. His leading the effort to acquire the 52-mile Southern Pacific rail corridor connecting San Francisco and San Jose to provide commuter rail service earned him the nickname the “Father of Caltrain.” Last year, the American Public Transit Association awarded Nolan its prestigious Outstanding Public Transportation Board Member Award for his contributions to the transit industry. The SFMTA plaque will feature a headshot of Nolan and be installed on the outbound side of the Castro Station’s Mezzanine Level. It is where the ticket agent booth and entry gates are located. The dedication ceremony takes place Thursday, January 4, at 4 p.m. The Muni station is located at the corner of Castro and Market Streets underneath Harvey Milk Plaza, named after the late gay supervisor who was also an advocate for public transit and has his own memorial plaque at the station.

NCLR ED on sabbatical

Kate Kendell, the longtime executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, rang in the New Year with a two-month sabbatical. She plans to return to overseeing the San Francisco-based agency March 1. NCLR, which Kendell has led since 1996, has a policy allowing its staff members to take two months off every five years. Kendell last went on sabbatical 15 years ago. In an email to the Bay Area Reporter, Kendell said she didn’t have any major plans for her sabbatical this year, which began Monday, January 1. Rather than name an interim

Courtesy of SFMTA

A new bronze plaque at the Castro Muni station will honor gay transit advocate Tom Nolan.

executive director, NCLR is having its top managers fill in during Kendell’s time off. “Our biggest push is the last few months of the year. While I still will have lots of work travel in January and February, the ability to be free from being in the office and e-mail feels

very freeing,” wrote Kendell. “Plus, we have an ace team. No one will even miss me.” As the B.A.R. has reported over the last four years, a number of leaders at LGBT nonprofits based in the Bay Area have taken sabbaticals after leading their agencies for prolonged terms. Some have returned to their jobs, while others opted to resign. Several received $40,000 through the O2 Sabbatical Award program overseen by O2 Initiatives. Last fall, for instance, San Francisco LGBT Community Center Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe took off for three months, having been selected by O2 for its 2017 class of executives. The 2018 awardees will be announced in mid-February.

Theater company supports San Jose LGBT center

A South Bay theater group will be raising money for the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose with its production of “The Laramie Project,” playwright Moises Kaufman’s drama about the brutal

1998 killing of 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Originally produced by the Tectonic Theater Project, the play chronicles the lives of the townspeople over the course of a year following Shepard’s murder. For its production of the play to mark the 20th anniversary of Shepard’s murder, Palo Alto Players has designated the DeFrank center as its nonprofit partner benefiting from its Players Give Back program. At each show this month and next, the company will be collecting donations from the audience for the LGBT facility serving Santa Clara County. It is also offering supporters of the DeFrank center a $10 discount on tickets, except on preview night; when ordering enter the code DEFRANK. The production will run Friday, January 19, through Sunday, February 4, at the Lucie Stern Theater, located at 1305 Middleﬁeld Road in Palo Alto. Ticket prices range in price from $22 to $49 depending on the day and time of the show.

To order tickets online, visit http:// www.paplayers.org.t

<< Queer Reading

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

Lesbian activist Bock pens memoir by Alex Madison

or anyone who picks up a copy of Laura Bock’s new memoir, “Red Diaper Daughter: Three Generations of Rebels and Revolutionaries,” it’s hard not to find a chapter to relate to. The book explores the dynamic life of the 72-year-old Bock: a lesbian, feminist, and fat-liberation and disabilities activist whose family of rebels helped shape her life of resistance and activism. The Bay Area Reporter spoke with the witty, self-described “loud mouth” from her senior living community in the Marin County city of Mill Valley. Bock still has all the spunk and humor that her book expresses as she tells the story of why she decided to embark on writing her first book. After joining a lesbian memoir group almost 10 years ago, Bock, an only child, became inspired to share the legacy of her socialist family and, in turn, her own experiences. “I didn’t want my family’s stories, my grandparents and my parents to fade away,” Bock said. “They were revolutionaries, and this was really a way for me to present the legacy of my family.” Born in San Francisco in the late 1940s, Bock was the granddaughter of Russian, Jewish social revolutionaries and the daughter of socialists active in the labor movement. She described her childhood growing up during the height of McCarthyism as “no joke.” Her parents taught her to fight proudly for her beliefs and not to conform to the norms of society. She

LGBT bills

From page 1

that people can choose “non-binary” as the gender on their birth certificates and other government-issued documents. Redwood City resident Jarys Maragopoulos, 33, who identifies as genderqueer and uses gender-neutral pronouns, said they were born intersex and that “from around the time I was one to around the time I was five, I had five different surgeries” that “essentially masculinized me.” “I grew up thinking I was not fully human,” said Maragopoulos, who sympathizes with their parents because “they did not know any better.” They said that doctors told their parents that if they didn’t make “every effort to socialize me as male, the surgery would not work.” Maragopoulos remembers “thinking I was not good enough. There was something about me that was so awful that I was rejected and had to be fixed.” Having already had their gender legally changed to non binary, Maragopoulos said the new state law “is incredibly benevolent. It feels for the first time like I live in a society that accepts me.” Beginning September 1, SB 179 will delete the requirement that a person undergoes treatment to seek a court judgment to recognize a change of gender. People will be able to choose “non-binary” on their driver’s license beginning January 1, 2019. Atkins’ SB 310, the Name and Dignity Act, also addresses gender. The new law makes it easier for transgender people incarcerated in state prisons or county jails to change their legal name or gender marker. It also requires corrections officials to use the new name of a person who obtains a name change and to list their prior name only as an alias. Starting September 1, SB 310 would remove limitations on name change petitions filed by state prisoners. “Many of us have an ID that

Lesbian activist Laura Bock has penned a memoir about her family and her own life.

remembers her dad telling her, “If you’re going to get arrested, get arrested for something that mattered.” But being fat as a child made finding her confidence and voice difficult. Bock constantly faced discrimination due to her weight, turning her into a terribly shy child and self-hating young adult. With that, Bock learned to turn off her emotions, including those she felt for women. Her college years were transformative. At this time, Bock began to lose her eyesight, a disability that led her to discover support groups, something that “saved her life,” she said, and turned her into a “support group junkie.” She started to channel her anger

and foster her activist roots. She participated in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s then taking to the streets. But it was not until the second wave of the women’s liberation movement in the mid1970s that Bock truly found her voice. “The impact that movement had on my life was absolutely crucial,” Bock said. “It saved my life and is where I found my voice.” Finding her voice eventually led her to come out as a lesbian at the age of 36, an aspect of her life that is discussed in a chapter of the book titled, “Coming Out Loud.” Bock will talk about what led to this moment, her first sexual experience with a woman, and joining a feminist theatre group, where she first publicly announced her homosexuality, next week during

a reading of her memoir at the GLBT Historical Society’s museum in San Francisco’s Castro district. “Early in my life I was so filled with fear, both because of McCarthyism and from being attacked as a fat person so often. I turned off all of my feelings,” Bock recalled. “Then, in 1981, I had feelings for a woman. I came out at 36. I had no experience. I thought I was a freak.” Bock went on to fight for equal rights for the LGBTQ community for many years, including as an active participant in a Bay Area lesbians with disabilities group. It is her true spirit of activism that Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, said audience members of her book reading could look forward to. “We’re so excited to have Laura

matches our gender presentation, and so showing it is hassle-free,” stated Atkins. “But for Californians who have an ID that does not match their gender presentation, showing it at airports, in shops, or to law enforcement can be extremely stressful and lead to harassment or a delay in completing a transaction.” Another bill that will benefit transgender residents of the Golden State is Senate Bill 396, the Transgender Work Opportunity Act, authored by gay state Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). It makes California the first in the nation to require training about gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation for business leaders. The bill amends the state’s existing two-hour sexual harassment training requirement in the Fair Housing and Employment Act to include training on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation for supervisory employees at companies with more than 50 employees. The legislation, which took effect Monday, January 1, also requires businesses to post a poster developed by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing on transgender rights. Last summer the state agency issued new rules requiring businesses to abide by their employees’ preferred names and pronouns, and informed employers they also can’t restrict a person’s style of dress unless they prove it is necessary to do so for work purposes. A bill co-authored by Wiener that sparked some controversy last year was SB 239, which modernizes the state’s HIV criminalization laws adopted during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Before SB 239, HIV-positive people could be prosecuted for engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse with the specific intent to transmit HIV even if no actual transmission of the virus occurred. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison. The new law requires proof that

transmission of HIV did occur in order for a person to be prosecuted for intentionally transmitting the virus to a sex partner. “Fundamentally, the heart of this bill is that being sick is a health issue not a criminal issue and treating people with a health condition as criminals doesn’t make them healthy, doesn’t reduce the spread of infectious diseases, it just pushes people into the shadows and makes matters worse,” said Wiener. Gay Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) co-authored the bill, which was backed by a number of legal groups, AIDS agencies, and the statewide LGBT advocacy organization Equality California.

July 1 of this year. The bill, authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), was adopted in 2015 but gave the agencies time to upgrade their systems and train staff on how to best ask the SOGI questions. State agencies that deal with education and employment issues will be required to start collecting the SOGI data by July 1, 2019 due to AB 677, which Chiu authored last year. By next year the number of state agencies required to collect the SOGI data on their forms and surveys will total 10.

Seniors, LGBT data bills take effect

As of the New Year operators of long-term care facilities in the state are required to protect their LGBT residents from being discriminated against due to Wiener’s SB 219, known as the Seniors Long Term Care Bill of Rights. “After struggling to come out at a time when same-sex conduct was still criminalized, and fighting the first and most difficult battles for LGBTQ civil rights, discrimination in long-term care is forcing many LGBTQ seniors back into the closet,” stated Rick Zbur, executive director of EQCA, which sponsored the bill. “SB 219 would help protect LGBTQ seniors when they’re at their most vulnerable, and help ensure that care facilities provide culturally-competent care.” Another LGBT-related bill, Assemblyman Mark Stone’s (D-Monterey Bay) AB 1556, updates the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act to use gender inclusive language, such as “person” or “employee” instead of “he” or “she.” As the Bay Area Reporter detailed in a three-part series last summer, four state agencies, mainly dealing with health services, are required to begin collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) by

More bills set to be proposed

State lawmakers are expected to introduce a number of bills focused on additional LGBT issues during the new legislative session that began Wednesday, January 3. They have until February 16 to do so. “We probably have about 20 bill ideas we’re vetting” for introduction in 2018, Zbur said in an interview last week. Areas of focus include protections for LGBTQ students. “We’d like to see more culturalcompetency training with teachers and school counselors,” he said. EQCA may also promote legislation for long-term care providers to be more culturally competent, Zbur said. Other possible bills would include accelerating implementation of Getting to Zero campaigns around the state. Such initiatives typically aim to eliminate new HIV infections, deaths due to HIV/AIDS, and stigma against people living with HIV. Zbur said EQCA may also look at the “inherent discrimination LGBTQ people face in the criminal justice system.” As the B.A.R. noted in a story last week, Wiener is talking with the advocacy group about a bill that would address a discrepancy in how California treats same-sex couples under its statutory rape laws. A provision that exempts straight couples where the adult is within three years of age of the minor from having to register as a sex offender does not apply to gay or

Bock reading from her new memoir at the GLBT History Museum,” Beswick said. “Her long history of activism on behalf of lesbians, disabled people, fat people and all the intersections therein, are just the kind of thing we like to bring focus to.” Bock’s papers are housed in the archives of the GLBT Historical Society, where she has been a volunteer for many years. Today, she lives a somewhat quiet life with her longtime partner, Suzanne Gary, and their dog. Although they participate in the monthly senior peace demonstrations within their community, Bock said she hasn’t quite figured out how to be an old-age activist. She is learning from the new generation of activists who are following in her footsteps. “Red Diaper Daughter: Three Generations of Rebels and Revolutionaries” doesn’t sugar coat a thing. It takes readers through six decades of U.S. history seen through the eyes of a woman with a life of resistance, hardship, friendship and love all wrapped in a blanket of humor. The book is available on Amazon, while blind and print disabled versions can be purchased at bookshare. org. Bock will share her story Thursday, January 11, at the GLBT History Museum and again Monday, January 29, at Folio Books. Both events will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. The LGBT museum is located at 4127 18th Street in the Castro, while Folio Books is located at 3957 24th Street in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood. The bookstore event is free to attend, while the reading at the museum costs $5 for non-members. t lesbian couples. Last year Wiener was the lead author on SB 384, which beginning on January 1, 2021 creates a three-tiered system for the state’s Sex Offender Registry with registration periods of upward of 10 years, 20 years, or life. The bill allows those on the registry who were targeted and arrested by police under former statutes that criminalized homosexual sex between adults, such as stings using undercover cops in public parks or at highway rest areas, to petition to be removed from it. High-risk offenders will remain on the registry for life, while others will be able to petition to be removed after either 10 or 20 years without reoffending, depending on their offense. Beginning January 1, 2022, the bill would revise criteria for exclusion from the state’s online registry. “This bill was written by law enforcement and supported by rape crisis advocates because they know we need a sex offender registry system that actually works to protect people from those who pose a significant risk of committing sexual violence,” stated Wiener. The state’s current list of more than 100,000 people is so expansive that it is of little use to law enforcement, argued advocates of the legislation. Initially, Lara had authored the bill but later switched with Wiener. Dave Howe, 57, who lives in Alameda County, is a gay man who’s on the registry for oral copulation with a minor. In an email exchange with the B.A.R. Howe said he was “shocked” SB 384 became law, since it had been shelved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee before Wiener revived it through a process known as gut-and-amend. Howe said he would petition to be removed from the registry, since it’s “been too long” since he’s committed any crimes. Under SB 384, people are supposed to be reclassified by January 1, 2021 and removals from the registry should begin January 1, 2022.t

Community News>>

January 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

To Our Major Sponsors, Oakland’s LGBTQ Community Center is now the master tenant of its lease and looking for other nonprofits to sublet its space.

Oakland LGBTQ center takes control of its lease by Seth Hemmelgarn

akland’s LGBTQ Community Center has taken over the entire space that it had been sharing. While the development means the rent has almost doubled just four months after the center opened, executive director Joe Hawkins said he’s confident the nonprofit will thrive. “It’s going to be a struggle, but I think the community here in Oakland is up to it. I really do, based on what we’ve seen thus far,” said Hawkins. “People are very supportive.” When the center opened in September on the second floor of a commercial building near Lake Merritt, it shared space with and paid rent to “Co-Munity,” a coworking site for small businesses and startups. About a month ago, though, the center learned that the communal workspace operator was being evicted for failing to pay rent. The LGBT center, which provides support groups and other services, initially worried it would become homeless, but after negotiating with the property owner, it became the entire space’s primary operator and lease holder. The monthly rent has gone from $5,000 to $9,000, leaving a gap of about $3,000 in what the center is able to pay per month. Groups already in the building include queer perinatal services and a media organization, and Hawkins said he hopes to add other nonprofits and small businesses as tenants to make up the difference. The center is looking at charging about $500 a month, he said, noting that many Bay Area nonprofits are struggling to pay rent. “We really want to include as many queer nonprofits as possible,” said Hawkins. “Our goal as a center is to be a hub of queer activity.” With approximately $40,000 in the bank, he said the nonprofit center has enough money to pay its rent for three to four months. Hawkins is optimistic that the center will be able to expand its estimated

$150,000 budget now that it’s able to participate in the new grant funding cycle for 2018. Last month the LGBT center won a $5,000 general operations grant from the Horizons Foundation, the Bay Area-focused LGBT philanthropic organization, to help it keep its doors open. “Actually, we’re in a better position to apply for funding as the sole operator of the space,” since the LGBT center now has “total control of the building” and can include more programing. Except for a CPA and a bookkeeper who work on a contractual basis, Hawkins and others who work for the nonprofit are all volunteers. In an email to supporters last week, he said the center’s drawn more than 1,500 visitors and nearly 600 volunteers since it opened in September. Over the last four months, it has offered numerous workshops, gettogethers, and other activities. In November it held a Transgender Day of Remembrance observance and Thanksgiving dinner, while last month the center was open Christmas Day in the afternoon. The Oakland center was one of two that opened last year, as San Mateo County officials also opened their own LGBT community center. Unlike the San Mateo County Pride Center, located at 1021 South El Camino Real in San Mateo, the Oakland center is not staffed by Alameda County. Adding to the Oakland center’s needs, Hawkins said the Co-Munity operator, who didn’t respond to interview requests, took all of her furniture, leaving the center with almost none. The center is seeking donated chairs, file cabinets, computers and other furnishings for the facility. The Lakeshore Avenue property’s owner couldn’t be reached for comment, and Hawkins declined to share their information. The building is located at 3207 Lakeshore Avenue (enter on Rand Avenue). For information about donating to the center or becoming a tenant, go to https://www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org.t

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<< Commentary

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

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y the time this column reaches you, the confetti will be swept out of Times Square and the Rose Parade floats will exist as only a memory. Nevertheless, we shall still be feeling the effects of the previous year. In 2017, we witnessed the Trump administration - as it enacted travel bans focused on predominantly Muslim countries, threatened Dreamers, and continued to try to forge ahead on a border wall - take aim at transgender people. The administration pushed for judges who are anti-transgender, even one who claimed transgender people were a part of “Satan’s plan.” It also instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to not use the word “transgender” in its documents. The Justice Department instructed its attorneys that the law doesn’t protect transgender employees from discrimination and that the 1964 Civil Rights Act doesn’t protect people based on gender identity. Most notably, the administration worked to discharge active duty transgender people from the military, bar new transgender recruits, and halt the medical treatment of transgender people within the armed services. This is only scratching the surface, of course. There were dozens of other steps, large and small, that impacted transgender people directly, and plenty of others that will affect trans folks as they hurt all marginalized people in the country. We did start to see gains elsewhere last year, with bathroom bills losing traction in state legislatures. Most notably, a threatened pair of anti-transgender bills in Texas stalled, were revived in a special session, and still failed to become the law of the Lone Star State. In the midst of all this, we saw a record number of transgender people gain elected office. Perhaps most notable of these is Danica Roem, who beat Bob Marshall, a longtime lawmaker in Virginia who had pushed the state’s own failed bathroom bill. Six other transgender people won office in 2017, with many more ramping up their own campaigns this year.

Yet the climate fostered by the Trump administration casts a pall over us all. Anti-transgender violence remains at a high in spite of the waning of bathroom panics across the country. We still face bigotry from the left and right in this country and abroad, with the United Kingdom in particular becoming increasingly hostile toward transgender people. Many of us out in the trenches are tired. We have had to fight all year, not only calling and writing our elected officials on our own behalf, but standing for the rights of everyone oppressed by a hostile government. It is, nevertheless, a testament to the strength and fortitude of so many transgender, non`binary, and gender fluid activists - and all of our sibling activists fighting alongside us that so many of us survived 2017. Now, having turned our calendars to the New Year, it becomes all the more important that we do more than just survive the next 12 months. We need to win, and we need to thrive against all the odds. Yes, we have to keep fighting. While the Trump administration has backed down on the military ban after several legal challenges did not go the way it hoped, the president will continue to push against others and us. He will continue to push trans-hostile judges, will continue to push policies that harm transgender people, and will not hesitate to move against us when he can. As we fight, though, we need

to keep our focus. There are plenty who are willing to keep us tired, and outraged, and unfocused. We need to keep our wits about us and avoid being baited and trolled. We know what we have to do, and we need to remain on target. Those who seek to do little more than provoke us only have as much power as we cede to them: let us give them as little as we can. We cannot, and should not, lose the fights ahead. We will need to work to protect every unalienable right we are afforded. It is all the more vital that trans and other organizations step up the battle, and push back hard. We need to do all we can to not give our enemies a single inch - or at least make them pay dearly for any they do get. Like Bob Marshall, the bigotry of others should come at a high cost to them. All that said, we also should not lose sight of what we’re fighting for. We need to be there for each other and find our joy when we can. We need to make sure that we can thrive, even as we struggle against our anti-transgender foes. Finally, I want to remind everyone of one important thing: we have come a long way. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from an era where transgender people were viewed as criminals just for expressing ourselves. We have survived an era where we were a medical curiosity, forced through the hoops of gatekeepers who were more interested in their own biases than in our care. We’ve come from a place where non-transgender politicians would never have stood up for us, to a time when an increasing number of politicians are transgender. We shall not go quietly. In 2017, we survived, a tough sprig that somehow thrived to take root in spite of everything. In 2018, we will grow, we will stand resolute, and we will bloom into something beautiful and strong. What’s more, we shall not stand alone, as others stand alongside us, and push back against hatred, bigotry, xenophobia, racism, and the myriad ills we face today. The next time the ball drops and marching bands take to Colorado Boulevard, we will be legion. t Gwen Smith won’t back down. You’ll find her at gwensmith.com.

Gay news show accuses Google of censorship by David-Elijah Nahmod

ARE YOU YOU GAY YOU San Francisco gay couple that ARE GAY ARE YOU AA AAGAY GAY A produces an online news show STAY AT HOME FATHER (SAHF)? STAY ATHOME HOME FATHER (SAHF)? Google of censorship after STAY HOME FATHER (SAHF)? STAY ATAT FATHER (SAHF)? istheaccusing tech company blocked promotion We want to know about your experience! Wewant want to to know know about We aboutt your yourexperience! experience!

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you are: IfIfIfyou are: Since 2014 GNews!, produced by you are: husbands Chris Knight and Celso aman man who identifies as • •aIf who identifies as you are: • a man who identifies as Dulay, has aired on YouTube. Last gay gay gay • a man who identifies asmonth’s Christmas special marked their 101st show, and the couple had atleast least18 18years years old • •at old • at least 18 years old gay prepared a promotional effort for it to fatherwho whoengages engages • •aafather in in at at boost viewership. • a father who engages in at •least at 75% least 18 years old 75%ofof care-taking least care-taking Yet, to their surprise, Adwords, an least 75% of care-taking online advertising service developed responsibilities •responsibilities a father who engages inandatrun by Google, which also owns responsibilities

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PLEASEcontact contact Jennifer Bob PLEASE Jennifer Bob by the show creators, an Adwords repPLEASE contact Jennifer Bob responsibilities resentative, who did not identify her(925) 338-1046 atat(925) 338-1046 or or at (925) 338-1046 or self, said the reason given for the rejecgSAHFstudy@gmail.com gSAHFstudy@gmail.com tion was the show’s “shocking content.” gSAHFstudy@gmail.com volunteer participate totovolunteer toto participate in in Knight, who provided the Bay PLEASE contact Jennifer Bob to volunteer to participate in psychological research study psychological research study Area Reporter with a recording of the psychological research study regarding the experience of Gay or phone conversation he had with Adregarding the experience of Gay at (925) 338-1046 regarding the experience of Gay StayAtgSAHFstudy@gmail.com AtHome Home Fathers (SAHFS) Stay Fathers (SAHFS) words representatives, then spoke to Stay At Home Fathers (SAHFS)

Celso Dulay, right, and Cameron Stiehl co-hosted the GNews! Christmas show.

Samyuktha, an Adwords floor manager who did not provide a last name. Samyuktha stated that the show’s gay content was the reason for the ad’s rejection.

In an email sent to Knight, Samyuktha clarified that “shocking content” referred to “promotions containing See page 11 >>

Sports>>

January 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Powerlifting challenges gender binary by Roger Brigham

For more information on the union and the LGBT championships, visit lgbtpowerlifting.org.

gender-neutral “Mx” category will debut this year in the LGBT International Powerlifting Championships to be held Saturday, July 28, in London. The gender-neutral category is optional for all participants. “We have seen a great deal of adverse reaction recently to media reports of transgender athletes competing in strength sports, particularly towards athletes who have qualified for multi-sports events such as the Commonwealth Games,” said San Francisco’s Ardel Thomas, nonbinary representative for the LGBT Powerlifting Union. “We are aware of new and novice trans, non-binary and intersex lifters who are concerned about participating in sports because of a lack of understanding, and therefore we have decided to offer an optional Mx category at LGBT IPC 2018.” Chris Morgan, the male co-president of the powerlifting union, said the organization this year aims to reach out to the new LGBT powerlifting clubs emerging around the world. “We aim to be as inclusive as possible by equalizing all weight classes and offering the new third gender Mx category,” he said. (In many individual sports, men do not compete in the same weight classes that women have. In freestyle wrestling, for example, the men have more weight classes than women

Google

From page 10

obscene or profane language. Examples: Swear or curse words, slurs relating to race or sexuality, variations and misspellings of profane language.” In an interview with the B.A.R., Knight said he feels the ads for GNews! were rejected solely because it happens to be a gay show. After viewing the two most recent episodes of GNews!, the B.A.R. could find no examples of obscene language or hate speech. “We watched the show three times following the call with Google AdWords trying to figure out what could possibly be an issue with the promotion for this show being blocked, and could not find anything to cut out that wasn’t simply news-reporting content for the holiday show,” said Knight. The 101st episode of GNews! includes discussions of the recent passage of marriage equality in Australia, the defeat of anti-gay U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama, Cyndi Lauper’s Home For the Holidays organization, and “gay-tivity” scenes nativity scenes featuring two Josephs or two Marys, among other segments. According to publicly posted statistics at YouTube, the Christmas episode had received 2,000 views as of Tuesday. The 100th episode, which featured an interview with gay San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Leno, received 14,000 views, while 26,000 viewers had seen the 99th show. Neither episode was rejected by Adwords. Knight said that he’s had to edit out some content from previous shows in order to meet the content standards set by Adwords. “In the past, we’ve trimmed out any minor items that could possibly be deemed shocking content,” he said. “A swear word in the Bloopers section at the end, or promo images of Bryan Hawn’s perfect butt workout from his YouTube show – and then re-submitted videos several times before finally getting them approved for promotion. This time, for #101, we can’t find anything at all to cut out.” Dulay said that GNews! is a “labor

Gay Games update

LGBT Powerlifting Union male co-president Chris Morgan

and the range of weight classes is heavier than the women’s weight. This sends a negative message that women should not be too big or too small but instead all squeeze into a very absurd and narrow band of body types. The Gay Games offers women the same weight categories it offers men. The expanded weight classes in the powerlifting championships mirror that policy. Way to go!) Powerlifting, by the way, has been part of every Gay Games since the inaugural event in 1982, but was omitted from this year’s Gay Games. The sport returns to the Gay Games in 2022 when the event is held in Hong Kong. of love.” They generally spend $750 to produce two shows and donate their time to the production. The show is monetized, meaning that ads are attached to the show. They generally make a little less than $50 per episode. YouTube’s GNews! page currently has 684 subscribers. “It’s been incredibly frustrating being blocked from sharing the content of our show with more people,” said Dulay. “We were particularly proud of this holiday show, and had begun increasing promotion of this one to help us break through to 1,000plus subscribers as quickly as possible. Once you do that, YouTube tends to pay more attention to content creators, and it opens up more advertising residuals based on more people subscribing to the channel.” Dulay also spoke of the emotions the couple felt at the treatment accorded to them. “On a personal level, we feel a mixture of anger and sadness in waves the last few days,” he said. “It’s difficult not to keep thinking about it, and not wanting to make it right.” “Our goal is to make Google corporate aware of how its policies are impacting the LGBT community and consider changing them,” added Knight. “We understand from Google’s PR machine that it wants to treat everyone fairly - for example, through its corporate diversity program and its stance to support net neutrality - as we reported on episode #101. However, we understand through GLAAD associates that this is not an isolated incident, and there have been other LGBT shows that have been blocked by promotion.” After speaking to Knight and Dulay, the B.A.R. was able to reach a Google Adwords rep named Derek, who did not provide a last name. Derek verified that GNews!’s ad had been rejected due to “shocking content.” He said that he could not offer a comment and suggested calling Google headquarters, though he could not provide a phone number to call. An emailed request for comment to Google had not received a response by press time Wednesday.

With marketing pushes having just launched or still to come for a number of sports, organizers of the 2018 Gay Games X in Paris said 5,901 athletes had registered for the August 4-12 event by the close of early registration on December 31. They expect another 6,000-9,000 athletes will register this year. Base registration fees for the next 3,000 participants before April 30 will be 185 Euros ($223.18). If 3,000 more register before April 30, the fee will automatically kick up to 205 Euros ($247.31). Registration for golf, which has 180 participants, and for tennis (500) is now closed. Organizers said they had expanded the number of available slots for road races, martial arts and rowing because of market demand. The biggest sports so far are road races (with 780 in the 5- and 19-kilometer races and 560 in the marathon), swimming (663), and tennis. Water polo already has 383 players and 36 teams registered - more than any previous Gay Games. There are already 62 wrestlers registered - twice the number either of the last two Gay Games had. Manuel Picaud, co-president of the Paris Gay Games, said marketing was about to launch for rugby sevens, and roller derby teams are in the midst of fundraising before they register.

To watch GNews! episodes and to subscribe to its YouTube channel, visit youtube.com/ channel/Ct7hq3vVmGiCe y pw AMdacRLA.t

“We are still confident in getting over 12,000 participants and a maximum of 15,000,” Picaud, the former treasurer of the Federation of Gay Games, said. “Our budget is based on 12,000 participants.” That would make Paris the biggest Gay Games since 1994-2006, a run in which Gay Games in New York City, Amsterdam, Sydney and Chicago each drew more than 10,000 participants. The Gay Games have 1,195 hometown Parisians registered - more than twice the number

that attended the Gay Games the last time they were in Europe. The United States has 2,033 registrants, followed by France (with 1,389), Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland and China. Picaud said 1,601 women have registered. For more about Gay Games X and registration information, visit www.paris2018.com. For information about the FGG, visit www. gaygames.org.t

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<< International News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

Trans Malaysians speak out against conversion therapy course by Heather Cassell

ransgender Malaysian activists are alarmed by a conversion therapy course hosted by government officials in an eastern coastal state in the Muslim-majority nation. The voluntary course would take place over several days during 2018 in the Terengganu State of Malaysia following a survey of the transgender community. Terengganu executive council member Ghazali Taib explained to Agence France-Presse the goal of the course and what it would involve after state officials announced the survey and course December 30. He said the course would help the women “return to normal lives.” “Transgender women are part of our society … they are our responsibility,” Taib told the AFP. However, he added a caveat. “At the end, it is up to them to make a choice. The government’s concept is not [to] force. [We] give them a path to make the best choices for their lives,” said Taib. The only available official figures on transgender Malaysians is from a health ministry document in 2014. The ministry estimated that the country was home to about 24,000 transgender sex workers as of that year. It is unclear if the survey or courses will target or include transgender men. Prominent transgender activists blasted Terengganu State officials. “They’re looking more to ... corrective therapy, which violates everyone’s rights in so many ways,” Nisha Ayub, the country’s leading transgender activist, told The Straits Times.

Ayub received an award from former Secretary of State John Kerry for her activism in 2016. “If [transgenders] ... feel that they cannot change themselves, they will feel like outcasts from society,” she added. In a Facebook post, Ayub raised her concerns about the Terengganu officials’ approach to the Mak Nyah Tulen, what the transgender community is called in Malaysia. “Stop assuming that you can change a person into the mold of your own beliefs or understanding,” wrote Ayub on Facebook, scolding Malaysian leaders. “Stop imposing your rights, path or views to dictate others. Stop denying our rights to our own life. Stop misrepresenting and stereotyping the community.” She added, “We are not a problem” and “we don’t harm anyone. Yet, we are discriminated in so ma[n]y ways just because we are being truthful to ourselves.” Ayub advised the government to reach out and have a conversation with the transgender community. The state officials need to educate themselves, she said, about the transgender community and how gender identity is different from sexual orientation; the failures of past corrective efforts that were harmful to the transgender community; Malaysian transgender history, and international and Malaysian human rights law regarding gender identity. She pointed out that the Malaysian government’s approaches toward the transgender community continue to push people into hiding and cause more problems than solve issues.

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Thilaga Sulathireh, who co-founded with Ayub the Malaysian transgender activist organization Justice for Sisters, agreed. “If you ask someone not to be themselves that will have an adverse impact on the health and well-being of the person,” Sulathireh told the Times. Discrimination against LGBT people in Malaysia is “pervasive,” a Human Right Watch report found in 2017. The report documented that people who violated the country’s laws against sodomy faced jail time and whipping in the Southeast Asian country, reported the Times.

Ukrainian LGBTs find safety in Kiev shelter

In Ukraine’s capital city, Kiev, LGBTs find a safe haven filled with rainbows and resources to begin new lives living openly. The four-room flat outside of Kiev’s city center, provided by Insight, an LGBT organization, has bunk

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Political Notebook

From page 5

Trump pardons his son and sonin-law forcing Congress to face the fact that Mueller can’t save them from doing their jobs. Impeachment happens after November 2018. The 2018 wave election will clear out Republicans from many suburban congressional districts. It will also show the limits of gerrymandering where planners sliced up Republicans into districts with just five or ten percent majorities. Democrats take the U.S. House. California legislators reintroduce Assembly Bill 1250, a union created bill that blocks counties from contracting service to nonprofits in an attempt to save some county jobs. Also revealing that the toxic effect of money buying candidates who do their masters’ bidding - not what’s good for their own constituents - happens across the political spectrum. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom’s past affair with his former campaign manager’s wife will come back to haunt him during this year’s election. It will also cause his current wife to insist he hire a gay campaign manager for the 2018 governor’s race. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) will win re-election only to have her staff later reveal she has actually been living alone on an isolated island since 2014 and all her senate appearances only occur via astral projections. El Cerrito’s gay mayor, Gabriel Quinto, will continue to promote his city as a welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people. And Richmond Rainbow Pride keeps raising the profile of LGBTQ+ people in Contra Costa County’s second largest city. San Francisco is renamed “The West Bay” by those of us who live in the East Bay - as the techopolis continues to become a world apart from most common folk. Oakland is formally declared

beds, a kitchen, and a common area and temporarily houses up to eight people at a time. Residents can stay up to three months and, if needed, longer on an ad hoc basis. They also receive services, such as: food, clothing, medicine, a travel card, legal help, and psychological assistance. The halfway house has been a great opportunity for Pavel, a 48-year old man from Donetsk who works in the pharmaceutical sector. “It’s a great opportunity for people to adapt and start a new life. You don’t have to worry about finding work without knowing where to sleep,” Pavel, who declined to provide his real name, told Reuters. The safe house was originally launched to assist LGBT people fleeing from the conflict in Crimea in June 2014, but since then it has opened its doors to queer Ukrainians from all over the country. Yevhenii Kalashnyk, a 20-year-old from Nikopol, found comfort and a

“The City” by all queer people who make less than $150,000 per year. The Rainbow Community Center’s fifth annual Inclusive Schools Summit will happen in October 2018. The summit shows the zeal and activism underway among our LGBTQ+ young people who continue to create safer and more equitable schools and communities for themselves and their peers. The resistance is joined by our next generation! Ben-David Barr, Ph.D. Outgoing Executive Director, Rainbow Community Center In the hindsight that is 20/20 we can now declare, with no hesitation or timidity, that Trump is an unm i t i g a t e d National Center for Lesbian horror as Rights Executive p re s i d e n t . Director Kate Lessons Kendell learned from 2017 inform my optimistic, but still deeply cautious, predictions for 2018. Building on the synergy, power and courage of Black Lives Matter, the Women’s Marches, the #MeToo movement, and many others stepping up to say “No More,” we will flip the U.S. House and Senate in the November mid-terms. We will also win dozens of local and statewide seats for political leaders who reflect the faces and values of true inclusion and who will be the harbinger of radical change. Trump’s approval finally drops below 30 percent. In a Twitter tantrum he announces he will not run for re-election in 2020. Putin

way to think about the direction he will go in his own life after a picture he posted on his Instagram account lead to threats from his parents. The photo was of Kalashnyk kissing a male friend beneath the mural of Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev lip-locked with East German leader Erich Honecker on the Berlin Wall, he told the Thomas Reuters Foundation. That was his coming out as gay. “I was emotionally full,” he said about the moment in September last year that changed his life. He never returned home following that kiss and living half the year in Germany, his first trip to Western Europe. However, Kalashnyk doesn’t see his future in Ukraine. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1991 and a law banning workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was passed in 2015. Nonetheless, Ukrainian society remains largely homophobic. LGBT Ukrainians face stigma, discrimination, and violent attacks, Ukrainian queer rights groups told Reuters. The Eastern European country still ranks at a low 19 out of 100 points on Rainbow Europe’s 2017 LGBT rights index, which is funded by the European Union. While some LGBT Ukrainians are happy with their new home in proEurope Kiev, change is coming too slowly for Kalashnyk, he told the international news agency. “I don’t see how I can realize myself here. I don’t see my future in Ukraine,” he said.t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell or oitwnews@gmail.com.

offers to make him director of Russian social media; he accepts. In light of the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ win challenging the Trump administration ban on transgender service in the military, a slew of lawsuits are unleashed against every dangerous policy pursued by this venal administration. Donations pour into NCLR to continue its groundbreaking work. We will finally begin seeing stories of the “Real America.” Diverse communities in urban centers and suburban pockets, where residents speak 23 (or more) different languages and represent a range of races, religions, sexual orientations and gender identities. The tribalism of 2016-17 begins to fade, replaced with a newfound appreciation for difference. California ends cash bail. Other states quickly follow suit. Widely hailed as a huge success, the many stories about the damage done by bail help lead to serious reforms in our racist criminal justice and corrections system. (Hey, a girl can dream.) As a way to honor former San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (RIP Mayor Lee, you were a good human), the city’s politicos agree to run campaigns based on ideas and dialogue and refrain from baseless character attacks and lessthan-truthful mailers. (Hey, a girl can, oh...never mind.) Regardless of the degree to which any of this happens, San Francisco will continue to be the locus of the greatest resistance, humanity and commitment to fighting oppressive governments and systems anywhere in the world. And we will never stop. Kate Kendell Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights See page 15 >>

To reunite with their families, emperor penguins migrate up to 30 miles across the ice. You just have to make it across the rink.

Open through January 7 Explore the science behind the season and learn how Antarctic penguins survive and thrive in frozen polar ecosystems at this annual holiday exhibit. This year, falling snow flurries, wintry surprises, and an all-new holiday ice rink await! Open every day this holiday season. Get tickets at calacademy.org

28530-CAS-TisSeason-Print-Penguin-Bay Area Reporter-9.75x16-11.30.17-FA.indd 1

11/30/17 4:20 PM

<< From the Cover

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

B.A.R. archives

From page 1

what the LGBTQ community has achieved in San Francisco.” The paper’s old articles, reviews, and other content joins the digitized collection of its obituaries, which was completed several years ago by the GLBT Historical Society and is accessible via its website. “The completion of digitizing the B.A.R.’s archives is a milestone,” said longtime news editor Cynthia Laird. “I regularly receive calls from researchers, students, and others wanting to access old issues of the paper and have had to refer them to the hard copies at the historical society or the microfiche ones at the library. That may work for people who are local, but was not practical for those outside the Bay Area. Now, they will have immediate access.” Digitized versions of the B.A.R. starting with the August, 5, 2005 issue, have been available for years via the newspaper’s archive section on its own website at http://ebar. com/archives/. A search tool allows those interested to select a date and pull up all of the stories that ran in that issue of the paper, which is published weekly on Thursdays, or they have the option of searching through the entire archive using specific keywords or dates. Working backward from the July 28, 2005 issue of the B.A.R., Bill Levay, a project archivist with the GLBT Historical Society, has been assisting volunteers in scanning and creating PDF versions of the papers in the organization’s archives. They have completed all of the issues dating back to January 5, 1995 and expect to finish the work by the end of this year so that every issue since the B.A.R. launched on April 1, 1971 is accessible online. “There is still a way to go,” said Levay as he demonstrated how the scanning process worked a few days prior to New Year’s Eve. “There are 1,500-plus issues to scan.” Levay, a straight ally who spends 10 hours a week working on the project, oversees a rotating team of volunteers who have been helping with the digitization project. As they complete the work, Levay sends copies of the digitized B.A.R. issues

Rick Gerharter

Bill Levay (left), digitization project archivist at the GLBT Historical Society, and Executive Director Terry Beswick demonstrate how the scanning process works to make old copies of the Bay Area Reporter accessible online.

to the two websites that will host them. The first is the Internet Archive, based in San Francisco, whose B.A.R. archival collection can be accessed online at https://archive.org/details/ bayareareporter&tab=collection. It is sortable by date and can also be searched using keywords. The other online repository is housed on the California Digital Newspaper Collection website, which is overseen by UC Riverside. On the main page of the site - https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc - type “Bay Area Reporter” into the search prompt to pull up the archived issues. The digital collection can then be sorted by date as well as searched using keywords. With the older papers now accessible online, stories from each issue should begin showing up in Google searches and other internet search engines, said Levay, who has a master’s degree in library and information science from the Pratt Institute in New York and works fulltime for the California Historical Society. Not only do searches of the digital archives bring up past B.A.R. stories, they will also result in some advertisements that include the searched words being listed among

the results, noted Levay. The archival material, he said, should provide a wealth of information to academics, historians, and others with LGBT-related projects. “The end goal is this amazing resource we are going to build. I am sure clever people will figure out some great projects to do with this material,” said Levay. The Bob Ross Foundation, named after the B.A.R.’s founding publisher, who died in 2003, donated $50,000 to the historical society in 2016 to purchase the state-of-the-art equipment needed to digitize the newspapers. Using an HP Bookeye 4 scanner, each page of the old newspapers is scanned, usually taking 10 minutes to complete one entire issue. Previews of the scanned pages are then checked on both the computer screen attached to the scanner and on a desktop computer connected to it. “It is only taking pictures of the paper. Software processes the images and pulls out the text,” explained Levay, who runs the optical character recognition program at night and on weekends. He will then visually check the digital versions of the paper before saving them to several external hard drives so there are backup copies.

Levay then ships them off to the online archival sites to be uploaded to the web. The Internet Archive is better for reading through online versions of the newspaper, said Levay, while the site for California newspapers has a better search mode. GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick, who was a freelance reporter for the B.A.R. in the mid-1990s and joined the staff as a full-time news reporter in 1999 and 2000, has used the digital archives to search for his old stories he penned. He cringed when re-reading one story he filed about why stripes honoring those lost to AIDS had been added to the rainbow flag at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro. Nonetheless, he printed it out and hung the article on his office door. “There is so much content there. I was an inexperienced reporter covering a wide variety of issues that really were not being covered elsewhere,” recalled Beswick. Searching through the archived papers brings up long-forgotten coverage about the early days of the AIDS epidemic and the various work undertaken by the LGBT

Food program

From page 2

three months, as well as consult with a dietician to ensure the meals are providing them the right nutritional support. “When you get medically tailored meals, they actually help heal you because food is medicine,” said Ayoub. The California pilot is modeled after efforts by the organization Manna in Philadelphia, whose own pilot project demonstrated that delivering three medically tailored meals each day for six months to 65 patients with chronic diseases reduced their health care costs from $38,937 a month to $28,183 a month. “People who are food insecure or malnourished spend more time in the hospital and are more frequently hospitalized because they often don’t recover at home,” said Ron Karp, executive director of Food for Thought in Sonoma. “All those factors add a huge cost to their treatment, whereas food intervention is relatively inexpensive.” As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last July when the funding for the California pilot program was approved, a key factor in winning support from state lawmakers was findings from the UCSF/Project Open Hand “Food Is Medicine” research study that examined the impact of a medically tailored meal program for San Francisco and Alameda County residents who had HIV, Type 2 diabetes, and/or dual diagnosis.

Courtesy Project Angel Food

Project Angel Food volunteers assist staff of the Los Angeles agency with preparing meals for clients.

In early 2017, the Journal of Urban Health published the results, which demonstrated a 63 percent reduction in hospitalization, a 58 percent decrease in emergency room visits, and a 50 percent increase in medication adherence. “It is not rocket science. Of course it does reduce health care costs. We have been saying this for years, but finally we got the science behind it,” said Ryle. Project Open Hand Executive Chef Adrian Barrow, a gay man who has worked for the agency for nearly a decade, has been coordinating with his counterparts at the other agencies involved in the pilot project to tweak recipes for the meals they will be providing.

“We have been the leaders in trying to decide what the food and menus will look like,” said Barrow. “We have been sharing that information with the other agencies to make sure we are providing the same nutrition innovation in the study.” One of the biggest changes in how Barrow and the other chefs decide what food to cook for the pilot is they have been closely consulting with dieticians to ensure each meal is medically tailored to meet the different health needs of each person in the program. “We are following very strict guidelines,” said Barrow. “We are providing a certain amount of

calories and nutrients beneficial to each client. These are not just meals that look and taste good. We are literally following guidelines useful to them.” Should it prove to be successful, as the participating agencies expect it will, the program will be expanded to include agencies serving cities in the state’s Central Valley region. The state has agreed to increase the financing for the program to $35 million if the three-year pilot trial works. “I don’t think the general population really understands the cost savings effective nutrition can provide in overall health costs. Poor nutrition is one of the biggest reasons

community, noted Beswick. “This history has really only been accessible on this top shelf here in our archives or at the library’s archives,” said Beswick. He hopes the material inspires not just historians but also authors, biographers, filmmakers, and artists to create new works. “There is a lot of inspiration to behold there,” said Beswick. “It is a literal treasure trove of information we have up there going back all the way to 1971.” He said he has given some current and former LGBT political leaders a “heads up” that past coverage of them in the B.A.R. can now be easily rediscovered. “There will be some bodies unburied,” joked Beswick. Former B.A.R. publisher Thomas E. Horn, who is president of the Bob Ross Foundation, which has a minority ownership stake in the newspaper, said the digital archival collection will be “an indispensable tool” for telling the LGBT community’s story. “I consider the launching of an online, searchable archive of every edition of the Bay Area Reporter to be a tremendous step toward giving scholars and the public alike access to the first draft of the history of our movement,” said Horn. “People will see what the issues of the time were; the personalities who shaped our movement; what was happening politically, socially and culturally. They will even see how gay people met, socialized, sought housing, and found lovers, and how advertisers reached out to our community. It is the history of our movement.” Levay is constantly looking for volunteers to assist with scanning the old B.A.R. issues. He created a step-by-step guide for how to do the work, which will continue with other periodicals in the GLBT Historical Society’s holdings once the B.A.R. digitization effort concludes. “I think we can do it within the next year, assuming we get good, committed volunteers to help us,” said Levay. “That is really the key.” Anyone interested in helping out should email Levay at bill@GLBThistory.org.t

why people are readmitted to the hospital within the first 30 days of being discharged,” said Hepfer with the Health Trust. “If they return home to little or no healthy food, often it is harder for them to maintain their medication regime, or take their medication, or have the strength to rehab properly. This is a low-cost intervention with a really high upside.” The success of the California program could also prompt other states to follow suit, argued Hepfer, and take the model nationwide to not only reduce health care costs but also improve the health outcomes of their citizens. “There just hasn’t been a robust enough research project with high enough numbers for us to really take this to payers like Medi-Cal and Medicaid and say here is the evidence behind this concept. Most studies to date have been slightly smaller than what we are doing,” said Hepfer. “With any intervention that becomes a covered benefit, you have to have proof. We are hoping this larger project will kind of be the final proof that this really works, we know that, and let’s invest in it and save a lot of money and help people be healthier.” Most of the agencies involved were launched in the 1980s and 1990s to care for those living with HIV and AIDS. Once again, they are pioneering a new model to provide heath care to people in need. “We are the little engine that could,” said Ayoub. t

t <<

Community News>>

Political Notebook

From page 12

If the B.A.R. had asked me to make these political predictions a year ago, I feel like my outlook would have been a lot Christopher different and Vasquez significantly dourer. But the last two months in local, state, and national politics has caused pretty much everyone to recalculate their winners and losers in 2018. Between the Democratic wave in November, the resignation of politicians due to sexual misconduct, the unfortunate passing of our own mayor, and the many missteps of the president and Congress, I’ve retooled my predictions. So here are my totally non-scientific, but somewhat educated, guesstimates for the June and November elections.

January 4-10, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

We’ll start with the easier one. On the national level, as long as the Democratic Party can keep it together and form a coherent message (and that’s a big if these days), I foresee our own Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) once again taking up the gavel of speaker of the House of Representatives as the party rides the wave of anti-Trump resentment to gain the seats to take back the House. Statewide, I think our former Mayor Gavin Newsom is the strong favorite to take over the governorship after Jerry Brown. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would make a fine governor, but the state has been trending more progressive, and Newsom’s leadership on issues like marijuana legalization will lead him to Sacramento. Democrats will keep control of both chambers of the state Legislature, but after the sexual harassment scandals will no longer have the coveted two-thirds majority needed to pass revenue measures. Local politics will be a lot more exciting now that there is an unexpected opening for mayor. Despite

strong campaigns from Acting Mayor London Breed, who is also the District 5 supervisor, and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, as well as possibly City Attorney Dennis Herrera and state Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), I predict that gay former state legislator and city supervisor Mark Leno will be solidly elected as our first out LGBT mayor of San Francisco. The fact that he already had a campaign apparatus up and running, as well as nearly $500,000 already raised, makes him the strong favorite for the June 5 special election. June will also see a change of leadership in District 8 when gay City College Trustee Rafael Mandelman wins the supervisor seat to finish the second term of gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) over gay appointed Supervisor Jeff Sheehy. Lee did not have a knack for picking winning candidates for supervisor appointments, and that will show as Sheehy runs against one of the most admired and hard-working public servants in the city. Mandelman has been working non-stop for this seat since losing in 2010 to Wiener,

and all that hard work will earn him a seat on the board in both the June and November elections. Board of Education Commissioner Matt Haney will easily win the District 6 seat being vacated by Kim due to term limits over corporatist Sonja Trauss, despite her support from Wiener and Chiu. And the sparks (and boatloads of cash) will fly in District 2 as BART Board Member Nick Josefowitz (and his anti-democratic ballot measure implementing lifetime term limits for local office) loses to Michela AliotoPier, who will take her former seat back on the board.t Christopher Vasquez Former campaign manager, Jane Kim CA Senate campaign

How LGBTcommunity? community? Howdodoyou youspeak speakto to the the LGBT

Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, will return Monday, January 22.

How do you speak to the LGBT community? Through thepublications publications Through the they knowand andtrust. trust. they know Through the publications How LGBTknow community? Howdodoyou youspeak speakto to the thethey LGBT community? and trust.

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) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

How do you speak to the LGBT community? How LGBTcommunity? community? thepublications publications Through the Howdodoyou youspeak speakto to the theThrough LGBT they knowand andtrust. trust. they know the publications How do you speak to theThrough LGBT community? Through theand publications Through the publications they know trust. they knowand andtrust. trust. they know Through the publications they know and trust.

Legal Notices>> PUBLIC NOTICE

Rooﬁng & Solar Construction Inc accepting Subcontractor Bids for: Shell & Core Improvements1235 Mission Street; Scope 3: Roofs 1&3, SFUSD. Bid date 1/4/18 3pm. LBE, WBE, MBE participated desired. Mail bids to Caryfabiani@ rooﬁngsolarinc.com

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-553513

In the matter of the application of: GHANI BOUHADRA, 800 EMBARCADERO #237, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been ﬁled in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner GHANI BOUHADRA, is requesting that the name GHANI BOUHADRA, be changed to DANIEL WILLIAMS BIRBAUM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 1st of Feb 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037851200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IBARRA CHIROPRACTIC, 550A CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RYNE IBARRA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/01/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/16/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037866100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHINATOWN MAGIC, 530 POINT LOBOS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CYNTHIA F. YEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 03/14/08. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/27/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037880700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAMPOS CREATIVE, 1259 HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREA CAMPOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/05/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037886700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BANKHEAD EQUIPMENT, 1801 JERROD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JACK BANKHEAD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/07/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037857700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANGELA GRACE DESIGN, 2389 FILBERT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANGELA GRACE SCALETTA. 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 11/21/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037872700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANCHOR MEDITATION, 748 B PORTOLA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94129. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY MICHEL RYAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/01/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037878800

Representing the “best of the best” in LGBT media, with over a million readers weekly in print and online.

Representing the “best of the best” in LGBT media, with 212-242-6863 over a million readers weekly in print and online. Representing theinfo@nationallgbtmediaassociation.com “best of the best” in LGBT media, with Representing the “best of the best” in LGBT with online. www.nationallgbtmediaassociation.com over a million readers weekly in media, print212-242-6863 and over a million readers weekly in print and online. Representing the info@nationallgbtmediaassociation.com “best of the best” in LGBT media, with 212-242-6863 212-242-6863 www.nationallgbtmediaassociation.com info@nationallgbtmediaassociation.com over a million readers weekly inLGBT print and online. Representing the “best thebest” best”ininLGBT media, with info@nationallgbtmediaassociation.com Representing the “best ofofthe media, with www.nationallgbtmediaassociation.com www.nationallgbtmediaassociation.com over million readersweekly weeklyininprint printand andonline. online. 212-242-6863 over aa million readers

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CREED CORE FITNESS, 145 GARDENSIDE DR #17, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KA YAN CHIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 08/30/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037882300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN MEDIA MARKETING, 246 THRIFT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSE SAETEURN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/06/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/06/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037854400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEAPER CIGARETTES, 1709 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SHARIFI BROTHERS INVESTMENTS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/17/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/17/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037885600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAAVI INDIAN NEPALESE, 1063 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BHUWAN FOOD INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/07/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/07/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037885800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SENSE8, 404 CLIPPER COVE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TREASURE8 LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/20/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/07/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037879200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLOR DE CAFE, 1020 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LOPEZ ALVAREZ & OLVERA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/05/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018

<< Classifieds

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 4-10, 2018

Legal Notices>> NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF PEARL N. MITSUGI IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-17-301456

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of PEARL N. MITSUGI, AKA PEARL NOBUKO MITSUGI, AKA PEARL MITSUGI. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JUNJI SUZUKI in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JUNJI SUZUKI be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Jan 10, 2018, 9:00am, Dept. 204, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: ANDREW S. BARTLETT (SBN 305565), MARSHALL SUZUKI LAW GROUP, LLP, 150 SPEAR ST #725, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105; Ph. (415) 618-0090.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 4, 2018 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF FREDDIE PATRICK WILLIAMS, JR IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES17-301428

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of FREDDIE PATRICK WILLIAMS, JR. A Petition for Probate has been filed by RENARD WILLIAMS in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that RENARD WILLIAMS be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Jan 10, 2018, 9:00am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: MR. LON D. LAZAR (SBN: 127434) POB 720065, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94172, (415) 742-2088

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037879000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPICE OF AMERICA, 1655 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE SPICE CLUB LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 05/01/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/17.

DEC 14, 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 2018 NOTICE

The Annual Report of the Burk Chung Foundation, 465 Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 is available at the Foundation’s ofﬁce for inspection during regular business hours. Copies of the Annual Report have been furnished to the Attorney General of the State of California. Burk Chung, Trustee. Fiscal year ended November 30, 2017.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037893400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IRISH EXPRESS MOVING; IRISH MOVING COMPANY; IRISH MOVERS; IRISH MOVING & STORAGE; IRISH EXPERT MOVERS; IRISH EXPRESS MOVING & STORAGE, 2095 JERROLD AVE #313, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN P. O’DONOGHUE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 08/26/94. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/11/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037898700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNITED LOCKSMITH, 1190 PINE ST, #109, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YGAL MAGEN. 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 12/14/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037900100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOR TOMORROW, 18A HENRY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LORA MENTER. 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 12/15/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037894600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARINA HAIR SALON, 3224 SCOTT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHNNY DAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/12/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/12/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037871800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INTERNATIONAL ANTIVIRAL SOCIETY - USA, 425 CALIFORNIA ST #1450, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY - USA (DC). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 02/22/11. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037889300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: I AM WONDER WOMAN, 3956 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed I AM WONDERN WOMAN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/20/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037875400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COFFEE BAR, 1890 BRYANT ST #100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed COFFEE BAR 1, LLC CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 09/12/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/01/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037894900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COFFEE BAR, 101 MONTGOMERY ST #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company and is signed COFFEE BAR VENTURES, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/12/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037895000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037901200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MS SF LEATHER; MS SAN FRANCISCO LEATHER, 270 BAYVIEW CIRCLE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SALEAL HOPKINS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/13/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/18/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037906600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COFFEE BAR, 199 NEW MONTGOMERY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 6 DEGREES CAFE 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 12/12/17.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JIKA RAMEN & GOLD CURRY SUSHI, 3925 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIALING WANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/20/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/20/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037861200

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037896000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOCA, 2363 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed USA SOCA INTL TRADING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/21/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/21/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037890500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HI-WAY, 3853 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ROADSIDE BBQ III (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/01/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037896100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: POLLO CAMPERO, 2740 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed POLLO CAMPERO OF CALIFORNIA, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 10/30/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/13/17.

DEC 21, 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 2018 PUBLIC NOTICE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-553481

In the matter of the application of: LEAH KATHLEEN RANDOLPH, for change of name having been ﬁled in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LEAH KATHLEEN RANDOLPH, is requesting that the name LEAH KATHLEEN RANDOLPH, be changed to LEAH KATHLEEN CONDER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514, Dept. 514 on the 23rd of January 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037876800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DMB REGISTRATION SERVICE, 5190 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARTHA PATRICIA BENITEZ CASTREJON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/04/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037914300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLOWER CART, 2 MONTGOMERY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VALERIE CHIENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/26/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/26/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037910600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TOWNSHIP 31, 1629 JERROLD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARWYN MOONRISE KOLTUNIAK. 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 12/22/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CREATIVE MEDIA, 389 OAK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ORIEL NAGEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/08/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/12//17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037900200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIND FU MEDIA, 29 GROVE ST #340, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES BEACH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/15/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037904000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TENA PRO NAILS, 2717 SAN BRUNO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed BICH NGOC THI NGUYEN & LAN THUY THANH LE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/19/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/19/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037878700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HELLOSIGN; HELLOFAX, 301 HOWARD ST #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JN PROJECTS INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 08/01/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037909600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOTHA SAING, 291 PUTNAM ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SIMKEINASO, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/22/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/22/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037874900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHELTON CAPITOL MANAGEMENT, 455 MARKET ST #1600, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed RFS PARTNERS, LP (GP OF CCM PARTNERS). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 01/01/12. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/01/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037905200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOSS NAIL BAR, 702 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed STRAND SF LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/19/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/19/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036982900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SPARC, 123 10TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by NOPARC, INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/09/16.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017 NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF CLIFFORD BARBANELL AND HARRIET BARBANELL BY TRUSTEES, CYNTHIA B. SILVERSTEIN AND GREGG S. BARBANELL COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO

Notice is hereby given to the creditors and contingent creditors of the above-named decedents that all persons having claims against the decedents are required to mail or deliver a copy to CYNTHIA B. SILVERSTEIN and GREGG S. BARBANELL, as Trustees of the BARBANELL FAMILY TRUST dated March 2, 2001, wherein the decedents were the Trustors, at 23 Ralston Road, Atherton, California 940273912, within the later of four months after January 4, 2018 (the date of the first publication of Notice to Creditors) or, if Notice is mailed or personally delivered to you, sixty (60) days after the date this Notice is mailed or personally delivered to you, or you must petition to file a late claim as provided in Section 19103 of the Probate Code. A claim form may be obtained from the court clerk. For your protection, you are encouraged to file your claim by certified mail, with return receipt requested. Trustees: CYNTHIA B. SILVERSTEIN and GREGG S. BARBANELL Address: 23 Ralston Road, Atherton, California 940273912

JAN 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037917400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAILEY’S PROTECTIVE & SECURITY SERVICES, 247 NELSON AVE, PACIFICA, CA 94044. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEVEN RAY BAILEY. 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 12/27/17.

JAN 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037918900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHERESE ELSEY PHOTOGRAPHY, 2230 MISSION ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHERESE ELSEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 12/28/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/28/17.

JAN 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037923700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MANI PEDI PLUS, 1447 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TRANG MY THI DOAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 01/01/18 The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/02/18.

JAN 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037919600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOREWOOD VENTURES, 175 BLUXOME ST #207, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANNY HAO-YEI LIN. 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 12/28/17.

JAN 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037920400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE BAY AREA TEAM; BAY AREA TEAM, 1699 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PACIFIC UNION INTERNATIONAL, 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 12/29/17.

JAN 04, 11, 18, 25, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037876400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REVEL & ROUGE, 1616 16TH ST #370, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVA GUTHMILLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/01/17. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/17.

DEC 28, 2017; JAN 04, 11, 18, 2017

January Outreach A Community Dialogue on Strategies for Addressing Housing and Community Development Needs The Citizens’ Committee on Community Development cordially invites you to an evening of food and conversation on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at George Washington High School (600 32nd Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121). We hope you can join us for a discussion of housing and community development needs and to share resources! For more information, please visit http://sfmohcd.org/community-development or contact Mike King at (415) 701-4228 or michael.king@sfgov.org.

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Count on WIC for Healthy Families WIC is a federally funded nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children. You may qualify if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or just had a baby; or have a child under age 5; and have a low to medium income; and live in California. Newly pregnant women, migrant workers, and working families are encouraged to apply. WIC provides Nutrition Education and Health information, breastfeeding support, checks for healthy foods (like fruits and vegetables), and referrals to medical providers and community services. You may qualify for WIC if you receive Medi-Cal, CalFresh (Food Stamps), or CalWORKS (TANF) benefits. A family of four can earn up to $3,747 before tax per month and qualify. Enroll early! Call today to see if you qualify and to make an appointment. Call City and County of San Francisco WIC Program at 415-575-5788. This institution is an equal opportunity provider The Assessment Appeals Board resolves legal and value assessment issues between the Assessor’s office and property owners. We have two vacancies on Board 1, which oversees all downtown properties – high rise residential, office, commercial, hotels. Board 1 also oversees all properties over $50 million in assessed value throughout the City. Assessment appeal hearings are quasi-judicial, conducted in a manner similar to a court setting, with evidence and testimony presented by the parties. The Board then evaluates the evidence and testimony, and renders its decision. To be eligible for seat appointment, you must have a minimum of five years professional experience in California as either a: (1) public accountant; (2) real estate broker; (3) attorney; or (4) property appraiser accredited by a nationally recognized organization, or certified by either the Office of Real Estate Appraiser or the State Board of Equalization. For more information regarding the Assessment Appeals Board call (415) 554-6778. The City and County of San Francisco encourage public outreach. Articles are translated into several languages to provide better public access. The newspaper makes every effort to translate the articles of general interest correctly. No liability is assumed by the City and County of San Francisco or the newspapers for errors and omissions.

CNS-3082028#

SF Opera 2017

Winter films

Winter pop

High bourgeois

Vol. 48 • No. 1 • January 4-10, 2018

www.ebar.com/arts

Kevin Berne

Carey Perloff’s big send-off ‘Party’ by Richard Dodds

he party’s over. Or nearly so. After 25 years at the helm of American Conservatory Theater, Carey Perloff will soon blow out the candles, make a passel of wishes, and hope to open a present that will start the next chapter in her life. It’s fitting on many levels that the last play she will direct as ACT’s artistic director is Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party.” See page 17 >>

Carey Perloff chose Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party” for multiple reasons for the last play she will direct as artistic director of ACT.

Charly Herscovici/Artists Rights Society

2018 in Bay Area art museums by Sura Wood

he country may have been taken over by philistines eager to cut funding for the NEA and other arts organizations they deem wasteful or nefarious, but at least for the Bay Area in 2018, there’s reason for guarded optimism. The profoundly moving, not-to-be-missed “Revelations: Art from the African American South” continues its run at the de Young through April 1, and you still have a chance to catch LaToya Ruby Frazier, a gifted photographer whose affecting body of work in Pier 24’s “The Grain of the Present” documents the decline of her hometown of Braddock, PA. Expect more art exhibited in unconventional spaces this year, and the imminent commencement of the Asian Art Museum’s $90 million expansion project, which includes a new, 13,000-sq.-ft. pavilion, art terrace, and areas dedicated to contemporary art. Though construction won’t be completed until summer 2019, the museum will remain open. See page 24 >>

Collection of Lisbet Tellefsen

Left: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (1971), American poster, artist & publisher unidentified, coming to the GLBT History Museum.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Above: Rene Magritte, The Kiss (1951), oil on canvas, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, coming to SFMOMA.

<< Out There

18 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

HERSHEY FELDER

Books incoming by Roberto Friedman

Music by Piotr

Ilyich Tchaikovsky Written and Performed by Hershey Felder

Directed by Trevor Hay

”Felder is truly stunning!” Broadway World

Acclaimed for recent portrayals of Beethoven, Irving Berlin, and more, piano virtuoso Hershey Felder brings to life the legendary Russian composer and LGBTQ issues in his day.

Jan 10–Feb 11 Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts theatreworks.org 650.463.1960

TheatreWorks S I L I CO N VA L L E Y

HERSHEY FELDER / COURTESY EIGHTY-EIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

Creating Memories for a Lifetime!

e’d never review a book we haven’t read. But right now there are several volumes piling up on our desk that are calling our attention away from whatever we’re supposed to be reading or writing instead. Here are some books that we’re looking forward to reading, assigning to review, or both this coming year. Right at the very top of the pile is the advance reading copy of the new biography “Agnes Martin: Pioneer, Painter, Icon” by Henry Martin coming from Schaffner Press in March. It’s full of new details about the artist’s life, her relationships with women, and the impact they had on her work. The final version of the book will include never-before-published photographs. Publication date is March 1, 2018. Anyone who knows Martin’s astonishingly quiet yet vivid work – abstract, in tones of grey, almost Zen koan-like grids and drawings – will be curious about her life. A small gallery of her art is one of the more beautiful installations in the new SFMOMA building, a chapel of sorts in homage to her artistry. The work doesn’t reproduce well, but the words entice. We’re most interested in what the publicity materials call “her many relationships with women, and her complicated attitude to those romances,” and “her close friendships with other artists in New York from 1957-67, in particular Betty Parsons, Chryssa, Lenore Tawney, Barnett Newman, and Ellsworth

good source for queer writing and scholarship, are both coming out in March. If the content of “The Rest of It: Hustlers, Cocaine, Depression, and Then Some, 1976-1988,” by Martin Duberman, is as candid as its title, we’re very impressed. Duberman is Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus at City University of New York, where he founded and directed the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. The memoir follows the author “through a period of despair, drug use, illness, anonymous sex and unhappy celibacy, and nearsuicidal depression.” Then, “Sisters in the Life – A History of Out African American Lesbian Media-Making,” Yvonne Welbon & Alexandra Juhasz, editors, includes interviews, essays, and conversations with filmmakers Angela Robinson, Tina Mabry, Dee Rees, and others, and on the making of Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman” (1996). In a blurb on the book’s cover, “New Queer Cinema” author B. Ruby Rich calls it “a VIP invitation to the coolest party.” This counts as our RSVP.

Wilde party

“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” in which movie star Annette Bening portrays movie star Gloria Grahame toward the end of her life, will open next week (find our review next issue). According to IMDB, Grahame’s paternal grandfather, the artist Reginald Francis Hallward, gave author Oscar Wilde the idea for his classic novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The painter of the portrait in the novella is named Basil Hallward. We’d say that’s no coincidence.t

Bette Davis’ last star turn

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Kelly, and the queer and avantgarde Coentis Slip/South Street community she chose, eschewing the culture of the Abstract Expressionists.” “We Were the Lucky Ones,” the debut novel by Georgia Hunter (Penguin Books paperback, Jan. 2 pub. date), is based on the author’s grandfather’s true-life Holocaust survival story. A Jewish family living in Radom, Poland, meets the maelstrom of World War II and the Nazi occupation. Its members are torn apart and scatter to far corners of the world. A map with the publicity materials shows the various journeys that made up the Kurc Family diaspora: through France, North Africa, to New York, Rio de Janeiro, as well as to the Siberian gulag. Two interesting selections from Duke University Press, always a

n director Lindsay Anderson’s sublime “The Whales of August,” screen legends Bette Davis and Lillian Gish are playing themselves, two old ladies near the end of their lives. Both are reflecting on life’s meaning. For queer icon Davis, the film was a comeback. The 79-yearold had been off the big screen for several years after suffering from a stroke and breast cancer, though she had worked in television during that period. “The Whales of August” has been restored by Kino Lorber, purveyors of classic cinema for the home-viewing market. In this new release the 30-year-old film’s colors are lush, and the sound is clear and pitch-perfect. The BluRay version, made available to the B.A.R. for viewing, is chock-full of delightful extras. This includes on-set interviews with the two stars, as

well as with co-stars Vincent Price, Ann Sothern, Harry Carey, Jr., and producer Mike Kaplan, who also speaks about the film’s production on a lively commentary track. The film is short, 90 minutes, and sweet. It’s the type of film that rarely gets made today. Almost all the action is set in a summer cottage in Maine, where elderly sisters Sarah (Gish) and Libby (Davis) are coming to terms with their relationship to each other. Libby is blind and embittered. Sarah, old and frail, still finds joy in life. She begins to wonder how much longer she can contend with Libby’s bitterness and negativity. During one extended sequence, Mr. Maranov (Vincent Price) comes to dinner. An excited Sarah dresses for the occasion, but Libby ruins the evening by being deliberately rude. The sisters also disagree on whether or not a new picture window should be built into the front of the house. “We’re too old for new things,” says the ever-negative Libby. “Life isn’t yet over for me,” replies Sarah. In spite of these battles, it’s made clear how much these two sisters love each other. During the film’s production and at the time of its 1987 release, there were many press reports about the bitter rivalry between Davis and Gish. Davis reportedly demanded top billing and was appalled that the then-93-year-old

Gish was playing the younger sister (Davis was 79). Producer Kaplan, on the commentary track, assures us that some of those stories may have been exaggerated. While there was on-set tension at first, things smoothed over when Davis saw the rushes and realized what a good film they were making. During his on-camera interview, Kaplan points out that some of Davis’ on-set bitterness may have been because she had recently been betrayed by her own daughter, BD Hyman. Hyman, an evangelical Christian, had authored “My Mother’s Keeper,” a book that painted a highly unflattering portrait of Davis. This, in addition to her health issues, had put Davis under a great deal of stress. Whatever happened off-screen, both Gish and Davis shine onscreen. There are many magical moments in “The Whales of August.” In one unforgettable sequence, Gish lights a candle and raises a glass of wine to her late husband on the 46th anniversary of his passing. In another, Davis sits in her room, tearfully touching personal family heirlooms she can no longer see. In this current age of sequels, remakes, and CGI-laden superhero movies, a film like “The Whales of August” is a delight, a throwback to a time when films focused on faces and the characters behind them, and when telling a story was the main objective of filmmakers. Davis would play a supporting role in one more film after “Whales of August.” She died in 1989; Gish passed a few years later. It’s therefore lovely to see that as their lives were drawing to a close, both ladies were still at the top of their game.t

Music>>

January 4-10, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

SF Opera’s 2017 season calls it a wrap by Philip Campbell

utumn in San Francisco “spells the thrill of first-nighting,” and the finish of the San Francisco Opera’s 2017 season already has us yearning for summertime and the return of Francesca Zambello’s “American” Ring Cycle to the War Memorial. Looking back at the varied, though occasionally predictable repertoire, arriving in jam-packed succession, our awe of the artistic and technical challenges faced by the Company is gratefully renewed. There were hits and misses, a world premiere, directorial missteps and some aging shows, but no egregious flops, and many memorable performances. Professional excellence maintained the international reputation of the house, and the venerable institution sturdily survived. The boldly colorful David Hockney production of Puccini’s “Turandot” gave the 95th season lift-off in a good revival that scarcely showed its age. At the conclusion, outgoing SFO Music Director Nicola Luisotti, who conducted, was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal. Later in the run (all the way into December), SFO General Director Matthew Shilvock presented Hockney with his own medallion, the Company’s highest honor. Austrian soprano Martina Serafin assumed the title role admirably. She was replaced for the second half of the run by Swedish diva Nina Stemme. Tenor Brian Jagde, in his role debut as besotted Prince Calaf, starred in both casts. He again proved his winning combination of looks and talent. Adler Fellow Toni Marie Palmertree is also fast becoming a reliable casting solution with a big developing career of her own. Her portrayal of the slave girl Liù was haunting.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Austrian soprano Martina Serafin in the title role of Puccini’s “Turandot” for San Francisco Opera.

Bass-baritone Davone Tines and soprano Julia Bullock in John Adams’ and Peter Sellars’ “Girls of the Golden West.”

And talk about haunting: original production director Keith Warner and revival director Anja Kühnhold (both making SFO debuts) almost burned the house down with a trio of magnificent female vocalists in their fascinating take on Richard Strauss’ “Elektra.” The co-production of SFO, Prague National Theatre, and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe was remarkable for the acting challenges it offered the cast. Break-out star turns, featuring Merola Opera Program alumna Michaela Martens as a boozy Clytemnestra, and Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka as Elektra’s softer sister Chrysothemis, were anchored by Christine Goerke’s breathtaking tour de force embodiment of the title role. It was a magnificent night of opera, and the undisputed jewel in the crown of the season. Verdi’s “La Traviata” could only pale in comparison. The well-worn but beautifully curated production by English Director John Copley looked refreshingly traditional, and Nicola Luisotti confidently conducted an international cast featur-

show. I thought it perfectly captured the hothouse romance-novel slant of Boussard’s direction. The most discussed and studied world premiere of an American opera in years closed the season, engendering conversation and debate that is ongoing. John Adams’ and Peter Sellars’ latest collaboration, “Girls of the Golden West,” was a bold attempt to re-read the history of the California Gold Rush, using speeches, poetry, songs and memoirs of the day as the basis for a sprawling libretto. There were starkly divided critical reactions to Sellars’ book and overwrought, sometimes confusing direction, but among everyone who made it through the night, there was consensus on his obviously good intentions. I was somewhere in the middle, and disappointed with the production as it stands now. There should be a future for Adams’ massive and daring score. At 70, he continues to evolve, and his uncompromising refusal to dumb down offers hope for his latest opera as it travels the world.

ing three debuting artists. Soprano Aurelia Florian, tenor Atalla Ayan and baritone Artur Rucinski gave voice to their roles, but they could only respectfully enliven the curiously uninvolving entertainment. Massenet’s “Manon” was another opera featuring a fallen woman, but Vincent Boussard’s emotionally charged direction gave a shot of adrenaline to the cautionary tale of a doomed party girl. His vision was often annoying in execution, but there was no denying his grasp of the deliciously lurid aspects of the plot. It was fun watching a good girl go bad, with pretty clothes to wear while singing so many gorgeous arias. Making their highly anticipated role debuts, soprano Ellie Dehn and tenor du jour Michael Fabiano fulfilled expectations and often surpassed them. Fabiano even got to tear his cassock open before ravishing Manon in a chapel beneath a naked (flying!) torso of Christ on the cross. They removed that bit after the gasped amusement of the opening-night crowd threatened to become the talking point of the

The cast of “Girls” showed SFO’s commitment to diversity and young talent. Soprano Julia Bullock (SFO debut) as Dame Shirley, bass-baritone Davone Tines as escaped slave Ned Peters; tenor Paul Appleby as psychotic miner Joe Cannon, Korean soprano Hye Jung Lee as Chinese prostitute Ah Sing, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges as Mexican entertainer Josefa Segovia, and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the sometimes good, sometimes bad 49er Clarence made successful and thrilling commitment to their roles. Following the November 21 premiere, Adams was presented with the SFO Medal by Matthew Shilvock. He has received many accolades over the years, but this was a truly heartfelt thank you from a Company that has benefitted from collaboration with a living legend. Time to get your recordings and videos of Wagner’s “Ring” out before the summer season begins, but you might want to go online for tickets first. The Cycle is sort of an “Opera-Con” for music-lovers. sfopera.com.t

<< Film

20 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

Wintertime up on the Silver Screen

Meryl Streep plays The Washington Post owner Katharine Graham in director Steven Spielberg’s “The Post.”

by David Lamble

ith the world galloping along at warp speed through sexual harassment disclosures, it’s a perfect time to flash back to a recent time when events still moved at a human pace. Following are a few film picks to while away Winter 2018. The Post In this riveting new docudrama from Steven Spielberg, worried Washington Post editor Benjamin Bradlee (Tom Hanks) asks Post owner Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) a hypothetical question about a top-secret government document. The Nixon Administration had just obtained a court order forbidding The New York Times from further publication of the Pentagon Papers, a massive study commissioned by the Johnson Administration to unravel how the United States had gotten so bogged down in a 12-year war in Vietnam. “The Post” dramatizes the key moments in 1971 when The Washington Post printed the Pentagon Papers, embarking on a mission that would carry them to the Watergate break-in. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool It’s 1979, and one-time Hollywood beauty Gloria Grahame (a

radiant Annette Bening) hooks up with a young Brit, Peter Turner, half her age. The male lead is Jamie Bell, once so winning as the dance-aspiring coal miner’s son “Billy Elliot.” This seductive endof-life biopic, co-starring veteran Julie Walters, may induce a rush to Turner Classic Movies’ website to view such Grahame pictures as “In a Lonely Place.” Best exchange: Peter: “Did anyone ever tell you you look like Lauren Bacall when you smoke?” Gloria: “Yes, Humphrey Bogart, and I didn’t like it then.” In the Fade German director of Turkish descent Fatih Akin returns with a revenge drama starring Diane Kruger as a woman grieving after the death of her son and husband at the hands of Neo-Nazis. The film’s powerful finale may remind you of the peak work of the late gay German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The Final Year For those still in a state of shock one year into the reign of Trump, this detailed documentary about Barack Obama’s foreign policy team during its last year in office may provide some perspective, especially after the Dems’ surprising off-year victories.

Molly’s Game Molly Bloom is a young gifted skier who ran the world’s most exclusive poker game for 10 years before she was busted in the middle of the night by FBI agents with automatic weapons. Her clients ranged from screenland

royalty to star athletes, business leaders, and finally, unknown to her, the Russian Mafia. Her only ally was her criminal defense attorney Charlie Jaffey, who discovered that there was more to Molly than the tabloid press led us to believe. Spider-Man After the retirement of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield from this sticky drama, the latest chapter of Spidey’s adventures is presented in an animated version with an all-star voice cast. The 15:17 to Paris In this Clint Eastwood-directed drama, American military men discover a terrorist plot on a Paris-bound train. Screenplay by Dorothy Blyskal and Anthony Sadler, based on his book. With Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer and Lillian Solange Beaudoin. The Female Brain Whitney Cummings’ directorial debut is based on Louann Brizendine’s bestselling book. The ensemble comedy’s cast includes Cummings, Sofia Vergara, James Marsden, Beanie Feldstein and Cecily Strong. The film comically depicts the inner workings and complex power of brain chemistry among couples at different times in their relationships, whether discovering the proper romantic balance, parenting, expressing emotion, or simply admitting to being useless around the house.

Annihilation In Alex Garland’s drama, a female biologist signs up for a harrowing secret expedition where the laws of nature don’t apply. Director Garland co-wrote the script based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel. With Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac. Chappaquiddick The late Senator Ted Kennedy’s life and political career become derailed after he is involved in a fatal 1969 car accident that claims the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne. Director John Curran, with writers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan, adapts this modern political tragedy featuring Kate Mara, Clancy Brown and Olivia Thirlby. Truth or Dare A college student is haunted by a supernatural presence after being tricked into playing a game of “Truth or Dare.” Jeff Wadlow directs a script by Jillian Jacobs and Michael Reisz. With Tyler Posey, Lucy Hale and Landon Liboiron. This is Our Land Director Lucas Belvaux presents a French drama where an engaged but apolitical nurse gets involved in a far-right political party. Based on recent events in France. Screenplay by Belvaux and Jerome Leroy. With Emilie Dequenne, Andre Dussollier and Guillaume Gouix.t

Scene from “Molly’s Game,” the world’s most exclusive poker game.

The rich are always with us by Erin Blackwell

f Hell is other people, as Sartre teaches, certainly he was thinking of pretentious European filmmakers incapable of framing an aesthetic response to the world they deplore. By “aesthetic” I mean emotionally engaging. Not some bleak blancmange, not some fake-snowcapped peak of Angst, not some glittery snow-globe with miniature people trapped inside like ants in an ant farm for the entertainment of sadistic children. Not the latest film from septuagenarian bad-boy director Michael Haneke with the adolescently passive-aggressive title “Happy End.” This peevish paean to the perversities of a French bourgeois family opens Friday at Landmark’s Embarcadero for your viewing ennui. Why did Isabelle Huppert accept the role of a dutiful daughter in charge of her family’s soulless petrochemical corporation based in Calais, that Northern French coastal town once known for its proximity to England but now infamous for its messy immigrant camps? Was she feeling the need to be relevant? Is she forever indebted to Haneke since his “Piano Teacher” (2001) cemented both their multinational

Sony Pictures Classics

Scene from director Michael Haneke’s “Happy End.”

careers? Doesn’t she realize it was Elfriede Jelinek’s novel of the same name that made that movie about a dutiful daughter soul-scorching? Haneke is no Chabrol, that scintillatingly sharp-eyed, sexy, earthy, deadly French auteur who gave her all her best parts. Chabrol is dead, and Isabelle has moved on. Who knows what goes through these people’s heads! They’re in show business, like it or not, and

sometimes that’s not enough for them. Ever since Molière, show folk have felt twinges of this need to skewer hypocrisy. The question is, how entertaining do you manage to be while you’re vivisecting the elite? Molière’s motto, however tonguein-cheek, was “to please.” He lathered his skewer in farce, romance, and snappy dialogue. His plays were still banned, it’s not like he didn’t get his point across. Au contraire,

baby. But Haneke is Austrian, and Austrians do have the particularly hollow view of human affairs that comes with having exercised geopolitical supremacy for centuries, but no more. Anyway, you want to know the plot, without spoilers. That’s not easy, since the entire film is exposition filmed at a distance with desultory dialogue signifying nothing. Basic information about fundamental relationships is withheld, to be meted out like Hansel’s breadcrumbs over the course of 107 minutes. When it was over, I felt it was just beginning, not in a good way, but as if I’d been cheated of knowing what the hell was going on because the writer-director was avoiding the issues, concealing the fact he was filming a failed soufflé, a satire of the bourgeois family that’s been a staple of French dramedy since Molière, that’s 350 years! Plus ça change, plus c’est la même merde! Jean-Louis Trintignant plays the senile bourgeois grandpappy multiplying failed suicide attempts. His son (Mathieu Kassovitz), who didn’t take over the family concern, doesn’t care his first wife overdoses, as his second wife nurses a baby boy, but is amused by his mistress’ pornographic encouragements.

Trintignant’s daughter and current CEO, a businessy Huppert, sits at a desk, talks on a phone, says a few appropriate words to various people, and criticizes her son (Franz Rogowski), who’s recovering from a beating stripped to the waist on his bed. She’s vaguely annoyed to have to disinherit the ne’er-dowell drunken hunk. The alienated 13-year-old granddaughter (Fantine Harduin), who likes poisoning animals and people, is the family’s future. Oh, there’s also a small avalanche of dirt at a building site where a massive crane dominates the newly laid foundation of one of Isabelle’s projects. A dead migrant’s family is given a small funereal sum. And a worker’s strike on an oil rig appears on TV news as Toby Jones, Isabelle’s improbable love interest, pauses in the midst of a sensible lunch of omelette, salad, and red wine. Haneke wastes valuable screentime transmitting snapchatty video and realtime keystrokes, an old man’s idea of sex and death perhaps, but an abject abdication of his chosen medium. If you’re looking for timeless analysis of the ludicrous resilience of the ruling class, see Buñuel’s deliciously surreal “Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972).t

Music>>

January 4-10, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Winter LGBTQ pop playlist by Gregg Shapiro

linger like musical ghosts Benefiting the Tegan and Sara Foundation, whose mission is “fighting for economic justice, health and representation for LGBTQ girls and women,” the various artists The Con X: Covers (Vapor/Warner Bros.) features an all-star cast of artists commemorating the 10th anniversary of Tegan and Sara’s 2007 album The Con. As is often the case with covers/ tribute albums, The Con X: Covers is a little uneven. But there is healthy representation by LGBTQ artists, including MUNA (“Relief Next to Me”), Mykki Blanco (“Knife Going In”) and Shamir (“Like O, Like H”). There are also delightful surprises including performances by Ryan Adams (“Back in Your Head”), City and Colour (“Hop a Plane”), Sara Bareilles (“Floorplan”) and devout Christian artist Hayley Williams of Paramore (“Nineteen”). A pair of bisexual divas has new albums. The new and improved Miley Cyrus, freed from the bonds of Disney and its affiliate Hollywood Records label, defied the odds

and emerged as a respectable (if slightly off-kilter) artist on 2013’s Bangerz. Four years later, Cyrus returns with Younger Now (RCA), her most mature and assured effort to date. Just listen to the powerful “Inspired” as proof. “She’s Not Him” sounds like Joanneera Lady Gaga, while Cyrus dares to venture into indiepop territory on “I Would Die for You.” She wisely serves up a dance track on “Malibu” and a duet with Dolly Parton (“Rainbowland”), which includes a personal message from Dolly to Miley. Halsey doesn’t completely abandon the electro-pop style that helped to establish her popularity on her second album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (Astralwerks). But she definitely sounds like she’s determined to expand her musical palette on “Devil in Me” and “Angel on Fire.” UK-based lesbian singersongwriter Susie Wilkins rocks like nobody’s business on her new four-track EP She Got Me Good (susiewilkins.com). The title opener kicks things off on a blistering note, and “Fall to Pieces” lightens up the rock level. “Far Away” adds a gospel choir to the proceedings. No matter where you are this season, we all need to laugh. Fabulous, “gay as hell” comedian Solomon Georgio nails it on Homonegro Superior (Comedy Central). He’s an African immigrant who “can say whatever the hell” he wants because he’s “black and gay.” He takes us through the history of his name, his family’s immigration story, fashion faux pas, coming out at 18, culture clashes, porn stashes, society, homophobia and racism, his boyfriend, being “a professional homosexual,” straight men, and fisting, all the while making us think as we laugh.t

“Hostiles” may be a long shot for Oscar gold, but the film does present a picture of the violence at the heart of the American experience that seems both ironically and sadly apt for our own violent times. Those with a penchant for connecting the dots between the production of “realistic” depictions of the “taming of the West” and the nation’s political climate at the time may appreciate that John Ford directed “The Searchers” during the middle of the Eisenhower

Administration, “Heaven’s Gate” preceded the Ronald Reagan years, and “Hostiles” arrives at the beginning of the second year of the reign of Donald J. Trump. Along with Bale and Pike, “Hostiles” features Wes Studi (a Native American actor known for lending authenticity to screen stories about America’s original settlers, beginning with 1996’s “Dances with Wolves”), Jesse Plemons, Adam Beach, Rory Cochrane and Ben Foster.t

his winter of 2017-18, whether you’re all bundled up and trudging through snow and ice or wearing board shorts and soaking up the sun at the beach, remember that music makes everything better. Before Linda Perry became the Grammy Award-winning hit songwriter-record producer and wife of Sara Gilbert, she was the dreadlocked lead singer of the blues-rocking band 4 Non Blondes. There’s not much on 4 Non Blondes’ 1992 debut album Bigger, Better, Faster, More (Interscope/ UMe), newly reissued on 180gram vinyl, to indicate that Perry was capable of writing hits such as “Beautiful” and “Get the Party Started” for Christina Aguilera and P!nk. In fact, the album’s lone massive hit single “What’s Up” qualified 4 Non Blondes for one-hit-wonder status. “Dear Mr. President,” another of the Perry-penned tunes on the album, is the other highlight. Now in his seventh decade as a recording artist, the remarkable 82-year-old Johnny Mathis returns with The Great New American Songbook (Columbia). Throughout his career, Mathis gained a reputation for being a top-notch interpreter of other people’s songs. Co-produced by Clive Davis and Babyface, the disc features Mathis’ singular renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” A Great Big World’s “Say Something,” Adele’s “Hello,” Pharrell’s “Happy” and the Josh Groban hit “You Raise Me Up.” With her new Cuban-spiced album An American in Havana (susanwerner.com), singer-songwriter Susan Werner proves once again that there aren’t any musical genres she’s unable to master. Having established herself in the folk

world, Werner turned her attention to cabaret-jazz on I Can’t Be New, modern liberal spirituality on The Gospel Truth, contemporary classical on Classics, and country on Kicking the Beehive and Hayseed. “1955 Chevy Bel Air” brings all of her songwriting chops, including her ability to pen marvelous lyrics, to the fore. “Havana Moon” is swoonworthy, “Cortadito” puts her fantastic sense of humor on display, and “Stray Dogs” invites listeners to salsa to their heart’s content. Since the release of their respective 2015 albums, the second for Torres and the first for Julien Baker, both artists have undergone musical transformations on their followup discs. On Three Futures (4AD), Torres (aka Mackenzie Scott) comes across like the kid sister of St. Vincent and Mitski. Sure, there were hints on Sprinter, including the song “Cowboy Guilt.” But metamorphosis is complete for Torres on Three Futures, as is obvious on “Tongue Slap Your Brains Out,” “Helen in the Woods,” “Concrete Ganesha”

and the near-epic electronic “To Be Given a Body.” While Baker’s Sprained Ankle was a mostly acoustic guitar and vocal affair, Turn Out the Lights (Matador/6131) is more sumptuous. Fleshed out with piano, strings, woodwinds and brass, the guitars are plugged in, adding to the radiance of the music. Even Baker’s vocals have a luminescence, especially on “Televangelist,” “Everything to Help You Sleep” and “Appointments.” If there’s any justice, Jeff Heiskell, former frontman of The Judybats, will get the recognition he has long deserved. The openly gay frontman of the Tennessee-based band has been recording as Heiskell since putting out 2007’s Soundtrack for an Aneurism. The new Heiskell disc Emotional Terrorism (heiskellmusic.com) is as haunting as the title and cover image suggest. That’s meant to be a compliment because unforgettable songs “I Want More Life,” “Abandoned Property” and the club-oriented “It’s Everything”

Back in the saddle again

by David Lamble

riter-director Scott Cooper’s “Hostiles,” opening Friday, is a bleak but moving excursion along the closing Western frontier. It’s an ambitious film that will remind its fans of John Ford’s 1955 classic “The Searchers,” and its critics of Michael Cimino’s bloated 1980 box-office flop “Heaven’s Gate.” “Hostiles” stars one of American film’s most inscrutable leading men, the Wales-born actor Christian Bale. Originally cast by Steven Spielberg as a teenager surviving the WWII

Japanese occupation of the Far East in 1987’s “Empire of the Sun,” at 43 Bale has disappeared into a remarkable number of starring and supporting roles, including two outings as Bruce Wayne or Batman. The new film can be likened to “The Searchers” because director Cooper, like the great Ford, gives us a Far Western frontier where savage acts became the normal standard of behavior for Native American tribes and for the US military forces dispatched to tame and/or culturally and physically annihilate them. There are marked differences, too:

Entertainment Studios

Scene from director Scott Cooper’s “Hostiles.”

unlike Ford’s racist/Indian-hating protagonist (scary-good John Wayne), Bale’s Captain Joseph J. Blocker is reluctant to take on the assignment of escorting a few Cheyenne Indians back to their former homeland in 1892 Montana. It takes a presidential order from Benjamin Harrison, and some screaming by his commanding officer, to get Captain Blocker to saddle up for what proves to be a very violent mission. Along the way, Blocker meets a brave woman, Rosalie Quaid (potential Oscar talk for Rosamund Pike), whose near-death encounter with a tribe who killed her husband and children has imbued her with a rather stoic philosophy. “Sometimes I envy the finality of death. The certainty. And I have to drive those thoughts away when I wake.” The mission is as lethal as promised, the dangers and high bodycount giving the Lady and the Captain a bond in religious faith. Rosalie Quaid: “You believe in the Lord, Joseph?” Captain Joseph J. Blocker: “Yes, I do.” Quaid: “If I did not have faith, what would I have?” Warning: The film’s two-and-aquarter-hour running time can go by very slowly if you’re not a fan of large doses of hyperviolence. As Blocker sees it, “I’ve killed everything that’s walked or crawled. If you do it enough, you get used to it. Understand this: when we lay our heads down here, we’re all prisoners.”

<< Books

22 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

Light brushstrokes in India ink

Courtesy the subject

“A State of Freedom” author Neel Mukherjee gathers in the distressed and the displaced.

by Tim Pfaff

ust as we take the punch out of the monosyllables “gang rape” by decrying “sexual assault,” so do we call the driving issues of our time “inequality” and “relocation” to keep them at a decent distance from us, “us” being “civil society.” Novelist Neel Mukherjee instead gathers in the distressed, the displaced, and holds them close. In his new novel “A State of Freedom” (W.W. Norton & Company), the gay Bengali-born Londoner takes us to India, setting us inside Indian lives in ways from which we will not emerge the same. Like the sprawling, clamorous symphony that is India, Mukherjee’s novel unfolds in movements more harmonically than thematically connected. It’s the tactic he used in his pre-

vious novel “The Lives of Others,” though “A State of Freedom” is both more diverse and more concentrated. “Lives” was a generational tale of a Bengali family that touched on the realities of others. Its first pages brought the reader into the physical and emotional torments of an impoverished tenant farmer no longer able to feed his starving family. “Lives” was “A Suitable Boy” with dirt under its fingernails, and a reader looking for the long-lost sequel to Vikram Seth’s Dickensian novel would have put “Lives” down after that stark, three-page Prologue. Such as Mukherjee ever had an obligation to tell expressly gay stories, he fully discharged that duty with his first novel “A Life Apart,” first published in the U.S. in 2016. That singular “Life” goes toe-to-toe with anything you’ll find by way of

narrative candor or psychological insight in Garth Greenwell’s “What Belongs to You.” The first Indian we meet in “A State of Freedom” is a naturalized American – “a tourist in his own country” – taking his young, American-born son to see the Taj Mahal. Another is a man much like the author, a writer who speaks in the first person, now visiting his parents, upper-middle-class Bengalis selftransported to Mumbai. The others are Indians male and female, cast hither and yon across the subcontinent far less voluntarily. By the end of the novel, about the time you no longer need or particularly want Mukherjee to tie their lives together, he does, with deft, light brushstrokes. “Freedom” is less overtly political than “Lives,” where, among a cast of

thousands, the black-sheep son Supratik, with his Maoist aspirations, comes to dominate the narrative. State re-surfaces in “Freedom,” but Mukherjee’s politics are subsumed, like a thread in a tapestry, into the stories of these indelibly India-inked characters, the sole place where they are all treated equally. Also like “Lives,” “Freedom” is so unapologetically Indian that it plops transcribed Bengali and Hindi words, defined only by context, into the level playing field of his carefully crafted English sentences. As in India, in this book there is shit everywhere. That it includes the excrement of many species is most vividly realized in the novel’s most foreign-to-Westerners tale. Lakshman, another hapless Hindu unable to provide for his family, and avid to take his shame on the road, poaches a bear cub he finds in the forest. After deciding not to feed it to his family, he names it Raju, teaches it to dance, and takes it to temple fairs to earn cash. As a foundling so cuddly he is initially mistaken for an abandoned puppy, Raju has the reader’s instant affection and retains it through the long, episodic chapter. So ultimately sympathetic is the character Lakshman that the reader almost forgives, but hardly forgets, Raju’s subjugation by Salim, the Muslim qalandar, or “bearwalla,” who aids and abets Lakshman’s enterprise. The cub subdued and its canines knocked out, Salim drives a hot iron rod through its snout, for the muzzle and rope from which it will never again be free. “Lakshman feels the tug from [the cub’s] sheer need to move express itself as tiny jerks in the joints of the leg he’s holding down; a cyclone manifesting itself as a breath of air. The red-pink open mouth, leaking liquid, would look as if a moment

of utter, grinning glee has been frozen in time, had it not been for the unearthly squeal, dotted with a gurgling rasp, emerging from it. Then a smell alerts Lakshman – he notices the cub is shitting, and dribbling a few dots of piss, not enough to wet the ground under him.” Throughout, the writing is as trenchant and subtle as its situations ask. Milly, a nanny conscripted into service from her impoverished village, makes a great escape from the Mumbai couple who have “hired” her, then incarcerated her in their apartment. In her story, the gritty and the lyrical dance. You never forget you’re in India. Of late there’s been a drumroll in the press about the imminent release of a French nanny novel whose unsparing first sentence is, “The baby is dead.” Mukherjee is subtler, if no less forceful. The father-son trip to Agra is as sinister, and cannily told, as GoetheSchubert’s in “The Elf King.” Sensing the ailing boy is overwhelmed by India, the father takes him back to the hotel, where both fall into an exhausted sleep. When he wakes, “Next to him, the child was dead.”t

Collective liberation awaits

by Brian Bromberger Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community by Larry Yang; Wisdom Publications, $17.95

he wisdom of “Awakening Together” is contained in its title, namely that any liberation we experience cannot be fully expressed alone. Our collective liberation is

intertwined with our personal liberation, a message we desperately need to hear in a nation led by a president with narcissistic delusions. Although this is a book on Buddhism, the teachings transcend that spiritual tradition, even though Yang sees mindfulness and meditation as practices that connect our spiritual path “with the path of all beings.” Whatever awakening happens occurs within the multiple experiences of our communities, however we each choose to define them. Yet community involves issues of who is or is not included, power dynamics, and “how any community defines its collective identity through the individual identities that form it.” Yang is convinced that not only does Buddhism assist us in sorting through these complex issues, “but such complexities are embedded in the Dharma [the teaching] itself.” Yang is one of the treasures of the SF Bay Area. He has practiced meditation for almost 30 years, having been ordained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. He is on the Teacher’s Council of Spirit Rock Meditation

Center (Woodacre) and one of the core teachers of both the East Bay Meditation Center (Oakland) and Insight Community of the Desert (Palm Springs). He was one of the Community Grand Marshals of the 2016 SF LGBT Pride Parade. As a gay Asian man, he has been an activist for diversity within Buddhism. In fact, his book is half memoir, half call-to-arms. He argues that Western Buddhism has been the province of mostly middle- to upper-middleclass, white, heterosexual and privileged people, but the Dharma must expand for the multiplicity of human diversity to be meaningful for the global cultural dynamics we are all facing. Everything, especially the particulars of our identity, is integral to any spiritual practice. “Freedom is not just about transcending identity, but embracing it until what is beyond the experience of identity reveals itself, not always a linear process.” We don’t need to be slaves of our unconsciousness, individually or collectively. “We do not have to follow the ways of the world simply because we have been taught them or because everyone else does. We do not have to be someone we are not, just because the world says that is who we should be.” Every LGBT person can relate to this last quote, whether or not one is on a spiritual path. Yang is at his best relating the difficulty of growing up as Chinese, a person of color, and gay. He describes the pain of being called a

“chink” on the playground, noting that he couldn’t hide being Chinese, but could deny he was gay. He grew up both closeted and isolated, with no role models. This is why the latter half of the book concerns consciously creating an inclusive community. This is why it’s essential that people of color, differentlyabled individuals, and LGBTQIA people be trained as spiritual leaders. Yang even provides an appendix of helpful steps to make this a reality, in spite of some resistance from mainstream Buddhist leaders. “I believe that if Dharma practice is meant to be comprehensive – that is, to leave nothing in life outside of its scope – then culture is not to be transcended or left behind. In fact, culture is something to be integrated into the very fabric of our spiritual practice, including the diverse facets of our behavior and identities.” Some of these commonsense suggestions include asking POC what they need, refashioning mission statements, events reserved for POC and LGBTQIA as creating safe spaces for the marginalized, and eliminating financial barriers. In short, Yang is calling for systematic change to overthrow communal oppression, dismantling an often-unintended racist and homophobic culture, even at the cost of making white mainstream leaders uncomfortable. Yang believes the most precious thing we can offer each other in community is compassionate at-

tention, defined as “loving one another without questioning or second-guessing any aspect of that love, anyone’s life experience, or anyone’s identity.” He applies this teaching to himself, describing in poignant, must-read detail the last hours of his father’s life (with whom he wasn’t that close) at a bedside vigil, coaching him in his final breaths, a key component for Buddhist meditation. He also matterof-factly makes specific references to his husband Stephen at key moments, including letting him decide to which monastery Yang would commit, as he would be impacted as much as Yang would. The chapters on belonging, transformation of the heart, and moving toward freedom are particularly outstanding. “Awakening Together” is the best book ever written on Buddhist inclusivity, both racially and sexually, though there is little mention of gender bias, a persistent problem as well. Still, Yang has shown the essentiality of overcoming our biases, using Buddha’s teachings. Creating justice is an act of love, a sentiment worth underlining during this holiday season. Yang concludes his book with a prayer of sorts: “We endeavor to dissolve and transform all oppressions, for the justice of all communities, for the freedom of all beings. We can only create justice through just means – that is also the Truth, ancient and inexhaustible, this is the truth of awakening together.”t

Music>>

January 4-10, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Maria Callas uber alles

by Tim Pfaff

ith nothing strictly new in it, is Warner’s new “Maria Callas – Live Re-Mastered” box-set necessary, let alone important? It will be a meaningless question for Callas devotees, for whom redundancy has been the name of the game over the 40 years since the soprano died. We’ve bridled every time someone has whined about the singer’s sound; yet as the recordings, studio and live, have morphed from master to re-master, platform to platform, we’ve found that Callas’ famously “unreliable instrument” has remained truer than any engineering. True Believers likely already have most of these 20-plus performances. Still, the revelations of this latest re-mastering are many, and phenomenal. It would be a reader disservice to say much more than “Get shopping, girls,” but I will anyway. Callas was an artist who changed things. This new set changes – not fundamentally, but frequently astonishingly – how we hear Callas. She steps from behind yet another acoustical curtain. Start, as the set does, with the 1949 Naples “Nabucco.” The sheer size and command of the voice has seldom seemed a more settled matter. She knew enough to put down the role of Abigaille soon afterwards, but Callas rips through it with technical flourishes meant to bring you to your knees (or your feet) and a sound so huge and blaz-

ing you momentarily draw back. What’s telling is that, as you work through the set, up to the several versions of the 1964 “Tosca,” you never lose that sense of the amplitude and generosity of the voice, even if the artistry becomes ever more subtle, whittled down to essences. The videos – the filmed concerts often out of circulation, now restored on Blu-ray – are offered as bonuses, but their value has never seemed greater. Seeing the singer’s fabled concentration, coupled with the additional economy of movement required by concert settings, re-boots the mental image of her no matter how many times you’ve seen it. But in this new context, they offer illuminating comparisons. Spellbinding as the final scene from “Il Pirata” in the 1958 Hamburg recital remains, the same scene in a wonderfully cleaned-up recording of the same scene in Carnegie Hall concert the following year is yet more mesmeric, because Callas has gotten to the final scene by way of the whole opera. She earned her reputedly enormous fee for the 1964 “Tosca” Act II performance at Covent Garden merely by allowing it to be the sole representation of her live in a staged opera. Still, as has often been remarked, it’s irrefutable proof that, despite how operatic acting conventions have changed, Callas was no scenery-shredding lioness but a Tosca whose short-fused fury was

also laser-focused. On the one hand, this set will not significantly alter the received opinion that the 1960s were the great decade (of a career that ran only 15-plus years). But it will decisively dislodge the idea that Callas only got better until the voice started getting away from her. That will be replaced by the realization that every performance was different, none a throwaway – the reason we go to the theater in the first place. Spontini’s “La Vestale” and Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier” have not become better operas by dint of these performances, though they’re the only place I can bear them. And the historically informed-performance police have long since pulled the two Gluck ventures – the 1954 “Alceste” and the 1957 “Ifigenia in Tauride” – over and booked them for inauthenticity. Though they turn out to be no more right for her than the Kundry in the 1950 “Parsifal” (in Italian), the only one she phones in is the Ifigenia, while singing decently. Previously – not long ago – I had concluded that I finally “got” Callas’ Norma because I loved them in reverse chronological order, vocally come what may. I almost dreaded hearing again the 1950 Covent Garden performance (with Joan Sutherland still with her baby teeth as a cowering Clotilde), but it held me start to finish. It’s already Callas’. Elsewhere come the great collaborations. With Bernstein in “La Sonnambula” and “Medea,” the two urging each other into the ring of live fire. The “Berlin Lucia” (1955) with Karajan gets less of a sound upgrade while remaining her alltime best Lucia. I somehow lost interest when Terrence McNally co-opted the “Lisbon Traviata” (1958) for his parasitic play, but hearing it again got me to stop thinking I knew which was the best performance of the role she may have been born to sing. If you’re “above” Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, the other sets are available individually, but you’d be missing the good stuff. Rossini’s “Armida” (1952) is knock-yoursocks-off singing. And then there’s the La Scala “Anna Bolena” (1957). Scholarship has cleaned up “Anna” considerably since then, but Callas’ wrenching heroine wrings the last ounce of emotion out of you with the finest filaments of sound.t

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<< Backstage

24 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

Courtesy the BBC

Harold Pinter was a friend and professional colleague of Carey Perloff, whose production of “The Birthday Party” begins performances Jan. 10.

Carey Perloff

From page 17

“It was like finding my soulmate when I discovered Pinter,” Perloff said in a recent conversation. That was during her sophomore year at Stanford University in the late 1970s, in a class taught by Martin Esslin, who helped coin the term “theater of the absurd.” But Perloff

Fine Art 2018

From page 17

Speaking of AAM: If the answer to Santa’s question “Have you been naughty or nice?” was the former, not the latter, you might get a sense of what’s in store for you in “A Guided Tour of Hell.” Drawing on graphic novels and Tibetan tradition, Pema Namdol Thaye’s paintings of tormented beings consigned to fantastical, sometimes fiery underworld landscapes take visitors on a harrowing journey, with the Buddha of Hell leading the descent. (Apr. 20-Aug. 12) The GLBT History Museum kicks off with “How Has Hollywood (Mis) Represented Homosexuality?” The lecture and discussion, led by queer culture historian Jim Van Buskirk, explores Tinseltown’s depiction of LGBT characters through clips and trailers from 1960s and 70s mainstream movies. (Jan. 18, 7p.m.) Upcoming exhibitions include: “Angela Davis: OUTspoken,” which delves into the turbulent times and controversial career of the scholar, activist, philosopher and queer black political leader. (Feb. 9-May 21) After years of drag queens grabbing all the glory, “Kingdom: Where Drag Kings Reign” flips the switch, shining a light on the less-familiar realm of female performers who present themselves as men (June-Sept.) Museum of the African Diaspora: “EN MAS’ Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean” examines the influence of masquerade traditions on contemporary art and their connection to the history of slavery and colonialism, the civil rights movement and migrations of the last century. (Through Feb.) “After the Thrill is Gone: Fashion, Politics and Culture on Contemporary South African Art” showcases the work of 14 artists channeling the socio-cultural climate of post-apartheid South Africa. (April-July) SFMOMA: “Designed in California” focuses on the Golden State’s human-centered, socially conscious, politically aware design

didn’t see Pinter as a member of the absurdist community. “Pinter’s writing was the perfect combination of emotional truth and linguistic outrageousness,” she said. “It’s not naturalistic, but it’s completely grounded in real human behavior. Where does language have traction, where does language tell the truth, and where is language there to mask, as he said,

trends driven by on-the-cusp technologies since the advent of the digital revolution. (Jan. 27-May 27) “The Train: RFK’s Last Journey” features a trio of works that capture, from different perspectives, the funereal voyage of Robert F. Kennedy’s body from NYC to Washington, DC, and the spectators who lined the railroad tracks as it passed by. (Mar. 17-June 10) Ladies and gentlemen, get your black derbies ready for “Rene Magritte: The Fifth Season,” which centers on the artist’s late paintings (1943-67), displayed in nine galleries each zeroing in on a major series or visual theme. (May 19-Oct. 28) Part fiction, part natural history doc, part cinematic essay, part intimations of mortality, John Akomfrah’s three-channel video installation “Vertigo Sea” is a whimsical odyssey ruminating on the relationship between water and the unconscious. (Mar. 3-Sept. 16) de Young Museum: Though some might say that “Contemporary Muslim Fashion” is an oxymoron, the premise of this unusual exhibition is that women readily associated with the burka and traditional garments that cover them head-totoe, and those who’ve opted out have become trendsetters within and beyond their communities. The show promises insights into how they’re regarded by the international fashion industry, and how they see themselves. (Sept. 22- Jan. 6, 2019) Legion of Honor: “Casanova: The Seduction of Europe” imagines the resplendent, decadent world of the 18th Century’s most notorious lothario, a man of insatiable appetites who was also a gambler, a spy, scandalous memoirist, and voracious traveler, when he wasn’t bent on sexual conquest and gratifying his carnal desires. The show’s 80 works – paintings, sculptures, period furnishings and lavish costumes of the era – help recreate the reprobate’s opulent milieu of masked balls, palaces and grand opera houses. (Feb. 10-May 28) “VertiGhost,” Lynn Hershman Leeson’s intriguing installation and film, interweaves the stories of two

the nakedness within us?” “The Birthday Party” starts performances at the Geary Theater on Jan. 10, nearly 30 years after Perloff first directed the play early in her career at New York’s Classic Stage Company. By then, it had been accepted as a modern classic and as an exemplar of all things Pinteresque. But when it first opened in London in 1958, the critics attacked with a vengeance. One challenge of a Pinter play is that theatergoers are required, in a sense, to fill in the blanks. The situations he sets up are recognizable enough as they provoke visceral tensions among the characters, but their motivations can be frustratingly opaque and the truth so elusive that even the concept of truth becomes irrelevant. “In the many years since I first directed ‘The Birthday Party,’ the play feels much darker and much more realistic,” Perloff said. “The thing that seemed so abstract, the knock at the door signaling the arrival of a nameless terror, now seems very real. We’re living in an age of such blatant thuggery, and a president can make bizarre, narcissistic claims that then become a form of truth. Pinter would have been horrified but fascinated to be living in these times.” In “The Birthday Party,” the terror arrives in the form of two mismatched mates seeking lodging at a rundown seaside guesthouse. The obsequiously eloquent Goldberg and the brutish McCann haven’t

happened upon the place by chance. Their interest is in the sole boarder, the reclusive Stanley, who claims to have once been a popular pianist. Innkeepers Meg and Petey, in a marriage strangled by leaden routine, brighten at the prospect of a party proposed by their new guests, while failing to observe their increasing verbal torment unleashed on Stanley for transgressions never made clear. “After the election, I thought that this is the time to do great and metaphoric and nuanced work, rather than obvious political drama where everything is black-and-white,” Perloff said. “We should be doing work that’s the most complex and that really aspires to beauty in these really dark times. And that’s why I wanted Pinter to be part of the season.” Perloff didn’t sound particularly wistful as she readies her final production as ACT’s artistic director. “On the opening night of ‘Hamlet’ I did feel incredibly nostalgic,” she said of the season’s opening production. “But I’m having such a rich time rehearsing ‘The Birthday Party,’ and I feel for lots of reasons that I’m really ready to hand it all off and go.” Perloff ’s departure was announced in March, but the decision has actually been percolating for several years. “It’s now been 25 years, and that’s an enormous commitment to any single organization and an enormous commitment by any organization to an individual

artist,” she said. “I probably would have done it sooner but then the Strand Theater project began happening, and I had dreamed of having a second stage since the day I took the job, so I said I can’t very well leave now. And that was a fiveyear project.” Perloff doesn’t yet know what her next career move will be, or whether San Francisco will remain her home. “Five years ago, I would have said I’m definitely staying in the Bay Area, but now this town just discourages me so. Income inequality, astronomical rents for places where you’re climbing over needles onto the filthiest streets, and all of that has a big impact on theatergoing.” She’s thought a lot about moving back to New York, where a job possibility is being dangled. “I’ve been headhunting for a lot of things, and I’m trying to decide whether to go run something else or whether I can actually be brave enough to really focus on [freelance directing and playwriting] projects that I want to do.” One of her regrets about her ACT tenure is that Harold Pinter was never able to make it to the theater. She first met Pinter when he attended rehearsals for Perloff ’s 1989 production of “The Birthday Party,” and they stayed in touch in person, by phone, and the mail over the years. “He was supposed to come when we were doing ‘The Room’ and his new play ‘Celebration,’ but then 9/11 happened and his trip was canceled. And then he got sick, won the Nobel Prize, and died shortly thereafter. It still makes me incredibly sad that he never did get to ACT.”t

paintings inextricably linked with FAMSF’s collection: Modigliani’s “Pierre-Edouard Baranowski” (ca. 1918), once thought to be a fake, and the mysterious “Portrait of Carlotta,” an integral fictional plotpoint and prop for Hitchcock’s thriller in which the museum played a bit part. (Through Mar. 25) Julian Schnabel’s audacious paintings and three relatively recent bodies of work inform a site-specific exhibition that includes Rodin sculptures from the museum’s collection. (April 21-Aug. 5) “Truth and Beauty: The PreRaphaelites and the Old Masters” juxtaposes artworks by members of 19th-century England’s PreRaphaelite brotherhood, who were inspired by the Italian Old Masters and pre-High Renaissance art of the

Netherlands. (June 30-Sept. 30) Contemporary Jewish Museum: “The Art of Rube Goldberg” assesses the career of the San Francisco-born-and-raised cartoonist with attendant photographs, early animations, selected comic strips such as Lala Palooza and Boob McNutt, and original invention drawings of the inordinately complicated contraptions for which he’s both famous and often ridiculed. (March 15-July 8) The creative life of influential Jewish tattoo artist “Lew the Jew” is the subject of a show of the same name whose materials and artistic correspondence come from the collection of SF tattoo legend Don Ed Hardy. (July 25-Nov. 18) BAMPFA: Vast in scope, “Way Bay” is a sweeping, which is to

say very large, multi-disciplinary, historical portrait of the Bay Area’s artistic legacy with a strong avantgarde/experimental cinema component, archival interviews with local artists, and an impressive contingent of new acquisitions. Emphasizing the frequently unheralded contributions of women and people of color, the exhibition begins with artifacts from the indigenous Ohlone culture, and covers the region from the mid-19th century, when it was a multicultural commerce hub, through the innovative powerhouse it has become today. Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Chiura Obata and Erica Deeman, as well as lesser-known artistic voices, are represented. (Jan. 17-May 6)t

Courtesy BAMPFA

James Broughton, still from “The Bed” (1968), 19 mins., part of BAMPFA’s flagship winter exhibition “Way Bay,” opening on Jan. 17.

Arts Events

Leather

Shining Stars Vol. 48 • No. 1 • January 4-10, 2018

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

MORE! for 2018 Welcome our newest columnist for the new year

by Juanita MORE!

t doesn’t surprise me much when someone I meet says they don’t know who I am. I don’t see myself as any kind of a big deal and I end up introducing myself as a dog walker by day for my handsome Frenchie, Jackson. See page 26 >> Juanita MORE! with her MOREboys.

On the Tab

et’s dive into January, shall we? New and old fun, favorite DJs and bartenders. Wish everyone you see a happy new year, until you’re tired of it and you just wanna dance. That’s fine. No judgement.

e 27 >> Listings on pag

January

4-11

Fri 5 Gooch

The First Church of the Sacred Silversexual plays their annual David Bowie Birthday Bash @ The Chapel

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

@LGBTSF

@eBARnews

<< MORE! Stuff

26 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

Gooch Mr. Joe Montana

Juanita MORE! portrait.

MORE! Stuff

From page 25

So for those of you who don’t know who I am, Hi, I’m Juanita MORE! I am a local drag queen, mother, DJ, chef, philanthropist and activist. Perhaps you or your ex has attended one of my infamous Naked Dinners, my annual Pride event or one of my two monthly parties at Powerhouse – Beatpig and Powerblouse. I’m happy to announce that I’m joining the Bay Area Reporter as a contributing writer. For those of you that are unfamiliar with my herstory, I’d like to share a little bit of that with you here. Family has always been a touchstone in my life. 2017 marked my twenty-fifth year as a queen in San Francisco. I met my drag mother when I was living in New York City during the late 1980s. At the time she was performing as the legendary “Glamamore,” co-founding and producing New York’s Boy Bar Beauties. Known then as ‘The Hog Queen of Lipsync’ she was casting her spell and warping minds with wit, histrionics, and to quote Andy Warhol, “The biggest mouth in the world!” I was star-struck from the moment I met Mr. David/Glamamore, and knew that we would someday become great friends. Thirty years later we have become more than

that. As I look back at those years in New York, you might say that I was subliminally learning the trade of drag from a master. Five years after we first met, Glamamore came to San Francisco for a two-week visit that coincided with Halloween. I begged for her to put me in drag, but she adamantly resisted. She swore up and down I’d end up no more than the man that stood before her, not the queen that I had hoped inside to be. I was reckless, practicing in heels and showed no signs of proving her wrong until the very night she began to beat my face. It was when the liquid eyeliner hit my lid that she exclaimed, ‘Oh - you are gonna be pretty with these almond-shaped eyes.’ And so it began. From that night forward I never wanted to stop. It was as though I had found a new way to live my life. Fortunately for me and many others to come, Glamamore decided to stay in San Francisco. Those early days that shaped the Juanita you see today – aside from some wizardry with padding – I owe to many talented hairdressers and stylist friends who were invested in making it happen for me. This was the beginning of the family we created and called the House of MORE! Through Glama, I learned to embrace not only myself but also that which was unknown. She taught me the value in under-

EXPLORE THE GAY WORLD

Dulce De Leche (daughter), Juanita MORE! (mother) and Voodonna Black (grandbaby) at a Union Square holiday event in December 2017.

standing that, like life, an audience is never chosen – you play to what you’re given. I went out every single weekend and with the help of Mr. David my closet became a huge extravaganza of fashion, in hues of rich colors, shapes, intricate patterns and designs, now more than 3,000 pieces of couture. It was during those early years that the MOREboys were born. They

were friends who loved the magic and artistry being created around me and devoted their time and emotions to help this ‘thing’ grow. They were widely recognized as a flock of attractive, devoted, fashion-forward and publicly available young men that were always by my side. Though I didn’t outright pay them - they in return were provided with dinners and social compensation. With the girls, I was slow to take

Juanita MORE!

on the responsibility of having drag daughters. Back then as now, I have so much respect for the artistry of drag and its roots. I eventually caved in and over twenty years produced three perfect girls. A few years ago I began to take on the role as Mother to a broader audience of admirers in San Francisco and have not taken it lightly. I am now encouraging and accepting new drag daughters and MOREboys into my life, though sometimes with tentative if not open arms. It’s just not every Tom, Dick and Mary. My queer family goes well beyond what I’ve helped nurture and create. Because this fantasy of mine is a public story, and though at times it is deeply personal, it is you who have stood by it and supported it. As always, I am staggered at the ever-expanding web of associations, overwhelming amount of accolades, awards and acknowledgments that have been bestowed upon me through my life here in San Francisco. I’m honored to be a part of the Bay Area Reporter family as this free weekly newspaper has been a part of my life since I moved to San Francisco in the early ‘80s. I hope to continue to excite and entertain everyone I come in contact with through this platform. My hopes are to share with you my views on entertainment, food, philanthropy and activism.t You can find Miss MORE! at the Powerhouse Bar first and third Saturdays for Powerblouse and Beatpig. For more high glamour, drag irreverence, danceable beats, culinary delectables and a philanthropic heart that illuminates San Francisco, visit juanitamore.com/

MOREboy Isaac

Left: Juanita MORE! on her first night in drag. Right: Mr. David/Glamamore with Juanita MORE!.

Dan Nicoletta

The House of MORE! at SF Pride in 2005.

On the Tab>>

January 4-10, 2018 â&#x20AC;˘ Bay Area Reporter â&#x20AC;˘ 27

Daddy's Boy @ Danzhaus For guys who like daddies, and the daddies who like young guys, with DJs Adam Kraft and Trever Pearson, photo ops and a playroom. $5-$15. 10pm3am. 1275 Connecticut St. ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1617686

Go Bang! @ The Stud The groovy mix of classic disco and modern mixes from DJs Steve Fabus, Sergio Fedasz and Prince Wolf, who welcome guest DJs J-Funk, Prince Eddie P. and Eddie House; photos by Gooch! $5 before 10pm; $10 to 3am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. studsf.com

Lil Miss Butch Queen @ Oasis

Sun 7

Page Hodel DJs Afternoon Delight @ The New Parish

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/bartab

Thu 4 After Dark @ Exploratorium The cocktails and science night for adults, with installations throughout the hands-on exhibit museum. Jan. 4: Bright & Shiny, demos and exhibits about illuminated art works, steel pan music and insect wings. Jan. 11: Bivalves and sea creatures. $20. 6pm-10pm. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. exploratorium.edu

Intersection @ The Stud Nihar Bhatt and Russell E.L. Butler's eclectic DJ night. $5-$10. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. studsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG KJ Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol ; first Thursdays are Costume Karaoke; 3rd is Kinky Karaoke 8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The Country-Western line-dancing two-stepping dance events celebrates 18 years. Free-$5. 5pm-10:30pm. Also Sundays. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Fri 5 Bear Trap @ Lone Star Saloon Beer, bears, booze and tunes. $5. 9pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Desperate Living @ The Stud Nikki Jizz hosts the dance, drag and music night, with Lez Purr, Sara Converted, and a live set by The Homobiles. DJ Bobby. $5-$10. 10pm3am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Franc D'Ambrosio @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The talented musical theatre and cabaret singer performs his new show, The Phantom Unmasked The Songs of Broadway. $30-$60 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Also Jan. 6. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Friday Night Live @ El Rio Enjoy the weekly queer and LGBTfriendly live acoustic concerts. $5pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21 The popular Latin club includes drag shows, with gogo guys, drink specials and table reservations available. $10$20. 10pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

MAX TGIF @ St. Regis Hotel The gay men's social group hosts a cash bar gathering at the elegant hotel bar. 5:30pm-8:30pm. 125 Third St. www.maxsf.org

Ror-shok @ SF Eagle The drag and rock night's Miss Annus Novus Pageant includes drag contestants, DJ Superintoit and hosts Johnny Rockitt and Rita Dambook. $7. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Saro, Sumif, Vverevvolf @ Rickshaw Stop Three talented new pop musicians play as part of the PopScene festival. $12. 9pm-1am. 155 Fell St. www.rickshawstop.com

Stank @ Powerhouse Leon Fox's aromatic manly night of armpit connoisseurs and contestants; shirts-off drink deals. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. powerhousebar.com

Taboo @ Oasis

Drag show with DJ Jaffeth. $5. 9pm2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Dance party for otters, bears, foxes, wolves; faux and real fur attire suggested, with gogo bears and otters, DJs Pusse Couture and Chad Bays. $5-$10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Club Papi @ Club 21, Oakland

Tom Gun Live @ DNA Lounge

La Bomba Latina @ Club OMG

Hip Hop and Latin grooves event, with 3 dance floors, gogo studs and drag acts. $10-$20. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

David Bowie Birthday Bash @ The Chapel The First Church of the Sacred Silversexual performs their annual dazzling rocking concert of Bowie classic albums: Jan. 5: the entire Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars album. $25. 9pm. Also Jan. 6, playing Station to Station and Let's Dance (2-night pass $40), both nights with more than a dozen drag and burlesque performers dancing and interpreting the songs. 777 Valencia St. www.thechapelsf.com

The bro-campy live staging of the script for Top Gun includes a lot of audience participation. $25-$45 and up. 8pm & 10pm. 375 11th St. www.dnalounge.com

Sat 6 Broadway's Best: The Men @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents four talented vocalists performing musical theatre classics: Ryan Doyle, Adam Maggio, Rodney E. Jackson, Jr., and Christopher M. Nelson, with pianist G. Scott Lacy. $30-$50. 8pm. Cocktails and small plates available. 562 Sutter St. https://societycabaret.com/

Fifth annual contest hosted by and benefitting Haus of Towers, Queens of the Castro and Grace Towers' scholarship fund for LGBTQI youth education assistance. Eight contestants perform, five celebrity judges and general fierceness pervades. $12-$30, $50 VIP. 5pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Lips and Lashes Brunch @ Lookout Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1:30pm. 3600 16th St. lookoutsf.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina's popular drag show, with special guests and great music themes (No bachelorette parties admitted!) Jan. 6 is a new Lady Gaga tribute night. $15. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

The Playground @ Club BNB, Oakland Revamped night at the popular hip hop and Latin dance club. $5-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

PowerBlouse @ Powerhouse Juanita MORE! and Glamamore transform a drag virgin before your eyes. This month, performer/author Brontez Purnell. Gogo studs and drinks, too. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Bowiemas XIV @ The Stud

Hysteria Comedy @ Martuni's

14th annual birthday celebration of David Bowie's music, with hits, remixes, a costume contest, live drag acts Mary Vice, Beverly Chills and more Ziggy surprises. Bowie drag most welcome. $5-$10. 10pm-1am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Open mic for women and queer comics, with host Irene Tu. 6pm-8pm. 4 Valencia St.

Dirty Musical Sundays @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night, with a bawdy edge; also Mondays and Wednesdays (but not dirty). 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Gin & Comics @ The Stud Monthly comedy night cohosted by Jops Harvey and Kimberly Rose Wendt. 6pm-8pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

B.F.D. @ SF Eagle Big F*ckin' Dudes. 7pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Mon 8 Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm-1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820.mwhitehorsebar.com

Musical Mondays @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Tue 9 Dina Martina @ Oasis The hilarious drag performer returns with her new offbeat comic show, Fine Avec Me! $25. 7pm & 9pm. Also Jan. 10. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar

Sex, Drags & Rock n Roll @ Midnight Sun Mutha Chucka's monthly drag show returns, with a Bette Midler tribute: Dulce de Leche, Dina Isis, Ruby Blue Gender Bender and other talents. 10:30pm show. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Woof, Frolic @ SF Eagle Human pups and their handlers in the afternoon (3pm-6pm) and full-on furries all night (8pm-2am). $5-$10. 398 12th St. at Harrison. sf-eagle.com

Queer dance party at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Weekly drag and variety show, with live acts and lip-synching divas, plus DJed grooves. $5. Shows at 10:30pm & 12am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Sun 7

Comedy Showcase @ SF Eagle Kollin Holtz hosts the open mic comedy night. 5:30pm-8pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Follies & Dollies @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Weekly drag show at the historic gay bar. 9:30pm-11:30pm. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Freeball Wednesdays @ The Cinch Free pool and drink specials at the historic neighborhood bar. 8pm-1am. 1723 Polk St. www.cinchsf.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux The hot weekly Latin dance night with sexy gogo guys, drag divas and more, hosted by Amaya Blac/Delilah Befierce. $6. 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. beauxsf.com

Thu 11 Bluegrass Night @ Driftwood Hear live bands play music at the SoMa stray (straight/gay) bar. 9pm-1am. 1225 Folsom St. driftwoodbarsf.com

Comedy @ Ashkenaz, Berkeley Ngaio Bealum, Ronn Vigh, Carla Clayy, Jeff Applebaum, and Lisa Geduldig perform stand-up comedy. $15-$20. Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley. www.ashkenaz.com

LaToya London @ Yoshi's Oakland The Bay Area singer and American Idol finalist performs songs from her new CD. $28-$50. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Puff, Love @ The Stud DJ Dank and Maria Konner's cannabis-friendly monthly party, with live music, stoner raffles, and DJ Sergio Fedasz. $5-$10. 7pm-10pm. Then, Love with Thee Pristine Condition and Mama Dora. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon Beer, bears, beats at the weekly fundraiser for various local charities. $15. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Benefits and plenty of beer at the historic neighborhood bar. 3pm7pm. 1723 Polk St. www.cinchsf.com

Wed 10

Satiric comic drag performer performs her show Multiple Lives, about the video game queen. $25-$35. 8pm. Also Jan. 12 at 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom www.sfoasis.com

Page Hodel guest-DJs the fun outdoor patio party. Host/DJ Justime, plus Gera Merndez, 3pm-8pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. thenewparish.com

Big Gay Beer Bust @ The Cinch

Strip down with the strippers at the clothing-optional night. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Ms. Pak-Man @ Oasis

Afternoon Delight @ The New Parish

The popular weekly event packs in the fans, with proceeds going to local charities. $10. Beer bust 3pm-5pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. sf-eagle.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Rice Rockettes @ Lookout

Thu 11

Local and visiting Asian drag queens' weekly show with DJ Philip Grasso. $5. 10:30pm show. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Ms. Pakman @ Oasis Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar. com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

<< Arts Events

28 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

Thu 4 Black Rider @ Ashby Stage Shotgun Players’ production of the Williams S. Burroughs, Tom Waits and Robert Wilson adult fairytale musical about a lowly clerk who must prove himself to his fianceé’s father. $25-$40. Extended thru Jan. 21. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgunplayers.org

Classic & New Films @ Castro Theatre Jan 4 : Phantom Thread (7pm). Jan 5: Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (2:30, 7pm) and Roman Holiday (4:40, 9:10). Jan 6: A Matter of Life and Death (5pm, 9:30) and The Red Shoes (7pm). Jan 7: Disney’s Moana Sing-Along (1:30), and A Matter of Life and Death (7pm) and Black Narcissus (5pm. 9pm). Jan 8, David Bowie in Labyrinth (7pm) and The Hunger (9pm). Jan 9: SF GrandSlam’s spoken word: Off the Rails (8pm). Jan 10 : Sunset Boulevard (2:30, 7pm) and The Player (4:35, 9:05). Jan 11: SF Sketchfest (thru Jan. 23). $11-$16. 429 Castro St. castrotheatre.com

Mugwumpin @ Z Space The innovative theatre ensemble premieres In Event of Moon Disaster, a multimedia adventure into science fiction and future. $15-$25. Thru Jan. 28. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. 470 Florida St. www.zspace.org

Physique Pictorial Film Night @ The Magazine The Bob Mizer Foundation screens early erotic physique films made by Mizer (free), with copies of the new Physique Pictorial #43 for sale ($25). 7pm-9pm. 920 Larkin St. www.BobMizer.org

Fri 5 Bernadette Bohan @ Paxton Gate Opening reception for All That Glitters is Gold, a new exhibit of the Bay Area sculptor’s amazing whimsical toy-assemblages. 6pm8pm. Thru mid-Feb. 766 Valencia St. https://paxtongate.com/index/

Franc D’Ambrosio @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Sat 6 Constructed Communication @ Museum of Craft and Design

Object Action: The ‘F’ Word in a Post-Truth Era @ State

Sat 6

Dogpatch warehouse is now a museum store, gallery and program space. Mon-Fri 9:30am-5:30pm. 2569 Third St. 773-0303. sfmcd.org

Jaye Blakesberg @ Harvey Milk Photo Center Exhibit of prints by the prolific photographer of pop and rock musicians. Thru Jan. 6. 50 Scott St. blakesberg.com harveymilkphotocenter.org/

Miya Ando @ Nancy Toomey Gallery Opening reception for Oborozuki (Moon Obscured by Clouds), the artist’s evocative exhibit of paint-onaluminum depictions of clouds. 5pm7pm. Thru Feb 22. 1275 Minnesota St. http://nancytoomeyfineart.com/

The talented musical theatre and cabaret singer performs his new show, The Phantom Unmasked The Songs of Broadway. $30-$60 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Also Jan. 6. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Art, Politics and Community Preservation, an exhibition of the work of local mural artists. Thru Jan. 2018. 3200 California St. jccsf.org

Watch on the Rhine @ Berkeley Rep

Object Action: The ‘F’ Word in a Post-Truth Era @ State

Local new production of Lillian Hellman’s Nazi/anti-fascist-themed drama set in 1940. $30-$60. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 7pm, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Jan. 14. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Collect for Change’s politicallythemed multimedia group feminist repsonse to the current political climate, featuring Ana Teresa Fernández, Chitra Ganesh, Michelle Hartney, Angela Hennessy, Nadja Verena Marcin, Sanaz Mazinani, and Michele Pred. Opening reception 5pm-8pm. Panels and other events, too. Thru Feb 16. 1295 Alabama St. akart.com/collect-for-change

Mission Murals @ JCCSF

Tender Life @ Tenderloin Museum Tender Life: Graphic and Ceramic Memories of Tenderloin Living, 1999-2004, a group exhibit of contemporary ceramic and other works by Holly Coley and others. 398 Eddy St. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Vintage Paper Fair @ County Fair Bldg. Annual sale of beautiful rare vintage papers items; postcards, maps, and more. Free. 10am-6pm. Jan 7 11am5pm. Golden gate Park, 9th Ave. at Lincoln Way. http://vintagepaperfair. com/

Wild SF Walking Tours @ Citywide Enjoy weekly informed tours of various parts of San Francisco, from Chinatown to the Haight, and a ‘radical’ and political-themed LGBTinclusive tour. Various dates and times. $15-$25. wildsftours.com

Sun 7

Art: Michele Pred

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/arts

Arts Events January 4-11 E

njoy new plays and musicals, new art exhibits, and new takes on musical classics in this new year.

Smile! The Comics of Raina Telgemeier @ Cartoon Art Museum New exhibit of works by the awardwinning author and illustrator of graphic novels, at the museum’s new location. Free/$10. Thu-Tue 11am5pm. 781 Beach St. Thru Mar. 20. https://www.cartoonart.org/

Mon 8 Looking Through the Lens @ Diane Wilsey Center for Opera The Glory of San Francisco Opera, Past and Present, an exhibit of historic productions photos from the San Francisco Opera’s many productions. Free. Mon-Fri 9am6pm. Veteran’s Building, 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfopera.com

Tue 9 Derriere Le Mirior @ Jules Maeght Gallery Group exhibition of covers from the historic French art magazine, including prints by Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti and others. Tue-Sat 11am-6pm. Thru Jan 15. 149 Gough St. https://julesmaeghtgallery.com/

Fool La La! @ the Marsh Berkeley Unique Derique performs his wacky kid-friendly physical comedy clown show and holiday extravaganza. $15-$100. Jan 2-7. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

Perfectly Queer @ Dog Eared Books

Trio of video installations by the award-winning British artist. Free. Wed-Sat, 12pm-8pm; Sunday, 11am-5pm. Thru Feb 11. Gallery 308, FMCAC Visitor Center, SFAI Gray Box Gallery. 1 Marina Blvd. https:// fortmason.org/event/playtime/

The monthly LGBT author night welcomes Lewis DeSimone ( Channeling Morgan ), Randall Mann ( Proprietary), and Gar McVeyRussell (A Sin Against the Race ), who read from their latest works, with cohosts Richard May and Wayne Goodman, plus wine, soft drinks and snacks. 7pm. 489 Castro St. .dogearedbooks.com/castro.html

Queer Tango @ Finnish Hall, Berkeley

The Rose That Grew From Concrete @ LGBT Center

Isaac Julien’s Playtime @ Fort Mason

Same-sex partner tango dancing, including lessons for newbies, food and drinks. $5-$10. 3:30pm6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley. www.finnishhall.org

SF Hiking Club @ Purisima Creek Join GLBT hikers of the SF Hiking Club for an eleven-mile hike at Purisima Creek Redwoods near Half Moon Bay, with lots of beautiful views with redwoods, oak, Douglas fir, and riparian flora. Bring water, lunch, hiking boots, layers, hat. Carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 845-4940. www.sfhiking.com

Exhibit of multimedia art by members of the Center’s Youth Program. 1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

Various Events @ Oakland LGBTQ Center Social events and meetings at the new LGBTQ center include film screenings and workshops, including Bruthas Rising, trans men of color meetings, 4th Tuesdays, 6:30pm. Film screenings, 4th Saturdays, 7:30pm. Game nights, Fridays 7:30pm-11pm. Vogue sessions, first Saturdays. 3207 Lakeshore Ave. Oakland. oaklandlgbtqcenter.org

Wed 10 LGBT Book Club @ Dog Eared Books The monthly meeting discusses Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. 7pm. 489 Castro St. dogearedbooks.com/castro.html

There Is No Alas Where I Live @ Jenkins Johnson Gallery Group exhibit of a dozen artists’ photographs, curated by Ann Jastrab. Thru Jan. 27. 464 Sutter St. www.jenkinsjohnsongallery.com

Thu 11 Red Diaper Daughter @ GLBT History Museum Three Generations of Rebels & Revolutionaries, author Laura Bock’s reading and discussion about her fascinating new memoir about her life as a feminist, anti-war disability and lesbian rights activist, and the child of left-wing radicals. Also, exhibits OUT/LOOK and the Birth of the Queer and Faces of the Past: Queer Lives in Northern California Before 1930 $5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

SF Sketchfest @ Various Venues Annual large-scale multi-event celebration of comedy and performance, with Jane Lynch, Rhea Butler, Dan Savage, Peaches Christ and hundreds of performers in improv, panels, films, workshops and parties. $15-$50. Thru Jan 28. sfsketchfest.com

Solo Performance Festival @ Potrero Stage Playground SF presents eight writer-performers in solo works: Lisa Evans, Malcolm Grissom, Marjorie Hazeltine, Michael Phillis, Katie Rubin, Thomas Robert Simpson, Nina Wise, and Dan Wolf. $21-$124 (full pass). Various dates/times. 1695 18th St. http://playground-sf. org/solofest/

Untitled: Art Fair @ Palace of Fine Arts SOMArts Cultural Center and curator Kelly Lovemonster present a group exhibition of visual, cinematic and other media works by queer, trans and artists of color: VivvyAnne Forevermore, Spice Queers, Nikki Jizz, Xandra Ibarra, Yetunde Olagbaju, Mark McBeth, and others. Thru Jan. 14. 3301 Lyon St. www.somarts.org www.palaceoffinearts.org To submit event listings, email events@ebar.com Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

Leather>>

January 4-10, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Another year, and looking ahead

Rich Stadtmiller

Azalea, Ms. SF Leather 2017 (left) and Stela Furtado, Ms. SF Leather 2016 (right).

by Race Bannon

ike many of us often say to ourselves around this time of year, 2017 went by quickly. Despite the national political churn and angst so many of us are experiencing, it still whizzed by, at least for me. As I look back on the past year, it’s been an interesting one for those of us who live and play in the realm of the adventurous in sexuality and relationships. Rather than recount a lot of specific events and happenings, it’s the trends I’ve noticed that I find particularly fascinating, and perhaps provide some insight into our future. As many know, I’ve been an activist for wider PrEP adoption and acceptance. For me, this was the year that PrEP took hold in a significant way and forever changed the sexual landscape, including for us kinky people. I’m noticing a tangible and obvious uptick in the level of sexual activity amid our kink, whether at play parties or privately. PrEP, combined with the widely publicized research that concluded that those who are HIVpositive and on treatment with an undetectable viral load can’t transmit the virus, has recalibrated men’s perspectives about risk levels. Perhaps that’s why I’ve noticed that sex seems to be back among gay men. By that I mean, while we still revel in leather, kink and all the many variations of erotic options, guys seem to be having a lot more actual sex nowadays. (And yes, I know kink is sex, but you know what I mean.) Of course, sex never actually went away. Guys have been boinking all along and always will. But the openness about sex, especially among so many of the younger guys, harkens back to the day when gay men weren’t afraid of it. This year feels like a tipping point for fully embracing our sexuality again. It’s been a long time coming. The #MeToo phenomenon and other consent discussions lurched to the forefront of the national cultural conversation. Since consent has always been a big topic of discussion for kink players, it’s no surprise that it’s reinvigorated that same discourse among ourselves. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that even for those of us who have championed consent over the years, we should remain vigilant. This might also be a slice in time during which us kinksters can better educate the non-kinky among us on how we approach our play thoughtfully and consensually. Sure, even us kinksters have consent issues within our ranks, but we have the experience and tools to help both ourselves and others do better. Polyamory and open non-mo-

nogamy certainly came into the mainstream this year. High profile articles in some top magazines were among the many ways the general public learned of this way of looking at configuring relationships. I think kinksters have always been more open-minded about non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships. Perhaps, like with consent, this is something we can share with others to broaden their minds too. It’s all about options. There’s no one right way to do anything, relationships included. The national political landscape in which racism, misogyny and transphobia have reared their ugly heads has prompted our own scene to entrench further with strategies and more robust dialogue for better inclusion and awareness. These maladies certainly reside in our own kink and sexuality communities, but we’re getting better. The last reflection on 2017 is not a pretty one. It’s the tendency for some of us to engage in rabid and often vitriolic callout behaviors. One public misstep by someone and people are often ready to pounce with the meanest, nastiest and most negative of assumptions and assessments. Even when a misstep is a serious one, calm discourse is still likely to bring about better changes than lobbing emotional grenades. Yes, let’s all work toward being the best we can be, but sometimes our reactions, especially in the rapidly repeating echo chamber of social media, could be more tempered. Excessive word-policing falls into this same camp. Never assume others have the same language baseline as you, and never assume someone is necessarily using language to specifically incite or discount. Let’s cut each other some slack.

Leather lookout for 2018

Looking ahead, there are some other things I’d love to see the leather scene focus on. Let me dispense with the most obvious need. If we let the residents of the White House and their supporters continue to decimate our freedoms, LGBTQ people and all who are kinky could see their rights whittled away. Do whatever it takes to resist those efforts. I know it can be exhausting to resist non-stop, but sadly that’s what’s needed right now. I’d like to encourage leatherfolk to stop continuing to primarily fundraise for external, non-leather causes and instead begin to turn more of their efforts to raising money for us, for our own institutions, organization, clubs and causes. Yes, it’s wonderful to raise money for great causes, but our institutions

and organizations need money to survive. We are continuing to see our gathering spaces dwindle. When an organization or event wants to rent space, those fees are skyrocketing. We also need to keep supporting our existing kink-friendly bars and businesses or they’ll go belly up and that would hurt us all. Nonprofits that serve the leather and kink communities seem to barely get by. One glaring example is a recent fundraiser to help keep the SF Catalyst dungeon and community space on Folsom Street open. Catalyst is the most active and heavily used space in all of San Francisco for our kinky communities, and yet we can’t seem to garner enough financial support to ensure its continued secured viability. That’s terribly disheartening, and we can do better. Another thing I’d like to see continue to happen is to build upon the inclusivity we’ve fostered for people of color, various genders and gender expressions, and trans folk. Here in San Francisco we seem to do a darn good job of figuring out how to appropriately all mix and mingle, but also sometimes segment into our own subgroups when it’s important for us to commune and play with those of our own identifications. I think the Bay Area can serve as a model for how that’s done well elsewhere because I see some other parts of the country struggling with this. So, let’s all make this year the best we possibly can. Here in the Bay Area we’re luckier than many in that we’re moving in good directions already and simply need to maintain that course.

Ms. San Francisco Leather

The biggest local leather title contest for women, Ms. San Francisco Leather, happens on Saturday, January 13, 2018, at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street in San Francisco. Doors open at 6:30pm. The contestants will compete for the 2018 title, taking over for last year’s winner, Azalea, who has served as an exemplary Ms. San Francisco Leather 2017. This year’s contest welcomes a new Producer, Daddy Sal Hopkins. I’ve known Daddy Sal a long time and there are few locals I consider as honorable or competent. Daddy Sal has a long history of leadership in the Bay Area women’s leather community. The contest is in good hands. To introduce more diversity on the judging panel, the contest will have seven judges this year. They are: Vick Germany, Head Judge; Leigh Ann, Ms. Santa Clara County Leather 2018; Geoff Millard, Mr. San Francisco Leather 2017; Tracy Wolf, Women’s International Leather Legacy 2011; Ms. V, International Ms. Bootblack 2007; Queen Cougar, Ms. San Francisco Leather 1993; and girl kim, who has been active in the local BDSM scene for the past 15 years. For the men reading this, please note that the contest actively welcomes everyone from all walks of our leather and kink scene to attend. While it’s a women’s contest, it’s an event everyone can attend and support. More information can be found at www.mssfleather.org.t

For Leather events listings, see page 30. Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him on his website, www.bannon.com

Playmates or soul mates, you’ll find them on MegaMates Always FREE to listen and reply to ads!

San Francisco:

(415) 692-5774

www.megamates.com 18+

<< Nightlife

30 • Bay Area Reporter • January 4-10, 2018

Calendar Guys

LGBT Asylum Project’s studs offer monthly inspiration

Clockwise from bottom left: Mahdi, Mr. Saudi Arabia; Jethro, Mr. Philippines; Ilya, Mr. Russia; LGBT Asylum Project’s Mr. International Freedom 2018 Calendar.

ou’ve gone over your holiday gifts and while you may be content, you forgot to get a calendar full of hunky men. Here’s your chance to indulge some beefcake viewing while helping a good cause. The LGBT Asylum Project has assembled a collection of hunky men representing countries from around the world for their fundraising efforts for the nonprofit that provides pro bono legal representation for LGBT immigrants who are fleeing persecution and seeking asylum in the U.S. Those who attended the Mr. International Freedom contest at DNA Lounge a few months ago got to see some of these studs in person. Until the next contest, enjoy a month-to-month sexy selection of lovely photos by the prolific David Wong. Order here for $30: http://www.lgbtasylumproject.org/

Personals Massage>>

SEXY ASIAN $60 Jim 415-269-5707

Models>> FABULOUS F**K BOY

MEN TO MEN MASSAGE

I’m a Tall Latin Man in my late 40’s. If you’re looking, I’m the right guy for you. My rates are $90/hr & $130/90 min. My work hours are 10 a.m. to midnite everyday. Patrick call or text 415-515-0594. See pics on ebar.com

Model looks 6’ 150# 27yrs, 8” uncut beautiful tight yummy ass. Smoky sexuality erotic male nympho. Hndsm hedonist. Str8, gay, married men at yr apt, hotel, mansion! Greek god Nick 415-290-2639. Leather fetish fantasy roleplay kink dom sub group scenes mild to wild. Pretty boy with a dirty mind, romantic & unforgettable! $400/hr, $2000 overnight negotiable.

People>> HOT LOCAL MEN

“We all need to look into the dark side of our nature — that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.”

— Sue Grafton

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Leather Events, January 4-19, 2017 Thu 4

Mon 8, 15

Fetish and Fantasy @ SF Catalyst

Ride Mondays @ Eros

A monthly meetup. The general theme is "Talk dirty! Listen hard!" For the January meeting, the initial topic will be "Making it Hurt, Taking the Pain". 1060 Folsom St., 7-9pm. www.sfcatalyst.org

A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Fri 5, 12, 19 Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma Gear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men. 442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

Wed 10 Golden Shower and Naked Buddies @ Blow Buddies A men's water sports and naked play night. $15 with membership, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. blowbuddies.com

Sat 13 Ms. San Francisco Leather Contest @ SOMArts Cultural Center See who will become Ms. San Francisco Leather 2018 at the biggest contest of its kind for women in the Bay Area. $20 in advance, $25 at door. 934 Brannan St., 6:30pm. www.mssfleather.org

Shining Stars>>

January 4-10, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Nutz @ Powerhouse

outh of Market’s cruisy bar The Powerhouse hosted Nutz on December 30, a wild and wacky gogo contest hosted by Glamamore and Dulce De Leche, with DJ Guy Ruben. Other notables included affable porn director mrPam, mixed with butch and fey dudes, gogos and celebrants of all ages, where the winning gogo contestant won a $200 cash prize! 1347 Folsom St. http://www.powerhousebar.com/ See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.