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Vol. 49 • No. 30 • July 25-31, 2019

Public gets first glimpse of Milk terminal

Meg Elison

Suzanne Ford, left, SF Pride’s treasurer, joined interim Executive Director Fred Lopez at a July 23 news conference.

SF Pride board wants protesters’ charges dropped by Meg Elison

by Matthew S. Bajko

alking into the new Harvey Milk Terminal 1 for the first time and seeing the temporary exhibit about its namesake, the first gay person to win elective office in San Francisco and California, was aweinspiring for Oakland resident Maceo Persson.

A queer transgender man who works in the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives, Persson is well aware of Milk’s story and legacy. After winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, Milk was tragically gunned down 11 months into his first term. See page 14 >>

S Members of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the city’s official band, took part in the free community day at San Francisco International Airport’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1 July 20 to celebrate the first phase of its reopening. Rick Gerharter

an Francisco Pride officials said this week that they want misdemeanor charges dropped against two protesters who were arrested following their alleged involvement in a demonstration that held up last month’s Pride parade for nearly an hour. Reading from a prepared statement at a news conference Tuesday, San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee interim Executive Director Fred Lopez first detailed the incident itself. He acknowledged that the protest was inconveSee page 12 >>

Ex-congressman who sued B.A.R. dies by Meg Elison

W Meg Elison

CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield and Congresswoman Barbara Lee spoke in Oakland Friday.

Lee: AIDS funds coming to E. Bay by Meg Elison

lameda County is one of eight in California and 48 in the nation that ranks among those with the highest burden of new HIV infections. Forty-eight counties in the nation ranked poorly enough to make the list for recently-announced federal funding mentioned in President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address outlining a $500 million funding boost for domestic HIV goals. Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Diseases, an Oakland organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls affected by HIV, hosted an event Friday, July 19, to discuss how Alameda County-based services can use this funding, and led a short tour of the See page 12 >>

illiam E. Dannemeyer, an arch-conservative former California congressman who advocated quarantining people living with AIDS and once sued the Bay Area Reporter for libel, died July 9. He was 89. The cause of death was complications of dementia, his son told the New York Times. Dannemeyer represented Fullerton, in Orange County, and served seven terms in the House of Representatives. Among LGBTQs and others, he is best remembered for his shocking stances and regressive policies concerning banning abortion, opposing environmentalists, rolling back civil rights protections, declining to tax the rich, and most notably persecuting LGBTQ people and people with AIDS with a ferocity that will define his infamous legacy. Younger voters may not remember a time when Orange County was broadly conservative; a time when affluent white voters loved Ronald Reagan and held on to a red island in their blue state with a wide margin of votes. Dannemeyer won each of his seven elections with at least a 70% margin in neighborhoods that have swung liberal since then, due to demographic shifts and changing social mores on the West Coast. In San Francisco, Dannemeyer drew particular ire for his focused hatred against gays and people living with HIV and AIDS. In 1986, he was the only prominent politician to support convicted fraudster Lyndon LaRouche’s movement to mandate

Rick Gerharter

Former congressman William E. Dannemeyer in 1991

statewide testing for HIV, including tracking of past sexual partners of those infected, full quarantine for those living with the disease, and barring people with AIDS from working in health care. “A staunch anti-gay conservative, in 1986 he was the author of Proposition 109, which was considered far worse than Prop 64, the AIDS quarantine initiative by Lyndon LaRouche two years earlier,” gay former Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

Yeager wrote in a Facebook post last week. “Not only would have Prop 109 led to quarantine of HIV/AIDS patients, it would have required doctors to report the names of people they knew or reasonably believed to be infected,” Yeager, now executive director of the BAYMEC Community Foundation, continued. “HIV patients would have been required by law to tell investigators the names of all sexual or drug partners since 1979, and then their past partners would be traced and contacted.” The statewide measure was soundly defeated by a margin of 71% to 29%, according to Wikipedia. In 1989, Dannemeyer read a graphic description on the floor of Congress titled, “What Homosexuals Do,” in order to shock his colleagues into supporting his agenda. The statement describes fisting, rimming, and sex with fruits and vegetables. Hilarious as these extreme antics may seem in retrospect, gay former California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano pointed out to the B.A.R. that this kind of rhetoric put people’s lives at risk. “Oh my god, my boyfriend,” Ammiano mockscreamed when the B.A.R. reached out to him via phone for comment. “You know, when Joan Crawford died first, Bette Davis said, ‘You’re only supposed to speak good of the dead. She’s dead. Good’. That about sums it up where Dannemeyer is concerned,” he said. Ammiano, a former San Francisco supervisor and school board member, also mentioned Dr. Lorraine Day, Dannemeyer’s second wife, who’s See page 12 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

by Meg Elison

Outside the Box, which is my personal relationship he San Mateo County coaching services for nonPride Center has hired monogamous relationtwo new staff and is gearing ships,” Davidson said, notup for fall events. ing that she is a coach and The San Mateo County not a certified therapist. LGBTQ Commission, in “Ultimately, we want to a Facebook post earlier foster stronger relationthis month, announced ships within the Peninsula Jo-Lynn Otto that the Pride center hired communities and between San Mateo CounAmerica Yamaguchi and ty Pride Center LGBTQ folks and polyamDawn Davidson. orous folks. There’s a lot of program director Program director Lisa Lisa Putkey spoke overlap there, but also a lot Putkey spoke with the Bay at a San Carlos of misunderstanding,” DaArea Reporter by phone Pride celebration vidson said. about these developments, in June. Davidson explained that as well as future plans for while her previous work at the center. the center was mostly devotShe explained that the center is a coled to non-monogamy, her new position laboration between four nonprofits and is focused on the needs of elders in the the county. StarVista is the lead agency, LGBTQ community aged 50 and over. holding all the contracts, while Outlet “I’m hoping to do a lot of commuruns the youth program. The other two nity outreach to let people know that nonprofit partners are Daly City Partthe center exists, and the great variety nerships and Peninsula Family Services. of programming and services available Putkey, a 33-year-old queer woman, there,” she said. “The stigma is still very explained that the position of youth present for older folks, many of whom organizer opened up when a former don’t come to the center because employee went back to school and that they’re afraid of what their families or Yamaguchi is taking on that role. local communities might say. Particu“Hiring America was a perfect solarly if they live in senior centers, that lution,” Putkey. “They were already can be quite serious. A lot of older folks involved with the center and have go back into the closet.” worked in education and they’re part When asked about specific proof the community. The old coordinagramming, Davidson noted that the tor started the program from nothing. center’s offerings are part social and Now, the youth program takes over the part informative. whole center when they have events, “We just had an event for affordable with really robust numbers.” housing for seniors, and I’m sure we’ll According to Putkey, those events be providing that kind of informainclude the first queer prom in San tional event,” she said.“We also do ‘diner Mateo County, clothing swaps, and rounds,’ where we set up lunch at a resongoing youth support groups. taurant as a social outing for the older Yamaguchi, described by the post as folks to meet new friends. Everyone a nonbinary individual who uses they/ pays their own check, but events that them pronouns, will work with Outlet. actually take place at the center are free.” According to their LinkedIn profile, Yamaguchi holds a bachelor’s degree Future plans in biology. The B.A.R. was unable to When asked what’s ahead for the contact Yamaguchi to discuss the role center, Putkey was very focused on these with them. events and services for LGBTQ seniors. Davidson, a 57-year-old pansexual “We’re currently trying to get more polyamorous woman, was brought hours and more funding for the older on as a new program assistant to the adult program so that they can thrive center. She spoke with the B.A.R. by in the same way as youth,” she said. phone about her work there as a “very The Pride center just completed part-time intern,” as she put it. a needs assessment survey for older “I’ve been leading discussions for adults to find out what kind of prothe Polyamorous Peer Power Group at gramming would serve them best. the Pride center for about a year now The center has begun working with on polyamory and open relationships residential homes and senior centers, and other forms of non-monogamy, which Putkey acknowledged have not which I’ve been doing for decades elsetraditionally been inclusive of the LGwhere. Most of my work is done at Love BTQ community.

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San Mateo Pride center hires new staff

Putkey and her staff are optimistic, however. The center has another job opening newly posted to its website looking to hire a part-time event coordinator to help plan, among other things, San Mateo’s first-ever queer adult prom in September. The theme is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The position pays $20 per hour. According to its 2018 annual report, the San Mateo County Pride Center serves over 3,000 unique individuals per year, 30% of whom are over 40 years old. The annual report does not include figures for the center’s funding or budget. StarVista, the lead nonprofit in the collaboration that runs the center, lists an annual revenue of $12 million on its Form 990. In April, the Pride center was informed that its state funding had been approved for two years. At the time, Putkey wrote in an email that the funding amount is $1.55 million, which includes $700,000 a year for services and $150,000 for evaluation and development of a replicable tool. First opened in 2017, the center serves the queer community of San Mateo County by offering drop-in and case management services, a “free store” of necessary goods including hygiene and gender-affirming items, a library, and a computer lab, among other things. The center made news in 2018 when it received a $90,000 threeyear grant from Kaiser Permanente to offer help with mental illness stigma experienced by LGBTQ people. t To find out what services and events the Pride center offers, or to make a donation, visit https://sanmateopride.org/. For information on the part-time event coordinator position, visit https://bit.ly/32KrGP2.

Correction The “BofA awards $1.8M in grants” News Brief in the July 18 issue contained two errors. The bank added some grantees, bringing the total in funds distributed to $1.85 million. Additionally, Bank of America’s health insurance benefits have always included coverage for trans employees. It was more than 10 years ago that it extended its health insurance benefits to cover medically necessary procedures for its employees who transition. The online version has been corrected.

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Volume 49, Number 30 July 25-31, 2019 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 • Meg Elison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith Sari Staver • Tony Taylor • 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 • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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High time for cannabis reform

his week, Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) and House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) introduced comprehensive marijuana reform legislation that is long past due. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE, would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substance Act, where it is listed as a Schedule I drug. Significantly, it applies retroactively to prior and pending convictions, and enables states to set their own policy for criminal justice statutes – it’s just one of the bill’s provisions and something that we’ve been clamoring for for years. Federal decriminalization would allow universities and other researchers to study cannabis, which is extremely limited right now. The MORE Act would also require federal courts to expunge prior convictions, allow prior offenders to request expungement, and require courts, on motion, to conduct re-sentencing hearings for those still under supervision. The bill would also generate revenue by assessing a 5% sales tax on marijuana and marijuana products. This money would create an Opportunity Trust Fund to provide grants to those who were most affected by the failed war on drugs to pursue job training, re-entry services, and legal aid; loans to assist small businesses in the marijuana industry; and programs that minimize barriers to marijuana licensing and employment. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) is one of 30 cosponsors. As House Cannabis Caucus co-chair, Lee has fought for decades to reform the country’s outdated federal cannabis policy, she stated in a news release. She and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) have introduced several pieces of legislation on the topic, many of which are included in the Harris-Nadler bill. The introduction of the MORE Act also signals that cannabis reform is sure to be an issue in

Rick Gerharter

Senator Kamala Harris, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, has introduced a comprehensive marijuana reform bill.

the 2020 presidential contest. Harris is a leading Democratic contender, and others have signed on as co-sponsors (as of Wednesday they were New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and Bay Area Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), who recently dropped out of the presidential race). While there are no Republicans who support the bill yet, we hope that some of them see the importance of this issue. Harris’ stance on cannabis has changed since her days as San Francisco district attorney, when her office pursued marijuana convictions. Earlier this year, Harris acknowledged on The Breakfast Club radio show that she has smoked pot in her college days. “Times have changed – marijuana should not be a crime,” she stated in a news release. “We need to start regulating marijuana, and expunge marijuana convictions from the records of millions of Americans so they can get on with their lives.” Since the medical marijuana movement started seeing success in the mid-1990s, cannabis has become legal in more jurisdictions – both for

medicinal and recreational uses. As of June, according to DISA Global Solutions, which tracks cannabis laws and provides information on drug testing, marijuana is legal in some form in 40 states, including a reduction of criminal statutes. Now that more states are legalizing cannabis for adult use, reforming laws at the federal level is the next logical step. One component unaddressed in the HarrisNadler reform package is the lack of banking opportunities for marijuana dispensaries. Banks won’t work with marijuana firms, even if they are in states where cannabis is legal, because financial institutions won’t risk being accused of money-laundering by the federal government. This lack of bank access likely will be a stumbling block to many of the reforms Harris and Nadler are proposing. The American Bankers Association, while taking no position on the moral issues raised by marijuana, nonetheless advocates for federal reform. “ABA believes the time has come for Congress and the regulatory agencies to provide greater legal clarity to banks operating in states where marijuana has been legalized for medical or adult use,” the trade group states on its website. “Those banks, including institutions that have no interest in directly banking marijuana-related businesses, face rising legal and regulatory risks as the marijuana industry grows.” According to the ABA, there are proposals currently before Congress and the Senate that “seek to provide greater clarity and bridge the gap between state and federal law [to] provide a solid starting point for discussion.” MORE Act proponents should examine whether to incorporate these related bills into the legislation. The Harris-Nadler package is intended to reverse the damage done by cannabis prosecutions that resulted in mass incarceration, which disproportionately affects people of color, enabling them to obtain access to education, employment, and housing. Removing cannabis from Schedule I would be the beginning of banking changes to allow marijuana-related businesses to thrive. The stigmatization of cannabis as a dangerous narcotic must end.t

Next steps for LGBTQ nonprofits by Leslie Ewing

ver since I announced my retirement from Pacific Center, people have been asking, “What’s next?” It’s kind of driving me to distraction, since I think the whole point of retirement is not to worry about “what’s next.” However, contemplating retirement has brought forward thoughts about the past and the future ... sometimes all muddled together. Because my activism started during the HIV epidemic, I am painfully aware that retirement is a privilege denied to many of my queer generation. But, it is time. I am 70. And as a semi-professional-activist-aging-in-place, I can’t help but think of what’s next for us, not just me. I’m trying to figure out how to remain at the table without having to always be part of the conversation. At an event in Berkeley recently, Ben Barr mentioned the Stonewall “controversy” about who threw the first brick. He said the real question should be “Who will throw the 99th brick? Who will finish it?” Thirty-plus years ago, it was easier to discriminate against us because heterosexual people could claim they didn’t know any gay people. Nobody can say that today. However, as the boomers of the “Great Queer Coming-Out Era” all know, it won’t be one of us throwing the last brick. That day is too far in the future. The LGBTQ social justice movement did not start with Stonewall, or Compton’s Cafeteria, or any other singular event. While these catalytic events compelled people to respond to a crisis, it’s mostly been our national network of regional organizations that has made the difference in not only creating, but also sustaining, a social justice movement. I’ve been involved with a lot of these efforts over the years: The NAMES Project, 1993 March on Washington, AIDS Emergency Fund, Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, Under One Roof, Lyon-Martin Health Services, and Pacific Center. All of these organizations were founded and initially run by volunteers. And, who volunteered in response to those catalytic events? Who had the privilege of spare time? Who had discretionary income to launch community response efforts? White people, mostly. We didn’t even notice that we were the only ones in the room. We had fires to put out. Everyone who walked through the door was wel-

Leslie Ewing

come, but we didn’t know how to engage anyone we didn’t already know ... which introduced the friends-and-family quagmire we still see on boards today. The movement of 30 years ago didn’t create much more than a crisis response manual for future generations. It’s mostly still that way. Meanwhile, LGBTQ people of color had always been on the frontlines of social justice movements, both within the LGBTQ community, and outside it. In the mid-1990s, community foundations finally recognized this by supporting the emergence of LGBTQ organizations led by, and for, people of color. However, the price of these initiatives often was further marginalization of non-white LGBTQ voices within the community-at-large. In 2019, there is ample proof that mainstream LGBTQ organizations still don’t have a clue about how to address the intersections of race and equity that exist in their real-world LGBTQ communities. I think one reason is because mostly well-meaning white people, like me, have been running these organizations for decades. I realize that it takes a lot of nerve to implore LGBTQ organizations to deal with their institutional racism as I (a white cisgender lesbian) am

taking my final bow. All I can say is that I promise to remain committed to this work even if I am not the one who can lead it. So, here are some suggestions for how we can do better and how today’s leaders can start. 1. There is nothing to be gained by being afraid of each other. Today’s leaders (even the ones who’ve never been really sure they are leaders, like me) need to get over their fear of making a mistake and start the dialogue about the intersections of race, class, and inequity. Our organizations need to model the behavior we wish to see in others. 2. Pushback is not a threat. It means the ship is moving. This is what you want, after all. And, yes, it is sometimes personal. You are moving too. It may hurt. Keep moving through your discomfort. Just keep moving. 3. Change starts by doing everyday things differently. Change hiring and promotion practices. Establish a director-level position for equity and inclusion work. Make a place at the decision-making table for this person. Integrate equity and inclusion into all leadership development programs. 4. Talk is cheap. Results aren’t. LGBTQ nonprofits should make a permanent financial commitment to support intersectionality and inclusion. Insist that ongoing training for board members and staff be included in the budget. This can’t be fully accomplished without help, however. Foundations that fueled marriage equality efforts years ago (and have remained tethered to advocacy) now need to support the intersectional capacity of organizations connected to the LGBTQ movement. This means increasing funding to organizations led by LGBTQ people of color, and helping mainstream LGBTQ organizations make diversity and inclusion a priority in staffing and mission. And, who will throw that 99th brick? Only time will tell. I think it will take all of us to get there. I think we can do this! t Leslie Ewing is stepping down from the Pacific Center in Berkeley this month. For more information about the center, visit http://www.pacificcenter.org.

Politics>>

July 25-31, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Gay Long Beach mayor rules out legislative run

by Matthew S. Bajko

ver since he won a seat on Long Beach’s City Council in 2009, Robert Garcia has faced questions about what office he would seek next. In 2014 one answer came when he won his bid to be his city’s first elected gay mayor. Easily re-elected to another four-year mayoral term in April 2018, Garcia was seen as a strong candidate to run for Ricardo Lara’s state Senate seat should he be elected as California’s insurance commissioner last November. Yet shortly after Lara became the first gay person elected to statewide office in the Golden State, Garcia announced he wouldn’t enter the special election for Lara’s 33rd state senatorial district this spring. Instead, he endorsed the ultimate winner of the race, Lena Gonzalez, who had served on the Long Beach City Council. Term limited to seeking one more four-year term as mayor, it is inevitable that Garcia will set his sights on a higher office if he wants to remain an elected leader. For now he is remaining tightlipped on his political future when his mayoralty ends. When he sat down with the Bay Area Reporter for an interview this spring, Garcia did rule out serving in the state Legislature. Asked about the entreaties that he run for either a seat in the Assembly or Senate, Garcia said he wasn’t interested. “Definitely not the state Legislature, I am not going to run for that,” he said. “I mean, certainly, I can run for that. And, you know, I think people were obviously very supportive, but I am just not interested in that.” For now, he said his focus is on being mayor. “There’s no better job in the world than being mayor of your city,” said Garcia, who was born in Long Beach and graduated from Cal State Long Beach. “This is where I need to be. I just got re-elected and I’m totally committed to do this job.” Garcia could someday run for Congress, county supervisor, or statewide office, noted Rick Zbur, executive director of statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California. “We have lots of hopes for him. He is a successful mayor in Long Beach who is really popular,” said Zbur. “We have high hopes there will be another race he will enter, but he is not termed out of office yet.” Garcia’s decision not to seek a legislative seat does complicate efforts by EQCA and LGBT leaders to recruit out candidates for state Assembly or Senate in order to ensure the longevity of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. It currently has seven members, one of whom will be leaving office next year due to term limits, and another because of seeking office outside the Legislature. As the B.A.R. has previously reported, EQCA has been encouraging local LGBT elected leaders to run for Assembly or Senate seats in order to maintain or increase membership of the LGBTQ legislative caucus. The task is a bit difficult for the 2020 cycle as there are fewer open seats than last year, and incumbents often do not face intraparty challengers. “We are focused on 2020 right now and trying to do leadership recruitment,” said Zbur. To date, there are five out nonincumbents known to be seeking state legislative seats in 2020, one of whom is already serving in the Legislature and is running to succeed a termed out LGBT caucus member. Lesbian Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

Courtesy Mayor’s Office

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, center, seen here at a groundbreaking, is focused on his second term rather than running for a state legislative seat next year.

(D-Stockton) is seeking the 5th Senate District seat currently held by lesbian state Senator Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton), who is termed out of office next year. Eggman’s contest will be a top priority for EQCA, which early endorsed her Senate bid. EQCA also early endorsed gay former Assemblyman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) in his race to succeed state Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), who is termed out of his 17th Senate District seat along the Central Coast. Also securing EQCA’s early endorsement was gay San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward, who is running to succeed gay Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) in the 78th Assembly District. Gloria is a heavy favorite to be the first gay elected mayor of his city next year, having served in the role in an interim capacity several years ago. EQCA’s political action committee is currently reviewing early endorsements for two other candidates. One, gay Mission Viejo Realtor and grandparent Scott Rhinehart, is running again for the 73rd Assembly District seat after losing last year to the incumbent, Assemblyman William Brough (R-Dana Point). Brough has since been accused of inappropriate behavior by four women and is likely to face a Republican opponent for his Orange County seat in addition to Rhinehart. EQCA endorsed Rhinehart late in last year’s campaign and was impressed by how well he ended up doing in a district that favors Republicans. “He is a good candidate; he is just running in a very red district,” noted Zbur. EQCA is also considering an early endorsement by August of San Bernardino City Unified School District board member Abigail Medina, who identifies as both queer and lesbian, in the 23rd state Senate District race. She is one of a number of candidates running to succeed the incumbent, Mike Morrell (R-Rancho Cucamonga), who is termed out of office next year. The executive director of the Inland Region Equality Network, Medina came close to winning an Assembly seat in 2016. Last week, the Legislative LGBT Caucus endorsed her Senate bid. In a release about having its support, Medina stated that it was “especially meaningful” to her since her “campaign is about breaking every barrier in state Senate District 23 including the rainbow glass ceiling. Anyone who has ever been asked to hide their

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own humanity or assimilate into a predominant culture knows the importance of representation.” There may be three Assembly races with lesbian non-incumbent candidates next year, as a trio of challengers who fell short in 2018 has pulled papers with an eye toward running again in 2020. They include former Richmond City Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles, who lost to freshman Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) in the East Bay’s 15th Assembly District and has formed an exploratory committee for a rematch. Real estate agent Sunday Gover could challenge Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego), who left the Republican Party this year and will be running for re-election as a Democrat in the 77th Assembly District. And in Placer County, former San Jose resident Jackie Smith is expected to run again against Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Granite Bay) for the 6th Assembly District seat. As for the other current LGBT caucus members, all four will be seeking re-election next year. They are lesbian state Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), gay Assemblyman Evan Low (DCampbell), and lesbian Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes (DCorona). Of the quartet, Cervantes faces the likeliest chance of being opposed by a strong Republican opponent. The GOP targeted her last year, but she was able to win a second term. Northern California LGBT leaders interested in running for office, whether a legislative seat or any other elected position, can apply for the Equality California Institute’s 2019 Northern California Leadership Academy being held in late August. (A southern California academy will be convened sometime in 2020.) To do so online, visit https://action.eqca.org/Leadership_2019. t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on out legal experts advising Governor Gavin Newsom on his judicial picks for California court vacancies. 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) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< International News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Czechia’s trans community pushes to be visible by Heather Cassell

merging from the few sensationalized tabloid headlines and TV shows that have been Czechia’s only exposure to the country’s transgender community, trans Czechs are stepping out and speaking up about their experiences. The country’s transgender community has become more visible in the last five years as they challenge the country’s gender recognition laws and claim their place in society, said Viktor Heumann, a 41-year-old trans man who is the director of Transparent, Czechia’s transgender organization. The Czech Republic is working to revive its original Latin short-form name, Czechia. In the spring, the B.A.R. traveled to Prague and met up with Heumann to learn more about the community’s struggles and vision for the future. It’s an exciting moment for Czechia’s transgender community, which is building itself as it faces an uphill battle to transform gender recognition laws and acceptance. Transgender individuals can legally change their identity, but the process is arduous. “It’s possible officially, but the administrative procedure is a bit complicated,” said Heumann. “There’s still some conditions that are rather discriminatory that require trans people to undergo certain things that are not considered OK in terms of human rights.” Those issues involve legal terminology, whereby the government and the public tend to use “transsexual,” said Heumann, and a long, invasive transition process. It includes a medical diagnosis, medical procedures, a court ruling, and selecting a gender-neutral name during the transition. Czech names are gendered, including the endings

of last names. Married individuals have to get divorced and sterilization is required. “Which is in breach of international standards,” Heumann said. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights made a landmark ruling that the sterilization requirement for legal gender recognition violated human rights. The court ordered the then-20 European Union countries that required sterilization to revise their laws to become compliant. Future gender identity laws weren’t permitted to include sterilization. Two years later, the law is still on Czechia’s books. Fourteen countries still require this procedure, according to Transgender Europe. “We are hoping that we will change soon and some other things that are not quite administrative procedures that are not very friendly to trans people,” Heumann said. He explained that the Ministry of Justice proposed an amendment to the Civic Code, Section 29, and the Act on Specific Healthcare Services no. 373/2011 Coll. to ease access for transgender individuals to gain legal gender recognition. “In our view, this is not ideal because it still reinforces the position of the doctors here, which is not very desirable for trans people,” he said. “They misuse or abuse their position toward trans people applying diagnostic treatments and inquiries that are traumatizing to trans people or inhumane and abusive.” Czechs revere doctors, which puts transgender people in a bind. “Our society loves doctors, adores doctors, whatever doctors say [it’s] obviously true,” explained gay activist Czeslaw Walek. However, the desire to live fully as the gender they want to be is strong for transgender Czechs. “Many people go through the sur-

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Viktor Heumann is the director of Transparent, Czechia’s transgender organization.

gery in order to have their name and their gender marker on their documents correct,” said Heumann. Being transgender is uncomfortable during the transition period or for people like Heumann, who began transitioning about five years ago but chose not to go through the complete process. “There’s a lot of pressure here for people to undergo surgical treatment,” he continued. Transgender individuals who completed transitioning under the current system reported the most satisfaction (69%) when asked about the current legal gender recognition system. Those who haven’t, or aren’t planning on completing the process, were the least satisfied (20%), according to the Transparent survey.

Changing public perception

Changing the law isn’t the only challenge Czech’s trans community faces. Changing the public’s perception and understanding of who a transgender person is and what being transgender means is another obstacle transgender activists face. Two surveys – “Being LGBT+ in

the Czech Republic: The LGBT+ experience of people with prejudice, discrimination, harassment and hate violence” and “The Hopes and Fears of Trans People-First Survey Report” – found similar disparity among acceptance, quality of life, and discrimination for Czech transgender people. Czechia’s largest survey about discrimination against the LGBT community, “Being LGBT + in the Czech Republic,” published by the Office of the Public Defender of Rights of the Czech Republic in May, found that up to 86% of trans people felt discriminated against in the last five years. The survey, conducted by an ombudsman and translated using Google Translate, discovered it is significantly more compared to lesbians (58%) and gays (33%). The study also revealed that trans people were about a third less likely than gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to be open about their gender identity. The study surveyed 1,981 respondents ages 13 and up. The office worked with Queer Geography, which created the survey questions, and Prague Pride, which distributed the survey between September 19 and November 5, 2018. The research was funded by the European Union Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program (2014-2020). Transparent found similar results with its smaller survey, “The Hopes and Fears of Trans People,” also published earlier this year. The survey, conducted June 7 through October 11, 2018, found that out of 396 transgender respondents roughly onethird (32.8%) “do not feel good in this country” when asked, “What is your life like as a trans person in the Czech Republic?” Responding to the same

question, two-thirds rated their quality of life positively. One hundred and eighty-seven respondents gave 279 reasons why they were unhappy living in Czechia. More than half (54%) mentioned people simply not believing in gender diversity, believing in stereotypes about transgender people, and being misinformed about transgender people as things that may lead to exclusion, discrimination, or harassment of trans people. At the same time, the organization found that the degree of openness about one’s gender identity overall was 52%. Heumann is hopeful about the community’s future, despite the challenges Czechia’s transgender community faces, especially as he sees more transgender people come out. Legislation matters, but visibility comes first, he said. “We are getting more and more visible in the way that we want to be visible, which is good,” he said. TV shows like “Most” and “Terapie” provided the country’s first look at transgender people, but the characters were written and played by straight people and they were very stereotyped, said Heumann and Walek. “Without having some kind of balance or objective picture of trans people, people will still have this distorted image of a trans person as a threat,” said Heumann. “They just don’t know anything about trans people, so it’s a process to get visible first.” To learn more about Transparent, visit http://www.transparentprague. cz/english. t A longer version of this article can be found online at ebar.com

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Alex Montiel, at microphone, spoke at last month’s groundbreaking for Eagle Plaza, where he was joined by Mayor London Breed, left, and other officials.

year, the 136-unit rental housing project cannot open to residents until the Eagle Plaza is built. In an email, Montiel wrote that the fundraiser, though specific to Eagle Plaza, supports more than just the leather and LGBTQ community in the area. “We are supporting the SOMA West CBD, the leather cultural district, and everything the city has dreamed about doing to promote greening,” he wrote, referring to the community benefit district for South of Market. “Supporting Eagle Plaza and our fundraiser now, and for the lifespan of the project, is a perpetual community investment to ensure our corner of the city truly represents our community,” he added. “Eagle Plaza will stand as the centerpiece of the leather movement, a landmark to inspire future generations

who visit the site to see that individuals working together can make a difference and tell their story for all to see – that our community no longer hides behind walls, inside bars, or down alleyways, but are right in the street.” Montiel, Mayor London Breed, Supervisors Matt Haney and Rafael Mandelman, and other officials broke ground on the plaza last month. While Build is paying for most of the $1.85 million plaza project, the Friends of Eagle Plaza needs to raise about $150,000, and to date has brought in $80,000. Additionally, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) secured $100,000 for the plaza in this year’s state budget. Besides the raffle, the event will feature other prizes, vendors, games, food and drinks, and dancing. For more information, including where to buy a raffle ticket, visit www.eagleplazaraffle.com. See page 12 >>

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<< National News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Stevens was an early supporter of LGBTs by Lisa Keen

ormer U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who was buried in Arlington National Cemetery this week, was one of the first members of the nation’s highest court to express support for LGBT people. He did so years before Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the first of several decisions that championed equal rights for LGBT people. He did so years before Kennedy even joined the court and at a time when most of the court and most Americans harbored fear and hostility toward LGBT people. It was a time before even the acronym “LGBT” existed. Stevens died July 16 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 99. Stanford Law Professor Jeffrey Fisher, who clerked for Stevens during the 1998-99 session, said Stevens was “absolutely” one of the first justices of the Supreme Court to stand up for LGBT people. “I remember the term I clerked that the justice was quite distressed when

the court denied review in a case from Cincinnati ... where the 6th Circuit had let an anti-LGBT rights ordinance stand,” said Fisher. “It was clear this was something he cared deeply about and that he was committed to the project of eventually revisiting Bowers.” Bowers v. Hardwick was the 1986 court decision that upheld a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults. The case involved a gay man who was found by police to be engaged in consensual sex with another man. The decision was the basis for much anti-gay prejudice before it was overturned in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas, which repealed state sodomy laws. But even before that case, Equality Foundation v. Cincinnati, Stevens made clear he cared about the rights of LGBT people. As early as 1976, he and Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall voted to hear the appeal of a man challenging Virginia’s ban on sodomy for male couples. “Our three votes to hear the case expressed our view that the issue

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presented was sufficiently important to require full briefing and argument before being decided,” wrote Stevens. Unfortunately, it takes at least four justices to agree to hear an appeal and so, in the case of Doe v. Commonwealth’s Attorney for Richmond, the appeal was not taken. Instead, the Supreme Court majority affirmed the lower court decision without hearing arguments. Stevens, Brennan, and Marshall asked that the record show they would have heard the appeal. “We now know – based on a string of cases beginning with Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 and culminating with Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 – that the summary affirmance [in Doe] was incorrect and failed to appreciate the full aspect of liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment,” wrote Stevens in his 2019 memoir “The Making of a Justice.” Stevens wrote one of the two dissents to the Bowers decision, saying it was “plainly unacceptable” to think that same-sex couples do not have the same interest in liberty as others. The principle that “all men are created equal,” he said, “surely must mean that every free citizen has the same interest in ‘liberty’ that the members of the majority share. “From the standpoint of the individual, the homosexual and the heterosexual have the same interest in deciding how he will live his own life, and, more narrowly, how he will conduct himself in his personal and voluntary associations with his companions,” Stevens wrote. To allow a state to enforce a ban on “sodomy” against one group and not all people, he wrote, the government should have to identify a legitimate interest “more substantial than a habitual dislike for, or ignorance about, the disfavored group.” Stevens was clearly proud of his actions in Doe and Bowers. In his mem-

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Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens

oir, he wrote that he had felt “particular satisfaction in seeing the seeds I planted in my Bowers dissent ... grow to strike down anti-sodomy statutes” in the court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas. And that decision “led to an even greater expansion of liberty and equality for our fellow citizens in later decision United States v. Windsor, which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized the fundamental right to marry cannot be denied to same-sex couples. “Tony Kennedy was of course instrumental in these groundbreaking decisions,” wrote Stevens in his book, “but I like to think that, even though I had left the bench, I had a hand in them as well.” Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that Stevens’ dissents in Doe and Bowers did plant the “seeds that bloomed 17 years later in Lawrence v. Texas, with active cultivation by movement lawyers and many others.” She also credited Stevens’ intellect and interpersonal skills with creating a relationship with Kennedy that “helped shape Kennedy’s opinion for the court in Lawrence v. Texas, and then his decision in Obergefell a dozen years later, after Justice Stevens had retired.” “In other words, although he has been less recognized popularly within the LGBTQ movement than Justice Kennedy, Justice Stevens’ voice articulating core principles of personal rights and equal dignity over three and a half decades on the court was among the most important foundation-layers for the LGB rights breakthroughs of recent years,” said Pizer. “His role was immeasurably important. And his continuing voice since his retirement – one of constitutional principles, humane social critic, and call to civic engagement – will be dearly missed.” In 1987, one year after Bowers, Stevens, an appointee of Republican

President Gerald Ford, had the third best voting record in support of equal rights for gays and lesbians (behind Marshall and Brennan). By 1992, when Marshall and Brennan had retired, he and Justices Harry Blackmun and David Souter (all three Republican nominees) had the best voting records on LGBT-related cases. In 2000, Stevens led the dissent against a 5-4 majority that held the New Jersey law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations could not be used to require the Boy Scouts of America to accept openly gay scout leaders. The case was Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, and the majority said the First Amendment’s right to association protected the BSA’s right to exclude gays. Stevens’ dissent in the Boy Scouts case sounds like language suited to defend LGBT people against cases today asserting companies have a right to exclude LGBT people based on the business vendors’ professed religious beliefs. He criticized the majority for accepting at face value the Boy Scouts’ claim to be acting on a belief that being gay is “not morally straight.” “I am unaware of any previous instance in which our analysis of the scope of a constitutional right was determined by looking at what a litigant asserts in his or her brief and inquiring no further,” wrote Stevens. Asserting a belief at odds with an antidiscrimination law, he wrote, “is not a freedom to discriminate at will. ... “If this court were to defer to whatever position an organization is prepared to assert in its briefs, there would be no way to mark the proper boundary between genuine exercises of the right to associate, on the one hand, and sham claims that are simply attempts to insulate nonexpressive private discrimination, on the other hand,” he wrote. “Shielding a litigant’s claim from judicial scrutiny would, in turn, render civil rights legislation a nullity, and turn this important constitutional right into a farce.” While Stevens voted in favor of LGBT interests in more than twothirds of the cases that came before him, he did not always land on the pro-LGBT side. In 1987, for instance, he voted with the majority to say the government had no authority to stop the U.S. Olympic Committee from barring the organizers of the Gay Games from calling their event the “Gay Olympics.” And in 1995, he voted with the unanimous court to say that a Massachusetts law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations could not be used to force the organizers of Boston’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade to exclude an openly gay contingent. t

Obituaries >> Frank Schumacker September 16, 1961 – July 13, 2019

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Our sweet, brilliant, funny friend Frank has left the building. Frank Schumacker was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and raised in Huron, South Dakota. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of South Dakota where he was a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship. He received his master’s degree in advertising and marketing at Northwestern University. During his career in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, Frank delivered measurable business success for a variety of brands including Apple, Kodak, Ogilvy, Charles Schwab, Hitachi, Trend Micro, and Cisco, to name a few.

Frank was preceded in death by his adoptive parents, Charles and Rosemary Schumacker of Huron. He is survived by countless people whose lives he touched, from his Hidatsa tribe in North Dakota to school friends and people with whom he worked. Frank took pride in being an upper baritone with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. He will be sorely missed and long remembered by his friends at the Twin Peaks and Blush wine bar, but especially by the Edge’s “platinum circle,” to whom he often remarked, “Why do I come here!?” Please join us at the Edge, 4149 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, at noon Sunday, August 11, to raise a glass to Frank and his beloved dog, Simon. Friends are attempting to make his fictionalized memoir, “Son of a Prairie Chicken,” available to read, at least electronically.

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<< Travel

10 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Classical and edgy, Prague has it all by Heather Cassell

felt like I went back in time, not just to an era of royalty, but also the gritty punk scene of the 1980s and early 1990s New York during a recent trip to Prague. I was in a city filled with cobblestone streets. A river runs through town, with stone bridges knitting pathways across it to a castle perched high on a hill. Children play with handcrafted wood toys sold in the local shops along the squares. I was also in underground clubs and hidden cafes in a lively, wildly creative city. Was Snow White or Billy Idol lurking around the corner? My first full day of a 72-hour trip to Prague, I woke up early after spending an evening at an underground lesbian festival. My guide, dressed in a circa 1980s leather jacket, greeted me in my posh hotel lobby ready to whisk me away through Prague’s incredibly layered history, including SM mating rituals where bruised bums are a sign of being attractive to the opposite sex. Prague is the capital city of the Czech Republic, which is currently undergoing a rebranding campaign that was launched in 2016 to revive its original Latin name, Czechia. It’s been more than a quarter century since the fall of communism and the Velvet Revolution that split the former Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Czechoslovakia became the country’s name in 1918 after the fall of the 400year rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czechia is working hard to move away from its past and step into its future. After all, 500 years ago, before the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nazis, the former Soviet Union, and the Velvet Revolution that brought Czechia back to its independent state, Prague was flourishing with innovation and wealth. Recent years have been more challenging. Czechs are proud of their history and have spent a century attempting to reconstruct their culture and prosperous past. “We almost lost Czech identity and culture during 400 years of our dependence on Austria,” said my gay guide, Petr Prokopik, 44, owner of Prague4Gay Tour (http://www. prague4gay.com). World War II took more than half of the country’s communities and cultures, which were made up of Czech, German, and Jewish people. “We lost both Jewish and German

Heather Cassell

The Prague Castle, center, is one of many attractions visitors can see, along with the Charles Bridge, right.

culture in the end of the second World War,” explained Prokopik, a native of Prague who holds a doctorate in anthropology and has taught gender studies and history. Czechoslovakia itself had been formed at the end of World War I, following the collapse of the AustroHungarian Empire. Prior to the war the region consisted of Bohemia and Moravia, often called the Czech Lands, in the west, and Slovakia, a part of Hungary, in the east, according to Britannica.com Later, the iron curtain closed down upon Czechoslovakia until the fall of the former Soviet Union and communism in 1991. The country regained its independence during the Velvet Divorce and split from Slovakia in 1993. Today, “we are now almost uniquely culturally united,” said Prokopik. Standing in front of the Czech Municipal House (http://www.obecnidum.cz), Prokopik explained the mural depicting the mythology of the creation of Czechia’s identity and history in the 19th century, which lends to the magicalness of the city.

Charmed

The residents of Prague are just as charmed by their city as visitors. “Prague is really beautiful and historical, especially for U.S. friends. It’s very old,” said Michal Pitoñák, a 33-year-old gay man who is the cofounder and core volunteer of the Queer Geography Association in Prague.

“It’s safe here. People are used to foreigners. We have nice hotels and cafes,” added Kristina Martiskova, 28, a pansexual woman who was attending the Queer Eye Festival (http:// www.facebook.com/queereye). She noted that Prague has a large American expat community. “It has a great energy. It has a lot of greenery. It’s very cheap. It’s just safe, friendly and beautiful,” she said. Prague residents are eager to show off the popular historical sites. Visitors can’t miss the Prague Castle (http:// www.hrad.cz), the Charles Bridge (http://www.prague.eu/cs/objekt/ mista/93/karluv-most), Lesser Town (also known as Malá Strana) (http:// www.czechtourism.com/c/praguemala-strana-lesser-town), Old Town Square (https://www. prague.eu/en), Wenceslas Square (http://www. prague.eu/en/object/ places/182/wenceslassquare-vaclavske-namesti), and the Petrin Tower (http://www.muzeumprahy. cz/198-petrinska-rozhledna/). Then they will tell you how much they love the vibrant underground scene and things to do that are noncommercialized and indie-inspired. “There are many things happening here that [are] not necessarily happening in other cities,” said Prokopik. He showed me nondescript places, like the Scout Institute (http://www. skautskyinstitut.cz/staromak/), a socialist cafe in the heart of the city that is supportive of the Czechia LGBT community. He also took me to the more touristy cafes, such as the House of the Black Madonna’s Grand Cafe Orient (www.grandcafeorient.cz), which also houses the Czech Museum of Cubism (www.czkubismus.cz/en). Prague is the only place in the world to take cubism, popularized by the late artist Pablo Picasso, and apply it to architecture. The city has a few buildings, such as the House of the Black Madonna, in the unique style that enjoyed a brief moment of popularity. Lastly, Czechs will boast about their national beverage of choice: beer. It turns out that Budweiser is American as well as Czech. That’s right. Budweiser is originally from Czechia, just as Pilsner beer is from the town of Pilsen in Czechia. If you think Germans are proud of their beer, you haven’t met a Czech.

its ninth year, is also the largest Pride event in Eastern Europe. Last year, the event attracted more than 90,000 Pridegoers from all over Czechia and Eastern Europe. There were more than 100 events such as debates, workshops, concerts, parties, and more, Pride organizers told me when I visited their offices. The celebration concludes with the parade on Saturday that attracts more than 40,000 spectators. This year, Prague Pride is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City. The challenge in Prague, activists said, is that Czechia has never had a “Stonewall moment.” “The Stonewall in the history of the Czech LGBT community, it is not known, it is not part of our inner history that we would feel connected to,” said Hana Kulhánková, 41, a lesbian who is director of Prague Pride. “Many people in the Czech Republic think that Prague Pride or [the] LGBT movement is a trend that emerged in the 1990s after the Velvet Revolution and when the Czech Republic opened up to the world,” added Bohdana Rambousková, 40, an ally who is the Pride festival’s public relations manager. “They don’t see any history beforehand.” The reason is that homosexuality was decriminalized in then-Czechoslovakia in 1962, the women said. Prague Pride’s goal is to educate the Czech LGBT community about the historic event that happened in New York City, and also to show that Prague Pride is a part of a global movement of Prides and each country’s unique situation, Rambousková added. In Czechia, human rights and visibility remain two of the key issues’ LGBTs face. Decriminalization of

homosexuality didn’t equal education about the LGBT community. One of the unique qualities of Prague Pride is that it is more grassroots, the organizers noted. “This is not a commercial Pride, as commercial as we are used to seeing in the West,” said Rambousková. “We are much more human rights focused because there’s still a lot to do, a lot to fight for, basically.” Prague Pride operates year-round with three full-time staff members. The staff produces the festival – for 2018 its budget was around $138,000 – with the help of a small army of 150 volunteers. Prague doesn’t have an LGBT center, so the organization also works on other community initiatives. Kulhánková’s personal goal for Prague Pride is to diversify it and make it more inclusive for the community, especially seniors, youth, lesbians, and transgender people, she said. “Lots of very young people are coming out much, much younger than when our generation was coming out,” said Kulhánková. To discover Prague, I took a couple of tours, both of which were interesting. One of them was of the Old Jewish Quarter, which is right off the Old Town Square, as a guest of Wittmann Tours (http://www.wittmanntours.com). During the tour, I learned about the industrious Czech Jewish community and its horrible demise during World War II. “The Jewish Quarter is very important. It’s very powerful [to] have a great impact to see history and to realize a big part of society that was once so prominent and so present in everyday life and it disappeared,” Prokopik said during our tour. “A similar thing just cannot happen.” Wittmann Tours was launched nearly 30 years ago by Sylvie Wittmann, a 63-year-old Jewish bisexual woman who survived the post-Holocaust and communism eras with a strong sense of her Jewishness intact. She began giving private tours of the Old Jewish Quarter and Czechia’s concentration camp, Terezín Ghetto, in 1986 before officially launching her tour company in 1990. Through the years, she’s employed and taught many people how to be tour guides, including Prokopik. Today, she employs about two-dozen full- and part-time guides, she told me when we met for coffee. The Terezín Ghetto tour is a daylong one. What makes Terezín unique is what happened there because of Alfred “Fredy” Hirsch, a gay Jewish man (http://www.docsforeducation. com/Dear_Fredy.php). Hirsch talked the Nazis into allowing him to continue teaching Jewish traditions to the children to prepare them to return to Israel. In the end, Hirsch was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and the children perished in the gas chambers, Prokopik told me. See page 14 >>

What to see and do

Prague’s two biggest LGBT festivals are Prague Pride (www.praguepride. cz/en), August 5-11 and the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival (www.mezipatra. cz/en), November 7-22. August is a good time for LGBTs to visit as Pride is the city’s biggest summer festival. The weeklong celebration, now in

Heather Cassell

Petr Prokopik, owner of Prague4Gay Tour, stands by David Cerny’s “Piss” in front of the Franz Kafka Museum. It’s one of the artist’s many large-scale art instillations throughout Prague.

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<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Lee

From page 1

AIDS Health Services’ facilities just across the street. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who co-chairs the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, were on hand for the tour and to talk about how this funding will be broken up and disbursed. Carla Dillard Smith, interim executive director of WORLD, said that Alameda County is going to be the first county to wipe out HIV. Key to achieving that goal, she said, is increasing the use of PrEP, the oncea-day pill that widely protects against being infected with the virus if taken as prescribed. “There has been no provision for education of women around PrEP,” said Smith, referring to the long-existing gender gap in HIV prevention. “And WORLD is currently enrolling and navigating, particularly people who are high-risk for HIV, for PrEP. And we look forward to working with Congresswoman Lee and Dr. Redfield with a focus on those who are most affected. We want to include in the plan education which will reach our community-based organizations who can work together to make this happen.” Alameda County averages 245 new HIV diagnoses per year, according to a public health department study

Ex-congressman

From page 1

a Holocaust denier and noted AIDS persecutrix in her own right. Day is a former orthopedic trauma surgeon and chief of orthopedic surgery at San Francisco General Hospital. According to her Wikipedia entry, she first became controversial when she advocated that patients be tested for AIDS prior to surgery. As a promoter of alternative medicine, she claimed to have discovered the cause and cure of cancer, which led Quackwatch to label her advice “untrustworthy and is particularly dangerous to people with cancer.” “She’s one widow I have no sympathy for. They had so much anger. They were given a lot of power and

Lee also talked about the International AIDS Conference that will take place in San Francisco and Oakland in July 2020. Lee, who has authored or coauthored every major bill introduced in the House about HIV and AIDS since the beginning of her tenure in 1998, said she is “likely to attend.” CDC officials said Friday that the agency plans to take part in next year’s conference, but Redfield did not answer whether he will attend himself when asked by the media. As the B.A.R. has reported, some global HIV advocates plan to protest the decision to have the AIDS conference in the U.S. by holding an alternative meeting in Mexico City July 5-8 next summer. They had called for organizers of the Bay Area confab to relocate it outside of the U.S. due to the Trump administration’s discrimi-

natory policies not only toward the LGBTQ community but also immigrants, Muslims, and sex workers. Redfield said he came to Oakland this week to “listen and learn.” “I’ve been looking at the jurisdictions that were selected,” he said. “And those jurisdictions represent more than 50% of all new diagnoses in America. We have over 3,000 jurisdictions, so it’s a very concentrated epidemic of HIV right now. When the president announced in the State of the Union this initiative to target those 50 jurisdictions, of which Alameda County is one, the idea was for each jurisdiction to develop their own plan.” There was no due date discussed in connection to these submissions. When asked how organizations in Alameda County address HIV rates among the homeless, Smith said, “You have to put feet in the street. You have to get down on the ground. You have to go to encampments. And you have to link the services with clinics and community organizations. It’s about building a relationship.” Dr. Nicholas Moss, director of the HIV and STD division of communicable disease control and prevention for the Alameda County Public Health Department, spoke after the Q&A, saying he was honored to have such high-profile visitors with whom to share the county’s needs. “Alameda County is different from San Francisco, but we are close colleagues and we work with each other,” Moss said. “We all need more resourc-

es and we’re excited about this federal initiative to help get us there.” Moss denied that Alameda lagged behind San Francisco in prevention of HIV, redirecting his answer to underline the efforts that he believes make a difference. Although San Francisco, which reported 221 new cases of HIV in 2017, is also listed as one of the endangered counties to receive this funding, the city’s rates of PrEP adoption are ranked better in the CDC’s reporting than its East Bay counterparts. When asked about the effects of the federal government’s effort to ban certain terms in CDC publications or outreach, including “fetus” and “transgender,” Moss was unable to respond. (Redfield had left the room.) Smith stepped in. “We are violently opposed to that approach,” she said. “WORLD aggressively serves both cis and transgender women. Given the data, the epidemiology of how trans people are so disproportionately affected, we’re so excited about the initiative to end AIDS. But then we cringe about the particular statements, which run totally counter to what we’re trying to accomplish. We cringe at not recognizing transgender people, just the inhumanity of it. But the reality is that for us to help them, we have to have funding and services.” To learn more about WORLD, visit www.womenhiv.org. t

a live grenade,” when speaking about HIV, and was “foaming at the mouth” with emotion about the crisis and his paranoid view of it. Initial reports in September 1988 had the figure sought at $1 million, a number that the B.A.R. itself reported before having been served with the lawsuit. Upon receipt of the suit, this figure was adjusted in a later issue of the paper. The case would be tough for Dannemeyer because, as Leonard Graff of the National Gay Rights Advocates put it in an article on the B.A.R’s front page on April 27, 1989, “Truth is an absolute defense to the charge of libel.” The late Bob Ross, founder and publisher of the B.A.R., noted at the time that the New York Times had said the same things about Danne-

meyer and he hadn’t chosen to sue them. “The B.A.R. is a gay paper,” Ross said. “Well, it won’t work.” Dannemeyer represented himself in Sacramento County Superior Court in the matter, which saw his case dismissed in June 1989 when the judge sustained the demurrer: meaning that the court sided with the B.A.R., which claimed that the description of Dannemeyer was protected by the “fair comment” doctrine in California law as well as the First Amendment. After the decision, Graff said, “Dannemeyer can’t use frivolous lawsuits to intimidate the gay press.” The late Jean O’Leary, another lawyer with the NGRA said, “His credibility and influence will evaporate as

the hard truth sinks in that he can’t bully the gay community.” Dannemeyer’s influence did indeed fade in subsequent years. The former congressman lost his bid for U.S. Senate in 1994 and resorted to propagating conspiracy theories including alleged murders committed by former president Bill Clinton, the killing of Laci Peterson by a Satanic cult (rather than her husband, Scott, who was convicted of the crime and is now on death row), and writing on his website that a vast Jewish conspiracy was working to exterminate Christianity the world over. Dannemeyer is survived by three children, 10 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. t

wrote. “Having loved and lived in this city for the majority of my life, it’s an honor to be appointed to its Human Rights Commission. I look forward to serving San Franciscans in this important new role.” Loduca is married to Charlie Smith and the two are parents of a young daughter. According to the mayor’s office, Loduca replaces Eva Chan on the commission. This week Breed also notified the Board of Supervisors that she’s reappointing gay HRC Commissioner Mark Kelleher to a four-year term. He is the husband of city Treasurer and Tax Collector José Cisneros.

“He does tremendous work reaching out to, and supporting, underserved communities in our city, and I know he will continue that work as a

member of the Human Rights Commission,” Breed added. She said that during his time at SFAF, Loduca was central to the city implementing its Getting to Zero initiative to reduce HIV transmission rates, improve access to life-saving treatment and services, and the stigma surrounding AIDS. “I’m proud that James will be bringing his passion, expertise and drive to our efforts to create a more equitable and just San Francisco,” Breed added. In a Facebook message, Loduca said he’s looking forward to serving on the panel. “This moment in human history calls on all of us to ask ourselves what more we can do to protect and promote human rights – and build a more diverse and inclusive future,” he

nounced its nonprofit community issues grant application process is now open. This is the flagship funding program for the LGBTQ nonprofit and supports organizations in the Bay Area serving the queer community. According to its website, Horizons grants typically fund general operating costs or LGBTQ-specific projects in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties. In Horizon’s latest community issues cycle, the agency awarded over $400,000, the website noted. The deadline for applications is Monday, August 19 at 5 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.horizonsfoundation.org and click on “Community Issues Now Open.”t

ists could be heard.” He also said that Pride’s official position that the charges against the protesters should be dropped was posted to the organization’s website July 3. “These activists identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, but don’t agree with how our parade and celebration are structured,” Lopez said, referring to Taryn Saldivar, 21, of Oakland, and Kenneth Bilecki, 27, of Santa Rosa. According to San Francisco police, Saldivar was charged with battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, and interfering with a parade route. Bilecki was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with a parade route, police said.

The Bay Area Reporter has attempted to contact both Saldivar and Bilecki since the day of the parade, but has not reached either of them. Although SF Pride officially stated it wants the charges dropped and said at the news conference that it intends to write letters of support for both individuals charged in this matter, Lopez stressed that ultimately it’s out of SF Pride’s hands. “San Francisco Pride is not a decision maker in whether or not the DA decides to continue with the charges,” he said at the news conference at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. “We want to make it clear that we have encouraged the DA to drop all charges related to this incident.

This has been our position since the day of the parade.” Reached for comment San Francisco District Attorney’s office spokesman Max Szabo wrote in an email, “Prosecutors analyze the facts as it applies to the law. We welcome feedback, but the First Amendment right to freedom of speech does not grant anyone the freedom to batter a police officer or any other member of our community.” Lopez went on to describe the ways he believes SF Pride’s relationship with police can improve, including reaching out to the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability, which is a civilian agency that receives complaints and allegations of mis-

from 2015-2017. This number has decreased 3% per year since 2006 according to the CDC, but is still in the upper ranges of any county in the nation. In the county, 88.4% of new diagnoses are men, so most services are attuned to that demographic. WORLD addresses an underserved population. Lee and Redfield addressed a small group assembled from WORLD employees, administrators, and clients during a brief news conference. “This effort is connected to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” to end HIV, said Lee, addressing questions about what was local in this effort versus what was national or global. “But this is a new initiative, announced during the State of the Union. The CDC and our civil servants who have worked on this for years and years are really the implementers of this plan, and as an appropriator, it’s my job to ensure that we get new money, and enough money to really make this effective.” Lee explained how this funding would be different. “This is historical, in terms of where the money is going. Historically, this kind of funding has gone to the states,” Lee said. “This funding is going county to county. Alameda will submit its own proposal with input from WORLD and from all of our community-based organizations. So that will go from the county to the government, without going through the state or any other fiscal entity.”

She said that was “extremely important for the programs and the innovations at the grass-roots level now to be included in the Alameda County plan.” Lee’s office followed up with exact figures for this federal funding. According to the office, $140 million has been allocated to the CDC to fund these 48 counties across the nation, with another $50 million earmarked for community health centers. This funding also includes $70 million for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which offers medical care and support in 50 metropolitan areas, including San Francisco and Alameda counties.

that was very disturbing,” Ammiano said. “We LGBT people work in camp and we tried everything we could to make them look ridiculous. But their views cost peoples’ lives. My partner [Tim Curbo, now deceased] was ill with HIV and we were both schoolteachers. Anything they said was so generically homophobic, we knew they were implying we might give the kids AIDS. He’s been dead 25 years and I’m still mad about it.”

Libel suit

Ammiano’s not the only one who’s still mad. News of Dannemeyer’s death reminded members of the B.A.R. newsroom that the congressman once sued the newspaper for $2 million for libel, following reports in the paper that he had behaved “like

News Briefs

From page 6

Loduca named to SF HRC

Mayor London Breed on Monday appointed gay city resident James Loduca to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Loduca, who worked at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for many years, left the agency to join Salesforce a couple of years ago. Last month, he announced on his Facebook page that he’s accepted a job at Twitter. In a statement to the Bay Area Reporter, Breed said that Loduca “has been an incredible advocate and leader for diversity and inclusion in San Francisco, both in his work in the business community and as a nonprofit leader.”

SF Pride

From page 1

nient to the over 50,000 participants and 100,000 spectators at the event. Lopez outlined the protesters’ concerns over the presence of police at Pride, and said that SF Pride officials attempted to step in and de-escalate the situation before San Francisco police made arrests. According to members of an autonomous coalition that claimed responsibility for the blockade, members were also concerned about the corporate commercialization of SF Pride. Lopez’s statement stressed that Pride’s board worked to “facilitate time so that the demands of the activ-

Courtesy Mayor’s Office

James Loduca, left, was sworn in by Mayor London Breed Monday as a member of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

AIDS 2020

Horizons’ grant application opens

Horizon’s Foundation has an-

conduct by police and makes policy recommendations. Addressing the ongoing tension between police and members of marginalized communities, Lopez said, “We support change in any law enforcement system that unfairly targets trans individuals and people of color. We acknowledge systemic racism and understand the urgency for ideas and solutions which can create equitable progress.” Suzanne Ford, the organization’s treasurer, was present throughout the conference but did not audibly speak. When asked by the Bay Area Reporter about the irony of an event See page 14 >>

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<< Community News

14 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Prague

From page 10

Where to drink, eat, and play

After a day of intense learning, I needed a beer. I found it in the Vínohrady District, Prague’s unofficial gayborhood near the heart of the city. It’s where many of the gay bars and restaurants are located. Three of the most popular gay bars to hang out at are Q Cafe (www. facebook.com/QCafePraha/), Patra (www.facebook.com/patrakrymska), which is owned by the producers of Prague’s queer film festival; and Prague Saints (www.praguesaints.cz). There aren’t any lesbian bars in Prague, but circuit events, such as BOBR (www.facebook.com/ events/1107893972737605/), an official Prague Pride lesbian party, is held several times a year, along with other pop-up lesbian parties and festivals year-round. “I usually go to straight events be-

Milk terminal

From page 1

Persson was still taken aback at seeing the array of 97 photos and archival material the SFO Museum incorporated into the exhibit “Harvey Milk: Messenger of Hope,” which is mounted on a 380 foot long by 30 foot tall wall along the first half of the terminal. “For me it is surprisingly moving to see it in person,” said Persson, 36, at the grand opening community day that the San Francisco International Airport hosted Saturday, July 20, for the public to see the new aviation facility. “I have a lot of awe and respect of Milk, who has been in my consciousness for a while. We talk of Milk a lot at work, but to see such a big public space devoted to him was a lot.” The terminal, the first airport facility in the world named after an LGBT leader, re-opened a nine-gate section Tuesday, July 23, to passengers on Southwest and JetBlue domestic flights. It is the first phase of a $2.4 billion remodel of the facility to be completed by 2023. Over the weekend more than 5,500 people took up the airport’s invitation to get a sneak peek of the new Milk terminal, one of three domestic terminals at SFO in addition to the international terminal. As of now none of the other three terminals are named after lo-

SF Pride

From page 12

that commemorates an act of protest – the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York became the annual locus for Pride events across the country – being disrupted by protest, Lo-

from around Europe at La Republica Restaurant (http://www.larepublica. cz/en). The restaurant is located near the intersection of New and Old Town Prague. Cafe-Cafe (http://www.cafe-cafe. cz), which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, serves up traditional Czechian food and is a very popular meeting place for LGBTs. Around the corner is the newer queer-friendly Cafe Venue Praha (www.venuepraha.com/en/ index.html), which is much smaller, but very popular. It also has a view of the local market, which is fun to stroll through after brunch. Prague has many vegetarian and vegan restaurants, such as Lehka Hlava Restaurant (www.lehkahlava. cz/en_home.htm), a vegetarian restaurant that also caters to vegans, and Moment Cafe (http://momentcafe.cz), where may LGBT and animal rights activists hang out.

Where to sleep

If you want to be in the heart of

Czechia is a part of the European Union, but it is also independent. Euros aren’t widely accepted, even when purchasing tickets to enter tourist at-

cal luminaries, though the departures hall of the international terminal was named after the late mayor Ed Lee by the city’s airport commission. It was Lee who brokered a deal with gay former supervisor David Campos, now chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, to name a terminal in honor of Milk. Campos had wanted to name the entire airport for the gay icon, but his idea met with strong opposition and was eventually grounded. The naming of the Milk terminal was also controversial, particularly with how the airport would design the signage for it. It led to a legislative fight at City Hall led by Campos’ successor and former aide, District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, that ended with strict rules for how the airport should refer to the terminal so that Milk’s name is given due prominence. Thus, when political leaders and LGBT community members were given an exclusive first look in June at the exhibit about Milk in the terminal, its scale shocked and overwhelmed them. Attendees of Saturday’s event had a similar reaction. “Seeing it gave lots of feelings for me, even some goose bumps,” said Sister Amor Ah’Quality, 51, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence drag nun group whose given

name is Gwen Essex. On the dental faculty at UCSF, Essex, who is bisexual and grew up in San Diego, now lives in San Francisco. Familiar with Milk’s story, she appreciates the fact that the airport exhibit will help educate people from around the globe who may have never heard of him. “People don’t know the history. This is a chance to learn about it,” she said. “It is beautifully done, and you don’t have to go to a museum to see it.” The mammoth exhibit, added Sister Abbi Abnormal, “is incredible.” The 30-year-old San Francisco resident, who is nonbinary and also known as Mary Wannah, grew up in Virginia where they didn’t learn about Milk in school. Now travelers of all ages will have a chance, they noted, through the exhibit to familiarize themselves with Milk as well as the history of the local LGBT community. “We all know there will be people who go past these pictures and look at them with contempt,” they said. “All you can do is support the people who helped get him elected. Milk was the face of a larger movement that continues today.” A permanent exhibit detailing Milk’s life and his place in history will be incorporated into an area of the terminal the SFO Museum is calling the Central Inglenook. Some 40 images from the temporary installation will be featured

in it when it opens next March, with part of it accessible outside of the secured area for the terminal. It will likely include several of the more personal images of Milk that museum staff selected for the current show, as they have struck a special chord with the public. San Francisco resident Bob Goldfarb, 57, pointed to those photos as among his favorite. “They did a really nice job presenting some of the history of Harvey Milk. It was fascinating to see some of the photos, some of which I had never seen before,” said Goldfarb, a gay man who chairs the committee establishing the city’s leather LGBT cultural district in the South of Market neighborhood. “It was interesting to see the younger, more personal photos of Milk.” Vincent Sparacio, 26, a gay man who grew up in New Jersey, didn’t know much about Milk until he moved to San Francisco at the age of 18. He was impressed, he said, by the breadth of the exhibit. “It gave the depth of Harvey’s life,” said Sparacio, “coupled with his impact on the local LGBT community, like starting the Castro Street Fair, and how it has evolved from then to now.” Having spoken at one of the City Hall hearings focused on how the signage for the Milk terminal should appear, Goldfarb attended the grand opening party to see how it turned out.

He is also a self-professed “travel nerd” and wanted to check out the remodeled facility. “I think they did a nice job with the design,” he said. “When it opens it will be very passenger-friendly. The lounge features will be a nice addition; we don’t see so much of that in the other terminals.” In addition to the permanent Milk exhibit, the exterior signage for the terminal and a lighting art piece in the southern portion of the arrivals level honoring Milk are to be unveiled next March, according to the airport. By late 2022 an atrium art sculpture in the lobby and a lighting art piece in the north portion of the arrivals level that both honor Milk are to debut with completion of the redevelopment project. “We are changing the traveler’s experience here, more so than any other airport in the world,” said Mayor London Breed at the community day event. “I am so excited for what the future of SFO holds.” In terms of the Milk exhibits incorporated into the new facility, Breed noted, “When people from around the world land at terminal 1 they will see an incredible legacy.” t

pez said he did not understand the question. Rephrasing, the B.A.R. asked specifically about provision of space and time for dissenting voices around contentious issues such as the presence of police at Pride “We weren’t aware of the protest before it took place,” Lopez said. “If we

had been aware, we do actually create a First Amendment space along the parade route for folks who would like to use it. We would have worked with the community members to create space that would make sense.” Taking an inaudible suggestion from Ford, Lopez continued. “Suzanne reminded me that the

board leads a resistance contingent. This is the third year in a row. And that goes sort of at the beginning of the parade, just after Dykes on Bikes,” he said. “That contingent was created as a way for folks to voice their resistance, initially to the Trump administration and the policies therein. Since then, it has grown to include a num-

ber of voices who align with progressive values across the board.” t

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tractions. It is best to exchange your money at your hotel or a bank into Czech crowns, also known as Czech krones, soon after you check in. Prague is a walkable city but it’s also easy to navigate its public transit system. Multiday passes can be purchased at newspaper stands and minimarkets around the city center. Taxis are also readily available. Flying to Prague is rather expensive from the United States, even during off-season. However, if you have time, a less expensive and comfortable way to get to Prague is by train. I took Omio (http://bit.ly/2UHHIJ0), formerly GoEuro, from Munich, Germany with a brief stopover in Vienna, Austria. Prague was already quite warm in April, which is when I visited the city, and it was already starting to get crowded with tourists. The best times to travel to Prague, if you aren’t going to Prague Pride, is early spring and early fall. The weather is nice, it won’t be as crowded, and prices will be lower. t

cause it’s OK to go there with your girlfriend, hold hands, whatever, people don’t really care,” said Kulhánková, however, she admitted, “I’m missing events that are just for women.” More LGBT-friendly clubs are opening in the city. One of Prague’s hottest new clubs that is popular among gays is Swim (http://www. swim.cz). Ankali (https://anka.li/) is also another queer-friendly club that holds many queer events and is recommended by LGBT locals. Krymska Street is lined with artsy bars, cafes, restaurants, and shops. The Letna Quarter also has trendy spots and attracts many LGBTs. Foodies will delight dining at Czechia’s celebrity chef Zdeněk Pohlreich’s restaurant Next Door (http:// www.next-door.cz) and the immensely popular Imperial Cafe (www. cafeimperial.cz). Reservations are required for both restaurants. In the center of the city, I was able to grab a late night dinner of traditional Czech food and the best beers

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Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554973 In the matter of the application of: ROBERT STEPHEN MINNICH, 90 HAZELWOOD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROBERT STEPHEN MINNICH, is requesting that the name ROBERT STEPHEN MINNICH AKA ROBERT STEPHEN DIOHEP, be changed to ROBERT STEPHEN DIOHEP. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 13th of August 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038705500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRUDYS TATTOO PARLOUR, 2275 MARKET ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GAUGE STRONGARM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038701400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MADAME PAT’S FANTASTIC PET ESCORT SERVICES, 830 BUSH ST #306, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PATRICIA A. BOYD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038695000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038700000

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY, 1091 BUSH ST #109, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PASCUAL ARRECHEA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRAMEWORK COMMUNICATIONS, 29 POWERS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIELLE GRANT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/25/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/19.

Legals >>

July 25-31, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038703800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038704900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INFINITY PLUMBING & ROOTER, 403 34TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUAN A. PEREZ ANDRES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REFINED K9 DOG TRAINING, 833 CENTRAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THEOPHAINIA BRASSARD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038702600

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038711200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BALBOA PSYCHIC, 2533 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SABRINA LISA GREEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOUL, 2948 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BINTA AYOFEMI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038704000

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038709900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HARRIS CLAY ST, 1855 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATSUKO SHIMAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038703600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAPPY FARM TRADING, 1995 JERROLD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GRUB MARKET INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038700500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PREVENTIVE MEDICINE OF THE PACIFIC, 2100 WEBSTER ST #416, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BRUCE BORNFLETH, MD - A PROFESSIONAL CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038702900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 1212 MARKET STREET TENANCY IN COMMON, 1212 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a joint venture, and is signed YULLY COMPANY, LLC (CA) & ESTATE OF YULLY MOK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038701000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUTHERLANDGOLD, 315 PACIFIC AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SUTHERLANDGOLD GROUP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038693100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DECCAN HOUSE, 1142 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed M&M FOODS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/19/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038688100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUBTRACTION AKA SFBARBER, 940 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SUBTRACTION LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/14/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038686900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KEFIR LAB, 2936 POLK ST #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KEFIR LAB LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/05/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038703700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FILLMORE POSTAL; HOOLOO TRAVEL; ETHIOPIAN MARKET; ETHIOBAY EXPRESS, 1015 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ETHIO BAY SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 04, 11, 18, 25, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554990 In the matter of the application of: LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN AKA LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN LOUIS C/O LAW OFFICE OF JAMES A. MCELROY, JAMES A. MCELROY #154050, 605 MARKET ST #605, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN AKA LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN LOUIS, is requesting that the name LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN AKA LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN LOUIS, be changed to LENORIS ANDRE LARKIN LOUIS. 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 15th of August 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038711300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KNIGHT LIGHTS; KNIGHT LIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT; PHOTOBOX, 2295 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CORBETT T. LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIND, BODY AND BOWLS, 325 9TH AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUBAN TAMRAKAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038686600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NM REALTY, 1849 LARKIN ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NATALIE MEYERS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/12/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038704500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHAKRAMEGOLD, 60 29TH ST UNIT 656, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MEKOLE BUCKNER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/30/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038707100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BEE AUTOMOTIVE, 33 HARRIET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed IMMENSON LIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038707300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALEX HE GENERAL CONSTRUCTION, 1300 SACRAMENTO ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FEI YANG HE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038706300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SALTO SF, 1205 OAK ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GYM BLUEPRINT LLC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038705400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CANNA BISTRO, 464 BROADWAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CITY PIZZA AND BURGER INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 11, 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 SECOND AMENDED NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF DAVID LORENZ IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-19-302783

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DAVID LORENZ. A Petition for Probate has been filed by LENKA LORENZ in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that LENKA LORENZ 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: August 06, 2019, 9:00 am, 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: Milla L. Lvovich, 50 Osgood Place, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94133, (415) 392-2560

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019

2ND NOTICE OF PETITION FOR LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION FOR THE ESTATE OF OTAKAR FRANK ZICH, DECEDENT, IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102: CASE # PES-19-302894

Petitioner Frank Joseph Fischl requests that he be appointed administrator and Letters issue upon qualification. Full authority be granted to administer under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. Decedent died on May 14, 2018 at Kaiser in Santa Clara, but lived in San Francisco and was a resident of the county named above. Street address, city and county of decedent’s residence at time of death: 33 Harriet St, San Francisco, CA 94103. Decedent died intestate. No executor is named in the will. Petitioner is a person entitled to Letters. Proposed personal representative is a resident of California. No spouse as follows: divorced or never married. No registered domestic partner. No child. Decedent was not survived by a stepchild or foster child or children who would have been adopted by decedent but for a legal barrier. Decedent was survived by a parent or parents who are listed in item 8 – Vlasta Zichova of the Czech Republic. Decedent had no predeceased spouse. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: August 07, 2019, 9:00 am, 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. Petitioner without attorney: FRANK JOSEPH FISCHL, 3224 BOSTON AVE, OAKLAND, CA 94602; Ph. (510) 534-8427.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555008 In the matter of the application of: CARMEN LOO AKA CARMEN HIP LEONG, 2438 36TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CARMEN LOO AKA CARMEN HIP LEONG, is requesting that the name CARMEN LOO, be changed to CARMEN HIP LOO. 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 22nd of August 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555010 In the matter of the application of: EMEK JUMAH AKA EMEK KEIDAR, 245 NORTHPOINT ST #3311, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EMEK JUMAH AKA EMEK KEIDAR, is requesting that the name EMEK JUMAH AKA EMEK KEIDAR, be changed to EMEK KEIDAR. 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 22nd of August 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555015

In the matter of the application of: PATRICIA GUAN LIU AKA HUI MING GUAN LIU, 1870 41ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner PATRICIA GUAN LIU AKA HUI MING GUAN LIU, is requesting that the name PATRICIA GUAN LIU AKA HUI MING GUAN LIU, be changed to HUI MING GUAN LIU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 27th of August 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038720200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHIGE KIMONO, 1730 GEARY BLVD # 203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ASAKICHI SAKAKIHARA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/14/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038719300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLINDN-VISION, 1390 MISSION ST #1003, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUAN MANUEL VELASQUEZ. 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 07/12/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038715600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DCC LEGAL, 77 VAN NESS AVE #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAINA CAROLINE CHIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038713000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ISLAND SHRIMP SHACK, 1142 GRANT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL LIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038712700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PICNIX BISTRO AND CARRY OUT, 3872 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed TUOI HONG NGUYEN & HONG TUYET PHAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038694800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DEAR INGA, 3560 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed EPICER (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038712800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BOAVIDA, 3560 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 3560 TARAVAL, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038716600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALL ME FOODIE, 1130 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TANCHAN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038715500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ERN MILLS, 242 SAGAMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AME HOME SOLUTIONS LLC. (NV) 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 07/10/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038719800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SALON NUNA, 2906 OCTAVIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SALON NUNA 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 07/15/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038705800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PIPELINERX, 600 CALIFORNIA ST, #520, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PIPELINE HEALTH HOLDINGS LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/19.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01 08, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037153100 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SAN FRANCISCO STUDENT HOUSING, 875 POST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by a limited partnership and signed by PACIFIC EQUITIES WEST LLC, GP OF POST 875 LP (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/16.

JULY 18, 25, AUG 01, 08, 2019 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF BARBARA QUIGLEY IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-19-303008

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of BARBARA QUIGLEY. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JENNIFER CAVECCHE QUIGLEY in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JENNIFER CAVECCHE QUIGLEY 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: August 05, 2019, 9:00 am, 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: Mr. Peter J. Porter, Esq., SBN#132269, 19700 Fairchild Rd. #200, Irvine, CA 92612; Ph. (714) 835-2700.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555009 In the matter of the application of: HANNAH PATRICIA LUTZ, 2622 1/2 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HANNAH PATRICIA LUTZ, is requesting that the name HANNAH PATRICIA LUTZ, be changed to HANNAH ELOISE LUTZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 22nd of August 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038720500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LEDA COHORT 5 FUND, 773 TEHAMA ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VINCENT CASTANEDA. 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 07/15/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038719000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INTERNATIONAL VISA SERVICE, 20 JOICE ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAYLA L. PAPAYIANNIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/05/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038723700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOLO’S UNICORN JUICE BAR, 957 CONNECTICUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOY SWANTA WILLIAMS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/12/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038721400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KALIBRATION; CALIBRATION; GUIPAIR, 166 SWEENY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IVANEI CUNHA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/16/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038719900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CORTLAND NAIL SALON, 626 CORTLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CUONG VIEN LA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/01. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038717800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SWEETLEAF COLLECTIVE, 77 VAN NESS AVE #1901, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MODERN HEALTH SOLUTIONS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038722400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE DALE + ALLA TEAM, 1400 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE DALE + ALLA TEAM (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038717900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALTRSM LLC, 77 VAN NESS AVE #1901, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ALTRSM LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038722900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TACO CHIDO, 685 MARKET ST #120, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TACO CHIDO LLC. 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 07/17/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038725000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: USED RIDESHARES LLC, 350 RHODE ISLAND #240, SAN FRAN CISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed USED RIDESHARES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/19.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037830900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: LETISHA MOODY DESIGN, 1800 WASHINGTON ST #912, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by LETISHA JANE MOODY. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/06/17.

JULY 25, AUG 01, 08, 15, 2019

Fiddler fun

Welsh tale

Post-Stonewall playlist

Payton place

Vol. 49 • No. 30 • July 25-31, 2019

Stefan Cohen

www.ebar.com/arts “If I Were You” librettist Gene Scheer and composer Jake Heggie attended a workshop performance of the opera.

Swinging into summer by David Lamble

by Philip Campbell

erola Opera Program announced a first-ever commission in celebration of its 60th anniversary season in 2017. An opera by San Francisco composer Jake Heggie and frequent collaborator librettist Gene Scheer, based on “Si j’etais vous” by French-American novelist Julien Green, is scheduled for a world premiere this summer. See page 20 >>

British actor Tom Holland in “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”

by Paul Parish

hose who’ve gotten away to France or Greece are probably enjoying worse summer vacations than those of us still here. Might be a good time to visit Yosemite, but if you can’t get that far, you could spend a Sunday afternoon at our own sublime pocket park, Stern Grove, a natural declivity at the south end of the city that has all the abrupt, astounding beauty of a mountain gorge, thick with towering redwoods. You get a vigorous hike in the bargain: descend into the natural amphitheater; the climb back out is hella puffy. The concerts there are free. This Sunday, July 28, San Francisco Ballet makes their only out-of-season performance for hometown fans during the long dry spell for balletomanes from May to November when they’re out of the Opera House. Did I mention it’s free? See page 22 >>

Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet to play Stern Grove

San Francisco Ballet last performed Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” at Stern Grove in 2012.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Columbia Pictures

Swapping souls

rom the latest nerdy turn from actor Jesse Eisenberg to a directing, writing, and acting feat from Parisian leading man Louis Garrel, our 10 summer films to catch at a Bay Area theater are full of proven male talent. Any of the following films may disappear from theaters into the vagaries of online streaming. Eventually all should make it to the Castro Theatre calendar or the shelves of Amoeba Records. See page 21 >>

CAMOU FL AGE . AR MOR . IDENTIT Y.

Now open in English, Español, 繁體中文, Filipino Discover the superpowers of skin at this brand new, multi-sensory exhibit. Touch amazing specimens— from scales to feathers to fur. Plus, learn how our perceptions of skin shape human identity and culture. Buy ahead and save at calacademy.org

29743-CAS-Skin-Bay Area Reporter-9.75x16-06.18.19-FA.indd 1

6/18/19 4:47 PM

<< Out There

18 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Fiddling through a difficult history by Roberto Friedman

he opening-night film for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival lit up the Castro Theatre screen last Thursday night. “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” makes a strong case for the stillpotent cultural impact of the 1964 Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” “Fiddler” was the longest-running musical on Broadway for a decade, and it’s still relevant, even timely, today. The little Yiddish shtetl of Anatevka was a community under siege from xenophobic pogroms in the early 20th century, but its inhabitants could be any oppressed and displaced people in our own times. The difference between immigrants and refugees is that the former leave their home, while the latter have their home taken away from them. Today we would call the “Fiddler” story an instance of “ethnic cleansing,” to use a grotesque Orwellian term. Maybe that’s why “Fiddler” continues to resonate around the globe. The film includes footage of a “Fiddler” production in Japan, and it works; in Denmark, and it works; in a mostly black and Latino high school in the Deep South, and it works. When the daughters of Tevye the milkman spurn arranged

Steven Underhill

“Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” director Max Lewkowicz appeared at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival’s opening night at the Castro Theatre.

marriages and choose to live their own lives their way, the show speaks to anyone who’s had to defend their choices in love or lovers to parents who don’t understand – thus, to LGBTQ people. It’s also a story of female empowerment, and indeed a story for anyone who’s had to adjust to a changing world. Although it’s full of the rites and customs of European Jewish life, it resonates with any traditional community struggling to assimilate

modernity. “If I Were a Rich Man” is an aspirational anthem that truly transcends racial or cultural lines. Director Max Lewkowicz assembled an extraordinary collection of talking heads to discuss their lives with “Fiddler,” beginning with the show’s lyricist Sheldon Harnick, but also including Stephen Sondheim, Itzhak Perlman, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Joel Grey, who directed an all-Yiddish production in NYC this year. Lewkowicz appeared at the Castro for a Q&A; following the film, the afterparty at the Contemporary Jewish Museum offered a great Jewish feast from places like L’Chaim Foods and Wise Sons Deli. After all these years with a hungry Hebrew, Out There’s consort Pepi is finally starting to understand rugelach.

Piano dreaming

Sunset Piano and the San Francisco Botanical Garden offered a special 5th edition of Flower Piano last week. This interactive festival of music in nature has become a cherished Bay Area tradition. More than 60,000 music aficionados attended last year’s event. This year, the annual 12-day celebration of pianos in the park offered new opportunities for the public to play, performances by professional musicians, a community sing-along, free piano lessons, and three evenings of Flower Piano at Night, an after-dark event with food trucks and outdoor bars. Out There attended last Saturday night.

Travis Lange

Playing the luminescent Grand Piano during Flower Piano at Night.

Flower Piano transforms the Garden into the city’s own alfresco concert hall. Everyone is invited to play and listen to 12 tuned pianos tucked among the flower-filled gardens. Performances span every genre from classical to jazz, cabaret and pop. Highlights included lunchtime concerts presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; a program by the Awesome Orchestra Collective; Bay Area Hawaiian dance supergroup Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu performing contemporary and traditional hula accompanied by piano; shows by members of the San Francisco Symphony; Tammy

Hall’s tribute to Bay Area women in music; the Stanford University Ragtime Ensemble playing rarely heard Scott Joplin Rags; the danceable Rob Reich Swings Left; and top pianists Sarah Cahill and VanAnh Nguyen. At night, lit pathways guided visitors to pianos aglow with performances by piano all-stars and open pianos to play. Cuban jazz pianist Chuchito Valdés played the first night. Other acts included Jill Tracy’s Sonic Seance, Daniel Sullivan’s Bacharach Bacchanal, and Paulo Sultanum and Casulo’s Brazilian Bossafolk Experience. Bravi to all!t

ly structured book puts the emphasis back on the younger couple, the author, Michael, and his long-term partner Peredur Tomos, “Preds” for short. The book is less than pastel, cognizant of the hardships of life in the bonnie boonies. But at a time when LGBTQ memoirs rightly focus on an array of identity issues, crowned by nationality, here is a gentler story of gay-family succession, having little if anything to do with consequences of birth. It’s the unity of the stories that provides the warmth, but the book is cleverly divided into four parts – each an element, a season, a compass direction and one of the four principals. What’s striking throughout is the absence of any sense of queer men looking for a place essentially to hide. It’s about their being called, each in his own way and time, home. The nature writing is rich and unfettered. You wonder how it can be so extravagant and detailed. Here’s some prose about Spring: “The greenness of the Rhiw Goch was on

a whole new scale. It drenched me. Green everywhere I looked and in an infinite variety of shades, from the feathery line of the beech in first leaf to the dark, army camouflage of ivy in sunless corners. Green so luminous it tinged the sky.” I’m leaving out several succeeding pages just about greens. Several accounts of climbing Fron Goch, an area described by spirit stones (think bonsai Stonehenge), celebrate the spiritual connection between humans and land, and leave you tingling with a sense of elevation. The sense of larger, surrounding community is richly evoked: “No one does a funeral better than north Walians: even the drabbest village tabernacl, frowning pebbledash against a slate sky, explodes into celestial colour when hundreds – and it almost always is hundreds – gather to raise the roof in radiant mourning.” Like W.G. Sebald’s books, “Red Hill” is copiously illustrated by black-and-white photographs, by George or the author, captioned in the back. But it’s Parker’s gift for words that brings each of these men alive, from their painful movements beyond internalized homophobia, across their struggles with claustrophobic coupledom in the middle of nowhere, “the gathering misanthropy of midlife” – and the shades of love more abundant and nuanced than those of green. The prose, while invitingly readable, regularly shoots for the heights, leaves the reader in a land with a beauty all its own – or at the imaginary New Year’s Eve party with spirit guests numbering Walt Whitman and Edward Carpenter, Ivor Novello, James Baldwin, David Hockney and Lord Montagu, A.E. Housman and W.H. Auden, with J.R. Ackerley assisting Forster with a remake of the skinny-dipping scene from “A Room With a View.” Out of the clear blue, Parker asks, “When do you know that the future has arrived?”t

Gay men in velvet green by Tim Pfaff

The Essential Gay Manual

he rigors and satisfactions of living in remote places for a certain type of LGBTQ people are rarely articulated more artfully and artistically than they are in Mike Parker’s “On the Red Hill” (Penguin/William Heinemann). I can’t remember a time before “We are everywhere” was a predictable chant at an LGBTQ gathering, but sometimes it takes reminding that, as important as cities have been to the advance of LGBTQ politics and culture, there are actually queer folk who find their proper place in quieter venues – in the case of Parker’s book, rural Wales. But even if remote redoubts don’t beckon you, “The House on Red Hill” may be a salve for the welts of the news of the day, where the closest thing to an upper is a gotcha. It’s like settling into a warm bath, or a cool bath, depending on the temperature alternative you’re after. It’s not a beach book, but a perfect one for a staycation. Reading it, you’re somewhere wholly out of the ordinary. That specifically LGBTQ kind of urban/rural tension surfaces in the early pages of “Red Hill,” which is actually the name of a house. George Walton, 79, and Reg Mikish, 89, are at the local constabulary getting their marriage legally formalized – the first-ever such proceeding in Machynlleth, Wales – after nearly 60 years together. “Gentle, sweet, troubled Reg” is as

Peredur Tomos

“On the Red Hill” author Mike Parker.

subdued and wary as celebratory. For him, the UK’s laws against homosexuality, finally eliminated in 1972 but brutally brought into enforcement when he was a young gay man reveling in anything-goes post-WWII London, haunted him. He “combined porcelain sensitivity and steely strength,” Parker writes, and was not avid to tamper with a lifelong treasure for the sake of becoming a husband, which seemed to him, like others of us, a betrayal of the good parts of otherness. It was a very small ceremony, vanish-

ingly short compared to the length of the men’s till-death-do-us-part union. Briefly, the story of “On the Red Hill” is the transition of the ownership of the house, Rhiw Goch, from those gay elders to a not-that-muchyounger gay couple who eventually, to their astonishment, inherit the house debt-free, having lovingly seen to their older friends’ last years, providing them intimate care to the end. George and Reg died within a few weeks of each other in 2011. The second half of the ingenious-

Growing up and going through life as a gay man is not easy. Most of us find our way by trial and error because, until now, being born gay has not come with a manual. Queer Answers is just that. It answers many of the questions gay men have. Those answers are based upon objective scientific studies and the experiences of the author. Trial and error offers more adventure than Queer Answers does but can cost a lot more in the end. Get the book and arm yourself with knowledge.

Buy it at: Amazon . Bookstores . Kindle

Queer Answers A Book of Gay Education

Knowledge is Power Arm Yourself

Books>>

July 25-31, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Puzzling times: Summer mysteries

by Tavo Amador

ood murder mysteries simultaneously challenge the reader and afford a splendid way to relax, whether spending the summer at home or away. Making the 1939 film version of “The Wizard of Oz” was challenging in almost every way. What if a murder had made shooting even more difficult? That’s the premise behind Guy Bolton’s clever “The Pictures” (Point Blank, $14.99). When one of the movie’s producers is found dead, Jonathan Craine, a studio “fixer,” must contain the damage, concealing as much of the truth as possible. He must also guard the reputation of the dead man’s widow, beautiful starlet Gale Goodwin. A Chicago crime syndicate, a thriving prostitution racket, and some incriminating stolen pictures complicate things further. Protecting the glamorous Goodwin won’t be easy, but it makes for an entertaining, atmospheric story. Sicily is among the most magical places in Italy, which has them in abundance. The Mediterranean’s largest island has, at one time or another, been home to Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Normans, the French, and the Spanish, all of whom left traces of their presence and created a gene pool that produced highly attractive people. The mild weather, charming cities and towns, splendid ruins, gorgeous coastline, impressive mountains, and superb cuisine are irresistible. Mario Giordano takes full advantage of these attributes in “Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26). The German Auntie Poldi retired to the island and promptly found herself investigating murder. She likes Prosecco and handsome men, including Chief Inspector Montana. When the water supply in her neighborhood dries up and a close friend’s dog is found dead, Poldi gets involved. Someone has to. Soon, she and the Mafia are battling among the vineyards. Sicily is wonderfully evoked, and Poldi is as entertaining as she is enterprising. Translated by John Brownjohn. Readers preferring a foreign urban setting will grab Georges Simenon’s “Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse” (Penguin, $9.98). Inspector Maigret is a realist. He knows that things seldom

are what they initially seem. So when an apparently good man is fatally shot in the family home in Paris, Maigret won’t let the victim’s respectable reputation or his wellto-do circumstances deter him from learning the truth. Nonetheless, Maigret surprises himself by being shocked at the crime. Simenon is a master of psychological insight, and Penguin’s new editions of his admirable novels allow another generation to be dazzled by his low-key brilliance. Translated by Ros Schwartz. Originally published in 1958. Brittany is the setting for JeanLuc Bannalec’s “The Fleur de Sel Murders” (St. Martin’s Press, $17.99). Commisaire Georges Dupin, eager to escape the dreary paperwork of his profession, goes to the “White Country” on the Guerande peninsula, so-called because of its salt works. He has always doubted the old farmers’ claims that the freshly harvested salt’s violet scent makes people crazy, but when he is unexpectedly attacked, when his journalist friend Louis Breval disappears, he begins to wonder if the claims aren’t true. He manages to get assigned to the investigation, which leads to clashes with Sylvaine Rose, the inspector responsible for the area. She doesn’t welcome his presence. Smoothly plotted and filled with the Atlantic Coast’s unpredictable ambiance. Translated by Sorcha McDonagh. No writer could have invented the Mitford sisters. The striking daughters of Baron Redesdale were as different as they were celebrated: Nancy wrote elegant novels and popular biographies. Pamela divorced her bisexual husband and lived an openly lesbian life with Giuditta Tommasi, a celebrated Italian “horsewoman.” Diana married Sir Oswald Mosley, head of the British Fascist Union, and spent much of WWII in jail. Unity worshiped Adolph Hitler, became his confidant, and, in Munich after WWII, attempted suicide by shooting herself in the head. She survived, was permanently disabled, and allowed to live in England until her death. Jessica (“Decca”) moved to the East Bay and joined the American Communist Party, but resigned in opposition to Stalin, and became a muckraking journalist who exposed the truth about the

“American Way of Death.” Deborah (“Debo”) became Duchess of Devonshire, presided over Chatsworth, one England’s stateliest country houses, and astutely replenished the family coffers by opening it up to tourists. Jessica Fellowes has conjured them up in “The Mitford Murders” (St. Martin’s Press, $16.99). Louisa Cannon, 18, longs to flee her dreary, poverty-stricken life in 1920 London. She becomes a domestic at the Mitford country home in Oxfordshire. She’s befriended by Nancy, only 16, who longs for adventure. When Florence Nightingale’s namesake goddaughter is murdered, she gets her wish. Witty, stylish, and wellplotted. Summer wouldn’t be the same without a new Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery from Donna Leon. “Unto Us a Son Is Given” (Atlantic Monthly Press, $26) finds Guido’s aristocratic father-in-law, Count Orazio Falier, concerned when his closest friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodriguez de Tejada, wants to adopt a much younger man as his son, making him the heir to his consider-

able fortune. That prospect has also disturbed Gonzalo’s noble friends, none of whom give him the pleasure the young man does. Guido wonders why the elderly gentleman cannot do as he pleases. Things become complicated when Gonzalo suddenly drops dead on the street. One of Gonzalo’s friends arrives in Venice for the memorial service, but is found dead in his hotel room. Now the sympathetic Brunetti is forced to investigate long-hidden secrets of an old family friend, a painful

undertaking. The humane Brunetti, with the aid of his socialist, Henry James-loving, university professor wife, Paola, easily glides through the gilded world of Venetian aristocracy, which, like La Serenissima itself, is far more dangerous than the casual tourist imagines. Leon’s evocative prose, her mastery of character, insight, plotting, and her unequaled knowledge of Venice grip the reader. This is her 28th Brunetti novel, but it is as fresh and engrossing as the first one.t

You Asked – We Listened!

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<< Music

20 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Post-Stonewall 50 soundtrack by Gregg Shapiro

choose to pay close attention to his lyrics (which you should), Pierce still wants you up and dancing on songs “Body Chemistry,” “Pretty Cloud,” “Blip of Joy” and “626 Bedford Avenue.” Pierce also allows you a chance to catch your breath on “Nervous” and “I Wanna Go Back.” In 2016, after completing and releasing the final part to the ambitious and taxing three-album “The Family Tree” song cycle, gay singer-songwriter Ben Cooper of Electric President fame, aka Radical Face, busied himself with various projects, including a relocation from Florida to California and going into therapy. The result is the new Radical Face album “Therapy” (Bear Machine), featuring exciting new musical arrangement experimentation. This is best exemplified in the stunning songs “Better Days,” “Guilt” and “Doubt.” Be forewarned, this is not an easy listen. In what’s essentially a musical psychotherapy session, you can feel the healing beginning. When out singer-songwriter John Ashfield isn’t releasing solo records (check out 2007’s “Love Is Blue”), he’s busy fronting San Francisco’s The Bobbleheads. The quartet’s new album “Myths and Fables” (Poppop) is significant in that it’s the first time that the entire band lineup consists of gay members, including Pat Ennis on bass, Rob Harford on guitar and

vocals, and Rob Jacobs on drums and percussion. The electric rock of “Until You Touch It” would fit in well on the latest Bob Mould album “Sunshine Rock.” Other highlights include “Anne Murray Centre” and the chewy bubblegum pop of “Listen You Know,” “Like Oxygen,” “Afternoon” and “Joey.” All-female supergroup trios are all the rage. Have you heard the albums by case-lang-veirs (Neko Case, k.d. lang, Laura Veirs), Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley) or I’m With Her (Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan)? If not, you should. You also can’t go wrong with the 2/3 queer trio boygenius (Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers) and its self-titled six-song EP (on Matador), either. In fact, the only thing wrong with is that there simply isn’t enough of it. It’s the very embodiment of “always leave them wanting more.” With these few songs, it’s difficult to pick favorites, so let’s just say that you should listen to “Bite the Hand,” “Me & My Dog,” “Souvenir,” “Stay Down,” “Salt in the Wound” and “Ketchum, ID” repeatedly, because too much of a good thing is never enough. For those who have been uncomplainingly awaiting the day that out Broadway singer-actor Max Von Essen released his debut album, your patience has been rewarded. “Call Me Old Fashioned: The

Broadway Standard” (LML Music), co-produced by Von Essen and Billy Stritch (who also plays piano on the album), is here! Drawing on jukebox bio-musicals such as “Jersey Boys” and “The Boy from Oz,” as well as more traditional fare including “Evita,” “My Fair Lady,” “She Loves Me” and “An American in Paris,” Von Essen succeeds in making every one of the songs his own. Thomas Lauderdale has gallons of talent. Not limiting himself to his role as leader and primary songwriter of original material for Pink Martini, openly gay Lauderdale has also made a name for himself through his collaborations with others, including gay writer Tom Spanbauer. On “Hotel Amour” (Heinz), Lauderdale teams up international cabaret chanteuse Meow Meow for a set of intercontinental tunes. Upping the queer quotient, Rufus Wainwright provides duet vocals on “À quoi ça sert l’amour,” while other musical guests can be heard on “HiLili, Hi-Lo” (the von Trapps), “Sans Toi” (the late Michel Legrand) and “Mausi, süß warst Du heute Nacht” (Barry Humphries). Pansexual freakpop diva Héloïse Létissier sure took her time releasing the second Christine and the Queens album, “Chris” (Because Music), but after one listen you’ll agree it was worth the three-plusyear wait. Working her Frenglish

vibe to its most exotic yet accessible degree, Létissier borrows liberally from the 1980s, synthesizing it through an exciting 21st-century lens. You’ll want to slip on your dancing shows for songs such as the religious experience of “Doesn’t Matter,” the tush-shaking touché of “Girlfriend,” the come-on of “Comme Si,” the frustration of “Damn (What Must a Woman Do)” and the affordable thrill of “5 Dollars.” In the liner notes for “This World Is Too ____ for You” (Thesis & Instinct), lesbian polymath Emily Wells wrote, “These songs are about the human being interacting with the natural world.” A queer musical statement on the climate crisis, the 10 tracks balance experimentation with accessibility. Even if this is not usually your cup of herbal tea, it’s well worth drinking in “Hymn for the New World,” “Eulogy for the Lucky,” “Stay Up,” “Misconceptions on Forever” and “Remind Me to Remember.” Here’s something that many LGBTQ people can probably agree on: Scissor Sisters should have been bigger than they were. Led by sizzling hot ex-go-go boy Jake Shears, Scissor Sisters’ cutting-edge approach to queer dance pop was as refreshing as it was razor sharp on its eponymous 2004 debut album, newly reissued as a half-mastered vinyl LP (complete with Abbey Road Studios certificate). Far from being one-trick-ponies, Scissor Sisters turned Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” into a certified dance anthem, added extra glitter to glam on the anti-drug “Return to Oz,” added “Filthy/Gorgeous” to the lexicon, and ultimately did Elton John better than Elton himself on originals including “Mary,” “Take Your Mama,” “Music Is the Victim” and “Better Luck.” If there is any justice in the world, a Scissor Sisters revival is just around the corner.t

Gay Men’s Chorus performed it at Davies Symphony Hall in 2015, and recorded it on “Passion: Songs of Love and Life.” Heggie and Scheer also wrote the chamber opera ‘”Three Decembers,” based on an unpublished play by Terrence McNally, which takes place in the month of December in the years 1986, 1996 and 2006. An important character in the drama is gay and lives in San Francisco with his partner, who is dealing with AIDS. The SF nexus continues with two key professionals engaged for the premiere of “If I Were You.” Conductor Nicole Paiement, founder and Artistic Director of Opera Parallele, San Francisco’s marvel of adventurous programming, adds refinement and musical insight to every project she leads. Her treatment of Heggie’s charming one-act “At the Statue of Venus,” with a libretto by Terrence McNally, at SFJAZZ Center was elegant proof of her sensitivity to composers’ intentions. She also memorably conducted the premiere of the re-orchestration of Terence Blanchard’s “Champion,” the powerful re-telling of boxer Emile Griffith’s tragic life as a tortured gay man, in collaboration with SFJAZZ. Director Keturah Stickann’s cutto-the chase imagining of Claude Debussy’s symbolist “Pelleas and Melisande” for West Edge Opera last summer thrilled audiences with her choice of passionate emotion and action over impressionist ambiguity. As movement director and choreographer of San Francisco Opera’s production of Heggie and Scheer’s “Moby-Dick,” her excellent physical game-plan made a visceral impact. She showed the same precision and

inventiveness when she returned to SFO to add entertaining vintage choreography to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Gene Scheer’s handling of Julien Green’s novel distills the haunted author’s conflict between opposing forces of spiritual quest and fleshly passion into an intimate love story, shaken by the very human need for identity and security. A young dissatisfied man strikes a deal with Brittomara, a shape-shifting devil, who offers the power to transfer his soul into other people’s bodies. As he moves recklessly from person to person in search of a better identity, the promise of deep and meaningful love compels him to return to his original body. Will he live

an immortal but solitary existence as someone else, or face death if he chooses love in his own persona? It is an existential question suitable for French philosophy or cinema verite, but Scheer lightens the mood with moments of humor, and Heggie cannot help but write accessible music: think Samuel Barber in the 21st century. Heggie is also well-known for his love of singers, and it manifests in his understanding of their individual vocal abilities. Writing an opera for a cast of young singers seems a perfect match with new Merola Program participants, and the composer admits he jumped at the opportunity.

Two alternating casts, dubbed Pearl and Emerald (for the colors in the Merola logo), will bring “If I Were You” to life in four performances on Aug. 1, 3, 4 & 6 in the beautifully renovated Herbst Theatre. The Merola Grand Finale follows on Aug. 17 at the War Memorial Opera House with a varied program of arias and ensembles. Talented Merolini are poised in the wings, ready to take the opera world by storm. For some interesting videos, try “Creating If I Were You - Merola Opera Program” on YouTube. For more information or to order tickets, visit http://merola.org or call the San Francisco Opera Box Office at (415) 864-3330.t

ooking for just the right soundtrack for your ongoing observance of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots? Pride? Any queer gatherings? Consider any or all of the following albums by LGBTQ artists to provide the music for your queer ears. If you only know punk belter Tyson Meade from his time as frontman of the purr-fect 90s alt-rock band Chainsaw Kittens, then you only know part of the story. Meade’s four solo albums, beginning with 1996’s “Motorcycle Childhood,” are all worthy of your attention. His amazing new release “Robbing the Nuclear Family” (Shaking Shanghai), with an incredible cover image that must be seen (pictured here), has all the components we’ve come to expect from Meade, and then some. “He’s the Candy” will kick your sweet ass into next week. The daring musical diversion of “Tentatively Ahmed” pays off in a big way, lifting listeners out of their seats onto their already dancing feet. “Tiniest of Guys (Troy’s Theme)” lightens the mood in every way imaginable, while “Daphne Come Out” takes a more serious tone. “Motorcycle Boy #3” will rev more than a few listeners’ engines. Jonny Pierce of The Drums has come a long way since 2005. At that time, he was a member of the short-lived electro-pop act Elkland, releasing one album on Columbia Records. A few years later, Pierce and other Elkland members regrouped as The Drums. “Brutalism” (Anti), the fifth full-length album under The Drums moniker, finds Pierce on his own. The nine songs maintain The Drums’ love of synth-beats and keyboards, and the bliss feels gayer and more intimate than ever, even in the face of struggle. Whether or not you

‘If I Were You’

From page 16

“If I Were You” is up and ready to go. Workshopped in January, double-cast from this year’s crop of talented Merolini, and set for a run at Herbst Theatre in the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center August 1-6, the production features as the centerpiece of Merola’s exciting 2019 Summer Festival. As a testament to the value of the prestigious Merola Program and the thriving opera community of Northern California, which includes worldclass talent that comes here, oftentimes to stay, “If I Were You” is also a distinctively San Francisco treat. Composer Jake Heggie lives with husband Curt Branom (a veteran performer in “Beach Blanket Babylon”) in Noe Valley. His acclaimed operas have electrified the mainstage at the San Francisco Opera with such major successes as “Dead Man Walking,” “Moby-Dick,” and most recently, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Librettist, songwriter and an accomplished composer as well, Gene Scheer has worked in partnership with Heggie on “Moby-Dick” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Together they have co-written some 50 songs and five operas. Their “For a Look or a Touch,” a moving story about how little it took to be arrested and killed for being gay in Nazi Germany, is based on true stories told in the documentary “Paragraph 175” and the journal of Manfred Lewin, from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The Seattle Men’s Chorus performed the world premiere of “For a Look or a Touch” in 2011. The San Francisco

Stefan Cohen

Merola Opera Program artists gave a workshop performance of “If I Were You,” a new commissioned work by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music earlier this year.

Books>>

July 25-31, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Clothes make the man by Terri Schlichenmeyer “Naturally Tan: A Memoir” by Tan France; St. Martin’s Press, $27.99

Summer movies

From page 16

“Spider-Man: Far From Home” This venerable comic-book franchise gets a deft reboot with the presence of cherubic British actor Tom Holland as the kid with Spidey’s sticky powers. Like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield before him, Holland gets kids at heart who weren’t raised in the Marvel Universe to see why they should spend $15 and two hours with the coolest and youngest of today’s superheroes. “The Art of Self-Defense” Jesse Eisenberg’s latest outing is a satire of toxic masculinity. Signing up for karate, his character winds up with a yellow belt in a comedy he hopes plays like “a subverted sports movie.” Eisenberg undertook intensive training for the role, and said that shooting the movie reminded him of his childhood stab at “Jewish suburban karate.” “Yesterday” Imagine a world in which no one remembers the Beatles. This surreal hook is a springboard to a tuneful fantasy in which an AngloPakistani man (a poignant turn from Himesh Patel) cashes in on the brilliant tunes of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Patel is a remarkable cover artist, directed by Danny Boyle from a script by Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”). Co-stars Lily James, Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” Director Joe Talbot crafted this indie comedy, acclaimed at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. A young African American man tries to buy back the house that his granddad purchased on the heels of WWII as the forces of gentrification push the price through the roof. With a supporting turn from Bay

Courtesy St. Martin’s Press

“Naturally Tan” author Tan France.

owned a denim factory and taught France to sew. It was there that he learned the importance of fashion, but that wasn’t yet a career; from age 16-27, France held more than 30 jobs, most of which he abandoned with little to no notice. He came to realize that he wanted

to be an entrepreneur, and everything coalesced after a vacation in Salt Lake City, and after falling in love with a cowboy. By then, France had spotted an opportunity – specifically, with modest swimwear. His brand firecrackered to success overnight. Unprepared, France and his

Area icon Danny Glover. “The Lion King” This Disney photorealistic reboot of the acclaimed animated film and long-running Broadway hit musical may be too slick for its own good. The studio that pioneered the true-life nature film in the late 1940s has now produced a cartoon lion that feels uncomfortably like the real thing, a reality that may leave young followers of the franchise feeling a tad confused. “Amazing Grace” Fans of the late superstar gospel artist Aretha Franklin should flock to this concert recorded in February 1972 in a Watts, CA Baptist church. The delay in getting the performance to screens was due to director Sydney Pollack’s failure to sync the film of the then-29-year-old Queen of Soul with the soundtrack. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” The Eugene O’Neill play title has been borrowed as the English name for this smart Chinese drama in which a man searches for a woman from an earlier chapter in his life. In Mandarin with English subtitles. “High Flying Bird” The versatile Steven Soderbergh used his iPhone to capture the drama of a highpressure sports agent trying to win a deal for his young client during a recent National Basketball Association work stoppage. A great film for NBA fans who can’t get enough. “Knock Down the House” With four newly elected Democratic House members squaring off daily with Trump, this doc account of how Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her Queens/Bronx seat from a New York Irish veteran makes for an entertaining interlude as we all struggle through the long slog to Election Day 2020.

“A Faithful Man” Handsome French leading man Louis Garrel makes his directorial debut and stars in this comic triangle. Abel (Garrel) has been dumped by his girlfriend, for his best friend. Known to LGBTQ film-lovers for his incendiary turn in the sex-charged 1968 romance “The Dreamers,” Garrel also stirred gay hearts with the 2008 musical “Love Songs,” in which the death of his girlfriend resulted in his becoming romantically hooked up with a beautiful young man.t

Kino Lorber

French actor-director Louis Garrel in “A Faithful Man.”

new man worked around the clock to accommodate customers, and to try to grow the business. Eventually, the stress became too much, and France stepped back. He was not really looking for anything new when, on vacation, he received a call from someone who told

Save date! THE

asual button-down, or elegant suit? Jeans or khakis? Shoes or sandals? Whatever the event, your closet’s got you covered, packed with every outfit you’ll ever need. But what’s your style, what makes you confident? How do you know what to wear for the occasion? Read “Naturally Tan” by Tan France, and see what fits. As a young boy growing up in South Yorkshire, England, Tan France was no shrinking violet: he was “weirdly worldly wise” and “definitely the cockiest one of the family.” He also knew what he wanted and didn’t rest until he got it, and even then, he knew that he liked boys better than girls. That determination didn’t make his childhood breezy, though. France was Pakistani in a predominantly white area, and he grew up with the hum of racism in the background. He was bullied, but still, he says, he “managed to make things work.” It helped that his grandfather

him about an opportunity with Netflix and “Queer Eye,” a job he never dreamed of and was convinced that he’d never land. He wanted it, and he didn’t. He needed prodding until he “begrudgingly” auditioned. At its outset, “Naturally Tan” feels like just another gay memoir. Stating that he always knew he was gay, author Tan France seems a bit stiff, as though his story needs to stretch and twist before it starts to stride. Once it takes that next step, though, it’s got you. Like virtually all other gay memoirs, France goes on to tell a story of a childhood of dawning, of bullying, and of learning more about himself. But his uniqueness lies in the cultural differences in which he was raised. He writes of being a Muslim Pakistani in a white world, and how this fit with his gayness and his passion for fashion. Between this and advice he doles out with impunity, France does snark well, which he freely admits. That’s entertaining, especially since he appears to be rather nice about it. In the end, this is a fun book from a star’s-eye view, with useful tips for any reader, gay or not. Pick up a copy of “Naturally Tan” and see if it doesn’t suit you.t

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<< Books

22 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Portrait of a tragic movie star’s life

by David-Elijah Nahmod “Barbara Payton: A Life in Pictures” by John O’Dowd; Bear Manor Media, $39

here are fewer tales in Hollywood lore sadder than that of Barbara Payton (1927-67). Actress and model Payton made 14 films between 1949-55. She showed great promise at the dawn of her career, getting terrific notices for her work in the gritty film noir “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” (1950) opposite legendary movie tough-guy James Cagney. She was placed under contract to Warner Brothers, appearing onscreen with big names Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck. But her tumultuous personal life, which included affairs with a number of married men in Hollywood, garnered her bad tabloid press. The suits at Warners decided she was more trouble than she was worth and cancelled her contract. In 1951, the year after her greatest screen triumph, she was reduced to starring in B movies like “Bride of the Gorilla.” In 1955 her film career ended, and by the 1960s, Payton was living

on skid row, working as 14 films gets its own chapter, an alcohol-ravaged prosincluding posed stills, behindtitute. When she died the-scenes shots, and in some in 1967, she looked far cases, scenes from the film. older than her 39 years. These shots reveal a stunA lot has been written ningly beautiful woman who about Payton since her took her work seriously and passing over 50 years ago, delivered 100%. much of it negative. But The book doesn’t gloss over author John O’Dowd saw negative aspects of Payton’s the humanity in Payton. life, and includes many photos In 2007 he published from her ill-fated romances “Kiss Tomorrow Goodwith Hollywood leading man bye: The Barbara Payton Franchot Tone and movie Story,” a full-length biogtough-guy Tom Neal. These raphy that told the comrelationships brought Payton plete story of this most tabloid press of the worst kind complicated woman. and led to her film career’s end. Also included are press O’Dowd didn’t gloss over photos from Payton’s final the negative aspects of her years in Hollywood, when she life, but he also included made a sad, aborted attempt her generous, kind heart, at a comeback, and slid into and the deep love she had alcoholism and prostitution. for her son, her only child. At this point Payton was comThe book was wellpletely deluded, believing herreceived, and now, a dozen self to be the star she no longer years later, O’Dowd follows was. She saw the tabloid headup with “Barbara Payton: lines she got as proof she was A Life in Pictures,” a handstill a celebrity, and couldn’t somely mounted coffee-table see she’d destroyed her life. book that tells Payton’s story O’Dowd avoids judging through hundreds of photoPayton and simply presents graphs. The book is divided what is, the good and the bad. into 34 chapters, beginning He does a remarkable job of with Payton’s childhood in painting a sympathetic porsmall-town Minnesota. Photrait. His research is meticutos provided by her family lous. He includes screen shots reveal a beautiful and happy of the coroner reports filed on child, without a hint of the the day she died, as well as her horrors to come. The second death certificate and autopsy chapter is devoted to John report. Also included are more Lee Payton, Barbara’s son. than a dozen pages of the These photos illustrate what sensational tabloid headlines a loving mother she was. AuPayton received. thor O’Dowd has done his Film stars Gregory Peck and Barbara Payton in the film “Only the Valiant” (1951). This book gives a fully homework, as he was in direct balanced view of a life that contact with the younger should have had a happier Payton and other members of Warner Brothers Stills Gallery.” The how to show herself off to her best ending. It also serves as a reminder Barbara’s family. The photos come photos in these chapters, profesadvantage. There’s no question that of what a cruel and unforgiving from the personal collections of sionally posed for, display a woman Payton had the potential to become town Hollywood can be. Barbara those who knew Barbara best. of stunning good looks who had a major star, and might have been Payton deserved better than what Most impressive are Chapter 3, that elusive “star quality.” Payton one of Hollywood’s leading ladies, she got. Thanks to John O’Dowd, “Modeling and Socializing in Holwas a knockout and knew that the had her personal life not got in the she has gotten her due.t lywood,” and Chapter 8, “In the camera was her friend. She knew way of her work. Each of Payton’s

SFB @ Stern Grove

From page 16

It’s as if Thor had dropped his ax and left a natural cathedral, with columns of trees, golden shafts of light penetrating the gloom, and nasturtiums winking their golden lights from the forest floor. What Nature made has been nurtured since the Depression, when Sigmund Stern’s family presented it to the city in loving memory, by leading SF environmental designers from Bernard Maybeck to Lawrence Halprin. Their care has yielded the most spectacular of all the “Greek theaters” that dot the California coast. Thousands of San Franciscans visit Stern Grove every week, and many great artists have performed there. Over the 30 years I’ve been going, SF Ballet’s artistic director has often programmed a work that is (loosely speaking) site-specific. Stealing a page from modern dancers who’ve created this genre (dancers climbing the beams of converted factories, etc.), he’s presented ballets that evoke the forest’s ferny floor (the moonlit “Serenade”). This year’s outing in that vein is Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” (1952), which they danced here almost a decade ago. The ballet evoked more than you’d expect of the Scottish highlands, especially when our famous fog rolls in. You might want to bring a flask of Highland Mist. The dancers in their kilts make fantastic rhythmic folderols to Mendelssohn’s snappy beats, especially the seconda donna. Her rapid-fire scissor-action cuts things witty and sharp, whips up a lot of brio. Dores Andre is sched-

uled to dance that role and should kill it, while the flexible ballerina Mathilde Froustey is down for the dreamy role of the Sylphide, dancing with Joseph Walsh. Froustey won an Izzie Award for dancing Giselle, which is the same Romantic style, and should be a vision, even outdoors in the sunshine, even lovelier if it mists. Casting is subject to change. Anything can happen in the theater – and outdoors, surprises abound. A bee can fly up your nose, or the conductor’s. (The orchestra will be there, conducted by Martin West.) It could rain, I’ve seen it happen; 15 years ago, Elizabeth Loscavio slipped in a puddle, bounced up, and kept turning fouettés as if she’d invented a new step. Musicians are allowed to protect their instruments from rain, and dancers are shielded from having to go on without sweatpants if it’s too cold. But the show will go on if it can, in full costume, and up to speed. The audience can be a distraction. I will admire Vanessa Zahorian to my dying day: she was dancing very difficult pas from “Paquita” as a lady in the audience was borne out on a stretcher right past the stage, right under her nose. Even as she was being upstaged, Zahorian did her steps, nothing scanted, while acknowledging that something much more important was going on. The look on her face was priceless. Now that’s ballet: grace under pressure. You never know when a star will be born, and it can happen at Stern Grove. In 1995, I saw the 18-year-old Yuan Yuan Tan kick her tambourine in the pas from “Esmeralda”: brand-new here, but

before she even moved you could tell she was going to be sensational. She fell down in an Italian fouetté, but bounced right back up and kept going, every step with blinding clarity, amplitude. The crowd went berserk. There’s nothing better than a dancer taking a chance, falling, and getting up as if it were nothing. Grace under pressure. This Sunday we get to see our new ballerina Misa Kuranaga in her initial turn as a full member of the company, partnered by Esteban Hernandez. She guested with SFB at the gala and danced sensationally. This Sunday she debuts in the pas de deux from “Rubies,” created by Balanchine on Patricia McBride. Though it’s one of the most popular of Balanchine’s dances, stepping into McBride’s shoes and dancing it right is hard. Its style is abrupt and witty, the pelvic tilts are jazzy, the phrasing is geeky. You’ve got to live it, not just make it look cute. It’s a full program: “Diving into the Lilacs” by Yuri Possokhov (Tan, with Carlo di Lanno) is hot stuff based on the feelings he had as a teenager at the Bolshoi school when the lilacs bloomed again after a long Russian winter; and the divine pas de deux from Petipa’s “Sleeping Beauty,” danced by Sasha de Sola and Benjamin Freemantle. Should be a great show. Bring your picnic. Arrive early. Tie a sweater around you and a windbreaker; wear a baseball cap, sun-screen and -glasses. You have a steep hike back uphill. Though it’s free, there’s a cut-off limit: “Tickets reserved through Eventbrite do not guarantee entry if the concert meadow is full upon your arrival.”t

Steven Underhill

Up Your Alley

weekend’s packin’ by Race Bannon

omething I’ve noticed the last few years of writing this column is the dramatic increase in the number of events surrounding our city’s two big leather street fairs, Up Your Alley this Sunday and Folsom Street Fair in September. See page 24

Rick Gerharter

Porn actor Brian Bonds enjoys being king of Steamworks’ Strip Twister game at the 2018 Up Your Alley Street Fair.

Taking the Detour Fond remembrances of a sexy cruise bar by Michael Flanagan “Matt – met at Detour 11/8. Went to my place. I loved your arms and shaved areas. You said my skin was soft. Again? I don’t have your number. Please call. Man with wife.” – BARtalk, Parting Glances 11/7/97

aithful readers of the Bay Area Reporter noticed that an article about the video game bar Brewcade changing its name to the Detour (SF Castro arcade bar to reopen next week as The Detour, July 12, 2019) got some pushback from the original bar’s fans. See page 26 >> A gogo dancer performs in the window of the Detour Bar in June 2005, the bar’s last year.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

<< Leather

24 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

Fred Alert

A panoramic view of a recent Up Your Alley Street Fair.

Up Your Alley

From page 23

As I’ve put the event calendars together that accompany this column, it’s been rather obvious that producers, bars, clubs and other entities want a piece of the busy leather weekend pie. On the one hand, that’s a positive. More options. On the other hand, it’s a negative. More options. When each Fair had only a few surrounding events, it was easy to figure out what one wanted to do. Go to the big dance, or the play party, or the big bar event. Now it takes some planning, and in some cases

hard choices to make. Which of the dance parties? Which of the bar events? Which of the play parties? Which of the many other events taking place? It’s daunting. Perhaps you already have an idea about what you want to attend, but if you need some help, navigate on this publication’s website https://www.ebar. com/bartab/leather-kink There you’ll find the latest Leather Events calendar. You’ll see a lot from which to choose. On Friday, Peter Fiske leads a pan-

el discussion at the GLBT Historical Society Museum on San Francisco’s early leather scene (1966–1992). Peter’s book, My Leather Life: Early Years 1958–1983, was just recently published. Check out the already installed Alan Selby exhibit there too if you haven’t already. Terry Beswick, the Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society, is excited about the event. “We’re thrilled to host Peter Fiske and other leaders of the leather community for this history panel. Together with our current ex-

Rich Stadtmiller

Fire gear casual fetish fun at the 2013 Up Your Alley Street Fair.

hibition on the late Alan Selby, and a small permanent leather exhibit in our main gallery, we are working to preserve and share these rich and inspiring stories of sexual freedom and culture. Unfortunately, our current museum is small and so many of our events sell out. We are working to establish a larger museum to do our community justice, and in the meantime, we will be video-recording this event and live-stream-

Leather Events, July 25–29 Thu 25 The Catacombs Tribute @ Underground SF Mr. Drummer '79 celebrates the legendary SF Catacombs (1975-85) with the Airtight collective, a "dykecentered rave and psychedelic sex party," 9:30 screening of Jonesy & Jamie C. Knight's The FIGA, an oral herstory of the Catacombs; featuring Dr. Gayle Rubin. https://bit.ly/2JvxnsJ

Frisky Pups @ SF Catalyst Sex and kink party for men, boys, and pups for a sweaty night of debauchery, with a fully equipped play space. $20, $30 at door. 1060 Folsom St., 8pm-1:30am. friskypupsdorealley.eventbrite.com

In Gear Dinner @ Don Ramon’s Restaurant BLUF SF’s 10th Anniversary Annual Dinner has become a tradition to kick off the busy leather week of activities. 225 11th St., 6-10pm. www.blufsf.com

Horse Market @ SF Catalyst Unofficial opening party for Dore Alley weekend; come enjoy yourself and groove to the beats of DJ Cubstep. Leather harnesses encouraged but not required. 1060 Folsom St., 6pm-12am. www.HorseMarketSF.com

TNL Leather Live & C-Gar Social @ SF Eagle Performance by Probe7, with the C-Gar Social with smoking hot leathermen; DJ Jeff Johnson's throbbing, tech-heavy beats. 398 12th St., 9pm-2am. sf-eagle.com

Fri 26 Bearracuda w/GROWLr @ Folsom Street Foundry Bearracuda presents Dirty Dore – Underwear Night with DJs Matt Consola and Paul Goodyear. Strip down with hundreds of guys. 1425 Folsom St., 9pm-3am. https://bit.ly/2M1TbOe

Early Leather: San Francisco's Leather Scene, 1966–1992 @ GLBT History Museum Panel featuring members of the early San Francisco leather scene and scholars of the local leather and kink community; Peter Fiske, author of My Leather Life: Early Years 1958–1983 and Gayle Rubin, Race Bannon, Steve Gaynes and Graylin Thornton; in conjunction with The Mayor of Folsom Street: The Life and Legacy of Alan Selby, an exhibition currently on view. $5. 4127 18th St., 7-9pm. www.glbthistory.org

Fog City Pack @ Club Six Fog City Pack presents Beta 2019 featuring Jasmine Infiniti, Vicki Powell and Brian Rojas, two floors of devilish bass lines, heavenly vocals, and a congregation of devout deviants. Also spinning will be Fawks, Jumpr, and Astro. 60 6th St., 10pm-4am. https://bit.ly/2FmDSvq

Growlr @ SF Eagle Gear up and come play with hot bears, cubs, otters, pups, and pigs; DJ Byron Bonsall. Mr. San Francisco Leather 2018 (Matt Welch) hosts a sexy contest. Show some skin to win. 398 12th St., 9pm-2am. www.sf-eagle.com

Heat @ Great Northern

Sat 27 Bay of Pigs @ Space 550 Annual large dance and leather and fetish event, with 1,000 muscle pigs, hot daddies, and hairy bears, DJ Harvey; and an upstairs Pig Pen for sex play. $50, 550 Barneveld Ave., 10pm-4am. https://bit.ly/2XuF75R

Big Muscle @ DNA Lounge DJs Paul Goodyear, Steve Fabus, Tiny Timothy Parker and Juan play grooves at the annual beefcake party. Meet the 2020 Bare Chest Calendar men. 1pm-6pm, 375 11th St. https://bit.ly/2KeeNpw

Brüt @ The Great Northern

Prime @ Roccapulco

Macho @ Steamworks

Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Peter Fiske Preview, Sale @ SF Catalyst Legendary Leatherman Peter Fiske previews and sells whips from his collection and sells & signs copies of his new memoir. 1060 Folsom St., 10am-12pm. www.sfcatalyst.org

Q-Ties: a Queer & Trans Play Party @ Iron Giant Loft

Rogue @ SF Eagle

Find the gear that's best suited for your kinky desires. Enjoy the Back Alley Beer Garden from 12-6 with DJs Stefanie Phillips and Jim Hopkins (S.F. Disco Preservation Society). 1pm8pm, 385 8th St. mr-s-leather.com

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club

Join Onyx members from all over the U.S. as they welcome their newest Full and Associate members from the 2019 Onyx Northwest pledge. 1347 Folsom St., 6-9pm. www.onyxnorthwest.com

Code @ The Edge

DJ Ana Paula (Brazil) and DJ Jack Chang (London) spin at a leatherthemed dance party. $30-$45. 119 Utah St., 10pm-4am. www.thegreatnorthern.com Trophy Dad again brings the dance party for men in their prime and their admirers, with hot music, hot gogo studs in their prime. DJ Neon the Glowgobear; clothes check available. $25-$35, 3140 Mission St., 10pm-4am. https://bit.ly/2xXpqpj

Onyx @ Powerhouse

A play party for queer, trans, genderfluid, genderqueer, and lesbian, gay, bi, and pansexual attendees. $30-$50, 1080 23rd St., Oakland, 7:30pm-12am. lgbqtiesjul19.brownpapertickets.com

The Dore Party @ Mr. S Leather

Nastykinkpigs.com and Steamworks return for their party. 8pm4am, 2107 4th St., Berkeley. steamworksbaths.com/berkeley

The Maze @ Atlas Cruisy, dimly lit labyrinth sex party. $15, 10pm-3am. www.atlas-sf.com

Men’s BDSM Play Party @ SF Catalyst 15 Association’s BDSM and kink play party. 1060 Folsom St., 6pm-12am (doors close 10pm). the15sf.org

Sneakin’s in

One unique event on Saturday is Sneaks, which caters to the growing fetish of athletic gear. In Europe the athletic gear fetish has been thriving for a while. It’s made its way to our shores and it’s exploding. In addition to great music and a hot crowd, Sneaks enforces a strict dress code. Everyone must wear

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

The New York dance night is back again at one of SF’s popular venues. Expect plenty of shirtless harnessed hotties, DJs Ralphi Rosario and Dan Darlington. 119 Utah St., 10pm-4am. tickets.hedonicproductions.com Rubber up at the only leather-kink event in the Castro. San Francisco Bay Area Rubber, West Coast Rubber, and Rubbout come together for shiny and tight fun in rubber and latex. 4149 18th St., 9pm-2am. www.edgesf.com

ing on our Facebook page.”

DJ Manny Lehman plays throbbing beats all night long; gogo slaves, live demos. $15-$20. 398 12th St., 9pm-2am. sf-eagle.com

The Shining @ Powerhouse San Francisco Bay Area Rubber, West Coast Rubber, and Rubbout come together for shiny and tight fun in rubber and latex. 1347 Folsom St., 2pm-5pm. powerhousebar.com

Singletail Workshops @ Wicked Grounds Annex Dark Eros Dojo Presents an initial demonstration and exploration of single-tails; a a prerequisite for the hands-on workshop beginning (1:30pm-5:30pm) the same day. $25-$150, 293 8th St., 11am1:15pm. www.wickedgrounds.com

Sneaks @ Club Six Polyglamorous' sneaker fetish party is back, with DJs Noncompliant, Chrissy, Polyglamorous residents. Dress code strictly enforced: must wear sneakers. Do wear sports gear, singlets, mesh, underwear, knee socks, gym shorts, sweats, or track suits. Clothes check. Bar is cash only. 60 6th St., 10pm-5am. https://bit.ly/2x8Edx3

Sun 28 Ritual @ 1015 Folsom Join the Real Bad circle of friends for the return of their after-hours dance party, with DJ Charly. $40 (more at the door). 1015 Folsom St., 4am9am. https://bit.ly/2WYC1aH/

Rough @ Mezzanine Official closing party of Up Your Alley weekend and official send-off party of Lazy Bear Week 2019, with DJs Bryan Hughes and Steve Sherwood 21+ (ID required for entry). $45-$50, 444 Jessie St., 6pm-2am. https://bit.ly/2WZtqj7

Play T-Dance @ City Nights After a four-year hiatus, Play T-Dance makes its return under the direction of Brian Kent, with resident DJ/Producer Russ Rich. Enjoy gear, leather, fetish, uniform, rubber. $55$60, 715 Harrison St., 6pm-1am. https://bit.ly/2N6G7cq

CumUnion @ SF Catalyst The International play party for men; parties by 442 invite men of all races and types, ages 18+, to join us at CumUnion’s flagship party at its new location. $20 includes private locker (ID required for key deposit). 1060 Folsom St., 9pm-4am. www.CumUnion.com

Mon 29 Bulge @ SF Catalyst San Francisco's newest weekly fetish gear party presented by Parties by 442. Wear your hottest underwear, athletic gear, fetish gear, leather, whatever gets you off. $20, 1060 Folsom St., 8pm-1am. www.sfcatalyst.org

Ride Mondays @ Eros 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 t

Leather>>

July 25-31, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

Playmates and soul mates...

San Francisco: Left photo: Gooch

Left: Terry Beswick, Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society. Middle: Mark O’Brien, one of the producers of Sneaks. Right: Erick Lopez (L) and Nico Watson (R) at The Edge.

sneakers along with encouragement to wear sports gear, singlets, mesh, underwear, knee socks, gym shorts, sweats, or track suits, anything sports-related or that you might wear to the gym. I asked one of the producers, Mark O’Brien, about his event. “We began throwing Sneaks in 2015 after Ben Bellayuto (one-third of Polyglamorous, along with John Major and myself), returned from Berlin and wanted to bring a taste of that city back to San Francisco,” said O’Briend. “Since 2016 we’ve been at Club Six, which has allowed us to fulfill the vision of a dark, sexy sneaker and sportswear fetish party with great music. Tickets sold out faster than ever this year, but we are holding hundreds of tickets at the door for folks who show up early.”

some of the rubber guys and ask them about their fetish. They’re a friendly and passionate bunch. I could keep mentioning events. From just Thursday to Sunday I count 39 events to choose from, and I’m sure there are a few I’m missing. You can’t be an LGBTQ leather or kink aficionado and claim there’s nothing to do this weekend. Have fun!

Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District

In other news, the newly formed Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District has incorporated as a nonprofit entity with the State of California. The final draft of their bylaws have been approved, and will be implemented as soon their Board of

1-415-692-5774 Megamates.com 18+

Directors is selected. They’re now moving ahead with the seating of that Board. Additionally, they’ll soon be hiring a full-time District Manager to oversee the daily operations of the District. Anyone interested in being a member of the District’s Board of Directors can visit their website to see details on how to submit your name and background information for consideration. If you might be interested in the position of District Manager, they will publish a job description on their site along with submission guidelines. www.sfleatherdistrict.orgt Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

Rub’ it in

Another fetish that has also historically been more popular in Europe but which has seen big growth in the States lately is rubber. If you’re into rubber or curious about it, you’re in luck! Two events take place on the same day catering to those for whom rubber resonates in erotic ways. On Saturday, San Francisco Bay Area Rubber, West Coast Rubber, and Rubbout are coming together for shiny and tight fun in rubber and latex. Their afternoon event at the Powerhouse, called The Shining, is followed later the same night by a rubber version of Code at The Edge. Erick Lopez, a bartender at The Edge and a rubber enthusiast himself, commented on these events. “I cannot thank Brandon Leon, Nico Watson and Alan Gamrican enough for making The Edge a home for the latex community. We are always happy to have them here and will be happy to remain their permanent home bar.” The local rubber community is incredibly welcoming to newcomers and the curious. So, if you think rubber might be your thing, check out these events and walk up to

Rich Stadtmiller

Rubber-lovin’ couple at the 2018 Up Your Alley Street Fair.

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26 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2019

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both Photos: Rick Gerharter

Above: Nikki Rivera and Ron Turner were bartenders at the Detour Bar in 1989. Below: DJ Michael Pandolfi at the Detour Bar in December 1989.

Detour

From page 23

Comments posted on the B.A.R.’s Facebook page included these quotes: Karin Lee Jaffie: “If there’s no chain-link fence and the floor ain’t sticky, it’s not the Detour. Lolz.” Matt Welch: “The Detour was such a big part of leather and kink culture in the Castro. It feels like bastardization to see the name now applied to pinball machines.” Matthew Ogden: “Blasphemy to use the name of Detour for a pinball bar. The Disneyland effect in the Castro. The original Detour was a smoking hot cruise bar! And, BTW, I don’t know any gay men who play pinball.” Reactions like these reveal that some fourteen years after its closing, the Detour still evokes strong memories for long-term area residents who were patrons of the bar. To understand why the memory evokes such feelings, it’s a good idea to look at the history of the bar.

Original Detour

The Detour, located at 2348 Market Street (in the same space as Beaux, which has the address of 2344 Market) is in the location of the earliest gay bar in the Castro, the Missouri Mule, which opened in 1963. Between the Missouri Mule and the Detour, the spot housed Hombre, Chops and Patsy’s (the last of which had a Country & Western atmosphere). The Detour, however, was something of a departure. Painted black, with a chain link fence wall inside, the club made quite the splash. Another feature includes a red laser which, when seen at a certain angle, displayed text, often raunchy and suggestive. The grand opening, featured in Mister Marcus’ Bay Area Reporter column, was February 11, 1982. The following week Marcus reported: “I didn’t get an invitation to the grand opening of The Detour on

Upper Market, but wags all over town say it was a lascivious affair with lots of hunky leather men on hand for the premiere and of late the place is jam-packed. That black paint and storm fence syndrome will do it every time.” From the very beginning the bar had something of an outlaw feel, and a hyper-charged sexual environment that extended all the way to the urinal troughs with conveniently tilted mirrors for maximum cruising. A month after it opened, on March 11, 1982, Marcus had this item in his

column: “Graffito seen in the tearoom at the new leathery Detour on Upper Market: “I want someone to piss in my mouth,” under which someone else scrawled: “I wouldn’t piss in your mouth if your teeth were on fire.”” The sexual atmosphere was not just for show, either. Karl Stewart recounted in his Dec. 1982 B.A.R. “My Knights In Leather” column: “The Detour has attracted a hot crowd of Castro toughs and leathermen alike. What a stunning group! It’s funny, maybe because no one knows me there, but I’ve never left the Detour without a trick – and the pick of the Detour are always gorgeous.” Still, the designation of the Detour as a leather bar was somewhat contested, even at the beginning. In a Nov. 14, 1982 B.A.R. article, “Leather Bars in the Castro” Mike Hippler interviewed the bar’s manager, Gary Bernier, who said, “We didn’t set out to be a leather bar. That’s not our main objective. It’s not fair to define it in any one way. We’re on neutral ground here in the Castro and don’t appeal to any one segment of the population. Sometimes people get off the bus in a three-piece suit and feel uncomfortable in a leather bar. We just want to appeal to nice guys.” Sam Labelle, who was musical director for the Detour from 1985 to 2004, concurred. “We didn’t really consider The Detour as a leather

A 13th anniversary party ad for The Detour.

July 25-31, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

bar. We thought of The Detour as a man’s bar.” That descriptor leads to the news report about an alleged discriminatory door policy during the 1980s. A January 12, 1984 B.A.R. article tells of protests by the Toklas Democratic Club and other local organizations after women reported being “triple-carded,” asked to provide three forms of identification, unlike male patrons. Dan Denman, The Detour’s thenowner, countered that the women demanded to be admitted and were disruptive, saying, “We do not discriminate against women. Detour is a man’s bar and has a large majority of male customers. They would feel more comfortable in another environment.” The door policy changed, and women were more easily admitted, including staff bartender Nikki Rivera in the late 1980s. It remained

Eddie Valentine

A drag Halloween gaggle of friends at The Detour in the 1990s.

a mostly-male bar until the 1990s, when it became more ‘queer,’ with drag and gender-fluid patrons.

Whether leather

Whether or not the Detour was a leather bar, it was most certainly a highly-charged sexual environment. When asking about the bar, friends mentioned the gogo boys who performed there, and many B.A.R. personal ads refer to meetings at the bar. Another distinguishing characteristic of the bar was its music, often dark, electronic and interesting. Greg Cruikshank, who was a DJ there, said, “There was complete freedom for the DJs, and that energy fed on itself.” Asked about the style of music at the bar, Sam Labelle said, “The DJs were alternative/rock. We played what we liked. Most of all the New Wave artists were presented; Depeche Mode, Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie, Marianne Faithful.” There were also live performances at the bar, including appearances by Lypsinka and Justin Vivian Bond. Historian and GLBT Historical Society founding member Gerard Koskovich recalled, “I saw a Justin Vivian Bond performance there that included Bond prancing down the bar and sending a cocktail or two flying.” Labelle concurred, “Justin was a friend of The Detour (at the bar just about every night). Justin’s performances were very memorable.” AIDS had a huge impact on the bar. When the first AIDS memorial march, called Fighting For Our Lives, took place on May 2, 1983, the bar –together with other bars in the Castro– closed so that workers there could participate in the march. In 1986 the bar participated in benefits to fight the LaRouche quarantine proposition. Cruikshank saw my mention of

Arts & Nightlife Events Karl Kopplin

BARchive>>

Tue 30

Connie Champagne as Judy Garland @ PianoFight

Whether you’re in the mood for classic Judy Garland (with Connie Champagne) or the sprawl of kinky Dore-esque fun, see the Bay Area’s most comprehensive LGBT-focused arts and nightlife listings at www.ebar.com. the bar’s ‘sex-positive’ atmosphere in the midst of the AIDS epidemic as valid. “I saw the Detour as a gathering place for the community that was bruised and battered by the plague,” he said. “I think the ominous darkness that you felt was partially informed by a palpable sense of grief.” The Detour had a remarkably long life in the neighborhood, lasting until 2005. It’s easy to understand how a bar that brought so much joy and pleasure to so many would be fondly remembered.

Given the history of The Detour and its connections to a vibrant and erotic queer community, it’s easy to understand how the new bar, the former Brewcade, down the street, would get pushback for inexplicably taking on the Detour’s name. With an amusement park-like atmosphere of even more pinball machines than before, plus airy windows and well-lit dining areas, the comparison seems absurd, almost as absurd as the idea of a Castro bar that’s still cruisy. t

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

SF Jewish Film Festival Opening Party @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

fter the opening night screening of Fiddler: A Mircale of Miracles (a new documentary about the history of the musical Fiddler on the Roof) at the Castro Theatre, filmmakers, producers, actors and patrons enjoyed the Opening Night party at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, for merriment, drinks and food (from Oren’s Hummus, L’Chaim Foods, Wise Sons, Taste Catering, Cinderella Bakery and Fairytale Brownies). Mazel! The festival runs through August 4. https://jfi.org/sfjff-2019 See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com

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