July 25, 2013 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Gay-friendly Toronto

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Lady Bunny hops into town

ARTS

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Japanese art

The

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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 43 • No. 30 • July 25-31, 2013

Services needed for LGBT homeless by Matthew S. Bajko

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im Oviatt has been living in his Chrysler Sebring convertible since January, often parking it outside the home and bath products store where he

works part-time. The single, 64-year-old gay man had been renting a shared flat with two roommates in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood throughout 2012. But in December the landlord asked Oviatt and the other tenant Father River Sims stops to talk to a homeless person on a recent Sunday as he did street outreach in the Polk neighborhood.

Courtesy Brad Frazier

Pedro “Antonio” Ayon Garcia, left, has been sent to an immigration facility in Pennsylvania while his partner, Brad Frazier, is working to get him returned to San Francisco.

Gay binational couple fights feds by Seth Hemmelgarn

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Mexican-born San Francisco man is being held in Pennsylvania for a visa violation while his husband, a U.S. citizen, tries to get him out. The dilemma facing Pedro “Antonio” Ayon Garcia, 45, and Brad Frazier, 44, who’ve been together for 10 years, comes just as same-sex couples are finally allowed to marry in California and the federal government starts recognizing the rights of binational couples. It also seems to point to ineptitude within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Frazier said. “We’ve spent our whole relationship doing what we can to legitimize ourselves, but those options just weren’t there,” said Frazier. But finally, in late June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California’s Proposition 8 samesex marriage ban as well as a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex unions. “Now that those options are there, and it’s what we’ve wanted the whole time, there’s a federal agency standing in the way, and it is so bureaucracy-laden they can’t even take a look at the story and the humans involved and say, ‘Oh, this is easily solvable,’” he said. The couple isn’t legally married but they registered as domestic partners in 2011 and refer to each other as husbands. Their trouble started June 2 as Garcia was returning from a visit to his mother in Mexicali, Mexico. He was stopped as he crossed from Mexicali to Calexico, California, Frazier said in a summary. According to DHS records, Garcia presented a DSP-150 visitor’s visa to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer and admitted that he’d been living and working in the United States without the proper visa. Eventually, he also “admitted living with his boyfriend in San Francisco” for the past decade, the documents say. His visa was canceled and he returned to Mexico, according to the file, which Frazier shared with the Bay Area Reporter. Frazier said in a fact sheet that when Garcia tried to return to California, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents See page 13 >>

Pete Thoshinsky

to move out, as he wanted to live alone. Lacking enough money to secure a new apartment, Oviatt has spent the last seven months largely in his vehicle as he tries to secure affordable housing in the city. “It is a struggle,” said Oviatt, who relocated to San Francisco in the 1970s from Michigan. “I had always lived relatively comfortably but one circumstance after another piled up.” The downturn in the economy and a rent hike dispute with his landlord led Oviatt in 2009 to close his Castro clothing store All American Boy after 26 years in business. “No matter how much I slashed staff or reduced inventory, I couldn’t make ends meet,” said Oviatt. It took him 12 months to find work, albeit it is not full-time. “I was unemployed for a year. It was really difficult to make ends meet,” he said. Then his partner of 18 years, Roland Espinosa, died due to AIDS complications, and Oviatt had to put their house up for sale in 2011. “I had to sell because of financial issues,” said Oviatt, admitting that he “hurt myself too. I got bad advice and took equity out of the house when I shouldn’t have.” Resolved to remain in the city he has See page 5 >>

Israel’s trans community increases visibility by Heather Cassell

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an Francisco LGBT activists had an opportunity to hear directly from a member of Israel’s transgender community for the first time ever during a recent screening of The Man I Am and a discussion about issues in the Middle East country. About 30 people crowded into a small room at Congregation Shar’ar Zahav July 14 to learn about Israel’s transgender community, which has become more vocal in recent years. Elisha “Shuki” Alexander, a 38-year-old selfidentified gay trans boy, and his partner and fellow activist Avi Soffer, a 63-year-old gay man, were on tour of the U.S. as guests of A Wider Bridge, a Bay Area-based organization that connects the U.S. LGBT Jewish and queer Israeli communities. For many years Israel’s transgender community has lived in the shadows and off the radar of the mainstream gay and lesbian community. The transgender community began to slowly become visible in 2008 when it participated in Tel Aviv’s LGBT Pride Parade for the first time, said Alexander. Soffer added that, in recent years, transgender individuals began appearing at organizational meetings and in movies, such as The Man I Am, in which Alexander was one of the five trans men featured. Alexander, who has been a transgender activist for eight years, heads Ma’avarim (translated means Passageways), a grassroots trans organization. After a yearlong sabbatical and becoming romantically involved with Soffer, Alexander has returned to his work with a vision to push for a government identity card and health care for transgender people. While there are many other issues that need to be tackled, Alexander identified these two as being relatively less complicated and easier to work on, he said during a 45-minute discussion with the audience after viewing the hourlong film. One of the subjects in the movie flew to Canada to get the medical treatment that he needed for his transition.

Danny Buskirk

Elisha Alexander, left, and his partner, Avi Soffer, recently visited San Francisco and talked about the increased visibility of the transgender community in Israel.

Alexander wants to change the laws to eliminate confusion by changing the gender on IDs so that genderqueer individuals aren’t placed in an awkward position when applying for an apartment, a job or anything else that requires showing an ID. He also wants to make health care more accessible. While the Israeli government subsidizes hormones and some surgery, accessibility remains an issue for transgender individuals who don’t have money or a privileged background, said Alexander. As the transgender community continues to come out, Israel’s gay and lesbian community has been going through a learning curve that was often painful. Alexander and Soffer experienced difficulties themselves and that affected the larger community, they said. “We were the craziest enemies,” said Soffer as Alexander shook his head in agreement, smiling at Soffer. “I don’t think that I ever said worst things about anybody and vice versa. I learned a lesson. It is based on not knowing.” “Our personal story, we forced this community to come together,” he continued. “And they all come together. It’s funny.”

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Alexander agreed. “There’s a lot of lack of knowledge on both sides,” he said, adding there were presumptions on both sides that both communities continue to work on. Slowly the transgender community is gaining acceptance in the broader Israeli gay and lesbian community, both men said, but in order for transgender individuals to gain wide acceptance laws need to be changed. One of Alexander’s goals on the trip was to identify potential donors, as there isn’t an official transgender organization in Israel, he said. Establishing an official non-governmental organization would help him with his political work lobbying for transgender rights in Israel’s Knesset, the country’s parliament. Soffer, a 35-year veteran LGBT activist, added that it will also take educating politicians about transgender issues. “Without the change in politics it’s not going to happen,” said Soffer. “The politicians have to be involved.”t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.


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July 25, 2013 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter - Issuu