July 26, 2018 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 48 • No. 30 • July 26-August 1, 2018

Castro housing projects add to retail concerns Daine Grey

Student’s death sparks calls for change at City College by Alex Madison

he death of Daine Grey, a 22-year-old trans man and student at City College of San Francisco who died by suicide July 2, has sparked concern among some students about a transphobic and homophobic culture at the school. A GoFundMe account has also been set up – and has raised over $25,800 – for Grey’s funeral arrangements after his body reportedly went unclaimed by his estranged family for more than 10 days. According to an update on the site, Grey’s funeral will be held Thursday (July 26) in Oakland. A close friend of Grey’s, who goes by the name of Lady Katerina, set up the GoFundMe account for Grey and said he and other LGBT students at City College have faced bullying by other students. Lady Katerina, 36, is a lab technician at the Queer Resource Center at the college’s Ocean Campus where Grey was an active participant. The Queer Resource Center was a “home” to Grey, Lady Katerina said, and she feels its closing during the summer semester, something the college’s queer community has fought against for years, was upsetting to Grey. “Daine is the symptom of a broken system. The college failed him,” said Lady Katerina, who identifies as pansexual, intersex, and two spirit. “QRC was his safe space, his home, his life, where he was able to be himself. “When you’re trying to deal with life and then have an essential part of your everyday ripped from you, it’s very debilitating,” Lady Katerina added. Connie Chan, a spokeswoman for City College, confirmed that the resource center was closed for the 2018 summer semester, but could not confirm if it had been closed during previous summers or the reason for its closing. “The new administration is working closely with students to advocate for more resources,” Chan said. A July 17 Facebook post on the college’s page offered condolences regarding Grey’s death and also noted the resource center was open for a few hours a day from July 9-20 to offer counseling and other services to students. It is unclear what pronouns Grey preferred. See page 18 >>

Construction continues on housing at the intersection of Church, Market and 14th streets.

by Matthew S. Bajko

s developers prepare to break ground on several new housing developments along upper Market Street, the addition of more ground-floor retail spaces along the commercial corridor in the city’s gay Castro district is adding to neighborhood

concerns about how to attract new businesses to fill the storefronts. Due to a variety of factors, from changing demographics and consumer behavior to rising rents and costs to do business in San Francisco, there is a glut of vacant commercial spaces along Market Street between Octavia Boulevard and Castro Street. While more than

a dozen businesses this year have either moved in, expanded into, or announced plans to soon open in the area, other longtime retailers have shuttered their doors. Now three new developments will be adding additional retail space to the corridor in the See page 10 >>

Breed announces $1M for residential care homes

Rick Gerharter

by Alex Madison

ayor London Breed took a step toward keeping her campaign promise to decrease homelessness in San Francisco Monday, proposing $1 million in new budget investments for residential care facilities. The mayor made the announcement at Victorian Manor, an assisted living facility on McAllister Street, with newly elected gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Board of Supervisors President Malia Cohen, newly appointed District 5 Supervisor Vallie Brown, and lesbian Health Director Barbara Garcia. “To address homelessness we have to make sure we invest in preventing homelessness in the first place,” Breed said. “This additional funding is a down payment for our commitment to ensure these providers can care for and serve our community.” The proposed budget amendment will provide funding to 37 care facilities and keep over 350 people housed and cared for, Breed said. Over the next two years, $600,000 will be given to nine high-intensity care providers in the city, and an additional $400,000 will be allocated to increase operating support for 28 other basiclevel care providers. Residential care facilities provide long-term

Rick Gerharter

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, right, spoke at a news conference Monday where Mayor London Breed, left, announced $1 million over two years for residential care facilities. Standing next to Breed is new District 5 Supervisor Vallie Brown.

housing and support for residents in need of behavioral and medical services. The funding will specifically target facilities contracted by DPH, which serve people who have severe behavioral and medical health issues – the majority have a history of homelessness, according to a news release from the mayor’s office. The funding will provide a specific amount of money per bed, per care home to ensure

that each patient’s needs are properly met. The money will also, eventually, lead to an increase in wages for staff and employees of the care homes, Garcia said at the news conference. Breed said in San Francisco, and throughout California, these facilities are under financial strain by a lack of state and federal funding.

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

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See page 18 >>

What is BIKTARVY®? BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, oncea-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about BIKTARVY? BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects:  Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking BIKTARVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health. Who should not take BIKTARVY? Do not take BIKTARVY if you take:  dofetilide  rifampin  any other medicines to treat HIV-1 What are the other possible side effects of BIKTARVY? Serious side effects of BIKTARVY may also include:  Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.  Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.  Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.  Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomacharea pain. The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (5%), and headache (5%). Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away. What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking BIKTARVY?  All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection.  All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements. BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all of your other medicines.  If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.  If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the following page.

Get HIV support by downloading a free app at MyDailyCharge.com

KEEP LOVING.

Because HIV doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change who you are. BIKTARVY is a 1-pill, once-a-day complete HIV-1 treatment for adults who are either new to treatment or whose healthcare provider determines they can replace their current HIV-1 medicines with BIKTARVY.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

BIKTARVY.COM

IMPORTANT FACTS

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY® and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(bik-TAR-vee) MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY may cause serious side eﬀects, including:

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without ﬁrst talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains: • dofetilide • rifampin

• any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY Tell your healthcare provider all your medical conditions, including if you: • Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection. • Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

• Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. • Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY.

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY BIKTARVY can cause serious side eﬀects, including:

• Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section. • Changes in your immune system.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. • Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

• The most common side eﬀects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (5%), and headache (5%).

These are not all the possible side eﬀects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION • This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more. • Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5. • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP LOVING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: February 2018 © 2018 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0050 07/18

Community News >>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Berkeley will see new city council member as Worthington retires by Alex Madison

erkeley will say goodbye to its first openly gay city councilman after Kriss Worthington announced last week he would not run for re-election in November. Community members praised Worthington’s 22-year legacy, including his policies relating to education, affordable housing, the environment, diversity, economic development, and equality for the LGBT community. “Kriss Worthington was a trailblazer and a pioneer in so many of the LGBTQ community’s battles of the past few decades,” said Lester Aponte, president of the southern California Stonewall Democratic Club. “In fact, he was ahead of his time on the importance of marriage equality. He opened the door for the LGBTQ leaders of today, and his voice will be sorely missed. We wish him a long and joyful retirement.” With a pair of running shoes in one hand and a bejeweled baton in the other on the front steps of Berkeley City Hall July 19, Worthington, 64, broke the news of not seeking reelection by symbolically and literally handing the baton to Rigel Robinson,

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Berkeley City Council candidate Rigel Robinson, left, takes a symbolic baton from longtime City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who is not seeking re-election this year.

a 22-year-old straight ally, who is running for Worthington’s District 7 seat. “I give this baton to Rigel Robinson,” Worthington said. “I’m going to make a lot of friends really mad at me that I am not going to run, but I didn’t do this easily or lightly. I have tortured myself about this and what is best for the city of Berkeley and what is best for District 7.” When first elected in 1996, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in an online story about his announcement last

week, Worthington advocated for marriage equality, a topic then considered controversial, even for Berkeley, a predominantly liberal community. “One of the very first things I did, which sounds sort of funny today, was in 1996 when I first got elected. I proposed that Berkeley support marriage equality,” he told the B.A.R. “Berkeley became the first City Council in the nation to endorse marriage equality.” See page 18 >>

Breed names Ivy Lee to City College board

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ayor London Breed appointed her second female leader Friday when she announced Ivy Lee as the newest member of City College of San Francisco’s Board of Trustees. Lee, a former legislative aide to District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim and longtime civil rights attorney, will replace Rafael Mandelman, who left the board after being sworn in for the District 8 seat on the Board of Supervisors July 11. Breed swore in Lee July 20 in the courtyard of the Diego Rivera Theatre at City College’s Ocean Campus. “I couldn’t think of a better place to make this announcement than right here at City College,” Breed, the city’s first female African-American mayor, said. “People like Ivy and Supervisor Kim, who is here with us today, they made it possible for the next generation of San Franciscans to have access to free City College.” Breed was referring to Kim’s successful ballot measure in 2016 that allows San Francisco residents to attend City College tuition-free. The funding comes from a real estate transfer tax. As chief of staff of Kim’s legislative team since 2013, Lee, 46, helped draft the language for the Free City College program, which established San Francisco’s City College as the first free institution of higher learning in the U.S. Breed said Lee has pushed for equity programs and worked to bridge the gap between San Francisco’s communities of color during her time in politics as well as a civil rights attorney defending and advancing the rights of survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Lee formerly directed the Immigrant Rights & Human Trafficking Project at Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach in San Francisco. She was also a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “City College needs a fighter, someone who will take care of it for the long term,” Breed said. “I am excited and honored to make this appointment. I know she will look at things and decisions from an equity lens. I know she will make the hard decisions and stand her ground.” Kim took the podium, first

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Rick Gerharter

Ivy Lee, left, is sworn in by Mayor London Breed as the newest member of the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees July 20.

acknowledging the significance of Breed’s second female appointee, asserting that women need to be appointed not just in top positions but at every level. (Last week Breed named longtime Lower Haight activist Vallie Brown as the new District 5 supervisor.) Kim also touted Lee’s accomplishments in helping draft and lead efforts to pass the minimum wage ordinance in the city, which raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all part-time, full-time, and temporary employees. It became effective July 1. She was also instrumental in getting the supervisors to unanimously pass the Fair Chance Ordinance, which prohibits certain employers from asking about arrest or conviction records on job applications. “She answers to no one but the community,” Kim said. “Ivy, I have learned, will do whatever she wants even if I disagree, but I always 100 percent trusted it was because she believes it’s what is best for our community and city and she is often, if not always, right.” Lee began to cry when she told the story of her grandmother who taught her the importance of education. Lee said education is what allowed her to be where she is today. “Education and teachers, both in and out of school, have made all the difference in my world,” Lee said. She concluded her speech by thanking her three children, two of whom were in the audience, and her husband, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Victor Hwang. Mandelman, a gay man, was there

to support Lee’s appointment, a decision he called “great.” The newly elected District 8 supervisor said Lee is the right choice because she is familiar with the college, has strong support from the community, and is the reasonable, rational person the board needs. “City College has had some really rough times, and things have improved but it’s not out of the woods yet,” he told the Bay Area Reporter. “The college needs steady, responsible leadership, and she is that and she is passionate about the students City College serves.” Tom Temprano, a gay man and current City College trustee, said he was glad to see the board gain Asian Pacific Islander representation, something it has been lacking. “The board has had no API representation for the past several years at a college where over one-third of its students are API,” he said. Temprano said with the help of Lee, the board will focus on ensuring the Free City College program is rolled out effectively and that the college’s programs and class schedules reflect the needs and wants of the students. One student in the audience, Man Yu, 16, was touched by Lee’s speech, particularly the part about her grandmother riding the bus for three hours a day to attend an English as a second language course. Though Yu was not familiar with Lee, he said, “I think she’ll do a really good job.” Lee will not have to seek election until November 2019.t

<< Open Forum

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

Volume 48, Number 30 July 26-August 1, 2018 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Alex Madison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • Juanita MORE! David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor • Sari Staver Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson 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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Gilead must lower Truvada price N

ew studies presented at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam this week continue to confirm previous research: PrEP works extraordinarily well to prevent HIV, moreover, when taken as prescribed, it can be 99 percent effective. Truvada, a medication used for PrEP, is made by Foster City-based Gilead Sciences. While the company has a patient financial assistance program, the cost of a month’s supply of Truvada is about $1,500. As a result, at-risk populations in the U.S. – mostly people of color and trans women – who would benefit more from Truvada, can’t afford it. PrEP is an HIV prevention pill that was an impossible dream when the disease was killing thousands in the 1980s and 1990s. Now available since 2012, medical professionals and others wonder why more people aren’t using it. The answer is simple: it costs too damn much. We have published article after article about new PrEP ad campaigns created by and for communities of color, as well as panel discussions about increasing the number of people on PrEP. In every article, the high cost of the drug is mentioned as a barrier to access. A recent op-ed in the New York Times by James Krellenstein, Aaron Lord, and Peter Staley was blunt: “Gilead Sciences, the company that makes Truvada, maintains a monopoly on the drug domestically.

Gilead Sciences’ Truvada

In other countries, a one-month supply of generic Truvada costs less than $6, but Gilead charges Americans, on average, more than $1,600, a markup from the generic of 25,000 percent.” The authors pointed out what we’ve also reported: that PrEP usage is drastically lower among people of color and women. They also wrote that their organization, PrEP4All, will release a plan at this week’s AIDS conference for a national PrEP program to ensure that all Americans who need it can get it.

We support this plan, which calls for the federal government to break Gilead’s monopoly. Switching to generic Truvada would save the government billions of dollars and dramatically increase access. The problem is that federal departments in the Trump administration are unlikely to exert their statutory authority to reduce drug costs or put pressure on Gilead. President Donald Trump has railed against high drug prices in general, but hasn’t taken any action. Gilead itself should offer to lower Truvada’s price. While we understand and appreciate the need for pharmaceutical companies to recoup profits that they funnel into research and drug development, it must be balanced with other priorities like making medication available to those who need it most. Many localities, including San Francisco, have implemented “Getting to Zero” initiatives, which aim to reduce HIV infections to near zero in the next few years (San Francisco’s goal is 2020). Access to PrEP is key to ensure those plans are successful. This week, Gilead finally bowed to public pressure and increased its patient assistance from $4,800 to $7,200. While that’s a positive gesture, the company nevertheless should address the high cost of Truvada. We now have an effective way to prevent HIV. It’s time for Gilead, which counts itself as a friend to the LGBT community, to do more than air Truvada ads on hit TV shows like “Pose.” PrEP must be reasonably available to everyone at risk for contracting HIV if we are truly serious about getting to zero new infections.t

Polyamorous porn stars defy stereotypes by Bradford Wolfe and Alex Grey

here are a limitless number of characteristics that people typically associate with porn stars; these individuals are often presumed to be wild, promiscuous, money-hungry, and morally bankrupt, endorsing an industry rich in corruption and violence. However, looking beyond this outdated stereotype will show that these presumptions are just that; porn stars are all incredibly unique and often have fascinating, uplifting stories to tell. Meanwhile, the adult entertainment industry continues to grow and defy all expectations, becoming one of the highest earning online platforms whilst progressively working to improve its protocols and safety standards. Among the thousands of talented performers across the world, are us, Tatttwink and Son of the Sea, who are known to family and friends as Bradford Wolfe and Alex Grey, respectively. Interestingly, we share much more than just a profession; we are actually in a relationship, a polyamorous relationship to be exact, with a third partner, who asked that his last name not be published. Between filming scenes and interacting with our loyal fan bases, we live as part of a happy, committed trio. While we continue to live happily within our poly relationship, we also work in collaboration with Xtube, an internationally acclaimed LGBTQ adult entertainment site. Seemingly, we lead an incredibly busy and rich lifestyle. In our own words, we’ll discuss how we’re successfully following this polyamorous path to X-rated fame, building our own brands, living in harmony, and finally finding the family we’ve always wanted. “I met Bruce, my husband, six years ago after finding him on Plenty of Fish when I was 19,” said Wolfe. “Then, three years on, we decided that we wanted to open up our relationship; however, we didn’t just want to do this sexually, we also sought an emotional connection. We met Alex on Grindr and what started off as friendly sex and making videos together quickly progressed; me and Bruce went on holiday together while Alex babysat our dogs and he never left, he moved straight in. When you know, you know. Three years later, we’re still together and we’re happier than ever. “Sex is work for us, which is why an emotional connection means so much more,” Bradford added. “We looked for something more personal than an open relationship. Many wouldn’t think it but having a third party in our life and relationship has brought us so much and benefited us in ways we couldn’t have imagined, it truly helps our dynamic.” As the porn industry continues to be surrounded by negative stereotypes and

photo

Bradford Wolfe, aka Tatttwink, left, and Alex Grey, aka Son of the Sea.

presumptions, most would assume that being an adult entertainer while in a relationship brings with it a unique array of challenges, without there being three of you to consider. However, Wolfe said, “I show my partners everything I do in my porn business and they express everything they do, it’s incredibly important to have complete transparency. If you can’t be honest, the relationship won’t work. I have to be entirely comfortable and not ashamed of anything I do, like in any relationship, I need to know they support me 100 percent, which they do. I’ve definitely had boyfriends in the past who’ve struggled with the idea of ‘sharing me’ sexually with another person, so I’m always transparent around my partners.” For any married couple, the idea of adding an additional member to an already solidified relationship may seem a little daunting ... how would this work? Would someone feel a little ‘left-out’? Grey, 21, and most recent addition to this trio, suggested otherwise and emphasized that the process was actually very natural and entirely positive. “I looked at them as one unit, they left a lot up to me and always said that the ball was in my court. We wear similar obsidian black rings and they’ve done all they possibly can to make me feel like I’m an equal, which I do,” Grey said. “The pie is very much split three ways. We have considered other options, such as getting my name on insurance papers, but we’re very happy.” The two emphasized that their relationship is actually very similar to typical two-way relationships, with their advice simply being “give everyone enough attention and make sure you’re having a great time, it’s important to have fun!” As an inevitable consequence of their career choice, Wolfe and Grey face regular criticism and are often unfairly stereotyped as

overtly promiscuous. The two are passionate about speaking their truth and tackling this misconception. They said, “A majority of three-way relationships are in it for the companionship and sense of family. It’s the family aspect that appeals to us most. If you wanted to be promiscuous, you’d just have an open relationship. Poly is more about the emotional side of it.” This is something that Wolfe and Grey’s family recognize, as they remain entirely supportive of this three-way relationship and the pair’s controversial careers. Wolfe said, “My family and friends are supportive. I think most of them were more surprised to learn that you could make a living off selling yourself online than what I was actually doing. My family’s support throughout has definitely helped to keep me going long enough to be successful.” People undoubtedly misunderstand porn and what it means to be poly. Grey said, “I grew up living in rural Canada and in these towns LGBTQ sex education wasn’t really being discussed. I went on the internet, like many others, to get my answers. Luckily, the conversation is progressing and is no longer so taboo, which is incredibly important. LGBTQ kids deserve to have the information taught to them in a constructive learning environment.” In an effort to proactively improve LGBTQ sex education and campaign for the normalization of gay porn, Wolfe and Grey recently traveled to New York with Xtube for LGBT Pride, handing out condoms to the excited public and dancing on a float boasting a 12-foot penis canon. The two celebrated equality in all its glory. The third member of their trio is never left out; he joined the two in New York City and is extremely proud of their accomplishments. He does, however, wish to remain anonymous for he continues to work for the government. Evidently, no matter your preference or background, what is most important in any relationship is trust, respect and commitment. t Bradford Wolfe and Alex Grey are amateur porn stars for the internationally acclaimed adult entertainment site Xtube. The pair are also in a polyamorous relationship with a third male, working together while maintaining a happy and committed three-way relationship. Wolfe is a university graduate while Grey worked as a shopping cart packer before discovering camming (slang for webcamming), a journey which has led them to live in Winnipeg, Canada. Between filming, the trio spend time with their three dogs, one of which is a 130-pound Great Dane. Wolfe and Grey also love gaming and have big dreams for the future; they work continuously to build their personal brands, are always willing to try new things and remain thankful for their loyal fan bases.

Politics >>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Gay trans man seeks Santa Cruz County college board seat by Matthew S. Bajko

f Adam Spickler is victorious in his bid this November for a seat on the Cabrillo Community College Board of Trustees, he could become the first transgender man to be elected to public office in California. According to LGBT political leaders, there have been trans male candidates who sought elective office in the Golden State but none won their races. Last November saw the first transgender person elected to a nonjudicial post in the state when Lisa Middleton won a seat on the Palm Springs City Council. “I don’t see myself as being trans and queer identified as why I am running for a seat on the college board,” said Spickler, 47, who lives in Santa Cruz and works for the county human services department as a senior analyst focused on $10 million in contracts for child welfare, housing support, and employment services. “But it does inform who I am and the skills I have that will help make me a good leader for the college. Definitely, it will inform how I govern.” In San Francisco, Martin Rawlings-Fein is hoping to share the distinction of being one of the state’s first elected trans men with Spickler as he is seeking a seat on the city’s school board. He is one of four out candidates, including transgender female candidate Mia Satya, who have pulled papers to run for school board this fall. Spickler was a student at Cabrillo for eight years, prior to transitioning, and graduated in 2002 with an associate degree in early childhood education. The community college is based in Aptos and serves all of Santa Cruz County. A preschool teacher while in school, he landed a job after graduation as the child care center director at a local nonprofit preschool. He then went to work for gay former assemblyman John Laird, the first and only out person to serve on the Cabrillo college board, in his district office in Santa Cruz. When Laird, currently the California secretary for natural resources, won election to the state Senate, his successor, Bill Monning, retained Spickler on his staff. One of the areas Spickler focused on for the assemblyman was K-12 and higher education issues. In a 2003 interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Spickler spoke publicly for the first time about his transitioning while working for Monning. As the paper reported, he was one of two transgender legislative staffers to transition their gender identities after being hired. “It deepened my relationship with folks in leadership positions throughout the county,” Spickler told the B.A.R. this week about his coming out as a trans man in such a public manner. Saying it was “nothing but a wonderful experience,” Spickler added it also broadened his relationships with business and religious leaders, an outcome he didn’t expect. “Folks I wouldn’t stereotype that they would be comfortable working with somebody who is trans,” said Spickler, whose husband, Scottie Johnson, is also a trans man and works as a medical assistant for the transgender health care program offered by Planned Parenthood in Santa Cruz. Seven years ago, Spickler attended a candidate training held by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which helps to

Courtesy Adam Spickler

Adam Spickler

elect LGBT people to public office. At the time he was interested in running for the college board but was unsure if he would. He has been waiting for the holder of the board’s Area II seat, Gary Reece, to retire. A Republican, Reece was first appointed to the seat 25 years ago and has never been opposed. In the spring Spickler informed Reece that he would run for his seat no matter if he sought re-election or not. Reece, so far, has yet to decide if he will run, though Spickler expects he will. “I don’t expect him to truly decide until August,” said Spickler. The filing deadline is early next month and Spickler is the only one who has pulled papers to date. He kicked off his campaign in June and is hopeful to secure early endorsements this week from Equality California, the statewide LGBT advocacy group, and BAYMEC, the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, which works to elect LGBT candidates in several South Bay counties. He has raised close to $8,000 so far and wants to reach $18,000 in order to fully fund his campaign. Having been a marginalized student at Cabrillo, not only for being queer but also due to being poor – he, at one point, was homeless – Spickler said he wants to be a voice for the college’s current students who are struggling with the same issues. “I feel it is really important for me to give back,” said Spickler. “I wanted to do so in a way that provides equal access to education to other marginalized students who are trying to access this college.” To learn more about Spickler and his platform, visit his campaign website at http://adamspickler.org/.

Breed names gay men to mayoral staff

Among the new hires San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced this week to her mayoral staff are three well-known gay men. Serving as her policy director is Andres Power, who served as an aide to gay former District 8 supervisor Scott Wiener, now a state senator. When Power and his husband, Rod Hipskind, had a child, their experience trying to take time off led Wiener to introduce a new parental leave law for the city that granted more benefits to parents. He also previously served as a senior adviser to both former mayors Mark Farrell and the late Ed Lee. And prior to joining Wiener’s staff in 2012, Power worked for the city’s planning department. Serving as Breed’s liaison to boards and commissions is Mawuli Tugbenyoh, a position in which he served in two previous mayoral administrations. A former deputy director at a housing nonprofit for mentally ill adults, he started his work in local government in 2012 as a legislative aide to District 10

Supervisor Malia Cohen, the current president of the board. And Alex Lazar left his position as a longtime aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to be Breed’s director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services. On the community advisory board at Strut, the men’s health center in the Castro, Lazar also serves on the board of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, as does Tugbenyoh. Another Alice board member, Selina Sun, has been hired as Breed’s director of scheduling. In August, Jeff Cretan will leave his job as Wiener’s communications director to become Breed’s chief spokesperson. Serving as Breed’s senior adviser is Marjan Philhour and as her deputy chief of staff is Andrea Bruss, a lawyer and former legislative aide to the mayor when she served as the District 5 supervisor and board president. Acting budget director Kelly Kirkpatrick has been given the position permanently; Kanishka K. Cheng was hired as the mayor’s liaison to the Board of Supervisors; and Judy Lee was named deputy director of the neighborhood services office as well as Breed’s lead on Asian-Pacific Islander affairs. Last month, Breed announced that former supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who currently serves as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-California) state director, will return to City Hall as her chief of staff in November.

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Gay man joins San Diego court

Last Friday, Governor Jerry Brown appointed a gay attorney to the San Diego County Superior Court. Loren G. Freestone, 47, is one of a number of out judicial appointees the governor’s office has announced in recent weeks. Freestone, a Democrat who lives in San Diego, is a partner at Higgs, Fletcher and Mack LLP. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge David J. Danielsen and will earn $200,042 as a jurist. In congratulating Freestone on his appointment, the Tom Homann LGBT Law Association noted that he has been a longtime member, and former board member, of the San Diego LGBT legal group. He is also the immediate past president of the San Diego County Bar Association. Since June Brown has named at least five LGBT judges to superior courts around the state. The first, lesbian Oakland resident Jenna M. Whitman, joined the Alameda County Superior Court bench earlier this month. In August, lesbian attorney Barbara Phelan is expected to take her oath of office to become the first known LGBT judge on the Sonoma County Superior Court. And gay lawyers Gary Roberts and William A. Crowfoot were appointed last month to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The appointments bring the number of LGBT jurists serving on the state’s appellate and trial courts to at least 61.

Correction

Last week’s column incorrectly listed when Richard Winger, a gay man who ran for secretary of state of California in 1986, and his husband, Jarrold Kunz, married. It was in 2008. The online version of the column has been corrected. t

Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, will return Monday, July 30.

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<< AIDS 2018

t Activists want next AIDS confab out of Bay Area 8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

by Liz Highleyman

people, sex workers, migrants, and people who use drugs continue to face stigma – and in some countries, criminalization –that keeps them from accessing HIV prevention tools and effective treatment. And, too often, HIV policies are made without their participation. Activists kicked off the conference with a march from central Amsterdam to the RAI convention center, highlighting factors working against the achievement of zero new HIV infections, zero barriers to treatment, zero discrimination, and zero stigma against people living with HIV.

ctivists kicked off this week’s 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam with calls to move the next confab out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Protesters from the Bay Area and worldwide cited several concerns as the reason behind their demand that the International AIDS Society pull the conference, scheduled for July 2020, out of San Francisco and Oakland. President Donald Trump’s recent policy barring people from several mostly Muslim-majority countries, visa and immigration exclusion of prostitutes and “drug abusers or addicts,” and racist violence create a “hostile environment” in the United States, according to a statement from HIVPowerShift, a new alliance of people living with HIV and members of targeted populations. Coalition member Cecilia Chung of the Oakland-based Transgender Law Center emphasized that IAS and city and state officials cannot guarantee the safety of conference attendees. Others also weighed in. “The hostile political context in the U.S. will make it nearly impossible for sex workers, people who use drugs; people from Muslim countries; and anyone with a criminal record, including LGBT people and human rights defenders, to enter the country and feel safe to participate in the conference,” said George Ayala, executive director of Oakland-based MPACT Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights. Ayala also predicted that the conference would create a “huge resource drain” for communitybased organizations, and that

Liz Highleyman

PrEP and U=U

George Ayala, executive director of Oakland-based MPACT Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights, leads a protest in Amsterdam calling for the 2020 International AIDS Conference to be moved out of the San Francisco Bay Area.

disparities between San Francisco and Oakland would be “glossed over.” Asked about the location controversy at the conference’s opening news conference, IAS president and AIDS 2018 Co-Chair Linda-Gail Bekker said, “That is the choice that has been made in a democratically motivated way. We have heard the voice of the community and are working very closely with that community.” She added that holding the conference jointly in San Francisco and Oakland will provide “an opportunity to highlight inequities even in a first-world developed setting.” Moving the conference due to opposition to the host country’s policies would not be unprecedented. The 1992 conference was moved from Boston to Amsterdam at the last minute due to a policy prohibiting HIV-positive people from entering the U.S. A

condomless anal sex for 420 years to see one transmission, and this is a worse-case scenario,” Rodger told reporters. “The risk is effectively zero.” These findings confirm the “undetectable equals untransmittable” message that was visible everywhere at the conference. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci offered further support at a pre-conference meeting, stating, “The body of scientific evidence to date has established that there is effectively no risk of sexual transmission of HIV when the partner living with HIV has a durably undetectable viral load.” In other prevention news, French researchers presented additional data about “on-demand” PrEP from a study called Prevenir. Although once-daily Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) is the only PrEP regimen approved in the United States, the French Ipergay study showed that episodic PrEP taken before and after sex is also highly effective for men who have sex with men. In the Prevenir study, participants were given the option of taking PrEP daily or on demand; 54 percent opted for the latter. In an interim analysis of 1,628 mostly gay and bi men enrolled through July, there were no new HIV infections among those taking either regimen. Lead researcher JeanMichel Molina told reporters that PrEP use in the study has already prevented an estimated 85 new infections. Another study showed that PrEP use does not reduce levels of feminizing hormones, a concern that keeps some transgender women

large coalition of community organizations have said they plan to hold an alternative global gathering outside the United States if the venue is not changed.

Conference kicks off

The conference opened with familiar news: despite remarkable gains in HIV treatment and prevention, barriers continue to stand in the way of universal access, researchers, advocates, and policymakers said. While new infections have fallen dramatically in most of the world, stubborn pockets of stable, or even rising incidence, remain, notably in Central and Eastern Europe. Global AIDS funding has stagnated as large donors pull back and seek to transfer responsibility to affected countries. Key populations impacted by the epidemic, including gay and bisexual men, adolescent girls and young women, transgender

AIDS 2018 offered further evidence that PrEP and antiretroviral treatment can nearly eliminate the risk of HIV infection. Alison Rodger from University College London presented findings from PARTNER2, a study of treatment as prevention that included nearly 1,000 mixed-status gay male couples in which the HIV-positive partner was on effective antiretroviral therapy with viral load below 200 copies. Over the course of the study, participants cumulatively had condomless anal sex about 77,000 times – a median of 43 times per couple – with zero reported cases of HIV transmission between steady partners. This research was a follow-up to the original PARTNER study, which also saw no transmission within either gay male or heterosexual couples. (In both studies, a small number of people became infected after having sex with an outside partner, according to genetic matching of virus strains.) If a partner has an undetectable viral load, “you’d have to have

See page 18 >>

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July 26-August 1, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Sheehy gets waiver to look for new job by Cynthia Laird

Saving space beautifully!

ay former District 8 supervisor Jeff Sheehy received a waiver from the San Francisco Ethics Commission last week so that he can look for new employment within the University of California system. Sheehy sought the waiver because, as a member of the Board of Supervisors, he voted on three contracts that involved UC as a party. Two of those were approved for legal settlements; the third was an approval of a UC grant to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. He is now seeking employment with UC, where he worked before becoming a supervisor. At a hearing Friday, July 20, ethics commissioners did not have a problem with granting the waiver and did so on a 5-0 vote. Commissioner Paul Renne noted that none of the contracts benefitted UC or the city. (The DPH grant was to fund certain health care services and research, and the total amount was $144,996.) Prior to being appointed to the board by the late mayor Ed Lee, Sheehy had worked in communications at UCSF. In a letter to the commission, he said that finding suitable employment was critical for him and his family, especially regarding health benefits. “The loss of health insurance is particularly concerning because I am HIV-positive,” Sheehy wrote in his letter. He said that meant he needed to

that he sought the waiver “out of an abundance of caution.” Under section 3.234(a)(3) of the Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code, no individuals shall “be employed by or otherwise receive compensation from a person or entity that entered into Call Now to a contract with the city within the Make an Appointment preceding 12 months where the with a Wallbed Expert! officer or employee personally and substantially participated in the award of the contract.” 2 Convenient Locations Sheehy also told the commis550 15th Street sioners that there is still stigma Suite #2 around HIV, which could limit his San Francisco employment opportunities. 415-854-7748 “I am a 61-year-old person living with HIV,” he said. “Stigma 2515 S. El Camino Real still exists, and I think it provides San Mateo real obstacles with private sector 650-264-9541 employers. Newly Designed Location “I am trying to do the right thing,” he added. Accessories and More From Commissioner Quentin Kopp asked if Sheehy has a job offer. “I have yet to interview,” Sheehy Largest Selection of Murphy Wallbeds In Town! SFMurphyBeds.com said, for a position. He stopped looking at other possibilities within UC due to the waiver issue. Wallbeds_053118.indd 1 5/30/18 10:46 AM Charlie Marsteller told the commission that UC would be sensitive to any issues. “I myself worked in this field for 20 years. I think we can count on the UC bureaucracy to keep a good hold on the system,” he said, adding his thanks to Sheehy for his service to the city. Sheehy told the Bay Area Reporter that he could not comment further. “I’m in the job process,” he said.t

Rick Gerharter

Former supervisor Jeff Sheehy

seek employment from large employers who offer generous benefits. He also pointed out that he has 17 years of prior service with UC and would be entitled to full health care coverage for him and his spouse if he accrues three additional years of service. His husband, Bill Berry, he wrote, is a real estate transaction coordinator and is an independent contractor. “As such, he does not receive benefits in connection with his work,” Sheehy wrote. “We have a teenage daughter. All three of us have relied on my salary as our primary source of income, and relied on the health insurance provided through my employers as our exclusive source of health insurance.” Sheehy told the commissioners

Rosie rally set for Richmond compiled by Cynthia Laird

sea of red and white polka dot bandanas is expected to flood the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond next month when thousands of people dressed as the iconic Rosie the Riveter will celebrate the spirit of the women who rallied to support the home front effort during World War II. The Rosie Rally Home Front Festival takes place Saturday, August 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 1414 Harbour Way South. The event is organized by the Rosie the Riveter Trust and the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park. The festival will feature World War II era and park-themed activities, including the East Bay Regional Park District’s mobile fish tank and nature van. Interactive Rosie-style building projects, ranger programs, and activities for children will also be offered. There will not be an attempt to set a Guinness record this year. Instead, there will be several contests. From 11 to 1, there will be a costume contest with prizes for winners in several categories, including: best authentic 1940s period costume, best traditional Rosie costume, best non-Rosie home front worker, best parent and child costume, and most creative interpretation of home front history. The audience will award a grand prize overall. Entertainment, organized by the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, will include a big band, Texas swing, hip-hop, a Mexican trio, and 1940s-era music.

Jane Philomen Cleland

People dressed up for last year’s Rosie the Riveter contest in Richmond.

“We’re rallying to show how women made a difference during one of the greatest challenges in our nation’s history,” Marsha Mather-Thrift, executive director of the trust, said in a statement. “Women across the nation, and here in Richmond, took on work that prior to this pivotal moment had mostly been the exclusive realm of men.” Organizers said that those dressed in costume will also benefit from special discounts throughout Richmond on the day of the event, including admission to the Columbia Sportswear employee store at Mountain Hardware, where a portion of sales from the day will be donated to the trust. A variety of restaurants, breweries, a winery, coffee shops, and other local businesses in nearby Point Richmond and beyond will be offering free or discounted items or services to rally participants

dressed in any costume or identified by a wristband picked up at the event. There is no cost to attend the festival. For more information, visit http:// www.rosietheriveter.org/events/ rosie-rally.

Chamber concert at LGBT center

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center will host a free community chamber concert in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony Monday, July 30, at 1800 Market Street. A short question and answer session will follow the string quartet performance. There is no cost to attend, but space is limited. Advance registration is strongly encouraged and can be done at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ sf-symphony-at-the-sf-lgbt-centertickets-48223281132. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., the concert begins at 7. See page 18 >>

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<< Community News

t South Bay lesbians charged in stabbing incident 10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

by Heather Cassell

lesbian couple has been charged with felony assault following an incident in which the women allegedly stabbed three men in an early morning brawl outside of a Morgan Hill bar earlier this month. The couple, Tori Sanchez, 22, and Alexandria Campos, 23, were arrested after allegedly stabbing three unidentified men in a back alley near Monterey Road and Third Street in Morgan Hill. Police responded to the incident at about 2:15 a.m. July 7, reported the Morgan Hill Times. The women were arraigned at South County Morgan Hill Courthouse July 11. Sanchez, of Freedom, and Campos, of Morgan Hill, were charged with three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon with two enhancements of great bodily injury during their arraignment, said Benjamin Rada of the public affairs office at the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender Micael Estremera argued that this was the first time the two women have been in trouble with the law. He argued for Campos and Sanchez to be released from custody under supervision while awaiting further court proceedings. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Phong Banh disagreed. He argued setting the two women’s bail at $175,000 each “based on the vicious nature of the attacks,” reported the Times. Judge Edward Lee agreed and set the bail for the requested amount. Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Redding, who is now representing Campos, told the Bay Area Reporter that she hopes to have new information to present

Courtesy Morgan Hill Times

Alexandria Campos, left, and Tori Sanchez, left, right.

to the court August 13 when she requests that Campos be released on supervised order, on her own recognizance, or at a reduced bail. “I think that she should be released on supervised order of release or on her own recognizance,” said Redding who has filed a motion to review the bail. “The family can’t afford it,” she said. “I don’t believe that this current bail is something that Miss Campos can afford.” Defense attorney Al Lopez, who is now representing Sanchez, didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time. Deputy District Attorney Tim McInerny wasn’t available for comment.

Self-defense claim

Campos and Sanchez are claiming self-defense after the men continuously hit on them even after informing them that they were a “romantic couple” and asked to be left alone. The men allegedly followed them from one bar to another, according to media reports. The women were hanging out

at the Hill Bar and Grill in downtown Morgan Hill when the three men – one of whom Sanchez knew from high school – were “harassing ... touching, groping, and flirting” with them, she told police in the incident report, reported the Times. Campos and Sanchez moved onto another bar, M&H Tavern, across the street from the Hill. The unidentified men followed them and “continued to harass them,” Sanchez told the police. The men told police they were friends and had been drinking all night at bars from San Jose to Morgan Hill. Both parties stayed at the bar until it closed and then walked out to the back alley, where things turned violent. “I was terrified [for] my life,” Sanchez said, according to the police reports, the paper reported. Sanchez, who is a private security guard, informed the police that the knife belonged to her. She told them that she often carries a knife in her back pocket, but had not intended to use it that night.

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coming years. Having won approval from planning officials two years ago for its project at 2240 Market Street, the former Sullivan’s Funeral Home site, the Prado Group Inc. expects to soon start construction. It will repurpose the existing building and adjacent parking lot to create 45 condos for sale above several ground-floor retail spaces. “Currently, this project is scheduled to break ground later this summer or

Rick Gerharter

This building at Market and Duboce and the adjoining parking lot are slated for a housing project.

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and operations, recently told the Bay Area Reporter in response to questions

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Neither party was clear about their accounts of how the knife became used in the fight or how it got bloody. Sanchez told police that one of the men grabbed the blade from her pocket and opened it. A struggle for the knife ensued. When the knife fell to the ground it was covered in blood. Sanchez picked up the knife and walked away with Campos. One of the victims told the police that while the group was hanging out behind the tavern the “conversation started to deteriorate,” but he didn’t know why. The situation led to a physical confrontation and the stabbing, according to police reports. The men claim that they didn’t have any problems with the women earlier in the evening.

Sorting out the details

Morgan Hill police Sergeant Troy Hoefling doesn’t quite believe the women’s claim of selfdefense, but he’s leaving it for the courts to decide. “That’s a matter for the court as what her defense might be. But it didn’t appear that way from the evidence we have at this point,” Hoefling told KSBW8. Witnesses reported seeing the women chasing the men and making stabbing motions, but none of them reported seeing a knife, reported the Times. The victims and suspects scattered southbound on Monterey Road following the fight, witnesses told police. Police followed trails of blood after being called to the scene to find the victims with their clothes soaked in blood. Their injuries ranged in severity from a cut to one victim’s lower back and forearm to two victims sustaining serious injuries to their groin area and abdomen, respectively.

about the status of the project. Another condo development, featuring 96 units, 14 of which will be below-market-rate, is slated for 1965 Market Street and 255-291 Duboce Avenue, currently the site of a surface parking lot and a commercial building with several tenants, one of which is a FedEx Office Print and Ship Center. It won approval from planning officials earlier this year. The plans call for retaining the approximately 3,760 square feet of existing ground floor retail. The developer, David Prowler, of

The victim with the groin area injury was found with his intestines hanging out. The second victim was stabbed in the abdomen and had blood filling his lungs by the time he made it to the hospital, the newspaper reported, citing the police report. All three men were rushed to San Jose Regional Hospital where they were treated. Two of the men were released July 16, reported the Times. It’s unclear if the third victim was released. All three victims are expected to survive. Police later found Campos and Sanchez near Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue. Both women had blood on their hands and clothes. Sanchez had the bloody knife wrapped in a latex glove in her pocket, the newspaper reported, citing the report. The man who knew Sanchez from high school identified Campos to police as the woman who stabbed him. Campos admitted to police she stabbed one of the men, but only after he stabbed her in the chest. However, Campos didn’t exhibit any wounds beyond a cut on her hand, which she told police was a result of one of the men stabbing her, the newspaper reported, quoting the report. The police report described Campos’ cut as “selfinflicted” in the process of stabbing another person, reported the Times. She was treated at a nearby hospital. The suspects’ friends and family members are standing by them. More than a dozen of them attended the July 11 arraignment and believe the women were acting in self-defense, reported the newspaper. The women are expected back in court to enter their pleas August 17. t

Keller Grover Properties, LLC, told the B.A.R. this month that, at this point, there is “nothing to report on groundbreaking, but it is moving ahead.” A third project, at the corner of Church and Market streets, is currently under construction at the intersection of Market, Church, and 14th streets. It topped out several weeks ago and is slated to welcome residents in early 2019. There will be 60 rental units in the building, at 2100 Market Street, with See page 19 >>

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*Offer applies only to single-receipt qualifying purchases. Ashley HomeStore does not require a down payment, however, sales tax and delivery charges are due at time of purchase if the purchase is made with your Ashley Advantage™ Credit Card. No interest will be charged on promo purchase and equal monthly payments are required equal to initial promo purchase amount divided equally by the number of months in promo period until promo is paid in full. The equal monthly payment will be rounded to the next highest whole dollar and may be higher than the minimum payment that would be required if the purchase was a non-promotional purchase. Regular account terms apply to non-promotional purchases. For new accounts: Purchase APR is 29.99%; Minimum Interest Charge is $2. Existing cardholders should see their credit card agreement for their applicable terms. Promotional purchases of merchandise will be charged to account when merchandise is delivered. Subject to credit approval. ‡Monthly payment shown is equal to the purchase price, excluding taxes and delivery, divided by the number of months in the promo period, rounded to the next highest whole dollar, and only applies to the selected financing option shown. If you make your payments by the due date each month, the monthly payment shown should allow you to pay off this purchase within the promo period if this balance is the only balance on your account during the promo period. If you have other balances on your account, this monthly payment will be added to the minimum payment applicable to those balances. ††Ashley HomeStore does not require a down payment, however, sales tax and delivery charges are due at time of purchase if the purchase is made with your Ashley Advantage™ Credit Card. Offer applies only to single-receipt qualifying purchases. No interest will be charged on the promo purchase if you pay the promo purchase amount in full within 24 Months. If you do not, interest will be charged on the promo purchase from the purchase date. Depending on purchase amount, promotion length and payment allocation, the required minimum monthly payments may or may not pay off purchase by end of promotional period. Regular account terms apply to non-promotional purchases and, after promotion ends, to promotional balance. For new accounts: Purchase APR is 29.99%; Minimum Interest Charge is $2. Existing cardholders should see their credit card agreement for their applicable terms. Promotional purchases of merchandise will be charged to account when merchandise is delivered. Subject to credit approval. ‡‡Previous purchases excluded. Cannot be combined with any other promotion or discount. Discount offers exclude Tempur-Pedic®, Stearns & Foster® and Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid™ mattress sets, floor models, clearance items, sales tax, furniture protection plans, warranty, delivery fee, Manager’s Special pricing, Advertised Special pricing, and 14 Piece Packages and cannot be combined with financing specials. Effective 1/1/2018, all mattress and box springs are subject to a $10.50 per unit CA recycling fee. SEE STORE FOR DETAILS. Stoneledge Furniture LLC. many times has multiple offers, promotions, discounts and financing specials occurring at the same time; these are allowed to only be used either/or and not both or combined with each other. Although every precaution is taken, errors in price and/or specification may occur in print. We reserve the right to correct any such errors. Picture may not represent item exactly as shown, advertised items may not be on display at all locations. Some restrictions may apply. Available only at participating locations. ±Leather Match upholstery features top-grain leather in the seating areas and skillfully matched vinyl everywhere else. Ashley HomeStores are independently owned and operated. ©2018 Ashley HomeStores, Ltd. Promotional Start Date: July 24, 2018. Expires: August 6, 2018.

<< Travel

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

Southern France has charm, art, and great food by Charlie Wagner

ou can visit walkable cities, stroll sandy beaches, and enjoy magnificent meals in southern France, in summer, without the crowds, as my husband and I discovered on a recent trip to Toulouse, Montpellier, and Marseille.

Toulouse

Toulouse is a lively, affluent city of about 500,000, nicknamed the “Pink City” due to the predominance of buildings in red brick. Violet is another emblematic color, and Toulouse violet products are everywhere. Our base was Citadines Wilson, a comfortable and centrally located “apartment hotel.” There’s a front desk staffed 24 hours a day, quiet air conditioning, and a coin laundry off the lobby. Nearby was a vending machine for baguettes, restocked daily. Welcome to France! Toulouse’s old town is pleasant and nearly car-free. We joined the crowd on Place de la Daurade on the banks of the Garonne to watch sunsets. For an evening stroll, locals recommended Place Sainte-George, where Emile Restaurant serves cassoulet, a Languedoc dish. Large and lively Place du Capitole makes a great starting point; its excellent tourist office provides maps and guidance. Marche Victor Hugo is the best of Toulouse’s many covered markets, with a huge selection of produce, fish, and meats. The second floor has inexpensive restaurants, including Le Louchebem (butcher). We enjoyed a delicious lunch with, not surprisingly, generous portions of meat. Throughout the trip, almost every restaurant offered prix fixe choices and was “servis compris,” meaning tip included. One officially had Michelin’s “Bib Gourmand” rating, signifying “exceptionally good food at moderate prices,” but that describes most restaurants we visited. Le Bibent, at 5 Place du Capitole, whose elegant Belle Époque interior had an elaborate painted ceiling and gilded columns, was our favorite in Toulouse. Our luscious dessert was a Vanilla Millefeuille: delicate layers of puff pastry with salty butter caramel sauce drizzled on top. Nearby cavernous Couvent (convent) des Jacobins, built in 1229, has

a ribbed vault imitating a palm tree. On the other side of Capitole, Cathedrale Sainte-Etienne has the bestsounding organ in Toulouse. “Hotels particuliers” are luxurious private mansions built by wealthy merchants starting in the 1400s. The best example is the Hotel d’Assezat, built in 1555, which now houses the Fondation Bemberg museum. The art ranges from the Middle Ages to the 20th century; lunch on a covered porch facing the courtyard featured a delectable duck confit. Larger and full of medieval sculpture is Musee des Augustins, housed in a converted Augustine monastery built mostly in the 14th and 15th centuries and abruptly repurposed after the French Revolution. The former cloister shelters a dozen alarmingly fierce gargoyles; the former church presents organ concerts. One easy walk crosses Pont Neuf, continues on the Toulousian equivalent of Manhattan’s High Line Park, and returns via Pont Sainte-Pierre. Continue on the Passerelle Viguerie, a steel walkway suspended over the Garonne, past the Hopital (hospital) de la Grave to Toulouse’s largest museum, Les Abattoirs. Built as a slaughterhouse in 1831 and converted in 2000, this immense contemporary art museum displays a massive theater backdrop painted by Picasso in 1936 and has a great cafe. An antiques street market happens monthly in Allees Francois Verdier. We found some great souvenirs among the dishes, flatware, linens, prints, maps, and hardware. Entertainment options are numerous. We visited during the annual “Flash Bach,” a mostly-free three-day festival featuring Bach’s music in venues all over the city. The Ensemble La Fenice performed on baroque instruments in 17th century Chapelle des Carmelites, as we admired the gorgeous paintings all around us. Toulouse has a Pride march every June with related events starting in May (http://www.pridetoulouse. com). LGBTQ-popular Shanghai Express offers drinks and dancing at 12 Rue de la Pomme. Le Bear is a bear bar at 44 Boulevard de la Gare near the train station; theme nights start as early as 7 p.m. Toulouse is great for day trips; Albi and Carcassonne are especially popular.

Charlie Wagner

A statue of a bullfighter stands outside an old Roman arena in Nimes, France.

Charlie Wagner

The Chateau d’Eau fountain at the Palais de Longchamp opened in 1869.

We took a 45-minute train to Albi, birthplace of Henri de ToulouseLautrec, and toured Musee Toulouse-Lautrec and the Romanesque Sainte-Cecile church. The museum displayed fascinating photos of Toulouse-Lautrec with his friends, including the artist in drag. A video explains the transformation of the palace-museum over the centuries. Outside were beautiful, formal gardens overlooking the Tarn River. Fans of Hieronymus Bosch will enjoy the Sainte-Cecile’s fresco showing the Seven Deadly Sins; people heading to judgment carry sin report cards. The audio guide revealed that “sloth disappeared in the 17th century.” Tromp l’oeil paintings resembling Op Art cover many walls. Nearby Le Clos Sainte-Cecile served us an exquisite lunch on a lovely, tree-shaded outdoor terrace.

Montpellier

Montpellier’s 300,000 population is about one-third students. There’s a non-stop cafe scene and many inexpensive European, Asian, and Mexican restaurants. It’s France’s fastest-growing city with a car-free old town, an interesting mix of classical and avant-garde architecture, and beaches reachable by public transit. At the center is the huge Place de la Comedie, a pedestrian-only plaza connecting old and new districts. Most trams stop there, and it contains the tourist office, whose map has detailed directions to beaches. Street performers entertain day and night. The city is full of small, peaceful squares, many created when churches were destroyed during religious conflict. One rebuilt church is dedicated to local favorite Sainte-Roch. A cholera epidemic in the 1800s caused a renewal of religious fervor and inspired its reconstruction. Adjacent to Comedie is the largest art museum in Montpellier, Musee Fabre, showing European art from the 15th to 21st century. Tickets include admission to nearby Hotel de Cabrieres-Sabatier, a mansion built by a wealthy family in the 1800s, restored in 2001 as a decorative arts museum. Montpellier has two distinctive newer districts. The Antigone district is much-touted in guidebooks, but the neo-classical buildings felt bland and impersonal. More fun to visit was Port Marianne, a growing condo and office district adjacent to the Jean Nouvel-designed City Hall. Almost no two buildings are alike and all are under 10 stories, so the scale feels human. There’s an unmistakable sense of whimsy and one building is even labeled “Le Nuage” (cloud). For a splurge, we chose the Michelin-starred La Reserve Rimbaud overlooking the River Lez, and ordered the “surprise” menu. One course was lobster pieces with small avocado balls, grapefruit pieces, and a “radish tower” with thin-sliced radishes combined with a lobster salad, accompanied by tiny smoked eels. Magnifique. For live music, take the tram to Jazz Action Montpellier to enjoy its nocover Thursday evening. We mingled with the friendly hipster crowd and enjoyed good wine for 3 euros. Our favorite beach was Les Maguelone, reachable by tram, bus, and a short walk. In summer, you can take Bus 32 to the Velomagg Plage stop, present your bus ticket and ID, and borrow a free bike for the day. We crossed a tiny pontoon bridge over an etang (saltwater lagoon) to a tiny island. After exploring the 12th century Romanesque church, we savored a lunch next door.

Charlie Wagner

The Garden of Musee Toulouse-Latrec overlooks River Tarn in Albi, France.

Biking for about 10 minutes, we passed a beach club renting lounges and umbrellas and a long clothingoptional beach. The gay beach is another one-third mile. The sand was soft and golden, the water was warm and the depth increased gradually. Non-bikers can take Le Petit Train de Palavas from Palavas-les-Flots. Another day we took Bus 106 to La Grande Motte for some wacky, pyramidal architecture and another swim. The gay beach is behind Gate #70. To see the best-preserved Roman arena in the world, we ventured to Nimes. The arena held up to 24,000 people originally but is now set up for modern concerts; Sting performed a week later. Bullfights are held several times a year and Ernest Hemingway spent time there. A beefcake-filled “Spartacus show” happens in April. Another impressive Roman artifact is La Maison Caree, a Roman temple dedicated in 4 AD but used continually over the centuries; an engaging film is shown inside. With a car, you can visit and walk over or swim under the Roman aqueduct Pont du Gard. Montpellier’s LGBTQ organization was created in 1995 and celebrates gay Pride every July (www. montpelliergay.com). The Gay and Lesbian Pride Office at 21 Boulevard Pasteur is the best source for information on LGBTQ venues. The office’s staff recommended several options for visitors. One was LGBTQ-popular “Le 5 by La Voile” at 5 Place Jean Jaures, serving light meals from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. The staff also suggested Le Coxx bar at 5 Rue Jules Latreilhe.

Marseille

Marseille is a popular cruise ship port and changed dramatically when it became the European capital of culture in 2013. The grittiness is gone. With nearly a million residents, Marseille feels multicultural, and is a great base for day trips in eastern Province. The Myth of Marseille claims it was founded by the matriarchal Ligurians looking for a new port for trade, not for conquest. Our well-equipped VRBO apartment in the Vieux (old) Port had insulated windows, quiet air conditioning, and was very convenient. Cours d’Estienne d’Orves, the largest pedestrianized space in Marseille, was a block away and full of restaurants. Classy restaurant and bookstore Les Arcenaulx is outstanding. Across the port and opened in 2013, Musee des Civilizations d’Europe et de la Mediterranee (MuCEM) was our first stop. Entry is via restored medieval Fort SainteJean, built in 1660. The fort is connected by a dramatic roof-level footbridge to a strikingly modern building screened by a concrete lattice, which presents multiple exhibits. “OR” (gold) was the largest exhibit, showing how the precious

mineral was viewed and extracted from antiquity to the present. MuCEM has many restaurants. At the high end was La Table, with a prix fixe lunch starting with a salad of thin-sliced octopus, black radishes and micro greens in light olive oil and lemon juice. La Cuisine buffet at half the price had dishes just as elaborate. For a more low-key afternoon, we visited Musee Cantini, housed in a former private home and with a good collection of Surrealist and Impressionist artists. Labels had two audio guide numbers: one played a song complementing the paintings. The waterfront has a few beach clubs, but the Parc National des Calanques has cleaner water. Calanques are fjord-like rocky inlets cut into limestone cliffs, accessible only by sea or on foot. We took a “petit circuit” boat tour to see three calanques, including the gay-popular Sugiton. You can hike to Sugiton, but the route is difficult and there are no services or bathrooms. One easier alternative is the bus to charming but popular Cassis. We spent a day at Le Grand Large beach club, enjoying lunch and a swim. There’s also a free beach with a shower but no changing room. Bouillabaisse was invented in Marseille and we were determined to try the local version. Our VRBO host recommended Miramar Restaurant, but warned it was expensive. Instead we caught Bus 83 to popular and less expensive Chez Fonfon, dining as we watched the sun set. Don’t miss the huge fountain in front of Palais de Longchamp, which houses two museums. From there you can walk to La Friche La Belle de Mai, a former tobacco factory converted to a multi-purpose art venue. For an evening at the Opera Municipale de Marseille, we found great seats at a reasonable price for the Verdi opera “Ernani.” Sight lines, singing, production, and peoplewatching were delightful. After a short visit to Marseille’s seedy flea market, we headed to the Quartier des Antiquaires and wandered into an antiques street market held four Sundays a year. Prices were marked, no haggling necessary. We also discovered my favorite Marseille restaurant: La Table Ronde, a “creperie traditionnelle Bretonne.” We shared a smoked salmon salad, two savory and two sweet crepes. Our server was the proud owner. The standout was TouTouChocolate: a buckwheat crepe, pieces of baked apple, handmade chocolate ice cream and whipped cream, drizzled with chocolate syrup and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts. Gay options are extensive in Marseille. The gay Pride parade and celebration is held in early July. Near the Vieux Port, we easily found LGBTQowned Caffe Noir at 29 Rue de la Palud, open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. We ended the trip relaxed and well fed. We walked for miles, swam in the sea, and mostly had French tourists for company. It felt like a discovery, our favorite kind of travel.t

<< Community News

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

TS HEADSHO S PORTRAIT EVENTS

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415 370 7152 Rick Gerharter

Award recipients from the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club all gather on stage near the end of the club’s annual Dinner and Gayla July 19. This year all the awardees were transgender people.

Milk club honors trans activists at dinner

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T UCSF DuoPACT research study on HIV pays up to $80 per couple per visit over 9 months

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ransgender people took center stage at the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club’s 42nd annual dinner and gayla, with all of the honorees hailing from the trans community. Over 200 people attended the July 19 event at Gray Area, which honored those whose work has benefited the community and moved the cause of LGBTQ rights forward. Many other trans people attended to show their support for the honorees and to express joy that members of their community were being recognized. Martin Rawlings-Fein, a transgender man, was particularly thrilled by the recognition of trans people at the dinner. “This is an event that’s so amazing because they’re honoring trans people, and that’s so hard to come by in this political climate,” RawlingsFein, 41, said. “Over the next year I want to see the club get trans people on the school board and work on our affordable housing issues. I think we can do it because we have the amazing Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. A lot of this is about compassion – let’s bring that back to politics.” Rawlings-Fein is one of two known trans candidates seeking a seat on the San Francisco school board. Mandelman, a gay man, took his seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors earlier this month after winning the June election. Mia Satya was one of the evening’s awardees. Satya, a trans woman who is also running for school board, said that she was honored to receive the Jazzie Collins Trans Rights Advocate Award. “Jazzie is one of the reasons I joined the club,” Satya told the Bay Area Reporter. “I am inspired by her activism and I want to live out her legacy. I hope the club can continue to succeed in electing progressive candidates up and down the ballot.” Mandelman, whose election to the Board of Supervisors resulted in a 6-5 progressive majority, said the Milk club, for which he previously served as president, was his favorite political organization. “I’m seeing a lot of old friends and new friends and some terrific honorees,” Mandelman said. “This club represents our connection to the roots of our progressive politics. It’s a place where new generations of progressive queer activists can find a way to engage in San Francisco politics.” In addition to Mandelman, dignitaries in attendance included District 1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer; District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim; gay former supervisors David Campos, now chair of the San Francisco Democratic

Party, Bevan Dufty, now an elected BART board member, and Tom Ammiano; state Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco); San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi; and Jovanka Beckles, a lesbian who serves on the Richmond City Council and who is currently running for the open 15th Assembly District seat in the East Bay. Before the awards were handed out, transgender entertainer Pearl Teese performed to thunderous applause. Milk club Co-Presidents Honey Mahogany and Carolina Morales then took to the podium, thanking everyone for coming. They pointed out that Mahogany was the club’s first African-American transgender copresident and that Morales was the first queer immigrant co-president. “Across the country more and more progressive women, women of color, and trans women are running for office,” Mahogany said. “We want San Francisco to be the leader in fighting the racist, xenophobic policies of this administration,” said Morales, referring to President Donald Trump. But Morales also noted that there have been victories at the local level, such as the election of Mandelman; the passage of Proposition C, which will provide free child care for working people; and the passage of Proposition F, which will provide residential tenants facing eviction with city-funded legal representation. City College of San Francisco’s Chosen Name Task Force received the Eileen Hansen Social Justice Award for its work in implementing trans-inclusionary policies at the school. Kung Feng received the Howard Wallace Labor Leadership Award for his work in fighting for workers’ rights. He is currently the interim executive director at Jobs With Justice San Francisco and cofounded Bay Resistance. Fresh Meat Productions was given the Sylvester Pride in the Arts Award for creating, presenting, and touring year-round transgender and queer performing arts programs. El/La Para TransLatinas received the Hank Wilson Activist Award. The organization is focused solely on serving transgender Latinas in the Bay Area.

Corrections

The Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award went to Janetta Johnson, executive director of the TGI Justice Project, which advocates for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated transgender people. And, finally, Jennicet Gutierrez received the Harvey Milk In His Footsteps Award for her work on behalf of transgender women in immigrant detention centers. In 2015 she interrupted former President Barack Obama at a White House speech during a reception in honor of Pride Month to call attention to the struggles of immigrant transgender women. There was much cheering for each of the honorees, with some praising the Milk Club. “It’s a great organization,” said Samuel Harrison, a gay man. “I try to attend their events when I can, and with the current regime it’s important to be politically active. Kudos to the trans awards this year and to the wonderful recipients. As we saw in the mayoral election, every vote does matter, so organize and resist.” He was referring to the fact that while gay progressive candidate Mark Leno was initially ahead in the June 5 mayoral election, ultimately moderate London Breed won the race and took office July 11. Co-President Morales told the B.A.R. that she was thrilled at how the evening went. “I’m ecstatic that we had a packed house,” she said. “We can see that we had a very diverse crowd. This is my second year as co-president of the club and it’s been my hope to bring more queer and trans people of color’s voices and participation in all club activities. In what I have left of my term, I want to help our city take back more districts to make sure that we have a progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors and I think our club is best positioned to lead that fight.” It was announced that the club would commemorate the 40th anniversary of Harvey Milk’s assassination on November 27. Milk, the first gay man elected to office in San Francisco and California, and then-mayor George Moscone were shot to death by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. t

The article, “Fierce opposition voiced for Starbucks” [July 19], should have stated that the meeting was part of Starbucks’ pre-application process. Additionally, Wicked Grounds owner Mir Bilodeau uses genderneutral pronouns. The article, “Queer woman enters crowded BART board race” [July 19], should have stated there is one elected queer woman in San Francisco: bi woman Shanell Williams is an elected member of the City College board. The online versions have been corrected.

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SOURCE: CPUC

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0 15monitors 30 extreme 60 90 120 weather and fire threats in real time and in coordination with our Miles safety partners.

For more information about the data and map depicted, ■ Public Safety Power Shutoff: We are developing a program that proactively turns off or other matters related to Utility wildfire safety, please contact Terrie Prosper at Terrie.Prosper@cpuc.ca.gov Esri, electric power lines when extreme weather and high fire-risk conditions occur, while Basemap sourced from ESRI (World Oceans).

California confronted

7,117

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Garmin, GEBCO, NOAA NGDC, and other contributors

keeping impacted customers informed every step of the way. ■ Weather Stations Network: We are enhancing our network of weather stations throughout high fire-risk areas to better monitor growing extreme weather conditions and predict where wildfires may occur. ■ Fire Defense Zones: We are augmenting our already rigorous vegetation management program to create new fire defense zones near power lines in high wildfire-risk areas. All of us at PG&E are committed to working together with first responders, local leaders and our customers to help keep our communities safe in the face of these growing threats.

wildfires in 2017

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<< Commentary

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

Busting up a (proposed) Starbucks by Christina A. DiEdoardo “Does the man who makes the shoes own you, clown? You can’t even pry the nameplate off, now can you? Fix it with your tiny fist there; James Van Der Beek and them sisters from Sister, Sister; The only one that’s ever felt this is you; The force that’s forcing you; To feel like busting up a Starbucks.” – Mike Doughty, “Busting up a Starbucks” (2002)

ix months ago, Rebeccalyn Mir Bilodeau pulled off a miracle by leading a team that saved Wicked Grounds, the only kinkand leather-friendly coffeehouse on the West Coast, from closure. On Tuesday, July 17, Bilodeau did it again, assembling a coalition whose dedication and passion made a Seattle colossus blink and providing a model for other antigentrification activists to follow. This is time, the threat wasn’t just to the bottom line of the cafe, but to the soul of the nascent Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, which the Board of Supervisors created in May and committed the city to “mak[ing] sustainable leather & LGBTQ: housing, commerce, community development, cultural resources, physical spaces, and health care” within its boundaries. To many, a proposed Starbucks outlet at 1222 Harrison Street at the L7 apartment complex, across the street from Mr. S. Leather and about a block away from Wicked Grounds’ location at 289 Eighth Street, hardly seemed consistent with those goals. “It’s disheartening that we’re

Christina A. DiEdoardo

Rebeccalyn Mir Bilodeau, owner of Wicked Grounds, rallies their staff and patrons to fight a proposed Starbucks in the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.

fighting gentrification in the leather district just as we got the Leather Cultural District,” said Bilodeau.

Of bondage and blonde espressos

To a casual observer, there might initially seem to be little overlap between the target markets of Starbucks and that of Wicked Grounds, given that the former has around 13,930 anodyne locations across the country serving an identical product, and Wicked Grounds is the only leather- and kink-friendly coffeehouse on the West Coast, but the two have more in common than most would think. While most know it as a cafe, Bilodeau, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said Wicked Grounds is really three businesses in one, with its educational programs

(which is largely subsidized by its Patreon donors) and its boutique retail trade reliant upon the cafe being open and busy to function. Vanilla, or non-kinky, customers making impulse coffee purchases make up a good portion of the cafe’s revenue, especially during the daytime. After purchasing the coffeehouse in 2014 (ironically, as they noted with a laugh, in part with the proceeds of the sale of their Starbucks stock) one of Bilodeau’s first goals was to resume daytime operations at Wicked Grounds, which had been curtailed by the previous owner due to financial strains on the business. This forced them to confront a tough question. “If we were going to be open during the day, what do we do? Do we hide the kink stuff somehow?” Bilodeau recalled. “We made the conscious decision not to do that, but to serve as ambassadors for the leather and kink community. “Many of our favorite customers are not kinky, but they love the vibe of the cool 1990s coffeehouse,” they said. Even so, “It’s hard for vanilla people to venture into the store,” Bilodeau said. “We go out of our way to make sure everyone feels welcome, but if a Starbucks opens up a block from here, are you going to take the risk and go to a locally-owned coffee shop or are you going to take the path of least resistance and go to Starbucks? “This is an existential threat, and I cannot gamble with my community,” they said. “Starbucks and Berg Davis [Starbucks’ public relations firm in San

HIV TREATMENT SUBSTITUTION RESEARCH STUDY

Francisco] say they don’t want to put us out of business, and I hear that, but I’ve also been doing the math for four years.” Based on Bilodeau’s calculations, too many people choosing to follow that path of least resistance would lead not only to the extinction of Wicked Grounds and the businesses of the local artisans who supply many of its non-food products, but the end of the unpaid social support services its staff provides. “If you come in and say, ‘I’m trans and I just got thrown out of my home,’ we’re going to drop everything and find you resources,” they said. “I would love it if we had a fully-functional nonprofit leather cultural space that worked, but we don’t. This is the niche that I fill.”

Horde 1, Seattle conglomerate 0

Of course, the story of beloved businesses being unable to remain open in the city despite heroic efforts is about as San Franciscan as sourdough bread. However, that Tuesday evening, something extraordinary happened as over 200 people jammed the community room at the L7 apartments for a community meeting called by Starbucks about the project. In nearly 10 years in San Francisco, I have never seen a group of Bay Area residents as unified as that crowd was. Speaker after speaker, from veteran leather titleholders to those who had only been part of the kink community for a few months, movingly told their stories about the central role Wicked Grounds played in their

lives – and how they weren’t willing to sit by and let Starbucks take it from them without a fight. Loyalty like that can’t be purchased, but must be earned – and it’s clearly a large part of what’s kept Wicked Grounds going through almost a decade of financial travails. “We’re on our fifth life,” said Ryan Galiotto, Wicked Grounds’ co-founder and former owner, to laughs and cheers from the crowd. “The only reason we’re still here is because the horde won’t let us quit.” No one who was there that night will soon forget the looks on the faces of the Starbucks representatives – one of whom managed to flub the LGBTQ acronym in their opening statement – when Bilodeau passionately asked them, “Do you even know what a little is? What a human puppy is? What water sports are? What is Shibari? “These are the questions my staff get every day,” Bilodeau said as the crowd applauded. By the end of the evening, it seemed like Starbucks had decided it would be better if Bilodeau and their team were the ones to keep answering them. As of press time, the chain was looking for a different location and its representatives said they wanted to work with Bilodeau to find one. Through showing up and remaining unified, a horde of kinksters successfully faced down a $6 billion corporation and made it blink, saving not only their coffeehouse but a bit of San Francisco in the process. It’s hard to think of a better definition of a successful action than that. t Got a tip? Email me at christina@ diedoardolaw.com.

China wants Taiwan flag barred at Gay Games by Roger Brigham

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GBT athletes in Taiwan are hoping to send 25 participants to Paris next month for the Gay Games. Their biggest concern the past few months had been raising enough money for the trip, but alarms were raised this week that, although the athletes can self-identify with any gender they prefer in the LGBT-inclusive sports festival, they might not be allowed to choose the name and flag under which they march. Gay Games organizers were reportedly being pressured not to allow athletes from Taiwan to carry their national flag with them when they march in the opening ceremonies in Paris August 4. Yes, China, the country that for years has claimed it has no gays or lesbians living within its borders, now wants to claim LGBT athletes who do not even live in China as their own. Gay Games X are licensed by the San Francisco-based Federation of Gay Games, but are organized by Paris 2018. Yang Chih-chun, president of the Taiwan Gay Sports and Gay Development Movement Association, told Agence France-Presse it was informed last week by organizers that the French government had

China does not want Taiwan athletes attending Gay Games to carry their country’s flag.

expressed concerns to them about the use of the Taiwan national flag. “Our logical conclusion is that China protested to the French government or otherwise this would not have happened,” Yang Chihchun told AFP. Yang said the athletes wanted to be able to compete as Taiwan under the Taiwan flag in Paris because the opportunity is so rare and it will not be possible when Gay Games XI are held in Hong Kong in 2022. “The FGG has not had any communications with anyone in the French government,” FGG co-president Sean Fitzgerald said. “The Paris 2018 team See page 17 >>

Sports >>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Life changer

Courtesy Doug Litwin

Doug Litwin, right, joined his bowling team for Gay Games IX in Cleveland in 2014 that included Glenn Normandin, left, Jim Hahn, and Andrew Meagher.

by Roger Brigham

here are some things we know about the Gay Games before they occur every four years. We know, for instance, that on August 4 in Paris, some 10,000 participants will parade into Jean Bouin Stadium to a cheering crowd, and for some it will be the first time they have been able to feel proud and safe to be who they are. We know lives will be changed. We know that when the athletes go home, some will feel empowered to volunteer to give back to their communities, some will have newfound courage to come out, and some will be focused on becoming better at their sports to improve their performance four years later. We know this because it happens time and time again – nine times so far dating back to the inaugural Gay Games in 1982 in San Francisco. Doug Litwin was living in San Francisco back then, having moved to the city in 1978 from Louisville, Kentucky, but he did not participate. “I don’t even know if I was aware of it,” Litwin said. But in 1985, Litwin joined the wind section of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps (Gay Freedom Day was later renamed Gay Pride Day and is now San Francisco Pride, and the band is today’s SF Lesbian/ Gay Freedom Band), and soon after that started bowling in a gay bowling league. He registered for the 1986 Gay Games II as a musician and a bowler. As librarian for the host band, it was his responsibility to make sure every participating musician got the necessary sheet music. And, since back then only one bowling team could represent one city, he partnered with bowlers from Pennsylvania. Then, along with the other 3,000 or so athletes and artists, he marched in to Kezar Stadium for the opening ceremony reprise, and his life was changed. “I had been in marching band in high school and college,” Litwin, 65, said. “I was used to marching in with 50,000 spectators or more. This was different. This wasn’t one team

Gay Games

From page 16

has handled this delicate situation.” Manuel Picaud, co-president of Paris 2018, said the team would be identified as being from Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, on the sign that will lead the team into the ceremonies. “According to Gay Games founder Tom Waddell, the Gay Games should not be about geopolitics,” Picaud said. “It is about participation, inclusion, and personal best. It is about equality for all people and respect of all diversities. All participants register individually without any interference or selection by their state. The host and the FGG do their best to continue and preserve this legacy. This is

versus another. This was all of us on one team. It was amazing just to be there and see and meet my fellow gay musicians from all over the world. I remember the joy and the vibe and the joyousness of the whole thing.” Litwin had found what would become a major mission in his life. He got more involved with the Lesbian and Gay Band Association, first as secretary, then as president, and finally as delegate to the Federation of Gay Games, going to his first FGG membership meeting in Berlin in 1999. He’s been to every annual assembly meeting since then except for two. Now, here’s the difference between showing up at the Gay Games to compete or play an instrument, and showing up as a volunteer or director when the next Gay Games are years away: It’s the difference between eating a sausage in a restaurant, and working in the factory to make that sausage and then getting it to the diner. The joy in one task is different than the joy in the other – but there is joy in both. “For all the people who think there isn’t a need for an event like the Gay Games, I say, ‘Well, I don’t know how many Gay Games you’ve been to, but you’re wrong,’” Litwin said. “You meet athletes from all over the world and you realize what a life-changing event it is for people.” No one knows that more than folks from countries where it is illegal or dangerous to be gay or transgender, where being queer can cost you your job, your freedom, or your life. The FGG started to change its organizational structure in 2004, completing the move from a membership board to a smaller working board elected by the membership assembly in 2007. The executive committee was expanded that first year to start emulating what would become the smaller board of directors down the road, and Litwin was elected marketing officer for the FGG, a position he has held ever since.

why the parade of athletes is more by region than by country. This is why Paris 2018 doesn’t give any flag to teams during the opening ceremony. This is why there is no national hymn during medals awards. And we don’t count the number of medals by country. It is personal achievement.” Added Picaud, “We congratulate the Taiwanese team for its role in promoting LGBT rights and we are sure the athletes will have a great experience of sharing, solidarity, and respect during the games in Paris.” The effort to ban the Taiwan flag and name at the Gay Games appears to be part of an ongoing campaign by China to pressure major corporations and events across the globe See page 18 >>

He has also been active with Team San Francisco and for several years has been heavily involved with organizing the LGBT Night at AT&T Park with the San Francisco Giants. One year that included having gay former supervisor Bevan Dufty’s child throw out the first pitch. This year it included having three individuals who had participated in every Gay Games – bowler Jim Hahn, swimmer Seth Shapiro, and track and field athlete Rick Thoman – be the ones to yell, “Play ball!” to start the game. Litwin has also played racquetball in the Gay Games. “Personally, I enjoy participating in both sports and culture as it lets me see the world and lets me do so in an incredibly supportive environment,” he said. “There’s competition, to be sure, but everyone gets a medal and that goes back to the beginning and what the event is all about. And when you win a gold medal at a Gay Games, it’s different – very different than winning a medal in a tournament that might involve the same athletes.” Litwin continued, “Back around the Amsterdam Gay Games in 1998, someone made a brochure that was called, ‘Gay Games Can Change the World.’ I didn’t have anything to do with creating that, but I have helped to update the motto to ‘Gay Games Change the World.’ Or, as our Tshirts in Cleveland in 2014 said, ‘Change the World.’ It’s gone from a promise to a fact.” Litwin no longer lives in San Francisco. Nervous about the potential instability of the real estate market, he sold his house in Noe Valley and moved on to a yacht in Sausalito with his partner of 12

years, Jacque Elstrom. But he carries the joy he discovered at the Gay Games in San Francisco so many years ago, the joy of competing and performing, with him – along with the satisfaction of volunteering. Working in the FGG “has allowed me to make a very large group of good friends who are equally committed to the mission,”

Litwin said. “Some of these people are just amazing. I’ve been there for a great deal of history. It’s like the Navy: Join the Gay Games, see the world.” t For information on this year’s Gay Games, visit http://www.paris2018. com. For information on the FGG, visit http://www.gaygames.org.

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Charles Andrew (“Chuck”) Slaton March 23, 1932 - April 21, 2018 Chuck passed away peacefully on a Saturday morning at UCSF Medical Center after a year-long struggle with a series of illnesses. He was 86 years old. Charles Andrew Slaton was born in a small town in the coal mining country of western Pennsylvania, a child of the great depression. He grew up in Akron, Ohio and later lived many places in the U.S. including Chicago, Milwaukee, Denver and other cities befiore settling in San Francisco where he spent the last 45 years of his life. He often said he had been in every state in the union except Hawaii. During the Korean War, Chuck served in the U.S. Army in Alaska where he developed a life-long love of cold climates. He travelled extensively both at home and abroad. For the last 40+ years he has worked as a real estate agent in San Francisco with a few different companies, finally settling into a welcoming, satsifying workplace at Zephyr Real Estate. In the early eighties he opened a bar south of market called Chaps which at first had great success, and then was impacted by the newlydeveloping AIDS crisis. He was most proud of the fact that he was among the very first people to hold fundraisers for those who had come down with AIDS, raising many thousands of dollars for patient care and research. He is survived by many friends and coworkers, by his husband, Ron, and by the members of Ron’s family, who absolutely adored him. We are thankful every day we could spend with this sweet, cantankerous, opinionated, difficult, funny curmudgeon.

<< Community News

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

News Briefs

From page 9

Chely Wright at South Bay fair

Lesbian country singer Chely Wright will bring her guitar to the

City College

From page 1

Lady Katerina said he preferred “he/ him/his,” while the City College post used “they.” “It is with heavy hearts we share the news that a member of our student community, Daine Grey, took their own life in early July. Daine was a promising young student who was a gay trans man active with the City College of San Francisco Queer Resource Center, and who advocated for awareness of ADA needs,” the post read.

Changes for trans students

In February, the college implemented a chosen name policy, in which transgender students are able to have their preferred names appear on class rosters, emails, online courses, and, in the future, student ID cards, though Lady Katerina said the policy came later than it should have. “We’re trying to fight

Gay Games

From page 17

to refer to Taiwan not as Taiwan, but rather as a part of China, even though it is governed by a separate government. Most international airlines have already changed references to Taiwan on their websites to indicate it is a province of China (which it is not) and U.S. airlines that had not yet complied with the request

Breed

From page 1

DPH already invests approximately $2.5 million annually to close the gap in the cost of services of the homes, according to Garcia. “We need to figure out ways in which we can continue to support the great work these facilities are doing,” Breed said. “This is a complex issue that requires a holistic

Worthington

From page 5

When asked about the accomplishments he is most proud of, Worthington also noted helping pave the way for more diverse commission appointees in the East Bay city. “I have appointed more Asians, Latinos, and African-Americans than anyone else on the City Council,” he said. “One of my biggest accomplishments as a council member was I proved that all the politicians were wrong when they said there were no Asians, Latinos, or African-Americans who wanted to be on the planning commission or other commissions.” He said he did this simply by reaching out to members of minority communities and letting them know there were open commission seats. Worthington has also been a

AIDS confab

From page 8

from using the prevention pill. Tenofovir levels in the blood were about 13 percent lower when PrEP was taken in combination with estradiol, but they still remained above the threshold known to provide protection against HIV. The growing evidence of PrEP’s effectiveness has led to calls for wider use, which is limited by its cost – about $1,500 per month in

Santa Clara County Fair Thursday, August 2, at the fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road in San Jose. The concert is part of an LGBTQfocused evening for the fair – it’s first – from 5 to 10 p.m. The Out at the Fair event on the fair’s opening day will feature other Pride-themed entertainment,

such as Locura and Vocal Infusion, as well as activities and outreach booths providing resources and information for the LGBTQ community. Adult single day tickets are $10. For more information, visit https://www. thefair.org/. The fair runs through August 5.

Senior disco bash in SJ

Councilman Don Rocha will also make an appearance on the dance floor, organizers said in an email announcement. There is no cost to attend. For more information, visit https:// www.defrankcenter.org/. t

homophobia and transphobia that goes on at City College,” she said. “Bullying of trans and LGBTQ students goes on by other students all the time.” Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who’s a former member of the college’s board of trustees and newly elected District 8 supervisor, said he did not receive any formal complaints from or about Grey’s bullying. Though he did say the college is among many institutions across the nation that needs to improve its policies around transgender people. “A lot of educational institutions are working to get themselves into the 21st century around issues of gender identity, and City College is no different,” Mandelman said. “It has made significant strides but still has a lot to do.” After Grey’s death, Lady Katerina began contacting the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office to start taking steps to take legal responsibility of Grey’s body. Lady Katerina said after Grey died, she called

representatives of the medical examiner’s office, which told her they called Grey’s parents multiple times with no response. However, after media outlets started to contact the family, Lady Katerina said they started to change their tune. “[Grey] was disowned from his family,” said Lady Katerina. “They wanted nothing to do with him. Now, the family is saying different things after being contacted by the press.” Lady Katerina is now working with Grey’s mother, Stephanie Haught, on funeral arrangements. “Daine’s mother and grandma met with me Friday and we planned the funeral, paid for the burial, and everything,” Lady Katerina posted on the GoFundMe site. If there is any additional money after the funeral expenses for Grey, it will go to the Queer Resource Center to help provide education and outreach for students and faculty around queer and trans needs,

Lady Katerina said. Gray, originally from Livermore, California, started at City College in August 2017, according to his Facebook page. On his Facebook page, a post remains in which he publicly came out as a gay, transgender man about 10 months ago. “Hello guys, guess this is my big ‘public’ Coming Out moment: if we talk in person at all you probably already know, tbh. So ... I’m transgender (hence the name/gender change – which is already legal btw). This means I identify as a gender different from the sex I was assigned at birth, for those who don’t know. I’m also gay so, that’s a thing.” The post continues, “I’ve been taking hormones for around eight months now, so I’ve already changed a lot, for those I haven’t seen in a long time. Hope this doesn’t lose me too many friends and family.” Today, it has over 100 comments. Grey’s parents did not respond to requests for comment from the Bay Area Reporter, but his mother did

speak with NBC Bay Area. Haught is estranged from Grey’s father, Peter Haught, according to the station. Haught told NBC she hadn’t talked to her son since he was 16 and only found out he was transgender through Facebook days before he died. She claimed Grey’s father told her he would claim their son’s body. Peter Haught declined to provide NBC Bay Area with an on-therecord comment. To donate to Grey’s GoFundMe, visit https://www.gofundme.com/ final-dignity-for-daine. t

from China were given a deadline of this week to do so. In January, China blocked the Marriott website for listing Taiwan, Macau, Tibet, and Hong Kong as separate countries, leading Marriott to change its website and give China an apology for stating the truth. China has been ramping up political and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan’s

president two years ago. Sports are a public showcase in which China has been particularly sensitive. Taiwan’s Olympic team is already forced to compete as “Chinese Taipei,” and this week the island nation was stripped of its right to host the inaugural East Asian Youth Games next year. The East Asian Olympic Committee reportedly voted Tuesday to revoke the hosting rights for the event, with Japan

abstaining but China, Hong Kong (designated host for Gay Games 2022), Macau, and Mongolia, South Korea, and North Korea voting against the hosting rights. Taichung, the city that was going to host the event, said it had already spent $21.9 million on building facilities for the games. In May, the Gap pulled a T-shirt from the market that displayed a map of China that correctly did not include Taiwan or other South China

Sea islands governed by other countries. The company apologized and said it had destroyed unsold shirts. To learn more about the team from Taiwan, see this story provided by organizers of the 2022 Gay Games in Hong Kong: https:// www.facebook.com/notes/gaygames-11-hong-kong-2022/ taiwan-wants-you-join-us-on-ourjourney-to-the-paris-2018-gaygames/2094492097438780/. t

approach. City resources need to be used in the most efficient way to support the community.” Cohen said this investment is “directly aligned” with the Board of Supervisors’ budget priorities and continued commitment to helping solve homelessness. She also noted that the board has allocated over $4 million in this year’s budget to housing and homeless solutions, including housing subsidies for families and seniors, mental health

services and street medical teams, and housing improvements for veterans, among other solutions. Mandelman said that when California began the path of deinstitutionalization and closing its state mental health hospitals decades ago, the promise of increasing community residential care homes was not kept. He spoke about the impact residential care homes have on vulnerable communities, which have historically faced homelessness and

the importance of maintaining the current operating care homes. “As we work to move the thousands of currently un-housed homeless San Franciscans off the streets and into care, it’s critical we stabilize our existing stock of board and care facilities,” said Mandelman, whose late mother suffered from mental illness. In the audience, Mary O’Reilly, 71, a resident of Victorian Manor, said she believes Breed has the

right attitude and is making a smart choice in revitalizing the care facilities. “This is where I live,” she told the Bay Area Reporter. “In San Francisco, these homes are steady housing for those in need.” The mayor’s proposed amendment was presented at Tuesday’s board meeting, where the supervisors were scheduled to have a first reading of the budget.t

proponent of empowering student voices throughout his tenure, including appointing them to various oversight panels. James Chang, an elected commissioner on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board and legislative assistant with the city, introduced Worthington at the announcement at City Hall and thanked him for encouraging young voices. “I wouldn’t be the youngest elected official in Berkeley and in the East Bay without Kriss,” Chang, a gay man, said. “Kriss is a real trailblazer, being the first openly gay elected official in Berkeley, but it’s more than that. It’s about bringing others up and bringing others with you.” Worthington’s endorsement of Robinson is another example of his passion for fostering young people’s interest in politics. Robinson is the former vice president of external affairs

for the Associated Students of the University of California and was an intern for former City Councilman Jesse Arreguin, who is now the mayor. “For many years now, Kriss Worthington has been the representative students needed in City Hall to make sure students are heard,” Robinson said on the steps of City Hall. In his speech, Worthington applauded Robinson’s work at the state level at the UC Board of Regents. The councilman explained that he’s supporting Robinson because he is focused on many of the same issues he has prioritized. Worthington told the B.A.R. that when he first started as a councilman, progressives were in the minority. He was reassured in his decision not to seek re-election, he said, because the council’s makeup now favors progressives. “It would be a different decision if

we were still a minority and most of my energy was spent on stopping bad things. I would have been more hesitant to hand over the reins,” he said. Worthington’s retirement means that Berkeley may just have one out City Council member come January: Lori Droste, a lesbian, is up for reelection this year and so far has three challengers, according to the Berkeley City Clerk’s website. There is one other person who has announced they are running for the District 7 seat, Aidan Hill, who identifies as nonbinary, according to an article in the Daily Californian. At the end of his speech, Worthington received many hugs and warm wishes. A friend of his in the audience praised Worthington’s work in the LGBT community. Bob Dixon, a 24-year resident of Berkeley and a gay man said, “He helped with a lot

of things big and small. He helped get the first gay and lesbian family night at the YMCA. We regret he’s not running.” Also in the audience was Andy Katz, a member of the East Bay Municipal Utility District Board of Directors, who recently came up short in the June primary race for the open 15th Assembly District seat in the state Legislature. “He’s been a real local advocate for LGBT rights, affordable housing, and fighting inequality,” Katz, a bisexual man who also identifies as gay, said. “His legacy is hard to sum up with any one accomplishment.” Worthington has about four months remaining on the City Council, after which, he said he is unsure of his next professional steps, though he could see himself at work in the nonprofit sector. t

the United States. Truvada manufacturer Gilead Sciences offers a co-pay assistance program for people with private insurance, but advocates have said the amount is inadequate. After sustained demands, Gilead raised its subsidy this week from $4,800 to $7,200. Many state Medicaid programs cover PrEP, leading to a growing drain on public funds. Advocates with the PrEP4All Collaboration and the #BreakThePatent campaign released a

new national action plan at the conference calling for universal access to PrEP in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that around 1.2 million people are at risk for HIV and could benefit from PrEP, but less than 10 percent are actually using it. “After decades of research, most of it publicly funded, we have the tools to eliminate HIV transmission,” the report concludes. “The current low rate of PrEP

utilization is one of the greatest public heath implementation failures in the history of this country.” If the government were to allow use of generic versions of tenofovir and emtricitabine, a comprehensive national PrEP program including associated kidney function monitoring and regular testing for sexually transmitted infections could cost less than $2 billion annually. On a daily basis, PrEP drugs would cost less than a latte, co-author James Krellenstein

said at an impromptu media briefing. “We calculated that it would cost about $1.4 billion to get PrEP to all 1.2 million people who are eligible – a cost that would be well over $10 billion if we had to pay Gilead the current price it charges,” Peter Staley of PrEP4All told the Bay Area Reporter. “We can’t imagine a plan like this at current prices. The only way we can get there is with generic PrEP.” t

The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center will hold a senior disco bash Saturday, August 4, from 3 to 6 p.m., at 938 The Alameda in San Jose. There will be a DJ, photo booth, and food. San Jose City

Chapel of the Chimes is located at 4499 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. Doors open at 10:45 a.m., the service starts at noon and is open to the public. If you or someone you know needs help, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Support is free and confidential.

International News >>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

LGBT Israelis outraged by new surrogacy law by Heather Cassell

housands of LGBT Israelis and supporters took to the streets July 22 for a one-day strike called by queer movement leaders to protest a new surrogacy law that excludes LGBT people and single men. Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, passed a new amendment July 18 allowing single women and women who are unable to become pregnant for medical reasons to utilize state support for surrogacy, but excluded LGBT people and single men. The law, which was supposed to include LGBT people and single men, outraged the community, prompting protests that filled the

AP/Oded Balilty

LGBT community members block a highway during a protest against a surrogate bill in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, July 22.

streets and Rabin Square and blocked freeways in Tel Aviv. Demonstrators gathered outside of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in Jerusalem. “We will not remain silent,” chanted Eyal Lurie Pardes, a

protester draped in a rainbow flag, reported ABC News. “Look me in the eyes and tell me I don’t deserve to be a father.” He was later seen on Israeli TV being pushed into a police car. Two people were arrested at the protest

Castro housing

From page 10

two retail spaces. One will be a 900 square foot space fronting 14th Street, while the other is a 2,900 square foot space intended for a restaurant or bar. It is the second mixed-use development on upper Market Street being constructed by local developer Brian Spiers, who owns the nearby bar Lucky 13 and built the cube-like Linea development a block north on Market that opened in 2014. It was a challenge to lease out that building’s three ground-floor spaces, with a nearly 400 square foot space still sitting vacant. Spiers told the B.A.R. this month that he has yet to sign leases for the new building’s retail spaces. “Retail, obviously, is challenging right now,” he said. “I’ve had some inquiries but no real discussions.”

Retail strategy

After an initial burst of new mixedused developments were constructed along upper Market Street, several of which struggled to fill their commercial spaces similar to Spiers’ Linea building, neighborhood groups, a few years ago, came together to create a retail strategy to help attract merchants to the Castro. The effort, which is ongoing, has had some success and helped focus attention on the retail concerns in the gayborhood.

Rick Gerharter

The former site of Sullivan’s Funeral Home and parking lot on Upper Market Street is slated for redevelopment.

But it has not been a cure-all, and in recent months conversations have begun on what zoning changes may be needed for the corridor to make it easier to fill the vacant storefronts. In years past, unease among residents and storeowners at seeing chain stores flood into the area, driving up rents and local retailers out of business, led to restrictions making it harder for national and regional brands to open along upper Market Street. Now, some have suggested it may make sense to loosen those restrictions. Others have floated the idea of making it easier for nonprofits and local arts groups that provide services or programs to the public to rent out ground-floor spaces. “I think people have been very

receptive to the developments for bringing some minor relief in terms of housing. The concern for most residents has been, what are we going to do with the commercial spaces,” said Mark McHale, a real estate agent who has lived in the Castro for nearly three decades and is currently the president of its neighborhood association. Spiers said he has had mixed reactions from residents to his Linea building, which, like his current project under construction, was designed by the firm Arquitectonica. “I still get both positive and some very negative feedback. It is very subjective architecture,” he said. “I am really optimistic about the building I am currently building at the corner of 14th and Church. It is a really great example

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038203300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038201300

and later released. Netanyahu previously supported the bill including LGBT and single men, but he was deterred by conservative Jews, allowing the bill to pass without those additions. “It’s a really disappointing outcome, but not entirely unexpected,” said Ty Gregory, executive director of A Wider Bridge, a New York-based LGBT Jewish organization that promotes support for Israel and its LGBT community. “We are even more disappointed that he verbally expressed support for including gay men in the

bill and then didn’t do that,” he continued. “That was something that really upset the LGBT community and led to a lot of energized activity that you saw over the weekend.” The organization launched a Change.org petition to gather global support for the strike. t

of a modern flat-iron building.” Based on his experience trying to fill his projects’ retail spaces, Spiers told the B.A.R. he believes some changes are needed to what kinds of businesses the city will allow to move into the storefronts. He also is an advocate for allowing more housing units to be built at the ground level, something he had proposed to do in his new building along the 14th Street side but was instructed to turn into retail space by the city’s planning commission. “With the changing dynamics of retail – people are getting their retail via Amazon or online – it is just not the same environment for shopping as it was. So if we are going to require ground-floor retail and try to activate it, we have to be open to more uses,” said Spiers. “We have seen how restaurants come and go, they have their own challenges on how to make it work in San Francisco. Other than a restaurant, what can go in there?” Over a decade ago, Bevan Dufty, when he was the neighborhood’s supervisor, led an effort to plan for what residents wanted to see in the design of the dozen buildings being proposed for vacant lots and former gas stations along upper Market Street. With half of the projects now built, Dufty recently told the B.A.R. that he has mixed feelings about their impact. “From an architectural standpoint, I think they are interesting and adding

to the character of the neighborhood,” said Dufty. “I don’t think the retail has been as vibrant. We need more vibrancy in the neighborhood.” During the middle of most weekdays in the Castro, Dufty said, one could roll a bowling ball down the sidewalk due to the lack of people in the area. “The businesses need to be busy,” said Dufty. “It is why I supported Rafael. I know he is going to put a plan together.” Dufty was referring to Rafael Mandelman, who was sworn in this month as the new District 8 supervisor. During the campaign for the board seat, Mandelman made retail vacancies a key issue and organized a meeting earlier this year between neighborhood leaders and one property owner, Veritas, to discuss how it intended to attract retailers to the various buildings it owns near the intersection of Market and Church streets. During an interview in late June, Mandelman told the B.A.R. that he plans to prioritize the issue and had brought it up with the city’s new mayor, London Breed, when they met last month following their victories in the June 5 primary election. “We talked about really focusing on upper Market Street and the vacant storefronts and giving that neighborhood the attention it needs to receive,” he said. “She is really committed to that.”t

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF BOB COGDELL BRADSHAW AKA BOB BRADSHAW IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-18-302035

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035295100

For more international news, visit www.ebar.com. Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell or oitwnews@gmail.com.

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554019

In the matter of the application of: SYDNEY KHOO, 591 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121, for change of name having been ﬁled in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SYDNEY KHOO, is requesting that the name SYDNEY KHOO, be changed to HANSWE KHOO. 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 14th of August 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038201200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TADASHI WOOD COMPANY, 2045 CABRILLO ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RYAN TADASHI HONDA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/20/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038188200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DUE DATES, 912 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHALINI SHAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 04/29/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038203800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACHIEVERS BOOKS, 730 MADRID ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ART G. MADLAING. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/28/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038201700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SNIDER IMMIGRATION SERVICE, 1438 QUESADA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRETT SNIDER. 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 6/27/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOVE GREEK LIFE, 27 SEARS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHELLE EMELIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038201600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LK KERR BOOKS, 41 MERCED AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAURA KERR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 05/31/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038195300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DYNAMO; DYNAMO DONUTS; DYNAMO DONUT & COFFEE, 2760 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THREE DOGS AND A CAT INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/29/08. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/21/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038204100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 2040 BUILDERS, 2345 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 2040 SERVICES (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 06/28/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038200500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIX AUTO SAN FRANCISCO - SOMA, 785 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a trust, and is signed MARIVIC VILA, TRUSTEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/26/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO PROFESSIONAL MOVERS; EASY MOVE; FOSTER CITY MOVERS; MOVERS BURLINGAME; SAN RAFAEL MOVERS; SIMPLE MOVE, 383 KING ST #1712, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SPECTRUM MOVERS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/27/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GRAPHICUSER LLC, 4789 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GRAPHICUSER LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 08/18/16. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/29/18.

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of BOB COGDELL BRADSHAW AKA BOB BRADSHAW. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JEANNIE THORNTON BRADSHAW in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JEANNIE THORNTON BRADSHAW 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: Aug 01, 2018, 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. AARON M. PALLEY 260544, NEAL & ASSOCIATES, 6200 ANTIOCH ST #202, OAKLAND, CA 94611; Ph. (510) 339-0233.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018

JULY 12, 19, 26, 2018

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038200400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: H2 DISTRO; DISRUPTIVE DOSES; TOWN BUDS; HONEY HIVE, 36 SHOTWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed H4L 2 LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/26/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038201000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAFF DISTILLERIE, 1615 INNES AVE #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RAFF BEVERAGE, 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 06/27/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038202100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TROOP BEVERAGE CO., 849 AVENUE D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TREEHOUSE CRAFT DISTILLERY, 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 06/27/18.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038205400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: GRAPHIC USER, 4789 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by BRADLEY S. THOMAS. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/09/13.

JULY 05, 12, 19, 26, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038210200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAST WAVE FILM, 156 RISE ST, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KINDRID PARKER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/03/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038209800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIND YOUR VIBE, 1630 CALIFORNIA ST #407, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KIMBERLY KHUNARAKSA. 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 07/05/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038194100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IMPRINT DISTRIBUTION, 350 TOWNSEND ST #140, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SANJEEV RAI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/20/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038203400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HANDY GLASS GUY, 990 FULTON ST #206, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YUNUS AKBAG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/27/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018

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20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 26-August 1, 2018

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038200100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HERRERA ESCOBAR SERVICES, INC, 3327 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HERRERA ESCOBAR SERVICES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 02/14/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038211800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE 038207900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: S&K PRODUCTION, 2321 GALWAY DRIVE, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIN GUO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/02/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038199200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARDEN HOME, 336 HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CAN AUSSIE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/01/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OOVY STUDIOS, 590 6TH ST #206, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed OOVY STUDIOS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 05/04/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038212800

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038214700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AIRAM, 1156 SHAFTER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AIRAM INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/02/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038205600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHAMROCK CHILDCARE, 1900 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CATHERINE NAUGHTON FLYNN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/01/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/29/18.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037719400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SUSHI SHOH, 406 DEWEY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by ALICE HO & YUNRONG CEN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/10/17.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037438900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: BUSINESS BRA’S, 1415 7TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by MELANIE GARCIA & TRISHA HEIGL. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/17.

JULY 12, 19, 26, AUG 02, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038214900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MC REMODELING, 415 DELANO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MANLIO GONZALEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/26/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038217500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VICTORIA’S HAIR STUDIO, 3410 GEARY BLVD #218, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAO KHUU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/12/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TANCCA, 776 BROADWAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TEA KEY, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/10/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038216500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OMA SAN FRANCISCO STATION, 1737 POST ST #337, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MONSTER CHEF CORPORATION (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 07/11/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038216700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ITZ NETWORKS, 3327 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ITZ NETWORKS, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/18/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038216800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOKUKU, 332 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MOKUKU INVESTMENT INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/11/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038216000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EL PORTENO EMPANADAS; EL PORTENO; EL PORTENO RESTAURANT, 1 FERRY BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EL PORTENO INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/11/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038212900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: L’AMOUR DE SAIGON, 321 WEST PORTAL AVE #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TFLH CORP (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 07/09/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038209600

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038215900

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO ACTING ACADEMY, 1050 SANSOME ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL GHIRINGHELLI. 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 07/05/18.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CONCENTRIQ, 3159 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CONCENTRIQ PERSONNEL SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/11/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/18.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038216200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE HOMESTEAD, 2301 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GCBC LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 11/11/05. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038217800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOVELA, 662 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed N662, 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 07/12/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038217900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KAIYO RESTAURANT & BAR, 1838 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UNION STREET HOSPITALITY GROUP, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/01/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038209700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGE IH0004, 1799 19TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HENLEY PACIFIC SF LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/05/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/18.

JULY 19, 26, AUG 02, 09, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18554088

In the matter of the application of: TAO LIANG, 519 39TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121, for change of name having been ﬁled in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TAO LIANG, is requesting that the name TAO LIANG, be changed to JEAN QINGFENG NALAN. 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 23rd of August 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554047

In the matter of the application of: LISA FARMER AKA MELISSA MARIA FARMER, 2800 LAKE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121, for change of name having been ﬁled in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LISA FARMER AKA MELISSA MARIA FARMER, is requesting that the name LISA FARMER AKA MELISSA MARIA FARMER, be changed to MELISSA MARIE FARMER. 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 23rd of August 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554059

In the matter of the application of: JOSEPHINE LEE, 248 27TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121, for change of name having been ﬁled in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOSEPHINE LEE, is requesting that the name JOSEPHINE LEE, be changed to JOSEPHINE LEE WON. 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 28th of August 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018

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ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-18-554075

In the matter of the application of: HUIJUAN HUANG CHUNG, 630 BURROWS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HUIJUAN HUANG CHUNG, is requesting that the name HUIJUAN HUANG CHUNG, be changed to SHELLY HUANG CHUNG. 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 30th of August 2018 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038227200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOBAL EPICURE, 175 BLUXOME ST, UNIT 129, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOINA LIAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/16/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/20/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038227500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NEW GENERATION, 48 HAIGHT ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PEDRO J. SHAPIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/20/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/20/18/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038224500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TCR CONSULTING, 3012 CESAR CHAVEZ ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TARA CHAFFEE ROBINSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/04/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038220400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NATALIE BLAIR SKIN STUDIO, 301 MAIN ST UNIT F31, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NATALIE BLAIR MORRIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/16/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038222200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OYE MANAGUA, 3385 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GABRIELA D. RIVAS SOZA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 04/18/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038224400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INTREPID RIGGING AND WRANGLING; ANOMALY EVENTS, 140 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SCOTT RICHARD CAMERON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/18/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038228200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 5-7-9 MARS HOA, 7 MARS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed SEAN GRANT & RAMON PERAZA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/23/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/23/18.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REVAMP SALON, 2164 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RE: GROUPE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/28/2018. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038202900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REVAMP SALON, 3167 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RE: GROUPE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 06/28/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038223100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA CUSTOM METALS INC., 1321 EVANS AVE #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CALIFORNIA CUSTOM METALS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/17/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038219600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA CUISINE CAFE, 1145 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LA CUISINE CAFE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/10/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/13/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038224100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WHITE RABBIT, 3138 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PIERCE PARTNERS 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 07/18/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038220800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EMPIRE JIU JITSU, 2356 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed EMPIRE JIU JITSU LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/09/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/18.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035677300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: REVAMP, 2164 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by HUY R. LE. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/24/14.

JULY 26, AUG 02, 09, 16, 2018

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: B & M STUDIO, 3412 25TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed BENJAMIN GUERRA ESQUERA & MINERVA A. HALLACY . The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 07/11/18. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/18.

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SFJFF wraps

Glass pieces

Summer flicks

Water lines

Vol. 48 • No. 30 • July 26-August 1, 2018

www.ebar.com/arts

Alexander McQueen’s shock & awe by Sura Wood

Ann Ray, courtesy of Bleecker Street

Scene from co-directors Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s “McQueen.”

t 40, Alexander McQueen, the rule-breaking, barn-burning, sacred-cowgoring British fashion designer, seemed to be a man on top of the world. But in 2010, at the height of his fame and creative powers in a field he loved, he took his own life. Drawing on history, myth, fine art and movies such as “Taxi Driver” and “The Shining,” his anarchic celebrations of 1990s youth culture wedded raw and rude extremes to superb tailoring, sublime silhouettes, and technology, producing clothes hailed – or pilloried – as the kinkiest, most fetishistic ever to hit the catwalk. Likewise, his theatrical runway shows were a collision of beauty and violence, ecstasy and sabotage. Inspired by his Scottish heritage and Patrick Suskind’s novel “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” his controversial 1995 Highland Rape collection, in which dazed models in ripped clothes stumbled down the runway, pushed the taboo button big-time, scandalizing the fashion world and the press who labeled it a crime scene, a sick joke and exploitative. But the headlines put him on the map. With his street cred and outsider status, the shock-and-awe enfant terrible was off to the races, rising to the top, and a fashion rock star by the age of 25. See page 28 >>

Jason Mecier’s mixed-media portrait of RuPaul, from “Pop Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier.”

Chronicle Books

Celebrities done up in rubbish! by Sari Staver

“P

op Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier,” a coffee-table book with full-page pictures of meticulously crafted celebrity portraits, rolled off the presses this month. Published by Chronicle Books and written by Mecier, the hardcover glossy is available online and in bookstores now. See page 28 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

<< Out There

22 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

Thursday Night Live with Gilda Radner by Roberto Friedman

he audience for the opening night of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 38 at the Castro Theatre last Thursday night knew that they were in the presence of genius. Comedic genius, that is, in the person of the late “Saturday Night Live” star Gilda Radner, as seen in director Lisa D’Apolito’s documentary on her life and times, “Love, Gilda.” OK, Gilda wasn’t live, but her spirit was definitely present. Working with the Radner estate, D’Apolito had access to diaries, audio and videotapes documenting Gilda’s childhood, her comedy career, her relationships, and tragically, the ovarian cancer that brought her life to an untimely end. The result is a touching biography in film. Look in the B.A.R. arts pages for an interview with the director when “Love, Gilda” opens in theaters this coming Sept. 21. In the meantime, here are a few of our off-the-cuff observations (French cuffs, lapis links): Radner always reminded Out There of comedian Lucille Ball. She was similarly gifted with sheer genius for comic physicality, and full of gleeful energy. In the film, we’re treated to clips of Radner playing some of

her indelible characters: Judy Miller (“The Judy Show!”), Baba Wawa, Lisa Loopner, Candy Slice, and of course Roseanne Roseannadanna. We learn that Radner based her immortal creation Emily Litella (“Never mind!”) on a beloved nanny. One odd thing about the film is that, except for a short glimpse of Chevy Chase (by far the least talented of the cast), the film doesn’t interview any of the classic SNL stars who worked with Radner. Yet it includes plenty of footage of younger SNL players who never knew her, reading excerpts from her diaries and other writings. That said, classic SNL player Laraine Newman was in the house for opening night, and in a Q&A after the screening, she and D’Apolito discussed the making of the movie. Long story short, when she knew she was terminally ill, Radner wrote at length about her life and work, and it is these musings and insights, never before made public, that power the documentary. Watching talented young comedians Amy Poehler, Bill Hader and others reading these diary

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entries is quite moving. Though they are decades younger than Radner, you can see that her influence and genius still inspire them. The film also shows how tender and loving Gilda’s relationship with her last husband Gene Wilder, another comic genius for the ages, clearly was. Though he died before “Love, Gilda” was completed, D’Apolito was able to interview Wilder and glean insights. OT watched the early years of SNL, and now in the Trump era we watch the best clips of the current incarnation online. “Love, Gilda” reminded us of some of the classic comedy we witnessed. But it also made us wonder, why weren’t there any out LGBT comedians in the landmark show? Even in recent years, this is a clear lack. Sure, Hader’s “Stefan” was a great testament to the gay gene, but was very much invented from the outside in. Until there’s a gay producer where the very straight Lorne Michaels now sits, we’ll remain unsatisfied.

Culture pass

A recent item in The New York Times’ Arts pages made us stop and think. A new initiative called Culture Pass has made it possible for all holders of a New York City library card to gain free admission to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim, the Brooklyn Museum and 30 other New York cultural institutions. The free pass is being funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and some philanthropic foundations. We wonder, why isn’t this possible in the Bay Area? There are so many wonderful cultural institutions here – we’re thinking SFMOMA, the Fine Arts Museums/SF, the Berkeley Art Museum, others – where the price of admission may be daunting for many. Let’s make it happen: the San Francisco Public Library card should become a Golden Ticket to the Arts in the Bay Area!t

Both photos: Courtesy SFJFF

Above: Gilda Radner, as seen in director Lisa D’Apolito’s documentary on her life and times, “Love, Gilda.” Below: Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder, from director Lisa D’Apolito’s “Love, Gilda.”

Change of life

by Jim Piechota

Calypso by David Sedaris; Little, Brown & Co., $28

hoever said that 60 is the new 40 hasn’t met writer David Sedaris. The popular satirist’s latest collection of tragicomic essays “Calypso” finds the pithy, prolific wordsmith at his finest. Having now surpassed middle age, he’s most emphatic and chatty about aging, mortality, family matters, and how a turtle and a tumor changed his life. Sedaris, 61, has his hands full these days with concerns over his health, as evidenced in an essay on his purchase of a Fitbit. There are pages of gleeful reading about the absurdities of growing older in a world preoccupied with distracted youth, overbearing store employees, political imposters, and Instagram feeds. While the subject matter hovers around age and familial histrionics, sometimes to a gloomy extent, there are also moments of levity. There is a hilarious chapter on touring Tokyo with his sister, the multi-talented Amy Sedaris, to partake in a weeklong consumerist extravaganza while rationalizing that “shopping has nothing to do with money.” Memories of family vacations to Emerald Isle off the coast of North

Carolina bleed into an anecdote involving a lumpy turtle whom Sedaris “befriends” and likens to himself. The likeness is mostly due to the benign fatty skin tumor that Sedaris has removed. When he asks if he can keep the excised tumor, the doctor cites a “federal law” restricting him from giving away anything removed from his body. “But it’s my tumor,” Sedaris argues. “I made it.” He finds another physician to remove the lump who allows him to keep it, which he then proceeds to feed to the turtle. More than a little bizarre, but it’s the kind of narrative that will keep the reader’s eyes glued to the page. Sometimes Sedaris finds himself

perplexed by the behavior of those around him. “As I grow older, I find that the people I know become crazy in one of two ways,” he writes: amassing rescue pets in their home, or becoming obsessive about their “disease prevention” miracle diets. He can never seem to anticipate which extreme his friends will gravitate to until it’s too late. He also reveals frustrations about road-raged drivers, quizzical conversations with strangers in public venues, and the loving, convoluted banter shared with his longtime partner Hugh Hamrick. Elsewhere loom the dark clouds of his family life. Sedaris writes poignantly about his relationship with his conservative father. He also details the life and sad decline of the matriarch of his family, Sharon, saddled with a cancer diagnosis and alcohol consumption. He ponders the unexpected suicide of his baby sister Tiffany just before her 50th birthday, leaving a will behind that forbade any family member from having her body or attending her memorial service. “Calypso” is a precarious mixture of the bright and the overcast. While many of these 21 entries have appeared elsewhere, Sedaris’s genius is worth multiple readings. This dark, delicious, savory food for thought dazzles and delights.t

Film>>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

More Jewish perspectives in movies

Courtesy SFJFF

Scene from director Sam Pollard’s “Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me.”

by David Lamble

he 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival’s final four days at the Castro Theatre feature 20 programs, narratives and documentaries focusing on identity – sexual, ethnic and religious. “The Fourth Estate” Awardwinning doc-maker Liz Garbus embarks on an audacious mission: follow the writers and editors of The New York Times as they attempt to cover and make sense of the first 100

days of Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The Castro screening will be followed by Garbus’ onstage conversation with filmmaker Bonni Cohen (“An Inconvenient Sequel”). (7/26) “Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me” If you grew up in the 1950s, you’ll remember AM radio formats and Hollywood buddy flicks that featured the slick comedy and vocal talents of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and company. Sammy Davis, Jr. was the sole black member of Sinatra’s Rat Pack, but he was so

much more. Seen dating “Vertigo” star Kim Novak, Davis aroused the ire of Columbia Pictures’ Harry Cohn, who demanded that he stick to black women. Survivor of an auto crash in which he lost an eye, Davis converted to Judaism, supported Jack Kennedy’s White House bid, and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1972 Davis supported Richard Nixon’s scandalplagued re-election, and appeared on Norman Lear’s pioneering TV sitcom “All in the Family,” kissing the show’s resident bigot, Archie Bunker. (Castro closing night, 7/29, director Sam Pollard in person) “The Mossad” Duki Dror explores the history of Israel’s pioneering spy agency, created in 1949 to protect the Jewish state from its enemies in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Features interviews with former Mossad chiefs who reveal once-sensitive information about stuff spies do that governments usually disavow. (7/26) “Scaffolding” Matan Yair directs this Israeli/Polish co-production on the coming of age of an Israeli teen whose high school education is shaped by his dad and high school literature teacher. In Hebrew with English subtitles. (7/26) “Winter Hunt” German drama about a young girl who holds an old Nazi and his adult daughter hostage in the woods. The powerful climax involves lingering issues from a century of Holocaust history. In German with English subtitles. (7/26)

“The Devil We Know” Kristen Lazure and Stephanie Soechtig’s documentary exposes the Dupont chemical corporation’s production of Teflon, which keeps our pans from sticking but also has deadly side effects, at its plant in Parkersburg, W. Va. (7/27) “The End of Meat” German docmaker Marc Pierschel finds future culinary alternatives for vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians. In German and English, with English subtitles. (7/27) “Netizens” Cynthia Lowen explores emerging Internet civil rights issues through the experiences of three women whose lives have been upended by cyber-harassment. Lowen and one of her subjects, Anita Sarkeesian, answer questions following the screening. (7/27) “Science Fair” Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster take us behind the scenes with kids attending a science & engineering fair as they interact with adult professionals and contemplate their own lives and careers. (7/27) “The Sentence” Rudy Valdez tracks the consequences of mandatory minimum-sentence laws on his sister, a young mother whose boyfriend was a drug dealer. Cindy Valdez got a 15-year federal prison sentence. The film delves into the impact on her young family. (7/27) “Roll Red Roll” Nancy Schwartzman examines “the culture of rape” in the case of a Steubenville, OH teen assaulted by members of the

high school football team. Director Nancy Schwartzman appears in person for a post-film Q&A. (7/28) “Crossroads” North Carolina high school lacrosse team gets a Jewish coach. (7/28) “Satan & Adam” Director V. Scott Balcerek shows the unusual bonds that developed in 1986 when a blond Jewish kid happened upon an African American street musician. The story takes a series of unusual twists and turns. Director and one of the subjects appear in post-screening Q&A. (7/28) “Promise at Dawn” Adaptation of Romain Gary novel by writerdirector Eric Barbier stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as Gary’s single mother. In French with English subtitles. (7/28) “The Museum” Director Ran Tai tells the story of the Israel Museum, an institution that houses many artifacts relating to the nation’s founding and struggles to survive. (7/29) “Simon & Theodore” Director Mikael Buch takes us on a long night’s journey in the company of a man and a teenage boy who share their problems and needs. (7/29) “The Last Suit” Pablo Solarz tells the tale of an 88-year-old tailor who makes a suit for a friend who helped him survive the Holocaust. (7/29) “Naila and the Uprising” Julia Bacha presents the story of a Palestinian women’s movement. (7/29)t

of us who didn’t see Trump coming may also miss more sinister changes in the landscape. This Sundance-

heralded doc is at times a lot of fun, but it never lets us forget that the joke could be on us.t

More info: sfjff.org.

Corporate dirty dealing by David Lamble

n “All the President’s Men,” the brilliant Robert Redford-produced drama about the insidious forces behind the 1972 campaign to reelect President Nixon, the injunction is heard to “follow the money.” That film was a fact-based political thriller whose thesis was that big money controlls our elections and threatens our democracy. The new documentary “Dark Money” (opens Friday) argues that the Watergate-era reforms addressing the Nixon scandals have been eclipsed by more sinister efforts by corporations (and possibly foreign governments) to rig the system through the use of huge amounts of untraceable funds, allowing donors to bypass voters and handpick candidates sworn to do their bidding. Out LGBTQ director Kimberly Reed takes us to the geographic epicenter of the crisis, showing us more about the state of Montana than any of us might have thought we needed to know. Reed explains that Montana’s history of corporate dirty dealing extends back to the age of the Robber Barons, who desecrated the landscape in the search for copper. One of the most disturbing images from “Dark Money” is the sight of toxic pools in which migrating birds perish.

Scene from “Dark Money”

In her director’s statement Reed recalls the moment she heard a radio report describing the 2010 Supreme Court decision (“Citizens United”) that held that “corporations are people, and money is speech.” Thus campaign money reforms were judged to be an unconstitutional burden on free speech. Ironically for fans of retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, his vote was part of the five-to-four majority upholding “Citizens United.” A fascinating aspect of the film’s story is the division it finds within the ranks of Montana Republicans. Several moderate GOPers blame the billionaire Koch Brothers for their efforts to weed the state Republican Party of all who opposed their plans. “Dark Money” resonates with quirky real-life characters, including a dogged investigative reporter, John Adams. Let go by his paper The Great Falls Tribune “due to restructuring,” Adams sells his possessions and lives out of his car in order to stay on the story; Ann Ravel, an Obama pick for the Federal Election Commission who discovers that a vote in the lock-step Republican faction on the commission blocks any opposition to the corporate agenda; Art Wittich, a powerful pro-Koch Bros. Republican Senate Majority Leader whose corruption trial is one of the film’s few hopeful moments; and Steve Bullock, a crusading politician who challenges “Citizens United” before the Supreme Court. Credit Reed for telling a complex tale as if it were a page-turning thriller. The film’s lessons include the reminder that even our heroes such as pro-gay Justice Kennedy have their own dark sides, and that libertarian views that frown on sodomy laws can also favor less savory goals. This documentary’s

most valuable lesson is that the battle for democracy is never over, and there aren’t any timeouts. Those

<< Theatre

24 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

Cultural appropriation in the art world by Jim Gladstone

wo audacious works of theater with art and identity at their cores are currently playing Bay Area stages. Where the San Francisco Playhouse’s excellent “Sunday in the Park with George,” reviewed here last week, is cool and canonical, Shotgun Players’ “White” is emotionally hot and utterly of the moment. Playwright James Ijames’ biting contemporary comedy, sleekly directed by M. Graham Smith, begins with Gus (Adam Donovan), a struggling young gay painter, who persuades Vanessa (Santoya Fields), an African American actress, to assist him in a scam. After college chum and curator Jane (Luisa Frasconi) excludes him from a major exhibition of new artists because he is a “white dude,” Gus asks Vanessa to pose as an artist and submit some of his paintings in the hopes of winning a place in the show. If you think making that request is skating on thin ice, just wait. You’ve bought yourself a ticket to the Identity Politics Capades. Gus doesn’t merely want Vanessa to serve as his stand-in, he wants her to play a coarser, brasher, less articulate woman than she actually is: a “blacker” black person.

Ben Krantz Studio

Adam Donovan as Gus, and Jed Parsario as Tanner, in Shotgun Players’ “White.”

Oblivious and patronizing, he assures her he knows what he’s doing. After all, “Every gay man has a black woman inside,” says Gus, who claims Diana Ross as his spirit animal. The fairy’s godmother, also played by Fields, manifests onstage in several laugh-out-loud interludes, all sugary whispers and empty-caloried affirmations. Why self-possessed Vanessa

would ever accept Gus’ ill-considered offer requires the most difficult suspension of disbelief Ijames asks of his audience. Because she’s an actress, and this is a role-playing challenge? Because this is a comedy, so what the hell? In any case, we are faced with the skin-crawling spectacle of Gus playing racist Henry Higgins to Vanessa’s Eliza Doolittle. On goes the

Afro wig and up goes the sass factor. Stand back for the finger-wagging and “Oh no you diiin’t!” jive. This new persona will go not by Vanessa, but by “Balkonaé.” Higgins’ “I think she’s got it!” becomes Gus’ vainglorious “Whoop, there it is!” While the play’s script could use a bit of refinement in regard to Vanessa’s initial motives and Gus’ sometimes over-the-top immaturity, Shotgun’s production goes a long way toward smoothing over the writing’s rough spots. Director M. Graham Smith keeps the action moving swiftly and seamlessly, thanks in no small part to Nina Ball’s elegant sliding-paneled set and Santoya Fields’ remarkably fluid transitions between Vanessa, Balkonaé, and Diana. Ijames’ writing deepens as the play progresses. Just when he seems to be settling into righteous, rather conventional P.C. liberalism, he takes a fascinating turn. Rather than maintaining focus on the annoyingly tunnel-visioned Gus, he turns to the relationship between Vanessa and Balkonaé, who indeed wins a place in the art exhibition. Ironically, in playing a role that meets the white art establishment’s preconceptions of a black woman artist, Vanessa begins to feel em-

powered. She’s as seduced by Balkonaé as museum leaders are, and disinclined to let Gus claim any victory in his ruse. By leveraging stereotypes to her advantage, she has, however fleetingly, got a leg up on the privileged likes of Gus. The play is further peppered with complexity by Gus’ domestic life. His doting partner Tanner (Jed Parsario), an Asian-American schoolteacher, is unsurprisingly ruffled by Gus’ resentment over the rise in opportunities for artists of color. In one of the show’s smartest, slyest exchanges, one that will be familiar to members of interracial couples, the pair jostles with the fact that they’re not merely “us” or “the same.” The play’s audacious final scene finds “White” becoming “Black Mirror,” in more ways than one. In a twist worthy of television’s dark sci-fi anthology, questions of “us” and “the same” return to Vanessa and Balkonaé. Standing before a museum audience of scenesters and donors, they literally debate each other, two characters trapped within one body, one wanting to speak her truth, the other willing to say whatever it takes to be heard.t “White” plays through Aug. 5. www.ShotgunPlayers.org.

Composer, icon, working musician by Philip Campbell

t 81, Philip Glass may never escape the label of minimalist composer. His prolific career has grown since the 1970s to produce an awesome wealth of music. Despite writing everything from ballets to operas, theatre music, films, and symphonies, his legacy will still most likely be best known for his hugely influential early style. Performing on piano with harpist Lavinia Meijer and cellist Matt Haimovitz in recent chamber concerts at SFJAZZ Center, Glass managed to exemplify another title that is undisputable. He has always been a working musician. Evenings devoted to some of his works for piano were also part of the “Philip Glass Fest.” He played alongside Anton Batagov, Aaron Diehl and Jenny Lin to further demonstrate his own performing skills. On opening night, Glass unobtrusively made a solo entrance,

Since 1977

without introduction, to the nally written for piano and stage of the Miner Auditoviolin), the young musical rium. The ageless icon briefly colleagues showed an easy acknowledged the welcoming musical alignment with the ovation before turning to the old pro. piano and the real business at The most deeply satisfyhand, his first set. ing and perhaps the most One of the most revelatory characteristic selection came aspects of the concert that from the opening of the followed was the recognition concert itself and Glass’ own of some of the composers solo performance of “Mad who have influenced him. Rush,” adapted from an earlier The sheer volume of Glass’ organ piece. Funny, in a way, compositional output has inbut endearing, the composer evitably included some misses has never played his own and mediocre re-statements, music with the kind of fierce but his inborn technique pinpoint perfection of other has always been the brilliant pianists. He does have miracuRick Swig trademark of his own highly lous energy, though, and it Philip Glass Chamber Trio, with Matt Haimovitz and Lavinia Meijer, performed recognizable style. served him well as the cell-like Pleasing his admirers but as part of the Philip Glass Fest at SFJAZZ Center. phrases inexorably emerged. maddening some critics, Glass The sound of his touch added on, maintaining a strong commitHarpist Lavinia Meijer also demhas remained amazingly conwarm personality. ment to himself while listening onstrated poise and accuracy in her sistent. Hearing the subtle influence “Mad Rush” was written for the closely to the world outside. solo moments. “The Hours” from of others, as it emerged in the barer Dalai Lama on his 1979 visit to St. Other composers are rarely prothe film of the same name was arscoring of the program’s chamber John the Divine Cathedral in New grammed in a Philip Glass concert, ranged by her. The clear, gleaming transcriptions, showed the great inYork. As an example of the stunbut the rules were softened to allow tone of her playing brought fresh fluencer was also listening to others ning impression the composer made talented cellist Matt Haimovitz a go insight to a beautiful piece. as he wrote his own masterpieces. early in his career, he couldn’t have at some Bach (J.S.) in his solo sets. Joining with the composer for Where does music come from, made a better choice as an opener It offered a juxtaposition that vivtrio readings of music from “The after all? Glass has been pondering for the Philip Glass Fest last week. idly underscored the relationship Tissues” (a set of pieces derived the question for most of his life, but The working-musician composer is between a composer’s technique from the film “Naqoyqatsi”), Etude still making audiences sit up and pay has admitted it will probably remain and style. No. 10, and “The Orchard” (origiclose attention, one gig at a time.t a mystery. He has sensibly moved

Nostalgic reflections by Gregg Shapiro

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ike the members of The Beatles who sought spiritual enlightenment via Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Pete Townshend of The Who trod a similar path through his interactions with Meher Baba. The guru’s impact on Townshend was so great that there are more photos of him than of Townshend in the artwork for “Who Came First” (UMe), the official 1972 solo debut by The Who’s lead guitarist and chief songwriter. Newly reissued in an expanded 45th anniversary double-disc set, the original album, filling one CD, and a second CD of 17 tracks of bonus material, are a far cry from both Townshend’s trademark work with The Who and his later solo releases. Still,

from gorgeous meditative numbers “Content” and “Parvardigar” to more rock- and pop-oriented tunes “(Nothing is Everything) Let’s See Action,” “Sheraton Gibson” and “Pure & Easy,” there’s no doubt this is the work of Townshend. John Fogerty was also originally associated with a band from the 1960s. Along with his brother Tom, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook, Fogerty formed Credence Clearwater Revival, and had an impressive string of well-received albums and hit singles (“Born on the Bayou,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Up Around the Bend,” “Fortunate Son,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Down on the Corner” and “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”), all with a Southern blues rock flair. But Fogerty’s solo career was fraught with legal en-

tanglements, so his output wasn’t as prolific as it could have been. A critical and commercial breakthrough occurred with 1985’s “Centerfield” (BMG), newly reissued in an expanded edition that includes two B-side bonus tracks (“My Toot Toot,” “I Confess”). The disc’s big hits are so different it’s funny that they appeared on the same album. “The Old Man Down the Road” is as swampy as the best CCR tunes. The title track, with its period synth instrumentation, is still a catchy tune. Also notable are the songs “Mr. Greed” and “Vanz Kant Danz,” in which Fogerty takes archnemesis Saul Zaentz to task.t

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<< Film

26 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

Gay pioneers in the pool

Logo-TV

The West Hollywood Aquatics Team (“WH2O”) in “Light in the Water.”

by Brian Bromberger

ne of the last bastions of homophobia to be overcome is in competitive sports, including the stereotype that all gay people hate athletics. Logo-TV’s latest documentary “Light in the Water” tells the untold story of a LA competitive swim team that became a force in the LGBTQ sports movement. It plays through July, and is streamable beginning July 20. The West Hollywood Aquatics Team (“WH2O”) were pioneers in gay sports. With a current roster of

more than 180 individuals, the organization grew out of a group of athletes training for the first quadrennial Gay Games in 1982, founded by the late Dr. Tom Waddell, an Olympic decathlete, in San Francisco. Many of the original founding members interviewed in the film had a similar experience of being on a swim team in high school, then identified as a “fag” and persecuted or removed since “gay was the kiss of death, it was so stigmatizing.” WH2O had only two months to train, but wound up receiving

38 medals (32 gold) in those inaugural games, providing 73 athletes of the 7,300 who competed. The documentary tells the story of this pioneering group who prized inclusion and dignity to combat stigma, and in the process became a family. Bonding as the team became a way to socialize outside bars. Wanting to continue competing, they became founding members of the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA) for non-Gay Game years. The group is sanctioned by U.S. Masters Swimming, meaning re-

cords were kept as teams participated in regional, national, and international meets and tournaments. WH2O sent members to attend regional governing boards and was instrumental in fighting for a nondiscrimination policy that added sexual orientation. “At the beginning there were only four national gay and lesbian delegates, and we were pariahs. No one would eat with us. Now when we go to banquets, everyone wants to sit at the gay table.” The team battled prejudice in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, with people afraid they could contact the disease from swimming in public pools. But in 1984 West Hollywood was incorporated, and with a openly gay/lesbian majority of the Council, the city allowed WH2O to use the public pool. “Light in the Water” serves as a history of the first five Gay Games, showing its exponential growth despite the Olympic Committee successfully suing to prevent them from using the word Olympics, costing them $30,000 in unusable souvenirs. WH2O refused to comply, buying the commemorative T-shirts, ripping off the masking tape covering the word Olympic, and wearing them proudly in the streets of SF. The best parts of the film are the interviews with senior members, revealing how transformative the team was in helping them be proud to be LGBT. Coach Morri Sprang tells how her teaching contract wasn’t renewed when the Principal discovered the master of

a Gay Olympics flyer in a copy machine. “It made the mission of the Gay Games clear to me. We will be strong if we are in numbers. We will only be in numbers when we come out. That’s when I decided I’m not going to hide anymore.” Though WH20 promoted itself as a gay team, the roster of members was confidential, and newsletters were sent in blank envelopes. AIDS eventually claimed 38 team members. WH2O had sewing parties to make panels with blue background and black lines like a swimming pool, with names of those who died, for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Many survivors felt swimming kept them alive. Jim Ballard, perhaps the star of the documentary, became the first HIV+ athlete to break a world record in the short-course 100meter backstroke. Today the team welcomes athletes regardless of skill, gender, race, sexual orientation, or disability, and 20-30% of the current team is heterosexual. The documentary concludes with the wedding of two younger members, one of whom had gone to a City Council meeting in his Speedo to lobby for a new pool deep enough for water polo championships. It worked, and an AIDS memorial will be erected on the site of the old pool. “Light in the Water” documents how everything this trailblazing team did made history. The LGBT equality movement has much to thank for WH2O, proving that gay athletes are not oxymorons.t

center. A New York economics professor (Constance Wu) accompanies her boyfriend (Henry Golding) to his native Singapore, and learns that he and his family are extremely wealthy. Jon M. Chu directs this adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s novel. “Down a Dark Hall” Rodrigo Cortes directs this adaptation of Lois Duncan’s young-adult horror novel. Anna-Sophia Robb plays a girl sent to a strange boarding school. Uma Thurman plays the headmistress. “The Happytime Murders” Brian (son of Jim) Henson directs a puppet story that sounds darker than what his father is known for. The cast members of puppet TV show “The Happytime Gang” are murdered. Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale and Elizabeth Banks are in the cast. “Juliet, Naked” In this adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel, Rose Byrne plays a museum curator at an impasse in a relationship with an obsessed fan (Chris O’Dowd) of a rock star (Ethan Hawke) who disappeared. She strikes up an email relationship with the musician. Jesse Peretz directs. “Memoir of War” Adapted from Marguerite Duras’ memoir. Mélanie Thierry plays the writer during

WWII, when she and her husband were part of the French Resistance. After he is taken to Dachau, she must get close to a Vichy officer (Benoît Magimel). “John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection” Julien Faraut uses footage from the 1984 French Open to construct this meditation on a tennis star’s court style and overthe-top personality. “The Bookshop” Emily Mortimer plays a widow who opens a bookstore in an English town in 1959, scandalizing her neighbors with “Lolita.” Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy co-star. Isabel Coixet directs. “Papillon” In another adaptation of the Henri Charrière novel “Papillon” (the 1973 version starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman), Charlie Hunnam steps in for McQueen, and Rami Malek has the Hoffman role, allies at a French penal colony. “Slender Man” This work of Eric Knudsen, aka Victor Surge, became an internet meme and the subject of fan fiction after he first appeared in 2009. “Support the Girls” Mumblecore champ Andrew Bujalski (“Funny Ha Ha”) examines the camaraderie at a Hooters-like restaurant whose manager (Regina Hall) looks out for her employees. With Haley Lu Richardson and Shayna McHayle. “The Little Stranger” In his first feature since “Room,” Lenny Abrahamson directs this adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2009 novel, about a doctor (Domhnall Gleeson) who pays a house call to a haunted estate headed by Charlotte Rampling. Ruth Wilson and Will Poulter co-star. “A Paris Education” Jean-Paul Civeyrac directs this black-and-white story about a film student in Paris working to refine his notions of cinema and romance.t

Last call for summer flicks by David Lamble

e wrap up our round-up of summer movies. Here’s what to expect in August. “Nico, 1988” Susanna Nicchiarelli’s portrait of the final years of the Velvet Underground singer and Andy Warhol superstar is an offbeat biopic shot in the squarish aspect ratio of Warhol’s Edie Sedgwick films. The Danish actress Trine Dyrholm does her own singing. “Christopher Robin” An adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) reunites with Winnie-the-Pooh (voice of Jim Cummings) in a reboot that mixes actors and computer-animated favorites from the Hundred Acre Wood. The story is by Alex Ross Perry. Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland”) directs. “The Darkest Minds” A detained teenager with special powers (Amandla Stenberg) joins a group of like-powered teenagers to form a rebellion. Based on the Alexandra Bracken novel. Mandy Moore co-stars. Jennifer Yuh Nelson directs. “Mile 22” In the latest bang-emup derby from Peter Berg, Mark Wahlberg is an intelligence officer charged with smuggling a police officer out of the country. Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey co-star. “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” Set in the 1990s, the winner of Sundance’s top US dramatic competition prize has a high schooler (Chloë Grace Moretz) go to a center for gay conversion therapy. With Sasha Lane and John Gallagher Jr. Desiree Akhavan directs. “Searching” When his daughter disappears, a widowed father (John Cho) searches for her using any clue he can find online. Thanks to clever use of FaceTime-like videos and news broadcasts, every shot in Aneesh Chaganty’s movie is of a computer screen. With Debra Messing.

“The Spy Who Dumped Me” After one of them has a breakup with a CIA operative, two friends (Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon) become embroiled in international intrigue. Susanna Fogel directs. “The Wife” Tensions come to a head between a writer (Glenn Close) and her husband (Jonathan Pryce) as he prepares to receive the Nobel Prize. Christian Slater also stars in this adaptation of the Meg Wolitzer novel. “BlacKkKlansman” Spike Lee, who coaxed a great performance out of NBA player Ray Allen in “He Got Game,” directs John David Washington (son of Denzel and a former professional football player) as an African-American cop who goes undercover in the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado. Adam Driver plays his partner, and Jordan Peele is one of the producers. Based on the memoir by Ron Stallworth.

“Madeline’s Madeline” Helena Howard stars as a teenager who becomes untethered as she prepares for a theater role. Molly Parker plays her director, and a subdued Miranda July her mother. This feature from Josephine Decker teeters on the border between narrative and the avant-garde. “Skate Kitchen” A Long Island skateboarder joins up with a crew from the city. Crystal Moselle (2015 documentary “The Wolfpack”) turns to fiction filmmaking with this feature, although many of the skaters are played by members of a reallife collective. Rachelle Vinberg and Jaden Smith star. “Cielo” Alison McAlpine’s experimental doc uses the skies above the Atacama Desert in Chile to pose philosophical questions about humanity and the universe. “Alpha” Separated from his hunting group, a young man (Kodi SmitMcPhee) in the last Ice Age fights to survive with the help of a wolf he tames. Albert Hughes directs. “Crazy Rich Asians” Anticipation is high for a Hollywood movie that puts an Asian story front and

Books>>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Love in a time of resistance

Other Press

“Never Anyone But You” author Rupert Thomson.

by Tim Pfaff

t’s not to diminish the significance of the art Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore made together in and around between-the-world-wars Paris – work receiving renewed attention of late – to say that none of it is absorbing as Rupert Thomson’s masterful novel about them, “Never Anyone But You” (Other Press). The women, lovers since their teens in the French provincial town of Nantes, largely collaborated on their art, Cahun better known for her photography and visuals, and Moore for her writing. But I predict that it’s the two women who step off the pages of Thomson’s searching novel who will do more than any art expo to revive interest in them. The consistent narrative voice is Moore’s, rendered with the alchemy only fiction can concoct. Through her, Thomson takes us deep into the inner lives of these externally daring, internally

complex but temperamentally and temporally love-locked women. I can’t imagine either minding that Thomson’s novel is as much his imagination as their story. Thomson conducts his narrative sorcery right out in the open, lending both history and mystery shape and meaning. Only the opening chapter, in 1940, is out of linear sequence in this otherwise traditionally structured tale, but seldom does an author drop you into the true middle of the story as expertly. It’s bombs that drop, from Nazi warplanes, into the sea off the Channel Island of Jersey while Moore is swimming. Here’s her adumbration of a war that will separate and nearly kill her and her lover, whom she then rushes to join in their seaside shanty without toweling off: “Like everybody on the island, I had been dreading this moment. Now it had come. There were several planes, and they were flying high up, as if wary of anti-aircraft fire…. A wave

caught me and I went under. The ocean seemed to shudder. When I came up again, a column of smoke was rising, treacle-black, above the headland to the east.” That’s in the first paragraph, this novel’s perfect germ. The war – during which the women were imprisoned, in nonadjoining cells, for resisting, artfully and all on their own, the German occupation – is the setting for the core of this story. I’m not sure the reader even needs to know the preceding historical facts, but they are these. As Lucie Schwob, with Jewish parents and grandparents on her father’s side, Claude-to-be met the slightly older Suzanne Malherbe. I haven’t been as moved by the story of sexual awakening among young women since the extraordinary (also “historical”) French film “Summertime.” Then – and this really happened, in Nantes – Lucie’s divorced father married Suzanne’s widowed mother, and they became stepsisters, their guise and, as needed, disguise for the rest of their lives together. Transplanted into the Paris of the surrealists and other bohemians, they mixed and worked alongside Dali, Miro and Hemingway, a scene that played out for them before it played itself out. That’s the basis of their reputations now – or until now – but like most such fictionalized depictions of a period, the wild Paris interlude becomes a pageturner in the wrong sense, though there’s no saying Thomson didn’t intend that. Still, it’s there that Lucie donned men’s clothes to become Claude Cahun, and Suzanne followed suit and became Marcel Moore. That’s what didn’t change when they left the depleting Paris demimonde and moved to Jersey, to The Farm with No Name. What might be the big events in another author’s novel – their trenchant but almost private-joke resistance, their long incarceration and improbable liberation – bow to the women’s inner lives. Moore is the anchor in Claude’s labile, volatile capers, on her best days hypochondriac, routinely suicidal and practicing what her Lacanian successors of the 1970s and 80s would call “psychic mobility.” Claude’s physical disappearances for days at a time are less challenging for Moore than her episodic psychosexual bonding with others – she the more gender-fluid of the two – including men who make phantom-like appearances in her post-gender cyclone. It’s when they are imprisoned in cells far from one another that the reader most feels the emotional force field – more recombinant molecular motion than mundane earthly magnetism – that both binds and frees them. Thomson employs no writerly tricks beyond channeling a story that wants out. The pact – imposed by Claude on Moore, who’s already emotionally there – is that she, Claude, must die first, what with being, in the end, nothing without her sister. The Parisian Claude who declares, “No one has anyone” – introducing a harrowing paragraph it would be desultory to call explanatory of her psychology – doesn’t so much mature as ripen, then wither. It’s Moore, solitary in the years after Lucie’s death, who has the last word. “‘You were everything to me,’ I say out loud, ‘whether you liked it or not. There was never anyone but you.’”t

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<< Film

28 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

Ann Ray, courtesy of Bleecker Street

Scene from co-directors Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s “McQueen.”

McQueen

From page 21

At the aptly titled “It’s a Jungle Out There,” a 1997 spectacle a NYT critic compared to the Island of Dr. Moreau, feral models skulked around in animal skins with horns protruding from their shoulders while the rowdy crowd outside, unable to enter, stormed the barricades and set cars on fire. “My shows are about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll,” McQueen said. “I want heart attacks. I want ambulances.” The appetite for heart attacks and ambulances apparently extended to the over-one-million visitors to “Savage Beauty,” a wildly popular,

Jason Mecier

From page 21

The portraits in the book – each made of colorful candies, computer parts, food packaging, household plastics, and items from the rubbish bin – have appeared in music videos and TV shows, and hang in the homes of celebrities and art collectors around the world. But “Pop Trash” is the first book of Mecier’s work, which has been published in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He’s had numerous shows in the Bay Area, including one that opened last week at Dog Eared Books, 489 Castro St., which runs through the end of the month. On Friday evening, July 27, publisher Chronicle Books is hosting a book launch party at Secession Arts, 3235 Mission St., where you can meet Jason, buy an autographed copy of his book, and see a few new pieces of his work. In a recent interview with the B.A.R., Mecier (pronounced MESSear) talked about his career and hopes for the future. Mecier, who lives in the Mission District with his partner of 27 years Adam Ansell, also an artist, has been making art since Kindergarten. “I was inspired by my grandmother’s passion to create, and mesmerized by her paintings, mosaics, weavings, collages and sculptures that fill her house and yard,” he said. “I was also very impressed

posthumous museum retrospective on both sides of the pond several years ago. But some of McQueen’s designs, while deliciously outrageous, were impossible to wear. Try going out on the town with a prehistoric reptilian spine attached to your back, or better yet, running for the bus in a pair of cruel ankle boots with six-inch heels, studded and shaped like exaggerated ballet shoes permanently en pointe. But it was the fine line between chaos and control that made his fashions exhilarating. The same could be said of McQueen’s life, which, towards the end, was going off the rails between a grueling schedule, plentiful cocaine

with her resourcefulness. She’d rather paint on the back of her cigarette cartons than buy a canvas.” At his grandmother’s house, Mecier worked on his own projects, learning to “create masterpieces” using materials readily available to him. “I learned from her that I can make art out of anything I want. There are no rules.” Mecier also scrapbooked pictures of his favorite shows from TV Guide. In high school, he did pencil drawings of his favorite record covers. Two – Pat Benatar and Olivia Newton John – are included in the book. Mecier’s first celebrity portraits were done in 1990, when he made bean-and-noodle pieces. He moved on to yarn, candy, pills, and trash. “Anything I could find would be turned into material for my work.” Full disclosure: I met Mecier 15 years ago when he had a show at the GlamaRama Salon, where I purchased his portrait of Tammy Faye Baker, her hair done in pinks and reds from makeup and hair rollers, holding her dog Tuppins, made of strings and ropes. After making dozens of celebrity portraits from junk he culled at thrift stores, stuff he imagined the celebrity might own, Mecier moved the bar up a notch and asked celebrities to send him their actual possessions. He did a portrait of Snoop Dogg made from cannabis, Kevin Bacon in bacon, Rosie O’Donnell in junk food, and the Real Housewives in macaroni. The Chronicle Books editors included most of Mecier’s

fueling his paranoia and deeply embedded insecurity, and rumors he was HIV+. His darkness, perhaps related to the unresolved trauma of childhood abuse, and how his emotional autobiography expressed itself through his collections, are the focus of “McQueen,” a handsomely produced, unconventional documentary that’s a fitting tribute to its innovative subject. Filmmakers Ian Bonhote, who has compared McQueen to Mozart, and writer-codirector Peter Ettedgui, who wrote the equally unorthodox doc “Listen to Marlon,” structured their film like a play, dividing it into five chapters or acts. Each is named after a collection and reflects vital moments in McQueen’s personal story, and clues to the fragile psyche that gave rise to his artistry. “We want people to go on the emotional journey he went on, to experience his fast trajectory, a life that was lived at 1,000 miles per hour,” said Ettedgui in a recent interview. “He had a kind of rock-and-roll lifestyle, and many tabloid biographies have dwelled on the details of his sex life and drug habits, etc.,” added Bonhote. “It was time to do something that presents him in a less sensationalistic way, and looks at his life through the lens of his work. He had an extraordinary level of craft. There aren’t many fashion designers who’ve mastered every single phase, from design to the finished piece, or could produce an entire collection with his own hand.” Steering away from celebrity talking heads, they interviewed McQueen’s friends, bereft family members to whom he had been very close, and remarkably candid artistic collaborators such as former assistant Sebastian Pons, who shared the wild ride with McQueen and witnessed his deconstruction. The commentary is expertly integrated with dazzling cinematic visuals from his shows, archival footage, and grainy, “lost” interviews with McQueen. A lush Michael Nyman score and interstitial hallucinatory

images of a skull, a signature McQueen motif, contribute to a mood and aesthetics that elevate the film well above the standard biographical doc. The gay son of a supportive mother and a cab driver who wanted him to become a mechanic, McQueen quit school at 16. Lee to his intimates – he later adopted Alexander, his middle name, for his brand – he was a rotund working-class kid from the East End who looked like a skinhead in an industry that smiles upon the stylish and super-thin. But the boy could sew and tailor like no one else. After apprenticing on London’s prestigious Savile Row, he landed a coveted job at Romeo Gigli’s studio in Italy. By 1996, he was creative director of Givenchy in Paris, and developing his own line. The pressure eventually proved too much, and the fault lines began to show. One moment he was jovial, the next a narcissistic tyrant abusing his devoted staff and cutting off associates like mentor and soulmate Isabella Blow, who, diagnosed with terminal cancer, drank poison; her suicide sent him reeling. Plagued by demons and falling prey to the body-image dysfunction perpetuated by his industry, he underwent liposuction and gastric surgery,

work in the new book, except a decade-old portrait of Donald Trump that the artist did not want to include. “I didn’t want his face or name in my book.”

Although Mecier has become a celebrity himself, fame in the art world is different from fame in the entertainment business, he learned. While he has received many lucra-

emerging cut and buff, a world away from the poor chubby kid he used to be. It was a sign, his friends say, that he was unraveling. “Voss,” a profoundly disturbing blast of macabre fashion theater staged in an old bus depot, was also a warning shot. A foray into decay and bedlam set inside an imaginary madhouse with bandaged models wandering about, it included a tableau with a naked, full-figured woman in an iron gas mask. Slumped on a chair with heavy tubes inserted into her body and covered in moths, she was displayed in a glass cube that shattered at the climax of a show one participant likened to a cross between Kubrick’s “2001” and an insane asylum. The latter destination was where McQueen sensed he was heading if he couldn’t stop his world and get off. Less than a decade later, depleted, empty, alone and inconsolable after losing his mother, he hung himself on the eve of her funeral. Skillfully avoiding the torturedgenius cliché, “McQueen” constructs an artful, art-filled portrait of an enormously creative man whose center could not hold.t Opens July 27 @ Embarcadero Cinemas.

Courtesy of Bleecker Street

“McQueen” co-directors Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui.

Chronicle Books

Jason Mecier’s portrait of “Magic Mike,” from “Pop Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier.”

tive commercial assignments over the years, Mecier found that it was grueling to create the junk portraits (which took up to 50 hours to complete) then have to negotiate a gallery show and find the right buyer for each piece. While many of the celebrities bought their own portraits, the sale often wasn’t easy. “Celebrities are used to going out to a party where they get a gift bag that may have a Rolex inside,” he said. “They’re used to getting stuff for free, and some seem surprised that I want to sell them the art. They seem to think I should give it to them. But who can afford to do that?” Mecier said a lot of his favorite celebrities have sent him their junk and bought the finished art, including Parker Posey, Pink, Elvira, Margaret Cho, Rosie O’Donnell, Hugh Hefner, George Lopez, and many others. But in general “it’s a hard sell to a lot of celebrities. If I didn’t have this rent-controlled apartment, I doubt I’d be able to stay in San Francisco,” he said. Complicating matters, tech workers are “just not that interested in buying art. “I’m very appreciative that I have been able to make a living selling my art all these years. This book is a huge accomplishment, and I’m so proud of it.” Mecier says his calendar is booked with commissions for the next couple of months. “After that, who knows? My publisher has already asked me what the next book is going to be. I was glad they asked the question, but I think it’s way too soon to say.”t Pop Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier, $29.95. Opening party Fri., July 27, 6-8 p.m., Secession Art & Design, 3235 Mission St., SF. Free.

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Shining Stars Vol. 48 • No. 30 • July 26-August 1, 2018

Steven Underhill

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

The Last Dance

Nob Hill Theatre, SF’s only male strip club, to close by Cornelius Washington

ne of the most difficult things to do in art and entertainment nightlife is bowing out while you’re on top. Before the Chippendales and Magic Mike franchises, there was The Nob Hill Theatre, the world’s first gay male strip establishment. For nearly four decades, the combination of sensuality, sexuality, dance, muscle and music in this iconic venue was the epitome of gay male erotic entertainment. See page 31 >>

Dancers perform at a 2014 Burlesque night at The Nob Hill Theatre.

An affectionate moment between leather bears at 2016’s Up Your Alley Street Fair.

Getting sexy Up Your Alley Street Fair’s fetish alfresco by Race Bannon

Rich Stadtmiller

uckle up kids. As this column hits the streets and online, the busy weekend of leather and kink happenings punctuated by the Up Your Alley Street Fair is underway. This year’s schedule is packed to the rafters with stuff to do. See page 32 >>

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

LGBTQ Parade and Festival

August 25-26 Downtown San Jose

svpride.com #svpride

Ride to Pride with VTA

Supported, in part, by a Cultural Aﬀairs grants from the City of San Jose.

<< BARchive

30 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

Beats, Bohemians and Bars

Jack Spicer, Allen Ginsberg and their circle’s San Francisco haunts

by Michael Flanagan

literary spark started fires on the east and west coasts of the U.S. following World War II. The Beat writers in New York and the Berkeley (or San Francisco) renaissance poets in the Bay Area started out separately, but they converged in a conflagration that still gives light and heat today. Their respective circles spent time in bars and coffee houses in San Francisco – some unexpected and many still here. Jack Spicer met the poet Robert Duncan in Berkeley in 1946. Lewis Ellingham and Kevin Killian’s biography of Spicer, Poet Be Like God, notes that it was such an earth-shaking event that Spicer later called ’46 the year of his birth – renouncing his first 21 years of life. Duncan published his groundbreaking essay, The Homosexual in Society, two years before their meeting. Together with the poet Robin Blaser these three gay men were key figures in the movement that would be the San Francisco Renaissance. Spicer and Duncan both participated in Madeline Gleason’s first Festival of Modern Poetry in 1947. It was so successful that by 1951 it moved from a gallery to the San Francisco Museum of Art. Spicer was also one of the founders of the 6 Gallery (3119 Fillmore), where Allen Ginsberg first read Howl on Oct. 7, 1955 (a year after Ginsberg moved to San Francisco). Unlike Duncan or Blaser, Spicer spent a considerable amount of his time in bars. His drinking would ultimately cause his death at age 40 in 1965. Because of this, both his life and occasionally his work reflect the gay bar culture of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Ellingham and Killian’s biography mentions that Spicer spent time at the White Horse by 1950. Spicer’s poetry mention gay bars in several places, including in Imaginary Elegies I, where he says:

All photos; San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

Left: Allen Ginsberg marching with a group of picketers protesting the war in Vietnam (Oct. 1963). Middle: Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading poetry at the Coffee Gallery (which was Miss Smith’s Tea Room - a lesbian bar - until the year before this). Right: Lawrence Ferlinghetti with Howl after City Lights bookstore had been raided in 1957.

“When I praise the sun or any bronze god derived from it/ Don’t think I wouldn’t rather praise the very tall blonde boy/ Who ate all my potato-chips at the Red Lizard.” The Red Lizard (545 Washington) was the bar in the Old Grotto restaurant. It existed only from 1948 to 1951, and aside from the mention in a Spicer poem is notable because it was owned by Sol Stoumen, who also owned The Black Cat. Besides referring to the Red Lizard, Spicer also mentions The Black Cat and The Place (1564 Grant) in his work. The Place was a bar where the Beats and the San Francisco Renaissance poets came together. Black Mountain College alumni Leo Krikorian and Knute Stiles were

the owners and the bar featured ‘Blabbermouth Night,’ where Spicer presided. It was an open mic night where patrons would read their latest work or spout nonsense tunil the audience either cheered or jeered them off the podium. The poet John Allen Ryan, a founder of 6 Gallery with Spicer and a sometime lover of Ginsberg, was a bartender at the Place. Spicer also mentions the Handlebar (1438 California) one of the first Polk Street bars from the early ‘60s which marked the transition of gay men from North Beach to Polk Street. The most surprising place where Spicer held court still exists: Gino & Carlo’s (548 Green). When Gino Guidi and Carlo Matteucci opened their bar in 1942, I would guess they didn’t plan on it being a gay bar. Yet by 1960 it was, at least in part, just by force of Spicer hanging out there with his circle of friends. It was at this bar where an encounter between Ginsberg and Spicer took place that Blaser reported in his Collected Books of Jack Spicer: “Allen arrived at Jack’s table in Gino & Carlo’s bar and said he’d come to save Jack’s soul. Jack replied that he’d better watch it or he’d become a cult leader rather than a poet.” I spoke with Lew Ellingham, who moved to San Francisco in 1954 and was part of Spicer’s circle, about the bar. He recalled that poet George Stanley once stood at the front of the bar and pointed at Grant Street (home of the Beat bars) and said,

“The distance is infinite.” The distance was actually just a few blocks. Miss Smith’s Tea Room (1353 Grant) was a gay bar where both the Beats and the Renaissance poets gathered. It became the Coffee Gallery in 1959 and remained a site where beat writers read and gathered through the ‘60s. This is the current location of Maggie McGarry’ Irish Pub. What is particularly interesting is that gay bars were a neutral territory for the Beats and Renaissance poets. I asked Ellingham if the Anxious Asp (528 Green) was claimed by one of the groups of writers. He responded, “It was gay.” The Anxious Asp is also of note as in the men’s bathroom the walls were papered with the homosexual behavior sections of Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male - an appropriate decoration for the era before Stonewall when sexual behavior and not sexual identity was paramount in both Beat culture and the gay world. Because the Beats were not as concerned with identity, the bars they mention don’t fit a gay/straight dichotomy. Ginsberg wrote a poem on September 1954 entitled “In Vesuvio’s Waiting for Sheila” which appears in his Journals Mid-Fifties 1954-1958. It’s of note because it marks his last heterosexual relationship before he met Peter Orlovsky (who was his partner for the rest

of his life). Vesuvio’s (255 Columbus) makes it into the mythology of Jack Kerouac as well. On an evening in 1960 he had arranged to visit Henry Miller in Big Sur. But instead of making the trip he spent the evening drinking in Vesuvio’s, calling Miller periodically to update him on his (lack of) progress. Though the Beat era passed quickly in San Francisco, its influence did not end immediately. Ginsberg took part in one of the first protests of Vietnam in town, in 1963 (while Kennedy was president). Gino and Carlo’s was where Janis Joplin met Jae Whitaker in spring of 1963. Joplin performed frequently at the Coffee Gallery, which is also the spot where the Jefferson Airplane first played. The influence of the San Francisco Renaissance is still with us as Lewis Ellingham’s most recent book of poetry Black Sand was released earlier this year. Upon her death in 1979, Madeline Gleason’s partner of twenty-five years, Mary Greer, eulogized her by saying, “Madeline died of despair, what all poets die of.” There is only one way to defeat such despair –by reading the works of these writers– and the perfect spot to read them is in one of the bars where they gathered.t

Left/Above Right: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library Below Right: Robert Berg courtesy of Kevin Killian

Left: Henry Lenoir, owner of Vesuvio’s, standing outside the bar next to the “Beatnik kit” window. Above Right: City Lights bookstore in 1958. Below Right: Jack Spicer at the opening of 6 Gallery, October 31, 1954.

Sexuality>>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Naked Sword

Adam Killian, Trenton Ducati and Jake Genesis (with director mrPam, left) in a production photo from the 2012 Naked Sword Grindhouse, shot at The Nob Hill Theatre.

The local crowd and how fun, interesting and friendly they were. We have made great friends here. In addition, we were surprised at the number of foreign visitors the theatre attracts from all over the world.

Nob Hill Theatre

JR Bronson, Nob Hill Theatre co-owner Larry Hoover, and Brian Bonds at the Nob Hill Theatre.

Nob Hill Theatre

From page 29

Opened in 1911 under various businesses, including a jazz club where Louis Armstrong, Jr. once played, the renovated property was a transcendent building, dedicated to glamour, grit and the prime focus of gay sexuality. Iconic magazines, from Architectural Digest to Unzipped, praised both its vices and virtues. Porn films from Wakefield Poole’s Take One (1977) to Naked Sword’s mini-epic Grindhouse (2012) have documented the venue’s sexual ambiance. The number of performers exceeds belief. However, on August 19, the theatre’s owners, Gary Luce and Larry Hoover, will bring down the curtain, turn off the lights and bring an end to a very lively part of erotica culture. The Bay Area Reporter has had a long, sterling relationship with the theatre and its owners and so, I was

prepared to document and reflect, with Gary and Larry, as they set about preparing for the theatre’s final performances, and offer tribute to a moment in the sexual (r)evolution that could happen only in San Francisco. Cornelius Washington: How do you feel that your theatre was a pinnacle of live porn performance? Larry Hoover & Gary Luce: Just the fact that the Nob Hill Theatre was the last live gay porn performance theatre in San Francisco made it one of a kind. We really tried to book the ‘top of the line’ most-popular porn stars and to pair them with other porn stars for the hottest connections that we could arrange. Add to that mix our local house performers who performed every day. We’ve always tried to keep it fresh, interesting and new. Performance-wise, that was the key to our success. What most surprised you about operating the theatre?

A 1977 Bay Area Reporter ad for porn actor Roger’s appearance at The Nob Hill Theatre.

What will you miss most about operating the theatre? The people. Those friendships. Porn stars, house performers and customers alike. What most surprised you about porn stars? We were a little intimidated at first. These were icons in our eyes, people I have watched on DVDs for years. We thought that they would be aloof and to themselves. We were so pleased that that has not been the case. We open our apartment at the theatre as their ‘green room’ before and after their shows. We have really enjoyed getting to know each of them. We have to give credit to Michael Brandon for assisting us in making many of the initial contacts. How has your sexuality evolved while operating the theatre? It definitely has become more casual and fun. You can’t host a successful Circle Jerk if you are not willing to take your dick out of your pants! Who was your hottest porn performer? There are too many to just pick out one. We were most successful with Adam Killian and Rafael Alencar. They both have been making porn for some time and have a huge following. They, along with many others, have become personal friends with whom we hope to stay in touch as we retire. When you retire to Palm Springs, how will you explain San Francisco to your friends? Friends and family know what we have been doing for the past eight years. It makes for good stories around the Thanksgiving table! Tell me about the theatre’s enthusiastic female customers. Did you ever consider having a ladies’ night? If so, why did you decide against it? We have many regular customers. Some like to chit-chat, others like to come in without a lot of conversation. Both have been enthusiastic of what we have to offer. Reading that customer and knowing what they want has always been important to us. We have always been more of a place for guys. Absolutely everyone is welcome, but we cannot be everything to everyone. We do what we do best and that is what we have stuck to. What was the one moment in the theatre that made you gents shriek with delight? The 10p.m. headliner shows usually were with two porn stars. When the connections between the two performers were hot, the shows were unbelievably electric. I’m not sure if we ever shrieked in delight, but those shows were always fun to watch. We also remember when we had a house performer who rode a motorcycle. He talked us into a show where he actually rode his bike

into the theatre. Let’s just say that that happened only once! What was the one moment in the theatre where the onstage sexuality most excited the audience? That is difficult to say. There was the Fleet Week just after ‘Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell’ was repealed, and

we had many customers here in uniform. Adam Killian was our headliner that weekend, and he was so good to the military men and women in attendance that night. He made it special for everyone. It was such a wonderful night. Then, there was the Gay Pride Weekend when same-sex marriage was reinstated. That was a Pride to remember! Some of our favorites were the Folsom Weekends. We pulled out all the stops and so did our performers, house performers and porn stars alike. Those weekends were epic in my mind and the ones we enjoyed the most.t

Read more with Larry and Gary at www.ebar.com For info on The Nob Hill Theatre’s closing celebrations, visit www.thenobhilltheatre.com Cornelius Washington’s Erotic Fetish Photography: www.http://cuirphoto.com

Adam Killian in one of his epic solo shows.

Cornelius Washington

Curtain Call by Cornelius Washington

ome of The Nob Hill Theatre’s performers, guests and employees offered parting quotes in advance of the strip club’s closure. Asked about his showmanship, porn actor and stripper Adam Killian said, “I was a natural performer as a kid and I enhanced that by studying performance, theater and dance through high school and university. So, years of training and experience onstage have definitely given me the fundamentals about how to put on a show. Using that knowledge and having the ability to absorb the energy from a live audience and radiate it back out at them is definitely how the magic happens.” When told that many other performers have expressed a desire to perform with him, Killian replied, “Well, that’s definitely both humbling and an honor. I love working with other talented, creative people and always welcome the chance to learn and share with other performers.” Asked what the Nob Hill Theatre closing means to him, Killian added, “I’ve worked at so many venues around the world, from Moscow to Sydney and almost every country that has cities with a gay scene. The Nob Hill Theatre was one of the first places I started, so it will always have a special place in my heart. “I just performed there this past Gay Pride, celebrating my 20th anniversary at The Nob Hill Theatre. It’s almost unbelievable that I’ve been blessed with such a long, successful and rewarding career. I cherish all the memories and the relationships with the people with whom I’ve worked along the way, and I am truly saddened that the

stage is going dark for good. It’s the end of an iconic era. All I can say is that I’m so grateful to Gary and Larry for reinventing the club these past years and for their enduring support of me and the gay erotic arts. The loyalty amongst all of us is what makes life a joy. “And to the fans that have been there both new and old, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!” Other notable scholars offered their appraisal. Author Boze Hadleigh said, “It’s not just a sexual place. It was a place of community and a landmark that I will definitely miss.” Gay cultural anthropologist Bob Mathis-Friedman recalled visiting the theatre to see a movie during the San Francisco Film Festival. “From the moment that I walked in, I could just feel the decades of the theatre’s history,” he said. “I must say that the owners are very smart to retire at the top of their game.” Dancer Papi Jay, who only started a few weeks ago, said, “The owners are so cool. I’ve met people from all over the world and I’ve made great money. It was a great beginning for me.” Shelby Steward, a theatre clerk for twelve years, quipped, “I laughed. I cried. Mostly, I just came on my lunch break!” Tim, a patron at a recent event, wondered, “Where else can I go and be naked, watch a great sex show, have sex with the porn stars myself, then go downstairs, have sex with other customers, hang out with the owners and still be naked? Where else can I do that?” Where else indeed.t

<< Leather

32 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

look and feel. www.ebar.com To view the online calendar, from the main website navigate to BARtab > Leather-Kink. Once on that page you’ll see a post titled Leather Events with the corresponding dates. If you view this week’s calendar, you’ll immediately realize why I say I can’t possibly discuss everything. We are so lucky in the Bay Area to have such an array of events to attend!

About Sex

Rich Stadtmiller

You’ll meet people of all sizes at the Up Your Alley Street Fair.

Leather

From page 29

Of course, there’s the iconic linchpin event, Up Your Alley, Sunday July 27. I hope you go to many of this weekend’s events, but if there’s only one event you go to, make it this one. It’s entirely unique. Some refer to it as Folsom Street Fair’s little brother, but Up Your Alley has an ethos all its own. Smaller. Gayer. A bit more leather and gearoriented, but people come dressed all sorts of ways. When I attend both events I always reflect on Up Your Alley as having a more deeply rooted gay

men’s sexual and heavy cruising vibe. Of course, people of all stripes attend, but the pervasive leathermen’s flavor has a certain appeal to those of us who revel in such environments. Enjoy. There is no way I can possibly touch upon all the other events going on this weekend. So, I’m going to instead navigate you to the online leather and kink calendar. And if you’re reading this in print, you’ll want to visit the Bay Area Reporter website that was recently revamped with a great new

One of the first questions a visitor and even some locals often asks me during such busy weekends is “Where can I have sex?” For all the fun and frivolity that takes place, the bottom (or top, or versatile) line for many is getting laid. The answer to that question is tricky. Why? Because where you’re “allowed” to have sex is sometimes quite different from where you “can” have sex. Now, by sex here I mean insertive sex. BDSM and certain types of kink play can be an entirely different animal with an entirely different set of rules and guidelines. Here, though, let me explain about the sex part, and I hope this clears up a lot of misconceptions about how such things are organized and planned. As for anything that takes place on the street, and that includes Up Your Alley itself, you can’t have sex in public. Yes, I know. Once upon a time years ago lots of that stuff took place. Welcome to a different era. Don’t blame the producers or organizers of such events. In the case of street sex, take that up with the police and local politicians. It’s entirely in their court. When it comes to sex behind walls, out of the public eye, it’s not always as black and white as it might at first appear. Each hosting venue has its own set of rules. If it’s a bar, they are entirely beholden to local laws and state liquor oversight agencies. Events held elsewhere can sometimes be a grey area regarding sexual activity too. There’s a difficult balancing act between venues, laws, attendee demographics and producers that isn’t always entirely evident to the outsider looking in. As for anyone thinking a producer, especially of an event catering to gay men, wants to overtly “stop sex,” no. Every producer knows quite well that “sex sells” and they’re never going to intentionally squash a sexual environment unless the factors in place make it impossible or extremely difficult to do. That’s a very long-winded prequel to recommending that you realize that when it comes to seeking out sex-friendly venues, you’re going to have to do a bit of the legwork on your own. Some places are officially sex spaces, such as the Steamworks bathhouse in Berkeley. Others might embrace and encourage sex in venues and at events that fit certain legal and rules guidelines. Yet others might tolerate sex with a wink and a nod fully aware there can be risks. Back to the plethora of events happening. Check out the Leather Events calendar. Choose where you want to go and what you want to do. Many of the events can sell out. Procuring tickets in advance is a good idea. Some events also have shorter lines for ticketholders even if they allow tickets purchased at the door. Take this into consideration during your planning.

Kink the Vote verse the edges leverages the alof erotic and reready successful lationship conRock the Vote figurations have platform and it achieved thus far. makes it easy for I know that’s kinksters to regtaking a political ister and vote no stance, and I’ve matter the state historically tried in which they reto not editorialize side. politically in my The hope of writings here on IMsLBB/IMsL Foundation Kink the Vote, sexuality and relationships, but I’ve This week the KinkTheVote.com u n d e r w r i t t e n come to believe I voter registration campaign was by IMsLBB and the IMsL Founowe it to my own launched. dation, is that sense of moralproducers and ity to do so today. organizers of contests, conferences The situation is just too dire. and other kink gatherings around I’m not alone. People across the the country will carve out a space leather/kink spectrum, with admitto promote this voter registration tedly some exceptions, understand effort. that the national political landscape Visit the website, www.kinkwe’re experiencing is dangerous thevote.com, and if you have an and precarious. One such person event at which you’d like to offer a is Sharrin Spector, the Executive Kink the Vote registration option, Producer of the International Ms. contact Sharrin Spector at SharLeather and Bootblack (IMsLBB) rin@imslbb.org.t weekend and competition. Spector had an idea after the 2016 election about organizing a project For event listings related to register kinksters from all walks to Dore Alley, check out of the scene and encourage them to page 34-35. vote. Spector worked on this project with the assistance of some dediRace Bannon is a local author, cated volunteers and this past week blogger and activist. You can reach Kink the Vote was announced. him at www.bannon.com.

Kink The Vote

In a recent column I wrote about leather resistance, that we as leather and kink people need to fight against the wave of hate and bigotry that’s come to the forefront of American politics lately. I believe that these forces would like to take away what freedoms and protections LGBTQ, leather, kink and all those who tra-

All photos: Rich Stadtmiller

Top: Yes, you will see flogging, whipping and more kink demonstrations at Up Your Alley. Middle: Although crowded, the street fair itself is wheelchair accessible. Bottom: Hot –temperature and style-wise– attendees of 2016’s Up Your Alley Street Fair.

<< Leather Events

34 • Bay Area Reporter • July 26-August 1, 2018

Playmates and soul mates...

Sat 28

San Francisco:

Brüt @ The Great Northern

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

ebar.com

Leather Events July 26-29

For full listings, including Arts and Nightlife, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 26 In Gear Pre-Up Your Alley Dinner @ Don Ramon’s Mexican Restaurant This dinner hosted by BLUF SF has become a tradition to kick off the busy leather week of activities. Whether you're new to BLUF or want to reconnect with old friends, you'll find a large gathering rubbing elbows - leather to leather - in a friendly setting. Tickets are now available at Eventbrite. 225 11th St., 6-10pm. www.blufsf.com

Frisky Pups @ SF Catalyst Whether you are a pup who likes to hump everyone in sight or a man who likes to tame them, this party is for you. You might be a good boy during the day, but at night it’s time to roam free. A sex-positive space for men, boys, and pups to enjoy a sweaty night of debauchery. Fully equipped play space with BDSM equipment, benches, beds, slings, puppy mats, and more. Doors open 8pm. All sex-positive, male-identified 18+ are

invited. Snacks and drinks available. $20 in advance, $30 at door at https://goo.gl/1tufyM. 1060 Folsom St., 10:30am-2:30pm. sfcatalyst.org

Cigar Social WelCum Party @ Blow Buddies

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

This will be a sex-positive and cigarfriendly event. Gear up and join men from around the world. Sponsored by Blow Buddies. DJ MC2 provides the music. $5, 398 12th St., 9pm-2am. www.sf-eagle.com

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma

Ambush @ Underground SF

Prime - Daddy Alley @ The Great Northern

Mr. Drummer ‘79 returns with a celebration of the Ambush (19731986) which was at 1351 Harrison St was a favorite hangout for many SF leathermen and bikers. The bar’s patrons were known for a relaxed and rugged style that included flannel shirts and Levi’s which would become part of bear identity and culture. With DJs Mozhgan and Matthew Paul. $10, 424 Haight St., 9pm. https://goo.gl/hsggtJ

Fri 27 Beards & Booze @ The Edge This weekly happy hour event is for bearded guys and the beard fetishists who like them. 4149 18th St., 5pm. www.edgesf.com

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

The dance event for men in their prime. Featuring resident DJ Neon the Glowgobear. Hot gogo studs in their prime work it for you. Clothes check available. Early Bird tickets $20. 119 Utah St., 10pm-4am. https://goo.gl/fcu9y4

Fog City Pack Presents: Beta 2018 @ Club Six Both floors of Club Six will serve as your pre-Dore stomping ground. Join them for this initiation as we welcome DJ deck deviants Clark Price, Charley Ten & Michael Romano, Brian Rojas, and Astro & Fawks. Sponsored by Mr. S Leather. Photo Booth by FBFE. 60 6th St., 10pm-4am. https://goo.gl/ B3Azgc

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Leather Events>>

July 26-August 1, 2018 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

Hog Wild @ SF Oasis

Brüt @ The Great Northern

The official opening party of Up Your Alley will be an old school kind of leather party, with DJ Mark O'Brien. Door $8 if in gear; $15 if in street clothes. $10 Pre-Sale. Net proceeds from the door benefit Folsom Street Events and its charities. 298 11th St., 10pm-3am. https://goo.gl/LRwZmd

Popular NY-based dance and kink event returns, with rubber, biker gear, fetish fans, a variety of built, hairy men and admirers. DJs Dan Darlington and Peter Napoli bring the New York to the dance floor while sexy dancers keep the energy going. Clothes check available. 119 Utah St., 10pm4am. www.brutparty.com

Sat 28

Sneaks (Dore Alley) @ Club Six

The Dore Party @ Mr. S Leather Join Mr. S Leather and hundreds of the sexy men. Come find the gear that'll help you get laid. 385 8th St., 11am8pm. www.mr-s-leather.com

Flagging in the Park @ AIDS Memorial Grove

SFgoL’s Marginally Talented Show @ CounterPulse

Informal Dore Rubber Meet Up @ SF Eagle Mr. San Francisco Rubber 2018 hosts this informal gathering of rubber enthusiasts. Take a photo, chat about rubber, or just be around each other. 398 12th St., 3-5pm. sf-eagle.com

Dore Alley Saturday Beer Bust @ SF Eagle This beer bust benefits Tenderloin Tessie. $15 for all the beer or soda you can drink, includes food. Food alone for $5. Raffles and auction. 398 12th St., 3-6pm. www.sf-eagle.com

Join ONYX Northwest as they host a weekend loaded with the sexiest kinksters and leathermen of color. Cum geared up and feel the playful vibes, fetish performances, gorgeous gogos, and more - all for charity. 1347 Folsom St., 5-9pm. www.onyxnorthwest.com

Men’s BDSM Play Party @ SF Catalyst The 15 Association men’s BDSM play party. Check website for attendance details. 1060 Folsom St., 6pm-12am (doors close 10pm). www.the15sf.org

SFgoL's Marginally Talented Show @ CounterPulse The San Francisco girls of Leather bring you their first ever Marginally Talented Show. Everyone who attends gets a tiara, the winner gets a sash and crown. Cheap drinks, yummy treats, good tunes, special surprises, and fun for all! (18+ only, show will contain adult themes not suitable for children). $15 admission only tickets. $20 admission + 2 drink tickets. $3 suggested donation for drink tickets on site. Door and pre-show reception 7pm, show 7:30pm. https://goo.gl/c9dMBq

Bay of Pigs @ Public Works Folsom Street Events hosts Bay of Pigs, a vital part of your Up Your Alley weekend. With lots of hot pigs, daddies and hairy bears in the house there’s sure to be loads of fun. DJ Jack Chang and Brian Novy in the main room, Jordee in the loft. $45, 161 Erie St., 9pm-4am. folsomstreetevents.org

Gooch

Flagging has deep roots in the leather community. So, come enjoy the sun, music, flora, and friends in the beautiful National AIDS Memorial Grove. Open to all flow artists. Nancy Pelosi Dr. & Blowing Green Dr., Golden Gate Park, 12:30pm-4:30pm. https://goo.gl/LSu2pP

ONYX Presents Dore Alley Invasion Party @ Powerhouse

Sat 28

Polyglamorous’ notorious sneaker fetish party returns. Special guests Keenan Orr and StrikeStone!. Also featuring Chuck Gunn, plus, your Polyglamorous residents and other surprises. Plenty of upstairs and downstairs fun to be had. Dress Code: must-wear sneakers! Do wear sports gear, singlets, mesh, underwear, knee socks, gym shorts, sweats, track suits. Things that are sports-related or you might wear to the gym. Don't wear jeans or slacks. Come early and suit up. No ins and outs. Bar is cash-only. Clothes check available. 60 6th St., 10pm6am. https://goo.gl/YQpZnH

Sat 28

Bay of Pigs @ Public Works

Sun 29 Real Bad @ 1015 Folsom Join the Real Bad circle of friends at the new after-hours dance party. DJ Juanma Escudero from Real Bad XXIX (2017) returns to spin an opento-close set. As with their flagship event, you can expect world-class production, friendly and flirty hospitality, and unmatched dance floor magic, all benefiting local LGBT non-profits. $40 in advance, more at the door. 100% of net proceeds to benefit the Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation. 1015 Folsom St., 3:30am-10am. www.realbad.org

Up Your Alley @ Folsom and 10th Streets Up Your Alley street fair is for real players and not for the faint of heart – where leather daddies rule the streets of San Francisco’s South of Market district, with men in all varieties of gear, playing in the streets; rubber, sportswear, biker gear, skinhead, punk, and more. Located in front of the legendary Powerhouse bar, Up Your Alley brings nearly 15,000 players from all over the world, vendor booths from Mr. S Leather, Steamworks, and more. Dance Stage DJ Lineup: Byron Bonsall, 11am-1pm; DJ Martin Fry, 1-3pm; DJ Jamie J Sanchez, 3-5pm; and David Harness, 5-6pm. folsomstreetevents.org

Rough @ Mezzanine The Official Closing Party of Up Your Alley Weekend, this venue is just a short walk from the Up Your Alley fairgrounds. Resident DJ Russ Rich will headline with his throbbing, pulsating beats all night long. DJ Casey Alva will open. Laser and light show with a sensational decor setup, too. $45. 444 Jessie St., 6pm-2am. folsomstreetevents.org

Code @ The Edge During one of SF's infamous leather weekends celebrate in the Castro, with puppies! Geared up dancers Aaron Jenkins, Ayden and Kieran Patrick will entertain you. DJ Sean McMahon will provide the music. Drink specials offered. Coat check available. 4149 18th St., 9pm-2am. www.edgesf.com

Shining Stars Steven

Photos by

Underhill

SF Jewish Film Festival Opening Party @ Cotemporary Jewish Museum

he 38th annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival celebrated opening night on July 19 with delicious food, drinks –and a festive group of patrons– at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (https://thecjm.org/). The film festival continues through August 5. https://jfi.org/sfjff-2018 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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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

NEW SALES RELEASE

SATURDAY TH JULY 14 Public Sales Release at Noon Blending the upbeat vibe of art culture with West Oakland’s history, Ice House brings ownership opportunities to a neighborhood where everything is thoughfully designed, diverse and vibrant. Love where you live. • Solar-powered townhomes • 2 - 3 bedrooms • 1,200 - 1,580 square feet

VISIT TODAY

IceHouse@CityVentures.com | 510.238.1128 1818 14th St., Oakland, CA 94607 | Open Daily 10am - 6pm IceHouseCityVentures.com

Disclaimer: The qualifications to purchase these homes include many restriction not listed here. Please see Sales Manager for details. All renderings, floor plans, and maps are concepts and are not intended to be an actual depiction of the buildings, fencing, walkways, driveways or landscaping. Walls, windows, porches and decks vary per elevation and lot location. In a continuing effort to meet consumer expectations, City Ventures reserves the right to modify prices, floor plans, specifications, options and amenities without notice or obligation. Square footages shown are approximate. ©2018 City Ventures. All rights reserved. BRE LIC #01979736.