Engardio’s 1 for 2 in LGBTQ Dem club support ahead of recall
by John Ferrannini
San Francisco’s two LGBTQ Democratic clubs have come out with their positions on the attempt to recall gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio. One voted to oppose his ouster, while the other took no position on the matter that has embroiled Engardio’s constituents for months.
Members of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club voted to oppose the recall of the moderate politician at their July 14 meeting. The following day, the more progressive Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club voted not to take a position.
Voters in District 4, the Sunset, will decide whether to keep Engardio in office in a special election September 16. The recall backers only need to secure a majority of the ballots cast to remove him.
In November 2022, when Engardio was first elected, the Alice club voted to support him and the Milk club backed his opponent, then-supervisor Gordon Mar. Engardio was the first supervisor to unseat a sitting elected incumbent since district elections were re-introduced in 2000.
He is also the first LGBTQ board member to win a district centered on the city’s western neighborhoods. Having run three times prior for the District 7 seat centered around West Portal, Engardio found himself redistricted in 2021 into Mar’s District 4. He rose to prominence amid the 2022 voter revolt centered in the Sunset district that helped recall San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin and three members of the city’s school board.
Beachside park fuels backlash
The contentious issue that led to the recall was last year’s Proposition K, which permanently closed a portion of the Upper Great Highway to vehicle traffic. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Engardio said during his 2022 campaign for supervisor that he supported a compromise that would leave the Great Highway open to cars on weekdays.
See page 3 >>
Up Your Alley is more than a hug
The leather and kink-themed Up Your Alley street fair did not disappoint these fairgoers, or the thousands of others who attended the July 27 event in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. In
addition to, uh, a warm welcome, participants enjoyed live entertainment, sexy demonstrations, and much more. The fair was a warm up, of sorts, for Folsom Street’s big Folsom Street Fair September 28.
by Cynthia Laird
Gay San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey says it is time to consider repealing the city’s landmark law that requires companies provide unmarried same-sex partners the same benefits as their married heterosexual colleagues. With the country marking the 10th anniversary of same-sex couples having the right to wed, and domestic partnerships largely anachronistic, Dorsey is questioning the need for city officials’ continued implementation of the law.
See page 6 >>
SF supe calls for hearing on GEO Group
by Eliot Faine
San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has called for a hearing into the GEO Group and its reentry site at 111 Taylor Street after Melvin Bulauan, a resident who had been housed there, died on the same street as the facility. News of his death came the day after allowing the company to continue operating at the site.
The facility is currently used as a halfway house, advertising reentry services for formerly incarcerated people. GEO contracts with Immigration Customs and Enforcement and the state of California, and has operated the site for 36 years.
Fifty-eight years ago, 111 Taylor Street was the location of Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, where trans and drag patrons staged a protest against police in August 1966, three years prior to the Stonewall riots in New York City that marked the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Trans activists had filed an appeal seeking to end GEO Group’s presence in the building.
At the July 22 Board of Supervisors meeting, Mahmood explained he plans to subpoena representatives from GEO Group and other officials to testify at the hearing, which is expected to be held in the fall.
Bulauan was transferred from a state mental health facility in Atascadero to 111 Taylor Street on July 13. His family received a call from him on the same day. Anjru Jaezon de Leon, Bulauan’s son, spoke during public comment at the supervisors’ meeting and described his father’s voice cracking
and his shallow breath as he said he’d “rather go back to jail than stay” at the facility.
On July 14, Bulauan would have turned 45 years old. Instead, one of his daughters received a call from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
According to the family, around 3:30 that morning, Bulauan had been found dead at 225 Taylor Street.
“Just one block away from where he said he was too afraid to sleep,” de Leon said during public comment at the board meeting.
The medical examiner’s office would not release information over the phone as the case is still open.
The Bay Area Reporter sent an email with questions and is waiting for a response.
Mahmood’s hearing request comes after last Wednesday’s Board of Appeals decision to uphold the legal use of the building, despite hearing from Mahmood and over 60 community members who spoke of their concerns of the alleged negligent and abusive conditions at the reentry facility.
GEO Care’s Vice President of Communications Monica Hook stated via email that the company was not taking questions regarding Bulauan’s death, but provided the following statement.
“We, like everyone, regret hearing the news of someone losing their life. However, the information contained in the referenced press release indicating Mr. Bulauan died at the Taylor Street Center is categorically false,” the email reads.
In the July 22 release from Mahmood’s office, the headline states, “...following the death of Mel-
July
vin Bulauan at 111 Taylor Street facility.”
An aide to the supervisor told the B.A.R. July 23 that Mahmood clarified at the meeting that Bulauan died “under their [GEO Group’s] care” but outside the facility.
Furthermore, according to the statement from Hook, Bulauan left the facility without authorization on July 13. He was reported and discharged by GEO’s Taylor Street Center. The center was notified on July 15 that Bulauan had died, and they have no additional information. See page 6 >>
Mapa
Int'l Deaf Dance Fest
San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio
Courtesy the subject
San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey
Courtesy the subject
Anjru Jaezon de Leon, Melvin Bulauan’s son and eldest child, spoke about his father at the Board of Supervisor’s meeting
22.
Eliot Faine
Rick Gerharter
Experts discuss queer US travel under Trump
by John Ferrannini
Clear answers are hard to come by for LGBTQ travelers fearful about going through airports under the second Trump administration. There have been reports of trans people’s passports being changed and federal agents disqualifying people from entry to the United States due to anti-Trump memes.
Perhaps the biggest threat facing trans and nonbinary people is passports.
One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders in January dealt with there being only two genders, male and female.
The order states that passports have to have the person’s sex at conception. Lawsuits against the administration followed.
Due to a preliminary injunction issued in one of the lawsuits, Orr v. Trump, people who attest to being transgender, gender-nonconforming, or nonbinary can have passports reflect their gender identity if they are obtaining a new one, changing their sex designation or their names, replacing lost, stolen or damaged passports, or renewing their passports within one year of expiration.
Liam Lowery, a trans attorney with Legal Services NYC, told the Bay Area
Reporter that earlier this year, after Trump’s executive order on gender identity, his gender marker was changed against his wishes.
“I applied for my passport to be renewed in January, thinking the executive order was not signed, let me submit as soon as possible,” Lowery said. “I got my passport back and it has my gender marker assigned at birth, which was not
what was on the supporting materials.”
Judge Julia E. Kobick of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that as a lawsuit challenging the new policy proceeds, anyone who attests to being a member of the protected classes affected can, after signing a separate document, change their passport in accordance with their gender identity.
“This decision acknowledges the immediate and profound negative impact that the Trump administration’s passport policy has on the ability of people across the country to travel for work, school, and family,” stated Jessie Rossman, the legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, in a news release. “The Trump administration’s passport policy attacks the foundations of the right to privacy and the freedom for all people to live their lives safely and with dignity. We will continue to fight to stop this unlawful policy once and for all.”
But Lowery wants to make sure people know to get this done as soon as possible, as the length of time this window will remain open is uncertain.
“If you are trans and want to update the gender marker on your passport, now is the time,” Lowery said. “We don’t know how long it’s going to be [allowed] – may be a few weeks – and once it’s shut, it’s going to be shut for a very long time.”
Lowery said anyone whose passport doesn’t match their appearance is more likely to face harassment when traveling.
Alexis Levy, a San Francisco attorney who is queer and nonbinary, helps people with their gender-related documents, including passports, through an identity affirmation workshop. They said that it’s “hard to say” if passports of trans people were being confiscated at security checkpoints.
“Most of the information is not verified, or verifiable. A lot is just social media posts and hearsay,” Levy said of alleged incidents that have been posted online.
“The other thing about travel documents is there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, for a lot of reasons other than gender-related stuff,” Levy said. “Obviously, there was the Real ID change that had nothing to do with any of this. … In San Francisco, I haven’t heard of any real issues.”
Real ID, which at long last went into effect May 7 after years of delays, requires that people present driver’s licenses or other forms of identification for domestic flights that are compliant with the Real ID Act of 2005, a post-9/11 law. That law requires states to issue IDs with stricter security measures, which California began doing in 2018.
Phone searches
After a Norwegian man reported he was denied entry to the U.S. for having a meme in his phone that made fun of Vice President JD Vance, internet commenters raised concerns about federal agents searching phones. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the authority to search phones.
According to the ACLU, “Barring ‘extenuating circumstances,’ [federal of-
ficials] claim the authority to hold onto your device for five days — though ‘extenuating circumstances’ is an undefined term in this context, and this period can be extended by seven-day increments. We’ve received reports of phones being held for weeks or even months.”
Further, one’s legal status in the U.S. may inform what one should do when it comes to unlocking their phone for federal officials.
“If you’re a citizen, you can’t be denied entry into the country if you refuse to comply with a request to unlock your device or to provide a password,” the ACLU states. “But you might be detained for longer or have your device seized and not returned to you for weeks or months.
“The same should be true for those who have previously been admitted to the United States as lawful permanent residents and have maintained their status – their green cards can’t be revoked without a hearing before an immigration judge,” the ACLU continued. “If you are not a citizen and are concerned about having your devices searched, you should consult with an immigration lawyer about your particular circumstances before traveling.”
tries. As the B.A.R. reported last month, the U.S. State Department is warning people who visit Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Nayarit, both in Mexico, in particular to avoid being kidnapped for ransom via dating apps.
Asked about the apps, Dalrymple said, “My recommendation to my clients is, don’t do it.”
“There’s a big, wonderful bathhouse in Vallarta,” he added.
Airports
Levy told the B.A.R. that there is a theory – that they don’t put stock in –that airports in San Francisco or New York City, two blue cities in deep blue states, are better for LGBTQ travelers.
“It’s mostly supposition,” Levy said. “The likelihood of any given individual working in the airport being prejudiced against LGBTQ people is higher in Florida or Texas than in California or New York, but policy wise, there shouldn’t be a difference because everything is at the federal level and it really does mostly come down to fear or supposition more than facts or policies.”
The situation may be different for those with visas.
“Visa holders and tourists from visa waiver countries, however, run the risk of being denied entry if they refuse to provide a password, and they should consider that risk before deciding how to proceed,” the ACLU continued.
The ACLU concluded that, “In any case, we always recommend that you enter the password yourself rather than divulging it to a CBP agent.”
Travel professionals speak out
Kirk Dalrymple, a gay man who’s a travel agent with Yankee Clipper Travel in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood, told the B.A.R. that he’s had no problems sending U.S. citizens in and out of the country – but green card holders he’s booking for domestic travel only, out of an abundance of caution.
“Most of the things that are happening are happening to green card holders,” Dalrymple said. “I only send them to Hawaii, where they can have a good time without any of that. I’ve sent lots of people, Americans, with a passport, and they’ve never had a problem. When someone says they are a green card holder, I say, let’s send you to Hawaii, [Las] Vegas, or somewhere you’ll feel more safe.”
Dalrymple said that he’s heard of no threats to LGBTQ travelers’ safety in any domestic vacations he’s booked in recent years, though clients may not have necessarily told him. He does advise LGBTQ clients going to some foreign destinations, like Egypt, exhibit discretion by booking rooms with two beds.
“Then the maid can’t go to her pastor and say, ‘I witnessed sin,’” he said. Dalrymple also advised against using hook-up or dating apps in some coun-
There are two out members of the San Francisco Airport Commission, responsible for policy and guidance at San Francisco International Airport. Jane Natoli, a trans woman who is vice president of the panel, stated July 16 the requests for comment were being discussed internally.
Susan Leal, a lesbian and former city supervisor, told the B.A.R. after her appointment last year that the commission does not run day-to-day operations at SFO. That is handled by the airport director.
But even the director is limited. Security screening at SFO, like all airports, is under the jurisdiction of the federal Transportation Security Administration, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.
Dalrymple, the travel agent, said that people should remember that, “If you go to Houston or Dallas [Texas], those are blue, they are just in the middle of a red state.”
But, “The tiny airports?” he asked. “I wouldn’t test the system.”
Lowery, the attorney, held a contrary view. Asked the same question, he answered, “Well, yes and no, which is an annoying answer. Even more annoying: it depends.”
“The federal law is going to be the floor, but not the ceiling, generally speaking, for your protections,” Lowery said. “That’s why there are attacks on these specific states, people want to tear down those protections. … Anyone landing at LaGuardia or JFK, it’s something similar in all 50 states, you’re protected by the laws of the place you are. So yes, if you land in a city that has protections for LGBTQ individuals for things like discrimination and harassment, those are going to extend to you unless there’s a specific example or reason why. As a trans person doing this work, I’m grateful to be a New Yorker.” t
Rick Gerharter
2nd man says he was drugged, robbed by women in SF Community News>>
by John Ferrannini
Asecond man has come forward to the Bay Area Reporter claiming two women gave him a powder they said was cocaine after luring him from a San Francisco bar before allegedly stealing several thousand dollars of his. The first case involved a gay man who said he was drugged and taken from a Castro bar and driven to an East Bay casino, where he discovered he lost thousands of dollars.
In the second case, a 30-year-old straight man who wishes to remain anonymous had read the B.A.R.’s July 22 report about the two women, who in a June Castro neighborhood incident allegedly took a gay man to a San Pablo casino. Before Nick Marley, 38, became fully conscious again, he said that he had lost $6,000-$7,000.
The San Francisco Police Department had told the B.A.R. for that report that there weren’t statistics about other similar incidents recently. The anonymous second alleged victim bitterly said in a phone interview, “They’re either incompetent or lying.”
The man – who is temporarily residing in San Francisco for work –said that the incident involving him occurred early in the morning May 30. He said he was “out with some friends in North Beach” at a bar he did not name - he said he is friends with the owner - when “two women approached us. They seemed friendly. We were just chatting, and at the end of the night, past 1:30 [a.m.], my friends started to head home, and these two women said, ‘Do you want to keep hanging out?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I went with them, got in their car – a dark SUV –and they drove around.”
It was at that point they “offered me what they said was cocaine, which I took a key bump worth of. It was not cocaine.” (He did not take a drug test afterward to ascertain what drugs were in his system.)
Marley had told the B.A.R. that he was also brought by two women to
Engardio
page 1
As an elected official, Engardio supported Prop K, which closed the highway and created Sunset Dunes Park that opened this spring. While Prop K passed citywide, precincts in Engardio’s district voted heavily against it. Following the implementation of Prop K, which is currently being challenged in court, Sunset residents got a recall on the ballot af-
A gay man said he was given a drug by two women he met at the Mix bar in June, who then allegedly took thousands of dollars from him. An anonymous straight man said a similar incident happened to him in late May at a North Beach bar. Steven Underhill
their car after meeting them at The Mix bar in the Castro on June 6. Asked if he remembers anything about the vehicle, Marley stated to the B.A.R. that, “It was a large SUV, I want to say white, but not positive.”
The anonymous man continued, “The next three or so hours were a blur.” His phone location shows he was driven around San Francisco for several hours in the early morning.
“Around 4:10 [a.m.] or so they dropped me off at my hotel I was staying at,” he said. “When I checked my wallet, all the cash was gone. The credit cards were gone as well, but my ID was still there. One of them texted me something to the effect of ‘Good doing business with you. Enjoy your day in SF.’”
He remembers they gave their names as “Cassie Prevail” and “Mia,” he told the B.A.R.
In his incident, Marley said that the women stopped to pick up another man, who they said was gay, implying they could have sexual relations.
The four of them then went to the San Pablo Lytton Casino in the East Bay.
ter they turned in 10,523 signatures from registered voters in District 4. (A minimum of 9,911 valid signatures were needed, according to the Department of Elections.)
Asked about his 2022 statements by the B.A.R. earlier this year, Engardio pointed to his campaign website that year, which stated he supported the possibility of a park between Lincoln Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. He also said that he “supported the compromise in 2022 because that was the
Marley said he was visibly intoxicated and kicked out. From his wallet, he saw his bank cards were not present, and so he checked his bank account via his phone, which showed that he’d lost between $6,000-$7,000. His ID was still in the wallet. Marley said after he was booted from the casino, he took BART home from the Richmond station.
The anonymous man said the women had taken a total of $3,500 in various ways, including the Venmo app in his phone, and stopping at several ATMs in the city during the early morning ride. He said that he was able to get the charges reversed and refunded. He stated he doesn’t recall if he withdrew the cash, or if the women did, because he was not conscious.
Marley, too, said that he was able to get most of his money back from his bank.
The anonymous man said he “didn’t have time” to file a police report immediately, as he had a flight back, first to Toronto and then to New York, three hours after returning to the hotel, where he was staying at the time.
He called the SFPD. The person who answered the phone said that he needed to make a full report in person, but that the New York Police Department could take it as a courtesy and send it to the SFPD. When he tried to report the matter to the NYPD, “They said that was nonsense.”
He did eventually fully report the matter to the SFPD – including with photos captured from security footage from the bar in question where he had met the two women.
The B.A.R. viewed the photos, which show two women, one of whom was wearing a yellow track suit, with long hair wrapped in a ponytail and white shoes. The other woman had her hair down, with an orange and white striped dress that goes down to her mid-thigh, and sandals.
Reached for comment July 29, SFPD Public Information Officer Robert Rueca stated that on June 2, “We received a report of a theft/pocket
best we had in the moment.”
Martin Rawlings-Fein, a co-chair of the Alice club who is a bisexual and transgender father, stated to the B.A.R., “At the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, both our PAC and membership voted independently to oppose the recall of Supervisor Engardio.”
“While we do not vote on the reasoning behind each vote, there is a shared concern about the growing use of recalls to challenge policy
picking incident that occurred on 5/30/25. The victim met females at a bar and joined them in their vehicle as they drove around. The victim was dropped off at his hotel. The victim reported that he was missing U.S. currency from his wallet and fraudulent charges and withdrawals were made on the victim’s cards. No arrest has been made at this time for this open investigation.”
The SFPD also confirmed Marley’s account for the B.A.R.’s earlier report.
Marley had first reported the incident to the San Pablo Police Department. Peggy Chou, police support services manager for the San Pablo police, stated that, “It appears the evening of June 6 or early morning of June 7, we had a victim report that he was at a bar in San Francisco, outside of our jurisdiction, where he had an interaction with two female, and one male, adults. He believes they drugged him during the night on which he knowingly injected narcotics. At some point, the two adult female suspects, along with the one adult male suspect, accessed the victim’s financial information and the victim reported being driven to the San Pablo casino from San Francisco, and then, based on the report, the suspects left the victim behind at the casino.”
Chou related that SFPD was now the lead investigative agency, as the alleged crime started in San Francisco.
The anonymous man said that he still has to update the SFPD with a video he took after returning to the city; he was out in North Beach, he said, and saw the same SUV driving around the historic Italian neighborhood with a bustling nightlife district.
He shared the video with the B.A.R., which shows the car driving around the area of Grant and Columbus avenues.
He agreed with the assessment of Sister Shalita Corndog, who is helping lead a safety campaign on behalf of the drag nun group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, that the drug in ques-
choices,” Rawlings-Fein stated.
“Many in our community believe that recalls should be reserved for serious misconduct, not used to overturn the results of a fair election based on a single issue.”
Milk club Co-President Melissa Hernandez, a queer and bisexual woman, stated, “A majority of members voted to not endorse a position.”
“I believe this ‘no endorsement’ vote reflects the complex dynamics at play in this recall,” Hernandez
tion may have been phenylcyclohexyl piperidine, also known as angel dust. The man said he’d taken recreational drugs in the past, such as cocaine and ketamine, and this was not either of those to the best of his understanding.
“Nothing I’ve experienced put me in a state like that,” he said.
It’s unclear what alleged drug Marley was given.
The anonymous man also had some choice words for the SFPD’s response to his report.
“I got pulled over riding my bike the other night, last week, and was stopped for that, and I’m kind of pissed off at them. I asked them, in anger, ‘Did you hear about people being drugged and robbed?’ and they hadn’t. It’s something they don’t give a shit about,” he said.
Corndog stressed that, “victims of these crimes can’t be shamed, and often are blamed.”
“The purpose of our campaign is to try to minimize that,” Corndog continued. “There should be that one person who knows what they’re up to.”
The Sisters’ campaign, “Safety First, Sexy Second,” is a three-step plan. First, buddy up: Choose a trusted friend to be your safety check-in; send screenshots of who you’re meeting and share your location. Second, hookup: Be your sexy self and have fun. Finally, follow-up: Set a time to check in and let your buddy know that you’re safe or if you need help.
SCOPE, a project of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, offers free, anonymous, point-of-care drug testing, with no appointments needed. Analysis takes 10-15 minutes per sample, according to the foundation’s website. There are sites in South of Market, the Bayview, and the Haight. More information is available online at https://www.sfaf.org/services/ drug-checking-scope/
Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD. t
stated. “We have never endorsed Joel Engardio and disagree deeply with him on several policy issues, including his prior championing of reactionary recalls,” a reference to the Boudin and school board recalls Engardio had supported.
The Milk club had vigorously opposed Boudin’s recall. On Prop K, the Milk club was a prominent backer of closing the Great Highway for a park.
See page 6 >>
Volume 55, Number 31
July 31-August 6, 2025 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 & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR
Jim Provenzano
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl
Brian Bromberger • Philip Campbell
Heather Cassell • Michael Flanagan
Jim Gladstone • Liz Highleyman
Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen
Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno
David-Elijah Nahmod • Mark William Norby
JL Odom • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff
Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel
Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro
Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner
Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood
ART DIRECTION
Max Leger
PRODUCTION/DESIGN
Ernesto Sopprani
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jane Philomen Cleland
Rick Gerharter • Gooch
Jose A. Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja
Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller
Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe
Shot in the City • Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson
ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS
Christine Smith
VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING
Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863
LEGAL COUNSEL
Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.
Bay area reporter
44 Gough Street, Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94103
Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.
Advertising rates available upon request.
Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.
Dorsey’s benefits repeal should be DOA
Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s idea to jettison San Francisco’s landmark law that requires companies doing business with the city to offer unmarried same-sex partners the same benefits as their married heterosexual colleagues is not a good one. With the supervisors about to start their August recess, we urge Dorsey to rethink his plan. And the other supervisors should make sure his plan is dead on arrival if he proceeds with legislation.
Many readers may not recall the fight to pass the equal benefit ordinance, or EBO. It was 1996, and same-sex marriage was not legal in the U.S. But domestic partnerships were the way that same-sex couples could secure some rights and benefits. Gay activists went to gay then-supervisor Tom Ammiano with their idea to make companies doing business with San Francisco offer benefits to their employees in domestic partnerships if they provided those benefits to straight married couples. The thought was that domestic partners would be able to obtain health insurance and other benefits.
The law, co-sponsored by lesbian thensupervisors Leslie Katz and Susan Leal, was groundbreaking. And it experienced significant headwinds from the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and United Airlines, one of the city’s largest employers at the time that took the city to court and lost. Compromises were made with the Catholic Church to garner its support, with the end result being that the pool eligible for benefits became even more expansive. Entities could designate anyone in their household as eligible to receive the “spousalequivalent” benefits. That could be a domestic partner, sibling, or another relative.
EBO and wanted to do business in San Francisco. As gay former AT&T California president Ken McNeely said in 2017, the company was one of the first to offer benefits to domestic partners of its employees across the country.
“When AT&T got involved in equal benefits it was a lonely place in the corporate world,” he said during an event in San Francisco marking the 20th anniversary of the law. McNeely, who is now retired, added that 10 years earlier the company had created its LGBTQ resource group.
That’s just one example. Now, Dorsey is floating his idea to repeal the law, and his main argument is that since same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states, domestic partnerships are no longer needed. He believes the EBO is costing city taxpayers too much money due to competitive bidding and compliance. To be sure, the city should clean up its contracting provisions, but repealing the EBO is not the way to go about it.
One of our objections, which we told Dorsey when he contacted us to discuss the matter, is that while marriage equality is the law now, that doesn’t mean it always will be. Republican President Donald Trump has shown that he doesn’t care about norms or how things have been done in the past. If he has an idea for something, he will twist arms to make it happen. A recent example is his domination over the Republicancontrolled U.S. House and Senate to pass his One Big Beautiful Bill, which contains massive cuts to Medicaid and increases the deficit by trillions of dollars. Congress has abdicated its responsibility as a co-equal branch of government.
en’s Health Organization, the court overturned the right to abortion in Roe v. Wade. In his concurring opinion in that case, Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the court’s most conservative members, wrote that other previously decided cases should be reexamined. Of those he mentioned, one was Obergefell. Dorsey did acknowledge that. But he also doesn’t think domestic partnerships are an LGBTQ issue anymore. “Today’s equal benefits ordinance has nothing to do with LGBTQ+ equality, and hasn’t since 2015,” he told us.
Unfortunately, for all of us, that could change. And if that happens, we would need laws like the EBO on the books to protect same-sex couples who would no longer be able to legally wed.
With the looming cuts to Medicaid and the uncertainty that the Trump administration brings to the country on a host of other issues, now is not the time to repeal laws that help LGBTQs. We understand the goal of gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman to implement what he described as modest changes to the city contracting process. But Dorsey wants to go much further and disassemble an effective law without a good reason. As Katz told us, sounding a warning about Trump, “I’m afraid with this administration; let’s not take something important off the books.”
Dorsey said that he has not yet drafted legislation that would repeal the EBO. This week, he did send a letter to the board’s legislative analyst’s office asking for a report on the estimated potential costs and to assess the actual enforcement and compliance costs to San Francisco taxpayers for provisions of the EBO.
In fact, California still maintains a state-based registry for domestic partners, and lawmakers have expanded access to it over the years to officially recognize unions regardless of their sexual orientation over the age of 18. Many seniors, LGBTQ and straight alike, often opt for domestic partner status later in life for financial reasons.
San Francisco’s EBO, which went into effect in June 1997, has been a resounding success. It enabled same-sex domestic partners in other states to receive benefits if their company was complying with the
Over at the U.S. Supreme Court, the situation is just as bleak. The six-person conservative supermajority appears set for many years. Those conservative justices, too, are handing Trump victory after victory, from letting him fire federal workers to reining in lower court federal judges who have ruled against the administration. Court precedent is also at grave risk as the justices perform legal contortions to give the president what he wants.
One of those settled cases is Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. In fact, last month marked the 10th anniversary of that landmark decision. But three years ago, in Dobbs v. Jackson Wom-
Dorsey said that the city’s contracting provisions are hampering competition for services and that the city gets stuck paying more because companies have to jump through hoops to be eligible to compete. But his plan to repeal the EBO is short-sighted and, in our opinion, the wrong way to look at the issue. If he’s successful, and Obergefell is overturned by the Supreme Court, same-sex couples in domestic partnerships working for companies will be stripped of benefits that they would have had if the EBO had still been the law. San Francisco should not claw back benefits that have helped so many people and prompted numerous businesses to do the right thing and offer benefits equally to their employees. San Francisco prides itself on its values, and one of those is LGBTQ equality. The EBO should not be repealed. t
SF can revitalize Market St. with heroes museum
by Allen Jones
Iam probably the last person in America to give Donald Trump credit for anything he has done as our president; this includes his so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed into law on July 4.
However, I learned that in this legislation, Trump has had a long desire to honor heroes. And tucked into the bill, there is $40 million for an American heroes garden. Similarly, I have been trying to celebrate the world’s heroes in a museum for the past 15 years. This recognition of heroism is not just a mere act, but a source of inspiration and motivation for all of us.
On September 22, 1975, a disabled Marine Vietnam veteran by the name of Oliver Sipple was credited with saving the life of President Gerald R. Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel at Union Square in San Francisco when he lunged for the hand of the would-be assassin, Sarah Jane Moore, just as she fired her gun.
Allen Jones has proposed a museum to honor American heroes, including the late Oliver Sipple, a gay man who is credited with saving the life of President Gerald Ford during a 1975 assassination attempt in San Francisco.
Instead of being honored for his heroics, he was used for political gain, disrespected by a well-intentioned columnist, and disowned by his own family.
Saving the life of a sitting president of the United States is how Sipple’s parents found out that their son was a homosexual. This fact prevented them from seeing their son as a hero. When I discovered this sad story in 2010, I vowed to correct this wrong.
I first presented my evidence to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and easily got the board to unanimously pass a resolution declaring September 22, 2011, as Oliver W. Sipple Day. For the next 14 years, I must have repeated this bit of San Francisco history a hundred times in the hope of creating a San Francisco museum to honor heroes, such as Sipple, from all over the world. To my surprise, all I got was crickets.
In reading a San Francisco Examiner article, I
learned of a “moonshot” competition called Market Street Reimagined. This competition, with $100,000 in prize money, was designed to elicit bold and innovative ideas, aimed to “rejuvenate” the troubled Market Street boulevard between Embarcadero and Van Ness Avenue. I was excited to participate.
The lead sponsor of this competition was the Urban Land Institute San Francisco, part of Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global, nonprofit research and education organization focused on land use and real estate development. It boasts “45,000 members in 80 countries, representing a wide range of disciplines within the real estate and land use sector,” according to its website. https:// uli.org/
I was compelled to become a member of the ULI San Francisco competition at $540 per year (I chose the $45 per month option) in April. I then dusted off my heroes of the world idea and submitted it with a strange $75 nonrefundable fee. Now, after the winners of the competition were announced on July 16, I am no longer a member, as I feel that I was misled, albeit unintentionally.
The SF Examiner article that initially sparked my enthusiasm was clear and concise. The competition’s objective was to breathe new life into Market Street. However, the six winning submissions, while undoubtedly vibrant, seem to lack the practicality needed for the true rejuvenation of Market Street.
I have been on Market Street at least six days a week since November 2021. In contrast, the jury panel for this competition spent July 9-10 on Market Street, assessing and evaluating how best to rejuvenate this troubled area of the city by matching their observations with 167 entries submitted from approximately eight countries.
From now until August 8, ULI San Francisco will use the second floor of the Ferry Building to display all entries on 24” x 36” display boards. And based
on my viewing of these entries at the Ferry Building, I saw color, passion, or commitment in every entry. What I did not see was anything that came close to addressing the Market Street problem. Well, there was one idea that came close: the OS Museum of World Heroes. This museum, which I proposed, could serve as a cultural anchor for Market Street, drawing in visitors and residents alike, and potentially contributing to the area’s rejuvenation.
Location. Location. Location.
Daily, hundreds of tourists from all over the world stand at the Market and Powell Street Cable Car turnaround waiting for their turn. They can’t “ride to the stars” without passing the corner of Geary Boulevard and Powell Street, where Sipple saved the life of a president. But none of them are aware of this bit of San Francisco history.
Transforming Market Street into a tribute to heroes from around the world by utilizing a significant portion of the distressed San Francisco Centre as a museum is only the beginning. This proposed hero museum has the potential not only to honor our heroes but also to revitalize Market Street, giving us all a sense of hope and optimism for the future.
People love to be associated with creativity, greatness, and heroics. And we all have heroes. Along with those two facts, anyone who has a story to honor/share can join a new trend: Slip a note about some hero through the doors of any vacant Market Street storefront. This one act is intended to bring traffic into the San Francisco Centre, where there are over 150 vacant shops, or 80%, in that property. When a new storefront finds a tenant, the proprietor can collect notes left in or under their door and submit them to the museum for research and consideration for future exhibits.
Suppose I was to slip a note about Sipple’s heroics to Trump’s American heroes $40 million garden. What are the chances that a homosexual who saved the life of a sitting president would get even a flower? I think San Francisco is better than Donald Trump.t
Allen Jones is a longtime San Franciscan resident, since 1960, and an activist and published author. He is also a homosexual.
D6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey
Courtesy the subject
Courtesy Allen Jones
Gay SF historic preservation commissioner departs
by Matthew S. Bajko
Held over for seven months after his term expired, gay San Francisco Historic Preservation Commissioner Jason Wright will now depart after the Board of Supervisors confirmed his replacement this week. Incoming commissioner Eleanor R. Cox will now serve in the oversight body’s Seat 3 meant for an architectural historian.
Cox, a senior preservation specialist at MIG Inc., where she manages cultural landscape projects, was tapped by Mayor Daniel Lurie to serve on the prominent oversight body. A straight ally, she earned her master’s degree in historic preservation from Columbia University.
“As an architectural historian, I take a holistic approach to my work that focuses on character, context, and access. Maintaining this perspective within the framework of our ever-changing urban environment allows for a sustainable strategy that prioritizes preservation while allowing for sensitive growth and change,” wrote Cox in a statement to the supervisor’s Rules Committee.
Back in 2021, Wright had been approved by the supervisors after they rejected a straight female mayoral nominee for the preservation commission due to then-mayor London Breed’s decision not to reappoint its two gay members, which would have left it without LGBTQ representation. It led to Breed nominating Wright, a conservation and preservation specialist, to serve in a term through the end of 2024.
He has remained on the commission as Lurie sought someone to nominate to his seat. Wright did not respond to the Bay Area Reporter’s request for comment this week about his tenure on the oversight body.
Traveling this week, Cox was unable to attend the Rules Committee’s July 28 meeting where it voted 3-0 to recommend the full board confirm her to the historic preservation panel. She is to serve on it through December 31, 2028, as the supervisors voted July 29 11-0 to seat Cox.
Gay Board President Rafael Mandelman, who represents District 8, twice voted in support of seating Cox, as he also serves on the Rules Committee. Speaking to the B.A.R. post the hearing Monday, he said he had no qualms about doing so without having had a chance to meet her in person based on her qualifications and support from historic preservationists. He plans to sit down with Cox once she is back in town.
In an emailed reply to the B.A.R., Cox said she had inquired after being approached by Lurie’s office about serving as a historic preservation commissioner to ensure she wouldn’t find herself in a similar situation of replacing the lone LGBTQ voice on the oversight body and was told she wouldn’t be. She will serve alongside gay commissioner Robert “Bob” Vergara, appointed two years ago by Breed to the preservation panel’s Seat 4 designated for a historian.
His term runs through the end of 2026. A longtime social studies teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, where he was the former athletic director, Vergara told the B.A.R. he will miss serving alongside Wright, noting he has been “a wonderful public servant” while in the role.
“Jason has brought so much to the commission. He is both a historian and an architect – the perfect combination for the Historic Preservation Commission. When he asks questions at hearings, I find myself taking notes,” wrote Vergara in an emailed reply. “I have learned so much from him. No one is more conscientious than Jason. Jason’s love for the city as an adopted San Franciscan has strengthened my own love for it as a native. I am sorry that Jason is leaving the commission.”
Shayne Watson, a lesbian and local LGBT historian who this month stepped back from her advocacy work around preserving the historic Noe Valley home of late lesbian couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, told the B.A.R. she was “extremely disappointed” that Wright wasn’t renominated to another term. Nonetheless, she praised his replacement, noting that she knows Cox “well and believe she’ll be an outstanding addition to the commission. She has deep knowledge of preservation issues in San Francisco and a demonstrated commitment to community-centered preservation.”
And Watson added, “It’s reassuring to know that the LGBTQ community is represented through the work of Commissioner Vergara.”
“She seems to have earned a lot of respect from a lot of people I rely on. I didn’t feel I needed to meet her in order to vote on her nomination,” said Mandelman, noting that the board has a narrow window of time to vote on mayoral appointments and is about to take its summer recess later this week, prompting the expedited approval process for Cox and several other city oversight body nominees this week.
Mandelman made the motion in committee to forward her nomination on to the full board with a positive recommendation. Rules chair District 10
Supervisor Shamann Walton and fellow committee member District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill also voted to do so without comment.
Noting he had worked with Cox on past issues, Mandelman called her a “good candidate” and said, “I think we can feel good naming her to this body.”
Speaking during public comment, San Francisco Heritage President and CEO Woody LaBounty thanked Lurie for bringing Cox’s nomination forward. He added she has the qualifications needed for that seat on the commission.
“San Francisco Heritage heartedly endorsed her nomination for this seat and ask that you endorse it,” said LaBounty.
Jon Haeber, field services director for the California Preservation Foundation, noted he has worked with Cox for nearly a decade and that she had done “exceptional work” with his organization and others. Like LaBounty, Haeber noted Cox is “certainly qualified” for the commissioner role.
“She has done plenty of work in the arena of historic preservation work that merits attention,” said Haeber.
Stacy Farr, an architectural historian and preservation planner, noted in an email to the supervisors that she has turned to Cox for advice on National Register and local historic register nominations that she had written. They’ve worked together on conference presentations and historic resource documentation, noted Farr.
“From our earliest experiences working together and into her later and present career endeavors, my strongest
impression of Eleanor Cox has always been as someone with a critical and analytical mind. Based in her thorough understanding of the principles of historic preservation, I find that Eleanor raises clarifying questions and seeks out all available information before making decisions. She is both rigorous and practical, and I have observed that her intelligence and enthusiasm inspire everyone in her orbit,” wrote Farr, who nearly a decade ago assisted advocates https:// www.ebar.com/story/33359 behind the creation of San Francisco’s historic Transgender District in the Tenderloin.
As for seeing the commission go from having two to now one out commissioner, Mandelman told the B.A.R. he did have concerns about the decreasing roster of LGBTQ people serving on various city oversight bodies. Similar to the historic preservation panel, the city’s planning and health commissions have gone from having multiple out members to each having just one known LGBTQ community member serving on it, while the police commission is without any LGBTQ representation.
“There has certainly been a decline in the number of queer people on commissions and it is something I am concerned about,” Mandelman acknowledged.
In terms of the historic preservation commission, it plays an important role in various issues related to LGBTQ history. It reviews proposals for landmarking LGBTQ historic sites and other matters concerning historic districts in the city, three of which are connected to LGBTQ history.
“I strongly encourage Mayor Lurie to consider the importance of representa tion in future appointments,” Watson told the B.A.R., since “our histories and built environments are deeply inter twined, and diverse perspectives are es sential to preserving them equitably.”
Asked about the matter of having LG BTQ representation on oversight bod ies, mayoral spokesman Charles Lut vak told the B.A.R. it is something that the Lurie administration takes under consideration in vetting candidates for commission appointments made by the mayor. (Certain oversight bodies have seats designated to just the mayor to fill or have a minority of seats filled by the Board of Supervisors, with its president moving forward the nominees.)
dignity | san francisco
“Our administration is always looking for qualified appointees who can serve our city and represent our diverse communities. And we will continue working closely with the Board of Supervisors to identify those individuals and fill these important roles,” stated Lutvak.
As for Cox, it is unclear if she will be seated in time for the historic preservation commission’s August 6 meeting.
“I haven’t spoken with the mayor’s office about the swearing in ceremony yet, so I’m not sure how the August schedule will shape up,” Cox told the B.A.R. t
Jason Wright, left, has left the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, while Eleanor R. Cox was approved to succeed him by the Board of Supervisors.
Wright, courtesy Page & Turnbull; Cox, courtesy the subject.
His floating repeal of what is known as the equal benefits ordinance (EBO), however, was met with shock from the law’s initial author. And the District 6 supervisor also received criticism from other LGBTQ leaders that now is not the time to do away with the groundbreaking statute.
The EBO, which the Board of Supervisors approved in 1996, requires companies doing business with the city to offer the same benefits to same-sex couples in domestic partnerships as married heterosexual couples since same-sex marriage wasn’t legal at the time. It does not require companies to offer benefits, but if they do, those benefits must be offered equally to their employees. It went into effect in June 1997.
Dorsey, in two phone conversations with the Bay Area Reporter in recent days, insists that the city’s contracting process has become too onerous and that the city is spending too much money on contract compliance for things like the EBO. Similar arguments were made by Dorsey and his board colleagues in 2023 when they ended the city’s ban on contracting with companies based in states with anti-LGBTQ laws, as well as restrictions on abortion access and voting rights.
Although Dorsey told the B.A.R. that he does not have legislation drafted to similarly junk the EBO, he is looking at doing so. One approach he is considering is not to repeal the EBO but suspend its enforcement unless Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, is overturned. When the court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago, Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned in his concurring opinion that the court should revisit Obergefell.
“I want to be thoughtful,” Dorsey said. “But I do think we Democrats have to have a conversation to make government more efficient and effective.”
Dorsey said that one example of a company coming afoul of the EBO is from 2005, when he tried to get a contract with Intranets.com (before it was acquired by WebEx) for the city attorney’s office, where he worked at the time. The company, he wrote in a text, was based in Massachusetts, which had marriage equality since 2004, and it didn’t offer domestic partner benefits because it was in a marriage equality state. Thus, it was not in compliance with the EBO, he noted.
“From the data I’ve seen, only about 45% of large firms in the U.S. offer domestic partner benefits today – and the numbers are declining in the postObergefell era,” Dorsey stated. “That means 55% of large firms – and who knows how many small firms – are banned from even bidding on goods or services contracts with San Francisco.
“When competitive bidding is made less competitive, the goods and services taxpayers contract for are more expensive,” he added. “I would be the first to argue that the added expense was entirely defensible when the underlying principle of the equal benefits ordinance was equity for same-sex couples who were legally denied access to marriage. It is not defensible today.”
On Tuesday, Dorsey sent a letter to the supervisors’ legislative analyst’s office requesting information on the estimated costs to taxpayers for EBO provisions and to assess the actual enforcement and compliance costs to city taxpayers.
Dorsey did acknowledge that the fate of Obergefell is an issue, particularly with President Donald Trump in office and the six-person conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court.
“We spent years arguing that domestic partners aren’t acceptable,” he said, referring to the push for marriage equality that kicked off in earnest in 2004 after then-mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
“I don’t see it as a gay issue anymore,” Dorsey said of the EBO. “Today’s equal benefits ordinance has nothing to do with LGBTQ+ equality, and hasn’t since 2015.”
times he was hung up on before he had the chance.
“Not only do we have to grieve our father’s death, but we must now seek answers on his behalf,” he said.
Mahmood’s release noted that after receiving word of Bulauan’s death, his family contacted their father’s parole officer at GEO Group, who claimed they had no knowledge that Bulauan had left the facility.
Mahmood stated that he wanted the hearing to look into the conditions of 111 Taylor Street “and the ongoing role of GEO Group in San Francisco.”
“It takes great courage and strength to turn pain into action and advocacy,” Mahmood said, addressing both the cultural significance to the trans community and Bulauan’s own children, who reported their father’s death at the Reentry Council of the City and County of San Francisco meeting July 17 and were present at the supervisors’ meeting.
De Leon said during public comment at the meeting Tuesday that he called the reentry facility three times to beg for a wellness check on his father, and three
Bulauan moved from the Philippines to San Francisco at 11 years old, Mahmood shared from his request to adjourn the meeting in memory of Bulauan. According to his family, he was a track star in middle and high school, remembered for his humor, diligence, and curiosity.
Historic building
The ground floor commercial space at 111 Taylor Street had housed Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, where one night in August 1966, a drag queen reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a police officer who tried to arrest her without a warrant. While the exact date of the altercation has been lost to time, the incident sparked a riot between trans and queer patrons of the 24-hour diner and cops, as detailed in the 2005 documentary “Screaming Queens” by
Shock and surprise
Gay former supervisor and state assemblymember Tom Ammiano, the author of the EBO, strongly disagreed with Dorsey.
“It’s very disturbing to hear, especially from a gay man,” Ammiano told the B.A.R. in a phone interview July 24. “Harvey Milk always said you’ve got to always look over your shoulder. It’s very disturbing that someone from our community thinks an ordinance like this isn’t worth it.”
Ammiano also pointed out that many seniors, LGBTQ and straight, opt for domestic partnerships later in life for financial reasons.
“It’s ill-advised, to say the least,” Ammiano said of Dorsey’s potential legislation. “We do not have heterosexual privilege, we will always be vulnerable.”
Former supervisor Leslie Katz, a lesbian, was surprised when contacted by the B.A.R.
“Wow,” she said.
An original co-sponsor of the EBO, along with lesbian former supervisor Susan Leal, Katz said Dorsey’s being short-sighted. She also said the compliance issues with the EBO aren’t that complicated, or at least weren’t when she was in office in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“It was simple, you checked a box,” she said, adding that if a company wasn’t in compliance then the forms to complete were more involved. She suggested the city might need to clean up its forms if compliance has become such a bureaucratic issue.
“If a company doesn’t offer benefits to anyone they’re in compliance,” she said of the law, adding that if the company does offer benefits they must be offered equally, and that includes to same-sex couples.
Jeff Sheehy, a gay man and former District 8 supervisor, was one of the public faces of the EBO fight, which came to a head when United Airlines at first balked about providing equal benefits to its employees. He and others staged protests outside of United’s
transgender scholar and historian Susan Stryker, Ph.D.
The property earlier this year became the first granted federal landmark status specifically for its connection to the transgender movement in the U.S. It is also now on the California Register of Historical Resources.
In 2022, San Francisco officials had landmarked the intersection of Turk and Taylor in front of the building in recognition of the uprising by the LGBTQ Compton’s patrons. The city’s 307th landmark also included portions of the structure’s exterior walls containing the commercial space that had housed the Compton’s eatery on both the Turk and Taylor street facades.
An effort to reclaim the building is led by activists, residents, historians, and scholars as the Compton’s x Coalition
“Our number one goal is to get folks that are currently in that space into programs and connected to resources that will actually help them achieve reentry. [...] We have a group of organizers who have curated a very beautiful, human-
downtown San Francisco ticket office complete with a costumed purple Tinky Winky, part of the “Teletubbies” TV characters that were popular at the time.
The late Reverend Jerry Falwell said the felt characters were turning children gay.
“Why are we going backward?”
Sheehy asked in a phone interview when told by the B.A.R. of Dorsey’s proposal. “Why are we closing a door we may need?”
Sheehy said that the EBO was groundbreaking because it forced companies to start providing benefits to domestic partners in states outside of California.
“Bank of America was the first employer in North Carolina to offer domestic partner benefits,” Sheehy said.
“We got the entire airline industry to comply.”
Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman was also contacted by the B.A.R. and was noncommittal on Dorsey’s plan. Mandelman acknowledged that the EBO was a big success but also noted that the “number of social policies baked into procurement” is “cutting out lots of companies.”
He has made contracting a priority, and was especially upset that the supervisors sent a proposal back to committee at its July 15 meeting that would have streamlined contracting rules. The proposal before the supervisors aimed to simplify the process for contracts under $230,000 by removing a litany of disclaimers that contractors – large and small – must currently agree to before doing business with the city, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Mandelman hoped it would address years of complaints from vendors about the city’s cumbersome requirements.
“My legislation was pretty modest,” he said.
His proposal set a threshold of removing social policies from smaller contracts – those under $230,000.
“Lower-level contractors have less effect on corporate behavior,” Mandelman said.
In recent years the supervisors have
first, respect-first plan to support people who are incarcerated in 111 Taylor. To get them back into their communities, to get them back into their homes,” Santana Tapia, spokeswoman for the Coalition, told the B.A.R. Tapia was present at both the Board of Appeals meeting July 16 and this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Bulauan’s family has started a crowdfunding campaign to pay for his funeral services. As of July 23, it’s raised almost $24,500 of its $28,000 goal.
“As an immigrant and person of color in a city of contrasts, our father faced real obstacles both personal and systemic. He lived with bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia, and he struggled for decades with substance use. He was human,” his family writes in the description of the online fundraising appeal.
“These were not just private battles. They were compounded by a cycle of incarceration and institutionalization, often worsened by the failure of the systems meant to support people like him, systems that too often punish instead of
revisited several ordinances related to the LGBTQ community that they felt were no longer necessary. At the behest of Mandelman, the board scrapped various sections of the city’s municipal code seen as hindering the return of traditional gay bathhouses, which had shuttered at the height of the AIDS epidemic due to the rules imposed on them like not having locked doors.
The repeal of those codes was largely embraced by LGBTQ community leaders. The first such business to take advantage of the code changes is awaiting a hearing before the city’s planning commission to receive the necessary permits.
There was more opposition two years ago when the board repealed the city’s ban on both contracting with businesses in, and paying for city employees to travel to, the states that fell under what was known as the 12X policy, mostly from LGBTQ business leaders concerned doing so would negatively impact the owners of small, local companies. The rationale that repeal would increase bidder competition for city contracts, and result in less costs for them, won out.
The state of California also repealed its travel ban to states with anti-LGBTQ laws and was supposed to replace it with a public ad campaign in the conservative states. So far, that campaign hasn’t materialized. Newsom, now the state’s governor, noted when he signed the legislation ending the travel restrictions that no state had repealed its anti-LGBTQ laws due , which was a point of the ban.
California continues to maintain a state–based registry for domestic partnerships. Rather than eliminate it, state lawmakers over the years have expanded access to the officially recognized unions to all partners regardless of their sexual orientation over the age of 18.
As for San Francisco’s domestic partnership law, Ammiano said that he hopes Dorsey will drop the idea of excising it from the municipal code.
“This was hard-fought for,” he said. t
heal,” noted the family. Tapia said the Compton’s x Coalition wants dignity for everyone, explaining the intersectional conversation between trans activists and incarcerated people and the overlap between the two.
“We understand that this fight for liberation is about asking for human decency for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re coming from the carceral system, wherever you are in life, everyone deserves decency. ... And I think that speaks to the beauty and power of our trans community. We get the chance and the privilege every day to achieve our fullest selves. Why shouldn’t someone else be able to achieve that?” Tapia told the B.A.R. after the supervisors’ meeting. In addition to officials from GEO Group, Mahmood plans to call representatives from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, the Adult Probation Department, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide expert testimony at the hearing, according to the release from his office. t
“Our members wanted to remain consistent with our values, but we aren’t hitting the streets for Engardio in this disaster of his own making,” Hernandez noted.
Otto Pippenger, a field director for the recall, told the B.A.R. that, “The Alice endorsement is unsurprising.” It had given Engardio a sole endorsement in his 2022 race.
“Joel has been deeply involved with the club for some time, and was on the board of directors as I recall. While we were not invited to participate, we appreciate their involvement in this special election,”
ISRAEL THE SECOND COMING
AJ BUTTACAVOLI
Pippenger stated. “Unfortunately, Milk did not take a position but there was a lively and worthwhile discussion process. While there was far more support for us than Engardio, we weren’t able to reach the high requirements (60%) for an endorsement. We appreciated Milk’s allowing us to present and the discussion process was valuable – we are glad to have gained many new supporters.”
Rawlings-Fein followed up with the B.A.R. about Pippenger’s statement that the recall campaign was not invited was incorrect.
“Alice always makes an effort to hear from both sides of campaigns before conducting endorsement votes,” Rawlings-Fein stated. “In this case, our board emailed to two addresses, one was listed on their official campaign material with the Department of Elections and the other was listed on their now de-
funct website. We will forward those correspondence to you in a separate email. We also had a member of our board reach out to someone involved with the campaign via phone. Unfortunately, no one from the campaign made it to our endorsement process meeting.”
Engardio was on the Alice board from 2012-2022, according to Rawlings-Fein. His tenure overlapped with his three unsuccessful bids for the District 7 supervisor seat.
Engardio’s campaign opposing the recall didn’t return a request for comment.
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee governs the local Democratic Party; it endorsed Mar back in 2022 and has not voted on whether to support the recall. San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung didn’t return a request for comment.
The San Francisco Standard reported in its July 28 Power Play that the vote was to take place at a special meeting July 30, but was pushed back to the committee’s regular meeting next month. Unnamed sources said the committee is expected not to make an endorsement one way or the other, which would require only a simple majority.
The recall of Engardio is opposed by elected gay officials state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Engardio’s Board of Supervisors colleagues President Rafael Mandelman, who represents District 8, and District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. Queer District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder didn’t immediately return a request for comment on her recall stance. t
by Myron Caringal
When Antoine Hunter first launched the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival (BAIDDF) in 2013, he planted what he calls a small seed. Thirteen years later, he said, “It’s grown into a big redwood tree.”
The annual event, running the second weekend of August, showcases deaf and hardof-hearing artistry from around the globe, while exemplifying what true cultural access looks like. A project of Hunter’s Urban Jazz Dance Company, BAIDDF is unapologetically deaf-led, community-driven and joyfully intersectional.
“It feels really amazing and bigger than me,” said Hunter in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. He also goes by the name Purple Fire Crow. “It’s really a community festival now, not just a company festival.”
This year’s lineup reflects that growing international scope. Dancers and performers are coming from across the Americas and Africa, including a long-anticipated debut by Okavango Deaf Polka Dancers, a group from Botswana, South Africa.
“They’ve been trying for years to come, and
Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival
A showcase of artists from around the globe
my dance company of nine dancers, you will see something that says ‘This is being created by a Black person, this was created by a two-spirit person.’”
His choreography is steeped in ancestral memory and community healing. But for Hunter, the work is bigger than aesthetics.
“It’s in my DNA to serve the community,” he said. “To bring their stories to the stage so we can recognize the people who have to be heard. It saved my life. It has the power to bring the community together. I think passionately about that”
BAIDDF’s impact is tangible, and it’s led some to host their own festival centered around deaf and hard-of-hearing folk.
Hunter remembered a deaf attendee who was in disbelief that BAIDDF was completely deaf-led, but Hunter reassured them.
“They went back to South America and they Instagrammed me a few months later,” Hunter said. “They became the director of their own dance theater.”
When first pitching this festival, Hunter was rejected by venues that didn’t believe deaf artists could deliver a full program. Some even questioned whether there was an abundance of deaf dancers.
“And I said, ‘Yes, I’ve seen them.’”
Now, the same theaters that once turned him away are asking to host. But Hunter is careful.
“Is their space accessible to deaf people? Are they willing to learn how to listen to deaf people?” he asked. “Because sometimes they want to do everything themselves without asking, ‘What do deaf people need?”
His hope for audiences is simple: come ready to listen.
“Just because you can hear doesn’t mean you know how to listen,” he said. “My work is about deaf culture, but you don’t have to be deaf to hear
2017 Media Kit 0 a
Mission Statement
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
Antoine Hunter with BAIDDF Assistant Director Zahna Simon
‘The Magnolia Ballet’ at Ashby Stage
by Jim Gladstone
The history is as oppressive as the humidity in the rural Georgia of playwright Terry Guest’s “The Magnolia Ballet,” a simultaneously dreamy and nightmarish fugue of gay romance and generational trauma now playing at Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage in Berkeley.
Guest’s ambitious, non-linear script is a bit short on narrative momentum and thematic crispness, but director and choreographer Aejay Antonis Marquis’ richly layered production is intellectually and emotionally enveloping.
The audience is welcomed to the performance space as if convening for a ritual by actor Devin A. Cunningham, who is billed as Apparition and morphs into several distinct spirits throughout the evening.
Scenic designer Imani Wilson’s heavy magnolia boughs and lighting designer Michael D. Combs’ ever-shifting ambiance draw us into a realm of timeless solemnity spiked
with moments of piercing contemporary humor.
Fathers and sons
Contemporary teenagers Ezekiel (Jaden Griffin, yearning and openhearted) and Danny (Nicholas René Rodriguez, frightened and feral) are more than just friends: They share an awkward sexual attraction, and a last name. Ezekiel “Z” Mitchell is Black; Danny Mitchell, white.
While collaborating on a school project about the Civil War, it becomes clear that their families’ pasts are stingingly intertwined. There’d be irony in describing this pair as classmates.
Guest adds poetic complexity to his script by writing both boys’ fathers to be played by a single actor; here Drew Watkins, who reveals glints of tenderness beneath a carapace of machismo.
Danny’s dad is openly racist when alone with his son, and even more sneeringly, condescendingly so when Z comes over to study. Z’s dad, out of both racial animosity and a creeping sense of the boys’ mutual attraction,
Lucia Lucas
by David-Elijah Nahmod
O n August 7 renowned trans baritone Lucia Lucas will appear in “Expansive: A Showcase of Transgender and Nonbinary Classical Artists.” This is the fourth annual presentation of “Expansive,” which is being presented by Opera Paralléle in collaboration with the San Francisco Transgender District in honor of Transgender History Month.
Lucas will be accompanied during the 90-minute program by pianist Taylor Chan, while San Francisco’s reigning Empress Afrika America will serve as the evening’s host.
Originally from Sacramento, Lucas has resided in Germany for the past decade. She has performed in Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Korea, London and around the United States. In 2023 Lucas created the role of “Lili Elbe” in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s eponymous opera, which was written expressly for her. In an inter-
makes it clear he’d prefer they not spend time together at all.
Danny, who is less comfortable with his queer feelings than Z, subconsciously shores up his confidence by assuming a dominant role in their flirtations and sexual encounters.
Both playwright and audience enter disconcertingly blurry territory here: When Black and white men have sex together, is racism or “race play” inherently present? How have queerness, Blackness, and manliness been perceived and entangled throughout history?
Present tense
The expressive, modernist movement that Marquis has created for his cast makes them articulate beyond their characters’ voices. Their jerks and swoons, lunges and retreats belie the play’s stifling social environment.
Similarly, wildly unexpected interludes featuring clips of Britney Spears videos and “Gone with the Wind” snap audience members back to the hereand-now, insisting that they think
about the play in present tense rather than being lulled into the superficial safety of what at times feels like an oldtime Deep South ghost story.
Throughout “The Magnolia Ballet,” Guest saturates the air with difficult questions, refusing to precipitate easy
Trans opera singer joins Opera Paralléle’s ‘Expansive’ showcase
view with the Bay Area Reporter Lucas spoke about her musical journey.
David-Elijah Nahmod: Please tell me about who Lili Elbe was
and what this role means to you. Lucia Lucas: Lili Elbe was one of the first people in modern history to medically transition. Our medicine has advanced so much in the last one
hundred years that what her doctors were attempting is probably possible now and has been achieved with cis women. She had a series of operations and her last, which was a uterus transplant, likely killed her.
Uterus transplants are not common now, but have this century resulted in women who were born without uteruses having children. Although much of the research around modern trans medicine at the time was burned by the Nazis in 1933. Her legacy of hope of what might be possible in the future was realized less than one hundred years later.
What are some of the pieces you will perform in “Expansive” and what do these composers mean to you?
I will be performing a piece I have made inspired by Wendy Carlos. She is the composer known most notably for “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining,” “Tron,” and “Switched
San Francisco Drag King Contest
by David-Elijah Nahmod
For the past 29 years the San Francisco Drag King Contest has entertained audiences with its campy over-the-top sense of fun. When the show first started in the ’90s there were only a few kings, but now, according to Fudgie Frottage, the organizer of the event, there are thousands of kings all over the world. The contest has as
Personals
much of a following as any show put on by drag queens.
This year’s show, which takes place at Oasis on August 3, promises an allstar line-up. The Master of Ceremonies will be Frottage himself along with the iconic Sister Roma, while king extraordinaire Wang Newton, flying in from New York, will be the special guest star. Performers that have been booked for the contest
People>>
FABULOUS F**K BOY
Model looks 6’ 150# 27yrs, 8” uncut beautiful tight yummy ass. Smoky sexuality erotic male nympho. Hndsm hedonist. Str8, gay, married men at yr apt, hotel, mansion! Greek god Nick 415818-3126. Leather fetish fantasy roleplay kink dom sub group scenes mild to wild. Pretty boy with a dirty mind, romantic & unforgettable! $400/hr, $2000 overnight neg.
include Papi Churro, Leigh Crow, Madd Dogg 20/20, Jota Mercury, Vera!, and Helixir Jynder Byntwell. Serving as celebrity judges will be Alotta Boutte, Meatflap, Trixxie Carr, and Fontaine Blue.
This year’s theme is “No Kings but Drag Kings.” In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Frottage explained the meaning behind the theme.
“The theme is political, but that doesn’t mean every number will go that way,” he said. “In a society where gay, trans, female people of color and immigrants are persecuted by a fascist oligarchy, and where a movement rises up to protest called No Kings, we had to stand up for ourselves. Drag kings are the antithesis of that antichrist in the White House.”
Contestants will be judged on their talent, which includes creativity, originality, make-up, fashion and such. The evening will feature a Lip Sync for your life segment.
“The audience can expect a stage filled with balls-to-the-wall pandemonium as a group of kings attempt to upstage each other to get a spot in the actual contest,” Frottage said. “Lip sync for your life was added to the show so that as many contestants as possible can have a shot at the crown.”
As the B.A.R. has reported, Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger announced that the club, which has been SFDK’s home for a number of years, would be closing its doors for good on January
on Bach.” She is an integral part of soundtrack history and electronic music history, leading directly into the 1980s explosion of electronic music in dance and pop. Her style of world-building in soundtracks is still common place in movies. She also happens to be trans. Verdi and Wagner are two composers who have guided my concept of what a career as an opera singer means, especially for a dramatic voice. They are quintessential to forming the building blocks of a lasting career. I know at least Wagner will be featured, but Verdi may make an appearance as well.t
Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
‘Expansive: A Showcase of Transgender and Nonbinary Classical Artists,’ August 7, 7:30pm, A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St. $15-$100. www.operaparallele.org www.lucialucas.com
1, 2026. A decrease in attendance and in liquor sales was cited as the reason. Frottage said that everyone was devastated by this news.
“D’Arcy and his staff gave us all a beautiful and professional venue to perform and party in,” he said. “Kudos to them for keeping the place going for as long as they did, which was really a labor of love. I’m glad that Oasis Arts was established so that the creativity can continue on without the same
monetary constraints. SFDK will move on as well, where to is unknown at this time.”t
Read the full article on www.ebar.com.
The 29th San Francisco Drag King Contest, August 3, 7pm. Oasis, 298 11th St. $27.50-$60. www.sfdragkingcontest.com www.sfoasis.com
answers. The audience is left to sweat it out.t
‘The Magnolia Ballet’ through Aug. 10. $20-$78. Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgunplayers.org
Alotta Boutte, Papi Churro and Fudgie Frottage
Randall Whitehead
Nicholas Rene Rodriguez dances for Jaiden-Griffin in ‘The Magnolia Ballet’
Robbie Sweeny
Lucia Lucas
Ludwig Olah
‘To Be Seen’ at Jonathan Carver Moore gallery
by Emily Wilson
Artist April Bey thinks we need material Black queer representation. That’s why she wanted to have her work be part of “To Be Seen” at Jonathan Carver Moore, a galley on San Francisco’s Market Street.
Her pieces in the show, “Miss Bilquis! How is Your Life? /Up and Not Crying” and “Well, Beyoncé Say She Look It Up and It Does Exist So,” offer a portal into visibility in joy, rage, softness, and defiance, she wrote in an email.
One figure channels Bilquis, a cosmic deity of divine feminine energy. On her head are Royal Crown hair dressing tins, and she looks unbothered by the confusion this could create in the viewer. “That’s intentional. It’s about claiming power without explanation,” Bey wrote.
That’s how it is with “To Be Seen,” which opened for Pride Month and is on view through August 16. Moore has been thinking about it since just a few months after he opened the gallery in March 2023. The artists in the show are Black and queer, and the title, Moore said, comes in the opposite of what he was often told to do, by people who wanted him to tone down who he is as a way to protect him.
“I wanted to show to be the antithesis of that,” he said over tea at a downtown café near the gallery. “I think af-
ter Trump went into office, we’ve seen the fallout of all the things he’s done since January. I was not interested in not being visible and having my artists not be visible.”
Along with Bey’s work, the show also includes photos by Lulu Mhlana and Eric Hart Jr., portraits by Mayowa Nwadike, paper constructions painted in shellac ink and watercolor by Khari Johnson-Ricks, and a sculpture by San Francisco artist Ramekon O’arwisters
Black experience through sculpture
O’arwisters describes himself as “over the moon” to be part of “To Be Seen,” saying he’s glad to be able to express the Black queer experience through sculpture. The base of his piece “Black on Black #3” is made of broken ceramics, which O’arwisters likes to use in his work.
“Most ceramicists make vessels, and we are vessels,” he said. “Sometimes we
Shane Edward Grogg
by Michael Flanagan
Visual artist Shane Edward Grogg has been a fan of the Grateful Dead since the 1990s. His love of the band motivated his move to the West Coast in the ’90s, where he discovered a burgeoning world of queer Deadheads. He found his tribe! As a graphic artist he has contributed to the visual record of the Dead (no mean feat, given the history of iconic Dead images). Grogg is a six-time winner of the Haight Ashbury Street Fair poster contest and has been the official poster artist for San Francisco’s Jerry Day (Aug. 2) since 2009. Grogg spoke about his art and the community he found in the Bay Area.
Michael Flanagan: Shane, when did you first start listening to the Grateful Dead? How many times did you see them?
Shane Edward Grogg: I first started listening to them in ’87. My first show was summer of ’88 and that was in Landover, Maryland. That was a historic show because they played “Electric Ripp\le” encore, and that was my first show. I saw 97 Dead shows and about 25 Jerry Garcia Band shows.
How did you connect with community of queer Deadheads? Can you talk a little bit about Queer Deadhead get-togethers?
I was completely closeted in the gay scene, and none of my Dead friends
knew. It wasn’t until I had moved to California and I started coming up to the Bay Area. Someone in a parking lot had a T-shirt on that had the ‘Steal Your Face’ with a pink triangle and it read, “Ain’t No Time to Hate.” I stopped him and asked, “What’s up with this shirt?” I had never seen any sort of outward thing like that.
I would wear a rainbow necklace or just a little rainbow pin and I would feel that everyone was looking at it. I started talking with him and he said that there was a whole group of queer Deadheads that were based in San Francisco. They had gettogethers and picnics and they all sat
are damaged or broken, but we don’t want to be thrown away. My philosophy is you’re just as beautiful as a complete vessel as you are if you’re broken, or as you get older, we’re just as beautiful, even though society doesn’t treat us that way. So, I use the broken ceramics as a stand in for the human body.”
The sculpture also contains zip-ties, black leather, rings and metal clamps, which reference restraining and restricting.
“That’s my stand-in for how the globe feels,” O’arwisters said. “Politically, economically, socially and environmentally, we’re all are feeling very uptight and restricted and controlled right now.”
The June opening of the show was packed, with many people taking selfies in front of Bey’s work, laughing, and stroking the artwork’s faux-fur. Asked about people’s reaction, Bey says she likes seeing people take joy from her work.
“They were escaping Earth for a minute,” she wrote. “My materials are plush, shiny, exaggerated on purpose; they’re tactile invitations. When people start posing or giggling or pet-
ting the fur, it means they’ve already crossed through the portal.”t Read the full article on www.ebar.com.
‘To Be Seen,’ through August 16, Jonathan Carver Moore, 966 Market St. www.jonathancarvermoore.com www.aprilbey.com www.ramekon.com
at shows together. He said there was a head shop on Haight Street where it was all based called Distractions (it just recently closed).
We were up here for Shoreline, so the next day I went to the Haight and went to the store and I met all these people – and that night at intermission you met up with each other. I slipped away from my friends at intermission and met all of these gay and lesbian Deadheads and I went back into the show and I knew that my life had changed.
And I decided right then and there that I was going to move from L.A. to San Francisco. It was just the idea that those two parts of my life could coexist with others, it was sort of an awakening of, “Okay, now I really know I belong in San Francisco.” I moved and a couple days from moving I met my ex-partner. He was a Deadhead and had never met another gay Deadhead. We were together for many years.
The queer Deadheads, the original group (the O.G.s) in pre-internet days, pre-cell phone days, was a mailing list and a newsletter. There were loosely organized people in San Francisco and the main thing we did is that we would all sit together at shows. A couple of people would go in early and save a bunch of seats so that we could all be sitting together.
They’re still around. A friend of mine, Joe Rivera, sort of runs the queer Deadheads as they are now. You can find it on Instagram. With the internet and social media, it’s nationwide and people meet up at shows all around the country. There are plans for the 60th anniversary. There’s a meetup at the Pilsner Inn. I’m coming down for all of that, I’m really looking forward to it.t
Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
Jerry Day with Melvin Seals & JGB with Mads Tolling, Stu Allen & Mars Hotel, August 2, 11:30am6pm, at the Jerry Garcia Ampitheatre, 40 John F. Shelley Drive, McLaren Park, plus other events. jerryday.org mendocheeto.com instagram.com/queerdeadheads
The opening night of ‘To Be Seen’ at Jonathan Carver Moore gallery
Francis Baker
Shane Edward Grogg in his vendor booth at a recent arts fair.
