Five days after eliminating 34 staff positions in order to address a $5.71 million deficit, San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., defended the agency’s actions, taken just before the city’s Pride festivities got underway.
“I understand the timing was not ideal,” TerMeer said in an exclusive July 1 phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “It happens to be that the end of our fiscal year comes at the end of June each year, and that is when our board-approved budget happens each year, in the month of June, and so we made our decision as soon as we could before our fiscal year flipped June 30.”
Nineteen people were let go, including chief of staff Ben Hice and chief program officer Brenda Kiner, effective July 1, while the other positions had been unfilled. TerMeer had announced the decision to reduce the agency’s staff in a guest opinion published June 26 online by the B.A.R. and by the AIDS foundation on its website.
In it, TerMeer wrote that it was necessary for the long-term survival of the agency, which has faced fiscal headwinds for months. The AIDS/LifeCycle ride it co-hosted with the Los Angeles LGBT Center ended for good last month following years of declining participation, and it’s currently a plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration over canceled federal contracts.
In the guest opinion, TerMeer characterized the layoffs as part of a “strategic restructure” of the agency. The news came three days prior to TerMeer being a grand marshal at the San Francisco Pride parade, selected for the honor by members of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee.
Initially, the agency said TerMeer was unavailable last Thursday for an interview due to his Pride Month commitments and had nothing more to say about the layoffs. But after being pressed for an interview by the B.A.R., TerMeer agreed to discuss the matter Tuesday in a phone interview.
TerMeer said that he and Chief Legal Officer Peter Parisot are handling Hice’s and Kiner’s job responsibilities.
“I’m directly supervising all the programmatic roles,” said TerMeer, who is gay and living with HIV. “All the program leaders report directly to me. … The chief of staff previously supervised our strategic team. That team now reports to our chief legal officer.”
See page 4 >>
1st transgender Congressmember McBride calls moment ‘critical’
by JL Odom
The first transgender representative on Capitol Hill came to San Francisco for Pride weekend with an urgent message. Democratic leaders, said Congressmember Sarah McBride (DDelaware), need to center the voices of queer and trans people now more than ever.
“This is a critical moment for LGBTQ voices, and particularly trans voices, to be at the heart of the Democratic Party,” McBride, whose victory last November made her the highest-ranking trans elected official within the party, told the Bay Area Reporter.
The sole U.S. House of Representatives member for her state, McBride emphasized that the current all-out assault on LGBTQ rights — and specifically transgender rights — needs to be met with community-wide resistance.
“I think it’s going to take trans voices, trans leaders, and the broader LGBTQ community helping to lead the way forward to fight hard and fight smart in this moment so that we can push back on the attacks but also recapture public opinion to regain momentum and start to move equality forward for not just the trans community, but the LGBTQ community nationwide,” she said.
McBride was a featured speaker at the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club’s annual Pride Breakfast, held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt
Regency San Francisco Sunday, June 29, prior to the kickoff of the city’s annual Pride parade. A fundraiser for the club’s year-round work, the event also spotlighted Gwendolyn Ann Smith, co-founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance held each November to honor trans people lost during the year prior, many killed due to their gender identity.
by John Ferrannini
LThe longtime trans advocate, who writes the Transmission column for the B.A.R., told the hundreds of attendees at the breakfast that “now is not the time to shrink back, but to stand up” in response to anti-LGBTQ legislation and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
See page 8 >>
East Bay LGBTQ centers feel strain
2017 Media Kit 0 a
GBTQ centers in the East Bay are dealing with some of the challenges being presented by 2025 in new ways. For example, the Pacific Center for Human Growth, the oldest LGBTQ center in the Bay Area, launched a fundraising drive this Pride Month and will be having its inaugural Berkeley Pride street fair on August 16.
Lasara Firefox Allen, MSW, is the CEO of the center, which is the third oldest nationally and serves 5,000 people annually with a budget of $2.75 million, according to center officials. Allen started at the center three years ago and, in January, moved from being its executive director to its CEO.
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.
“The board of directors and I all agreed that having a CEO title made sense in the current iteration of our organization,” Allen, who is nonbinary and pansexual, said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
In corporations, executive directors are usually “mid-management,” Allen explained, while in nonprofits it’s the head of the group. By making this clearer to potential corporate donors, Allen and the board are trying to make the chain of command more transparent as they work to recruit community partners.
“We’re doing a lot of our front-facing work finding community partners and diverse funding streams,” Allen said. “Strategically, it felt like a better match.”
Hence, the late summer celebration it is hosting. Last year, there was a resource fair timed to the third Saturday in August, which is Berkeley’s official Pride Day.
“The response was amazing,” Allen said.
This will be the first time the event will be a street fair instead of simply a resource fair. The footprint will be next to the UC Berkeley campus, on Oxford Street from Center Street to University Avenue, and on Addison Street from Oxford Street to Kala Bagai Way.
Meanwhile, the center hopes to raise $110,000 by July 1, and people can donate on the center’s webpage through Monday, June 30. As of Tuesday, the center had raised nearly $61,000, surpassing half its goal.
The amount is larger than the $50,000 shortfall the center is facing in its next fiscal year due to cuts at the state level, according to the donation page.
“That means fewer dollars for mental health programs, cultural work, and essential community services. The truth is: it’s not just about surviving–it’s about continuing to lead with pride, purpose, and power right here in Berkeley, as we have done for over 50 years,” noted center officials.
See page 4 >>
Lonely Parrots
Tordillos wins San Jose seat
Marga Gomez
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation marched in the city’s annual Pride parade June 29.
Rick Gerharter
Pacific Center for Human Growth CEO Lasara Firefox Allen, center, second row, stood with other staff at the longtime LGBTQ nonprofit.
Courtesy Pacific Center
Congressmembers Sarah McBride of Delaware and Lateefah Simon of Oakland joined the Young Women’s Freedom Center contingent in the 2025 San Francisco Pride parade.
Rick Gerharter
City adjusts Milk plaza redo costs so work can begin next year
by John Ferrannini
Renovations to Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro district will be going forward next year. City officials exclusively told the Bay Area Reporter they were able to pencil out the costs for the project so most of it is covered by the $25 million allocated to it by a bond voters passed last November.
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office told the B.A.R. that in order to do so, some items not essential to the overall project will be added back as fundraising allows. The reworking of the public parklet’s layout is now set to begin in late 2026, a decade after the proposal was first broached with Castro residents and civic leaders.
The final cost, including the amount that will still need to be raised from private donors or other sources, depends upon the final design drawings for the project, which have yet to be signed off by city officials, according to a mayoral spokesperson. As of press time, whether all six elements for the new plaza depicted in the current renderings for the project — dubbed the pedestal, the beacon, the grove, the gallery, the canopy and the central terrace — will be paid for with the bond funding was not confirmed.
Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors approved $894,856 from the bond money to have global landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm SWA complete the drawings for the project with the goal of seeing construction begin next year, as the B.A.R. had reported.
“Harvey Milk Plaza reflects the heart of this city and the spirit of one of its greatest leaders. After years of advocacy and community leadership, the memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza is officially moving forward,” said Lurie in a statement provided to the B.A.R. Lurie joined advocates of the plaza project and LGBTQ leaders at the site June 27 to celebrate the news. Located at the corner of Castro and Market streets, the plaza is considered the entryway into the Castro neighborhood. Named after the city’s first gay supervisor, who was assassinated in 1978 just shy of his 12-month mark in office, the plaza sits atop the Castro Muni Station and extends south to Collingwood Street.
“Harvey fought for dignity and equality. He believed in public service that was personal. He believed that government should reflect the people it serves. And he understood that hope requires action,” noted Lurie. “Today, Harvey Milk’s legacy lives on.”
Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (DSan Francisco), who secured $500,000 in federal funds for the project last year, stated that it is appropriate the news about its
anticipated 2026 groundbreaking comes as the city celebrates Pride. The annual parade is just two days from now.
“In San Francisco, we take immense pride in being home to the iconic Harvey Milk: a trailblazing leader for freedom, equality and justice,” Pelosi stated.
“This Pride Month, advancing toward construction of the memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza carries renewed significance - not only as a place of remembrance and civic pride, but also as a response to ongoing efforts to erase LGBTQ+ history and identity. Today’s announcement is a powerful milestone for a transformative project that will revitalize the community and reimagine Harvey Milk Plaza for residents and visitors to enjoy.”
Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who as the District 8 supervisor represents the Castro at City Hall, has long supported the plaza makeover. He told the B.A.R. he “could not be more excited” about seeing construction on it begin before he is termed out of office in early January 2027.
“For more than a decade a persistent and growing band of neighborhood and community advocates have agitated to modernize and transform Harvey Milk Plaza into the iconic public space and memorial its namesake deserves,” Mandelman stated. “The effort received a major boost in November when the voters passed Proposition B, allocating $25 million for the project. Mayor Lurie’s announcement that construction will begin next year finally brings the fulfillment of this vision into sight.”
The approved plans for the plaza call for a smaller stairway leading to the underground subway station to be constructed, replacing the wider one there today that undulates downward across most of the space. Drawings show a rose-colored, transparent overhang above the new stairs and station escalator to protect them from rainwater.
The color scheme harkens to the redand-white bullhorn Milk used during protests held at the site and marches that
kicked off from it. A new spiral podium feature built by the intersection of Castro and Market streets would nod to the site’s history as a gathering place for protests and rallies.
Cleve Jones, a longtime AIDS activist and protégé of Milk’s, stated that he is “beyond thrilled” the plaza will encourage others to inspire change in their communities.
“Harvey understood very well the meaning and power of hope,” Jones stated. “He understood how enemies of equality seek to divide us and tear people apart, and we are seeing this right now. Our community understands that the best response in these times is to organize, form coalitions and stand shoulder to shoulder as we fight back. I’m beyond thrilled that the new Harvey Milk Plaza celebrates not only Harvey’s emphasis on hope, but also his call to get involved and to act, so that each of us can be an instrument of change.”
At last Friday’s news conference, Jones, 70, said meeting Milk was the most important moment of his life.
“I’m going to live to see it done,” he said, “and the end of the current [Trump] regime. This isn’t just about a man who walked among us. It’s about the movement he started, and our community’s determination to continue that movement.”
The newly enclosed space below street level is envisioned to be used for museum-quality displays about Milk and other local LGBTQ leaders. Talks are underway about incorporating the subway station’s entire concourse for the installation.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency director Julie Kirschbaum stated Muni is “proud to support a space that not only connects people across San Francisco, but also honors Harvey Milk’s enduring legacy of visibility, activism, and hope.”
She added that, “Harvey Milk Plaza sits at the crossroads of movement— both literal and historic.”
As the B.A.R. had reported earlier this month, city documents related to the bond funding had pegged the cost for the Milk plaza project as high as $40 million, while the booster group supportive of it had been working off a total cost of around $35 million.
Either amount was unlikely to be fully covered by state and federal funding, necessitating the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza group to raise additional funding to close the gap. Brian Springfield, a gay man and professional graphic designer who is the executive director of the friends group, told the B.A.R. Thursday that it has agreed to seek at least $8 million in funds to pay for the plaza redo elements not covered by the city bond.
“We found out a way to use available funds to create a base project that can be built for that amount without compromising at all the community’s vision for Harvey Milk Plaza,” Springfield said in a June 26 phone interview.
Springfield said some items that are part of the approved new design for the plaza were made into what are termed “add-alternates,” meaning they will be added back into the project if funding can be found. He was unable to provide specifics about what will be part of a phase two for the plaza revamp.
But Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District and cochair of the plaza friends group, told the B.A.R. that one of the add-alternates would be expanding the gallery space the entire length of the Muni station.
“Right now, the gallery ends at the orange gates (right before you enter the station),” Aiello explained. “We have funding in the $25 million for the current gallery that we promised to the community but, to make it larger, we will still be fundraising. We also want to raise funds now for activating the space once it opens.”
San Francisco Public Works helped in the process of making the project fit within the $25 million from the bond. Director Carla Short stated, “The reimagined public space will be a gamechanger, serving as both a beacon for the iconic Castro neighborhood and a tribute to Harvey Milk and the values he championed. With the support of Mayor Lurie, Supervisor Mandelman and community leaders, our department is honored to be involved in the delivery of this generational project.”
The community-led drive to completely renovate Milk plaza was launched in 2016 in conjunction with the city’s plan to install a second elevator for the subway station. That project is currently under construction and set for completion by early next year.
The steel beams for the new elevator shaft jut up into the air and await the installation of the lift. Concrete work for it is nearly complete, as the B.A.R. reported earlier this month.
As for the Milk plaza renovation, it will be shovel-ready in fall 2026, Aiello told the B.A.R. in a phone interview Thursday. Recalculations now that the project is close to starting are responsible for much of the revised cost estimate, she said.
“What happened is, as you get closer to a build date, when you know when that’ll be and [construction] documents get further along, the estimators have a better idea of what the project is going to cost,” Aiello explained.
She added, “They didn’t know when the groundbreaking would happen,” but the passage of Proposition B, last fall, which funded the project alongside others such as San Francisco City Clinic, added some urgency.
“They had … to look at every single line item with the idea they’re going to build in 2026,” Aiello said. “I am so thrilled this is going to be happening next year. There’s going to be groundbreaking in fall of 2026. It’s incredibly exciting to me personally, and to everyone who has worked on this project. Looking forward to 2028 and being able to celebrate a new Harvey Milk Plaza.”
In a news release, Springfield stated that the plaza will celebrate the progress the LGBTQ community has made.
“The Castro is more than a neighborhood—it remains a symbol of visibility, courage, and community in the imaginations of LGBTQ+ people around the world,” Springfield stated. “Harvey Milk’s story is rooted in the fight for rights, dignity, and the freedom to live authentically, a struggle that continues to this day. The new Harvey Milk Plaza will celebrate the progress we’ve made and inspire future generations of LGBTQ+ people everywhere to keep pushing forward.”
After the event, the B.A.R. caught up with attendees.
“We don’t know much,” Jim Buzza said, standing next to his wife Kathy. “We just got here from Iowa and the gentleman at the bakery said, ‘Come up the street, it’s very important.’”
The two are in town this weekend to visit their son.
When the plans for the future plaza were explained, Jim Buzza said, “That’s wonderful.”
Added Kathy Buzza, “We learned a lot on the vibrant walking tour of the Castro about Harvey Milk. To have a place that you can come to learn it on your own is really great, and it’ll be here any time you want to come, you don’t have to wait for a tour guide.” t
LX2 3-sided gas fireplace shown here with Murano glass, and reflective glass liner
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced June 27 that construction of the Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza is to start in 2026, with the bulk of the project costs covered by bond funds.
John Ferrannini
Gay San Jose council candidate Tordillos wins
by Matthew S. Bajko
Come August, gay San Jose City Councilmember-elect Anthony Tordillos will return out leadership to the governing body of the Bay Area’s largest city. The youthful political newcomer is set to become one of the most high-profile LGBTQ elected leaders in the South Bay.
Tordillos is to take his oath of office August 12 as the new District 3 councilmember. His seat covers much of downtown San Jose and its Qmunity LGBTQ district.
With an insurmountable lead even as the final vote tally had yet to be released, Tordillos declared victory early last Thursday morning in his runoff race conducted June 24.
“District 3 voters showed they won’t settle for status quo San Jose politics. They’re tired of the same old fights between ‘business’ and ‘labor’- they want a councilmember they can count on to deliver results on housing affordability, homelessness, and public safety,” stated Tordillos. “We were never supposed to make it this far, but thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who knocked on over 30,000 doors, we’re here.”
Tordillos, San Jose city councilmember-elect, will return
After the polls closed last Tuesday, Tordillos was in first place with 64% of the ballots counted. In second was Gabriela “Gabby” Chavez-Lopez. As of Monday, according to the unofficial returns, Tordillos’s vote count stood at 5,334, with Chavez-Lopez at 2,955.
According to the Santa Clara County registrar, turnout in the special election was 17.66% of registered voters. Tordillos will serve out a council term that expires at the end of 2026
and need to seek a full four-year term on next year’s ballot.
“While we wait for the County Registrar to finish counting, I am working to build a team that can hit the ground running and restore trust in city government for District 3 residents,” stated Tordillos last week.
He is the second out council candidate to win a special election this year in the Bay Area. Lesbian District 2 Oakland City Councilmember Charlene Wang, a civil rights and environmental justice expert, was elected in April to also serve out the remainder of a term through 2026.
BAYMEC, the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee that supports LGBTQ candidates in the South Bay, praised Tordillos’s election. It had endorsed him in the race and made “an historic investment” in his candidacy, noted BAYMEC President Drew Lloyd.
“Anthony Tordillos’ victory sends a powerful and timely message: In a moment of national division, San José voters have chosen to stand with a young, openly gay leader who leads with integrity and heart,” stated Llyod. “His success is as much a win for District 3 as it is LGBTQ+ candidates everywhere who have been told to wait, to hide, to make themselves smaller.”
Chair of the San Jose Planning Commission, Tordillos, 33, is an engineering manager at YouTube. He lives with his husband, Giovanni Forcina, a cancer biologist, near the San Jose State University campus.
He beat out Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, in the special April 8 primary for second place in order to advance to the runoff that happened to coincide with Pride Week. Because Quevedo fell short by six votes behind Tordillos to land in third place, it triggered an automatic recount of the results that confirmed the outcome.
From page 1
Hice didn’t immediately return a request for comment July 1. Tuesday afternoon, Kiner reached out to the B.A.R. via email to state she had filed a complaint regarding her termination with the California Civil Rights Department.
“It is my firm belief that SFAF’s challenges are not due to individual performance, but to a failure of executive accountability,” she stated. “Patterns of excessive spending, diminished fundraising, and the ongoing erosion of community trust reflect deeper leadership failures that must be addressed.”
According to the foundation’s most recent IRS 990 disclosure for the 20232024 Fiscal Year, Hice (whose last name is listed as Cabangun) made $237,651 in reportable compensation from the foundation and related organizations. Lara Brooks, listed as chief program officer through September 1, 2023, made $216,107; Kiner is not listed among the employees on the tax filing.
The same disclosure states that TerMeer made $421,557 in reportable compensation from the foundation and related organizations. Asked if he or others would be taking a pay cut, TerMeer told the B.A.R. that “cutting salaries is not an effective strategy that would prepare the agency for the future.”
Doing so would only present additional challenges for the nonprofit, contended TerMeer.
“We believe it would lead to staff retention issues later on down the line, so we didn’t consider cutting or reducing staff salaries, and that goes from front-
<< East Bay centers
From page 1
Quevedo then threw his support behind Tordillos in the runoff, as did Mahan, who walked precincts with Tordillos in the final days of the campaign leading up to Tuesday’s election. Their backing of him was expected to give Tordillos a leg up in the runoff race since his and Quevedo’s combined support in the primary dwarfed that of Chavez-Lopez, 37, a single mom.
Chavez-Lopez is the executive director of South Bay nonprofit the Latina Coalition of Silicon. Seen as more to the left politically of Tordillos, and a potential check on the more moderate agenda of Mahan, Chavez-Lopez has received support in recent weeks from a number of prominent progressive South Bay leaders, such as bisexual Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose).
She conceded June 26, and in an email to her supporters congratulated Tordillos on his victory and wished him “success in the work ahead,” although it had his last name wrong. She also lambasted the special interest groups that had worked to defeat her own candidacy.
“I look forward to finding ways to collaborate on the challenges facing our families, small businesses, and neighborhoods,” wrote ChavezLopez. “I also want to be honest: this campaign faced unprecedented levels of misinformation and negative attacks from outside special interest groups like the California Association of Realtors and BizPAC. That kind of politics does not serve our city. I remain—as I always have—committed to raising the standard for how we conduct local elections. San José deserves campaigns grounded in truth, integrity, and respect for our voters.”
Many LGBTQ leaders and groups had supported Tordillos in the contest, including the first gay member of the San Jose City Council, Ken Yeager, who went on to be the first and, so far,
line staff, to executive staff, to myself,” TerMeer said. “My salary is set and determined by the board of directors each year. There would have been no way to substitute reductions of a $6 million deficit by reducing salaries alone.”
Board Chair Manny Nungaray didn’t return an immediate request for comment for this report July 1. In its fiscal year ending last June, the agency reported revenues of nearly $39 million but expenses of almost $44.5 million.
The foundation moved its downtown San Francisco offices in March 2024 to 940 Howard Street from 1035 Market Street, as the B.A.R. previously reported. It did so with an option to purchase the building, which the agency bought last November.
According to bond documents from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, the land and building acquisition cost was $12.5 million, with the expected maturity date for the revenue bond financing August 1, 2054. The transaction was expected to result in approximately $2 million in annual lease cost savings for the AIDS foundation from their prior leased space.
The disclosure also said the agency spent upwards of $2.5 million on interior renovation and rehabilitation of the building. It was purchased at an interest rate “not to exceed 5.75% per annum,” according to the bank.
“We had a short-term lease to leaseto-purchase while we rented the space,” TerMeer said. “I would not say it was a high interest rate. We were on a plan to purchase right away.”
Having pledged in his guest opinion
only out member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Gay former state Assemblymember Evan Low who represented Silicon Valley cities and the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which Low now leads, had also backed Tordillos in the race, as did statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California.
“We are thrilled to see Anthony succeed in his race for city council,” gay EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang told the B.A.R. “Some of the most important and consequential policymaking for Californians happens at the local level, and it’s critical to have LGBTQ+ representation in these conversations. We congratulate councilmember-elect Tordillos and look forward to working with him in future endeavors.”
The council seat has been represented since earlier this year by engineering firm owner Carl Salas. He was selected as a caretaker of the seat by the council following the resignation last fall of gay former councilmember Omar Torres due to his arrest for allegedly molesting a cousin years prior. Torres has since pleaded no contest to child sex crimes. He is awaiting his sentencing and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Elected in 2022, Torres was the first gay Latino and out person of color to serve on the San Jose City Council, and only its second out councilmember. The governing body had gone 16 years without a member from the LGBTQ community until Torres took his oath of office two years ago.
While Torres’ scandal had hung over the primary race this spring, Tordillos was able to overcome any doubts voters in the district had of sending another gay man to represent them at City Hall. Tordillos will be in office well ahead of the annual Silicon Valley Pride festival and parade set to take place August 30 and 31. t
the layoffs will not affect client services, TerMeer was asked how that would be possible moving forward. The agency now has just under 200 staff members.
“We have done essentially a reorganizing of the staffing pattern internally, so we are cross training a variety of our internally-facing staff in our navigation teams,” explained TerMeer.
Prior to the layoffs, the agency had three separate navigation teams that worked in their own silos, said TerMeer, with those being benefits, services, and lobbying. Now, the pared-down teams will be trained in all three skillsets, he told the B.A.R., instead of sticking to one.
“As a result, we actually don’t have to eliminate any of the service division,” TerMeer said.
It’s not the first time the foundation has seen cuts in recent years. Back in 2021, 17 employees were laid off and four leadership positions eliminated, as the B.A.R. reported at that time.
The foundation’s new building it bought, which houses its main offices, is situated in gay Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s District 6. He framed the fiscal situation confronting the AIDS foundation in the context of the city’s difficult budget year, as it had to address an $800 billion budget shortfall in its fiscal year that began July 1.
“The city is in the same downsizing mode as the AIDS Foundation right now, and hanging over all of us is lingering uncertainty over what the Trump administration may abandon next in terms of federal support for priorities we once shared,” stated Dorsey, who is living with HIV and vice chair of the board’s budget committee. t
The board is pleased with Allen’s leadership, he stated. << SFAF
Christopher Stemborowski, a gay man who is the president of the Pacific Center’s board, stated to the B.A.R. that, “Spearheading Berkeley’s first-ever Pride with a street fair is one of the most tangible ways
Pacific Center can gather our community, give a platform to groups and individuals who are being marginalized, and put our mission into action.”
Stemborowski also stated the organization is trying “to do everything we can to increase the service hours we provide to meet the ever-increasing community needs. We aim to be a resource community members can come to and an organization that is active, visible and contributing in the community at this moment of uncertainty.”
t Community News>>
to $1.3 million in the current fiscal year, concluding soon.
“The day-to-day leadership that Lasara has guided Pacific Center with for more than three years now has deepened Pacific Center’s roots in the community, and we intend to draw on those deeper roots to grow our impact,” he continued. “In our most recent annual report, we were proud to share a 58.6% annual increase in total service hours (6,037) delivered across all (clinical and community) programs. In our next fiscal year (beginning on July 1), we are facing unprecedented uncertainty. Despite this, we have an expanded budget, which is currently planned around $2.75 million.”
The center provides its Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for older adults, and case management services, counseling, and HIV-related services, including a support group.
The center is going to be impacted by budget cuts; specifically, because of state Proposition 1 winning in March 2024, which has implications for preventative mental health care the center provides. Prop 1, championed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D), moves existing mental health care and addiction funds from the state to counties.
“We have a $1 million budget gap in 2026-2027 tied to Prop 1,” Allen said. “I understand why people voted for it, but it was written in a way that defunds all preventive care.”
Allen added, “Thankfully, we do not have a lot of federal funds. If we did, we’d be in an even worse place.”
The Pacific Center is located at 2130 Center Street in Berkeley. For more information, visit pacificcenter.org
Concord center buffeted by staff, fiscal tumult
The Rainbow Community Center in Concord serves Contra Costa County. It had a $1.75 million budget in 2024, according to its most recent IRS Form 990, which showed a deficit of $119,025. Executive Director Jorge “JC” Chamorro said the center is still getting government funds, and that the budget was reduced
“We have a grant with the county for [HIV and STI] tests, which is still keeping our doors open,” he said.
Chamorro said the center also is seeing a “slow down” in donations since last year. Thankfully, however, there’s been an “increase from some people, as far as donations, and people want to volunteer and do community service with us,” he said, since the election and second inauguration of President Donald Trump.
People wanting to volunteer with the Rainbow center have no shortage of options. One program takes seniors to “a different restaurant to have lunch and mingle together” once a month. Another, a summer camp for youth, starts June 30.
“This is our day camp we do every year,” Chamorro said, adding every Monday youth can drop by 2380 Salvio Street to “talk, chill, do homework and be at the center.”
Chamorro, who is pansexual, started as an executive director in September.
The center served 3,022 clients in fiscal year 2023-2024, the last year for which a final count is available, Chamorro confirmed June 20. When 2024-2025 is complete as of July 1, he expects a similar number.
In recent weeks there was a dust up at the center after Cori “Correen” Johnson was terminated as co-executive director. Johnson, a queer woman who was the center’s only Black staff member, removed the access of Jonathan Lee, a gay man who is treasurer and former interim executive director, from the center’s Google account, which led to an abrupt meeting in which Johnson was fired in a 3-2 vote of the board, as the Pioneer reported.
Subsequently, a Change.org petition got 247 signatures saying the unionized staff of the center took a vote of no confidence in Lee, demanded he be removed, and called for Johnson to be reinstated.
“I was wrongfully terminated in what I believe to be direct retaliation for whistleblowing,” Johnson stated to the B.A.R. “Just 90 minutes after voicing these concerns, a special board meeting was convened to vote on my removal – a meeting
I was never notified of, invited to, or given the opportunity to participate in.”
Johnson continued, “Throughout my tenure, I received no written or verbal warnings or performance concerns from the board. In fact, my leadership was consistently praised. As former co-executive director, I brought transparency, strategic direction, and a deep commitment to Rainbow’s mission – qualities I upheld not for personal recognition, but because of my lifelong connection to Contra Costa County, where I was raised and continue to live, grow, and serve.”
Lee stated to the B.A.R. that he was blackmailed and told, “If you don’t resign from the board, I’m going to tell everyone about you deleting emails and attempts at union busting.”
He wrote a blog post in response to the staff’s petition.
“It’s hard to refute lies and misinformation verbally without all the evidence,” he explained to the B.A.R.
That’s enough for Chamorro, who said, “If not for Jonathan Lee refuting everything – it opened a lot of people’s eyes about what’s been going on behind closed doors.”
The B.A.R. reached out to the members of the center’s board for comment. Jassy Mopera, the board’s president-elect, stated June 25 that “Johnson illegally took control” of the Google account, and “we
did not know what she was up to.”
“We asked that she restore it, but she refused and made demands,” Mopera stated in an email. “She was not authorized to change the Super Admin of our Google Workforce system to just her, which is what she did, which places all our other accounts at risk. The board met, and motioned to remove her from the co-ED position. It has been made very publicly that there was a decision to call the police, a decision I challenged. It was because of me that the Concord PD was not asked to press charges.”
Mopera continued that, “Jonathan emailed Cori stating that we were going to contact Concord PD for help and that is when she restored Jorge’s access back to be the Super Admin. We then met again in a special board meeting to ratify the vote during the emergency meeting. There were many lies said by Johnson, and it’s all been addressed through.”
Board member D’Marco J. Anthony also provided a written statement.
“The union staff’s vote of no confidence against Jonathan Lee is a serious issue that my colleagues and I do not take lightly. When the staff raises concerns with the board and/or any of its members, it is important that we listen and do our due diligence in addressing those concerns,” Anthony stated. “The Rainbow Community Center can only thrive when we work together as a community and have mutual respect for one another.
I sincerely hope we can all come together by deescalating the situation and avoiding division. We must ensure that our staff and community members have full faith and confidence in our leadership.”
In spite of the apparent personnel issues, center officials said their focus remains on serving the needs of Contra Costa County’s LGBTQ community. For more information about the Rainbow Community Center, visit rainbowcc.org.
Fairfield center awaits state funding news
The Solano Pride Center at 1234 Empire Street in Fairfield is not dealing with government grants being canceled, Executive Director Will McGarvey, an
every-gender-loving man, told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. It had a budget of $417,000, according to its latest IRS-990 disclosure, and ran a surplus of $39,573 for the fiscal year that ended in 2024.
“No changes to that,” he said. “Fortunately, we have not had any federal grants or contracts siphoned or decreased or anything yet.”
However, that doesn’t mean all is copacetic.
“We’re waiting for that shoe to drop,” McGarvey said. “We might see issues with Prop 1, our behavioral health funding. … Every county has a while to figure that out.”
McGarvey continued, “The biggest issue so far for us is the slowdown of donations to the center since the election. We anticipate we’re $20,000 behind where we need to be as part of our fiscal year.”
To attempt to deal with this, McGarvey said the center is “moving to expand our direct donor engagement, especially through the mail. We’ve already been doing a lot online, through email blasts, but what we haven’t done as much here is reaching out to potential new givers.”
The center offers a variety of programs, including mental health resources, senior and youth services, and HIV prevention and support. It also partners with other nonprofits in the county, such as the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive.
Ms. Bob Davis, a transgender woman who founded the Vallejo-based archive, noted the center’s help in the community.
“The Solano Pride Center is the inclusive heart of Solano county’s LGBTQ+ community,” Davis wrote in an email.
The center was a co-sponsor of last year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance in Vallejo and is helping publicize the archive’s exhibit of classic old transgender posters now on display at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum through June 28.
Last year, the center saw 2,400 clients face-to-face total. So far in 2025, it has already counted 2,500, plus 6,000 at the Suisun City Pride event on June 1, McGarvey confirmed June 20.t
For more information, go to solanopride.org.
Jorge “JC” Chamorro, left, is the executive director of the Rainbow Community Center in Concord; Will McGarvey is executive director of the Solano Pride Center in Fairfield.
Courtesy Jorge “JC” Chamorro and Solano Pride Center
Volume 55, Number 27
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CA must stand firm for trans athletes
Leave it to the Trump administration to try and put a damper on Pride weekend. Just as the Bay Area Reporter’s Pride issue was going to press last week, the federal Department of Education announced that the California Department of Education was in violation of Title IX for allowing trans girls to compete on female sports teams. The state has 10 days to take corrective measures or risk an “enforcement action.”
We strongly urge state Attorney General Rob Bonta to stand firm and not comply with this order. State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond should also reject the Fed’s demands. (Thurmond is running for governor in 2026 and has a solid record of support for trans students – he even got kicked out of a school board meeting over the issue.)
In its notice, the federal education department cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti, which upheld Tennessee’s ban on genderaffirming care for trans minors. The administration has argued that when schools recognize transgender identities, they violate girls’ rights under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination, as the New York Times reported.
The department also cited California Governor Gavin Newsom’s comments earlier this year in which he agreed with conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk that trans women and girls shouldn’t play on female sports teams, in yet another instance of Newsom’s words coming back to bite him.
In June, Bonta did file a preemptive lawsuit against the Trump administration, following a U.S. Department of Justice order telling schools to indicate whether they will exclude trans athletes. Bonta’s lawsuit was aimed at preventing the feds from withholding funding.
is just the latest example of the Trump administration’s animus toward the trans community. It started on January 20, the day President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term. And it’s continued, especially in light of the recent high school track meet in the Central Valley where trans student AB Hernandez placed first in two events.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs student sports in the Golden State, rolled out a new policy ahead of that state championship meet.
Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights group, issued a blistering response, criticizing the U.S. Department of Education’s rationale.
“The U.S. Department of Education’s ‘findings’ are a dangerous distortion of Title IX and a direct attack on transgender youth in California,” stated EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang, a gay man. “Let’s be clear: this isn’t about fairness in sports and never has been – it’s about a federal administration weaponizing civil rights laws to target transgender students and force California to comply with their hateful antitransgender agenda.”
The education department’s shot across the bow
As the Los Angeles Times reported, under the new rules, a cisgender girl who was bumped from qualifying for an event final by a transgender athlete would still advance to compete in the finals. In addition, the federation said, any cisgender girl who was beaten by a transgender competitor would be awarded whichever medal she would have claimed had the transgender athlete not been competing.
And that’s what happened. Hernandez shared the gold with two other students in the high jump after all three cleared the same height. The federation’s policy seems to be a reasonable compromise that allows female trans athletes to compete – and win. Even Newsom praised the policy when it was announced in late May.
This latest salvo from the U.S. Department of Education, like so much else the Trump administration is doing, serves as a distraction from the horrible things the president is pushing. This week, the U.S. Senate passed his One Big Beautiful Bill at the expense of working and poor people across the country. The federal deficit is set to increase by $3.5 trillion, according
to U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-California), thanks to the tax cuts for billionaires included in the bill.
Meanwhile, Padilla stated in a news release that an estimated 17 million people, including 2.3 million in California, will lose access to health care via Medicaid under this bill, which will impact HIV services. (The bill now returns to the House of Representatives for another vote because the Senate approved amendments to the House version.)
Under the bill, food assistance programs will be decimated, Padilla pointed out, as well as rural hospitals. That deficit explosion was too much even for former Trump buddy Elon Musk, who vowed to start a new political party in protest (good luck with that, Elon, but thanks for at least amplifying the terrible legislation). Who knows, by the time the midterm elections roll around next year, maybe enough people will have experienced the ill effects of the bill to vote enough Republicans out of Congress to give the Democrats control, but that’s for another day.
So, as hard-working people and those who are low-income begin to experience the disruptions that the bill will cause, Trump will keep talking about trans athletes and his administration will keep announcing draconian policies against them even as we don’t think the issue will be at the top of most people’s minds. Wednesday it was revealed that UPENN had caved to Trump’s demands that it ban trans athletes from female sports teams and erase trans swimmer Lia Thomas’s records in order to unfreeze $175 million in federal funds for the university.
For most Americans, it’s hard to get worked up about the relatively few numbers of trans athletes when your kid needs urgent medical care that you don’t have access to or you can’t afford groceries because your food stamps were cut off. The trans issues are low hanging fruit that Trump hopes will keep MAGA types satisfied – and keep them posting transphobic crap on social media.
But trans students aren’t going away, just as trans adults continue living their lives despite the risks and exhaustion that are now part of their reality. As EQCA’s Hoang noted, “Transgender youth belong in our schools, on our teams, and in our communities –without apology and without exception.”
And that’s the bottom line – it’s the misinformation and lies spewing from Trump and his sycophants that are causing the harm, not trans athletes.t
Time to improve queer obstetric health
by Jan Oosting
The first time I accompanied a queer couple through labor as a nursing student, we spent as much energy correcting the electronic health record, making sure both mothers were listed, as we did on coaching them breathing techniques. That was 2004, and I wish I could say those simple fixes are routine today.
Instead, queer people still enter birthing suites carrying an extra, invisible risk factor: a health care system that too often ignores or misunderstands our families. Recent national data trace a troubling line from bias to outcomes.
In a 2022 analysis of 53,000 pregnancies, those reported by queer people were more than three times as likely to end in stillbirth compared with pregnancies to heterosexual cisgender women who have sex with men. Sexual-minority queer women are also 50 percent more likely to experience perinatal stress and depression, yet less likely to receive timely treatment.
Structural disrespect compounds the clinical risk, with over half of queer women saying bias marred their pregnancy, birth, or postpartum care, and 83 percent reporting complications. That is twenty points higher than their heterosexual peers.
A separate KFF survey ound that one-third of LGBTQ+ adults encountered unfair treatment by a clinician in the last year alone. These numbers translate to real lives and to real mistrust.
Health outcomes are not ordained by biology; they bend with politics. A 2024 prospective cohort study revealed that in states lacking basic sexualorientation protections, sexual-minority women were significantly less likely to start prenatal care in the first trimester. Each additional protective law nearly doubled the odds they would get early care.
Yet even as evidence mounts, the legal scaffolding is wobbling. Just last month, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors to stand, emboldening dozens of similar state laws and normalizing government intrusion into queer bodies. When legislators treat LGBTQ+ health as expendable, patients hear that message long before they walk into a clinic.
Clinicians themselves tell us they’re under-tooled. A 2024 survey of U.S. and Canadian medical schools showed a median of only 11 required hours of LGBTQI+ health content over four years—an improvement since 2011, but still far short of expert recommendations.
Nursing education also falls short. In a 2024 study, half of nursing students reported watching their clinical preceptors model stigmatizing behaviors - misgendering, excluding same-sex partners, or “forgetting” chosen names during patient care. When training normalizes erasure, it sets the stage for biased decisions in the birthing room. Here, then, is a blueprint for equitable, informed care.
• Listen first, label later. Replace heteronormative intake questions (“So, who’s the dad?”) with open prompts that let patients define their own families.
• Collect sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data and use it. Routinely asking about SOGI helps flag risk factors (like minority stress) and tailors screenings. Documenting partners empowers them to consent, comfort, and advocate.
• Screen for mental health with a trauma-informed lens. Given the elevated depression rates, integrate validated perinatal mood tools and fasttrack referrals to queer-competent therapists.
• Center shared decision-making. Fertility journeys for many queer women involve assisted reproduction; discuss induction agents, vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), chest-/body-feeding options, and postpartum contraception without assumptions.
• Expand the care team. Collaborate with midwives, community birth workers, and doulas experienced in LGBTQIA+ care, especially for queer women of color who face compounded racism and homophobia.
• Make inclusion visible. Pronoun pins, genderneutral bathrooms, and imagery of diverse families aren’t window dressing; they’re cues that reduce blood-pressure-raising vigilance before the blood pressure cuff ever goes on.
Health systems and educators must also act and take the following steps.
•Hard-wire competence. Require a minimum LGBTQIA+ maternal-health module in every obstetric, midwifery, and nursing curriculum, paired with standardized patient simulations that include scenarios centering queer women.
• Continuing education as patient-safety training. Tie maintenance of licensure or hospital privileges to periodic LGBTQIA+ competency refreshers, just as we do for infection control.
• Measure and publish outcomes. Stratify maternal morbidity and patient-experience dashboards by sexual orientation; what gets counted gets fixed.
• Hire and promote queer staff. Representation improves cultural humility and signals commitment.
• Advocate beyond the bedside. Professional associations should file amicus briefs against discriminatory laws and back insurance mandates for inclusive fertility and maternity benefits.
The current wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation isn’t just about bathrooms or puberty blockers; it echoes through every clinic door, telling queer families our futures are negotiable. Restoring faith will require providers to become vocal allies - challenging harmful laws, updating forms before patients have to ask, and funding research that no longer lumps us into “other.”
When queer women patients see clinicians fighting for our dignity outside the exam room, we are far more likely to walk through the door early and to keep coming back. In my role as a queer nurse educator, I have watched breakthroughs in obstetric science save countless lives. But a Doppler and a hemorrhage cart can’t undo the harm of an intake form that erases someone’s partner, or a clinician who hesitates over the word “wife.”
Health equity for queer obstetric care is within reach; it begins the moment every provider decides our families deserve to be seen, heard, and expertly cared for. Let’s make that decision the new standard of care, before another birth story turns into an obituary. t
Jan Oosting, Ph.D., RN-BC, is an associate professor of nursing at City University of New York (CUNY) School of Professional Studies. She identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community.
Jan Oosting
Luis Suarez
People showed their support for trans athletes at the San Francisco Trans March, held June 27.
JL Odom
Gay former San Mateo presiding judge Karesh leaves the bench
by Matthew S. Bajko
After celebrating his 65th birthday on June 22, Jonathan E. Karesh went back to work the next day as a San Mateo County Superior Court judge. The following day, though, he retired from the bench.
He had decided years ago he would upon reaching retirement age. Judges are eligible to do so with a full pension once they turn 65, “which is quite good,” Karesh noted.
“It doesn’t really make sense to continue working financially. Also, having done it almost 25 years, it was time to move on, as much as I love the job,” he told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview last month.
What he hadn’t planned for was taking on a new role as a mediator/arbitrator with Signature Resolution. The firm based in Southern California has expanded to the Bay Area and reached out to Karesh earlier this year about joining its team. He expects to start in August but doesn’t plan to work full-time.
“Most of my experience as a judge was in criminal cases. About 20% of my career was doing civil cases,” noted Karesh. “I talked to them, and they believe I still have the qualities needed to be a mediator.”
Similar to the trip he took back in 2000 when then-governor Gray Davis appointed him to the San Mateo bench, Karesh celebrated his retirement with a trip to Honolulu, Hawaii last month.
“It is one of my favorite places in the world to go to,” said Karesh.
This time, he was accompanied by his husband, Steven Tran, 65, who is also retired from his career in the semiconductor field. A refugee from Vietnam who first settled in Dallas, Texas, in the early 1980s, Tran a decade ago moved to the Bay Area where his parents and siblings had relocated to but still co-owns a nail salon in the Lone Star State.
The couple first met in the fall of 2021, ironically, via an app for older men seeking younger guys. By 2022, they were dating each other and the following year, in December, married. Their officiant was Elizabeth Lee, who also retired last month as a San Mateo County judge and co-hosted her retirement party with Karesh last Friday.
of his late father, Joseph Karesh, who was elected to the San Francisco Superior Court in 1960 – the year Jonathan was born – and became presiding judge of the local bench in 1973. The family lived in San Francisco’s foggy Park Merced neighborhood not far from the Pacific Ocean.
Karesh’s father died in 1996, while his mother died in 2018. Karesh’s older sister, Barbara, lives in Concord with her wife, Joy Accosta; in 2008, he married the women who had first met in 1979.
A UC Berkeley graduate with a degree in U.S. history, Karesh earned his law degree in 1995 at the UC Berkeley School of Law. A San Mateo resident, Karesh had worked as a San Mateo County deputy district attorney for nearly 13 years before becoming a judge.
In 2019, he became the presiding judge of the San Mateo County Superior Court. As the B.A.R. had noted, Karesh is believed to be only the second out LGBTQ judge in the county to hold the leadership position. Lesbian retired judge Rosemary Pfeiffer was the first to do so in 2000, 12 years prior to her stepping down from the bench.
When he began his twoyear term, Karesh at the time was the only LGBTQ presiding judge of a county court system in California. His tenure coincided with the start of the COVID epidemic in 2020, which upended the workings of his courthouse and all others across the Golden State.
“He has the best heart of anybody I have ever dated,” said Karesh of his husband. “We have a lot of things in common. We get along great. It has been a wonderful experience.”
Speaking to the B.A.R. June 26 on the eve of cohosting the dual retirement party with Lee, Karesh was still processing being a retired judge.
“It really hasn’t sunk in, yet. I have been focusing on the party tomorrow night,” said Karesh, who was also hosting friends from Florida in town for the occasion. “It does feel a little odd not to go into work every day, which I have been doing at 9 a.m. every weekday for the last 24 and half years.”
His now being a retired judge comes as attacks on the country’s judiciary are frequently being voiced by Republican President Donald Trump and other GOP officials. While their focus of late has been on federal judges, state judges are not immune from such criticisms.
Karesh pointed to the bomb attack last year at a Southern California courthouse in Santa Maria in which several people were injured as one reason why he is concerned about the attacks being inveighed against judges just for doing their jobs.
“I think our state court system is exceptional. What they need to realize is judges are doing the best they can to make rulings based on the law; that doesn’t always work in somebody’s favor. In some sense, there is a winner and a loser every time when a judge makes a ruling,” noted Karesh. “People need to realize that and not take it personally.” He followed in the judicial footsteps
To ensure his court could still conduct jury trials, Karesh moved the proceedings to the cavernous halls used by the San Mateo County Fair. The large spaces allowed for upwards of 80 prospective jurors to gather together safely distanced 6 feet from one another.
“We had to innovate and be careful people weren’t being exposed to COVID,” recalled Karesh. “We had makeshift courtrooms at the fairgrounds.”
Eventually, they moved jury trials to the courthouse in Redwood City. They had the jurors sit in the gallery of the courtrooms so they could be 6 feet apart during the proceedings in order to follow the safety protocols called for by health officials.
“It worked out really well,” recalled Karesh. “San Mateo never had much of a COVID backlog with court cases, and I am really proud we were able to do that.”
He credited his fellow judges and the court staff for assisting him in making that possible during his time as the presiding judge. Looking back on that period of his career, Karesh told the B.A.R. it was the most stressful span of his time working in the judicial system and not one he would want to repeat.
“The COVID pandemic was the most challenging thing I had ever faced in my entire legal career, going back to being a lawyer,” noted Karesh. “I am really proud of the fact I helped lead the court through a worldwide and country-wide pandemic as well. There were so many issues we had to deal with.”
One of his most high-profile cases he handled occurred during the early years of the health crisis, that of one of
the gang members involved in the 2019 shooting between two rival sides at the Tanforan Shopping Center in San Bruno. It resulted in a San Francisco man found guilty of attempted murder by a jury in 2021.
It was the one case he oversaw as a judge, noted Karesh, that made national news.
“Currently, it’s on appeal, so we will see what happens,” he said.
Until his departure from the bench, there had been three LGBTQ judges in San Mateo County; Karesh publicly came out of the closet in 2006. His former colleagues are not fully out of the closet, noted Karesh. At least one is a lesbian, according to the latest demographic data about the makeup of the state’s courts.
The data released earlier this year also listed one gay judge on the San Mateo bench as of January 1, with one person not answering the question about their sexual orientation and gender identity. Twenty-three judges in the county identified as heterosexual.
It will be up to Governor Gavin Newsom (D) to appoint people to fill the vacancies created by both Lee and Karesh’s retirements. It remains to be seen if he will select an LGBTQ appointee for either seat.
Since becoming governor in 2019 through December 31, 2024, Newsom appointed 47 LGBTQ judges. Having served on the governor’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee from 2019 through 2023, Karesh told the B.A.R. he believes Newsom has continued to help diversify the state’s judiciary in terms of LGBTQ representation, similar to his predecessor Jerry Brown
As of the end of 2024, the official court demographics counted 89 LGBTQ judges on the state bench. Based on a list kept by the B.A.R., there were at least 94 as of the start of 2025.
“I think that Governor Newsom, and Governor Brown before him, were very cognizant of appointing LGBT people,” said Karesh. “There is always room for more.”
At the same time, Karesh said seeing LGBTQ people be named a judge is no longer as big a deal as it was when he started out in the legal profession. When he came out, he noted his colleagues took it in stride and, not once, was he discriminated against for being gay.
“Being an LGBT judge is not that noteworthy these days in a lot of ways,” said Karesh.
As for the advice he would give anyone wanting to apply for a gubernatorial judicial appointment, Karesh said having broad-based litigation experience is important. So is having people from the community, as well as judges, elected officials, and attorneys, willing to write to the governor and vouch for you, added Karesh.
“The governor appreciates hearing from people he knows who can recommend somebody,” said Karesh, though he stressed that, “You can have all the community support in world, but if you are not a really good lawyer and not really well qualified to be a judge, you are not going to get appointed.” t
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A native San Franciscan with 40 years of professional experience assisting families in need.
A longtime resident of the Eureka Valley, Castro and Mission Districts; a member of the Castro Merchants Association and a 25 year member of the Freewheelers Car Club. At Duggan’s Funeral Service, which sits in the heart of the Mission, we offer custom services that fit your personal wishes in honoring and celebrating a life.
We are committed to the ever-changing needs
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Now retired judge Elizabeth Lee presided over the 2023 marriage of Jonathan E. Karesh, right, also now retired from the bench, and Steven Tran.
Annie Zou, of A Tale Ahead Photography
SF Trans March draws record crowd
by JL Odom
The 21st annual Trans March attracted tens of thousands of people this year to San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park. While the official slogan was “Living History, Building Futures,” the overriding theme for many participants was liberation for all amid the relentless attacks against trans rights and other pro-equality measures being waged by the Trump administration.
With the crowd size estimated to be as high as 20,000 participants, the 2025 march is believed to have drawn a record crowd. LGBTQ+ individuals and allies had first gathered for a rally Friday, June 27, then marched to the Tenderloin neighborhood and its historic Transgender District.
Participants of various ages and locales joined in, including Paci Hammond, who commuted from Berkeley to attend the march for the first time. She was one of the many people not transgender themselves who showed up this year to support the trans community.
“I understood the Trans March as being for trans folks, and so not being trans, I thought I should respect that. But then this year, I read, ‘Come one, come all. Show your support.’ And that’s why I’m here, and it sure is fun,” said Hammond, 70.
Hammond, who is straight, brought a handcrafted sign to the march. One side of it read, “I love my non-binary child. They are a wonder.” On the other side was “Transgender rights are human rights. Support and defend them.”
“We have to be present. We have to fight back and make our voices heard.
… We have to work toward making more people understand that transphobia and homophobia work against us as a society,” she said.
Trans March 2025 comes at a time of open attacks on minority groups in the United States. For the trans and gendernonconforming community, those at-
“You win by fighting back. Our silence can lead to complicity, and it’s now that we can and must be loud, demanding, and proud,” said Smith.
In McBride’s speech to the audience, she called attention to her united efforts with fellow freshman East Bay Congressmember Lateefah Simon (DOakland), along with their House and Senate Democratic colleagues, to defeat anti-trans bills. She also recommended approaching challenging times with hopefulness rather than cynicism, referencing difficult moments in history to exemplify the possibility of a positive outcome.
“I am confident that we can turn this moment for our community and this country into what a friend of mine from Florida once called a ‘slingshot moment,’ where, yes, we are pulled backwards, but the tension and pressure of being pulled backwards ultimately propels us to destinations that we’ve not yet been,” McBride told the crowd.
Political messages abound in Pride parade
On Sunday, Simon and McBride took part in the Young Women’s Freedom Center contingent in the Pride parade. In speaking to the B.A.R. prior to doing so, McBride noted how she interpreted the event’s 2025 theme of “Queer joy is resistance.”
“At a time when there’s so much negativity and fear, when LGBTQ people are being caricaturized, and when disinformation is rampant, I think queer joy is so powerful, not just for our own self-care and our own capacity to move forward, but to reinforce for the public that when LGBTQ people are allowed to live fully and freely, we find joy,” said McBride, “and that joy is a visual antidote and a visual contrast to the fear, the misinformation, the disinformation, and the caricature that paints being LGBTQ, and coming out as LGBTQ, as inherently bad.”
tacks have been in the form of not only anti-trans legislation but also decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court. Last month, the conservative majority on the court upheld Tennessee’s ban on genderaffirming care for youth.
Meanwhile, Republican President Donald Trump has signed executive orders since taking back the White House in January to ban trans women and girls from participating in women’s sports in federally-funded schools; reinstated the ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military; and declared that the federal government will recognize only two biological sexes, male and female.
All of this set a certain tone for this year’s Trans March and fortified its purpose, noted organizers of the event.
“Trans March is not a parade, but an act of resistance. [It’s] an opportunity for us to draw the connections between the struggles of oppressed people beyond the imperial core,” read a Trans March Instagram post that preceded the event.
Vendors situated in the park sold black t-shirts with the slogan “Dump Trump” on the front and “Times up. Impeach Trump” on the backside. Attendees carried signs bearing messages such as “Queer as in end capitalism” and held
Trans joy, in particular, McBride emphasized, holds relevancy right now.
“[It] shows that coming out and being embraced and accepted is, in so many ways, the only path to true joy for our community,” she said.
Emmy-award winning former “Saturday Night Live” writer Harper Steele was the Pride parade’s celebrity grand marshal. After coming out as trans, Steele accepted an offer from their friend, former SNL performer Will Ferrell, to join them on their annual cross-country road trip, which turned into last year’s acclaimed documentary “Will & Harper.”
“More people have reached out to congratulate me for this honor than anything in my career. I’m beginning to think the San Francisco Pride Parade is a pretty big deal,” Steele stated to the B.A.R. “I am honored and thrilled to be a part of this incredible parade, and the legacy pride that came before me.”
Peter Hunt, a straight ally, marched in the parade with Ward 86, the HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
“It’s great to be here and stand up for the community,” he said.
Lydia Ropp, a queer woman, said the parade was more low-key than in prior years, but that that’s a good thing.
“I think it’s lovely,” she said. “There were a few years it was a little much, a little rowdy. I think it’s like when I was a teenager in the 1980s and 1990s. Maybe because we’re celebrating under pressure.”
For his truck in the parade, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) featured the name of the USNS Harvey Milk, initially named for the slain gay San Francisco supervisor, before it was renamed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday, as the B.A.R. reported. Joined by a number of his Democratic colleagues, including lesbian former state senator and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins of San Diego, Wiener held a sign, “ICE Out of SF,” in reference to enforcement raids at the immigration court downtown.
their art pieces. They planned to wheel it between them as they marched.
“We do visibility and protest on a regular basis,” said Mormorer, 55, who with their spouse took part in demonstrations earlier this year against anti-trans policies several saunas in the city had instituted.
She wore a yellow dress with a purple circle on it — a visual symbol of her identity as intersex.
“Standing proud, fighting for our own kind. Being seen, being visible — that’s what we’re about,” said Mormorer, who is also trans.
banners with sentiments like, “Fight the billionaires, not trans youth!”
The gigantic trans pride flag, a fixture of the Trans March, was unfurled again this year, with volunteers holding onto its sides. Many people held or wore trans pride flags of their own.
Chants, audible throughout the march, included, “Black lives, they matter here; trans lives, they matter here; queer lives, they matter here;” “From Stonewall to Palestine, resistance is justified. No justice, no peace. No ICE or police;” and “Immigrants are welcome here. Say it loud and say it clear. Trans people are welcome here.”
One chant referenced legendary trans activists Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Leslie Feinberg, urging a remembrance of “our ancestors” and a call for “revolution.” Johnson and Rivera were both drag performers who took part in the Stonewall riots of 1969, while Feinberg was also a butch lesbian and awardwinning author.
Prior to the march’s 6 p.m. start, married couple and Transvisible (@transvisible_) artist-duo Breath Mormorer and Dakota Rose Austin stood near the Dolores Park Liberty Bell with a large trans pride-colored lobster sculpture — one of
Wiener stated to the B.A.R. that “Pride was even more meaningful this year than it usually is, given the grave threat LGBTQ people face in this country under a regime that wants to erase us,” referring to the Trump administration. “Pride is now about fighting for our community’s existence.”
Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey led a recovery contingent for people struggling with or overcoming addiction. He noted how personally meaningful Pride is for him.
“It’s a time to celebrate love, visibility, and the power of community - but also to remember the work that still lies ahead. San Francisco has always stood at the forefront of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights,” Dorsey stated. “We’ve come a long way - but our march toward full equality, inclusion and safety for all continues. Especially now, when hard-won rights are under threat across the country, our city must continue to lead with compassion, courage and action. To every young person coming out, every elder who paved the way, and every ally standing strong with us: thank you. Your pride fuels progress.”
read, “Liberate Comptons.” The contingent was organized by the TurkxTaylor Initiative, the group behind efforts to remove the for-profit Geo Group Inc. from 111 Taylor Street, where the company operates a halfway house for people recently released from prison. The building is the former location of Gene Compton’s Cafeteria and the site of the queer uprising that occurred at the allnight eatery in August 1966 (exact date is lost to history).
Austin, who lives in San Francisco with Mormorer, noted the good turnout at the march and the sense of community the city offers. She stressed the importance of taking Trump’s targeting of LGBTQ+ individuals seriously.
“I love the San Francisco parties, don’t get me wrong. But with a government that’s anti-us, it’s not always time for a party,” said Austin, 47, who is trans.
She and Mormorer have been attending the Trans March for the past couple of years.
“We just want to play our part,” said Austin. “We were having this conversation last night about when it’s all said and done, we just want to put our fingerprints on the city and our community.
I think everybody should want to [do that] in some type of capacity.”
A number of groups marched, including a Palestine contingent, who were there protesting the war on Iran, the genocide of Palestine, the war on immigrants, and attacks on trans people, and an immigrant rights contingent, protesting attacks on LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities. Specific groups in attendance included the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the HIV Advocacy Network, and the Latino Task Force.
Also at the march was ComptonsxCoalition (CxC), who held a banner that
Alice breakfast draws other electeds
Wiener and Dorsey had attended the Alice breakfast along with San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who told the B.A.R. that she’s attended the event for the past few years. But, she noted, it had more significance this Pride Month.
“There are so many attacks going on toward the LGBTQ community nationally from our federal government. This is a time where we have to put a plan together, make sure we are messaging out our values, letting San Franciscans know and letting the country know that we’re going to maintain our values here and support our LGBTQ community,” said Jenkins. “And so, this is really where that happens. This is where that message starts - at this breakfast every year where we come together and unify around it.”
Jenkins recently charged 19-year-old San Franciscan Lester Bamacajeronimo with several offenses after allegedly vandalizing the pink triangle installation at Twin Peaks. She did not charge the defendant with a hate crime because her DA office “did not believe it could prove one beyond a reasonable doubt,” as the B.A.R. reported.
At the Pride Breakfast, Jenkins commented on actively confronting the “many things going on that are troubling us with our country right now.” Now is not the time to be silent, said Jenkins.
“We have to be clear about what we stand for, and a part of that is resisting these things that are happening but also resisting the urge to be silent and [being] pushed back into the corner,” she said.
“We have to get in front of it, we have to be loud about what we believe and what we stand for, and there’s no more serious time to do that than now.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie received a warmer reception at the breakfast than he did at Friday’s Trans March, where a video posted to X showed him being booed away from the event by attendees, with one person heard criticizing the city’s defunding of trans pro-
Known as Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, it stemmed from a specific occurrence - a trans woman in the diner resisted arrest by a police officer, throwing a cup of coffee on him - but was also fueled by repeated incidents of police harassment and discrimination toward trans and queer people in the Tenderloin neighborhood. It preceded the better known Stonewall Uprising, which occurred in response to the police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
The San Francisco Board of Appeals recently allowed LGBTQ advocates and historians to move forward with their attempt to “liberate” the site of the residential reentry facility via protesting its zoning approvals. The activists want to return ownership of the transgender historic site to the trans community, as the Bay Area Reporter reported, and the appeals board is expected to take up the matter July 16.
In January, the Compton’s Cafeteria building at 101 Taylor St. became a federal landmark, now appearing on the National Register of Historic Places and on the California Register of Historical Resources (listed as 101-102 Taylor St.), as initially reported by the B.A.R. Last Friday night it served as the culmination of the Trans March, with participants honoring the site of a significant moment in trans history that the community is drawing inspiration from in the present day. t
grams. In his remarks at the Alice breakfast, Lurie cited his administration’s funding of immigrant legal services that support LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, trans-affirming primary and mental health care, and backfilling federal cuts to HIV funding, as the B.A.R. previously reported.
Lurie also spoke about San Francisco being a beacon of hope for the LGBTQ+ community.
“Cities across the world look to San Francisco as a model of equality. There is so much to be proud of in San Francisco, but we know the fight is not over. Even as our city moves forward, people are still concerned for their safety,” said Lurie. “Across the country, LGBTQ+ communities are being targeted, and here at home, people in our community are being targeted by federal immigration enforcement. Rights are being rolled back. Fear is being weaponized. We cannot allow hate to find safe harbor in San Francisco.”
Later, after marching in the Pride parade, Lurie addressed the crowd gathered in the Civic Center in front of San Francisco City Hall from the Main Stage of the Pride celebration. At least one person could be heard booing him as he spoke.
“I was born and raised in San Francisco. I gotta tell you – every single day the LGBTQ community was part and parcel of San Francisco and what makes this city so incredible. Always has been. Always will be,” Lurie said. “We’re going through some tough times and there’s a lot of darkness out there, but not here in San Francisco. This city is always going to be the light. We’re always going to stand up and stand by our LGBTQ+ community no matter what comes our way. No matter what, we’re going to hang that Pride flag high and proud every single day. Don’t let anybody tell you anything about San Francisco – we are going to own the future.” t
Assistant editor John Ferrannini contributed reporting.
<< McBride From page 1
Drag Queen Story Hour founder Persia marched with the San Francisco Public Library in the city’s 2025 Pride Parade.
Rick Gerharter
A record crowd came out for the 2025 Trans March.
JL Odom
by Adam Sandel
Marga Gomez has been a beloved fixture of the Bay Area comedy and theatre scenes for many years. She now steps into the role made famous by Lily Tomlin in “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” written by Tomlin’s long-time partner Jane Wagner, at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company, from July 12 through August 10.
In a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Gomez revealed that her personal connection to the play, and to Tomlin and Wagner, goes back more than 30 years.
“I’d been a Lily and Jane groupie since the ’70s,” said Gomez. “I’d seen the play many times, on Broadway and here in San Francisco. I saw Lily create that whole world on stage and it’s because of her that I dreamed of becoming a solo performer.”
A memorable dinner
Later, the connection between performers grew closer.
“I was living in L.A. in the ’90s, doing my solo show, ‘A Line Around the Block’ at the Mark Taper Forum. My manager Irene Pinn had been Lily’s manager during the ‘Laugh-In’ days, so Lily came to see my show, and invited me to have dinner with her and Jane at their house,” she recalled.
“She picked me up at my crappy apartment and drove me to their house for a Cuban dinner. I thought it might be an exotic home-cooked meal. But it turned out to be take-out.”
Nevertheless, it was a memorable evening of early encouragement for the young Gomez. Thirty years later, the chance to repay the favor and come full circle presented itself when the Aurora’s Artistic Director Josh Costello approached
Marga Gomez comes full circle
her about an upcoming show.
“Josh and I had talked about working together, and he saw my recent solo show, ‘Swimming With Lesbians.’ He and director Jennifer King were looking for a solo performer, they reached out to me, and I read for the part. It was an old-school audition,” she said.
For Gomez, being cast in the Aurora production of “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” created by her long-time idols Wagner and Tomlin, has brought her full circle. Making it her own
The challenge of performing the role (actually 12 different roles) that some audience members
by Jim Gladstone
FBut
ago, they were each playing background music at expense account beef cathedrals.
“It was soul-sucking,” recalled Embers.
“Like being wallpaper,” emphasized Martinez. In a recent interview with the Bay Area
might still associate with Lily Tomlin doesn’t really phase Gomez.
“I’m already going through the lines and looking for different choices, such as who’s going to be my miserable teenager, and what are the physical characteristics of each role. I don’t want to steal from Lily. I steal from all other kinds of people,” she admitted.
“To have this sacred text in my care is a great honor. When I talk about the play, I talk about Jane’s script, not about Lily performing it. The narrator is an eccentric bag lady, but she’s a visionary. I see her as the creator of all the other characters. I see her character as Jane Wagner speaking. I’m just going with the script and the words,” she said.
Reporter, the pair discussed joining forces, taking charge of their own careers, and focusing on what matters most to them.
Ditching the system
San Francisco native Martinez, 33, and German-born Embers, 31, first crossed paths as students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston a decade ago but didn’t begin working together until 2022.
After college, each spent time living in Los Angeles, working to build their names as songwriters and performers. Despite some notable accomplishments –including appearances by Embers alongside John Legend and Ryan Tedder (One Republic) on the NBC series “Songland”–both men found the machinations of the corporate music industry uncomfortably dehumanizing.
“In LA,” recalled Embers, “It’s such a pay-toplay culture. To get booked at a club, you have to guarantee a certain number of people will show up. And if they don’t, you have to pay the venue. You’re constantly calling the same 75 people you know –most of whom are also musicians– and begging them to come out to your show.”
Martinez ultimately moved back to the Bay Area, where he continued to work on his own songwriting and supplemented his gigs as a forhire singer-pianist with occasional roles in musical theater productions, including the 2021 “Bratpack” show at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, and the sex-positive rock musical “Coming Soon” at Z Space.
Embers checked out of the musical mainstream mid-pandemic, abandoning LA for an isolated three-week songwriting retreat in the San Jacinto mountains, which ultimately led to the release of a deeply introspective EP, “Idyllwild,” and a decision to begin a nomadic life, traveling the country alone by van, booking the occasional gig and playing living room and backyard concerts.
While crisscrossing the continent, Embers came upon the streaming documentaries “The Biggest Little Farm” and “Kiss the Ground,” about ecological farming and climate change, and felt something shift inside of him.
“I started to read up on regenerative farming as a way to grow food, to heal our topsoil and to mitigate climate change. I’d always been a nature lover, and in my excitement over learning about these movements, I also realized that farming without heavy machinery is inherently a community activity. It takes a lot of hands getting dirty.”
A timely tale
Although the play was first performed in 1985, there are elements of the show that Gomez sees as being especially relevant to our time, forty years later.
“The message of the show is about the heart, love, and the need for connection between human beings. The conversations we’re having now is that we need to talk to each other, look up from our phones, and create bonds and new family. Jane Wagner’s foreshadowing of this was very impressive,” she said.
Elements of the play could also be seen to re-
Morphing toward MORF
When he occasionally passed through the Bay Area, Embers would crash with his old college friend, Martinez. While spending an afternoon on the beach at Gray Whale Cove near Half Moon Bay in 2022, the two wrote their first song together, tilling the ground for their eventual partnership.
“A few months later,” Martinez recalls, “Max came to visit again, and he was just, I swear the only way I can say it is that he was like literally glowing. I was like, ‘What’s going on with you?’”
On the road, Embers had begun cold-emailing regenerative farms and asking if he could come play music for the folks who worked there. At some places, he ended up staying for a while, helping out and learning more about farming practices.
After listening to Embers talk about his experiences and watching the documentaries that had first inspired his friend, Martinez came to agree that there was a natural affinity between the communities drawn to regenerative farming and to the intimate style of music they each liked to make.
“We’re asking people to lean in, listen closely, and get in their feelings,” said Embers. “There’s not necessarily a lot of room for earnestness at more typical music venues.”
And so, the idea for MORF was born.
Slow and steady growth
As the pair began laying the groundwork for what ultimately became next month’s major MORF debut as well doing more collaborative songwriting, Embers’ life as a solo nomad came to an end.
Sharing a home in the Sunset, the two began performing together as Lonely Parrots (named in honor of San Francisco’s famous flock, which frequents their neighborhood on its daily peregrinations). Eventually, their artistic partnership also became a romantic one.
Playing shows organized through Sofar Sounds, a platform for booking affordable small performances, along with private house parties and benefit gigs, Lonely Parrots have spent the past three years building a small but strong following, locally and through social media.
They’ve also hit the road as a twosome, doing two cross-country tours in 2024, playing house
SF’s favorite lesbian comic stars in “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” at the Aurora
or singer-songwriters Max Embers and Michael Martinez, steakhouses are the past. And sustainable agriculture is the future.
On July 12, the Sunset District-based couple, who perform together as Lonely Parrots, will formally debut their passion project, MORF (Music on
Regenerative Farms) with an afternoon of original tunes, organic produce, and educational tours at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville.
just a few years
Max Embers (upper) and Michael Martinez are Lonely Parrots
Singing the praises of indie music and regenerative farming
Hunter Rae
t << Theater
Absurdly honest
by Jim Gladstone
“The new show is called ‘Kyles’ K-Y-L-E-S-apostrophe,’’ explained writer/performer Olivia Bratko, who brings her singular stage persona to Theatre Rhinoceros in the Castro from July 3-18.
“The character is Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle. Seven times. I’ll often just call them Kyle because saying Kyle seven times every time is exhausting. Actually,” Bratko, 32, noted in recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter, “Kyle is more of a vessel for language than a character.”
In Bratko’s past performances in the Bay Area, New York, and at the Dublin Ireland Fringe Festival –where she won the 2023 ‘Spirit of Wit’ award
Olivia Bratko on the complex comedy
for uncategorizable work– the language that overflows from Kyle has taken the form of Christian pop songs, paeans to masturbation, and musings on the Masked Singer.
Her original one-woman whatchamacallits combine the tangential comic logic of Dina Martina, the wrybut-magnetic stage presence of Laurie Anderson, and the meta mind-fuckery of Andy Kauffman.
“I think of it as a kind of parody of a performance artist,” said Bratko, who admires the approach of comic Julio Torres.
“The delivery is very serious, very deadpan, as if what I’m doing is the highest level of art. And then there’s the juxtaposition with some of the songs I choose and the kinds of jokes
I tell, it’s very much playing with that high-low, that duality.”
Family language
Bratko, a trans woman who has performed as a member of the Cockettes Nouveau, often describes her shows as “weaving together strands of pop cultural ephemera.” But the pieces also incorporate glimmering shards of autobiography.
“I grew up in San Jose. My brothers and sister and I were homeschooled, because Jesus spoke to my parents and told them to do that. We were very Evangelical. We were speaking in tongues. We were healing with our hands. We were prophesying. It was very woo woo, but very conservative,” she paused, then added drily, “Which I didn’t really like.
“I went to Berkeley for college and I came out to them [as non-binary] over Thanksgiving break. They took it badly, but since then they’ve made a huge 180 and are so accepting and supportive.
“When I came out to them more recently as trans, I think it was as good as it could possibly be, especially since
of ‘Kyles’’
Indirect resonance
While Bratko has worked on and off stage with Bay Area theater companies in the past, she’s currently focusing on her own creative endeavors, including her transition process.
“I don’t like to be told what to do,” she said. “And I’m really valuing my creative control right now. For a long time, the only roles people were interested in casting me in were male roles. And I couldn’t have put my finger on exactly why, but I didn’t want to do that.
“A lot of what we think of as communication is ultimately much less rationally meaningful than society likes to pretend that it is. In ‘Kyles,’’ I get to
express every aspect of myself. And it speaks to me at a level that I don’t hear very often.”
Bratko paused, extended her arms wide and declaimed, “I emerged fully formed from the ocean when I was 12!”
“That doesn’t make any sense. If you emerge from the ocean, if that was your birth, you weren’t 12. It just doesn’t…you can’t…That’s a Kyle-ism. The words don’t make sense, but you know exactly what I mean.”t
‘Kyles,’’ July 3-18. $15-$50. Theatre Rhinoceros. 4229 18th St. www.eventbrite.com
<< Marga Gomez From page 11
buke today’s widespread censorship efforts by right wing activists.
“The MAGA people who are banning books, are now focused on banning works that promote imagination. And this show is all about imagination,” said Gomez.
Aurora will also offer a week of streaming “The Search for Signs of
Intelligent Life in the Universe” performances for audiences to view in their homes. Streaming performances will run concurrently with in-person performances August 5 through 10. But nothing beats live theater.
The thrust stage configuration of the Aurora Theatre may also contribute to the intimacy and effectiveness of the show.
“The seating is three-quarter seating, so it’s a wonderful way to see the
show,” said Gomez. “Since it’s about connecting with people regardless of gender and race, it will be an extra good experience.”t
‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,’ $27-$30, July 12–Aug. 10, Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley. Also streaming Aug. 5-10. www.auroratheatre.org www.margagomez.com
Above: Olivia Bratko Below: Olivia Bratko with audience members
Above: Heidi Alletzhauser Below: Carol Cummins
Lily Tomlin and Marga Gomez in 1995
Marga Gomez
by Brian Bromberger
The times are dire. Political structures are looking shaky and unreliable. People are being drawn to extremes. Families are being torn apart by different ideologies. People are looking for distractions so as not to engage or have responsibility to stop the horrors of the world.
No, I’m not talking about today, but rather the 1930s, the background for the scintillating, superb, scrumptious new six-episode series, “Outrageous,” having premiered on BritBox June 18. It’s based on Mary S. Lovell’s definitive biography, “The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family (highly recommended).”
The infamous Mitfords were the aristocratic British daughters and one son of the second Baron Redesdale and his wife, Sydney Bowles, daughter of publisher and politician Thomas Gibson Bowles, who achieved fame and notoriety during the 1930s. They were the equivalent of the Kardashians, the self-promoting reality stars of their time, in that they dominated the media despite accomplishing very little.
“Outrageous” is a period drama, but we’re light years from “Downton Abbey,” and closer towards the titillating “Bridgerton,” zeroing in on the decadence, frivolity, and lavishness of English high society in-between-the-world-wars era.
Fractured family
Kicking off in late 1931, we’re introduced to the eldest Mitford child, Nancy (Bessie Carter), the series’ witty and keen narrator, who comments on the family’s dubious antics. She’s a budding novelist who incorporates experiences of the family into her storytelling, especially in her 1935 “Wigs on the Green,” a satire on British fascism, which drove a wedge between her and sisters, Diana and Unity.
Diana (Joanna Vanderham) is a glamorous gorgeous socialite who scandalously divorces her conventional wealthy husband, only to have a long-term affair with the womanizing British fascist leader Oswald Mosley (Joshua Sasse).
Next in line, sister Unity/“Bobo” (Shannon Watson) horrifies her family by relocating to Munich, Germany
in 1934, becoming an ardent fan girl to the point of obsession with Adolf Hitler, after listening to Mosley. She lunched every day in Hitler’s favorite restaurant for a year waiting for him to notice her. She later wrote a virulent anti-Semitic letter to the Nazi newspaper “Der Sturmer” which caused an uproar when it was reprinted in British newspapers. Strangely, her family viewed her behavior not as a danger, but more an inconvenient nuisance, though in retrospect she probably bordered on being mentally ill.
The other main character is Jessica/“Decca” (Zoe Brough) who embraced Communism at a young age because of her passionate desire to change the world. She later ran off with her distant cousin Esmond Romilly (related to Winston Churchill) whom she met at a house party while he was recovering from illness. They traveled to Spain to fight in its civil war, resulting in her notoriety.
Lord Redesdale, aka Farve (James Purefoy), struggles with what his daughters are doing with their lives, but is terrible at financial management to the point that the family could lose their ancestral home. Lady Redesdale aka Muv (Anna Chancellor), is mostly concerned with setting
From page 11
concerts where they haven’t charged for tickets but found that attendees have been extremely generous with post-show contributions.
“Last year, we were pretty much able to support ourselves that way,” said Martinez. “At a single good house concert where we play mostly our own original music in an intimate environment for a couple of dozen people who are there to really listen, we can make more than by each doing a couple of steakhouse gigs where we sing covers to karaoke tracks for four hours and
blow our vocal cords out.”
Though planning to tour again later in 2025, Lonely Parrots have devoted the first half of this year to building their hometown presence and producing recorded versions of the gently emotive songs that will make up their debut album, to be released later this year.
While demos of their originals are currently available only to their robust Patreon community members, Lonely Parrots’ meditative “Earth hymnal” cover versions of Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” can be found on streaming services.
up advantageous marriages for her daughters, with little success. Through her daughter Unity, she developed affection for Hitler, “a charming man who treated her daughter kindly.” She supported Germany during World War II, which ruptured her relationship with her husband, though they never formally divorced.
Feys and fascism Gay supporting figures run throughout the story. Nancy had a five-year relationship with her younger friend Hamish Erskine (James Musgrave), patiently waiting for the closeted Erskine to propose marriage, unwilling to see or accept he was gay. Nancy’s best friend was Joss (Will Attenborough), gay and the grandson of Jewish refugees, who points out to Nancy the horrors behind rising fascism in Europe.
Then there’s younger sister Pamela (Isobel Jesper Jones) who weds the divorced physicist Derek Jackson in 1936, which feels like a betrayal to her youngest sister Debo (Orla Hill), who developed a teenage infatuation with Jackson. Not only was Jackson bisexual, but after they divorced in 1951, Pam went on to have long-term living arrangements with women.
Jam on the farm
While Embers and Martinez look forward to growing their musicmaking career as Lonely Parrots, they are also enormously proud of the steps they’ve taken to get MORF off the ground, serving as logisticians and impresarios for the upcoming Guerneville event.
Attendees will have the opportunity to explore a regenerative farm in person, meet with representatives of grassroots advocacy groups, and purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables before settling into Solar Punk Farm’s redwood grove for a two-hour concert, also featuring likeminded musicians Foxtails Brigade and Lucy Clearwater.
The pair hope to evolve MORF into a legal non-profit and work to create similar events nationwide in years to come.
“I think the conversation around the ecological crises we’re facing can get scary and overwhelming,” says Embers. “Sometimes people just shut down to it. But MORF is meant to be joyful. To celebrate wonderful, positive communities and to show that there are uplifting ways to get involved in caring about each other and the earth.”t
MORF Concert featuring Lonely Parrots, with Foxtails Brigade and Lucy Clearwater, July 12, 2pm-6pm, $39, Solar Punk Farms, 15015 Armstrong Woods Road, Guerneville. www.morf-initiative.org
Waugh’s Bright Young Things. They were London’s bohemian aristocrats and socialites, who threw flamboyant parties, drank heavily, and used illicit drugs. Nancy was friendly with Evelyn in real life.
A wild unruly spirit pervades the series. None of the daughters were prim, proper, or well-behaved by the traditional standards of their era. But they had style, panache, fearlessness, and were trend setters. These strongwilled women were unwilling to conform, so were ahead of their time, rebelling against the traditions into which they were born.
Finally, there’s Tom (Toby Regbo), the only son, who while at Eton, had brief relationships with several men, including Nancy’s almost-fiancé Hamish Erskine. He never married and later dabbled in fascism.
Privileged politics
It is important to note that because of the economic and political upheavals in the 1930s, fascism and communism were not despised, but seen as viable alternatives to capitalism and democracy. Aristocrats attracted to Nazism hoped Hitler would bring back their long-gone world of wealth and privilege.
Still, the major theme of the series is that the sisters generally put their sibling affections for each other over their differing later hated political ideologies, meaning blood would always be thicker than water. Yet it’s also true that the extreme political times they lived in helped produce who these women later became. Some of the sisters’ extremism ultimately tears the family apart.
With its sex, scandal, politics, bereavements and betrayals, the series is jam-packed with drama, though a dry wit pervades throughout, as all the siblings are prime A exhibits of Evelyn
The acting by everyone is topnotch, though Carter, who guides us through the story, is the real standout. Of course, the costumes and production design are splendid, yet reflecting the Mitford’s impoverished gentry and shabby chic settings, though there’s no shortage of lavish palatial houses, but done realistically. Fascinatingly, the series executive producer is Oswald Mosley’s great-grandson’s Matthew Mosley, who doesn’t sugarcoat his despised relative.
“Outrageous” is not to be missed, worth a free seven-day trial of Britbox to catch the series. It has a breezy tone yet leaves the viewer slightly on edge, as you’re never sure what will happen next. The plot ends in 1937, so we can only hope it will be renewed for a second season, since its parallels with our current political situation are rather uncanny.t
www.britbox.com/us
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<< Lonely Parrots
The main cast of ‘Outrageous’ BBC
Max Embers and Michael Martinez in a video of them singing in the Marin Headlands Instagram
‘The Secret Public:
by Michael Flanagan
Were Little Richard and Johnny Ray our founding fathers?
Did the influence of men like Andy Warhol and Brian Epstein open minds beginning in the 1960s? What was the impact of women like Dusty Springfield, Janis Joplin and Janis Ian?
These are the sorts of questions that Jon Savage’s fascinating book “The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture from the Margins to the Mainstream” (Liveright/WW Norton) stimulate.
Savage, a gay man, is perhaps best known for “England’s Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and Beyond,” first published in 1991, but he is the author of more than a dozen books.
As for the title, Savage says, “For so long the topic of homosexuality and the realities of homosexual life remained secrets, albeit open ones. The title also makes the point that gay men and lesbians were the public, a part of societies that, for a long time, desired to erase their existence. It also recognizes that, in the early ’70s, what had once been secret became public
How Music Moved Queer Culture from the Margins to the Mainstream’
knowledge, which was ultimately liberating for all.”
The book is organized into five segments: November 1955, September 1961, June 1967, January 1973 and January 1978 and the timeline switches up and back between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Good golly
The 1955 section starts off with a bang with Little Richard, who comes off as both personally powerful and hilarious, with “Tutti Frutti” initially
Below: Excerpt from an order form for the 45-record of Valentino’s ‘I
being a paean to gay sex before it was cleaned up for release as a single. Savage posits “Long Tall Sally” was a challenge to Pat Boone, as his blanched cover of “Tutti Frutti” irritated Richard because of its outdoing the original on the charts in the racist fifties.
Other chapters in this section cover singer Johnny Ray (who nearly didn’t have a career due to a bathroom bust in 1951), scandal magazines and publicity campaigns to counter them, James Dean and Elvis Presley.
Of particular note is the “Against the Law” chapter, named for the book written by Peter Wildeblood about his trial with two other defendants for sodomy in 1954 which led to a prison sentence. Wildeblood was among the first men to declare his homosexuality in Britain and his book contributed greatly to the creation of the Wolfenden Committee.
In the 1961 segment we are introduced to the world of gay managers and record producers in the UK, including Robert Stigwood, Joe Meek and Larry Parnes.
This section also contains Savage’s first chapter on Andy Warhol, who hovers like an éminence grise throughout the book. Here Warhol is presented breaking into the New York art world with his Campbell’s Soup Can paintings in 1962.
Particularly interesting is Savage’s discussion of Warhol’s record collection from the early ’60s. Given Warhol’s outsize influence in the pop and music worlds later in the decade and into the ’70s, it’s fascinating to see what he was listening to in the early ’60s.
Pre-Stonewall
The pivotal moment in British LGBT history is portrayed in the 1967 section. In the “Legalisation” chapter Savage details the passage of the Sexual Offences Act, which had taken twelve years from the Wolfenden Committee (and yet still preceded the Stonewall Riots by two years). The BBC broadcast three programs on its “Man Alive” current affairs show, which featured interviews with both lesbians and gay men.
Savage points out the heartbreaking consequences of ostracization and the closet by noting that Joe Meek, Brian Epstein and Joe Orton all died the same year the act was passed. In the “Gay Power” chapter in this section, Savage details what was happening in the U.S. including the formation of Vanguard at Glide Memorial, the Compton Cafeteria Riot, Drum magazine, Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” and the rise of the gay marketplace in America (including gay pulps and the Camp Records label).
Also included in this section is the rise of Warhol’s Velvet Underground and a hilarious segment in the Gay Managers chapter on the origin of the Kink’s song “David Watts,” with the telling line “he is so gay and fancy-free.”
The Kinks were invited to an all-male party where the drummer’s pants fell down while dancing and Ray Davies said to the host David Watts, “Don’t you fancy that big hunky drummer.”
To which Watts replied, “Get lost; it’s your brother I’m after.”
Wide open
By the 1973 section, the world has
changed quite drastically and the secret public is not so secret anymore. Primary in this change is the man who fell to earth, David Bowie. As Savage says “David Bowie blew the whole topic wide open.” Savage does an admirable job summarizing Bowie’s rise from clubs in Soho in 1965 though the Mr. Fish dresses of “The Man Who Sold the World” to the explosion of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie had done a benefit for the Gay Liberation Front in London in 1971 and appeared quite extensively in the British publication Gay News.
The “Stonewall and Its Aftermath” chapter in this section chronicles the formation of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance, as well as the rise of the publications Gay Power, GAY and Come Out. Also in this section is the rise of the Cockettes and the clash of East Coast and West Coast sensibilities regarding camp, theater and sexuality in their New York debut.
The New York Dolls chapter was a revelation. David Johansen was connected to Charles Ludlum’s Ridiculous Theater, and the Dolls played at the Continental Baths with Jackie Curtis. The Dolls were playing at the Mercer Arts Center in drag in 1971, beating
Jayne County and her band Queen Elizabeth by a few months as the first band to perform in drag. Although this played well in New York, it didn’t go over in the rest of the country. The cover of their first album with the band in drag alienated radio DJs, leading to poor airplay.
Fever
The1978 section of the book charts the crossover of disco from the world of gay discos to “Saturday Night Fever,” which culminates the influence of those in the British music industry (in this case Robert Stigwood). Chapters in this section chart the rise of Harvey Milk and the Tom Robinson Band as well.
And the crowning achievement of this era is the rise of Sylvester, detailing his performance at the War Memorial Opera House. Also featured in this section of the book is local writer Mark Abramson, who relates his experience at the Snowblind party on Mission Street:
“Someone gave me a hit of acid and I danced with a group of guys until six, mostly friends of mine. Somehow Sylvester ended up in the middle of our circle. The disc jockey put on Sylvester’s ‘Can’t Stop Dancing,’ and it was strange to be dancing with him to his own song.”
The book ends with the haunting line: “Let’s leave them there, frozen in their fabulousness, with no thought of what was to come.”
“The Secret Public” is an amazing and daunting book, with a barrage of facts and information that informs, excites and entertains.t
Read the full review on www.ebar.com.
‘The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture from the Margins to the Mainstream’ by Jon Savage, LiveRight/WW Norton, $35. www.wwnorton.com
‘Jurassic Parq: A Musiqal
Parody’
“Gays love dinosaurs,” said playwright Michael Phillis in his interview with David-Elijah Nahmod about his new show, “Jurassiq Parq: A Musiqal Parody” that gives the popular 1993 film a queer twist starring drag queens and drag kings performing catchy musical numbers, with dinosaurs!
“Our dinosaurs are being presented through the talents of both costumed actors and extremely talented puppeteers,” said drag artist Vanilla Meringue, who plays Colonel Sanders Hammond (see photo).
“No egg will be left unturned. We have everything from a singing baby velociraptor to a constipated triceratops to our huge T Rex which is large enough to fit an adult human inside of its mouth. We are so excited for audiences to see how these talents come together.”
Read the full feature, and check out more fun nightlife and arts events in Going Out, on www.ebar.com.t
‘Jurassiq Parq: A Musiqal Parody,’ $52.20-$82.95, July 10-Aug. 2, Thursdays through Saturdays at 6:30 pm. Oasis, 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com
Vanilla Meringue in ‘Jurassiq Parq: A Musiqal Parody’
From Sylvester’s ‘Fantasy’ album, 1978
Author Jon Savage
Above Left: Peter Wildeblood’s ‘Against the Law’ 1955
Above Right: David Bowie on the cover of Gay News issue 22, 1973
Was Born This Way’ in Gay News June-July 1975
Words: poet Liza Flum
by Michele Karlsberg
In “Hover,” Liza Flum delivers a debut that bends light around grief, memory, and the quiet rupture of living. Her poems do not settle; they circle, lift, and linger in the liminal spaces between certainty and loss. This is a collection that insists on the value of attention and the resonance of absence.
Flum’s work has appeared in many publications. She is a recipient of a Barbara Deming artist grant. Her writing has been nurtured by fellowships from the Saltonstall Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, Aspen Summer Words, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center.
With an MFA in poetry from Cornell University and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah, Flum enters the literary landscape with a voice at once finely tuned and fiercely original.
Flum discussed the genesis of “Hover,” the ethics of poetic attention, and what it means to write into the spaces we fear.
Michele Karlsberg: “Hover” explores queer polyamorous families with remarkable tenderness and complexity. What inspired you to begin writing this collection, and how did your own experiences shape its vision?
I started this collection because I needed a way to talk honestly about my life. It was during the first Trump administration; I was living in a conservative state, and, to be frank, I often felt scared to speak directly about queerness and polyamory, both personally and professionally. In this homophobic country, queer and polyamorous people are at risk of losing housing, employment, and of course, our basic safety, and polyamory is not a protected class.
Working on the project that would become “Hover,” I felt like I was writing my way out of the closet poem by poem. I needed room on the page to express what I wasn’t sure I could say plainly at my job, in the classroom, or to many of the people around me.
The book is rich with metaphor, especially the image of hummingbirds. What drew you to this particular creature as a symbol for the queer, chosen, and polyamorous family experience?
So many ideas in this book started as laughter. I felt a rush of giddy surprise when I thought about putting unlike things together: polyamory and hummingbirds. I had never seen them in the same sentence before! Whenever I find myself laughing over an idea, I know I have to write it.
But the hummingbird metaphor quickly became serious. It allowed me to think deeply about representation. When I was writing this book, I was looking around my life for artistic representations of other queer, polyamorous relationship structures, and I couldn’t find enough of them, even though I know these relationships are everywhere.
Statistics say that 20% of people have engaged in some form of nonmonogamy. Hummingbirds are all around us, but we see them only in glimpses and flashes. They move so quickly we almost can’t see them at all. Longing to see something that is nearly invisible because it’s of its life-force and vitality; that’s interesting to me.
The collection doesn’t just describe love and family. It seems to enact them through its formal choices and emotional resonances. What do you hope readers carry with them after spending time in these “little rooms” of your poems?
I hope the poems will make people feel like their family, in whatever shape it takes, is valid. Like their lives
Author Liza Flum
and loves are seen. There’s a thing I called the “little lesbian nod;” when I’m walking with my partner and we pass another queer woman, we all give each other a tiny nod of recognition.
I hope the book can be someone’s lesbian nod: something that makes us all
smile and feel less alone as we continue on our way.
The book is really aimed at people who share my experience and context, but other readers are welcome too. So, for anyone unfamiliar with queer love, polyamory, or chosen family, I hope
the book invites solidarity and even delight at the beauty of these things.
As someone living and writing within queer and polyamorous community, what conversations do you hope “Hover” might
spark, among readers, writers, or even within families themselves?
The issues the book explores are politically urgent, and they deserve to be talked about; argued over, even! Why would queer people get married? Why wouldn’t we get married? Who is included and who is still excluded from the institution of marriage, anyway? The logistics and politics of accessing birth control and IVF are gnarly. We need to talk about the financially extractive medical systems and sadistic policies that make those choices inaccessible for so many of us.
I hope that the work makes some people uncomfortable and also makes some people laugh. But most of all, I’ve had people approach me to share that Hover made them feel validated in their sexuality or relationships. That was my quiet hope while I was writing: that someone might read the book and feel a little less isolated, and maybe even a little more brave.t
