June 2, 2022 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

15

ARTS

Awards for the B.A.R.

10

Excelsior celebrates Pride

Fire Island fun

15

ARTS

02

Ragtime

The

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

Vol. 52 • No. 22 • June 2-8, 2022

San Diego Pride to allow uniformed officers in parade SF LGBTQ cultural districts to skip Pride flag-raising

by Eric Burkett

A

t a ceremony that is, typically, supposed to demonstrate unity, San Francisco Mayor London Breed might find herself raising the rainbow flag June 2 before a smaller audience than in years past because of the dispute over the decision by San Francisco Pride to halt the presence of uniformed law enforcement officers in the city’s annual Pride parade.

The leadership of San Francisco’s three LGBTQ cultural districts have announced they will not be sending representatives to the City Hall flag-raising event, a tradition begun under former mayor Art Agnos in 1988. The city’s TransSee page 12 >>

P

ride officials in San Diego have reached a compromise with law enforcement that will allow officers to march in uniform at its in-person parade in July. It remains unclear, however, if they will be able to do so in future years.

While the organizers of the Southern California city’s LGBTQ celebration are still encouraging law enforcement officers not to march in their uniforms, they are not requiring them to wear their civilian clothes.

In 2020, San Diego Pride had banned the presence of uniformed law enforcement in the parade.

What ensued was many months of negotiations. LGBTQ San Diego County News reported in May that gay San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria had said he would not march in the parade if the ban were put into effect. Other community leaders also said they would skip the parade, according to the news site.

Gloria spokesperson Rachel Laing, however, told the Bay Area Reporter May 27 that “there was never any threat” by the mayor not to participate.

After numerous, lengthy discussions, San Di-

B.A.R. ENDORSEMENTS

ENDORSEMENTS Jane Philomen Cleland

San Francisco Mayor London Breed

Breed funds drag laureate post

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

an Francisco Mayor London Breed has budgeted $35,000 in her two-year budget proposal to launch a drag laureate position for the city.

A selection committee will help recommend drag performers for her to choose from for the post, with the inaugural person likely named sometime in October during LGBTQ History Month.

Exact details on the selection process, responsibilities of the drag laureate, and the duration of their reign are still to be worked out. But the position is being modeled after the city’s poet laureates, who have served between two to four years in the position.

The money Breed is including in her budget is to cover a one-year stipend for the drag laureate.

It will come through the San Francisco Public Library, the city agency that also oversees the poet laureate program.

U.S. Senate: Alex Padilla Governor: Gavin Newsom Lt. Gov. : Eleni Kounalaki Secretary of State: Shirley Weber Attorney Gen.: Rob Bonta Controller: Ron Galperin Treasurer: Fiona Ma Insurance Commissioner: Marc Levine State Sup. Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond Board of Equalization Dist. 2: Michela Alioto-Pier Congress (Bay Area) Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 4: Mike Thompson Dist. 8: John Garamendi Dist. 9: Josh Harder Dist. 10: Mark DeSaulnier Dist. 11: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 12: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Eric Swalwell Dist. 15: Kevin Mullin Dist. 16: Anna Eshoo Dist. 17: Ro Khanna Dist. 18: Zoe Lofgren

Courtesy San Diego Pride

Members of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department marched in the 2019 San Diego Pride parade.

ego Pride’s Healing & Safer Communities Committee in April made the recommendation that encouraged law enforcement personnel to wear some other type of “unique” uniform, such as Tshirts designed for the Pride event.

Fernando Lopez, executive director for San Diego Pride, wrote in an email to the B.A.R.

that the initial 2020 decision to ban the presence of uniformed law enforcement was an important step. They did not specifically answer a question about whether the compromise policy would be reviewed annually.

See page 12 >>

O RR N N II AA CC AA LL II FF O

PRIMARY ELEC ELECTION TION PRIMARY

CA Assembly Dist. 17: Matt Haney Dist. 19: Phil Ting Dist. 15: Buffy Wicks Dist. 16: Rebecca Bauer-Kahan Dist. 18: Mia Bonta Dist. 20: Shawn Kumagai Dist. 21: James Coleman Dist. 24: Alex Lee Dist. 26: Evan Low CA Senate Dist. 10: No endorsement SF City Attorney David Chiu Alameda County Board of Supervisors Dist. 3: Rebecca Kaplan

San Jose City Council Dist. 3: Omar Torres

Courtesy Facebook

Debra Walker has been nominated by Mayor London Breed to the San Francisco Police Commission.

Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder: Devin Murphy

Breed names lesbian artist Walker to SF police commission

Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools: Amie Carter, Ph.D. San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Magee Alameda County Board of Education Area 1: Joaquin Rivera

by Matthew S. Bajko

L

ooking to return LGBTQ representation to the oversight body for the San Francisco Police Department, Mayor London Breed has nominated Debra Walker, a lesbian and artist, to a vacancy on the police commission. It will now be up to the Board of Supervisors to confirm Walker to the seat.

At the start of Pride Month Wednesday, June 1, Breed announced Walker as her nominee to succeed state Board of Equalization member Malia Cohen, who stepped down March 3 from the police commission See page 12 >>

SAN FRANCISCO PROPS Yes on: A, B, D, E, F, G No on: C, H

San Mateo County Remember to vote by Board of Supervisors Dist. 3: Laura Parmer-Lohan June 7!

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Dist. 4: Ken Carlson

See page 2 >>

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • June 2-8, 2022

t

B.A.R. takes 3rd place in newspaper contest

by Cynthia Laird

T

he Bay Area Reporter won third place for general excellence in its category in the recent California News Publishers Association awards.

The awards, for articles published in 2021 and announced last week via CNPA’s Twitter feed, cited the B.A.R. in the weeklies category for papers with circulations between 11,001 and 25,000. Publisher Michael Yamashita, news editor Cynthia Laird, assistant editor Matthew S. Bajko, former assistant editor John Ferrannini, arts editor Jim Provenzano, art director Max Leger, and production designer Ernesto Sopprani were credited.

The two winning issues were published in September 2021.

“I’m very proud of our entire team for their dedication and hard work, which are required to produce the Bay Area Reporter,” Yamashita stated. “It’s gratifying to be designated by our professional peers for this recognition.”

The San Francisco Business Times took first place; the B.A.R. was the only LGBTQ publication among the five winners.

In other CNPA news, Bajko received a third place award in the business news category for his stories on the Chick-fil-A franchise opening near the San Francisco city line, a gay man buying the Castro’s Dog Eared Books store, and his Business Briefing column on queer San Francisco film commissioner Jack Song.

“Good array of sources. Clear knowledge of local news landscape and audience interest. Does

<<

Courtesy Matthew S. Bajko

Cynthia Laird

Assistant Editor Matthew S. Bajko

B.A.R. publisher Michael Yamashita

not lean on emotional quotes or generalizations; info is backed up with data points,” a judge’s comment stated.

Bajko also took fourth place in the feature story category for his article about Half Moon Bay opening a new LGBTQ community center. “Matthew Bajko deserves the honors he won, and the LGBTQ community is fortunate to have such a dedicated journalist covering our issues,” stated Yamashita.

Japanese, Chinese and Okinawan and descent who purchased the B.A.R. in 2017. He started at the paper in 1989 and became general manager in 1995.

Yamashita was asked about the one thing he’s excited about in local media in the coming year.

“I’m excited about the return of events and businesses, which is key to sustaining local media,” he stated. “Advertising is set to match pre-COVID levels. Local media proved resilient during the shutdowns and many of those that survived have emerged more efficient and flexible.”

Another out AAPI news leader highlighted was Sewell Chan, a gay man who’s currently editorin-chief of the Texas Tribune.

Chan previously worked at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.

Chan was named one of Out magazine’s Out 100 in 2014. t

Publisher highlighted

In related news, Yamashita was recognized among several Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders in local journalism by the Local Media Association. (LMA serves as the managing partner for the Google News collaborative of which the B.A.R. is a part along with six other LGBTQ outlets.)

The article includes a Q&A with Yamashita, a gay man of

Drag laureate

From page 1

“San Francisco’s commitment to inclusivity and the arts are the foundation for who we are as a city,” stated Breed. “Drag artists have helped pave the way for LGBTQ rights and representation across our city, and we must invest in programs that continue their legacies and create opportunities for the next generation of drag performers to thrive.”

Helping to advise the city on launching the drag laureate program has been gay attorney Michael Nguyen, a member of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee. Nguyen also performs under his drag persona of Juicy Liu. “I am just hopeful it is yet another thing in the city where we can promote LGBTQI+ Pride and excitement. Having a drag laureate, in my mind, that person being at a lot more city events and having the ear of the administration will be exciting,” said Nguyen, who doesn’t plan to apply for the position since he is working on its creation.

“A position like this really legitimizes drag. It shows drag performers are keepers of culture,” he added. “Queer culture in America is mainstreaming, especially drag through ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ for sure. It used to be you had to go to a gay bar and that was where drag performers were. Now we are on TV; we need to have a public presence.”

San Francisco is the second city in California to initiate a drag laureate program. In 2020, West Hollywood was the first known city anywhere in the world to approve the creation of a drag laureate for the LGBTQ haven in Los Angeles County.

Last August, as the Bay Area Reporter noted at the time, the West Hollywood City Council approved a plan for selecting a person for the

Instagram

Michael Nguyen, shown in his drag persona Juicy Liu, is helping set up the drag laureate.

position by Thanksgiving. But another wave of COVID last fall delayed that timeline.

Feedback that City Councilmember Lauren Meister, now serving as mayor, received from one local drag performer about the laureate post led her to ask city staff to further refine the scope of the position. She had initially worked with gay former city councilmember

John Duran two years ago to push for West Hollywood to name a drag laureate.

Meister told the B.A.R. Tuesday that the council should hear back from city staff at its June 22 meeting about the latest plans for the position, including how much to fund it. The proposal last year called for a $5,000 honorarium each year for the drag laureate, which is $2,000

Courtesy B.A.R. Archive

Courtesy B.A.R. Archive

The cover of one of the Bay Area Reporter’s winning issues.

more per year than the city’s poet laureate receives.

She is hopeful of seeing a drag laureate be named sometime this year during her mayoralty.

“We really are looking at this program very seriously,” said Meister. “We want to make sure that we set it up for success.”

New York City could also establish a drag laureate position. Former city councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer had pushed for one last year, but his proposal died in committee.

In May, queer City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan revived the idea and submitted a new proposal to establish a drag laureate for the Big Apple. It is awaiting a committee hearing.

Asked by the New York Post if Mayor Eric Adams, who has been championing the city’s nightlife since taking his oath of office January 1, supported the idea, spokesperson Fabien Levy said, “Adams has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community and will continue to do so. Our team is reviewing this legislation now.”

As the B.A.R. has previously noted, the concept of having an ambassador for the local drag community was first proposed in the draft version of San Francisco’s groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Cultural Heritage Strategy released in 2018.

It was reading about the drag laureate suggestion in the B.A.R. that led gay West Hollywood resident Scott Schmidt to first bring it to the attention of Meister.

City leaders see it as a way to boost local nightlife venues and drag performers whose revenues have been impacted by the pandemic over the last two years. As Meister noted to the B.A.R. this week, drag performers are themselves small business owners who are as worthy of municipal assistance as any other locally owned business.

“They do this for a living. We want to be respectful of that,” said

Meister as for why her city is finetuning the parameters of its program before officially launching it this year. “We think it is a great program and something, hopefully, that will take off and go on year after year, long after I am gone.”

San Francisco’s drag laureate will be expected to participate in and host community events while serving as an ambassador for the city’s LGBTQ, arts, nightlife, and entertainment communities. Over the coming months representatives of various city agencies, including the public library and the human rights, entertainment and arts commissions, and community members will create a working group to establish the program’s design, eligibility, and selection process.

“We celebrate the rich diversity of our communities and neighborhoods through a variety of efforts.

I am heartened and glad to be supporting San Francisco’s first drag laureate, and the city’s broader LGBTQ+ Cultural Heritage Strategy,” stated San Francisco Human Rights Commission Director Sheryl Davis. “I am grateful for programming that recognizes and advances the contributions and history of the LGBTQI+ community.”

Nguyen told the B.A.R. he expects that the selection committee that is formed will ask upward of 10 drag laureate applicants to submit additional material about why they want the position and deserve to be named to it. From those, a certain number will be forwarded to Breed, who will make the final determination on who will become the city’s first drag laureate, Nguyen said.

“Of course, as a drag queen, I know the power of drag and the power of drag activism. There are so many deserving performers who should be recognized,” he said. “I know I am excited to push it forward. I know the mayor’s office has been wanting to do it, but the pandemic got in the way.” t

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<< Election 2022

t Out supervisor candidates detail housing plans 4 • Bay Area Reporter • June 2-8, 2022

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he lack of affordable housing throughout the Bay Area remains one of the most pressing issues impacting the region. Should the three out candidates for supervisor seats in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties be elected, they plan to advance various proposals to address their jurisdictions’ housing needs, from building more units near transit stations to backing developments aimed at LGBTQ seniors.

The trio of supervisorial candidates laid out their plans in the questionnaires the Bay Area Reporter sent them, which also asked them how they would protect tenants unable to pay their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic from being evicted. All three races are on the June 7 primary, where if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote then the top two votegetters will compete for the seat on the November ballot.

Gay Pleasant Hill City Councilmember Ken Carlson is seeking the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors’ open District 4 seat, which spans the cities of Concord, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, and parts of Walnut Creek. If elected, he pledged to continue to support tenants who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

“Just because the pandemic ends it does not mean that our residents can instantly recover financially. I will continue support and prevent evictions allowing tenants time to find jobs and recover financially from the pandemic,” Carlson told the B.A.R. Vying to become the first known LGBTQ member of his county board, Carlson pointed to his support of three specific projects for

Courtesy the candidates

Board of Supervisor candidates Ken Carlson (Contra Costa), Rebecca Kaplan (Alameda), and Laura Parmer-Lohan (San Mateo) offered various proposals for housing and rent relief ahead of the June 7 primary election.

low-income/affordable housing in Pleasant Hill. The city transferred property to Habitat for Humanity, he explained, and awarded it a forgivable loan to build the belowmarket-rate units.

“I just advocated for 484 units of workforce housing which was also approved. I continue to advocate for and seek opportunities for affordable and workforce housing opportunities,” said Carlson. “I will continue to fight for more housing units and density that is appropriate for our community.”

Oakland At-Large City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, a lesbian and the body’s lone out member, is also vying to become the first LGBTQ person on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. She is seeking the open District 3 seat that includes the cities of Alameda, San Leandro, a portion of Oakland, and the unincorporated communities of San Lorenzo, Hayward Acres, and a portion of Ashland.

Kaplan worked with her council colleagues to pass a moratorium in Oakland on evictions for COVID financial losses. While the law stemmed a tide of evictions in the city, she said more could be done at the county level to protect renters still facing economic hardships due to the ongoing pandemic.

“For example, there are new state funds available for local jurisdictions to apply for, to help expand tenant assistance, and while Oakland has applied to the state for those funds to help those within Oakland, Alameda County has not yet sought them, which I am urging the county should do,” noted Kaplan. “The county only now has enough money to assist roughly half of their qualified applicants for rent assistance, so I am advocating to pursue the additional funding to help cover those rents and prevent a flood of evictions at the county level.”

Kaplan added that she would

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press the county board to adopt additional protections for tenants, such as a “Just Cause for Eviction” policy and “other process steps to redress potential wrongful evictions, which we have passed in Oakland, and which need greater support at the county. “ She supports the creation of “livable transit-oriented communities” in order to foster smart growth development in more urban areas of the county in order to protect its open space and agricultural lands.

One zoning change she would push for on the county board is changing minimum parking requirements in developments in order to promote public transit use.

“We must revitalize our central neighborhoods by improving connections to transportation, ensuring public safety, and encouraging local businesses. This strategy is simultaneously an effective way to protect farmland and wild areas from being lost,” said Kaplan, who previously served on the board of the county’s transit agency. “I have been a leader in seeking common-sense development rules that allow for density on our transit corridors while eliminating unreasonable barriers to development in the right locations. I would combine this progressive legislative approach with courageous leadership, requiring smart traffic demand management programs, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements, and coordinating transit to make these efforts effective.”

Lesbian San Carlos City Councilmember Laura Parmer-Lohan is running for the open District 3 seat on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. The district sprawls from the coastal towns along Highway 1 to the suburban cities of Atherton, San Carlos, and parts of Menlo Park and Belmont.

Parmer-Lohan would become the first out woman to serve on her county board if elected. There hasn’t been an LGBTQ community member on the board since 2010 when gay then-supervisor Rich Gordon won election to the state Assembly.

She pointed to her calling for San Carlos to allocate in its city budget financial help for families to stay in their homes due to the eviction risk related to COVID. As a supervisor, she pledged to “continue to promote realistic and quantifiable programs to advocate for working families and reverse housing instability.”

Another idea she backs is consolidating county-owned corporate yards to free up land for the development of affordable housing. The county should also look at buying larger parcels of land that come on the market in order to build housing for farm workers, she told the B.A.R. “I will continue to champion the creation of affordable housing. In the City of San Carlos, I insisted that staff conduct proactive outreach to the broader community, including renters, to facilitate discussion on the topic,” said Parmer-Lohan.

“During my tenure on council and as mayor, the initial call for a building moratorium has evolved to a call for more affordable housing. And the city is activating housing trust funds and public/private partnerships to convert two six-unit apartment buildings to quadruple the number of qualified residents.”

Housing at BART stations

All three candidates support building more affordable housing near the regional transit agency BART’s stations in their respective counties.

“I believe affordable housing should be justly dispersed throughout our community, with thought to access to transportation, retail, and other needs,” said Carlson.

Kaplan pointed to her voting on the council to designate the areas around Oakland’s transit hubs as Priority Development Areas to allow for denser in-fill housing developments and backed updating the city’s zoning to support such projects.

“I am a strong supporter of transit-oriented development as a strategy to protect the environment and to create jobs while also expanding affordable housing,” she told the B.A.R. “I have a strong track record of actively supporting the development of housing, including affordable housing, at transit hubs, including at MacArthur BART, which is already built, and at Coliseum BART, where the council recently unanimously approved a proposal I brought forth to develop housing at all income levels along with mixeduse development.”

In addition to BART property, Parmer-Lohan told the B.A.R. she also favors seeing any publicly owned lands used for the construction of more affordable housing.

“Housing is a right and needs to be created,” she said. “I am an advocate of transit-oriented housing, infill and redevelopment to house our young adults, seniors, teachers, first responders, farm workers and essential workers. We need to increase density and height along transit corridors and encourage developers to seek density bonuses.”

Affordable homes for LGBTQ seniors

On the topic of affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors in their counties, the candidates pledged to do what they could as a supervisor to increase the supply of such homes in their communities. Kaplan noted that not only is there an inadequate supply of affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors, but what does exist often isn’t welcoming of such residents.

“I have worked with community organizations including Lavender Seniors, and the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, and partnered with other organizations, to support our LGBT+ seniors, to help pursue creation of housing (including affordable housing) for LGBT people in Oakland, and, should I have the opportunity to serve on the County Board of Supervisors, I would bring this approach to the County, which controls significant resources,” pledged Kaplan.

Carlson noted how as a council member he had partnered with Satellite Affordable Housing and approved the development of 81 units of affordable senior housing in Pleasant Hill.

“I will continue this model on the Board of Supervisors,” he said. “We need to create more inclusive and safe affordable housing for our seniors, and we need to do it with easily accessible support services.”

Parmer-Lohan told the B.A.R. that “any, and all, affordable housing for seniors must be inclusive and welcoming” to LGBTQ seniors. In addition to backing policies at the county level to increase the supply of such housing, she said she would work to ensure the developments provide “safe living” environments for LGBTQ residents.

“To realize this, I will establish a program that provides training to housing facilities and staff, and provide tools to ensure that their policies and practices are culturally sensitive and welcoming including all gender restrooms and gender identity inclusive intake forms,” said Parmer-Lohan. t

Celebrating diversity, supporting the community, and sharing our pride.

Celebrating diversity, supporting the community, and sharing our pride. kp.org/community kp.org/community At Kaiser Permanente, we believe everyone has a right to be celebrated, heard, represented, and loved. We stand united

Celebrating diversity, supporting the in our support of equity, diversity, and community pride. community, and sharing our pride.

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<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Reporter • June 2-8, 2022

Volume 52, Number 22 June 2-8, 2022 www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Eric Burkett CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tavo Amador • Christopher J. Beale Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Adam Echelman •John Ferrannini Michael Flanagan •Jim Gladstone Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller • Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Christine Smith

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Breed’s budget includes LGBTQs

S

o far in her proposed twotionately impacted by HIV while ensuring year budget that she rethere is stable funding for existing initiatives leased Wednesday, San Franand services. cisco Mayor London Breed has This is crucial. Nonprofit HIV/AIDS specified nearly $10 million service organizations are faced with myriad for LGBTQs. Over half of that challenges, some of them due to the COmoney, $6.5 million, is slated VID pandemic and others because there for programs that Breed says continues to be donor fatigue in regard to will end trans homelessness in AIDS funding. There are persistent disRick Gerharter the city by 2027. The remaining parities in accessing services, particularly San Francisco $3 million will go toward HIV among Black, Latino, and Asian men who Mayor London prevention with the goal of re- Breed have sex with men and members of the ducing new infections. Breed is trans community. It’s true that San also proposing $35,000 for the Francisco has been a leader since first San Francisco drag laureate, who is expected the beginning of the AIDS epidemic to be named this fall. with its “model of care” that relies on As we reported last week, the mayor’s proposal the Department of Public Health and for HIV prevention services is a small portion of nonprofits. It would be disastrous if that the $10.5 million advocates are seeking, but part model was significantly changed now of their request was this $3 million to maintain that the city is making real progress in prevention services. That is critical if the city is reducing transmissions. to maintain its decreasing HIV transmission Trans homelessness numbers. New HIV diagnoses in San Francisco Breed’s proposal regarding trans homelessdeclined 22% from 168 diagnoses in 2019 to 131 ness could be transformative for the roughly 400 diagnoses in 2020 (the latest figures available). transgender and gender-nonconforming people The city is working to reach its goal of zero new the city estimates are unhoused at any given time.

HIV infections and currently spends $28.7 milThe mayor’s plan calls for $6 million over two lion on HIV prevention. years dedicated to fund short-term rental subIt is also not yet known whether San Fransidies, flexible financial assistance, and support cisco will face any cuts in its allocation of federal to build up capacity among nonprofit providers.

Ryan White CARE Act dollars, currently pegged Another $500,000 will fund behavioral health at about $15 million. If that were to happen, it is services for TGNC individuals experiencing likely the mayor and Board of Supervisors would homelessness or at-risk of homelessness, buildbackfill the shortfall, as has happened in the past. ing on $500,000 already supporting trans youth Breed’s request for the additional $3 million is experiencing homelessness. aimed at addressing the loss of funding for cerWhat the mayor means when she talks about tain agencies. According to the mayor’s office, ending trans homelessness in five years is that the health department will use the funding to the existing trans homeless population would allocate new resources to populations dispropor-

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be stabilized and housed during that time. Trans people who become unhoused in the future would benefit because there would be resources and support to get them housed quickly, making any instance of homelessness brief and rare, the mayor’s office stated in a news release.

This is truly game-changing, to the point that trans leaders, who are currently fighting with the mayor over her decision to skip the Pride parade due to police officers not being able to march in uniform, are whole-heartedly in support of it. The proposal means that nonprofits would be able to prioritize equitable services for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, as Sharyn Grayson, co-executive director of the Transgender, Gender-Nonconforming, and Intersex Justice Project stated. It would also mean, Grayson added, that important wrap-around services could be provided.

We’ve all known for a long time that trans people are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness compared to the general population. Many frequently face violence and discrimination because of who they are. Finding and maintaining housing is the most important aid that can be provided for them. It will allow them to be more successful in finding employment, if needed, and to maintain any medical regimens.

Breed’s budget plan is the starting point for the Board of Supervisors, who will spend this month amending it before the city’s next budget is adopted. We urge the supervisors to fully fund these items the mayor has identified, and find the additional $6 million or so for HIV services that are badly needed. t

The SF assessor’s office is working for you

by Joaquín Torres

Estate planning

I

n February 2022, I was elected as your assessor-recorder and I am honored to represent and serve you. My office plays an important role in our city, typically generating over $3.6 billion in property tax revenue and providing over 33% of San Francisco’s General Fund budget. These dollars represent the largest, most stable source of funding that enables our civic leaders to invest in our communities, schools, parks, and first responders, among other programs and partners that ensure San Francisco thrives. While out in community, I have heard from you on two major items of public interest: Proposition 19 and our newly piloted Estate Planning program.

Proposition 19

Bay Area Reporter

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Since the statewide ballot measure was narrowly approved in November 2020, Proposition 19 has been one of the more complex laws mentioned by San Franciscan homeowners that needs clarification. Prop 19 has two parts – intergenerational property transfers and preservation of your base year value of your home if you decide to move. For an intergenerational transfer, there are three basic ways that property transfer can occur between parents and their children: gift, sale, and inheritance at death. Some essential elements to consider when using the example of a parent to child transfer include: the home must be the primary residence of the parent; the transferee child must move in and file a Homeowner’s Exemption form; and the base year value of the home plus $1,000,000 will be compared to the fair market value to determine the new assessed value. You must file paperwork with my office within three years of transfer. As Prop 19 requires, this filing must be timely, otherwise these provisions are forfeited, and the inherited home will be revalued at market rate. If the appropriate elements apply, the base year value can be transferred.

The second part of Prop 19 is called the Transfer of the Base Year Value. This tax benefit is available to three groups of taxpayers: persons 55 years of age or older, persons who are severely disabled, or victims of a wildfire or natural disaster. You may transfer the base year value of an existing principal residence to a replacement principal home. However, if the replacement home is of greater value than the original home, the difference will be added to the transferred base year value. The new home may be located anywhere in California and homeowners can apply for this benefit three times. The sale of the original property or the purchase of the replacement property must occur after April 1, 2021. The two transactions must occur within two years of each other.

Prop 19 paperwork must be filed in the office

: Courtesy Assessor-Recorder’s office

San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Joaquín Torres

within three years of purchase of the replacement residence to apply the base year transfer.

If you have submitted a Prop 19 claim, thank you for your patience as we process them. The last letter to clarify Prop 19 came from the state Board of Equalization in April 2022. Now with the proper guidance from the state, my office has begun to process these claims.

Also, at the beginning of May, it was announced that a partial repeal of Prop 19 had failed. It did not gather enough signatures to appear on the November 2022 ballot. My office will continue to track and share any developments that change Prop 19. I understand that Prop 19 may significantly impact San Francisco homeowners and I want to keep you informed.

Prop 19 frequently asked questions

What does an example of an intergenerational transfer look like?

If a family home is valued over $1,000,000, partial benefit is available. For example: if the base year value of a family home is $400,000 and the fair market value is $1,500,000. The excluded amount is $400,000 + $1,000,000 = $1,400,000.

The difference is $1,500,000 -$1,400,00 = $100,000. The new adjusted base year value is $500,000 ($400,000 + $100,000).

What does an example of a Base Year Value Transfer look like?

Here is an example of the Base Year Value Transfer when the new home has a higher value than the original home’s value. Your original home with a base year value of $600,000 sold for $1,200,000. The replacement home costs $1,500,000. The difference between the sale and purchase price is $300,000 ($1,500,000 $1,200,000). This additional amount of value between the two homes is added to the original base year value ($600,000 + $300,000). The new home’s base year value will be $900,000.

Every year I host the Family Wealth Series – a four-part series to promote financial health and literacy. Through this series and by engaging with the community, I learned many households with fewer financial and legal resources faced economic barriers to properly transfer their assets to their loved ones.

Listening to that need, I spearheaded a new estate planning program – provided at littleto-no cost depending on income – that offers a valuable resource to settle and transfer a family’s hard-earned assets. This program is aimed at low-income and moderately low-income households in southeastern neighborhoods and the Western Addition. Estate plans consist of a will, living trust, financial power of attorney, and health care directive.

Everyone has an estate, and everyone should have an estate plan. Estate plans are not limited to a homeowner, but are also vital in establishing inheritance guidance for your business and heirlooms. Estate plans protect you as they ensure your wishes are carried out and protect your estate from going through the expensive and time-consuming probate process. Probate is a process that is triggered when there is not a will in place. In those cases, the probate process will determine who should inherit your property after you pass and will make a judgment regarding the allocation of your property. An estate plan will avoid this process, keep decisions in your and your family’s hands and avoid costs that could result in losing a hardearned family asset.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office. My staff is ready to spend time with you to answer your questions. Please call us at (415) 554-5596 or email us at assessor@sfgov.org. For estate planning, please contact Housing and Economic Rights Advocates at (510) 271-8443, ext. 300 or email inquiries@heraca.org.

For important new developments, please follow me on social media. For more information on Prop 19, please view my recorded presentation “Presentation: Prop 19 Property Tax Benefits” at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=q08OtJ6R7zI I want to wish you and all a very Happy Pride Month!t Joaquín Torres, an ally, is the elected Assessor-Recorder for the City and County of San Francisco.

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Politics >>

June 2-8, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Out West Coast candidates face tough House races

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f the three gay men and one lesbian seen as the most viable nonincumbent candidates vying for U.S. House seats in the West Coast, all but one are facing tough roads to victory this year. Two are running in districts political handicappers see as favoring their Republican opponents, with a third race deemed a toss up.

Facing the best odds is gay Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia. He is seeking the new, open 42nd Congressional District along the coast of Los Angeles County. It is heavily Democratic, and Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) is seen as the other leading candidate among the eight people in next week’s June 7 primary race.

Garcia has drawn broad support for his race, winning the endorsement in May of the Los Angeles Times.

Should he be elected to Congress, Garcia would double gay representation from the Golden State, as gay California Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside) is expected to easily win reelection this year.

Lesbian former Santa Clara City Councilmember Jamie McLeodSkinner could triple the number of LGBTQ representatives in the House from the three-state West Coast region if she wins Oregon’s open, newly drawn 5th Congressional District. She was officially declared the winner of her Democratic Primary last Friday, May 27, after a balloting snafu delayed the vote count for 10 days.

The progressive lawyer and small business owner ousted from office moderate Congressman Kurt Schrader (D-Canby). It is McLeodSkinner’s second time running for a House seat, having lost in 2018 against then-congressmember Greg Walden (R-Hood River).

This year she is facing Republican

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Barry Schneider Attorney at Law Garcia, Carlos Delgado/AP images for Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau; Skinner and Marshall, courtesy the candidates; Rollins, Rick Gerharter

Out West Coast congressional candidates Robert Garcia, left, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, Will Rollins, and Derek Marshall

Lori Chavez-DeRemer for the congressional seat in what is expected to be a heated contest. Last week, the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman moved the seat from “leans” Democratic to being a “toss up.” He also predicted the GOP will pick up anywhere from 20 to 35 House seats in the fall to retake the chamber from Democrats.

“Republicans’ House advantage looks as robust as ever,” he wrote. “For independent voters, inflation has become such a dominant concern that neither a Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade nor January 6 hearings are likely to drastically alter the midterms’ trajectory.”

In a statement issued after the Associated Press had called her the winner of her primary race, McLeod-Skinner thanked Schrader and his campaign “for a hard-fought primary.” She noted her victory in their intraparty contest was “only the beginning” and her “battle” to be elected to Congress was “just getting started.”

If she is elected come November, McLeod-Skinner would be the first lesbian from the West Coast serving in Congress. Of the current 11 LGBTQ members of Congress, only three are lesbians.

“Oregonians across the newly drawn 5th Congressional District have joined together to make our voices heard and we want our seat at the table,” stated McLeod-Skinner, elected three years ago to an at-large seat on the Jefferson County Education Service District. “Shirley Chisholm once said, ‘if they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.’ Well, we’ve got our folding chairs.”

Southern California

Facing even stronger headwinds are the two other gay men running for House seats in Southern California. Former federal prosecutor Will Rollins, who lives with his partner in

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See page 8 >>

Letters >> Supports SF Pride board’s decision

I’m writing to state that I’m 100% behind the board of San Francisco Pride in its decision to ban the police from marching in uniform [“LGBTQ first responders won’t march in SF Pride parade,” online, May 23]. As a queer man with significant disabilities, the police do not make me feel safer in my community. Just weeks ago, the San Francisco Police Department shot dead two people in Mission Bay, in a case in which the details are still murky. We have a mayor who has announced a “crackdown” on a historically queer neighborhood, the Tenderloin, which brings back echoes of the Castro Sweep. And with the history of police shootings in this city of young people of color like Alex Nieto, it’s understandable that any uniformed police presence would make young people of color uncomfortable attending Pride.

SF Pride made the right call here. Last year, I was able to attend the alternative People’s March for Pride down Polk Street. Several hundred of us marched down Polk Street with a message that the LGBTQ+ community needs to get back to its roots of liberation and inclusivity. It was refreshing to see a Pride march that had a meaningful political message.

My hope is that the decision to ban uniformed police officers from the “main” SF Pride parade signals a step in the right direction – that the board of SF Pride is starting to listen to historically marginalized communities and is now working to make it an event that is meaningful for everyone. If we, as LGBTQ+ people, aren’t able to take a stand against oppressive institutions that actively hurt and kill other members of our community, then what is Pride even for?

Matthew S. Denney San Francisco

Disagrees with SF Pride board

I disagree with the San Francisco Pride board of directors decision not to allow the San Francisco Police Department officers to march in the Pride parade in their uniforms.

These LGBTQ police are to be acknowledged, celebrated, and respected for their bravery and courage as officers, as well as breaking down barriers and bringing diversity to the SFPD; and to the SFPD for evolving to accept and encourage this diversity. This decision is wrong-minded and should be overturned (including an apology).

There are issues that should be addressed at SFPD, but

not at the expense of disrespecting our LGBTQ officers and the SFPD they represent – let them march proudly in uniform and be celebrated in the Pride parade.

Jim Ogren San Francisco

The sleep-walking woke

The decision by the San Francisco Pride board to ban San Francisco police officers, including LGBTQ officers, from marching in their uniforms at the San Francisco Pride parade is a slap in the face to LGBTQ persons who fought hard to break through employment barriers and who dedicate their lives to public safety and service.

The inability of the San Francisco Pride committee to When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in discern between friends and foes demonstrates a gross lack advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial of leadership. It also promotes an intellectual zombie-ism and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead that has some in our community indiscriminately turning When your celebration lasting protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, on and devouring our own. Knee-jerk, blanket cancel When culyou remembrance plan your celebration and lasting in allowing themlife to focus on what will matter most at design that remembrance time—you. in advance, you can every ture does not make you woke; it makes you one of the sleepadvance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial detail own memorial provide walking woke.

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It may be true, as this year’s SF Pride theme somewhat ironically asserts, “Love Will Keep Us Together,” but it is certain that turning against our own and our allies will only divide and weaken us. I call on the Pride committee to reverse its decision to exclude members of the LGBTQ+ community and its attempt to dictate the clothing they wear. I encourage other members of the LGBTQ+ community to speak up and do the same.

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ou would think that discussing a group of people who have literally hacked the code of their own bodies to present in their correct gender would be pretty fantastic, but transgender people are remarkably mundane. For the most part, we simply want to be left alone to live our lives as we ought to.

For some, however, the idea of people choosing to transition is somehow a great fear, one that they need to blow up to titanic proportions. Left without a real threat, we are stitched into a patchwork of horrors, tailor-made for all situations.

It is not hard to find some of the stories out there about transgender people right now. They’re not difficult to discover between the lines of anti-transgender laws, on rightwing media, and on the lips of certain famous fantasy authors and has-been comedians.

Transgender people are supposedly going through the challenges of transition in a hostile society so that we can claim fame and fortune in women’s sports, perpetuating tired patriarchal tropes of male dominance.

Or we’re going through all this to gain a foothold into women’s restrooms to assault women and girls.

Never mind that sexual predators could likely have better success in a janitor’s jumpsuit, nor the fact that such crimes remain, well, crimes.

Or, of course, we’re all part of a bigger plan, forcing people to “mutilate their bodies” as part of larger “great replacement” conspiracies.

Our powers are seemingly limitless in the minds of some.

Just weeks ago, an 18-year-old went to the only market in a largely Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, and shot 13 people. Ten of those shot were killed. Two days prior to the mass shooting the alleged gunman, Payton S. Gendron,

<<

Political Notebook

From page 7

Canyon Lake, is aiming to oust from office conservative Congressmember Ken Calvert (R-Corona).

They are competing for the new 41st Congressional District that includes a large part of the gay retirement and tourist mecca Palm Springs.

While Rollins and Calvert are expected to advance out of next week’s primary, where the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation move on to the November 8 ballot, Calvert as of now is favored to win reelection.

The Cook report has graded the race as “likely Republican.” Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, also has it listed as likely staying in the GOP column in his Sabato’s Crystal Ball handicapping newsletter.

“This race is one of the most competitive House races in the country, and we have a golden opportunity to hold a Trump loyalist accountable,” Rollins acknowledged in a recent fundraising appeal.

As of now, gay progressive Democrat Derek Marshall is seen as having little chance of defeating Congressmember Jay Obernolte (R-Hesperia) in the Golden State’s 23rd Congressional District. Political handicappers have the High Desert seat east of Los Angeles in the “safe Republican” column.

Next week’s California primary could bring to a close the campaigns of two transgender House candidates running against powerful Democratic incumbents. G “Maebe A. Girl” Pudlo, a nonbinary drag queen elected in 2019 as the at-large representative for the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council in Los Angeles, is running against Congressmember Adam Schiff (D-

Christine Smith

published a long-winded manifesto online.

The missive, which rambles from white supremacy to his preference in underwear, includes pages outlining his views on transgender people, and claims that the rise in people identifying as transgender is a Jewish-led “great replacement” plot. (Per an explainer on NPR, the “great replacement” is a conspiracy theory that states that nonwhite individuals are being brought into the United States and other Western countries to “replace” white voters to achieve a political agenda.)

Just 10 days after the shooting in Buffalo, another 18-year-old entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers while armed police stood around outside and in the hallway, apparently so afraid to face this man’s AR-15 that they let him continue to shoot for over an hour.

In the hours following the Texas killings, a story was fabricated that the shooter, Salvador Rolando Ramos, was a trans woman. Photos of an unrelated trans woman, Sam, were shared on the 4Chan image Los Angeles) for the state’s 30th Congressional District.

The other candidate, Bianca Von Krieg, is a transgender actress campaigning for San Francisco’s newly numbered 11th Congressional District seat against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Schiff and Pelosi are both expected to be in first place in their respective primary races, so all eyes are on which of their opponents will land in the second spot to advance to the fall election.

Bay Area local candidates pick up endorsements

Ahead of their races on Tuesday’s ballot, a number of Bay Area LGBTQ candidates picked up key endorsements to give them a last minute boost for their campaigns. The LGBTQ Victory Fund last week endorsed gay Pleasant Hill City Councilmember Ken Carlson in his bid to become the first out supervisor in Contra Costa County.

Carlson, a retired Concord police sergeant, is seeking the board’s open District 4 seat, which spans the cities of Concord, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, and parts of Walnut Creek. If elected, he would be following in the footsteps of his grandfather James Moriarty, a county supervisor in the 1970s.

The Victory Fund also came out in support of Amie Carter, Ph.D., a gay married mother running for the open Sonoma County superintendent of schools this year. The first openly gay candidate to run for the education post, she would be the first woman to hold the position in Sonoma in almost 100 years if elected.

Also receiving the backing of the national LGBTQ organization was Omar Torres, a gay man seeking San Jose’s 3rd City Council district seat

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board website, then later picked up by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as well as right-wing commentator Candace Owens, and Congressmember Paul Gosar (R-Arizona).

Despite being wholly debunked – not the least of which by Sam herself – the notion that this killer was a transgender person continues to flow.

As an aside, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this: An attack on a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood in 2015 by gunman Robert Lewis Dear Jr. led to another round on the rumor mill, claiming Dear was transgender because a clerical error on Dear’s voting paperwork listed him as a woman. In that case, it was Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who championed false reports from the Gateway Pundit blog.

Meanwhile, transgender people are just trying to live their lives – a task made all the harder given false accusations that a trans person was behind the Uvalde shooting. These falsehoods can make our lives little living hells.

A 17-year-old transgender girl identified by the Los Angeles Blade as Tracey said that she was attacked by four men in El Paso, Texas in the wake of the shooting. The attackers claimed that she was, “perverting kids instead of killing them.”

They also claimed that it was, “one of your sisters who killed those kids.”

El Paso police refused to take a report from Tracey, even when pressed by the Rainbow Youth Project in Indiana. Apparently, they are as useful as the officers in Uvalde.

Tracey was just living her life.

Her parents kicked her out of her See page 9 >> covering much of downtown. He would be only the second LGBTQ community member to serve on the municipal body and the first out candidate to be elected in 16 years.

It is not expected that any of the three will receive the 50% plus one vote threshold they need to win their races outright on the June 7 ballot.

Thus, the trio is aiming to be one of the top two vote-getters moving on to the November ballot.

Also last week Jennifer Esteen, seeking to be the state’s first Black female LGBTQ legislator, was one of only a handful of candidates in California to be endorsed by actor and environmental activist Jane Fonda. Via a video released through her Fonda PAC, the Hollywood celebrity and political agitator announced Esteen and the other candidates had won her support due to their championing of policies to tackle climate change.

Too many of the state’s leaders, including Democrats, have “failed to protect Californians from fossil fuel pollution,” said Fonda in the video.

Esteen, a gay mom, registered nurse and union leader, is one of two out candidates running for the East Bay’s open 20th Assembly District seat. Gay Dublin City Councilmember Shawn Kumagai is also vying to succeed Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D-Hayward).

The legislator opted not to seek reelection this year and has endorsed labor leader Liz Ortega, who is straight, in the race. One of the three Democrats could find themselves running against the lone Republican candidate, retired laboratory scientist Joseph Grcar, depending on how the vote goes next week in the newly drawn Alameda County Assembly District. t

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Community News>>

June 2-8, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Breed proposes $6.5M to end trans homelessness

by Cynthia Laird

M

ayor London Breed on Tuesday announced $6.5 million in her proposed budget for a plan to end trans homelessness in San Francisco by 2027.

Breed unveiled her proposed two-year budget June 1.

According to a news release from her office, the plan to end trans homelessness will be a collaborative effort between the Mayor’s Office on Housing and Community Development, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Department of Public Health, the Office of Transgender Initiatives, and nonprofit organizations serving transgender and gender-nonconforming people experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.

The proposal makes San Francisco the first city in the U.S. to commit to ending homelessness for TGNC people, the mayor’s office stated.

The Board of Supervisors amends and approves the mayor’s budget proposal before approving the city’s two-year budget July 1.

The mayor’s proposed two-year budget includes the following to begin implementation of the plan to end trans homelessness: at least 150 long-term housing subsidies through the city’s Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool program and acquisition and operations for a new permanent supportive housing site for TGNC and LGBQ+ youth, with a focus on transition age youth The plan also calls for $6 million over two years dedicated to fund short-term rental subsidies, flexible financial assistance, and support to build capacity among nonprofit providers serving TGNC residents and $500,000 to fund behavioral health services for TGNC individuals experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness, building on the $500,000 investment already supporting trans youth experiencing homelessness, according to the release.

“Transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming San Franciscans are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness compared to the general population, and we know that the rates are even higher for our minority trans communities,” stated Breed. “With one of the largest TGNC populations in the country, we not only must ensure that all San Franciscans have access to housing and essential resources through continued investments, but we can show the country that we continue to be a leader on supporting and protecting our trans communities.”

Shireen McSpadden, a bi woman who’s executive director of DHSH, stated the proposed investments “are critical to advancing the city’s equity strategies to improve services for our most vulnerable community members.”

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Transmissions

From page 8

home for being transgender. She found a place at a halfway house.

She was heading back there after spending some time at the library, working on her high school homework. It was outside the library that those men reportedly attacked her.

Sam’s photos – the ones that were taken to claim she was the Uvalde shooter – were ones she took to chronicle her own transition. Something she could be proud of. She has since had to post photos to show that she isn’t the shooter, isn’t dead, and doesn’t even live in Texas.

ing, and I look forward to working with city and community leaders to make the dream of safe and stable housing for TGNC people a reality.”

Sharyn Grayson, co-executive director of the Transgender, Gender-Nonconforming, and Intersex Justice Project, stated the nonprofit is “thrilled by the mayor’s commitment to ending homelessness for our disproportionately impacted communities.”

“These investments will allow us to prioritize equitable services for some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable persons, and to provide safe, stable, and affordable housing, as well as wraparound services, to a community that is struggling to survive,” Grayson stated. t

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has unveiled a proposed budget that includes $6.5 million over two years to end trans homelessness in the city by 2027.

According to the mayor’s office, there are an estimated 400 TGNC residents experiencing homelessness at any given time. The implementation of this plan will address the homelessness crisis within TGNC communities, in particular as it affects Black, Indigenous, Latina, and other trans women of color, the mayor’s office stated. The plan to end trans homelessness will build on the successful model of Our Trans Home SF, the first TGNC-focused housing program in the nation, which the mayor announced in 2019. It opened in January 2020, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

Trans leaders applauded the proposal, even as some of them are at odds with Breed over the controversy of San Francisco Pride’s policy of banning police officers from marching in uniform in the Pride parade.

After LGBTQ first responders on May 23 said that they would skip the parade due to the ban, Breed and gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey said they would not march in the June 26 parade if the San Francisco Pride officials do not reverse their decision. That led leaders of the Transgender District stating that they would not attend Breed’s June 2 Pride flag-raising ceremony at City Hall, as the B.A.R.’s Political Notes May 30 column noted.

The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District also said it would skip the flagraising.

Nevertheless, trans leaders stated that they are on board with Breed’s homelessness plan.

“Given our rich legacy of trans activism, San Francisco is wellpositioned to lead the country and the world on ending homelessness for trans communities,” stated Aria Sa’id, a trans woman who is cofounder, president, and chief strategist of the Transgender District.

“With the continued support of city partners and the guidance of TGNC community leaders and residents, I am certain we will successfully resolve homelessness for trans San Franciscans within the next five years.

“As trans people, we have had to be bold and resilient to even survive, and by ensuring that all our TGNC residents have a safe place to call home, we will open the door towards truly providing equitable housing and economic solutions to trans people,” Sa’id added.

The principle of ending trans homelessness by 2027 means that the existing trans homeless community would be stabilized and housed over the next five years, and any future trans people that become homeless would have the resources and support to get them housed quickly, making any instance of homelessness brief and rare, according to the mayor’s office. DHSH will work with TGNC residents, TGNC-serving organizations, and the Office of Transgender Initiatives to integrate the ending trans homelessness plan into the city’s strategic plan on homelessness, the release stated. The strategic plan will be completed this year and will guide future strategy and investments for UNDERHILL.indd address homelessness through an equity framework.

Trans leaders noted Breed’s efforts on the TGNC housing issue.

“In recent years, Mayor Breed has worked tirelessly with TGNCserving organizations to identify and address the key inequities facing trans San Franciscans,” stated Michelle Cunningham-Denning, program manager of the TAJA Coalition, or the Trans Activist for Justice and Accountability Coalition, and member of the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee.

“From founding Our Trans Home SF in 2019, the first transspecific housing program in the country to expanding health and social services for our communities, she has shown her dedication to addressing the dire life circumstances that TGNC people face due to transphobia, anti-Blackness, racism, xenophobia, and more,” Cunningham-Dunning stated. “As a community member and leader, it fills me with hope to witness the progress our communities are mak-

I’m not going to claim that their experiences are of more importance as those whose lives were ended in Buffalo or Uvalde. They are, however, an example of the growing violence and hatred toward transgender people.

What’s more, these conspiracy theories – and these notions of threatening, larger-than-life transgender people – come from the same toolbox as racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and misogyny.

That manifesto named transgender people right along with all of the above. It is all hatred, and it is all linked into one awful, ugly thing.

Now is the time we all need to stand together. We all need to push

back on these fabrications, these crazy constructs. We need people to see the reality.

I said it at the start: transgender people, by and large, just want to live our messy little lives – the same as anyone else. We’re not looking for a special advantage, just an equal opportunity.

This is contrary to those who have created a completely fictional notion of what a transgender person is.

Don’t buy their lies. t Gwen Smith is not a member of the transgender illuminati – or is she? You’ll find her at www. gwensmith.com

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5/16/22 11:34 AM

<< Pride 2022

10 • Bay Area Reporter • June 2-8, 2022

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SF’s Excelsior to hold first official Pride party

by Adam Echelman

S

an Francisco’s Excelsior district is one of the more conservative areas of the city – not always welcoming to LGBTQ residents But that is starting to change. This Saturday, the neighborhood will hold its inaugural PridExcelsior party to kick off Pride Month.

It was the neighborhood of Dan White, who served on the Board of Supervisors at the time and represented the district until his resignation. It was after he sought his job back that November and was rebuffed by mayor George Moscone that White assassinated both the mayor and San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, the first gay man elected to office in California. (White died by suicide in 1985.)

Today, the Excelsior district boasts some of the city’s most diverse demographics, a place where Filipino markets, a Chinese hospital, and a tortilla shop are just some of the many eclectic businesses that dot a 2.2-mile commercial district. While some Excelsior business owners are eager to support the LGBTQ community, there’s a tacit understanding that the neighborhood’s first-ever official Pride event is a big step, no matter how much the neighborhood has changed.

“Everybody who tries to talk up this neighborhood talks about how we have such a diverse neighborhood,” said Andrea Frerrucci, who identifies as queer. But, she pauses, “It stops short of including LGBTQ people.” Together with her business and life partner, Sean Ingram, she runs the Dark Horse Inn, a no-frills saloon-style bar and restaurant. For years now, they have flown a Pride flag outside the bar, and unlike in the Castro, where a rainbow flag is almost a necessary business expense,

that gesture means a lot to patrons in the Excelsior as well as Dark Horse employees, many of whom identify as LGBTQ themselves.

Frerrucci and Ingram have hosted their own small Pride events in the past at the Dark Horse Inn. Two years ago, Supervisor Ahsha Safaí hosted an informal outdoor gathering for Pride as well. But by every standard, this year’s official event is a major upgrade.

The event will feature eight hours of events near the intersection of Mission Street and Geneva Avenue.

From noon to 3 p.m., there will be a “Rollerskating Pop-Up Party” courtesy of the Church of 8 Wheels with free skate rentals for adults and children. The party then moves to 950 Geneva Avenue, a party supply store, where there will be a drag queen and drag king show from 5 to 7 p.m., and ending with an after-party by DJ Marilynn from 7 to 10. The Dark Horse Inn will serve food and beverages during the show and the afterparty. Frerrucci has been coordinating with local artists who will set up pop-up tents as well.

“This event sends a strong message that the Excelsior community welcomes everyone,” Safaí stated in an email to the B.A.R. His office provided thousands of dollars in grant funding to the Excelsior Action Group, a nonprofit organization, in order to make the party a reality. The total budget for the event is roughly $17,000.

For Safaí and for Maribel Ramirez, the executive director of EAG, the Pride party is also about bringing people back to the neighborhood’s commercial district, which had a 17% commercial vacancy rate in EAG’s most recent study. COVID relief benefits buoyed many of the local small businesses during the first two years of the pandemic. Now that

Adam Echelman

Maribel Ramirez is the executive director of the Excelsior Action Group, a nonprofit organization that supports the commercial corridors in the Excelsior, Outer Mission, and Oceanview. This Saturday, EAG is co-hosting PridExcelsior, the neighborhood’s first official Pride event.

those dollars are drying up, Ramirez is trying to get residents to return to the streets, including through what she calls “vibrancy projects.” This year, for example, EAG has hosted block parties, an Easter egg hunt, and a movie night. On April 24, EAG ran a pasta party where Ramirez cooked pasta sauce and hundreds of residents showed up with boiled pasta.

Local businesses like the gay-owned wine bar, The Check-In, partnered with EAG to offer drinks too. Safaí sees these events as a central piece in helping local businesses recover from the pandemic.

Organizers like Ramirez and the owners of the Dark Horse Inn are anxious that the neighborhood’s reputation could damper turnout for the Pride party. Ramirez heard from merchants who seemed hesitant about the event, expressing their

OUR 50th ANNUAL SAN FRANCISCO PRIDE EDITION

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO

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Adam Echelman

Andrea Frerrucci, left, and Sean Ingram own the Dark Horse Inn, a bar and restaurant that has served as a gathering place for the LGBTQ community in the Excelsior for over a decade.

reservations in coded language, telling her the Excelsior is “more of a traditional neighborhood.”

Frerrucci sees it too at the Dark Horse Inn. “There’s just kind of an old-school mentality out here,” she said. But like Ramirez, she’s working hard to make sure that the event is not only a success this year but that it also creates a template for future years.

That success is not just measured in attendance numbers. “I want people from other neighborhoods to come out here and discover that this neighborhood exists and to discover that this neighborhood is diverse and inclusive,” says Frerrucci, “and I want the people who live in this neighborhood to feel like they are part of the community.” t

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Rick Gerharter

SF safety officers raise Pride flag

S

an Francisco safety officers Captain Stephen Tilton (sheriff ’s department), Officer Kathryn Winters (police department), Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter (fire department), and Undersheriff Joseph Engler and Chief Deputy Kevin Fisher-Paulson (sheriff ’s department) stood outside San Francisco County Jail #3 in San Bruno June 1 after raising the

rainbow flag. This is the second year the sheriff ’s department has raised the Pride flag, and this year officials invited their colleagues from the police and fire departments in solidarity against the uniform ban instituted by the San Francisco Pride board for the June 26 parade.

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Community News>>

June 2-8, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Richmond, Santa Cruz, Sonoma County hold Pride events this weekend compiled by Cynthia Laird

I

n-person and virtual Pride festivals and parades are kicking off this weekend in Richmond, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma County.

Richmond Rainbow Pride will hold a virtual Pride celebration Sunday, June 5, beginning at noon on Twitch.

Baron Lorde Valentine and Baroness Princess Monet Sparkle will host the event, the theme of which is “Infinite Pride.” Scheduled performers include the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus, the Rebel Kings of Oakland, Kippy Marks, Santana Romero, Septimius the Great, Viva Commotion, and Be Stedwell.

For more information, go to www.richmondrainbowpride.org/.

The Twitch channel is www. twitch.tv/richmondrainbowpride.

In Santa Cruz, the city’s 47th annual Pride parade will take place Sunday, June 5, stepping off at 11 a.m. on Pacific Avenue between Cathcart and Church streets.

The festival will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Abbott Square, near the Museum of Art and History, at 705 Front Street, and Cooper Street. There will also be free admission at the museum.

On Saturday, June 4, the Dyke/ Trans March will take place starting at 4:20 p.m. at the Town Clock on North Pacific Avenue.

The Diversity Center is the fiscal sponsor of Santa Cruz Pride.

For more information on the weekend’s activities, visit http:// santacruzpride.org/.

Up in the North Bay, Sonoma County Pride’s parade is scheduled for Saturday, June 4, at 11 a.m. at Fourth Street at Brookwood in downtown Santa Rosa. The festival takes place afterward from noon to 5 p.m. at the Old Courthouse Square. This year’s theme is “We Are Family.”

That evening, “Reunion,” a queer dance party, will be held at LaRosa, 500 Fourth Street. Doors open at 9; a drag show is at 10:30. There is a $10 cover.

On Sunday, June 5, there will be a drag brunch, “Wigs and Waffles,” at 630 Park Steakhouse, 288 Golf Course Road, West, in Rohnert Park. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. and San Francisco’s own Juanita MORE! will host. Tickets are $85.

Later that day, from 1 to 6 p.m., there will be the Pink Pool Party at Graton Resort and Casino, 288 Golf Course Road, West. Tickets start at $30.

For a full list of activities, visit www.sonomacountypride.org/

San Jose to raise Pride flag

San Jose will usher in Pride Month with a flag-raising ceremony Tuesday, June 7, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the City Hall Rotunda, 200 East Santa Clara Street.

In its newsletter, the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center said the event is open to all and will feature singing, dancing, and a special City Hall lighting.

AIDS/LifeCycle ride starts Sunday

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, AIDS/LifeCycle is back as an in-person event.

Thousands of cyclists and volunteer roadies will embark on a 545-mile journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles, from June 5-11, united by a common cause: fighting to end HIV and AIDS. AIDS/LifeCycle raises millions of dollars annually to support San Francisco AIDS Founda-

Courtesy OGMC Dale Godfrey

The Translife group marched in the 2019 Sonoma County Pride parade.

tion and the HIV-related services of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Participants are HIV-negative or living with HIV, LGBTQ+ and allies, ages 18 to 81, and from nearly every state and 14 countries, a news release from SFAF stated.

The ride leaves from the Cow Palace early Sunday morning.

The AIDS fundraising event debuted in 1994 as the California AIDS Ride before it was reconfigured to what is known today as AIDS/LifeCycle, the world’s largest annual HIV/AIDS fundraiser, the release stated. The change came in 2001 after SFAF and the L.A. center broke with AIDS Ride founder Pallotta TeamWorks, citing cost overruns. In 2002 SFAF and the L.A. center held their own ride, and later resolved issues with Pallotta TeamWorks, which ended the California AIDS Ride.

A I D S / L i f e Cyc l e is a fully supported bike ride that raises important awareness about the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, in addition to funding critical services such as HIV testing and screenings for other sexually transmitted infections, HIV medical care, harm reduction, prevention services including PrEP, and more.

“Year after year, AIDS/LifeCycle continues to be a critical way that we raise support for HIV services, increase awareness about the impact of HIV, and come together in solidarity as a community,” said Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., who started as CEO of the AIDS foundation in February and is a 12-time AIDS/ LifeCycle participant. “We are able to provide lifesaving services in our community that contribute to our goal of ending the HIV epidemic, thanks to the enduring commitment of AIDS/LifeCycle participants.”

In the seven days it takes the riders to reach Los Angeles, the AIDS foundation noted that more than 650 people in the United States will contract HIV. One in seven people living with HIV nationwide is not aware of their status. Since the California AIDS Ride first began, participants have raised more than $286 million and completed more than 63,000 journeys on bikes from San Francisco to Los Angeles, according to the release.

To follow the journey during the week of the ride through pictures, stories and videos, people can visit https://www.aidslifecycle.org/ and @aidslifecycle on social media.

Curve magazine celebration

Curve magazine founder Frances “Franco” Stevens will be part of the celebration for the lesbian publication Friday, June 3, at 8 p.m. at the Pearl SF, 601 19th Street in San Francisco.

The party will recognize the first year of the Curve Foundation, the release last year of a documentary, “Ahead of the Curve,” and Stevens receiving this year’s GLAAD Barbara Gittings Award for excellence in LGBTQ+ media.

The Bay Area Reporter noted in an article last year that Stevens bought back Curve after selling the publication in 2010.

It is now a nonprofit overseen by the foundation and offers digital issues, according to its website.

In an email, Stevens said she and foundation officials are kicking off Pride Month “with unicorn races, delightful drag, and dancing to the sounds of DJ Rockaway and DJ LadyRyan to benefit the Curve Foundation.”

Tickets are $75-$250. A VIP reception takes place from 7 to 8 p.m. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3ayGV63.

The Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus will perform during Richmond Rainbow Pride’s virtual event.

Panel discussion on possible post-Roe era

Lesbian author and activist Kate Raphael will facilitate a panel discussion and community conversation entitled “Reproductive Justice for the Post-Roe Era” Sunday, June 5, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair outdoors at Tamarack, located at 1501 Harrison Street in Oakland. The event is free.

An email announcement notes that the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling legalizing abortion.

A draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that was leaked to Politico May 2 indicated the 1973 decision would be overturned. The justices are expected to issue their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson by the end of the term in late June or early July.

The upcoming panel will look at abortion funds and practical support networks; clinic defense, then and now; abortion with pills

and self-managed abortions; and other issues.

Raphael is the author of “The Midwife’s In Town.”

Sonoma County queer prom

LGBTQ Connection, Positive Images, and the gay-straight alliance at West County High School will hold a queer prom Saturday, June 11, from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Barlow, 6770 McKinley Street in Sebastopol.

The event is for youth ages 1418. Attendees must bring a form of ID and there are no exceptions to the age range, according to an email announcement.

The prom will have a fairytale theme, and attendees can dress up or dress down, wear costumes or cosplay – all attire is welcome, organizers stated.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at https://bit.ly/3lSiove. t

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<< From the Cover

12 • Bay Area Reporter • June 2-8, 2022

<<

San Diego Pride

From page 1

The compromise states, “In an effort to present an appearance that joins in the celebration of the San Diego Pride event while also helping to break down fear/barriers stemming from a traditional uniformed appearance, explore and wear specialized or unique uniform designs for use during the Pride Parade or Festival Booth.

“Law enforcement agencies are encouraged to support unique and specialized attire that is emblematic of the San Diego Pride event and helps show respect and appreciation to the LGBTQ community, and respects the history and intended purpose of national pride celebrations while also balancing the law enforcement agency’s need for a professional appearance of the law enforcement profession,” the statement continued.

It does not ban the wearing of uniforms and, evidently, local law enforcement is interpreting it that way. Mike Gonzales, a sergeant in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and an LGBTQ liaison, told the B.A.R., “I know how excited we are to be back in the parade in our uniforms.”

Gonzales, who identified himself as a gay Hispanic man, said he is very aware of symbolism of the uniforms and recognizes that many people regard those uniforms with suspicion.

“I understand there has been hurt caused by law enforcement in the community, but there are people who

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Pride flag-raising

From page 1

gender District announced last week that the staff of the cultural district in the Tenderloin would not attend the flag raising ceremony or any other official city and county Pride events and celebrations unless Breed changed course and issued an apology for her decision not to march in the parade.

Last week, Breed announced she would not participate in the parade, another tradition in which Agnos, who served from 1988-1992, was the first mayor to march in, stating, “I’ve made this very hard decision in order to support those members of the LGBTQ community who serve in uniform, in our Police Department and Sheriff’s Department, who have been told they cannot march in uniform, and in support of the members of the Fire Department who are refusing to march out of solidarity with their public safety partners.”

Newly appointed gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey announced the same day that he, too, would not march in order to show solidarity with LGBTQ law enforcement. Prior to becoming a supervisor, Dorsey was

<<

Walker

From page 1

in order to run for state controller on the June 7 primary ballot. Cohen had been a city supervisor and former board president.

“It brings me great joy to nominate longtime community leader Debra Walker to the police commission. I am confident that her commitment to the people of San Francisco and deep understanding of the city’s complexities will serve this commission well,” stated Breed. “As we continue to make progress on police reform, we need leaders from diverse backgrounds who know how to bring people together to find solutions. Debra will ensure that every community has a voice at the table while this commission seeks to be a national leader on advancing criminal justice policy.”

Breed had previously appointed Walker, 69, to the city’s arts commission in 2020 right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walker and her fellow arts com-

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The issue of police in Pride parades has been playing out in numerous other cities around the United States, as the B.A.R. has reported. In San Francisco, LGBTQ police officers, firefighters, and sheriff’s deputies said May 23 that they would not participate in their city’s Pride parade this June because of the San Francisco Pride board’s 2020 ban on uniformed police marching in the parade. (It is being implemented for the first time this year because of the event being held virtually the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

That announcement was followed by one from Mayor London Breed and gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey that they would skip the parade too, unless the SF Pride board reverses its decision. (Prior to becoming a supervisor Dorsey served as a top civilian employee at SFPD, where he worked on strategic communications with police Chief William Scott.)

The mayor’s stance is leading to a wider controversy within the city’s LGBTQ community. Staff with the

city’s Transgender District plan to boycott Breed’s June 2 Pride flag raising ceremony at City Hall and any other official city and county Pride events and celebrations unless the mayor changes course on skipping the parade and issues an apology for her decision to not march in solidarity with the police and other first responders. The cultural district called on other transgender-serving and/or LGBTQ+ groups to do the same.

As of May 27, the mayor is still planning on “joining the LGBTQ+ members of the police and sheriff’s departments that are not being allowed to march in uniforms, and the LGBTQ+ members of the Fire Department who are not marching out of solidarity with their public safety partners,” Jordan Wilson, Breed’s communications aide, wrote in an email to the B.A.R. The LGBTQ community has had its own reckoning with law enforcement over the years, as many law enforcement agencies now have LGBTQ personnel in their ranks despite past violent events such as the Castro Sweep in San Francisco in 1989 when police cleared the streets in the Castro, seemingly in retaliation for a protest against federal inaction on the AIDS epidemic that occurred earlier that day near City Hall.

Leadership at the San Diego LGBT Community Center adopted a similar police presence policy as that of the city’s Pride committee by banning uniformed police from its building. According to Gus Hernandez, senior director of com-

munications at the center, the policy is still in effect at the facility.

“This policy, established in the wake of the death of George Floyd, continues in place, and was informed by data that demonstrates anti-LGBTQ bias intersects with racial bias, resulting in the highest search rates for Black and Latinx community members who police perceive to be LGBTQ,” Hernandez wrote in an email to the B.A.R., referring to the May 2020 murder of Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.

Gonzales noted that his understanding of the San Diego Pride agreement regarding first responder uniforms was that it was part of an ongoing discussion.

“Essentially, the way I would say it, it would be considered every year,” he said. “It wasn’t set in stone, it was something that would be consistently reviewed.”

Like his colleagues in San Francisco, Gonzales feels being able to march in uniform is a vital part of community outreach, not only to reassure the public, but to recruit more members of the LGBTQ community to law enforcement careers.

Gonzales who, along with his husband, is raising a 2-year-old son, said public service is a tradition in his family, from his grandfather serving in the military to his father, a retired chief of police.

Seeing one’s self reflected by LGBTQ officers in uniform is important, particularly for young people, he said.

“They need to see us out there so they know they can serve their community and contribute and be part

of the solution,” he said. “I can’t stress that enough.”

Lopez talked about Pride’s beginnings as a way for the LGBTQ community to call out harassment toward it by police officers.

“The origin of the global Pride movement was a direct response to state-sanctioned police violence,” they stated. “Two years ago, San Diego Pride made a decision that helped us highlight the ongoing racial and LGBTQ injustices our community faces to this day. We stand by that decision without regret, as we joined countless Americans calling for justice, engaged people in this meaning for work, and ensured these stories of systemic abuses were told.

“All of this was in the interest of ending LGBTQ and racist discrimination for the safety of our entire community, which includes law enforcement officers,” Lopez’s statement continued. “We can all agree on those values. I am grateful for the work we have accomplished together, and that we have all agreed to continue together. I assure you that San Diego Pride is fully committed to racial and LGBTQ justice. We ask you all to join us in that work 365 days a year, and at our annual Pride Celebrations. Together, we will pursue Justice with Joy.” San Diego Pride (https://sdpride. org/) runs July 9-17 with over a week of events. The Pride festival is July 1617 in Balboa Park, while the parade is July 16 and begins at 10 a.m. at the Hillcrest Pride Flag at University Avenue and Normal Street. t

a high-ranking SFPD civilian, working on strategic communications with Chief William Scott and part of his command staff.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has said he will march in the parade, as has gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

The Transgender District’s statement called Breed’s actions “a betrayal of inclusive values and ethics” that have made San Francisco a safe haven for trans and other queer people for decades. Her decision “breeds,” added the district, “of transactional allyship instead of promoting allyship without conditions.”

“We urge Mayor Breed to reverse her decision, and to apologize to both San Francisco Pride and the broader LGBTQ+ community,” stated the district.

It called on other transgender-serving and/or LGBTQ+ groups to do the same. The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District announced May 27 that it would follow suit and boycott any of the city’s official Pride events in solidarity with the trans district. The Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District announced May 31 that it, too, would not participate in the flag-raising ceremony.

“Serving as the stewards of LGBTQ+ culture and preservation in our own district,” stated the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District in its news release, “we agree that this is an affront to the memory and the bravery of our forebears in the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, the Castro bars, and countless others who suffered near constant brutality and death at the hands of the SFPD.” Citing its own support of the actions of its sister districts, leather district board President Bob Brown added, “The Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District joins the Transgender District and the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District in refraining from participation in the Mayor’s Pride Month ceremonial flag raising ceremony and all other City and County of San Francisco Pride celebrations until the mayor reverses her decision and instead shows support for the entire LGBTQ+ community.”

Both the Castro and the leather districts pointed out the mayor’s announcement arrived hot on the heels of the anniversary of a significant date in San Francisco LGBTQ history.

“The mayor’s decision to time her statement immediately following the anniversary of the White Night riot and California state holiday com-

memorating Supervisor Harvey Milk who, along with Mayor George Moscone was gunned down by a former SFPD officer, conveys strategic flexing, menacingly familiar to our community,” stated the Castro cultural district’s announcement.

“There are still elders in our community that have enduring memories of being dragged from Castro bars and being viciously beaten by police officers – and that the mayor has chosen to ignore those atrocities is an affront to the entire LGBTQ community,” the statement continued. “At a time when attacks – both physically and politically – are being perpetrated against the LGBTQ+ community (particularly the most vulnerable transgender youth), this seemingly politically-motivated action by the mayor is especially disappointing and disturbing.”

The mayor’s office did not return a request for comment.

sion. While supported at the outset

by Agnos, the proposal ran into opposition from folks the former mayor described to the Bay Area Reporter as “old-time people,” who insisted that only national flags be flown from City Hall on their national days.

Bush said that he and Housh disagreed.

“We argued it was as significant as any country and, at any rate, we were adamant enough it was hard to resist us,” said Bush in a phone interview with the B.A.R. Former Mayor Frank Jordan, who swept into power in 1992 with the support of more conservative voters in the city who were tired of the growing influence of the LGBTQ community, continued to fly the flag at Pride, even after he was roundly rejected by the LGBTQ community itself.

Agnos said he didn’t necessarily agree with Breed’s decision not to participate in the parade.

“That’s her decision to make,” he said. “She has to explain it. I would not have done it.” t

missioners have worked over the last two years to help local artists and arts groups survive the health crisis.

She was a vocal supporter of Breed’s 2018 mayoral campaign and co-chaired the arts and tourism committee that advised her on policy matters during her transition that summer.

“I am really, really very honored and humbled to be asked,” Walker said of the mayor nominating her to the police commission. “I realize how important this is not just to the mayor but everyone who lives here. I take this very seriously.

I hope I can be of assistance and help.”

Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday, May 31, in her first interview about her appointment, Walker said she had yet to speak with any of the 11 supervisors about it but planned to do so in the coming days.

“I have big shoes to fill, big high heels to fill,” said Walker. “If I am seated, I am really proud to represent our community.”

The supervisors eschewed hold-

ing a hearing on Walker’s arts commission appointment two years ago. It remains to be seen if a majority of the board will vote to approve her serving as a police commissioner.

“I don’t anticipate not being supported, but the politics being what they are, I am sure people will have questions for me,” Walker told the B.A.R. “I am happy to show up, talk to them, and answer questions.”

It has been more than a year since Petra DeJesus, a lesbian and attorney, resigned from the closely scrutinized police commission on April 30, 2021. Last December, the supervisors rejected two transgender applicants who had sought to succeed DeJesus and instead seated Jesus Gabriel Yanez, a program director with Instituto Familiar de la Raza.

One of the police commission’s tasks is to conduct disciplinary hearings on charges of police misconduct. Walker said she would thoroughly review each case brought before the sevenmember body and be as transpar-

ent with the public as she could be.

She would strive to do the same whenever there is a police officerinvolved shooting.

“If I am seated and approved by the board, I will be making sure we get all the information and the public knows what happens,” she said. “It is upsetting whenever there is a shooting of any kind.”

She said video from the latest incident, where four police offices opened fired and killed two men they came upon, with one holding a knife and threatening to kill the other man, was “disturbing” and merited further review of the department’s policies.

“I mean excess force is an issue we have to deal with,” said Walker.

As for the controversy surrounding the city’s Pride committee banning first responders from marching in the parade while wearing their uniforms, which led Breed to pull out from marching herself in solidarity, Walker told the B.A.R. she doesn’t support the policy and believes police officers and others should be allowed to wear whatever they want. She

are hurt by our not being allowed to march,” Gonzales said.

He added that, “Stonewall was not that long ago,” referring to the riots in New York City in June 1969 that launched the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement. The annual Pride events held around the country were originally held to mark the first anniversary of the uprising at the Manhattan gay bar the Stonewall Inn.

SF fallout

City Hall Pride flag tradition

The tradition of flying the Pride flag at City Hall began in 1988 at the suggestion of two of Agnos’ aides, Mike Housh and Larry Bush, a gay man who is currently serving as vice chair of the San Francisco Ethics Commis-

The San Francisco City Hall Pride flag-raising ceremony takes place Thursday, June 2, at 1 p.m.

noted that when she first moved to the city four decades ago she was friends with some of the first out lesbians and gay men who entered the police department.

“I saw first hand the struggle they went through in the ranks to be accepted,” recalled Walker. “I also saw the amazing officers who stood up with us as our allies, all marching together over the years in the parade.”

While she understands people have issues with policing and want to see reforms enacted, which Walker noted she supports and hopes to help push forward those conversations as a police commissioner, she doesn’t support banning anyone from the parade.

She told the B.A.R. she is hopeful some compromise can be reached.

“I personally came to San Francisco because I felt safe to be here, to be me, to be all I am. I feel banning anyone is the wrong move,” said Walker. “I am hopeful the conversations can keep going and we can find a solution that works.

See page 13 >>

t

National News>>

June 2-8, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Man pleads guilty to hate crime in fire outside Seattle gay bar

by Eric Burkett

A few weeks later, the DOJ reported, “Garcia told a stranger that his intent in setting the fire was to trap and hurt the people inside.”

This was not Garcia’s first encounter with the law. A case search on the Washington state courts website revealed his being

the defendant in eight criminal felony cases in his home county of Skagit, in southwestern Washington, prior to 2020 and dating back to July 2015. Each of those cases has since been closed.

“The defendant targeted the patrons inside Queer/Bar, a known safe space for the LGBTQI+ community,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Hate crimes have no place in our society today and we stand ready to use our federal civil rights laws to hold perpetrators accountable. All people deserve to feel safe and secure living in their communities, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Special Agent in Charge Donald Voiret, with the FBI Seattle Field Office, said Garcia’s actions caused alarm in the Capitol Hill community.

director for several years and first moved to San Francisco in 1981.

She lives in one of the city’s oldest artist cooperatives. She is a past president of both the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and the San Francisco Arts Democratic Club.

Between 1999 and 2019 Walker served as a tenant representative on the city’s Building Inspections Commission and was appointed by successive board presidents, begin-

ning with gay former supervisor Tom Ammiano. For the past several years she served as an ombudsman for tenants in buildings owned by Veritas who were facing eviction or trying to address other issues with the investment company.

“My work within that contract really was with residents, tenants to make sure they weren’t evicted,” she said.

Walker lost her bid for the District 6 supervisor seat in 2010.

Now residing within the newly drawn District 9, where Supervisor Hillary Ronen will be termed out in 2024, Walker said she is not interested in seeking the seat.

“No, no, no,” Walker said when asked about possibly seeing her run again for supervisor.

Leaving the arts commission wasn’t an easy decision, said Walker, but she couldn’t say no when the mayor asked her to serve on the police commission.

“I am going to really miss the arts commission. I had to think about it as art is my soul,” she said.

“I care a lot about the arts. The mayor said she of course would continue to want my input on everything to do with the arts.”

The supervisors have 60 days to either confirm or reject Walker’s appointment to the police commission once it is officially transmitted to the clerk of the board. t

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ment was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/05/22.

court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: JUNE 13, 2022, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: PAUL H. MELBOSTAD (SBN#99951), GOLDSTEIN, GELLMAN, MELBOSTAD, HARRIS & MCSPARRAN LLP, 1388 SUTTER ST #1000, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109; Ph. (415) 673-5600.

T

wenty-seven months after he set fire to a dumpster behind a Seattle gay bar, Kalvinn Garcia has pleaded guilty to one count of committing a federal hate crime.

According to a news release issued May 26 by the United States Department of Justice, on February 24, 2020, Garcia, 25, of Sedro Woolley, Washington, set fire to the contents of a dumpster behind Queer/Bar, a popular club in Capitol Hill, Seattle’s LGBTQ neighborhood. Garcia was arrested only minutes after setting the blaze, telling police “that he set the fire and that he targeted Queer/ Bar because it angered him to see a sign that said ‘queer,’” according to the release.

“I think it’s wrong that we have a bunch of queers in our society,” he added, according to the release.

<<

Walker

From page 12

For me, I think it is horrific to ban anyone from walking with us, either one of us or an ally.”

Longtime SF resident

Originally from Nebraska, Walker moved to California in the early 1970s to attend college in Riverside. She worked for the Los Angeles Times as an assistant art

Courtesy Seattlegayscene.com

A man pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime for setting a fire in a dumpster behind Queer/Bar in Seattle in 2020.

“Garcia’s hateful act endangered and spread fear in the LGBTQ+ community and caused damage to this business establishment,” stated Voiret. “Fortunately, our partners at the Seattle Police Department were able to respond quickly to this arson. This case shows our commitment to investigating civil rights violations with our partners.”

Garcia faces a maximum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

Queer/Bar did not answer a phone call seeking comment. Its website indicates it opens at 5 p.m.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Seattle Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Cohen and trial attorney Angie Cha of the Civil Rights Division. t

Legals >> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557072

In the matter of the application of RUO CI KUANG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner RUO CI KUANG is requesting that the name RUO CI KUANG be changed to LISA RUO CI KUANG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 7th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557106

In the matter of the application of MARGARET MARY ALIABADI, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MARGARET MARY ALIABADI, is requesting that the name MARGARET MARY ALIABADI, be changed to MARGARET MARY BOYLE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 16th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557107

In the matter of the application of ELSA MARLENY CHAVARRIA BLANCO, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ELSA MARLENY CHAVARRIA BLANCO is requesting that the name ELSA MARLENY CHAVARRIA BLANCO be changed to ELSA MARLENY CHAVARRIA GUILLEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 16th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557110

In the matter of the application of NHAN MY DANG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner NHAN MY DANG is requesting that the name NHAN MY DANG be changed to CADIA DANG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 16th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557111

In the matter of the application of THUY PHUONG TRAN & BRANDON GERARD NG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner THUY PHUONG TRAN & BRANDON GERARD NG is requesting that the name LINH THUY NG be changed to HOPE LINH THUY NG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 16th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557112 In the matter of the application of QUYEN KIM

TANG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner QUYEN KIM TANG is requesting that the name QUYEN KIM TANG be changed to IVANKA TANG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 16th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557081

In the matter of the application of JOANNA ROSS YEARY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that the attorney for petitioner NADIA GUEORGUIEVA SEMERDJIEVA is requesting that the name JOANNA ROSS YEARY be changed to JODY KORNBERG YEARY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 7th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557117

In the matter of the application of SHEILA HOLMES, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner SHEILA HOLMES, is requesting that the name SHEILA HOLMES, be changed to SHEILA GLENDA LYNN WILLIAMS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 21st of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557118

In the matter of the application of SHIRLEY ANN HUBBART, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner SHIRLEY ANN HUBBART is requesting that the name SHIRLEY ANN HUBBART be changed to SHIRLEY ANN WILLIAMS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 7th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557120

In the matter of the application of SOUMIA CHENBOD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner SOUMIA CHENBOD is requesting that the name SOPHIA FATIMA CHENBOD LAURENCIO be changed to FATIMA ROSE CHENBOD ATIK. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 21st of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039702300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MEDIUM SMALL, 927 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRANDT HEWITT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/29/22.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039707600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as XINGXING ART AND LEARNING CENTER, 1101 VICENTE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DEXIONG ZHAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/05/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039707200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RY DIGITAL MARKETING, 580 CALIFORNIA ST, 12TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RYAN BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/04/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039708100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SINCERITY REALTY; SINCERITY REALTY LUXURY; SINCERITY REALTY COMMERCIAL; SINCERITY REALTY LAND; SINCERITY REALTY REO; SINCERITY REALTY PROBATE; SINCERITY REALTY REHAB; 1160 BATTERY ST E #100-9928, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARY ANN CADORNA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/05/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039699700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ULLOA CONSTRUCTION, 2649 SAN JOSE AVE #B, SAN JOSE, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIO DANIEL ULLOA PEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/27/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039710200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JLY CONSULTING, 3010 21ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEFFERY L. YARNE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/25/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/10/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039699100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CLEANSWEEP CAMPAIGNS; TBWBH, 50 OSGOOD PL, 4TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TERRIS BARNES WALTERS BOIGON HEATH LESTER, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/26/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039707800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as VENTURA PARTNERS, 70 OTIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed VENTURA DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/19/17. The state-

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039693200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PEARCE AUTOTECH, 751 ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PEARCE AUTOTECH LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039707100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SJDC TRUCKING LLC, 1543 SLOAT BLVD #320056, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SJDC TRUCKING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/22.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/04/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039703700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BOSS LADY REALTY, 1700 VAN NESS AVE #1436, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BOSS LADY REAL ESTATE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/05/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/02/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039710500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AMAYSING DETAILS, 1701 YOSEMITE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MAYS & HANDAMON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/10/22.

MAY 12, 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557125 In the matter of the application of JENNY LOK-TING FARABEE, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JENNY LOK-TING FARABEE is requesting that the name JENNY LOKTING FARABEE AKA JENNY FARABEE be changed to JENNY LOK-TING GARRITY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 23rd of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

NOTICE OF THIRD AMENDED PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF OTIS R. DAMSLET IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-21-304840 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of OTIS R. DAMSLET. A Third Amended Petition for Probate has been filed by JAY G. COWAN, EXECUTOR in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JAY G. COWAN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557122

In the matter of the application of RANDY GORDON SAKSTRUP, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner RANDY GORDON SAKSTRUP is requesting that the name RANDY GORDON SAKSTRUP be changed to RANDY GORDON ANDREASEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 23rd of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557124

In the matter of the application of SIRIA MARLENY ALVAREZ GARCIA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner SIRIA MARLENY ALVAREZ GARCIA is requesting that the name SIRIA MARLENY ALVAREZ GARCIA AKA MARLENY ALVAREZ be changed to MARLENY ISABELLA ALVAREZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 23rd of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

<< Legals

14 • Bay Area Reporter • May 26-June 1, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557127

business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/11/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

In the matter of the application of GERVASIO GAYOSO DE OCAMPO, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner GERVASIO GAYOSO DE OCAMPO is requesting that the name GERVASIO GAYOSO DE OCAMPO be changed to GERRY DEOCAMPO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 12th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JERRYPOP, 534 WALLER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JERRYPOP LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557137

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557129

In the matter of the application of BUTCH BERRY AKA CLARENCE SHIRLEY BERRY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner BUTCH BERRY AKA CLARENCE SHIRLEY BERRY is requesting that the name BUTCH BERRY AKA CLARENCE SHIRLEY BERRY be changed to BUTCH BERRY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 14th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039706900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BEAUTIFUL BY DESIGN, 61 KISKA RD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124-5608. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROSALIND K. JOHNSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039712800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EKLYPZE ENFUZHENZ, 900 FOLSOM ST #159, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ORIEYONNA QUNEE JOHNSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039713300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RELIC VINTAGE, 1475 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ORAN R. SCOTT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039706100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RIMMA REALTY; RIMMA REALTY TEAM, 75 BROADWAY #202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RIMMA REALTY (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/03/05.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039711600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CRUSADER PLUMBING CO., 1100 26TH ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CRUSADER PLUMBING CO. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/11/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039713000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TULIPS SPEECH THERAPY INC., 1640 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TULIPS SPEECH THERAPY INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039710800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAN FRANCISCO COUNSELING COLLABORATIVE; SAN FRANCISCO COUNSELING COLLECTIVE; SAN FRANCISCO COUNSELING COOPERATIVE; SAN FRANCISCO COUNSELING CO-OP; 1829 MARKET ST #202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BARTON SHULMAN PSYCHOTHERAPY, A PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL COUNSELOR CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/11/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039708500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AAHA INDIAN CUISINE, 3316 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed SRI GANESHA SF RESTAURANT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/03/22.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/06/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039714500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AROMA NAIL SALON, 1414 CASTRO ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed LOC TIEN PHUNG & BAO NGOC THI NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/16/22.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/16/22.

MAY 19, 26, JUNE 02, 09, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039711400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CULTURE CANNABIS CLUB, 5801 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JHD INVESTMENTS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039713100

In the matter of the application of RONALD EUGENE DUDLEY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner RONALD EUGENE DUDLEY is requesting that the name RONALD EUGENE DUDLEY be changed to RONALD SHABAZZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 28th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557145

In the matter of the application of MARIA CRISTINA THOMPSON, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MARIA CRISTINA THOMPSON is requesting that the name MARIA CRISTINA THOMPSON be changed to CRISTINA TOLENTINO SANCHEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 30th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557147

In the matter of the application of EVAN JOHNVINCENT GRANGE, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner EVAN JOHN-VINCENT GRANGE is requesting that the name EVAN JOHN-VINCENT GRANGE be changed to EVAN JVG TOLOSA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 30th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557146

In the matter of the application of DANIEL JOSEPH MERCED, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner DANIEL JOSEPH MERCED is requesting that the name DANIEL JOSEPH MERCED be changed to DANIEL JOSEPH CALABRO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 30th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557134

In the matter of the application of MICHAEL CORNELIUS PHELAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MICHAEL CORNELIUS PHELAN is requesting that the name MICHAEL CORNELIUS PHELAN be changed to CORNELIUS M. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 28th of JUNE 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557152

In the matter of the application of DEREK EDWARD LLOYD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner DEREK EDWARD LLOYD is requesting that the name DEREK EDWARD LLOYD be changed to DEREK EDWARD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 21th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557153

In the matter of the application of MALISA TRUONG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MALISA TRUONG is requesting that the name MALISA TRUONG be changed to MALISA EDWARD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 21th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039714700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SHEARBLISS 360, 380 SANCHEZ ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREW LUCIDO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/16/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039705600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ACSA JANITORIAL SERVICES, 880 CAMPUS DR #301, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BENIGNA MUNOZ RUFINO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039720200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GLOBAL BUILDERS CLUB, 76 FAIRFIELD WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JONATHAN JUDE ACUNA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039716700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KEARNY DENTAL ARTS AND AESTHETICS, 133 KEARNY ST #301, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BAYSAC DENTAL GROUP SAN FRANCISCO 133 KEARNY PC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/10/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039714200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ON THE RUN MARKET, 4800 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NADA MOUSA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039703300

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557176

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LOTUS NAIL SALON INC, 11 MAIDEN LANE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LOTUS NAIL SALON INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/26/22.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039721000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DIVA INTERNATIONAL SALON, 1 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ANDREW POULOS & DIVA POULOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/21/99. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BLUM D’MART, 1 MARKET PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREW POULOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039721600

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039725400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039717600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039725500

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039713900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TINEKE TRIGGS, 2152 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ARTISTIC DESIGNS FOR LIVING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039718400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SPHERES BAY AREA COMMUNITY IMPACT; SPHERES STAFFING SERVICES, 4342 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SPHERES ENTERPRISES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557160

In the matter of the application of MING-PO LAWRENCE LI, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MING-PO LAWRENCE LI, is requesting that the name MING-PO LAWRENCE LI, be changed to LAWRENCE MING-PO LI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

103N, Rm. 103N on the 7th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557169

In the matter of the application of HUY VU DANG PHAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner HUY VU DANG PHAN is requesting that the name HUY VU DANG PHAN be changed to HUYVU DANG PHAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 26th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557162

In the matter of the application of PETER RALLOJAY WOODROW, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner PETER RALLOJAY WOODROW is requesting that the name PETER RALLOJAY WOODROW be changed to PETER RALLOJAY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 7th of JULY 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557177

In the matter of the application of JEFFREY WALTER GUEMPEL, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JEFFREY WALTER GUEMPEL is requesting that the name JEFFREY WALTER GUEMPEL be changed to JEFFREY WALTER BLAKE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 2nd of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039715900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOKKAEBIER, 1195 EVANS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HUNTERS POINT BREWERY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/04/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/18/22.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039716100

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039721100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FRANKLIN MARKET, 1528 FRANKLIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IBRAHIM ABDOSALEH ALDABASHI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DORCHESTER DOG TRAINING, 185 SAN CARLOS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUI DIAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOLOMON CONCIERGE SERVICE, 138 MARY TERESA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 6 TWO 3 LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/17/22.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/18/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039723300

In the matter of the application of ROBIN BLAKE WOOD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ROBIN BLAKE WOOD is requesting that the name ROBIN BLAKE WOOD be changed to ROBIN WILLIAM BLAKE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 2nd of AUGUST 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as REALESTATEAGENTS.COM; TOPAGENTSRANKED, 425 BUSH ST #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed REFERRALEXCHANGE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/02/22.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2022

t

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EMERALD SPA, 441 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALLAN NUTTALL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039725400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DORCHESTER DOG TRAINING, 185 SAN CARLOS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUI DIAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039725500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EMERALD SPA, 441 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALLAN NUTTALL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039711500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JAMII YA NYUKI, 2550 FULTON ST #10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SORAYA MATOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/11/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039726000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LOVING PHOTOGRAPHY, 271 MANGELS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL LONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/29/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/31/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039721800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FESTA COFFEE; AFRICAN TRADE NETWORK, 1075 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AFRICAN TRADE NETWORK (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039708700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BW & COMPANY, 56 SANTA FE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BWCO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/06/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039718900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THIRD CULTURE BAKERY, 2701 8TH ST #101, BERKELEY, CA 94701. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THIRD CULTURE FOOD GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/23/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039719200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as O. CANTTOLAO SF, 266 ATHENS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed O. CANTTOLAO SF CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/23/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SF NAIL BAR LLC, 2275 MARKET ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF NAIL BAR LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039724600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AKIRA JAPANESE RESTAURANT, 1634 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AKIRA RESTAURANT (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/03/21.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/22.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-039514500

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as SF NAIL BAR, 2275 MARKET ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by GIANG HUYNH. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/19.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038325100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as MUGUBOKA RESTAURANT, 401 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by KYE SOON LEE. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/18.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038040200

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as LOTUS NAIL SALON INC, 11 MAIDEN LANE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by PHUONG THI QUE TRAN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/09/18.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2022

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Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos, Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster and Matt Rogers in ‘Fire Island’

by Brian Bromberger

S

ummer is here, and the ideal LGBTQ film to satisfy any hot weather lethargy or romantic yearnings has arrived in “Fire Island,” a multicultural gay rom-com set in the iconic enclave, The Pines –often referred to as America’s first lavender town– with a modern updating of Jane Austen’s classic “Pride and Prejudice.”

It premieres on Hulu June 3 just in time for Pride, providing cause for celebration, as this is a rare queer mainstream entertainment from a major Hollywood studio, Disney’s Searchlight Pictures (they also own Hulu), with an all-LGBTQ main cast.

Every summer, Noah (Joel Kim Booster), who also does the voice-over narration, his BFF Howie (Bowen Yang) and their friends head to Fire Island for a week of non-stop partying and hooking up with hot men.

They stay with their lesbian friend Erin (comedian Margaret Cho), the irreverent den mother, who owns a house, but announces that due to financial trouble she will have to sell her vacation home, likely making this their last summer together.

The non-monogamous insecure sarcastic Noah resolves to help Howie find the man of his dreams, promising he will remain abstinent until he succeeds (yeah, right). Howie meets Charlie, a charming doctor (James Scully) and they like each other, but C h a r l i e’s upscale social circle look down on Noah, Howie, and company. The handsome, laconic lawyer Will (Conrad Ricamora) seems particularly con-

‘Fire Island’ fun

Andrew Ahn & Joel Kim Booster’s idyllic summer getaway descending, but Noah is both infuriated and intrigued by him.

The week continues with underwear parties, dancing competitions, karaoke performances, alcohol, drugs and debauchery, as the characters fight and scheme over potential romantic entanglements. Will there be fairy tale endings?

The film soothes like imbibing a fizzy cocktail on a blistering hot afternoon. It’s a raucous joyful vacation comedy with plenty of raunchy bawdy romps in backrooms and in the Meat Rack, plus witty at-times biting repartee with whip-smart banter references, and a likeable ensemble cast.

Classy take on classism

“Fire Island” was shot largely on location at Fire Island (32 miles off the coast of Long Island, New York) and viewers will feel like they are there, as

the film captures the sun-drenched energy of this shoreside getaway and its breezy party atmosphere.

Historically, the resort was a refuge for gay men to build camaraderie with each other, a safe hideout from a disapproving society, where unencumbered they could be comfortable being themselves.

Fire Island has never looked better with its golden lighting, plus an awesome sunset scene.

The Bay Area Reporter interviewed Booster, who is also the screenwriter, and director Andrew Ahn at the Fairmount Hotel, when a screening was held in San Francisco at the CGV Cinema on May 11.

Fire Island is Booster’s favorite place to be. “You feel so free, can carve out your own space and find the people you vibe with.”

In writing the script, Booster transferred many of his own experiences into the story, basing the close relationship between Noah and Howie on his real-life friendship with Yang, the first close gay friend he had who was also Asian. He accompanies Booster to Fire Island every year. Booster also wanted to show them as different individuals with different perspectives.

David Allen

Leo Ash Evens, Christine Dwyer and Nkrumah Gatling in TheatreWorks’ ‘Ragtime.’

The film was not meant to be a largely AsianAmerican main cast, according to Booster.

“I didn’t even envision Conrad’s character as Asian-American in the beginning,” he said. “But Conrad read and his chemistry with me was amazing. And when Margaret Cho asks to be part of your movie, you say yes.”

For Ahn, “I just wanted to show the depth of talent in the community. The big reason I wanted to direct this film was to focus on queer AsianAmerican friendship and joy.”

“I received the script a year into the pandemic and I hadn’t seen my friends, hung out, gone out drinking and dancing with them for a long time, so to be able to show that in a movie so people could see this and value it, was rewarding for me.”

Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice” was always Booster’s beach read and struck him as being prescient about what Bowen and he were experiencing. He based Noah on Lizzie Bennett, Howie on Jane Bennett, Charlie on Charles Bingley, and Will on Mr. Darcy.

See page 18 >>

2020 we shut down due to the pandemic. To come back to this is so emotional on that level, and it feels so good to get back to something that we were robbed of.”

Evans made his Broadway debut in 2012 as Phillip in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and performed as a swing actor in “School of Rock.” His other iconic roles include playing Bert in “Mary Poppins,” and the MC in Houston and Denver productions of “Cabaret,” his personal favorite.

“There’s just something about that MC,” he said. “I would love to return to it again for a third time.”

When you’re a Jet

‘Ragtime’s Leo Ash Evens

Actor on his iconic musical theater roles

by Jim Provenzano

I

n TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s new production of the hit musical “Ragtime,” actor Leo Ash Evens gained inspiration for his role as a Jewish immigrant from his own family’s heritage. Before a tech run for the show, which opens in previews June 1, Evans discussed his work on the musical as well as his other iconic roles in musical theater in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

Evens stars as Tateh, a Jewish Immigrant who leaves Latvia to pursue the American Dream and make a life for himself and his daughter. Evens said he has wanted to play this character since he was enchanted by the show at a 1996 pre-Broadway tryout at the age of 13. As Evens, who’s also gay, steps onstage, he honors his Jewish heritage and pays homage to his family tree, which includes immigrants from Russia, Austria, and Romanian.

“Both sides of my family are Jewish,” said Evens, whose ancestors were immigrants from Russia, Austria, and Romanian. “Having a role that is the basic foundation of being a Jewish immigrant certainly speaks to me. My grandfather came over through Ellis Island. We think that the full name was Evensky, but it was shortened at Ellis Island. What’s interesting is that my character Tateh has a line, ‘They gave me a name I can’t pronounce.’ Not to say that my family name can’t be pronounced, just that a lot of names were shortened in the process.”

With a Tony Award-winning book by Pulitzer Prize finalist (the late) Terrence McNally, and a Tony Award-winning score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, “Ragtime” is adapted from the E.L. Doctorow novel, which was also adapted as a film in 1981.

The musical masterpiece paints a portrait of America at the dawn of the twentieth century, in-

terweaving the lives of three families; an African American family, a Jewish immigrant family, and a wealthy white family.

This is Evans’ third show with Theater Works. He performed in their production of “Somewhere” by Matthew Lopez in 2013, as well as Joe Gilford’s “Finks.”

Evens also played Riff in no less than five productions of “West Side Story.”

“It’s funny because they were separate productions, but often with the same director or choreographer,” said Evens. “For a beautiful four-year timeline, I went through five productions as Riff.”

Evan said he didn’t play the role the same way because, “It was a different group of guys, and Riff is the leader of the Jets, so it was fun to create it organically again, and the choreography wasn’t the same for some of them. In a really cool way, I got to build on what I’d already done.”

Jerome Robbins’ original choreography is carefully licensed for regional productions. Evans was fortunate to work with two men –Alan Johnson (Robbins’ last assistant) and Joey McNeely (“Jerome Robbins’ Broadway”) on the classic dances.

“They both teach you the original choreography, but they teach you different styles.”

See page 16 >>

Iconic roles

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Evens is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where he got his theater training. When not performing in regional shows, he lives on New York City’s Upper West Side.

Evans credits his previous experience with TheatreWorks for landing the role in “Ragtime,” but 20 years ago, he was using a song from the show, “Buffalo Nickel,” as an audition piece.

This production of “Ragtime” initially started scheduling in 2019, but as Evan said, “in March

Leo Ash Evens in Central Park

<< TV

16 • Bay Area Repor ter • June 2-8, 2022

America is a gun

t

by Victoria A. Brownworth

T

S T O TP

S E B HE

T IN S

AN F

RAN

V only shows us so much. And yet more, sometimes, than we want to know.

The official press conferences May 24 were late in coming because the parents of the murdered children at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas had to walk through the carnage that had once been a place of learning and friendship and fun. They had to find and identify the bodies of their 8, 9, 10 and 11-year-old children; little kid bodies that had been decimated by an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

The thought of it is unbearable to contemplate, that this would be the last image of your child; crumpled and bloodied and barely recognizable, as if they had been gunned down on the streets of Lviv or Mariupol or some other global war zone.

That scene of carnage and vivisected kids from a true American horror story played out in the little border town of Uvalde, Texas that most of us never heard of before Salvador Ramos turned 18 and as a birthday present to himself, bought an arsenal for a war against society, killing 19 children and two teachers and wounding 14 more children and three more adults. He shot his own grandmother, who raised him, in the face.

We have seen this TV drama so many times in this country. Over and over and over again, a disgruntled male teenager or adult man with a list of grievances nurtured by Fox News and Donald Trump, 4chan and the NRA, gets an assault weapon and kills innocent people.

A week before Uvalde, a different 18-year-old, Payton Grendon, a white nationalist hater with a manifesto declaring his rage at Black people, Jews and LGBTQ folks killed 10 mostly elderly Black people and wounded 13 others at a Buffalo market.

And as we begin to celebrate Pride, we also commemorate the sixth anniversary of the second worst mass shooting in US history at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016. That massacre killed 49 LGBTQ people and wounded 53.

The youngest victim was Akyra Monet Murray, an 18-year-old from Philadelphia who had just graduated from high school the week before. The oldest was Brenda L. Marquez McCool, a 49-year-old mother of 11 and aunt of out actor Wilson Cruz, who was at the club to support her gay son, Isaiah Henderson. Henderson, 21, was among the injured.

It’s been nearly a quarter century

Children killed in the Uvalde, Texas school shooting.

since Columbine first riveted us to our TV sets as we watched the dawn of a new era –the mass school shooting– unfold. Those survivors are middleaged now, old enough to be the parents of the survivors of Sandy Hook.

This is how little we’ve done about these killings, that we have literal generations of school shooting survivors. This is how driven this country is by guns. Donald Trump –how is he even walking around free, an accused rapist and a treasonous quisling?– dared to speak at the NRA Convention just days after Uvalde. He called out Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney for the gun violence in both cities, but not the hypocrites at the NRA who banned guns from their own event.

On May 25, Jimmy Kimmel, who has repeatedly taken on the GOP and their pro-gun lobby and who Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to get arrested for his comments about her, opened his show cold with one of the most powerful speeches on the Uvalde school massacre.

Kimmel cried. He raged. He questioned. He called out Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz and the NRA. And he ended his monologue saying, “Let’s make sure that not one of these [pro-gun] politicians holds office ever again.”

Folks are talking about Beto O’Rourke yelling at Gov. Greg Abbott, but Kimmel was more powerful. And he spoke as an ordinary guy and the father of a 7 and 5-year-old. Unafraid

to cry in front of an audience, one knew that he could imagine the horror those parents experienced.

We say far too often that it has to stop, but really, only we can do that. As Kimmel said, vote them out. Vote every last murderous one of them out. The GOP thinks kids are more at risk from being taught Black history or reading a picture book about a couple of gay penguins than they are from having to do what one little Uvalde survivor did; smear herself with the blood of a fallen classmate and play dead.

Salvador Ramos wasn’t created in a vacuum. Nor was Payton Grendon.

Nor Omar Mateen. U.S. gun culture –there are 400 million guns in America– bred and radicalized these young men just like any madrassa. And the victims strewn in their wake? It’s the same number as 9/11 every month in America. There have been 39 school shootings this year.

This is a TV column. We report what we see. And what we see is one political party enacting legislation every week that harms LGBTQ youth, but refuses to protect kids –or any of us– from guns.

Memorial Day is supposed to be for mourning our war dead. This year it was also for mourning the murders of two brave women teachers and 19 innocent kids.

Make it make sense.t

Read The Lavender Tube’s coverage of new LGBTQ shows on www.ebar.com.

CISC

O

Left: Leo Ash Evens as the MC in ‘Cabaret’ Right: Leo Ash Evens with Patti Lupone backstage at the Ravinia Festival production of ‘Gypsy’

<< Proud to support the community 479 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114

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Leo Ash Evens

From page 15

Asked what he thought of the Steven Spielberg/Tony Kushner reboot of “West Side Story,” Evan said he loved it.

“I’m of course going to be picky because I know it so well,” he said. “It was so joyful! I just love that Steven brought so much life to the streets of New York. ‘America’ was just stunning.

And the casting of Rita Moreno was fantastic. To bring her back like that was amazing.”

All I need now

In another iconic role, Evens also played Tulsa in the 2006 Chicago Ravinia Festival production of “Gypsy” with Patti Lupone as Rose.

“It was so amazing,” he said. “We didn’t really think we were doing it

to come to New York. Patti always wanted to play the role, and she was fantastic. My favorite Patti story that I’ve told is, I didn’t see her in rehearsals for the first couple of days. She was always by herself. Finally we did an Act I run-through, and “All I Need is the Girl” is towards the end. We hadn’t really talked much yet. But as soon as See page 23 >>

<< Books

18 • Bay Area Repor ter • June 2-8, 2022

Queer-ageous icons

by Hank Trout

A

ny new book about San Francisco by Jack Fritscher is cause for celebration. Since first arriving in the City in 1961, he has written dozens of books about local gayand-leather pop-culture. In 1977, he became the founding San Francisco editor-in-chief of Drummer magazine. His “Some Dance to Remember: A Memoir-Novel of San Francisco 1970-1982” is a peerless record of outrageous life on Castro and Folsom before “the Titanic 1970s crashed into the iceberg of AIDS.” Even his memoir of his lover Robert Mapplethorpe, “Assault with a Deadly Camera,” examines the life of the New York artist in San Francisco.

His newest book, “Profiles in Gay Courage: Leatherfolk, Arts, and Ideas, Essays and Interviews,” is an illustrated collection of thirteen essays celebrating “authentic leatherfolk founders, icons, and superstars too often underreported by gatekeepers of gay-history timelines.”

At Drummer on Divisadero Street, Fritscher worked with gay pioneers from Mapplethorpe to Thom Gunn, San Francisco’s “Poet Laureate of Leather.” Others from that Drummer Salon in this memoir include Cynthia Slater, founder of the BDSM Society of Janus; Wally Wallace, New York Mineshaft manager; Sam Steward, the “godfather of gay writing”; Ed Parente, art director for Wakefield Poole’s films; David Hurles, the SoMa photographer of rough trade for Old Reliable Video;

<<

Fire Island

From page 15

“Austen is really adept at depicting people being really awful to each other, without actually being awful to each other, an attitude gay men have really perfected.”

Booster took Austen’s canny observations about snobbish class lines and in “Fire Island” slyly relates them into how gay men can oppress each other

Author Jack Fritscher and his beloved border collie Rosie

Rob Meijer, aka leather couturier RoB of Amsterdam who dressed the Folsom Fair; Roger Earl and Terry LeGrand, filmmakers of the 1975 leather classic “Born to Raise Hell,” and Tennessee Williams. This book about these talents is clearly a labor of love.

“Profiles” opens with Walt Whitman’s: “Give me now libidinous joys only!” We know immediately we are entering the landscape of passion that Jack has mapped throughout his career.

Personally political

The first essay, “Robert Mapplethorpe,” begins with the main theme of Jack’s preservationist work. “The preAIDS past of the 1970s has become a strange country... It has no more memory than the remembrance we give it, and we give remembrance here.”

Mapplethorpe entered Jack’s life in 1977 when, seeking recognition (“no fats, no femmes, no Asians”).

“A part of Fire Island is oppressively white and inherently classist,” he said.

“Once you’re here, it can feel very alienating if you’re a person of color or you’re of a different body type. It’s funny to see how we as gay men discriminate and divide ourselves even further.

Fire Island has always been a haven for privileged gay men, but hopefully going forward it can be a refuge for all people of our community.”

Castro Theatre 100 th Birthday Celebration

beyond Manhattan, he showed up at the Drummer office and unzipped his portfolio. Jack hired him to shoot the cover of Drummer 24. Soon after, Mapplethorpe had simultaneous San Francisco exhibits: one in Union Square for his polite pictures, and one in SoMa for his leather pictures.

“Profiles” details dramatic scenes of Mapplethorpe shooting San Francisco leatherfolk Jack recruited. Prime among the stars is Cynthia Slater, who introduced sex-positive women into male play spaces like the Catacombs fisting palace on 21st Street.

Presenting Berkeley author Samuel Steward, whom he met in 1969, Jack reviews Justin Spring’s biography of Sam, “Secret Historian.” Steward, friend of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, wrote as ‘Phil Andros’ and tattooed as ‘Phil Sparrow’ in his Oakland parlor where he inked James Dean and

some 150,000 men, primarily Hells Angels and young sailors. Jack’s affection for Steward is palpable.

Similarly affectionate portraits emerge around Tennessee Williams, poet Thom Gunn, and La Diva Slater, who dated his brother. His Williams essay, “We All Live on Half of Something,” first appeared in a 2001 Playbill for Williams’ “Something Cloudy, Something Clear” which was shut down by the terrors of 9/11.

Jack knew and interviewed Williams who changed the gay gaze. “In Stella’s ‘Stanley,’ Williams and Brando launched a new postwar torn-T-shirt standard of masculine beauty. Their rough-trade blue-collar male sex appeal sold tickets and liberated pop culture’s gaze at men in the conformist 1950s.”

This essay on Williams also offers a useful perspective on art and entertainment: “Entertainment gives you what you expect and does not disturb you. Art snaps you around with disruptions you don’t expect, and you exit the theater changed.”

Jack’s essay on poet Thom Gunn unwraps their meeting in 1969 and their years of friendship. Reaching into Gunn’s poetry and into memories of traveling with Gunn, Jack paints an intimate portrait of his friend, the British poet who in 1954 emigrated in full leather from the UK and became a gay icon in San Francisco. Jack is alert to the nuances in Gunn’s poetry and clear-eyed about Gunn’s drug use that killed him in 2004.

I have followed Jack’s writing since the 1970s when I was coming out into

Disney double-take

Booster, a few months ago, had released a public statement about it “being really tough,” about making a significant queer film for Disney, after their publicized actions surrounding the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida.

Initially Disney had donated money to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and all the other politicians behind this law, which prohibits conversations around sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

“We live in a society and we have to make concessions in order to get things done,” said Booster. “For me, I’m grateful this movie is going to be seen by so many people and hopefully will help queer kids who see themselves in these characters to feel good and affirmed. I’m sort of waffling here and it’s something I’m not happy about.”

Disney was going to stay silent about the bill, but there was so much public controversy and a walk-out

by Disney employees, they eventually condemned it and affirmed their commitment to their queer employees and telling LGBTQ stories. Because of Disney’s turn-around on the issue, Booster feels much better about their support.

Ahn observed, “An art form like film is so expensive to make, and to pay the cast and crew a livable wage, we need a lot of access to financing. You sometimes have to enter into these more corporate ways of financing art. It’s really about shifting resources.”

Ahn is also pleased that with the advent of streaming services there is

Director Andrew Ahn

more accessibility and avenues for queer filmmakers to create their art.

“Fire Island” producer Brooke Posch sees the film promoting family as choosing people around you “who support who you truly are, so you can be comfortable in your skin.”

Booster comes from an evangelical Christian family, so chosen family has been a lifesaver for him.

“There is a line in the movie that Bowen says, ‘You find the friend who fills in the gaps,’” said Booster. “I don’t think my biological family will see this movie. I love my family and they love me. They are very proud that I’m able to sustain myself in this career, but they are very uncurious about its specifics. I love this chosen family who fill in my gaps with the way I was raised.”

Booster answers some of the criticism the film has received about perpetuating stereotypes that gay men are

Edward Lucie-Smith

Jack Fritscher with poet Thom Gunn at the 1996 Folsom Street Fair.

leather and bought my first issue of Drummer. So I’m rather acquainted with his knowledge of the leather community, his muscular prose style, his wit, and his commitment to preserving gay history.

Yet, familiar as I am with Jack’s writing, “Profiles” astonished me with its depth of feeling and its sincere reconstruction of that glorious, heartbreaking Golden Age before AIDS. It may make readers who lived in the 1970s nostalgic. Younger readers may wish teleportation to those days and nights of “libidinous joys only!”

Much more than nostalgia for our auld lang syne, in future, “Profiles in Gay Courage” will serve as an invaluable eyewitness resource for anyone researching gay history of the 20th century.t Paperback $24.95 at most book sellers, and readable for free at www.jackfritscher.com

only interested in sex and drugs (“Do I smell some bottoms here?”). For a film razzing gay obsession with looks, there are loads of hunky men with sixpack abs.

“I embody a lot of stereotypes and I’m not ashamed to say that,” said Booster. “I love sex and to party, but I also read and I’m incredibly intelligent. With each of these characters, you are getting a lot of different facets of their personalities. Yes, some of that may be stereotypical to how the media has portrayed gay men in the past, but there are also layers beyond those characters.”

For both Booster and Ahn, community and friendship are central themes of “Fire Island.” Booster asserted, “We have to be there for one another since the world does not provide us with the same support heterosexuals find. We have to ignore our more toxic impulses and lean on each other.”

Ahn added, “I want people to recognize the importance of their relationships. I think so much of the work aimed at our community is about trauma and homophobia.

I want people to walk away from ‘Fire Island’ feeling joyful. I think for queer people today, our friendships are more important than our romantic relationships in our lives.

I love that in our film the final moments are not about which characters are kissing, but the touching long-lasting bond between Noah and Howie.”t Fire Island on Hulu.com

June 3 - 12 & June 22

Castro Theatre

Tickets at apeconcerts.com/castro-theatre

t

Left: Matt Rogers, Bowen Yang and Tomas Matos in a scene from ‘Fire Island’ Right: A group hug with Margaret Cho and the main cast of ‘Fire Island’

t

Books>>

June 2-8, 2022 • Bay Area Repor ter • 19

Going viral

by Mark William Norby

O

n March 9, 2020 a gay male New York City microbiologist chats over Zoom with queer sex party organizers who bitch at him and tell him he’s “full of shit” when he advises they need to shut down their upcoming Saturday night sex party. Still early in the developing pandemic that is now an active worldwide disease that continues into our present day, the recommendation to stop the sex party and temporarily close the arena for queer sexual expression was not only educated and informed, but in retrospect, a foretelling of a major health crisis. With the potential to halt the spread of illness and even possibly the threat of death, early education is exactly what was needed.

“Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between” by Joseph Osmundson establishes itself as a unique and singular archive of COVID-19 (SARSCoV-2), HIV/AIDS, queer theory, sociopolitical criticism, and a record of the viruses that are present in our guts, on our skin, and in our blood.

A New York University Professor of Microbiology, Osmundson turns

Microbiologist Joseph Osmundson’s ‘Virology’

hard science into juicy, racy-queer reality accessible to anyone who decides to buy the book, read it, and live it.

COVID-19 and its profound parallel to the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, both viral infections with us to this day, shows how both have redefined, in their individual ways, the way we live day to day.

You can geek out over science in this book, queerness, and the sociopolitical impact of all things viral, which are present in the foods we eat, the people we kiss, and inside of our own bodies.

We live on a planet teeming with viruses and all aspects of life have the potential to go viral. Humans, including some animals like dogs and cats, are susceptible to COVID-19. With Osmundson’s essays we are provided lyrical, fascinating analyses of queerness related to exposure and everything viral in the disease’s effects through what we choose to do with our bodies.

Live louder

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2022 by Lit Hub, “Virology” is its own technology motivating the mind to think, write, speak, be queer, and live louder. Every inch of life is viral in distinctive yet consistent ways,

entities that spread the more we live our lives, a virus being the submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates inside the living cells of an organism.

Osmundson deeply respects HIV/ AIDS critical scholars like José Esteban Muñoz who navigated during his lifetime the intricacies of risk reduction and helped develop what it means to go viral.

Fond of quoting American writer, philosopher, and political activist Susan Sontag and her masterwork, the 1988 book “AIDS and its Metaphors,” he shares Sontag’s ability to define the semiotics around how we talk of disease – the “war” on HIV/AIDS, the “fight for our lives,” the “battle” over infection.

In one of the essays, Osmundson, with novelist and social critic Patrick Nathan, cowrite that, “A new rhetoric of care, empathy, and respect for life is needed to face COVID-19 and survive — a rhetoric of care encoded not only in how we speak but also in the structures and infrastructures of our nation, from our healthcare system to our need to dominate by over policing, to our economy, our military, our education… Medicines aren’t weapons; they are treatments necessary to live. At least in the best scenarios they are, as with HIV after 1996.”

The author treats humanity with tenderness and delivers a direct message that says we are being asked to become even more awake to the empire of our great planet that seems now to have entered a time where it is very late, and shall we survive all of the events of viruses everywhere. There’s a slim chance we’ll make it through unscathed. It hurts to be alive.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com.

Author Joseph Osmundson

Untitled-6 1

“Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between” by Joseph Osmundson, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95 www.virologybook.com www.josephosmundson.com

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<< TV

20 • Bay Area Repor ter • June 2-8, 2022

Murderous mystery

t

by Brian Bromberger

“I

nnocent? Guilty? The Peterson ending will always be tragic,” says a documentarian producer on the infamous fate of Michael Peterson, the novelist and political candidate convicted in 2003 of murdering his second wife Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead at the bottom of the staircase in their mansion, on December 9, 2001 in Durham, North Carolina.

His sensational case became the subject of the gripping French documentary series which started filming soon after his arrest in 2001, aired in 2004 on the Sundance Channel, and was periodically updated.

In 2017, when after a key prosecution witness was accused of giving misleading testimony, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time already served and freed. Debate has raged ever since about his guilt, although Peterson has always maintained his innocence.

Now HBO Max has produced an eight-episode mini-series on the Peterson case based on de Lestrade’s docuseries. This version of the “Staircase” is riveting and brilliantly acted from start to finish. And if you haven’t watched the docuseries, you can approach the material from a fresh, unbiased angle.

Michael (Colin Firth) and Kathleen (Toni Collette) were carousing by their pool after dinner, drinking wine, when Kathleen went back inside their mansion. Michael claims he returned to the house a half hour later and found his wife at the bottom of the stairs, having taken a bloody fall, presumably unsteady after imbibing alcohol.

With Kathleen still breathing, he frantically called 911, but by the time the ambulance arrived she was dead.

An autopsy revealed lacerations on Kathleen’s scalp. Authorities concluded she may have been bludgeoned to

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MARIN COUNTY

FAIR June 30 - July 4, 2022

OUT AT THE FAIR! Be proud and join the crowd for Out at the Fair on July 3rd!

Sport your pride colors all day at the Fair, join The Stud for a live drag show on the Community Stage and DJ sets throughout the day, ride the rides, participate in a group photo at 5pm the Giant Ferris Wheel, and stay for Digable Planets on the Island Stage followed by fireworks over the Lagoon.

Colin Firth and Toni Collette in ‘The Staircase’

death, so Peterson was charged with first-degree murder.

The series weaves in and out of various timelines, both the months before Kathleen’s death through 2017 when Peterson gave his final plea, often juxtaposing incidents where characters exiting the front door will emerge in a different era in the next scene.

Family angst

“Staircase” is as much family angst as it is true crime. The series follows the shifting allegiances of five kids, including a closeted lesbian daughter.

What emerges is a dysfunctional family spun into turmoil by media speculation. We’re a long way from the sunny “Brady Bunch.”

For LGBTQ viewers, we learn Michael is bisexual. He watched gay porn on his computer and hired escorts with whom he had sex. For a long time Michael asserted Kathleen knew about his secret dalliances with men and was fine with it, but towards the end, he reveals he had lied and she never knew about that side of him. Prosecutors will use this information to claim Peterson couldn’t be trusted, believing Kathleen found the gay porn on his laptop, leading to a huge fight that resulted in Michael killing her. They exploit the biphobia of that era to create reasonable doubt about his innocence.

Peterson believed his columns in the local newspaper where he criticized police as having biased law enforcement against him, charging that politics was the root of the pros-

ecutors Jim Hardin (Cullen Moss) and Freda Black (Parker Posey)’s campaign against him. Peterson is defended by his crafty, media-savvy attorney David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg).

The series raises questions about how fact and fiction play out in the American criminal justice system. Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche), the editor of the documentary, who will later write to Peterson in prison and eventually become his girlfriend and ardent supporter, maintains that a trial is a competition with a jury deciding who tells the better, more convincing story and their verdict determines “justice.”

Great acting

Colin Firth gets his best role since his Oscar-winning performance in “The King’s Speech.” Firth has played gay several times, most memorably in “A Single Man.” What is so remarkable is that he’s not afraid to showcase Peterson’s negative qualities and his ability to shift emotions rapidly in scenes, simultaneously expressing manipulativeness and vulnerability.

He’s matched perfectly with Toni Collette, who breathes life into Kathleen so we don’t see her just as victim, even though the script gives her less to work with than Firth. She gives Kathleen nuance, exposing her idiosyncracies, yet also displaying the devoted but exhausted mother trying to hold together a patchwork family and a demanding husband.

Michael Stuhlbarg returns to top form as the determined calculating lawyer forced to coax his reluctant client. Juliette Binoche is radiant, particularly in the latter half of the series when she has to re-evalute her perceptions about Peterson. And Parker Posey (Queen of the Indies), complete with a North Carolina drawl, is glorious as the flinty, conniving district attorney. All these actors are worthy of Emmy nominations, as is the series itself, in one of the year’s distinguished productions.t ‘The Staircase’ drama miniseries on HBO MAX

Read the full review on www.ebar.com.

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Above: Parker Posey in ‘The Staircase’ Below: Patrick Schwarzenegger and Colin Firth in ‘The Staircase’

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22 • Bay Area Repor ter • June 2-8, 2022

Hahn and Faure

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by Tim Pfaff

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t may always be impossible to speak of the composer Reynaldo Hahn without mentioning that for a couple years at the beginning of the 20th century he was the lover of Marcel Proust –witness this sentence. But Hahn is once again coming out of the Proust closet –and earning beyond the salons of Paris the level of artistic esteem Proust always gave him.

Hahn may even have been the stronger influence on the musicbesotted Proust, who broke habit in sustaining a lifelong friendship with Hahn after their romantic relationship had faded. Some have claimed it was Hahn who proposed the idea of the “little phrase” in the “Vinteuil” sonata that is a far more binding thread within the colossal span of Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” than that soggy madeleine.

Of the prodigious amount of music Hahn composed and performed, only a clutch of songs has hung on in the active repertoire. Among his music for piano, the single concerto gets more respect than performances today, and investigating his solo-piano music has led the inquisitive down the darker alleys of record labels. Pavel 11:34 AM Kolesnikov’s new CD of “Reynaldo Hahn Poemes and Valses” (Hyperion) augurs to change all that.

In times like ours, scintillating, immediately appealing music of mixed pedigree –the rags of Scott Joplin, the tangos of Astor Piazzola– have elbowed their way onto center stage in performances by top “classical” musicians who argue the exceptional quality of the fare to an audience that asks no such persuasion. For many people, Kolesnikov’s mid-pandemic Wigmore Hall recital “In Memory of Proust” would have been the introduction to Hahn’s piquant collection of miniatures, “Le Rossignol Eperdu” (“The Distraught Nightingale”), where it all but stole the show.

Kolesnikov revels in the perfect fit of his sensibility with Hahn’s. A savvy selection of 19 of the 53 exquisite “poems” that compromise the complete “Nightingale” makes room, between two strikingly different sets, for a halfdozen of Hahn’s equally bewitching waltzes. Few musicians boast the kind of rhythmic freedom Kolesnikov lavishes on everything he plays.

He says that he loves Hahn’s imperviousness to compositional trends, his clever way of saluting Hahn’s unwavering obedience to his artistic heart and soul over more formal musical strictures. His music means to be appealing, testing its listeners only with the kind of heart-breaking intimacy audiences actually crave and reward.

It’s music without pretense except when pretense is the point, for example in the inflations of the “noble” waltz and the excesses of its “unstrict” (“Sans rigueur”), beguiling cousin.

This disposition toward a modest extravagance is essential to Kolesnikov’s audience-courting art. You

Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov

never doubt that he wants his playing, too, to please rather than intimidate, bravado deployed to thrill rather than impress. There’s even a sly, involving humor, as in the playful ferocity in the lullaby, “Berceuse feroce.”

There’s little flashy fingerwork on display in these wistful, enigmatic, but always characterful pieces, but the blend of seriousness and sensuality somehow makes the short items feel complete and the longer ones (only two exceed five minutes) suggestive.

Kolesnikov corrals the more plaintive, inward items into his second set, leaving the listener with a satisfying sense of the emotional depths of this music the composer said was composed, over a decade, in tears. The colors are rare and dappled, some sonorities near the limits of audibility.

He ends his survey with one of the most bewitching if also evanescent of the pieces, “Ouranos,” naming Uranus, the Greek god of the heavens. It could be by Debussy; it could be by Webern; it could almost be late Beethoven –or Brahms. Kolesnikov’s point is that it is, rather, the mercurial, fetching Hahn, searching music out to ensnare the searcher. On first hearing you’re transported to another world.

Near and Faure

Hahn was so essential a player in his culture that there are many surviving recordings of him making music, his own and others’. Anyone searching them out will encounter, in those songs we think we know, a raspy baritone it’s

Composer Reynaldo Hahn

hard to imagine going over today - a kind of parlor Bob Dylan, but quickly as engaging. A brave new recording, the first ever of all of Gabriel Faure’s 100-plus songs, by Cyrille Dubois and his regular pianist partner Tristan Raes (Aparte) is likely to be as great an initial shock to many listeners.

Consumers (to use a coarse but applicable word) of French “melodies” are accustomed to hearing them at the ends of recital programs by opera singers. Evidence abounds that Dubois has just such an impressive, plummy sound in opera and concert settings –it’s a gorgeous voice by any measure– but these new recordings represent such a radically different kind of voice production that it’s tempting to call it “original-instrument” French singing, but let’s not.

It’s the tiredest of clichés, too seldom true, that song-singing projection of the text is paramount. Here, Dubois’ being a native speaker of French is even more important than usual, since he renders so much of the vocal line as near speech as it is to singing. Unless you’re French or a student of the style, and then in historical recordings, it will require adjusting.

But once acquired, it will be something reluctantly surrendered to nonnative voices, however fulsome. Song after song in this collection emerges with a profile if not new, then newly telling.

By the time we get mauled by the Faure Year in 2024, we may appreciate, without reservation, Dubois’ light but agile voice, fresh but not choir-boy tone, and easy yet deeply communicative singing style.

The prejudiced ear may hear acid in the tone, nasality in the diction, suspect pitch and the kind of swooping between notes recital audiences have been schooled to renounce. But with mere openness to what these two musicians, who have spent as many years contemplating this repertoire have to reveal, you’ll hunger for the next song as much as you savor the current one – not a single generic note in music that all too often goes down, and away, all too smoothly.t Reynado Hahn, Poemes & Valses, Pavel Kolesnikov, Hyperion. www.hyperion-records.co.uk Gabriel Faure, Complete Songs, Cyrille Dubois, tenor, Tristan Raes, piano, Aparte. www.Apartemusic.com

Pride takes flight

It’s time to kick up your heels and put on your best party frock to celebrate Freak Chic, Comfort & Joy’s fourth annual fashion fantasia this Sunday at Oasis.

Find out more about it in our weekly events listings on www.ebar.com.

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Music>>

June 2-8, 2022 • Bay Area Repor ter • 23

All that new jazz

Left to Right: New music by Avi Wisnia, Fred Hersch, Liam Forde, Nicole Glover, Kim Nalley, Carol Lipnik

by Gregg Shapiro

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ocalists, pianists and other gay and lesbian musicians share new grooves in a variety of copacetic jazz styles.

Philly’s own Avi Wisnia’s newest album “Catching Leaves” is the perfect album to listen to, no matter the season. While he certainly captured the autumn mood in a Vince Guaraldi style on the title cut, Wisnia applies his warm and jazzy vocals with the same skill to the remaining tracks.

He takes an unexpectedly twangy turn on “Come Home To,” and then performs Neil Young’s ordinarily countrified “Harvest Moon” in a jazz vocal setting (similar to what Cassandra Wilson did to the song on

her “New Mood Daughter” album).

Other jazzy originals worth checking out include “You’re Wrong,” “It’s Gonna Rain Today,” “Just Another Daydream,” and “Sky Blue Sky,” while his transformation of Wilco’s “How To Fight Loneliness” is a must. www.aviwisnia.com Award-winning gay jazz pianist Fred Hersch says in the liner notes for his latest album “Breath by Breath” that “string quartets are a natural musical configuration for me.” Therefore it makes sense to find Hersch teaming up with the Crosby Street String Quartet (Joyce Hammann, Laura Seaton, Lois Martin, and Jody Redhage), along with bassist Drew Gress, drummer Jochen Rueckert, and percussionist Rogerio Boccaot, for a set

of songs, including the eight songs that comprise “The Sati Suite,” as well as Robert Schumann homage, “Pastorale,” that brings everything to a close. www.fredhersch.com On “When My World’s In Tune,” the opening number on “Great to be Here,” Liam Forde wastes little time in showing off his jazz vocal chops, scatting and such. Forde makes it clear that this is going to be a fun jazz record, on “I Don’t Know” (check out the spoken riff), “Plaza Hotel” (complete with a nod to famous guest Eloise), “Mrs. Dudley,” and “Gratitude Song.”

Taking a more serious approach, he struts his comfy stuff on “Pajamas” and proudly displays his belter credentials on “Geraniums.” Forde

credits Michel Legrand as a major influence, but you can also hear Cole Porter and Noel Coward’s impact on him. www.liam-forde.com Speaking of Cole Porter, lesbian jazz saxophonist Nicole Glover covers Porter’s “I Concentrate On You” on her recent album “Strange Lands.” Her rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” fully blossoms, and her take on Jobim’s “Dindi” comes to a leisurely boil. As for her original compositions, “The Twilight Zone” and the title cut each lives up to its name. www.nicoleglover.com Yes, that’s Maria “Midnight at the Oasis” Muldaur joining Kim Nalley on the slinky duet of the title cut from Nalley’s “I Want A Little Boy”

album. Her cover of “Try A Little Tenderness” hits all the emotional buttons and her reading of “Pennies From Heaven” jingles like a pocketful of change. However, it’s her interpretation of Fred Rogers’ “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” which takes the tune into adult territory, that’s the real revelation. www.kimnalley.com Lauded gay playwright/actor/songwriter David Cale collaborated with Carol Lipnik, of the “pitch-perfect four-octave” range, on a couple of songs from her new album “Goddess of Imperfection.” The tunes, the theatrical story song “The Poacher” and the dreamy “A History of Kisses,” are highlights, as is the synth-driven closing track “Love.” www.mermaidalley.comt

David Allen

Leo Ash Evens in TheatreWorks’ ‘Ragtime.’

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Leo Ash Evens

From page 16

it was over, she came up to me and she said, ‘You’re good.’ And I said, ‘Thanks, Patti. I think you’re good too.’ And she laughed. We immediately developed a respect for each other, that I could throw it back. She liked that a lot.

“We had a great relationship on and off stage,” Evens added. “To experience her energy and commitment on stage is a thing of beauty. You really do understand what it’s like to work with a star.”

Asked how he brings new life to such iconic roles that are known by their initial performers, Evens said, “Of course I’ve seen the film versions of the MC and Riff, but when I do my own personal research, I just try to use elements of my own life to connect to the foundational elements of the people I play. With the MC being Jewish and all of the German aspects –whose side is he on?– I used some of the antiSemitic hate that came my way as a kid. One time, some kids put swastikas on a bus with tape. So I use that, what that felt like, and I channel that in.”

For “Ragtime,” Evens says he thinks of his niece. “I think about what it would be like to have a sister, being alone as an immigrant coming to America if I was the father and had this close relationship with her. It’s a very powerful protective energy that comes through me that’s a parallel to the role of Tetah.”t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com ‘Ragtime’ June 1-26 at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. Mountain View. $30-$90. theatreworks.org www.leoashevens.com

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All dates, prices, programs, artists, and productions subject to change. Tickets subject to availability. Photo: Etienne Dupuis/Julien Faugere.

What makes an orchid mantis drop-dead gorgeous?

When an orchid mantis changes colors, looks really can kill.

Discover the amazing adaptations of bugs and get up close to larger-than-life models in this immersive new exhibit.

Now open | Make a reservation at calacademy.org

THIS EXHIBITION HAS BEEN DEVELOPED BY THE MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA WITH WETA WORKSHOP LIMITED.

31604-CAS-Bugs-BayAreaReporter-Mantis-9.75x16-05.23.22-FA.indd 1

5/26/22 10:05 AM