March 15, 2012 editon of the Bay Area Reporter

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Preparing LGBTs for disaster

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After 'Cruising,' tribute to Wilde

Kathleen Turner on 'High'

The

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

PWAs face Ryan White cuts

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

dvocates for people living with HIV and AIDS are concerned about federal cuts from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act. Some San Francisco city Jane Philomen Cleland leaders, however, are Supervisor expressing commitScott Wiener ment to restoring funding.

For the fiscal year July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013, the city is facing a drop in Ryan White funding of approximately $4.7 million, along with a reduction of about $2.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mayor Ed Lee has already approved approximately $1.5 million to cover a cut in the funds through the current fiscal year.

Gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, who called for a recent board committee hearing on the reductions, said he hopes that when the mayor submits his budget to the Board of Supervisors by the end of May, he “will backfill everything, or close to everything.” The cuts would be “devastating to the community,” Wiener said.

“Backfilling these federal cuts is my number one priority in the budget process, and I say that as a member of the budget committee,” he added.

Ryan White money is primarily for services for people living with AIDS, while CDC funding is geared toward HIV prevention services, Wiener said.

After the mayor submits his budget, the board’s budget committee has until June 30 to act on Lee’s proposals.

“As we face continued budget challenges, I remain committed to funding critical care and treatment for San Franciscans living with HIV/AIDS and will continue to invest in services for the city’s most vulnerable,” Lee said in comments emailed by spokesman Francis Tsang.

The city controller’s office is projecting a See page 16 >>

Vol. 42 • No. 11 • March 15-21, 2012

Obama names Colfax AIDS policy chief P

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Jane Philomen Cleland

Out at first A

member of the San Francisco Police Department’s softball team is out at first base during last Sunday’s opening day games of the San Francisco Gay Softball League at

Lang Field. Alas, the SFPD went on to win over the gay team by a score of 16-3, unlike the historic 1974 game when the Twin Peaks team won in a moment of community pride.

resident Barack Obama has appointed Dr. Grant Colfax, the gay director of San Francisco’s HIV Prevention Section, as the new director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, the White House an-

See page 14 >>

Jane Philomen Cleland

Dr. Grant Colfax

Advocates, IRS try to help LGBT tax filers

by Matthew S. Bajko

F

ew would call the yearly tax ritual Americans face each April joyous. And for many LGBT people it can be downright painful, both mentally and financially.

This year is no exception, particularly for same-sex couples whose relationships are not officially recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. Handicapped by the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal agencies from recognizing the marriages of gays and lesbians, the IRS has tried to help LGBT tax filers in the West without tripping over DOMA. But the solution that went into effect with the 2010 tax filings, to recognize community property for registered domestic partners and married same-sex couples in several Western states, has been anything but smooth to carry out.

According to multiple tax professionals and correspondence sent to the IRS from congressional leaders, the problems run the gamut from IRS agents not being trained on the new rule for certain same-sex couples to computer glitches that have meant some LGBT households receiving notices they owe back taxes.

“I have helped a lot of same-sex couples over the last year. The IRS hasn’t had procedures in place to process these returns and there have been a lot of error letters,” said Aubrey Hone, a San Francisco-based tax attorney who opened her own practice in 2011.

The change in IRS policy impacted same-sex couples, whether married or in registered do-

Rick Gerharter

Volunteer tax preparers John Cayton, standing, and Alex Nerguizian, right, help Jonathan Hall, left, complete his 2011 income taxes at a free service coordinated by Volunteer Income Tax Assistance held at the LGBT Community Center.

mestic partnerships, in California, Washington, and Nevada where community property is recognized. Couples living in New Mexico, which recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other states and also has community property laws, are also impacted.

Simply put, the new rules meant those couples

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

had to split their income equally on their federal tax forms. Along with wages, it can include income from a business or real estate holdings coowned by the couple.

But figuring out the calculations for the purSee page 17 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

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Couple cited for smoking medical pot in plaza

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

San Francisco couple was cited last weekend for smoking medical marijuana in the Castro neighborhood’s Jane Warner Plaza.

The citations point to something many may not have realized about rules governing the plaza that were approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Ed Lee earlier this year: Smoking marijuana (or tobacco) in the public space is prohibited.

The rules, introduced by gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the Castro and other neighborhoods, also cover Harvey Milk Plaza. Both plazas are at the intersection of Market and Castro streets.

Robert Blitzer, 66, said that he and his husband, Xenry, 63, were in the parklet sharing a joint Sunday afternoon, March 11. Xenry goes only by one name.

Blitzer said they have a home nearby on States Street and consider the plaza “our living room in the Castro.” He said they had been smoking medical marijuana in the plaza since it began as a temporary installment in 2009.

He said that Sunday, San Francisco Police Officer Matt Loya asked them if what they were smoking was tobacco, and Blitzer responded that it was marijuana. He said that Loya checked their medical marijuana ID cards and their drivers’ licenses and spent half an hour with them.

“People around us were horrified,” Blitzer said. “... They couldn’t believe a senior citizen couple was being harassed for smoking medical marijuana.”

Blitzer and Xenry have been together for 42 years. They were married in Marin County in 2008, before California voters passed the Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban. The state recognizes their marriage as legal.

Blitzer said that he uses marijuana

Courtesy Xenry

Robert Blitzer, left, and his husband, Xenry, were cited last weekend for smoking medical marijuana in Jane Warner Plaza.

because he has severe glaucoma and is losing his sight. Xenry has had an abdominal bypass and is frequently in pain.

The citation that each man received refers to state health and safety code that says, “except as authorized by law, every person who possesses not more than 28.5 grams of marijuana, other than concentrated cannabis, is guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine of not more than ... $100.”

Their citations instruct them to appear in front of a judge by April 11.

Asked about the couple’s situation, Wiener said that the intent of his legislation “was to prohibit smoking in the plaza. We didn’t distinguish between tobacco and cannabis.”

Referring to older rules for “public spaces such as parks and certain sidewalk areas,” he said, “We never distinguished between tobacco and cannabis, so this legislation is consistent with the previous ways we’ve addressed bans on public smoking.”

However, Wiener said, “The police in San Francisco should follow our city’s policy of making marijuana enforcement the lowest priority.”

He added, “I don’t think we should be prosecuting people for personal

consumption of marijuana ... absent extraordinary circumstances.”

Blitzer said there was another officer with Loya, but he didn’t know that officer’s name. Loya didn’t respond to an interview request.

San Francisco Police Department spokespeople didn’t reply to emailed questions about the incident.

Responding to emailed questions about how the district attorney’s office would handle the citations, DA spokeswoman Stephanie Ong Stillman said that “generally speaking,” people receiving infractions similar to Blitzer and Xenry’s should be able to take their case to a neighborhood court. Blitzer and Xenry’s citation would be in the jurisdiction of the Mission Station court.

“A neighborhood prosecutor will review their citation and determine if they are a good candidate for neighborhood court,” Ong Stillman said.

Through that program, local residents are trained in restorative justice to adjudicate matters, instead of having cases charged and heard in criminal courts.

Ong Stillman noted that, “a medical marijuana card allows an individual to possess but, not smoke, in public.”▼

Fire closes Joe’s Barbershop

by Seth Hemmelgarn

S

an Francisco officials are investigating a weekend blaze that has closed Joe’s Barbershop, 2150 Market Street, at least temporarily.

San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Lieutenant Mindy Talmadge said in response to emailed questions that the blaze was reported at 3:37 a.m. Sunday, March 11. Firefighters arrived at 3:39 and the fire was under control at 4:06, she said.

Talmadge said that the cause of the fire was under investigation and she didn’t have more information.

“The fire seemed to have started in the basement,” Joe Gallagher, 51, the owner of the Castro barbershop, said in response to emailed questions.

Gallagher didn’t know what exactly had been damaged or the monetary value.

“That is a very long process that requires cleaning, drying and then assessing the results of the cleaning/ drying process,” Gallagher said.

He also said, “I don’t know why anyone would have started a fire in my shop. I have just heard that the back door to the basement was kicked in, so that, to me, seems to point to a break-in.”

Gallagher said he didn’t know of any witnesses to the fire or surveillance video. He also didn’t know when the shop would re-open.

Gallagher encouraged people to go to www.joesbarbershop.com for a list

Rick Gerharter

Debris from a fire at Joe’s Barbershop remained on Market Street in front of the shop early this week.

of all the barbers and where they’ll be working during the closure.

“It is really important to me that our customers know this,” he said.

“My barbers do not have insurance to cover their business losses, and I really want their customers to know where they will be.”

In February 2011, there were at least three suspicious fires in the Castro area. One was reported in front of Eureka Barber Shop and Hair Styling at 4222 18th Street. Another occurred at 3620 16th Street. Several people were displaced as a result of that blaze.

A third fire affected two buildings at

17th and Hartford streets.

In her email, Talmadge said, “The Castro Street series of incendiary fires investigation remains open but there are no suspects at this time.”

Other fires have occurred in recent days. According to the San Francisco Police Department, there were two arson-related calls Saturday, March 10 and one on Monday, March 12 in other parts of the city.

Spokespeople for the police and fire departments didn’t respond to questions about whether any of those fires were related to Joe’s Barbershop or to each other.▼

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Community News>>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Jane Philomen Cleland

Legal advocates honored B

ay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom recognized several legal advocates and their clients at the organization’s annual gala that was held March 9 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Those honored included the Transgender Law Center, which was represented by Executive Director Masen Davis, center, and one of its clients, Ashley Yang, fourth from left

in back, who fought the Transportation Security Administration.

The law firm Morrison and Forester was also recognized for providing legal assistance to several LGBT cases, including Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund’s lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act on behalf of Karen Golinski, third from left in back, and her wife, Amy Cunninghis, second from left in front.

Griffin wants to leave HRC’s past behind

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

ncoming Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin intends to focus on the future once he takes the helm at the national LGBT lobbyist organization in June.

In a brief interview with the Bay Area Reporter last week, Griffin said rather than rehashing the group’s past actions and mistakes, he wants to put his time and energy in moving HRC forward as an agency that represents the entire LGBT community.

“My job is the future,” Griffin said during a nearly 15-minute phone interview Friday, March 9.

And he said beginning with his first day on the job, he hopes people, including HRC’s longtime critics, judge the agency based on his actions.

“Starting in June, as I take the reins of president of this organization, I will be responsible and accountable,” said Griffin, who also predicted, “I am sure I will make mistakes.”

One of the lingering issues with HRC, particularly in the Bay Area, is its history on securing protections and rights for transgender people.

As a story in last week’s B.A.R. on Griffin’s hiring pointed out, Griffin already is facing questions about what he plans to do to make HRC more inclusive of transgender people and supportive of their causes.

Asked about those concerns, Griffin was adamant he would be an ally for transgender people.

“When I say LGBT, there is no letter to be left out,” said Griffin, 38, a Los Angeles campaign consultant largely unknown in the local transgender community.

He will also be tasked with rebuilding HRC’s image in the Bay Area, which has been tarnished for years.

From its endorsing a federal workers rights bill that left out transgender people to perceptions the organization is only concerned about LGBT people with money, HRC has had a tortured relationship with LGBT groups and activists in San Francisco.

The issues led to heated fights and protests over its decision several years ago to lease the Castro storefront once home to the late gay Supervisor Harvey Milk’s camera shop. In a move aimed at placating its detractors, HRC partnered with the Trevor Project and set aside space for the youth agency’s LGBT teen hotline

Rick Gerharter

Incoming Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin

volunteers to work.

More recently local demonstrators connected with the Occupy movement have targeted HRC’s store to protest its embrace of Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street’s biggest firms.

Pressed on how he would work to repair the burned bridges between HRC and San Francisco’s LGBT community, Griffin pointed to what his motivation is in accepting the job in the first place.

He sees his main role as giving voice to LGBT youth and people living in more conservative towns and cities that face discrimination on a daily basis.

“I grew up in Arkansas. I know what it is like to live in a town in the middle of America,” said Griffin.

Too many LGBT Americans, both young and old, go to bed and lie awake at night fearful of what the next day will bring, said Griffin.

“As long as there is state-based discrimination, those fears will remain.

I want to lead the movement and be able to speak for those young people,” said Griffin. “If I make every decision through the lens of what is in the best interest of that young person, I will be making the right decisions.”

He cautioned that achieving LGBT legal and legislative wins would take time, particularly at the federal level.

Nonetheless, Griffin feels a sense of urgency to achieve those goals.

“Our job is to move with great urgency and to act in the best interest of that LGBT person staring at the ceiling at night,” he said. “If I do that and

am making the best decisions for our very diverse community, whether in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Topeka, Kansas; or Hope, Arkansas, the decisions will be right.”

Through his work with the American Foundation for Equal Rights, a nonprofit Griffin founded that filed the federal lawsuit that has led two courts to declare California’s samesex marriage ban unconstitutional, Griffin has become friends with one of HRC’s loudest critics, activist Cleve Jones.

Jones told the B.A.R. that he was thrilled to learn about Griffin’s hiring and believes he will diversify the D.C.-based organization.

Griffin said he had yet to speak to Jones at length about HRC, but said he expects to seek his guidance.

“He is someone I have learned so much from. I have relied on him day in and day out through this case,” said Griffin, who will remain on AFER’s board of directors. “He is someone I highly respect for his opinions and I expect him to continue to voice those opinions and advise me. And I expect I will continue to learn from Cleve.”

Visited California counties His may not be a household name, despite the work he has done with the Proposition 8 lawsuit. But Griffin is no stranger to the Bay Area, having spent countless hours in San Francisco due to the court proceedings.

He estimated he has visited all 58 counties in California due to his advocacy work.

“California, after Arkansas, became my true home,” said Griffin.

Many Bay Area residents that the B.A.R. has spoken with about Griffin’s hiring, from HRC insiders to queer progressives, see the change in leadership at the agency as a chance to move beyond the troubles of the past.

“He’s not afraid to speak his mind, he’s a great fundraiser, he’s got a ton of energy, and has some out of the box ideas,” Simone Campbell, a lesbian comic who hosts the online radio show Urban Fringe, told the B.A.R. Another fan of Griffin’s is San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who has known him for several years now due to the fight for marriage equality in the state.

In a statement about HRC’s hiring Griffin, Herrera noted that he See page 17 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

Volume 42, Number 11 March 15-21, 2012 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael K. Lavers Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Kurt Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER T. Scott King PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith GENERAL MANAGER Michael M. Yamashita DISPLAY ADVERTISING Simma Baghbanbashi Colleen Small Scott Wazlowski NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Small step on gay blood ban T

his week the Department of Health and Human Services published a notice in the Federal Register seeking information to create a study to reevaluate blood donation eligibility criteria for men who have sex with men. The news, first reported in the Washington Blade, is a welcome first step in removing an odious ban that stigmatizes gay and bisexual men and has outlived its purpose.

Gay and bi men have been prohibited since 1985 – the height of the AIDS epidemic – from donating blood. Under current regulations, men who have had sex with other men since 1977, even once, are not eligible blood donors.

Back when AIDS was known as “gay cancer” and there were no HIV tests available, public health officials and blood banks took precautions to ban certain donor profiles after AIDS cases were documented among people who received blood transfusions. But today, more than 30 years after the first reported AIDS cases, more sophisticated testing is available. In recent years, blood banks increasingly support an easing of the ban, citing chronic shortages.

HHS is willing to develop and implement a pilot study under which gay and bi men who meet specific criteria would be permitted to donate blood, “with additional safeguards in place to protect blood recipients during the course of the study,” the notice states.

One possible strategy, the Blade reported, is pre-donation testing, in which the donor would have a pre-donation blood sample drawn that is tested prior to the actual donation for HIV/AIDS infection. Keep in mind that blood is already tested three or four times after it is donated, so one more test couldn’t hurt.

State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has been a proponent of lifting the ban on gay blood donations since he was a supervisor more than a decade ago. Leno, who is gay,

recalled receiving a request to donate blood while on the board. But then he noticed a line at the bottom in small print that essentially said that if you’re a gay man, don’t bother.

“I never knew that before,” Leno recalled this week.

Leno correctly pointed out that the blood ban has always been discriminatory and, more importantly, has always been focused on the wrong question: It’s not one’s sex partner but one’s decisions and actions that can be potentially dangerous. A straight man could have sex with numerous partners and not be safe, yet he would never be asked about his sexual history.

Leno, who is HIV-negative, said, “Of course I would be able to give blood.”

When Leno was on the Board of Supervi-

sors he met with local blood bank officials, who back then were supportive of his advocacy to do away with the ban. They knew that science had advanced, that testing had improved, and that, at its core, the blood ban is based on homophobia.

As a sign of the times – and this was in 2000, not 1985 – Leno recalled appearing on a rightwing radio show about the issue. The host opened up the phone lines with the question, “If you needed blood and gay blood was the only kind available, would you take it?”

“It’s an emotionally charged subject,” Leno acknowledged, but the time has come to move forward, however slowly, on changing the policy.

HHS has taken the smallest of steps. The notice is not a request for proposals nor is it soliciting contracts; but HHS is opening up a dialogue and appealing to people for information. And that’s a positive development.▼

Ending poverty in the LGBT community

by Tommi Avicolli Mecca

W

hen Brian Basinger of the AIDS Housing Alliance sent me an announcement that Horizons Foundation, which funds LGBT causes, was sponsoring a roundtable discussion of poverty in the LGBT community (Monday, March 19, 5:30 p.m. LGBT center, 1800 Market Street, unfortunately it’s invitation only, call Horizons to see if there’s still seats, 398-2333, ext. 116), I thought: finally mainstream queer organizations were concerned about this issue.

I’ve been doing anti-poverty work in our community for the past 15 years. I understand all too well that while, as the flier from Horizons states, there’s a myth that our community is wealthier than others, “the reality is very different. In fact, statistics show that many segments of the LGBT community experience the same and sometimes higher levels of poverty as the general population.”

We know that in San Francisco, 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT, 75 percent of transgender people are unemployed or not employed full-time, and homelessness (or being inadequately housed) is rampant among people with AIDS. LGBT seniors, too, face incredible economic hardship, as evidenced by testimony at a recent hearing at the Land Use Committee of the Board of Supervisors.

There’s always been poverty in our community, but it’s gotten far worse over the past decade and a half.

The late ‘90s tech boom When the dot-boom sent rents soaring in the late 1990s, many queer youth who fled here for refuge, as they have since the late 1960s, found that they couldn’t afford an apartment, even with a job. As merchants and neighbors waged a campaign against those young people for panhandling and sleeping on the streets, the Reverend Jim Mitulski, then the pastor of Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco, and I helped organize three winter shelters, a free dinner two nights a week, and a place for people to take a shower.

There was another negative effect to the economic boom: many long-term tenants with AIDS living in rent-controlled apartments in the Castro were pushed out by landlords anxious to rent to dot-comers with bigger bank accounts. Activist Gabriel Haaland and I were among the folks who organized hard against those evictions, which became the number-one reason the homeless rate among people with AIDS suddenly shot through the roof.

Unfortunately, most mainstream LGBT and AIDS organizations refused to get involved in the fight to provide services to homeless youth or to save the homes of longterm tenants with AIDS.

Occupying the Castro Fast forward to three months ago: Occupy the Castro briefly occupied the Human Rights Campaign store to present the organization with a resolution calling on HRC to address economic justice issues within our community, including homelessness, poverty, and a lack of affordable housing, jobs, and health care. In response, a spokesperson for HRC told the Advocate that his group already addresses these issues. The reporter failed to ask exactly how it does that.

It’s not just HRC. Why is AHA the only AIDS group in our community that actually finds housing for people with AIDS? Why, when queer youth make up such a disproportionate percentage of homeless young people, are there no organizations that find them permanent affordable housing (other than Larkin Street Youth Services, which provides limited shelter beds and in some instances hotel rooms)? What exactly is being done to address the employment crisis in the transgender community?

Why is there no affordable housing for queer seniors other than Openhouse’s proposed 110unit project slated to be built at 55 Laguna?

Why did Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the heart of the queer community (District 8), hold a hearing about the housing needs of “middle-income” people when the city has not begun to meet the need for housing for the neediest among us? Wiener believes the two are not “mutually exclusive,” but with scarce

resources, the city can’t possibly help both groups. Imagine two people calling for help in a lake: one can’t swim and is clearly drowning, the other is sitting in a life raft and though not in danger of drowning, is tired of waiting to be rescued. Whom do you rescue first?

The war on poverty What I hope comes out of the Horizons roundtable is an all-out war on poverty in our community. Talk is great, but action will make the real difference.

That war effort needs to focus not only on the tremendous need for housing and living wage jobs within our community, but also ways to prevent more people from falling into poverty (an ounce of prevention). The emphasis should be on making people self-sufficient. It’s giving someone a fishing rod rather than a fish. In addition, advocates for the poor need to speak out against measures that criminalize those who panhandle or sit or lie on the sidewalks. Criminalization thwarts efforts to house people. If a person cited under sit/lie or anti-panhandling laws doesn’t pay the fine (they don’t have the money), it turns into a bench warrant and possible jail time. If that person applies for subsidized housing, he/she can be turned down for having a “criminal record.”

Gay marriage proponents talk about justice and equality for our community, but when all is said and done, there’s no justice without economic justice, no equality without economic equality.▼ Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a longtime queer economic justice activist living in San Francisco.

On the web Online content this week includes the Out in the World column, the Bay Area Reporter’s online column, Political Notes, and articles on a new Defense of Marriage Act lawsuit and the census bureau director’s testimony before a House panel. www.ebar.com.

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Community News>>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Group to mark Bayard Rustin’s 100th birthday compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the gay and civil rights icon with a party in the Fillmore Saturday, March 17.

“Bayard at 100” will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1300 Fillmore Street.

Tickets are available on a sliding scale ranging from $10-$50.

An openly gay African American at a time when few were out publicly, Rustin is widely remembered for his labor, civil and human rights activism, and most notably for his organizing the 1963 Great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech.

Rustin died in 1987 of a perforated appendix. He was 75.

“For nearly a decade the BRC has held an annual birthday party to honor the legacy of Bayard Rustin, and on this 100th anniversary of his birthday we’re raring to turn it out big time,” said Joshua Smith, co-chair of the coalition. The local group is northern California’s largest and most active political forum for LGBTQ African American issues.

Last year’s celebration focused on activating against the anti-gay legislation movement in Uganda and homophobia in Jamaica. This year’s event aims to focus on issues closer to home, specifically the recently described rapid out-migration of African Americans and other working families from San Francisco, and the current status of HIV/AIDS among African Americans.

The coalition will also toast the recent appointment of Naomi Kelly as San Francisco’s first African American city administrator.

“All are welcome to attend,” said Andrea Shorter, a co-founder and past chair. “Given that Bayard’s birthday falls on St. Patrick’s Day, we invite folks to stop by amidst other happenings, and most certainly before going to Pam Grier’s appearance at the Castro Theatre later that evening.”

To RSVP, email brclgbtq@gmail. com; to purchase tickets visit www. bayardrustincoalition.com.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade San Francisco’s 161st annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held Saturday, March 17, beginning at 11:30 a.m. at Second and Market streets.

This year’s theme is “Irish San Francisco Past, Present and Future.” More than 100 floats, Irish dance groups, marching bands, and thousands of participants will make their way down Market to the reviewing stand at Civic Center Plaza, also the site of the festival, which runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There, people can enjoy entertainment, browse arts and crafts, and enjoy a “healthy” selection of Irish food and beverages.

LGBT partnership meeting The LGBT community Partnership’s monthly meeting takes place today (Thursday, March 15) from 3 to 5 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, third floor.

Agenda items include planning for the upcoming transgender and aging event, and a presentation on seniors living alone in the city.

The partnership works to improve access to services for LGBT seniors and adults with disabilities. For more information, visit www.lgbtcommunitypartnership.org.

Civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin

Sexual healing workshop for women Healing for Change will hold a daylong workshop, “Sexual Healing: Touching the Hurt and Releasing the Pain” on Saturday, March 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City College of San Francisco, Ocean Campus, in multiuse building room 140. The workshop, in its eighth year, is for women survivors of violence and trauma and is open to anyone who identifies as female.

The cost is $25 for the full day or $15 for half day; breakfast and lunch are included. Scholarships and work exchange are available. The workshop is open to the public, though attendees must be at least 18 years old.

People will discuss and have exercises in moving past memories and easing difficult feelings with self-healing techniques. There will be over a dozen workshops (some in Spanish) by experienced facilitators.

Healing for Change is a recognized club of the Associated Students and a project of the Office of Mentoring and Service Learning at CCSF. For more information, visit www. tinyurl.com/healingforchange or (415) 452-5718 or healing.change@ mail.ccsf.edu.

Citizenship fair in Hayward The East Bay Naturalization Collaborative, a partnership of several nonprofits, is helping immigrants understand the naturalization process through education and legal assistance, and helping them apply for citizenship. The collaborative is hosting a free Citizenship Fair Saturday, March 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Chabot Community College, 25555 Hesperian Boulevard, building 700 South, in Hayward.

At the event, eligible East Bay residents will have an opportunity to receive assistance completing the citizenship application and fee waiver forms.

The fair is being sponsored by Centro Legal de la Raza, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, and the law firm Crowell and Moring LLP. Preregistration is required. Those interested in signing up should call API Legal Outreach at (510) 251-2846 (for API languages) or Centro Legal (510) 437-1554, ext. 118 (for Spanish).

Concord LGBT center to move The Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County is moving and interested volunteers can help out beginning Tuesday, March 20.

Ben-David Barr, the center’s executive director, told the Bay Area Reporter that staff have been actively looking for a new site for over a year, with the goal of finding offices closer to public transportation such as BART and bus lines. The center is currently located

at 3024 Willow Pass Road, Suite 200.

The new location at 2118 Willow Pass Road, Suite 500 interestingly, is back to offices the center rented until 2006, Barr said.

“We are now moving back and renting twice the space as in the past for a much better rate,” he stated in an email.

Barr said he thinks the decision is a good one for the center.

“We think that the location has much better access to public transportation and that because the new location is in the middle of the Concord downtown business district we will have increased visibility as well as more involvement in other community activities such as the local farmers’ market and better access to area restaurants and shops,” Barr said.

In terms of rent, Barr said the center will be paying $1 per square foot or about $4,400 per month. The center currently pays $1.30 per square foot for 4,700 square feet but the current lease includes all utilities. At the new site, the center will pay for gas and electricity.

“So, most likely the costs will be similar but we will now have a much better location with easy access to public transportation, free public parking, and increased visibility,” he said.

Those interested in helping out with what the center is calling “the great move back” can call (925) 6920090.

Two Spirits screening in SJ The San Jose State University Social Work Graduate Student Association will present a free screening of the award-winning documentary, Two Spirits, Thursday, March 22 in the Morris Dailey Auditorium on the SJSU campus. Doors open at 5:30pm, the screening and a panel will follow from 6 to 9.

The film interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders. Fred Martinez was a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live and Martinez became one of the youngest hate crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at 16.

Director Lydia Nibley will be a special guest speaker at the screening, along with those from the Billy DeFrank Center, the Amanda Network, the Network for a Hatefree Community, the Santa Cruz Diversity Center, and SJSU’s counseling center, as well as guest Assemblyman Paul Fong (DCupertino).

Continuing education credit will be available for LCSWs and LMFTs. Copies of the film will be available for purchase for $20. RSVP at www.sjsutwospirits.eventbrite.com. Questions can be directed to Erin Carter at erin. emily.carter@gmail.com.

SFPD Pride Alliance offers scholarship The San Francisco Police Officer’s Pride Alliance has announced that applications are now being accepted for the Jon C. Cook Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is open to high school students who will be graduating this year, have a 3.0 grade point average or better, and identify with one or more of the following categories: you are LGBT, you are the child of an LGBT individual, you are the child of an SFPD officer.

Cook, a gay officer, was killed in an automobile accident on June 12, 2002 See page 17 >>

<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Changing views on marriage often starts with conversations

by Chris Carson

W

hat is the best way to spark a meaningful conversation on marriage equality in areas like business and faith, where LGBT issues are rarely discussed?

That was the question posed by Kathy Levinson and the Reverend Roland Stringfellow at “I Do. Who Can’t? Silicon Valley Leaders on Marriage Equality,” a panel held at the Commonwealth Club of California on March 7.

For Levinson, a philanthropist, cochair of the LGBT National finance Committee for Obama, and former president and COO of E*Trade, the answer was a short film.

Titled I Do. Who Can’t? the film is made up of a collection of interviews with Silicon Valley executives, representing different sexualities, races, and religions.

“We worked very hard not to make it an advocacy piece,” Levinson said of the film, which she began thinking about after completing the American Leadership Forum in Silicon Valley.

Instead, the goal “was really to create a tool” that would start a dialogue, she said.

The film attempts to reframe the marriage equality argument as a civil rights and a legal issue instead

of a religious one.

But recently, national news outlets have discussed marriage equality as an economic issue, wondering what, if any, benefits could come from allowing gays and lesbians to marry.

Levinson was asked if a married employee is a better employee.

“The best employee,” she responded, “is one who can bring their whole self to work. They don’t have to hide.”

“It’s hard to get to the top if your basic needs are not being taken care of and, for LGBT people, they are not.”

The effects of which were evident during the panel.

As Levinson’s film touched on the joy many LGBT people felt when they were able to marry their partners in 2004, after former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, many of those in attendance wiped tears from their eyes.

An appeal to emotion, or “Heart Language,” is a tool Stringfellow, the director of ministerial outreach at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion, said he often uses when discussing LGBT issues with people of faith. Stringfellow is also the director of the Umoja

Rick Gerharter

Kathy Levinson speaks about marriage equality at a Commonwealth Club forum.

Project-Christian Education for African American Faith Communities.

“When you’re working with people of faith,” he said, “they are coming from a place of doing, and thinking they are doing the right thing.” These are not bad people, but that attitude “is part of their core being,” he added.

For example, Stringfellow said, if a mother uses tough love – banning her gay son from seeing his friends or telling him he is going to hell – he tries to show that speaking to her child in that way is actually harmful.

“It’s better to save a life than kill it,” said Stringfellow, who has become something like the public face

of faith for marriage equality, with his dreadlocks and clerical collar.

“Rather than try to get into arguments about whether this is civil rights or not,” he said, “it’s about getting at the way people think.”

At the heart of the opposition, “is religious arguments and we need to think of ways to approach that.”

However, places of worship need to take responsibility for providing people safe spaces to speak openly about these issues, Stringfellow told the Bay Area Reporter.

“They need to understand that having people feel comfortable; that’s the whole purpose,” he said.

“The reality is many of our churches are more interested in duplication,” he said, meaning, does a person look, act, or talk the way everyone else does, instead of getting to know the real person.

“That’s the thing congregations need to be challenged on,” Stringfellow added.

Both Levinson and Stringfellow reminded the audience that what everyone needs to be challenged on is taking a stand.

Neutrality on the issue of marriage equality can be as harmful as voting against it, they said, and the broader question that needs to be asked is how does love between two people, in any form, harm society?▼

StartOut awards highlight LGBT business leaders

by David Duran

G

ay entrepreneur Peter Thiel was the keynote speaker at Start Out’s inaugural awards gala in San Francisco last week, and said that Silicon Valley is the place to be for budding high-tech start-ups.

StartOut is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering and developing entrepreneurship in the LGBT community. It is growing at a rapid pace and expanding into new cities. In its first year, StartOut grew from an idea into a national organization with over 2,500 participants from coast to coast. It has managed to attract some of the top LGBT names in the entrepreneurial community to participate in its events.

This past year, most of the efforts were focused on growing existing programs and starting chapters in new cities.

Thiel, who received the JPMorgan Chase Leadership Award, had a “fireside” discussion with Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of Out magazine, at the gala, held at the W Hotel. Thiel is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded PayPal and was its CEO. He currently serves as president of Clarium Capital.

Thiel was also an early investor in Facebook, and sits on the company’s board of directors. He has most recently been in the news for his $2.6 million contribution to Endorse Liberty, the pro-Ron Paul super PAC that has produced several viral videos and sponsored sharp attack ads against Paul’s opponents in the Republican presidential race.

“We all have these ideas and ambitions when we are young and we question ourselves, and ask ourselves how we can do this and how we can do it in a way it’s never been done before,” said Thiel during his conversation with Hicklin.

Thiel believes that every great business is a monopoly. “It offers something that is so special to the

Courtesy StartOut

Peter Thiel speaks to attendees at last week’s inaugural Start Out awards gala, where he was also a recipient.

world,” he said.

When asked about Silicon Valley, Thiel said, “It’s the place to be in our country.”

He thinks there is a sense to do something new and different in Silicon Valley and is predicting change soon.

“The best edit is a re-write and that might be the case in Silicon Valley,” he noted.

Thiel’s plans for the next decade include working more with other people who want to be venture capitalists. “I want to find ways to help other people become as good or better as I was this past decade,” he said.

Members of StartOut such as Ken Priore, general counsel for Grindr, the gay social networking mobile application, felt the event was inspiring.

“I have been involved in venture capital for over 10 years and this is the first significant visibility and recognition that LGBT individuals have had in that community,” said Priore.

Priore, a member of StartOut for

two years,. said, “This was the first time I have ever felt such a strong LGBT identity in a professional sphere where being gay was often accepted, but not visible.”

Kim Frank of Corp-Growth also attended.

“I thought it was a tremendous crowd and event and I was thrilled with the caliber and breadth of recipients and attendees,” she said.

Frank agreed with other attendees who were there to network and meet new people. “I met and engaged with incredible role models and successful LGBT entrepreneurs.”

StartOut members benefit from a multitude of programs that are specifically designed to help and support entrepreneurs at any stage of their business. Programs address a broad variety of entrepreneurial issues and bring together resources needed to succeed.

StartOut also helps the LGBT community by building equality through promoting the economic empowerment of the LGBT community, and combating discrimination by promoting the visibility of successful LGBT entrepreneurs, among other activities.

One of the organization’s missions is to provide role models for LGBT young professionals. By introducing youth to successful entrepreneurs and the concept of entrepreneurship as a career, they help inspire and foster new ideas and opportunities. There is also a mentorship program that connects new entrepreneurs with experienced professionals who provide support and advice to help them build, fund and grow their businesses.

StartOut’s most important role is building a community where LGBT professionals can help each other.

It brings together members of the community as well as supporters with a common interest in entrepreneurship at various stages of building their careers. They host several See page 17 >>

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Politics >>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Gay candidate runs against San Jose city councilman

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

an Jose could see the return of an out City Council member this summer if voters in the city’s 6th District elect gay attorney Steve Kline as their representative.

District 6 includes many San Jose neighborhoods with large LGBT populations, such as Willow Glen, Rose Garden, and The Alameda, home to the city’s LGBT community center. Kline is banking on support from LGBT residents who wish to see out leadership again at City Hall.

“The community is not as unified, in the sense of centrally located, as it is in San Francisco. But when I talk to people about returning to having a gay member on the council, I get a very favorable response,” said Kline, who lives with his husband, Layne Kulwin, in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood.

The political newcomer has a tough road to victory, though, as Kline is seeking to unseat Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio. In March 2007, Oliverio won a special election to fill out the remainder of the term of Ken Yeager, the city’s first out council member who stepped down in 2006 after being elected to a county supervisor seat. Oliverio then won election to a full four-year term in 2008.

The 2012 election will take place on the June 5 primary, and if no candidate receives 50 percent plus one of the vote, then a runoff will be held with the top two vote-getters on the November 6 ballot.

Kline has been attacking Oliverio over his close ties with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, an opponent of marriage equality, and their backing a pension reform plan on the June ballot fiercely opposed by labor groups and city employee unions.

“The primary reason I am running is he has not been serving our neighborhood and communities in this district,” said Kline, 62, chief legal counsel for health case management firm EK Help Services Inc. “His stands are anti-work, antiaffordable housing; he is in favor of outsourcing city employees and city jobs. I just think he is not committed to the kinds of values the people in the 6th District are for.”

With Oliverio often siding with Reed to pass the mayor’s agenda on 6-5 votes, Kline argues his election could empower the council’s current five-person minority bloc.

There are five seats up for election, three of which are held by opponents of the mayor.

“There is a significant split on the San Jose City Council at the moment and generally the most critical issues are going 6-5 and the mayor is part of that six,” said Kline. “If we win here that will change the balance on the council. We might be able to change the attitude in San Jose from confrontation to collaboration.”

Oliverio, 42, who is single and straight, countered that he does not always support Reed’s stances. As an example he pointed to the council’s vote for San Jose to join the lawsuit San Francisco and other municipalities filed against Proposition 8, the state ban against same-sex marriage. While Reed opposed doing so, Oliverio voted with the majority to join the case.

“I am an individual. As much as he is our mayor, we don’t always agree on everything,” said Oliverio, who supports same-sex marriage.

He added that people often as-

San Jose City Council candidate Steve Kline

sume he is a gay man because he is unmarried.

“When you are a single man everyone makes an assumption,” said Oliverio, a San Jose native who was raised in an immigrant Catholic Italian family and bought the house next door to his parents. “I take it as a compliment. The people I know from the GLBT community are smart, intelligent, beautiful people.”

Marriage equality could come into play in this year’s council race, as Reed has irked local LGBT activists with his refusal to sign on to the bipartisan effort Mayors for the Freedom to Marry. The group Marriage Equality Silicon Valley has been urging Reed to support the cause.

Kline, a member of the activist group, has been a vocal critic of Reed’s anti-gay stance. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter last week, he linked Oliverio to it.

“He supports the mayor. That is troubling for me in the gay community because of Mr. Reed’s support of Prop 8 and his failure to sign the Freedom to Marry resolution from the league of mayors,” said Kline.

“We are talking about equal rights.

For the mayor of San Jose to be on the other side of that issue is very unfortunate.”

Oliverio told the B.A.R. that he believes he has been a strong ally for the local LGBT community on the council. In terms of the mayor, he said he has tried to talk to him about marriage equality but accepts his position.

“I tell him it is an important issue but I can’t get him to change his moral convictions or religious belief,” he said. “I really don’t see any way to change that; you can’t shame a person into doing it.”

Oliverio said he has yet to seek endorsements in the race, whereas Kline has lined up serious support already, including from San Jose City Council members Donald Rocha and Nancy Pyle, who is termed out of office this year. Four different union groups are also backing Kline.

He is seeking support from both the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and BAYMEC, the South Bay’s LGBT political group. Oliverio also plans to seek BAYMEC’s endorsement.

Kline hired as his campaign consultant Rich Robinson and has built a comprehensive campaign website at stevekline2012.com/. He has raised about $25,000 and expects he needs at least $70,000 to be competitive.

“I take nothing for granted,” said Kline. “We are going to run hard to win in June.”

A Boston native, this is Kline’s

second political race since he moved to the Bay Area. In 1985, prior to coming out of the closet, he ran for a San Rafael City Council seat and lost.

He later lived in San Francisco for 13 years from 1988 to 2001 and was active in the city’s LGBT political circles. Kline has lived in San Jose for eight years.

He and Kulwin, whom he met in 2002, married in 2008.

LGBT leaders in San Jose believe Kline will be a formidable opponent, as he started laying the groundwork for his campaign last year. Democratic Party official Clark Williams, a gay man who ran against Oliverio six years ago, opted not to run again this year.

“Steve would make a terrific elected official,” said Williams.

As vice chair of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Williams is waiting until after the local party endorses in April to personally make an endorsement in the race. Despite Oliverio being an elected member of the county committee, said Williams, either candidate could win the party’s backing.

“The challenge for Pierluigi is he has had some significant constituencies in San Jose, largely the police and fire and really the labor movement, that are very unhappy with him and have been since he was elected,” said Williams. “Almost always usually members of the committee get the endorsement but not in this case.”

Jo Kenny, a lesbian who is president of the South Bay Pride at Work chapter, has come to know Kline through the marriage equality organizing. Speaking as a resident of the district, Kenny said she believes Kline “has a good chance” in the race.

The key for Kline, she said, is if voters agree with his vision for how to solve the city’s pension and budget issues over Oliverio’s proposals.

“My understanding of Pierluigi, watching him the last number of years, he really supports the privatization and outsourcing of city jobs,” said Kenny, a member of the South Bay Labor Council executive board.

Oliverio told the B.A.R. he isn’t worried about the upcoming endorsement fight. And he believes voters agree with his position on San Jose’s fiscal issues.

“The majority of Democrats overwhelmingly support pension reform,” he said. “I am running for a second and final four-year term because this is the area I have grown up in and continue to live. I have been very successful collaborating with people.”

Lesbians leave SF Dem Party panel The San Francisco Democratic Party could see the return of an LGBT person as its chair due to the departure this summer of Aaron Peskin. In addition, two lesbian members of the local party’s oversight body are also stepping down.

Peskin had told Political Notebook in December that he was unsure if he would run again for a seat on the Democratic County Central Committee. Last week, as the Friday March 23 filing deadline came for DCCC candidates to get their names on the June 5 primary ballot, it was confirmed that Peskin would not seek re-election.

He isn’t the only one leaving. The departing members include two lesbian leaders. Artist Debra Walker, who had been the panel’s fourth vice chair, already stepped down and was replaced by Police Commissioner Petra DeJesus.

See page 16 >>

<< Community News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Rick Gerharter

Leno is on the wall M

ayor Ed Lee unveils a photo of state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), right, on the wall of John’s Grill near Union Square during a “hanging” ceremony Friday, March 9. The photo, next to one of Senator Dianne Feinstein

(D-California), joins others on the walls of the historic restaurant, continuing a nearly 40-year tradition of honoring local politicians, business executives, and other notables. Supervisor Scott Wiener, center, also participated in the unveiling.

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L

ater this month California and other coastal states around the nation will recognize Tsunami Preparedness Week in an attempt to prod residents along the coasts to ready themselves for future tsunamis.

The dangers are all too real. A year ago March 11 a tsunami wave surge triggered by a massive earthquake in Japan caused extensive damage to harbors in Del Norte, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. The costs totaled $48 million.

The focus on tsunamis is the latest effort by state and local officials to remind residents, particularly in the Bay Area, to be prepared should a natural disaster strike. The region is a hotbed of potential trouble, prone to earthquakes, flash flooding, and landslides.

While counties and the state have emergency management agencies responsible for planning for disasters and educating the public about emergency preparedness, very little attention is focused on the specific needs of LGBT people.

Aiming to fill in that void, an Oakland-based agency is rolling out a new emergency preparedness curriculum designed specifically for LGBT people and community-based organizations.

For the last year Jimmy Nguyen, the LGBT project coordinator for Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters, known as CARD, has worked on developing the training material.

Funded partially by Alameda County, the curriculum is believed to be the first such training of its kind.

“Disaster really happens when we as a community don’t respond in the correct way and don’t prepare in the correct way,” said Nguyen, 22, who told the Bay Area Reporter that, so far, he has yet to live through any major disasters.

CARD’s mission is to focus on specific populations overlooked by larger relief agencies, such as the Red Cross or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since they take a broader approach.

“Traditional training is very focused on the hetero-normative population. The LGBT population to them isn’t a big enough population to target,” said Nguyen. “We do training also for the deaf and hard of hearing, seniors, and immigrants.”

Courtesy Jimmy Nguyen

Jimmy Nguyen

Scant attention to LGBTs The research he conducted for the LGBT training found that many gay community centers and agencies have given scant attention to emergency preparedness, said Nguyen.

CARD is offering its classes to them free-of-charge and hopes LGBT groups from across the country will seek out the material.

“The response was all the same.

They didn’t have that type of training and didn’t have the resources set up for emergency preparedness yet,” said Nguyen, who will be testing out the curriculum later this month at Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, which works with LGBT elders.

The issues LGBT people may face during or after a disaster may not only differ from their straight neighbors, but also varies across the different segments of the community.

During Hurricane Katrina, for example, one of the main concerns for gay men and others living with AIDS in New Orleans was how to access the medicine they needed to survive.

Nguyen pointed to the problems transgender people could encounter if they seek housing at a shelter set up by a relief agency. Such temporary housing situations often segregate people by gender when it comes to shower and locker room facilities, presenting unique challenges for transgender individuals.

“Say there is an earthquake and people have to evacuate to a shelter, many shelters require all men to shower together and all women to shower together and change in the same locker room. If a transgender person comes in and says they are a man or woman and then take off

their clothes and their gender presents differently, it leads to all sorts of problems,” said Nguyen. “They could be denied access to the shelter.”

In certain parts of the country, where LGBT rights are lacking and members of the community may live more of a closeted life, a disaster can out people, noted CARD’s Executive Director Ana-Marie Jones. Sexual orientation could come up when a couple goes to seek services or a neighbor could inadvertently bring it up when being interviewed by the news media.

“It is hard enough when disaster victims have to go and ask for services; it is exponentially harder when you have to face someone who doesn’t understand the community and is sitting there with a face of judgment,” said Jones. “It is really hard – when you already lost everything and are needy – going to a large organization and facing someone clearly frowning upon you and your choices.”

It can happen even in San Francisco said Jones, a straight woman who came to the Bay Area from New York two weeks prior to the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Volunteers came from all over the country to help.

Assisting with relief services in the Marina, Jones recalled having a man pull her aside to tell her he was living with AIDS and seeing a young black man wearing women’s clothes raise eyebrows among some volunteers.

“I think now there would be less overt discrimination,” should a disaster hit, said Jones. “But you would still find LGBT members of our community not being treated as sensitively as they should.”

Since being hired at CARD in 2000, Jones said the agency has helped LGBT service providers with some training. But when she hired Nguyen last year, they sought to more closely examine the LGBT community’s needs.

“When we had the opportunity with Jimmy to look at grant money , we really wanted to flesh out the curriculum and go full tilt. In truth the LGBT community is not just underserved but basically isn’t being recognized as having particular needs,” said Jones. “This was our golden opportunity to go deeper than just a traditional class for LGBTs.” Kelly Huston, a gay man whom former Governor Arnold SchwarSee page 14 >>

▼

Community News>>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Film examines breast cancer ‘culture’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

s Lea Pool’s new, decidedly controversial documentary opens, thousands of women are lining up in San Francisco to Walk For the Cure. Some of them dance to “Celebration,” Kool and the Gang’s classic disco anthem. An announcer welcomes them to the Susan G. Komen Walk For the Cure as though he were inviting them to open door #2 on The Price is Right.

Pink Ribbons Inc. (First Run Releasing) is a no holds barred look at what writer and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich, interviewed in Pool’s film, calls the “breast cancer culture.” The film will be shown in San Francisco later this month.

The film raises many powerful and disturbing questions about the nature of nonprofit organizations, and how they spend the huge amounts of money they raise. Most importantly, the film specifically wonders if the Komen for the Cure Foundation is actually spending its operating budget on women’s health care.

Komen for the Cure, of course, made headlines in February when it abruptly announced it was defunding Planned Parenthood, which had used its funding from the foundation to offer breast health services to its clients, mostly low-income women. The decision set off a firestorm of criticism that quickly led to a reversal of the decision and the resignation of a top Komen official.

The Komen controversy transpired after Pink Ribbons was shot.

But the episode led some to conclude that Komen is a puppet organization for right-wing evangelical groups. Whether or not those conclusions are true remains unclear.

But a few things do become very clear in the film: Komen embraces sponsorship from corporations whose commitment to women’s health issues is highly suspect.

As supermodel Elizabeth Hurley poses in a glamorous pink gown, Evelyn Lauder of the famed Estee Lauder cosmetics company grandly announces all the pink monuments across the U.S. and Canada that she says are “raising awareness.” She does not explain how shining pink klieg lights on the Empire State Building or across Niagara Falls will benefit women’s lives.

Barbara Brenner, former executive director of the Breast Cancer Action in San Francisco, spoke eloquently on camera of “cause marketing.” According to Brenner, companies will latch onto a cause as a means to market their product – footage shot at a 2010 Komen Walk For the Cure reveals a young man announcing the latest flavors of Fuse brand teas. He comes across like a carnival barker.

And it’s not just Komen that is holding breast cancer fundraisers.

Avon also has an annual walk in San Francisco and cosmetics giant Revlon has sponsored similar walka-thons.

The Bay Area Reporter attempted to contact Brenner at BCA’s Montgomery Street office. Brenner has since retired from the organization, but current Executive Director Karuna Jaggar praised the film.

“Pink Ribbons Inc. pulls back the pink curtain on why we aren’t making progress in ending this epidemic,” Jaggar said. “Breast Cancer Action has been working to dismantle this culture of pink washing through our Think Before You Pink Campaign, in which we encourage people to ask critical questions about breast cancer fundraising.”

Jaggar said that corporate contributions are a long-standing issue in

Lea Pool

Participants at the 2012 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in San Francisco, as seen in Pink Ribbons Inc.

health activism, particularly breast cancer.

“Corporate money has long played a tremendous role in shaping the agendas of pink fund-raising. My hope is that people will be outraged when they see this, as they should be.

I hope they take that rage and put it to work changing the focus of breast cancer advocacy in a very simple way: Think before you purchase pink. This movie is a potential game changer, showing just how much the shiny pink status quo has cost us, and how little we’ve gained from it.”

For its part, Komen stands by its work.

“We haven’t seen the film,” Komen spokeswoman Andrea Rader said. “From everything we’ve seen and read it covers material that we’ve seen before. Facts are: Susan G. Komen funds more breast cancer research than any other nonprofit. We commit more to community health programs than any other breast cancer organization. We donated $93 million to community health programs around the country in 2011.

Our San Francisco affiliate has given $13 million to Bay Area breast cancer programs since 1987.”

Rader noted that some of the local agencies Komen funded last year include the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, Lyon-Martin Health Services, the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, and Shanti.

Jaggar’s words resonate quite powerfully in a sequence shot at an Austin, Texas support group for Stage 4 (terminal) breast cancer patients. One of them speaks of the “tyranny of cheerfulness” in the Komen organization, how they’re not allowed to be depressed or have a bad day.

“We’re the elephant in the room,” says another.

Others shown in the film express outrage that the Komen foundation puts no effort into cancer prevention. They speak of all the money Komen raises (reportedly $450 million per year) for “research,” yet never explain how the money is spent.

Still others are offended by attempts to make cancer seem “pretty and feminine.” Ehrenreich recalls reading a magazine in the middle of a chemotherapy treatment. She was outraged by an ad she saw from Komen, offering pink teddy bears for sale.

“Here I am, facing the most serious health crisis of my life, and they’re offering me teddy bears,” says Ehrenreich. “Excuse me, but I’m not 6 years old.”

“Breast cancer has become a big business,” said BCA’s Jaggar. “Corporations look good by associating themselves with breast cancer, but the bottom line is that these corporations are in the business of making money, and not women’s health care, so it is critical to ask how much their involvement really helps women.”▼

Pink Ribbons Inc. screens at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, on Thursday, March 29. The 7 p.m. show is sold out; tickets are available for the 9 p.m. screening ($8 regular, $6 for children, teachers, seniors, and YBCA members). To order, call (415) 978-2787.

www.ebar.com

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Read more online at www.ebar.com

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Read more online at www.ebar.com

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

<< National News

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Priest who denied communion placed on leave

by Chuck Colbert

A

priest in the Washington, D.C. archdiocese who denied communion to a lesbian at her mother’s funeral has been removed from ministry and placed on administrative leave.

A three-paragraph letter from an archdiocesan official, dated March 9, said that “effective today, Father Marcel Guarnizo’s assignment at St. John Neumann is withdrawn and he has been placed on administrative leave with his priestly faculties removed until such time as an inquiry into his actions at the parish is completed.”

Bishop Barry Knestout also said “credible allegations” against the priest for “intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others that is incompatible with proper priestly ministry” prompted the action.

Knestout cited “the grave nature of these allegations,” subsequent “confusion in the parish” and parishioners’ “concerns” as reasons for prohibiting Guarnizo “from exercising any priestly ministry” in the archdiocese “until all matters are appropriately resolved with the hope that he might return to ministry.”

Knestout is auxiliary bishop who functions as chief of staff for Cardinal Donald Wuerl, spiritual leader of the archdiocese. The letter was addressed to its clergy.

During Sunday Masses, the Reverend Thomas G. LaHood, pastor of St.

John Neumann, read the letter to parishioners, saying Guarnizo’s removal was not related to the funeral Mass incident, but “pertains to actions over the past week or two,” a point LaHood reiterated.

Specifics of the actions transpiring “over the past week or two” are not yet clear. But conservative bloggers have defended Guarnizo while at the same time challenging Johnson’s version of the story by citing anonymous sources as witnesses to the incident in their disputing of her account.

Johnson has also been inaccurately dismissed in the conservative blogosphere, she said, as a “Muslim, Buddhist, and communist.”

Reached by telephone, Johnson said, “I am a confirmed Catholic who has been greatly influenced by the work of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk.”

“One of the most relevant quotes of Merton,” she added, “is his saying something to the effect that before he died, he wanted to be the best Buddhist he could be. If that’s good enough for a Catholic Trappist monk, who is one of the most holy men of the 20th Century, that’s good enough for me.”

Johnson went on to say her “embracing of the teachings of the Buddha, in addition to the teachings I learned as child and hold dear to this day, is no contradiction for me.”

“Nothing I have done or said in relationship to Buddhism conflicts

Father Marcel Guarnizo

whatsoever with my identity and practice as a Catholic,” she said.

Relief at priest’s removal LGBT Catholics greeted news of Guarnizo’s removal with relief.

“I hope that any church official tempted to use the Eucharist as a weapon or punishment will take notice of what happened here, and refrain from similar action,” said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of Dignity USA, a national group for LGBT Catholics.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, said that removing Guarnizo “was a good first step.”

“Bishop Knestout’s letter should definitely be included in any investigation of ‘intimidating behavior,’ since that label can be accurately applied to [Guarnizo’s] denial of communion to Ms. Johnson at her mother’s funeral. For that reason, Ms. Johnson and her family most certainly should be consulted in this investigation,” said DeBernardo.

Lesbian feminist theologian Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D., offered an assessment. “While the archdiocese has gone to some lengths to say that the removal of the priest from pastoral ministry was unrelated to the refusal to give communion to Barbara Johnson, one hopes that that action, combined with his apparent unwillingness to sit politely for her eulogy for her deceased mother and his inability to accompany the family to the cemetery for the final prayers were clues to some serious problems,” she said.

Johnson was denied communion during her mother’s funeral Mass on Saturday, February 25, when the presiding priest, Guarnizo, told her, “I cannot give you communion because you live with a woman, and in the eyes of the church that is a sin.”

The Washington archdiocese acknowledged in a statement that Guarnizo had acted inappropriately.

Johnson also received an apology through correspondence from Knestout.

Altogether, the most hurtful of

Guarnizo’s actions was his not being present at the cemetery with the family for their mother’s burial, Johnson said.

That is “most egregious and upsetting to us,” said Johnson during a telephone interview.

“It wasn’t my funeral, it was our mother’s funeral. As her children who adore her, it was our responsibility to make sure she had a beautiful and holy funeral, a sacred ritual for her soul,” Johnson explained.

Although Guarnizo refused her the Eucharist, Johnson in fact received communion from a lay minister during the funeral Mass, she said.

Johnson voiced praise for Knestout’s apology and LaHood’s pastoral care.

Initially, Johnson “reached out to Father Marcel through e-mail,” she said, but getting no reply, “I wrote to LaHood. He was loving, pastoral, compassionate and very kind in our subsequent telephone conversation.”

Asked about her initial insistence on receiving an apology from Guarnizo, Johnson said, “I am done.”

And yet, “I will always welcome a conversation with him, always,” she said. “I have prayed that the two of us could have a conversation because I think we are more alike than different in our love for the church.”

“I am the kind of person who likes resolution,” Johnson added.

“I would cherish a direct, private conversation.”▼

Supes approve rules on SFPD, FBI

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved legislation by a 6-5 vote that would codify that the city’s police adhere to local standards when working with the FBI. The ordinance, known as the Safe San Francisco Civil Rights ordinance, was introduced by Supervisor Jane Kim and is backed by many in the Muslim, Arab, LGBT, and other communities concerned about law enforcement investigations.

Among other things, Kim’s proposal would amend city code by adding a section to set city policy regarding participation in federal counterterrorism activities, and set parameters

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Disaster training

From page 8

zenegger named the assistant secretary of the California Emergency Management Agency in 2007, acknowledged that the state agency, known as CAL EMA, has not addressed the specific disaster needs within the LGBT community.

“We haven’t specifically done any programs that focus on the LGBT community. But it is a really good idea,” said Huston, a former Modesto police officer. “I commend CARD for looking specifically at the needs of the LGT community. I would be interested in some of the issues that may have come up and I am not aware of.”

He hasn’t faced any such issues during the emergencies he has handled since going to work for CAL EMA. “I haven’t personally seen or heard of issues. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” said Huston. “People during any disaster are very stressed and concerned and anything we can do to help alleviate some of that stress and concern is better for everybody.”

Pets One area of concern Huston has been working to address is what happens with people’s pets in times of evacuations. He partnered with

for the San Francisco Police Department’s participation in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Kim recently made some changes to the ordinance, including dropping a provision that would have urged the police chief to amend or terminate the current agreement between his agency and the FBI regarding the joint task force.

Concerns are centered on a 2007 memorandum of understanding that the SFPD entered into with the FBI. According to documents attached to Kim’s ordinance, that agreement could “authorize a variety of intelligence gathering and surveillance activities in circumstances that are not permitted under California law and

Tracey Stevens, the deputy director of the International Animal Welfare Training Institute at UC Davis, to develop a plan for how to shelter animals, as well as their human owners, following a disaster.

The rules forbid animals to be in the same shelters as humans. And pet owners, who are numerous within the LGBT community, often refuse to evacuate without their pets.

“I say this in public and it makes my colleagues cringe. But if I can’t take my three dogs I am not evacuating,” said Huston, who with his husband has a trio of Dachshunds named Dixie, Daisy, and Daphney.

While working for the Contra Costa County EMA Stevens developed a plan for how to handle animals and pets during a disaster. Now she and Huston are replicating it statewide.

“We are developing plans and training for first responders on how to deal with animals,” he said. “We are working with the Red Cross on guidelines for how to set up animal shelters next to people shelters. I am not going to dump my dogs at a shelter five miles away, that is not going to happen.”

Any agency interested in CARD’s emergency preparedness training for LGBT people should contact Nguyen at (510) 451-3140 or Jimmy@ CARDcanhelp.org.▼

Rick Gerharter

Supervisor Jane Kim

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Colfax

From page 1

nounced Wednesday, March 14.

Referring to Colfax as “one of the nation’s leading public health policy experts,” administration officials said that he’ll coordinate the continuing efforts of the government to reduce the number of HIV infections across the United States.

“Grant Colfax will lead my administration’s continued progress in providing care and treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS. Grant’s expertise will be key as we continue to face serious challenges and take bold steps to meet them. I look forward to his leadership in the months and years to come,” Obama said in a statement.

Colfax wasn’t available for comment Wednesday morning.

Eileen Shields, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Public Health Department, said that Tracey Packer, deputy director of the HIV Prevention Section, would take Colfax’s place. She said that it would be up to Health Director Barbara Garcia to determine how long Packer serves in the position.

The national AIDS office coordinates with the National Security Council and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, and works with international bodies to ensure that

San Francisco standards.”

For example, the documents say, FBI guidelines “authorize use of surveillance and informants without suspicion of criminal activity or any factual criminal predicate.”

Before the board voted on her proposal Tuesday, March 13, Kim said that she wants to ensure “We are protecting the basic civil liberties and right to privacy all of us depend on here.”

In voicing his support, board President David Chiu said that, “it wasn’t too long ago” that LGBTs “had photographs taken of them” and were “humiliated and dragged from underground bars.”

Gay Supervisor Scott Wiener op-

posed the legislation. He called it “a difficult vote,” but said current guidelines already make it “crystal clear” that local policies aren’t to be violated.

Out Supervisors David Campos and Christina Olague joined Supervisors John Avalos, Eric Mar, Kim, and Chiu in voting for the legislation.

Along with Wiener, Supervisors Carmen Chu, Malia Cohen, Sean Elsbernd, and Mark Farrell opposed it.

A second board vote is hoped for within the next two weeks, according to Sunny Angulo, an aide to Kim. SFPD officials haven’t provided comment to the Bay Area Reporter on the ordinance. A local FBI spokesman has declined to comment on the legislation.▼

the U.S. response to the global pandemic is fully integrated with other prevention, care, and treatment efforts worldwide.

Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief initiative, the U.S. “has made enormous progress in responding to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, working with countries heavily impacted by HIV/ AIDS to help expand access to treatment, care, and prevention,” administration officials said.

Administration officials said that Colfax has focused on working with others “to implement sustainable, evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions and policies in public health settings and measuring their effectiveness. Under his leadership, San Francisco greatly expanded HIV testing and treatment support efforts.”

Colfax, who’s HIV-negative, is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his medical residency at UCSF. People who work with some of San Francisco’s best-known HIV and AIDS-based organizations praised Colfax’s appointment.

Neil Giuliano, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said in a statement that Colfax “has been instrumental in the decline of new HIV infections in San Francisco in recent years.”

He said Colfax’s “unique blend of experience serving on the front lines of the epidemic, implementing the national strategy at the local level, working as a direct service provider within the Ryan White CARE system, and conducting cutting-edge research makes him the right person at the right time to lead the Obama administration’s efforts to end HIV/ AIDS in the United States.”

Referring to implementation of the national Affordable Care Act, Ernest Hopkins, director of legislative affairs at SFAF, stated that he’s confident Colfax “will work to ensure that the coming changes to our health care system are made thoughtfully, carefully, and with a strong focus on improving the health status of the most vulnerable people.”

AIDS foundation staff also said that through instituting “innovative” prevention tools such as mapping community viral load, the city’s HIV prevention planning and service system has become “a model for jurisdictions across the nation.”

Dana Van Gorder, executive director of Project Inform, also praised Colfax’s appointment.

“Grant is the ideal choice for this position at this moment,” Van Gorder stated. “... Grant perfectly See page 16 >>

▼

Community News>>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Pacino cruises into Castro with new film

by Matthew S. Bajko

M

ore than four decades ago he was the target of gay men’s scorn across the country for starring in a widely panned movie about a gay homicidal killer.

Next week he will be feted at a theater in the heart of the country’s gay mecca for a film he directed, partially wrote, and stars in about a famous gay playwright.

It sounds like the arc of a movie script in its own right.

If nothing else it is a remarkable coda in the acting career of Al Pacino, who will present Wilde Salome, his new documentary about Oscar Wilde and his once-banned work Salome, for its U.S. premiere at the Castro Theatre in the heart of San Francisco’s gayborhood.

“It is absolutely marvelous, and the Castro Theatre is, of course, the perfect place to have these premieres,” said K.C. Price, executive director of the city’s LGBT film festival Frameline.

The event will double as a fundraiser for the GLBT Historical Society and gay Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner will conduct a Q&A with Pacino on stage. In HBO’s 2003 adaptation of Kushner’s Angels in America, Pacino played the character of Roy Cohn, a gay closeted attorney who rose to prominence as an aide to Joseph McCarthy and later died of AIDS. Pacino won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his portrayal. It was the second time he had won critical acclaim for portraying a real life gay person on screen.

He was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a gay bank robber trying to pay for his lover’s sex change in the 1975 movie Dog Day Afternoon, which was based on a real life incident.

“The guy is one of the great Ameri-

can actors. We are honored to be the beneficiary of this premiere,” said Paul Boneberg, the historical society’s executive director. “It is good for San Francisco and for the Castro to have Al Pacino do a world premiere there.”

Little praise for Cruising There was little praise for Pacino when the film Cruising debuted in 1980. It caused an uproar among the LGBT community and led to calls for a boycott of the movie.

Pacino played a police officer investigating murders within New York City’s gay leather scene. The film’s ending suggested Pacino’s character was in fact the killer.

Writing in the Village Voice at the time of the film’s shooting in 1979, Arthur Bell predicted it would “be the most oppressive, ugly, bigoted look at homosexuality ever presented on the screen.”

In his book on queer cinema, The Celluloid Closet, author Vito Russo wrote, “Gays who protested the making of the film maintained that it would show that when Pacino recognized his attraction to the homosexual world, he would become psychotic and begin to kill.”

Over time passions about the film subsided. When it was released on DVD in 2007, and reshown in theaters, the Voice headlined its story “Cruising had the city’s gay community up in arms in ‘79, but what was all the fuss about?”

Bay Area Reporter arts writer David Lamble called it “the movie that will not die!” in an intro to an interview he conducted with the film’s director, William Friedkin, whose 1970 movie The Boys in the Band has also faced criticisms for its depiction of a brood of gay male friends attending a birthday party.

“Cruising failed because of a badly flawed script, a huge casting mistake, an insensitivity to the implications of

Al Pacino in a scene from Cruising, the widely panned film about a gay killer; Pacino will be in town next week to premier his new documentary, Wilde Salome.

the material ... and a failure by both filmmaker and star to reach down into the dark parts of their own souls,” wrote Lamble five years ago.

Frameline’s Price said he believes Cruising could nowadays be shown in a retrospective screening format that would intrigue younger moviegoers.

“I do think we have come so far in terms of how we look at negative portrayals within LGBT film that so much more is forgiven now than it used it be,” said Price. “In the 1990s new queer cinema had some very negative portrayals of LGBT characters that wouldn’t have been tolerated in the same way with 1970s and 1980s audiences.”

Boneberg expects Kushner will ask Pacino about his queer screen past next week. He doubts anyone who plans to attend is doing so to protest the actor’s film role choices and instead wants to see the star of such classics as The Godfather trilogy or Glengarry Glen Ross.

“That is why people will be attending, is my sense,” he said. “I think

people will be coming who are Oscar Wilde and Al Pacino fans.”

Event promoter Mark Rhoades said the backlash that Cruising was met with never came up in his talks with the Wilde film’s producers in planning for the Wednesday, March 21 premiere.

He believes Bay Area film lovers will embrace Pacino’s new film, which combines footage of a production of the Salome play spliced with a sort of travelogue where the actor explores the motivations that drove Wilde to write such an incendiary piece.

“All I have heard is people are really excited,” said Rhoades, who said ticket sales have been brisk. “I feel people who are moviegoers in San Francisco are very sophisticated and see film as an art form. I told Al we are setting you up with people who know what you are doing. Al loves Oscar Wilde.”

In pitching San Francisco as the locale to debut the movie, Rhoades learned of Wilde’s visit to the city in March 1882. Even though Wilde Salome will not have its theatrical release

until September, the premiere was moved up to coincide with the 130th anniversary of Wilde’s trip.

“I want to equal it to the Milk premiere. They realize he is a gay icon,” Rhoades said, referring to Wilde, one of the first 20 LGBT honorees chosen to be part of the Rainbow Honor Walk planned to be installed along the Castro’s streets later this year.

It is a major coup for the city, which hasn’t seen a major movie premiere since Milk, the Oscar-winning film based on the late gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, drew a starstudded crowd to the Castro Theatre in October 2008, said Susannah Greason Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission.

“I don’t know if it actually brings more filming here. It just brings San Francisco into a more visible place and shows we are up there doing premieres like New York and LA. You can do it here as well,” said Robbins.

Although the thriller Contagion was filmed in San Francisco, its premiere took place in New York. The HBO production Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen, filmed around town last year, and Robbins hopes the filmmakers will look at San Francisco to debut it.

“I am hoping once we have this premiere here other films that shoot here will have their premieres here as well,” said Robbins, who will be attending the Pacino event. “Overall it is just good for the city. From a tourism standpoint more people will see San Francisco in headlines and associated with names like Al Pacino. It just draws more people’s attention to the city and brings more people here.”

Red carpet arrivals begin at 6 p.m. with the program starting at 7 p.m.

Tickets cost $25 and all proceeds benefit the GLBT Historical Society.

To purchase tickets visit www. glbthistory.org/WildeSalome/.▼

Retrovirus conference looks at PrEP and hep tention, even as participants expressed concern that lack of funding could undo some of the progress made to date.

by Liz Highleyman

P

re-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV and curing hepatitis C in people with HIV were among the key topics discussed at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections last week in Seattle.

One of the major international scientific meetings focused on HIV and its treatment, this year’s CROI brought together more that 4,000 participants from 80 countries, according to conference chair John Coffin.

Pipeline HIV drugs and the search for a cure also garnered at-

PrEP

Liz Highleyman

Researchers Jared Baeten and Deborah Donnell discussed their findings at the recent retrovirus conference.

Obituaries >> Jay Alan Segal June 1, 1949 – February 7, 2012

Jay Alan Segal, 62, of San Francisco, lost his 30-year battle with AIDS on February 7 with family at his side.

He was born June 1, 1949 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Harriet and Sheridan Segal. He attended St. Louis Park High School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota and the University of Minnesota. During his adult life, he also lived in Milwaukee and Chicago.

Jay is survived by two sisters, Sharon Abelson of St. Louis Park and Rivian Bass of Denver; brother-in-law, Sam Abelson; two nephews, Shawn and Jesse Abelson; and beloved friends. He was preceded in death by his parents and his partner, David Haggard.

A short memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 31 at 1 p.m.

in the National AIDS Memorial Grove (Golden Gate Park) near the Falls. After the service, an informal gathering to celebrate Jay’s life will be held at the Cliff House.

Jay’s name will be added to the Circle of Friends in the National AIDS Memorial Grove and unveiled on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2012.

Donations may be made to Maitri Compassionate Care or Project Open Hand.

Daniel Sulpice May 23, 1959 – February 25, 2012

Daniel Sulpice, born on May 23, 1959 in Los Angeles to Theresa (nee Burke) and Henry Sulpice, died of complications due to a long and courageous fight with appendix cancer on February 25 in Newburgh, New York. Dan was a

graduate of John Jay High School in Fishkill, New York and the University of Dallas in Texas. Dan also lived in the Los Angeles area and in San Francisco before returning to the Hudson Valley to live with is partner, Al Dickinson.

In addition to Al, his partner of 18 years, Dan is survived by his mother, Theresa, of Highland; sisters Donna O’Brien and Gayle Fedele; brothers Ed Sulpice and Paul Sulpice; as well as several nieces and nephews. Dan also leaves behind many close friends in New York and California.

Dan was a web designer, art dealer, bookseller, a political and social activist, and a member of ACT UP/SF during the 1990s. Dan loved experiencing different cultures, often traveling to Europe, South America, and Asia and he especially enjoyed spending time in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Dan’s sincere appreciation for foreign language, literature, and debate, along with his sharp wit and humor, will be missed by all who knew him.

As it did in 2011, news about PrEP – HIV-negative people taking antiretroviral drugs to reduce their risk of infection – elicited both praise and controversy.

Jared Baeten from the University of Washington followed up on his groundbreaking findings first presented last summer at the International AIDS Society meeting in Rome. Baeten reported that a combination of tenofovir and em-

tricitabine (the drugs in Truvada) reduced HIV infections by 75 percent in a study of serodiscordant heterosexual couples in Africa.

This study demonstrated “definitive evidence of HIV protection,” Baeten said, with no identified safety issues and minimal drug resistance.

Deborah Donnell from Baeten’s Partners PrEP study, researchers from the iPrEx study of gay and bisexual men, and Lut Van from the FEM-PrEP study of heterosexual women, all presented evidence showing that good adherence and adequate drug levels are the keys to See page 16 >>

<< Community News

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

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PWAs

From page 1

$170 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins in July. That figure could grow to $495 million by July 2015.

Michael Smithwick is the executive director of Maitri, a San Francisco nonprofit that provides services to people living with HIV and AIDS who are in need of either hospice care or 24-hour nursing care. The agency, which has a budget of about $2.5 million, could get a cut of approximately $246,000 for the fiscal year that begins in July because of the drop in Ryan White money.

Smithwick said Maitri’s not in

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Political Notebook

From page 7

And Connie O’Connor, who had served on the DCCC for three decades, will depart with Peskin when their current two-year terms expire.

One of the people seeking a DCCC seat this year is gay former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty.

After his poor finish in last year’s mayoral race, Dufty joined Mayor Ed Lee’s administration as his director of homeless programs.

Peskin’s decision opens the doors for one of the panel’s LGBT members to become chair. Three to watch as possible contenders are former state lawmaker Carole Migden, who led the local party in the 1980s; Rafael Mandelman, the party’s second vice chair; and Gabriel Haaland, DCCC corresponding secretary.

More than a dozen LGBT people

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Colfax

From page 14

embodies the philosophy and skills needed to help the nation secure much needed gains over the epidemic.”

Van Gorder also called Colfax “a leader of research establishing that providing a daily HIV medication, in combination with safe sex counseling, to gay and bisexual men at high risk of acquiring HIV infection can be up to 90 percent effective in helping them avoid infection.” The approach is called Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP. “The data on the effects of HIV treatment as prevention and PrEP

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“distress mode,” but two staff positions have been eliminated since last June, and the nonprofit has “cut to the bone” in terms of expenses.

He said if they don’t get the money, they’ll have to take “much more serious measures to try to be in a balanced situation.”

Frank Stevens, 54, became a resident of Maitri earlier this month.

He’s been living with AIDS and pneumonia, and he’s been hospitalized numerous times in recent years.

Stevens is hopeful that he’ll get his strength back, and has held on to the room he rents in the Tenderloin. He expects to stay at Maitri for at least three months.

“I think the government is going too far trying to cut the funding for

Conference

From page 15

PrEP’s success – or lack thereof. One team calculated that taking tenofovir four times per week might be enough to maintain drug levels high enough to reduce infection risk by 97 percent.

Foster City-based Gilead Sciences submitted a request to the Food and Drug Administration in December seeking approval of Truvada for PrEP. While some advocates are eager to see PrEP implemented as soon as possible, others worry about incomplete efficacy and whether the people who most need protection will have access to the drugs and be able to maintain good adherence.

New HIV therapies Recent years have not seen major advances in HIV treatment such as new antiretroviral drug classes coming to market, but researchers continue to report incremental progress.

Gilead again took the spotlight with Phase 3 data on its Quad coformulation, a once-daily all-in-one pill containing the integrase inhibitor elvitegravir, the boosting agent cobicistat, tenofovir, and emtricitabine.

In a pair of studies the Quad

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Aaron Peskin will not run for re-election to the DCCC.

are seeking DCCC seats this year; the B.A.R. will have more in-depth coverage on the race in April.

make this a moment of incredible opportunity to stop HIV/AIDS,” Van Gorder said.

Colfax replaces Jeff Crowley, who had served in that position since early in the Obama administration and left last November.

The White House statement didn’t include what his salary will be.

Controversy Colfax’s tenure as HIV Prevention Section director, which began in 2007, has seen some controversy. Much of that has involved the “greatly expanded HIV testing and treatment support efforts” that the Obama administration mentioned in its statement.

With San Francisco’s HIV rates

matched up well at 48 weeks against two popular approved regimens, Atripla (Gilead’s efavirenz/tenofovir/ emtricitabine single-tablet regimen) and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir (Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Reyataz).

The Quad and its competitors all achieved 80 percent to 90 percent effectiveness, but the Quad had fewer side effects.

The Quad and its components have been submitted to the FDA and approval is expected by August.

Researchers also reported that dolutegravir, ViiV Healthcare’s next-generation integrase inhibitor, maintains viral suppression and remains well-tolerated through 96 weeks. Dolutegravir decreased viral load faster than efavirenz, reaching 91 percent undetectability at 48 weeks.

Finally a small early study showed that Gilead’s GS-7340 – a pro-drug of tenofovir that concentrates in cells and therefore can be given in smaller quantities and may cause fewer side effects – lowered viral load more than tenofovir. Its low volume makes it suitable for coformulation, and the company is working on a GS-7340 version of the Quad and the first protease inhibitor single-tablet regimen.

Hep C cure Two research teams presented

AIDS,” he said. He said the reductions put people living with HIV and AIDS on the “back shelf,” and many more people will get sick.

Larkin Street Youth Services, which works to help young people with housing and other services, is another San Francisco agency that could be effected by Ryan White cuts. The agency has a budget of $14 million.

According to information provided by Larkin Street, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees Ryan White funding, eliminated youth-specific grants through a recent request for proposals.

Larkin Street receives about

$578,000 in Ryan White funding, including approximately $76,000 for subcontracts with Bay Area Young Positives and the city health department’s community health programs for youth.

The nonprofit is set to receive only $80,000 of the funding as of August 1. With that cut, the agency will no longer be able to subcontract with the other two groups.

Among other changes, the decrease means Larkin Street won’t be able to offer HIV testing and counseling, the agency said in a fact sheet.

East Bay LGBT Dem group hosts mixer

The club’s mixer takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 22 at the Bench and Bar, 510 17th Street in downtown Oakland. For more information call (510) 388-2992.

As it welcomes new leadership, the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club is hosting a mixer next week as it tries to attract new members and prepares for a busy election year.

More than half a dozen LGBT candidates will be on ballots this fall throughout Alameda County, from city council races to Assembly and judicial seats.

Heading up the LGBT group’s political action committee as its cochairs this year are gay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington and gay Oakland Planning Commissioner Michael Colbruno.

Succeeding Peggy Moore, the Obama for America California political director, as the Stonewall club’s president is Brendalynn Goodall, a management consultant who used to work for the city of Oakland.

Salaries appear safe Whatever budget cuts occur at Maitri and Larkin Street, it appears that their directors’ salaries are safe.

Gay congressional candidate hits CA A gay man seeking a Michigan congressional seat is heading to California next week to fundraise.

Trevor Thomas, 29, is running in his home state’s 3rd District in Grand Rapids. The former television journalist went on to be a spokesman for a number of national LGBT groups, including the Human Rights Campaign.

He is running against Steve Pestka, a former county judge and state lawmaker, in the Democratic primary. The winner will take on the incumbent, Representative Justin Amash (R-Cascade Township).

Thomas will be in San Francisco

▼

Smithwick’s salary is $95,000, the same as when he started his job in January 2011. He said he doubts that he’d take a pay cut.

“Frankly, I’m making half of what I made in the corporate world,” Smithwick said. “... I don’t know if I’d be able to live on less.”

Questions about the salary of Larkin Street Executive Director Sherilyn Adams that were emailed to spokeswoman Nicole Garroutte, including whether Adams would take a pay cut, were ignored.

According to the nonprofit’s IRS documents covering July 2009 through June 2010, Adams’s reportable compensation from Larkin Street was about $151,000.▼

Friday, March 23 for a fundraiser hosted by Bob Dockendorff and Julian Chang. The following night he will be in Los Angeles.

Tickets for both events cost at least $50 per person. For location info and to RSVP, email TrevorThomas2012@gmail.com.▼ Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www. ebar.com Monday mornings around 11 a.m. for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reports on the Bay Area help one LA gay Assembly candidate has received.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

stalled at endemic levels, meaning new infections have remained steady for the last 11 years, Colfax has argued the city’s model of HIV care it has relied on since the beginning days of the AIDS crisis 30 years ago is no longer viable.

“Unless we change what we do, we are not going to eliminate new infections because we are in an endemic,” Colfax has said.

He recently ushered in a new direction for how the city, and the community-based agencies it funds, approach reducing the spread of HIV. A higher focus is being given to testing people regularly and offering treatment sooner to people who are HIV-positive in an attempt to

further reduce new infections in San Francisco. More attention is also being paid to the overall HIV viral load in the community, as new research has shown reducing viral load counts helps bring down new HIV infections.

Health education and risk reduction has been de-emphasized.

Some in the community bristled at the changes.

Jonathan Batiste, a former member of the city’s HIV Prevention Planning Council, said the adjustments were “very divisive.”

Colfax “acted as if he did not understand what issues we had with his ‘new directions.’ ... I always called them ‘Grant’s directions,’” Batiste

said. He said he left the council because of his frustrations.

But Michaela Hoffman, HIV services director at Mission Neighborhood Health Center, which offers testing and other services, said Colfax’s departure would be a loss for San Francisco.

Hoffman, who started in her position after much of the “new directions” turmoil, said that her agency has been reminding Colfax’s office that when it comes to HIV prevention, there are diverse needs and “one size doesn’t fit all.”

She said Colfax and other officials “are going to great lengths to hear from providers,” and she has “no complaints” about outreach. ▼

the first data showing that recently approved direct-acting hepatitis C drugs, when added to pegylated interferon and ribavirin, can cure chronic hepatitis C in HIV-positive people.

An estimated one-third of people with HIV are coinfected with hepatitis C virus. Coinfected people, on average, experience faster liver disease progression and do not respond as well to interferon-based therapy.

Douglas Dieterich from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine reported that triple therapy using the Vertex HCV protease inhibitor telaprevir (Incivek) produced sustained hepatitis C clearance in 74 percent of coinfected patients 12 weeks after finishing treatment, compared with 45 percent for pegylated interferon and ribavirin alone.

A similar study presented by Mark Sulkowski of Johns Hopkins found that Merck’s HCV protease inhibitor boceprevir (Victrelis) added to pegylated interferon and ribavirin produced a 12-week sustained virological response rate of 61 percent, compared to 27 percent for standard therapy.

Merck and the FDA warned last month that using boceprevir with ritonavir-boosted HIV protease inhibitors can cause interactions that reduce concentrations of both

drugs to potentially ineffective levels. The study at CROI, however, found that HIV viral breakthrough was uncommon overall and did not occur more often among people taking boceprevir.

“This is a huge leap forward in the treatment of hepatitis C in HIV patients,” said Dieterich. “I don’t think we expected when we started that results for either drug would be so good.”

While this news is promising, many people are hoping for all-oral regimens without interferon and its difficult side effects. Edward Gane reported that one such combo, Gilead’s GS-7977 plus ribavirin, suppressed HCV viral load in all 10 patients treated for 12 weeks in a small study of prior non-responders with HCV genotype 1, but nine relapsed after finishing treatment.

Gane said that while difficult-totreat patients like these will likely have to add another oral drug or stay on treatment longer, these findings “should establish that interferon-free treatment is not a dream, it’s a reality, and I think it will be here within the next five years.”

largest numbers of people needing access to HIV treatment reside in low-income countries in Africa and Asia.

Researchers presented encouraging findings on antiretroviral treatment for pregnant women and their babies, HIV regimens that reduce the risk of malaria among children in Uganda, and advances in treatment of tuberculosis, which remains the leading cause of death for HIV-positive people worldwide.

Numerous speakers throughout the conference lamented the reduction of international funding for HIV prevention, care, and treatment as the global economic crisis shows little sign of abating. One study put some hard data to the benefits of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – the global AIDS fund established by George W. Bush – and the harm that could result from decreased support.

Eran Bendavid from Stanford University reported that adults in countries receiving PEPFAR grants had a 16 percent lower risk of death, and estimated that the fund prevented more than 631,000 HIV-related deaths between 2004 and 2008. Furthermore, there was no evidence that funding for HIV/AIDS had a negative impact on the ability to address other pressing health problems.▼

Global treatment and funding While a majority of cuttingedge HIV medical research is done in industrialized countries, the

▼ <<

Community News>>

HRC

From page 3

has “come to regard Chad as a great friend and trusted adviser ... Chad’s boundless energy and passion for justice will be enormous assets to the LGBT community and its allies in the

<<

StartOut

From page 6

networking events in major cities and encourage interaction within the community.

The awards dinner last week was sold out.

“I was very excited, elated, and proud to be able to present StartOut’s first LGBT awards for entrepreneurship,” said Bryan Janeczko, one of the founders and members of the board.

Janeczko recently founded Wicked Start, which helps small business owners and early-stage entrepreneurs

<<

News Briefs

From page 5

when his patrol car collided with another police cruiser at 17th and Dolores streets when both units rushed to the scene of a felony arrest. The officers were responding to backup another officer who was in the process of arresting a man who had allegedly brutally attacked his wife earlier in the day and who had been the focus of a daylong manhunt.

Cook, 38, had been with the police department for two years. He is survived by his domestic partner, parents, three brothers, two sisters, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Scholarship candidates will be judged on their scholastic records,

<<

LGBT tax filers

From page 1

poses of tax returns is complicated and time-consuming. It is advised that most couples do not use online tax services such as TurboTax, and instead, pay to see an accountant or professional tax preparer.

Following the confusion the rule change spawned in 2011, a number of federal lawmakers wrote to the IRS and implored the agency to address the problems. In a response letter sent last summer, U.S. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Douglas H. Shulman acknowledged there were problems the agency needed to address.

“We understand the complexities created for taxpayers when state and federal tax laws diverge on filing status and other issues, as is the case for same-sex married couples and registered domestic partners,” wrote Shulman. “We also understand that trying to merge those issues with community property laws can make federal tax reporting very challenging.”

Shulman noted that the IRS had “taken a number of steps,” including both “formal and informal advice channels,” to provide more guidance for same-sex couples.

“As we get a better understanding of the types of issues that consistently affect successful filing and compliance by same-sex couples, we will determine what additional guidance same-sex couples will need to file accurate returns and make such guidance available,” wrote Shulman.

The IRS did issue a frequently asked questions letter late last year to try to address some of the issues. But then same-sex couples started receiving notices that their Line 21 adjustments were inaccurate.

Line 21 is where same-sex couples list the community property adjustments. And because the figures do not match what is listed in their W-2s, it can generate an error message at the IRS. “A lot of correspondence from the IRS is wrong,” said Deb Kinney, a principal of the DLK Law Group in

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

struggle for equality.”

Back in 2008 Herrera hired Griffin’s political firm as his primary campaign consultant after forming his own political action committee aimed at defeating Prop 8. Herrera merged his PAC activities with the larger campaign at the urging of the

No on 8 leaders.

Of Griffin, who helped him raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that were then funneled to the No on 8 committee’s coffers, Herrera called him “a visionary leader, a brilliant strategist, and a remarkably effective consensus-builder.”▼

realize their dreams of starting a business by collaborating with a team of professionals who share this vision.

Janeczko told the Bay Area Reporter of upcoming projects for StartOut in 2012.

“We’re piloting a lesbian mentorship program and I’m piloting a support forum in New York City where a limited group of entrepreneurs meet monthly to share experiences both personally and professionally to grow great businesses,” he said.

A similar forum is expected to hit the Bay Area in the next three to six months. Janeczko is also exploring

the idea of creating an LGBT fund to invest in LGBT-founded businesses in efforts to create community support and build the next generation of great businesses.

In addition to Thiel, other awardees included philanthropist Kathy Levinson, who received the Pillsbury Winthrop Advocate Award; Geoff Lewis, who received the Wells Fargo Next Generation Award; and Ramona Pierson, who received the Google Innovator Award.▼

extracurricular activities, and local community involvement, as well as an essay to be completed by each qualified candidate. The SFPO Pride Alliance Scholarship Committee will select the scholarship finalists.

The deadline to apply is April 1.

To apply, go to www.sfpopride.com/ scholarship.

$300,000. Restaurant owner Sanjay Gujral donated 25 percent of the eatery’s proceeds from the day, and diners contributed additional gifts that will be matched by the Bob Ross Foundation, said AEF Executive Director Mike Smith.

Dennis Richards, president of DTNA, estimated that about half of the participants were neighborhood residents who were new donors to AEF, which is one of the goals of the anniversary campaign.

The largest reservation was a party of 18, hosted by Citizen and Body owner Petyr Kane, who treated his employees to dinner, Smith added.

The Bob Ross Foundation is named for the Bay Area Reporter’s founding publisher.▼

AEF party raises $4,200 Catch Restaurant recently hosted the first of AIDS Emergency Fund’s 30 “Parties with a Purpose” to commemorate the organization’s 30th year of service. Presented by Catch in partnership with the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, the March 8 event sold out and netted $4,200 toward AEF’s goal of

San Francisco and a national expert on how tax laws impact LGBT people. “A number of organizations and other tax preparers have contacted the IRS looking for further guidance and clarification.”

A meeting took place last week at the White House between IRS officials and tax professionals in an attempt to try to resolve some of the issues. Asked about the sit-down, a White House aide would only tell the B.A.R. that, “The White House routinely meets with a range of interested parties on many issues.”

Jesse Weller, a spokesman for the IRS located in northern California, said in a phone interview he could not comment on the White House meeting. He did not respond to emailed questions about the tax problems same-sex couples have faced by the B.A.R.’s press deadline Wednesday.

“I truly believe they want to help with the processing issues. But the overplay of federal tax law with state recognition of same-sex couples puts them into a difficult position when interpreting the tax code,” said Kinney. “We keep hoping for clarification, which has been difficult to achieve.

The IRS issued a FAQ at the end of last year, which was helpful, but it still left a lot of questions unanswered.”

When it comes to making tax filing or tax preparation easier for same-sex couples, said Kinney, “There are no perfect solutions right now.”

Filling the void San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center is trying to fill part of the void.

In what is believed to be a first for an LGBT agency, the center is offering volunteer income tax assistance by IRS-certified volunteers.

“To our knowledge no one in California or in any other state has offered such free tax help to LGBT folks,” said Eugenie Fitzgerald, the center’s economic development director.

Center staff teamed up with the United Way Greater Bay Area through its Earn It Keep It Save It program to launch what is known as a VITA site.

Hone, whose partner is a center board

For more information, visit www.startout.org.

member, then worked with the center to also offer tax-filing assistance to same-sex couples.

Because of the complexity of filling out tax returns for gay and lesbian couples in community property states, the IRS does not train its VITA site volunteers to handle those couples’ federal tax returns.

“They are specifically excluded from the clients VITA sites are supposed to help,” said Hone, adding that heterosexual couples who choose the married filing separately option to file their taxes, which is similar to how same-sex couples file, are also not covered by the VITA sites.

While the center did not ask for permission from the IRS to work with same-sex couples, the agency also did not object to the idea, Hone and Fitzgerald both told the B.A.R. So center staff and Hone developed their own training for the up to 20 volunteers taking part this year.

“We have had to work hard to resource our volunteers with the skills and information they need in order to process these taxes,” said Fitzgerald.

Because the VITA sites are restricted to working only with households making no more than $50,000, most people the center has helped have been single. Of the couples they have assisted, there haven’t been too many headaches handling their returns.

“For the most part I think it has gone really well,” said Hone.

As couples work to meet a Monday, April 16 deadline to file their taxes this year – they have an extra day since April 15 falls on a Sunday – tax advocates encourage them to detail any problems they encounter in letters to their state’s two U.S. senators or their local House member.

The information will help the federal lawmakers as they continue to put pressure on the IRS to treat all taxpayers equitably.

“We don’t have to wait for DOMA to go away to get their attention,” said Kinney.

Contact shannonw@sfcenter.org to schedule a tax help session at the center.▼

Legal Notices>> STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC12-548436 In the matter of the application of: EVELYN ISOBEL EMERSON for change of name. The application of EVELYN ISOBEL EMERSON for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that EVELYN ISOBEL EMERSON filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to EVAN LUTHER EMERSON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 19th of April, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC12-548424 In the matter of the application of: DERA MARIE JONES for change of name. The application of DERA MARIE JONES for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that DERA MARIE JONES filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to ALANNA MARIE FOX. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 17th of April, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC12-548403 In the matter of the application of: JERRY ALLEN HOFFINE JR. for change of name. The application of JERRY ALLEN HOFFINE JR. for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that JERRY ALLEN HOFFINE JR. filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to JAY ARTHUR BEANAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 10th of April, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC-12-548444 In the matter of the application of: CYNTHIA PATRICIA BONORRIS for change of name. The application of CYNTHIA PATRICIA BONORRIS for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that CYNTHIA PATRICIA BONORRIS filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to CYNSA BONORRIS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 24th of April, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034096700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAMPUS EDUCATION, 40 1st St., 4th Fl., SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Ammon Torrence. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034136900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 3-SUM EATS, 360 De Haro St., SF, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Jonathan Panday. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/1612. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034136800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARKET & RYE, 68 West Portal Ave., SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Jonathan Panday.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/16/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034143200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RECOVER YOUR THOUGHTS, 2730 16th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Leah MacNeil. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/21/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/21/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034135900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THOMAS MADE, 1648 Leavenworth St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Thomas Li. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/14/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012

ebar.com

STATEMENT FILE# A-034134800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DE PLACE, 5700 Geary Blvd., SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Belinda Yu. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034132400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AES WEB DESIGN, 995 14th St., SF, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Allen Siewert. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/15/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034114900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOWES TAX, 3892 26th St., SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Mark Howe. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034140800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIVING AMBIANCE, 2101 20th Ave., SF, CA 94116.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Alycia Moy. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/17/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034132700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ST FRANCIS MARKET, 16 West Portal Ave., SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Venkata Tangirala. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/19/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/15/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034078400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CROWN MARKET & LIQUOR, 712 Geary St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ali Mozeb. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/25/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT FILE# A-034131300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIRST CUT, 813 Clay St., SF, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Dong Mei Li. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/14/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/12.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE# A-033898200 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: FIRST CUT, 813 Clay St., SF, CA 94108. This business was conducted by a general partnership, signed Dong Mei Li. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/20/11.

FEB 23, MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 02/23/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: FARID TAWIL. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 350 California St., SF, CA 941041402. Type of license applied

21-OFF-SALE GENERAL MAR 1, 8, 15, 2012 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC12-548425 In the matter of the application of: GERARD R. SMESSAERT for change of name. The application of GERARD R. SMESSAERT for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that GERARD R. SMESSAERT filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to GERI SMESSAERT. Petitioner has also filed a petition for a decree changing petitioner’s gender from male to female and for the issuance of a new birth certificate reflecting the gender and name changes. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 218 on the 12th of April, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 STATEMENT FILE A- 034140600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MATUREROOMMATES.COM, 5527 California St. #A, SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Patty Thomas. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/17/12.

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • Bay Area Reporter • March 15-21, 2012

Classifieds

t

Legal Services>>

The

The Law Offices of

PATRICK MCMAHON

BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY We file Chapter 7 & Chapter 13 for individuals & small businesses who face: • WAGE GARNISHMENT • CREDITOR HARASSMENT • FORECLOSURE • TAXES • REPOSSESSION • STUDENT LOANS

• GOVERNMENT DEBTS

Legal Notices>>

Bankruptcy may be the answer... statement file A- 034130600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NIZARIOS PIZZA VALENCIA, 535 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Yaser Awadalla. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/12.

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 statement file A- 034152100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANNACOLIBRI, 1931 Buchanan St., SF, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Anna Yaya Kelleher. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/23/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/23/12.

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 statement file A- 034157500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GYPSY ROSALIE WIGS & VINTAGE, 1215 Polk St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Rosalie E. Jacques.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/27/12.

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 statement file A- 034159300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRU POWER COACHING, 236 West Portal Ave. #131, SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Simone Da Rosa.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/27/12.

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 statement file A- 034156800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAYES AUTO BODY AND SERVICE, 2401 Bush St., SF, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Joseph Ng. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/24/12.

MAR 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 statement file A- 034172900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KARA’S K9-LIVES, 669 O’Farrell St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kara Williams. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/02 /12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A- 034173600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WHIPPED & BEATEN, 701 Taylor St. #502, SF, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michelle Kelly. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/02/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A- 034175300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION OASIS PROPERTIES, 3118 22nd St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed James Boyd Lappin. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A-034173300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE COOKIE BAKERY, 1035 Pacific Ave., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Patricia Prislin. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/02/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# CNC12-548490 In the matter of the application of: JASON CHAZ DRAVEN for change of name. The application of JASON CHAZ DRAVEN for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that JASON CHAZ DRAVEN filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to CHAYNE LOWELL LYNSKEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept 514 on the 17th of May, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

MaR 15, 22, 29, ApR 5, 2012

statement file# A-034174100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAYOU BY THE BAY, 1599 Howard St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Marisa Palen. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/0212. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file# A-034128500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EL METATE, 2406 Bryant St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed Francisco Hernandez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/02/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file# A-034160500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WINE TASTING ON THE BAY, Pier 39 The Embarcadero Dock 1, SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Melissa McDowell. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/27/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A- 034176500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NEWCALI CONSTRUCTION, 465 6th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Xiao Xuan Du. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/05/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A- 034181000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SLR TRANSPORTATION, 6222 3rd St., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Mohammed Chadhery.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/06/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A- 034132600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIDVAN KAYA, 1405 21st Ave., SF, CA 94122.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ugur Y. Kaya. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/1512. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/15/12.

MAR 8, 15, 22, 29, 2012 statement file A- 034184800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MR. GOODMAN’S LIMOUSINE, 309 Holloway Ave., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Boris Zeltser. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/07/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/07/12.

MAR 15, 22, 29, APR 5, 2012 statement file A- 034188900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BARBARY COAST BEVERAGE CATERING, 3139 16th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Tom Basso. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/12.

MAR 15, 22, 29, APR 5, 2012 statement file A- 034186500

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Vol. 42 • No. 11 • March 15-21, 2012

www.ebar.com/arts

Recovering nun vs. addicted hustler Kathleen Turner plays a tough-love nun who takes on the case of a drugaddicted hustler (Evan Jonigkeit) in High, coming to the Curran Theatre.

K

athleen Turner, who shot to fame in 1981 as sexual dynamite in Body Heat, and came through town in 2005 as braying harridan Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, may not first come to mind when casting a Catholic nun. But Sister Jamison is not your run-of-the-mill nun.

“She’s a foul-mouthed, recovering alcoholic nun,” Turner recently said from her New York apartment. “She lived on the streets for years.”

Turner is heading back to the San Francisco stage as the star of High, Matthew Lombardo’s play running March 21-25 at the Curran. That

Courtesy SHN

Kathleen Turner brings ‘High’ to the Curran Theatre

by Richard Dodds High is on a national tour is an unusual situation, given its quick-close failure on Broadway last year. But Turner’s eagerness to continue in the role despite an ignoble reception in New York encouraged two of the original producers to put together a cross-country tour.

“At some point, when I feel I’ve done justice to the character, I’ll pass it over to someone

else,” she said in her distinctive purring growl.

“At the moment, I still want to do her, and I think it’s a really good piece of theater and we should be doing it. I feel quite strongly about that.”

In High, Sister Jamison works as a counselor at a rehab center who reluctantly takes on the case of Cody Randall, a 19-year-old heroin ad-

dict who was found in a motel room with the body of a 14-year-old boy dead from an overdose. Cody’s main source of income had come from pleasuring other men, and to say that he is now a recalcitrant client is a considerable understatement.

Evan Jonigkeit is reprising his Broadway role as Cody. “He’s really quite extraordinary,” Turner said of newcomer Jonigkeit, who was also part of a three-city tour prior to the decision to take High to Broadway. “We rushed it See page 33 >>

Stephen Schwartz joins the SF Gay Men’s Chorus ‘Enchantingly Wicked’ plays Davies Symphony Hall

by Adam Sandel

T Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.

he four-decade career of Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz can be divided into three distinct chapters. In the 1970s, he was Broadway’s pop music wunderkind with Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show and The Baker’s Wife. In the 1990s, he was the go-to lyricist for animated and family

films, including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Prince of Egypt, plus 2007’s Enchanted. 2003 ushered in the era of Wicked, the international smash hit musical now being performed in six different languages – with three more translations on the way.

All three chapters of his career will be

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

celebrated when Schwartz joins the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus to present Enchantingly Wicked, An Evening with Stephen Schwartz on March 20 & 21 at Davies Symphony Hall.

Schwartz has been busy overseeing maSee page 33 >>

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Reading is fundamental

by Roberto Friedman

E

ither it’s been a really good year for contemporary gay fiction, or we’ve just been lucky about what we’ve picked up to read recently.

Two of the season’s “big books,” Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child and Edmund White’s Jack Holmes and His Friend, have already been reviewed in these pages, and we enjoyed them both a lot. But we like more esoteric fare, too. Plus, reading printed words on paper always comes as such a delicious relief after staring at glowing screens all day. Here’s more of what’s been earning our attention.

One of the many perspicacious observations that author Sarah Schulman makes in her new book The Gentrification of the Mind – Witness to a Lost Imagination (U. of California Press) is that if the current American arts landscape looks desolute and bereft a dozen years into the 21st century, we have

to remember that AIDS took from us whole generations of the best, the brightest, the most creative, and dare we say it, the gayest among us.

This is a gross simplification of Schulman’s polemic, of course, as she laments the loss of the queer culture of her young adulthood on NYC’s Lower East Side, which was, let’s face it, a more dramatic, yeastier, “edgier” time and place. The late artist and writer David Wojnarowicz’s work will live on in art history longer than any iPhone app we can think of. Schulman uses gentrification, the phenomenon of wealth moving into “sketchy” urban neighborhoods where artists live and making them desirable and unaffordable, as a metaphor for what’s happened in literary and arts-world culture over the years. The author, a true woman of letters, makes a persuasive case.

Out There has to say, we lived through the 1980s as a gay man. To coin a euphemism, we’ve been to

the Pyramid Club. The art and the activism of the time were bolder than today’s, seemed of greater import. But to be honest we’re not anxious to relive those days. It felt like living in a war zone, and not in a glamorous way. Life’s tough enough now, in the wreckage of having been raped as a society by unscrupulous financiers while America slept.

Schulman is further developing an argument she made in Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (1998), enlarging it to implicate all the contemporary arts. She makes good points about, for example, the ubiquity of MFA programs in creative writing, questioning their worth.

But OT thinks any efforts in the public or private sphere to awaken literacy and reading, at least as much as professional writing, are pennies well spent.

She credits an unidentified ACT UP comrade and playwright (“I won’t say his name because I want to protect him”) with articulating another important strand of the book’s thesis. “Well, in ACT UP, we were all in it together. What was important was that you did your work. In the theater culture, the way it is now, it’s the opposite.

Everything is based on where you sit on the totem pole. It has nothing to do with how interesting your vision is, how good an artist you are, or even if they like you or not. People are brutally cruel to you if you have less currency, and repulsively solicitous if you have more. That’s the only operating principle.”

The irony of the AIDS crisis is that it “outed” gay culture. After its opening alarms, mainstream culture could no longer pretend that gays didn’t exist. A certain amount of co-opting gay culture was inevitable, and it’s no surprise that its rewards accrued to the most upwardly aspirant among us. For example, did Will & Grace ever have any student loans to pay off, because however did they afford those Manhattan apartments?

But Log Cabin types don’t bother us too much, we find them transparent and laughable, though not in the sense that they’re honest or funny. “Donald Suggs once said to me, ‘The drag queens who started Stonewall are no better off today, but they

made the world safe for gay Republicans,’” writes Schulman. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but the people who make change are not the people who benefit from it.” But it has ever been thus. Ask Robespierre.

Postscript since we invoked Wojnarowicz: His work is still causing the most tight-assed conservatives to twist their panties in knots. His video of ants crawling over a crucifix (drives ’em crazy!) is part of Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, the first major museum exhibition to spotlight gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identity, now showing at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington State. The show, which runs through June 10, offers a survey of 150 years of American art. It

debuted at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery last year, and recently ended its run at the Brooklyn Museum. Tacoma marks its final stop and only West Coast appearance.

Pleasure principle In History of a Pleasure Seeker by novelist Richard Mason (Knopf), a

young man uses his charms and wiles to get ahead in the world – in this case, belle époque Europe. It’s a story told many times before, but Mason’s lightness of touch makes it highly readable. “He got up and went to the mirror above the writing desk. His lips were slightly sw swollen.

‘You are not to do that ag again,’ he told his reflection. But ev as he spoke, he doubted his even re resolve, because he knew that his co conscience was insufficiently exe ercised to prevail over his pleas sure impulse in fullest sail.”

Also about pleasure seeking, b on the opposite end of the but s spectrum from Pleasure Seeker, is Lost Story, a novel by gay Slov venian writer Brane Mozetic, t translated

by Erica Johnson D Debeljak (Talisman). It’s pres sented as the lost diary pages f from a young hedonist describi the downward spiraling of ing h druggy club life. Again, this is his m much-plowed terrain, but here i given an Eastern Euro twist. it’s “ didn’t want to leave them “I a alone in the bathroom so we all crammed into the booth and Janez, who was steadiest, made t two lines, blabbing the whole t time.

I was quiet and I rubbed up against one of them and then the other. Janez grinned.”

We strive to end with some virtue.

I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters, edited by Michael G. Long, with a foreword by Julian Bond (Ciy Lights), describes the life of the great gay civil rights leader. This Saturday, March 17, is the centennial of Rustin’s birth. Find the B.A.R. review coming soon in these pages.▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

<< Music

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Maverick maneuvers

by Philip Campbell

M

ichael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are adding another layer to the orchestra’s centennial birthday cake with the return of the wonderfully adventurous American Mavericks festival. The month-long celebration began last week with two highly contrasted concert programs, and it will continue this week with more orchestral concerts and chamber performances at Davies Hall before leaving on a tour of the U.S. (Carnegie Hall, here we come.)

The opening bill certainly got the show up and ready for the road in characteristically grand fashion. A brash and ravishing mix of big American works spanning the 20th century had packed houses at Davies Symphony Hall whooping and stomping right along with the enthusiastic musicians. Two works originally conceived for piano and later scored for orchestra bookended the bill, but an infrequently performed (well, anywhere else but here) and uniquely representative piece by the late Lou Harrison actually stole the show.

The Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra is a 20-minute romp that showcases Harrison’s grasp and love of gamelan ensembles, his tender and reflective nature, and most of all, his sheer love for getting listeners involved. There were more than a few members of the happy audience swaying and nodding to the concerto’s propulsive opening and closing sections.

If the first concert of the Festival was meant to exhibit composers who laid the groundwork for the “new American sound,” choosing Aaron Copland and Charles Ives to open and close set a perfect example. The Orchestral Variations

by Copland of his own Piano Variations proved a sort of shorthand insight into so much of the American music that would follow throughout the 20th century. The influence Co-

pland had on such titans as Leonard Bernstein was eminently apparent.

Of course, MTT has a storied relationship with both Copland and Bernstein, so it comes as no surprise that he can make a highly persuasive case for the snazzy Orchestral Variations and their big, modern, urban sound.

If you think of the composer only as a melodious depicter of the American prairie and the Wild West of Billy the Kid, hearing the Variations will refocus your attention to his original impact on the musical scene and the visceral power of his punch.

The rest of the opening program was given to composer Henry Brant’s magnificent orchestration of Charles Ives’ Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., 1840-60, A Concord Symphony. The sprawling, remarkably detailed, boisterous and intensely nostalgic Sonata has taken on a new life in Brant’s glorious reimagining. The SFS has recorded the work on their own label following the original performances at DSH, and hearing it again at the Mavericks opening concert proved conclusively that Ives truly was the grandfather of modern American music. All the grandeur and wit of Ives’ score and the beautiful simplicity and dreaminess of the quieter moments of reflection were given another sympathetic reading by MTT and the musicians, who seem to be in perfect synch.

House blend The second concert program in the festival was, in MTT’s words, perhaps more “provocatorial.” He certainly said a mouthful if he meant to describe the ongoing effect the music of John Cage has had since the very beginning of that bad boy’s career to the present day. Taking selections from Cage’s Song Books and performing them with three vocal soloists in a staged production that included film, audience interaction, electronics, mime, a card game and MTT whipping up a blender drink onstage seemed an inspired way to

start an evening devoted to the more (shall we say?) off-beat composers in the festival line-up.

Many critics will say Cage was more interesting as a theorist than an actual composer, but his blend of performance art and inspired organization of sound and silence has always both intrigued and exasperated me. There is much in his vast output that is very listenable indeed, but to know Cage is to see and hear his music performed live.

With MTT looking hip in athletic shoes that matched his cobalt blue pullover, and three wonderfully familiar female vocalists prowling the stage along with him, the Song Books selections were given vivid life. Some of it was just plain silly, and a lot of it was nonsensical, but with Cage that is part of the point.

The majestic Jessye Norman was there to humorously take digs at her own diva personality, and the great Joan La Barbara and (personal favorite) Meredith Monk gleefully (albeit with straight faces) joined in the fun. Watching La Norman join the card game and later sit and peck at an old typewriter, Monk giving perfectly pitched pronouncements, and La Barbara regally moving throughout the auditorium and stage had me rapt with enjoyment.

The rather elaborate sets by stage designer Daniel Hubp took forever to dismantle during the intermission, but added great visual backing for the projection designs of Jason Thompson and the brisk and intelligent pacing by director Yuval Sharon. I don’t know how this production will play on the road, but I’m predicting an enthusiastic response in the Big Apple. Cage would have loved it.

The rest of the evening was given to other rogue composers with surprisingly agreeable voices. Lukas Foss and his brief re-thinking of J.S. Bach, Phorion (Baroque Variations III) on a Bach Prelude, seemed remarkably tame after the Cage, but Henry Cowell’s powerful Piano

Kristen Loken

Soprano Jessye Norman and music director Michael Tilson Thomas perform John Cage’s Song Books during the San Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks festival at Davies Symphony Hall.

Concerto (1928) got the temperature back on high.

Cowell was the man Bela Bartok asked permission to use his invention of “tone clusters” in a score of his own. The Piano Concerto has an entire movement called “Tone Cluster,” and pianist Jeremy Denk (who is going on the tour) played the hell out of it. Despite the reputation of the piece and the composer’s notorious technique, the Concerto is also intellectually intense and quite beautiful. The opening “Polyharmony” and closing “Counter Rhythm” exhibit both moods well.

The invigorating show ended with MTT’s interpretation of Suntreader by Carl Ruggles. I have cherished my vinyl LP set of the complete orchestral music of Carl Ruggles with MTT conducting for many years now, and getting to hear it live was a total treat. Ruggles was the American maverick composer to a T, and his heartfelt expression and strong voice are summed up beautifully in Sun-treader. Thankfully the concerts were being recorded, and I can hear Ruggles again without the old (and beloved) vinyl clicks someday soon.▼

Domingo domination

by Tim Pfaff

I

f you’re crushed at having missed Placido Domingo sing Simon Boccanegra in the Verdi opera of that title in LA last month, don’t despair.

You’re far from out of opportunities (though don’t go dreaming about the War Memorial stage; those were the good old days).

Such was the fanfare about the great tenor’s assuming his first baritone role (with Rigoletto still in the offing), and one of Verdi’s greatest at that, that cameras were running in the two productions at the three other houses where he had previously sung it, and your only problem – the usual one, unfortunately – is choice.

But before we get to the relative merits of the performances at the Royal Opera Covent Garden (EMI Classics) and La Scala (Arthaus Musik), let’s take the breath Domingo himself doesn’t seem to have time for (so many roles, so little time), consider the prospect, and note qualities that the two recorded performances by Il Stupendo share. Can he do it? Yes, he can.

What we know for sure about this guy is that, in any way you care to look at it, he can sing anything he wants to anywhere he wants to. And he’s not going to be singing his farewell in a zarzuela opera in Barcelona. If it has to be Angelotti in 2025, well, then that’s the way it will be. The house will sell out and,

for all we know, Magda Olivero will still be around to sing Tosca. This is not pure ridicule; I’d go.

Should he do it? Welllll. Well, why not? Since the opera’s main tenor part, Gabriele Adorno, is one of the 135 tenor roles he sang with distinc-

tion, for decades he’s had the best seat in the house to covet the title role, and learn it. And he’s got the notes, and they’re all still good notes; he knows this is one of the greatest roles in Verdi, and he gets as far into it as he can.

Yet, genuinely impressive as it all is, he doesn’t sound at all like a Verdi baritone, just like very good Placido Domingo without showy high notes.

More troubling, he doesn’t sound the least like Simon Boccanegra, for whom, these days, we’re better off with Dmitri Hvorostovsky. In both D Domingo DVDs, I waited with o opulent patience for his perform mance to move me, but the Aristtotelian fear and pity one would llike to have felt – and would have b been entirely apt for this labile, eeminently pitiable Doge – was n not, as the scholars say, aroused.

Because he’s famously such a collegial star, not to mention ttrouper, it hardly matters who h his fellow singers are. The better tthey are, the better he might be, b but he’s proved he can turn in a kknock-out performance with the H Hartford Glee Club.

At La Scala – which, thanks to th the conductor Daniel Barenboim le leading both, shared its producti tion with Berlin – he’s got the b best and most credible singing ccolleagues, with veteran Ferrucccio Furlanetto as Jacopo Fiesco (f (for good and ill reminding us w what a real Verdi low voice sounds lik like), Massimo Cavaletti as a truly m menacing Paolo Albiani, and the unfortunately named Fabio Sartori in Domingo’s old role of Gariele Adorno, shaped and decorated like a large Russian Easter egg but sounding absolutely glorious. Anja Harteros, who seems only to go from See page 25 >>

▼

Fine Art >>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Bay Area time capsule ‘Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964’ revisits a lost era

by Sura Wood

S

lightly built, bespectacled and sweet-voiced, photographer Arthur Tress looks as unthreatening as a kindly country doctor, but beneath the benign appearance lurks a heart of darkness. This might be overstating the case, but not by much. He once showed his Dream Collector photographs, an ongoing body of work that illustrates the isolation and ominous landscape of childhood dreads and fantasies, including nightmare visions, the Holocaust and infanticide, to Maurice Sendak, a children’s book author who’s no stranger to monsters and night terrors. “They upset him,” recalls Tress.

“I don’t censor myself, and I don’t do nice, personal portraits of people,” and he’s not kidding. (The Photographer as Ogre is one of the many projects he’s half-jokingly considering.)

While the over 70 black-and-white images of assorted people, street demonstrations, commercial signs and shop windows now on view in Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964 may be unflattering to their subjects, they’re by no means ugly pictures; yet they’re not exactly a catalog of the world’s most attractive specimens.

Shot in a variety of locations in the city nearly 50 years ago by Tress, who’s now in his early 70s, they capture a moment in time and place, showing us the way we were and how we looked a few years before the 1960s broke loose in earnest and the Summer of Love arrived for real – ah, the clothes, the hair; the horror! Taking the time-capsule metaphor a bit further, this small but compelling exhibition at the de Young is also a harbinger of the budding artistic identity and sharpening eye of an enthusiastic 23-year-old ethnographic photographer and freewheeling world traveler on a summer sojourn to the City by the Bay. Listen and you’ll hear the sound of an original, somewhat twisted talent asserting itself.

Tress developed the mostly documentary photographs in a public darkroom in the Castro District in 1964; years later, he uncovered the archive of vintage prints after his sister Madeleine died in 2009 and he was going through her things. (The crisp, newly minted prints on display were done by Steve Rifkin in 2010.) A lesbian who moved to San Francisco attracted by the city’s reputation for tolerance, she was her brother’s biggest supporter, keeping all of his letters and negatives in the house where she lived for nearly 40 years until her death. The show is dedicated to her.

Tress lives in Cambria, but grew up in Brighton Beach near Coney Island, which may account for his fascination with dilapidated buildings, abandoned amusement parks and the staged, surreal imagery that would become one of his mainstays. “I love taking pictures, but one of my rules is to never be consistent,” he says, and he hasn’t been, shooting everything from skate punks and paintball competitors to reenactments of male sexual desire. But he is partial to the medium

<<

Placido Domingo

From page 24

strength to strength in an amazing range of repertoires, melts hearts – most importantly Domingo’s – as Amelia.

It’s good the cast cooks because the mikes are so trained on them you can barely hear the orchestra, despite ample evidence that Barenboim is doing strong work in the pit. In Patrizia Carmine’s bizarre direction for TV – for long periods, scenes fade to black every 30 seconds or so, for no apparent reason, and the toggling between close-ups and wide shots is

Rick Gerharter

Photographer Arthur Tress speaks about his work in a new show, Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964 at the de Young Museum.

Arthur Tress

Untitled (Coit Tower) (1964, printed 2010-11) by Arthur Tress, selenium-toned silver gelatin print, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

square format Hasselblad camera. “It hasn’t changed since 1900,” he explains. “It’s like a theatrical stage set, with a little mirror that pops up and sounds like a guillotine.”

He remembers being a sensitive loner. “I was an odd person,” he says.

But as a gay high school student in the unenlightened 1950s, he cheerfully reports, “I had a reputation for giving great blow jobs.” The latter reminiscence is delivered with a delighted, wicked grin, but it’s the oddness he recognizes in himself and perceives in others that connects many of his photographs. It’s as if an alien, skilled with operating a camera and “taken with the clean sharp light of the Bay Area,” touched down and wandered around town photographing creatures in their native habitat, like the man in an overcoat and hat laying face down in the sand in “Aquatic Park”; a mounted police officer whose huge steed stands vigilant next to a tricycle on Ocean Beach; or the older fellow pausing on the street with a dwarf in a clown suit who’s holding an oversized papier-mâché ice cream cone. Truth be told, the San Francisco of this era, filtered through Tress’ unusual sensibility, does indeed feel like another planet. (He remembers it as a “city of dissonance.”) Sullen, disaffected teenagers sit in a coffee shop or stand with friends, shifting and restless on Market Street. Then there are

those Goldwater supporters in rodeo outfits relaxing outside the Cow Palace (the site of the 1964 Republican National Convention), or the smiling visages of George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller plastered on separate campaign billboards, which through some strange foreshortening, appear flattened and distorted.

Self-taught like many photographers of his generation, he was “saved from being too intellectual, self-analytical or burdened by the history of photography,” he says. Instead, his visual hunger was fed by graphic arts and the social commentary cartoons which he collects. Trained as a painter, intrigued by the psychological tension between figures, and moved by German Expressionism and the dark, unsettling visions of George Grosz and Otto Dix, Tress could have pursued any of a number of avenues his avid mind has taken him. A combination social anthropologist and thwarted art-house movie director, he even had a brief fling with experimental cinema, but given his lack of technical aptitude, he admits, “It’s lucky for everyone I left film.” Of course, if he had turned out to be the next Fellini, we wouldn’t have his strange and riveting photographs.▼

almost literally dizzying – the predictably tasteful if ultimately vapid opulence of the Milanese physical production is vandalized before our disbelieving eyes.

Except for Furlanetto again, Domingo’s in singer limbo in London.

Marina Poplovskaya is her usual perky self, singing well enough but with no dramatic core. She must have been a very bad girl in rehearsals, because every time she does something vocally impressive, director Elijah Moshinsky has her run off and face the wall.

No matter. The revised Simon Boccanegra is the portal to the great

late Verdi operas, and the composer’s experiments with the orchestra in it expand its palette enormously while hewing to his creed that each opera have its own, distinct tinta.

Here Verdi finally and completely sets the orchestra free, no longer the accompanying band, and creates new bonds between singers and players.

Music director Antonio Pappano in the Covent Garden pit gets an incandescent performance from the Royal Opera Orchestra, one that’s not just sympathetic but galvanizing to everyone. Domingo gets royal treatment.▼

Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964, through June 3 at the de Young Museum.

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<< Film

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Audrey Tautou in the Foenkinos Brothers’ Delicacy.

Working woman

by David Lamble

I

ebar.com MEDIA NETWORK

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t took me a while to engage with the new Audrey Tautou romanceat-work vehicle Delicacy. At first Tautou’s Nathalie is one of those modern women with fake problems, juggling a hunk of a hubby with duties as a female executive massaging the egos of office drones.

For the first quarter-hour her life is strictly empty calories, an eightdollar Starbucks whip-cream coffee drink without the coffee. Then hubby is mowed down while jogging, Nathalie stuffs her feelings in a dumpster with his possessions, and she vows to double-down at work.

Her boss Charles (Bruno Todeschini mimes Dabney Coleman from 9 to 5) acts like a graduate of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) Academy for no-fault sexual harassment, not-so-subtly coercing Nathalie into having dinner with him in order to back her into an extra-martial affair on his terms. Following dinner, Delicacy’s brother-act filmmakers David and Stephane Foenkinos finally finagle an adult moment. Forcing Charles to leave the restaurant without dessert, Nathalie delivers a dignified butt-out-buddy speech whose English translation should have a free iPhone app.

“It’s hard sometimes to find the words to say what you feel.”

“I know, Nathalie.”

“But I think I can answer. I’m not attracted to you. In fact, your maneuvering makes me uncomfortable. I’m sure there’ll never be anything between us. So maybe I’m not capable of being with someone anymore. But if ever I consider it one day, I know it won’t be with you.”

Keeping her creepy boss at bay, Nathalie rocks out the way only movie characters get to. The next day at work, a big oaf on her work team inquires about “case 114.”

Getting up from her desk as if in a trance, Nathalie kisses the bewildered man on the mouth, then sends him packing. The Foenkinos Brothers wobble a bit before zeroing in on the movie they seem to have in mind. The freshly-kissed lug, Swedish immigrant Markus (a deceptively low-key turn by French comedy star Francois Damiens), stumbles out into the world, his mind reeling from the possibilities that kiss implies. Suddenly all the pretty women seem to be slithering up to him on the street while the soundtrack blares the 1972 T. Rex

chart-buster “Bang a Gong (Get it On).” When the music abruptly cuts out, the movie finally finds its voice.

For the next 68 minutes, Delicacy is a perceptive, witty examination of whether a once-depressed, supposedly powerful female executive can proposition a man under her domain, all the time keeping the whiphand on just where the affair might be going.

Based on David Foenkinos’ bestselling novel, Delicacy hit French screens at the moment when the fall-out from the DSK Manhattan hotel-maid assault case was prompting a debate over the double standards in French society. Should French women be emboldened to turn the tables on pigs in suits?

While not entirely grappling with the big issues, the filmmakers do demonstrate the role that office gossip and jealousy play in keeping timid unorthodox souls in line. Nathalie’s officemates are shocked that she’s slumming with the Swedish guy, and are determined to shame this not-quite couple.

Once he recovers his balance, Markus enjoys the miracle of Nathalie’s company, but he’s also deeply fearful that she will dump him once she’s satisfied her itch. Nathalie isn’t quite sure what she wants, and in the tradition of odd-ducks romance is only able to reach out to him when he starts running for the exit.

Delicacy is reasonably restrained about icky cute moments: she shares her childhood love of Pez candies and their cool plastic dispensers; he plays his favorite Swedish band from the 70s before sheepishly confessing, “ABBA crushed them.” It’s definitely not about the sex, but they both come to relish the people they allow themselves to be around each other. Gradually they tip-toe up to that fearful moment when they have to declare themselves a couple to an uncomprehending and disapproving peer group.

This is the kind of stuff only Woody Allen and the French are able to pull off with charm and emotional grace notes. Tautou, who has declared her intention to ignore Hollywood’s fitful wooing, really anchors the movie with a nononsense take on a young widow’s refusal to put her recovery on speed dial. Damiens is an intelligent, Will Ferrell-like comic misfit who can be a credible option right down to an offbeat open ending, when a children’s game becomes a portal to a perilous future.▼

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Film >>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Getting it together & bottoming out

by David Lamble

tending with a self-hatred, and weirdly, the thing he wants from his dad is not love – it’s way too late for that – but for his dad to say something true to him which is going to relieve him of his feeling of failure.

“You’re not me, I absolve you of that, and you’re not your mother.”

Nick blames himself for his mom’s suicide because she read a piece of writing about her on that day. De Niro’s character says, “Nobody can kill somebody with their writing, nobody’s that good.” What one wants from a mentor – whether loving or horribly flawed – is some cold truth you can’t speak to yourself.

W

ake up on the grass, soaking wet. Dew is the piss of God. Another bullshit night in suck city, my father mutters.”

I call it “the bad dad sweepstakes,” that crushing yet curiously refreshing, even life-affirming obsession by “lost boys” past their prime to hunt down their crummy fathers – selfish, shiftless, careless men whose gifts were for self-aggrandizing gab – in other words, bullshit artists. While my over-the-top, “old school” British dad disappeared in a flash just shy of my 15th birthday, Nick Flynn records a living nightmare where a 27-yearold wannabe writer, still radically insecure, has to face down the old bastard in the most surreal of venues, a homeless shelter for truly lost souls.

Nick wins the dastardly dad lottery hands-down, with a book and film that provide a bracingly unsentimental look at the human side of the homeless debacle.

The wrenchingly honest, darkly funny memoir film Being Flynn, from writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy), kicks off with the ravings of a delusional egotist.

“America has produced only three classic writers: Mark Twain, J. D. Salinger and me.” While it’s quickly apparent that Jonathan Flynn’s “great American novel” remains stuck in his head, the actor who breathes life into the old fraud, Robert De Niro, is back with one of his classically crafted paranoid everymen – with the delicious added irony that the guy is a failed taxi driver who appears at the shelter where his son Nick works, demanding VIP treatment.

Being Flynn would be a lot less fun if De Niro’s unapologetically racist, homophobic old ingrate weren’t matched and at times trumped by arguably the best actor of his 20-something generation, Paul Dano. “This isn’t my father’s story, well it is, but he’s not telling it, I am.” As Nick, Dano has to execute the tricky two-step of puncturing Jonathan’s grandiosity while revealing just how scarred Nick is that this profane old con artist carries his DNA. Nick’s own addictive appetites go into overdrive once Jonathan settles in for a long stay.

While it’s been ages since De Niro has been able to strut his gallery of truly hideous men, it’s been even longer since he had a proper foil, a younger man who could match him one fearless beat after another. With a character who is both getting his shit together and bottoming out, Dano gives De Niro the best run for his money since Joe Pesci’s pit-bull younger bro (Raging Bull) or Leonardo Di Caprio’s aspiring writer/delinquent (This Boy’s Life).

Paul Weitz admits that as much fun as he had bringing Being Flynn to the screen, particularly with his De Niro/Dano dream cast, it was also an incredibly difficult eightyear slog. There were 30 drafts of the script, each approved by his now-good friend Nick Flynn; fighting in vain with the MPAA censors to call it Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: “They wouldn’t even allow asterisks”; but in the end, Weitz was proud of how his team framed this dark fable about an improbable father/son reunion, with each man dealing with the insidious claims between ego and creativity.

David Lamble: Robert De Niro’s Jonathan is racist and

Focus Features

Robert De Niro and Paul Dano in Being Flynn: an unsentimental look at homelessness.

homophobic, and he insanely combines the two: he says, “black guys will fuck you in the ass.”

Paul Weitz: Nick has always wondered – his dad having been an altar boy – where that came from, at least the homophobia part, and what’s the visceral thing that causing his dad to be so awful, and to repeatedly return to it. It’s the archetypical case of seeing a father who you do not want to become, not only because he’s an alcoholic but because he’s an awful person.

Why did Jonathan send Nick all those letters over the years?

My dad was a product of WWII, a German Jewish refugee who served in the OSS. He became a very successful fashion designer who always wanted to be a writer. He had demons and he liked to drink Scotch: a lovely, smart guy, but also a towering and unpredictable figure. My dad would write me letters about life: scary because I knew they were going to get under my skin in a huge way, deeply true and unpleasant.

Jonathan Flynn wrote Nick letters from prison. He truly believed in his own greatness, and there’s nobody you can impress more with your greatness than your own son, although that inevitably ceases to work.

At 27, Paul Dano may be the greatest actor of his generation.

Paul is very smart about story, and he has no vanity as an actor. I first spied him in L.I.E. and The Ballad of Jack and Rose – – where his snake-boy seducer calls out to the teen virgin, “Hey there, little freak!”

He looks different from all the other actors of his generation: he’s like a young Max von Sydow, like an expressionist woodcut. He’s not conventionally handsome, and he’s extremely self-confident. I knew he would press Bob, not only be happy to be acting with the icon De Niro, but that he would challenge him.

Dano is a catalyst in films like L.I.E. and Little Miss Sunshine, where his mute boy challenges feckless adults on their bullshit.

In L.I.E., he’s a lightning rod for repressed suburban antiSemitism, and a seeker of a truly odd substitute dad.

One similarity with Being Flynn is the feeling that this older person knows the truth about me, and I need it revealed. Nick is really con-

bartabsf.com

It’s another role where Dano takes a beating.

Nick stupidly steps in between two guys, and he gets punched in the face. You’d think that would be awful, but actually he loves it because there’s some essential truth to it: he needs to be punched in the face. It clears the cobwebs and makes him feel, “Okay, I’m living now.”▼

<< Out&About

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

Thu 15>>

Fri 16

Historic dance company returns for its annual residency, under the helm of new Artistic Director Robert Battle; three programs include works by Ailey, Battle, Ohad Naharin, Paul Taylor, and Ulysses Dove.

30-$80. Tue-Fri 8pm. Sat also 2pm. Sun 3pm only. Thru Mar 18. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Persons of Interest @ John Pence Gallery

Asian American Film Festival @ Various Theatres

O&A Out &About

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake

Magically enrich us

by Jim Provenzano

T

he few hours you spend watching a film, a dance, hearing a song, may seem almost magical. How did this astounding art come to be?

Of course, making art isn’t magic, and while I do believe in muses, elves and faeries, despite my half-Celtic heritage, I’m doubtful about leprechauns. But given the array of seemingly other-worldly talents, with a bit of holiday Irish luck, you might change your mind.

Seeing Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake for real is always better, but the 3-D film of the British choreographer’s sensual male version of the classic ballet is simulcast nationwide. A live tour isn’t returning for a while, so enjoy it through the magic of cinema. $15. Tuesday, March 7pm. Century 9 San Francisco, 835 Market St. 538-8422. AMC Van Ness 14, 1000 Van Ness Ave. 674-4630. www.FathomEvents.com I’ve changed my mind. I do believe in leprechauns, drag ones, at least. Laybelline’s The Lucky Whore Show, a drag St. Patrick’s Day edition at the LGBT sober space, is for those who don’t care for beer, green or otherwise. $3$6. March 17, 10:30pm. Castro Country Club, 4058 18th Lucia Comnes St.www.castrocountryclub.org For an Irish celebration of a more raucous nature, Red Meat returns, this time at Beatbox, for a special St. Patrick’s Day party. Redheads get in free. DJ Robbie Martin spins tunes. $7. March 17, 10pm-3am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com For a music concert with traditional roots, the St. Patrick’s Day Celebration at Café du Nord includes talented local bands: folk violinist-vocalist Lucia Comnes, The Gas Men and The Jaunting Martyrs play lively Irish music. $4 Murphy’s Irish Stout beer pints all night long. $17-$20.

March 17, 9pm show. 2170 Market St. 861-5016. www.cafedunord.com Yes, she also played the magical superhero Wonder Woman on TV, and dazzling actress-singer Lynda Carter returns to perform pop, rock, R&B and Broadway classics. $45-$55. Thursday, March 22-24 at 8pm, and March 25 at 7pm. 2-drink min. The Rrazz Room, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com Celebrate your not-necessarily-Irish penchant for singing and drinking, Monday, March 19 with the Lesbian/ Gay Chorus of San Francisco at Martuni’s for Rainbows & Leprechauns: A St. Patty’s Day Cabaret, a musical sing-along homage to all things Irish. $8.

7:30pm. Also Mar. 20. 4 Valencia St. www.lgcsf.org But the big choral concert of Lynda Carter the week is the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus at Davies Symphony Hall. Enchantingly Wicked, the chorus’ new concert, features the music of, and a special performance with, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, the Disney films Enchanted, Pocahontas and others). The concert includes the world premiere of Schwartz’ new anti-bullying anthem, “Testimony,” composed for the chorus. $15-$75. 8pm. March 20 & 21. 201 Van Ness Ave. 392-4400. www.sfgmc.org

Bouquets to Art @ de Young Museum Annual display of floral arrangements inspired by the museum’s art exhibits, with a trunk show of local crafts artists, a gala fundraiser and public viewing. $11-$21.

(Seated lunches and other events $35-$55).

Tue-Sat 9:30am-5:15pm. Thru March 17.

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Eiko and Koma with Kronos Quartet @ YBCA Forum Veteran butoh theatre duo performs with the innovative music ensemble in Fragile a performance installation, and Regeneration, an evening of three repertory works. $10-free.

5pm-9pm. Also Mar 16, 5pm-9pm and Mar. 17, 3pm-7pm. 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Free to Be You and Me @ Oddball Film Screening of Marlo Thomas’ Emmy-winning 1974 show featuring celebrities (Michael Jackson, Alan Alda, Rosie Grier) doing sketches and songs with uplifting human values; plus classic ‘70s commercials and a Banana Splits episode. $10. 8pm. Mar. 16, 8pm, Fooled By a Feeling, including Dr. Suess on the Loose (includes The Sneeches and Green Eggs and Ham). Mar. 17, 8pm, Get Lucky, short films about good and bad luck.

275 Capp St. limited seating. RSVP: 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Jody Watley @ The Rrazz Room Grammy Award-winning singer performs R&B, Jazz and Pop songs with her vocal elegance. $$0-$45. 8pm. Also Mar. 16, 8pm; Mar. 17, 7pm & 9:30pm. 2-drink min.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Oakland East Bay Symphony @ Paramount Theatre, Oakland Stops on the Orient Express, a concert of works by gay composer Ned Rorem ( Letters From Paris), plus Schubert and Brahms; with guest violin soloist Andrew Sords. $20-$70. 8pm. (pre-concert talk, 7pm). 2025 Broadway, Oakland.

(800) 745-3000. www.oebs.org

Fri 16>> The Coast of Utopia: Voyage @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players’ staging of Tom Stoppard’s first in a trilogy of works exploring a wealthy family in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Pay-what-you-can previews thru Mar. 22. $7-$32. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 5pm Thru April 15. 1901 Ashby Ave. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Dandelion Dancetheater @ CounterPulse Innovative company premieres Arthur in Underland, an “atmospheric mystery” about an occult rock band obsession and sexual daring, set in 1980s Berkeley. $13-$24. March 9-18, Fri & Sat 8pm. 1310 Mission St. at 9th. www.dandeliondancetheater.org www.counterpulse.org

Glengarry Glen Ross @ Actors Theatre David Mamet’s dark comedy about smalltime real estate swindlers gets a local production. $26-$40. Wed-Sat 8pm.

855 Bush St. at Taylor. Thru March 24. www.actorstheatresf.org

Sat 17

The veteran lesbian comic gets a little more serious in her solo show about her parents’ tragic murder-suicide deaths. $15-$35-$50.

Thu 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm thru April 15. Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia St. (800) 838-3006. www.themarsh.org

RAW Dance @ The Garage Resident Artist Workshop presents dances

by Aura Fischbeck, The Riley Project and Gretchen Garnett. $10-$20. 8pm. Also Mar. 17. Also, Jenni Bregman’s Context, March 21 & 22. 975 Howard St. www.975howard.com

The Real Americans @ the Marsh Dan Hoyle returns with his fascinating multiple-character solo show based on his cross-country trek into America’s red states and liberal cities. $25-$50. Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Sun 2pm. Thru April 14. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Red @ Berkeley Repertory John Logan’s (screenwriter of The Aviator, Gladiator and Hugo) Broadway hit about abstract painter Mark Rothko, engaged in a battle of wits, makes its West Coast debut. $14-$72. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. & 7pm Thru April 29. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.

(510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band @ Ebenezer/ Herchurch Lutheran Artistic Director Jadine Louie conducts the orchestra in The Big Blow, a concert of the finale from Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (the “Organ Symphony”). Other highlights include Borodin’s Symphony No. 2, Reed’s The Hounds of Spring, Sousa’s Thunderer March and Ticheli’s haunting arrangement of Amazing Grace. Free/donations. 8pm.

678 Portola Drive. Also March 18, 4pm, at Peace Lutheran Church, 3201 Camino Tassajara, Danville. 255-1355. www.sflgfb.org

True West, Buried Child @ Boxcar Theatre Gritty dramas of battling brothers and family secrets; the first and second of four Sam Shepard plays the company will perform in repertory thru April 26. True West and Buried Child thru April 7. $25-$35, or $85$120 full pass. 505 Natoma St. 967-2227. www.boxcartheatre.org

Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964 @ de Young Museum Veteran photographer’s new exhibit of rarely seen prints from San Francisco in 1964. Free$10. Thru June 4; other exhibits ongoing.

Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Audience as Subject @ YBCA

Loot @ Evert B. Person Theatre, Rohnert Park

Marilyn Pittman @ The Marsh

Opening reception for a group exhibit of fascinating realist portraits and figures.

6pm-8pm. Exhibit thru April 11. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Sat til 5pm. 750 Post St. 4411138. www.johnpence.com

Sat 17>>

Opening reception for Life & Death in Black & White: AIDS Direct Action in San Francisco, 1985–1990, an exhibit of photos by Jane Philomen Cleland, Patrick Clifton, Marc Geller, Rick Gerharter and Daniel Nicoletta, five queer photographers who documented the emergence of militant AIDS activism in San Francisco through the medium of blackand-white film. $5. 7pm-9pm. Reg hours: free for members-$5. Wed-Sat 11am-7pm.

Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

ODC Dance @ Novellus Theater

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus

Andrew Sords

Life & Death in Black & White @ GLBT History Museum

Student production of gay playwright Joe Orton’s satiric farce about thievery, religious fervor and middle-class silliness. $9-$16.

7:30pm. Tue-Sat thru March 17. 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Sonoma State University. (707) 664-2353. www.sonoma.edu/performingarts/theatre/nowplaying.shtml

Percussion Arts Festival @ Dance Mission Vibrant concert of drumming and percussion featuring: Duniya Dance & Drum Company Tabla Virtuoso, Jim Santi Owen Award-Winning Dulcimer Artist/Percussionist, Joe Venegoni Master Shakuhachi Artist, Philip Gelb and Wontanara Revolution (Saturday Fundraiser Post-Concert Reggae Dance Party). $22-$25. 8pm. Also Mar. 17, 8pm & Mar. 18, 6pm. 3316 24th St. 826-4441. www.maikazedaiko.com www.dancemission.com

Alvin Ailey Dance Theater @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley

30th annual international showcase of films from many countries, including some GLB & T-themed features. Closing night feature Prison Dancer is also gay-themed.

Special events and parties thru the festival closing night March 18. $11-$20. www.caamedia.org

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Pam Grier @ Castro Theatre Peaches Christ welcomes the iconic actress at a double-feature screening of the action-packed Blaxploitation classic Coffy and the recent Jackie Brown (matinee at 3:30pm).

Pre-show Q&A and drag tribute numbers, too. $20-$25. 8pm.

429 Castro St. www.peacheschrist.com www.castrotheatre.com

Maurice @ New Conservatory Theatre

Cellist Zoe Keating accompanies a new dance by Brenda Way; plus dances by KT Nelson and bicycle art by Max Chen. Mar. 15 opening gala, 7:30pm ($150-$750). Reg: $20-$55. Wed-Thu 7:30pm. Fri Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru March 25. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. www.odcdance.org www.ybca.org

Andy Graham and Roger Parsley’s erudite stage adaptation of E.M. Forster’s pioneering 1914 novel (published in 1971) about the romance between an aristocratic Englishman, his classmate, and a workingclass groundskeeper. $22-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 25. 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market, lower level.

861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Whoa Nellies, Jenni & The Jerks @ Thee Parkside

Merchants @ Exit Stage Left

It’s a swingin’ ‘60s dance party with the campy retro band and the fun 50s-60s doo-wop soul group. $7. 9pm. 1600 17th St. 252-1330. www.theeparkside.com

No Nude Men Productions’ staging of Susan Sobeloff’s drama about an artist and her financial consultant sister’s collaborative and lucrative scheme. $10-$25. Most Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru March 24. www. brownpapertickets.com/event/221334

Mark Bradford (found material sculptures) and Audience as Subject, Part 2, (big photos of fans at soccer matches and rock concerts), plus other exhibits. Thru May 27.

701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Children of Paradise: Life With the Cockettes @ Canessa Gallery Exhibit of Fayette Hauser’s rarely seen photos of the famed drag theatre collective. Cockettes film night March 17, 8pm.

Closing night party March 30. Exhibit hours Wed 12pm-3pm and by appointment. 708 Montgomery St. 296-9029. www.canessa.org

Cootie Shots @ New Conservatory Theatre Theatrical Inoculations Against Bigotry, a youth theatre educational play, appropriate for grades 2-5. 2pm. Also Mar. 18.

25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

A Doctor in Spite of Himself @ Berkeley Repertory Moliere’s classic comedy –about a man who impersonates a physician to woo his girl–gets a zing-filled contemporary pop culture update in this co-production with Yale Repertory Theatre. $14-$73. Tue, Fri-Sat 8pm. Wed 7pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm.

Thru March 25. 2015 Addison St., Berkeley.

(510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

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Out&About >>

Earplay @ Herbst Theatre New chamber music works by Ellen Harrison and Erik Ulman, and works by Morton Feldman and Charlies Ives. $20.

7:30pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. 392-4400. www.earplay.org

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Mary Wilson

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Geezer @ The Marsh, Berkeley Veteran clown Geoff Hoyle’s solo show about a life in the theatre, aging and its problems and joys. Thu & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 18. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Julius Caesar @ Buriel Clay Theater African-American Shakespeare Company’s production of The Bard’s classic tragedy of Roman intrigue and betrayal. $10-$35.

8pm. Sat 8 & Sun 3pm thru April 1. African American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton St. at Webster. (800) 838-3006. www.African-AmericanShakes.org

Learning With the Lights Off @ ATA Gallery Rick Prelinger’s smorgasbord of vintage clips from the golden age of educational short films, film strips and AV geek fun; plus other stuff. $7. 8:30pm. 992 Valencia St. 648-0654. www.othercinema.com

Photography in Mexico @ SF Museum of Modern Art New group exhibit of historic prints documenting Mexican life and culture since 1920. Free-$18. Open daily (except Wednesdays) 11am-5:45pm.; open late Thursdays, until 8:45pm. Thru July 8. 131 Third St. 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org

The Pirates of Penzance @ Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse adapts the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta as a post-apocalyptic punk extravaganza; think Terry Gilliam’s Brazil meets Glee. $17-$35. Special “pay what you can” Fridays. Mar. 9, 16, 23 & 30. Fri 7pm.

Sat 2pm & 7pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru April 1. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 4858542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Titus Andronicus @ La Val’s Subterranean, Berkeley Impact Theatre’s up-close production of Shakespeare’s most violent, gory drama.

Prepare to be splattered. No, really.

Don’t wear clothes you don’t want to get fake-bloody. $10-$20. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Mar. 31. 1834 Euclid Ave. (510) 224-5744. www.impacttheatre.com

Sun 18>> Confession @ Vessel Reason To Party’s new monthly fundraiser and fab schmooze night for professional types. Proceeds benefit At The Crossroads (young adult homeless service). $40 and up. 6pm-11pm. 85 Campton Place. www.reasontoparty.org

Jonathan Poretz @ The Rrazz Room Classy Vegas-style crooner sings classic songs. $29.50. 7pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Katya Smirnoff-Skky @ Martuni’s Our favorite exiled Russian drag empress is accompanied by Joe Kanon for an evening of song, story, and vodka. $7. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.russianoperadiva.com

Maharaja @ Asian Art Museum The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts, an expansive exhibit showcasing textiles, jewels and items from the heyday of the early Indian empires. Also, Sanjay Patel’s Deities, Demons and Dudes with ‘Staches:

Tue 20>> Sexy in the Bible @ Congregation Sha’ar Zahav

Wed 21 Rrazziversary Gala @ The Rrazz Room Sharon McNight hosts the fouryear anniversary of the classy nightclub, with guest stars Natalie Douglas, Edwin Hawkins, Linda Lavin, Deana Martin, Billy Stritch, Mary Wilson, Pia Zadora, the Tommy Igoe Band and more. $75, $125, $175. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 3803095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Indian Avatars; Tateuchi Thematic Gallery, 2nd floor. $7-$17. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Thu til 9pm. Thru April 8, 2012. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

Murray Perahia @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Highly talented pianist performs a solo recital. $30-$75. 3pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Outlook Video @ Channel 29 LGBT news show, this month SAGA North Ski Club, Rainbow World Fund, Xavier Toscano. 5pm PST, and streaming online. www.outlookvideo.org

Shando Darby @ Castro Country Club Exhibit of the photographer’s meditative landscape prints. Thru April 30. 4058 18th st. www.castrocountryclub.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Mon 19>> Bud E. Luv @ The Rrazz Room Vegas-style comedy lounge band performs their amusing spirited show. $30. 8pm.

2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Daniel Dallabrida @ Magnet Exhibit of ceramic and décollage works depicting themes of AIDS survivors, activism and elders in the gay community. Thru March 28. 4122 18th St. 581-1613. www.dallabrida.com www.magnetsf.org

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s talk show about LGBT people and issues. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com

Yep, They Said It @ Elbo Room Celebrities in Their Own Words, a night of tacky autobiography excerpts read by local writers and celebs: Heklina, Joshua Grannell (aka Peaches Christ), James Brian Judd, Donna Sachet, Lewis DeSimone, Jim Provenzano, Donald Currie, Oscar Raymundo and Scott James; hosts James J. Siegel and Baruch Porras-Hernandez. Proceeds benefit Guy Writers. $20. 7pm. 647 Valencia St. www.guywritersonline.org

Enjoy a stimulating class that explores the erotic passages in religious texts, including “The Song of Songs.” Free. 6:45-8:30pm.

290 Dolores St. www.shaarzahav.org

Wed 21>> High @ Curran Theatre Kathleen Turner stars (with young actor Evan Jonigkeit) in this limited run of Matthew Lombardo’s drama about a nun working as a rehab counselor forced to confront her ideas about faith and recovery. $30-$100. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 2pm & 8pm. Sun 2pm, 7pm. Thru March 25.

445 Geary St. at Taylor. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Smack Dab @ Magnet Larry-bob Roberts and Kirk Read cohost the monthly, often queer-themed, reading and open mic night. This edition commemorates frequent reader Sean O’Driscoll, who recently died. Sign-up 7:30pm. Readings 8pm. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Wilde Salomé @ Castro Theatre Al Pacino and Tony Kushner will be speak onstage at a benefit screening of a new documentary about Pacino’s exploration of the Oscar Wilde play Salomé.

Proceeds benefit the GLBT Historical society. $25. 7pm. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Thu 22>> Certitude & Joy @ Bindlestiff Studio Chamber opera by composer Erling Wold ( Queer, Taking the Veil ) based on a true story of a woman who tossed her children into a river “under God’s instructions.” $25-$35. Thu-Sun 8pm. Thru April 1.

185 6th St. www.erlingwold.com

Hope Mohr Dance @ Z Space Former dancer with Trisha Brown premieres new works, and works by New York-based Dušan Týnek Dance Company. $20-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru March 24.

450 Florida St. (800) 838-3006. www.hopemohr.org

Hot Greeks @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers revives the Cockettes’ hilarious college comedy revue that meets ancient Greek bawdy burlesque in a new expanded version, with a new cast, costumes, songs and fabulous camp. $30-$69.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 5. 575 10th St. at Bryant & Division. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Human Rights Watch Film Festival @ YBCA Weekly screenings of films from around the world that focus on human rights abuses and freedoms. $6-$8. Mostly 7:30pm. Thru Mar. 29. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Lisa Townsend, Mica Sigourney @ CounterPulse Performance work exploring Camus’ The Stranger (Townsend) and egocentric nightlife personae (Sigourney, aka VivvyAnne ForeverMore). $17-$30. Thu-Sun 8pm.

1310 Mission St. at 9th. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

Xavier Castellanos @ Alliance Francaise Exhibit of quaint colorful paintings by the Mexican-Swiss gay artist. Thru March 31.

1345 Bush St. Also at Si Pietro Todd, 2239 Fillmore St., thru April21. www.xavierart.com

For more arts events, visit www.ebar.com

Thu 15 Chitresh Das Dance Company @ Samsung Hall Indian kathak dance master Chitresh Das premieres a new work, with live musical accompaniment. $35-$55. Thu-Sat 7pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Mar. 18. Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St. (800) 838-3006. www.kathak.org www.asianart.org

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

For more bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

<< Society

▼ Partying with the waxworks

by Donna Sachet

L

ebar.com

ast Saturday’s Gay Night at the Wax Museum was truly a night to be remembered! The Richmond/ Ermet AIDS Foundation and Rainbow World Fund teamed up to host the first LGBT event at this popular tourist destination at Pier 39.

Hundreds of guests, most of whom had never visited the museum, descended a stairway and were instantly surrounded by groupings of wax figures, from U.S. Presidents to movie stars, from cowboys to sports figures, and from world leaders to religious characters. The brief program included welcoming remarks from co-hosts Sister Roma and Armistead Maupin, presentations of proceeds from REAF’s holiday show to Sunburst Project and Positive Resource Center, a couple of songs by Jason Brock and Yours Truly, and a congratulatory toast celebrating REAF co-founders Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler’s 30 years as life partners. For the last 18 years they have been providing topquality entertainment events while raising money for worthy AIDSrelated organizations. Then it was time to dance with DJ Christopher B in the Chamber of Horrors, under the watchful (and creepy) eyes of Frankenstein, Dracula, Freddy Krueger, and others. Bebe Sweetbriar and Xavier Toscano added their singing talents to the festivities. The diverse crowd included Mark Calvano, Kaushik Roy, Stu Smith, Lu Conrad, Sherri Burke, Berlin Fisher, Drew Cutler, Gary Virginia, Chris Carnes, Susan Fahey, Richard Sablatura, Norm Claybaugh, Paul May & Frank Stein, Milton Mosk & Tom Foutch, Betty Sullivan & Jennifer Viegas, Suzan Revah, Joanna Parks, and Andrew Freeman. Expect to see the Wax Museum as the venue for many upcoming events!

Much has already been written in this publication and elsewhere about last week’s roast/tribute for Lenny Broberg, but we must add a couple of lines saluting this tireless community activist with whom we have often co-emceed with great delight. Much credit goes to Ray Tilton and Kitty Glamour for ensuring that this event happened and properly reflected Lenny’s 20 years of immense contributions to the LGBT and larger SF community.

The newly Reigning Emperor & Empress of San Francisco, Bradley Roberts and Sissy St. Claire, are off to a running start, popping into events all over town. This Sunday is their formal Investiture at The Arc, 1500 Howard, 4-7 p.m., where they will identify their annual goals, establish their support network, and have some fun being entertained by other local Emperors and Empresses.

Next week is one of those marathons packed with events! On Monday, we’ll join Heklina, Peaches Christ, Jim Provenzano, and others for GuyWriters at the Elbo Room at 7 p.m., reading juicy passages from a variety of celebrity autobiographies. What sounds like a straightforward process becomes hilarious when the words of certain self-important luminaries are mouthed by local favorites completely out of context.

Tuesday, we’ll bask in the incredible talents of the SF Gay Men’s Chorus under the direction of Tim Seelig at Davies Symphony Hall at 8 p.m. in Enchantingly Wicked, a concert devoted to the legendary Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Testimony, specifically written for the chorus, has

Steven Underhill

The Tin Man was part of the Wizard of Oz display at Gay Night at the Wax Museum, last Saturday night in Fisherman’s Wharf.

Steven Underhill

Cast members of director Quentin Lee’s White Frog, including Booboo Stewart, were in good spirits at opening night of the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

its world premiere that night. The concert repeats on Wednesday.

Oh, to be able to be in two places at once on Wednesday, March 21!

Mark Rhoades and Jessica Engholm host a screening of Wilde Salome, The Life of Oscar Wilde at the Castro Theatre at 7 p.m. with personal appearances by none other than Al Pacino and Tony Kushner! This event benefits the GLBT Historical Society. But we’ll be at the Rrazz Room for their fourth anniversary, an evening packed with talent, including Deana Martin, Freda Payne, Cece Peniston, Billy Stritch, Mary

Wilson, and Pia Zadora, emceed

by Sharon McNight and musically directed by Kelly Park. This one benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Where’s my helicopter when I need it?

The week finishes off with another in the SF Ballet NiteOut series on Friday, welcoming the LGBT community to enjoy sensational dance and a hosted reception afterwards, followed by Saturday night’s Soiree 10, the SF LGBT Community Center’s anniversary gala at the Design Center starting at 7 p.m. with a Bel Epoque theme, tons of entertainment, wine tastings, hosted bars, gourmet samplings, silent auction, and Marga Gomez as emcee. Take your vitamins, girls and boys!▼

Steven Underhill

Members of the cast of the touring production of Mamma Mia!, recently in town, were spotted on a night out at Badlands in the Castro.

▼

Karrnal>>

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Bodacious bodies

by John F. Karr

I

’ll say one thing about a spate of recent Falcon and Jocks movies: the formula’s working just fine. Like one, like ’em all. They’re consistently P&P: technically proficient, sexually pro forma. The two latest titles, however, have alluring attentiongrabbers, with Falcon’s Fahrenheit bringing Adam Killian back to the company that provided his debut, and Jocks’ Twin Heat headlining identical twins Luca and Liam Rosso.

Fahrenheit doesn’t dawdle in delivering Mr. Killian, one of porn’s more charismatic performers.

There he is in radiant form right at the top of the movie, in a hot starturn solo. The pretense is washing the car; the actuality is the prick tease of showing off an irresistible boner in wet, white undies, then forcefully working it with a slobbering of soap suds. It’s swell, especially when Killian’s smashing that radiant body part up against the car’s windshield while we’re looking out from the inside.

The overly handsome D.O. is typically rough when making out with especially vocal Micah Brandt. He glugs and gurgles when the cock is thrust down his throat, and moans and yelps when it’s thrust up his ass during a fevered fuck. D.O. shoots a copious load, after which Micah sucks the cock clean. So I want to know: if this is allowable, where’s the oral cum-shot?

The next scene features Trent Atkins, returning to porn after being away for some years, looking pretty much as he did when we last saw him, and topped by sultry-looking Trey Turner. This is followed by D.O. throwing a punchy powerfuck at strong, wide-shouldered Kyle Quinn. But why is the fuck so suddenly abandoned? After D.O. jacks his climax, Quinn licks up the stud’s cum. Once again, if this, why not an OCS? And then, the main event – Mr. Killian pulverizes the plump ass of Lucas Young, who is resuming his porn career after a full decade’s absence. He’s got a svelte body, a still-boyish face, and a nice cock.

All of which are superseded by a resplendent bubble butt that’s catnip to Killian. When Young sits on the steely Killian cock, his moaning about how thick it is doesn’t preclude his breathless demands, “Fuck me! Pound me!” This ultimately makes Killian shoot a lotta cum in his typically theatrical, most agonizing fashion.

Okay, what about those cute, boyishly studly Rosso twins? First seen on a website, they graduated to mainstream porn with two features for Rascal, and have now made what I think is their best appearance in this Jocks outing. They seem to have been made most comfortable by director Bruno Bond and partner Landon Conrad – the encounter is notable for a jovial, playful mood, which doesn’t mitigate or dilute some serious sex, but I think heightens it.

Have I read that Luca is straight, and Liam (the one with diamond studs in each ear) is gay? They don’t

Adam Killian in Falcon Studios’ Fahrenheit.

A screen grab of identical twins Luca and Liam Rosso with Landon Conrad in Jocks’ Twin Heat: a playful mood heightens the sex.

make out with each other. While I don’t find it unholy for brothers or twins to make out, there seems to be a proscription of twincest in American porn. Still, while working on Landon, they do a certain amount of brotherly commingling. They seem to enjoy sucking Conrad’s cock, and they kiss him with relish.

The ensuing fuck isn’t particularly notable. It’s the context, and the brothers’ glee, that propels the event, and stimulates us. Things heat up, though, when a chain fuck is commenced. Conrad’s the middle man, fucking Liam while Luca mops up the rear, plugging Landon with rapid stabs. The staging is admirable, with the guys far enough apart so we can see much of the dick action involved. Finally,

Landon kneels between the brothers, and they dump their loads on his handsome torso. It hasn’t been an organic event; it has no flow, but pays its dividends in its playful smiles and eager activity.

After this headline attraction, the subsequent scenes are standard fare, with no particular chemistry, but solidly professional performances recorded with typical technical facility.

I most enjoyed Luke Milan, who’s got the cheekbones of a runway model, with partner Spencer Fox, who’s got a body that’s thin and flat as a skateboard. Talk about give and take – these dudes flip and flip and flip. It’s a steamy fuck. And – this is telling – it’s the only one in the movie that doesn’t cut from a fuck to climax via jack-off, but finds a bottom fucked into orgasm.▼ www.FalconStudios.com

<< TV

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 15-21, 2012

▼

Gays of our lives

by Victoria A. Brownworth

H

ow many years have we been slamming NBC in this column?

Pretty much the full 19, right? So when did NBC become the network to watch? Apparently last fall, when new NBC execs suddenly realized that grown-ups like watching grown-up TV. We’re not saying they don’t have cute sitcoms, they do. But The Office has worn very thin, Parks and Recreation is a variation on The Office, Parenthood sends chills down our spine and not in a good way, and we are just tired of 30 Rock, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin’s combined comic genius notwithstanding.

We do highly recommend Whitney, which is the best new sitcom on the tube as well as the best sitcom on NBC. But the Chelsea Handler vehicle: ew.

Last season we were starting to really love the gritty Prime Suspect.

But NBC had positioned it following their sitcom lineup, which led to a huge fall-off in viewers. Yet they had a natural pairing with Harry’s Law (which we hate) and Law & Order: SVU, which is still hanging in, due almost wholly to Mariska Hargitay’s extraordinary sex appeal. Why didn’t NBC use that natural opening? Instead they just killed the show. Stupid.

Especially since Maria Bello was super good and the show had potential to become The Shield on network, with solid writing, a great supporting cast, plus New York.

Then NBC debuted The Firm in the same bad Thursday night spot they’d just kicked Prime Suspect out of. Same fall-off problem. Now The Firm is on life-support, shunted to the graveyard of re-run shows on Saturday night. What a shame, because it’s fast-paced, well-acted and wellwritten. It’s highly political, which we love, and honest, which almost never happens on political shows, except for The West Wing, back in the 90s, and The Good Wife, which is over on CBS grabbing every Emmy in sight.

Last week, for example, The Firm took on the Obama Administration’s

policy of assassinating U.S. citizens as an anti-terrorism tactic. Timely, smart, accurate and compelling. Still, only seen by a small demographic: those of us who DVR the show, and those trolling the networks for reruns on Saturday night. Sad. NBC might still be its own worst enemy. The network now has the two best new shows on the tube in Smash and Awake, as well as The Firm and last season’s other sparkler, Grimm, which is one of the best fantasy/ horror shows currently on the tube. Also, if you like competition shows, NBC has The Voice, which is killer and not afraid of its queer contestants, unlike another vocal contest, and yes, we’re talking to you, American Idol. Is NBC finally becoming a real network while also learning about queer characterization?

Looks like it’s happening.

Plus, NBC has two queer daytime hosts in Ellen and Nate Berkus. Nate had Mr. Goodwill Hunting (real name Rashon Carraway) on his show last week doing his thrift-shop magic.

Carraway is one styling black queen, and we recommend checking him out at The Nate Berkus Show at NBC. com. He is possibly the most amazing interior decorator now living. Who would ever think of putting a flatscreen TV on an easel? Genius. And the more gay in the TV day, the better.

But back to NBC prime time: Rent debuts on March 21, and of course that’s got built-in queeritude.

Awake: pinch us! Not one but two out queer actors in front-and-center, not tertiary roles. Cherry Jones’ portrayal is Emmy-worthy after only two episodes, and B.D. Wong is a superb foil to her excited encouragement, albeit in the regrettably consistent TV role of the person of color dragging down the white protagonist. Awake is smooth and well-acted, with Steve Harris, late of The Practice, and Laura Innes (ER, The Event) as Mike Britten’s partner and boss, respectively.

It’s clever, smart and poignant. Jason Isaacs makes Britten’s loss of either his son Rex or wife Hannah in a car

NBC-TV

Mr. Goodwill Hunting (real name Rashon Carraway) does thriftshop magic on The Nate Berkus Show.

crash (which may or may not have been orchestrated to kill him) palpable. He’s understated and nuanced in a role that could easily devolve into bathos.

Theatre queens And then there is Smash. Sigh.

How much do we love this show?

In last week’s episode we really did see two obviously naked men, Tom (Christian Borle) and his date, lying in bed together. Men who had just had sex, talking about just having had sex. This wasn’t the playing-atgay-male sexuality that we watched for years on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters.

Or the neutered gay male sexuality of Modern Family and Desperate Housewives. Or even the sweet but off-the-page sex of Glee. This was tres gay. This was why-isn’t-the-American-Family-Association-callingfor-a-boycott gay. This was real-life gay. The whole show is true to the quintessential gayness of theatre. And if you aren’t tearing up by the end of an episode, you weren’t paying attention. There is also much behindthe-scenes intrigue in each episode.

Tom’s assistant Ellis (Jaime Cepero), for example, is climbing the ladder to success on the backs of various people. He plays ultra-gay at the theatre, but is sleeping with a woman at home. Now he’s trying to curry favor with the erstwhile producer, Eileen (Anjelica Huston). The big problem with Smash is the numbers. It’s got a 55% fall-off from its lead-in, The Voice, which means NBC is weighing cancellation. But for now, it’s just sooooo good.

Glee is either phenomenally good or just God-awful: a conundrum.

The season finale (really a midseason finale: Fox plays by different rules than the rest of the networks, so they have several different season

finales) was gut-wrenching, with fabulous music. Every element of what makes the show kick-ass was in play. Spoiler alert: Dave goes home to kill himself after a brutal outing at his new school, replete with bright pink “faggot” spray-painted on his locker.

The beefy football player who made Kurt his icon gets dressed up as if for church and then tries (fortunately unsuccessfully) to hang himself. Even Sue was upset. Kurt visits him in the hospital, which calls for more tears, but is so moving. Then there is Rachel’s wedding. Her gay dads are terrific (we so love Jeff Goldblum, he really gets to show off in this role. He’s a jazz pianist in real life, so plays whenever he can on the show). The making up with Quinn is vintage Glee, so when everyone is waiting for Quinn to get there to be a bridesmaid and she’s late because she’s driving – no texting while driving, people. Crash!

When this show is on, it is so very on.

Glee returns in late spring.

Bebe mine How is it possible that The Good Wife gets better with each episode?

Even if this show didn’t have one of the two most magnificent lesbian characters on the tube in Kalinda Sharma, we would still be mesmerized. The way GW layers real politics with the politics of the law and of personality and sexuality is breathtaking.

Bringing longtime Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile in for a cameo to discuss the keynote speech for the upcoming Democratic National Convention (the show is set in Chicago) was pure genius. This week Bebe Neuwirth (Tony and Emmy winner, formerly of Cheers, Frasier and L&O) joins an already stellar cast.

Speaking of the personal getting political, most TV viewers love comic actress Patricia Heaton. She was Emmy-strong on Everybody Loves Raymond, and she’s currently great on ABC’s The Middle. She’s been nominated for eight Emmys and won two. Well-deserved. Alas, she’s kind of despicable as an actual person. It’s not so much that she’s a conservative who is constantly whining about how she’s not getting the best roles in Hollywood because she’s a Republican.

(Okay, it’s partly that, because she’s never been out of work. And she’s won those Emmys.) It’s how she comports herself off-screen. Last week, as Inside Edition and ABC’s World News Now reported, Heaton felt compelled to send a series of vicious tweets to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student who testified about contraception before Congress. In case it wasn’t enough for Rush Limbaugh to call Fluke a slut, Heaton piled on, which is so repugnant, given she’s a woman, a mother and all family-values-ish.

Heaton told Fluke that she should wear her underwear inside out for two weeks, among other disgusting things. Heaton was forced to shut down her Twitter account when the responses flooded in. Then she apol-

ogized. Sort of.

We were appalled. We aren’t recommending a boycott of The Middle, but you might want to e-mail ABC about whether or not those tweets violate Heaton’s employment clause.

Because there’s Ellen, using her fame to try and save lives, and there’s Heaton, using hers to spew venom at a young woman she doesn’t even know.

Ugly. Speaking of ugly, our favorite one-liner of the week, Jon Stewart referencing Rush: “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Gross.” Perfect.

Speaking of perfect, has there ever been a better prime-time soap than Revenge? Nevertheless, we aren’t sure we like the return of the Evil Queen stereotype, and we aren’t talking about Emily aka the real Amanda, but Nolan. Now that Tyler has been killed, there’s no one for Nolan to be evil queens with. Gee, why does that scenario seem familiar? Memo to this show and every other show on the tube: enough with the cougars. Madonna and her 29-year-old fiancé notwithstanding, the percentage of older women who aren’t rich who have much younger male lovers is about the same as the number of times one can get struck by lightning in a lifetime.

Speaking of Evil Queens, we’ve been trying to watch Days of Our Lives since they discovered there really are gays in the universe, when Will Horton (Chandler Massey) came out.

We hate the crappy sets and wildly uneven acting, and also the standard “bad” queer storyline. (Will may be a Horton, but he’s up to no good with EJ.) Here’s what we like best about this storyline: Will comes out to his grandmother, Marlena (Deirdre Hall). Hall, who returned to Days last year, once refused to wear AIDS ribbons at awards shows because they marred her outfits. We see this storyline as karmic payback. And also hope that we will move away from the bad gay to the good gay, especially since daytime soaps are currently queerless. Inexplicably.

Finally, the eagerly awaited return of Lindsay Lohan to the screen, albeit the small one, pretty much proved she is not-yet-ready for prime time when she hosted SNL. We care about Lohan, we really do. Just like we care about all young questioning queers. But she continues to get bad life advice, because doing a show where she was forced to join Kenan Thompson making rape jokes in a scared-straight prison sketch, and/or be abused by other cast members in the opening monologue as a drug addict, simply didn’t use her talents. She was third fiddle to the ultra-talented and super-funny Kristen Wiig in the night’s best sketch, The Real Housewives of Disney. But mostly she just trotted a few zombified steps behind everyone in a little too-Teleprompterdependent haze.

We hope LL is on the right track, but this was not an auspicious relaunch. We didn’t like the “been there, done that” response to a lesbian comment, either. When all your longterm relationships have been with other women, you really are a lesbian.

Own it. It might make you less likely to fall off the wagon and more likely to become someone as self-defined and self-confident as, say, Ellen. Not to mention a role model for other young, searching, LGBTQ under-25s like yourself. Think of all the kids out there getting slammed by the likes of Kirk Cameron (we would be remiss in not mentioning him, but we hate to give him a second more face time).

There’s Cameron deriding queers even as he plays to kids in syndication: if that isn’t reason enough for you to show your true lavender colors, Miss Lindsay, we don’t know what is.

TV is a big, messy playground, and there’s a lot going on. Which is why you really must stay tuned.▼

▼ <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

March 15-21, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Kathleen Turner

From page 21

to Broadway, which I can now say with hindsight,” Turner said. “It was a really packed season, with openings every night, so we were anxious to grab a night that was available. I think perhaps we pushed too quickly.”

During the stops at regional theaters in Hartford, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, the cast and playwright would have after-performance talkbacks with the audience. “So many of the audience would stay, and there was this outpouring of stories about family members or friends or co-workers whose lives have been taken over and destroyed by addictions,” Turner said. “I was like, whoa, am I naive? I was really taken aback and thankful that I don’t have loved ones who have gone down that road.”

Turner did have a problem with alcohol when she was self-medicating for the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, but she said the disease is now in remission. She does know that High playwright Lombardo is a recovering addict who has talked openly about his addiction to crystal meth, to which he was introduced in 1999 by a new boyfriend who also became his dealer. A downward spiral continued through 2007, including the time he was working on Tea at Five, the Katharine Hepburn solo show starring Kate Mulgrew that played SF in 2005.

“Matthew was brought up a good Catholic boy, and then he started using, so he had this experience with both faith and addiction,” said Turner of Lombardo’s impetus for the play, which is not in any way autobiographical beyond those broad connections. Lombardo has been clean for five years, but High doesn’t

<<

Courtesy SHN

Kathleen Turner thought it was important to take the play High on the road despite its failure on Broadway.

have a traditional happy ending.

“That means we don’t give you the answer,” Turner said. “We don’t say all you have to do is this and you get that, which is rubbish.”

Turner’s experience co-starring with Bill Irwin in the revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a Broadway hit before going on tour, is a precious memory for her, but she especially values her role in helping mold High from its first rehearsals.

“It’s thrilling in a different way,” she said. “I think any playwright would acknowledge that the actor eventually becomes the expert in forming the character, more so than the writer. It gets to a certain point and it’s like, ‘Look, Matthew, I know you would like me to say this, but she would not use that word or those rhythms.’ And I can’t help but try to find whatever humor I can in

anything, so let’s just say I’ve added a few laughs.”

Turner acknowledged that it’s a bit of a financial sacrifice to forego film and TV opportunities to do theater. “Maybe I’ll pick up a movie here and there and pad the account again, but I really don’t want to buy any more houses or cars.” Asked if she invested some of her own money into High so it could continue after Broadway, she replied, “That’s personal and is nobody’s business.”

Turner does have a movie scheduled for release in May, The Perfect Family, in which she plays a devoutly Catholic mother who discovers her daughter (Emily Deschanel) has a lesbian lover with whom she is having a baby.

Turner herself is political in specifically focused areas. She has been a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, and is on the board of

Kathleen Turner’s breakthrough role came in 1981 as a dangerous femme fatale in Body Heat.

People for the American Way and Citymeals-on-Wheels. She’s cautiously optimistic about the future despite assaults by the religious right on social issues. “I travel a lot and meet a lot of people,” she said.

“It’s frightening, but I think the American people are essentially good-hearted.”

She gets to travel because she tours with the shows that her star power helped establish. “I don’t

believe in building a show on my reputation and then sending it out with someone else. It feels like cheating to me,” Turner said. “We’ve had lovely audiences, and I think a part of it is that audiences are truly thrilled to have the original actress come to them.”▼ High, Curran Theatre, March 2125. Tickets ($50-$200): (888) 7461799 or go to www.shnsf.org.

Stephen Schwartz

From page 21

jor revivals of Pippin (in London) and Godspell (in New York) and collaborating with Indian composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) on an animated Bollywood-style film for DreamWorks. But he took time from a recent studio session to chat with me about the some of the challenges and triumphs of his brilliant career.

Of Godspell’s 40th anniversary Broadway revival, he said: “I like it very much. It’s done in the round, and it’s one of the most imaginative uses of theatre in the round I’ve ever seen. I like the new arrangements, and they’ve really captured the spirit and essence of the show, while including a lot of contemporary references.”

The London revival of Pippin, which recently closed, puts an extremely modern, alternate-reality spin on the show. “It’s a really interesting approach,” he said. “The whole thing is done like a Second Life computer game, and it works beautifully.”

Schwartz hasn’t always been delighted with how directors have staged songs in his shows, in particular Bob Fosse’s original Broadway staging of Pippin. “I didn’t like it at first, and it took me awhile to adjust to Fosse’s vision, especially of the song ‘With You.’” During the most tender, gentle love song in Pippin, Fosse had the lead actor and female dancers engage in a promiscuous, dry-humping orgy. “At first I was taken aback, but now I like it,” said Schwartz. “And it became the top wedding song of the 70s.

“Directors have their own visions, and it takes awhile for my original image to become adjusted to their vision. I felt the same way about the staging of ‘Popular’ in Wicked, but now I like it very much. There’s a difference between something being different from what you expected, and not working.”

Although he’s candid and bubbly

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus will premiere a new choral song.

when discussing his work, Schwartz draws the line at sharing which of his songs are his favorites. “I don’t do that, I keep my favorites secret. It might color the way that audiences hear them.”

Since its pre-Broadway run in San Francisco, Wicked has gone on to become an international cottage industry. “It’s been translated into German, Japanese, Finnish, Danish and Dutch,” said Schwartz. “With Portuguese, Spanish and Korean versions coming up.

“It’s extremely challenging for translators [with whom Schwartz has

collaborated] to match both the lyrics and the rhyme schemes. But the show sounds really good in German – especially when the characters are angry.”

Agreeing to participate in the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus tribute was a no-brainer for Schwartz. “[Artistic Director] Tim Seelig contacted me less than a year ago to ask if they could do an evening of my songs. I said yes. When he asked if I would participate, I said yes.”

Schwartz will perform some of the many songs from his Broadway and film career along with the SFGMC, the Choral Project ensemble of San

Soprano Melody Moore is part of the lineup at Davies Hall.

Jose, and acclaimed opera soprano Melody Moore.

“I also wrote a world premiere choral song for them called ‘Testimony,’ which is inspired by the ‘It Gets Better’ project. I worked with [project founder] Dan Savage, who put me in touch with a lot of interviews of people sharing their experiences and journeys.

“I’m really looking forward to

returning to San Francisco, which was the birthplace of Wicked, and to hearing the new piece.”▼ Enchantingly Wicked, An Evening with Stephen Schwartz, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, March 20 & 21 at 8 p.m., Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness St., SF. Tickets ($15-$75) at www. sfgmc.org or call (415) 392-4400.

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34 • Bay Area Reporter • March 15-21, 2012

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