May 3, 2012 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

5

AIDS grove helps AEF

13

Gay Romney aide quits

21

SF Ballet's 'Don Quixote'

The

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

Vol. 42 • No. 18 • May 3-9, 2012

Trans woman killed in Oakland Maitri marks O 25 years

by Seth Hemmelgarn

by Seth Hemmelgarn

M

aitri, a San Francisco nonprofit that provides services to people living with HIV and AIDS who are in need of either hospice care or 24hour nursing care, is marking its 25th anniversary this year.

The agency, which is at 401 Duboce Avenue, will hold its annual Bliss gala this weekend.

Jane Philomen Cleland With improveMichael ments in treatments and other develop- Smithwick ments, the AIDS epidemic has changed since 1987, and so has Maitri.

“In the early days of the epidemic, we were nothing but a hospice,” said Executive DirecSee page 16 >>

akland police are investigating the shooting death of a transsexual woman who was killed in her car in the city’s downtown area Sunday morning, April 29.

A woman who was with the victim, Brandy Martell, 37, said that she was killed shortly after a man Martell had been talking to learned of her gender identity.

Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Lea Rubio said that at 5:16 a.m. Sunday, police responded to the 400 block of 13th Street, near Franklin Street. Officers located Milton Massey Jr., which police say is Martell’s legal name, inside a vehicle, she said. Martell, which someone who knew her said was her legal name, was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators are looking into the motive for the shooting, said Rubio.

Bryana Coleman, 37, who’s transgender and lives in Hayward, said that she was in the backseat of Martell’s Lexus Sunday morning. Two other people besides her and Martell, who also lived in Hayward, were in the car, she said.

She said that they had been “hanging out” for several hours before two men “dressed like they were coming from a nightclub” approached them at about 4:30 or 5 a.m., and one of them came up to her window and asked her

Oakland police cordoned off an area downtown before Brandy Martell’s body was removed by coroner’s officials.

Tiffany Woods

how she was doing.

The man saw “how pretty [Martell] was” and said, “I like your friend,” said Coleman.

Martell rolled down her window a little and had a conversation with the man for about five to 10 minutes. The second man went to the front passenger side and spoke with the woman in that seat, said Coleman.

She said that she “couldn’t hear verbatim every word” that Martell and the front passenger said, but “There was no verbal altercation.”

Coleman said that she didn’t hear any anti-gay or anti-trans comments.

Coleman said that the front passenger looked at Martell and said, “They don’t know See page 17 >>

Reactions Plaque unveiling, movie mixed on screenings to mark Milk Day Milk ship proposal B

by Matthew S. Bajko

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he proposal to name a U.S. Navy vessel after Harvey Milk is drawing mixed reactions in San Francisco, where the slain gay rights leader served as a city supervisor.

Courtesy GLBT Historic Task Force San Diego Some city leaders have endorsed Harvey Milk in the idea, including his Navy days.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who holds the board seat considered to be Milk’s.

But others contend it is an ill-conceived honor for the gay rights icon, including Milk photographer and close friend Dan Nicoletta.

Queer economic justice activist Tommi AviSee page 15 >>

ay Area celebrations to mark the annual Harvey Milk Day this year include a plaque unveiling in the Castro and screenings of Academy-Award winning films about the slain gay rights leader.

This will be the third year that California observes May 22 as Harvey Milk Day, which falls on Milk’s 82nd birthday. The Castro businessman and political organizer made history in November 1977 by winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

It marked the first time an openly gay person had won elective office in the Golden State and was a defining moment for the city’s burgeoning LGBT community. Sadly, a year later disgruntled former Supervisor Dan White gunned down Milk and then-Mayor George Moscone in City Hall.

Yet Milk’s murder turned him into an international LGBT hero. And state lawmakers in 2009 designated May 22 as a day of special significance to honor Milk. Although not an official state holiday, meaning state employees aren’t given the day off nor do calendars denote the occasion, many schools and municipalities celebrate it.

In San Jose this year the group Marriage Equality Silicon Valley is hosting a free showing

Rick Gerharter

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black will be in town on May 22 for a Harvey Milk Day event at the Castro Theatre.

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

of the Oscar-winning 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. The event starts at 6 p.m.

Tuesday, May 22 in the Community Room at the Rose Garden Branch of the San Jose Public Library, 1580 Naglee Avenue.

In San Francisco the GLBT History Museum will offer free admission to all visitors on Milk Day. The main gallery space will feature rare video clips of Milk from the Daniel A. Smith/ Queer Blue Light Collection in the archives of the GLBT Historical Society.

The museum is located at 4127 18th Street between Castro and Collingwood streets.

That night at the Castro Theatre will be a screening of the Academy Award-winning biopic Milk. The event is a fundraiser for the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, the nearby public elementary school.

In years past the school has held an outdoor carnival for families to celebrate Milk Day. This year it held the street party as a Spring Carnival event instead, and decided to go with a more adult-themed Milk Day event.

While attendees can bring their children to the movie, the event’s webpage notes the movie was rated R and that the fundraiser is not “kid friendly.”

“We have been looking for ways to involve See page 17 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

▼

Spirited May Day march

LGBTs and allies took part in Occupy May Day marches in Oakland, including groups calling for immigration reform. The Occupy marches in Oakland and San Francisco closed streets and, while largely peaceful, there were reports of vandalism and arrests made in both cities.

Jane Philomen Cleland

LGBT vet redress bill to be amended

by Dan Aiello

A

ssemblyman Dr. Richard Pan said this week that he will amend his legislation intended to offer redress to LGBT veterans ousted under the prohibition policies of the nation’s military, including “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces.

As written, AB 1505 would have required the state Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate nonfederally-funded benefits to military service members who were ousted with less than honorable discharges because they were gay.

But Pan, a Democrat from Fair Oaks, said he will instead introduce a “contingency and enactment clause” to his bill because state veterans benefits are closely tied to federal benefits and congressional action is needed.

“It’s going to Assembly appropriations where it will be procedurally amended,” Pan told the Bay Area Reporter. “The state benefits are so dependent on federal benefits that it would really be hard to separate the two. It’s almost undoable.”

Pan recognizes it is unlikely a Republican-controlled House of Representatives will pass legislation aimed at redress for LGBT vets, but believes his bill would not be effective as written.

“I hope that other states will follow California’s lead and put pressure on Congress on this important issue,” he said.

Pan said he is hopeful that AB1505 can leave the legislature “as a bipartisan bill. I have had some very positive conversation with some of my Republican colleagues.”

He declined to name them, saying, “I don’t want to obligate them at this time.”

“We definitely intend to move forward because it’s not only an impor-

Assemblyman Dr. Richard Pan

tant issue, but a timely one. We just saw the repeal of DADT and still have inaction on the part of the federal government,” O’Hara said.

Pan said congressional action is needed quickly.

“We do want Congress to fix this issue of redress as quickly as possible,” said Pan. “I think by passing this bill it will add some pressure.

We want to be in the position of saying, ‘look Congress, you need to take action.’ ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was repealed. We can develop a national consensus.”

Pan acknowledges he has yet to build a state consensus, but sees the non-vote of his GOP colleagues as hopeful.

“So what happened in this veterans committee is they stayed off,” said Pan of the GOP committee members on the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee. “They didn’t vote no. I am hopeful that we can get Republican votes and get a bipartisan bill out.”

In a related matter, Pan is also planning to introduce a nonbinding joint resolution, which will be the vehicle by which to offer an apology to those who were, and continue to be,

affected by the military witch-hunt for homosexuals.

Brian O’Hara, communications director for Pan, said that while the joint resolution “doesn’t have hurdles or deadlines,” it would probably be introduced “some time over the summer, if not sooner.”

O’Hara said that Pan wants the resolution to be passed to mark the September anniversary of the repeal of DADT. “Where we want to go with an apology is to first recognize that [the prohibition ban] was actually a federal action,” Pan said. “So we want to submit a joint resolution to call on Congress to apologize for this situation as well as call on Congress to take action to fix this situation.”

Pan was first asked about the issue of an apology by the B.A.R. last November.

“Personally, I agree with you that an apology is needed,” he said this week. “We want California’s vets impacted by this to have their discharges upgraded to ensure they receive full benefits.”

Pan said he is disappointed that DADT became an issue in the Republican presidential primary race, when several candidates talked about reinstating DADT. “I’m amazed there are people out there who don’t value the sacrifices these soldiers have made serving their country,” Pan said. “We’ve had these examples in our history when we’ve valued certain groups differently, like this. It is shameful. But when a bullet strikes a gay soldier, isn’t their blood just as red, isn’t their injury just as painful? They have put themselves in harm’s way in service to our nation, but because you are LGBT you deserve less? For people who are running for the highest office in the land to say that they shouldn’t all have equal benefits truly disappoints me.

These vets deserve better.”▼

▼

Election 2012>>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Out candidate seeks East Bay Assembly seat

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

t was during several Native American retreats he attended while an undergrad at UC Berkeley in the mid-1990s that Abel Guillen discovered how to explain his sexual orientation.

Although attracted to both men and women, Guillen did not identify with bisexuality and never felt comfortable labeling himself as bisexual. Hearing tribal elders discuss being Two Spirit, however, made more sense to the East Bay native.

“The elders gave testimony as to being Two Spirits and being fluid about their sexuality. Bi doesn’t define who I am,” Guillen told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent editorial board meeting. “Two Spirit defines who I am at the core.”

From a working class Mexican American family, Guillen’s ancestry includes Native American blood, he said. He is one of the few Two Spirits to hold political office in the U.S. Elected in 2006 to the Peralta Community College District’s board of trustees, Guillen is now running for the open 18th Assembly District seat in Oakland. Should he survive the June primary and win in November, Guillen said he would “absolutely” join the Legislature’s LGBT caucus.

It would be a homecoming of sorts for Guillen, who worked for a year as an aide to lesbian former state lawmaker Carole Migden when she served in the Assembly. Migden has endorsed him in the race.

“I really enjoyed working for her.

I learned a lot,” said Guillen.

He has won support from a wide

Jane Philomen Cleland

Assembly candidate Abel Guillen called potential voters last Saturday during a campaign event with volunteers.

variety of labor groups and the Sierra Club. Last month he earned the endorsement of Equality California, the statewide LGBT lobbyist group.

But Guillen is mostly unknown to the Legislature’s current LGBT members. The only one listed as an endorser of his campaign, so far, is gay Los Angeles Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D).

Part of the reason is that Guillen only recently came out publicly as Two Spirit. He first acknowledged that he dates both men and women in an interview with the B.A.R. in January for a story about the Peralta

district’s Alameda campus launching an LGBT studies course.

“I was only recently made aware that he is LGBT,” gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) told the B.A.R., adding that so far he has stayed out of the East Bay Assembly race.

Guillen’s main opponents for the legislative seat, which covers most of Oakland and the cities of Alameda and San Leandro, are AC Transit director Joel Young and Alameda Councilman Rob Bonta. RepubliSee page 6 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

Volume 42, Number 18 May 3-9, 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

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Another trans murder A

t around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, April 29, an African American transgender woman was murdered in downtown Oakland. Brandy Martell was reportedly shot as she sat in her car socializing with friends near 13th and Franklin streets. Martell was a peer advocate TransVision team member. She was killed mere blocks from the Alameda County courthouse where the country’s first elected transgender criminal court judge sits.

We don’t know many details of the incident, and witness accounts are sketchy, as is often the case. It could have been an attempted robbery or perhaps the assailant discovered that she was transgender and killed her. At this point, it doesn’t really matter. The bottom line is that a trans woman was killed in Oakland, a city where violence is alltoo-common for many people, including LGBTs and especially LGBTs of color.

Tiffany Woods, the program coordinator at the Tri-City Health Center, oversees the center’s TransVision program. She has witnessed an escalation of violence in downtown Oakland over the last couple of years. However, she’s adamant that trans women have a right to be on public streets, even if just sitting in cars and socializing. There’s often no other place for them to go that is safe, as many lack adequate housing, a drop-in center, or other facility. As Woods told us, if they get accosted on the street, they can run.

“They wouldn’t be out there if there was a safe place,” Woods said.

And that brings up another aspect of life for many trans women, especially women of color: Transgender people in the U.S. are often pushed to the bottom 1 percent of that 99 percent. A 2006 study in the Bay Area of 194 transgender individuals found a 35 percent unemployment rate, with 59 percent earning less than $15,300 annually – and that was before the economy tanked in 2008. There are so few job opportunities for transgender women of color that a lot of them resort to sex work, which exposes them to potential violence and harm. At the Transgender Day of Remembrance last year, names of trans people killed around the world were read, many of whom

had worked on the streets in the sex trade.

The Oakland Police Department is cashstrapped and short of officers. The department is under threat of federal takeover for its past practices, including the use of violence during last year’s Occupy protests. But OPD needs to prioritize this crime and dedicate appropriate investigative tools to solving the case.

Mitt’s leadership style That was quick. Just about two weeks on the job and Mitt Romney’s gay national security spokesman was forced out in a hail of antigay rhetoric from the usual suspects like the American Family Association. It seems that we were overly optimistic in this space last week about Richard Grenell’s appointment as a spokesman for the presumptive GOP presidential candidate.

But reading a Washington Post blog post about Grenell’s sudden ouster on Tuesday speaks volumes about Romney’s leadership style: “According to sources familiar with the situation, Grenell decided to resign after being kept under wraps during a time when national security issues, including the president’s ad concerning Osama bin

Laden, had emerged front and center in the campaign,” noted the post from Right Turn blogger Jennifer Rubin.

Grenell by all accounts was an expert on national security matters (his personal, catty tweets about political women and others notwithstanding) and yet Romney, rather than stand up to the homophobes and critics, kept Grenell off the stump and away from the TV cameras at a time when Grenell could have gotten Romney’s message out in an effective way. According to Rubin, top campaign aides urged Grenell to stay on, but he could see what was ahead. There was no public statement of support from Romney or his campaign team, and “no supportive social conservatives were enlisted to calm the waters,” she wrote.

While Romney reportedly assured Grenell that his being gay was a non-issue, the candidate apparently had a change of heart after the Christian conservatives started whining. What Romney should have done is told those bullies that he had a superbly qualified foreign policy spokesman and that his sexual orientation was irrelevant.

But no, Romney caved, surrendering before the blow-up went mainstream.

If Romney can’t stand up to homophobes, he surely has little chance standing up to world tyrants if he’s in the Oval Office.▼

A politically motivated case

by Stephen LeBlanc

Y

ears before he ever ran for elective office, suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was a dedicated progressive community activist and a staunch supporter and ally of the San Francisco LGBT community. I first met Mirkarimi in 1999, when we worked together in drafting and then campaigning for Proposition G, the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance amendment. He impressed me at the time, and still does, as smart, hardworking, independent, and someone drawn to politics for all the right reasons. Like former Sheriff Mike Hennessey, Mirkarimi’s roots are in the community, not in law enforcement or the political establishment.

The weakness of Mayor Ed Lee’s case against Mirkarimi is illustrated by a guest column written in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 20, which the mayor cited as a basis for suspending Mirkarimi. The column was written by Abraham Mertens, husband of Ivory Madison.

It was Madison’s call to police on January 4, against the express wishes of Mirkarimi’s wife, Eliana Lopez, that triggered the domestic violence charges that led to the suspension.

In the Chronicle column, Mertens wrote: “I recognized what I thought was Ross’s voice in the background as Eliana pressured me to destroy evidence and lie to the police.” Mertens is an attorney. Why is he using weasel words to level such a serious charge against Mirkarimi?

He does not say he actually recognized Mirkarimi’s voice, or whether the voice was speaking to Lopez at all, much less encouraging her to pressure anyone to destroy evidence. (Mirkarimi and Lopez have both said Mirkarimi was not there.)

A reasonable high school principal would not issue a detention on such a charge. Yet, not only did the Chronicle print it, they cited it in a further column attacking Mirkarimi. The mayor cited this allegation in the formal charges outlining Mirkarimi’s alleged official misconduct.

The mayor’s entire case against Mirkari-

mi is like that. The couple had a 15-minute very emotional argument in a minivan, and Mirkarimi grabbed Lopez’s arm, unintentionally causing a bruise. Nothing more. Lopez has said, repeatedly, there was nothing more. There is no credible evidence of anything more. The plea agreement of misdemeanor false imprisonment under California Penal Code section 236 is consistent with nothing more. (Yes, it is in fact misdemeanor false imprisonment to turn the car around against a passenger’s wishes and drive eight blocks back home.)

Mertens’s Chronicle piece concluded with an attack on Lopez: “If everyone behaved as Ross and Eliana did, can you imagine what would happen to our justice system and society?” The Chronicle echoed that attack. Lee cited Lopez’s actions as one basis for Mirkarimi’s suspension.

Lopez is the victim of her alleged protectors, not of Mirkarimi. When self-appointed protectors turn so completely on the victim, it is a giveaway that something is rotten. Lopez told the police the day they came to Madison’s house and the next that there was no domestic violence and that she had never felt afraid of her husband. She told Judge Susan Breall on January 19, “This idea that I am this poor little immigrant is insulting, it’s a little racist.” She is under a court order, that she has repeatedly asked to be lifted, forbidding her from calling her husband on the telephone, even from Venezuela, since January 13.

This is how victims in politically motivated prosecutions are treated. When they won’t follow the script assigned to them, they are ignored, they are attacked, they are punished, and the threat of their own prosecution is kept over their heads. Lopez’s attorney offered full cooperation to District Attorney George Gascón in exchange for prosecution immunity. Gascón refused. Why would the victim need immunity and why would Gascón refuse? Well, you see, if

Lopez told her side of the story and said that she was not a victim, the prosecutor could claim the couple was jointly responsible for the argument and Lopez could also be charged with child endangerment. By not granting her immunity, Gascón ensured that Lopez’s testimony would not contradict the story he wanted to tell.

Gascón’s decision to prosecute Mirkarimi was not about protecting Lopez. Lopez has repeatedly, and credibly, insisted she does not need or want to be protected from her husband.

Lee’s suspension of Mirkarimi without pay for official misconduct, for alleged acts all prior to Mirkarimi actually being sheriff, certainly only hurts Lopez. This prosecution and suspension is about scoring political points against Mirkarimi at the expense of Lopez, her family, the voters who elected Mirkarimi sheriff, and the taxpayers of San Francisco who will pay huge sums to fund this farce.

No San Franciscan should be subjected to prosecution by the media as Mirkarimi has been, and no San Francisco family, of any sexual orientation, should be ripped apart based on allegations and hearsay, while the couple themselves staunchly insist that their family has value. Mirkarimi is a true progressive and has been a steadfast supporter of the LGBT community throughout his activist and political career. He deserves our support in this manifestly ridiculous attack.

If Gascón and Lee are successful in removing an independently elected official on this flimsy pretext, the lesson will not soon be forgotten. I don’t believe there is a conspiracy to get Mirkarimi – this is simply an opportunistic political hatchet job. Both Gascón and Lee were appointees to their offices. (Each went on to win a four-year term in last November’s election.) Mirkarimi was elected supervisor twice, and then sheriff, without the benefit of being See page 6 >>

▼

News Briefs >>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Hip swimwear benefit Saturday compiled by Cynthia Laird

ed donation of $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. The event is open to the public.

For more information, visit www. gracecathedral.org.

I

n what organizers are promising will be one of the hippest benefits of the year, Project Inform is presenting Swimwear for a Cause Saturday, May 5 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy Street in San Francisco.

Under the tagline “See. Be seen,” a cocktail-style evening awaits attendees, who will be dazzled by stunning models walking poolside in this spring’s hottest swimwear, all to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. “This is a time of hope, renewal, and possibility in the fight against HIV and hepatitis C,” said Dana Van Gorder, Project Inform’s executive director. “It seems fitting to use the advent of spring, and the beauty of life we seek to protect, to celebrate the strides being made against these two epidemics.”

Project Inform does public policy work around HIV/AIDS and hep C, as well as offers an HIV health info line (1-800-822-7422, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; for Bay Area residents and international callers, 415558-9051). The agency is also involved with advocacy work around the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and health care reform.

Tickets for Swimwear for a Cause are $50; hotel packages start at $500. To purchase tickets, visit www.projectinform.org.

API HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Today (Thursday, May 3) is National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/ AIDS Awareness Day and the API Wellness Center will present Taking Root: Our Stories, Our Community from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia Street (between 16th ad 17th streets) in San Francisco.

The evening will include a screen-

Petchitecture 17 coming up

Courtesy Project Inform

Swimwear models will offer plenty of eye candy at Project Inform’s fundraiser Saturday.

ing of digital stories, food, and performances commemorating the eighth annual National API HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. For more information, visit www. apiwellness.org.

Jane Lynch at Grace Cathedral Actress Jane Lynch will be in conversation with the Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw, the out, lesbian dean of Grace Cathedral, on Sunday, May 6 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church’s Gresham Hall, 1100 California Street (at Taylor) in San Francisco.

Lynch’s appearance at the Forum is part of the church’s series of conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the issues of the day. Lynch is an out actress who has appeared in several movies and currently stars in Fox’s Glee television series.

Lynch is also being honored on Saturday, May 5 at the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ 35th anniversary gala.

Admission for the Grace Cathedral conversation is free; there is a suggest-

You can dress up your dog and take him out to Petchitecture 17, the benefit for Pets Are Wonderful Support that takes place Friday, May 11 from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at the Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco.

More than 800 human guests and their well-behaved canine companions will be treated to a gala that includes one-of-a-kind pet habitats created by some of the Bay Area’s leading architects and designers.

Live and silent auctions will feature an array of wine, fine dining, entertainment, and lifestyle packages.

Guests will dine on the Palace’s awardwinning cuisine and there will be a short program highlighting PAWS’ comprehensive companion animal services for low-income seniors and people living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling illnesses.

“With the lavish surroundings and amazing cuisine of the Palace Hotel, hundreds of good friends and supporters, and 200 pups dressed in their finest woof-wear, Petchitecture is truly a party with a purpose,” said PAWS President Kevin Kosik.

Photographers will also be on hand to capture the evening’s festivities.

Fully licensed and vaccinated dogs on leash are welcome.

Individual tickets are $160 and available online at www.pawssf.org.

For more information, call (415) 9799550.

Oakland gay men’s chorus in concert The Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus will start its 14th concert year with The Writes of Spring on Saturday, May 5 in Napa and next See page 16 >>

AIDS grove to help AEF with anniversary event

by Cynthia Laird

E

nding what AIDS Emergency Fund Executive Director Mike Smith called “a long and frustrating search” for a large venue for the agency’s 30th anniversary benefit, he received some good news this week when the board of the National AIDS Memorial Grove voted to offer its site – complete with clear tent – for AEF’s evening event without charge.

The decision came about because the tent will already be set up on site for the grove’s third annual Light in the Grove benefit the evening of November 30, and will be in use for the grove’s 19th annual World AIDS Day observance on the afternoon of December 1, said John Cunningham.

Executive director of the grove.

AEF’s benefit is set for the evening of December 1.

“This was an easy and logical choice for us,” Cunningham said in a statement. “We want the grove to be a resource to the community.”

In an interview Monday, April 30, Cunningham said that he and Smith determined that there were not too many donors that both agencies had in common so an AEF benefit would not hinder the grove’s own fundraiser.

“It’s appropriate for us to step forward and support another organization and we’re really hoping those out there will reach out to fellow AIDS service organizations,” Cunningham said.

He added that the grove, located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park,

Jane Philomen Cleland

National AIDS Memorial Grove Executive Director John Cunningham

is one of the area’s “best kept secrets” and the AEF event “gives another opportunity to showcase” the memorial to people who may not have been there.

The Light in the Grove fundraiser started in 2010 when Cunningham became aware that while the World AIDS Day observance was “deeply moving,” some people were “observed out.”

“Many individuals were looking for a way to connect and the tent being there utilized the literal light of the grove and the light of the community,” said Cunningham.

“We didn’t know what we would create,” he said.

The clear tent, which takes about a week to fully assemble on site, costs about $36,000, Cunningham said. For the last nine years Wells Fargo Bank has owned sponsorship of the World AIDS Day event, including the cost of the tent. It will this year, too, he said.

For his part, Smith was ecstatic that AEF will not have to pay for rental of a hotel ballroom. The agency will be using the grove’s caterers, which will be cost-effective, he added.

“We’ve been struggling with where to do the 30th anniversary event,” Smith told the Bay Area Reporter, adding that the grove’s offer will save AEF between $30,000 and $40,000.

“Free use of the tent, and the chance to partner with the grove’s chosen caterers and event rental companies, will allow us to produce a costeffective event that raises substantial funds for our program, while offering AEF’s family of donors a once-in-alifetime experience,” Smith said.

AEF plans a festive “Under the Big Top” circus-themed party to mark its 30th year. The organization, which provides emergency financial assistance to low-income people with disabling HIV/AIDS, has set an ambitious goal of raising $300,000 in new funds during the year, and is helping people organize “Parties with a Purpose.”

Tickets for both the Light in the Grove and AEF’s anniversary benefit will go on sale this summer. For more information on the grove, visit www. aidsmemorial.org. For information about AEF, visit www.aef-sf.org.▼

<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

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The rules have changed

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

I

f you happen to be transgender, then you have a reason to celebrate: the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently ruled that an employer who discriminates against a transgender job applicant or employee because of the person’s gender identity is practicing sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This, in a word, is huge.

Let me give a bit of background. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was initially written to stop discrimination against women and African Americans in this county. Specifically, it halted racial segregation in public accommodations, schools, and employment, while also putting an end to unequal requirements to vote between the races. It was a difficult bill to pass, and Southern bloc senators, led by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, held a 54-day filibuster.

Title VII from the act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, as well as against any individual because of their association with another individual of a particular race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also prohibits discrimination against people in an interracial marriage.

Over the years since its passage, some of these classes have been expanded or interpreted in ways to fit the times. In the 1970s, for example, sexual harassment was determined to be included, and bills in 1967, 1978, and 1990 added pregnancy, age, and disability to the covered protected classes under Title VII. I should also add that it was in 1974 that the first attempt at adding “sexual orientation” to the Civil Rights Act was attempted. It failed. In 1994, a new bill came out, focusing specifically on employment rights. This bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, has been going in and out of Congress ever since, but has yet to reach the president’s desk.

<<

Out candidate From page 3

can Rhonda Weber doesn’t appear to be mounting a serious campaign, leaving it likely that two of the three Democrats will move on to the November general election.

The front-runner in the race is Young, an African American lawyer who succeeded lesbian AC Transit director Rebecca Kaplan after her election to the Oakland City Council. He has been the subject of unflattering press reports about his personal life since last summer.

But it doesn’t seem to have done much political damage. He recently won the endorsement of the Bay Area News Group, which publishes the Oakland Tribune.

ENDA has been a hot button issue since 1994. It initially lacked transgender inclusion, then, later, in what sounds more like Lucy Van Pelt holding the football for Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic: transgender people would be included, or were promised to be, only to be dropped from the bill when it was considered politically expedient.

Right now ENDA is stalled in the House of Representatives. Congress is deadlocked on practically every bill that reaches the floor, and a potentially controversial bill like this is simply not going to fly during an election year. President Barack Obama, who did pledge to sign ENDA if it does reach his desk, has nevertheless decided not to sign an executive order that would have banned discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals who worked with or aspired to work with federal contractors.

Yet now, in the midst of all the doom-and-gloom about Obama not signing the executive order, with an ENDA that is clearly not going to pass in the short term regardless of if it is inclusive of transgender individuals, we see this ray of hope from the EEOC. No, not a simple ray of hope: more like a 2,000,000,000 candlepower searchlight.

The ruling was a simple one: a transgender woman, Mia Macy, applied to work with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. After a background check laid bare the details of her transition, she was informed that the position was “no longer available.” The ATF later hired another, non-transgender person for the job.

This is not the first ruling that works in our favor: the 1989 Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins added gender discrimination to the definition of “Sex” under Title VII. It also barred “sex stereotyping,” the requirement that employees match common stereotypes of their gender, such as women wearing skirts and heels to work. Price Wa-

terhouse has been used in many cases for transgender people – but the Macy case comes with a greater visibility thanks in large part to EEOC’s decision. Further, while EEOC has previously ruled to the contrary, the commission has essentially overturned those decisions with the Macy ruling.

The decision in Macy v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may finally turn the tide from Ulane v. Eastern Airlines in 1980.

That case – a transsexual pilot who was terminated due to her transition – was also tried based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She won, only to have the case overturned on appeal in 1985.

This, coupled with other, similar cases, builds a growing library of case law for transgender workplace protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. These, in turn, will likely lead to similar victories, and even more case law, largely cementing transgender protections under Title VII. It is, nevertheless, not perfect. It is just as likely that a later EEOC decision could make another 180-degree turn, perhaps under a future administration hostile to LGBTs. Or something else could come down the line, akin to recent attempts to allow religious exemptions for employers and others to legally discriminate. In short, this does not protect people as well as the passage of a fully inclusive ENDA would.

That said, this is a moment to celebrate. It is another step forward toward preserving the rights of Americans regardless of their gender identity or expression. This is a decision beyond federal employees and federal contractors, and can affect us all. It can indeed lead to a sea change in policies in companies all across the United States, and the ability to challenge those who refuse to provide equal rights to their transgender employees or applicants.

It is good news for all of us.▼

Bonta is expected to carry his hometown of Alameda and has attracted statewide attention, as he would be one of the first Filipinos to serve in the state Legislature if he wins the race.

Guillen is no stranger to tough political fights, however, as he took out an incumbent to win his seat on the Peralta board. As a trustee, Guillen voted to push out former chancellor Elihu Harris, a former Oakland mayor, after his spending was called into question.

He is the self-described “asshole” on the board when it comes to overseeing the college district’s budget.

Guillen said one of his top priorities in Sacramento would be fighting for more higher education funding.

He supports taxing oil drilling in

the state and designating the money for education.

He noted that, “We are the only state in the nation that doesn’t have” an oil severance tax. “Here in California major oil companies take minerals out of the ground but we don’t tax it.”

Guillen, 36, shares his birthday, May 22, with that of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk. Similar to how Milk captured a San Francisco supervisor seat in 1977, Guillen is relying on grassroots support to propel him past the primary next month.

“Elections like ours are won at voters doors steps and over the phone,” he recently told supporters in an email blast.

To learn more about Guillen’s campaign, visit abelforassembly.com/.▼

<<

Guest Opinion From page 4

politically appointed first.

Mirkarimi has always been independent, and smart, and hard working, and a true progressive community activist. Some members of the law enforcement and the too-cozy wing of the San Francisco political establishment saw an opportunity to be rid of him, and they took it. Lee suspended Mirkarimi because there was political capital for the mayor in doing so, and because he thinks he can get away with it.

It remains to be seen whether at

Gwen Smith wants to thank the Transgender Law Center for its actions in the Macy case. You can find her online at www.gwensmith.com.

least three of the 11 supervisors will have the courage to vote against letting this political bullying succeed.

If they do not, this whole process will be repeated the next time an opportunity arises to silence an independent voice that managed to force itself into the comfortable club that mostly runs this city.▼ Stephen LeBlanc is an attorney and a former member of ACT UP/Golden Gate. He previously worked for the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston as victim advocate for LGBT victims of hate crimes and domestic violence.

Politics>>

▼ Pride Committee, SF city agencies prepare for Pride

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

t is only seven weeks until San Francisco kicks off its annual Pride celebration. The yearly salute to all things LGBT will officially take place Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24 this year.

Now in its 42nd year, Pride is marching along with a stronger fiscal picture and stable leadership after a string of financial and oversight issues hit the organization following the 2010 event. A year ago the Pride board rehired Brendan Behan, a former employee, to take over on an interim basis, and as of January 1, he was permanently named executive director.

“Things are going incredibly well.

I am just so happy this year we are at the place we are at,” Behan told the Bay Area Reporter this week, adding that it is a welcome change not to have people question Pride’s viability. “I take it as a compliment that this year we are taken as a given.

Last year everyone kept asking is Pride happening.”

Organizing for what is believed to be the largest LGBT outdoor event on the West Coast has been without any major hiccups this year, said Behan.

With staff in place, Pride is back to a normal schedule in terms of planning.

In just one example, by the time Behan met with then-interim Mayor Ed Lee’s administration last spring to schedule the annual rainbow flag raising at City Hall to kickoff Pride week, he was already booked that Monday night. The ceremony didn’t take place until the Wednesday night prior to Pride weekend.

Behan was able to approach Lee’s staff early on this year to ensure that the event occurs on schedule. It will

Matthew S. Bajko, Kurt Thomas

Muni buses may sport “Happy Pride” on destination signs in June, similar to this rendition.

take place at 5 p.m. Monday, June 18.

“We just confirmed today that we will have it the day we usually have it,” Behan told the B.A.R. Tuesday a f t e r - noon.

Now in its fifth decade, the city’s Pride observance follows a set routine. At the start of June the rainbow flags are installed along Market Street, then later at City Hall.

Friday night the weekend of Pride is the Trans March, and volunteers begin installing the giant Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks. Saturday brings the Dyke March and Pink Saturday street party in the Castro. Then comes the hourslong parade and Civic Center festival finale Sunday.

Other than the odd occurrence, the way San Francisco celebrates the LGBT community is fairly formulaic.

That got the Political Notebook to thinking about ways the city could jazz up this year’s festivities. After making some inquiries, a few changes may greet Pride revelers come June.

One possibility is seeing the city’s fleet of Muni buses sport “Happy Pride” messages on the electronic destination signs on the front of buses that alert riders to which route the vehicle is running. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which oversees the city’s public transit, has added “Go Giants” messages to the bus route displays on the baseball team’s game days since April.

The Political Notebook asked MTA spokesman Paul Rose about having a similar message around Pride, but so far has not received a response.

Yet when the idea was recently mentioned to gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, he said he would look into the possibility.

Within hours Wiener, who is vice chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, told the B.A.R. in a text message, “Muni says it should be able to put happy pride on the buses.”

Another idea some departed Pride officials had back during former Mayor Willie Brown’s administration in the late 1990s was to have City Hall lit up at night in pink. Their request, along with a proposal to sheath the building in pink fabric one year, was denied.

“We asked, but were told (at that time) that the exterior appearance was not changed under any circumstances,” recalled Teddy Witherington, a former Pride executive director.

New lighting technology now makes it possible for the city to easily change out the colors in the lights surrounding the building’s historic rotunda. They’ve been red for Valentine’s Day, green to highlight the return of the musical Wicked, and orange to celebrate the Giant’s 2010 World Series victory.

Special holiday lighting has decked out the building during the Christmas season, and in January it bore the red and gold colors of the 49ers to celebrate the team’s bid to

be NFC champions.

It already has been bathed in a pink glow, back in January 2008, to support a breast cancer awareness campaign.

Asked if City Hall would once again bare pink, or sport the colors of the rainbow flag, during Pride this year, mayoral spokeswoman Christine Falvey said Lee would entertain such a proposal.

“Pride is a spectacular citywide event and if the organizers request that City Hall be lit up, the city See page 16 >>

<< Election 2012

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

▼

Dan Aiello

Openly gay Sacramento City Council candidates Terry Schanz, left, and Steve Hansen greeted each other at a recent debate.

Barbs traded by candidates in Sacramento council race

by Dan Aiello

T

wo gay candidates running for a Sacramento City Council seat are trading barbs on the campaign trail ahead of the June vote.

Some campaign literature for the two men, Steve Hansen and Terry Schanz, also doesn’t directly mention that they are gay.

The District 4 race pits Hansen, 32, a senior regional manager at Genentech, against Terry Schanz, 33, a staffer for Assemblyman Isadore Hill (DCompton). There are six other candidates in the race for the open seat.

Home to the state Capitol and Old Sacramento, District 4 includes midtown with a concentration of LGBT clubs, businesses, and residents that earned the area the designation, “Lavender Heights” in the late 1960s.

Hansen and Schanz are attempting to fulfill what one longtime LGBT activist called, “a long-awaited dream,” representing the city in District 4.

But at a recent debate, neither Schanz nor Hansen described themselves directly as gay on their fliers.

Schanz, who is partnered, does not appear with him on his flier, but he does appear with two young children who are not his. Hansen, who is single, also has a picture of a child on his flier, but it is an image of Hansen as a young boy sitting with his grandparents. (Schanz’s online bio does mention his partner, Guy Strahi.)

There have also been undertones of carpetbagging; Schanz is a fourth generation, native son of the district, while Hansen recently moved in.

“I love my neighborhood, I love all the parts of the district,” Hansen told the Bay Area Reporter “I don’t think voters should choose only candidates who are the product of a certain lineage.”

Schanz says he believes being a native son is important.

“I cannot go five houses without running into a former teacher of mine or someone who knew me or my father or uncle growing up,” he said.

“You cannot buy or manufacture that kind of knowledge of a district.”

Schanz doesn’t call Hansen a carpetbagger, but comes close. “You heard him say at the debate you attended Wednesday that he recently moved from Oak Park,” he said.

Hansen lives in Alkali Flat.

Last Sunday, the Sacramento Bee endorsed one of the straight candidates, Phyllis Newton. The newspaper did reference Hansen and described him as one of the top three contenders.

“While we didn’t get the Bee, they spoke highly of our campaign and said we would serve worthily. ...

Thanks to all of you who helped us get this far,” Hansen said to his supporters on his Facebook page.

In fact, the Bee said, “any of the top three – Joe Yee, Steve Hansen, or Phyllis Newton – would be worthy additions to the council.”

Schanz’s campaign emailed a statement saying the candidate is focusing on meeting voters.

“Terry is proud of all his endorsements. He’s endorsed by women’s groups, Latino groups, young voters, labor unions,” said spokesman Adam Horn. “We’re running a grassroots campaign that focuses on connecting directly with voters.”

Finances Hansen has reported raising $115,000 since he began his campaign last year; a large number of contributors come from outside the district and many contributions are linked directly to Genentech executives.

Former Assemblyman Dennis Mangers, a Hansen supporter, attributes his donors to “a company that wants to see its employees do their civic duty” and to support from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which endorsed Hansen.

“I’d be surprised if a large number of those donors weren’t LGBT supporters from around the country,” said Mangers.

Hansen recently raised more than $10,000 at a TransAmerica building fundraiser in San Francisco, where, as the B.A.R. noted, he said he would donate his council salary to charity if elected.

“When you have an opponent loan her campaign $50,000, it’s pretty daunting,” Hansen told the B.A.R., referring to opponent Newton’s recent campaign report. “For someone with an underwater mortgage and student loans to pay, I appreciate all my donors.”

Hansen believes he will need $150,000 for the primary and the same amount for the general election should he make the runoff.

Schanz, who entered the race in January, has raised just $16,329.

“Most of my campaign fundraising has been through voter outreach within the district,” Schanz told the B.A.R., claiming his financial backing is “largely local.”

Schanz, who worked in South Africa as a community builder before returning to Sacramento, told the debate audience that the key to his tenure on the council will be “honoring and respecting the historic neighborhoods of this fine city.” Schanz spoke extensively of the need to improve the schools he once attended, and his campaign fliers show the candidate with two small children who Schanz described as “the children of friends.”

The Sacramento Stonewall Democrats endorsed Hansen, while Schanz has the endorsement of the Sacramento County Young Democrats and

organized labor.

“Good man,” Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) told the B.A.R., referring to Schanz.

Camp believes Schanz can make the runoff if he wants to, despite the fundraising deficit.

“It’s about walking the precincts and Terry says he’s doing it,” Camp said. “If you can walk all the precincts three times, you can win District 4.”

The issue of homophobia in the Boy Scouts has also come up.

Hansen, who has a military background, including the JROTC in high school, declined to commit to denying city resources to organizations like the Boy Scouts of America that discriminate against LGBT citizens.

He also said that he would never give preferential treatment to groups that discriminate.

“But that we are required by the First Amendment to allow access to city facilities on a viewpoint-neutral basis,” he said. “To do otherwise would allow government to choose the speech it likes and punish that which it doesn’t like. That being said, I am not shy about my advocacy for fundamental rights and the need to free our society of invidious discrimination.”

Schanz did not return calls regarding the same question.

Schanz and Hansen are not the first out gay candidates for council, but according to Mangers they are the first “serious” contenders.

“My goal is to keep the community together,” said Hansen of the potential rift two gay candidates running against each other might pose. “Sacramento is finally electing its first openly gay person, but to be the best councilmember is paramount – to understand the issues in the most complete way. I hold myself to a terribly high standard.”

But it was one of the straight candidate, Yee, who serves on the Planning Commission, who secured the coveted endorsement of former Mayor Anne Rudin, a trusted and respected LGBT ally.

While Rudin endorsed Yee, she had only good things to say about both Hansen and Schanz.

“Frankly, I think they’re all excellent candidates,” she said. “Steve impressed me when he was on the redistricting board. And Terry I met at Cal Middle School and he seemed to me to be very bright.”

In addition to Hansen, Schanz, Yee, and Newton, the other candidates on the ballot are: estate planning attorney David Turturici, DUI lawyer Michael Rehm, information technology analyst Neil Davidson, and Kyle Ellsworth. If no one wins a majority of the vote in June there will be a runoff election between the top two finishers in November.▼

▼

Community News >>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

New schools chief touts LGBT safety

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he man recently selected by the San Francisco Board of Education as the next schools chief pledges officials will “continue to work very aggressively” to protect LGBT and other students.

The school board voted unanimously last week for Richard Carranza to serve as the next superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District.

Carranza, 45, currently serves as the district’s deputy superintendent of instruction, innovation, and social justice and is set to replace Carlos Garcia after Garcia retires in July. The board’s vote was Tuesday, April 24.

In a recent interview, Carranza, who joined the district about two and a half years ago, said that among his goals are ensuring safety for LGBT and other students.

“I’m very, very sensitive and supportive of the LGBT community,” Carranza, who has a gay brother, said.

“Under my administration, we would absolutely continue to work very aggressively” to protect students, he said.

The district appears to be far ahead of most other school agencies in the country when it comes to addressing LGBT issues. Among other things, the district was likely the first of its kind to offer a website specifically addressing the needs of LGBTQ students and their families.

Still, San Francisco school students aren’t immune to anti-gay attitudes.

Recent survey data that includes the district’s middle and high school students indicate that it’s fairly common for them to hear comments like “faggot” and “that’s so gay,” while staff often don’t address the remarks. Many LGBT students have been subjected to violence, according to the data.

Carranza said the district’s work to address such problems would continue.

“Students in our schools have every right to come to school and not feel bullied or harassed,” he said. “...

It’s unacceptable for any student not to feel comfortable and successful in school.”

Carranza said Kevin Gogin, who works in support services for LGBTQ youth for the district’s school health programs department, “has done a lot of really good work” on developing intervention programs, training staff, and other areas.

In response to emailed questions, Gogin said the district’s leaders have been “incredibly supportive of LGBTQ programming, curriculum, and professional development. Leadership has engaged in an ongoing conversation regarding what LGBTQ students need and how Support Services for LGBTQ Youth, and the district as a whole, can respond.

[Carranza] has been a part of this discussion since he has worked as deputy superintendent.”

He added, “Of course an ongoing challenge is funding for programs such as Support Services for LGBTQ youth that supports student attendance and achievement. Support Services is the first – and in many ways the only – program of its kind in the United States. We hope to continue serving the youth of San Francisco through direct programming and assist teachers with resources and curriculum to create safer classrooms.”

Gogin said his office “has received necessary support” from Carranza in his current post and he’s looking forward to working with him as he assumes the superintendent’s role.

One thing Carranza seems to have taken particular interest in is “restorative practices” to address disciplining students, rather than just suspending them.

He said, “It’s very rare” that a stu-

dent will engage in bullying with the full scope of the consequences of their actions.

The “easy” response when students participate in name-calling or other behavior is to “suspend the student, send them away,” Carranza said. But “what’s lost in that event is the teachable moment,” he said. Students should understand “what the consequences are of using words to hurt other students,” and they have a responsibility to make the other person feel better, he said.

That kind of idea is shared by gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). Earlier this year, Ammiano introduced Assembly Bill 1729, which reaffirms that superintendents and school principals have the discretion to implement alternatives to suspension and expulsion, among other provisions.

“The bill is designed to correct the root causes of the pupil’s misbehavior, account for any individualized educational plans, and the age of the student,” a news release put out by Ammiano’s office earlier this month states. “San Francisco Unified School District has started down the path of restorative practices, and have seen suspension rates decline under the new approach,

support. The law went into effect in January.

“We believe in all of our communities having a place in the historical record,” Carranza said, adding that he was “very proud of the fact that San Francisco Unified is really at the vanguard” of implementing curriculum that includes a historical perspective.

He said the district wants to make sure that work continues to be developed “so that the curriculum is truly reflective of the fabric of America.”

Budget Courtesy SFUSD

Incoming San Francisco school Superintendent Richard Carranza

and AB 1729 will support these efforts of alternative correction.”

Another issue is the new law mandating that students be taught about LGBTs’ historical contributions.

Carranza said while he didn’t know the details of the law, known as the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, or Senate Bill 48, he knew of it and expressed

School board members praised Carranza.

“Hiring the superintendent is the most important decision we can make as a school board. Deputy Superintendent Carranza has already brought much to our district as an instructional leader, community builder, and father of two SFUSD students. We are confident that he will continue the progress of the past five years without breaking stride,” school board President Norman Yee said in a statement.

Carranza’s salary will be $245,000.

His first day as superintendent will be July 5.

He estimated that he’d be oversee-

ing a staff of over 8,000. The district’s budget is about $500 million.

Over the course of two years, said Carranza, the district’s budget has been cut by $113 million. They’re planning for tens of millions of dollars more in cuts over the next two years.

Carranza said the district’s budget impacts the ability to “provide a web of support for all our students.”

“It gets really hard, when you have to make cuts every year, to provide the level of services we want to provide to our community,” he said.

Two out candidates for the school board have concerns of their own.

Martin Rawlings-Fein, who identifies as trans, has a 6-year-old daughter attending Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.

Among other things, he said, “Especially with a new superintendent coming in, we have to actually make sure that all kids, not just LGBTparented kids, but every kid is served by having a wonderful, loving, and nurturing environment that accepts everybody.”

Dean Clark, who’s gay and is also running for the school board, said that he used to work for the school district, and he wants to see more support for LGBT students and for new teachers.▼

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Read more online at www.ebar.com

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

▼

Community News>>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

Queer youth lobby lawmakers on school discipline bills

by Dan Aiello

N

early 50 high school students from communities throughout California came to Sacramento Monday to lobby state legislators in support of two bills aimed at protecting students from extreme or unjust discipline policies.

From Crescent City to San Ysidro, Half Moon Bay to Truckee, students gathered for a morning rally on the north steps of the Capitol before meeting with lawmakers and their staff as part of the April 30 Queer Youth Advocacy Day. Encouraging them to engage lawmakers, students heard firsthand the personal stories of out state legislators and fellow students advocating for AB 1729, Creating Alternatives to Suspension and Expulsion, and AB 2242, Reducing Out of School Suspensions for Minor Infractions that was authored by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento).

Organization sponsors of the advocacy day claim that LGBT students, students of color, and students with disabilities suffer disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion, hence the need for the bills.

Out Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who authored AB 1729, told the students of the LGBT community’s struggle for equal rights by those who came before them.

“I was around when Harvey Milk spoke of the young man from Altoona, Pennsylvania who feared coming out, of being institutionalized by his parents,” recalled Ammiano.

“When you visit legislators, look at who they’ve hired,” Ammiano told the students. “Do they have any out gay people, any transgender staff, working for them?”

After his speech Ammiano, a former teacher, told the Bay Area Reporter, “It’s always inspiring to see these LGBT youth involving themselves in the political process to fight for their equal rights as citizens.

They seem to get a little feistier each year, and they actually get a pretty good reception when they visit these offices, even from my Republican colleagues. It’s kind of hard not to care about our young people.”

Kirsten Hendrickson, a freshman at nearby Folsom High School and vice president of her gay-straight alliance club, stood before her fellow students to tell of being harassed at school. She said that she was shaken when she received a note on her locker that said, “lesbian.”

“I tried to laugh it off, but I was shocked. I had to take an important exam that day but I couldn’t stop thinking about the note,” said Hendrickson.

Out Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) told students at

Dan Aiello

Julian Araujo, left, from Brea, CA joined fellow Californians Anthony Barros of Lancaster, Owen Apteka-Cassels of Davis, and Keanan Gottlieb of Cardiff by the Sea at Monday’s Queer Youth Advocacy Day in Sacramento.

the rally of how difficult it was for him to grow up in a Latino family in a southern California barrio. Lara told students that his father once told him, “If one of my sons were gay, he could see ending the life of his own child,” Lara said of his parents’ three sons, two of whom are gay. Lara said his parents have come to embrace their sons’ sexual orientation.

“They are both very loving and proud of who we are,” he said.

Lara ended his speech by telling

the students, many of which were Latino, “Si se puede.” (“Yes it is possible.”)

Gay Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park) told students how important it was that they were at the Capitol to advocate for LGBT equality.

“It’s called a movement for a reason,” said Gordon. “We have to keep moving to end discrimination all the time. I want you to know I’m very, very proud of you.”

Kayla Evans, a junior at River City

High School in West Sacramento, told the B.A.R. how visiting the offices of legislators empowered her.

“At first it was slightly intimidating and we were prepped for people that might be against us,” Evans said.

“I never realized I had the resources to talk to elected representatives to advocate for new laws. I realize now that I can.”

Evans, who lives just a few miles from the Capitol, had never been inside the building.

“Lobbying would never be a career for me, but I intend to do it for issues important to me for the rest of my life,” she said.

Queer Youth Advocacy Day began 15 years ago when former Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl introduced the first bill to protect school-aged youth from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity on California school campuses. Last year students helped shepherd Ammiano’s Seth’s Law, and the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act by out state Senator Mark Leno (D-California) to the governor’s desk where both bills were signed into law.

Advocacy day was sponsored

by GSA Network, Equality California Institute, Transgender Law Center, the Trevor Project, and American Civil Liberties Union of California.▼

Grenell resigns Romney post, citing personal issues

by Lisa Keen

R

epublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s openly gay adviser on foreign policy resigned Tuesday, just two weeks after the campaign announced his appointment.

According to the Washington Post, which broke the story May 1, Richard Grenell “resigned in the wake of a fullcourt press by anti-gay conservatives.”

But Grenell, in a statement to the Post, said only that his ability to “speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyperpartisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign.”

Grenell’s statement also thanked Romney for his confidence in Grenell’s ability to serve the campaign on national security and foreign policy issues and for Romney’s “clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.”

The Post quoted Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades as saying the campaign is “disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons.”

“We wanted him to stay,” said Rhoades, “because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill.”

Most gay observers see Grenell as a victim of the Republican Party’s strong right-wing base.

R. Clarke Cooper, head of Log Cabin Republicans, echoed Grenell’s statement, blaming his departure on “hyper-partisan discussion of issues unrelated to” Grenell’s national security qualifications.

Cooper said Grenell “was essentially hounded by the far right and far left.”

Stonewall Democrats’ national Executive Director Jerame Davis said Grenell was “mercilessly hounded by religious conservatives.” To Davis, Romney’s appointment of Grenell was never serious, but just a “crassly

Richard Grenell

cynical political move by Romney to fool LGBT voters into believing he’s not as anti-gay as his statements would have you believe.”

Davis criticized Romney for “silently [letting] the bigoted wing of his party control his personnel choices.”

HRC endorsed President Barack Obama a year ago.

Jimmy LaSalvia, head of the national gay conservative group GOProud, said, “I still can’t believe that in 2012 there are still people like Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins, who would rather keep a gay person from having a job on a presidential campaign than have Mitt Romney assemble the best foreign policy team possible.”

“On a day when foreign affairs and national security are at the forefront, it’s too bad that Governor Romney doesn’t have the best spokesman possible speaking on his behalf,” LaSalvia added.

Fischer, a policy official with the American Family Association, criticized Grenell’s appointment, characterizing Grenell as a “gay activist” and suggesting he would be trying to promote a “homosexual agenda.” Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, noted that Grenell publicly criticized President Bush for opposing the U.S. endorsement of a pro-gay statement by the United Nations.

Another right-wing anti-gay activist, Gary Bauer, criticized the appointment of Grenell, saying that it showed unwillingness by the Romney campaign to reassure conservatives in the Republican Party.

“Conservative profamily leaders,” said Bauer, in an April 25 email to supporters of his current organization, Campaign for Working Families, “are disappointed because Grenell has been an outspoken advocate of redefining normal marriage.” He noted that Grenell “once caused a controversy by trying to have his partner listed as his spouse when he worked at the U.N.” Grenell asked to have his partner listed, the same as the spouses of other U.S. delegation employees, in a United Nations directory.

But Bauer’s criticism of Grenell’s appointment was somewhat tempered by his acknowledgement that

“... people like Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins ... would rather keep a gay person from having a job on a presidential campaign than have Mitt Romney assemble the best foreign policy team possible.”

–Jimmy LaSalvia

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese also criticized Romney for his silence.

“The fact that Grenell is gone so quickly after a right-wing uproar,” said Solmonese, “is a troubling harbinger of the kind of power that anti-gay forces would have in a Romney White House.”

“homosexuals” worked in the administrations of President Ronald Reagan and the two Bush presidents.

And Grenell’s own cryptic explanation – citing “hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign” – left room for uncertainty about what was really behind his abrupt resignation.

Grenell, 45, lives in Los Angeles and was due to start work at Romney’s national headquarters in Boston on Tuesday. Such a move would have enabled Grenell to marry his longtime partner, Matthew Lashey.

Personal issues were also a focus of early criticism of Grenell’s appointment, as media reports gave considerable attention to his Twitter posts making unflattering observations about GOP presidential long-shot Newt Gingrich’s current wife, Callista, openly gay Pulitzer Prize-winning Post editorial writer Jonathan

Capehart, and MSNBC’s openly gay political commentator Rachel Maddow, among others. Those posts came to light just as the clamor was subsiding over a remark from lesbian Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen that Romney’s wife, Ann, had “never worked a day in her life.”

Grenell’s qualifications to serve as a national security and foreign policy adviser to Romney seemed unquestioned. Grenell served the administration of President George W. Bush, as a spokesman for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He was also appointed by former Ambassador John Danforth in 2004 to serve as an alternative representative of the United States to the U.N. Security Council. And he served numerous other prominent Republicans, including former New York Governor George Pataki, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, and former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.▼

<< The Sports Page

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

Music and the mat

by Roger Brigham

W

hen folks in the vast beyond think of San Francisco, they think of couples such as Don Jung and Ben Olsen. Their story is so typical, so representative, so ... San Francisco. And now, long after they were both lost in the 1980s onslaught of AIDS, one man whose life they touched is working to make sure their works are not forgotten.

This is a story about wrestling and music – about how the threads of culture and sport can be so intertwined in our lives it is hard to see where one begins and the other leaves off. It is a story about taking the time to change a life and to remember one. The end hasn’t been written yet, but the morals of the story are clear: Never forget the folks who made you who you are, and never leave without saying goodbye.

Jung and Olsen were transplants who met in San Francisco. Olsen was from Missouri, where he studied at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Olsen moved to San Francisco in the 1950s, then in 1968, the year after the Summer of Love, he met Jung, an artist from Montana.

That began an 18-year relation-

ship. They lived in a tiny apartment in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, opening the Newest Sphere junk shop in 1969 before moving across the bay to Richmond to open Glass Blast, where Jung churned out etched glass and sand-blasted artistic creations.

Olsen taught music for many years before retiring to write music full-time at home.

It was while they were in Haight-Ashbury that their paths crossed with 14-year-old John Winterhalter.

“I was out there running around, smoking pot,” Winterhalter told me during a visit to the Bay Area over the weekend. “A friend told me he knew a composer and I was in shock. I didn’t know there were still composers living.”

Soon Winterhalter, who had tried unsuccessfully years earlier to learn to play piano first from his father and then in group classes, was paying Olsen $5 a session for piano lessons.

“I was more a pain in the ass than anything,” he said. “I was supposed to be there for an hour and I would spend all day.”

Often Winterhalter would learn by playing one of the dozen variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” Cohen had arranged. They are complex,

often humorous riffs on the classic children’s theme, demanding patience and discipline.

“I could never make that tinny piano sound the way he could make it sound,” Winterhalter said. “He could make beautiful sounds on that piano.

Sometimes I would make a mistake just to hear him play it.”

The mark those days left on Winterhalter was more than musical; it became a part of his inner psychic core.

“He filled in a lot of what my father couldn’t,” Winterhalter, 45, said.

“We talked a lot about philosophy.

One time he took an hour asking me about a coffee pot and about which was invented first, the handle or the pot. Eventually I realized what he was telling me was that form follows function.”

Those sessions were prized moments of sanity and stability away from the crazy streets of San Francisco, where Winterhalter felt his life was spiraling down into an inevitable mess. Then in 1979, when he was 19, he suddenly left the city and enrolled in the military. It was part impulse, part fear, part adventure, part desperation.

He never said goodbye.

“I always felt badly about that,” he said. “But I kept thinking later that maybe they escaped all of the madness going on, that maybe they es-

Roger Brigham

John Winterhalter played a piano sonata composed by Ben Olsen.

caped AIDS, that they were alive.”

And alive they were for some time after that. Jung, whom Winterhalter remembered as always being rather quiet and puttering around in the background, creating the artwork that paid their bills, began wrestling once more. Jung had placed in the state high school championships when he was a kid back in Montana and drew on that experience in 1982 when he accepted Dr. Tom Waddell’s challenge to create a wrestling club to host the Gay Games I wrestling tournament. He also created a new wrestling program at Mission High School. Jung took the gold medal in that inaugural Gay Games.

But just four years later, suffering

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from AIDS and pneumocystis, he was dead, just days after winning the silver medal in Gay Games II. Two and a half years later, Olsen was dead as well.

All of which Winterhalter belatedly learned only after going online and doing Internet searches for his old mentor. He said when he found out Cohen was dead, he balled up and cried.

“It was like my father died,” he said.

And then three months ago he set out to see if he could make sure that the music his mentor composed would never die.

“There are a few pieces out there I know of,” he said, “but I remember two big drawers full of manuscripts.

I know there’s a full symphony he finished.”

Winterhalter has some of the sheet music in his possession, including pages of the “Twinkle” variations he worked on in his youth, and a dramatic sonata that through themes of urban madness repeatedly returns to a compelling love theme and a wedding march.

“He wrote it in 1968, the year he met Don,” Winterhalter said. “I think the sonata is about what meeting Don meant to him.”

These days, Winterhalter, who is straight and married, lives in Northridge and drives for a delivery company. He has been trying to track down all the information he can about Olsen and Jung, find as much of Olsen’s music as he can, and make sure it is archived rather than lost.

Most of the people he knew who knew the couple back then have long passed on, but he is trying to learn as much as he can through conversations and Internet searches.

Which is how he ended up at my home last weekend, tapping out bits of Olsen’s tunes on our grand piano with my husband, Eduardo.

During one of his Internet searches, he had found a reference to the Don Jung Memorial Wrestling Tournament run by Golden Gate Wrestling Club. Winterhalter had left San Francisco before Jung had returned to wrestling, but he remembered hearing that Jung had been a wrestler. He contacted the club and next thing he knew, he was in our house – just as before, the home of a musician and a wrestler.

Which brings us to the morals of this story. Winterhalter can’t say goodbye to the mentor he left more than 30 years ago, but he can do his best to pay him back by making sure his musical legacy is remembered, just as GGWC did in 2007 by renaming its tournament after Jung, its founder.

So, any of my readers who were active in the local music scene back in the day or know of people who might have known the couple can email Winterhalter at jw7754@yahoo.com to help him with research.

Who knows, maybe the symphony will be unearthed and resurrected for a performance one day.

The best source of information Winterhalter was able to find online about Jung and Olsen was, sadly, the AIDS obituary archive of the GLBT Historical Society and the Bay Area Reporter. It is a sad place to reflect but a wonderful place to post comments in memory of those we have lost. The archive can be accessed at http://70.90.168.98/olo.

AIDS/LifeCycle fundraiser Saturday A fundraising “bachelor auction” will be held Saturday, May 5, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Lookout bar, 3600 Market Street. The event was organized by AIDS/LifeCycle riders Daniel Conti and Steven LeRoy. Twelve bachelors had their pictures taken for a photo shoot and will be auctioned off for dates at Saturday’s event. Calendars of the photo shoot will be available for sale at the event and online afterward. Pictures from the shoot may be seen at http://www. flickr.com/photos/47566848@N05/ sets/72157629569979058.▼

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Community News >>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

SF police seek suspects in anti-gay attacks

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he San Francisco Police Department is seeking help in finding suspects involved in two anti-gay attacks.

The first incident occurred at 2:30 a.m., March 29, in the 400 block of Castro Street.

San Francisco Police Sergeant Peter Shields said the victim was walking home and was “punched in the face and called a ‘fucking faggot.’”

He said nothing had precipitated the attack, in which there are two suspects. Shields said that the victim suffered “minor injuries” and was treated at the scene, but he declined to provide other information about the victim.

Terry Dyer, a victim in the second attack, told the Bay Area Reporter days after the incident that it started at about 10:45 p.m. April 7. He and a friend had been walking near the

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Milk ship From page 1

colli Mecca also panned the proposal as “inappropriate and insensitive” in an emailed statement to the Bay Area Reporter.

LGBT leaders in San Diego announced their campaign to convince the Navy to name one of its vessels after Milk last week. It is one of several proposals being pushed by the city’s GLBT Historic Task Force, which expects San Diego’s City Council to approve the renaming of a street after Milk at its May 8 meeting.

The task force is asking people to either send letters of support directly to Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy, or sign an online petition posted on change.org.

Milk served in the U.S. Navy and was on active duty during the Korean War. He trained as a deep-sea diver, and advanced to the rank of chief petty officer on the U.S.S. Kittiwake, according to a bio posted at glbthistorictaskforcesd.com/USSHarveyMilkNavyVesselCampaign.aspx.

Commissioned an ensign in late 1953, Milk was transferred to Naval Station at San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. In 1955, he was discharged from the Navy at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, states the bio.

“Milk was proud of his military service, and wore a brass belt buckle bearing his Navy diver’s insignia until the day he died,” states the bio.

In the early 1970s Milk moved to San Francisco’s Castro district where he opened a camera shop and penned a political column for the B.A.R. After several failed attempts, Milk became the city’s – and state’s

Courtesy SFPD

Courtesy SFPD

Courtesy SFPD

Police released sketches of three suspects linked to two anti-gay attacks.

blond spiky hair. He was last seen wearing a black puffy jacket and blue jeans.

The third suspect is a white or Hispanic male, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 150 pounds, with short blond hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans.

The suspects spoke with an East Coast or foreign accent.

It hasn’t been confirmed that the two attacks are related, but at least two of the suspects were possibly involved in both incidents, according to Shields.

Police are also asking for any additional victims of similar incidents to contact investigators to file a report.

Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to contact the special investigations division at (415) 553-1133 or call the anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text-a-tip to TIP411.▼

bar Rebel, 1760 Market Street.

Dyer said three men walked by and one of them yelled, “faggot.”

More anti-gay slurs and a fight soon followed. Dyer said his injuries in-

cluded swelling to his face. He refused medical attention.

The first suspect is described as a Hispanic male, 25 to 30 years old, approximately 6 feet tall and 170

pounds, with black hair.

The second suspect is described as a white or Hispanic male, 25 to 30 years old, approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and 150 pounds, with

– first gay person to win elective office in 1977.

Tragically, a year later former disgruntled Supervisor Dan White assassinated Milk and then-Mayor George Moscone inside City Hall.

Milk’s death turned him into an international LGBT icon.

He has been honored in numerous ways over the years. Parks and schools are named after him, and President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Milk the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

Longtime LGBT activist and gay newspaper columnist Nicole Murray Ramirez, who befriended Milk, chairs the San Diego task force and has been pushing to honor Milk in various ways. He is working with the Harvey Milk Foundation, on whose board he serves, to gain national support for the Milk navy vessel idea.

“We in San Diego are very proud that Harvey Milk was stationed in our city and fell in love with California here,” Murray Ramirez told the San Diego LGBT Weekly, which carries his column and broke the news about the Milk vessel campaign on April 24.

In a statement Milk’s gay nephew, Stuart Milk, who is a spokesman for the Milk family and heads the foundation, called the proposal “inspiring.”

“As an American hero who proudly wore the uniform of a Naval officer, the naming of a major vessel after Harvey will add that most American value of equality and democracy to the proud message of inclusion for which military service now exemplifies,” stated Stuart Milk. “This action by the U.S. secretary of the Navy will further send a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our na-

tion that honesty, acceptance and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of our military.”

Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego), who is running to be San Diego’s next mayor, endorsed the proposal in letters he sent April 20 to both Mabus and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta.

“This action would be a fitting tribute to Mr. Milk’s support for equality, an ideal exemplified in the military’s recent repeal of its former ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,” wrote Filner, referring to the restriction banning gay and lesbian service members from being out of the closet that Congress rescinded in 2010.

In response to a question this week from the B.A.R., Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said that “Leader Pelosi supports these efforts” to name a Navy ship after Milk.

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Wiener introduced a resolution in support of the proposal.

“Harvey Milk was a visionary in our community and redefined what it means to be LGBT in public life. Given Supervisor Milk’s extraordinary public service and military service to our country, I can think of no more fitting tribute than to name a naval vessel after him,” stated Wiener.

Retired Navy Commander Zoe Dunning, an out lesbian and a leader in the effort to repeal DADT, has also endorsed the idea.

“Harvey Milk was proud of his Navy service. Similar to the USS Cesar Chavez, there should be a USS Harvey Milk to honor Milk’s leadership in the LGBT civil rights movement,” stated Dunning, referring

to the Latino leader who organized California’s farmworkers.

At its meeting Monday, May 7 San Francisco’s Veterans Affairs Commission is expected to back the Milk ship idea. The commission’s gay chair, John Caldera, placed the item on the agenda.

“Absolutely, I support this 100 percent. Christening a Navy ship would be an appropriate honor,” said Caldera, who was honorably discharged as an U.S. Navy hospital corpsman.

Former Milk campaign manager and legislative aide Anne Kronenberg, now the city’s director of emergency management, has also endorsed the idea and believes that Milk “would be smiling to hear about the effort to christen a ship in his name.”

“Harvey understood the importance of symbolism in the advancement of civil rights. He also lived in an era when being out in the military was simply impossible,” stated Kronenberg, who co-founded the Milk foundation and serves on its board. “He’d be quite pleased that we are now in an era when not only can LGBT people be out in the military, but they can even have warships named after them. Times truly have changed.”

Not everyone is as enthralled with the proposal.

Avicolli Mecca told the B.A.R. that having the U.S. Postal Service issue a Milk stamp, which backers have been pushing to see for years, or Congress declare Milk’s birthday on May 22 a national holiday would be more appropriate commemorations.

“It seems inappropriate and insensitive to name a Navy ship after a gay man who opposed the Vietnam War and war in general. Especially if that ship were to be involved in America’s next war in the Middle East, a war that Harvey would no doubt have opposed, if he were alive today,” emailed Avicolli Mecca. “The Milk who served in the Navy during the Korean War and the Milk who, less than two decades later, defied the taboos of his day to have sex with men, grow his hair, smoke pot, and oppose the war, were completely different individuals. It was like that back then. People were transformed by the incredible times we lived in. I know that I was.”

Nicoletta also said he respectfully disagrees with the thinking behind the idea. He told the B.A.R. that his opposition, though, has “little to do with” Milk’s anti-war stances he took later in life and more to do with his own.

“Though I would never presume to guess where either Scott Smith [Milk’s late executor] or Harvey would have landed on this issue, I do know that both their families had proud decorated military histories and I recall both men to be very patriotic, so I empathize with Harvey’s family of origin and his nephew Stuart Milk wanting to honor that history in this instance,” wrote Nicoletta in an emailed response.

“I included Harvey’s military photo in my curation of the Milk Plaza plaque photo series because it represents an essential variable in the arc of Harvey’s political identity. But this is also a good time to remember that dissent is also patriotic and that is why I oppose this affiliation personally.”▼

Clausen House, Stepping Stones, and recently with Adult Education Technologies.

Previously to 1998, he was an avid square dancer on tour to Hawaii. He ushered at the San Francisco Ballet, and played a soldier at the S.F. Opera with Pavarotti, who took him to lunch. He participated in the S.F. Gay Pride Parade for years. He also worshipped at several churches throughout the region.

He was loved by his childhood neighbors, and by his Redwood family. He leaves behind his loving sister, Beth; his niece Christine (David) and their children Alexander and Julia; his nephew John (Korina).

Also his deceased brother Ernest Jr.’s children, nephews John (Mary) and their daughter Elia; and Christopher (Anna) and their children Tristan and Tilia. His spirit lives on in his family and friends.

A memorial is planned for Saturday, May 12 at 2:30 p.m. at the Lighthouse LGBT Community Center,

1217 A Street in Hayward.

was readily searched by early computers and was capable of identifying specific molecular fragments of larger structures. Mr. Smith wrote two books detailing this important notation system; these were translated into many languages.

In later years, Mr. Smith’s love of music led him to develop a computer program that identifies musical pieces based on a series of notes.

Mr. Smith is survived by his friend Glen Black, of Oakland; and a nephew, Milo Thomson, in Oregon.

Some oppose ship idea

Obituaries >> Robert August Krumm March 13, 1938 – January 31, 2012

Loving son of Ernest and Luella Krumm, Robert died peacefully on January 31, after a long struggle with liver cancer. A lover of the arts, and, of family and friends, with a generous heart, and great enthusiasm for life, he will be deeply missed. A resident of Redwood Convalescent Hospital in Castro Valley since 1998, after the tragic loss of his left lower leg, he continued to attend the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the movies, and shopped with the help of his ILS worker, and attended the Fellows Club with his friends.

A graduate of Fremont High in Oakland, Robert worked as a gardener, postal carrier, and cabinet-maker assistant. He trained further, with the aid of East Bay Regional Center, at

Elbert G. Smith July 18, 1913 – March 18, 2012

Elbert G. Smith, Ph.D., 98, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Mills College, died on March 18.

Born in Eugene, Oregon, Mr. Smith earned his bachelor’s degree from Oregon State College in 1936 and a doctorate from Iowa State College in 1943. After teaching at Hamline University and the University of Denver, he became associate professor of chemistry at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. In 1958, he moved to Oakland and became head of the chemistry department at Mills College, where he taught until 1978. During his career, he was also staff member of the National Research Council dealing with chemical notation systems.

Mr. Smith’s specialty was chemical structure information retrieval. He helped develop Wiswesser Line Notation (WLN), a notation system that

<< Community News

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

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Maitri From page 1

tor Michael Smithwick. “We helped people die.”

Throughout its 25 years, all Maitri residents have had advanced AIDS. Now, said Smithwick, “Many people who come to us are not in the active process of dying,” but are in need of short-term care.

Residents of the 15-bed facility include people who are getting dialysis or going through chemotherapy and need a place to go as they adjust and get stabilized on their medications.

“With our care, they are able to get better to the point where they can leave stronger,” said Smithwick. Maitri still serves people who are terminal, but about half of the clients who came to the agency last year “left stronger after they arrived,” he said.

Still, recent days have served as a reminder that some residents don’t survive. Two Maitri clients died this week, he said.

They’re being added to the agen-

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News Briefs From page 5

weekend in Oakland.z The concerts will premiere several new works and arrangements, including one commissioned by the chorus.

The chorus will also release its first CD, Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus: The First Ten Years at the upcoming concerts.

“We are pleased to present original compositions and arrangements from friends of the chorus as well as its own members,” said Stephanie Lynne Smith, interim artistic director. “In addition, it is our extreme honor to premiere a new piece commissioned by the chorus with text from Mountain Thoughts by John Muir set to music by San Francisco Conservatory student Red Bennett.”

The Napa concert takes place at 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 625 Randolph Street.

The Oakland performances take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12 and 5 p.m. Sunday, May 13 at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Avenue.

Ticket prices for all concerts is $25 premiere, $20 general, and $15 students and seniors and can be purchased by visiting www.oebgmc.org.

SF Rent Board to hold forum The San Francisco Rent Board will

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Political Notebook From page 7

would surely consider this,” emailed Falvey. “The city receives several requests every year to light City Hall in recognition of various organizations or campaigns. In order to maintain the magnificence of City Hall and to highlight the importance of any special lighting, the city attempts to limit the number of times City Hall is lit up during the year.”

Patrick Carney, who oversees the installation of the pink triangle each year, told the B.A.R. he would welcome seeing City Hall aglow in LGBTaffiliated colors.

“That would be great to see it done up in the rainbow colors similar to how the Diesel building is lighted in the Castro,” said Carney, a local architect who worked on the seismic overhaul of City Hall following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

When the building re-opened in 1999 adjusting the lights was more complicated then, said Carney.

“These days it is easier, plus they probably have every color under the rainbow at City Hall for the lights. I would think they could do rainbow colors,” he said. “I would settle even for pink.”

After speaking with the B.A.R. this week, Behan said he would make a formal request about the lighting.

“That wasn’t in my notes of things

cy’s remembrance books. Maitri has kept such logs since 1987. When a resident dies, a candle is lit, and staff, volunteers, and friends can write their memories of the person.

the epidemic,” he said, is part of the nonprofit’s sustainability, which is the agency’s biggest challenge.

Another factor in their ability to be sustainable is funding cuts, he said.

‘I was all by myself’

Finances

Some residents are homeless when they come to Maitri, and some have had no prior treatment for AIDS. “There are many people who, if they weren’t here, would frankly have no place else to go,” said Smithwick.

Barbara Eglian, who’s 48 and identifies as bisexual, had been using heroin and crack before she came to Maitri more than two years ago. She said the agency “got me off the bad situation I was living in, with drugs. ... I was all by myself.”

Eglian said she’s able to take her medications every day now and “If it wasn’t for Maitri, I’d probably be dead.”

Smithwick said the agency’s model has changed.

“Transforming the Maitri model” to match “the changing dynamics of

Maitri’s current budget is about $2.5 million. The agency hasn’t finalized its fiscal year 2012-13 budget, but Smithwick predicted it would be around $2.4 million to $2.5 million.

After a cut of almost $45,000 in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act funding since June 2011, Maitri has eliminated the development director and the office manager positions. A nursing shift was also cut by one attendant, among other changes. The nonprofit has 23 full time staff and almost that many part time positions.

This fiscal year, the agency expects to receive a total of about $1.1 million in Ryan White funding.

In the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, Maitri could lose as much as $212,000 in Ryan White money un-

hold a free landlord-tenant neighborhood outreach event on Saturday, May 12 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

Staff from the city department will give a short overview of the rent control ordinance. Topics covered will include rent increases, eviction regulations, security deposits and interest, roommates and subletting, master tenants, and landlord passthroughs.

Attendees will be provided with valuable rental and eviction information and have an opportunity to meet briefly with staff to discuss their individual concerns. If tenants are in a rental dispute with their landlord/ master tenant or a landlord has grounds for a lawful rent increase, the rent board provides arbitration and mediation services with no filing cost to the parties. Petition forms will be available and staff will assist all parties to understand when and how to file.

“It’s important to get out there in the community because a lot of people, including those who are new to the city or who make informal roommate situations, don’t realize how city law impacts them until problems start to come up,” said Greg Miller, rent board community outreach coordinator.

The rent board is located at 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 320 (at Mar-

ket) and is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone counseling is available 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. at (415) 252-4602. More information is available at www. sfrb.org.

to check about, but I love the idea,” said Behan.

He said he welcomes seeing city departments find ways to highlight Pride.

“I think anytime a city agency like Muni or others are able to talk to the community about their support for Pride, whether it is a ‘Happy Pride’ statement on a Muni bus or something similar, it adds to the vibrancy of Pride month. It helps the community celebrate.”

One agency that is stepping up its visibility around Pride this year is the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. Last year the agency debuted an altered logo that had a rainbow added to it.

This year that logo will adorn the freebies rec and park staffers hand out during Pride weekend, said spokeswoman Connie Chan.

panels for the upside down triangle, which is associated with Nazi persecution of homosexuals.

“I think there would be push back if we did it longer,” Carney told the B.A.R. this week.

In addition to concerns about damage to native plants due to the triangle’s tarps, another factor limits the symbols’ duration. Three years ago the endangered Mission Blue butterfly was reintroduced to the area, causing some environmentalists to question what impact the pink triangle could have on their habitat.

Carney and Wiener met with the butterfly backers last July to discuss their concerns. The consensus, said Carney, was that because of the short timespan the pink triangle appears it doesn’t hurt the Mission Blues.

“They were very happy we are there for not very long. The pink triangle doesn’t seem to cause any harm to the butterfly they are trying to establish,” said Carney.

He is in the process of getting the needed permits for this year’s installation and he has requested the same short timeframe.

“Even though we would like more visibility, of course we don’t want to cause any undue environmental harm or get people riled up and against it,” he said. “The reason we are doing it, is it is an educational tool. We don’t want to generate our own controversy.”

Butterflies won’t obstruct pink triangle One change that likely won’t happen is seeing the pink triangle displayed atop Twin Peaks for longer than its usual two days. Last year a monthlong red ribbon installation on the hillside to mark the 30th year of the AIDS epidemic raised the possibility of seeing a similar extended stay for the gay pride symbol.

Since 1996 Carney has rallied volunteers to help him put up and then take down over Pride weekend the

Latino Prevention Center to host open house The Latino Prevention Center will celebrate its opening with a reception Thursday, May 10 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at 1663 Mission Street, Suite 603 in San Francisco.

The center is a joint venture with Instituto Familiar de la Raza Inc. and Mission Neighborhood Health Center and will provide services to the Latino LGBTQ community at risk for living with HIV. The center will utilize culturally-informed and evidenced-based practices. Officials said the center’s vision is to enhance the resilience of individuals and promote the well-being of the Latino LGBTQ community.

To RSVP, email Jayvani Garcia by May 7 at jayvani.garcia@ifrsf.org.

Deadline extended for Rainbow Honor Walk designs Organizers of the proposed Rainbow Honor Walk in the Castro have extended the deadline to submit design proposals for the LGBT history project. The delay means that the first section of the walk will not be

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less the city steps in to fill in the gap.

“We have sufficient reserves right now,” said Smithwick. “We’re not in any situation where we’re in a distress mode where we’re desperately looking at cutting jobs” or taking other measures. He credits the “belt tightening” they’ve been doing, which includes the layoffs. However, if they see the $212,000 Ryan White cut, the agency will have to take “much more serious measures to try to be in a balanced situation.”

As of early March, Smithwick’s salary was $95,000, the same as when he started his job in January 2011. He declined to comment on his compensation or whether he’d take a reduction in pay.

Maitri’s fundraising goal through June is $459,000. That includes $195,000 from community, corporate, and private foundations. The target for individual giving outside the Bliss gala is $99,000.

Some of the agency’s savings this year are related to that event. Smithwick’s hoping to keep expenses for the

gala at $50,000 this year, down from $60,000 in 2011. The agency’s hoping for a net income of more than $100,000 from the event, which is what the figure was last year.

The agency has $300,000 left to pay on the mortgage for its building, which is worth several million dollars.

Other than that, there’s no outstanding debt that’s gone unpaid for 30 days or more, according to Smithwick.

“My biggest goal is to get the community to reengage with Maitri and step up their level of giving to hopefully replace what the federal government is cutting,” said Smithwick. He noted that other HIV-related agencies are also facing funding troubles.

“If we value the services, then as a community, we need to come together to support them,” he said.▼

unveiled in October, as organizers had hoped.

In February the project sponsors announced they were asking the public for help in determining what plaques dedicated to famous LGBT people should look like. The winning entrant will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize.

Entries had been required to be delivered by May 1. But last week the honor walk’s board voted to push the deadline to July 15. They also are dropping the $100 entry fee.

“We were overly optimistic, and should have given ourselves more time. Just now we’re beginning to get queries from designers, artists, and design schools,” David Perry, a co-founder of the project, told the Bay Area Reporter. “Also, serendipitously, we can now use the attention of gay Pride in June to make a final push for entries. That still allows us to have an approved design by National Coming Out Day.” Organizers have already settled on the first 20 nominees, who include poet Allen Ginsberg and artist Keith Haring as well as writers Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf.

Markers explaining each person’s contributions to society will be installed into the sidewalk in the city’s gayborhood.

It is estimated that the first set of 20 plaques will cost at least $100,000.

No date has been announced for when they will be installed.

For more information about the design contest guidelines and how to submit entries, visit rainbowhonorwalk.org/?page_id=201.

This week rec and park officials from San Francisco and San Mateo, along with conservationists, began releasing more Mission Blues on the southern peak of Twin Peaks. By the end of May 40 males and 20 females caught from San Bruno Mountain will be released.

“The success of this project is encouraging, and we look forward to continue our effort of restoring wild habitat in the middle of our urban metropolis,” stated Phil Ginsburg, SF Rec and Park general manager.

Asked by the B.A.R. what the increased numbers of endangered butterflies could mean for future displays of the pink triangle, Ginsburg and Mark Buell, president of the Rec and Park Commission, both were adamant that their presence would have no impact.

“I have no interest in discontinuing that tradition whatsoever,” said Buell.

“Nor do I,” added Ginsburg.

circus troupe may enter a float in the parade.

“We are trying to figure out their parade involvement,” said Behan.

Another new sponsor is the W San Francisco. The South of Market hotel is hosting a fundraiser for Pride from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 7. Tickets cost $50 or $80 for couples.

The event is part of a renewed commitment by Pride board members to pitch in with fundraising. Behan expects it will raise $20,000, which will be designated toward Pride’s outreach, programming, and education efforts outside of the month of June.

“It is part of the board’s initiative to do more work on fundraising, which came out of the City Controller’s report,” said Behan, referring to the findings of a 2010 city audit of the agency.

For more info on SF Pride, visit www.sfpride.org/.▼

Pride sponsorships increase In terms of Pride’s finances this year, Behan said it has already exceeded its sponsorship level from 2011 and has welcomed a bevy of new corporate donors. Last year corporate cash commitments totaled $526,250, and Behan thinks he will hit $600,000 this year.

Those coming on board with Pride for 2012 include Verizon, DirecTV, and Cirque du Soleil. The Canadian

Bliss takes place from 6 to 11 p.m., Saturday, May 5 at the W San Francisco, 181 Third Street.

Individual tickets are $150. For more information, visit www.maitrisf.org.

Horizons announces new scholarship Horizons Foundation announced this week the establishment of the New Road scholarship, a fund to support LGBT Asian-Pacific Islander students entering their first year of college in the Bay Area.

The fund was established by an anonymous donor and will award as many as four $1,000 scholarships for 2012. According to Horizons’ Kevin Herglotz, the donor received a university scholarship 20 years ago and worked with the foundation to establish the New Road fund as a way to help students achieve their educational goals.

The deadline for applications is May 31. For more information, visit www.horizonsfoundation.org/ page/organizations/scholarships.

The page also lists several other scholarships administered by Horizons; some deadlines have already passed, but interested students can check out the page for details.▼ Matthew S. Bajko contributed to this report.

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

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online columns, Political Notes, Wedding Bell Blues, and Inside the Beltway; and the Out in the World column. www.ebar.com.

â&#x2013;ź <<

Community News >>

May 3-9, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ BAY AREA REPORTER â&#x20AC;˘ 17

Trans woman

From page 1

what time it isâ&#x20AC;? and also â&#x20AC;&#x153;disclosed [to the men] weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re transgender.â&#x20AC;?

One of the men said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ok,â&#x20AC;? and they walked off, said Coleman. She said thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the last thing she remembers before she fell asleep.

She said that she woke up to â&#x20AC;&#x153;a quick successionâ&#x20AC;? of gunshots, and the woman who had been in the front passenger seat was running and screaming, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Call the police.â&#x20AC;?

Coleman said that according to the front seat passenger, who â&#x20AC;&#x153;saw the whole thing,â&#x20AC;? the man at Martellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side of the car was the gunman. Coleman said that she didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see who was doing the shooting. By the time she woke up, it appeared that the gunman â&#x20AC;&#x153;was running and shooting,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Coleman said that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been â&#x20AC;&#x153;drinking all night,â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was still halfway out of itâ&#x20AC;? when she woke up.

Martell was driving off as the shots were fired, she said. Martell â&#x20AC;&#x153;never said anything,â&#x20AC;? she said, but she was holding her side. Martell eventually stopped the car and Coleman put it in park, she said.

A bystander administered CPR to Martell and bandaged her in an attempt to stop the bleeding, said Coleman.

The police â&#x20AC;&#x153;got there quick,â&#x20AC;? she said. She estimated that she was at the scene for up to 10 minutes after the shooting.

Martell was still gasping for air when the police took Coleman away, before the ambulance came, said Coleman.

She said that she was kept in a room for 10 hours and â&#x20AC;&#x153;interrogated.â&#x20AC;? [Police did not respond to an emailed request to respond to that Wednesday morning, May 2.]

Rubio, the police spokeswoman, said Tuesday, May 1, that she didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know whether there were any signs Martellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death was a hate crime. She said it appeared that only one of the gunshots had hit Martell.

She also said sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been told that Massey was Martellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legal name â&#x20AC;&#x153;and his family is very sensitive about this.â&#x20AC;?

Police are â&#x20AC;&#x153;really trying to be sensitive to the family and to everybody,

<<

Milk Day From page 1

the larger community in the mission of our school, which is civil rights.

We thought Harvey Milk Day and the Milk movie were a really fitting kind of way to let more people be involved,â&#x20AC;? said Michelle Lutz, a mom of a kindergartner at the school and a board member of its Friends of Harvey Milk fundraising committee.

Scheduled to appear that night are Dustin Lance Black, the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oscarwinning gay screenwriter, and union organizer Cleve Jones, a gay man who was close friends with Milk and consulted on the film. Frank Robinson, who was Milkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speechwriter, is also expected to speak. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were fortunate to get Cleve Jones and Dustin Lance Black to come out and support us,â&#x20AC;? said Lutz.

A VIP reception at 6 p.m. costs $50 and includes pre-show appetizers and drinks, reserved seating, and a glitzy entrance to the theater. A number of local retailers are providing food, drink, and gift items, including the Human Rights Campaign, Swirl, 440, Southern Wine, Kasa, 4505 Meats, La Mediterranee, Shoe Shine Wines, and Vine Connections. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will have a red carpet and drag queens womanizing the red carpet for VIPs,â&#x20AC;? said Lutz. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are hoping it will just be a really fun and big party.â&#x20AC;?

Tickets for just the 7:30 p.m. movie cost $15. Proceeds from the night will offset the costs for the academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s afterschool, science, arts, nutrition and civil rights programs.

The fundraiser is the only event planned in San Francisco set to take place on Milk Day itself. Organizers hope to sell out the theater and expect

Tiffany Woods

Brandy Martell

the whole community. ... I just think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terrible,â&#x20AC;? said Rubio.

She said the people she needed to check with about the case werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t available. Many Oakland police were busy Tuesday with Occupy May Day protests. Another police department staffer said Monday, April 30 that the inspector apparently handling the killing wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t available, and the inspector didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t respond to an emailed interview request.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Safe havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; The shooting occurred near an area known for prostitution, but Coleman said the spot where Martell died is â&#x20AC;&#x153;not a sex working place,â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not sex workers. ... We were not doing any sex work.â&#x20AC;?

The spot they were in â&#x20AC;&#x153;has always been a safe haven for us,â&#x20AC;? said Coleman, who said Martell identified as transsexual. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to be harmed in holding a conversation,â&#x20AC;? said Coleman, and she thought â&#x20AC;&#x153;the guys might have been pursuing usâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;trying to pick us up.â&#x20AC;? Many other people were also in the area, she said.

The front passenger eventually indicated to Coleman that the two men had returned after she fell asleep and demanded money, she said. However, she said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;All our purses were still on the front seat.â&#x20AC;? The Bay Area Reporter has not been able to reach the other passengers.

Coleman said that Martell â&#x20AC;&#x153;had a beautiful personality.â&#x20AC;? Her friend â&#x20AC;&#x153;would give you the shirt off her to raise $26,000 after paying a $4,000 rental fee for the venue.

If it goes well, the school may make a film screening an annual Milk Day affair. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will have a different civil rights themed event every year,â&#x20AC;? Lutz said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s event will be. This is the first year we are trying this out.â&#x20AC;?

Tickets can be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/ 233452 or at the HRC store at 575 Castro Street, which was the site of Milkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old camera shop and campaign headquarters.

The night prior to Milk Day, Monday, May 20, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club is holding its 36th annual soiree. But it has changed the fundraiserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s format from years past.

Rather than gather in a hotel ballroom for a sit-down dinner, the club is hosting a buffet and awards ceremony at the nightclub Beatbox with the theme â&#x20AC;&#x153;Out of the Bars and Into the Streets: A Celebration of Queer Nightlife and Culture.â&#x20AC;?

The first portion of the evening, from 7 to 10 p.m. will celebrate the club itself. Then from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. it is hosting what it has billed as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Harvey Milkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Birthday Party,â&#x20AC;? which will feature various performers and musical acts.

The venue is located at 314 11th Street. Tickets start at $80 and can be purchased online at www.eventbrite. com/event/3360444179/efblike.

May 19 plaque unveiling City officials and Castro leaders will be on hand the Saturday prior to Milk Day to unveil a 3-by-2-foot brass plaque honoring Milk at the Castro Muni station.

back,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She liked to dance and she loved life.â&#x20AC;? Martell was also a good cook and a talented mimic, she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She used to imitate me all the time,â&#x20AC;? said Coleman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We used to be together so much. ... She said Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m so dramatic about everything.â&#x20AC;?

Coleman, who said she has â&#x20AC;&#x153;really longâ&#x20AC;? hair, said that Martell used to call her â&#x20AC;&#x153;Baldy.â&#x20AC;? She said that Martellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nickname was â&#x20AC;&#x153;Turkey,â&#x20AC;? a moniker given to her by her parents when she was a child.

Tiffany Woods, the TransVision coordinator at the Fremont-based Tri-City Health Center, said that Martell worked for her for four years.

Martell technically wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t staff, but she was a volunteer peer educator and was compensated, she said. She was involved in the Transgender Day of Remembrance, among other activities. The last time Woods saw Martell was at the Day of Remembrance in November.

Woods, who said that Martell had legally changed her name, said that Martell was â&#x20AC;&#x153;amazingâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;funny.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d hate for her to die in vain,â&#x20AC;? said Coleman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Brandy is a person. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a human being. ... She has a family. She loves her family.â&#x20AC;?

Coleman described the men whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d approached Martellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s car as Ethiopians, based on their hair texture, their medium complexions, and the accent of one of the men.

The man who spoke to Martell was around 5 feet 10 inches and had short, curly black hair and a thin build, according to Coleman. She didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember what he was wearing but said that he had dark slacks.

The other man was about 5 feet 8 inches and had an accent, curly hair, and a medium build, said Coleman.

They both appeared to be in their early 30s, she said.

There will be a public funeral and homecoming services for Martell Wednesday, May 9 at 11 a.m. at C.P. Bannon Mortuary, 6800 International Boulevard in Oakland.

Witnesses are asked to contact the Oakland Police Department. The non-emergency number is (510) 7773333. The website is www.oaklandpolice.com.â&#x2013;ź

As the Bay Area Reporter noted in April, PG&E awarded a $3,500 grant to the Castro Community Benefit District to help pay for the new signage. The CBD kicked in another $490 to cover the remaining cost, and the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Public Works is installing it for free.

The original memorial plaque depicting Milkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visage accompanied by his biography was installed on a pillar at the underground transit station sometime in the 1980s. It went missing over the October 15 weekend last fall, and police suspect thieves stole it to sell to metal recyclers.

The culprits have yet to be caught.

And a noticeable marking of where the plaque should be has greeted riders of the underground subway system ever since.

A ceremony to unveil the new signage will take place at 1 p.m. May 19.

Organizers insist the plaque will be more securely fashioned in place in order to prevent its theft.

Following the re-dedication ceremony at the site, known as Harvey Milk Plaza, will be a march to Milkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s former camera shop where a number of Milkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friends and elected officials will address the crowd. The Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band has been invited to perform and lead the processional.

Fittingly, as Milk was a big booster for the Castroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s merchants and founded the annual Castro Street Fair to draw customers to the neighborhood, the plaque unveiling coincides with Small Business Week in San Francisco, which runs from May 14 through May 20. The Merchants of Upper Market and Castro will be holding its annual sidewalk sale that Saturday.â&#x2013;ź

Legal Notices>> City and County of San Francisco May, 2012 Monthly

Call for Artists: 2013 Art on Market Street Kiosk Poster Series Application Deadline: Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 11:59 PM (PST) The Art on Market Street Program, which has commissioned new artwork by Bay Area artists on an annual basis since 1992, includes a bus kiosk poster series and other temporary projects that take place on San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main thoroughfare. For the kiosk poster series, the Art on Market Street Program commissions three consecutive threemonth poster exhibitions annually. Each poster series consists of a set of six original and related designs that are professionally reproduced and printed as six sets of posters, 68 inches high by 47 Âź inches wide (trim size), for installation in 36 bus kiosks on Market Street between 8th Street and the Embarcadero. All artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; designs must be approved by the Arts Commission and are expected to be appropriate for a broad public audience.

Applications are available through SlideRoom, https://sfgov.slideroom.com/ an online application system. There is no charge to artists for using SlideRoom. First time users of SlideRoom, please allow adequate time to learn the use of this system.

Applications will not be accepted after the deadline.

For more information, please visit: www.sfartscommission.org or contact ZoĂŤ Taleporos, at (415) 252-3215 or by email at zoe.taleporos@sfgov.org.

San Francisco International Airport

The Airport Commission has commenced the RFP process for the Airport Advertising /HDVH 7KH SURSRVHG PLQLPXP Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO RIIHU LV ZLWK D WHUP RI HLJKW \HDUV The Informational Conference will be at 10:00 a.m., May 10, 2012, at SFO Business Center, 2nd Floor, 575 N. McDonnell Road, San Francisco International Airport.

3OHDVH VHH KWWS ZZZ Ă \VIR FRP ZHE SDJH DERXW E E FRQFHV IRU DGGLWLRQDO information or call Gigi R. Ricasa, Senior Principal Property Manager, at (650) 821-4500.

San Francisco International Airport

The Airport Commission has commenced the RFP process for Terminal 3 Common Use Club Lease at San Francisco International Airport. The Informational Conference, originally scheduled for 2:00p.m PST, April 24, 2012 at San Francisco International Airport, has been postponed until further notice.

If you have any questions, please contact Cheryl Nashir at 650-821-4500

Notice of Funds Availability RFQ - Financial and Expanded Audit Services

First 5 San Francisco announces the Availability of Funds for Financial and Expanded $XGLW 6HUYLFHV $SSUR[LPDWHO\ LV DYDLODEOH IRU WKH SHULRG RI WR DQG UHQHZDEOH XS WR WZR \HDUV )XQGLQJ VXSSRUWV Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DXGLW UHYLHZ Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO UHSRUWLQJ DQG H[SDQGHG DXGLW VHUYLFHV )LQDO DZDUGV DQG UHQHZDOV DUH VXEMHFW WR availability of funds, grant terms, and rights.

7KH 5)4 PD\ EH GRZQORDGHG IURP ZZZ Ă&#x20AC;UVW VI RUJ RU SLFNHG XS LQ SHUVRQ DP ² pm, Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday, at First 5 San Francisco, 1390 Market St, Ste 318, San Francisco.

Proposals are due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Guidelines are noted in the RFQ. )RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ FRQWDFW 'HULN $RNL DW GHULN#Ă&#x20AC;UVW VI RUJ RU The City and County of San Francisco encourage public outreach. Articles are translated into several languages to provide better public access. The newspaper makes every effort to translate the articles of general interest correctly. No liability is assumed by the City and County of San Francisco or the newspapers for errors and omissions.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Districtâ&#x20AC;?), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Insurance Brokerage Services, Request for Proposal No. 6M2037, on or about May 1, 2012, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services RI RQH RU PRUH FRQVXOWLQJ Ă&#x20AC;UPV RU joint ventures (â&#x20AC;&#x153;CONTRACTOR(s)â&#x20AC;?) to provide insurance brokerage services. The District presently intends to enter into a one or more three-year Agreement(s) with a unilateral option to extend the Agreement(s) up to two additional one year periods.

A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 15, 2012.The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 a.m., local time, at BART 2IĂ&#x20AC;FHV ORFDWHG DW /DNHVLGH Drive, 18th Floor â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Main Conference Room #1800, Oakland, CA. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting will be explained.

All questions regarding MBE/WBE participation should be directed WR 0DFHR :LJJLQV 2IĂ&#x20AC;FH RI &LYLO Rights at (510)464-7194 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FAX (510) 464-6324. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre3URSRVDO 0HHWLQJ DQG WR FRQĂ&#x20AC;UP their attendance by contacting the Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Contract Administrator, telephone (510) 464-6543, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after May 1, 2012) Copies of the RFP may be obtained: A PDF version of the RFP will be VHQW WR DOO Ă&#x20AC;UPV RQ WKH ,QWHUHVWHG Parties List at time of advertisement; or (1) By E-mail request to the Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Contract Administrator, Aminta Maynard, at amaynar@bart.gov (2) By arranging pick up at the above address. Call the Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Contract Administrator, (510) 464-6543 prior to pickup of the RFP. (3) By attending the Pre-proposal Meeting and obtaining the RFP at the meeting.

Dated at Oakland, California this 26th day of April 2012. /s/ Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District Â&#x2021; &16 BAY AREA REPORTER

ebar.com

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034240400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRET SERVICES, 652 Funston Ave., SF, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Tari Trethewy. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 04/02/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/02/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034254500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACCORDION APOCALYPSE REPAIR SHOP, 255 10th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Rebecca Fell. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 03/28/06. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/05/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034246100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE COUNSELING CENTER, 870 Market St. #463, SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Randy Weled. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 01/01/09. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/03/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034221400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPARKLING JANITORIAL SERVICES, 2 Castillo St., SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ines Hernandez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 02/01/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 04/10/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: LANZHOU NOODLE LLC. 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 173-181 Eddy St., SF, CA 94102-2706. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE EATING PLACE APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034286900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DEVSWAG, 156 2nd St., SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Tilde Inc. (Delaware). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on NA. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/19/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • Bay Area Reporter • May 3-9, 2012

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Legal Notices>>

The

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548572 In the matter of the application of: ALTANTSETSEG YANSANJAV for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ALTANTSETSEG YANSANJAV is requesting that his/her name be changed to VICTORIA KRAJCI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 12th of June 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034263400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KGB INTERIOR DESIGN, 245 Vallejo St., SF, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed KGB Associates LTD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034273300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UCSH CONSTRUCTION, 5316 Geary Blvd,, SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Sean Hsieh. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/12/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/13/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034272500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LANIADO DIAMONDS, 3145 Geary Blvd. #702, SF, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Yaniv Laniado. 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 04/12/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034254100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALAR MUSIC, 221 11th St., SF, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Cristian Lopez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/05/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034274800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EVA LINDA’S CLEANING SERVICE, 1118 Fitzgerald Ave., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michael Mellegers. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/17/11.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/13/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034276500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SANDRA CLEANING SERVICES, 240 Arguello Ave., Vallejo, CA 94591. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Devon Willis. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/16/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/16/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548552 In the matter of the application of: RENEA MARIE HATCHER for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RENEA MARIE HATCHER is requesting that his/her name be changed to RENEA CLAY STEWART. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 5th of June 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012

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ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548600 In the matter of the application of: KIMBERLY LAURA FIFE for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KIMBERLY LAURA FIFE is requesting that his/her name be changed to KIMBERLY LAURA GARRISON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 21st of June 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034277000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAINT & OLIVE, 610 Webster St. #14, SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Olive A. Loew. 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 04/16/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034279400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRIENDLY LIMO, 1420 Bel Air Dr. #103, Concord, CA 94521, Contra Costa County. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Leonid Shagalov. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034249600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BABYLON B.C., 301 Crescent Ct. #3103, SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Sameh Zahda. 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 04/04/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034286600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TT HANDYWORK, 535 Columbus Ave. #14, SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Shufen Wen. 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 04/19/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034286100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JON SF ENERGY, 145 Madrone Ave., SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jonathan Chan. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/19/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/19/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034288300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRO IMAGE PRINTING, 3216 Geary Blvd. #A, SF, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Victoria S. Lauretta. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034292300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GIBRALTAR REALTY, 2521 18th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Harry Philibosian. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/23/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/23/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034284700

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034283300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TAI CHI RESTAURANT, 2031 Polk St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Colin TC Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/98. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/18/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034295900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRIME LIMOUSINES, 1054 Paintbrush Dr., Sunnyvale, CA 94086, Santa Clara County. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Nikolay Penev. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 notice of application FOR CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP OF alcoholic beverage LICENSE Dated 12/13/11 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: RCSH OPERATIONS INC. 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 1601 Van Ness Ave., SF, CA 94109. Type of license applied for

47 - On-sale GENERAL Eating place MAY 3, 2012 notice of application FOR CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP OF alcoholic beverage LICENSE Dated 04/13/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: CAPITAL STONE GROUP LLC. 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 685 Third St., SF, CA 941071901. Type of license applied for

47 - On-sale GENERAL Eating place MAY 3, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034299300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAYVIEW EMPLOYMENT AGENCY, 1650 Quesada Ave., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Robert Davis.

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 04/25/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034290000

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548629 In the matter of the application of: MARIA MICHELLE OLLILA for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARIA MICHELLE OLLILA is requesting that his/her name be changed to TOIVO KALEVA OLLILA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 17th of July 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034296900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DRINKBOX, 414 Brannan St., Hattery Labs, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed by H2DP, Inc. (Delaware). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/25/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034295000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RCOMMUNITY RECYCLE CO., 1634 Alemany Blvd., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed by Southpark Capital Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034294500

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE A-029253400 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DO UC US MOBILE CATERING, 2500 38th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by Vladimir Goldfeld & Mark Kobzanets. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/09/06.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE A-030406500 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: J&L AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR, 1634 Howard St., SF, CA 94103. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by Xiao Szu Tang.

The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/07.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012

Public Notice>>

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034295200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA MORTGAGE DIRECT; HOMETOWN LENDING, 100 California St. #1100, SF, CA 94111-4516. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed by Bay Equity LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034307900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRIGHT FOG PHOTOGRAPHY, 564 Roosevelt Way, SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by state or local registered domestic partners, and is signed by Laurence Peiperl & Charles G. Still.

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 04/27/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034313300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BERNARDA, 2522 Mission St., SF, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed by Bernarda LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/01/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034303000

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034311800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JENNIFER GUSTAFSON INTERIOR DESIGN, 785 Golden Gate Ave. #302, SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Jennifer Ann Gustafson. 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 04/26/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J&L AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR, 1634 Howard St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed by J&L Automotive Repair Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/30/12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034297000

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034273200

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034293900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: VOLARE PIZZA, 456 Haight St., SF, CA 94117.

This business was conducted by an individual and signed by Mohamed Bouabibsa. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/01/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EASY BREEZY FROZEN YOGURT, 4437 20th St., SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed by Manitou Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/20/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOE88 CONSTRUCTION CO, 156 Dartmouth St., SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Joe Zu Qing Lin. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/20/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUREFIRE ONLINE MARKETING, 3487 16th St., SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Pamela H. Card. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/30/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/25/12.

Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE A-032682800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GYROTONIC PACIFIC HEIGHTS, 2999 Washington St., SF, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed by Trinity Fitness LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/06/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/13/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY EQUITY HOME LOANS; COVENANT MORTGAGE; EMAC HOME LOANS; BANKERS PREFERRED; TRISTAR HOME LOANS; BELL FINANCIAL; PE FINANCE; 100 California St. #1100, SF, CA 94111-4516. This business is conducted by an limited liability company, and is signed Bay Equity LLC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/18/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIN CHERRY, 1228 Grant Ave., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed by Allam Bitar & Khaidoun Alsalti.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAJOR PARKING, 155 Eddy St., SF, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Ilknur Civelek. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/30/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/30 /12.

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012

MAY 3, 10, 17, 24, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034312000

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Vol. 42 • No. 18 • May 3-9, 2012

Erik Tomasson

S

an Francisco Ballet’s Don Quixote is like a weekend at the Sevillana Grande in Las Vegas – amidst Spanish architecture, the toreadors come at us in burnt orange with accents of turquoise and have very good legs. The head toreador is in canary yellow, his dancing partner is clothed in a cascade of electric violet which ruffles up all around her as she bourrées a slalom around the knives they’ve stabbed

into the floor, pausing in a lunge after each passo with a deep back-bend. And that’s before our hero lifts his girl overhead one-handed then runs downstage carrying her like the Olympic torch. And it’s all before Don Quixote arrives, on horseback, in their little town on his picaresque adventures, and puts his lance at the heroine’s service.

This is the millionth restaging of a ballet by

Marius Petipa, unrivalled master of the Russian ballet, which had its first performance in 1869 in Moscow, and was such a hit it was immediately expanded into a five-act extravaganza for St. Petersburg, and has been a popular hit more or less ever since. It was from shows like this that Ziegfeld developed his Follies, and that the Marx Brothers got the idea of seeing how many variety acts you could string together on a plot-

line of boy-has-to-overcome-obstacles-to-getgirl while making fun of the plot device at every opportunity.

Needless to say, our lovers have to go on the lam, with her father and his entourage in hot pursuit – through a gypsy camp (with guess what? gypsy dancing! superb gypsy dancing), See page 33 >>

Shaping a radical psyche ‘Radically Gay: The Life of Harry Hay’ shows at SF Main Library

by Sura Wood

A

LeRoy Robbins

Gay liberationist Harry Hay in 1937.

cknowledged by many as the founder of the modern gay and lesbian rights movement, Harry Hay, who died in 2002, was a transformational figure whose legacy is fondly remembered in Radically Gay: The Life of Harry Hay. The exhibition, now at the San Francisco Main Library Gallery, brings its subject to life on the centennial of his birth, and illuminates the intersection of activism and personal biography, political conscience and humanity. The show, laid out in five sections, charts the progress of the precocious Hay, who early on recognized his “allegiance to high purposes, tenacity of vision, irrevocable resolve, and above all else, audacity.”

What critical factors shape a radical psyche and future civil rights leader when passivity and maintaining the status quo are the easiest route? As is often the case, the answers lie close to home. Defying his brutal, autocratic father, a self-made man who acquired his fortune in the gold mines of South Africa, appears to have contributed to Hay’s inherent resistance to injustice, rebellion against all forms of bigotry and an unwillingness to surrender to entrenched power or authority. After he stood up to his father at the age of nine during an especially vehement argument, and subsequently endured a severe beating, he experienced an epiphany of sorts and wrote the

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

following: If my father can be wrong, then the teacher can be wrong. And if the teacher can be wrong, maybe the priest could be wrong. And if the priest can be wrong, then maybe even God could be wrong.

His mother, on the other hand, nurtured in him a love of the arts. Hay had a fling with film and stage acting – his first publicity still is on view – and, in the early 1930s, he had an affair with Will Geer, later known as Grandpa Walton on the long-running television series. Hay did agitprop theatre with Geer, who introduced him to the Communist Party, which he joined in earnest in 1938.

See page 32 >>

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

▼

Film stars, film dish, film soirees

by Roberto Friedman

W

e had some catching up to do last week with the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival. For the first time in years, we’d missed the film fest’s opening night – we were traveling in Southeast Asia, not a bad excuse. But the stellar publicity staff at the San Francisco Film Society soon made sure we were up to snuff.

Just for starters, great comic actress Judy Davis swanned into the Castro Theatre to receive the Peter J. Owens Award, an acting honor that has previously gone to such luminaries as Terence Stamp and Robert Duvall. The next night, actor-director Kenneth Branagh accepted the Founder’s Directing Award, named in honor of SFIFF founder Irving M. Levin. At a reception for Branagh at Jake’s on Market before a Castro screening of his 1991 film Dead Again, the British leading

light was charming and sociable – and who knew he was such a striking blonde? The finger foods at the party included crab cakes a la East Coast (Maryland blue crab and Old Bay aioli: our youth) and a la West Coast (Dungeness crab, Meyer lemon aioli: our decadent adulthood).

Tonight (Thurs., May 3) we’ll attend closing night as the film fest goes out on a high note with director Ramona Diaz’s Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey. Sign us up for another year!

To prime you for the DVD release of I’ll Cry Tomorrow starring Susan Hayward reviewed this week, here’s a Hayward anecdote to add to the “They don’t make divas like they used to” file. Around 1970, a Las Vegas producer wanted Hayward to star in a production of Mame. The money was good, but he asked that she audition first. She replied, “If you don’t know what I can do from seeing me on screen for decades, then you don’t want Susan Hayward.” He backed down, and

Steven Underhill

Australian actress Judy Davis received the SFIFF’s Peter J. Owens Award at the Castro Theatre last week.

she got good notices. Hurrah for a woman with testicles.

The UK Guardian reported last week that 22-year-old country singer-songwriter Taylor Swift may well be cast as immortal singersongwriter Joni Mitchell in the film adaptation of Sheila Weller’s 2008 book Girls Like Us. The book and biopic follow the stories of Mitchell and her peers Carole King and Carly Simon, “charting their lives as women at a magical moment in time” (the late 1960s). Variety reports that Swift has not yet signed a deal – that’s “inked” in Variety lingo – but has been “linked” to the role. Make that a hot link?

Steven Underhill

British actor-director Kenneth Branagh, recipient of the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival’s Founder’s Directing Award, at a Jake’s on Market reception last week.

and got her first big break from Bing Crosby. She created a nightclub act for Ginger Rogers, and played charades with Gene Kelly. Bette Davis learned from her, Diana Vreeland was portrayed by her, and Danny Kaye masqueraded in drag as her.

Oh, Kay We just finished reading the paperback edition of Kay Thompson, from Funny Face to Eloise (Simon & Schuster), the biography

by Sam Irvin of a figure perhaps unfamiliar to contemporary generations but surely one of the “missing link” seminal peeps of 20th-century showbiz.

In Irvin’s words, “Not to name-drop or anything, but Kay Thompson was Judy Garland’s mentor and best friend, and Frank Sinatra’s and Lena Horne’s vocal coach. She went to school with Tennessee Williams

“She auditioned for Henry Ford, trained Marilyn Monroe, channeled Elvis Presley, rejected Andy Warhol, rebuffed Federico Fellini, and got fired by Howard Hughes.

Prince Aly Khan made a pass at her, and the Beatles wanted to hold her hand. She co-starred in a whodunit with Ronald Reagan, gave pointers to Eleanor Roosevelt, and directed John F. Kennedy’s inaugural gala. She was a member of the Rat Pack, and she managed to dazzle the likes of Queen Elizabeth, King Juan Carlos of Spain, and Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco.” OK, does that leave anybody out? Only little Liza Minnelli, for whom Thompson was a much beloved godmother, and who, a proper mensch, took care of her when the bitter end came.

There’s too much showbiz history here to recount briefly, but we do like how Thompson’s trajectory took her from playing piano concertos with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to portraying a thinly disguised Vreeland in Funny Face (“Think pink!”). And her greatest lasting contribution might just have been literary, as the author of the Eloise books, all about the privileged little girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel and has adventures in Moscow, in Paris, and taking a “bawth.” Eloise was a character voice KT would put on, at work on a show or with friends, long before she was immortalized in print.

Thompson starred in Low and Behold!, a 1933 revue first staged at the Pasadena Community Playhouse including “such unknowns as Eve Arden (then billed as Eunice Quedens), Teddy Hart (brother of lyricist Lorenz Hart), Charles Walters (who later became a t choreographer and directop t at MGM), Lois January tor ( (who later appeared in The W Wizard of Oz), and last but n least, Leonard Sillman’s not h hunky 19-year-old chauffer, T Tyrone Power.” In one rev sketch, Power “breaks his vue c concentration only when he c catches sight of a sexy choru boy crossing the stage. rus F 1933, L&B had a surprisFor in ingly progressive queer eye, u unabashedly cultivated by its flamboyant creator Sillman, w perhaps had never been who as asked if he was a homosexual si simply because everyone alre ready knew the answer.”

Much of the book is an ey eye-glazingly thorough catalo loguing of KT’s early vaudevil radio, film and nightclub ville, gi but every few pages an gigs, in interesting tidbit drops, such as a young Tennessee Willia liams openly lusting after a co colleague’s “‘darkly gleaming cu curls’ and ‘perfectly formed b body,’” which ensures that “soon the young men were paying more attention to each other than to the work at hand.” Or we learn that “the holiday spirit at MGM in 1945 was dampened by salacious rumors of a lesbian romance between Thompson and Garland. ‘Everyone back then believed the rumors,’ recalled West Side Story writer-director Arthur Laurents. ‘But what’s that worth?’” Our feelings exactly.

When KT played a two-week San Francisco gig in the Venetian Room at the Fairmont in 1953, the house female impersonator at the gay dive “Beige Room” Lynne Carter “slipped into a pair of slacks, grabbed a long scarf, hired four hunky dancers, and debuted Lynne Carter and the Four Cartiers, an uncanny re-creation of the Thompson-Williams Brothers act. When Kay heard about it, she was not amused. But when she learned that her own compositions were being performed without authorization or compensation, she flipped her lid.

“Daily Variety reported, ‘Frank L. Ippolito, attorney for Miss Thompson, has demanded that Carter stop performing in ‘slacks, costume, facial makeup and other device that imitates Miss Thompson.’ The irony of demanding that a female impersonator stop wearing pants was apparently lost on both Thompson and her attorney.” Carter went on to do his drag Kay Thompson act in other cities before moving on to his drag Mary Martin.▼

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Theatre>>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

The importance of being Zorba

by Richard Dodds

Sera, Mrs. Campbell, with music

by Burton Lane (Finian’s Rainbow) and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner (My Fair Lady).

The season continues with Rodgers and Hart’s 1940 musical Pal Joey on Dec. 1, which will be followed on April 6 with Carnival, a musical based on the movie Lili, with songs

by Bob Merrill (New Girl in Town).

The season concludes with the May 4 opening of Little Me, starring cabaret star Jason Graae in the multiple roles first played by Sid Caesar in the 1962 faux showbiz biography with songs by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh.

The subject of the new season’s Salon series is songwriter Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), whose story will be told in word and song at the Alcazar Theatre on Jan. 31. Series tickets are now on sale at www.42ndstmoon. org or 255-8207.

I

t is time for the finale and an announcement for the future for 42nd Street Moon, the longrunning troupe that presents infrequently seen productions in simplified productions. The finale of the current season is Zorba, a musical that had a disappointing original Broadway run before rebounding two decades later.

When the script for the new Broadway musical adaptation of Zorba the Greek was ready, the first actor pitched to play the title role was, not surprisingly, Anthony Quinn. After all, he had played the lover of life, women, and ouzo in the 1964 movie that provided him with the defining role of his career, and his name above the title was bound to boost the box office.

But after he read the first few lyrics of the opening song, he slammed shut the script and turned down the producers cold. At least, this is how Quinn told me it went down in a 1983 interview during a touring revival of Zorba that would eventually bring the show back to Broadway. But it should also be noted that when I mentioned this version of events to lyricist Fred Ebb several years later, he basically said, balderdash, the role was always intended for Herschel Bernardi, who did indeed play it when the musical opened on Broadway in 1968.

Quinn’s problem: The opening song declares that “life is what you do while you’re waiting to die.” Too negative, he thought. Whether or not Quinn had first dibs on the musical, the creators were willing to make changes to lure Quinn into the revival. In the

Courtesy 42nd Street Moon

Cabaret star Jason Graae will take on the multiple roles first played by Sid Caesar in the musical Little Me, part of 42nd Street Moon’s newly announced 2012-13 season.

Quinn edition, life became “what you do until the moment you die.”

There is no arguing that the original Broadway performance run was a disappointment to its creators, a rich stable that included producer-director Hal Prince, librettist Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof), and songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret). The musical fell by the wayside until Quinn’s name became attached, and then went back into the seldom-seen category.

While there has been talk for awhile of a new Broadway revival starring Antonio Banderas, 42nd Street Moon is fulfilling its mission by giving Bay Area audiences a rare chance to see Zorba on stage.

Zorba, opening May 5 at the Eu-

Mommie dearest

davidallenstudio.com

Michael Stevenson will play the title role and Stephanie Rhoads an aging courtesan in the musical Zorba, the final production in 42nd Street Moon’s 2011-12 season.

reka Theatre, will star Michael Stevenson making his Moon debut in the title role. A co-director of the B. Street Theatre Conservatory in Sacramento, Stevenson has numerous regional theater credits. Ian Leonard, in another Moon debut, will play the intellectual Nikos, who enlists Zorba to help reopen a mine he has inherited in Crete. The cast also includes Moon veterans Stephanie Rhoads (the theater’s producing director) as the aging courtesan Madame Hortense, Alexandra Kapri-

elian as the narrator, and Moon newcomer Teressa Byrne as the village’s tragic widow. Moon Artistic Director Greg MacKellan is staging the musical with Dave Dobrusky as musical director for his 74th Moon production.

Zorba will run through May 20, when 42nd Street Moon will take a break before opening its 20th season on Oct. 6 with the Gershwins’ 1931 political satire Of Thee I Sing. Next up is Carmelina, a short-lived 1971 musical based on the film Buona

If your mother is more adventurous than, say, brunch at the Cliff House, there are a couple of feisty theatrical opportunities for the May 13 maternal observance. Comedian Marga Gomez will headline the Mother’s Day edition of A Funny Night for Comedy at Actors Theatre of SF. Natasha Muse and Ryan Cronin handle the hosting duties of the talk-show comedy format.

Call 345-1287 or go to www.natashamuse.com.

The Crackpot Crones, also known as Terry Baum and Carolyn Myers, will present MOMS! on May 12 and 13 at the Mission’s Dark Room Theatre. The show is described as sketch comedy and improv “for anyone who’s ever been or ever had a mother.” Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/234700. ▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

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Film >>

Boozy Hayward lives

by Tavo Amador

P

redicting what role a classic Hollywood star will be remembered for is difficult. Many fans think of Susan Hayward (1917-75) as Helen Lawson, the tough musical comedy diva of Valley of the Dolls (1967), a part that came late in her career. At that point, she had been in movies for nearly three decades, and from 1947-64 had been a major star, specializing in tearful melodramas in the tradition of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck.

One of her most famous and successful films, I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955), has become available in DVD and captures the essence of Hayward’s bravura acting style. As vocalist and early movie star Lillian Roth (1910-80), whose struggles with alcoholism were chronicled in her best-selling memoirs, Hayward scored. Roth had been a child singing star in vaudeville and headlined several pre-code Hollywood films, notably Animal Crackers with the Marx Brothers, Cecil B. DeMille’s Madame Satan (30) and Ladies

They Talk About (33), a landmark women-in-prison story starring Stanwyck.

Jo Van Fleet plays Lillian’s stage mother Katie, the driving force behind her career. Over Mother’s objections, Lillian was planning to give up stardom to marry childhood sweetheart, attorney David Tredman (the gorgeous Ray Danton).

She turned to drinking following his premature death. Her intake increases, and after an all-night bender, she wakes up married to a soldier/fan (Don Taylor). Their drinking begins affecting her work.

He walks out and she meets, then marries, another boozer (Richard Conte), a physical and emotional abuser who exploits her. Lillian struggles on her own to control her drinking, but fails. She hits a horrendously low bottom, losing her money and forced to live with her mother in a small tenement apartment. She contemplates suicide, but finally, with great difficulty, goes to Alcoholics Anonymous. There she finds help and true love from her sponsor (Eddie Albert).

Helen Deutsch and Jay Richard Kennedy’s screenplay isn’t subtle, which suits Hayward’s intense style perfectly. She had a lovely contralto voice and handles the musical numbers, including “Sing You Sinners,” “When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin Along,” and especially, “Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe,” effectively. (When she portrayed singer Jane Froman in With a Song in My Heart (52), Froman insisted on doing the vocals, so many fans were surprised at Hayward’s fine singing.)

More importantly, with searing intensity, Hayward shows the horror of alcoholism and its physical and emotional toll. Her detoxification scenes are moving, as powerful as those by Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend (45), Hollywood’s first serious look at the disease. Hayward had played alcoholics in Oscar-nominated performances in Smash Up: The Story of a Woman (47) and Beware My Foolish Heart (49), yet under Daniel Mann’s direction, her work here is fresh, and it earned her a fourth Academy Award nod, which she lost to Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo.

Van Fleet is brilliant as Katie: manipulative, loving, desperate for a better life for her daughter and herself. She’s complex: sympathetic,

monstrous, sometimes both at once.

Her scenes with Hayward crackle.

Danton, Albert, and especially Conte are all good. Only towards the end, when Lillian, in recovery, appears on television’s This Is Your Life to tell the public about her illness, does the film turn bathetic. Nonetheless, contemporary audiences – especially women and gay men – wept watching Hayward gallantly striding up the aisle to the stage.

I’ll Cry Tomorrow presented a sanitized version of Roth’s life.

Among other things, she was married eight times. But it had a huge impact on changing the popular perception of alcoholism, especially for women, from a moral failing to a controllable if incurable disease. The movie was a box-office smash.

Three years later, Hayward would finally win a Best Actress Oscar for Robert Wise’s compelling I Want To Live! She gave a characteristically gutsy performance as convicted murder accessory Barbara Graham, the first woman in California given a death sentence. Former co-star Gregory Peck quipped, “We can all relax now. Susie finally got what she’s been chasing for 20 years.” He was

referring to her having been among the many unknowns producer David Selznick had tested for Scarlett O’Hara. She was determined to prove he made a mistake by not casting her.

Although Hayward worked steadily in films and television after her win, she did little that was memorable, except for the high camp Where Love Has Gone (64), billed first over Davis, and Valley of the Dolls.

Her final public appearance seemed lifted from one of her movies. She and former co-star Charlton Heston presented the Best Actress Oscar at the 1974 Academy Awards ceremony. Tabloids had been screaming that she was dying, but she looked sensational on television.

It was later revealed that she wore a copper red wig that resembled her own famous hair, and that Nolan Miller’s stunning green gown was designed to hide her emaciated figure. She was undergoing treatment for brain cancer. With Heston’s help, she walked out on stage, knowing she could have a seizure at any moment, and earned a tremendous ovation. She died less than a year later, at 57.▼

DVD >>

Bad-boy trappings

by David Lamble

T

he motherless teen hero of the gothic punk melodrama Hesher TJ Forney (Devin Brochu) begins his slippery slope to disaster when a friend warns him, “Sometimes things are so bad and you think it can’t get any worse, and then you discover whole new ways it can get worse.” For TJ, worse is a skinny, tattooed, bad-ass dude, Hesher. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the whole show, stealing the film as a foul-mouthed, pranky, heavy-metal-worshipping caveman who swaggers around in his jockey shorts. This is the first indie I recall where a straight sexy terrorist is allowed to intimidate the universe with a barely concealed perpetual hard-on. Director Spencer Susser and co-writer David Michod (Animal Kingdom) create an antihero who fears no man’s authority.

Hesher symbolically castrates Dad by defying him to eject him from

the house. Since Hesher is all but naked, for another man to touch him involves all sorts of prickly taboos.

For all its bad-boy cultural

tr trappings, Hesher, inspired by th the spirit of metal super-band M Metallica’s former bassist Cliff B Burton, has a sticky, sentimental h heart, and if you look carefully yyou’ll see a sneaky remake of the 11980s boy vs. bully revenge-fueled m melodrama My Bodyguard.

Hesher earns our love by ttreating TJ with ferocious aabandon: running him over with h his van in the family driveway, n not coming to his rescue when a b bully pushes the kid’s head into a toilet. But in a cosmos where tthe real targets are all off-limits – rreligion, inequality of wealth and ssexual preference – attempts to m make game-changing statements g way to all sorts of invisible give r restraints.

Still, it’s not every day t that you get to see a brilliant s soloist like Joseph GordonL Levitt creating a full-bore nihilist p prancing around half-naked as if in the service of Pasolini or Scorsese.

Special features: deleted scenes, behind the scenes, widescreen, 1080P High Definition.▼

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Music>>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Adriana without apology

by Tim Pfaff

T

he Royal Opera Covent Garden’s splendid new production of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur last year came as a refreshing change of pace. For once a new opera production set in a theater was actually about an opera set – at least in significant part – in a theater.

Who’d have thought? In recent years, “all the world’s a stage” seemed to have been not so much an observation but a mandate for opera directors. Then along came David McVicar with the idea of letting poor, neglected little Adriana be. It turns out that Cilea’s tender yet deceptively affecting tale of a temperamental star actress from the 18thcentury Comedie-Francaise who wins and loses and wins and loses a battle for a man whose heart she has, only to die in a bit of tragic treachery that cross-breeds Romeo and Juliet with La Traviata, doesn’t need rescuing, just proper attention. McVicar’s cauterizingly sane production – calling it literal or traditional overlooks how fresh and affecting it is – gives us the action pretty much as librettist Arturo Colautti wrote it, in and in front of a strikingly handsome proscenium theater (designs by Charles Edwards).

Although this production doesn’t have even a smidgeon of that madefor-DVD feel, Decca’s new 2-DVD release of it (culled from live performances on Nov. 22 and Dec. 4, 2010) proves to be just the kind of opera on DVD you want – one that invites you to watch it again and not just to puzzle out the director’s concept.

Covent Garden had any number of reasons for putting on the dog with its new Adriana, not the least of them being that it was the company’s first production of the work in more than a century.

(And the opera itself was new in 1902.) SF Opera lovers with long memories will gratefully remember its fine production in 1977 with Renata Scotto, revived in 1985 with Mirella Freni, divas of the type Adriana requires, and whose like we all too rarely see anymore.

This is hardly the forum to discuss a work’s merit, but the relative neglect of Adriana in our lifetimes is, as this virtually faultless realization of it demonstrates, as incomprehensible as it is undeserved. Cilea has acquired the reputation of writing more slender scores in the verismo style we associate with the likes of the gutsier Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and, pre-eminently, Puccini. But as Mark Elder’s superb conducting of the ace Covent Garden Orchestra and a uniformly fine bank of singers, from the principals down to the last chorister, makes abundantly clear, this is not Puccini lite.

You do hear more than whiffs of Puccini in Cilea’s score, but no more than you would expect of any composer working at the top of his form in the language of his day. But for that matter – say, at the opening of Act IV, before the first voice

Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann in Royal Opera Covent Garden’s splendid new production of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.

sounds – there’s more than a hint of Wagner’s Rheingold.

For most of its life, Adriana has been thought of as the receptacle for two fine arias – Adriana’s “Io son l’umile ancella” and “Poveri fiori” – and, if there’s a Caruso around (as there was at the premiere), perhaps

another, the tenor’s “La dolcissima effigie.” This performance lays that idea to rest as you hear how the opera, if not “through-composed” a la Wagner, is thoroughly composed and exceptionally well made.

Another thing you notice is how many intricate little ensemble episodes there are – because here they’re so perfectly executed, alert,

and vital. There’s not a slack moment in this production.

There’s nothing apologetic about Covent Garden’s Adriana, but no clearer sign of how seriously they took the enterprise than the luxury cast. The opera does seem to have caught the attention of sopranos at the peaks of their care reers, even looking at the d downslopes, and Angela G Gheorghiu, at whose “reqquest” this production was m made, is pretty well ideal.

It It’s quite possible that no le less “humble servant of art” tr treads the opera boards th these days, but this sopran no’s in full service of this ro role and nails it.

Jonas Kaufmann, who ssang an achingly beautifful “La dolcissima effigie” o on his recent Verismo CD, iis even more persuasive w with it live and in context.

SStill, the wonder of his M Maurizio is its alertness tto every moment of the p part, sung or not, and the ssimply amazing degree to w which he shades it witho out ever seeming to fuss.

H Here is audible proof that K Kaufmann is the greatest M Maurizio since Caruso.

O Olga Borodina’s Princesse d de Bouillon is as sumptuous and formidable, and she makes the villainess chillingly credible.

But in all that vocal glory, you won’t miss Alessandro Corbelli’s beautifully realized Michonnet, whose unrequited yet undying love for Adriana increasingly feels like our own. This production of the century could easily land the opera itself right back in its rightful place in the repertoire.▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

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Books>>

Artistic integrity

by Jim Piechota The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard by Ron Padgett, Editor; The Library of America, $35

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ncredibly talented, gay American visual artist and writer Joe Brainard’s career of poetry, prose, and pictures has been collected in a new volume produced by his longtime friend Ron Padgett, a poet and biographer. In the opening introduction, popular writer Paul Auster offers a gushing, informative homage to Brainard, whose 1975 memoir I Remember was a unique, 138-page defining work of art and is reproduced in its entirety as the opening section of this book. The candidly autobiographical piece is comprised of recollections and random musings on everything Brainard found

interesting and revelatory from music, food, sex, and friends to jokes, private thoughts and intimate memories.

Within the main “Self-Portrait” section, Padgett chronologically collects more than 90 short, highly personal glimpses into Brainard’s life and times. From a patchwork quilt of amusing, self-reflective, and introspective thought-pieces, readers will gain a new appreciation for this hyper-creative artist who came into power within the poetry and writers’ scenes of New York City in the 1960s and 70s. Comic strips and cigarette butt drawings demonstrate Brainard’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, along with his tributes to Andy Warhol and Nancy. Simplywritten, sensitive diary entries paint Brainard as vulnerable and thoughtful. Of sex, he likes it best when “it’s

fast and fun, or slow and beautiful,” and of dying, he muses “after you’re dead, you won’t even know it.”

There are also mini-essays that cover every subject under the sun from grass and gravity to the concept of what he considers a “loser” to really be: “He was at the airport when his ship came in.”

Throughout his life, Brainard, who died in 1994 of AIDS-related pneumonia, created a wide, richly varied body of work. Many pieces were unpublished or considered hard-to-find until the publication of this book, and all of them are impressively and respectfully captured here. At over 500 pages, this is an uncommonly comprehensive amalgam of art, life and history. Both an artistic and financial boon for the estate of Joe Brainard, the book closes with a pair of verbatim interviews with

the distinguished artist. One interview

by Tim Dlugos becomes poignant at its conclusion when Brainard admits to “taking too much speed,” and discusses the dissolution of a major gay relationship with Kenward Elmslie, a fellow writer and performer.

The other interview

by Anne Waldman is radically shorter, but by no means limits this amazingly overlooked artist’s power to effortlessly entertain and influence others, even posthumously.▼

DVD>>

Feeling jittery

by David Lamble

T

hat’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, and they stay the same age.”

Who’d have thought Matthew McConaughey’s iconic wisecrack from Richard Linklater’s seminal 1993 Texas teen comedy Dazed and Confused could become the perfect pretext for two skinny Icelandic teens to share a passionate kiss under a tree one beer-fueled night? It’s the last night of a three-week student exchange program in England.

At first in Jitters (TLA Releasing), our hero Gabriel (Atli Oskar Fjalarsson) isn’t sure he likes this party animal, the aspiring hairdresser Markus (Haraldur Ari Stefansson).

The boys are forced to room together by their teacher chaperones, and Markus irritates the hell out of the more studious Gabriel. But then, as Gabriel confesses to a female confidant, “One night we just kissed. We were drunk, and then everything changed.”

“What do you mean?”

“For the first time, I felt these jitters that everyone talks about, but at the same time I didn’t want to believe I was gay. I kind of wished that it wasn’t true.”

“This is great, really.”

“Then I saw him with some girl at a party.”

“Is he bi, or what?”

“I don’t know.”

Not merely a randy gay-boy romp, Jitters is more a queerfriendly Icelandic take on the pulp teen formula concocted for Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, with Gabriel taking on Michael Cera’s infatuated leader of the pack.

Fjalarsson exudes Cera’s weary, middle-aged kid vibe, just the teen many parents would want for a designated driver, almost too good to be true. Jitters overflows with the puppy-love misadventures of Gabriel’s friends, although one subplot, involving a girl with a religious, bigoted grandmother who objects to her Russian boyfriend, goes over to the dark side of teen suicide and an older generation’s antiforeigner paranoia.

But Gabriel and Markus overcome every melodramatic contrivance, including Markus’ cheating heart.

“What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why were you with her?”

“I was just drunk and stupid.”

“I just wasn’t sure about this.

You’re the first guy I’ve kissed.”

“You’re also my first.”

“I know.”

“What happens next?”

“I don’t know.”

I was frustrated that the filmmakers didn’t spend more screentime focused on the stations-of-the-cross torture teen boys suffer. But when queer wet-dreams find a scary, reciprocating object of desire, Gabriel is a very positive take on a popular boy, one the other teens admire, who finally musters the courage to kiss his lover in front of a set of parents.

While not the sharpest tool in the teen-comedy shed – the adult characters are particularly obtuse and unhelpful, and you get strong hints as to why drinking is so huge a part of adult life on this island nation, with a population smaller than Oakland – Jitters is refreshingly candid about the fickle nature of young love. It has a large, frisky cast, including Gabriel’s loutish best friend Tedd (Elias Helgi Kofoed-Hanson) – this movie really caters to fans of blonde Nordic skinny-boys – who can be counted on to playfully gaybait his buddy at the worst possible moments while still remaining a warm-hearted, hunky, womanizing lug.

Special feature: a behind-thescenes featurette, which is basically a dialogue-free party film about shooting a party film. In Icelandic, with English subtitles.▼

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Books>>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Revolutionary woman

by Heather Cassell When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution, by Jeanne Cordova; Spinsters Ink, $14.95

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Author and activist Jeanne Cordova: rollicking adventures.

An activist and journalist, Cordova has had a front seat to all of the action, interviewing Angela Davis, Patty Hearst and others, when she wasn’t the story herself, hitting the streets with picket signs, blocking traffic, and fighting for her community’s and her own life.

Do you have any regrets?

Not being able to keep my distance from what other people thought of me, and reading the press. You get to believing your own press sometimes, and that’s never a good thing. I wish that I had been stronger, more selfconfident. I wish I had the emotional maturity of a 50-year-old when I was doing all of this work in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. I wish I had

paid a little more attention to my lovers’ feelings. I had so many lovers, and I was going so fast. I really didn’t think about them that much,

Heather Cassell: You’ve done a lot of speaking, in particular to queer youth. You currently mentor a couple of young butches, and you dedicated the book to today’s queer youth. What do you hope this generation gets from your story?

Jeanne Cordova: I really get a lot of joy and I have a lot of faith in young activists today. Young people today, specifically lesbians, don’t get to see what their history was about and what it meant to be an activist.

A lot of young people are being activists now. I kind of wanted to say, “This is a great way to live your life, so here’s an example: my history.”

Angela Davis did a lot of hard work to become “Angela Davis.” It’s a lot of hard work and takes tremendous courage and dedication to become a leader. I wanted to say, “You also can do this with your life, fulltime or part-time.”

What is your advice to young activists seeking some sort of balance between their personal and public lives?

We need you. We need those kinds of people who would follow their passion for the LGBT cause for civil rights. A very small percentage are called to activism in a full-time way. To me that’s a really noble way to dedicate your life, it’s like a career path. People don’t think of it as a career path, but it is for a lot of us.

Don’t take it personally when you are in the middle of a struggle and either the press or individuals come up to you and criticize your work, your clothing, or the way you talk or something. That’s just part of the collateral damage of being an outfront activist. There is a lot of price to pay for leadership.

Surround yourself, make a close circle of friends who are peers who

MEDIA NETWORK

utlaw: the word has always had a romantic ring to it. But for the outlaw, the activist, the person standing beyond the boundary of polite society, it is more an adventure than romance, or maybe a little bit of both, just not the Hollywood version by any stretch of the imagination. Jeanne Cordova’s version, When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution, is the indie film, if it were to be adapted from her memoir that reads more like a historical novel. It is raw, filled with wandering anticipation from a life of not knowing what is going to happen from one moment to the next, and strange characters, radical luminaries, icons, and heartbreak.

Cordova doesn’t hold back her criticisms of herself or the movements that took her heart and shaped her life: the lesbian-feminist and LGBT movements. The reader knows it from the first page, when she point-blankly states in her opening, “I’m not a nice person. I have too many shades.” There is no sugar-coating the truth, only tough love wrapped in a rollicking adventure for the next generation of activists and the work that lies ahead. Much needs to be done, believes Cordova.

She wrote the book to share her life’s passion and hand over the roadmap to today’s queer youth activists.

“I wanted to show what activists can look like when you get in there, and the tension between the personal and the political, how to balance your life,” said Cordova, now in her early 60s. “It’s a hell of a way to spend your life. It’s fabulous. You meet really neat, intelligent people.

You are always on the edge of social change.”

Cordova’s story is also a tale of romance, but not one with a happy ending. The book spans from when she was 24 to 27 years old, when most of her life is spent in the heat of the movement rather than the warmth of her lover’s arms.

“I just don’t think that it works out very well being a full-time activist and having a decent personal life,” said Cordova. In real life, her happy ending happened in her 40s, when she met and married her partner, she said, not wanting young activists to despair. Her own ending is only one of many. Like any good biography, she ends her story with brief notes of what happened to each character.

Cordova’s story is an entertaining first-person account of lesbian herstory. In particular, she gives butch lesbian perspectives of the heated feminist and lesbian movement that shunned what was considered antiquated butch/femme dichotomy, and of the sexism of the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 80s.

a that’s never really a great and t thing to do.

are doing the same kind of work that you are doing.

Those people will understand your life better than an ordinary friend or lover.

Don’t get too upset that your personal life isn’t working out that well right now.

Know that you can find someone later on. As younger activists, you do have a choice to cut back on your politics and have more time for a personal life. Try to hook up with a lover who does somewhat similar things.

FIND YOURS AT

W What do you believe has b been your biggest success, p personally and to the LGBT c community?

Personal success was the L Lesbian Tide, running a pap for nine years that became per t voice of lesbian feminism. the B Bigger success, in terms of the c community’s point of view, m might have been founding the G and Lesbian Community Gay Y Yellow Pages (mine was the first, in 1981). It was a big tool to harness the middle-class ggays and lesbians to come out aand show themselves publicly in the pages of a gay telephone d directory.

I’ve been really proud to h have lived a life of being a fu full-time activist – it’s one of th the best feelings in the world.

I am still quite active, and my organization is now LEX: Lesbian Exploratorium, and a guerrilla cultural group, Butch Nation.▼

COAST TO COAST..

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED!

CITIE ES AND COUNT C CO COU OUNT NTIIN NG!

edgeonthenet.com JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON FACEBOOK: EDGE MEDIA NETWORK AND ON TWITTER: @EDGEontheNet

<< Out&About

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

Thu 3>> Are We There Yet? @ Creativity Explored Opening reception for a group exhibition of transportation-themed artwork made by developmentally different teens and adults.

7pm-9pm. Thru June 13. Daily 10am-3pm (12pm-5pm weekends). 3245 16th St. 8632108. www.creativityexplored.org

In Paris @ Berkeley Repertory Michael Baryshnikov stars in Dmitry Krymov’s innovative and intimate romantic play performed in French and Russian with English subtitles. $22.50-$125. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed 7pm Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru May 13. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

a battle of wits with his young assistant, makes its West Coast debut. $14-$72. TueSat 8pm. Sun 2pm. & 7pm Extended thru May 12. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.

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

Smuin Ballet @ Novellus Theatre Local popular dance company performs two new works: Val Caniparoli’s Swipe, Ma Cong’s Through, plus Michael Smuin’s Symphony of Psalms. $20-$45. Thru May 6, 2pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. (also May 18 & 23 in Walnut Creek and Mountain View). 91201899. www.smuinballet.org www.ybca.org

May Day @ CounterPulse

Art isn’t easy

by Jim Provenzano

Zorba @ Eureka Theatre

an Francisco’s International Arts Festival continues at various venues with fascinating rare performances full of intrigue and innovation. One such example is Antidote at the Marines Memorial Theatre. Russia’s Liquid Theatre company performs the U.S. premiere of their witty physical theatre work about the confining nature of post-Soviet corporate life. $12-$30. May 5 & 6 at 7pm. 609 Sutter St. Art isn’t easy. Sometimes, it’s even dangerous, especially for Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour. His script White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is read, unrehearsed, by a slew of local artists, because Iran refused to grant the playwright a travel visa. Festival Lounge, $12-$15. 540 Sutter St. May 3-20. Other works include Yaelisa & Caminos Flamencos (May 5, 7pm. $20-$70), Earplay Ensemble with Melody of China (May 10, $20, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness). More shows thru May 19. 771-6900. www.sfiaf.org Here are some visual arts exhibits of note, where the only danger is an excess of openings.

S

Thu 3: Saints and Sinners @ Visual Aid Opening reception for an exhibit of colorful multimedia works by David Faulk and Michael Johnstone in a site-specific installation. 5:30-7:30pm. 57 Post St. #905. www.visualaid.org

From the Occupation, about the Occupy movement. Also, Dorothea Lange archive, early landscape paintings, Gold Rush Era works, California ceramics. Gallery of California Natural Sciences. $6-$12.

1000 Oak St. Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

42nd Street Moon’s staging of Kander & Ebb’s 1968 musical adaptation of the story of Zorba the Greek. $20-$50. Wed 7pm. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm.

Thru May 20. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Fri 4>> Anatol @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Arthur Schnitzler’s play about a Viennese philanderer, in the world premiere of a newly translated adaptation by Margret Schaefer. $34-$55. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. 2081 Addison St. Thru May 13.

(510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Dance Brigade @ Dance Mission Theatre Grrrl Brigade’s dance-theatre-drumming drama about the effects of climate change and war on the earth. $15-$20. 8pm. Sat 4pm & 8pm. Sun 4pm. 3316 24th St. (800) 838-3006. www.dancemission.com

Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm. (Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Bliss @ W Hotel 25th anniversary gala fundraiser for Maitri Hospice, which provides care for people with life-threatening medical conditions. Enjoy drinks, wine-tasting, a silent auction, fashion show, dance music; MC Carmen MarcValvo and Donna Sachet; singers Connie Champagne and Wade Preston perform. $150 and up. 6pm-11pm. 181 3rd St. at Mission. www.maitrisf.org

Samavesha presents the Bay Area Didjeridu Orchestra performing in the acoustically marvelous Sausalito Hawk Hill Tunnel in the Headlands. $30-$110. 9:30pm. www.caveconcert.org

The Cult of Beauty @ Legion of Honor

Past Future Now, TVland Treats @ Oddball Film Retro futuristic (now laughable) short films about flying cars, etc. 8pm. Also May 4.

8pm. Treasures From TV Land, including a My Favorite Martian episode. Sat May 5, 8pm. $10. 275 Capp st. 558-8117. www.oddballfilm.com

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Cave Concert @ Marin Headlands

Annual performance and dance showcase fundraiser for the arts space, with three different nights of talent: W. Kamau Bell, Monique Jenkinson, Scott Wells and Dancers, Campo Santo, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Dandelion Dancetheater, Marga Gomez, Joe Goode Performance Group and others. $30-$350. 8pm. Thru May 5. 1310 Mission St. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

Walter Logue’s “Blue Dali” at ATA’s Art Auction

▼

Thu 3 Madeline Miller @ SF Public Library Author of the acclaimed new historical fiction novel The Song of Achilles discusses her work. Free. 6:30pm.

Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center Reading Room (Third Floor), 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Thunder Above, Deeps Below @ Bindlestiff Studio Rey Pamatmat’s modern version of Shakespeare’s Pericles, about Philipino and Puerto Rican teens struggling to survive as a freezing Chicago winter approaches. $20-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 5.

185 Sixth St. at Howard. (800) 838-3006. www.BindlestiffStudio.org

The Waiting Period @ The Marsh Brian Copeland’s popular solo show about his struggle with depression. $25-$50. Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm. Thru July 7. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Fri 4

Subtitled The Victorian Avante-Garde, 18601900, this new exhibit focuses on the British Aesthetic Movement. Free-$20. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Thru June 17. Lincoln Park, 100 34th Ave. 750-3620. www.famsf.org

A Hot Day in Ephesus @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley Vicki Siegel’s musical comedy based on Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, about twin servants, mistaken identity and love. $12-$15. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru May 19. 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. (510) 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org

Marin Theatre Company Gala @ Corinthian Yacht Club, Tiburon 45th annual benefit for the Marin Theatre Company’s artistic and educational programs; entertainment includes Celebrity/ Playwright Challenge, with three actors performing three short plays; a silent auction, drinks, food and dancing. $225 and up.

6pm-11pm. 43 Main St., Tiburon. 388-5200. www.marintheatre.org

Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes @ Oakland Museum Exhibit of original art by the Oakland graphic novel illustrator and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (Ghost World). Free-$12.

Wed-Sun 11am-5pm. Thru Aug. 12.

1000 Oak St. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Fri 4: Art Auction @ ATA Gallery

Friday Nights @ de Young Museum

NCLR Gala @ Metreon’s City View

The alternative video art space holds an art auction fundraiser. $5-$20. 6:30 silent auction, 8:30pm live. 992 Valencia St. www.atasite.org

Weekly parties, live performances and quick art installations, paired with current shows, including the Jean Paul Gaultier couture/ costume exhibit. Tonight: Tattoo Culture and Jazz. Free-$18 (tickets required for exhibit entry). 5:30pm-8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.deyoung.famsf.org

The National Center for Lesbian Rights celebrates 35 years of supporting women’s rights; MCs comic Kate Clinton and Executive Director Kate Kendell; honorees include actors Jane Lynch and Wilson Cruz. $90 and up. 8pm-12am. 4th St. at Mission. Pre-gala parties at 840 Wine Bar (840 Brewster) and Churchill (198 Church St.) 5pm-7pm (major donor dinner sold out). www.nclrights.org

Fri 4: The Dick Show @ Center for Sex & Culture Opening reception for a group exhibit celebrating the male penis, with works by Michael Rosen, Mariah Carle, Mark Garrett, Katie Gilmartin, Justin Time, Mitcho, Dwoo, Jesse Williams and Jack Davis.

6pm-9pm. Thru May (performance show May 18, 8pm). 1349 Mission St. at 9th. www.sexandculture.org

Paul Morin’s portraits

Sat 5: Paul Morin @ ArtZone Gallery

Fri 4: Matthew Hines @ Magnet

Solo show of the artist’s realist portraits in oil and silver leaf on canvas. Reception 5pm-8pm. Thru May 20. 461 Valencia St. at 16th. www.artzone461.com

Opening reception for the artist’s exhibit of modern mythological imagery. Free.

8pm-10pm. Thru May 4122 18th St. 581-1613. www.magnetsf.org

Sun 6: From Our Own Hands @ Glama-Rama Staff members of the cool hair salon showcase their visual art, including Leigh Crow, Deena Davenport, Flynn DeMarco and others. Reception 6pm-9pm. Thru June 16.

304 Valencia St. 861-4526. www.glamarama.com

Thu 10: Live Art Auction @ Chronicle Books

To the Artist

Fri 4: To the Artist @ Kunst-Stoff Arts Performance and audiobook release for a collection of spoken word, original music and video art, with Silvia Girardi, Michael Shiono. $10-$20. 8pm. 1 Grove St. www.kunst-stoff.org

Sat 5: All of Us or None @ Oakland Museum of Art Social justice poster exhibit, The 1968 Exhibit, and a video installation Portraits

Visual Aid’s annual art auction fundraiser, with champagne, dessert bar and other food and drinks. $75-$150. 6:30-9pm.

680 2nd St. www.visualaid.org

Thu 10: Future’s Past @ Patricia’s Green Unveiling of the newest Burning Man sculpture re-installed at the small Hayes Valley park; artist Kate Raudenbush’s symbolic mini-temple. 6pm-8pm. 300 Octavia St. www.blackrockarts.org

Fwd: Life Gone Viral @ The Marsh David Ford, Jeri Lynn Cohen and Charlie Varon’s comic play about the foibles of Internet-ruled living. $20-$50. Previews; opening May 12. Thu 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm. Thru June 10. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.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-$35; $69 for a pair.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru May 19. 575 10th St. at Bryant & Division. (800) 8383006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh, Berkeley The lesbian comic returns with Not Getting Any Younger, her witty solo show about ‘coming of middle age’. $15-$35, $50.

Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru May 19. 2120 Allston Way off Shattuck. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Marilyn Pittman @ The Marsh 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. Extended thru May 27. Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia St. (800) 838-3006. www.themarsh.org

Anna Anti-Palindrome

Radar Spectacle @ Verdi Club Michelle Tea and Ali Liebegott cohost a fab fundraiser for the queer artists retreat, with cash bar, light fare, desserts, and performances and readings by Mirah, Anna Anti-Palindrome, Armistead Maupin, Peggy Noland, Chris Vargas, Greg Youmans, plus art auction works by Maira Kalman, Paul Madonna, Edie Fake and others. $15 and up.

7pm-10pm. 2424 Mariposa St. 8619199. www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/242155 www.verdiclub.net

Xtigone @ Buriel Clay Theater African American Shakespeare Company’s production of Chicago playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s urban adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. $10-$30. 8pm. Sat 8pm and Sun 3pm thru May 13. African American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton St. at Webster. (800) 838-3006. www.African-AmericanShakes.org

Sat 5>>

Red @ Berkeley Repertory

Amy & Freddy @ The Rrazz Room

John Logan’s (screenwriter of The Aviator, Gladiator and Hugo) Broadway hit about abstract painter Mark Rothko, engaged in

Comic musical duo perform. $25. 10pm.

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

Photography in Mexico @ SF Museum of Modern Art New group exhibit of historic prints documenting Mexican life and culture since 1920.

Also, The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area, and a new mural by Dutch artist Parra. Thru July 29. Free-$18.

Open daily (except Wednesdays) 11am5:45pm.; open late Thursdays, until 8:45pm.

131 Third St. 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org

Sassafras @ Hotel Shattuck Shotgun Players’ 21st anniversary gala fundraiser, with a Black, Red and White theme, drinks, nibbly things, a gourmet dinner, a short play performance by Mark Jackson, and auction items including vacation packages. $125 and up. 6pm-11pm. 2086 Allston Way, Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

SF Hiking Club @ Las Trampas Ridge Share a 9-mile hike through the Oak-filled Corduroy Hills with GLBT hikers. Also, May 6, a hike through Tomales Point. Both days, a carpool meets at the Safeway, Market St. at Dolores. 9:30am. (510) 599-4056. www.sfhiking.com

Swimwear For a Cause @ Phoenix Hotel Project Inform’s fun fashion fundraiser includes a men’s swimwear fashion show poolside, a tequila bar, nibbles and taste treats, music by DJ DCM. $50-$500. 4pm7pm. 601 Eddy St. www.projectinform.org

▼

Out&About >>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Sun 6>>

Mon 7>>

Do Not Destroy @ Contemp. Jewish Museum

Acoustic Bistro @ Osteria

Trees, Art and Jewish Thought, a group exhibit exploring the tree in Jewish tradition; thru May 28. $5-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm.

736 Mission St. at 3rd. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Kate Clinton @ Hoytt Theater, San Rafael The witty lesbian comic performs at a benefit for the Spectrum LGBT Center. $34-$45 general seating. $85/$340 for tables of four, with light fare and a visit with Kate.

6pm-8pm. Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 200 North San Pedro Road. www.spectrumLGBTcenter.org

Marvin Hamlisch @ Jewish Community Center Award-winning composer performs live in a story-filled concert. $72-$85. 4pm. 3200 California St. 292-1233. www.jccsf.org/arts

Outlook Video @ Channel 29 LGBT monthly news show, this month: artist Marcino Calindas, trans health issues, bunjee jumping, coming out celebrations and The Perfect Family film review. pm. Also streaming online. www.outlookvideo.org

Sweet Honey in the Rock @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Grammy-winning women’s vocal ensemble performs inspiring soulful music. $20-$58.

7pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Roam Baur hosts a night of diverse acoustic jazz and folk solo musicians, including Garrin Benfield, Garrick Davis and Debbie Neigher. 7pm-10pm. 3277 Sacramento St. 771-5030. www.kcturnerpresents.com

Jon deMartin @ John Pence Gallery Exhibit of the artist’s realist human figure studies and industrial landscapes. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat 10am-5pm. Thru May 19.

750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

Life & Death in Black & White @ GLBT History Museum AIDS Direct Action in San Francisco, 1985–1990, focuses on select AIDS activism photos of Jane Philomen Cleland, Patrick Clifton, Marc Geller, Rick Gerharter and Daniel Nicoletta. Selection of other LGBT historic items also on display. $5. Wed-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

The Other Side of the Closet @ New Conservatory Theatre Free community showing of the Youth outreach play about homophobia. 7pm.

25 Van Ness Ave. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone), with special guest Tom Judson. Win a pair of tickets to his upcoming show at New Conservatory Theatre. 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

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

Tom Judson

Well-suited C

lothes make the man. But what if the man’s entertained in and out of his suit?

In The Tom Judson Show at New Conservatory Theatre, the cabaret singer-pianist, sings about his life and career (and other career, in porn) with classic and obscure songs. $18-$36. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru May 12. 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market, lower level.

861-8972. www.nctcsf.org The empty suit, ironically constructed, along with other visually striking art, can be seen at Jeremiah Jenkins’ exhibit at Ever Gold Gallery. Saturday May 5 is the opening reception for “Shit doesn’t have to be so fucked up,” the artist’s collection of ironic collage and sculptural works. Thru June 9. Wed-Sat 1pm6pm. 441 O’Farrell St. 796-3676. www.evergoldgallery.com Spandex may not make the man, but it certainly shows him off. Saturday, May 5 the ALC Bachelor Auction at The Lookout, a fundraiser for AIDS Life/Cycle riders, shows off 11 men and one woman featured in a calendar fundraiser. They’re also being auctioned off for dates. Suits me! 6pm-9pm. 3600 16th St. at Market/Noe. 431-0306. www.aidslifecycle.org www.lookoutsf.com Cameron Carpenter, the talented organist, is one of several well-suited guest performers with the San Francisco Symphony, as Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Barbary Coast and Beyond: Music from the Gold Rush to the Panama-Pacific Exposition. $35-$140. Thursday, May 10. 8pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. www.cameroncarpenter.com www.sfsymphony.org – J.P.

Picklewater Clown Cabaret @ Stage Werk Theatre A special “sexy sex” edition of the mirthful clown show. $10-$15. 7pm & 9pm. 446 Valencia St. at 16th. www.picklewater.com

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

Tommy Igoe Band @ The Rrazz Room Acclaimed local jazz drummer welcomes celebrity guest musicians. $25. 7:30pm.

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

Tue 8>> Chana Wilson @ GLBT Historical Society Museum Lesbian author of the memoir Riding Fury Home discusses her life and book. $5. 7pm.

4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.ridingfuryhomebook.com www.glbthistory.org

Million Dollar Quartet @ San Jose Center for the Arts Touring company of the Broadway musical hit about the famous one-time recording session with Rock ‘n’ Roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. $20-$75. Thru May 13.

255 Almaden Blvd. (408) 792-4580. www.broadwaysanjose.com

Radically Gay: the Life of Harry Hay @ SF Public Library New exhibition that celebrates the remarkable life and work of activist Harry Hay, who laid the foundation for the modern lesbian and gay rights movement. Tonight, a special opening celebration, with guest curator Joey Cain and guests Jewelle Gomez, Phyllis Lyon, Sally Hay (niece of Harry Hay), Will Roscoe, Mark Thompson, Malcolm Boyd and others. Koret Auditorium, lower level. Free. 6pm. Exhibit thru July 29. 100 Larkin St. 557-4400. www.sfpl.org

Valerie Simpson @ The Rrazz Room Singing partner of the late Nick Ashford performs a tribute concert. $45-$55. 8pm (7pm May 12 & 13; and 9:30pm May 12). Thru May 13. $25. 8pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Wed 9>> Leathermen Party @ Rainbow Skate Leather folk and fetish fun on wheels, with DJ DAMnation (Demetri Moshoyannis) and Special K. Enjoy cheesy food, campy tunes and cool grooves. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main St., Redwood City. www.facebook. com/events/360155634021064/

The Human Form @ Robert Tat Gallery Exhibit of vintage and contemporary photographic prints, including some stunning male and female nudes by James Bidgood, George Platt Lynes, Wilhelm Von Gloeden and others. Tue-Sat 11am-5:30pm. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Thu 10>> Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The LGBT and indie comic stand-up night.

8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

Go Deep @ El Rio Man-on-man lube wrestling in the pit (an inflatable mini-pool), porn guys, drag queens, clowns, Boylesque performances, DJ Drama Bin Laden and Cajun food! 2nd Thursdays. 8pm-12am. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Radar Reading @ SF Public Library Author Michelle Tea welcomes Alysia Angel, Keely Hyslop, Erick Lyle and Bucky Sinister to the eclectic reading series. Free 6pm. LatinoHispanic Community Room, lower level. 100 Larkin St. 557-4400. www.sfpl.org

Glenn at the ALC Bachelor Auction

Cameron Carpenter

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

<< Leather+

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

▼

Calendar conundrums

by Scott Brogan

T

his past Sunday the Bare Chest Calendar held its annual finals contest at the DNA Lounge. I normally don’t report on much of the calendar’s activities because in my opinion it’s moved about as far from “leather/kink” as it can get. I’m not surprised. I was at the committee meeting several years back in which AEF [AIDS Emergency Fund] executive director Mike Smith announced that the calendar “isn’t a leather calendar anymore.” He went on to sarcastically note that it wasn’t “Jerry Roberts’ little $35,000 hobby.”

Since that time, he and the new committee proceeded to make drastic changes. Hoping to appeal to a broader audience, they removed “South of Market” from the name. They doubled the amount of events the calendar men, all volunteers, were required to attend. The criteria to be on the calendar shifted from being sexy and having a good chest to how many raffle tickets they could sell. The attitude was, and I was at this meeting as well, that the calendar and its sales were minor compared to the money that could be made from more raffles and events. They were giddy that the idea of selling raffle tickets at the contests was proving to be lucrative. They created a complicated new formula for tabulating contestants’ raffle sales and judges’ scores that to this day I don’t understand. No matter how many times they explained it, my eyes glazed over.

As the money raised went up, the quality of the calendar went down. It even got physically smaller. I can’t say for sure that anyone has done this, but allegedly if one has the funds and friends, or friends with funds, one can get a spot on the calendar – that’s how much the raffle sales/online donations account for. Now contestants don’t have to do much in person, as they can give folks a link to donate to their quest to be on the calendar. How personable.

The most unfortunate change, in my opinion, has been the neutering of the men. No longer are they allowed to act in what the committee considers “inappropriate” behavior at any event, even at the Folsom Street Fair. No more naughty shenanigans,

Scott Brogan

Auctions past: Auctioneer extraordinaire Lenny Broberg (far left) has fun at The Eagle with the 2002 calendar men.

Scott Brogan

Three of my favorite calendar men are (left to right:) Terry West, Kurt Cooper and Doug Roenicke.

and never in their official vests. The focus, brought out more from the neuroses of the new committee than anything else, was on removing any perceived objectionable behavior the calendar men were known for. Two excuses were given to me: The men were uncomfortable being sex objects (hello, it’s a bare chest calendar); and the sponsor might object and pull funding, ignoring the fact that the sponsor had been with the calendar for years and knew exactly what it was all about.

Before the charities took over, the same folks who ran Folsom Street

Events also ran the calendar. I attended the first meeting when the new rules were laid out. The men were required to read aloud passages from a lengthy document of “do’s and don’ts.” After each passage they had to exclaim, in unison, that they agreed. There’s nothing like treating your volunteers like six-year-olds.

I hoped things would improve. Then I went to the dinner date auction at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. This was the premiere of a new format combining the biannual auctions of six men into one wanna-be black tie event. Forget the fun and tradition. Nope, just charge for a previously free event, sell expensive VIP See page 31 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., May 3: Koktail Club Happy Hour at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Drink specials and Hamisi doing Hammy Time, 5-10 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Thu., May 3: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse. Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sun., May 6: Truck Bust Sundays at Truck. $1 beer bust. 4-8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Sun., May 6: Men in Gear Monthly Beer Bust at Kok Bar. 3-7 p.m. Gear up! Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., May 6: Nasty at The Powerhouse.

10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri, May 4: Newbie Munch at the SF Citadel (363 6th St.). Curious about the Citadel? Come on down!

6-8 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Mon., May 7: SF MAsT (Masters and slaves Together) at the SF Citadel. 7:30 p.m.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Fri., May 4: Fuzz at Kok Bar. Come hang with the hairy dudes! No cover. $2 off first cocktail for the shirtless. 11 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Mon., May 7: Dirty Dicks at The Powerhouse. $3 well drinks. 4-10 p.m. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., May 4: Michael Brandon presents Locker Room at The Edge (4149 Collingwood). Celebrate sports gear with go-go boys, shot specials. 9 p.m.2 a.m. Go to: www.edgesf.com.

Fri., May 4: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom).

10 p.m.-close. Live shower boys, drink specials.

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Tue., May 8: Busted at Truck. $5 beer bust.

9-11 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Tue., May 8: Safeword:12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel. 6:30 p.m.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Tue., May 8: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sat., May 5: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 100% SoMa Beef! 9 p.m.close. Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Tue., May 8: Kok Block at Kok Bar. Happy hour prices all night. Pool tournament 7 p.m., winner gets $25. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., May 5: Michael Brandon presents Steamworks at The Edge. Boys in towels, go-go dancers, shot specials. 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.edgesf.com.

Wed., May 9: Leathermen at the Roller Rink Night at Rainbow Skate (1303 Mai St., Redwood City). Watch your favorite guys spin around on wheels! Wear your leather/fetish gear. Go to Facebook.

Sat., May 5: Boot Lickin’ at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.-close. Check it out on Facebook.

Sat., May 5: Stallion Saturdays at Rebel Bar (1760 Market). Revolving DJs, afterhours fun! 9 p.m.4 a.m. Go to: www.stallionsaturdays.com.

Wed., May 9: Golden Shower Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison), a male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.12 a.m. Play till late. Go to: www.blowbuddies.com.

▼

Karrnal >>

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Naked Sword

Naked Sword’s Tourist Season goes into the barrio with Mario Costa and Parker Perry.

Visitor’s bureau

by John F. Karr

P

roducers Naked Sword have brought a twist to the fourth edition of their Golden Gate series, Tourist Season. They’ve borrowed a pair of performers from the Cockyboys website, and filmed them in New York City, presumably with Cockyboys’ assistance. The departure from the series’ only-in-SF formula is barely justified by the addition of a subtitle, SF and NYC Collide, even as it succeeds in its freshening attempt – at least for the single NYC scene, if not the entire movie. It also scuttles the basic premise of Golden Gate, which promised to convey the spirit of San Francisco. It neglected to be local site or character specific, however, delivering instead formulaic porn that, while well-made and decent, could take place in any city.

The sex of the first several scenes is effective. First up is Parker Perry, a tourist who wanders into the Mission and has back-alley sex with a homey played by Mario Costa. Think a pair of uncut guys, one husky and furry, the other smooth and slender. For sure, there’s neither kissing nor rimming. The barrio boy is strictly trade, but his enormous cock is well-sucked, and the tourist is well-fucked.

In the second scene, Leo Forte flees a ruptured marriage and checks into a motel, where he hooks up with local boy Tristan Jaxx. Oh boy, the two unshaven, butch-lookin’ dudes swarm all over each other, having sex that’s both tough and playful. Overhead shots capture the size of Tristan’s cock, and close-ups capture the roughness of their features. There’s little continuity in the jump from preamble into fucking, but it’s a smokin’ fuck after all.

Dependable performer Dominic Sol is the tourist of scene three. He’s checking out a South of Market bar the evening before the Folsom Street Fair, and meets delectable Morgan Black. They go at it with gusto in yet another alley. The rimming is good, Black’s fucking has Sol begging for it, and the climax is exciting, with Black’s strong orgasm into Sol’s mouth ea-

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Leather +

From page 30

tables/reception, and you have something more akin to an HRC event than a “bare chest” auction. The only time the men wore any real leather was their brief time in their official leather vests. The rest of the evening was no different from any other auction. Snore.

All that being said, the upside is that more money has been raised for

gerly gulped.

These three acceptable scenes are entirely trumped by the movie’s finale, in which two stars tangle with abandon. Visiting a tattoo shop, tourist in NYC Tommy Defendi prioritizes making it with proprietor Phenix Saint above getting inked. Defendi oozes sex as he strolls around the East Village in regulation grunge-wear.

In rumpled jeans over lace-up boots, with open flannel shirt flappin’ over loosefitting T-shirt, and draggin’ on a cig cupped in his hand, he’s a walking poster for louche sex.

Which is a good description of these characters’ copulation.

Saint’s in a randy mood when Defendi arrives. He’s been groping himself while looking over some sort of sex mag. So, when showing Defendi his own tats, Saint suddenly unzips his fly and pulls out his cock. Now, it’s not necessary when selling tattoos to show a potential customer your Prince Albert, but what-the-hey, that’s as good an excuse as any other to get your cock out. And away we go. Defendi wraps his mouth around the handsome phallus to launch a cocksucking scene that’s strong in atmosphere. Defendi is reverential; Saint’s receptive. And here’s the first time in the movie that I thought, “I could jerk off to this.”

So I did. That kept me from taking notes, as I usually do. Watching sex motivates my impulse to write; it’s a form of intellectual masturbation that I enjoy almost as much as the penile kind (which inevitably follows, and

sometime accompanies, though it’s no easy thing to be jerkin’ with one hand and writing with the other; just think of the necessary coordination!).

I digress. When Saint ultimately sees Defendi’s cock – it’s a big one – he murmurs, “Jesus!” Which made me wonder about the famously str8 performer. Do ya think that when he gets home he’ll tell his girlfriend what a big one he had at work that day? And while we’re on the subject, Defendi is, or was, a str8 guy himself when he got into porn. Sometime later he admitted in a tweet, “I was gay for pay, but no longer follow labels.” So he’s now perhaps one of the rare, true bi guys in gay porn; it’s been conjectured he’s the boyfriend of Mason Star. Does it arouse you to think both of the guys sucking cock for your pleasure are str8? For me, anything that causes me to think while I’m watching sex throws a wrench into the works.

Aren’t there enough gay guys around for the producers to engage?

But once more, I digress. My lack of notes makes it difficult to dawdle over the scene’s slobberific details, but trust me, these guys are pros, and live up to the star’s placement they’ve been rewarded as the finale. Defendi yelps, “Holy shit!” when Saint’s cock invades his keister; Saint bangs forcefully; I especially liked the way Defendi smacks his own cock while bouncing, grinding and wriggling around atop Saint’s.

It’s exciting, and gets more so as Defendi builds up to an agonized, wailing orgasm. A detour to gritty NYC has successfully enlivened the producer’s somewhat generic series about SF. www.NakedSword.com▼

Phenix Saint and Tommy Defendi shake hands before cocks in Naked Sword’s Tourist Season.

the two charities (the AIDS Emergency Fund and the Positive Resource Center). The downside is that the fun, frivolity, and yes, nastiness the men of the calendar used to experience has been replaced by many “mandatory” events and a constant pressure to sell, sell, sell – but don’t touch! Many men have privately told me they’d love to be on the calendar, but they see it as all work and no fun. Some have even said they don’t have enough money or friends with money to help with

the perceived raffle/donations requirements.

Can’t we have both? Why not have all the nasty, crazy fun and camaraderie of the “old” calendar, and still rake in the big money? Well, my hope is it’s coming back. The recent uptight regime has left, and new leather/kink committee members are in. Perhaps this means that the calendar will truly be fun again while continuing to raise substantial amounts of money. I sure hope so.▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

▼

Books >>

One of a kind

by Gregg Shapiro

C

arry the One (Simon and Schuster) by novelist and painter Carol Anshaw is one of the most favorably reviewed novels of 2012. In the novel, Anshaw’s fourth, a group of friends, including siblings Carmen, Alice and Nick, are involved in an accident resulting in the death of a young girl named Casey. Casey is the “one” that the survivors of the accident carry with them for the rest of their lives, each of them finding a way to come to terms with the tragedy. Alice paints portraits of Casey, for example. Anshaw wisely balances the sorrow with generous doses of humor.

Gregg Shapiro: Carry the One has received some exceptional press. Were you prepared for the reception the book has gotten?

Carol Anshaw: No, of course! I’m a total worry-wart. So I imagined horrible, savage reviews! But they haven’t been. On the other hand, it’s a book I took a very long time writing, I revised it and revised it. I compressed it from 350 to 250 pages, so I feel really gratified. I get so many e-mails every day from readers who appreciate the book in the ways that I wanted people to get it. That’s an author’s dream. Forget the cocktail party or the Amazon ranking. It’s feeling, like Forster said, “Only connect.”

Dogs play a supporting role in Carry the One, as they did in Lucky in the Corner. What role do dogs play in your life?

It’s huge. I enjoy the company of dogs. I go to the dog beach every day with my dog Tom. For him, mostly, but maybe a quarter of it is for me to play with other dogs, to have them

come up to me. I’m honored if a Great Dane comes up to me and allows me to pet him. Dogs are great.

And once you know them, you get a little glimpse of their world. There are still fundamental differences. I never want to crawl under an old house, for instance. I can’t see the appeal, but I never had a dog who didn’t want to do that!

In “The Limited Palette” chapter you write, “Painting was a world without clocks.” Would you say that that is true of writing, too?

No, when I’m painting, I could lose four or five hours. I know that I’m thirsty or I have to pee or whatever it is that brings me back, gets me out of that chair to go down the hall. That never happens to me with writing. There are a lot of differences between the ways that you use your brain. I can tell because I play rock music while I’m painting, but I could never do that while I’m writing. I think I’m writing in a more conscious way than I am painting.

Because if you ask me what am I thinking while I’m painting, I would have a hard time calling that up.

In the chapter “Enough Monkeys,” you write about Alice’s girlfriend Maude that she “had no idea how much Alice worked.”

As a writer as well as a painter, do you ever find yourself in a similar situation?

Luckily a lot of my friends are artists of one kind or another, and they know. While I was a struggling artist, which has been most of my life, I had to work seven days a week. I had to do something to pay for my fiction, which wasn’t making enough money to support me. I just had to work all the time. I had to work to

Courtesy Simon and Schuster

Novelist Carol Anshaw.

buy myself time to work.

The relationship of the siblings Carmen, Alice and Nick are at the center of the novel. Do you have siblings?

I’ve always longed for a sister. I don’t have one. My brother’s addictions are Nick’s, and he also did not make it.

So you made a very personal investment in this book.

I had wanted to write a character with my brother Doug’s addictions, and I asked him while he was still alive and he said, “Yeah, get the stories out there.” I created a different person, but with his addictions. You see a lot about addicts in literature, but not so much about the families and how far down that pulls everybody, the centrifuge spinning around this craziness.

Nick is portrayed as something of a hopeless case when it comes to addiction and recovery. Do you think it is possible for an addict to overcome addictions?

A friend of mine who is big in AA told me that when I would tell

her stories about Doug, he was the worst she’d ever heard of. He told me that there were people worse than him. There was a guy who lost his stomach to whiskey and he had a feeding tube, and they came into the hospital room and he was pouring a fifth of bourbon down the feeding tube. It can get worse than my brother, but he was pretty ferocious.

A barrel of fun there. But I wish he were still alive every day.

If there were a movie version of Carry the One, what would you want it to look like?

I have a friend who’s been casting all along. I get little messages on my voice mail. I think it would be fun for the actors to age themselves, but there might have to be two sets of actors. I thought of Keira Knightley and Ally Sheedy for Alice, that kind of thing.

But look at Meryl Streep, she just loves to put on a wig.▼

Harry Hay Papers, James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, San Francisco Public Library

Lovers and life partners John Burnside and Harry Hay in 1979.

<<

Harry Hay

From page 21

Nearly 20 years later, in 1955, Hay would be summoned to appear before HUAC. Visitors can see notecards on which he outlined his responses to the committee; he declined to answer and, to his great relief, was dismissed. He was also on the radar of the FBI. The agency monitored him from 1943 to 1961, producing a thick file, on display with mistakes corrected in pink by Hay. The presentation of these and other details. like Hay’s 1929 L.A. High School yearbook, where years later he noted former gay classmates who were gay, and of those, which ones had killed themselves or been mur-

dered, gives the show added flavor, making it more than a catalog of organizational accomplishments, impressive as those may be. His various love affairs while attending Stanford, and with gay activist and topless swimsuit designer Rudi Gernreich, among others, are covered. Advised by his Jungian psychiatrist to “go straight,” Hay married Anita, a fellow Communist. They had a family and shared political commitment, but like many married gay men of that era, he led a double life. In 1963, he met and fell in love with John Burnside, an optical engineer with whom he lived until his death.

In 1979 Hay, along with Burnside and friends, established the Radical Faeries, the apotheosis of Hay’s vision of a loving spiritual community

exploring gay consciousness, leftist politics, ecology, counterculture and “centeredness.” The Faeries, gathered for an outdoor ritual seen in a picture here, sought to “maximize the differences” with the straight world. Partial to Native American jewelry in the late 1960s and 70s, Hay could often be seen wearing a necklace and a single dangling earring to ensure, he said, that he would “never want to be mistaken for a hetero.” As Hay and Burnside grew old, some members of the group moved them to San Francisco and took care of them.

Historical shows can be deadly earnest and didactic, but the exhibit’s independent curator Joey Cain has done an excellent job of culling archival materials, photographs,

Harry Hay Papers, James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, San Francisco Public Library

Future civil rights leader Harry Hay in 1914.

ephemera and original documents, including Hay’s research and manifestoes, and touching on pivotal influences and events, while not losing sight of the fullness of a man who had strong ties to the Communist Party, dabbled in theater and poetry, enjoyed a rich and varied love life, and organized the first gay action group (in the late 1940s), the Mattachine Society, which recognized gays as a persecuted minority at a time when society at large regarded homosexuality as an illness. Cain supplies just enough supporting content to create a lean and coherent narrative of Hay’s life, and flesh

out a human portrait of an unconventional, outspoken man whose presence made the times he lived in more interesting.▼ May 8: Opening program, Above All Audacity! Guest curator Joey Cain will give an introduction to the exhibition. Colleagues, friends and other community leaders will discuss Hay’s contribution to the modern LGBT movement. Special guests include Jewelle Gomez, Phyllis Lyon, Sally Hay (niece of Harry Hay), Will Roscoe, Mark Thompson, and Malcolm Boyd.

Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 6 p.m. (Through July 29.)

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

May 3-9, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Books >>

Comic psychodramas

by John R. Killacky

F

or three decades, Alison Bechdel has been challenging and transforming aesthetic boundaries. First as a lesbian whose comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For was widely syndicated for 25-years, and then as an award-winning graphic novelist, with Fun Home, A Family Tragicomic. Time magazine named it the Best Book of 2006, and it won a Lambda Literary Award.

That groundbreaking graphic memoir literally and figuratively drew us into Bechdel’s dysfunctional family, particularly her relationship with her father, a stern, obsessive man who was a high school English teacher and ran a funeral home. It was not until she was in college, when she came out as a lesbian, that she discovered her father had been a closeted gay man. After only one conversation between them about their shared gay identity, a few weeks later, he committed suicide.

Bechdel’s book became an international literary sensation, a bestseller that also had people calling for it to be banned in public libraries. The work was game-changing for the genre, as Bechdel disrupted the primarily male and straight pantheon of comic literature with her unabashedly queer sensibility. Her

<<

book was virtuosic, ingenious in its visual construction and literary execution, demonstrating that graphic novels were not solely the domain of youth.

Now Bechdel returns with a new graphic work, Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), filling in the backstory of her tumultuous family growing up and during the writing of her earlier bittersweet memoir, but now with her mother at center stage. The journey is both poignant and hilarious as Bechdel excavates memories to forge emotional connections with her aloof and distant parent as their Electra complex is played out and she seeks reconciliation and resolution.

Bechdel looks back and tries to understand yet distinguish herself from her mother, drawing from photographs, early diary entries, letters, sketches, and transcriptions of present-day

phone conversations. She has been obsessively journaling her life since she was 10, so there is ample material here.

Living with a closeted husband and raising three children took

it toll. When she was 7, its B Bechdel was told by her m mother that she was too ol to be kissed goodnight old an longer, and that her two any b brothers were more valued th she. Her emotionally than e estranged parent was most a alive and joyful out of the h home, acting in community th theater productions.

Non-linear and recurs sive, scenes shift back and fo forth in time and are rep played over and over again fr from multiple points of v view, from the child as well a from the adult narrator. as L Literary references abound.

V Virginia Woolf ’s diaries are j juxtaposed throughout, as w as psychobabble from well S Sigmund Freud, Donald W Winnicott, and Alice Mille along with Bechdel’s er, o own therapy sessions with a analysts.

Her signature drawing style, honed over decades of creating comic strips, i precise, uncluttered, and is forthrightly direct, extremely effective in helping to detail emotions and story. Each frame adds nuance and detail, propelling the narrative forward and enhancing the text. It

Don Quixote

From page 21

then they get away to a taverna in the mountains where dancing on table-tops is going on, and of course they join in, and our girl runs all the way across the stage and dives headfirst into her lover’s arms.

In 2003, SFB Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson rushed his new staging of Don Q onto the boards in an ill-fitting stage set because he knew he had the dancers. The time was right to make a world-class reworking of the ballet. Tomasson had brilliant choreographic assistance from his star dancer Yuri Possokhov, who came from Moscow’s Bolshoi (where he had literally grown up in this ballet), while SFB star dancers Lorena Feijóo and Joan Boada, refugees from the Cuban Ballet, were still in their prime and could present the best case I’ve ever seen that this ballet is not just a glorious circus, but in fact an intellectually respectable ballet: a work of art with a central idea, a vision, a cause.

It’s dedicated (like most of Petipa’s ballets, whether comic or tragic) to Woman’s Right to Choose. Our Cuban ballerina Lorena Feijóo, more than any other ballerina since the heroic Maya Plisetskaya, could embody the middle-class girl who deserves to be happy and is not going to be ground down. Her outrageous energy and charisma, her emotional range – she can be earthy, she can be fiery, she can be lofty – gave her star power of the first magnitude. Unfortunately for us this year, she’s pregnant. She showed off her stomach at this year’s Izzies Award ceremony (where she received a special honor), and she’s looking very happy, so it would be churlish to say how badly we missed her.

Especially since the openingnight ballerina, Vanessa Zahorian, has got the Stateside version of Cuban moxie blazing like a comet. She tore up the stage in a performance that got bolder and more daring and hilarious from scene to scene, and closed the evening with a fireworks display of perpetual-motion turns that could hardly be equaled anywhere.

The news about this revival of Don Q is a) the corps de ballet has

Erik Tomasson

Sarah Van Patten displayed phrasing that smacked of flamenco in San Francisco Ballet’s Don Quixote.

Erik Tomasson

Jim Sohm made a noble Don as the title character in San Francisco Ballet’s Don Quixote.

is lovely to see familiar characters from her Dykes To Watch Out For chronicles reappear in this memoir, as well as scenes from her father’s tale, now portrayed through another perspective.

In her inimitable style as graphic alchemist, Bechdel has created another audacious book: insightful, engrossing, entertaining, and courageous. Throughout she dares herself to begin again, challenging herself to stop “writing around something.” As scenes are revisited, more information is teased out; feelings are ever more intimately exposed.

But this mother/daughter saga is not solely focused on doom and gloom, shame and blame. There is also much hilarity in the illustrated odyssey. Bechdel’s first-person narrator is continually tripping herself up with anxiety and self-doubting neurosis, complicating many of the situations in her fraught maternal relationship. While the child within may not be sated in the resolving tableaus, Bechdel recognizes her mother did indeed give her “a way out” to become the gifted artist she is today.▼ Alison Bechdel will read from her latest graphic novel on May 8 at Books Inc. in Berkeley, and on May 9 at The Booksmith in San Francisco.

greatly improved their powers to dance all the folkloric Spanish dances, which are the overflowing bounty of this ballet, and b) the beautiful and effective new sets and costumes are by Martin Pakledinaz (who’s designed for Broadway and opera, but especially for dance), which are at Balenciaga level and create the world, the mood, the tone.

It’s time to praise the dancers – from top to bottom, they were splendid. Sarah Van Patten found ways to make us forget how thrilling Muriel Maffre was as the street dancer. Van Patten’s back-bends were staggering, and her phrasing smacked of flamenco. Pierre Francois Villanoba pulled himself up to a grand Spanish pride as Espada.

Hansuke Yamamoto, the Gypsy king, made a fall-and-release pulsation happen in his big jumps that created thrilling climaxes, and the corps dancer Danielle Santos made a true flamenco soleares out of the Gypsy Queen’s solo that excelled all her predecessors’ performances in the role. She had the duende.

In the vision scene – Don Quixote had a great fall when he set his lance at the windmill in the mountains, and while in his coma he had a vision of Kitri as Dulcinea – both Clara Blanco (Cupid) and Sophiane Sylve (Queen of the Dryads) excelled in the lightness and purity of their dancing. Jim Sohm made a noble Don, Pascal Molat made a hilarious and touching Sancho Panza, and corps dancer Myles Thatcher made a screamingly funny star-role out of the foppish suitor Gamache, whom Kitri does not want to have to marry. Joan Boada, in the twilight of his career, made a wonderful hero (Basilio, Kitri’s beloved, the village barber), young and fresh and hilarious, and clearly the man for her.

Zahorian suffers from having grown up as a nice middle-class American girl who has never killed a chicken or hung out the laundry – or at least, she doesn’t look like it – but still knows who it is she loves and is not about to be married off to some wealthy fop she doesn’t love.

The SF Ballet Orchestra plays unbelievably well, under the direction of Martin West. Bravi tutti.

The show runs another weekend, through May 6.▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012

by Gregg Shapiro

T

he secular gospel tone of Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising, which has since surfaced on subsequent discs, can be heard loud and clear on his latest release, Wrecking Ball (Columbia). From the uplifting and empowering hand-clapping message of opener “We Take Care of Our Own” to the “Land of Hope and Dreams” featuring Michelle Moore and the late Clarence Clemons, and “Shackled and Drawn” and “Rocky Ground” in-between, Springsteen takes us to the Church of the Boss.

Through it all, Springsteen still finds time to write love songs “You’ve Got It” and “Easy Money,” presumably to wife and backing vocalist Patti

Scialfa. He also bares his folk-singer soul on “Jack of All Trades,” “Death to my Hometown” and the title cut. It’s neither a perfect disc nor a wreck, nevertheless it’s good to have Bruce back.

Springsteen’s influence on Craig Finn of The Hold Steady has always been audible. So it’s not all that surprising that it reaches its peak on songs such as “When No One’s Watching,” “Rented Room” and “Jackson,” from Finn’s solo debut Clear Heart Full Eyes (Vagrant).

What is surprising is the way that the religious undertones of The Hold Steady are pushed forward in Finn’s solo work. “Good old Freddie Mercury” may well be “the only guy that advises” Finn in “No Future,” but he makes it clear that it’s Jesus Christ that guides him in “New Friend Jesus,” “Western Pier” and “Honolulu Blues.” Evangelistic tactics aside, how are non-Christians and atheists supposed to respond to your songs, Mr. Finn?

Tom Waits’ music has always existed in a timeless twilight zone. His songs sound as if they could have been written 75 years ago or yesterday. That’s why it’s so fascinating that so much of Bad As Me (Anti-) sounds downright retro. Bad begins with the rapid-fire instrumentation on “Chicago,” and doesn’t let up with the ominous organ on “Raised Right Men,” the guitars, piano

and brass on “Talking at the Same Time,” the 1950s swagger of “Get Lost” or the Latin-influenced “Back in the Crowd.” Those longing for a glimpse of the Waits of old can find him on the amazing “Pay Me” and “New Year’s Eve.” Increasingly with each album, Joe Henry (a.k.a. Madonna’s brotherin-law) sounds like he wants to walk directly in Waits’ footsteps.

Every aspect of his latest disc Reverie (Anti-), from the production to the arrangements to the lyrics and Henry’s phrasing, has Waits written all over it. Thankfully, Henry is a talented and original artist, so he doesn’t sound like he’s imitating Waits. He sounds like he’s doing his bit to carry on a musical tradition in “Heaven’s Escape,” “After the War” and “Sticks & Stones.”

When singer/ s songwriter Willie N first appeared Nile m more than 30 years a ago, he suffered a fate similar to t that of John Hiatt.

L Like Hiatt, he was t tossed in with sens sitive but snarling n wavers such as new E Elvis Costello and J Joe Jackson. But t there was more to N than that, and Nile h spent most of he h career trying to his p prove it. On The Inn nocent Ones (River H House), he sounds p pretty good for a g on the brink of guy q qualifying for Social S Security, especially o cuts such as on “ “One Guitar,” “Hear Y You Breathe” and “ Green Hills.”

“Far Richard X. Heym man suffered s something of a s similar fate more t than 20 years ago w when his majorl label debut was r released.

But with Tiers and Others Stories (Turn-Up), a double-disc concept album, Heyman has created something new and different. A rock-opera about Heyman’s courtship of and marriage to his wife Nancy, the 30 songs are sweet without being gooey. If nothing else, it is to Heyman’s credit that he was able to create such a pleasant set of tunes without the risk of a diabetic coma lurking down the line.

Irish singer/songwriter Gavin Friday made reference to Oscar Wilde on his 1989 debut album, and went on to sing a duet with Maria McKee on his second album. Friday, who created the film score for the Daniel Day Lewis film The Boxer, has returned with Catholic (Ruby Works), his first studio album of original songs in 15 (!) years. All of this is to say that the occasional cross-dresser has delivered a worththe-wait disc of exceptional songs, including “The Only One,” the U2esque “Able,” “It’s All Ahead of You” and “Perfume.”

Ryan Adams may be a long way from his days in the insurgent country band Whiskeytown, but he hasn’t lost his knack for tortured twang, as he demonstrates on Ashes & Fire (Capitol/Pax-Am). Warm and unpredictable as a wildfire, the disc’s best songs “Come Home,” featuring Chris Stills, Norah Jones and Adams’ wife Mandy Moore on backing vocals, “Dirty Rain,” “Chains of Love” and “Lucky Now” have an undeniable heat and glow.▼

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May 3-9, 2012, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend.

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