November 13, 2025 edition of the Bay Area Reporter
New D4 SF supe dogged by pet store controversy
by John Ferrannini
San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood has a new supervisor in political novice Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz. She was appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie and sworn in November 6, replacing gay former supervisor Joel Engardio, who was recalled by voters.
But already, Alcaraz, 29, is feeling the heat after allegations she left the site of her former pet store business in tatters, leaving for the new owner to deal with the bodies of hundreds of dead mice, urine and trash, as well as dead animals in a freezer. The controversy has seen the city native go from being feted by the mayor at a public introduction event last week to declining media interviews in recent days.
Alcaraz is the city’s first Filipina supervisor and the youngest member currently serving on the Board of Supervisors. Lurie tapped Alcaraz, who also worked as an art and music teacher, to represent District 4 after Engardio was recalled in September. His ouster from office came amid outrage over his support for Proposition K, a citywide ballot measure that permanently closed the upper Great Highway to vehicle traffic. The measure passed citywide but failed by large margins in the district, which borders the former thoroughfare now the site of a park known as Sunset Dunes.
Alcaraz’s staff declined the Bay Area Reporter’s request for an interview by press time, but stated she would be available for one “in the near future.” She is set to take part in her first full board meeting when the supervisors reconvene Tuesday, November 18, having been on recess November 11 for the Veterans Day holiday.
Alcaraz promised she’d be accountable to the people of the district and bring people together.
“The people of the Sunset deserve to have a say on the issues that impact our lives today and will for years to come. Too many decisions have been made without us, and that changes now,” Alcaraz stated. “As your supervisor, I will work to bring all of the District 4 residents together to secure the future of the Sunset. I am humbled and honored by Mayor Lurie’s appointment and the opportunity to serve the residents of this great district. I am proud to serve this neighborhood and look
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Unveiling set for late B.A.R. publisher plaque
Acrew from Associated Builders wrapped up installation November 7 of the Rainbow Honor Walk plaque for Bay Area Reporter founding publisher Bob Ross. The plaque is located in front of 508 Castro Street. Ross, who died in 2003, started the B.A.R. in April 1971 as a way for the nascent LGBTQ community to stay informed. The oldest continuously published LGBTQ newspaper in the U.S., it has grown
into an award-winning publication helping readers navigate changes big and small in the community. The nonprofit Rainbow Honor Walk recognizes deceased LGBTQ luminaries with plaques that are featured throughout the Castro neighborhood. The unveiling for Ross’ plaque will take place Monday, November 17, at 4 p.m. and the public is invited.
by Cynthia Laird
Ending months of speculation and clearing the way for a new generation of representation, Congressmember Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she will not seek reelection next year. Her decision opens the door to an expensive race to replace her, with two candidates already in the race and more expected.
The first woman to serve as speaker of the House, Pelosi will end a 20-term career in Congress when she leaves office in early 2027. She has been a frequent and vocal critic of President
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GEO Group faces tough questions at SF supes hearing over reentry facility
by Eliot Faine
ASan Francisco Board of Supervisors panel heard emotional testimony from the family of a man who died outside a Tenderloin reentry facility as well as from the center’s operators. The building at the center of the controversy was the site of a 1966 riot sparked by trans people and drag queens fighting police harassment.
After more than three hours of testimony November 6, questions, and public comment, District
5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin and had called for the hearing, asked for it to be continued to a later date. The Government Audit and Oversight Committee voted 3-0 to grant his request at its November 6 meeting.
Queer District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder, chair of the committee, was joined by Mahmood and District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter. Committee member District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill was excused. The panel’s next hearing date is yet to be determined and, with the board set to go on its winter recess in midDecember, may not take place until next year.
The private company GEO Group operates 111 Taylor Street, a reentry facility in the Tenderloin for formerly incarcerated people. Current and former residents, or “participants” as 111 Taylor Facility Director Maria Richard called them, have alleged delays in medical care,
Anjru Jaezon de Leon, back, comforted his grandmother, Amelia
during her emotional comments about the death of her son, Melvin
at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing November 6.
overcrowding, and “maggots in the food.” Richard, who has worked at 111 Taylor Street for 25 years, denied there have ever been reports of maggots in food. Most of the food served at 11 Taylor Street is provided by an outside vendor, she said. Residents can bring in non-perishable food and have use of microwaves and toasters, she explained.
But she and Mahmood did get into a discussion concerning the presence of mice at the building. Richard said there is regular pest service provided.
“We are in the Tenderloin and there is an issue with vector control,” Richard said. “We don’t have any open complaints.”
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Sha ar Zahav co-founder dies
Cirque du Soliel
New District 4 Supervisor Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz, left, was appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie November 6.
Bill Wilson
Congressmember Nancy Pelosi, left, joined her husband, Paul, at an election night party in the Castro November 4.
Bill Wilson
Bulauan,
Bulauan,
Eliot Faine
Bill Wilson
High court order signals demise of ‘X’ passports
by Lisa Keen
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday granted the Trump administration’s request to delay implementation of a lower court decision that said passport applicants could self-identify gender, including with an “X” designation. The order signals the demise of an option that trans and nonbinary people could use on the identification document.
The procedural action comes just two weeks after the justices refused a motion by a transgender college student who sought to withdraw her petition to the court in a case involving women’s sports.
In this week’s development, the Supreme Court divided 6-3 along fairly entrenched political lines to grant President Donald Trump’s request to stay a U.S. District Court’s nationwide injunction. The injunction, issued by the lower court in June and upheld by a 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel September 4, temporarily prevented enforcement of a Trump executive order, signed January 20, declaring that all federal agencies would recognize only “male” or “female” as sex designations.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit, Orr v. Trump, on behalf of Ashton Orr and 11 other transgender and nonbinary citizens, saying the executive order violates their right to equal protection of the law and demon-
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“I live in the Tenderloin and I don’t have rodents,” Mahmood said, as Richard acknowledged that no one should have to live in a building with rodents.
U.S. Supreme Court has stayed a lower court’s decision that delayed implementation of removing the “X” gender marker option for U.S. Passports.
strates “unconstitutional animus toward transgender Americans.” The injunction would have allowed applicants to identify their own gender on their passports – as male, female, or X – until the court could hear arguments on the ACLU’s constitutional challenge.
The district court granted the injunction, pending arguments on the merits of the case, saying “the plaintiffs have introduced uncontroverted evidence of the harms that transgender and nonbinary people face if they are required to use passports bearing sex designations aligning with their sex assigned at birth
in it,” she said. This was the first time GEO Group has been requested to answer to the San Francisco oversight body.
Hearing long sought
rather than their gender identity.”
In granting a stay of the injunction, the Supreme Court majority, in an unsigned order, said the injunction had “foreign policy implications” that could cause irreparable harm to the government. Anticipating a future appeal on the merits of the case, the majority said the stay would remain in place until the court decides whether to hear the case.
“This is a heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves, and fuel on the fire the Trump administration is stoking against transgender people and their constitutional rights,” stated ACLU senior counsel Jon Davidson. “Forcing transgender people to carry passports that out them against their will increases the risk that they will face harassment and violence and adds to the considerable barriers they already face in securing freedom, safety, and acceptance. We will continue to fight this policy and work for a future where no one is denied self-determination over their identity.”
Writing for herself and liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stated, “This court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification. Because I cannot acquiesce to this pointless but painful perversion of our equitable discretion,
to the treatment they received there.
I respectfully dissent.”
The “X” gender marker designation became an option for U.S. passport holders in 2022 under the Biden administration. https://www.ebar.com/ story/63351/News/News/
While the number of plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit numbers 12, the 1st Circuit estimated about 40 people could be affected by the Trump policy.
The case now returns to the 1st Circuit for a ruling on the merits of the dispute.
Trans athlete’s withdrawal denied
In a separate case involving transgender plaintiffs, Hecox v. Idaho, the U.S. Supreme Court on October 20 rebuffed an ACLU request to withdraw its case in which a transgender female student sought the right to play competitive sports on teams of female athletes.
The student, Lindsay Hecox, won her lawsuit at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She was challenging an Idaho law enacted in 2020 that barred transgender women from women’s athletics at the high school and college levels.
But the state of Idaho, with the help of the anti-LGBTQ organization Alliance Defending Freedom, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the lower court ruling. The Supreme
Court announced July 3 that it would hear the state’s appeal. The ACLU formally notified the Supreme Court September 2 that Hecox had voluntarily withdrawn her original lawsuit. The legal organization said that makes the legal conflict moot.
Idaho and the Alliance filed a brief, opposing a declaration that the case was moot. They said Hecox was trying to manipulate the legal system to avoid a decision from the Supreme Court on the matter. And they noted that, as a current student at Boise State University, the 24-year-old Hecox could still try to play on a women’s sports team. In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court said only that Hecox’s “request that the Court dismiss the case as moot is deferred pending oral argument.” A date has not yet been set for that argument but it was not put on the December calendar so January is likely the soonest the court will take up the matter.
On October 7, as previously reported, the court heard oral arguments in a case, Chiles v. Salazar (Colorado), asking whether a state law that bans therapists from using conversion therapy on minors violates the First Amendment speech rights of therapists. Many court observers said following that argument that the court appeared to side with the therapist, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom. t
GEO Group was also accused of having 14 residents in a room. Richard disputed that.
“We don’t have a room with 14 people
Local historians, scholars, and activists known as the Compton’s x Coalition had prepared for this hearing since August. Several of their members had been former residents of 111 Taylor, and spoke
policy is no longer in effect. Money that residents earn from outside jobs is saved for them and they receive the money when they leave. Richard said that residents who do have jobs are encouraged to save their money so that they have funds when they exit the facility.
“They seem to have a disregard towards warnings and citations. Simply put, I believe GEO Group is acting with a sense of impunity, disregard to human safety,” Arana said during public comment, which was shared by Compton’s x Coalition Wilder Zeiser. << GEO Group
Janetta Johnson, a Black trans woman and former 111 Taylor resident, said staff would refer to residents as “prisoner” or “inmate.” Johnson is now CEO of the TGI Justice Project, a nonprofit that works with formerly incarcerated trans and gender-variant people, mostly people of color. She also said that when she was there in 2012, residents had to pay fees. Richard acknowledged that the fee
mission between 2000 and 2010 as a discrimination investigator.
Marcus Arana, also known as Holy Old Man Bull, a transmasculine Two Spirit Indigenous elder, used to work for the San Francisco Human Rights Com-
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Co-founder of LGBTQ synagogue Daniel Chesir dies
by Cynthia Laird
Daniel Chesir, a gay man who co-founded and served as the first president of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBTQ synagogue, died October 31. He was 83. Stefan Rowniak, Mr. Chesir’s husband, said he died of Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Chesir passed away at his San Francisco home surrounded by Rowniak and children Asher and Xena.
“Daniel was one of three founders of Sha’ar Zahav,” Rowniak told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview. “He saw a need and met up with two other guys and created the synagogue.”
The other men were Bernard Pechter and Shamir Durst, according to Rabbi Mychal Copeland, a lesbian who serves as Sha’ar Zahav’s current spiritual leader. Copeland prepared a hesped, or Jewish eulogy, for Mr. Chesir that was delivered November 4 and which Rowniak provided.
In 1977, the three men founded Sha’ar Zahav as the “gay synagogue of the Golden Gate: a non-sexist, multi-traditional kehillah,” Copeland noted. “All three founders referred to Sha’ar Zahav as their baby.”
Rowniak said that at the time, there was no recognition of gay and lesbian relationships in synagogues. As board president, Mr. Chesir oversaw various committees and was involved in hiring rabbis for Sha’ar Zahav, which is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism.
“Daniel found Reform Judaism to be a place where he could invest his energies for gay inclusion,” stated Copeland in her eulogy. “He told me he was once worried about being outed to his mom that he was living a Reform Jewish life. Once, she saw the old Reform Union prayerbook on his shelf and it almost blew his cover.”
Sha’ar Zahav’s original location at 220 Danvers Street, which housed the synagogue from 1983 until 1998, is set to become a city landmark. It is among 16 properties, seven of which directly correspond to the city’s LGBTQ community, that gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is requesting the Board of Supervisors recognize for their historical significance. A final vote on doing so is expected in early 2026. The synagogue is currently located at 290 Dolores Street.
Copeland noted that Mr. Chesir served as shabbat service leader and
corner of 16th and Dolores streets.
“He attended almost every service, class, planning meeting, seder, Purim party, and Pride parade,” noted Copeland.
Mr. Chesir and Rowniak met in 1978 and in 1986 moved into a house in San Francisco where Rowniak still resides. It was there that Mr. Chesir had been brought back to live in his final days. Rowniak said that Mr. Chesir had been staying at the Frank Residences, a memory care facility,
José
P. Franco-Estevez
November 6, 1954 – October 23, 2025
For someone so easy to love, it seemed like it was José’s designated role in life to always be on the defensive. He survived and escaped communist Cuba under Fidel Castro, endured 40 years of HIV/AIDS medications, as
for the past three and a half years.
“I brought him home for hospice care,” Rowniak said.
Rowniak added, “We were together for 47 years. He was a smart, gentle person.”
The couple helped Ruth Rogow start a family. Rowniak, a nurse practitioner, had met Rogow in nursing school. With the help of Mr. Chesir and Rowniak, she had two children, Asher and Xena. While Mr. Chesir and Rowniak didn’t have a formal parenting relationship, they saw the kids every weekend, Rowniak said.
“We were part of their lives,” Rowniak said. “We were just Stefan and Daniel.”
In addition to his work at Sha’ar Zahav, Mr. Chesir served as a panel attorney for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel when it first started in the early 1980s. He did that for at least 10 years, Rowniak said.
Mr. Chesir received his law degree from Hastings College of the Law, now known as UC Law San Francisco. Rowniak said that Mr. Chesir specialized in health care law, working for Blue Cross before spending most of his career working at Kaiser Permanente.
After retiring, Mr. Chesir served
well as a melanoma scare. Cuban by birth, American by choice, he always wanted to come to the United States.
He had the opportunity to defect in 1989, when he was sent to Belgium for an international AIDS conference. His Cuban passport was confiscated. He eventually traveled to the U.S. on a ticket given to him by an author working on a book about Cuba that he met at the airport.
He settled in San Francisco and worked as a biochemist doing AIDS research for UCSF. In 1994 he met
on a civil grand jury, sang in a chorus, and continued to be active at Sha’ar Zahav, Copeland noted.
“It wasn’t many years after I met him that he started to decline, facing dementia and eventually moving to the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living,” Copeland stated.
Rowniak said that he began to notice changes in Mr Chesir at least 10 years ago.
“His memory was failing him,” he said.
Mr. Chesir was born June 10, 1942, into an Orthodox family in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to Frank/ Ephraim and Evelyn/Chavah, and an older sister, Beyle, according to Copeland’s eulogy. He went to Jewish day schools, and there was a sense of humor in the family’s home.
He studied piano for years, beginning his lifelong love of music. Rowniak said that Mr. Chesir loved the opera and classical music. The two also enjoyed traveling.
Mr. Chesir attended Rabbi Jacob High School, and Copeland stated that it was at this time that he started to come out, though not overtly. He stayed in New York for college, attending Yeshiva University. t
his future husband, Gary Laws. They were legally married in 2013 and were a couple for 31 years. José and Gary traveled to over 40 countries in Europe and around the world.
He became a naturalized citizen in 1998.
In 2025, with the rapid onset of Alzheimer’s over five very long months, he battled dementia and a short-circuiting brain. His struggles mercifully ended on October 23.
Passport, Cynthia Laird; map, public domain
Courtesy Stefan Rowniak
With a wink, SF retail brand honors cruising culture
by Matthew S. Bajko
At first glance, the artworks representing San Francisco outdoor spaces appear to simply be paying tribute to the beloved vintage style of National Park Service posters produced by the federal Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. Among the local illustrated sites are Mission Dolores Park, Lands End, Lafayette Park, and Buena Vista Park.
They are the creation of Jim Gibson, the founder of retail brand Scenic Cruising. The name pays homage to San Francisco’s famed 49 Mile Scenic Drive that routes through and nearby the “dirty dozen” of public parks that Gibson chose to depict in his inaugural “San Francisco Collection” he debuted this summer.
It also winks to the plein air sexual pursuits male visitors to the city greenspaces frequently engaged in over the decades. While less the norm in today’s digital hook-up environment, cruising is still fairly common at several sites Gibson selected, such as Marshall’s Beach and The Windmills at Golden Gate Park.
“Bringing cruising out of the shadows and into the light – starting with our San Francisco collection!” Gibson declares on his “online trailhead” i.e. marketplace at sceniccruising.carrd.co https://sceniccruising.carrd.co/. The local park images adorn tank tops ($24.99), tees ($29.99), and a 2026 calendar ($25), or can be purchased as 5x7-inch posters ($20).
Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter from the cabin he co-owns with his husband, Joseph LaVilla, Ph.D., in
the LGBTQ resort town of Guerneville, about two hours north of San Francisco where they also have a place in the Diamond Heights neighborhood, Gibson acknowledged the tongue-and-cheek word play and the if-you-know-youknow inspiration for his merchandising brand.
“At the core of the brand and what I do is I try to do things with a bit of humor and an inside, double-entendre joke,” said Gibson, 53, who five years ago launched the tech-focused Galad Consulting that largely worked with nonprofit clients. “It is the Elvish word for light – I am a Tolkien geek – and the concept of light is an important part of my life.”
After last year’s election, which saw Republican Donald Trump secure a second term as president, Gibson began to see his client base “hunker down” as
the organizations braced for a backlash against them and their programs. Such fears came to be, as the Trump administration since January has waged a concerted effort to strip federal funding from LGBTQ nonprofits and providers of services to people of color.
The drop off in his business forced Gibson to pivot. With a lifelong love for the outdoors, art, and travel, he found a way to combine the trio into one pursuit.
“I’ve always been drawn to really beautiful things,” said Gibson, who first photographs the sites he wants to artistically represent and then, using an AI tool, makes a collage of the images he likes best to create “beautiful images of San Francisco locations that can hide in plain sight but have that extra layer of meaning for people who know.”
His depiction of the sandy shores at Marshall’s Beach with the Golden Gate
Bridge hovering in the background has been the bestseller to date. The foggy shoreline expanse below the city’s coastal bluffs have long attracted male sunbathers who carnally frolic among the boulders lining the beach or inside structures made from drift wood.
“It encapsulates a lot of what people buy in San Francisco tourism merchandise. I think that is why,” Gibson surmised for why that poster has sold so well. “My mom has a Marshall’s Beach Tshirt she wears proudly.”
LaVilla, 62, who oversees the food service for John Muir Health’s medical centers in the East Bay, co-owns the brand with Gibson, his partner of 13 years. He assisted with setting up and running their merchandise booths at various LGBTQ street fairs over the summer, with their first one being at the Up Your Alley Fair in July.
“He introduced the idea by showing me one of his drawings at the same time, and I thought it was a great idea,” LaVilla recalled about Gibson first broaching Scenic Cruising with him. “The way the idea is a type of ‘if you know you know’ I thought was really clever, and we both love the style of the art. I am a little more reserved than he is, but I wouldn’t expect him to do anything less than something cheeky like this.”
The men have been struck by how so many attendees of the street fairs not only purchased their shirts and prints but also shared their memories and stories about the various locales included in the collection, LaVilla told the B.A.R.
“And not just cruising stories. One woman bought a Marshall’s Beach shirt for her fiancé because that’s where they got engaged (on a foggy day) and she never realized it was a nude gay beach,” he recalled. “We have had gentlemen of a certain age bracket come and reminisce about where they used to go cruising back in the day. Folks were buying Kite Hill merch because that was their neighborhood. People want something they have a connection to, not just another piece that is cute work.”
Gibson told the B.A.R. he’s been “completely overwhelmed” by the positive reception his concept has received.
“I think people love that it does celebrate something that seems to be kept in the shadows or not talked about,” he said.
They displayed at their booth their version of an interpretative sign common in parks to explain the concept and meaning behind Scenic Cruising. It also showed off Gibson’s cheekiness, featuring a picture of him beside the Morning Glory spillway at Napa’s Lake Berryessa, also referred to as “the gloryhole” that appears during wet winter seasons, with the note: “Jim knows a good gloryhole when he sees one.” As he explains on the sign, his brand honors the “quiet rebellion” and “reclamation of the ephemeral” that cruising is. His artworks are “a love letter” to existing “unapologetically,” it declares.
“The imagery, at first glance, evokes the nostalgia of tourism, designed to adorn a T-shirt or poster with the charm
Sisters announce tech effort to expand impact
compiled by Cynthia Laird
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
have announced an in-kind partnership with Do Good Stuff in an effort to bolster their online visibility and impact. One of the first things the drag philanthropic group plans is an online newsletter, a news release stated.
The five-year initiative aims to modernize systems, strengthen internal operations, and amplify the Sisters’ iconic voice in the queer and trans communities. In short, they aim to make their online presence more robust and transform the Sisters’ relationship with technology.
The first newsletter issue is expected in winter 2026, the release noted.
“As queer nuns, we meet the world where the hurt is loudest and where joy is needed most,” stated Sister Hera Sees Candy, abbess of the San Francisco chapter.
Do Good Stuff is a San Franciscobased nonprofit consultancy.
“Our goal in providing these in-kind gifts of service is to equip them with the tools, resources, and strategies that ensure their irreverent voices rise above the noise and continue transforming outrage into action, grief into glitter, and compassion into lasting change,” stated P. Tyrone Smith, founder and chief do gooder of Do Good Stuff.
In an email to the Bay Area Reporter, Smith, who identifies as queer, estimated the value of Do Good Stuff’s services for the in-kind project at about $400,000. He has helped other local nonprofits, and approached the Sisters, some of whom, while enthusiastic, were initially skeptical, he stated.
“Through some very honest and thoughtful conversations, it became clear that selecting, implementing, and maintaining technology sustainably had been a long-term challenge,” Smith stated. “Like many all-volunteer organizations, the Sisters’ institutional knowledge and operational continuity were at risk simply because everyone was doing their best with limited resources.
“That’s when I knew how I could help,” he continued. “By making a five-
year commitment, I could provide the Sisters with the time, structure, and support necessary to truly transform their relationship with technology – building sustainable systems that empower their mission and preserve their legacy for generations to come.”
Sister Hera Sees explained more about human-centered practices in an email response to questions.
“When we say human-centered practices, we mean that any systems we put in place are built around the real people who will use them,” she stated. “For us, that means helping Sisters learn the tools, feel supported, and be able to carry the work forward as leadership or membership in the Order changes over time.
“Do Good Stuff is guiding us through training, coaching, and thoughtful setup so new systems feel accessible, sustainable, and grounded in how our Order actually operates,” she added. “Our goal is to make sure the technology serves us and the community, not the other way around.”
Other aspects of the project include a modern donor, fundraising, and communications platform; refreshing the Sisters’ website; launching a robust community calendar; and implementing a volunteer management platform.
Community members can sign up for the newsletter at thesisters.org.
Sisters plan for Krampus party
While the Sisters’ online tech project is getting underway, there are still in-person events the group is sponsoring. Coming up is the annual Krampus Pageant, set for Saturday, December 6, from 4 to 8 p.m. at El Rio, 3158 Mission Street in San Francisco. The Sisters and SF Krampus are calling on the Bay Area community to embrace this darker side of the holiday season.
Krampus is a horned half-goat, halfdemon figure from Central and Eastern Alpine folklore who accompanies Saint Nicholas to punish children who have misbehaved. The name Krampus comes from the German word Krampen, which means claw.
The pageant is now in its seventh year, a news release noted. The event is a benefit for Larkin Street Youth Services.
For the pageant, contestants will compete for the title of Krampus 2025, battling it out in three rounds: costume: from traditional Krampus to original monstrous creations; talent act: lipsynch, dance, speech, or other dark performance; and a question-and-answer session to wow the judges.
Winners will receive prizes including a special effects makeup package and other holiday surprises.
To sign up for the contest, go to kram-
pus-pageant.info.
For those planning to attend and cheer people on, the suggested donation is $10-$20, with Venmo and PayPal accepted. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
The venue is for those 21 and older.
Castro neighborhood history night
The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the city’s planning department will have an event Tuesday, November 18, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to learn about ongoing historic preservation efforts. It will be held at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, 100 Collingwood Street.
There will be information on cultural resource findings for the Castro Neighborhood Commercial District, an email announcement noted.
The event is free and light refreshments will be provided.
The cultural district will also launch its booklet, “The Castro: The Story of San Francisco’s Best-Known LGBTQ+ Neighborhood,” Thursday, November 13, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Queer Arts Featured, 575 Castro Street. Authors Gerard Koskovich and Jen Reck will be on hand.
People can pick up a copy, which features rare photos of the late disco star Sylvester, archival stories, and ephemera.
To RSVP, go to https://shorturl.at/ dCQyE.
Trans awareness week film screening
As part of Transgender Awareness Week, Parivar Bay Area will screen “Amma’s Pride,” an acclaimed short documentary that’s under consideration for an Acade my Award nomination. The event takes place Saturday, November 15, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Bay Area Video Coalition, 145 Ninth Street in San Francisco.
Srija, become a revolutionary act of courage, a news release noted.
There will be a panel discussion following the screening. It will include D’Lo, producer of the film; Shiva Krish, director and producer; and Sreeda Pisharath and her mom, Bhavani Pisharath. Sreeda is an Indian American trans woman who started her transition in 2021; her mom has been a steadfast supporter.
The moderator will be Anjali Rimi, a trans woman who is a co-founder of Parivar Bay Area and an equity officer at the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
The screening is supported by the Asian Women Giving Circle. Admission is free.
To RSVP, go to https://tinyurl.com/ z79pvxhb
Help decorate the Tree of Hope
People can now help prepare and decorate Rainbow World Fund’s World Tree of Hope. There are volunteer opportunities available November 13-16, as well as other weekdays and weekends in November. The tree is located at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, in San Francisco.
The tree is decorated with over 17,000 origami cranes and stars. Each crane is hand-folded and inscribed with wishes for the future of the world.
An email announcement noted that there are a variety of tasks to prepare the origami and attach them to tree branches. These include folding, wiring, sorting, and ironing. People do not need to know how to fold origami to help out.
To sign up for a three- or four-hour shift, go to https://tinyurl. com/5b8kufpt.
The film follows Valli, a mother in South India, whose unwavering love and advocacy for her trans daughter,
The tree lighting ceremony will be held Monday, December 8, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. t
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence sainted P. Tyrone Smith, sixth from left, and Ken Wells, fifth from left, of Do Good Stuff at their Easter in the Park celebration 2025.
Gooch
Joseph LaVilla, Ph.D., left, and his husband Jim Gibson promoted their Scenic Cruising brand at the Castro Street.
Matthew S. Bajko
Volume 55, Number 46
November 13-19, 2025
www.ebar.com
PUBLISHER
Michael M. Yamashita
Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013)
Publisher (2003 – 2013)
Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003)
NEWS EDITOR
Cynthia Laird
ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR
Jim Provenzano
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl
Brian Bromberger • Philip Campbell
Heather Cassell • Eliot Faine
Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone
Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen
Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno
David-Elijah Nahmod • Mark William Norby
JL Odom • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff
Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel
Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro
Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner
Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood
ART DIRECTION
Max Leger
PRODUCTION/DESIGN
Ernesto Sopprani
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jane Philomen Cleland
Rick Gerharter • Gooch
Jose A. Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja
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Big win for LGBTQ seniors
Late last week, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in a case that impacts LGBTQ seniors. The anti-LGBTQ Taking Offense organization filed a lawsuit several years ago against gay state Senator Scott Wiener’s 2017 bill creating an LGBTQ Seniors Bill of Rights. Thengovernor Jerry Brown signed it into law. Among its provisions is a requirement that employees at senior care facilities address residents by their preferred pronouns. A state appeal court in 2021 ruled that provision violated First Amendment protections for free speech. Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office disagreed and appealed that decision to the state’s high court.
In its November 6 decision, which was unanimous via the main opinion and two concurring ones, the Supreme Court upheld anti-discrimination protections of LGBTQ residents of long-term care facilities in the Golden State. The court’s opinion holds that the law’s requirement that facility staff refer to LGBTQ residents by their proper name and gender does not violate anyone’s right to free speech.
Bonta was pleased with the ruling. “All individuals deserve to live free from harmful, disrespectful rhetoric that attacks their sense of self, especially when receiving care necessary for their continued well-being,” stated Bonta. “State law prohibits harassment in the workplace. I am glad that the California Supreme Court agrees with us on the importance of these protections and has affirmed their constitutionality.”
Specifically, Wiener’s law prohibits longterm care facilities from intentionally deadnaming someone, that is, calling a transgender person by the name they were assigned at birth, or willfully using the wrong pronoun in referring to them. It was this provision to which Taking Offense objected. However, Bonta noted in his release that the court found that the provision is appropriately narrow enough as to not violate the First Amendment,
as it specifically protects long-term care residents against discrimination in a setting in which they are a “captive audience.” The law does not restrict care facility staff from expressing their views on gender when not providing care to residents.
“As previously described, the provision is limited to willful, repeated, and knowing acts done on the basis of a protected characteristic, and it applies only in the regulation of those whose job is to provide intimate personal and medical care to long-term care residents,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero’s majority opinion stated. “The provision does not prevent facility staff from expressing their views about gender in any otherwise lawful manner. Moreover, the statute reaches solely conduct that creates a hostile environment.
“Plaintiff’s facial challenge to Health and Safety Code section 1439.51, subdivision (a)(5) fails because the pronouns provision constitutes a regulation of discriminatory conduct that incidentally affects speech, is not subject to First Amendment
scrutiny as an abridgment of the freedom of speech, and plaintiff has not carried its burden to ‘demonstrate ... invalidity in at least ‘the generality’ or ‘vast majority’ of cases under the ‘exacting’ standard of a facial challenge,’” Guerrero’s decision stated.
This is a narrow ruling but it protects the rights of LGBTQ seniors. And, in this age of constant politicization of everything, especially things pertaining to the trans community, like proper names and pronouns, it’s crucial that older LGBTQ people have protections.
SAGE, a national advocacy and services agency for LGBTQ seniors based in New York City, noted that a 2021 study from Rush University Medical Center found bias is a real issue in long-term care and other facilities. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer residents in assisted living and other long-term care settings fear discrimination, necessitating a ‘dramatic, systematic change’ to care to protect those residents and promote equitable health care,” the agency noted about the study’s findings.
And, as SAGE noted, the population of older LGBTQ people is only going to increase. “The number of LGBTQ+ individuals aged 65 or more years worldwide is expected to be between 1.6 billion and 2 billion by 2050, according to the study authors,” SAGE stated on its website. “LGBTQ+ older adults are more likely to live alone, be socially isolated and have less family support, disproportionately leading to a reliance on long-term care, according to the authors. Without protective policies and practices, this population can be at risk for issues such as access to care and living arrangements.”
That’s why things like staff training and laws like California’s are so important. It’s necessary that staff are trained in respecting all residents in care facilities, including LGBTQ elders.
We’re glad the state Supreme Court affirmed California’s protections regarding proper names and pronouns for LGBTQ seniors. It offers some peace of mind to those LGBTQ seniors residing in such care facilities. t
DHS’ racist posts beloved by extremists
by Wendy Via and Heidi Beirich
The Trump administration is 11 months into an authoritarian onslaught against the American public, a major part of which has been the demonization of immigrants and a deportation operation targeting migrants, permanent residents, and even citizens. In a sign of how much far-right hate and xenophobia have become normalized since President Donald Trump returned to office, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation machine, is putting out a series of tweets that have gone viral using white supremacist and fascistic imagery in order to recruit new agents, in what could lead to violence against migrants, LGBTQ+ communities, and other vulnerable communities.
These posts depict Black people trapped in “crystals,” references to far-right iconography, gaming, and visual media depicting “fashwave” and “vaporwave,” both of which are common in extremist spaces. But they also carry concerning implications for other communities targeted by the extreme far right, including LGBTQ+ people. The aesthetics and subcultures DHS is echoing – rooted in online neo-Nazi and incel forums – are intertwined with the same digital ecosystems that spread violent antiLGBTQ hate and harassment.
Extremists have been emboldened by DHS’ posts, with X users responding with Nazi imagery, spurring on ICE to “start rounding them up,” and celebrating a post from DHS comparing migrants to mutated aliens deserving of extermination.
One explicitly racist post coming from the DHS X account places eight Black people imprisoned within crystals. The crystals are a reference to Elder Scrolls, a video game in which users can bind souls inside Soul Gems, effectively trapping them inside a crystallized prison.
The imagery was co-opted by far-right extremists in late 2024, especially following the presidential election. The Ohio Proud Boys, for example, posted an apparent AI-generated image showcasing Trump walking past liberals (derogatorily referred to as “libtards”) captioned “all those who doubted Trump.... They say the first 10,000 years in the crystals are the longest. I hope your little Trump doubter post was worth it, pal.” Other groups on Telegram, where extremists often congregate, claimed that Democratic influencers are facing an “impending crystalization” and “we’re putting all the libtards in the crystal,” the latter post using an AI-generated video of Vice Pres-
ident JD Vance surrounded by crystals, in which Vance is supposedly imprisoning liberals. One year later, the official DHS Twitter account is making the same kind of posts imprisoning Black people in crystals, in a post which has collected over eight million views.
In another galvanizing post that seems like it would only be attractive to extremists, DHS posted a “fashwave” video featuring the song “Dark Age” by MGMT, which is commonly featured in fashwave content. Fashwave is a genre of farright propaganda consisting of electronic music, typically slowed and pitched down, and is associated with transnational far-right and neo-Nazi groups such as Patriot Front, Will2Rise, La Cagoule, Active Clubs, Junge Tat, COMITÉ DU 9 MAI, Gym XIV, and Ouest Casual. The video, after facing a copyright complaint, has been taken down from X. DHS’ identical post on BlueSky is also unavailable. Fascist-friendly users on X responded cheerfully, celebrating “Dark age edits from federal agencies” while posting other fashwave edits including Nazi symbolism such as the Sonnenrad. When questioned about the post, a DHS spokesperson responded, “Just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it Nazi propaganda.”
Recruitment posts made by the DHS and ICE have been regularly met with fanfare from far-right and neo-Nazi influencers, including several Proud Boys chapters. A recent post with the words “send them back,” referring to migrants, was met with a positive response by “@chaotichermes,” an influencer with over 90,000 followers on X who wears Swastika jewelry. Hermes said, “I like the propaganda and all but let’s actually start rounding them up,” to which the DHS official account astonishingly replied, “Working on it!” linking to a statement touting their deportation numbers.
compares migrants targeted by ICE to mutated killer aliens who need to be exterminated.
According to Forbes, as of October 27, Microsoft has not provided a comment on the use of Halo imagery to dehumanize migrants (Microsoft is also among the several tech companies contributing to the $300 million White House ballroom being constructed by the Trump administration). Jaime Griesemer, one of the chief designers of Halo during its infancy, decried the post, saying, “Using Halo imagery in a call to ‘destroy’ people because of their immigration status goes way too far, and ought to offend every Halo fan, regardless of political orientation ... I personally find it despicable. The Flood are evil space zombie parasites and are not an allegory to any group of people.”
The DHS has begun posting content on gaming platforms, which have long-been used by farright extremists to spread propaganda and recruit young people. On October 27, DHS and the White House accounts made a series of recruitment posts featuring imagery from the video game series Halo (owned by Microsoft), including one captioned “Destroy the flood,” which refers to the villains in the Halo series of the same name, a race wiped to near extinction and then mutated into “the flood,” who users kill while playing the game. This directly
White nationalists, on the other hand, were overjoyed. Kevin DeAnna (who writes under the name of “James Kirkpatrick”), a reporter for VDARE, a white nationalist outlet also present at the 2024 white supremacist American Renaissance conference, responded to the DHS’ post with “incredible things are happening.” Another X user celebrated the post by saying “we have our guys sharing mass deportation vaporwave Halo edits,” with “vaporwave” referring to the fashwave-adjacent style of image commonly used in far-right spaces. The Halo references made by the DHS not only emboldened the far right to further dehumanize migrants, but also to claim that the racist and misogynistic #GamerGate campaign of the 2010s that targeted female game creators directly led to the White House’s adoption of gaming culture in their messaging. Far-right podcast Human Events host Jack Posobiec said the posts signified “an unequivocal win for Gamergate.” Kangmin Lee, a former Turning Point USA (TPUSA) ambassador now associated with farright podcaster Benny Johnson, said “Gamergate saved America.” The original #GamerGate led to real-world harm, with indie game developer Zoe Quinn and gaming critic Anita Sarkeesian being the first targets. The latter featured in a now-deplatformed video game designed so that players could “beat her up.” It also led to the FBI investigating a marked increase in online harassment, and helped extremists such as neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin build their audiences. Those same networks now drive online anti-LGBTQ+ hate campaigns, particularly against trans people and drag performers, showing the clear continuum between misogynist, racist, and queerphobic extremism.
LGBTQ seniors and their supporters rode in the 2019 San Francisco Pride parade.
Jane Philomen Cleland
The Department of Homeland Security is under fire by activists.
From DHS
Come 2027, CA could again be without a LGBTQ statewide elected
by Matthew S. Bajko
With gay California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara term limited from running again in 2026, and gay lieutenant governor candidate Janelle Kellman the only declared LGBTQ candidate at the moment seeking a statewide position in next year’s races, the Golden State could once again be without an LGBTQ statewide elected leader as of early 2027. Lara was the first LGBTQ person to win a statewide office with his election to a first term in 2018.
While lesbian former state senator Toni Atkins of San Diego had drawn support for her gubernatorial bid from a number of LGBTQ members of the state Legislature in the summer, she ended up suspending her campaign in late September. The former San Diego city councilmember who had served as her city’s interim mayor in 2005 is now being talked about as a likely San Diego mayoral candidate in 2028 when the incumbent, gay Mayor Todd Gloria, will be termed out.
Kellman, 52, is an environmental attorney who founded and is CEO of nonprofit Center for Sea Rise Solutions. The former member of the Sausalito City Council is running in a crowded field in next year’s June 2 primary where only the top two vote-getters will advance to the November ballot.
Among the other Democratic contenders for the state’s second-in-command position are Josh Fryday, California’s chief service officer in Governor Gavin Newsom’s office; Michael Tubbs, a former Newsom poverty adviser and Stockton mayor; and termed out state Treasurer Fiona Ma, a former San Francisco supervisor. Like Newsom, current Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis is term-limited from running again for her position and is a candidate in 2026 to succeed Ma as state treasurer.
Jack Song, left, wives Tracey Mason and Shirin Etessam, lieutenant governor candidate Janelle Kellman, Nguyen Pham, and Richmond City Councilmember Cesar Zepeda gathered at a Castro bar for a fundraiser for Kellman’s campaign. Matthew S. Bajko
ibility and we continue to show up.”
She added she “would love” to have Atkins’ support of her candidacy and has been seeking the endorsements of such groups as statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California and the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. In March, as the Political Notebook had reporte, Kellman secured an endorsement from LPAC, the political action committee that helps elect LGBTQ women and nonbinary candidates to office across the U.S.
“That’s something we’re really focused on, is trying to get prominent LGBTQs to come behind this campaign and support our community,” said Kellman. The day of her October 30 local fundraiser Kellman won the endorsement of the East Area Progressive Democrats.
The Los Angeles-based political club has many LGBTQs among its membership and noted Kellman’s unique position to ensure LGBTQ elected representation within the state’s executive branch.
Faced with less name recognition and fewer political personal connections to elected leaders in Sacramento, Kellman launched her lieutenant governor bid two years ago. She has struggled to break out from the pack of her better-known candidates in terms of media coverage, endorsements, and donations but has remained dogged, nonetheless, in seeking the position.
With Atkins bowing out of the gubernatorial contest, Kellman’s campaign has been highlighting her being the lone LGBTQ candidate who can maintain seeing out leadership among the eight statewide constitutional offices up for grabs in 2026. She is hoping it will assist her in securing the backing of more LGBTQ organizations and leaders, as well as attract attention from LGBTQ voters as they decide whom to support in her race.
At a recent fundraiser her supporters held for her at a gay-owned bar in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro district, Kellman was asked by the Bay Area Reporter about finding herself now being the only LGBTQ candidate for a statewide position and how that would factor into her campaigning in the coming months.
“I think that would be terrible, and I don’t think it would represent who we are as a state and who we are as a community. I mean, it makes a lot of sense to have an LGBTQ representative statewide,” said Kellman. “I’m the only, openly LGBTQ running for statewide office. So, I just, I think it’s imperative upon us in our community to make sure we create that vis-
<< Guest Opinion
From page 6
It is shocking that the DHS knows about, and is actively employing, fascist and racist memes to attract the same misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ online subcultures that have been central to radicalization in recent years. DHS is playing footsie with racists and other ex-
and endorsement criteria. A candidate’s LGBTQ+ identity is one of several key factors in the PAC’s deliberations, along with their viability, track record, and demonstrated commitment to advanc ing LGBTQ+ equality, among others,” noted EQCA Managing Director Temprano
Among the co-hosts for Kellman’s local fundraiser were lesbian couple Tracey Mason Marin, who have been friends with the candidate for a number of years. Mason told the B.A.R. she believes Kellman is the type of “visionary” needed in state politics.
“She cares about the things that matter for the long term,” she noted.
Etessam serves on EQCA’s board and is pushing to see the organization endorse Kellman. Stressing she was speaking for herself and not on behalf of the organi zation, Etessam told the B.A.R. it should matter to LGBTQ voters and leaders if Kellman doesn’t win her race then it could be 2031 before California has an other LGBTQ statewide elected leader serving in Sacramento.
“She is just intelligent with a lot of gravi tas, and yet, I think she has that political presence without the – for lack of a bet ter word for it – cheesiness. She can play big but still be very real,” said Etessam, a co-owner of the new online community for out women Venus that launched in September.
Were Kellman an out male candidate, Etessam said she is “near certain those endorsements from the LGBTQIA organizations would be rolling in. I do think there is a miss there.”
“Janelle is the only openly LGBTQ+ candidate for statewide office in California in 2026, which adds to our pride in standing with the best candidate for the job of Lieutenant Governor,” noted Hans Johnson, a gay man who is president of the Democratic club. “Janelle’s experience as an environmental attorney, as a planning commissioner, as a councilmember and mayor, and as a leader in collaborative adaptation to climate change makes her the most qualified candidate for the job of LG.”
The Victory Fund, now led by gay former South Bay state assemblymember Evan Low, had endorsed Atkins last December but has yet to endorse in any other 2026 statewide race. A spokesperson for the group told the B.A.R. this week it will resume its 2026 endorsements later this month.
The only statewide race that EQCA has endorsed in to date is that of Attorney General Rob Bonta’s reelection bid. The straight Democrat from the East Bay has been a fierce fighter for LGBTQ rights since first being appointed to his position in 2021.
The EQCA Political Action Committee has begun its endorsement process for the other 2026 midterm races and will consider candidates on a rolling basis through the spring, it told the B.A.R. this week and notes on its endorsement page on its website.
“In races for the California State Legislature, U.S. Congress, and statewide constitutional offices, Equality California evaluates all pro-equality candidates, both openly LGBTQ+ leaders and strong allies, who meet our screening
tremists—effectively signaling that these ideologies are acceptable inside government institutions. For the LGBTQ+ community, this normalization of extremist iconography by federal agencies is especially dangerous: it echoes the same propaganda narratives that have fueled anti-trans and anti-queer violence both online and in the streets. That puts migrant communities, people of color, women, and
Another co-host of the fundraiser was Jack Song, a gay man who is a San Francisco film commissioner. He told the B.A.R. he first met her at a leadership summit that EQCA held earlier this year and was impressed with her “fresh energy,” and “grit” along with the issues she has been highlighting.
“For me, I think the Democratic Party needs fresh, new ideas, and Janelle represents the fresh, new ideas the party needs,” said Song. “She will bring a new perspective and experience to government. I have not been this excited about a statewide candidate in a while, probably since Gavin Newsom first ran for lieutenant governor.”
Lara had formed a lieutenant governor campaign account but isn’t expected to enter the race, the filing deadline for which is in early March. He has come under renewed fire for his handling of insurance issues in the state, with fresh calls this week that he resign.
None of the other LGBTQ leaders who have also pulled papers for various positions that will appear on the 2026 ballot have formally announced bids. Their doing so allows them to park money in their campaign accounts without having to actually run for election.
Should Kellman pull off a victory, she would make history as the first out woman to win election to one of California’s statewide executive offices. The first LGBTQ person believed to have held statewide office was Tony Miller a gay man and Democratic lawyer who was appointed to the vacant secretary of state position in 1994. Miller, however, lost his bid that year for a full term in the position, and in 1998, he again came up short in his bid for lieutenant governor.
To learn more about Kellman, visit her website at janellekellman.com t
LGBTQ+ communities at risk – not only from emboldened hate groups, but from policies shaped by those very ideologies.t
Wendy Via and Heidi Beirich cofounded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, or GPAHE. This essay is adapted from one posted online at https://tinyurl. com/f9ffx5kt.
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After Engardio left office October 17, the District 4 seat sat vacant awaiting an appointment by Lurie. Alcaraz will serve until a special election is held on the June 2 primary ballot next spring. The person elected at that time will serve through the end of the year, with a November 2026 election picking the supervisor for the next four-year term.
Natalie Gee, chief of staff to District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, said last month she had pulled papers to run in the June 2026 election for the seat.
Gee told the Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review at that time that Lurie’s team knew she was interested, but that she didn’t expect to be appointed.
“I’ve been advocating for my community for as long as I can remember,” stated Gee in announcing her candidacy October 28. “As a child, I translated English to Cantonese so my mom could understand what was happening at neighborhood meetings. I’ve organized in Chinatown for over ten years. I co-founded Youth MOJO to empower high schoolers to take action on issues affecting their lives, and for the past seven plus years, I have organized tirelessly to secure critical legislative wins.”
Alcaraz was not among those who were widely speculated to be in contention for the appointment and does not have government experience. Her family and friends urged her to get in touch with Lurie so she could be considered, the San Francisco Standard reported. That happened when she gave the mayor her phone number at a Sunset After Dark event in September.
In announcing his choice of Alcaraz,
From page 1
Donald Trump and frequently sparred with him during his first term when she led the House and now during his second term.
Pelosi, 85, announced her decision in video.
“I will not be seeking reelection to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your representative,” Pelosi said in a video that featured highlights of her career.
Among those highlights was being an architect of the Affordable Care Act, and pushing for the end of the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco), announced last month that he would be running for Pelosi’s seat next year. Wiener had opened and exploratory committee in 2023 and, up until his announcement, said he would not run for the seat until Pelosi decided to retire. But in an October 20 phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Wiener explained his calculus about seeking the seat had changed due to several factors. One being the emergence already of a serious challenger for Pelosi’s seat and the onslaught of undemocratic stances and policies being taken by the Trump administration.
That challenger is Saikat Chakrab-
Business Briefing From page 4
of an iconic vista. To the uninitiated, these are mere celebrations of The City’s sometimes unlikely landmarks captured beautifully. Yet, for those who know, the subtext hums beneath the surface, a knowing wink hidden in plain sight,” states the sign.
Gibson is scheduled to leave Saturday, November 15, for a research and image-taking trip of cruising spots in and near Los Angeles. It will inspire his second collection he expects to release in the spring and provide content for a later Scenic Cruising California collection that will incorporate the brands’ “greatest hits” from the two cities along with sites that don’t fit into those two sub-categories.
He first learned about the Golden State’s scenic cruising spots in the mid-
Lurie noted, “As I’ve spent time listening to families, small business owners, and seniors in the Sunset, I’ve heard the same thing: they want a City Hall that does things with them, not to them – and I couldn’t agree more. The Sunset deserves accountable leadership, someone who knows what this neighborhood is all about and someone who is of the Sunset and works for the Sunset.”
He called Alcaraz “a bridge builder and problem solver who cares deeply about this neighborhood. She will bring a fresh perspective to City Hall, and I am honored to appoint her as the next supervisor for District 4.”
Highway saga continues
A lifelong Sunset resident, Alcaraz stated she is willing to work “towards a compromise on the Great Highway.”
Already, District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan is exploring a ballot measure to restore the pre-Prop K status quo, a compromise that kept the roadway open on weekdays while closing it on weekends.
The possibility of the park closing doesn’t sit well with Lucas Lux, president of the Friends of Sunset Dunes. Lux
congratulated the new supervisor, and stated, “Supervisor Alcaraz’s fresh voice and long ties to the Sunset community make us hopeful that she could be just what the neighborhood needs to heal after the divisiveness of the last five years.”
However, he continued, “We want to be crystal clear: allowing cars on the park in any way is not a ‘compromise.’
It’s a park closure. Closing the park to bring back cars some days would mean tearing out beloved park features like the seating areas, play spaces, and skate park. These features are what have already doubled park attendance compared to the former weekend road closure. Why would we tear out the park to bring back
arti, a wealthy software engineer who formerly served as chief of staff to Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).
San Francisco District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond, is also rumored to be interested in the seat.
In a statement, Wiener thanked Pelosi for her decades of service.
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi is more than a legislator – she is an icon of American politics,” Wiener stated. “She led the fight for health care and obliterated Trump when he tried to repeal it. She passed two economic recovery packages, financial reform, and the biggest investment in climate action in history. She wasn’t just a speaker of the House – she was the greatest Speaker in United States history.”
Wiener noted Pelosi’s work on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
“Her finest moments were spent fighting for the marginalized, which she has done with a fearlessness rarely seen in politics,” he stated. “At the height of the AIDS crisis, when so many others wanted to push LGBTQ people under the rug, Nancy Pelosi fought proudly for us to be treated with dignity. In her first remarks on the House floor in 1987, she announced that she had come to Congress to fight AIDS. That same year, a closeted gay teen with a name like a
1990s when he was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, from which he graduated with a degree in economics. Both Gibson and LaVilla grew up on the East Coast, with LaVilla moving to the Bay Area 13 years ago from Phoenix. After earning a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1991, he ended up being hired as an instructor and later promoted to academic director for the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Phoenix.
The men were introduced by a mutual friend and first met the day of a cruise on San Francisco Bay for bears, or hirsute queer men, when LaVilla was disembarking from it.
“I met him right off the boat,” joked Gibson, who uses his husband as his “sounding board on decisions when I am stuck or need an extra set of eyes or a second thought on things” when it comes to the Scenic Cruising brand.
a road that we all know won’t exist in the long term due to climate change? Our community deserves better: a permanent coastal park that San Francisco can be proud of, not a return to a halfway measure that left our neighborhood embroiled in argument for five years.”
Engardio, who recently lost his mother to cancer, stated to the B.A.R., “I hope the new supervisor supports the majority of San Franciscans and the increasing number of Sunset residents experiencing the benefits of Sunset Dunes.”
He stated that the highway won’t be reopening.
“Sunset Dunes is settled,” Engardio stated. “The park is popular and the traffic impact is minimal and manageable. We need to focus on housing affordability, reviving our city’s economy to avoid more budget cuts, and not let public safety slip. And we need to do what we can as a city to support our immigrants, workers, and vulnerable populations from the threat of [U.S. President Donald] Trump.”
It is unclear if Engardio will run to be reelected to the seat next year. He declined to state his intentions when asked by the B.A.R. Tuesday.
Alcaraz’s parents met at San Francisco State University and settled in the Sunset, saving enough money to purchase a home there. They worked as parish manager and athletic director at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church and school in the neighborhood. Alcaraz is also an alum of Holy Name School and of St. Ignatius College Preparatory. She attended Diablo Valley College and City College of San Francisco, but did not graduate from either.
Business woes
Former District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang praised the appointment. She had
hotdog finally admitted to himself he was gay. It was a terrifying time to come of age as a gay man, and Nancy Pelosi stepped up and used her voice and platform to fight for people like me. I will be eternally grateful to her. Nancy Pelosi’s spirit continues to inspire me and so many others to continue that fight in the face of extreme bigotry today.”
Chakrabarti stated that Pelosi’s decision not to seek reelection was a “powerful act of leadership that clears the way for a new generation of Democrats to take on the urgent challenges facing the country.”
“Thank you, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, for your decades of service that defined a generation of politics and for doing something truly rare in Washington: making room for the next one,” stated Chakrabarti. “Our campaign is ready to build on that legacy by fighting to create a San Francisco and an America that works for everyone.”
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, praised Pelosi.
“There will never be another Nancy Pelosi – she is one of one,” stated Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, a queer Black woman, “Throughout her career, Speaker Emerita Pelosi has remained a tireless champion for LGBTQ+ equality and worked alongside LGBTQ+ advo-
It started as a way for Gibson to keep busy and bring in some revenue but quickly morphed into a pursuit with more meaning behind it than he had anticipated and now hopes to grow into the future. He told the B.A.R. he is “open to” seeing brick-and-mortar stores carry his merchandise if he feels they have the “right synchronicity” with his brand but is happy, for the time being, selling online and at street fairs or other pop-up events.
“I think, in this time we find ourselves in, the act of creating a space for joy is something that is really special and something I wasn’t expecting to hit me as hard as it does,” said Gibson. “To see someone see my art for the first time, and get the joke or layers of meaning behind it, and see the expression of joy that comes across their face, it is really priceless to me. There is nothing to compare it to.”
been appointed to the seat to fill a vacancy in early 2013.
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for the Sunset District’s diverse communities to come together to advance shared goals,” stated Tang, now the director of the Office of Small Business. “Beya’s steadfast commitment to public service, prioritization of residents’ voices, and collaborative approach will drive meaningful progress and long-term improvement across District 4.”
Indeed, Alcaraz was a business owner herself of the pet supply store called The Animal Connection on Irving Street. She took it over back in 2019 but gave away the business earlier this year, citing her frequent need to see her family, who had recently returned to the Philippines, according to the Standard.
The publication also reported that after Julia Baran took over the store, she found hundreds of dead rodents, garbage, and a freezer with dead pets, including lizards and guinea pigs. Baran claimed cleaning the space cost thousands of dollars and took months, and questioned the wisdom of Alcaraz’s appointment, asking, “How are you going to think you’re responsible enough to represent the whole people of the Sunset when you can’t operate a business?”
Baran also shared the businesses’ finances, showing it had been operating at a loss for several years. Speaking to the B.A.R. on November 11, Baran said Alcaraz had not reached out to her since the revelations were published the day earlier, but that she’d heard back after sharing the information with the mayor’s office.
“Basically, they just kept asking me, ‘What do you want us to do about it?’” she said. “I said, ‘I don’t want anything, I just want you to take accountability for not vetting someone who’s going to take
cates to pass historic legislation that expanded access to health care, protected marriage equality, honored Matthew Shepard with federal hate crimes protections and ended ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ Her steel spine, allyship and keen insight have served as powerful tools in our shared fight for progress and we are grateful for her unwavering commitment to our community.”
Shepard was the gay Wyoming college student who was savagely beaten in 1998. President Barak Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2009.
Pelosi earned a lifetime score of nearly 100% on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, the organization noted. During her tenures as speaker of the House, from 2007-2011 and 2019-2023, the LGBTQ+ community saw more legislative progress than under any previous speaker, stated HRC.
In 2021, the Pelosi-led House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified federal marriage equality by guaranteeing the federal rights, benefits and obligations of marriages in the federal code; repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and affirming that public acts, records and proceedings should be recognized by all states.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, who
He already has signed up to have a booth at the Castro Art Mart being held from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, December 7, on Noe Street between Market and Beaver streets in the LGBTQ neighborhood. And despite the turmoil merchandisers have had to deal with due to Trump’s tariffs on overseas goods and other disruptions to the global supply chain, Gibson doesn’t expect there to be any issues for people purchasing his products via his website this holiday season.
But he did offer some advice for those worried about their packages arriving in time.
“The best bet is order early, though, I will do my best to guarantee and make sure things are available by a Christmas delivery date,” said Gibson. “I work with different vendors and different countries where those vendors are, so it is hard to
public office and who the community is going to pay for to represent them, and represent their best interest.’ … It’s the truth, and if I didn’t know the truth, I would want to know who this person was, and I think so many politicians get away with things because people don’t speak up. The people of San Francisco deserve better.”
Asked for a response, Lurie spokesperson Charles Lutvak stated to the B.A.R., “In Beya Alcaraz, the Sunset has a supervisor who has dedicated her life to serving her community and will work every day to bring people together. She stepped up from employee to owner of The Animal Connection – working seven days a week for six years and keeping the doors open through the pandemic to serve her neighbors. That’s the determination and the work ethic she brings to the Board of Supervisors, and it’s why Mayor Lurie is absolutely confident she is the best person to be the Sunset’s voice in City Hall.”
Baran explained that it is common practice to store dead animals in the freezer for a period of time. But she didn’t expect to have to dispose of those initially under the care of Alcaraz when she took over the business.
“We get a lot of surrendered animals and a lot are sick or old already, and they kind of live out their lives at the store,” she said. “Basically, she had a freezer of dead animals she never buried. I also have a couple in the freezer I still need to bury, but I wouldn’t leave that for someone to do for me.”
Baran said Alcaraz, who remains the leaseholder, was supposed to have hired an exterminator for the past three months, but has not done so.
“I don’t expect her to reach out to me at all,” she said. “I would love people to come through the store – it’s a lot cleaner now.” t
formerly served in Congress alongside Pelosi for many years, stated that she shattered a political glass ceiling.
“My longtime colleague and partner in service, Nancy Pelosi, has announced she will not seek reelection after nearly 40 years of historic leadership representing San Francisco,” Lee stated. “For decades, I had the privilege of serving alongside Nancy as her congressional neighbor, working together on our shared values for San Francisco, the State of California, our country, and the world. As the first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy shattered barriers and opened doors for women across the country. She never let us forget the work we were doing was for the children and our future. As she prepares for her final year in Congress, she leaves a standard of principled leadership that will endure. I know this next chapter of her life will continue to be filled with joy and more time with her husband Paul and her beautiful family.”
Pelosi had more than $1.5 million in her campaign account as of July 1. Speculation on when she will retire from Congress have swirled around her for years, picking up steam after her husband, Paul, was severely assaulted by an intruder to their Pacific Heights home in 2022, and more recently with talk that her oldest daughter, Christine, 59, will run to succeed her in the House. t
say a definitive buy-by date. It is the landscape we find ourselves in now.”
Holiday fair at Castro rec center
A city rec and park facility in San Francisco’s Duboce Triangle neighborhood will once again be hosting its annual holiday craft fair early next month. It is set to take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, December 14.
The market features local artists who bring their unique handmade holiday gifts for sale. It is a yearly tradition for the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts, located at 50 Scott Street and situated at one end of Duboce Park.
For more information, visit https:// tinyurl.com/yhunn5jb. t Got a tip on
by Myron Caringal
For decades, Cirque du Soleil has been known for spectacle. It’s synonymous with maximalism: towering sets, riotous color palettes and so many visual elements competing for attention that the eye never lands in one place for long. But when Cirque’s newest big-top production “Echo” arrives at Oracle Park on November 20, audiences will see something different: a show built around balance.
Instead of a kaleidoscope of props and environments, “Echo” centers on one massive element: a 30-foot enigmatic cube that sits upstage like a riddle. It translates, spins, breaks apart, and reforms, becoming the focal point around which the show’s acrobatics, choreography and story move. It is both the set and the metaphor.
“Aesthetically, it is more minimalist than other Cirque productions have been,” said acrobat and aerialist Neal Courter, an artist in the production. “We have one main set piece (the cube) for the show. It’s kind of the star. As the show goes on, it serves as a storytelling device as well.”
That pared-down approach gives the per
Cirque du Soleil gets stripped down in ‘Echo’
The big top comes back to San Francisco this winter with a minimalist design, a 30-foot cube, and a queer aerialist at the heart of a Cirque production unlike any other.
group work intertwine with modern aesthetics, highlighting physicality over visual clutter, new territory for Cirque. For some artists, it’s part of the show’s appeal.
Jessica Ward, an Australian circus artist who joined the production earlier this year, described “Echo” as striking a “sweet spot.”
“It’s contemporary, it’s fresh, it’s a new take on it, but it still manages to feel like Cirque du Soleil,” Ward said. “There’s no weak moment in the show.”
What changed, in part, is Cirque’s approach to design. “Echo” doesn’t try to overwhelm; it tries to distill. Courter sees the cube as a symbol of that shift, and of Cirque’s future.
“There’s the very inorganic cube, and then there’s the cast of animal characters that represent the organic side,” he explained. “The question is: where do we as humans, as individuals, as communities fit into that? Where do we fit now? Where should we find ourselves and how do we get there?”
Under the big top
The search for balance plays out in the way the company operates, something felt the moment Cirque’s artists describe their day-to-day lives. Ward calls backstage its own “ecosystem,” comparing the audience experience to the tip of an iceberg.
“We travel with chefs, we travel with physiotherapists, and a wardrobe team and an entire artistic team that takes care of every department,” she said in contrast to other productions. “I can show up and focus on doing a good show and producing a good product and not worry about when I’m going to cook my dinner. So that’s a really, really nice part of it.”
Courter added that the extracurriculars Cirque offers keep touring life well balanced.
“It’s really nice in the big top to have outside clinicians come and offer workshops with the cast,
2017 Media Kit 0 a
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
‘A Driving Beat’
by Jim Gladstone
“ADriving Beat,” now in its world premiere production at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, depicts a cross-country road trip. That’s triedand-true narrative subject matter, but playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett has mapped a unique route through familiar terrain by concentrating on intersections.
Disparate generations, ethnicities, sexualities, and musical tastes cross paths throughout an earnest, often charming mother-son ride from Ohio to San Diego.
Lonely companions
Fourteen-year-old Matteo (Jon Victor Corpuz, convincingly playing a character half his age) is being taken on a long promised westward quest by his mother, Diane (Lee Ann Payne, successfully conveying a teetering balance of wisdom and wariness).
In four days, on Matteo’s 15th birthday, they will arrive at the California hospital where he was born and put up for adoption by a young woman whom he’s been told spoke Spanish, but about whom he knows virtually nothing else.
Diane, whose female partner and
co-parent died when their son was a toddler, has remained single over the intervening years. She has clearly raised Matteo with warmth and support. There’s an ironic family resemblance in that each of them yearns for a very different, very particular form of nurturing.
Among the smaller, but essential, roles sharply etched by a third cast member, Livia Gomes Demarchi, are glimmers of balm for those heartaches: The desk clerk at a roadside motel who flirts with Diane, reigniting longtamped desires; and Matteo’s silent vision of an idealized birth mother.
Demarchi also plays a brutish Texas highway patrolman who pulls the protagonists over in the play’s most trenchant scene, which makes the limits of intersectional empathy painfully clear: Queerness offers the option of invisibility, but one’s skin can’t be hidden.
Solo overkill
With subtle physical reactions and facial expressions (less subtle given Matteo’s reflexive adolescent eye rolls) Corpuz and Payne give their banter and inside jokes a believably lived-in texture as they sit side-by-side on the two rolling chairs used to represent their car.
Director Jeffrey Lo poetically underscores Puckett’s unfussy, gently funny dialogue by having the space between those chairs expand and contract to reflect disconnection and intimacy between the fellow travelers.
When Matteo’s sense of isolation feels most extreme, he launches from his seat into an imaginary liminal space, bursting into bilingual raps fueled by a combination of loneliness,
self-reliance, and rage. These hip-hop soliloquies, which inform the show’s title, are unfortunately its weakest element. While Corpuz spits bars with percussive confidence, providing an effective image of a boy trying to articulate himself into manhood, the rhymes Puckett has written for him lack depth and finesse. They’re less raps than repetitive chants and each time one erupts, it overstays its welcome.
While Puckett leans hard on this device in an effort to help her play avoid road trip tropes, it actually stalls the show’s momentum. The tenderness and teasing humor of a unique motherson bond are the dramatic and emotional engine of “A Driving Beat.”
Matteo and Diane’s conversations and revelations could benefit from greater length and more gnarled nuance. And the impact of a final narrative twist on both of them needs more room to breathe and reverberate.
Matteo’s stylized solos tilt the show toward lopsidedness. It’s strongest as an odd couple story rather than a coming-of-age tale.
“A Driving Beat” needs some further steering to fulfill its greatest potential, but the show is warm and worth seeing in its current incarnation. Members and supporters of non-traditional families will particularly appreciate the attention paid to details that too often go unacknowledged in cultural representations of family life.t
“A Driving Beat,” through November 23. $49-$79. Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. www.theatreworks.org.
Downtown LGBTQ bar Ginger’s closes, again
by John Ferrannini
Ginger’s – the San Francisco financial district’s only LGBTQ bar – is closing again, at least for now.
The bar had suspended its operation in 2020 as downtown emptied of customers during the COVID pandemic lockdowns but reopened in 2024. Now, a little more than a year later, it shuttered its latest iteration October 30.
Future Bars, the company that owns Ginger’s along with FiDi mainstays Nightingale (239 Kearny Street), Rickhouse (246 Kearny Street), and Pagan Idol (375 Bush Street), didn’t return a request for comment for this report.
Future Bars CEO and founder Brian Sheehy told SF Gate last week, “Traffic to Ginger’s has not been consistently strong. Without enough customer support, our staff don’t earn enough tips, and Ginger’s operates at a loss. We have struggled to get people into Ginger’s, despite the valiant efforts of our entire team and the great shows being put on by the performers.”
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the bar had been resurrected thanks to the efforts of Dana Marinelli, a lesbian who had been general manager at Oasis but who went to work at Future Bars in 2024.
(Oasis itself, in the city’s South of Market neighborhood, is slated to close January 1.)
“My goal is to introduce Ginger’s to a new audience of younger people who may not have heard of the space,” Marinelli said last year, adding that she was hoping to add ever “edgier drag house takeovers.”
Drag featured big in the new Ginger’s – but in the spring of this year, Marinelli told the B.A.R. that she left
the bar after Future Bars cut her salary, along with the bar’s entertainment budget, and security. She told the B.A.R. that she was also concerned about allegations of Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issues and fires in the building the bar is housed in.
“They didn’t do a thing to help me,” she said, and shared with the B.A.R. receipts showing she paid personally for advertising while the bar’s budget for entertainment was cut three times.
Marinelli also said, “The security of my patrons, performers, and staff is extremely important to me,” referring to the cut in bar security. People walking through the front door of Ginger’s are not visible from behind the bar.
Marinelli declined to comment for this report.
Sheehy told the B.A.R. earlier this year Future Bars did have to bring back the security guard. He further explained that the cuts were an attempt to keep the business viable.
“We’ve been having live shows Wednesday, Thursday, Friday going
on six months,” he said. “The shows have been spectacular, wonderful. But not enough people are coming to the shows consistently for it to be a viable business.” Sheehy had said that going forward Ginger’s would have a “single DJ” with the bar “closing around 9 o’clock.”
But drag performances had continued at Ginger’s, though Sheehy told SF Gate that the departure of a second manager, Amelia Long, was just too much for the bar to handle. Long could not be reached for comment.
“It’s a demanding role because of the constant booking of talent required for each night,” Sheehy said of the manager position.
Future Bars is opening a new bar in North Beach, Long Weekend, at 270 Columbus Avenue. The watering hole is Havana, Cuba-inspired but will pivot in nine months to feature a new city. Sheehy told the San Francisco Standard that young bargoers have short attention spans, and the changes will help the establishment stay relevant.t
supportive space where we can be ourselves.”
Ward echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the team’s diversity.
“It’s something that I really love about this industry and about this show specifically, we have people from all walks of life and everyone’s doing their bit to create this beautiful show night after night and working to achieve goals,” Ward said. “We all rely on each other so much for that.”
On stage and off
That sense of interdependence is baked into “Echo.”
On stage, the cube may dominate the visual field, but the performers, with their precision and trust, are what give the show its heartbeat.
For Ward, that balance crystallizes in her favorite, the flying poles act, a sequence she performs with Courter and other artists, where interdependence becomes impossible to miss.
“I love that there is such a responsibility as an individual performer, but the bigger picture of it being this group act, we rely on each other so much,” she said. “You can see how tight everyone is. And, I think, that’s really, really beautiful to see and also to experience.”
Every movement depends on the next, reflecting the show’s larger exploration of humanity’s search for equilibrium and connection.
Offstage, the same web of care shapes daily life on tour, from rehearsals to shared meals.
“Everyone’s accepted and celebrated, and I just wish that more of the world outside of the tent was like that,” Ward said.
For Courter, the show’s themes resonate personally. When asked what he wants audiences to take away when they leave the big top this winter, Courter’s answer came quickly.
“In a world where we’re getting a barrage of negative news, and that cycle can be disheartening and a downer, I think really we’re trying to communicate a message of hope, all is not lost. Keep fighting the good fight. A message of hope and resilience for yourself and individuals, for your communities, for your families, for your country,” he said.t
Jon Victor Corpuz, left, plays Matteo, and Lee Ann Payne is his mother Diane in Theatreworks Silicon Valley’s production of “Driving Beat.”
Kevin Berne
Ginger’s, the only LGBTQ bar in San Francisco’s Financial District, has closed again.
Courtesy Ginger’s
Cirque du Soleil’s “Echo.” November 20 through January 18, under
<< Cirque du Soleil From page 11
Performers take the stage in Cirque du Soleil’s “Echo.”
Jean-Françios Savaria
‘Hedda’ offers a queer upending of old play
by Brian Bromberger
“Hedda Gabler,” written by the Norwegian playwright Heinrik Ibsen in 1891, eventually became a feminist classic about a strong, passionate, unruly woman bored with her marriage and life, trying unsuccessfully to find a sense of fulfillment amid violence and female sexual repression. Director Nia DaCosta has given the drama a visually inventive cinematic queer power struggle reimagining, moving the action to a party in the English countryside during the 1950s with all its social constraints in her film adaptation, “Hedda,” now streaming on Amazon Prime.
It’s a bold attempt to be both classical and modern, yet the two don’t quite gel in the final distillation. It succeeds on a limited basis, but one can only applaud DaCosta’s audacious ingenuity even if Ibsen’s staid tragedy is now a flamboyant, at-times comic melodrama on 21st century sexual mores (with gender swaps) grafted onto 1950s conformity.
“Hedda” takes place over 24 hours at an opulent estate during an all-night over-the-top dinner party. Newlywed Hedda Tessman (Tessa Thompson), formerly known as Hedda Gabler, has returned from her six-month honeymoon with her ambitious, boring, academic husband George (Tom Bateman). Earlier the previous day she had attempted suicide, feeling alone in a huge villa, unhappy being a traditional wife and feeling the walls of the house caving in on her. She’s being questioned by police the next morning over a shooting that has taken place that night.
We then hear Hedda’s flashback version of what took place that prior day. George really loves her. She’s primarily interested in his money and social position so she won’t lose her status in elite society. Hedda’s aristocratic fa-
ther General Gabler (she’s his bastard child) was the owner of the mansion but died in debt. The mansion is put up for sale, but George borrows money to buy it from his sleazy bachelor friend Judge Roland Brack (Nicholas Pinnock), who expects to be reimbursed once George lands a university position. He feels his generosity gives him power over the couple, including expecting carnal favors from Hedda. Professor Greenwood (Finbar Lynch), who’s considering hiring George, is invited to the party with his pretentious wife Tabitha (Mirren Mack), to encourage that effort, with George charging Hedda to charm Greenwood into giving him the position.
Hedda has invited her former lover Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss), who has a reputation for being a drunken troublemaker, despite her first book being a bestseller. She has sobered up and finished the manuscript for her second book, which she hopes will act as her comeback. She’s vying for the same position as George, but Hedda is intent on George securing that job so they can retain their place in uppercrust society. A series of deadly mindgames will ensue throughout the film.
Hedda is still in love with Eileen, but she has a new lover Thea (Imogen Pooks), Hedda’s schoolmate, who had hired Eileen as a tutor for her children. Thea has left her husband, helped Eileen become sober, and has evolved into a writing collaborator and soon-to-be live-in partner. Their manuscript concerns the future of sex in all its kinkier elements as part of a groundbreaking theory of sexual desire. Thea provides peace and confidence with warmth and affection so Eileen can do her work.
Hedda is very jealous and schemes to cause Eileen to drink again, then winds up burning her manuscript, which had been “lost,” almost driving Eileen to the brink of suicide. The
glamorous party becomes unbridled where everyone’s restraints are relaxed, exercising power plays over each other. The most thrilling scene of the movie is a drunken Eileen narrating a raunchy account of a debauched sex fetish, thrilling her male audience, trying to be seen as their equal and win the professorship. Eileen is willing to be public about being a lesbian despite the homophobia that could cost her a job. Hedda cannot deal with her queerness, unable to tolerate being rejected by high society even though she’s living in a world that says she doesn’t count. Hedda and Eileen bring out the worst in each other. It will all have near-tragic consequences leading to an ambiguous ending, very different from the play.
Hedda is a frustrated woman of ambition. She loves to party and she’s invited her free-spirited bohemian friends to counteract her husband’s prim academic acquaintances. What Hedda desires is love and to feel respected but instead chooses power
and control. She doesn’t have the courage of her convictions and her desire for freedom to exist as her own person conflicts with her desire for control in a chaotic world. Hedda is full of contradictions, wanting love but also money and status, as well as both loving and hating Eileen. Jealousy and resentment fuel her plot to shatter her. The seemingly glamourous Hedda, with her cunning intellect, can’t disguise her ugly sowing of discord and chaos nor the fact that she’s a deeply unhappy woman, probably resentful that she’s living a lie. Thompson is quite effective as Hedda, conveying her sophistication, restlessness, sensuality, and calculating toxic demeanor, resisting the temptation to render her sympathetic as an anti-hero. Thompson, who is a biracial American actress, however, overemphasizes her English accent and mannerisms. In the play, Hedda is enigmatic but here comes across as a charismatic manipulator, so there’s insufficient ambiguity. It’s style over sub-
stance, the exact opposite of the play.
The wondrous performance is that of the incomparable German actress Hoss, who brilliantly reveals Eileen being drawn to Hedda knowing it will result in her downfall. The two women have an erotic, sizzling chemistry between them. The moment Hoss appears, the audience is drawn to her; that sexy milkmaid dress that almost makes her seem naked is riveting. Hoss’ intelligence can’t stop her from losing her grip, searching for her lost manuscript, but also trying to parse Hedda’s feelings for her. Her relapse is embarrassing yet also freeing, in that she can say whatever she wants. It’s a career best for Hoss, last seen as Cate Blanchett’s orchestra conductor’s lover in “Tar.”
Pooks superbly telegraphs Thea’s realization that she is being overshadowed by Hedda. However, Hoss so commands the screen, we quickly forget about Thea, who fades into the background. All the men are caricatures and exist only to be pawns used by the women for their own purposes.
The dialogue is sharply written with numerous lacerating lines in this talkfest of a film. The ravishing production design and impeccable costumes are flawless, beautifully echoing that time period. The camera follows the constantly-moving Hedda as she floats through her party with the pace rarely letting up, so you never feel bored. It’s gripping but there is an emotional vacuity at its core, so you admire the effort but don’t love it. It’s wildly inventive but too clever for its own good. Yet the thrilling moments make it worthwhile even if the whole isn’t greater than the sum of its parts, sexual hijinks and sabotage taking precedence over the play’s message of the conflict between social expectations and individual freedom/independence.t
www.amazon.com/amazonprime
Tessa Thompson stars as the title character in “Hedda.”
Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios
The mystery of ReQueered Tales solved
by Michael Flanagan
ReQueered Tales is that rarest of things these days: a positive story involving the internet. In 2019, Justene Adamec, Alexander Inglis, and Matt Lubbers-Moore formed the mystery-focused publishing venture after commiserating online about their favorite LGBTQ whodunits and other titles being out of print. It also focuses on literary and horror/sci-fi genres and publishes original releases.
Having been around for six years now, the publishing house came about over the internet. Adamec, a straight ally; Inglis and Lubbers-Moore, who are LGBTQ, have never met in person. I asked Inglis about this and he replied, “I think we did a Zoom call once. None of us has met the other in person. Welcome to 21st century entrepreneurship.”
The most recent group of releases of 14 titles includes “Strachey’s Folly” from Richard Stevenson (1938-2022), “Secret Dangers/Lethal Silence” from John Preston (1945-1994), “A Bard on Hercular” by Felice Picano (19442025) and “Faun” by Trebor Healey.
Inglis described highlights among the new releases.
“We have three new titles of special merit: Vincent Virga’s ‘Gaywyck,’ the first gay gothic romance published and unavailable in a mainstream edition since the collapse of Alyson Publications in 2009. The original Avon release in 1980 sold more than 100,000 copies. Our new edition contains a foreword by Damon Suede,” Inglis said, referring to the gay romance author.
Also available, said Inglis, are Joseph Hansen’s novels not connected to his groundbreaking Dave Brandstetter series, including “Backtrack.” In the coming of age story a young man tracks down his murdered gay father, a B class Hollywood film star, with elements of Cornell Woolrich’s “Rear Window.”
“And especially relevant in today’s political climate, the first paperback release of Lev Raphael’s ‘Assault on a Deadly Lie,’ book eight in his Nick Hoff-
clear to him and to the show’s writers that there was more going on than meets the eye. He was playing more
man series,” said Inglis. “Two tenured gay professors at State University of Michigan come under the cloud of diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and SWAT teams, as wild accusations and a murder turn up on their doorstep.”
I asked Inglis about what guidelines ReQueered Tales uses to select titles for republication.
“We have pursued authors and titles we like, and negotiate their release under ReQueered Tales imprint,” he said.
“Almost everything fits neatly under the umbrella ‘Our Stories in Our Own Words’ – gay men and lesbians writing about their own lived experiences or mirroring them in fiction. An astonishing amount of gay male mystery fiction is written by straight married women; we have left that body of work to others. Nikki Baker and Lauren Wright Douglas represent our two lesbian mystery writers; we’d love to broaden the portfolio but many of the prospective authors understandably want to go with a woman-run feminist press.”
Inglis was surprised by being approached by the late Felice Picano to publish his work. Picano died in March.
“Felice Picano reached out, under the name Christopher Hall, and said he had a few titles available,” Inglis
than just a crazy stalker. Remy had a lot of things going on internally that needed to be unpacked.
“Getting to do that as an actor was such an amazing experience because there’s so much to play,” he said. “Every
said. “When I sorted out who I was talking to I fell on the floor. How is it that ‘Like People in History’ had been out of print for eight or 10 years? That widened our scope to general/literary fiction.” The title, published in 1995, is considered a gay classic.
Given that the majority of their work was mystery and fiction I asked about the expansion to include nonfiction titles like “For the Ferryman” by the late Charles Silverstein (1935-2023).
“Charles approached us about a new edition of his memoir/history,” said Inglis. “It’s a very funny read, also moving about his partner William Bory; Charles had a special role in gay activism, and we were delighted to bring out his work.”
Inglis added that a significant number of ReQueered Tales’ fiction releases reference or center around AIDS; Silverstein’s book, as a reclamation of AIDS-era history, seemed a natural fit, he explained.
Inglis went on to further comment on the expansion.
“Philip Gambone’s set of astonishing interviews ‘Something Inside,’ from around 1990, nicely dovetails with the core area of our releases –1980 to 2000,” Inglis said. “We also reissued Ian Young’s seminal gay bib-
day you’re getting new scripts, and it’s like, oh my God, I’m doing this now, that’s been one of the most exciting things I’ve gotten to do in my career.”
It’s hard not to notice the terrific chemistry between Weissmann and Cone when they’re onscreen together. Weissmann recalled that when the two actors first met, they had a camaraderie and a connection. As their work together on the show progressed they made a real effort to get to know one another, spending time together getting lunch and hanging out.
“I’m really lucky that all the younger people in the cast have built a friends group,” said Weissmann. “We go out and get dinner, and go get drinks. We have so much fun working together but then also hanging out together outside of work. Building that connection, I think, really contributed to our onscreen chemistry, for sure.”
Weissmann said that he couldn’t give away too many spoilers about what may be coming up for Remy and Deke, but he did say that their relationship was going to be put to the test and that they were going to see how strong their love really is.
“I spent a lot of time working on those episodes and thinking about how Remy has come into himself as an individual, his connection with Deke, and what he wants out of it,” he said. “And most importantly, how he gets out of his own way as an openly queer person. He spent so much of his young adult life putting his foot in his mouth, doing things impulsively and not thinking about what’s best for him long term. With this storyline he’s really thinking about where he wants to be in his life and how he goes after that.”
The response from the audience has been uniformly positive. Weissmann has heard from older gay men who have been watching the show for 30 years
his husband in Toronto, if tariffs were an issue for the publishing house and if there were other issues related to the international nature of the enterprise.
“ReQueered Tales is a California General Partnership based in Los Angeles,” Inglis said. “That’s where Justene [Adamec] resides. (She was with Brad Shreve through 150 podcasts of ‘Queer Writers of Crime,’ providing weekly reviews of gay mysteries.) Matt is in Grand Rapids, [Michigan] and is a librarian by training. I happen to be in Toronto and lead production but the whole enterprise is virtual so tariffs don’t enter into it. We are an American outfit with one partner who just happens to live in Toronto.
liography ‘The Male Homosexual in Literature’ (and a new 2020 supplement). And Matt’s [Lubbers-Moore] comprehensive ‘Murder and Mayhem’ gay male mystery bibliography is also a ReQueered Tales original. And I can’t leave out the set of essays from Brian Bouldrey, ‘Good in Bed,’ which is another original release.
“We’ve also extended out to short stories with volumes from Richard Hall, Trebor Healey, Stan Leventhal, and Felice Picano,” Inglis added.
I found it particularly interesting that ReQueered was publishing Grant Michael’s “A Do-Si-Do With Death ” which is a posthumous work found by the author’s estate. I asked how this came about and if there were other similar items.
“We knew the work had been completed and ready for publication,” said Inglis. “Matt was able to track the manuscript down along with the estate holder, allowing us to issue it in ebook and print. In the case of Richard Hall’s ‘The Spinner of Tales,’ the estate had the original, already edited, safely tucked away and offered it up when we inquired about ‘The Butterscotch Prince’ and other work. So, another ReQueered Tales original.” Finally, I asked Inglis, who lives with
and were waiting for a gay character to come on. He’s also heard from younger people who watch the show with their mothers and tell him that the storyline sparked a conversation. He’s delighted to be making people feel seen.
“Representation is more important than ever right now,” he said. “The world is at war against LGBTQ people and having a healthy, complex, queer relationship on daytime television is more vital than ever. And I am so grateful that I get to tell that story as an authentically queer person. Hopefully people can see that and be like wow, these individuals are just as much deserving of love as we are.”
Weissmann, 25, grew up in the Midwest in a religious background.
“I definitely had a lot of baggage going into my teenage life and my young adulthood,” he said. “So, it took me some time for sure to come to terms with who I was and to be able to say my sexuality out loud. It wasn’t until the height of the pandemic in 2020 when I was fully alone in the four walls of my room, I was like, OK, I really got to figure out who I am because life is too short and I
“Matt attends a number of events in Michigan every year where our books are on display for sale,” Inglis added. “In March 2023 I was on a New Orleans Saints & Sinners panel with Felice Picano, Trebor Healey and Erik Andrews-Katz discussing authors who died of AIDS and how their legacy matters. For November 2024, Jeffrey Canton, Jeffrey Round, and I did a talk at Glad Day bookshop for World AIDS Day on a similar vein. And I ran our booth at New York Rainbow Book Fair in May 2025 and participated in the tribute event for Felice Picano.” Inglis said he does have to be careful, however. Canadians are facing increased scrutiny when crossing the U.S. border.
“The only challenge really is the current political situation makes it onerous and potentially threatening for me to cross the border,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to get any easier for 2026.”
ReQueered Tales has done an admirable job of preserving mysteries, fiction, and nonfiction. Their catalogue is worth checking out, both for those interested in the authors and genres they have kept alive and for the upcoming gift-giving season.t
For more information, visit www.requeeredtales.com/
want to live authentically as myself.”
In addition to acting, Weissmann is a published poet. His book of poems is called “Her, Him and I,” and in the book he wrote about his first two romantic relationships and about his relationship with himself.
“There are a couple of other romantic relationships that have snuck in there as well,” he said. “My first relationship with a guy and my first relationship with a woman. The book was written over four years, so there were other things that snuck in as well. It’s just about figuring out who you are as a late teen, early twenty-something, and understanding how to separate your self-worth and another individual giving you that sort of validation. It’s kind of like my journey to independence.”
But acting remains his first love, and his work on “The Bold and the Beautiful” has definitely been noticed. He recently received his first Emmy nomination in the outstanding emerging talent category for the 2025 Daytime Emmys. And though he didn’t win (the award went to his B&B co-star Lily Yamada) he feels that it was a tremendous honor to have been nominated.
“Oh my God, I will never forget the 6 a.m. wake-up of when I got that news,” he said. “It was the best day of my life, it was so exciting. Being on a show like this and getting to really sink my teeth into Remy and his psyche and getting that sort of recognition was the most rewarding thing that could have happened. I’m pumped.”t
“The Bold and the Beautiful” airs weekdays at 12:30 p.m. on KPIXTV. It also streams on Paramount Plus. www.cbs.com www.paramountplus.com
For more information about Christian Weissmann, visit his website, christianweissmann.com
Left to Right: Books by authors Nikki Baker, Vincent Virga, and Ian Young have been published by ReQueered Tales.
<< First gay couple
From page 11
Actor Christian Weissmann plays one half of a gay couple on “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Luke Fontana
From ReQueered Tales
‘Stan and Gus’
by Tim Pfaff
Henry Wiencek’s crisp new dual biography, “Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), portrays an era as much as the working friendship of architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. While it never loses its focus on those two artists, it tells stories of New York’s so-called gilded age (roughly, the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th) whose characters are more numerous than in a Tolstoy novel.
Such as there’s a problem, it lives in the book’s assumption that readers of this dense, action-packed history, which must have a modest target audience, need the author-devised nicknames, Stan and Gus, to keep track of the goings-on. White is most often called Stan and Saint-Gaudens the equally pedestrian Gus. Just not all of the time.
It’s a pressing concern for biographers, but the nickname tactic rarely works. There are occasions in which a sentence about White proposes “Stan” as the subject of the following sentence. Oddly, Gus is used almost exclusively for the more cumbersomely named Saint-Gaudens. Confusion sometimes reigns.
Thinking big
“Saint-Gaudens and White were the first American sculptor and architect to collaborate,” Wiencek declares. Despite being intermittently occupied with small commissions to advance their careers and repair their perilous finances, the two artists at their best worked in grand designs.
White’s achievements include an earlier incarnation of Madison Square Garden (MSG) and, also familiar to non-New Yorkers, the arch in the city’s Washington Square Park. Saint-Gauden’s include the Adams Memorial in Washington, D.C. and a statue of the classical demigoddess Diana that once crowned a White-designed tower atop the colossal MSG and, after the demolition of the first MSG, now rests comfortably in a Philadelphia museum.
Tellingly, the public art and more intimate artistic forms interleave. There may be a familiar present-day ring to Wiencek’s paraphrase of Edith Wharton’s observation in her novel, “The House of Mirth,” “that a Manhattan socialite knows the exact size of a neighbor’s ballroom.” Huge amounts of money change hands in the sagas of the pair’s projects, and a non-specialist
reader may quail at the sums, given in their present-day equivalents as well.
“Nothing could stop Stan from spending,” Wiencek observes, wryly, late in the book. That’s partly due to the earlier picture of Stan as a mostly silent benefactor of his friend Gus, whose money problems were constant and grave.
Although the author sagely skirts any impulse to diagnose his subjects, it’s almost impossible to read the tale without seeing both as bipolar. The “louche” Stan has an effervescent energy that drives him and his work, manically – and drives colleagues of all stripes mad. The sculptor, Gus, “confessed that not a day passed when he didn’t think of taking his own life.”
Among other related problems, his mental instability resulted in his taking on numerous projects at the same time and rarely finishing them by deadline (sometimes by years), if at all.
He was notorious for destroying early stages of his work, often when time did not permit.
The rich are always with us
The pair’s work, individually and together, naturally depended on the kindness of others, mostly manifested by fat commissions. As fascinating as the history of the two artists’ work is, and how central a focus in this book, the reader is likely to be as seduced by the measure of the commissioners’ largesse.
The mega-wealthy (and sometimes the artists they patronized) seem forever to be traveling between the Big Apple and Europe and beyond. The account of White’s being dispatched to Europe to shop tapestries – huge, antique – for what turned out to be a project with no upper financial limits, is in its own way breathtaking.
Why are the affairs of the very rich compelling? They outshine even the most outrageous behaviors of the artists they hire, and it’s telling that today’s readers might recognize their names more easily than those of the artistic staff of this book. We’re not far into the history when we read that White was a partner in the prestigious architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White. The ultra rich left their names on their big public projects more conspicuously than the artists could.
The meaning of friendship
“Among the Gilded Age rich, husbands and wives often led very separate lives,” Wiencek observes late in the book. Both named subjects of this biography were married to women, even if the accounts of those marriages would not feature in bridal magazines. Wiencek leaves little doubt that real passion underlies the men’s connections, and the accounts of their marriages make tamer reading than those of their exploits. It’s long been recognized that in earlier centuries men in intimate relationships, overtly sexual or not, expressed themselves to each other in language we would now regard as patently romantic. However, “A suitable marriage,” whether it was based on love or not, Wiencek observes, “was a social necessity in the worlds they moved in.”
So, what of the intimacy between Stan and Gus? Although both men were genuinely affected by beauty of all sorts – expressly including women, sometimes quite young – their friendship was intermittently romantic and most probably sexual. It’s a pity that Wiencek corrals the relevant information about their intimate relationship in a single chapter midway through
Honoring Marlena at Imperial state funeral
the book, though it certainly makes fascinating reading.
White had a separate affair with the railroad magnate Charles Lang Freer, who introduced him to high-roller public sex exploits. “As for Freer and White,” Wiencek adds, “their escapades were too numerous for repetition.”
A man writing under the pseudonym Earl Lind, later the author of “Autobiography of an Androgyne,” caught the attention of Gus and another of his lovers, Joseph Wells. Lind engaged them with tales of New York’s “houses of assignation” on Fourth Avenue, “which Lind called the androgyne headquarters,” its Paresis Hall “a place where fancy gentlemen went to meet male prostitutes.”
While there was in these times of Oscar Wilde’s trial and jailing across the pond the mocking of new gaggles of effeminate men “belonging to the ‘wealthy and luxurious class’” gathered “openly on the streets had become de rigueur,” Thomas Beer, author of “The Mauve Decade,” a social history of the gilded age, opined that “the odor of ‘whispered orgies’ wafted around White, while Saint-Gaudens got away with everything.” The scandal that ultimately defined White was his being shot – in the face, rather like the late
Dick Cheney and his hunting buddy and Kristi Noem and her recalcitrant puppy – over a relationship “misunderstanding” and by a man named Harry Thaw, in the old Madison Square Garden.
“Stan and Gus” is serious scholarship combined with the love of a good story.
Fact or fiction
The ways of publishing are sometimes eerie. Scottish author Damian Barr has just published his second novel, “The Two Roberts” (Cannongate), about two Scottish artists, Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, whose love and devotion are at the center of this historical fiction. The book is deeply felt in that way that fiction allows and could not come more highly recommended.t
Henry Wiencek, “Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor and Friendship That Built the Gilded Age,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 304 pages, $30, us.macmillan.com/fsg
Damian Barr, “The Two Roberts,” 310 pages, $20, Canongate Books, available in the United States through House of Anansi. tinyurl.com/4ebwaj2e
with Khmera Rouge and Misty Blue behind her. Af-
Bill Wilson Henry Wiencek wrote “Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor and Friendship That Built the Gilded Age.”
Courtesy Straus and Giroux
Damian Barr wrote “The Two Roberts.”
Courtesy Canongate Books
Bob A. Ross (1934 – 2003) was a pioneering American publisher and activist, best known as the co-founder and longtime publisher of Bay Area Reporter (B.A.R.), the nation’s oldest continuously-published LGBTQ+ newspaper.
Born in New York City, Ross moved to San Francisco in 1956, where he worked as a chef before transitioning into publishing. In 1971, he and Paul Bentley launched B.A.R. to provide the gay community with reliable news and information, countering the sensationalism of earlier publications.
The paper quickly gained prominence, serving as a vital resource during the early years of the AIDS epidemic and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Ross’s leadership extended beyond journalism; he was a co-founder of the Tavern Guild, an organization that helped bar employees combat police harassment.
He also served on the Golden Gate Bridge District Board and the San Francisco Ballet Board of Trustees. In 1996, Ross established the Bob Ross Foundation, supporting LGBTQ+ nonprofits. He passed away in 2003, but his legacy endures through the ongoing work of the Bay Area Reporter and the foundation’s contributions to the community.
