October 1st, 2020 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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LGBTQ dist. gets manager

Facebook strikes again

LGBTQ History Month

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The Boys in the Band

The

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

Vol. 50 • No. 40 • October 1-7, 2020

SF supe vows to landmark Noe Valley Lyon-Martin house Courtesy Facebook

Governor Gavin Newsom signed several LGBTQ bills Saturday.

Newsom signs major LGBTQ bills

by Cynthia Laird

G

overnor Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed legislation strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ Californians, including a measure to track the effects of COVID-19 on the community.

The other bills include establishing the Transgender and Wellness Equity Fund and another requiring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to house transgender, gendernonconforming and intersex (TGI) individuals in a manner that matches their gender identity while supporting health and safety.

“California has some of the strongest pro LGBTQ+ laws in the nation and with the bills signed today, our march toward equality takes an additional step forward,” Newsom stated in a September 26 release. “These new laws will help us better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ+ community, establish a new fund to support our transgender sisters and brothers and See page 10 >>

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

San Francisco supervisor has vowed to landmark the home were the late lesbian pioneering couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin lived throughout most of their 54 years together.

During a Zoom call with historic preservationists, friends of the couple, and the women’s daughter held September 24 to discuss designating the house at 651 Duncan Street in the city’s Noe Valley neighborhood as a historic site, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said he would seek granting historic status to the property.

“I do think this is clearly a home of historic value and needs to have that recognized and honored over time. Whatever we can do to help with that effort, we are happy to do,” said Mandelman, who represents Noe Valley at City Hall and is the lone LGBTQ member of the board.

Mandelman legislative aide Jacob Bintliff, a gay man who formerly worked for the city’s planning department, added, “It is something we are very interested in moving forward with and pretty quickly too.”

Tuesday, September 29, Mandelman’s office submitted the necessary resolution to trigger the approval process. It will be taken up by the supervisors’ land use committee in mid-October and, if passed by the full board, then sent to the city’s historic preservation

B.A.R.

ENDORSEMENTS C A L I F O R N I A

GENER AL ELEC TION President / Vice President: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris State Senate Dist. 11: Scott Wiener SF Supervisors District 1: Connie Chan District 3: Aaron Peskin District 5: Dean Preston District 7: Myrna Melgar District 9: Hillary Ronen District 11: Ahsha Safaí SF School Board Mark Sanchez Jenny Lam Michelle Parker Kevine Boggess SF City College Board Shanell Williams Tom Temprano Aliya Chisti Alan Wong BART Board District 9: Bevan Dufty District 7: Lateefah Simon State Assembly (SF) Dist. 17: David Chiu Dist. 19: Phil Ting

State Assembly (Bay Area) Dist. 15: Buffy Wicks Dist. 18: Rob Bonta Dist. 16: Rebecca Bauer-Kahan Dist. 25: Alex Lee Dist. 28: Evan Low State Senate (Other) District 5: Susan Talamantes Eggman District 9: Nancy Skinner District 17: John Laird Congress (Bay Area) Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 3: John Garamendi Dist. 5: Mike Thompson Dist. 10: Josh Harder Dist. 11: Mark DeSaulnier Dist. 12: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 13: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Jackie Speier Dist. 15: Eric Swalwell Dist. 17: Ro Khanna Dist. 18: Anna Eshoo Dist. 19: Zoe Lofgren

Fremont Mayor: Justin Sha San Ramon City Council, Dist. 3: Sameera Rajwade AC Transit, At-Large: Victoria Fierce AC Transit, Ward 1: Ben Fong Livermore City Council, Dist. 3: Brittni Kiick Morgan Hill City Council, Dist.

C: Rene Spring Santa Clara City Council, Dist.

6: Anthony Becker South San Francisco City Council, Dist. 4: James Coleman Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee, Area 4: Ketzal Gomez San Jose-Evergreen Community College Trustee, Area 7: Ali Sapirman Palo Alto Unified School Dist.

Board of Education: Katie Causey SAN FRANCISCO PROPS Yes on: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, RR

JUDGES Alameda County Superior Court CALIFORNIA PROPOSIOffice 2: Mark Fickes TIONS Yes on: Bay Area (Other) 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 25 Oakland City Council, No on: At-Large: Rebecca Kaplan 20, 22, 23, 24 Alameda City Council: Jim Oddie

Remember to vote by Nov. 3!

Rick Gerharter

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman plans to seek city landmark status for the Noe Valley home of late lesbian pioneers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin.

commission for a vote before being sent back for a final vote by the supervisors.

Mike Buhler, president of San Francisco Heritage, said during the virtual meeting that the local preservation group was supportive of seeking city landmark status for the Lyon-Martin house. He noted that one advantage of having a supervisor introduce landmark legislation is it requires the historic preservation commission to make a decision within 90 days.

“This is a uniquely important site,” said Buhler.

After first meeting in Seattle in 1952, Lyon and Martin moved to San Francisco. As recounted in the city’s LGBTQ historic context statement released in 2015, Lyon moved first and found a flat in what is now the Castro district in which Martin moved into on Valentine’s Day 1953.

Two years later they bought the 756 square foot home atop a steep hill in Noe Valley. As Lyon recounted to Shayne E. Watson, a lesbian and architectural historian who co-wrote the See page 10 >>

Queer activists plan week of mourning for COVID-19 victims

by John Ferrannini

A

s the world passes the grim milestone of 1 million COVID-19 deaths – onefifth of them in the United States – activists are moving beyond the statistics to the people affected by planning a week of mourning for the victims.

Kirstin Urquiza, a bisexual San Francisco woman who lost her father to COVID-19 and became nationally recognized after speaking at this year’s Democratic National Convention, is joining forces with longtime gay activist Cleve Jones, the founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, to put together the week of mourning from October 4-11.

Urquiza lost her 65-year-old father, Mark, to COVID-19 on June 30. In an obituary for him, Urquiza cast blame on politicians who refused to “acknowledge the severity of this crisis.”

It was then that the 39-year-old resident of the Richmond district was contacted via Twitter by “someone with the Democratic National Committee,” she told the Bay Area Reporter.

“I did research and saw they were very connected with [Democratic presidential nominee] Vice President Joe Biden,” she said. “That began a conversation to see if it’d be a good fit for me to share my story as part of the convention.”

During her speech, Urquiza discussed how her father, who lived in Arizona, regretted trusting President Donald Trump – who has admitted to downplaying the threat posed by COVID-19 – after he contracted the virus.

“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old,” she said in her remarks. “His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump – and for that

Rick Gerharter

Cleve Jones

he paid with his life.”

Jones, 65, was watching the convention that night.

“I was very moved,” he told the B.A.R. “I’m from Phoenix and this woman’s story about her dad made me want to reach out to her, so I made calls to friends of mine in Arizona to say how moved I was by her.”

To Jones’ surprise, Urquiza “follows me on Facebook, is queer, and lives in San Francisco.”

When Jones was evacuated from his Guerneville home due to wildfires in August, he and Urquiza arranged to meet at the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park.

Jones and Urquiza decided to plan a special time for people to mourn COVID-19’s victims, which grew to a week of mourning when they found similar efforts were already underway planned for early October.

See page 10 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • October 1-7, 2020

Manager hired for Castro LGBTQ district

by John Ferrannini

T

he inaugural manager of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District told the Bay Area Reporter that they are ready to listen to the neighborhood’s

concerns, just as the district finally filled out its advisory board.

“I don’t want to come into this saying ‘I know the answer,’” Tina Valentin Aguirre, 52, who identifies as a genderqueer Latinx person, said in a

n o e m Co o t n w do s g n i r p S m l a P

phone interview. “I need to learn so much in the first few months. I need to learn the concerns of small business owners, nonprofits, and other community stakeholders, as well as community groups who don’t have a space.”

But that doesn’t mean Aguirre isn’t clued into the changes the area has seen since they first moved in over 30 years ago.

“I’ve lived in my flat since 1987,” Aguirre said. “I’ve been a renter since then in the 94114 ZIP code and I’ve seen it change drastically. There’s a lot to celebrate, preserve, and make space for in the Castro and I’m so excited for this work. I think the rents have gone up astronomically, which has changed the culture of the neighborhood.

Who can afford to live here? That’s the biggest thing.”

Aguirre moved into a neighborhood they said was filled with artists and activists who have since been priced out to the East Bay “or farther.”

They said they’ve been lucky enough to be able to stay, and have used that time working for the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, or LYRIC, and the Shanti Project, and serving on the board of the GLBT Historical Society.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael

YES ON

Mandelman told the B.A.R. that he is excited about the choice of Aguirre, who is expected to start the new job October 9. The salary for the full-time job was advertised at between $75,000 and $79,000.

“I have not had a chance to speak with Tina but it seems like a particularly excellent choice,” Mandelman said. “I’ve known Tina for a number of years. They’ve been involved mostly through the historical society. Clearly they’ve been in the community, know the community, know the players, and have a great background.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, the city designated the Castro neighborhood as a cultural district last year. Cultural districts are areas where communities and the city work together through zoning regulations and city planning to safeguard a particular heritage within a specific set of boundaries. One reason for the districts’ existence is to offset some of the effects of gentrification.

San Francisco’s first cultural heritage district was formalized in 2014 in the Mission along 24th street. The Castro is the city’s third specifically LGBTQ cultural district, after the Transgender District in the Tenderloin and the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District in the South of Market

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Courtesy Castro LGBTQ Cultural District

Tina Valentin Aguirre

neighborhood.

The city is also home to SOMA Pilipinas (a Filipino cultural district in the South of Market neighborhood) and the Japantown Cultural Heritage District in the Western Addition.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, the Castro district has been having elections to fill its board of directors intermittently since December.

The final five members of the board were elected September 19: César Cadabes, Carnell Freeman, Corey Fusco, Levi Maxwell, and U. Sacred Mitchell.

The B.A.R. had the opportunity to speak with Aguirre and to correspond with Freeman, Fusco, Maxwell, and Mitchell. All discussed their concern over gentrification, their thoughts on how the Castro can recover from high rents, COVID-19, and racial inequalities in their neighborhood.

Offsetting gentrification

The much-discussed COVID-19 exodus out of San Francisco has brought rent prices to their lowest since at least 2014. Nonetheless, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city is $2,353 according to ApartmentList – which is more than double the national average – and a number of Castro merchants have gone bust since the decline of business due to the pandemic.

Aguirre said they hope to gather information from people in the community and submit it in a report to the mayor’s office.

“I hope that will lead to policies and funding,” Aguirre said.

Freeman’s main proposal is a monthly outdoor block party that would “highlight a specific community and culture,” and would reinvigorate the neighborhood.

“For example, we could do a Black celebration month, a trans month, an Asian month, a circuit month, a youth month, a lesbian month, a Latino month, etc.,” Freeman wrote.

“Each month would focus on those communities and cultures with food vendors, community outreach organizations, and small business owners selling arts and crafts and other items.

And, of course, there will be a stage with performers and speakers. ... I strongly believe we need to make the Castro fun again. If our community members have more reasons to come to the Castro, then businesses, renters and homeowners will want to be there.”

Fusco wrote that one problem the neighborhood faces is that “more folx would rather use what’s in the neighborhood than contribute to it.”

“Castro, in essence, has become this sort of Disneyland for affluent gays and out-of-towners. It’s become a weekend party destination, and the businesses that cater to this can attest to that,” Fusco wrote. “We have lots of late night eats spots, but why not a thrift shop? Or more sober nightlife spots that can include LGBTQ youth?

I hope to work with the city to reconsider zoning regulations to make the See page 5 >>

t

Community News>>

October 1-7, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Bay Area Reporter â&#x20AC;˘ 3

Facebook reinstates historic image of Black trans man

by John FerranniniÂ

F

acebook has reinstated a photo it initially censored of a bare-chested transgender man for allegedly violating its â&#x20AC;&#x153;community standards on nudityâ&#x20AC;? after it was called out by the GLBT Historical Society, but questions remain unanswered about the Menlo Parkbased companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policies. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We posted a historical photo of a bare-chested Black man and it was taken down by Facebook censors, leaving us to speculate about their reasoning,â&#x20AC;? Terry Beswick, the executive director of the society, stated to the Bay Area Reporter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How is that OK? Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next?â&#x20AC;?

On September 3, Facebook censored a post showing a recent acquisition from the societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art and artifacts collection: a shirtless portrait of Zion Johnson, a Black trans man who was president of the Lou Sullivan Society.

On September 29, a Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email to the B.A.R. that the photo has been reinstated. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We mistakenly took down a post from the GLBT Historical Society, and have since restored it and communicated with them directly,â&#x20AC;? Ruchika Budhraja wrote the B.A.R. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They reached out to us about the takedown, but they emailed people who are either no longer with the company or whose roles/responsibilities have shifted, so the right team didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get their message and wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t able to investigate and remedy.â&#x20AC;?

When asked for his response, Beswick said that while thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nice, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not enough. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yes, we got an email a couple hours ago saying exactly that,â&#x20AC;? Beswick said

Courtesy GLBT Historical Society

Facebook removed a photo of Zion Johnson that was posted by the GLBT Historical Society.

in a phone call with the B.A.R. midday September 29. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a coincidence that it was reinstated after we sent out a press release and you started working on a story. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been frustrating for us getting any response from them at all. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a few weeks away from a major national election and if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a real person looking at photos then what the heck is going on?â&#x20AC;? Beswick added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What else is being removed without anyone fighting it? A lot of people wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see it now because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been suppressed and moved down the Timeline, or whatever, but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see a change in policy. What is Facebook doing to help the trans community?â&#x20AC;?

Mark Sawchuk, the communications manager for the society, wrote to the B.A.R. that Facebook initially stated that â&#x20AC;&#x153;due to the COVID situation, [it] no longer has the resources to review all such disagreements and we have no way to appeal the decision.â&#x20AC;?

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • October 1-7, 2020

Volume 50, Number 40 October 1-7, 2020 www.ebar.com

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Support these out Bay Area candidates T

here are a bevy of LGBTQ candidates seeking office in the November 3 election. Some are incumbents while others are challenging the status quo, uplifted by the belief that queer candidates matter, especially in local races, where having a seat at the table can result in tangible improvement not only for LGBTQ folks, but other minorities and straight people. Voters living in cities outside San Francisco should consider the following candidates, all of whom completed the Bay Area Reporter’s candidate questionnaires for their races.

AC Transit AtLarge, Victoria Fierce

A queer trans woman and regular AC Transit rider, Victoria Fierce said she is running because she wants a transit agency that works for everyone, Victoria Fierce not just the few. Ridership in Alameda and Contra Costa counties has plunged due to the pandemic, and the board will need to address a budget deficit and service plan going forward. “We need leadership that ensures the district won’t just survive the COVID pandemic, rather, we need leadership that can guarantee it will thrive once we’re out on the other side,” she wrote.

AC Transit doesn’t have its own police force; it contracts with the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office for security services. Fierce supports that arrangement, although she wants to reduce the number of police encounters, both to demonstrate how more can be done with less policing and as a means to lower billable hours accrued on the contract. One way to do this during the pandemic is to have AC Transit provide masks to riders who don’t have them, similar to BART’s policy, rather than have police enforce the requirement for all passengers.

“In doing this, they’re providing people with the means to comply with the mandate; it takes away the common ‘I forgot it at home’ excuse ... and doesn’t penalize those who happen to have bad luck at the time.”

Fierce, a community organizer and one of the original founders of East Bay for Everyone, which has more than 2,000 members, would bring a vision for improved public transit to an agency that needs it. That includes putting Black, Brown, and LGBTQ people in positions of power and supporting small businesses by tapping the bus rapid transit business support fund within the agency’s bureaucracy. There are millions of dollars left after street improvements for bus rapid transit, she wrote, and the money can be redirected to support local businesses that were already struggling before the rapid system opened.

Fierce has an uphill fight running against a longtime incumbent. But she’s qualified and voters should give her an opportunity to serve.

AC Transit, Ward 1: Ben Fong

Ben Fong also rides AC Transit regularly.

A gay man and UC Berkeley and Stanford educated transportation professional, Fong would bring his expertise to the board. Fong Ben Fong served on the Berkeley Planning Commission for several years, and helped redesign the Adeline Corridor, implemented transit demand management measures incentivizing public transit, and worked on behalf of Berkeley’s underserved communities. He noted in his questionnaire that people of color make up three-quarters of AC Transit’s riders and decried potential service cuts to balance the budget that would impact low-income communities. AC Transit’s current budget of $474 million is largely funded through property taxes, passenger fares, and sales tax subsidies. Fong would like to explore long-term funding sources and increase coordination with the 27 other transit operators that serve the Bay Area. A former Foreign Service official in the Obama administration, Fong’s record of public service and his experience with public planning policy would be a great asset to AC Transit.

Morgan Hill City Council, Dist. C: Rene Spring

A gay man who has served on the Morgan Hill City Council since 2016, Rene Spring is seeking reelection. One of Santa Clara County’s few out elected offiRene Spring cials, Spring has pushed to enhance diversity among city commissions and staff, as well as support small businesses. He is in favor of extending an eviction moratorium in his city because of COVID if the county doesn’t extend its own. On policing, Spring wrote that the city has begun a community conversation about reforming its police department and policies, with the goal of improving services to homeless and mentally ill residents. Spring has done a good job during his first term; he should be reelected.

Livermore City Council, Dist. 3: Brittni Kiick

Brittni Kiick, a queer bisexual woman, is making her first run at elective office and serves as Brittni Kiick direc tor of engagement and education for Livermore Pride, which got involved in a dustup earlier this year over an anti-LGBTQ operator at a farmers market there. On the creation of middle class housing, Kiick wrote that the city “just started allowing new builds of apartments for the first time in years.” She said the city needs to continue encouraging similar projects with smaller affordable units, rezone small lots, and allow more duplexes. Small businesses in the East Bay city have been hit hard by COVID, and right after the shutdown Kiick worked to create a small business support group and collaborated with a friend to create promotional videos. Kiick’s ambitions for her community would be beneficial to the City Council.

Santa Clara City Council, Dist. 6: Anthony Becker

Anthony Becker, a gay man, is a Santa Clara planning commissioner.

He was not successful in previous races for mayor and City Council. He is a working-class renter and Anthony Becker wrote that this representation is missing from the council. He stated that he understands the “great need for middle income housing, even low-income housing” in his city. He would like to see more representation by people of color on city commissions – he’s the only LGBTQ person in years on the planning body – and stated that if elected, he would select a woman of color to replace him and work with the City Council to approve her. Santa Clara needs voices like Becker’s on its City Council.

South San Francisco City Council, Dist. 4: James Coleman

A bi man, James Coleman is an environmental advocate who would be the youngest, at 21, and first openly LGBTQ person elected James Coleman to the council. He is attending Harvard University, and plans to graduate next spring. Coleman pointed out that South San Francisco has had its share of officer-involved shootings, including the death of 15-year-old Derrick Gaines by a South San Francisco police officer who remains on the force. Coleman favors redirecting a portion of the police department’s budget toward better officer training, local programs for homelessness, mental health assistance, and domestic violence relief. He also supports forming an alternative group of first responders to attend to non-violent calls for assistance. On housing, Coleman

pointed out that LGBTQs represent 40% of the youth homeless population and queer adults face potential discrimination from landlords and employers that could impact their livelihoods. He backs ending exclusionary zoning and upzoning areas around the city. Coleman would add a new, young perspective to the City Council.

Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee, Area 4: Ketzal Gomez

Ketzal Gomez is an Indigenous queer woman who responded that she understands “the multi-layered issues our communities Ketzal Gomez face.” A graduate of public schools, Gomez works with the Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Policy, where she addresses issues in leadership and the justice system that affects women and girls. Regarding that system, Gomez wrote that defunding police at the school board level would include removing resource officers on school campuses. She would advocate moving that funding to mental health resources for students. It’s trickier at the Board of Education level, she noted, because that body oversees juvenile hall and the Ranch (a long-term incarceration facility). Still, she would push for the complete closure of juvenile hall, as San Francisco had, and allocate that funding for diversion programming that is culturally and gender specific. Gomez also thinks it’s important to encourage Black, Brown, and LGBTQ participation on advisory bodies. “I know the importance of building a pipeline to leadership which includes support when these individuals get appointed,” she wrote. Gomez would be a committed advocate for improving education for all students on the county board.

San Jose-Evergreen Community College Trustee, Area 7: Ali Sapirman

A queer nonbinary person, Ali Sapirman would make history if elected to the community college seat. A Ali Sapirman recent college graduate, they have applied their experience to champion education policy for students, faculty, and staff.

They initiated a successful campaign to fund affordable housing and facilities improvements for Foothill and De Anza colleges. They wrote that the college district had already voted to defund its police department, and that the decision is “a crucial step toward helping Black students, other students of color, and the LGBTQ community feel safe on campus, and more broadly shows them that the district stands by them.” Sapirman has the enthusiasm and the experience to be a good fit for the district.

Palo Alto Unified School District Board: Katie Causey

A bisexual woman, Katie Causey was educated in Palo Alto public schools and believes she is the first member of the LGBTQ comKatie Causey munity to run as an out candidate in any Palo Alto election. She has watched or attended school board meetings for the last year in preparation and wrote that she brings a focus “on creating intersectional solutions in schools and communities that means no one is left behind because of their race, class, gender, orientation, or ability.” Causey favors redirecting police funding for crisis intervention counselors and teams, working with Black mental health professionals, and other mental health professionals from marginalized communities to help redesign crisis response so that the foundation for public safety is accessible and readily available. Causey would add a fresh perspective to the school board. t

Politics >>

t From Harvard, bi candidate seeks South SF council seat

October 1-7, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills

by Matthew S. Bajko

O

ver Labor Day weekend James Coleman returned to Harvard to pursue his degree in human developmental and regenerative biology with a minor in government. He expects to graduate in May. In between his studies at the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, Coleman is waging a campaign for a seat on the South San Francisco City Council. Should Coleman, 21, be elected to the council’s newly created District 4 seat, he would be the youngest person serving on it. And Coleman, who is bisexual, would be the first out LGBTQ council member in his hometown.

He will be watching polling results come in from New England, as Coleman won’t be back in California until close to Thanksgiving.

“I am here to finish my thesis and get some experiments done. I am working in the neuro science lab at Mass General,” Coleman told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview from his dorm room.

While mounting a virtual bid for local office from a different state would likely have raised eyebrows in any other year, Coleman’s doing so this fall is occurring during a global pandemic that has upended campaigning for candidates all across the country. The health crisis brought on by COVID-19 has curtailed most face-to-face political events and campaign tactics.

“It all works out in a weird way. I wouldn’t be knocking on doors and talking to voters in person anyway,” noted Coleman.

“Even when I was back there, I wasn’t talking to people; I was making phone calls and sending texts. There really is no face-to-face interaction.”

Due to the health crisis, Harvard shut down its campus in March, and Coleman returned home to live with his mom. She emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. and at first lived in Ohio, where his father, who was white, was from.

His parents moved to the Golden State shortly after having Coleman, who is an only child. His dad, who died in 2015, had worked for FedEx and became paralyzed from the waist down due to an accident. His injury led Coleman to seek a career in the neurosciences, and he plans to pursue a job in the stem cell or biotech field next year.

“I want to try to figure out how people can regenerate and heal,” he said.

Coleman is one of more than 50 out LGBTQ candidates running for local office in the Bay Area this November. Like Coleman, many are young people of color who identify as part of the BTQ portion of the com-

<<

Castro LGBTQ district

From page 2

Castro not the rainbow amusement park that it’s being played off as, but a center of diverse and beautiful people and businesses that people want to invest in.”

Maxwell wrote that “forming collectives, rebranding and working with the force that is queer nightlife and queer nightlife entertainment can mitigate some of the challenges we face.”

“I believe the best way we increase traffic and have a surge of new energy is to support the next generation of people who historically have not been present as business owners in the neighborhood,” Maxwell stated.

Mitchell wrote that “community advocates, leaders, and business own-

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munity’s acronym and were inspired to seek public office after participating in the protests this year against police killings of Black people.

In May, Coleman became active with CHANGE SSF, short for the Coalition of Hope and Action Necessary for Growth and EmpowermentSouth San Francisco. It has been pushing the city to reallocate police funding toward more social services and other community needs but has been disappointed by the city council’s response.

“We need more momentous change to meet the time we are in,” said Coleman, who also wants the city to take bolder actions to address climate change and a lack of affordable housing. “If I am elected, I will push the City Council to adopt the many issues I am trying to champion in this city.”

Involved in local politics since high school and while in college, Coleman decided to enter the council race since no one else had announced they would run against incumbent councilman and current mayor Richard Garbarino, who grew up in San Francisco and used to work for SF State. He and councilman Mark Nagales are the first of the council’s five members to run in district elections; the other three will need to do so in 2022.

Nagales is running unopposed, while Garbarino is seeking his fifth four-year term having been first appointed to a vacancy on the City Council in December 2002. Since it isn’t a citywide race, Coleman told the B.A.R. he felt he had a chance of winning a district-based seat against a sitting council member.

“This is the first time this City Council election is going to be by district rather than by at-large. You are dealing with a fifth of the voter base than you regularly would,” noted Coleman. “It makes this race a lot more affordable and accessible to candidates such as myself.” ers” should join with the Castro/ Upper Market Community Benefit District and health care professionals to “brainstorm cost-effective and creative solutions that could ensure the survival of the current small businesses in the Castro neighborhood, bring in new ones to fill vacant commercial spaces and, furthermore, keep out big chains or corporations who seek to do business without fulfilling any sort of social responsibility to the area.”

Recovering from COVID-19

Aguirre was pleased at the fact that “some permitting issues are being eased up,” due to Mandelman’s efforts, to allow businesses to operate in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But more than that, I need to ask ‘what are the possibilities?’ Aguirre

As of September 19 Garbarino reported raising $11,797 this year and was sitting on $17,153 to spend on his reelection effort, according to his latest financial filing. Coleman reported he had raised $10,543 as of that date and had $6,288 to spend, though his campaign told the B.A.R. he has since netted more than $12,000 in total donations after officially entering the race in August.

“I am glad people are taking my campaign seriously. Just being so young, that is the biggest danger that people don’t take your campaign seriously,” said Coleman. “I am running a serious campaign and fundraising very well.”

Coleman’s ability to not only raise money but also garner a host of endorsements, such as from fellow Harvard alum gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) who represents South San Francisco, led to the LGBTQ Victory Fund endorsing his campaign last week.

“James’ commitment and collaborative approach to smart public policy that addresses the real concerns of constituents makes him the best candidate for District 4. When he wins in November, James will become a vital LGBTQ voice,” stated Annise Parker, the national organization’s president & CEO. To learn more about Coleman’s campaign, visit https://james4ssf. com/.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on San Francisco’s push to have residents fill out their census forms.

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said. “My hunch is that many investors in the community will be able to step up support and if we could secure that it would help with this challenge.”

Freeman stated the monthly block party would help businesses and organizations recover after the pandemic and “help bring business back to the Castro.”

Maxwell wrote that the pandemic presents an opportunity for the neighborhood to recognize what it already has.

“Due to COVID, the neighborhood cannot expect the revenue that tourists once brought, but if the neighborhood can get behind seeing who all are still here and are willing to invest in this space; time, intention and a coin or two, with some guidance, an era can come about that can

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • October 1-7, 2020

t

SF cannabis coffee pioneers head to Colorado

by Sari Staver

in Colorado, hoping the change will enable them to rebuild and expand Somatik, their artisan infused cold brew coffee and chocolate brand.

“I’d say we are transforming the

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business,” said co-owner Chris Schroopments in their four-year journey in eder, who launched the brand in 2016 the cannabis business, Schroeder said. gay couple who were early piowith partner (in business and in life) Prior to the passage of Proposineers in the cannabis edibles Clayton Coker, a Stanford-trained tion 64, which legalized adult use of business are moving to a small town scientist with a background in genetcannabis in 2016, Somatik was sold ics. Schroeder previously worked for in dozens of dispensaries around the a number of Bay Area companies bestate as medical marijuana, which was fore founding Somatik in 2016. legal under 1996’s Proposition 215. space saving Somatik’s infused-coffee products “We were so well received by dispenf urniture are made using the popular San Fransary buyers that we may have become cisco brand Ritual, which has retail overly optimistic about the potential locations in the city. The one in the of the business,” he explained.

Castro, located at the corner of 16th But once recreational cannabis was Sari Staver and Market streets, announced its cloapproved, many of the Somatik venSomatik co-owner Chris Schroeder sure last month. dors closed down, unable to obtain Somatik products will still be availa license to operate under the new able in a number of Bay Area dispenlaw. The company downsized while thinks it struck an especially rough saries, including the Apothecarium, Schroeder and Coker plotted a new blow to the cannabis industry.

Sava (online), and Harborside. path.

The pandemic has not only kept “We’re going to miss our life in San Just as the company was solving people at home, but also probably Francisco,” said Schroeder, a Bay Area a series of technical problems facing has discouraged many new users native, “but this isn’t goodbye.” all manufactures under the stringent from experimenting with cannabis, The couple are relocating to Paregulations of Proposition 16, includhe speculated. gosa Springs. They plan to return to ing expensive changes in labeling, the “It’s a social activity. Many people San Francisco every other month to pandemic hurt sales in the industry. enjoy cannabis with a friend,” he added. maintain their business, and will con“We came close to calling it quits a Looking back on the experience of Open Saturday sider moving back to California in the few times,” said Schroeder. “But botlaunching a cannabis business, SchroNoon-5pm and future, perhaps to Santa Rosa, where tom line is we feel that producing a eder said, “While the result of running by appointment their packaging facility is located, or high-quality cannabis product is our a cannabis business is very positive,” somewhere else less expensive than way of making a contribution” in the day-to-day tasks running a small Visit our Showroom 415.822.0184 the city. these difficult times. Available Below Market Rate (BMR) Rental Apartments business “are not really a lot of fun.”

1355 Fitzgerald Ave, SF www.roomax.com The decisionCity to move was the most Schroeder discovered medical canInitially, said Schroeder, as the Common Gardens 333 12th St, San Francisco, CA 94103 recent in a series of unexpected develnabis while recuperating from an inproducts were greeted enthusiastiPlatform Storage Beds • Closet Systems • Armoires • Home Office • Dressers 14 2 bedroom rental units available at $1,585 per month jury and while concocting their cold cally by dispensary buyers, “we might brew, discovered that a small in 13 4 bedroom rental units available at $1,903 perdose month have gotten overly optimistic” about the morning, and another mid-afterthe potential of the business.

Below Market Rate (BMR) Rental Apartments Available noon, “gave me just the lift I needed,” Below Market Rate (BMR) Rental Apartments “Our partnership with Ritual has Common City Gardens 333 12th St, San Francisco, CAmust 94103 Must be income eligibleAvailable and not own a home. Households must earn more than the maximum he said. As the workday windsno down, been fantastic,” said Schroeder of Common City Gardens 333 12th St, San Francisco, CA 94103 income levels below: Schroeder said he typically enjoys 5 the 14-year-old San Francisco coffee mg. of Somatik, which brings on a startup. “That was one of the things 14 2-bedroom rental units available at $1,585 per month 14 2 bedroom rental units available at $1,585 per month “feeling of relaxation with a clear euwe definitely did correctly.”

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Schroeder thinks the Colorado One person - $45,600; 2 persons - $52,100; 3 persons - “You $58,600; 4 persons - $65,100; 5 persons- $70,300 can definitely still get some market may be ripe for Somatik prodwork done, but you’re more relaxed,” Must be income eligible and must not own a home. Households must earn ucts. “A town of 2,000 people might Must be income eligible and must not own a home. Households must earn he added. While most edibles don’t no more than the maximum income levels below: have two dispensaries,” he said. “They no more than the maximum income levels below: take effect for up to 45 minutes, were earlier legalizing cannabis and Applications must be submitted online at h ​ ttp://housing.sfgov.org​ due to Covid-19.

Paper Schroeder said the typical user of 55% of Area Median Income are still ahead of California.” applications will- not be accepted due to Covid-10 state emergency Public Health Order.

Somatik feelsofthe effects in oneOne person - $45,600; 2 persons - $52,100; 3 persons $58,600; “Cutting down our expenses 55% of Area Median Income the time. histories will be considered.

4 persons - $65,100; 5 persons$70,300 Applications of qualified applicants with third conviction will give us a breather and 2 persons - $56,400; 3 persons - $63,400; 4 persons - $70,450; In the four years Somatik time to see what new prodhas been in the marketplace, Applications must be submitted online at http://housing.sfgov.org due to Covid-19.

Paper ucts we might add,” said 5 persons- $76,100; 6 persons$81,750; 7 persons$87,350; Applications versions can be downloaded from ​http://housing.sfgov.org​ of the a number of other infused-or picked up from one applications will not be accepted due to Covid-10 state of emergency Public Health Order.

Schroeder. “We still feel 8 persons$93,000; ; 9 persons – $98,650 coffee products have come housing counseling agencies listed at h ​ ttp://housing.sfgov.org/housing-counselors strongly about Somatik.”

Applications of qualified applicants with conviction histories will be considered. and gone, he said. “It was “Our goal is the same more difficult than anas it has always been: to Applications versions can be downloaded from http://housing.sfgov.org or Applications must be received by 5pm on October 29, 2020. Apply online Lottery ticipated” to manufacture continue building a compicked up from one of thehousing counseling agencies listed at through DAHLIA, the SF Housing – housing.sfgov.org.

DuePortal to the Covid-19 state of emergency Public Health andofapeople who are the Order, product the at a Lottery price will be held virtually, munity http://housing.sfgov.org/housing-counselors point high enough to recording will be made available to the public. interested in integrating cover costs and make a cannabis into their lives,” For more information contactLottery Common leasing at (415) 862-2331 small profit. Four-ounce he said. “If we can transDue to the Covid-19 state of emergency Public Health Order, For more information contact Common 862 - 2331 or admissions@common.com bottles, leasing with 10 at mg(415) of form the business to the the Lottery will be held virtually, and arecording will be made available to the public.

THC, were priced between $8-$10. point where it is self sustaining, we Theofcompany hadand to lay off its will consider it a success.”

Units available through the San Francisco Mayor’s Office Housing Community Development and t Units available through the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and the For more information contact Common leasing at (415) 862 - 2331.

Units available through team of five employees and close its SanCommunity Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and are Community andare subjectrestrictions. to Development are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. subjectDevelopment to monitoring and other Visit ​www.sfmohcd.org​ for program information. manufacturing facility; it now shares a Bay Area Cannasseur runs monitoring andVisit other restrictions. Visit www.sfmohcd.org for program information. www.sfmohcd.org for program information. facility with another company. While monthly. To send column ideas or pandemic-related business closures tips, email Sari Staver at sfsari@ affected many companies, Schroeder gmail.com.

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Community News>>

October 1-7, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Leaders of LGBTQ orgs to step down compiled by Cynthia Laird

LGBT center’s Soiree moves online

T

he leaders to two LGBTQ organizations – one national and one in Los Angeles – have announced they are stepping down, creating an opportunity for new talent at the top.

Lorri Jean, the longtime CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, will retire in July 2022, the nonprofit said in a news release September 21.

Rea Carey, the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, announced two days later that she was stepping down in early 2021.

Both women are lesbians and Jean once helmed the task force in between stints leading the LA center. Carey has led the task force since 2008.

The LA center has begun a search for Jean’s successor.

The task force board announced that Kierra Johnson, a bisexual Black woman who has served as deputy executive director, will take over the top job in February.

Jean will have led the center for more than 25 years when she leaves.

She stated that she has thought of retiring for a while.

“Right now, my primary focus is helping our center get through this pandemic and the relentless attacks by the Trump administration,” she added. “In fact, the current challenges reinforce how important it is to help prepare this organization for a successful future.”

Board co-chairs Susan Feniger and David Bailey wrote in a letter to donors that they have “put years of thought into preparing for this transition.”

“We’ve been fortunate to have a strong leader for so long, and now we must prepare for the next chapter,” they added.

To that end, the center plans a lengthy transition process. The new candidate is expected to start as executive director next May and will work with Jean and senior staff for just over a year before assuming the title of CEO. The board noted the reason for this is the center’s complexity – it provides many services, from health care to housing – and the transition will provide time for the new person to establish indepth knowledge about the center’s programs, and its multiple locations in Hollywood, South Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Koreatown, and West Hollywood.

Along with the center’s board of directors, national firm Koya Leadership Partners will help lead the search.

People can go to http://www.lalgbtcenter.org/ceosearch to learn more about the process.

Regarding the task force, Carey stated leading the progressive organization has been “a remarkable ride.”

“We have faced down many obstacles together and made tangible progress for LGBTQ people and our families,” she stated. “Together, we have fought to love who we want to love, for sexual freedom, to be free of violence and oppression in all its forms, to be seen, valued, and celebrated as fully human.”

Carey added that Johnson is the best person to lead the task force going forward. Johnson stated that she is “thrilled to join the long legacy” of activist leaders at the organization.

“I am inspired by the multitudes of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people that have unapologetically claimed space, power, and influence to make change so desperately needed for our communities,” Johnson stated.

The task force is perhaps best known for its Creating Change conference. Next year’s event will take place virtually January 27-31. A preconference online Queering Racial Justice Institute is set for Saturday,

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center’s annual Soiree fundraiser, postponed from this spring due to the pandemic, will take place virtually Saturday, October 10, at 6 p.m. Pacific Time at https://app.mobilecause. com/e/b4FW9A?vid=c3m76.

No registration is required.

Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will serve as emcee, while Juanita MORE! and LadyRyan return as entertainment director and party DJ, respectively.

The center’s silent auction is back, and people can start bidding now at https:// app.galabid.com/soiree2020/items.

Castro Country Club benefit to be virtual

Courtesy Task Force/LA LGBT Center

National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey, left, and LA LGBT Center CEO Lorri Jean have each announced they’re stepping down after years of leading their respective organizations.

October 10, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. For more information, visit https://www. thetaskforce.org/qrj.html.

GLBT history museum set to reopen

Just in time for LGBTQ History Month, the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro will reopen to members Thursday, October 1, and to the public Saturday, October 3.

The small San Francisco museum has been closed for six months due to the pandemic.

The museum will be open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. Staff stated in an email that new ticketing and visitor policies have been adopted to comply with city and state health regulations and ensure proper social distancing. Visitors must reserve their tickets online in advance; the museum will not be able to accommodate walk-ins at this time. Tickets will be timed at hourly intervals, with the number of visitors capped at five people per hour. Daily museum attendance will be limited to 25% of total capacity.

“The GLBT Historical Society Museum has implemented extensive cleaning procedures to ensure visitor safety, including hourly cleanings on open days and additional cleaning on days when the museum is closed,” the email stated. “Hand-sanitizing stations are available for visitors, who are required to wear face coverings or masks at all times during their visit.”

Ticket prices for the museum remain unchanged. General admission is $10; discounted admission for youth (ages 13 to 17), seniors (age 65 and over), students, teachers, activeduty military service members, and people with disabilities is $6; and admission is free for children (age 12 and under), GLBT Historical Society members, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cardholders and North American Reciprocal Museum members. Thanks to a grant from the Bob Ross Foundation, admission on the first Tuesday of each month is free. Admission is also free for Bay Area residents on Saturdays.

The first stand-alone museum of LGBTQ history in the United States, the GLBT Historical Society Museum, at 4127 18th Street, opened its doors to the public in 2011 and welcomes over 20,000 visitors annually.

For more information, visit http:// www.glbthistory.org.

Stryker heads to Mills College

Susan Stryker, a trans woman and leading academic in the field of transgender studies, has been hired as the

new Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership at Mills College in Oakland.

The two-year faculty appointment is held jointly within the school’s history and race and gender and sexuality studies departments and recognizes scholars who have exhibited thought leadership and courage in their fields, a news release stated.

Stryker will spearhead Mills’ Trans Studies Speaker Series.

Stryker received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and completed her postdoctoral research at Stanford. Prior to her position at Mills, Stryker held appointments at Harvard, Yale, UC Santa Cruz, and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Most recently, she served as professor emerita of gender and women’s studies at the

University of Arizona.

Also a longtime award-winning activist, author, and filmmaker, Stryker is co-founder of direct-action activist group Transgender Nation and a past executive director of the GLBT Historical Society. She was co-director, with Victor Silverman, of “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria” (2005). More recently, she served as a consultant on Netflix’s “Disclosure: Trans Lives Onscreen” directed by Sam Feder and produced by Laverne Cox. The film premiered on the streaming service earlier this year.

The distinguished chair was created to honor Mills alum and longtime Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D).

“Resilience” is the theme of this year’s benefit for the Castro Country Club, which will be held online due to the pandemic Wednesday, October 14, at 7 p.m.

The country club is a nonprofit sober space at 4058 18th Street in the heart of the LGBTQ neighborhood.

Usually known as the Harvest Feast, this year’s event will be different, staff noted in an email sent to supporters.

“Storytelling, interviews, and community testimonials will remind us that the CCC has been changing lives for 37 years,” the email stated.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will receive the center’s Dan Cusick 2020 Service Award, while Timothy Blaine will receive the Stuart M. Smith 2020 Legacy Award.

Drag artist Peaches Christ will provide entertainment, along with a “mystery” performer, according to the website.

An online auction goes live Wednesday, October 7. For more information, go to https://app.mobilecause.com/e/_vHPCg?vid=c3moc.t

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<< LGBTQ History Month

8 • Bay Area Reporter • October 1-7, 2020

Silicon Valley LGBTQ history website goes live

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9/18/20 12:10 PM

hirty-five years prior to the killings of Black Americans in recent months by police officers across the country, the shooting death of Melvin Truss by a San Jose police officer outraged and galvanized the LGBTQ community in Santa Clara County.

The police department’s describing the 17-year-old Truss as a transvestite because he was dressed in women’s clothing was denounced, while Truss’ family disputed the officer’s narrative of what happened the night of May 4, 1985.

As is so often the case in officerinvolved shootings, no charges were filed against the officer. But the incident did result in San Jose city officials requiring police officers be taught about LGBTQ people.

Truss isn’t a widely known figure within the LGBTQ community, whether in the Bay Area or nationally. But that is likely to change, as his story is prominently featured on a new website documenting the last five decades of LGBTQ history in Silicon Valley.

The site – http://www.queersiliconvalley.org – is debuting ahead of LGBTQ History Month in October. The virtual Queer Silicon Valley exhibition includes archival documents, personal narratives, photographs, interviews, and videos of the LGBTQ+ community in Santa Clara County.

“Probably 95% of gay people living down here don’t know any of this.

I felt a responsibility to tell them as much as we could, ” gay former Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, director of the online exhibition, told the Bay Area Reporter.

Yeager provided the B.A.R. with an exclusive look at the website before its official unveiling to the public. The BAYMEC Community Foundation, which Yeager oversees as its executive director, used a portion of a $60,000 grant from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors it received this year to produce it.

The Queer Silicon Valley website is organized by topic, such as “Politics & Activism,” “Culture & Community,” and “LGBTQ+ in Tech.” The story of Truss’ murder can be found under “Crime,” along with that of Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen killed in 2002 in the southern Alameda County city of Newark.

There are also dedicated pages for the South Bay’s LGBTQ nightlife scene over the years, its Latinx community, and the transgender community. Also highlighted are a number of LGBTQ periodicals that covered the region and the defunct women’s bookstore and coffeehouse Sisterspirit.

A timeline offers a quick entry point to the history covered on the website, with links to more detailed pages that people can click on to dive deeper into individual topics, groups, and events. The website’s wealth of information about the birth and growth of the LGBTQ community in San Jose and the surrounding cities will take at least 24 hours to fully digest estimated Yeager, who now teaches about local government at San Jose State University.

“We went out of our way on some of these important stories to tell them as comprehensively as we could,” said Yeager.

It remains a work in progress, he noted, to be expanded with new information and developments going forward. People are encouraged to leave comments or corrections about the content on the site.

‘A starting point’

“I see this as a starting point in recording the rich history that exists

Courtesy Queer Silicon Valley

ProLatino members marching in the San Jose Pride parade.

Courtesy Ted Sahl Archives at SJSU.

A photograph of the BAYMEC group fighting against California Proposition 64, which would have quarantined AIDS patients, and its author Lyndon LaRouche, in 1986. The initiative was defeated.

in Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley,” said Yeager. “I wanted to start documenting the LGBTQ+ movement while many of our elders are still around. It’s not nearly complete. That is why I encourage people to contact the BAYMEC foundation so we can add more material and stories to the exhibit.”

Yeager has been a pioneering figure in the development of the South Bay’s LGBTQ community, having been the first openly gay member on the county board. He also was the first openly gay official in the county, having won a local community college board seat in 1992, and the first to serve on the San Jose City Council.

The new website has a dedicated page about Santa Clara County’s out elected officials to date – it includes 11 people – and is likely to need updating after the November 3 election. There are at least 16 out candidates running for public office this fall in the county.

Much of the archival material used for the website comes from Yeager’s own personal trove of records, including the interviews he conducted for his 1999 book “Trailblazers: Profiles of America’s Gay and Lesbian Elected Officials.” He had told the B.A.R. in 2017 that he planned to donate his papers to the San Jose Public Library’s California Room, the system’s repository for local history.

The idea at the time, he said, was for his collection to be a part of a South Bay LGBTQ Archive housed at the library, since it already has several collections about local LGBTQ history. But that did not come to fruition, and his archive of papers and other materials has remained housed in the garage of his San Jose home.

“I might add it is a very good-looking garage,” Yeager quipped.

As it turned out, having easy access

to the records was not only beneficial for the creation of the new website but also for several booklets Yeager wrote in 2018 during his final year in office on the history of LGBTQ politics in Santa Clara County and the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South Bay. Those works were then incorporated into the corresponding sections on the website.

“It made it easy to look up any dates, old memos, and any old newspapers I had since it is all in my garage,” said Yeager.

Featured on the website are stories about 35 past and present LGBTQ organizations including that of BAYMEC, the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee founded in 1984

by Yeager and others to help elect out candidates in four South Bay counties as well as straight allies of the LGBTQ community.

“Now that we have the website, what we want to do next is do a physical exhibit in a museum. I also want to write a book about this,” said Yeager.

Since it no longer appears that the San Jose public library will serve as a repository for LGBTQ archival material from the region, Yeager told the B.A.R. that the community might form its own history center. It would mirror the LGBTQ archives and museum in San Francisco overseen by the GLBT Historical Society.

“It would be great at one point to have an office where people could leave or contribute their collection to the foundation’s,” he said. “We could have an office and an archive down here. We will see what level of interest there is in this website and in creating a permanent site down here. We would create one separate from what is at the library.” t

LGBTQ History Month>>

t Gay raid in Waco mostly lost from LGBTQ history

by Brandon Wolf

O

n Saturday, April 11, 1953, nearly 70 gay men packed into a small four-room house at 2117 South 19th Street in Waco, Texas, about 10 blocks from Baylor University. David Owen, a ministerial student at the Baptist school, had invited the men to attend the gathering, which was billed as an “interstate convention” that would culminate in a mock wedding ceremony for two men, one of whom would dress in drag as the bride.

The guests were watching a floor show while sipping on beer, wine, and champagne. The bride was dressed for the event, and an ordained minister waited to officiate. Suddenly, the doors opened, the windows were blocked, and Waco police officers, assisted by a state trooper, arrested everyone.

The men were booked into the city jail for “vagrancy” violations, and each posted a $25 bond to be released. But the real damage was done during the coming week when the men’s names and addresses were printed on the front pages of Waco’s two newspapers.

This story had mostly been lost from LGBTQ history until 2015, when Houston LGBTQ historian JD Doyle discovered it in a 1988 issue of the gay magazine This Week in Texas. At the time, Doyle was putting together a collection of history articles written by the late Phil Johnson of Dallas (whose LGBTQ archives are now a part of the University of North Texas Library). One of Johnson’s articles focused on the 35th anniversary of the Waco raid.

Doyle went on to find various bits of information about the raid in the Waco News-Tribune, the Waco Citizen, This Week in Texas, People Today, Dare magazine, and the Berkeley Barb. Piecing together Doyle’s research, LGBTQ publications can now present the sobering story of the raid’s aftermath for two of the Waco party guests whose resiliency helped them rebuild their lives.

Waco’s gay life in 1953

Johnson described the Waco gay life of 1953 as small groups of closeted gay men. The bathrooms at Waco’s two train stations and the bus depot were active cruising locations. The basement bar at the Raleigh Hotel was where “eager Air Force men came to be picked up.” Baylor students usually went to Dallas to cruise at the 1313 Club (later named Villa Fontana), hoping to avoid running into anyone they knew.

Johnson notes that big gay parties were rare in the early 1950s, so Owen’s party invitation was eagerly accepted by gay men in Waco, across Texas, out of state, and in the military. On the day of the party, the men, who were mostly in their 20s, were having a wonderful time partying into the early evening.

Acting on a tip (which Johnson reveals likely came from military police at the local James Connally Air Force Base), nearly 20 members of law enforcement descended on the 1,000 square foot residence. The officers on foot and in patrol cars struck so swiftly that some of the arrests were made in the automobiles of men who were just arriving at the party. Some of the guests resisted, but were soon restrained.

Several of the men hauled to the police station were wearing formal women’s apparel complete with spring hats and high-heel shoes.

As the men posted bond on Sunday morning, a red wig, a blonde wig, several women’s dresses, and

photo

People Today ran a cover of Tommy Gene Brown dressed as a bride during a party in Waco, Texas in 1953 that was raided by authorities.

falsies were stacked on a table in the police detective’s office. Detective Captain Wiley Stem had even found a love letter written by one man to another.

Police had no specific law under which to arrest the men, so they used the common excuse in those days of vagrancy. Johnson explains that vagrancy meant that a person did not have more than $25 in cash, and was considered to be “a person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home or livelihood and makes a living by begging or stealing; a tramp; a vagabond.” The men arrested did not fit this description, but none of them wished to fight the charge in court.

In a front-page story on April 13, 1953, Stem told the Waco News Tribune that it was “regrettable” more serious charges than vagrancy couldn’t be filed, but the city was now $1,500 richer from the bonds which all the men forfeited so as not to have to appear in court. The story was later sent out over the Associated Press newswire and reported on by several tabloids.

The Tribune also reported that “law enforcement officers have known for some time that a small cell of homosexuals has been active in Waco,” but indicated the Saturday “convention” was the first of its kind ever held in the city. One veteran police officer said that in 30 years of policing, he had “never seen anything like this.”

Included on the front page was a picture of Tommy Gene Brown of Dallas, a gay man in his early 20s, fully attired as the bride. The story garnered so much attention that a second front-page story was run in the Waco Citizen on April 16, 1953.

The newspapers, which published the names and addresses of the arrested men, noted that the men came from all walks of life, and that most of them had prominent jobs and college degrees. It also noted that many of the guests would now be looking for new employment.

One man’s luck

In 1983, This Week in Texas published an article noting the 30th anniversary of the raid. One man, who asked to remain unnamed, then wrote a letter to the magazine, recounting how he had been one of those arrested at the party.

The man was at the time a ministerial student at Baylor in his final year, and due to graduate in August. He was in love with a medical student from Baylor Medical School in Houston who came

October 1-7, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

to Waco for the party.

But the ministerial student was afraid to join the party, for fear of being outed. He did, however, agree to drive his boyfriend to the party and then pick him up at a specified time. When he arrived back at the house, the music was so loud that no one answered the doorbell, so he went inside. As he was leaving with his boyfriend, he opened the front door and came face-to-face with a Texas Ranger.

“We were treated like the scum of the earth,” the man recalled.

The young man was abandoned by his boyfriend, who did not even offer to pay his bail even though the boyfriend was from a rather wealthy family. So the student had to call a friend in his hometown who wired him the money. He never saw his boyfriend again.

When his name appeared in Waco newspapers, the student was called into the dean’s office and asked to withdraw from Baylor.

The same fate awaited the student who threw the party and a couple of other students who attended.

“This was one of the darkest days in my life, even to this day,” the man wrote. “Here I had to go home and tell my pastor and my mom that I was asked to withdraw from the university because I was in a homosexual raid at school.

“But somehow, God used that incident to give me the courage to go forward,” he added. “Another Baptist school accepted me.

I graduated, going on to a Baptist seminary to earn two degrees and receive an honorary degree.

“Today I am a pastor at a Metropolitan Community Church in Texas, and have been blessed with the work of the Lord that I am doing in the church – which

I possibly would never have done if that Waco Police Department witch hunt had not occurred,” he concluded.

The bride’s story

In another 1988 article in This Week in Texas, Johnson told the story of Tommy Gene Brown, the hapless Waco bride.

Brown was born in Salina, Texas, around 1930. As a young man, he had quite a reputation as a hairstylist and party person, but he achieved his greatest notoriety as the Waco bride.

In an August 1953 issue of the tabloid Dare, a picture of Brown with the arresting officer was used with this caption: “Shown here is one of the season’s unhappiest brides. A Dallas homosexual was about to be married when police broke in, hauled bride to Waco city jail along with 66 wedding guests.

The bride, who looked ravishing in a faultless satin wedding ensemble pegged at $350, was about to pledge troth to an older degenerate. Real minister presided. The raid netted the largest number of self-admitted sex deviants in Texas history.”

In a September 1953 issue of People Today, a different picture of the bride was published with this caption: “This man in a pearlembroidered wedding dress identified himself as Tommy Gene Brown, a Dallas window designer.

He was arrested at a homosexuals’ ‘convention’ in Waco, Texas, which drew 125 participants (including GIs) from as far as N.Y. Police raid stopped Brown’s ‘wedding.’”

After the raid, Brown returned to his home in Dallas and still held his head high, going on to live a productive and colorful life. In

1956, Brown met a man named Fred and fell in love. In 1959, they moved to the more gay-friendly San Francisco. Fred worked, and Brown kept up the home. (Fred’s last name was not provided either in the Bay Area Reporter’s obituary of Brown or other materials.

According to his obituary in the B.A.R., Brown became involved in one of America’s first gay organizations, the Society of Individual Rights, where he helped with the dances and costumes for gay productions of “The Boyfriend,” “Pal Joey,” “Hello Dolly,” and “The Wizard of Oz.” As a child, Brown fantasized about being like Shirley Temple, so his friends called him Shirley and the name stuck. In 1968, Brown won the title of Empress III Shirley of the Imperial Court of San Francisco. He was the first person to campaign for the title.

That year, Shirley Temple Black, who had been a child actress, was running for Congress. Brown went to one of her campaign rallies and brought back buttons and matchbooks that read “Shirley” so he could use them in his empress campaign.

Brown and his partner, Fred, were together almost 25 years.

Fred died in the late 1970s, and Brown died in May 1988. t JD Doyle and his Houston LGBT History website (www.houstonlgbthistory.org) provided invaluable research material for this article.

Brandon Wolf is a regular contributor to OutSmart magazine in Houston.

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Newsom

From page 1

advance inclusive and culturally competent efforts that uphold the dignity of all Californians, regardless of who you are or who you love.”

Senate Bill 932 by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) aligns with emergency regulations announced by the California Department of Public Health in July requiring better and more timely collection and reporting of communicable disease data from providers and laboratories on a patient’s gender identity and sexual orientation.

Wiener had long fought for such data collection, and Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, was critical of the governor earlier this year over the state’s inability to collect such data on COVID patients.

This legislation will provide public health officials with more information on patients who identify as LGBTQ, which is essential to addressing health inequities and designing public

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Wiener, chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. “SB 132 is lifesaving legislation that will protect trans people in prison, particularly trans women who are subject to high levels of assault and harassment in men’s facilities. And, SB 932 ensures our community will no longer be invisible, and that we will be counted by our public health system. Today is a great day for California’s LGBTQ community and yet another example of California’s deep commitment to LGBTQ equality.”

EQCA also praised Newsom’s action on SB 132.

“I recently had the chance to hear from currently incarcerated transgender people about their experiences and need for SB 132 – this bill is going to save lives,” Zbur stated. “We are so grateful to our coalition partners – many of whom are trans and currently or formerly incarcerated – who led this fight from the beginning. Today is a monumental victory for them and for all LGBTQ+ people.”

In addition to EQCA, SB 132 is cosponsored by the TransLatin@ Coali-

tion, TGI Justice Project, Transgender Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union of California, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Medina Orthwein LLP law firm.

AB 2218 by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) establishes the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund. The fund will assist organizations serving people that identify as transgender, gender-nonconforming, or intersex, and help create or fund TGI-specific housing programs and partnerships with hospitals, health care clinics and other medical providers to provide TGI-focused health care.

The TransLatin@ Coalition fought for AB 2218 for months, rallying support and testifying at hearings.

After numerous hearings – and at one point looking like it would not pass due to its $15 million price tag – AB 2218 was stripped of its funding requirement and allowed to move forward.

“This is a critical measure for our transgender community and I thank Governor Newsom for his steadfast leadership in signing AB 2218,”

Santiago stated. “California’s TGI community has long faced obstacles in receiving safe, nondiscriminatory, comprehensive care, and COVID-19 has exacerbated these existing health care disparities. This bill will help create programs where TGIidentified people can receive safe, competent, and inclusive health care and other social services.”

Recognizing that too many Californians who are HIV-positive experience heightened levels of discrimination by insurers, the governor signed SB 1255 by Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and the Senate Committee on Insurance to end the practice of insurance companies discriminating against individuals because of their HIV status.

The bills signed Saturday build on the governor’s signature of SB 145 by Wiener, which, as the Bay Area Reporter noted, prevents discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in sex crime convictions. t

Jones compared the changes in mourning to what happened to many victims of the AIDS epidemic – the similarities to and contrasts with the COVID-19 pandemic were a major feature of his discussion with Urquiza at the grove, he said.

“During HIV/AIDS we were denied the normal avenues of grieving,” he said. “People were rejected by their churches and synagogues, and that was one of the realities that led to the creation of the memorial quilt.”

Another similarity, Jones said, is the sense that only certain people have to be worried about contracting the viruses.

“We heard endless statistics of gay

men, hemophiliacs, African Americans,” Jones said. He said some people have the attitude that “I don’t have to behave responsibly because only old people get sick.”

In fact, younger people are now becoming sick with COVID-19, as well as people of all ages.

When asked about the cavalier attitude some officials have had toward both viruses, Jones interjected “it’s worse than that.”

“They mocked the people who were suffering,” he said. “That’s one of the more dreadful parallels – both epidemics started with Republican presidents who didn’t just not address it, they mocked it. I saw bumper stickers that said ‘AIDS: It’s killing all the right people.’ Who’s dying of COVID? Old people, Black and Brown people. It’s this othering. When the president calls it the ‘Kung flu’ or the ‘China virus,’ I’m reminded of when HIV was a ‘gay disease.’ Most of the people who died in this country of AIDS were gay and bisexual men, but worldwide – because we labeled it as a gay disease and failed to respond – the result of that was the deaths of millions of heterosexual men, women and their children around the planet because the only nation on earth that had the resources to re-

spond failed because of homophobia and racism.”

Urquiza’s organization, Marked

By COVID, has put up a number of signs in the Castro’s traditional mourning site on the side of the Bank of America building at 18th and Castro streets. She said she is happy to be working on the week of mourning with Jones.

“Living here in San Francisco I knew who Cleve was and about the quilt, ACT UP, and the other groups of that era,” she said.

Urquiza announced a group of organizations that will be working to help put on the week of mourning, including PoderLatinx, Mijente, USPIRG, the Center for Popular Democracy, the March for Our Lives, and the COVID Memorial.

“We’re very glad to be joining the week of mourning. Our goal is to help tell the stories of those we’ve lost in a way that reaches as many people as possible. We want everyone to recognize that the friends, family, and neighbors we’ve lost to COVID are not numbers, and they are not forgotten,” a spokesperson with the COVID Memorial who only identified themself as Duncan stated. “The memorial will be organizing projections of the stories

we’ve collected during the week, so that we can share those stories as widely as possible.”

Priscilla González, campaign director with Mijente, echoed Urquiza’s convention message.

“For the past six months, we have mourned our loved ones in silence,” González wrote in an email. “During the week of mourning, we are coming together whether socially distanced or virtually to participate in the deeply-held, life-affirming tradition of honoring our dead. Yet, no healing can come without a resolve to do what is necessary to protect the living.

“The Trump administration’s gross mismanagement and willful neglect amount to nothing short of state violence. In the name of our ancestors, on whose shoulders we stand, we will make ourselves heard,” she added.

Urquiza said she is always happy to share her story.

“One of the things that’s important to me is humanizing the loss we’ve been experiencing,” she said.t

content is censored by the platform’s frequently anti-LGBTQ algorithm and moderation.”

According to Sawchuk, Facebook censored two advertisements featuring photos of bare-chested men in 2017 that the society posted to solicit volunteers for the Folsom Street Fair.

That photo was reinstated after the society was able to contact the social media company. A similar incident took place in 2018 when the society was promoting an event. https://www. ebar.com/news/news//264401 Also in 2018, a photo posted to highlight transgender activism was also flagged. The latest incident was

the first instance of censorship that did not involve an advertisement.

“We’re up against a culture that is still relentlessly anti-LGBTQ, and social-media platforms that wield enormous power over the images, news and politics we consume,” Beswick said. “When they make people invisible, it becomes easier to spread the fear and misinformation that quickly and frequently turn into violence.”

The historical society is not alone in alleging that Facebook is discriminatory toward LGBTQ content. On September 24, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California issued a news release calling upon

Facebook “to take responsibility and address disparities in the treatment of content by LGBTQ creators on its platform.”

The ACLU of Northern California related a story about an advertisement being rejected as “sexually explicit” for featuring two women touching their foreheads. An experiment showed only the version of the ad featuring two people of the same sex touching foreheads was blocked.

“Facebook refused to say what algorithmic or human decisions led to the advertisement being removed and provided no explanation of why the test advertisements were accept-

ed,” the release stated. “The ACLU of Northern California is calling on Facebook to stop making excuses and start taking action. First, Facebook’s Community Standards and advertising policies should be audited to determine if standards for ‘adult’ content disproportionately impacts the content of women and same-sex couples. Second, Facebook should be transparent and specific when blocking ads deemed to violate its policies.

And third, Facebook should ensure that advertisers can contest removal of content and obtain a meaningful review.” t

of same-sex marriage.

When the state Supreme Court tossed out the homophobic law, the women were the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California on June 16, 2008. Weeks later, on August 27, Martin died at the age of 87 in San Francisco with Lyon at her side.

This past spring Lyon died at the age of 95 on April 9.

Earlier this month the news website SF Gate reported that their home had sold for $2.25 million.

The 5,700 square foot lot was two parcels sold as one; the women had tended a garden on the adjoining lot.

“The views are iconic SF, from this, last last parcel of undeveloped land atop Noe Valley,” noted the article’s author, Anna Marie Erwert. “Homes in this area have easily sold for $56M, so as long as a person keeps con-

struction costs under control, a turn over of this property could be very profitable.”

Property records show the buyer was David R. Duncan. The Bay Area Reporter was unable to reach him for comment.

Local preservationists had approached Lyon and her family about the possibility of landmarking the house years ago but the process was never initiated. Watson and Donna Graves, a public historian based in Berkeley who co-authored the citywide LGBTQ context statement, had included the Lyon-Martin house on a list of LGBTQ historic properties they identified as likely eligible for designation as a city landmark and listing on the California and national registers of historic places.

While the state and federal listings

are largely honorific, a city landmark designation would provide a level of protection to the property should its new owners submit plans to raze it in order to build a larger structure.

While a property owner can seek historic landmark status, a member of the Board of Supervisors or the city’s planning department working with the historic preservation commission can also seek adding a property to the list of 288 local landmarks currently in San Francisco.

To date, San Francisco has granted city landmark status to only four sites for their importance to LGBTQ history. Two are gay bar locations, one the former home to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and the fourth was the late gay supervisor Harvey Milk’s residence and former Castro Camera shop at 573 Castro Street.

All are located in commercial corridors. The Lyon-Martin house would be the first LGBTQ historic site in a solely residential neighborhood.

“I can see it in the future be a destination as an archival site for GLBTQ rights and women’s rights here in San Francisco,” said Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society whose archives house the papers of Martin and Lyon.

Beswick and Watson, who used to chair the society’s historic places working group, helped organize last week’s meeting about how to preserve the couple’s cottage. As for the vacant portion of the property, Beswick said it “would be a lovely park to go with the house.” t

health interventions that help California’s diverse communities.

“Thanks to Governor Newsom and Senator Wiener’s leadership, California is a beacon of hope to LGBTQ+ people everywhere,” EQCA executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur stated in a release from the organization.

“Nearly four decades after I watched the government look the other way as our community was devastated by the AIDS crisis, I am proud to say California has become the first state to mandate the collection of voluntary LGBTQ+ data for all reportable communicable diseases.”

The governor also signed SB 132

by Wiener requiring CDCR to house transgender, gender-nonconforming and intersex people according to their own sense of where they will be safest.

This new law will require CDCR to record the individual’s self-reported gender identity, gender pronouns, and honorifics throughout an inmate’s term.

“Thank you Governor Newsom for once again proving you are a champion for LGBTQ people,” stated

Week of mourning

From page 1

Events planned

The week of mourning will begin in Washington, D.C. October 4 with an art installation on the National Mall, according to Urquiza.

“Over the course of the week we will be hosting a virtual event at 9 a.m. Pacific daily, mirroring what’s done at the 9/11 Memorial,” Urquiza said, referring to victims of that tragedy. “We will read a selection of names and highlight a number of the folks who have passed.”

This event will coincide with a number of virtual and in-person events across the country, a map of which is available online on the Action Network website.

The week will end October 11 with a funeral procession and vigil at 5 p.m. at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.

Both Urquiza and Jones said that the physical distancing required to contain the spread of COVID-19 has robbed people of the usual methods of mourning.

“We’ve had an incredible catastrophe,” Urquiza said. “I hope this gives people a tiny bit of space to start their grieving process and have that outlet of mourning.”

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Facebook

From page 3

“We’re committed to sharing our archival collections, including those documenting the lives of people of color and transgender people,” Sawchuck wrote. “How can we do this when platforms like Facebook use algorithms that intentionally erase images of marginalized and underrepresented communities?”

Beswick wrote in the news release that “this wasn’t the first time our posts have been flagged and it probably won’t be the last time that our

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Lyon-Martin house

From page 1

citywide LGBTQ report, their only requirement when house hunting was to buy one “with a view.”

Their home would become a gathering place within the city’s lesbian community and the site of various meetings and events. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) addressed one gathering there while standing on the staircase of the twolevel cottage reportedly built in 1908.

Journalists and co-founders of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first political and social organization for lesbians in the United States, Lyon and Martin would make history again in 2004 when they were the first couple to be married by San Francisco officials in defiance of California’s prohibition

t

Courtesy CNN

Kirstin Urquiza

t <<

Community News>>

October 1-7, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Castro LGBTQ district From page 5

make this neighborhood truly a kaleidoscopic window of queer expression, talent, and taste,” Maxwell stated.

Racial inequity

Though the Castro’s dance floors may be empty, its streets are not – and they are not just filled with outside dining and happy hours. The police killing of George Floyd in May brought renewed attention to racial inequalities in the United States and a number of demonstrations against police violence and racism took place in the Castro, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

After speakers at a June protest on Jane Warner Plaza discussed racist attitudes in the Castro, a number of nightlife figures founded the Bay Area Queer Nightlife Coalition and hosted a four-hour town hall on the topic.

When asked about racial inclusivity, Aguirre said that “I think ‘inclusive’ is only part of it.”

“I think the bigger core issue is racial equity, and what does that look like? Using a racial equity lens in cultural and historic preservation,” Aguirre said. “Making sure history and culture reflect racial equity in

Matthew S. Bajko

A sign on a mural created on the facade of Castro bar Toad Hall urges support for Black LGBTQ Lives.

real ways. I think that the plaques that line the Castro [the Rainbow Honor Walk] are reflective of people I look up to, who we all look up to. They include the Empress Norton, a queer Latino man; We’wha, a two-spirit Native American; several key people of color; and trans and women figures.

For me, I don’t know we would have had that in the 1980s or in the 1990s.

Freeman wrote the block party is a

good way to celebrate the diversity of the queer community.

“I believe we can help bridge communities and cultures, help generate revenue to Castro businesses and help make the Castro district a regular destination for members of our community,” he stated. “These monthly events would help focus on arts and culture, economic development and racial equity.”

and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Petitioner: COLIN M. GEORGE, 2003 WESTERN AVE #345, SEATTLE, WA 98121; PH. (206) 493-1568.

a copy of your response to plaintiff’s attorney, as designated above. To determine whether you must pay a filing fee with your response, contact the Clerk of the above-named court. Dated 6/23/2020, by Noemi Alandis, Deputy, Clerk of the District Court.

Fusco wrote that the coalition needs follow-through.

“I proposed as a community member at the BAQNC town hall having a business ‘certification’ for following through on making their spaces safe and inclusive for all their patrons,” Fusco stated. “This could be presented as either a sign or sticker the business could display in their window to signal that they’re taking the necessary steps to show they are invested and care for the people around them.”

Maxwell wrote that “the call for racial inclusion and racial equity in the Castro is not new. It is as old as the neighborhood itself. The difference is now more white people are listening,” pointing out past protests against Badlands and Toad Hall.

A 2004 report by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission found that Badlands was discriminating against African Americans, but the findings were never official because the HRC executive director at the time did not sign off on the staff report. Badlands owner Les Natali and the complainants eventually reached a confidential settlement.

Natali later opened Toad Hall on the site of what had been the Pendulum, which catered to Black patrons.

In a June email, after the Badlands

issue was brought up at the protest in Jane Warner Plaza, Natali wrote that the allegations “were found without merit and were dropped.”

“We welcome people of all races and all colors and we probably have the largest, most diverse clientele of any bar in the Castro,” he added.

On July 31, a post on Badlands’ Facebook page said the bar, which closed due to the pandemic, would shutter permanently. A new, as yet unnamed bar under new ownership is supposed to open later this year, depending on COVID-19 restrictions being lifted.

“This ain’t new and I won’t humor that thought,” Maxwell stated. “By grounding racial equity and racial inclusion work with an economic strategy, finding spaces to open and bringing in everybody, trusting leadership in faces that may not seem too common and actively engaging in a ground-up approach of accountability and sustainability, I have hopes that the wrongs around us, that have been passed on from generation to generation, can be made right.”

Mitchell, who spoke at the Jane Warner Plaza rally, said diversity is not enough but that “it’s key to not only allow, but welcome, seek out, and recruit unapologetic members of these communities of color.”t

files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: October 26, 2020, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: RACHEL H. ROSENFELD (SBN 297064), HEISLER ROSENFELD LLP, 610 COURT ST. #205, MARTINEZ, CA 94553; Ph. (925) 386-6885.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039157800

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555866

In the matter of the application of STEVEN MARK VARNEY AKA S MARK VARNEY, 1375 38TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner STEVEN MARK VARNEY AKA S MARK VARNEY is requesting that the name STEVEN MARK VARNEY AKA S MARK VARNEY be changed to S MARK VARNEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 20th of October 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039152500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAUCE OF MINE, 2112 MARKET ST #301, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUAN HERRERA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/20.

SEP 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039143100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039152200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KHOR; KHOR CONSULTING; KAEGO OGBECHIE CONSULTING, 1388 GOUGH ST #1108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAEGO OGBECHIE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/25/20.

SEP 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039151300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JUST CUZZ KITCHEN; THE HOT SPOT; 631 MORSE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112 This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZULAIKA W. MAYFIELD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/13/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/04/20.

SEP 10, 17, 24, OCT 01, 2020 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF KATHLEEN ELIZABETH GEORGE AKA KATHY GEORGE IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES20-303881

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of KATHLEEN ELIZABETH GEORGE AKA KATHY GEORGE. A Petition for Probate has been filed by COLIN M. GEORGE in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that COLIN M. GEORGE be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: October 07, 2020, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CRAZY CALIFORNIA COOKIES, 2000 ALEMENY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SCOTT SACHS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039149600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROSE DELIGHTS, 32 SHOTWELL ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed A TRIBE OF US COLLECTIVE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/31/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039140100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TOWER BURGER, 729 PORTOLA DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WON DAE YOON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/20.

SEP 17, 24, OCT 01, 08, 2020 SUMMONS IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF THE STATE OF IDAHO IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF CASSIA CASE NO. CV16-20-00571

IDAHO STATE POLICE, by and through Colonel Kedrick R. Wills, Director, Plaintiff, vs. $2,855.00 DOLLARS IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, Defendant.

NOTICE: A CIVIL FORFEITURE ACTION HAS BEEN FILED AGAINST THE ABOVE DESCRIBED PROPERTY

BY THE ABOVE-NAMED PLAINTIFF(S). IF YOU FAIL TO FILE AN ANSWER TO ASSERT YOUR RIGHT, TITLE OR INTEREST IN THE ABOVE-DESCRIBED PROPERTY WITHIN TWENTY-ONE (21) DAYS OF THE SERVICE OF THIS SUMMONS, OR WITHIHN TWENTY-ONE (21) DAYS OF THE LAST PUBLICATION OF THIS SUMMONS, WHICHEVER IS EARLIER, THE COURT MAY ENTER JUDGMENT TERMINATING ANY RIGHT YOU MAY HAVE IN THE DEFENDANT PROPERTY WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE. READ THE INFORMATION BELOW. TO LILY RAE McCLEARY: You are hereby notified that in order to defend this lawsuit, an appropriate written response must be filed with the Fifth Judicial District County of Cassia, 1559 Overland Avenue, Burley, ID 83318, within 21 days after service of this Summons on you, or by mail, within 21 days after mailing this Summons. If you fail to respond the court may enter judgment as demanded by the Plaintiff(s) in the Complaint. A copy of the Complaint is served with this Summons.

If you wish to seek the advice or representation by an attorney in this matter, you should do so promptly so that your written response, if any, may be filed in time and other legal rights protected. An appropriate written response requires compliance with Rule 8(b) and other Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure and shall also include: 1. The title and number of this case; 2.

If your response is an Answer to the Complaint, it must contain admissions or denials of the separate allegations of the Complaint and other defenses you may claim, and must be verified; 3. Your signature, mailing address and telephone number, or the signature, mailing address and telephone number of your attorney; 4. Proof of mailing or delivery of

SEP 24, OCT 01, 08, 15, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555905

In the matter of the application of YAOL OENN WONG, 581 SOMERSET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YAOL OENN WONG is requesting that the name YAOL OENN WONG AKA YAOL DENN WONG be changed to LARRY YAOL WONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103, on the 5th of November 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 24, OCT 01, 08, 15, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555891

In the matter of the application of HELEN TRUONG, 239 2ND AVE #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HELEN TRUONG is requesting that the name HELEN TRUONG be changed to HIEU THI TRUONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 27th of October 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 24, OCT 01, 08, 15, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039155900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CASTRO NAIL SALON, 431 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed RIYAD M. KHOURY & MAHA G. KHOURY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/04. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/16/20.

SEP 24, OCT 01, 08, 15, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039151800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SEVEN FIGURE SHIFT, 424 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SEO SYMBIOSIS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/08/20.

SEP 24, OCT 01, 08, 15, 2020 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF MICHELE PAYNE AKA MICHELE PAYNE-SALOMON AKA MICHELE OSTROFF IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-20-303799

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of MICHELE PAYNE AKA MICHELE PAYNE-SALOMON AKA MICHELE OSTROFF. A Petition for Probate has been filed by GABLE PAYNE in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that GABLE PAYNE be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person

OCT 01, 08, 15, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555903

In the matter of the application of JUAN ANTONIO GAMEZ AGUAYO, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JUAN ANTONIO GAMEZ AGUAYO is requesting that the name JUAN ANTONIO GAMEZ AGUAYO be changed to JUAN ANTONIO GAMEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 3rd of November 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NEXT GENERATION MEETINGS & EVENTS; NXG MEETINGS & EVENTS; 293 2ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PRISCILLA LEE & PATTREE DUKE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/20.

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039155600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WORLD GYM SHOWPLACE SQUARE, 260 DEHARO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TALMADGE & TALMADGE INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/31/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/15/20.

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039157300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as AXE DIGITAL LLC, 130 BUSH ST, 9TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AXE DIGITAL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/05/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/20.

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039160000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ARARAT INVESTMENTS LLC, 2429 VALLEJO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ARARAT INVESTMENTS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/28/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/20.

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039155300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039157700

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020

OCT 01, 08, 15, 22, 2020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BLUEGOAL HOUSEHOLD SERVICES, 270 TURK ST #207, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIGUEL EUSEBIO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/15/20.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KAILASH HOTEL, 179 JULIAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HARIOMBAPU, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/20.

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by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

The Boys in the Band “Emory is someone who is unapologetically, authentically, radically, self-lovingly himself,” de Jesus said. “And he refuses to compromise who he is, despite societal norms. He knows that the other option to hide who he is will lead to a very sad life. And so why not just go out fucking being you?” de Jesus noted that the cast had a great rapport when they shot the film, having already developed their onstage and offstage relationships when they did the play.

“We were lucky that our director Joe Mantello and our producer Ryan Murphy let us know that the intention was to do a Broadway production, the first Broadway production of the play, with the intention of turning it into a movie with us,” he said. “Offers came in but they kept all of us, which is so beautiful and we’re so grateful. The win for them is that they had a well-marinated cast. They had a cast who understood each other’s flow and react off each other in a very organic way.”

Sabrina Chap

Q-Music’s 2020 LGBTQ History Month playlist

by Gregg Shapiro

A

ndy Bell, of Erasure, is the grand dame of this playlist. The vocal half of the electronic dance-pop duo (alongside the quieter multi-instrumentalist Vince Clarke) now in its 35th year, the unabashedly gay Bell can still stir up all the feels with his powerful and emotive voice. The Neon (Mute), the twosome’s 18th album, arrives a few years after the politically-influenced World Be Gone

(and its orchestrally reimagined follow-up World Beyond), feels more personal, especially on songs such as “Nerves of Steel,” “Tower of Love,” “No Point in Tripping,” “Careful What I Try to Do” and the ballad “New Horizons.”

While it lacks the zing of The Violet Flame, Erasure’s best album of the 2010s, The Neon still offers enough glow to make it worth adding to your music library. If you can pop for the limited edition CD, you won’t be disappointed by the colorful artwork and the 12page booklet including lyrics.

1991

1971

2011 40th anniv., readers'

Boston, P-town travel

57

second section

13

Considering Balenciaga

poll

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian,

REPORT CITES HEALTH GAPS

by Bob Roehr

A

report released last week detailed the need for more federal and research data collection on the health of LGBT people.

Bob Roehr “Lesbian, bisexual, Dr. Robert Graham gay, and transgender individuals health disparities. experience unique LGBT is used as an Although the acronym health needs of this umbrella term, and the grouped together, community are often a distinct each of these letters represents concerns,” health population with its own the report, written stated the summary of of Medicine. by the prestigious Institute lesbians, gay men, “Furthermore, among and transgender bisexual men and women, based people, there are subpopulations status, on race, ethnicity, socioeconomicfactors,” and other geographic location, age, the report continued. statement is not While that summary with the LGBT news to anyone familiar it was made in the community, the fact that commissioned by was which report, IOM of Health, adds new the National Institutes to shaping health meaning and credibility had been policy, which that heretofore lacking. are asked Traditionally, IOM committees priorities gaps and to identify research paradigm does not within a field. “But that Dr. Robert Graham fit for this area,” chair news conference said at the March 31 releasing the report.

See page 24 >>

Our new look

decided The Bay Area Reporter that we’re 40. to update its look now slight design So we’ve made some of the paper, changes in both sections the case of the with new fonts, and in a new name.

Arts and Culture section, website has Most significantly, our for video with been updated to allow now comment stories, and readers can if they directly on our online content are friends on Facebook.▼

1981 BAR MEMBERSHIP STRIP.indd 1

Robin de Jesus (foreground) in a scene from the new film adaptation of The Boys in the Band.

Tony nominee Robin de Jesus on his role in the new stage and film adaptations

bisexual, and transgender

Vol. 41 • No. 14 • April

communities since 1971

7-13, 2011

by Seth Hemmelgarn the Bay Area or 40 years now, entertained, Reporter has informed, people in San and frequently miffed Francisco and beyond.

Bob Ross – chef, The paper started when and bar culture Tavern Guild president, with business partner insider – launched it was dated April 1, Paul Bentley. The first issue on April 2, Ross’s 37th 1971 but hit the streets all the pages by hand, birthday. Ross pasted up them to local bars. copied them, and delivered took the paper In the beginning, nobody too seriously. an “up and had he Cleve Jones, who said Ross and who was down” relationship with gay icon Harvey Milk, a close friend of slain after his arrival to started reading the paper San Francisco in 1972. sort of a silly “To be honest, it was who now works with publication,” said Jones, “Most of the other the Courage Campaign. have much use for young people didn’t really about it. It was basically just announcements going on at whatever whatever specials were bar.” many early 1970s The front covers of the Imperial Court’s issues were dedicated to See page 23 >>

F Community looks back at 40 years of the B.A.R .

Founding publisher Bob Ross

Despite setbacks, LGBT nt’ ‘vibra scene in San Jose is

by Seth Hemmelgarn

several setbacks he past year has seen even in San Jose’s LGBT community, census recently as data from the 2010 Bay berg is now the revealed that the South 10th largest city in the country. have made it Recent events, however, with almost 1 million seem that for a city strength in the gay people, there’s not much community there.

DeFrank LGBT Last month, the Billy canceled its 30th Community Center had been planned for anniversary party, which tickets had been sold.

March 26. Only about 40 Silicon Valley AIDS Last November, the had organized the Leadership Center, which announced its closure. annual Walk for AIDS, before that, in And about three months Committee August, the Gay Pride Celebrationa parade. to hold of San Jose Inc. opted not LGBT organizations Of course, problems at Several San Francisco aren’t unique to San Jose. financially. And agencies have been struggling the DeFrank center people with Pride and indicate they’re all right. and when “We have a vibrant community, that they’re there,” we can engage them, I think San Jose Pride’s joined said Ray Mueller, who board earlier this year.

LGBT night One example is last Thursday’steam. Tickets hockey with the San Jose Sharks sold out in 10 days.

T

marched The Pro-Latino contingent Parade; Pride in the 2008 San Jose sure if there will be officials are not yet year, although the a Pride Parade this for August. festival is scheduled

Rick Gerharter

will generate about Mueller said the event which is August 20$1,000 for this year’s Pride, tickets, ranging from 21. A block of about 300 for the hockey night. $36 to $73, were reserved proves there are “I think the Sharks event to something that isn’t people out there to go a gay bar and have a the usual ‘Let’s go to fundraiser,’” said Mueller.

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS

Center official appears

hopeful

been hobbled by The DeFrank center has problems in recent financial and leadership no full-time executive years and currently has Flood, the DeFrank’s director. However, Chris that the center’s board president, indicated appear. He was at a doing better than it might

The actor feels that “is about fucking time” for there to be a show featuring an all-gay cast.

“Having an all-gay cast playing gay characters ups everything,” he said. “The bar is higher now. I want to be able to play straight roles. I’m occasionally okay with straight folks playing gay and queer roles. But not right now. Right now it’s really important for us to have representation. It matters. And often times as gay and queer storytellers, or LGBTQIA storytellers, we don’t get to tell our own story. So having nine out gay men playing gay characters is a big fucking deal, and it also changes how we feel when we’re at work.”

Some gay men have said that The Boys in the Band is dated and offensive. They find Emory to be a negative stereotype or take umbrage with Michael’s self-hatred.

“I say to them, lovingly so, stop trying to please straight people,” said de Jesus. “Stop trying to subscribe to a hetero-normative world and denying the fact that we are also entitled to empathy and entitled to messiness and ug-

liness. At the end of the day, the most courageous person in that cast is my character. Emory is hands down the one who’s not afraid.” de Jesus reminds people that it was a different world in 1968.

“If you’re thinking that all nine of these characters are self-loathing gay men, then you have missed the point,” he said. “You have missed the fact that it is 1968. My character, and several of the other characters – not including Michael and Donald– are not commenting on self-hatred of themselves, because they don’t have that. What they are commenting on is the outside society smothering them, telling them that they don’t matter, that they don’t have worth, and that their lives are amoral. If you are not clocking that, I feel there’s a conversation you need to have with yourself about who you emphasize with and why.”t

Bell is also an audible presence on the song “Good At Goodbyes” from Fun City (YSKWN/MRI Entertainment), the latest full-length by Bright Light Bright Light (aka Rod Thomas). Bell’s not the only high-profile queer artist enlisted by Bright Light Bright Light. The legendary Justin Vivian Bond can be heard on “Saying Goodbye Is Exhausting” (notice a pattern?). That’s the sensational Jake Shears on “Sensation,” gay rapper Big Dipper on “Love Song” and Sam Sparro on “You Make It So Easy, Don’t You.” A majority of the tracks on the ironicallytitled Fun City (as many of the songs are about breakups), are geared towards club play and dancing, therefore it’s not all that surprising that original Madonna backing vocalists Donna DeLory and Niki Haris can be heard on the banger “This Was My House.”

A queer concept album or “coming-of-age radio musical,” Postcards From the Rearview Mirror (Ert Records) by multi-hyphenate Sabrina Chap (musician, slam poet, burlesque performer, playwright) features ten songs interwoven with the spoken messages on nine postcards.

Telling the story of a pair of queer teens who hit the road to escape their oppressive home lives and head for the promise of a new beginning in Los Angeles, the construct of the album allows Chap to draw on her various influences.

Electronic beats propel Hype Nostalgia (Carpark), the new album by Rituals of Mine, too. Following a series of name changes and formerly being a duo (for its 2016 major label debut), Rituals of Mine is now the work of Terra Lopez. Featuring forward-thinking R&Boriented numbers such as the queer personal statement of “Come Around Me” (“None of

this fake shit, when you come around me” and “Now that you hear this, will you come around me?”), the erotic undercurrent of “Reflex,” and “222,” with its lyric about being “stuck in a year” (a near-perfect description of 2020), as well as the dramatic ballad “The Last Wave,” invite listeners to believe the hype.

Recorded in late 2016, but not released until 2020, Nobody Cries Today, the brilliant debut

by Southern gay singer/songwriter Matt Lovell was well worth the wait. The reason for the delay? In early 2017, Lovell was carjacked and shot in the chest at point-blank range. Fortunately, he was able to get help, but he spent the next few years recovering from PTSD. Thankfully, Lovell has released this stunning album and we are all the better for it. In possession of a powerful and expressive set of pipes, Lovell delivers a set of original, soulful and country-influenced tunes that are worthy of repeated listens. Knockout tracks include “90 Proof,” “Be Free,” “Alligator Lily,” “The Way That It Was,” and a pair of duets with Leigh Nash (really?) – “The Gospel” and “Dime Adios.”t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

Phil Sharpe

he Boys in the Band shocked and stunned audiences when it premiered in 1968. Likely the first unapologetically gay theater piece in American history, Mart Crowley’s play dealt with a group of gay men at a birthday party. The self-loathing that so many gay men lived with at that time was a recurring theme in Boys. Audiences had never before seen anything like The Boys in the Band, and the show became the chic thing to see. A film version was produced in 1970 starring the original stage cast.

Over the years, The Boys in the Band became something of a legend in the gay community and was revived occasionally. In 2018, the play finally made it to Broadway in a highly acclaimed production which featured an allgay cast. Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory, Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) and Matt Bomer (Doom Patrol, White Collar) headlined the revival, which was put together with the full participation of Crowley before his death in 2020.

Now Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) has produced a new film version of The Boys in the Band in which the entire 2018 cast reprise their roles. The film premieres on Netflix September 30.

A memorable character is Emory, a flamboyant, effeminate queen with a campy sense of humor. Emory is played in the new production by Robin de Jesus, an actor with a history of appearing in gay theatre. In 2010 he received a Tony nomination for his performance as Jacob, the housekeeper, in the drag musical La Cage aux Folles. He was once again nominated for his performance as the scene-stealing Emory.

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2001 9/8/20 12:48 PM

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<< Books & Online Events

14 • Bay Area Reporter • October 1-7, 2020

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‘Life’ story an interview with Branden James

universally, the stories we share with one another connect us on a deeper level; I truly believe we are much more alike than we are different or divided. I hope that telling this story will help those outside of the LGBTQ+ community understand a little bit more about who we are, and where our hearts are. Reducing stigma around HIV/AIDS is a huge part of what I set out to accomplish when writing the book.

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gay classical crossover artist, Branden James enjoyed early success on America’s Got Talent (where he was a finalist on season eight), as well as his performances with various national opera companies, including Chicago’s Lyric Opera.

But Branden’s triumphs were not without trauma, something he goes into detail about in his new memoir Lyrics of My Life (Cleis Press, 2020). Raised in a conservative Christian home in Orange County, California, Branden risked being shunned by his family not only for being gay, but also for being HIV+.

A survivor with talent to burn, James is now happily married to fellow musician James Clark, a cellist, with whom he performs as the musical duo Branden & James. I had the pleasure of speaking with James in the fall of 2020 about his book.

Gregg Shapiro: Why was now the right time to write your memoir Lyrics of My Life?

Branden James: I wrote it over the course of spring 2018/summer 2019. The release was delayed once because it (Cleis Press) was taken over by Simon & Schuster, and then a second time because of the current pandemic. After the second delay, I was a bit disheartened, wondering

if the project would be shelved. I’m grateful to have released it in this tricky time.

Writing a memoir is a labor of love, for sure. I honestly never had it in mind that I’d write a book of any kind, but when the opportunity presented itself, I thought, why not?

I believe we should always grab new life challenges and experiences that are handed to us.

Did you have a target audience in mind while writing the book?

I didn’t really have a target audience (in mind) while writing the book. I knew my story would probably resonate with LGBTQ+ people. I wanted to share this story to help younger people in their own coming out journeys, and those who are closeted and fearful of what might happen to them if they reveal their sexuality or HIV status.

From having been on America’s Got Talent, a great deal of my fan base is made up of rural and suburban Christians. I’ve been blown away at the amount of support I’ve received from them over the years.

Just like music speaks to all of us

As is often the case in a memoir, the book is filled with intimate and personal details. Was there one thing more than any others that was most difficult for you to write about?

It was difficult to write about things I regret, such as passing HIV onto someone else, or driving recklessly while under the influence of marijuana and prescription pills.

These are things I’ll probably never forgive myself for, knowing I put other people in harm’s way. I decided before writing the book that being honest about who I am was the best way forward. I’m glad I wrote the book in this way. It has been so freeing to put pen to paper and tell this story that I was afraid to share for so many years.

This interview is taking place in September 2020, during the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. By what means, as a performer, and now an author, have you been able to reach your audience?

We’ve all had to reinvent ourselves to some extent in this COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020. My husband and I were fairly well-versed on social media before the pandemic hit. The transition to playing virtual concerts wasn’t too difficult for us, luckily. Our audiences have been incredibly supportive of our music, and my writing.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com https://brandenjames.com/

Margo Moritz

HALLOWEEN

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Keelan Whitmore in Alonzo King’s Constellation.

Dance, theatre, music online

by Jim Provenzano

MASKS, MAKEUP, FEATHERS, FABRIC, BOAS, COSTUMES, GLITTER & DECORATIONS

479 Castro Street (415) 431-5365 www.cliffsvariety.com

Dance In these unprecedented times, artists still create. Dancers, choreographers and teachers are no exception. While the in-person physicality of a dance performance can’t be fully recreated, some companies are doing their best, with an array of online films, concerts, and classes, including a socially-distanced outdoor performances. We have a round-up of fascinating films, plus online and outdoor classes that are all quite, well, moving.

Theatre Seven pivotal scenes from the epic Tony and Pulitzer-winning two-part AIDS drama Angels in America will stream online on October 8 as a benefit for amfAR’s Fund to Fight Covid-19.

But don’t expect a mere Zoom reading. Tony Kushner’s 1993 play will still be the source material, but look for some unusual changes. In The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America, Glenn Close will play Roy Cohn, the nefarious closeted gay lawyer who dies of AIDS, with S. Epatha Merkerson as his/ her nurse Belize. With some technical wizardry, the actors, who recorded themselves from locations all over the world, assemble for a dreamlike mini-drama.

Music You need some music to relax. Jada Michael’s vocals range from moments of under-the-covers intimacy into the charismatic chorus with R&B smooth grooves, just what we need to feel better. Oh, and she’s an out and proud lesbian, too.t

Read about these and more on www.ebar.com

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Film>>

October 1-7, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life

Gay neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks

by Brian Bromberger

“V

irtually every issue of importance about what it means to live a life and to be a human being, was concentrated in Oliver’s unusual life story: survival, beauty, art, science, storytelling, love, individuality, difference, dignity, autonomy, agency, wonder, language, meaning, consciousness, community, friendship, yearning, loss, and connection with something larger,” says director Ric Burns of his documentary about the gay neurologist and best-selling author.

The film succeeds splendidly in its mission statement. Even if audiences have never read any of Sacks’s books, they will be amply rewarded spending time with this gracious articulate raconteur and exceptional human being.

The feature is largely a series of marathon filmed interviews, 80 hours across five days, with Sacks in his New York City apartment, a few weeks after completing his autobiographical memoir (On the Move) and after having received a fatal diagnosis that a rare cancer had returned, giving him only a few months to live. Surrounded by his notebooks of sixty years, he ruminates about his life and work narrating what it means to be “a sentient being on this beautiful planet,” and “what’s needed to be said before I die.” The movie also includes nearly two dozen endearing interviews with family members, close friends, colleagues, and patients including Temple Grandin, Robert Krulwich, Paul Theroux, Atul Gawande, among others. You will be moved, riveted, and amazed.

Sacks, born 1933, in London, a privileged Orthodox Jewish upbringing, the son of two physicians, his life was upended by World War II, when he and his older brother Michael, were evacuated to a country boarding school for safety. Sacks, a painfully shy child prodigy, had been close to his mother, who brought home dead human fetuses for him to dissect. The prolonged parental separation –plus the headmaster’s cruel treatment– led to Michael’s psychotic breakdown at 15, later diagnosed as schizophrenia. Sacks created his own scientific universe so as to avoid falling into his brother’s madness.

The empathy and sorrow he felt for Michael was later transferred to his patients.

Before attending Oxford, Sacks told his parents he was gay, with his mother responding, “You are an abomination. I wish you had never been born.” This reaction wounded Sacks, leading to guilt and shame about his sexuality. Angry with his mother, religion, and England branding homosexuality illegal, he emigrated to San Francisco working as an intern at Mt. Zion Hospital.

He started exploring his sexuality, building up his muscles as an accomplished weightlifter. He completed a three-year neurology residency at UCLA. While there he fell in love with a straight guy who re-

jected him. Sacks turned to amphetamines to deal with his confusion and unhappiness, becoming selfdestructive, riding his motorcycle on marathon 36-hour sprees. Viewing his emaciated face in the mirror on New Year’s Eve, he recognized he needed help and started therapy.

He arrived in Bronx, NY on an interdisciplinary scholarship in neuropathology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1966. Deemed a failure at research he was told to treat cases at Beth Abraham Hospital, where he remained for his entire career. While there he met catatonic survivors of a 1920s encephalitis epidemic, but sensing some had intact minds and personalities, he started prescribing L Dopa used to combat Parkinson’s Disease, resulting in their waking up temporarily, though later regressing due to the drug’s debilitating side effects.

This clinical experience became the basis for his book Awakenings, which initially was not a success and dismissed by his fellow neurologists, as was his later writings. He had given up drugs, substituting them for his work. On his fortieth birthday in London, he had sex, but worried about professional ruin if his homosexuality became public, he stayed celibate for the next 35 years.

Neurotic, he was considered as strange as his patients. He describes

an uproarious sexual incident with orange Jell-o that must be heard to be believed.

Sacks imagined himself into his patient’s emotions, galvanized by his tremendous curiosity, wonder about the world, and gusto awareness of life, asking them, “How do you be?

What is it like to be you?,” treating the person rather than the affliction.

As noted by Burns, the film is an unmorbid master class on how to die, with Sacks living his final months to the fullest, writing until ten days before his death at 82 on August 30, 2015.

Ultimately, this film is a tale of redemption, a genius who overcame professional ostracism, drug addiction, psychological traumas, and despair, finding meaning in love, gratitude, and something larger than himself.

This poet laureate of medicine’s belief is that we are all alike in our uniqueness which should connect us to each other. His humane message is one all queer people will appreciate and one we need to hear in our bitterly divisive nation, making Oliver Sacks: His Own Life obligatory viewing for just about everyone.

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life is screening virtually at SF’s Roxie Theater: www.roxie.comt

ey for producers and film distributors. It won’t be going away anytime soon.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

‘Skin’ doc bares it all began to defy the code. Directors such as Russ Meyer offered films known as “nudie cuties,” cheaply shot films filled with naked girls. These films were shown in “art theaters” and were quite popular.

In the 1960s Hollywood itself began to challenge the code, when no less than Marilyn Monroe shot a nude scene for a never-completed film called Something’s Got to Give.

By 1968, the code was eliminated, and the movie rating system (G, PG, etc.) was born.

This was the era when X was not yet synonymous with porn. It was a time when an Marilyn Monroe in a nude scene X-rated film such as Midnight from the never-completed Something’s Got to Give Cowboy, which featured both male and female nudity, could win the Academy Award. And

by David-Elijah Nahmod while it was naked women who were usually seen in films, there anny Wolf ’s new documentary were a few men who also showed Skin: A History of Nudity in the flesh, such as Alan Bates and Oliver Movies shows how much filmmakReed, who wrestled nude for a very ers were able to get away with in the erotic sequence in the 1969 film early days. A clip from the 1934 film Women in Love.

Tarzan and His Mate shows actors Few male actors appeared nude Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen as often as the British O’Sullivan swimming star Malcolm McDowunderwater in the nude, ell, who wrestled with a though O’Sullivan had a young lady in his first body double standing in film If (1968), and who for her. showed his entire body As Skin illustrates, in Stanley Kubrick’s nudity has been used to X-rated A Clockwork titillate audiences and to Orange (1971). Nearly fill theaters almost from a decade later McDowthe beginning, but not ell strutted naked in everyone was having it. the rain in the highly From 1934 to 1968 the controversial historical Motion Picture Producepic Caligula, which tion Code, run by Will included several graphic sex scenes Hays, was given carte blanche to which did not involve McDowell or dictate which films could and could his co-stars Peter O’Toole, Sir John not be made. All suggestions of nuGielgud or Helen Mirren. dity were banned, but there were still Skin: A History of Nudity in the some who tried to flaunt the code, as Movies is a comprehensive and endid sex goddess Mae West, who, durjoyable examination of a phenoming the 1930s filled her scripts with enon which everyone pretends to hilarious double-entendres. be shocked by, but secretly loves.

But as early as the 1950s, a small It’s fun to see naked people on the band of independent filmmakers

screen, and this documentary is fun entertainment. One thing is for certain; nudity has made a lot of mon-

Read the full review on www.ebar.com https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/ oliversackshisownlife

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